If He who spoke these words were (as
I believe) none other than the Creator of the universe, by whom all
things were made, and without whom nothing was made that is made, do
you suppose that He would have bid you to consider His universe, had
it been dangerous for you to do so?
Do you suppose, moreover, that the universe, which He, the Truth, the
Light, the Love, has made, can be otherwise then infinitely worthy to
be considered? or that the careful, accurate, and patient
consideration of it, even to its minutest details, can be otherwise
than useful to man, and can bear witness of aught, save the mind and
character of Him who made it? And if so, can it be a work unfit for,
unworthy of, a clergyman--whose duty is to preach Him to all, and in
all ways,--to call on men to consider that physical world which, like
the spiritual world, consists, holds together, by Him, and lives and
moves and has its being in Him?
And here I must pause to answer an objection which I have heard in my
youth from many pious and virtuous people--better people in God's
sight, than I, I fear, can pretend to be.
They used to say, "This would be all very true if there were not a
curse upon the earth." And then they seemed to deduce, from the fact
of that curse, a vague notion (for it was little more) that this
world was the devil's world, and that therefore physical facts could
not be trusted, because they were disordered, and deceptive, and what
not.
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