SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1921, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

THE MIRACLE OF SPRING. “Thou oendeet forth Thy Spirit', they are created: and Thou renewest the face of the ground.” Psalm CIV. 30. (Rev. A. H. Collins, New Plymouth.) The prophets and bard’s of the Bible were observant men, fond and faithful students of Nature. They watched with close and accurate eye the ever-changing phenomena of thQ world about them. Their pages abound in bold and striking descriptions of day and night, of river and mountain, field and flower. This of it self may not mean much. Many in our own age have done this with no religions end in view; but these old-time prophets and poets used their Nature studies to nourish faith in the living and reigning Lord. They held with tenacity, and held without reserve, that the laws and harmonies of nature are the modes of God’s agency, the habits of God’s existence, and the turns of God’s thought. For them each dew-drop held, an oracle, each bursting bud a revelation, and all they looked upon was sign and proof of -the living and divine Spirit that “breathes in the air and shines in the light,” and this constant sense of God’s presence was a well-spring of perpetual delight—delight which found expression in lyric songs and fruitful service. Beholding God everywhere, life was lifted, duty was dignified, and religion nourished.

It i.s true that physical science has made great strides since David, or some other, sang this hymn of creation. Thousands of discoveries have been made, and tens of thousands of specimens have been collected and catalogued. Earth, and sky, and sea have been explored. Has the result been deeper reverence? Is it not a fact that the age is frankly and sometimes even brutally materialistic? Do we not need to be reminded that Nature is the vesture of the Almighty, ’’whose robe is the light, whose canopy (spUee,” that the seasons are parables, and that the ultimate lesson of Spring is spiritual, not physical? PARABLE OF SPRING. I In the olden days, and in Merry EngHand. spring was welcomed with boisterous mirth, young men and maidens raced each other to the nearest parklands, to bathe their faces in the dews I which held the secret of physical beauty. These days of innocent superstition have passed away for ever, but the parable abides. For spring is the parable of beauty. The dews of heaven do wash away the grime from the face of the world. It is the old, old story, but like all things very old, spring is delightfury and startlingly new, and with the sight and fragrance of fresh spring flowers, we are back in Eden once more. It is the eternal song of the poets, as witness Words worth and Burns, but these singers have not exhausted the subject for the simple reason that God is not exhaustible. Spring is sweetly and ravishingly new, because the Great Creator never grows old, and flowers seem de- I Hcipusly fresh, because they come from j His hand.

“Pansies, lilies, roses, Flow’rs of ev’ry hue. Take each one us coming Straight from God.to you; Telling wondrous secrets Of his pow’r and love, Wearing still the brightness Of the home above. Touch these sweet flow’rs gently, So divinely dressed, They are, in earth's language, Thougnts of God expressed, Thoughts of heav’nly glory,— Sweetness, purity,— Must not He who framed them Wholly lovely be?

Few sights are more pathetic or hopeful than to see a crowd of city bred children rus’hing in ecstasy over a meadow of common buttercups and daisies, plucking them only to kill them in their hot embrace. Pathetic, for it tells of joyless days, spent- in ignorance and squalor. Hopeful, f.or who shall say how miu4i the God-given love of flowers shall do to keep their hearts sweet and pure, in days ,t& come. For communion with Nature quickens the mind, quiets the heart, and refines the soul, and these influences are sorely needed by those whose lives have been brutalised from their birth.

Yes, spring is the sacrament of beauty. Spring bears witness that God is no mere utilitarian. God is an artist, a poet,' a lover of forms that are fair and sounds- that are sweet. “Thou hast made everything beautiful in his season.” A SPIRITUAL LESSON. But T repeat, that the ultimate lesson of spring is spiritual, and we have not read its deepest meaning until, like the psalmist, we see in these material things the

•vesture of the Almighty. Only then shall we see how very present God is to His children: to their eye in beauty, to their ear in musie, to their heart in those spiritual influences of which the world is full. Then, and only then, ahall we see nothing that is not instinct with duty and interpretative of faith. The glorious winds, sweeping over hill and plain, making music as they hurry on, will be as the breath of the eternal, and we, inspiring their freshness, shall send them back to Him in prayer and song, thus throwing all our gladness and all our desire into the music of the spheres. The thunder that shakes the earth, and the lightnings which dart across summer skies, will be as the sound of His voice, and the kindling of His eye resistless as revelation and terrible as law.

In every valley we shall find the. footsteps of the eternal. The mountains which stand fast for ever will become monuments of his might, and altars of our devotion. The spangled heavens will be as the robes of the Almighty. The sunshine will be as the glow of His smile. There will not be a flower in forest or field that does not depict His beauty, and read to Him our heart-felt praise, and every winged creature will wake a song for us, no less than for themselves. In a word, the universe* will become the medium of fellowship between the Creator and His creatures, and we shall think of Him as the Great Spifiit who watches, directs, inspires all. The world will no longer be simply a. market, place, it will 'be a temple; and our garden will be no longer a place where we grow things to eat or to sell; it will be holy ground where God walks with man in the cool of the day.

“Thy Spirit is around, Aloving the restless mass that sweeps along, And the eternal sound, Voices and footfall of the numberless throng, Like the resounding sea and like the rainy tempest Speak of Thee.”' . MIRACLE OF SPRING.

“Thou renewest the face of the earth.” That is the miracle being wrought under our very eye to-day. Silently, and with vast opulence of power, we are being led out of the grip of winter into gentle spring. But think what it means. Have you ever stood and watched the tide rolling in on some far-stretching shore, and considered what that means? It is the advance guard of a stupendous wave flowing over half the world. But its greatness is unperceived by the children and the pleasure-seekers, who play with its sunny ripples. Except in time of storm, there is no sign of its omnipotent might. It fills chan- , nels dug by infant hands, it laves sand . castles the}’ have built, and it runs along the ribbed sea-sand. All its movements are so light, and easy, and graceful, that it gives no indication of its latent power. Yet all the Canutes of the world, and all combinations possible to learning, and wealth, and enterprise, cannot stay for an instant the onward inarch of the tidal wave. So it is with the influx of creative life in spring. How delicate and graceful all its movements are! It is revealed in snowdrop and crocus, and golden daffodil tossing in the wind. Its voice is 'heard in the thrush’s note. It fills league on league of forest with lovely forms of life. It stirs million on million of living th'ngs with the instinct that their hour has come. It unbars the icy portals of polar seas, and navies ride free. It opens the windows of heaven, and pours gentle rains on the earth, and io! the wilderness blossoms!

No image available can represent the God-like power working in the world in the return of.spring. “For, lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is come.” All this has its moral and spiritual analogy. The soul has its spring tide, when cold and barren days give place to faculties and powers that open to the breath of God. The awaking may be gradual and silent, but when it- comes it comes from God. The soul hears the voice of the Great Creator saying, “Behold, I make all things new.”

BROTHERHOOD GROWING. And what is true of individuals is true of nations and of the world. God is renewing the face of ihe world. There may be checks, and arrests, and delays, j like the wintry days that retufh -in spring, but spring is coming to the world, and each day brings it nearer. A kindlier spirit is coming to the hearts of men. Nations are drawing nearer.

Brotherhood is growing. Old feuds are being healed. Though the position in India and Ireland is critical, the problem is being discussed in a. new and better way, and the outlook is brighter than it has been for many days; and we should hope and pray with renewed confidence. In an hour when we think not, we or om* children shall see the horizon brighten with a strange new light, .■nd quiver with a new life, and in that hour it will be true on a world-scale: “Thou renewest the face of the ground.” For, mark you this, life in Christ is not history alone, it is prophesy as well. Spring is not an end; it is a means to an end. Spring is ihe prophet of hope, who, with stretched forefinger, points to summer glory and autumn fruit. Nature is no trickster. God does not disappoint the swallow in its flight; it will surely find sunshine and fair skies. And God will keep faith with men, who, having passed through the winter of their disicontent into t he Pentecost of spring, shall I come to the summer-tide of a golden and eternal day. Spring is coming. Sing it blithely. Spring is coming. “He yet shall wipe away our tears. And all ihe earth shall simmer in H’s smile.”