and statements that he would
receive. Possibly--but I sincerely hope there are none such here
to-night--some might say tobacco, or snuff, or whisky. There are,
however, many things really needed for the support of life in this
world, and it is a part of wisdom to know our real needs, and how best
to supply them. Our Lord, on one occasion, referred to the two most
general needs of people,--food and clothing,--in which he instructed
them not to be forgetful of God in all their efforts to obtain these,
for, said he, "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all
these things."

Our Lord does not limit our bodily wants to one thing; so it cannot be
any worldly good he has in view. It must then be a need above, and of
vastly more importance than any worldly consideration. On one occasion
our Lord uttered a self-evident truth in these words: "He that walketh
in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth." By darkness in this place
ignorance of divine and spiritual things is meant. Again: "The people
which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the
region and shadow of death, light is sprung up." In this passage
darkness means ignorance and light means knowledge from teaching.
Sitting in the region and shadow of death is a figure so strong in its
import that we hardly know how to show forth its full significance.
Sitting implies an easy state of mind and feeling. The region of death
signifies the place where the love of self and the love of the world
bear rule, and find their gratification and satisfaction in worldly
enjoyments, and that place is man's depraved and spiritually dead
heart. The shadow of death signifies that beclouded state of the
understanding which is the inevitable consequence of being satisfied
to sit in darkness. Is not this altogether a frightful picture of
man's unenlightened and unregenerate state? But it is a true picture,
for it is given by the Lord, who knows what man is and what is in man.

Have I wandered away from my text? By no means. I have held up this
picture to show that man is so deeply sunk in darkness or ignorance
regarding himself and God that without instruction in the truths of
God's holy Word he does not know and he never would know what he does
need. Prior to the discovery of America the native Indian did not know
that he needed anything beyond what he then had in a natural way.

When the white man came and got acquainted with him he might have
addressed him in