that the Creator and Sustainer of the universe should occupy Himself with the little affairs of such an insignificant and worthless creature as man, is a doctrine, to say the least, by no means so congenial to the habits of thinking which astronomy induces.

It is not, however, only in the large and magnificent scale of operations, to which the view of the starry heavens introduces us, that the perfections of the Creator are visible. We have seen, that the hand of the Almighty may be equally perceived to be at work in little things as in great. "The cattle on a thousand hills are His."He not only created them, and endowed them with most wonderful instincts for self-preservation, and faculties for enjoyment; but adapts these instincts and faculties to the revolution of the seasons, and the revolution of the seasons to them. The deeper we examine this subject, the more powerfully are we struck with proofs of the minute and tender care of a Parent in making provision for the wants of His offspring. Descending from the larger to the smaller animals, we find no point in the scale where this parental character stops, or is even diminished. The same wise and most wonderful provision is made for the worm and the mite, as for the lion and the elephant,their bodies are equally formed with consummate art, and equally contrived with amazing care, for the circumstances in which they are placed, and the means of subsistence and happiness within their reach.

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Nor is this all Science applies its skill to aid nature in investigating the little as well as the great. If, by means of the telescope, the astronomer has been enabled to lay open a thousand wonders of the starry heavens, hid from our unaided sight, and taught us to believe, that, after all, we are only on the threshold of discovery in this department; that we still see, "as through a glass darkly;" and that it is but a faint and feeble glimpse of creation which our most approved instruments can exhibit the microscope has directed our attention to wonders no less worthy of admiration on our own earth, and

within our own limited locality, and has informed us that there is a species of infinitude in the minuteness of organized existences, as well as in the magnitude of those which are unorganized; that, in the former, as well as in the latter, in the myriads of inhabitants in a drop of water, or in the leaf of a plant, or in a grain of sand,— the perfections of the Creator are no less certainly to be seen, than in those mighty suns which, at his command, shed light, and life, and joy, over their attendant worlds, and fill boundless space with His glory.

It is here that the Christian finds an antidote against those doubts which a contemplation of infinite magnitude might otherwise excite in his mind. If it be natural for him to ask, with some feeling of unbelief, “Can the Creator of innumerable worlds look down with pity on the sinful race of Adam? can he be conceived to deal with this race in the way which Scripture unfolds? is it possible that He, the Eternal God, should, in very truth, send His only begotten Son to this little planet, to dwell with men,-taking upon himself their nature; subjecting Himself to their infirmities; nay, for their sakes, suffering sorrow, torture, and death?”—If, I say, it be natural for the mind, expanded by the philosophy of the heavens, to put these sceptical questions, it can scarcely fail to be brought back to a sounder state, when it takes in a more comprehensive view of the Divine character, and humbly contemplates the very same. Hand which moves the universe, preserving the existence, and presiding over the enjoyment, of the microscopic world.

This view is most beautifully and convincingly unfolded by Dr Chalmers, in what have been called his "Astronomical Sermons." By a comparison, in his own characteristic manner, of the discoveries of the microscope with those of the telescope, he shows that we have as much reason, from the works of creation, to conceive of the Creator, as infinitely minute in His providential care, as we have to conceive of Him as infinitely great'

and powerful; and, having established this important truth, he leads us irresistibly to the conclusion, that the exhibition made of the Divine Being in His Revealed Word, is in perfect harmony with the character of Himself, which He has impressed on nature.

i *tf 9fi "They, therefore," says this admirable writer, "who think that God will not put forth such a power, and such a goodness, and such a condescension, in behalf of this world, as are ascribed to Him in the New Testament, because He has so many other worlds to attend to, think of Him as a man. They confine their view to the informations of the telescope, and forget altogether the infor mations of the other instrument. They only find room, in their minds, for His one attribute, of a large and general superintendence, and keep out of their remembrance the equally impressive proofs we have for His other at tribute, of a minute and multiplied attention to all the diversity of operations, where it is He that worketh all in all. And when I think, that, as one of the instru ments of philosophy has heightened our every impression of the first of these attributes, so another instrument has no less heightened our impression of the second of them,

then I can no longer resist the conclusion, that it would be a transgression of sound argument, as well as a daring impiety, to draw a limit around the doings of this un searchable God; and, should a professed revelation from Heaven, tell me of an act of condescension, in behalf of some separate world, so wonderful that angels desired look into it, and the Eternal Son had to move from his seat of glory to carry it into accomplishment, all I ask is the evidence of such a revelation; for, let it tell me as much as it may of God letting himself down for the benefit of one single province of his dominions, this is no more than I see lying scattered in numberless examples before me, and running through the whole line of + my recollections, and meeting me in every walk of observation to which I can betake myself; and, now that the microscope has unveiled the wonders of another region,

I see strewed around me, with a profusion which baffles my every attempt to comprehend it, the evidence that there is no one portion of the universe of God too minute for his notice, nor too humble for the visitation of his care."

It gives me pleasure to conclude this quotation with the following well-known and highly-impassioned passage"I do not enter at all into the positive evidence for the truth of the Christian Revelation, my single aim, at present, being to dispose of one of the objections which is conceived to stand in the way of it. Let me suppose, then, that this is done to the satisfaction of a philosophical inquirer; and that the evidence is sustained; and that the same mind that is familiarized to all the sublimities of natural science, and has been in the habit of contemplating God in association with all the magnificence which is around him, shall be brought to submit its thoughts to the captivity of the doctrine of Christ. Oh! with what veneration, and gratitude, and wonder, should we look on the descent of Him into this lower world, who made all things, and without whom was not any thing made that was made. What a grandeur does it throw over every step, in the redemption of a fallen world, to think of its being done by Him who unrobed Himself of the glories of so wide a monarchy; and came to this humblest of its provinces, in the disguise of a servant; and took upon Him the form of our degraded species; and let Himself down to sorrows, and to sufferings, and to death, for us. In this love of a dying Saviour to those for whom in agony he poured out his soul, there is a height, and a depth, and a length, and a breadth, more than I can comprehend ; and let me never, never, from this moment, neglect so great a salvation, or lose my hold of an atonement made sure by Him who cried, that it was finished, and brought in an everlasting righteousness."*

* Chalmers' Astronomical Sermons, pp. 115-120.

SIXTH WEEK-MONDAY.

WONDERS OF THE MICROSCOPE.-INFUSORY ANIMALCULES.

HAVING Spoken of the wonders of the microscopic world, as a proof that there is nothing too little to be beneath the care of the universal Father, it seems desirable to follow out this statement by an induction of particulars; and I shall devote this paper to that department of animated nature which, on account of its extreme minuteness, escapes the human vision, unless assisted by the resources of art.

The microscope has revealed to human observation new races, and indeed new systems, of organized and living beings, whose existence, had it not been for the invention of that instrument, could have scarcely been suspected, and whose functions must have been entirely unknown. These are the most numerous of all terrestrial creatures, and exhibit properties which fill the mind with a kind of wonder, different from, but scarcely inferior to, that which is excited by the view of nature on the largest scale. Although they are so extremely minute, that a single drop of water may contain hundreds of them, and yet appear to the naked eye as pellucid as if it were a pure and simple globule of newly distilled dew, they are discovered, by the magnifying power of the solar microscope, not only to be animated beings, but to possess members, some of them formed in the most delicate symmetry, and all of them framed with consummate art. Their species are incalculably numerous, each adapted to the element which it occupies, and the peculiar sphere in which it is destined to move. They have obviously volitions, feelings, and preferences, like the superior animals; and, like them, they display symptoms of hatred and affection, of rapacity and contentment, of enjoyment and suffering. Here, then, is a new world of living beings, sufficiently resembling that in which we are ourselves destined to exist, to prove that