“Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air,
and they shall tell thee; or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and
the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee. Who knoweth not in all these
that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?” --Job xii. 7-9.
O for an understanding heart and a spiritual mind to read God’s book of
nature as Job read it, deriving holy instruction from every page written on it
by its Creator’s hand! We have received not only such “handwriting on the
wall” of creation as Job saw, but the “interpretation thereof” in the “volume
of the Book;” how diligent, then ought we to be to grow in grace and
knowledge by all those means which God has so richly bestowed on us! All
the objects of nature may remind us of teachings in God’s Word, if we have
but the heart to receive them. The beasts of the field, the sheep and
lambs, may remind us how we “like sheep have gone astray,” or may speak
to us of Him who is “the Lamb of God.” The ravens tell of His care, who
provides for those who are “better than the fowls;” the sparrows tell us that
“not one of them is forgotten before God,” and we “are of more value than
many sparrows.” The lovely lilies say to us, “Why take ye thought for
raiment?” And the grass, so green to-day, so quickly cut down and
withered, tells us to remember “all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness
thereof is as the flower of the field.” Thus do Thou, O Lord, enable us to
read thy book of Nature by thy book of Revelation Norman Macleod
"Heaven is my throne...Isaiah 63"
GOD'S REJECTION OF ALL MATERIAL TEMPLES. There was a time when it could be said that there was a house of God on earth. That was a time of symbols, when as yet the Church of God was in her childhood. She was being taught her A B C, reading her picture-book, for she could not as yet read the Word of God, as it were in letters. She had need to have pictures put before her, patterns of the heavenly things. Even then, the enlightened amongst the Jews knew well that God did not dwell between curtains, and that it was not possible that He could be encompassed in the most holy place within the veil It was only a symbol of His presence. But the time of symbols is now passed altogether. In that moment when the Saviour bowed His head, and said "It is finished! " the veil of the temple was rent in twain, so that the mysteries were laid open. So, one reason why God saith He dwelleth not in temples made with hands, is, because He would have us know that the symbolical worship is ended...
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