In the first class the Gnawing creatures are placed; you can always know them by their teeth. Perhaps you remember how different the front teeth of a rabbit are from those long, sharp ones which pussy shows now and then when she yawns. By constantly gnawing their food, the teeth of squirrels, hares, rats, mice, dormice, and all animals called Rodents, or Gnawers, would soon be worn away, but that, unlike our teeth, they never cease growing while the creature lives. The most interesting of these creatures is the Beaver, with its webbed hind feet and broad tail. I hope you will some day read about the mud-built houses, and the clever dams which beavers make across the rivers. Mr. Wood says that when they have been tamed they will still go on building dams across one corner of the room in which they are, and collecting boots, brushes, books, all sorts of things, and putting them together industriously; for they still have in captivity the same instinct which teaches them to dam the stream where they build, so that the entrance to their houses may always be below the surface, and never be barred by the ice, during frost.

The teeth of horses are differently formed from those of the gnawing animals: at the back they are massive, and act like grindstones, crushing the grain which they eat. The Horse-family includes the patient Ass, and the beautifully marked Zebra of South Africa. I need not tell you that all these animals have only one toe, with that hard and strong toe-nail which is called the hoof.

The Ruminants, or animals that chew the cud, are cows, sheep, and goats, deer, giraffes, and camels.

You have often noticed a Cow when lying down in the field, going on eating, although she seems to have no food before her. This is because she has already eaten plenty of grass, very fast, and now that she is resting, she brings what she has, as it were, laid up in store, back into her mouth, and chews it over again.

I think there are no animals so often mentioned in the Bible as oxen, sheep, and lambs, goats and kids; and they are the only creatures, except the turtle dove and the pigeon, which were offered as sacrifices, from the time when Eve's second son brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof, "and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering."

All creatures that chew the cud have two toes, or are what is called cloven-footed. The Camel, whose home is in the dry and thirsty desert, has the power of storing up water, and bringing it back into its mouth for several days after it has drunk it. This enables it to make long journeys, without needing a brook by the way. Its feet, too, are just fitted for the sandy wastes which it has to tread. The one-humped camel is found in Africa, and the two-humped, or Bactrian camel, in Asia. The Llama of South America is like the camel in some respects, but, as you know, is very much smaller; I knew one which had a disagreeable habit of spitting at those who came to call upon him, and I have read or others doing the same. We read of Abraham having camels, and of John the Baptist wearing clothes made of camel's hair, and that King Solomon had deer.

The beautiful Giraffe, found only in South Africa, is like the camel in some respects, and the deer in others. That long neck which it arches so gracefully when you offer it a bun, enables it in its forest-home to feed upon the leaves of trees; so you see it is for use, not only for beauty.

There could hardly be a greater contrast to the giraffe than the Elephant, with its short neck and large body; but what the giraffe can do with its long neck, that, and a great deal more, the elephant can do with the wonderful trunk which is his nose, his hand, his trumpet, and we might almost say his mouth, as he could neither reach his food nor drink except by its help, his neck being so short.

There are only two kinds of elephants, the Asiatic and the African, the latter having very large ears, and the former only being tamed; the African elephant is hunted merely for the sake of its ivory tusks.

In a delightful story book, called Friends in Fur and Feathers, we had all read a very interesting account of a young elephant called Kornegalle Jack, which became exceedingly attached to his master. I wonder whether you know it? If you do not, perhaps you might have the book for your next birthday present, and read a great deal about elephants, as well as other animals, whose names only we have time, to mention now.

But you will say, perhaps, that we have forgotten one kind of animal, for we have not said a word about Pigs. Well, Piggie has not been forgotten; but it seems difficult for him to find just his own place among the classes of Mammalia, for he is like several of the quadrupeds in some particular, but unlike any one of them altogether. You cannot put him with the Ruminants, and yet he has cloven feet; he has the same number of teeth as the horse, and his snout is rather like, in a small way, the trunk of the elephant; then, in his wild state, he might almost be reckoned among the beasts of prey, for the wild Boar, with its terrible tusks, is a most formidable creature to encounter.

Of all the families of the Mammalia, that of Rats and Mice is the most numerous. There are two kinds of rats, the black and the brown. I do not know to which kind Willie's "Ratto" belongs, but I have heard many stories of his clever tricksy ways, and of how well he knew his name, and obeyed his master.

A rat, however clever, is not an animal which I should care to pet and tame; but I know a very interesting story of one which seemed to be the means of taming a poor man who was so wild and miserable that he cared for nobody. This man had been transported for life, for some of his wicked deeds, and he was so savage that even the companions who worked with him were afraid of him, and hardly dared speak to him.

Once, as he was at work in the woods near Port Philip, felling trees, with a heavy chain around him lest he should escape, a rat, chased by some boys, ran towards him, and nestled inside his shirt. There the frightened creature lay, in its place of refuge, close to that hard heart which cared for no fellow-man; and as the poor lonely convict felt its fluttering, a strange feeling came over him towards the trembling thing which had thus trusted him. He asked leave to keep it as a pet, and from that time the rat followed its protector everywhere, faithful and loving as a dog; and from caring for his little rescued friend, the man who had been so savage and hard, became more gentle, and no longer needed to be chained, and kept almost as if he had been a wild beast. There is a sad ending to this story, for at last the rat was killed by a bough falling upon it, and its death caused such grief to its master that he never spoke again; but I do not know his history to the very end, and I hope that even through seeing the gratitude and faithfulness of one of the creatures whom God had made, he may have learnt that the God against whom he had so hardened himself was ready to forgive and to receive him, for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came "to seek and to save that which was lost."

We must not forget the Toothless animals, of which the Ant-eater is the best known. They live upon insects, chiefly white ants, which they catch by tearing open their houses with their strong claws, and then rolling their long tongues among them. The tongue of the ant-eater is covered with a kind of gum, to which the ants stick, and when there is room for not one more, the living mouthful is swallowed.

Perhaps your cousins in Australia sometimes tell you about the great Kangaroo, or "Old man," as they call him in that part of the world. By means of his very long and powerful hind legs, and strong tail, he can leap great distances, so rapidly as to outstrip a greyhound. There are many species of kangaroos, but they are all much alike, and belong to the order of Pouched animals; so called because instead of rearing her young in a nest which she has made for them, the mother carries them in a bag. The little creatures at their birth are more helpless than most young animals, and this pouch is their home for some time, and their refuge in danger, even after they have grown beyond the need of her constant care.

Australia has no animals like those of other parts of the world, except the dog and the bat; but only one of these pouched animals—the Opossum of America—is not found there. This creature is very like a monkey, and the one best known in the southern states of America is about the size of a cat, and very mischievous—as it sleeps during the day and prowls about at night, in search of birds, eggs, and fruit. It has the power, which some animals possess, of pretending to be dead, when in danger of being caught; and thus it often escapes.

Seals and Whales must also be classed among the Mammalia, although they are especially formed to live in the water.

Whales, though so much like fishes that they used to be classed with them, have warm blood and do not breathe through gills; so they have to come to the surface of the water every now and then, in order to get air. By-and-by, when you read more, you will understand how it is that the whale, though it breathes as you do, is able to stay under water as long as half an hour at a time.

Now, at the end of this long chapter about the Mammalia, let us see what we have been noticing about them.

They are put first in the Vertebrate Group, though we have spoken of the birds and fishes before them, because they were made on the Fifth Day.

They are generally—for we must not forget the whale—covered with hair or fur, and they feed their young with milk. First of the classes into which the Mammalia are divided, we place the Four-handed creatures—apes and monkeys.

Second, the Hand-winged; the bats.

Third, the Flesh-eaters; many of them beasts of prey of the Cat-kind and of the Dog-kind.

Fourth, the Herbivora; animals which feed upon grasses.

Fifth, the Horse-tribe.

Sixth, the Ruminants; animals which chew the cud.

Seventh, Elephants.

Eighth, the Pig-kind, including the Hippopotamus which is believed to be the creature called Behemoth.

Ninth, the Pouched animals.

Tenth, Seals, including the Walrus.

Eleventh, the Whale-tribe.

In saying "good-bye for the present" to this wide field of interest, shall we make up our minds to observe for our own selves the animals which we see every day, and to notice particularly how beautifully they are formed so as to live in the way which is, as we say, suited to their nature; and also to read some of the many interesting books on Natural History, where we shall find pictures of the different "orders" of animals, and learn all sorts of curious things about their habits?

God does not tell us what we do not need to know, just how he fed the beasts of prey, and all the flesh-eating creatures which, in their present state, live upon birds or animals which they catch alive; but God does not say either that there was any death in the Garden of Eden, or that the creatures which He had just made, each "after its kind," and all "very good," preyed upon those weaker and smaller than themselves. It has been found that it is possible now for those beasts whose claws are fitted for catching their prey—and their long sharp teeth for tearing to pieces what they have caught—to live upon green things; and we know from the chapter we have been reading together that God at the first gave them "every green herb for meat."

Perhaps some of us have already read this beautiful poem in Scattered Seed, but I will copy it for others who may not know it.

"GOD IS LOVE.

"All the earth, about us, All the world above, Tell the old sweet story, Whisper, 'God is Love.' Every wayside blossom Lifts its little voice, Every bright-eyed daisy Bids our heart rejoice.

"Surging, seething torrent, Bubbling, sparkling spring, Hum of insect nature, Birds upon the wing, Evening's flush of beauty, Morning's streaks of light, Noonday's radiant glory, All in praise unite.

"See His kind provision Waving in the grain, Shining in the sunbeams, Falling in the rain; Parching days of summer, Cool the dewy fall, Hoary frost of winter, Sheltering snow o'er all.

"Swift o'er trackless region Runs the lurid flash, Sounds from hill to moorland, Deep resounding crash, Towering peak and cranny, Eagles' dizzy height, Dignity and splendour, All reveal His might.

"Nature's varied voices Chant the sweet refrain, Echo o'er the mountain, Linger on the plain, Thunder in the ocean, Whisper in the shell, Murmur in the breezes, Sighing in the dell.

"Shall our lips be silent? Shall our lives be still? Tune our hearts, O Father, To perform Thy will; Fill our souls with rapture, Fill our hearts with praise, Give us grace to follow Gladly all our days."

M. A. E.



THE SIXTH DAY

THE CROWN OF GOD'S CREATION.

"The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life."—JOB xxxiii. 4.

"In Him we live, and move, and have our being ... for we are also His offspring."—ACTS xvii. 28.

"I will praise Thee: for I am fearfully and wonderfully made."—PSALM cxxxix. 14.

"Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body."—1 COR. vi. 20.

Before we speak of the last work of God upon the last of those wonderful days of which we are told in the first chapter of the Bible, let us read the verses about it, from the twenty-sixth to the end of that chapter, and to the tenth verse of the next. And then let us read the eighth Psalm, unless indeed you can repeat it, as my little scholars once could—and I hope they have not forgotten it now.

I think the first thing we noticed as we read was, that after the verses which speak of the beasts and creeping things which God made on the SIXTH DAY, there is, as it were, a close to the history, and then a fresh beginning.

We read, "And God saw that it was good." There is a full stop there; and again we read—now for the eighth time—the three words, "And God said."

But this is not all; a very wonderful expression, which had not been used in connection with any part of the work of God, is employed to tell us of the creation of the man who was placed by God as the head of all that He had made, the one to whom He gave dominion, after He had made the earth, and brought it all into order.

God had said, "Let the waters bring forth.... Let the earth bring forth" living creatures. "And God made the beast of the earth"; but before man was created He said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

Of no other creature could it be said that he was made in the likeness of God, and of no other do we read that he was "formed" by God "of the dust of the ground," and that the Lord God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life"; then, and not till then, did man become a "living soul." The body was made of earth, but the soul came immediately from God.

The more we learn about our own body, that wonderful and beautiful house in which we live, the more we shall see, in what God thus formed from the dust of the ground, to call forth our admiration; but the body of the first man, although fashioned with such perfection in all its parts, did not live until God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

Let us never forget how great a difference God has put between man, about whose creation He took thought, and who was made in His image, to whom He has given speech, reason, and a deathless soul, and all the creatures concerning which we read none of these things.

And now let us learn just a very little about the way in which God has formed what His word speaks of as our "house" or "tent"—the dwelling-place of the soul and spirit.

It would be strange indeed if we did not care to know something about our own home; but our body is not only the house in which we live, it is also the means, through those five senses—the eye, the ear, and the organs of touch, taste, and smell—which have been so well called "the five gateways of knowledge," by which we learn all that can be known by us of the world outside us.

More than this, it is the wonderfully perfect instrument, and implicitly obedient servant, by which all that we do is performed.

But the science that teaches us all that is known about our bodies is a very difficult study, and there are many hard names to master, even at the very outset. For instance, when we speak of the bony framework—that skeleton which, as you know, belongs to us in common with the vertebrate animals—there is a great deal which you would find very difficult to remember.

Still, as I daresay you have found out, the more we learn, even of difficult sciences, the more we can learn, and little May (though, to be sure, she is now four years older than she was when you first made her acquaintance) has learnt a good many of the hard words. She could show you upon her own round arm, just where the bone which reaches from the shoulder to the elbow begins and ends, and tell you its name, and the names of the two bones which reach from the elbow to the wrist, and of the wrist-bones, and of those which you can feel in the palm of your hand, and the finger-bones.

But when you hear that you have more than two hundred bones in your body, you will be inclined to agree with me that it would take both of us some time to learn even their names, much more to know all about them.

The spine consists of twenty-four short bones, each with a little ring. These vertebras are piled up one upon the other; for God has made our bodies upright; our faces, are lifted upwards, and our eyes look straight before us. These twenty-four little bones are closely and strongly bound together, and between each one and its neighbour there is something so soft and elastic that we can bend our heads, or move in any direction, without the slightest strain or jar.

The head is most wonderfully built up, like an arch, of several bones beautifully joined in a very strong and perfect way which carpenters call "dove-tailing." We can understand why the head, which is so much exposed, and is almost entirely occupied by the brain, should be so carefully protected; for thought, memory, will, and what we can best express as "consciousness of our being," all depend upon it.

Passing from head to foot, we find that our feet, which are not large, yet must bear the weight of the body, are also made upon the arch-principle, which has been found, like the hollow bones of the bird's wing, to combine lightness and strength. The twenty-six bones are so fitted together that this wonderful arch is quite elastic, as you can prove by moving your own foot up and down.

The joints, where two bones which are to play upon each other come in contact, as they do at the elbow or shoulder, are made in different ways. The elbow only moves to and fro like a hinge; the hip and shoulder, like a "ball and socket," move every way. You do not need to be told that each kind of joint is found just where it is needed for the work it has to do; for there is no mistaking or misplacing in God's workmanship, as there so often is in the very best of ours.

I cannot at present tell you anything about the muscles, except that it is by their means that we move arms, legs, head, eyes—every part of the body, for bones cannot move of themselves, but are acted on by the muscles.

Nor can we learn much about the nerves, because the subject is very difficult to understand. They come from the brain in the head, and from that part of it which runs all down the backbone, through the little bony rings of the vertebrae; and they are protected, because they are so very delicate, and so precious to us, by a strong bony sheath. At first these nerves are like coarse twine, but they divide and divide until they become as fine as threads of white silk—almost as fine as the stronger part of a spider's web—and they go all over the body, reaching to the very tips of the fingers.

The first pair of nerves goes to the nose, for smell; the second to the eye, for sight; and so on for hearing and taste. These are the nerves called "sensory," which carry to the brain sensations from outside the body. The "motor" nerves are those which take orders from the brain, to be instantly obeyed by the muscles.

In the hand, which has twenty-seven bones—one more than the foot—and is a more wonderful "tool" than any which God has given to the lower animals, wonderful as their tools are, the sense of touch is stronger than in any other part of the body.

Suppose you put your fingers upon something very hot or very cold. "Quick as thought," as we say, you draw them away again. But before you did so, what had happened?

The nerves at the tip of your finger had sent a telegram straight home to the brain, "Too hot!" or "Too cold!" and the brain had telegraphed back to the fingers, "Keep out of the way of it!" whatever the hot or cold thing may have been.

To think, even for a moment, of these lightning messages running backwards and forwards, to and from the brain, gives us some little idea how very wonderful the brain itself must be, and also how God has made one part of the body to depend upon another.

Apart from the brain, the ear would be conscious of no sound, whether the soft wash of the waves along the shore, or the mighty roll of the thunder through the sky. On the other hand, none of these voices could reach the brain if God had not "planted the ear," and formed it so perfectly to receive the waves of sound which, striking upon its delicate little "drum," cause it to vibrate, and so are passed on by the nerve which takes messages to the brain. For it is the brain which takes charge of every "impression" conveyed to it by eye, ear, hand, nose, or palate; but how these impressions conveyed to the brain give rise to what we call "thoughts" and "ideas"—this is one of the secret things which belong to God, and of which He has not allowed the wisest man to say, "Oh yes, I understand all about it!"

And there is another secret thing which cannot be explained. The heart has been called "the fountain of life," because by it the blood, which is the life of the body, is kept in continual motion, and sent to every part. How little we think of it! But whether we are waking or sleeping, at work or at rest, this busy fountain still goes on playing. We may hear the throb of it, as it strikes against the chest, in its ceaseless working; and we may count these regular "beats," and find that there are about seventy-five of them every minute. It has been calculated that during an ordinarily long life there are three thousand millions of beats without a break. But what has set this fountain at work? and what keeps it going night and day without any thought or care of ours, all our life long? Of all this it can only be said, "We do not know; we cannot find out. God in His wisdom has so ordered it."

Many years ago a doctor, who had observed very carefully, and thought much about what he observed, found out that every time the heart beats, the blood rushes from it into a great curved tube called an artery, and so passes through tubes which, like the nerves, are constantly becoming finer and finer, to every part of the body.

He also discovered that the blood takes its journey back again to the heart by a different road: it does not return through these tubes, but through softer ones, called veins. Thus far he could go, and the story of the "circulation" of the blood is very interesting; but the cause of the heart's perpetual motion, and the blood's continuous flow, this he could not discover.

Is it not wonderful to think that this rapid motion of the fountain within us goes on so noiselessly that even a baby whose little heart has only just begun to beat, is not disturbed by it, as he sleeps in his cradle?

To all the "higher animals" God has given both heart and brain. He has also given them, in more or less degree, that mysterious sense of which we have spoken before, and of which we have had so many proofs; a sense which is not at all dependent upon reason or intellect, but is found in a less degree in men than in animals to which reason has not been given.

We have before noticed that by instinct and memory all the wants of the brute creation are met; God has given them all that they need to teach them to live, each in its own life, after its kind, and to provide for their young ones; but He has not given to the "beasts that perish" the power of, as we sometimes say, "putting this and that together," nor, as far as we know, of learning by experience; although it does seem as if the spiders, in making their webs, improve by practice.

Instinct teaches every living thing to get its own food, choosing that which is suited to itself, and rejecting that which is not. It teaches the bird or the insect to seek out a fit place in which to deposit its eggs, or to make a nest or "homie" for them, even before they are laid; and it can teach even such a free creature as a bird to leave for a time its airy life, and to sit patiently upon its eggs, even carefully turning them, as if it knew that the life of the unfledged nursling within the shell-wall depended upon its being kept warm.

Instinct leads the butterfly, as we have seen, to lay its eggs upon the leaf of the very tree upon which the caterpillar, when hatched, will feed—though its own food has been taken from flowers.

Instinct guides the swallow in its flight, as it leaves us in the autumn for the shores of Africa; and the redwing on its way from its summer home in the far North to winter in our warmer country—each arriving in its appointed season.



And so, as we study the habits of birds and beasts, we see how instinct everywhere guides and directs them; but what this sense is we cannot tell. It has been well remarked, that all that can rightly be said of it is, that it is "a guide which God, in His care for His creatures, has given them, and caused them to obey."

We also noticed in reading these verses that until man was formed, there was no lord over the Creation, but that to Adam God gave dominion over all; nothing was expected, and he was owned as head, God Himself bringing the creatures to him that they might receive their names from him, though Adam himself was still under God, and every benefit with which the Creator loaded him, only left him so much more bound to own His right over him.

As God has made us for Himself, He has given to every man, even the rudest savage, something within him which reminds him of One to whom he of right belongs; however far he may have got away from Him, or may have tried to satisfy his conscience—that "eye of the soul"—by seeking to please some idol-god which he has made for himself.

God has also given proof of His "eternal power and Godhead" by "the things that are made"—His glorious works in Creation.

Listen to what a Red chief, far away in North America, said to a missionary the other day:—

"I have long lost faith"—this was his confession—"in the old paganism. They know I have not cared for the old religion. I have neglected it. And I will tell you, missionary, why I have not believed in our old paganism for a long time.



"I hear God in the thunder, in the tempest, and in the storm; I see His power in the lightning that shivers the trees into kindling-wood; I see His goodness in giving us the moose, the reindeer, the beaver, and the bear; I see His loving-kindness in giving us, when the south winds blow, the ducks and geese; and when the snow and ice melt away, and our lakes and rivers are open again, I see how He fills them with fish. I have watched these things for years, and I see how every moon of the year He gives us something; and He has so arranged it that, if we are only industrious and careful, we can always have something to eat.

"So, thinking about these things which I had observed, I made up my mind years ago that this Great Spirit—so kind and so watchful and so loving—did not care for the beating of the conqueror's drum, or the shaking of the rattle of the medicine man. So for years I have had no religion.

"Missionary, what you have said to-day fills my heart, and satisfies my longings. It is just what I have been expecting to hear about the Great Spirit. I am glad you have come with this wonderful story; stay as long as you can." [Footnote: From By Canoe and Dog-Train, p. 119.]

Nothing more than the fact that man was made, not like even an angel or an archangel, but in the image of God, is needed to show how far beyond and above every creature he was; and, as no creature owed so much to the Creator, none was responsible to Him in the same way. No one had any right over him except the One who had made him for Himself, his Creator, without whom he would not have been.

"The ox knoweth its owner, and the ass his master's crib." (Isa. i. 3.)

God has made the animals faithful and affectionate, and there are many true and touching stories of the way in which they have attached themselves to those who have cared for them. A dog will devote itself to its own master, and even give its life for him; but no mere animal has that within him which can have to say to God and be in relationship with Him. And how sad it is to think that the only creature of God who could know Him is the one who has turned away from Him and listened to the spoiler!

At the beginning God could say of all Creation "very good"; though there is a wonderful beauty still—beauty everywhere if we have eyes to see it—He cannot say "very good" where decay, pain, sorrow, death are all around; where we grow weak and old, and even while we are young and strong, the most pleasant things tire us; where hatred and envy, shame and fear—all the sad feelings brought by sin—exist in the heart of the last and best of His creatures, to whom His voice and His presence once brought only joy. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." And who can say how terrible has been the change thus wrought?

Sad indeed is the wreck which Satan has made of God's fair Creation, but a sadder wreck still is the man whom He made upright; and yet the day is surely coming when round and round the throne of "Him that liveth for ever and ever" shall echo and re-echo the words, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power; for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created."

God does not mend things, but replaces what has been spoilt or marred by something far better. Even the poor earth, so ruined by sin and its consequences, He will not mend; but He will make "new heavens and a new earth" (never more to bear the marks of the spoiler's hand) "wherein dwelleth righteousness."

But before the new heavens and new earth are created, a great deal will take place upon this earth of which we have been speaking. The Jews, now scattered in every land, will pass through much trouble, the lost tribes will be found and restored, and the Lord will put down all His enemies, and "reign in righteousness" as King over His once again united people Israel. There will be a thousand years of wonderful peace, and Jerusalem will be the centre of earthly blessing; for He says of it, "The name of the city from that day shall be 'Jehovah Shammah' (the Lord is there)" (Ezek. xlviii. 35); and again, "They shall call thee 'the city of the Lord'"; and "Thou shalt call thy walls 'Salvation,' and thy gates 'Praise'" (Isa. lx. 14-18).

Those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour now, will be with Him when He thus reigns over the earth, for they will be caught up to be with Him for ever, before the time of trouble (followed by earthly blessing) begins. In those thousand years of peace even the animals which have so long suffered through man's sin and oppression will share in the rest of that happy time, and God's ancient people Israel, once more dwelling safely in their own land, will sing many of the Psalms in His Word for joy and happiness.

The following hymn speaks of that good time which is surely coming:—

"Hail to the Lord's Anointed, Great David's greater Son! Hail, in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun! He comes to break oppression, To set the captive free, To take away transgression, And rule in equity.

"He shall come down like showers Upon the fruitful earth, And love, joy, hope, like flowers, Spring in His path to birth; Before Him on the mountains, Shall peace the herald, go, And righteousness in fountains From hill to valley flow.

"Kings shall fall down before Him, And gold and incense bring; All nations shall adore Him, His praise all people sing; For He shall have dominion O'er river, sea, and shore, Far as the eagle's pinion Or dove's light wing can soar.

"O'er every foe victorious. He on His throne shall rest; From age to age more glorious, All blessing and all-blest; The tide of time shall never His covenant remove; His name shall stand for ever, That name to us is Love."

THE END