render it wholly unnecessary for him ever to go beyond their precincts; and thus his person might be unknown even to the millions of his own people. A mere visitor would soon perceive, that a personal acquaintance with such a potentate was unattainable ; and that any knowledge of him which he might gain, must be through some medium, or by inferences drawn from some visible facts. Thus, for instance, he might perceive, on every side, immense works in progress; like the pyramids in Egypt under the Pharoahs, or Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar; and he would naturally say, “ Though this great king is to me invisible: though I never saw his form, or am likely to see it, still, I am sure that there is such a monarch ; and that his power is immense, and his designs and purposes magnificent.”.

Again,-he might, if placed in favourable circumstances, often hear of, or witness, the coming forth, from the “Celestial Palace," of many splendid gifts, the tokens of his favour and good-will. And as poor men, or poor sovereigns, do not give multitudes of rich gifts, he might fairly argue, from the resplendent character of his liberality, that the giver of these things was one whose treasury was abundantly filled, and whose-store-rooms overflowed with gems of great price.

Once more,-a master is often estimated by the number and quality of his servants. A potentate who can say, “Are not my princes altogether kings ?” must be himself a sovereign of no ordinary majesty

Now, taking these three guiding features of the case, may we not, with the word of God in our hands, learn something, and arrive at some safe conclusions, concerning the enquiry with which we just now started ?

“ All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (John i. 3.) “ By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were created by Him, and for Him : and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.” (Col. i. 16.)

“All things." What a far-reaching comprehension! Let us fill up a few lineaments in this extensive outline. Christ himself, speaking, says, “I was set up from everlasting : from the beginning ; before ever the earth was : When he prepared the heavens, I was there." (Prov. viii.) And Job says, “He commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars. He commandeth Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.” (Job ix.) And the Psalmist says, “He telleth the number of the stars ; he calleth them all by their names.” (Ps. cxlvii.)

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Now, to be " the Creator of the ends of the earth,” would be no small thing. To have “ formed the earth and the world," -to be able to “shake the earth out of her place, so that the pillars thereof tremble,”-all this would present to the mind a Being of wonderful power and majesty ; and one claiming the highest adoration. But the words we have just cited go far,

- very far, beyond this : for the telescope has told us, “ that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people and its countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of immensity."

This earth which we inhabit, with its two hundred and sixtymillions of cubical miles of solid matter, and with all its mighty oceans and wide-spread continents, may well seem to us a noble and a mighty object. But how is it dwarfed into comparative insignificance, when we compare it even with its neighbours of the same solar system ; with our Jupiter, of thirteen hundred times the bulk; our Saturn, outweighing it a thousand times; or our Neptune, whose revolution round the sun requires 164 of our years. But what are these compared with what we call “the fixed stars," one of which, Cygni, is distant from us sixty billions four hundred millions of miles; or with the milky way, computed to contain twenty millions of stars ; or with the nebulæ, many of which present in a small space clusters of five thousand stars! And when our minds fail in the attempt to grasp these wonders, the voice is heard,—“Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things; that bringeth out their host by number : he calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power: not one faileth.” (Isa. xl. 26.)

Taking, then, even that poor, inadequate, and wretchedly imperfect view which a human mind is able to take, of the wondrous works of Creation, what shall we think of One who could say, “I am the Lord, who maketh all things, who stretcheth forth the heavens alone; who spreadeth abroad the earth by myself”? Estimated by this first test, of the immensity of His works and of His power, how far beyond all human thought or conception stretches that height from which Immanuel stooped, when he resolved to take upon Him a human form, and in that form to suffer and to die!

A second criterion, or help, by which we might form some idea of this “brightness,' —this “glory," was that of the richness of the gifts which came from His hand. If princes give princely gifts, and are often measured and estimated by the munificence which their hands dispense, so may we reasonably try to form some conception of the wealth and magnificence of this great Prince, by examining, closely, the benefits and the bounties which we perceive to flow from him.

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He resolved, about six thousand years ago, to new-create this globe, then “the wreck and ruin of a former world,” and to make it a delightful habitation for man. In six days he accomplished the work, and himself pronounced it to be “very good.” This word includes the ideas of pleasantness, usefulness, and great beauty. And, assuredly, no one can study what we call “Nature," without being often forced to exclaim, "O Lord, how great are Thy works, and Thy thoughts are very deep !” “How manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all. The earth is full of Thy riches !”

Take a single point of the case. In every quarter of the globe, amidst great varieties of scene,-mountains and plains, valleys, moors, and prairies,—there are always to be found some landscapes of great beauty. So remarkable and so well-appreciated are these, that in all civilized countries men take long journeys merely to behold these scenes. Painters and travel. lers, scholars and men of taste, all recognize these prospects as places of great enjoyment. Nor are they few,—the well-known and highly-valued landscapes of the world are reckoned by thousands. This is one of the features of that “riches of God's goodness" which we ought to recognize, when we read His own words, “Behold, it was very good.”

But this is but the first and most obvious and external view. The more we examine and study the details of creation, the more shall we be compelled to cry out with the Psalmist, “The earth is full of Thy riches !”

Think of the marvellous provision, of infinite Variety. Had a human being-probably had an angelic being had the ordering of the world, he would have tried to provide much variety, - many models or outlines of animate and inanimate things. But the Creator was not a being of limited powers; and therefore he commanded and ordained infinite variety; a “riches of goodness” which it is probable no man or angel could have com passed. We walk about a vast metropolis for a year together, and we never meet with the same face on two different pairs of shoulders. Among three millions of people, the same features do not occur twice at any time. Nay, in a flock of 10,000 sheep there are not two alike,-in a forest of 100,000 trees there are not two which are identically the same. This is a wonderful and a most gracious provision; it is part of the “riches of His goodness.”

But how large is the theme, how countless the evidences of power and goodness, which creation offers to our view. Think of the marvellous arrangement of the atmosphere, the firmament, with its showers, its dews, its storms, its trade-winds. Read that magnificent 38th chapter of Job, where Christ him. self speaks, and demands,

“Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it ? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened ? or who laid the corner-stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ? Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb ? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it, and brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed ? Hast thon commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the day-spring to know his place; that it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it? .... Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea ? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth ? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thon seen the doors of the shadow of death ? Hast thon perceived the breadth of the earth ? declare if thou knowest it all. Where is the way where light dwelleth ? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, that thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof? Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great ? Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow ? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war? By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth? Who hath divided a water-course for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder; to cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man; to satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth ? Hath the rain a father ? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice ? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen. Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons ? Knowest thon the ordinances of heaven ? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Čanst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are ?”.

But let us pass on to the sixth day's work; that one marvellous four-and-twenty hours, wherein Behemoth and Leviathan, the noble courser, the soaring eagle, all came forth. The Creator asks, “Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks ?”-and the mind naturally turns to that wondrous wealth of invention and of power,—the four hundred and thirty distinct species of humming birds, all wonderfully beautiful, many of them resplendent both for colour and for form. What “riches" do we see here, both in purpose and in might. Or turn to the shores

and bed of the mighty ocean. A few shells, some of them of pleasing form, strike the eye of the casual observer. But let him pursue the search, and again the "riches” of the Creator will amaze him. More than nineteen thousand different kinds of shells are already known to students of conchology, and multitudes of these are of such surprising beauty, that the enquirer is reminded, continually, of the exclamation of Sir David Brewster, “Great God! how wonderful are Thy works !” “Some of the most beautiful forms in Nature are the shells of the marine Mollusca, and many of them are the richest also in surface ornament.” “The shells and corals of the old Silurian sea were as elaborate and as richly carved as those which we now admire; and the noble Ammonites of the secondary age must have been glorious things indeed."*

But we are not writing a book on Natural Theology; and we must not extend our view much further. Our desire has been, merely to enlarge and improve our view of that height of glory and majesty which Christ occupied " before ever the earth was.” (Prov. viii. 23.) It is plainly revealed to us, that “by Him, God made the worlds." (Heb. i. 2.) And when, therefore, we look abroad into the starry heavens, and behold thousands of shining worlds, and remember that “He made the stars also,” (Gen. i. 16,) we gain some kind of idea of His wondrous power. When we cast our eyes around, and consider the wondrous contrivances of the laws of attraction and gravity, the law of radiation, the law of expansion, the law of evaporation, the laws of electricity, the laws of sound, and the nature of light, we gaze with amazement at the proofs of infinite wisdom which surround us on every side. And then, when in ten thousand minute details we trace the proofs of thoughtful kindness, the evidences of goodness and benevolence, we fill up, together, an outline of a Being who may justly claim that ceaseless adoration which in the Apocalypse is seen to be paid to Him, by those heavenly beings who have escaped from the clouds and fogs of earth and flesh, and who see things as they are in the light of eternal truth.

One other way remains,—the third of which we have spoken, -by which we may gain some notion of that “Brightness," that “Glory which Christ had with the Father before the world was." (John xvii. 5.) Princes are often, and reasonably, estimated by their servants. He whose captains are mighty, and who can send the great ones of the earth on his errands, is naturally taken to be himself a great king. Now, some glimpses of this sort are given us in the Bible. The attendants, the messengers, of Christ, are repeatedly described