It might perhaps appear, on a closer inspection, that, “all discord, is harmony not understood." This subject is quaintly illustrated by Owen Felltham, thus, "The whole world is kept in order, by Discord; and every part of it is but a more particular composed jar. Not a man, not a beast, not a creature, but have something to ballast their lightness. One scale is not always in depression, nor the other lifted very high, but the alternate wave of the beam keeps it ever in the play of motion. From the pismire of the tufted hill, to the monarch on the raised throne, nothing, but hath somewhat to awe it. We are all here like birds that boys let fly in strings. When we mount too high we have that which pulls us down again. What man is it which lives so happily, which fears not something that would sadden his soul if it fell? Nor is there any whom calamity doth so much tristitiate, as that he never sees the flashes of some warming joy. Beasts with beasts are terrified and delighted. Man with man is awed and defended. States with states are bounded and upholded. And, in all these, it makes greatly for the Maker's glory that such an admirable harmony should be produced out of such an infinite discord. The world is both a perpetual war and a wedding. Heraclitus called a Discord and Concord the universal parents. And to rail on discord, says the Father of the Poets, is to speak ill of Nature. As in music, sometimeş

one string is louder, and sometimes another, yet never one long, nor never all at once. So, sometimes one state gets a monarchy, sometimes another. Sometimes one element is violent, now another. Yet, never was the whole world under one long; nor were all the elements raging together. Every string has his use, and his tune, and his turn."*

In the previous chapter it has been shewn, that the universal law in the kingdom of Nature, exhibits endless modifications from a single primary type. The variety of forms in the works of Creation have their counterpart in the diversity of modes of worship in Redemption. There is, everywhere, a unity of plan, and purpose, emerging from apparent confusion.

We have endeavoured to point out that the study of Natural Science, so far from interfering with the spirituality of the Divine law, only tends to make it shine forth in the simplicity and purity of its native light. Godliness, though His crown of glory, and diadem of beauty, is after all but one of the Almighty's works; and it is of the very essence of the consistent believer's mind to acknowledge Him in all His works. He delights to recognise His goodness in the mechanism of Nature, and the mind of man, and the progress of society, as in the great and wide sea," or, "the cedars of Lebanon,” or,

*Felltham's Resolves.

"the springs which run among the hills," or, "the wine that maketh glad the heart," or, "the birds," or, "the high hills," or, "the young lions," or, the other countless instances of the Divine handywork that never have been, and never can be counted. This fallen and guilty planet which is now alienated from God, and from which every instance of the Divine goodness might justly be withdrawn, even that is full of His riches. And, the large and sanctified mind of the believer discerns, and rejoices in those riches, wherever they are seen to sparkle.

When the Psalmist, who had a large share of this generous spirit, looked abroad upon the mighty field of Creation, we find him contemplating the wonders of Nature, and the arts of life, and the labours of man,* with an admiration as pure, though not as exalted, as that which arose from the salvation of God, and elsewhere he offers them as kindred instances and illustrations of the " mercy that endureth for ever."† Pope's well known lines may illustrate this idea,

"See him from Nature rising slow to Art!

To copy Instinct, then, was Reason's part;
Thus, then, to Man the voice of Nature spake-
Go, from the Creatures thy instructions take."

The following extract from Bacon's "Advancement of
Learning" probably suggested these lines to the Poet.

*Ps. civ. + Ps. cxxxvi.

They who discourse of the inventions, and, origin of things, refer them rather to Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, and Serpents, than to Man. So that it was no marvel (the manner of antiquity being to consecrate inventors) that the Egyptians had so few human idols in their temples, but almost all brute. Who taught the raven in a drought to throw pebbles into a hollow tree when she spied water, that the water might rise so as she might come to it? Who taught the bee to sail through such a vast sea of air, and to find the way from a field in flower a great way off, to their hive? Who taught the ant to bite every grain of corn she burieth in her hill, lest it should take root and grow?" There can be but one answer to these queries. God, their Almighty and All Merciful Maker taught these creatures everything adapted not only to their wants, but to their little amusements! Bacon might have asked, who taught the Nautilus how to ascend from the depth of the ocean to the surface of the illuminated waters, so as to enjoy half-an-hour's sunshine, sport with its companions, and then return to what has been so beautifully termed "its august dwelling"? Oh! none but the Great, the Good, the Gracious Father of all, who is "loving unto every man, and whose tender mercies are over ALL His works." [Psalm cxlv. 9.]

There is a vague, sour, and indiscriminate mode of

denouncing the world, and all that it contains, as an unqualified mass of misery, corruption, and disorder, which is as plainly contradicted by matters of fact, as it is plainly repugnant to the spirit of the Bible. Fallen as this world is, there are things in it which essentially profit a little. The wonders of Nature, the arts of life, the discoveries of science, the immortal mind of man, and the abstract processes of thought, have a certain degree of beauty and utility, independent of all consideration of sin, or, godliness. And the spirit of the Gospel, which is a spirit of gladness, recognises them. Seeing everything through its own pure, clear, and delightful colour, it is quick to observe "whatsoever things are true, and whatsoever things are lovely," and cheerfully prizes them to the full extent of their value.

Every man imbued with the same spirit, tinges the objects around him in the light of his own large and generous mind. mind. The spirit of true religion is a spirit of light and love. The Church of God is privileged to

enjoy largely this spirit, and it is day to breathe a little of it out.

important in this our And, surely, no one

can say, that there is not ample scope for its exercise! The concerns of human life are so varied, and entangled, and subject to such rapid and complicated changes, that there is no man beyond the sphere of our sympathy and love. The throbbings of the human conscience, the