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THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
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But still further:—as the view of our solar system was but a beginning, so this is but a second step into the immensity of space. We have spoken only of the nearest of the stars. Beyond this universe of glittering orbs that appear to our eyes, there is another,—to the naked eye quite invisible; and beyond that another, and yet another, seemingly without end. Herschel, with his great telescope, sounded the depths of the heavens; and, after careful observations and calculations, came to the conclusion, that in some parts of the Milky Way, there were not less than five hundred stars in a right line, one beyond another, and as far distant from each other. as the nearest star is from the earth; so that light, in (grossing this vast interval, would occupy not less than five thousand years. But as the power of the telescope was increased, more and more distant stars and clusters of stars came into view; so that in all probability there are some whose light would not reach our earth in less than hundreds of thousands or even millions of years; and there may be some whose light has not yet reached us, whose first created ray has not yet entered our sphere,—not yet arrived to shed its little evening light upon this earth. "When I consider," says the Psalmist, "thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?" Truly, our finite minds are lost, in the effort to comprehend the vastness and the grandeur of the Creator's works. We can only exclaim—wonderful! sublime! Divine!

And is it possible, that in the face of all these grand facts and truths, there can be found a mind so dull, so dark, so insane, as to cry out, "No God! there is no