September 11

Psalm xiv. — 1. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt; they have done abominable works; there is none that doeth good.

2. The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.

3. They are all gone aside; they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good; no, not one.

4. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord.

5. There were they in great fear; for God is in the generation of the righteous.

6. Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.

7. Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.

"Inveterate blindness alone," says Tholuck, "can deny the existence of God, when nature and history utter their myriad of voices to the contrary." The Bible always ascribes atheism to blindness of heart, as distinguished from a lack either of understanding or of knowledge. The religion of the Bible is based upon the truths that nature and conscience teach us concerning God and duty. Some of the books of the Bible, especially Job, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, and certain letters and discourses of Paul, exhibit a constant observation of the phenomena of Nature, as these illustrate the power and wisdom of Jehovah. And the more careful and minute such observation is rendered by the helps of modern science, the more this reveals of the complexity of laws, the interchange of forces, the remoteness and the subtileness of causes, so much the more emphatically does Nature point to a supreme creating and ordering Intelligence.

APPROPRIATE HYMNS.]

O God! thou art great, and greatly to be feared. Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory. We have sinned against heaven and in thy sight: we are no more worthy to be called thy children. But do thou for Jesus' sake, thine own dear Son, have mercy upon us miserable offenders.

Behold, O God our shield! look upon the face of thine Anointed. When troubles come, when billows of sorrow roll over us, when thy judgments are abroad in the earth, may we find refuge in the ark of his salvation! May we look forward to our rest! May our citizenship be in heaven, and we of the company of thy saints who declare plainly that they seek a better country! May we be like Christ now, remembering that we are soon to be with him, and that forever! May we glorify him in the midst of an evil and gainsaying world! and, whatever the sphere in which thy providence has placed us, may we use our time and talents and opportunities for thee!

Psalm xxxvii. — 32. The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him.

33. The Lord will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.

34. Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it.

35. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay-tree.

36. Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.

37. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.

38. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off.

39. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble.

40. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them: he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.

Certain books of the Bible also — especially the books of Samuel and the Kings, the prophecies of Isaiah, and the epistles of Paul — take note of the history of the world as illustrating a governing and judicial Providence; and no just philosophy of history can be written which leaves out of account moral causes working toward the same moral end. Both David and Paul assert that the love of sin blinds the hearts of men to the religious teachings of nature and history, and so makes them presumptuous in sinning. "The Psalmist inquires for the reason why the great mass of mankind are not deterred from the commission of sin by legal restraints or humane considerations. He accounts for it by the fact that they are devoid of faith in the living God, who manifests himself by his judgments." But, in Ps. xxxvii., he shows how certain it is that the Lord will punish evil-doers, and deliver his saints.

Prayer.

[Nos. 140, 152, 160.

We look to thee, O Lord! this day, for daily bread. All thy creatures wait upon thee. That thou givest them they gather. Thou openest thine hand; they are filled with good. Oh! fill us this day with good things. [Bless every member of this family, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and all our kindred: may each, in the several relations of life, fulfil all the offices of love, doing good to one another as thou givest opportunity!]

We beseech thee to bless thy Church. Deliver any of thy people who are suffering persecution; and break, O Lord! the rod of the oppressor. May thy children ever trust in thee, and be faithful to thy cause! and may thy works of power and glory in and through thy Church lead all nations to confess thy name! Prosper the labors of industry; bless the earth with abundant harvests; bless our land with health, peace, plenty, righteousness; and save the world which thy mercy has spared, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.