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SUNDAY READINGS

IN

PROSE AND VERSE.

SELECTED AND EDITED BY

J. E. CARPENTER,

EDITOR OF "PENNY READINGS," "SONGS: SACRED AND DEVOTIONAL,"

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FREDERICK WARNE AND CO.

BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN.

2705 f. 55

LONDON:

SAVILL AND EDWARDS, PRINTERS, CHANDOS-STREET,

COVENT-GARDEN.

FCA

ETA

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SUNDAY READINGS.

LESSONS OF CREATION.

JOHN RUSKIN.

It has always appeared to me that there was, even in healthy mountain districts, a certain degree of inevitable melancholy; nor could I ever escape from the feeling that here, where chiefly the beauty of God's working was manifested to men, warning was also given, and that to the full, of the enduring of His indignation against sin.

It seems one of the most cunning and frequent of self-deceptions to turn the heart away from this warning, and refuse to acknowledge anything in the fair scenes of the natural creation but beneficence. Men in general lean towards the light, so far as they contemplate such things at all, most of them passing "by on the other side," either in mere plodding pursuit of their own work, irrespective of what good or evil is around them, or else in selfish gloom, or selfish delight, resulting from their own circumstances at the moment. Of those who give themselves to any true contemplation, the plurality, being humble, gentle, and kindlyhearted, look only in nature for what is lovely and kind; partly, also, God gives the disposition to every healthy human mind in some degree to pass over or even harden itself against evil things, else the suffering would be too great to be borne; and humble people, with a quiet trust that everything is for the best, do

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