And then the convalescent is further instructed to avoid everything that would cause a relapse-to walk in the new life, upon the narrow way, to crucify the flesh, to deny the world; all which demands steadfastness in obedience to and confidence in the Divine Healer, in order that, as He has com. menced the good work in him, He may also complete it.

Hence says God to His people at Marah: "If thou wilt dili gently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do thar which is right in His sighi, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians." What dire calamities and sufferings would Israel have avoided had it heeded this counsel and walked in the ways of its God, This, too, beloved, is the rule for each one of us to-day, who has committed himself to the Divine Healer for treat. ment; only we see clearly that the way we have to take is Christ and His example; the support on which we rely is Christ and His spirit; and the aim and object of our way is Christ and His glory. And, therefore, all the commandments to be obeyed by us are compressed into this one: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house."

My dear hearers, would you be entirely healed? Then re, main in Christ's treatment. The beginning may be bitter; the progress will become increasingly easier, sweeter, happier ; so that, by-and-by, you will be able to say: "His commandments are not grievous.' Love makes them easy and clear. Should you at times not understand the mysterious ways He leads you, nor comprehend His methods of healing many of your complaints, run not away from Him to other physicians. Be assured that He knows. Should His hand seem sometimes against you, His heart is always for you. Your whole course of life will only become intelligible to you in the light of this Gospel of Marah, when, with all your heart, you have learned to believe, The Lord is my healer, and He seeks by all He sends me to cure my sin-sick soul. Humbly and confidingly submit to His direction; nor seek to restrain His hand should He reach for the knife to prune the branch, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Try not, secretly, to associate with Him the world as a subordinate helper. Remember, he is thy healer exclusively. Many physicians are often death to the patient. To serve two masters is the clearest proof of the unfitness of the servant. Give Him not only a part, but your entire confidence. For He has irrevocably pledged to you complete restoration.

After the waters of Marah had been sweetened, the invitation echoed through the whole camp: "Come and drink!" Doubtless, it was cheerfully, gratefully accepted. Let the Gospel of Marah, to-day, blend in the Gospel of Christ : "Who

soever thirsteth, let him come unto Me and drink." For all your complaints, here is the Physician. I place Him before you, that He Himself may preach to you as at Nazareth, His home: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are bruised.' "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." And whosoever has come to this fountain, and has drunk from it life and health, let him say, " Bless the Lord, O my soul, who healeth all thy diseases." AMEN.

***

The Unknown God.

A SERMON

By Rev. J. P. Newman, D.D., DELIVERED IN THE METROPOLITAN M. E. CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D. C., FEBRUARY 18, 1877.

"For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription: To the unknown God.''-Act, xvii: 23.

SOME truths are as old as time, and lasting as eternity. Foremost among such is the existence of a Supreme Being, the Creator of all things. Whatever may be the origin of the thought, the doctrine is as prevalent as the habitations of man. Whether we go to countries the most enlightened, or countries the most debased, there the idea prevails. Whether this idea is intuitional, or traditional, or rational, that is, discoverable by reason, or whether it is a matter of pure revelation, are points of dispute between us and the infidel. The question, then, is one of essential importance; but there is another of equal importance, and, I may say, of greater vitality, namely, What is God? What is His character? What are His attributes? What are His relations to man and man's relation to Him? Is He our friend or our foe? If our friend, how can His love be reciprocated? If our foe, how can His wrath be appeased? If He is a being to be perpetually trusted, how may we ascertain that fact, and cultivate that trust so that it will impart to the human soul a sweet repose? How can we know Him? If there is a God-and who doubts it ?—if there is a Being high over all—and who can question it?-the practical and vital question is, how may you and I, as the offspring of His power, and the objects of His regard, how may we know God, in the truest sense of that term? Know Him as our father and our friend; know Him as our Judge, know Him as our preserver, and, finally, and above all, know Him as our Saviour, who will impart unto us the impulses of a new life. The text is remarkable for two things: First, for its knowledge; and secondly, for its ignorance. Its knowledge consists in this, that an altar in Athens was erected to God. The ignorance consists in this, that that altar was erected to an unknown God. As to the historic fact, that such an altar existed, I need not delay you for a moment to dispute, for Pausanias is sufficient authority on this question; and to doubt his observation touching this fact, is to doubt all the other observations of that distinguished traveler.

Then we accept the statement in the text as a fact, "As I passed by and beheld your devotions, I saw an altar with this inscription: To the unknown God.'"

In speaking to you on this important subject, I desire to make three points: First, that God is unknown to all who have

not the Bible; secondly, that He is unknown to all who do not believe in Jesus Christ; and thirdly, He is unknown to ali who do not personally accept Christ as their Redeemer. There are three sources of information touching this subject-intui tion, the light of nature, and the light of revelation. It becomes us, in approaching the finale of the subject, to ascertain or examine these three sources of information. Each theory is defended by men of renown and learning.

The question of intuition amounts to this, that the idea of God is native to the human mind; native in the sense that mind is so constructed that it operates in obedience to such laws, that whenever mind comes into existence it conceives by intuition the idea of God. In other words, that, had Adam and Eve been left to themselves, without a personal visitation from God, they would have conceived the idea of the existence of their Supreme Creator. This is the theory; this is the assertion; this is the illustration. But it seems to me there is this fatal answer to the theory of intuition, namely, that all that could have been conceived by our first parents, had they been left without a personal visitation from God, is simply this, they would have realized, nay, they would have been conscious of the fact, that there was a time when they did not exist; in other words, their existence had had a commencement; and if their existence had a commencement, the same must have been caused. This mode of reasoning would not have led them to the Creator, but to the relation of cause and effect; and this to a succession of causes and effects, and that succession eternal. So it was with the best of the Greek philosophers, who asserted the eternity of matter, out of which all things were made.

That the human mind has not innate ideas of God is illustrated in the case of Peter, the wild boy, found in the woods of Germany at the beginning of the last century.

But were this idea innate, could the unaided mind reason out the attributes of the Deity? The affirmative argument runs thus: I feel myself hemmed in, limited in the use of all my powers of mind and body. I am shut up within the finite, and realize that I am finite. Now, this sense of limitation, it is said, suggests the idea of the Infinite. My own scanty knowledge and feeble energies throw me upon the contemplation of omniscience and omnipotence, and lift me up to the great idea of a God in whom these great attributes reside.

This is what is called idealizing the exercise of the imagination. But history is in proof, that the man who attempts to draw an ideal God, the character of that God resembles the character of the man by whom it is drawn. love and willing to worship such a God.

He is ready to
The idealized

God of the ancient Scandinavian was "Thor, the god of battles and of plunder," and was worshipped by the Scandinavian warrior, who stood with a purse in one hand and a spear in the other. So with the Thugs of India, who worshipped Doorga, the goddess of vagabonds, thieves, and murderers, and who considered themselves as acting under her immediate influence. From her shrine they went to the highway, where they waylaid the traveler-whether saint or sinner, Hindoo or Mahommedan-demanded his purse, and on refusal, took his life.

So it was with the Greeks, of whom I am speaking this morning. Take the Grecian Olympus, wherein were gods and goddesses representing every human passion-revenge, envy, jealousy, and war. All the baser passions of human nature were embodied in some god or goddess. Mars was the god of war and blood, Mercury the god of thieves, Bacchus the god of drunkards. Some of their festal scenes cannot be described in a presence so refined and morally beautiful as this. The classical scholar here to-day recalls them with a shudder. Once a year, in everything that was degrading to man and degrading to woman, these terrible revels were carried on the livelong night. And the same thing is true in regard to some of the Jews, for Jehovah had to say to them: "Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself." They were thieves, adulterers, and slanderers, and thought God was like themselves. This has been the weakness of mankind all through the history of the race, namely, creating a god resembling the individual man; and it is to be feared that the idealizing is characteristic of the Christian Church-that men draw their ideal of God independent of that old Book; and the god of many a Christian man and woman resembles himself or herself— in prejudices, in castes, in envies, in dispositions, and in inclinations. I tell you, my friends, it is to us a tremendous fact, that the human heart is desperately wicked, and is deceitful above all things; and the very god that you to-day bow down before is a god of your own creation. You cannot find the correspondent of your ideal in that inspired volume. Read that Book, and the scales will fall from your eyes as they fell from the eyes of Saint Paul, who thought that he was doing God's service when he murdered the men and women and children that followed the Lord Jesus Christ. The individual cannot rise above his idealized god. He must change himself to raise himself to a higher plain of moral excellence. We may go further and say, that a people, having received by revelation a knowledge of God, but now destitute of that Book, may forget Him, may reach a state when He will be unto them unknown God." This is true of the Chinese.

an

Now, it is a fact, and it is one of those facts which are sus tained by history and by observation, that without the presence