LECTURE V. GOD WISE. David-The soul wants a house-The soul's servants-The telescope-The eye more curious-How the eye keeps clean and safe-The frame of the house -The man of steel-The curious chain-The pump - Little channels-The house repaired-Witnesses against poison-The blood -The daily physicianWhy we are born without dress—The elephant's head -The oyster-The muscle-The little bird - Birds wear spectacles-Little mill-Elephant's trunk-The rein-deer-The whale's great coat-The clamp-fish— Food prepared everywhere-The ship of the desertThe soft, spongy foot-The little songster-The shark -The pilot friend-Very small watch-The insectThe strawberry-pot-Instinct - The young hen and the hawk-The beaver-How to build a dam-The bee-Infancy-Mother's love-The great basin-How rain made-The ocean a great blessing-Faces not alike-Men cannot write alike—The tongue and the ear-Day and night-The Bible-How proved from God-Jesus Christ-The wisdom of God seen-Who sees it-The world to be destroyed-New heavens hereafter-The little top-What God will do hereafter. (209) 18* David The soul wants a house. DAVID looked at himself, and saw that he was wonderfully and fearfully made; and in the making of his body, he saw the skill and wisdom of God. Let me do so too. The soul is a spirit, and it must have a house to live in. It must be not merely a house for the soul to live in, but such a house as could live in any country, and in any climate; a house that could move about whenever the soul wished to move it. What would be the best form of this house? What kind of servants shall she have, upon which she may call, thousands of times every day? Let us now see. The feet must carry the house about; the hands do whatever she wants done; the eyes let her know what is doing all The soul's servants The telescope. around her; the ear lets her know what other minds think and feel and desire; and the tongue carries her wishes and feelings to other minds. The eyes are the windows through which the soul looks out; and ought not the windows to be in front, and up in top of the house, so that the soul can see as much as possible? Where should the ear be, but near the brain, to let the soul know quickly what it hears? Where should the feet be, but under the whole house, to move it at every step? Children, did you ever hear of a telescope? It is a curious thing, by which men look at the stars. It has cords, and pulleys, and wheels, and a great deal of machinery by which to turn it round, and point it any way; The eye more curious. but after all, it is not half as wonderful as the eye. The eye has six little strings fixed to it, by which we turn it any way. If you wish to read through a telescope across this house, and then wish to look off at a great distance, you must alter it by screws, and other ways, and it is a great work to alter it. But now look at me. I stoop down as you see, and read this paper in my hand, and the next moment I look up to that further window beyond the organ in the gallery, and my eye alters itself so as to see in either place in an instant! If the eye had been square instead of round, would it have turned so easily as now? If there had been only one eye, instead of two, could it have seen as much, and if it had hap How the eye kept clean and safe... The frame of the house. pened to be put out, would not the soul be left in darkness? There is a little stream of water running into the eye every moment, to keep it soft, and a hole bored through the bone of the nose, to carry off what is not used in the eye! How came that little covering over the eye, which washes it, and keeps it clean, and which defends it from harm,-which has the little skirt of fringe around it to keep out the insects while you sleep? How happens it that this little covering comes down and closes the eye when you sleep, and cannot take care of it? Do you not here see God's wisdom in this? Let us look at this house of the soul still more. The bones are the frame of the house. Now there are two hundred |