understanding acting with thought and deliberation; it is the power of examining effects, tracing them up to their causes, and of entering analytically into the profoundest mental abstractions. Human reason calculates eclipses of the sun and moon; the return of comets; measures the distances of planets, with other things equally wonderful.
Man is blessed with the two faculties of will and understanding; these render him an image of his Creator. Into these God's breath of lives constantly flows, and is the ground and cause of his immortality. Instinct relates to the material world only; reason both to this and the spiritual world. Hence the Lord says to man, not to brutes, "Come now, and let us reason together." This divine invitation to man, "let us reason together," is well worthy our serious regard; for human reason can only be enlightened by being in close connexion with Divine Wisdom. When God and man reason together, it is by the latter loving and studying the truths of the Divine Word; for then his understanding is lit at Revelation's flame, and all is bright and clear. "Come now, and let us reason together!" In this happy reasoning, the sins that were as scarlet by the blood-guiltiness of man, become purified and rendered white as snow, while the evils that were red like crimson become as wool, the clothing of innocence. What a blessed change! Reader! be just to thyself; listen to this merciful invitation of thy loving Father, and thou shalt be made a pillar in the temple of thy God.
