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meditate upon God and escape the nicclianical operations of 

 mind that are unavoidable in the crowded places. As the giant 

 of the fable renewed his strength as often as he touched the 

 earth, so man renews his strength of body, and intellect, and 

 spirit, by coming back to the garden where God placed him, 

 and where God converses with him. 



Here it is that he feels his dependence upon the Almighty 

 power that sustains him, and from whom he directly receives all 

 that he has. In the midst of the great theatre of his works, 

 surrounded by the most striking effects of his wisdom, encom- 

 passed on all sides by his bounties and his blessings, God is 

 close to him. Hence David, himself a farmer, while he stood 

 under the clear heavens, inhaling the fresh air of the country, 

 and receiving the genial warmth of the sun, as he looked 

 abroad on nature, exclaims — "Thou makest the outgoings of 

 the morning and the evening to rejoice. Thou visitest the 

 earth and waterest it ; thou greatly enrichest it with the river 

 of God, which is full of water; thou preparest them corn, 

 when thou hast so provided for it ; thou waterest the ridges 

 thereof abundantly; thou settlest the furrows thereof; thou 

 makest it soft with showers ; thou blessest the springing thereof; 

 thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop 

 fiitness — they drop upon the pastures of the wilderness, and 

 the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed 

 with flocks ; the valleys also are covered over with corn ; they 

 shout for joy, they sing." 



This must be the feeling of every thoughtful mind, as he 

 surveys nature and sees the operations of its laws. He will 

 say — God is here; it is by Him that all things subsist ; it is by 

 His agency that life, and beauty, and perfection are every- 

 where. Every blade of grass ; every flower, dressed in colors 

 more gorgeous than Persian purple or Tyrean dyes; every 

 sparrow which, without storehouse or barn, is fed by a pater- 

 nal kindness, and its fall to the ground known ; every tree 

 bearing its fruits ; every animal enjoying its life ; every rising 



