You will never perceive God in nature, until you have learned to see
God in grace. We have heard a great deal about going up from nature to
nature’s God. Impossible! A man might as well attempt to go from the top
of the Alps to heaven. There is still a great gulf between nature and
God to the natural mind. You must first of all perceive God incarnate in
the person of Christ, before you will perceive God omnipotent in the
creation which He has made. You have heard a great deal about men
delighting to worship in the forest glades, who disdain to frequent the
sanctuary of the saints. Ay; but there was little truth in it. There is
often great sound where there is much emptiness; and you will frequently
find that those men who talk most of this natural worship, are those who
do not worship God at all. God’s works are too gross a medium to allow
the light. Rugged is the path and dark the atmosphere, if we go by way
of the creatures to find out the Creator to perfection. But when I see
Christ, I see God’s new and living way between my soul and my God, most
clear and pleasant. I come to my God at once, and finding Him in Christ,
I find Him everywhere else besides.