The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-15

the colors of the sky and all the
sweetness of the earth had agreed
together to fashion something which
| could tell the child of God how much
his Father delighted to please him.
Plainly enough the ear was con-
structed most curiously for the trans
mission of sound; and it might have
subserved all the necessities of life
without ever having caught one of
those strains of music, one of those
sobs of the sea, one of those plaintive
cadences of the wind, which now diff
fuse through the sensitive frame the
delicious sense of melody. The con-
formation of the organ, its cells and
tubes and drum, would have attested
the skill of our Maker as well, if it
had served only to report those dull
sounds which relate to needful work;
but we begin to think of something
more than skill, even of goodness
playing in its own exuberance.
"Beasts and all cattle, creeping
things and flying fowl" objects in
troduced by name in one of the
sacred lyrics, are invited to join in
the chorus of universal praise. All
these might have met the ends and
offices of their existence, according to
any scheme of utilitarianism, even if
they had been made to plod or sleep
through joyless existence; while in
truth, the gambols of the whole ami
NAL creation are forever expressing
how much of pleasure belongs to their
lot. 1t is morning in the spring,
warm and sunny; the air is all alive
with insects, sporting in jocund life,
whose existence seems to us nothing
but pleasure; and the birds-those
teachers whom Christ has placed be-
side the lilies, whose brilliant plum
age and graceful shapes often remind
us of the flowers, endowed with life
and motion-fairly shrek out their
delight, as they skim and sail and
shoot about, as if making fun of all
the laws of nature. "The peoples
and the corn blades" as we read in
Sir Philip Sydney's Defence of
Poesy, might chide the lark for fly
ing so high, striving and straining
after mere air, losing its time, and
bringing back nothing but weary
wings and an empty stomach" but
her sweet voice and soaring wings
belong to God, and she goes up circl-
ing higher and higher to pour out
her jubilant song at the very gate of
heaven; and the "Bobolink," that
jolly favorite of boyhood, would have
performed its Office as we'll in clear
ing the ground and trees of noxious
grubs, if it had been unfinished
with those liquid notes which come
trilling out of its throbbing throat,
when seated on that slender top
bough which is even now "tilting up
and down with his effort in that last
Joyous cadenza." See the lambs on
the hill side, walking up together SO
soberly, like a company of children
making business of play, and of
sudden wheeling short about and
scampering down so full of glee; they
would have supplied joints for your
table, and feeces for your coat, with
out that exuberant joy.
The trout in the stream would sub
serve the use of man for food just as
we'll if it had been made stiff and
shapeless as stick, instead of spring
ing through the sparkling stream, in
the fulness of elastic life; and the
brook itself could have turned a mill
wheel or watered meadow, if it ran
more straight and grave like an arti-
fetal canal, instead of winding about
at it's own sweet will, falling every
uOW-duu-Lueu over tu6 IOChs. duu,
like child, laughing at it's own tum-
BILE, composing itself to a more decor
GUS department, and tripping away
among the grass with so many must
cal murmurings. The clover might
have been just as succulent for pas
turage, if it had not been half so fair
and fragrant as it now is; and the sky
might have served as we'll for can
opy, if it had been one cold, melan-
choly blue instead of an every-shift.
ing panorama of royal colors, with
sun-rising and sun-setting of imperial
splendors, and sparkling by night
with all the glory of the stars. We
begin now to comprehend why, in
one of the Psalms, the sun and the
moon, the waters and the stars of
light, snow and hail, and wind and
vapor, hills and trees, heights and
depths, are summoned to the act of
praising their Maker, for they all are
but different expressions of Gods ex
uberant delight.