nor idea, but power; power the essential characteristic of mind, and
infinite, that is to say, creative power. The Creator alone could
produce divers beings, because He is Almighty, and maintain harmony
between those beings, because He is One. Thus is manifested an essential
agreement between the requirements of philosophy and the religious
sentiment; for religion, as we said at the beginning of these lectures,
rests upon the idea of Divine power. Reason and faith meet together
upon the lofty heights of truth. But let us not enter too far into the
difficulties of philosophy. Let us confine ourselves to considerations
of a less abstruse order.

The Creator is the God of nature. All the visible universe is but the
work of His power, the manifestation of His wisdom. The poet of the
Hebrews invites to offer praise to the Most High, not only men of every
age and of all nations, but the beasts of the field, the birds of the
air, and the cedars of the forest, the rain and the wind, the hail and
the tempest.[167] In the language of a modern poet:

Thee, Lord, the wide world glorifies;
The bird upon its nest replies;
And for one little drop of rain
Beings Thine eye doth not disdain
Ten thousand more repeat the strain.[168]

And such thoughts are not vain freaks of the imagination. Man, the
conscious representative of nature, the high-priest of the universe,
feels himself urged by an impulse of his heart to translate the
confused murmur of the creation into a hymn of praise to the Infinite
Being, the absolute Source of life,--to Him who _is_, One, Eternal,--the
first and absolute Cause of all existence.

The Creator is the God of spirits. He is not only the God of humankind;
"the immense city of God contains, no doubt, nobler citizens than man,
in reasoning power so weak, and in affections so poor."[169] But let us
speak of what is known to us: He is the God of humankind. All nations
shall one day render glory to Him. Mighty words have resounded through
the world: "Henceforth there is no longer either Greek or barbarian or
Jew; but one and the same God for all." The idols have begun to fall;
the gods of the nations have been hurled from their pedestals; they have
fallen, they are falling, they will fall, until the knowledge of the
only and sovereign Creator shall cover the earth as the waters cover the
sea.

The Creator shall one day be known of all His creatures; and in each of
His creatures H