Page:God Manifest.djvu/210

200 are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?' And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, 'What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?'"

How simply and sublimely is this told! How sublime, how Divine, is the fact itself! Who but God can thus command, and be thus obeyed?—and what an idea does it give us of the Divine power! And yet, if we reflect, we must perceive that it cannot be otherwise. He who creates, governs that which He created. His connection with it does not cease with the act of creation: it then only begins. The Creator must continue in connection with that universe which He has created, in order to sustain it. To sustain, in fact, truly and philosophically speaking, is continually to recreate; nothing is originally self-existent, nor, consequently, remains self-existent, but God. He is the only independent existence. Consequently, in order to restrain, God has simply to withhoId: He has but to check the fountain, and the power of the stream diminishes:—He has but to stop the fountain, and the stream perishes. The winds and the waves are moved by powers of some sort: all powers, whether spiritual or material, come originally, and are derived perpetually, from God the only Fountain of all things. He has, therefore, only to restrain or modify the efflux from Himself, and motion declines: He has but to withhold it, and motion ceases. The Lord's merely speaking the words, "Peace, be still!" could have no effect on inanimate things: they were for the comfort and the instruction of the listening disciples. But with the word, there was an unseen deed: putting forth Divine power from Himself, He laid His hand on