The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-07-21

the fresh grOWthS OF the sprlng-tlme.
The prevailing aspect of nature is
beautiful, and herein lies moral use.
The outward evermore suggests, en-
courages and draws out the inward.
The glory of the material awakes to
life the dormant seeds in the spiritual.
''No man" says Robertson, "knows the
highest good, who does not know
beauty. The beauty of holiness is its
highest aspect. To act Alright because
it is beautiful, and, because noble, true,
self denying acts, commend themselves
to soul attuned to harmony is the
highest kind of goodness. To see the
king in his beauty is the loftiest and
most unearthly attainment. Can any
one be keenly alive to this, who has no
heart for external beauty? Surely he
who is callous to form and color and
unmoved by visible beauty, is not
above, but below our nature; he may
be good, but not in the highest order of
goodness"
Virtue is essentially lovely, sin is
hideous defC rmity. \ righteous act is
in harmony with waving grain, and
flashing stream, and plain Of many col
ored flowers The glamor that invests
sin must be dissipated. Look upon
the vision of John. II saw a rainbow
around the throne" and know that
only the moral law is clothed with
splendor such as arches the sky in the
track of the storm.
There is a lesson of confidence to be
learned from the stability of nature.
The psalmist looked upon the hills ard
called them everlasting. To him the
ealt tn was established so that it could
not be moved. The writer of Ecclesi-
astes beheld one generation after
another passing away, but ''the earth
abideth forever" Says Emerson, "Any
distrust in the permanency of laws
would paralyze the faculties Of man.
Their permanence is sacredly respected
and his faith therein is perfect. The
wheel-springs of man are all set to the
hypothesis Of the permanence of
nature The local disturbance of an
earthquake or tornado does not affect
the general stability. The incidental
shock may, indeed, be needed to pre-
serve the entire system. Somewhere
its results maintain the evenness of the
balance. Tie apparent unsettling is
the perpe tual equilibrium. The moral
effect of this stability, unconsciously
penetrating heart and brain, from life's
earliest moment, is more powerful than
we might coneede. It is a part of us.
In spite OF ourselves We believe. IsioA
testing that we have faith in nothing,
we trust in nature. It is more to US
than we can put into words to feel that,
when misfOrtunes come, and familiar
faces no longer brighten our circle, our
dear old fields and skies and forests
remain. We may feel that everything
is going till we set foot upon the earth
and lift up our eyes to the stars. They
are still there. They do not desert us.
Whatever may fail, the sunrise never
failed us yet" Whatever may be
uncertain, the snow. flakes will fly, and
the spring will come, and seed-time
and harvest re turn. From the clamOr
of tongues, from the conflicts of creeds,
from the tossing of doubts, one may
take refuge in the thought that the
world is established and its order fixed.
Here is foundation which rome can
dispute. If he builds upon it his tenn
pie, he will not build in vain.
The laws of the universe are ordained
forever. Even those things that seem
most capricious are seen, at length, to
be under law, to proceed with more or
less regularity. The wandering comet
has been yoked to the universal order.
Earthquakes and tOrnadoes are not
exempt. They come from unyarying
causes and produce certain results.
Their causes and the periods of their
operation will yet be ascertained.
Nothing in nature is hap-hazaTd or goes
slip-shod. We are in a fixed system
whose laws are ordained in wisdom and
goodness. Nature makes no mistakes.
There is no screw loose in the universe.
The shower may be delayed when the
fields are parched, but the wisdom of
the delay will at length be justified.
The sterner and severer operations
effect a needed end. These adverse
forces have also a disciplinary effect
upon man. They bring out his resources
and make him strong and wise. They
teach him his dependence upon law and
the necessity of obedience. He is under
the care of Providence who is in har-
mOny with the laws of nature.
One who comes in frequent con tact
with nature must imbibe something of
her devOut and reyeTent spirit. ''He,"
is called by one, "the happiest man
who learns from nature the lesson of
worship" There is a presence we see
not, but which the very trees and
grasses seem to feel, under whose in
huence they are hushed and subdued.
lone among them one has no sDirit of