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Astronomy and geology are leading the human mind to look higher and 

 deeper into the mysteries of creation and to entertain more enlarged 

 ■conceptions of the Infinite Majesty; and even comliness of attire and 

 -eleo-ance of equipage, which are dependent upon the humbler branches 

 •of the sciences and arts, when not carried to a passion, and made to. 

 minister to pride and vanity, are not without their elevating influences 

 upon character, nor wanting in instances of the Divine approval. Surely, 

 if it be worthy of the Most High, so to clothe the lilies of the field, that 

 Solomon, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these, it cannot 

 be displeasing to Him, nor inappropriate to human nature, that man 

 should seek to deck himself with beauty and grace ; and, when the 

 Divine skill is so elaborately displayed in all His works — in the shining 

 hosts of the firmament, in the diamond, the pearl, the cloud, the rain- 

 bow, the dew drop, the landscape, the flower, and in every evanescent 

 bubble that dances to the music of the waterfall or the whistling of the 

 ocean storm — in every animated form, in every eye that sparkles to the 

 light, in every ear that listens, and in e\ ery sound that swells the tide 

 of nature's harmony, should human skill be indifferent to those percep- 

 tions of the grand, the beautiful, the elegant, the appropriate, with which 

 the Creator has endowed the human soul and ministered to with such a 

 lavish hand, and confine itself to dry utility, in its narrowest sense? Nay 

 rather, since it is the noblest aspiration of the human soul to copy after 

 the Divine Being, in the moral and intellectual, should he not also in the 

 artistical ? To be assured of its propriety, we have only to notice the 

 recorded fact, that, in particular instances, the Creator himself has con- 

 descended to be man's instructor in the arts, and in others claimed to be 

 the author of artistic talent and skill. 



When the Jewish tabernacle was about to be constructed, Israel's God 

 was the architect. The materials selected were of the most costly descrip- 

 tion, and its furniture was required to be of the most elaborate and cun- 

 ning workmanship ; and two men, and others under them, were selected, 

 and remarkably, if not supernaturally endowfed with skill to execute the 

 magnificent design ; and it is added, " in the hearts of all that are wise 

 hearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have com- 

 manded thee." The attire of the priests was to correspond with the 

 splendor of the tabernacle. Their garments were to be composed of the 

 finest materials — of blue and purple and scarlet and fine linen of curious 

 f^rorkmanship, and bedight with gold and precious stones. " And for 



