Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/230

 The portions of time by which we measure a day, and those again by which we measure a week, must not be applied to the operations of Deity. These are spoken of in Scripture in accommodation to our limited capacities. The commencement and completion of the hours of the day, do but point, in the literal sense, to those periods when man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening. But the same hours of the day are representative of the perpetual operations of the Divine love, which, in its merciful dispensations, is ever working for the good of man, and ever striving to create within him a new heart and a right spirit. When, therefore, in the account of the creation, it is said God in six days made the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, He does but instruct us, in natural language, of what is constantly taking place in the regeneration of man; a regeneration which is fully accomplished only when he enters into the rest of the Sabbath in heaven. It has been well and wisely said that preservation is perpetual creation; and the manner in which the world of nature is renovated, and in which the physical constitution of man is preserved, is truly marvellous. By the heat and light of the sun, the face of nature is renewed; the earth is clothed with beauty and verdure, and the incense of sweet odours ascends up to the throne of Him who has so bounteously enriched the world. By the heat and light of the Divine sun, however, the natural sun is kept in being. That Divine heat and light, in their going forth, impart life and blessing to the heaven of heavens, and gradually descend, through successive media, until they reach the remotest of His works, and preserve and sustain