"

world lieth in wickedness" (1 John v. 19); that "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (Rom. viii. 22); and 'evil men and seducers wax worse and worse (2 Tim. iii. 13); and not a few of the lost children of Adam, sons of Belial, are so daring as to boast, or at least to profess the hope, that this state of riot and misrule shall last for ever. But God's 'ways" are not as man's "ways." The beloved disciple tells us that a glorious reversion is still in future: "I saw," says he, "the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years" (Rev. xx. 4). Again, rampant wickedness, even after the millennium, is yet for a season to break forth; a war of opinion, -all conflicting heresies and immoralities are to burst up again; and Satan being let loose out of his prison, is to go out to deceive the nations that are in the four quarters of the earth; and, hoping for a final and decisive victory, he is to muster

Gog and Magog together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. The camp of the saints and the beloved city are to be compassed about. But the "ways" of God are different from the "ways" of men. There is One

who is higher than the highest

(Eccles. v. 8).

He beholdeth all from his holy habitation. Fire shall come down from God out of heaven, and shall devour the army of the aliens; and the devil that deceived them shall be cast into the lake of

fire (Rev. xx. 7-10). Once more: Men go on in this world as if there were no death, no judgment, and, having cast off all fear of God, live here as if this world and they in it were to last here for ever. But God's "ways" are not as man's "ways." "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Eccles. xii. 14). “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts xvii. 31). For "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the

night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be, in all holy conversation and godliness?" (2 Peter iii. 10, 11.) In the words of the prophet, "Let the wicked," therefore, "forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD” (Isa. lv. 7, 8). Amen.

X.

THE THOUGHTS OF THE LORD ARE INFINITELY ABOVE

THOSE OF MAN.

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."-ISA. LV. 9, second clause.

THE Providence of God is the expansion of his eternal decrees; the events of life are but the unfolding of "the counsel of peace” (Zech. vi. 13). God's providence and eternal purpose are both a great deep. Whilst, on the one hand, "the works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein" (Ps. cxi. 2); and whilst, "because men regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up" (Ps. xxviii. 5); yet, on the other hand, it is to be distinctly borne in mind that the written Word, not the events of providence, is the rule of life; and we are not to

seek to be wise above that which is written. Whilst, again, it is right and proper that we should search the Scriptures, for in them we think that we have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Christ (John v. 39); yet, on the other hand, there is often a spirit of irreverent curiosity in man, by which he “intrudes into those things which he hath not seen" (Col. ii. 18), and goes beyond the bounds of legitimate inquiry. But it is ever to be impressed upon our hearts that "secret things belong unto the LORD our God; but those which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. xxix. 29); and, in the very passage now before us, when the LORD says, "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts," the very design of the wonderful contrast between God's ways. and man's ways, and between God's thoughts and man's thoughts, is to commend the "mercy" and the abundant" pardon" (ver. 7), revealed by God in the written Word to every penitent sinner, to every man whatever, "wicked" and "unrighteous"