earth, appear to have densely solid bodies and vapoury atmospheric coverings. These are wonderful unities; and, either when viewed by themselves, or especially when viewed in connection with the one force of gravitation and motion which maintains all the orbs in their respective spheres, they distinctly indicate the will and working of the one infinite, almighty Mind, not alone in the origination of the orbs, but throughout all the periods and incidents of their existence.

But the varieties among the worlds are quite as striking as the unities, and constitute, though in another way, quite as impressive indications of the allpervading divine agency. The magnitudes and distances of the planets are wonderfully diverse. Their densities, too, are so different, that some, in comparison to others, are almost as cork compared to clay. Their atmospheres, also, have very different depths and very different properties, and, possibly, still more different constitutions. The group of small planets-or asteroids, as they are often called-travel considerably above and below the average plane of the rest of the system. The moons of Uranus move almost transversely to that plane, and, at the same time, in a direction from west to east. The comets move in all directions, and appear all to consist of attenuated, vapoury, luminous matter. Some bodies within the planetary system, though we know not which or what, have sent to the earth starstones and other meteors of a composition widely different from anything in our soils or rocks.

And the two worlds with which we are best acquainted-the only two, indeed, which human observers can closely compare the earth itself and its moon-have constitutions not only different, but almost contrary.

May we not, then, presume that the Most High gave to all the worlds, as he afterwards gave to the seeds of plants on earth, "bodies as it pleased him, and to every world its own body?" They have a common character in form, and may not impossibly have a general character in ultimate elements, but they seem nevertheless to have distinct, separate, individual characters in the proportions, arrangements, and adaptations of their ingredients. They no more grew erratively out of one slowly consolidating "fire-mist," than all kinds of seeds, or any kinds, grew accidentally out of one slowly evaporating mud-hole. All sprang direct from the divine command, or were moulded direct by the divine will, in perfect fitness for their several destinations; and all might be expected, even though positive evidence on the subject were awanting, to exhibit the "diversity in unity" which more or less characterises all the known subordinate departments of the divine works. The earth, too, has a most intricate adjustment of all its ingredients and specially of what are presumed to be its veculiar ingredients-on the one side, to the action upon them of things and influences from the worlds without, and, on the other side, to the wants and reactions of the million kinds of beings on its own surface. And so, no doubt, has every other world; so that each in its own way-each, perhaps, in millions of diversities from the rest-each to an amount which a Newton might require ages to study-is a museum of wonders, a platform of "the manifold wisdom of God."

Yet our sun and all its worlds constitute only a single star system. Analogies and facts, which he

cannot take time to state, make it highly probable that all the fixed stars are suns; that each, like our own sun, is attended by a retinue of planetary orbs; that many, or perhaps all, as suns and as centres of systems, possess both most glorious unities and most wondrous diversities; and that myriads, inclusive of our sun, are arranged in stupendous compound relations, with revolutions of inconceivable magnitude around common centres.

But the numbers, and distances, and immensities of these systems of stars prodigiously exceed all mortal man's possible powers of comprehension. To say that many millions of fixed stars are perceptible through the largest telescopes-that stupendous groups exist at such distances as to seem through these telescopes only little clouds of luminous dust-and that the light from many, though travelling at the rate of two hundred thousand miles per second, takes thousands of years to arrive at the earth-to say these things, and such as these, conveys no positive idea to the mind, but only bewilders or confounds it. Any attempt to express, in a sentence or two, a notion of the universe, would be quite as vain as an attempt to express the notion of immensity or of infinitude. We can do no more than glance at some salient points of the idea, and at the mighty lessons which they suggest; and this we cannot do better than in the brilliant words of Professor Mitchell:

"If there be anything which can lead the mind upward to the Omnipotent Ruler of the universe, and give to it an approximate knowledge of his incomprehensible attributes, it is to be found in the grandeur and beauty of his works. If you would know his glory,

examine the interminable range of suns and systems which crowd the Milky-way. Multiply the hundred millions of stars which belong to our own 'island universe,' by the thousands of those astral systems that exist in space within the range of human vision, and then you may form some idea of the infinitude of his kingdom; for, lo! these are but a part of his ways. Examine the scale on which the universe is built. Comprehend, if you can, the vast dimensions of our sun. Stretch outward through his system, from planet to planet, and circumscribe the whole within the immense circumference of Neptune's orbit. This is but a single unit out of the myriads of similar systems. Take the wings of light, and flash with impetuous speed, day and night, and month and year, till youth shall wear away, and middle age is gone, and the ex

tremest limit of human life has been attained-count every pulse, and at each speed on your way a hundred thousand miles, and, when a hundred years have rolled by, look out, and, behold! the thronging millions of blazing suns are still around you, each separated from the other by such a distance that, in this journey of a century, you have only left half a score behind you.

"Would you gather some idea of the eternity past of God's existence, go to the astronomer, and bid him lead you with him in one of his walks through space; and, as he sweeps outward from object to object, from universe to universe, remember that the light from those filmy stains on the deep pure blue of heaven, now falling on your eye, has been travelling space for a million of years.

"Would you gather some knowledge of the omnipotence of God, weigh the earth on which we dwell, then

count the millions of its inhabitants that have come and gone for the last six thousand years. Unite their strength into one arm, and test its power to move this earth. It could not stir it a single foot in a thousand years; and yet, under the omnipotent hand of God, not a minute passes that it does not fly far more than a thousand miles. But this is a mere atom-the most insignificant point among his innumerable worlds. At his bidding, every planet, and satellite, and comet, and the sun himself, fly onward in their appointed courses. His single arm guides the millions of sweeping suns; and around his throne circles the great constellation of unnumbered universes.

"Would you comprehend the idea of the omniscience of God, remember that the highest pinnacle of knowledge reached by the whole human race, by the combined efforts of its brightest intellects, has enabled the astronomer to compute approximately the perturbations of the planetary worlds. He has predicted, roughly, the return of half a score of comets. But God has computed the mutual perturbations of millions of suns, and planets, and comets, and worlds - without number, through the ages that are passed, and throughout the ages which are yet to come, not approximately, but with perfect and absolute precision. The universe is in motion-system rising above system, cluster above cluster, nebula above nebula-all majestically sweeping around under the providence of God, who alone knows the end from the beginning, and before whose glory and power all intelligent beings, whether in heaven or on earth, should bow with humility and awe.

“Would you gain some idea of the wisdom of God,