B.IS KELIGION OF NATURE. 193 



purposes of the great God. It is a sign of his strength 

 and power. Who would not stand in awe of Him, 

 who piled up those massive ledges of impenetrable 

 rocks, and bid them stand there immovable forever ? 



" I ain't a wise man, Squire, and may be not what 

 the world would call orthodox in my faith ; but if I'd 

 never seen a church, nor a bible, nor a preacher, my 

 belief in the existence of a great and a good God, 

 would have been as fixed and fast as it now is that I 

 exist. When I see the seed that is planted in the 

 ground, bring forth grain, the nut that falls to the 

 earth, sprout up into a tall tree, when I see that the 

 animals that live in the water, and on the dry land, 

 and the birds that fly in the air, all are fitted for the 

 elements in which they move, when I see the tree 

 blossom, and bring forth its fruit, the sun, and the 

 moon, movin' in their regular course in the heavens, 

 and the stars shinin' like candles in the sky at night, I 

 say to myself, all these things never happened by 

 chance. There's a God that made them all. That He 

 is wise I know, because there is no confusion, or jost- 

 lin' among the millions of created things, that he has 

 peopled the world with. That he is benevolent I 



know, for he has made provision for the happiness, 



9 



