Page:Some Reflections on the Importance of a Religious Life.djvu/33

 I will honour; but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”

It is a delightful occupation of time to make ourselves acquainted with the works of a kind and gracious Providence, as displayed in the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral kingdoms; and as far as our faculties will enable us to do so, to study those laws by which, in his infinite wisdom, our all-wise Creator has regulated and preserves the universe—the workmanship of his holy hands. Reflections of this sort often fill the mind with gratitude to the Author of our numberless blessings. The Psalmist and the prophets of ancient times were much accustomed to these contemplations, as their frequent and beautiful allusions to natural objects abundantly show. Our Lord himself instructively directed his disciples to the ever watchful providence of God, in his memorable discourse upon the mount: “Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Consider the lilies of the field how they grow, they toil not neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

I would encourage you to examine, in a humble, teachable spirit, into the evidences of the Christian