een, in the source of power than in the
outcomes of power, in the sublime laws of spirit than in the laws
of matter; and religion sheds its beautiful light over all stages
of life, till, whether we eat or whether we drink, or whatsoever
we do, we may do all for the glory of God. Science and religion
make common confession that the great object of life is to learn
and to grow. Both will come to see the best possible means, for
the attainment of this end is a personal relation to a teacher
who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

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XII.

THE ULTIMATE FORCE.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things
became by him, and without him was not anything made that was made
* * * and by him all things stand together."

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"O thou eternal one; whose presence blight
All space doth occupy--all motion guide--
Thou from primeval nothingness didst call
First chaos, then existence. Lord, on thee
Eternity had its foundation: all
Sprung forth from thee--of light, joy, harmony,
Sole origin: all life, all beauty thine.
Thy word created all, and doth create;
Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine;
Thou art and wert, and shalt be glorious, great;
Life-giving, life-sustaining Potentate,
Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround--
Upheld by thee, by thee inspired with breath."
DERZHAVIN.

[Page 249]
XII.

_THE ULTIMATE FORCE._

The universe is God's name writ large. Thought goes up the shining
suns as golden stairs, and reads the consecutive syllables--all
might, and wisdom, and beauty; and if the heart be fine enough and
pure enough, it also reads everywhere the mystic name of love. Let
us learn to read the hieroglyphics, and then turn to the blazonry
of the infinite page. That is the key-note; the heavens and the earth
declaring the glory of God, and men with souls attuned listening.

To what voices shall we listen first? Stand on the shore of a lake
set like an azure gem among the bosses of green hills. The patter
of rain means an annual fall of four cubic feet of water on every
square foot of it. It weighs two hundred and forty pounds to the
cubic foot, one hundred million tons on the surface of a little
sheet of water twenty miles long by three wide. Now, all that weight
of falling rain had to be lifted, a work compared to which taking