INTRODUCTION. 35 



guidance of its seed there must have been ; what ordering of weather, not a rain- 

 drop too many or too few ; what skilful workmanship before it reached its 

 perfection. Then you will say, " Thy way is past finding out." Think once 

 more that the seed fell to the earth through the operation of the same law of 

 gravitation which holds the planets in their courses, and you will know more of 

 the " exceeding breadth " of His commandment, fitted alike for the greatest and 

 for the least ; dwell for one instant on the care bestowed on the fringe of the 

 moss, and you will believe of yourself, sharer of His own immortality, that the very 

 hairs of your head are all numbered. And believing, as we do, that He rejoices 

 or grieves over us in Heaven, we may surely say that when He reads the 

 thoughts which the contemplation of His work brings, He will joy that thus it has 

 fulfilled His purpose in its creation. 



It is in winter, and in earth's most barren spots, that the moss flourishes best, 

 and is most beautiful. May it not be a type of the countless little mercies which, 

 in a time of bitter trial, are often sent us ? We might have been utterly over- 

 whelmed, but there was something given us of which we say afterwards, " How 

 thankful I was for that !" or, " It would have been so much worse if it had not 

 been just then." 



The seed of the moss may be wafted alike to the king's palace-wall or to the 

 poor man's cottage-roof ; and thus the King of heaven and earth impresses aU 

 alike for His own service, and sets everywhere His sign-manual, and declares that 

 by Him kings reign. Creeping over the gravestone, in the lapse of years it will 

 have effaced the name of him who lies beneath, be he great or small. It will not 

 stay to keep the title of the greatest in our sight, nor haste to hide the record of 

 how the smallest was loved. There is a Record over which the moss shall never 

 creep, and a Name which shall be confessed before God and the angels, and a 

 building on whose walls the seed shall not rest ; be it our care to make these our 

 own ; but these are of another world ; in this " God hath chosen the foolish things 

 to confound the mighty, and base things, and things which are not, to biing to 

 nought things which are, that no flesh should glory in His presence." 



The mention of our last topic can, in a scientific book, hardly be oiit of place. 

 In this age of doubt and question the whole foundation of om' Christian faith is 

 undergoing an examination more close and careful than it has ever before received, 

 and the light of science is carried with a desii-e, on the one hand, there to discover 



