246 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



most splendid powers are paralyzed, and its crown 

 is thrown recklessly into the dust. Great and ador- 

 able Creator ! can that reason with which Thou hast 

 endowed us as the glory of our being be put to nobler 

 exercise than to search for the vestiges of Thy great- 

 ness and wisdom in the things which sprang from 

 Thy creative energy, and are sustained by Thine 

 unceasing benevolence ? 



Yet there are those who, " professing to be wise, 

 become fools ; " and, failing to perceive, " through 

 the things that are made, His everlasting power 

 and Godhead," glorify not God, and even gloat over 

 the belief that He is at length banished out of His 

 own universe. But when we recollect that the 

 belief in God has constituted the brightest hope of 

 the sad and wearied of all generations, that it has 

 quenched the violence of martyrs' fires and inspired 

 timid women and even children to die rather than 

 offend their conscience or disobey the sacred voice 

 of duty, that it has restrained the natural passions 

 of the most sensual, and fanned in them the 

 flickering desire for a holier character and life, 

 what words but those of fervent indignation can 

 we utter against those who would teach us all to 

 say : " There is no God " ? 



The man who is possessed of every comfort, 

 and is surrounded by tender friends who watch 

 solicitously for his safety and hasten to anticipate 

 his slightest want, and who should yet with his 

 own rash hand apply to his beautiful home the 

 torch that shall burn it down and destroy the lives 

 of those who are devoted to him, would rightly be 



