It is readily allowed, there are truths in Christianity which reason cannot fathom.  Not because they are opposed to reason, but because they are beyond its reach.  They are infinite, while man’s reason is finite.  But it is only by the light of reason that man can see any consistency or propriety in the assertion of such truths.  Reason may sanction what it cannot fully grasp, as the boundlessness of space, or the endlessness of time.  One thing may be above reason, another thing may be opposed to reason.  The former it may approve—­the latter it will peremptorily condemn.  This is an important distinction, which should never be overlooked in its bearing on religious tenets.

In all researches for an enlightened religious faith, there are but two sources of information, on which reliance can be placed with entire confidence, viz. the Works of Nature, and the Revealed Word of God.  Both are equally the productions of the Infinite Mind, and can be studied with the highest profit.

Nature’s works are but an “elder Scripture,” written by Jehovah’s finger.  In glowing suns and stars, we read its brilliant and instructive lessons.  These all teach us aright of the perfections of the Sovereign Creator.  They are “golden steps,” on which the mind ascends to a clearer view of the great Creator.  Behold the o’erarching canopy with which God has adorned our earthly abode.  See how it glitters with burnished worlds, more numerous than the dust of earth.  All are in motion.  With a velocity which outstrips the wind, they wheel their flight around their vast orbits, with a precision which astonishes and confounds the beholder.  Yonder rolls the planet Jupiter.  Could I put my finger down at a certain point in its orbit, as it rushes past, it might exclaim—­“Although the journey around the orbit in which I revolve, is two thousand nine hundred and sixty-six millions six hundred and sixty-one thousand miles, yet in four thousand three hundred and thirty-two days, fourteen hours, eighteen minutes, and forty-one seconds, I will pass this point again!!” And away it flies to fulfil the grand prophecy.  I watch with intense interest for more than eleven years.  At length they have expired.  The days also run by—­the hours pass—­the minutes.  And as the clock ticks the forty-first second, lo! old Jupiter wheels past the given point, without the variation of the thousandth part of a moment.  Thus it has been journeying from the morning of creation.  Thus perfectly revolve all the heavenly bodies.

    “Mysterious round! what skill, what force divine,
     Deep felt, in these appear!  A single train,
     Yet so delightful mixed, with such kind art,
     Such beauty and beneficence combin’d;
     Shade, unperceived, so softening into shade;
     And all so forming an harmonious whole;
     That as they still succeed, they ravish still.”