THE RANUNCULUS. 223 



robbery of what was doubly His — my own heart, 

 and the faculties of mind and body, implanted by 

 His hand, that they might yield him a reasonable 

 increase. 



Thompson's beautiful hymn on the seasons, al- 

 beit that it rises no higher than deism, was the 

 first thing that compelled me to see God in his 

 works ; and even this greatly sobered my wild 

 imagination ; but it was not a humbling truth, as I 

 viewed it. Looking around upon a universe of 

 mute worshippers ; taught to consider myself as 

 one of those 



Chief, for whom the whole creation smiles, 

 At once the head, the heart, the tongue of all ; 



without any knowledge of my own lost and ex- 

 ceedingly sinful state, any consciousness of that 

 guilty perversion of imparted powers, which sank 

 me far below the level of those things that impli- 

 city follow the first law of their existence, even 

 " the wind and storm, fulfilling his word," — what 

 benefit could I derive in offering vain obstacles of 

 praise, from an unsanctified, unhumbled heart? 

 But, blessed be God for Jesus Christ ! the gospel 

 came, not to divorce me from the contemplation 

 of what was so lovely and so soothing when viewed 

 aright, but to render that contemplation profitable 

 — to print a gentle rebuke on every page of the 

 great book, wherein I used only the lessons of 



