THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 63 



ment we ought to make of Spring ! We shall have 

 lived to little purpose, and have looked upon the beau- 

 ties of opening nature in vain, if these things do not 

 carry our thoughts upwards, and quicken our steps to- 

 wards that heavenly Eden where pleasures, such as the 

 season now presents us with, shall not be transient and 

 uncertain as they are here, but lasting and never-fading 

 as their great Author. The world we live in is still for 

 the most part a goodly world ; it is still sumptuously 

 stocked and adorned, and was evidently intended for a 

 better guest than man in his present state, is. But the 

 heavenly Paradise, though infinitely more beautiful, will 

 find all its inhabitants worthy of it. Its glory will be 

 as much, nay far more, enhanced by the presence of 

 these, than the earthly Paradise was by the presence of 

 Adam. Here, indeed, there is too often a strange in- 

 congruity. Human fiends pollute the scenes which might 

 almost seem fit for the residence of angels. Hence, 

 although lovely in themselves, they lose much of their 

 charms ; and we are filled with shame and sorrow at 

 beholding what seems almost a confirmation of the 

 infidel sentiment with regard to some beautiful coun- 

 tries, — 



* Where all save the spirit of man is divine.' 



