of lights (James i. 17); nay, Who is Light itself (1 John i. 5), Himself taking the place of candle and moon and sun in the City of the Foundations (Rev. xxi. 23). Once more: It is true in respect to God's Obscurity. For though God Himself is light, yet there are times when even the very heavens themselves obscure His brightness. There are times when clouds and darkness are round about Him (Psalm xcvii. 2), when He layeth the rafters of His palace in the upper waters, and maketh the clouds His chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind (Psalm civ. 3), and hath His way in the whirlwind, and the clouds are the dust of His feet, and His pavilion round about Him are dark waters and thick clouds of the skies (Nah. i. 3). Yea, there are times when it is the glory of God to conceal a thing (Prov. xxv. 2), and there is a hiding of His power (Hab. iii. 4). Happy the man who when Jehovah thundereth in the heavens, and the Most High shooteth out lightnings, hailstones, and coals of fire (Psalm xviii. 13, 14), and darkness is under His feet, still sees through the thick clouds the opening heavens, and the Glory of God, and Jesus standing in the midst of the Glory (Acts vii. 55, 56). Yea, praise the Lord, ye fire and hail, ye snows and vapors, ye stormy winds, fulfilling His word (Psalm cxlviii. 8). Such are some of the particulars in which the heavenly Expanse is the symbol of Infinite Deity. And all this we hint, whether consciously or not, every time we pronounce those wonderful words, Our Father Who art in heaven (Matt. vi. 9). Heavenly Father: this sums up the meaning of the Sky. Such are some of the lessons of the Heavenly Expanse. In Conclusion. 1. Jesus Christ And now two thoughts in conclusion. the Nexus of Heaven Since God is so very great, how can we ever hope to reach Him? Since His and Earth. throne is so high and lifted up (Is. vi. 1), even above the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, how can we with our poor feet, or even with the wings of aspiration, ever hope to rest in His bosom, or even kiss His shining feet? Behold, then, a condescension as measureless as the Infinitude. Thus saith the high and holy One, Who inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, also with the humble and contrite of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble ones, and to revive the heart of the contrite (Is. lvii. 15). Since we cannot soar to Infinite God, Infinite God stoops to us. Yea, in the Person of the Incarnate Son, He has bowed the heavens and come down. The Immanuel of the manger, His brow of the Heavens, Heavenly, His feet of the earth, earthy, is the blessed meeting-place of the Infinite and the finite; the rapturous trysting-place of Human aspiration and Divine response. Ay, the prophecy of Bethabara beyond Jordan has already been fulfilled. Verily, verily, we have seen heaven opening, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John i. 51). And so in the stooping God of the Stall, and the soaring Man of the Cloud, even in Jesus the Nazarene, the Infinite and the finite are in peace : "And Heaven comes down our souls to greet, 2.-Sursum Corda. Finally, a thought for the future. Every time you go forth under the open sky, be it cerulean, or be it overcast, let it be to you an eternal beckoner upward. God forbid that you should miss its meaning so deeply as to echo the Royal Dane's lament: "This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof وو fretted with golden fire-why, it appears no other thing 'Every inward aspiration is God's angel undefiled, And in every 'O, my Father,' slumbers deep a 'Here, My child.'" -(DSCHELADEDDIN.) In yon measureless, ever-receding dome, you will ever find a limitless, exhilarating arena for all that in you is most noble and stout and true and Godward. Every time, then, that you go forth under heaven's arch, accept the sky as life's real meaning. On its azure, ever-soaring, infinite vault evermore read the sun-emblazoned legend, Excelsior. May the Lord of the skies evermore call the welkin of your soul Heavens! Thus, evermore aspiring, it shall happen that when the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, thou, too, with all His ransomed ones, shall be caught up in clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shalt thou ever be with the Lord (1 Thess. iv. 16, 17). Meantime, evermore sing the Bird Song of the soul : Nearer, my God, to Thee, Nearer to Thee; E'en though it be a cross, That raiseth me, "Or, if on joyful wing, Cleaving the sky, Sun, moon, and stars forgot, Upward I fly, Still all my song shall be, -(MRS. S. F. ADAMS.) Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Um LECTURE VI. GENESIS OF THE LANDS. "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth: and the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and God saw that it was good."-GENESIS i. 9, 10. TRANSLATING this ancient, childlike, pictorial language into that of modern scientific prose, our Archive reads. thus: The Creator outlined the general features of Physical Geography, by causing the lands to emerge from the primeval ocean. I.-Explanation of the Passage. 1.-Panorama of Emergent Lands. First of all, let us attend to the Explanation of the Passage. Reminding you of what was said in the introductory Lecture touching the phenomenal or scenic language of Scripture on such matters, let us now forget modern attainments, and, going back to the dawn of humanity's infancy, stand with the Inspired Seer on his mount of panoramic vision. And an awful vision it is. True, the Breath of God is still moving over the face of the abyss. True, there is still the incandescent light. True, the Expanse of the arching heavens has separated the fluids into massesthe terrestrial and the ethereal. Nevertheless, the globe |