Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind,
And, even with something of a mother's mind,
And no unworthy aim,

The homely nurse doth all she can
To make her foster-child, her inmate man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.

Behold the child among his new-born blisses,
A six year's darling of a pigmy size!
See, where 'mid work of his own hand he lies,
Fretted by sallies of his mother's kisses,
With light upon him from his father's eyes!
See, at his feet, some little plan or chart,
Some fragment from his dream of human life,
Shaped by himself with newly-learned art;
A wedding or a festival

A mourning or a funeral!

And this hath now his heart,

And unto this he frames his song:
Then will he fit his tongue

To dialogues of business, love, or strife;
But it will not be long.

Ere this be thrown aside,

And with new joy and pride

The little actor cons another part:

Filling from time to time his humorous stage "
With all the persons, down to palsied age,
That life brings with her in her equipage;
As if his whole vocation

Were endless imitation.

Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie
Thy soul's immensity!

Thou best philosopher, who yet dost keep
Thy heritage! thou eye among the blind,
That, deaf, and silent, read'st the eternal deep,
Haunted for ever by the Eternal Mind,-
Mighty prophet! seer blest!

On whom those truths do rest,
Which we are toiling all our lives to find,
In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;
Thou, over whom thy immortality

Broods like the day, a master o'er a slave,
A presence which is not to be put by!
Thou little child, yet glorious in the might
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,
Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke
The years to bring the inevitable yoke,
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?
Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight,
And custom lie upon thee with a weight
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!

O, joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live,-
That nature yet remembers
What was so fugitive!

The thought of our past years in me doth breed
Perpetual benediction: not indeed

For that which is most worthy to be blest;

Delight and liberty, the simple creed

Of childhood, whether busy or at rest,

With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast :-
Not for these I raise

The song of thank and praise;
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;

Blank misgivings of a creature

Moving about in worlds not realized;
High instincts before which our mortal nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised:
But for those first affections,

Those shadowy recollections,
Which, be they what they may,

Are yet the fountain light of all our day,
Are yet a master light of all our seeing;

Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal silence: truths that wake,
To perish never;

Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor,
Nor man, nor boy,

Nor all that is at enmity with joy,

Can utterly abolish or destroy!

Hence, in a season of calm weather,
Though inland far we be,

Our souls have sight of that immortal sea,
Which brought us hither,

Can in a moment travel thither,
And see the children sport upon the shore,
And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young lambs bound,

As to the tabor's sound!

We in thought will join your throng,

Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day

Feel the gladness of the May!

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind,

In the primal sympathy

Which having been, must ever be,
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering,

In the faith that looks through death,

In years that bring the philosophic mind.

And, O ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves,
Forebode not any severing of our loves!

139

Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquished one delight

To live beneath your more habitual sway.

I love the brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they,
The innocent brightness of a new-born day
Is lovely yet;

The clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober coloring from an eye

That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

ONE BY ONE.

One by one the sands are flowing,
One by one the mountains fall;
Some are coming, some are going,
Do not strive to grasp them all.
One by one thy duties wait thee,

Let thy whole strength go to each;

Let no future dreams elate thee,

Learn thou first what these can teach.

One by one, (bright gifts from Heaven)
Joys are sent thee here below;
Take them readily when given,
Ready, too, to let them go.

One by one thy griefs shall meet thee,
Do not fear an armed band;
One will fade as others greet thee.
Shadows passing through the land.

Do not look at life's long sorrow;
See how small each moment's pain;
God will help thee for to-morrow,
Every day begin again.
Every hour that fleets so slowly,
Has its task to do or bear,
Luminous the crown, and holy,
If thou set each gem with care.

Do not linger with regretting,
Or for passing hours despond!
Nor, thy daily toil forgetting,
Look too eagerly beyond.
Hours are golden links, God's token,
Reaching Heaven; but one by one,
Take them, lest the chain be broken
Ere the pilgrimage be done.

1857.]

Theology and Natural Science.

141

THEOLOGY AND NATURAL SCIENCE.

FROM THE GERMAN, BY THE EDITOR.

"WE have a more sure word of prophecy whereunto we do well to take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts." Truly it is a sure word, the word of God, which holy men of old, moved by the Holy Ghost have spoken unto us. It is firmer than heaven and earth, for if these shall pass away, not the smallest part of God's word shall ever pass away. It is a precious word full of the power of divine life-a lamp to our path, and a staff in our hand.

But nature is also, to him who has learned to read rightly, an open book of divine wisdom, "for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made." The heavens also declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. What the starry glory of the heavens teach in characters of flame; what the sea, the depths of the earth, and the mountains declare; what the clear friendly sun-shine, and the horror of a stormy night; the flowry glories of spring, the terrific hail, or the icy breath of frost; the lily of the field and the sparrow on the house-top, teach us-all these, yea the mote in the sunbeam and the grain of sand by the sea, all, all, if rightly read are also a word of God which utter testimonies concerning the former days. In them is written, and may be read his divine power and wisdom, but also his holiness; his creative love, but also his retributive righteousness. The earnest longing, and travailing, and hoping of the creature-Rom. 8: 19-21-is also a sermon which opens treasures of wisdom and knowledge, preaching of blessing and curse, death and resurrection, sin and redemption.

Although" says Schubert, whose entire life has been devoted to the study of this book of God," Although the book of nature, in comparison with the book of revelation, is but an obelisk standing amid the ruins of a deserted city covered with hieroglyphic writings, the symbolic meaning of which for the most part can not be understood by the present generation, in part even obliterated and mutilated by wicked hands, still there is true and sufficient ground upon which to harmonise those symbolic teachings, which were originally also a revelation of God to man, with the contents of the holy scripture. Yes, nature also, with undeniable clearness, testifies of Him from whom and through whom are all things; and in our age the perverseness of which is more inclined toward the study and enjoyment of natural things, in which it thinks it has life, than toward the teaching of the scriptures, it is perhaps not unnecessary to call attention to this earnest testimouy of nature, and the harmony of its teachings with the contents of the holy Scriptures."

True, the written word of God contains every thing that is necessary for us to know in order to salvation-true, the holy Scripture speaks plainer and surer, less deceptive and more easy of comprehension than the symbolical writing on this obelisk: it speaks for the unlettered and

uncultivated, for the poor in spirit, just as intelligibly as for the learned and scientific, for it is like "a stream in which the elephant may swim and the lamb wade;" but if only one presumes that, having the book of nature, he may dispense with this, that man's eyes are blinded equally to both; and he will fail to learn from it either God's being or works. Yet still we are to listen also to that voice "whose line is gone out through all the earth, and its words to the end of the world." Ps. 19: 5. We are to learn also what God's creative word reveals to us through it. This we are to do the more diligently and earnestly since nature, which is first a word of God for us, may also afterwards be a word of God against us; for it is written that the teachings of nature are also given to the end that all may be "without excuse." Rom. 1: 20.

Hence, let the Theologian, and not only he, but also the plain christian enter the school of the naturalist. Let him give honor to whom honor belongs; willingly and cheerfully let him permit the masters of science to open to him a new world filled with divine wonders; joyfully and gratefully let him acknowledge his obligations when, as the fruit of keen and laborious research they bring forth to the light new treasures of ore from the deep and hidden mine of knowledge and cast it into current coin.

But in like manner let the man of natural science also give honor to whom honor belongs. Let the master also become a disciple, the teacher a scholar, and sit with the humble docile spirit of a Mary of Bethany at the feet of a greater master, and their learn words of eternal life and wisdom, which is not of to-day or yesterday-learn there what neither his telescope nor microscope can teach him, but which is necessary to give to all his wisdom its proper consecration. Let him not forget that if nature is a book full of divine doctrine and preaching, the Bible is the lexicon and grammar from which alone he can learn the etymology and syntax of this holy language, understand the formation and history, sense and meaning of every single word; that the Bible alone teaches the critic and hermeneutic, æsthetic and logic, according to which the disjecti membra pata-the disjointed members-are to be brought together and shown in their harmonious beauty.

But how when the Bible and nature instead of explaining, unfolding, and completing one another stand in contradiction to each other? This cannot be. Bible and nature, in so far as they are God's word, must harmonize with each other. Where this is not the case either the exegesis of the theologian or of the naturalist is at fault; and not only the man of science but also the theologian has too often gone wrong and been the means of untold confusion on the subject of the harmony between scripture and nature.