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On Electricity and its Present Applications. [August, 
result of spiritual influences— literally of spiritual influences 
—residing in and energising his person. And all the in - 
nitely more admirable and beautiful forms, both anima e 
and inanimate, in which the material of the world is 
moulded are the work of that infinitely greater Spirit who 
predominates and rules over all. , . 
In His government of the universe God has chosen to 
endow the great spirit Electron with attributes m some 
degree similar to some of those belonging to Himself, and 
He has given him potencies in accordance with these attri- 
butes ; but behind, and upholding, and above them all, there 
dominates God’s own supreme existence and will, indeed 
it is impossible to conceive that matter itself, even though 
adted upon by all the natural or spiritual influences we know 
of, could mould and fabricate itself into the infinite and yet 
normal varieties of forms and substances, both living and 
inanimate, which we see around us. 
On the contrary, the living world of which we form a part 
presents everywhere a never-ceasing miracle of Almighty 
power and wisdom, although our bodily eyes cannot see the 
hand that performs the miracles, and the sublime, signifi- 
cance of which we fail to comprehend only from its very 
familiarity and our own innate selfishness and want ol spi- 
ritual discernment. Thus says flennyson . 
“ Flower in the crannied wall, 
I pluck you out of the crannies ! 
Hold you here, root and all, in my hand, 
Little flower ; but if I could understand 
What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
I should know what God is, and man is.” 
If he is a fool who has said in his heart that “ there is no 
God ” by what other name shall we call those who say or 
insinuate that Electron is all the God that they can recog- 
nise as being required in the world ; as if a being, howevei 
powerful, whom man can force to obey his commands, as 
his submissive servant, could at the same time be the 
Sovereign Lawgiver of the Universe. 1 he idea is heathenish 
and absurd. It is in kind, though not in degree, as much 
idolatry, or a breach of the first commandment, as the wor- 
ship of stocks and stones, or of the sun, moon, and stars, 
or even of heroes or demigods, or of the classical deities 
of the ancients, flheir reasoning in the mattei ought lathei 
to be — “ If a servant or minister in the economy of Nature 
has been endowed and entrusted with such attiibutes and 
powers, how infinitely more powerful and highly endowed 
must be the Creator Himself, the source of all this power ! 
