is to be traced, wherever there is a desire to be in any degree independent of God for the sources of happiness. And therefore, may it not almost be said, that, “as soon as they are born men thus go astray;" even in the discontent of the wayward child that hasteth to be freed from the restraints of a father's home, we see proof of a proud and perverse heart, yea, a direct step in the very way of atheism!

Parents! ye that are blessed with the "heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord,” let the subject stir up in you a remembrance of danger and of duty. Have you an infant of days, the desire of your eyes, in the sight of whose loveliness the cares and anxieties of the world without are hushed and forgotten, for whom you fervently bless the heavenly Giver, for whose best interests you make your daily prayer?— Even such a one as your own loved one, beautiful as the day, fostered with all a mother's care and affection, was once the outcast atheist ! While contemplating his fearful course and end, you will mourn and weep for that lost child, for that afflicted mother; and your hearts will swell with an increasing tide of love towards your own little ones as yet unpractised in the sinner's ways; yet, rejoice with trembling: and by all the affection you bear them, see that you neglect them not. Most mercifully are your children endeared to you by the strongest and loveliest of nature's bonds: let these earthly ties be sanctified, and let your interest for them extend beyond the narrow limits of their mortal course. O let the fulfilment of the most important of parental duties advance hand in hand with

these tender affections, lest through parental neglect it come to pass, that the wilful child grow up to be the hardened rebel against reason and against God!

But we must return to our text, for we have to consider it in another light. "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God:" is there a man that holds such an opinion, that makes such an assertion, that says, "there is no God?" He that thus thinks and speaks is declared to be a fool: a man, that is, devoid of knowledge and understanding. And his folly I shall presently go on to make manifest to you.

But it may be useful to enquire into some of the previous circumstances of the atheist's life and conversation. What were the causes which brought him, finally, to this condition ? The power of God's wrath is stirred up against him, and to look upon him, he is as one that is tormented before the time: yet he is a man like any one of us; how came he to be reduced to his present awful state?

In proceeding to mark the rise and course of atheism, it becomes a matter of thankfulness that in our experience we have not a living example for our description and therefore not to speak upon mere conjecture, it will suffice perhaps to put you in remembrance of that which is written by the Apostle Paul and the prophet Isaiah concerning those idolaters, who having made shipwreck of their faith and obedience, " changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator;" for though the particular steps as well as the final result herein described must of necessity differ from those which are under our consideration, even as the idolater differs

from the atheist; yet the processes of the human mind and the dealings and judgments of God are generally similar in both cases.

Born into this world, then, a rational creature of that great Being whose attribute of kindness and goodwill to man is manifested over the whole earth, God was not unmindful of him, that He should forsake the work of His own hands, or leave him without sufficient means for the attainment of that understanding of the Deity to which he might arrive. Most certainly his Maker never left himself without witness that He was God. For, writes the Apostle Paul, "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead." And beyond all the tokens of this truth in the manifold works of creation, there were made express revelations of it from heaven, which holy men spake as they were inspired of God, and whose words were approved by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by them. And by them, laws and commandments holy just and good were given to the world, that men might keep them, and that it might be well with them. But above all things, did reason and revelation combine to show, that worship and honour and adoration were due to the Creator of all, who was declared to be in this respect a very jealous God, keeping mercy for thousands for them that loved Him and kept his commandments, but visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hated Him.

And that he should not fall under the wiles or as

saults of the spirit of evil, the weakness of man was upheld with a sufficiency of divine strength: by warnings, by commandments, by threatenings, by promises, by a sense of duty and even of interest, by the constraining ties of love, and by the never-ceasing voice of conscience, counselling him what was right and wrong, and urging him to choose the good and refuse the evil: by all this armoury of God, he was covered in the hour of temptation, in the day of his trial.

But when, through the evil that was in them, men forsook the true God to fall down and worship the father of lies and to do his will, the Almighty was provoked to punish them: "the wrath of God was revealed from heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness, and because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, therefore they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." And again says St. Paul, "even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a mind void of judgment." That which might be known of God was manifested to them, they were not left in ignorance of Him, for " He had showed Himself unto them :" but when they refused to give Him the honour due to His name, when after having been taught the truth, "they held it in unrighteousness," the fierce anger of God came upon them to the uttermost. So the prophet Isaiah, after showing the folly of idolatry, that it is profitable for nothing, thus affirms, "they see not, nor know, that they may be ashamed;" and again, "they have no knowledge, that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto

a god that cannot save:" and again, "they have not known nor understood." But wherefore? Because, saith he, "He hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand, and none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge and understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire, yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination, shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? He feedeth on ashes, a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand ?"

O! but this is an awful state: a man shut up into his folly, and that folly the root of a soul-destroying sin! Let the wicked leave off while he may from his wickedness, lest God smite him and make him a curse! The atheist is as Lot's wife, a monument of wrath and warning to the disobedient! Disbelievers pretend at first that there is not proof enough of a God, but at last, it is no pretence at all, but a fearful reality, that they cannot see enough. This they pretend, I say, at first, because it is their wish; they are continually offending against His laws, and therefore they will not see that evidence for the existence of a Being whom they fear to meet in judgment. But now are such sinners on the brink of a precipice, and who shall stay them from falling? For they that will not see God, because their deeds are evil, because of the blindness of their heart have their understanding darkened; then, being further alienated from the life of God through the igrance that is in them, their intellectual perception is