scover its summit.
Before the thought of this Sovereign Being, by whose Will are all
things, and who is without cause and without beginning, our soul is
overwhelmed. We are so feeble! the thought of absolute power crushes us.
Creatures of a day, how should we understand the Eternal? Frail as we
are, and evil, we tremble at the idea of holiness. But milder accents,
as you know, have been heard upon the earth: This Sovereign God--He
loves us. In proportion as this idea gains possession of our
understanding, in the same proportion our soul has glimpses of the paths
of peace. He loves us, and we take courage. He hears us, and prayer
rises to Him with the hope of being heard. He governs all, and we
confide in His Providence. When your gaze is directed towards the depths
of the sky, does it never happen to you to remain in a manner terrified,
as you contemplate those worlds which without end are added to other
worlds? As you fix your thoughts upon the immeasurable abysses of the
firmament,--as you say to yourselves that how far soever you put back
the boundary of the skies, if the universe ended there, then the
universe, with its suns and its groups of stars, would still be but a
solitary lamp, shining as a point in the midst of the limitless
darkness,--have you never experienced a sort of mysterious fright and
giddiness? At such a time turn your eyes upon nearer objects. He who has
made the heavens with their immensity, is He who makes the corn to
spring forth for your sustenance, who clothes the fields with the
flowers which rejoice your sight, who gives you the fresh breath of
morning, and the calm of a lovely evening: it is He, without whose
permission nothing occurs, who watches over you and over those you love.
Possess yourselves thoroughly with this thought of love, then lift once
more your eyes to the sky, and from every star, and from the worlds
which are lost in the furthest depths of space, shall fall upon your
brow, no longer clouded, a ray of love and of peace. Then with a feeling
of sweet affiance you will adopt as your own those words of an ancient
prophet: "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee
from Thy Presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make
my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall
Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me:"[3] then you will
understand those gr