---

I. THAT MAN'S EXTERNAL UNIVERSE IS MAINTAINED BY GOD.

1. However long He may continue to uphold it, He does not overlook the claims of His justice. There are before Him "a day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men."

2. However long He may continue to uphold it, duration is nothing to Him. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." He is not limited to time as we are.

3. However long He may continue to uphold it, He does not forget His promise. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness."

4. However long He may continue to uphold it, His forbearance is manifest through the whole. He "is long-suffering to us-ward."

II. THAT MAN'S EXTERNAL UNIVERSE IS MAINTAINED BY GOD FOR A MORAL PURPOSE. "Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." What is the purpose? Why is this world kept in existence for so many ages? Is it that men might luxuriate amidst animal gratifications, revel amidst the elements which minister to the senses, and pander to the passions? Is it that they might train the intellect to think, and to fill the mind with knowledge? Not even this. It is the moral restora tion of man. "That none should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

1. This moral restoration of man requires "repentance."

2. This moral restoration of man is according to the Divine will.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

---

---

KJV: For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

WEB: For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God;