Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/258

Rh (Job xxxviii, xxxix.) These are queries calculated to abase and humble proud man. There are thousands of effects which we perceive, but of which all our philosophy fails to discover the cause; so that we must continually say with Agur, "There be three things which are too wonderful for me; yea, four, which I know not" (Prov. xxx. 18) "As thou knowest not the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all." (Eccl. xi. 5.) Here then at the outset our much ignorance ought to humble that pride and self-sufficiency which is too apt to be the accompaniment of a little acquaintance with natural science. While the contemplation of the perfection with which everything is ordained and governed, ought to make us satisfied with the Divine Wisdom, and to check our repinings when its ordinances do not agree with our inclinations. An humble, teachable, child-like spirit, ready to receive every revelation of God, becomes one who looks on the Divine handiwork.

Still we can trace much in the created world, which we are able to understand, much of which we can perceive the reasons, and discern the fitness. And several of the perfections of God may clearly be inferred from these, being reflected by his works as by a mirror. These his perfections, "his eternal power and Godhead," have been manifested in the things that are made, as He himself informs us; for "He hath shewed them unto us," (Rom. i. 19, 20). So that we are without excuse, if we see Him not in them. Thus, the greatness and power of God are insisted on in the passage already alluded to (Job