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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 INFOLDINGS and UNFOLDINGS 
 
 OF THE DIVINE GENIUS 
 
 IN 
 
 NATURE AND MAN. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN PULSFORD. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO. 
 
 1887.
 
 CONTENTS. 'V'^loli' 
 I. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 Roots and Branches. .... 7 . 
 
 II. 
 
 7">^^ Dissolution of the Old, is the 
 Evolution of the Neiv. . . . 18 
 
 III. 
 
 Going away in a Lozvm' Form : Coming 
 
 again in a Higher Form. . . . 31 
 
 IV. 
 
 Horses and Bells ! and doth alike, 
 
 "• Holiness to the Lord.'' ... 43 
 
 V. 
 
 Sky and Sun. . , . . . 55 
 
 VI. 
 
 Of God in Nature. . . . . 69 
 
 vn. 
 Ripe Frnit. . . . . . . 82 
 
 VII r. 
 Wings and Nests. .... 96 
 
 1 WZ{^HHH
 
 ROOTS AND BRANCHES. 
 
 " Blessed is the man tvJiose delight is in the Laiv of 
 the Lord : . . . He shall be like a tree planted by 
 the rivers of zuater." PSA. i. 1-3. 
 
 " The foivls of Heaven sing among the branches" : — 
 
 PSA. civ. 12. 
 
 "... zuhere the birds make their nests." ver. 17. 
 
 " Trees of Frankincense!' SOL. SONG iv. 14. 
 
 " Trees of Righteousness, the planting of the Lord, 
 that He might be glorified" ISA. Ixi. 3. 
 
 If there be a law of nature which is universal it is 
 surely gravitation. Stones never rise into the air,, 
 unless a force superior to gravitation lifts them ; and 
 if thrown into the air by force, they alight again as 
 soon as the force is spent which threw them up. 
 
 But look at the Trees, how they persist, in spite of 
 the Law of gravitation, in lifting themselves out of 
 the earth, holding themselves perpendicularly, and 
 throwing out branches skyward, in great freedom ! 
 
 To the stones who do not know the secret, it is a 
 perfect miracle, that the trees lift themselves towards 
 heaven, and make such a flourish of their liberty. 
 Bury a pebble, and it will obey the Law of gravita-
 
 8 Roots and BnDiches. 
 
 tion for ever. Bury an acorn, and it will obey a 
 higher law ; and that Law is in itself. Is the Law 
 of gravitation suspended t Never for one moment. 
 But in the buried acorn, and the buried wheat corn, 
 there is a Vital Force which is superior to the attrac- 
 tion of the earth. 
 
 IL Here is the explanation of all miracles, so-called. 
 They are not suspensions of Law, nor are they con- 
 trary to Law ; but instances of the coming in of a 
 higher Law. Litroduce .anywhere a more potent 
 factor, and you have new and wonderful results. 
 One man sees an apple fall from the tree and lie 
 motionless on the earth ; and he cries out, — the Law 
 of gravitation ! Another man sees the apple secretly 
 evolving from the tree, hanging on to the branch, 
 living, growing, ripening there ; and he cries out, — 
 Here is a higher Law, here the sweet, all-knowing, 
 all-powerful Gentleness is at work ; and for very joy 
 of that Force, he worships. 
 
 When we call certain works j-///^7'natural, let no 
 one suppose that they cease to be natural, because 
 we prefix the particle super, ^/z/^rnatural, means 
 eminently natural, transcendently natural. There 
 is the natural of the lowest plane ; there is the 
 natural of a higher plane ; and the natural of the 
 highest plane. Physical nature constitutes one 
 plane, or region ; psychical nature, another plane ; 
 and Divine Nature, another.
 
 Roots and Branches. 9 
 
 How is it possible, that men who only deal with 
 nature in her last and lowest sphere of operation, 
 namely the physical, should know anything about 
 her ? In order to any true insight into Nature, we 
 must know her Parentrge and beginnings : we must 
 also take account of the intermediate conditioning 
 causes, which play their part between first beginnings 
 and final effects. 
 
 III. We must be very careful that we do not deny 
 Nature, to Divine Nature. For if we deny Nature 
 to God, there is nothing left in which Divine qualities 
 can inhere ; and nothing from which they can 
 flow. The idea of God, apart from His Nature, 
 would be just as groundless as the idea of humanity 
 without man. 
 
 In order to the beginning of any just method of 
 reasoning, you must ascribe the first principles of 
 universal nature to Divine Nature. All souls derive 
 their nature from Him : and all the heavens and all 
 material worlds are modifications and revelations of 
 one Eternal Substance. In other words, of all 
 nature, whether spiritual or physical, God is the 
 underlying and causative Nature. The supreme, 
 unadulterated powers and virtues of all souls, and of 
 all matter, are in the Divine Nature, and only in 
 Divine Nature. How sublime the gradation from 
 Divine Nature to human nature, and thence to outer 
 nature. What is not possible to physical nature, is
 
 I o Roots and Branches. 
 
 possible to psychical nature, i.e., to the souls of men ; 
 and what is not possible to the souls of men, is 
 possible to God — the Soul of souls. 
 
 But undeviating Law operates and rules from the 
 Beginning to the end of Nature ; in Divine Nature, 
 in spiritual nature, and in physical nature. 
 
 IV. By exact unemng processes of Law, our 
 palm-trees, larches, etc., etc., lift themselves in a very 
 direct way towards the sun. Atoms of matter are 
 impregnated, vivified, and built up into living towers 
 of verdure. 
 
 On the same principle man lifts himself from the 
 plains of physical science, to the Alps of Divine 
 Science. Remember that on the Alps of Divine 
 Science, you still find Nature ; but Nature in her 
 first potencies, her highest laws, her purest revela- 
 tions, her loveliest forms. 
 
 Let me observe here, that it is a demonstrable 
 fact that Divine Science in a man's soul, as com- 
 pared with physical science, is an Alpine uplift of 
 his soul. A man who goes up from the plain, and 
 walks on the high mountains, knoivs that he has gone 
 up. And every man who has gone up from the 
 natural plane of his life, to the Divine-natural, 
 knoivs that the ascent is ivivicnse. Moreover, he 
 knows how the ascent was made, namely, by the 
 development of an interior Energy in himself. 
 Were you to ask the trees, by what energy they
 
 Roots and Branches. 1 1 
 
 lifted themselves out of the soil into the sky, the 
 answer would be, The sun came down and lifted us 
 up ; — lifted us up, by entering into us, creating a stir, 
 and an inclination, in our atoms to build themselves 
 into an ascending life. The sun comes down into 
 trees without leaving the sky; and God, without 
 leaving Himself or Heaven, comes down into the 
 soul ; and becomes an uplifting Power within her 
 affections and thoughts. 
 
 V. The analogy which our text suggests between 
 trees of Vegetation and " trees of Righteousness," 
 we shall find both interesting and instructive, if we 
 pursue it somewhat farther. 
 
 Very beautiful and suggestive is the Law by 
 which the trees hold fast their connection with the 
 earth, while ascending towards Heaven. Roots 
 draw upward the finest essences of the earth out of 
 their imprisonment ; while the branches, with their 
 breathing leaves, draw down the virtues of the 
 heavens. Tree-development depends on the co- 
 operation and unity of ascending and descending 
 current of energy. 
 
 The " trees of righteousness " should learn of 
 our fruit-trees how to hold fast in the earth, while 
 stretching themselves sunward into light and liberty. 
 Rooted in the earth, and branching away in the 
 ethereal region ! Let us do both ; and not leave 
 the earth, because we live in Heaven. Let us
 
 I 2 Roots a7id Branches. 
 
 hold fast the earth of our natural body, that we 
 may hav'C a form for the manifestation, on earth, 
 of the heavenly life. How could the trees produce 
 Heaven's fruit for the use of the world, if their roots 
 quitted their hold of the earth ? Very cunningly 
 the trees breathe their escape from the soil ; and at 
 the same time very tenaciously, very determinedly 
 cling to it. With the same breath, they say, We 
 will leave the earth, and yet we will not quit it. We 
 will go in for the ascensive life ; but the higher we 
 go, the more deeply will we root ourselves in the 
 earth. And they do both. 
 
 VI. Let the children of Divine Wisdom learn this 
 law of holding fast the earth while breathing the 
 spiritual ether ; and thus unite heaven and earth in 
 their experience. There are two very opposite 
 classes, who sever this unity. One class holds 
 fast to the earth, declining to spend time and 
 strength in aspirations towards Heaven. Whether 
 they seek after treasure, pleasure, or science, they 
 are equally sensual men. That is to say, their trea- 
 sure, pleasure, or science, are all of the earth, earthy. 
 Over against these are the morbidly spiritual ; — I 
 say morbidly, because their spirituality is not genial, 
 not of heaven, but of the convent and cloister- 
 species : not Christ like, the same on all days ; but 
 Pharisaic and Sabbatarian. Ascetics, and gloomy 
 religionists of every class, seek after Heaven by
 
 Roots and Branches. 1 3 
 
 repudiating the earth. It is much more beautiful, 
 and much more Divine to unite, than to divide. 
 Any Heaven which estranges itself from the earth 
 is not the true Heaven ; and if the earth cuts itself 
 off from Heaven, it is no longer the Lord's earth ; 
 but the earth of every illusion and delusion, the earth 
 of vain hopes, and certain despair. Let us believe 
 in the God of Heaven and EartJi. There is no 
 God of Heaven alone, nor of Earth alone. To 
 His true children. His inspired children, both 
 " Heaven and Earth are full of His glory." 
 
 With childlike unsophistical affections, let us 
 love " the Maker of Heaven and earth ; " and love 
 both for His sake. Let us beware of the sour species 
 of spirituality which thinks to honour God, by de- 
 spising His works. On the other hand, we will not 
 be materialists,— held back from Him by His works. 
 We will see, and feel, and enjoy Him in all His 
 works. And after admiring Him in sunbeams and 
 clouds, in rose-bushes and fruit-trees, we will go to 
 His larger, fairer Paradise, and indulge in the same 
 habit, of seeing, studying, and enjoying Him in His 
 works there. 
 
 Vn. The more tenaciously we hold fast to our 
 root in the earth, and joyously branch Heavenward, 
 now ; — the more intensely shall we root ourselves in 
 Heaven, by and bye, and from Heaven branch down- 
 ward to the earth. The " Trees of Righteousness "
 
 1 4 Roots and Branches. 
 
 have more branches, and also freer capacities for 
 branching in all directions, upwards, downwards, 
 sidewards, than the trees of vegetation. 
 
 VIII. Let us adorn the earth, while we are here, 
 like fruit trees, by our comely and useful lives : let 
 us blossom, as well as bear fruit ; and more, let us be 
 " trees of frankincense," which, in wafting their sweet 
 odour heavenward, breathe it over the earth. 
 
 God's fragrance — breathing human trees, are trees 
 of intense Life. The fountain of His Life rises in 
 them, as the essential sap of their being ; and their 
 very " leaves are for the healing of the nations." 
 Through the health of God, which is in them, they 
 are able to outbreathe the Divine virtue, and neu- 
 tralize the poisoEous element of immoral men. 
 
 Christ-like men and women, in their common 
 every day routine, and in all their passive and silent 
 states, like the leaves of fragrant plants, breathe out 
 into the air of the world, healings and comfortings, 
 which no one thinks oi attributing to them. 
 
 IX. One of our inspired psalmists suggests that the 
 trees have two other distinctions, which we have not 
 named, that the birds make their nest in them^ and 
 sing among their branches. Birds are buoyant happy 
 creatures ; they do not burden themselves with 
 laborious provisions ; they have no anxious thought 
 for to-morrow ; they know how to enjoy the earth,
 
 Roots and Branches. 1 5 
 
 and yet, at will, to wing themselves above it. No 
 other creatures have the privilege of lifting their 
 bodies above city towers and tree-tops ; and of 
 roaming at large in the clear ether. 
 
 They are like the blessed spirits who, enjoying their 
 own freedom, neither ^xwy the other creatures, nor 
 make any boast of their own distinction. Without 
 either sowing, or gathering into barns, they presume 
 that the Heavenly Father means them to feed on the 
 grain and fruits of the earth. In summer, they have 
 great plenty, and in winter they pick up what they 
 need for the day, without anxious thought for to- 
 morrow. The Master saith, " they are worth con- 
 sidering : " — the light-hearted winged little creatures 
 can teach you something. 
 
 X. Oxen and sheep sing not ; the fish sing not ; 
 but the aerial creature-s receive more inspiration than 
 they can hold. In electric-musical waves they pulse 
 it out upon the air. 
 
 And if human trees — " trees of Righteousness " — 
 are verdant with the Divine Beauty, and fragrant 
 with the Divine Holiness, the angels of Love and 
 of Hope will surely sing in their branches. 
 
 Observe ! the beauty-time of the trees is the sing- 
 ing time of the birds. 
 
 Let none of us be discouraged ; for it takes time 
 for seeds, and trees, and souls to put on their beauti- 
 ful garments. Israel waited long, toiled hard, and
 
 1 6 Roots and Branches. 
 
 suffered much before coming out of Egypt ; but in 
 process of time the day of deliverance came. Again 
 they waited long, and sighed often in the captivity 
 of Babylon ; and many died in captivity ; but the 
 day came that the survivors came forth with mirth 
 and singing. 
 
 And as certainly, on the wings of every hour, our 
 new spring is coming, when clothed in Beauty, we 
 shall break forth into song. Our wedding garment 
 is weaving out of the Lord's Light, in the warm 
 weather of our expectant souls. Divine virtues, like 
 flowers, are unfolding ; angels are coming to make 
 their nests in our bosoms, and lead in our new 
 delights. 
 
 XL Whatever be said of the dulness or deadness 
 of our churches, one thing must be conceded ; — they 
 have always been places of song. Christian pilgrims 
 have always had an irresistible persuasion that they 
 ought to be a singing people. The fear is that the 
 singing is often a formality, mechanically done. 
 Nevertheless, it is an acknowledgment that the 
 pilgrims to Mount Zion should anticipate their 
 eternal joy ; that they should sing themselves on 
 their way to Humanity's Eternal Home. 
 
 Their songs are inspired by the knowledge of 
 God's purpose. They believe in His Fatherhood ; 
 they believe also that their happy childhood is His 
 end. Therefore are their hearts stirred up to cele-
 
 Roots and Branches. 1 7 
 
 brate His perfect Love, and their own deathless 
 Hope. Fear does not sing, doubt does not sing; 
 but Hope sings. Love sings, and Love's confidence 
 triumphs in Song. 
 
 Xn. The question is. How shall we attain to real, 
 inward, quenchless joyfulness .^ "My joy," said 
 Christ, not this world's joy ; " My joy I give to you." 
 His Humanity is the directly begotten Firstborn 
 of the Vitality of the Infinite Father ; and we are 
 branches from Him. His Life, springing and rami- 
 fying through and through our inner nature, will 
 make us green and flourishing even to old age, — 
 trees of Life and Immortality. 
 
 Beloved, if your experience be only of your earth- 
 born nature, how much there remains in you un- 
 developed } If the Fountain of God's Eternal Life 
 is not yet opened in the secret depths of your souls, 
 let the marvellous change wrought by the electric 
 breath of Spring in the trees tempt you to ask God 
 ior your ncxv Sprmg, with its new soul-thrilling ex- 
 periences, and its prospects of Eternal Summer in 
 the Heavenly Glory. 
 
 The distinction is quite unutterable between the 
 blessed and the unblessed man : the one is " like the 
 chaff which the wind driveth away ; " the other " like 
 a Tree planted by the rivers " of endless Life. 
 
 B
 
 THE DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD, IS THE 
 EVOLUTION OF THE NEW. 
 
 (Preached to the Albany Street Congr^ation, on June 27, 1886. 
 Dr W. Pulsford having withdrawn from the shell of his earth- 
 body on the iSth.) 
 
 ** Our oiitiiKird man : otir inward ma7il" 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 16. 
 
 " For we know that if the earthly hotise of our mortal 
 frame be dissolved, we have a building of God {another 
 body), eternal in the Jteavens." 2 COR. v. i. 
 
 ■Our exodus from the dull, flesh-side of the universe, 
 to its more vital soul-side, is a very kindling 
 thought ; it keeps imagination on the stretch ; but 
 to forestall it is beyond our power. The Dfvine in- 
 tention is that we should nurse the idea, and get 
 ready for the beautiful surprise. By a brief dream 
 -we shall cross the mystic sea, and find ourselves, 
 •some morning, in quite a new region of the sky, 
 "breathing the ether as we now breathe planetary 
 air. If we outgrow the conditions of this world, — 
 its impurity, its unreality, its guile and vanity, we 
 shall by and by be transferred to society which will
 
 Dissolution and Evolution. 1 9 
 
 be unspeakably restful and congenial. Blessed ex- 
 pectation ! Delightful change of air ! And made 
 absolutely certain, by the fixed, unalterable laws of 
 our Father. Every law of our Father is a law of 
 Love. 
 
 It will be a continuation of our existence, and yet 
 an entirely new beginning. There is something 
 very impressive and even sublime in the method of 
 departure. In perfect freedom, without packing, 
 without a single encumbrance we go to our new 
 country and home. With the nature which we 
 have compacted in our inner humanity, with the 
 knowledge we have acquired, and with the habits 
 which we have formed, we shall leave the earth, and 
 enter upon the farther development of our nature 
 elsewhere. Therefore, if we are wise our great con- 
 cern will be, to store up all the solid wealth we can 
 in our underlying being. Purity, wisdom, goodness, 
 beauty of character, and moral courage, are the trea- 
 sures to be coveted ; for these we shall take with us. 
 
 An " appointed time " is given to us, for electing 
 the principles of o-ur life, and for getting them 
 rooted and settled in us, as the foundation on which 
 to build our eternal character. Many years are not 
 necessary to decide between our unreal flesh, and 
 our essential identity ; between the unreal world of 
 our outer, and the real world of our inner man ; 
 and again, between a selfhood, without God, and a 
 selfhood whose springs are in God.
 
 20 The Dissoliciion of the Old, 
 
 " I will wait my appointed time till my change 
 comes." The man who keeps his migration in view, 
 will not be taken by surprise. Calculating on his 
 end here, he makes ready for his greater beginning. 
 
 " My change : " — my new mode of being ! All the 
 changes which have been arranged for us, by our 
 Almighty Father, mean progress ; unless by the 
 vitiation of our innei* nature, we invert His order, 
 and create for ourselves a dark and troubled future. 
 
 If the Christ-life be in us, neither death nor any 
 other power will ever come between us and God's 
 Life. While death is relieving us of our outer, and 
 non-essential shell. His Life will closely beset and 
 encompass our essential nature. 
 
 n. It should be a very entertaining and delightful 
 thought to every earth-born man, that he carries 
 within his structure the law, and the plan of a " new 
 man " : — that he has both the design, and promise, 
 in his nature of an ascent from his present level, to 
 a higher plane. 
 
 Why are the laws of the animal world forbidden 
 in the human world .'' Why are the habits of other 
 creatures a shame and disgrace to man .<• The 
 answer is, — he belongs to a higher plane. In yield- 
 ing to the impulses and inclinations of his animal 
 nature he transgresses the law of his being. There 
 is a higher nature latent in him, an inner and a 
 nobler personality, which must be vitalized, and
 
 is the EvoltUion of the New. 2 1 
 
 raised up in clear relief from the instincts and pro- 
 pensities of his animal soul. As our Lord avers, 
 with His "Verily, verily:" a man can neither enter, 
 nor see, the right human kingdom, until his inner 
 nature is distinctly evolved. 
 
 III. For years and years, seed may be in circum- 
 stances under which the plan laid down in its struc- 
 ture cannot be carried out : So may f/ie esseiitial 
 man for years and years, or for the whole course of 
 his earthly existence, lie in deep sleep, shut up in 
 his natural man. God has involved the germ and 
 plan of another man, a very superior man, within 
 the man of flesh. 
 
 IV. How could we soliloquize, and carry on long 
 discussions and arguments with ourselves, if we were 
 not two men in one .-" How could we resist the 
 solicitations of one man who speaks in us, and obey 
 the injunctions of another man, who equally speaks 
 in us, unless we had two distinct natures .-' 
 
 How could each of us stir up his inner man to 
 magnify and bless the Eternal God, our Father, if 
 we were not two in one .'' 
 
 How could men who are as happy as the pleasures 
 of the flesh and of the world can make them, be 
 objects of Divine pity, unless they were two in 
 one .'' 
 
 How could men congratulate themselves that they
 
 2 2 The Dissolution of the Old, 
 
 are rich and prosperous, when Christ declares that 
 they are poor and blind, naked and miserable, unless 
 there were two men in one ? 
 
 How could the Spirit of God declare men to be 
 dead, who think themselves very much alive, unless 
 there were two men, where only one appears ? 
 
 With what reason could we cry in the ears of 
 man : " Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the 
 dead," unless there were in him both a waking man 
 to hear us, and a sleeping, man to be wakened ? 
 
 Now as the inner man is by far the more real man 
 of the two, ought not this to convince us, that there 
 is an invisible world corresponding with our own 
 invisible man, and that the world, which to our flesh 
 is invisible, is much more real than the world in 
 which our flesh lives, moves, and has its being ? 
 
 V. In virtue of our outer man, Earth is the mother 
 of us all : in virtue of our inner man. Heaven is the 
 Mother of us all. If earth is motherly, heaven is un- 
 speakably more motherly. Earth is a coarser, ruder 
 substance : heaven, a more refined substance. 
 
 Nature is full of shadows and analogies of these two 
 substances, the outer and the inner. Water, air, and 
 light, conceal interior and purer elements. Chaff in- 
 wraps bread-corn : shells which are outer bodies for 
 nuts are of one substance : the nuts which are inner 
 bodies are a much finer, sweeter substance. Every 
 seed is a two in one, and dies to live : the coarser
 
 is the Evolution of the New. 2 3 
 
 substance dissolves : the inner and finer, developes its 
 treasured up forces in a new plant. Man is sim-ply- 
 the highest, divinest illustration of a universal law.. 
 
 VI. In the two distinct substances which we are 
 contemplating, two very distinct processes are 
 going on. The outer of the two- is doomed to a 
 perishing process : in: the other, God works for 
 renewal ; — to qualify us for a new beginning, a 
 future life. 
 
 In the TransfigU'ration of Jesus we have a lively, 
 dramatic representation of the two men, in one.- 
 One man was approaching death : the other man 
 had been undergoing a "day by day" renewmg- 
 process. In His inner man He is already in Glory, 
 associated with the angels. They talk with Him, 
 and He is conscious of their inflowing strength, 
 
 VII. On our own part, the great aim should- be, so 
 to live in outward things, as to help, and not to 
 hinder, the " day by day " transfiguring work in the 
 inner man. 
 
 The first of all conditions is to maintain a love- 
 connection with Him, in Whom, the work is done. 
 Through this love-bond, — beholding Him with the 
 eyes of our heart, we gradually put on the new man, or 
 as Paul puts it, we become " clothed upon " with our 
 new humanity from Heaven. Our Lord, like a Sun 
 in the new Heaven of the race, is constantly giving
 
 2 4 The Dissolution of the Old, 
 
 out His Glory ; or in other words and more fully 
 stated, God our Infinite Father, is giving to us of 
 the ocean of His Glory through Him. "The Glory 
 which Thou gavcst Me, I give to them." The con- 
 ditions of receiving it, are tenderness of spirit, holi- 
 ness of desire, singleness of eye. 
 
 The work which changes the inner man, and 
 clothes him with ever more glory is carried on, 
 while we look not at the things which are seen, but 
 rather at those which flesh cannot see. Looking 
 with desire, and taking in, are the same thing. No 
 eye can look at the Light, without taking in its 
 glory. The trees, the corn, the flowers, look stead- 
 fastly to the sun, receive his glory, and are changed 
 from the glory of leaves, to the glory bloom, and 
 from the glory of bloom, to the glory of ripe fruit. 
 
 Believe that in your inner man there are not only 
 eyes, but myriads of little cells, in which the Glory 
 of God can be stored up ; and being stored up, will 
 by and by clothe you with glory. 
 
 VHI. I do not say that all who are called Christians, 
 have in them the divine joy of this glory. For too 
 many, I fear, are not taking in the Divine Glory, 
 and therefore are not undergoing the grand trans- 
 figuration. But as many as are receiving the Glory 
 are becoming interiorly new men and women, and 
 are joyful in hope. To zV/volve anything includes 
 the law and the promise of solving the same.
 
 is the Evolution of the New. 2 5 
 
 Paul's joy abounded over all his afflictions. Im- 
 prisonments, chains, persecutions, stripes, old age, 
 and everything that seemed to be against him, were 
 all working for him, greater and greater degrees of 
 glory. 
 
 We all have our bitternesses, sharp and cruel 
 lacerations of our hearts, unlocked for sunsets, awful 
 darknesses, while God and Heaven observe a mad- 
 dening silence ; but if the new man, which is Christ, 
 be forming in us, we have deeper than all, an intense 
 life which nothing can touch. Even while the soul is 
 wrung with sorrow, and bursting into convulsive 
 sobs, the precious Christ-life flows deeply within, 
 like a warm river of Divine sympathy. Heaven's 
 cordial is the principal ingredient in our bitter cup ; 
 God's Love throbs in the centre of our agony. 
 
 The river of sympathy, which flows through our 
 griefs, is composed of many streams. The affections 
 of our angel brothers and sisters are in it, the affec- 
 tions of those who have been just snatched from us, 
 and are entering on their beautiful surprise, are in it, 
 and within all, as the Soul of all, is the Sympathy 
 of God, through the Divine Man. 
 
 IX. We shall certainly not understand our Father's 
 meaning in the mystery of this earthly life, unless 
 we take into account the work which He is doing in 
 us, through our griefs and tears. If earthly joy 
 does much, earthly sorrow does more. It is when
 
 26 The Dissolution of the Old, 
 
 the soul is stripped bare, and torn to its centre, that 
 it awakes to a Hfe higher than the stars. In the 
 days that are most pleasurable to the flesh, the best 
 powers of the soul are often clogged and earth- 
 bound. But when anguish comes, the soul loosens 
 from her bonds, aspires, and pierces holy Heaven 
 with her affections. 
 
 And when cold, hea«-tless death seizes our precious 
 ones he is not wholly a destroyer. He is " the last 
 enemy " of the good man ; but the good man, not 
 the enemy, is victor. The enemy is " destroyed," 
 " swallowed up : " the good man is " more than con- 
 queror." The survivors too are " more than con- 
 querors : " their love not only lives, but becomes 
 holier and stronger. If love lives, we live ; and if 
 our love be increased, we are advantaged, we are 
 " more than conquerors." 
 
 X. This deathless Love is strictly God in us. 
 " Our Father," " Thine is the Victory ; " and because 
 it is Thine, it is Thy children's too. " Thanks be 
 to God Who giveth us the Victory." He is our 
 stronghold, the fastness which will for ever hold 
 together those who love each other in Him. By 
 holding to our life in Him-, we hold to each other in 
 Him. Our will is to live in Him : His will is to 
 live in us. Death is helpless : He cannot invade 
 the united wills of God and His children. " Earth 
 to earth, ashes to ashes ; " but God is safe, and
 
 is the Evolution of the New. 
 
 -'/ 
 
 His children are safe. " If I live, you shall live 
 also." 
 
 " Comfort ye," my children, " saith the Lord : " 
 comfort them with My Love. If the universe be 
 dissolved, My Love will live on. The house in 
 which My children pass their pilgrimage, will be 
 dissolved, but My children will still be whole and 
 entire, in a new house, suited to their new require- 
 ments. My sons and daughters are not earth, but 
 buoyant, life-full, spirit-forms ; — attached only for a 
 little while to dull, lethargic, earth-bodies. In death 
 their noble spirits are detached from their old, heavy, 
 vehicles, and attached to- new, lighter, vehicles. 
 They disappear from their earth - bodies, in order 
 that they m.ay appear in their celestial bodies. 
 
 Because the earth-body is only of temporary use, 
 it is called a " tabernacle : " but because the inner 
 and celestial body is " a building of God," it is 
 eternal, and for our eternal use, 
 
 XI. As soon as the severance from the earthly 
 body is effected, the soulish body, which has been 
 day by day, for years,, refining and clarifying, begins 
 more rapidly to be purified from all the remains of 
 its fleshly defilement. As a plant which has acquired 
 a good root in winter, grows rapidly, when summer 
 comes ; so, the inner man, which during the earth- 
 life, has become rooted and grounded in the Christly 
 nature, soon developes his full, glorious, human
 
 28 The Dissolution of the Old, 
 
 form, under the summer glory of the heavenly 
 regions. Relieved from the superincumbent flesh, 
 the pure fire of the Divine Life, which was all but 
 suffocated, glows forth, and the man appears in his 
 luminous or glorified form. In other words, the 
 earthly body quenches the indwelling Glory ; while 
 the future soulish body reveals it, as its ultimate 
 clothing, or " wedding garment." 
 
 Clearly distinguish then, between what Paul calls 
 " the body of this death," and your inner body of 
 purer elements, — that " building of God," — which is 
 to show forth and illustrate the eternal principles, 
 loves, and delights, of the Divine Nature. 
 
 XII. Of course heavy souls, who have been carnal- 
 ized by their connection with the flesh, do not rise 
 at death. Their weight of earthliness holds them 
 down, and they must undergo searching processes 
 of purification before they can begin to ascend. 
 
 But from those who are partakers of the pure, 
 bright, Christ-nature, earthly decease withdraws the 
 heavy curtains of the lower atmospheres, and they 
 glide into the rosy light of Heaven's morning. 
 Suddenly they find themselves, they know not how, 
 in the midst of well-knoAvn friends. They are too 
 much at home to wonder ; nor does it occur to 
 them, at first, to compare or contrast their new cir- 
 cumstances with their old conditions. 
 
 XIII. If any arc at a loss to conceive how this
 
 is the Evolution of the New. 2 9 
 
 very different human body, this exquisite body, can 
 be formed in, and come forth from, the earthly body, 
 let me beg them to consider, how a glorious flower 
 is formed within, and comes forth from, a dull stalk ? 
 and how heavenly blossom comes out of dark woody 
 branches ? What wood is drier than the vine-stock ? 
 Yet rivers of wine annually come forth from those 
 dry stocks. To me it seems the very likeliest tiling, 
 that there should be a future angel-son and daughter, 
 forming within, and getting ready to come forth 
 from, every earthly son and daughter of God. 
 
 The sun's virtue, within the most unlikely shell 
 lying on the ocean's bed, forms a lovely pearl ; and 
 forms veins of silver and gold in the dark earth ; so 
 the God of all virtue and glory is forming a more 
 electric, more vital human body, within the present 
 opaque form. 
 
 XIV. Children and heirs of God, though at present 
 under the twofold cloud of your own nature, and of 
 impersonal nature, enter boldly into your Father's 
 Eternal Purpose : live with confidence in the Perfect 
 Love of it, and glorify your Father, by the courage 
 of your Hope. Let us go up from the chills and 
 fears of our momentary earth-life, into the Life 
 which never began, and which therefore never will 
 end. 
 
 In the substantial, unchangeable, endless Glory of 
 our Father's Love, we have substantial, unhesitating, 
 unchangeable comfort. The right is ours to go
 
 30 The Dissohition of the Old. 
 
 forth from all our shadows into His Glory. Nothing 
 can change, or finally becloud, the Purpose of His 
 Fatherly Love. 
 
 What the veil of the material creation hides, and 
 what our own material experience seems to belie, 
 that Christ reveals. By His determination, as the 
 Throne-Man of our race, to lead the Divine Element 
 of our Father's Eternal Life and Glory into our 
 nature, He has forced out all its corruptible elements, 
 and thus abolished death. 
 
 This revelation of our Father's Purpose towards 
 us, in Christ Jesus, should clear our mental sky, 
 wonderfully help us in our struggle against depravity, 
 make death a mere semblance, and fill us with sur- 
 prising joy. 
 
 XV. Migration from one latitude to another, or 
 from one hemisphere to another, is a very common 
 thing ; and a thing of considerable interest. As for 
 example, when one, like Abram, moves from a 
 region of flats and mists, to o-ne of running streams, 
 gardens and hills. With what pleasurable emotions 
 then we should contemplate our migration to another 
 world. In a universe of world-s innumerable, who 
 would like the idea of being imprisoned for ever in 
 any one of them .-* 
 
 Man is a form of Divine Love ; and his existence 
 on earth is Love's humiliation ; Love's absence from 
 Paradise ; Love's battle and progress ; leading to 
 Love's Home-coming and eternal rejoicing.
 
 GOING AWAY IN A LOWER FORM: 
 COMING AGAIN IN A HIGHER FORM. 
 
 (Preached to the Trinity Church Congregation on August I, 1886.) 
 
 " Simon Peter said unto Him, Lord, zvhitJier goest 
 thou ? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst 
 not follow Me now ; but thou shalt folloiv me after- 
 zvards. Peter said unto Him, Lord, why cannot I 
 follow Thee now ? / will lay down my life for Thy 
 sake. Jesus answered him. Wilt thou lay down thy 
 life for My sake ? Verily, verily, I say unto Thee, The 
 cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice. 
 Let not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, be- 
 lieve also in Me. In My Fathers house are many 
 mansions : if it ivere not so, I zvould have told you. I 
 go to prepare a place for you. A nd if I go and prepare 
 a place for you ^ I zvill come again, and receive you unto 
 Myself ; that ivhere I am, there ye may be also'' 
 
 John xiii. 36 to xiv. 3. 
 
 The desire to see Palestine and to roam over the 
 scenes of our Lord's life is both natural and lawful ; 
 but let us never forget that we have something 
 greater and better than Palestine, in John's Gospel.
 
 32 Going away in a Lower Form. 
 
 To retire to some bower, or other seclusion, for ten 
 minutes, and allow his words to instil into our hearts 
 and minds, will do us more good than as many days 
 in Nazareth, or Jerusalem. 
 
 I. The words quoted above were uttered at the 
 Supper table, immediately following that everlasting 
 memorial of the tenderness and humility of Jesus — 
 the feet w^ashing — and immediately preceding His 
 last walk across the Kedron to the garden and the 
 Mount of Olives. For all in all, the party at that 
 Supper table was the most remarkable that ever 
 met together in our world : the circumstances and 
 associations are thrilling and influential, above 
 all others in history. They sit together in silent 
 amazement, — afraid to speak, almost afraid to think. 
 
 II. During the week alarming words have fallen 
 from their Leader, Whom they feel to be even 
 more Divine than He is human. Everything omi- 
 nously points to a crisis, which they suspect to be 
 tremblingly near. One of their party, Judas, has 
 just gone out ; and words were spoken tohim from 
 the Head of the table, which they do not under- 
 stand. 
 
 But the Blessed One now looks on them more 
 tenderly — seems to draw nearer to them, and 
 begins to speak very endearingly : " Little children, 
 we shall be together not much longer." He
 
 Coming Again in a Highei' Form. 33 
 
 could not say, "Little children," while Judas was 
 present. No one who has subtlety and hypocrisy 
 in his heart is a little child. " Little children " arc 
 angels to be : " of such is the kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 Yet He says : "Whither I go, you cannot come." 
 Peter is startled by the terrible words, and venturing 
 to ask, "Why.''" receives the softened answer: 
 " You cannot follow me now ; " I am ready to be 
 glorified. You are not yet ready to be glorified ; 
 " but you shall follow Me afterwards." 
 
 HL And immediately He reveals to them the con- 
 ditions under which they will ripen for glorification : 
 " Love one anot/ie)- as I have loved yonr Abide in 
 My spirit one toward another. A life of Divine 
 Love has ripened My humanity for Heaven, and it 
 will ripen yours. The Glory of God is pure Love, 
 radiating from Him, filling Heaven with a sweetness 
 of Splendour ; it will also beautify, and at length 
 glorify, every one on earth who walks in Love. 
 
 But you will have many a bitter experience of 
 your own evil hearts, before you are perfect in love, 
 and perfected by love. For the present your own 
 self-love is far more deeply rooted in you than you 
 know. In the coldness and hardness of it, you will 
 yet often speak and act ; in the heat of it, you will 
 abandon Me, and even deny Me. Peter answers : 
 If all the others deny Thee, I never will. The 
 Lord replies : Peter, it is now near midnight ; but, 
 
 C
 
 34 Going Atuay in a Lozuer Form : 
 
 before the dawn, you will find out how dominant is 
 your love of self, and how weak your love to Me, 
 
 IV. Then, without a pause, or anything like the 
 break which occurs in our division of chapters, He 
 sought to fortify poor Peter against himself, that he 
 might not be swallowed up of over much sorrow. 
 Through your unfaithfulness to Me, you will be 
 more deeply affected by My Faithfulness to you. 
 You will all forsake Me, and flee for your own lives ; 
 but I have prayed for you beforehand ; and " I will 
 come to you," bringing into you such a flood of My 
 Love, that your self-love will weep itself to death, 
 and My Love, as the new fountain of your life, will 
 spring in you for ever. 
 
 Remember, when your heart is bursting with 
 grief, and your eyes shedding tears of bitterness, 
 that My Spirit is the secret cause. If I were not 
 dwelling in you, and moving upon the deepest 
 springs of your being, you would not sin and repent ; 
 but sin and Jia^'dcn. Your self-condemnation is from 
 Me. Let it be a sign to you that I am cleaving to 
 you, and that you through your sin are clinging to 
 Me. " Let not your heart be troubled," therefore. 
 Your own heart is not so much in you, as I am in 
 you. The Divine Spirit is set more deeply in you, 
 than your own souls, otherwise the words and actions 
 of your souls would not distress you. Your self- 
 love with all its depravities will have a lingering life
 
 Coming Again in a Higher Form. 35 
 
 in you ; but it is doomed, because My Spirit blends 
 with yours, and will blend more and more. The 
 more I am exalted, the more shall I be able to 
 inbreathe My Spirit into you. 
 
 V. " You believe in God, you believe also in Me ;" 
 therefore, you do not believe in yourselves. The 
 self in which you put no trust will grow weaker and 
 weaker, and finally expire ; but God, whom you do 
 trust, God in your Divine Human Friend, will never 
 fail you. I will be a Human Medium to you of the 
 Love of " My Father, and your Father." 
 
 " Let not your heart be troubled ; " through your 
 very trouble, God is creating your new humanity. 
 Whatever be the completeness of My Humanity, 
 shall be your completeness. 
 
 God loves you, rest in that ; and I too love you ; 
 for the Father Who loves you, lives in Me. Here 
 you have solid ground on which to build your 
 eternal Hope. The Love of God is the One Un- 
 changeable Essence. The universe will change and 
 change, and you will change and change ; but the 
 Love which was before all things is the Same 
 through all creations and destructions to Eternity. 
 Rest, children, in your Father, and in Me. You are 
 safe, and shall be safe, whatever happens. God is 
 Divine Man in Me, and you shall be divine men 
 through Me.
 
 36 Going Away in a Lower Form : 
 
 VI. True, for a little while, we shall be living in 
 different worlds. But if I, as Perfected Man, live in 
 Heaven, you, as perfecting men, will follow Me. 
 Heaven is the final Home of perfect human forms 
 living in the sensible Glory of the Eternal Father's 
 Love. 
 
 Be not afraid. We shall meet again. The only 
 Eternal and Almighty Law in the Universe, is 
 Love's Law. All laws which are not from Love, are 
 momentary. Over all separations, distances, deaths, 
 Love prevails. Nothing can take you out of My 
 Heart, nothing can take Me out of your heart. We 
 shall meet therefore, and make home together. 
 
 Death has power over flesh, your flesh and Mine ; 
 but Death has no power over Love. Death reaches 
 not into God, nor into the sphere of God. The 
 Glory of The Father is the proper sphere of His 
 children. Your real identity is hidden from death, 
 in God. 
 
 VH. My Love to you did not begin on Earth. It 
 is not dependent, therefore, on the earth, nor on any 
 other world. Love created all material and all 
 heavenly mansions, as habitations for Love's chil- 
 dren. " Let not your heart be troubled." If you 
 grow old in one form of your nature, you shall grow 
 young in another form of your nature. Love's re- 
 sources are infinite. If the earths or the Heavens 
 which Love has made for you, dissolve, the Love
 
 Coming Again in a Higher For 771. 2>7 
 
 which made them will make new Earths and new 
 Heavens. You cannot count the worlds which float 
 in space : nor can the mansions of the Great 
 Father's Eternal House be numbered. Yet ever 
 new mansions, for new races and peoples, are being 
 created. 
 
 VHI. I go into the Heavens to found a newivorld 
 for you, and your race. 
 
 There are innumerable mansions which are not 
 adapted to you. You would not be at home in 
 them. I will prepare for you your oivn place. I carry 
 a new order of Humanity into the Heavens, from 
 which, and according to which, a new heavenly 
 creation will begin to evolve. I am the First of the 
 new heaven, which I will people from your race. 
 The unfallen angels have yet much to learn. 
 
 I introduce a higher Law, a more comprehensive 
 Law, into the angelic Heavens. Powers are become 
 subject to Me which have never been subject to the 
 angels. My return to " My Father's House " will 
 introduce a higher Law, and will be the founding of 
 a fuller and more ultimate style of Humanity in the 
 midst of the angels, than they have ever known. 
 They will desire to be made flesh, that they may 
 become richer in spirit. 
 
 IX. The new Heaven, of which I am the Founda- 
 tion and the Beginning, is of necessity central. It is
 
 38 Going Away in a Lozver Form : 
 
 central because it comprehends more than any 
 former Heaven ; and will be more potent for good. 
 In due time, when the multitudes out of every 
 generation which I will gather into it, arc organized, 
 and operate as one Divine Energy, its influence will 
 reach to the ends of sin, and to the depths of Hell. 
 Such is the Father's plan for His House, that in its 
 centre every virtue and peculiarity should be re- 
 presented, and that it should have power over all 
 evil, and bear an equal relationship to His fallen and 
 unfallen races. 
 
 X. We know not at what rate other heavens are 
 growing : many of them may be comparatively 
 stationary. But the New Heaven founded by Christ 
 must have been growing by millions yearly, cen- 
 tury after century. And its energies, abilities, and 
 organizations for good, must be growing and per- 
 fecting as rapidly as its population is multiplying. 
 If young men and women could be got to dwell 
 upon it, nothing is so fitted to kindle their lofty and 
 pure enthusiasm as the prospect of emigration to 
 this Kingdom of kingdoms, — the Kingdom of the 
 Incarnation in redeemed humanity. The highest 
 places and honours of the political world are not 
 worthy of the soul's enthusiasm ; but the final king- 
 dom of humanity is quite worthy of the soul's loftiest 
 passion.
 
 Coming Again in a Higher Form. 39 
 
 XL The kingdoms of Europe, including our own, 
 and indeed the kingdoms of the whole world, are in 
 ceaseless effort to make themselves invulnerable ; 
 and at the same time are shaking with fear ; because 
 they are aiming at the impossible, namely, to make 
 kingdoms secure, which in their character and order 
 are utterly opposed to the Kingdom of the Human 
 race which the Father of men is forming in the 
 heavens. It is worse than useless to shirk the fact 
 that the kings of the earth and the rulers are not 
 moving in unison with, but against " The Lord and 
 His Christ." But because He is Man, according to 
 God, Ideal Man, and Ideal King, His throne and 
 the Kingdom which is grown round about His throne, 
 disturb, and will disturb, and eventually overcome, 
 all antagonistic rule and authority. The myriads 
 whom He has drawn into sympathy with Himself, 
 constitute the only " Kingdom which cannot be 
 moved." 
 
 This is the Kingdom which all Christ-lovers are 
 receiving down into their souls ; and which makes 
 us calm and confident amid all the heavings and 
 convulsions of the nations. 
 
 The Divine human race is destined to break up, 
 supersede, and supplant the undivine race. Every 
 man and woman added to the Kingdom increases its 
 power ; and increases, likewise, the momentum with 
 which its power moves downward into the souls of 
 men, and into the air of the world.
 
 40 Going Away in a Loiocr Form : 
 
 XII, This new Kingdom of the Race growing in the 
 Heavens can do nothing less than subdue the world 
 to itself. Think of the incalculable number of men 
 and women who are already in it ; and who, from 
 the depth of their sympathy with Christ, make one 
 Power : think farther, that in every one of them, the 
 immutable Nature of God is built up ; and you will 
 not be able to doubt that in the end the kingdoms 
 of this world will become one Brotherhood of men 
 under God. 
 
 Wherefore, we pray you to foresee the decreed 
 end to which things are coming ; and draw down 
 the elements of your new, immutable, all victorious 
 humanity into your souls. You 'cannot belong to 
 the Divine kingdom of our race nor go into it, unless 
 first the Kingdom comes into you. Love, Incorrup- 
 tion, Certainty, Joy, Eternity, are in the Kingdom : 
 receive its descending Power. Inbreathe the Divine 
 Man's Breath, and you are His. Remember His 
 words : " I will come and receive you to Myself." 
 
 Receiving you to Himself means your entrance 
 into your own home and among your own people, 
 in the midst of the men and women, who like you 
 having loved, lived, suffered, and died, on earth, have 
 found death to be a birth into the Divine and 
 Eternal human life. 
 
 XIII. Finally, those brief words : " I go away and 
 come again," ring out upon our ears a tuiiversal laiv^
 
 Coming Again in a Higher Form. 4 1 
 
 which it will be wise for us all to ponder. Nothing 
 goes away, which does not come again in another 
 form. Our old sins come back as ghosts swarming 
 about our pillow ; they force themselves upon us 
 whether we will or not. How some of us wish 
 we had never created those ghosts. Tlie spirit of 
 every act lives. Our virtues come back bringing 1 
 honours with them. Your good works, your disin- ! 
 terested acts of service, will come about you after j 
 death, and crown you. 
 
 More, from your new and intenser life in Heaven, 
 you will return to bless those \\\\o knew and loved 
 you. No good mother, or father, no earnest pastor 
 or teacher ever goes away without coming again. 
 There is always more pathos in their voice, and 
 more tender persuasion in their presence, w^hen they 
 return, by the inner door, into our very souls. 
 
 " It is expedient for you that I go away ; " for by 
 going from you, I will come into you, a Spirit in 
 your spirit. What is true of Christ is also true 
 in a degree of every member of His body. When 
 therefore the outward ministry of a Pastor and 
 Teacher has ended, the beginning of a more vital 
 ministry within the bosom should be looked for. 
 
 XIV. Beyond all, we may surely reckon upon the 
 personal coming of our dearest friends to meet us, 
 when we are loosening from the house of our mor- 
 tality, and going forth to join them. For we must
 
 42 Going Azaay iii a Lower Form. 
 
 believe it to be a law of our Father's House, that 
 whoever are most akin to us, most in sympathy 
 with us, and most inwound with our affections, will 
 come to meet us in the air, and bear us along love's 
 way, to our own home. 
 
 The nearest of kin to our inmost souls, may be 
 persons whom we have never yet seen. Not till 
 death did Lazarus see his angel-friends, who carried 
 him to the society of his eternal kindred. Exquisite 
 rest ! Fulness of Joy in the satisfaction of Love !
 
 HORSES AND BELLS! AND BOTH ALIKE, 
 "HOLINESS TO THE LORD." 
 
 " In that Day, there shall be 7tpon the bells of the 
 horses, HOLINESS TO THE LORD^ ZECH. xiv. 20. 
 
 Perhaps the reader will say of the writer : He must 
 have been in very great want of a text before he 
 chose one like this. But he is not able to confess to 
 that. Texts and subjects too multiply in his hands 
 greatly beyond the opportunities which are given for 
 speaking, or writing, about them. 
 
 To speak the truth, he did not seek the text : it 
 rather sought him. He did not select it ; but again, 
 and again, it returned offering itself, saying, " Take 
 me." I turned from it, saying, I do not see my way 
 to the inside of it. The charm and life of a house 
 are within the house, and the charm and life of 
 Scripture are within the Scripture. But back, and 
 back, came the words ringing in my ears, until I 
 said : " Words are not enough ; you must show me 
 my way into them." Then a train of thought began 
 to flow in upon me, which, as nearly as I can, I now 
 embody.
 
 44 Horses and Bells I and Both Alike, 
 
 I. These old prophets arc terribly severe in their 
 denunciation of all sin and unrighteousness. But 
 having spoken of the judgments which must over- 
 take, chastise and purge, unrighteous nations, and 
 unrighteous persons ; afterwards, they call us to 
 behold these very nations and persons, passing 
 through the gate of repentance, and finally exhibit- 
 ing faultless righteousness, beauty of character, glad- 
 ness of heart, and living in Paradises of plenty and 
 beauty, 'corresponding with the new virtues which 
 they have acquired. The men who speak with a 
 burning zeal for truth and purity of life, embellish 
 notwithstanding, every subject which they take in 
 hand, and lead all discords into music. 
 
 When they speak of the coming of the Great 
 Leader of the nations, — He comes in meekness and 
 uttermost humility, — is comparatively unattractive, 
 almost unnoticed, — then rejected, ill-treated, and 
 killed ; but after that. He wins the nations, and 
 greatens, and greatens, on His all-conquering course, 
 until the whole human world is at His feet ; — at 
 His feet, not to be humbled and oppressed, but to 
 be filled with His goodness, principled in His right- 
 eousness, glorified in His Light, made rapturous in 
 the greatness of Hope, and exultant in the certainty, 
 the fulness, and the everlastingness of final triumph. 
 
 For poetic genius and wealth of imagery, the old 
 prophets greatly surpass the apostles. The latter, 
 living with Jesus, daily walking and talking with
 
 " Holiness to the Lordy 45 
 
 Him, were perhaps too near to the infirmity of His 
 assumed flesh, too near His Cross, too absorbed by 
 His Cross, to call in the aid of Nature and the 
 Universe to illustrate the grandeur of His Humanity 
 and His Kingdom, The prophets were absorbed 
 in the contemplation of the distant, the ideal, they 
 lived in the poetic element of unrealized expecta- 
 tions : the apostles were plain, matter of fact men ; 
 — very dull and heavy companions for the Ideal 
 Man, the Prophet of prophets. " How long shall I 
 be with you, and suffer you ? " 
 
 n. Observe that this passage, in which our pro- 
 phet speaks of horses and bells, is at the close of 
 his book ; after he has spoken of the purging and 
 renewal of the race. And whatever interpretation 
 you assign to his words, it is clear that they point 
 to an age of greater liberty and gladness, of ripe 
 intelligence, associated with unhesitating demon- 
 strations of mirth. It is impossible to foresee in 
 what new ways, the harmony of our nature, both 
 with itself, and with God, will celebrate its joy. 
 Let God and the heavens and mankind, make one ; 
 and the former conditions of nature and humanit}- 
 " shall not be remembered nor come into mind." 
 " Be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I 
 create." 
 
 III. Perhaps you are unable to appreciate the
 
 46 Ho7'ses and Bells ! and Both Alike, 
 
 symbols — Bells ! and Horses ! You are not pre- 
 pared for the strange association of — musical Horses ! 
 and " Holiness to the Lord ! " You ask, Are not 
 horses proud enough without Bells ? Ask another 
 question : Have not handsome horses something of 
 which to be proud ? Perhaps for all in all, their 
 organism is the most shapely and majestic animal- 
 form on the earth. They are signs and pledges of 
 sagacity and power, confidence and victory. The 
 head of the creature is projected into fine relief, for 
 dignified elevation, for freedom of play, and for 
 elongation in the race. With what quick intelli- 
 gence, the eye flashes ! what sensibility and power, 
 the nostrils express ! how easy and supple the motion 
 of the ears, by which the creature intimates both its 
 proud carelessness, and its acute apprehension : — 
 then in a moment, how erect, and rigid their tension, 
 if any new object or sound suggests alarm ! what 
 nervous power, and readiness for action ! what pride 
 and spirit flash from its mane ! what an absence of 
 cunning and malice in its face ! To which add its 
 companionable qualities, its tractability, obedience to 
 the word of command, general usefulness, and swift- 
 ness of feet. Docile enough to obey the gentlest 
 pressure of the reins, it is yet proud enough to 
 resent ill-treatment ; it has mind enough to under- 
 stand man's words and tones, it is loving enough to 
 return his caresses. If in love you pat its neck, or 
 face, without hands, it will stroke you in return.
 
 " Holiness to the Lord^ 47 
 
 IV. What need has such a creature of Bells ? 
 Has it not glory enough without bells ? But tell me 
 why shrill music should not be coupled with dis- 
 tinction of form ? The sublimest towers that archi- 
 tecture can raise, on great occasions and festivals, 
 break their silence, and ring out their fame. The 
 Church has its Bells. How lowly the foundations ! 
 how reverential the superstructure ! how grand, how 
 daring the spire ! Yet it asks for the shrill clangour 
 of the bells. Humility, nobility, and bells ! Love, 
 worship, and bells ! When heaven touches earth, 
 and the earth touches heaven, — Bells ! When Bride- 
 groom and Bride are made one, ring out ye bells ! 
 The priest on great days was required to announce 
 his entrance into the Most Holy Place by bells ! 
 when he represented Highest Man, and man at his 
 highest, he wore bells :■ — pomegranates and bells ! 
 " Pomegranates ! " because highest uses are associ- 
 ated with highest refreshment. " Bells ! " to express 
 a ministry which swings between time and Eternity. 
 Let there be sounds in the world, which are more 
 than world : let the air become a resonant stairway, 
 pulsing upwards towards heaven and eternity, more 
 meaning than articulate speech can carry. 
 
 V. But — you may be perfectly sure, that " horses " 
 and " bells," when a seer, or prophet, speaks of them, 
 stand for more than horses and bells. His horses 
 and bells ascribe "Holiness to the Lord." Metallic
 
 48 Horses and Bells ! and Both Alike, 
 
 bells have neither holiness nor sin. The animal 
 horse, in like manner, being incapable of the thought 
 — God, — conies not within the sphere of Holiness. 
 
 The poetic thought of the prophet leads us into 
 the very centre of the Lord's prayer : " Hallowed be 
 Thy Name." The ascription involves the loftiest 
 intellectual conception, combined with reverential 
 love. " Holiness to the Lord " indicates the highest 
 human distinctions. When man is "light in the 
 Lord," the white horse of his intelligence discerns 
 the beauty, the sublimity, the adorableness and 
 blessedness of the Divine Name. " Hallowed be 
 Thy Name ! " Whole-orbedness — every attribute of 
 Perfectness, to the Lord ! Every essence and virtue, 
 every power and glory are in Thy Name. Whether 
 in men with luminous bodies, or men with opaque 
 bodies, this worship is only possible within the hearts 
 and minds of men ; and only possible in them, 
 because they are mirrors, and likenesses of God. 
 
 Divinely luminous and harmonious human Intelli- 
 gence expresses itself in wonderfully ringing cadences. 
 All sweetest music, all triumphal music in earth and 
 in heaven, are celebrations and demonstrations of 
 the harmony between human intelligence and the 
 Name of God. Truthful, heartfelt, glorifications of 
 the Divine Name go pealing, at once, through time's 
 sky and eternity's sky. " Bells " indeed ! 
 
 VI. Ancient India and Egypt, Assyria and
 
 " Holiness to the Lord!' 49 
 
 Greece, assume that the horse is the symbol of lofty 
 intelligence. Their ivinged horses represented both 
 the majesty and the ethereal power of the intellect. 
 Apollo, the sun-god, rides in a chariot drawn by 
 celestial horses, fleet as the light. 
 
 The Greeks also say, that the nine Muses issued 
 from a fountain, which a horse pawed open. And it 
 is most true, that the pawing of the Intellect has 
 opened the fountain of every art and inspiration. 
 
 Elijah's ascension, or transmutation, is represented 
 under the symbol of being carried up into heaven, in 
 a glowing chariot, drawn by celestial horses. But 
 before the moment of his rapture from time to eter- 
 nity, the fiery earnestness of Divine Truth had been 
 purifying his heart, and exalting his mind. The 
 chariot of fire and horses of fire represented his condi- 
 tion — the end of a long, patient, regenerative process. 
 And if you desired to exhibit dramatically the 
 vehemence of celestial attraction, as it affects a 
 celestialized soul, could you do it better than by 
 such symbolism } 
 
 When the prophet speaks of God as riding upon 
 His " horses of salvation," what can the horses be, 
 but the exalted Truths which are bearing up the 
 inner man, and carrying him on and on, through 
 Divine processes of transfiguration .' 
 
 VII. By bells on the horses, then, we must under- 
 stand the joyous and triumphant condition of the 
 
 D
 
 50 Horses and Bells ! and Both Alike, 
 
 human intellect, when it lives under the influence, 
 moves among the eternal verities, and realizes the 
 sig-nificance of the Divine Name. " I will set him on 
 high, because he hath known My Name." The joy 
 and the triumph of this exaltation, are, " Holiness to 
 the Lord." The intellect moves in a fine majestic 
 play of freedom, and yet there is in it nothing 
 capricious, nothing lawless. It is the intellect 
 glorying in the steps and progress of infinite Law, 
 eternal Law ; but there is in it no taint of self- 
 glorification. The regenerated intellect glories in 
 the heights, depths, and harmonies of the Divine 
 Name. " Hallowed be Thy Name." " Holiness to 
 the Lord." Such a man, with such watchwords, is 
 an Apollo, careering through the heavens of thought, 
 on his white horse, and exuberantly proclaiming 
 that his progress and his victory are from God, in 
 God, and unto God— to " the praise of His glory." 
 " Holiness to the Lord, on the bells of the 
 horses" ! Such a man must go on " conquering and 
 to conquer," for evermore ! 
 
 VHI. The allegorical horse of the Heavens is re- 
 presented as leading down the Kingdom of Love, 
 Joy, and Beauty, into the souls of men. Ring out 
 ye Bells :— " Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and 
 the Glory ! " " Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and 
 the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the 
 majesty : for all that is in the heaven and in the
 
 ''Holiness to the Lord'' 51 
 
 earth is Thine ; Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and 
 Thou art exalted as head above all." " He rideth 
 in His Excellency, on the Heavens, for thy help." 
 That is, He is borne down, in, and by, our kindred 
 above, to their kindred below. The myriads of our 
 perfected race are His chariot. He dwells largely 
 in them, and they would that He dwelt more 
 abundantly in us, 
 
 " The Word," the Truth, the Universal Harmony 
 of Divine and human Intelligence, is the White 
 Horse ; and those in whom the all-harmonic WORD 
 is centred, constitute the great army, who are said, 
 symbolically, to be following the lead of Christ, on 
 "white horses." With exaltation of mind, because 
 they know His Name ; and with purified hearts, 
 for they are made white ; moreover, they mean 
 victory. They will not pause, nor be discouraged, 
 until they see the pure and beauteous Humanity of 
 the Heavens in the human race below. 
 
 Let me quote from the prophetic vision : " I heard 
 as it were the noise of thunder, . . . and I looked, 
 and behold a White Horse : and He that sat on him 
 had a bow ; and a crown was given to Him : and 
 He went forth conquering and to conquer. . . . His 
 Name is called, The Word of God, King of 
 Kings, and Lord of Lords ; and the armies in 
 Heaven followed Him upon w/iite horses, clothed in 
 fine linen, white and clean." All the symbols, 
 observe, are good signs.
 
 52 Horses and Dells ! and Both Alike, 
 
 By " white horse " understand the unadulterated 
 Truth of God, Truth wholly free from self-seeking, 
 from carnality, and every worldly principle : under- 
 stand, likewise, innocence, peace, joyfulness, power, 
 and victory. By " the bow " is signified the direct 
 and self-piercing character of Pure, Divine, harmonic 
 Truth. 
 
 The " crown " given to Him, signifies that infinite 
 God is with Him, and in Him, for the Soul of 
 His ministry. God is the Spirit and Crown of His 
 perfected human life. The Scriptures are the verbal 
 expression, but He is the Personal Embodiment of 
 the Truth of God. 
 
 Whole armies of our race. His followers and ad- 
 mirers, who have been " made white," share His 
 power and glory, and go forth with Him, " con- 
 quering and to conquer." 
 
 If in your dream, or in visions of the night, 
 Heaven were opened to you, as to John in Patmos, 
 and you saw a vast white-horse cavalcade in motion, 
 you would understand it to mean conquest by Love, 
 and to signify marriage in the highest, — the marriage 
 of God and the Soul, of men and of angels, of heaven 
 and earth. And before the beloved John closes the 
 record of his visions, he tells you distinctly that this 
 is what it does mean ; and that Lord Jesus and 
 those who are with Him will not pause in Love's 
 great work of conquest, till it be accomplished.
 
 " Holiness to the Lord^ 53 
 
 IX, And from the connection in Zcchariah, you will 
 see that the prophet is speaking of the Dominion of 
 our Lord Christ, in His Divine Humanity, over the 
 world. He is come to the close of his prophetic 
 utterance, and affirms : The Lord shall be King over 
 the whole earth. In that day, His Name shall be 
 One, and mankind shall be one under Him. {xiv. 9.) 
 " In that day," men shall be full of God, —luminous 
 with the White Light of Divine Intelligence, and 
 full to overflowing of the gladness and confidence 
 of Victory. "In that day, shall there be upon the 
 bells of the horses, ' HOLINESS TO THE LORD.' " 
 
 X. Humanity in the Heavens rings bells of 
 triumph, and humanity on earth takes up the glad 
 refrain. By pulses of Inspiration the music of our 
 brothers and sisters above, reproduces itself through 
 the souls of their brothers and sisters below. Te 
 Deum, " We praise Thee, O Lord." Heaven floats 
 down in our Hallelujah Chorus, and our life on 
 earth for evermore is richer ; and never more will 
 we allow Heaven and earth to be sundered. The 
 songs of humanity are increasing in volume and 
 harmony, and increase they will, until the whole 
 world is filled with the music of God's praise and 
 human joy. Zechariah's day has come : the sky- 
 horses of the world's intellect are ringing out " Holi- 
 ness to the Lord." 
 
 Let us learn that Intelligence, at its height, is
 
 54 Horses and Bells ! 
 
 always musical ; and not until it is musical, or har- 
 monious, is it right human. In a joyous musical 
 descent of His Truth, God comes down to us ; and 
 by the same joyous musical Highway w^e ascend to 
 God. Truth from God comes singing into Time, 
 and sings us through Time, until the pilgrim-song of 
 mortality melts into the Home-song in Heaven. 
 
 XI. Are some of us trudging through the world, 
 with no celestial chariot in which the soul can 
 recline, and no celestial horses to carry us Home } 
 Heavy work to carry our own weight, and to hold on 
 our wearisome way, with no joy-bells of God ringing 
 about us. 
 
 Ye foot-sore and weary, the chariot of your exalted 
 life with its white horses and bells awaits your use. 
 Your friends above are pleading with you to begin 
 now a higher soul-life. " Come up higher " ! 
 
 XII. Thou Everlasting King of Glory, Word of 
 God expressed, Humanity's King, uplift us above 
 the common, dusty, road of mortal Hfe, lift us into 
 Thy Life, above the infirmities, above the weight, of 
 our flesh ; and as w^e rise above corruption and 
 death let us hear the joy-bells of eternity ringing our 
 welcome.
 
 SKY AND SUN. 
 
 " TJie Siai is as a Bridegroom coming out of his 
 chamber r PSA. xix. 4, 5. 
 
 " O Lord, my God, TJioji art very great : Thou art 
 clothed luith Honour and Majesty : Thou cover est 
 Thyself luith light as with a garment : Thou strctchest 
 out the heavejis like a curtain^ PSA. civ. i, 2. 
 
 " Who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in 
 His excellency on the shy." Deut. xxxiii. 26. 
 
 " Extol Him Who rideth upon the heavens, and 
 rejoice before Him" PSA. Ixviii. 4. 
 
 Let it be confessed, that the design of the present 
 discourse is to create a greater interest in the sun 
 and sky. They ought to be sources of great plea- 
 sure ; as much to our reason, as to our emotions. 
 They are not God ; but they are sublime revelations 
 of His Nature, His Beauty and Goodness. And 
 more, He is present with us, in them, ceaselessly 
 operating through them for our benefit, and at the 
 same time giving delight to soul and sense. 
 
 I. We are taught annually that the earth, in
 
 56 Sky and Stin. 
 
 herself, is so much cold, dark, sterile, matter ; and 
 that the heavens are spirit vitalizing her matter, and 
 making her fruitful. The season of Hope returns 
 once more ; joy is possible. In the absence of the 
 sun, the dull, heavy laws of matter prevail : in his 
 return, spirit and life prevail ; and by their songs 
 the birds lead us into a new heaven and a new 
 earth. 
 
 The blood-red ray of the Sun quickens universal 
 nature, makes all creatures happy, and all trees, 
 trees of Life. This transfiguring ray is not light, 
 but hidden in light, robed in Light ; and corre- 
 sponds with the Pure Fire, or Love, of God, which 
 renews the soul. Love is the Alchemist in nature : 
 Love is the Alchemist of the Soul. The Love of 
 God, operating through the mighty Soul of Christ, 
 and the Love of God, clothed with the solar 
 element, are one Love, differently conditioned. 
 No one who contemplates the effects of solar influ- 
 ence on the plant, and on the bodies and souls of 
 all creatures, can have a doubt of its being a vehicle 
 of Love. 
 
 IL For inspiration, for beauty, for health, and 
 refreshment, for a sense of freedom and the enlarge- 
 ment of the soul is there any thing like the summer 
 sky '^. — that is, the sky, when it is allowed to be sky, 
 and not buried by earth's vapour, nor desecrated by 
 city smoke } Again, for teaching, for sublimest
 
 Sky and Sun. 5 7 
 
 teaching, for pictorial grandeur, for tenderness and 
 for strength, for measurelessness and everlastingness, 
 is there anything like the sky ? How it attracts us ! 
 draws us all out of doors ! how it rewards us ! And 
 what wonder, for in the sky, the great Soul meets 
 us face to face, and blends His Spirit with our spirit. 
 In the morning, the motherly sky kisses our eyelids 
 open, bathes us with her luminous ether, and invi- 
 gorates us. In the evening, she liquefies soul and 
 body into unity, and tranquillizes us. In the morn- 
 ing, she is vital enough, intense enough, to enter 
 into, and flow through, every nerve, every blood- 
 globule, every atom. In the evening, she indraws 
 us, to a sky within the sky, as to a mother's bosom, 
 while the outer sky becomes a soft awning over and 
 around us. 
 
 III. By His sky, the God of all consolation 
 soothes our inmost affections, at the same time that 
 He provokes thoughts too large for utterance. If 
 the Divine Light be kindled in us, then a sight of the 
 sky feeds our reverence, quickens worship, lifts us 
 above fear and distrust, begets a faith which " sees 
 the Invisible ; " and bids us go on our way, rejoicing 
 in the greatness of our human Hope. 
 
 Whenever, therefore, you lose heart, and become 
 weary and doleful within the narrow limits of your 
 earthly personality, liberate yourself, go out of your 
 house, pay a visit to the sky, talk to her, and let he
 
 58 Sky and 82111. 
 
 talk to you, until she delivers you from your littleness 
 and gloom. Her largeness answers to the soul's 
 craving for room to breathe, for more knowledge, 
 and a freer life. 
 
 IV, All prophets refer us to the sky ; and assure 
 us that the glory which we see, veils a glory which 
 mortal eyes cannot see. What we call sky is a 
 succession of tenuous ethers between our vision and 
 the Divine Glory. " He holdeth back the face of 
 His throne," spreading out before it, veil upon veil, 
 ether upon ether. 
 
 The word translated " sky " in Deut xxxiii. 26, 
 and elsewhere, is plural, for it is literally composed 
 of metallic ethers. See Job xxxvii. 18. "Hast 
 thou with Him spread out the sky," (plural) " which 
 is strong, and as a molten looking glass ? " Indeed, 
 the word is often rendered in our translation by a 
 plural noun, as for example in 2 Sam. xxii. 12. 
 Psalm xviii. 11. "His pavilion round about him 
 were thick clouds of the skies'' Also in Isa. xlv. 8. 
 " Drop down ye heavens from above, and let the 
 skies pour down righteousness." 
 
 The ethers are more solid than any metal, and the 
 metals are capable of being converted into ethers 
 again. Nothing is so solid, nothing so strong, as the 
 everlasting sky. It is the soul and essence of all 
 gold and silver ; and the golden Glory of God, or 
 Pure Love, glorifying Love, may be drawn out of
 
 Sky and Sun. 59 
 
 the Sky into your soul. The sky is pure substance 
 and the mother of all substances. The densest 
 things, and things most attenuated, are all one 
 primal substance. The sweet transparency, which 
 we call ether, is equally akin to spirit and matter. 
 One word expresses both ether and spirit. The 
 Breath of God, or the Holy Spirit, is living ether, 
 Divine ether ; and the ether of the sky is equally the 
 clothing of His Spirit, and the matrix of matter. It 
 is "stretched out," above and beyond the atmo- 
 spheres of all worlds ; and is to all who behold it a 
 mirror of the Infinite Spirit. 
 
 V. To us, whose apprehension of God is so feeble 
 and dull, the great advantage of the clear, boundless 
 ether is, that it is the robe of His Omnipresence, 
 and actually transmits His Vitality. It overarches 
 us like a tent, and is like God, strong, pure, infinite, 
 and endless. It is the first of His ministering 
 angels, always present, always beautiful, always 
 blessing us; and without sound, teaching us more 
 than all sounds and voices ever taught, or can 
 teach. 
 
 We must carry over, therefore, the whole sky, and 
 all that is in it, into our Gospel; otherwise our 
 speech will do injustice to God, and be unworthy of 
 the sublime silence of the infinite ether. 
 
 VI. But what is the lesson conveyed by the great
 
 6o Sky and Sun. 
 
 alternate changes of the sky? Now it is sweetly 
 luminous, and now a solemn darkness. Strictly 
 speaking, as we all know, there is no change in the 
 sky at all. It is always an infinite Darkness, and 
 always lit up by myriads of stupendous suns. But 
 we should not know this, if the earth did not turn 
 on her axis, and successively face the sun, and again 
 turn away from him. 
 
 To the turning of our planet from the sun, we owe 
 our knowledge of the universe. In the symbolism of 
 its darkness and light, we have our sublimest re- 
 velation of God. Light which is called God, and is 
 God, issues for ever from the Infinite Bosom of His 
 Darkness. Darkness and Light are both alike to 
 Him ; for He is as much one, as the other. The 
 Son of God, the only begotten Light, reveals the 
 " Father of Lights,'' as suns reveal the ether. God 
 presents Himself in the Light, but also conceals 
 Himself: as we both present ourselves and hide our- 
 selves in our garments. " Thou coverest Thyself v^'xth 
 Light as with a garment." As the infinite ether is 
 hidden by the daylight, even so is God hidden by 
 the Light of the angelic heavens, which reveals Him. 
 Therefore, all those who dwell in the Eternal Light, 
 worship the Unseen God, and live "as seeing the 
 Invisible." They know that Light is but His 
 Effluence. They worship the Light, as God ; and 
 again, with silent inefiable adoration, they worship 
 what is behind the Light.
 
 Sky and Sun. 6 1 
 
 VII. Venerable, wonderful, Infinite Darkness, 
 whence could Light come, but out of thy womb ? 
 Life and Light are one ; and yet as distinctly two, 
 as active and passive, or as the two poles of 
 humanity, masculine and feminine. Indeed, what- 
 ever is in the light acknowledges its dependence on 
 darkness. Gold, silver, and all jewels, are the 
 "treasures of darkness." Branches which blossom 
 and bear fruit, must have corresponding roots in 
 darkness. We are instructed also to revere darkness 
 in ourselves. None of our organs which are in the 
 light are vital : tJie vital organs abide in darkness. 
 The human face reveals and covers a human depth. 
 The brain, heart, lungs, and viscera do their work in 
 darkness, and supply the surfaces of the body, 
 including the face, with whatever vitality they 
 have. 
 
 O Light, thou universal lovehness ! O Life, 
 thou infinite unsearchableness ! LigJit is cheering, 
 exhilarating ; it is the eye of Life, the glance, 
 the smile of Life; but Life is more. God is the 
 infinite Mine of His own Light, " which is as a 
 Bridegroom coming forth from His hidden chamber." 
 We worship the all-beauteous Visibility, we worship 
 the awful Invisibility. O sun, God is in thee ; and 
 through thee I see Him. Yea, I feel Him : His 
 Potencies and Virtues stream upon me through His 
 garment. Thou art His garment. The garment 
 would be powerless, if God did not wear it and
 
 62 Sky and Sun. 
 
 charfTc it with His energy. Strictly speaking, the 
 One Living Spirit-Sun is the all and in all of the 
 astronomical suns. They are only suns, because 
 their electric atmospheres embody, reflect, and trans- 
 mit the Living Sun. Impregnated with the Living 
 Sun our souls live, and impregnated with the solar 
 beam all nature lives. 
 
 VIII. Thou "Father of lights"! we are even 
 more the children of Thy Love, than of Thy Light. 
 Because our inmost soul is a fathomless love, we 
 know that we are Love-begotten. Therefore if we 
 seek Thy Light, much more do we seek Thy Life. 
 Constrained by our birthright, we seek to penetrate 
 into Thy " Secret Place," within the curtain of Thy 
 Light. Thy Light hath " Majesty ; " but Thy Life 
 is very meek, and mother-like ; Thy Light goads 
 our intellect ; but in Thy Life there is great rest. 
 
 "Blessed," "blessed," yea, seven times "blessed" 
 saith Jesus, are ye who have the virtues of My 
 Father's Life. His Life is the Humility of Love, 
 the changelessness of Love, the endlessness of Love. 
 
 IX. Who can speak of the children, Avho are 
 folded within this mantle of God, this tent, and 
 curtain of the sky } All the inner and inmost 
 heavens of His angels, and all the material heavens, 
 are "a tent to dwell in": — the Almighty Father's 
 tent for His offspring. "Lift up your eyes, and
 
 Sky and Stin. 63 
 
 behold " the countless homes ! What figures could 
 represent the children dwelling in one solar system ? 
 How unthinkable, then, the thought of the children 
 in all the constellations which bestud the sky ? A 
 family large enough, truly, to occupy and interest us 
 — strangers enough to entertain us, and to be enter- 
 tained by us, to eternity. 
 
 One blue tent comprehends all ; nothing is so 
 firm, so fixed. It is "settled for ever," a tent 
 "which cannot be moved." Winds may blow and 
 storms rage, in the planetary atmospheres ; but the 
 eternal Ether which overspreads and embraces all 
 is the children's one "strong," imperturbable Habi- 
 tation. " Thou art our Dwelling-place in all gene- 
 rations." 
 
 The Infinite Father's sleeping and waking children, 
 dying and resurrected children, throughout the uni- 
 verse, sleep and wake, die and rise again, within His 
 all-breathing tent of azure and gold. 
 
 X. Let us see, therefore, that our immediate con- 
 ditions do not domineer over our greater Hope. 
 When disheartened in ourselves, let us "give glory 
 to God," until new health and courage invigorate 
 us. We are spirits ; but for " a little while " en- 
 thralled in the darkness and bondage of matter. 
 We all of us have our wild-fire, our capricious pas- 
 sions, our fermenting corruptions ; a heavy chaotic 
 night lies upon us, and the wrath-storm which our
 
 6/\. Sky and 82171. 
 
 sins have created, often makes us tremble ; but 
 over all, around all, is the tent of God ; and through 
 every point of the enveloping ether, comes the Divine 
 Ether, diffusing itself through our souls, until a new 
 cheerfulness reigns in our hearts, and new reason- 
 ableness in our minds, " The Word of the Lord," 
 being the Law of His Love, runs very swiftly, "con- 
 verting the soul," bringing a new spring-time to the 
 soul. And the cleanness of heart which follows 
 God's purifying Breath, is not a cold and barren 
 whiteness ; but a warm, living, fruit-bearing Righte- 
 ousness, as of Heaven's summer opening within the 
 soul. "Be ye glad, and rejoice for ever, in that 
 which I create, saith the Lord." 
 
 XL Things on earth may fail us, the body of our 
 flesh may fall away from us ; but the powers which 
 work in the heavens, for us, are infinite and endless. 
 What if we die on earth, the heavens are full of 
 creating Love, and will form new bodies about us, 
 for new experiences, in new worlds. The Good God 
 is everywhere, and where He is, creative Goodness 
 is. " He ridcth on the heavens for thy JielpT His 
 Potent Goodness can no more remove, than the 
 Ether can remove. " My kindness shall not depart 
 from thee, neither shall the Covenant of My Peace be 
 removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee." 
 Therefore we must " boldly say : The Lord is my 
 Helper, I will not fear."
 
 Sky and Sicn. 65 
 
 The Sky is full of Help, because it is full of God. 
 Could you fly with the swiftness of light millions of 
 millions of millions of leagues in any direction, and 
 these multiplied by billions of billions, and quad- 
 rillions of quadrillions, you would still be in the 
 sweet ether, which is the Creating Bosom of God. 
 " Lo ! I am with you always," every where. Are not 
 all worlds carried tenderly in the embrace of the 
 Ether ? The Christ-Spirit of our Father is not less 
 plentiful than the Ether ; and visits our souls more 
 closely, more vitally than light visits our eyes. 
 Think, when you look up into the sky : — It is Jesus 
 spread out ; for Jesus is simply a revelation of Infin- 
 ite God's besetting Love. His Breath entering into 
 His child's soul begets assurance ; and with joyous 
 triumph he exclaims : The Eternal, Every-where- 
 Present God is the strength of my life; of what shall 
 I be afraid .-' And the Divine Spirit replies : " Fear 
 not," fear nothing; "I am with thee;" "and because 
 I live, you shall live also." I could not respect my 
 own Life, yea, my Life would cease to be a Joy to 
 Me, if I ceased to live in you. 
 
 XII. Oh, how literally does He "ride on the 
 heavens for our help" ! In the souls and spirits 
 of our forefathers and foremothers, in countless 
 angels, His Help is stored up for us. Are they not 
 all ministering Spirits i* — ministering what they have 
 received from God, to those who are in need. For 
 
 E
 
 66 Sky and Siui. 
 
 wc, and they, are Love's children; — "one family." 
 They are the living heavens, on which God rides; 
 and we are children on the lower floor looking up 
 for Help. " Our Help cometh from the Lord Who 
 made Heaven and earth " ; but it cometh through 
 millions of souls, in whom He more fully dwells. 
 
 When the overpowering faintness steals upon us, 
 and the outer man is expiring, kindred spirits with 
 the Divine Spirit in them, " for our Help," will flock 
 about us. We shall die in God's tent, and die into 
 more Life. Ceasing to breathe the planetary atmo- 
 sphere, we glide into, and breathe, a more ethereal 
 atmosphere ; — an atmosphere full of love and joy, 
 inspiring us with a home-feeling of rest and con- 
 fidence. It is ever through those who have a nature 
 like our own, that the Help of God comes to us; 
 — through our mothers and fathers, through our 
 wives and sisters, through our human angels, and 
 our human Christ. 
 
 XHL The consolatory conclusion to which we are 
 brought, is, that the whole universe is ///// of God ; 
 but that souls are the first and chief Habitation of 
 His Life. "God is a Spirit "-Sun in the Bosom of 
 His own Infinite Ether; and as is the Divine Nature, 
 so is the universe, which is an outbirth of the Divine 
 Nature. Everywhere, throughout immensity, there is 
 seen a Sun shining in the bosom of the ether. The 
 suns are the vitality, the glor}-, and the activity of
 
 S/y^y and Si in. 67 
 
 the ether which is round about them. Each sun 
 quickens its own family of planets, and makes them 
 pregnant. He sows his glory into the planets, and 
 thus glorifies them. 
 
 The Glory of God is not mere splendour : the 
 Divine Majesty has His own Central Form, the 
 First-Born, Who is the Beginning and the Ideal of 
 humanity. And all the children, who arc personal 
 centres to the universe, are in His Likeness. In them 
 the universe attains to self-consciousness, understand- 
 ing, love, and enjoyment of itself How much therefore 
 it behoves man to know himself, not alone for his 
 own glory and joy ; but that he may fulfil his obliga- 
 tions both to his divine race and to the whole crea- 
 tion. If the Glory of God be quenched, or dimmed 
 in the centre of his spirit, he is as though the sky 
 were without a sun. The ether of his spirit is with- 
 out a sun. He is a cold, timid, doubting spirit, 
 tossed about on the dark billows, neither knowing 
 whence he came, nor whither he is going. And 
 because it is so with him, the whole creation suffers 
 for his sake. For when he who is God's son, and 
 her prince, is centrally cold and dark, she is deprived 
 of her most essential, most vital, and blessed influx. 
 
 All nature is waiting for the true sons and daugh- 
 ters of God. She groans and travails in pain, until 
 the central glory, which is the life and soul of her 
 harmony, be kindled in them. 
 
 Be instructed ye fallen children of God ; let the
 
 68 Sky ami Sun. 
 
 sky teach you Wisdom. She speaks on this wise : 
 If the sun were not kindled in my centre, my whole 
 heaven would be a cheerless void, and my earth a 
 desolation. So is the whole heaven of your spirit 
 dark, and the earth of your body deficient of its first 
 virtue, when God, the Spirit-Sun, is not a kindled 
 Reality in the centre of your souls.
 
 OF GOD IN NATURE. 
 
 " Thou renewest the face of the earth. 
 I IV ill sing to the Lord as long as I live. 
 My meditatio7i of Him shall be szveet. 
 I zvill be glad in the Lord!' 
 
 PSA. civ. 30, 33, 34. 
 
 God has an outer gate of approach to us, as well as 
 an inner gate. Nature is His outer gate. He 
 comes in material substance, to our material bodies. 
 Through our senses, He enters our souls : through 
 the gratification of our desires, His Love glides into 
 our hearts. Our wintry religion melts away and 
 expires in His Summer-Presence. In the new climate 
 we sing and rejoice before Him. Our flesh is quite 
 as eager as our souls, and our souls as eager as our 
 flesh, to welcome Him in His new manifestation. 
 There is strictly a coming of God every year. He 
 comes anew into Nature's skies, and Nature's earth. 
 Every new Spring is a Revelation of our Father. 
 Let us see Him, feel Him nigh, in the flowering 
 meadow, in the fragrant pine wood, and in the 
 happy birds ; and warm towards Him as Jesus did.
 
 yo Of God in Nature. 
 
 II. God's new coming makes an appeal to our 
 whole nature : we cannot say that our hearts are 
 more delighted than our minds, nor our minds than 
 our senses. Our whole hum.anity welcomes His plea- 
 sure-bringing season. Heaven and earth coalesce : 
 spirit and matter blend. And not until both are 
 a unity in our experience, is there room for God's 
 Presence, or scope for His operation. 
 
 The series of blooming and fragrant plants which 
 adorn and bless the earth, together with our fruiting 
 plants, bushes and trees, are the Spirit of God un- 
 folding Himself, in visions of loveliness, to our mortal 
 eyes. God " so clothes the earth ; " and He always 
 puts Himself \n\.o \N\i'd.'i He clothes. Consider these 
 two things ; — the Force of His Love, and the Beauty 
 of His Nature. Because of the Force of His Love, 
 He must express, or manifest Himself; and because 
 of the Beauty of His character, His manifestation is 
 an enchantment. 
 
 If Nature is not spiritual to you, it is because you 
 are not spiritual. If you do not find the breath of 
 Jesus in the balmy air, and in the odours of the 
 garden, it is because His Breath is too little in you. 
 If you find not God in the meadow and in the grow- 
 ing corn, it is because you go to the fields witJtoiit 
 Him. David used to find God in the fields. And 
 Jesus found more of His Father, and found Himself 
 nearer to His Father, in the fields, than in the 
 temple.
 
 Of God ill Nature. 7 1 
 
 III. And if you regard Nature with a tender awe, 
 with a fond love, and with a thoughtful delight ; she 
 will breathe through you the Divine Spirit, and open 
 to you the secret door to her mysteries. Will you 
 turn her into a corpse, and dissect her ? She will 
 have her rcv^enge on you. By false scents she will 
 keep you at arm's length, and by illusory surface- 
 appearances she will mislead you, so that your pro- 
 fa7ie soul may not come near to her vital centre and 
 sanctuary. 
 
 IV. Nature has an utterly Divine mode of speech : 
 her words are woven into delicious unities of form, 
 into living trees and bushes, whose fire glows forth 
 in roses and peach-bloom. Again, she weaves her 
 speech into singing larks and honey-bees ; and the 
 crown of all her ineffable word-speaking is man and 
 woman. If you lay sacrilegious hands on Nature's 
 forms, destroying them and dissecting them, you will 
 never hear her Divine speech ; broken bits of your 
 own ignorance will be your only wisdom. 
 
 V. Supposing the modern itch of prurient curiosity, 
 to have been in Adam, when his bride came forth to 
 meet him, he would have said, " I must dissect her, to 
 know how she is made, and what she is made of." 
 And thus, he would have closed the door of know- 
 ledge for ever against himself. Could he ever have 
 known her as his Divine Companion and the fulness
 
 72 Of God 1)1 Nature. 
 
 of his own soul ? He would have acquired frightful 
 knowledge, and lost his title to Divine knowledge. 
 Nor will anatomists ever know Nature. Instead of 
 a Bride, Death's head wall stare them in the face. 
 
 VI. Regard Nature as your own soul laid out to 
 view, with the Spirit of God breathing and palpitat- 
 ing in all her forms, and she wall teach you some- 
 thing worth knowing. She will kiss you as chastely 
 as the sun kisses the opening rose. Instead of 
 being a corpse, she will be your soul's mate in love- 
 lier form. She will be your living instructor, not 
 speaking to you in the dead language of mortals ; 
 but in the Love-language of God, speaking to your 
 heart ; and in the Truth-language of God, speaking 
 to your reason. For she draws Life instantly from 
 God, and lives and grows thereby. Her bosom is 
 warm with an influx from God's bosom. She is no 
 hideous museum of stuffed lions, dead birds, and 
 pinned insects : she flashes her soul-fire into the 
 soul of the man who loves her, for the refreshment 
 of his brain, and the joy of his heart. Like Jesus, 
 whose Spirit is in her, she calls man, when tired 
 of his own ways, and fevered in soul and blood, 
 saying : " Come unto me, and I will give you 
 rest." 
 
 Much as a Lily, trying to lift its head through the 
 corruption which buries it ; so springs Jesus in the 
 centre of the soul, revealing Himself in the cool of
 
 Of God 111 A^ature. "ji 
 
 the day ; — that is, when the tumult of outer life a 
 little subsides. 
 
 VII. If we divide matter and spirit, neither will 
 be satisfactory. So long as prejudice exists on 
 either side, we shall have no right human science, 
 nor any right human pleasure. If matter find favour 
 in our eyes, but spirit not ; we may have more or 
 less of material science : on the other hand, if we 
 are drawn exclusively to the spiritual, we may have 
 more or less of spiritual science : but in neither case 
 will our science be human. Man is not spirit alone, 
 nor matter alone ; but both in unity. Material 
 forms are bewitching, because the Infinite Spirit is 
 in all matter ; and for the same reason the begin- 
 nings and the laws of matter are inscrutable. 
 
 VIII. If we allow the Spirit that lives and operates 
 in Nature to touch our hearts, and inspire our 
 thoughts, it will be most difficult for us, not to be 
 " glad in the Lord ; " our meditation of Him will 
 inevitably be sweet. No words will be joyous 
 enough to express the truth of our afi"ections. 
 
 If God were not strictly the soul of all goodness, 
 the life of all beauty, and the fountain of true mirth, 
 Heaven, which is the fulness and glory of His 
 Presence, could not be a home of delights. 
 
 And if we have not such thoughts of God, in the 
 midst of His works on earth, as to give us pure plea-
 
 74 Of God in Natiu'c. 
 
 sure, what prospect can wc have of finding a fuhiess 
 of joy in the midst of His works in Heaven. 
 
 Every one must acknowledge that it is a perfectly 
 delightful Being Who reveals Himself in our sum- 
 mer-sky, and in the response which the earth makes 
 to the embracing glory. The return of morning ; 
 the grassy slopes of the mountains ; the flowing 
 river with its verdant bank on either side ; the sound- 
 ing brooks ; the trees full of golden sap, in the act 
 of outweaving their leafy blossoming dress ; the 
 birds singing in their branches ; bread and oil and 
 nectareous fruits coming out of the earth ; — are 
 objects of contemplation fitted to stir an infinite 
 afifection in our hearts. Who can help exclaiming : 
 " I will be glad in the Lord ; my meditation of Him 
 shall be sweet." The grass and the vine, wild 
 flowers, flaming poppies in the corn, orange grove 
 and hawthorn bush, are full of soul, and an infinitely 
 Beautiful Soul. And if I feel not His nearness, 
 and hear not His voice speaking to me out of the 
 living and fragrant loveliness, I must have lost my 
 Divine childhood. The Jesus-Spirit must be dead 
 in me. 
 
 IX. The green slopes of Horeb, Hermon and 
 Carmcl educated the prophets. David's school was 
 among the hills and valleys of Palestine. They 
 inspired him, as mole-eyed science never inspires 
 any man. They made him a divine poet for all
 
 Of God ill N attire. 7$ 
 
 time. In the verdant bosom of the hills of Nazareth 
 Jesus spent His childhood and grew up to manhood. 
 He knew that birds and lilies, corn-fields and olive- 
 trees expressed the thoughts of His Father. He 
 was saddened and oppressed by men, and ve;y much 
 oppressed by religious men, but thrilled and soothed 
 by Nature. He needed no other college for His 
 twelve, nor any other church, than the banks of the 
 Jordan, the mountain, the harvest -field, and the 
 garden beyond the Kedron. He saw Nature mo- 
 mently evolving from God ; and living, because 
 His Life was in her. 
 
 X. The Father works, the child watches Him. 
 The Father developes His thought, and as He gives 
 to it outwardness and form, it enters the child's soul, 
 and works there. God's works are man's studies ; 
 and they are endless studies, because there is in 
 them an unutterableness, issuing from the Fount of 
 all Love and Wisdom. " O God, how wonderful are 
 Thy works : in Wisdom Thou hast made them all." 
 " Thou renewest the face of the earth." " I meditate 
 on the work of Thy hands," Dryness of brain and 
 deadness of heart come not from Nature, but from 
 the neglect of nature. 
 
 XL Men who have no keen sensibilities, no poetic 
 depth of soul, do not muse on God's works : they 
 see them, as surfaces, that is all. Lisight into
 
 76 Of God ill Nature. 
 
 Nature, and genius, are synonymous. Nature is 
 mute genius : genius is speaking Nature. The 
 Genius of God flows forth and becomes Nature ; 
 which is therefore His Genius embodied, and living 
 poetry. 
 
 The heavens arc beautiful, the landscape is beauti- 
 ful, summer is beautiful, flowers and fruits are 
 beautiful ; because in them the Creator's Nature 
 comes into view. 
 
 But for every one who goes out to consider the 
 heavens, or to consider the trees and the lilies "how 
 they grow," ten thousand walk up and down the 
 streets of Babylon, and go to the world's fair. One 
 in a million will stand before a tree, admiring and 
 admiring, musing and musing, until he sees and feels 
 the sweet fire of God's Life pulsing through it, and 
 every atom of the tree throbbing with Divine en- 
 deavour to clothe itself anew. The remaining 
 999,999 prefer to see a man-of-war. The ship is so 
 much dead mechanism : the tree is in open com- 
 munication with God, and alive with mystery and 
 eternity. 
 
 XII. Nor do I see how you can fall into coarse- 
 ness, or vulgarity of manners, or ever be slaves of 
 mammon, if you have a heart for the Love, and an 
 eye for the Loveliness of God, as they stand re- 
 vealed in the imagery of Nature. Drawing-room 
 parties and levees may make you artificial, and
 
 Of God in Nature. yy 
 
 weary you ; but the scenes of Nature will refresh 
 you and make you natural, that is, "without guile." 
 And every one feels that persons who are natural, or 
 guileless, have a peculiar charm. — " Of such is the 
 Kingdom of Heaven." 
 
 Wonder not therefore that the " Teacher sent 
 from God," leads you out into the fields, under the 
 dome of the sky, saying. Behold the works of your 
 Father, consider them, and you will be wise. No 
 human tongue, no literature, will ever worthily re- 
 present the Wisdom, Love, and Glory which are in 
 them. Stand still therefore, and consider, until you 
 are filled with admiration and wonder; and still 
 consider, until you delight yourself in God. — Then 
 offer Him the worship of your love. 
 
 Xni. It is Love that provokes meditation: there 
 is no thinker like Love. The men who have in- 
 tensely seen, felt, and enjoyed God, in Nature, are 
 accepted, by common consent, as royal thinkers for 
 all time. They never die. From generation to 
 generation, we rehearse and chant their words in 
 our assemblies and our homes. 
 
 XIV. Divinely adapted, as Nature is, to excite 
 thought, she does not herself think. She has not 
 the key to her own wonders of Wisdom : the children 
 have the key. Sons and daughters of God, use your 
 key ; and gate after gate will open to you, until you
 
 78 Of God ill Nature. 
 
 see the Supreme Love filling Heaven and earth with 
 the charms of His Nature. Quite a heavenly pleasure 
 will crown and reward your meditative spirit. Muse, 
 and muse, as only Love can muse, on Nature's 
 beauties, until your soul pierces through them to 
 God's Beauties. Your meditation will be sweeter 
 than honey and the honeycomb ; and your delight 
 will be a sign to you, that the warm Breath of God 
 is weaving through your soul, and about your soul, 
 your own divine beautifulness. 
 
 XV. Meditation is by no means an idle occupa- 
 tion ; but rather the most ardent work of the soul. 
 " While I mused, the fire burned ; and aspiration, 
 inspiration and revelation were my recompense. 
 Meditation begets clear apprehension ; and clear 
 apprehension, deep impression; and deep impression, 
 amendment, wisdom, joy, and high resolve. 
 
 XVL Meditation finds the Jesus-Element every- 
 where. Meditation breathes it, and breathes in it : 
 the soul blends and commingles with the Only- 
 begotten of the Father, and is nourished with the 
 sweetness and strength of His Eternal Life. By 
 meditation the soul allures her affections through all 
 the veils of Nature, to the bosom of Infinite Love 
 which is at once in the centre of Nature, and in the 
 depth of the soul. By loving meditation the soul 
 draws the Rest and Delight of the Infinite Jesus- 
 Spirit into her bosom.
 
 Of God in N attire. 79 
 
 XVII. And remember that the sweetness of 
 meditation, and its depth of gladness, will fulfil the 
 very highest service, both towards yourself, and 
 towards all who know you. Your service -will be 
 greater than can be known, because it will be in 
 constant operation, as an unseen influence. You 
 will inbreathe and outbreathc the atmosphere of 
 God ; the higher angels will be drawn to you, and 
 within the privacy of your breast will whisper of 
 Heavenly Secrets. " Delight thyself in the Lord, 
 and He shall give thee the desires of thy heart." 
 
 XVIII. One great reason why Nature so pro- 
 foundly interests us, is, that the work of God in her, 
 is the best illustration and parable of His work in 
 man. The truest, as well as the most interesting 
 of all sermons on the neiv birth, is the annual re- 
 newal of the earth. And whoever fails to see the 
 law by which a warm sky makes the earth to 
 blossom, sing, and bear fruit, never will understand 
 the regeneration of the soul. Christ kept close to 
 the Avork of God in Nature, and never went into dry 
 definitions. Man's work upon a tree begins after it 
 is cut down ; but God's work ceases in dry timber, 
 carve it as cunningly as you will. One throb of 
 God's Life, will do more for your soul, than all the 
 theology which the human brain has constructed 
 since the world began. Cast away your idols, and 
 muse on the work of God; for the Beauty of His
 
 8o Of God in Nature. 
 
 work in Nature, mirrors the Beauty of His work in 
 you. By Nature's bcautifulness He makes His 
 appeal, seeking to stir in you the longing to be 
 made beautiful. When you are beholding the glory 
 of the summer-earth, what can be more natural than 
 the prayer : Let the Beauty of the Lord God de- 
 velop itself in me ! 
 
 XIX. Look upon your children's love of flowers 
 and ripe fruit, as so much unknowing love to *' the 
 beauties of Holiness." You may easily call forth 
 the desire for God's work in them, by calling their 
 attention to the loveliness of His work in Nature. 
 Show them the sun glowing towards the earth and 
 the earth glowing towards the sun, and becoming 
 thereby lovely and joyful. Then speak to them of 
 Heaven as the Land of Love and Beauty, as the 
 Home of the good ; and tell them that God prepares 
 us to live there by making us good and beautiful 
 here. 
 
 XX. No one in his senses can believe that God 
 renews men more grudgingly than the trees. If God 
 so beautifies the vegetable world, if He so clothes 
 the grass of the field, Christ argues. How miicJi more 
 will He beautify you ! Through the co-operation of 
 the warm sap in the tree, God renews the tree, and 
 through the co-operation of warm desire in man, God 
 renews man.
 
 Of God in Nature. 8 1 
 
 Beloved sons and daughters of God, you should 
 understand how the case stands between you and 
 Him. Your Heavenly Father is in one Mind, He is 
 warm for your renewal, your glorification, your 
 eternization : by fatal coldness on your part will you 
 congeal His warm Breath into the frost of death ? 
 Coldness towards God's renewing work in you, is a 
 stubborn No, a cold No, in the very centre of }'our 
 soul. What hope can you have from that cold No ? 
 Can joy come to you from that No ? Your coldness 
 is the same as if you said in plain words, God shall 
 not work in me, I will not be made for Heaven.
 
 RIPE FRUIT. 
 
 " The fruit of the Spirit is Love, foy, Peace, Long- 
 suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Tem- 
 perance ; against such tJiere is no law!' 
 
 Gal. v. 22, 23. 
 
 Of necessity, the processes of nature, being processes 
 of God, are parables of similar processes in the souls 
 of men. " The precious fruits brought forth by the 
 sun," and the good fruits of human affections and 
 sympathies, are from " the same Spirit." All fruits, 
 whether of trees, or men, are forms of God's Goodness, 
 and evolved by His Spirit. A very attractive view 
 of Spirit ! — the fruit-Producer ! the Ripener ! The 
 face of the earth is renewed, the corn and the fruits 
 arc ripened for ingathering; and men ripened for 
 Heaven, by " the same Spirit." 
 
 II. In nature God talks with us, by pictures of 
 Beauty, and in the music of Love. The good, the 
 beautiful, and the musical are from One Spirit. 
 Nature is the Bridegroom, indulging, and expressing, 
 the fulness of His affections, in glowing imagery, in
 
 Ripe Fruit. 83 
 
 forms that delight the senses and the soul. Nature 
 is the outsung poem of God's Love, addressed equally 
 to the eye, the ear, the smell, the taste, and the heart 
 of His beloved. " His delights are with the sons of 
 men." 
 
 What enchantments of loveliness, what warmth of 
 colouring, what wealth of goodness, what exquisite 
 odours, are comprehended in nature's annual circuit! 
 Out of coldness, dimness, and barrenness, the new 
 wonder comes forth, and puts on charm after charm, 
 until she has crowned the earth with fruit. Then 
 she rests. She has fulfilled her end once more. 
 She has made her children glad, and filled and over- 
 filled their stores with her bounty. 
 
 HI. But ripe fruit, which is the immutable promise 
 and purpose of God, is the end of a patient process. 
 After a long and trying pause, young Spring, like a 
 Hope of God, returns ; but the end is not yet. It 
 is the season of new breath, new motion, and new 
 birth. Everything is astir, under the new, universal 
 excitement. The earth, like a bride, puts on her 
 beautiful attire. She blooms and sings. But 
 bloom and song are not the end. They are but 
 stages towards the end. By her beauty and music, 
 she announces the exquisite end towards which she 
 is moving. She will not pause, until she has pro- 
 duced her fruit, nor then, until her fruit is full-orbed 
 and mellow. She reckons nothing less than ripe
 
 84 Ripe Fruit. 
 
 fruit to be her fitting crown. Nothing less will 
 satisf)' God. " Thou croivnest the year ivith Thy 
 Goodness.'' " First the blade," then the straw ; but 
 with what distinction He crowns His straw ! — with 
 crimson, succulent delights, as in the strawh^ny ; 
 and the straw of the world's bread-corn with golden 
 ears ! How great the distinction among the trees to 
 be a fruit-tree! While the Vine, which cannot stand 
 of itself, God crowns with double honour. 
 
 There is no envy among the trees. Each is beauti- 
 ful and good. Each is satisfied to bear its own fruit. 
 Apple, peach, pear, fig, orange, citron, pomegranate ! 
 — Each has its own distinction of form, colour, frag- 
 rance and flavour. — Each is a variety of God's good- 
 ness. Thou crownest the trees with Thy goodness. 
 
 IV. The varieties of the human race divine, are 
 more numerous and distinct than those of fruiting 
 shrubs and trees. The way of God with every son 
 and daiighter, is a progress towards ripe fruit ; — the 
 ripe fruit of " One and the same Spirit," through the 
 peculiar nature and genius of the individual. The 
 final fruit must correspond with the interior essence 
 
 and quality of the tree. God evolves the hidden 
 peculiarities of every tree, and the latent genius of 
 
 every human spirit. 
 
 "From Me is thy fruit found." '■'•From Me;'' 
 but it is "///j' fruit." How wonderful, and as beauti- 
 ful as wonderful, that God should evolve something
 
 Ripe Fruit. 85 
 
 from His own Nature, through our nature; and 
 therefore conditioned by our nature. As the fruits 
 of the earth embody both the virtues of the sun and 
 of the earth ; so " the fruits of God's Spirit " in us, 
 partake of His Nature and ours. Fruits of God, 
 springing out of the ground of our souls ! Who 
 shall draw the line, and say where the action of God 
 ends, and where the reaction of man begins .'' 
 
 V. Fruits make a very direct appeal to the senses 
 appetites and affections of all persons, young and 
 old. This is their special praise. " The fruits of 
 Spirit " are beyond criticism and incapable of 
 censure. We simply admire them. Objections may 
 be raised against schemes of doctrine, and religious 
 ceremonial ; but no one fails to appreciate goodness, 
 ripeness, and mellowness of character. You will 
 hesitate to accept your neighbour's terms and defi- 
 nitions, you will wrangle with him over the interpre- 
 tation of texts ; but you will perfectly and sweetly 
 agree in your admiration of " the fruits of the Spirit." 
 They are like rose-gardens and vineries, like sun and 
 moon and stars ; they win the affections of all men. 
 They constitute the universal religion in which all 
 ages and all nations agree, in which Heaven and 
 earth are at one. " Against such there is no law." 
 
 You may have an intellectual belief in what you 
 and your Church conceive to be New Testament- 
 Truth, with an. entire absence of heavenliness of
 
 86 Ripe Fruit. 
 
 character. But " the fruits of the Spirit," find them 
 where you will, in Jew, or Turk, or Buddhist, are the 
 signature of God. Not by their names, nor by their 
 creeds, but " by their fruits yoji shall knozv tJieviy 
 All persons in whom they are found, although not of 
 your church, nor of any church, are undeniably 
 children of God. For His Spirit dwelleth in them ; 
 and by His Spirit "they are scaled" for His 
 Kingdom. 
 
 VI. Observe, therefore, that all ecclesiastical con- 
 troversies and strifes belong to the outer court, " the 
 worldly sanctuary," and do not touch the temple of 
 true Religion. The Spirit of God is the " all and in 
 all " of the one, universal, eternal Religion ; of which 
 "good fruits" are the evidence. "By their fruits 
 you shall know them." 
 
 Vn. I would that I could so write as to make 
 all men, women, and children, love the Spirit, from 
 which comes the all of human beauty and excel- 
 lence, sweetness and joy. Sunshine is a delight. 
 The Spirit is the more Vital Sun shining within the 
 world of the soul. But however inoperative any 
 words that I can use may be, there is surely an 
 eloquence in the ripe "fruits of the Spirit," which 
 cannot fail to command the praise of both doubters 
 and believers. And if " the fruits " are delightful, 
 faultless, heavenly, "the Spirit," which produces "the 
 fruits," must be the all-desirable human good.
 
 Ripe Friut. 87 
 
 Has Jesus blessed you ? The Spirit of Jesus will 
 bless you more. Jesus was Himself the Child of the 
 Spirit. It will be to your advantage, He said, that I 
 go away, and give place to the Spirit. When He 
 comes, He will quicken and comfort you, as I cannot. 
 I have taught you ; but He will new-create you. I 
 have dwelt witli you, but He shall dwell in you. 
 Unknown, and unspeakable riches of energy and 
 wisdom, love and gladness will the Spirit unfold 
 within your souls and bosoms. 
 
 Vni. Not as an outward person seeks you, but 
 as solar warmth seeks the blood, or as the ether of 
 the atmosphere seeks the lungs, — so seeks the 
 Divine Spirit to enter the human spirit. " The 
 Father Himself loveth you." " Thou hast loved 
 them, as Thou hast loved Me." I love you, because 
 the Father loved you, before I came to you. In out- 
 ward form I go away, but I will come again, gliding 
 into you, as the Spirit of your life. 
 
 IX. To begin with, '' tJie fruit of the Spirit is 
 Lover 
 
 The Spirit shall come upon thee, therefore the 
 Holy Thing which shall be formed within thee 
 shall be the Son of His Love. The fruit of God's 
 Spirit is no self-seeking affection ; nor can it have 
 a national, or sectarian bias. It scorns all measure 
 and bound. It embraces churches and nations,
 
 88 Ripe Fruit. 
 
 sinners and outcasts. The love-spirit is the germ, 
 the soul of all the fruits. It runs through, and per- 
 meates them all. It is first and last ; it generates 
 them all, and crowns them all. The essence, 
 the radiance, the beauty and the delight of all 
 heavenly virtues and graces are from Love. It is 
 God with man. " God is Love." 
 
 Hoiv absurd it would be to suppose that Love coidd 
 be from any other so7irce, than a Person. Love is 
 the perfect bond between two, — from a Person to a 
 person. By a diffusion of the Love of God in the 
 human spirit, God's Spirit and man's spirit become 
 a wonderful one, a most intense one. "He that is 
 joined to the Lord is one spirit." The first of all the 
 fruits, and " the greatest of all, is Love." 
 
 X. If the first fruit of the Spirit is Love, if the 
 soul of all the fruits is Love, then ''Joy" must be a 
 most direct fruit of the Spirit. Very wisely, there- 
 fore, the apostle assigns to Joy a place immediately 
 followins Love. Indeed Love carries in its bosom 
 a secret birth of Joy. The more Love, the more 
 Joy. The more Love, the more unity Avith God, 
 and hence, again, the more Joy. 
 
 When the heart is heavy and the countenance 
 sad, they are from the man himself : he is Love-for- 
 saken. For the time being, he is tasting his own 
 darkness and bitterness, rather than the Spirit of 
 God. " My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
 
 Ripe Fruit. 89 
 
 me ? " If the Spirit of God, which is the Spirit of 
 Love, prevail in you, your night is ended, your 
 morning of Joy is come. 
 
 We said above, that Love is a bond between two. 
 Joy is the fruit of the union. Fruit is always a 
 third, evolved from two in unity. We arc here 
 touching the central law of the universe. First, the 
 Law between God and the creature ; and next, the 
 law between creature and creature. Observe, with 
 adoration and admiration, that the supreme law of 
 the universe is a Joy-giving law. It is Personal 
 Love giving personal Joy. When man shall be 
 perfect, and woman perfect, when the Life of God, 
 which is perfect Love, shall be grounded and settled 
 in each, and when both shall make one complete 
 man, the Joy of each will be seven fold. This 
 overflowing cup of Bliss is destined to become 
 universal. 
 
 XI. ''Peace.'' Great peace, undying peace, " peace 
 which passeth all understanding," often springs in 
 the breast of fallen and dying man, as a fruit of 
 God's Spirit in him. What a miracle of Love ! 
 Not more willingly does the Spirit dwell in Heaven 
 itself, than in a penitent sinner's soul. If the story 
 of Jesus' birth, life, and death, teaches any thing, it 
 teaches this first of all, that the Spirit of God's 
 Love is more desirous of finding a home with sinful 
 men, than of staying in Heaven. If Heaven could
 
 90 Ripe Fruit. 
 
 circumscribe, or shut in the Love of God, it would 
 be Hmited love, not infinite Love, and therefore not 
 the Love of God. The Love of God to the un- 
 thankful and the evil is more Godlike than all the 
 Joy of Heaven. " Son, daughter, thy sins are 
 forgiven thee," is a voice from the inmost, " the 
 secret place" of His Love. 
 
 Holy Love opens a new point of purity in the 
 soul ; from this point evil passions are gradually 
 allayed ; restless and covetous desires are supplanted 
 by Divine contentment ; strife and envy cease, satis- 
 faction ensues ; — man is at peace. He rests in the 
 all-sufficingness of God's Love, believes in the great 
 purpose of His Love, and expects unmeasured good, 
 an endlessness of good. 
 
 When, therefore, we are harsh, or irritable, or un- 
 resting, it is always through a lack of the Spirit of 
 God. If His Spirit dwell in us, we shall be lifted 
 into the sunny, serene element of the Divine Joy and 
 Peace. 
 
 Xn. ^^Long-suffering'' — longanimity. It is the 
 very opposite of what we mean by being short, or 
 snappish. It is the power of silence under injuries. 
 It is " the Lamb of God." It is sublime self-con- 
 quest. Longanimity is a Perfection of God. It is 
 the all-bearingness of His Love ; and His Spirit 
 generates the same tendency in man. How much 
 God bears from us in silence, without resentment ;
 
 Ripe Fruit. 9 1 
 
 and we ought to be able to bear much from one 
 another. If God's Spirit dwell in us, we shall prefer 
 to bear a thousand wrongs and insults rather than 
 resent one. One resented will empty the soul of 
 Peace : a thousand silently endured will only deepen 
 the Peace. 
 
 Moreover, the Divine Spirit dwelling in us, will 
 cause us so sharply to feel, and so deeply to deplore, 
 our own sins, that we shall have little inclination to 
 dwell on the failings of others. 
 
 XIII. " Gentleness^ — A beautiful virtue, conspic- 
 uous in the whole family of Heaven. It combines 
 hidden worth with outward quietude. It is marked 
 by the absence of fussiness, haste, rudeness, loudness, 
 talkativeness. It is innately royal and undemonstra- 
 tive. Without self-assertion, it reigns in the sweet- 
 ness of its own humility. It is majestic, and full of 
 benignity. It is instinct with a most sensitive regard 
 for the feelings of others. It is bland, courteous, 
 and affable; and if possible, conciliatory towards 
 every one. It is Jesus clothing the person, from 
 Jesus dwelling within the person. It is the in- 
 definable atmosphere and aroma of His Presence, 
 breathing through, and flowing about, the man, or 
 the woman. 
 
 XIV. The sixth fruit of the Spirit is " Goodnessy 
 Is it not most obvious, as we said, that Love rules
 
 92 Ripe Fruit. 
 
 in all the fruits ? Goodness expresses much more 
 than good actions, or good works ; it refers to the 
 prevailing disposition of the soul. " A good tree 
 brings forth good fruit " spontaneously. It can do 
 no other. " A good tree cannot bring forth evnl 
 fruit." Christ's definition of " a good man " is one 
 who has " a good treasure," or a treasury of good, 
 " in his heart ; " — in other words, one who is " full of 
 all goodness." Goodness thinketh no evil. Its 
 delight is to do good, and to give pleasure. 
 
 And observe that the goodness which is a fruit of 
 the Divine Spirit, is the goodness of holiness. You 
 may find a corrupt, flabby species of goodness and 
 immorality going together ; but the goodness which 
 is of God, is always associated with purity, honour, 
 truth, sincerity, rectitude. 
 
 XV. " Faithr Faith here is both the eagle-eye of 
 Love, and the childlike heart, which doubts not, but 
 rests in God. The fruit of God's Love-Spirit is a 
 fixed, reliant persuasion in the breast, that He will 
 prove Himself our All-Perfect Father, in doing all 
 that He has said, and more, exceedingly more, than 
 can be said. Nothing can touch the confidence of 
 the man whose faith is an insight and a sympathy, 
 springing from the Divine Spirit, as from a well and 
 fountain within himself. " Though He slay me, 
 I will trust Him " none the less for life and for good. 
 The more I sufi"er, the more good will I expect from
 
 Ripe Fruit. 93 
 
 Him. Against hope I will believe in hope. Because 
 God, my infinite Father, lives, there must be an 
 eternity of friendship and enjoyment for me. His 
 little child, from Him, and with Him. 
 
 XVI. " Meekness " is not only opposed to anger 
 and conceit, but is the reverse of boldness and osten- 
 tation. It denotes the sweetness and humbleness of 
 mind with which heavenly persons carry the clustered 
 fruits of God's Spirit. The meek are unable to be 
 haughty, or resentful ; and are never coarse. If 
 they cannot be peacemakers, they retire from the 
 scene of strife. With the dignity and contentment 
 which are their peculiar virtues, they freely stand on 
 one side to allow others to get to the front. Only 
 when they are essentially wanted, or when they can 
 fulfil some special service for the benefit of others, 
 will they consent to be prominent. Their rest is in 
 hiding themselves. They greatly prefer seclusion, to 
 the world which the self-love of men has made. But 
 those who have a wealth of worth, which makes 
 their loneliness joyous, "cannot be hid." 
 
 XVII. " Temperance^ This virtue, or " fruit of 
 the Spirit," does not consist in the suppression of 
 the appetites and passions ; but in their wise govern- 
 ment. Temperance is self-control and not abstinence. 
 It is the golden measure, and the thankful enjoy- 
 ment of all good things. Temperance abhors a
 
 94 Ripe Frttit. 
 
 swinish sensuality ; but justifies, and even cultivates, 
 the divine use of all the senses and their pleasures. 
 Unless the angel, Moderation, preside at the feast, 
 the other fruits vanish, and delight ceases. Temper- 
 ance is the guardian angel of our health and hap- 
 piness. It is a certain sweet harmony prevailing 
 over all extremes and excesses. 
 
 XVIII. Now it is certain, that, wherever these 
 fruits are found, there God dwells, and there Heaven 
 lives. ''Against such persons there is no law." 
 There is no law in the Divine Nature, there is no 
 law in the universe, nor in eternity, that can possibly 
 work against them. All things must inevitably work 
 together for their good. Every door of Heaven 
 stands open to them ; and all angelic races are ready 
 to give them " an abundant entrance " to their king- 
 doms and homes. Their hope of glory admits not 
 of doubt. Christ is formed in them, and they are 
 the beloved of God. " The fruits of the Spirit " con- 
 stitute the Harmony and Delight of social life in 
 Heaven, — of the endless social life. 
 
 XIX. " Thou crownest the year with Thy Good- 
 ness." " How inudi morel' I hear Jesus say, will He 
 crown you, O ye of little faith ! The fruits of His 
 Spirit, flourishing and abounding in His children, are 
 their eternal crown. The eternal Life which God 
 gives is His Spirit ; and neither Solomon in all his
 
 Ripe Fruit. 95 
 
 glory, nor the earth in all her fruits, is arrayed like 
 one of His little ones in whom His Spirit dwells. 
 
 Ye Lilies of God's Heart and Garden, love Him 
 according to the greatness of His Love, and as heirs 
 and heiresses of God, reckon upon the completeness 
 of your nature, the whole-orbedness of your charac- 
 ter, the fulness of your Joy. 
 
 XX. It must be perceived that the essential and 
 the everlasting in religious life are quite independent 
 of the credibility or authenticity of any books, or 
 narratives, whatever. Miracles, or no miracles, New- 
 Testament, or no New Testament, God's Nature and 
 man's nature are the same. God's Nature is Love, 
 Joy, Peace, Goodness, Truth, Gentleness, — one 
 Eternal Harmony and Play of all excellent affec- 
 tions and virtues. Had these never been shown to 
 us in Jesus Christ, they still were, and will for ever 
 be, the facts and laws of Divine Nature. And the 
 virtues and laws of Divine Nature must for ever be 
 the spirit and rule of life for all men in Heaven and 
 earth.
 
 WINGS AND NESTS. 
 
 " The szvallow hath found a Nest for herself , wJiere 
 she may lay Jier young!' PSA. Ixxxiv. 3. 
 
 Thp: complaint which the prophet made against 
 idols, must also be made against the dry doctrines 
 and traditions of the church, which human brains 
 have forged into words. " There is no breath in 
 them." But the least work of God embodies His 
 affections and thoughts. Every insect, bud and leaf 
 breathe ; for the Spirit of Life breathes through 
 them. They vibrate and quiver under the Presence 
 of God, which is the secret of their development. 
 They are strictly Sermons of God, in parables. 
 
 Moreover our humble sparrow, and that little spirit 
 of our summer sky, the swallow, arc here in a sanc- 
 tuary-psalm. 
 
 II. Jesus used to say: Your Heavenly Father's 
 Life opens in the lilies, therefore deeply " consider " 
 them. Your Heavenly Father's Love is in little 
 birds, and His Providence over little birds. He 
 made the sparrow His text more than once. He
 
 Wings and Nests. 97 
 
 said, It will make you happier, if you believe that the 
 sparrow is an embodied thought of God, that God is 
 really with the sparrow, caring for its wants and 
 pleasures. 
 
 " O ye of little faith, you are of more value than 
 many sparrows." You have immense wants, you are 
 planned for endlessness of development. You are 
 not the Great Father's creatures, but His children, 
 and it will be His pleasure to supply all your need 
 out of His own riches. Has He not arranged the 
 universe, and all things in life and death, on your 
 behalf, and for your use and pleasure, that you may 
 come to your " fulness of joy" } But remember that 
 the fulness of eternity's joy, requires a corresponding 
 fulness and completeness in your nature. And lo. 
 He has gathered all things together into Christ's 
 Humanity for you, that you may derive your com- 
 pleteness from Him. 
 
 HI. Birds are symbols of delightful powers, being 
 specially buoyant, electric creatures. Their quills, 
 feathers, bones, as well as their chest and lungs, are 
 open to the ether, that they may lift their bodies into 
 the sky, and roam at liberty " in the midst of heaven." 
 They owe their powers of flight and powers of song 
 to their openness to pulsations from heaven, and to 
 the magnetism of the atmosphere. Ye larks, linnets, 
 nightingales, you are marvellously susceptible of in- 
 spiration. Some of us also vastly like the musical 
 
 G
 
 98 Wings and N'ests. 
 
 utterance with whicli you clothe your inspiration. 
 We know your songs are from Love, and in love. 
 Your vocal harmonies in the mating season, sug- 
 gest to us Eternity's dual blessedness. If we were 
 as open to the Breath of God as you are, our souls 
 too would be musical fountains of Love. 
 
 Through their highly sensitive nervous system, the 
 migratory birds are able to scent spring and winter 
 long before they come. They do not remain with 
 us a day too long. They gather together, and say 
 to their children, " Severity is coming, let us away ;" 
 and before the severity comes they are sailing in 
 balmier, sunnier latitudes. And when you see them 
 back again, you may be sure that winter is past 
 and gone. They come with the flowers of the new 
 year, and withdraw before the leaves fall. Where it 
 is not bright and genial they will not live. They 
 are a divine rebuke of all rigour. Even in summer, 
 if the day be rude and gloomy, they prefer to remain 
 in their nests and hiding-places. 
 
 IV. The winged power of birds represents a uni- 
 versal law of nature. There is an effort in every 
 thing to get into liberty : — which indeed is the evi- 
 dence that the Breath of God is the centre and soul 
 of every thing. Even the trees, which are rooted so 
 tenaciously in the earth, show a winged tendency. 
 They throb, and throb, until they open themselves 
 into light and liberty. The}- wing themselves with 
 
 !
 
 Wings and Nests. 99 
 
 leafy garments that they may inbreathe the sun- 
 beams and flutter in the air. Look at the orchids 
 how they put out their wings, eastward, westward, 
 northward, southward, in their longing for the liberty 
 of the sky. There is neither root, nor seed, that is 
 willingly imprisoned in its earthy body. 
 
 O ye souls of men, and specially, ye souls of women, 
 are you willingly imprisoned in your material bodies .'' 
 Forms of earthly existence, very inferior to you, are 
 in the effort to get into liberty. There is a pulse in 
 every creature, in every plant, throbbing towards a 
 life beyond itself. Buried seeds must open and 
 .shoot upward, though they die in the struggle. The 
 electric force within them, expands, bursts its limits, 
 and makes for itself a freer, lighter body. It must 
 leave its house of bondage, and evolve a new body 
 which shall breathe and wave in the sunlight. 
 
 It is the story of the whole creation. The Glory 
 of God imprisons itself in matter, that it may lift 
 and etherealize matter. God delights to become 
 flesh that He may glorify it. He is the glowing, 
 heaving, law-giving Force in every organism. "All 
 Thy works praise Thee." 
 
 V. What an uplift the mineral world finds in the 
 vegetable world! The heavy, lethargic mineral 
 mounts toward heaven in the growing corn and in 
 the grass : unless the mineral principle were in it, 
 the meek crrass would be too meek to lift itself out
 
 I oo Wings and Nests. 
 
 of the earth. In every tree and leaf of the forest, 
 in every lovehness of the garden, there is a basis of 
 flint and metal. The mineral, in the plant, becomes 
 spirited ; and the plant, through the mineral, puts 
 on strength. One Glory lifts all matter and makes 
 it aerial Matter takes wing, branching skyward 
 from the trees, and mounting and singing skyward 
 in the lark. 
 
 The time comes that the Glory which involves 
 itself in vegetable and animal substance, enters into 
 a sharp contention with the material element, and 
 liberates itself. But all matter thus becomes more 
 and more refined and wonderful. The regeneration 
 of man is not exceptional. Under one great law, 
 the physical regeneration of the globe, and of all 
 things in it, are making as much progress as the 
 human race ; they are indeed moving on simultane- 
 ously with the regeneration of the race. 
 
 VI. As Job sat musing by his fire-side, watching 
 the flame and the sparks flying upwards, he ex- 
 claimed, " That is a Divine and human law. Man 
 is born to go through the same sharp process. Man 
 is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward." His 
 trouble is his loosening from his earthly bondage. 
 The glory hidden in him seeks to be liberated, sparks 
 of the latent Divine fire move Godward. Affliction 
 stirs his nobler spirit, bids him put forth his wings, 
 and quit the house of his captivity.
 
 Wings and Nests. loi 
 
 Trouble has its prayers ; and is really a subliming 
 process. Trouble is man opening to new inspiration ; 
 forthwith he utters himself in holy desire and in 
 musical song. The sacred fire wrestles with its 
 earthly bonds, and escapes to its Source. What is 
 faith but the soul exercising herself in flights toward 
 the unseen and the eternal ? Faith soars and soars, 
 until it enters into " the secret place of the Most 
 High," seeking an abiding home in our Almighty 
 Father's House and Presence. 
 
 Even by his natural breathing-power, man makes 
 declaration every moment that his life comes from 
 beyond himself, and tends beyond himself Breath- 
 ing, he frees himself from himself. By interior 
 breathing he lifts his life into God. As eagles lift 
 themselves above the storm-clouds, man lifts himself 
 out of his sorrows, beyond his sorrows, into the 
 Glory of the Eternal Spirit-Sun. 
 
 VII. The effort to come forth from under earthly 
 restrictions and oppressions, is really universal. 
 
 By evaporation, the dense, oceanic waters mount 
 up and float in the sky. In turn, every drop of the 
 sea acquires a newness of existence and elemental 
 freedom. The fountains of dark waters hidden in 
 the heart of the earth, urge themselves on and on 
 through tortuous rocky paths of darkness, that they 
 may see the day, float upward as vapour, become 
 mirrors in the dew, be organized in verdure, and 
 sport in the sunbeams.
 
 102 JVmgs and Nests. 
 
 The centre of the earth itself is ceaselessly heaving 
 to reach the light: it boils and hisses to find liberty : 
 it fumes, smokes, and rages in fire, that it may be 
 free. Volcanoes are simply huge breathing places 
 for the occult forces, which unwillingly are made 
 subject to bondage. 
 
 Ferment, anxiety, distress, in one form or another, 
 prevail in all earth's creatures and substances. The 
 heavens are ever in motion towards the earth : the 
 earth is in labour to reach the heavens. Descend- 
 ing and ascending series make one circuit. It is the 
 pulse and motion of God in His Creation : universal 
 pulsation is from, and, therefore, towards, One 
 Centre. 
 
 Let me come forth into the great expanse, let me 
 breathe more freely, move more nimbly, is the 
 prayer both of dumb nature, and of the soul of man. 
 The human soul is but the apex of the universe. 
 In him the centripetal law becomes consciousness, 
 and yields to the Great Attraction. By bewailing 
 her darkness and bondage, by agonizingly labouring 
 after light and freedom, the soul proclaims her 
 Origin. Outwardly by pressing steam and electricity 
 into his service ; inwardly by faith and hope, man 
 signifies his delight in winged power, and in light- 
 ning-powers of transit and communication. What 
 are the agonies, prayers, and tears of Jesus, but His 
 intense longing and effort to reach the hour of His 
 ascension > Life in Christ is winged life ; and the 
 ascension of the inner man anticipated.
 
 Wings and Nests. 103 
 
 VIII. But if wings are so suggestive, Nests arc 
 even more suggestive. 
 
 Obviously, it is impossible to think of Nests 
 without thinking of Love, of Mothers, of little ones, 
 and of songs over the little ones. Nests are built 
 in the joy-time of life, and in the joy-time of the 
 year. Nests are Homes, and Homes are directly 
 from the heart of God : and therefore, are full of 
 heart. Wherever a happ)' home is, you are permitted 
 to say, " This is none other than a house of God, this 
 is the gate of Heaven." Hearts and Homes are the 
 centre of the Universe, and the crown of its bliss. 
 
 IX. Nests may be very humble, — they are very 
 humble. God is very humble, — as humble as 
 Motherly Love can make Him. " The swallow hath 
 made a nest for herself where she may lay her 
 young ; " for the Divine Motherliness runs through 
 her, and is both the warmth of her impulse, and the 
 art of her skill. 
 
 Nests are built of the odds and ends of everything, 
 of broken sticks and straws, of dead leaves and 
 feathers, and even of mud ; but they arc rounded 
 into homes, and made as comfortable as feet and 
 bills can make them. It is wonderful what feet and 
 bills can do, when Love moves and guides them. 
 
 X. The Universe is from Love, in Love, unto Love.
 
 1 04 Wings and Nests. 
 
 Love is the soul of all, and the soul of all is in all. 
 " All in all," is His Name. It is infinite Love's 
 Name, which is the same as God's Name. 
 
 A Nest,— with the vast and tender firmament above 
 it, with the earth, a blooming Paradise, around it, 
 with a mother in it, and the father-bird not far off 
 sinsfins: out the music of his soul over the nest, — is 
 an image in small of the whole creation. The all of 
 Heaven and earth is the Nest of God : His little 
 ones are in it, they are all under His wings. His 
 breast quickens them all into life, and His Love 
 rejoices over them with singing. Bird-song is bird- 
 love liberated on the air ; and bird-love is God's 
 love in the bird, as angel's love is God's love in the 
 angel. 
 
 XL The Nest itself, (if you cut it off from its 
 associations with the great sky, the flowering earth, 
 and the song of love,) is a mere cell. And how 
 passing strange that this prison should attract the 
 bird more powerfully than the whole sun-lit heaven 
 and earth. God made the bird for freedom, to 
 roam at large in "the midst of heaven." What 
 spell is she under 1 What is the force which binds 
 her to the captivity of the nest 1 It is mother's 
 love. Love is mightier than the sky, more potent 
 than the sun. The nest to the bird, is what this 
 earth, full of imprisoned souls, is to infinite God. 
 
 The Jesus-Spirit is in every nest. The motherly-
 
 Wings and Nests. 105 
 
 love which makes the nest an irresistible attraction 
 is the Divine Spirit in Jesus. He used to say : The 
 mother-bird's devotion to her helpless young is My 
 devotion to you. I long to brood over you, to 
 quicken you with My Life, to make you ready for 
 your migration to " Paradise with Me." 
 
 XII. Think of your imprisonment on earth, and 
 in the earthly body, under the parable of the child- 
 bird in the close prison of its nest, and in the closer 
 prison of the egg. As the motherly bosom presses 
 against her eggs, so Christ presses Himself against 
 our souls, pulsing His sweet bosom-fire into our 
 hearts, that He may kindle immortality in us. 
 
 As soon as we are quickened, the new life in us 
 (much as new life in the egg), will press towards the 
 side of the shell which is nearest to His breast. 
 The little heart in the egg, beating, beating in the 
 darkness of its prison, is as desirous to receive the 
 warm life, as the parent bird is to give it. Learn 
 the secret of true prayer. It is the love of man re- 
 sponding to the love of God ; and the love of the 
 Father answering the prayer of the child. 
 
 There is a shell between the little one, and the 
 love that broods over it ; but the shell is very thin 
 and brittle, and on the right day, and in the right 
 hour, it will be easily broken through. The little 
 one within is praying for liberty, tapping, tapping, 
 with its beak against its shell. It little knows how 
 
 H
 
 io6 Wmgs and A^ests. 
 
 easily, and how soon, the thin partition between its 
 prison and the heaven of the sky, will be broken 
 throuL^h. 
 
 The mother - bird hears the tapping, it goes 
 through her soul, she knows that the moment of her 
 liberty, and the liberty of her nestling, is near. She 
 will soon see the reward of her love, travail and 
 patience. There are eyes in the shell longing for 
 light, there is a heart beating towards deliverance, 
 there are wings forming, which by and by will carry 
 the new-born creature through the expanse of 
 heaven. 
 
 XIII. Now all this talk about birds, wings, nests, 
 new-birth, and the liberty of the sky, is really our 
 Heavenly Father's Jesus-gospel, in symbol. In the 
 earthly form of their existence the children of God 
 are in their shells, the Spirit, like a Dove, is over- 
 shadowing them, and great Heaven, full of com- 
 panions, is waiting to receive them. 
 
 From homes to homes we go, — from homes in 
 shells and earthly nests, to Homes of greater free- 
 dom in the Light of God. Little birds, at first, 
 dread to look over the edge of their nest. It seems 
 to them that beyond the nest there is nothing to 
 receive them, nothing but the great nothingness ; 
 and yet the bird's nature is planned and destined to 
 go forth into that untried, dreaded, vacant vastness. 
 And, lo, when the time comes, what was a great
 
 Wings and Nests. 107 
 
 dread, turns into ci great joy, and the creature finds 
 its new mode of existence to be most delightful ; 
 instead of a vast nothingness, it proves to be a bird- 
 heaven, swarming with companions. 
 
 In faith and hope, in prayer and song, wc have 
 even now delightful powers of excursion, from the 
 nest and back again, from the nest and back again, 
 carrying us in thought and desire where we are not, 
 until the day comes when we shall exchange our 
 humble nest, for freedom and completeness in our 
 greater Home, and our very own society. 
 
 Heirs and heiresses of God, look well to your 
 winged powers, and count them your distinction, 
 your hope, your glory. Reckon upon your escape 
 from the earthly shell and nest, as the day of your 
 illustrious enlargement. 
 
 XIV. " O Jehovah of Hosts, my King and my 
 God." " My flesh crieth for the Living God." And 
 what wonder, since " Living God " is in my flesh ! 
 " Living God " weareth my flesh ! Therefore my 
 flesh crieth to be " living," — crieth, from an intensity 
 
 of life, against death. The sparrow hath found ; 
 
 man crieth . The Infinite maketh /lim cry for the 
 
 infinite, the Eternal maketh him cry for the eternal. 
 " O Lord of Hosts, wj King and viy God." Other 
 creatures find the answer to their nature on earth : 
 man not. The cry in man is deeper than death, it 
 pierces eternity, heaven after heaven repeats the
 
 io8 Wings a} id Nesis. 
 
 echo; and God answers, "Yea, I have loved thee 
 with an everlasting love ; " and let thy cry witness to 
 thee, with what secret forces I am drawing thee to 
 Myself, and into what depths of thy being I am 
 giving Myself to thee, 
 
 XV. "Man know thyself!" and be allured into 
 the immensity of thy Hope. Thy breast is a shell 
 over a wonderful life, — too wonderful for hasty 
 development. Thou criest, "My King, and my 
 God:" He answers: "I am Thine"— "I have be- 
 gotten thee:" thou art too great, too manifold, 
 too involved, to be soon unfolded: My wonders 
 will be opening in thee and to thee for ever. Thou 
 art a descent from My Infinite Love ; and lo, I am 
 with thee all thy pilgrim-days, and will surely bring 
 thee into My Eternity, which is thy Home, and the 
 scope of thy powers. 
 
 Turnlnill er= Spears, Printers, Edinburgh.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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