began, too, to pray, not to God, but to certain saints in heaven, to protect them against bodily ills.

One saint could cure one disease, and one another; one saint protected the cattle, another kept off thunder, and so forth-I will not tell you more, lest I should tempt you to smile in this holy place; and tempt you, too, to look down on your forefathers, who (though they made these mistakes) were just as honest and virtuous men as we.

And even lately, up to this very time, there are those who have not full faith in God; though they be good and pious persons, and good Protestants too, who would shrink with horror from worshipping saints, or any being save God alone. But they are apt to shut their eyes to the beauty and order of God's world, and to the glory of God set forth therein, and to excuse themselves by quoting unfairly texts of Scripture. They say that this world is all out of joint; corrupt, and cursed for Adam's sin yet, where it is out of joint, and where it is corrupt, they cannot show. And, as for its

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being cursed for Adam's sin, that is a dream which is contradicted by Holy Scripture itself. For see. We read in Genesis iii. 17, Cursed is 'the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt ' thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns ' also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.'

Now, that the ground does not now bring forth thorns and thistles to us, we know. For it brings forth whatsoever fair flower, or useful herb, we plant therein, according to the laws of nature, which are the laws of God. Neither do men eat thereof in sorrow; but, as Solomon says, 'eat their bread in joyfulness of heart.' And so did they in the Psalmists' days; who never speak of the tillage of the land without some expression of faith and confidence, and thankfulness to that God, who crowns the year with his goodness, and his clouds drop fatness; while the hills rejoice on every side, and the valleys stand so thick with corn, that they laugh and sing-of faith, I say, and gratitude toward that God who brings forth the grass for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men; who brings food out of the earth, and wine to make

glad the heart of man, and oil to give him a cheerful countenance, and bread to strengthen man's heart. Those well-known words are in the 104th Psalm; and I ask any reasonable person to read that Psalm through-the Psalm which contains the Jewish natural theology, the Jews' view of this world, and of God's will and dealings with it-and then say, could a man have written it who thought that there was any curse upon this earth on account of man's sin?

But more. The Book of Genesis says that there is none; for, after it has said in the third chapter, 'Cursed is the ground for thy sake,' it says again in the eighth chapter, verse 21, 'And

the Lord said in his heart, I will not again

curse the ground for man's sake. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, shall not cease.'

Can any words be plainer? Whatever the curse in Adam's days may have been, does not the Book of Genesis represent it as being formally abrogated and taken away in the days of Noah, that the regular course of nature,

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fruitful and beneficent, might endure thenceforth?

Accordingly we hear no more in the Bible anywhere of this same cause. We hear instead the very opposite; for one says, in the 119th Psalm, speaking indeed of God, 'O

Lord, thy word endureth for ever in heaven.

Thy truth also remaineth from one generation 'to another. Thou hast laid the foundation of 'the earth, and it abideth. They continue this

day according to thine ordinance: for all 'things serve thee.' And so in the 148th Psalm, another speaks by the Spirit of God: 'Let all things praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created.

He hath also established them for ever and 6 ever: he hath given them a law which shall not be broken.'

Yes, my friends, God's law shall not be broken, and it is not broken. And that faith, that the laws which govern the whole material universe, cannot be broken, will be to us faith full of hope, and joy, and confidence, if we will remember, with the Psalmist, that they

are the laws of the living God, and of the good God.

They are the laws of the living God: not the laws of nature, or fate, or necessity—all three words which mean little or nothing-but of a living God in whom we live, and move, and have our being; whose word--the creating, organizing, inspiring word-runneth very swiftly, making all things to obey God, and not themselves.

And they are the laws of a good God; of a moral God; of a generous, loving, just, and merciful God, who, as the Psalmist reminds us (and that is the reason of his confidence and his joy), while he telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, condescends at the same time to heal those who are broken in heart; of a God who, while he giveth fodder to the cattle, and feedeth the young ravens who call on him, at the same time careth for those who fear him, and put their trust in his mercy; of a God who, while his power is great and his wisdom infinite, at the same time sets up the meek, and brings the ungodly down to the