are made, even His eternal power and Godhead;" and who told the
savages of Lycaonia that "God had not left Himself without witness,
in that He did good and sent men rain from heaven, and fruitful
seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness." Rain and
fruitful seasons witnessed to all men of a Father in heaven. And he
who wishes to know how truly St. Paul spoke, let him study the laws
which produce and regulate rain and fruitful seasons, what we now
call climatology, meteorology, geography of land and water. Let him
read that truly noble Christian work, Maury's "Physical Geography of
the Sea;" and see, if he be a truly rational man, how advanced
science, instead of disproving, has only corroborated St. Paul's
assertion, and how the ocean and the rain-cloud, like the sun and
stars, declare the glory of God. And if anyone undervalues the
sciences which teach us concerning stones and plants and animals, or
thinks that nothing can be learnt from them concerning God--allow one
who has been from childhood only a humble, though he trusts a
diligent student of these sciences--allow him, I say, to ask in all
reverence, but in all frankness, who it was who said, "Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow." "Consider the birds of the air-
-and how your Heavenly Father feedeth them."

Consider them. If He has bid you do so, can you do so too much?

I know, of course, the special application which our Lord made of
these words. But I know, too, from experience, that the more you
study nature, in all her forms the more you will find that the
special application itself is deeper, wider, more literally true,
more wonderful, more tender, and if I dare use such a word, more
poetic, than the unscientific man can guess.