THE CONCEPTION OF THE GEEAT KEALITY. 



229 



He makes a solemn declaration, therefore He has arms ; He is 

 continually mentioned as being in certain definite places, He can 

 therefore be localised. A.s our knowledge increases we find that 

 these are conventional descriptions, but the former Conception 

 clings tenaciously, and it is very common to hear statements 

 showing that the Deity is looked upon as a magnified man with 

 senses, greatly improved, but still limited ; it is difficult for such 

 persons to grasp the fact that God cannot be said to be anywhere 

 but that everyvjJiere God is. The principal difficulty is to realise 

 that human conception is limited by considerations of Time and 

 Space rendering motion a necessary basis for thought, but to the 

 Spiritual, which transcends Time and Space, the only reality is 

 the here in Space and the noiv in Time, and, to such motion can 

 have no objective reality. 



As in the case of the natural, the more we gain knowledge of 

 our surroundings the nearer and nearer we get to the apprecia- 

 tion of truth, so may we see in the case of the supernatural that 

 a knowledge of God is the siimimicm honum of our aspirations ; 

 that alone being able to give us a true conception of the Great 

 Keality, the very essence of that personality which is necessary 

 for each one of us if we are to experience everlasting life. Let 

 us then take these two mysteries of Time and Space, the for-ever 

 and the never -ending, and see whether we can get a clearer in- 

 sight into the subject before us by tracing them to the utnjost 

 limit of human conception. I will first take the subject of 

 Space, and I think the best method I can adopt will be to take 

 you, in imagination, for a journey as far as is possible by means 

 of the best instruments now in use. We will start from the 

 sun, and, moving outwards, we will rapidly mark the number 

 and character of the worlds involved in the solar system. Let 

 us first understand what are the dimensions of our central 

 luminary. The distance of the moon from the earth is 240,000 

 miles, but the dimensions of the sun are so great, that were the 

 centre of the sun placed where the centre of the earth is, the 

 surface of the sun would not only extend as far as the moon, 

 but as far again on the other side, and that would give the radius 

 only of the enormous circumference of the sun. Let us now 

 start outward from this vast mass. The first world we meet is 

 the little planet Mercury, only 3,000 miles in diameter, revolving 

 round the sun at a distance of 36,000,000 miles. We next come 

 upon Yenus, at a distance of 67,000,000 miles. She is only 

 400 miles smaller in diameter than our earth, and with the dense 

 atmosphere with which she is surrounded, animal and vegetable 

 life similar to that on our earth may be possible. Continuing 



