80 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. t 



himself. Its culture, order, fruitfulness, and seclusion 

 from the world, compared to the weed's wildness and 

 exposure of a common field, is no bad emblem of a 

 good man compared to the multitude. A garden weeds 

 the mind ; it weeds it of worldly thoughts, and sows 

 celestial seed in their stead. For what see we there, 

 but what awaken in us our gratitude to Heaven ? A 

 garden to the virtuous is a paradise still extant ; a para- 

 dise unlost. What a rich present from heaven of sweet 

 increase to man was wafted in that breeze ! What a 

 delightful entertainment of sight glows in yonder bed, 

 as if in kindly shower, the watery bow had shed all its 

 most celestial colors on it ! Here are no objects that fire 

 the passions, none that do not instruct the understand- 

 ing, and better the heart, while they delight the sense. 

 Who cannot look on a flower till he frightens himself 

 out of infidelity ? Religion is the natural growth of 

 the works of God ; and infidelity, of the inventions of 

 men.** 



Not only, however, may the Christian here gather an 



argument against the infidel and the sensualist, but he 



may here be profitably reminded of the vanity and 



fleeting nature of the best of worldly things. From the 



* Centaur, not fabulous. 



