It expresses some aspect of His character. Men caught fresh glimpses into the depths of the Divine nature, and their new knowledge they expressed by a new name. So that the names of God are all of them keys to God’s character. They help us to spell out the secret of His nature. When then, you read of a man crying out, “Tell me Thy name,” you understand that what Jacob really wanted to know was what God was. And when you read of the Psalmist saying, “They that know Thy name, will put their trust in Thee,” you know that what the Psalmist means is this—that those who really _know_ God, who know His heart, _will_, cannot help trusting Him. That, then, is the meaning of “God’s name,” it means the character of God, as that character has been revealed to us. When, where and how has that name been revealed to us? Well, it has been revealed, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews puts it, “by divers portions, and in divers manners.” (1) It has been revealed to us in _Nature_. The Psalmist watching his sheep in the still and starry night saw God in the arching sky, and sang, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handiwork.” And one of our own great poets, John Ruskin, has said, “It is but the outer hem of God’s great mantle, our poor stars do gem.” The Arabs speak of tracing God’s footsteps in the world; Kepler, in studying the planets, said he was thinking God’s thoughts after Him; Mrs. Barrett-Browning cries, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God.” Yes! God reveals His name to us through nature. I have been shown rocks which bear upon them indentations that have some resemblance to a cloven foot, and I have been told of legends that connect those marks with the devil. The devil, so the legends say, made those particular rocks a momentary resting-place, and in the cloven foot he has left his mark upon them for ever. But, brethren, it is not the devil’s mark, but God’s mark that the great world bears. I can see God’s mark on the sky and the sea, on mountain and flood, on flower and tree. When I look at the great mountains I cannot help remembering that it was God who planted them there. “He weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance.” When I look at the great and wide sea, at the sunny, sleepy sea, at the angry, restless sea, I remember it was God who placed it there. “He measured the waters in the hollow of His hand. He has placed bounds for it which it cannot pass.” When I see the lightning flash, I remember that the lightning is His messenger. When I hear the thunder roll, I remember that the thunder is His voice. When I see the birds of the air, I remember that not one of them falls to the ground without God. When I see the lilies of the field, I remember that God clothes them. Oh, yes, the world speaks of God. It is true, as Coleridge sings in his magnificent “Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni”— “Earth with her thousand voices praises God.”