hearts of His children. It is the power that makes for union which will never cease to work till He has reconciled together in one all things unto Himself.

If I am told, as an atheist or agnostic would doubtless tell me, that I have taken a very partial view of the universe, that I have left out of view all the strife that disfigures it, that there is never a day without war in some part of the world, that all through Christian Europe nations stand armed to the teeth ready to fly at each other's throats, that society is torn in pieces by the animosities and jealousies of rival interests, and that Nature, red in tooth and claw, with ravin shrieks against my creed, the reply is simple. The world is yet in the making, and humanity is passing through the quarrels of its childhood. And if the atheist, pointing to such scenes as these, asks Where is your God, your power that makes for union? I answer, there, in that very horror that now fills you as you gaze on these manifestations of strife and discord, making you feel that such things ought not to be and must not be. Why are you horrified? You personally are not injured -What does it all matter? There in your own breast is the very power you deny, impelling you to take part in His work and make wars to cease from the earth. That horror of yours witnesses that God is, and that God is Love.

I need hardly say, in closing, that for the most illuminating illustration and exemplification of all that I have been saying, we must look to the heart that was pierced on Calvary. We get the highest conception of love as the power that makes for union in the love of Christ which led him to identify

himself with the whole race, taking their sins and sorrows upon himself, and sharing with them his divine sonship; a love so extensive as to embrace all mankind; a love so intense as to make him absolutely one with us; a love so attractive on earth that "the publicans and sinners drew near for to hear him; "a love so potent in heaven that he, being lifted up from the earth, is drawing all men to him.

That is the final aim of divine love and the fulfilment of Christ's own prayer-" that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in us, I in them and Thou in me: that they may be one even as we are one."

Herein perceive we the Love-God manifest in the flesh-God with us.

IV

LACK OF KNOWLEDGE A PEOPLE'S RUIN

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."Hos. iv. 6.

66

'My people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge.”—ISA. v. 13.

THE greatest thing in the world is love, but for lack of knowledge love often blunders sadly. No doubt Paul places love above knowledge. "Love never faileth, but whether there be tongues, they shall fail; whether there be prophecies, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away." And yet if we inquire exactly what Paul meant by knowledge vanishing away (or being

done away," as it is in the R. V.), we see it can only mean that it is superseded by higher knowledge. The knowledge of one generation vanishes before the superior knowledge of the next. The librarian of a certain university where Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform, once lectured, asked Sir James's nephew, who had succeeded to his uncle's chair, what he should do with some treatises by Sir James and others on chloroform and the use of anesthetics. The reply was, "Turn out every work on that subject that is more than ten years old." Thus knowledge is done away, but only by the fuller knowledge which has superseded it. The

knowledge we gain in this world will vanish in the next, only because it will be lost in a fuller knowledge. Here we know in part there we shall know even as also we are known. It does not follow that

present knowledge is valueless. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," says the proverb. Granted; but the danger is not in the knowledge, but in the littleness thereof-or, to speak more exactly, the danger arises from not knowing that it is little. It is when little knowledge is used as if it were much knowledge that mischief accrues. The only remedy for the danger that comes of little knowledge is more knowledge if only sufficient to make the possessor know how little he knows.

"Knowledge is the bread of life," says Hosea; "for lack of it the people perish.' "Knowledge is the safeguard of freedom," says Isaiah; "for lack of it my people are gone into captivity."

But they were speaking of religious knowledge, someone may observe. Then permit me to ask, "What do you mean by religious knowledge? Is it essentially different-can it be obtained apart from other knowledge? Do you say it is knowledge of the Bible? How can there be any complete knowledge of the Bible without the aid of other kinds of knowledge? The Bible requires for its right interpretation, not only spiritual insight, but a knowledge of language, history, geography, a knowledge of oriental life and a knowledge of literature; for only by some knowledge of literature and the experience thence gained of different modes of thought and different ways of expression, will the right meaning be given to the words of Holy Writ.

D

Or do you say that religious knowledge is the knowledge of God? Then I say that includes all knowledge of every kind. For since all things are from God and bear the impress of His mind, there is nothing in the universe or in the history of mankind that does not or may not contribute to our knowledge of God; and the knowledge of God that is obtained through one channel only is certain to be defective and misleading.

But apart from this I might ask what warrant is there that our two prophets were speaking specially of religious knowledge, so-called? They put no such limitations on their words; and judging from the context I should rather say that it was moral understanding that was uppermost in their minds; and here again moral understanding is something to which all kinds of knowledge contribute. It is in part, no doubt, intuition. I do not question the existence of a moral sense in man, by which he recognizes the relative worth of the various motives that actuate him; but the application of that moral sense to particular actions must be under the guidance of wide and accurate information, or its declarations will be at fault.

I take knowledge, then, as a term unlimited in our text and proceed to speak of its importance to a people's welfare, and the lack of it as leading to bondage and destruction. First let me dwell for a few moments on its importance.

I. In securing their material advantage. This will generally be admitted. For lack of knowledge people are often destroyed, literally, physically. Every year thousands of people perish through lack