The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-05

there is no religion in it. A man
looks out upon beautiful scene in
nature, and experiences an emotion,
and praise to God goes up from his
soul. Some think that there is no
religion in that; that it may die away
and leave the man as miserable SEN
sualist as ever. But there is religion
in it.; the emotion is breath from
God, awakened by the sight of God
as manifested in nature; and the ten
dency of nature is to lead us up to
the highest truth and highest re-
ligion. When nan, from the study
of nature, comes to feel a glow of
gratitude to God; when, in this blue
canopy that stretches over us, God
seems to come near us, do not say
that the emotion, thus awakened is
not religious.
Religion and Nature.
This is not much, perhaps; but the
people think there is no religious
feeling at all except that got at
church by the prayer, the sermon,the
peculiar form, the peculiar phraseol-
ogy. Some people will take a SER
mon that has the dullest monotony
of phrases, and SO long as these are
special phrases, deem it eminently
religious" but let the naturalist un-
fold his experiments or discoveries,
glowing with the wonders of divine
truth and wisdom, and relate them in
his own fresh language, and there is
nothing evangelical in this; it is only
an exalted kind of Paganism. I say
it may be, perhaps. but little more
than the best kind of Paganism if he
stop there. But you may take the
avenues of natural science in our day,
and they lead us to some of the
grandest religious propositions and
some of the freshest religious
thoughts. If we go to nature with
our pride, vanity, and cold specula-
ton, we shall get nothing out of ma
ture but pride vanity and cold specu-
lation. But l want to know how
much better than Paganism, Hea-
thenism, Pharisaism great many
get out of the Bible, when they go to
it with their hard, cold theology, with
their self Righteousness, with their
dark views of God and man. And as
with the Bible, SO with nature. You
may go to one or the other in the
proper spirit, and Gods truths and
Christ's truths are simple and close
at hand. 1t is great thing, seeing
how much God is in nature, how at
the present day the human mind is
dwelling on the great facts of nature,
how, with the lens of the telescope
and the microscope, nature is drawn
more and more to our apprehension.
1t is great thing to see how God is
leading us into religious life and re-
ligious truth. There are more aven-
ues than one through nature as well
as the Bible. 1t is a great thing to
see the spiritual truth that all nature
symbolizes. Take that familiar and
grand fact l saw this last week on the
verge of Niagara. There were the
crystal battlements; there was the
rainbow round and about the throne;
there, ascending and descending,
were outlines of spirit-forms, with
their sweeping, glorious garments of
white; there, in perpetual acclama-
ton, with the voice of many waters,
and with the voice of mighty thun-
behring's, went up the ascription, Sal
lelujah! for the Lord God omnipo-
tent reigneth."
Who can go out this beautiful
spring day, when every leaf is an OPP
en- hymn book; when every blade of
grass is as reverent worshiper before
God; when all is light and bursting
beauty about us, and say that the
man who sees the truth through these
has no religion, because it has not
comein peculiar phrases and under a
peculiar set of words?
ro;+I, bx tba wuysida
"There are two books (says Sir
Thomas Browne) whence l collect my
divinity. Besides that written one
of God, another of his servant, Ma
ture-that universal and public man
uscript that lies exposed to the eyes
of all. Those who never saw him in
the one, have discovered him in the
other. Surely the heathens knew
better how to read and join these
mystical letters than we Christians,
who cast a more careless eye on these
common hieroglyphics, and disdain
to suck divinity from the flowers of
nature"
Religious truth, the highest relig-
ious truth, lies close by the way, if