sun, moon, and stars; the sky, land, and sea, and the variety of animals, trees, and flowers?"

The observer may repeat the doxology, or imagine he hears an unseen choir engaged in chaunting the following strain:

66

Glory to God! unnumbered voices sing;

Glory to God! the vales and mountains ring;
Voices that hailed creation's primal morn,

And, to the shepherds, sang a Saviour born."

Here it may not be out of place to notice the highland villager's simple prayer.

When the solar luminary's last parting rays gild the summit of the Alps, the uppermost shepherd, with a speaking trumpet, says aloud: "The Lord be praised.” At this signal the neighbouring cotters, at their thresholds, repeat the ejaculation, and the mountain echoes reverberate with the thrice Holy name! Then,

"With devotion, as spirits feel,

Th' uncover'd herdsmen kneel;
From lips that scarcely seem to part,
Ascends the worship of the heart;

From each high cottage threshold, there

Rises the incense sweet of prayer.

They bow the head-they bend the knee,

Ruler of heaven and earth, to Thee!

God of truth and liberty!

Keep our hills, and mountains free."

Can imagination picture anything more sublimely simple than such a scene? The stillness that succeeds reverberating sounds in such lofty solitudes; the undulating glaciers in the distance; the stupendous precipices,

waterfalls, and steeps; the snowcapped boulders; the aerial gothic towers, with tapering spires,

"Around whose lessening and invisible height,

Gather among the stars, the clouds of night."

All, all, combine to swell, and uplift man's heart with ineffable emotion.

"How calm! how still!

The evening darkness gathers round,
By virtue's holiest powers attended!"

Noteworthy, also, are the flitting silvery vapours; for when the Lord hath commanded them to go over the whole world, (they) do that which is commanded. (Bar. vi.)

In the interim, like watchmen of the Lord on high, mountain choristers may harmoniously continue singing in cadence,

"We are watchers of a beacon,

Whose light can never die;
We are guardians of an altar,
Midst the silence of the sky;
We are watchers of a beacon,
Whose rays are from on high;
We are kneelers in a temple,

Of which the God is nigh.
The rocks yield founts of courage,

Struck forth as by His rod;

For the strength of the hills we bless Thee,
Our God-our Father's God!"

To pious mountaineers, who daily worship their Creator at his loftiest shrines, in Nature's vast basilica, the following stanzas of an Hibernian poet may, also, be appropriately applied:

They cease from toil, and humbly kneel to pray,
And hail, with vesper hymn, the tranquil hour;

E

For then, indeed, the vaulted heavens appear
A fitting shrine to hear their Maker's praise-
Such as no human architect can rear-

Where gems, and gold, and precious marble blaze.
What earthly temple such a roof can boast-

What flickering lamp with the rich starlight vies,
When the round moon rests, like the sacred Host,
Upon the azure altar of the skies?
They breathe aloud the Christian's filial prayer,
Which makes them brothers with the Lord.
Our Father! they cry in the evening air,

In Heaven and earth be Thy name adored.
May Thy bright kingdom, where the angels are,
Replace this fleeting world, so dark and dim;
And then, with eyes fix'd on some glorious star,
They sing the Virgin Mother's sacred hymn,
66 Ave Maris Stella!"

Hail, brightest star, that, o'er life's troubled sea,
Shines pitying down from heaven's elysian blue;
Mother and maid! we fondly look to thee,

Fair gate of bliss, where heaven beams brightly through.
Star of the evening, with thy tranquil rays,

Gladden the aged eyes that seek thy face."

Then, doubtless, did their Complin-antiphons, incenselike, ascend before the throne of God, who is "blessed for evermore." Consoled, as age advances,

"Firm are their steps who, in life's evening calm,
The mountain tops of heavenly grace ascend."

With Daniel they may exclaim: "O ye mountains and

hills, bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all for ever!" (Dan. iii.) or say, with the sublimest of the prophets: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of them, that bring good tidings, and that preach peace; of them that show forth good; that preach salvation; that say to Sion, Thy God shall reign." (Is. lii.) "The

voice of Thy watchmen-they have lifted up their voice; they shall praise together." (Id.)

"God of stillness, and of motion,

Of the desert, and the ocean,
Of the mountain, rock, and river,
Blessed be thy name for ever!"

CHAPTER VI.

SUBTERRANEAN EVIDENCE-PREADAMITE CREATIONS-AND

OTHER TESTIMONIES.

GOD also said: "Let the dry land appear; and it was so done. And He called the dry land earth.” (Gen. i.) "Stand and consider the wondrous works of God." (Job, xxxvii.) "Behold this stone shall be a testimony unto you, that it hath heard all the words of the Lord." (Jos. xxiv.)

"Walk out beneath the roseate skies;

Eye, ear, and heart awake;

List to the melodies that rise

From tree, from bush, and brake;

Each fluttering leaf, each murmuring spring,

The Lord Jehovah own."

In nature there are mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, which have been given over to the investigations of men.

"Behold a bulb-the child of earth
Buried alive beneath the clod;
Ere long to spring by second birth,
A new, and nobler work of God."

An inquirer, who wishes to learn something about the immensity of space, can question the siderean firmament, and get bewildered in the depths of its reply. Looking