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of human industry in connexion with the works of God, to which, under his divine blessing, they are all subordinate, and upon whom they are entirely and wholly depend

ent.

Let us therefore begin with the providence and works of God, and seek, and extol, in the first place, his kingdom, which ruleth over all.

PART I.

THE WORKS OF GOD IN CONNEXION WITH HIS DIVINE WORKMANSHIP, MAN.

ACCORDING to chronological computation, five thousand eight hundred and fifty five years have elapsed since the first grand epoch of our world. In the beginning when God created it, and the heavens, ere the divine sentence had been pronounced, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," there were not wanting those who gave glory to God, as it is beautifully expressed in sacred writ, "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."*

What a surpassingly illuminated exhibi

*Job xxxviii. 7.

tion of creative wisdom, power, and goodness was here called into visible existence, out of chaotic darkness! When God said, Let there be light, and in a moment there was light; all in an instant burst upon their view, and the sons of God shouted for joy.

And why should not the sons and daughters of Adam, high and low, rich and poor, one with another, out of every nation under heaven, the living of the present day and in future, whose progenitor was about to be created and richly endowed, rejoice before Him, with them after whose image and likeness they were made; whose peculiar province, privilege, and blessing, it was designed to be, to perform this sacred duty and service, above all other creatures in the world? for whose use the earth was previously designed, and prepared, and provided with all manner of store, and gloriously illuminated.

Thenceforward for a time to come, according to the divine will, this glorious light of the sun to rule the day was continually to shine, no other darkness remaining, except

shadows of opaque bodies in general, and the shadow of the earth in particular, which is a mere shadow of what the former darkness was, which rested upon the entire face of the deep, before the Spirit of God moved upon it, and God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

The portion of infinite space occupied by our solar system, now brilliantly lighted up, arranged, and systematically organized, was previously in chaotic darkness. And since suns are adapted to afford sufficient light and heat, but to their own several planetary systems, of which they are the centres. There exists without doubt, upon the authoritative assertion of the Son of God, who when on earth frequently reiterated the expression, εἰς τὸ σκότος το εξώτερον a place of outer darkness, Tepov, outer, external, or outwardly beyond a glorious place called heaven, where there is no darkness at all, not even the shadow of it, where all is translucent, and spiritual, where there is no need of the sun, where there is no night, "For the glory of God is the light thereof." Or this

place of outer darkness may exist somewhere in the still infinite portion of infinite space, outer, or beyond, or even within the space. already spangled with myriads of suns, and planetary systems. What mortal man can possibly tell, what there is, or what there is not, beyond the present scene of things, in the infinite unknown, interminable universe around? If there were no place of outer darkness, in the infinite unknown, the same Almighty, who said, Let there be light, could soon cause darkness to reign in any part of it; and in our own system again, as prophesied, as quickly as we could put an extinguisher over a light, and cause darkness in our dwelling.

We are, moreover, informed in scripture, that a day is coming upon us unawares like a thief in the night, when the disorganization of our world, and solar system, shall in the end take place. When the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the terrible day of the Lord come. In which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall

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