spiritual beings. This is not repugnant to reason. To an omnipotent Being all things are possible, and the creation of matter declares the existence of a power adequate to produce any other substance which the Divine wisdom might determine to exist. If God has created matter, a substance so totally dissimilar to his own essence, it is quite rational to suppose, not only the possibility, but even the probability, of his creating beings of a nature in some respects resembling his own. The existence, therefore, of spiritual intelligences of various orders and capacities, may be admitted as a truth conformable to reason; and, as what reason admits revelation asserts, their actual existence is another manifestation of creative energy.

SECTION III.-THE POWER OF GOD DISPLAYED IN THE
OPERATIONS OF NATURE.

THE whole universe is in motion, and its motion is the effect of power, and of that power God is the only source and fountain.

1. It has pleased God that a portion of matter should be animated, and this is full of activity. Respiration, digestion, secretion, circulation, assimilation, reproduction, growth, and decay, are modes of activity which pervade the whole animal economy; and in the vegetable kingdom a similar process is going on, so that no portion of vitalized or organized matter can remain at rest. In inanimate matter, too, there are forces in constant operation. The air and the ocean are never in repose; meteoric changes are every moment transpiring. In the more compact and solid masses of the earth-rocks, mountains, minerals, and substances apparently the most stable -electrical, magnetic, and chemical forces are ever active, producing a perpetual circle of decomposition, solution, analysis, and combination. Not a particle of matter, from the circumference to the centre of our globe, but is acted upon by a variety of agencies. Not an atom is completely isolated. It has

properties which influence other atoms, and they have properties which influence it. Reciprocal properties and influences pervade the entire mass of the globe, from its surface to its deepest recesses. This action is the result of Almighty power. A similar process of motion and activity is doubtless the characteristic of the masses of matter composing the planets, the sun, and all those vast globes which are diffused through the spacious universe.

In addition to the influences which thus operate upon the particles of matter in each separate globe, there are activities of a wider scope, and mightier force, giving to those orbs prodigious velocity through the regions of space. Centripetal and centrifugal forces are incessantly acting upon worlds and systems of worlds, and carrying them round in orbits of amazing extent, and with a velocity compared with which a cannon-ball moves with a tardy action. Stationary as our own globe appears, it is moving in its sphere at the rate of more than a thousand miles in a minute of time. The planet Mercury moves at the rate of one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three miles in a minute. But the comet of 1680 is said to move at the awful rate of thirteen thousand six hundred and sixty-six miles in a minute. While each planet and comet of the solar system is thus whirling round the sun, with various degrees of speed, the system itself has no fixed abode in space, but is shifting its place among the stars; and further, the entire collections of stars, and nebulous clusters of stars, are, with good reason, supposed to be revolving around one common centre. The term fixed is now found to be no longer applicable to any star in the heavens, for the apparent stability of their position arises from that prodigious distance which makes the whole diameter of our system dwindle to a point, and the duration of a thousand years too short a period to perceive any great variation in their locality. And yet such variations have been perceived as afford ground to estimate that the star Arcturus moves through space at the rate of above one thousand miles per minute; that μ Cassiopeiæ moves at the rate of two thousand one hundred and sixty miles a minute; but a

double star, 61 Cygni, is estimated to be translated through space with the astonishing velocity of twenty millions of millions of miles in a year. The varied velocities just named may be regarded as examples of the activities of the celestial machinery; and if they overpower our imagination, how shall we conceive of the energy which at first gave those huge bodies their motions, and which still directs and guides them with unerring exactness, regularity, and ease, as they silently journey through the regions of immensity? The mighty impulse was an emanation of Jehovah's power. The centrifugal force which hurled the ponderous masses into space is his; the centripetal force, which reins them in, and converts their rectilinear into an orbicular motion, is his! The light which issues from them, and darts through the whole area of the vast profound at the rate of eleven millions of miles in a minute of time, received its momentum from him! He who gave them their being imparted these wonderful activities. Well may he be emphatically called "The Mighty God." "Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite." He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names." He bringeth forth Mazzaroth in his season, guideth Arcturus and his sons, and appointeth the ordinances of heaven.

2. The power displayed by the activity of all created minds proceeds from the Deity. Perhaps we have no standard by which to form an exact estimate of the power possessed by the human mind. We know it is capable of amazing activity, and that it can exercise a limited control over matter. Besides moving at pleasure the several parts of the corporeal system in which it resides, it can exert some degree of power over surrounding objects; it can employ our bodily organs, as so many pliant and well-adapted instruments, in arranging, disposing, and modifying various material substances, and transforming them into articles of utility and elegance. It can operate further, for it can avail itself of existing forces in Nature, and thus intellect can produce effects where muscular energy fails. It can employ the lever, the pulley, the screw, the expansive power of steam, and the explosive force of electricity to execute its will.

Archimedes said he could move the world, if he had but a place on which to erect his machinery; and although this assertion may be regarded as a bold hyperbole, yet it is evident that man can, by the aid of external forces, produce effects truly prodigious, both in magnitude and number, and his works look more like the operations of some superior being than of a creature so diminutive and apparently so feeble as man. We are aware,

indeed, it may be justly urged, that the effects produced by the mechanism of external forces are rather the evidences of intellectual sagacity than of spiritual power; but it may be urged, on the other hand, that if the effects of mechanical instrumentality surpass the inherent energy of the mind, the effects of muscular instrumentality cannot be proved to limit its power. If the one be supposed to surpass it, the probability is that the other is inadequate to the full degree of its capability. On the organs of its own body it acts by immediate contact, and its power is evidently restrained and held in by the feebleness of the instrumentality it employs, just as the expansive force of steam is limited only by the strength of the copper or iron in which it is confined; and, as Isaac Taylor* remarks," were the full power of the mind exerted, it would probably rend the vascular system, overcome the adhesive strength of the bones, tendons, and muscles, and break down the frail tenement in which it resides." In fact, we cannot estimate the power with which the Creator has endued the human mind over matter; but the probability is that, if the human mind were furnished with corresponding apparatus, its power over matter would be found to surpass the strength of any inferior animals, as much as it transcends them in the dignity and excellence of its nature. This view is corroborated by the statements furnished in the Scriptures respecting the amazing powers of angelic beings. There may be intellectual beings of various orders occupying every orb in the universe, and, besides those who reside in the visible universe, there may be--and, indeed, the sacred records

"Physical Theory of Another Life"-a work which indicates great force of thought and a highly philosophic mind.

inform us there are-countless multitudes of pure spiritual existences. No arithmetic can calculate, no mind can conceive, the number of intelligent beings with which the blessed God has peopled his wide domain in the material and spiritual worlds. All these are beings of intense activity; thought, purpose, will, affections, and acts of power, are being incessantly put forth by these creatures. But all the energy thus employed, and all the capabilities yet to be exerted by them, are so many manifestations of the power of God. Nothing is self-existent but the glorious Creator; and as the existence of the creatures is derived from God, so are the energies they individually and collectively exert. Though their volitions and actions are their own, the power involved in their exertion is from God.

SECTION IV.-THE POWER OF GOD DISPLAYED IN THE
PRESERVATION OF NATURE.

REASON Combines with Scripture in the doctrine that God's power is constantly exercised in the preservation of his worksin the continuance of their being and order until they have subserved the purposes of his will. The supposition of God creating the universe and then leaving it to itself, is as irrational as it is heathenish. True philosophy disowns it, and can no more recognize a universe independent in its preservation than independent in its existence. Existence derived is ever dependent upon him who gave it, and powers and properties derived are dependent upon him who bestowed them. Besides, the sacred records speak of many direct and special interpositions in which the established order of things has been interrupted by the determination of the Creator. The waters of the sea have been divided, and they stood erect like a wall of adamant; the intensest flames have had no power to burn; the sun and moon have been arrested in their course; iron has had its gravity suspended; a handful of food has been augmented to a supply adequate for thousands; diseases have been cured by a