I. ATHEISM. "No God." This implies:

1. Denial of God's existence This is folly. The assertion proves nothing. Negatives are not arguments. Besides, there may be a God, though you, the denier, have not found him. You have not yet explored the universe.

2. Denial of God's moral government of the world. "No God!" if so, then there is nothing but chance. There can be no law without a lawgiver, no order without a controlling mind. "No God!" then we are free to do our own pleasure. "Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die."

3. Denial of God's grace in the redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ. "No God]" then the Bible is a fable, heaven and hell are dreams, the benefits of the gospel are a delusion, faith in Christ and the resurrection is a mockery and a lie.

II. GODLINESS. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God;" but the wise man says that there is a God, and that "he is the Rewarder of all who diligently seek him." Godliness implies:

1. Faith in God as revealed in Christ Jesus. Here is the satisfaction of the soul.

2. Life ruled by the law of Christ, which is holy, just, and good. Here is the true ideal, and the Spirit, by the gospel, shows how it may be realized.

3. Prayer and holy endeavour to the end. We are not left to struggle alone, but have the Word to guide us, the promises to cheer us, the love of Christ to inspire us, that we may go from strength to strength, and that when called hence we may enter upon the blessed and perfect life beyond this world. Thus the godly witness for God. They testify to his being, for in him they live; to his character, for their aim is to be holy as he is holy; to his will and government, for they strive to do justly as he does justly, and to be merciful as he is merciful, who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." All the good in themselves, in society, in the world, is from God. What has been is in agreement with what is now. The progress of all things is towards a perfect end. The cross, which overthrew paganism, and triumphed over the eagles of Rome, is destined to win greater and vet greater victories. Yet a little while, and the great voices of heaven shall cry, "The kingdoms of this world arc become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15). - W.F.

Every one must have heard of borrowing trouble. It is generally done by persons who have little real trouble of their own. Now, this habit of making oneself uneasy about little or nothing, of groping among dark and painful subjects, which might have been avoided, is, in part, constitutional; it may rise from the physical habit, or from temporary physical causes: and in that case the preacher has nothing to say about it in his official relation to the self-tormentor. But there are many instances in which the thing is not constitutional, or at least only so in part; cases in which it is clearly one's own fault that he vexes himself in the fashion which we have described, and must be held responsible, in great measure, for his own discomfort. Let us limit ourselves, now, to one special topic under the general head, and think of the case of those who borrow trouble by permitting themselves to be the victims of their fears. Of such persons the number is, unfortunately, great, and as for the causes of their alarm and anxiety, their name is Legion. What deserves special attention is this: that in a large number of cases there is really no ground at all for the anxieties into which they fall; and that many have found, after giving themselves no end of distress, that they had been afraid where no fear was; that the distress was the result of their imagination; that the evils they dreaded never came to pass; that, while they were shivering and shaking, all was going forward welt. This is the special case to which your attention is called; the very case described by the psalmist; and it may be useful to consider wherein lies the sinfulness of this thing, and by what means the fault may be cured. I spoke of this habit as a sin. There is a great difference in the quality and degree of sins; some are graver than others, some are positive and some negative. This is a sin of thoughtlessness and carelessness; the sin of one who overlooks what he might have observed, and ought, by all means, to have heeded, When there is real danger, a certain kind of fear is in order: not to have it would be foolhardiness; but as to the habit of being always nervously apprehensive, and never passing a day without dreading-one knows not exactly what, or dreading what we have no sound reason for judging to be imminent; this certainly shows a culpable forgetfulness of certain truths which form the basis of a peaceful life. Such an exhibition of weakness is what God's servants ought never to make: if they suffer in that fashion, they put themselves in the place of the unjust. From panic and foolish dismay, their faith, their love, their trust, should save them; and when it is not so, we infer that in faith, love, and trust they must be far below the mark. Let us proceed to point out a cure for the habit thus hastily analyzed. First, then, we say to the timid, Keep God in mind. What should you fear, if you know that He is overhead? And next turn your minds steadily away from dark views of things. As Charles Kingsley puts it, "Never begin to look darkly at a subject, without checking yourself and saying, Is there net a bright side to this? Has not God promised the bright side to me? Is not my happiness in my own power? Do not I know that I am ruining my mind, and endangering the happiness of those dear to me by looking at the wrong side? There are two ways of looking at every occurrence — a bright and a dark side. Two modes of action — which is most worthy of a rational being, a Christian, and a friend? It is absurd as a rational being H torture oneself unnecessarily. It is inconsistent in a Christian to see God's wrath, rather than His mercy, in everything." And, next, there is a remedy against unreal fears, which, with any intelligent man or woman, ought H have great force. It lies in considering how, in real trouble, real, positive, and terrible distress, God in His providence has brought good out of evil. Even real disasters end in blessing, and light comes gloriously out of darkness. What then of your fears? There may be no foundation for them whatever, and in that case you ought to be ashamed of them. But even grant the worst, and suppose that they may be realized: what then? Cannot the same power turn them to good? May clot what you dread become to you the very thing you need to complete your development? Either way, fear not. If your fears are vain, it is mere self-torment; if there be ground for them, trust the Lord in this thing, and you may yet rejoice that the evil did not fail to come. In conclusion: if any ask how to do what is necessary to render himself independent of idle fears, or how to learn to bear the real troubles of this world, our answer must be, that the way is — first, to pray; and, secondly, to practise. Ask for the grace that you need; ask it day by day; such prayers cannot be vain. And, again, practise, by forcing your mind off from morbid, gloomy thoughts, by denying it the luxury of sentimental revelry, by insisting that it shall think of God's love and goodness, by telling it that it shall look out of the windows into the sunlight, and not inside into the gloom and shadow. And as life passes on, you will find comfort and courage in your soul, where timidity and distress used to be, and, with the ending of this world, there shall come a large experience such as many of us must have had in our own little lives.

(Morgan Dix, D. D.)