Christian Heritage Spotlight - James Clerk Maxwell

Most watching this video will be able to take photos with the device they are using, and not just any photo, but in full color. Of course, today color photography is commonplace, but in the mid-1800s, when basic photography was in its infancy, color photos were a mystery. It was solved, however, in 1861, when the first one was produced at the Royal Institution in London by James Clerk Maxwell. He discovered a method to make a color picture using a three-color process. 1831, the same year Michael Faraday invented the dynamo, James Clerk Maxwell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Growing up, he had gone through thorough religious education, but though his head was full, his heart was empty. It was not until he was a student at Cambridge that he became aware of the depths of his sin and his separation from God because of them. He said, I have the capacity of being more wicked within than any example that man could set before me. He did trust Christ as his Lord and Savior to forgive him from his sins, and his life was truly changed. A new joy only found in Christ began to rule his life. Like Faraday, his Christianity would directly affect the course of his intellectual life. Visitors to his home would find an impressive laugh, but more impacting would be the prayer meetings in which he led his family each morning, including everyone on the property. Faraday believed that man was created to research, to understand, and to harness the power of God's creation. As the Bible says in Genesis, replenish the earth and subdue it. The theory of evolution was becoming more prominent in his day, and he firmly stood against it. He also wrote papers refuting the ideas invented to promote the theory. Maxwell believed evolution contradicted science, and that biblical teaching and scientific investigation ought to be linked together. Maxwell's contributions to science go far beyond color pictures. He was the first to conclude that Saturn's rings were made up of separate solid particles. His research on electricity and magnetism opened the way for radio, x-rays, television, radar, and satellite communications. And the list goes on. In 1873, his Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism was published. Albert Einstein referred to the work as the most profound and most fruitful that physics has experienced since the time of Newton. He died at the young age of 48, and after his death, it was said that he had a deep humility before his God, reverent submission to his will, and hearty belief in the love of that divine Savior who was his portion and comforter in trouble and in sickness.