86 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP, 



power of affection, association, memory, wilfulness 

 faintly resembling man's freedom of action, and even 

 some degree of moral sense. But they have shown 

 no sign that they possess the power to apprehend the 

 relations of number. In this respect there is an im- 

 passable gulf between man and all the other creatures ; 

 and we are driven to the conclusion that man must 

 have derived this unique power, not from a creature 

 origin, but directly from the Creator Himself. And 

 the fact that man is able to make use of numerical 

 relations in all his own works cind in all the details 

 of his life, shows that he is indeed made in the image 

 of Him who makes use of the same relations in the 

 ordering of His universe. If we find arithmetical sums 

 or geometrical problems traced on the black-board of 

 a deserted schoolroom, we know as surely that a mind 

 conversant with numbers had been engaged upon them 

 as if we actually saw the teacher or the pupil at work. 

 Why should we hesitate to come to the same conclusion 

 when we see the same or similar arithmetical sums and 

 geometrical problems wrought out by an invisible Hand 

 in the parts of living creatures of plants and animals ? 

 In regard to the moral link between the human race 

 and its divine Author there may be some uncertainty, 

 owing to the fact that we have lost our holiness, and 

 have no infallible standard of righteousness within us. 

 That part of the image of God in which we were 

 created has been lost or effaced ; but in regard to our 

 intellectual power of discerning the relations of number 

 pervading all His workmanship, and regulating all our 



