XXVI From nature to Nature's God.

JT

Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool : where is the house that ye can build unto me?-Isaiah lxvi. 1.

Who hath measured the waters as in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance ?-Isaiah xl. 12.

T is a characteristic of the poetry of the Hebrews, that, as a reflex of monotheism, it always embraces the universe in its unity, comprising both terrestrial life and the luminous realms of space. It dwells but rarely on the individuality of phenomena, preferring the contemplation of great masses. The Hebrew poet does not depict nature as a self-dependent object, glorious in its individual beauty, but always in relation and subjection to a higher spiritual power. Hebrew

poetry is grand and solemn, but when it treats on the earthly condition of mankind it is full of sad and pensive longing. It never loses the restraint of measure, as does the poetry of India. Devoted to the pure contemplation of the Divinity, it remains clear and selfpossessed in the midst of the most figurative forms of expression. ALEXANDER V. HUMBOLDT.

XXVII.

The Unity of God.

Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is One.

THAT in this sentence is enclosed the kernel of our

teachings concerning God, all those know and feel who rise in the morning for their daily work and commend their spirits into God's hand every evening with that watchword on their lips. Its verbal enclosure also is worthy of our attention as an expression of our love to God, as a source of piety and a refuge in the day of trouble. Thus we say our God! God is the creator of man, but in a sense, man is the creator of his God. True, His being is independent of our knowledge and recognition; yet He exists for our soul only in so far as we know Him. True, He is a loving Father even to those who never know Him or who deny Him; just as a mother tends her babe, long before it can reward her love with the faintest smile of recognition. But for man's consciousness God is not, before his heart has felt His presence, before he can say with those who have seen the father: He is our God and He alone, for He is One and no other. and not until this joyful and exultant call rings out from the heart of mankind, will the Kingdom of Heaven be established on earth,

T fortifies my soul to know

Truth is so

That howso'er I stray and range,
Whate'er I do, Thou dost not change.
I steadier step, when I recall

That, when I slip, Thou dost not fall.

SAMUEL HOLDHEIM.

XXVIII.

Che Joy of God.

Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God, my exceeding joy.—Psalm xliii. 4.

The joy of God is your strength.-Nehemiah viii. 10.

LL these the love of truth and beauty, of justice and right, of men-are but parts of the great integral piety, the love of God, the Author of truth, of justice and of love. The normal delight in God's world, the animal joy in material things, the intellectual in truth and beauty, the moral in justice and right, the affectional delight in the persons of men, the satisfaction of labor, of hand or head-all these are a part of our large delight in God; for religion is not one thing, and life another, but the two are one. The normal and conscious worship of the Infinite God will enlarge every faculty, enhancing its quantity and quality of delight. I love the Infinite God as the ideal of all perfection. With this there vanishes away all fear of ultimate evil for anything that is. . . As nocturnal darkness, or the gray mist of horror, is chased away before the rising sun, so dread and horror flee off before the footsteps of love. A sense of complete and absolute trust in God comes in, gives repose and peace, filling you with tranquility and dear delight in God.

THEODORE PARKER.

THOU, the primal fount of life and peace,
Who shedd'st Thy breathing quiet all around,
In me command that pain and conflict cease,
And turn to music every jarring sound.

So, firm in steadfast hope, in thought secure,
In full accord to all Thy world of joy,
May I be nerved to labors high and pure,

And Thou, Thy child, to do Thy work employ.

XXIX.

The Spirit of God.

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isaiah lxi. I.

WHAT need is there for us to attempt an exact defi

nition of what this spirit of God and what its relation to the Deity is, and by what door, and in what manner it descends upon man? The signs of its presence cannot be mistaken; signs, not of time, but of eternity; the same yesterday, to-day and to-morrow. Go and bring good tidings to the humble and the lowly; go and bind up the broken hearted; go and proclaim liberty to captives; captives in the fetters of sin, in the chains of superstition, in the bonds of worldliness; go, if thou hast the power to do so, open the door of their prison and let the slave go forth in the power and dignity of his manhood; and then you shall know that

the spirit of God is upon you. If you can do this, there will enter into your heart a feeling of joy, of peace, and of hope, such as no other spiritual experience brings; and if you are amongst those "who mourn for Zion," it will give you "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." But that sacred spirit is grieved away the moment it is touched by pride, and when you imagine you can exorcise it by formulas, and retain it by dogmatic cords. The throne of grace is either accessible to all human hearts, or to none, and the spirit of God comes in answer to all yearning prayers, or it is deaf to all alike. Brethren, it is altogether in your hands to find out where the truth lies.

THOU, whose

power o'er moving worlds presides, Whose voice created and whose wisdom guides;

'Tis Thine alone to calm the yearning breast,

With silent confidence and holy rest.

G. G.

XXX.

BOD

The God of all Souls.

Thou hast been our refuge in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, or ere Thou hadst formed the earth and the world—yea, from eternity to eternity Thou art God.-Psalm xc. I-2.

OD is eternity—God is truth-God is holiness, He has nothing; he is all; the whole heart conceives Him, but no thought; and we are only His thought, when He is