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النشر الإلكتروني

This psalm is naturally divided into three parts. The first relates to that evidence of the existence of the Deity and that knowledge of his attributes, which may be derived from the contemplation of his works. The second expresses the still surer testimony which his word affords, and the peculiar advantages derived from learning and obeying its precepts. And the third contains an earnest prayer to be preserved from sins whether secret or presumptuous; and to be purified both in word and thought by the grace of God, who is our strength and our redeemer.

In the first six verses, the royal prophet displays in most eloquent terms the universal testimony which the material heavens bear to the power and wisdom of their Creator: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work." He observes how continually and how generally they proclaim the wisdom that formed them: 66 'Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language among them: their voice is not heard:" a yet the intelligence which they convey is universally perceived. Wherever the sun shines forth to rule the day, wherever the moon and the stars govern the night, there is

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displayed a splendid and living testimony to their Creator's name. "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world." They pursue their appointed courses in silent order; but in their silence is eloquence. Their influence is not heard but felt. The psalmist then selects one striking instance from the natural world, the apparent course of the sun, as exemplifying the power of God. "In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun; which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber," radiant in appearance, and by his presence diffusing cheerfulness and joy; "and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven; and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

In this introductory part of the psalm there is opened a scene of astonishing magnificence, and of great interest. In all ages, and among all nations, the contemplation of the starry heavens has afforded a favourite exercise for the reflecting mind. The most unlearned and unenlightened have gazed with wonder upon so glorious a display of brilliant objects placed far beyond the control of man, and moving serenely through the skies. Uneducated tribes or half cultivated nations, who interpreted the

phenomena according to their own gross conceptions, were still struck with the beauty and manifest utility of the objects of their contemplation. Their rude admiration bore testimony to the glories of the heavens; and was an acknowledgement that He who formed them was supreme in wisdom and in power. And even if, when they saw the sun travelling in his strength, and the whole host of heaven performing their courses, they were seduced to pay to the creature the honour due to the Creator, their homage in its origin was but the perversion of a deep feeling of reverence towards him. As civilization advanced, the study of astronomy acquired fresh interest. When the eye of science was directed towards the heavenly bodies, it began to descry wonders still more and more astonishing as it obtained greater degrees of penetration and discrimination. What at first appeared a confused assemblage of detached bright points, disclosed an order the most beautiful, and a connection the most perfect, that imagination could conceive. The courses of those planets, which had long seemed to wander almost without method over the heavenly spaces, were defined; and in process of time all their motions were subjected to the most rigid calculation. When viewed by the assistance of the telescope, those lucid points

brightened and expanded into worlds. In some of them, the vicissitudes of seasons, and the succession of day and night were made the subject of actual observation. By degrees some were found to be accompanied, in the same manner as our earth is, with secondary planets, to give light to them by night, and to measure their times and seasons. Further research discovered how immensely remote others of the heavenly bodies are: and man gradually became conversant with distances, which lead his mind on to the idea of space without limit.

Whilst men, in all ages, and under different degrees of mental cultivation, have thus turned their attention to the study of the heavens, their researches have led them into two principal errors of very different kinds. Superstition, encouraged by the arts of designing men, invested the stars with an imaginary influence over the affairs of the world. When once the heavens were thus viewed as controlling and indicating terrestrial events, the most ordinary phenomenon became an object of disquietude, and every deviation from the customary aspects of the natural world excited the greatest alarm. The unusual appearance of a comet, or an eclipse of the sun or of the moon, struck dismay into the hearts of nations. And the most frivolous events in the lives of the most obscure indivi

duals were considered to be governed by the secret but powerful energies of the planetary bodies..

The study of sound philosophy has banished these errors. But the consequent cultivation of abstract science has itself introduced others scarcely less dangerous. The mind long habituated to its peculiar processes of demonstration is apt to feel dissatisfied with conclusions derived from moral evidence; upon which it is still necessary to determine and to act, in matters of the greatest importance. The pride of reason frequently acquires a most pernicious ascendency over a mind which is accustomed to find the difficulties of science yield to its persevering enquiries. And there seems to be sometimes a fatal tendency, in a philosophizing spirit, gradually to remove from consideration, and at last to deny, the existence of any final cause. Now this is an error against which the student of natural philosophy cannot be too much upon his guard. If scepticism be the fruit of ignorance, the enquiries of an ingenuous mind will soon detect and expose it. If it appear invested with the character of impurity and licentiousness, the very vices and turn of thought, by which it is accompanied, afford sufficient warning of its dangerous nature. But when the insidious poison is infused into

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