purest beneficence and love? What Wisdom, too, in carrying out the grand design—and what plenitude of power! Thus, then, it is, especially, in the contemplation of the joys and glories of the spiritual state of existence and the life eternal, that the goodness, wisdom, and power of the Divine Creator are seen to be the most clearly and abundantly manifested.
One point more remains to be touched upon. The question might be asked,—how is it to be shown that all these things are the work of a single Being, and not of two or more?—thus satisfying the terms of the proposition, that "there is a Being All-powerful, Wise, and Good, by whom everything exists." The answer is, that the perfect unity and harmony pervading all parts of the creation, are sure proof that it is the work of a single Mind. It is one system of laws, that pervades the universe, and not several systems, and hence the order and symmetry everywhere visible. The planets, in their swift and graceful revolutions about the sun, have no interference with each other, but move round ceaselessly in their respective courses, in perfect concord, and "in solemn silence all," uttering no sound unless it be the unheard "music of the spheres." Occasionally, indeed, eclipses occur; the bright orbs, in passing, throw sometimes their shadows on each other. But what harm is that? It is rather a beauty and a benefit. The occasional variation both directs attention, and bears testimony, to the order from which it is a momentary departure—as the exceptions prove the rule. The value too of the blessings we are continually enjoying, is more justly appreciated, by a temporary withdrawal of them. The gloom which an
