STAR-GAZING. 167 



we may be told again and again that we are not 

 abreast with the times and with modern thought ; 

 yet do we deem ourselves wiser and happier than 

 our critics, in seeing God everywhere and discerning 

 the activities of an Infinite Mind in all the lovely 

 arid wondrous things that Nature discloses before 

 us. For this God is our Father and our Friend. 

 He loves and guards His children, and helps us in 

 our toils and trials. He is a Comforter, soothing 

 us in our griefs and sorrows. He is a Saviour, 

 plucking us out of the grasp of sin and Satan. He 

 gives peace to our troubled conscience, and rest to 

 our wearied, tempted soul. He supports us through 

 all the rough pilgrimage of life, and will uphold us 

 in the trying hour of death. And so the convictions 

 of the devout heart harmonise with the teaching of 

 the gentle stars, which, though voiceless, yet are, in 

 their own way, 



" For ever singing, aa they shine : 

 ' The Hand that made us is Divine.' " 



II. Not only does the contemplation of the starry 

 heavens confirm our belief in the existence of the 

 Creator, but it tends also to exalt our conceptions of 

 His Sovereignty. 



Consider the vastness of God's domain, and how 

 it displays the majesty of Him Who sustains and 

 governs it. Even to those who are accustomed to 

 astronomical measurements, it is bewildering to 

 contemplate the extent of the universe, and the 

 magnitude and velocity of the myriad worlds of 

 which it is composed. Language, and even imagi- 



