Socially, intellectually and morally, man needs a revelation. Nature's light is insufficient. The world has proved it so. If it had not, our own feelings would outrun the necessity of argument. We want light, light to shine in a dark place, light for our souls.

And what is it that makes our want of a revelation so urgent? The reasons may be found in God's character and man's condition.

What reason teaches us of God forbids us to imagine that we are placed here except with a wise design. We see a plan apparent in all his works, and man, too, except he be a discord in the great harmony, has an end to subserve. Unlike the physical and brute creation he is to be intelligently active in attaining it, and instruction of some kind is highly necessary to this end. He must know God's design in order to be able to enter into it and coöperate with it, and the perfection of this design itself seems to imply that he should possess this knowledge to such an extent as to render neglect inexcusable.

Then man's condition, also, is such as seems to call for the compassion of such a thing as reason is willing to conceive God to be. There are times when ignorance is woe, and doubt anguish, and when the mind hungering for knowledge is as much an object of pity, as the poor victim of disease, or the starving wretch pining for bread. And what other than this is the state of man when in the absence of revelation he becomes conscious of his want? Place him where he is often found, in circumstances of bitter trial, where one by one each earthly hope fails him till they all give way, and the forlornness of his lot sinks deep into his soul, and with no light or hope from heaven what can he do? He knows of nothing yet in reserve to

sustain him. The future is all blackness unpierced by a single cheering ray. No beam of hope traverses the. tomb or smiles upon him from beyond the grave. He is shut up to a present robbed of consolation, or given over to a future bounded by despair. What is there now on earth to cheer or aid this struggling soul? The stoicism of reason is a poor physician. It nauseates the mysteries of science. All the treasures of learning cannot charm away its anguish. It needs a divine consoler, it asks a guide who will show the way from earth to heaven. It is man's sensibility to his want and woe that urges the demand, a demand which human wisdom has proved itself unable to supply. We feel, after all, that the suicide's argument cannot satisfy us, and it poorly reconciles us to our lot, if in the refuge of the grave we are to find nothing but its oblivion.

What again must be the feelings of the sensitive mind, clinging with a lingering fondness to this its conscious being, yet girt about by the gloomy doubts that invest the hour of its departure from these scenes? Have you read the story of the dying Hindoo questioning his Brahmin teacher what would become of his soul after death? The doctrine of its transmigration from one body to another, now tenanting a beast, and now a reptile, was but a poor consolation. No wonder he asks, "what then will become of it," and with every new change continues still to ask," what then?" It is very possible for persons even in a Christian land so to shut out the light that shines around them that their death too is heathenized, and like the dying Rabelais they feel if they do not exclaim, "I go to seek a great Perhaps." Without a faith whose eye is enlightened by revelation, it must be so. How sad the farewell song of its departure:

"Over the dark, dark sea

I must go, for the hour has come.
But where shall my wandering spirit rest
In its final home?

"My life is a dim Perhaps.

From the rock of faith I'm driven,
No shining light in my clouded breast,
No star in heaven.

"What if this vital force

Shall be spent when this last breath flies, And thought and feeling vanish in night, As the lightning dies!

"Or what if the conscious soul

Should be damned, as was taught of old, To live in body of bird or beast, Years manifold!

"Into the gloom I go,

With perhaps alone before,

The great sea rolling all around
Without a shore.

"Shall I rise to the Christian world,

With the pure and the good to dwell,
To live forever in joy and love?
I cannot tell.

"Shall I be hurled in wrath

To the penal flames below;
For endless years to suffer and sin?
It may be so.

"Farewell-my eyes now close

On the light of the certain day; And into the dark of death, my soul Plunges away."

Who does not feel all the sympathies of his soul drawn forth toward the tried and struggling spirit, arguing with doubt, but arguing in vain. What want can be more trying than the want of that revelation which can bring life and immortality to light, and which solving the puzzle of our being here, points us to the realms of glory, and a home in heaven. With this, and only with this, can we hope for guidance for our stumbling steps. On our dark path to eternity reason alone is but a rushlight, and genius is but a glowworm's spark. What a question then, with the antecedent probabilities of divine mercy and human need, is this, Have we a light to cheer and guide us? one that God Himself has kindled, one by the teachings of which the once troubled soul can exclaim:

"But darkness and doubt are now flying away;

No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn;
So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray,
The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn.
See Truth, Love and Mercy, in triumph descending,
And Nature, all glowing in Eden's first bloom;

On the cold cheek of Death, smiles and roses are blending,
And Beauty Immortal awakes from the tomb.”

H

XIII.

THE LAW OF NATURE.

"The work of the law written in their hearts."-ROM. ii. 15.

AS God given a law to men? That is, has he made known rules of life or action for men to which penalties are annexed?

He has unquestionably enacted what is sometimes called 66 the law of nature," that is the law which the nature or constitution which he has given to man, requires or enforces.

Such a law results from the very fact of creation. The Creator is necessarily to a certain extent a legislator. By calling a thing into being, he determines what it is, how it shall be constituted, upon what it shall act, and how it shall be acted upon. As created it has its qualities, capacities, adaptations, or in other words, its nature, and the conditions or modes in which these are designed to act are the law of the nature of the thing. It is the law of the seed to germinate, of the vine to produce grapes, of the oak to produce acorns.

So if you take the human body, it has its laws of healthful action. The eye is for sight. The lungs are to breathe, the feet are to walk. This is the law of their creation. Their proper and healthful action is dependent on certain conditions, or laws of health, which must be met or complied with, and the penalty of non-compliance