Excerpt from Discourses on the Nature of Religion: And on Commerce and Business, With Some Occasional DiscoursesThe world, which is appointed for our temporary dwelling place, was made for this end. The whole creation' around us, is to the soul, a subject and a ministering creation. The mighty globe itself, with all its glorious apparatus and furniture, is but a theatre for the care of the soul, the theatre Of its redemption. This vast universe is but a means. But look at the earth alone. Why was it made such as it is? Its fruit ful soils, its rich valleys, its mountain-tops, and its roll ing oceans, its humbler scenes, clothed with beauty and light, good even in the sight of their Maker, fair - fair to mortal eyes - why were they given? They were not given for mere sustenance and supply, for much less would have sufficed for that end. They need not have been so beautiful to have answered that end. They could have spared their verdure and ¿ow ers and fragrance, and still have yielded sustenance. The groves might never have waved in the breeze but have stood in the rigidity Of an iron forest, the hills might not have been moulded into forms Of beauty.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.