CHRISTIAN'S DAILY COMPANION.
The doctrine of creation, in the proper sense First Day.- MORNING.
of the term, depends upon the testimony of in
spiration for its proof. Evidences of design so *In the beginning God created the hearens and copiously exhibited throughout all the departthe earth,' Gen. i. 1.
ments of the universe, unquestionably proclaim The work of creation, implying the produc- to every reflective mind the existence of God. tion of all things out of nothing, constitutes an But it was long a question, with some of the anazing operation of the power of God. And most eminent philosophers of antiquity, whether as the universe arose at his command, its con- matter was not essentially eternal; and whether tinued duration is absolutely dependent upon his God ought not to be viewed rather as the conwill. Nothing in heaven or on earth is indepen- triver of the universe out of elements already dent or self-existent; for this constitutes the existing, than in the strict and proper significaincommunicable excellence of him who alone tion of the term, its Creator, or absolute Author. hath immortality, who dwelleth in light which To the devout student of revelation there is no Is inaccessible to mortal eye, and full of glory. longer any darkness resting upon this subject; As to man he is of yesterday, and knows nothing. for “through faith we understand that the worlds Tracing back the annals of time, we arrive at no were framed by the word of God; so that things Fary extended era at the foundation of the which are seen were not made of things which itsadest monarchies, and the most venerated do appear.' it-titutions. Within a circle, somewhat more The design of this great work was to display ez Lirged, we embrace the origin of the globe it- the glory of its adorable Author; and how fully zelf, and of the surrounding heavens ; when the it was fitted to secure this end, we may even yet s began to roll his earliest circuit, and the understand, notwithstanding the extent to which un to measure forth her appointed revolu- it has been marred by the influence of sin. The tuns. Beyond this, and within a range, how- wisdom, the power, and the majesty of God, Prer, comparatively great, still finite, we reach every where appear in the astonishing magnifise era when the angelic hosts were called into cence and sublimity of those vast and harmonious 22tence. But the years of the right hand of arrangements which constitute what have been
Most High who can number? He inhabiteth called the laws of the material universe. His amity and its praises. Uncreated, unlimited, goodness, liberality, and benevolence, together and independent, as there shall never arrive a with the all-comprehending and ceaseless assiduity period in the exhaustless flow of the cycles of of his providence, shine forth not less conspicufuturity when he shall cease to be; neither was ously in connection with the organization, the torte eter a period, in all the remote tracts of preservation, and the enjoyments common to the at duration, when he began to exist.
endless variety of the tribes of animate creatures I am the First, and I the Last;
which people the earth, the air, and the sea. It Time centres all in me;
has been justly observed, that though pain and TH' Almighty God, who was, and is,
suffering are incident to the creation, it cannot And evermore shall be.'