"This completes what I have to say to you upon the subject of heat. I might have gone far more into particulars, and extended these lessons over six months instead of three. We started with the design of finding out whether the works of Nature have anything to say about a wise and good Creator. We could not examine the whole circle of God's works, and therefore chose a single department--that of heat. I will leave yourselves to decide whether we have found marks of divine wisdom and goodness, whether Nature has had anything to say to _us_ about a Creator." "It seems to me," said Samuel, "that if the works of Nature do not show God's goodness and wisdom, it would be hard to tell what works would show them. I think I shall always, after this, look upon the earth and sky with more interest than I have ever felt in them before; I shall always look upon them as having something to do with God." "We certainly ought," said Mr. Wilton, "to study Nature in such a manner and with such a spirit that we shall be led to reverence and worship the Creator. Some very good men are afraid of scientific study, as if there were something in it to draw men from belief in the Scriptures and the Jehovah revealed in them; and it cannot be denied that not a few unbelievers have tried to find a foundation and a defence for their infidelity in scientific studies; but such men are not made skeptics by earnest and reverent study of God's works: they were unbelievers before and aside from physical studies, and they only try to glorify their rejection of the Bible and Christ by deifying science and the creation and holding them up in opposition to inspired revelations. If ever you find the works of God separating you from God, you may know at once that you misunderstand those works or come to them with a wrong spirit. 'The undevout astronomer,' it has been said, 'is mad,' and the same might, with good reason, be said of every undevout student of physical science. "In selecting heat for our examination, I did not take the only rich department of Nature's works. The practical chemist would find a richer and broader field of research, and so would the anatomist and animal physiologist, the geologist, or the physical geographer. I purposely chose a comparatively narrow field, in order that our course of study might not become wearisome by its length. You will find ample scope in the fields of natural science for your largest powers, and enough to carry your thoughts reverently to the great Creator and Governor.