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THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE.
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grasses, the flowers, the trees covered with blossoms giving promise of the future fruit, the singing-biids, the cattle, the green hill-sides; and then, as you inhale the fragrant air, and look up into the soft blue sky, and at the golden eastern sun that lights the whole,—what do you feel?—what do you say? Must it not be a most kind and bountiful and benevolent Being, who has provided all these things to serve and delight us? and as wise and powerful as He is bountiful, to effect it so admirably, so skilfully, so charmingly? Shall we not return, then, from our morning walk, with a more distinct and rational appreciation of the wisdom and goodness of the Creator?

And as we walk homeward, we shall have an opportunity of observing and reflecting upon the most wonderful object, perhaps, of all that stood upon that ground—namely, ourselves, our own wondrous frame and structure. As you step on, mark how many things co-operate in the simple movement of walking! Note the alternate bending and straightening of the joints, and of so many joints, in every step you take. And what in fact is a joint in the human framework? Take a book of anatomy, and learn its wonderful formation, and the admirable means provided for its lubrication and consequent ease of movement. Then consider the variety of muscles that are called into action at eveiy slightest motion. You cannot turn round to look at a charming prospect, or stoop to pluck a pretty flower, without bringing into play a hundred different musdes. Then consider the delicate system of nerves, by and through which, the spirit communicates its will to the strong muscles, and bids them act; by which, too, it receives and returns the friendly grasp