TEE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
47 
dark picture that was seen could no longer hide 
the wonders and glory of the mvisible. They 
were clear to the mind, and their brightness put 
out of view the dark earthliness which concealed 
them. Every object of former dread was trans¬ 
formed into a subject of pleasing study or trans¬ 
figured into a scene of wonder and beauty. Frog 
and fly, bird and bat, reeds and rushes, bog and 
mere, and even the dark masses of slimy algae, 
known to childhood as the disgusting ‘ frog- 
spittle,’ were found on a little inspection to be 
full of beauty and interest. Alas, what perver¬ 
sions and pains are caused by ignorance and 
misapprehension! Nothing is common or un¬ 
clean which God has made. It is our own 
blindness or superstition that fails to see in 
everything about us the work of the divine 
hand. 
“ We will turn to the very spot which once 
seemed the most fitting emblem of Tophet, and 
more than a blank in nature—a hideous blot on 
its surface. Here, or in any similar scene, the 
wonder-working power of God may be readily 
discovered. Everywhere will be found finger¬ 
ings of that Paradise which God planted and 
made pleasant to the eye; and in every new 
