and desire of the man. It can not be the result or the expression of the spirit of the age, inasmuch as it frequently condemns the principles of that spirit. And yet every law naturally presupposes a law-giver, whom, for human moral law, we can find only in God-for such law-giver can not be in man nor in the material world. Again, as there exist positive fixed laws of morality, so, too, of justice. These fundamental laws remain always and everywhere the same. They show themselves even in the child. Whence do they come? Like the moral law they come not from men, nor from visible, tangible nature. They come only from an eternal justice which stands above man and the universe. To such a law-giver only can man submit, and only such a one is competent to direct the world.

4. The belief of all nations.

"You may meet with States devoid of walls, houses, colleges, laws, and with no knowledge of finance or commerce, but no one ever saw a nation without God, without prayer, without the knowledge of an oath, without religious usages, without sacrifices." Thus wrote the ancient pagan Plutarch one hundred years after Christ. Cicero, too, says, "There is no people so rude and wild as not to have a belief in a god, though they may not understand his nature." Hence we find everywhere a seek ing and longing after a knowledge of this God. Although the human intellect, when left to its own powers and without any aid from Heaven, never succeeded in acquiring a clear knowledge of the true God, men erected altars to the "unknown god." This belief of all peoples, in all ages, in a supreme Being can be explained only by its consonance with human nature.

The vain and foolish conceptions of the human brain never become universal, and die out in time, whereas truth endures forever unchanged. No belief, however,

is so ancient, so universal, and so conformable to human nature, as the belief in one God. It must, therefore, be founded on truth, for it can not possibly be explained otherwise.

If, then, we ask the heavens, the earth, man and his history, the towering mountains about us, the blade of grass beneath our feet, the still voice within us, the beauty and harmony of the firmament above us, all and each cry out to us, with voices clear, strong, and unmistakable, "There is an eternal, almighty God, who created all things and who governs all things. Only the fool saith in his heart, 'There is no God.'"

God Exists.-Who is He?

God, as His name implies, is good. He is a being who has no fault, no deficiency. But human understanding can never comprehend how good He is. Hence we can only say, "God is infinitely perfect, He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and all good comes from Him; and, as He is the source of all good, He contains all good within Himself. He alone is good, and, indeed, so good that all the attributes He possesses exist in Him in the highest perfection. He has not only one good attribute, He has all. Hence God is, in truth, the sublimest and most lovable Good that can lay claim to the veneration of man; for Him the soul of man should long, for he who has God has all things.'

Concerning God we know that He is (a) a spirit, (b) eternal and unchangeable, (c) omnipresent, (d) allknowing, (e) all-wise, (f) almighty, (g) infinitely holy and just, (h) infinitely good, (i) all-merciful and allpatient, and () infinitely true and sincere.

II. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD.

God is a Spirit.

WHATEVER is, or exists, is called being. There are two kinds of being: spirit and body. The spirit is a being which thinks and wills, but which we can neither see nor feel; and it can not be divided or dissolved, for it has no component parts-it is simple. Body is a being which does not feel, does not think, does not will, but which is visible and palpable and easily appreciable to the senses and is composed of several concurring elements. Hence body and spirit are essentially different from each other. A stone is a body entirely without spirit. Man consists of a body and a spirit united; hence, we say that man has a spirit, but that God is a spirit, because He has no body. God is a being that thinks and wills and has no body.

It is true that in the Holy Scriptures may be found passages which speak of God as if He had a body, as, for instance, in 2 Paralipomenon, xvi. 9, where it is told us that "The eyes of the Lord behold all the earth;" in Psalms xvi. 1, “O Lord, give ear unto my prayer; and in Psalms cxliv. 16, "Thou openest Thy hand and fillest with Thy blessing every living creature.' But these are simply modes of expression adapted to our too material ideas; they are the only terms in which Scripture could make itself intelligible to our understandings. For, although we know and believe that God has no body, we can not portray His image, even in our minds, without the qualities of a body. Hence the foregoing extracts from Scripture, as well as similar ones throughout the whole book, are but figures of language made use of to describe to us God's omniscience and goodness, His love and

fatherly solicitude for all men. Similarly we are compelled to make for ourselves actual pictures of God, more especially as God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Thus God the Father, as a rule, is depicted as a venerable patriarch holding and balancing the world in His hand. It was in this form that God appeared to Daniel the prophet (Daniel vii. 9) and was by him described as "the Ancient of days.' The representations of Christ are usually some of those forms in which He appeared in the flesh. The Holy Ghost is usually represented under the form of a dove, such as He really appeared at the baptism of Christ in the Jordan. Deity itself can not be represented. To it belongs what Isaias writes in chapter xl., v. 25, "To whom have ye likened Me, or made Me equal, saith the holy One?"

But, Christian reader, although God is a pure spirit you can have Him before your eyes. Represent Him to yourself simply as your Maker, without whom you could not exist, and whose grace and mercy created you. Place Him before your eyes as your Father, without whom you would have nothing, for from Him all good comes. Represent Him to yourself as your helper, for when you find yourself in need He is always with you, never wanting. Keep Him before your mind as the judge before whom you will one day have to render an account of your stewardship. It is related of St. Simon Salus that when walking through a field he would strike the flowers and plants with his staff, and say, "Be silent, be quiet, do not reproach me with ingratitude to God." Do not live so forgetful of God's being that His creatures, while proclaiming His power and glory, rebuke you for not thinking of the Lord that made you. The best way, however, is to be mindful

in

your heart of God, for does not St. Paul say in I Corinthians iii. 16, "Know you not that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?"

God being a spirit, and, indeed, an infinitely perfect spirit, then the cultivation of our spirit, or the ennobling of our better spirit-nature, should be our supremest duty here below. "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," say Holy Scriptures. For the same reason we must serve God not only with our bodies, with our lips, eyes, and other senses, but also with our soul, or spirit-nature; for, as the Gospel says (John iv. 23), "The true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth." It is only the worship of the spirit, a good, pure soul, and an honest, sincere intention of heart that please God. As Christ of old rebuked and condemned the false and pretended sanctity of the Pharisees, so does true Christian religion abhor a mere lip-service. It demands the soul and the heart.

God is Eternal and Unchangeable.

As God has no body He must be essentially, and by nature, unchangeable. Spirit dieth not. God does not cease to exist, He remains and endures as He is. But as He does not cease to be, does not change, so He could never have begun. This incomprehensible mystery we express by means of the words, "God is eternal." He has no beginning and no end. God was before the world was, for He has created it.

"Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed: from eternity and to eternity Thou art God," exclaims the Royal Psalmist (Psalms lxxxix. 2).