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Education
of instruction and delight. The heart not yet hardened by contact
with evil is quick to recognize the Presence that pervades all created
things. The ear as yet undulled by the world’s clamor is attentive to
the Voice that speaks through nature’s utterances. And for those of
older years, needing continually its silent reminders of the spiritual
and eternal, nature’s teaching will be no less a source of pleasure
and of instruction. As the dwellers in Eden learned from nature’s
pages, as Moses discerned God’s handwriting on the Arabian plains
and mountains, and the child Jesus on the hillsides of Nazareth, so
the children of today may learn of Him. The unseen is illustrated
by the seen. On everything upon the earth, from the loftiest tree of
the forest to the lichen that clings to the rock, from the boundless
ocean to the tiniest shell on the shore, they may behold the image and
superscription of God.
So far as possible, let the child from his earliest years be placed
where this wonderful lesson book shall be open before him. Let him
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behold the glorious scenes painted by the great Master Artist upon the
shifting canvas of the heavens, let him become acquainted with the
wonders of earth and sea, let him watch the unfolding mysteries of the
changing seasons, and, in all His works, learn of the Creator.
In no other way can the foundation of a true education be so firmly
and surely laid. Yet even the child, as he comes in contact with nature,
will see cause for perplexity. He cannot but recognize the working of
antagonistic forces. It is here that nature needs an interpreter. Looking
upon the evil manifest even in the natural world, all have the same
sorrowful lesson to learn—“An enemy hath done this.”
Matthew 13:28
.
Only in the light that shines from Calvary can nature’s teaching
be read aright. Through the story of Bethlehem and the cross let it be
shown how good is to conquer evil, and how every blessing that comes
to us is a gift of redemption.
In brier and thorn, in thistle and tare, is represented the evil that
blights and mars. In singing bird and opening blossom, in rain and
sunshine, in summer breeze and gentle dew, in ten thousand objects in
nature, from the oak of the forest to the violet that blossoms at its root,
is seen the love that restores. And nature still speaks to us of God’s
goodness.
“I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord,
thoughts of peace, and not of evil.”
Jeremiah 29:11
. This is the mes-