away the defences of the city, and opened an easy and unexpected way for the invading armies. On all finally impenitent men destruction must come as irresistibly as a flood. The destruction, however, of existence, conscience, or moral obligations would be the destruction of all that would make existence worth having. CONCLUSION. The grand question of every man is, How do I stand in relation to God? If I am His friend, His procedure is in my favour, it guards me and blesses me every step. If I am His enemy, His procedure is not in my favour, not because He changes, but because I put myself against Him, and it must be my ruin if I change not. As He proceeds in His beneficent and undeviating march, He showers blessings on the good and miseries on the evil, and this for ever.

No. CCLXI. Sin.

"WHAT DO YE IMAGINE AGAINST THE LORD? HE WILL MAKE AN

UTTER END AFFLICTION SHALL NOT RISE UP THE SECOND TIME. FOR WHILE THEY BE FOLDEN TOGETHER AS THORNS, AND WHILE THEY ARE DRUNKEN AS DRUNKARDS, THEY SHALL BE DEVOURED AS STUBBLE

FULLY DRY."—Nahum i. 9, 10.

THESE words suggest a few thoughts concerning sin.

I. The ESSENCE of sin is suggested: it is HOSTILITY to GOD. It is something directed against the Lord: it is opposition to the laws, purposes, spirit of God. "The carnal mind is at enmity with God; it is not subject to the laws of

God, neither indeed can be." It involves (1) The basest of ingratitude, for to Him we owe everything. (2) The greatest injustice, for He has supreme claims to our devotion and obedience. (3) Impious presumption. Frail worms raising their heads against the Infinite!

II. The SEAT of sin is suggested; it is in the MIND. "What do ye imagine against the Lord ?" Sin is not language, however bad, not actions, however apparently wicked. Words and deeds are no more sin than branches are the sap of the tree. They are the mere effects and expression of sin. Sin is in the mind, in the deep, secret, mute thoughts of the heart. God's legislation extends thought, reaches it in the profoundest abyss. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Christ, in His Sermon on the Mount, taught this. Adultery, robbery, murder, are all perpetrated on the arena of the heart. How necessary the prayer: "Create within us clean hearts, O God."

to

III. The FOLLY of sin is suggested: it is OPPOSITION TO OмNIPOTENCE. "What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up a second time." "How mad is your attempt, O Assyrians, to resist so powerful a God! What can ye do against such an Adversary, successful though ye have been against all other adversaries? Ye imagine ye have to do merely with mortals, and with a weak people, and that so you will gain an easy victory; but you have to encounter God, the Protector of His people."-Faussett.

In opposing Him,—

First: He will completely ruin you. "He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time." The literal meaning of this is, that the overthrow of Sennacherib's host, about to occur, would be so complete that Judah's affliction caused by this invasion would never be repeated. The man who opposes God will be utterly ruined.

Secondly: He will completely ruin you, whatever the kind of resistance you may offer. "For while they are folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." You may be combined like a bundle of thorns, offering resistance; you may have all the daring and temerity of drunkards, albeit you "shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." All this was realized in the destruction of His enemy. Oh the folly of sin! Fighting against God is a mad fight. "What do ye imagine against the Lord" then ? Sinners, submit.

MENT CONCERNING THEE, THAT NO MORE OF THY NAME BE SOWN OUT OF THE HOUSE OF THY GODS WILL I CUT OFF THE GRAVEN IMAGE AND THE MOLTEN IMAGE: I WILL MAKE THY GRAVE; FOR THOU ART VILE.' -Nahum i. 11-14.

THESE words suggest a few thoughts concerning human kings and kingdoms.

SOME

He

I. HUMAN KINGS ARE TIMES TERRIBLY CORRUPT. "There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor." This evidently means Sennacherib, the king of Nineveh. He was one of the great moral monsters of the world. invaded the land of Judah with an immense army, besieged Lachish, and having reduced that city, threatened to invade Jerusalem itself. Hezekiah, dreading his power, sent him an obsequious embassy, and by paying three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold, purchased an inglorious peace. But no sooner had Sennacherib received the money, than, disdaining his engagements, he prosecuted the war with as much vigour as if no treaty had been in existence, sending three of his generals and a powerful army to besiege Jerusalem. Being informed that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, joined by the power of Egypt, was advancing to assist Hezekiah, he marched to meet the approaching enemies, defeated them in a general engagement, ravaged their country, and returned with the spoil to finish the siege of Jerusalem. Hezekiah, in the extremity of his distress, implored the succour of Heaven; and the insolence and blasphemy of Sennacherib drew

upon the Assyrians the vengeance of God. And, in perfect accordance with the prophecy of Isaiah, the sacred historian informs us that the angel of the Lord slew, in one night, one hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian army."

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Such is a brief and very partial sketch of this monster. Alas, he is only a type of the vast majority of men who have found their way to thrones ! They have been in all ages the chief devils of the world. There are kings that have powers ordained of God; but such kings, and those only, are a terror to evil doers and a praise to those that do well." We are commanded to honour the king; but such a king as this Sennacherib, who can honour? A king, to be honoured, must be honour-worthy, he must be just, ruling in the fear of the Lord.

salem, were as complete as the intelligence, the art, and the circumstances of the age could make them. Notwithstanding this, ruin befell them. They should be destroyed,Secondly: Notwithstanding their numerical force. wise many."

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"Like

Their numbers were overwhelming, yet how complete their destruction! They were cut down" and their name ceased. Nineveh has been long since blotted from the earth. The account given of the destruction you have in 2 Kings xix. 35. "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses." Then followed the utter destruction of Nineveh itself by the forces of the Medes and Babylonians. So utterly was it destroyed that even the references of classical writers to it are to a city that is long since extinct. It was a wonderful city; it stood, according to the account of some, on an area ten times the size of London; its walls a hundred feet high, and so broad that three chariots could be driven on them abreast. It had fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet in height. In 1842 Botta began to excavate, and three years afterwards Layard commenced his interesting and successful explorations. The remains which were discovered by these excavators filled the world with astonishment. "A city, an empire, had risen from the silent slumber of ages; its kings could be numbered and its tongue

mastered; while its history, manners, costume, and dwellings formed an unexpected revelation, wondrous in its variety and fulness." Who brought all this ruin on this grand old city? Sennacherib, a ruthless despot and a bloody warrior. And what cities and empires have been ruined by such men in all ages! Who broke up ancient dynasties ? Despots. And in modern times who has brought all the suffering, disorder, and spoliation that has befallen France the

last sixty years? Despots. Until despotism is put down, such will continue to be the

case.

III. The ruin of CORRUPT

KINGDOMS IS A BLESSING TO THE OPPRESSED. "For now will I break his yoke from off thee (that is thee, Judah), and will burst thy bonds in sunder." "Yoke" here refers to the tribute imposed upon Hezekiah king of Judah by Sennacherib (2 Kings xviii. 14). And so it ever is, when despotism has fallen the oppressed rise to liberty. What teeming millions of men are groaning, not only in Asiatic countries, but in European countries, under the tyranny of despots. These arrogant, haughty, autocracies must fall as Assyria and other ancient despotisms fell, before the yoke shall be taken from

the neck of the oppressed, and their bands burst asunder,

CONCLUSION.-First: Realize the truth of prophecy. When Nahum uttered these fearful predictions in relation to Nineveh, Nineveh shone in unabated splendour and stood in unabated strength; but after several generations had passed away the predicted ruin came, and Nineveh has long since been buried in the oblivion of centuries. Have faith in the word of God. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of His word shall fail to be accomplished.

Secondly: Realize the importance of promoting education among the people. By education I do not mean what is merely technical or scientific, but chiefly moral. The education that teaches the people the sense of personal independency and responsibility, the duty of self-respect, the inalienable right of private judgment, and a liberty of action circumscribed only by the rights of others. It is when such an education as this spreads among the peoples of the world that despotisms will moulder to dust. When men shall know the moral truth, the moral reality, then the truth shall make them free.

"It's coming yet for a' that,

That man to man the warld o'er
Shall brothers be for a' that."