domain of visible things transparent to us. We see through them all, and taste through them all, the powers of the invisible world to come. That "in Him we live, and move, and have our being," becomes a reality to the believer; and the words of the Lord, "I am a God at hand, and not afar off," a matter of experience. He scents the breath of the Divine Being whether he walks forth into the garden of nature, or mixes in the society of men, or remains in the solitude of his closet. We need not wonder that the generality look upon the believer as a fool and a dreamer who lives in a world of his own, instead of that which is common to the race. And yet the reverse is the case. They are the dreamers. It is they who live in a world of their own; for so long as the breath of God is not everywhere traced and felt here below, what is the world but the vain and unsubstantial fabric of a dream? No, it is we who are awake; we who now in time already experience eternity, and in the present world taste the powers of that which is to come. Is it so that I am without strength? Oh, now I perceive that the impotence of man is but impotence of 'faith! Faith removes mountains. What are all the earthly things that can come against me- enmity, sickness, poverty, and death? They are only what I myself make them, by my faith or my unbelief. Faith subjugates and transforms without distinction all outward objects. If at every moment of my life I could cleave to Him that is invisible, as if I actually saw Him with my eyes, what would then be difficult, what impossible for me? If, indeed, He were revealed to my view only in the character of Judge, my strength would be broken rather than increased. But it is as the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, and with outstretched arms to embrace His prodigal son, that He stands before me. Am I not a citizen of the New Jerusalem -that Jerusalem of which it is written, "The inhabitants shall not say I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity"? Yes; now I know why so much stress, 1 Isa. xxxiii. 24. is laid upon faith, and why it is written, "O Lord, are not Thine eyes set upon faith?"1 Abraham, by believing, gave glory to God. We glorify Thee when we believe that what Thou dost promise Thou art also able to perform; and our faith is our only worship. Tell me, my soul, why to and fro, Wanders o'er all the earth thine eye? And all its joys thou hast at home. Yes, these to have and hold are thine, That knit thee to this earthly scene? Oh, let them unregretted go, With all that here thy heart could charm. Be not dismayed-to help thee, lo! God offers an almighty arm. The staves on which thy hopes once leant, By Him were broken one by one; His hand the bonds asunder rent Which round thy heart the world had thrown. And this He did that thou mightst yield To none but Him thy confidence, And on the things eternal build As if they stood revealed to sense. Oh then, my soul, if earth to thee 1 Jer. v. 3-Luther's vers. Not till the senses all deny One grain of comfort or delight, 15. The Heavens declare the Glory of God. There are Three Testaments which show And he who well the FIRST would know The SECOND must peruse; Nor will he in the Second speed, Unless the THIRD be rightly read. PSALM Xix.-A Psalm of David. Part First.-Verse 1. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork." MAN AN so often calls for preachers-ought he not much. rather to desire a proper ear for hearing them? for, in truth, we are surrounded with preachers wherever we turn our eyes. There are preachers in the firmament above, preachers in the earth below, preachers within us and preachers without. What a sermon it is which the firmament of heaven alone preaches to us—the sky, whether azure and serene, or overcast with stormy clouds! The heaven, with its marvels, declares the glory of God by the magnificence of day as well as by the magnificence of night. But do many listen? Can it be denied that until God speak to his heart within, man cannot comprehend the language He utters from everything about and above and beneath him? How beautiful to this effect the words of Tauler! "He who gazes long at the sun sees a sun impressed on every object to which he afterwards turns his eye; and it is the same with him who is much occupied with the contemplation of God." There are hours when we can stand in the bosom of nature and feel as if we were in a church, and a fresh doxology were gushing from every breast, so that we cannot choose but join the hymn, and are caught and borne along by the general flood of devotion. At other times, again, how dumb and speechless the creatures around us seem all to be, as if every one of them must needs pursue its way alone without the guidance of a heavenly hand! The difference depends upon whether God speaks within us or not. Open thy heart to God; if He be there, The outspread world will be thy book of prayer. Verse 2. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." It is still the same heaven as that to which the Saviour lifted up his eyes when He prayed-the same as that on which the childless Abraham gazed when in the silence of night he received the promise, "Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: . . . so shall thy seed be." It is the same heaven as that which our first parents beheld, when as yet holy and sinless children they sojourned in Paradise. Here below, on the surface of the earth, all has changed at least among the children of men; but for 6000 years day has been uttering unto day, and night unto night, the same high and perpetual discourse concerning Him by whom the heavens and the earth were made. There is something peculiarly grand and elevating in the thought that through so long a series of ages nature has continued the same, and yet that to this day she retains all the charm of novelty, because nothing in her merely is, but all tending to be. Who can refuse to exclaim with the poet― O nature! what in thy fair face we see Not sameness is, but similarity; For all is old and all grows new again Let a man once become sensible of the contrast between nature's order and regularity, and the never-ceasing inconstancy and fickleness of his own heart, and oh! how does he then yearn for that inward steadfastness over which the vicissitude of light and shadow-of day and night-has lost all power! It is this which gives to nature the edifying and medicinal influence which it exercises over us. Verse 3. "There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." How true! Nature's is a voice that can be heard and understood in every speech and language. It addresses a man like the look of a friend or the pressure of an affectionate hand, which are intelligible to every nation of the earth without the aid of words. In fact, is it not the very eye of God-of Him who is the very best of friends-that does look out upon us from nature? And in some measure at least the nations of the earth have not failed to catch the accents of this voice. It is true they could not have comprehended its meaning, and must have wanted the interpreter in the heart, for they worshipped the creature instead of the Creator.1 Evidently they must have supposed that the hymn which all created things in heaven and upon earth are singing was a hymn in the creature's praise, and yet what all created things declare is the glory of the God who made them. How many also there are among ourselves by whom this is not rightly understood! Often when I hear their outbursts of enthusiasm at the beauty of nature, it pains me to observe that it is always the mere glory of the creature which they extol, and that their minds do not ascend to Him whose handiwork the creature is. Fain would I accost them in the height of their admiration, and say, O my friends! you quite mistake the meaning of the hymn. It celebrates the glory of that God who gave all their beauty to His works. 1 Rom. i. 21-23. |