existence,—so He has, set the natural sun as His representative, as it were, in the material universe; and as the latter is the perpetual source of all light and heat to the natural world, so the former is the source of all light and warmth to the spiritual or mental world. And, in like manner, as without the ceaseless influence of the sun all nature would first languish and then perish, so without the perpetual shining of God into the soul, man, both as to his mental and physical part, would presently droop and die.
In man's wisdom, then, we see the wisdom of God. In contemplating and admiring any wise and great mind, we are to remember that we are but beholding the presence and operation of the All-Wise Mind, which is the Sun of that intellect which we admire. And as, when from the vale below we behold a mountain-top gilded by the rays of the rising sun,—while admiring its beauty, we yet know that it is the orb of day which gives it all that beauty and glory,—so, when we behold a towering intellect, beaming with the light of genius, we should acknowledge the unseen Source whence that illumination comes. Moreover, as the light upon that mountain-top is as nothing, compared to the infinite flood of light in the blazing sun itself, so is the wisdom of the greatest human intellect as nothing, in comparison with that which exists in the Great Fountain, God Himself. For, let us remember, from that Fountain all the great intellects of all ages and countries (and it may be added of all worlds) have had their supply. This "Ancient of Days" has shone from the beginning, and before the beginning, of human existence. It was He that enlightened the intellects of old, whose great works have come down to us. As this same
