"God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”. I have not said any one thing not in unison with this. The cross is the proof of God's love, and of the pains God is at in saving man. It is not His pleasure that man should be lost. He says, "Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God; and not that he should return from his ways, and live?" Is it your determination to be lost? or will you believe in Jesus and be saved?

THE OPPOSITES.

"It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."-PROVERBS Xxv. 2.

We shall first of all look at the text in its generally received meaning, as suggesting to us an important truth; and then we shall look at the great principle which we believe is to be found in it.

I. The meaning of the passage is supposed to be that God conceals much, and that it is His glory to do so.

There is a truth in this. We often say, "Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself." The Lord said, "I dwell in thick darkness." "Clouds and darkness are round about him.” But the darkness and the light are both alike to us. "He clothes himself with light as with a garment." "He dwells in the light which no man can approach unto." The seraphim veil their faces in His presence. We are blinded by the excess of light.

We often try to find out God. We classify and arrange His attributes and perfections. We distinguish between what we term His natural and moral qualities. We meditate on His eternity, and we say, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in

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all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." We see in His works the manifestation of His eternal power and Godhead, and as we look, a voice says to us, "Lo these are parts of his ways, but the thunder of his power who can understand?" We realise His presence, and we cry out, "Whither shall we go from thy Spirit, or whither shall we flee from thy presence? If we ascend into heaven, thou art there; if we make our bed in hell, behold thou art there. If we take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead us, and thy right hand shall find us." We muse on His wisdom, we stand by a fathomless sea, and we exclaim, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out." We look up, and we are taught "that as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy towards them that fear him." It is the glory of God that we cannot find Him out.

God is the profoundest mystery in the universe, and yet all is mystery without Him; the darkness would become darker still. "Who by searching can find out God; who can find out the Almighty to perfection?" God is the only Being who knows. Himself! No creature knows God. He dwells in awful solitariness, alone, apart, distinct. "With

whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment; and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?" He is "the only wise God." By far the greater number of His thoughts are not known to angels or to men. He has nothing to hide or conceal from those who can understand or appreciate His revelations, but the finite cannot understand the infinite. "His understanding is infinite." cannot hide ourselves, our thoughts, or our actions. Our pathways are open to the inspection of unseen intelligences. "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." God is so glorious that He hides Himself.

We

There is much concealed in nature. Nature is a large word for a large reality. Its numerous laws are mysterious to us. Science may go on from step to step, and from strength to strength; it is only finding out how little is known, and how much remains to be known. Every leaf, every flower, every tree, every form of life, every manifestation of life, is a mystery. We are in the presence of mystery, we are surrounded by mystery.

It is not wonderful, then, that there should be much in God's providential procedure that is concealed from us. God's ways are not as our ways. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." We speak of His ways.

"The

Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet." We speak of His ways. "Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known." We speak of His ways. He Himself says, "And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not, I will lead them by paths they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight." We are often perplexed, we are in the darkness; but we comfort ourselves with the thought that though all is mystery to us, nothing is concealed from Him. If God has not given us light, it is better for us to be in the darkness.

In the great scheme of redemption, there is much that is necessarily concealed. We cannot explain the relation between the human and the Divinehow the Eternal Son could take upon Himself our nature, and become man. We can only say, Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh." We cannot explain the connection between the sufferings of Christ and our salvation. We can only say, "For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Salvation is so great, that we cannot find out its greatness; but who would wish its greatness to be diminished, that he might be able to grasp it? It is the glory of God to conceal.