p. 47 | The Voices Of Nature:

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 11, 1856

The Voices Of Nature:

Our Saviour has made such free use of all created things to illustrate spiritual truth, that we are warranted to consider everything as a parable; so that by all the things seen, we are instructed concerning the things unseen. Father and mother, brother and sister, husband and wife, parents and children, the sun, wind, water, rain, hail, storm, tempest, earthquake, birds, lilies, food, raiment, shepherds, sheep, goats, trees, rocks, mountains—in short, everything with which we come in contact, by "a still small voice," suggests to us heavenly and divine things. "Whoso is wise, and will observe those things, even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord."

Is it not characteristic of a Christian growing in grace, advancing in sanctification, when he more and more habitually, by the every-day things of life, is reminded of the heavenly; when from every event and every object, he extracts a sweet more delicious than the honey from the dead carcass of the lion? As he walks the streets, does his eye rest upon the mansions of the rich; he instantly is reminded of the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Does he look upon a great city expanding, and becoming more and more the depository of the products of the world, he is reminded of that city which lieth four square, its length, breadth, and heighth equal, which God hath prepared for them that love him, and into which the wealth of the universe shall flow. Do the clouds let down their treasures; he thinks of the great rain when the Spirit shall be poured out like floods upon the earth. Does the thunder startle him; he says: "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of glory thundereth, his voice breaketh the cedars of Lebanon and shaketh the wilderness." These are but parts of his ways—the mere whisperings of his voice; "but the full thunder of his power who can understand?" Does the lightning flash; he thinks that, as the lightning which shineth from one part of heaven to the other, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. Does he enter his home, weary with his day's labor, and loving voices greet him; he thinks of the end of life, and the home above, and the welcome which there awaits him, where they rest from their labor, and their works do follow them.—N. Y. Obs.