Sweet lily of the field, arrayed

In all thy pomp of dress,

To be my pattern thou wert made,

And gentle monitress.

"O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand."1

Verses 4-6. "Their line 2 is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them 3 hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof."

Every object in the firmament of heaven declares the glory of God. Every object produces upon us the impression that all is old and all new in that perpetual domain. This impression, however, we receive chiefly from the sun, when we see it every morning ascend the horizon in youthful freshness, as if emerging from a bath. To one of us it might well appear that in the opposite hemisphere it had been recruiting its strength, as we, the children of men, have meanwhile ourselves been doing during the silence of night; and yet its setting here has only been its rising there. How it bedims with its splendour whatever else presumes to shine beside it, and so in perfect solitude ascends the heavens! How monarch-like, and, as it were, without respect of persons, it sheds its beams upon mountain and valley, upon the humble and the great! We can scarcely wonder that they to whom the second of God's Testaments was not vouchsafed to help them to expound the first, which is the Book of Nature, should have prostrated themselves and adored it as the Lord. And yet what is it but the ministering servant of Him who claims it as His own, and of whom we read that "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil

1 Psalm xcv. 6, 7.

2 According to others, sound.

3 I.e., in the ends of the world or the heavens.

and the good"? Nay, it is but the servant of His servants, for it only ministers to other suns which all at last circle around Him who bears the name of the "Father of Lights.” 1 Doubtless there was truth in the apostle's words when he said that "the invisible things of God, even His eternal power and Godhead, are clearly seen from the creation of the world;" so that the Gentiles "are without excuse." 2 In fact, however, these things are clearly seen only by those in whose heart His precious Word-the Holy Bible-has kindled the light which illumines all nature besides. When it is said that the three revelations of God-that in Nature, that in the Old Testament, and that in the New-constitute together a single book in three parts, it is a book which can be properly understood only when in reading it we reverse the order. If, however, the two latter parts have been duly mastered, and we then again open the first, oh what sermons never before imagined resound from it in our ears! None but a disciple of Christ understands the meaning of the words when, encompassed by the glories of nature, He exclaims: "Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground." Yes; only the Christian, when he calls the earth holy ground, knows that it is because the Holy One of God once trod it with sinless foot-because on it He offered the sacrifice of His precious blood-and because upon it, when it shall have been consecrated afresh, "the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." 3 This is to look into the heart of His grace and to him, but only to him, who thus looks, does the world become full of mere miracles of mercy. Oh, with what new eyes do we read the book of nature when we see on every page of it the traces of One who so loved the world that He did not spare His only-begotten Son, but tore Him from His heart, and delivered Him up, that the world might be saved!

When with an eye like this a man gazes into nature, it is very true that his heart will, even less than that of others, be

1 James, i. 17.

2 Rom. i. 20.

3 Rev. xxi. 3.

satiated with her loveliness; but then it will be filled with bodings of the imperishable beauty of that new earth upon which God's children shall dwell from eternity to eternity, when they have attained to the glorious freedom which has been promised to them. Then does the enraptured heart send forth exulting shouts, and sing

And again

Lord, if Thy throne and footstool shine

So brightly here below,

Who shall the glories all divine

Within Thy heart that glow?

Fair art thou, earth, clad in so bright array;
And when thy dazzling beauty I survey,

Enraptured, I exclaim-Yes, thou art fair!
So fair thou art even now when on thy plains
Walk sinful men, whose touch thy soil profanes,
And proudly vaunt themselves thy sovereign lords.
But, earth, what wilt thou be when o'er thy fields
The hand of ransomed saints the sceptre wields?

For that blest day thou keep'st thy bridal robes.

My Father in heaven, I know and have felt that every object in Thy glorious kingdom may become to us a preacher, and that the fault lies in our obdurate ears that nature, alike in her loveliness and terror, preaches to us so little. All created things discourse of Thy glory. Day utters it unto day, and night unto night. Oh give me a truly childlike heart, that I may comprehend what they say! Vouchsafe to me also an unruffled mind, that in the voice of the whole creation I may hear that of the uncreated God, who is my Father and my Lord. I will exercise my thoughts upon Thy holy word of revelation, that so I may become more intelligent of what it may be Thy will to say to me from the book of nature. And above and beyond all the loveliness of nature now displayed to my view, vouchsafe to me a blissful presentiment of that happy day when the earth, the present cradle of fallen humanity, shall, along with her Lord, be exalted to the imperishable glory which thou hast destined for them.

16.

The Law of the Lord converteth the Soul.

Blest are the righteous, but he well must know
That which right is, who what is right would do.

PSALM XIX. Part Second.-Verse 7. "The law of the Lord is without change,' converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple."

L'

1

IKE the word of God in nature, so likewise is His word in revelation without change; and that is the reason why it recruits my soul. I need a divine word which continues always the same, and which is sure. Man is required to build his whole life upon religion; what would become of him if religion itself rested on no solid and immovable foundation? Oh, could I but build all my actions upon the Lord's unchangeable law and sure testimony, how unchangeable and sure my whole life itself would then become! And yet what is this but true wisdom? I have always figured to myself the wise man as one who never needs to change his principles, but remains constantly like himself. To such a condition, however, we can only attain by founding our life on a sure testimony of God; for, as King Solomon says, "All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord alone maketh the heart sure." 2

Verses 8, 9. "The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether."

How delightful to me it is that the Lord's commandments 2 Prov. xvi. 2-Luther's vers.

1 Luther's vers.

are all pure and clean, and true and righteous! Well do I know that the knowledge of God and the knowledge of man are the two hinges on which the door of heaven turns. But not less conscious am I, from my natural inclinations, that the thoughts which I entertain respecting myself, the world, and God, are far from being right; and hence the continual desire I have to compare them with the thoughts of a being who is higher than myself. It seems to me that we can offer to God no more simple and natural prayer than this;

Oh search my inmost thoughts, that they
May never from Thy precepts stray;

Guide heart and mind

The truth to find.

Every day do I experience that a right point of view, even when I have succeeded in finding it, is so apt to be again lost; and I see more truth than I can express in the saying of the apostle James, that when we contemplate our inner man, it happens to us, as it does to him who looks at his bodily face in a glass: "He beholdeth himself," are the words, "and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.' Take a single instance: I clearly see how greatly we need to call in our scattered senses, and to concentrate the whole force of our minds upon the great task of life, in order to discharge it aright. And more or less this is a conviction. which many share. We act, however, like men who, although knowing that they have a tower to build, do yet in their daily avocations make no greater preparation for it than if it were some paltry hut. How needful, then, it is to resort frequently to the divine Word, if for nothing else than to keep alive in our minds the consciousness of what the chief task of life is! How great a boon it is to possess commandments of God that are altogether clean and pure, and true and right! For even though it be said that God is nothing but an unuttered sigh in every human heart, who is able to utter it until the word of revelation has taught him the proper language?

1 James, i. 23, 24.