Glasgow weekly times. (Glasgow, Mo.) 1848-1861, 1859-11-03
Prof. Mitchell on the Evidences Of Gods
Existence.

Pref. Miicoell delivered the FIRST Of s Sc
ries of four lectures on the above subject,
before the Gillette Association Of New York
on Tuesday evening. After describing the
boundless extent of space, and the distance
which separates even the nearest stars, hS
said:
"whenoe .r. ,ho.. 5sbj.oiss There vei.
three hyps.h.ses On which an attempt had
been made to answer the question. The
first was tina. the world was eternal, having
neither beginning nor end. The second
was, mstter was eternal and cannot be deg
troyed. The third was, that they were the
work Of an omnipotsnt, divine Being. The
first, was Universe eternal? Had the stars
existed, the planets rolled, tine sun shOne,
and had our earth itself been cireuleirg
round the sun from eternity? They SEEM
ed 10 be organized for eternity. But when
We .xamin. our earth, the only one We can
examine internally, we must, If the first hy-
po,hesis be correct, find animal and vegsta-
BILE life eternal. This was demonstrably
not the case. The second hypeihesis, that
the matter is eternal, out of which the world
was formed, and that from It's creative con-
di,ion il had been brought BY certain inmN,,
table laws. lie. tiiefa but consider Ffts
tlcle of matter: would il either rise o. fat
without a'power 10 move IT? No. Chaos
existed, but out of it no order could arise
until csntrolling power willed it. then ~
sensate matter was organized and . world
was formed. That brought them to the
third ypothesis-that the whole universe
had been called into existence by an Omnip.
otent God.
In proof Of the correctness Of the thffd
hypothesis, the speaker told Of the reyolu-
lions of the various plapets, and of the Won
derful dslicacy and complexity Of the arr
rangsmeni BY which thsy were made de-
pendent upon each other, and showing how
the slightest deviation frcm The great laws
that govern them would destroy the whole
We were living upon globe, he said, which
was allied to oil other giobes-destrcy thu
equilibrium and all was destroyed. There
was no, planet that had not its size, weight
and velocity assigned 10 it. Change either,
and destruction must inevitably follow
Could they think Of that, he ssked-sit thft,
so beautiful, 80 delicate, SO sublime; and be-
lieve that it came TO be so by chance?-
There were, in al that was known Of tie
heavenly bodies, sTery evidence that eaci,
and every one of them was one matter, gov
ernsd by the same great laws, and by tie
same great controlling power. In conclal
sion, Prof. NJ. said he could, if he had tl,es
power, have built a universe so that there
would have been none Of the changes which
ours is subject 10. He would have mads
the planets Of one matter, and placed them
SC. that they should not have affected. each-,
other, nor should ,they..have been aflect.f
by the sun. He Could have launched then,
out, and they would have gone on perfectly
in their sphere, Now. why was no, li't
world SO built il there were no differences
Of matter? II had not been because there
was but one matter, and nstter could nos
be willed 10 attract, and not attract. Hence
the wondroas scheme by which the earl,
was dragged by the moon. hen by the pls,.-
cts and by The sun. here and there, 80 that
dissolution seemed inevitable, but Hhf
most perfect harmony prevailed, and sis-
earth rolled on 10 eternity. Let the Dfnd
contemplate these crbs end their Rozer.s-.
msnt, and the conclusion was UNAVOIDABLE
This Is the empire q Almighty GedS
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