impression may be at first entertained, that there is a class of spiritual phenomena which lie in a more elevated region and over which nature has no control, yet it is found impossible to discover precisely at what point the spiritual are separated from the natural, and as it is impossible to find the limit of nature's power, the mind soon takes up the idea that it is better and more rational to give her universal power and to refer all phenomena whether spiritual or natural to the operation of her laws.
I have referred to this false theory that by contrast I might be enabled to place in a bolder and more distinct view that doctrine, which shows that Jehovah our God, from the infinite resources of his own divine nature, every moment supplies that power which moves the mighty machinery of the universe. There is a system of philosophy within our reach, a philosophy fair and beautiful in all its features and clear as the light of the rising sun,—a philosophy which wrests from nature every atom of her pretended power and gives it back to God. In this system it is demonstrated that nature has no power either original or inherited to produce even the slightest movement, or to create the simplest form; that all her laws and operations are nothing more than the effects of causes existing in the spiritual world; and that within these causes Jehovah himself resides, a Divine Man, in his manifested form the Lord Jesus Christ. In this system it is fully shown that all natural things have not only originated from the divine love and wisdom, but that their continued existence is at every moment the effect of the same divine and ever present cause; that their preservation from one moment to another is, in fact, equivalent to a perpetual creation; that the mind ought not therefore to look downwards towards nature, but upwards towards the Lord, who is goodness and truth and the source of all power. The reader undoubtedly knows where this system of philosophy may be found; and if he truly loves and worships the Lord Jesus Christ as Jehovah his God, he cannot
