THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 157 



silver ; when its surface, gently ruffled by mild breezes, 

 glows with purple and gold ! when no longer breaking 

 with violence against its surrounding shores, it seems to 

 approach them softly, only to solace them with peaceful 

 caresses.* 



Surely we cannot sufficiently admire that simple but 

 magnificent display of power, by which on the third day 

 of creation, the deep retired to the places appointed 

 for its reception, and heard the Jiat which Omnipotence 

 uttered, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further : 

 and here shall thy proud waves be stayed."' Well 

 might the Almighty himself demand attention to this 

 fact, and ask, " Who shut up the sea with doors when 

 it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb ? 

 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and 

 thick darkness a swaddling-band for it. And brake up 

 for it my decreed place ?" (Job xxxviii. 8—10.) No- 

 thing less than a feeling of amazement must seize upon 

 us, if, as we stand by the sea-side, and cast our eyes 

 over the expanse of waters, we try to understand 

 by what law it is that they are restrained from again 

 rushing over the shores. In some places, as on the coast 

 of Cornwall, we see a bold, rocky, and lofty boundary : 

 but in others, the very reverse of this, — a sandy and 



