in
the material world "His mercies are new every morning." James Smetham used
to speak of going into his garden "to see what the Lord is doing." He
would stand on the top of Highgate Hill on a blustering night "to watch
the goings of the Lord in the storm." And all this means that to James
Smetham creation was not merely a single event, but a _process_ whose
countless events are still going on. He watched his Lord at work! Every
sunset was a new creation from the Almighty Maker's hands.

To many of us the Creator is remote from His works. He is not immediately
near. And so He no longer "walks in the garden in the cool of the day."
The garden is no longer a holy place. Let us recover the sacredness of
things. Let us "practise the presence of God." Let us link His love and
power to every flower that blows. And so shall we be able to say, as we
move amid the glories of the natural world, "The Lord is in His holy
temple."

OCTOBER The Fourth

_CREATOR AND CREATURE_

ISAIAH xl. 9-28.

Let me mark the range of this teaching. "Who hath measured the waters in
the hollow of His hand.... He shall feed His flock like a shepherd." And
let me mark it again. "The Creator of the ends of the earth ... giveth
power unto the faint." Almightiness offers itself to carry my burden! The
Creator offers Himself to re-create me! I can engage the forces of the
universe to help me on my journey. Emerson counselled us to hitch our
wagon to a star. We can do better than that. We can hitch it to the Maker
of the star! We have something better than an ideal; we have the Light of
the world. We are not left to a radiant abstraction; we have a gracious
God.

The water flows from the Welsh hills to every house in Birmingham. Rich
and poor alike share the bounty of the mountains. The wealth of the
mountains comes to the common thirst. And everybody, too, may have the
water from the everlasting hills. "The water that I shall give him shall
be in him." The river of life will flow to every soul of man.

OCTOBER The Fifth

_THE SOUL AND NATURE_

PSALM cxlviii.

"Praise ye the Lord." And the Psalmist calls upon the creation to join in
the anthem. And that is the gracious purpose of our God, that the world
should be filled with harmonious praise. It is His will that the character
of man should harmonize with the flowers of the field, that the beauty of
his habits should blend with the glories of the sunrise, and that his
speech and