VIEW OF NATURE. 
297 
whom ‘ all things were made, and without whom was not any 
thing made that was made.’ When the pencil that traces the 
rich and animated landscape of mountains, lakes and trees, is 
guided by a grateful heart as well as by a skilful hand ; then 
the picture becomes no less an acceptable offering to God, than 
it is a source of well directed pleasure to the mind of man. And 
when the poet, in harmonious numbers, makes hill and dale res- 
ponsive to his song, happy is it, if his soul be in unison with the 
harp of David, and if he can call on all created nature to join in 
one universal chorus of gratitude and praise. The Christian 
traveller best enjoys scenes like these. In every wonder he sees 
the hand that made it — in every landscape, the beauty that 
adorns it — in rivers, fields and forests the Providence that min- 
isters to the wants of man — in every surrounding object he sees 
an emblem of his own spiritual condition, himself a stranger 
and a pilgrim, journeying on through a country of wonders and 
beauties; alternately investigating, admiring, and praising the 
works of his Maker, and anticipating a holy and happy eternity 
to be spent in the Paradise of God, where the prospects are 
ever new, and the landscapes never fade from the sight 1” 
“ O ! for the expanded mind that soars on high, 
Ranging afar with Meditation’s eye! 
That climbs the heights of yonder starry road, 
Rising through nature up to nature’s God. 
O ! for a soul to trace a Saviour’s power, 
In each sweet form that decks the blooming flower ; 
And as we wander such fair scenes among, 
To make the Rose of Sharon all our song.” 
By the word Nature , derived from a term signifying born, or 
produced, in a general sense we mean all the works of God. 
Using a figure of speecli called Metonomy, we often put the 
effect for the cause ; as when we speak of the “ works of na- 
ture,” meaning what the Almighty has brought forth, or we 
often mean by nature the Deity himself: as when we say that 
nature produces plants and animals. 
With respect to the heavenly bodies, which manifest them- 
selves to us with so much magnificence, we know them to be 
matter, because we observe them to be subject to the laws which 
govern matter ; and we have been able, by the discoveries of 
astronomers, to understand their various revolutions : we have 
in general clearer ideas of their motions than even of our own 
planet ; it is more easy for us to imagine them as moving, than 
that our firm earth is whirling with inconceivable velocity. 
Were it possible for us to conceive the quantity of matter which 
Definition of Nature — The heavenly bodies. — 
