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Rh atmospheric and climatic conditions are such, that we receive his beams in luxuriant forms of verdure, while Sahara receives them in sterile sands.

So with human minds. This sun of everlasting light, the Word of God, sends forth his beams of truth and love with equal force, to the grossest sensualist and the most exalted Christian. How they receive these beams, whether as a sterile desert or as a fertile garden, depends upon themselves. Yet the light and heat as they come from their divine source, are the same for all. But as the same sun blasts in some climes and beautifies in others, according to the characteristics or condition of the region which receives it, so the same law of love that gives existence and life to all, if it is received in order and in answering love, renders beautiful the soul of its recipient; but if received in disorder and hate, its very power of giving life is turned into a means of death.

It is on this principle that the divine gift of life received in innocence and joy, lived in its own spirit and reflected back to its Creator in perfect images, is, in the language of holy writ, "the blessing of the Lord;" but the same divine gift received in a selfish nature, lived in perverted form, and reflected back in hideous distortions, is, in the language of holy writ, "the curse of the Lord." How perfectly a mirror without any flaw or irregularity in its surface, reflects the human 9