1(3 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



ocean is the symbol cff a divine idea the swelling prairie, 

 the rocky cordillera, the teeming populations of land, and 

 sea, and air, are the utterances of divine conceptions the 

 stirring leaf, the basking butterfly, the glistening pebble 

 on the strand, are thoughts of the Infinite, crystallized in 

 visible things, thrown down before us to arrest our atten 

 tion strewn over our pathway to provoke our curiosity 

 and arouse the powers of the soul. 



We have listened to the recital of the pebble, and its 

 simple story has turned our thoughts backward over the 

 flight of ages, and disclosed a marvelous unity running 

 through the long series of revolutions and innovations to 

 which our domestic planet has been subjected. We have 

 read the epic of the trilobite, and have learned of a Deity 

 inaugurating plans in the infancy of our earth which are 

 still in process of consummation. We have lighted the 

 vistas of the fleeting ages. We have studied the records 

 of universal empires, and the monuments which perpetuate 

 the memory of powerful dynasties. We have seen the pro 

 cession of living forms pass by, and discovered them mar 

 shaled by a single leading Intelligence. We have wit 

 nessed the progressive development of the physical world 

 its successive adaptations to its successive populations, 

 and its completion and special preparation for the occu 

 pancy of man, and have learned that the whole creation 

 is the product of one eternal, intelligent master purpose 

 the coherent result of ONE MIND. 



What higher subject of contemplation than the world- 

 phenomena which express the thoughts of the Creator? 

 What nobler history to study than the annals of races and 

 revolutions in which the Almighty purpose, instead of hu 

 man will, has been the controlling power? What antiqui 

 ties more awe-inspiring than the ruins of continents and 

 the tombs of races whose splendid dynasties passed their 



