EDITORIAL AND GENERAL 



121 



George Eliot, Agnostic though she 

 was, felt obliged to confess that the 

 most perfect experiences, whether of 

 Nature or of art, carry with them an 

 irresistible conviction that they are 

 "mere waves and ripples in an Unfath- 

 omable Sea of Love and Beauty." 



The unbelieving student of Nature 

 is usually to be found among the Men 

 of the Closet, the cold dissectors and 

 classifiers of dead things, not among 

 the Men of the Open, the real lovers 

 of Nature, who live close to her heart ; 

 not among those favored ones around 

 whom, day by day and hour by hour, 

 a myriad little furred and feathered 

 and scaled and leafy and crystal- 

 hearted devotees are telling the beads 

 of the Rosary of Life. 



No one can give us what we are not 

 ready to receive ; he who is wholly and 

 obstinately engrossed in petty cares or 

 greeds or ambitions, enslaved to brutal 

 passions, shut up in a shell of vulgar 

 egotisms, may find himself deaf and 

 blind to the Messages of Nature ; but 

 he "the knot of whose heart is un- 

 loosed," in the significant phase of the 

 Vaishnava and Sufi mystics, will gain 

 more and more incentives to adoration 

 and piety and love and virtue the more 

 he frequents "the school of the woods"; 

 and he will find, even now as in the 

 beautiful allegory of Holy Writ, "the 

 Lord God walking in the garden in the 

 cool of the dav." 



The Works and the Word. 



The Reverend Doctor Bela B. Ed- 

 wards, one of the most distinguished 

 of our American theologians, says on 

 this subject : 



'The eminent Christian, other 

 things being equal, is the most dili- 

 gent student of the Works and of the 

 Word of God. Such study is well 

 fitted to enlarge and liberalize the 

 mind. We are placed in a creation 

 adapted to awaken the deepest inter- 

 est. The works of God are marvelous; 

 they are sought out by all who have 

 pleasure therein. And who can refrain 

 from having this pleasure? Who can 

 be an indifferent spectator amid the 

 changes which are going on around 

 him? Instead of wonder that some 



men are willing to toil a life long in 

 the study of the works of God, the 

 wonder is that all men are not capti- 

 vated with the pursuit. These studies 

 are called the natural sciences. They 

 are rather the Divine sciences ; they 

 are fitted to move the mind of man to 

 its lowest depths. Whoever hath an 

 ear may hear. The dull rock has a 

 voice; the dry leaf has a sound; the 

 shell on the ocean's shore is not dumb. 

 It is made according to certain laws. 

 It fulfills its destiny with unerring pre- 

 cision. We may be lost in general 

 admiration while gazing upon it; or 

 we may scientifically analyze it as a 

 piece of consummate art. Now the 

 earth is full of such objects. Tine 

 common Christian may become ac- 

 quainted with them, and through them 

 adore their Creator. The Christian 

 scholar will find in these objects inex- 

 haustible themes for delightful con- 

 templation. God invites him, and a 

 thousand voices from His works reit- 

 erate the invitation. The doors of uni- 

 versal nature are before him. Has he 

 not a key in his own mind to unlock 

 them all? No assignable limit can be 

 set to the material universe. Can any 

 assignable limit be placed on the pow-. 

 ers of the contemplating agent?" 



The Waves. 



BY EMMA PEIRCE, NEW YORK CITY. 



Old Neptune's steeds are cantering in, 

 Their white manes tossing free, 



With the freshening breeze from off the 

 shore 

 Which greets them saucily. 



Tireless e'er, and riderless, 



They speed upon their way, 

 Obeying, all unconsciously, 



A power higher than they. 

 Right martially they troop along, 



Bright shining in the sun, 

 Till on the firm, unyielding sand, 



They're vanquished, one by one. 



We very much enjoy your paper, 

 and it will be bound to have a wide cir- 

 culation when well known. — W. H. 

 Lai^s, Beez'ille. Texas. 



Ever}- copy is a "feast of good 

 things. — Kate A. Jones, Grantham, 

 Nezv Hampshire. 



