56 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



it, on the authority of that sublime vision which St. 

 John tells us he saw ; (Rev. iv. 2, 3 ;) *' I was in the 

 spirit : and, behold, a throne was set in Heaven, and 

 one sat on the throne; and there was a Rainbow 

 round about the thro ne, in sight like unto an emerald." 

 What, indeed, can here be signified but that covenant 

 of grace with which the throne of Christ as a Redeemer 

 is as it were encircled under the gospel dispensation ? 

 And what can convey a higher idea of that kindness 

 which actuated him to deliver a lost world from 

 eternal destruction, than the figure of an emerald 

 bow. In nature the most refreshing and delightful of 

 all hues is green, the colour of the precious emerald ; 

 and green is also a significant emblem of fertility and 

 duration. Thus in the glorious object which St. John 

 beheld surrounding the great Head of the Church in 

 Heaven, we have a splendid token of that great cove- 

 nant of salvation which contains within it every blessing 

 for time and for et ernity, which is ordered in all things 

 and sure ; and in virtue of which it is the duty, as 

 well as the privilege of the believer, to look upward, 

 and regard the celestial bow, with its meteoric splendor 

 as the " bow of God ;** a lovely apparition, shedding its 

 lustre upon the storm and upon the cloud — teaching us 



