the sidereal spheres? They move through the limitless regions of space, with as much precision in their movements as soldiers in battle array. This order implies the direction of a Commander, and the guidance of a controlling agent, though invisible to human sight:

"Roll planets! and ye myriad stars—

Ye that through boundless nature roam;
Ye monarchs, on your flame-wing'd cars,
Tell us, in what more glorious dome-
What orb, to which your pomps are dim,

What kingdom, but by seraphs trod—
Tell us, where swells the eternal hymn,

Around His throne, where dwells your God?"

More than 3,000 years ago, similar queries were made by inspired men: "Lift up your eyes," says a prophet, "and see who hath created these things; who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names, by the greatness of His might, and strength, and power, not one of them was missing. (Is. xl.) "Who can declare the order of the Heavens, or can make its harmony to sleep?" (Job.)

The following reply is not the less true for being a poet's answer:

"Thou art of all created things,

O Lord! the essence and the cause-
The source and centre of all bliss.
What are those veils of woven light,
Where sun, and moon, and stars unite-
The purple morn, the spangled night—

But hangings, which thy goodness draws,
Between yon heavenly world, and this ?"

From Christ's gospel, we learn that, in our Heavenly Father's house, "there are many mansions ;" and if, as it

is said, there be no void in the universe, may not each of the firmament's shining orbs be the dwelling of intelligent beings? The arguments of analogy, in support of the affirmative, are plausible and cogent. In his Plurality of Worlds, Fontenelle imagines that, endowed with a more perfect sense of hearing than earthly mortals, the inhabitants of supernal spheres enjoy the music of a perpetual harmony, to us inaudible.

A similar notion seems to have been entertained by Shakespeare:

66.

Look how the vault of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
There's not the smallest orb that thou behold'st,
But in its motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eye'd cherubim :

Such harmony is in immortal souls."

Urged by these forcible inferences, an enquirer should

"Mark well each little star, whose rays,
In distant splendour, meets his gaze;
Each is a world, by God, sustained,
Who, from eternity, hath reigned.
Each kindled, not for each alone,

Hath circling planets of its own;

And beings, whose existence springs

From Him, the All-powerful King of kings.

Haply, those glorious beings know

No spot of guilt, no tear of woe;
But, raising still the adoring voice,
For ever, in their God, rejoice."

A dying philosopher once said: "What we know is but little, and what we are ignorant of is immense.” The Lord, however, "knoweth all knowledge, and He is the God of science: He hath beautified the glorious

works of His wisdom; and what we can know, is as but a spark." (Eccles. xlii.) Saying much, we shall yet want words; but, the sum of our words is " He is All." (Eccles. xliii.)

By comparing small data with great objects already known, some idea of man's ignorance may be formed, with regard to the remotest planetary spheres.

"As fathers show their little ones

The thousand blooms of spring;

God shows us His moon, stars, and suns,

In heaven's expanded ring.

We view the wonders of His hand,

From this low earthly ball,

And know that our dear promised land
Lies far beyond them all."

The slopes, and uplands of the British isles may be called hillocks, when contrasted with Alp, or Appenine mountains; and yet, what are the latter, confronted with the Himalaya range? How small is the vasty globe itself, compared with planets of the first magnitude? The solar luminary exceeds it, in bulk, a millionfold!

Thirty planetoids are included in our solar system alone. Then, each twinkling star beyond, is supposed to be the centre of another system, or a separate sun, with its dependent satellites.

"At creation's dawn,

God said: be light, and light upsprung;
Be worlds, and worlds, on nothing, hung:
More swift than thought the mandate runs,
And forms ten thousand kindling suns."

No architect, save one of unbounded intelligence, and might, could have planned the star-spangled vault that

canopies the earth. Uplooking towards the regions of

illimitable space,

"When I survey the bright

Celestial sphere,

So rich with jewels hung, that night
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear;
My soul her wings doth spread,
And heavenward flies.

Th' Almighty's mysteries to read,

In the large mysteries of the skies;
For the bright firmament

Shoots forth no flame;

So silent-yet, is eloquent

In speaking the Creator's name :

No unregarded star

Contracts its light

Into so small a character

Removed far from our human sight;

But, if we stedfast look,

We shall discern

In it, as in some holy book,

How man may heavenly knowledge learn."

In their prodigious multitudes, the stars are compared, by a sacred penman, to the sands of the seashore. The starry hosts are countless, except in the calculation of Him, who hath ordered all things, "by number, weight, and measure," and "who calleth them by their names." (Ps.)

Astronomers have already classified, and mapped about 4,000 clusters, or visible groups. Each cluster comprehends, it is said, about a million stars, graduating in magnitude and brightness.

"When night, with wings of sable gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes;
That sacred gloom, those sparks divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord, are thine."

In the interim, as truth's oracle declares: "By the words of the Holy One, they (stars) shall stand in judgment, and shall never fail in their watches." (Eccles. xliii.)

But, poetic imaginings, as well as mathematical calculations are powerless to enumerate all the Creator's mighty works, in the boundless depth of space. New spheres of harmonious light are not unfrequently discovered. Whether they be new or old creations, who can tell? "For anything we know," says a popular Divine, "creation may pass on from orb to orb, through millions of worlds, as God's finger may choose to press the bright keys of His stupendous instrument!"