(Rufus Wheelwright Clark, "Heaven and its Scriptural Emblems" 1853)
"HIS dominion is an everlasting
dominion!" Daniel 4:34
"The LORD has established HIS throne
in Heaven, and HIS kingdom rules
over all!"Psalm 103:19
GOD is a sovereign of absolute
and unlimited dominion!
Reason and revelation both teach us
that GOD'S government and authority
are coextensive with HIS rational creation.
HIS government reaches to the remotest
bounds of the habitable universe!
Every angel in Heaven,
every inhabitant of earth,
the millions of beings that people
the worlds that are above and around us--
are all subjects of HIS divine authority.
We speak of GOD'S government as
coextensive with HIS moral kingdom;
but this language, obviously, fails
to convey to our minds adequate
conceptions either of the government
or of the kingdom over which it is
established; for modern science
has thrown open to us an extent
of empire that is beyond the grasp
of the mightiest and loftiest
of human intellects.
With the aid of telescopic power,
we discover that immensity is crowded
with worlds and systems, of which, before,
we had no knowledge; and that this earth,
instead of being the central portion of GOD'S
dominions, to which all that is visible in
the heavens is tributary and secondary--
is, in fact, but one amid myriads of worlds,
which vastly surpass it in magnificence
and splendor!
We discover that the universe is of such
an extent that this earth, with its islands,
continents and oceans, is but a speck--
a speck, the loss of which would be no
more felt than the removal of a single
grain of sand from the sea-shore!
In our attempts to comprehend
the extent of this empire, we are
not only utterly baffled--
but we perceive it stretching
away, in every direction, towards
a mysterious infinity!
And the impression is made upon the
mind, that it is absolutely boundless!
The idea has been advanced, that
it may be the Creator's design
to excite the wonder, and sustain
the adoration, of HIS subjects--
by views of the magnitude of a
kingdom, the boundaries of which
no finite mind will ever reach!
An eloquent writer has said that
there may be "an impenetrable barrier,
beyond which no power, either of eye
or of telescope, shall ever carry us;
that, on the other side, there is a height,
and depth, and length, and breadth,
to which the whole of this concave
and visible firmament dwindles into
the insignificance of an atom!
And though all which the mind of
man can take in, or his imagination
grasp at, were swept away--
there might still remain as ample
a field, over which the Divinity might
expatiate, and which HE might have
peopled with innumerable worlds!
Though this earth were to be burned up,
though the trumpet of its dissolution
were sounded, though yon sky were
to pass away as a scroll, and every
visible glory which the finger
of Divinity has inscribed on it
were to be put out forever--
an event so awful to us, and to
every world in our vicinity, by which
so many suns would be extinguished,
and so many varied scenes of life and of
population would rush into forgetfulness--
what is it in the high scale of the Almighty's
workmanship?--
a mere shred, which, though
scattered into nothing, would leave
the universe of GOD one entire scene
of greatness and of majesty!"
Such is the immensity of
the Creator's dominions--
an immensity so vast that the solitude
created by the destruction of all that
is visible would be but a minuscule point,
to the infinite mind of GOD.
If the innumerable galaxies consist
of clusters of stars, and those stars swell
to the magnitude of brilliant suns, and
those suns present themselves to our
view as the central orbs of vast
planetary systems, that are filled
with an innumerable population--
then what must be the grandeur of
that divine government, which
spreads its protecting shield over
so vast an empire, and requires
the homage and services of the
countless myriads of its inhabitants!
What must be the attributes of that
monarch, who, while presiding over
such a kingdom, and taking within his
comprehensive grasp the interests of
various ranks of intelligences, as numerous,
perhaps, as the worlds around us--
and at the same time can notice . . .
every thought that enters my mind,
every motive that influences my conduct, and
every circumstance that contributes
every thought that enters my mind,
every motive that influences my conduct, and
every circumstance that contributes
to form my character,
and decide my destiny!
and decide my destiny!
An administration thus universal,
and embodying the eternal principles
of right,justice and benevolence, must
be in the highest degree powerful
and glorious!
But who can describe, or even conceive
But who can describe, or even conceive
of the glory of this divine government--
that throws its luster upon every world,
and fills immensity with its splendors!
When its grand purposes
shall have been accomplished--
the sublime spectacle will be
presented of a universe crowded
with loyal and adoring subjects.
From every world will ascend, to
the infinite Sovereign, anthems of praise,
and the incense of holy worship.
Every planet will glitter with temples,
whose lofty architecture, and splendid
proportions, and costly decorations,
will indicate the prevalence of devotion,
and the homage that is rendered to
the supreme divine Governor!
"Hallelujah!
"Hallelujah!
For our LORD GOD Almighty
reigns!" Revelation 19:6
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