2. Scripture knows nothing of natural law, but presents the changing phenomena of nature as special acts of God and considers the natural forces His messengers carrying out His will. “He opens the windows of heaven to let the rain descend upon the earth.”(441) “He leads out the hosts of the stars according to their number and calleth them by name.”(442) He makes the sun rise and set. “He says to the snow: Fall to the earth!”(443) and calls to the wind to blow and to the lightning to flash.(444) He causes the produce of the earth and the drought which destroys them. “He opens the womb to make beasts and men bring forth their young;” “He shuts up the womb to make them barren.”(445) “He also provides the food for all His creatures in due season, even for the young ravens when they cry.”(446) His breath keeps all alive. “He withdraweth their breath, and they perish, and return to their dust. He sendeth forth His spirit, they are created; He reneweth the face of the earth.”(447) We are told also that God assigns to each being its functions, telling the earth to bring forth fruit,(448) the sea not to trespass its boundary,(449) the stars and the seas to maintain their order.(450) To each one He hath set a measure, a law which they dare not transgress. God’s wisdom works in them; they all are subject to His rule. 3. This conclusion betokens an obvious improvement upon the earlier and more childlike view. It recognizes that there is an order in the universe and all under divine supervision. Thus Jeremiah speaks of a covenant of God with heaven and earth, and of the laws which they must obey,(451) and in Genesis the rainbow is represented as a sign of the covenant of peace made by God with the whole earth.(452) As God “maketh peace in the heavens above,”(453) He establishes order in the world. As the various powers of nature are invested with a degree of independence, God’s sovereignty manifests itself in the regularity with which they interact and coöperate.(454) The lore of the mystics speaks even of an oath which God administered upon His holy Name to the heavens and the stars, the sea and the abyss, that they should never break their designated bounds or disturb the whole order of creation.(455)