The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-06-20
The Lesson Of the Sky.

It is n strange thing how little Il
general people know about the sky.
1t is the part of creation in which
nature has done more for the sake
of pleasing man, more for the sole
and evident purpose OF talking to
him and teaching him, than in any
other of her works, and it is just the
part in which we least attend to her,
Thele are not many other works III
which some more material or essen
tial purpose than the mere pleasing
of man IS not answered by every part
of their organization; but every es-
sential purpose of the sky might, so
far as we know, be answered, If once
in three days or theroabout a great
ugly black rain-cloud were brought
up over the blue, and everything
well watered, and so all lett blue
again till next time, with perhaps
film of morning or evening mist or
dew. And instead of this there i'
not moment Of any day Of our lives
when nature is not producing scene
after scene, picture after picture, glo-
ry after glory, and working still up
on such exquisite AID constant pnn'
ciples of the most perfect beauty,
that it is quite certain that 1t Is all
done for us, and intended Tor our
perpetual pleasure. And every man,
5 wherever placed, however far from
other sources of interest or OF beau
ty, has this doing for him constant
$ ". The noblest scenes OF the earth
l can be seen and known by but few;
Z. it is not intended that man should
live always in the midst OF them, nc
g iniurcs them by his presence, he
r ceases to feel thea if he be always
g with them; but the sky is Tor all;
l. bripht as it is, it is not too "bught
:, and good for human natures daily
r. food; p it is fitted in all its functions
t, for the perpetual comfort and eXalt-
e inc of the heart, for the soothing
j., and purifying it from its dross and
10 iust Sometimes gentle, sometimes
r couricious, sometimes awful, never
rt the same for two moments together;
of almost human in its passions, almost
is spiritual in its tenderness, almost
y divine in it's inhnity, its appeal to
IS. what is immortal in use IS as dlS-
he tinct as it's ministry of chastisement
rt- or of blessing to what is mortal IS
ne essential. And yet we never attehd
+ to it, we never make 1t II subject Oh
by thought, but us it has to do with our
on animal sensations, we look upon all
ne by which it speaks to us more ci ar
to " than to brutos, upon all which
"u l'u bears witness of the intention OF the
26, Supreme, that we are to receive
ar, more from the covering vault tna''
it the light and the dew which we share
eS' with the weed and the worm, only
'n1 ne no q succession of meaningless anc
Of monotonous accidents too common
to and too vain to be worthy OF Il mo-
aid ment of watchtulness, or glance O
ltS admiration. II in our momenjS o
,ho i utter idleness and insipidlty, we tVlri
to the sky as a last resource Whici
IAN of it's phenomena do we speak ol
One says it has been wet, ana IN
to other it has been windy, and anothe
Var it has been warm. Who, among th
as whole chattering crowd, can tell m
l", laa Of the forms and the preciplces, o
sIa. n fine chain of tall white mountain
by tha. girded the horizon at noon yes
cle- terday? Who saw the narrow SUI
the BENIN that came out OF the south ant
AIRY smote upon their SUBMITS until the
"of. : melted and moldered away IN aus
iza. of blue rain? Who saw the dance {
,try the dead clouds when the sunI'8l
nor left them last night, and the |e' we.
7Ih In wind blew them before it like VIII
,int- cred leaves? All has passed unr'
for oretted AS unseen; or if the apatih
ieer be ever shaken off, even for an IL
ties stant, it is only by what is gross {
Eod Eo, what is extraordinary; and yet 1T
new w not in the broad and fierce manlie
crai tations of the elemental eneFsiG
civ, not in the clash of the hail nor ~
und l drift of the whirlwind that the hlSl
Wv -, est characters of the sublime are u' q,
into yeloped. God is not in the eai u u
ress quake, nor in the fire, but IN tho , s,ll
ting small voice They are but the dun
and ana low faculties OF our nature w@hle @
'%ss' ,nts can only be addressed through lam am;
Of black and lightning, 1t is IN gun
and subdued passages Of unobtrusl, sn
$. majesty, the deep, and the calm, an !
, in tho perpetual-that which mus mu5' ., =,
mill sought ere it is seen and D;eb lDvsH ~ ~
cum it is understood, things when u u
last last angels work out for us daily III III
ober 'T"% vet very eternally, which are ne net, "
the wanting, and never repeated. "n,C anC
port, are to be found always, yet M eaC
re in foupd but once; it is through the' !
t IN that the lesson Of devotion Is chlel
O. '"' n taught, and the blessing OF pe"u'
ed to eiven.-Rusk'in.
ct of
yUotorn r,ilrOal car the OF