into the depths of the ocean, command it to carry his thoughts to the ends of the world. All those fatal destructive forces of nature are made to "work together," under the foreseeing eye of his genius, to prolong, adorn, and enrich his life.

This is a feeble picture of the way in which a believing soul can turn to good all the events of life.

Failure, poverty, sickness, cruel suffering to a godless soul, are just what poison, lightning, and steam are to an ignorant savage. But a Christian converts them into blessings. They produce in him humility and resignation, patience and calmness, sanctification and eternal life.

We gather as practical conclusions—

1. Every life is involved in a Divine Providence. It is possible to break away from God's order, to renounce God's plan of life, and follow your own self-will. But it is not possible to escape God's Providence. He will follow after you wherever your sin will lead you. Napoleon went far away from God. He thirsted for destruction and conquest. But God followed him in his bloody track and blackened wastes, in order to bring all possible good out of the evil. There is no escaping the hand and eye of God. But there is also a Providence that goes before a good man, leads him on, and marks out his way for him by shutting him off from one line of action and shutting him into another. No man who prays daily-"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" is left very long without an answer. Godless and worldly men plunge on and on with no guidance but their own self-will, and so they get beaten about by the motions of the tides of human passion and the dashing of the waves of Divine Providence. But the man of faith, like Samuel, listens for the Divine voice, and hears it in the hush of the morning and evening prayer. A Divine calm comes down upon him, and lies about him all day. If you will try to climb heavenward, a Divine Providence will draw you with its golden links and engird you with invisible helps till your feet are firm on the summit of glory.

2. Every life is more or less involved in a Divine discipline. With some life is a pleasure-ground-a place of sunshine and play. With others it is a lottery-ground, where men and women

hunt for prizes. Wealth, fame, and pleasure are the laurel wreaths for which they strive. They who win them are considered happy, and they who miss them are considered failures. Such children of this world are ignorant of the true meaning of life. Life is a school of discipline, and just as the oak must have for its growth not only the sun and dew but the wind and storm, so human life needs crosses, failures, and bitter trials. These are God's rough instruments for the education of our manhood and womanhood. They serve to drive out the evil and poison, and educe all that is wisest, purest, and noblest in us.

3. The triumph of all good is involved in the Divine Providence. In this glorious chapter I can hear a wail in nature and the heart of man. Man and nature are in bondage for the present. There is strife everywhere. The creature is made subject to vanity and corruption. But I can also hear the jubilant tone of hope and final victory. If we suffer with Him, we shall be glorified together. Our present sufferings are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. All creatures shall be delivered from vanity, corruption, and bondage.

Some of the grandest overtures begin with discord and fierce fight, as if spirits struggled together and blended in terrific clash and controversy. Then an exquisite strain of melody flashes out louder and louder, till at last it predominates over all other sounds, and the air is filled with the glad song of triumph. Bend down your ear to the great heart of Humanity, and you might hear discords, sharp conflicts, the clashing sounds of secret sorrows, unsatisfied longings and yearnings, harsh notes of discontent and anxiety. But listen longer, and you will hear above the groans sweet strains of hope and joy. These tender tones will grow louder and louder every year, and by-and-by they will fill the world with songs of victory. Misfortune, poverty, loss, sickness, pain, evil report, and death itself will be transmuted by a spiritual alchemy into fortune, riches, gain, health, pleasure, good report, and eternal life. Redemption will be written in flaming letters on all the elements of a redeemed world, and on the temple of regenerated humanity.

CROYDON.

D. BLOOMFIELD JAMES.

Germs of Thought.

The God of Bethel.

"I AM THE GOD OF BETHEL."-Gen. xxxi. 16.

SOME twenty years or more had elapsed since Jacob was at Bethel; however, the strange events of that night would never be effaced from his memory. But now, inasmuch as he was about to return to his own country, and on his way would have to meet his brother Esau, it was necessary that the Bethel scene should be more vividly impressed on his mind, so the Lord said, "I am the God of Bethel." There are times in our history when our Father seems to draw nearer to us than usual; when old fellowships are revived in order to strengthen and encourage us to face some trouble, to overcome a strange temptation, or to undertake some important work. To appease the wrath of Esau was by no means easy, and to return to Canaan with his family and possessions was an undertaking involving not a few dangers; so mention is made of Bethel to strengthen Jacob's hands. The text suggests

I. THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING SPECIAL LOCALIZED OR LIMITED IDEAS OF GOD. The idea of a God is our inheritance, an inheritance which no power can wrest from us, it belongs to the human family, is not limited to any particular tribe or nation, nor confined to any age, neither does it depend on any social or civilizing conditions. It is an heirloom handed down from generation to generation; our family has lost many valuable possessions, our purity is gone, our peace of conscience destroyed, and our perfect conceptions of God are lost; but in the darkest night we have not entirely lost sight of the Divine, and in the fiercest storms which have assailed us we have managed somehow to retain a firm hold on the conception of a God. This spiritual

consciousness of the existence of a Higher Power, of an Invisible Ruler, of a Supreme Being is inwrought in our nature. Men's opinions and conceptions respecting the Infinite differ widely in various parts of the world, and in different ages. The social, educational, and moral surroundings of the people, as well as the direction given by the previous age, or ages, to their thoughts, may partly account for this variety respecting our conceptions of God. But a God our humanity must have before it can be satisfied.

The Bible does not demonstrate, does not prove, the existence of the true and living God, the fact is taken for granted; it is the foundation on which the entire Bible rests.

In the Old Testament, what we may call the localization of God, is very clearly and distinctly referred to, as if the idea of an Infinite God were too awful, too perplexing and grand for even the saints then living to comprehend it. Adam in "the garden," Abram on Moriah, Moses "in the bush," Elijah on Carmel, &c. Here God speaks of Himself to Jacob as the God of Bethel; the meeting on that night was not to be effaced from the mind, and the patriarch was to think now of God as He then appeared above the ladder. Probably that was the first time for Jacob to meet with God; he had often listened to his mother speaking of Him, and had heard his father call on His name, but he had not come face to face with God until that night at Bethel, when Heaven was opened, and he had to form a personal conception of the God who rules the destiny of man. He could never become the father of a great nation without this personal contact with God. Our greatness in this respect cannot be acquired by listening to the experience of others, by reading the history of God's dealings with the race, we must be filled with awe at the nearness of His infinite presence, we must see His face, and hear His voice ourselves if we are to be of any value in this world. It is a great blessing to be brought up in a family where the name of God is honoured, and His laws observed, still we must know Him as being specially and most intimately connected with some Bethel of our own, if our lives are to be strengthened with His might.

To all this it may be said, "The human family at that time was in its infancy, men's knowledge of the spiritual was very limited, they had need of localities, and of certain limitations before they could think at all of the Eternal God; all that is done away with now: our knowledge is such, and the clear light of the Gospel is so strong, that we can dispense with those artificial aids when meditating on God, and when holding communion with Him." In reply, we ask, what is the strongest and purest light which the Gospel sheds on the person of God? Is it not the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, or in other words, the localisation or limitation of the Divine in the human? Thus, and thus alone, can we in our weakness and darkness have a true conception of the God who inhabiteth eternity; we must have Him tabernacling in the flesh, before we can love and serve Him with the whole heart.

Probably some of you have been perplexed with the fact that it is impossible for any two persons to think alike of God. The God I have in my mind, and whom I worship here this morning, is not the same in every respect as yours. This, however, ought to be a source of joy to us, inasmuch as thus He becomes our own individual God, our own inheritance and rock, in a sense in which no other being in the universe can claim Him. To Jacob alone, of all the people on the earth, He was the God of Bethel. The same idea is suggested in the words of the Saviour after His resurrection, "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." As if He said, “You cannot understand the eternity and infinitude of His love as I can, you cannot have the same conceptions of His Fatherhood as I have, still He is your God as well as mine."

II.—THE LOCALISED IDEA OF GOD WHICH JACOB HAD (at Bethel), MADE HIM SENSIBLE OF HIS DEEP TENDERNESS AND UNCHANGING FAITHFULNESS. When a wanderer, homeless and friendless, when the curse of an injured brother darkened his path, when sadness and sorrow filled his heart, and when the future was dark and mysterious, how great the kindness and tenderness of God to visit him then! And now he is reminded of that fact, as if the Lord said, "When the world seemed cold