Excerpt from A Sermon Preached Before the University of Cambridge, on the Day of the General Thanksgiving, November 15, 1849

But though the heart of man naturally uttered or readily echoed this whisper of a universal Father, whose children we all are, a universal Spirit, by whose per mission and protection we all breathe; God did not leave man to learn this lesson from his own heart alone. He also taught it to him more expressly and directly in the words which He, by His Holy Spirit, put into the mouths of His most favoured worshippers, and through them transmitted to all others, and finally, in the course of ages, to us. In the book which contains the teaching so vouchsafed to man, we have far more distinct and forcible representations of the mastery of God over all things, and the dependance of all things upon God, than we have even in the most sublime and felicitous expres sions of natural piety which ever fell from the ancient poets and philosophers. The psalm from which our text is taken will at once rush into your memories, and you will see how vague and unsubstantial, how pale and colourless are all the images of pagan poets, compared with the description of the real spiritual constitution of the universe, given by the servant of God, speaking as it were, with a knowledge of the case, and with theclearness of an eye-witness. We are there told, in no loose and doubtful manner, but with deep conviction, leading to devotional awe, of Him who has laid the foun dations of the earth, and confined the sea within its boundaries - who has poured forth His springs to give drink to every beast of the field, and provided habita tions for the fowls of the air - who brings forth corn and wine and oil for the use of man. And who calls forth man to the work of the morning, when the lions, which had been heard in the night as asking for. Their food, have laid them down in their dens. When he has thus reviewed the provision made for all kinds of creatures, the psalmist exclaims, in the fulness of reverence and awe which such a spectacle, naturally produces, O Lord, how manifold are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. All creatures wait upon thee that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. They gather that which thou givest them: thou openest thy hand and they are filled with good. And then comes the thought of the opposite supposition -of the contrast which would follow if this perpetual and universal sustaining power and protecting care were withdrawn, even for an hour. What would happen if God did not open His hand, if He did not pour His riches in this constant stream among the inhabitants of the earth? If He ceased to regard them with an eye of kindness and favour? The thought of the text is, that on this supposition, darkness and destruction would forth with fall upon all. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.

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