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THE CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER. 



every moment on a superior Agent, and that it 

 is &quot; in God we live, and move, and have our 

 being? Were a single pin of the machinery 

 within us, and over which we have no control, 

 either broken or deranged, a thousand move 

 ments might instantly be interrupted, and our 

 bodies left to crumble into the dust. 



It was considerations of this kind that led the 

 celebrated physician Galen, who was a skeptic 

 in his youth, publicly to acknowledge that a Su 

 preme Intelligence must have operated in ordain 

 ing the laws by which living beings are con 

 structed. And he wrote his excellent treatise 

 &quot; On the uses of the parts of the human frame,&quot; 

 as a solemn hymn to the Creator of the world. 

 &quot; I first endeavour from His works,&quot; he says, 

 &quot; to know him myself, and afterwards, by the 

 same means, to show him to others ; to inform 

 them, how great is his wisdom, his goodness, 

 his power.&quot; The late Dr. Hunter has observed, 

 that astronomy and anatomy are the studies 

 which present us with the most striking view of 

 the two most wonderful attributes of the Supreme 

 Being. The first of these fills the mind with 

 the idea of his immensity, in the largeness, dis 

 tances, and number of the heavenly bodies ; the 

 last astonishes us with his intelligence and art, 

 in the variety and delicacy of animal mechanism. 



2. The study of the animal economy has a 

 powerful tendency to excite emotions of gratitude. 

 Man is naturally a thoughtless and ungrateful 

 creature. These dispositions are partly owing 

 to ignorance of the wonders of the human frame, 

 and of the admirable economy of the visible 

 world ; and this ignorance is owing to the want 

 of those specific instructions which ought to be 

 communicated by parents and teachers, in con 

 nexion with religion. For, there is no rational 

 being who is acquainted with the structure of 

 his animal system, and reflects upon it with the 

 leas! degree of attention, but must feel a senti 

 ment of admiration and gratitude. The science 

 which unfolds to us the economy of our bodies, 

 shows us on what an infinity of springs and 

 motions, and adaptations, our life and comfort de 

 pend. And when we consider, that all these 

 movements are performed without the least care 

 or laborious effort on our part, if we be not alto 

 gether brutish, and insensible of our dependence 

 on a superior Power, we must be filled with emo 

 tions of gratitude towards Him &quot; whose hands 

 have made and fashioned us, and who giveth us 

 life, and breath, and all things.&quot; Some of the 

 motions to which I have adverted depend upon 

 our will ; and with what celerity do they obey 

 its commands ? Before we can rise from our 

 chair, and walk across our apartment, a hundred 

 muscles must be set in motion ; every one of 

 these must be relaxed or constricted, just to a 

 certain degree, and no more ; and all must act 

 harmoniously at the same instant of time ; and, 

 at the command of the soul, all these movements 



are instantaneously performed. When I wish 

 to lift my hand to my head, every part of the 

 body requisite to produce the effect is put in mo 

 tion : the nerves are braced, the muscles are 

 stretched or relaxed, the bones play in their sock 

 ets, and the whole animal machine concurs in 

 the action, as if every nerve and muscle had 

 heard a sovereign and resistless call. When I 

 wish the next moment to extend rny hand to my 

 foot, all these muscles are thrown into a different 

 state, and a new set are brought along with them 

 into action : and thus we may vary, every mo 

 ment, the movements of the muscular system, 

 and the mechanical actions it produces, by a 

 simple change in our volition. Were we not 

 daily accustomed to such varied and voluntary 

 movements, or could we contemplate them in 

 any other machine, we should be lost in wonder 

 and astonishment. 



Besides these voluntary motions, there are a 

 thousand important functions which have no de- 

 pendance upon our will. Whether we think of 

 it or not, whether we are sleeping or waking, 

 sitting or walking the heart is incessantly exert 

 ing its muscular power at the centre of the sys 

 tem, and sending off streams of blood through 

 hundreds of pipes ; the lungs are continually ex 

 panding and contracting their thousand vesicles, 

 and imbibing the vital principle of the air; the 

 stomach is grinding the food ; the lacteals and 

 lymphatics are extracting nourishment for the 

 blood ; the liver and kidneys drawing off their 

 secretions; and the perspiration issuing from 

 millions of pores. These, and many other im 

 portant functions with which we are unacquaint 

 ed, arid over which we have no control, ought 

 to be regarded as the immediate agency of the 

 Deity within us, and should excite our incessant 

 admiration and praise. 



There is one peculiarity in the constitution of 

 our animal system, which we are apt to overlook, 

 and for which we are never sufficiently grateful, 

 and that is, the power it possesses of self-restora 

 tion. A wound heals up of itself; a broken bone 

 is made firm again by a callus; and a dead part 

 is separated and thrown off. If all the wounds 

 we have ever received were still open and bleed 

 ing afresh, to what a miserable condition should 

 we be reduced ? But by a system of internal 

 powers, beyond all human comprehension as to 

 the mode of their operation, such dismal effects 

 are effectually prevented. In short, when we 

 consider that health depends upon such a nume 

 rous assemblage of moving organs, and that a 

 single spring out of action might derange the 

 whole machine, and put a stop to all its compli 

 cated movements, can we refrain from joining 

 with the psalmist, in his pious exclamation, and 

 grateful resolution, &quot; How precious are thy won 

 derful contrivances concerning me, O God ! how 

 great is the sum of them ! I will praise thee , 

 for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, Mat- 



