128 SCIENCE SHOWS OUR LITTLENESS.

is in reality less than almost any of the other stars which crowd the heaven. So that in the very moment of our grand discovery of the real nature of the solar system (and grand indeed it was in some sense) yet we have at the same time come to learn the very small space which we oCcupy in the works of Nature. Our improved science has served but to prove to us our own littleness.

The wisest of men are those who are most ready to acknowledge the limited scope of their own capacity and confess how very small a progress it is possible to make in the knowledge even of the material laws by which the Almighty governs the visible universe. We know in fact little more than the phenomena, or obvious effect produced, and but little of the immediate or ulti

mate causes.

"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth." We observe the power of the wind when it impels the ship, or rends the forest, or lays waste the cornfields, but of the causes from whence it proceeds and those which again lull it to rest Philosophy can only guess. To the Jew of our SAVIOUR'S time it was literally true that he was entirely ignorant, whence the wind came and whither it went. Modern science has made some progress

CHANGES OF THE WIND.

129.

in discovery since that time. It has noted the exact extent, and duration of the monsoon or trade wind; it has discovered that generally speaking the tempests which sweep over the earth and sea, travel in a circle of more or less extent, to which it gives the name of cyclone. And the rapid communication by the telegraphic wire enables us in some degree to calculate the approach of a storm, and give the mariner warning of danger. But of the shifting and various currents which render the wind proverbial for its uncertainty-why to-day there is a soft south wind, and to-morrow it may have shifted to the east or north, whence springs up each change of wind, and how far it extends,-on all these things no definite account can be given.

The ablest and most acute philosophers arrive sooner or later at some point where they know as little of the efficient causes of the phenomena which they witness, or of the way in which GoD causes nature to work, as the sailor who trims his sail to the wind or the peasant who delves the soil.

And this ignorance of the commonest phenomena is most conspicuous in regard to the connection between the world of spirits and the world of matter. I apprehend that the deepest philosopher knows absolutely nothing for certain on the subject. There is not one who can say how it is that at the impulse of his will he can raise

K

130

CONNECTION OF SPIRIT AND BODY.

his arm, or why his tongue can give utterance to the thoughts conceived in his mind. There is not a man who can tell how far his body, soul, and spirit, are essentially joined or separable, or whether it would be more proper to call them one or three substances.

Now if in such apparently simple and ordinary things man can discover next to nothing respecting their real nature, how unreasonable it is to expect that he can of himself acquire greater knowledge concerning subjects infinitely more abstruse and difficult. If he knows so little about common earthly objects, how can he expect to form a just conception of things invisible above the heavens? If of his own nature he is so profoundly ignorant, what can he possibly of himself discover concerning the nature of GOD, beyond what God Himself has revealed?

CHAPTER XIV.

THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERIES.-THE LAMB SLAIN BEFORE

THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.

THERE is one mystery which stands above all other mysteries, and requires a separate consideration. It transcends even the mystery of the Atonement. We are taught by God's Word that the Son of GOD came into the world, and suffered death that He might make Atonement for the sins of man. But there is a peculiar view of this great fact much insisted on in the Bible, which adds greatly to the mysteriousness of this doctrine, but when earnestly dwelt on, contributes in a measure to its solution. The phase of this doctrine to which I refer is this-that CHRIST is called "The Lamb of GOD slain from the foundation of the world," nay, "before the foundation of the world." "He hath saved us," says S. Paul to Timothy, "and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according 1 S. Pet. i. 20; Rev. xiii. 8.

132

REDEMPTION PREORDAINED

to His own purpose and grace,

which was given

us in CHRIST JESUS before the world began."1 "He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." In another place he speaks of the "mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in GOD, who created all things in JESUS CHRIST. . . . according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in CHRIST JESUS Our LORD."2 I will only quote one more passage, and that shall be the concluding words of S. Paul's Epistle to the Romans: "Now unto Him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of JESUS CHRIST, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest."3

These passages open to us a very wonderful train of thought. It appears that the great sacrifice of the SON of GOD for the sins of man, is not only the most remarkable event of these latter days of the world. That we may well admit. Nor is it only, as sometimes we are wont to say, that God took pity on fallen man, and seeing the misery and corruption which sin had brought upon the human family, did, in consequence of his fall, devise a remedy, and promise that in some future period, "the seed of the woman

1 2 Tim. i. 9.

3 Rom. xvi. 24.

2

2 Eph. iii. 8—11.