Page:Natural Phenomena and their Spiritual Lessons.djvu/31

Rh by the caterpillar and its persistent feeding. The attainment of spiritual like that of natural riches may be from impure and selfish motives, and is often largely mingled with them. In themselves, too, they are so far similar, that they are capable of subserving either good or evil purposes, and that their value and quality depend on their application. There is, besides, this further parallel between them, that the happiness or satisfaction derivable from either has no relation to the mere extent of our possessions, but is realised in their use. To none but the basest minds are riches estimable for their own sake. They are sought for the advantages they can purchase; for the good—real or supposed—into which they are convertible; and in no other way are they enjoyed. So also, while spiritual treasures exist as mere accumulations in the natural understanding, which amuses itself by contemplating and admiring their beauty, being unemployed, they produce no happiness to the possessor. They, likewise, must be converted into good before they can yield satisfaction to the heart. For instance, how few comparatively of those to whom the truth is familiar that the Lord's divine providence superintends all human events, even the minutest, appear to reap from it the full support it is adapted to afford! This failure to realise so great a benefit is usually ascribed to deficiency of faith, but appears rather to arise from want of love for the ends which the appointments or permissions of Providence are designed to accomplish; or, if due to a defect of faith, it is of the faith of the heart that originates in such love, and not to faith of the intellect. If the heart is set on some earthly good that eludes the grasp, there is little comfort in the