much to enlarge on the positive side of my subject, although it is not exactly referred to, in my text; but I am "a Mission Preacher;" I am come here to do "a Mission Work ;" and my first occupation lies with those who are so out of Christ that if they were to die to-night they would inevitably perish; and because I have to deal with such as these, I must confine my remarks almost exclusively to this great negative work which Christ undertakes to do by the "manifestation" of His own blessed Person. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."

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Our attention is, first of all, then, called to the work of the devil.' What is it? Where is it? How are we to discover it? I venture to say we need not exercise our powers of observation with any large amount of energy in order to become cognizant of "the works of the devil." They darken human history: they exhibit themselves in all kinds of frightful form; yes, on the very surface of society! cannot walk through the streets of your town without being, from time to time, shocked, grieved and ashamed by those more hideous forms which "the works of the devil" assume. But, oh! if we could assure ourselves that these were all—if "the works of the devil" were only to be seen in the drunkard, the outwardly filthy, the thief, the murderer and the outcast from society-if these only were they in whom the devil was working out his own fatal purpose, and in whom he was constructing those dire works of his, you and I might heave a sigh of relief and go to our homes happier men than we are: but the worst of all is, dear friends, that, in addition to all the eye can see, we have only to look within our own hearts to make the terrible discovery that the same great agent who is working in those who belong to, what we call "the criminal classes," has been working within our own nature, and constructing within us, from the depths of hell, after the ideal of his own depravity and God-hating imaginations, an edifice which, if it is allowed to continue, must inevitably bring down as overwhelmingly the extreme penalty of Divine wrath as when the breath of His displeasure scathed the ill-fated cities of the plain! "The works of the devil!" We look into our own hearts, and we lay our hands upon them there; we look upon our past lives, and we have no difficulty in discovering the traces of them there! "The works of the devil!" We think of what we might have been ! We picture

to our imaginations our first father as he was-adorned in all the beauty of his innocence, living in the love of his God-the chosen companion of the great Creator. We fancy what a man he might have grown to be if faithful to his own original probation: how he might have gone on "growing in grace. and in the knowledge of God," conformed to His will, God's perfect likeness stamped on his nature, and nothing left to hinder the development of his final beauty, the beauty in which he was conceived! But, turning away from the fond ideal, we gaze on man as he is,-man, with the marks of Satan on him; man, with the burdened heart and guilty conscience; man, with a nature which is the centre of all kinds of godless desires; man, who has gone so far from God that even the very name of God brings no sympathising thrill of pleasure to his heart; and, in many cases, so utterly lost to all real connection with the Great Source of his being, that, if I were warranted by fact, standing in this pulpit to-night, in making the announcement that Almighty God had ceased to exist in the universe which He has created, it would positively give a thrill of relief to their hearts.

Now, my brethren, as we contemplate this fearful "work of the devil" (and please do not think of it as it exists in yonder public-house, or yonder prison, but think of it as it exists in your own heart; think of it as that fearful barrier which stands between you and your God, and which keeps you from peace, and purity, and holiness, and heaven)—as we contemplate this fearful "work of the devil," it is well that we should form a right estimate of its character that, by God's help, we may go the right way to work to get this "work of the devil" swept away.

What is the character of this "work of the devil? We look at it in detail, and see all the sins which Satan leads us to commit: and it is not very difficult to detect them; but still we have not got hold of "the work of the devil." And it is

because people don't take a wide and full view of this work of the devil that they are incompetent to realise its power. Let us go to the root of the matter. In what does this "work of the devil" find its origin? It had no place in the world when God made the world. When God finished His creation, He looked upon what He had made, and said, "It is all very good." There was not one discordant note in a world which God's wisdom and power had created.

But when we look on a little further in human history, things have strangely changed. The harmony is broken, and the beauty gone; and, where all was a reflection of the happiness of heaven, it is now a scene of chaotic confusion, judged by a moral standard. How has this great revolution from good to bad, from beauty to horror, taken place? Because unless you and I clearly understand how the evil has come in, we shall not know how the remedy is to be applied.

The Psalm which was read in this evening's service (the 53rd) is one which seems to me as if it might be described as "the philosophical history of sin." But, although the teaching of that Psalm is most philosophical, yet it is so plain and simple, that the merest child can understand it. Perhaps some of you may not have noticed there is one passage of Scripture repeated over twice, in God's Bible, just word for word. That was the portion of Scripture for this evening's service. It is repeated in the 14th Psalm. Let us turn to it for a few moments. I venture to think if, as we look at this Psalm, God the Holy Ghost opens our eyes, we shall perhaps get a clearer view of "the work of the devil" than ever we had before.

What is the first assertion? Let us hear. "The fool hath said in his heart, No God." You will observe the words, "there is" are in italics; they form no part of the original. This is not the assertion of a professed atheist; this is not the language of a man who after long processes of investigation finds no reason to believe that a Supreme Being governs the universe. He is not a philosopher; he is a fool." He is the ordinary" fool" you meet with every day of your life: the poor, light-headed, light-hearted man of the world. He does not indulge in any theological, speculative theories; he simply breathes out the language of his own heart.

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And I want you to notice, dear friends, that "the fool" does not say this with his lip. Our "fool" is a man who has a seat in his church, and goes to church regularly. Our "fool" will tell you that he has the greatest respect for religion. But what about him? "He has said in his heart"-his neighbour never heard him say it; his pastor never heard him say it; society never heard him say it; but God Almighty heard him say it: and the devil heard him say it: "No God."

I heard of a man a short time ago, who had been visited by a Christian laborer, and this Christian, eager for the man's

salvation, began to talk to him about God: and the man turned round, with an angry expression upon his face, and said, "I don't want to have God in this house." I apprehend there are very few people would have the honesty to say it; but I am equally persuaded there are thousands of people who, if they just spoke out what they feel would use precisely these words. They don't want to have anything to do with God; God would be a troublesome friend; God would see the unreality and hollowness of their lives; God would be a check upon their carnal desires; God would stand between them and their worldly ambition. And so they practically "say in their heart" what this "fool" says, "No God !"

Now, my dear friends, what do we see from this? We learn that the root of sin-from which everything else is a mere development—the root of sin is the apostacy of the human soul from its God.

As long as we see Adam and God together in the garden of Eden, there is no fear of Adam committing a sin. It would have been just as painful to Adam's soul as a discord to your ear. As long as Adam's soul and Adam's God are in blessed union, to be a sinner is an impossibility! But, when the lying tempter enters the garden of Eden, what is his first point? How does he introduce his insidious entanglements? The first thing he does is to insinuate a libellous thought of God if he can only shake the confidence existing between Adam and his Maker, and inject a doubt of the Divine character, if he can only succeed in doing this, he will succeed in doing everything else. "Hath God indeed said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He is a kind God-that God of yours! He puts you here, surrounded by every kind of delight, and then stands between you and your delights, and says, of the trees of the garden you must not eat. I will surround you with everything which shall excite your cupidity; but, remember not one of the trees are you to touch. Is that the God you are going to worship?" Such seems to have been the first suggestion of the tempting spirit, and although Adam answered him, and began by standing up for the character of God, it was not long before the venom was infused into the man's soul-the thought that it was much better to be independent of God than dependent upon Him. God might come in some day, and say-not only, "Adam, thou must not eat of this tree; but thou must not eat of any of the trees."

It would be far better to have the law in his own hands; for, if he partook of that tree, then he was to be like God; and then if he could be like God, he could do without God— because two Gods would not be required. Thus the poor “fool”—poor, foolish Adam—the father of our sin, poor deluded man said in his heart—only for the moment-" No God!" It was done! That moment sin was generated. That moment the seed was sown from which the dark upas tree has sprung and developed itself, and spread forth its baleful shadow.

We will not talk any more about Adam; but we will talk about ourselves. As it was with our first parents, so it is with us. But, my fellow-sinners, what is the secret of all our sin ? Please do not think that we, preachers of the Gospel, we, mission-preachers, set ourselves up upon a pedestal as if you were all very wicked people, and we were great saints, and, with a kind of contemptuous pity, we come down and tell you of your sins. O think of us as standing upon the same level with yourselves-passing through the same experience, and “the heart knoweth its own bitterness." I look into my own heart, and I ask, How did sin begin there? From what I see there, I judge of yours: and I say to you, my friends, How did sin begin with you? If you and I with the earliest dawn of intelligence had learnt to cling to our unseen Friend, if we had put our hands in His with confidence as we went along the journey of life: if we had never stirred a step without sharing His fellowship; if His word had been as the breath of life to our souls; if all our strength and joy had proceeded from Him; if all our life had been in Him,—Satan might have come and spread all his temptations in our way, but we should have turned from them with a smile of disdain, and with an inward, calm confidence of superior power capable of crushing the heaviest forces with which the foe had assailed us, we should have said: “More are they that are for us, than all that can be against us.”

But, in the innocent days of our childhood, we began to say, "No God!" we got over our prayers as soon as possible, preferring to them the trumpery toys of the nursery. As we grew up to be boys at school, our companions had the jeer of ridicule ready for us: so that we began to be ashamed of the very name of God; or if we had sufficient moral courage to bend our knees, our devotion became so cold as not to deserve