Manuscript Releases, vol. 8 [Nos. 526-663]

MR No. 542—Beauty in the Ellen White Writings

Who is it that has given us all the things that are beautiful in nature? It is the Creator of heaven and earth that has done this.... 8MR 32.1

Such scenes as we have on this ground cheer my heart and I want to know how many of us look upon the lofty things of nature and then return thanks to the God of nature? Do we see in the things of earthliness the hand of the Creator? It is the Christian that can set the true value upon everything that God has given us on this earth. Every flower and every shrub, everything beautiful in nature calls our mind away from nature to nature's God. Who gave that beautiful flower its tint, its color? It was our heavenly Father. And you can teach your children that here is an expression of the love of God to fallen man. You can look upon the beautiful things of nature, blighted now by the load of the curse, and they represent but feebly the joys that are to come. You visit the most beautiful places on earth and delight yourself in them, and yet, “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, ... the things which God had prepared for them that love Him!” (1 Corinthians 2:9.) How many there are that do not think of those things that God has given us. Now, if we could readily appreciate these blessings, then we would always be happy, but there is an enemy who is always working against us, so that the praise and gratitude which should flow forth from our lips is often withheld.—Manuscript 17, 1887, 1, 3, 4. (“Practical Godliness,” June 11, 1887.) 8MR 32.2

Released May 20, 1977.