You all know what darkness is, and, I dare say, do not like it much. Now, I am going to tell you about a time when there was a great deal of darkness in this world that you and I live in. I do not mean that the people who lived then never saw the sun,-it shone as brightly as it ever does now, and the sky was as clear, and everything looked as lovely, and yet it was a very dark world. Perhaps you think this very strange, and yet it is quite true. Suppose you take your Bible and see what it says at Eph. v. 11. I think, if it is like mine, you will find these words, "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Now, what does St. Paul mean by the darkness that he speaks of in this verse? I think if you look at Eph. iv. 18, you will see what he means. "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of

their heart."

Darkness of the understanding

and blindness of heart. This is the darkness of which there was so much in the world at the time of which I am speaking. There is plenty of it now, but then there was scarcely any light; it was almost all the blackest night. You know when God first made Adam and Eve they were quite holy; they never did any naughty things; they never thought any naughty thoughts. They loved to talk of God and to please Him. They were full of light. But when the devil tempted them to eat of the forbidden fruit, sin entered their hearts, and with sin came darkness. God, who is light, no longer walked with them in the garden in the cool of the day. Adam and Eve, as you know, had some little children, and these children grew up to be men and women, and had more children, until the world was full of people. But, as the people increased, so there was more and more sin, and more and more darkness.

If you go into a room at night without a candle, you can see nothing clearly. You see a number of black things about the room, which you perhaps know are the table and chairs; but they do not look at all like what they really are. This is very much like the state of the people in the world a long time ago. They were like people in a dark room. They did not see things as they really were. Sin did not look to them half so bad as it really is. They did not know about the true God, and about heaven and hell. They had a great many false gods. In some countries they worshipped the sun, moon, and stars; in others they worshipped animals. I dare say you recollect about the gods of Egypt, and the gods of the Canaanites, Baal and Astaroth, Moloch and Dagon. These gods, the people thought, were cruel, and were pleased with human blood; and they used sometimes to offer up their little children as sacrifices to them.

There are many places in the Bible where this is spoken of. Thus, "Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God." (Lev. xviii. 21.) "But Ahaz walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of

Israel." (2 Kings, xvi. 3.) "Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; they have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: therefore, "behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet,

nor, The valley of the son of Hinnom, but, The valley of slaughter." (Jer. xix. 4, 5, 6.)

Beside the false gods that we read of in the Old Testament, there were many others that were worshipped by the people of Greece and Rome. Some of these are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostle; thus, "And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker." (Acts, xiv. 11, 12.) Then turn over a couple of leaves and look at the 19th chapter and the 35th verse: "And when the town-clerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?" Now, Jupiter, Mercurius, and Diana, were all