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LIBRARY 
 
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 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
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 BL 181 .C66 1857 
 
 ^^^' The connections of the 
 Bo Universe 
 
 The John >1. Krebs Donatio u. 
 
j-vy> w 
 
THE 
 
 CONNECTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSE, 
 
 AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF GOD'S CREATED AND 
 WRITTEN REVELATIONS. 
 
 0HEI8T ALL IN ALL. 
 
 NEW YOKK : 
 THOMAS K STANFORD; 637 BROADWAY. 
 
 BALTIMOEE: JOHN P. DES FORGES. 
 
 1857. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, 
 
 By THOMAS N. STANFOKD, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
TO 
 
 LLOYD W. A^^D MARIA P. WILLL4MS, 
 
 OP 
 
 BALTIMOEE COUNTY, MARYLAND, 
 
 A3 
 
 ^ ^ohn 0f §mixinh, 
 
 FOE A FRIENDSHIP 
 WHICH HAS BEEN 
 
 ONE OF THE MOST AGEEEABLE EPISODES 
 
 OF HIS LIFE, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 August 20th, 1856. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface, ^ 
 
 Chap. I. Creation; or, the Works of God, . . 13 
 
 " II. Creation, as seen by Revelation and Science, 22 
 
 " III. Revelation ; or. The Words of God, . . 39 
 
 " IV. The Incarnation; or, Life of God, . . 61 
 
 " Y. The Gospel a Mystery, 88 
 
 " VI. The Earth and the Heavens, . . . 106 
 
 " VII. The Unity of Matter, 130 
 
 " VIII. The Unity of Mind, 1V3 
 
 " IX. The Unity of Labor, 19V 
 
 " X. On the Employments of Angels, . . 224 
 
 " XI. Employments of Evil Spirits, . . .245 
 
 " XII. The Influence of Evil Spirits on Earth in the 
 
 Nineteenth Century, . . . .267 
 
 " XIII. Summary and Conclusion, .... 296 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This volume undertakes to generalize some floating 
 thoughts of the writer on the Eevelation which 
 God has made to man, and to trace some of the 
 connections of all the mind and matter of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 It aims to show, that God has made three re- 
 markable Eevelations of Himself to the intelligent 
 beings of the universe. 
 
 First, Creation, or the Works of God, by which 
 He made known some of the essential perfections 
 of the Godhead : His incomprehensible power and 
 wisdom. This Eevelation is not to man alone, but 
 to every intelligent mind in the universe. 
 
 Second, TheBiUe, or the Words of God, another 
 act for the further development of Himself; unfold- 
 ing His goodness, holiness, and truth. Tliis Eeve- 
 
8 PKEFACE. 
 
 lation unveils to man Divine characteristics already 
 known to higher orders of beings, because it repre- 
 sents God as always the same, and He must be the 
 same to all. 
 
 Third, The Incarnation^ or the Life of God, 
 which is the fullest Revelation of the Creator, that 
 man, as a mortal, is capable of receiving from Him. 
 It makes known the ims^eahable riches of His ex- 
 ceeding abundant love, justice, and grace in Jesus 
 Oirist. This Revelation is also probably known to 
 the inhabitants of all worlds. 
 
 Each of these Revelations is but partial to man, 
 because his world is but a fraction of the universe ; 
 his Bihle but a fraction of God's words ; and his 
 Incarnation but a faint shadowing forth of the Life 
 of God. 
 
 These incontrovertible facts are an argument 
 and proof, that the three Revelations were not made 
 specially for man, but, that he, as a son of God, 
 and citizen of the universe, has as much revealed to 
 him as is necessary for his present condition. 
 
 As man ranges through these Revelations, one 
 after the other, and traces their connections^ they 
 unfold to him different views of God. And the sum 
 of their analogies and differences picture the Crea- 
 tor to his mind, widen his ideas of Him, and reveal 
 all that he is capable of knowing of Him. 
 
 An impenetrable obscurity hangs over each one 
 
PEEFACE. 9 
 
 of the Eevelations. God is hidden behind the veil 
 of matter ; He is hidden behind the veil of woi^ds ; 
 He is hidden behind the veil of flesh. Each Eeve- 
 lation is progressive. The veil grows thinner. At 
 last the Life of God proceeds into moral action^ and 
 the glory of the Father shines through His Only 
 Begotten Son. 
 
 We see in Him how God would do if He w^ere a 
 man on earth like ourselves. This is the compen- 
 dium of Creation and Eevelation to man, to teach 
 him how to do, and to be, like his Father and God. 
 
 The Bible is the principal source whence infor 
 mation on these subjects is to be obtained. It gives 
 the hint, that all worlds are united by the act of 
 creation, and science corroborates it. It teaches that 
 the universe is the creation of one Infinite Spirit ; 
 that man is part spirit, and the higher orders of be- 
 ings are all spirit, and that both are connected by 
 the relationship of creation by a common Father. 
 And that the planets, suns, and systems are islands 
 in the ocean of space, and some of them theatres of 
 action of intelligent spiritual beings. One universe 
 with many worlds, all created and governed by one 
 God, and inhabited by beings animated with one 
 spirit, some good, some bad, and some on probation. 
 
 The grandeur of the universe can be estimated 
 only by viewing it as a whole ; and the whole is so 
 vast that it cannot be grasped by the human mind. 
 1* 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 All that man can do is to examine the details which 
 come within reach of his observation and intellect. 
 
 Science teaches that all matter is compounded 
 into globes or worlds similar to the earth, connected 
 by a common gravitation, and governed by a com- 
 mon law. Here it stops. It however seizes some 
 of the details of that law, and discovers some of the 
 connections and analogies of the different parts. But 
 it teaches nothing certain of the connections or re- 
 lationship of either the worlds or their inhabitants. 
 All it infers on these points is speculation and con- 
 jecture. It creates the highest j)robabilitj that the 
 distant worlds are parts of a grand whole, and in- 
 habited by beings having functions of life adapted 
 to their several jphysical conditions. 
 
 Where science stops, the Holy Scriptures come 
 to its aid ; confirm its conjectures ; teach that all 
 worlds were created by the one God, to be inhabit- 
 ed ; and throw some light on the relationship and 
 employments of their several occupants ; and also 
 what is to be the destiny of man, of his world, and 
 all the intelligent creatures of God. 
 
 Unbelievers in these Revelations have attempted 
 to show, that the work of creation teaches atheism 
 or pantheism, and that the Bible is a human my- 
 thological narrative of fabulous persons. It is here 
 aimed to prove that, when rightly interpreted, they 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 teach no sucli thing, but are the result of the wisely 
 directed power of one Infinite and Divine Mind. 
 
 The earnest desire of the writer is, that these 
 thoughts may be in strict accordance with the truth 
 and will of God, with the doctrines of Christ's Gos- 
 pel and Church, and may promote His honor and 
 glory among men. 
 
 They ha^e been written at intervals, between 
 other daily employments, and may possibly contain 
 inaccuracies. They are unintentional. Truth is his 
 aim. If they shall be the means of extending the 
 boundaries of knowledge and truth, or of bringing 
 an abler expounder to their defence, one, at least, 
 of his desires, will be attained. 
 
 It is not intended as a book for the learned, but 
 as a popular argument for the masses of the people, 
 against the popular infidelity of the age. 
 
 Baltimore Co., Maryland, Oct. 17, 1856. 
 
COMECTIONS OF THE UNIVERSE. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 creation; oe, the wokks of god. 
 
 " Verily thou art a God who Mclest thyself." 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah. 
 
 Before creation, God existed alone in the un- 
 speakable splendors of the adorable Godhead. The 
 human mind is incapable of imagining that state. 
 Hevelation is silent concerning it. 
 
 Creation began without any announcement. 
 The vast realm of space lay before God's silent 
 power. It was startled by the voice of the Eternal 
 Word sounding over its dark and unfatliomable 
 abysses, calling existences up from nothing. He 
 spake, and sparkling hosts of shining worlds sprang 
 up and glittered over its illimitable field. 
 
14: CEEATION ; 
 
 Jesus Christ is tlie beginning and the end of 
 creation. St. John savs : '' He was in the begin- 
 ning with God, and all things were made by Him." 
 And St. Paul: ''By Him were all things created, 
 that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible 
 and invisihleJ^ It was modelled hy Him and for 
 Him^ was pronounced " good " by Him, and is at 
 last to be gathered into Him. It flowed out from 
 Him, and is now flowing back purified, to be here- 
 after glorified. 
 
 Creation is the foundation of the Son of God's 
 human nature. It was born out of it. God pre- 
 destined Him from all eternity, and He would 
 have had no such nature without creation. All 
 inanimate nature — the planets, suns, and systems, 
 with all their vital and mechanical forces ; and all 
 the intelligent beings capable of understanding 
 these works, were created hy and foi\ " and with 
 a view to Him, and in some way modelled upon 
 Him, and marked with His seal, and are His pro- 
 perty in right of the created nature which He has 
 so admirably wedded to the Divine." 
 
 Man knows nothing of God but what He has 
 revealed. Creation was the beginning of His acts, 
 to make Himself known outside of the Godhead. 
 It was the unfolding of the iincreated raind to other 
 created minds. It was a " supernatural act," and 
 a condescension of the Creator. It was not neces- 
 sary for His own glory or ha23piness. He created 
 for the good of others. Pantheists would make 
 God the soul of the universe, but creation gives its 
 own evidence, that He contrived it so as to display 
 
THE WOEKS OF GOD. 15 
 
 His own power and wisdom, and to make it a bless- 
 ing to others. 
 
 God is every wliere present in His Avorks, but is 
 not by such a presence as human reason would 
 expect. " It is the glory of God to conceal a thing ; " 
 all things. All that can be learned of the Creator 
 from creation alone is so little that He seems hidden 
 to His creatures ; so hidden that no mortal mind 
 can discover any thing certain of His nature, be- 
 yond the fact that He is the Possessor of almighty 
 power and Avisdom. 
 
 From creation alone man could never learn the 
 vast extent of God's immeasurable goodness, justice, 
 and love. He is hidden in creci^tion^ because it is 
 the beginning of His works. All His processes are 
 silent and inscrutable. They seem slow to man, 
 because he views through the measurement of time 
 that which is progressing by the measurement of 
 eternity. He is hidden, because creation cannot 
 develope the whole of the Divine mind. It teaches 
 nothing certainly of His moral nature. He is hid- 
 den, because it is a part of His plan to teach by 
 awakening inquiry. To be found, God has to be 
 looked for by " all manner of deep thought." All 
 increase of knowledge of God increases love of 
 Him. It is so, at least, when we search and make 
 discoveries ourselves. It might not be so if we 
 could acquire the knowledge without effort. This 
 may be one reason wdiy He hides himself. There 
 is nothing in life so delightful as to search after 
 God. "When we reverently discover Him, in \hQ 
 mysteries of His works and words, our souls are 
 
16 CREATION ; 
 
 filled with joy : we find that which our natures had 
 most longed for. 
 
 God's works necessarily seem obscm-e to man, 
 because it is impossible for a child to understand 
 the wisdom of its Father. The difference between 
 His knowledge and man's ignorance is so great, 
 that His simplest acts appear mysterious to Him. 
 Although they seem obscure, they are made in the 
 plainest manner that the Infinite sees best adapted 
 to the finite mind. The clearest revelations of God 
 are through the seemingly deepest hidings of Him- 
 self: for examples in the Incarnation and Cruci- 
 fixion. But, through all the darkness which hangs 
 around God, man discerns enough to fit him for 
 every condition of his life. The mysteries increase 
 his reverence of God, arouse his intellect, and 
 ennoble him as He studies them. 
 
 The innumerable worlds and systems in the 
 heavens, and the vast variety of animal and vege- 
 table life, and mineral forms on earth, attract the 
 attention, awaken curiosity, and lead the mind step 
 by step to the highest conceptions of the Creator's 
 wisdom and power. 
 
 There is no reason why creation may not now 
 be comparatively in its infancy. There is nothing 
 in the Bible to oppose the belief, that it began with 
 the difterent orders of angels and men, and that 
 space is destined to be more gloriously filled w^ith 
 an infinite variety of new beings and worlds be- 
 fore creation is completed. It certainly teaches 
 that there are to be other creations of new heavens 
 and a new earth. All creation, vast as it is, is too 
 
THE WORKS OF GOD. 17 
 
 narrow to give intelligent beings a complete idea of 
 God. He is too infinite to be made known by a 
 single revelation, however marvellous. He has 
 therefore made Three, which show different phases 
 of His Divine nature. 
 
 God always had His universal empire of glory, 
 before creation began. He created to manifest it. 
 He had from everlasting all power and wisdom, all 
 goodness and justice. But they were ivholly hidden 
 in the mysterious recesses of His own Being, until 
 He created. He could exercise neither justice nor 
 mercy, and it may have been so with many of His 
 other attributes, until there were objects to call them 
 into action. Without creation, some of these Di- 
 vine attributes must have been for ever latent, 
 since there would have been no occasion to exercise 
 them. 
 
 Creation is His first Revelation. There He 
 shadows forth His power and wisdom. It is His 
 Kingdom of j^ature. The Bible is His second Rev- 
 elation. That reveals His love and mercy, and 
 makes known His Kingdom of Grace. The Incar- 
 nation is His third Revelation, and this lets down 
 to man a cord of Light and Life from the Kingdom 
 of Glory, where He reigns. The first reveals His 
 Power, the second His Will, and the third His life 
 and participation in His own creation. 
 
 They together show a progressive development 
 of the Divine ligature, and unitedly give a sublime 
 insight into the varied magnificence of His attri- 
 butes. 
 
 The three Revelations bring to view, to the hu- 
 
18 CREATION ; 
 
 man understanding, the three Kingdoms over which 
 God reigns, and to which man is subject. They are 
 the Kingdom of IS'ature, into which he comes by 
 his natural birth ; the Kingdom of Grace, into which 
 he enters by a spiritual baptismal birth ; and the 
 Kingdom of Glory, into the vestibule of which he 
 enters, through the womb of death, to Eternal 
 Life. 
 
 Thus it is seen in the outset, that there is a mar- 
 vellous relationship in these three Kevelations ; tliat 
 man could not know his own destiny, without some 
 knowledge of all of them ; and that they indicate 
 progressive stages of growth from inanimate to ani- 
 mate matter, and thence onward from a natural to 
 an Eternal Life. 
 
 There is another remarkable resemblance be- 
 tween these Revelations. They are all mysterious. 
 Reason perceives that God is hidden in them ; Rev- 
 elation declares that it is so ; and viewed in the light 
 of both reason and revelation He is every where the 
 same. '* All creation lies before Him as a vast remon , 
 QYQYj point of which is a hiding-place for Him who 
 made it." But each Revelation connects with and 
 developes the other ; and yet the last and highest 
 stage maintains the original character of mystery. 
 That is, God, though constantly coming into view, 
 is hidden to the last., in the Incarnation, behind the 
 veil of flesh. Creation, in its last stage known to 
 man, ends in the Incarnation, where it is lost in 
 God. 
 
 The human mind discovers no boundaries to 
 God's works. Man, with his j)resent capacity, can- 
 
THE WOEKS OF GOD. 19 
 
 not in his whole life learn enough to compare the 
 three Divine Revelations, or to trace their connec- 
 tions. This capacity and measure of knowledge is 
 reserved to be communicated, when the mortal shall 
 have put on immortality ; when he shall have en- 
 tered the Kingdom of Glory, which will embrace 
 the universe, without one world not in subjection 
 to the Creator. 
 
 The greatest earthly fertilizer of man's intellect 
 is the study of whatever may be known of these 
 mysteries. It throws floods of light on the nature 
 of God and man, and the universe : on time and 
 eternity, sin and redemption ; on life, and death, and 
 immortality. Meditation on these subjects illu- 
 mines their obscurities, and opens up their hidden 
 meanings. It carries us backward to the never be- 
 ginning, and forward to the never ending ages of 
 eternity. It shows that all God's works flow from 
 the immeasurable fulness of His love, pouring itself 
 out as a source of happiness to others. He must 
 have known some evil would attend the mechanism 
 of His vast works ; " yet He created." Because He 
 had foreseen and provided beforehand a remedy 
 for the evil, and because the evil would be infinite- 
 ly small in comparison with the good. 
 
 Revelation says, that God created all things by 
 and for His Son : that all creation, with its domin- 
 ions and principalities, is at last to be made the 
 dwelling-place of '^ righteousness," and to be con- 
 solidated, and Christ is to be subject to Him who 
 put all things under Him. Then the designs of God 
 
20 CEEATION ; 
 
 in creating will have been accomplislied, and " God 
 will he all in allP 
 
 What that means has not been revealed ; and of 
 it man can only humbly conjecture. It doubtless 
 refers to our Lord's Mediatorial Kingdom, which is 
 built uj) on and out of creation^ to which man be- 
 longs, and which is to be turned over, when com- 
 pleted, to the Kingdom of Glory of the Father 
 Everlasting, which existed before creation. 
 
 If man cannot understand what that kingdom is, 
 he can adore and rest happily in the prospect ; 
 since, when a Father of perfect wisdom, holiness, 
 and justice is on the throne of the universe, and 
 man belongs to that empire, he must be satisfied. 
 He can imagine no higher government, and con- 
 ceive of no higher happiness and dignity, than to be 
 its everlasting subject. And as it is revealed that 
 he is to have a part in its administration, there is 
 nothing beyond to which a holy ambition can 
 aspire. 
 
 As creation is one of the means, by which God 
 communicates His goodness and knowledge to man, 
 so also is it, probably, a channel by which He pours 
 them through all worlds. And as God's glory has 
 been increased, and man's happiness secured by 
 this act on earth, so is it probable that the same re- 
 sults have been produced among the intelligent 
 beings of all worlds. 
 
 In his present state, man is not only born into, 
 hut out of the Kingdom of Nature. He is created 
 from the dust, and he grows up (by the use of its 
 vegetables, grains, and fruits,) to the full stature of 
 
THE WOKKS OF GOD. 21 
 
 a citizen of this kingdom. This is the first stage of 
 his development and progress. And if this were to 
 be his end, to live only this life on earth, there 
 would have been no necessity for a fm-ther Eeve- 
 lation. 
 
22 CREATION, AS SEEN 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 CREATION, AS SEEN BY REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 
 
 " He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him." 
 
 The Preacher Job. 
 
 God has given man no definite acconnt of the 
 creation of His own world. He simply relates, that 
 " In the beginning God created the heavens and 
 the earth." 
 
 This is an independent sentence of Divine reve- 
 lation, and has no immediate connection with what 
 follows. It is a succinct acconnt of the whole pri- 
 meval work of creation, and relates to periods long 
 prior to all that man calls time. It stands like the 
 order of things it describes, independent and alone. 
 What follows is an expansion of this. The terms 
 heaven and earth designate the common substance, 
 and common matter, of the elements of all created 
 things. 
 
 The heavens, being the noblest worlds, are first 
 mentioned in the order of revelation, as thej doubt- 
 less were in the order of creation. Man knows not 
 what the term means. Eeference is frequently 
 
BY EEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 23 
 
 made to tliem in the Bible, but in snob a way that 
 it is impossible to determine their cbaracter. A 
 distinction is made between the two kinds of crea- 
 tion, but its nature is bidden from man. It war- 
 rants tbe belief in two kinds of worlds. Man knows 
 of two kinds of beings, tbe material wbo live on 
 eartb, and tbe spiritual wbo live elsewbere. Tbese 
 worlds may differ or exist under somewhat similar 
 distinctions. 
 
 The form of the words "beginning" and 
 " heavens " has a meaning. They were designed 
 to teach. The first refers to periods of time beyond 
 all human records, or the remotest described by the 
 most enthusiastic geologist ; and the second to the 
 heavenly worlds, in contradistinction to the material 
 like the earth, and the system with which it is con- 
 nected, which is man's abode, to whom the revela- 
 tion is s^^ecially made. 
 
 St. Augustine speaks of the periods called days,* 
 in the English version of the Bible, which relate to 
 23reparing the earth for man, and which refer to 
 time and events long after the original creation of 
 matter, as " six different jpr ogresses. ^^ And the re- 
 capitulation of the subsequent work of creation 
 (Gen. ii. 4) calls them "The Generations of the 
 heavens and the earth when they were created, in 
 the day that the Lord God made the heavens and 
 the earth." This seems to show that the word ren- 
 dered day is a period in the calendar of God and 
 not of man. Generations denote successive off- 
 springs, or ages following one another. 
 
 * City of God, Book 20. 
 
24 CEEATION, AS SEEN 
 
 The Bible couples the heavens and the earth 
 together in its account of creation ; but it implies, 
 by the phraseology and grammatical construction, 
 that there were a plurality of successive progressions. 
 What they were we know not. There is no light 
 from either revelation intense enough to penetrate 
 the dark abyss. 
 
 Human language is an imperfect medium to ex- 
 press Divine mysteries. When man speaks of crea- 
 tion he associates with it the idea of materiality, 
 that which is sensible to human feeling ; yet the 
 most powerful natural agents are imponderable and 
 imperceptible to the senses. 
 
 Creation is a manifestation of God ; the theatre 
 on which He exercised His spiritual power. It is 
 the material out of which He created, and is creating 
 immortal beings, and on which He is training and 
 educating them. It is not surprising that man in 
 his present state, partaking so largely of matter, 
 should not be able to understand all its mysteries. 
 If, to any mind, creation seems imperfect, it is not 
 because it is so, but because man himself is imper- 
 fect, a fallen being, and his original capability to 
 comprehend it has been impaired. 
 
 The natural revelation perfectly agrees with all 
 the comprehensible intimations of the written. Out 
 of inanimate matter God made man. He was an 
 original work, a perfect being, the wisest and noblest, 
 except the Son of God and man, who ever lived. 
 He was created to be lord of the earth. And in 
 him was accomplished, as will be by and by shown, 
 one of the progressive changes through which mat- 
 
BY REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 25 
 
 ter lias gone on, its mysterions progress to perfection 
 and immortality. 
 
 In the very beginning, the love, and power, and 
 wisdom of God overflowed, and the resnlt was crea- 
 tion. For a moment does not this seem to lift the veil, 
 and give ns a glimpse into the depths of the adora- 
 ble life of God ? Blessed be His most holy and 
 dread Xame, and blessed be His condescension in 
 the mystery of creation ! We need say nothing of 
 the surpassing beauty, or of the varied magnificence 
 of creation. We need not even try to fathom that 
 other incomparable mystery, that God created out 
 of nothing, matter out of nothing^ " and by a single 
 effort of His own will swung huge solar systems up 
 in the loose void of homeless space ; '■ s^pirit out of 
 nothing^ " and has ever since been working crea- 
 ted matter into eternal mind, deathless souls out 
 of nothing every minute of the day and night, and 
 every one of these souls by itself is more wonderful 
 and important than the whole of the material world. 
 We need do nothing more than walk on the brink 
 of creation, and look over into the depths of that 
 foregoing eternity, when the Three in One alone 
 was, ever Blessed and Glorious, and muse on the 
 mere fact of the interruption of that eternity by cre- 
 ation, and we shall see how excellent and Divine a 
 mystery it is, so full of God^ so radiant with His 
 innumerable perfections, and all lying in the golden 
 light of the Sun of Justice, who was not yet to rise 
 for thousands of long expectant years. That mystery 
 is OUT mother^ for out of it are we come ourselves^ 
 nay, the creation of our own souls but a few years 
 ago was a portion of its perpetual continuity." 
 
26 CREATION, 
 
 The single act of the creation of the earth, shows 
 the power and wisdom of the Creator as undeniably 
 as our whole solar system. And if man had been 
 created with powers of vision incapable of seeing 
 beyond the horizon of his own world, there is enough 
 here to convince liim, that there is an Almighty and 
 all Bountiful God ; enough to inspire him with love 
 and adoration. But, that he has larger capabilities, 
 not only to see, but also to learn much of other 
 worlds, is a strong indication of the regard of his 
 Creator. 
 
 Science teaches that the sun and planets are vast 
 material bodies, similar to the earth, connected by 
 a common law of gravitation, and subject to a com- 
 mon law of rotation on their axes. But the great 
 distance of the nearest satellite, our own moon, and 
 the insurmountable barrier of the intervening space, 
 which no human ingenuity can ever overcome, pre- 
 vents us from learning much from science alone. 
 
 The mind struggles to find some clue in the dis- 
 tant worlds to the origin of matter. Whence it 
 came? Whether inhabited? And if so, what the 
 nature of the inhabitants ? And what its and their 
 future destiny ? But neither observation nor expe- 
 rience throw any satisfactory light on these myste- 
 ries. 
 
 Glasses have been invented, which help the eye 
 to travel millions of miles into the outworks of God, 
 millions of miles beyond the sun, and to unveil new 
 worlds in the clusters of light, which, on the out- 
 skirts of creation, hide nests of starry worlds from 
 unassisted human vision. Yet, these bring back no 
 
BY REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 27 
 
 clue to the origin of tlie matter of tlie universe, much 
 less as to its inhabitants. 
 
 Ideas of the size, density, inclination of their 
 poles, the periods of their revolution, and the atmos- 
 pheres of other worlds have been obtained ; but of 
 their inhabitants not a satisfactory conjecture. The 
 profoundest astronomer is compelled to acknowledge 
 with the pious Psalmist : " Such knowledge is too 
 wonderful for me ; it is high, I cannot attain unto 
 it." All that man can learn of these mysteries is to 
 be gleaned from the Bible. 
 
 Man has always known that the earth belonged 
 to a great solar system of worlds ; but modern dis- 
 coveries prove that the system itself is not an inde- 
 pendent or fixed one, but a part of the universe. 
 As our planetary system moves round the sun, so is 
 the sun and all its worlds moving through space with 
 a determined direction and velocity. 
 
 Sir. D* Brewster says, "This great cosmical 
 truth, the greatest in astronomy, furnishes a new 
 argument for the plurality of worlds ; " it may be 
 added, that it is a vastly more powerful one for the 
 immensity of creation, and the unity of matter. 
 
 That the sun is in motion is proven by one of 
 the ways by wdiich the earth's motion round the sun 
 is proven. 
 
 The observer notices night by night, that the 
 earth seems to be approaching some stars and reced- 
 ing from others. This difference constantly increases 
 until it returns to the point at which the observa- 
 tion began. This com^^letes her yearly cycle or 
 orbit around the sun. And it is an inference, from 
 
28 CREATION, AS SEEN 
 
 tlie so-called " proper motion " of tlie fixed stars, 
 that the sun, by a similar law, is advancing towards 
 a point in the constellation Hercules.^ 
 
 '* To that now dark and mysterious centre," says 
 Sir. D. Brewster, " from which no ray however feeble 
 shines, w^e may in another age, i^oint our telescopes, 
 detecting, perchance, the great luminary which con- 
 trols our system, and bend its jDath into the vast 
 orbit, which man, in the whole cycle of his race {Tie 
 means his mortal career) may never be allowed to 
 round. If the buried relics of primeval life have 
 taught us how brief has been our tenure of this ter- 
 restrial paradise, compared with its occupancy by 
 the brutes that perish, the grand sidereal truth 
 which we have been expounding impresses upon us 
 the no less humbling lesson, that from the birth of 
 man to the extinction (mortal) of his race, the sys- 
 tem to which he belongs will have described but an 
 infinitesimal arc in that grand cosmical orbit in which 
 it is destined to revolve. If reason ever falters be- 
 neath the weight of its own conceptions, it is under 
 this overwhelming idea of time and space." 
 
 Some idea of the extent of creation may be in- 
 ferred from the fact, that " the glorious sun, the cen- 
 tre and soul of our system, is nearly nine hundred 
 thousand miles in diameter, above one hundred 
 times the diameter of our globe, and five hundred 
 times the bulk of all the planets put together." 
 
 * Since writing the above, Maedler, who is one of the greatest 
 astronomers that ever lived, and has given the subject of the central sun 
 of the universe special attention, has come to the conclusion, that 
 "Alcyone, principal star in the group known as Pleiades," is the 
 grand point around which the whole starry universe is revolving. 
 
BY REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 29 
 
 And if it were required to pass the sun between tlie 
 moon and the earth, they woukl have to be separa- 
 ted to about four times their present distance, to 
 make room for it. 
 
 That majestic orb turns on its axis like the earth, 
 but takes over twenty-five days to make one such 
 revohition as the earth makes in a less number of 
 hours. And, " it throws off its light with a velocity 
 of one hundred and ninety two thousand miles in a 
 second," sending billions of billions of rays into 
 space, illumining, refreshing, and adorning many 
 worlds besides our own. 
 
 To think of such a body in motion, is overwhelm- 
 ing. But when to this is added, that it is travelling 
 round a centre of its own, so distant as to be undis- 
 cernible by the most powerful glasses, the mind gets 
 a larger idea of the immeasurable grandeur of the 
 universe. 
 
 "When we further reflect, that the most distant 
 known planet in the solar system is " nearly three 
 thousand millions of miles from the sun," and is over 
 one hundred and sixty-five calendar years in going 
 round it, while travelling with incredible speed, a 
 larger view of the subject is obtained. 
 
 But when to these the fact is added, that the sun 
 itself, with its majestic train of worlds, is yearly 
 advancing more than one hundred and fifty-four 
 millions of miles towards a distant point in space ; 
 and that other solar systems stretch away far beyond 
 the circumference the sun is describing in its yet 
 unknown orbit; and that all these are probably 
 travelling round some central point in the universe, 
 
30 CREATION, AS SEEN 
 
 probably the tbrone of the Eternal Creator, the mind 
 is paralyzed in its effort to grasp sncli a whole. 
 
 Man is incapable of forming an idea of space, in 
 which God has set in motion His magnificent do- 
 main of created worlds, which are accomplishing 
 His almost unknown purposes with the precision of 
 a perfectly Divine mechanism. 
 
 It is estimated that the nearest fixed stars are 
 four hundred thousand times further from the earth 
 than it is from the sun. A cannon ball, travelling 
 with the velocity it has when shot from a gun in the 
 earth's atmosphere, would take about nine millio7is 
 of years to reach them. Light, which moves twelve 
 millions of miles a minute, is six years in coming to 
 the earth from them. With such magnitudes the 
 human mind has nothing to institute comparisons. 
 
 Ancient history and traditions of mankind indi- 
 cate that the opinion has always been current, that 
 the earth is a connected part of a common universe. 
 This truth, however, has never been brought out 
 with its present clearness until modern times. In- 
 deed, what other truth has ? It has, like all truth, 
 human and Divine, had its periods of growth and 
 rest, and then of growth again like the oak and long- 
 lived trees ; like all Gods works, for truth is a Rev- 
 elation from Him ; first the blade, then the ear, and 
 after that the full corn. It is the law of God in bc^h 
 the natural and spiritual worlds : in all His words 
 and all His works. 
 
 Many great cosmical truths, known to the world 
 before Greece or Rome were founded, have come to 
 be fully understood, in post-diluvial ages, only since 
 the revival of learning. 
 
BY KEVELATION AND SCIENCE. 31 
 
 The Bible teaches, that the great-grandsons of 
 Adam made harps and organs, and were skilful 
 workers of iron and brass. An age in which music 
 is cultivated, and iron and brass used, indicates a 
 high civilization. This was within one hundred and 
 twenty-five years after Adam's creation. The knowl- 
 edge, therefore, must have been communicated 
 directly by God to Adam, and by him to his chil- 
 dren and grandchildren. 
 
 Man's original condition, therefore, was one of 
 high civilization and knowledge.* Towards the 
 close of the Adamic dispensation, man, having re- 
 lapsed from God, grew brutal and ignorant. Tlie 
 deluge was sent as a punishment, because "man 
 had corrupted his ways." Noah and his family 
 escaped the general declension, w^ere saved fi-om that 
 terrible catastrophe, and carried across the flood the 
 fragments of knowledge which survived, and were 
 by him preserved from destruction. This is evident, 
 because the emj^ires of Assyria and Babylon, of 
 Egypt and China, founded by his grandsons, each 
 had a knowledge of astronomy and the true system 
 of the universe. 
 
 It is certain the stars were classed into constella- 
 tions twelve hundred years before our Lord's advent, 
 and four hundred before the fabulous founders of 
 Eome are said to have been born. And the names 
 given them before the times of Job, Abram, and 
 
 * Some fragments of that higher knowledge were preserved by tra- 
 dition, or revived by our Lord, in the apostolic age. One example is, 
 the fall of the angels, their expulsion from heaven, and reservation to 
 a final judgment and hell. This docti-ine is not to be found in the 
 Old Testament. 
 
32 CKEATION, AS 8EEN 
 
 Homer, are the same which some of them noAv have. 
 Six hmidred years before Christ, the Chinese liad 
 celestial charts with more than a thousand stars cor- 
 rectly inserted, and, one hundred yeai-s later, Pytha- 
 goras taught the Greeks the true theory of our solar 
 system. 
 
 That system was probably revealed by God to 
 Adam. God gave the names to land and water ;'^ 
 and also to the stars ;t and the Ash, Cesil, and Cimah 
 of Job,:}: translated by the Septuagint two hundred 
 and seventy-seven years before Christ, Arcturus, 
 Orion, and Pleiades, may be the names given them 
 by their Creator. 
 
 It seems impossible for man to have discovered 
 the system at first, or even to have revived it after 
 it was lost, toithout some clue to it. Such a clue has 
 always existed, at iirst, in sculpture and monuments, 
 which, when knowledge declined and nations 
 perished, outlived them. 
 
 The system has been more than once lost for a 
 time. But, when learning revived, and new stages 
 of progress were made, the stony records delivered 
 up their secret, and the true theory lived again. 
 Josephus,§ wdio wrote eighteen hundred years ago, 
 fully confirms this opinion, saying, that the sons of 
 Adam had a knoivledge of " the heavenly bodies and 
 their order^^ and recorded it " on stones^^ wdiich 
 were extant in his time. In later ages the manu- 
 scripts of the learned served the same purj)ose as 
 the preceding monuments. Such was the case at the 
 
 * Geu. i. 10. t Isa. xl. 26. % Job xxxviii. 31, 32. 
 
 § Aiitiq. lib. 1, cap. 1, sec. 3. 
 
BY REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 33 
 
 Kevival of Letters in the fourteenth century, when 
 Cardinal Cusa discovered and promulgated the doc- 
 trines which Aristarchus had received from Pythag- 
 oras, and which Copernicus afterwards digested into 
 the system which bears his name. 
 
 The Chinese charts, the monuments of Egypt, 
 and the recently dug up records of ancient Assyria, 
 prove that the world has always had something be- 
 sides tradition, to preserve the true theory of the 
 great cosmical system of the universe. And they 
 fully warrant the belief, that the original condition 
 of man was one of enlightenment, and that the true 
 theory of the universe was directly given by God 
 to Adam ; and is one of the few items of primeval 
 revelation, which has escaped all the catastrophes 
 through which the race has passed, on its marvel- 
 lous pilgrimage to eternity. 
 
 Creation was designed by Cod to make known 
 His attributes to all intelligent beings. Wherever 
 there is mind the same lesson is learnt from it, that 
 is learned by man. It is God's great Silent Teacher, 
 as Jesus is His great Audible Teacher ; both con- 
 vey the same lesson and shadow forth God and His 
 kingdom of glory. 
 
 St. Paul says, " The invisiUe things of God 
 from the creatioyi of the world are clearly seen, 
 heing understood hj the things which are madeP 
 The animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms of 
 earth are reflections upon matter of the glorious, 
 and unspeakable divisions of God's everlasting 
 kingdom of glory, and a foreshadowing to man of 
 the realities of the life to come. The sun, moon, 
 2* 
 
34: 
 
 and stars, and all the precious things of the earth, 
 are employed in revelation as figures to represent 
 the glories of man's future abode. And even the 
 sun, its glorious centre, and the source of all its 
 life and beauty, it is said will not be needed there. 
 Creation connects man with that kingdom, and time 
 is rapidly conducting him to it. 
 
 In all this shadowing forth of God and his king- 
 dom of glory, there is a remarkable adaptation of 
 the knowledge to man's nature and capacity. It is 
 so revealed as to inspire the desire to hnoio more * 
 and also to give a due by w^hich to understand His 
 other revelations. God is hidden in creation, and 
 we can find in it no explanation of its mysteries. 
 This is a lesson to prepare us for the study of His 
 Word and Incarnation. An infinitely w4se God 
 must be consistent in all His doings. Thus crea- 
 tion trains us Jiow to learn of God. 
 
 Creation is represented in the Bible as having a 
 past, present, and future history. Its past, so far as 
 man is specially interested, he knows. Its present, 
 he is in some degree influencing. Its future, re- 
 lating to himself and other beings and worlds, is 
 foretold in the New Testament. And a proper un- 
 derstanding of the works of God can be obtained 
 only by the study of His Word, which is their in- 
 terpreter. 
 
 There is an intimate connection between God's 
 three kingdoms of Nature, Grace, and Glory. The 
 Incarnation is the foundation of the kingdom of 
 grace, and the connecting link between the two 
 others. What this mysterious relationship between 
 
BY REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 35 
 
 these grand divisions of the universe is, time and 
 fulfilling prophecy are fast revealing. They are 
 quickening to full development the knowledge of 
 the (as yet) " unsearchable riches of Christ," which 
 is " to make all^ Trdvre^, see " (not all raen^ as in 
 the English version of the Scriptures, but all intel- 
 ligent heings of the whole creation) " the manifold 
 wisdom of GodP This is evidently the true inter- 
 pretation, because the Apostle immediately adds, 
 " to the intent^ that now unto Princijyalities and 
 Powers in heavenly worlds^ iv rot? eirovpavioL';^ might 
 be hnown hy the Church^'' (which was developed by 
 the Incarnation, and is the last and highest residt of 
 creation^ as seen by the human mind, from the 
 standing point of earth,) " the manifold wisdom of 
 God:' 
 
 Revelation teaches that all creation, the heavens 
 and the earth, have been defiled by sin, and that 
 both are to be burned wdth fire. When they have 
 accomplished God's purposes, they will be knocked 
 away like a worthless scafi'olding. 
 
 Before sin entered creation all was good, all was 
 in harmony with God. But now the whole creation 
 " groans" under the curse of sin. The whole king- 
 dom of nature has felt the penalty of the violation 
 of the Creator's laws by its inhabitants. The earth 
 was cursed for man's sin ; and the heavenly worlds, 
 possibly, are to suffer the same penalty for the 
 an^rels' sin. The future of creation will be Re- 
 demption from the curse. Revelation speaks of a 
 new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth 
 righteousness, when those which now are have 
 
36 CREATION, AS SEEN 
 
 passed away. And they are mysteriously connected 
 with the present Christian Dispensation ; and to be 
 the abode of those who in this world received the 
 benefits of Christ's Incarnation. That benefit was 
 to change them from mortal to immortal beings : 
 from a state of nature to a state of grace, which 
 fits for the kingdom of glory, " over which God 
 reigned before creation began," and which He cre- 
 ated immortal beings to enlarge. 
 
 That state will be one of the full Icnowledge of 
 God^ and of all His works : where Truth will be 
 wiveiled, and God himself, who is \t^ fountain, will 
 be no longer hidden. Creation having been com- 
 pleted by redemption, there will be no more " im- 
 perfection, and sin will no more adhere to ns, and 
 there, after the experience of millions of ages 
 spent in the enjoyment of heavenly happiness, 
 we shall be still advancing in heavenly glory and 
 felicity, and attaining to a higher measure of the 
 increasing strength, and ever growing splendor of 
 the sons of God.*' 
 
 The whole mechanism of creation, so far as man 
 can see and judge, appears to be contrived so as to 
 picture to him a higher and better state. His own 
 world seems to him opaque ; others are luminous. 
 It is diminutive in size ; others are immense in 
 comparison. It is covered with deserts and oceans, 
 with thorns and briers, and subject to earthquakes 
 and storms, and sickness and death, which show its 
 imperfection, while alt God's undisturbed works are 
 perfect. 
 
 And every part of creation, to the very dust 
 
BY REVELATION AND SCIENCE. 37 
 
 and watei", the oil and wine of the earth, has a 
 mysterious relation to the Xew Creation, which was 
 to be created out of the Incarnation of its Lord. 
 All eartlily things are symbols, and shadows, and 
 sacraments, of " heavenly realities ; and between 
 the two there is a continuous harmony and corres- 
 pondence." God placed Adam lord over all earthly 
 things. Its living creatures were all in subjection 
 to him, and this is a type of the absolute dominion 
 which he is to have with Christ, his " elder Brother," 
 in the !NeAv Creation wdiich is to follow the present 
 one. 
 
 In creation God and the future are dimly seen. 
 Matter is a thick veil to hide Him from man. But 
 He is every where in it. There is no particle 
 of it that has not felt His power and wisdom ; not 
 one but manifests them. Man's education begins 
 w4th the study of the works of creation, and there 
 he learns his first lessons of God. And no one can 
 study this theme, as connected with theology, with- 
 out having his mind " lifted far above all earthly 
 things, and his heart burning within him w^ith in- 
 creased desires of his heavenly country." 
 
 If it be said that man learns his first lesson from 
 his mother's eyes and lips, it is answered that God 
 created and contrived them to begin the training of 
 the young soul to love. This is the lesson of all 
 creation and of Revelation, which declares that 
 " God is love," and of the Incarnation, which shoivs 
 His love unto death for man. 
 
 The next lesson is from mother earth and the 
 starry sky, which attract the youthful mind, and 
 
38 CKEA.TION, AS SEEN BY REVELATION, ETO. 
 
 awaken its curiosity to know whence they came ? 
 And having learned this, to ask, "Who made 
 God ? " Creation cannot answer the question. 
 
 The last great lesson man learns from creation is 
 the humbling one, that he w^as created out of the 
 ground and is destined to return to it ; that he can- 
 not live but by feeding on its products, and has 
 notliing but what is given him by his Creator. 
 Thus anotlier Revelation was necessary to teach 
 who the Creator is. 
 
 He learns that from the next Revelation, and 
 also learns that man, to the degradation of his 
 nothingness, " has added the guilt of rebellion ; " 
 that this sundered the law which made his physical 
 connection with the earth permanent, caused the 
 death of his body, and its translation to another 
 w^orld. 
 
 A moral change, too, took place in his soul. But 
 God provided a way also to restore that from its 
 ruin, and to reunite it with the body in a future life 
 and world. Hence another Revelation w^as also 
 necessary to teach man what he had to do^ to be 
 restored to the Divine favor, and how to prepare for 
 his future condition. And these things are exactly 
 what God's Word, or the next Revelation proposes 
 to do. 
 
 Tlie whole mechanism of creation is so contrived 
 as to call into exercise and harmoniously develope 
 all the faculties of the human soul ; and it is thus 
 prepared to investigate the subtler spiritual truths 
 revealed in God's words. 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE WORDS OF GOD. 
 
 For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is established in Heaven." 
 
 The Psalnt/ist. 
 
 The Revelation of God's Word begins with the pre- 
 fiice of Creation. Moses and John both have this 
 peculiarity, introducing the Word of God by say- 
 ing that He had before, " In the beginning created " 
 all things. God Himself thus connects the two 
 Revelations together, and warrants us to look for 
 further connections and harmonies. 
 
 The works of God show that He is wise and 
 good. It is therefore reasonable to suppose, that He 
 would explain to His creatures, so much of the mys- 
 tery of creation, as is necessary for their happiness, 
 and especially that He would make known their 
 duty. 
 
 This is j)recisely what the Bible does. It is 
 another stage of the manifestation of the Creator, a 
 progressive act of unveiling Himself. In creation 
 
do 
 
 man sees God's outward acts ; in written revelation 
 he hears His inward thoughts^ and learns His will. 
 The ivords explain the tvorJcs, show the coyinectlon 
 of man with hotit God and creation, and make 
 known his condition and duty, and the destiny of 
 himself and his world. 
 
 Revelation teaches that man was created in a 
 state of grace, and fell from it. It shows that God 
 permitted him to rnn one great stage of progress, 
 guided only by the light of nature and tradition, 
 and that he corrupted himself. That He next tried 
 him under the ministry of angels and seers, who de- 
 livered the spolten words of the Son of God, the 
 Creator of man and the earth, and taught him how 
 to interpret the natural revelation and return to 
 God. And this with no better results. That He 
 next established His kingdom of the theocracy, and 
 it soon failed. And lastly, that by means of the In 
 carnation, man was able to rise from his fallen state 
 into one of grace, whence he could ascend to one 
 of glory, higher and better than the original one 
 from which he fell. There was salvation, however, 
 under each dispensation, through faith in a Saviour 
 to cows. 
 
 These words of God are the most extraordinary 
 monument on earth. They reach back to all the 
 past, and forward to all the future history of crea- 
 tion, so far as it relates to man. And they are in 
 perfect harmony with the works of God. 
 
 It is the same Being sjpeaMng there, who created 
 the universe. The sun, moon, and stars ; the wind, 
 water, and dry land ; the animals, plants, and min- 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 41 
 
 erals ; the fruits, flowers, and products of the earth 
 are all used in elucidating or explaining the words. 
 
 By the comparisons and analogies drawn from 
 creation, the mind is carried to the highest concep- 
 tions of the Creator. A supernatural utterance is 
 given them b j the words ; and they convey heaven- 
 ly truth to the mind so forcibly, that it is convinced 
 by this fact alone, that the God of Creation is speak- 
 ing of His own works. 
 
 The Bible is the only book in the world which 
 claims to utter its Creator'' s own words^ resting its 
 authority on this fact, saying, " Thus saith the Lord 
 
 thy Creator." "I have made the earth and 
 
 created man upon it," therefore, "Hear 
 
 ye children of men." It has a grandeur, and a pe- 
 culiar tone and style, which belong to no writings 
 of man. It differs from all other compositions in 
 the fact, that its words have often two or three 
 meanings to a single sentence, running parallel with 
 one another, referring to the past, present, or future, 
 and each one strictly true. And it makes known 
 attributes of God which it was impossible to mani- 
 fest by creation alone. 
 
 Another proof that the God of Creation is the 
 author of Revelation, is, that there is the same char- 
 acteristic of hiddenness in the words, that is every 
 where discernihle in the worl<^s. God hid Himself 
 in creation to awaken inquiry, and He hides Him- 
 self in Revelation to answer the inquiry. It is an 
 example of the paradoxes which constantly occur 
 in both words and works. 
 
 The Eevelation begins without a personal allu- 
 
42 
 
 sion. In the first law of Paradise God hid Himself 
 behind the proliibition to eat the fniit of a single 
 tree. After the fall, He hid Himself from Adam at 
 first in the bowers of Eden, and then for ever with- 
 drew His Personal Presence. Again He hid Him- 
 self in the first prophetical promise to Eve, that her 
 seed should bruise her tempter's head. He hid 
 Himself behind the patriarchal ofi'erings of blood 
 and sacrifice. He hid Himself from all the world 
 but JSToah and his family, when He commanded the 
 ark to be built. He hid Himself in the Tabernacle 
 in the wilderness ; in the Shechinah in the Temple, 
 and in the words of the prophets in the Synagogues. 
 
 All these hidings have their correspondents in 
 the natural world. In time the meaning of those 
 hidings became apparent. The silent word of God 
 formed, in the laboratory of nature, the gold, and 
 iron, and coal, the minerals and precious stones, 
 which, after being hidden for millions of ages, are 
 now forwarding the mighty intellectual impulse of 
 the present generations of men. In both cases all 
 had reference to the liappiness and progress of man. 
 Even the great mystery of creation has its counter- 
 part in the Word, in the unspeakable mystery of 
 the adorable Trinity. There is a marvellous con- 
 currence in all these analogies. 
 
 But God has hidden Himself in this AYord in 
 another extraordinary way by seeming to sandion 
 violations of His own laivs. He commanded Abra- 
 ham to sacrifice his son ; and gave the Hebrews an 
 apparent unjust possession of the land of Canaan. 
 Kebekah and Jacob see^n to go unreproved for de- 
 
THE WOKDS OF GOD. 43 
 
 ceiving Isaac, and dejDriving Esau of his blrtli- 
 riglit ; the Hebrews for spoiling the Egyptians of 
 their jewels ; and Kachel for stealing her father's 
 idols ; and such like examples. All this, at a super- 
 ficial glance, looTcs like sanctioning dishonesty. But 
 they are only veils wdiich God has spread over His 
 Word to conceal Himself from the unheUemiig. 
 Such persons think God is like themselves, " a man, 
 that He should lie." But He says, " My thoughts 
 are not as your thoughts, nor My ways as your 
 ways." 
 
 God did not intend that Abraham should kill his 
 son ; it w^as an act proposed to try his faith. The 
 other acts were done not by God's command, but 
 in express violation of His laws. They are men- 
 tioned not as being approved by God, but as simple 
 facts of history. If those who did the wicked deeds 
 had remembered God's laws and dealings with their 
 forefathers, they would have perceived their crimi- 
 nality, and that they were entirely unsanctioned hy 
 Him. They were afterwards punished for them. 
 
 God is not to be judged but by His own acts and 
 laws. When it can be shown that a single one of 
 either sanction dishonesty or unholiness, then He 
 may, I speak it with reverence, be condemned. 
 These human failings are recorded to shoio the na- 
 ture of 7nan, and that oione hut God is perfect. 
 
 The Bible is the history of man written by God. 
 And the fact that his failings are so frankly recorded 
 is an evidence that its Author h perfect truth, and 
 that the men and women there described are not 
 mythical perso7is,h\it true, natural men and women, 
 
44 
 
 Rejpresentatwes of the Race, such as all true histo- 
 ries describe, and such as exist at the present day, 
 prone to evil, and constantly going astray, even 
 while striving to love and obey God. 
 
 If the men of the Bible were perfect, it would 
 be a reasonable conclusion that they were fictitious ; 
 and if they were, they would not answer the pur- 
 pose for which their biographies were written, to 
 be a rule of action or warning to others. It j)osi- 
 tively declares that all mankind has fallen, that 
 there is not one good^ and the men of the Bible and 
 the living men of our own age, perfectly agree with 
 its declaration. 
 
 Whenever examples of wickedness are recorded 
 in the Bible, they are seen to be in direct violation 
 of its laws. They are not preserved because they 
 are approved by God, but as a warning for man. 
 And these examples, instead of proving any thing 
 against Revelation, are convincing proofs, that it is 
 indeed the Word of God who created man. 
 
 The judgments of modern infidelity on these sup- 
 posed instances of immorality in the Bible, remind 
 one of God's words to an older infidelity : " These 
 things hast thou done, and I kept silence ; thou 
 thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy- 
 self; but I will reprove thee and set them in order 
 before thine eyes. ]^ow consider this ye that for- 
 get God^ lest I tear you injpieces^ and there he none 
 to deliver. '^^ 
 
 The historical parts of the Bible are simple nar- 
 ratives of man's ways, and God's dealings with him. 
 It is so much experience laid up as a warning and 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 45 
 
 guide to other generations, to teach them how to 
 serve their Creator, and to avoid the failings of 
 those who had gone before them. It expressly says 
 so : " Whatsoever things were written aforetime, 
 were written for our instruction." It is more *' nar- 
 rative than didactic," and not a " systematic body 
 of teaching ; " not such a Eevelation as the human 
 mind would have made, jQt j[)erfectly adapted to the 
 mind and nature of man. " It is the most unex- 
 pected kind of book which could be conceived ; a 
 system of hieroglyphics, and Jesus (the Creator of 
 the world) is the key to it all." 
 
 The Words of God have probably other objects 
 to accomplish in other worlds. They probably 
 make known there more of both creation and re- 
 dem23tion, so that what man knows of them is only 
 a partial revelation. In accomplishing the main 
 object of teaching man from whence he came, 
 whither he is bound, and his obligations to his 
 Creator, it necessarily makes known something of 
 his relation to the other beings and worlds of the 
 universe. Even the greatest fact of revelation, the 
 typical worship of sacrifice, the first faint shadow 
 of greater and better things to come, was very ob- 
 scure in the beginning. The institution of sacrifice 
 was the befi^innino^ of the Kino^dom of Grace on 
 earth, and it restored the connection between the 
 Kingdoms of Mature and Glory, yet no account is 
 given of its appointment. 
 
 That earliest dispensation was the germ of the 
 Cliristian Church ; like creation it was founded by, 
 and for, and on Jesus, and, like the earth, it attained 
 
4:6 REVELATION ; 
 
 its perfection only after great changes, and ages of 
 gradual improvement. It began in a covenant be- 
 tween God and Adam, was enlarged with Abraham, 
 but neither they nor their posterity nnderstood what 
 was to be its perfected character. But it grew 
 plainer, nntil it enlarged into a visible theocratic 
 kingdom nnder Moses, and was at last '' finished ■ ' 
 by the Son of God, who showed that his kingdom 
 was " not of this world." 
 
 Through all the stages of the kingdom there were 
 priesthoods, sacrifices, and liturgies, having relation 
 to unknown heavenly things. God prescribed to 
 Adam how to worship and sacrifice ; that prescrip- 
 tion began the liturgy, which grew with the king- 
 dom. Together they trained man for a kingdom 
 not of this world. And they have been gradually 
 working the restoration of man, and the whole king- 
 dom of nature to which he belongs, and which has 
 been cursed for sin. This fact lies at the foundation 
 of the Kevelation in God's Word, and yet is only 
 faintly shadowed forth. It shows that no combina- 
 tions of circumstances, and no consequences, how- 
 ever important to His creatures, ever move the 
 Creator to swerve from His own way of doing His 
 own work. This peculiarity prevails throughout 
 His three great Kingdoms of l^ature, Grace, and 
 Glory, so far as they are known to man. 
 
 The Bible is the only book on earth that gives 
 a satisfactory account of creation, of the origin of 
 man, and his history. It gives the o?ily history there 
 is of the human race before the Empires of Assyria, 
 and Egypt, and China were founded; before the 
 
THE WOKDS OF GOD. 47 
 
 Tower of Babel and the Pyramids were built, and 
 the Yedas w^ritten. It comes down from a hoary 
 antiquity beyond all other records. It is from God. 
 It teaches things concerning God and man no where 
 else to be learned ; makes known that man is a 
 created being, a free agent, a temporary denizen of 
 this world, and destined to live eternally in another 
 Its truths are addressed to him as a rational and 
 accountable being, and its internal evidence proves 
 it the production of a more than human mind. 
 
 Moses and Homer were perhaps nearly contem- 
 porary, but there is an infinite distance between the 
 characters they describe, and the style in w^hich they 
 wrote. The jparting of Hector and Andromache, 
 one of the most touching scenes in the Iliad, falls 
 far below the meeting of Joseph and his brethren. 
 
 Tlie sacrifice of Iphigenia, by her father Agamem 
 non, is wanting in the deep and tender pathos of 
 the mere offering of his son Isaac, by Abraham, or 
 *' the w^ailing devotedness of Jephthah's daughter." 
 
 Herodotus, called \\\q father of history, was later 
 than Ezra and Nehemiah, and his writings abound 
 with truth, elegance, and sweetness ; but they con- 
 tain much that is false and puerile, and are incom- 
 parably inferior to the latter. 
 
 The writers of the Bible lived at intervals during 
 fifteen centuries, and in dififerent periods of enlighten- 
 ment, and some of them were uneducated men ; yet 
 all write with equal clearness and simplicity of 
 style, and their writings seem like the breathings* 
 of a single mind, under dififerent degrees of inspi- 
 ration. 
 
48 REVELATION ; 
 
 They show a " majestic indifference to criticism," 
 relate their own failings, and the faults of God's 
 people as freely as their virtues, and make no apol- 
 ogies for the marvels they narrate. And their pre- 
 eminence in these particulars, the completeness of 
 their history, and their superiority to all contempo- 
 vsivy historians, can he accounted for in no other 
 reasonable way than the one they themselves give, 
 that they spake by direction of the Spirit of the 
 God who made man, who knew how to describe the 
 operations of his mind, and to adapt truth to it. 
 
 Another example of its internal evidence is, that 
 its warnings and promises continue still to be j^rac- 
 tical ; its words continue fresh and applicable to 
 everj^ successive generation ; continue to enlighten, 
 quicken, and establish them in the truth ; continue 
 to delight and comfort in prosperity ; to support 
 and strengthen in adversity ; and to sustain in 
 death. What it says of God's wisdom and justice, 
 of His love and truth, and His eternity and un- 
 changeableness, was always true^ always hnoioii in 
 all worlds^ and will he true for ever. Jesus the 
 Creator hath said, " Heaven and earth shall pass 
 away, but ray words shall never ])ass away^ 
 
 The world is intellectually more indebted to the 
 Bible than to all other sources of knowledge. It is 
 the fountain head of light and truth, and the great 
 quickener and fertilizer of the human mind. In- 
 dividuals and nations rise or fall in the scale of 
 enlightenment, just in proportion as they are guided 
 by its principles. 
 
 Science is indebted to the Bible. The ravs of 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 49 
 
 Divine light which stream from its pages, have 
 given the mighty im23nlse to the mind of this nine- 
 teenth century. They have called into play its full 
 powers, and given new vigor to all its faculties. 
 This is evident, because Bibles were never before so 
 multiplied ; and the nations which have them in 
 the largest numbers are the most elevated ; and 
 the individuals who are most imbued with its 
 knowledge, and surrounded by its influences, have 
 penetrated deepest into the secret laws of nature, 
 and have pushed their investigations farthest into 
 the regions of sj)ace. 
 
 It may be objected that Laplace and Lagrange, 
 Arago and Biol, are opposing examples. To this 
 it is answered, that they were born in Christian 
 lands, and reaped all the beneiits of Christian civil- 
 ization, if they were not believers in the Divine 
 Revelation, like Galileo and Kepler, Newton and 
 Brewster, and the Herschels. It is enough that the 
 learned Mandarins and Brahmins, who have no 
 Bible, have comparatively no science. 
 
 If the Bible be the Word of God, who created 
 the universe and gave it its laws, then, he who be- 
 lieves this would be most likely to have its secrets 
 revealed to him ; and the study of the words would 
 be likely to fit the mind for the investigation of the 
 worlc8. 
 
 There is no other satisfactory way of accounting 
 for the superiority of modern scientific men, of the 
 Christian world, over the ancient philosophers, but 
 from the fact that they have a fuller Revelation from 
 God. If it be said this is the result of time and the 
 3 
 
50 REVELATION ; 
 
 progress of man, it is answered, that the progress 
 can be plainly traced to the increasing light which 
 has been radiating from a clearer understanding of 
 God's words. 
 
 It was not until men learned of their adoption 
 as sons of God, by the coming of Christ into this 
 world, that the Holj Ghost, the Enlightener, was 
 sent, and the Law written on every human soul. 
 God does all things slowly. And this light has been 
 spread abroad by a gradual, persistent, and con- 
 stantly increasing influence. 
 
 In the arguments and facts drawn from Revela- 
 tion, two things must be borne in mind. First, that 
 the Bible was not given to teach science ; second, 
 that it is but a partial Itevelation of God's Words. 
 It is complete in matters relating to man's practical 
 duties ; partial in doctrines relating to God, and 
 to other beings and worlds. "What it says to man 
 of God, that " He is a S23irit," it must say to the 
 inhabitants of all other worlds.* 
 
 As creation is seen by all the inhabitants of the 
 universe, so must Eevelation be hnown by them. 
 The Psalmist says, God's " words are from ever- 
 lasting ; " that they were " true from the begin 
 ning." These expressions indicate tliat they have 
 always been the same. The Bible contains some of 
 them ; they are part of all His Words ; and have a 
 connection with all that He spake, "from ever- 
 lasting." 
 
 * " The Word of the Lord endiireth for ever. And this is the 
 Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." — 1 Rt. Peter^ i. 25. 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 51 
 
 Higlier orders probably understand the parts 
 incomprehensible to man. This is what is meant 
 by dijMrticular Revelation. It contains many allu- 
 sions to other beings and worlds, and these are so 
 many proofs that they have the same revelation as 
 ourselves. All these references show nearly or re- 
 motely man's relation to a past and future eternity. 
 
 It speaks of creation and man's connection with 
 it ; of his immortality and of a future life and world ; 
 of his Kedemption by the Son of God, who came 
 into this world from another ; of other worlds, and 
 the condition of their inhabitants, who are to be his 
 future fellow-citizens, and of the final destruction of 
 matter. 
 
 These things are proof of the unity of God's 
 words ; and the aggregate doubtless comprises the 
 constitution and canons of the kingdom of glory, 
 and the history of eternity. If there were not an 
 intimate connection hetween man and his world and 
 other worlds and intelligent beings, there would 
 have been no necessity for these references in our 
 part of the revelation. 
 
 It claims to be the Word of God, " who can- 
 not lie." It teaches man things he could not dis- 
 cover by the light of nature and reason ; spans the 
 chasm between earth and heaven ; between time 
 and eternity ; between man and superior beings, 
 
 "Where sight and reason fail. Revelation comes 
 to their help ; all it says of man and the earth is 
 true, so far as known ; it is therefore reasonable to 
 conclude, that all which it says of other beings and 
 worlds is equally so. 
 
52 REVELATION ; 
 
 If the doctrine of unitj be true, then all that 
 man could reasonarbly expect in a revelation from 
 God, he being, as it teaches, fallen, would be so 
 much knowledge as is necessary for him in his 
 present state. If more had been given, it would 
 have been incomprehensible : we cannot now fitlly 
 understand all that relates to ourselves. There is 
 enough plain to direct us in the discharge of all du- 
 ties. It is prophetical and developing. We have 
 learned from it things unknown to our ancestors : 
 our posterity will understand it more fully. 
 
 Every reasonable mind must admit, that it is 
 only " a few necessary points of knowledge" which 
 can be communicated by an uncreated to created 
 mind. Man can communicate no idea or power of 
 thought to his most skilful mechanism. The steam, 
 printing-press can do almost any thing but think and 
 talk ; and the telegraphs convey thoughts, but they 
 have no knowledge of their contrivers. 
 
 Reasoning from analogy, man might expect but 
 limited communications of the infinite knowledge 
 of his Creator. The vast whole of God's works and 
 words must be " not only concealed^^ but utterly 
 " incomprehensible to human faculties." The mode 
 in which the necessarily incomplete revelation of 
 other beings and worlds is conveyed in the Scrip- 
 tures, is in harmony with that in which the phenom- 
 ena of nature present themselves to our notice. 
 
 The sum or amount of Divine knowledge in- 
 tended to be conveyed to us, has been broken up 
 and scattered over a various surface ; it has been 
 half hidden and half displayed; it has been 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 53 
 
 couched beneath hasty and ineidental allusions j 
 it has been doled out in morsels and ato^ns. 
 
 There are no logical synopses in the Bible ; no 
 scientific presentations of the body of Divinity ; no 
 comprehensive digests ; for sncli wonld have been 
 not only ntterly nnsnited to the popular taste and 
 comprehension, but actually impracticable, since 
 they must have contained that which neither the 
 mind of man can receive nor his language enibody. 
 
 Better far might a seraph attempt to convey the 
 largeness of his celestial ideas to a child, than God 
 impart a systematic revelation to man. On the 
 contrary, it is almost as if the vessel of Divine 
 philosophy had been wrecked and broken in a dis- 
 tant storm ; and as if the fragments only had come 
 drifting ujDon our world, which, like an islet in the 
 ocean of eternity, had drawn to itself what might 
 be floating near its shores. 
 
 While, then, it is impossible to frame from the 
 Bible any model of the universe of mind or matter, 
 which will give an idea of either as a whole ; yet, 
 what may be gleaned of the great outline of crea- 
 tion, and its inhabitants, of the interest they mutu- 
 ally feel in one another, and the influence they 
 mutually exert on one another, for weal or woe, 
 does immeasurably enlarge our knowledge of God, 
 of the boundaries of the universe, of the nature and 
 employments of the higher orders of beings, and our 
 own future destiny. 
 
 It is only by a careful study of the detail of 
 Revelation , which comes within reach of our obser- 
 
54: REVELATION ; 
 
 vation, that it is possible to discover all tliat God 
 designed to communicate by His Word. 
 
 It is self evident, '' that whatever relates to the 
 Divine nature, to infinity, and the ultimate pur- 
 poses of the Divine government, to the unseen 
 worlds, to the future state, and even the mech- 
 anism of motives, must offer itself to the under- 
 standing in a form beset with difficulties. That 
 this must be the case might be demonstrated with 
 mathematical certainty. If therefore we resolve 
 to receive from the Inspired writers nothing but 
 what we can reconcile first to certain abstract no- 
 tions, and then to a particular interpretation of 
 other passages, the consequence is inevitable, 
 "that we shall arrive at very imperfect concep- 
 tions of the knowledge God designs to convey by 
 His Words. 
 
 The Bible is without a flaw. E'either time, nor 
 research, nor the progress or malignity of man, has 
 been able to discover any thing to detract from its 
 claims and worth as a Divine Revelation ; nor to 
 detect " a single statement that contradicts the dis- 
 coveries of science. On the contrary, science 
 rather keeps advancing and coming up to the sim- 
 ple statement of the Word of God." So far as the 
 two have been compared, no discrepancies have 
 been found between them. N"ot one scientific error 
 has been detected. They perfectly agree. 
 
 Increased knowledge of the Bible has explained 
 or reconciled mysteries of creation, which science 
 at first supposed conflicting. And it is a new proof 
 that it is God's Word, that every step man has ad- 
 
THE WOEDS OF GOD. 55 
 
 vanced in scientific knowledge, so wonderfully- 
 enlarged in this nineteenth century, has opened 
 new light on its sacred truths, and discovered new 
 harmonies between its own mysteries and those of 
 creation. 
 
 Its language is not always in strict accordance 
 with actual facts, because it was written for popu- 
 lar use. It speaks of the rising and setting sun, for 
 example, because such is their appearance to sight. 
 Scientific men use the same phraseology, and would 
 not be understood by the masses unless they did. 
 
 If it had been written otherwise than in this 
 popular style, it w^ould have been a revelation only 
 to the learned ; and no revelation at all in times of 
 ignorance or barbarism. There have been genera- 
 tions without any learned men. God adapted it to 
 all the times and conditions of our race. 
 
 Some facts are so stated, that to suj^erficial ob- 
 servation they seem opposed to reason or science. 
 But time and deeper research show that the mistake 
 is in the objector, and not in the Bible. And it is 
 surprising that being a partial revelation^ and re- 
 ferring to so many things past and to come, that 
 there should be so few things apparently irreconcil- 
 able, and none wholly opposed to human reason. 
 
 The Bible, instead of causing perplexities, re- 
 solves them, and the wisest men living testify that 
 the Bible is the greatest help on earth to enable 
 them to understand the mysteries of their own be- 
 ing, of science, and the universe. It has always 
 been the motive power in the w^orld's civilization, 
 and each generation is proving more clearly, not 
 
66 REVELATION ; 
 
 only its adaptation to all tlie wants of man and so- 
 ciety, but also, that it must continue to be the final 
 perfecter of the liighest civilization ; and that there 
 can be no real happiness without the observance of 
 its general princij)les. 
 
 Shadows of truth are embodied there, which 
 seem to have no meaning until fulfilled prophecy or 
 the progress of man show what they are. We learn 
 from God's dealings with bygone men and nations, 
 precisely what may be ahoays expected under given 
 circumstances. 
 
 The Bible is the only book in the world which 
 is " all truth, without any mixture of error." Isot 
 that it is not like all other human productions, sub- 
 ject to contingencies and imperfections in its repub- 
 lications ; but, that its morals, maxims, and doc- 
 trines, when understood in their true sense, are 
 without mixture of error. The Yedas abound with 
 hymns to fire, and light, and the powers of nature ; 
 the Precepts of Confucius, the Zendavesta, and the 
 Koran contain much that is false or puerile, and 
 " inconsistent with the simplest elements of science." 
 All other religions and philosophies abound with 
 errors. And its miracles difi*er from all others, 
 said to have been wrought by the founders of reli- 
 gious systems, inasmuch as each one is an act of 
 Benevolence^ wrought for some useful purpose to 
 man. 
 
 Creation is one teacher to train us in the know- 
 ledge of God's power and wisdom ; the Bible is 
 another to reveal His love and mercy, and give a 
 deeper insight into His attributes. That creation 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 57 
 
 had a beginning, is tlie foundation on which rests 
 all our obligations and duties. Tlie Bible teaches 
 that it had ; who is tlie Creator, and what is the 
 service man owes Him. 
 
 Creation needed no written history, except to 
 announce that it had a beginning. It was visible, 
 and could speak for itself. The universe seems to 
 be divided into kingdoms of systems and worlds ; 
 the same thing is seen on earth, in the animal, min- 
 eral, and vegetable kingdoms. 
 
 The Bible teaches that these have intimate rela- 
 tions with invisible spiritual beings and kingdoms ; 
 one of grace on earth, and one of gloiy in heaven. 
 Man could know nothing of these spiritual king- 
 doms but by a revelation. The Bible is mainly 
 devoted to giving instruction bearing uj)on them. 
 From beginning to end, its chief aim seems to be 
 to make known, that the visible creation was made 
 as 2L foundation on which to erect, out of its inhab- 
 itants, a spiritual kingdom, to be connected with a 
 large one, when perfected, reaching beyond the 
 earth, and embracing all the holy beings of the 
 universe. 
 
 In the cursory glance here made at the great 
 outline of God's toords^ it is plainly seen that they 
 enlarge man's knowledge of His works and attri- 
 butes. Their great central truth is sacrifice. All 
 else is subordinate to its develojDment. As the 
 earth is the foundation of all animal and vegetable 
 life, the source whence they draw their nourish- 
 ment, by a power given it by the Creator ; so also, 
 has sacrifice always been the fount and source of 
 3* 
 
58 REVELATION ; 
 
 all spiritual life, bj a similar power given it by 
 God. 
 
 The institution of sacrifice was coeval witli the 
 fall of man. He, falling by sin from the Kingdom 
 of Grace, w^as restored to it hy means of sacrifice. 
 It was the act by which God was propitiated, and 
 man reconciled to Him. It implied Intercession., 
 Satisfaction., and Renewal; an intercession by 
 Christ, a satisfaction through Christ, and a renewal 
 from Christ. It required a real change or destruc- 
 tion of the thing offered ; showing that outside of 
 the Divine favor is everlasting destruction. It tooh 
 away the Life of the Lamb on earth, and offered it 
 to God in heaven. It symbolized the Lamb of God 
 slain from the foundation of the world. It was the 
 offering of blood which sanctified, through the one 
 Great Sacrifice to be made by the blood of Christ. 
 It was the passing over of an act of the material 
 world to its immaterial Creator. It was His first 
 means of communication with Adam, after the Avith- 
 drawal of His Visible Presence from Eden, and the 
 first act of communion he had with God, after He 
 ceased to talk with Him in the garden. 
 
 It was the beginning of God's covenant of Ee- 
 demption, by sacrifice, through faith in the seed of 
 the woman to come ; and it established a visible 
 kingdom on earth in union with God. The sacri- 
 fice was the condition of Kestoration, and the rite of 
 entrance into the kingdom. It is the dark central 
 ball, inside the deej) concentric cycles of religion 
 and spiritual things, on which the whole life and 
 
THE WORDS OF GOD. 59 
 
 outward structure rests ; just as the hidden impene- 
 trable ball of burning fluid of the earth's interior, is 
 the mysterious foundation on which the whole fabric 
 of man's physical world rests. It was built up slow- 
 ly and by degrees on this foundation into a spiritual 
 kingdom, as the earth was on its foundation of cen- 
 tral fire. 
 
 As time and growth brought the kingdom into 
 view, the central idea of sacrifice, its nature and 
 design, became constantly clearer. It was seen to 
 re-connect man with his Creator, and to keep Him 
 continually before him. It runs down like a 
 " scarlet thread'''^ through all the history of the race, 
 until, at last, God descended on Sinai, and more 
 fully developed the truth to which man had been 
 clinging for centuries, by setting up a visible 
 kingdom. 
 
 God showed the model of it to Moses in the 
 Mount. It was after a heavenly pattern, and its 
 great daily morning and evening acts were sacri- 
 fice. This lasted for fifteen centuries. But it grad- 
 ually moulded the opinions of the world, until it 
 was prepared for the Advent of the Son of God. 
 The ceremonial of the Theocracy was a type to pre- 
 pare man for the mysterious sacraments of the Per- 
 fected Spiritual Kingdom, " not of this world," of 
 the Christian Church. The Head of the Theocracy 
 was in heaven, and it was a visible representation 
 of the more spiritual kingdom, whose Head is also 
 in heaven. 
 
 The Incarnation, which is next "to be considered, 
 
60 REVELATION ; THE WORDS OF GOD. 
 
 completed the kingdom, and tlie work of creation, 
 so far as man and liis world are concerned, and 
 fjiiislied GoWs revelations to liim for his present 
 life, bj making known all he is ca23able of knowing 
 in this state on earth, of the Kingdom of Glory, for 
 which he was created. 
 
THE INCARNATION. 61 
 
 CHAPTEK TV. 
 
 THE INCARNATION ; OR, LITE OF GOD. 
 
 " In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
 
 Tfie Apostle Paul. 
 
 " The Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show 
 unto you that Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested 
 unto us." iSt. John, the Beloved Disciple. 
 
 The works and words of God originated without 
 any previous announcement. There were two 
 stages of preparation for the Incarnation ; that, be- 
 ing the highest of all God's revelations, was the 
 subject of prophecy for four thousand years before 
 it took place. St. Paul says, " God ordained it be- 
 fore the world unto our glory." He announced it 
 to Adam in the promised future power of " the seed 
 of the woman ; " prophetical predictions poured 
 new light on the promise ; and at last angels pro- 
 claimed it as accomplished, and' were present at the 
 Advent. 
 
 The Incarnation is not only the most extraordi- 
 nary event in the history of the earth, but also the 
 apex and compendium of creation. All that God 
 
62 THE incaenation; 
 
 said or did before this, so far as revealed to man, 
 seems to have had some reference to it. 
 
 Creation was the first step towards the Incarna- 
 tion ; and, as has ah-eadj been said, there conld 
 have been no Incarnation without.it. The material 
 of the earth was annealing for vast geological pe- 
 riods, to prepare itself for the formation of man; 
 and man himself, after the fall, ran through cycles 
 of generations before he was so fitted, that God 
 could take his nature into His, and become Incar- 
 nate in His own creation. 
 
 God first came into the sight of His creatures by 
 His works. The whole history of man and the 
 earth, and the- whole drift of revelation, show that 
 a gradual preparation had been going on, from the 
 beginning, to prepare this world for the Advent and 
 Incarnacion of its Creator. The earth is the scaf- 
 folding, built wp out in space, perhaps central in 
 the universe, and visible to all its inhabitants, to 
 bring into the view of the vast whole, the sublime 
 spectacle of the Incarnation and Sacrifice of the 
 only begotten Son of God. And to establish here 
 a kingdom to connect the created and uncreated 
 universe, S23iritual and physical beings and worlds. 
 
 Age after age God was revealing Himself, by 
 the infinitely slow processes of creation. And when 
 rational beings came upon the earth. He let in more 
 light to them, from Himself, by His Word, explain- 
 ing His works, and making known His attributes. 
 Age by age the words grew clearer by the new 
 revelations of the prophets, until at last the Son of 
 God was announced, as conceived by the Holy 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 63 
 
 Ghost and born of tlie Blessed Virgin. He brought 
 life and immortality to light. Tlie visible nature 
 assumed by the Son enabled man to picture to 
 himself the Father. It was neither the Father nor 
 the Holy Ghost incarnate, but the Only Begotten 
 Son of God; and in Him man, and all intelligent 
 beings, saw " the glory as of the Only Begotten of 
 the Father, full of grace and truth." 
 
 Here on earth the Son of God took flesh, a hu- 
 man nature, and sanctified it by giving it a Divine 
 life, creating man anew in Christ, and incorporating 
 him body and soul into His visible kingdom, to 
 prepare him, and a part of the planet to which he 
 belonged, for annexation to the invisible uncreated 
 kingdom of the Father Everlasting. It is one 
 glimpse, or ray of light, breaking in upon the earth, 
 from God's kingdom of glory, in its triumphal pro- 
 gress to the destruction of the devil, and of his 
 power to propagate evil. 
 
 It brought God into the view of man as He 
 had never before been seen on earth. It is the most 
 intimate revelation God can make of himself to 
 mortals. It shows His interior life; His secret 
 springs of thought and action. " The Word was 
 made^^^A; and we beheld His glory," says an eye- 
 witness of the wonderful event. It throws such 
 floods- of light on the Divine nature, that we can 
 almost embody the Deity. Humanly speaking, 
 God can show to mortals nothing higher than His 
 attributes of Life, of Love, and of Glory. And 
 these He manifested, that man might copy them 
 into himself, and become like Him. This was the 
 
64: THE INCARNATION ; 
 
 ultimate object of the Incarnation, so far as man is 
 concerned. This was an end worthy of God, and 
 most ennobling to His creatures. 
 
 If Jesus created all things, and He is the Word 
 of God^ and in Him dwells all the fulness of the 
 Godliead, then all that is known of Divine mysteries 
 in all worlds must be through Him. The highest 
 seraphs could not have conceived of God's nature 
 by their own intelligence. No one knows the 
 Father, except he to whom the Son reveals Him. 
 " The Scriptures picture the angels to us as ever 
 bending over and looking into this mystery, to feed 
 their love, their wisdom, and their adoration out of 
 its depths of glory and sweetness." And they de- 
 clare that the Son of God became better known to 
 " principalities and powers in heavenly places " by 
 His Incarnation. 
 
 How could it be otherwise? How could the 
 Creator of the universe be absent from its throne, 
 thirty-three revolutions of the earth on its axis, 
 though it may be but a moment in the measure- 
 ment of eternity, and the inhabitants of the heavenly 
 worlds be ignorant of the fact, or even the motives 
 which caused His absence? Or could Satan, the 
 accuser of the angels, be cast out of heaven and by 
 the Incarnation, and they not know it, and see in 
 Him new attributes to love and adore ? 
 
 If the works and words of God were made known 
 to intelligent beings, to enlarge their knowledge of 
 the Creator, so also is it probable, that this highest 
 and unspeakable, and most touching of all the reve- 
 lations and mysteries of God would be communi- 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 65 
 
 cated to all liis creatures. We should, however, 
 haVe no right to so conclude unless the fact were 
 revealed. It is ; though all its purposes in relation 
 to man even are not fully explained. 
 
 As God himself is first seen coming into visibil- 
 ity to His creatures by His works ; so also is His 
 kingdom seen beginning to become visible in His 
 words. The mysterious administrators of that in- 
 visible kingdom first descended to the earth, im- 
 mediately after the fall, to guard the " Tree of Life," 
 to prevent man eating the fruit thereof, and thereby 
 interferino: with the Incarnation in its relations to 
 man. 
 
 Eevelation having made known God's designs 
 respecting some of the intelligent beings He had 
 created ; the Incarnation showed the- means by 
 which they were accomplished. Heavenly beings 
 are seen in Eevelation taking an active part in all 
 the preparations for the Incarnation. They con- 
 stantly passed and repassed between heaven and 
 earth on their missions. 
 
 The corner-stone of the kingdom was laid in the 
 blood of the first sacrifice ofi'ered to God by Adam. 
 On that it was gradually built ; and it was con- 
 stantly coming into view by means of priesthoods, 
 tabernacles, and temples ; of kingships, kingdoms, 
 and the theocracy, until the moment when the 
 Holy Ghost proclaimed in heaven that the Son of 
 God, the Head of the Kingdom, was Incarnate on 
 earth, in the womb of the Blessed "Virgin. An 
 angel announced the Incarnation on earth, heavenly 
 beings were present at the Advent, and attended 
 
QQ THE incarnation; 
 
 the Son of God tliroiigli His whole earthly career. 
 All this shows that Jesus is the true Imh which 
 connects the visible and invisible worlds, tlie cre- 
 ated and uncreated, the mind and matter of the 
 nniverse. 
 
 It is impossible for the human mind to gather 
 from creation, or the Old Testament, the ultimate 
 designs of God towards man. But the Incarnation 
 explains both. E'evertlieless the explanation is 
 embarrassed by some of the same difficulties of ob- 
 scurity, which so largely abound in the two former 
 revelations. 
 
 The coming of the Son of God to earth was 
 neither as such a being, nor in such a way as man 
 expected. This is certain, because the wisest of 
 God's people were puzzled by the prophecies which 
 foretold His lowly condition and humiliation ; and 
 all expected a glorious tem/poral Saviour and Sove- 
 reign. 
 
 It would better have accorded with human no- 
 tions, that the Creator, coming personally into a 
 seemingly remote province of Plis dominions, should 
 have passed along the starry highway of His own 
 worlds, with all the publicity, pomp, and splendor 
 of their Creator and sovereign Lord. And that, 
 reaching the earth. He should at once have put an 
 end to all its evils. One of the principal objects of 
 his mission was, to destroy him who had the power 
 of evil ; and his advent was tnagnificent in the 
 view of higher orders of beings than man. The 
 heavenly hosts trailed their long procession all the 
 way from the courts of heaven to earth, where they 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 67 
 
 were seen by men, and their celestial cliants heard, 
 on the plains of Bethlehem. But the jDerson and 
 mission of our Lord were hidden from that genera- 
 tion. They understood not that the Son of God, the 
 Creator of the world, who for centuries directed its 
 inhabitants by His Word, had actually taken man's 
 nature and flesh into Himself. And after all the 
 light which has been shed on this subject, by the 
 life and death of the Son of God, and the ages of 
 progress of the kingdom on earth ; the whole is but 
 a glimpse, one ray of the Kingdom of Glory stream- 
 ing down to this world, in its triumphal progress on 
 to the destruction of all the moral evil of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 The nearness of God to the Jews was the glory 
 of the ancient church. Moses said, from the past 
 days, even from the creation of the world, God had 
 done to no other nation as He had done ^ in mani- 
 festing His presence to them. The Jewish Church 
 was an earthly kingdom, with God for its Head. 
 This was the embodiment of the earlier types into 
 an organized form. It was both the model and 
 root of the Kingdom of the Incarnation. The Theo- 
 cracy was after a Divine pattern shown by God the 
 Son to Moses in the Mount. It had three orders of 
 administrators, one of which w^as designed to be 
 stcccessive, until Christ, the High Priest over God's 
 Household of the created Universe, should come. 
 It was the last stage of preparation for the spiritual 
 kingdom, not of this world. It matured and de- 
 
 * Deut. iv., 32-36. 
 
DO THE INCARNATION ; 
 
 cayed, but preserved in its root a vital principle, 
 out of which grew the ministry and sacraments of 
 the Christ's Kingdom, which were to give His life 
 and spirit to its citizens. 
 
 The Christian Church is the Theocracy com- 
 pleted. It is the visible application of the blessings 
 of the Incarnation, or the Life of God, secured to 
 the world. " In the apostolic commission are con- 
 tained all the acts and sacraments by which the 
 grace of Christ is bestowed upon mankind, from the 
 first ingrafting of souls into His body, to the last 
 strengthening food which is given to the passing 
 saint." It is God's means of calling man to Him- 
 self, of perfecting saints, for " the edifying of the 
 body of Christ," which is building up His body the 
 Church, until all come, in the unity of the faith, to 
 perfect men, perfect after the pattern, model, and 
 s])irit of the Son of God. It is His presence in the 
 words of His Gospel and ministers, and His life in 
 the Sacraments, which fulfil all the symbolism of 
 the Patriarchal sacrifice, of the Tabernacle in the 
 wilderness, of the Theocracy, and of the Shechinah 
 of the Temple. In them all the prophecies of the 
 Messiah are fulfilled ; Immanuel, God is with us. 
 This constitutes the superiority of the latter Dispen- 
 sation. There God was visible to the senses ; here 
 He is present in the soul. By it man receives the 
 Life of God, and is brought as near to the likeness 
 of His Creator as it is j)ossible for him to be in the 
 flesh. 
 
 The prophecies which foretold the Incarnation 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 69 
 
 were so obscure, that they could not be interpreted 
 until they were fulfilled. And when the Son of 
 God came His life was hidden nine months in the 
 Blessed Virgin ; and after He w^as born His God- 
 head was hidden in the helpless Babe of the manger. 
 This characteristic runs through His whole life. 
 '' He did nothing but hide Himself." He was hid- 
 den from Herod in Egypt ; from His brethren in 
 J^azareth ; from the whole nation of His own peo- 
 ple for thirty years ; and from His own chosen 
 Apostles for the three years of His public ministry ; 
 from Pilate, who unjustly condemned Him; and, 
 at last, upon the cross, from the sight of the world 
 He created, by the veil of darkness which convulsed 
 nature threw around the agony of its Redeemer. 
 He charged those He healed not to make Him 
 known ; silenced the devils He cast out, who knew 
 Him ; withdrew Himself from the multitude when 
 they would make Him a king, and delivered His 
 doctrines in parables and hard sayings. 
 
 The design of the Incarnation, so far as it re- 
 lates to man, w^as to complete the two former reve- 
 lations, to make God better known, and to reveal all 
 that it was necessary for man to know respecting 
 time, and his world, and the before unknown things 
 of heaven, hell, and paradise. 
 
 The Incarnation was the completion of all sacri- 
 fice. It revealed the Lamb of God slain from the 
 foundation of the world, and through whose blood 
 alone was remission of sins. It brought the invisi- 
 ble kingdom of God into view to man under its true 
 
TO 
 
 Head. The God of Sacrifice,"^ the God of the Cov- 
 enants, the God of the Tabernacle, the God of the 
 Theocracy, the God of the Temple and of Prophecy, 
 descended to the earth, manifested Himself in hu- 
 man form to man, organized a kingdom,, commis- 
 sioned its rulers, delivered it its constitution, restored 
 the connection which existed between God and man, 
 and heaven and earth, before the fall, and brought 
 all its members into that same spiritual relationship 
 which Adam enjoyed before he sinned. And while 
 coming upon the earth, and doing these things visi- 
 bly before the eyes of men. He maintained tlie same 
 marvellous character of hiddenness which is dis- 
 €ernible in all His other revelations. He really hid 
 more than He disclosed. That is. He showed that 
 after all that was revealed, vastly more that is sub- 
 lime and wonderful yet remains unexplained. It 
 enabled man to discern more clearly " the vast ex- 
 tent of his ignorance on the awful and mysterious 
 subjects " of God and eternity, and his own responsi- 
 bility and importance in the scale of being, and 
 " added new mysteries while explaining old ones." 
 It is probably impossible for created minds to 
 receive a revelation from an uncreated mind in any 
 other way than by parts, and parcels, and partial 
 glimpses. It is ^2^\^jprobaUe^ because ^o^ Icnow that 
 this is the only way the mind arrives at a full know- 
 ledge of things in this world. To learn to read, it 
 has first to puzzle over seemingly meaningless let- 
 
 * Sacrifice is called a covenant bj the Psalmist, Ps. 1. 5. Latin : 
 " Foedus mecum per sacrificium." 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 71 
 
 ters ; and to learn mathematics, it begins with learn- 
 ing as seemingly meaningless numerals. 
 
 All God's works appear hidden to us, because in 
 this life wx are learning the alphabets and digits of 
 things which we are to apply in the culture of 
 more enlarged knowledge in a higher state of be- 
 ing; and, because we have not power of mind 
 enough now to penetrate into their depths. This 
 peculiarity of hiddenness belongs to every thing 
 which comes from God. If the Incarnation had 
 differed in this respect from the other revelations, 
 we might reasonably have doubted it, because His 
 Word represents the Creator as everlastingly un- 
 changeable. And all that man knows of Him is 
 alike and harmonious. 
 
 As all things from God have this characteristic 
 of hiddenness, and prove Him always and in all 
 things the same, man has no excuse if he will not 
 believe this concatenated testimony. " How little 
 of the causes and motives of action of created things 
 do we know ! and it must be unlimited arrogance 
 alone that could question the wisdom of the 
 mechanism of Him ' who judgeth rightly ; ' the 
 operations of a simple plant confound us, and, like 
 the handwriting on the wall, though seen by many, 
 can be explained but by 6^/i^." If man disbelieves 
 because God has done things differently from his 
 expectations, it will be no excuse. He has done all 
 things as He said He would by creation, and as He 
 said He had done and woidd do in His words, ac- 
 cording to the counsel of His own will. His ways 
 are so unlike man's, so unlike what he would have 
 
72 
 
 expected from Him ; " so completely at variance 
 with the genius of our Unite minds, or our own nat- 
 ural principles of conduct, that we are apparently 
 unable to grasp them, and fuse them into our finite 
 understandings." 
 
 The Soij of God was incarnate expressly to make 
 Ilimself Jhuoicn to man^ and this He did in an ex- 
 traordinary way, as it seems to iis, by hiding Him- 
 self. It was the last way a human mind would 
 have devised. But it was God's way ; and never 
 before was any thing attempted to be hidden so 
 plainly revealed. It was the way in which God has 
 always appeared to man, since he fled from His pre- 
 sence in the bowers of Eden, and, through all the 
 obscurity which hangs around the Incarnation, he 
 discerns the glory as of the Only Begotten of the 
 Father. 
 
 This brings us down to the terra firma of crea- 
 tion, and the completion of its concluding act, so 
 far as man and the earth are connected w4th it. It 
 is the finishing of an infinite conception of the Di- 
 vine mind, " the keystone in creation's arch, and 
 also the apex of that pyramid of creation, which 
 runs up and loses itself in the Divine Person of the 
 Eternal Mind, and so hangs all things on to God." 
 
 In the preceding chapters it has been seen, that 
 at the creation of man his world was good and in 
 unity w^ith all God's works ; that sin separated it 
 from that unity ; and that prophecies coeval with 
 the fall foretold a Divine Person, to come and es- 
 tablish a kingdom in opposition to Satan's. Later 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 73 
 
 prophecies said that Person would be the Son of 
 God. 
 
 As the Incarnation is the completion of creation, 
 so also is the Church of Christ the perfection of 
 the Incarnation. Here God paused in the manifes- 
 tation of Himself; man can draw no nearer to Him 
 and learn nothing more of Him than can be acquired 
 tlirough His Incarnate Body of the Church. All 
 tliat went before was but so much preparation for 
 it ; all the good in the world since has flown from 
 it. It is tlie means God is now nsing to carry on 
 and perpetuate the blessings of the Incarnation; 
 working up new mind and matter into immortal 
 material for His Kingdom of Glory. It is a king- 
 dom among the kingdoms of the earth, recruiting 
 citizens out of them, and making them eternal. It 
 is the finishing work of creation on each soul, re- 
 creating it aneiv with the Life of God. It is a 
 supernatural kingdom, with a supernatural Head, 
 and having a supernatural connection with the 
 earth. Its action is supernatural, changing parts 
 of the physical creation into the form of moral be- 
 ing ; into intelligence and immortality, to utter the 
 praise of its adorable Creator. Beings, born out of 
 the Kingdom of Xature, are re-born into the King- 
 dom of Grace, and fitted for the Kingdom of Glory. 
 And the Church is doing this work of God on earth 
 in the same way that the earth was prepared to be- 
 gin it by the creation of man. It has been slow 
 and m^^sterious, and with all our present light we 
 can no more understand the vastness of its future 
 results than we can its past history. 
 4 
 
74: THE INCAENATION ; 
 
 It is not working in the way man works when 
 he has power. He revohitionizes and accomplishes 
 his purposes in the shortest possible manner ; with 
 one tidal wave of reform he would sweep the world 
 of its evils. God works by law. The Church has 
 purposes to accomplish beyond this world, of a spir- 
 itual nature, and yet man, in his presumption and 
 ignorance, objects that " the Church cannot be from 
 God, because she does not accomplish temporal " 
 ends, which, in his judgment, ought to te accom- 
 plished. 
 
 But the Church is, nevertheless, God's Kingdom, 
 working according to the eternal plans which He 
 planned before Creation began. It is applying the 
 life of His Incarnate Son to individuals and genera- 
 tions of men, and gradually destroying the power 
 of the devil on earth, and throughout the universe. 
 It does this effectually on every regenerate man, 
 making him a new creature in Christ, of the high 
 type of His resurrection life. Jesus, by His Incar- 
 nation, became the Head of a new spiritual race of 
 beings ; they have since been begotten and regene- 
 rated by Him, as the physical race has descended 
 from Adam. This Headship connects man Avith all 
 the holy beings in the universe ; but, oh ! how inti- 
 mately with the dead in Christ. The same life of 
 Jesus which flows through the living members flows 
 through them. From the common Head, life goes 
 out as sap does from the root to the branches, or as 
 blood from the heart into the members, or light from 
 the sun among the planets, in a never ceasing cur- 
 rent. 
 
LIFE OF GOD. Y5 
 
 And the same mystery hangs around the Church, 
 which attended the Incarnation. The workl knew 
 not when Jesus was conceived, neither does it know 
 the precise day ivhen the Church was organized or 
 received its vital power. 
 
 How like Himself, hoAv unchangeahle is God in 
 all things. Four thousand years before, the Church 
 had first come to view in sacrifice, and it was fin- 
 ished precisely as it began ; as has been said on 
 page fifty-eight, no account is given of the original 
 appointment of sacrifice. Its existence is the fact 
 which God presents to \\iq faith of His creatures. 
 
 The instructions our Lord gave His disciples, 
 during the Great Forty Days of His Kesurrection 
 life, related mainly to His Kiugdom of the Christian 
 Church ; yet no record has been preserved of the 
 most of it, any further than as tliey are visible in the 
 Apostolic Church, which has ever since existed as a 
 visible kingdom on earth. All the externals of the 
 Church have the same harmonious mystery. The 
 crosses which surmount them speak of the mystery 
 of Redemption. Tlie fonts which adorn them remind 
 of the mystical washing away of sin. The altars 
 symbolize the tremendous sacrifice once offered for 
 a fallen world. While the chants, the water, the 
 bread and the wine, tell of the mysterious blessings 
 which flowed from the death of the Son of God. 
 
 The Church itself lias continued to maintain that 
 characteristic of hiddenness. It was at first half 
 liidden by lingering Judaical customs ; and after- 
 wards in deserts and caves whither it fled from per- 
 secutions ; and by heresies ; by the irruptions of 
 
76 
 
 barbarians ; by tlie declension of learning ; and in 
 modern times b}^ the multitudes of spurious forms 
 of Cliristianity, wliicli the perversity or pride of man 
 have originated in opposition to it. 
 
 The doctrine of the Trinity, one of the marvels 
 brought to light by the Incarnation, and not re- 
 vealed until after the resurrection, is not directly 
 taught. The presence and agency of the Holy 
 Ghost, in carrying on the work of human salvation 
 begun by Christ, is mysterious. When or where 
 the Gospels were written is unknown. The Sacra- 
 ments still operate invisibly and supernaturally. 
 The Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist is the most 
 precious fruit of the Incarnation. It throws floods 
 of light over all the mysteries of God's three great 
 Xingdoms of ]N"ature, Grace, and Glory. It shows 
 God hidden in His own creation, to give Himself 
 to His creatures. The mystery of the Incarnation 
 is transmuted into it ; and it renews the mystery in 
 us. By it God and man are both reconciled and 
 united. " Short of the Beatific vision, it is of itself 
 the plainest, the surest, the gladdest, and the near- 
 est sight of God which His creatures can enjoy." 
 Yet it is an unfathomable mystery. E'ot only how 
 it operates, but also the fulness of the blessings 
 which flow from it are hidden. '' It doth not yet 
 appear what we shall be ; " we only know that He 
 who ^' eateth" Christ shall live by Him ; and that 
 such only shall rise with Him to eternal life. 
 
 " The deep mystery of man's renewed nature flows 
 out of the mystery of the Incarnation." By one 
 sacrament of His Bodi/j the Churchy we are created 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 77 
 
 anew in Christ Jesus ; bora again of water as our 
 first parent was born from earth. The old creation 
 dies, and has a new life hid in God. St. Paul says, 
 Buried with Christ in baptism. ..." Ye are dead, 
 and your life is hid with Christ in God." And the 
 consummation of creation will be the hiiiUing into 
 God, in One, through the mystical Body of His Son, 
 the whole communion of the elect. 
 
 "We are made new creatures by the same Son of 
 God who first made us men, and by whom the Son 
 of man was made God, by the overshadowing of the 
 Holy Ghost. We receive the Life of the Son of 
 God through the Holy Sacraments, and both of them 
 are earthly means which God now uses as Jesus 
 used the water, clay, and bread, when He was on 
 earth, to heal and feed the multitudes, to perpetuate 
 the blessings of the Incarnation, and to carry on His 
 work of changing mind and matter into His own 
 likeness ; changing mortals into immortals, earthly 
 bodies into heavenly ones ; to make them outlive 
 themselves, and the material globe out of whicli 
 they were created, and " rise on the heaving wreck 
 . of material things." 
 
 The virtues which w^ent out of our Blessed Lord's 
 incarnate Body, when He was on earth, to heal 
 maladies, were a type of that virtue which still goes 
 out of His Body, the Church, through the Blessed 
 Sacraments, to heal the malady of sin. And it is 
 by its means, that our vile bodies are gradually 
 changed into the likeness of Himself. 
 
 It might have been reasonably concluded, by 
 the soundest human judgment, that after our Lord 
 
73 THE mCAENATION ; 
 
 had fulfilled His mission, and established His Divin- 
 ity to His Apostles, which He did during the Forty 
 Days of His Resurrection life, that He would have 
 unveiled all mystery of Himself or Kingdom, so as 
 to make plain the power by which the world was 
 to be converted. This would have given it an im- 
 mense impulse. But He did not. He was seen at 
 but intervals, then only for a moment. 
 
 So also of His Ascension to Heaven ; one would 
 have supposed that He would have called all Judea, 
 at least, to witness it. But He did not. He main- 
 tained to the last the same hiddemiess. The Ascen- 
 sion, " which looked like a closing triumph of the 
 war," was seen only by the eleven Apostles ; and the 
 Church and Sacraments which he instituted to j)er- 
 petuate the benefits of the Incarnation on earth are 
 to this day involved in the same mystery. 
 
 He maintained, from the beginning to the end 
 of His life, and throughout all the institutions of His 
 Kingdom, that characteristic of hiddemiess which 
 has always attended every manifestation of Himself 
 which He has made to man. 
 
 If the human mind cannot fathom the Works and 
 Words of God, much less may it hope to understand 
 the Incarnation of His Only Begotten Son, the un- 
 fathomable act of Redemption. It is the consum- 
 mation of God's visible means of making known to 
 all created minds, in its largest measure, the fulness 
 of His love for them. It is impossible for human 
 minds to compare the works of God one with 
 another, or the Church with any thing on earth. It 
 came from heaven ; it is supernatural, and its Head 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 
 
 T9 
 
 is in heaven. Spiritual beings, who know more of 
 such matters, may do so, and trace all their conneo- 
 Uons as clearly as man does the relations of differ- 
 ent human races, and languages, or the connections 
 and motions of the different planets of our solar sys- 
 tem. As far as man can see, all is complete, con- 
 nected, and perfect. All is harmony. Yet in each 
 one there is much that seems hidden, because it is 
 above his understanding. 
 
 The Church is but one division of a large king- 
 dom. Its greatest numbers are in another world, in 
 Paradise, on their way to Heaven. It looks to man 
 as though his division of the kingdom were isolated 
 and independent, the whole vast result of the Incar- 
 nation ; in the same way the earth seems to have 
 been created for him alone. But in both he is mis- 
 taken. The earth was created to be inhabited, but 
 that is not its most important feature. It was de- 
 signed also to be the Planet of the Incarnation, and 
 man, as an occupant of the world where it takes 
 place, comes in for a share of its blessings. As 
 creation includes all worlds, so, we believe, do the 
 benefits of the Incarnation reach to all worlds. 
 
 There was an ancient war in heaven brought 
 to an end by the Incarnation. It is therefore 
 probable that the effects of the Incarnation were 
 the same in all worlds. We should have no 
 right to so conclude, unless God had spoken on 
 the subject, because His ways are not as our 
 ways. But there are two remarkable texts of 
 Scripture bearing on this point. The one, where 
 the angels announce the Advent of the Son of God 
 
80 THE incarnation; 
 
 into this world, in tlie " well known " words : 
 " Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth 
 jpeace^ good will towards men." The other, which 
 shows that peace was restored in heaven. Before 
 the Incarnation there was war and fightings in 
 heaven, as there are now on earth. And it seems 
 to have acted prospectively there as it did on earth. 
 Here, all who died from Adam to Christ, who be- 
 lieved in a Savionr to come, were saved by faith in 
 His blood, through the covenant of sacrifice, and the 
 later covenants of God prospectively. The revolt 
 of the angels introduced disturbance into heaven, 
 as the fall of man did uj)on earth, and those higher 
 order of beings fought with one another under great 
 leaders, as armies do among men. For how many 
 millions of our years that war was waged, in the 
 cycles of a past eternity, is not revealed. But St. 
 John, the beloved disciple, who best knew the 
 mind of Christ, and the mysteries of God, tells us, 
 that Michael and his angels fought with the devil 
 and his angels, conquered, and cast them out of 
 heaven ; and that he " overcame them by the 
 Blood of the Lamb." And in this case it seems 
 plain that the efiects of the Incarnation were pre- 
 cisely the same in heaven as on earth. 
 
 We cannot understand all that relates to our- 
 selves, in the Incarnation of Christ, much less 
 could we that wliich connects it with the higher 
 order of beings, if it had been revealed. To 
 them, it may appear to have taken place with 
 exclusive reference to themselves, and that man's 
 salvation is but a subordinate result of its su- 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 81 
 
 pernal fulness. Just as on liigli gala days when 
 earthly kings confer pardon on great criminals, 
 so also, in the plenitude of their bounty, do they 
 release also many criminals of an inferior or- 
 der. It is the perfection and wisdom of God's 
 works that they seem complete to all ranks. To 
 attempt to limit God's designs to what we know or 
 can learn of His Revelations by our own under- 
 standings, "would be presumption, and would be 
 wanting in that deep reverence which all the ves- 
 tiges of God are calculated to excite, and would be 
 contrary to the spirit of adoration which all intelli- 
 gent research into the Divine ways necessarily brings 
 along with it." 
 
 But the greatest marvel of the Incarnation, so 
 far as man is interested, is the power which has 
 been intrusted to him to perpetuate this miraculous 
 union begun with God and man in our Blessed 
 Lord. As rulers of the kingdom He established, He 
 gave them the same power He received from the 
 Father, " AS My Father hath sent Me, SO send I 
 you," to draw out this kingdom by your successors 
 to the world's end ; to carry on the work of Eedemp- 
 tion begun in the Incarnation. And the spiritual 
 work is wrought in the same hidden way, and by 
 means of the same Holy Spirit who began the In- 
 carnation. Day and night without ceasing, in dif- 
 ferent quarters of the globe, the sacramental offices 
 of the Church are being said by men, and new souls 
 born again to Christ, and God and the elements of 
 bread and wine united. And in both cases, pre- 
 cisely as at the beginning of the Incarnation, by the 
 4* 
 
82 THE incarnation; 
 
 entrance of God into His own creatures. Then two 
 natures united ; so now, the Holy Spirit descends 
 on the baptized person to abide with him ; and the 
 bread and wine, though after consecration are still 
 bread and wine, have a new^ principle added to 
 them, which is the Life of God. By both Sacra- 
 ments the Life of God is received into the soul. 
 They make a perfect union between man and God ; 
 of course only when the conditions prescribed by 
 God are complied with. It is the highest of all de- 
 votions, of all unions, and all mysteries ; " The 
 greatest work of God, and the Sabbath of all His 
 works ; for there the Creator's love, and wisdom, and 
 jDOwer find their rest." Thus we see how creation 
 was all for Jesus, and, so far as man's temporal and 
 spiritual state is concerned, all terminates in Jesus. 
 The Incarnation " is the triumph of Creation, 
 the trium]3h of Redemption, the triumph of the 
 sacred humanity of Jesus, the triumph of the Holy 
 and Undivided Trinity," bringing man back from 
 the power of Satan, and restoring order in heaven 
 and throughout a sin-defiled universe. 
 
 In the life the Son of God lived in the flesh, man 
 sees the examj^le of a sinless being ; sees how he 
 would have acted had he remained unfallen ; sees 
 the original design of creation, so far as his race is 
 concerned, carried to completion in a single indi- 
 vidual, the life of the Holy One shining through the 
 veil of flesh. He was the first jperfected fruit ; the 
 beginning and fully accomplished design of crea- 
 tion ; the entrance of God into His own works. 
 
 Jesus, being the first fruits of that union, was 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 83 
 
 the type of all similar unions. And the crown- 
 ing glory and mystery of the Incarnation is the 
 Blessed Sacrament, by which its fruits are per- 
 petuated on earth. Jesus Jiid Himself in the 
 flesh, that man might receive through His Body 
 and Blood, after a heavenly and spiritual man- 
 ner, the life of his Creator, the Only Begotten Son 
 of God, and become immortal like Him. Here 
 creation ends. It cannot rise above God. Death 
 takes this immortalized and sanctifled soul from the 
 earth to another world in Paradise, to wait for a 
 further revelation of God, even the knowledge of 
 His now hidden nature. At the Resurrection it 
 w411 know God even as it is known by Him. By 
 the same law, though the process doubtless differs 
 in different worlds, the Incarnation is working the 
 expulsion of moral evil from all worlds but Hell, 
 and the regeneration of the universe. All things 
 will be "very good " in the end, as they were at the 
 beginning, and God will again rejoice in the works 
 of His own creation. 
 
 We read in the Words of God of the goings forth 
 of the Father Everlasting. The three Revelations 
 man has may be examples of a series of such goings 
 forth, which are registered in the archives of eter- 
 nity. This world owes its being and all that it has 
 that is great, and noble, and good, to these Revela- 
 tions. It looks forward to all that it expects, which 
 is wonderful and glorious, to another such going 
 forth as God has promised at the second coming of 
 the Son to judge this world. 
 
 The Incarnation " was from the first an inten- 
 
84 
 
 tional part of the immense mercj of creation, and 
 did not merely take occasion from sin." All the 
 beauty and bounty of creation is involved in it. 
 By and For and From Jesus are all things. "When 
 the Incarnation was ended, Jesus said, " It is fin- 
 ished." The Son of God is " so bound up with the 
 whole of creation, with Mature, Grace and Glory ; 
 with tlie past, present and future, with God's beha- 
 vior to us, and our relations with Him, that it is 
 impossible to extract the Incarnation from creation 
 in the present dispensation of God." 
 
 And it is the germ of the last grand act of the 
 present creation, out of which a new eternal heavens 
 and earth are to come. As all things in nature are 
 renewed by death, so do the Holy Scriptures teach 
 that worlds are destined to pass through similar 
 changes in their progress to perfection. The mys- 
 terious shadows of the Incarnation throw themselves 
 forward to the very evening of time ; and God does 
 not intend they shall disapjDear until the morning 
 when a new epoch of eternity shall begin in the 
 entire renovation of the universe. " It has a na- 
 tionality above all the little nationalities of geog- 
 raphy, government or blood. It has thrown down 
 on earth the partition walls of tribes, kindreds and 
 nations, and made Jew and Greek, Barbarian, Scy- 
 thian, bond and free, into one heavenly nation, one 
 complete family in Jesus Christ the Head." And 
 it will eventually throw down the partition wall of 
 worlds and systems, and bring all the holy and re- 
 deemed children of God into one universal empire 
 under the one, once Incarnate Head, Jesus Christ. 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 85 
 
 Thus it is seen that the Incarnation is one of 
 God's means for perfecting creation ; for working 
 np the mind and matter of the nniverse into glori- 
 fied, sinless and immortal beings. There was no 
 more accusation in heaven, and no more danger of 
 revolt there, after the Incarnation had wrought its 
 effectual work ; so also will it be with each human 
 soul when it enters Paradise ; it will be freed from 
 fear, from sin, and from danger of falling from God. 
 
 ^"either of the other Eevelations can be under- 
 stood without the Incarnation ; and neither of the 
 others open up such deep, glorious and magnificent 
 views of the Creator as this ; and, more especially, 
 man could not understand either of the others in 
 relation to himself until after it had taken place. 
 
 The Person who assumed the flesh, the conse- 
 quences of its assumption to man, and its final 
 results, are the sublimest mysteries in the universe. 
 It is not a^j>«<92^ events but ever present, a continuous 
 " living life " of God, abiding on earth and in man, 
 as the means of his connection with God and His 
 Kingdom of Glory. " On earth as well as in 
 heaven Jesus Himself is the Present Centre round 
 which all the elements of the world of the Incarna- 
 tion are perj)etually revolving." He is called 
 " the Sun of Kighteousness," and so must illumine 
 all worlds where Kighteousness exists. He is the 
 source of all holiness on earth ; the Life of each 
 Christian, and of the whole Church : Head over all 
 things to the Church, which includes " principali- 
 ties and powers in heavenly places," and the as- 
 sembly of tlie first born, and all the sons of God. 
 
86 THE incarnation; 
 
 He was the Alpha, and will be the Omega in fin- ' 
 ishing the work of creation. When the heavens 
 and the earth have accomplished the Divine pur- 
 poses, filled up the number of the elect in the one, 
 and completed the Kingdom of Glory in the other, 
 then, the present creation being no longer needed, 
 will be burned up. When Christ comes again there 
 is to be a wonderful change. St. Peter says of the 
 present matter, that "the heavens shall pass away 
 with a great noise, and the elements shall melt 
 with fervent heat ; the earth also, and the works 
 that are therein shall be burned up." And he 
 speaks of all these things as being " dissolved^ 
 And St. Paul says that ''tlie Saviour, the Lord 
 Jesus, shall change our vile body, that it may be 
 fashioned like unto His glorious body," and in that 
 our spirits will live for ever. 
 
 By the Incarnation of the Son of God man learns 
 that He has an eternal life ; a life which, though 
 connected with a body that came out of the earth, 
 will outlive it, and be young and immortal when 
 creation shall have accomplished its destiny, and 
 been blotted from space. " For the Kingdom, the 
 Glory and the Power of this world, and all other 
 worlds, past, present and to come, belong to Him 
 who spared not His Only-Begotten Son, but freely 
 gave Him for us, and will with Him freely give us 
 all things." 
 
 A blessed effect of the Incarnation was felt in 
 other worlds by putting an end to the probationary 
 condition of the angels. The power of Satan to 
 tempt them was destroyed by the coming of our 
 
LIFE OF GOD. 87 
 
 Saviour ; so that in this sense He was their Saviour 
 also. He was overcome and cast out of heaven by 
 the blood of the Lamb. 
 
 Every stage of progress man makes in knowl- 
 edge of the Incarnation is a disclosure of more of 
 the grace and glory of God, and the grand result of 
 his entrance into a future life will be the unveiling 
 of the mystery of the Incarnation. 
 
88 THE GOSPEL A MYSTEEY. 
 
 CHAPTEK y. 
 
 THE GOSPEL A JVIYSTERY. 
 
 " "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery." 
 
 St. Paul. 
 
 By the Gospel is here meant the whole Kew Testa- 
 ment. It has three parts : the History of the In- 
 carnation ; its influence on the world for the first 
 century ; and the Apocalyptic Eevelation of its final 
 efifects on the universe. 
 
 The Old Testament is a history of the beginning 
 and development of a new physical race of beings ; 
 the ISTew is the history of the beginning and partial 
 development of a new moral race of creatures, 
 created anew in Christ Jesus. The original crea- 
 
 * St. Paul, in a remarkable manner, intimates the connection be- 
 tween Creation and the Gospel. He says the design of the Gospel is 
 " to make all men see what is the fellon'ship of the mystery, which from 
 the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all 
 things by Jesus Christ." 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 89 
 
 tion of man was short and easy, by the will and 
 Word of God. But the second creation was through 
 the sorrow and sufferings, the bloody sweat and 
 agonizing death of the same Word ; on Him was 
 built the new creation, the new kingdom, created 
 out of the former, but reneioed in Christ. 
 
 Our Blessed Lord told His disciples it was 
 expedient that He should go away, or the Com- 
 forter would not come. It was better, because He 
 was to inspire them to write the Gospel, which the 
 world otherwise would not have had ; better, be- 
 cause Christ's bodily presence could be in but one 
 place at a time ; while the Holy Spirit is every 
 where over all the world, and in the soul of every 
 believer at the same time ; better because He was 
 going to prepare places for them in heaven. Both 
 the descent of the Holy Spirit and the Gospel He 
 inspired the disciples to write, are sequences of the 
 Incarnation. 
 
 The Gospel teaches that the highest object of 
 the Incarnation was to make known God's love. 
 '^ God so loved the world that He gave His Only 
 Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life." The 
 Gospel is the complete revelation of this doctrine, 
 made by the Holy Ghost, after our Lord's ascension 
 to heaven, when the necessity for concealing the 
 Incarnation was removed. 
 
 The Holy Ghost then descended to abide on 
 earth. This restored the connection between heaven 
 and earth, and God and man. The Spirit of God 
 who is in heaven is on earth, directing the whole 
 
90 THE GOSPEL A MYSTEEY. 
 
 Chnrcli and dwelling in eacli regenerate soul. The 
 life of God which was in the Son of man was there 
 by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. It was 
 the type of human regeneration. The life of Jesus 
 is the life of God. His own words are, " He who 
 hath seen Me hath seen the Father." And he who 
 reads His life in the Gospel reads the life of God, 
 for He must live the same life in the flesh that He 
 does in the Spirit ; and he sees there what sort of a 
 life, so far as its benevolence and holiness are re- 
 vealed, all mankind would have led if sin had never 
 entered the world. And he who follows the exam- 
 ple of Christ, having been regenerated by the Holy 
 Ghost, has the life of God, and is so far like Him as 
 he is conformed to His Son. Thus the Gospel 
 teaches how creation is completed by the Incarna- 
 tion in the bodies of mortal man. 
 
 The explanation, like the Author of it and all 
 His works, is a mystery. It is a secret of God ; and 
 while it explains some of the mysteries of the Old 
 Testament, it utters new ones of its own. It is a 
 mystery wdien, where, and how^ it was written ; how 
 it prevailed over the world ; and its doctrines of 
 the Incarnation, the Trinity, the Resurrection, the 
 Ascension, the Holy Ghost, and especially its Apoc- 
 alypse, which contains a prophetical history of the 
 Church to the world's end, are all mysterious. In- 
 deed, all it reveals would have been unknown but 
 for Christ ; and possibly man could not have guessed 
 wdiy the life of Christ, the Founder of the Gospel, 
 was mysterious, which, when explained, is so easily 
 understood, without the reason given by St. Paul : 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 91 
 
 " Which none of the princes of this world knew, for 
 had they known it, they would not have crucified 
 the Lord of Glory." If His Godhead had been re- 
 vealed it would have thwarted the very purpose of 
 His great sacrificial mission. 
 
 The Gospel was written from five to fifteen 
 hundred years later than the Old Testament, by men 
 without earthly culture, yet the sentiments are the 
 same as in the Old, and the words of God's Spirit 
 are delivered in the same hidden w\^y that the words 
 of His Son were in the Old. They are not only 
 perfectly consistent, but all the peculiarities of the 
 Old Testament are discernible in the I^ew. 
 
 The internal evidence of the two parts of Divine 
 revelation indicates a common origin, and that they 
 are the product of One Mind. The Gospel shows 
 that the prophecies of the Old Testament were ful- 
 filled in the same mysterious manner in which they 
 were delivered. The former foretold that Christ 
 would be born in Bethlehem, and He was ; yet the 
 latter states that He seemedj to His contemporaries to 
 be a Nazarene or Galilean. The writers of the Is'ew 
 Testament manifest the same majestic indifference 
 to criticism that the prophets did ; the same bold- 
 ness in reproving sin ; the same freedom in speaking 
 of their humble condition, weakness and failings. 
 Ko other such biography or narrative was ever 
 written by man. It gives the deepest insight into 
 the character and springs of action of its Eepresen- 
 tative Men, of St. John, St. Peter and St. Paul, of 
 Judas and Pilate, such as no man can give of his 
 most intimate friends. 
 
92 THE GOSPEL A MYSTEKY. 
 
 The liistoiy of the Life and Times of onr Lord 
 is the masterpiece of human writing. All that He 
 said and did is there embodied with astonishing 
 vividness. Though His infancy was hidden in 
 Egypt, his youth in ISTazareth, and His active life 
 lasted but three years, no man who ever lived has 
 left such a full and satisfactory account of Himself 
 and His teaching. The New Testament takes us 
 into the hearts and homes of the men of that 
 generation, and shows them in all the trials, 
 sufferings and duties of life, so plainly and con- 
 cisely, that now, after eighteen centuries of pro- 
 gress, there is no man living who could express 
 these things like the Evangelists and Apostles of 
 Christ. And no candid mind will deny, that men 
 of so little culture could not have so written unless 
 they had been moved, as they say they were, by 
 the Spirit of the Creator of man's spirit. 
 
 It surpasses all other books in the purity and 
 justice of its maxims ; in its summaries of human 
 duty ; in its truths relating to the highest human 
 interests ; in the brevity with which they are ex- 
 pressed ; and in the beauty of their imagery. It 
 contains a larger amount of pure ethical knowledge 
 tlian any other book in the world; reveals facts 
 which none but God could, and in the manner the 
 best adapted to touch the heart and conscience, the 
 imagination and soul of man. 
 
 There is also a remarkable correspondence in 
 the difficulties of both revelations. The Gospel, 
 unlike the Old Testament, has never had immoral- 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 93 
 
 ity laid to its charge, yet it lias difficulties wliicli 
 the unbelieving find it as hard to reconcile. But 
 God is consistent with Himself in all things. He 
 has hidings here as every where else. The discre- 
 pancies are not vital. For example, Matthew and 
 Mark say the robbers who were crucified with our 
 Lord reviled Him ; while Luke says only one did 
 so. The two former may have written from hear- 
 say, the latter may have been present and heard 
 for himself. The difference is of no consequence, 
 and all are agreed on the important point, that He 
 was reviled on the Cross by one who w^as crucified 
 with Him. 
 
 A similar discrepancy occurs respecting the 
 time the devil made the ofi'er of all the world to our 
 Lord, if He would worship him. Matthew repre- 
 sents it as after he had taken Him into a mountain 
 and shown Him all the glory of the world ; and 
 Luke places it after the temptation to cast Himself 
 from the pinnacle of the temple. Both agree as to 
 the main facts of our Lord's tem2:)tation and resist- 
 ance ; the detail is of no consequence. 
 
 Matthew, Mark and Luke, say that the Baptist 
 knew onr Lord when He came to be baptized ; and 
 John says he knew Him not until the Holy Ghost 
 descended on Him. It doubtless means that he 
 knew him not as the Ifessias. The main fact of the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost is jointly witnessed by 
 all of them. 
 
 This want of harmony in the detail of the narra- 
 tive, is one of the best evidences the world has of 
 
94 THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 
 
 the geniiineness and autlienticity of the Gospels, and 
 that there was no concert aniong the writers to 
 make their narratives agree. They are such as con- 
 stantly occnr in all honest w^riters, and in all testi- 
 mony given in courts of justice by the best meaning 
 honest men. It shows that they were honest men, 
 and faithfully recorded exactly what they heard, 
 and saw, and believed to be true. 
 
 This obscurity in spiritual matters is like the 
 difficulties we meet in natural things. The growth 
 of grain is a mystery, but this does not prevent our 
 raising and living on it. It is no just cause of 
 complaint. The Creator has an unquestionable 
 right to encompass His works with laws to please 
 Himself. Neither is the obscurity of the Gospel 
 any bar to our happiness. Indeed, in both cases, 
 instead of being an objection, it is cause for thank- 
 fulness. The exercise of the mind in searching into 
 the secrets of the natural world, into their unspeak- 
 able beauty and fitness to accomplish the Creator's 
 designs, is one of man's sweetest earthly enjoyments. 
 So also is it in the spiritual world. The study ne- 
 qessary to comprehend the hidden truth of tlie 
 Gospel sharpens the intellectual faculties, and 
 awakens the truest delight. 
 
 AVhat is plain in the Gospel secures tlie happi- 
 ness of all w^ho practise it. The mysteries teach us 
 that God is infinite, and the investigation of them 
 expands our souls. The little clues of Divine Wis- 
 dom we get hold of fill us with delight, and awaken 
 the assurance that, by and by, death will rend the 
 veil, and we shall see how they were ordained for 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 95 
 
 our glory. Here the study elevates us and lifts the 
 mind to clearer perceptions of spiritual things, and 
 of God Himself. 
 
 The title " Light of the World," given to our 
 Blessed Lord in the Gospel, affords another remark- 
 able analogy between the natural and spiritual 
 things. The introduction of light into our solar sys- 
 tem was an important part of creation. The bring- 
 ing of life and immortality to light was a not less 
 important part of Kedemption. Both are involved 
 in impenetrable mystery. And a sunbeam, com- 
 posed of heat, light, and actinism, is as great a mys- 
 ter}^ as the adorable Trinity, which existed in the 
 one ray of moral light and perfection let down from 
 heaven in God's Eternal Son. And there is another 
 remarkable analogy between these two mysterious 
 powers. As the dawning sunlight did not dispel 
 all the darkness from our system, but left half of 
 its planets always in darkness, which continually 
 mixes with and obscures the light ; so also lias the 
 Sun of Righteousness diffused only light enough to 
 partially dispel the moral darkness of its inhabi- 
 tants. If the analogy be carried to its conclusion, 
 then, as our sun liglitens its whole system of worlds, 
 so must the Sun of Righteousness the system to 
 which He belongs, which is the whole universe of 
 God. 
 
 Before man or his world were created God had 
 planned the law ; yea, God has had but one law 
 from everlasting, by which man was to be governed 
 in time and eternity. K it w^ere true of the Old 
 Testament tliat il was part of a universal law, much 
 
96 
 
 THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 
 
 more is it of tlie JN'ew. The great central idea of 
 the Gospel is love : " Grocl is love." This is the basis 
 of all His revelations to man. It must be also of 
 all His revelations throughout the universe, be- 
 cause it is the nature of God, only it is modified to 
 suit the various conditions of His creatures. 
 
 The Gospel is another and fuller view of the 
 great moral law revealed by God for the govern- 
 ment of the universe. He is unchangeable from 
 everlasting to everlasting, and so must His law be. 
 Its internal evidence sanctions this opinion. Some 
 of its chants, and hymns, and doxologies are in the 
 actual words received from the angels, or said to be 
 used in the worship of God in heaven. Some of 
 its doctrines the angels desire to look into, and, like 
 ourselves, cannot. God can represent Himself to 
 spirits with no other attributes than He does to us, 
 as a Spirit, the Spirit of Love. These facts are evi- 
 dences of the universality of the truth of the Gos- 
 pel. The praise and adoration which it requires of 
 man, God demands from all intelligent beings in 
 the universe. 
 
 The Decalogue and ceremonial law, so far as 
 they related to earthly things, were designed spe- 
 cially for man in his present state. Yet the latter 
 was made after a heavenly pattern, and some of 
 the laws of the "Two Tables " are of a mixed char- 
 acter, suited to spirits as well as men. The first 
 commandment, " Thou shalt have no other God but 
 me," is of universal obligation. That some of the 
 doctrines of the Gospel are beyond the capacity of 
 the largest human minds to grasp is another proof 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 97 
 
 that they are part of a system embracing higher 
 orders of beings. If it related only to man, and had 
 nothing above his reason, he might well donbt 
 whether there were any beiiig in the universe su- 
 perior to himself, and, in his present fallen state, 
 conclude that nature was the result of chance, and 
 man its most marvellous production. 
 
 The Gospel is the w^isdom of God, the Creator 
 of the world, because it speaks knowingly of all 
 that belongs to it, and of its final destiny. "VYhat it 
 says of its destruction is rendered in the highest de- 
 gree probable by the combustible nature of which 
 science teaches its material is composed. And 
 whether viewed practically or speculatively it con- 
 tains the highest wisdom. Wisdom is the highest 
 attribute of intelligent beings, and that of the Gos- 
 pel is the highest known to man. It reveals things 
 of a future life and world, before unknown to man, 
 and which he never could have discovered without 
 it ; hence it must be from the God who created 
 man. Obedience to its laws makes man happy ; 
 hence it must be from God the Creator of the world, 
 who represents Himself as man's Father. Its prin- 
 ciples are founded on perfect justice and goodness ; 
 hence it must be the work of the one only true God, 
 the Father Everlasting. He revealed it to make 
 Himself known to man. Its great aim is to unfold, 
 so far as man in his present state can understand it, 
 the Divine justice and mercy, and goodness and 
 love. These were dimly shadowed forth to Adam 
 after the fall; substantially covenanted to Abra- 
 ham ; ceremonially brought to view with the Israel 
 5 
 
98 THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 
 
 ites ; prospectively developed in the Theocracy ; 
 illumined by the prophets ; and at last burst forth 
 in the full splendor of their glory in the life and 
 immortality brought to liglit in the Gospel, when 
 creation was finished so far as man is concerned, in 
 the revelation of the kingdom not of this world, in 
 wdiich man with all the children of God can enjoy 
 His love, and glory, and rest. Thus the Gospel 
 shows the Incarnation to be the finishing act of 
 creation. 
 
 It is the wisdom of God, the Creator, because it 
 is superior to all other real or pretended revelations 
 man has ever had. It makes known more fully 
 than was ever before known the Infinite goodness 
 of God ; and the Infinite plan which He devised by 
 the death of His Only Begotten Son to make that 
 goodness known. It is the wisdom of God, because 
 obedience to its precepts produces the highest happi- 
 ness of which human nature is capable, because it 
 assures it of the resurrection of the body and eter- 
 nal life ; and because it makes known the eternity 
 and omnipotence, the wisdom and love of the Di- 
 vine Being, and that He governs the planets and 
 controls the afi'airs of men : and that the kin^rdom 
 of God on earth is destined to become a part of the 
 consolidated government of the Father Everlasting, 
 in which man will live and reign with Him for ever. 
 
 St. Paul calls this wisdom of God the " unsearcliT 
 able riches of Christ," ^ because the central fact of 
 
 * Gal. i., 12, says it is not in man, but he received it by Reve- 
 lation from God. 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 99 
 
 it is, that God gave Him to die for the world. Al- 
 though we know not all the blessings which it has 
 wroiight for man, yet we learn something of '' the 
 fellowsUiJ of the mystery which from the beginning 
 of the world hath been hid in God,'' . . . which is, 
 that, as God is in Christ, so is Christ in man, a part 
 of him, through union with His Body the Church ; 
 " to the intent, that 7iow tmto the ^principalities 
 and- powers in heavenly jplaces might be known 
 by THE Church the manifold wisdom of God."* 
 This establishes the fact that it is a part erf a reve- 
 lation to higher orders of beings than man, and 
 must necessarily contain some things incomprehen- 
 sible to the lower orders, as it declares it does some 
 unknown to the higher, f 
 
 This is no objection to the Kevelation, It shows 
 that its Author is what He represents Himself, an 
 Infinite Being. It is designed to elevate and edu- 
 cate man to live with higher orders of beings. It 
 is reasonable to believe that as things exist, this 
 could be done in no other way than by an educa- 
 tion based on the study of such superior wisdom. 
 It is also an evidence that that which man has is a 
 part of all the Revelation which God has made to 
 all the universe ; that much of what is obscure to 
 him is probably plain to the higher orders, and will 
 be so to him when he passes to a future life, for 
 which he was created, and for which the mysteries 
 of the Gospel are now educating him. 
 
 The mysteries are not objectionable, because 
 
 * Eph. iii. 9, 10. t 1 ^^^' ^' ^2- 
 
100 THE GOSPEL A MYSTEKT. 
 
 they do not j^i'e^ent the full enjoyment of all the 
 blessings of the Revelation. The analogies of this 
 world show this. The man who does not understand 
 the principles of the steam-engine shares as largely 
 in its benefits as he who does. We are as happy 
 with our present capacity, if we live up to the law 
 of the Gospel, as we should be if we comprehended 
 all its mysteries. It is delivered in this manner for 
 our good, and, instead of being a cause of com- 
 plaint, should be one of thankfulness. Only that 
 which is superior to reason cannot draw out its 
 highest powers ; and God has planned this mystery 
 with direct reference to the development of the 
 human soul. 
 
 Indeed mysteries lie along the pathway of all 
 knowledge. There is no progress for man but by 
 and through the resolution of mysteries. In the 
 natural as well as spiritual world he who best ap- 
 plies his mind to the understanding of their myste- 
 ries becomes the wisest. 
 
 There is enough revealed, which is practical, to 
 raise man to the highest condition of spiritual en- 
 lightenment and moral purity of which his fallen 
 nature is capable ; enough to do this can be under- 
 stood by the humblest. And the ablest and most 
 studious are alike compelled to admit, that is the 
 wisdom of God too deep for man to fathom. 
 
 The revelation God has made of Himself in the 
 Gospel, that He " is a Spirit," must be the same 
 which He has made to all intelligent beings. This 
 is an evidence of the universality of its fundamental 
 truths. To spirits their own nature may not be 
 
THE GOSPEL A ISIYSTEEY. 101 
 
 mysterious ; but a spirit is independent of visi- 
 ble objects, and man cannot conceive of a being 
 " without body, parts, or passions," and has no ob- 
 ject of comparison, except his own spirit, of 
 which he really knows nothing more than he does 
 of God. 
 
 It is then reasonable to conclude, that the Gos- 
 pel was so delivered on account of the nature of both 
 God and man ; because it is part of the general law 
 of the universe, and because in this way only would 
 it control man. The reverence he feels for his 
 Creator is caused mainly by the superiority he dis- 
 covers in Him. Without obscurity there will be no 
 inquiry, and without inquiry there will be neither 
 awe nor adoration. Man's interest in spiritual 
 things depends entirely on their mystery ; his men- 
 tal and moral elevation depends mainly on it, and 
 to wish all things which come from God otheriuise^ 
 would be to desire our own degradation. 
 
 If there were nothing more to be discovered in 
 art or science there would be an end to human en- 
 terprise and progress. If there were but two per- 
 sons in the world who understood the principle of 
 the steam-engine, or the electric telegraph, millions 
 would daily speculate about the mystery ; multi- 
 tudes know, and they excite neither wonder nor in- 
 terest. It would soon be the same with the mys- 
 teries of religion if they could be fathomed as easily. 
 It is man's nature to lightly esteem whatever is not 
 superior to himself. It is because his soul is immor- 
 tal ; because he has within him the Spirit of God ; 
 and because he is destined to a higher state of ex- 
 
102 THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 
 
 istence, that nothing earthly satisfies him. Thus 
 analogy and human observation confirm the words 
 of the Apostle, that the Gospel is the wisdom of 
 God, of God the Father of man, because it is 
 adapted to his nature, which no one but his Crea- 
 tor could so thoroughly know. 
 
 Make the mysteries of the Gospel as familiar as 
 the engine and telegraph, and they would neither 
 be adapted to control nor elevate man. So that hu- 
 man reason discerns that it is the wisdom of God 
 and why it was so given. Another use of the mys- 
 tery is to keep him humble. It corrects pride, 
 which is one of the prolific sources of sin in all 
 intelligent beings. It says to pride of reason, these 
 simple truths of thy God are unfathomable by thee ; 
 these are the boundaries of all thy might of intel- 
 lect, here it must stop. 
 
 Because man is conscious of an immortal nature, 
 and that the narrow boundaries of earth and time 
 are not the limits of his being, he is constantly prone 
 to pride. Hence God has gi^^en him a revelation to 
 meet this tendency of his fallen nature, as a means 
 to restrain him, and as a safeguard against its weak- 
 ness. Pride, the desire to be like God, brought 
 death and ruin upon our world, and it is by humbling 
 pride that man rises above the power of death into 
 an immortal life in a future world. He has an in- 
 satiable thirst for all knowledge, reaching far be- 
 yond his present state, to the one for which he was 
 created. But he cannot be satisfied here. God 
 requires him to be content with what He has re- 
 vealed, which he can understand ; and tells him if 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 103 
 
 lie will meekly obey it, it will conduct him to 
 heaven, the home of his God, and the fountain of 
 all knowledge ; to a state and world vastly superior 
 to the one lost by Adam's sin. 
 
 The Gospel in a mystery is gradually training 
 man for a full understanding of the unveiled myste- 
 ries of God which are reserved to complete his 
 future haj)piness. " E'ow," says St. Paul, " we see 
 through a glass darkly ; " but hereafter we shall see 
 as we are seen, and know as we are known. At 
 death we shall enter on a higher and eternal state 
 of being, and the effect is to prepare the mind for 
 a full knowledge of all that is now mysterious. It 
 is doubtless essential to our happiness there, that 
 here we go through this elementary training for a 
 world where all things are mysterious to a being 
 like man. By the partial revelation of these things 
 in the Works and Words of God, He is fitting us to 
 behold " the hidden glories of His nature, and to be 
 transported with a nobler kind of wonder ; not the 
 result of ignorance, but the product of a clearer and 
 more advanced knowledge." A part of the bliss 
 of heaven will consist in studying the Works and 
 AYords of God, one of which " was ordained before 
 the world unto our glory." 
 
 In man's present fallen state faith increases his 
 knowledge and enlarges his capacity to comprehend. 
 But hereafter, when he reaches the world of glory, 
 faith will be lost in sight, and he will see God in 
 the fulness of His Infinite Wisdom. 
 
 But the greatest advantage of the mystery is its 
 quickening power on the intellect ; nothing else so 
 
104: THE GOSPEL A MYSTERY. 
 
 touclies tlie liuman soul. An Apostle says, It is 
 sharper than a two-edged sword, and is the sword 
 of God's Spirit. Its study exerts a powerful influ- 
 ence on man's spirit. It is the great fertilizer of his 
 moral and spiritual being. The soul ripens under 
 its light as the trees unfold their flowers and ripen 
 their fruits under the mysterious power of simlight. 
 Jesus said, " I am the Light of the World ; " and, 
 again, " The words that I speak unto you, they are 
 Spirit, and they are life." 
 
 Whatever man knows of the infinite or of the 
 future has come from God. As in his spiritual na- 
 ture he is the child and image of God, so also, so far 
 as he can understand and practise the Gospel does 
 he become like God, who is the sublimest mystery 
 in the universe. From this wisdom of God in the 
 mystery of the Gospel continually radiates a Divine 
 force which tells upon human character and destiny. 
 Whatever is noble or elevated in man is the result 
 of his resemblance to God. And the more he 
 studies the Gospel the more he understands the 
 wonderful wisdom of its Author, and the more is he 
 changed into His moral likeness, and fitted for His 
 Presence. The Life of Jesus Christ recorded there 
 is the Life of God. " There is no longer doubt what 
 God is like ; for God is like Jesus Christ. He who 
 has seen Jesus Christ, as his character stands in the 
 Gospel, has seen God the Father. Man can now 
 be like God, for there was once a man on earth, 
 Jesus, the Son of the Blessed Yirgin, who was per- 
 fectly like God. And He was like God, because 
 He was God, and because He was God for that 
 
THE GOSPEL A MYSTEKY. 105 
 
 very reason," and for that reason only man can be- 
 come like Him. 
 
 Such are some of the reasons, nses, and practical 
 effects of the mystery of the Gospel. It is every 
 way adaj)ted to man's nature, and every way worthy 
 the wisdom and love of that Beneficent Being who 
 condescends to allow us to address Him as our Fa- 
 ther, and who is our Creator and God. As a whole 
 it is new and admirable proof of the Divinity of 
 man's origin and nature, and of the connection of 
 himself, his revelation, and his world with all the 
 intelligent beings of the universe. And it is another 
 link in the chain of mind and matter, of power and 
 labor, which binds them all in a sublime unity in 
 the Creator. 
 
 The circumstantial and internal evidence of the 
 authenticity of the New Testament is sufficient to 
 satisfy every reasonable mind. It was written by 
 different men, in different countries, during an in- 
 terval of three quarters of a century. And being 
 brought together and bound into one volume, they 
 jointly show that one spirit and one motive ani- 
 mated all the writers, and that they all wrote under 
 the direction of one mind, which was pure and 
 holy. There is but one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of 
 God the Creator ; and to suppose that so many 
 men should have so written, all the circumstances 
 oeing considered, except by the direction of God's 
 Spirit, which they expressly declare was the case, 
 is to suppose a greater miracle than any recorded 
 in their writings. 
 
 5* 
 
106 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 " Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool." 
 
 The Prophet Isaiah. 
 
 These words of God are found in both the Old and 
 the New Testament. To those who have clear and 
 enlarged views of the Creator, they hardly s-eem 
 like figurative language. But, whatever they may 
 be, they teach that an entire unity exists between 
 these, to man, seemingly separate parts of creation. 
 The earth is but a globule of the universe, eight 
 thousand miles in diameter, and twenty-five thou- 
 sand in circumference, travelling round the sun with 
 the electrical force and speed of sixty-eight thousand 
 miles an hour, and revolving on its axis a thousand 
 miles an hour. These rates, which seem to be 
 enormous, are comparatively slow ; the one only 
 eight and a half times the length of its diameter 23er 
 hour, and the other only one twenty-fifth part of 
 its circumference in the same time. These complex 
 motions are perfectly harmonious, and produce all 
 the agreeable changes of the seasons, and of day and 
 
THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 107 
 
 night. It occupies no prominent place in the sys- 
 tem to which it belongs, and is pliysically an unim- 
 portant part of it. 
 
 If we descend from generalities to what is par- 
 ticularly known of God's works on earth, and from 
 which all knowledge of other worlds must be mainly 
 inferred, we find ourselves riding on a huge oblate 
 spheroid of land and water, "just on the confines of 
 solid and fluid, so commingled as to subserve or- 
 ganic and specially human life." Its land and water 
 both teem with living creatures, and each is mu- 
 tually adapted to the other, and '' it is specially 
 beautiful because specially habitable." Since 
 science has rendered it probable that the moon is 
 uninhabited, men have lost all interest in her. 
 
 The earth appears to be the paradise, or garden 
 of the solar system to which it belongs, in fitness 
 for the abode of physical beings ; and the sight, 
 sound and motion of its living things, are its chief 
 charm and beauty. Its animal and vegetable life, 
 its mineral and inorganic matter, are " full of beau- 
 tiful fitness, giving out mute laws which science 
 expresses, as if they were strophes of a hymn to 
 God ; " as though the earth and all things u]3on it 
 were worshipping the Father Everlasting. Tliey 
 unitedly show that this world was created specially 
 for man, and fitted up for him as lord of the earth, 
 and " the younger brother of the Incarnate Word." 
 Here also, as in God's Word and greater Works, are 
 many mysteries, doctrines of matter, and among the 
 greatest of them is the mystery of man's own being. 
 
 There are discernible every w^iere on earth traces 
 
108 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 of tlie same Divine wisdom and mystery whicli are 
 seen in the vast whole of Creation, in Kevelation 
 and the Incarnation. Every where the prints of the 
 mind of the One, only true God, are discernible. 
 All things on earth, viewed in detail, whether in 
 the invisible operations of organized life, or in the 
 fitness of physical things, manifest the wonderful 
 wisdom and mechanism of the Divine Mind. They 
 are in perfect harmony with all that we know of 
 Him. They give no account of their beginning or 
 history, and give no clue by which to discover how 
 long they are to last. Although all these things and 
 their mode of reproduction are mysteries, yet they 
 were evidently created with reference to the devel- 
 opment, happiness and progress of man. The lin- 
 gering remnants of glorious beauty which yet are 
 found on it, witness to the truth of the Bible, that 
 it was originally created for beings in a state of 
 grace. 
 
 ISTo cause is discoverable in reason or revelation 
 why the earth should be the theatre of the display 
 of any more Divine wisdom, goodness or power than 
 any other world. This gives unmistakable evi- 
 dence, from its foundations, that it was created to 
 be inhabited ; and its atmosphere, light, water and 
 general productions, show that it was created spe- 
 cially for man. 
 
 It was originally in a burning, and then in a fluid 
 state, and brought forth millions of irrational living 
 creatures out of itself, whose labor or remains built 
 up its surface, and prepared the way for " cattle and 
 creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their 
 
THE EAKTH AND THE HEAVENS. 109 
 
 kind; that tliey miglit be serviceable to man for 
 food, for clotliing, for help in his labors." The in- 
 terior also underwent its preparation of minerals 
 and ores, and then at God's command it bronght 
 forth man out of its soil, to have " dominion over 
 the iish of the sea, over the fowls of the air. and 
 over all the earth." 
 
 The course of creation had been rnnning for vast 
 indefinite geological periods before man came npon 
 the earth. All these millions of ages it was prepar- 
 ing to become his abode. And not until all things 
 were fully prepared did he come to run his marvel- 
 lous career. 
 
 The sea has often changed places with the land, 
 and its solid foundations have been rent and torn 
 by internal convulsions and fires, and these disturb- 
 ances were preparatory not only to the formation of 
 the dry land for man to live on, but also to the clay 
 out of which he was to be formed. Its material was 
 thereby annealed and fitted to be wrought into in- 
 telligent being, capable of knowing, serving and 
 loving the Creator. The way the land and water 
 are separated, the animals and plants are distributed, 
 and the seasons come and go, indicate great wis- 
 dom ; and they, as well as the fruits, plants, and 
 minerals, show that the wisdom was directed with 
 special reference of making a commodious abode for 
 man. 
 
 Man himself, " the result of the solemn council 
 of the most Holy Trinity," * was created lord of 
 
 * Gen. i. 36. 
 
110 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 the earth, and adorned with supernatural gifts which 
 the Father Everlasting lavished on His perfect child. 
 He came upon the earth in a state of grace, and his 
 home was filled with glorious beauty and goodness 
 by its spontaneous productions j)rovided for him. 
 The sublimity of his intelligence, and his unre- 
 strained intercourse with his Creator warrant the 
 belief that no other such man, except the Son of 
 man, who came down from heaven, has ever lived. 
 All who have since lived mheritedhis yaUe7inatu7'e. 
 
 Adam was created perfect, and with capacity to 
 anderstand all God's earthly works. He had intui- 
 tive wisdom and knowledge, and some of his origi- 
 nal qualities still linger amid the ruins of our fallen 
 nature ; half the amount of human knowledge springs 
 interiorly from the soul. The evidence of this is 
 fairly inferred from the fact, that God allowed him 
 to give names to all things on earth, and also in the 
 fitness of those names, many of which remain to 
 this day. It was necessary he should have such 
 knowledge to answer the purpose for which he was 
 created, to love and adore his Creator, and to praise 
 His goodness, wisdom and power. The deeper his 
 insight into the mysteries of the universe the greater 
 would be his reverence and adoration. 
 
 He came out from the hands of God with more 
 knowledge than the race has since attained. But, 
 by his fall, he lost the presence, and afterwards, by 
 forgetfulness, to a great degree his original knowl- 
 edge of God. He lived with Him so short a time, 
 that the memory of it probably soon became like a 
 dream, and he forgot the Lord his Maker. Most of 
 
THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 his posterity became idolaters and fell into barbar- 
 ism. Ever since man has been searching for his 
 lost God, groping in darkness after His withdrawn 
 presence. Adam knew as much of God as man is 
 capable of knowing in his present state. And^ age 
 after age, from the first promise of the seed of the 
 woman, God has been gradually giving back that 
 lost knowledge, until now, under the Gospel, the 
 Holy Ghost is conducting man to that eminent con- 
 dition from which his great progenitor fell. That 
 man's original state was one of eminent knowledge 
 and enlightenment is borne out by the Bible, and 
 by the fragments of the history of the primitive 
 races and empires which survive. Ignorance and 
 barbarism are the result of a loss of the knowledge 
 of the true God. As soon as Adam sinned, he was 
 driven from God's presence and from Paradise ; as 
 soon as Cain sinned he was driven to the outskirts 
 of primitive civilization ; and in every age since, 
 individuals and nations, as they have forgotten the 
 worship of the true God, have declined into igno- 
 rance and barbarism. 
 
 The history of the earth, written on its rocky 
 foundations, overwhelms us with " its gigantic pe- 
 riods of time," and seems to carry the mind back to 
 the dawn of creation. It shows that it has gone 
 through extraordinary changes, all having reference 
 to man. Along the whole course of creation he the 
 broken fragments and scattered remains of perished 
 races which once reigned on earth and occupied it 
 as their own. Some appalling catastrophes, one 
 after another, suddenly overwhelmed them, as reve- 
 
112 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS.. 
 
 lation tells us another is destined to overtake it at 
 the end of man's mortal career. 
 
 The term Paradise, originally given to man's 
 abode, may have been because his planet was the 
 garden of the solar system to which it belongs. It 
 is probably the only world of its system which is 
 occupied by intelligent organized beings like himself. 
 There is a great deal to be gleaned from science 
 which leads to the conclusion that no other planet 
 of our system is inhabited by intelligent beings like 
 man. The other planets seem to be in all those 
 different stages through which the earth has gone ; 
 the Sun and Mercury in the burning, Jupiter and 
 Herschel in the fluid, and so on with others in the 
 " azoic, or protozoic, or pleozoic, or neozoic " stages? 
 perhaps preparing to become man's home after the 
 judgment, when all worlds shall constitute parts of 
 the kingdom of glory. 
 
 As j)aradise was the central point where the hu- 
 man race began its career, and from whence it 
 spread over all the earth, so may this planet be the 
 point where the race was to be produced to spread 
 over and people the solar system. After the Resur- 
 rection and renovation of all worlds this system may 
 be the home of man for ever. When the partition 
 wall between worlds and systems is thrown down, 
 and the universe is consolidated, and no beings but 
 fallen angels and men are confined to one world, 
 then the unbounded universe will be accessible to 
 all good spirits, and tlie feeling of brotherhood of 
 all the sons of God will every where prevail. It is 
 said that men will then be like the angels. We 
 
THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 113 
 
 know that angels pass from one world to another 
 with almost the speed of thonght ; then all worlds 
 will be accessible toman. Our Blessed Lord was 
 the first fruits of the Kesurrection ; He could rise on 
 the air, and pass from this world to Paradise and 
 Heaven ; all worlds are accessible to Him ; and 
 having his life in us, all His power of locomotion 
 will be ours ; and the craving of the human soul for 
 activity, and motion, and sight-seeing, will be grati- 
 fied by world-seeing. 
 
 The earth is the world of the Incarnation. This 
 must be its distinguishing characteristic among all 
 intelligent beings. The system to which it belongs 
 may be known hereafter for ever as the system of 
 the Incarnation. To this man may be consigned. 
 It may now be going through those changes which, 
 when it perishes by fire, will be renewed, as man is 
 after he attains his maturity and dies, and become 
 his everlasting home. God's visible presence will 
 then be restored to this world, from which it has 
 been withdrawn in consequence of sin, and men 
 and angels will no longer be confined to particular 
 worlds. While this system will be the home of the 
 human race, and other systems the home of angels 
 and archangels, the universe will be a glorious 
 unity, undisturbed by sin, every where illumined 
 by the Light and Presence of the Ever Blessed Fa- 
 ther Everlasting, and all parts accessible to all the 
 sons of God. This view seems to be amply sus- 
 tained by facts of both revelation and science. 
 
 Science teaches that the planets of our system 
 are similar in structure to the earth, but they differ 
 
114 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 in the densities of their globes and atmospheres. 
 From this it necessarily follows that they are not 
 inhabited by beings like man. Man forms but a 
 minute fraction of the animal life of his world. 
 ;N"ot only the sea and swamps, the mighty forests 
 and rivers, but the inhospitable Northern and 
 Southern Arctic seas and shores are full of animal 
 life. 
 
 If this world be thus pregnant with living crea- 
 tures, many of which have no ascertained useful 
 relation to man, but appear to be inherent in its 
 nature, and draw their sustenance and hapj^iness 
 from its substance, then it is probable that other 
 parts of our solar system abound with irrational ani- 
 mals which God has created for their happiness and 
 His own pleasure. The Bible teaches that God 
 created all worlds to be inhabited, and His power 
 and wisdom are as clearly seen in the creation of 
 the inferior animals as in man. The internal evi- 
 dence of the organized living beings on earth indi- 
 cates also the probability that there are no other 
 planets inhabited by beings like man. While the 
 animal life on earth is almost endlessly diversified, 
 the anatomical construction of every living creature 
 is framed on a single model, so that together they 
 form a complete system. ISTow this unity in form 
 and unity of life, being drawn from the mother 
 earth, indicate that they are a sequence of a local 
 cause, and that there are no other such living crea- 
 tures in any other world of our system. The love 
 of variety which the Creator has displayed in the 
 detail of His works on earth, warrants the belief 
 
THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 115 
 
 tliat the living creatures in other worlds of our sys- 
 tem would not be constructed on the same plan of 
 physical organization. And what is possibly more 
 to the point, angels who have been seen here from 
 other systems are not so constructed. 
 
 The worlds of our solar system are so many 
 leaves in one book of the Creator's works ; and all 
 the analogies of creation confirm the revelation, that 
 they were created to be inhabited. But we must 
 probably go beyond our system to find rational be- 
 ings. Analogy and science compel the belief that 
 the angels belong not to our solar system. Man and 
 animals partake of the nature of the earth ; all the 
 matter of our system is homogeneous. Angels are 
 not material, and therefore belong not to this sys- 
 tem. Their density is far less than our atmosphere ; 
 they can pass through it without efi'ort, buoyed up 
 and sustained by it. They are vastly more power- 
 ful than man, and have destroyed at a blow whole 
 armies and cities of men. It is therefore reasonable 
 to conclude that they belong to a system superior to 
 our own. Our Blessed Saviour said, after His Ee- 
 surrection, when in His Glorified Body, spirits have 
 not flesh and bones as ye see Me have, and His 
 words, that other intelligent beings have bodies of 
 different material from man, are rendered probable 
 by the best light science throws on the subject. 
 
 It does not follow that other systems or worlds 
 are now, or ever have been, simultaneously inhab- 
 ited by intelligent beings. The analogies of our 
 own system are against such a theory, as it is prob- 
 able that the earth is the only world of our system 
 
116 THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 now SO inliabitecl. They were created to be used 
 for this purpose some time in the vast successions 
 of endless ages. The earth was for millions of 
 years without an inhabitant, nevertheless it was 
 created to be inhabited. The centuries of prepara- 
 tion were but moments in the calendar and progress 
 of eternity. 
 
 Worlds and systems may lay fallow, like the 
 fields of earth, before and after they have borne 
 crops of animated life. And as man is now educat- 
 iug for another w^orld, so higher orders of beings 
 may have passed through similar stages, and left a 
 lower for a higher world. It is certain that those 
 created in a higher world have been displaced, like 
 the fallen angels, and sent to a lower one because 
 they failed to answer the purpose for which they 
 were created. And worlds and systems now inhab- 
 ited by lower orders of animals may be waiting 
 their turn for the display of higher creative power. 
 Successive epochs have produced different races of 
 intelligent beings. 
 
 Indeed the earth gives many signs that it is the 
 ruin of an older world, wliich has been scorched by 
 fire and drenched by water. The interior is sup- 
 posed to be a slowly cooling mass, and the granite 
 which girdles and intrudes through its surface was 
 once fluid. It may at some remote period have 
 been vastly larger than at present, and the convul- 
 sive throes in the grand catastrophes of its primor- 
 dial destructions, for there may have been more 
 than one, may have given off some of the strange 
 shaped asteroids and meteoric masses which are 
 
THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 117 
 
 revolving within its orbit ; and some fragments of 
 which are often seen rushing through our air with 
 terrific splendor and plunging into the earth. All 
 these may have been parts of its original material ; 
 they certainly contain some of the same elements 
 now found in it. 
 
 This opinion may be fanciful, but it is not with- 
 out advocates. Another writer has broached a 
 similar one, which he says is worthy of study. " Is 
 it improbable, he asks, that this earth was the 
 habitation of angels in a long prior, and, it may be, 
 still more glorious state? May it not be that the 
 havoc and disorganization which geologists discover 
 as occurrences in distant ages, are the wrecks of an 
 angel Paradise, existing long prior to the Garden 
 of Eden and the creation of man ? * . . . . The 
 angels committed sin, a greater sin than Adam and 
 Eve. Who knows the height, and depth, and extent 
 to which this sin of theirs may have gone ? Who 
 knows what havoc it may have brought upon crea- 
 tion all around them, how high toward heaven it 
 may have reached, how deep towards earth's centre 
 it may have shot ? " 
 
 Science demonstrates that the planets belonging 
 to our system are material, opaque, more or less 
 solid bodies, turning on their axes, and having an 
 inclination of their poles to the ecliptic ; consequent- 
 ly they have changing seasons, as well as day and 
 night. These facts, taken in connection with 
 another, that they have moons like the earth, seem 
 
 * Cummino-. 
 
118 THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 to imply that they were designed as the abodes of 
 organized beings with senses similar to the animals 
 on our own planet. Whether they have been occu- 
 pied in past epochs or are destined to be so by our- 
 selves in future times is known only to God. 
 
 If the theory, that a higher order of beings once 
 lived on the earth, prior to, or coeval with some of 
 the animals whose ruins constitute its several strata, 
 be untrue, it may, nevertheless, be true, that other 
 systems have had successive races of intelligent be- 
 ings, as ours certainly has had of inferior ones. 
 Here it is plainly seen, that one great form of life 
 after another has lived and died ; and that each 
 gradually progressed in perfection of organization 
 until at last man appeared. From the best light to 
 be obtained from science, it is highly probable that 
 similar changes are going on in the sun, and in 
 every planet of our system, which the earth lias 
 gone through in the past vast ages of its geological 
 formations. 
 
 The intervals between these periods and races 
 are well defined, and revelation teaches that man is 
 here to prepare for another world, and the com- 
 panionship of higher orders of beings. And, if 
 the earth be only a place of perfection for man, so 
 may other worlds have been for angels and higher 
 orders of beings. Systems that were once inhab- 
 ited may have seen the end of their inhabitants and 
 become desolate ; or they may have been left by 
 migrations of their inhabitants to other worlds. And 
 one race of spiritual beings may have prepared one 
 system for a higher order of spiritual ones, according 
 
THE EAKTH AND THE HEAVENS. 119 
 
 to that Divine law wliicli has operated so certainly 
 on the physical races on earth. There are also de- 
 scending scales, because the angels, once in heaven, 
 have been cast out, and are destined to a final ever- 
 lasting abode in hell. 
 
 It is not necessary for this argument, as has al- 
 ready been shown, that all worlds be inhabited at 
 one time, or that some of them ever should be so. 
 It is almost certain that our moon is destitute of 
 every form of life. Some secondary planets may 
 be necessary to assist primaries in fulfilling their 
 functions to their inhabitants as the moon is to the 
 earth. Others may be essential to the economy of 
 the systems to which they belong, if for nothing 
 more, to preserve the general equillibrium. They 
 may be sterile, desolate, and incapable of support- 
 ing organized life ; just as portions of the earth are 
 incaj)able of sustaining vegetable or animal life. 
 The sandy deserts and frozen oceans, the barren 
 mountains and depths of the sea are of this nature ; 
 yet they are as necessary to the earth's perfection 
 as the other parts ; necessary to its unity, rotundity, 
 and connection^ and to make it an entire whole ; and 
 the water facilitates intercourse. 
 
 This opinion of the inhabitancy of all worlds is 
 confirmed by earthly analogies. The water con- 
 tains animals which live in a difi'erent breathing 
 medium from man, and cannot live in the air of 
 earth. Some animals are of a mixed nature and live 
 on both land and water. Birds are nearly interme- 
 diate between the two. It is also reasonable to be- 
 lieve, on the testimony of the Bible, that these laws 
 
120 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 hold with respect to intelligent moral beings, because 
 good and bad spirits from other worlds have been 
 seen on earth with natures entirely different from 
 man. 
 
 THE HEAVENS. 
 
 We are so accustomed to separate the heavens, 
 whatever our ideas of them may be, and the earth, 
 and hell, and paradise, that we lose sight of the 
 sublime truth that they are but different departments 
 of the one universe of God. All worlds and systems 
 together make what men ordinarily call heaven ; 
 that is the world subject to God. Revelation says, 
 if one ascends to heaven God is there, if to Hell He 
 is there, if to the uttermost parts of the earth He is 
 there also. It is but the Oriental figurative way of 
 saying that He fills His own universe. 
 
 The etymology of the term heavens affords no 
 clue to its particular meaning, not even as to their 
 material or immateriality. Anciently their inhab- 
 itants visited this world, but in modern times the 
 only visitant we have from any other world is the 
 rays of sunlight, and these are mysterious as God 
 Himself. A single one exhibits a threefold combi- 
 nation ; and " when analyzed by the prism consists 
 of seven colors," exquisitely blended, and each pos- 
 sessing a degree of intensity, splendor, and purity 
 far exceeding the colors of the most brilliant natu- 
 ral bodies ; and " these colors are really composed 
 of the three primitive ones, red, yellow and blue." 
 If so much mystery attaches to these simple mes- 
 
THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 121 
 
 sengers from another world of our own system, 
 hopeless indeed would be any attempt to form con- 
 jectures of the system outside of our own. 
 
 The heavens are said to have been originally 
 created in a plurality. They are spoken of as exist- 
 ing in degrees, some superior to or higher than 
 others. And they were all created for one purpose, 
 " to declare the glory of God," not to man only, but 
 also to all the intelligent beings of the universe. 
 
 With all our boasted modern knowledge we are 
 compelled to fall back on ancient traditions of our 
 race to get any thing like a satisfactory notion of 
 the term heavens, as used in the Bible. St. Paul 
 speaks of a " third heaven " as a thing known in 
 his day. The Bible gives no account of it, and it 
 may have been a primeval tradition which he men- 
 tions. The Plebrew idea, and there is a world of 
 depth in their surviving traditions, was, that there 
 are three heavens. The first, the air which sur- 
 rounds our globe, where the winds blow, and the 
 birds fly, and whence storms and rains come. The 
 second, all material worlds beside the earth, some 
 of these occupied by celestial beings. And third, 
 the uncreated Kingdom of Glory where God was 
 before creation began. 
 
 God says, " Heaven is my throne, and the earth 
 my footstool." This denotes the most intimate rela- 
 tionship and unity ; that both are parts of his habi- 
 tation, and so of heaven. From the poverty of 
 human language and ideas, and from the necessity 
 created beings have to make distinctions, as we do 
 even in the Godhead, we regard these as parts of 
 6 
 
122 THE EARTH AlU) THE HEAVENS. 
 
 different things. They can be so, liowever, no more 
 than the Persons of the Godhead can be different 
 beings. The term heaven in its general sense, as 
 used in the Bible, probably means all worlds occu- 
 pied by sinless beings. The earth was created for 
 man in a state of grace, and it is the only known 
 world where fallen beings are on probation for res- 
 toration to the Divine favor ; and hell is the prison 
 world where all intelligent beings are to be confined 
 who have sinned beyond reach of pardon. These 
 three divisions embrace the nniverse. All the 
 heavens, according to this definition, are inhabited 
 within the limitations named in the preceding 
 chapter. They were created either for that pur- 
 pose, or to serve the interests of those which are 
 inhabited. 
 
 It is evident the earth was created to be inhab- 
 ited, because it has been occupied by multitudinous 
 living creatures ever since it rose from chaos, and 
 long before man came upon it. The water, air and 
 land were swarming with life at an early period in 
 the earth's history. And long before that, heaven 
 and hell had innumerable inhabitants. The Bible 
 says, that " Tophet was prepared of old," and that, 
 when God laid the foundations of the earth, " the 
 morning stars sang together, and all the sons of 
 God shouted for joy." ^ And no sooner was man 
 created than Satan gained an entrance into this 
 world. 
 
 Christ came from heaven, and He says, angels 
 
 * Job xxxviii., 7. 
 
THE EAKTH AXD THE HEAVENS. 123 
 
 live tliere ; that tliey are in legions ; and the devils 
 speak of themselves as eqnally numerous. It is an 
 impressive truth that God had other sons before 
 man ; and that they rejoiced when the foundations 
 of a new world were laid, which was to be the hab- 
 itation of intelligent beings, their brethren, called 
 by the same name of sons of God, and born to the 
 same inheritance. 
 
 "We have already seen that the chief design of 
 the Bible is to make known to man only things per- 
 taining to himself ; but, that in teaching that he is 
 destined to a future life and worlds, it sheds some 
 light on other beings and things ; and that it is from 
 these incidental allusions all our knowledge con- 
 cerning them is gleaned. These fringes of truth 
 are purposely added to the fabric to awaken curiosity 
 and to inspire adoration. 
 
 The Bible mentions angels and archangels, God's 
 messengers and executive officers of His heavenly 
 court; spirits, powerful beings without flesh and 
 blood, who do His will ; cherubim, spiritual crea- 
 tures, with mysterious forms, enjoying the fulness 
 of Divine knowledge, and incessantly worshipping 
 before the eternal throne ; and seraphim, spirits of 
 fire and light, who conveyed inspiration to the 
 prophets, and remissions of sin to men under the 
 ancient dispensation."^ Though but slight allu- 
 sions are made to the worlds to which they belong, 
 yet it is fairly inferred that tlie heavens are their 
 home. 
 
 * Isa. vi., 6, 7. 
 
124 THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 The frequent reference to these beings, as does 
 also the whole drift of revelation, conveys the idea, 
 that other systems or worlds are intimately connected 
 with man and the earth ; that they exist under all 
 the conditions of order, subjection and employment 
 similar to tliose of the earth. Daniel speaks of 
 " the army of heaven," and Job of the high places 
 of God, and asks, " is there any number of his ar- 
 mies ? " And St. John, in his Apocalyptic vision 
 of the Lamb, saw heaven opened, and the Word of 
 God coming out, and " the armies which were in 
 heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in 
 fine linen, wliite and clean." Here the word heaven 
 is singular, and armies plural, as though all the ar- 
 mies of the whole universe were included, angels, 
 and spirits and men, and all intelligent beings, who 
 in past eternity have fought with or for God for the 
 extirpation of moral evil from His dominions. Ar- 
 mies imply kingdoms, rulers, subjects, enemies and 
 worlds for their habitations. Perhaps tlie fields of 
 space are yet to be battle-fields as worlds have been, 
 where the enemy of God and his legions are to 
 have their last contest with his angels and saints. 
 The coming forth from heaven to make war seems 
 to show that there are worlds and rebels outside to 
 be conquered. 
 
 God is said to be Possessor (Gen. xiv., 9,) of the 
 heavens and the earth ; the plural form of heaven 
 denotes that all creation is included. And the fact 
 that it is called a possession proves them habitable 
 worlds like the earth, and not mere states or con- 
 ditions. 
 
THE EABTH AND THE HEAVENS. 125 
 
 One part of tlie universe is the dwelling place 
 of the Creator. It is above and beyond the mate- 
 rial systems. Our Blessed Lord, when He left the 
 earth, " ascended far above all heavens," saitli St. 
 Paul. Yet He is on the right hand of the throne of 
 God. Job says, " God is in the height of heaven." 
 Solomon prayed, " Hear, Thou, from heaven Thy 
 dwelling place." The Psalmist says, " The Lord's 
 throne is in His Holy Heaven." And Ecclesiasticus 
 speaks of it as a world. The prophets believed it to 
 be a distant world, the residence of the Creator, and 
 from which He had in view the earth and the uni- 
 verse. St. John says, it is the abode of celestial 
 beings, w^ho incessantly worship God. Thus, it is 
 seen, that the design of God in peopling other 
 worlds was the same as in creating man on the earth. 
 And as they sang and rejoiced when man was 
 created, they had a prior existence, and feel an in- 
 terest in him. From the incidental allusions to the 
 different kinds of beings in other worlds, and the 
 vastness of their numbers, and this apparently with- 
 out the intention of especially communicating this 
 knowledge, it may be reasonably inferred that they 
 are all inhabited. 
 
 This opinion is confirmed by our Lord, and it 
 bears upon all the views expressed. When about 
 to return to heaven. He said to His disciples, that 
 one reason for going was " to prepare places " for 
 them. It would take several worlds to accommo- 
 date the millions wliich have been born on earth. 
 And the places spoken of are doubtless worlds. 
 Almost two thousand years have since elapsed, and 
 
126 THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 this proves that man's future home is receiving its 
 finishing touch from the Creator's power, by the 
 same slow processes by which the earth was pre- 
 pared for him. The world for those who are not 
 His disciples was prepared long ago ; their everlast- 
 ing home is with the devil and his angels. (Matt. 
 XXV., 4.) 
 
 Another remarkable fact, which seems to throw 
 light on this subject, is, that where heaven is men- 
 tioned in a general way in the Bible, the plural 
 form is used. This seems to indicate that it exists 
 in a plurality of worlds. Solomon speaking of 
 heaven as the immediate dwelling place of God, 
 uses the singular number. So also it is generally 
 used when mentioning the firmament or sky above 
 the earth. So far as my own examination has gone, 
 this seems to be the rule of the Bible. It may there- 
 fore be safely said, that revelation teaches that heaven 
 is a plurality of worlds or systems. Tliis peculiarity 
 exists also in the Greek 'New Testament. It might 
 be regarded as an Hebraism, if there were not so 
 much method in its use. The plural is the common 
 form in the E'ew Testament when the abode of the 
 blessed is named. 
 
 It is a reasonable inference, from all that can be 
 learned from both revelation and science, that 
 heaven is composed of many worlds ; and it is prob- 
 able that all worlds occupied by holy beings com- 
 prise what is called the heavens in the Bible. 
 Moses says of the completion of creation, " Thus the 
 heavens and the earth were finished, and all the 
 Host of them." 
 
THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 127 
 
 Tliere is one special world wliicli is the abode 
 of the Personal Presence of the Creator. Prom that 
 He overlooks the universe, and gives orders to the 
 spirits which execute His will throughout his vast 
 dominions. This opinion is older than Christianity, 
 and the Greeks borrow^ed their idea of Jupiter and 
 Olympus from it ; and was certainly the belief of 
 Moses, and David, and Isaiah. It is also probable 
 that that world lies in the part of the universe, hu- 
 manly speaking, above the northern hemisphere of 
 the earth ; tliere man was created, and it has been 
 the concurrent opinion of the race in all ages. To 
 raise the eyes or hands has always been a token of 
 reverence, of devotion, and address to God. And 
 the opinion can be accounted for only on the ground 
 that revelation so represents it. In that direction 
 the pole of the earth ever points, while travelling 
 with the sun on to that invisible point to which it is 
 tending, and which, doubtless, is the home of the 
 Father Everlasting. 
 
 The scriptural account of the translations of 
 Enoch and Elijah represent them as ascending from 
 the earth. Tlie angels are always said to ascend and 
 descend, never to go to and from the earth. Our 
 Blessed Lord, speaking of His departure from this 
 world, said, " What and if ye shall see the Son of 
 man ascend up where He was before?" And 
 when He did go away. He went up at noon-day 
 from Bethany through the opening canopy. He 
 spoke also of many mansions in His Father's House, 
 and the Greek word there used is the only one in 
 the language approximating to our Saxon " home. 
 
128 THE EARTH AND THE HEAVENS. 
 
 If the universe be thus represented, then are all its 
 members one family^ and all the mansions are in- 
 habited, within the limitations named in the pre- 
 ceding chapters. 
 
 This doctrine of the general inhabitancy of all 
 worlds is plainly, thoug]i only incidentally, taught in 
 the Bible. "When it speaks of the heavens and the 
 earth it is to make known Divine truth to man. 
 They are names given by the Creator to different 
 parts of His works ; they are in human language, 
 and expressed so as to make them comprehensible 
 to human minds. Kevelation teaches that all 
 their intelligent inhabitants are sons of God, and 
 it is certain that many of these widely separated 
 brethren know something of each other. Man 
 knows something of good and bad angels, and 
 they know a great deal about him, as will be pre- 
 sently shown. 
 
 Tliere is, doubtless, some analogy to these di- 
 visions of the universe in those of the earth. The 
 different continents are parts of one world, as the 
 sun and its satellites form one system ; so all the 
 systems form a connected universe. Earth is the 
 name given by God to this one world of His heav- 
 ens. This world is as much under God's immediate 
 governance as any other. He says, "By Me 
 kings reign ;" that " the gold and silver are Mine, 
 and I give them to whomsoever I will." There is 
 not a battle fought nor a scourge sent but it is work- 
 ing out some great principle or accomplishing some 
 great object in the economy of the moral world. 
 He says also, that He lifts uj) one man and puts 
 down another ; that the hairs of our head are num- 
 
THE EAETH AND THE HEAVENS. 129 
 
 bered ; and not a sparrow falls without His notice. 
 Surely He cannot reign more directly over any 
 other world. 
 
 Though from the poverty of human thought and 
 speech, and the narrowness of our ideas, we asso- 
 ciate with the term heaven only that part of the 
 universe where there is no sin or suffering, yet earth 
 and hell, though in revolt, belong to Him as much 
 as any other worlds. An American who violates 
 the laws of his country, and is imprisoned, does not 
 thereby forfeit his citizenship. He is doing his 
 country a service by enduring the penalty ; by vin- 
 dicating the majesty of its laws, and deterring 
 others from crime, as well as j)reventing further 
 injury. He suffers for the good of the whole. We 
 might, with equal propriety, exclude the prison 
 grounds from the domain of the several states, and 
 their inmates from citizenship, as to sever earth or 
 hell from heaven, which is the universal empire of 
 the Creator. 
 
 This opinion is fully sustained by the Bible. It 
 teaches that God created the earth for sinless be- 
 ings ; that its first inhabitants were holy ; that they 
 met face to face, and talked familiarly with their 
 Creator. This relationship was as intimate as that 
 which exists between God and the highest seraphs, 
 and as God was visibly and personally present 
 then on earth, it was as much a part of heaven 
 as any other world. The sin and fall would not 
 necessarily destroy the connection, though it 
 would certainly greatly change the relationship 
 in which it stood both towards the Creator and 
 other worlds. 6* 
 
ItSO THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 CHAPTER YH. 
 
 THE TTNITT OF MATTER. 
 
 By matter is meant all the substance of the created 
 universe ; that which God created when He formed 
 the heavens and the earth. It is as much a revela- 
 tion from God as mind or His written Word. It is 
 the printed book, worlds are its leaves, by which He 
 teaches all the intelligent creatures of the universe. 
 Next to God it is the sublimest mystery in the uni- 
 verse. God is the Great Mystery of invisible be- 
 ing, and He lives in all worlds ; matter is the great 
 visible mystery which composes all worlds. Some 
 theories make it to " consist, not of solid particles, 
 but of mathematical centres of forces." 
 
 Whatever it may be, it is " full to overflowing " 
 with God and Divine mysteries. It is the substance 
 " on which God has printed His thoughts : may 
 it not be the book which all minds are to read and 
 learn from ? We know that He has made the ele- 
 vation of human nature to depend on the study and 
 application of principles impressed upon matter, 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 131 
 
 and therefore it is consistent with His purposes, and 
 with His Greatness, to educate intelligences by 
 means of it. We know not that there are any, or 
 can be any, trained up without it ; and as, wherever 
 intelligences are, they are surrounded by it, and by 
 displays of Divine wisdom shining forth into it, is 
 it not reasonable to infer that it is a universal me- 
 dium of mental and moral tuition? For which 
 purpose, instead of being collected into one inhabit- 
 able body, it has been gathered (dispersed) into an 
 infinite number, every one different, and a theatre 
 of different phenomena." * 
 
 The earth is the means of the development of 
 the intellectual life of man. God created Adam out 
 of its material. His body is a combination of a 
 great variety of its constituents. God breathed life 
 into him, and by means of his physical organization 
 his intellect developed. 
 
 It is yet so with every child. External nature 
 is the teacher of the human mind. The child begins 
 to learn by seeing, touching, and tasting. He eats 
 and grows in the unconscious " arms of time ; " he 
 increases in intellectual strength, until he is able 
 to understand spiritual things, and to reflect upon 
 moral and spiritual truth. He would have had no 
 soul but for the external body ; and without a body 
 the powers of our Blessed Lord would not have 
 manifested themselves. 
 
 We speak of matter as substance capable of di- 
 visibility and extension ; but, when we investigate 
 
 * Ewbank. 
 
132 THE TNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 its properties, we really know no more of it than 
 of mind. Its origin and nature are botli beyond 
 the reach of om* faculties. " The ultimate concep- 
 tion of matter itself runs into force, and so matter 
 too is but a thought of mind." A visible entire 
 thought of God, the agent of all thought, and every 
 where pervaded by " the infinity of mind ; " and 
 " man, like his Creator, makes matter not only the 
 recipient of his thoughts, but sends it forth as a mis- 
 sionary to circulate them. It is the imiversal 
 teacher and preacher . . . silently exhibits its 
 doctrines, . . . and all its manifestations, from 
 a snow drop to a world, exclaim, ' the hand that 
 made us is Divine.' " 
 
 Gravitation and polarity, the laws of force and 
 inertia, are universal ; and they are the great doc- 
 trinal mysteries of this revelation, corresponding to 
 the revealed doctrines of the Trinity and Incarna- 
 tion. They teach of God Himself, and the study 
 of them widens our ideas of Him. They are rays 
 of light let down from God, the central light of the 
 universe. 
 
 All the elementary matter of the universe was 
 probably of simultaneous creation ; because it 
 seems to be governed by one law of revolution on 
 its axis ; obeys one law of inclination of its poles 
 to their ecliptics ; and is alike capable of divisibility 
 and extension. In the ISTew Testament it is said, 
 the system of worlds, tou? alcova^, were framed to- 
 gether by the Word of God. It means more than 
 worlds, because K6a-iJio<; is the proper term for world. 
 Our Blessed Lord in speaking of the earth calls it 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 133 
 
 rov Koafjbov.^ But tliese systems were joined by the 
 reciprocal forces of attraction and repulsion, as parts 
 of a sublime whole. Before a building is raised its 
 frame is planned and prepared, and the several 
 parts adjusted; and this phraseology implies that 
 all worlds are parts of a grand whole, " fitly framed 
 together," in a similar manner to the several parts 
 of a building. " In gravitation, we see nature at 
 once keeping herself in motion, and at the same 
 time tending to repose. It is as if the huge ribs, 
 and beams, and frame-work of Omnipotence were 
 being laid before us. It is as though we saw it new, 
 tremulous, and vibrating with the last touch of the 
 Creative hand hardly yet lifted off from it. While 
 polarity, that mysterious secret, teaching tha'c like 
 repels like, and unlike attracts uulike, represents to 
 us 'opjDOsite elements rushing together, opposite 
 motions reducing each other to rest,' God's huge 
 creation laboring in every particle, like a vessel at 
 sea, finding concord in discord, reaching imity by 
 opposition, and so, mighty complex onward uni- 
 verse ! entering into her rest ; " f accomplishing 
 the will of its Creator, obediently fulfilling the des- 
 tiny He marked out for it. 
 
 The presumption from Scripture, of the unity 
 of all the matter of the universe, is confirmed by the 
 actual material testimony of science. Besides the 
 great general laws already mentioned, which bind 
 the remotest fixed star in its undiscoverable path- 
 way around its unknown centre, into unity with the 
 
 * John iii., 16. t Faber. 
 
134 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 earth, and the system to Avhich it belongs, it is 
 known that some of the elementary matter of other 
 worlds is the same as the earth's. 
 
 "Every one knows," says Mr. Ewbank, " cosmical 
 masses of iron are rej^eatedly caught on the earth's 
 surface, as she whirls onward through space." 
 Mckel, copper, tin, cobalt, and magnesia abound 
 in other worlds besides our own ; and two of these 
 metals possess the mysterious proj)erty of magnet- 
 ism, which belongs to them on earth ; some of the 
 precious stones and metals are mentioned as be- 
 longing to heaven, in such a way as scarcely to 
 allow one to regard them as figurative ; and the 
 water and light of heaven are constantly spoken of. 
 
 These metals are said to be pure there ; and the 
 water and the light, the one being pure and the 
 other unmingled with darkness, are superior to the 
 earthly elements, and confirm the Scripture, that 
 man was made a little lower than the angels ; and 
 his world is probably inferior to theirs in the com- 
 binations of its elementary material. On earth all 
 the metals are found mixed up with coarser matter, 
 and have to be smelted and wrouglit out with great 
 labor. 
 
 If they are pure in other worlds it is a signifi- 
 cant fact bearing on this question of imity, because 
 if it indicates any thing, it is that the precious ma- 
 terial by which art, and science, and civilization, 
 are advanced on earth, may have the same relation 
 to the progress of higher orders that it has of man. 
 
 " Of the functions assigned to meteoric couriers 
 one surely is to inform those upon whose territories 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 135 
 
 tliey alight, that a community of staple occupations 
 unites them to the occupants of other planets, if 
 not of other systems ; and to prove this, they bring 
 specimens of the staple material with them. In the 
 sample left with us, iron vastly abounds ; an intima- 
 tion that it plays as important parts in other orbs as 
 it plays on this. Strange that information of such 
 intense interest, and so wonderfully brought home 
 to us, is not more dwelt on. But many are afraid, 
 and others ashamed, to accept a theory which makes 
 it the business of the people in the stars to multiply 
 their comforts and conveniences somewhat as we 
 do, i. e., to work in the same material in wdiich God 
 works." The writer says, that the meteoric iron is 
 always found in a pure state ; the reverse of this is 
 believed to be the fact, yet the paragraph contains 
 thoughts worthy of consideration, and bearing on 
 the points under discussion. 
 
 It is probable that the different beginnings men- 
 tioned in a preceding chapter had relation to sys- 
 tems as well as worlds ; and were similar to those 
 which occurred on earth before the creation of 
 man. The earth has certainly been more fluid than 
 now, and possibly vastly larger, even the abode 
 of beings superior to man. If so, they were spirit- 
 ual, and left no fossil remains. There are old ante- 
 diluvian traditions, sacred and profane, which seem 
 to refer to such a fact. They may have fallen as 
 man did, and have been expelled from this world 
 as the angels were from heaven, and we may be 
 living on the ruin of their world. The eighteenth 
 Psalm depicts a display of the wrath of God to- 
 
136 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 wards the earth in such a manner as surely has not 
 been known since man was created. It speaks of 
 a ruin so dire as to reach to its very foundations. 
 
 Matter has always been a great puzzle to man. 
 It is by its nature inert, nevertheless its powers are 
 mighty, and emanate from the principle of force 
 and movement, the secret of which is unknown to 
 him. Cuvier speaking of certain fluids, says, " We 
 cannot yet decide w^hether these agents are really 
 material." 
 
 The Greeks, Eomans, and earlier Pagan Orien- 
 tals believed matter to be eternal. The human mind 
 is so constituted that it must have something eternal 
 to rest on ; and it is probable the ancient philoso- 
 phers were anxious to prove matter eternal, because 
 they had no correct idea of the true God, the great 
 first cause of all things. It was not then ripe 
 enough to cope with spiritual truth as it now does ; 
 nor had the Holy Spirit of Truth been given to the 
 world, nor an Apostle written, " there is a natural 
 body, and there is a spiritual body." But, with the 
 revelation of the Gospel, we have no difficulty in 
 understanding these things ; and none in believing 
 that myriads of spiritual beings and worlds may 
 have existed millions of ages back in the cycle of 
 past eternity. St. Paul speaks of the " third 
 heavens " as though it were the abode of spiritual 
 beings ; and that the things he saw there were un- 
 lawful or impossible to be communicated to man. 
 
 The book of Genesis by Moses, and the Gospel 
 by John, both commence with the same declaration, 
 that in the beginning God created all things. In 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 137 
 
 the Septuagint the initial words of Genesis and 
 John are the same. Hesiod states the same thing, 
 not nsing the same word, thongh he wrote nearly a 
 tliousand years before the Septuagint was made ; it 
 is probable he had seen or heard of the Book of 
 Genesis. St. Panl explains St. John's words, that 
 all things were created by the Word, saying, that 
 He who was the Word became Jesus the Saviour 
 of the World ; and that He created all things for 
 Himself. His words are, " By whom were all 
 things created that are in the heavens, and that are 
 in the earth, visible and invisible, whether they be 
 thrones, or dominions (the domain of worlds or 
 systems of worlds), or principalities, or powers, all 
 things were created By Him and For Himr 
 
 When the Bible speaks of the earth as about to 
 be prepared for man's creation, it says it was " with- 
 out form and void." This looks as though it were 
 a ruin. God creates nothing imperfect. However 
 this may be, if it were the first time in the course 
 of creation that it was to be inhabited by intelligent 
 beings, the earth's turn came to be the theatre of a 
 new display of Divine power. At one of the begin- 
 nings named in Genesis, when it was ready for man, 
 God created him out of its material to be its ruler. 
 It is a reasonable inference that this is the way the 
 inhabitants of other systems were formed, each one 
 out of the matter of its own world, and so fitted for 
 its peculiar condition. Man is made out of the ma- 
 terial of his world, and afterwards feeds and lives 
 upon it. This probability is strengthened by the 
 fact, that the beings of other worlds who have been 
 
138 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 seen on earth, are unlike man in both the combina- 
 tions of their material and density. 
 
 There is a marvellous relation between God and 
 matter. Ancient Pagan philosophers believed they 
 existed as soul and body ; and modern infidels have 
 tried to revive the belief. But revelation teaches a 
 sublime doctrine, more consonant to reason, and 
 worthy of adoration. It is, that God and matter 
 may unite and make it eternal ; that it did so in 
 Adam, and afterwards in a higher form in its hypos- 
 tatic union with His own Son, who is the type and 
 head of a race of new beings. 
 
 One of the earliest results of the order of things 
 now existing on the surface of the earth, was the 
 formation of man. God made him of matter, in his 
 own image, breathed the breath of His own life 
 into him, and gave him the sui^remacy over all its 
 inferior creatures. The union is lost for a time at 
 death, in consequence of the fall, but it will be re- 
 sumed at the Resurrection and remain for ever. 
 
 The change our Lord's mortal body underwent, 
 without corruption, in the grave, is one all must go 
 through to attain perfection. The natural world 
 abounds with similar examples. Seeds die to produce 
 new and higher forms of life. The change involves 
 no loss, but wonderful gain. Worms die and change 
 to flies, yet they take through the death and change 
 their entire individuality and identity. The stony 
 dwelling of the coral insect is but the lime and 
 other substances it sucks into itself from its solution 
 in the water. Water turns to vapor, and vapor to 
 clouds, to be returned again to water. Wood 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 139 
 
 changes to smoke, and smoke to water, to return 
 again to wood. Oxygen helped to form the granite, 
 and granite disintegrates to soil, to grow the plants 
 which return it again to oxygen, in the ceaseless 
 changings of all corroding time. 
 
 And they seem like the sportive gambols of the 
 elements, the children of nature toying with one 
 another. But the original elements remain the 
 same. These little changes constantly going on on 
 earth, are doubtless types of grander ones which the 
 whole fabric of the earth has undergone, and of an 
 infinite series of yet more sublime ones taking place 
 in the vast systems of the universe of matter. 
 
 It has been shown, that the Scriptures teach that 
 the original creation produced all things visible and 
 invisihle. 
 
 This evidently refers to worlds rather than be- 
 ings ; because man was created after the angels, and 
 ancient inhabitants of heavens. Doubtless there 
 are worlds invisible to us by their remoteness as 
 well as subtilty. Matter under several forms is in- 
 visible to the human senses. " All the elements 
 are invisible." They are invisible when several are 
 united, as in the air. Electricity and steam are 
 both directly invisible, yet they have mighty power ; 
 and beings Ibrmed like man, and clothed with tre- 
 mendous energy, might be all around us and yet 
 invisible. A.n eminent French philosopher says, 
 '• We believe that matter, being inert in its nature, 
 its agents are truly spiritual, and emanate from the 
 principle of force and movement, diversely modified 
 by the Word." 
 
140 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 IS^ow, if air and steam, which are composed of 
 the same elements as earth and solid rocks, only dif- 
 ferently combined, and electricity, are invisible, and 
 their simple elements are invisible, then there 
 shonld be no difficnlty in believing that there are 
 worlds and systems, and material living beings 
 formed of the same elements as the earth, which are 
 invisible. Althongh they are now invisible and 
 imperceptible to onr earthly organization, they may 
 not be so to angels and spirits, and they may not be 
 to ourselves when we are separated from the flesh. 
 
 Indeed, it would seem from modern scientific 
 research, that what man calls material is less real 
 and less powerful than the immaterial. Air and 
 electricity, heat and light, magnetism and actinism, 
 the great powers of nature, are invisible and mostly 
 imponderable. The air presses the earth on all sides 
 with the prodigious force of twenty tons upon every 
 part of the surface of the size of a man's body, and, 
 when in motion, overthrows his strongest works. 
 Intelligent beings composed of these invisible pow- 
 erful agents, would surpass all human ideas of 
 strength, and fly with electrical speed. Even ma- 
 terial bodies would present no obstacle to them. 
 The Bible teaches that there are such beings ; the 
 lowest of them next above man in the scale of crea- 
 tion ; but they are said to excel in power, and go 
 and come on our atmosphere As there are such 
 beings, so also is it probable that there are worlds 
 composed of the same material. 
 
 This fact strengthens the opinion before advanced, 
 that the earth may have been inhabited by a more 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 141 
 
 powerful race before man ; and the fossil remains of 
 gigantic antediluvian animals, yet found in its rocks 
 and soil, may have been creatures which served in 
 the economy of that ancient dispensation. They 
 were perhaps the useful subjects of that more pow- 
 erful race, and because themselves more powerful, 
 were without what man calls a material organiza- 
 tion, and so left no relics of themselves hehind. 
 
 There is, then, the highest probability, from all 
 that we do know of the marvellous unity and har- 
 mony of the parts of the universe within reach of 
 our observation and analysis, that all matter was 
 not only created at one time, but also, that its 
 elements are the same in all worlds. ^Nor need this 
 necessarily conflict with the doctrine of successive 
 creation, from diiferent combinations of the original 
 elements. Such creations are incessantly going on. 
 The ethereal worlds may have been first formed from 
 gaseous elements, and served God's purposes mil- 
 lions of ages ; and there may have been a gradual 
 o-rowth of those elements into what man calls form, 
 substance, and visibility, to prepare it and its in- 
 habitants for the marvel which was finally to be 
 accomplished by its means in the Incarnation of the 
 Son of God. 
 
 God's own history of the earth, graven and em- 
 bossed on its rocky foundations, confirms the truth 
 of this written history. It proves that there were 
 successive reigns of animal life long before the time 
 when His Spirit moved on the formless and void 
 mass to prepare it for man. 
 
 The reign of silence and death, then existing, 
 
142 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 long before had teemed witli animals of what we 
 call lower forms of life, fish, and reptiles. To these 
 succeeded the mammiferous, and lastly came man, 
 a mixed being, partaking of two natures ; one, of 
 the animal, the class to which he belonged by cre- 
 ation ; the other, of spirit, which was the nature of 
 his Creator. This is the highest form of material 
 creation the human mind can imagine. All creation 
 gradually rising np to man, and man nnited to God. 
 
 This is a point of material elevation which it is 
 reasonable to believe cannot be surpassed ; since 
 they meet in a union which is never to terminate, 
 and in God who is eternal. The infinite in height 
 is joined to the eternal in duration : " creation and 
 the creature meet in one person," ^ and God is all 
 in all. 
 
 Yet revelation reaches further than reason. It 
 teaches not only, that it is possible for God to create 
 a higher form of being, but that He has done so in 
 the person of His Eternal Son, conceived by the 
 Holy Ghost and born of tlie Virgin Mary. 
 
 It teaches also, that this mixed state of man is 
 not his final one ; that the material of his body is 
 destined to be ]*efined ; that he will go through 
 another change, at the Resurrection, when his ma- 
 terial part will receive one more touch from the 
 creative Word, and be changed into an immortal 
 body with the very Life of God. 
 
 Matter will then have run through the great 
 cycle of life, and have returned to God, whence it 
 emanated. There the mystery will end ; end to 
 
 * For this and preceding thoughts, obligations are due to Hugh 
 Miller. 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 143 
 
 man because he will tlieii " see as lie is seen, and 
 know as he is known." 
 
 It cannot now be fathomed by created beings ; 
 bnt is partially revealed to foreshadow the Father's 
 great love for the sons of men, and the eternal 
 weight of glory He has prepared for those who do 
 their duty to Him in this present life. It is revealed 
 to encourage us to be obedient to His laws, and to 
 love and serve Him as our wise and wonderful, our 
 liberal and loving Father and God. Divine benev- 
 olence has so contrived the mechanism of the phys- 
 ical as well as moral world to make it manifest His 
 power and goodness; and to show, that He earn- 
 estly desires every creature He has made to share 
 His happiness. 
 
 Observation confirms the theory, that all matter 
 was created at one time. Neither ancient nor 
 modern research, with all the recent improvement 
 in instruments, aiford any ground to believe that 
 new matter is in the process of creation any where 
 in the universe : that is, is being formed as at the 
 beginning from nothing. 
 
 The probability, that all solid matter has been 
 gradually formed from subtler elements is fully sus- 
 tained by science. It is generally agreed that the 
 interior of the earth is now fluid. Its whole super- 
 structure, above the solid foundations, is a deposit 
 from a once surrounding fluid. And this mys- 
 terious process of changing the fluids of the earth, 
 its rivers, lakes, and oceans, into solid rock, is now 
 going on over all its surface. And the time will 
 come in the process of ages, if the present state of 
 
144 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 tilings continues, when there will be no more sea. The 
 insects will have converted all its waters into stone. 
 
 Our Lord said to His disciples, wdien about to 
 return to heaven, that He was going awaj to pre- 
 pare a place, tottov, for them. And His words har- 
 monize with, if thej do not fully teach the doctrine 
 of a plurality of worlds or systems in such a unity 
 as has been described. He says, in my Father's 
 house, iv TTj olfcia^ which can mean no less than the 
 whole universe, the one Great Home of the Father 
 Everlasting, of things visible and invisible, there are 
 many habitations, fioval TroXkal, tarrying or dwell- 
 ing-places. This is not iigurative language, and can 
 mean nothing less than systems of worlds, if w^e 
 consider the context; since it would take many 
 worlds like the earth to comfortably accommodate 
 the people of God who have been born here. He 
 had before told them that the future abodes of the 
 righteous would be eternal ; and that they should 
 dwell with Him for ever. 
 
 For eighteen hundred years certainly the slow pro- 
 cess has been going on by which some other system, 
 or possibly other parts of our own, have been pre- 
 paring to become the eternal home of spiritualized 
 and glorified humanity, adapting it to that new form 
 of life which man will receive at the resurrection. 
 
 Whatever it is, and w^herever it may be, it is a 
 part of heaven. Heaven was in existence before 
 man was created, and heaven is to be man's final 
 home ; thus logically, on the authority of our Sa- 
 viour's own words, He is now employed in enlarg- 
 ing heaven. 
 
 
 I 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTEK. 14:5 
 
 If this interpretation of our Lord's words be 
 true, and it is the simple and natural one, it shows 
 not only that there is a unity of matter, but also of 
 operation ; because this new place is preparing for 
 man by the same gradual processes by which his 
 present habitation was prepared. 
 
 Marvellous changes are continually going on in 
 matter on the earth, and none more wonderful than 
 that which takes place in man's own body. It dies, 
 but does not perish. It decays, but will be restored 
 again, as our Lord's revived. And it will be as 
 different from the original matter as a whole golden 
 ear of corn or wheatsheaf is different from the single 
 kernel which rotted to produce it. 
 
 The old and new body will be of the same 
 elements, differently combined ; Jesus said, " He 
 that believeth in me shall never die ; " and they 
 will be mentally united by the same spirit. Man 
 can never be other than a created being. When 
 St. Paul speaks of a natural body and a spiritual 
 body he is speaking of created and therefore of ma- 
 terial ones. The whole man will be as much supe- 
 rior to his former self, as liglit and' electricity are 
 superior to earth and clay. 
 
 Thus the Bible teaches, that God's work of re- 
 production has not ended. That is, while no new 
 creations, strictly speaking, like the original calling 
 of matter from nothing, are going on ; yet, clianges 
 in the forms of matter are constantly taking place, 
 and will continue to do so, certainly until the Resur- 
 rection, and probably for ever. Certainly until the 
 Resurrection, because it teaches, that changes of 
 7 
 
146 THE UmTY OF MATTER. 
 
 more than one kind will then be made. Two kinds 
 of new beings will then be prodnced, with new na- 
 tures ; one adapted to a life and world of eternal 
 hap2)iness ; the other, to a life and world of eternal 
 sorrow. Both will be immortal, but each destined 
 to a different world.* 
 
 There seems to be no cessation in the changes of 
 matter on earth. Besides those already named in 
 the earth and water, cold and heat, dryness and 
 moisture, are ever at work, changing the forms of 
 plants, animals, and inorganized things. And 
 something of this sort, as has been already sug- 
 gested, is probably going on on a grander scale in 
 the mass of matter composing worlds and systems, 
 which man's life is too short to notice, or his range 
 of observation too limited to observe. 
 
 Tlie earthquakes and volcanic action give visible 
 intimations of mysterious changes going on deep in 
 the earth, of which we know nothing more than the 
 fatal consequences produced on the surface. The 
 latter has poured out islands of lava, without 
 changing in the least the external surface. 
 
 The whole outer formation of the earth has been 
 laid on strata after strata, in periods of incalculable 
 length. Each formation was a world for the forma- 
 tion of a new display of animal and vegetable life ; 
 and each perished as soon as it had answered its 
 purposes in the economy of nature, and decom- 
 posed to furnish new material for new forms of 
 matter and life. The whole foundations of the State 
 of Florida and all its islands, with the tens of thou- 
 
 * Matt. XXV. 33 ; Luke, xvi. 26. 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTEK. 14:7 
 
 sands of miles of coral islands and reefs m the Pa- 
 cilic and Indian Oceans, are the ruined and deserted 
 dwelling-places of coral insects. They buikl until 
 they reach the top of the waters, and die. The 
 dashings of the ocean wear away the base, and 
 break up the branch and minor corals, throw them 
 on the reefs, form new islands, and thus go on 
 enlarging the surface of our globe. 
 
 All that we know of God's works is connected 
 with change. It has been so on earth from the be- 
 ginning. It has been so ever since man came upon 
 it, and revelation teaches it will be so until the end. 
 
 Before Adam were huge animals, which have 
 not lived since. After his creation, the whole face 
 of nature was changed by the deluge. At first 
 there probably were neither rains nor storms, but 
 the earth was watered by gentle mists. " Afterwards 
 came briers and thorns, and later yet storms. And 
 since l^oah, races of men and animals have been 
 produced by changes of food, and climate and isola- 
 tion, intermarriage and absorption, which had no 
 existence before the deluge. 
 
 The races in the tierra calienta, at the foot of the 
 mountains in N^orth and South America and India, 
 difier in the same way from the same races which 
 live in the elevated regions ; and it is wholly the 
 result of food and climate. One century of resi- 
 dence in a warm climate, wdth inadequate and 
 improper food, and isolation and exposure to the 
 elements, will change the appearance and language 
 of an European so much that he will scarcely be 
 recognized, 
 
 * Gen. ii. 5, 6. 
 
148 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 One may satisfy himself of this fact, by visiting 
 tlie out-islands of the Bahamas ; and the sheep im- 
 ported there from England, in less time, have 
 changed their wool to hair, and resemble goats 
 more than sheep. 
 
 The skull of the man has changed its configura- 
 tion, the cheek bones are more elevated, and their 
 movements resemble tlie aborigines of America, 
 more than the noble race from which they have 
 degenerated. Extreme examples are here referred 
 to, but this tendency is seen in the whole stock. 
 
 Intermarriage has had a good deal to do with 
 quickening the declension in particular families; 
 while those where a better condition and non-inter- 
 marriage has prevailed, have undergone but little 
 change. Similar changes are seen to be gradually 
 going on over all the earth. 
 
 The pioneer settlers in the south and south- 
 western United States, in three generations, under 
 circumstances of isolation, improper food, and hab- 
 itations aifording poor protection from the weather, 
 are seen to have approximated very markedly to- 
 wards the aborigines in external appearance, and 
 especially in the elevation of the cheek-bone. 
 
 A tendency to an increase of bile, caused by re- 
 moval from a high to a low latitude, independently 
 of the sun, does cause a change of the color of the 
 skin not exposed to the air. But when both are 
 combined, as in the case of savages, without cloth- 
 ing, the change will be rapid and lasting, and in 
 time transmissible. 
 
 To all this it is well known that it is objected: 
 that diiFerent types of men existed more than three 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 149 
 
 thousand years ago ; and that the craninms of the 
 races from the ancient catacombs show the same 
 peculiarities which exist at the present day. 
 
 To this it is answered, that the hiw of change in 
 the race of man and of animals has its limits ; and 
 when attained, is stationary. It does not follow, 
 that a race, when once changed, will, on being taken 
 back to its original habitat, return to its original 
 condition. 
 
 It is enough for us to know that God has origi- 
 nated these laws. He hides Himself behind them, 
 that He may be in harmony with himself in all 
 things. The law may have been made to produce 
 varieties of races ; at all events it is so contrived 
 that when this purpose is accomplished, the race 
 shall be permanent. 
 
 So far as observation extends, it is probable that 
 when the limit of a change has been attained, the 
 new race wdll, on being restored to its former hab- 
 itation, die out. It will neither change back, nor 
 long survive. This is seen to be the case with 
 the negro in the temperate zone. In the JS^orthern 
 States of America, they perished w^hen left to their 
 own resources, sooner than the Indians did, with all 
 the aggression made on them. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Pinckney, a mulatto Episcopal 
 minister, and late missionary to Africa, has just re- 
 turned, broken dow^n by the fever of the climate. 
 He said to the writer, that having African blood, 
 and being a native of South Carolina, he thought 
 he could stand the climate ; but he believed it was 
 more severe on his race than on the whites. 
 
150 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 The formation of races has been by the opera- 
 tion of heatj food, effects of climate, and absorption 
 by intermarriage, combined with moral causes 
 which man may never understand. 
 
 God said, when the Israelites entered Canaan, 
 the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full ; and it 
 was some centuries before they were absorbed, and 
 lost their nationality. 
 
 But the changes which have been going on from 
 the beginning, are going on at the present day be- 
 fore our own eyes. They act on man and other 
 animals, and all organic life. Hence the different 
 faunae of the earth. In each of the districts there 
 is a distinct race of man at the head. Hence in the 
 regions where the black man is found, there is a 
 black ourang ; in the region of the chocolate-colored 
 Malay, is the brown ourang ; and similar ^^eculiar- 
 ities of harmony and color are found in Madagascar 
 and Western Africa, showing that the inferior ani- 
 mals have obeyed that great unwritten law which 
 has so powerfully operated on the human race. 
 
 All the races of man have originated from the 
 highest type, or the now called Caucasian. That 
 race, created in a temperate zone, gradually diffused 
 itself in every direction. 
 
 We have said the same cliano^es are ^roino: on 
 now, that have been from tlie beginning, and the 
 races are multiplying beyond any preceding age. 
 jS'ew races are forming all over the earth ; in India, 
 by the intermixture of the White and Indian ; in 
 the West Indies and the United States, by the 
 White and Negro ; in Mexico, by the Spaniard and 
 
THE UNITY OF ilATTEE. 151 
 
 Indian ; in North America, by the White and In- 
 dian ; and in the islands of the Pacific by a similar 
 process. 
 
 But changes do take place even in pure-blooded 
 Africans in our own land. They are gradually as- 
 suming an European type of feature ; and it is not 
 impossible that very considerable changes towards 
 the original type would be made under the most 
 favorable circumstances. The restoration would 
 necessarily be infinitely slower than the original 
 change, because there is nothing to take the place 
 of the powerful sun-light in causing it. 
 
 It is mainly by the absorption of one race by 
 another, after they have taken the form which cer- 
 tain conditions have impressed on them, which 
 causes the variety of color and physiognomy, and 
 anatomy which are visible among the human race. 
 
 If any one doubts this, he has but to visit our 
 Western frontier, in any direction, from Maine to 
 Oregon, where the red men linger on the confines 
 of civilization. He will there see the races disap- 
 pearing by both causes of extinction and amalga- 
 mation with the conquering races. Intermixture of 
 blood is producing new types of mankind. 
 
 Among the Penobscots, and partially among 
 the Cherokees, the work is nearly completed. The 
 Indian scarcely retains any thing of his original 
 type, but his long, straight black hair. At points 
 where the amalgamation is less, the same thing is 
 seen in a smaller degree. 
 
 Dr. Wilson says : " Tlie Indian may remain un- 
 civilized, and perish before the advance of civiliza- 
 
152 THE UNITY OF MATTEE. 
 
 tion, which brings for him only vice, famine, and 
 disease in its train ; hut such is not the case with the 
 mixed race of white fraternity. Much, perhaps all 
 of their a^Dtitude for civilization, may come by their 
 Em'opean heritage of blood, but the Indian element 
 survives even when the all-predominating Anglo- 
 Saxon vitality has effaced its physical manifesta- 
 tions." 
 
 But to return to the fact, that there has been 
 distinct races on the earth for more than three thou- 
 sand years, whose anatomical characteristics have 
 not changed. We say, that all that is satisfactorily 
 known of the fact, goes to establish the doctrine of 
 the unity of the human race. 
 
 The earliest accounts of these different types, 
 which are only four, are derived from the ruins of 
 Assyria and Egypt, and date from about fifteen 
 hundred years before Christ. They are the White, 
 the Black, the Bed, and the Yellow. The divisions 
 of the globe then inhabited had produced but four 
 races. And they have remained stationary from 
 that day to this. This "is the argument. 
 
 Those that remained stationary have retained 
 the type they then had ; but tliose which migrated 
 and intermarried, and carried on war between them- 
 selves, have changed, and spread and multiplied the 
 races, until now the types have more than doubled. 
 
 Now anoher fact meets us. Since then, those 
 four races have spread over the earth. Three thou- 
 sand years have rolled away, but they have left be- 
 hind them traces of their mighty revolutions in new 
 races of men and animals, and plants. 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 153 
 
 It took Rve centuries for tlie operation of God's 
 physical laws to produce the first three new races ; 
 and now we find five more new and distinct types 
 of the American, the Australian, the Hottentot, the 
 Malay, and the Mozambiquan. And we see also, 
 that the facilities of modern intercourse are laying 
 the foundations of various new types. 
 
 The animals and plants of the different zones 
 have mutual relation to each other. The advocates 
 of diversity admit this. These zones have well de- 
 fined limits. "While the law which produces the 
 results is veiled from man's scrutiny, yet he does 
 perceive that certain results are j)roduced on every 
 form of animal and vegetable life which comes 
 within their influence. The seed of the Irish pota- 
 to, carried from 'New England to Florida, has to 
 be yearly renewed to secure a crop. 
 
 God made the earth to be inhabited. The ani- 
 mals, starting from a common centre, sought the 
 localities adapted to their nature. The deluge 
 scattered the seeds deposited in antideluvial times 
 over the surface, and buried them over all the earth. 
 
 A new plant has been known to spring up from 
 pure white sea sand, dug up in Florida from thirty 
 to forty feet below the surface. These seeds, like 
 the animals, finding an appropriate condition of 
 soil and climate, there formed new homes for them- 
 selves, and spread in every direction, until they 
 encountered barriers of inhospitable climate or 
 soil. 
 
 If the cause of the disturbance of the present 
 formation of the earth's surface shall be ever satis- 
 7^ 
 
154 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 factorily determined, it will be found to have been 
 the now to some extent ridiculed universal deluge. 
 
 When the earth was submerged, and its soil 
 made soluble by the water, great tidal currents 
 swept over its whole surface. This mixed up the 
 seeds which had been deposited over the face of the 
 earth, scattered them every where, and buried them 
 every where, deep enough in the disturbed soil, 
 when it settled, to preserve them for ever. 
 
 It is believed, that there is not a foot of soil on 
 earth, no matter how deeply buried, which, when 
 brought up and exposed to the sunlight and air, 
 will not put forth some vegetable form of life. 
 
 Let infidel science account for this fact on some 
 more reasonable ground, than the satisfactory one 
 of the deluge, and its explanation will be entitled 
 to a candid consideration. This shows that every 
 inch of soil on earth was disturbed and solved by 
 this miraculous outpouring of water from heaven. 
 
 The very day the deluge began it broke up the 
 foundations of the great deep ; that is, destroyed the 
 line of demarcation between the land and the sea. 
 The water continued to rise for forty days, covering 
 " All the high hills," says the Word of God, " that 
 were under the whole heaven." And it did not stop 
 there, but " fifteen cubits upwards did the waters 
 prevail, and the mountains were covered.^'' Thus 
 the tops of the mountain were buried twenty-two 
 feet and over beneath the surface of this mighty 
 deluge. 
 
 It may be determined, with mathematical cer- 
 tainty, that the atmosphere of the earth, which is 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 155 
 
 live times its radius in height, miglit, by a slight 
 change of its elements, be all converted into water. 
 
 By increasing the permanent elastic ilnid of oxy- 
 gen in the composition of the air, to only two or three 
 times its present comparatively small amount, with 
 a slight addition of hydrogen, which is one of the 
 constituents of the water, a deluge would be caused 
 which would overwhelm the earth to a much great- 
 er depth than that indicated in the Bible. 
 
 Or even a moderate increase of the latent heat, 
 which now intervenes between the particles of wa- 
 ter, together with a precipitation of all the moisture 
 in the air, would doubtless cause the earth to be 
 submerged to as great a depth as is there repre- 
 sented. 
 
 Thus it is seen, that there are natural agents at 
 hand, and existing in the elements of air and water 
 themselves, which could readily have produced all 
 the effects described by the Bible ; which are 
 strongly corroborated by physical facts existing on 
 the earth's surface, and compel every unprejudiced 
 mind to believe in an nniversal deluge, which cov- 
 ered the tops of the highest mountains. 
 
 That miraculous outpouring of water may have 
 been nothing more than a temporary restoration of 
 the fluids of the earth to the condition in which 
 they were before the creation of the six days' work 
 began. 
 
 The whole atmosphere which surrounds our 
 globe is composed of the same material as the wa- 
 ters, there being only a slight change in the combi- 
 nations of the elements. 
 
156 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 That fluid we call air was once a part of the 
 water of the earth. It was separated by God on the 
 second day of creation, and made to take its present 
 place and form. At the deluge a restoration may 
 have taken place, which lasted during the year, and 
 never again regained its original equilibrium. This 
 would account for the diminished longevity of man, 
 and sundry other physical mysteries which it is not 
 now our province to discuss. 
 
 These waters encompassed the whole earth, and 
 tore uj), when the foundations of the great deep 
 broke up, the ice-bound regions of the Northern 
 and Southern Arctic oceans, which had been frost- 
 chained there from the time when the earth assumed 
 its present temperature. 
 
 The masses of ice, lifted by the heaving and 
 swelling of the increasing waters, from the bed of 
 stones and earth, to which ice always adheres when 
 frozen to the coast or ground, took up portions of 
 them with it. These being loosened from their an- 
 cient foundations, went drifting away over the vast 
 abyss of waters. 
 
 Drifting slowly, but borne onward by the 
 mighty current, caused by the revolution of the 
 earth on its axis, without any intermediate conti- 
 nents to impede their j)rogress, these icebergs were 
 borne towards the equator. Passing the tops of 
 the submerged mountains they crushed and ground 
 them ; and as they gradually melted, deposited earth 
 and rocks along their pathway, and produced all the 
 phenomena of what is commonly called the great 
 "Drift Period." 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 157 
 
 Tliis theory, and tliis alone, satisfactorily ac- 
 connts for the peculiar, worn clown places on some 
 mountains, and for the remarkable distribution of 
 boulders, under a particular law, which every where 
 governed their dispersion. It accounts for their 
 deposition on the tops of mountains ; as they would 
 first ground there, deposit and rise, and so float on. 
 
 As we say of the diversity of the races of man, 
 so also of this theory ; when infidel science can show 
 another which as satisfactorily accounts for the 
 phenomena of the drift period, it will be entitled to 
 due consideration. 
 
 We have no objection to any thing which science 
 can demonstrate. We are prepared to believe sci- 
 ence before the Bible, as it is at present understood, 
 if they seem to conflict ; because we are sure that 
 they will agree when both are rightly understood. 
 And we shall be willing to wait until we are able to 
 understand the Bible as it is interpreted by the 
 Works of God. 
 
 We have no objection to placing the creation of 
 man back millions of ages, if science can show rea- 
 sonable grounds for it. But at present all things, 
 as we understand them, conclusively and harmo- 
 niously teach the recentness of man's creation, the 
 unity of the human race, and the universality of the 
 N'oachic Deluge. 
 
 But to return from this digression concerning 
 the deluge. 
 
 The fact of the fewness of the races of man, in 
 the earliest accounts of them, is an evidence of the 
 truth of the Mosaic account of creation. It shows 
 
158 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 the probable recentness of man ; and that the race, 
 like the globe it inhabits, and the Churcli and Gos- 
 pel which are the means of his salvation, has grad- 
 ually attained its maturity. 
 
 Then no Asiatics had reached the Arctic region, 
 and so there were no Esquimaux ; none had pene- 
 trated to America and Australia, and so there were 
 no American or Australian races. 
 
 The moral laws, to which reference has been 
 made, it is not the province of this work to con- 
 sider ; yet they have helped to cause the variety, and 
 it is probable that the diversity is partially a curse, 
 so far as the earth is concerned. But they are des- 
 tined, when better understood, to enter largely into 
 the calculation touching the diversity of the race. 
 
 It is said, the white man has been more than 
 two centuries on this continent, and that no indica- 
 tion of approximation to the red man is seen. Our 
 Indians were Asiatics, and not white men, when 
 they emigrated to America. Moreover, the habits, 
 food, and shelter of the whites have been vastly dif- 
 ferent in modern times, from the I^omadic starve- 
 lings who first penetrated to this continent. While 
 men are comfortably housed and fed, probably a 
 long time would be required to effect a perceptible 
 change in any race. 
 
 But a change is seen in those who have lived but 
 two generations in our Southern and South-western 
 regions, in habits conformable to the aborigines. 
 And they are of such character as to fully warrant 
 the belief that in a few centuries their posterity 
 could not well be told from the native Indian. 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTEK. 159 
 
 . The advocates of the opposing theory are con- 
 stantly forced to admissions which contradict them- 
 selves. In the new work on the Types of Mankind, 
 it is said : " J^ot only do the animals change from 
 one hemisphere to another, but these differences ex- 
 ist even between various regions of the same hemis- 
 phere. The species belonging to the western comi- 
 tries of the old world are not identical with those of 
 the eastern. It is true that they often resemble each 
 other so closely, that until very recently they have 
 been confounded." 
 
 What is this but an admission of the doctrine, 
 that these changes are gradual, and that animals as 
 well as men, when they range beyond the zone, 
 where they have undergone marked changes for a 
 time, resemble each other " so closely, that until 
 very recently they have been confounded." 
 
 Prof. Agassiz says, " The hog descends from the 
 common boar now found wild over the wdiole tem- 
 perate zone of the old world." Now there are as 
 great varieties of swine as of men ; and there is 
 not a greater anatomical difference between the 
 negro and white man, than there is between a Berk- 
 shire and Florida pig. 
 
 This difference is the result of food and climate. 
 The progeny of the finest breed of swine, when 
 turned out in Florida, soon begin to have elongated 
 snouts, and to change the anatomical structure of 
 their heads. 
 
 Attempts have been made to discriminate be- 
 tween the fresh and salt water animals of certain 
 districts. But it was found impossible, and this is 
 
160 THE UNITY OF MATTEK. 
 
 an evidence that the changes m the races of aquatic 
 animals have been wrought in the same way as 
 among the terrestrial ones, by the peculiarities of 
 temperature and food. 
 
 Prof. Agassiz thinks it extraordinary, and of 
 course against the theory of the unity of the human 
 race, " that the earliest migrations recorded show 
 us man meeting man." The going forth of Cain 
 may not have been until he was two or three hun- 
 dred years old. If so, then the world may have had 
 its millions of inhabitants. We know that the sin- 
 gle family of Jacob, in four hundred and twenty 
 years in Egypt, increased to more than three mil- 
 lions ; and if they had remained there one hundred 
 and eighty years more^ increasing in the same ratio, 
 they would have numbered nearly two hundred 
 millions. 
 
 We know also tliat twenty successive removes 
 from a single couple, in a few hundred years, gives 
 millions. Hence we need not be surprised, that in 
 those days of primeval longevity and health, if the 
 world, in a few hundred years after creation or the 
 deluge, had its millions of population. 
 
 The Bible gives us no account of the children 
 of Adam, except in two lines. They are the types 
 of the good and the bad descendants in a single 
 line. Suppose that Adam had only half-a-dozen 
 such families going out from him in three hundred 
 years, he would have had more posterity than there 
 are now inhabitants in the United States. 
 
 Doubtless the increase of the race was more 
 rapid then than now. Those migrations reached 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 161 
 
 every wliere in tlie Eastern world. The same thing 
 would again follow after the deluge. And we see 
 what migration has done in America in two hun- 
 dred years. 
 
 The advocates of the former theory travel back 
 to Egypt and Assyria to prove their doctrine. We 
 have shown that we have evidence before onr own 
 eyes to confirm the doctrines of the Bible. These 
 changes of modern times are sufficient to satisfac- 
 torily account for all the diversities to be found in 
 the human race. 
 
 But lest any one should think these examples 
 are local, belonging to our own continent only, or 
 are chosen from the extremes of the human family, 
 the negro and white man, let us cross the Atlantic 
 to our mother land. 
 
 The Welsh, Irish, and Scotch are of a common 
 race. Yet the trifling differences of food, and cli- 
 mate, and condition, have made the inhabitants of 
 those three islands, among which this great family 
 is dispersed, appear almost like distinct races. At 
 all events the same kinds of changes in appearance 
 and language have taken j)lace there, and within 
 the historical period which are seen in the aborigines 
 of America. 
 
 Again, the burly Englishman, God be praised 
 that he was our ancestor, and his Church our mother, 
 is from the same family; intermarriage with the 
 Saxon and ISTorman, and ''ros' beef" have made 
 him to differ so widely from his brothers of the old 
 "Welsh homestead, as to appear almost like another 
 race. 
 
162 THE UNITY OF MATTEK. 
 
 And there is an example of even a greater 
 change in the same stock, in the Anglo-American. 
 The English families which emigrated to 'New Eng- 
 land, two hundred years ago, and have remained 
 pure to this day, by intermarriages among them- 
 selves, are so different from the stock at home, which 
 has been kept pure in a similar way, as to almost 
 constitute another variety. 
 
 The advocates of diversity class the Jews as a 
 primitive stock. IN'ow, if there be any reliable his- 
 tory in the world, or any thing connected with 
 men's past history worth believing, this supposition 
 is groundless. 
 
 History teaches that the race was formed under 
 peculiar conditions of servitude in Egypt ; and that 
 two of the ten tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, were 
 of positive Egyptian descent. With certain limita- 
 tions, they afterwards intermarried with the Egyp- 
 tians ; kindly relations existed between them ; Sol- 
 omon had one of the king's daughters for his wife. 
 
 Now, what do we find ? Why, the physiognomy 
 which we call Jewish is actually of the ancient 
 Egyptian type. It is only necessary to glance at 
 an ancient picture and a modern Jew, to be struck 
 by the resemblance. 
 
 The Jews were a new race, formed by the com- 
 bination of the blood of a single family intermingled 
 with another nation which had lived its appointed 
 day, and was about to perish. Thus it is, new races 
 and nations spring up out of the decay of perishing 
 ones, just as the decay of the forests perpetuates the 
 successive growth of new forests. 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTEK. 163 
 
 God forbid the Jews to intermarry with certain 
 nations. They are the living teachers of mankind. 
 God is teaching all the world by means of their his- 
 tory. This may be the way in which he wishes ns to 
 learn all that we can know, of the manner in which 
 the successive nations have been preserved and pro- 
 l^agated. They show us how, when one type of 
 mankind has been formed, it will continue to main- 
 tain itself under the most varied and trying vicissi- 
 tudes. 
 
 This race has not changed in three thousand 
 years, and the principal cause has been, because it 
 has uniformly abstained from intermarriage with 
 other races. In this way, combined with moral 
 causes also, they have preserved their peculiarities 
 in all their dispersions. 
 
 Yet they have undergone, in some countries, 
 considerable change of color and physiognomy, suf- 
 ficient to show that the causes which produced their 
 peculiarities were not immutable, and might have 
 been, but for their clannishness, wholly obliterated. 
 
 Perhaps the best evidence we have of the unity 
 of the human race, is, that in the extremes from white 
 to black, and throjigh all the intermediate grades, 
 their moral and physical natures are substantially 
 the same. 
 
 In all the regions of the earth, they are subject 
 to the same diseases, modified only by climate ; in 
 all stages of elevation and depression, they have 
 similar hopes and fears of the future ; all believe in 
 some sort of a metempsychosis, or immortality of 
 the soul ; and all have their earthly existence lim- 
 
164: THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 ited by the same boundaiy of threescore years 
 and ten. 
 
 In the works of a Creator who so seems to de- 
 light in variety, this would hardly have been the 
 case, unless the races originated from a single pair. 
 
 God has so constituted the w^orld, that new 
 types of beings shall be produced by its influences. 
 Thus He is continually witnessing new creations, or 
 diversifications of His works. 
 
 This law, under various modifications, is the 
 great general one which lies at the foundation of 
 animated nature ; and also of the Kevelations the 
 Creator has made. It has divided men into races, 
 tribes, and nations ; and is at work over the whole 
 surface of the earth, continually changing the face 
 of its inhabitants. 
 
 The same changes go on in spiritual things, 
 showing that it is |)art of a fundamental character- 
 istic of all the works of God, which come within 
 reach of our observation. Forms of worship, and 
 the means by which salvation is to be obtained, have 
 been changed by God. Sacrifice has given place 
 to sacrament. The covenant has been chano^ed ; 
 circumcision has been succeeded hj baptism. 
 
 The manner of communicating Divine instruc- 
 tion has been changed. God taught Adam, orally ; 
 his immediate descendants, by angels ; the Jews, by 
 seers and pro^^hets, and a written revelation ; and 
 since the Advent of our Lord, the whole world, by 
 the Gospel, the Holy Ghost, and the Christian min- 
 istry. 
 
 The Jewish liturgy has been changed to the 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 165 
 
 Cliristian. And moral changes are constantly going 
 on among men more wonderful. By birth from 
 Adam, they receive a human nature, his life and 
 likeness ; by regeneration or a new birth from 
 Christ, they receive a Divine nature, the Life and 
 Likeness of God. 
 
 The child is born into the world and gradually 
 grows into Adam's likeness; he is re-born and 
 gradually grows into the stature and moral like- 
 ness of Christ. Adam was the head of a new race 
 of intelligent beings, destined to pass the life it re- 
 ceived from him on the earth. Christ is the Head 
 of a ncAV spiritual race, not simply man, but God 
 and man united in a physical union (so to speak) ; 
 and it is destined to live in heaven for ever. 
 
 Our Blessed Lord was as much a new man as 
 Adam ; a past eternity had seen no other such Be- 
 ing, and the beginning of a new creation ; not 
 proj)erly a creation, however, because not formed 
 from nothing. But the life of God, and the life of 
 man, two pre-existing j^rinciples, were brought into 
 union to form the new being. One life fits man for 
 one world, and the other for another. Thus it is 
 seen, that both physical and moral changes are con- 
 tinually going on ; and man, in his present state, is 
 in process of both kinds of transitions. God's three 
 great revelations thus run into each, harmonize with 
 each other, and teach, so far as we can understand 
 them, the same Divine lessons, and that one Mind 
 was their common Author. 
 
 This law respecting those created anew in Christ 
 is an ascending one, from a lower to a higher type of 
 
166 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 living beings. But there is also a descending one, 
 like that we see among tlie races on earth, reaching 
 to this world from another, the result of a moral 
 cause ; and which warrants the belief, that the law 
 we see executing itself on earth, is part of an uni- 
 versal one, extending throughout creation. 
 
 The devil has passed over from his own world to 
 the earth, and has been for centuries employed in 
 forming a new race of spiritual beings, which will, 
 when completed, be removed from the earth to 
 another world. And that type like the former one 
 created anew in Christ will be a permanent one. 
 
 These are great lessons from God to man. And 
 we clearly discern in all these connections and har- 
 monies of the natural and s^^iritnal world, such evi- 
 dences of the wisdom and consistency of God, and 
 of the fact, that there is but one Almighty Mind 
 governing the universe, as can be obtained by no 
 other kind or amount of testimony which human 
 minds can grasp. 
 
 The Divine laws which govern both the spiritual 
 and the physical world have been interrupted by 
 causes unknown to man. The interruptions only 
 retarded, but did not prevent, the accomplishment 
 of the ultimate intention of the Creator. In slow 
 and solemn majesty, primeval matter, crushed and 
 ground up by mighty convulsions, formed the seve- 
 ral strata of the earth. All had reference to a final 
 object. Yet the laws of these formations were often 
 interrupted, and we now see that they were with 
 views of ultimate benevolence to man. But for the 
 disturbance of those general laws, coal and iron, the 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTP:R. 16^i 
 
 precious metals and minerals, would have been in- 
 accessible to liim. 
 
 E,ace after race of animals have lived and been 
 swept away by mighty revolutions of the earth's 
 surface. Yet each convulsion laid up materials and 
 prepared the way for higher orders of beings, until 
 at last, came man in the likeness of God, to use 
 them in embellishing the earth. 
 
 Mind has suffered the same interruption of the 
 general law of its development as matter. God 
 created Adam, and put him on the earth, to do His 
 will ; the devil caused Adam to turn aside from 
 that purpose. He fell. There was an interruption 
 of the process, but not of the plan. God foresaw 
 the fall, and provided against its consequences. 
 
 It was the voluntary act of a free agent, and He 
 would not prevent it ; but He did provide against 
 the terrible consequences of the violation of His 
 own laws, though the sin was voluntary on the crea- 
 ture's part. God will finally accomplish the same 
 purpose by man's creation, that He would have done 
 if Adam had not sinned. 
 
 It took tlie race nearly four thousand years to 
 recover from the stunning effects of the fall. And 
 who shall say, that the light and civilization of 
 Christendom are not infinitely greater than they 
 would have been without it ? Who shall say, that 
 the honor and glory to which Christians will 
 attain in a future life, will not be transcendently 
 greater than they would have been without it ? 
 
 God not only thwarted the devil's evil intentions 
 towards man, but turned them to blessings, enhan- 
 
168 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 cing liis eternal happiness and glorj. The spiritual 
 reo-eneration of the world is a nobler work than its 
 creation ; it gives a deeper knowledge of God's 
 character and love of man than creation ; and there 
 conld have been no work of redemption, but for the 
 prior one of creation, and the fall of man. Both 
 were necessary to bi-ing greater glory to God. And 
 thus it is seen, that mind and matter, creation, and 
 the fall, and redemption, are parts of a vast plan, of 
 which only some points are visible to us, but which 
 bind the universe into a sublime unity in the Divine 
 will. 
 
 In the fulness of time, God sent His Son to repair 
 the breach man had made in His perfect plan, and 
 to quicken the race to the development of its men- 
 tal maturity. If the Son ol God would not have 
 come into this world without the fall, who would 
 regret that fall. If it be objected, that it caused 
 Him suffering, it is answered, that it is the sublimest 
 spectacle the intelligent beings of the universe ever 
 witnessed. It was the vohmtary Buffering of the 
 Creator, for the eternal salvation of His erring and 
 fallen creatures. 
 
 The likeness of God lost by Adam, only put 
 back the race, and temporarily checked its glorious 
 march to the goal of immortality. That was its 
 original destiny. And Christians are now pilgrim- 
 aging on to it with the benefit of Adam's experience, 
 and the" fuller knowledge of the Creator's love, amid 
 a blaze of celestial light, such as the earth never 
 would have had unless Adam had fallen, and the 
 Son of God had suffered. 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 169 
 
 The law of man's progress, like the laws of the 
 formation of his world, were interrupted, with de- 
 signs of infinite benevolence to him. 
 
 The race had only to wait, until successive gene- 
 rations had recovered from that disastrous check ; 
 until the law of the elder dispensation had performed 
 its task, of schooling humanity into a state to re- 
 ceive, in the fulness of time, not only a higher 
 revelation, but also a larger measure of the Divine 
 Life than was first breathed into Adam. God 
 breathed into the clay, and Adam became a living 
 soul ; but now into that living soul the Spirit of 
 God enters to remain for ever. 
 
 No union between God and man can be more 
 awful and sacred than the sacramental one whereby 
 the soul is regenerated, and then receives the spir- 
 itual Body and Blood of its Creator. And these 
 changes going on on earth, in which man is acting 
 so conspicuous a part, are not the last in the long 
 series he is destined to go through, in returning to 
 his Father, from whom he sprang and revolted. 
 
 The Bible warrants this doctrine of the unity of 
 matter here advanced. In Genesis, ch. ii., ver. 1, is 
 given a 'summary of the conclusion of creation. It 
 says, " the heavens and the earth were finished, and 
 all the host of them." All were finished or ended ; 
 and there is no subsequent intimation, that God 
 ever wrought at any other time for the creation of 
 matter ; and there is no evidence, that any has 
 since been created, or is now in process of creation. 
 
 The geological cycles were all after the original 
 work. Then the heavens and the earth were fin- 
 8 
 
170 THE UNITY OF MATTER. 
 
 islied, and all tlie host of them, so far as the elemen- 
 tary material was concerned. By hosts, which 
 means bodies, are doubtless meant both material 
 and heavenly bodies, the countless worlds and sys- 
 tems of the universe. St. Paul says, that " the 
 worlds were framed by the Word of God ; " and 
 that things seen were not made of things which do 
 appear. All worlds are spoken of as an unit^ as 
 framed together^ and so at one time of simultaneous 
 production. 
 
 The Psalmist also says, " Of old hast Thou laid 
 the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the 
 work of Thy hands." In the original, the word 
 foundation is plural, showing that he is speaking of 
 it as the abode of man. This also accords with sci- 
 ence, which teaches that in its present state it has 
 several. They are coupled together as though of 
 simultaneous creation ; yet both have foundations, 
 which doubtless have been the result of changes 
 advancing them towards perfection. 
 
 And then he goes on to say : " They shall per- 
 ish ... . yea, all of them shall wax old like 
 a garment^ and as a vesture shalt Thou change them, 
 and they shall he changed^ Both are subject to 
 the corrodings of time by change, the change of one 
 form of matter or life to another. They shall perish, 
 one form after another, not by annihilation, hut hy 
 change. 
 
 Isaiah, on the same subject, represents God as 
 saying, "My hand also hath laid the foundations of 
 the earth, and My right hand hath spread out the 
 heavens." And the conclusion of the sentence is 
 
THE UNITY OF MATTER. 171 
 
 remarkable, as bearing upon tiie doctrine of the 
 unity of matter, " / call unto them^ they stand top 
 together^'' as though they were united parts of a 
 grand cosmical whole. 
 
 There is one other single item of Scriptural tes- 
 timony, bearing on the unity of the matter of intel- 
 ligent beings, which, to the writer's mind, is a more 
 powerful argument than either of the otliers. It is 
 the fact, that angels are ca]3able of suffering from 
 the same physical causes as man. Hell is a place 
 of suffering from fire. It would be absurd to sup- 
 pose it real fire, if the same earthly bodies were 
 raised from the grave. But bodies composed of the 
 subtiler elements, will not only live in the fire with- 
 out consuming, but like electricity, give fire from 
 themselves. Angels are therefore composed of mat- 
 ter. We call them spiritual beings, because we are 
 ignorant of organized beings formed from such ele- 
 ments ; but they are to suffer bodily pain in hell 
 with man. This shows that they are of the same 
 substance with man, however much the combina- 
 tions of the material may differ from his. 
 
 These intimations may seem faint, but they are 
 incidental, and such only as might have been ex- 
 pected in a revelation whose main object is to con- 
 vey spiritual truth. 
 
 The millions of ages which prepared the earth 
 to be man's abode, their vast geological periods and 
 formations, are some of the sublime Beginnings of 
 progress, named in the opening of the Book of 
 Genesis, more of which are hereafter to be made, 
 when the Xew Heavens and the New Earth of the 
 
172 THE mriTT of matter. 
 
 Apocalypse shall be revealed, in the progress of 
 matter on to perfection. Undoubtedly, the end of 
 creation will \)Q jperfection. God will accomplish it 
 in His own way. Like all God's works it seems to 
 have had an infancy, and to be ripening to maturi- 
 ty ; when that is attained, then, eternity will be its 
 duration. 
 
 : As man's body was created out of the dust of 
 the earth, it is highly probable that the change he 
 passes through by death, on his way to immortality 
 and perfection, is a type of the progressive changes 
 of all matter. As plants "and animals grow, and de- 
 cay, to furnish new material for more life, for the 
 continuation of si^ecies, so may it be with planets, 
 suns, and systems. 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 173 
 
 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 When man turns from tlie physical to tlie intellec- 
 tual world, he clearly discerns traces of the same 
 God, the Creator, stamped upon it. He sees Him 
 more plainly there, because mind is in His image 
 and likeness. '' K the workshop of creation and 
 conservation, about which the physical sciences are 
 occupied, were shown to be hidden sanctuaries, how 
 much more the laboratories of those delicate, incom- 
 parable, and supernatural operations of God which 
 are a veritable alchemy of nature," whereby the Di- 
 vine mind is impressed on all intelligent creatures, 
 and by which they live, and move, and have their 
 intellectual being. God is hidden here precisely as 
 in His other works ; and the imbelieving fail to 
 discern His wisdom and love as they do in the 
 former ? 
 
 The power to think is uncreated. The first thing 
 in the universe is One, Infinite, Uncreated, Intelli- 
 gent, Mind. Our Blessed Lord defines the Father 
 as greater than all things, and the Psalmist says ; 
 
174: THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 '' He created all things by the breath of his month." 
 E'ow as all material things come from God, so do 
 all mental. He has, so to speak, distributed Him- 
 self among His sons in the miiverse. All intellec- 
 tual life is uncreated, derived life. As man is a 
 part of God's creation, so also is he mentally a part 
 of His own mind. He belongs to the kingdom of 
 mind, is a part of it by a mental connection, as he 
 belongs to the kingdom of nature by a physical one. 
 
 God has also a kingdom of grace, which is su- 
 perinduced, and to this all men do not belong, only 
 the holy. All holy beings in the universe belong to 
 it. It is one of the higher grades of intellectual be- 
 ing. Man, and every other intelligent being in the 
 universe, was created in a state of grace. But God 
 knew, as has been shown, man would not maintain 
 his position, and in the vast riches of His love and 
 mercy, He provided against the evil of his fall, and 
 devised the means of his restoration. And here is 
 caught another clue of the profound analogies ex- 
 isting between mind and matter. 
 
 Physical science teaches, that races of animals 
 of one geological period live over and connect out- 
 going and incoming races, like the whale, the ele- 
 phant, and the condor of the present day. Thus 
 there are two types of men ; one all earthly and 
 carnal, the other spiritual, renewed by the Holy 
 Ghost, and a type of future glorified beings. The 
 unregenerate man is the type of the old fallen 
 Adamic race, which is outgoing, but yet living over 
 its period into the incoming spiritual one. 
 
 God has but one universal kingdom of matter. 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 175 
 
 and but one of mind. Man by his complex being 
 belongs to both ; he is therefore in unity witli the 
 entire universe. They are different parts of a grand 
 whole, not in the same way, but as man's soul and 
 body make a perfect whole. 
 
 In examining the mysteries of the three great 
 Divine Revelations, it is evident that Three Divine 
 Persons have been employed in the work ; but with 
 a singleness of purpose, and unity of mind and ac- 
 tion in all. One will carrying on the designs of 
 creation ; one will repairing the ruin of the Fall ; 
 that all minds on earth might be brouglit into unity 
 with it. 
 
 It is very remarkable, that these Three Divine 
 Persons have visibly appeared on earth to accom- 
 plish this work. God the Father came into it Per- 
 sonally after He created man ; the Son came after 
 the Fall, to redeem it ; and when He went away, 
 the Holy Ghost came to sanctify it. Thus there has 
 been a progressive action of the Divine on the hu- 
 man mind, wdth a direct view to bringing it into 
 harmony with God, as it was before the Fall. 
 
 There is but one Spirit, and but one Mind, in the 
 peox)le of God. And liere we see how creation was 
 completed on earth ; what was its design, so far as 
 the earth is concerned ; and that its matter is the 
 root and stock by means of which mind was to be 
 propagated and brought into unity with God. 
 Doubtless, from all the intimations in reacli of hu- 
 man reason, the grand object of creation, all ci'ea- 
 tion, has been to spread out into wider circles, 
 widening into system after system, new orders of 
 
176 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 intellectual beings^ to become partakers of the won- 
 derful grace of the JDivine Mind. 
 
 God represents Himself as unchangeable, " the 
 same yesterda}^, to-day, and for ever." He is the 
 same every where, in all worlds. He universally 
 works in one way with matter, so far as man can dis- 
 cern. It is, therefore, a reasonable inference, sanc- 
 tioned by revelation, that one law prevails in all 
 worlds, in relation to mi7id as well as matter ; and 
 that the mind of man is the same as that of all 
 immortal beings. 
 
 The life of God is the only known eternal thing 
 in the universe. Man's life came from God's breath. 
 It is tlierefore j^robable, that man is the son of God 
 in the same sense, that all the other intelligent be- 
 ings of the universe are. The same both in the ma- 
 terial of his body, and in the inflatus of his soul. 
 This is the glorious theme which our Heavenly 
 Father sets before the children of men as the object 
 of their everlasting thanksgiving, adoration, and 
 love. 
 
 The love of God for man is from eternity. He 
 loved us before He founded the world. It is the same 
 love with which He loves, and ever has loved, all 
 the creatures He ever made. He began to love us, 
 when He began to love them, " from all eternity." 
 Man always existed in God's mind ; as His work, he 
 will always exist. He is in us, and we are in Him, 
 for ever and ever ; after death He will be in us and 
 we in Him, with one heart, one will, and one mind, 
 for ever. 
 
 On earth the boundless treasury of the Father's 
 
THE UNITY OF MESTD. 177 
 
 grace is seen in the beneficence of creation, reacliing 
 to the finish of the wing, and the joy of the instinct 
 of the minutest living thing. Man receives the 
 largest measure of Divine love because he is the 
 noblest creature here. 
 
 Tlie boundless treasury of the Son's love is seen 
 in his Advent and sacrifice upon the cross for all 
 mankind ; not only for those who receive, but also for 
 those who reject Him; not only for the saved, but 
 also for those who will be lost. And the boundless 
 treasury of the supernatural grace of the Holy Spirit, 
 spreads the Life of the Father, and the love of the 
 Son, through every soul ; acting on all consciences, 
 whether they believe in Him or no ; striving with 
 all, whether they will listen or no. 
 
 St. Paul says. Christians have '' the mind of 
 Christ ; " he exhorts them to be like-minded one 
 toward another, acording to Jesus Christ ; he speaks 
 of " the unity of the Spirit ; " and says, " there is 
 one body and one Spirit." All this bears upon the 
 doctrine of the unity of mind. It teaches it. All 
 men who are in a state of grace are said to be joined 
 in Christ to God ; and to be one with Him, as He is 
 with the Father. This is wholly mental and spirit- 
 ual. One kind of grace, diff'ering only in degree, 
 prevails in every regenerate soul. This must be 
 the same in all worlds. It is God's grace, and His 
 grace must prevail every where, and be every where 
 the same. 
 
 It is the opinion of the best theologians. " All 
 the angels of God, all spirits, and the souls of the 
 righteous, are but one in the sameness of their com- 
 
178 
 
 THE UNITY OF ]VnND. 
 
 mon nature They are all one perfect 
 
 unity." 
 
 This is a reasonable doctrine. There was evi- 
 dently but one design in the creation of intelligent 
 beings, to serve and love the Creator. All must 
 therefore have been so created as to understand His 
 revelations. Keason is man's eminent mental char- 
 acteristic. He is called God's son, or child ; and 
 all the other children of the universe resemble him 
 in their moral nature, although we know that they 
 vastly differ in degrees of intelligence. 
 
 Man is a little lower than the angels. He is 
 j)hysical, and lives in a material world. God re- 
 quires of him only one seventh part of his time for 
 worship. Angels and pure spirits live in a superior 
 world, and the service and praise of God is tlieii 
 continual employment. 
 
 Eevelation confirms this doctrine. An apostle 
 calls the souls of dej^arted men spirits ; says they 
 are joined to an " innumerable company of angels." 
 Angels are called spirits, and if men are joined to 
 them, and engage in their employments, after death, 
 their minds must be alike. 
 
 " God is a Spirit." He has so revealed Himself. 
 Man is His child ; and so far as he is spiritual, he is 
 like God. St. Paul teaches, that God made man 
 meet to be partaker of the inheritance oQ;he "Holy 
 Ones," TMv djLcov, in light. He is said to be made 
 a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of 
 heaven, in holy baptism. If he be like them and 
 Him, and inheritors with them of the kingdom of 
 God, then must he be like both in spirit. 
 
THE UNITY OF MESTD. 1Y9 
 
 The same Apostle says, that Christ is the image 
 of the invisible God, and the first-born of every 
 creature ; and that the great mystery brought to 
 light in the Gospel is, that Christ is in man the 
 hope of glory. He died, that man might live ; 
 might have His life ; and, after giving Himself a 
 ransom for the Avhole world, might, by His resur- 
 rection, restore the world to life. The superinduced 
 principle in man is the same as in Christ. He is 
 "the temple of God," and His Spirit dwells in 
 him ; all have access unto Him by one Spirit ; and 
 are " fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the house- 
 hold of God." 
 
 Moreover, the Bible teaches, that the design in 
 the creation of man was the same as in all other 
 spiritual beings, to do God's will. Our Lord com- 
 mands all men to pray, that the Father's will may 
 be done on earth as it is in heaven. This could not 
 be unless the mind of man were of the same nature 
 as that of the beings in heaven. 
 
 God is our Father. He teaches us to call Him 
 so. He is the Father Everlasting of all intelligent 
 creatures. The unity, which exists in the will of 
 the adorable Trinity, affords a strong warrant for 
 belief in the unity of all created minds. 
 
 The rational beings of the universe are called, in 
 the 'New Testament, " the whole family in heaven 
 and on earth ; " and are said to be named after 
 Christ. It is true of the higher order of earth's in- 
 habitants, they are called Christians, after Christ. 
 Angels may have their names, because they are 
 " His messengers." Indeed, messenger is one of 
 
180 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 His titles ; Malachi calls Him " Tlie Messenger of 
 tlie Covenant," so that this title derives to them 
 identically as the earthly title does to man. This 
 same rule of naming may extend to all worlds. 
 
 There is an unfathomable meaning to the term 
 ]^ ame. It seems to denote nature. Man takes his 
 Divine name when he receives baptism, and be- 
 cause he has received a Divine nature. God has 
 been known to men in different ages by different 
 names. His attributes and character have been 
 gradually unfolded by His unfolding name. At 
 first, His name signified that He Was a self-existent. 
 Almighty Creator ; then in His fullest revelation to 
 the Jewish Church, as a Father ; at last, under the 
 Gospel, as our Father, the God of Love. E^early all 
 that we know of Him, except the attribute of power, 
 is learned from those names. The last revelation 
 was the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The Apos- 
 tles were commissioned to baptize, or disciple into 
 Christ, in the name of the Adorable Trinity. 
 
 The word IS^ame is often used in the Gospel as a 
 synonyme for Life. We are named Christians at 
 ba23tism, because we then receive the Life of Christ. 
 The inhabitants of other worlds feel an interest in 
 us, as will be shown by and by, and this is evidence 
 that they belong to the same family, are sons of God 
 like us ; that their spiritual nature is like ours ; and 
 that we are brethren in a common Head, from 
 whom, in whom, and for whom are all things. The 
 name Jesus is not earthly, but from heaven. The 
 Angel Gabriel announced that His mother would 
 "call His name Jesus." 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 181 
 
 Angels feel an interest in men, and from the be- 
 ginning have taken part in human affairs. Eepeated 
 instances are mentioned of their participation in 
 doing good and evil to the bodies as well as souls 
 of men, under the Patriarchal and JoAvish disj)en- 
 sations. Throughout the first century of the Chris- 
 tian era, their presence on earth was almost con- 
 tinual. The Gos]3el represents them as watching 
 over children, and rejoicing over the salvation of 
 sinners. We feel an interest in them, long to know 
 more of them than the scanty allusions of the Bible 
 furnish. Here is a reciprocity of mind^ interest, 
 and action. Evil spirits hate and try to destroy 
 men, as evil men do one another. This shows that 
 negatively and positively their minds are like 
 man's. And it affords reasonable ground for be- 
 lieving, that a common mind prevails among the 
 whole family of intelligent beings of the Father 
 Everlasting. 
 
 The Bible teaches, that all the holy and redeemed 
 souls in the universe will be hereafter gathered into 
 one kingdom, where they will know one another 
 with perfect knowledge, and love one another wdth 
 perfect love. This is said to be the mystery of God's 
 will, which He planned for His own pleasure ; that 
 in the fulness of time He might gather together in 
 One all things in Christ, both which are in the 
 heavens^ and which are on earth. 
 
 All revelation recognizes the fact, that intelli- 
 gent beings were created to worship God. The 
 attributes of the Divine Mind must be, to some ex- 
 tent revealed to all ; and the minds of all must be 
 
182 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 to an equal extent homogeneous, or the revelation 
 would be incomprehensible. The Psalmist says, 
 
 " O praise the Lord of Heaven Praise 
 
 Him all ye angels of His : praise Him all His 
 hosts." The Church teaches this doctrine in the 
 Te Deum. " All the earth doth worship Thee, the 
 Father Everlasting." '' To Thee all angels cry 
 aloud ; the heavens and all the powers therein." 
 " To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do 
 ciy." 
 
 The Bible and the Church teach, that the souls 
 of the departed have the same employment. The 
 Psalmist invokes the souls of the righteous, '' Bless 
 ye tlie Lord ; praise Him and magnify Him for 
 ever." And the Church declares, that the glorious 
 company of the Apostles, the goodly fellowship of 
 the prophets, and the noble army of the martyrs, 
 are occupied in continually praising God. 
 
 As all these intellectual beings are thus repre- 
 sented as worshipping God, and man is commanded 
 to join with them in an universal concert of praise, 
 it follows, that there must be one mind in all, and 
 that like man's, since he can and does obey it and 
 join in it. 
 
 But the strongest argument for this sublime doc- 
 trine of the unity of all mind, exists in the fact, that 
 all spiritual beings are governed by laws similar to 
 those God has given to man. It is a law of the 
 universe, that death shall follow sin, and an univer- 
 sal law, that life shall be the reward of right- 
 eousness. 
 
 St. Paul says, of the law revealed to man, it is 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 183 
 
 holy and spiritual, tlie Sworcl of God's Spirit. It 
 must then be a part of the law of all spiritual worlds 
 and beings. We cannot conceive of a perfect beiug 
 with two kinds of rules of action. In the portion 
 man has, there is much relating to him as a physical 
 being ; this enters not into the revelation to other 
 worlds ; and they doubtless have features relating 
 to purely spiritual things not revealed to us. But 
 the fundamentals are universal. God cannot ap- 
 pear nor be represented to the inhabitants of any 
 other world otherwise than as He is to man, in 
 respect to His wisdom, holiness, and love. 
 
 It is the doctrine of the Bible, that the several 
 parts of the universe comprise one general whole, 
 governed by one moral law, and that their several 
 inhabitants make the one great family of the sons 
 of God, destined at some future day to know each 
 other, and live together as brethren. The inhabi- 
 tants of other worlds know what is going on here 
 now ; and not only are things of this earth known 
 in heaven, but things of other worlds are known 
 here. And there is no difhculty in believing that 
 they know much more of us than we do of them ; 
 and that they take a deep interest in, and are espe- 
 cially occupied with, our affairs. We are only part 
 spirit, and fallen beings, yet we can see millions of 
 miles into space. It is probable, that pure spirits 
 can see distant spirits with more distinctness than 
 we do worlds. 
 
 The thoughts and acts of men reach to distant 
 worlds ; and the thoughts and acts of their inhabi- 
 tants influence us. Evil angels tempted man ; and 
 
184 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 tlie seed of the woman bruised tlie serpent's head. 
 God has revealed but little on this subject, but it is 
 enough to satisfy us of a most intimate connection. 
 Angels rejoice over the thoughts, and watch the 
 struggles, of penitent sinners, and devils tremble in 
 their presence. And the sacrifice of the Son of 
 God, which took away the curse and sting of death 
 from the earth, and one race of God's great family, 
 and caused so much joy in this world, conferred 
 blessings on heavenly beings, and is a source of 
 wonder and adoration to them. 
 
 Christianity is a Divine system, introduced into 
 this world from heaven. It is an auxiliary to the 
 kingdom of grace; established on earth to benefit 
 its inhabitants, and to bring them into union with 
 the mother kingdom. The Gospel is a law of love 
 and holiness, and must be universal. It is not pro- 
 bable that God loves the earth more than any other 
 world He created. Christ said. He came forth from 
 the Father. " He spoke of His Kingdom as the 
 Kingdom of Heaven, and yet as one in which they, 
 the oneanest sons of earthy could dwells the secrets of 
 which they anight imderstcmd^ the jjower of which 
 they might exert^ which they were to assure their 
 countrymen was at hand, the gates of which they 
 would ultimately open to the world. 
 
 " As He interpreted to them the nature of this 
 kingdom, they more and more felt that He was 
 drawing them from a world which they looked upon 
 with their eyes, into an unseen world which another 
 eye that He was oj)ening must take in ; yet a world 
 which Avas intimately united to the one they wei'e 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 185 
 
 walking in, which gave the forms of that world a 
 distinctness they never had before. When He 
 wielded the j)owers of His kingdom, they felt more 
 and more that He governed the secret heart of na- 
 ture and of man — that spirits were subject to Him 
 — that through them He was acting upon bodies — 
 that all His influence proceeded from within, though 
 at last they left the clearest marks uj)on that which 
 was visible outward." * 
 
 Such is the nature of Christ's kingdom on earth, 
 among men, to which Christians belong. And it is 
 evidently a part of the machinery of a great invisi- 
 ble, universal government, which binds the mind 
 of every sanctified being to the One Great Eternal 
 Mind of God. 
 
 On earth there is a mutual relation and depend- 
 ence of the animals on one another. Their lives 
 and actions have relation not only to the happiness, 
 but the very existence of one another. All the 
 matter of the universe is connected by the invisible 
 power of gravitation. Why should not all the 
 mind be by a similar mysterious power of attrac- 
 tion? 
 
 The animals on earth suffered with man the con- 
 sequences of the fall ; they have ever since felt the 
 ruinous effects which sin produced. They now suf- 
 fer daily on account of man's sins. God cursed the 
 serpent, because he tempted Eve, and the ground 
 for man's sake ; and all its inhabitants feel it. The 
 animals have to toil and sweat, with man, in subdu- 
 
 * Maurice, 
 
186 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 ing the thorns and briers ; and they annoy animals 
 as well as man. 
 
 In the time of J^oah, the sins of man brought 
 destruction on the earth and its animals ; animals 
 perished in the overthrow of Sodom and the de- 
 traction of Jerusalem. In all wars of man, horses 
 perish. At the deluge, God said, " I will destroy 
 man, whom I have created, from the face of the 
 earth ; both man and beast, and creeping thing, and 
 fowls of the air." This is Scriptural evidence, that 
 inferior creatures suffered in consequence of the 
 superior's sins. And this is a point of view in which 
 we catch a glimpse of the way in which good and 
 evil may radiate from one world to another, and 
 from one race of beings to another. 
 
 Indeed we daily see in this world examples of 
 the consequences of man's sins being felt by inferior 
 animals as well as by their fellow-creatures. The 
 horse, the dog, and domestic animals belonging to 
 the cruel, or improvident, or intemperate, suffer the 
 penalty of his sins. Husbands, wives, children, 
 relatives and servants, suffer in a similar way. 
 
 The Bible teaches, that the power and influence 
 of spiritual beings of other worlds are felt in this. 
 God never made any thing evil. The divergency 
 from the law of his being by a free moral and in- 
 tellectual agent, brought sin into heaven, and it was 
 exported thence to the earth. The angels were 
 tempted, or they would not have fallen. Satan 
 first fell, and ruined angels and men. There is no 
 man living who is not daily tempted by some evil 
 spirit ; none who is not made better or worse by 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 187 
 
 his trials, and is not radiating his influence to 
 others. 
 
 Moses does not say, that the serpent, who tempt- 
 ed Eve, was a beast ; but that he was " more subtle 
 than any beast." He was a spirit, vastly above the 
 beasts, and man himself. But because he did this 
 evil to man he was cursed above all the beasts of 
 the field ; his condition was made worse than that 
 of the beasts who perish. 
 
 It is probable, man w^ould not liave fallen, hu- 
 manly speaking, unless he had been tempted by an 
 evil spirit which had fallen before him. Here is 
 plainly seen the effects of acts done by the inhabit- 
 ants of one world passing over and exerting tremen- 
 dous and everlasting consequences on the inhabit- 
 ants of three worlds, — heaven, earth, and hell, to 
 say nothing of paradise. The acts of Christ, who 
 came from another world to this, produced, and are 
 continuing so to do, more important efl'ects on those 
 worlds. The doctrine of Christ crucified is the 
 power of God, and the wisdom of God, to every in- 
 telligent creature in the imiverse. " It is this doc- 
 trine that gives an emphasis to all thought — a sub- 
 lime import to all life ; " and there is not a mind in 
 the universe that does not know it, and see in it 
 what man sees, the boundless love of the Father ; 
 and receive from it what man receives, the exalta- 
 tion of his moral nature. 
 
 It is a reasonable inference from the doctrines of 
 the Gospel, that there is a common attraction of all 
 mxind as well as the matter of the universe ; that 
 the one God who created all minds, inspired all ; 
 
188 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 that the life of every intelligent being is the life of 
 God, as it is in man ; that an invisible law of con- 
 nection binds all the mind of the universe to the 
 great central nncreated mind : and that it holds as 
 fully throughout the highest and lowest grades of 
 spiritual beings as it does on earth among the vari- 
 ous grades of intellect of the various races of men. 
 We speak of a lost soul ; and all souls are doubtless 
 lost who are separated from this union with God. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, bearing on this question, 
 and indicating the universal belief of mankind, that 
 all nations, Jews and Pagans, in the East and West, 
 imtil comparatively modern times, supposed that 
 their kings descended from the gods. The Jewish 
 idea differed from the Pagan, inasmuch as they be- 
 lieved their kings w^ere mortals, but specially ap- 
 pointed to reign by God. In the one case there was 
 a linking of the beings, and in the other the mind, 
 of the universe together. 
 
 At all events there is such a chain of connection 
 on earth. The interests of barbarous nations are 
 affected by the progress of the civilized. There* 
 are no races or tribes so remote or so degraded, 
 that they have not felt the power of those more ad- 
 vanced. The call for slaves, on the coast of Africa, 
 has been felt to the Mountains of the Moon, and the 
 mysterious sources of its unexplored rivers. And 
 - the barbarous exert an influence on the final des- 
 tiny of the whole race. 
 
 The nice adjustment of the machinery of this 
 world, by w^hich each individual acts on his neigh- 
 bor, and nations in like manner on the great family 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 189 
 
 of man, is but one visible point or mesh in the 
 great network of creation, which binds all intelligent 
 minds into an universal whole. And the grand 
 aggregate makes up the creation of the Father Ever- 
 lasting. He made all w^orlds to be inhabited ; in- 
 spired all their inhabitants with one mind; the 
 same Divine afflatus He breathed into man ; that 
 they might jointly and severally know His power 
 and wisdom, and adore His love and mercy. 
 
 In this world, men of the highest cultivation and 
 refinement sacrifice all they hold dearest, for others 
 who are degraded and ignorant. They devote their 
 whole time ; leave country, home and friends ; ex- 
 pose themselves to sickly climates, to do good to 
 races of men who difier from themselves ; and others 
 pour out their money liberally to elevate men they 
 have never seen. Can it be that men, in such vol- 
 untary, noble acts, are superior to the wiser and bet- 
 ter angels and spirits ? Can it be that God has in- 
 spired men with more power or ability to do good 
 than the angels ? 
 
 If there be such a law of attraction and benevo- 
 lence among fallen beings, surely it is reasonable to 
 believe the law belongs to our minds as sons of God, 
 and that it is felt more strongly among the higher 
 orders who inhabit other worlds. It flows out from 
 the great Eternal Mind, whose love is over all His 
 works ; who is continually doing good to the un- 
 thankful and the unkind. It exists in the same 
 measure in the Son of God, who gave Himself to 
 die for man, while he was yet in rebellion and sin. 
 It exists in the Holy Spirit of God, who is the In- 
 
190 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 tercessor for sinners ; who yearns over this ruined 
 world, with groaning which cannot be uttered. It 
 exists in angels, who rejoice in heaven over one 
 sinner repenting on earth. If it begins in God, 
 and reaches down through all the spiritual beings 
 of whom man knows any thing to himself, it is rea- 
 sonable to conclude that it reaches to every moral 
 being that lives, and moves, and j)roceeds from 
 Him. 
 
 Indeed, the great means by which men are 
 trained to goodness is the example of the Son of 
 God, who came into this world as a missionary from 
 heaven, to live the life of a perfect man, of a celes- 
 tial being, without sin, to teach us how to become 
 perfect. 
 
 This supposition is made more conclusive by the 
 fact, that the Gospel teaches, that man has no power 
 to think or do any thing good of himself : that it is 
 God's Holy Spirit which teaches and enlightens 
 him. That must be the Spirit which actuates and 
 governs all the holy intelligent minds of the uni- 
 verse. He is said to be the " One Spirit " which 
 lives in the wdiole body of believers, and governs all 
 good men. And as it is the things of God, the 
 Truth, which He reveals and imparts to man, it 
 must be the same tridli which He teaches in all 
 worlds, and among all intelligent beings. 
 
 It is revealed to man that the angels do God's 
 will, that disobedience is unknown among the pres- 
 ent inhabitants of heaven. A part of their history, 
 their fall, and expulsion from heaven, is made 
 known to us as an example and warning ; and this 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 191 
 
 history exerts an influence on man ; it teaches Him 
 the uncompromising justice of God, the certainty of 
 our own punishment if we disobey Him, and acts as 
 apower on the JiinnoM mind. And the principle is 
 seen constantly at work on the narrow sphere of 
 earthly observation. 
 
 History has been defined as the acts of great 
 men. It is the history of the past which enliglitens 
 the present generation. The examples of great and 
 good men of former times, have lived down, and 
 helped to mould the minds of their successors ; and 
 millions of the inhabitants of other worlds may 
 learn, or have learned, practical lessons of wisdom, 
 from what they have seen or heard of the condition 
 or experience of fallen men and angels. 
 
 Man and his world are but one link in a chain 
 of " boundless causation," by which the great fami- 
 lies of intelligent beings are united to God. Man's 
 history is one chapter in the history of God's uni 
 versal empire. The whole history is recorded in 
 the works of the Creator, just as the earth's is writ- 
 ten on its rocky foundations. 
 
 Moreover, it is specially revealed to man, that 
 the death of the Son of God was beneficial to other 
 worlds than his own. He went to Paradise and 
 preached there ; and though it was to men, it was 
 men in another world, and in a diflerent condition 
 from those on earth. He had a mission to them, or 
 He would not have preached. St. Paul also says, 
 that by the sacrifice of Christ a larger measure of 
 " the manifold wisdom of God " was made known 
 to the inhabitants of the heavenly worlds. In the 
 
192 THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 English version it reads, places ; but the original is 
 eTTovpavLOLSy or heavens ; and it is a miserable nar- 
 rowing of the Word and Works of God, to render 
 it any thing less than " heavenly worlds," or " sys- 
 tems of w^orlds." 
 
 This opinion is strengthened by another revealed 
 fact, that our Saviour's death wrought some great 
 deliverance for the inhabitants of heaven as well as 
 of earth. The angels were once subject to tempta- 
 tion, as men now are, and some of them fell, as man 
 did. But St. John says, the power of the devil has 
 ceased in heaven; " for tlie accuser of our IjTethren 
 is cast down, which accused them before God day 
 and night. And they overcame him by the Blood 
 of the Lamb." And a part of the Processional 
 chant, which our Lord's discij)les sang, on His tri- 
 umphal entry to Jerusalem, was " Peace in Heaven." 
 This shows, that some change was wrought there 
 by our Lord's Advent to the earth ; that the devil's 
 power was destroyed, and for ever; because in 
 heaven there is no more death nor sorrow, and the 
 devil has lost " the powxr of death " there. 
 
 The word heaven in the preceding sentence is 
 singular. This may denote that Satan's power was 
 destroyed only in that one world of the heavens, 
 where God's throne is ; or it may refer to the w^hole 
 universe of then unfallen beings. God is gradually 
 destroying his power on earth. It will finally cease 
 every where. At all events, it shows plainly the 
 radiation of an efi*ective moral influence from one 
 world to another. 
 
 Christianity is a revelation to man of the great 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 193 
 
 law of love which fills the immensity of God, and 
 reaches throiighont the universe. Its design is to 
 bring about such a reign of peace on earth as there 
 is in heaven. And it would speedily, but for man's 
 perversity. If he would perfectly obey it, it would 
 make him like all the other holy beings in the uni- 
 verse. It is only the deviation from this law that 
 makes earth less happy than heaven. Christ brought 
 life and immortality to man. They are the realities 
 of better beings, in a better world than this. We 
 are taught by God's Spirit to understand them, and 
 to know that we ourselves are capable of infinite 
 illumination and eternal life. 
 
 Christianity offers deliverance to captives taken 
 by Satan ; to fallen beings restoration to God's fa- 
 vor. Ever since its establishment it has been at 
 work, bringing these captives into the glorious liber- 
 ty of the sons of God ; trying to make men like 
 angels, and earth like heaven. " As a matter of 
 history," says Mr. Taylor, " unquestionable and con- 
 spicuous, Christianity has, in every age, fed the 
 hungry, clothed the naked, redeemed the captive, 
 and visited the sick. It has put to shame the atro- 
 cities of the ancient popular amusements, and has 
 annihilated sanguinary rites, has brought slavery 
 into disesteem and disuse, and has abolished excru- 
 ciating punishments ; it has softened the atrocity of 
 war ; and, in a word, is seen constantly at work, 
 edging away oppression, and moviiig on toioards 
 the perfect triumj^h which avowedly it meditates — ■ 
 that of removing from the earth every woe^ which 
 9 
 
194: THE UNITY OF MIND. 
 
 the inconsicleration^ or the selfishness, or the malig- 
 nancy of man inflicts \i])on his felloios.^'' 
 
 Tims its grand aim and increasing tendency are, 
 to bring about on earth, snch a state of things as 
 revelation teaches exists among the inhabitants of 
 worlds where sin is unknown ; and to bring into a 
 unity of operation the whole mind of the universe, 
 in subjection to the law of God. At least all the 
 minds capable of making progress in goodness ; all 
 not fallen beyond reach of redemption. The others 
 are probably so few in comparison with this grand 
 aggregate, that there can be no impropriety in say- 
 ing, the whole intelligent universe. 
 
 " It is certain that the conditions of existence, 
 not less than its matter and form are from God . . 
 ... As in Him we live, and move, and have our 
 being, so also is it He who worketh in us to will 
 and to do whatever is pleasing to Himself. Whether 
 we take the safe and ready method of acquiescing 
 in the obvious sense of a multitude of scriptures, or 
 pursue the laborious deductions of abstract reason- 
 ing, the same conclusion is attained, that in the 
 present world, and in every other where virtue and 
 happiness are found, they are the emanations of the 
 Divine blessedness and purity." 
 
 " There may be mind without matter, but there 
 can be no matter without mind, neither form, nor 
 color, quality, nor quantity. We view natural pro- 
 ductions as the immediate result of influences in 
 active operation in nature, and the achievements of 
 men in the arts as the eflect of forces on inert sub- 
 stances ; but these forces, whether organic or inor- 
 
THE UNITY OF MIND. 195 
 
 ganic, are valueless as motors unless subject i 
 another kind of power — the jpower of thought. This, 
 in truth, is the only prime mover. From it all 
 creation^ human and Divine^ proceeds, and hence 
 the material every lohere refers to the immaterial. 
 It is thus we learn not only that knowledge is 
 power, but that there can be no power — no physical 
 power — without it ; that all material is resolvable 
 into mental forces ; that worlds were made for the 
 cultivation of intellect ; and that streams of knowl- 
 edge circulating through them flow from the mind 
 of Him whose hands formed them all." ''^ 
 
 The unity of all the mind of the universe, then, 
 may be fairly inferred from both creation and reve- 
 lation. The Bible teaches, that man's inmost 
 thoughts are known beyond the earth, and to be- 
 ings superior to himself. Like the waves which 
 undulate from the sun to the end of its system of 
 worlds ; so may it be, probably is it, in an inverse 
 manner, with all the thought of the universe. It 
 flows back to the original source of mind, and every 
 pulsation throbs throughout the universe. 
 
 The inferior minds do not know the operations 
 of the superior ; yet it is highly probable from anal- 
 ogy, without the teaching of revelation, which ex- 
 pressly says it is so, that the superior knows all the 
 thoughts of the inferior. Man reads many of the 
 thoughts and feelings of his fellow-men, from the 
 expression of the eye or countenance ; he can read 
 the lower animals still better. Why then may not 
 spirits know all the thoughts in the soul of man ? 
 
 * Ewbank. 
 
196 THE UNITY OF MINT). 
 
 It is evident from revelation, that there are at 
 least four different spirits interested in earthly af- 
 fairs. They are the Divine, the angelic, the diabol- 
 ical, and the hnman. We have distinct information 
 of their respective operations. All the good and 
 evil on the earth is intimately connected with them. 
 A careful study of the way in which the human 
 mind developes itself, shows, that these different 
 spiritual powers are constantly at work influencing 
 and moulding it. 'Now if such a state of things ex- 
 ist in this world, whose inhabitants are the last and 
 lowest created intelligent beings, some of whom are 
 hereafter to occupy places above the good angels, 
 and others to sink below fallen spirits, is it not pro- 
 bable, that there is such a unity of mind, as is here 
 claimed, throughout the universe ? 
 
TEE UNITY OF LABOE. 197 
 
 CHAPTEK IX. 
 
 THE UNITY OF LABOE. 
 
 The concluding paragraph of the last chapter pre- 
 pares the way to show the connection between mmd 
 and matter. It is power, which is neither ; but a 
 vital energy passing from the one and connecting 
 itself with the other. This introduces the interest- 
 ing subject of labor, without which both mind and 
 matter are comparatively negative properties. 
 
 The universe, resolved to its primary elements, 
 is mind, matter, and power. The mind is the will 
 of God ; the matter, the creation of His will ; and the 
 power, its exercise or application. A machine is 
 no part of the mind of the contriver ; that which 
 keeps it in motion is no part of it. It is neither 
 mind nor matter, and is here called power. 
 
 By unity of labor is meant, that the ultimate 
 end of all useful work is the same — the glory of 
 God. There is another unity of operation. Labor 
 began with God. It is one of His distinguishing 
 characteristics that He is a laborer. All the mind 
 
198 THE TNITY OF LABOK. 
 
 and matter of the universe are His work. The earth 
 has two specimens of His skill ; the kingdom of 
 nature in which Ave live, and the kingdom of grace 
 of which we are made members. The spiritual 
 kingdom is wrought out of the ])hvsical. It is 
 " created anew, with great sorrow, framed painful- 
 ly," with the sweat of the brow, the bloody sweat, 
 and painful death, of the Son of God. He works, 
 and every living creature He has made works, in 
 some way, for a common end, to govern, improve, 
 or adorn the worlds. Ordinarily, the moi*e severe 
 the labor the more precious the results. This seems 
 to hold good with both God and man. The effort 
 to discipline and perfect our moral being is one 
 daily, life-long struggle ; and he who strives hardest 
 attains the noblest eternal life and honors. 
 
 God created all things. He rej^resents Himself 
 to us as a Worker. His Only Begotten Son worked 
 while on earth ; and felt weariness, while going 
 about His life-work of doing good to others. He 
 was not ashamed to be the reputed son of a carpen- 
 ter. God rejoices in the work of His hands ; and 
 all of them have reference to the good of His crea- 
 tures. This is a 2:)roof that Jesus was the Son of 
 God, because He lived, and labored, and died, for 
 the salvation of man, and the good of the universe. 
 
 These facts open a sublime field of thought ; and 
 show that there is a unity in all the right labor of 
 the universe, as well as in all its mind and matter ; 
 in fine, that, trace the Creator as we may. He is 
 every where the same, and every where consistent 
 with Himself; and that He and all the creatures 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOR. 199 
 
 He has made, wlien tliey are fulfilling the law of their 
 being, are working not more for themselves than 
 for the good of others. 
 
 God satisfies the desires of every living thing. 
 Angels work for God, and for man; and man him- 
 self for society, for his family, and the inferior ani- 
 mals. The great law of labor seems to be, the good 
 of others. Man toils for his children ; pays taxes 
 and tithes for the support of religion and govern- 
 ment. He readily perils life to preserve either of 
 these privileges. The farmer, the merchant, the 
 lawyer, doctor, priest, and mechanic, work for others 
 more than themselves ; the aggregate of their life- 
 work is often of more benefit to others than them- 
 selves. At best, they come in for only a small share 
 of the general product of their labor. Even many 
 of the loAver animals are subject to a similar law ; 
 the horse, the ox, and the bee, with numberless other 
 animals, work for others more than themselves. 
 
 It is all for God. He ordained it. It is neces- 
 sary for the general support and happiness ; the 
 means by which His works are developed. What 
 would be the value of gold, silver, iron, copper, 
 lead, coal, or stone, without human labor ? 
 
 It is a law of benevolence. Man's true wisdom 
 and happiness are found in knowing and obeying 
 the laws of God. The better he understands this 
 the more faithfully he will work. God has made a 
 positive law, exacting labor from all His creatures, 
 like His own, for the good of others. St. Paul says, 
 he must "labor, working with his hands the thing 
 which is good, that he may have to give to him that 
 needethy 
 
200 THE UNITY OF LABOE. 
 
 God reckons the work done in this way as ren- 
 dered to Himself; " inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have 
 done it unto me." What we do for ourselves is for 
 the bod}^, and for time ; that which is done for others 
 is for the soul and for eternity. It brings health, 
 wealth, and happiness to man ; whether it be of the 
 hands or the head, of the muscle or the brain, it is a 
 blessing. 
 
 Man is a co-laborer with God. He created him 
 to subdue and embellish the earth, which was hand- 
 ed over to his lordship in a comparatively crude 
 state. The cities, temples, and monuments ; the 
 levelled mountains and canalled rivers, are man's 
 work. The felled forests, drained swamps, dammed- 
 out seas, and cultivated fields, and the sail-whitened 
 oceans, are the result of his labor. 
 
 It is the expense of mining which gives value to 
 the precious metals, as much as their scarceness. 
 And hoAv dismal the earth would be, if all man's 
 works were suddenly blotted out of existence ! 
 
 The earth itself, so far as man has penetrated, is 
 made up of or mingled with the remains of insects 
 and animals who lived upon it, and worked its ma- 
 terial to its very foundations, before man was crea- 
 ted ; and which served the economy of its beauty, 
 growth, or preparation for his abode. All things 
 are linked by the universal chain of labor to God. 
 The unity of mind, and the unity of matter, prevail 
 throughout creation, and labor is their connecting 
 link. 
 
 In the beginning God created ; and ages on ages 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOE. 201 
 
 after, His Only Son said : " My Father worketh 
 hitherto, and I work." By hitherto He meant, to 
 that time. He always worked, was then doing so, 
 " the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the 
 Avorks." Jesus wrought by the power of God, an- 
 gels minister by His power, and man works by a 
 God-given power. It is God every where, in all 
 things, manifesting His wisdom and love. 
 
 The Infinite Mind works, and the production is 
 matter. He breathes into material forms, and they 
 become living souls, and begin to work also. When 
 creation began is unknown to man. That it was 
 not finished at once is certain, because the Son of 
 man was as much a new creation as Adam. "When 
 the earth was prepared as man's abode, a specific 
 time was employed, six of God's days. It is prob- 
 able, they were earthly days, measured by the revo- 
 lution of the planet on its axis. The great geological 
 periods, which were also stages of preparation for 
 man, were long before. 
 
 Work is the result of mind. God, the Infinite 
 Mind, sets the example of working. The infinite 
 and changing forms of matter, and its sustension, are 
 by the power of the Divine will. God labors, and 
 He has created nothing, down to the minutest in- 
 sect, which has not appointed life-work to do ; all 
 is incessant action, which man calls work. There 
 is no way in which man is more plainly seen to be 
 working for God than in the Christian ministry. A 
 commission is given by Him to a class of men, to 
 help Him regain His " authority over a rebellious 
 race, and bring it back to the honored companion- 
 9- ' 
 
202 THE UNITY OF LABOR. 
 
 ship to the elder spirits of the universe." . ..." If 
 eloquence is the highest expression of mind, it can- 
 not be doubted, that the eloquence of Christianity 
 transcends every other form of persuasive speech." 
 This is moral labor. 
 
 There is no mind without activity. One of the 
 designs of the creation of intellectual beings was to 
 modify matter. Labor does this. It is the agent 
 which prints mind on matter. The rarest works of 
 art are the results of minds most highly endowed by 
 God ; and a wise judgment respecting any kind of 
 work is the gift of God. It may be shown in dig- 
 ging a ditch, or throwing up an embankment. ISo 
 labor is low or mean. All is sacred, because or- 
 dained by God ; because He works ; and because 
 all work is for Him. If He were to suspend His 
 operations for one moment, the systems in space 
 would rush into destruction. 
 
 The law of labor is not the curse of the fall. 
 It was before that. As soon as Adam was created, 
 God gave him a garden to tend. In paradise tliere 
 was neither anxiety as to results, nor sweat in labor. 
 It was grateful, health and happiness giving em- 
 ployment. There is doubtless labor in other worlds 
 without fatigue or sweat. Out of paradise, the 
 ground was cursed to bear thorns and briers. Mor- 
 tal sweat is drawn in subduing these. 
 
 The law of labor is one of love to man. It is 
 twofold ; and both results in the highest good to 
 him. He must work for his body and for his soul ; 
 and for the bodies and souls of others, if he will ful- 
 fil his Creator's law. He has work to do for two 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOR. 203 
 
 worlds, the material and sj^iritiial ; so God has pro- 
 vided two woi'kshops for him, the World and the 
 Church. And it is remarkable, and shows the con- 
 nection of all the labor as well as of the mind of the 
 earth with the universe, that the results of both 
 kinds of work are not confined to tliis world. They 
 stretch away into eternity, and are to influence his 
 destiny for ever. 
 
 But what is more remarkable, is tlie pains which 
 God has taken to record in His Word, His approval 
 of acts done by men for His honor, and to impress 
 upon the minds of the race the high esteem in which 
 He holds such laborers. He says, the least act 
 done to one of Christ's disciples He regards as done 
 to Himself. There is nothing which man craves 
 more than to do some deed, or accomplish some 
 labor, which shall live after him and make his name 
 innnortal. God teaches ns, that there is no way of 
 securing this immortality, like working for Him. 
 The names of the founders of the earliest empires 
 are scarcely known, or subjects of dispute ; and no 
 man knows the exact age of the pyramids ; ancient 
 cities, books, and superb works of art have perished. 
 But the names of the persons who built, and en- 
 dowed, and consecrated, the first national altar 
 erected on earth for the worship of God, yet live. 
 God himself has honored them by j^reserving their 
 names, and the oiFerings which each one made, to 
 the minutest particular, for three tliousand three 
 hundred years to this very day, and they will live 
 on to the end of time. The twelve Princes of 
 Israel did this work for God, and He has preserved 
 
204 THE UNITY OF LAEOE. 
 
 their names, tlie names of the tribes over which 
 they ruled, and their fathers' names as well as 
 their offerings. They were twelve days making 
 their offerings. God says: "The Princes offered, 
 for dedicating the altar in the day that it was 
 anointed, even the Princes offered their offering 
 before the altar." "Who but God could liave pre- 
 served this particularity, when the altar has been 
 more than three thousand years perished ; and 
 while the pyramids yet survive, and no one can 
 tell any thing about them? "And the Lord said 
 unto Moses, They shall offer tlieir offering, each 
 Prince on his day, for the dedicating of the altar." 
 These are their names : 
 
 The first day came, ISTahshon, the son of Ammin- 
 idab, Prince of the tribe of Judali. 
 
 The second day came, Xethaneel, the son of 
 Zuar, Prince of Issachar. 
 
 The third day came, Eliab, the son of Helon, 
 Prince of Zebulun. 
 
 The fourth day came, Elizur, the son of She- 
 deur. Prince of Eeuben. 
 
 The fifth day came, Shelumiel, the son of Zuri- 
 shaddai. Prince of Simeon. 
 
 The sixth day came, Eliasaph, the son of Deuel, 
 Prince of Gad. 
 
 The seventh day came, Elishama, the son of 
 Ammihud, Prince of Ephraim. 
 
 The eighth day came, Gamaliel, the son of Pe- 
 dahzur, Prince of Manasseh. 
 
 The ninth day came, Abidan, the son of Gideoni, 
 Prince of Benjamin. 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOK. 205 
 
 The tentli day came, Ahiezer, the son of Ammi- 
 shaddai. Prince of Dan. 
 
 The eleventh day came, Pagiel, the son of 
 Ocran, Prince of Asher. 
 
 The twelfth day came, Ahira, the soil of Enan, 
 Prince of JSTaphtali. 
 
 What each one offered may be seen in the 
 seventh chapter of the -book of E'umbers. And 
 this is something more than a fact of history. It is 
 the recorded and preserved testimony of God's ap- 
 proval of man's works ; and it is a guarantee for all 
 that He says in His Word, that He not only remem- 
 bers them for all thne^ but will also reward them 
 for all eternity. 
 
 The wants of man's body urge him to the one 
 kind of work which God has assigned him; the 
 necessities of his soul impel him to the other. God 
 has wisely and benevolently portioned out both 
 kinds of work, and the wages, and instructed him 
 how to do them. 
 
 Of the labor of the natural world, the Psalmist 
 says, " Man goeth forth to his work and to his labor 
 until the evening." It is the law of God that he 
 shall do so, or be miserable. He created man to 
 embellish the earth. And the ceaseless toil of the 
 majority is absolutely necessary to supply the con- 
 stantly recurring demands of human life. Yet there 
 is a sedative in labor. It strengthens and ennobles 
 the workman. The face browned by exposure to 
 the air and sunlight, and the limbs made strong by 
 muscular exertion, and the hand hardened by toil, 
 are noble in the Creator's sio'ht. " But not more so. 
 
206 THE UNITY OF LABOK. 
 
 and judging by effects, far less so, than the pale 
 visage and flaccid skin of the student." - The indo- 
 lent are God's abhori-ence. Thev fail to accomplish 
 the end of their creation. Idleness is rebellion 
 against His law. 
 
 The true dignity of labor is not sufficiently real- 
 ized. It is essential to perfect man. It is physical 
 discipline which reacts on the soul, and was merci- 
 fully contrived to help man perfect liis moral nature. 
 He who learns to patiently labor at a round of daily 
 duties, in obedience to his Creator, and tries to use 
 some of the wages of his work for His glory and the 
 good of his fellow-men, is a true nobleman ; noble 
 in the esteem of angels, and all holy beings, and of 
 God Himself. 
 
 Labor is a lesson taught in both the Word and 
 works of God. In all the Creator's vast dominions, 
 so far as they come within human observation, no 
 rest or idleness is found ; but all is change and un- 
 ceasing revolution. The glorious sun unw^earily 
 scatters its vivifying rays ; the ocean and the wind 
 jointly toil to purify the air, and without their un- 
 remitting action all animal and vegetable life would 
 cease. The plants and trees, by a law imposed by 
 God, employ their functions to absorb or exhale the 
 moisture and the gases furnished in the laboratory 
 of nature ; while there is not a rotting leaf in the 
 forest which does not contribute its mite of decom- 
 pository toil to generate the mysterious forces which 
 keep the surface of the earth ever young, vigorous, 
 
 * Dr. J. H. Alexander. 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOK. 207 
 
 and powerful. The law of labor is impressed on 
 matter as well as mind ; and though of an entirely- 
 different character, and " wisely to be distinguished 
 from the thoughtful operation of a reflecting be- 
 ing," * yet it shows how imperative the Creator is in 
 requiring every thing that He has made to be useful 
 in the economy of nature. And lastly man, the 
 lord of the earth, finds one of the laws of his fallen 
 and mysterious destin}^ : '' In the sweat of thy face 
 shalt thou eat bread." 
 
 It was not always so. ^Vork Avas designed as 
 worship. It is part of the employment of heavenly 
 beings. Angels and spirits do God's will, and assist 
 in His works, and in executing the laws of the uni- 
 verse, as will be shown by and by. It is probable, 
 that all labor was designed to be pleasurable. It 
 certainly was so to man until the fall, and even now 
 some remnants of its former excellence yet cling to 
 it. It still gives vigor to mind and body; still 
 brings honor and glory to the worker. It is yet one 
 of man's purest pleasures. 
 
 There is a sedative power in the meanest servi- 
 tude, when patiently endured. The slave is usually 
 happier than his exacting master. Labor strength- 
 ens and composes the whole man. As by it forests 
 and swamps are converted into fertile fields, so are 
 the moral jungles of the soul purified by it. There 
 is no hope for man in time or eternity without it. 
 He must lay up treasure on earth, for time ; and in 
 heaven, for eternity. The idle will be condemned 
 
 * Dr. J. H. Alexander. 
 
208 THE UNITY OF LABOR. 
 
 at last with the unjust steward, who hid his Lord's 
 money. 
 
 Labor is also a grand conservator of human life 
 and progress. God's plans could not be carried out 
 without it. If labor, in the single branch of agri- 
 culture, were to stop for two years, mankind would 
 perish by famine. Without it man would sink from 
 civilization to barbarism. It is a notable fact, that 
 the life of the thousand millions of earth's inhabit- 
 ants is sustained by human labor. It is inwoven 
 into eyerj article of luxury and every staple of life. 
 And he who has never tasted products of his own 
 growing, nor smelled the fragrance of flowers of his 
 own training, has missed the purest earthly plea- 
 sures a loving Father has provided for man. It is 
 his nature to love his own offspring, whether of 
 body, hand, or mind. 
 
 Labor is worship, because it is obedience to God. 
 A wise monk of the twelfth century had a favorite 
 maxim, " laborare est orare," to labor is to pray. 
 And there is deep significancy in the saying. He 
 who patiently ploughs and sows, in hope of a future 
 harvest, obeys God, trusts in God, and exercises 
 faith, the noblest faculty of his soul. He has 
 courage, or he would not undertake to subdue the 
 rigorous earth. He has faith in God, or he would 
 not risk the chances of sunshine and shower to 
 quicken the seed ; and lie has ]3atience, or he would 
 not continue his labor until the slowly growing har- 
 vests come. It requires perseverance, exercises 
 hope, and he who rightly works may be said to 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOK. 209 
 
 pray. It is worship, because all obedience to God 
 is worship. 
 
 There is sublimity in labor. We see it in all 
 God's works; and in a lower degree in man's, in 
 the rattling of the hissing, rushing locomotive ; in 
 the majestic riding of the steamer on the raging sea ; 
 and in the impressive domes of the stupendous 
 structures he rears. 
 
 But there is another point of view in which 
 man's labor is more sublime. It is, that it is con- 
 nected witli all the labor in the universe. It is at 
 this moment the agency for executing plans, which 
 God planned before man or the earth were created. 
 Steam and electricity, two mysterious j)owers of na- 
 ture, are bringing the ends of the earth together. 
 They are spreading the knowledge of the everlasting 
 Gospel. They are making the nations feel the tie of 
 brotherhood from a common Father. They are hast- 
 ening men to heaven and hell ; and are preparing 
 to bring about the destruction of the material globe 
 on which man lives, the day when Christ will return 
 to judge the world, and establish his universal em- 
 pire. The Bible says, when knowledge shall have 
 run to and fro, and the Gospel has been preached 
 over all the earth, then its end shall come. 
 
 There is a current opinion, that labor is dis- 
 reputable. ]N"othing can be more erroneous. That 
 which God ordains, and sets the example of doing, 
 cannot be dishonorable. Some of the sublimest. 
 strains of poetry in the world are those which de- 
 scribe " the glorious works," " the wonderful works," 
 and " the terrible works " of God. It has a bearing 
 
210 THE UNITY OF LABOE. 
 
 on the universal moral government in another way ; 
 the Church, which is a part of that invisible govern- 
 ment, is })reserved and perpetuated from age to age 
 under God, by human effort. Hence it is evident, 
 that no rightly directed labor is low, in His estima- 
 tion ; and that He knows no distinction between 
 muscle or brain, head or hand. 
 
 Man's present condition is no test of the estima- 
 tion in which he is held by his Maker. He who fur- 
 nishes the means to help another to preach the Gos- 
 pel, will come in for his full share of the promise, to 
 those who turn many to righteousness. The money 
 of the one is as essential as the eloquence of the 
 other to the success of the Gospel. Man's present 
 and future state depends on the work he does in this 
 world ; the present, because health and wealth come 
 from industry ; the future, because our Lord says, 
 at the judgment, every man shall receive according 
 to the deeds he hath done in the body. 
 
 It is evident, that men are incompetent j udges 
 of their own work. Our Lord's words respecting 
 the widow's mite show this. Some heedless act 
 may tell on the destiny of millions of our race. 
 The planting of an acorn results in the building of 
 a ship, which carries civilization and Christianity 
 from one quarter of the globe to all the others. This 
 teaches those who reap the most honor or wealth, 
 not to despise the less successful : that they are 
 brethren working for a common Father ; and that 
 eternity alone will show whose labor is most 
 esteemed by Him. 
 
 It is also certain, that by a similar law the acts 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOR. 211 
 
 of one world reach to others. The fall of the angels 
 was the cause of the fall of man. The acts of Christ, 
 in His human nature, reach to heaven and hell. He 
 was made perfect through the sufferings He endured 
 in doing His life-work. The trials and sufferings of 
 others react upon us here. 
 
 Work is part of the discipline, and one of the 
 means, hy which our moral nature is prej^ared for 
 the companionship of higher orders of beings. All 
 tliat we accumulate on earth is a trast from God. 
 It must be given up at death ; but it leaves its im- 
 press on our character; it determines how much 
 riches we shall have of our own in heaven for ever. 
 
 He is a true nobleman, who patiently discharges 
 the duties of the station in which God has placed 
 him, be it high or low ; and lie will hereafter be a 
 peer among a higher order of beings than man. 
 And he who faithfully toils in the dusty workshops 
 of earth, and in the sweat of his brow does his daily 
 labor, will be called to nobler employment in the 
 world to come. What a translation it will be, to pass 
 from the dust and sweat of earthly occupation to 
 the employment of a redeemed spirit in heavenly 
 worlds ! How the contrast must enhance the rap- 
 ture of the exaltation ! Many such will find them- 
 selves far out-ranking, in the celestial hierarchy, 
 those whom they envied in this world for their opu- 
 lence or ease, but who had accomplished less than 
 themselves, in proportion to their means, for the 
 glory of God and the good of maji. 
 
 No earthly occupation either elevates or de- 
 grades man ; no earthly rank or station gives honor 
 
212 THE TNITT OF LABOR. 
 
 or glory in God's estimation. He is no respecter of 
 j^ersons. But it is the fidelity with which each one 
 does his worTa,^ that determines the amount of eter- 
 nal riches he is to receive as his own for ever. Tlie 
 proud and indolent have nothing to expect here- 
 after. Humility is the perfection of human grace. 
 God incarnate, in an earthly stable, is the sublime 
 lesson which the Son of God gave to all the intelli- 
 gent beings of the universe. Angels came down 
 from heaven to look uj^on it; and they chanted 
 songs of adoration, over the plains of Bethlehem, at 
 this mystery, which they did not then fully under- 
 stand. It is doubtless an error to suppose, that God 
 esteems one kind of occupation better than another ; 
 and a greater one to sup23ose, that He approves of 
 those who do not ^vork at all. 
 
 God's own work is the only true and perfect 
 type. It is holy and for the good of others. He 
 shows as much in finishing the inferior animals, 
 and adapting them to their several conditions, as 
 he does in respect to man. But He requires more 
 of man, because lie has the higher trust of reason, 
 and an immortal soul. To him therefore He says, 
 " Be ye holy, for I am ; " " lay not up for yourselves 
 treasures on earth ;" "labor not for the meat which 
 perisheth." Work, that you may have to give to 
 him who needeth, as I have made the earth for 
 you. It is a pleasure to the Infinite Mind, when 
 His works fulfil His will ; and man's happiness is 
 intimately connected with his labor. 
 
 Matter is the published thoughts of \hQ Creator. 
 It is the recorded history of His works. Every 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOE. 213 
 
 strata of tlie earth is a page of that marvellous his- 
 tory. And God is employing His children of men, 
 to complete his own infinite plans respecting the 
 earth. It is also " the day-book in which man's 
 accounts are registered. . . . The industry of an 
 age or people is as the vegetable and animal pro- 
 ducts they grow, and the minerals they raise, while 
 their position in the scale of j^rogress is marked by 
 the elaboration tliey give to those substances, and 
 tlie use they make of them." 
 
 Thus it is seen, so far as this world is concerned, 
 that labor is one of the essential conditions of the 
 "oery existence of its inhabitants, and of their de- 
 velopment, progress, haj)piness, and final destiny. 
 The combined labor of all classes contributes to the 
 common welfare. As in the members of the body, 
 " the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of 
 thee ; nor again the head to the feet, I have no need 
 of thee ; " so the learned cannot say to the igno- 
 rant, nor the rich to the poor, " I have no need of 
 thee." 
 
 The planter must till the land, to grow the food 
 for the general support. The learned must labor to 
 acquire and diffuse knowledge, to enlighten the 
 masses. And the mechanic and laborer are equally 
 important agents, in helping the progress of society, 
 and the civilization of the world. The latter invent 
 and build the wings, and wires, and engines, on 
 which the knowledge flies, and by means of which 
 the comforts and staples of life are brought within 
 reach of the humblest classes. There is no nobler 
 earthly occupation than to execute the means which 
 
214: THE UNITY OF LABOE. 
 
 bring the staple commodities of life within the re- 
 sources of the j)oor ; and no surer or speedier way 
 to elevate them. It is like God's work, who opens 
 His hand, and satisfies the desire of every living 
 thing ; indeed, it is His own work ; He adopts it ; 
 man is thereby a co-laborer with Him and fpr Him ; 
 '' inasmuch," says He, "as ye have done it unto one 
 of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it 
 unto Me." 
 
 All the living creatures on earth are kept alive 
 by some kind of labor. Every race, from the mi- 
 nutest insect up to man, if it ceased from its ap- 
 pointed work, would soon die. Labor is a cove- 
 nanted condition of health and life on earth. It is 
 God's law to man, and down to the minutest insect, 
 — do your appointed work or you shall die. It is 
 probably a law of all worlds, certainly of the one 
 where the angels dwell. They are all ministering 
 spirits, doing the Creator's will. It is certain, that 
 good and bad spirits and men are constantly em- 
 ployed in works peculiar to themselves ; and it is 
 probable, that there is no world of idlers in the uni- 
 verse. Man rises to his true state and dignity, just 
 in proportion as he is faithful to this law ; and he 
 glorifies God by his labor, just in proportion as he 
 devotes its product to the good of others. 
 
 The work thus far named has i-eference mainly 
 to this world ; another kind has been mentioned re- 
 lating to the soul and a future world. The Christian 
 religion takes into its holy kee]3ing the works of 
 man's soul and body. It connnands him to be 
 occupied with both, daily, until the evening. If the 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOR. 215 
 
 former be big with sncli consequences, of how much 
 greater must the latter be, having relation to an 
 eternal life ? It is at this j)oint we catch a glimpse 
 of its connection with all the labor of the universe. 
 Man's spiritual work has a bearing on tlie enlarge- 
 ment of God's everlasting kingdom of glory. The 
 work which saves human souls will swell the num- 
 ber of the redeemed, who are to live and reign with 
 Christ for ever. Xeglect of this work increases the 
 multitude of the lost, who will be cast into hell with 
 the devil and his angels. We are sons of God, du- 
 tiful, and working for the accomplishment of His 
 eternal purposes, or disobedient, and working 
 against them. 
 
 Man is a pilgrim on earth ; he has here no 
 abiding home. The wages he is to receive for his 
 life-work on earth is a home of eternal happiness or 
 misery. All his hand-work will j^erisli witli, or not 
 long survive him ; hut the heart-work, which he 
 does for the soul, is imperishable. It is done for a 
 future life, and he can take it along with him. 
 And his acts influence the eternal destiny of others. 
 It is in this view of man's works, reaching onward 
 to eternity, fixing the state of others as well as him- 
 self, and taking hold of the kingdom of the Father 
 Everlasting, that we see all the length and breadth 
 of the sublime consequences of human labor. 
 
 Tlie reciprocal influence of man on man, and 
 nation on nation, in this world, is doubtless a type 
 of a universal relation, which connects the labor 
 of one world, and order of beings, with another 
 throughout the universe. There is a grand chain 
 
216 THE UNITY OF LABOR. 
 
 of connection in all tlie labor, as well as in all the 
 mind and matter of the universe. There is rest in 
 heaven, rest from temptations, from sin, and from 
 physical suflering, but it is no indolent rest. Day 
 and night its inhabitants cease not in praising God. 
 God Himself is the type and exemplar of all labor. 
 
 ISTeither the inhabitants of other worlds, nor their 
 employments, so far as the manipulation of matter 
 is concerned, are like our own. But all labor in all 
 worlds has reference to the one common object, the 
 glory of God. Like man, all intelligent beings must 
 derive their ideas from physical things. All are 
 created, and their labor must correspond to their 
 nature, and the world to which they belong. Such 
 is the case with man. 
 
 God made the heavens and the earth. On the 
 latter he put man, a race, which he educates by 
 means of its matter; and the human mind can con- 
 ceive of no other way by which an intelhgent being 
 can be educated. "What is matter? Who can 
 tell ? ]^o finite beings can say what its nature is. 
 We only know that it is prolific of wonders. It is 
 the mirror of the Creator's beneficence, the a^ent 
 of His providence ; the visible, tangible, and grand- 
 est proof of His existence. The study of it exalts 
 and adorns every Christian virtue. It expands all 
 minds, and as they expand fills them to overflowing 
 with the sublimest views of the Author of the uni- 
 verse." 
 
 If, then, we judge other worlds by our own, it 
 appears, that the grand design of the creation ot 
 matter was to furnish a medium for the cultivation 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOK. 217 
 
 of minds ; and that the development and progress 
 of material intelligent beings cannot be accom- 
 plished without it. And that man, in doing the 
 work assigned him on earth, for body and sonl, is 
 using a Divine instrumentality to work himself into 
 a clearer knowledge of God, and a fitness to take a 
 part in the administration of the government of the 
 nniverse, after all things shall have been prepared 
 by God, for a universal reign of righteousness 
 throughout His vast dominions. 
 
 The work assigned man by the Creator was " to 
 tend and dress " the o-arden of Eden. It doubtless 
 w^as connected with the expansion of his moral na- 
 ture ; in studying God's w^orks then, as now, he was 
 to learn of Him. After the fall, the penalty of sin 
 fell on labor, and it could be accomplished only by 
 the sweat of the brow. Adam was to '^subdue the 
 earth.'''' The phraseology of Moses indicates a 
 marked distinction between the two states of Adam, 
 before and after tlie fall. The first, was that of lord 
 and proprietor of the earth ; the last, was the con- 
 dition of a slave. The one implies dignity and 
 pleasure ; the other, labor and suffering. 
 
 The analogical argument is this : that the sepa- 
 ration of men into races and nations on earth, helps 
 the development of art, and science, and civiliza- 
 tion. The nations most remote from the great 
 highways of trade and commerce are the least 
 elevated, and gradually tend towards barbarism. 
 It has been asked me, in reference to this opinion, 
 '' Yet was it not to prevent progress, that the dis- 
 persion took place at Shinar ? " 
 10 
 
218 THE UNITY OF LABOE. 
 
 We think not ; but to prevent concert of action, 
 and waste of energy, on a senseless labor. So long- 
 as tliey had bnt one language, they had but little 
 sense. The study of language consumes time, to be 
 sure ; but it sharpens the intellect. Man must 
 have necessity to compel him to labor. This is one 
 of the necessities God has imposed to help educate 
 man. Charles the Fifth of Germany said, " A man 
 who speaks four languages is equal to four men.'' 
 The labor is beneficial which man employs in the 
 study of languages. If there were but one race ot 
 men and one language, there would be vastly less 
 vaiiety of picturesqueness among the nations, less 
 variety in the surface of society, and in art and 
 science, and little or no progress. The breaking up 
 of the old Eoman empire and tongue j)roduced half 
 a dozen new dialects and nations, each one superior 
 to the original. And it is probably for a similar 
 reason, fundamental in the nature of mind and mat- 
 ter, that the universe is parcelled into worlds and 
 systems occupied by varieties of beings. 
 
 When the highest attainments of the inhabitants 
 of each grand division have been made, and the pro- 
 gress of mind by labor on matter can be* carried no 
 higher, then, all will be gathered into a spiritual 
 kingdom, and matter itself, going through the or- 
 deal of fire, may be changed into a higher form, and 
 be adapted to the support of the new life which will 
 be given to all the orders, races, and grades of in- 
 telligent beings in. the universe. 
 
 Worlds have been burned, remnants of planets 
 are now revolving within the earth's orbit, and the 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOR. 219 
 
 earth itself bears unmistakable signs of having been 
 prepared for man by fire. These examples may be 
 types of tlie final grand conflagration, described by 
 St. Peter, " in which the heavens being on fire, shall 
 be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with 
 fervent heat ; " and when " the heavens shall pass 
 away with a great noise, .... and the earth also, 
 and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 
 The melting of the elements denotes change^ not de- 
 struction. And as all tilings are to be fused, so may 
 they come forth again as one grand, renovated, 
 spiritual whole ; a universal kingdom prepared for 
 Christ, wherein will dwell only righteousness. It 
 will be eternal, and all its inhabitants immortal ; 
 and universal, under the one Head, the man Christ 
 Jesus, of whom the whole family in heaven and on 
 earth is named ; brethren dwelling together in unity 
 in the home of the Father Everlasting. . 
 
 Hell was prepared and made eternal long ago, 
 for the devil and his angels, and to his kingdom 
 will go all who are not gathered by Christ. 
 
 The different worlds, if there are any others 
 than those described in man's revelation, may then 
 be united as one universal empire, in unity and 
 harmony with itself, in mind, and matter, and labor. 
 And as material substances will no longer be neces- 
 saiy as a means of development and instruction, 
 there will be no more j)bysical labor ; but the 
 spiritual progress begun by man on earth, will be 
 continued and perfected among beings who have 
 always been employed in that kind of culture. 
 Here, labor improves both the physical and Intel- 
 
220 THE UNITY OF LABOK. 
 
 lectual man ; there, the physical, having been 
 changed into spiritual, will no longer need the 
 health-giving exercise of manual labor, but the 
 whole man will be devoted to '^ the cultivation of 
 thought," of purely intellectual ideas, w^hich will 
 proceed independently of matter. 
 
 This view of the subject helps to explain many 
 things, connected with the destiny of man, which 
 otherwise are utterly unaccountable. But if man, 
 by his earthly labor, is preparing himself for a 
 higher state of being, and if his human nature was 
 created to act a j)art in the economy of the universe, 
 then the trials of life, and its severe labor, which 
 perfect his spirit, — for our Blessed Lord was made 
 perfect as to His humanity by suffering, — find a 
 solution. 
 
 And then the death of gifted men, before their 
 work seems to man to be half accomplished, is ex- 
 plained. It harmonizes with the Gospel, which 
 teaches, that this " excellent mechanism of mind 
 and matter, which, beyond any other of His works, 
 declares the wisdom of the Creator, and which, un- 
 der His guidance, is now passing the season of its 
 first preparation, shall stand up anew from the dust 
 of dissolution, and then, with freshened powers^ and 
 with a store of hard-earned practical wisdom for its 
 guidance^ shall essay new labors — we say not per- 
 plexities and perils, — in the service of God, who by 
 such instruments chooses to accomplish His designs 
 of beneficence." 
 
 " The burning pen of inspiration," says Edward 
 Everett, " ranging heaven and earth for a similitude, 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOR. 221 
 
 to convey to our poor minds some not inadequate 
 idea of tlie mighty doctrine of the Eesurrection, can 
 find no symbol so expressive as ' bare grain, it may 
 chance of wheat or some other grain.' To-day, a 
 senseless plant ; to-morrow, it is human bone and 
 muscle, vein and artery, sinew and nerve, beating 
 pulse, heaving lungs — toiling, ah ! sometimes over- 
 toiling brain. Last June, it sucked from the cold 
 breast of the earth the watery nourishment of its 
 distending sap-vessels ; now, it clothes the manly 
 form with warm cordial flesh, quivers and thrills 
 with the five-fold mystery of sense, purveys and 
 ministers to the higher mystery of thouglit. Heaped 
 up in your granaries this week, the next it will strike 
 in the stalwart arm, and glow in the blushing cheek, 
 and flash in tlie beaming eye, till we learn at last to 
 realize, that the slender stalk which we have seen 
 bending in the corn-field, under the yellow burden 
 of the harvest, is indeed the staft' of life, which, 
 since the world began, has supported the toiling 
 and struggling myriads of humanity on the niighty 
 pilgrimage of being." 
 
 All this is a type of something wdiich eye hath 
 not seen, ear lieard, neither hath it entered the 
 heart of man to conceive. But, when we see such 
 mighty consequences attending the decay and j^i'o- 
 duction of vegetable and animal life on earth, are 
 we not fully warranted in anticipating sublimer 
 results from the labor and death of man ? Created 
 in the likeness of God, his body is sowed in the 
 ground for the harvest of eternity. ISio great good 
 could come to man from the Advent of the Son of 
 
222 THE UNITY OF LABOR. 
 
 God until he died. It was His Resurrection which 
 flooded the world with the light of heaven. Then 
 opened He the disciples' ejes ; then brought He all 
 things to their minds ; then commissioned He them 
 with the jDower of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The earth is sowed with millions of human be- 
 ings, who have been worked up by its matter into 
 thinking, living, immortal souls. 'Not tliat the soul 
 is derived from matter; but it is sustained in the 
 body, while its powers are developed, and it is pre- 
 l^ared for its future destiny. Deathless conse- 
 quences flow from man's mental labor. And from 
 this sowing there will spring up a harvest of im- 
 mortal spirits, who will comprise one important 
 division of the consolidated universal empire of the 
 Father Everlasting. 
 
 There are three choirs of created things, all 
 working for God, and praising Him by their labor ; 
 the heavenly, the material, and the human. All 
 unitedly and incessantly sing " Te Deum lauda- 
 mus : " all are now part of one vast universal em- 
 pire, but from the imperfection of human observa- 
 tion and knowledge, they seem otherwise. It will 
 not be until after death, when our intellectual 
 powers shall be enlarged, when we " shall see as 
 we are seen" by God, and " know as we are known" 
 by Him, that this fact, now partially revealed, will 
 be fully known. 
 
 There are some astonishing analogies between 
 spiritual and physical labor. Take, for example, 
 creation and redemption. God wrought six days 
 in preparing the earth to become man's abode ; and 
 
THE UNITY OF LABOE. 223 
 
 six days of a thousand years were allotted him to 
 work out his moral and spiritual growth. A thou- 
 sand years are said to be with God as one day. 
 The six days of preparation were a tyjDe of the six 
 thousand years man had to accomplish his destiny. 
 At about the end of this period there will be another 
 rest ; rest for the people of God. All things have a 
 morning, a noon, and an evening. From Adam to 
 Noah was the morning of time for man's labor ; 
 from ]^oah to Christ was its noon ; and from Christ 
 — until the trump of the archangel sounds — its 
 evening, end. Each of these periods has occupied 
 about two thousand years. The morning was short, 
 the noon a little longer, and the evening is linger- 
 ing in a twilight that is to be followed by no dark- 
 ness ; but which prophecy teaches, shall end in the 
 dawn of a day, when labor and time shall cease on 
 earth. 
 
224: ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 By angels is meant spiritual beings, of every rank 
 and order, superior in state or intelligence to man. 
 The word signifies messengers. They were created 
 to form a court for our Blessed Lord, to be His at- 
 tendants and messengers, and do His will through- 
 out the universe. They are more subtle in mate- 
 rial, and more j)owerful than man : " excel in 
 strength," says the Psalmist, "fulfil His command- 
 ments, and hearken unto the voice of His words." 
 
 It would take volumes to relate all the wonders 
 theologians have written concerning the power, 
 wisdom, love, and employments of the angels, even 
 respecting the acts said to have been done for or 
 against man and the earth. 
 
 They are our elder brethren in the great family 
 of intelligent beings. Tliey give themselves this 
 title more than once in the 'New Testament ; and 
 declare, that they have " the testimony of Jesus 
 
 and the Spirit of prophecy," which is the 
 
 same Everlasting Gospel He proclaimed to man. 
 
Oif THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 225 
 
 Thus tliey are not only our brethi*en by creation by 
 a common Father, but also by subordination to a 
 common law. And yet more, tlie nature we are to 
 have at the Resurrection is the same as theirs. 
 St. Matthew says, we shall be as the angels, &>? 
 ayyeXoL ; but St. Luke expresses the truth more 
 fully, ladyyeXot, not equal to, but like the angels. 
 Both terms denote swiilai'ity. 
 
 There is an old tradition of the Christian church, 
 that all matter is controlled by angels. The idea 
 runs through all the writings of the Fathers, from 
 Justin Martyr to Origen, St. Austin, and many 
 others, for many centuries. Indeed, it is older than 
 Christianity, and passed over from Judaism to the 
 Christian Church. David, speaking of creation and 
 the operations of nature connected with it, says, 
 " He maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a 
 flame of fire," as though He had created and sent 
 them forth as He had " the earthly elements to ex- 
 ecute His several missions." 
 
 Some later doctors taught, " that the angels were 
 
 the fountains of all motion That there is no 
 
 such thing as contact, but that all particles of matter 
 exist in a subtle ethereal fluid, or something of the 
 nature of a fluid, so all the material universe is per- 
 meated by a subtle stream of immaterial, intellec- 
 tual, personal angelic life, ruling, moving, managing, 
 administering natural laws to all things, so that God 
 Himself is as it were hidden under this most extra- 
 ordinary veil of angelic functions." How far this 
 theory is real or fanciful is of no consequence to our 
 present argument. But it is certain, that from the 
 10* 
 
226 ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 beginning of this world, since man was created, 
 they have taken an active part in all his temporal 
 and spiritual affairs. 
 
 The Old Testament speaks of them as glorious 
 beings of great power, and dazzling brightness ; as 
 lighter than air, and swifter than the wind, and as 
 charioteers of the Almighty. Holding the near re- 
 lationship they do to our Lord, it is no wonder, that 
 they are deeply interested in man, for whom He 
 died; and that they work with Him for our salva- 
 tion. They certainly have special offices in the ad- 
 ministration of human affairs, under the great gen- 
 eral government of creation ; and are our brethren 
 under the Headship of our Blessed Lord. It is not 
 a natural Headship o\er them, like ours, because 
 He took not the nature of angels, but a mystical 
 one, by right of His divine nature. They have by 
 creation the nature which man will attain after he 
 has passed the ordeal of death and the resurrection. 
 
 Various hierarchies of these heavenly beings are 
 mentioned by the prophets ; and their employments, 
 judging from what is revealed, if they were all 
 known, would form a ''far vaster, more various, 
 and more beautiful science, than the natural history 
 of the various kingdoms of this material world. 
 Probably it would disclose to us many Divine per- 
 fections of which we now do not suspect the exist- 
 ence, because we neither know the names of these 
 perfections nor can conceive the ideas of them. So 
 far surpassing mortal glory are these wonderful 
 creatures, as we may conceive that early angelic 
 creation would surpass this later and indeed modern 
 
ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 227 
 
 creation of man. Daniel the i^ropliet, hardened as 
 it were to visions from their number and their bril- 
 liance, and St. John, whose eagle-eye was learning 
 to see clear amid the dazzling splendors of the 
 Apocalypse, both alike, when they beheld an angel, 
 fell down and worshipped him, as if the light of 
 God had suddenly broken out before them, and 
 had thrown them down in an instantaneous ecstasy 
 of adoration." 
 
 Our Blessed Lord is the Saviour of angels as 
 well as of men, but not in the same way. His 
 sacrifice was beneficial to them. They were once 
 on probation, but their probation has ended. By 
 His sacrifice the power of tlie devil was destroyed 
 in heaven ; so that, from that time forth, he has had 
 no power to tempt them, and they are no longer in 
 danger of falling. Michael and his angels overcame 
 him by " the Blood of the Lamb," cast him out, and 
 he is no longer the false accuser of liis once celes- 
 tial companions. 
 
 There is no intimation that the Licarnation of 
 the Son of God had any effect on fallen spirits ; or, 
 that personal benefits flow from it to angels as to 
 men. The angels, like man, did not become new 
 creatures in Christ. " They who fell, are fallen for 
 all eternity; they who stand, always stood, and 
 shall stand for ever.* .... All those angels, of 
 whatsoever degrees, were created by the Son of God, 
 as the apostle expressly affirms. But they were 
 never created, by a new creation, ' unto true holi- 
 
 * Pearsou on the Creed 
 
228 ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 ness and righteousness,' because tliey always were 
 truly righteous and holy ever since their first crea- 
 tion." Jesus was manifested to destroy the works 
 of the devil. He did it in heaven, probably by a 
 sj)eedy process, in the one pitched battle between 
 Michael's and Satan's forces ; on earth he is grad- 
 ually doing it by his own appointed means. Here 
 is seen the benefit of the sacrifice of Christ's human 
 nature extending beyond this world and the liuman 
 race ; and this would naturally lead us to expect 
 that the employments of Plis messengers, the holy 
 angels, w^ould also reach beyond their own proper 
 dwelling-place, or w^orld. There is an old Catholic 
 tradition that "the mightiest saints of earth" are 
 destined to fill the places of the fallen angels. But 
 leaving all speculations, let us proceed to examine 
 wdiat is certainly revealed respecting the employ- 
 ments of the good angels. 
 
 The Bible teaches, that moral afiPairs on earth 
 are in many particulars controlled by angels. From 
 the beginning, the will of God, in relation to man, 
 has been intrusted to the ministry of angels. They 
 have been employed in all the great events of the 
 moral government on earth. After the fall of man 
 they were stationed as sentinels to guard the gates 
 of Paradise and the tree of life. The patriarchal 
 dispensation was administered by angels. The law 
 was given by the dispensation, ek Scarayaf:, the ap- 
 pointment or communication made through them, 
 or, as St. Paul says, " was spoken by angels." The 
 Christian dispensation was announced, attended, 
 and assisted in its establisliment by them ; and they 
 
ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 229 
 
 are represented as for ever destined to minister to 
 those who shall be heirs of salvation, and as feeling 
 the deepest interest in all that relates to human 
 salvation. 
 
 The presence of invisible spiritual beings all 
 over the earth is the popular " belief of all nations : 
 the feeling which every one has in solitary places 
 seems to be an instinctive consciousness of their 
 presence." 
 
 The Gospel attributes the whole spiritual life 
 and conduct of man, good and bad, to the influence 
 of powerful living spirits. They instructed tlie 
 world until our Lord's Advent, and His Incarnate 
 Life made the earth the scene of constant angelic 
 presence. Processional throngs poured down from 
 heaven to attend His birth ; they were seen by 
 men^ hanging in rapt wonder, and heard chanting 
 heavenly songs over the plains of Bethlehem. 
 They watched over His infancy ; delivered Him 
 from Herod ; advised Him when to return from 
 Egypt ; strengthened Him after His temj^tation ; 
 witnessed His Transfiguration ; sustained Him in 
 His agony in the Garden and on the Cross ; were 
 present at his Resurrection ; and when He ascended 
 to heaven, met Him in the clouds to escort Him in 
 triumph back. Some of that holy throng descended 
 to the earth, told His Apostles that He had gone to 
 heaven ; and that He would return once more, to 
 judge the earth, as they had seen Him go on the 
 clouds of heaven. Thus it is seen that a portion of 
 the predictions of the E"ew Testament is from the 
 spirit of prophecy, which God has intrusted to our 
 
230 ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 elder brethren, tlie angels. Since then, and the 
 Advent of the Holy Ghost, there has been no neces- 
 sity for their visible presence. The Blessed Spirit 
 of God is now the Enlightener and Comforter of 
 man. There is no necessity for visible angelic 
 ministrations, because He is sufficient for all things ; 
 yet the Saviour Himself taught that they would 
 continue, as subordinate agents, ministering to the 
 salvation of the souls of men, until the day when 
 He should send them to gather the quick and the 
 dead to the general judgment. 
 
 There are no beings in any world not subject 
 to God's laws. The angels are the messengers who 
 execute His lav/s. And it is probable, from what 
 is revealed concerning them, that they are employed 
 in carrying on the moral government, under one 
 grand universal system, of which man and his 
 Avorld form but a minute fractional part. The body 
 of our Blessed Lord, after His resurrection, was a 
 type of what awaits the whole race. It was with- 
 out weight, could walk on the water, and fly on the 
 wind. The angels have that same nature, and pass 
 to and from this world on the air, with electrical 
 speed. And it is a reasonable inference, that all 
 worlds inhabited by intelligent beings, are governed 
 by God, through their instrumentality ; and, that 
 they pass from one world and system to another, 
 with the same ease and rapidity, with wdiich they 
 have been seen by man, to come and go from the 
 earth. 
 
 In this world, all spiritual things are under the 
 direction of the Holy Ghost. The angels are sub- 
 
ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 231 
 
 ordinate agencies. The examples of tlieir acts, men- 
 tioned in the Gospels, having relation to the Chris- 
 tian Chnrch, are so various and important as to lead 
 to a reasonable conclusion, that they are parts of 
 " a vast system of which these are but the casual 
 intimations." And though it never was intended, 
 that the human mind, in its present state, shoukl 
 grasp that system, yet, the study of what is revealed 
 gives a more enlarged knowledge of God. 
 
 There is a more intimate connection between 
 mind and matter than most persons imagine. It 
 must be so, if the mind of God be the source of all 
 intelligence ; the Life of God the fount of all life ; 
 and all the labor of the universe has the same ulti- 
 mate object. Angels, like men, are co-laborers with 
 God. Man's work is to save his soul, help save 
 the souls of his fellow-men, and to improve the 
 earth. But the angels are secure of salvation, and 
 devote all their time to helping God to save man, 
 and do good in all worlds. It is probable, that it is 
 another example of the infinitude of the Divine be- 
 nevolence, in the vast work of Redemption, that 
 the angels were rendered impeccable by the Blood 
 of Christ, that their undisturbed energies might be 
 devoted to co-operating with him in making it more 
 extensive. They take an active part in all human 
 affairs; and it was an ancient and long current, 
 though erroneous opinion, that they intermarried 
 with the daughters of men. The distinction of sex 
 will be unknown when men shall be like the angels ; 
 it is, therefore, probably unknown among them. 
 
 From Adam to Koah, God seems to have directly 
 
232 ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 communicated with men, and personally directed tlie 
 affairs of the earth ; notwithstanding, the ministry 
 of angels was then employed. So also under the 
 Jewish dispensation, Jesus was the Angel of the 
 Covenant, yet other angels assisted. It is therefore 
 reasonable to believe, that while the Church is now 
 visibly directed by the Holy Ghost, they still minis- 
 ter as they always have done. Indeed, reasonable 
 or not, our Lord signifies that it is so ; and an Apos 
 tie expressly declares, that they are " all minister- 
 ing spirits^ sent forth to ininister for them who 
 shall he heirs of salvation P It was not until the 
 world became a second time corrupt, in the pos- 
 terity of IS'oah, that God seems to have withdrawn 
 His personal communications, and committed the 
 moral government of the earth more especially to 
 angels. 
 
 From the time of Abraham to our Lord's Ad- 
 vent, they took a large and active part in human 
 affairs. All intercourse between heaven and earth 
 and God and man, was carried on by them, until 
 the establishment of the Theocracy. Three an- 
 gels announced to Abram the birth of Isaac, and 
 another stayed his hand from slaying him ; another 
 guided his servant, who went to Mesopotamia to 
 take a wife for him ; another warned Lot of the ap- 
 proaching destruction of Sodom. Moses was called 
 by an angel to undertake the deliverance of the 
 Israelites; another led him into the wilderness, 
 where he established the Theocracy. And although 
 it is said Moses " knew the Lord face to face," yet 
 it is evident from the tliirty-third chapter of Exodus, 
 
ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 233 
 
 that tills is figuratiye language, referring to tlie 
 nearness with which God approached him. One 
 announced Samson to Manoah ; another saved 
 Daniel from the lions ; others Shadrach and his 
 companions from the fire. Besides these are innu- 
 merable other examples of their employments in 
 individual as well as national matters. They cer- 
 tainly exercise some control over the physical as 
 well as moral world. They send and withhold fire 
 from heaven, as is instanced in the example of 
 Sodom and the Jewish captives ; they have de- 
 stroyed armies and cities by pestilence ; and the 
 earthquake which rolled away the great stone from 
 the door of our Lord's sepulchre, St. Matthew says, 
 was caused by an angel. 
 
 We know almost as much of the nature of 
 angels as of men; and indeed of the final conse- 
 quences of their employments as we do of our own. 
 That we know so little is not surprising, when the 
 state of knowledge, concerning the inhabitants of un- 
 explored portions of our own planet a few hundred 
 years ago is considered ; and when one reflects on 
 the floods of light which modei*n criticism has 
 poured over the interpretation of Holy Scripture. 
 
 AVithin a comparatively few years, nations and 
 tribes have been discovered on earth whose exist- 
 ence was unknown to its most civilized inhabitants. 
 Within a few centuries, whole inhabited continents 
 have come to light in this way. And our ancestors, 
 of only two past generations, knew comparatively 
 nothing of their own physical nature, of the law of 
 their bodies or minds, and their intimate relations 
 
234 ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 to tlie j^rodiicts of the world they inhabit. This be- 
 ing the case, and when we reflect how much has 
 been learned, and how much yet remains to be dis- 
 covered, of the law of our own being, it is not 
 strange, that we know no more of tlie inlmbitants 
 of other worlds. 
 
 We have the authority of our Lord, that heaven 
 is the home of the angels ; and the Bible intimates, 
 that they are employed in executing the Divine 
 will in all worlds as well as on earth. "The 
 glimpses of the supernal world, which we catch 
 from the Scriptures, have in them, certainly, quite 
 as much of the character of history as of poetry, 
 and impart the idea, not that there is less of busi- 
 ness in heaven than on earth, but more. Unques- 
 tionably, the felicity of those beings of a higher 
 order, to whose agency frequent allusions are made 
 by the inspired writers, is not incompatible with the 
 assiduities of a strenuous ministry, to be discharged, 
 according to the best ability of each, in actual and 
 arduous contention with formidable, and perhaps 
 sometimes successful, opposition. A poetic notion 
 of angelic agency, having in it nothing substantial, 
 nothing necessary, nothing difficult, and which con- 
 sists only in unreal show of action and movement, 
 and in which the result would be precisely the same 
 apart from the accompaniment of a swarm of but- 
 terfly youths, must be spurned by reason, as it is 
 unwarranted by Scripture.'' * 
 
 From the court of Jehovah the angels go forth 
 
 * Taylor, N. H. Com. 
 
ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 235 
 
 to execute His will throughout the universe. They 
 have visibility, personality, and employment, like 
 men ; and they are material, being only a little su- 
 perior to man, though of comparatively no density. 
 One, described by Daniel, had a body "like the 
 beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, 
 and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his 
 feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of 
 his words like the voice of a multitude." This one 
 and others are described as clothed in shining white 
 garments, and girt with a golden girdle. One of 
 their employments, mentioned in the Old and JS'ew 
 Testaments, is to bring answers to the prayers of 
 men. Another is to act as guardians of them."^ 
 They have forms similar to man, and can talk and 
 sing in human language. 
 
 But they are more than God's messengers ; they 
 fight His battles for the extirpation of moral evils. 
 There have been wars in heaven as well as on 
 earth, and they have fought the battles. As has 
 been already said, they have always had a great 
 deal to do with earthly afi'airs ; they now have, and 
 will continue to do so imtil they wdnd up the dis- 
 pensation by assembling the quick and the dead to 
 the general judgment. 
 
 They have always been ministers of vengeance, 
 as well as of blessing, on earth. They have dis- 
 charged special duties to both individuals and na- 
 tions. St. John, in his last writings, nearly seventy 
 
 * Ex. xxxiiL 2; Acts xii. 11. 
 
236 ON THE EMPOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 years after our Lord's crucifixion, represents them 
 as still active in doing God's will on earth. 
 
 There are various orders and hierarchies of 
 angels ; and seven of the mightiest are represented 
 as God's vicegerents, standing continually in His 
 presence. With all their wisdom and purity, God 
 charges them with folly ; they feel pride and anger, 
 and the former caused their fall. They were once 
 on j)robation, like man, because some of them have 
 fallen. The highest orders of which man knows 
 any thing are archangels, cherubim and seraphim; 
 of these, but little is revealed. The archangels, or 
 chief princes, it is evident from St. Jude, are of the 
 same dignity. The latter seem to have authority to 
 regulate the affairs of nations, and to help inferior 
 angels in matters which are too mighty for them.* 
 
 Their commission is not temporary, but extends 
 from age to age, and from nation to nation. Daniel 
 intimates their interference in the affairs of Persia, 
 Media, and Greece, as well as of the Jews. And 
 the Bible makes known, that some of them have 
 frequently visited the earth ; doing works of love 
 or mercy to different generations of men ; while 
 they were all the while known by the same names. 
 These intervals extended through more than a thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 It is probable, they are as deeply interested and 
 as active now as ever ; probable, because St. Paul 
 says, '' Whatsoever things were written aforetime, 
 were written for our instruction." The archangel 
 
 * Dan. X. 13. 
 
ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 237 
 
 Michael attended tlie Israelites in tlieir wanderings 
 in the wilderness, and, after the death of Moses, 
 disputed with the devil about his body."^ This same 
 person, a thousand years later, appeared to Daniel, 
 and told him his fastings and prayers liad made him 
 greatly beloved by God, and worthy to be the recipi- 
 ent of some of His secrets, and that he was sent 
 "to receive his words," doubtless the prayers he was 
 offering. In their contests on earth, they use no 
 physical force, not even against the devil. Michael 
 said to Satan, " the Lord rebuke thee." 
 
 The angel Gabriel told Daniel,t tliat this 
 Michael would have some sort of a guardianship 
 over the Christian Churcli, and take an active part 
 in its closing events, and the general Kesurrection. 
 This angel Gabriel, whose place is in the presence 
 of God,:j: has been several times seen in this world 
 by human beings, and at long intervals apart. One 
 of his offices is to deliver and interpret prophecy. 
 He has wings, and did fly, and gave strength to 
 Daniel, when he was about to faint from fear. 
 More than five hundred years after, he appeared to 
 Zacharias, on a prophetical mission, to show him 
 things about to come to pass. Six months later, he 
 was sent to the Blessed Yirgin, to tell her she had 
 found favor with God, and should be the mother of 
 Jesus, the Son of the Highest. 
 
 Thus it is seen, that in these long intervals of 
 five hundred and a thousand years, the employment 
 of these angelic beings had not changed. Genera- 
 
 * Jude 9. f Dan. xii. 1. X Luke i. 19. 
 
238 ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 tioiis of men had passed away, but tliey continued 
 still tlie messengers and ministers of God. 
 
 It would be interesting to know something 
 definite of the number of these elder-born of our 
 brethren. They have not grown up from a small 
 beginning, like the human race, but were created 
 in the full maturity of strength and intellect to 
 enter on God's immediate service. There are Scrip- 
 tural intimations, showing that they are very nu- 
 merous ; though nothing special is revealed on the 
 subject. If it be supposed that only each system of 
 the universe is inhabited by one order of angelic 
 beings, their numbers must be greater than the hu- 
 man mind can comprehend, though it might com- 
 pute them. Without stopping to consider the fan- 
 ciful traditions and opinions of theologians respect- 
 ing the millions of species, or the variety of choirs, 
 of these heavenly creatures, there is enough revealed 
 to satisfy us, that the universe is peopled by their 
 glorious hierarchies. 
 
 The ancient prophets knew they were numerous. 
 Jacob calls them the Lord's host. When the Sy- 
 rians went to Dothan to arrest Elisha, his servant 
 w^as in despair, because they had encompassed the 
 city ; he prayed to the Lord to open the young man's 
 eyes, and he " saw the mountain full of horses and 
 chariots of fire round about Elisha." The Psalmist 
 speaks of them as innumerable hosts. Daniel says, 
 ten thousand times ten thousand minister before 
 God ; and He is called the Lord of Hosts, from the 
 vast numbers of living creatures which belong to 
 His universal dominions. Multitudes of the hea- 
 
ON THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 239 
 
 venly hosts descended to this world at our Blessed 
 Lord's advent. When the officers of the Jews came 
 to arrest Him, the evening before His crucifixion, 
 and Peter smote a servant of the high-priest, He 
 commanded him to put up the sword, saying, if He 
 wanted help, He could pray to His Father, and He 
 would presently give him more than twelve legions 
 of angels. And St. Jude says, when He returns to 
 judgment. He will be attended by thousands of 
 thousands of angels. 
 
 The Bible teaches that they belong to the same 
 order of intelligent beings with man, are only a little 
 his superior, and in a future life some of them will 
 be inferior to some of tlie saints. There is one 
 hierarchy of them which was confined to a single 
 world ; others have power to visit many or all 
 worlds. That hierarchy was on probation, like man ; 
 and while it had power to pass beyond the limits 
 of its own world or system, was bound by the com- 
 mand of God not to go, as Adam was restricted 
 from the use of a single fruit, and, like man, it dis- 
 obeyed and fell ; but unlike man, fell beyond the 
 reach of redemption. Some of their employments 
 are similar to man. 
 
 Man's condition is a mixed one of matter and 
 spirit. The angels are all spirits ; but so far as 
 man's spiritual nature goes, he is like the angels, 
 created a little lower. They have bodies, members, 
 and passions, and are fallible. Because one order 
 left its own habitation, " they were turned out of 
 heaven," and are " reserved in everlasting chains 
 under darkness, unto the judgment of the great 
 
24:0 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 day;" after wliicli tliey will be turned into hell 
 with wicked men. 
 
 The fact that fallen men and angels are to 
 occupy the same world in a future life ; and good 
 angels and men are to live together hereafter ; and 
 that there will then be but two grand divisions 
 of the universe, is a powerful argument for the 
 truth this book is attempting to show, of the con- 
 nections and unity of the entire universe. 
 
 The revolting angels were cast into hell ; it was 
 prepared for them of old. But they are there now 
 only temporarily ; at the judgment they will come 
 forth, and after trial and condemnation, will be 
 remanded to remain eternally. Here is the shifting 
 of the inhabitants of one world to another. And 
 the Bible teaches, that men, born and raised on 
 earth, are to go to diiferent worlds ; the good, to 
 colonize with good angels, and the bad with evil 
 spirits. All are to liave a local habitation, and are 
 alike capable of suffering or enjoying. 
 
 These changes are doubtless types, of many 
 similar ones, which have taken place in other 
 worlds in a past eternity. And these translations 
 of the inhabitants of one world to another, and the 
 increase of races as on earth, show the necessity for 
 pluralities of worlds and systems for their accom- 
 modation. Men, angels, and devils, have a mixed 
 employment on earth. It was not so at the crea- 
 tion. The earth was made for man. He was its 
 lord until sin disturbed the supremacy. It is there- 
 fore reasonable, that there should be an end to this 
 
THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 241 
 
 mixed state of things seen on earth ; and that the 
 good and bad be Unalljfor ever separated. 
 
 As angels heralded Christ's advent, and were 
 actively employed in preparing His way, and min- 
 istering to Him during all His earthly course, so is 
 it j^robable, that under the Gospel Dispensation they 
 are more largely employed in human affairs than ever 
 before. It is a special interest brought about through 
 Jesus, the Son of Man, to whose court they belong ; 
 and who sends them forth to rejoice over penitent 
 sinners, to watch innocence, and to minister, in in- 
 numerable and unrevealed ways, to those who shall 
 be heirs of salvation. Our blessed Lord's incarna- 
 tion and sufferings are said to have been a spectacle 
 to angels. He was seen of angels, ministered unto 
 by angels, had legions ever at hand to execute His 
 will. And in several of the incidents of His life, 
 they seem to have been so closely allied to Him, 
 and so deeply interested in His acts, as to feel, and 
 w^eep, and rejoice with Him, in the labors of His 
 sublime mission. 
 
 St. John, the best beloved by our Lord of His 
 apostles, and who drank deepest of the Divine mys- 
 teries, and in the last days of his life had communi- 
 cations from our Lord through them, gives more 
 light upon the subject of their emjiloyments, than 
 all of the other w^riters of the New Testament to- 
 gether. He represents an angel, as telling him of an 
 intimate union existing between themselves and 
 men, through Christ and the Church, and as though 
 it ought 1?o be a mutual bond of sympathy. When 
 he saw the vision of the City of God, he fell down 
 11 
 
242 THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 to worship the angel who showed it to him, but he 
 said nnto him, " do it not : for I am thy fellow-ser- 
 vant, and of thy brethren tlie prophets, and of tliem 
 which keep the sayings of this 'book.''^ Tliis shows 
 that the Gospel is known, and is a rule to angels as 
 well as to men. 
 
 And again, when an angel showed him the mar- 
 riage of the Lamb, he again fell at his feet to wor- 
 ship, and " he said nnto him, see thon do it not : I 
 am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren that have 
 the testimony of Jesus." ^ 
 
 Thus the Bible intimates, that angels and their 
 employments have relation to man and tlie universe. 
 As there is a boundless chain of causation, reaching 
 through all worlds, and a boundless chain of con- 
 nection running through all minds, so also is there a 
 boundless connection in the employments of all in- 
 tellectual beings. 
 
 The events transpiring on earth, are one annal 
 of the history of eternity. The human race has been 
 progressing from the beginning. The interruptions 
 by the decay of knowledge, or the irruptions of bar- 
 barians, have been but the resting-places, where the 
 race has reposed to renew its energies, and start 
 again on a higher career. 
 
 Something of this sort, probably, goes on in all 
 worlds. All nature grows in this way. The sap 
 descends, the leaves fall, the tree rests, until spring 
 returns to give its life a new impulse and to enlarge 
 its circumference. It is probably a universal law 
 
 * Rev. xix. 
 
THE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 243 
 
 of the increase of all organized living tilings. All 
 created mind is necessarily progressive. 
 
 From tlie day when God declared the seed of 
 the woman should work some mighty inflnence on 
 the destiny of man, the race has lived in a contin- 
 ual state of expectancy. Something nnseen has al- 
 ways been looming np in the fntnre. It is so in tem- 
 poral, as well as spiritual things. We live for oth- 
 ers. Onr hopes and anticipations run forward and 
 centre in our children, and they grow np looking 
 forward to the inheritance of the possessions of their 
 fathers. So men, nnder the dispensation of angels, 
 are preparing for the enjoyments and employments 
 of angels. 
 
 Evidences of such a plan are apparent throngh- 
 ont the Gospel. Our present condition is the result 
 of the past actions of men and angels ; all the af- 
 fairs of tliis generation are blended in with the com- 
 ing events of an unseen and future Avorld ; and the 
 analogies of the present life, foreshadow the reali- 
 ties of the future. 
 
 The whole stream of Gospel narrative awakens 
 " a strong and lively sense, not merely of the exist- 
 ence of angels, but of their presence and active em- 
 ployments in the Christian church : as if the Chris- 
 tian Dispensation were, in some higher and more 
 intimate sense, under the ministering agency of 
 angels." 
 
 The model j)rayer, given by our Blessed Saviour 
 to man, requires all to pray, that the Father's wdll 
 may " be done on earth as it is in heaven." This 
 shows that man has both the same will and employ- 
 
24:4: rilE EMPLOYMENTS OF ANGELS. 
 
 ments, and that God intends by His law to make them 
 like the angels ; and also that we are " acting a part 
 among creatures superior to ourselves, and higher 
 and better in their nature than anj thing w^e see." 
 
 Both angels and men are working for the same 
 object, the glory of God. While they are minister- 
 ing on earth to those who shall be heirs to salvation, 
 men are joined by the church to the kingdom of 
 Glory to which they belong, to the " innumerable 
 company of the angels ; " and all the while, they, 
 like men, desire to look deeper into the mysteries 
 of Redemption, from which they, as well as our- 
 selves, have learned new lessons of the Divine love 
 and beneficence. 
 
 From all of which it is evident, that their inter- 
 ests, hopes, and employments, are connected with 
 tlie earth as well as the worlds or systems beyond 
 it ; and that the former and its inhabitants form but 
 an infinitesimal part of a grand co7inected universal 
 whole. 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIKITS. 245 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 In tlie preceding chapter it was attempted to sliow, 
 tliat angels and good spirits are not only inter- 
 ested, but also take part, in administering the af- 
 fairs of this world ; that they are connected Avith 
 man by a common bond of love in Christ, and are 
 his guardians and assistants. 
 
 A closer examination of man's state shows, that 
 another order of beings, called evil spirits, are no 
 less actively employed in counteracting the good 
 designs of the holy angels, in disturbing the moral 
 government on earth, and the affairs of men ; and 
 that these are united with man by a common bond 
 of opposition to God. 
 
 Heaven and hell are the two great divergent 
 points to which all creation is tending. A process 
 of good and evil is going on, in this world, by which 
 spiritual beings are gradually working out God's pur- 
 poses. 
 
 Mankind has been gradually growing worse and 
 better, stage by stage, ever since the fall. One class 
 
24:6 EMPLOYMENTS OF EYIL SPIRITS. 
 
 has grown into a clearer knowledge of God, and the 
 other into more deliberate hatred of Him. Tlie evil 
 finished one stage of iniquity at the deluge. But it 
 had grown worse at our Lord's advent, because it 
 crucified Him. It is worst now, because after all the 
 light the Gos23el has shed on the world, Christ, and 
 His Churchy and Gospel are all rejected bj the ma- 
 jority of mankind. 
 
 The infidelity of ancient Paganism, arose from 
 ignorance of God. But in modern times, God the 
 Creator is hated and rejected ; refused the dominion 
 of His own works. His Revelation is set at nought, 
 rejected, and despised. Men flatly contradict His 
 teaching, and say, if He sanctions slavery, even to 
 punish His own enemies ; or allows human life to 
 be taken, which He Himself created, to vindicate 
 His own justice, "downwitli the God of the Bible.'' 
 
 Here is anotlier of the Creator's examples of 
 hiding Himself in His own works, behind the exist- 
 ence of moral evil in the world. It prevails every 
 where, among all races, and is spread like a dark, 
 mysterious veil, over the earth. It is permitted suc- 
 cessful antagonism to the Divine Will. " So far as 
 sight can tell, it would aj^pear a rivalry on more 
 than equal terms. How disproj^ortioned to what we 
 actually see in the world around us, are God's lofty 
 and exclusive claims, as put forward in His revealed 
 Word ! Yet wdiat are the chief, the most wonder- 
 ful, and the most touching manifestations of God, 
 but those which He has made in consequence of 
 this very permitted Existence of evil ? The beauti- 
 ful ingenuities of Divine love, by which He has en- 
 
employ:ments of evil spikits. 247 
 
 abled us to repair the fall, the abundance of sin con- 
 quered b J the superabundance of grace, the manifold 
 interferences of the justice and the mercy, the wis- 
 dom and the power of God which are involved in 
 the whole scheme of redemption, — these are, in one 
 sense, the results of the existence of evil, and yet 
 they ai'e the very things by which we know God 
 best, and for which we love Him most. What hides 
 Him most utterly from those who will not see Him, 
 reveals Him most distinctly, and most luminously, 
 to those whose hearts are seeking Him. The whole 
 doctrine of sin is at once a concealment and a reve- 
 lation of the relations between God and man." 
 
 The employments of the evil spirits will work 
 the same final result as the good angels. God over- 
 rules their work to His own glory. Without their 
 fall, we could not have seen so deeply into the in- 
 finitude of the Divine love ; and their example and 
 punishment may prevent revolts and ruin in future 
 ages, among the free intelligent beings of systems 
 of the universe. 
 
 And if there had been no enemy of God in the 
 universe, He would not have made such displays 
 of infinite wisdom and goodness, to secure His crea- 
 tures against the evil. The enmity drew out, so to 
 speak, the Divine love. The greater the power of 
 Satan's bad acts, the greater the manifestation of 
 the Divine love which counteracts them. The dis- 
 plays of Redeeming Love to fallen beings, in op])0- 
 sition to God, is the highest power of love. 
 
 Man's self-will opened the door to the admission 
 of evil into this world, darkened his understanding, 
 
248 EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 and changed liis original nature. It was his own 
 vohmtaiy act ; he might have resisted, and the re- 
 sistance would have strengthened and perfected his 
 moral nature ; while yielding darkened and ruined 
 it. Knowing this he voluntarily disobeyed. A sin- 
 gle act of man let the malignant power of evil loose 
 on the earth. God has provided a remedy for it. 
 St. Paul says, " the God of peace shall bruise Satan 
 under your feet shortly." 
 
 Indeed hell itself, " considered simply as a part of 
 creation, is a very beautiful work. It shadows forth 
 the unutterable purity of the Most High. It speaks 
 most eloquent things of the splendor of His Justice." 
 Hell is only a world of creation, " from which the 
 inexorable majesty of God withdraws all presence, 
 save and except the necessities of His immensity." 
 
 Evil spirits are the fallen angels,whom God cast out 
 of heaven into the regions of darkness. It is a world 
 or system of worlds called hell, and from which they 
 roam through all other systems, except the one called 
 heaven, which was their original habitation. After 
 the general judgment they will be shut up in hell to 
 go no more forth for ever. Certain it is, that as soon 
 as man was created, they found an entrance into 
 this world and spread the contaminating moral con- 
 tagion of Sin. 
 
 From what is linown of the evil spirits, we actu- 
 ally learn more of the nature of angels, than from 
 the good ones. In almost every thing, they are 
 very similar to man. We have seen that the good 
 angels have many things in common with ourselves, 
 but the very character of the fallen angels seems 
 
EMPLOYIklENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 249 
 
 like man's. Thej were once on probation, and kept 
 not their first estate ; they are continnallj plotting 
 evil, and marring the Creator's works. Like bad 
 men they fear God, and ti-emble at the denuncia- 
 tions of His word ; like them, they also know that 
 hell is to be their final abode. When our Lord was 
 casting one out, when He was on earth, he asked, 
 " art Thou come hither to torment us before our 
 time ? " They know their power is but for a season ; 
 and being sure of their final doom, this one asked, 
 " art Thou come, .... hefore our time f " 
 
 Satan first disturbed the order of creation, the 
 unity of God's works, and the harmony of His crea- 
 tures. He set up a kingdom of Darkness on earth, 
 and exercises a Headship over it for evil, as our 
 Blessed Lord does over the kingdom of Light for 
 good. It is in antagonism to God ; but in no re- 
 spect equal to Christ's. " It is an external Headship, 
 causing evil in angels and men, not by an interior 
 influx, like the communication of the grace of Jesus, 
 but by government, administration, malice, example 
 and persuasion." 
 
 Christian men are under the immediate direc- 
 tion of God's Spirit, and of the holy angels, and they 
 are called in the Bible, " Sons of God." Sinners 
 are under the guidance of Beelzebub, the prince of 
 devils and destroyers, and evil angels, and they are 
 called by Christ Himself, '' children of the devil." 
 Evil spirits not only contend with men, tempt and 
 try to draw them into sin ; but they also strive 
 against the good angels who are helping them. The 
 archangel Michael contended with the devil, con- 
 11* 
 
250 EMPLOY^IENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 cerning the body of Moses. God miraculously 
 caused its withdrawal from the people, probably lest 
 the Israelites should preserve and make it an object 
 of worshiji. Job was tried by the devil. It is also 
 said, that lying spirits sometimes spake by the mouth 
 of the prophets. And in ancient times, demoniacal 
 possession of human beings was of frequent occur- 
 rence. And he who carefullv considers the dias^nosis 
 of the moral condition of great criminals at the pres- 
 ent day, will find no other satisfactory ex2:)lanation of 
 their enormities. Indeed, the whole drift of Scrip- 
 ture, from Adam to Christ, shows 'chat the prolific 
 source of evil on earth was Satan's power. 
 
 The most eminent instances of his malignity are 
 those revealed, in connection with the earthly Life 
 of the Son of God. During the time of the Incar- 
 nation, the power of the devil was more remarhably 
 dis23layed on earth, than ever before or since. It 
 was the last liope the devil had, to regain his lost 
 power ; and to recover himself from the ruin of his 
 mighty fall. He caused God's own people to unite 
 with himself (our Lord says, Satan blinded their 
 eyes) in destroying, as both parties probably thought 
 they would, by death, the eternal power of His Eter- 
 nal Son. When " the chief priest, and captains of 
 the Temple, and the elders came to arrest Him, the 
 evening before His crucifixion. He said, ' This is 
 your hour, and the power of darkness. ' " Satan 
 was making desjDerate efiPorts for the maintenance 
 of his kingdom ; and the next day the Son of God 
 was apparently vanquished by him. But His weak- 
 ness was the devil's overthrow ; He died to destroy 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIEITS. 251 
 
 the devil, who has the power of death. Well iiiight 
 St. Paul say, " great is the mystery of godliiiests." 
 The devils ceased not their malignant temptations, 
 from the beginning of His ministry, nntil when hang- 
 ing on the cross, they represented or made Him feel, 
 that the Father had withdrawn His presence, wliich 
 extorted the agonizing cry, " My God, "My God, why 
 hast thou forsaken me ? " 
 
 St. Paul says, Satan has '' the power of death ^" 
 to what extent, or how limited by God, he does not 
 say. It is intrusted to him, with other powers, as 
 a part of the agency by which earthly affairs are ad- 
 ministered. It is a delegated power, in entire sub- 
 ordination to the Divine will. It is essential to make 
 this portion of God's dominions a world of probation, 
 and its inhabitants free agents, working out their 
 own salvation. If good and bad spirits and men are 
 thus intimately connected in the administration of 
 this world's commonest affairs, then the earth must 
 be a portion of a grand whole, of which we see only 
 a small part. And this is the special doctrine of 
 revelation. St. Paul says, " For now we see through 
 a glass darkly ; but then face to face : now I hnow 
 in part ^ but then shall I know even as also I am 
 known." 
 
 The Gospel constantly represents the devil as a 
 real, powerful, spiritual being ; and this often in the 
 Saviour's own words. It is a truth, the knowledge 
 of which He brought from heaven, and which was 
 unknown to the world until He revealed it. It re]3- 
 resents Beelzebub as the chief of devils, and as hav- 
 ing a court of legions of inferior evil spirits; and not 
 
252 EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIKITS. 
 
 only a court, but also "military resources : him- 
 self the Prince of Devils : under him principalities 
 and powers, and other ranks of inferior spirits ; which 
 have different degrees of strength. " And St. Peter, 
 by direction of the Holy Gliost, delivered this warn- 
 ing, to be handed on to the world's end, in his Gene- 
 ral Epistle, addressed to all Christians, " Be sober, be 
 vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roar- 
 ing lion, walketh about seeking whom he may de- 
 vour." 
 
 The subject of demoniacal possession, as set 
 forth in the Gospel, has always been perplexing to 
 man. Those wdio measure revelation by reason, 
 doubt its reality, or regard it as a phase of insanity. 
 But it is plainly revealed in the Gospel, and there 
 is, really, no more difficulty in this, than any other 
 of its doctrines. It represents all mankind as sub- 
 ject to good and bad spirits, and cautions men to 
 try them. 
 
 The casting out of devils by our Lord, is so often 
 mentioned by the Evangelists, and the incidents are 
 described with such particularity, as to leave no 
 doubt that they are real transactions. Those diseases 
 and possessions were the result of the real power of 
 man's great enemy; they were tlie first fruits of tor- 
 ments, which would be eternal, without the help of 
 Christ. The devils, when cast out, knew Christ, 
 w^ere fearful in His presence, were under His con- 
 trol; they besought Him on one occasion, to allow 
 them to go in a particular direction. And neither 
 the Gospels nor the Epistles give any intimation, 
 that they would ever cease their malignant oppo- 
 sition to Christianity. 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 253 
 
 But we need not go back to the age of Christ 
 for evidence of the presence of mysterious evil 
 influences on earth. It is apparent to all, that suf- 
 fering and death everj where abound, and that men 
 individually are continually prone to evil ; and it is 
 certain, that God is not their author. The mystery 
 of human trial and responsibility is one of the 
 greatest marvels of man's marvellous condition. 
 Some regard it as a riddle never intended to be 
 solved, and let it pass without reflection. This is 
 not the part of a wise man. We live amid evil; 
 and it is our duty to calmly examine it ; to learn 
 what we can of it ; and how best to avoid its con- 
 secpiences. Tie will best discharge the duties of life 
 who knows most of what God has revealed of its 
 mysteries. 
 
 Every man feels a bondage to an invisible 
 power superior to himself, which drags him in 
 directions opposed to his better judgment. Sin is 
 " that great and manifold mystery of ill whose root 
 no man hath ever found, whose goings forth were 
 before the world was made, whose legions are un- 
 seen, hovers aronnd with a terrible strength, and 
 still more terrible craft. It ever hangs upon our 
 skirts, and harasses our way to life; it besets all 
 our paths, and lurks beside all our duties ; it min- 
 gles in all our toils, and hides in our secret cham- 
 ber, and masks itself under our religion, and follows 
 us to the altar of God. Through all this we have to 
 win our way to life. ' We wrestle not with flesh 
 and blood,' — for then we might endure it, behold- 
 ing our enemy and grappling with him face to face. 
 
254: EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 — 'but we wrestle against principalities, against 
 powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this 
 world, against spiritual wickedness in high jylaces^ " 
 The discouragements, doubts, and fears we encoun- 
 ter in doing duty are all the work of the devil. The 
 false creeds and heathenism on the earth, held by 
 the largest portion of the family of man, are the 
 work of the devil. This proves, that man is subject 
 to the influence of bad spirits as well as good ones, 
 who do not belong to this world, and that he and 
 his planet are part of a larger system, and that he 
 knows comparatively but very little of the detail of 
 his relationsliip to it. 
 
 All people who have lived on earth before us, 
 have felt the same sense of evil connected with 
 their condition. The history of the Jews shows, 
 that they were conscious of enemies within as well 
 as without themselves, spiritual as well as mortal. 
 Pagan nations had, and yet have, the same instinc- 
 tive sense of the influence of powerful invisible 
 spirits. It is a characteristic of our race. The 
 civilized and uncivilized, the Christian and infidel, 
 alike have it. The idea of a powerful good and 
 evil spirit lies at the foundation of all theology. 
 
 The objector to tlie theory often asks, " If it be 
 so, why don't God destroy the devil ? Why does 
 He allow this opposing power ? " 
 
 These are questions to which He has given no 
 definite answer. But it is certain, that He is at 
 work gradually bringing it to an end, in His own 
 way. And even man can see, that some such influ- 
 ence is necessary to give value to the acts, or the 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 255 
 
 obedience of a probationary free agent like him- 
 self. 
 
 God teaclies, that He did not create these spirits 
 evil, but that they made themselves so. He made 
 them good, and they revolted from their state. He 
 teaches us also, that He is our friend ; that Satan is 
 His enemy as well as ours ; that He did not send 
 him to tempt or destroy us ; and that he has no 
 power to draw a single soul to himself, unless it 
 voluntarihj surrenders to his power. 
 
 Perhaps Milton's theory is as satistactoiy as any 
 human conjecture on this subject can be. In a col- 
 loquy between the angel Gabriel and Satan, he 
 makes the latter say : 
 
 " I, therefore, alone, first nudertook 
 To wing the desolate abyss, and spy 
 This new-created world, whereof in hell 
 Fame is not silent, here in hope to find 
 Better abode, and my affiicted powers 
 To settle here on earth." 
 
 In this quotation Milton corroborates the opinion 
 of the connections of the universe, and that the affairs 
 of one world are known in others. And he goes on 
 to say that this Satan did, though lie hnew that even 
 the hope of possession involved another fight with 
 Gabriel, and the angelic hosts of God, who had 
 already conquered and cast him out of heaven. 
 
 God probably allows Satan and his angels, as he 
 does impenitent men, a limited time to do evil; 
 it may be to fill up the measure of their iniquity, or 
 to show that they will not repent. Tlie fact is an 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 argument for the unity of all worlds, since here is 
 an order of intelligent beings and world influence 
 reaching to the earth, and exerting an evil influence 
 in the same way, that wicked men and nations on 
 earth, influence those around them. This power is 
 necessary to make man's condition one of trial, of 
 free agency, and responsibility. 
 
 But that power is soon to end. And besides, 
 this man has no cause to complain, because Satan 
 has no power over him, except as he voluntarily 
 surrenders to his will ; and God's Holy Spirit is con- 
 stantly watching to guard him against temptations 
 and to help him overcome them. 
 
 For six thousand years men have been en- 
 deavoring to find some other solution for the evil 
 in the world, and the case is as hopeless now as 
 ever. The Bible teaches, that man is engaged in a 
 spiritual warfare with a vast number of invisible 
 evil beings, who are trying to withdraw him from 
 his allegiance to God, and his best interests, and to 
 make the race hate one another. This is opposition 
 to God, who created them brethren, and commands 
 them to love as such. The Apostolic Epistles warn 
 us against the machinations of Satan, Avhom they 
 represent as a powerful spiritual being, "a ruler of 
 the darkness of this world." 
 
 Through this view of the subject, of powerful 
 spiritual beings, in opposition to botli God and our- 
 selves, and God helping us, we get new views of the 
 Divine goodness and love. We are indebted to the 
 Gospel for this explanation of a subject, wliich 
 caused the wisest pagan philosophers so much dif- 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 257 
 
 ficulty in trying to reconcile ; and which compelled 
 some of them, to believe that there is a good and 
 bad Creator struggling together in the nni verse. 
 
 The Gospel reconciles all this ; and we need be 
 no more surprised, that God permits bad spirits in 
 the universe, who oppose His will, than that He 
 sufiers bad men to do the same thing on earth. It 
 is a temporary evil, w^hich the disobedience of free 
 agents has caused, beings whom He created to be 
 AND TO DO GOOD, and which He provided heforehand 
 to counteract, and which will be shortly remedied. 
 
 Moral evil is a part of the condition of the uni- 
 verse, and as we know nothing of it as a whole, we 
 cannot tell why it is permitted. If an angel, igno- 
 rant of human aifairs, should come into this world, 
 and learn the single fact that there are men shut up 
 in granite, grated prisons for life, in dark narrow 
 limits, and fed on coarse food, he might naturally 
 conclude that this is a world of injustice and cruelty. 
 But after he learned the reasons for it, he would 
 change his opinions and conclude it to be one of 
 order and justice and law. So doubtless will it be 
 with man, when he shall understand the reasons on 
 which the Divine justice acts. This evil, however, 
 no more disturbs the general harmony of the uni- 
 verse, than the occasional violations of law on earth 
 disturbs the order of a good government. It affects 
 such an infinitesimal fraction of the whole, that when 
 viewed in the aggregate, it is scarcely discernible. 
 
 If it be the Spirit of God and the ministry of holy 
 angels Avhicli directs the general affairs of the earth, 
 and guides men to the truth, — and the Psalmist says, 
 
258 EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 tliat it is so, even to scientific truth, — then also would 
 it be probable, without any revelation, that it must 
 be some powerful evil spirit who causes the dis- 
 turbance and evil on earth. 
 
 This is the revealed view of the subject, and 
 human life thus viewed is not only more interest- 
 ing, but a vastly more important and serious mat- 
 ter ; while the hope of a successful contest becomes 
 infinitely more hopeful for each one. Christ says, 
 in the Gospel, to all believers in Him, " greater is 
 He who is in you, than he who is in the world." 
 God's Spirit is in the soul of each regenerate man, 
 an ever vigilant sentinel. The evil spirits come 
 from without, and can never find a resting-place 
 unless it is provided by man's own act. This is the 
 state of the universe into which man is born, and he 
 has really no more cause of complaint at his con- 
 dition, than at the murders, arsons, and robberies, 
 and the injustice which abounds on earth. 
 
 The whole system of Christianity is based on 
 this theory. Opposition to a kingdom of darkness, 
 is the starting point in the Christian life. Because 
 man is fallen from an original condition of purity, 
 he is born into the kino-dom of Satan. Christ has 
 
 o 
 
 established another kingdom on earth, called the 
 " kingdom of God." The child in baj)tism is re- 
 quired to renounce the devil and all his works; and 
 the sponsors promise tliat he shall not follow nor be 
 led by them. 
 
 This is an admission of the doctrine of the pow- 
 erful influence of an unseen spiritual being, who is 
 man's great enemy. The Church acts throughou 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 259 
 
 on this supposition ; and that she believes the Sacra- 
 ments and Confirmation, through the merits and 
 sacrifice of Christ, are Divine helps to secure us 
 against it. The Jews believed in demoniacal pos- 
 sessions. They said of Christ, that He cast out 
 devils by Beelzebub, and that He was in league 
 with Satan, because He wi-ought other miracles. 
 This shows their idea of Him, that He was a power- 
 ful spirit. 
 
 Our Lord proved in many ways tlie actual 
 inhabitancy of personal evil spirits in man. He 
 cast seven out of the Magdelene ; and this was the 
 annunciation of the fact of their actual possession, 
 such as the Jews did not have. Christ then re- 
 vealed this great mystery : then plainly showed the 
 actual intimacy and intercourse of the evil spirit 
 world with this, in such clear and unmistakable 
 ways as had never before been known. And there 
 is not a syllable in the Gospel which indicates that 
 this state of things would cease until the world 
 ends. 
 
 The ^^ower of evil spirits is as great now as 
 ever it was ; and it shows how broadcast infidelity 
 has become in Christian lands, when the plain doc- 
 trines of the Gospel have come to be regarded as 
 mythical, or an old woman's fable to frighten 
 children. 
 
 Christ told Peter, Satan desired to have him to 
 sift ; but He had prayed for his deliverance. More 
 than a quarter of a century later, when Peter had 
 been further enlightened by the Holy Ghost, and 
 better understood the doctrines of the Gospel, he 
 
260 emplot:ments of evil spieits. 
 
 warned Christians and the Churches, in his General 
 Epistle, " to be sober and vigilant ; because your 
 adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh 
 about, seeking whom he may devour." St. James, 
 in his Epistle to the Churches, charges them to the 
 same effect " to resist the devih" And St. Paul, 
 before quoted, says, Christians are warring against 
 the ruler of the darkness of this world. These 
 warnings were written to be handed down to the 
 end of time. 
 
 History confirms this teaching of revelation. 
 It shows that the power and forms of evil in the 
 world are continually changing and adapting tliem- 
 selves to every changing condition of human so- 
 ciety. It is a power greater than man's, because it 
 ahvays conquers him, when he is unassisted by the 
 Spirit of God. This may be traced down through 
 every successive generation of the race. First, the 
 devil, by Herod, sought to destroy Jesus ; then the 
 Jews persecuted and crucified Him ; then Judaism 
 resisted the Christian Church ; then the Nicolaitans 
 and Gnostics, Docetge, contended against its rising- 
 power ; and so on through Montanism and Arian- 
 ism down to the latest and ripest form of the dia- 
 bolical Mormon heresy. 
 
 It must be a superhuman power that can thus 
 read the great heart of humanity, and thus keep 
 pace with and adapt itself to its progress ; and 
 through successive centuries keep true to the one 
 grand principle of luring men away from their 
 highest good. 
 
 It is a disagreeable truth to believe, and so men 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 261 
 
 try to get rid of it. They try to persuade them- 
 selves that the doctrine of devils is a mediaeval 
 superstition, or a barbarous relic of fabulous igno- 
 rance, and it is the devil himself who so persuades 
 them. Father Kavignan says, "that the master- 
 piece of the devils of the nineteenth century has 
 been to get themselves denied by the age." The 
 wicked do not like to retain God's true knowledge 
 in their hearts ; they are glad to believe in nothing 
 above their reason or senses. These persons, like 
 those described by St. Paul, " hold the truth in un- 
 righteousness." When they might learn of God 
 from "the creation of the world," will not; but are 
 " vain in their imaginations, and have their foolish 
 hearts darkened." And as they do "not like to 
 retain God," or the knowledge He lias revealed. He 
 has given them up to follow their own " reprobate 
 mind." ^N'otwithstandin^:, bad men in all a^-es 
 have testified to God's truth by confessing that they 
 have been hurried to crimes, which they abhorred, 
 or which reason assured them would end in ruin, by 
 an invisible power they could not resist. 
 
 And it is God's truth, that, as there are good 
 angels ministering to those who shall be heirs of 
 salvation, so also are there evil angels who help to 
 corrupt tliose who will be finally lost. The Gospel 
 makes known that they exist in legions ; and one 
 whom Christ cast out said his name was Legion, be- 
 cause that name represented the numbers of the 
 order to which he belonged. 
 
 The old Jewish opinion is doubtless true, that 
 there is one chief devil, once an archangel, but now 
 
262 employ:ments of evil spieits. 
 
 a traitor, who first revolted, disturbed the ancient 
 peace of heaven, and drew myriads of inferior 
 spirits into ruin with himself. His name is Apol- 
 Ijon or Beelzebub, and it was he who exerted all his 
 archangelic power in temj^ting our Saviour, 
 
 Moreover, all this is in harmony with our daily 
 experience. We are half spirit. Our instincts 
 teach us, that this world is not our home ; that we 
 are surrounded by invisible spirits ; and thoughts 
 and desires often flash across our minds, which we 
 would not have executed for the whole world. 
 
 Man has no i:>roper idea of his own state if he 
 disbelieves this ; and as God's Word is true, it is 
 true whether we believe it or no. It is evil spirits 
 who cause war and hatred among men. The devil 
 is a liar, and the father of all lying spirits. There 
 are spirits of pride, of iincleanness, of worldliness, 
 and ot every sin with which men are tempted. The 
 root of pride, and lust, and every evil, is in our 
 fallen nature, and these spirits attack our weak 
 points. They have only the power to attack ; they 
 cannot conquer us unless we surrender. When 
 repulsed, they return ; when one sin is subdued, 
 they ply us with another. Those who cannot be 
 captivated by gross sins, are lured by others more 
 refined. They change themselves into angels of 
 light, pollute our holiest thoughts, and quote Scrip- 
 ture to uneasy consciences, as they did to the Son 
 of God, that they may draw men into sin. 
 
 These evil angels confuse and darken men's un- 
 derstandings to accomplish their malicious pur- 
 poses; so that they think they are serving God, 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIKITS. 263 
 
 while tliey are ruled by Satan. St. Paui says, he 
 has power to appear like '' an angel of light," and 
 his ministers like "ministers of righteousness." 
 They set up false doctrines, and teachers who teach 
 the doctrine of devils. And the danger from this 
 source must be great, when our Lord said to Peter, 
 one of his most zealous Apostles, that Satan desired 
 to sift him ; and on another occasion, that his 
 opinion savored of the evil one. 
 
 All men, from Adam to Christ, were tempted in 
 this way ; and God never changes ; and Satan will 
 not lose his power until the end of the world. It is 
 a part of the trial of human life, of man's proba- 
 tionary condition, half sj)irit, and surrounded by 
 powerful beings who belong to the same universe, 
 but of whom he knows little, save of the ph^^sical 
 part which comes within cognizance of his senses. 
 
 But this condition results in man's final good, 
 and is not without comfort and a tolerable degree 
 of happiness. Every man is happy who has an 
 object to live for, and is daily gaining on that ob- 
 ject. Life is earnest and full of trials ; but it offers 
 large future rewards to encourage to hope and ex- 
 ertion. There is blessing even in temptations. 
 He who overcomes, has the feeling of a conqueror 
 in this life. St. James says, " Blessed is he who is 
 tempted, for when he is tried he shall receive a 
 crown of life." God succors those wlio are tempt- 
 ed, and never allows the resisting to be tempted 
 above what they are able to bear. 
 
 Thus we have reached the root of the truth, 
 attempted to be set forth by the evidence and argu- 
 
264: EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 
 
 ments of this book ; which is, that human life and 
 action are intimately connected with the past and 
 future of invisible worlds and beings. That the 
 earth is but one of the grand theatres of action, 
 where God's creatures meet to accomplish their sev- 
 eral purposes, all of which have a connection with 
 one universal government. And that the earth is but 
 the workshop, where human beings are trained and 
 instructed, by knowledge and influences brought 
 from other worlds, to prepare them for the occu- 
 pancy of some other planet or system of God's uni- 
 versal empire. 
 
 If men were never tempted, they never could 
 become like the Son of God. His human nature 
 was made perfect through suffering. And it is by 
 the conflict and resistance of spiritual enemies man 
 fights his way across the battle-field of earth, on to 
 the better world of heaven ; just as the Scandina- 
 vians fought themselves down into the sunny and 
 fertile plains of the south. Our strength and com- 
 fort in the conflict are, that we have a King in 
 heaven, who has met and surmounted all these dif- 
 ficulties ; and a Father, on the throne of the uni- 
 verse, who is beholding the contest, and has prom- 
 ised, that we shall not be tempted above what we 
 are able to bear. 
 
 " The same sin which entered and destroyed the 
 unity of the whole creation, has re-entered and 
 broken up again the restored unity of the new. 
 But to leave both the past and the present, let us 
 remember that the time is not yet come. The full 
 unfolding of sin has ever been at the close of the 
 
EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIRITS. 265 
 
 aispensations of God ; it has been at its worst when 
 He was nearest. So, we are taught, it shall be 
 again. All God's Word foretells it ; all the face of 
 tlie world bespeaks the working out of the prophecy. 
 The day of Christ shall not come, until there ' come 
 a falling away first, and that wicked be revealed.' 
 The mystery of-evil, which by one man entered into 
 the world, is now teeming with its mightiest birth." 
 The spirit of invasion by the two most influential 
 nations, England and America, is rife over all the 
 earth. The most enlightened and powerful govern- 
 ments are heaving and swelling above the agitated 
 masses of immortal souls struggliug for human free- 
 dom. Abolitionism, and Mormonism, and civil war, 
 are stretching the youthful iron nerves of our young 
 Republic ; and imported infidelity, and foreigners, 
 who have neither knowledge of nor sympathy with 
 our institutions, are destined to lay this glorious 
 fabric a darkened and desolate ruin. " Men ]iave 
 sinned long and sinned greatly against heaven ; but 
 there is a warfare coming, a strife of man's will 
 against the will of God, in the surpassing tumult of 
 which shall all former disobedience be forgotten. 
 The Evil One shall be loosed upon the earth, having 
 great wrath, ' because he knoweth he has but a 
 short time.' And all things are making ready for 
 him : the powers of spiritual wickedness marshal- 
 ling themselves in secret, unfolding their legions 
 and unrolling their banners around the camp of the 
 saints. Hell is moving itself to meet his coming. 
 ' And then shall the sin which hy one man entered 
 into the creation of God^ he at its full^ and the 
 12 
 
266 EMPLOYMENTS OF EVIL SPIEITS. 
 
 world-long growth and gathering of this awftd mys- 
 tery he aGGomjylished. It shall at last stand forth in 
 the earthy at the fidl stature of its hate and daring 
 against heaven / and hy the corning of the Son of 
 man in glory shall he cast out for ever^ Evil sliall 
 be banislied to hell ; and tlie kingdom wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness, God's ancient kingdom of 
 glory, will receive into itself the sinless and re- 
 deemed of all worlds, and God's purposes in crea- 
 tion will be accomplished. 
 
 Meanwhile God overrules the temptations of 
 evil spirits for man's good. They help us to grow 
 in grace, by teaching us watchfulness, and harden- 
 ing our powers of resistance. Men who have suf- 
 fered but little from temptations, are always shallow 
 religionists. " Lastly, they teach us spiritual science, 
 for what we know of self, of the world, of the de- 
 mons, and of the artifices of Divine grace, is chiefly 
 from the phenomena of temptation, and from our 
 defeats quite as much as from our victories." 
 
INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAJRTH. 267 
 
 CHAPTEE Xn. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIEITS ON EARTH IN THE 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 In every age of the world Satan lias adapted liis 
 malignant attacks upon mankind, to the peculiar 
 condition of society. History teaches, that the 
 causes of evil have been ever-changing ; and reve- 
 lation declares that these changes have been made 
 by the devil. 
 
 St. Paul says, " Satan is transformed into an 
 angel of light;'' that is, he made himself so to 
 appear in the false teachers of his day. And he 
 adds, " Therefore it is no great thing if his oninis- 
 ters also he transformed as the ministers of right- 
 eousness '' 
 
 In the last century, in America, he set Fanati- 
 cism at work to destroy the Church of God ; and 
 then he bewitched the people with superstitions, 
 which played mad pranks upon the Church's enemy, 
 and for a time threatened to destroy it. 
 
 The Good Power is, however, constantly thwart- 
 ing him ; a stronger than he comes and spoils his 
 works ; saying, thus far shalt thou go, and driving 
 
INFLTJENCE OF EYIL SPIEITS ON EABTH 
 
 him to some new device for deceiving men and tlie 
 nations. 
 
 We have seen, that the mental and physical con- 
 nections of the earth have been disturbed : that they 
 do not now hold the same relations to the nniverse 
 they once did; when, in the beginning, God pro- 
 nounced both very good. 
 
 We have seen, that the restoration of the con- 
 nection has been going on by means of new reve- 
 lations ; and that the Bible teaches they will be 
 finally perfectly restored. 
 
 We have seen, that the sundering of the spiritual 
 and physical connections was by agents from beyond 
 this world. That the entrance of Satan brought; sin, 
 a power of evil not originally belonging to the 
 earth ; and that a miraculous deluge of water dis- 
 turbed its original physical condition. 
 
 We have also seen, that the Incarnation, which 
 is w^orlvino^ this Restoration, is from bevond this 
 w^orld. That a new Power of the Holy Grhost was 
 introduced by it as antagonistic to the evil one. 
 
 It would have been interesting to have traced 
 the visible agencies wdiich have been operating, in 
 past centuries, to effect the good or evil results, which 
 have taken place on earth ; and to have shown how 
 man has always voluntarily cooperated Avith the one 
 or the other. But this would have taken us beyond 
 the limits 2)rescribed to this work of giving only an 
 outline of these influences and their results. 
 
 The shading and completion of the picture will 
 one day be furnished by some more competent 
 mind ; when the progress of society and the fulfil- 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 269 
 
 ment of prophecy shall have more fully developed 
 our Heavenly Father's plans. 
 
 Meanwhile there are some existing facts now in 
 operation, and daily becoming more visible to dis- 
 cerning minds, from wdiich we may learn how the 
 conflict of ages, between Good and Evil, on earth, 
 has been going on. 
 
 The prophet Daniel, more than five hundred 
 years before the Christian era, foretold, that in the 
 last days, near the end of time, the human race 
 would run to and fro over the earth, and knowledge 
 would be greatly increased. 
 
 That prophecy is fulfilled. Knowledge and 
 locomotion have both nearly attained tlieir max- 
 imum. They cannot go much beyond their present 
 attainment, without encountering laws which will 
 infiict their own penalty. 
 
 Knowledge, a comprehension of the laws of the 
 universe, and of its extent ; and the investigation of 
 the laws of life and production, have nearly reached 
 a point, beyond which the human mind, in its 
 present condition, is incapable of advancing. 
 
 Learning and civilization will never decline. 
 1^0 traveller will ever, as has been sportively con- 
 jectured, search among the ruins of London and 
 Paris, or Pekin, or Canton, or Jeddo, or New York, 
 or Mexico, as we now do at Babylon, and Palmyra, 
 and Persepolis, for traces of their former grandeur. 
 
 The civilization of Christianity is aggressive 
 and destructive ; every thing dark falls down and 
 disappears before its triumphal march. It will con- 
 tinue to encroach, and encroach, and absorb the 
 
270 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 nations wliicli have it not, until the very honr, when 
 the trump of the archangel shall assemble the whole 
 universe, to behold the trium23hal Second Advent 
 of the Son of God. 
 
 Our blessed Lord and the Evangelists speak of 
 another state of things, to appear in connection 
 with that foretold by Daniel, aud in the midst of 
 which we of the nineteenth century are now living. 
 It was to mark the drawing near of the end of time 
 to man and his world. 
 
 " Distress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea 
 and the weaves roaring." The sea of human govern- 
 ments over all the earth, tottering and tumbling as 
 they have been amid civil convulsions ever since 
 the beginning of this century. And the waves of 
 the people, which compose the sea of governments, 
 roaring as they surge in their darkened fury against 
 the ancient foundations, which have long restrained 
 them ; swelling with mad desires for expansion, for 
 enlarged liberty, for j)ower to develope the divine 
 faculties, which enlarged, by increased knowledge, 
 are longing after ubiquity, or untrammelled freedom. 
 
 The latest prophecies also speak of another 
 remarkable state of things, which was to appear in 
 connection with those named by our Lord and the 
 prophet. It is a fearful declension of religion, and 
 a display of the power of evil spirits over the world, 
 that men would give heed to seducing spirits and 
 the doctrines of devils. Amono^ these are named 
 despising government, forbidding to marry, and the 
 increase of idolatry. 
 
 Within this century, these three crimes seem to 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 271 
 
 ave culminated. The particular phases in which 
 the power of the devil now manifests itself is in 
 Fanaticism and Infidelity. Both are producing the 
 same results in opposite directions, which show they 
 originate from the same source. 
 
 There is not a government on the earth, from 
 the Celestial Empire to the United States of 
 America, which is not convulsed by the fanaticism 
 of its subjects. Even the wiser men of the nations 
 are restless under systems which their ancestors 
 gloried in. 
 
 God established governments, and fanaticism is 
 at work to overthrow them, because they do not 
 shape their laws, or administer them according to 
 its peculiar views. Infidelity is working in an op- 
 posite direction to usurp all government, and estab- 
 lish a universal spiritual despotism. 
 
 Infidelity and fanaticism have united in forbid- 
 ding marriage. The one forbids a class of men to 
 have any wife ; and they are the very men whom 
 the law of God says shall have " one wife^ " A 
 bishop, then, onust he blameless, the husband of one 
 wifeP The other allows many wives, making the 
 original divine institution of matrimony, wherein 
 God created the race male and female, of none 
 effect. 
 
 Infidelity, in the dazzling glare of nineteen cen- 
 turies of Gospel light, has enacted the new dogma, 
 that there is another sinless being on the throne of 
 the universe, besides the adorable Trinity of Father, 
 Son, and Holy Ghost. 
 
 God has revealed His Gospel to teach mankind 
 
272 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIEITS ON EARTH 
 
 concerning Himself, and their own duty; and Fanati- 
 cism and Infidelity are botli at work, in different 
 ways, trying to undermine the doctrines and destroy 
 the influence of the Bible. They say, if its laws are 
 oj)posed to onr opinions, down with the Bible. 
 
 God has founded his Church to float for ever 
 on the waves of the sin-deluged world, as the ark of 
 refuge and rest, for its tempest-tossed inhabitants ; 
 but Fanaticism and Infidelity are both at work, in 
 different w^ays, trying to shipwreck or destroy it. 
 
 These influences of Satan have been felt in every 
 age ; but, like knowledge and locomotion, they seem 
 to have culminated in the nineteenth century, by 
 attaining their highest power and most enlarged dif- 
 fusion. 
 
 All forms of error which deny the inspiration of 
 Holy Scripture, or which add to or detract from its 
 doctrines, as they were held at the time of the 
 Council of ISTice, which determined the canon, no 
 matter what their pretensions to holiness or evan- 
 gelical order, belong to the Infidel class. 
 
 And all forms of error which deny the existence 
 of a Holy Catholic Church, instituted by the Son of 
 God, on the foundation of twelve Apostles, and ever 
 since continued on earth by the nninterrupted suc- 
 cession of a Divinely commissioned ministry, no 
 matter what their pretensions to the Christian name, 
 belong to the Fanatical class. 
 
 IN^ot that it is impossible for salvation out of this 
 Church. This by no means follows as a consequence. 
 It is a logical consequence, but not a Scriptural one. 
 And herein many have been deceived. They say 
 
In the nineteenth century. 273 
 
 logic and Scripture cannot conflict. E'or do they 
 ever, except in special cases, like tliis, where God 
 has declared His will. Then we must receive it, 
 because " Thus saith the Lord." 
 
 God can and does save, without the Christian 
 covenant, as well as with it. He says, the heathen, 
 who have not the written law, have the general 
 principles of that law written on their hearts ; and 
 if they obey, may be saved by it. Those in the 
 Christian Church are sure of salvation, if they keep 
 their covenant, because God has pledged Himself to 
 save them. The advantage of being there is not 
 only satisfaction and security, but those there have 
 means of grace to helj) them to higher degrees of 
 sanctiflcation, which those outside have not. 
 
 Man is justified only by Faith ; and any recog- 
 nition of God, and determination to do always what 
 we believe to be His will, or any public profession 
 of His ISTame, before an assembly of believers in 
 Christ and His Gospel, and resolution to obey them, 
 is doubtless in some sense justification. 
 
 The only external evidence man can have that 
 he is justified is, that he has entered into covenant 
 with God by Baptism. 
 
 But a full and complete justification comes 
 from a full and complete reception of all the appli- 
 ances by and through which the covenant was 
 established. These are to be obtained through the 
 Gospel, and the Church, and its ministry and sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 Salvation is covenanted to all who are led by 
 God's Holy Spirit to obedience to all the externals of 
 12* 
 
274 INFLTJENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 tlie triitli, wliicli He lias revealed. They react, and 
 produce in tliem the fruits of the Spirit. 
 
 The work of the Christian Church and Ministry 
 is to preserve and transmit the means of grace in- 
 stituted by God. It does this for the whole world. 
 But some nations receive more, and some less of 
 this light. Therefore, persons may be saved by 
 obedience to the degree of light brought home to 
 their knowledge and consciousness by God's Spirit. 
 Thus it follows logically, that salvation is possible 
 out of the Church. 
 
 But the possibility can certainly never be a 
 satisfactory inducement to trust to that kind of sal- 
 vation, in a matter of so much consequence as the 
 soul's everlasting happiness, when a better way can 
 be found. Those who have received the whole 
 truth, or who might have done so, if they had tried, 
 will be judged by the Law. 
 
 But to return from this digression. The latest 
 prophecies of the E"ew Testament foretold the pre- 
 cise condition of the Church and world, as they now 
 exist. 
 
 One A230stle said, heresies and schisms were 
 necessary ; necessary, as a part of huma-n proba- 
 tion; and inevitable, in consequence of the do- 
 minion, which the rulers of the darkness of this 
 world have acquired, by man's voluntary consent, 
 over the human mind. 
 
 Another declared their existence, warned those 
 who embraced, and cautioned the Church spe- 
 cially against the sin of idolatry. Almost the last 
 message of the Beloved Disciple to the Church, 
 
m THE NINETEENTH CENTUKY. 275 
 
 the Saviour so loved as to die for, was : " Little 
 children, keep yourselves from idols." And St. 
 Paul : " Tliat wicked men and seducers were des- 
 tined to wax worse and worse." And this is j^re- 
 cisely what we discover in this middle of our age. 
 There has never been a time when civil and re- 
 ligious violence has been more tlireatening ; or 
 when the forms of error attained such scandalous 
 eminence ; or wdien the general disoi'ganization of 
 society was apparently nearer to being accom- 
 plished. 
 
 Our Blessed Lord intimated, that near the time 
 of His second advent, corruptions would again 
 have become so general, as it was in the days of 
 llJ^oah and Lot, that, amid the turmoil and dark- 
 ness, it might seem doubtful whether truth had not 
 perished from the earth. 
 
 It is certain, that these prophecies are fulfilling ; 
 that evil men have waxed worse and worse ; and 
 that the standard of piety is at a low ebb in the 
 churches and among the clergy. Loolv at the 
 pride, and jealousy, and envy, and hatred among 
 men who are ministering at the same altar. Look 
 at the falls of bishops ; and the state of feeling be- 
 tween many of the clergy and their bisho23s ; some 
 excluding the bishops from officiating in their 
 churches, and others refusing to perform Episcopal 
 functions in the churches of others, of whom they 
 unreservedly say bitter and unchristian things. 
 
 Whole congregations are waxing worse. They 
 first went out from the Church, rejecting its order 
 and ministry ; then they preached another Gospel ; 
 
276 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 and at last denied tlie divinity of tlie Lord who 
 redeemed them. They have waxed w^orse and 
 worse, nntil now, Mormonism is recruiting by thou- 
 sands and thousands from Protestant countries in 
 Euroj^e, and from tlie lowest form of religion in 
 America. And what is this but the fulfilled words 
 of our Blessed Lord and his Apostles, taking place 
 before our own eyes ? 
 
 Another speciality pointed out by St. Paul, 
 when men would not endure sound doctrine, was, 
 the agitation of the question of slaves or slavery. 
 
 He knew that God permitted nations, and even 
 His own people, to suffer from the trial of slavery. 
 He knew that it was sometimes the punishment of 
 sin, which brought with it the blessing of repent- 
 ance. That God afflicted men's bodies in this way 
 to save their souls. That to master and slave it was 
 a part of the Divine plan of the universal probation 
 of the human race. And he knew also, that God 
 had a right to make one vessel to honor, and another 
 to dishonor, without being called in question for it 
 by His creatures ; that he had a right to do His own 
 will among the inhabitants of earth, as well as the 
 hosts of heaven ; and so the Aj)ostle warned the 
 Church of Christ against meddling with the subject. 
 
 Both our Lord and His Apostles set us the ex- 
 ample of letting the subject alone, save so far as 
 they enjoin both master and slave to do their duty 
 to each other faithfully, in that state of life in which 
 God had placed them. And St. Paul, foreseeing 
 the evils to arise in this way, writing under the 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 277 
 
 direction of God's Holy Spirit, warned the CLnrch 
 and tlie world not to intertere with it. 
 
 And the nations and the sects, which have not 
 regarded the warning, have felt the bitter conse- 
 quences of their disregard. 
 
 The nations have impoverished thousands of 
 their subjects, depopulated their slave-holding do- 
 minions, and deteriorated the moral and physical 
 conditions of the former slaves. While the sects 
 have experienced equally disastrous consequences, 
 in the breaking up of their organizations ; in the 
 loss of members who have left their communions, 
 to devote themselves exclusively to the work of 
 agitation ; and, more especially, in the tendency 
 which it has had to overthrow the Bible, and to 
 bring about a general dissolution of all social order. 
 
 St. Paul taught fractically^ in the case of Ones- 
 imus, who was a runaway slave, doulos^ or one 
 bought and sold for money. He had absconded 
 from his master Philemon, a wealthy Christian 
 citizen of Colosse and a friend of the Apostle's, and 
 gone to Rome. He was clearly beyond reach of 
 his master, or of any international law by which he 
 could get him. 
 
 At Pome, the slave met with St. Paul, and was 
 converted to Christianity. Here was a case, where, 
 if slavery had been esteemed at all unjustifiable, 
 the Apostle would have been warranted in alloAV- 
 ing the slave to retain the freedom he had acquired. 
 
 But instead of so doing, he prevailed on the 
 fugitive to return to his master, and wrote a letter, 
 which the slave carried, exhorting Philemon to 
 
278 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 forgive and receive liim : " not now as a servant 
 {slave — doulos — it is in the original)^ but above a 
 servant (slave also), a brother beloved, esj)eciall7 
 to me, but liow much more unto thee, both in the 
 iiesh and in the Lord." 
 
 This is certainly another Gospel than that 
 preached by many who call themselves disciples 
 of our Lord at the present day. And from it we 
 learn, that it is not contrary to God's will, that one 
 Christian man should hold another Christian as his 
 slave. 
 
 It begets a new relationship. Philemon was no 
 longer to esteem Onesimus, because he was j)roperty 
 and valuable as a slave; "but above a slave, a 
 brother beloved." Christianity was designed by 
 God to mitigate the horrors of slavery ; and wher- 
 ever it has its pro2:)er effect, it increases the happi- 
 ness of both master and slave. AVherever the sub- 
 ject is abused, it is a violation of God's law ; and 
 the violator must suffer the penalty. 
 
 There are ranks and grades throughout all the 
 works of God, and subordination in heaven. The 
 servant's j^bice is appointed by God. Can it be 
 otherwise, if not a sparrow falls without His notice ? 
 The slave is j)laced in slavery by the same hand 
 which aj^points the king to his throne. 
 
 But as St. Paul is the only Apostle who was in- 
 spired to speak on this subject, which is now so 
 agitating the Christian world, let us hear all that he 
 has said upon it. 
 
 " Let as many servants," — here, again, the word 
 douloi, white men or black, who are bought and 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 279 
 
 sold for money, for both classes were then bought 
 and sold in the public markets, Christians and Pa- 
 gans ; yet the Apostle says, " let as many slaves as 
 are under the yoke," which implies hard bondage, a 
 galling servitude, " coimt their own masters worthy 
 of all honor:' Why ? " That the name of God and 
 His doctrine be not blasphemed." 
 
 If it were then blasphemy against God to teach 
 a slave to be dissatisfied with that state of life in 
 which God has placed him, can it be otherwise 
 now 'I 
 
 Does not the Apostle here clearly recognize 
 slavery as an institution sanctioned by God, and 
 recognized by the Gospel ? Can any Christian be- 
 lieve, that an Apostle of our Blessed Lord would 
 have uttered such words under the direction of the 
 Holy Spirit, if slavery had been an abomination to 
 God? ]^o! 
 
 And he goes on to say. And the slaves, " that 
 have helieving masters^'' that is. Christian slaves 
 who have Christian masters, " let them not despise 
 them^ hecause they are 'brethren^'' Doubtless mean- 
 ing, that on that account they are not to expect to 
 be set free ; '' hut rather do them service^ hecause 
 they are faithful and heloved^ partakers of the 
 benefit," — doubtless of the blessings of the Gospel 
 of Christ. 
 
 God here again certainly sanctions the slavery 
 of Christian men by Christian masters. And St. 
 Paul continues in these remarkable words : " These 
 things teach and exhoet." 
 
 And this is not all. He also commands : " If 
 
280 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 any man teach otherwise^ and consent not to whole- 
 some words^ even the words of out Lord Jesus 
 Christy and to the doctrine which is according to 
 GODLINESS ; " the Apostle implying that what he has 
 said on the subject of the submission of Christian 
 slaves to Christian masters, are wholesome words, 
 the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the 
 doctrine is according to godliness ; and tliat, if any 
 man teach otherwise, " he is proud^^ preferring his 
 own ojDinion to God's law, ^'^ knowing nothing ^^ as 
 he ought ; for example, that God is w^iser than him- 
 self, and knows how to manage His creatures with- 
 out their help ; " hut doting about questions and 
 strifes of words^ whereof cometh envy^ strife, rail- 
 ings, eml snrmisings, perverse disputings of men of 
 corrupt 'tnindsP 
 
 And there is no man living wdio knows any 
 thing of abolitionism, but is compelled to confess 
 that these words of our God are a prophecy, which 
 he has seen fulfilled with his own eyes, in this our 
 day, in the middle of the nineteenth century. 
 
 One more point in the Apostle's teaching, and 
 we have done. It is this : " From such withdraio 
 thyself y This command the Church of America 
 has so far heeded ; and she has experienced God's 
 blessing in the peace and quiet extension of her 
 fold ; and in being made the instrument of salva- 
 tion to thousands of slaves. 
 
 Yes, at this very day may be seen, in our 
 Southern churches, the same sight which St. Paul 
 refers to in his Epistle to Philemon : the Christian 
 master and slave kneeling at the same altar, and 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 281 
 
 eating of the same bread which makes them one in 
 Jesns Christ ; and bringing their children to the 
 same font to have them baptized into the same 
 body in which, in Christ, there is neither bond nor 
 free. 
 
 The distinction is a temj^oral one. It in no way 
 hinders the salvation of master or slave, any further 
 than it begets higher responsibilities, and new and 
 endearing relations between both parties, which 
 would not have existed without the institution. 
 
 Slavery is an inexplicable link in the chain of 
 the connections of time, as man's bondage to sin is 
 an inexplicable one in the vast chain of his connec- 
 tion with eternity. God is the Author of both ; and 
 man nmst be content to do his duty in both as best 
 he can, seeking help from Him who alone has power 
 to grant it, the Anchor and Finisher of all things. 
 
 It is certain that slavery in the United States 
 has been the means of bringing several millions of 
 negroes to a knowledge of the Gospel, who would 
 otherwise have been now benighted heathen, in 
 bondage to the devil, and to savage masters in their 
 own land. Their whole moral and physical con- 
 dition has been vastly elevated by it. 
 
 And some of the slaves have sense enough to 
 know this. The writer knows an intelligent African, 
 who w^as imported to Georgia when a youth, the 
 son of an African king. He said to him, sixteen or 
 eighteen years ago, when there was less agitation 
 on the subject than now, '' Cudjo, don't it fret you 
 sometimes to think that you are a slave, when, if 
 
282 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 you had remained in your native land, you would 
 have had slaves to tote you in palanquins ? " 
 
 " 'No ! " he promptly replied ; " if I had stopped 
 in Africa, I should never have heard of my 
 Saviour." 
 
 We were alone in a garden. I was sounding 
 the depths of his soul. This was his hearty reply. 
 And doubtless there are thousands, who are thus 
 daily thanking God for what short-sighted men are 
 denouncing as a curse. 
 
 It is probable that more than one-half of all the 
 slaves in the United States are members of a 
 church. Almost all have been baptized. And 
 there is no other class of four milHons of men, from 
 the highest to the lowest, which can show as many 
 consistent Christians, all things considered, as tlie 
 slaves. 
 
 The religion of Christ is one which demands a 
 cross ! And who shall say, that God is not by this 
 means scourging to Himself these dark heathen? 
 And what are any suiFerings of the body to be ac- 
 counted, when they drive men to God; and make 
 them secure Him as their everlasting Friend? 
 
 But there is yet another point of view, kindred 
 to this, and but little less important, in which slavery 
 must be considered. It is the philanthropic. 
 
 It has been so long popular to decry slavery ; to 
 set forth examples of its abuse, as though it were all 
 evil ; and its enemies have so long had it all in tlieir 
 own way, that many candid people actually believe 
 nothing can be said in its defence. 
 
 Besides the moral and religious advantages 
 
IN THE OTNETEENTH CENTURY.- 283 
 
 which show the past blessings which have flowed 
 from slavery, there are other considerations which 
 make the welfare of the civilized race of mankind 
 to require its continuance. 
 
 The best interests of the majority of the labor- 
 ing classes, and I believe the welfare of the whole 
 civilized world, its very progress, would certainly 
 be retarded by the abolition of domestic slavery. 
 
 The time came, in the providence of God, when 
 the horrors of the slave trade should be abolished 
 by civilized nations ; and He raised the men and 
 means to do it. 
 
 But the experiments made in the abolition of 
 domestic slavery have shown, that while it does not 
 benefit the negro in any respect, and while it ruins 
 the master, it also threatens a partial destruction of 
 commerce, an abridging of the luxuries of life, and 
 the entailing of a deeper degradation, and a more 
 depressing poverty, on all the loliite labor of the 
 civilized world. 
 
 White men cannot produce crops of cotton, in- 
 digo, cane, and other tropical j)roducts. Let the 
 production of these suddenly cease, and who shall 
 estimate the ruin which would fall on the manufac- 
 turers and operatives, and the agriculturists in the 
 manufacturing districts of every civilized nation 
 throughout the globe ? 
 
 And suppose it possible to substitute free white 
 labor for black slave in our Southern States. They 
 must live in an unhealthy climate, isolated by ex- 
 tensive plantations, and will necessarily tend to run 
 
284: INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 down, 23liysically and morally, to tlie slave's con- 
 dition. 
 
 "Who would wisli to see four millions of the poor 
 white men and women and children of these United 
 States degraded to the condition of the slave, that 
 the slave might take their place ? God seems to 
 have contrived the laws which have adaj^ted them 
 to their condition. And it is dangerous always to 
 tamper with laws, the designs of Avhich we do not 
 understand. 
 
 Recent examinations of the social condition of 
 the poorer classes of whites in civilized countries, 
 show a woful aggregate of crime, and poverty, and 
 wretcliedness. This is especially true in tlie manu- 
 facturing districts in Europe ; and they show that 
 the moral, physical, and intellectual condition of 
 the slaves in the United States is vastly better than 
 that of a majority of the poorest operatives through- 
 out the civilized world. 
 
 There are two substantial reasons why the slave 
 labor, in civilized countries, can never descend to 
 the same depths of social degradation as the lowest 
 kind of white persons. 
 
 One is, that the slave is property, and has an 
 owner interested in his work, who is certain to look 
 after him. It is his interest to keej) him from in- 
 temperance and the more degraded social vices. 
 It is notorious that drunkenness is not so common 
 among the slaves, where they can get liquor, as 
 among the poor whites at the South. 
 
 The other reason is, that there is a public 
 opinion in all our slaveholding States, to which the 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 285 
 
 master is amenable. He who despises it never 
 fails to feel the penalty, and to lose caste among his 
 high-toned honorable neighbors. 
 
 The fanatic may deride these facts and the 
 arguments deduced from them, as he does every 
 thing else which does not accord with his own 
 theory. But there are Divine barriers, which God 
 has thrown around His creatures to protect them in 
 that state of life He has assigned them. By these 
 shields their condition is made comparatively 
 happy and honorable, when contrasted with the 
 styes of infamy, poverty, filth, and suffering in some 
 of the manufactnring and coal districts of our 
 motherland at this very day. 
 
 Moreover the slave is delivered from that one 
 great source of anxiety to the poor in every land, 
 lest they or their children shonld come to want in 
 old age. 
 
 There is a giant antagonism going on on earth, 
 between the powers of Good and Evil. God's 
 Holy Spirit is directing one, and holy angels are 
 ministering to those who will conquer. Satan and 
 his angels are influencing the men who are deluded 
 by fanaticism and infidelity. And there is no man 
 living who does not daily feel the influence of both 
 these powers ; and who is not being daily shaped 
 by one or the other, into a form which he is destined 
 to bear throughout eternity. 
 
 One of the most subtle attacks of the Infidelity 
 of this age, and the best calculated to captivate 
 cultivated minds, is the attempt to explain away or 
 account for the mysteries of the Gospel, by a myth- 
 ical interpretation of them. 
 
286 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIKITS ON EARTH 
 
 This mytliical theory assumes, that man's in- 
 tuitive sense of the need of a Deliverer from the evil 
 in the world, led to the idea of the Incarnation of a 
 Divine Being. 
 
 But the theory is directly opj)Osed to both his- 
 tory and fact. God commanded the sons of Adam 
 to offer animals in sacrifice ; and that truth of the 
 expiation of sin, by the shedding of blood, was car- 
 ried by their descendants over all the earth. And 
 it has been preserved by tradition among the pa- 
 gans to this day. 
 
 Observation and experience, the fact that the 
 Gospel was opposed from the beginning by the 
 Jews, who best understood the theory of the expia- 
 tion of sin by the shedding of blood, show conclu- 
 sively, that the theory is utterly groundless. The 
 expiation made by the offering of the Son of God, 
 was a stumbling-block to both Greeks and Jews, the 
 two most enlightened nations then on the earth ; 
 and representing the two extremes of the highest 
 culture of a divine religion and human philosophy. 
 
 Christianity, with its central doctrine of the In- 
 carnation, is opposed to man's preconceived ideas. 
 It is a revelation from God, which not our innate 
 ideas of the necessity of a Deliverer, but the love 
 of our Heavenly Father, who knew our need, in 
 His infinite mercy made known. 
 
 This is evident, because, after all the prophecies 
 which foretold this event with such particularity, 
 God's own people did not understand it. And to 
 this day, thousands in different nations continue to 
 reject the doctrine, and are so many living witnesses 
 for God against the theory. 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 287 
 
 The mythic theory is itself a proof, that mankind 
 does not now like the divine plan of salvation ; and 
 that it is not in harmony with any natural instinct of 
 our race, except so far as that instinct is moulded by 
 an humble acceptance of a divine revelation. 
 
 There is no mythology which has not come to us 
 from the dawn of a remote or fabulous antiquity ; 
 wdiile the Gospel was written in an historical age, 
 in the very twilight of the golden age of Roman 
 literature. All the writers were contemporary wdth 
 the celebrated historians, Titus Livy, and Tacitus, 
 and Josephus. 
 
 It is true, that man feels the need of a Saviour; 
 but history teaches, that for four thousand years, 
 while the race was agonizing to discover a Deliverer ^ 
 from the oppressing sense of sin, no such theory w^as 
 started. Paganism offered its own offspring as the 
 costliest sacrifice ; and philosophy proclaimed, by 
 the mouth of its greatest high priest, Plato, that 
 there w^as no hope for man until a Deliverer should 
 descend from on high. Both were instructed by 
 prophecy or tradition ; and philosophy never dream- 
 ed, that the divine Deliverer would offer Himself 
 in sacrifice. 
 
 The Gospel testifies to the historic reality of such 
 a Deliverer as God had historically j)romised, by 
 the mouth of all His holy prophets, which had 
 spoken since the world began. But He was such a 
 Saviour as neither the reason, the instincts, nor the 
 necessities of man had formed an idea of, until the 
 advent of the Son of God actually took place. And 
 this shows that the mythical theory is without either 
 rational or historical foundation. 
 
288 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EARTH 
 
 Another way in which the evil spirits have 
 adapted themselves to the condition of things in the 
 present age is, by making fanaticism attack revela- 
 tion, with the same snbtlety which infidelity has 
 brought to bear on it ; and with a like design of 
 influencing minds of the highest cultivation. 
 
 It is in taking advantage of the facilities for 
 locomotion and the enlarged state of knowledge, 
 and thereby increasing the destruction of the souls 
 and bodies of men. Modern warfare and machinery 
 have made the civilized world a slaughter-house 
 for man. This is one way, turning the means of 
 progress into engines for destruction. Steamships 
 burn and sink, and locomotives take into the jaws 
 of destruction, their hundreds ; and battle-fields 
 leave their thousands of dying and dead. Surely 
 the woe of St. John in the Apocalypse is fulfilling : 
 Satan is " cast out into the earth, and his angels 
 were cast out with him." Rev. xii. 9. 
 
 Prophecy foretold this would follow after the 
 suppression of the Holy Scri23tures ; and atheism, at 
 the close of the last century, trampled them under 
 foot in France ; and the Eoman Church has since 
 done much to prevent their general diffusion. 
 
 Of this period prophecy says, *' Woe to the in- 
 habiters of the earth and of the sea ! for the devil 
 is come down unto you, having great wrath, because 
 he knoweth he hath but a short time." — Rev. xii. 12. 
 
 But the other is more like the devil in subtlety. 
 It has turned the very knowledge of man into an 
 engine of destruction for his soul. Taking advan- 
 tage of human reason, inflated by the pride of 
 
m THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 289 
 
 knowledge, and the wonderful impulse which has 
 been given to the human intellect, it has made it set 
 itself up in the place of God, to decide all things 
 according to its own decrees. 
 
 Human reason is actually intoxicated with 
 pride. It sits in judgment on the Word of God, 
 declares what shall and what shall not be believed, 
 and has no stopping-place short of usurping the 
 throne of God. He suffers moral evil, but the 
 pride of reason cannot endure His forbearance ; and 
 it has already begun to cry down witli God. A 
 once pious congregational minister, and well known 
 to the writer, not long since said in a public sjDeech, 
 " If the God of the Bible sanctions slavery, down 
 with the God of the Bible." 
 
 This pride of reason also shows itself in attempt- 
 ing to make Divine Revelation square with human 
 logic, and rejecting all that will not. It declares that 
 a miracle can be proven by no amount of evidence, 
 that Christ is a mythical person, like the fabulous 
 founders of the early empires, and God Himself, 
 " apart from and out of the universe — is no God." 
 
 These phases of the human mind suggest a 
 truth, which it has been left to recent times to fully 
 develope. It is this. That an inordinate exercise 
 of the intellectual faculty leads to moral insanity ; 
 and that its results are the same in either extreme. 
 
 Reason was given man to direct him to truth, 
 and to assist him in its examination. But it was 
 given in connection with other faculties, to be em- 
 ployed with them. Separate it from its handmaids, 
 one of these is Taith, and it leads directly to error. 
 1-^ 
 
290 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIEITS ON EAETH 
 
 Immoderately exercised, it destroys its own power. 
 Its results are the same on all minds, and in all 
 countries. Blanco White and Newman, in Eng- 
 land ; Strauss and his followers, in Germany ; and 
 Theodore Parker and his school, in America, all 
 arrive at similar conclusions. 
 
 There is something analogous to tliis in the 
 natural world. Inordinate stimulus of the physical 
 powers destroys the will. Alcohol is one of God's 
 gifts to man, and designed for his happiness ; but its 
 abuse brings disease and death to the body. 
 
 In a similar way excessive use of the logical 
 faculty destroys the powder of the mind. It is 
 God's gift to guide man to the truth. Its lawful 
 exercise is pleasurable ; but its abuse brings disease 
 and destruction to tlie soul. 
 
 And there is another remarkable analogy : the 
 progress of the evil in both cases is highly exciting 
 and insidious ; the victim is seldom aware of its 
 power over him until he is almost hopelessly infat- 
 uated and ensnared. 
 
 Intemperance causes derangement of the stom- 
 ach, uneasiness, and remorse. When persisted in, 
 against the remonstrances of conscience, the will 
 becomes so weak, that although the victim sees his 
 danger, and often ti-ies to retrace his steps, he is 
 unable ; but goes on day by day growing worse 
 until death ends the struggle. 
 
 Intemperate exercise of the reason acts in the 
 same way on the mind. Conscience at first remon- 
 strates, the victim feels his danger ; the soul is un- 
 easy, knows that its doubts dishonor God, and re- 
 
m THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 291 
 
 solves that it will question no further than is neces- 
 sary to gain a clear understanding of the truth. 
 
 But by and by it begins to question what it had 
 regarded as established truth, and which it would 
 once have shuddered to doubt. Yet the fascina- 
 tion of the pride of reason daily increases : love of 
 doubt grows stronger ; and conscience is more and 
 more weakened, until at last the moral sense is 
 destroyed. The victim has no longer tlie power to 
 discern between truth and error, or to retrace his 
 steps. The moral power of the soul is dead, and 
 the person overwhelmed in hopeless infidelity. The 
 only stopping-place for pure infidelity is the Ger- 
 man doctrine, that "apart from and out of the uni- 
 verse — there is no God," 
 
 God forbids the exercise of reason in spiritual 
 things, without faith. "Without faith," says an 
 Apostle, " it is impossible to please God." Keason 
 is man's assistant, not his guide ; and he who per- 
 sists in following its unaided light, will surely stum- 
 ble and fall; it was the pride of reason which 
 made the angels fall, and God will desttoy it wher- 
 ever it springs up in his dominions. He who doubts 
 the inspiration of the Bible, will, sooner or later, if 
 he continues to doubt, reject God Himself. Such 
 has been the melancholy fate of some of the ablest 
 minds the world has ever produced. 
 
 These spirits, as the spirit of every age since 
 Christ has been, are opposed to His Gospel and 
 Church. He established them to carry on the work 
 of Redemption, which He began by the sacrifice of 
 Himself. He knew they would not remedy all th.e 
 
292 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EARTH 
 
 evils in the world, because many would reject them 
 as the Jews did Him ; and that others would enter 
 the Church as Judas did, from wrong motives, and 
 fall away. He foretold that the world would hate 
 the Gospel, the Church, and its Ministry. 
 
 Our Blessed Saviour proved, by his own exj^eri- 
 ment, the impossibility of satisfying the unreason- 
 ableness of fallen human beings ; He proved it by 
 actual experiment on the same age and the sam,e 
 people. John the Baptist came, leading a retired 
 and abstemious life, and the Jews said he had a 
 devil. He immediately followed the Baptist, lived 
 a social life, attended weddings and feasts, and they 
 called Him gluttonous, a wine-bibber, and friend of 
 publicans and sinners. 
 
 These examples of our Lord and the Baptist are 
 not more a picture of that age than they are of the 
 human heart. It is too true, that it hates God. 
 And they show the imj)ossibility of giving man an 
 example or law, which the majority will meekly 
 follow. 
 
 The acts of men recorded in the Gospels shadow 
 forth the great princij^les which lie at the founda- 
 tion of human nature. It is not John, nor the con- 
 temporary men, who are held up to our view, but 
 the principles which actuated them ; because they 
 are such as would be found in all ages. Man has 
 always been dissatisfied with God's arrangements ; 
 has always preferred to have his oivn iv'dl. It is 
 man in rebellion against his God ; it is the pride of 
 reason ; the same spirit which, if it had more power, 
 like the rebel Angels, would grasp " wnth its feeble 
 efforts at the Throne of \\\e Eternal.'"* 
 
m THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 293 
 
 Jesus was a perfect man. He aimed at nothing, 
 and did nothing, which was not for the good of his 
 fellow-men. He devoted all his time to going about 
 doing good. Yet fanatics and infidels found fault 
 with Him. He did not answer their expectations ; 
 He was not such a Saviour as they wanted. John 
 gave up his ministry to become Jesus' disciple ; but 
 some chose to adhere to his baptism which had no 
 Holy Ghost given it. Thus has it ever since been. 
 In all ages the majority have preferred the hull to 
 the kernel of truth. 
 
 The error of those men and of that age is our 
 error. The majority want the world reformed at 
 once. This is not God's way. God is patient. He 
 always works slowly^ and by His own appointed 
 means. Our Lord aimed to reform the world by 
 planting the seed of His kingdom in each human 
 heart, tlms bringing men, one hy one, into union 
 with Himself, and moulding the whole lump into 
 the One Body of the One Holy Catholic Church. 
 But that generation was not satisfied with His way ; 
 it wanted the evils of society cured instantly and in 
 the mass. Because our Lord would not work in 
 that way, He was rejected. 
 
 Look at the Saviour's teaching. He began His 
 ministry in the reign of Tiberius Cgesar, one of the 
 most corrupt the world has ever seen. Tacitus tells 
 us, there was no justice among men ; no virtue in 
 women ; that life and property were insecure ; and 
 society was paralyzed by the atrocities of those in 
 power. Men were afraid of their own friends; 
 wives and husbands betrayed each other ; informers 
 
294 INFLUENCE OF EVIL SPIRITS ON EAETH 
 
 spread terror and desolation in every quarter ; all 
 ranks were swept away in one common ruin ; and 
 many good Pagan Romans, overwhelmed by the 
 general corruptions, committed suicide to escape 
 them. 
 
 Tiberius was as loathsome as the most abomina- 
 ble of his subjects ; he banished the Jews, our 
 Lord's own nation, from Rome ; and yet, our Lord 
 never denounced him ; did not invite to rebellion ; 
 but said, "Render unto Csesar " (this brutal Tiberius) 
 " the things which are Caesar's." 
 
 Slavery of the worst kind existed throughout the 
 Roman empire ; some of God's own people were in 
 bondage ; and more than half of the white popula- 
 tion were slaves. But Jesus preached no abolition 
 crusade. He said to the slave, do your duty to your 
 master in that state of life in which God Ims placed 
 you^ as you would wish your master to do, had God 
 made him your slave. 
 
 Disgusting intemperance prevailed throughout 
 the empire ; yet Jesus said nothing of any tempe- 
 rance society but the Church, which He established 
 to make men temperate in all things. 
 
 The reign of Tiberius was tempestuous with 
 foreign and civil wars ; armies were raised and sent 
 into many different provinces ; the feet of Roman 
 soldiers defiled the precincts of the Holy Temple at 
 Jerusalem ; and the Saviour knew that they were 
 destined to put Him to an ignominious death ; and 
 the majority of them were the refuse of a dissolute 
 society. Yet He established no other peace society 
 but the Church; never condemned the soldier's 
 
IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 295 
 
 profession ; but exhorted tliem, like the slaves, to 
 do their duty in their own state of life. 
 
 He established His Church to do all this work, 
 in His own way, by bringing each individual into 
 the Church and union with Himself, and training 
 him, by the help of the Holy Ghost, to the practice 
 of all godliness, wdiere each one, gradually improv- 
 ing, w^ould leaven the wdiole lump. He intended 
 the Church to leaven the whole world. He gave her 
 full power ^ so that the world needed no other aid: 
 and He allowed no temporary prospect of doing 
 good, to divert Him from this. His one, single and 
 divine purpose. 
 
 A glance at the society of the present day con- 
 vinces one of the unchangeableness of unsanctiiied 
 human nature. All around us the sects are reject- 
 ing the Church, because she is too slow ; all around 
 us men are choosing the chaff of some human sys- 
 tem, to reform the world, in preference to the God- 
 devised plan, which our Blessed Lord died to estab- 
 lish; which he promised the gates of hell should not 
 prevail against, and which, after eighteen hundred 
 years, yet lives, and is giving proof of its divine 
 origin by the united hatred of the w^orld, the devil, 
 and all the sects against it ; and by the immortal 
 vigor w4th which, notwithstanding all this hatred, 
 it is carrying on its Master's own good w^orks of 
 evangelizing and blessing the world. 
 
296 SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 An attempt has been made to trace some of the 
 outlines of the course of creation, or the works of 
 God, as they fall within reach of human observa- 
 tion. And it is evident, that tlie earth is not an 
 isolated world, nor man an indejDcndent order of 
 beings ; but both are connected with the system of 
 the universe, whicli has flowed out from the mind 
 of God, and by whom all things were created in a 
 subUme unity. 
 
 We have seen that God has three great' king- 
 doms in the universe ; and while w^e have only 
 partial views of either of them, it is evident that 
 man is passing through the kingdoms of Kature and 
 Grace on to the kingdom of Glory, " which alone is 
 our true home." We cannot fully understand nor 
 clearly trace all the connections of these kingdoms. 
 "We have but comparatively little knowledge of 
 things relating to ourselves in the divine revelation. 
 But, so far as we can discover, there is but one Su- 
 preme will, working in one way, in these dilferent 
 kingdoms. 
 
SUMMAKY AND CONCLUSION. 297 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that many of the crea- 
 tures belonging to the earth, having the same 
 anatomical structure as man, in the first stages of 
 their being, creep and crawl ; but afterwards be- 
 come winged, and fly. This teaches the proba- 
 bility that his next condition of being will be a 
 winged one. 
 
 The creatures to which reference is made, pass 
 throu^rh a chano-e similar to what we call death. 
 Soon after they enter it, microscopic examination 
 shows, that they have a perfect anatomical prepara- 
 tion for the new member of a wing, which is in due 
 time to appear. Anatomical examination of man 
 shows a similar arrangement in liis system. 
 
 How wonderfully this teaching of comparative 
 anatomy harmonizes with this whole doctrine of the 
 connections of the universe, as set forth in this book. 
 
 Man is now in his second embryo state, pre- 
 paring his soul and body for the great change which 
 awaits him at death, and for the more glorious one 
 of the Resurrection. 
 
 When the partitions between the worlds shall 
 be thrown down, he will be like the angels ; and 
 the wdiole unbounded universe w^ill be thrown open 
 to him and to them. ISTow it is not so. But that is 
 to be one of the last results produced on creation by 
 the Incarnation of the ever Blessed God, our Sa- 
 viour. Each kingdom is complete in itself, and yet 
 all are connected. " All are admirable, though the 
 least of them is beyond our understanding." We 
 cannot map out the systems of the universe, nor 
 arrange the orders of their intelligent beings. Yet 
 13^ 
 
298 SUM:MAIiY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 we can see that tliey are connected witli and " touch 
 each other, gravitate towards and revolve around 
 each other." But we can ascertain their recipro- 
 cal influences only so far as God has seen fit to re- 
 veal them. 
 
 We discover a meaning and a connection, in 
 these consecutive and sublime revelations of the 
 Divine mind. They show that the Creator's works 
 are perfect, beyond the power of man, in his present 
 state, to fully comprehend, and worthy of adora- 
 tion. We see that the words of God are a part of 
 His works ; that there is nothing in the universe 
 which did not proceed from him ; nothing that is 
 disconnected from Him ; nothing that can exist 
 without Him ; and nothing that implies that any 
 change has ever taken place in Him ; or that there 
 is more than one God, or first cause, of mind and 
 matter, in the universe. 
 
 The immensity of God's works and operations is 
 so vast, that it is impossible for man to grasp the 
 whole ; but all the detail is harmonious. The at- 
 tractions and repulsions, of both mind and matter, 
 proclaim the unity of the Contriver. We do not 
 even know enough of God's kingdoms to coinpare 
 one with another. Even the details relating to our- 
 selves are incomparable. No mortal mind can 
 fully understand the connection between the Incar- 
 nation and Redemption ; the distance between Cre- 
 ation and the Incarnation are yet greater ; and the 
 former is the cause of our own existence and of all 
 things relating to us. Even if we could compare 
 them, it would be impossible for us to discern the 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 299 
 
 motives God had in producing them. He had an 
 object, which has been milUons of ages in develop- 
 ing, and man finds himself thrown up into the ocean 
 of being, in the progress of this development. 
 ' All research into the laws of these kingdoms in- 
 spires reverence and adoration. They unfokl God, 
 widen to our minds His being and wisdom. His 
 power and goodness. They give us clearer views 
 of Him, new motives for loving Him ; and our de- 
 votion becomes more intelligent and exalted, more 
 worthy of His infinite wisdom and glory. They 
 lead us up to the pinnacle of knowledge, from 
 whence we seem to look abroad over the universe, 
 and down into the mysterious abysses of the Divine 
 mind ; they unfold to us " the wonders of His ways 
 and the magnitude of His operations." 
 
 We have also seen, that the employments of all 
 the intelligent beings of the universe have reference 
 to the common object of manifesting God's wisdom, 
 and love, and glorj. That the fall of angels and men 
 does this, as well as the stability of cherubim and 
 seraphim ; since they called for the exercise of sucli 
 mercy and love as could not otherwise have been 
 shown. That the outworlds around God's throne 
 are the nurseries, which He projected for raising 
 intelligent beings, who were to be fitted to enlarge 
 His kingdom of glory. That the earth is one of 
 the minor divisions of the universe ; yet because it 
 is " the world whereon the Word was. Incarnate 
 may be the spiritual centre of unnumbered systems 
 of worlds ; " and man is one of the orders of the 
 most intelligent beings of the universe, and that he 
 
300 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 is now as miicli under God's immediate personal 
 government as be ever vrill be ; and tbat all the 
 affairs of tbe earth are directly controlled by Him. 
 That all worlds are connected parts of a grand 
 whole ; all intelligent beings are bnt various mem- 
 bers of one family ; and all have employments de- 
 signed for a common end. And finally, that man, 
 by his present earthly labor, is working himself into 
 a clearer light and knowledge of God, and the uni- 
 verse with which he is connected, and fitting him- 
 self to take a part in His government, when all 
 things shall have worked themselves up into God's 
 likeness, and He shall be " all in all," with no will 
 in the universe not in entire subordination to His 
 own. 
 
 It is the doctrine of the Gospel, that in God man 
 lives and moves and has his being : that He is not 
 far from every one of us ; that the hairs of our heads 
 are all numbered, and not a sparrow falls to the 
 ground without His notice. 
 
 If the earth be thus under the immediate care 
 and government of the Creator, and He does lift up 
 one and put down another ; and by Him kings do 
 reign, neither any other world, or order of beings 
 can be a more intimate part of His universal em- 
 pire. This is conclusive evidence not only for the 
 connection of all the worlds and creatures of God, 
 but also for their unity. ]^o world seems to man 
 to be more independent of God than the earth ; and 
 as revelation represents it, no world, except hell, 
 can be in a worse state, as its inhabitants have re- 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION^. 301 
 
 volted and fallen ; yet it is nnder the immediate 
 care and control of God. 
 
 Owing to man's lowness in the scale of being, 
 or to his fallen condition, he does not understand 
 the scope of the moral and physical phases of his 
 own Tvorld, much less of his relations to the uni- 
 verse. The analogies of earthly things throw^ light 
 on the peculiarity of his condition. 
 
 The man who is low in the scale of intellect does 
 not understand the general laws of science, govern- 
 ment, or religion, as well as he who has more capa- 
 city. So man,wdth his senses trammelled by a phys- 
 ical organization, cannot see distant spiritual beings 
 and worlds as spirits do. The connection of the 
 spirit with the flesh darkens and obscures its pow- 
 ers. But it is certain, that it lies not in the power of 
 the human mind to conceive of a union between 
 the Creator and His creatures more " awfully inti- 
 mate " than " the sacramental union " which takes 
 place between God and man in the holy eucharist. 
 "Neither has the creature in any other mystery, 
 been lifted to such a height as that he shonld be 
 allowed, with a reality so real that no word is forci- 
 ble enough to express it, to make his Creator his 
 daily bread." 
 
 Another argument for the connection of the uni- 
 verse is to be found in the strong sympathy which 
 exists between the natural and spiritual worlds ; not 
 only between mind and mind, but also in physical 
 things. The deluge was a miraculous outpouring of 
 water from heaven. The fire which destroyed the 
 cities of the plain descended from heaven. The law 
 
302 SIJMMAEY Al^D CONCLUSIOJS^ 
 
 was delivered by God amid earthquakes, tliunder- 
 ings, and lightnings. The sun and moon paused 
 over the vale of Ajelon to give God's people light to 
 pursue His enemies. A star moved across the 
 heavens to guide the magi to the infant Saviour in 
 the manger of Bethlehem. The heavens opened at 
 His baptism, and the Holy Ghost descended in the 
 form of an earthly dove. At his Transiiguration, a 
 voice from heaven declared Him God's beloved Son. 
 The earth rocked, and clothed itself in darkness at 
 His crucifixion. A rushing mighty wind, and 
 cloven tongues descended from heaven at Pente- 
 cost. And a miraculous light and voice attended 
 St. Paul's conversion. These things are evidence 
 of an intimate relationship between the mind and 
 matter of this world and the invisible powers of 
 another. 
 
 Man's individuality shows that he belongs to an 
 order of beings composed of something superior to 
 matter. How the thoughts and acts of one's whole 
 life register themselves in his memory ! How the 
 past from time wells up from the depths of his be- 
 ing ! How anticipations of the future crowd on and 
 startle his imagination ! How hope and fear delight 
 and torment his soul ! These are shadows thrown 
 out from the depths of his mysterious spirit ; and 
 that spirit has an instinctive sense of its immor- 
 tality, and relationship to unknown beings and 
 worlds. 
 
 Jesus Christ was the model man ; the perfect 
 type of original^ unfallen^ human nature. His mor- 
 tal body has gone from this world to another. He 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 303 
 
 was in all points, sin only excepted, like ns ; and we 
 are in all points, perfect righteousness only excepted, 
 exactly like Him. After His resurrection, He bad 
 a material body. He is called " the first fruits of 
 the Resurrection." All mankind will rise with 
 similar bodies. They must therefore have worlds, 
 which, according to human language and ideas, are 
 material, to live in. 
 
 The successive thousands of millions of the earth 
 will people many worlds. And the ancient inhab- 
 itants of other worlds may have increased, by a 
 higher and diiferent law of spiritual multiplication, 
 for millions of ages. 
 
 Revelation declares, that when Christ shall 
 assemble mankind to judgment, other beings will 
 also come to be judged; and that the future king- 
 dom of glory, which will be only the ancient one 
 enlarged, will be composed of beings gathered fi*om 
 other worlds besides our own. These worlds, which 
 now seem to man as dissevered, will then appear to 
 all, being spirits, as they really are, as one vast em- 
 pire, tilled with varieties of intelligent beings, all 
 children of one Father, and all created for one pur- 
 pose, of understanding and enjoying His wisdom, 
 love, and glory. 
 
 To man's renewed nature and spiritual vision, 
 the regions of space will be a connecting medium 
 between the several systems of worlds, as the ocean 
 and air are between the continents and islands of 
 the earth. It will then be as easy for men to pass 
 and repass from system to system, as it now is for 
 angels to ascend and descend between heaven and 
 
304 SUMMARY AJ^D CONCLUSION. 
 
 earth ; and distant worlds will have the same rela- 
 tion in man's enlarged vision, that the neighboring 
 landscapes of earth have to his mortal sight. 
 
 Space will be no obstacle to spiritual beings, 
 and there is no known reason why they may not 
 personally ])ass through this medium with the same 
 rapidity with which we now send our thoughts 
 across it. Then, the Scriptures teach, Ave are to 
 know God as we are known by Him; and if He 
 will unveil the mystery of His being to us, much 
 more may we expect to know the wonders of His 
 works, by means of which we shall be able to more 
 fully understand all His divine attributes. 
 
 The Holy Scriptures plainly teacli, that there 
 are worlds which are neither heaven, earth, nor 
 hell, where the spirits of departed men live. Our 
 Lord, while hanging on the cross, said to the peni- 
 tent robber, " This day shalt thou be with me in 
 paradise ! " It was near the close of the day ; the 
 change from world to world must have been almost 
 instantaneous. He had before taught in the para- 
 ble of the rich man and Lazarus, that there is 
 another world for wicked men. 
 
 It is the doctrine of the Old Testament, as well 
 as the ]^ew. AYhen God aj^peared to Moses in the 
 burning bush, He told him He was the God of 
 Abraham, of Isaac, and Jacob ; and Moses could not 
 but have believed, that altliough they had departed 
 from the earth, yet they had a home in some other 
 world of the Father's dominions. And St. Paul 
 confirms this opinion, where, commenting on those 
 words, he says, '' God is not the God of the dead, 
 
SUMMAEY AND CONCLrSION. 305 
 
 but of the living." They had substantial confirma- 
 tion of the doctrine, in the translations of Enoch and 
 Elijah. Christ settled the fact that they Avere not 
 in heaven, saying, " I^o 7nan hath ascended to 
 heaven, but the Son of man who came down from 
 heaven." 
 
 The Jews believed Elijah to be living spme- 
 where, because the prophets foretold his return to 
 the earth before Messiah's advent. Whether a 
 literal return was denoted by the coming with the 
 power and spirit of Elias or no, yet as the Jews in- 
 terpreted it literally, it is evident they believed him 
 living in the spirit in some world. The interview 
 of Saul with the "Witch of Endor, and the return 
 of Samuel, whether real or no, are evidence of the 
 popular belief of that age. 
 
 If these i^roofs leave any doubt, our Lord lias 
 settled the matter, by recalling both Moses and 
 Elias at His Transfiguration ; and by His parable, 
 which represents the two classes of the righteous 
 and wicked, as in different worlds, visible to each 
 other, but separated by an impassable gulf, so that 
 neither party could leave his own world. 
 
 Our Lord went away visibly on the air at noon- 
 day, to heaven. All this is corroborative of the 
 opinion, that all worlds are visible to spiritual be- 
 ings, and to man immediately after death. And 
 the fact that these persons could not leave their own 
 world, does not 2:)rove that the barriers between the 
 divisions of the universe will not be finally thrown 
 down to man and all holy beings. The dead have 
 not entered on their final reward and punishment. 
 
306 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 They are waiting in liope and fear tlie general 
 judgment, and until then neither the good nor the 
 bad can leave the world to which they are con- 
 signed to wait. 
 
 That there are worlds where the souls of the 
 dead are, is as certain as that they are living in the 
 spirit. That they do live is certain from the ex- 
 amples named in the Old Testament; but more 
 especially from the fully authenticated fact of the 
 forty days spent by our Saviour on earth, after His 
 Kesurrection. 
 
 It has been objected, that the fact rests on liu- 
 man testimony, which is not reliable. It is an- 
 swered, that this testimony is unlike any other, 
 even if it were not inspired, because it was received 
 by the people to whom it was addressed ; that it 
 produced a mighty impression on that age ; that 
 enemies as well as friends testify to the fact ; that 
 the wisest and best men who have lived, from that 
 day to this have received it as the truth of God. 
 
 Take from the Bible its " material imagery " of a 
 future life and world, and you take its soul out of it. 
 Its solemnest admonitions and most inspiring hopes 
 are addressed to us as immortal souls destined to 
 live in other worlds. 
 
 God is a Being of infinite purity and love ; and 
 these are the characteristics of all beings to whom 
 He is visible. Sin darkens and blinds spiritual 
 vision. In God is no darkness at all. He requires 
 men to cultivate these graces, that they may pre- 
 pare themselves for a change of worlds, and for be- 
 holdino; Him. 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 307 
 
 After the resurrection, it is said that men will 
 be " children of the light." Thenceforward there 
 will be no more divisions or separations between 
 the several parts of God's nniverse ; all will be 
 gathered into one in Christ. The partition walls 
 between worlds and orders ot* beings will be thrown 
 down, except in the one world of hell ; all will see 
 in God a common Father, will love as brethi-en, 
 and knowing God as they are known, will be tilled 
 with His fulness for ever. 
 
 It is certain that man can live in five different 
 worlds, — Heaven, Earth, Hell, Paradise, and the 
 Place of Torment of the wicked spirits of departed 
 men. If in five, then doubtless may he in more, and 
 in all svorlds. At the resurrection, the end of creation 
 will be consummated. Angels are now God's mes- 
 sengers to all worlds ; the men then living will be 
 joined "to the innumerable company of the angels, 
 to tlie general assembly and church of tJie first-born, 
 which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge 
 of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." 
 
 The difierent orderi; of beings will mark the dis- 
 tinctions among God's creatures, as the degrees of 
 intellect now do among men. Each will be satis- 
 fied with his own measure, and all will be filled 
 according to capacity with the fulness of God. 
 
 It is evident from the Gospel, that change of 
 worlds does not change man's nature or identity. 
 The rich man continued to feel love and anxiety for 
 the brethren he left on earth. His capacity to feel 
 was increased ; for he at once desired to do what he 
 had all his life neglected, to help them save their 
 
308 SUM^IARY AND CONCLIJSION. 
 
 souls. The case of our Saviour is evidence of the 
 same fact. After His resurrection, His love for His 
 disciples was unabated ; and their writings show 
 that His love and care continued after He returned 
 to heaven. The gift of the Holy Ghost, the success 
 of their labors, and the perpetuity of the Apostolic 
 church and succession are proofs of it. 
 
 Thus it is seen, that the human soul and its 
 affections are the same after death as before, only 
 intensified; and that they are the same in Heaven, 
 Hell, and Paradise. Indeed the soul is always 
 hankering after something it does not possess. It 
 strives for earthly riches and honors, or pleasures, 
 and when it gains them is as much athirst as before. 
 
 This teaches, that it is immortal, cannot be satis- 
 fied with any thing whicli grows on the shores of 
 time, and that this world is not its home. Hope 
 and imagination are continually soaring away into 
 the unknown ; and, what they crave, a home, which 
 hath eternal foundations, is what the Gospel teaches 
 will be the Christian's final recompense. 
 
 The present state of man, in the Christian 
 church, is the same as it always has been under 
 former dispensations, one of probation and ad- 
 vancement. Only we live in a clearer light, and 
 nearer the change of all things into a fixed state. 
 Knowledge is running to and fro, men are almost 
 as Gods. We are reaping the benefits of the world's 
 whole past experience, and fulfilled j^rophecies are 
 pouring floods of light on all things. 
 
 The patriarchs lived in an age and world of 
 hope ; hopes of the promises made by God to Adam 
 
SUMMABY AND CONCLUSION. 309 
 
 and liis posterity. The Jews lived in an age of 
 better hopes and clearer promises made to the pa- 
 triarchs, which were confirming into shadowy real- 
 ities, in the external rites and ceremonies established 
 by God. And while Cliristians still see throngh a 
 glass darkly, they live in a world of realities. The 
 promises made to the fathers have been fulfilled. 
 Tliey worship a crucified Saviour, a risen, living, 
 glorified Son of God, who is the central point in 
 their ritual, and their spiritual and sacramental life. 
 
 The Hope of Adam and the Patriarchs is ours ; 
 the mighty Kedeenier, when He had bruised tJie 
 serpent's head, overcome the sharpness of death, 
 and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. 
 The reality of the shadowy ceremonial of the Jews 
 is ours, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
 world, a crucified and glorified Saviour, who, when 
 he had risen, ascended to heaven, and sitteth on 
 the right hand of God. 
 
 The temporal kingdom of our religious fore- 
 fathers has been incorporated, by Christ's Incarna- 
 tion, into the universal empire of the Father ever- 
 lasting. We now see almost to the bottom of tlie 
 sublime depths of ancient prophecy; we now almost 
 understand all the wisdom of God in a mystery, 
 which refers to the past, present, and wonderful 
 future, so far as it relates to man, his world, and his 
 final destiny. "N"ow therefore (we) are no more 
 strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the 
 saints, and of the household of God ; and are built 
 upon the foundations of the Apostles and Prophets, 
 Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone ; 
 
310 SUMMAKY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 in whom all the building fitly framed together, 
 groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord." 
 
 Rituals prescribe duties. But those given by 
 God are full of the shadows of Himself and of eter- 
 nity ; shadows of better things to come. The race 
 of man before Christ was scarcely conscious of the 
 nature of the great spirit-world around it. But 
 each century the prophets were commissioned to 
 throw new rays of celestial light into the horizon of 
 time, to gild the dawn of the rising Sun of right- 
 eousness. The Jewish Bitual prehgured that rising ; 
 but the people did not see, as we now do, the full 
 im]3ort of their ceremonial sacrifice. They did not 
 realize, until after our Lord's sacrifice and ascension 
 to heaven, that His kingdom was not of this world. 
 
 The substance of something exceedingly glorious 
 was looked for by the most devout. But the sub- 
 lime truth, that God is love, and that love is the 
 foundation of all the law of the universe, was only 
 dimly shadowed in the Jewish Rituals, and breathed 
 from the Oracles, sounding along, " like a heavenly 
 underchime, which could be heard by ears to hear 
 those things," until it was at last fully revealed in 
 the angelic salutation to man of peace in heaven, 
 and good-will on earth, and shown in the life and 
 love of the Son of God, love unto death for man 
 and all his creatures. 
 
 We say all His creatures, because those who 
 were not redeemed have been enlightened by it. 
 
 The ceremonial law was full of shadows of the 
 great things of Christ's kingdom. We look back 
 and see plainly what they prefigured, the substance 
 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 311 
 
 of whicli we now enjoy. That is, the enlarged 
 knowledge of a future life and world ; the infinite 
 love of God in giving His Son to die for us ; and 
 our own exaltation in the scale of being by our 
 sacramental union with Him, through the Life of 
 His Eternal Son, by whom all the mind and matter 
 of the universe were created, and are being brought 
 into unity. 
 
 St. Paul says, the Jewish ceremonial was an 
 image of the True Tabernacle which God, not man, 
 pitched, according to the pattern of invisible things, 
 which had always existed with Himself, were first 
 shadowed forth in the blood of Abel's sacrifice, and 
 more fully revealed in the appointment of the lamb 
 for daily sacrifice. 
 
 It has always been so. Each dispensation has 
 foreshadowed the higher oncoming one, the clearer 
 knowledge of the constantly unfolding, unknown 
 life and world, which, from age to age have been 
 gradually coming into view. 
 
 The fulness of time scattered cloud after cloud 
 of darkness, and revealed the Eising Sun, which 
 has ever since been growing brighter and brighter, 
 until now, in the evening of time and of the 
 Christian dispensation, we stand on the threshold of 
 that sublime knowledge to which each one is to be 
 introduced by death, and which is another step on- 
 ward, towards that universal empire which the Son 
 of God is about to establish. 
 
 We are living, in this last half of the nineteenth 
 century, amid the blaze of light which streams 
 down from a future life and world about to be re- 
 
312 SUMMABY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 vealed. Tlie sacramental union of man with God 
 is the sublimest mjsteiy of Revelation, and proba- 
 bly of the nniverse. Throngh one sacrament of the 
 chnrch we receive the Spirit of God ; and through 
 the other, the Life of God ; and both have special 
 reference to the spirit world, for which they are de- 
 signed to fit ns. 
 
 The light of prophecy was the dawn of the Gos- 
 pel day ; now we enjoy the full splendor of its me- 
 ridian ; and the sacraments are a foretaste of the 
 Great Supper of the Lamb, and of the full tide of 
 immortal life, which is to flow out from God, and to 
 pulsate from Him through all His holy and re- 
 deemed children, who are to finally reign with Him 
 in glory. 
 
 It is a part of the Divine economy, and the 
 mysterious and prophetical arrangement of this 
 world, that coming events are constantly fore- 
 shadowed in its progress towards perfection. 
 
 The deep insight of this nineteenth century into 
 the mysteries of nature, art, and science, is the fore- 
 taste of the removal of the veil, which conceals God 
 and His wisdom, to be made at the Resurrection. 
 The lightning speed of the telegraj^h is a fore- 
 shadowing of the hastening moment, when the 
 spirits of men will traverse the nniverse on immor- 
 tal wings. 
 
 The Patriarchs were bondmen ; the Jews, ser- 
 vants ; but Christians are sons of God by adoption. 
 And although they see only " throngh a glass dark- 
 ly," it is with a constantly increasing light. The 
 
SUMMAET AND CONCLUSION. 313 
 
 Christian Dispensation is passing away ; bnt, as 
 sons of God, its subjects will abide for ever. 
 
 We have a full Divine Eevelation of all tilings 
 wliich relate to man until the end of time. It is, as 
 lias been sliown, a revelation in a mystery ; but 
 with light enough to discern our true condition and 
 destiny ; light enough to guide us to all truth. We 
 have the example of Christ to teach us what to do ; 
 and the help of the Holy Ghost, to help us do it ; 
 and ministering angels to weep and rejoice with us 
 in our conflicts and conquests over the world, the 
 flesh, and the devil. 
 
 We have the Past, with its fulfilled prophecies ; 
 the Present, with its analogies to instruct ; and the 
 Future, with its unfulfilled prophecies quickening 
 to the birth. But they are purposely so dim, that 
 they cannot be judged until they have fully matured. 
 We are walking by faith, not by sight. It would be 
 of no advantage if we could understand them. 
 God's purposes must be accomplished, and if man 
 could foresee them, it would cloud his life with sor- 
 row. They are hidden in mercy ; and it is abso- 
 lutely essential that they should be, to keep us hum- 
 ble and expectant ; to perfect our free agency ; and 
 to help on our salvation. 
 
 We can learn a great deal by studying what 
 may be known of our present condition. We dis- 
 cover that we live in the midst of sublime myste- 
 ries ; that our bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost ; 
 that we walk on holy ground ; live in an atmosphere 
 continually traversed by angels, in the communion 
 and fellowship of all whom God loves, not only of 
 14 
 
314 SUMltfAKY AND CONCLUSION. 
 
 just men made perfect, but of the saints in glory ; 
 and that we are soon to see God and them face to 
 face. 
 
 These are infinite motives to cause us to love 
 and adore God ; and knowing these things, we learn 
 to exercise Faith, Hope, and Cliarity ; are " led on 
 to a practical sense of God's mysterious presence " 
 every where, and our intimate relationship to Him 
 and His entire universe. 
 
 We learn that higher orders of beings, as well 
 as man, are awaiting the second advent of the Son 
 of God, when there will be a consummation and 
 conclusion of the present creation, so far as man 
 has any revelation concerning it. Then the present 
 heavens and earth, which have been defiled by sin, 
 are to pass away with a great noise, to give place to 
 a new heaven and a new earth, wherein will dwell 
 only righteousness. This new creation will have 
 the same effect on the intellio^ent beins^s of the uni- 
 verse that the first one had, will enlarge their ideas 
 of God, and finally make Him perfectly known to 
 all holy beings, who are to live with Him, and 
 enjoy this fulness of knowledge, and the unspeaka- 
 ble bliss of His glory and presence for ever. 
 
 As we have ranged along the borders of the 
 words and works of God, tracing the faint outlines 
 which come within range of the human intellect, 
 we have seen that they every where discover the 
 strongest marks of one mind : and that the internal 
 relationship of one to the other, the marvellous 
 unity, and the perfect harmony of all, reflect, as in 
 the vast mirror of the universe, the wisdom, power, 
 
SXntf]VrAKY AND CONCLUSION. 315 
 
 and love of the ever blessed God, the Creator and 
 Father everlasting. 
 
 These few and scanty gleanings, in comparison 
 with the whole, from the ont-haiiging fringes of 
 Divine knowledge and trnth, let down from God, 
 throngh Creation and Revelation, concerning the 
 nniverse, teach ns how grand and beautiful must be 
 the w^hole ; and how infinitely worthy is the Creator 
 to be loved and adored by man, to whom He has 
 given a mind to comprehend so much of His wis- 
 dom ; such i-ank in the universe ; and for wliom He 
 has prepared a so much nobler dignity and destiny, 
 when the abysses of the Divine love shall be re- 
 vealed in him in the future life and world to which 
 he is hastenino^. 
 

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