s in some quarters arisen, that in view of the vastness of
creation, the Scriptures ascribe to this globe and its concerns a share
of its Maker's interest disproportionately great.

This phase of unbelief is refuted both by the necessary attributes of
God and by the written revelation of his will. What relation, capable
of being appreciated or calculated, subsists between material bulk and
moral character? The question between great and small is totally
distinct from the question between good and evil. Number and extension
cannot exercise or illustrate the moral character either of God or of
man. We should ourselves despise the mischievous caprice which should
give to the biggest man in the city the honours that are due to the
best. Right and wrong are matters that move on other lines and at higher
levels than great and small, before both human tribunals and divine.

There is, perhaps, as much reason for saying that this earth is too
large, as for saying that it is too small, for being the scene of God's
greatest work. The telescope has opened a long receding vista of
wonders, where the observer is lost in the abyss of distance and
magnitude; the microscope has opened another long receding vista of
wonders, where the observer is lost in the abyss of nearness and
minuteness equally beyond his reach. Between the great and the small,
who shall determine and prescribe the centre-point equidistant from both
extremes, which the Infinite ought to have chosen as a theatre for the
display of His greatest glory?

In the divine government generally, as well as in revealed religion
particularly, the aim is not to choose the widest stage, but on any
stage that may be chosen to execute the Creator's purpose, and achieve
the creature's good. A battle is fought, an enemy crushed, and a kingdom
won on some remote and barren moor: no man suggests, by way of
challenging the authenticity of the record, that a conflict waged
between hosts so powerful, and involving interests so momentous, could
not have taken place on an insignificant spot, while the continent
contained many larger and more fertile plains: neither can the loss
incurred by the sin of men, and the gain gotten through the redemption
of Christ, be measured by the size of the world in which the events
emerged. It is enough that here the first Adam fell and the second Adam
triumphed;--that here evil overcame good, and good in turn overcame
evil. There was room on this earth for