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especial character of these laws to be rigid and inflexible, — to 
be, and to remain, always and everywhere the same. In the 
heavens, e. g., instead of the glorious canticle in which the 
harmony of the worlds mounts to the ears of God, science can 
only see, and study, what she calls the celestial mechanism ; and 
a French school-book but lately contained this expression : 
“ The heavens no longer declare the glory of God, they declare 
the glory of Newton and Laplace/'’ Even of those who 
believe in God, how many only see in Him the first cause 
which put all in motion, and who then leaves all to obey un- 
varying laws. God gave the first impulse, or as Pascal with 
fine irony has said, gave the first push, and the vast machinery 
started in motion ; everything works in a fixed and prescribed 
order. The worlds in eternal and majestic silence pursue their 
stately march through the realms of space, and our little globe, 
lost as a grain of sand, is but an atom in all this vast immensity. 
On earth's surface, without a moment's cessation, are the same 
laws in operation, laws of life and laws of death. There is a 
law which ordains that a given number of beings die and dis- 
appear and be replaced by others; that at each second, e.g., a 
man should die and a man be born. All that takes place, all 
that must take place, and as all is Fated as statistics show, 
what use, says the sceptic, is there in our prayers, our groans, 
the simplicity of our faith ? Especially, how can we think God 
intervenes in each particular existence, and that there is a special 
will, and a providential end, in all these inevitable and necessary 
griefs and sorrows? 
But let us not deceive ourselves, these are not questions that 
the man of science only puts to' himself : the most ignorant is 
met by them, and they chill his heart. He is met by them in 
affliction, when suffering and death come, and with, rude and 
often seeming traitorous hand, strike down those he loves 
the best, his children or his wife. He meets them when he 
sees Nature hold on her course, peaceful and serene, wiien his 
own heart is sad as death ; he meets them when he sees the sun 
which shone so brightly on his path, when he trod it by the 
side of some dearly-loved object, shine more brightly on her 
tomb. Oh ! there is in Nature a fearful silence ; hers is a book 
on many of whose fairest pages are inscribed the cruel teachings 
of “ Fatalism." Here lies our temptation, doubtless a great 
one, but one against which the Christian has a refuge. He 
believes in a God, as Nature's Master, a creating God. Creation 
is the first word of the Bible; how necessary an article is it of 
our creed! We open it and we see, “ In the beginning God 
created." Thus above the laws which govern the world, we see 
a Lawgiver greater still, who has made, and who can as easily 
