of which we form a part? However men may waver and quake, the universe is alive, and we are part of it. A mighty Power, unseen yet ever near, is ruling, controlling, and directing all things of which we have any knowledge, and with such a regular order that those who have patience may trace it and conform themselves to it. Is there no place for faith, no place for trust, and love, and awe, and reverence, because we cannot see the goal towards which the universe is travelling, or the end which has been appointed for our own lives?

In the mean time we have our lives to live; a direction of some kind must be impressed upon them. Is there no way by which we may be assured that the direction in which we are travelling is leading us to God, and training us in harmony with His will? We have only to reflect a moment to answer the question. Supposing a man were to say that he had no faith in the existence of God, or faith in Him as the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. What would such an assertion amount to, but that he can look abroad over the fair face of nature, clothed as it is with luxuriance and beauty, upon the various herbs and trees yielding seed and fruit after their kind—or, again, upon the starry heavens sparkling with countless suns and planets, each revolving round its centre with the most astounding regularity-and say, "All these wondrous sights which I behold are

swayed by no controlling power, they are subject neither to law nor order, nor is there anything greater in the universe than what we poor insignificant mortals can take in with our feeble vision"? And yet men have only to study those heavens, or the trees and the flowers they behold around them, to discover that everything that exists is obeying a law which it cannot pass; that there is a mighty Power within or behind them of which we know nothing, save only that it is evidently there-a Power with which we are ourselves inseparably connected, and without which we should never draw breath again. When men make mistakes about the nature of this Power, and about what it may be counted upon as doing, it is only what might be expected, seeing that we can never find out the Almighty to perfection. But whatever our ignorance may be, the Power is there, about us and around us, upholding everything we can see or think of, interwoven with the very tissues of our being, so that none but a fool or a madman could say, "There is no God." A man may, indeed, be dissatisfied with the way in which some persons presume to speak of Him and with the attributes they ascribe to Him. But no man with eyes to see and a brain to think could say or believe that there is no God.

Well, then, our text says that if we wish to approach this God, we must not only believe that He is, but

that He is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. In a word, we must have faith in Him, and in the blessedness of His service. This implies, first, that we must have faith in the Divine order and government of this visible universe of which we form a part, and which He who made it is said to have pronounced very good; and, secondly, faith in the law which He hath appointed for the government of our own lives. For if everything in nature is seen to obey a law which it cannot pass, and to be swayed by a power from which it can never be divided, we must remember that we men and women are part of nature, and have, therefore, a law laid upon us to which we must conform, or pay a severe penalty for our neglect. But as we are possessed of a conscious, reasonable soul, our service must likewise be conscious and reasonable, and we must do our best to offer to the Almighty the loyal devotion of our heart's best affections. Now, we reverence and adore and worship the Lord of nature when we observe and study nature's works and ways, and try and find out all we can about the things that are made; and those who make these things their special study, and whom we call scientific men, tell us that so wonderful and interesting are the laws and processes which they are able to trace, that their study might itself almost be called a religion, for certainly it fills them with awe, and wonder, and admiration, and love. But the Lord

of nature is also the Lord of the heart of man, and if the study of the laws of God in these His lower works declare His goodness beyond thought and power Divine, how much more should the study of the working of His Divine life in the soul of man, and in that greater Man, even the Son in whom He was well pleased, and whom He has given us for an Example,-how much more should the Divine life of God's true Son excite our wonder, and awe, and admiration, and love? -and if so, our worship and faith; for where there is love and worship, there is certainly faith. If, then, none but a fool or a madman can consider the heavens above him or the earth beneath, and say these have no maker or governor, can we call him anything else than morally insane who can think of the human heart, and of all that good men have longed and striven after, and say, "There is no rule or direction for our human life; no Lord towards whom our soul may go forth in awe and worship and love"?

When we see everything above and around us obeying a law which cannot be broken, to say there is no Lawgiver is to trifle with words. And when we see the struggles of human beings for countless generations after truth and right, and think of them as they culminate in the life of Him whose Name is exalted above all the rest of the sons of earth, is it not sheer nonsense to say there is no God or overruling Power from whom this goodness comes?

Well, then, if God plainly exists, and we desire to please Him, we must have faith in Him, and faith in Him as a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We must have faith in the laws of the universe of which we form a part, and we must have faith in the Divine life to which we are called, and which gives the rule or direction for our daily conduct. To say we know not in what this rule or direction consists, is to say we see no difference between what is right or wrong, selfish or unselfish, kind or malignant, noble or base. Yet to err is human, and we commonly err for lack of faith-faith in the might of goodness, and in its certain triumph over wickedness and error-for lack of faith in God. A Power there is in the universe, we know, but we dread it; we do not trust it and love it, and place ourselves confidently on its side. A Power there is in ourselves; but we dread it almost more, for our own wills and affections often run madly against it, and because we feel it thwarting those wills and affections, and forbidding us to have our own way, therefore we are tempted to say in our hearts, "There is no God." But if God exists, does He exist for us or we for Him? And if, in order to please Him, we are bidden to have faith in Him, is our faith to lead us to expect that He will change His will in order that it may be in harmony with ours, or to prompt us to change our wills that they may be in harmony with His?