natural, in one sense, and a plan that brings in quicker profits,
than well-doing; and so this godless, loveless, every-man-for-
himself nation, or sham nation rather, this joint-stock company, in
which fools expect that universal selfishness will do the work of
universal benevolence, will quarrel and break up, crumble to dust
again, as Babel did. "But," says God to Abraham, "I will make of
thee a great nation. I make nations, and not they themselves." So
it is, my friends: this is the lesson which God taught Abraham, the
lesson which we English must learn nowadays over again, or smart for
it bitterly--that God makes nations. He is King of kings; "by Him
kings reign and princes decree judgment." He judges all nations:
He nurtureth the nations. This is throughout the teaching of the
Psalms. "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are
His people, and the sheep of His pasture;" for this I take to be the
true bearing of that glorious national hymn the 100th Psalm, and not
merely the old truism that men did not create themselves, when it
exhorts ALL nations to praise God because it is He that hath made
them nations, and not they themselves. The Psalms set forth the Son
of God as the King of all nations. In Him, my friends,--in Him all
the nations of the earth are truly blessed.

He the Saviour of a few individual souls only? God forbid! To Him
ALL POWER is given in heaven and earth; by Him were all things
created, whether in heaven or earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers;--all
national life, all forms of government, whether hero-despotisms,
republics, or monarchies, aristocracies of birth, or of wealth, or
of talent,--all were created by Him and for Him, and He is before
all things, and by Him all things CONSIST and hold together. Every
thing or institution on earth which has systematic and organic life