marvellous combinations of coloured stars, all those remote nebulous
clusters,--to look upon them in their perfect order and government,--to
consider their infinite number and astonishing dimensions,--without
acknowledging the fulness of the power of an everlasting God, who
created them, set them in their appointed places, and still controls
them? Is it possible to be an astronomer and an atheist? Is it possible
not to see in their relations to one another and to our own little
planet an Almighty Wisdom as well as an Almighty Love? Could any
"fortuitous concourse of atoms" have strewed the depths of space with
those mighty and beautiful orbs, and defined for each the exact limits
of its movements? Alas! to human folly and human vanity everything is
possible; and men may watch the stars in their courses, and delight in
the beauty of Sun and Moon, and perceive all the wonders of the sunrise
and all the glories of the sunset, without any recognition in their
hearts of Him who made them--of Him in whom we and they alike live and
move and have our being! Yet it is not the less true that only the
devout and thankful heart can adequately and thoroughly sympathize with
the love and wisdom and power which are written in such legible
characters on the face of heaven. Astronomy gives up _all_ its
treasures only to him who enters upon its study in a reverent spirit. It
affords the purest intellectual gratification only when its pursuits are
undertaken with a humble acknowledgment of the littleness of man and the
greatness of God. Half the wonder, half the mystery of creation is lost,
when we fail to recognize the truth that it is governed by eternal laws
springing from an Almighty Intelligence. Take the Creator out of
creation, and it becomes a hopeless puzzle--a dreary problem, incapable
of solution. But we restore to it all its brightness, all its beauty,
all its charm, when we are able to lift up our hearts with the Psalmist
and to say: "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all