284 NATURAL THEOLOGY OF THE 



to be anywise infinite in the literal sense of infinitude : 

 it is only indefinitely vast, its magnitude compared 

 with true immensity being a trifle, for all our tele- 

 scopes can disclose, and the attributes of its inferred 

 Creator may be less than infinite in kind and degree. 

 Whatever is less than infinitude is infinitely less. 

 This is not God. Are evidences of goodness, wisdom, 

 and power of no worth then, and manifestations only 

 an unmeaning pageantry \ Is it to no purpose that we 

 see : 



" ' All things with each other blending ] 



All on each in turn depending : 



Heavenly ministers descending : * 



And again to heaven uptending ; 



Floating, mingling, interweaving ; 



Rising, sinking, and receiving 



Each from each, while each is giving 



On to each, and each relieving 



Each, the pails of gold, the living 



Current through the air is heaving : 



Breathing blessings, see them bending 



Balanced worlds from change defending, 



While everywhere diffused is harmony unending.' 



Has this mazy universe of melody no significance 

 beyond its own unfathomable beauty ? Heaven for- 

 bid ! Once know God otherwise than by discovery, 

 once believe His Being upon the same foundation as 

 you believe the existence of the world without your 

 own personality, and the truth of self-evident propo- 

 sitions, all of which are incapable alike of proof and 

 refutation. Once apprehend Him as the Incomprehen- 

 sible One, ' in whom we live, and move, and have our 

 being,' and then the world, and all the worlds, are the 

 sublimest commentary and illustration of His tran- 

 scending attributes, being, in truth, His uttered word, 



