Nature and Culture

by Harvey Rice

A little more than eighteen centuries ago, a few obscure fishermen, while casting their nets into the Sea of Galilee, were called to abandon their nets, and become "fishers of men."

A little more than sixty years ago, a few obscure young men, while pursuing their classical studies in Williams College, were called to go into benighted lands beyond the sea, and proclaim the divine doctrine of "peace on earth and good-will to men."

These students, though unknown to fame, were young men of thought and of high moral aspirations. Influenced by a devotional spirit, they felt that God had a great work for them to do, and that it was therefore important for them to comprehend their true relations, both to God and to man.

What was the precise character of the great work assigned them, they did not seem to know; and for this reason they sought for more light, and for guidance from the Mighty Counsellor, whose wisdom is infinite, and who cannot err. In seeking for that knowledge which "cometh from above," they were accustomed, in the milder months of the year, to hold occasional prayer-meetings in the solitudes of Nature, believing that

"The groves were God's first temples."

And doubtless they felt that the Divine Presence dwells more essentially in the silent sanctuaries of Nature than in "temples made with hands."

It was here, within the quiet and cool retreat of the maple-grove in which we are now assembled, that they had convened at the close of a sultry summer day, in the year 1806, to hold the accustomed prayer-meeting, when they were overtaken by a sudden shower of rain, and compelled to seek the friendly shelter afforded them by a neighboring haystack.

The group of young evangelists who were present at the prayer-meeting on this particular occasion consisted of Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green. Protected from the rain by the haystack, they continued, amid the conflict of the elements, their devotional exercises, and also discussed religious topics of deep interest to themselves and to the world. It was a sublime moment for them and for the world. The heavens were darkened; the lightnings flashed; dread thunders rolled; the rain fell; yet amid this conflict of the elements there came "a still small voice," as if from the storm-cloud. It was a divine whisper, an inspired thought, which stirred the life-currents in the heart of Mills, and diffused upon his brow a celestial radiance. That inspired thought, broad as the earth in its comprehension, Mills announced to his devout companions. They felt its divinity, and regarded it as a divine communication. At the instance of Mills, they knelt in prayer, and besought divine aid and guidance in executing the great work which they now believed had been revealed to them. It was nothing less than a mission to some foreign heathen land, and the ultimate evangelization of the world. In offering up the last prayer at this meeting, so enthusiastic became Mills that he invoked "the red artillery of Heaven to strike down the arm that should be raised against a herald of the cross."

And now, as the storm-cloud passed away, the skies became bright and serene; the air was pure and fragrant as balm. The raindrops, like jewels, glittered on the leaves in the grove, and on the grass and wild-flowers in the meadows. In short, the smile of Heaven was reflected in the face of Nature. And the sublimity of the scene, as it may be supposed, was heightened by the appearance of a rainbow in the east,—that glorious emblem of a divine love, which is so ample in its character as to embrace within its golden circle the great world of mankind, of "every nation, kindred, and tongue."