THB CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 177 



I 



own country to make the comforts and luxuries of 

 distant lands his own ? What furnishes the Christian 

 Missionary with the means of carrying tlie glad tidings 

 of salvation to the New Zealand Cannibals — the An- 

 tipodes of the British shores? "What has brought 

 about this connexion with the opposite regions of the 

 earth's surface, but ships and the ocean ? — Ships which 

 display as much of the mastery of human art, as the 

 ocean does of the wonders of the divine hand. Who 

 then when he thus looks at the blessings enjoyed ; at 

 the combination of advantages thus resulting from the 

 ocean ; can refuse a tribute of praise and adoration to 

 him who made the Sea for the same purpose as he 

 made the land, to shew forth his glory, and to teach 

 man his dependance upon him "who sitteth above the 

 water flood, and remaineth a King for ever!" 



Valuable, however, as the ocean is to man, and 

 richly as he is indebted for it to the Lord of all, there 

 is one thing, but for which its value would have been 

 but little known. Without the magnet man would 

 never have obtained that dominion over the seas, which 

 Providence has assigned him in the present day. And 

 viewing this fact in regard to the spiritual conse- 

 qences that may now result from it, and which hav c 



