"Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. Recompense to no man evil for evil. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, it thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head." there is another lesson in Colossians, with which I close: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.”

THE RETURN OF SPRING.

"FOR lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land."-SOLOMON'S SONG 2: 11, 12.

AFTER a long and tedious winter, we are again rejoicing in the sweet return of spring. The earth's cold robe of frost and snow has been dissolved, the icicle is melted, the streams are unfettered, and the rude and blustering storms have passed away. Spring, with its sunny hours, its bright anticipations, and its joyous melodies, has come to us again. What a pleasing change, what a sweet vicissitude, a single month has brought to pass! It seems as if the magic fingers of some unseen, celestial visitant had touched our globe and spread new life and beauty over it.. The field, so lately cold, and desolate, and drear, in their white robe of snow, are now smiling in green verdure; the spring flowers here and there begin to deck the sod; the forests are just budding into life again, and resounding with the morning songs of the sweet-voiced birds. The cattle begin to appear again upon

the verdant hill-side; the air is soft and balmy, and the gentle dews descend. The seed of the husbandman is swelling in the fertile bosom of the earth; the fruit-trees are beginning to display their glittering buds, and the garden is sending forth its grateful odor. Nature, as a maiden decked in bridal array, is coming now to present herself in all her splendor, and to hold the heart of the beholder captive to her charms.

In the midst of this beautiful renovation, I desire to invite you to contemplate the wisdom of God, by which it has been effected. Go pluck an early flower, as I did yesterday, that blooms in yonder sunlit vale; take out your microscope and examine it. Observe the delicate texture of its petals; trace out its minute veins, and pores innumerable; look at its breathing apparatus; its mechanism for producing nectar; its organs for the reproduction of itself. Consider the elegance of its form; the exquisitely shaded coloring of its petals-the tints of purple, orange, azure, so delicately interblending; the beauty of the sky, the earth, the sea, the pearl within the sea, in one smiling leaf before you; inhale its most delicious perfume. Fix your eye upon it. A day or two ago and it was only so much cold, inert, and lifeless dust; but now the genius, the united skill of all the world, stands mute before its cunning workmanship. It is a miracle, done by that same hand which did confirm this book, from which I speak, by miracles.

Look backward; consider how the seed from which it sprung has been kept alive through changes which no tongue can number, from creation's spring-time until now. What sleepless eye has kept that vigil over it? Look forward; see how the flower will pass to fruit, to feed a bird and make it sing more sweetly, then to earth, and then to bud, and flower, and fruit again; thus ever circling onward, God's eye only watching it, to the end of time. And by this flower, see how the mineral kingdom is resolved into the vegetable, the vegetable in turn into the animal, and the animal into the mineral again; each coming out of each and forming each, in one mysterious round forever.

Look farther still, and see how many potent agencies - how many curiously adapted means and instruments-meet and work together in the production of this single flower. See how the air, the water, and the earth supply their elements in exact and definite proportions for its growth; see how the light divides itself by law to form its coloring; see how the genial warmth of spring dissolves the mold to furnish nutriment; see how the simple. turning of the north pole towards the sun supplies the heat-unlocks the grasp of winter, sets the agencies of spring at work, makes the seed spring forth with new vitality and germinate, makes the juices flow, and most cunningly elaborates and perfects the whole.

What an harmonious combination of laws and principles meet and cooperate in the production of a single flower! How simple, yet how complicate and grand! What a framework of natural law meets in it! What harmonious bearings, what nice dependencies! What wisdom we behold in every step of these dependencies in the adaptation of the air in just degree, the rain, the dew, the light, the heat, the earth-for that is proportioned in its attraction to the flower, as well as the flower to it--the alternation of day and night, the sun, the order of the vast machinery that encircles it-the star, the nebula, the Universe.

To understand that flower, is to know the key-word of creation. It seems a very little thing, I know, and yet to me it is a messenger direct from God. "I come," methinks I hear it say, "I come to you again this spring to tell you of the wisdom of our common Parent. Look down into my smiling face, survey my tinted leaves; mark well my delicately constructed organs; inhale the fragrance of my breath; behold my loving eye; think of my sweet ministration of mercy; see my connection with the most stupendous laws and changes of the globe; contrast the genius manifest in my workmanship with that of your Raphaels and your Canovas, and abandon your cold, earth-born skepticism, and acknowledge and adore the wisdom of your God. I come from his vast manufactory, a simple specimen of his handicraft, to show you that the Maker of this world is worthy of your trust and homage, and to beseech you lovingly to live, like me, obedient to his will. I am but the herald of myriads upon myriads that this spring will bring to you in garden and in field, to preach with silent but with eloquent lips some little sermon on the wisdom of our God."

It is a good thing for us, in these fair days of opening springtime, to steal away from the dust of the office, the din of the workshop or the school; away from the wear and tear of business, and the feverish excitement after "yellow bits of glittering gold," and walk abroad and breathe the health-inspiring breath of May, survey the verdure-covered fields, penetrate the woodland, climb the hill-side and contemplate the wisdom of the works of God. You will perceive it in the structure of the insect, fluttering in the sunbeam; in the instinct and the voice of the song-bird; in the springing of the simple blade of grass; in the high-towering oak of the mountain; in the lily that adorns the vale; in the cerulean concave bending over you, as in the green robe spread beneath your feet.

You will see, if you look long enough, that beautiful word wisdom inscribed on every object, and the light of Divinity beaming over it, and the voluntary exclamation of your heart and tongue will be: "O Lord! how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all." (Psalm 104: 24.)

II. Again. In the renewal of the face of nature we are led to contemplate anew the power of God.

A steamboat might, you know, be perfect and complete in all its parts-its wheels, its pumps, its enginery, all in working order and yet without a motive power to impel it forward, it might only serve to show the folly of its builder. So the works of nature, vast and complicated as they are-wheel within wheel-system within system-laws and principles underlying laws and principles would be, without a power behind to move them, but a stupendous framework reared for no conceivable good.

His invinci

But that great Being, who conceived and made the system, stands in person at the head of it and drives with unseen but allpowerful hand the mighty engine, turning with equal care and certainty the ponderous globe that sweeps around the sun, or the tiny stream that circles through the petal of a rose. ble energy is operating instantly at every point in his dominions. The foot-prints of his power, the rocks, and the rivers, and the hills, reveal on every side of us; nor can the leaves of autumn or the snows of winter cover them; but in the renovation of the face of nature in the spring they seem to be more distinctly visible. No man can be insensible to this power; but many would ascribe it unto any thing but God; and many, who still bear the name of Christians, are yet too negligent to give honor to whom honor belongs. We are all far too apt to look upon the ordinary operations of nature as an every-day concern; as the natural effect of some known or unknown cause; as the natural and unavoidable consequence of a material law. We say the snow melts because the heat dissolves it; the heat comes because the north pole inclines towards the sun; the north pole inclines towards the sun because the earth comes into a certain part of the ecliptic; and the earth comes into a certain part of its orbit because the attraction of the sun brings it there.

We

We rest too much in sense; too much in second causes. do not let our eyes go far enough. We are too easily satisfied with the husks of knowledge. We stop with the shell, when a little more faith, a little more simplicity would give us the sweet kernel:

We do not ask as earnestly as we ought to do, What makes the heat dissolve the snow? What makes the sap arise? What makes attraction turn the earth and bring the spring-time? What is the efficient, what the primal cause of all this mighty movement? What is it which upheaves the molder's turf? It is not law that does it; for law is but an order of sequence, a mode of action. It is but the iron track on which the engine runs. It is a misuse of terms to say that law is the efficient cause of any thing. It is not chance; for then you could not calculate upon another spring

time; chance is but the unexpected way in which events take place; it certainly is not the power producing them.

It is not progress or development, for that is but a "moving forward," or "unfolding," and not, without abuse of words, the real cause of any thing.

What then is that secret, hidden, irresistible power behind this visible scheme of things, acting so intelligently and so well? The proud philosopher, false to the monitions of his conscience, and disdaining the plain declarations of the Bible and of common-sense, endeavors to account for it by the light of reason; and disowning, in his pride, the name of God, he calls it fate, or chance, or law, or progression, or development; thus covering up the real efficient cause of things by naming the effects or accidents attending it.

The little child that turns its curious eye to heaven when evening shades are falling, and the first lone star comes sparkling out upon its azure vault of heaven, and cries in sweet simplicity, "See, father, God has made a star," has more of true philosophy in his heart, than all the Pantheists that ever breathed; for the power that acts in nature is the power of God. I care not through what agencies, it is still the power of a personal, intelligent God. His strong arm upholds this earth and gives it motion; makes attractive power efficient to lead on the seasons. His powerful hand unclasps the icy band of winter; his busy fingers spread the gorgeous robe of spring. He himself, not law, not chance, not nature, not development; he himself, says David, "sendeth the springs into the valleys; he watereth the hills from his chambers; he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man." (Psalm 104.)

It is a great and glorious thing to see God in his works immediately around us and to acknowledge him in them. You see him in the earthquake; you see him, etc. It is good and great to see him in the changes which occur beside your very door, etc. Then as you behold this spring, the blossoming of your trees, the germination of your seed, the general awakening of nature into life and beauty, ascribe the change to God; fairly, openly, honestly to God. Meditate on him as ever present, upholding, moving, working, managing, executing all things by his mighty power, and standing personally present by you every moment to protect or to destroy you by that power, as we ourselves may choose.

III. Again. The return of spring leads us to contemplate with liveliest gratitude the unspeakable goodness of God.

He has sheltered us from the peltings of the pitiless storm through the long winter which has past. He has brought back the genial sunshine, the fertilizing shower, the gentle breeze,