394 CANADIAN CHRISTMAS CAROL. CANADIAN CHRISTMAS CAROL. No shepherds in the field to-night, no flocks upon the wold, Thro' the shivering forest branches means the north blast fierce and cold; 'But gloriously the white stars gleam as on that holy even When the herald Angels' chorus swell'd through the soft Judean heaven. Oh, Earth the white shrouds wraps thee now, in Death's cold grasp thou art, Thy tears, thy music, bound alike in the ice-chain on thine heart : Melt, melt, oh cold and stony heart! even as the ice-bonds shiver, When Spring breathes soft on the frozen wood, when warm winds loose the river- The Angel-vision sheds on thee its glory's softening ray- Morn on the sparkling wilds of snow-morn on the frozen West! Frail monitors! your verdure speaks all eloquently bright, Let the wild wind sweep the snows without-within be joy and mirth; The Christmas hearth! Ah pleasant spot, where joyful kindred meet- Wake thy ten thousand voices, Earth! outpour thy floods of praise- Till heavenward wafted, seraph-wing'd, they pierce th' illumin'd zone Throne ! -Toronto Maple Leaf. THE TELESCOPE AND THE MICROSCOPE. The one Ir was the telescope that, by piercing the obscurity which lies between us and distant worlds, put Infidelity in possession of the argument against which we are now contending. But, about the time of its invention, another instrument was formed which laid open a scene no less wonderful, and warded the inquisitive spirit of man with a discovery which. serves to neutralize the whole of this argument. This was the microscope. The one led me to see a system in every star. The other leads me to see a world in every atom. taught me, that this mighty globe, with the whole burden of its people and of its countries, is but a grain of sand on the high field of immensity. The other teaches me, that every grain of sand may harbor within it the tribes and the families of a busy population. The one told me of the insignificance of the world I tread upon. The other redeems it from all its insignificance; for it tells me that in the leaves of every forest, and in the flowers of every garden, and in the waters of every rivulet, there are worlds teeming with life, and numberless as are the glories of the firmament. The one has suggested to me, that beyond and above all that is visible to man, there may lie fields of creation which sweep immeasurably along, and carry the impress of the Almighty's hand to the remotest scenes of the universe. The other suggests to me, that within and beneath all that minuteness which the aided eye of man has been able to explore, there may lie a region of invisibles: and that, could we draw aside the mysterious curtain which shrouds it from our senses, we might there see a theatre of as many wonders as astronomy has unfolded, a universe within the compass of a point so small, as to elude all the powers of the microscope, but where the wonder-working God finds room for the exercise of all His attributes, where He can raise another mechanism of worlds, and fill and animate them all with the evidences of His glory. Now, mark how all this may be made to meet the argument of our infidel astronomers. By the telescope, they have discovered that no magnitude, however vast, is beyond the grasp of the Divinity. But by the microscope we have also discovered that no minuteness, however shrunk from the notice 396 THE TELESCOPE AND THE MICROSCOPE. of the human eye, is beneath the condescension of His regard. Every addition to the powers of the one instrument extends the limit of His visible dominions. But by every addition to the powers of the other instrument, we see each part of them more crowded than before with the wonders of His unwearying hand. The one is constantly widening the circle of his territory. The other is as constantly filling up its separate portions with all that is rich and various and exquisite. In a word, by the one I am told that the Almighty is now at work in regions more distant than geometry has ever measured, and among worlds more manifold than numbers have ever reached. But, by the other, I am also told, that with a mind to comprehend the whole, in the vast compass of its generality, He has also a mind to concentrate a close and a separate attention on each and on all of its particulars; and that the same God, who sends forth an upholding influence among the orbs and the movements of astronomy, can fill the recesses of every single atom with the intimacy of His presence, and travel, in all the greatness of His unimpaired attributes, upon every one spot and corner of the universe He has formed. They, therefore, who think that God will not put forth such a power, and such a goodness and such a condescension in behalf of this world, as are ascribed to him in the New Testament, because He has so many other worlds to attend to, think of Him as a man,-they confine their view to the informations of the telescope, and forget altogether the informations of the other instrument. They only find room in their minds for His one attribute of a large and general superintendence; and keep out of their remembrance the equally impressive proofs we have for His other attribute, of a minute and multiplied attention to all that diversity of operations, where it is He that worketh all in all. And when I think that as one of the instruments of philosophy has heightened our every impression of the first of these attributes, so another instrument has no less heightened our impression of the second of them—then I can no longer resist the conclusion, that it would be a transgression of sound argument, as well as a daring of impiety, to draw a limit around the doings of this unsearchable God-and should a professed revelation from heaven tell me of an act of condescension in behalf of some separate world, so wonderful that angels desired to look into it, and the Eternal Son had to move from His seat of glory to carry it into accomplishment, all I ask is the evidence of such a revelation; for, let it tell me as much as it may of God letting Himself down for the benefit of one, single province of His dominions, this is no more than what I see lying scattered in numberless examples before me-and running through the whole line of my recollections—and meeting me in every walk of observation to which I can betake myself; and, now that the microscope has unveiled the wonders of another region, I see strewed around me, with a profusion which baffles my every attempt to comprehend it, the evidence that there is no one portion of the universe of God too minute for His notice, nor too humble for the visitations of His care. As the end of all these illustrations, let me bestow a single paragraph on what I conceive to be the precise state of this argument. It is a wonderful thing that God should be so unencumbered by the concerns of the whole universe, that he can give a constant attention to every moment of every individual in this world's population. But, wonderful as it is, you do not hesitate to admit it as true, on the evidence of your own recollections. It is a wonderful thing that He, whose eye is at every instant on so many worlds, should have peopled the world we inhabit with all the traces of the varied design and benevolence which abound in it. But, great as the wonder is, you do not allow so much as the shadow of improbability to darken it, for its reality is what you actually witness, and you never think of questioning the evidence of observation. It is wonderful, it is passing wonderful, that the same God, whose presence is diffused through immensity, and who spreads the ample canopy of His administration over all its dwelling-places, should, with an energy as fresh and as unexpended as if He had only begun the work of creation, turn Him to the neighborhood around us, and lavish on its every handbreadth all the exuberance of His goodness, and crowd it with the many thousand varieties of conscious existence. But, be the wonder incomprehensible as it may, you do not suffer in your mind the burden of a single doubt to lie upon it, because you do not question the report of the microscope. You do not refuse its information, nor turn away from it as an incompetent channel of evidence. But to bring it still nearer to the point at issue, there are many who never looked through a microscope, but who rest an implicit give to the authors of the books they have read, a they put in the record of their observations. point I make my stand. It is wonderful that God interested in the redemption of a single world, as His well-beloved Son upon the errand; and He to a should, mighty to save, put forth all His strength in the greatness of it. But such wonders as these multiplied upon you; and when evidence is given of you have resigned your every judgment of the God, and rested in the faith of them. I demand, in sound and consistent philosophy, that you do the matter before us-and take it up as a question of and examine that medium of testimony through miracles and informations of the Gospel have come t --and go not to admit as argument here, what w admitted as argument in any of the analogies of observation-and take along with you in this field a lesson which you should have learned upon other f the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the of God, that His judgments are unsearchable, and H past finding out. CONTENTMENT. SEE the soft green willow springing Though the rudest hand assail her, |