Then think about the lungs of the human system. Every hour that we're at rest they carry in and out of the body 1500 gallons of air. That will increase by 20 times if there is strenuous exercise of an individual. There are air passages, of course, from the nose to the lungs to carry these gallons of air, and these passages are lined with cells which have tiny hair-like processes. These little hairs are always waving and by their motion they carry out any debris that might try to get into the lungs. In other words, the air we breathe is actually air conditioned before it gets into our bodies. The lungs are made up of many minute air spaces: 750 million air cells, in fact, are found in the average human lungs. And they have a surface area of 455 square feet. It's hard to believe, friends, but it's true. By the way, smoking will paralyze and destroy those little hair-like brooms. Emphysema results, a fatal disease. Did you know smoking is a sin? When you have all the facts about your body and the results of smoking, you'll agree. It's a moral issue.
Think of the skin, 18 square feet of it. It's much more complicated than we realize by just looking at the skin of an individual. It's a delicate, sensitive structure containing a wonderful thermostatic mechanism. You know when the outside temperature drops, the network of blood vessels right under the skin begin to contract so that no blood will come to the surface of the body, where it would cool and thus chill the whole body. In hot weather, the vessels open up and carry excess heat away, flowing through and actually cooling the body so actually, it keeps the body at a uniform temperature. When the outside temperature goes higher than the inside temperature, another method of nature takes over. I say a method of nature, but it's actually a method which God set up: the sweat glands begin to operate. By the way, they put out one quart of perspiration daily and this provides an evaporative cooling system which keeps the body from overheating. A man was subjected to a temperature of 240 degrees for 26 minutes, and that's enough to cook a big steak but the temperature of the man did not go over 99 degrees because of his perspiring which acted as a thermostatic evaporating cooling system.
Now, let's think about the kidneys, small organs of the body weighing only five ounces each, but they filter six quarts of blood every eighty minutes. They're actually made up of two million tiny filters, and the fluid is forced through these tiny filters under pressure and then reabsorbed through 45 miles of tiny tubes having a surface area of 60 square feet. Now, friends, what accident of nature could have provided such a system? We fail to understand it. How could anybody be an evolutionist and believe that this happened by chance or accident? All these things are necessary in order to keep the body working and operating. Everyone of those little filters is important. The digestive juices of the body are also necessary. There are 35 million glands in the stomach alone which give off four different digestive juices. In the twenty-two and one half feet of small intestine, there are other secretions also given off which aid in the successful, healthy operation of the body. In one day, seven and one half quarts of gastric and intestinal juices are secreted. This reminds us of something that God said in His book: Job 37:14: "Hearken unto this, O Job, stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.'' Well, that's the way we feel, friends. Let's just stand still and marvel at what God has done, not what man has done, or what nature has done. By the way, this stomach we've been talking about is greatly affected by the mind. We have come to understand that many diseases are caused by worry. The mind becomes agitated or anxious and it seems to have a very strange and wonderful influence on the body, and especially on the stomach. A man once suffered a stomach injury, and in repairing the wound the doctors were able to put a kind of plastic window in so that they could observe what went on in the stomach. This man became one of the medical wonders of his time. Never before had medical researchers been able to look right into the stomach and see what happens in the process of digestion. They could see what happened to the walls of the stomach as the food was taken in. They noticed this friends, that when this man became very worried, the stomach lining also became angry-looking and reddish looking. When the man became very frightened, the walls of his stomach became pale, the blood seemed to leave his stomach. It affected the digestion, too, by the way. And if the man became very, very angry the walls of his stomach almost bled as they became red and irritated. All of this proved that there is a relation between our thinking and our health between our mind and our body.
An even greater wonder, I think, was revealed in the case of a hypnotist who put a man into a mild, hypnotic trance. He told this man he was going to burn his arm with the end of a cigarette. Actually, he just took the end of a lead pencil and touched it to the man's arm. But the subject jerked back his arm and screamed. Well, we might expect that to happen, friends, but in a few moment that place began to swell up and became very inflamed and red. And within 15 minutes, an angry blister had appeared there and it took quite a long time for that thing to heal. Now, what does this prove, friends? It proves that when this man was actually convinced that he was burned, his mind and body cooperated and all of the little healing agencies were called to the rescue of the burned spot. So the blister actually appeared.
Well, time would fail us to describe the intricate, marvelous wonder of the eyes and the ears. Thousands of nerve messages are carried back and forth to the brain and various parts of the body. The eye, for example, really doesn't see, it's the brain which sees. But from the eye, thousands of little nerves run back to the brain carrying messages relating to size, color etc. And the brain in some mysterious manner is able to unscramble all of these messages, put them together again to give the impressions that we are seeing the object. Thousands of these nerves also run from the ears to the brain, that's the way we hear. A concert piano has about 240 strings and plays from seven to seven and one-half octaves, but within the inner ear there are twenty-four thousand strings with a keyboard of a hundred thousand auditory cells. And these form a minute resonating piano with a range of over twelve octaves. Imagine if you can, a piano reduced 100 million times to the dimensions of that little ear piano that's inside of you. Isn't that marvelous, friends. And yet some men say, "well, that just happened. It's an accident of nature, it's something that came along through blind chance.'' Don't believe it for a moment.
What about the nose, this marvelous mechanism by which we smell? Did you know that we also taste with the nose, by smell only. The tongue really doesn't taste for us, it's the nose and it's peculiar powers that enables us to taste. The tongue can only detect sweet, salty, sour and bitter, but the nose can distinguish thousands of different tastes. If the nose is stuffed up by a terrible cold, you try a little experiment, friends. Mix onions and sweet apple, and then blind-fold yourself and taste those two things. You'll find they taste exactly the same, a slightly sweetish taste. This proves that you can't taste anything without being able to smell. Now, did these mysterious powers come to us just by chance? Was the development of these delicate parts by pure accident of nature? Ah, no, there's an intelligent reason behind every component of the body. We must agree with the Psalmist that we are fearfully and wonderfully made.
We agree also with the Bible that man was made in the image of God. But man for six thousand years has been departing from that original plan of heaven. No wonder deterioration has come in, no wonder the effects of sin have brought disease and death so quickly and so often. If man followed the blueprint of diet and care which God set up in the beginning, man could still have long healthy life. If people considered the body to be sacred as God describes it in His Holy Word, they would be more careful to take care of it, to feed it correctly and to cherish it as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. The Creator's purpose is to provide strength and health through the proper care you can give to that body. How are we using our strength and our energy? How often does God have to intervene to save life and heal the body? Why has God so often worked miracles to spare us, dear friends, to save our lives? In order that we might glorify Him. In order that the Holy Spirit might come in to dwell in our body. It would be the very acme of folly and disloyalty and disrespect to fail to live for Him after what He's done for us. May God bless you, friends, and help you to see that this is a miracle of the first degree, this body God has given to us. Let's take care of it, and let's look upon it as a memorial, a daily living testimony that we have been made in the image of God, and that this doctrine of evolution is nothing but a gross perversion of a wonderful truth.