raid of your
footsteps that will betray of what sort your life has been.

LXIII.

_THANKFULNESS TO GOD._

Harvest

S. Matthew xxii., 21.

"Render--unto God, the things that are God's."

INTRODUCTION.--David says in the 8th Psalm, "What is man, that Thou art
mindful of him: and the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou makest
him to have dominion of the works of Thy hands; and Thou hast put all
things in subjection under his feet, all sheep and oxen; yea, and the
beast of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fishes of the sea."

I. The mastery of man is even more extensive than this; he controls
the elements. The earth he tills and makes it bring forth fruit and
corn, as he wills. He will not suffer it to run wild, but schools and
disciplines it. He hedges it about, and ploughs, and sows, and reaps.
He burrows into it for fuel and for metals, he cuts roads over its face.

The air he makes use of also, it is his servant to turn the sails of
his wind-mills, to grind his corn, it fills out the sails of his ships
to carry his merchandise from one land to another.

Fire, that most terrible of elements, he dominates and makes into a
slave, it smelts the ore for him, it raises the steam that drives the
engines, it heats his house, it lights it, it cooks his food.

Water is also under control, he leads it where he will in canals and
pipes, he makes it turn the wheels of water-mills, it is used for
drinking, and for washing. And yet even that is not all. Man controls
the lightning, he makes of that a slave to carry messages round the
world, and he carries it into globes, and lights streets and railway
stations, and shop windows with it.

When man was innocent in Eden, the beast and birds were his familiar
friends, but when he sinned they fled from him. God said to Noah, "The
fear of you, and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the
earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the
earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they
delivered."

See how the animals have been subjected to man; the horse, the useful
cow, the dog, and the sheep have been tamed, the horse which once roved
wild submits to have a saddle on his back, and a bit in his mouth. The
cow gives her milk and her meat, and the sheep both wool and meat, for
the nourishment and the clothing of man; the dog, which, when wild, was
fierce as his brother the wolf, has become the friend