Page:Gods Glory in the Heavens.djvu/53

Rh detect a sameness of purpose, in order to recognise the hand of the one great Architect. We do not require to prove that the moon is inhabited, in order to shew that it was formed by the same hand that constructed our world, teeming with living beings. Standing on the summit of a lunar mountain, and surveying the lifeless waste around, we can have no difficulty in tracing the same Divine wisdom that so marvellously moulded this world of ours, as a fit abode for all the activities of life. We find the same great laws that have sway upon our globe. Gravitation reigns there, as well as here. The forces that upheaved the crust of the moon, and moulded it into such strange forms, obeyed similar laws.

The configuration of the lunar surface bears a striking resemblance to the diversities on that of the earth. There are differences, but differences that consist with the same type. The solitary peaks, the mountain ranges, the circular craters have their own distinctive characters,—just as the scenery of one part of the earth's surface differs from that of another; still, there is one general plan assimilating them to the analogous terrestrial forms. It is this that gives so great a charm to the contemplation of the lunar surface. The pleasure of travel in foreign countries consists, very much, in the discovery of likeness to our manners and customs, arts and institutions, underlying much apparent and often startling dissimilarity; and when we travel beyond the limits of our own orb, and alight upon