"Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eye,

In every gesture dignity and love"?

The holiest and best of all the monkish multitude, St. Francis of Assisi, was most completely at home among the birds and flowers, and studied nature with utmost delight.

With equal truth and beauty, the author of the well-known "Picciola" makes a little flower that springs up and grows in the prison court-yard the means of converting the unhappy prisoner from atheism to faith. God's truth and love were so revealed in its development and bloom, that the attentive prisoner, who had first written on the wall of his cell "There is no God," wrote again, “perhaps," and finally, with humbled, chastened heart, confessed in another writing his faith in God.

The simple condition of the effectual operation of this spiritual power of beauty in us is the sincere love of the beautiful. For such a spirit nature has more than delight. Beholding the beauty of the external world, it is as if one beheld "signallings from some high land of one they feel, but dimly understand." There are suggestions of a goodness somewhere within this fair creation, a beautiful soul of the beautiful world. What one sees that so lifts his thoughts and feelings above all physical phenomena witnesses of a higher Beauty of Holiness. And so it was said the "undevout astronomer is mad."

Nature leads the lover of nature into her sanctuary, wherein, as in the sanctuary of God, are "strength and beauty." She improvises for him in marvellous songs without words. She hallows whatever day he pleases to devote. She constrains him to worship. Her birds sing of God's care and provision. Her lilies tell of His glory. Once more he is taught that “man does not live by bread alone." His envy and discontent are reproved. "All things are yours," apostolic nature says. The bitter sense of hard privations gives way to a glad feeling of immeasurable possession. Out in the fields or in the woods one is so rich! Nature withholds nothing. One

"Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

He is, pretty soon,

"Pious beyond the intention of his thought,
Devout above the meaning of his will."

It is a most significant fact, that, as often as love is kindled in any heart, the sense of beauty awakens at once, and nature begins to be illuminated. And especially is this true of the

distinct love of God. One needs only read such a book as the Confessions of Augustine to see the truth of this statement, or even the Life of Jonathan Edwards. That man says in his diary, that as his sense of divine things increased, "there seemed to be a calm, sweet cast of divine glory in everything. God's excellency, His wisdom, purity, and love seemed to appear in everything: in the sun and moon and stars; in the clouds and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, and trees; in the water and all nature. I often used to sit and view the moon for continuance, and in the day spent much time in viewing the clouds and the sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things." Holiness seemed to him nothing "but the highest beauty and amiableness." The Christian soul appeared to him to be "like such a little white flower as we see in the spring of the year: low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory; rejoicing in a calm rapture; diffusing around a sweet fragrance; standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers round about; all in like manner opening their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun."

I know a child whose first impressions of beauty in the world, and whose first distinct apprehension of a good God, were received when, one day, a wise man took him gently aside to show him a sweet-pea blossom, and talked lovingly of the beauty of a Being who could make such a fair and sweet flower to grow. And considering what anxieties, cares, doubts, and fears breed and multiply in the gloom of an untrustful or sordid life, is it not well to remember by what words the Master, who loved nature so well, who sought her solitudes and mountain-tops for communion with God, and talked so much of the birds and flowers and grain and grass, reproved solicitude and distrust, saying, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these!" The power of natural beauty to minister spiritual grace has never had and can never have more complete or eloquent vindication.

If we turn to the Hebrew Scriptures-the books of righteousness—it will appear that they abundantly recognize this same power. They bid us behold the King in His beauty. They speak of the Beauty of Holiness. "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined." The prophetic soul can utter itself only in figures and images drawn from the material world. And the Book through which the Spirit of God breathes, glows and blooms and is fragrant with

the spirit of beauty, and, more fully than any other, reflects the beauty of nature.

"Out of the heart of nature rolled

The burdens of the Bible old."

The home of innocence is a peaceful paradise. The token of God's everlasting covenant of peace is the beautiful bow in the clouds. The land of promise is surpassing fair. The institution of religion is after a divinely given pattern which appeals to the senses with beautiful vestments, picturesque tabernacle, magnificent temple, and imposing ritual. God answers Job out of a whirlwind, sublimely summoning him to review the wonders of creation in earth and sea and sky. The Psalter, that everlasting and universal liturgy, is all bright and sweet with the efflorescence of the feeling of natural beauty. Its illuminated initial letter is a tree planted by the rivers of waters, fruitful and unfading. The eighth Psalm teaches what humility and reverence a contemplation of the firmament excites. The nineteenth Psalm shows how the heavens declare the glory of God, how their music pervades the universe, how overwhelming is their grandeur, and bids us note what a tabernacle is set therein for the suncloud-curtained tabernacle with veil and hangings of blue and purple and scarlet and gold screening its holy of holies. The perfect Psalm figures God as a shepherd, and pictures the green pastures and still waters of His gentle providence. The floods clap their hands; the sea roars and the fulness thereof; the valleys laugh and sing; the golden harvests wave; the glad reapers that went out with tears to sow, return with songs and sheaves; the little hills rejoice on every side; the mountains shed help and bring peace; the Lord God is like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; the grass flourishes and withers; the flowers bloom and fade; the sparrows and swallows build their nests and rear their young on God's altars; the light is God's garment; the clouds are His chariots; the winged winds and flaming lightnings are His messengers and ministers; and, to specify no further, this hymnal, so full of music and illumination, fitly closes with a summons to angels and to men; to young and old; to sun, moon, and stars; to fire, hail, snow, and wind; to forests and mountains; to beasts and birds and creeping things; yea, to all creatures and elements to praise the Lord!

Time will not permit a description of the manner in which the prophets set forth their word in pictures drawn from scenes of nature. The beauty of Sharon, the glory of Lebanon, the grandeur and splendour of Carmel, the lily of the valleys, the

vineyards of Engedi with odorous, tender grapes, the young roe upon the mountains of spices, the budding pomegranates, the fragrant mandrakes, the cottages in the vineyards, the oaks of Bashan, the ships of Tarshish, the roaring of the sea, the glittering dew on the mown grass, the broad rivers and streams, the eagles mounting on strong wings, the constellations of heaven, the doves flying as a cloud, the earth bringing forth her bud and blooming into summer,-yea, "the King's daughter is all glorious within," and the King's name is Light, and His dear Son is the Dayspring from on high, the Sun of righteousness, and the goal of all His pilgrim-people is a glorious city adorned as a bride for her husband, wherein the trees of life flourish, and the fountains of life spring,-"Jerusalem the golden," our consolation in toil, our dream in slumber, the inspiration and theme of sweetest songs, the fulfilment of still sweeter hopes, the consummation of still sweeter life.

So much of natural beauty is wrought into this Bible that its elimination would leave but a skeleton of truth.

And the meaning of all this is, that this sense of natural beauty which thrills through us all, and which the Bible recognizes and addresses, was not given for æsthetic gratification merely, but for the very highest ends of culture; that by its proper cultivation a sense of intellectual and moral beauty might be awakened in us, which sees a divine glory in the daisy and in the star, in the purity of angels and in the humblest human virtue, and, in its highest development, needs no sun or moon to shine in its kingdom, for the glory of God is the light thereof. Wherefore I consent to Mr. Ruskin's conclusion, that "the love of nature, whenever it has existed, has been a faithful and sacred element of human feeling ;" . . . and, other things being equal with respect to two individuals, "the one who loves nature most will always be found to have more faith in God than the other." It brings with it " such a sense of the presence and power of a great Spirit as no mere reasoning can either induce or controvert;" and, rightly pursued and associated with the higher principles of religion, "becomes the channel of certain truths which by no other means can be conveyed." I believe with Plato in the "Symposium" that he who learns "to see the beautiful in due order and succession, when he comes towards the end, will suddenly perceive a nature of wondrous beauty." And the true order is, " to use the beauties of earth as steps along which he mounts upward . . . from all fair forms to fair actions, and from fair actions to fair notions, until from fair notions he arrives at the notion of absolute beauty, and knows what the essence of beauty is."

III. THEORIES OF INSPIRATION.

BY ALVAH HOVEY, D.D., LL.D.

THE inspiration referred to is, of course, that of the sacred writers, and, through them, of the Scriptures which they wrote. These theories are distinguished from one another by their ruling principle or characteristic, though they may be alike in many details.

The subject of this paper is, without doubt, both timely and interesting, but it is also difficult, so difficult, indeed, that the writer will be surprised as much as gratified if he succeeds in the double task of fairly reviewing and criticising several theories which seem to him erroneous, and in making thoroughly intelligible a theory which seems to him essentially correct.

But are not theories of inspiration numberless, like the sands upon the sea-shore, so that the task proposed is utterly disproportioned to any man's knowledge and to the limits of an article? The answer to this question may be yes or no, according to the view which is taken of the task proposed.

If all the finer distinctions between theories of inspiration are taken account of, these theories will be found too numerous for examination in a single paper; but if only their ruling principles and stronger affinities are noticed, they may be brought together in a few classes and considered in a brief discussion. Adopting the latter method, we propose to speak, first, of two extreme theories, that of inspiration defined as spiritual genius and insight, on the one side, and that of inspiration defined as strictly verbal dictation, on the other. And, secondly, of four intermediate theories, proceeding from the left towards the right, namely: (a.) That of occasional divine illumination, rendering some parts of Scripture trustworthy. (b.) That of divine illumination according to progress in spiritual life. (c.) That of divine illumination for all directly religious teaching. (d.) That of divine illumination for all that was intended to be teaching.

As the writer proposes not only to state theories, but also to express an opinion concerning them as correct or incorrect, it is proper to mention the principal tests which will be consciously applied in forming that opinion. These tests or