THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 47 



the book of Job,* will serve to shew the splendid 

 mystery which seemed to attach to it in the eyes of the 

 wisest and most learned of ancient times ; a conclusion 

 which must at least suffice to convict of transcendent 

 folly, the pretensions of those in our own day, who 

 attempt to predict the changes of the weather with as 

 much certainty and particularity, as if they could 

 indeed, (to adopt the language of the Divine Speaker,) 

 *' Lift up their voices to the clouds, that abundance of 

 waters may cover them, or send lightnings that they 

 might go, and say unto them, here we are." chap. 38. 

 Far wiser and more commendable is their employ- 

 ment who extract from the varied, the beautiful, and 

 the beneficial aspect of the clouds, fresh matter for 

 admiratipn of the Divine benignity and wisdom. A sky 

 without clouds would have lost much of its beauty. 

 It would have been like a world without its hills and 

 vallies ; or like a countenance in which there was no 

 perceptible emotion of joy or sorrow. The loveliest 

 landscape would have been divested of a portion of its 

 charms, if not occasionally beheld under the enchant* 



* I entirely acquiesce in the reasoning which the matchless 

 Faber has advanced, to prove that Moses was the author of the 

 book of Job. — Treatise on the Three Dispensations, vol. 2, b. 2, 

 e. 6. 



