and analogically, as Christ Himself preached it, and of him too it will be said, 'The people heard him gladly.' Missionaries, especially, ought to follow this method. It is very difficult for a poor ignorant person to apprehend the gospel when put before him in a purely doctrinal and spiritual form; but let the preacher link the truth to its symbol, with which his hearer is familiar, and the truth in time will not only become attractive but also luminous to his dark mind. Tell him, for instance, that the Son of God is the Light and Life of the world, and he will very dimly apprehend what you mean; but tell him also that the natural sun is His symbol, and show what its beams effect in the natural sphere, and he will soon lay hold of your meaning. But the analogical method of teaching, ought to be followed and cultivated most of all by instructors of the young. Children are keen observers, but have not yet begun to exercise to any large extent the reflective faculties. Their look is outward rather than inward. They are also instinctive lovers of natural objects, but care very little for abstract truths, for the simple reason that they do not understand them. Let

the truth and its counterpartal object be joined together, and then they will not only listen but also apprehend and appreciate. Any Sunday School teacher may put the matter to the test. Let him tell his scholars on one Sunday, of God and His attributes in a doctrinal and purely spiritual way, and then on another, show that Deity and all His perfections are represented by the sky (as is clearly taught in a subsequent chapter) and he will see how differently they will listen. And if he is wise, he will allow that difference to be a lesson to himself. Analogical teaching is the most attractive, powerful and instructive, and when any teacher comes to read and understand Nature as a great book of symbols, analogies will always be available of a real and vital kind.

We close this chapter with a few pregnant lines from Aurora Leigh, p. 302, by Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

"Truth, so far, in my book ;-the truth which draws Through all things upwards,-that a twofold world Must go to a perfect cosmos. Natural things

And spiritual,—who separates those two

In art, in morals, or the social drift,

Tears up the bond of Nature and brings death,
Paints futile pictures, writes unreal verse,
Leads vulgar days, deals ignorantly with men,
Is wrong, in short, at all points."

Having thus far dealt in a general way with Nature and the Bible as Divine revelations, we shall now proceed to link together the great truths of the written Word with their corresponding symbols in the material universe, and show the perfect moral unity of each, and of both when united.

One or two of our critics have spoken of the preceding chapters as merely introductory to those which follow. In a sense that is true, but the latter chapters without the former would have given a very incomplete statement of the great truths which we wished to set forth concerning Nature and the Bible. As the foundations of a house are introductory to the building, so these earlier chapters are a necessary basis for all that are to follow, and yet it is in the remaining chapters that Nature as a Book of Symbols is specially dealt with and the chief purpose fulfilled for which these pages were written.

CHAPTER VII

THE SKY AS A SYMBOL

THE supreme fact of Divine Revelation is God What then, we inquire, is the Symbol of God, in Nature? We answer at once,--the Sky is the symbol of God in the natural world, and our reasons for saying so are simple and sufficient. Professor Max Müller and others have told us that the sky is spoken of in all languages as the special abode of the Supreme. In this matter, as in many others, the universal and instinctive conceptions of humanity are approved and verified by the written Word, for are we not told in the Bible that 'there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, AND IN HIS EXCELLENCY ON THE SKY.' The instinct of men and the Word of God are here in harmony, and therefore we are justified in regarding the sky as a sublimely-beautiful and perfect symbol of Deity.

God is the greatest of all Beings-the Infinite One-and the Sky is the greatest of all natural phenomena, because it is infinite, and contains, encompasses, and permeates them all.

What is the sky? It is not a substance which you can grasp, nor an object having form, but an infinitely-extended ether. It is an elastic medium which fills all space, through which suns and stars roll and shine, and which may be regarded, - because of the ethereality of its nature, as the most spiritual thing in the material universe, and therefore a fitting and suggestive emblem of Him who is the Great Spirit, the Infinite and Eternal One.

All the special features and characteristics of the sky, are also charmingly representative of the physical and moral attributes of God. We may see in the sky, as in an infinite mirror, both the natural and spiritual perfections of Deity gloriously represented. few of

chief :

Take a

the

1. The sky is everywhere. It is not confined to one part of the universe, but is equally present, and no doubt equally visible, throughout the entire realm of creation. Every orb in space