357 



below, in this the infancy of our being, there are some little 

 portions of light which twinkle, as it were, from the analogy 

 between the inspired history of religion and the Divine work- 

 manship in our planet. 



This is the subject to which, this evening, I would desire to 

 direct your attention. The main scope of the argument lies in 

 the compass of two words taken from one of Lord Bacon^s 

 Essays. The closing words of hi^ Thema Coeli are Mobilem 

 Constantiam/' which Dr. Whewell, in an article in the 

 Edinburgh Review October, 1857, translates, " a constancy 

 that includes motion.'' Mr. Leslie Ellis,* to whose critical 

 acumen we are indebted for rescuing from the chronic inac- 

 curacy of successive editions of Bacon's works this word 



Mobileniy' which blundering transcribers had written 

 " Nobilem,'' renders the words simply " variable constancy.'' 

 With a view to brevity and the formation of a suggestive 

 mnemonic, I have ventured to mould them into the modified 

 form of — Unity in Variety. 



II. — A General Statement of the Argument, 



9. The more closely we examine the Creations of God — the 

 remains of past ages, or the living forms of our own — the 

 more clearly we shall perceive that the plan is Unity, and the 

 form Variety, — the one indicating the same Almighty mind, 

 the other that boundless benevolence which knows no rest till 

 in every possible combination it has produced every conceivable 

 form of beauty, existence, and enjoyment. When we look at 

 the works of Creation around us, or read the history of Re- 

 demption in the Bible, the first thing that strikes us is the 

 variety of forms in the one, and the diversity of modes of 

 worship in the other. But when we come to examine things 

 more closely — when the eye of Science is directed to the works 

 of the Creator, and the eye of Faith to that of the Saviour — 

 when we strip off the superficial covering, we find that these 

 diversities are only apparent. The groundwork is simple and 

 uniform throughout both. The external variations are adapted 

 to the different conditions of existence in the one instance, and 

 to the varying circumstances of God's people in the other. And 



* Ellis and Spedding^s edition of Bacon's Works. 



