Twenty-Five Village Sermons | Page 4

dust
whence they were made, to feed creatures nobler and more precious
than themselves. That is all God's doing, all the doing of Christ, the
King of the earth. "They wait on Him," says David. The beasts, and
birds, and insects, the strange fish, and shells, and the nameless corals
too, in the deep, deep sea, who build and build below the water for
years and thousands of years, every little, tiny creature bringing his
atom of lime to add to the great heap, till their heap stands out of the
water and becomes dry land; and seeds float thither over the wide waste
sea, and trees grow up, and birds are driven thither by storms; and men
come by accident in stray ships, and build, and sow, and multiply, and
raise churches, and worship the God of heaven, and Christ, the blessed
One,--on that new land which the little coral worms have built up from
the deep. Consider that. Who sent them there? Who contrived that
those particular men should light on that new island at that especial
time? Who guided thither those seeds--those birds? Who gave those
insects that strange longing and power to build and build on
continually?-- Christ, by whom all things are made, to whom all power
is given in heaven and earth; He and His Spirit, and none else. It is
when HE opens His hand, they are filled with good. It is when HE
takes away their breath, they die, and turn again to their dust. HE lets
His breath, His spirit, go forth, and out of that dead dust grow plants
and herbs afresh for man and beast, and He renews the face of the earth.
For, says the wise man, "all things are God's garment"-- outward and
visible signs of His unseen and unapproachable glory; and when they
are worn out, He changes them, says the Psalmist, as a garment, and
they shall be changed.
The old order changes, giving place to the new, And God fulfils

Himself in many ways.
But He is the same. He is there all the time. All things are His work. In
all things we may see Him, if our souls have eyes. All things, be they
what they may, which live and grow on this earth, or happen on land or
in the sky, will tell us a tale of God,--shew forth some one feature, at
least, of our blessed Saviour's countenance and character,--either His
foresight, or His wisdom, or His order, or His power, or His love, or
His condescension, or His long-suffering, or His slow, sure vengeance
on those who break His laws. It is all written there outside in the great
green book, which God has given to labouring men, and which neither
taxes nor tyrants can take from them. The man who is no scholar in
letters may read of God as he follows the plough, for the earth he
ploughs is his Father's: there is God's mark and seal on it,--His name,
which though it is written on the dust, yet neither man nor fiend can
wipe it out!
The poor, solitary, untaught boy, who keeps the sheep, or minds the
birds, long lonely days, far from his mother and his playmates, may
keep alive in him all purifying thoughts, if he will but open his eyes
and look at the green earth around him.
Think now, my boys, when you are at your work, how all things may
put you in mind of God, if you do but choose. The trees which shelter
you from the wind, God planted them there for your sakes, in His
love.--There is a lesson about God. The birds which you drive off the
corn, who gave them the sense to keep together and profit by each
other's wit and keen eyesight? Who but God, who feeds the young birds
when they call on Him?--There is another lesson about God. The sheep
whom you follow, who ordered the warm wool to grow on them, from
which your clothes are made? Who but the Spirit of God above, who
clothes the grass of the field, the silly sheep, and who clothes you, too,
and thinks of you when you don't think of yourselves?--There is
another lesson about God. The feeble lambs in spring, they ought to
remind you surely of your blessed Saviour, the Lamb of God, who died
for you upon the cruel cross, who was led as a lamb to the slaughter;
and like a sheep that lies dumb and patient under the shearer's hand, so

he opened not his mouth. Are not these lambs, then, a lesson from God?
And these are but one or two examples out of thousands and thousands.
Oh, that I could make you, young and old, all feel