LIGHT:

ITS PROPERTIES AND EFFECTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE ORIGIN OF ALL THINGS-PHOSPHORESCENCE

THE CARE OF GOD.

THE great truth, that "in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," we owe entirely to Divine inspiration. No human eye could have witnessed that event; and, in reference to it, the most distinguished men of ancient times were much perplexed. Indeed, it was more common for those who were considered enlightened people to derive their gods from the world, than to ascribe the universe to God.

One favourite idea was, that the system of things which attracts our attention, and ought ever to excite admiration, had no origin; but that what it was, it had

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been from eternity. Now, it is worthy of remark, that if the world had been one uniform whole, such a state might have appeared possible. But, on the contrary, so far from being simple, every thing is compounded. It is easily seen that this assertion applies to the grosser forms of matter, yet it is indisputably true of those which are most refined. At no distant period much was heard, for instance, about "the elements of nature;" yet these have been found capable of still further division. Thus the simplest forms of which men could at one time conceive, are manifestly combinations of what is far more simple.

And here is a proof that the universe cannot have existed from eternity; because as it is compounded of various parts, so these must have been previously in some other state. As the timber of the house was in the forest; and the clay, the stone, and the metal, in the earth; so these are all to be traced to more simple forms, in which they must have been prior to their combination. The house cannot be erected without its parts being first produced; and the globe, formed of various substances as it is, could not have been always in its present condition: it must therefore have had a beginning.

To this, then, we are directed, in the inspired declara

tion of Moses :-"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." This may be regarded as a preface to the whole Bible, and to the system of doctrines it contains. Accordingly, it announces, in few and simple, but most sublime and affecting terms, the two great subjects about which they are employedJehovah and his kingdom: it exhibits him as the Supreme Creator, and all things, visible and invisible, as the products of his wisdom, power, and goodness.

On this act is founded a great part of the character in which he specially claims the obedience of intelligent beings. As the Creator of the universe, he shows himself able to preserve and govern the vast work which he has thus made. It is evident that he has power which nothing can resist or escape, wisdom which nothing can elude or approach, and greatness with which nothing can possibly be compared. Creation, too, gives the highest claim; and hence he is the absolute Proprietor of all. He who says, "Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills," has the same property in the humble and the exalted—from the smallest atom to the loftiest archangel. "He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?" Daniel iv. 35.

It is a singular fact, that while Moses says, when the earth was without form and void, "Darkness was upon the face of the deep," some traces of this truth are found among most nations. Aristotle speaks of some of the learned, as saying, "All things are born from night." Hesiod describes chaos as the origin of all things, from which Erebus and night arose. Aristophanes also intimates that this idea was common among the intelligent men of Greece.

The Anglo-Saxons began their computation of time from night, and their year from that day in winter corresponding with our Christmas, which they called "Mother Night," as if it were the parent of all things. The Tahitians, and other islanders of the Great Pacific, refer the first existence of their principal deities to the state of darkness, which they make the origin of all things. These are said to be, "Fanau Po," born of night; "Po" is the world of darkness. How delightful is it to the Christian, when reading such facts, to review his own exalted privilege, in being possessed of the revelation of that God to whom "the darkness and the light are both alike!" Psa. cxxxix. 12.

According to the sacred historian, the first element separated from the chaos was light, the most wonderful and useful of all material objects. The Divine com