There must be a =first cause= to set in operation all inferior ones in the production of action; and to that first cause all action, nay, the existence of all other causes, may be traced, directly, or more distant.  The intervening causes, in the consecutive order of things, may be as diversified as the links in the chain of variant beings.  Yet all these causes are moved by the all-sufficient and ever present agency of the Almighty Father, the =Uncaused Cause= of all things and beings; who spoke into existence the universe with all its various and complicated parts and orders; who set the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament, gave the earth a place, and fixed the sea a bed; throwing around them barriers over which they can never pass.  From the height of his eternal throne, his eye pervades all his works; from the tall archangel, that “adores and burns,” down to the very hairs of our heads, which are all numbered, his wise, benevolent, and powerful supervision may be traced in legible lines, which may be seen and read of all men.  And from effects, the most diminutive in character, may be traced back, from cause to cause, upward in the ascending scale of being, to the same unrivalled Source of all power, splendor, and perfection, the presence of Him, who spake, and it was done; who commanded, and it stood still; or, as the poet has it: 

    “Look thro nature up to nature’s God.”

The means of action are those aids which are displayed as the medium thro which existing causes are to exhibit their hidden powers in producing changes or effects.  The matches in the pocket of Guy Fawkes were the direct means by which he intended to set in operation a train of causes which should terminate in the destruction of the house of lords and all its inmates.  Those matches, set on fire, would convey a spark to the faggots, and thence to the powder, and means after means, and cause after cause, in the rapid succession of events, would ensue, tending to a final, inevitable, and melancholy result.

A ball shot from a cannon, receives its first impulse from the powder; but it is borne thro the air by the aid of a principle inherent in itself, which power is finally overcome by the density of the atmosphere which impedes its progress, and the law of gravitation finally attracts it to the earth.  These contending principles may be known by observing the curved line in which the ball moves from the cannon’s mouth to the spot where it rests.  But if there is no power in the ball, why does not the ball of cork discharged from the same gun with the same momentum, travel to the same distance, at the same rate?  The action commences in both cases with the same projectile force, the same exterior means are employed, but the results are widely different.  The cause of this difference must be sought for in the comparative power of each substance to continue its own movements.