Testimony Treasures, Volume 1 - Ellen G. White

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 God, who made them all. The lessons to be learned from the
various objects of the natural world are these: They are obedient to the will
of their Creator; they never deny God, never refuse obedience to any
intimation of His will. Fallen beings alone refuse to yield full obedience to
their Maker. Their words and works are at variance with God and opposed to
the principles of His government. ...
Those professed Christians who are constantly whining and
complaining, and who seem to think happiness and a cheerful countenance a
sin, have not the genuine article of religion. Those who look upon nature's
beautiful scenery as they would upon a dead picture, who choose to look
upon dead leaves rather than to gather the beautiful living flowers, who take
a mournful pleasure in all that is melancholy in the language spoken to them
by the natural world, who see no beauty in valleys clothed with living green
and grand mountain heights clothed with verdure, who close their senses to
the joyful voice which speaks to them in nature and which is sweet and
musical to the listening ear--these are not in Christ. They are not walking in
the light, but are gathering to themselves darkness and gloom, when they
could just as well have brightness and the blessing of the Sun of
Righteousness arising in their hearts with healing in His beams.
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