God depart from us; and what can the Almighty do for them?" Yet he saw them! The "dark cloud was no shelter from his judgments. They learned that he was not confined to "the circuit of heaven," when his cataracts cut them down, and the fountains of the great deep overthrew their strong foundations.

You too may very consistently deny a particular providence, and scout the ideas of danger and of dependence, if you suppose that God only "walketh in the circuit of heaven," and infer that he cannot "judge through the dark cloud." If God be such a being, the doctrine of a particular providence would indeed rather seem to be irreconcileable with his station. To inspect every thing, to control every thing, would truly be an occupation rather laborious than dignified. But what have these dreams to do with him of whom we speak, and whose providence we "assert?" Think of his omnipresence! "heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him.", Think of the beautiful idea of the Apostle Paul! God is the great reality, the only independent existence. The same power that produced continues to uphold all other things in existence; in him they have life, if living creatures; in him they move; in him they have their being. Could any operation in nature, then proceed without his agency? could any law of creation be permanent unless his hand permanently impressed it? The universality of God's providence therefore follows necessarily from the fact that creation has no independent existence or activity.

But another view of this subject may be taken. If God be omnipresent; if all magnitudes, all distances, all that marks proportion among the creatures of his hand, be annihilated before him, then it is folly to talk of his control

ing suns and systems, while he leaves sparks and atoms to be ruled by accident. He doubtless discerns proportions, even more accurately than you can; but he is not like you affected by them. That atom moves in the bosom of his immensity, and a world can do no more. With him it is the same to wield an atom or the universe.

And when you take into the account that no multiplicity distracts his attention or divides his thought, you may well conclude that every thing he formed, and still upholds by his omnipotence, he will likewise direct to the end for which he made it.

Why then should you doubt the truth-I know you can feel the tenderness of that delightful assurance given us by the Saviour? God fosters every blade of grass; God sheds its beauty over every flower of the field; God hears the young ravens when they cry to him for food; God sympathises with the sparrow when it falls to the ground; God takes notice when one of your hairs is loosened from its seat. Creation's former! Creation's fosterer! Creation's dearest friend! He made it, and he loves it. He made it, and he fosters it. He made it a necessary dependent on himself, and he never can forget its dependent situation. A world floats yonder among the stars of God: its crowded population cannot guide it in its track, nor ward off the shock of any whirling comet. Dependent creatures, you are not left defenceless. God is present with you to protect your habitation. He made it, and he made those comets that endanger it. On them too he rides; he will keep them in their path; "for that his arm is strong not one of them shall fail."-And yonder bird that floats upon the bosom of the air: that is his creature too, and he its whole dependence. Simple little thing, it knows not its

benefactor; but it is the thing he made, it is not beneath his care; and though it be but a sparrow, when its little heart begins to throb, when its wing begins to fail, that sparrow's father will not be regardless. He, perhaps, of all the universe, is its only friend. Carry then this lesson home with you: You only degrade the Deity, when you erect yourself into a standard by which to try the scriptural account of his attributes and ways. Recollect that if his agency lies concealed behind an host of second causes, it only proves that he does no violence to the constitutions he has established. But he marshals those causes; his supreme intelligence points the laws of nature to the fulfilment of his will. Recollect too, that if many things which take place seem irreconcileable with this idea of the divine appointment, there is good reason why it should be So. It is a world of sin and rebellion in which you live, and all creation shares in the degradation and punishment of him who received the appointment of creation's Lord. Account for them as you will, the melancholy facts exist. How then are they irreconcileable with a belief in providence!

III. Finally, let the omnipresence of the Deity be regarded as the grand consideration for enforcing all the duties of morality and religion. How great, how wonderful is God! "the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot com tain him." What an atom, what a shadow is each one of you! What a feeble thing this universe, which exists only in God! He upholds it in being: were he to withdraw that power which props existence, in an instant all would disappear; and God-God alone, God the great reality, would remain. Mortals! you whose breath is in his hand! you whose functions and whose very being would vanish

like a dream, were his hand to let you go! are you not astonished, are you not confounded at the folly and wickedness of your own hearts? God upholds you, and you overlook your dependence on him! In him, only in him, you have life and breath and being; and your whole conduct shews how little you venerate his character, or regard your obligations to him! Did we say you neglect God? Did we say you do not venerate him? Why that were innocence, that were glory, compared with what the best of you have done! It is he who still keeps up the little lamp of your intelligence: and how often have you insulted him by trimming that feeble thing, and then opposing it to the blaze of heaven's own light; as if your lamp could quench the lustre of the ray divine, and persuade your purblind fellows that you were quite sufficient to give the nations day! How often have you abused, nay, prostituted your reason, in attempting to make void the messages of his mercy and the holiness of his law, made known for your salvation!-You "live and move" in him, and the whole energies of your nature, which he feeds from his own life, you have wantonly and wickedly and remorsely put forth against the throne and monarchy of God, while you did the very thing which he prohibits your attempting, and did it before his face! It is because he never leaves you, that you can stretch forth your hands, that you can use your feet; and while God was in the act of maintaining life and motion, your hands have compassed wickedness, and your feet ran swiftly in the way of transgression. All creation likewise lives in him; the beauty that decks and the plenty and variety that bless creation, are upheld by him. Only think how often you have perverted these! Regardless of the usea to which he designates them, un

thankful for the privilege of being permitted to taste them, you wrenched them, as it were, from the hand of the Almighty, and employed them in such ways as depraved your own appetites, added fuel to your passions, and rendered you more resolute in irreligion and impiety. Is not this the history of every transgressor here? Yes, and it is the history of every apostate, be they men or devils, the universe abroad. In God all live and move. Every thing that they prostitute as incentives to impiety is upheld by him, and while he is thus sustaining them in life and breath and being, they strike like vipers at the hand that holds them!! Take note then, if you can, of the heights and depths of sin! Say if it be a small thing to be a rebel against your maker: to outrage the power that produced and sustains those faculties which you pervert and those blessings which you abuse. See the omnipresent God! think how you are living in him, at the very moment when you disboey him! and then, when the conviction of your enormities flashes on your conscience, let yours be the language of the humble Job: "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

Mortals! we have another charge to set in array against you! How often have we heard it suggested by some of do not like to be addressed as if it were preyou that you sumed possible to force or frighten you into measures for securing your salvation. You are willing to be allured and persuaded in this matter; but your spirits revolt at the idea of compulsion. You are willing! Is this a fact? And how often have you listened to the salutations of Messiah's peace, soft and tender as the lutes of seraphim? and in the sight of the omnipresent God, how stands