THE SILENCE OF GOD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10629, 18 December 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE SILENCE OF GOD.

[by coloxos.] Throdohoot this wide universe there is nothing more impressive than the profound and awful silence that surrounds the Great Author of it all. ' Powers of the most stupendous kind are in continual operation, sustaining, controlling, guiding, yet in all the continuity and in all the amazing changes that are occurring, not an audible sound reaches us from the Centro of force, and tho whole machinery itself proceeds in its ceaseless round in absolute stillness. We are so accustomed to noise and clatter in connection with any force pub forth by ourselves, even our commonest actions in our daily lives are so attended by sounds marking their stages of progress, that this universal hush is the more awesome. If we are about to do something, the sound of preparation usually gives warning of what is coming, and when it is done wo are, ourselves, and everybody within our sphere, made aware of the eclat of the proceeding. But when Nature— wo may use as a synonym for Nature's God— Naturo works stillness reigns, and neither in anticipation nor in realisation does a sound escape to tell of the putting forth, and of tho progress of powers that utterly transcend the greatest effort and all the accumulated efforts that have been ever put forth by the whole human race. Can anything be more awe-inspiring than a look into the distant starry heavens at night? And of all the elements that combine to make the scene impressive, the greatest iB the supremo silence that reigns in the sky.

All those myriads of stars are held in their places by forces of attraction and repulsion so vast that when wo compare those forces with anything wo have ever known or read of as exercised by human beings, we sink back into ourselves with a sense of absolute insignificance. When we propel a few hundred tons of things along a railroad track the rattlo and din are such that wo can hear nothing else, Yob away up in that blue vault thee countless globes of light are every one of them oareoring with inconceivable speed, some of them whirling on their own axes, and revolving round some other globe, which is itself, in company 4 w.ith countless other orbs, rolling on to wo know not whither, and. from that maze of whirling globes nob tho faintest sound disturbs the stillness of the night. And it is not from the distance, vast though that is, preventing the transmission of sound to our ears; for from the most stupendous globe of all that stud the starry sphere there does nob appear to be emitted Hi its movements through the depths of space a sound more audible than tho wmspor of tho evening zephyr. And as we look up into the fathomless depths of that empyrean, studded with those countless islets of light, the mind must be insensible to emotion that is not awed by tho silence of the great unseen Power that is controlling and regulating chat intricate maze amid a stillness that can be almost heard. And looking nearer, our eyes rest on tho moon sailing majestically through the heavens, turning her calm silent face to ue, the same that has looked down on tho earth through countless ages of tho past. Science tells us of the terrific forces, centrifugaland centripetal, thatarecontending with one another, to keep her exactly in her position and distance from as, yet nob a sound of the conflict reaches us; bub passing on her course in serene majesty, her very stillness seems to give a deeper hush to Nature. And the sun: what mighty forces he is exercising, nob only on the globes that are circling round him, with the full extent of whicli we are nob familiar, bub on the intricate concerns of this world of ours with which we aro brought in contact every day But whether in the heavens above or the earth beneath, or in the waters under the oarbh, and in everything he does, there is the same silent stillness that is the order of Nature. lb is true we see disturbances of that order, which are rightly called "disturbances," for the violent paroxysms, electrical or meteorological, that sometimes startle us, are so clearly departures from the settled order of the universe that we instinctively oonnecb them with the intrusion of some external malign power that was not embraced in the original constitution of things. Bub apart from these exceptional "disturbances," what a stillness reigns in all the operations of Nature which are every day evolving changes and developments that fill us with amazement, ■ We cannot explain, or even understand, the nature of the influences that are projected to us from the sun over millions of miles of space, but whatever they are, they reach us in silence, and enter into the work of vivifying the world without the smallest audible , sound to mark their operations. Note she silence of the ebbing and flowing of the tides, the stillness with which mil. lions of tons of water are raised in vapour, and borne along in olouds to descend in refreshing showers on distant lands. '■ . Seethe stillness with which the vitalising influences enter the roots of plants, ascend in sap, spread out in leaves and flowers. There is no impatience, no hurry in the operations, bub quietly and silently they proceed, till the leafless foresb is transformed into a waving scene of luxuriant vegetation, and all Nature is aglow with evidence of the mysterious unseen power that bad been working all the time in absolute silence. The little ivy berry dropped by a passing bird amid the stones of a fortress, under the influence of showers and sunshine buds and spreads slowly, and silently through the interstices.of the walls, and steadily prizes apart- the huge stones that had resisted the battering ram, or even tho crashing force of artillery, until ramparts and bastions fall crumbling to the earth. And so it is with the operation of all the giant forces of Nature. We may hardly note their presence, we may nob hear their movements, but calmly and steadily they proceed with their work, and we only become cognizant of their irresistable power by the result. - , •: And it appears to be the same in the moral as in the material'world. We fume and freb and create a noise, and think we are achieving great results, which we attribute to ourselves as the principal factors in the whole performance, as chanticleer thinks that the sun his gob;up to hear him crow. Bub there are silent influences , at ; work entirely independent of. our noisy methods, that dominate the whole development, which we tacity admit sometimes in saying that it is the unexpected that happens. .. We talk of the history and development of nations, and we note the noisy steps in which mankind have been. proceeding, in wars and tumults, working out,' as they deem it, their own destiny for themselves. But behind' ail these things there was still the great silenb Power whose unseen, unheard influences have | been quietly at work among it all, and just as these forces in Nature; have been I silently dominating the material world, ib is reasonable to think that He has all the time been working His will, nob only among the armies of Heaven, but among the inhabitants of earth. :■•.•];; -Bub there is something awe-inspiring in the- thought of this strange silence in a Being that ' is nob only ever-present, but ever working and governing and influencing everything in which we are concerned. Millions and i millions? of prayers ascend to Him from His creatures every day, but there is nob a whisper of reply.;'

In trouble and in distress there is something instinctive in the human heart that prompts it to call out for help to a higher Being, and religion emphasises the dictates of Nature, and bids men pray. These prayers for help may have their objects satisfied, or they may not; but no sound issues from the stillness that is round the throne, and the Great Being continues surrounded by impenetrable silence. ' Faith may have confidence that an answer will be given to its cry, and may evon deduce the conclusion that an answer has been given, or that the object of the req uesb will be realised in some other way. Men's subjective feelings may have an absolute consciousness not only of the presence, bub of communion with the great; Being; but after all there is something mysterious in the fact that the Author and the Governor of all, though present continually, should shroud Himself in silertce from His creatures during all the time that they are shut up in this casket of clay. It is not that He has nob spoken in times past; it is not that Ho has left Himself without witness in the world of Nature ; for look where we may in the world around, or in the sky above, we have evidence of this silent power. \\ hat though no real voice nor sound, amid their radiant orbs bo found ? in reason's ear they all rejoice and utter forth a glorious voice; forever, singing as they shine, the hand that made us is divine.