THB CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 133 



US to derive from this a lesson of spiritual instruction. 

 '* So is the kingdom of heaven, as if a man should 

 cast seed into the ground ; and should sleep, and rise 

 night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up^ 

 he knoweth not how." (Mark iv. 26.) Hereby intima- 

 ting to us that the proj^ress of religion both in the 

 world and the human soul, is not as some suppose sud- 

 den and instantaneous, but rather resembles seed 

 committed to the ground, which after a few successions 

 of day and night, imperceptibly vegetates : peeps at 

 length above the surface ; then rises higher and higher ; 

 and, at last, ripens into the more perfect form which it 

 must assume, before it is gathered into the final store- 

 house. 



There is another idea of equal importance, whick 

 suggests itself by the lovely scene under contemplation. 

 Those beautiful ears of corn which now in all the ma- 

 jestic modesty of nature, bow to every passini< breeze, 

 but a few months since would have covered, if outspread, 

 only a few feet of ground, and were but a mass of dead 

 matter. But what are they now ? Now, indeed, they 

 are full of life and splendour ; and would appear to hiot 

 who should attempt to number them, numerous as the 

 drops of morning dew, or countless as the sands apom 



