To be near unto God - pagina 549

which allows the supervision of the church to be

more

general.

co-operate, but

And so there are many causes that among these the principal cause

always is: Life in the country itself, and the consequent influence of natyre, of the visible creation of God which surrounds the countryman. From this it can be inferred that he who seeks to be near unto God loses a. notable capacity, when he does not open eye and ear to the impression of the nearness of God, which the visible creation can impart.

The need of this opening of eye and ear is evident from the large number of city people who in summer go to the country, but who go only for pleasure and fresh air, and return as estranged from God as when they started. But as a matter of fact, the city man misses nature. Parks and boulevards offer some compensation, but the great masses, especially working people, only return home at dark. The starry heavens truly also glisten above our cities, but among those who walk the busy streets in the evening, who lifts his eyes on high to see who has created aU these things, who bringeth out their hosts by number

and

calleth

them by name?

In our villages nature

*

around, whether it upon the inhabitants. In cities, on the other hand, people are shut off from nature and only they who seek it above or outside of the town find it. In the country God's voice addresses us from within and from is

desired or not.

is all

It forces itself

641

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