206 THE MICROSCOPE AND ITS LESSONS. 



we are content to remain in ignorance of; and, still less, 

 how can we love One whom we do not know ? 



" The proper study of mankind is man ; " and he who 

 would know something of the greatest mystery of all 

 mysteries, the mystery of life, must enter into the 

 elaborate workshop where it is hidden, and though of the 

 cause he will remain in greater ignorance than ever, 

 since none but He who first breathed into the body the 

 breath of lives can fully comprehend what life really is, 

 still he will, or he should, find the contemplation of the 

 marvels of the bodily house he lives in a great incentive 

 to further knowledge, ancl a sure aid to the increase of 

 devotion. 



So let us begin with the very beginning of human 

 life ; and, that we may not err in our entrance, let me 

 direct you to one of my favourite psalms, in which the 

 genesis of our being is curiously but exactly, and, as we 

 shall presently see with our own eyes, also perfectly and 

 wonderfully described. 



In that inspired poem, the 139th Psalm, the author 

 writes, "My substance was not hid from Thee, when 

 I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the 

 lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, 

 yet being unperfect ; and in Thy book all my members 

 were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when 

 as yet there was none of them." And these words, you 

 must remember, immediately follow what ]ed to them, 

 and that is praise : " I will praise Thee ; for I am fearfully 

 and wonderfully made : marvellous are Thy works ; and 

 that my soul kno \veth right well." 



I have attended one church and another, Sunday 

 after Sunday, for nearly threescore years and ten, and 

 I have never once, that I can remember, heard one 

 sermon preached upon these wonderful words, and if I err 



