THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 65 



sins." It is here also we discover the necessity of 

 recovering that image which was lost in Paradise, and 

 which must be again regained by a new creation of the 

 heart ; a moral spring of the human character ; under 

 the quickening influence of Christ as the Sun of Right- 

 eousness. He who has experienced this renewing of 

 his mind, has already passed from spiritual death to 

 spiritual life. His heart has responded to the Gospel 

 call, ** Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the 

 dead, and Christ shall give thee light ;" and it is his 

 privilege, while he views * all nature quick and bursting 

 into birth' at this season, to behold this transformation, 

 but as a type of that still more glorious period when 

 there shall be " new heavens and a new earth, wherein 

 dwelleth righteousness." 



But what solace can the sinner, who is not *' made alive 

 unto God," derive from such reflections, or indeed from 

 any thing in the present season ! It has been well ob- 

 served that * a blighted spring makes a barren year, and 

 that the vernal flowers, however beautiful and gay, are 

 only introduced by Nature as preparatives for autum- 

 nal fruits/ And if this be true in the natural, how much 

 more so with reference to the spiritual world ! Vain 

 will it be for the man who has trifled away the spring' 

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