"Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel. O my people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against me."—Micah, 6 : 2, 3.

cases are not rare-strives to move us by allusions to the inferior creation, there is a force in the passages which should secure them our special attention. When Jeremiah uses language very similar to that which we have just quoted from Isaiah-"Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord"

Amongst all the pathetic expostulations and remonstrances which occur in the writings of the prophets, none ever seems to us so touching as this, which is found in the first chapter of the book of Isaiah-"The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider." You will at once understand, that, in our estimation, the pathos is derived from the reference made to irrational creatures, to the ox, and the ass, which have not he delivers a sterner rebuke than if been endowed, as man hath been, with he had dealt out a series of vehement the high faculty of reason. It is an ex- invectives. To what end hath man traordinary proof of human perverse- been gifted with superior faculties, ness and ingratitude, that there should made capable of observing the dealnot be as much of attachment, and of ings of his Maker, and receiving the acknowledgment of ownership, mani- communications of his will, if the birds. fested by men towards God, as by the of the air, guided only by instinct, are beasts of the field towards those who to excel him in noting the signs of show them kindness, or supply them the times," and in moving and acting with food. And we feel that no accu- as those signs may prescribe? And mulation of severe epithets, no labored could any severer censure be deliverupbraidings, no variety of reproaches, ed, when he gives no heed to intimacould have set in so affecting a light tions and warnings from God, than is the treatment which the Creator re- passed on him by the swallow and the ceives from his creatures, as the sim-crane, who, observing the changes of ple contrast thus drawn between man season, know when to migrate from and the brute. one climate to another?

But whenever Scripture-and the

Is there not again a very peculiar

the sun and stars, by the rocks and the waters. When Joshua, knowing the time of his death to be near, had gathered the Israelites, and caused them solemnly to renew their covenant with God, he "took a great stone, and set it up there under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord." And then he proceeded to address the congregation in these remarkable words: "Behold, this stone shall be a witness unto

force in this well-known address of Solomon to the indolent man? "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." The sagacious king might have given us a long dissertation on the evil of slothfulness and the duty of industry: but he could not have spoken more impressively than by simply referring us to an in-us; for it hath heard all the words of significant, but ever active, insect, and leaving that insect to put us to shame, if disposed to waste hours in idleness. And who has not felt, whilst reading our Lord's discourses to his disciples, that never did that divine being speak more effectively, or touchingly, than when he made, as it were, the fowls of the air, and the flowers of the field, utter admonitions, and reprove want of faith? It ought to assure us, nobler and more important as we manifestly are, of God's good will towards us, and his watchful care over us, to observe, with how unwearied a bounty he ministers to the winged things that range the broad firmament, and in how glorious an attire he arrays those productions which are to wither in an hour. And could our Savior have composed a homily which should have more keenly rebuked all mistrust of God, or more persuasively have recommended our casting on him our cares, than this his beautiful appeal to the birds and the flowers? "Consider the ravens for they neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and God feedeth them. Consider the lilies, how they grow; they toil not, they spin not; yet I say unto you that Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these."

In these latter words Christ goes yet lower in the scale of creation than either of the prophets whom we quoted as reproving or teaching man through the inferior creatures. It is yet more humiliating to be instructed by the lily than by the bird or the insect: and man may well indeed blush, if ignorant or unmindful of truths which may be learnt from the grass beneath his feet. But there are instances in Scripture of an appeal to what is below even this, to the inanimate creation, as though man might be rebuked and taught by

the Lord which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness unto you, lest ye deny your God." So boldly and unreservedly had the people avouched their determination of serving the Lord and obeying his voice, that the very stones might be supposed to have heard the vow, and to be ready, in the event of that vow being broken, to give evidence against the treacherous multitude. Could the dying leader have expressed more strongly the strictness of the obligation under which the people had brought themselves, and the perfidy of which they would be guilty in turning aside to idolatry, than by thus gifting inanimate matter with the powers of hearing and speech, and representing it as becoming vocal, that it might denounce the iniquity of infringing the covenant just solemnly made? The stone is thus converted into an overwhelming orator; in its stillness and muteness, it addresses us more energetically and persuasively than the most impassioned of speakers.

Or, to take another instance, when the Psalmist calls upon every thing, animate and inanimate, to join in one chorus of thanksgiving to the Almighty, who does not feel that the summoning the senseless and irrational is the most powerful mode of exhorting those blessed with life and intelligence, and of rebuking them, if they offer not praise? "Praise ye him, sun and moon; praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy wind fulfilling his word." Could any address be more stirring? Could any labored exposition of the duty of thanksgiving be as effective as this call to the heavenly bodies, yea, even to the fire, and the hail, and the storm, to bring their tribute of praise? for who amongst God's rational crea

tures will dare to be silent, if every star, as it walks its course, and every breeze, as it sweeps the earth, and every cloud, as it darkens the firmament, may be regarded as attesting the goodness and publishing the glories of the universal Lord?

We thus wish you to perceive, that, in appealing to the inanimate creation, the inspired writers take a most effective mode of inculcating great truths, and conveying stern reproofs. And never should we more feel that the lessons, which they are about to deliver, are of extraordinary moment, than when they introduce them, as Isaiah does his prophecies, with a "Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth;" never should we be more conscious that they are just in accusing men of wilful ignorance and determined unbelief, than when they turn to the inferior tribes, and cite them as witnesses against rational beings.

Now you will readily perceive that our text has naturally suggested these remarks on the frequent references in the Bible, whether to animate or inanimate things, when man is to be exhorted, and especially when he is to be rebuked. In the preceding verse, the prophet Micah had received his commission in these remarkable terms"Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice." Nothing can be more adapted to awaken attention, and prepare us for surprising disclosures. What lofty, what confounding argument is this, which must be maintained in the audience of the mountains and hills? Or, could any thing more persuade us of the obduracy of those with whom the prophet had to reason, than this appeal to inanimate matter, as though the very rocks might be as much expected to hearken, as the idolatrous generation to whom he was sent? In the first verse of our text, the prophet literally obeys the command thus received: for he exclaims, "Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel."

"The Lord hath a controversy with his people;" he is about to enter into

debate with them, to bring forward his grievances, and to allow them to bring forward theirs, so that the cause may be fairly tried, and a verdict given as to who has done the wrong. In what court, if we may use the expression, shall such a cause be tried? When one of the contending parties is none other than the everlasting God, it should be at some stupendous tribunal that the pleading takes place. Let then the mightiest eminences of the earth be the walls within which the controversy proceeds. "Arise, contend thou before the mountains." It is as though the prophet had been bidden to select some valley, surrounded on all sides by hills which lost themselves in the clouds; that there, as in a magnificent hall, worthy in some degree of the greatness and strangeness of the cause, the living God and his rebellious people might stand side by side, and implead one the other. And the mountains are to do more than form the walls of the judicial chamber. They are to be the audience, they are to be witnesses in this unparalleled trial. So certain was God, when thus bringing himself into public controversy with Israel, that he should be justified in his dealings, and clear in his judgments; so certain, moreover, was he, that no evidence would convince those who were set against his service; that he summoned the hills and strong foundations of the earth to be present, that he might not want voices to pronounce his acquittal, however human tongues might keep a guilty silence. There is something singularly striking and sublime in all this. My brethren, give your close attention to the scene. We are admitted, as it were, into the court; did ever trial go forward in so august a chamber? The walls are the everlasting hills, and the roof is the broad firmament with all its fretwork of stars. And the parties who are to come into court! The Creator himself, amazing condescension! is one of these parties; the other is the whole Jewish nation, or for we may fairly transfer the occurrence to our own day-the whole christian world. Yes, matters are to be brought to an

handled by Saurin in his sermon on "God's controversy with Israel," that one can scarcely hope to say any thing which has not been already and better * This portion of the subject has been so largely said by that most powerful of preachers.