AND THEOLOGY. 69 



anything too hard for the Lord ? " asked the prophet of old ; 

 and Ave have a ridit to ask it as loui:^ as time shall last. 

 If it be said that natural selection is too simple a cause 

 to produce such fantastic variety : we always knew that God 

 works by very simple, or seemingly simple, means ; that the 

 universe, as far as we could discern it, was one organization 

 of the most simple means; it was wonderful (or ought to 

 have been) in our eyes, that a shower of rain should make 

 the grass grow, and that the grass should become tiesh, and 

 the flesh food for the thinking brain of man ; it was (or 

 ought to have been) yet more wonderful in our eyes, that 

 a child ^ should resemble its parents, or even a butterfly 

 resemble if not always, still usually its parents like- 

 wise. Ought God to appear less or more august in our 

 eyes if we discover that His means are even simpler than 

 we supposed? We held Him to be almighty and allwise. 

 Are we to reverence Him less or more if w^e find that 

 His might is greater. His wisdom deeper, than we had ever 

 dreamed ? We believed that His care was over all His 

 works ; that His providence watched perpetually over the 

 universe. We were taught, some of us at least, by Holy 

 Scripture, to believe that the whole history of tlie universe 

 was made up of special providences : if, then, that should be 

 true which Mr. Darwin says " It may be metaphorically said 

 that natural selection is daily and hourly scrutinizing, through- 



