, till I
become such a person as Thou wouldst have me be; pure and gentle,
truthful and high-minded, brave and able, courteous and generous, dutiful
and useful, like Thy Son Jesus Christ when He increased not only in
stature, but in favour with God and man.

To which may God in His mercy bring us all! Amen.

SERMON XVI. THE CEDARS OF LEBANON.

PSALM CIV. 16.

The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which He
hath planted.

Let me say a few words this afternoon about the noble 104th Psalm, which
was read this afternoon, as it is now in many churches, and most wisely
and rightly, as the Harvest Psalm. It is a fit psalm for a service in
which we thank God for such harvest as He has thought best to send us,
whether it be above or below the average. But it is also a fit psalm to
be thought earnestly over just now, considering the turn which men's
minds are taking more and more in these times in which it has pleased God
that we should live. For we have lost, all of us, unlearned as well as
learned, the old superstitious notions about this world around us which
our forefathers held for many hundred years. No rational person now
believes that witches can blight crops or cattle, or that evil spirits
cause storms. No one now believes that nymphs and fairies live in
fountains or in trees; or that the spirits of the planets rule the fates
of men. That old belief is gone, for good and for evil, and it was good
that it should go; for it was false: and falsehoods can do no good, but
only harm, to any man, in body and in soul alike. It has died out
quickly and strangely. Some say that modern science has destroyed it. I
can hardly agree to that: for it has died out--and that almost since my
own recollection and under my own eyes--in the minds of country people,
who know nothing of science. I had rather say--as I presume the man who
wrote the 104th Psalm would have said--The Lord has taken the belief out
of men's hearts and minds. And I cannot but hope that He has taken it
away, and allows us to believe no more in demons and fairies ruling the
world around us, in order that we may believe in Him, and nothing but
Him, the true Ruler of the world; in Him of whom it is written, "Him
shalt thou worship, and Him only shalt thou serve;" even God the Father,
of whom are all things, and God the Son, by whom are all things, and God
the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of life, alike to su