332 THE NATUEAL THEOLOGY OF THE FUTUEE. [xin. 



reverence Him less or more,, if we hear that His might 

 is greater. His wisdom deeper, than we ever dreamed ? 

 We believed that His care was over all His works ; 

 that His Providence watched perpetually over the 

 whole universe. We were taught some of us at least 

 by Holy Scripture, to believe that the whole history 

 of the universe was made up of special Providences. 

 If, then, that should be true which Mr. Darwin 

 writes : " It may be metaphorically said that natural 

 selection is daily and hourly scrutinising throughout 

 the world, every variation, even the slightest; reject- 

 ing that which is bad, preserving and adding up that 

 which is good, silently and incessantly working when- 

 ever and wherever opportunity offers at the improve- 

 ment of every organic being" if that, I say, were 

 proven to be true, ought God's care and God^s provi- 

 dence to seem less or more magnificent in our eyes ? 

 Of old it was said by Him without whom nothing is 

 made: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." 

 Shall we quarrel with Science if she should show how 

 those words are true ? What, in one word, should we 

 have to say but this ? We knew of old that God was 

 so wise that He could make all things ; but behold, He 

 is so much wiser than even that, that He can make all 

 things make themselves. 



But it may be said : These notions are contrary to 

 Scripture. I must beg very humbly, but very firmly, 

 to demur to that opinion. Scripture says that God 

 created. But it nowhere defines that term. The 

 means, the How of Creation, is nowhere specified. 

 Scripture, again, says that organised beings were 

 produced each according to their kind. But it no- 

 where defines that term. What a kind includes, 



