because they had no light. How could they read the riddle of life? How could they find out what God's will was that they might keep it? Poor souls, in their sight of ignorance they made strange mistakes. Some thought that this, some thought that that, would please God, but it was all guess work. They felt it was guess work, and they groaned, " Shew us the Father!" God alone could teach them what they needed to know, His nature, the object for which they were created, the future after death. "Shew us the "Father, and it sufficeth us." The Father-He Who made us, He Who, we are sure loves us, He alone can set us right, and tell us plainly what His will is.

There was an old warrior in Iceland in heathen times, who was near dying. He had heard all about the gods of his nation. There was Odin who spent an eternity in boozing beer and hunting a wild boar. There was Thor, who was a war god, and flung his thunderbolts about the sky at his enemies. The old man lay in his bed in a dark corner musing over the nature of these coarse, brutal gods, and he thought, "It can not be that "they are gods, there must be a greater, better, "more living god than they! Carry me, my

children, into the open air." His sons carried him outside the door, and the old man looked up at the blue sky and the bright sun gliding through it. He thought a while, and then he said, "There must be a God who is very good. "Only a very good God would make that "beautiful sky and that bright sun. Into His "hands I commend my spirit!" and so saying he died. There is an instance of a grand old heathen heart crying "Show us the Father, and "it sufficeth us."

I will tell you another story, and that of another Icelander in olden times. There was once a man who found a poor babe exposed to the cold to die. At that time, according to the heathen law, parents, if they did not want to bring up all their children, exposed them in the open air in some lone place to die of cold and hunger. Well this heathen man happened to light on one of these babies exposed to die, he looked at it, and he thought, "Surely it cannot "be according to the will of the God who made 66 everything that children should be exposed to "die thus. God made those little legs, and arms, "and tiny fingers, and little blue eyes. If He "took so much care to make them, He cannot

"be pleased if we let his handiwork perish when "He has entrusted it to our keeping." So he guessed by the light of nature, but it was thought very strange in his day. Well the man took up the child and reared it as his own, and in after years, when Christian teachers came to the island, that little child, now grown a man, was one of the first converts to the faith of Christ.

Here you see a good wise heart groping in the dark and hitting on a truth, where others had been in error, "Show us the Father, and it "sufficeth us, He will teach us certainly what is "His will, and not leave us in doubt to feel our "way to keeping His laws."

But this was not only the cry of heathens. It was the cry of good and holy men under the Jewish dispensation. They felt that something was wanting. They had a craving at the heart which nothing would satisfy till they saw God. Listen to David. Surely he had all that could content man's heart, all that the world could give.

"I see a lion and a bear, they are rending my "sheep!" Go then, David, and slay the lion and the bear. Art thou satisfied now?

"No! Goliath defies the armies of the living "God. Oh, that I could slay him."

Go then, David, take a sling and five smooth stones of the brook, and smite the giant. Art thou satisfied now?

"No! Oh that I were a king's son-in-law, "and captain of the king's host!”

Go then, David, marry Michal, and lead the armies of Saul into battle. Art thou satisfied

now?

"Not yet! Oh, that I were king!"

So be it, David, thou art anointed, reign over the people of the Lord. Now art thou satisfied? "Not yet! Let me have victory over all my enemies, and prosper, and reign long."

So be it, David. Art thou satisfied now?

"My soul hath a desire and longing to enter into the courts of the Lord's house, when shall I come to appear before the presence of God?" So after all he found that this-the presence, the sight of God-was the only thing that could satisfy his heart.

And now listen to the words of his son Solomon. He was the wealthiest and mightiest of the kings.

"I gave my heart to seek and search out by "wisdom concerning all things that are done "under heaven. I have seen all the works that

66 are done under the sun; and behold, all is "vanity and vexation of spirit.

"I commenced with mine own heart, saying, "lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten 66 more wisdom than all they that have been "before me in Jerusalem; yea, my heart had "great experience of wisdom and knowledge. "And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to "know madness and folly; I perceived that this "also is vexation of spirit.

"I said in mine heart, go to now, I will prove "thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure; and behold, this also is vanity.

"I sought in mine heart to give myself unto "wine, yet acquainting my heart with wisdom; "and to lay hold on folly. I made me great "works, I builded me houses, I planted me vine"yards, I made me gardens and orchards, and I 66 planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits; "I made me pools of water, to water there with "the wood that bringeth forth trees; I got me "servants and maidens, and had servants born "in my house; also I had great possessions of "great and small cattle above all that were in "Jerusalem before me; I gathered me also silver "and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings