2 4 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



response which science has to give. These hiero- 

 glyphics that are stamped on the page of creation 

 are not easy to decipher, and even those who spend 

 their whole time and strength in the study of them 

 spell out the words but slowly, and are often in 

 doubt as to what they mean. Vague and Sphinx- 

 like at the best are the answers which are returned 

 to the grave and anxious inquiries of thoughtful 

 men by the great Oracle that is enshrined in the 

 material universe. Of Law it speaks, but gives no 

 help to those who fain would obey ; of suffering it 

 tells, yet reveals its alleviations and remedies but 

 slowly ; of death it prophesies, but gives no promise 

 of immortality. To a few cultivated children of 

 genius it has something to say, but to the mass of 

 helpless seekers after happiness it is dumb. It 

 discloses truth to the patient student, but not all 

 the truth, nor yet the highest truth. Its light is 

 the trembling glimmer of a star, not the radiance 

 of the sun ; nay, it is like some dim and remote 

 nebula, invisible even through the astronomer's 

 telescope, and whose existence can only be shown 

 from the faint rays which are caught upon the 

 highly-sensitized plate of the photographer. We 

 need a distincter voice and a clearer light than 

 Nature owns, if we are to find our way to the 

 Temple of Truth. This voice we have ; this light 

 gilds our path. " God hath at the end of these 

 days spoken unto us in His Son ; " He " hath shined 

 in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of 

 the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 

 IV. From the foregoing considerations it follows 



