Let us see in all this that great lesson, that there will one day be universal peace. We have faith in God's word. There is no fear of its failing. Momentary triumphs of Infidelity, or of Popery, or Tractarianism, are merely eddies in the majestic current, that will soon be absorbed into its waters and disappear. God has spoken, we have confidence in his word. I am just as certain that the religion of this Book-the religion that we know, and love, and live in-shall overspread the whole earth, as I am that another sun shall rise, or that the sun that now shines shall set behind the western hills. We must have confidence in God's truth. The church may be in danger, the altar may be in danger, the priest may be in danger, the ceremony may be in danger; but true religion is nearest to its most glorious victories when its peril seems to men the most imminent. It is God's truth, God is with it, and it must prevail. And the effect of all this will be, the work of righteousness shall be peace, the effect of righteousness, gladness, and assurance for ever. A day, beautiful as ever dawned in Paradise, is no doubt almost at our doors. The last conflict is approaching; all Europe will soon blaze like a volcano. All ancient landmarks will be obliterated, thrones shall be again overthrown, dynasties will be shaken, the awful tumults of the people will be heard again; but in the midst of all the Christian ear shall hear, ringing sweet and clear from the heavens, "Be still; know that I am God; I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." After a short, a dark, and a sharp night, that beautiful day will come, sweeter than thaw after frost, than sunshine after night; when the Prince of peace shall reign from sea to sea, and

all creation, restored to its morning beauty, shall bask in the beams of an unsetting and a holy sun. All sin which rends creation shall be extirpated, all sorrow shall vanish away, tears shall be wiped away from every eye; and the very dumb brutes will be restored and be happy-happy as they were in Paradise. It is said in prophecy, "The lion shall eat straw like the ox"-every creature in Paradise was made graminivorous. If you will turn to the record of the animal creation in Paradise, you will find it states expressly that every creature was made to eat grass, or to be what we call graminivorous; "To every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given"-what? "Every green herb for meat; and it was so. Animals were not made to eat each other. I know how difficult it is to prove this. I know that the naturalist will say, -The lion has a peculiar structure of the teeth; and the viscera of the lion differ from those of the ox he is carnivorous, and not graminivorous. I answer, probably God made them thus in anticipation of what He knew would come-not what he caused to be, but what He knew would come- -the Fall, the wreck and ruin of mankind. But He that thus made them can make them again, and the promise is that "the lion shall eat straw like the ox;" and that creation shall cease its groans, its expectancies, its woes; and be delivered from all its sad forebodings; and the stormy and the troubled surf of this world shall end in the peaceful calm of an everlasting and an undisturbed heaven.

Are we looking by faith to this priest for pardon-are we listening to this king for law? Are we trusting in

what He had done as a priest, and to that alone, that our sins may be forgiven? Are we illustrating the sincerity of our trust by obedience to his commands as a king? for the same Christ that gives us by his blood immunity from the results of sin, gives us by his sceptre deliverance from its polluting power every day more and more.

LECTURE XXXVI.

OUR REFUGE IN THE GREAT TRIBULATION.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."—PSALM xlvi. 1.

THIS psalm has been sung in scenes of great tribulation for two thousand years passed away. It is a psalm for the day. It was the favorite psalm of Luther amidst the scenes and storms of the great Reformation, and its words were the expression of his trust and confidence when the assaults of men were heaviest, their threats sorest, and their power greatest. Whenever circumstances seemed all but overwhelming about him, he used to say to his companions in this great cause, "Come, let us sing the 46th psalm; God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.'

We too are entering on scenes in which the psalm will have an appropriateness we could have wished not to have occasion for. War is no sooner ended on one field than we are embarked in other conflicts, the issues of which no human being can foresee. The loss of treasure, the loss of means, the loss of life, and the calamities entailed in 1859 upon the European nations none can estimate; but we can retain in the midst of all, in spite of all, triumphant above all, our confidence in God, and feel as believers that our refuge is there, and that he is still here,

a very present help in time of trouble. It is therefore inspiring to find the Psalmist lifting up his heart above the waves, and finding in every attribute of God a bay of consolation. So has it been with others in the worst of times; when no hand on earth can help, and no eye on earth will pity, it is a blessed resource that remains for the believer, I have One in heaven under whose overshadowing wings I can find protection, in whose paternal presence I can find peace, under whose all encompassing attributes I have a shelter from the storm, a shadow from the heat, a refuge from fear, a present help in the very sorest time of trouble. Every attribute in God is a believer's refuge; every cleft in the Rock of Ages is a shadow and a shelter for a Christian. If God loved us, but were not omnipotent, we might never be able to enjoy Him as our refuge; if He were powerful, but did not love us, his power might be arrayed against us; and if He had all power and all love, but not omniscience, He might not know our trials; or if he were omnipresent, He might not see our trials; but having all power, all love, omnipresence, and omniscience, we can find in him a refuge always adequate, and always open; his great mercy bidding us welcome, his power when we reach it able to protect and to preserve us. How glorious then is the fact, that all the attributes of Deity arrayed against the least of sins out of Christ, are combined for the protection of the greatest sinner that flees to Him by Christ, the way, the truth, and the life! How interesting the thought that this refuge is not in the past, nor in the future, but always in the present! "God is our refuge," is as true to-day, and in the great tribulation, as it was two thousand years ago. He is not only our