Vers, 3-5.-The sign of the storm-gorl, (comp. Exod. xix.; xx. ; Ha b. iii.; Heb. xii. 18-21; see also Ps. lxxvii. 17, 18). There is here an evident reference to an Eastern thunderstorm. Lightning and thunder, among all superstitious peoples, are regarded as special manifestations of the Deity. To us storms are but nature-forces, having their intensity, and their comings and goings, according to ordinary nature-laws. But poetry can now do, better than superstition, what saperstition has done in all ages and in all lands. We inquire what the" storm-sign" tells concerning God. The one common feeling in tempest is the sense of the presence of an august and awful force that is uncontrollable by man, but controllable by God. In addition to this it may be said that the storm-witness for God is universal; it is rendered in every land and in every age. Point out that in Jewish history storms are directly associated with the destruction of God's foes, and the deliverance of God's people, as in the case of Sisera.. See also the revelation of God to Elijah, at Horeb, in the wild storm and the still small voice, The storm-voice says concerning God- I. HE HAS AUGUST FORCES AT COMMAND. Nature-forces are sublime in themselves, but they represent moral and spiritual forces far more sublime. II. HIS FORCES ABE ALTOGETHER OUT OF MAN'S LIMITATION. Tempest makes us feel this. All the combined powers of all humanity could not stop a flash of lightning or silence a peal of thunder. What makes the storm so trying to us is the sense it brings of our utter helplessness. But that lesson man needs to learn in a thousand ways, and over and over again, III. Hrs FORCES MAY BE USED IN MISSIONS OF JUDGMENT. The lightning strikes some. The storm may damage much. And though we may not say in a particular case the lightniug-stroke is a particular judgment on the individual, we do properly get the impression of God's power to carry out the Divine threatening. IV. HIS FORCES, HOWEVER USED, HELP UB FULLY TO REALIZE HIMSELF. There is constant danger of men's being satisfied with one-siderl, views of God. Christianity exalts his loue; therefore it is needful to qualify our view of God by the nature- teachings and the older revelations.-R. T.
Ver. 7.-Men's own gorl,s. The figures which men worshipped in the olden time were either shaped of wood or molten metal; but in either case they were hand- carved or hand-graven, finished off by man's skill; and to set prominently the fact of man's share in their making, they are called "graven" images. It does not matter what form a man's god may take-whether it be a creation of his hand or of his imagination; the thing that makes it an idol, a vanity, an altogether unworthy thing, is that it is his. Man is a dependent creature. He did not make himself; he bas a Maker. He does not want a God ; he has e. God. Whatever a man makes is less than the man. The god e. man makes must be e.n inferior being to himself; and so cannot be really his God. I. THE INFLUENCES ON MEN OF WORSHIPPING THEIR OWN GODS. .As they have no standard beyond themselves, there is no hope of their rising higher in intellectual or moral attainments. And men make their gods to represent what they like-their pleasures. So their gods a.re always actually lower than their best selves, and the worship of them must debase and degrade them. This is abundantly illustrated by the i=orality of all heathenism, both formal and intellectual. II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF MEN'S WORSHIPPING TREIB OWN GODS. They must come into a "confounding." Life brings round the stro.in-times when the helplessness of idols is revealed. Illustrate by the helplessness of the Baal-priests in the great testing- day of Oarmel. Intellectual idols, in which men boast themselves now, can provide no cheer for sorrow, no light for death, l'BALMB,-II, a 338 THE BOOK OF l'SA.LMS. [1•s, xcvn. 1-12.
III. 'l'HE INFLUENCES ON MEN OF WORSHIPPING TIIE ONE Gon. 'l'hey have the lnspirntion of Rn ab8olute standRrd. They can always see in God what they ought to be, whnt they might be, nnd what they should strive to be. They can always find in God something beyond them, something that they are not. High thonghls of God draw us on to noblP attainments. IV. THE CONSEQUENCES OF MEN'S WORSHlPPING THE ONE Gon. They are never "confounded." 'l'hey do receive Divine help. They are lifted above all fear of nature- forces or of human forces that may be arrayed against them.-It. 'l'.