IX.

RETRIBUTION.

GALATIANS, Ch. vi., part of 7th and 8th verses. "- for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.”

II. CORINTHIANS, ix., 6. shall reap also sparingly; also bountifully."

"But this I say, he which soweth sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap

HOSEA, viii., 7. "For they have sown the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind.'

In the beautifully planned and skilfully formed universe in which we are placed, great minds have always observed an order in the arrangement of all its bodies, and in the happening of all its events.

First, there is an order in the arrangement of all its bodies. Things are not thrown together promiscuously and at random, piled up in a heap chance-wise, and without beginning, middle or end. That is our idea of chaos. The planets are arranged in a certain order in relation to the sun. The different layers of the crust of the earth have a uniform arrangement which is the same in both hemispheres and in all the continents. Hence, in geology, the primary, secondary, and tertiary formations have such a regularity and uniformity, that when we see the plan of superposition in one part of the world, we expect the same general plan in all other parts. In the human body, why are the arteries which [195]

convey the blood outward from the heart bedded deeper down in the flesh than the veins which bring it back from the extremities? Simply because the blood-vessels are liable to be cut and ruptured, and as the arteries always bleed more profusely than the veins, it is best that they should be placed deeper down, where they will be more out of harm's way. If you were to put iron and glass into the same package for transportation, would you not put the glass into the interior of the parcel, where it would be less exposed to blows or any form of rough usage? That is the reason why the arteries are placed nearer the bones, and the veins nearer the skin. The human eye consists of above twenty different parts. In every perfect eye, are not all these parts arranged in the same order? Examine the interior of an egg. Are not the albumen and the yolk always fashiored after the same model? Nay, among animals in other respects most dissimilar, there is still a secret reference to the same general type. The wings of a bird and the fins of a fish represent the arms of a man. The fore-legs of a horse or an ox are only the arms turned down. The mammalia have four limbs; birds have four also, including their wings.

And, secondly, there is an order in events. Events do not occur at hap-hazard. When the sun rises, light is spread abroad. When the sun sets, light is withdrawn. When the sun approaches the tropic of Cancer, the temperature of the whole northern hemisphere rises, and we have the heats of summer; when it recedes to the tropic of Capricorn, the temperature falls, and we have the congelations of winter. You do not see boiling water scald a man one day and freeze him the next. You do not see fire one day burn more fiercely in a

blast of oxygen, and do the same thing the next day in a blast of carbonic acid gas. You do not see cork float on water and lead sink at one time, and then see the lead float and the cork sink at another. You never see a man who observes all the laws of health becoming ill; and another who violates all those laws remaining well. The angler baits his hook with curious art for catching fish, unless when he fishes for gudgeons, which bite the naked hook; because among fishes the gudgeons are fools. The devil tempts men through their ambition, their cupidity or their appetite, until he comes to the profane swearer, whom he catches without any reward. The profane swearer bites a hook unbaited even by any seeming good; because among the tempted, like gudgeons among fishes, the profane swearer is a fool.

Now in all these things, Nature, or God acting through nature, is uniform. They never happen one way one year, and another way another year, when the circumstances are the same. They give no sign of being produced by accident or caprice, or by the arbitrary, fitful interference of a superior power; but they proceed onward from age to age, with a solemn, majestic movement, an august procession, that strikes the contemplative beholder with awe, and expands and lifts his soul with indescribable emotions of sublimity and grandeur. We call this the course of Providence ; and in the wisdom that planned it, in the power that sustains it, in the benevolence with which it overflows, and in the omniscience which sees the end from the beginning, it is worthy of a God.

We admire the ingenuity of a timepiece-maker, who can construct a chronometer so skilfully, that it can go round the world and not lose or gain more than half

a minute. What, then, shall be said of this great horologe in the skies, of this sun and these planets, primary and secondary, which have fulfilled their mighty circuits since their creation and have not lost or gained a moment of time, nor fallen out of repair?

Now, having looked outward, around us, let us for a moment look inward, into our own consciousness. Corresponding with this wonderful order of external nature, this marvellous arrangement of bodies, and this solemn progression of events in the outward world, we have a faculty in our own souls, whose special function it is to take cognizance of the external arrangement and order, and to profit by it; to profit by it in two ways, first, by obtaining more benefits and advantages than we could otherwise do; and secondly, by avoiding more evils.

What a miserable condition we should be in, if the seasons should change places, winter for summer, and spring for autumn, all at random; if the zones should dance about; if the ocean should be sometimes fresh, and the fountains sometimes salt; if the plants which had borne healthful and delicious fruits should produce arid and poisonous ones; if the specific gravity of bodies should change, so that stones would sometimes rise and vapor fall; - in fine, abolish order and adaptation and periodicity from the universe, and the only solace of our miserable lives would be, that they would come speedily to an end.

But mark this: just as well might all these essentials of happiness, and of existence, which are without us, be abolished, as to abolish our power to recognize their existence. It is immaterial whether the sun or the eye be destroyed, vision equally ceases. It is the

same whether you destroy outward order, or the inward power of profiting by order; in both cases the advantage is destroyed. Two things, then, are necessary; the order of the external world, and the power of availing ourselves of that order in the mental world.

This sublime external order we call Cause and Effect. It is something more than mere sequence, mere juxtaposition, in point of time. The night always follows the day, and the day the night, but the day is not the cause of the night, nor is the night the cause of the day. But when I throw a rope to a drowning man, or fasten a cable and a cannon ball together, and by means of gunpowder send that ball over a wrecked vessel, I am convinced that there is a power in my arm, and in the gunpowder which sent the rope or cable on its benevolent errand. That power we denominate Causation ; the faculty within us which recognizes the power we call Causality.

Now the grand order of events in nature, in history, in nations, and in individuals, is nothing but progressive, and often alternating cause and effect. A precedent event is the cause of one or more subsequent events. The subsequent event or events, are the effect of the precedent, and in their turn become the cause of other events, later in time. The first tree produced the first seed, or, changing the priority, the first seed produced the first tree, that tree another seed, that seed another tree, and so on, to all the seeds that exist, and to all the trees that are growing to-day. And so, assuming the bird to have been first created, the first bird produced the first egg, that egg another bird, that bird another egg, and so on, from bird to egg, and from egg to bird, to all the eggs and birds now in being. The