THE DECLARATION OF THE HEAVENS.
WE were standing on a green strip of land, the waters of Casco Bay on either side, and also on either side was spread a rare panorama, a display of the handiwork which all along the firmament was showing the skill and glory of God. The setting sun was sending great bands of golden sheen along the western horizon on the one hand, while a full moon was rising in majestic splendor on the other. To the right the waters of the bay glanced with seeming scintillations of burnished gold; on the left, the smooth surface sparkled with the calm radiance of silvery brightness. "Oh," exclaimed a young friend at my side, "how can anyone deny the existence of a God who ever gazes on a scene like this! And yet they do," was added with a tone of regret and sadness. In our heart of hearts we have always been exceedingly skeptical as to the sincerity of skepticism, and on such an evening as the one described, it would seem that involuntary, spontaneous belief in a divine power must assert itself in the heart of any intelligent human being. . . . When at the close of day one stands surrounded by the mighty illuminations of the heavens, when the condensed glory of the great monarch of day is flushing sky, earth, and sea, with widespread rainbow tints of his receding rays, and luna, with the calm grandeur of her paler light, is mounting higher and higher in the blue expanse, riding with unimpeded course along her given way, what wonder that the solemn march of the luminous bodies drew from the psalmist the impassioned utterance, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" And how every work and design of art and cunning known among men and women pales into insignificance and comparative worthlessness when considered beside the perfect work of God? Viewing the firmament at the hour of sun setting and moon rising, watching the stars come twinkling forth, each in its appointed place, behold the fancy work, the intricate, exquisite, finished handiwork of the fingers of almighty God! And yet man is the most wonderful and most noble of all his created works; man, with his intellect so like a God. One great, grand lesson should be borne into the soul through the silent yet stupendous influence of the daily and nocturnal declaration of the heavens. Shall mortal man be more wise than God himself? Shall the thing created deny the great Creator of all things? Look abroad at nightfall; consider for an earnest, serious moment the heavens which God has created, the moon and the stars, the matchless samples of the work of his fingers; then open wide the soul to the glorious convictions which will leap into life, and with all the heart make haste to recognize and acknowledge the power, the belief, the trust awakened by the grand declaration of the heavens. For in very truth they declare in golden and in silvery voices the existence and the glory of our God.—Christian at Work.