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When chaos existed in its great original win- 

 ter, God said " let there be lights in the firma- 

 ment of heaven, to divide the day from the night ; 

 and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and 

 for days, and years." Then the first spring 

 advanced over the desolation of matter, and the 

 earth was warmed into life by the beams of the 

 genial sun. Divine goodness walked forth un- 

 veiled ; the bare soil became pasture ; the snow- 

 drop, and the crocus, and the primrose, and all the 

 earlier flowers put forth their blossoms in succes- 

 sion to the light of morning ; the fig tree and 

 the vine gave promise of fruitfulness ; birds and 

 insects filled the wide air with their songs and 

 murmurs ; arid the face of creation under the 

 sun, and the west wind, and the floating cloud, 

 and the refreshing dew, put on an aspect of ge- 

 neral cheerfulness. Earth, air, and water were 

 peopled with inhabitants, their faculties and their 

 duration established by a fixed law, and nature 

 proceeded in her annual round of growth and 

 increase, and maturity and decay. When re- 

 garding this season, well may we exclaim with 

 Alison " if there is an instinct which leads us 

 now into the scenery of nature, it is not only to 

 amuse us with a transitory pleasure, but to teach 

 us just and exalted conceptions of Him that 

 made us. In no hours of existence are the traces 

 of His love so powerfully marked upon na- 

 ture, as in the present. It is in a peculiar man- 

 ner the season of happiness. The vegetable 

 world is bursting into life, and waving its hues, 



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