ishes to know how truly St. Paul spoke, let him study the laws
which produce and regulate rain and fruitful seasons, what we now
call climatology, meteorology, geography of land and water. Let him
read that truly noble Christian work, Maury's "Physical Geography of
the Sea;" and see, if he be a truly rational man, how advanced
science, instead of disproving, has only corroborated St. Paul's
assertion, and how the ocean and the rain-cloud, like the sun and
stars, declare the glory of God. And if anyone undervalues the
sciences which teach us concerning stones and plants and animals, or
thinks that nothing can be learnt from them concerning God--allow one
who has been from childhood only a humble, though he trusts a
diligent student of these sciences--allow him, I say, to ask in all
reverence, but in all frankness, who it was who said, "Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow." "Consider the birds of the air-
-and how your Heavenly Father feedeth them."

Consider them. If He has bid you do so, can you do so too much?

I know, of course, the special application which our Lord made of
these words. But I know, too, from experience, that the more you
study nature, in all her forms the more you will find that the
special application itself is deeper, wider, more literally true,
more wonderful, more tender, and if I dare use such a word, more
poetic, than the unscientific man can guess.

But let me ask you further--do you think that our Lord in that
instance, and in those many instances in which He drew his parables
and lessons from natural objects, was leading men's minds on to
dangerous ground, and pointing out to them a subject of contemplation
in the laws and processes of the natural world, and their analogy
with those of the spiritual world, the kingdom of God--a subject of
contemplation, I say, which it was not safe to contemplate too much?

I appeal to your common sense. If He who spoke these words were (as
I believe) none other than the Creator of the universe, by whom all
things were made, and without whom nothing was made that is made, do
you suppose that He would have bid you to consider His universe, had
it been dangerous for you to do so?

Do you suppose, moreover, that the universe, which He, the Truth, the
Light, the Love, has made, can be otherwise then infinitely worthy to
be considered? or that the careful, accurate, and patient
consideration of it, even to its