"The verse on creation; the void and formless earth rolling off in darkness; the Spirit of God on the waters; the mandate for light; the dividing of the floods; the fixing of the firmaments; the lifting of the sun and moon to the heavens; the arrangement of day and night; the bringing of the seasons; the making of man: all sweep before our mind in visions of awe, and might, and gloom; magnificence, glory, peace and love; and we may study the chapter till we shall seem to be there in the midst of the awful scene, and find ourselves throbbing and swaying with a rapt spirit, and a bounding heart. "'The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters.' This, my friends, is an assurance of God's Providence, only surpassed by the highest announcements of Christ. And the text has moved me profoundly, and come in a thousand times to exalt my faith amid trials, and sooth my griefs, and calm my solicitudes, when anguish has pierced me, and storms have raged. The text finds a thousand illustrations. The world was called from chaos, and warring elements, and confused and conflicting principles have not yet been restrained from their fury, or soothed to perfect peace. There are wars among the waters of nature; there are wars among the waters of the moral world; there are wars of passion in our souls, and we lose our confidence often, and often our peace and rest. But 'the Spirit of God moves on the face of the waters;' and they who believe this, will never feel forsaken, or lose their balance or their hope. "_The Spirit of God moves on the waters as they flow in the course of Nature_; and at this very hour He is present in all her stirring scenes, commanding her mighty forces, preserving her general harmony, and leading all her rushing rivers of motion, power and life, into one wide ocean of purity and peace. And this is that gracious Providence asserted in the text, and announced so often by the Savior. It requires a lofty faith to discover that Providence, at all times; to detect its personal presence, and rest in its parental love. What a time it was in the beginning, while the earth was formless and void, and darkness brooded over the seas that embosomed her--if we could have witnessed the scene--what a time to shake and shatter this faith! And during long ages afterward, while the land was forming in little islands above the waters, how impossible it would have been for one of us to see the Divine Presence on the waters, look for harmony, beauty, life and peace to be brought out of all! "And then in times of confusion, we have seen, when storms have fallen, when winds have howled, and the waters roared with trouble; what an effort was required to believe the Lord was in the storm speaking peace; and the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters!