The immensity of the Creator's dominions!

The immensity of the Creator's dominions!

(Rufus Wheelwright Clark, "Heaven and its Scriptural Emblems" 1853)

"His dominion is an everlasting dominion!" Daniel 4:34

"The LORD has established His throne in Heaven, and His kingdom rules over all!" Psalm 103:19 

God is a sovereign of absolute and unlimited dominion! Reason and revelation both teach us that God's government and authority are coextensive with His rational creation. His government reaches to the remotest bounds of the habitable universe!

Every angel in Heaven,
every inhabitant of earth,
the millions of beings that people the worlds that are above and around us —
are all subjects of His divine authority.

We speak of God's government as coextensive with His moral kingdom; but this language, obviously, fails to convey to our minds adequate conceptions either of the government or of the kingdom over which it is established; for modern science has thrown open to us an extent of empire that is beyond the grasp of the mightiest and loftiest of human intellects.

With the aid of telescopic power, we discover that immensity is crowded with worlds and systems, of which, before, we had no knowledge; and that this earth, instead of being the central portion of God's dominions, to which all that is visible in the heavens is tributary and secondary — is, in fact, but one amid myriads of worlds, which vastly surpass it in magnificence and splendor! We discover that the universe is of such an extent that this earth, with its islands, continents and oceans, is but a speck— a speck, the loss of which would be no more felt than the removal of a single grain of sand from the sea-shore!

In our attempts to comprehend the extent of this empire, we are not only utterly baffled — but we perceive it stretching away, in every direction, towards a mysterious infinity! And the impression is made upon the mind, that it is absolutely boundless! 
The idea has been advanced, that it may be the Creator's design to excite the wonder, and sustain the adoration, of His subjects — by views of the magnitude of a kingdom, the boundaries of which no finite mind will ever reach!

An eloquent writer has said that there may be "an impenetrable barrier, beyond which no power, either of eye or of telescope, shall ever carry us; that, on the other side, there is a height, and depth, and length, and breadth, to which the whole of this concave and visible firmament dwindles into the insignificance of an atom! And though all which the mind of man can take in, or his imagination grasp at, were swept away — there might still remain as ample a field, over which the Divinity might expatiate, and which He might have peopled with innumerable worlds! Though this earth were to be burned up, though the trumpet of its dissolution were sounded, though yon sky were to pass away as a scroll, and every visible glory which the finger of Divinity has inscribed on it were to be put out forever — an event so awful to us, and to every world in our vicinity, by which so many suns would be extinguished, and so many varied scenes of life and of population would rush into forgetfulness — what is it in the high scale of the Almighty's workmanship? — a mere shred, which, though scattered into nothing, would leave the universe of God one entire scene of greatness and of majesty!"

Such is the immensity of the Creator's dominions — an immensity so vast that the solitude created by the destruction of all that is visible would be but a minuscule point, to the infinite mind of God.

If the innumerable galaxies consist of clusters of stars, and those stars swell to the magnitude of brilliant suns, and those suns present themselves to our view as the central orbs of vast planetary systems, that are filled with an innumerable population — then what must be the grandeur of that divine government, which spreads its protecting shield over so vast an empire, and requires the homage and services of the countless myriads of its inhabitants!

What must be the attributes of that monarch, who, while presiding over such a kingdom, and taking within his comprehensive grasp the interests of various ranks of intelligences, as numerous, perhaps, as the worlds around us — and at the same time can notice . . .
  every thought that enters my mind,
  every motive that influences my conduct, and
  every circumstance that contributes to form my character,
  and decide my destiny!
An administration thus universal, and embodying the eternal principles of right, justice and benevolence, must be in the highest degree powerful and glorious!

But who can describe, or even conceive of the glory of this divine government — that throws its luster upon every world, and fills immensity with its splendors!

When its grand purposes shall have been accomplished — the sublime spectacle will be presented of a universe crowded with loyal and adoring subjects. From every world will ascend, to the infinite Sovereign, anthems of praise, and the incense of holy worship. Every planet will glitter with temples, whose lofty architecture, and splendid proportions, and costly decorations, will indicate the prevalence of devotion, and the homage that is rendered to the supreme divine Governor!

"Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns!" Revelation 19:6