in combination, nor in any number of grains of sand, nor in all the sand of the universe. In a word, sand, even a grain of sand, and every grain of sand, must be eternal, all-powerful, able to plan and create, or at least to do purposely and intelligently its part in creating the universe, including the making of the leaf of a tree, the wing of a bird, and the eye of a man; or else the hypothesis with which we started ought to be admitted-namely, there is in the universe a Something which designs, a Something so distinct from man as not to be man, and appearing to be so distinct from pure matter as not to be matter; a Something so constituted that we can not see it, nor by searching find it, nor finding, fully comprehend it. Either a grain of sand, or a supreme mind, is the God of this universe. Is it replied that it is not merely the grain of sand that is God, but that God is the grain of sand in conjunction with all other grains of sand, and in combination with force, law, evolution, and such other environments as are necessary? Nay, but the grain of sand must know enough to make these infinitely skillful conjunctions and combinations; or else back of the sand, the force, the law, and the evolution, there must be a Something that combines these elements and projects results. Hence, we repeat, it is either a grain of sand or a Something else that is intelligence and the God of the universe. The common judgment of the world and of the ages pronounces in favor of the Something else the Supreme Mind. Any other supposition will be forever at war with common sense."

UNIVERSAL BELIEF IN GOD.

"The belief in a God is one of the oldest beliefs of the human race the most venerable tradition of mankind. It has come down to us through a long succession of generations, through the convictions and experiences of countless thousands of men, whose minds it has satisfied, whose hopes it has raised, whose hearts it has cheered and sustained in the midst of toil and sorrow, whose lives it has lifted from inaction and despair to activity and courage. All this, it may be said, does not furnish a reason why we should receive it to-day. But it certainly proves that there must be some deep reason and substance of truth in the belief, which ought to bar out any hasty, offhand decisions against it. He, indeed, must be an arrant egotist who puts up his individual dictum and judgment against the verdict of the wisest and gravest men in all history, and he must be a veritable Don Quixote of skepticism who imagines that the product of the thought

of ages is to be overthrown by the shock of his doughty lance. Who can tell whether it is more reasonable to accept a proposition or to reject it, until it is examined on which side lies the greater evidence? He is credulous and superstitious who believes where the fewer reasons are, and he is the liberal and advanced man who goes only with the preponderance of logic. Infidels are fond of using the epithets 'credulous' and 'superstitious' to characterize those who hold to the Christian faith; but until they show that they have more arguments on their side than there are on the other, the adjectives more properly belong to themselves. To any other but himself, the belief of the atheist must ever seem wilder and more unsubstantiated and more unnatural than the most fantastic fables of the Arabian Nights." (Charles S. Stockton, M. D.)

"Now," says a Cambridge professor, "if there be no God, how is it that the vast majority of mankind, from the earliest times, have agreed to believe that there was such a Being? Those who have made researches into the subject tell us that such ideas are found universally, if we except such tribes as have lost almost the very semblance of humanity. What becomes of that capacity for worship, that awe of the unseen, those devotional instincts which even an unbeliever feels occasionally? How is it, if the idea be a gradual result of reflection on the phenomena of nature, that it finds such easy access to the mind of a child? Who that has spoken to a child in a fitting manner on subjects so solemn has not seen the expression of awe creep over the infant face, with a readiness which proves that, high as the idea of God is, it finds an immediate response even in an infant breast? Surely a universal consciousness implies an Object of that consciousness; the possession of certain instincts implies an Object to which those instincts may be directed. Some may say that they have no such consciousness. It would be far more true to say that for the time they had contrived to argue it down; while as for instincts of awe and tendencies toward worship, whether they be in accordance with reason or against it, they are indisputably a part of our nature. Auguste Comte, when he strove to invent a substitute for Christianity, proposed to satisfy the craving for an object of adoration by inventing forms of worship directed to the Idea of Humanity; but who could worship the Idea of Humanity? As an abstract,idea it has, of course, no real existence. Nevertheless, the attempt to provide a Church, with rites and ceremonies, directed towards the worship of a nonentity like this, was, in truth, a very remarkable confession that there was a Something which man felt bound instinctively to

adore. Wiser than the would-be philosophers who quote him at second-hand, Comte knew well that he must provide men with an object of worship, or he would never be able to secure their allegiance. "Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.' The disbelief in God may make men miserable, or it may make them wicked; but it can never prevail in the end. Nay, even those who profess such disbelief will be fain to throw it aside in those great crises of our being which occur to most of us at some time or other of our lives, when we feel that existence without support from above is a load too heavy for us to bear.

"The workings of conscience supply us with another argument for the being of God. What is conscience, and whence is it derived? Professor Clifford tells us it is the experience of the tribe.' But in that case a man's conscience would but reflect the public opinion of the hour. But it is a matter of the most ordinary experience that this is just what conscience does not do. It is in obedience to the opinion of those around him that a man allows himself to be led into evil. It is when he is alone by himself that he finds something that will not let him rest. What is this mysterious monitor, which thus speaks to a man in the inmost recesses of his heart? What is it which thus, in the depths of his own being, arraigns him before himself, and passes judgment upon him in his own despite? What is it but the Spirit of the Eternal God, who thus penetrates to the innermost chambers of the soul, and there reminds the offender of his broken laws? Well might the Psalmist exclaim: 'If I climb up into heaven, thou art there; if I go down to hell, thou art there also. If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there also shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.' (Psa. cxxxix, 7, 8.)

"One argument more we will adduce, and it shall be the last. We appeal fearlessly to the experience of Christian men. Was there ever one who trusted God and was deceived? Did you ever know a man who had served God all his life, and found out in the end that he had made a mistake? Many have cast him off in their youth who have been fain to come back to him after many a year misspent, many a weary wandering after truth and peace. But those who have kept firm to him amid the temptations of early life have found him too present a help in trouble' (Psa. xlvi, 1), too firm a support in the hour of temptation, to abandon him in maturer years. As the days pass on, the vast landscape of the Unseen unrolls itself before their vision; the past as well as the future stands out distinct and clear.

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Where once all had been confusion and uncertainty they now discern the loving hand of a tender Father; while the experience of God's constant presence, the remembrance of his answers to prayer, the gentle training he has given them in submission and humility, deepens their reliance on his all-wise protection, and ripens in them an ever growing conviction that God is the strength of their life, and their portion forever.' (Psa. lxxiii, 26.) When we think of the uncertainties, the disappointments, the difficulties, the temptations of life, the weary tossings to and fro of uneasy souls upon its storm-tossed sea, we may well repeat to those who doubt whether there is a God the invitation of the Psalmist: 'O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that trusteth in him.' (Psa. xxxiv, 8.)"

HEATHEN IDEAS OF THE CREATION.

Mankind will believe something in respect to the origin of things. Even the heathen constitute no exception.

"The ancient Persians believed in three gods, the greatest of which was Ormuzd, who made a perfect man with a giant head. An infinite distress caused his monstrous head to burst with terrible anguish, when out stepped a beautiful woman. The head shrank to a natural size, and they became the first man and wife. The Greeks also believed the beautiful Minerva sprang from the head of Jupiter. "The ancient Hindoos believed a monstrous. serpent coiled upon the ocean. Upon him Vishnu slept for long ages in inactivity, and died. Out of his departing spirit Brahma arose, who created man by the simple act of wishing.

"The ancient Assyrians believed somewhere in their country was a beautiful garden, into which God came one night and gathered particles of all kinds of dust, of which to make man. He fashioned him after his own image. When sufficiently dry to be handled without defacing, he placed himself mouth to mouth, hands to hands, and feet to feet, and imparted life to the image. Sleep had possession of the man. The god drew a glittering blade from his girdle, and, with infinite quickness, took a bone-of the two hundred and forty-eight bones-from near the heart, and placing the requisite female dependencies around it, gave it to the man to become his wife.

"The Aztecs believed that a princess, being offended at her husband, obtained leave of Deity to depart from paradise on condition that she would go to earth and populate it. She started on her long and perilous journey. When once in sight of earth, she drew from

her girdle a knife glittering with diamonds, and hurled it against the planets, breaking it into twelve pieces, which immediately resolved themselves into six knights and six princesses, from which sprang six races of men.

"The ancient Egyptians believed two gods descended from the sun, and alighted on the flowery banks of a beautiful lake on a morning, and planted the germ of a lotus plant, each kissing it on opposite sides. The plant grew, and ripened its fruits. The legumes burst, and a beautiful man and woman, like the ripe corn from the husks, stepped forth in spontaneous marriage.

'The Asiatics of Egyptian descent believed in the center of a watery universe existed the Divine Power, which slowly and silently, for ages, collected a transparent shell about him, in which he slept. On awakening, by his own energies he burst the shell, and arose to the surface, an immense turtle, covering millions of acres. He again burst his shell, the fragments of which became earth, mountains, and rocks. The giant came from the mountains, and slept beside a placid lake. From his head sprang a noble race of thinkers; from his long arms, stretched by his side, a race of workers; from his legs, a race of travelers; and from his fingers and toes, the lowest race of all.” How different all this from the Bible account of the origin of the world and of man!

THE INSPIRED VIEW OF CREATION.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.' This simple sentence denies atheism, for it assumes the being of God. It denies polytheism, and, among its various forms, the doctrine of two eternal principles, the one good and the other evil, for it confesses the one eternal Creator. It denies materialism, for it asserts the creation of matter. It denies pantheism, for it assumes the existence of God before all things, and apart from them. It denies fatalism, for it involves the freedom of the Eternal Being. It assumes the existence of God, for it is he in the beginning who creates. It assumes his eternity, for he is before all things; and as nothing comes from nothing, he himself must have always been. It implies his omnipotence, for he creates the universe of things. It implies his absolute freedom, for he begins a new course of action. It implies his infinite wisdom, for a kosmos, an order of matter and mind, can only come from a being of absolute intelligence. It implies his essential goodness, for the sole, eternal, almighty, all-wise, and all-sufficient Being has no reason, no motive,