moved; and the capability which, as pure carbon, it possesses of burning, agrees with the fire of heavenly love, which is the real substance of heavenly wisdom. And is not the Word of God like fire? how many warming and comforting passages are there? O may we strive to attain the perfection of beauty! that we may return to Eden, the garden of God! that every precious stone may be our covering; the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond.
September Fifth.
ZION, THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY.
"Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined."—Psalm l. 2.
THE character of the Supreme may be all summed up in the single word, perfection. He is, in truth, the only perfect being; and He has created man in His own image, after His likeness, and impressed upon him this injunction, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
Man is the most perfectly organized of created beings, and is "fearfully and wonderfully made." But his wonderfully formed body has its existence and its beauty from the soul; and there can be no question to the believer in revelation, that as the soul recovers the purity which sin alone caused it to lose, the body will become a transcript of it, and shadow forth its perfection and beauty.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty. God shineth forth, instructs us that pure divine love has its abode in the highest and holiest principles of goodness exist-
