help of a microscope, but is as fearfully and wonderfully made as you
and me, and has its proper food, habitation, work, appointed for it,
and not in vain. Nothing is idle, nothing is wasted, nothing goes
wrong, in this wondrous world of God. The very scum upon the
standing pool, which seems mere dirt and dust, is all alive, peopled
by millions of creatures, each full of beauty, full of use, obeying
laws of God too deep for us to do aught but dimly guess at them; and
as men see deeper and deeper into the mystery of God's creation, they
find in the commonest things about them wonder and glory, such as eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of
man to conceive; and can only say with the Psalmist, 'Oh Lord, thy
ways are infinite, thy thoughts are very deep;' and confess that the
grass beneath their feet, the clouds above their heads--ay, every
worm beneath the sod and bird upon the bough, do, in very deed and
truth, bless the Lord who made them, praise him, and magnify him for
ever, not with words indeed, but with works; and say to man all day
long, 'Go thou, and do likewise.'

Yes, my friends, let us go and do likewise. If we wish really to
obey the lesson of the Hymn of the Three Children, let us do the will
of God: and so worship him in spirit and in truth. Do not fancy, as
too many do, that thou canst praise God by singing hymns to him in
church once a week, and disobeying him all the week long, crying to
him 'Lord, Lord,' and then living as if he were not thy Lord, but
thou wast thine own Lord, and hadst a right to do thine own will, and
not his. If thou wilt really bless God, then try to live his blessed
life of Goodness. If thou wilt truly praise God, then behave as if
God was praiseworthy, good, and right in what he bids thee do. If
thou wouldest really magnify God, and declare his greatness, then
behave as if he were indeed the Great God, who ought to be obeyed--