shall bring us nearer and nearer to Himself, eternally reveal the precious secrets of His love, and cause us to understand by blissful experience what it is to be filled unto all the fulness of God.' But even here and now that experience may be ours in measure, if only we prayerfully ponder the sacred Scriptures, receive the truth into mind and heart, and give it practical embodiment in daily life, that God's will may be done and His name glorified. And from day to day, either as new truths or new aspects of old truths dawn upon the mind, the heart shall be thrilled and the soul satisfied with the delight of discovery. But every Christian is not an earnest and persistent student of Divine revelation; and not having received the deeper spiritual teachings of the Bible, neither does he apprehend the sublime symbolic teachings of Nature. He may perhaps see more beauty in natural phenomena, and more of marvel and design in the operations and effects of natural laws, than were ever apprehended by any of the old heathen sages, even the wisest and best. He may also recognise here and there at times. shadows and emblems of things Divine and

eternal, and which are far more real and lovely than the grotesque imaginings of even the wisest pagan minds as these were embodied in the ancient religions. Thus far the Bible may have already carried him, but he has not yet recognised the glorious fact that the entire creation is a unity, and that all her objects are beautiful symbols of the spiritual realities and abiding social relationships revealed in Scripture. When these charming Symbols come to be clearly unveiled to his intellectual vision it may be that the book of Nature will lead him to the book of Life and impel him to read and study it with more devotedness than hitherto, until it too becomes a sublime unity to his mental and spiritual apprehension, and the two great revelations. of God are seen to be not but counterpartal.

only harmonious

CHAPTER VI

THE GREAT BOOK OF SYMBOLS

NATURE is a great embodiment of Divine wisdom, a glorious manifestation of Divine goodness and love, and a sublime revelation of the Divine mind and will. The Divine Thinker has made known His thoughts to us in material things, and every intelligent and devout student of Nature will unhesitatingly exclaim with the old Hebrew psalmists-'O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.' 'How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them!' It is the purpose and desire of the great Revealer, that men should read and ponder, understand and appropriate, apply and enjoy His embodied thoughts, that thus they may be spiritually enlightened and educated, and brought with ever-increasing fulness into harmony and oneness with Himself. The thoughts of God are 'very

deep,' and their depth is that of an infinite wisdom and an unfathomable love.

But God's thoughts as revealed in Nature, appear very differently to different men, for "While one traveller meets angels at every step and finds the earth a paradise, another meets but the outward forms of things and sees little of their loveliness." The ox feeding in the meadow discerns not the beauty of the flowers growing among the grass, and never stands to contemplate and admire them; it has appetite for food, but no soul for form or colour. And thousands of human creatures, alas! are only animal men who have little or no regard for anything above the lowest physical enjoyments. The wondrous works of God, are not wonderful to them. They excite within them, neither delighted surprise nor thoughtful admiration. Their minds are imprisoned in ignorance, and their degraded souls have but little moral sensibility. They do not recognise God's thoughts in natural things.

There are others who, though comparatively ignorant and thoughtless, are neither brutified nor foolish.

They retain in larger or smaller

measure an intellectual and moral susceptibility, to which the manifold charms of the natural world successfully appeal. As they gaze upon the star-spangled sky in a clear winter night, or on the flower-gemmed earth in the season of spring, or on a wood in the fulness of its summer foliage, or on a cornfield in sunshine, or on a fruit tree when heavily laden with rich autumnal glories, they are impelled admiringly to exclaim, 'How lovely!' And in some dim, bewildered way they may even think of God for a moment, the beauty and beneficence of whose works have thus transiently impressed and pleased them.

of

There are others, whose minds are active and earnest, and whose feelings are gentle and refined, to whom the ever-changing scenes Nature are a constant joy, and who eagerly desire to learn the lessons she is always ready to impart. But the truths she reveals to them are determined by their own capacity and condition, spirit and purpose. It may be that they come to her as artists, merely to observe her varied forms and hues, and be taught how to mingle the colours aright which they wish to