INTRODUCTION. 5

David, in the Psalms, is almost equally profuse in his allu-
sions :—“ I am like a pelican in the wilderness; I am like
an owl in the desert.” ‘Yea, the sparrow hath found an
house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may
lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of Hosts, my King
and my God.”

Quotations might be multiplied from the book of Job,
from the Prophets, and, indeed, from every part of the Old
Testament, evincing the deep interest taken from the earliest
times in the living works of the Great Creator; and surely
the research into, and contemplation of, the beautiful, won-
derful, and ever-interesting pages of the book of Nature,
which has been so profusely and benevolently spread before
us, is an acceptable offering of our intellect to the Giver of
all things, and a pursuit tending more than any other, to
direct our minds and hearts to “ Him in whom we live, and
move, and have our being.”

The New Testament is by no means deficient in similar
indications, and our Saviour himself, in his discourses,
makes many, and frequently touching allusions to natural
objects, both animate and inanimate. ‘The foxes have
holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Man hath not where to lay his head.” “Iam the good