rial for religious
instruction. God who creates the beautiful flowers, who causes the
breezes to blow, who carpets the earth with green, who paints the autumn
hillside with glowing color, who directs the coming and going of the
seasons, who tells the buds when to swell and the leaves to unfold, who
directs the sparrow in its flight and the bee in its search, who is in
the song of the birds and the whisper of the leaves, who sends his rain
and makes the thunder roll--this God can be brought, through the medium
of nature's forms, very near to the child. And the love and appreciation
which the child lavishes on the dear and beautiful things about him will
extend naturally and without trouble of comprehension to their Creator.

Nature material useful for all ages.--Most of the lesson material now
supplied for our Sunday schools use a considerable amount of nature
material in the earlier grades, but some important lesson series omit
most or all nature material from the junior department on. This is a
serious mistake. All through childhood and youth the pupil is continuing
in the public school his study of nature and its laws. Along with this
broadening of knowledge of the natural world should be the deepening of
appreciation of its spiritual meaning, and the inspiration to praise and
worship which comes from it. One does not, or at least should not, at
any age outgrow his response to the wonders and beauties which nature
unfolds before him who has eyes to see its inner meaning. None can
afford to lose the simple, untutored awe with which children and
primitive men look out upon the world.

Carlyle, recognizing this truth, exclaims: "This green, flowery,
rock-built earth, the trees, the mountains, rivers, many-sounding seas;
that great deep sea of azure that swims overhead; the winds sweeping
through it; the black cloud fashioning itself together, now pouring out
fire, now hail and rain; what _is_ it? Aye, what?... An unspeakable,
godlike thing, toward which the best attitude for us, after never so
much science, is awe, devout prostration, and humility of soul; worship,
if not in words, then in silence."

In the same spirit Max Mueller exhorts us: "Look at the dawn, and forget
for a moment your astronomy; and I ask you whether, when the dark veil
of night is slowly lifted, and the air becomes transparent and alive,
and light streams forth you know not whence, you would not feel that
your eye were looking into the very eye o