188 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



thus mercifully afforded less suited to promote 

 our spiritual health and happiness, than is our 

 daily bread to the nourishment of the body. 

 Nor is this the only analogy suggested by a 

 view of those benevolent arrangements of the 

 Creator, which we have been contemplating. 

 Most of our best medicines are derived from 

 plants, and the large number of these, in almost 

 all countries, is a remarkable proof of the good- 

 ness of God, in thus providing for the cure or 

 relief of the many maladies to which the human 

 frame is liable. It is worthy of notice, that some 

 of the most active medicinal plants are very 

 abundant in those countries in which the diseases 

 for which they are efficacious are chiefly preva- 

 lent ; such as the Peruvian and winter's bark, in 

 South America, and others. Who can forget, in 

 connexion with these facts, the prophet's earnest 

 appeal " Is there no balm in Gilead ? is there 

 no physician there? why then is not the health 

 of the daughter of my people recovered?* Of 

 all the diseases that affect the body of man, 

 none is so awful in its consequences, or so 

 deeply seated in its nature, as that of sin in the 

 soul ; and if the remedy be not applied, this 

 malady will prove inevitably fatal. But there 

 is a remedy a sovereign specific an unfailing 

 cure and it is this, The blood of Jesus Christ 

 cleanseth from all sin. Every soul is afflicted 

 with this disease, and fur every soul is the, 

 remedy provided. There is no other ; " for 

 there is none other name under heaven given 

 among men, whereby we must be saved" 



