f the firmament;
and it seems to me that in the midst of the material nearness of
these heavens, God means us to acknowledge His own immediate
Presence as visiting, judging, and blessing us. 'The earth shook,
the heavens also dropped, at the presence of God,' 'He doth set
His bow in the clouds,' and thus renews, in the sound of every
drooping swathe of rain, His promise of everlasting love. 'In them
hath He set a _tabernacle_ for the sun,' whose burning ball,
which, without the firmament, would be seen but as an intolerable
and scorching circle in the blackness of vacuity, is by that
firmament surrounded with gorgeous service, and tempered by
mediatorial ministries; by the firmament of clouds the golden
pavement is spread for his chariot wheels at morning; by the
firmament of clouds the temple is built for his presence to fill
with light at noon; by the firmament of clouds the purple veil is
closed at evening round the sanctuary of his rest; by the mists of
the firmament his implacable light is divided and its separated
fierceness appeased into the soft blue that fills the depth of
distance with its bloom, and the flush with which the mountains
burn as they drink the overflowing of the dayspring. And in this
tabernacling of the unendurable sun with men, through the shadows
of the firmament, God would seem to set forth the stooping of His
own majesty to men, upon the _throne_ of the firmament.

"As the Creator of all the worlds, and the Inhabiter of eternity,
we cannot behold Him; but as the Judge of the earth and the
Preserver of men those heavens are indeed His dwelling-place.
'Swear not, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by
earth, for it is His footstool.'

"And all those passings to and fro of fruitful showers and
grateful shade, and all those visions of silver palaces built
about the horizon, and voices of moaning winds and threatening
thunders, and glories of coloured robe and cloven ray, are but to
deepen in our hearts the acceptance and distinctness and dearness
of the simple words, 'Our Father, Which art in heaven!'"

The description of the first approach to Venice before the days of
railways will always be cherished by those who admire Ruskin's work as
one of his most characteristic and memorable utterances:--

"In the olden days of travelling, now to return no