Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world;
Of eye and ear, both what they half create
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.' {243}
'Of all my moral being.'
Yes; of our moral being, our characters, our souls. By looking upon
this beautiful and wonderful world around us with reverence, and
earnestness, and love, as what it is,--the work of God's Spirit,--we
shall become not merely the more learned, or the more happy, we shall
become actually better men. The beauties in the earth and sky; the
flowers with their fair hues and fragrant scents; the song of birds;
the green shaughs and woodlands; the moors purple with heath, and
golden with furze; the shapes of clouds, from the delicate mist upon
the lawn to the thunder pillar towering up in awful might; the
sunrise and sunset, painted by God afresh each morn and even; the
blue sky, which is the image of God the heavenly Father, boundless,
clear, and calm, looking down on all below with the same smile of
love, sending his rain alike on the evil and on the good, and causing
his sun to shine alike on the just and on the unjust:- he who watches
all these things, day by day, will find his heart grow quiet, sober,
meek, contented.
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