Contemplations in the Spring of the Year
Psalm 104:30
You send forth your spirit, they are created: and you renew the face of the earth.


I. WHAT A DIVERSITY OF ANIMATION SURROUNDS ME! What a stirring and bustling! Everything in motion, above, below, in the air and on the ground! How powerfully everything is at work, within itself and without, through all and upon all! Yes, the vivifying energy of nature, or rather of the Author of nature, is ever new, ever active, is inexhaustible! Oh let us adore this eternal, never-failing source of life! Thence we may draw eternal life and the fulness of joy! If. THE ORDER OF NATURE IS INVARIABLE. It is therefore a constant, speaking witness to the being of God, His superintendence over all, His providential care for all, His vital influence in all. He is and works on all sides; in the scarcely visible moss as in the tall and stately cedar, in the mite as in the eagle, in the creeping worm as in the spirit that worships before the throne of His glory. And where He is and works, there is order, connection, harmony, beauty, perfection; there is the most accurate correspondence between ends and means.

III. JOY AND HAPPINESS IS THE FINAL AIM OF ALL THE REVOLUTIONS AND PHENOMENA IN NATURE, OF ALL THE REGULATIONS WHICH GOD HAS ESTABLISHED. Whichever way ye turn, do ye not now walk in a paradise of delights? And what salutes your ear on all sides but sounds of mirth and exultation, the celebration of the grand festival of nature?

IV. INNOCENT, SEDATE ENJOYMENT OF NATURE, AND PROFOUND INWARD ADORATION OF THE GOD OF NATURE ARE THE MOST HONOURABLE AND PLEASING OCCUPATIONS. Yes, this is enjoyment, unalloyed, truly worthy of the man, which never draws after it either surfeit or repentance. Thou art the priest of nature, O man, and the temple of thy God, the gorgeous fabric of the universe is everywhere filled with votaries, who ask thy ministration.

V. THE RENOVATION AND EMBELLISHMENT OF THE FACE OF THE EARTH, THE RESUSCITATION OF THE LIFE OF NATURE IS A GLORIOUS TYPE OF THE FUTURE RENOVATION AND PERFECTION OF THE HUMAN RACE, Of the general resurrection of the dead to the superior life. What a scene of most astonishing revolutions and transformations! What diversity of life and enjoyment of life, of thoughts never yet conceived and emotions never yet imagined! What a harvest from the sowing of all ages, of all the thousands of years that have elapsed since the first to the last of mortals! What a glorious unravelment of all that appears to us now mysterious and incomprehensible in the ways of Providence and the fortunes of mankind!

(G. J. Zollikofer, D. D.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

WEB: You send forth your Spirit: they are created. You renew the face of the ground.




A Spring Homily
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