Accompanying these created beings in this remarkable vision were
"wheels" which appeared to be spheres within spheres, revolving with
ceaseless activity and never turning, but always going forward. The
wheels were full of eyes. It appears to me probable that these
symbolize--and if so the symbol is at once full of meaning and
grandeur--the inevitable, ever wakeful energies and forces of nature,
the marvellous agency of electricity, chemical affinity, heat,
attraction, repulsion, and so forth. We are accustomed to speak of
"blind force;" but here observe the wheels are _full of eyes_, ever
vigilant to fulfil the purpose for which they are appointed. And this
representation of _forces_ appears necessary to complete a symbolic
representation of God in nature: since the world is made up of dead
matter, of living forms, and of forces or energies which are in
ceaseless motion and action, producing the changes which in fact
constitute the working of the whole system.
I cannot help thinking, therefore, that the imagery of this vision lend
support to the belief that there was a great Creation enacted in heaven,
which was followed by the actual carrying out of the processes on earth,
_but which has retained its representative forms in the heaven itself_.
Had this vision stood alone, it might have been passed over, on the
ground that it deals with high and transcendental matters, and that it
would be hardly safe to let a practical argument rest too much on it.
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