Nevada County picayune., 1888-07-25
Nature and Natures God.
AZ ESSAY READ BEFORE THE OrACHITA COLLEGE, BY W. II. BASpEN, OF
 NEVADA COUNTY. ARK.

he UlNlDC Author or nature Hds so created us that we naturally love and admire the great works of His own hand. We believe this love and admiration for the beautiful, the wonderful and sublime in nature has ever been present in man. If rAt, why! ask. Did our Creator s<ay the creation of man until by
 His omnipotcnt power the beautiful
 garden was made ready for his re- crption. In our imagination we
 can see the first pair as they walk
 the howery paths of their happy dwelling place. partaking of the rich
 and lucious fruits which surround them on all sides listening to the
 beautiful birds perched among the boughs above them and singing their sweet notes of joy, viewing the cloud capped mountains as they rear their lofty heads towards the heavens: ::
 and also the waters which flow frow
 their heights on through the streams
 of the garden forever. All these grand and beautiful creations were
 for the comfort and happiness of the first pair and for us their decend-
 ants. The grand and glorious laws of nature are the same to-day that they were at the creation of man :;
 the birds of the forest sing the same sweet notes the breeZes wait
 to us the same sweet fragrance from
 the flowers; the sparkling waters
 roll on in splendor as they did through the four rivers of the beauti-
 ful Eden, and we inheriting the na-
 ture of the dwellers in the garden
 still aredelighted with such beauties.
 Beauty may be found in all the works of nature if we but search it out. and lesson of rare value may be learned even from the mountains of stone above our heads; from the tiny
 blades of the meadows, or from the sturdy oak of the forest; from the rills which trickle down the mountain side, or from the majestic river with it's roaring flood of waters. Still ! these are not all the beauties of na- ture. The darkness of the night ! brings forth its share in the heavens above We stand beneath the cano- py of the heavens, on a calm and clear midsummer night, all nature seemingly is wrapt in slumbet, but we may turn our eyes toward heaven and behold many beauties there. Ind silver rays of light from thous- and stars and planets strike our eyes and tell us of the beautiful works of nature in the heavens above. To ward the east we see the Pleiades ri- .Ang in all their glory; while the Mighty orb of Jupiter is sinking to- ward the western horizon Andronda rom the south sends forth her ef- fulgcnt rays, while the steady Point CTS of the North are ever looking up Go PolariS the guiding star of the pole. With such beauties above Us
 5r sit in silence and watch for the
 .pming day, soon the twilight of the eastern horizon is seen approaching ,he darkness begins to melt away,
 stars of the fifth and sixth magni- cude are no longer visible, as the dawn approaches. still brighter ones fade from view soon the whole con cave of the heavens is filled with the glorious light of day, all nature on earth seems to arouse from SlumheI
 and again rejoiceS in the glorious sunlight of heaven.
 Bnt while we are contemplating the beautiful in nature the wonder fu naturally arises in our minds. This beautiful earth of ours SO Won- dcrful in all its unchangism and so perfect in each law that governs it has not always been thus. There
 was time we are told, when it had none of it's beauties. but it's surface was bare and covered with the watcr- of the deep. The wonderful chang ; es it hae undergone since that time
 have ever been a subject of much
 interest to lovers of nature. Just how the waters were collected, and
 how the dry land appeared. how the mountains were raised. and how the ] valleys were formed: how the basins for the lakes were made. and how
 the siVcrs cut their channels to the seas. will be wonder to the people of all ages. The mighty ocean, the emblem of eternity; the great conti- ncnts, alternating with plains and Iuonutains and thrpa1n1 with thouS-