glory. . . . I will make all My goodness pass before thee." So when Paul sought to prevent'

the' men of Lystra from worshipping himself and Barnabas as gods, he not only drew

their attention to that which demanded glory, namely, that God "made heaven, and earth,

and the sea, and all things that are therein," but that which as surely demanded

thanksgiving: "In that He did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons,

filling our hearts with food and gladness" (Acts 14: 8-18). Sunshine and shower, the

kindly fruits of the earth, the gift of sleep, the reward of labour, the blessings of home, of

parent and child, all these were from the good hand of God, yet" they glorified Him not

as God, neither were thankful."

In the ascription of praise that is recorded in Rev. 4: 9 "thanks" is included, as also

in Rev. 7: 12. Again in Rev. 11: 17 we read:-

"We give thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and

hast reigned."

Four times does the Psalmist say, "Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good." His

Godhead demands glory, and His goodness thanks. There is more than a mere phonetic

connection between God and good, Some consider that the word" Deva," the generic

name for" God" in India, comes from the Chaldee thav (" good "), with which is allied the

Hebrew tob. Donaldson, in his New Cratylus, shows that Th is frequently pronounced Dh.

From the Sanscrit Deva, without the digamma Deo, comes the Latin Deus, and the Greek

Theos. "There is none good but One, that is God" (Matt. 19: 17). He is good, and He

does good. When He manifests His glory He shows His goodness and declares His name.

As we meditate upon these things, the early apostasy of the Gentile world takes

upon it a more serious character. It is not so much that they were ignorant, but ingrate.

God did not look for learning, but He did look for thanksgiving. Science, as taught, is

cold, mechanical, thankless. When the botanist Linneus saw a field of English gorse for

the first time, he burst into tears. Herschel, Faraday, and others are, alas, magnificent

exceptions. Let us not slip into a Godless nomenclature, and speak of " the laws of

nature," but let us boldly, and yet humbly, glorify God as God, and be thankful to the

great Giver for His gifts, by speaking rather of "the laws of God." If we would be true

Protestants to-day, "God" will be in the language of everyday life, and not banished to the

realm of hymns, prayers, and religious exercises. The reader who knows" The Biglow

Papers" by James Russell Lowell; may remember that in his vernacular poems the name

of God is mentioned rather freely. In his justification for the use he says :

"The charge is of profanity (against himself) brought in by persons who proclaimed African slavery of divine

institution. . . . . . I scorn any such line of defence, and will confess at once that one of the things I am proud of in

my countrymen is, that they do not put their Maker away far from them, or interpret the fear of God into being

afraid of Him.

The Talmudists had conceived a deep truth when they said that 'all things were in the power of God, save the fear

of God,' and when people stand in great dread of an invisible power, I suspect they mistake quite another

personage for the Deity."