Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 131.djvu/211

Rh  not to work directly on the course of development of the universe, and that, as the authors say, creation belongs to eternity, development to time. From this we derive an impression of vastness, of serene and strong repose, of an unapproachable majesty, of a being dwelling in the light that no man can approach unto; which also we learn from the New Testament writings and the sayings of Christ, and which the Jews felt with their name for God never to be spoken. Beyond this we can gather nothing more from physical arguments, nor is there anything in it opposed to what we learn from revelation; nay, the above view even removes many difficulties, such as those clinging to the doctrines of the benevolence and infinite power of God, and the presence of evil in the world. On the whole we think it will tend to raise the general conception of the Almighty, and to clear away many of the extraordinary anthropomorphic ideas common to many good people.

But if it tend to raise the Father to a greater distance from human passion and modes of working into a higher atmosphere of awe and reverence, it also brings Christ into closer relations with the universe and humanity than has yet been believed. Connected on the one side with the unconditioned Father, and on the other connected with man by consenting to be conditioned in order to work out the will of the Father, and to declare him to his intelligent creatures, we see more clearly how he is the means of approaching the Father, and why there must be such a mediator between God and man. But above everything it will bring into prominence the intimate connection between all the works of God; that as everything flows from him nothing should be held common or unclean, and that religion belongs not alone to the feelings and spiritual part of man, but has the closest relations with the experiences and duties of daily life — "In everything give thanks;" "Whatsoever ye do, 'do all to the glory of God;" that politics, and merchant-shipping acts, arts and science, are no less active modes of religion, than worship, morality, and prayer are the springs of it. If this were realized, then, indeed, would the "knowledge of God cover the earth as the waters cover the seas," and "the earth be filled with the glory of God." The chief result, let us hope, will be the removal of that insensate suspicion with which religious and scientific professors regard each other. Religious people will believe (what at present they only say that they believe) that the whole universe is the work of God, and that therefore the pursuit of science never can be at variance with true religion. Men of science will see, as indeed the best of them already do see, that all their science points to God, and leads their souls with wonder and awe to that eternal intelligence which has created and which governs all things. Certainly the authors of "The Unseen Universe" speak nothing but the truth when they say: —


 * We are led to regard it as one of the great merits of the Christian system, that its doctrine is pre-eminently one of intellectual liberty, and that while the theologians on the one hand, and men of science on the other, have each erected their barriers to inquiry, the early Christian records acknowledge no such barriers, but, on the contrary, assert the most perfect freedom for all the powers of man.

 

   

Miss Horn left him — with a farewell kindlier than her greeting — rendered yet more restless by her talk, he went back to the stable, saddled Kelpie and took her out for an airing. As he passed the factor's house, Mrs. Crathie saw him from the window. Her color rose. She rose herself also, and looked after him from the door — a proud and peevish woman, jealous of her husband's dignity, still more jealous of her own. "The verra image o' the auld markis!" she said to herself, for in the recesses of her bosom she spoke the Scotch she scorned to utter aloud; "an' sits jist like himsel', wi' a wee stoop i' the saiddle an' ilka noo an' than a swing o' his haill boady back, as gien some thoucht had set him straucht. Gien the fractious brute wad but brak a bane or two o' him!" she went on in growing anger. "The impidence o' the fallow! He has his leave; what for disna he tak it an' gang? But oot o' this gang he sail. To ca' a man like mine a heepocreet 'cause he wadna' procleem till a haill market ilka secritfau't o' the horse he had to sell! Haith! he cam' upo' the wrang side o' the sheet to play the lord and maister here; an' that I can tell him."

The mare was fresh, and the roads 