For Thee Idūme's' spicy forests blow, 12. No more the rising sun shall gild the morn, O'erflow thy courts; the Light Himself shall shine The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay, Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own MESSIAH reigns! POPE. II. 193. OMNIPRESENCE AND OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. WAS yesterday about sunset walking in the open fields, I WAS until the night insensibly fell upon me. I at first ămused myself with all the richness and variety of colors which appeared in the western parts of heaven: in proportion as they faded ǎway and went out, several stars and planets appeared, one after another, until the whole firmament was in a glow. The blueness of the ether was exceedingly heightened and enlivened by the season of the year, and by the rays of all those luminaries that passed through it. The galaxy appeared in its most beautiful white. To complete the scene, the full moon rose at length in that clouded majesty which Milton takes notice of, and opened to the eye a new picture of nature, which was mōre finely shaded and disposed among softer lights than that which the sun had before discovered to us. 'I du' me, or Id u'mæ a, an ancient country of Western Asia, comprising the mountainous tract on the east side of the great valleys of ElGhor and El-Arabah, and west and southwest of the Dead Sea, with a portion of Arabia. Ophir, an ancient country mentioned in the Scriptures, and renown 4 2. As I was surveying the moon walking in her brightness, and taking her progress among the constellations, a thought rose in me which I believe věry often perplexes and disturbs men of serious and contemplative natures. David himself fell into it in that reflection, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou regardest him!" In the same manner when I considered that infinite host of stars, or, to speak mōre philosophically, of suns which were then shining upon me, with those innumerable sets of planets or worlds which were moving round their respective suns; when I still enlarged the ide'a, and supposed another heaven of suns and worlds rising still above this which we discovered, and these still enlightened by a superior firmament of luminaries, which are planted at so great a distance that they may appear to the inhabitants of the former as the stars do to us; in short, while I pursue this thought, I could not but reflect on that little insignificant figure which I myself bore amidst the immensity of God's works. 3. If we consider God in his omnipresence, his being passes through, actuates, and supports the whole frame of nature. His creation, and every part of it, is full of him. There is nothing he has made that is either so distant, so little, or so inconsiderable, which he does not essentially inhabit. His substance is within the substance of every being, whether material or immaterial, and as intimately present to it as that being is to itself. It would be an imperfection in him were he able to remove out of one place into another, or to withdraw himself from any thing he has created, or from any part of that space which is diffused and spread abroad to infinity. In short, to speak of him in the language of the old philosopher, he is a Being whose center is everywhere, and his circumference nowhere. 4. In the second place, he is omniscient' as well as omnipresent. His omniscience, indeed, necessarily and naturally flows from his omnipresence; he can not but be conscious of every motion that arises in the whole material world, which he thus essentially pervades, and of every thought that is stirring in the intellectual world, to every part of which he is thus inti'Om`ni prěs' ent, present in all places at the same time. 1 Omniscience, (om nish' ent), having all knowledge; all-seeing. mately united. Several moralists have considered the creation as the temple of God, which he has built with his own hands, and which is filled with his presence. Others have considered infinite space as the receptacle, or rather the habitation of the Almighty; but the noblest and most exalted way of considering this infinite space is that of Sir Isaac Newton, who calls it the sensorium' of the Godhead. Brutes and men have their sensoriola, or little sensoriums, by which they apprehend the presence and perceive the actions of a few objects that lie contiguous to them. Their knowledge and observation turn within a věry narrow circle. But as God Almighty can not but perceive and know everything in which he resides, infinite space gives room to infinite knowledge, and is, as it were, an organ to omniscience. 5. Were the soul separate from the body, and with one glance of thought should start beyond the bounds of the creation; should it for millions of years continue its progress through infinite space with the same activity, it would still find itself within the embrace of its Creator, and encompassed round with the immensity of the Godhead. Whilst we are in the body, he is not less present with us because he is concealed from us. "O that I knew where I might find him!" says Job. "Behold I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I can not perceive him; on the left hand, where he does work, but I can not behold him; he hidèth himself on the right hand that I can not see him." In short, reason as well as revelation assures us that he can not be absent from us, notwithstanding he is undiscovered by us. 6. In this consideration of God Almighty's omnipresence and omniscience, every uncomfortable thought vanishes. He can not but regard every thing that has being, especially such of his creatures who fear they are not regarded by him. He is privy to all their thoughts, and to that anxiety of heart in particular, which is apt to trouble them on this occasion; for, as it is impossible he should overlook any of his creatures, so we may be confident that he regards with an eye of mercy those who endeavor to recommend themselves to his notice, and in an unfeigned humility of heart think themselves unworthy that he should be mindful of them. Sen sō' ri um, the seat of sense or perception. ADDISON. III. 194. GOD. THOU eternal One! whose presence bright May measure out the ocean-deep-may count And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high, 3. Thou from primeval nothingness didst call Sprung forth from Thee—of light, joy, harmony, Thy word created all, and doth create; Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine; Glorious! Great! Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate! 4. Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround— Upheld by Thee, by Thee inspired with breath! Thou the beginning with the end hast bound, And beautifully mingled life and death! As sparks mount upward from the fiery blaze, Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry Of heaven's bright army glitters in Thy praise. 5. A million torches, lighted by Thy hand, What shall we call them? Piles of crystal light- 6. Yes! as a drop of water in the sea, All this magnificence in Thee is lost : What are ten thousand worlds compared to Thee? Is but an atom in the balance, weighed I am, O God! and surely Thou must be! Still I am something, fashioned by Thy hand! On the last verge of mortal being stand, Just on the boundaries of the spirit-land! 9. The chain of being is complete in meIn me is matter's last gradation lost, And the next step is spirit-Deity! |