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reach of mr tests. Mutter, ovtu in its
grossest forms, is only detected in its rela
tions, never in its essence.
Force mid life are- as subtle us the es
sence of matter. Spring comes, and
countless forces, guided by countless phas
es of life, awake from the sleet) of winter;
and struc'ures, numerous as the sands of
the seashore, arise fiom lawn, and garden,
praiiie, and forest.
The germs of a rose seed, Ins I red with
life, build a bush of numerous branches,
listen ever so attentively and continuously
but no sound comes up from its myster
ious depths. 1 look steadily, earnestly'
but no shape, no shadow eve:i, appears.
The most discriminating an I sensitive
touch feels only utter nothingness.
I am conscious of being, I am con.
scions of wonderlul powers and a marvel
ous life. I am conscious of relations to
other beings like myself, and to a phys
ieal world. I am conscious of activities
and of results fro.n activities, of pleasures
and cover it with leaves, anil with lloweis 'and pain. In the language oi another,
..( t il".. 1.1 .. 1 1 . V i.i I... - .... ... ..
of iaelfable beauty and fraiiraiice. Note
the exqui-dlo tinging of each leaf and
blossom. The more carefully you exam,
inc, the more hcuutifil it appeari --subtle
ethereal, divine beauty. Consider its deli
cious fragrance, distil its ottar and study
its power of perpetual perfume. What
materials compose l lie beauty and the
fragrance V Wh it is that life which readi
es forward with unerring lingers, and
gathers from light, air, water and earth
those materials, and adjusts them so per
feetlyV Profound mystery wraps all (nun
our sight except the result.-..
Let us turn our thoughts from an un
conscious vegetable to the building of an
intelligent, sensitive, deathless being.
God has evolveil out of Hinis'lf spirit
ual forces, inspired them with life, utilise1
them to building structures in Ills own
likeness, out of materials ample as His.
own nature. In other word. He has ere
ated living spirits endowed with His own
attributes in germ life, whose normal ac
tivity is elernal growth into His image.
OonsciousiiCa-, will, alK'cti i.i, memory,
reason, power to sillier and enjoy, ami
immortality, diitiiuuish spliit from vege.
table life. A spirit ' empowered to study
its own activities, but not to know itself
Its essence, inell'able, sovereign, imi)iorli
its substance, its shape, its parts, its
whole elude its own deepest research.
1 am to myself a mystery, as profound, as
impenetrable, as the being of Jehovah is
to me. I can not bring my own selfhood
to the lest of anv of mv souses. 1 may
"'1 he spirit gives perceptions to the senses
hut it cannot in turn perceive it. Il is not
sense. At its bidding the valves of the
heart permit the blood to pour tumultu
ously into the Mushing cheeks, or to rush
hack fainting and all'righted from their
pallid, collapsing cells; but it is not the
blood nor the heart. It sends out living
nerves from the lordly brain and the stale
I. column which supp :l h n the remot
est avenues of feeling, but it is not brain
nor nerve. It hears u it li the ear, and sees
with the eje; but it is not eye nor ear. Il
is everywhere- within me but not any
where, inscrutably wrapped up in this
muddy vestuie of decay, every particle of
ulildi it clothes with beauty and life and
power."
Ought I to be surprised that my spirit
an emanation from the Inlinite spirit,
His oirpring should hide its essence
from my inspection? Why should I ox
peet to aual..ii it, when the essence of ihe
beauty and fragrance of the rose utterly
eludes tdl search.
Though I cannot comprehend m,sclf.
having been feirfully and wonderfully
made, I am charged with tho it vl'nl re.
sponsihiliiy of directing the forcis of my
life in their building pr.icesv I have
selfdolerniiniug power. M character is
growing under my own f.!ahio:iing hand
If ihe life forces of r.is.i are c.omniN.
sloned to build and adorn with such beau
ty and sweetn.sia slum: um which today
is, and tomorrow decays; ulml kind oi i
structure ought to rear, when i-.v lite