210 THE CHRISTIAN NATURALIST. 



natural pride of the hiiman heart. Beautiful, curious, 

 and astonishing as are the facts which the natural 

 history of the things around us presents to our notice, 

 we shall find that each of them contains secrets which 

 will perhaps never be unfolded to mortal eyes. The 

 wisest have been obliged to confess their ignorance 

 even of many of the most simple laws of nature. * The 

 great first cause, least understood,' still wraps up many 

 things in clouds and darkness, to teach us our little- 

 ness : to stain the pride of all human glory, and to 

 make us confess our folly, weakness, and guilt. It was 

 not until the Almighty had spoken to Job from out of 

 the whirlwind, and made all the glory of his works to 

 pass before him in splendid review, that he exclaimed 

 in the language of true penitence, " I have heard of 

 thee by the hearing of the ear : but now mine eye seeth 

 thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust 

 and ashes." (Job xlii. 5, 6.) From a view therefore 

 of the mysteries of the natural world, we shall be pre- 

 pared in some measure to appreciate the mysteries of 

 the spiritual. The wonders which the one unveils will 

 leave us without excuse, if we refuse to admit that 

 which is made known to us in the other. Thus, instead 

 of rejecting the mystery of ** God manifest in the flesh," 



