REFLECTIONS 24 ON THE WORKS OF GOD, IN THE VARIOUS KINGDOMS OF NATURE, AND ON THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE, DISPLAYED IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNIVERSE. Translated from the German · OF CHRISTOPHER CHRISTIAN STURM, Minister of the Church of St. Peter, and Director of the Public School at Hamburg. PRINTED FOR JAMES CUNDEE, Ivy-Lane, Paternoster-Row. 1808... LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS FOR THE BEGINNING OF APRIL. PRAISE be to God who hath created the spring, to God who hath decked the surface of the earth with unnumbered beauties! To him be rendered glory, and honor, and power, for he conferreth happiness on the creatures whom he hath formed. The Lord is their preserver. He loveth, he blesseth this world, the work of his hand. Sing his praises, O ye creatures, whom he hath made. In those happy days when man had not forsaken his God, when he was free from sin, and the punishment which attends it, the earth was a paradise. It now appears disfigured by guilt and its concomitant chastisements? yet in its every part may still be discovered the hand of its sublime author, and the earth is still the vestibule to heaven. The fields which have so long appeared dead, now begin to revive; each returning day produces new blessings; the worm which crawls in the dust, VOL. II. NO. 7. 701649 Hymn of praise. and the bird which wings the air, rejoicé in their existence. The face of the earth is renovated; the sky is pure and serene; the mountains, the vallies, and the forests resound with accents of joy; and he who gives life and being to all that exists, regards with an eye of mercy all the works of his hand. But, O my Creator, the fields and the meadows are not possessed of intelligence, of a soul; and thou hast not chosen the irrational animal to form him in thine image. Man alone rejoices in his God; man alone knows thee, is sensible of thy existence, and is susceptible of the cheering hope of immortal life. us. Let us glorify his name! He is ever near unto Let all his hosts sound forth his praise! The Lord is present every where, in the heavens, upon the earth, and in the waters. I will magnify thee, and sing thy praise, for wherever I am, there also art thou ever near me by thy power, thy love, and thy bounty. Thou commandest the clouds to shed themselves abroad over the fields; thou appeasest the thirst of the earth, that man may be enriched by the gifts of thy hand. Thou commandest the hail, the dew, and the winds, those instruments of thy power, to be sources of happiness to mankind. Even when the tempest rages, when lightnings threaten, and strike terror into mortals, fertility and blessings are diffused from amidst storms and darkness. The sun soon shines forth with redoubled splendor, and tremendous peals of thunder are succeeded by strains of joy. In thee alone we find happiness; in thee, sole author of every blessing! 'Tis thou who in the |