intellectual system. It is scarcely possible to conceive a fuller type and symbol of fortuitous irregularity than the distribution of land and sea in our terrestrial globe. All is so multiform and shapeless, so totally unlike any home that could have been traced, à priori, for the habitation of mankind, that the presence of natural laws and physical causes is almost lost in the bewildering complexity of sea and continent, of lakes and islands, of rugged mountains and rivers ramified into endless windings, which meet the eye, and distract the memory, in every department of the physical geography of the earth. Combine together the opposite lessons of the two sciences, and we learn that the Most High is at once a Law-giver and a Sovereign; that He rules the universe by moral laws, fixed and enduring as the firmament of heaven; but that He is free to dispose, according to His good pleasure, of every separate world, and of all the creatures he has made; and that no abstract formulas, physical or moral, can ever include that system of creation, which must resolve itself everywhere, amidst the stability of its laws, into the secret will and pleasure of the supreme and almighty King. If we are tempted, from the complex variety of human affairs, to think that the world has been abandoned to be the sport of mere chance, let us lift up our eyes on high, and remember who has created all these worlds of light, and fixed their courses, for thousands of years, by a law of such stupendous grandeur and exquisite simplicity; a law which a child may utter in a moment, but of which all the science of ages cannot trace out the innumerable corollaries. Here we may learn, amidst all the variety of change, to believe in the enduring firmness of the Divine counsels; and that He who telleth the number of the stars, and

calleth them by their names, is able to control all the innumerable and inexplicable changes of the moral universe. But when, on the other hand, the contemplation of these fixed and enduring laws is ready to degenerate into the sense of bondage, under a destiny that excludes all freedom, let us ask ourselves, by what abstract speculations on the system of being we could ever have divined the actual shape of the continents of our globe, the disposition of its mountain chains, the distribution and size of its countless islands? No; here we must bow in silent reverence, before the sovereign pleasure of our God. In vain do the dwellers on such a world forge chains for their own conscience, and strive to persuade themselves that this vast system of universe is merely the inevitable issue of abstract laws, where the choice of free agents has no place, and blind Fate is the only ruler and disposer of all things. It is true that many physical laws, simple in themselves, may have concurred to form our earth, such as it meets the eye of the traveller. But still, we have only to look on a terrestrial globe, and to remember, this is the actual surface on which the great mystery of redeeming love has been revealed for six thousand years-the theatre chosen for the great moral conflict between good and evil; and the dreams of fatalism will disappear. We shall learn to rest quietly on the revealed truth, that God is a sovereign; that His Divine perfection includes an infinite freedom of will, as well as an infinite necessity of moral goodness and wisdom, and that if it be hard or impossible for our dim reason to reconcile these contrasted hues, in the brightness of His glory, we do well, like the seraphim, to veil our faces in His presence, and silently to adore the majesty of the Lord. The heavens declare His glory, and reveal the firmness and constancy

of those moral perfections and holy laws, by which He governs the universe He has made. But even our low earth, by its very irregularities, may teach us another lesson, scarcely less important. Its seas and continents, its mountains and islands, strangely and confusedly mingled together, may remind us of that Divine freedom of choice, which is one main perfection of the Most High. His plans of mercy, amidst all their holy wisdom, shroud themselves ever in a veil of deep mystery. No abstract reasonings of the highest and noblest created intellect, will ever be able to reduce them to a formula of cause and effect, or to substitute a chain of moral laws, however wise or perfect, for the will of the Supreme Law-giver. He doeth according to his will among the armies of heaven and the inhabiters of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto Him-What doest thou? The heavens, in their stedfast laws, are an emblem of the necessary perfection of His nature, who cannot lie, nor be tempted with evil; but the earth, in its variegated surface, is equally a memorial of His perfect freedom, whose will is a perfect law to itself, and who orders all things, in heaven and earth, according to His own secret pleasure—a will, guided always by infinite goodness and wisdom, but also the will of a supreme and sovereign king.

T. R. B.

THE SPIRIT OF NATURE.-No. IV.

'Soft roll your fragrance, herbs, and fruits, and flowers,
In mingled clouds of incense unto Him,

Whose breath perfumes you, and whose pencil paints.'
Thomson's Hymn of the Seasons.

AN heir of immortality lay upon the verge of the grave; earth, and its sights and sounds, seemed to have faded from his perceptions, while exhausted nature passively awaited the moment of dissolution. The sufferer had loved the floral world, and one of his friends, scarcely hoping that consciousness remained, placed a magnificent bouquet of fresh flowers on his couch. The dying pilgrim inhaled their fragrance, enjoyed their brilliant hues, and raising his eyes to heaven, with his latest breath, murmured silent hymns.'

Flowers are indeed 'silent hymns,' visible harmonics, bearing witness to the Creator's love to man. Herbs and trees were necessary for the physical comforts and sustenance of man, but not so flowers; all the constituents of health and animal life were complete without them. But the Supreme was not content with supplying the wants of man: He wished to supply also mental pleasures: He wished not merely to form a useful world, but a beautiful world; therefore, from the lofty mountains to the shady glens, He shook a shower of variegated and fragrant loveliness over the earth.

'Oh, Father, Lord,

The All-beneficent, we bless thy name

That thou hast mantled the green earth with flowers,
Linking our hearts to nature.'

The household word 'garden' has been consecrated by hallowed associations with some of the most important events of creation and redemption. The first thoughts of the first human being were gladdened by floral beauty. When he awoke to the consciousness of existence, rejoicing in the lustre of the new-born world, he found himself in a garden, surrounded by all the luxuriant verdure of oriental vegetation, trees dropping perfumes and gums, flowers glowing in the rich hues of an Asiatic climate.

'As if the rainbows of the fresh wild spring
Had blossomed where they fell.'

The tempter appeared even in Paradise, and expulsion from that favoured region was the first and immediate punishment consequent on the fall.

We pass over an interval of four thousand years. In the valley of Jehoshaphat, which often resounded to the harp of David, there lies another oriental garden. The shadows of evening have long since closed upon the dark olive-trees and feathery palms, the white marble temple no longer gleams above the cypress-tops, the mountains which stand round Jerusalem are wrapped in the veil of night. The calm silence of the hour is only broken by the soft-flowing stream of Kedron ; the still air is heavy with the perfume of citron-flowers and pomegranates; nature seems hushed to repose: yet there, even in that peaceful retreat, the extremity of agony which can oppress humanity is even now convulsing a human frame. A man kneels among the flowers, wrestling with such agonizing sufferings, that drops of blood course each other down his pale counte

nance.

Amid the silence of night his prayer is heard, "Fa