the direct result of the constitution of our understanding. The universe
is the creation of God. What is the design of the creation? I answer:
the design of the creation is the happiness of spirits. Nature is made
for the spiritual beings to which it offers the condition of their life
and development; spiritual beings are made for felicity. The moving
spring of infinite power is goodness: this is my thesis. If I succeed in
establishing it, it will follow that we shall in imagination see issuing
from the supreme unity of the Infinite Being three rays: the power which
creates the being of things; the intelligence which orders them; and the
love which conducts them to their destination. It will also follow that
I shall have justified the title under which these Lectures were
announced: Power and wisdom are attributes of the Creator; the Father
reveals Himself in goodness.

What shall be our method? Can we enter into the counsels of God? By what
means? To place our understanding in the midst of the Divine
consciousness, there to behold the spring of the determinations of the
Infinite Being, were an attempt so far exceeding our capacity, that it
is impossible to point out any means whatever by which it could be made.
This would be to conceive of God in His eternal essence, independently
of His relation to the universe, to nature, and to our reason. I do not
say merely that the attempt would be fruitless; I say that we have no
means of attempting this metaphysical adventure. But might we not, in
looking at the work of God, discern in it the evidence of its design?
This is a process which we often follow in regard to our
fellow-creatures. Do we wish to know the object which a man has in view
in his labor? He may himself disclose that object to us directly in
words, or we may endeavor to discover it. We watch him at work, and by
observing the way in which he proceeds we sometimes come to know what
his thoughts are, because we find ourselves in presence of the work of a