between Jehovah, the God of revelation, and all the gods which men have of them- selves created. Man always imagines his supreme God as quiescent, impassive, eternally still. Revelation presents to us God as ceaselessly active, never still, every- where working. All creation, involving sustenance, involves the constant energy and enterprise of God. Brahma is the infinitely silent one. The figures of a Buddha. embody the perfection of listlessness and indifference. The Lord Jesus Christ gave us our primal and essential thought of God when he ea.id, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." I. MAN IS SURROUNDED WITH THE ACTIVITIES OF B VIL. More than surrounded, for there is the more serious activity of evil within him. What has to be ta.ken into full account is that evil is a ceaselessly and energetically active force. That truth is embodied for us in the description of evil as "a. roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour." It is on account of that activity that we are bidden to "watch." When men sleep, the enemy is active, and goes sowing tares in their fields. One thing often surprises men. Temptation takes them at unawares; sometimes in their times of conscious strength, sometimes when they are unconscious of their weak- ness. Morning, uoon, and night we have to take account of ever-active evil. II. MAN NEEDS THE ASSURANCE OF THE SUPERIOR ACTIVITY OF Goo. Illustrate by the way in which this need was felt by Persians, and met by Zoroaster, who taught the superior activity of Ormuzd over Ahriman-a superior activity which assured a continuous as well as a final triumph. This psalm brings on us an answering impres- sion of the activity of our good God. And it is an activity (1) in the sphere of the things that affect man, and (2) in man himself. For it is the chief charm of the activity of God that we may think of it as the sanctifying activity of the Holy Spirit, who" dwelleth with us and in us."-R. T. Ver. 9.-2ypes of the helpless. The stranger, the widow, and the orphan are con- stantly presented in the Law as objects of compassion and beneficence. "God obtains right for the oppressed, gives bread to the hungry, and consequently proves himself to be the Succourer of those who suffer wrong without doing wrong, and the Provider for those who look for their daily bread from his gracious hand." I. THE ORPHAN IS THE COMMON TYPE OF THE HELPLESS IN ALL LANDS. Before powers of self-help are developed, he is deprived of both the fathor who earns for him, and the mother who cares for him. The God of the helpless is at once revealed when he is called the "Father of the fatherless,'' and when it is said, "In thee the fatherless findeth mercy." II. FoB THE WIDOW AB A TYPE OF THE HELPLESS, IT IS NECESSARY TO THINK OF THB wmows OF EASTERN LANDS, Illustrations may be taken from India. There the wido1v ls not allowed to marry again; she is unable to work for her living, and would not be permitted to do so if she could; and, worse than all, at home she is only tolerated, for her husband's death is regarded as a judgment on some sin of hers. It is of the tenderest significance that God is called the" Judge of the widow," and that he is represented as saying, "Let the widows trust in me," Ill. THE STRANGER IS AN EASTERN TYPE OB' HELPLESSNESS, Modern civilization bee destroyed personal concern for the welfare of strangers. It has provided its hotels and institutions, and shifted on to public bodies its individual concern. But in the East the stranger arriving at any place was freely offered hospitality; every home was open to him. He was recognized as temporarily helpless, because for the time away from home and friends. Think, then, how the good man is influenced by these three types or helplessness. And from the good man rise to think of God as moved by the pitiful sight of the wirlow, the hopeless outlooking of the orphan, and the anxious inquiriug of the desolate stranger. They, and all helpless ones, may be sure or two things: 1. God will help them to help themselves. 2. God will help them when they cannot help themselves. "Friend of the friendless and the faint."-R. T.
Ver. 9.-Divin" judgment in the confwion of plans. "Turneth upside down," or "bends aside." "The Diviu providence, when the wicked man has laid out his plans, and looks as it were along a pla.in and level road of prosperity, bond~ the 308 THE BOOK OF H:,ALMS. ~I'S, CXL\'II, 1-20,