The Press., 1893-09-21
Deus De1ectat.
BY REV. 0. E. HARRIS, D. D.

ing, after the heats and SultrlneSS and storms of August, stood with a friend, Mir. Luman Orcutt, on the summit of the hills that surround the quiet valley in which our town of Stafford lies.
 The scene stretched out before me, mile after mile, mile after mile, until the far off mountains, in their dim remote ness, stood blue and indistinct and bill lowy, like succession of ocean waves ]; and the outline where they touched the sky, like the sea-horizon, suggested the idea of immense and indefinite space be- yond.
 The intervening landscape lay pictur- esque and charming before me. The pleas ing undulations of hill and valley the varied shades of the trees, the different colors of the fields, the glassy lakes, the sparkling streams, the white villages, the larger towns, the beautiful blue curtain covering all, the brilliant sunshine, the soft pure air, combined to produce sensations oi exquisite pleasure. As I gazed on all the manifold beauties spread out before me, and drank in with delight all the sweet influences of the time and place, found myself involuntarily repeating the quaint and significant Latin phrase "Deahs delectot :" God delights Himself. As glanced hither and thither, noting this and that aspect of the view, said it again and again; "'Deats delect0t,' Goo Aas been de1ightirg Himse!f in the creation of all this beauty spread out so lavishly before me-" As I looked still longer unused on this wise.
 Wherever we may look through all the creations of God, we see beauty. This has become so trite a saying as to pass for truism. But regarded in this per. sonal aspect, that God has been delight ing Himself in thus perfecting and adorn | ing these works of His hands, their won ders and beauties assume new and most delightful interest
 The tiniest, most microscopic, animal cules the shells of the chalk formations the fossils of the old red sandstone; the lonely flowers born to blush unseen, only by their Makers eye; the myriad forms of wonder and mystery enshrined in ocear caves; the shape of the snow flakes; the curve of the snow drifts; the figure ot crystals: the azure of the sky; the grace. full combinations of the clouds; the yer. dant carpeting of the plains; the grand outline of the mountains; the glitter o1 the silvery river as it glides in tranquil beauty between it's messy banks; all these, and thousands of like instances are but so many exhibitions of their Great Artificers love of the Beautiful.
 "He hath made everything beautiful il it's time" The Infinite Mind has found delight in the delicate chiseling and ex. qulsite coloring of the tiny sea shell; ir the perfect modelling, and thorough adaptation of parts, of vegetable and ami, maj forms of life too small for us to con- ceive of; as well as in the piling of the majestic mountains; and the scooping out of those awe inspiring canyons, where one is crushed with the sense of his owr feels himself alone in the universe witt his Creator.
 This inspiring idea is especially sug gested to us at this season of the year, b, the swift succession and variety of thu changes on the landscape. As ". watch it's kaleidoscopic transformation. from day to day, their surpassing beauty and their whole effect as a panorama O. gorgeous enchantment, we can but say l Who but God Who delighted in beauty l would have so arranged and harmonized 1 the texture of the leaf and the effect O. l frost and age, as to give to us, this mar vellous feast for sense and soul, before the bleakness and barrenness of the Win ter?
 Not only has God placed us in world of beauty. He has given to us God likeness, in the capacity to enjoy th' beautiful, and the power to reproduce it by fertile brain, trained eye and ear, ant skillful hand. We should cultivate dili gently this God given faculty. We shoul' not go through life like moles, blind ant in darkness. We should rather open ou eyes and ears, throw wide every avenu of our souls to beauty, and freely receiv it's sweet, charming, and ennobling ef fects upon heart and life. The intoxica tion of delight we feel in the presence o perfect beauty, the pleasure with whicl we listen to the tuneful accords of Ma ture, the cultivation of taste, of high an noble conceptions of art, all these ally u to our Maker, Who has implanted within us the elements of His own love of tn Beautiful.
 If these things are so, if God cares s much for physical beauty, for perfec tion of form, for charm of coloring, fo harmony of rythmic utterance in the aud ible voices of Nature, for perfect adapta tion to uses, if when He looked upon tn work of His hands, "the perfect world b what must be His estimate of Moral Ez cellenee? With what intensity of deligh must He regard spiritual beauty? HoN must He loathe moral deformity and ug Illness, and hate wickedness? Is not tn law of affinity, sufficient of itself, to ez clude from the presence and companion ship of such pure, holy, and holiness loving Being, all that is impure and LII holy. Verify, "Without holiness no ma shall see the Lord," is not an arbitrar decree, but statement of fact, founde on the necessity of things. On the othe hand, what keenness of pleasure must H take in pure and upright souls, fitted b this same law, to live forevermore ami the perfections of the sublime and holy in Gods heaven and presence?
 I It is for this that God has placed u here, where every sight and sound of Ma fTra ic of hnoI1tu and baYuoapr opd bo