xii INTEODUCTOET EEMABKS. 



correct views of the relation whicli plants bear to each other, of 

 the lavs which regulate their development, and of the great plan 

 on which they were formed by the Creator. 



There is a tendency, however, to speak of the laws of nature 

 as if they were in themselves executive, and this has led to 

 erroneous views of the system of the universe. Some there are 

 who attempt to shut out God from His works by this means. The 

 Creator is regarded as looking at the development of His plan, 

 and watching its progress, but not requiring to exercise constant 

 and unwearied superintendence of the minutest event. Nay, 

 even when He creates animals with certain instincts, and plants 

 with certain functions, He is represented like an imperfect work- 

 man taking a lesson from the operations of the beings which He 

 has made, and which, by their own efforts of selection, or by their 

 own struggles for existence, complete what the Creator had set 

 on foot. A certain mechanism is set agoing in some unknown 

 way, and it continues to work according to definite laws. But 

 what are laws unless there is some one to carry them out ? The 

 great Author of these laws must be always working in them and 

 by them, and upholding them in their integrity and efficiency. 

 No doubt the Creator is a God of order and method, and the 

 operations of His wisdom and power are displayed in what we 

 call laws. The execution of these laws, however, is just as won- 

 derful and miraculous as is a fiat of creation, and requires equally 

 the exercise of Almighty power. The uniformity of nature de- 

 pends on the wisdom that made these laws and adapted them 

 to aU the varying conditions of the universe. In the course 

 of Providence, however, there are every now and then marked 

 events which seem to be at variance with this uniformity, as 

 when a deluge overwhelms mankind, or when a sudden convulsion 

 destroys the cities of the plain. Such events show that all things 

 do not continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 

 Those who look for a progressive development and a gradual and 

 eternal advance towards perfection in the living beings which 

 cover the earth, without further creative fiats or movements mr 

 saltum, forget, in their speculations, that a time is coming when, 

 as the Apostle says, " the earth and the works that are therein 



