It is not only allowable, but praiseworthy and profitable, to learn from the various objects which meet our view from day to day. Our blessed Lord, when down here, was constantly in the habit of drawing some of His sublime and heavenly lessons from the scenes of nature, and from the everyday circumstances of human life.
This style of teaching has two advantages. It not only illustrates truth in a clear and forcible manner, which is of the utmost importance, but it so links the truth with the object which has been used to illustrate it, that we can hardly ever see that object without thinking of the truth.
Now, it may be that the reader of these few lines has, somewhere, seen an observatory, with its telescope pointing to the skies. This is a most instructive object. It is often to be seen on the roof of a house, and is sometimes made use of for taking observations of the heavenly bodies, in order to regulate watches, clocks, and chronometers. We all know how time-pieces vary, and how difficult it is to get them to keep the same time. Charles V. Emperor of Germany, after vainly trying to get men to agree in their religious opinions, abdicated the throne, and occupied himself in endeavoring to make a few clocks keep time. But alas! he found the one as impossible as the other. Men could not be forced to agree, in reference to eternity, nor could clocks be forced to agree, in reference to time.
However, though clocks and watches, if left to themselves, will never agree, yet, an intelligent watchmaker who, by means of his observatory and telescope, has access to the heavens, can so regulate each one as to make it keep tolerably accurate time. He will daily mount up to his lofty viewing place, and there, far removed from the din and bustle of the world, in the profound solitude of his observatory, and assisted by that powerful instrument which brings heavenly things near to mortal vision, he will scan the vault above—get absorbed in his sublime contemplations, and come down from his elevated position laden with accurate intelligence by which to regulate the things of time. He has been occupied with a scene where all is order, precision, and regularity. There is no clashing or confusion up yonder. To the very moment of its divinely-appointed time, will each celestial body arrive at its meridian; and you might see the watchmaker, with the watch or chronometer beside him, in order to compare its movement with some heavenly body, and thus ascertain its usual variation. All, up there, is order. All, down here, is confusion. The former is the only true test by which to judge of the latter; and hence, when the watchmaker descends from his observatory to his workshop, he is, in no wise, confounded when he looks around him and sees, it may be, no two clocks giving the same time. He has been occupied with the heavens and he knows all about it. He knows that man’s clumsy and imperfect machinery can never be brought to keep pace with the orbs of heaven. Earth’s most perfect chronometer will vary more or less; and it is only by constant attention to the movements of the celestial guide, a constant comparison of his time-piece therewith, and a constant adjustment thereto, that the watchmaker can gain even a measure of approximation. He must constantly betake himself to his observatory and his telescope. The more he studies the things above—the more enlarged and accurate his knowledge of the heavens, the more accuracy and certainty he will attain in his operations below. There must be constant intercourse kept up between his observatory and his workshop—his viewing-place and his working-place.
From all this, the Christian may, surely, gather up some refreshing and elevating thoughts. He, too, will need to have his observatory with its telescope pointing upwards to yonder place, where all is peace, harmony, and order. He will continually require to get up above the strife and confusion of this lower world, and, there, shut in with Christ, and with the aid of faith’s powerful lens, drink in to his very soul that solid truth which will give precision and stability to his movements, down here. The Christian who is much in his observatory will not be affected by the conflicting opinions which meet him down below. He will be able to put them all down to the proper account. He will attribute them to the fact that man’s movements are not in conformity with the laws and ways of heaven-that the prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” has not yet been fully answered. But, then, he will seek to regulate his own ways, by communion with “things above.” This will be his constant, earnest, honest aim.
And, be it remembered, the Christian is never to leave his observatory, or lay down his telescope. For the abiding refreshment and joy of his own soul, for the deep and settled peace of his heart, for habitual personal holiness, and practical sanctification, for the due ordering of all his thoughts, words, and habits, he must be continually abiding in Christ-walking by faith. If this be forgotten, all must go wrong. If we do not literally live in our observatory, we shall be tossed about like a cork on the waters of strife and confusion. We not only get into that observatory by faith, but abide there and work there by faith. It is all by faith, that mighty principle which brings heavenly realities within the full, clear range of the soul’s vision-faith which is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:11Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1).)
May the Holy Spirit awaken in our hearts a more intense desire after a closer walk with God, and more habitual elevation above the things of time! Should the foregoing lines have, in any measure, the effect of leading the soul in an upward direction, we shall not regret our visit to the observatory.
“Far from these narrow scenes of night,
Unbounded glories rise;
And realms of infinite delight,
Unseen by mortal eyes
Oh! may the heavenly vision fire
Our souls with ardent love;
Till wings of faith and strong desire
Bear every thought above.”