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an apparently lifeless object. The chrysalis bursts, and out comes 
the winged moth — a quite new creature, for which old things 
are passed away, — a creature with a new body, new powers, new 
life, new purposes. Science has no key to such mysteries. The 
human intellect can but prostrate itself in confessed incapacity 
before them. And yet what do we see in the mystery of 
caterpillar life? Simply the passage of living creatures into new 
bodies and new conditions. Its identity cannot be disputed, 
but the change it has undergone is simply marvellous. What 
of the power which wrought such change? It is just infinite. 
To say that it is superhuman and extra-physical is to say little. 
It is transcendently mysterious and divine. Unseen it is and 
must be. Unseen it is, but real. The Christian places it in 
the only source which enlightened reason will sanction — in the 
Absolute Being w'e call God. For the use of such power, 
infinite wisdom; for its beneficent control, infinite goodness; for 
its direction to the innumerable needs of innumerable worlds 
and creatures, infinite skill are requii’ed. Thus again, are we 
led from nature up to nature’s God. And once more I declare, 
that it is in this Power alone we Christians stand. It is the 
cause, the reason, the eternal sustenance of our faith. Where 
mystery is, there faith is needed. Our life is laid in a universe 
of mysteries. The highest efforts of genius, the grandest 
achievements of scientific capacity, will never accomplish more, 
in this state of being, than the disclosure and application of 
principles and facts within the range of human endowment. 
Beyond the human is the divine. But we must bide our time 
ere we are permitted to pass through the veil which shrouds it. 
Meanwhile, have we not a noble calling and work? What are 
we in relation to the unknown and inscrutable things of the 
Universe? “We are stewards of the mysteries of God.”* Let 
us be faithful stewards. Let us look onward, as we labour and 
wait, in faith and patience. The Power we trust will gradually 
lead us into all the truth. All light comes from one source: be 
it natural or spiritual — scientific or religious. And the light 
will never cease to shine upon the darkness. What we know 
not now we shall know. The soul was made for eternity — the 
body for time. The infinite and eternal await us after the 
inevitable change. There are awful mysteries ahead. But they 
do not alarm us : still less do they cause us to doubt the power, 
the wisdom, or the love of God. Nay* having Ilis own as- 
surance of eternal life, we stand firm amidst the cares and ills, 
the sorrows and separations of this state of being. We strive to 
* 1 Corinthians iv. 1 . 
