physical occurrences do not follow each other by any inscrutable mechanism, or by a blind and unconscious fatality. In the countless aspects and ceaseless changes of the world without us, we no longer behold the fortuitous concourse of atoms, self-governed, yet bound one to another by inexorable necessity, and forming an adamantine chain, that is nowhere held up or sustained save by a dim abstraction, where "Chaos umpire sits, And by decision more embroils the fray By which he reigns: next him, high arbiter, Mind resumes its dominion over the vast expanse, and drives these spectres back to their native realm of ignorance and eldest Night. Every event, from the blossoming of the tiniest flower up to the swift flight of the stars in their courses, becomes as intelligible to man as his own voluntary movements. The contest between mind and matter ceases; spirit animates, moves, and governs all with a beneficent and discoverable purpose, and with infinite wisdom. The observation of the inherent laws of material atoms now becomes the study of the character, intentions, and will of Him who created the heavens and the earth, and laid the corner-stone thereof. The great truths of natural theology, then, not only rest upon the same proofs which support our conclusions in physical science, but they enter into that science as an integral portion of it, as its necessary complement and extension up to the farthest limits which are imposed upon it by the imperfection of our faculties. They are among the facts obtained from our observation of nature, or among the legitimate inferences which are drawn from those facts. They are a portion of the results derived from the strict application of the inductive method to the study of nature, and they are therefore properly recorded with the other conclusions of physical science, among its most valuable contributions to the sum of human knowledge. Certain marks and indentations in red sandstone are held to prove, beyond all question, the existence at some very remote period of a species of birds, of which not one bone or other fragment has ever been discovered, and which must have been wholly unlike any winged creature that now inhabits the earth or air. In like manner, certain arrangements and adaptations in the body of a living animal. afford abundant indications of purpose and contrivance, and so prove the wisdom and goodness of the great Cause that brought the animal into being. There is no difference between the inferences drawn in these two cases, except that the latter is the more simple, direct, and unquestionable; it rests upon a more copious induction, and it is certainly more credible that a fortuitous conjunction of other circumstances should have caused certain marks or scratches on a rock, than that an unintelligent and undesigning power should have fashioned so delicate and complex an instrument as the human eye. It is as much the object and duty of science to note and record these indications of intellect and design, as to distinguish fossil remains from the mere inorganic rock in which they are imbedded. The mere description of the object or phenomenon is incomplete without them. So, also, if the study of nature, so far as it relates to the course of events, is mainly occupied with distinguishing invariable antecedents from those which are casual and temporary, it is concerned, also, to point out such antecedents as are really causal and necessary, and so invariable. The operation of efficient causes is even in a higher degree an object of rational inquiry and effort than the succession of physical causes, provided always that the distinction between them be kept clearly in view, and the one class be not confounded with the other. Our own consciousness gives us a knowledge of one true cause, in the mastery of the human will over the body with which it is connected. As anthropology, or the science of man, would be incomplete without a discussion of this capital fact, so physical science, or the study of nature, is imperfect, and even baseless, if it stops short of the modes of operation of that single Power which sustains, animates, and governs all. The conclusions of the theological inquirer, therefore, in their lower aspect, form a part, a large constituent element, of the great body of scientific truth which man derives from a study of the material and the intellectual universe; in their lower aspect, I say, for this fact would hardly merit notice except from its relation to my present purpose, which is to show the nature of the evidence upon which these conclusions rest. Our chief interest in these results does not depend merely on their scientific value, as additions to the sum of human knowledge, but on their religious bearing and their applicability to the government of our hearts and lives. The truths thus far established lead us only to the opening of that great subject which stretches out over the whole field of our duties and hopes as intelligent, moral, and accountable beings. Though the discussion in these Lectures has been strictly confined to the validity of the common argument for the being of a God, so far as this is affected by the metaphysical theories and speculations now most in vogue, and has thus only prepared the way for an inquiry into the whole system of natural religion, it has still conducted us to some results which are profitable for reflection and practice. "Of all habits of thinking, the most important to be cultivated is that of referring all the phenomena of nature up to their infinite Creator, and of regarding all events, whether physical or moral, as caused or governed by an ever-watchful and active Providence. To have made this the ruling, the habitual, sentiment of our minds is to have laid the foundation of everything which is religious. The world thenceforth becomes a temple, and life itself one continued act of adoration." The philosophical doctrine of the immediate agency of the Deity is that which harmonizes most perfectly with the religious sentiment in man, and gives most satisfaction and support to the devotional spirit. It strengthens the belief in revelation, as the course of all physical events is seen to be directed with a moral purpose; and the blind domain of physical laws and material necessity being broken, a direct interposition of God in the affairs of men becomes not only credible, but natural, and what we should most readily expect from infinite goodness and wisdom combined. We pass on, therefore, from the study of his works to that of his word, not by an abrupt or violent tran |