The first conviction, then, with which we should come before God to-day is that, although the utmost efforts on our part are required, still, when we have used the last ounce of our strength, and made the last sacrifice of life and limb, we are absolutely dependent for the issue upon the will, the power, and the over-ruling providence of God. We are bound to fall at His feet as His helpless creatures, absolutely dependent on His hand. We are bound to recognize that the wealth and power we enjoy, the great position which this Empire occupies in the world, have been gifts from Him, and that we gat not this possession by our own sword; neither was it our own arm that helped us; but God’s right hand and God’s arm, and the light of His countenance, because He had a favour towards us, for some great purposes of His own. But what were those purposes? If we feel that we are thus the instruments of God’s hand, to be used as He pleases, we must needs ask, with anxious earnestness, What are His great purposes? and can we know whether we are acting in accordance with them? We know that we are not in the hands of an arbitrary power or an unreasoning will. We know that whatever God does is done with reason and justice and love. Here, again, it is our privilege to have revealed to us, in God’s Word, the great purposes for which He is working. His methods and His ways of carrying His purposes out are beyond our comprehension, but He has graciously told us what those purposes are. Their great object is the manifestation of His glory, His truth, His love, to be the light, the salvation, the infinite happiness of man. That was the object of the whole of His work in establishing the people of Israel in their land, in protecting them, in bringing punishments upon them, in delivering them from their enemies, or allowing them to fall into captivity. By means of them--through their history, their Prophets, their Psalmists, and their Kings--He made known that grand revelation of Himself which is recorded in our Bibles. All these acts were done, and their memory is preserved, in order that all the world might see and learn that in knowledge of Him, in obedience to Him, in love to Him and prayer to Him, is life and health, in body and soul, in this world and in the next. Let us be assured that that remains His purpose, and the guiding rule of His providence, throughout all history, and in our own, to the present day. If God has given us wealth, and strength, and prosperity, and imperial power, we may be sure that it is in order that we may be His instruments for the spread of His Kingdom, for bringing the knowledge of Christ and of Christ’s salvation to the ends of the earth, that the love of Christ, the example of Christ, the law of Christ may be established throughout the world. Do not let us suppose that there is any other object whatever in God’s dispensations. The manifestation of God in Christ, and the bringing of all human souls,