had it not been in some measure explained to us in the Bible, would also have been inexplicable, we could not have understood it; but as it is revealed to us in Scripture there is one fact, at least, which is clear to us, which is this, that in spite of all apparent disorder or opposition on their part to the fulfilment of God's will, the Lord yet reigneth. Had it not been for Revelation the separation of Abraham from the world, the selling of Joseph into Egypt, the cruel bondage of the Israelites in Egypt in after years, their deliverance, their wandering in the wilderness, and after that their bursting in upon the various nations of the Land of Canaan and subduing them, and taking possession of their land-I say had it not been for what is told us in the Bible, all this would have appeared merely as the work of man, the work of men in search of land, of liberty, and glory. But if we read the Bible, there is one thought which must strike us, which is this-that it was not the work of man, but the work of God, which was being carried on with a definite plan, and for good reasons, which even now, with all the light which the Bible throws upon the point, is only partially intelligible to us. We cannot read the Bible and believe it without at least feeling this-that in all that took place it was God's work, and that the Lord was reigning, not man.

So, again, if we go to the after history of the

Jews, the same truth is also plain to every one who reads and believes his Bible. We see them at one time in a state of great national prosperity, at another in a state of great national adversity and affliction. Were it not for our Bible we could not account for these various conditions of national life. But in the Bible we find that all this was the result of their national sins, or their national repentance; that it was all by the government of God, for a good purpose.

We read in the Bible of a mighty schism and rebellion in this Jewish nation, when Jeroboam raised the standard of insurrection against Rehoboam, who was the lawful heir to the kingdom. We read of other insurrections in the kingdom of Israel, which, had it not been for the Bible, we could not have understood. But if we study the Bible, and believe it, we there see that there was something more than merely the work of man; we see the finger of God in it all.

We read of the rise of certain great and powerful nations in the East, the Assyrian and the Persian, -we read of the one coming with powerful armies into the land of Judæa laying siege to the capital of the Jewish nation, the King at one time, Sennacherib I mean, with all his army discomfited and destroyed; the capital at another time falling before these conquering invaders. Had it not been for our Bible this too would have been unintelligible; but

when we read the Bible we find it was not man's work, but God's work that was going on—we read that Sennacherib and his army were destroyed because of the pious prayer and pious behaviour of a good king that then was reigning in Jerusalem 1; and we find that the subsequent fall and captivity of the Jewish nation was in consequence of their determined sins.

The fall of the Assyrian nation, the rise of the Persian kingdom, and consequently the deliverance of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, we find was not simply an accidental event, but one which had already been declared by God through the mouth of His Prophets.

Then again we come to the establishment of the Christian Kingdom, or the Christian Church, as we call it, in the world, and we see much that would lead many men to say that the Lord had ceased to reign. We see the Church in adversity, and suffering persecution, its first founders and its earliest champions Martyrs. For three hundred years those who professed the faith and devoted themselves to Christ did so at the peril of their lives. In those days death stared the most devoted Christian in the face; and an unbelieving Christian, or one whose faith was not firm in Christ, might readily have believed that the Powers of Darkness, and not the Lord, were reigning. And all the disorders of the Church since then might

easily induce the faint-hearted to think that the Lord had forgotten His promise that He would be with his Church unto the end of time. When we look abroad and see the wretched coldness of some, the wild and wicked enthusiasm of others, which they would fain call zeal-when we see the various schisms and oppositions which are at work in the Church both amongst her friends and enemieswhen we witness the many disappointments in our ministerial labours both at home, and abroad in heathen lands, there is much to make the fainthearted think that the Lord has ceased to reign. But it is not so really. "The Lord reigneth be the people never so impatient, He sitteth between the Cherubims be the earth never so unquiet." There is a cause, a reason, and a principle at work in the midst of all these disorders which we know not of. There is but one fact which we need to know, and which we ought to feel, which is this, that in the midst of it all, and in spite of every opposition and all apparent disorder there is the greatest harmony in all that happens, because that the Lord reigneth.

This is a fact too which, perhaps more than any other, ought to give us consolation and throw light upon the sad events which are daily taking place in America at the present time. It is awful to contemplate the loss of life, and the loss of all those good gifts which God bestows upon nations

-it is awful to think of that bitter and deadly hatred which is now animating one part of a once united people against the other in savage war. Those who have the love of God within them cannot but regard such scenes with horror; they cannot but be anxious to avert such miseries from any people. But how is such a work of reconciliation to be effected? Is it a shame to us and to others that we have not sought to effect this work, or to do it with greater energy and earnestness? My brethren, the words of the text will perhaps offer us a better excuse than any other: "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad thereof." What is there happening is not simply the work of man, it is the work of God and a part of His government of nations. It is not an accident; it is a scourge directed by the hand of God-a scourge which all nations have at some time undergone, a scourge which we ourselves have suffered from, and one which can only be removed by God. It is a chastisement which we may readily believe the Lord is inflicting for long accumulated sins.

If God's government of America were revealed to us in the same way that He has thought proper to reveal to us His government of the Israelites and the world in that day, we should doubtless see the finger of God as clearly in what is now taking place in America as when He led his people out