COMMEMORATION MEETING. 



173 



fifty years ago. And one or two greatly daring astronomers 

 have put on record their reasons for considering that even 

 this Limit must be exceeded a hundred times further still. 



From these conceptions of immensity that dizzy and confound 

 the utmost stretch of our imagination to apprehend, we are brought 

 back instantly to the contemplation of a no less wonderful cosmos 

 in the infinitesimal. I am old enough to have been taught 

 when I was a boy at school that we knew two things, and two 

 things only, concerning the atom : the first that it was 

 indivisible, the second that it was immutable. To-day we 

 know about the atom that it is not indivisible, but complex; 

 that it is not immutable, but subject to change. And in part 

 we have learnt that from the evidence afforded us by celestial 

 chemistry. Helium was recognized on the sun before it was 

 recognized on the earth ; that was a striking achievement. 

 Coronium and nebulium have not yet been recognized on the 

 earth, but the lines of their spectra have afforded the 

 indication of the way in which the constituent atoms of those 

 elements are built up ; a more striking achievement still. 



Have these items of progress in our scientific knowledge and 

 a thousand other items of progress, also made in the last fifty 

 years, at which I cannot even glance, have these any bearing 

 upon our knowledge of God, upon theology ? Yes, they have. 

 They teach the lesson which St. Paul preached two thousand 

 years ago : " The invisible things of God from the creation of 

 the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that 

 are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." The lesson 

 is therefore no new one, but science brings it home to us with 

 ever-increasing force and pow T er. Science shows us in nature 

 unity of material, unity of law, unity of structure and plan, 

 and therefore unity of Creator and Lawgiver. And the vastness 

 of the structure of the cosmos, and the unimaginable complexity 

 and variety of its detail, and the indescribable finish and 

 perfection of its most infinitesimal portions, justify the 

 conclusion of the Apostle : " That His eternal power and 

 Godhead are clearly seen by the things which are made." 



Nor is this quite all. " God has not left Himself without 

 witness, inasmuch as He has done us good and has given 

 us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts 

 with food and gladness." God is good and doeth good. 



So far natural religion can take us, but not further. And 

 I would ask you to note the reserve, clearly marked in all 

 the addresses of all the astronomers to whom I have referred, 

 as to philosophical or theological inferences that some might 



