Page:Gods Glory in the Heavens.djvu/101

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NEW PLANET VULCAN.
83

tellectual powers without a universe so wondrously adapted to test their grasp. As the doubly-refracting crystal transmits two distinct images of the sun, so God has, in creation, impressed one image of Himself on the material universe, and one on man's mental constitution. M. Comte would admit only the latter—man being his own God—and ignore altogether the common source. But logic and philosophy demand the recognition of the two distinct images, and of their synthesis in the Divine glory.

The glory of God is declared, not merely in the adaptation of man's intellect to the unravelling of the mysteries of the universe, but also in the manner by which, in His providence, discoveries are so timed as to tell most powerfully, not only on the progress of science, but on the moral and religious welfare of man. Isolated discoveries, born out of date, would fall dead upon the world. How strikingly have the discoveries of science, bearing on the means of international intercourse; been timed so as to meet the rising missionary spirit of our age! No sooner did the Church of Christ fully awaken to the great duty of preaching the gospel to every creature, than God put into her hands the material agencies necessary to carry out the projects of missionary enterprise.

Seldom has an astronomical discovery been so well-timed as that of the planet Vulcan, due to an obscure village-doctor in France. At any previous time, the passage of the little, round, dark spot across the disc