grnndenr needs not to be pointed out. Ordinarily, indeed, we think of man's dependence on .n~ture. If the thought be_ pushed to its limits, it ends in materialism. Spiritual rehg10~, on the contrary, sees m the changes of nature a human pathos; its waste and des~l~t.1on the effect of human sin,_ of violated Di l'in_e }aws; its flourishing aspect and fertility the effect of human obedience and true religion (cf. eh. xi. 6-9 • xxx. 26 • xl~ii: 19; Ii. 16). "9pon the ~i~cult interpretation of such language much difference of opm10n naturally anses; but it 1s open to all to catch the inspiration of the thoughts. I. 'l'HE DIVINE EXULTATION ON THE NEW CREATION. It was said of the Creator at the beginning that he looked with complacent joy upon his works. All was very good. It was the "joy of God to see a happy world." How much deeper the Divine com- placenc; in _moral renewal! Note the emphasis and iteration of the thought. Rejoicing, e:wltatw11, is the very key-note of the passa,,a-e; weeping and the sound of crying is to be as unheard as at the gayest scene of festival. .And may we not feel that beneath all the sadness, the discord, the gloom of this enigmatic world, the prophetic pulse of the Divine creation, love, is ever exultantlv beating? Mll.y we not believe that there is ever before his eyP. the picture, rising to clearness of outline and brilliancy of colour out of Erebos and Chaos, of eternal day, of the new heavens and earth wherein dwell right- eousness? '!'here should be in every heart a prophetic sympathy, which should vibrate in unison with these oracles of God. IL PARADIS.A.IC PICTCJRES. Under imagery, partly endeared to the Hebrew heart and fancy, partly of Oriental tinge in general, the heart of mau resents the doom of an "untimely" death-it seems contrary to the intention of nP.ture; and aspires to length of days as a 11:ood. Here it is predicated that no death in infancy shall occur; that one who dies at the age of a hundred shall be regarded as P.arly lost, and even the wicked shall not be cut off before their hundredth year. "The number of their days shall they complete, and t.hey shall grow old in peace, and the years of their happiness shall be many" (Book of Enoch, v. 9). Sbnilar is the picture of the silver race in the • Works and Days' of Hesiod, ver. 130. The human race shall attain the longevity of the oak, the terebinth., the cedar, or the cypress. The proverbial sic vos non vobis will have lost its applicability. One will not build, and auother enter the finished habitation; one will not sow, and another reap; but each man will " see the fruit of his labour; " the work of their hands the elect shall use to the full. The rising hope of parents shall not be nipped in the bud ; nor shall the travail of body or of mind be .mocked, as it too often seems now, by an empty result. That element of contradiction or seeming con- tradiction to the benevolent scheme of the world, which has perplexed the thought of sages in every time, shall disappear even from the animal world. The wild animals shall lose their ferocity, and the malignant infernal serpent, as it would seem, shall be banished to his subterranean domain. Here, again, we find parallel pictures in Oriental poets, and in the Romans Virgil and Horace. Perhaps few would be disposed to take rhese descriptions literally. It is, perhaps, impossible to conceive of the animal world remaiuinrr what it is in other respects, yet with its native instincts changed. Yet how great a ~rvel is the conversion of a ~ingle human soul I If the savage passions which rage there can be subdued and brought under the obedience of Christ, why need we despair of a nation, of a race? .At any rate, all things assume a changed aspect to the renewed aoul, which means the purged eyes, the deeper insight into th? perfect wisdom and love which preside_ over the universe: The disconten_t we fc~l with_ the present_sc?eme of things is a hmt that the soul 18 secretly acquainted with their other, their ideal or Divine sirie.-J. Ver. 23.-Requited toll. "They shall not labour in vain." This is God's comfort to all his faithlul servants. Success is not to be measured by our sight, or by the statistics and "seemings" of superficial men. I. HARVESTS ARE SOMETIMES LONG DELAYED. It has been so in our foreign mission fields, and it is 80 often here at home in our Christian Churches, and it is so in our families. But the Divtne seed only "slum hers;" it does not "perish." Harvests often sprout in f:':reenness and wave in golden glory over men's graves. Il. liARVEBTs Am; NOT TO BE MEASURED DY THEIR FIDSTFDUITS. There, in a school or a church, some Henry Martyn, some Wilberforce, some Heber, some Livingstone, is brought into Christ's fold. Perhaps tho.t soul is the only one soul we can mako OH, LXV, 1-25,] 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 479
estimate of in a whole year's toil. We may, perhaps, feel disappointed-only one; but that one soul may be, under God, the means of giving spiritual life to a new continent. We must wait and work, aud never weary, for Christ must reign. And the sower ,hall in due season reap, if he faint not.-W. M. S.