I. THE HEATHEN DID SAY THIS - Where is their God? The Jew had talked so much of his God, how great and glorious he was, what wonderful works he had done, the victories he had given them, that now, in view of their burning city, their desecrated temple, the heaps of slain in their streets, the heathen in pride and scorn flung this taunt in their face - Where is your God?

II. AND THE HEATHEN SAY IT STILL. Missionaries go to them, and tell them of God, so holy, merciful, righteous, that many of them are won for God; but lo! there come, soon after, fellow countrymen of the missionaries - traders, sailors, and others, who bring vile alcoholic drinks, murderous weapons, vices unnamable, and much else with them, and do their bad best to make the heathen's home a hell: what wonder if they should ask, as they do - Where is your God?

III. AND MEN GODLESS AS HEATHENS SAY IT HERE IN OUR OWN LAND.

1. So called scientific men. One of them, the other day, contemptuously declared that he had been looking down a microscope for some thirty years, and he hadn't found God yet; and he was sure he should have found him if there was a God to be found. And many others scoff at the idea of God, and deny his existence, or, at any rate, defy you to prove it.

2. Others, because of the problems of moral and physical evil, refuse to believe in God.

3. Others under the pressure of trial and earthly care: hence they have become bitter and hard, and so east off all Faith.

4. Many others, as they mark the glaring inconsistencies of professed Christians. They condemn them all as false, hypocritical, and insincere.

IV. But we ask - WHEREFORE SHOULD THEY SAY THIS?

1. Wherefore the man of science? For God is known by the spirit, not the intellect.

2. Or the mind baffled by moral problems? Our children trust us, when they cannot understand: should not God's children trust him?

3. Or the care-embittered soul? Does the denial of God make care lighter? Would it not be better to humble one's self before God, and to hide in the shelter of his love?

4. And the declaimer against the inconsistencies of the Church? He exaggerates them, and ignores the mass of true-hearted believers.

CONCLUSION. But let us take care to give no occasion for the heathen to say - Where, etc.? - S.C.

1. There is a tendency in wicked men to deal in it. This spirit always indicates —

(1)A mean nature.

(2)A malignant nature.

(3)A haughty nature.

2. There is a susceptibility even in good men to be pained by it. This is no sign of strength and greatness, but the reverse; the really great and strong man will feel no more the most cutting gibes of scorners than granite the drops of morning dew.

II. A THEOLOGICAL ERROR. The question implies that the true God would not allow His people to suffer oppression and death at the hands of others.

1. The creatures whom God has created with an inner sovereignty, He allows to act freely both for good and evil.

2. All the evil that comes into the universe in this' way He overrules for good.

(Homilist.)