THE NEW YORK 281013 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN Fr NDATIONS. 1903 LONDON: MITCHELL AND SON, PRINTERS, WARDOUR STREET, W. PREFACE. THESE Discourses were undertaken to illustrate the laws of the Divine Word. It is not uncommon to hear the remark, that the existence of a spiritual sense in the Word, to be brought out by a definite law, is very beautiful in theory; but an apprehension is expressed that it will not hold good. We have taken specimens from every part of the Word, whatever may be its outward style, and applied the Science of Correspondences. The original design was to take four texts from each distinct portion of the Divine Writings. To these, four on the Flood were added by much request. The result is before the reader. We pray that it be found such as to lead him, whenever he opens the Divine Volume, to offer up the prayer to the Lord Jesus Christ, the author of the Word, both of the Old and New Testament, Matt. xxiii. 34; 1 Peter i. 11: "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." The Divine Word Opened. BY THE REV. DR. BAYLEY, ARGYLE SQUARE CHURCH, LONDON. "Behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks."-Gen. xxxix. 2. THE DAYS OF CREATION, AND THE IMAGE OF GOD. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him."-Gen. i. 26, 27. THE lessons derived from the study of the Word and of the works of God, will undoubtedly harmonize if they be read aright. This idea reason hails; and with the ideas of science possessed by the Jews, there was nothing in the history of creation, as understood to be related in the divine book before us, which was felt to be improbable or untrue. They had a very limited conception of the extent of the universe. They supposed the earth to be the great central body, created some 6000 years ago. The sun, moon, and stars, brought into existence on the fourth day of creation, were satellites to the earth, situated in a vault some few miles above the surface, and the whole, revolving round the nearly flat plane on which we live, in twentyfour hours. The sun and moon were to illuminate our days and nights; the stars to add splendour to the scene. They read the Mosaic account of creation in a week; and although some little difficulty was felt, respecting light appearing before the sun, yet some apparently plausible glosses were offered, and the whole was considered tolerably clear; and in this conviction the church reposed. But now science has changed the scene. Our earthno longer conceived to be the great centre of the universe-is known to be only one of some fifty worlds, which revolve round our sun as their centre. Some of these worlds are far larger than our own. Jupiter would make nine hundred such worlds as ours. The sun would make twelve hundred thousand earths, and shines unceasingly. He and the earths and moons of his system enveloped in his light, were we to view them from a fixed B star, all taken together would seem only like another star. Of such stars, doubtless, with their attendant worlds, there are millions in our astral system. Nay, all the gorgeous assemblage of suns and worlds which is visible to the eye and the telescope, . on a magnificent night, would appear to a spectator placed on a nebula in far off space, only like a handbreadth of star-dust, of which there are myriads of others suspended in the sky. Each more perfect instrument brings us acquainted with numbers of these starry masses, so distant as to have been quite imperceptible by former telescopes. Their number, no doubt, is finite, but so vast, that the universe may be regarded as an ocean of worlds, and each sun as a drop. This ocean is so immense that light, with its inconceivable rapidity, would be hundreds of thousands of years in traversing it. Light has crossed it, to us, from points so remote as to require all those years for transit; therefore those stars and systems must have existed so long. How sublime is the scene which is thus opened upon us! How immensely is our idea of Jehovah's government enlarged! And everywhere there is order, silent majesty, the reign of law. Everywhere there is infinite intelligence manifested in securing the attainment, in every portion of the vast whole, of perfect harmony, and perfect safety. And what is infinite intelligence, working unceasingly for benevolent ends, but the effulgence of infinite love? Immeasurable benevolence, operating by immeasurable wisdom-this is the perfect source of all creation, preservation, and blessing. Love and wisdom-the love which desires to impart happiness, and the wisdom by which it secures its aim-these provide the leaf which forms the joys of the meanest insect's life. These pour forth, with inexhaustible bounty, all that gives variety, abundance, and pleasure to every living thing. These warm us in the sunbeam, and radiate in all the beauties of the light. These we recognize in the perfect order of the planets, and in the regular supplies they obtain from the sun. These are manifest in the stability of the whole system; and we may follow them into the farthest depths of space, still having their bright evidences flashing back upon us, until "All thought is lost, and reason drowned In the immense survey. We carnot fathom the profound, Nor trace Jehovah's way." When we cannot embrace the incalculable greatness of the universe, we can yet perceive everywhere the exhibition of the divine perfections, and acknowledge the evident power and presence of our heavenly Father; and we instinctively exclaim : |