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Through Nature to Nature’s God, May 22
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him.
1 Corinthians 2:9
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If our hearts were softened and subdued with the love of God they
would be open to discern His mercy and loving-kindness, as expressed to
us in every shrub and in the profusion of blooming flowers which meet our
eye in God’s world. The delicate leaf, the spires of grass, every lofty tree,
is an expression of the love of God to His children. They tell us that God
is a lover of the beautiful. He speaks to us from nature’s book, that He
delights in the perfection of beauty of character. He would have us look up
through nature to nature’s God, and would have our hearts drawn out in
love and affection to Him as we view His created works....
God designs that the scenes of nature should influence the children
of God to delight in the pure, simple, quiet beauty with which our Father
adorns our earthly home. Jesus tells us that the mightiest king that ever
swayed a scepter could not compare in gorgeous array to the simple flowers
that God has clothed with loveliness....
We must be preparing for the white robe of character, in order that we
may pass within the pearly gates of the city of God to a heaven of bliss.
Revelation presents the scene—fountains of living waters, rivers that are
as clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb, trees
of living green growing on either side of this river of life....
We have in the glorious things of nature a mere shadow of the original
which we shall see in their full loveliness in the Paradise of God. Let us
learn the precious lesson which God designed we should. He who careth
for the simple flowers in their season, will He not much more care for you
whom He has created in His own image? Look upon these things of beauty.
God prepares and clothes them with a robe of loveliness, and yet they
perish in a day. All these earthly, temporal beauties are to be appreciated as
the voice of God speaking to us of the treasures and glories of the unseen
and the eternal
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Manuscript 20, 1886
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