84 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
copy, but never hope to emulate, the matchless 
glories of these divine originals. Too minute 
for the eye to see or the fingers to handle, Jeho¬ 
vah has shaped and beautified and filled earth’s 
teeming waters with these treasures of his skill. 
The worker in gems spends many days in fash¬ 
ioning some rare device, his skill and patience 
stimulated by the admiration which he hopes to 
excite when his workmanship is placed on exhi¬ 
bition. No human artist would seek to fill 
some dark obscurity with elaborate specimens 
of skill and ornamentation ; but God’s ways are 
not our ways ; and besides, there are other eyes 
than ours to see, and other hearts to love and 
tongues to praise. The exhibition, in some 
striking way, of his omniscience and omnipres¬ 
ence, undoubtedly excites angelic adoration and 
wonder, as it also gives to us a more emphatic 
attestation of these infinite attributes. The star 
set in the heavens, and the mountains reared and 
girded with power, are the grander monuments 
of divine skill; but if any place could be found 
barren of all evidences of creative wisdom and 
goodness, the scoffer might say, ‘ Where is thy 
God ?’ To rebuke and confound all who ques¬ 
tion the being or power of the Infinite One, he 
