Analogy between the Moral and Physical Laws of the Universe.
THE laws that govern physical nature are analogous to those which the gospel introduces into the spiritual world. The earth is held to the sun by the power of attraction, and performs regularly its circuit around the central, sustaining luminary, maintaining at the same time, its equal relations with its sister planets. But the moral system upon the earth is a chaos of derangement. The attraction of affection which holds the soul to God, has been broken, and the soul of man actuated by selfishness, revolving upon its own center—only jars in its course with its fellow spirits—and crosses their orbits; and the whole system of the spiritual world upon earth revolves in disorder, the orbs wandering and rolling away from the center of moral life and power, which alone could hold them in harmonious and happy motion. Into the midst of this chaos of disordered spirits, God, the sun of the spiritual world, come down. He shed light upon the moral darkness, and coming near like the approaches of a mighty magnet, the attraction of his mercy, as manifested in Christ crucified, became so powerful that many spirits, rolling away into darkness and destruction, felt the efficacy, and were drawn back and caused to move again in their regular orbits, around the 'Light' and 'Life' and 'Love' of the spiritual system. If free agency could be predicated of the bodies of the solar system, the great law that governs their movements might be expressed thus:—Thou shalt attract the sun with all thy might, and thy sister planets as thyself. The same expression gives the great law of the spiritual world. Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy soul and thy neighbor as thyself. Now if a planet had broken away from its orbit, it would have a tendency to fly off forever, and it never could be restored unless the sun, the great center of attraction could, in some way, follow it in its wanderings, and thus by increased power of his attraction, as he approaches nearer the fallen planet, attract it to himself, and then draw it back to its original orbit. So with the human spirit; its affections were alienated from God, the center of spiritual attraction and they could never have been restored, unless God had approached, and by the increased power of his mercy, as manifested in the selfdenial, sufferings and death of Christ, united man again to himself, by the power of affection, that he might draw him up from his misery and sin, to revolve around him in harmony and love forever. If this earth had by some means broken away from the sun, there would be no way possible of recovering it again to its place in the system, but that which has been mentioned—that the sun should leave its central position, and approach the wandering orb and thus by the increased power of his attraction, draw back the earth to its original position. But the sun could not thus leave the center of the system, without drawing all the other planets from their orbits, by the movement to recover the lost one. The relations of the system would be broken up, and the whole solar economy be sacrificed, if the universal and equal law of gravitation were infringed by the sun's changing his relations in the system. Further, the established laws of the physical universe would render it impossible that any other planet should be the instrument of recovering the earth to the sun. If another planet should approach the earth while thus wandering, the increased power of attraction would cause the two globes to revolve around each other; or if the approaching planet was of greater magnitude, the earth would revolve as a satellite around it. But this would not be to restore the earth to its place in the system, nor to its movement around the sun, but to fix it in a wrong position and wrong movement, and thus alienate it forever from the central source of light and heat. It follows, therefore, that in accordance with the established laws of the solar system, the earth could never be recovered, but would fly off forever, or be broken into asteroids. There could be no way possible for the recovery of earth, unless God should adopt an expedient unknown to the physical laws of the universe. (This, all who believe that God is Almighty, and Himself the author of those laws will allow he might do). That expedient must not destroy the great laws of system, upon which the safety of all its parts depend, but an augmented force of attraction must be thrown upon the earth from the sun itself, which would be sufficient to check the force of its departing momentum, and gradually draw it back to its place. If a portion of the magnetic power of the sun could be thrown into the earth, adhesion would take place between it and the earth, and then after the cord was fastened if that body of attractive matter could ascend again to the body of the sun, the earth would receive the returning impulse, and a new and peculiar influence would be created to draw it back to its allegiance to the sun. If, as has been said, the power came from any other body but the sun itself, or attracted toward any other body the earth would lose its place in the system forever. So in the moral world: God's relations to the moral universe must be sustained. The infinite justice and holiness of the Divine law must not be compromised. The end to be gained is, to draw man, as a revolted sinner, back to God, while the integrity of God's moral government is maintained. Now affection is the attraction of the moral universe. And in accordance with the foregoing deduction, to reclaim alienated man to God would be impossible, unless there should be a manifestation of the Godhead in the world, to attract to himself man's estranged affection and then after the affinity was fastened by faith, by his ascending again to the bosom of the Deity, mankind would be gradually drawn back to allegiance to Jehovah.—Plan of Salvation.