Year: 1859

Professor Mitchell on the xvi.


dences of Gods Existence.


Prof. Mitchell delivered the first of
series 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 sep
arates even the nearest stars, he said:


Whence are those objects? There
were three hypothesis on winch an
attempt had been made to answer the
question. The first was, that the
world was eternal, having neither be-
ginning nor end. The second was,
matter was eternal and can not be de-
stroyed. The third was. that they
were the work of an omnipotent. dI-
vine Being. The first, was the Uni
verse eternal. Had the stars existed,
the planets rolled. the sun shone, and
had our earth itself been circulating
round the sun from eternity? They
seem to be organized for eternity
But when we examine our earth, the
only one we can examine internally,
we must. if the first hypothesis be
correct. find animal and vegetable life
eternal. This was demonstrably not
the case. The second hypothesis.
that the matter is eternal, out of which
the world was formed, and that from
its creative condition it had been
brought by certain immutable laws.
Let them but consider a particle of
matter: would it either rise or fall
without power 10 move it? No.
Chaos existed, but out of it no order
could arise until controlling power
willcd it. Then insoasatc matter was
organized and world was formed
That brought them to the third hy-
pothesis--that the whole universe had
been called into existence by an Om-
nipotent God.


In proof of the correctness of the
third hypothesis. the speaker told of
the revolutions of the various planets.
and of the wonderful delicacy and
complexity of the arrangement by
which they were made dependent upon
each other. and showed how the slight
est deviation from the great laws that
govern them would destroy the whole.
We were living on globe. he said,
which was allied to all other globes
destroy the equilibrium and all was
destroyed. There was not planet
that had not its size, weight and vc-
locity assigned to it. Change either,
and destruction must inevitably fol-
low. Could they think of that. he
asked-all that, SO beautiful, so deli
cate, so sublime, and believe that it
came to be so by chance? There were
in all that was known of the heavenly
bodies, every evidence that each and
every one of them was one matter.
governed by the same great laws, and
by the same great controlling power.
In conclusion, Prof. NJ. said he could
if he had the power, have built uui-
verse so that there would have been
none Of the changes which ours is
subject to. He would have made the
planets of one matter, and placed
them so they should not have affected
each other nor should they have been
affected by the sun. He could have
launched them out, and they would
have gone on perfectly in their sphere.
Now why was the world so built if
there were no differences of matter?
1t had not been because there was
but one matter, and matter could not
be willcd TO attract, and not attract.
Hence, the wenderous scheme by
which the earth was dragged by the
moon, then by planets and by the sun,
here and there, so that dissolution
seemed inevitable. but still the most
perfcct.harmony prevailed, and the
earth rolled on to eternity. Let the
mind contemplate these orbs and their
government, and the conclusion was
unavoidable-This is the empire Of
Almighty Goa.