SUPPORT OF REVEALED RELIGION. 287 



"All idolatry, from the rudest worship of imperson- 

 ated physical powers among our Saxon forefathers to 

 the Christianized anthropomorphism (or way of think- 

 ing about Deity as a mere somewhat infinite human 

 being) and the scientific theism of the present day, is 

 the product of a lifeless faith in Godhood, and an 

 adequate analysis of His works. This is what is in- 

 veighed against by the fidian analyst, St. Paul. Nay ! 

 so far from being inconsistent with the Scripture, the 

 sole aim of this sermon is to inculcate the inspired 

 declaration of the gifted apostle to the nations, that 

 'It is through faith we understand that the worlds 

 were framed by God' David Hume is right, and so i 

 St. Paul ; and the pauline, or rather the divine, trutl 

 is incalculably the greater, containing the other to- 

 gether with as much more as the way 01 God tran- 

 scends the thought of man. That ' The worlds were 

 framed by God ' is a surpassing mystery. A mystery 

 and therein surpassing. Known to be an object of 

 delight by the fullest assurance of belief, and attested 

 by the broad signature of the sciences, though it needed 

 no other than the King of Heaven and earth's ; but 

 infinitely and for ever beyond created comprehension ! 

 The worlds, what are they singing there, in mystic 

 choir, in the bosom of that holy sky on which words, 

 ' the winged wheels of thought/ are far too feeble to 

 discourse ? What have they been made of, and how, 

 and when, and where ? Shall they last for aye, float- 

 ing in the unimaginable sether of immensity, on the 

 noiseless surge of which they were launched in the 

 beginning ? Or are they, in some billion of cycles, 

 say thousands of years, perhaps a few short centuries, 

 or another month from to-day, or even one fleeting 



