True Words for Brave Men Part 9

But further, the text says to the young man, Walk in the ways of thy heart. That is G.o.d's permission to free men, in a free country. You are not slaves either to man or to G.o.d; and G.o.d does not treat you as slaves, but as children whom He can trust. He says, Walk in the ways of thine own heart. Do what you will, provided it be not wrong. Choose your own path in life. Exert yourselves boldly to better yourselves in any path you choose, which is not a path of dishonesty and sin.

Again, says the text, Walk in the sight of thine eyes. As your bodies are free, let your minds be free likewise. See for yourselves, judge for yourselves. G.o.d has given you eyes, brains, understanding; use them. Get knowledge for yourselves, get experience for yourselves. Educate and cultivate your own minds. Live, as far as you can, a free, reasonable, cheerful, happy life, enjoying this world, if you feel able to enjoy it.

But know thou, that for all these things, G.o.d will bring thee into judgment.

Ah! say some, there is the sting. How can we enjoy ourselves if we are to be brought into judgment after all?

My friends, before I answer that question, let me ask one. Do you look on G.o.d as a taskmaster, requiring of you, as the Egyptians did of the Jews, to make bricks all day without straw, and noting down secretly every moment that you take your eyes off your work, that He may punish you for it years hence when you have forgotten it--extreme to mark what is done amiss?

Or do you look on G.o.d as a Father who rejoices in the happiness of His children?--Who sets them no work to do but what is good for them, and requires them to do nothing without giving them first the power and the means to do it?--A Father who knows our necessities before we ask for help and a Saviour who is able and willing to give us help? If you think of G.o.d in that former way as a stern taskmaster, I can tell you nothing about Him. I know Him not; I find Him neither in the Bible, in the world, nor in my own conscience and reason. He is not the G.o.d of the Bible, the G.o.d of the Gospel whom I am commanded to preach to you.

But if you think of G.o.d as a Father, as your Father in heaven, who chastens you in His love that you may partake of His holiness, and of His Son Jesus Christ as your Saviour, your Lord, who loves you, and desires your salvation, body and soul--of Him I can speak; for He is the True and only G.o.d, revealed by His Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and in His light I can tell you to rejoice and take comfort, ever though He brings you into judgment; for being your Father in heaven, He can mean nothing but your good, and He would not bring you into judgment if that too was not good for you.

Now, you must remember that the judgment of which Solomon speaks here is a judgment in _this_ life. The whole Book of Ecclesiastes, from which the text is taken, is about _this_ life. Solomon says so specially, and carefully. He is giving here advice to his son; and his doctrine all through is, that a man's happiness or misery in _this_ life, his good or bad fortune in _this_ life, depend almost entirely on his own conduct; and, above all, on his conduct in youth. As a man sows he shall reap, is his doctrine.

Therefore, he says, in this very chapter, Do what if right, just because it is right. It is sure to pay you in the long run, somehow, somewhere, somewhen. Cast thy bread on the waters--that is, do a generous thing whenever you have an opportunity--and thou shalt find it after many days.

Give a portion to seven, and also to eight, for thou knowest not what evil shall be on the earth. Every action of yours will bear fruit. Every thing you do, and every word you say, will G.o.d bring into judgment, sooner or later. It will rise up against you, years afterwards, to punish you, or it will rise up for you, years afterwards, to reward you.

It must be so, says Solomon; that is the necessary, eternal, moral law of G.o.d's world. As you do, so will you be rewarded. If the clouds be full of rain, they must empty themselves on the earth. Where the tree falls, there it will lie. As we say in England, as you make your bed, so you will lie on it. That does not (as people are too apt to think) speak of what is to happen to us after we die. It speaks expressly and only of what will happen before we die. It is the same as our English proverb.

Therefore, he says, do not look too far forward. Do not be double-minded, doing things with a mean and interested after-thought, plotting, planning, asking, will this right thing pay me or not? He that observeth the wind, and is too curious and anxious about the weather, will not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. No; just do the right thing which lies nearest you, and trust to G.o.d to prosper it. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, this or that, or whether they shall both be alike good. Thou knowest not, he says, the works of G.o.d, who maketh all. All thou knowest is, that the one only chance of success in life is to fear G.o.d and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For G.o.d shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

He does not say only that G.o.d will bring your evil deeds into judgment.

But that He will bring your good ones also, and your happiness and good fortune in this life will be, on the whole, made up of the sum-total of the good and harm you have done, of the wisdom or the folly which you have thought and carried out. It _is_ so. You know it is so. When you look round on other men, you see that on the whole men prosper very much as they deserve. There are exceptions, I know. Solomon knew that well.

Such strange and frightful exceptions, that one must believe that those who have been so much wronged in this life will be righted in the life to come. Children suffer for the sins of their parents. Innocent people suffer with the guilty. But these are the exceptions, not the rule. And these exceptions are much more rare than we choose to confess. When a man complains to you that he has been unfortunate, that the world has been unjust to him, that he has not had fair play in life, and so forth, in three cases out of four you will find that it is more or less the man's own fault; that he has _deserved_ his losses, that is, earned them for himself. I do not mean that the man need have been a wicked man--not in the least. But he has been imprudent, perhaps weak, hasty, stupid, or something else; and his faults, perhaps some one fault, has hampered him, thrown him back, and G.o.d has brought him to judgment for it, and made it punish him. And why? Surely that he may see his fault and repent of it, and mend it for the time to come.

I say, G.o.d may bring a man's fault into judgment, and let it punish him, without the man being a bad man. And you, young people, will find in after-life that you will have earned, deserved, merited, and worked out for yourselves a great deal of your own happiness and misery.

I know this seems a hard doctrine. People are always ready to lay their misfortunes on G.o.d, on the world, on any and every one, rather than on themselves.

A bad education, for instance--a weakly const.i.tution which some bring into the world, with or without any fault of their own, are terrible drawbacks and sore afflictions. The death of those near and dear to us, of which we cannot always say, I have earned this, I have brought it on myself. It is the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth Him good.

But because misfortunes may come upon us without our own fault, that is no reason why we should not provide against the misfortunes which will be our own fault. Nay, is it not all the stronger reason for providing against them, that there are other sorrows against which we cannot provide? Alas! is there not misery horrible enough hanging over our heads daily in this mortal life without our making more for ourselves by our own folly? We shall have grief enough before we die without adding to that grief the far bitterer torment of remorse!

Oh, young people, young people, listen to what I say! You can be, you will be, you must be, the builders of your own good or bad fortunes. On _you_ it depends whether your lives shall be honourable and happy, or dishonourable and sad. There is no such thing as luck or fortune in this world. What is called Fortune is nothing else than the orderly and loving providence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who orders all things in heaven and earth, and who will, sooner or later, reward every man according to his works. Just in proportion as you do the will of your Father in heaven, just so far will doing His will bring its own blessing and its own reward.

Instead of hoping for good fortune which may never come, or fearing bad fortune which may never come either, pray, each of you, for the Holy Spirit of G.o.d, the Spirit of right-doing, which _is_ good fortune in itself; good fortune in this world; and in the world to come, everlasting life. Fear G.o.d and keep His commandments, and all will be well. For who is the man who is master of his own luck? The Psalmist tells us, in Psalm xv., "He that leadeth an uncorrupt life, and doeth the thing which is right, and speaketh the truth from his heart." "He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour. In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord: he that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not. He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent."

Whoso doeth these things shall _never fall_. And as long as you are doing those things, you may rejoice freely and heartily in your youth, believing that the smile of G.o.d, who gave you the power of being happy, is on your happiness; and that your heavenly Father no more grudges harmless pleasure to you, than He grudges it to the gnat which dances in the sunbeam, or the bird which sings upon the bough. For He is The Father,--and what greater delight to a father than to see his children happy, if only, while they are happy, they are _good_?

XX. G.o.d'S BEAUTIFUL WORLD.--A SPRING SERMON.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my G.o.d, thou art very great: thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind."--Ps. civ. 1-3.

At this delicious season of the year, when spring time is fast ripening into summer, and every hedge, and field, and garden is full of life and growth, full of beauty and fruitfulness; and we look back on the long winter, and the boughs which stood bare so drearily for six months, as if in a dream; the blessed spring with its green leaves, and gay flowers, and bright suns has put the winter's frosts out of our thoughts, and we seem to take instinctively to the warmth, as if it were our natural element--as if we were intended, like the bees and b.u.t.terflies, to live and work only in the summer days, and not to pa.s.s, as we do in this climate, one-third of the year, one-third of our whole lives, in mist, cold, and gloom. Now, there is a meaning in all this--in our love of bright, warm weather, a very deep and blessed meaning in it. It is a sign to us where we come from--where G.o.d would have us go. A sign that we came from G.o.d's heaven of light and beauty, that G.o.d's heaven of light and beauty is meant for us hereafter. That love which we have for spring, is a sign, that we are children of the everlasting Spring, children of the light and of the day, in body and in soul; if we would but claim our birthright!

For you must remember that mankind came from a warm country--a country all of sunshine and joy. Adam in the garden of Eden was in no cold or severe climate, he had no need of clothes, not even of the trouble of tilling the ground. The bountiful earth gave him all he wanted. The trees over his head stretched out the luscious fruits to him--the shady glades were his only house, the mossy banks his only bed. He was bred up the child of sunshine and joy. But he was not meant to stay there. G.o.d who brings good out of evil, gave man a real blessing when He drove him out of the garden of Eden. Men were meant to fill the earth and to conquer it, as they are doing at this day. They were meant to become hardy and industrious--to be forced to use their hands and their heads to the utmost stretch, to call out into practice all the powers which lay ready in them. They were meant, in short, according to the great law of G.o.d's world, to be made perfect through sufferings, and therefore it was G.o.d's kindness, and not cruelty, to our forefathers, when He sent them out into the world; and that He did not send them into any exceedingly hot country, where they would have become utterly lazy and profligate, like the negroes and the South Sea islanders, who have no need to work, because the perpetual summer gives them their bread ready-made to their hands. And it was a kindness, too, that G.o.d did not send our forefathers out into any exceedingly cold country, like the Greenlanders and the Esquimaux, where the perpetual winter would have made them greedy, and stunted, and stupid; but that He sent us into this temperate climate, where there is a continual change and variety of seasons. Here first, stern and wholesome winter, then bright, cheerful summer, each bringing a message and a lesson from our loving Father in heaven. First comes winter, to make us hardy and daring, and industrious, and strips the trees, and bares the fields, and takes away all food from the earth, and cries to us with the voice of its storms, "He that will _not work_, neither shall he eat." "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: who layeth up her meat in the summer, and provideth her food against the time of frosts." And then comes summer, with her flowers and her fruits, and brings us her message from G.o.d, and says to us poor, slaving, hard-worn children of men, "You are not meant to freeze, and toil, and ache for ever. G.o.d loves to see you happy; G.o.d is willing to feed your eyes with fair sights, your bodies with pleasant food, to cheer your hearts with warmth and sunshine as much as is good for you. He does not grieve willingly, nor afflict the children of men. See the very bees and gnats, how they dance and bask in the sunbeams! See the very sparrows, how they choose their mates and build their nests, and enjoy themselves as if they were children of the spring! And are not ye of more value than many sparrows? you who can understand and enjoy the spring, you men and women who can understand and enjoy G.o.d's fair earth ten thousand times more than those dumb creatures can. It is for _you_ G.o.d has made the spring. It is for _your_ sakes that Christ, the ruler of the earth, sends light and fruitfulness, and beauty over the world year by year. And why? Not merely to warm and feed your bodies, but to stir up your hearts with grateful love to Him, the Blessed One, and to teach you what you are to expect from Him hereafter."

Ay, my friends, this is the message the spring and summer bring with them--they are signs and sacraments from G.o.d, earnests of the everlasting spring--the world of unfading beauty and perpetual happiness which is the proper home of man, which G.o.d has prepared for those that love Him--the world wherein there shall be no more curse, neither sorrow nor sighing, but the Lord G.o.d and the Lamb shall be the light thereof; and the rivers of that world shall be waters of life, and the trees of that world shall be for the healing of the nations; and the children of the Lord G.o.d shall see Him face to face, and be kings and priests to Him for ever and ever.

Therefore, I say, rejoice in spring time, and in the sights, and sounds, and scents which spring time, as a rule, brings; and remember, once for all, never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is G.o.d's hand-writing--G.o.d's image. It is a wayside sacrament, a cup of blessing; welcome it in every fair landscape, every fair face, every fair flower, and drink it in with all your eyes, and thank Christ for it, who is Himself the well-spring of all beauty, who giveth all things richly to enjoy.

I think, this 104th Psalm is a fit and proper psalm to preach on in this sweet spring time; for it speaks, from beginning to end, of G.o.d's earth, and of His glory, and love, and wisdom which shines forth on this earth.

And though, at first sight, it may not seem to have much to do with Christianity, and with the great mystery of our redemption, yet, I believe and know that it has at bottom all and everything to do with it; that this 104th Psalm is as full of comfort and instruction for Christian men as any other Psalm in the whole Bible. I believe that without feeling rightly and healthily about this Psalm, we shall not feel rightly or healthily about any other part of the Bible, either Old or New Testament. At all events G.o.d's inspired psalmist was not ashamed to write this psalm. G.o.d's Spirit thought it worth while to teach him to write this psalm. G.o.d's providence thought it worth while to preserve this psalm for us in His holy Bible, and therefore I think it must be worth while for _us_ to understand this psalm, unless we pretend to be wiser than G.o.d. I have no fancy for picking and choosing out of the holy Bible; _all_ Scripture is given by inspiration of G.o.d--all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, and therefore this 104th Psalm is profitable as well as the rest; and especially profitable to be explained in a few sermons as I said before, at _this_ season when, if we have any eyes to see with, or hearts to feel with, we ought to be wondering at and admiring G.o.d's glorious earth, and saying, with the old prophet in my text, "Praise the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my G.o.d, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens as with a curtain: who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind . . . O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches" (Ps. civ. 1, 2, 3, 24).

First, then, consider those wonderful words of the text, how G.o.d covers Himself with light as it were with a garment. Truly there is something most divine in light; it seems an especial pattern and likeness of G.o.d.

The Bible uses it so continually. Light is a pattern of G.o.d's wisdom; for light sees into everything, searches through everything, and light is a pattern of G.o.d's revelation, for light shows us everything; without light our eyes would be useless--and so without G.o.d our soul's eyes would be useless. It is G.o.d who teaches us all we know. It is G.o.d who makes us understand all we understand. He opens the meaning of everything to us, just as the light shews everything to us; and as in the sunlight only we see the brightness and beauty of the earth, so it is written, "In thy light, O G.o.d, we shall see light." Thus light is G.o.d's garment. It shows Him to us, and yet it hides Him from us. Who could dare or bear to look on G.o.d if we saw Him as He is face to face? Our souls would be dazzled blind, as our eyes are by the sun at noonday. But now, light is a pattern to us of G.o.d's glory; and therefore it is written, that light _is_ G.o.d's garment, that G.o.d dwells in the light which no man can approach unto. As a wise old heathen n.o.bly said, "Light is the shadow of G.o.d;" and so, as the text says, He stretches out those glorious blue heavens above us as a curtain and shield, to hide our eyes from His unutterable splendour, and yet to lift our souls up to Him. The vastness and the beauty of those heavens, with all their countless stars, each one a sun or a world in itself, should teach us how small we are, how great is our Father who made all these.

When we see a curtain, and know that it bides something beautiful behind it, our curiosity and wonder is awakened, and we long all the more to see what is behind that curtain. So the glory of those skies ought to make us wonder and long all the more to see the G.o.d who made the skies.

But again, the Psalmist says that G.o.d lays the beams of His chambers in the waters, and makes the clouds His chariot, and walks upon the wings of the wind! that He makes His angels the storms, and His ministers a flaming fire. You must not suppose that the psalmist had such a poor notion of the great infinite G.o.d, as to fancy that He could be in any one _place_. G.o.d wants no chambers--even though they were built of the clouds, arched with rainbows, as wide as the whole vault of heaven. He wants no wind to carry Him--He carries all things and moves all things.

In Him they live, and move, and have their being. Yet Him--the heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him! He is everywhere and no _where_--for He is a Spirit; He is in all things, and yet He is no _thing_--for He was before all things, and in Him all things consist. He is the Absolute, the Uncreated, the Infinite, the One and the All. And the old Psalmist knew that as well as we do, perhaps better. What, then, did he mean by these two last verses? He meant, that in all those things G.o.d was present--that the world was not like a machine, a watch, which G.o.d had wound up at the creation, and started off to go of itself; but that His Spirit, His providence, were guiding everything, even as at the first. That those mists and rain came from Him, and went where He sent them; that those clouds carried _His_ blessings to mankind; that when the thunder shower bursts on one parish, and leaves the next one dry, it is because G.o.d will have it so; that He brings the blessed purifying winds out of His treasures, to sweeten and fatten the earth with the fresh breath of life, which they have drunk up from the great Atlantic seas, and from the rich forests of America--that they blow whither He thinks best; that clouds and rain, wind and lightning, are His fruitful messengers and His wholesome ministers, fulfilling His word, each according to their own laws, but also each according to His especial providence, who has given the whole earth to the children of men. This is the meaning of the Psalmist, that the weather is not a dead machine, but a living, wonderful work of the Spirit of G.o.d, the Lord and giver of life. Therefore we may dare to pray for fair and seasonable weather; we may dare to pray against blight and tempest--humbly, because we know not what is altogether good for us,--but boldly and freely, because we know that there is a living, loving G.o.d, governing the weather, who does know what is good for us; who has given us His only begotten Son, and will with Him also give us all things.

And so ends my first sermon on the 104th Psalm.

XXI. WONDERS OF THE SEA; OR DAILY MIRACLES.

"Thou coverest the earth with the deep sea as with a garment."--PSALM civ. 6.

When we look at a map of the world, one of the first things that strikes us as curious is, how little dry land there is, and how much sea. More than half the world covered with deep, wild, raging, waste salt water! It seems very strange. Of what use to man can all that sea be? And yet the Scripture says that the whole earth has G.o.d given to the children of men.

And therefore He has given to us the sea which is part of the earth. But of what use is the sea to us?

We are ready to say at first sight, "How much better if the world had been all dry land? There would have been so much more s.p.a.ce for men to spread on--so much more land to grow corn on. What is the use of all that sea?" But when we look into the matter, we shall find, that every word of G.o.d stands true, in every jot and t.i.ttle of it--that we ought to thank G.o.d for the sea as much as for the land--that David spoke truly when he said, in this Psalm civ., that the great and wide sea also is full of G.o.d's riches.

For in the first place--What should we do without water? Not only to drink, but to feed all trees, and crops which grow. Those who live in a dry parish know well the need of water for the crops. In fact, strange as it may seem, out of water is made wood. You know, perhaps, that plants are made out of the salts in the soil--but not only out of salts--they are made also out of water. Every leaf and flower is made up only of those two things--salts from the soil, and water from the sky.

Most wonderful! But so it is. Water is made up of several very different things. The leaves and flowers, when they drink up water, keep certain parts of water, and turn them into wood; and the part of the water which _they_ do not want, is just the part which _we_ do want, namely, fresh air, for water is full of fresh air. And therefore the plants breathe out the fresh air through their leaves, that we may breathe it into our lungs. More and more wonders, you see, as we go on!

But where does all the rain water and spring water come from? From the clouds. And where do the clouds come from? From the _Sea_. The sea water is drawn up by the sun's heat, evaporated, as we call it, into the air, and makes mist, and that mist grows together into clouds. And these clouds empty their blessed life-giving treasures on the land--to feed man, and beast, and herb.

But what is it which governs these clouds, and makes them do their appointed work? The Psalmist tells us, "At Thy rebuke they flee; at the voice of Thy thunder they are afraid." He gives the same account of it which wise men now-a-days give. It is G.o.d, he says, and the Providence of G.o.d, which raises the clouds, and makes them water the earth. And the means which He employs is thunder. Now this is strictly true. We all know that thunder gathers the clouds together, and brings rain: but we do not all know that the power which makes the thunder, which we call electricity, is working all around us everywhere. It is only when it bursts out, in flame and noise, which we call lightning and thunder, that we perceive it--but it is still there, this wonderful thing called electricity, for ever at work--giving the clouds their shape, making them fly with vast weights of water through the sky, and then making them pour down that water in rain.

But there is another deep meaning in those words of the Psalmist's about thunder. He tells us that at the voice of G.o.d's thunder the waters are afraid--that He has set them their bounds which they shall not pa.s.s, nor turn again to cover the earth. And it is true. Also that it is this same thunder power which makes dry land--for there is thunder beneath us, and lightning too, in the bowels of the earth. Those who live near burning mountains know this well. They see not only flames, but _real_ lightning, _real_ thunder playing about the burning mouths of the fiery mountains--they hear the roaring, the thundering of the fire-kingdom miles beneath their feet, under the solid crust of the earth. And they see, too, whole hills, ay, whole counties, sometimes, heaved up many feet in a single night, by this thunder under ground--and islands thrown up in the midst of the sea--so that where there was once deep water is now dry land.

Now, in this very way, strange as it may seem, almost all dry land is made. This whole country of England once lay at the bottom of the sea.

You may now see sh.e.l.ls and sea fishes bedded in high rocks and hill tops.

But it was all heaved up by the thunder which works under ground. There are places in England where I have seen the marks of the fire on the rocks; and the solid stone crushed, and twisted, and melted by the vast force of the fire which thrust up the land from beneath--and thus the land was heaved up from under the waters, and the sea fled away and left its old bed dry--firm land and high cliffs--and as the Psalmist says, "At the voice of G.o.d's thunder the waters were afraid. Thou hast set them their bounds which they shall not pa.s.s, neither turn again to cover the earth."

Wonderful as all this may seem, all learned men know that it is true. And this one thing at least it ought to teach us, what a wonderful and Almighty G.o.d we have to deal with, whose hand made all these things--and what a loving and merciful G.o.d, who makes not only the wind and the sea, and the thunder and the fire kingdoms obey Him, but makes their violence bring blessings to mankind. The fire kingdom heaves up dry land for men to dwell on--the thunder brings mellow rains--the winds sweep the air clean, and freshen all our breath--and feed the plants with rich air drawn from far forests in America, and from the wild raging seas--the sea sends up its continual treasures of rain--everywhere are harmony and fitness, beauty and use in all G.o.d's works. He has made nothing in vain.

All His works praise Him, and surely, also, His saints should give thanks to Him! Oh! my friends--every thunder shower--every fresh south-west breeze, is a miracle of G.o.d's mercy, if we could but see thoroughly into it.

Consider, again, another wonderful proof of G.o.d's goodness in what we call the Tides of the sea. G.o.d has made the waters so, that they can never stand still--the sea is always moving. Twice a day it rises, and twice a day it sinks and ebbs again all along the sh.o.r.e. It would take too long to explain why this is--but it is enough to say, that it must be so, from the way in which G.o.d has made the earth and the water. So that it did not come from accident. G.o.d planned and intended it all when He made the sea at first. His all-foreseeing love settled it all. Now of what use are these tides? They keep the sea from rotting, by keeping it in a perpetual stir. And the sea, as it ebbs and flows, draws the air after it, and so keeps the air continually moving and blowing, therefore continually fresh, and continually carrying in it rich food for plants from one country to another. There are other reasons why the winds blow, which I have not time to mention now; but they all go to prove the same thing.--How wisely and well the Psalmist said, "Praise the Lord upon earth ye rivers and all deeps. Fire and hail, snow and vapour, wind and storm, fulfilling His word" (Ps. cxlviii.).