THE REASON WHY. 145 



" A ml I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 



waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying Alleluia : for the 



Lord God omnipotent reigneth." REV. xix. 



aid of a boy's plaything, drew down an electric current from the clouds, and 

 caught a spark upon the knuckles of his hand, even he little conjectured that 

 the time was so near when that strange element, which sent its messenger 

 to him along the string of a kite, would become one of man's most submissive 

 servants. 



So many great results have sprung from the careful observation of the 

 simplest phenomena, that we should never pass over inattentively the most 

 trifling thing that offers itself to our examination. Nature, in her revelations, 

 never seeks to startle mankind. The formation of a rock, and the elaboration of 

 a truth, are alike the work of ages. It was the simple blackening of silver by the 

 sun's rays which led to the discovery of the chemical agency of light. It was 

 the falling of an apple which pointed Newton to the discovery of the laws of 

 gravitation. It was the force of steam, observed as it issued from beneath the 

 lid of a kettle, that led to the invention of the steam-engine. And it is said of 

 Jacquard, that he invented the loom which so materially aided the commerce of 

 nations, while watching the motions of his wife's fingers, as she plied her 

 knitting. As great discoveries spring from such small beginnings, who among 

 us may not be the herald of some great truth the lounder of some world-wide 

 benefaction ? 



That the area of discovery has not perceptibly narrowed its limits, is evident 

 from the fact that the g-eatest elements in nature are still mysteries to man. 

 And though it may not "be within the power of a finite being to unravel the chain 

 of wonders that enfold the works of an infinite God, still it is evident, from 

 the progress which discovery has made, and from the good which discovery has 

 done, that God does invite and encourage the human mind to contemplate the 

 workings of Divine power, and to pursue its manifestations in every element, 

 and in every direction. 



The wonderful force of electricity astonishes us all the more when we view it 

 in contrast with that equally wonderful element, light. We have seen that 

 light travels with a velocity of 192,000 miles in a second, but that it falls upon 

 a delicate balance so gently, that it produces no perceptible effect. As far as 

 we know the nature of electricity, it is even more etliereal than light; yet, 

 while the ether of light falls harmlessly and imperceptibly even with the 

 momentum of a flight of ninety-five millions of miles, the ether of electricity, 

 bursting from a cloud only five hundred yards distant, will split massive stones, 

 level tall towers with the dust, strike majestic trees to the ground, and instantly 

 extinguish the life of man ! Why does the one ether come divested of all 

 mechanical force, while that which seems to be even more ethereal than it, 

 is capable of exerting the mightiest force over material things ? Does it not 

 appear that the Creator of the universe has established these paradoxes of 

 power to testify his Omnipotence to show to man that with Him all things are 

 possible ; and that, in the grand cosmicism of the universe, every attribute of 

 Omnipotence has been fulfilled ? 



Let us now consider man's relation to this Omnipotence. He sees that 

 electricity smites the tall edifice, and observes that in doing so it displays a 

 choice of a certain substance through which it passes harmlessly, and that its 

 violence is manifested only when its path is interrupted. Man, taking advan- 

 tage of this preference of electricity for a particular conductor, stretches out 

 an arm of that substance, and points it upwards to the clouds; electricity 



