GIFT OF x |\J IT :", , : % I OUR FATHER'S HOUSE OCR FATHER'S HOUSE, OB THE UNWRITTEN WORD BY REV. DANIEL MARCH, D.D., it AUTHOR OF "NIGHT SCENES IN THE BIBLE. ZIEGLER & McCURDY, PHILADELPHIA, PA.; CINCINNATI, OHIOj CHICAGO, ILL.,- ST. LOUIS, MO.; SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 1870. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by RKV. DANIEL MARCH, D.D., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 8. A. GEORGE & CO., PKINTERS, I'IIILA. A'T.noxaon, PREFACE. IT is the highest attainment of human faith to believe that the Maker of all worlds is OUR FATHER, and that this earth is but one of the many mansions in OUR FATHER'S HOUSE It is the highest attainment of human philosophy to accept all the forms and forces of the physical world as revelations of God's UNWRITTEN WORD. The author of this book has tried to walk humbly hand in hand with both Faith and Philosophy while surveying the wonders of God's works for the illustration of the deeper wonders of God's word. Crav- ing the company of such as can be persuaded to go with him, he would wander from room to room in the great House which God has built, wondering all the way at the riches and splen- dors stored in every apartment, and accepting every gift of his Father's love with the simplicity and thankfulness of a little child. If my reader will consent to go with me in such a spirit, we shall together find it easy to draw lessons of heavenly wisdom from the most common objects of daily observation. We shall see God in the glory of infinite wisdom and love where faithless Science sees nothing but soulless law and pur- poseless phenomena. We shall gather eternal riches where the seekers after perishable gain find nothing but dust. We shall make the transient and perishable things of earth the repre- 5 438948 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by RK-V. DANIEL MARCH, D.D., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 8. A. GEORGE & CO., PRINTERS, PHILA. WESTOOT,! 4 % T ( noMson PREFACE. IT is the highest attainment of human faith to believe that the Maker of all worlds is OUR FATHER, and that this earth is but one of the many mansions in OUR FATHER'S HOUSE It is the highest attainment of human philosophy to accept all the forms and forces of the physical world as revelations of God's UNWRITTEN WORD. The author of this book has tried to walk humbly hand in hand with both Faith and Philosophy while surveying the wonders of God's works for the illustration of the deeper wonders of God's word. Crav- ing the company of such as can be persuaded to go with him, he would wander from room to room in the great House which God has built, wondering all the way at the riches and splen- dors stored in every apartment, and accepting every gift of his Father's love with the simplicity and thankfulness of a little child. If my reader will consent to go with me in such a spirit, we shall together find it easy to draw lessons of heavenly wisdom from the most common objects of daily observation. We shall see God in the glory of infinite wisdom and love where faithless Science sees nothing but soulless law and pur- poseless phenomena. We shall gather eternal riches where the seekers after perishable gain find nothing but dust. We shall make the transient and perishable things of earth the repre- 5 438943 6 PREFACE. sentatives of things unseen and eternal. "We shall bind up the most spiritual truths in material forms, that we may grasp them the more firmly. We shall associate heavenly things with earthly phenomena, that they may occur to our minds the more constantly. We shall see God in all the works of his hands ; we shall make the whole journey of life a happy walk of children with their Father. And whether we go out into the open fields and listen to the singing birds and the whisper- ing winds and the murmuring forests, or whether we survey the heavens and trace the winged light to the most distant star, we shall see nothing but our Father's work we shall always feel ourselves at home and in our Father's House. This is after the manner of the instruction given by Him who taught us to say, Our Father who art in heaven. He spoke of men as God's children, and of the earth and heavens as the house which their Father had built and filled with all good things for them to use and enjoy with gratitude. In his vivid and pictorial teachings we see the blooming flowers clothed with beauty by our Father's hand ; we hear the birds sing with thankfulness because they are fed by our Father's bounty; we feel a greater joy in the light of the sun because every beam shines from our Father's face; we delight the more in the sound of the falling rain because every drop is a messenger of our Father's mercy. By this method of instruction our Lord renewed and sanc- tioned the vivid impersonations of ancient prophets and psalm- ists, who made the whole material creation vocal with tho praise of the Most High. And the author .of this book feels that the old Hebrew impersonations of God in nature are as appropriate now as they were in the days of David and Isaiah. The most advanced and exact science is ever consistent with the most simple and childlike faith. If Christ were on earth PREFACE. t now, teaching in this land as he taught on the hillsides of Galilee, we may venture to think that he would speak of the flowers and the grass, the birds and the rain, as familiarly as he did in the Sermon on the Mount. And this book has been written with the hope that it might help others to learn from common things and by daily observation just such lessons as Jesus taught when he said, " Behold the fowls of the air" " Consider the lilies of the field." Let us go forth, then, with a free and reverent step upon our survey of the riches and wonders of OUR FATHER'S HOUSE. And as we take here and there a favorable point of view, and direct our attention sometimes to things that we can best un- derstand, and sometimes to those which utterly confound us by their greatness and mystery, let us try to read the book of divine revelation the more clearly in the light of God's WRITTEN WORD. ILLUSTRATIONS. * FOUNDED ON A ROCK FKONTISPUCB. THE NATAL STAB .. 28 THE LAST PRATER US THE STRENGTH OP THE HILLS. . 81 THE FIRST TEMPLES ^....., 96 LET THERE BE LIGHT 137 THE SECRET PLACE OF THUNDER 187 THE BOW IN THE CLOUDS 195 THE LAST LOOK OF THE HILLS 837 THK VOICE OUT OF THE CLOUDS 853 A FROZEN WORLD 387 HAVEN OF REST . M .. M .^..... M .^..^.......^.... ,. 643 CONTENTS. L GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. Early life of David Skies of Judea His questionings of the stars Henvens still inscrutable Astronomy the oldest and most sacred science Early ob- servations Stars more fascinating than earthly objects Stars ever with the wanderer Stars worshiped Rulers over human destiny The Persians, Egyptians, Druids Astronomy exact but still fascinating Heavens can- not be measured Stars innumerable Order of the starry host Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades Earth changes Stars the same Earth agitated The heavens calm A startling meteor The false impression Stars do not fall Madness to oppose the Hand that holds the stars Our world not the whole of creation Heavens pity man's pride How little man can change the earth A lesson of faith from the stars To do God's will brings peace The new creation God's harmony in the soul Vastness of the heavens Distance of the stars Distance that light comes Dimensions of stars Millions of suns Power of instruments Parts of God's ways The neb- ula in Orion Examined by different telescopes Resolved at last Its distance from us Many other nebulae Their distance Space-penetrating power of telescopes Enlargement of the heavens by science Stars inhab- ited Number of God's children Worship due to the Creator Madness of living without God One centre of power and motion The central throne of the universe God unsearchable His bounty infinite He is our Father The gates will be thrown open Science and revelation alike correct skepticism The Lamb on the throne of the universe Worth of the soul... 23 n. GOD'S WONDERS IN THE DEEP. Bible allusions to the sea Hebrews not a seafaring people Distant prospect of the deep Terms in which the Bible speaks of the sea Modern modes little better Aspects of the sea Its fascination Wonders of the sea ever in- creasing The sea not a waste The sea supports the land The moon a world without a sea Its appearance The sea keeps up the life of the earth Everything comes out of the sea The sea the source of the rivers . i. ' V- : l/j Jb'*0 j ' lVv 10 CONTENTS. NM The sea feeds the clouds and gives the rain The sea in everything around us Population of the sea The armies of the deep on the inarch The abundance of the sea exhaustless Divine power in the sea Instability of the sea Restlessness of the deep And yet the earth founded on the sea Miracle of stability in the sea Never breaks over its bounds Balancing of forces through the universe Starting on a sea-voyage Appearance of calm and security Lost on the sea The problem solved The secret drawn from the sun Distant worlds serve man Shall we trust the Maker of the sea? A land-bird out at sea Taken on board How directed to the ship A lesson of faith First impressions on the sea Fair weather The deep in placid mood Exaggerated descriptions of the sea The sea in wrath The ship its plaything The blow of the waves Sensations of sink- ing A last prayer Search for the strong Hand The Helper found Sea- sickness Its dreadful sensations Misery and despair Personal experi- ence A ship of torture What the cause ? Oh for rest ! Impossible to b attained A ccstly yet precious lesson The sea the hiding of power Tb toiling giant of the sea Nothing so mighty as water Working power o/ the sea The deep the workshop of the Divine Architect The record of th sea on the land All made in the sea An everlasting anthem The sea under control The land where there is no more sea il III. MOUNTAINS OF GOD. Impersonations of the Hebrew language All things referred to God The first language Influence of great objects in nature Mountains the symbol of immutability Power to cast the mountains into the sea God's righteous- ness stronger Our defence in God sure View from a mountain-top How firm the mountains stand Yet God's word more firm Old Man of the Moun- tain in Franconia Devotion in stone Like constancy desired The check- ered scenes of life Look up like that rocky face Looking down upon clouds from the height A symbol of temptation Fascinating in the distance- Near, nothing but mist Beautiful again when gone Apples of Sodom Such stuff as dreams are made of Mountains support millions Consequence of leveling the mountains Mountains support rivers Mountains the treasu- ries of nations Give life to all that live God's righteousness the fountain of blessing It purges away the plague God's magazines of power beneath us We sleep on a sea of fire The power that restrains it within bounds Our safety The hills the shelter of the oppressed The Waldenses Hymn of the mountain Christian The strength of the hills Righteousness the protection of sinners Peace for all souls 79 IV. TREES. Beauty in the Divine plan of creation Love of the beautiful instinctive It gratification provided for in Paradise The first man was to keep his gar- den beautiful Paradise, a park of trees The groves the first temples CONTENTS. 11 PAGI The divine voice in the trees The remembrances of Paradise Reverence for goodly trees Abuse of a right feeling by idolaters The worship of the trees Trees seem human Characteristics in common with man Their prominence in the landscape The trees are the fountains of rivers Drought follows the loss of forests Trees gone from Palestine Trees have sacred associations Trees have a history Elm on Boston Common Elm at Cambridge Lime tree at Freyburg Victory of Morat Luther's oak at Wittenberg The terebinth at Moreh Oaks of Mamre Angels under the tree An extraordinary interview God met everywhere The grove of Beersheba Every placo to be consecrated by prayer Moses at the burn- ing bush God still in the trees Change from winter to summer Palms of Succoth Feast of the Tabernacles Palms of Elirn Oak of Shechem Oak in Ophrah The sound of a going in the mulberry trees The olives oi Gethsemane The forests singing Tree of life Throne of the Lamb Or- chestra of the trees Spiritual truth in earthly forms Heaven a home Heaven a place of home-like realities All earthly things represent the heavenly The spiritual world attractive to human hearts Trees symbol of immortality Californian pine Old as Abraham Still alive It sprang from decay The resurrection body Powers of the new body The soul of the blind not blind New organs, new powers Greatness of the resurrection. 99 V. THE GRASS OF THE FIELD. Grass includes all green things Christ's way of teaching faith The child of the sun The grass as well as the heavens declares the glory of God Grass the universal preacher The creative word Grass widely diffused Climbs' heights Goes north Discovers islands Hides deformity Will not be expelled from the city Preaches to merchants, rich, poor, young, old Christ's missionary Cure for despondency Vase in your window How to cheer a sick friend Send him a flower Flowers in a furnace How the workmen cheered their toil What Jesus would say to them Forms of life everywhere Grass holds the avalanche Builds a bank against the sea Covers the earth with a pleasant hue Earth desolate without grass Cho- sen by Christ to teach trust World full of anxious, mistaken search for rest They go too far What the grass says, Trust, trust Afraid to be- lieve that God cares for you Trust and be strong Trust not in money Not in health But Christ No better lesson than that of the grass Grass teaches lowliness " I am lowly" Lives where nothing else will Mown, trampled upon, frozen It still grows Blesses all Makes all beautiful and happy The happiest take the lowest place Benefit of being neglected Trodden upon Gentleness great Humility strong Pride weak Great discovery Suffer and be strong Love thyself last Short advice Frailty ef man taught by grass Testimony of Moses A strong man in his coffin A little child A walk in the cemetery A flower killed by the frost- Encampment of a great army Full of life and power The charge Yet all will die like the grass All will die What then ? shall we find a home ? The final admonition of the grass 117 12 CONTENTS. VI. LIGHT. *AOX Light the source of life All growth dependent on light Deprivation of light the sorest punishment The Prince of Darkness The Prince of Light- 1 - Weapons of light Affluence of light Medium of communicating with the world View from the Cathedral of Milan Plain, mountains, stars the cre- ation of light Daybreak Morning described How it would affect us if seen but once Light the symbol of life, beauty, gladness The effect of light in falling on various objects Creation began with light Plague of darkness upon the Egyptians Pillar of light leading the tribes Shckinah In the temple Job's land of darkness Who can tell the source of light ? The Light of the world God is light Appropriateness of John's description Observations through telescopes How long the light of stars is on the way Distance of nebula3 God's presence co-extensive with light No life without light Consequence of putting out the light of the sun Nature of light unknown Vibration of light in producing vision Man's bright light dark against the sun Quantity of light given by the sun Light reveals the constitution of distant worlds Revelations of the spectroscope God to ns the Father of light A pleasure-garden illuminated How much more glorious the gardens of the blessed! The effect of Christ's coming 135 VII. LIGHTNINGS GOD'S MESSENGERS. Description of a thunder-storm at night among mountains Greatness of Him who can command the lightnings The prerogative of the infinite God He also commands the tempests of human passion All forces in his hand The Lord sitteth King on the floods Test of faith The great and strong are calm Lightning the representative of divine sovereignty We can do little with our batteries The battery of the clouds How much greater it is Thunder and lightnings sent upon the Egyptians The Philistines The Is- raelites Thunder in harvest-time Lightnings upon Sinai Lightnings in heaven Lightnings and thunderings from the throne of the Lamb What they teach The cross and the throne Lightning above man's science The coming on of a thunder-storm The effect on the landscape How helpless we are in the presence of such power The little boy struck at the window Only one bolt, and that for him The angel of death passing along the street at night Who taken and left The old man The sick Th* drunkard left The little child taken The lightning the messenger of bless- ing, not affliction How various its effects It will not be chained Electri force everywhere We should stand in awe of its power Telegraphic ex- periment God's providences are beneficent to those that welcome their coming iP5 VIII. LITTLE THINGS. Many things small and wise How many little things science has discovered Many little creatures have the advantage of man The housefly Its swift CONTENTS. 13 MM flight The flea The boatfly The termites The silkworm Tne eyes of the butterfly The canary bird How much more God can give to man The vulture, spider, swallow and bee Why our faculties are so limited What the spirits of the just may do Man in the new earth The effect of receiving a new sense Little things impress us most with the power of God Power of numbers The locusts How they move Their great num- ber Their voracity Cause famine and desolation Arabs' description of them Joel's description No escape from them An army of thirty thou- sand men sent against them Irresistible How easy for God to scourge a nation Other little things The potato blight The weevil Rust in wheat Insect among the pines Phosphorescence at sea Red snow Coral in- sects Polishing slate City of Richmond marl Sand of Sahara Eight mil- lions of living creatures in a grain of mustard-seed God's work perfect in the least as well as the greatest Look well to the little things Little things make men great Be faithful in the least What is worth doing at all is worth doing well 17 IX GOD'S BOW IN THE CLOUD. The beauty of God's symbols of truth The flowers, the mountains, the stars, make the truth inviting God's promise written across the whole heavens Laws of nature not changeable Yet Noah's family may never have seen the bow till after the deluge Why then especially needed Its first appearance to them The covenant Friends looking at the same star God and man looking at the bow God never forgets Yet tells us he will not, to quiet our fears Deathbed requests Passion to be remembered Strength of the pas- sion German castle on the Rhine Vaulted chamber beneath The Vehm- gericht Trial before the secret council Doom of the condemned " The for- gotten ones" Terror of the sentence God satisfies the desire to be remem- bered How the mother remembers her child Mother perishing in the snow Child saved God more sure to remember It is more to be remembered by him No bow without a cloud Not needed in the bright sunshine World most beautiful after a shower Rest after toil No shadow, no sun Look up Little boy climbing the ladder in Baltimore Grows giddy, about to fall, is saved by the words, " Look up" What the boy did when a man Many tired, giddy climbers need to look up This the watchword of the Bible to man, " Look up" Bow never appears till the sun is more than halfway down God's help comes when we need it most Sunshine must be veiled to give the utmost beauty to the landscape To see the bow we must stand with our back to the sun To see heaven we must turn away from earth Look less on the present, more at the future The bow high enough for all to see He is not afraid his mercy will be too free Take your Father's hand God's covenant with all flesh The bow invites back to the path of lifie The bow never grows dim Every observer sees his own bow Every heart has its own grief needs its own comfort The higher we go the more complete the bow The rainbow roundabout the throne in heaven 14 CONTENTS. CONSIDER THE LILIES. PAUl Flffwers the link between man and earth They have the properties of both What Christ sets the lilies to teach Flowers express all emotions The language of flowers They always express the human heart They mingle with all occasions For the sick, the young, the gay, the serious, the dead The flowers are always pure and good Flowers draw men back to Paradise Flowers the embodied music of nature Flowers as holy as sacred song Fit for the sanctuary The sacrament The holiest service made better by flowers The beauty of the flowers All of God's works beautiful Creation a cosmos The beauty of fitness Adaptation of form, number, color, place All in correspondence with each other Same principles of fitness and order in all worlds Everybody sees this completeness and correspondence of parts in the flowers All quiet, earnest, refined people love flowers The poor, the student, the artist All comfort themselves with flowers Devout people love them The Christian traveler in the Holy Land brings home flowers Sacred mementoes Infinite variety of flowers God himself de- lights in beauty Flowers declare his glory The two hundred thousand species are all thoughts of God God's children must delight in the forms of beauty which he creates The poorest can have the works of the Divine Ar- tist in their houses "What Christ would say to those who sigh for works of art Cultivate the quiet grace of the flowers The highest ornament Love the fit expression of the highest grace of character Flowers teach the frailty of man Child like the flower in frailty The foliage of the oldest trees fades year by year Our living forms, like the flowers, must sleep in the dust Flowers teach the lesson of trust Where the flowers preach The audience, house, music, prayer, voices Their sermons all good Their sermon the same as Christ's Anxiety the bane of happiness Not neglecting the Bible to consider the lilies Cure for despondency Mungo Park's story of the flower in Africa Many great and noble minds need the like lesson 215 XL THE FOWLS OF THE AIR. A hard study made easy Birds the most attractive of all the animal tribes A superadded ornament, a final touch of the Creative hand God has given beauty to his work for our delight Birds most like spiritual beings Psalm- ist's sigh for the wings of a dove Birds exempt from care Their content- ment Their migrations The Christian's two homes Happy to stay, happy to go Birds alone of the animal tribes have musical voices Birds sing in Galilee as they did in Christ's day Birds sing in the morning, evening, in cages, in pain, in blindness When one bird sings others join- -The variety of their notes Birds live in all sorts of ways Their many houses God cares for them all Birds travel in all sorts of ways Their food Their contentment On foot or in carriages we can always travel cheerfully if we imitate the birds The brilliant plumage of the birds Pheasant, bird of Paradise Will not God much more clothe you ? Common birds teach the same lessons Their life a holiday The birds of the Bible The dove CONTENTS. 15 FAoa Emblem of purity Noah's dove Our dove of peace The dove at Christ's baptism The sparrow Common, insignificant, yet cared for by God The birds know their times The stork migrating from Ethiopia to Sweden Power of instinct What instinct is in man The carrier-pigeon The highest flight the brightest and safest The eagle of the Alps Through darkness into light Dove chased by hawk Safe as long as she keeps above her enemy Keep the world under 237 XII. GOD'S TREASURIES OP THE WIND. Pour thousand apartments in the Vatican Immense treasures of art Impres- sions of a visitor What he thinks of Rome from the Vatican The uni- verse God's palace This earth one apartment Our life the first day of ex- ploring it By and by the doors to other rooms will open One lesson on the winds Divine voice in the wind of Paradise Effect of the wind upon one cast ashore on an uninhabited island In ancient languages wind and spirit the same Wind assuaged the waters of the deluge Wind shut up the waters in the sea Wind brings water from the sea to the mountains A better carrier than millions of horses Machinery that never wears out Wind divided the Red Sea Why God chose the wind as the vehicle of his power The reality of things unseen God comes to us like the wind Effect of wind upon the forest, the sea A tornado The power unseen yet mighty Folly not to believe in the unseen All live in the unseen The mourner, the loving, the returned wanderer The power of the poet and artist Visit to Bunyan's grave The smoke, the rain, the delay The hum- ble monument, and what I saw besides The power of Bunyan's life still great in the world The winds the messengers of truth and blessing Arabs of the present day call the winds God's messengers " Dismount and meet God's messengers" Ezekiel prophesying to the wind The rushing wind at Pentecost What the wind does with clouds, dew, rain, snow The medium of sound " Come, Breath" Open the windows and let the air in The wind, the Spirit, everywhere 257 XIII. THE RAIN ON THE MOWN GRASS. The oldest Book in advance of the age Modern ideas in the Bible Inspira- tion of progress in the old prophets The blessing that comes as the rain The dry weather after harvest Signs of rain The appearance of gathering clouds The fall of the rain Its effects on the mown field Help for the soul must come like the rain from above Less of earth, more of heaven Drought described The appearance of the sky, air, stars, moon, landscape Thirty millions dying of famine in Bengal All for the want of rain Drought symbol of spiritual need Effect of drought on the Karroo The rain restoring its life So Christ would revive the waste First effect of rain dark and depressing Aspect of landscape after the rain So Christ's coining to many makes them unhappy at first Receive him and he will 16 CONTENTS. MB clothe your face with light God sends the rain on the evil and on the good How everything rejoices at its coming Let our bounty be like our Father's Everybody wants the rain Never a time when all are ready to receive it So many say, " Not yet/' when God offers his richest blessing Why not yet? 279 XIV. GOD'S BLESSING AS THE DEW. View from the summit of the Righi Time, midsummer Contrasts of the sce- nery The dawn The play of the mists The snowy peaks and glaciers The sun rises The splendor of the view Importance of the dew in giving freshness to the scene How the world would look without dew Land of Israel peculiarly dependent on dew Dews of Hermon, Tabor, Gilboa Effect of its ceasing Isaac's blessing Moses' speech like the dew The dew on the branch of Job David's curse upon Gilboa Elijah's curse in the time of Ahab The old Hebrew expressions true to nature still The dew comes unsought and it falls while we sleep Who prays for it ? Who thanks God for it? The world would go mad without it So infinite bless- ing comes unsought God thinks of us still when we forget him Dew falls in gentleness and silence No dew on windy nights The heavenly Com- forter shuns the noise and excitement of the world Evil effects of contro- versy Benefit of quietness and meditation Dew falls only on objects pre- pared to receive it On the same night some objects wet and others not The stone, the dead wood, the beaten road not wet Every living branch is sure to be watered Dew does not fall on bodies that are slow to impart warmth To be comforted ourselves we must comfort others Objects to be wet must have nothing between them and heaven Dew does not fall on pol- ished steel or burnished gold Don't make religion all a matter of taste Mighty effects of the dew Dew caused and controlled by tremendous power Earthquake Tornado The Spirit gentle yet mighty Grieve him not... 296 XV. THE RIVER OF GOD'S PLEASURES. Mountains, seas, rivers harmonize in one life The earth dead without rivera What rivers do Break through mountains Enrich the lowlands Direct the tide of emigration The great scenes of history Rivers worshiped by tho heathen Sacred to students of the Bible The rivers of Paradise Captives by the river of Babylon Moses from the Nile to the Jordan Jacob at the Jabbok Elijah at the Kishon Elijah at the Jordan Naa- xnan, Jesus, John on the banks of the same river The Kedron The river of water of life Eden the place of delight The river of God's pleasures is the river of God's Eden To drink of that river is to regain Paradise What is pleasure? What a great king, a great author and a great poet said about happy days God can give all The greatest discovery The life and death of a great philosopher Of a slave Which found most to liv far 1 A mountain-stream flooded The same dry An emblem of earthly CONTENTS. 17 MB pleasure A full, mighty river Such God's pleasures Fountains of the Nile River flowing through a desert River of salvation shall flow over all the earth 315 XVI. THE PRECIOUS THINGS OP THE HILLS. The lot of Joseph described by Moses His fond anticipations of the hill country Longing for the hills by dwellers in Egypt A view of the hills granted as a last favor to Moses Hard for him to die and not go over to the hills in sight His ascent of Nebo View of the camp on the plains The grand view Lebanon, Hermon, Tabor, Gilead, Carmel, Olivet, Bethlehem A view of hills was his preparation for death American hills are all God's work An excursion among hills in autumn A great panorama The colors, variety, shading, beauty God shows these precious hills for our pleasure and instruction Earth still like heaven Light from the hills- How beds of coal and reservoirs of oils were stored up in the hills The forests of the pre-Adamite world How God opened these old treasuries of the hills The value of coal and iron Their many uses A hill country the borne of the highest civilization How much we owe to the hills 335 XVIT. THE BALANCINGS OF THE CLOUDS. Striking appearance of the clouds Their varied forms and beauty Earth dull and wearisome without clouds God reveals himself in clouds God's bow in the cloud The pillar of cloud The descent on Sinai in thick cloud The clouds his chariot The cloud of the transfiguration and ascension Christ shall return in the clouds The balancings of the clouds hard to understand Little is known about it by men of science Why do the waters above us not fall ? Spreadings of the clouds Why do not the clouds all flow to- gether ? How can they keep their form ? The mottled sky God must reveal himself only in part Mystery the ground of faith The cloud of mourning Its shadow on every path The changing lot of life Death of a strong man, little child It may be the best possible thing for us to be dis- appointed The cloud an image of earthly hope Varied aspects of cloudr The voice from the cloud, "Come up hither" 051 xvm. GOD'S COVENANT OF THE DAY AND THE NIGHT. Two doors to the temple of truth All invited to enter The witness of the word and works of God the same The crown of the year Every season has its blessing The constancy of nature a witness for God Exactness of the covenant of day and night Swiftness of the earth's motion, length of its journeys, yet no jar, no variation in time Difficult to make a uniform mo- B 18 CONTENTS. tion God's hand turns the earth with perfect uniformity An astronomer observing a transit of one of Jupiter's moons Chances that it might not occur No failure Consequences of increasing or diminishing the day in the least Order in universal nature Egyptian wheat The palm, the cedar, the primrose, the oleander Properties of plants unchanged God's word as unchangeable Send seeds round the earth, they are still the same Graft the pear on the thorn, still a pear This order shall go on We trust our existence to its continuance In like manner trust the word of God Don't be afraid of philosophy 367 XIX. THE TIME OF THE SINGING. The harmony of the world produced by the balancing of forces Suppose the winter were not arrested at the appointed bound The sun continues to sink Effect on vegetable and animal bodies Universal death A frozen world The ship with all on board frozen Such scenes the consequence of leav- ing winter to its course The spring a country child Yet its coming brings joy to the city Appearance of new life everywhere The universal resur- rection in the open country The mountains, streams, fields, forests in spring With what feelings we walk in the country in spring God speaks in the revived world of nature Suppose all this change wrought in a mo- ment What wonder and joy Much more praise God for its quiet and orderly occurrence Look for the cause behind the effect The breath of spring breathing peace as Jesus did The flowers die, the quickened spirit will live for ever Lesson from the stork, crane and swallow The very atones cry out All nature utters forth God 385 XX. EARTH-TEACHINGS. Cod made the earth for man He was a long time in building the house He stored it with riches How a rich father builds and furnishes a house for his son Everything in the house speaks to the son of the father Our house of the earth should always remind us of our heavenly Father Everything we see is a thought of God These earthly things our only guide to teach us how God builds in other worlds Our Father's kind forethought for us in fitting up our earth-house How the mountains, the hills, the plains, the soil, the seas were formed What mighty agencies were made to work for us ages before we came into being It should touch our hearts that our Father thought of us in all his work Should be easy to think of God To think of him as his kindness demands is the essence of religion How sea- men, merchants, farmers talk Be just as natural in religion The earth shows that God is displeased at the great wrong done here A dreadfu. thing to displease Him who made the earth The earth teaches the frailty of man One universal grave What shall become of the soul when the body returns to earth ? The earth consecrated by the blood of the cross 403 CONTENTS. 19 X X I T THE HIGH ROCK. MM The divine law written upon stone A sanctuary of the rocks The scene at Sinai The rock of Horeb sacred Religious veneration for the ancient rocks Great events in history associated with the rocks Jacob's stone pillow at Bethel The memorial which he set up Well for all to keep me- mentoes of good resolutions The rocks consecrated in the history of nations The great stone under the oak in Shechem Every heroic nation has its stones of witness Rocks sacred on American fields The rocks a refuge for the persecuted David, Elijah, Jesus, the early Christians, found a refuge in the rocks The benefactors of the world found in caves and dun- geons Bunyan, Luther, Jerome, Paul Great truths take us back to the rocks What the world owes to men who have dwelt in caves and dungeons A man like a great rock Eddystone lighthouse Such a beacon is a good man" Stand fast, Crag Ellachie!" The Rock of Ages Experience of a traveler in Southern Africa Flee to the Rock of Ages 419 XXII. THE PALM TREE. Pre-eminence of the cedar and palm First encampment of Israel under palms Feast of Tabernacles instituted The palms and fountains of Elim HOMT we find Elims in the journey of life Jericho, the City of Palms Deborah judging Israel under a palm The palm used everywhere in the temple Bethany, the Village of Palms Palms strewn in the path of Jesus His ascension from among palms Palms in heaven General appearance of the palm Distinct from all other trees So stands the righteous man He is the strength of a good cause The truth demonstrated in him The world needs righteous men more than it needs money Be sure you are right, and let success come as it will The palm grows from within outward Palm grows by fountains Its many uses Prominence in Oriental life Godli- ness profitable for all things Briers and thorns The palm shall win the day The hosts of heaven with palms in their hands A great song 437 XXIIL THE CEDAR OF LEBANON. Royal rank of the cedar of Lebanon Belongs to a great family of trees The oedar king of all Cedars the sign of prosperity to Israel Forests on the hills bring the rains Bivouac under cedars Balaam's blessing Solomon's cedars A thunder-storm among the cedars The fall of the cedar in Leba- non Kings likened to cedars Ezekiel's description of the Assyrian king as a mighty cedar The righteous man is the king of men Sinful man has lost his high lineage Longs to recover it The sea-shell murmurs of the sea California pine planted in a vase, in the open air A man fettered by earthly chains, free Who is the greatest man ? Visit to the death-chamber of a good man Steamship struggling with the tempest Good man fighting 20 CONTENTS. PASS with temptation Great talent not necessary to success Moser's great organ at Freyburg Its wonderful power The work of one poor man How any young man can become a king The high and firm position of the cedar Servants of God, stand firm 457 XXIV. THE FADING LEAF. The wail of the ancient prophet The dirge of the dying year The brightest hues adorn the fading leaves The splendors of the r,utumn woods The fascinating melancholy of the closing year The falling leaves teach the frailty of man Our living bodies will follow the fading leaves One cou- dition limits and overrules all earthly plans Soldiers waiting orders We go down the hill faster than we go up The watching servant When have we lived long enough? Milestones on the heavenward journey Autumn the time for thought Impressions from the sound of the autumn woods The happiest life is one of thought Some things we should all know The secret history of a human soul The last days of life should be the bright- est and best Traveling in October A great price for a picture The orig- inal to be had for nothing The heavenly glory that adorns the last days of a life well spent The triumphal march The grand reception 481 XXV. THE GARDEN OF GOD. Traditions of a golden age The intimacy between heaven and earth at that time Lamentations for the loss of that happy state Origin of these tra- ditions Eden a garden of delight The first man was complete in all hie faculties The whole creation very good Man the last and greatest work of all The first tree was full grown The first fruit ripe The garden of God was in the highest state of order and cultivation when given to man The Lord God planted the trees, arranged the walks, selected the pro- ductions Made all complete Man learned language from God Was sup- plied with clothing, house, implements, and instructions by his Maker The first man was not a savage Nobody could invent language Theoriei of philosophers Man not developed from the monkey Modern progress only a partial return to the first perfect state How man first lived How the lost Paradise may be regained 499 XXVI. MAN WONDERFULLY MADE. Many things on earth great and wonderful Man the greatest of all Mysteries in the leaf, in the atom, the grain of dust, in the heavens, in instinct Greater mysteries in man Man the climax of God's work in creation Rea- son for Hamlet's exclamation Organs of the body wonderful The heart Works without rest Every other muscle tires Works without our choice CONTENTS. 21 PAOB A fearful pendulum The tongue Complex, delicate, mighty Capable of millions of variations The tongue a world in itself Its mighty power The power of words Value of words How easily the strong man is crushed Bruce and Speke Meditations in the midnight train Perils passed in safety Perpetual exposure We do not know our danger or safety Sleep is wonderful Napoleon sleeping on the field of Austerlitz The fearful change in waking How can mind he imprisoned in the body? Mystery of remorse Defence of a good conscience Every man made the keeper of his own happiness The restored children of God 515 XXVIL GOD ALL IN ALL. The traveler's backward look Our review The heavens The sounding sea The mountains Delight in the clouds The constancy of day and night Joy in the spring Lessons of the flowers Walk in the forests Rejoicing in the rain and dew The bow in the cloud Walks through our Father's house Final wonder at ourselves Mysteries of our own being The grand result, God all in all The answer of the sea, the winds, the moun- tains, the heavens The last and grandest discovery of man Not a mere mechanical philosophy, but a faith Science, accurate knowledge, helps faith The Bible and true philosophy agree The inspired men of old were not unphilosophical The impersonations of the Bible agree with science God is ever revealing himself We should acquaint ourselves with him Every- thing speaks of him The universe is the temple of his glory His glory brightest to us as seen in Christ 541 u The heavens declare the glory of God.?*, xix. 1. OUR FATHER'S HOUSE. 1. GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. HE early life and peculiar home of the Psalmist of Israel made him familiar with the aspect of the midnight heavens. When a shepherd boy, he had learned to tell the stars by name and to count them his companions, as he kept his flocks by night on the hills of Bethlehem. The skies that bent over him were without a cloud for half the year. The heavenly orbs that hung like golden lamps in the blue dome shone with a brightness unknown to northern climes. When the evening star came forth over the dark mountains of Moab, and the blazing constellations rode up the eastern heavens in the same silent and orderly march nighfc after night, he must have asked, with deep earnestness, whose hand led forth the fiery host upon the fields of light; what unseen power preserved the celestial armies with un- broken ranks from age to age ; what mighty magazines 25 26 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. of fuel must have been stored up from of old to keep so many fires burning from century to century ? Had the Psalmist lived in our time he would have found still more reason to ask such wondering ques- tions as he gazed upon the starry heavens. We do indeed know more than he did of the number, the distance and dimensions of the celestial host, but our increase of knowledge only baffles and confounds us the more, because, with all our instruments and calculations, we cannot count the number, we cannot measure the distance, we cannot conceive the immen- sity of worlds which God's creative hand has strewn through the fields of immeasurable space. In this course of Bible lessons from the book of Nature there is much reason why we should begin with the star-illumined scroll of the skies. Astron- omy is the oldest, the most sacred and sublime of all the sciences. We need no record to prove its ancient birth. As soon as human curiosity looked out through the living orb of the eye, it must have turned with in- quiring gaze toward the silent orbs of heaven. As soon as emotions of wonder and adoration were kin- dled into life on the altar of the human heart, there must have been devout and delighted observers of the starry host whose watchfires flame upon the measure* less fields of the sky. The flower that opened its frail beauty within reach of the observer's hand, the wild bird that lifted up its morning song in welcome of the returning light, the GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 27 evening cloud that curtained the couch of the setting sun with its crimson glory, the rainbow that spanned the pathway of the retiring storm with its sevenfold arch, might indeed for a few moments arrest a more vivid and delighted attention; but when they had finished their brief course and had sunk into silence and darkness, the lifted eye could see the same stars blooming like fire-tinted blossoms on the plains of heaven, undimmed by the darkness of a thousand storms, unchanged by the lapse of a thousand years. The perfect order in the midst of apparent confusion, the calm and mysterious constancy with which the stars kept their place in the blue vault above, must have made the rudest of men gaze with awestruck and unsatisfied wonder upon the mysterious and unde- cipherable scroll of the skies. As the tribes of the human family scattered in their worldwide dispersion from the guarded gate of Eden and from the blasted plains of Shinar, in all climes and continents of the earth they saw the same un- changing blazonry upon the battlements of heaven. Wherever they chose to rest or roam in the quiet homes clustered in the valleys or climbing the hill- sides, in the silence of the desert and amid the rush and roar of tumultuous thousands in the crowded city. in the solitude of the wilderness and upon the waste of ocean they found that the mysterious stars still kept them company without changing their place. The same bright eyes of the firmament looked down 28 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. with tender pity upon their sorrows and with piercing reproach upon their sins. When guilty fear put out the light of holy love, and superstition usurped the place of devotion in the hearts of men, they transferred the monsters of their own morbid and darkened imaginations to the skies. They peopled the peaceful plains of heaven with " Gorgons, hydras and chimeras dire." They made the celestial host arbiters of their own destiny and gods of their own worship, in place of Him who holds the stars in his right hand. The study of the stars should have been a science, and it should have reared a pathway of light from earth to heaven. It should have built shining steps, on which mortals might reverently climb in the ever- ascending way to the throne of the infinite Creator. But ignorance and superstition made the study of the stars a religion. They changed the myriad host into deities, whose mysterious power was supposed to rule over men with an all-pitiless destiny. They made malignant demons of the burning orbs of the sky, whose fickle favor must be secured, and whose fiery wrath must be averted by strange offerings and for- bidden sacrifice. The devotees of Baal and Ashtoreth burned incense and made night hideous with perpetual fires on the high places of the earth, in worship of the host of heaven. The Persian made altars of his mountain- lops, on which the flame of sacrifice was as constant as GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS, 29 the stars. He bowed himself, morning and evening, to adore the god of day, whose light the true God hath chosen for his shadow. In the valley of the Nile and of the Euphrates, amid the snow-capped mountains of Thibet, on the cold tablelands of Central Asia spotted by the moving tents of Tartar and Mongolian tribes, beneath the sunny skies of Greece and amid the cold mists of German forests, in the rude cloisters and roofless temples of Druidic and Scandinavian mythol- ogy, men studied the same awful mystery of the mid- night heavens, till curiosity became superstition and students were changed to worshipers. The diagrams that recorded the positions of the heavenly bodies were exchanged for the uncouth signs and the mystic jargon of the astrologer. The lamp by which the observer studied his chart by night gave place to the perpetual fire of profane sacrifice to the sun and moon, and all the host of heaven. Such was astronomy in the earliest and rudest age. In modern times it has become the most exact, and yet it still remains the most fascinating and sublime, of all the sciences. Familiarity with the starry worlds of the midnight sky has not rent the veil of awful mys- tery with which they inspired the devotion of the Egyptian and Chaldean sages. They still awaken, in the most devout and cultivated observers, emotions of the most profound and reverent interest. The astron- omer has rejected the fables and superstitions of an earlier age. He makes his vast estimates of number, 30 + GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. time, distance and magnitude with mathematical accu- racy. He avails himself of the results of three thousand years of study and a most astonishing instrumental power. And yet he cannot tell the stars for multitude, any more than he can count the sands on the sea-shore. He cannot weigh them in balances, although his calculus can take up the earth as a very little thing. He cannot reach the boundaries of creation, although he uses a measuring-line two hundred millions of miles in length, and he throws it out, length after length, over the fields of space, faster than the surveyor stretches his chain over the fields of earth. His utmost measurement of space only serves to disclose, beyond his farthest reach, still other unsounded depths and heights and universes of worlds, to which all that he has seen, measured and counted is but a grain of sand to the globe he treads upon. It will give us exalted views of the Supreme Gov- ernor of the universe if we consider the heavens under any aspect. Let us observe especially the unchanging order of the starry host. Those burning gems, set in the infinite dome of the sky by the great Builder of worlds, maintain the same relative position which they held when the Psalmist of Israel gazed on the firmament from the heights around Bethlehem. They shine on us with the same brightness with which they gladdened the Chaldean shepherds on their mountain-tops. GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 31 Look up, on any night when the stars are clear, and you will see on its post the same sentinel star which God commanded of old to guard the throne of the eternal North. Arcturus and his sons are still circling around the Pole, as they were when the Almighty answered Job out of the whirlwind, and challenged him to lead forth that prince of the ethereal host on his way. Orion is still girt with his blazing bands as he climbs the steep ascent of the eastern sky. The sweet influences of the Pleiades are still unbound. The signs and seasons are still numbered upon the glittering belt of Mazzaroth. There they stand, from century to century, upheld by nothing save God's invisible -hand, withdrawn to an inconceivable distance from us in the silent and awful depths of space every star a world, and many of them a million times larger than our earth and yet there is no jar, no collision, no falling out of the ranks, no change of place. All earthly things fade and pass away. The whole order of human society has been repeatedly changed, revolutionized and set up anew while the flood of ages sweeps along. But the hosts of heaven are marshaled forth in the same symmetrical order upon the measureless fields of space. The clouds and the tempests of earth have not dimmed the light of the stars. The shock of armies and the thunder of a thousand battles have not shaken one gem from the diadem of night. No hostile hand has hurled the sons of the morning from their flaming 32 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. thrones. No revolutionary archangel has lifted the standard of discord and conflict upon the plains of heaven. God's unwearied, unaided hand still holds up the firmament with its millions of worlds. He still preserves the order, the harmony, the everlasting beauty of the infinite host. Nation may rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. The earth may shake with the march of armies, and the day may be turned into night by the cloud of battle. It may seem to us that the founda- tions of order are broken up, and that universal ruin will " drive her ploughshare o'er creation." But the calm, unchanging heavens look down on us with silent pity and rebuke our fears. The unseen Hand which holds the immensity of worlds in their place can surely preserve order and fulfill its own purposes on the little spot of earth where we dwell. Now, suppose that such thoughts occupy your mind as you consider the starry splendors of the night which God has ordained to declare his glory. You are striv- ing to rise above all the change and conflict and con- fusion of earth, and to bring order and serenity into your soul by the devout contemplation of the con- stancy, the divine order, the sacred silence of the starry worlds above you. Suddenly you are startled by what seems the brightest of all the host of heaven rushing across the sky with furious speed, breaking the rela- tive order and harmony with which each maintains its position and conforms its motion to that of the GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 33 whole firmament of stars, withdrawing attention from them by its own terrific light, perhaps giving forth a sound as of rushing waters or of distant thunder, and then disappearing in darkness. That strange appearance forces upon your mind tho fearful inquiry, " Can that be a lost world ? Is it thus that the Almighty hurls the rebellious sons of the morning from their thrones of light ? Has some in- cendiary archangel kindled the torch of revolution and discord upon the peaceful plains of heaven ?" Saddened and almost affrighted by the thought, you turn to look for the space which has been left void and dark by the fall of the most brilliant of the starry host. But the night has not lost a gem. Not a single ray has faded from her ancient glory. She still moves on in the same solemn silence, her train still glittering with the same magnificent garniture of worlds. That strange light was only a transient meteor, kindled and quenched in the earth's stormy and sulphurous atmosphere. It is only the mistaken glance of the moment which has led you to transfer the disorder and ruin of this groaning habitation of man to the serene and unchanging heavens. That apparent star, which dimmed all others with its dazzling light, and which emblazoned so wide a track across the sky in its fall, was no more in dista.nce or dimensions, when compared with the least of the real stars, than the dewdrop of the morning, which scarcely bends the slightest blade of grass, is to the ocean, which c 34 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. rolls its measureless waters upon the shores of every land. And after its brief passage, when the eye looks calmly into the blue depths of night, you can still see, far beyond the region where the meteor flames and expires, far beyond the path of the solar light, the same stars shining with the same serene and awful silence still. And surely it must be the main concern of life with us to keep ourselves at peace with Him whose unaided hand holds up the heavens with their millions of worlds. Surely it must be the height of madness to oppose the will of him who preserves the order, the harmony, the everlasting beauty of this great empire from age to age. Disobedience to him is the only dis- cord that has ever disturbed the peace or darkened the light of the universe. Disobedience to him alone has brought misery and desolation upon our suffering world. Disobedience to him has kindled all the fires that burn, and caused all the tempests that rage in the guilty soul. To sin against God is to set oneself against the power that holds uncounted millions of worlds in their orbits. To sin against God is to stand in the way of divine purposes which are from ever- lasting, the fulfilment of which is the harmony and the happiness of immortal millions. To sin against God is such blindness and madness as it would be for a feeble man to lift his hand to sweep the sun from the heavens and to blot out the stars from the sky. God makes the night, and brings forth troops of QOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 35 tars upon the plains of heaven, to show us that our little world is not the whole of his kingdom, and that he will not want for subjects to celebrate his glory, though the whole race of man should renounce tis service and madly say, "there is no God." Nation may rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom The earth may shake with the march of armies, and the day may be darkened with the cloud of battle. It may seem to us that the foundations of order are broken up, and that there is no voice to say with com- manding power to the troubled elements, "Peace, be still." But when man's brief day of struggle and agony and death is over, the night marshals forth God's host, with all their beacon-fires still burning, upon the plains of heaven. The calm, unchanging immensity of worlds above looks down in silent and reproachful pity upon the pride and contention which shake the war-convulsed earth. Listen, O man, to the voice which comes from the untroubled deep where the sons of the morning sing upon their sapphire thrones ! " What art thou, poor worm of the dust, that thou shouldest glory in thy strength, or spend thy puny might in working discord in the government of the God that made thee? Thou art but a mote upon the surface of the great globe which has been given thee for thy habitation. One hour of silent sunshine will do more to change the face of the earth than millions of m Q ,r can do in a lifetime of toil. With all the 36 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. united force of all thine armies, thou canst not wounu the fair face of the earth so deeply as one surge of the pent-up fires that burn beneath thy feet. One tremble of the earthquake, one throb in the fiery heart of the volcano, one hour of the ocean's stormy wrath, the removal of one element from the air, the water or the light, will do more to change the globe than all thine arts and engines in years of toil. And yet the whole earth of thy habitation is but a single mote in the star-dust with which God's creative hand has strewn the skies. And the night bids thee look forth upon the world-peopled plains of immensity, that thou mayst see thine insignificance and be ashamed of all thy pride." Are you ever disposed to overrate your individual importance in the creation of God to glory in talent, in success, in acquisitions, in personal accomplishments? Or does disappointment ever weigh heavy upon your heart, making you sometimes even doubt whether the government of the universe be sufficiently wise and strong? Go out beneath the open heavens at night, and take a lesson in faith and humility from God's great star-book of the skies. Consider whether the hand that has held millions of worlds in their place, without weariness, for thousands of centuries, needs to be strengthened by your puny might ? Consider that the humblest human being on earth can enjoy the love and protection, can be adopted as the son and heir, of a Being who can make a million worlds for every par- GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 37 dele of dust that the whirlwind strews on the sunbeam, and not diminish his riches nor task his power. Consider how much reason you can have, either for pride or despondency, when the worlds of God's creation are so many that no creature can count them, and the promise of God to every soul that trusts him is so sure that he will suffer the heavens and the earth to pass away and perish, rather than fail to fulfill the desire of them that fear him. How can you fear, or murmur, or be disappointed when the calm and holy sons of the morning are ever singing into your heart the great lessons of peace, humility and trust in Him who holds the stars in his right hand, feeds the spar- row, clothes the lily, and feels an especial and paternal interest in every soul that he has created ? All the power and wisdom which God displays in maintaining the order and constancy of the universe of worlds are pledged to provide for your safety and happiness, now and for ever, upon the single condition that you trust him and keep his word. What then can the greatest and wisest of men have to be proud of, what the poorest and lowest to complain of, when the safety, the glory, the blessedness of all must consist equally m possessing the favor of that infinite One whose glory is displayed by the midnight heavens, and whose handiwork is seen in the firmament of stars ? To do God's will brings divine peace and harmony into the most troubled soul. To trust God'* word calms every fear and heals every sorrow of the most 38 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. afflicted heart. To study God's work sets all faculties, desires and dispositions into sweet and happy accord with the one holy and perfect Will which upholds all worlds, rules all destinies and gives all good. Oh for some mighty power, some word of infinite love, some spirit of divine reconciliation to cast out the wicked and tormenting demon of discord and disobe- dience from this whole world, and to bring every soul into peaceful and blessed harmony with the Will that is highest and best ! The infinite love of God has undertaken that great work of new creation. We live in the day of its progress, and faith looks forward to its completion. The cross of Christ is the divine instrumentality for accomplishing this mighty change. The utmost power and truth and glory of the gospel are in full display all around us, to bring the perfect order of the peaceful heavens God's own divine and eternal harmony into every soul. Let all men fully receive the healing and reconciling spirit of Jesus, and there will be no more conflict or disorder in this world than there is among the silent stars. Oh that every weary and troubled soul would look for peace to Him who wore the crown of thorns on earth, and who walks among the golden lamps of heaven ! The heavens declare the glory of God by their vast- ness of extent. We think it a long voyage to cross the Atlantic ocean. We should have to travel that distance ten thousand times before we could reach our GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 39 nearest planetary neighbor revolving in company with us around the sun. To reach the most remote of the little family of planets belonging to our system we must travel a million times as far as from Phila- delphia to San Francisco. Our earth is twenty-five thousand miles round, and yet light flies with such inconceivable velocity that it would encompass our earth five times, while we, with "moderate haste," pronounce the word. The nearest star which we see in the heavens is so far remote that its light takes three years in reaching our eye. The light of the polar star, which guides the mariner on the ocean to-night, left its distant home before the birth of some whose heads are already gray with years. Long as the man who is ten years past middle life has lived in the world, the quenchless beam has been flying across the abyss of space, near two hundred thousand miles at every swing of the pendulum, and it reaches the mariner's eye only this moment. That ray of light is God's messenger, and it cannot be lost till it has done the errand of its destiny. And still more than this. You have only to look up on any clear night, and you will see stars whose light has been on its journey millions of years to meet your eye. The star which you see to-night may have been blotted out of existence a million years before the creation of man. And yet the stream of light which was on its way, and by which it is seen, will continue to come for a million of years in the future. 40 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. The dimensions of the stars are as astonishing as their distance. Arcturus sends forth a flood of lighi live hundred times as great as our noonday. Our sur is more than a million times as large as our earth and yet one star in the Pleiades is equal in glory tc twelve hundred of our suns. And there are eight eer millions of suns in the system to which our sun be- longs as one. And astronomers have discovered foui thousand such systems seventy-two thousand millions of suns, and every sun doubtless surrounded by a thou- sand lesser worlds. And every increase of power in the telescope in- creases the number of suns and systems that blaze upon the eye, and confound all our conceptions of number and distance and dimensions. The mosl learned and accurate observer the one who has the greatest command of instruments and methods of cal- culation is most astonished and overwhelmed by the immensity of God's works in the starry heavens. If we had the intelligence of archangels, and could fty with the swiftness of light, and we should spend mil- lions of years in traveling from world to world survey- ing the works of God, we should still be compelled tc say, with more meaning than Job, " Lo, these are part* of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him \ But the thunder of his power who can understand ?" Let me ask you to look steadily at yonder star which, for the sake of distinction, we say, is in the sword of Orion. The night is clear and your eye it GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 41 good. See, now it assumes an indefiniteness not com- mon to small stars. Now look through this small telescope, with which beginners feel their way through the bewildering maze of careering worlds. Lo, now it has lost all the aspect of a star and become a diffused haze a floating mist. Now turn to this instrument of greater power. Still you see nothing but a ghostly mist, towering up into the most strange and fantastic forms, with wide-branching arms extended as if grop- ing for prey in the infinite darkness of space, and with an awful mouth, gaping wide enough to swallow a million worlds. Again, we suppose ourselves standing with Sir John Herschel under the brilliant dome of a South African sky, begging the opportunity to look through the mighty instrument with which he surveys the heavens in that transparent air. Still, we find no trace of a star nothing but the same awful, misty arms stretched out over the dismal blackness of space ; the same horrid mouth opening beneath a forehead decked with a misty plume, armed with a horn millions of leagues in length, and gashed with an abysmal chasm which it would take light centuries to cross. Undaunted by the obstinacy with which the mysteri- ous mist refuses to disclose the secret of its form and constitution, we call to our aid a still higher power with which to pierce the awful darkness of space. Lord Rosse lends us the use of his great mirror of four ton? weight to gather the pale light from the awful monster who3e faintly phosphorescent form lies afloat in the infi- 42 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. nite ocean of immensity. And yet there it is still- a dim, cloudy haze, extending through immeasurable reaches of space, without a trace of a star ; more bril- liant indeed in some of its parts, with some of its misty outlines at the centre broken up, and innumerable streamers floating off in every direction from the sides ; but still a nebula, a filmy smoke, out of which the mighty Kossian telescope cannot kindle up the shining spark or the pointed flame of a single star. One trial more. Slowly and reverently we ascend the watch-tower from which the great refractor at Cambridge looks out upon the evening sky. We take our seat in the observer's chair with deep awe, for we are in the presence of the Infinite we are covered by the shadow of Eternity. Now, at last, we see the great sight for which hitherto we have sought in vain. The misty cloud bursts into a blaze of distinct stars. The awful nebula that, like some Oriental monarch, had inflamed and baffled all curiosity by withdrawing itself into the far depths of its infinite habitation, at last lifts up its cloudy veil and looks forth with its million eyes to reward the reverent and eager search of man. The misty horror of the previous indistinct form, like the monsters of old superstitions, kindles into robes of beauty and crowns of glory before the penetrating gaze of the great glassy eye with which we now sweep the heavens. And the light which tells us that the nebulous star in the sword of Orion is a system of worlds has been flying ten millions of miles GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 43 a minute, for sixty thousand years, to bring us that message. There are countless nebulae, like that in Orion, every one of which is a universe of worlds, so numerous that, at their immeasurable distance, they seem through the telescope to be thick as the shining particles of dust strewn on the sunbeam by a gust of wind sweeping along a dry and sandy road. And these fleecy clouds, together with the brightest stars in the firmament, are so far remote that, if we should take the beams of the morning for wings, and fly as fast and as far as light can travel in ten years, moving ten millions of miles a minute, and then look up, we should still see Orion blazing in the eastern sky at his wonted hour, and Arcturus and his sons maintaining their solemn ma "cli around the Pole. The telescope, in its greatest power, penetrates f! ye hundred times farther into the depths of space than the unassisted eye. We can see without its help stars and nebulae so remote that no calculations of the astronomer can estimate their distance. And yet the great telescope shows us one hundred and twenty-five millions of such heavens as the Psalmist saw. The astronomer sees the sky in every direction powdered with stars, strewn through the fields of space thick as the rain-drops. Every addition to the power of instruments only increases proportionally the number of stars, suns, systems that are seen. We are war- ranted, therefore, in the inference that all that the 44 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. human eye has yet seen by the aid of the mightiest instruments is but a point, a single grain, amid the infinitude of worlds and universes which have been formed by the all-creating hand, and which are upheld by the all-sustaining word, of God. Our earth supports one thousand millions of human beings. And yet there are living creatures, perfectly formed, with a full set of faculties, so small, so numerous, that it would take eight hundred millions of worlds like ours to contain a human population equal to the number of those creatures which can live and move in one cubic inch of space. Some of these inconceivably small creatures multiply at the rate of one hundred and seventy thousand millions in a hun- dred hours. Every one of them has a distinct and independent life, and every one of them is cared for by Him who feeds the sparrow, numbers the hairs of our heads and upholds all worlds with the word of his power. And surely He who has multiplied forms of life beyond all finite conception in this world, has not left the countless millions of worlds in his great kingdom without living inhabitants to enjoy his gifts and to declare his glory. If the greatest astronomer cannot count or measure the suns and systems that blaze in the midnight heavens because they are so many, so vast, so far remote, how much less can we conceive the numbers and orders and generations of living creatures for whom the great creating Father hath provided GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 45 habitations and happiness in all the universe of worlds which declare his glory ! This one mighty God claims and deserves our first and loftiest thought, our purest and most intense affec- tion. The measureless fields and the unfathomed abysses of space are all ablaze with his glory. And shall we not worship him ? Shall we not sound forth his praise to the ends of the earth? His will is the sole law which suns and systems obey as they move in their orderly march upon the fields of immensity from age to age. And shall we set up our will against his? Shall we enter into conflict with Him who is the source of all power, and from whose heart of infinite love flow forth waves of blessing to every creature in the universe? There is no madness so extreme, there is no blind- ness so dark and terrible and debasing, as that of the man who will not see the witness of God in his won- drous works. Every faculty of our being, every means of existence and happiness, every comfort and blessing of life, comes from God. And shall we take the gift yet deny the Giver ? God's creative power has called into existence every ray of light that shines and every system of worlds that rolls in immensity. The breath of the Almighty has given life to the smallest insect and to the mightiest archangel. Creatures so minute that millions sport in the drop of water, suns so vast that their light is a thousand times greater than our noonday, are all held, moment by moment, in God'? 46 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. hand. And shall we, frail children of the dust as we are, and crushed before the moth, shall we entertain the thought of living without God ? The heavens declare the glory of God by directing all our observations to one common centre of power and motion and life for all creatures and all worlds. The moon revolves around our earth. The earth, with its associate planets, revolves around the sun. The sun, with all its circling planets, moons, asteroids, comets, is rushing along upon a still mightier orbit, thirty-three millions of miles in a year, in a revolution which it will take eighteen hundred thousand years to accomplish. All the infinite host of heaven is grouped into clusters and systems, that revolve, orbit within orbit and world around world, until a firmament of millions of suns is balanced by another as great, and all go sweeping together around some mightier centre ; and so suns, whose light has been millions of years in reaching us, are all rushing, as if driven by hurricanes of infinite power, round some mysterious centre still mightier, still more remote. Thus all the way up, through moons and planets and suns and systems and universes, the whole immensity of worlds is yielding obedience to some far remote and mighty Power, whose mysterious source we cannot find, whose living presence is everywhere, whose supreme authority is felt in every soul. When we sweep the heavens with the mightiest telescope, and we look with dazzled eye and aching brain amid the infinite blaze of GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 47 worlds to find the one central throne, around which all suns and systems revolve, a voice comes from the abysses and the ages of eternity, saying, " Canst thou by search- ing find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? It is high as heaven; what canst thou do? Deeper than hell; what canst thou know? 77 Such is the immensity of the creation of God ; such the inconceivable length of the time through which he carries forward his mighty works ; such the greatness of the power which he puts forth in maintaining the harmony of his boundless empire. What, then, is man that the Sovereign of so many worlds should be mind- ful of him ? To this question science and revelation each has its own answer. Science, as if afraid that the tele- scope would make skeptics of us all, brings the micro- scope to its aid, and turns our attention from the inconceivably great to the inconceivably small. It shows us that the worlds below us are as infinite as those above. It shows us that creative wisdom is as clearly manifest in creatures so small that they cannot be seen by the unassisted eye, as in the systems of worlds so numerous, so far remote that they seem like dust strewn on the evening sky. Science, having daz- zled our vision and bewildered our minds with the in- finite blaze of suns and systems of worlds, shows us millions of perfectly organized beings in a drop of water. We see that their structure, their faculties, their means of support and modes of living, have all 48 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. been cared for by the infinite Creator. And we do not hesitate to say that the God who cares for creatures so small will be more mindful of man. Revelation teaches us to call the Maker of all worlds our Father, and to believe that he cares for us with more than an earthly parent's love. Revelation teaches us that our Father has actually given an infinite price that he may win our confidence and hold the first place in our hearts. And we are happy at last to believe that God, who made the heavens and the earth and breathed the breath of immortality into man's soul, is so great as to surpass all finite comprehension. We can ask in- finite blessings of him, without fearing that his bounty will ever be exhausted with giving. We can trust in his protection, with the assurance that we can never go beyond the reach of his hand. We can call upon him in the time of trouble, and never fear that he will be too far remote to hear our cry. In the day of calamity we can shelter ourselves beneath the shadow of his throne, and he will cover us in his secret place till the tempest is past. This great God, whose glory shines from the heavens and whose power upholds millions of worlds, is our Father. You have only to love him, and be as a little child in faith and affection, and he will pledge the promise of his immutable word and the riches of his infinite empire that you shall never want for any good thing. You have only to become like the meek and lowly Christ in heart and life, and God will make you GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. 49 an lieir of his kingdom with his own Son, and you shall possess and enjoy that infinite inheritance for ever. You have only to learn diligently and cheerfully the lessons which God's word and providence now set before you, and by and by the veil will be lifted, the doors of your Father's house will be thrown open, and you shall be free to range through all its million-fold mansions ; you shall have full access to all its infinite delights. Wings of light shall be given you to fly with, angels shall stand ready to bear you company in traversing God's mighty kingdom ; and as they lead you on and show you the way, they shall tell you all that they have learned in thousands of years of study. With a wing that never tires, and a curiosity that is never satisfied, you shall sweep on with the blaze of suns upon your path and the rush of planets around you. With the immortal sons of the morning for your guides you shall pass over immeasurable reaches of space, where towering constellations scale the heights of eternity, where infinite abysses of starry worlds are swallowed up in depths unfathomable. And before you shall be ihe life of everlasting ages, in which to learn how much God has done for his own glory and his creature's good. And in the midst of all the splendors of that mighty habitation, whose apartments are suns and systems of worlds, exalted upon the central throne in some great capital of universal empire, you shall see One like unto the Son of man. And when you behold D 50 GOD'S GLORY IN THE HEAVENS. his face, and you see upon his hands the scars of the conflict through which he passed in this world, that he might bring you to that high and holy habitation, you will understand better than you do now how much the Infinite God loved the lost race of man, in giving his divine Son to the shame and agony of the cross, that he might bring many sons to the glory and blessed- ness of heaven. You will understand better than you do now that it is infinite gain to win Christ at what- ever cost, but that it is infinite loss to win the world and lose the souL (iofcs Mlffttto in % These see fits wonders in the deep. II. GOD'S WONDERS IN THE DEEP. ( ^j| HE books of the Bible were not written among c ;VJ| a seafaring people, and yet they abound in fqj beautiful 'and expressive allusions to the sea.