A TUFT OF MOSS. 87 



own doings also, there is no uncertainty. We worship, 

 so far as this quality is concerned, no longer at an 

 altar to the unknown God ; and we are no longer 

 dubious that "we are His offspring." When I count 

 the petals of a flower, or follow the spiral arrangement 

 of leaves on the branch of an apple-tree, or mark the 

 carefully numbered divisions of the tiny membrane 

 which closes the fruit-vessel of a moss, I discover in 

 myself, with feelings of solemn awe, a capacity for 

 entering into ideas which . permeate the whole universe, 

 and which must, therefore, be ever-present in the mind 

 of Him who created and upholdeth all things. Kepler 

 deeply realized this when, in reference to his numerical 

 discoveries among the orbs of heaven, he gloried in the 

 conviction that he had been privileged "to think the 

 thoughts of God." And the Christian should feel it 

 with even greater power when it is his privilege and 

 consolation to address God as One who acts towards 

 him on principles intelligible to his own understanding, 

 and in accordance with that rule of everlasting right- 

 eousness which He has written in his heart who says 

 to him in all his approaches to the mercy-seat, " Come 

 now, and let us reason together." 



3. And this brings me to notice another lesson which 

 may be deduced from this subject, viz., that God deals 

 with us as He deals with all His creatures, according 

 to the law of numerical proportion. What a world of 

 meaning, looking at them in the light of our present 

 reflections, is in the words addressed by God to His 

 people, as twice recorded by Jeremiah " Fear thou 



