For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep. Psalm 92:4, 5.

The scenery through which we passed^{*Ellen White is here describing a carriage journey in Switzerland.} was altogether too majestic, too awfully grand, to give anything like a description that can compare to the scenery as it really is. The battlements of rocks—the timeworn rocky walls that have stood since the Flood, washed with the mountain torrents—stand out smooth as if polished, while rocks diverse from these in shape are seen in regular layers, as if art had fashioned them. Here … we viewed the most interesting, grand scenery that our eyes ever looked upon. The rocks ascend higher and still higher from the earth, and growing from these rocks are beautiful, dark-colored pines intermingled with the lighter and most beautiful living green of the maple and beech…. Such wild grandeur, such solemn scenery, carries one back to the period when the waters rose to the highest points of land, and the unbelieving antediluvians perished for their great wickedness in the waters of the Flood.

As we look upon … the rocks of every conceivable shape, we say, “How wonderful, O Lord, are thy works in all the earth.” The softening, subduing touches penciled by the great Master Artist in the beautiful arrangement of dress of dark and living green, this beautiful combination of colors to cover the rugged, time-seamed rocks! Then the deep gorges, the noisy, fast-rushing streams, and the grand mountains covered with forest trees in their beautiful summer robes!

The view is grand in the extreme, and presents to the senses such high and holy and strong and sacred ideas of God our Maker. And then the thought that we may call Him Father! … If anyone can look upon this scenery without being impressed with the greatness and majesty of God, his heart must indeed be unimpressible. I do so long for a closer connection with God. This God of majesty and might may be our Father, our Friend, our hope and crown of rejoicing.^{25Manuscript 56, 1886.}

From That I May Know Him

For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else. Isaiah 45:18.

Through the goodness of God we have been surrounded with innumerable blessings. There are tokens of His love on every hand. Nature seems to be rejoicing before us. The beautiful things in heaven and earth express the love and favor of the Lord of hosts toward the inhabitants of the world. The sunshine and the rain fall on the evil and the good. The hills and seas and plains are all speaking eloquently to the soul of man of the Creator’s love. It is God who brings the bud to bloom, the flower to fruit, and it is He who supplies our daily needs. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father’s notice. Our minds should go up in gratitude and adoration to the Giver of every good and perfect gift.

We should teach our children to consider the works of God. They should be instructed on His love and the provision He has made for their salvation. Lead them to give their young hearts as a grateful offering, fragrant with love, to Him who has died for them. Point out the attractive loveliness of the earth, and tell them of the world that is to come that shall never know the blight of sin and death, where the face of nature will no more wear the shadow of the curse. Lead their young minds to contemplate the glories of the reward that awaits the children of God. Cultivate their imaginative powers by picturing the splendor of the new earth and the city of God; and when they are charmed with the prospect, tell them it will be more glorious than their brightest imagination can portray….

The poet and the naturalist have many things to say about nature, but it is the Christian who enjoys the beauty of the earth with the highest appreciation, because he recognizes his Father’s handiwork and perceives His love in flower and shrub and tree. No one can fully appreciate the significance of hill and vale, river and sea, who does not look upon them as an expression of the love of God to man.^{24The Review and Herald, February 14, 1888.}

From That I May Know Him

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. Genesis 1:31.

God does not design that we shall take no pleasure in the things of His creation…. He watches with a Father’s joy the delight of His children in the beautiful things around them. While on earth the Redeemer of the world sought to make His lessons of instruction plain and simple, that all might comprehend them; and can we be surprised that He should choose the open air as His sanctuary, that He should desire to be surrounded by the works of His creation? … The things which His own hand had made He took as His lesson book. He saw in them more than finite minds could comprehend.

The birds, caroling forth their songs without a care, the flowers of the valley glowing in their beauty, the lily that reposed in its purity on the bosom of the lake, the lofty trees, the cultivated land, the waving grain, the barren soil, the tree that bore no fruit, the everlasting hills, the bubbling stream, the setting sun tinting and gilding the heavens—all these He employed to impress His hearers with divine truth. He connected the work of God’s finger in the heavens and upon the earth with the Word of life. From these He drew His lessons of spiritual instruction. He would pluck the lilies, the flowers of the valley, and place them in the hands of the little children, as instructors to proclaim the truth of His Word….

The beauties of nature have a tongue that speaks to us without ceasing. The open heart can be impressed with the love and glory of God as seen in the works of His hand. The listening ear can hear and understand the communications of God through the things of nature. There is a lesson in the sunbeam and in the various objects of nature that God has presented to our view. The green fields, the lofty trees, the buds and flowers, the passing cloud, the falling rain, the babbling brook, the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens—all invite our attention and meditation, and bid us become acquainted with Him who made them all.^{23The Youth’s Instructor, March 24, 1898.}

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Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand…. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. Psalm 121:4-7.

^{*Early morning diary entries.} July 16, 1897. I awakened this morning at three o’clock and lifted my heart in prayer and thanksgiving to God for His watchful care over the household. I pray the Lord to take us all under His guardianship today and make His face to shine upon us. I pray most earnestly that He will honor our humble dwelling with His abiding presence in our home. We may every individual in the family have the converting power of God daily upon heart and character.

The religion of Christ in the heart is the wellspring of life. It is the living water that Christ will give to every thirsting soul that asks Him. There are many who keep religion in practice far from the soul temple, and their faith is not in Jesus Christ…. The heavenly Guest should be invited to occupy the throne of the soul, to control every impulse of the mind, and to bring even the thoughts into subjection to Jesus Christ….

July 26, 1897. I render thanks unto my heavenly Father for His blessing, after seeking the Lord in prayer. I go to my heavenly Father as a child in need goes to his temporal earthly father. We know that God must be interested in us, as the earthly parent is interested in his child, but to a much larger degree. I place myself as His child, and in simple faith ask for the small favors as I would ask for larger gifts, believing the Lord hears the simple, contrite prayer.

I keep saying in my heart, He loves me, He wants my love, and He wants me to be happy. “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” “For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory.” “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee” (Psalm 84:11, 12).

I will appropriate His promises to myself, and will be glad in the Lord and ever praise His holy name.^{22Manuscript 174, 1897.}

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Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 1:8.

He [Christ] says, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:10, 11). In Him there is joy that is not uncertain and unsatisfying. If the light that flows from Jesus has come to you, and you are reflecting it upon others, you show that you have joy that is pure, elevating, and ennobling. Why should not the religion of Christ be represented as it really is, as full of attractiveness and power? Why should we not present before the world the loveliness of Christ? Why do we not show that we have a living Saviour, one who can walk with us in the darkness as well as in the light, and that we can trust in Him? …

But minds that are occupied with frivolous reading, with exciting stories, or with seeking after amusement, do not dwell upon Christ, and cannot rejoice in the fullness of His love. The mind that finds pleasure in foolish thoughts and trifling conversation is as destitute of the joy of Christ as were the hills of Gilboa of dew or rain…. We need to be constantly filling the mind with Christ, and emptying it of selfishness and sin.^{20The Review and Herald, March 15, 1892.}

The life in which the fear of the Lord is cherished will not be a life of sadness and gloom. It is the absence of Christ that makes the countenance sad and the life a pilgrimage of sighs…. But Christ dwelling in the soul is a wellspring of joy. For all who receive Him, the keynote of the Word of God is “rejoicing.”

Why should not our joy be full—full, lacking nothing? We have the assurance that Jesus is our Saviour, and that we may freely partake of the rich provision He has made for us…. It is our privilege to seek constantly the joy of His presence. He desires us to be cheerful and to be filled with praise to His name. He wants us to carry light in our countenances and joy in our hearts.^{21Signs of the Times, August 11, 1909.}

From That I May Know Him