different from that of a spiritually-minded Christian. What our critic means to deny is this, that the objects of the material universe are Divinelyintended symbols of definite spiritual realities. If his contention be correct, then Nature was never meant to be a revelation of spiritual things. But the "common sense" of many great and wise men has impelled them to a different conclusion, and led them to express the conviction that all natural things are not only embodiments of Divine ideas, but were intended by God to represent truths and relationships which are spiritual in their nature and eternal in duration. Take a few examples. Lord Bacon declared, that "Truth and Nature differ only as seal and print." In Sartor Resartus, p. 43, Carlyle says, "All visible things are emblems. What thou seest is not there on its own account; matter only exists to represent some idea and body it forth." Archbishop Trench in his book on Parables thus writes, "Analogies assist to make the truth intel ligible, or if intelligible before, present it more vividly to the mind. But their power lies still deeper than this, in the harmony unconsciously felt by all men, and which all deeper minds have delighted to trace, between the natural and the spiritual worlds, so that analogies from the first are felt to be something more than illustrations happily but yet arbitrarily chosen. They are arguments, and may be called as witnesses, the world of Nature being throughout a witness for the world of spirit, proceeding from the same hand, growing from the same root, and being constituted for that very end. All lovers of truth readily acknowledge these mysterious harmonies, and the force of arguments derived from them. To them, the things on earth are copies of the things in heaven.” Another-whose name we do not know-has written to the same effect: "Deep in our nature there exists a tendency to seek amongst all interesting objects points of resemblance; and when some intuition keener than our own reveals that resemblance, we bow to its truth or acclaim to its beauty. This tendency to metaphor, and the universal delight in parables, comparisons, and figures of speech are no mere freaks of fancy. They have their foundation in the mind and method of Deity, whose thoughts are all in harmony, and whose works and ways are all connected one with another; so that what we call the imagination of the poet, if his reading be correct, is really the logic of omniscience." The "common sense" of all these wise teachers led them to the conclusion, that "the primary purpose of the great of the great objects of the natural world" was not only to reveal and teach earthly and natural truths, but also facts and verities which are heavenly, spiritual, and Divine. Many similar declarations could easily be given, but The first is from the we shall add only two. pen of a true Christian seer still happily amongst us, and the second from one of the poet-preachers of Wales, whose decease a few years ago was deeply mourned by many, not only in England, but also in Australia. In his Loyalty to Christ, vol. ii., p. 77, Dr. John Pulsford says, "Parables are not forced illustrations, but rather mirrors of spiritual things. Heaven and earth are the work of one God. All natural effects hold on to their spiritual causes, and their spiritual causes hold on to them. Spiritual worlds and natural worlds cohere, as inner and outer." And in one of his published sermons the late Rev. Thomas Jones says, "There is a pre-ordained harmony between things spiritual and things material. Material objects express spiritual truths, and are intended to do so. Nature is more than it seems." Yes! the eloquent preacher spoke truly when he declared that the harmony between things spiritual and things material was "pre-ordained." And just as this Divinely-ordained harmony is increasingly recognised, we see more and more clearly and fully that God's highest and grandest revelations in Nature and the Bible are identical. His method in each is the same, and when that method is apprehended the whole visible creation becomes like an emblematic scroll, upon which are depicted the primary and ultimate moral relations subsisting between God and humanity. In other words, we have in Nature the essential substance of revealed truth embodied in material things. Blessed are they who clearly recognise that embodiment, read the God-written Bible of Creation, and see the whole of His plan and purpose in relation to Our race plainly revealed. It turns the universe into a Temple where the Divine mind and will are constantly declared and manifested, and in which all truly devout souls may wonder, worship, and adore. As Emerson truly says, "By degrees we may come to know the primitive sense of the permanent objects of Nature, so that the world shall be to us an open book, and every form significant The following of its hidden life and final cause." pages, we trust, will help to make the universe |