THE UNIVERSAL BENEFICENCE 



On a midsummer day, calm, clear, warm, the 

 leaves shining, the grain and grass ripening, the 

 waters sparkling, the birds singing, we see and 

 feel the beneficence of Nature. How good it all is J 

 What a joy to be alive ! If the day were to end in a 

 fury of wind and storm, breaking the trees, unroof- 

 ing the houses, and destroying the crops, we should 

 be seeing the opposite side of Nature, what we call 

 the malevolent side. Fair days now and then have 

 such endings, but they are the exception; living 

 nature survives them and soon forgets them. Their 

 scars may long remain, but they finally disappear. 

 Total nature is overpoweringly on the side of life. 

 But for all this, when we talk about the father- 

 hood of God, his loving solicitude, we talk in para- 

 bles. There is not even the shadow of analogy be- 

 tween the wholesale bounty of Nature and the care 

 and providence of a human father. Striding through 

 the universe goes the Eternal, crushed worlds on 

 one hand and worlds being created on the other; 

 no special act of love or mercy or guidance, but a 

 providence like the rains, the sunshine, the seasons. 



When we say hard things about Nature — accuse 

 her of cruelty, of savagery, of indifference — we fall 

 short of our proper filial respect toward her. She is 

 the mother of us all; neither an indulgent mother, 

 nor a cruel stepmother. In many respects the gifts 

 she has lavished upon us only make her own poverty 

 the more conspicuous. Where she got the gift of 



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