A Stain on the Universe. – Charles Spurgeon

RUSKIN says : — ” The Savoyard’s cottage, standing in the midst of an inconceivable,  beauty, set on some sloping bank of golden sward, with clear fountains flowing beside it, and wild (lowers, ;ind nobk trots, and goodly rocks, gathered round into a perfection as of Paradise, is itself a dark and plague-like stain in the midst of the gentle land- scape. Within a certain distance of its threshold the ground is foul and cattle-trampled ; its timbers are black with smoke, its garden choked with weeds and nameless refuse, its cham- bers empty and joyless, the light and wind gleaming and filtering through the crannies of their stones.”

Alas ! too fit an illustration of unregenerate manhood in the midst of divine mercies, surrounded with displays of boundless goodness.

” Every prospect, pleases,

And only man is vile.”