nd embodiment of genius upon the earth. Whatever in
the ordinary course of things we may choose to attribute to the
mechanical process of cause and effect, the highest manifestations of
intellect can be called forth only by the express will of the original
Mind, independent of second causes. Genius descends upon us from the
clouds precisely where we least look for it. Events may be calculated,
predicted--spirits never; no earthly oracle announces the appearance of
genius: the unfathomable will of the Creator suddenly calls to it--Be!"[1]

The Apostle Paul says concerning the Christ, "_IN HIM were all things
created_" (Col. i. 16). Everything in the universe became objective,
because they were first subjective in Christ, the second Person in the
adorable Trinity. All things were made from forms and types which were
in Himself before they were impressed on Creation. The infinite glories
of sky, and air, and sea, the beauties of the tree, the flower, the bird,
and all forms of life, the fleeting and recurring grandeurs that paint
the seasons and the years, are all but revelations of the boundless
resources and the ineffable beauties and qualities of the mind of Christ,
our Master and Teacher. Our craving of genius, and its never-dying
ambition, is to come ever nearer to the perfection of the Infinite Artist
and Architect. The inspiration which filled the soul of Bezalel or Hiram
may not be so elevated or elevating as that which enabled Isaiah to soar
to the throne of the Eternal in speechless rapture, or which enabled
Michael Angelo to represent in form and colour his vast conceptions of
the beautiful and sublime; but it was as real, and in some aspects as
serviceable in suggestion and realisation, as these. "God fulfils
Himself in many ways." As the Divine Spirit plays on the minds of
special men, one is turned to music, another to painting, another to
sculpture, another to architecture, another to mechanics, and another to
a smith's imaginings; but it is still the same Spirit that worketh in all
and through all, and each may be perfected instruments by which He
accomplishes His wise and gracious purposes in the uplift of men.

What a living force among men is the true poet, the man who can take
words and weave them into forms of perfect rhythm, rhyme, and measure,
and then fill them with thoughts so suggestive and burning, as that they
become for ever a force in the hearts of men, thrilling the souls of men
and