ITS IMPLICATIONS. ITS QUALITIES—UNITY, IMMENSITY, BEAUTY, SUBLIMITY, ORDER, WONDROUSNESS, COMPLEXITY.

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So far, in discussing God's works of creation, we have, in addition to giving a general introduction to the subject, set forth our understanding of the spirit world as one of the objects of God's creative acts. Next in order for our study come God's works of creation as to the world of matter, which is treated briefly in Gen. 1. We purpose by the Lord's assistance to make a detailed study of God's creative works as they are set forth in Gen. 1, and as the pertinent matters are corroborated by assured scientific findings; and we are glad to be able to say that the record of creation as contained in Gen. 1 is by assured science, as distinct from speculative theories and guesses, thoroughly corroborated. By science we understand the knowledge of facts to be meant, and not speculative theories on the meaning of such facts. Only too often are such theories in the minds of some confounded with the knowledge of facts—real science. If the Bible record of creation is true as to matters of fact, as it must be true, if it is Divinely inspired, which we believe it is, all facts will be found to be in harmony therewith. It is only when people treat their speculative and guessaged theories of facts as science that a conflict between these and the Bible can occur, i.e., when such theories and guesses are untrue. Some of the ablest scientists that have ever lived assert the harmony of the Genesis account of creation with real science. This is as it should be; and the corroborations of the Genesis account by the assured findings of science are a sure evidence of its inspiration; for the

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things of which it treats were not witnessed by humans, and hence must have come to man by revelation.

It will be remembered that in discussing the Hebrew word bara, we pointed out that it means, not to make something out of nothing, but to make a new thing out of previously existing things. Hence, we drew the conclusion that the substances out of which the world of spirit and the world of matter were created existed before the act of creating the universe. For a number of reasons we stated that so far as the world of matter is concerned its materials were made out of gases. Thereupon we met the question as to whether original matter was originally created or whether it existed forever. We answered that question as follows: The Bible is silent on that question, and therefore we would do well to follow its example of neither affirming the eternity of matter nor affirming that matter was brought into existence from something else or from nothing. Some have not been so wise as to follow this course, asserting that matter always was and by its own laws and forces brought the universe into existence. Thus they think they can dispense with a Creator, and accordingly are atheists. To their position the answer is simple: The universe is replete with some of the highest expressions of intelligence and some of the highest expressions of purpose and therefore could not have come from unintelligent and unpurposeful forces and laws working in and on matter. Since there is intelligence and purpose expressed in the effect, the universe, there must be intelligence and purpose in its Creator, since what is expressed in an effect must exist in its cause. This leads us to remark that the laws and forces used in creation must have been manipulated by an intelligent and purposeful Being.

But we know that the same forces and laws that underlie the more than 92 substances of which the earth consists are not the same as those that govern the gases

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out of which they can be made nor the gases produced by reducing earth's elements to the gases they once were. Hence the forces and laws that were in the gases out of which the universe was made were different from those which control the present universe. This leads us to remark that if the original forms of matter, gases, were eternal, they must have been motionless from eternity until creative processes began to work on them, i.e., whatever forces and laws acted in and upon them must have put them into a condition of absolute equilibrium; for if manipulation of such forces and laws were not required to produce the universe, but merely that it was produced by their own automatic working, they would have produced it infinitely earlier than the universe began to exist, even according to the most unrestrained guesses of the most unbridled of speculative (alleged) scientists, made in their wildest imaginations. Therefore the theory of the eternity of matter implies that in its original forms its underlying forces and laws made it absolutely motionless. Hence it and they had to be worked upon from without by an intelligent and purposeful Agent, to produce the universe. And His working upon such matter and its forces and laws must have been in the comparatively recent millions of years. Hence the theory of the eternity of matter implies an intelligent and purposeful Creator. But we are by no means sure that matter is eternal. God may have created the original gases out of nothing, or out of other substances, for aught we know. We make the above remarks to show that the theory of the eternity of matter does not imply atheism, as some claim, but decidedly implies the existence of an intelligent, purposeful Creator. This being true, either theory (the eternity of matter or the making of matter out of nothing) implies the existence of the Supreme Being.

As we stated in Chapter 1, the word creation may mean

(1) the process by which the universe was

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brought into existence, and (2) the product of that process—the universe itself. In this chapter we are treating our subject from both standpoints, and for the sake of better results obtainable for clearness of understanding, we will first study the world of matter as a product of God's creative acts and afterward the process whereby He brought it into existence. It will be noticed that Gen. 1:1 states both of these things. By the word, "created," the process of creation so far as the world of matter is concerned, is meant, and by the words, "heavens" and "earth," the product of that process is meant. This is manifest from the literal translation of that verse: "In a beginning God created the heavens and the earth." As shown above, the word beginning (resheth in Hebrew and arche in Greek) does not mean eternity. Nor is the beginning here referred to the first beginning in God's creative operations; for there were at least two other prior beginnings in God's creative work. The first one of these was that in which the pre-human Word, who afterwards became human in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, was brought into existence as God's Firstborn. The second of these was that beginning in which the other spirits in the world of spirit were brought into existence. There being various beginnings in God's creative work, it is highly appropriate that the Hebrew of Gen. 1:1 should call the beginning to which it refers a beginning. This beginning was very probably millions of years ago and continued until the first creative day of Gen. 1:3-5, over 48,000 years ago, as we showed above.

By the heavens of this verse, not the sky, not the clouds and not the atmosphere are meant, but the solar systems, visible to us by eye or telescope or invisible to these, are meant. Apart from the planets of our solar system the stars that we see are other suns than ours, and each of these carries with it its own retinue of planets. Literally billions of such suns have been

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discovered and charted by astronomers. And if the number of planets and moons in our solar system averages the number of planets and moons in each of the other solar systems, there are literally many billions of planets and still more billions of moons in the solar systems so far discovered. And there are unnumbered others not yet brought to view by the greatest telescopes so far invented; for the universe is boundless in extent and therefore, as required by the laws of gravitation, there are still other worlds beyond those yet revealed by the most powerful telescopes. Astronomers have discovered thirteen Milky Ways in succession beyond the one we see without telescopes. It is this collection of suns, planets and moons, not to mention asteroids, comets, etc., that are meant by the expression, the heavens, in Gen. 1:1. By the expression, the earth, of course, the planet on which we live, plant our gardens and build our houses, is meant. As we have shown above, the word create, used in Gen. 1:1, teaches us that out of previously existing substances the universe was made. Later we showed that these substances were gases, which by manipulation were condensed into the heavens and earth. Then Gen. 1:1 assures us that the blind forces and laws of nature were not the Creator, as atheists hold, though they were undoubtedly used as tools and powers in the creative work, but that God, the Supreme Being, brought the heavens and earth into existence. The sentence of Gen. 1:1, with which the Bible opens, in very simple language states one of the sublimest facts ever expressed— that the almost infinite universe was in a creative period made by God.

Creation as a product has a number of qualities, on some of which we desire to express some thoughts. We are now, it is to be remembered, discussing creation, not as the world of spirit, but as the world of matter, and as such its first quality on which we desire to make some remarks is that of its unity. This idea is involved

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in the name we give it, the universe, which word is derived from a Latin word compounded from the words unus (one) and versus (turned), i.e., all things turned into one. It is also implied in our English word cosmos, derived from the Greek word kosmos, though in the latter word the idea of the universe's beauty and order is also contained. By the unity of the universe we mean nature as a whole, in which all parts are inseparately united by interdependent relations of adaptation that make them one grand system of things. Such a unity we find permeating the universe everywhere. Thus the materials of which the universe consists are a unit, in the sense that they are all derived from one  source, gases, and in the sense that its chemical elements, so far as we know them, are of the same kinds everywhere. The unity of the world as one grand system of things is apparent, too, when we consider each solar system. Each one consists of a center, its sun, each sun having its retinue of planets and each of these in most cases having its moon or moons. Each planet has its own orbit, on which it revolves about its sun, as well as its own axis, on which it rotates so as to face on its every side the sun every so often, varying according to its distance from its sun. This unity is seen in the moons, each planet having one or more moving on its orbit or their orbits about that planet.

This unity is seen in the regular relations of these planets to their suns and to one another, maintained by these with mathematical precision, as days, weeks, years, centuries, ages and epochs pass by in endless procession. Not only so, but this unity is seen in that in every solar system the sun, the planets and their moons revolve on their axes and about their orbits in the same direction, thus avoiding friction or collision and maintaining their perfect balance in their mutual relations. Yea, still more wonderful, all of these solar systems maintain their exact distance relationship to

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one another in all the mighty and intricate sweeps that they make through the realms of boundless space, so that the precessional cycle of the universes—the period that is required for every part of the universe to make such a round of its courses as to put every part of it in exactly the same position, not only relatively, but absolutely in the same part of space as it was before—comes every so often, i.e., between 25,000 and 26,000 years apart. And, finally, this unity of the universe is seen in the fact that all of these solar systems move about a common center, which astronomers identify with Alcyone, one of the Pleiades. This is in harmony with a hint that God has given, that His gracious power proceeds from the Pleiades, from whence, accordingly, He governs the universe (Job 38:31). This, of course, is just what should be expected—the Almighty Engineer of the universe controls its throttle from His seat of power. The facts set forth in this and the preceding paragraph show us that the universe as a system of solar systems is a unit, as each of these solar systems is likewise a unit. Wonderful is the power and wisdom of Him who controls and regulates such an intricate system of things!

There are other facts of the universe that reveal this unity. One of these that may be mentioned is the force of gravitation. This is an all-pervading force which has been mathematically demonstrated to act in proportion to bulk and inversely as the square of the distance. It governs the relative movements of every planet, moon and sun and every solar system in the universe and keeps and makes each one of them run in its proper orbit and makes each one of them rotate on its axis. Accordingly, it keeps the universe in perfect balance. It rules the relation of everything on earth to the earth. If it should not operate, people would jump into limitless space and never get back again. The structure of everything in the universe is dependent

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upon it. We see it in the cohesion and adhesion of the electrons, atoms and molecules that make matter hold together. Thus it is manifest in inorganic matter, in the vegetable world and in the animal creation. Every rainfall shows it; every waterfall exemplifies it; yea, every drop of water evidences it. It permeates and pervades the three forms of matter: solids, liquids and gases. Its operation in the fall of an apple enabled Newton to discover the mode of its operation—in proportion to bulk and inversely to the square of its distance. In fact every part of our bodies requires its operation; and if it should cease to operate we would fall apart, until nothing but the negative and positive parts of our electrons, separate and distinct, would remain. Perhaps this force is the most controlling of all natural forces, requiring all other forces of nature to be its subordinates; and its presence and operation attest the unity of the universe, showing that each part attracts every other part in proportion to its bulk and inversely as the square of its distance. This force, then, attests the unity of the universe.

Again, the unity of the universe is attested by light. It opens before us everything that by sight we know as being about us. It comes to us from the depths and reveals other heavenly bodies than our earth. It comes to us indeed as a heavenly gift, revealing to us sights of beauty in the glorious hosts of heaven. But for light we could not see day or night, sun, moon and star, or the oceans, seas, and lakes, or the mountains, hills, plains and valleys. The verdure of the earth, its beauties in flower, shrub, bush, tree, fruit and vegetable, its marvels in insect, reptile, beast and man, would be almost a closed book to us, if it were not for the gracious ministry of light. It enables one to see blessings coming, as well as woe, and thus prepares us to receive the former and warns us against the latter. Its connecting almost all things on earth with their environment and helping them to learn some of the

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wonders of heaven show its indispensableness, as well as bring its attestation to the intimate interrelations of the things of the universe, as another contribution to the thought of the unity of the world. Gravitation and light are very different in themselves and in our understanding of them. While we know how to measure gravitation, we know almost nothing of the method of its operation. But we know not only the measure of light, but also the mode of its operation. We know that it operates as substances set loose from heavenly bodies and uses the medium of ether for its race courses, over which it speeds at about 186,000 miles a second. Light is not merely a creation of the retina of our eyes. It is a thing that exists as a spiritual substance apart from us, though our eyes apprize us of its presence. By it, among other things, we are made aware of our relation to the rest of the universe of things and beings. Its indispensableness to growth, health and, in the long run, to life, proves it is an element in the unity of the universe.

Then, its presence implies the existence of a medium through which it travels. If the space between the worlds were a vacuum we would be unable to see; for then light, which is the condition of sight, since it manifests material objects to our eyes, could not travel from our sun and other suns to us and, therefore, we would be in the dark— sightless. Ether seems to be the medium through which light passes; for the substances cast off from the heavenly bodies move through the ether as a medium, somewhat after the manner that electricity passes through a wire. The medium is so attenuated that it cannot be seen or felt, even when one moves through it very rapidly. Yet while greatly attenuated it must be inseparably compact to admit of light passing through it without diminution, and that at the enormous rate of speed with which it travels. This fact proves it to be about as compact as any substance that we have felt; and it

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thus proves that it is a medium that connects us with other worlds than ours. While light impresses but one of our senses, ether impresses none of them, so far as we are aware. Yet its existence is sure, since light must have some medium through which it passes. This medium cannot be the air, since above our atmosphere and beyond it to the sun there is no air, yet the light has a medium through which it passes while traveling through that space. Our knowledge of it depends therefore on pure reasoning, without the mixture of anything of sense perception. It evidently is a spiritual force or substance, like the light that it brings us and like the life principle that animates us. But the fact that it brings light to us and thus enables us to have one of our most important points of contact with the world about and above us, proves that it is one of the things that reveals the unity of the universe.

Radiant heat is another thing that manifests the unity of the universe. Like light, without it no animal or vegetable life would be possible; for without it all animal and vegetable life would freeze. Its absence is reached at 453°+ below zero Fahrenheit, and, of course, no earthly animal or vegetable life could exist in that temperature. It exists in all animate and inanimate material things, so far as we know; for everything contains some of it. But it is especially in our sun that, for our solar system, its main depository is found, though doubtless some of the planets have it in an intense condition, as can be inferred from Saturn's rings  and Jupiter's vast clouds, indicating that they are yet in a more or less molten fiery condition. Ordinarily radiant heat, like light, is also an angel of blessing, giving us comfort amid cold and help for the production and cooking of our food and for our mastery over minerals, to mold and change them for our convenience, though its superabundance quickly becomes an evil to the living. Its presence in every solar system in effective ministry reveals its part in the unity of nature.

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It, too, must have a medium through which it passes, apart from the air, and that for the same reason as we saw in the case of light. Its rate of travel is by no means so great as that of light; and, unlike light, going through space, it dissipates rapidly, so that while light reaches us almost undissipated at all from the sun and then rushes past us to almost infinite distances far away, even as it comes to us from some bodies almost infinitely distant from us, this is not true in anything like the same degree of radiant heat. While doubtless the heat of our sun by Divine design is to reach and minister according to the Divine intention to all of its accompanying planets and will forever so do, to minister to the beings that will yet be created on the rest of these planets, its great diversity in degree as it reaches Vulcan and Mercury from what it is when it reaches Neptune and Pluto implies that the bodies to be created will be organized on very different lines and with at least some different elements from ours: otherwise were they to have bodies organized as ours are, whereas those on Vulcan and Mercury would roast, those on Neptune and Pluto would freeze. But these considerations, especially its vehicle of travel and its ministry, prove that radiant heat is another force in the universe that manifests the latter's unity.

Then, the relations of heat and light to each other and in their ministries to the world imply the unity of the universe. That these are related is evident from the fact that they are thrown off by the same bodies. Fire throws off both of them from various bodies, and accordingly the heavenly bodies, afire as they are, throw off both of these. We know by observation and experience that the sun, the mother of our solar planets, is afire and throws off light and heat. Usually intense heat existing in gaseous form is non-illuminous, but let these gases cool off somewhat and they become afire and shed light as well as heat. Thus we

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see that they are more or less a unit because of their origin. From this we are not to be understood to identify them; for we believe they are separate and distinct things. They arise from the fact that two different spiritual substances permeating certain materials are loosened from those materials through the agency of fire. Yet they are more or less related and have some substance in common, as is manifest from the fact that parts of each of them have been converted into motion, as Prof. Tindell has shown. We believe that his conclusion, that both of them are merely modes of motion, is incorrect; for there were other parts of them which escaped his converting them into motion, and these parts of them constitute the differences between them. Their different natures, motions, velocities, effects, etc., prove them not to be identical, though they are closely related in the economy of the universe, and thus their relation to each other in these economies proves the unity of the universe.

Chemical affinity is another force that proves the unity of the universe. All of us know or have heard of the experiments by which light, heat and chemical affinity can be separated from each other in the solar spectrum, and each of them can be made to show its own separate effects. The affinity that various chemicals have to one another is just what we should expect from the common origin of many elements of which our earth and atmosphere consist. And the results for blending various metals, etc., for useful inventions show the good of this force. We might also instance the various characteristics and effects of magnetism as another feature of the universe, in which magnetic forces play many useful parts in the economy of things. This is even more apparent in electricity, of which we know so little, and yet of which we can make so many uses. Its health-giving and disease-destroying effects are well known. It aids the deaf

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ear to hear and frequently vitalizes the palsied limbs to activity. It carries our telegraphic and telephonic messages. Converted into light it turns our nights into day and used as power it propels our vehicles, runs our factories and welds our buildings and ships. Radio is another force that the universe brings to us as a ministering angel; and constantly we are finding new agencies that are so many forces of nature, showing its unity in the material universe. In their diversity these forces are separate and distinct, yet they work together. Mechanical motion is necessary to release all of them and in turn they will give rise to mechanical motion. So light and heat will set electricity into activity and in turn electricity will make them active. Electricity will give rise to magnetism and by the use of mechanical motion magnetism will arouse electricity into activity. So, too, with electricity and radio, these forces above all other things set chemical affinity into exercise. So chemical affinity under special conditions will set all these forces into action. And the intimate relations of all of these: gravitation, light, heat, chemical affinity, magnetism, electricity, radio (which, like all the others, finds ether as its medium)and the various rays—all attest with marvelous power and united voice that the universe is made up of a variety of mutually related and interdependent forces and things that make it a unity. The substances of the universe and the forces in, underlying and connected with these substances, are a unity of things not identical, suggested by their superordination, coordination and subordination, as the varying conditions dictate.

Again, this unity is seen in the way sound and life principle are related to the atmosphere. The way that the atmosphere carries sound is very likely the way ether carries light, heat, magnetism, radio, etc. If it were not for this atmosphere all the delights of music, oratory and speech would be lost and we would be

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unable to hear one another. Here again is an adjustment that argues the unity of the universe. And what shall we say of life-principle, with which in the oxygen of the air the atmosphere is filled? Without it all life, vegetable and animal, on the earth and in the sea would be extinct. And the breathing apparatus of all things living on earth finds itself fitted to extract life-principle from the atmosphere. Here again the unity of the universe is shown. The minerals of the earth are adapted to nourish plant life, which also feeds on air and water—all placed by the universe at the disposal of plant life for its continuance and propagation. Again, the minerals answer to thousands of man's needs and his organs answer to these for his use of them, for his blessing or woe, as the use may be. They furnish him elements in the way of medicine for supply of deficient bodily elements, and also supply elements for the lower creation under certain limitations. In turn the vegetable world ministers to the animal world in the way of food, even as water and air contribute to these ends. And man, the highest of all earthly creatures, lays them all under contribution for his needs, comforts and joys.

This unity shows itself especially to man in his varied relations to the universe, particularly to the earth, its inhabitants and atmosphere. It is seen in the fact that his body consists of numerous elements of the earth and three gases: oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen, and is instinct with life that he derives from the air. These he must continually appropriate, and his need of them is indicated by hunger, thirst, weakness and often by disease. These drive him to supply them by appropriation. Then this unity, which shows itself in a thousand relations of interdependence and adaptation, is manifest in the organs adapted to appropriation, as hands, mouth, teeth, throat, stomach, intestines, liver. The nourishment thus derived from the earth the blood is adapted to digest, distribute and

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assimilate—again a wonderful exhibition of the unity of nature, of which the universe is full. Then, because some elements are unsuitable for appropriation or would act as poisons, the appetite, taste, kidneys, bowels, sweat pores, etc., reject these. Moreover, as there is need that the body have life, it must have organs adapted to absorbing life- principle from the air, and here comes forward for use and adaptation the breathing apparatus: nostrils, throat, bronchial tubes and lungs. And, that the life principle thus laid hold on might be assimilated, the blood stands ready with its white and red corpuscles to absorb it; and, to give it to every function of the body for use in exercising its ministry, the blood must carry this vitality to every part of the body.

Again, we must be brought into contact with the things in the earth and air, otherwise we could not lay hold on its stores adapted to our needs. These must in most cases be seen and our eyes are adapted to this, and this exhibits another of the unities of the universe. So, too, sound in the universe often calls in invitation to appropriate and often to warn of danger, and the unity of the universe is manifested in that we are capable of taking in sound for the positive and negative purposes just stated. Other dangers or blessings can appeal only to the scent, which accordingly works by adaptation on things of this kind, giving its pertinent warning to avoid or invitation to accept. Still other conditions can manifest themselves only by an appeal to or warning against taste, which, being present to deter or encourage, points out another feature of the unity of the universe. Then there are still other things that can appeal to feeling alone, and the unity of the universe is manifest in our having the feeling called into action by these things, whose workings are either to bless or to injure. Thus our five senses point out a vast set of five kinds of points of adaptation showing the unity of the universe.

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This unity is manifest in our intellectual perceptions of things in sky, earth and atmosphere, wherein the perceptive faculties are adapted to these things and they to our perceptive faculties. How well adapted to remembering and reasoning on the universe in its diversities our intellects are, needs no details to illustrate. They connect us not only with the inanimate, but also with the animate universe. How many similarities there are between us and the lower animals! All have at least three things in common: body, life and soul powers, however much diversified. All have been built on the same general principle and all are endowed with powers adapted to their varying needs, capacities and designs, and this again shows the unity of the universe. As to bodily functions they have great similarity and this manifests itself in most cases in similar structure of organs and sometimes in form. All of these animals are adapted to avoid or associate with one another as the case may require. This unity is manifest in man's relation to the vegetable world, which is adapted to supply his need in the form of grains, vegetables, nuts and fruit, for which he has all the necessary organs to make them available for appropriation. Thus the whole animal and vegetable creation has mutual adaptations which exhibit the unity of the universe.

This unity is manifest in man's social and moral relations to his fellows and in his relations to God. The family relation is adapted to him and he to it. Here come in the existence of sex and the relations of attraction between the sexes, marriage, support, mutual helpfulness, propagation, raising of families, the headship of the man, the bodyship of the woman, the subserviency of the children. To these relations man is adapted physically, mentally, morally and religiously by his make-up. Then; he is adapted to a communal life, exhibited in community, state, industry, business, recreation and religion. Indeed, on lower planes mammals,

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reptiles, fish, fowls and insects are more or less adapted to certain of these conditions, as can be seen, e.g., in ants and bees, herds and flocks. Everywhere and along countless lines we see these adaptations so suggestive of the unity of the universe. In the widest sense of the word universe (as including the world of spirit, as well as the world of matter) the adaptation of God, angels and men to one another carries the idea of unity of the universe to its utmost limits; and in this respect both spirit and human beings can well say, almost in the words of Augustine, "O, Lord, Thou hast made us for Thyself, therefore we can have no rest unless we rest in Thee." Hence the idea of the unity of the universe implies, leads up to, flows out of, and demonstrates the universe as the product of the one and only God, Jehovah, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, and through Him and in Him our God and Father. Verily, unity is one of the qualities of the universe.

It will be recalled that we are now discussing creation as a product, viz., the universe, having reserved for later treatment creation as a process. That feature of creation as a product occupying our attention is the attributes of creation as an entirety. Of these we have so far discussed its unity. We will next discuss its attribute of immensity. And certainly when we consider the universe, its immensity is borne in upon us with deep impressiveness. Such immensity is present in the vastness of the universe's space, in the numbers of its heavenly bodies, in its great age, in the great bulk of the heavenly bodies, in the immense sweep of the solar, planetary and asteroidal orbits, in the great rapidity of their movements in their orbits and on their axes and in the great distances of the heavenly bodies from one another. As to the immensity of creation in space: we are warranted in assuming that space is infinite, for, like time, it can have no beginning or ending. In imagination we can take our

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stand on the outmost planetary system brought to view by our most distant reaching telescope; and with a telescope as great as our greatest one we would see as many worlds beyond and as far away as we see in that same direction from the earth. Already fourteen Milky Ways have been brought to our view, each succeeding one being twice as far away from its preceding one as the Milky Way visible to our naked eye is from us. Indeed we cannot imagine an end to space, for there must be space endless beyond the furthermost stretch of our space imagination. We could measure off 999 vigintillions endlessly in our imaginations, but could not come to a place beyond which there is no space. Like eternity, space can have no beginning and no ending. And we know from the laws of gravitation that infinite space must contain an almost infinite number of solar systems; otherwise those in existence could not hold their places, but would "smash up in a wreck of matter." But this very thought makes our minds dizzy, since we cannot fathom it. In contemplation of it we can only bow and worship Him who is so great as to have made and to preserve so large a universe.

In considering the immensity of the universe let us study some of its details, beginning with our solar system, considering first the earth as a part of it, and then considering it in its other parts. Our earth is almost a perfect sphere, being a few miles less from pole to pole than from the equator on one side to the equator on the opposite side. Its longest diameter, i.e., at the equator, is nearly 8,000 miles; and its diameter from pole to pole is only a few miles less. Its surface is about 200,000,000 square miles, a fourth of which is land. It is a solid to approximately 26 miles deep, and within this outer shell it is a huge cavern nearly full of a molten, burning mass. Its surface is a plane furrowed by beds of streams, lakes, seas and oceans, and bulged by mountains and hills, which in turn are

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severed by valleys. Its greatest circumference (at the equator) is about 25,000 miles. While it is one of the smaller planets of our solar system, it is very large. This can be seen from the fact that if people traveled from east to west, if they were able to see 15 miles north and south of themselves, and if they would travel around the earth 30 miles further north and 30 miles further south each trip that they would take, they would have to encircle the globe no less than 417 times to see all its surface. To accomplish this would take a lifetime or more. Yet how imperfect would one's view be of the earth at say a few miles on either side of his 417 lines of travel! Or, take another illustration: Suppose one should remove an immense mountain like Mt. Rainier, leaving the place where it stood a level plane, it would, compared to our earth, be like removing a flea from the middle of an elephant's side; yet in Mt. Ranier there is more material than has ever been used by man in all his building operations since Adam's time. When we stand on a huge sea liner and view a vast ocean, when we stand at the foot of an Everest and behold its mass, when we stand at a sublime Niagara and watch its endless flow of unmeasured bulk of water falling over its precipice, we get but a faint impression of earth's immensity. Surely our earth is immense!

Much more so is our solar system. So far as our present knowledge goes, it consists of our sun, ten planets, at least twenty-six moons and over a thousand asteroids. And these deepen within us the thought of its immensity. This will appear from a brief description of our solar system: The sun is the center of this system, and around it all of the planets of this system revolve, carrying severally with them their moons. Each of these so revolves at a very precise time and yet the length of these revolutions varies with each planet. Our naked eye can scarcely look at the sun when it shines with its full strength upon us.

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But looking at it through a darkened medium or when it is otherwise shaded, it seems to us to be no larger than an automobile wheel. It rotates about its axis every 26 days, running, because of its greater bulk, about four times as rapidly as our earth does about its axis, i.e., it travels about 4042 miles every hour at its equator. It is 700 times larger than its combined ten accompanying planets with their 26 known moons and its, perhaps, thousands of asteroids. It is 1,300,000 times larger than our earth, i.e., 1,300,000 of our earths could be crowded into the space that the sun fills in the universe. Its diameter is 880,000 miles, as against the earth's diameter of 8,000 miles. Its circumference is nearly 2,522,000 miles, as against the earth's of 25,000 miles. These numbers fail to tell the full story of the sun's immensity. If we would imagine the sun to be a hollow sphere except that it is solid a thousand miles deep on all sides below its surface, and if we would imagine the earth as being placed in the center of this hollow sun, with the moon 240,000 miles from the earth, as it actually is, and then have it revolve about the earth, it would make the revolutions just as far from the assumed inner solid side of the sun as from the earth, i.e., 240,000 miles. The immensity of the sun's power of gravitation can be seen in that it attracts and holds in perfect balance and exact relative position its retinue of planets, moons and asteroids, making them revolve in their orbits and rotate about their axes in perfect time to the fraction of a second for endless years. It pours out light undiminishably and its heat inexhaustibly. It rules its empire, our solar system, in unchanging order, and will forever so do. It is intimately connected with life in all its forms on earth and in due time will have such a connection with life on the other planets of its system as these, one after another, will become perfect and inhabited. Surely the sun is immense from many standpoints!

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As an illustration of the immensity of our sun we quote from Dick's Celestial Scenery, 214: "There is no point on the surface of the globe that unites so many awful and sublime objects as the top of Etna, and no imagination has dared to form a description of so glorious and magnificent a scene. The body of the sun is seen rising from the ocean, immense tracts of both sea and land intervening; the islands of Panara, Alicudi, Lipari, Stromboli and Volcano, with their smoking summits, appear under your feet, and you look down on the whole of Sicily as on a map, and can trace every river through all its windings from its source to its mouth. The view is absolutely [relatively] boundless on every side, so that the sight is everywhere lost in immensity. Yet the glorious and expansive prospect is comprised within a circle of about 240 miles in diameter and 754 in circumference, containing 45,240 square miles, which only 1/53,776,608 part of the surface of the sun; so that 53,777,608 landscapes such as are beheld from Mt. Etna behooved to pass before us before we could contemplate a surface as expansive as that of the sun; and if every such landscape were to occupy two hours in the contemplation, as supposed above, it would require 24,554 years before the whole surface of this immense globe could be in this manner surveyed, and twice that number of years (49,108), if the time of daylight, averaging 12 hours a day, were taken for the said survey." Surely, this gives us some idea of the sun's immensity!

We will now, as an elaboration of the thought of the magnitude of the solar system, as a feature of the magnitude of the universe, enlarge somewhat on the planets of our solar system. In so far as yet discovered, these in the order of their distance from the sun are: Vulcan, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars (the asteroids come next), Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Of these, Vulcan is the nearest to the sun and is at the same time the smallest of the planets. It is so

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seldom seen that some astronomers ignore its existence, some even deny its existence, though others affirm its existence as a thing they have observed. Its orbital path has a mean distance of approximately 15,000,000 miles from the sun. Because of its being but seldom seen it is not yet known how long its day and year are, i.e., how long it requires to rotate on its axis and to revolve about its orbit. Its mean distance from the sun (15,000,000 miles), while small compared with the distances of the other planets of our solar system from the sun, and negligible when compared with the distances of the other suns of the universe from us, is nevertheless large when viewed by itself; for to cover the same distance one would have to circumvent our earth 600 times at the equator, surely an immense distance! Mercury, the next planet in order from the sun is larger and is seen much more often than Vulcan, yet it is comparatively seldom seen, and to be seen must be searched for with an instrument. Its orbit is nearly two and a half times farther away from the sun than that of Vulcan, i.e., about 36,000,000 miles, or 1,440 times the distance around the earth at the equator. Its diameter is 3,100 miles, about ⅜ the size of the earth's diameter. Its circumference  is nearly 10,000 miles, and it revolves about its orbit in 88 days. Thus its year is not quite ¼ as long as the earth's year. But its axial rotation is just a few minutes less than 24 hours, the length of our earth's axial rotation.

Next after Mercury comes Venus. Next to our full, or nearly full moon, as viewed from the earth, it is the brightest body in the heavens, and is much brighter than Sirius, the to us brightest of the stars, as distinct from planets. Venus is our nearest neighbor among the planets, though much more distant than our moon. It is about 67,200,000 miles distant from the sun, i.e., 2,689 times the distance around the earth at the equator. Its diameter and circumference are about 7,600 and nearly 24,000 miles respectively. It makes a complete

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revolution about its orbit every 225 days. Thus its year is about ⅔ as long as our year. Its axial rotation is between 23 and 24 hours, practically as long as our day. Its atmosphere is about as deep as that of our earth, and its beauty can best be appreciated when it is the morning star, gloriously heralding the day. Our earth is the next planet in distance from the sun. Its diameter and circumference are approximately 8,000 and 25,000 miles respectively. Its orbit encircles the sun at a distance of approximately 92,900,000 miles, or 3,712 times the distance around the earth at the equator, and thus is about 25,000,000 miles farther from the sun than Venus. All of us, of course, know the length of its year and day. Vulcan, Mercury and Venus have no moons, the earth being the planet nearest the sun having one. Its moon, especially when full, is beautiful, though that beauty is a reflected one. It encircles the earth approximately every 29½ days, giving us the lunar month. Its orbit is about 240,000 miles from the earth, its diameter being somewhat over 2,000 miles and its circumference a little more than 6,000 miles. Its bulk is about 1/50 of that of the earth. Our knowledge of the earth has helped greatly in solving many problems connected with the other planets and the suns.

Mars is the planet next farther away from the sun. It is in distance about 141,500,000 miles from the sun, i.e., 5,660 times the distance around the earth at the equator. While each successive planet hitherto studied is bulkier than its predecessor, Mars is not, as might be expected, larger than the two preceding ones. It is smaller than either Earth or Venus, having a diameter of 4,100 miles and a circumference just a little less than 13,000 miles. It rotates on its axis just a little more slowly than the earth and Venus, viz., in 24½ hours, but its year is much longer than that of either, being 687 days. It has two moons, each of which is smaller than that of the earth. Still farther

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out from the sun, scattered therefrom at about a distance of from 200,000,000 to 483,300,000 miles, where we should expect mathematically to find another planet, we run into the planetoids, of which there are more than 1,000 so far noted. Ceres, the first seen of these, was discovered Jan. 1, 1801, and practically every year since new ones have been discovered and presumably this will continue indefinitely. Ceres, the largest of these, has a diameter of 485 miles. Combinedly they do not have so large a bulk as Mercury. They are supposed to be the fragments of an exploded planet, which once was situated between Mars and Jupiter, where these planetoids, except a few, now are. The orbit of one of these, Eros, discovered in 1898, at perihelion comes within 13,000,000 miles of the earth; and another of these, Hidalgo, discovered in 1922, in the most distant part of its orbit goes out as far as that of Jupiter and has a mean distance from the sun slightly greater than that of Jupiter.

Jupiter, the largest of the planets, is the next one after Mars farther out from the sun. Most of the planetoids, as shown above, remain between Mars and Jupiter. The  latter's distance from the sun is 483,300,000 miles, i.e., as far from the sun as one would travel to journey around the earth at the equator 19,332 times. Its diameter is 88,700 miles and its circumference about 280,000 miles. Its diameter and circumference are more than eleven times those of the earth. It would take more than 1,300 planets  the size of our earth to equal Jupiter's volume. Jupiter has nine moons, one of which is larger than Mercury and can at times be seen by the naked eye, four of its moons being easily visible by even a small telescope. Its day is of but ten hours, which means that its equator moves through space at the rate of 28,000 miles an hour; and its year is nearly as long as twelve of our years, i.e., it takes Jupiter nearly twelve years to encircle the sun. The next planet after Jupiter is Saturn, which is, also,

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the second largest of the planets. It is 886,100,000 miles from the sun, more than 402,000,000 miles farther out than Jupiter, i.e., its distance from the sun is 35,440 times the distance around the earth at the equator. Its diameter is 75,100 miles and its circumference is about 237,000 miles. Its day is about 10½ hours, which means that its equator moves through space at the rate of 22,571 miles an hour; and its year is nearly 29½ of ours, i.e., it takes Saturn nearly 29½ years to encircle the sun. Its volume is 750 times that of the earth. The rings of Saturn, not seen by the naked eye, make it an indescribably beautiful planet, more so than any other planet, though to the naked eye it is not nearly so brilliant as Jupiter, not to mention Venus. There are three of these rings, the outer one having a diameter of 170,000 miles, the middle one a diameter of 145,000 miles and the inner one a diameter of 113,000 miles. We believe they entirely enclose Saturn as canopies. It also has nine moons.

Uranus is the next planet farther out from the sun. Its distance from the sun is 1,782,800,000 miles, or 71,312 times as far from the sun as the length of the circumference of the earth at the equator. It is nearly 900,000,000 miles farther out than Saturn. Its diameter is about 30,900 miles and its circumference is about 97,500 miles, nearly four times that of our earth. Its day, axial rotation, is 10.7 hours which means that at its equator its speed is 9,112 miles every hour; and its year, orbital revolution, is more than 84 years, during which it travels nearly 6,000,000,000 miles. Its volume is 59 times that of our earth. It is invisible to the naked eye, but even a moderate telescope brings it into view, and it has at least four moons. Until recently Neptune, the next planet farther away from the sun, was considered the last of our sun's planets. It is more than 1,010,000,000 miles farther out than Uranus, i.e., 2,793,500,000 miles from the sun, or 111,740 times farther than the length of the circumference

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of the earth at the equator. Its diameter is 33,900 miles and its circumference is nearly 107,000 miles, over four times that of our earth; and in volume it is 72 times that of our earth. Its day is 15.7 hours, which means that its speed at its equator is 6,815 miles per hour, and its year is more than 164¾ of earth's years. Pluto, discovered but several years ago, is, so far as our present knowledge goes, the farthest out of the planets from our sun, and is; perhaps, the oldest known planet of our solar system. Knowledge of it is as yet scant because of the recency of its discovery, its immense distance and comparatively small size, which is about that of the earth. Its diameter and circumference are about equal to those of our earth, the exact dimensions being not yet accurately known. Its mean distance from the sun is 3,679,000,000 miles, or 147,160 times the distance around the earth at the equator, and hence it is 885,500,000 miles beyond Neptune. However, its orbit is varyingly distant from the sun—from 2,744,000,000 to 4,613,000,000 miles! It takes 249 years for it to encircle the sun, i.e., its year is 249 times as long as ours. Nothing as yet is known about the length of time required for it to rotate on its axis, because it appears like a point in the telescope and does not show a disc. Hence we cannot tell how long its day is, or the rate of speed at its equator. Just like Uranus and Neptune, its existence was demonstrated mathematically before it was actually discovered.

Surely, the above briefly stated facts on our sun and its planets show us the immensity of the solar system. Some other facts will still further show this, especially the length of the orbits of the planets and their speed through space. Thus, Vulcan's orbit is 94,246,000 miles, that of Mercury 226,195,000, that of Venus 422,231,000, that of Earth 584,000,000, that of Mars 889,072,000, that of Jupiter 3,036,670,000, that of Saturn 5,567,543,000, that of Uranus 11,101,690,000, that of Neptune 17,552,120,000 and that of Pluto 23,116,000,000

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miles. Even the smallest of these figures is immense, but the largest is so great that it gives us but a faint idea of what it means. But certainly they convey to our minds the immensity in the sweep with which these planets travel around their orbits. As the following will show: There are 86,400 seconds in a day (60 x 60 x 24 = 86,400). Since there are 365.25636 days in a year, we multiply this figure by 86,400 and get 31,557,149.5+, as the number of seconds in a year. If we divide this figure into the miles of the earth's orbit we have the rate of speed per second that the earth travels on its orbit. Thus 584,000,000 ÷ 31,557,149.5+ = 18.5+, which means that our earth travels its orbit at the rate of 18½ miles a second in order to complete the circuit of its orbit yearly. Mercury traverses its orbit in 88 days, which multiplied by 86,400 gives us the seconds required to make its circuit, i.e., 7,603,200 seconds. This figure divided into the miles of Mercury's orbit (226,195,000) gives us the rate that Mercury travels its orbit, which is 29.75 miles a second. Venus traverses its orbit in 225 days, or in 19,440,000 seconds, which divided into 422,231,000, the miles in Venus' orbit, gives as the  rate of Venus' movement on its orbit 21.79 miles per second. Mars completes its orbit in 687 days, or in 59,356,800 seconds, and travels during that time 889,072,800 miles, which means that it travels 14.97+ miles a second.

Jupiter covers its orbit of 3,036,670,000 miles in 11.862 years, or in 374,330,907.37 seconds, which makes its rate of travel 8.38 miles a second. Saturn's orbit is 5,567,543,000 miles, which it runs in 29.458 years, or 929,610,510 seconds. This makes it move orbitally at the rate of 5.99 miles a second. Uranus' orbit of  11,101,690,000 miles takes it 84.015 years, or 2,651,273,915 seconds to travel, which makes its orbital rate 4.19 miles a second. Neptune negotiates its course of 17,552,120,000 miles in 164.788 years, or 4,800,236,552

seconds, which gives us an orbital rate of 3.6

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miles a second as the pace that Neptune sets in covering its orbit. Pluto covers its orbit of 23,116,000,000 miles in approximately 249 years, or 7,857,730,225 seconds, which gives us 2.95+ miles a second as its speed along its orbit. These figures prove that the nearer a planet is to the sun the more rapidly does it move along its orbit per second, so that whereas Mercury, the nearest planet to the sun, except Vulcan, travels at the rate of 29.75 miles per second, Pluto, the farthest known planet from the sun travels, relatively speaking, lazily along at the rate of 2.95 miles a second. We have not given Vulcan's rate because it has been seen by so few and at intervals of so many years that its year is not known exactly. Its speed on its orbit is probably about 45 miles per second. Even Pluto moves more rapidly than the most rapidly moving shell ever discharged from a gun. The shells discharged from the great gun by which the Germans bombarded Paris at a distance of about 75 miles moved at the rate of 1.1 miles a second. Pluto moves nearly three times that rapidly and Mercury more than 27 times that rapidly, while the probable speed of Vulcan is nearly 40 times as rapid. Certainly these facts help us to a better appreciation of the immensity of the solar system.

The figures on distances above given are so great that we cannot really understand them as written out before our eyes. Perhaps some illustrations could help us better to see these matters. Let us for impressiveness' sake show these distances in the time duration of an imaginary airplane trip taken from the sun past all its planets, even to Pluto. Let us suppose this airplane to travel at the rate of 115 miles an hour, the average speed of commercial airplane travel. We take this figure because at this rate of speed without a stop it takes just one year to travel approximately 1,000,000 miles. This means that it would take us in our airplane trip from the sun 15 years to reach Vulcan, 36 years to reach Mercury, 67.2 years to reach Venus, 92.9

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years to reach Earth; 141.5 years to reach Mars, 341.7 years to reach the center of the asteroids, 483.3 years to reach Jupiter, 886.1 years to reach Saturn, 1,782.8 years to reach Uranus, 2,793.5 years to reach Neptune and 3,679 years to reach Pluto. E.g., had Amram started out on such a flight from the sun in 1747 B. C., i.e., 52 years before Moses was born, he would just now be arriving at Pluto! And for aught we know there may be more planets still further out from the sun than Pluto, which might make our suppositional trip last as long as from Adam's day to now or yet longer. These facts give us a fair idea of the immensity of our solar system.

Its vastness can be further seen when we compare its planets and moons in volume with our earth. One of these, Vulcan, is much smaller than our earth in volume. Mercury is .055, Venus is .826 and Mars is .151 as large as our earth in volume. Pluto is about the same as our earth in volume. The other planets are very much larger. Saturn 763, Uranus 59 and Neptune 72 times the volume of our earth. The mass of these planets is also immense. Volume and mass differ in this: the volume of a body equals its mass when divided by its density. Thus V=M/D. Thus volume is the amount of space enclosed within the bounding surface of a solid, while mass refers to the amount of matter in a body viewed generally as to weight. From this standpoint Vulcan's mass is as yet uncertain, but is supposed to be as heavy as lead. Mercury is in mass .037, Venus .826 and Mars .108 that of the earth. Pluto's mass is about a third as heavy as that of the earth. The mass of the other planets is much greater than that of the earth. Jupiter's is 318.4 times, Saturn's is

95.2 times, Uranus' is 14.6 times and Neptune's is 16.9 times that of the earth. Surely in volume and mass there is immensity in the solar system! When we consider its moons the same thought is borne in upon us. Our solar system has 26 known moons, Earth

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has one, Mars two, Jupiter nine, Saturn nine, Uranus four and Neptune one. Whether Pluto has any moons or not is as yet unknown, it being itself visible only as a tiny point, and any moon of it must be too small for detection by any of our present instruments. The known moons are in some cases quite large. That of the earth has a diameter of 2,163 miles and a circumference of 6,795+ miles. One of Jupiter's moons is larger than Mercury. Together these 26 satellites make up a vast volume and mass of matter. Each of these has its own orbit, these orbits being quite large. In the case of our moon the orbit is 1,507,968 miles around. One of our moon's mountains is over five miles high; and some of its craters are 100 miles in diameter! Other moons, e.g., Jupiter's, have still larger orbits.

With these thoughts we leave the subject of the immensity of our solar system and now desire to point out some of the things in the other solar systems suggestive of immensity. As is well known, our solar system is only one of many. We have given details on it, because it serves as an illustration of what the other solar systems are like. The nearest of these is so far distant that its planets are invisible to the world's largest telescope, whose reflector is 100 inches in diameter, and which is situated on Mt. Wilson, California, a short distance from Los Angeles. With the naked eye from the earth about 8,000 of the suns of these solar systems, commonly called stars, can be seen, though not more than 2,000 of them can thus be seen from any one position. The fact that they are absolutely fixed in the same relative position toward one another and to our sun, and the fact that they are self-luminous and vastly magnitudinous, prove them not to be planets, but to be suns like the center of our solar system. They are distributed at approximately equal distances apart at intervals of from 20,000,000,000,000, to 30,000,000,000,000 miles, which is

about

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the distance of the nearest one of the stars, suns, from our earth. Thinking of ourselves as in the center of a sphere made up of sheets of stars successively following one another at uniform distances unto infinity, the nearest stars above, below and on all sides of us at the above-named distance may be considered the first sheet, the next set at that distance away from the first being the second sheet, and so on unto infinity. So viewed, which is the actual condition, we can with our naked eye see the stars that constitute the twelfth star sheet beyond us. This means that we can see with our naked eye suns from 240,000,000,000,000  to  360,000,000,000,000  miles away.

The light and seeming size of these suns diminish as the ratio of their distance increases, until the Milky Way appears and then thick darkness beyond. Thus our eyes fail to give us further information beyond the twelfth sheet of stars. The telescope must now come to our assistance.

These distances are so great that their statement in figures can convey but little to our comprehension. Perhaps the flight of light may make it more impressive. Light travels 186,285 miles a second and 5,880,000,000,000 miles in a year. For the convenience of having a more even number, let us assume its rate to be 6,000,000,000,000 miles. This would mean that it would take from 40 to 60 years from the time a ray of light left the farthest star that our naked eye can see until it reaches us, and from 3⅓ to 5 years for such a ray to reach us from the star nearest to us. These figures show that our sun is from 20 to 30 trillion miles distant from its next neighbor sun. This implies that each sun rules a domain contained within a sphere whose diameter is from 20 to 30 trillion miles and whose circumference is from 62,832,000,000,000 to 94,248,000,000,000 miles. These figures suggest the great likelihood of there being planets in our solar system still farther away from the sun than Pluto, whose mean orbital distance from the sun, as shown above, is

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3,679,000,000, and whose extreme orbital distance from the sun is 4,613,000,000 miles. This leaves a space between Pluto's extreme distance from our sun and the limits of the sun's empire of from 19,995,387,000,000 to 29,995,387,000,000 miles, a space that seems too great to be utterly void. Reverting to our imaginary non-stop airplane trip begun in 1747 B. C. by Amram and just ended at Pluto, to reach the sun nearest our sun in the direction from our sun to Pluto it would take Amram from 20,000,000 years to 30,000,000 years, or from 1747 B. C. to 19,998,253 or 29,998,23 A. D., and to reach the twelfth sheet of stars would take him from 240,000,000 to 360,000,000 years! And to travel at 115 miles an hour is a speed of no mean rapidity.

But so far we have considered the dimensions of the universe as visible to the naked eye. And until a few centuries ago this is all that the universe was supposed to be; and that is why the ancients counted the stars in magnitude as from one to twelve. But the invention of the telescope bared very many more sheets of stars than the twelve visible to the unaided eye; for it not only magnified very greatly the first twelve sheets of stars, but penetrating much deeper into space it has multiplied these twelve by thousands. Each new sheet discovered increases the number of suns made known to us almost at the rate of geometrical progression. The great astronomer, Sir William Herschel, toward the end of the 18th century counted 500 of such sheets (each one of which has hundreds of thousands of suns) in the Milky Way alone. Late astronomical discoveries, aided by much larger telescopes than Herschel's, have brought to light thirteen other Milky Ways in every direction around the earth, each one respectively double the space that is between us and the Milky Way that we see with our unaided eyes. And in Barton's Guide to the Constellations, p. 12, the statement is made that "the total number of stars in our

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system of stars has been estimated to be 30,000,000,000"! As each presumably has as many planets, planetoids and moons as our solar system, this means that, so far as present knowledge goes, there are 300,000,000,000 planets, over 300,000,000,000,000 planetoids and 810,000,000,000 moons in the known universe. But since space is without limits and the laws of gravitation require an endless succession of solar systems, the number of discovered suns will greatly increase as more powerful telescopes are invented. With light traveling at the rate of approximately six trillion miles a year, it will take 390,000 years for it to reach us from the most distant suns now known! Some are so distant as to take their light millions of years to reach us!

Dr. Charlmers in his Astronomical Discourses says, "What is seen may be [yea, is] as nothing to what is unseen; for what is seen is limited by the range of our instruments. What is unseen has no limits; and though [if] all which the eyes of man can take in or his fancy can grasp were swept away, there might [yea, would] still remain as ample a field over which the Divinity may [would] expatiate, and which He may have [has] peopled with innumerable worlds. If the whole visible creation were to disappear, it would leave a solitude behind it; but to the Infinite Mind, that can take in the whole system of nature, this solitude might [would] be [as] nothing—a small unoccupied point in the immensity which surrounds it, and which He may have [has] filled with the wonders of his omnipotence [and omniscience] … Though [if] this earth and these heavens were to disappear, there are other worlds that roll afar; the light of other suns shines upon them and the skies which mantle them are garnished with other stars … The universe at large would suffer as little in its splendor and variety by the destruction of our planet as the verdure

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and sublime magnitude of a forest would suffer by the fall of a single leaf."

In the foregoing we have given very briefly some of the main facts furnished us by the science of astronomy, exhibiting immensity as one of the attributes of the universe, and certainly these stupendous facts thoroughly substantiate the proposition that the universe is immense. Since the Creator is greater than His creations and embodies the attributes that He works out in His creations, He must have the quality of immensity, not as to His body, but as to the qualities of His heart and mind. And, among other things, the immensity of the universe has convinced all astronomers, so far as we know, of God's existence and His immensity in attributes; for amid the comparatively many atheistic and agnostic scientists of our days astronomers are conspicuous by their absence. Never yet have we heard of an atheistic or agnostic astronomer; for the facts with which he occupies himself are too  stupendous to permit him to entertain the thought of the fool who says, "There is no God." To us the stupendousness of the universe not only proves that there is a God, but it also proves that He is an omnipotent and omniscient God. By the contemplation of its immensity we are filled with the sense of wonder, awe, reverence, worship and adoration. "O, come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!" And through such contemplation sink heart and mind, amazed, beneath the sense of God's greatness and our littleness!

Hitherto we have discussed unity and immensity as attributes of God's creative works. The next of these to be presented is beauty, which certainly is an attribute of God's creative works. By beauty is meant that quality of an object by whose contemplation pleasurable emotions are aroused in a rational mind and heart. Usually by the term physical beauty is meant, though the word may be used of mental beauty,

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e.g., the beauty of truth, and of moral and religious beauty, e.g., the beauty of holiness. The fact that there is beauty in God's creative works implies that God in His body, mind and heart possesses the mark of beauty. Indeed He possesses it in an infinite degree, for all of its examples that so abundantly manifest themselves in animate and inanimate nature are merely reflections of it as it exists in God's heart and mind. Hence it is because God is beautiful in His body, heart and mind that He has endowed His animate and inanimate creation so richly and so variedly with examples of it. Hence, no lover of beauty or example of beauty can match the Lord in His love for, and exemplification of beauty, physical, mental, moral and religious, though His creation is so replete with it.

In animate nature there are many examples of beauty. In creeping things there is frequently a beauty of color and form that is most enchanting. Note some species of beetles and flies, particularly certain tropical ones, as examples of this. While in form the serpent is far from beautiful, yet at times their skins are so richly colored as to make them beautiful, despite their natural repulsiveness to us. The winged creation often exhibits a richness of plumage that makes its species indescribably beautiful. A fairly complete collection of butterflies, particularly of those from the tropics, exhibit beauty of form, color and texture hard to equal. This is more especially true of natives of the tropics, and semi-tropics, like the peacock and a thousand other species of tropical and semi-tropical birds. Some of the birds of the temperate zones are only a little less beautiful than their brethren of the tropics and semi-tropics, like the humming bird„ the red bird, the blue jay, the robin and the canary. Some of the quadrupeds are beautiful in the lines of grace that mark their bodies, like the antelope, the deer, the zebra, the race horse, the St. Bernard dog and the Russian hound. Even wild animals, like the tiger, lion, panther,

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leopard and jaguar have fine lines of beauty. And certainly the human figure, especially that of the well proportioned human female, is "beauty all." Some human faces are exquisitely beautiful, especially so the eyes of a handsome man or beautiful woman. These few examples, taken from animate nature, prove that beauty marks God's creative works as one of its attributes.

But usually when speaking of beauty in God's works one refers to inanimate nature. And certainly the earth, the sky and the heavens furnish us examples of marvelous beauty. Tastes differ, and that even in matters of beauty. But where the sense of beauty is well cultivated there is a general agreement on questions of beauty, however much there may be differences in matters of detail. In the examples that we are about to present, there is general agreement on these as being beautiful. How wonderfully beautiful is a graceful, snow clad mountain! We might use Mt. Ranier, one of the most beautiful mountains in America, as an illustration of mountain beauty. The fact that its base rises at about sea level and therefrom it towers "in single blessedness" nearly 15,000 feet above the beholder, gives it the appearance of height that very few other mountains give, since most other very high mountains are simply parts of a range whose surrounding mountains take away from them much of the impression of height and beauty. A velvety green carpet lies at Ranier's feet; magnificent forests luxuriate on its lap; verdant mosses and shrubs cover its hips and loins; wondrous glaciers nestle upon its bosom and eternal snows crown its head. And when the glow of the sunset guilds its whiteness with the golden shimmer of heaven, a sight of supreme beauty blesses the beholder, who is lost in rapturous delight at the prospect. The beauties of Mts. Hood, Shasta, Pike's Peak, McKinley, Whitney, St. Elias and Wrangell in the United States, of Logan in Canada,

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of Orizaba and Popocatepetl in Mexico, of Aconcagua in Argentina, of Sorata and Illimani in Bolivia, of Chimborazo and Antisana in Ecuador, of Tolima in Colombia, of Elburz in Russia, of Blanc in France, of Matterhorn, Yungfrau and Moench in Switzerland, of Rosa in Italy, of Kilimajaro, Kenia and Ruwenzoro in Africa, of Demavend in Persia, of Ararat in Armenia, of Everest in India and of Dapsang in Tibet, one and all exhibit wondrous scenes of beauty in cañons, precipices, gorges, falls, streams, glaciers and snow. To the writer mountains are the most beautiful inanimate objects on earth. As the backbones of the continents they impart a beauty to this earth that is simply indescribable. Their aspects as to sublimity will be mentioned later.

Waterfalls are another ornament of beauty for this earth. Like mountains, some of them have aspects of sublimity in addition to beauty. Both the eastern and western hemispheres are richly blessed with waterfalls. The loftiest of these are found in mountainous districts. The beauty of a cataract is not dependent so much on the large volume of water, rather on the small volume of water combined with great height. Accordingly, mighty cataracts, like the Niagara or Victoria, are not so beautiful as much higher and narrower falls. For this reason the falls, e.g., in the Yosemite are more beautiful than Niagara and Victoria Falls, though in sublimity the former falls cannot compare with the latter two falls. Who that has stood at the foot of the Yosemite Falls, gazing at its 2600 feet of descent, its first plunge of 1600 feet and its second plunge of 400, sandwiching in between them a series of cascades and rapids of a 600 feet descent in less than 1000 feet distance, and has not recognized that he has viewed one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful falls in the world. Who can ever forget the sight of beauty that breaks upon his vision when, about a half mile on the eleven miles valley trail from

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Glacier Point, which overlooks the Yosemite Valley, he catches the first view of Vernal Falls (300 feet), Nevada Falls (600 feet) and Illilouette Falls (300 feet), in one sweep of his eyes? And who does not go into ecstasies of delight at the laciness of Bridal Veil Falls (600 feet), the first of Yosemite's falls to greet his eyes as he enters that marvelous valley? Wondrously beautiful are the Yellowstone Falls in the National Park. Nor will one readily forget the 800 feet descent of Multonomah Falls in the Cascades, where they meet the mighty Columbia River. Many other beautiful falls are found in America, both on the West and the East coasts. Canada has some fine falls, e.g., The Grand Falls, the largest of whose cataracts is over 300 feet, and Montmorency Falls, whose cataract is over 200 feet.

South America is also blessed with many very beautiful falls. In Colombia the Bogota River, but 36 feet broad at Tequendama, there plunges over a precipice to a depth of 600 feet and with its surroundings makes a very notable display of beauty. Still more beautiful, and one of the finest falls of the world, is the Kaieteur Falls, in the Potaro River, British Guiana. It is 370 feet wide and plunges to a depth of 740 feet, and is a sight of beauty never to be forgotten. One of Europe's finest falls is that of the Ruikanfoss ("smoking fall") on the Maan River, Norway, and is 805 feet high. The cascade of Gavarnie in the Pyrenees is Europe's highest falls, being over 1300 feet. Its small stream turns into spray before its reaches the ground. Its neighbor, the Seculejo, falls 820 feet, being blessed with more copious water. Switzerland owes not a little of its beauty to its numerous falls and cascades. Staubbach, because of its small volume of water, resembles in front a beautiful lace veil suspended from the top of the precipice in its fall of 870 feet. Near Martigny is the picturesque Sellesche Falls, whose last leap is 128 feet. The

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Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen are 300 feet broad and 100 feet high. Italy, Austria and Russia have various falls that lend much beauty to these countries. The Island of Jamaica, is renowned for its scenic beauty, to which its numerous and high falls contribute not a little. While Asia has some falls, they are less picturesque than most of those that we have mentioned, and less so than the great falls of the Zambezi, Victoria Falls, in Africa, whose breadth is 1860 yards and height is 370 feet. On the Wingeni River in Natal Africa are two wondrously beautiful falls: Great Wingeni (364 feet) and the Kar Kloof Falls (350 feet). Yea, verily, in its waterfalls the earth as a creation of God is graced with much beauty.

Mountains, streams and falls by relation suggest the beauties of the vegetable world. How much of beauteous ornamentation does the grass frequently lend to some landscape, with its varied hues of green and its frequent velvety appearance! The beauty-loving traveler in Switzerland is enraptured by its wondrous verdure, so varied in its strains of green. The trees of the earth are likewise one of its ornaments of beauty. Great beauty is seen in the California redwood trees, so stately and symmetrical in form and so marvelous in height and girth. Who does not admire the beauty of the weeping willow, the strong oak, especially when draped with Spanish moss, the tender poplar, the snow-covered cedar, the venerable sycamore, the stately elm, the friendly maple and the cooing pepper tree of California? Not only are there the fine trees of the temperate zone, but also the gorgeous trees of the tropics. Jamaica and Ceylon are considered the most beautiful of earth's islands, and no small share of their beauty consists of their trees. And what shall we say of the beauties of earth's plant life? The tropics are richest in the luxuriant splendor of plant life. To see some of the loveliest plants that embellish this beauteous earth, let one visit Hope Gardens, six miles

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from Kingston, Jamaica, or Castleton Gardens, 25 miles away, and if he is a lover of plant beauty, he will have the feast of his life thereon. To almost everybody flowers are the living embodiment of beauty; and how richly favored is the earth with floral beauty! From the humble lily of the field and the fragrant lily of the valley of Palestine to the wondrous roses of Oregon and the glorious chrysanthemums of Japan, there is an immense variety of flowers that are "beauty all," adorning the earth with most refreshing loveliness.

Mountains also suggest snow by their relations. Snowflakes in their greatly varied forms, no two flakes exactly alike, give us crystal forms that are at once beautiful and inimitable by human skill. Mountains and hills frequently suggest caves, and some of these are beautiful beyond the power of human description. We do not refer so much to the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, which is more weird than beautiful, though some of its chambers are beautiful. But we refer to such caves as the Great Onyx near Mammoth Cave, the Caverns of Luray, Va., the Shenandoah Caverns, Va., Wind Cave, Black Hills, S. D., the Grottos near Waynesboro, Va. They have been electrified, which brings out their beauties of crystals, stalagmites, stalactites and curtain-like walls. Some of the lights located back of thin walls or within the stalagmites and stalactites bring out marvels of color and form. These outdo in beauty the exquisite imaginations presented in the caves of the Arabian Nights. The greatest and most beautiful of all caves are the Carlsbad Caves in N. M. The

U. S. government is opening up and making its many rooms accessible, one of which is 1½ miles long, 400 feet wide and 348 feet high. Many of its rooms are not yet explored. But its beauties make those of other caves just mentioned seem tame. The cave called Ear of Dionysius, in Sicily, and the Indian Chamber Caves of Jenolan, N. S., of

W. Australia, are

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also very beautiful. Mountains likewise remind us of their streams, which usually form sights of never-to-be-forgotten beauties. The streams of the Yosemite Valley, of Shasta, Hood, Adams and Ranier, of the Canadian Rockies, the Alps, the mountains of Norway, Italy, Austria, etc., with their rapids, rock islets and cascades, their shores decked with fresh and refreshing verdure, are as scenes of beauty, joys forever to the lover of the beautiful. Connected with mountains are some of the most beautiful chasms. Who that has looked upon the Yellowstone Gorge has not stood entranced at the sight? The chasm that some beauty-making glacier, like a marvelous landscape gardener, decked into the Yosemite Valley, defies description from the pen or mouth of the ablest word painter of beauty. The gorges that the mighty Columbia plowed out as it cut its way through the Cascade Mountains, and that the fair Yellowstone River dug out of the Rockies, likewise defy description by beauty experts of most eloquent tongue or pen. Only by degrees are the chasms that the Arkansas, the Green and the Gunnison Rivers in Colorado have plowed out less beautiful than the other gorges just mentioned.

Bodies of water, both great and small, present fine sights of their own as an expression of the Creator's love for, and manifestations of beauty. The great oceans open up before us vistas of loveliness. How beautiful in its way is the mirror that the calm ocean presents, especially when the waters of that mirror are of a deep indigo hue, and more especially when the moon and stars are reflected in this ocean mirror! Then at places its being dotted with islets lit up by the glow of a setting sun makes its beauty fairly dance before us in many entrancing forms. Again, it has cut up rock-bound or mountain-bound coasts into fantastic forms of beauty that seem more like dreams of a fine imagination than the factual essence of created being. And with what a shimmer of glory is the ocean's

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bosom lit up by a glorious sunrise or sunset! Indeed, few sights in nature are more glorious than the beauty of a sun's dawn heralding the day by the glow that it sends out before it on the horizon and its adjacent ocean, or than the beauty of the sun's setting like a great ball of glory, as it were, into the chambers of the ocean's depths. Some of its bays, like those of Naples, Rio de Janeiro, Puerto Cabello, Port Royal and San Francisco, are dreams of beauty. Some of the ocean's submarine gardens, like those at Santa. Catalina, off the coast of Southern California, are entrancing. The same remarks apply to its coral strands. These features of the ocean's beauty make some beauty lovers admire the ocean's varied scenery above that of every other scenery on earth.

And what shall we say of earth's lakes, some of which are the concentrated essence of beauty? What lover of beauty would not admire the beauties of Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies, nestling at the foot of a 10,000-foot mountain that stands as a sentinel keeping guard over this beauteous lake, while on its north and south, towering less high, mountains support its tall sentinel, the open west alone preventing the lake from being entirely mountain girt? And when a clear heaven with bright stars and a half or quarter moon canopies it, its bosom reflects the shadows of its mountains and celestial luminaries, while the light of day, bathing it, makes its blue bosom a reflection of the peace and bliss of heaven. Its neighboring Mirror and Agnes Lakes additionally lend their beauties to the enhancement of this scene. Much the same may be said of Lake Tahoe, between California and Nevada, whose clear blue mirrored bosom is a delight to the beholder. Our Adirondack lakes are comparable in beauty with Lakes Louise and Tahoe, Lakes Champlain and George being comparable to Lake Tahoe and the Saranac Lakes and Placid Lake to Lake Louise. Supreme among America's lakes in point of beauty is

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Crater Lake, Oregon, whose surface lies from 800 to 2000 feet below the irregularly rimmed top of an extinct volcano, with a circumference of 39 miles, almost everywhere separated from the lake itself by almost precipitous walls. Its color varies from the deepest indigo to the lightest blue, the color changes varying both with the difference of one's position and the angle of the sun's rays. Each hour of the day, by the varied color and shadows that it imparts, changes the appearance of this wondrous sight. The lover of beauty who sees Crater Lake looks upon one of earth's supreme beauty spots. Among the most beautiful lakes in the world are those of Switzerland, liberally scattered over German, French and Italian Switzerland. Most intelligent people have heard of the beauties of Lakes Geneva, Maggiore, Como, Neuchatel, Zurich and Zug.

But supreme among the lakes of Switzerland, perhaps supreme among the world's lakes, from the standpoint of beauty is Lake Lucerne. It is difficult to decide whether it or Crater Lake in Oregon deserves the palm for supremacy in beauty among earth's lakes. Certainly the scenery that can be viewed from some of Lucerne's girding mountains, like Rigi and Pilate, easily surpasses anything visible from the rim of Crater Lake, though as one looks down on these lakes from their surrounding heights Crater Lake by far surpasses Lake Lucerne in beauty. Most of Lake Lucerne and all of Crater Lake are surrounded by eminences of various heights. As viewed from the lakes themselves, the beauties that surround Lake Lucerne by far surpass those that surround Crater Lake. Its verdure is in marked contrast with the barrenness of the crater walls that rise above Crater Lake; but the latter's varicolored rock-ribbed crater walls more than overmatch Lake Lucerne's verdure. On the other hand, there is by far a greater variety in the mountain scenery that surrounds Lake Lucerne

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than in that which by its crater walls surrounds Crater Lake. We are glad that we do not have to decide as to which of these is earth's most beautiful lake. We will never forget our visit to each of these sights of beauty. Nor will we ever forget our trip to the top of Rigi and the panorama that there was unfolded to our eyes. Way down below on the side of Rigi away from Lake Lucerne, lay Zug Lake, nestling in rest at Rigi's feet. On the other side of Rigi could be seen three arms and a part of the fourth arm of Lake Lucerne, with all their great variety and beauty of surrounding mountains, while off in the distance the snow clad Alps, with most of their highest peaks clearly and beautifully visible, crowned the scene, one of the finest anywhere visible on earth. We were informed that the view from the top of Pilate is even finer than that beheld from Rigi's top; but we cannot speak from observation, never having been there. If it is, what a sight for the lover of beauty must it be!

Norway and Sweden have some wondrously beautiful lakes. But as beautiful as these are, they are surpassed in beauty by their fjords, particularly those of Norway. While less famed for beauty than Switzerland, because the Norwegians are not given to advertising their scenic wonders, Norway strikes the writer as being at least as beautiful in scenery as Switzerland, if not more so. It has many fjords that in beauty nearly equal Lake Lucerne. Sometimes those fjords present the appearance of rivers, at others that of lakes. Usually they are at the bottom of deep fissures in high plateaus. The walls of these fissures are often almost perpendicular, with great variations of structure; at other times these fissures recede markedly as their sides rise. Not infrequently beautiful waterfalls plunge from their heights in a series of cascades that are most pleasant to the sight. Frequently they shoot off arms from the main fjord, thus forming new ones. When we remember that Norway has about 175

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fjords, some of them running inland from the ocean 150 miles and more, and all of them wondrously beautiful, we can form something of an idea of Norway's fjord beauty. Other countries, like Scotland, Ireland, Greenland, Alaska, British Columbia and Chile, have more or less of these, but those of Norway are easily supreme among earth's fjords. One of the most beautiful scenes with which we ever were favored was in connection with one of Norway's fjords. We were riding in a train from Bergen to Oslo (former Christiana) when, about 35 to 50 miles from Bergen, our train reached a fjord and rode a number of miles along its shore. Looking back of us we could see a straight stretch of the fjord for perhaps ten miles. The fissure at the bottom of which the fjord lay reached up probably 800 yards and was 300 yards wide at the water's surface. At its end, visible from our position, the sun was just setting into the fjord and was imparting a gorgeous golden color and several other colors of the rainbow to the water for miles toward us, the bright colors reflecting with ever decreasing brilliancy up the sides of the fissure. The setting of the scene, lit up with gorgeously fine colors, made this sunset the second finest we have ever seen. Certainly, the fjords, especially those of Norway, manifest the beauty of God's creative work!

The sunset just referred to readily suggests to the mind the beauty of God's creative works in the sky, as evidenced by sunrises and sunsets. Certainly, some sunrises and their immediately preceding horizons and some sunsets with their following aglow horizons are among the most beautiful sights in nature. We have seen some glorious sunsets, particularly in Oklahoma, where the atmosphere and the sky seem especially adapted to beautiful sunsets. But by all odds the most beautiful sunset we ever witnessed was, we believe, in 1928, between Cuba and Jamaica, on our way to the latter island. As the sun was setting seven streamers

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arose from it; each one at the sun was as wide as a seventh of the upper half of the sun, each one being in one of the different colors of the rainbow. Each of these streamers reached upward, ever widening as it extended upward, and continued straight in the direction in which it left the sun until the seven formed the figure of a huge fan or ever widening banner, consisting of the seven colors of the rainbow, while their background was a gorgeous glow. This phenomenon lasted perhaps ten minutes before it began very slowly to shed its clear-cut colors and lines. Perhaps it was half an hour before it melted away into the soft twilight of the tropics. No painter could have done this scene justice. It was a never-to-be-forgotten sight. How often all of us have stood enraptured at the sight of sunrise or sunset, painting the clouds in brilliant hues of varicolored beauty! Well do we remember the gorgeous glow of a July, 1929, morning upon the snow clad mountain at whose feet Lake Louise nestles, and the glow of the setting sun transfiguring snow-white Mount Hood into a mountain of glory one December evening in 1906! Surely, the sun yields some of the most beautiful sights among God's creative works. The clouds at times alone, at times in connection with the sun, present many lovely sights, especially at some sunrises and sunsets.

Not only the sky gives scenes of delight to our beauty- admiring eyes, but the heavens above it spread out a canopy of beauty of high degree. Few sights are more beautiful to watch on a clear and cool winter night than the stars, one by one, like lovely flowers, blossoming into the galaxy of the complete starry heavens. To what a sight of beauty is the early winter riser treated when the morning stars, especially Venus or Jupiter, the brightest of the planets, quickly rises higher and higher along the Zodiac! What a sight among the stars is Sirius, shining in brightness above the other stars! And what beauties charm the knower

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of the main constellations as he beholds them when they are in the best position for observation! Ever is such an one ravished by the beauties of Orion, with its marvelous Betelgeuse, Rigel and Bellatrix, of Taurus, with its bright Aldebaran and with its more famous Seven Sisters, the Pleiades, and of Ursa Major, with its seven stars that constitute the Great Dipper, whose two bowl stars farthest from its handle so faithfully point out the star Polaris to us, enabling us to locate readily the four points of the compass. Surely, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth forth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech; and night unto night showeth knowledge (Ps. 19:1, 2); and "the earth is full of Thy riches" O Lord, in beauty (Ps. 104:24). Psalm 104, from which we have just quoted, contains a wonderful description of God's works of creation, among others from the standpoint of beauty. We will not quote it here in full, but will ask our readers to peruse it.

In our discussion of the attributes of God's creative works we now come to its attribute of sublimity. This makes the fourth attribute of creation as a product discussed in this chapter, the other three being: unity, immensity and beauty. As a definition of sublimity we might venture the following: It is the quality by which through grandeur, vastness, majesty and awfulness of things the heart and mind are filled with reverence, solemnity and wonder. Accordingly, the grand, the vast, the great and the awful, are the main elements in sublimity. A merely superficial view of God's creative works impresses one with the idea of their sublimity, as so many of them are grand, vast, great and awful. While practically all sublime objects are more or less beautiful, most beautiful objects are not sublime, e.g., about all animate beautiful things, like birds, butterflies, humans, flowers, trees, etc., and most inanimate beautiful things, like most waterfalls, lakes, snow, etc.

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Hence some of the things that above we cited as examples of beauty may be cited as examples of sublimity. Thus almost all of the mountains to which we referred in our last installment as beautiful have in their great heights, in their mighty canyons, in their deep valleys and in their majestic bearings, the quality of sublimity imbedded in them. Great falls, like the Niagara Falls and the Victoria Falls, certainly lean much more to the sublime than to the beautiful, though, of course, they also have beauty as a quality. Their sublimity is seen in the great volume of water that they hurl from their tops, in the great height from which they leap, in the deafening noise that they make, in the boisterous waves and whirlpools that they create and in the mighty power that they exemplify. One viewing such mountains and falls, if at all responsive to the sights brought to his vision, is certainly filled with the sense of reverence, solemnity and wonder, not only at them, but, through them, at their Creator.

From many standpoints the oceans are sublime. Their immensity in length, depth and breadth, certainly are suggestive of sublimity even when calm. But when a hurricane lashes their surface into mountains of furious waves, as seen from the deck of a ship tossed by such waves, their quality of sublimity is greatly heightened. Some of earth's canyons are certainly sublime. Supreme among these is the Grand Canyon of Arizona, as this name applies to that part of the Colorado's canyon in northern Arizona. That portion is over two hundred miles in length and about a mile deep perpendicularly at its most scenic parts. Sublimity marks its varicolored walls and buttes. Here its rock layers are bare. Here, in wall and butte, can be seen better than anywhere else on earth the seven layers of earth's crust, mostly evenly laid one upon another and all resting upon the foundation of the rock bottom granite. Thus it gives a most clear view of the seven successive falls of materials from above

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upon the ever cooling earth during its seven ages. The rock walls and buttes vary in color from white and buff to bright red and dull green. The even cut edges of these rock layers, combined with each layer being of a different color from any other, make parts of the walls look like a great flag with seven stripes, averaging about 700 feet thick and many miles long. The buttes themselves, rising from the bottom of the canyon, attain a height nearly level with the canyon's rim, and take up a large part of the chasm itself. As the eye starts at the bottom of these almost cone shaped buttes and gradually reaches higher and higher, each layer of stone, glowing with a different color from that of any other, combines to give the whole a never-to-be-forgotten scenic effect. When one remembers that where the Santa Fe Railroad reaches the rim of the canyon it is about twelve miles wide as well as a mile deep, embellished with these varicolored buttes and walls, he can readily perceive that the sublimity of the sight is overpowering. Especially is this the case when one is at the bottom and looks upward. Here are seen the mighty action of erosion on the buttes, the powerful plowings of the mighty river's waters which once flowed even with the rim, and on the sides the steady wear of waters flowing over the rim down the walls of the canyon. World travelers are a unit in the thought that this canyon is the sublimest object on earth.

The sky during a lightning storm, with mighty thunderings roaring in one's ears, especially when the lightning is of the streak kind, as distinct from the sheet kind, presents many sublime aspects, especially if the streak lightning strikes not far away from one at the end of a long zigzag course. If mountains and water are involved in the storm, the sense of the sublime is much heightened. Our readers will recall our above brief description of Lake Lucerne as an object of beauty. After we had descended from Rigi and had gone to the head of one of the lake's arms, an Alpine

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storm arose. About the mountains' heads the storm clouds had gathered dark and threatening. Stroke upon stroke of lightning flashed from them, seemingly against the mountains' sides, while the artillery of the heavens roared, and reverberated with quickly resounding echoes. We had often read of the sublimity of an Alpine storm, but to see one fills one to overflowing with the sense of the sublime. If one has ever stood at a vantage point and watched the mighty waves during a storm dash themselves against a rock-ribbed coast, he has viewed another of earth's sublime sights. A volcano in a great explosive eruption, with its roaring noise, earth-quaking blows, heaven-darkening smoke and ashes and overflowing lava, when viewed from a place of safety, presents one of the sublimest sights afforded in this earth. Only a little less sublime is an Alpine avalanche, or a glacier breaking off, into the sea, huge parts of itself in the form of icebergs. A great earthquake viewed from a safe vantage point must contain many elements of the sublime. Some prairie and forest fires illustrate the same quality.

But the sublimest things are in the heavens. The heavens themselves to one's naked eye convey more the sense of the sublime than of the beautiful. The immensity of the universe is simply sublime, which we believe all of us recognized as we read the part of this chapter that treated of that part of our theme; for the infinity of space in which the universe lies embraced is sublime. The long ages since creation began add to the sense of the universe's sublimity. The immense number of suns in our universe alone, supposed by sober astronomers to be 30,000,000,000, with an average of 10 times as many planets, 27 times as many moons, over 1,000 times as many planetoids and an unnumbered quantity of comets, certainly conveys to our minds and hearts the sense of sublimity, with resultant feelings of reverence, solemnity and wonder. And what shall we say on their sublimity when to our universe

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the twelve others so far revealed to our largest telescopes are added? This is heightened when we consider the vast distances of the suns from one another, and the vast territory each sun rules while reigning over its planets, moons and planetoids. The great speed with which the planets move on their orbits and axes increases our sense of the sublime as we contemplate the universe. The precision with which the planets move about their orbits and axes impresses us deeply with the sense of the sublimity of God's creative works. The development of the planets, out of their original gases into what they have become, and into what they are yet to become, as illustrated by that of our earth, certainly is sublime. If our vision were keen enough to take in the mighty processes through which the developing planets are going, the intense heat, the lurid sights, volcanic eruptions, gigantic explosions, wild storms, falling canopies and confused elements in their wild struggles with one another, we would see sights indescribably sublime and awe-inspiring.

Sublime indeed are the operations of nature's laws throughout the universe. When we think of the operation of the law of gravitation, sublimity is one of the qualities that it suggests to our mind. It operates upon every atom of matter throughout the universe. How wide flung, therefore, is its sphere of operation! What majesty is there in its grasp that is great enough to hold all matter securely in its mighty clutches! How inexorable is its rulership, subduing all things to its sway directly in proportion to their bulk and inversely as to their distance! How it keeps the worlds in perfect balance with the aid of centripetal and centrifugal forces! With the aid of centrifugal forces it keeps, e.g., our earth and all other planets of our solar system in their undeviating courses. If it would act alone, without the counteraction of centrifugal forces, all of the planets of our solar system would fall into the sun;

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and reversely, if it ceased acting and only centrifugal forces would act upon them, they would leaves their orbits and fall out into space away from the sun. The same things are true of the planets of all other systems. Hence the sublimity of the operation of gravitation's and other forces' laws. The laws underlying the varied cycles, culminating in the precessional cycle about every 26,000 years, wherein the motions of almost infinite numbers of heavenly bodies harmonize with one another better than clock work, convey to us a deep sense of the sublime. Surely sublimity is written everywhere on the face of the universe viewed in its larger aspects as well as in other aspects.

Accordingly, we recognize sublimity to be an attribute of God's work, and this implies that it is an attribute of God; for it is His sense of the sublime that operated in making sublimity a quality of His works. The Bible confirms this. The first chapter of Genesis gives us a sublime, yet simple account of God's creative work. We will quote a few passages that give us the thought of God's works as having sublimity as an attribute: "The pillars [the laws of gravitation, etc.] of the earth are the Lord's and He hath set the world upon them" (1 Sam. 2:8). "Thou hast made the heaven, the heaven of the heavens, with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that are therein; and Thou preservest them all" (Neh. 9:6). "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. By His spirit [power] He hath garnished the heavens" (Job 26:7, 13). "God looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight of the winds; and He weigheth the waters by measure. When He made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder" (Job 28:24-26). "Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge? Hast thou with Him spread out the sky, which is strong and as

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a molten looking glass" (Job 37:16, 18)? "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it, and brake up for it My decreed place and set bars and doors" (Job 38:4, 8-10)? "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, and the moon and stars, which Thou hast ordained" (Ps. 8:3). "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. In them He hath set a tabernacle for the sun" (Ps. 19:1, 4). "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof; for He hath founded it upon [above] the seas, and established it upon [above] the floods" (Ps. 24:1, 2). "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathered the waters of the sea together as an heap; He layeth up the depth in storehouses; for He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast" (Ps. 33:6, 7, 9). "Who by His strength setteth fast  the mountains, being girded with power" (Ps. 65:6). "The day is Thine; the night also is Thine. Thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth. Thou hast made summer and winter" (Ps. 74:16, 17). "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God" (Ps. 90:2). "In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land" (Ps. 95:4, 5).

"Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands" (Ps. 102:25). "Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain; who layeth the beams of His chambers in the waters; who laid the foundation of the earth, that it should not be removed forever. Thou coverest it with the

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deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all; the earth is full of Thy riches. Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created; and Thou renewest the face of the earth" (Ps. 104:2, 3, 5, 6, 24, 30). "To Him that by wisdom made the heavens; to Him that stretched out the earth above the waters; to Him that made great lights—the sun to rule by day, the moon and stars to rule by night" (Ps. 136:5-9). "Let them [the heavenly bodies] praise the name of the Lord; for He commanded and they were created. He hath also established them for ever and ever. He hath made a decree which shall not pass [away]" (Ps. 148:5, 6). "While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the field, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there; when He set a compass upon the face of the depth; when He established the clouds above; when He strengthened the fountains of the deep; when He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth" (Prov. 8:26-29). "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out the heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might; for that He is strong in power, not one faileth. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding" (Is. 40:12, 26, 28). "I have made the earth and created man upon it; I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded" (Is. 45:12). "My hand hath also laid

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the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens; when I call upon them, they stand up together" (Is. 48:13). "He hath made the earth by His power; He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion" (Jer. 10:12). "Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; the Lord of Hosts is His name" (Jer. 31:35). "When He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings with rain and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures" (Jer. 51:16). "For, lo, He that formeth the mountains and createth the wind … that maketh the morning darkness and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, the Lord, the God of Hosts, is His name" (Amos 4:13). "Seek Him that maketh the seven stars [Pleiades] and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into morning, and maketh the day dark with night" (Amos 5:8). "It is He that buildeth His stories in the heaven, and hath founded His troop in the earth; He that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is His name" (Amos 9:6). So far the main Scriptures that show creation to have the quality of sublimity. And if creation itself is sublime, how much more is God, the grandest, loftiest and most awe-inspiring of all beings, animate and inanimate. Along with creation's sublimity, God's sublimity is indicated in the many Scriptures which we have quoted. We have quoted these in order to give our readers a good list of such Scriptures for their further study.

The next quality of creation, as a product, which we would discuss is order. By order as an attribute of creation we mean that quality whereby a related arrangement and harmony are shown to exist in the

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universe amid all sorts of diversities of operations. This order works so nicely that with the most exact precision the motions or positions of the planets in relation to one another and their suns, and of the suns in relation to one another and to their planets, can be measured or located. This is due to the balanced cooperation of the various forces that under Divine manipulation control the universe, like gravitation, centrifugal and centripetal forces, the laws of attraction, repulsion, affinity, cohesion, adhesion, etc., and the relative density of the planets and suns. The universe operates in more than clockwork perfect order, because there is a perfect balance between these forces, laws and heavenly bodies. And this balance keeps its various parts in such perfect adjustment to one another as the grip of gigantic machinery could not effect. When the Scriptures refer to the foundations of the earth and the heavens, they do not refer to literal foundations; for the suns and planets hang out in space on nothing material. What, then, holds these heavenly bodies in their relative positions? Their varying density operated upon by the above-mentioned forces and laws under Divine manipulation. Of these, gravitation is the chief, the main figurative foundation rock of the suns, planets, planetoids, moons and comets. But it is the harmonious cooperation of all these factors that effects the wondrous balance seen in the order underlying the universe as a work of God. And such an order intelligently grasped fills the heart and mind with wonder, awe and reverence. It will be well for us to look at some particulars, remembering that the great Architect of the universe, as the Mathematician of mathematicians, has worked out the relative operations of the various pertinent forces and laws on the heavenly bodies according to the exactest of mathematical formulas, since the formulas of higher mathematicians are mainly the theoretical expressions of the modes of such operations as these are observed in the universe.

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We will first note some expressions of order as manifest in our solar system. How remarkable it is that the nearer a planet is to the sun, the greater is its density! Taking water as a measure and counting it as 1, Saturn is 13/32, or less than one-half as dense as water; Jupiter is 1 1/24 times as dense as water; Mars is 3/37 times as dense as water; Earth is 5.7 times as dense as water; Venus is 5 11/15 times as dense as water; and Mercury is 9 9/10 times as dense as water, i.e., about as dense as lead. We do not yet know the density of Vulcan, but it is denser than lead, while Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are, in their order, increasingly much less dense than water. Another marvel underlies the relative distances of the planets from the sun. It is the fact that there is a mathematical relation between these distances. If the following figures are placed in a line, thus: 0, 3, 6, 12, 24, 48, 96, 192, 384, 768, it will be noted that in those figures following 3, each one is double the preceding one. Now, if 4 be added to each figure, the result will give us the exact relative distance of each succeeding planet from the sun. Thus: Mercury—4, Venus—7, Earth—10, Mars—16, Planetoids—28, Jupiter—52, Saturn—100, Uranus—196, Neptune—388, Pluto—772. Before the planetoids were discovered, the first to be discovered being Ceres in 1801, there was an unaccountable gap in the progressional increase of the planets' distances from the sun, between Mars and Jupiter; but since 1801 over 1,000 planetoids have been discovered, and the central point between the nearest one and the farthest one from the sun, making allowance for their differences in density, fills this gap to a nicety, as indicated above. This is indeed fine order!

It is a further interesting fact that these distances bear an exact mathematical relation to the times of their varied revolutions about the sun. The great astronomer, Kepler, discovered this mathematical relation and expressed it as follows: As to any two

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planets, the squares of the periods of their revolutions are to each other as the cubes of their mean distance. On this remarkable fact the great astronomer, Sir John Herschel, comments as follows: "When we contemplate the constituents of the planetary system from the point of view that this relation affords us, it is no longer a mere analogy which strikes us, no longer a general relation among them as individuals independent of one another and circulating about the sun, each according to its peculiar nature and connected with it by its own peculiar tie. The resemblance is now perceived to be a true family likeness; they are bound up in one chain; interwoven in one web of mutual relation and harmonious agreement; subjected to one pervading influence which extends from the center to the farthest limits of our great system, of which all of them, the earth included, must henceforth be regarded as members." It will be recalled that above we gave the orbital velocities of the planets to illustrate immensity in speed and distance. We here give again their velocities in miles per second, this time to show the proportions that hold as between them: Vulcan about 45, Mercury 29.75, Venus 21.79, Earth 18.5,

Mars 14.97, Jupiter 8.38, Saturn 5.99, Uranus 4.19, Neptune 3.6 and Pluto 2.95. When we remember that these three important facts, the proportionate distances of the planets from the sun, the proportions between the periods of the planets' revolutions and their mean distances from one another, and the proportionate orbital velocities of the planets, apply not only to our solar system, but that either they or some things similar to them apply to all the planets of all solar systems, we are confronted with some amazing mathematical problems worked out not only theoretically, but also practically, on a scale of such immensity and sublimity as to stupify us in wonder and awe.

The attribute of order in God's creation is also evident in the succession of day and night, effected by

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the rotatory movement of the earth on its axis, whereby it is continually bringing successive parts of the earth to face the sun and turning the rest of them away from the sun. Its year is effected by its revolution about its orbit, and that with more than clocklike precision. By the simple expedient of the earth's orbit being inclined at the equator to the sun at an angle of 23.5, we in the northern hemisphere are not only given longer days and shorter nights while the sun is north of the equator, but also shorter days and longer nights while the sun is south of the equator. The seasons in their succession are due to the same expedient. And how beneficial to mankind is this order of affairs in the earth's rotation on its axis, giving us the succession of day and night, and the revolution of the earth on its orbit, giving us longer days in summer and longer nights in winter! Yea, how salutary is the regular succession of the seasons, caused by the earth's inclination on its orbit! And it is all done with such perfect order that we can confidently locate our calendars as to the equinoxes and solstices for innumerable years ahead and thousands of years gone by. The other planets also by their rotation on their axes are continually presenting successive parts of themselves to the sun, and by the same token are turning other successive parts of themselves away from the sun, involving the former parts in day and the latter parts in night. Sometime the benefits of the varying times of other planets' rotating on their axes and revolving about their orbits will become manifest to us, together with the pertinent relation of their orbital inclination to the sun. Here we only desire to call attention to the perfect order maintained by each of these planets in the succession of day and night, the varying lengths of these and the succession of their seasons as governed by their orbital inclination to the sun, which facts become all the more impressive when we recognize that

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they are, or will be, illustrated in the axial and orbital movements of planets in all solar systems.

This same principle of order is manifest in the other heavenly bodies in our solar system. It is seen in the movements of our moon, at least as concerns its orbital and axial motions. As is well known, we always see the same side of the moon, because its axial movement is as long in making one complete rotation as its orbital movement is in making one revolution. By its orbital and axial motions it is continually and very regularly, barring its eccentricities, making its rounds on its orbit and axis, and that with such prevision that astronomers, knowing the time of its eccentricities, can quite accurately calculate its phases, its quarters and its positions at any given time in the past, present and future. The same principle of order is observed in the other 26 moons so far discovered in our solar system, and doubtless is or will be manifested in those of other solar systems than that of our own. As one after the other of the planetoids has been discovered, the same principle of order manifested variously in the planets is found to exemplify itself in connection with them. Perhaps the other solar systems have, like our own, their portion of planetoids, or will have them. If they now have them, these exemplify order in their orbital and axial movements, their changes of day and night and seasons, all doubtless on a much smaller scale than ours, but dependably regular in their successions. Comets, as far as known, likewise exemplify order in their movements. For this reason astronomers are able to calculate their courses, speed, time of their appearances and the length of their absences. They work in their motions along the lines of mathematical formulas. They either visit other solar systems than ours, or these have sets of them peculiar to themselves. Thus order prevails amid all the heavenly bodies. They work and move with an exactness that does not vary the fraction of a second in tens of thousands of years.

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Another feature of order as an attribute of God's creation is that of the fixity of the suns of the universe in their relation to one another. As is well known, the planets, moons, planetoids, meteors and comets vary in their position toward their peculiar suns and toward all other suns in their relations to them. The suns also vary in their relations to one another, but yet remain in absolutely relative fixity with one another, since they, too, move on their axes and orbits. While the whole universe revolves about a common center, Alcyone of the Pleiades, it does so with such an exactness as keeps it in harmonious relations as between its suns and their planets, etc. All its suns rotate on their axes and revolve on orbits of their own, but do so without the least deviation in their harmonious relations to one another; for their movements are so adjusted to one another and to their common center as to go in harmony unchangingly in their mutual relations, as in numbers of 30,000,000,000 they sweep through our universe's space; hence none of the constellations are variable, evidenced to our senses by the fact that each year as the earth's orbital motion brings it back to the same position toward its sun as it held each year before, the constellations are in exactly the same position relatively to our earth, except for the advance of 50.3 seconds per year caused by the annual advance of the precession of the equinoxes. This phenomenon has been observed by man for over 5,000 years and has enabled him to fix the twelve signs of the Zodiac as the signs of the months, and they have always come out exact. Thus the laws and forces whereby God rules the motions of the suns hold them unchangeably in their relative positions to one another more fixedly than if they were held in a framework of steel.

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The heavens declare Thy glory, Lord,

Through all the realms of boundless space

The soaring mind may roam abroad,

And there Thy power and wisdom trace.

Author of Nature's wondrous laws,

Preserver of its glorious grace,

We hail Thee as the great First Cause,

And here delight Thy ways to trace.

And while bright visions of Thy power

The shining worlds before us bring,

The earthly grandeur, fruit and flower,

The praises of Thy bounty sing.

Another feature of order in God's creative work is the permanence of the fixed relations of the suns to one another, despite their axial and orbital motions, that of the fixed relations of the planetary systems to their respective suns and that of the fixed relations of the moons to their individual planets. This, too, holds as to the planetoids and comets. Here is almost infinite motion about untold billions of centers, for the suns have Alcyone as their center, the moons have their planets as their centers, and the planets and planetoids have their respective suns as their centers, not to mention the centers of the comets, all, except the suns, which may have varying axial speeds, working at various speeds axially and orbitally, as well as being different in their axes and orbits, yet all permanent in their pertinent fixed and pertinent changing relations to one another. Here is unity in diversity that works permanently in a fixed order that never changes. How sublime is the order here brought to our attention! What a marvelous universe is that in which we live! Doubtless this same feature of order prevails in all other universes of God's creation! And how much greater than all this marvelous universe must that

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Being be who made it all in such unity, immensity, beauty, sublimity and order, and then preserves it in the same attributes! Great is our God and greatly to be praised! And yet with all His greatness, He can and does condescend to draw nigh unto us, if we will draw nigh unto Him, and to enter into fatherly and covenant relations with the sons of men!

We have so far studied order as an attribute of God's creative works in their general relations. But there are particular features of order that govern matter and its combinations, as well as this earth and its living conditions. How wonderful is the order that is brought to our attention in chemistry. Always the same combinations bring about the same result chemically. Thus the proper combinations of hydrogen and oxygen always yield water; always the same combination of certain gases yield air; and various other compounds are brought into existence by an orderly combination of their constituents. In physics, in geology, in zoology, in anthropology, the two departments of biology, in botany, in dendrology: the same conditions meeting, the same order of being and conditions results. We observe order in the processes at work in our earth as viewed by itself. The tides show it; the distribution of the continents and oceans express it; their relations in contour exemplify it; the distribution of mountain and hill chains, plateaus, plains, tablelands, valleys, lakes, rivers and harbors herald it; the ocean currents and their modifications on climates sound it forth; forests and deserts intone it; the watersheds, rains, rainstorms, storms and sunshine proclaim it; insects, reptiles, wild and domestic animals, fish and fowl, men and angels, tell it forth. Even in the creative processes, which further on will be discussed, the same attribute is manifest as present. Everywhere, except in the domain of sin and its consequences, which are not creative works, do we behold this attribute of order in God's creative works. This exception is such, be

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cause a higher order than physical order requires it. Hence universal order has led to the rise of the proverb, Order is Heaven's first law. And by the order observed in God's creative works, we are led to recognize the attribute of order as a characteristic of God, of which the Bible gives us the assurance when it tells us, God is not the author of confusion, but of peace and order, which He desires us to practice after His example (1 Cor. 14:33, 40). And, surely, this attribute of God that marks His character and His works is one by which in its manifold operations and wonders we are constrained to worship, praise and adore Him, who made the heavens and the earth and all beings in them, whether visible or invisible, and, sin apart, regulates them in a most astounding order.

The next attribute of God's creative works to engage our study is wondrousness—a wondrousness that shows itself, especially in the exhibition of power and wisdom, and to a much less degree of justice and love. Indeed, every attribute of creation so far studied in this article manifests wondrousness in the power and wisdom therein displayed. Many were the points in power and wisdom underlying the unity of God's creation that revealed the wondrousness of God's creative works. This is still more manifest in the immensity of bulk, time, space, motions, suns, planets, moons, planetoids and comets in our physical universe, not to mention the other universes that have been discovered. The beauty and sublimity displayed in the universe present the same attribute of wondrousness. Mightily does the order displayed in the universe as a revelation of power and wisdom, also of justice and love, bring out the wondrousness of the universe, as a creative work of God. Thus we recognize that the attribute of wondrousness imbedded in the universe permeates all its other attributes. We will note this principle also when we come to study the attribute of complexity, which we will consider after our study of

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creation's wondrousness. But apart from its being manifest throughout the six other attributes of God's creative work studied or yet to be studied, in this chapter, it has independent manifestations of itself apart from these other six attributes of creation. And it is these independent manifestations of it that we desire to study here. To bring this out we will set before our readers some marvelous generalities of our universe. Some of these are of very recent discovery; for since the one-hundred inch lens of the reflecting telescope has been in use at the observatory on Mt. Wilson, near Pasadena, Calif., our knowledge of new worlds about us and beyond the outmost of those known but a few years ago has increased by leaps and bounds in all directions.

As an illustration of this, only about six years ago it was the scientific thought that there were 30,000,000,000 suns in the universe. At that time the scientific thought was that there were 14 Milky Ways in the universe. It will be recalled that we gave these figures in illustrating the immensity of the universe. Such they do; but since those six years the great telescope at Mt. Wilson has made discoveries that make these figures appear as those of microbes compared with a gigantisaurus! We will make a few quotations of recent press reports on some of such discoveries as samples of the attribute of wondrousness stamped on God's creative works. The following is an item published by the United Press under the date of Jan. 25, 1934: "As thick as the stars on the Milky Way is no longer a term of real meaning, according to the findings of astronomers. A late computation of Prof. William MacMillan of the University of Chicago and Dr. Edwin P. Hubble of Mt. Wilson observatory, revealed today that the stars are not at all thick in the Milky Way nor in any of the other 75,000,000 Milky Ways in the astronomer's universe, spaced 650,000 light years apart. Counts of the nebulae or Milky Ways were

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made on 1,283 photographs taken with the 60-inch and 100-inch Mt. Wilson telescopes. The pictures covered two per cent of the three-quarters of the sky visible at Mt. Wilson. They were exposed down to the twentieth photographic magnitude, showing 44,000 nebulae. Professor MacMillan pointed out that, assuming even distribution, the number of nebulae within 20 photographic magnitudes, a sphere with a radius of about 300,000,000 light years, would be 75,000,000. Each nebula is believed to be a star system similar to our Milky Way, which in itself contains a billion plus stars." Surely here is wondrousness—more than enough to satisfy the most exacting. But we venture to say that when the 200-inch lens, now under construction, is fitted on a reflecting telescope, the figures of 75,000,000 Milky Ways will again be reduced to relative microbe size in proportion to gigantisauric size of the number of the as yet undiscovered other Milky Ways. Then, no doubt, when still larger and thus more penetrating telescopes will have been made, this process of the discoveries of still vastly greater numbers of Milky Ways will go on almost ad infinitum!

Just recently some marvels have been brought to light in the Larger Magellanic Cloud. When Magellan 400 years ago made his circuit of the earth by way of Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, he discovered, when far south of the Equator, two clouds of nebulae—groups of stars so dim, yet so compact to the naked eye as to seem to be clouds. Since then the larger of these has been called the Larger Magellanic Cloud and the smaller one the Smaller Magellanic Cloud. We now will introduce a quotation from the daily press, giving a few facts of very recent discovery as to the Larger Magellanic Cloud: "A brilliant vacuum, far brighter than the combined radiance of all the stars one may see with the naked eye, has been found in a galaxy 90,000 light years distant from earth, Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of Harvard's astronomical

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observatory, told the closing session of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Shapely spoke in acceptance of the association's Rumford medal, presented 'for distinguished research in physics.' His address was entitled, The Anatomy of a Disordered Universe. A study of the Larger Magellanic Cloud, the key with which it may be possible to unlock some of the mysteries in the cosmic spaces outside our own Milky Way system, disclosed the existence of the vacuum, he said. The star cloud, visible only in the southern latitudes, has been known for 400 years, but only for the last generation has it been seriously studied. Among the new results accomplished by the Lick and Harvard observatories, Dr. Shapely said, were the discovery of some 500 new variable stars among the giants and super-giants previously noted. Their analysis shows the cloud is a little less than 90,000 light years distant. 'A score of new star clusters have been found in the vicinity of the large cloud,' he said. 'They are undoubtedly outlying members of the organization. A census of the giant and super-giant stars in the cloud has been completed, showing there are several millions that are of higher radiance than our own sun. Some of the super- giant stars are of extraordinary size and of exceedingly high temperature, many of them being more than 10,000 times as bright as our sun. A study of the gaseous nebulosity in the cloud was undertaken, with the discovery that its intrinsic radiation greatly exceeds that of all our naked eye stars put together, and yet its density must be exceedingly low—less than that of a very excellent vacuum in the physics laboratory.'" This is wonderful indeed.

Many wondrous facts similar to the two sets of facts described in the two above quotations could be given, but we will pass them by and give a number of smaller details which will illustrate wondrousness as an attribute of creation. The wondrousness of power and

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wisdom as displayed in the law of gravitation and centrifugal forces finds an illustration in the balanced relations of the sun and earth maintained by their harmoniously held space relations. The earth is kept in its orbit by the attraction of the sun as balanced by the centrifugal force of its orbital motion and gravitation operating on it from other heavenly bodies. If the latter forces were withdrawn, the earth would drop into the sun, falling only 1/9 of an inch in its first second's fall, but increasing its speed until in two months it would fall into the sun, its last second's fall being at the rate of 380 miles, 5/6 of the time, i.e., 50 5/6 of the 61 days required in the fall, would be required to cover its first half. Or if the attraction of the sun would be withdrawn from the earth, it would drop out into space, falling eternally at an ever increasing rate, unless it would crash into another body and explode into fragments, or otherwise disintegrate. The amount of power exerted to keep the earth balanced in its space relation to the sun is equal to that of a steel rod able to support 50 tons to the square inch, 5000 miles in diameter and 93,000,000 miles long! To keep the planets that are nearer the sun in their  balanced space relation to the sun would require a somewhat less strong steel rod, modified by their less distances and sizes, but greater densities, while if rods were required to keep the outer planets in their balanced space relations to the sun, they would have to be much stronger, of greater diameter and lengths, dependent on those planets' difference in size, weight and distance from the sun. Then we are to  remember that there are similar manifestations of power and wisdom displayed in the other solar systems. Certainly the wondrousness of power and wisdom manifest in this set of facts is evident on but little thought.

There are some wondrous things in God's creative works manifest in Betelgeuse, which is the bright red star in the southern one of the upper corners of the

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nearly rectangular box of Orion, the most beautiful of the constellations. Betelgeuse is the largest of all the suns visible to our naked eyes. His size is quite variable. Extended to his utmost, his diameter is 256,000,000 miles, and contracted to his utmost, it is 186,000,000 miles. Even when contracted to his least proportions he is still by far the largest of the stars visible to our naked eyes. His size is 26,000,000 times that of our sun, which in turn is 1,300,000 times as large as our earth! Yet his weight is only 16 times as great as that of our sun. His mean density (weight) is a thousandth of that of air. Thus Betelgeuse is almost a vacuum. It will be noted from what was said above that his diameter varies from his greatest expansion to his greatest contraction by 70,000,000 miles. He therefore exhibits a stage in the variableness of size assumed during the process of condensing the rarest of gases into relatively solid bodies, a process through which our earth progressed in passing from a gaseous to its present state. This seems to be the process through which all the heavenly bodies pass as they undergo God's creative operations. A cube of Betelgeuse's matter 23 feet square on each of its six sides would weigh only a pound! This shows that he is a fair vacuum.

By contrast we may note the great density in the mass of the smaller of the two stars that constitute Sirius, which is the brightest star visible from earth, which, as is well known, is a double star, and which is the next nearest to our earth of all the stars, it being 8.8 light years, or about 51,000,000,000,000 miles away from us, Alpha Centauri, the third brightest stars to the earth, being 4.3 light years, or 25,000,000,000,000 miles away, is the nearest to the earth of all the stars. The smaller of the two stars that compose Sirius is visible only by a large telescope. The larger of these two stars gives out 10,000 times as much light as the smaller one. But the smaller one is much heavier than the

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larger one. Its density is 50,000 times that of water, about 4,500 times that of lead, and more than 2,000 times as heavy as any substance found in the earth. A pint (liquid, not dry) of its matter weighs 26 tons, while a ball of it the size of a tennis ball would weight 7.4 tons. This star's weight is about the same as that of our sun, which weighs 332,000 times our earth. So far as we know, the heaviest star weighs only 75 times as much as our sun, though many of them, like Betelgeuse, are millions of times larger than our sun. As an illustration of the great size of Betelgeuse we might submit the following: If, when Betelgeuse is expanded to his utmost, the middle point of its diameter were placed at the middle point of the sun's diameter, which is 864,000 miles, and if the sun's diameter thus placed were lying alongside of that of Betelgeuse, the latter's surface would reach out to within 13,000,000 miles from Mars, which is 141,000,000 miles from the sun. Our earth would then be within Betelgeuse, 35,000,000 miles beneath its surface. And if this were done at the time Betelgeuse were contracted to his utmost, the earth would still be buried 200,000 miles beneath his surface. Nor is Betelgeuse the only star over 100,000,000 miles in diameter when contracted to its utmost. Antares is one of the largest of the stars. Its diameter is 142,000,000 miles, which is 165 times that of the sun. The facts adduced in this and the preceding paragraphs prove that wondrousness is written into the being of various of the world's suns.

The wondrousness of the universe of God is likewise seen in the luminosity of the planets and the suns. Astronomical instruments have been invented that accurately give the luminosity of the stars. The luminosity of our sun is much greater than the light of the whole canopy of the heavens above the horizon (which is half of the celestial sphere) would be, were it filled with full moons in close contact with one another. Taking the luminosity of the sun as represented by one, we

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find that many of the stars are intrinsically much brighter than our sun, i.e., if they were as near to us as our sun they would be to us many times brighter. Alcyone, God's dwelling place, has a luminosity 1,190 times greater than our sun. Of course, our eyes could not endure such brightness, were it as near to us as our sun. Nor is Alcyone by a long way the most luminous of the stars. Betelgeuse has greater luminosity, being 1,225 times brighter than our sun. Polaris, our North Star, is still more luminous, being intrinsically 2,570 times brighter than our sun. Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, is 3,600 times more luminous than our sun. Deneb in Cygnus has still more luminosity; it would to us shine with 10,470 times the brightness of our sun, were it at the same distance from us. Rigel, the brightest star in Orion and situated in the box of that constellation diagonally opposite Betelgeuse, has an intrinsic luminosity 18,000 times greater than our sun. Canopus, which is to us the second brightest of the stars, being surpassed only by Sirius, has a luminosity 77,000 times greater than our sun, i.e., if it were as near to us as our sun it would shine upon us with 77,000 times the brightness of the sun. But even Canopus is not the brightest heavenly body. This honor, according to present knowledge, belongs to one of the suns in the Larger Magellanic Cloud—S. Doradi, which, according to Prof. Shapley, has a luminosity of 600,000 times that of our sun. Such light would instantly blind us, if S. Doradi were where our sun is. This star is as much brighter than our sun as our sun is brighter than the full moon. But let us not think that the brighter a star seems to us, the brighter it necessarily is intrinsically. A few examples will disprove such a thought. To our eyes Sirius is the brightest of all stars; but intrinsically he is not at all one of the brightest stars. He is intrinsically only 28 times brighter than our sun; his comparative nearness to us—only 8.8 light years away—makes him appear so

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bright to us. Canopus appears only a little less bright to us than Sirius; for his enormous distance from us, 652 light years, despite his 77,000 times luminosity above that of the sun, makes him appear to us less bright than Sirius, though intrinsically he is nearly 3,000 times brighter than Sirius, Alpha Centauri is to us the third brightest of the stars, yet he is intrinsically only about 1½ times brighter than our sun. This is due to the fact that he is the nearest to us of all the stars, except our sun, being only 4.3 light years— 25,000,000,000,000 miles away. Surely the luminosity of the stars partakes of the quality of wondrousness.

Some other facts connected with our sun suggest wondrousness. This is seen in its steady axial and orbital movements, the latter being at the rate of 12 miles per second. His mean distance from us is 92,900,000 miles, but in January he is nearest to us, being 91,400,000 miles away, and in July he is farthest from us, being 94,400,000 miles away. His diameter is 864,000 miles, which is 109.1 times that of our earth. His volume is 1,300,000 times that of the earth. His temperature is 10,000° Fahrenheit (6,000° Centigrade). He gives us 466,000 times as much light as the average full moon. Since the celestial hemisphere is 98,000 times the size of the area filled by the moon, if the celestial hemisphere were in all its surface filled with full moons and the spaces between each of the moons were also just as bright as the full moons surrounding them, this celestial hemisphere would give about a sixth as much light as our sun. Yet partly in spite of some, and partly on account of others of the above given facts, the sun is one of the smallest and faintest of the stars. Its comparative nearness to us accounts for its seeming to be the largest and brightest of the stars. Wondrous indeed are these facts. Wondrous is the further fact that through its carrying the earth (and for all that, the other planets, etc., of our solar system) with the fixity of sameness along its orbit, it keeps to the same

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(apparent) path through the constellations of the Zodiac. Its weight, being 332,000 times that of our earth, is enormous, being about the average weight of the other suns, which in almost every case are much larger than it, as shown above. None so far discovered has more than 75 times the sun's weight. Its spots are another feature of its wondrousness. It is the fact that these spots are continually moving eastward, then, after a visibility of a certain time, disappear, and then later appear on the western rim of the sun and then complete the same movement again, that has demonstrated the truth that the sun rotates on an axis. A singular fact as to its rotation is this, that the nearer the sun is to the celestial equator, the more rapid is its rotation, while the farther it is from the celestial equator, the slower is its rotation. Accordingly, unlike the earth's rotation on its axis, which is uniform, that of the sun is variable, its rotation on its axis averaging about 25 days, but the variation above indicated being from 24.5 to 25.38 days. The sun's corona during an eclipse often reaching out to 500,000 miles beyond the sun on all sides, is certainly a wondrous thing.

There is wondrousness exhibited in others of the bright stars. Apart from Sirius, the four brightest stars visible at places above 38° north of the equator are Vega in Lyra, Capella in Auriga, Arcturus in Bootes, and Rigel in Orion. The last is very far away, 544 light years distant; the only other more distant star visible above 38° north latitude, where Canopus first rises above the southern horizon, is Deneb, in Cygnus, which like Canopus is 652 light years away. According to this, Rigel, whose luminosity is 18,000 times that of the sun, is intrinsically one of the brightest of all stars, in fact the brightest of any seen by the naked eye, except Canopus, which as just indicated, cannot be seen until one is south of 38° north latitude. Vega, in Lyra, next to Sirius is the brightest star in magnitude visible north of 38°, though intrinsically it is by no

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means one of the brightest stars, its luminosity being only 51 times that of our sun. Its brightness to us is due to its comparative nearness, it being only 26 light years away. It is the fourth brightest star visible from earth, ranking next to Sirius, Canopus and Alpha Centauri. Its color is a beautiful blue. Capella and Arcturus are of the same magnitude. In distance they are respectively 43 and 41 light years from us, and their luminosity are respectively 130 and 112 times that of our sun. Capella is of a yellow tinge and Arcturus is of a red tinge. Arcturus is one of the larger stars. Its diameter is 25,500,000 miles, which is 29.5 times that of our sun, and its volume is 26,000 times that of our sun. Until 1718, when Halley, the discoverer of the comet of his name, found out that the stars moved, the stars were all considered as fixed. In that year he announced that Arcturus and Sirius and Procyon had changed their positions since ancient times. Except Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to us, but not visible unless one is far south, no star as bright as the fourth magnitude changes its position among the stars more rapidly than Arcturus does. Yet it changes its position only one degree in 1,570 years. He is moving through space at the rate of 77 miles a second, which seems like a snail's pace compared with the most rapid known star that goes 625 miles a second.

Another star that is not so bright as the four just now noted deserves mention as wondrous in several particulars. It is Antares, which is the brightest star in the Zodiacal constellation, Scorpius. The latter is doubtless the most beautiful constellation in the Zodiac. Antares is a bright red star. Its name, derived from anti and Ares, i.e., instead of Ares (Mars), was given it because when the planet Mars, which is also bright red, and Antares are near one another they seem to be in rivalry as to which would outshine the other. Its size is enormous. Its diameter is 146,000,000 miles—40,000,000 miles less than that of Betelgeuse when the

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latter is most contracted and 110,000,000 miles less when the latter is expanded to his utmost. Its diameter is 165 times that of our sun. Our sun is moving at the rate of 12 miles a second, carrying the earth and all the other solar planets, etc., with it in the direction of the constellation Lyra. This velocity in a year carries the earth nearly 400,000,000 miles. The movement of the earth around the sun on its orbit, combined with its movement with the sun, makes its movement a spiral one. If the motion of the sun were exactly in the direction of Vega and Vega did not move, we would arrive at Vega in 475,000 years! Another star deserves special mention here, because it is suggestive of wondrousness. It is Deneb in Cygnus. It is so distant that its distance cannot be measured with certain accuracy. It and Canopus are the most distant of the stars visible to the naked eye of those so far measured, each of them being approximately 654 light years away. As indicated above, it is 10,470 times as bright as our sun. It is approaching the earth at the comparatively slow rate of 2.5 miles a second, but long observation fails to disclose any change in its position among the stars. This is probably due to its very great distance from us hiding that change.

Deneb lies at the head of what is called the Northern Cross, in Cygnus. There is a beautiful constellation called the Southern Cross, lying too far south to be seen much north of the Tropics. It is very remarkable how many crosses, diamonds, irregular triangles, right angled triangles and equilateral triangles are formed by various of the stars. One of the most remarkable of these diamonds is formed by Betelgeuse, Rigel, Sirius and Aldebaran, the brightest star in Taurus, a part of which constellation the Pleiades also are. One of the finest equilateral triangles in the heavens is formed by Betelgeuse, Sirius and Procyon. Orion by Betelgeuse, Belletrix, Rigel and Saiph forms a rough right- angled quadrangular figure, while Orion's

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belt forms an almost perfect measuring rod just 3° long, which has occasioned the name of "yardstick" to be given to his belt. We have not given the matter requisite study and therefore cannot vouch for the truth or untruth of the claim; but Dr. Seiss, whose work on the Pyramid entitled, A Miracle in Stone, is commended and quoted by our Pastor in the Pyramid chapter of Vol. III, claims that the plan of God is depicted in the constellations, somewhat after the manner in which it is depicted in the Pyramid. We hope some time to be able to investigate and report to the brethren on this subject. In passing, we might mention that it was the book of Dr. Seiss, who was one of the most prominent American Lutheran writers, entitled, The Last Times, which first convinced us, contrary to the teachings of the Lutheran Church, of which we were then a member and pastor, that the Bible teaches that there will be a Millennium. He however did not see that during the Millennium the opportunity of restitution would be given the dead. The facts adduced in this paragraph contribute their quota in proof of the proposition that wondrousness is one of the attributes of God's creative work.

The constellation Ursa Major (The Larger Bear) is perhaps the best known constellation of the northern hemisphere. In the United States a part of this constellation is called the Big Dipper. It is also, especially outside of the

U. S., called Charles' Wain (wagon), the Plow, and the Butcher's Cleaver. Ursa Major embraces many other stars than the Big Dipper. Almost the entire constellation is so formed as to constitute a double set of many stars. The first set of these, beginning in winter quite a distance northwest of the bowl of the Dipper, forms a rough semicircle ending in two stars at its southwestern extreme. Then beginning with the stars at the bottom of the Dipper's bowl, we find a parallel set of stars, forming a rough semicircle, terminating

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at its southwestern extreme in a pair of stars. These two sets of two stars are at one extreme and the center of a straight line, that if projected at the same angle about the same distance as these two pairs are from one another, the straight line will terminate in two other stars, positioned toward one another as the two in the other two sets are. The above described two rough semicircles, the three sets of two stars at the southeastern end (in winter) and the handle of the Big Dipper give us the outlines of Ursa Major, which, next to Orion, is probably the most beautiful of the constellations. In the A. V. of Job 38:32 the word Arcturus occurs, but in the R. V., A. R. V. and Rotherham the Hebrew word is rendered Bear and refers to Ursa Major, while in these translations the Hebrew words rendered "her signs" are by Young rendered train and doubtless refer to Ursa Minor, in which Polaris is situated. The A. V., R. V., and A. R. V. transliterate the Hebrew word Mazzaroth, but in their margins and in the text of Rotherham this word is rendered the twelve signs, i.e., the twelve Zodiacal constellations. So viewed, Job 38:31-33 gives us the most extended astronomical allusion to constellations to be found in the Bible. Ursa Major by the two pointer stars in the bowl of its Dipper (the Big Dipper) farthest from its handle and Ursa Minor by the star Polaris at the end of the handle of its Dipper (the Little Dipper) furnish mariners in particular and everybody in general north of the equator the best indication, in the night time, of the points of the compass, since the two pointers in the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris; and if their distance apart be extended by five times in a straight line from the upper and outer side of the bowl, this line will terminate at Polaris, which circles about the North Pole at a radius of 1¼ degree. Hence all one needs to do at night when he can see the pointers is to locate Polaris and thus he can locate the points of the compass.

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This is highly practical, if one is lost during the night.

In the constellation Andromeda is a matter that comes well within the range of wondrousness as an attribute of God's creative works. It is Andromeda's Nebula, the nearest of the spiral nebulae, though there are other nebulae not of the spiral sort, like the Larger and Smaller Magellanic Nebulae, that are nearer to us. The spiral nebula in Andromeda is the most distant object visible to the naked eye. It is 900,000 light years away, which means 5,400,000,000,000,000,000 miles away. When conditions are clear, it can be seen as a cloud speck with good naked eyes, otherwise an opera glass will bring it into good view. Our larger telescopes have resolved this nebula into star clusters of billions of stars, and thus have discovered a new universe. Many millions more of such universes have been discovered, e.g., the two Magellanic Clouds. Our own universe is estimated to have 30,000,000,000 suns. The three others just mentioned have each one of them billions of stars. Andromeda's spiral nebula being 900,000 light years away from us, according to the calculations of Dr. E.

P. Hubble of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, means that we now see it as it was 900,000 years ago; for it was that long ago that the light which we now see left it. And people living 900,000 years from now will see it as it now is. Dr. Barton, in his Guide to the Constellations, says of this distance the following: "Even the light year is a  pretty small unit in which to express such distances. If the scale of the universe were so tremendously reduced that the sun became a sphere of only 1/1000 inch in diameter, in which case the earth would be a sphere 1/100,000 inch in diameter, too small to see in our best microscopes 1/10 inch away—this nebula would still be 90,000 miles away! A photographic plate used with a powerful telescope and with

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a long exposure shows that the material in this nebula, like that in many similar objects, is distributed as a central mass with branches of spiral shape extending away from it. In 1924 the outer portions of this nebula and the one in Triangulum were resolved into masses of stars, proving what was long suspected, that they were great systems of stars, universes, somewhat like the one in which we are, only smaller. Thirty billion is the estimate of the stars in our system. But the Andromeda nebula is only one of the spiral nebulae. It is estimated that a million [this statement was made in 1928; Prof. Shapley's estimate of 1934, quoted above, implies many millions] could be photographed ranging from this, the brightest, to the smallest specks recognizable as nebulae. How many others there may be, too distant to be seen, no one can tell. The distances of the remotest ones seen are estimated to be 140,000,000 light years [840,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles!]. The largest diameter of the Andromeda nebula is about 45,000 light years. The view of this nebula should be combined with considerable thinking." Surely, wondrousness is an  attribute of God's creative work as exhibited in Andromeda's nebula, as a sample of the millions of others in God's creation.

Wondrousness is stamped upon God's creation in the variableness of many stars, i.e., their magnitudes and sometimes their sizes vary at different times. We have already called attention to the variableness of Betelgeuse in size. It also varies from 0.6 to 1.4 in magnitude. By magnitude is meant the apparent, as distinct from the intrinsic brightness of the stars. Some ancients, classifying the magnitudes of the stars from first to sixth, divided these more loosely than the moderns. They counted about twenty of the brightest stars of the first magnitude; and all those that were the faintest of those visible in a clear sky were classified as of the sixth magnitude, while those between these extremes were roughly grouped into

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four intervening classes, according to their brightness. Other ancients divided them into twelve magnitudes. But with the invention of telescopes, and more especially of the very large ones of the present time, a new classification had to be made, not only among those visible to the naked eye, but also and more especially for those that became visible to the telescope, and most particularly for the larger ones visible to the naked eye. Hence in the modern classification the decimal system has been introduced to bring out decimal distinctions. Betelgeuse and Alpha Crucis were taken as the average standard for stars of the first magnitude, and their magnitudes being the average of this class are called magnitude 1, which magnitude, accordingly, varies decimally from 0.5 to 1.5. All stars, therefore, that have a magnitude between 0.5 and 1.5 are now called stars of the first magnitude.

Within this magnitude, in addition to the two just mentioned  are  Achenar  0.6,  Aldebaran  1.1,  Altair  0.9, Antares 1.2, Beta Centauri  0.9, Deneb 1.3, Fomalhaut  1.3,

Pollux 1.2, Procyon 0.5, Regulus 1.3, Spica 1.2. There are some of higher magnitudes than these, e.g., Arcturus 0.2, Capella 0.2, Rigel 0.3, Sirius -1.6, Vega 0.1, Canopus -0.9, Alpha Centauri 0.1. A star of the magnitude 1.0 is exactly 100 times as bright as one of magnitude 6.0. The number that multiplied by itself five times produces 100, i.e., the fifth root of 100, is 2.51 +. Thus a star of magnitude 1.0 gives 2.51 + times as much light as one of magnitude 2.0, and the latter gives 2.51 + times as much light as one of magnitude 3.0. A star that is brighter by a magnitude than magnitude 1 is designated as 0.0 in magnitude. And one magnitude still brighter is designated as -1.0. Only Sirius and Canopus belong to this last magnitude. The faintest stars visible in the largest telescopes are of magnitude 19., but telescopic photographs of magnitude 22. have been taken. Venus at her best is of magnitude -4.4. Jupiter varies in magnitude

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from -1.2 to -2.5; Mars from -2.1 to -2.7; Saturn varies from 1.4 to -0.3. The magnitude of the sun is -26.7, and of the average full moon is -12.5. We might say that when a star varies in magnitude because of its being eclipsed by another star, it is called an eclipsing variable. These remarks will help us better to appreciate the following remarks on variable stars.

The constellation Cepheus has a number of variable stars. Delta Cephei, i.e., Delta (Greek D) of Cepheus is one of its variable stars, indeed, is a type of the variables in Cepheus. Its magnitude varies from 3.7 to 4.6; and it makes this change back and forth regularly every 5.37 days. Mu (Greek M) Cephei is the reddest star seen by the naked eye, and varies irregularly between 4.0 and 4.8. Cassiopeia is the W or M (according to its position) shaped constellation near the polar star. The star of the W which is farthest from Polaris is called Schedir. Its brightness varies irregularly from magnitude 2.2 to 2.8. The star Epsilon (Greek E) Aurigae, the one nearest to Capella, the brightest of Auriga's stars, varies in magnitude from 3.4 to 4.1 within a period of 9,900 days, which is more than 27 years. This is the longest known period of a variable. Additionally it is an eclipsing variable. It goes through this form of its variableness more rapidly than through its own (uneclipsing) variableness; for it decreases in brightness 180 days, remains at a minimum 340 days, then returns to its own brightness in 180 days. It made one of these eclipses from June 1, 1928, to May 2, 1930. And during this time, of course, it was doing its own varying as a part of its 9,900 days' variableness. The star in Taurus that with Taurus V makes a Y is Lambda (Greek L) Tauri. This is both an eclipsing and a variable star. Its magnitude changes regularly from 3.3 to 4.2 and returns to its original magnitude every 3.95 days. Certainly this, as in the case of Delta Cephei, is rapid variableness. The middle star in the bottom line of Gemini's Z is Zeta (Greek Z)

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Geminorum. It is a well known variable, whose degree of variableness is 3.7 to 4.3, and whose period of variableness is 10.15 days. Another of Gemini's stars, Eta (Greek E) Geminorum, is a variable. It varies irregularly between the magnitudes of 3.2 and 4.2, a whole magnitude, on an average of 232 days. In the parallelogram of Aquila; the star in the middle of its southern side is the variable Eta Aquila, which varies from 3.7 to 4.5, returning to its original brightness every 7.18 days. This, again, is very rapid variation and strikes the thoughtful mind as wondrous indeed.

The most remarkable of all variable stars is Eta Carinae. It was first noted in 1677 and was of magnitude 4. Later it was observed to be of magnitude 2. Its variability was discovered in 1827, after it had become very bright. In 1843 it was the brightest of all stars except Sirius, remaining among the brightest stars until in 1858 it dimmed to magnitude 2. In a year it was of magnitude 3 and by 1868 it was invisible to the naked eye. In 1886 it reached magnitude 7.6 and has continued such ever since. Near the east end of Hydra is R Hydrae. Its variableness is one of the greatest of all variable stars, changing its magnitude as it does from 4.0 to 9.8, reverting to its original magnitude every 425 days. While its full period of variableness is much longer than some above indicated, its variableness is enormous, being nearly six magnitudes, i.e., at is greatest brightness it is nearly 250 times brighter than at its dimmest. This we cannot otherwise regard than wondrous. Chi Cigni varies still more, from 4.0 to 13.5, its period being 405 days. Algol in Perseus consists of two stars that eclipse one another regularly every 2⅞ days. It remains at about 2.1 for two days and 11 hours, then decreases in magnitude to 3.2 in five hours, and then returns to its original brightness in five hours. Wondrous! Other notable variables are: Alpha Herculis (3.1 to 3.9), Beta Lyrae (3.4 to 4.1, period 12.9 days), R Lyrae (4.0 to 4.7), Beta Pegasi

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(2.2 to 2.7), the irregularly varying Myra [wonderful] in Cetus (1.7 to 9.6, period 331 days), Rho Persei (3.4 to  4.2), I Carinae (3.6 to 5.0, period 35.5 days), R Carinae (4.5 to 10.0, period 309 days), Beta Doradi (3.7 to 4.6, period 10 days), L2 Puppis (3.4 to 6.2, period 140 days) and V Puppis (4.1 to 4.8, period 1.4 days). Certainly the variableness of the magnitudes in some stars partakes of the quality of wondrousness.

Wondrousness also characterizes the stars that are multiple, i.e., there are quite a number of stars and star clusters each of which appears to the naked eye to be but a single star, but which by the aid of the opera glass or telescope are seen to be two or more stars. This phenomenon is due to various causes. Sometimes the stars that form a multiple are very near to one another, so near as to revolve about one another; in other cases they are very far apart, but the angle at our eye between them is very small, so small as to be often less than a second, i.e., 1/3600 of a degree. We will remark on several examples of these. The most frequently occurring of these multiples are double stars. The first double star was deciphered as such by jean Baptiste Riccioli in 1650. It is Mizar, the middle star in the handle of the Great Dipper. The two components of Mizar are 15 seconds apart. Yet so far are they from us that their actual distance apart is about 30,000,000,000 miles. The discovery that Mizar is a double star was soon followed by the discovery of others. Theta Orionis was resolved into a double star in 1656, Gamma Arietis in 1664, Alpha Crucis and Alpha Centauri in 1685 and 1689

respectively. The principle of strict measurement of double stars is due to the work of Sir William Herschel, to whom Astronomy is indebted for much of other splendid and wonderful work. Soon the number of double stars discovered was very greatly increased. It is now recognized that of the naked-eye stars, one in every nine is under telescopic vision found to be double.

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And of the nearest known stars, eight out of every twenty are double. Such near stars give the best opportunity of observation as to their doubleness. In 1928 there were 15,000 double stars catalogued; but greater numbers have since been catalogued.

Genuine multiple stars are those which have in common a proper motion. This would rule out of the catalogued genuine multiple stars such as appear multiple but are not at all related to one another by a common motion. There were by 1928 catalogued 120 double stars whose orbits were accurately measured. About 700 others had orbits less accurately measured. The shortest orbital periods so far discovered are 5.7 years, for Delta Equulei, and 6.9 years, for 13 Ceti. About 60 pairs have periods of orbital revolution within less than 100 years. With such double stars, in some of them each revolves about the other, and in others one of them is relatively stationary and the other does the revolving. Among the most noted of double stars are the two dog stars, Sirius in Canis Major and Procyon in Canis Minor. It will be recalled that above we mentioned the very great density of the smaller component of Sirius. The smaller component of Sirius is ten magnitudes less than its larger component, while the smaller one of Procyon is thirteen magnitudes smaller than its larger one. But some multiple stars have more than two members. It was stated in the preceding paragraph that Alpha Centauri, the star nearest our earth, was in 1689 discovered to be double; but under observation by larger telescopes than were had in 1689 it has been found to consist of three stars. More remarkable still is the fact that Polaris consists of four stars. Still more wonderful is the fact that Castor consists of six stars and his twin companion Pollux consists of eight stars! Theta Orionis, which was the second star found to be double (1656), under observation has been found to be a nucleus of four stars for a many starred system, whose number

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is being so continually enlarged that it will be doubtless many years before the exact number of the components of this multiple star will be definitely known. Certainly the phenomenon brought to our attention in connection with multiple stars is one that emphasizes wondrousness as an attribute of God's creative works.

Another feature of wondrousness marking God's creative works in the heavens is the fact of temporary stars. Sometimes there suddenly appears a star never observed before, i.e., the position where it is found was even to a telescope formerly vacant. It will then shine quite brilliantly awhile, and then after irregularly shining with decreasing brightness will disappear even to the largest telescopes. These are called temporary stars. Some have ineptly called them new stars. Up to the present there have appeared about 50 of these, so far as the records show most of them appearing in modern times. The earlier ones had to be visible to the naked eye, since no telescopes then existed. Since 1900 at least five of them have reached a magnitude of 4.5. In 1918 one appeared which for awhile became nearly as bright as Sirius. Such a bright star, of course, naturally was discovered by amateurs as well as by regular astronomers. Of course, the brightest of such variable stars could be discovered by the naked eye. They usually make their appearance in the Milky Way. So far, no star brighter than one of magnitude 10 in the beginning ever appeared as a temporary star. No regular star has been known to appear and disappear. Nor has any temporary star known as such ever become a permanently known star. This matter of temporary stars is one of the unsolved problems of astronomy. The star of Bethlehem might perhaps have been a temporary star, making at least two appearances and two disappearances; first appearing and disappearing to the magi in the East (in their own country), then appearing after they left Herod and leading them to Bethlehem and resting over the

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house where the child was, and then disappearing. But it is more likely that this star was an angel, whose brightness and nearness gave the impression of a miraculous star to the magi, the Bible describing the matter from their viewpoint.

As on pp. 230 and 231 we quoted from Dr. Harlow Shapley, Director of the Harvard University Observatory, on some features of the Larger Magellanic Cloud, so would we here quote from Dr. Barton of the University of Pennsylvania on both of the Magellanic Clouds: "In the Southern Hemisphere there are two cloud patches which resemble the Milky Way in appearance, but which are too far away from it to be considered parts of it. They are  called the 'Larger Magellanic Cloud' and the 'Smaller Magellanic Cloud,' from the name of the early navigator who described them. They are also called nubecula major [larger dark spot] and nubecula minor [smaller dark spot]. The larger one is on the border line between [the constellations] Dorado and Mensa; and the smaller one is in [the constellation] Tucana. Both consist of faint stars, nebulae and star clusters … Dr. Harlow Shapley … estimates that there are 500,000 stars in the smaller cloud, which can be detected, and that about 10,000 are more than 1,000 times, and perhaps 400 more than 10,000 times as bright as the sun. From that distance [85,000 light years] the sun would appear as a star of magnitude 22, which is just the limit of our most powerful photographing (reflecting) telescope. These two clouds are clearly seen with the naked eye, the larger being somewhat brighter. They are believed to be systems of stars entirely outside the system in which we are, that is, other universes. They are smaller than ours, however. The observer sees them as they were [approximately] 100,000 years before; and conversely an observer from one of these clouds would see the sun as it was 100,000 years before, if indeed he could see it at all. Excepting the nebula in

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Andromeda … which is scarcely visible at all to the naked eye, the Magellanic Clouds are the most remote objects which can be seen without the aid of a telescope. When face to face with these objects, contemplating the facts which have been cited above, one must be callous indeed who is not stirred to deep thoughts and to reverent and ennobling feeling." Yea, the attribute of wondrousness, written everywhere in God's universe upon His creative works, calls upon us to stand in awe and worship; for "all Thy works praise Thee, O Lord; yea, all Thy works praise Thee"; for "the heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse showeth His handiwork." They fill us with  wonder, praise, adoration and worship.

Having discussed the following six attributes of creation: unity, immensity, beauty, sublimity, order and wondrousness, we will bring to a conclusion our discussion of creation's attributes by a consideration of the complexity of creation. By the complexity of creation we mean the intricacy in which the universe as a whole and in its parts has been made, exists and operates. Indeed, it is so complex as to baffle the comprehension of man, though he can understand many things in and about the universe. The three states in which substances can exist are complex: gases, liquids and solids. Water and iron are simple and common examples of these. In its gaseous condition what becomes water exists as two separate elements, oxygen and hydrogen. These compounded in volume proportions of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen; and in weight proportion, one part of hydrogen and 7.94 parts of oxygen, make water. And at 32° Fahrenheit it becomes solid, ice. Thus it can exist in three states, counting vapor as a form of water. We know that iron also can exist in three states: as solid—the metal itself, as liquid—when melted by heat, and as gas—under very intense heat. We note that these substances have to undergo artificial manipulation by heat or

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cold to change these states. The fact of the change is transparent; the philosophy of these changes is quite complex. All substances, of course, can be resolved into these three states by more or less complex processes. Apart from the 11 of the 92 elements that are gases, all the rest of the 92 elements, regardless of whether they are of the 9 solid non-metal or 71 metal or 1 fluid (mercury) elements, can be resolved into gases; and all of these can be resolved into fluids, except mercury, which is already a fluid. The constitution of these elements is likewise complex. As they progress from element 1 to element 92, the difference is a successive one of each atom having a different composition of one electron in the atom of the element from that of the atom of the element just below it in numerical order. Thus the chemical constitution of the 92 elements in our earth is highly complex, even as matter is highly complex, whether viewed in its gaseous, fluid or solid state. Thus the three forms of matter and its 92 elements confront the student with complexity in their constitution.

Certainly the process whereby from the original gases the universe has been produced is an exceedingly complex one. It is so complex that man without assuming as self- evident the agency of a Creator in manipulating the process at least in the outstart, is unable to give an intelligible explanation of the process. Indeed, it is so complex that after one solution (the nebular hypothesis) offered for the explanation of the process had held the field for a full century, it was found to be unsatisfactory from the standpoint of mathematics and physics and has now been abandoned by scientists, who have offered another hypothesis, the planetesimal or capture hypothesis. This hypothesis seems to be looking in the right direction; and yet who knows but further enlightenment on facts in the universe not yet clear may disprove it also? If we assume that matter in gaseous form is eternal, as is probably

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the case, the Bible being silent on this subject, we must assume that it must have been absolutely quiescent for very long periods before motion was imparted to it; otherwise the universe would have come into existence incalculably many ages before it did; i.e., we must assume that the laws underlying gases neutralized one another's operation and this produced motionlessness. To start such quiescent gases into motion must have required the agency of an intelligent and purposeful being, so to manipulate these gases as to undo the neutralizing effect of its underlying laws and so direct their interrelations as to start them into working on one another in a way to condense these gases into more compact gases, and continuing this process until they were condensed into an attenuated liquid form. Under further manipulation of such attenuated liquid matter through the new laws underlying its constitution, it in process of time condensed into still more dense liquid form. Under further direction of the ever new arising natural laws, due to the solidifying of matter, the process continued until a very attenuated solid material substance was reached, and so continuing to advance, the process would ultimately reach a completion in the finished creation of suns, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and meteors. But to operate such a condensing process from the beginning to the completion of the creative process in one and all solar systems is a thing of such complexity as to over-test human ingenuity, though extended to its utmost capacity. Thus simply as a process creation is exceedingly complex.

How exceedingly complex is the operation of each planet! Its axial movement is complex, implying a very ancient beginning, with an accelerated motion the denser the body became. And this movement is made all the more complicated, as gravitation, centrifugal, centripetal, cohesive, adhesive and repulsive forces operate upon this body. Such interacting forces, to produce the balance maintained by the planet in its axial

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movement must be operated upon and operate in the most complex ways. Still more complex does this matter become when to the axial movement the orbital movement is added. Here again the original movement imparted to the planetary body that made it run in the way of an orbit was very complex; and to adjust the forces above-mentioned in such a way as to balance a planet in its orbital movement was a matter of complexity taxing and overtaxing the keenest human minds. They know some of the facts, can explain the actions of some of the factors entering into the problem, but to solve it they are unable. They can work out the mathematical formulas along the lines of which some of these motions go, but the whole subject in its details and the heart of the difficulties thence arising they are unable to explain. They must, one and all, in spite of their spelling out some of the words used in the problems of operating a planet, as to all the details, humbly confess, with the Psalmist, "It is too much for me!" Then the problem becomes all the more complex when we add to it the difficulties that arise from the operation of a family of planets, planetoids, moons and comets, in interrelations among, and yet in separation and distinctness from one another. When we consider the differences in their orbital speeds, the differences in their axial speeds, their proportionate distances and speeds, their harmony amid their differences, a series of problems on the how and the why, and much of the what are forced upon our attention, that very greatly complicates the matter; for the what, i.e., the facts of the case, are only partly well known, but how it is done and why it is done just so, puzzle the brightest human minds to stupefied perplexity. Thus each planet and its satellite or satellites present matters of great complexity to the thinking mind. This is made all the more complex when these planets, etc., are seen in their mutual relations and separate conditions.

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And how much more complex does it all become when we consider these planets in relation to their sun. It rules them like an absolute monarch. It gives them liberty to move in their axial and orbital ways, but it enslaves them to just that rapidity of axial motion that it will allow, and forces them to follow the course of the orbits that it dictates. But it does not do this of its own unaided power. It must call upon the other suns, as well as the neighbor planets and moons, to lend it assistance to this end, through the operation of gravitational, centripetal, centrifugal, cohesive, adhesive, repellent forces, etc., and so by a most complex series of forces does it order them on their orbits and axes. Still more complex does the matter appear when we consider that the sun also has its own orbital and axial motion. And this makes it draw after it its retinue of planets in a spiral motion. From the outside, our solar system looks like an immense funnel, spirally moving around and around forever. How exceedingly complex does this spiral motion, this huge revolving funnel, become! If our solar system were the only one in which this remarkable phenomenon prevails, it would be complex enough. But add to this the thought that in our universe there are estimated to be 30,000,000,000 other suns, each having its own retinue of planets, etc., that the same complexity as is in our planet is in each of those planets, that the same complexity as is in our planetary system is in each of those planetary systems, that the same complexity as underlies the relations of our sun and its planets, etc., underly those 30,000,000,000 suns, with their some 300,000,000,000 planets and their still more numerous moons, planetoids and comets, and this complexity is very greatly increased. But this is not all. Our large reflecting telescopes have revealed many hundred millions of other universes than ours, all having their billions of suns and many more billions of planets, still many more billions of moons, and added

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to these more billions of planetoids—illimitable depths of complexity! So inexpressibly complex is the entire matter as to force us to the conclusion that only an all-wise and almighty Being could make so vast a creation.

Above we mentioned the fact that our solar system moves in the form of a spiral. So do all the other solar systems! This is evident not only from the fact of the precession of the equinoxes, whereby about every 26,000 years the sun returns to the same relative position toward all the other suns in our universe as it sustained toward them about 26,000 years before; but it is also a matter of observation. The 100-inch reflecting telescope on Mt. Wilson has taken time pictures of the heavens that show these spiral shapes in many of the solar systems. In the Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th edition, Vol. 6, in the article on Cosmogony, over against pp. 488 and 492 are pictured six views of these spirals, which we are sure will greatly interest and instruct our readers on this subject. These pictures actually show the funnel-shaped positions of these suns; for be it noted that a vast number of suns go to constitute each one of these spiral funnel-shaped clusters of stars, e.g., there is a number of these spirals in  Andromeda's nebula, every one of them consisting of myriads of suns. These are in another universe than ours. When we consider that in the millions of universes this spiral motion is everywhere carried out in proper balance with that of all other solar systems of each universe and that these universes, with all their complicated motions, all revolve about one common center, Alcyone in the Pleiades, and thus add almost infinitely to the complexity that we see in not only one solar system but all other solar systems of each universe, the idea of complexity is increased to an almost infinite degree. At any rate, under contemplation of these things our minds simply recoil upon themselves at the thought of our littleness and God's greatness!

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"Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised!" It is even so.

This complexity is seen in the unity, in the diversity and in the harmony that subsist in God's creation. We have already pointed out a number of details on unity as an attribute of creation, but this unity exists in great complexity. When we view this unity as to matter, as to solar systems, as to universes, as to laws of nature, as to forces of nature, as to light, air, water, heat, ether, chemical affinity, sound, life-principle, inorganic and organic nature, and the vegetable and animal creation, it exhibits  marvelous complexity. This complexity is evident in the diversity manifest throughout creation. Such diversity we see in the suns, planets, etc., the various universes, the chemical elements of the earth, the various laws underlying matter in its diversified forms, the diverse spheres of nature as these are seen in the various sciences, like astronomy, geology, dendrology, botany, zoology, anthropology, physics, chemistry, sociology, mathematics, mechanics,  etc. On every one of these subjects there is great diversity, which makes them very complex. Yet with all this diversity and this nature-pervading unity, there is wonderful harmony, which again shows itself in the most remarkable complexity on all sides. We might instance the human face. While there is general unity in the human facial formation, there are not two human faces, not even those of the most perfect twins, that are exactly alike. Yet in this unity and diversity there is general harmony due to the great complexity in eye, nose, mouth, cheeks, jaws, forehead and skin.

Above we pointed out the complexity of matter considered from the standpoint of the 92 chemical elements in the composition of our earth. This brings up the subject of the molecule as consisting of atoms, of atoms as consisting of electrons [first discovered and announced in 1874!], and of electrons as consisting of protons and neutrons. The molecule is fundamental to

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the science of chemistry and physics. A molecule is the smallest part of a substance that can exist separately and will retain its composition and properties, e.g., common salt is chloride of sodium, and water is oxide of hydrogen. Salt consists of exactly similar molecules of chloride of sodium, and water consists of exactly similar molecules of oxide of hydrogen. If a grain of salt were reduced to the smallest possible part that still retains chloride of sodium, and if a drop of water were reduced to the smallest possible part that still retains oxide of hydrogen, the resultant part of salt would be a molecule of salt and the resultant part of water would be a molecule of water. Thus all the chemical properties of salt or of water are inherent in a single molecule of salt or water. And a molecule is the smallest unit of a substance of which such a fact is true. It is possible by chemical or electric agencies to separate such a molecule of salt or water into its components, and thus to reduce the molecule of salt into a particle of sodium and a particle of chlorine, and to reduce the molecule of water into its constituents: hydrogen and oxygen. But in such a case we would no more have salt or water. We would have an atom of sodium and an atom of chlorine; and two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. This latter operation illustrates the difference between the molecule and the atom. The former consists of two or more atoms. Again, the atom is made up of electrons. Some atoms consist of two electrons, others of more, dependent on the nature of the substance. In turn every electron consists of a positive and a negative principle, the former being protons and the latter being neutrons. The latter glide among and between the former as water glides among and between the parts of a porous substance. These facts on the constitution of all matter, bringing to our knowledge the peculiar nature of molecules, atoms, electrons, protons and neutrons, certainly illustrate the marvelous complexity of matter in its constitution.

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And in all of the elements found in the earth the same constitution is found, i.e., molecules, atoms and electrons. It is the different combinations of these that make earth's elements differ from one another, which again, is a matter of great complexity. This matter becomes all the more complex when we consider the complexity illustrated in the thousands of compounds made by various combinations of earth's chemical elements. Thus matter as such in its raw and compound states presents the idea of complexity as an attribute of God's creative works.

This idea of complexity is greatly magnified when we pass from the world of inorganic matter to that of organic matter. This can be seen in the world of vegetation. Whether the first tree grew from a created seed, or whether it was first created and then produced the first tree seeds, we do not know; but in either case the attribute of complexity is present. So complex is the structure of any seed, and still more so its combination with the germinating life-principle, that human ingenuity has never succeeded in making one; and we are warranted in believing that it likely never will. Yet all vegetation harks back to its producing seed or its equivalent. Note the marvelous complexity involved in the idea of every seed bearing after its kind and after no other, the phenomenon of grafting being no exception to this; for in grafting the grafted twig abides as the producer of the fruit and the involved seed. It is from such complexity that we have the great variety of vegetables, plants and trees, each producing after its kind. How great is the resultant complexity in both flower and fruit! In trees we need only particularize roots, trunk, bark, branches and leaves, and immediately an almost infinite variety of complex matters come to mind. How complex, e.g., are the rings in the trunk of a tree, each separate and distinct, each united to its neighbor and one added each year! Then multiply this complexity with as many

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trees as there are in each species of trees and then compound these by the number of species of trees, and complexity is produced by geometrical progression. And all this complexity comes from the variety of seeds, each producing trees and fruits after its kind. Look at the complexity of plant life. It has all the complexity of tree phenomena plus a great deal more by virtue of the greater variety of plant than tree life. Every flower that lifts its lovely face to receive the kisses of the life-prolonging sunbeams presents a series of complexity that is marvelous indeed. Note the texture, the hues, the forms and the fragrance of but one kind of these flowers as they grow together, each separate and distinct from one another; then witness their blending in most beautiful harmony of form, color, texture and fragrance, in the one kind of flower, and here again is an almost infinite complexity. Then heap together all flowers of but one species and of all species and finally all flowers of all species, and the resultant complexity is overpowering to our minds and hearts. Then glance a moment at the vegetable and fruit world. What variety of form, texture and taste is here to be found, and how greatly the idea of their complexity is borne in upon our minds as we contemplate these! What variety in form, color and texture the world of leaves brings to our attention, all of which have a superhuman complexity stamped upon them. Complexity is, therefore, an attribute of the plant, tree and vegetable worlds.

Passing on to a higher plane, that of animal life, we are confronted by more complex things. In every sphere of the animal creation complexity confronts us. How unsearchably vast, varied and multiformed is the fish world! From the tiniest denizen of the great deep to the giant whale, in every form, in every kind, in every genus, we find complexity on a mighty scale. How complex are the things that go to make up the generation of each kind of fish life! Complexity is

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stamped upon the factors active in their swimming and in their exercising of the functions and process of growth. Their nerve, blood and other vital functions are indeed complex. These same principles find exemplification in insect life. No one yet has been able to solve the complexity inherent in the many problems seen in insect life. Reptilian life presents some even greater complexities; for reptiles present the same general problems of complexity as do the fish and insect world, plus a number of others—cold blood and, still more remarkable, the poisons of the poisonous reptiles. That their poisons will poison themselves if they infect any other part of their bodies than the sacs and fangs, which are their natural habitat, involves another complex problem. Locomotion as exemplified in the serpent is an exceedingly complex thing. Beast life, both domestic and wild, is replete with the attribute of complexity: from the generation to the death process and all lying between vary only in degree as to complexity. But complexity as seen in man, the highest of all earthly beings, is of a still higher order. Look at the vital processes, breathing, pulsation of the heart, vitalizing of the blood, the blood itself, the lung processes, the digestive and eliminative processes by kidneys, bowels and sweat pores, the chemical processes exemplified in liver, bile, the pancreatic function on the blood, the varied glandular processes, the generative processes, the system of arteries, veins and capillaries and the system of nerves, not to mention many others, constitute a series of facts, processes and results that are complicated in almost the highest degree.

In the realm of man's intellectual, moral and religious nature, there is complexity of the highest order found on earth. For the brain, instinct with life, to be able to remember, to imagine, to inspect, to perceive and to reason, brings to our attention a series of complexities that human wisdom cannot unravel, though it

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can perceive the facts themselves. For other faculties of the brain instinct with life to be able to exercise the moral and unmoral sentiments, is still more complicated; for to love or to hate, to be generous or to be covetous, to be humble or to be proud, to be reticent or to be vain, to be at rest or to be at unrest, to seek to retain or give up life, to be longsuffering or angry, to be aggressive or forbearing, to be chaste or impure, to be conjugal or unconjugal, to be parental or unparental, to be filial or unfilial, to be a home, country and friend lover or hater—all these things operated through our brains are matters of very great complexity. Perhaps the most complex of all man's operations is the exercise of his religious sentiments as effected by the peculiar constitution of his vitalized brain. Here we see faith and unbelief exercised. Here hope, discouragement, despondency and despair find their sphere of play. Here self-control and irresoluteness hold sway. Here patience—perseverance— and non-continuity find their field of action. Here love or hatred for God reigns. Here brotherly love or hate holds sway. And here disinterested love or selfishness reigns. The difference between our physical functions on the one hand and our mental, moral and religious functions on the other, is not this: that one acts through physical organs and the other through spirit organs; for man has no spirit being within himself. The difference is due to a difference of organic structure and combination making for different functions and powers. And this very fact presents to us a series of conditions and facts whose complexity is exceedingly great, so great that, apart from the existence of the facts themselves and the functions, man is unable to unravel the complexity of his physical, mental, moral and religious nature. So far we have spoken of man in general. The problem becomes all the more complex When we proceed from the general to the individual man. Here the complexities are all the more

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dense; and men's varied physical, mental, moral and religious characters only add to the complexity of the situation. Thus complexity is worked into the nature and condition of man.

The matter becomes all the more complex when we pass from a consideration of the human plane of life to the spirit plane of life. Bodies that consist of one or more of the spirit substances are decidedly more complex than bodies that consist of many of the earthly substances, like the human body. As yet we are unable to comprehend bodies made out of life-principle (those that are Divine) or bodies made of two or more other spirit substances, like light, heat, ether, fire, magnetic rays, radio-activity, etc., combined with life- principle. We do not know their shape nor their members. We know from their incorruptibility that they have no wasting tissues, hence need no food nor sleep. That they do have shape and members is evident from their having bodies. That they can move as quickly as thought for immense distances, many billions times more rapidly than light, is evident from many facts, e.g., Christ in a small fractional part of nine days from this earth reached Alcyone, which is 466 light years away, i.e., 2,796,000,000,000,000 miles from the earth; for before Pentecost and after reaching heaven there was a triumphant celebration of His return; thereupon He was inaugurated into His office; then He imputed His merit on behalf of the Church and sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to earth, to reach the disciples at Pentecost. Perhaps He arrived from the earth at Alcyone in the next instant after the cloud hid Him from His disciples' eyes, as they stood watching Him ascend from Olivet. We have other illustrations of angels speeding from heaven—Alcyone—to earth apparently in the twinkling of an eye. This, as well as the nature and qualities of their bodies, is very complex. And what shall we say of their mental, moral and religious

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powers and processes? These are in their complexity far beyond our comprehension. Thus as we have briefly surveyed the creation of God, we find it very complex, even as before we found it a unity, immense, beautiful, sublime, orderly and wondrous. And from such contemplations we arise in heart and mind to Him who is the Author of Creation and find Him complex indeed, far more so than the complex creation that He has brought into existence. And lost in the thought of the inscrutinability of much that is in Him, and drawn on by the scrutinability of what He in creation and in the Bible reveals of Himself to us, we worship, praise and adore the God and Creator of heaven and earth, whose unity, immensity, beauty, sublimity, orderliness, wondrousness and complexity raise our hearts and minds into a partial vision of God in His unity, immensity (of mind and heart), beauty, sublimity, orderliness, wondrousness and complexity, and consequently make them overflow with praise, adoration and worship. And as we herewith draw to a close our discussion of the attributes of God's creative works, we do so with souls filled with devout and godly emotions. O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!—Ps. 95:6.

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