overthrown by its successor. It is folly to refute them; they themselves are sufficient to overcome each other. For those who ignored God could not conceive that a sentient cause was behind the origin of the universe; and this fundamental blindness naturally resulted in unfortunate consequences. Some had recourse to material hypotheses, ascribing the origin of the universe to the elements of the world; others imagined that atoms, molecules, and indivisible bodies constitute the nature of visible things; that these atoms, by reuniting and separating, produce births and deaths, and that the hardest bodies owe their consistency merely to the strength of adhesion among their atoms. Those who write such things have woven a veritable spider's web in ascribing to heaven and earth and sea such weak and fragile origins. For they did not know how to say, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Wherefore, because of the ignorance of the Divine inherent in themselves, they fell into this error, of believing that the universe was without a governor and director, but subject merely to the whims of chance. To keep us from this mistake, the writer on the creation, in the very first words, illumines our minds with the name of God: "In the beginning God created." What a beautiful collocation of words! First he asserts a beginning of things, so that none may think that

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the world had no beginning. Then he adds created," to show that what was created was only the least part of the power of the Creator. Like as the potter who has fashioned with the same skill numberless vessels has lessened neither his skill nor his power, so the Author of the universe possesses power not circumscribed by one world, but infinite in its range, which needed merely the impulse of His will to call into being the immensities of the universe. Hence, if the world had a beginning, and has been made, inquire who it is that gave it its beginning and is its Creator. Or rather, for fear that human inquiries might lead one far away from the truth, Moses has anticipåted inquiry by this document, and has engraved on our hearts, as a seal and an amulet, the awful name of God: "In the beginning God created." It is He, beneficent Nature, unbounded Goodness, most rational Object of Love, Beauty most to be desired, Source of all that exists, Fountain of Life, Light of the soul, inscrutable Wisdom-He it is who "in the beginning created heaven and earth."

Imagine not then, O man, that the visible world is without a beginning; and because the celestial bodies circle about, and it is not possible for our finite minds to determine the point where the circle begins, do not therefore fancy that bodies moving in a circular orbit are, from their nature, without a beginning. Doubtless the circle— I

mean the plane figure bounded by a single line is beyond our comprehension, and we cannot tell where it began and where it ends. Yet we should not conclude that it is continuous and had no beginning; for, though the fact escape us, it really begins at the point where the draughtsman began to draw it with a determined radius from the centre. Thus, seeing that figures which move in a circle return whence they started, without for a moment breaking the regularity of their course, do not falsely conclude that the world is without beginning or end. "For the fashion of this world passeth away"; and "heaven and earth shall pass away." The announcement of the doctrine of the end of the world, and of the new heaven and the new earth, are here briefly stated, in the beginning of this inspired account: "In the beginning God created."

That which had a beginning in time must have an end in time. If then the world has had a beginning, do not doubt of the end. Geometry, mathematics, the study of solids, famous astronomy, most laborious vanity-to what end do they lead, if those who pursue these studies conclude that this visible world is coeternal with God, the Creator of the universe; if they attribute to this finite world, with its material body, the same glory as to the incomprehensible and invisible nature ; if they cannot even comprehend that a whole,

the parts of which are subject to corruption and change, must necessarily be finally subject to the same fate as the parts themselves? But they "became vain in their imaginings, and their foolish heart was darkened." Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools: to such an extent, indeed, that some have asserted that heaven coexists with God from all eternity; others assert that it is God Himself, without beginning or end, and is the source of the law of the universe regulating each particular thing.

Doubtless one day the superabundance of this worldly wisdom will bring the heavier condemnation upon them, since, discerning so clearly the vanity of human knowledge, they have wilfully blinded their eyes to the knowledge of the truth. Those men who determine the distance of the stars, and describe them, both those of the northern hemisphere, ever shining in our view, and those about the southern pole, visible to the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere but unseen by us; who divide the northern zone, and the circle of the zodiac, into innumerable parts; who accurately observe the orbits of the stars, their fixed points and their declensions, and the course of their revolutions, and in what time each completes the period of its movement: one art alone these men have not discovered-to know God, the Creator of the universe and the just Judge, who rewards

according to their merits all the deeds of life. They have not been able to grasp the thought of the consummation of all things,-the corollary to the doctrine of judgment, — and to see that the world must of necessity change if the soul changes to another form of life. For just as the present life shows an affinity to the nature of this world, so also will the future life of the soul conform to its new environment. But they are so far from recognizing these truths that they deride us when we speak to them about the end of this world and the regeneration of the age. Since the beginning naturally comes before those things which proceed from it, the writer, in telling of those things which have their existence in time, puts at the commencement of his story these words: "In the beginning God created."

Even before this world, it seems probable that there existed something, which we can conceive of, but cannot express in words, because the theme is beyond the grasp of those who are beginners and babes in understanding. Before the birth of the world, there was a more ancient order of things, adapted to celestial powers, transcending all time, eternal, infinite. In that order the Creator and Architect of the universe perfected His works—a spiritual light to contribute to the happiness of all who love the Lord, rational but invisible natures, indeed all that system of pure intelligences who