UC-NRLF mmmi $B Mfi3 D7D r= ,1^ 4>,^/^^ SEEK AND FIND A DOUBLE SERIES OF SHORT STUDIES OF THE BENEDICITl. CHRISTINA a ROSSETTI. Treasure hid in a field." — St. Matthew xiii. 44. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS; 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; AND 48, PICCADILLY. New York: Pott, Young, & Co. o^ X PREFATORY NOTE. In writing the following pages, when I have con- sulted a Harmony it has been that of the late Rev. Isaac Williams. Any textual elucidations, as I know neither Hebrew nor Greek, are simply based upon some translation ; many valuable alternative readings being found in the Margin of an ordinary Reference Bible. C. G. R. 885154 THE BENEDICITE. The Praise-Givers are O all ye Works of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : praise Him, and magnify Him for ever. O ye Angels of the Lord, &c. O ye Heavens, &c. O ye Waters that be above the Firmament, &c. O all ye Powers of the Lord, &c. O ye Sun, and Moon, &c. God's Creatures, God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good (Gen. i. 31). Who maketh His angels spirits ; His min- isters a flaming fire (Ps. civ. 4). Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone ; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host (Neh. ix. 6). God divided the waters which were under the fir- mament from the waters which were above the fir- mament : and it was so (Gen. i. 7). Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were created by Him, and for Him (Col. i. 16). O give thanks unto the Lord ; for He is good. To Him that made great lights : the sun to rule by day : the moon to rule by night : for His mercy endureth for ever (Ps. cxxxvi. 1-9). Christ's Servants. The Word was God. All things were made by Him ; and without Him was not anything made that was made (St. John i- I, 3)- When He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, He saith. And let all the angels of God wor- ship Him (Heb. i. 6). He that descended is the same also that as- cended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things (Eph. iv. 10). They which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters (Rev. vii. 14, 17). Jesus Christ : Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God ; angels and authorities and powers being made sub- ject unto Him (i St. Pet. iii. 21, 22). The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people (Is. xxx. 26). The Praise-Givers are O ye Stars of Heaven, &c. O ye Showers, and Dew, &c. O ye Winds of God, &c. O ye Fire and Heat, &c. O ye Winter and Sum- mer, &c. &c O ye Dews, and Frosts God's Creatures, Praise Him, all ye stars of light. Let them praise the name of the Lord : for He commanded, and they were created (Ps. cxlviii. 3, 5). The Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain (Zech. X. 0- By His knowledge the clouds drop down the dew (Prov. iii. 20). Lo, He that createth the wind. The Lord, The God of hosts, is His name (Am. iv. 13). Praise the Lord from the earth, fire (Ps. cxlviii. 7,8). The Lord said in His heart. While the earth re- maineth, cold and heat shall not cease (Gen. viii. 21, 22). Thou hast made sum- mer and winter (Ps. Ixxiv. 17)- Saith the Lord of hosts. The heavens shall give their dew (Zech. viii. 11, 12). He scattereth the hoar- frost like ashes (Ps. cxlvii. 16). Christ's Servants. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, say- ing, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him (St. Matt, ii. I, 2). When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straight- way ye say, There cometh a shower ; and so it is (St. Luke xii. 54). It is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh, saying. My head is filled with dew, and My locks with the drops of the night (Song of Sol. v. 2). He commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey Him (St. Luke viii. 25). The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is (r Cor. iii. 13). when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat ; and it com- eth to pass (St. Luke xii. 55). It was winter. And Jesus walked in the tem- ple in Solomon's porch (St. John X. 22, 23). Now learn a parable of the fig-tree ; When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near (St. Mark xiii. 28). In the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wil- derness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground (Ex. xvi. 13, 14). The Praise-Givers are O ye Frost and Cold, &c. God's Creatures, O ye Ice and Snow, &c. O ye Nights, and Days, &c. O ye Light and Dark- ness, &c. O ye Lightnings, and Clouds, &c. By the breath of God frost is given : and the breadth of the waters is straitened (Job xxxvii. lo). Who can stand before His cold (Ps. cxlvii. 17)? Christ's Servants. He casteth forth His ice like morsels (Ps. cxlvii. 17)- He saith to the snow, Be thou on the earth (Job xxxvii. 6). Seek Him that turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night : The Lord is His Name (Am. V. 8). There is no God beside Me. I form the light, and create darkness (Is. xlv. 5, 7). The Lord is the true God. He maketh light- nings with rain (Jer. x. 10, 13). Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of The Lord is my strength and song, and He is be- come my salvation. The floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea (Ex. xv. 2, 8). They heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed (Gen. iii.8-15). Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foun- dation. And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies ^Is. xxviii. 16, 17). His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow (St. Mark ix. 3). Behold, I cast out de- vils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be per- fected (St. Luke xiii. 32). He went immediately out : and it was night. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said. Now is the Son of Man glori- fied (St. John xiii. 30, 31). I am the Light of the world (St. John viii. 12). It was about the sixth hour, and there was dark- ness over all the earth until the ninth hour (St. Luke xxiii. 44). As the lightning com- eth out of the east, and shineth even unto the west ; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be (St. Matt. xxiv. 27). The Praise-Givers are O let the Earth bless the Lord : &c. O ye Mountains, and Hills, bless ye the Lord : &c. O all ye Green Things upon the Earth, &c. O ye Wells, &c. O ye Seas, and Floods, &c. O ye Whales, and all that move in the Waters, &c. God's Creatures, Him which is perfect in knowledge (Job xxxvii. i6)? The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof For He hath founded it upon the seas, and estab- lished it upon the floods (Ps. xxiv. I, 2). Who hath weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance ? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or be- ing His counsellor hath taught Him (Is. xl. 12, 13)? God said. Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in it- self, upon the earth : and it was so (Gen. i. 11). I the God of Israel. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys : I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water (Is. xli. 17, 18). Worship Him that made the sea (Rev. xiv. 7). The Lord sitteth upon the flood ; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever (Ps. xxix. 10). God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after Christ's Servants. Behold, He cometh with clouds (Rev. i. 7). We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth right- eousness (2 St. Pet. iii. 13)- Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste (St. Luke i. 39). If a man have an hun- dred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray (St. Matt, xviii. 12)? Jesus said. Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand (St. John vi. 10). Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well (St. John iv. 6). Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea (St. Matt. xiv. 25). The people of the prince that shall come shall de- stroy the city and the sanctuary ; and the end thereof shall be with a flood (Dan. ix. 26). As Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly ; so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in The Praise-Givers are O all ye Fowls of the Air, &c. O all ye Beasts, and Cattle, &c. O ye Children of Men, &c, O let Israel bless the Lord, &c. O ye Priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord : &c. O ye Servants of the Lord, &c. God's Creatures, their kind : and God saw that it was good (Gen. i. 2l). I am God, even thy God. I know all the fowls of the mountains. The world is Mine, and the fulness thereof (Ps. 1. 7- 12). God said. Let the earth bring forth the living crea ture after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing (Gen, i. 24). Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel ; I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground (Jer. xxvii. 4, 5). How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God ! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings (Ps. xxxvi. 7). I am the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King (Is. xliii. 15). The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth : for he is the mes- senger of the Lord of hosts (Mai. ii. 7). No weapon that is formed against thee shall Christ's Servants. the heart of the earth (St. Matt. xii. 40). He said unto them. Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes (St. John xxi. 6). Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them (St. Matt, vi. 26). The ox knoweth his Owner, and the ass his Master's crib (Is. i. 3). He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan ; and was with the wild beasts ; and the angels ministered unto Him (St. Mark i. 13)- Thou art fairer than the children of men (Ps. xlv. 2). Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for He hath visited and redeemed His people (St. Luke i. 68). He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Re- ceive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever sins ye re- mit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins_ ye retain, they are retained (St. John xx. 22, 23)- If any man serve Me, let him follow Me ; and 10 The Praise-Givers are O ye Spirits and Souls of the Righteous, &c. O ye holy and humble Men of heart, &c. O Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, &c. God's Creatures, prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the Lord (Is. liv. 17). The way of the just is uprightness : Thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. With my soul have I desired Thee in the night ; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early (Is. xxxvi. 7, 9). Ye shall be holy men unto Me (Ex. xxii. 31). Thus saith the high and lofty One, Whose Name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also fhat is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble (Is. Ivii. 15). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, came forth of the midst of the ftre (Dan. iii. 23, 26). Christ's Servants. where I am, there shall also My servant be : if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour (St. John xii. 26). Ye are come unto mount Sion, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new cove- nant (Heb. xii. 22-24). My soul shall be joyful in my God ; for He hath clothed me with the gar- ments of salvation (Is. Ixi. 10). Christ is all and in all. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, humbleness of mind (Col. iii. 11, 12). Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God (Dan. iii. 24, 25). THE FIRST SERIES CREATION. ALL WORKS. " Whence then cometh wisdom f and where is the ;place of understanding ? Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living. God understandeth the way thereof and He knoweth the place thereof And unto man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is under standijtgP JOB xxviii. 20-28. I Not to fathom the origin of evil, but to depart ffrom evil, is man's understanding. Its origin is inscrutable by us: but depart from it we can. And if at the very outset we lack wisdom, St. James (i. 5) prescribes for us a remedy : " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him : " Amen, through Jesus Christ our Lord. He helping us, let us bring love and faith to our study of the Bene- dicite. " God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. i. 31). A work is less noble than its maker: he who makes a good thing is himself better than it : God excels the most excellent of His creatures. Matters of 14 SEEK AND FIND. everyday occurrence illustrate our point : an aHiist may paint a lifelike picture, but he cannot endow it with life like his own ; he may carve an admirable statue, but can never compound a breathing fellow-man. Wise were those ancients who felt that all forms of beauty could be but partial expressions of beauty's very self: and who by clue of what they saw groped after Him they saw not. Beauty essential is the archetype of imparted beauty ; Life essential, of imparted life ; Good- ness essential, of imparted goodness : but such objects, good, living, beautiful, as we now behold, are not that very Goodness, Life, Beauty, which (please God) we shall one day contemplate in beatific vision. Then shall fully come to pass that saying : " They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty" (Ecclus. xxiv. 21); only with a hunger and thirst which shall abide at once satisfied and insatiable. Then, not now : now let us turn to a spiritual signification the prayer of Agur: " Remove far from me vanity and lies : give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me '^ (Prov. xxx. 8). If even St. Paul might have been exalted above measure through abundance of revelation (2 Cor. xii. 7), ALL WORKS. 15 let US thank God that we in our present frailty know not any more than His Wisdom reveals to us : not that man's safety resides in ignorance any more than in knowledge, but in conformity of the human to the divine will. See the Parable of the Talents, St. Luke xix. 12-26; where the sentence depends on the fidelity of the servants, rather than on the amount of the trust. The divine bounty and mercy are good: the divine justice and chastisements are good also. The decree being good, that creature which fully and simply executes the decree is also good. Wherefore every obedient creature, whatever its particular act of obedience whether in judgment or in mercy, may by and for that act render praise to God. As regards our own impressions, we often make mistakes between mercies and judgments, putting bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter (Is. v. 20). Saints and sinners alike are liable to fall into such errors. Jacob said, "All these things are against me " (Gen. xlii. ^6), at the very moment when step by step his reunion with Joseph was drawing nigh. Balaam carried his point (Num. xxii. 34, ^^), but what a death he died, and what an end was his ! (Num. xxiii. ic : xxxi. 7, 8.) l6 SEEK AND FIND. ANGELS. ^^ Are they not all itiinistering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ? " Heb. i. 14. "Spirits;'" therefore, in the scale of natural creation higher than man ; for we see that Jesus Himself was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death (Heb. ii. 9) : " minister- ing spirits;" and therefore in the kingdom of grace of exceeding dignity by virtue of God- likeness, " For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister" (St. Mark X. 45). Nor is it except through' the grave and gate of death that the redeemed shall attain to equality with the angels (St. Luke xx. 35, 36). Nevertheless, we see the first made last, and the last first ; inasmuch as Christ took on Him not the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham (Heb. ii. 16), and is not ashamed to call us brethren {v. 11), and has made us members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Eph. V. 30.) Since we believe that even in this life we dwell among the invisible hosts of angels, — since ANGELS. 17 we hope in the life to come to rejoice and worship without end in their blessed company, let us col- lect what we already know of these our unseen fellows, that by considering what are their characteristics, we ourselves may be provoked unto love and to good works (Heb. x. 24). They rejoice. When earth was created " the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job xxxviii. 4-7). Their's is joy of a generous sort; contrary to envy, grudging, covetousness. They are greater than man in power and might ; but withal modest and gracious, for they bring not railing accusations [2 St. Peter ii. 9- 11). This teaches us moderation, reverence. They are of light, not of darkness (see 2 Cor. xi. 14) : and we by faith must become children of light (St. John xii. 36). Thus we read of St. Stephen, how in the victory of his faith " all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel " (Acts vi. 15). They are strong. St. John the Evangelist speaks of "a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice." And what proclaimed he? Vir- tually, the inferiority of all in heaven and in y 1 8 SEEK AND FIND. earth and under the earth to the only Lord God Almighty, the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ (Rev. v. 3-7). In such a comparison even unfallen angels are chargeable with folly (Job iv. 1 8) : what then must we be ? They justify God in his judgments. The same St. John, when in vision he beheld rivers and fountains turned to blood, "heard the angel of the waters say. Thou a|t. righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because Thou hast judged thus " (Rev. xvi. 4-7). Eliphaz the Te- manite, also, when a spirit passed before his face, " heard a voice, saying. Shall mortal man be more just than God?" (Job iv. 12-19). And thus faithful Abraham, whose children we are if we be of the number of the faithful (Gen. xv. 6 ; Gal. iii. 6, 7), in faith not in doubt worded his appeal to God : " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ?" (Gen. xviii. ^^5). To us, a younger and feebler generation, creatures of clay and ready to die (death being the wages of sin, Rom. vi. 23), the angelic aspect is not without terror. " His countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God, very terrible," said Manoah's wife, while as yet she understood not fully of whom she spake : but the ANGELS. 19 fear thus inspired was a holy fear not contrary to holy courage, for the latter virtue shines in her subsequent words (Judges xiii. 6, 23). Angels are superior to many natural laws which bind us: recognised or unrecognised they may appear as from empty space, they may vanish yet remain present. Till the angel summoned fire out of the l"ock, Gideon divined not with whom he conversed (Judges vi. 31, 22): the angelic host encompassed Elisha before his servant's eyes were opened to discern it (2 Kings vi. 17). And Holy Scripture, as a tender nurse feeding babes with milk, draws from our very inferiority a rule and encouragement of righteousness : " Be not for- getful to entertain strangers : for thereby some have entertained angels unawares "' (Heb. xiii. 2). Their nobler essence is exempt from possi- bilities of damage which beset us : one angel ascends in a flame (Judges xiii. 20) ; one shuts the mouths of lions (Dan. vi. 22) ; one stands on earth and sea (Rev. x. 2). Yet let us not think of them, any more than of ourselves, more highly than we ought to think (see Rom. xii. 3). He in Whose sight the heavens are not clean or the stars pure (Job xv. 15 ; XXV. 5), He Who has placed the sand for the 20 SEEK AND FIND. bound of the sea by a perpetual decree (Jer. V. 22), has appointed to His holy angels no less their sphere and their limits. Unto the angels God hath not put in subjection the world to come (Heb. ii. 5) : angels desire to look into things which Evangelists were privileged to preach (i St. Peter i. 12) : it is by the Church that the manifold wisdom of God becomes known to principalities and powers in heavenly places (Eph. iii. 10). Thus we behold man in his turn ministering to angels. And even a distinction in man's favour has been traced as perhaps latent in Is. vi. 6, 7 : for that seraph by whose agency God purged the sin of Isaiah, took with tongs the live coal which the prophet's bare lips endured to touch. HEAVENS. " Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My Throne P Is. Ixvi. I. " / saw the Lord sitting on His Throne^ and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on His lefty I Kings xxii. 19. " Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain TheeP i Kings viii. 27. The heaven and heaven of heavens contain not God : themselves are but an outcome of His mind and will. Before the heavens were, as HEAVENS. 21 truly as before the brief day of Abraham, God was (Prov. viii. 27; St. John viii. 58). Before the host of heaven came into being at His word, God was, Almighty in power (Ps. xxxiii. 6, 9). Before heaven His throne was set up, God was, the Blessed and only Potentate (i Tim. vi. 15). Blessed be God Eternal, Immortal, Invisible ; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, One God, Blessed for ever. Amen. Now we wait to know as we are known, to see face to face : yet already have there been vouch- safed to mankind many glimpses into the land that is very far off. Even under the elder dis- pensation of types and figures such glimpses were accorded to certain favoured prophets and righteous men. Thus Jacob fleeing from his father's tents, lighted in a dream on the house of God and gate of heaven (Gen. xxviii. 10-17). Moses in setting up God's Tabernacle was admonished to copy the heavenly pattern shown to him in the mount (Ex. xxvi. 30): and already with more than threescore persons he had been admitted to contemplate a divine vision (xxiv. 9-11)* Micaiah, before he faced wicked Ahab, beheld the celestial court and understood the divine 22 SEEK AND FIND. counsels (i Kings xxii. 19-22). In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah gazed upon the Throne of God and the worshipping Seraphim (Is. vi. 1-4). To captive Ezekiel the heavens were opened, and he saw visions of God (Ezek. i., &c.). Daniel in visions upon his bed beheld the Session of the Ancient of Days, beheld the Judgment set and the Books opened ; and saw One like the Son of Man come with the clouds of heaven (Dan. vii. 9-14). Heaven is the habitation of God's house, and the place where His honour dwelleth. Heaven jis the presence of God : the presence of God, then, is heaven. Is it heaven to us, this secret place of the Most High, wherein the saints dwell, this shadow of the Almighty under which His elect abide ? (Ps. xci. i). If it be not heaven to us, yet whither shall we flee from His presence ? "If I ascend up into heaven^ Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold. Thou art there " (Ps. cxxxix. 7, 8). We may refuse to set foot on the ladder which leads from earth upwards, to mould ourselves as tabernacles of God after our divine pattern, to contemplate and adore our heavenly King, to receive and understand His counsels, to worship with Seraphim, to learn with WATERS ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT. 23 Prophets: yet, whither shall we flee from His presence ? Not until the King Himself shall say, "Depart from Me" (St. Matt. xxv. 41), not until that most awful moment shall any of us be blotted out of His presence. " From Thy wrath, and from everlasting damnation, Good Lord, deliver us." WATERS ABOVE THE FIRMAMENT. " The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firma- ment sheweth his handywork." Ps. xix. i. Since many of the " Waters that be above the firmament " are named one by one further on in the Canticle, let us for the moment dwell on the firmament itself, " the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass-" (Job xxxvii. 18). To our eyes it appears blue, sometimes deepen- ing towards purple, sometimes passing into pale green ; purple, an earthly hue of mourning, and green our tint of hope. One colour seems to prophesy of that day when the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn (St. Matt. xxiv. 30) : one, to symbolize that veil of separation beyond which 24 SEEK AND FIND. faith and love discern our ascended Lord, and whereinto hope as an anchor of the soul sure and stedfast entereth (Heb. vi. 19, 20). Remote from either extreme stretches the prevalent blue, pure and absolute : thus the sky and its azure become so at one in our associations, that all fair blue objects within our reach, stone or flower, sapphire or harebell, act as terrene mirrors, con- veying to us an image of that which is above themselves, as "earthly pictures with heavenly meanings." And although the atmosphere is in reality full of currents and commotions, yet to our senses the sky appears to stand aloof as the very type of stability ; overarching and embosom- ing not earth and sea only, but clouds and meteors, planets and stars. Beneath it and within it all moves, waxes, wanes, while itself changes not : setting before us as by a parable the little-lofti- ness of the loftiest things of time ; " there be higher than they" (see Eccles. v. 8). Yet has the unchanging sky no final stability, but at its appointed hour it shall be rolled up as a scroll and shall pass away (Is. xxxiv. 4 ; Rev. vi. 14). Thus while all the good creatures of God teach us some lesson concerning the unapproached perfections of their Creator, that which they POWERS. (ZS display is a glimpse, that which they cannot display is infinite. " They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure " (Ps. cii. 26). POWERS. " Do all to the glory of God.'^ i COR. x. 3 1. One order of elect spirits we designate Powers, but these have virtually been considered under the head of "Angels of the Lord." Perhaps under the head of " Powers " may not improperly be classed what are termed Forces. And I think it will even answer our purpose if we here go no further than to recal a few familiar facts and agents which bring home unmistakably to our consciousness the existence of powers at work all around us, however these may oftentimes elude our senses: of powers which working in harmony bear witness to that "great First Cause" Who ordained and Who rules them. " Lo, He goeth by me, and I see Him not: He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not ^^ (Job ix. 11). Electricity: the dangerous element of the storm, announcing its awful passage by lightning flash and thunder-clap, yet in speed outstripping 26 SEEK AND FIND. both light and sound : electricity, of strength to rend trees, shatter rocks, and destroy life, has nevertheless become man's servant ; available in the physician's hands for treatment of disease, and in the telegraph and telephone for communication of intelligence. " Thou madest him to have do- minion over the works of Thy hands " (Ps. viii. 6). Steam, that is^ water.: water, the very symbol of instability. *' Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel " (Gen xlix. 4), said dying Jacob, moved by the Spirit of prophecy: or if we study an alternative rendering of his words, " Bubbling up as water,^' we may still perhaps trace the same idea of instability, inasmuch as what is easily excited does very commonly as easily subside. Yet as man^s servant, and in the form of steam, water acquires power not merely to upheave, but to wield and to apply with the utmost delicacy of touch, masses of enormous weight; and puts forth a sustained swiftness outspeeding the horse and his rider, though not the eagle or the carrier pigeon. Light and heat, to our apprehension the great vivifiers of the material world, are in like manner brought into subjection by man : under whose regulations one effects a permanent record of POWERS. 27 beauties which themselves consume away like a moth (Ps. xxxix. 11); while the other enables us to transfer tropical vegetation to temperate zones, and to make fruits ripen, and animals exist and even propagate in alien climates. Or, to lift our thoughts above the sphere of man's dominion, — gravitation, attraction, re- pulsion : whereby the earth we dwell on and the celestial luminaries her companions occupy their assigned abodes and fulfil their prefixed courses : whereby the tide flows and ebbs in accordance with the moon's phases ; whereby alone the planets escape not from their prescribed circuits and the apple falls. Wonderful and awful are those forces which launch, arrest, guide, compact, dissolve, the mem- bers of the material universe. Yet more wonder- ful, more awful, are those intellectual faculties which shrined within mortal man, guage height and depth, deduce cause from effect, and track out the invisible by clue of the visible: thus a certain master-mind by the aberration of one celestial body from the line of its independent orbit, argued the influential neighbourhood of a second luminary till then undiscerned. In a more or less degree every one of us in- 28 SEEK AND FIND. herits this awful birthright of intellectual power. With Esau we may despise and squander our birthright (Gen. xxv. 39-34), with Reuben dis- grace and forfeit it (i Chron. v. i) ; but ours it is : and so far as the tremendous responsibility originally involved in its possession is concerned, ours it must remain, though shorn of every privi- lege and bringing on us a curse and not a blessing. Let each of us take heed that it bring on our own self a blessing and not a curse : for be our past what it may, by God's grace we may yet be trained in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And then shall this intellectual power entrusted to us become verily and indeed a *' power of the Lord." Not all knowledge is good : as Isaiah declares to " delicate '^ Chaldea, " Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath per- verted thee" (Is. xlvii. i, 10). Ignorantly with Eve we may learn shame (Gen. iii. 6, 7 ; i Tim. ii. 14); or deliberately with Solomon study wisdom, madness, and folly ; but to increase knowledge which is not true wisdom, increaseth sorrow (Eccles. i. 17, 18). Let us to-day be content to remain ignorant of many things while we seek first the kingdom of God and His right- SUN AND MOON. 29 eousness : to-morrow, if not to-day, knowledge and all other good things shall be added unto us (St. Matt. vi. ^^ ; i Tim. iv. 7, 8 ; i Cor. xiii. 12). Let us not exercise ourselves in matters beyond our present powers of estimate, lest amid the shallows (not the depths) of science we make shipwreck of our faith. To-day is the day of small things (see Zech. iv. 10) : let us to-day be content with the small things of to-day, knowing assuredly that all they who are Christ's are made one with Him Who is the heir of all things (St. John xvii. 21 — 23 ; Heb. i. 2). Thus shall our path be as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day (Prov. iv. 1 8), while we go from strength to strength until every one of us appear before God in Zion (Ps. Ixxxiv. 7). SUN AND MOON. " God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day^ and the lesser light to rule the night. ^^ Gen. i. 16. Both lights great : one exceeding the other : both good. Such a graduation of greater and less, both being acceptable to Him Who made them, pervades much if not the whole of the 30 SEEK AND FIND. world in which we live: sun and moon, man and woman; or to ascend to the supreme in- stance, Christ and His Church. I, being a woman, will copy St. Paul's example and " magnify mine office" (Rom. xi. 13). Probably there were in his day persons who rated the Apostle of the Gentiles, as such, far below the Apostle of the Jews (i Cor. ix. 1-6; Gal. ii. 8), and one aspect of truth may have been honoured by such an estimate : yet was not the estimate exhaustive, for it was not one which embraced the entire field of God's Love towards His human family. What said God Himself when hundreds of years before He spake of Christ ? " It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will also give Thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My Salvation unto the end of the earth " (Is. xlix. 6). _( In many points the feminine lot copies very closely the voluntarily assumed position of our Lord and Pattern. Woman must obey : and Christ "learned obedience" (Gen. iii. 16; Heb. V. 8). She must be fruitful, but in sorrow : and He, symbolised by a corn of wheat, had not brought forth much fruit except He had died (Gen. iii. \ SUN AND MOON. 3 1 i6; St. John xii. 24). She by natural constitu- tion is adapted not to assert herself, but to be subordinate : and He came not to be ministered unto but to minister; He was among His own " as he that serveth " (i St. Peter iii. 7 ; i Tim. ii. II, 12; St. Mark x. 45; St. Luke xxii. 27). Her office is to be man's helpmeet: and con- cerning Christ God saith, " I have laid help upon One that is mighty" (Gen. ii. 18, 21, 22; Ps. Ixxxix. 19). And well may she glory, inasmuch as one of the tenderest of divine promises takes (so to say) the feminine form: "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you"" (Is. Ixvi. 13). In the case of the twofold Law of Love, we are taught to call one Commandment "first and great," yet to esteem the second as " like unto it^' (St. Matt. xxii. 37-39). The man is the head of the woman, the woman the glory of the man (i Cor. xi. 3, 7). " There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon" (xv. 41). It used to be popularly supposed that " the moon walking in brightness " (Job xxxi. 26) is no more Nthan a mirror reflecting the sun's radiance : now /careful observation leads towards the hypothesis \ that she also may exhibit inherent luminosity. 3^ SEEK AND FIND. But if our proud waves will after all not be stayed, or at any rate not be allayed (for stayed they must be) by the limit of God^s ordinance concerning our sex, one final consolation yet remains to careful and troubled hearts : in Christ there is neither male nor female, for we are all one (Gal. iii. 2S). In the Old Testament history two miracles are recorded as having suspended planetary law : one having been wrought during the Jewish conquest of the land of promise (Josh. x. 12-14) ; the other long afterwards, when Israel had ceased to be a kingdom and Judah was dwindling towards a penal captivity (2 Kings xx. 8-1 1). The first miracle concerned divers nations, the second an individual trembling saint ; one asserted the Divine supremacy, the other exemplified the Divine compassion. If we learn from all such portents that the nations are before God as a drop of a bucket and as the small dust of the balance (Is. xl. 15), that He will by no means clear the guilty (Ex. xxxiv. 7), that He doth not willingly afflict the children of men (Lam. iii. 33), and, not least, that He far better than our- selves knows whether lengthened or shortened life be our best blessing, for on this point Hezekiah's SUN AND MOON. ^^ subsequent fall through pride makes a sad sug- gestion [z Chron. xxxii. 24-26), we shall have learned enough ; even if we never fathom the physical conditions of miracles. A miracle is a Divine suspension or reversal of natural law : and surely our conception of a natural law and of a miracle will be adequate when we come to realise them as Job (xl. 19) was instructed to estimate behemoth : " He that made him can make His sword to approach unto him." If we be docile disciples of that Master Who judgeth not according to the sight of the eyes (Is. xi. 3), then by the defects as well as by the aptitude of our natural faculties He will instruct us. It is merely to our sight that the sun obliterates the stars, the sun being in truth of inconsiderable bulk when compared with many of them: yet by reason of its nearness to our eyes it fairly puts them all out, until only an act of recollection can during the daylight hours summon before our consciousness the ever-pre- sent, ever-luminous multitudinous lights of the sky. When the glare of this world dazzles the eyes of our soul, such an act of recollection is what we need; bringing home to our conscious love the presence of Him Who is ever present, D 34 SEEK AND FIND. and Who is pledged to be our very present help in trouble (Ps. xlvi. i). Moses " endured, as see- ing Him Who is invisible" (Heb. xi. 27): yet the Law, his portion, was not glorious, as com- pared with the excelling glory of the Gospel which we have inherited (2 Cor. iii. 6-1 1). Shall we who possess more aim at less ? Faith accepts, love contemplates and is nou- rished by, every word, act, type, of God. The Sun, to our unaided senses the summit of His visible creation, is pre-eminently the symbol of God Himself: of God the giver, cherisher, cheerer of life; the luminary of all perceptive beings; the attractive centre of our system. The Sun, -^ worshipped under many names and by divers / nations, is truly no more than our fellow-creature / in the worship and praise of our common Creator; t yet as His symbol it none the less conveys to us a great assurance of hope. At the voice of one man it stood still, in the strait of another it retro- graded : thus we see illustrated the prevalence of prayer, and the strong grasp of man's sore need upon the succouring strength of Him Who made him. Elias, at whose word rain was withheld or granted, stands not alone as our encouraging example (i Kings xvii. i ; St. James v. 17, 18). STARS. ^^ Abraham's entreaty prescribed the limit of So- dom^s doom (Gen. xviii. ^3-32). One said to Jacob, " Let Me go : " but Jacob denied Him except He blessed him, and prevailed (Gen. xxxii. 24-30). The Lord said to Moses, " Let me alone : " yet Moses let Him not alone, and Israel was saved (Exod. xxxii. 7-14). '• The Lord God is a sun and shield : the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee" (Ps. Ixxxiv. II, 12). STARS. "Behold the height of the stars ^ how high they are ! " Job xxii. 12. There is something awe - striking, over- whelming, in contemplation of the stars. Their number, magnitudes, distances, orbits, we know not : any multitude our unaided eyes discern is but an instalment of that vaster multitude which the telescope reveals ; and of this the heightened and yet again heightened power bringing to light more and more stars, opens before us a vista D 2 3^ SEEK AND FIND. unmeasured, incalculable. Knowledge runs apace : and our globe which once seemed large is now but a small planet among planets, while not one of our group of planets is large as compared with its central sun; and the sun itself may be no more than a sub-centre, it and all its system coursing but as satellites and sub - satellites around a general centre; and this again, — what of this ? Is even this remote centre truly central, or is it no more than yet another sub-centre revolving around some point of overruling at- traction, and swaying with it the harmonious encircling dance of its attendant worlds? Thus .while knowledge runs apace, ignorance keeps head of knowledge: and all which the deepest students know proves to themselves, yet more convincingly than to others, that much more exists which still they know not. As saints in relation to spiritual wisdom, so sages in relation to intellectual wisdom, eating they yet hunger and drinking they yet thirst (£cclus. xxiv. 21). Deep only can call to deep: still, we who occupy comparative shallows of intelligence are not wholly debarred from the admiration and delights of noble contemplations. We can marvel over the many tints of the heavenly bodies, ruddy, STARS. 2>1 empurpled, golden, or by contrast pale; we can understand the conclusion, though we cannot follow the process by which analysis of a ray certifies various component elements as existing in the orb which emits it; we can realise men- tally how galaxies, which by reason of remoteness present to our eyes a mere modification of sky- colour, are truly a host of distinct luminaries ; we can long to know more of belts and atmospheres ; we can ponder reverently over interstellar spaces so vast as to exhaust the attractive force of suns and more than suns. And we can make of what we know and of what we know not stepping - stones towards heaven, adoring our Creator for all that He is and that His creatures are not; adoring Him also for what many of our fellows already are, and for what we ourselves are and may become. We shall not run to waste in idle curiosity if we bear in mind that " knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth" (i Cor. viii. i), and that whoso understood all mysteries and all knowledge, not having charity would be nothing (xiii.