The permanence of natural law.
"He hath also stablished them for ever and ever." The permanence of natural law is not really any scientific discovery of modern date. It is the commonplace of thoughtful apprehension of facts in all ages. It is the basis of confidence on which man's enterprises have always rested. What is peculiar to modern times is the persistent effort to get law separated from God, to prove that law exists, but that it never had a lawgiver, and that now, for its working, there is no law-controller. Old Testament saints saw in the permanence of natural law the considerate working of the living God for the good of his creatures.
I. THE PERMANENCE OF ALL NATURAL LAWS. The truth is only true when permanence is seen to apply to the entire sphere of natural law. It is here that the philosopher constructs an imperfect argument. He affirms that permanence attaches to all laws that are cognizable by the senses. But have we any right to say that the sphere of natural law is limited to what we can, under our present conditions, and with our present faculties, apprehend? This may be tried by conceiving that we had seven senses instead of five. The other two senses would reveal to us the working of natural laws which we are wholly unable to apprehend under our present conditions. And the operation of those natural laws may explain what we now have to call the miraculous. And this has further to be seen: The permanence of natural law is consistent with the interworking of law; the action of one qualifying the action of another, as when by my will I raise my arm, which gravitation would pull down. The unknown natural laws are continually crossing and modifying the known, but always harmoniously.
II. THE PERMANENCE OF ALL MORAL LAWS. It has yet to be taken into full account that the natural laws include the moral; and that nature can never be explained until the influence on it of God's will and man's is recognized The moral is as natural for man as the natural is for nature; and the moral is as permanent and absolute as we can conceive the natural to be. But all law is in the adjustment and harmonizing of the law-controller.—R.T.
The praise-voices of nature-forces.
How poet-souls recognize the voices of nature may be illustrated by Milton's lines-
"His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship wave!"
What is peculiar to the psalmist is his recognizing signs of will in nature. He conceives of "stormy wind fulfilling his Word," voluntarily fulfilling it, and so an image of himself. It is a blending of poetic and pious feeling that thus leads man to make of nature a mirror in which he sees himself.
I. MAN PUTTING HIMSELF INTO THINGS. When we are impressed with anything in nature, we, in a sort of unconscious way, say to it, "If I were you, how should I feel, and what should I do?" And then we represent it to ourselves as actually feeling what we should feel, and doing what we should do. In this way the psalmist calls on the winds to praise God, because that is what he would do if he were the wind; and he calls on the wind to fulfill God's Word, because that is what he would do if he were the wind. This is man's interpreting of nature, which is never any more than interpreting himself in the terms of nature. But manifestly this putting of ourselves into things belongs exclusively to the poetic and the pious souls. To most men nature is but a satisfaction of artistic sensibilities: all that can be observed is the beautiful in form and color. It is but the sublime side of this truth to say that God puts himself into nature to show himself to us, as we put ourselves into nature to show ourselves to him.
II. MAN INFLUENCING HIMSELF BY SEEING HIMSELF IN THINGS. Introspection is neither healthy nor effective. A man must put himself outside himself; must find a mirror of himself, and see himself in the mirror. And what he thus sees is always himself as he should be. So the projection of himself is an inspiration to himself. The psalmist seas this in the one matter of obedience. Projecting himself into the stormy wind, he is inspired to the "fulfilling of God's Word."—R.T.