The course of creation

by John Anderson

Though, in comparison of heaven, so small,

Nor glistering, may of solid good contain

More plenty than the sun that barren shines:

Whose virtue on itself works no effect,

But on the fruitful earth.”

When we turn to the dispensations of providence, we find the same principle prevailing in the communication of all its gifts—of them all, whether evolved in the natural or moral course of events. The many blessings which the mere diffusion of the solar rays imparts are not obtained all at once; the early dawn, the meridian splendor, the softening shades of twilight, are each accompanied with distinct and peculiar enjoyments to man and beast. Observe the course of the seasons: after winter come the gentle zephyrs of spring, the glowing heat of summer, to be again succeeded by the rich though milder beams of autumn. The seed which is deposited in the ground scarcely at first exhibits signs of life; but from that seed the green stalk gradually ascends, the ear is formed, the corn is produced in the ear, and man gathers from it his daily bread. Behold the new-born infant—the most helpless and imbecile of all nature’s productions—what labor, watchfulness, and care, before he comes to the maturity of manhood! how slowly do the powers of intellect expand! what diligence requisite for the moral culture of the heart! how gradual and progressive the whole steps by which he has been trained for the business and enterprises of life! Look now into the crowded city, where thousands and tens of thousands of rational beings have passed, and are all passing, through a similar process of discipline; consider how many generations have passed away before it attained to its present greatness; its wealth, its buildings, its schools of instruction, its temples of solemn worship; its philosophers, poets, orators, and statesmen; its laws, manners, sciences, and fine arts, are the accumulation, the work, and the growth of centuries. It is the same with nations as with individuals, and with all nations and countries as with one; the blessings of civilization are gradually diffused, sometimes retarded, and often buried for ages beneath the inroads of barbarism; but again emerging in greater abundance, taking a firmer step, and advancing onward and wider than before. And at last, from the favored position on which we have been placed, we see before us the certain prospect, in the increased facilities and means of communication which are now opened up, that they will be still more universally imparted, until truth, righteousness, and peace, cover the face of the whole earth.

Consider now, under the same progressive aspect, the scheme of revelation. Here we find the same analogy prevailing from the less to the greater, from the smallest tokens of the Divine favor, to the full and boundless manifestations of inexhaustible love and mercy.

From the fall to the restoration of man, the expressions of God’s interest in our condition are limited and obscure; but the plan is defined and the means arranged in the only way that was proper to display his goodness and make us sensible of his mercies. The blessings conferred upon the people of God, before the law and under the law, were chiefly temporal. Hence the rites and ceremonies of their worship were purposely of such a nature, and so multiplied, as principally to operate through the medium of the senses. Hence the various symbols of the Divine presence, when God personally, as it were, descended among them, and over-awed them by his visible glory. Hence the giving of the law amidst thunders, and lightnings, and shakings of the mountains, when external nature under its most appalling aspects bore testimony to the severe justice of the Divine character, and seemed to intimate, in a way which even the most hardened sinners would understand, how dreadful must be the judgments of their incensed and supreme Lawgiver. The Israelites were not sufficiently removed from their natural state to be as yet capable of a religion purely spiritual, like the Christian; and hence it was, that every later dispensation of God excelled the former, even as the trumpet on Mount Sinai “waxed louder and louder,” every succeeding blast transcending those that went before. The prophets rose above the ritual law, and showed men a more excellent way of worshiping God than by external performances, thereby preparing their minds for the reception of the Gospel. The tabernacle was no longer used after Solomon’s temple was built, but was laid aside, as the temple itself was “when the fullness of the time was come;” and as the sanctuary and tabernacle preceded the temple, so the glory of the latter was to be greater than that of the former, by the appearance of Him who was greater than the temple, whose mission was distinguished by more numerous miracles, and by sublimer and more important truths than had been before manifested to the world. Behold a higher dispensation still, when, after the state of grace ends, the state of glory shall commence; where all knowledge shall be imparted and all truth unvailed, where imperfection and sin shall no more adhere to us, and where, after the experience of millions of ages spent in the enjoyment of heavenly happiness, we shall be still advancing in glory and felicity, and attaining to higher measures of the increasing strength and ever-growing splendor of the sons of God.

These analogies may be extended. The wisdom and goodness of a God, for example, equally appear in the late and partial promulgation of Christianity, which is sometimes considered an objection against its truth, but which, in fact, is in perfect accordance with the same principle of progression which we have been illustrating in the general economy and arrangements of all God’s proceedings.

The gifts of nature are not imparted universally, nor in the same measure to all. The discoveries of science are the result of long and patient investigation. Herbs have been allowed to run waste for centuries upon centuries, of which the medicinal virtues have only recently been discovered. Through how many ages had mankind been left in ignorance of the properties of the magnet, and the simple apparatus of the compass-box, braving all the perils, and tossed about on the unknown wastes of the ocean? How much did the progress of knowledge and education suffer, during the lapse of so many generations, for want of the printing-press? What oppressions and cruelties have been practiced upon the different nations of the earth, through means of bad laws and bad government, of which even yet many are learning but the elements? And how is it that of one and all these things—the truths of science, the art of healing, the principles of navigation, the discipline of wholesome instruction, the enactment of good laws, and the various blessings of civilized life—more than two-thirds of the human race are in these latter ages still entirely destitute? God governs both in the kingdom of nature and in the kingdom of grace, and any objection, therefore, against the truth of revelation that may be built upon these grounds, goes equally to dethrone the Almighty from any share of interest in the government of the universe. But the Gospel, in fact, would have been premature before the actual time of its appearance; the history of providence in former ages could not have been appealed to, the sacrifice of the Redeemer had not been understood without the legal sacrifices preceding, the prophesies would have been unfulfilled, and the world would have been unprepared for a worship so pure and spiritual, a morality so searching and uncompromising, and a faith so lofty and exalted, had there not been much previous training and discipline, through the instrumentality of patriarchs, prophets, and legislators. One of the most striking proofs, in short, of the Divine wisdom in the dispensation of grace, is its harmonizing so exactly with the established course of nature. This is manifested more especially in the manner in which the heavenly blessings with which it is fraught have been communicated—slowly, gradually, and partially at first, more fully and generally diffused as men were prepared to receive them, and, when “the fullness of the time” had arrived, imparted freely and in the richest abundance unto all; light after light, truth after truth, and mercy upon mercy, all in such order of succession, that the former illustrate and recommend the latter, while the last are only a preparation for future and still greater mercies.