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NATURE is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more violent in the return; doctrine and discourse maketh nature less importune; but custom only doth alter and subdue nature. But let not a man trust his victory over his nature too far; for nature will lie buried a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion, or temptation; like as it was with Æsop's damsel, turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very demurely at the board's end till a mouse ran before her. In studies, whatever a man commandeth upon himself, let him set hours for it; but whatsoever is agreeable to his nature, let him take no care for any set times; for his thoughts will fly to it of themselves, so as the spaces of other business or studies will suffice. A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.

LORD BACON.-Essay on Men's Nature.

Now look that well attempre be thy bridell,
And for the best aye suffer to the tide,
Or ellis all our labour is on idell;

He hasteth well, that wisely can abide.
Be dilligent and true, and aye well hide.
Be lustie, free; persever in servise,
And all is well if thou work in this wise.

But he that parted is in every place,
Is no where whole, as writing clerkes wise.
What wonder is, if such one have no grace?
Eke wost thou how it fareth of some servise?
As plant a tree or herb in sundrie wise,
And on the morrow pull it up as blive,

No wonder is, though it may never thrive.

CHAUCER.

CHAPTER XXI.

Voices of the Summer, continued-The Season of Activity and Growth; of dew, light, heat, electricity, clouds, showers-Gradualism and toil in the process; concentration and immutability in the results-The final Triumph of Holy Principle and Habit.

THE summer is the season of growth and consolidation. So indeed is the spring, at least in the latter part of its progress; and in both seasons the same images may be used, and are used, to illustrate the laws and habits of growth, both in the mind and heart. The growth is little by little, imperceptible while looking at the plant, and to be measured only at intervals; but there is no regression; there is constant accretion and consolidation of character, good or bad. The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain; all the time between these periods must be that of growth and patience. Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but it is God who giveth the increase. Native intellectual progress may seem to be of man, as well as the planting and the watering; but all spiritual life and progress are from God. There is a summer in our spiritual existence only because He works, and blesses our working. And as in nature, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the

ear, so in the kingdom of grace, so in the growth of a child of God towards perfection. The trees of righteousness, that are of God's planting, are of gradual growth, as well as the trees of a forest. Day by day, in an appointed circle of years, the sun must shine upon them, and the rain must fall.

The summer is also the season of the greatest abundance and activity of all principles, causes, and operations of Nature necessary for the increase, which God giveth in the natural as well as the spiritual kingdom. The summer is the season of Dew. How sweetly, silently, softly, imperceptibly, its precious influences fall! In what purity and beauty, while every blade, leaf, and flower drinks its fill, bathed in the all-surrounding but invisible suffusion of refreshing moisture, do the crystal drops gather form and brightness for the morning light, impearling the lowliest grass, and every branch and blossom. Then, when the sun rises, how indescribably refreshing is the loveliness and splendor of the dewy landscape!

What process in nature can be more exquisitely beautiful than this; more salutary in its results, more illustrative of the goodness and grace of our Heavenly Father? Accordingly, it is this process which is chosen as the sweetest and most perfect image of the gift of God's refreshing word from Heaven, and of its reviving, life-giving power to the soul: My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. It is in the warm still night, it is when the sky is clear, it is when the wind is sleeping beneath the sparkling stars, in serenity, in repose, in silence, that the dew abundantly distils its moisture; and so, in the calm, attentive, quiet hour, when the glare of the noon of life passes into the evening, and the throbbing pulses of

he world are still, God's precious word settles into the soul. How many things solemnly impressive come to the mind at night, come in silence, and beneath the stars! Beautifully is the Dew classed among "the precious things of Heaven," in Joseph's blessing; and God himself says, "I will be as the Dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon." When God descends as the Dew, it is His Truth and His Spirit on the nation and the soul, and every thing holy and precious grows and prospers.

In Oriental climes these allusions were still more impressively beautiful even than in our own. To the life and beauty of a Judean or Egyptian landscape an abundant supply of dew was absolutely necessary; if it were withheld, beneath the fervor of a summer sun every thing would wither and die. The dew in those climates falls so rapidly and abundantly that it may be collected in a shallow vessel, like water from a shower of rain; and the want of rain in the day-time is thus gently and constantly supplied by the bounty of the night; were it otherwise the most distressing droughts must be the consequence. Hence the intensity of that curse of David, Ye mountains of Gilboa! Let there be no dew, neither rain upon you, nor fields of offerings! And hence may be conceived the tremendous character of the predicted years of famine in Israel, in the time of Elijah, There shall be neither dew nor rain.

"Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit," God says, describing the retributive consequences of the continued sins of his people. But again, when God will renew his mercy, and fulfil his promises, says, "The seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens.

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