UNIVERSALITY OF THE PRINCIPLE OF LOVE. 



67 



would be filled with disappointment and horror 

 He might &amp;lt;lrop a tear of pity over the wretched 

 inhabitants ; but he would soon wing his flight 

 back to a more delectable region. A similar dis 

 appointment would be felt, were an inhabitant of 

 our world, in whose mind hatred and cruelty, 

 avarice and ambition, reigned without control 

 to be conveyed to a world of happiness and love. 

 The novel scenes of beauty and grandeur, which 

 would burst upon his sight, might captivate his 

 senses for a little : but he would feel no enjoy 

 ment in the exercise of virtuous affections and 

 rapturous adorations, to which he was never ac 

 customed ; he would find no objects on which to 

 gratify his cruel and ambitious desires, and he 

 would be glad to escape from the abodes of af 

 fection and bliss, to the depraved society from 

 whence he came. Hence we may learn, that, 

 however expansive views we may have acquired 

 of the range of the Creator s operations, and of 

 the immensity of worlds which are diffused 

 through boundless space, and however ardent de 

 sires we may indulge of visiting the distant re 

 gions of creation, we never can indulge a rational 

 hope of enjoying such a privilege, were it possi 

 ble, unless love to God and to man become the 

 predominant disposition of our minds. For, al 

 though we were invested by the Almighty with 

 corporeal vehicles, capable of transporting us 

 from one region of creation to another, with the 

 most rapid motion, we could enjoy no solid sa 

 tisfaction, while we remained unqualified for 

 relishing the exercises, and mingling in the asso 

 ciations of holy intelligences. In every happy 

 world on which we alighted, we should feel our 

 selves in a situation similar to that of a rude and 

 ignorant boor, were he conveyed to a palace, and 

 introduced into an assembly of courtiers and 

 princes. 



2. Another conclusion deducible from this 

 subject is, that by virtue of this grand and go 

 verning principle, man is connected with the 

 highest order of intelligences, and with the inha 

 bitants of the most distant worlds ; and his 

 happiness perpetually secured. When we 

 take a view of the universe by the light of mo 

 dern science, our minds are overpowered and 

 confounded at the idea of its vast and unlimited 

 range. When we consider that it would require 

 several millions of years fora cannon ball, flying 

 at the rate of five hundred miles an hour, to 

 reach the nearest stars when we consider that 

 there are stars visible to the naked eye, at least 

 fifty times farther distant than these when we 

 consider that there arc stars visible by the tele 

 scope a thousand times farther distant than any 

 of the former and when we consider that all the 

 suns and worlds which lie within this unfathom 

 able range are, in all probability, only as a 

 grain of sand to the whole earth, when com 

 pared with the immensity of systems which lie 

 t-eyond them in the ua explored abyss of infinite 



space, we are lost in the immensity of creation, 

 and can set no bounds to the empire of the 

 Almighty Sovereign. When we look forward to 

 that eternal state to which we are destined 

 when we consider that after thousands of mil 

 lions of centuries have run their rounds, eteiiiity 

 will be no nearer to a termination, and that ages, 

 numerous as the drops of the ocean, will still roll 

 on in interminable succession, we behold a 

 lapse of duration, and a succession of events 

 stretching out before us, which correspond with 

 the immeasurable spaces of the universe, and 

 the number and magnitude of the worlds with 

 which it is stored. When we view ourselves as 

 thus connected with the immensity of creation 

 on the one hand, and with infinite duration on 

 the other ; and when we reflect on the numerous 

 changes that have happened, both in the physical 

 and moral aspect of our globe, within the period 

 of six thousand years, we cannot but conclude 

 that we are destined to pass through new scenes 

 and changes in that eternity which lies before us, 

 of which at present we can form no conception. 

 After remaining for thousands of millions of 

 years in that world which will be prepared for 

 the righteous at the general resurrection, we 

 may be transported to another system as far dis 

 tant from that abode as wo now are from the 

 most distant stars visible to our sight, in order to 

 contemplate new displays of the attributes of 

 God, in another province of his empire. We 

 may afterwards be conveyed to an unoccupied 

 region of immensity, where new creations, dis 

 playing new objects of glory and magnificence, 

 are starting into existence. We may after 

 wards be invested with the wings of a seraph, 

 and be enabled to wing our way, in company with 

 angels, from world to world, and to visit the most 

 distant regions of that immense universe over 

 which Omnipotence presides. In short, the 

 imagination can set no limits to its excursions, 

 when it attempts to survey the revolutions ana 

 changes that may take place, and the new 

 scenes of glory which may burst upon the view, 

 throughout the lapse of duration which will have 

 no end. 



Now, in whatever relation man may stand to 

 any portion of the universal system, throughout 

 every future period of his existence, and during 

 all the revolutions of eternity, love will unite him 

 to all other holy beings with whom he may as 

 sociate, however distant their abode from the 

 spot he now occupies, however different its 

 scenery and arrangements, and however superior 

 they may be in point of corporeal organization 

 and intellectual capacity. For no intelligence, 

 in any region of the universe, in whom the princi 

 ple of love predominates, can ever be supposed 

 to disdain to associate with another, of whatever 

 rank or order, who is actuated by a similar affec 

 tion ; otherwise his love would degenerate into 

 malevolence. This principle will unite him to 



