The Immensity of the Creator's
Dominions by Rufus Wheelwright Clark from Heaven and its Scriptural
Emblems 1853 his dominion is an everlasting
dominion Daniel chapter 4 verse 34 the Lord has established his
throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all Psalm 103 verse
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 seashore. 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, will 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. 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 for ever, An event so awful to us and to every world
in our vicinity, by which so many sons 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 splendour 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 to form my character
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 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
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! For our Lord God
Almighty reigns. Revelation chapter 19 verse 6