alas! now they are as a blank, excepting to a comparative few. O, what pastimes of body and spirit teachers and schools will have, in the air, in the beauty, the glory of nature abroad; yea what ecstasy, when they shall duly estimate the difference between man's mean school-house of timber and masonry, and this, not made by hands, the unwalled, everaired, and healthy school-room of creation. Finally, thus let our country's men and women be trained from childhood up, and how would early, rural home, be all surrounded by pictures, dear to taste, to imagination, to heart, and to memory; pictures to which those once resident there might turn with vernal thrillings, from the coldest, darkest wintriness of prolonged life. Country, moreover, would be sprinkled with innumerable spots to which the heart of patriotism would fasten; yea, into which it would grow, if we may so speak, as into a warm, living bosom. How could such fail to glow with most effectual aspirations to improve, and bless, and glorify the land of nativity, and the heritage of freedom. And lastly, but most especially, let the idea of the holy, parental Creator be ever connected as the all-pervading and upholding spirit, and how would religion be radiant from each tint of loveliness; how would it envelop the forms of beauty, and the masses of grandeur, and overlay the mysterious expanses of the sublime! How would Religion, going forth from this inner temple of the soul, fill with its holy, enhancing presence, the great outward temple of God, from the verdure and flowers around the altar of prayer, to the azure and stars of the dome. THE DIVINE AGENCY IN NATURE. The THE unceasing agency of the Creator throughout his material works is one of the most prominent doctrines of the Bible. It is early impressed on most readers of the sacred volume, in consequence of its sublimely striking representations of the infinite presence, power, and majesty of the Most High. The prayers and hymns of the sanctuary abound in phraseology of similar import. hearts of worshipers respond to the language that leads their devotions. But we would ask if this impression of the Divine presence and agency is not, with very many, a vague sentiment rather than a clearly apprehended truth, a profound conviction of the understanding. We infer this to be the fact from the language we often hear respecting nature and its operations. The Laws of Nature is a phrase that falls from almost every tongue. Teachers of philosophy, especially, are in the habit of representing the Creator as having ordained certain permanent laws in the beginning, by which all the |