356 



Almighty Architect of the universe. The great Master- 

 Builder's plan is as evident in the Works as in the Word 

 of God. Both present as it were a family likeness, which 

 is fitted to illustrate and be illustrated by each other. The 

 same agency in short is at work in the kingdom of Nature as 

 in that of Grace. There are many striking analogies between 

 them. The same loving-kindness, surrounded by equal diffi- 

 culties — the same unity of purpose, emerging from apparent 

 confusion — the same admirable adjustment of adequate means 

 to merciful and noble purposes. 



5. But, after all, how little is man* (even the most accom- 

 plished man of science) able to comprehend of the laws of the 

 Great Creator? How true are the words of the ancient 

 Patriarch, who having given some sublime illustrations of 

 creative skill and power, says, " Lo ! these are parts of His 

 ways, but who can understand the thunder of His power." 



6. On entering the august Temple of Nature we are re- 

 minded at every step of the Infinite and the Unsearchable. 

 Hence a childlike spirit of inquiry, and an unaffected acknow- 

 ledgment of our own incapacity to deal with the eternal laws 

 of the Almighty are the most suitable dispositions for creatures 



who were born but yesterday and know nothing.^f 



7. We are at best only learners and seekers after truth 

 rather than persons really possessed of it.J Science and its 

 professors, instead of dogmatizing on insufficient or, as it often 

 happens, inaccurate data, should remember that they are 

 dealing with Divine attributes. In the eloquent and appro- 

 priate words of Hooker it may be said — " Dangerous it were 

 for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the 

 Most High, whom, although to know be life and joy to make 

 mention of His name, yet our soundest knowledge is to 

 know that we know Him, not as, indeed. He is, neither 

 can know Him ; and our safest eloquence concerning Him is 

 our silence when we confess without confession that His glory 

 is inexplicable. His greatness above our capacity and reach. 

 He is above, and we upon earth ; therefore it behoveth our 

 words to be wary and few,"§ 



8. No one can doubt for a moment the vast body of evidence 

 which glares upon us from the brilliant firmament with which 

 God has surrounded His works and His Word. Eternity will 

 not exhaust the study of it, since it will unfold facts ever new, 

 ever abounding in inexhaustible variety. But yet, even here 



Job XX vi. 14. t Job viii. 9. t Pythagoras. 



§ Hooker's Eccles. Pol, book i. 200. 



