Page:Gods Glory in the Heavens.djvu/237

Rh through all. The conception of the universe as a ceaseless flow, a grand rhythmical evolution, in like manner tends to produce a livelier and more direct recognition of Him who is ever moving around us, and whose uttered thoughts are the successive steps of this evolution. Theology has confined itself too much to the wisdom displayed in the adjustment and proportions of an unalterable fabric; but a still higher wisdom is displayed in the divine melody of the grand cycles of change. The music, even more than the architecture of the heavens, declares the glory of God.

The system of Saturn's rings is transitory; but why should this prevent us from recognising their beauty and symmetry, as well as the skill with which they are poised in space? We do not refuse to recognise the beauty and skill of a dissolving view, though it gradually fades away upon the screen, and merges into another. We do not fail to acknowledge the beauty and symmetry of the crystals of ice and arborescent patterns on the pane of glass, though they vanish at the first touch of the sunbeam, to give place to other forms of beauty. The mere transition does not at all affect the beauty, symmetry, and skill of the fleeting forms that arrest our notice.

The transition of the rings of Saturn may only be a step to the accomplishment of some higher form of stability. The individual cell in the living organism dissolves, but only that the structure, of which it is an element, may be strengthened and developed.