194 
may not bo the cause hereafter ; and no physical proposition 
grounded upon the constancy and certainty of things could 
have any foundation. He, therefore, that philosophizeth and 
denieth God, playeth a childish game.” 
For myself, I accept Creation as the exposition of the mind 
of God, and Providence as the expression of His ever-acting 
will. I ascribe all the varied forces and powers to the effect 
(mediate or immediate) of this one will, and I rest content in 
this philosophy.* 
* There is one verse in Psalm xxix. which I must specially dwell upon, 
as illustrating this subject in a manner most powerfully calculated to arrest 
the attention. It forms part of the Sabbath morning service in the Syna- 
gogue, and the translation given in the prayer-book of the J ews is very much 
better than our version. The quotation-marks indicate passages taken from 
the Jewish prayer-book, “ The Daily Prayers.” London: 5602, page 114. 
The “ sons of the mighty ” are called to ascribe all the glory to Jehovah, 
whilst the storm arises in might and power from the Mediterranean — “ the 
great waters.” It then “ shivers ” the cedars of Lebanon, and makes the 
mountains to skip like the young unicorn. “ The voice of the Lord flasheth 
flames of fire,” “ causing the wild deer to start,” and “ stripping the forests 
bare,” until at length the fury of the tempest expends itself, after rolling 
over the land from the north, in the far-distant southern wilderness of 
Kadesh. The conclusion of the Psalm tells us that “Jehovah sat enthroned 
at the deluge ,” and Jehovah “ will sit as enthroned King for ever.” From 
this reflection arises the peaceful rest of His people in every storm (physical 
or moral). Jehovah will give strength unto His people, Jehovah will bless 
His people with peace. Psalm xxix. is grand in all its parts, but perhaps 
especially so in the thought (ver. 9) which it encloses and illustrates, “ whilst 
in His temple everything declares His glory.” The whole visible creation 
is here (as elsewhere) looked upon as a temple, and all the varied changes 
which it presents as instructing us in the glory of Jehovah. Into this 
temple we are introduced at our birth, and it is of immense importance that 
we should conduct ourselves therein as worshippers, that we should reverence 
the Creator, and treat with respect, as pertaining to Him, the creatures of H is 
hand. When the mind has been overpowered by the grandeur of His works, 
the heavens, the moon, and the stars which He hath ordained, it is ready to 
question whether man, the small and apparently insignificant point in the 
vast spectacle, can really be the object of so much regard on the part of his 
Creator. But faith dissipates these fears, and shows us the position of man 
as really that of God’s manifested king on earth, made to have dominion 
over all the works of His hands, and to render back the praises of all the 
earth to the Author of his being (see Psalm xix.). In the Psalm we have 
been considering, the angels, as “ sons of the mighty,” are called upon to adore 
the majesty of Jehovah. It is not impossible, since the Deluge is expressly 
mentioned, that a contrast is intended between Jehovah the enthroned king 
sitting unmoved and pre-eminent above the water-floods, and the heathen 
accounts of the same, with which David, from his Moabite ancestry, might 
be familiar. “ The raging of a storm in the morning arose, from the horizon 
of heaven extending and wide. Vul in the midst of it thundered, and Nebo 
and Saru went in front, the thronebearers went over mountains and plains, 
the destroyer Nergal overturned.” (The Chaldean account of the Deluge, 
Bib. Arch. Trans., vol. iii. p. 551.) The heathen deified all the powers of 
Nature, but the chosen nation saw them all summed up in Jehovah. Hence 
