falling away from them.

The distinguishing cha

racteristic of man is, that he is the being whose face looks upwards; and unless he does look upward, and reverence that which is better than himself, he cannot fulfil his nature, or understand the meaning of his life and of God's dealings with him, and so find rest and peace.

But who is it that reverences that which is above and better than himself? Is it the man who is always bowing his head like a bulrush in fear of the unknown, who is always seeking new and curious devices by way of expressing his feelings of reverence towards an unseen mysterious power; or the man who labours night and day to become to his very heart's core like the character he reverences as that of God?

If a man thinks of God chiefly in the light of an Almighty Sovereign, and of His service as something that may be compared to the ceremonial of an Eastern court, of course he will be inclined to say, “If you take away the supernatural sanctions for the ceremonial I have been brought up to reverence, and tell me that I shall not be rewarded in the way I have been led to expect, what profit is there that a man should delight himself with God?

But if he has learned from the Lord Jesus Christ that the worship of God is the worship not merely of an All-mighty, All-sovereign Being, but the worship of a Divine character in human form-that we are

under the protection of a Father Who is kinder than our kindest, truer than our truest, and that we have only to follow the example of His true Son to discover that we have but to gain His spirit for that Father to give us in addition all things richly to enjoy, then, surely, it must begin to dawn upon us that the study of true religion must be the most fascinating study it is possible to conceive; and a man will think scarcely of anything else than how he may "delight himself with God."

Of course, the service of God will always, in this world at least, be attended with effort, for how is it possible to try and act up to our best, and press towards the mark for the prize of our high calling, without effort and exertion? But what man or boy of sound mind and body ever shrank from effort, when the effort was sure to be well worth the while? What makes any service tiresome and dull is not the sense of effort, but the conviction that our reverence is being asked for notions that are no better than old wives' fables, and that our efforts are to be wasted in a direction from which no good fruit can possibly result.

Let us only preach the worship and service of a God Who is the Lord of nature as well as the Lord of the souls of men, and Who requires us to see things as they really are, in order that we may prove all things, and hold fast that which is good, and we shall be able to say to those who murmur, "What profit shall it be if

I be cleansed from my sin?" with greater force than even Elihu spake to Job, "Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou." Think of the wondrous universe in which we live, and then of the mighty Being Who holds it all as in the hollow of His hand, and then reflect, "If thou sinnest, what doest thou against Him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him?" If, therefore, it is no profit to you to be cleansed from your sin, to whom do you suppose it can be a profit? and what possible object can your Creator have in requiring you to worship Him, and serve Him, and do the thing that is right, but your own ultimate welfare and happiness? For "he that sinneth wrongeth not God, but his own soul; and all they that hate Him love death."

It cannot be too often asserted that the servant of God is not bound to explain the riddles of the universe, but he is bound to have faith in a Divine life, and to show himself a good and true man.

Religious people are constantly saying, like the religious friends of Job, "If you don't believe our theories of the universe, what do you put in their place?"

Let us fearlessly answer, If you choose to say what is not true in the Name of God, we are not called upon to put anything in its place. Our faith is not in any theories, either of our own or of those who have gone

before us, but in One Who has taught us to trust in God and do our duty, by aiming at His Divine life. If we are faithful unto death, He has promised to give us the crown of life. We have tried to follow where He has led the way, and the more we try, the more we find it answer. Therefore we are not in the least disturbed because we have, from time to time, to put away our childish things, for we cannot expect to find out the Almighty to perfection; but we are sure of this-that, so long as we are faithful, He in Whom we trust will watch over our growth, will lead us in the way of knowing even as we ourselves are known, and, consequently, to a fulness of joy and happiness such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive.

"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"Ps. xi. 3.

THIS is one of those psalms which, from internal evidence, it seems only natural to regard as one of the songs of David or of his time. At all events, it is one which might very well have been composed by David,1 when battling with the first serious dangers of his life under the enmity of Saul, and it exhibits to us the picture of some brave and faithful servant of God, vexed and irritated at the dastardly counsels of faint-hearted men, who were perpetually harping upon the threatening aspect of his enemies, the complete dissolution of order in the State, which, making everything insecure, seemed to suggest flight as the only resource that was left to the upright man, and urging him, as he said, to flee like a bird to some mountain-fastness, where he might at least be personally secure from harm; for, added his advisers, "If the foundations"—or pillars of the State-" be destroyed,

1 Vide Ewald on Psalms, vol. i. p. 71.