WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF GOD. 



21 



and active powers, to alleviate the sorrows, and 

 to promote the happiness of his fellow-men 

 when we behold him in retirement at his native 

 mansion, a universal blessing to his neighbours 

 around him, furnishing employment, for the poor, 

 erecting schools for the instruction of their chil 

 dren, watching over the morals of his neighbour 

 hood, visiting the abodes of affliction, acting the 

 part of a physician to their bodies, imparting 

 spiritual instruction to theii souls, promoting the 

 knowledge and practice of rtligion, and extend 

 ing his benevolent regards to persons of all re- 

 Ugious persuasions when we behold him leaving 

 his native country and the friends of his youth, 

 on a tour of benevolence over all Europe and 

 the East ; hazarding his health and his life in 

 the service of humanity, diving into the depths 

 of dungeons, plunging into the infected atmos 

 pheres of hospitals arid jails, visiting the lonely 

 and squalid prisoner, entering the wretched 

 hovels of sorrow and affliction, administering 

 consolation and relief, and surveying the di 

 mensions of misery and distress among men of 

 all nations, for the purpose of devising schemes 

 for the relief of the distresses of suffering hu 

 manity, and for promoting the comforts of man 

 kind when such a character appears on the 

 stage of life, there is no class of the human race, 

 whose powers are not completely vitiated, but 

 must feel towards it strong emotions of esteem 

 and affectionate regard. 



But what are all the wise and beneficent de 

 signs of a fellow-mortal, when compared with 

 the numerous and diversified streams of benevo 

 lence which are incessantly flowing from the un 

 created source of felicity ! They are but as a 

 drop to the ocean, or as an atom when compared 

 with the immensity of the universe. On him 

 all beings depend, from the archangel to the 

 worm ; from Him they derive their comforts ; to 

 Him they are indebted for all their powersand 

 faculties ; and on him their eternal felicity de 

 pends. Were we to prosecute this subject to 

 any extent, it would lead us into a field on which 

 volumes might be written, and yet the greater 

 part of the displays of divine beneficence would 

 remain unrecorded. I shall therefore confine 

 myself to the selection of only a few instances 

 of the wisdom. and goodness of God. 



Wherever we turn our eyes in the world 

 around us, we behold innumerable instances of 

 our Creator s beneficence. In order that the eye 

 and the imagination may be gratified and charm 

 ed, he has spread over the surface of our ter 

 restrial habitation an assemblage of the richest 

 colours, which beautify and adorn the landscape 

 of the earth, and present to our view a pictu 

 resque and diversified scenery, which is highly 

 gratifying to the principle of novelty implanted 

 in the human mind. On all sides we behold 

 a rich variety of beauty and magnificence. Here, 

 spread the wide plains and fertile fields, adorned 



with fruits and verdure ; there, the hills rise in 

 gentle slopes, and the mountains rear their snowy 

 tops to the clouds, distilling from their sides the 

 brooks and rivers, which enliven and fertilize 

 the plains through which they flow. Here, the 

 lake stretches into a smooth expanse in the bo 

 som of the mountains ; there, the rivers mean 

 der through the forests and the flowery fields, 

 diversifying the rural scene, and distributing 

 health and fertility in their train. Here, we be 

 hold the rugged cliffs and the stately port of the 

 forest ; there, we are charmed with the verdure 

 of the meadow, the enamel of flowers, the azure 

 of the sky, and the gay colouring of the morn 

 ing and evening clouds. In order that this scene 

 of beauty and magnificence might be rendered 

 visible, He formed the element of light, without 

 which the expanse of the universe would be a 

 boundless desert, and its beauties for ever veiled 

 from our sight. It opens to our view the moun 

 tains, the hills, the vales, the woods, the lawns, 

 the flocks and herds, the wonders of the mighty 

 deep, and the radiant orbs of heaven. It paints 

 a thousand different hues on the objects around 

 us, and promotes a cheerful and extensive inter 

 course among all the inhabitants of the globe. 



Again, in order to gratify the sense of hearing, 

 He formed the atmosphere, and endowed it with 

 an undulating quality, that it might waft to our 

 ears the pleasures of sound, and all the charms 

 of music. The murmuring of the brooks, the 

 whispers of the gentle breeze, the soothing sound 

 of the rivulet, the noise of the waterfall, the hum 

 of bees, the buzz of insects, the chirping of birds, 

 the soft notes of the nightingale, and the melody 

 of thousands of the feaihered songsters, which 

 fill the groves with their warblings, produce a 

 pleasant variety of delightful emotions; the nu 

 merous modulations of the human voice, the ar 

 ticulate sounds peculiar to the human species, 

 by which the interchanges of thought and affec 

 tion are promoted, the soft notes of the piano 

 forte, the solemn sounds of the organ and even 

 the roaring of the stormy ocean, the dashings of 

 the mighty cataract, and the rolling thunders 

 which elevate the soul to sentiments of sublimity 

 and awe are all productive of a mingled variety 

 of pleasures ; and demonstrate that the distribu 

 tion of happiness is one grand end of the opera 

 tions of our bountiful Creator. 



To gratify Hie sense of smelling, he has per 

 fumed the air with a variety of delicious odours, 

 which are incessantly exhaled from a thousand 

 plants and flowers. Countless millions of these 

 odoriferous particles, which elude the penetrating 

 power of the finest microscope to discover, are 

 continually wafted about by the air, and floating 

 around us, impervious to the sight, the hearing, 

 and the touch, but calculated to convey pleasure 

 to the soul, through the medium of the olfactory 

 nerves, and to enable us to &quot; banquet on the in- 

 visible dainties of nature.&quot; 



