DE. millee’s exetee lectuee. 
349 
line from New Zealand. There is no doubt that many of the 
minute telescopic stars are several hundred times as distant 
from us as Sirius. Astronomical observations upon the eclipses 
of Jupiter’s satellites have shown that it requires rather more 
than eight minutes for the light of the sun to reach the earth ; 
it would take not less than twenty-three years for the light of 
Sirius to traverse the distance between that star and the earth 
if it travelled at the same rate. And of the distances of the 
nebulae we have no means of forming any calculation. 
How amazing the thought that throughout the whole of this 
unbounded range of space matter is to be found of the same 
kind ! Aggregated into masses which, though differing from 
one another in composition, like the various veins of ore which 
occur in mines upon the surface of our globe ; }^et all are evi- 
dently of common origin, all obey the same laws, and all possess 
a chemical nature similar in kind. Surely one is tempted to 
think, if the discovery of such marvels, if the measurement of 
such distances, the estimate of the mass and the magnitude, the 
calculation of the velocity of these bodies in space, and the 
determination of their chemical composition at distances the 
accurate conception of which transcends even the ability of 
imagination ; if these, I say, be not beyond the power of man, it 
may well be supposed that there is no limit to the discoveries 
which are within his reach. 
In one sense this is true. The visible works of God are laid 
open to our investigation to an extent which is really unlimited ; 
and one of the noblest occupations in which man can be engaged 
is in thus tracing the footprints of his Creator, and in discover- 
ing the laws which He has imposed upon matter, and by which 
suns and systems are controlled. But if there be a spiritual as 
well as a material universe, we must not the less have our 
material upon which to work, before we can attempt its investi- 
gation. It is just for the purpose of supplying this material, 
and of instructing us in this most important of all knowledge, 
that the Bible professes to have been given, since it is a know- 
ledge which we might for ever seek in vain, in meditating on 
the works of creation, however successful in unveiling its secrets 
by scientific investigation. 
While, then, we explore in admiration and delight the won- 
ders of nature, as they are commonly termed, or the works of 
Him who is the author of nature, as they truly are, let none of 
us forget with equal diligence to study that volume which alone 
can reveal to us the spiritual, the unseen, and the eternal — a 
study which, to be effectual, must be approached in the spirit of 
prayer for the guidance which is promised to everyone who asks 
in the belief that so asking he shall receivei 
