ELOQUENCE AND SILENCE OF NATURE. 269 



Word (John i. 3) ; of Him who in His unfathomable 

 love came down and took hold, of my nature ; took 

 hold of me (oh blissful thought !), of me, a lost, guilty, 

 ruined creature, sinking into inevitable perdition. 

 He humbled Himself, emptied Himself, took my 

 guilt upon Himself, united Himself with me, and me 

 with Him, till, triumphing over ruin and death, He 

 bore me up with Him, in indissoluble union, to His 

 own seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high 

 (Eph. iii. 5, 6). 



Yet let me not be mistaken. The study of the 

 creatures could never teach me this. Notwithstand- 

 ing all that they eloquently declare of the eternal 

 power and Godhead of the Creator, they are omin- 

 ously mute when I ask them how He will deal with 

 me, a sinner. I see, indeed, His boundless goodness ; 

 I see with admiring wonder the contrivances and 

 arrangements put in motion for the health and wel- 

 fare of a poor sponge. Surely this tells us God is 

 good ! Yes, yes ; no doubt of it. I see He is good 

 to the sponge ; but the sponge is not a sinner, a rebel, 

 a contemner of Him, all which I am. How, then, 

 will He deal with me ? Ah I nature gives me no 

 light here ; not a ray to brighten my darkness. It 

 is to the written Word ; it is to the Book, that I turn, 

 and there I learn the mystery of the incarnation ; the 

 redemption of a sinner by blood ; the payment of my 

 infinite debt ; my union with the God-man in resur- 

 rection life, on my believing the record; and the 

 sharing of His coming glory. 



