we see double
stars, the constituent parts of which must revolve around a centre
common to them both, or rush to a common ruin. Eagerly we look
to see if they revolve, and beholding them in the very act, we
conclude, not groundlessly, that the same great law of gravitation
holds good in distant stellar spaces, and that there the same sufficient
mind plans, and the same sufficient power directs and controls all
movements in harmony and security.

When we come to the perturbations caused by the mutual attractions
of the sun, nine planets, twenty moons, one hundred and ninety-two
asteroids, millions [Page 14] of comets, and innumerable meteoric
bodies swarming in space, and when we add to all these, that belong
to one solar system, the attractions of all the systems of the other
suns that sparkle on a brilliant winter night, we are compelled to
say, "As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high above our
thoughts and ways must be the thoughts and ways of Him who
comprehends and directs them all."

[Page 15]
II.

CREATIVE PROGRESS.

"And God said, Let there be light, and there was light."--_Genesis_
i., 3.

"God is light."--1 _John_, i. 5.

[Page 16]
"Hail! holy light, offspring of Heaven first born,
Or of the eternal, co-eternal beam,
May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate."
MILTON.

"A million torches lighted by Thy hand
Wander unwearied through the blue abyss:
They own Thy power, accomplish Thy command,
All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss.
What shall we call them? Piles of crystal light--
A glorious company of golden streams--
Lamps of celestial ether burning bright--
Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams?
But 'Thou to these art as the noon to night."
DERZHAVIN, trans. by BOWRING.

[Page 17]
II.

_CREATIVE PROGRESS._

Worlds would be very imperfect and useless when simply endowed
with attraction and inertia, if no time were allowed for these
forces to work out their legitimate results. We want something
more than swirling seas of attracted gases, something more than
compacted rocks. We look for soil, verdure, a paradise of beauty,
animal life, and immortal minds. Let us go on with the process.

Light is the child of force, and the child, like its father, is full
of power. We dowered our cre