Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/165

 want proof that an Almighty Being created, and still governs and protects, the world, and all that is therein,—what evidence of His directing hand can be more convincing than the phenomena which take place in winter? When a season of frost commences, the earth is covered with snow, which prevents the frost from penetrating too deeply into the ground, and from destroying the vital principle in seeds and roots, and the eggs and grubs of numerous insects buried therein. Thus the snow is mercifully provided by the Lord as a protection to the living principle in nature.

In the mind of every member of the church, the Lord has beneficently stored up principles of goodness and truth, which He insinuates into him in infancy. They are seeds ready to spring into life and activity when the spiritual ground is properly prepared. But as man has to be regenerated before he can become a fit inhabitant of the Lord's heavenly kingdom, and for this purpose has to enter into various states of temptation, these living principles, these seeds of faith and charity, have to be protected when man is in that state denoted by winter. When he is in that state he is spiritually cold, he is destitute of any affection for celestial and spiritual things, and neglects to exercise his mind on them. At this time, when man is in the torpid state, in danger of sleeping the sleep of death, the Lord, whose omnipotent arm is ever stretched over ail His works, graciously provides a covering of snow to keep the remains of goodness and truth from perishing—from freezing to that degree which would render them incapable of springing into life and activity in the time of spring, in that state when man permits the "Sun of righteousness to arise with healing in