on which religion and morality are based, is that we move in a wider circle than the physical; that spiritual beings, good and evil, enter our firmament, concern themselves with the destiny of our race; and that we, after a rational service in duty and trial, form a vast congregation of pure spirits. further within the circle of Divine Power, nearer to the manifestation of Divine Glory. Meanwhile, God guides by His hand, and His heart has sympathy. Life's trials cast down, but destroy not; lightning may rend the firmament, yet awake no fear; and sickness, touching our body with premonition of the grave, brings conviction that we shall live again. Like suns and stars, kindled into splendour from previous worlds, our restored spirits, with frames purified and refashioned, will evermore live on, and find starry pathway to the Eternal Throne. Thoughtful men studying the Sun's Path through Space, Rule, Physical Constitution, Age, Origin, receive a deep impression that the Divine account, the simplest in the world, is not vague nor indefinite, but startling, grand, abrupt. The appearance corresponds to our limited aspect of Nature, words and times agree with our ignorance and mortality, but reveal powers of the world to come. Marvellously strange! The pomp of heaven is made a plea for clothing the earth with poor garments, and the Father's boundless wealth a reason that we should expect nothing! Forgetting that since a narrative, like that of Scripture, bristling with apparent contradictions, startling and bold in a sturdy contempt of confidence in human will and wisdom, is found to agree with accurate science, the Book must be of God; an attempt is made to turn God's greatness against us. We are asked-"Of what consequence can men, their pleasures or their pains, be to Him in whose sight all the worlds our eye can see are less than a speck in infinite space?" Those who charge the Bible with narrowness pervert the splendour of God into a plea that He is too great to love mankind. The Being whom they profess to hallow is made less wise, less good, less wonderful, by the assertion that He cannot and will not visit us. Why should our reason be less firm in structure, or analogy concerning this be entitled to less confidence, than when we consider smaller things? If the incalculable multiplication of worlds, and Littleness and Greatness. 209 the necessities of a rule that is infinite, hinder not the fashioning of a moth's wing so that it possess a very firmament of beauty; why should not the All-good and Holy devise a plan for rendering us good and holy, in a manner far exceeding human thought as the elaborate many-chambered houses for tiny and invisible life transcend our comprehension ? The philosopher delights to show that a grain of sand on the seashore, and a thought in the mind of a child, are bound by a law which cannot be broken, with a past that is infinite and a future that is eternal. The Christian rejoices to know that God's plan the provision for a soul's salvation is connected with worlds and times, transactions and interests, surpassing knowledge. Things appear small when scarcely seen by the naked eye; very small if a powerful microscope barely suffices to render them visible; and the space between us and a fixed star is enormous as compared with that between the earth and sun; but there is nothing to show that a portion of matter, which in the most powerful microscopes is hopelessly minute for investigation, may not be wonderful in the mystery of minuteness as are the stars in their majesty. Truth, whether as to great or small, is transcendental. The universe in grandeur, in extent, in variety of mighty orbs circling mightier suns; those suns glittering attendants of other centres, stupendously wonderful, whose circuit we are not able to measure; leads to the conclusion-confirmed by astronomy-that the spectacle revealed by the telescope, though too vast for human conception, is but a sparklet of the whole that infinity and eternity contain. A similar exercise intensified, reveals worlds of life within a rain-drop sphere; discerns existences to which the needlepoint is a vast plain; and these, again, are lords of worlds extending further inward. Such intellectual recreations prove, to minds capable of them, that an invisible point may present many internal capacities for Divine operation; that in every point, throughout all space, may be arranged worlds and worlds of mystery and skill not less wonderful than those which claim infinity for their display; for, it is true, God makes the small to surpass our knowledge and the infinite to be apprehended. We have put away the arrogant notion that human existence is the central era of time, that sun and stars encircle the earth; P we know that the human period is scarcely a ripple on the ocean of time. God, nevertheless, has so elaborated our thought that we think as if He thought but of us, and made our destiny His only care. This is not wholly erroneous; for we and our world are indeed a centre whence radiates infinity. By creation, and more wonderfully by the Plan of Salvation, we are connected with a system that, materially and spiritually, arrays around it in height and depth, length and breadth, the infinite past and the infinite future. Actual discoveries of science make possible, if not probable, all that comes within the compass of analogy. We only look at the dial-plate of Nature—the forms and semblances of things; but even our present faculties enlarged would be able to inspect the wheelwork and springs; hence belief is warranted that the seed of power within us, our intuitions—which already somewhat penetrate mysteries seeming impenetrable -are capable of enjoying vastly more of the Infinite (1 Cor. ii. 9-15). If so, our earth is a centre of wonders, and on the hinge of life turns a surpassing destiny. The universe is all aglow with the lamp-light and hearth-light of our Father's House. Life seems to many as the bubble of a solitary pool come up to look at the sun,-bubble clothed about with tender fibre of mortal hue, to float over the glowing ripple, hither and thither, who knows? The bubble bursts; it has come in contact with some weed or spray, and the crystal sparklet flies. Whither? We say " To be reformed, to be enlarged, to become a glorious sphere, filled with new life from God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Believe "That nothing walks with aimless feet; That not a worm is cloven in vain Or but subserves another's gain." Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, liv. Στενὴ ἡ πύλη οὐχ ἡ πόλις. Via longa et arcta, sed urbs ampla. STUDY XIII. DAY V.-FISHES, REPTILES, BIRDS. "The natural and moral constitution and government of the world are so connected as to make up together but one scheme: and it is highly probable, that the first is formed and carried on merely in subordination to the latter, as the vegetable world is for the animal, and organised bodies for minds.”—BUTLER'S Analogy. If we stood in space, far from the solar system, we should see the worlds as a distant gleam. If then, standing not so far off, we beheld the light and motion of the planets and satellites, we might think that all matter was alike, all motion of one kind, and existed according to some simple mechanical and chemical laws. On nearer approach, seeing the world's living things, we might conclude, in absence of evidence to the contrary, that some law of invariable causation was absolutely universal. Alighting on the earth, among men, we should discover that Nature spoke to all, and separately to every; that what man heard he set down in feeling and thought, so that his experience represented the arrangement, fulness, reality in Nature, even as a page of algebraic figures is read off in thought concerning the variety and splendour of light. If to this personal equation, to these qualities for physical and metaphysical research, were added a greeting of the Spirit-the Great Cause of all: our conclusion would be that space existed for matter, much less than space; that matter existed for life, much less than matter; that life existed for mind, least of all, yet greater than all-ruler of all. The Great Mind using the low basis for the high. The world is a mechanism driven by blind energy; energy, unless restrained by mind, would break up the universe. The transfer of energy into things necessary for life, and to effect physical changes in the universe, is on the whole a passing from higher to lower forms; therefore, the ... possibility of transformation becomes smaller and smaller. After the lapse of sufficient time, all higher forms of energy must have passed from the physical universe; nothing remaining, except those lower forms which are incapable, so far as we know, of any further transformation. "The low form to which all transformations tend, is that of uniformly diffused heat. . . . When all the energy has taken the final form of universally diffused heat, it will be impossible to use this heat for further transformation." 1 The worlds will be dark-dead-cold. This process, leading to chaos, distinctly says "The present order of things has not been evolved during the infinite past by the agency of laws now at work, but must have had a distinctive beginning." 2 This beginning must have been by other than the now visibly acting causes. The only way out of the difficulty is to regard mind, matter, energy, as real existences. We know of mind by organism, does organism generate mind? No. Organism does not even generate life, life certainly generates organism; organism therefore cannot generate mind which is the highest attribute of life; consequently, we regard all physical, vital, mental phenomena, as transformations of energy from the Eternal Source of energy, of life, of mind, who giveth increase larger than enough. The vitality of plant, fish, reptile, bird, may seem no great thing; but if we consider that every little part of these organisms has its own store of energy constantly emptied and replenished; that the internal and external sources draw upon, and are drawn upon by the whole world for harmonious working; the mechanism becomes very wonderful. Every portion is microscopically constructed; the excessively minute parts are in exquisite harmony with the grand plan of the universe; and to destroy any one atom of matter the intervention of Deity is requisite; there must have been at the initiation of life an interference of creative power subordinating, guiding, moulding, matter. There is nothing so lowly but that duty giveth it importance. Plato, one of the most thoughtful of ancient heathen, reasoned" Was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? or created and having a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible, tangible, having a body, "Recent Advances in Physical Science," p. 20: P. G. Tait, M.A. Ibid. p. 22. 1 |