Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/439

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NEARNESS TO GOD AND CHRIST.
431

The very voices of the night, sounding like the moan of the tempest, may turn out to be the disguised yet tender "voices of God," calling away from all earthly footsteps, to mount with greater singleness of eye and ardor of aim the alone ladder of safety and peace—upward, onward, heavenward, homeward.


God is infinite; and the laws of nature, like nature itself, are finite. These methods of working, therefore,—which correspond to the physical element in us,—do not exhaust His agency. There is a boundless residue of disengaged energy beyond.


Nature—faint emblem of Omnipotence!
Shaped by His hand—the shadow of His light—
The veil in which He wraps His majesty.


Call nature the grand revelation! Is it more to go to nature and know it than to know God? Are there deeper depths in nature, higher sublimities, thoughts more captivating and glorious? In the mineral and vegetable shapes are there finer themes than in the life of Jesus? In the storms and glorious pilings of the clouds, are there manifestations of greatness and beauty more impressive than in the tragic sceneries of the cross? Nature is the realm of things, the supernatural is the realm of powers.


NEARNESS TO GOD AND CHRIST.

Still, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh,
     When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning, lovelier than the daylight,
     Dawns the sweet consciousness,—I am with Thee.