THE MINISTRY OF NATURE. 241 



the heart of man, under its mighty burdens of 

 sorrow, is thankful for every alleviation of its 

 anguish ; the immortal spirit within us eagerly 

 throws out its tendrils of love and trust in search 

 of whatever promises to bear it up into a healthier, 

 diviner air. What is there for us to read in this 

 wonderful many-paged volume, which lies wide 

 open and inviting everywhere around us, that shall 

 illumine the conscience and guide the judgment, 

 that shall give fortitude to stricken hearts and 

 inspiration to labouring souls ? 



To the devout and thoughtful, Nature has much 

 to say concerning God and duty and immortality. 

 It is worth while to pause, now and then, and listen 

 to this many-tongued preacher that discourses with 

 such sweet and varied eloquence upon the deep 

 problems of life and eternity. 



Some there are, no doubt, to whom our invoca- 

 tion is vain babbling. Their mind being at enmity 

 against God, all revelations of God, of which 

 Nature is one, are but as the shining of the sun 

 to the weak-eyed owl or the feeble-winged bat ; 

 but there are others to whom the universe is ablaze 

 with the glory which awed Moses in the presence 

 of the burning bush. Frigid and unspiritual men 

 there are who view everything around them in the 

 beam of dry light which originates from the human 

 intellect, and who discover only physical facts or 

 inexorable laws or unmeaning and incalculable con- 

 tingencies ; but the best and wisest scholars in 

 Nature's school are those who discern in creation 

 the footsteps of a Creator, and see in the works of 



16 



