Cherokee Phoenix

RELIGIOUS

Published March, 4, 1829

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RELIGIOUS

THE GOD OF NATURE

Lift your view to that immense arch of heaven which encompasses you above. Behold the sun in all its splendor, rolling over your head by day, and the moon by night, in mild and serene majesty, surrounded with that holst of stars which present to the imagination an immunerable multitude of worlds. Listen to the awful voice of thunder. Listen to the roar of the tempest and the ocean. Survey the wonders that fill the earth which you inhabit. Contemplate a steady and powerful hand, bringing round spring and summer, autumn and winter, in regular course, decorating this earth with innumerable inhabitants, pouring forth comfort on all that live, and at the same time everawing the nations with the violence of the elements, when it pleases the Creator to let them forth. After you have viewed yourself, as surrounded with such a scene of wonders, after you have beheld, on every hand such an interesting display of majesty, united with wisdom and goodness, are your not seized with solemn and serious awe?- Is there not something that whispers within, that to this Creator homage and reverence are due, by all the rational beings whom he has made? Admitted to be spectators of his works, placed in the midst of so many great and interesting objects, can you believe that you were brought here for no purpose but to immerse yourselves in brutal, or, at best, in trifling pleasures, lost all sense of the wonders you behold: lost to all reverence to that God who gave you being, and who has erected this amazing fabric of nature, on which you look only with stupid and unmeaning eyes? No, let the scene which you behold prompt correspondent feelings. Let them awaken you from the degrading intoxication of licentiousness, into nobler emotions. Every object which you view in nature, whether great or small, serves to instruct you. The stars and insects, the fiery meteor and flowing spring, the verdant field and the mountain, all evident a Supreme Power, before which you ought to tremble and adore; all preach the doctrine, all inspire the spirit of devotion and reverence. Regarding, then, the work of the Lord, let rising emotions of awe and gratitude call forth from your souls such sentiments as these: 'Lord, wherever I am, and whatever I enjoy, may I never forget thee, as the author of nature! May I never forget that I am thy creature and thy subject! In this magnificent temple of the universe, where thou hast placed me, may I ever be thy faithful worshhipper, may the reverence and fear of God be the first sentiment of my heart.' Blair.