it was because He desired us to do this that Jesus bound up His
precious lessons with the beauty of natural things. On the holy rest
day, above all other days, we should study the messages that God has
written for us in nature. We should study the Saviour’s parables where
He spoke them, in the fields and groves, under the open sky, among
the grass and flowers. As we come close to the heart of nature, Christ
makes His presence real to us, and speaks to our hearts of His peace
and love.
And Christ has linked His teaching, not only with the day of rest,
but with the week of toil. He has wisdom for him who drives the
plow and sows the seed. In the plowing and sowing, the tilling and
reaping, He teaches us to see an illustration of His work of grace in
the heart. So in every line of useful labor and every association of
life, He desires us to find a lesson of divine truth. Then our daily toil
will no longer absorb our attention and lead
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us to forget God; it will continually remind us of our Creator and
Redeemer. The thought of God will run like a thread of gold through
all our homely cares and occupations. For us the glory of His face
will again rest upon the face of nature. We shall ever be learning new
lessons of heavenly truth, and growing into the image of His purity.
Thus shall we “be taught of the Lord”; and in the lot wherein we are