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fPYp

•?^3^p!p?:j!(ini;pT!5^Mjpprri^^S|S^^ • "

"PJbnos bsti (©hf^eia."

Luke x., 42,

( What the Master suy$,—" There ia need of(Jne,'—M'niutlf,)

THK

w m

BY THK REV.

RoBBRT H. Craig,

<iRAUUATK OK GLASGOW CNIVERSITV.

AuTiioK OF "The Advantages of Knowledge," "The Importance of
Sklf-Citltuke," "The Best Method ok Teaching," &c., &c.

IConbon, ©ntario:

ADVKRTISKE PBINTINO AND PUBLISHING COMPANY.

1883.

147888

ef^iz^ .CI im

Knt'icd nfcouiii g to j\et of J'arliaircjit (1 Caiiiuin, in tlu; year
of our Lord < no tl)0UFaiicl ciplit liuiKlrcfl ai;<l eighty-four, by
]{i V. KoiiKKT H. C');aio, in tlie t ftioo of the Alu.istei of Agri-
culture.

PREFACE.

■'1

Previous to going to press with this work, I submitted the manuscript
to several friends, on whose judgment I could rely, they encouraged its
publication, and recommended it to others, the result was a large subscrip-
tion list in a short time, signed by clergymen of all denominations, many of
the most influential citizens of London and ils neighborhood, and now it is
"out." It will therefore ppeak for itself, and be judged by what it says
upon the deepest PROBLEMS ot the age we live ^'n. I have done my
utmost to solve them with clearness, and shrunk from no difficulty, however
arduous,' to give the correct solution — being feailess of opposition, and free
from all sectarian bias, my simple and sole aim has been to arrive at TRUTH
and to state it intelligibly ; and I trust it will be the means of leading
all who read it to the '^oal of their being, and to the end it contemplates,
viz, "TRUE HAPPINESS." I take this opportunity of cor^ -ally
thanking all who have so kindly helped me, as a stranger, to launcL this
work, and I cannot but admire the intelligence and worth of the people
who dwell in this lovely land ; and heardly do I wish them all a happy
Christmas and a prosperous New Year, when it comes !

Especially have I to thank the Revs. Alexander Grant, Peter McDonald
James Lince, Canon Innes, D. McGilHvray, and likewise the numerous
dear private friends who have helped forward the subscription list by their
kind recommendations of the work, and ^ow I hope it will have a speedy
sale and give satisfaction.

Commending it to the blessing of Almighty God, and all who read
it — until the period arrives, when there shall be " no Jiiore night" but one
bright and endless day of blessedness,

I have the honor of subscribing myself, every soul's true

WKI.I.WI.SHRR,

R. H. CRAIG.
175 John Street, London, Ont.

Dec, 1883.

P. S.— For ii^ex of contents please see end of book and read the
Addendum.

I •-•^ammi

From the Rev. Alexander Cirant, of Loudon, Ontario.

" From what I have been able to examine of this book in Manuscript,
and from what I know of its author, I believe its teachings are safe ; a very
wide range of thought is traversed, and what in many cases would be subject
matter for a good many volumes is glanced at. For Sabbath Schools and
young people in general, anxious to initiate themselves in some of the
great questions that have engaged great minds, we recommend the work."

"Alexander Grant."
From the Rev. Peter McDonald, London South, Out.

"THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE" is the title of a voUime the
Rev. R, H. Craig, lately from Great Britain, has written for publication.
It sketches the notable characteristics of the age j contains a section on ths
origin of sin, and a dialogue between the author and an assumed atheist,
to evince i/ie claims of Christianity on rational belief. Itelucidates the pro-
vision made through Christ to thwart the Dominion of evil, and deliver
men from its power, so that the object sought for — the amelioration of
mankind and true Happiness may be possessed by all. It brings a wide
range of thought before the reader in facile and perspicuous style. The
price is only $1.50 elegantly bound in cloth." "P. MacDonald,"

From the Rev. J. Liuce, Komoka, Out.

" THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE" is sound and healthy
Literature,, The object of this work is to grapple with the errors and sins
of the age in which we live, and implant in the mind principles that will
keep us safe and secure, " like an anchor " on the great ocean of life.
Having examined the wrrk, and knowing the writer to be a man of ability,
I can cordially recomm.end the book to all, and would be glad to know it
was read by thousands of the rising generation." " J. Lince."

The three recommendations ahovf are from Baptist Miniaters.

From the Rev. Canon Innes, London, Out. (Episcopalian.)

*' I vtuld earnestly recommend this work."

From Rev. D, McGillivray, or St. James Church (Presbyterian),
London.

" This esteemed and truly talented man, and kind friend and excel-
lent minister of the Gospel, has both among his flock, and a*t meetings of
his people, strongly advocated this book ; saying he *' believed it was a
great work, and would prove a great work on the Great Want of the Age,
and he would strongly recommend it to all."

It is unnecessary to cite any more Recommendations, although there
are more besides the above. The Book must staid on its own merits.
It has not been got up to make money, because its price is made low,
but that it may prove, like every good book, "a light to the soul" and make
many HAPrv.

The Great Want of the Aoe,

-o-»o»o-

WnAT IS THE CiRKAT Want OK THK AfiE? — The great want of the
age is to " banish all existing evils from society, turn every curse into
a blessing and make every one truly happy."

Everyone will admit this is most desirable, because everyone is seek-
ing after happiness. But how to attain it ? is the question. To show hftw
it is to be effected is the aim herein contemplated.

Let no one say it is chimercial and impossible, for I will prove that
such an ameheration of society is not only possible but practicable.

" It is a visionary dream," methinks I hear some one say, and adding :
" Such an amelioration of society as that proposed in such a world as this,
how is it possible ?" It is just like many commendable jthilanthrophic
enterprises of benevolent minds in past times, that have proved a failure !
For perfection is too fair a flower to bloom in this noxious desert.

Who cannot say with one of old, " I have seen an end of all perfec-
tion ?" Who does not know from painful and bitter experience — from *he
losses and crosses, the baffled schemes, the frustrated hopes and the mortify-
ing reverses and galling disappointments, in this wretched world — it is
an utter impossibility ?

Does not Solomon, the wisest of men, tell us, '* The thing that hath
been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is done is that which shall
be done, and there is no new thing under the sun ?" So fixed and unchange-
able are the conditions of human nature and human society, that they
cannot be changed or altered, for " that which is crooked cannot be mad^-
straight " — cannot be brought into position, "and that which is wanting Cin-
not be numbered" — or made a complete whole ; therefore, I maintain 'our
scheme is preposterous and absurd '."

I freely admit all you say in your premises. Solomon did mean what
you alifirni ; but there is nothing in your premises to upset my scheme ?

'* I think there is a great deal to upset your scheme," leplies the ob-
jector, "for Solomon asserts, owing to these unalterable conditions in human
society, there can be ' no new thing imder the sun;' but if all existing evils
be removed, and every curse be turned into a blessipg, and everyone made
truly happy, this will be a new thing under the sun !"

Of course it will, and the soont r the better, for " 'tis a consummation
devoutly to be wished."

" But how can such an amelioration be accomplished, I should like to
know?" says my objector. I reply, " It cannot be done by the things them-
selves. Can the Ethiopean change his skin ?" The " Great Want of the
Age " requires omnipotence to create the new conditions necessary to meet
the " Great Want ;" and the omnipotence of gentleness has come to do it,
and is doing it every day. For, in whomsoever the omnipotence of gentle-

IHE GREAl WANT OV THE AGE.

ness which is the infinite love of Gody is found, the inordinate self-love in
man (whic*^ 's the cause of all the evils in society) is removed to make room
for the infii *^e love ; and it turns every curse into a blessing and makes all
things "««r." And just in proportion as the divine transforming love is
possessed and cherished individually, in the same proportion, the old con-
ditions of human nature and human society become " new," and its po-
sessor is made truly happy; therefore, the amelioration I contend for is
neither chimerical nor impossible, but a thing easily attainable.

To demonstrate this fact is the business I now undertake, which
deals with the deepest problems in the ever enlarging range of human
thought, and it carries us to the utmost bounds of the human understand-
ing with delight.

I have no personal interest in this discussion beyond the special and
.paramount claims of truth. No favorite dogma, no school of theology or of
philosophy to defend, no blinding prejudices to sway my judgment (as far
■as I know), and no withering scorn to lift me above my fellowman.

Every enquirer after truth I hail as a brother or a sister. The pioneers
of progress, who are so much hated because they have the pre-eminence of
mental independence, I can look up to and esteem them liighly ; and I trust
no angry word or unkind feeling shall ever betra> my responsible privilege
it. ipeaking forth my own independent, unbiased and earnest convictions in
solving the great leading questions that are now coming to the front for
calm and deep and manly investigation.

These are Times of great interest and great moment, and my object
■will be in the first section to review them and ascertain what is wanted.
Then the other sections will link in together with the first as a con-
nected chain of reasoning to resolve the interesting question pro
posed, viz. : " How to banish all existing evils from society, turn every
•curse into a blessing, and make everyone truly happy ?" In prosecuting
"this enquiry we are associated with the greatest minds that have ever lived,
for man's " chief good " — or man's right position in the universe of
-God and human amelioratioii have always been their favorite themes.
The greatest of living minds are now interesting themselves in these
•subjects, and let no one turn away from them until they are mastered ;
for, of all questions, the question of our own true happiness, and the happi-
ness of others, should be thoroughly mastered. Let us look at the efforts
put forth in past times to solve this deeply interesting problem.

King Solomon, the Greek philosophers, the Schoolmen, and the greatest
of Thinkers since their day, have all labored to arrive at a satisfactory result
•on the great questidn in which we are all interested, how to attain true
■happiness.

KING SOLOMON.

The renowned monarch of the Hebrew nation brought the mightiest
intellect ever given to man to solve this question. With vast knowledge
both of human and divine things, with superhuman wisdom, and with
boundless resources at his command, he strove hard and long to ascertain
if the happiness he wished for could not be found, and if the state of hu'

IHK ORF-AT WANT OF THE AOE.

man society could not be perfected, and the result he arrived at everyone
knows — "All was vanity and vexation of spirit."

There are two points in his case, be it remembered, that go to explain
his findings as nil : i. His moral state blinded his mental vision ; and 2.
what he sought for he could not find, because he sought for happiness
where happiness could not be found.

King Solomon, history informs us, had forsaken God and his worship
and service ; he had wickedly broken his covenant with the Most High ;
he had become an idolater, and a royal patron of idolatry, built temples to
heathen divinities, conformed himself to the practices of heathen mon-
archs, and gave himself up, alas ! to a low sensual life and lost the high-
toned spirituality he once h^d, and fell into a worldly-minded infidelity
when he wrote the Ecclesiastes on which we have been commenting, when
<jod appeared to him and rebuked him for his folly, and warned him of
what would come upon his family, as he had been foretold if he obeyed not
the Lord his God. And therefore Solomon was morally unfitted to solve
the problem.

The consequence was that he sought for true happiness in the wrong
direction, as his own experience proved. He sought for it in earthly things —
in the acquisition of vast possessions, in gorgeous palaces, blooming vine-
yards, flowing fountains, bMgautiful plantations, lovely gardens, a great re-
tinue of slaves, in abundance of cattle, the treasures of kings, in things
rare and superexcellent, in abnndance of Riches — silver and gold, in the
charms of music — vocal and instrumental, and "whatsoever mine eyes
desired I kept not from them ;" he tells us : "I withheld not my heart
from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor (while the en-
thusiasm lasted in carrying it forward to completion, his enjoyment lasted),
but when completed he was unsatisfied. He grasped at a shadow instead
of the substance, for, " behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and
there was no profit under the sun"— ^no true satisfactionin it all, proving
the truth of the great Scotch poet, that

'* The best laid schemes of mice and men gang affagley " (fail).
Solomon's God-like soul, true to its native nobility, spumed all those
trifling toys, and would not be cheated out of its glorious birthright. The
human soul has such boundless aspirations, such irrepressible desires and
amazing potentialties, that nothing less than what is infinite in perfection and
eternal in duration can satisfy it. A life of sense cannot satisfy it. It only
tantalizes it and produces vexation of spirit. Intellectual pursuits cannot
satisfy it, *' for in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth know-
ledge increaseth sorrow." How strange, then, that the pursuit after hap-
piness is still persevered in where happiness cannot be found ! Is it not
folly to seek for true happiness where we only find disappointment ? Is it
not madness constantly to believe in promises that are constantly broken ?
— to confide in what cheats us with the blossom instead of the fruit ? —
to rely upon the herald of anticipation which addresses our imagination,
wh-n our experience tells us it is a delusion, like the mirage in the desert,
wh :h distance creates, but contiguity destroys ?

And yet is it not a good thing that the soul that God has created

THE r.REAT WAN T OF THE AOE.

^1 - inmn

within us thus protests against everything that is not man's chief good, for if
it were satisfied with less wc would find out our mistake when it was too
late to be rectified. I.ct us learn then the great lesson which is thus
taught us by the faithful vitness we have within us, to rise to the infinite,
all-perfect Creator as the only adequate portion for the soul he has given
us, and find onr true happiness in Him.

THE (IP.EEK J'HILOSOPHERS' El FORTS.

The deep thinkers among the Greek philosophers were as much astray
as Solomon was in regard to man's "chief good." 1 r they all differed
about it. Each formed his own ideal. Aristippus sought it in pleasure,
Socrates in wisdom, and Epicurus in both ; while the Stoics endeavored to
find it in stern indifference to pleasure or pain ; and so much did they
differ among themselves that some 287 difterent summum bonums were
chosen as man's chief good, among the Clreek philosophers. Instead of
finding it in "one i/ii.:.;r." they acted as many do now to find it in never so
many things, and found it in none.

The Schoolmen, who were philosophers and divines in the middle
ages in the schools established by Charlemagne, bestowed much attention
upon the subject of human happiness ; they defined happiness thus^
to use their own words : " In beatitudinem fertur voluntas, non ut voluntas
sed ut natura" (The will carries us toward happiness, not as will but
as nature). They meant happiness is as natural for us to seek after as it
is for the sun to shine, that as the sun was made to give light and heat, so
we have been made to get and enjoy happiness ; that happiness is not
only a volition of the will, but the enti'-e aim and bent of our whole being ;
that it is an object we are bound to set all our sails for till we reach it ; that
morning, noon and night it is the onething we are continually seeking for
and longing for and pining for.

Thi? every one is conscious of. Happiness is the deepest instinct im-
planted in our nature; it is all our instincts in one. Happiness, there-
fore, is the one great want of the age, for it is the want of every one.

The subject is one, then, in which we are all deeply and personally
interested and it is, therefore, entitled to our most earnest attention. It is
the cry of our own inmost spirit and it should not be disregarded. God
has implanted it within us not to be crushed, but to be gratified in a

legitimate manner.

THE GREAT QUESTION NOW GONE INTO.

The whole question, then, comes to this : "How is true happiness to
be secured ?" for while all are seeking after it, few seem to find it.

I think the correct explanation consists in this, that we havemade happi-
ness our chief end, just as the Schoolmen did, instead of making something
else our chief end which will infallibly secure it, for happiness, is not, after all,
the end of our being. What will secure our well-being will secure it. Jf
your w &tch be not gdnjg^rJiJit, you have to get it put right and then

it will go right! Your wishing the watch to tell you the right

time will not make it do it. Our continually wishing after happiness
will not bring it. The watch is a machine that has to keep its

IHK (.REAT WANI Ol' THE ACE.

equilibrium with the march of time ; it has tc obey the mechanical law on
which it IS constructed to give the result you want from it. As it is,
then, with your watch, so is it with what we wish with respect to happiness
— it is the result of obedience to fixed laws. If we want health we 'nust
obey the laws of health to procure it. If we want health of intellect we
must obey the diet ites of reason to secure it, and if we want moral health
we must obey the laws of moral health that insure it.

IT LIES IN OlIEDIENCE.

The whole science of happiness, therefore, is reducible to one word,
"obedience." or the fulfilment of the conditions to which happiness owes
its birth. If people would care less for happiness as their chief end, ind
care more for what infallibly secures happiness, as tneir chief end, happi-
ness would come as a necessary consequence ; and, instead of being mocked
by a cloud, they would have the sunlit joy of happiness within them. For
happiness does not consist in exic^rnals, but in the rich enjoyment of the
unspeakable treasure itself in the mind. It is, in short, by doing the will
of (iod, and not our own will, that true happiness is most undoubtedly ob-
tained. Therefore it is not theendof our being, but the result of our well being.

God has written His will in our physical constitution, in the laws of
health, for the preservation and enjoyment of our physical happiness, for
truly the health of the body is very essential to the true enjoyment of life
and happiness. Physiology should be studied.

God has given us an intellectual nature, and written his will in our
mental constitution, and in proportion as we cultivate our intellectual facul-
ties, the more vigorous and enjoyable they become. Phrenology should be
learnt.

And God has written His moral law, the transcript of His own image in
our conscience, that by obeying its dictates in accordance with His holy
word, we may have moral health and happiness. The Bible should be
earnestly read.

But now comes a point of the greatest importance. We have seen that
the efforts of the greatest philosophers, in past ages, were unsuccess il, and
we see daily that the efforts now made to secure true happiness by the
greatest philosophers of our age, are just as unsuccessful, for they ask, "If
this life be worth living for?" and they conclude "It is not," If, then, this
"life be not worth living for ?" there can be no happiness in it to them, for
what is life without happiness ?— not worth living for. Human life, I hold,
is nothing without enjoyment ; therefore, our modem philosophers are no
better than the ancient philosophers in this respect, because they have not
found true happiness for themselves, and cannot, therefore, reveal the
secret to others. Will the wail of weeping, lamentation, and woe forever
ascend to heaven ? Shall it forever be said, Who will show us any good ?
With Charles Dickens, I ask :

" Can this eventful life no mortal teach, *
But what is aye beyond our reach ?'

THE TRUE SECRET WILL RE OUT.

Take heart, — there is balm in Gilead, there's a Physician there that can

rw^

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

cure "all the ills that flesh is heir to," and teach us the great moral of this
eventfullife,a moral which the wisdom of So^ jmon could notfind out,amoral
which the insight of the Greek philosophers could not discover, a moral
which the learning of the Schoolmen could not unfold, a moral which the
advanced thinkers of our age cannot make known. It comes through in-
ward experience of the infinite love of God in Christ crucified, which re-
news and rejoices the sad human heart as nothing else can.

IT IS THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST.

The doctrine of th' Great Teacher, sent from God, and a doctrine,
too, which does not set aside the light of science to teach us God's laws
in our physical frame, because God has made these laws and given us rea-
son to compreliend them. The doctrine of Christ does not set aside the
light of mental and moral philosophy, because God has made us in His
image, and has given us a consciousness of His imagr and He likes us to
look into it and understand it better. The doctrine of Christ does not
set aside the refining and elevating influence of the fine arts, for the fine
arts help us to appreciate nature better where God has stored away all the
fine arts in their original copies. It does not set aside the interests of this
life, but secures them. It does not set aside education, and learning,
and culture, and refinement, but it is the fosterer of them all.
It does for us what nothing elsf; can. It gives us a blessedness
which the world can neither give nor take away. It puts everything in its right
place, it extracts honey, like the bee, from every flower, it makes the
bitter sweet, and turns every curse into a blessing. And to know this
doctrine I take to be "the one great want of the age." Oh, it is a doctrine
not half understood by them who know it best.

Nineteen centuries have nearly revolved, and, with all the intel-
lect, and all the learning, and all the Christian experience, these centuries
have conferred on the human race, where is the man or the sect that has
ever completely mastered Christ's doctrine? The angels in heaven have not
yet mastered it. It will take all eternity to learn its beauty and glory and
blessedness.

Never man spake like the man Christ Jesus. His doctrine is pure as
a sunbeam, sublime as heaven, and true as God. It infinitely excels the
method of the Schools, and the teaching of all others, because the essential
element in all successful teaching is to impart the whole soul of the teacher
to his pupils. Christ not only does this best of all teachers, for true piety
can not exist within us without Christ's very, spirit, His very image
being within ls; but, oh, that impartation so far excels all the im-
partations of our most renowned teachers, that I have no words to express
it. No words can portray the Divine Word.

"Oh, who shall paint him ? Let the sweetest tone
That ever treinbled on the harps of heaven
* Be discord ; let the chanting seraphim,

Whose anthem is eternity, be dumb ;

For praise and wonder, adoration all V

Melt into muteness, ere they soar to Thee,
Thou sole perfection ! theme of countless worlds !"

ill!

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

TI-

And this ejaculation, however grand, is as nothingto convey the precious-
ness of the unspeakable inward experience of the love of God glowing in
the heart of the poorest, meanest, and most despised disciple of Jesus,
who has learnt His doctrine, and has the precious germ of eternal life in His
soul, which is struggling to grow and fashion his ineflFably sweet and lovely
image within, amidst so much that is opposed to it, and to make us all divine.

Indeed, silence here is best, silent musing,' with tears of joy, holy joy^
dimming the eyes, to, make us look within, and meditate, in sacred silence,
on the matter. But I would observe there is much at fault about

RELIGION VERSUS SCIENCE, AND VICE W.R ';,',.

Religionists have too long neglected the teachings of science which is
just the teachings of nature's laws. Too long have they opposed science
as if it were an enemy to their well-being. Too long have they despised the
culture of the intellect and strangely associated it with infidelity, which is
paying no small compliment to its adherents. Too long has ignorance
been the mother of our devotion, sentiment its nurse, narrow contracted
views its cradle, and sterility, and puerility its product and pretence.

The cause of Religion has suffered more than any one can tell from
this weakness. Such religionists disgrace t'le loftiest system of truth that
ever man or angel beheld. They have dwarfed it, deformed it, almost
annihilated it, although they know it not ; their little narrow con-
tracted souls have never allowed the boundlessness of the Gospel system
to be even looked at or to penetrate ^heir living consciousness with its glor-
ious effulgence of light and life and joy extending to all the mighty moral
universe of God as heaven's antidote against sin and sorrow and misery,
not only to irradiate all lands and all hearts on earth, but all the powers
and principalities of heavei) — the whole empire of God — and I will prove it.

The minds of too many christians have resembled dark caverns which
admit a little ray of heavenly light, but the divineness of Christ's doctrine is
proven thereby, when it has so cheered and comforted its subjects, so^
elevated and prepared them for a higher state of being, as no other system
of truth ever has done or can do.

On the other hand, infidels are very much at fault ; they set up Reason
against Religion, and Science against Faith ; for all truth is one, not two:
not two jarring elements and destructive forces, but one perfect whole.

Reason is as much required in matters of Religion as reason is
required in the circle of the Sciences ; and Faith is as much required in
every day life in the transactions of business and commerce, as faith is
required in the sublimer life of God in the soul ; hence, I consider that it
is a supreme proof of the Divinity of Christianity, when the laws written
upon our physical and mental and moral nature are the laws that are recog-
nized by Christianity as conducive to our well-being ; which laws Christ
himself fulfilled when upon the earth, in His childhood and manhood;
and which laws in our nature are developed by their evolution in righteous-
ness and true holiness so as to give us the sublime monarchy over ourselves
on earl!., an J by their higher development and holier transformation to
qualify us to sit on the thrones of heaven, for Christ in our nature now sits

nf?^

IHE (IREAT WANT OF THE ACIK.

at the right hand of the Majesty on High ; and has promised His disciples
to sit on His throne with him ! Now, this inward harmony between our
nature and Christianity for onward progress and development 1 consider
one of the most powerful proofs of the unity of truth that can be given, and
of the Divinity of Christianity.

None of the precepts of Christ violate any law of our physical consti-
tution, nor any law of our mental constitution, nor any law of ou • moral
constitution ; but Christ's precepts, when obeyed, add strength and purity
and beauty to the whole of our three-fold nature ; and there is therefore a
closer connection between our obedience to the laws that now secure our
present w^ell-being and our future well-being, than has been generally
considered. We are, by obedience to these laws, preparing for higher
happiness, higher privilege and nobler elevation hereafter among the saints
in light; while, on the other hand, through disobedience to these laws, which
God has stamped upon us in our present state, we are unfitting ourselves
for that higher state of being and lose it altogether. Fitness is a universal
law of nature.

Now,. all this reasoning proves that God designs our individual happi-
ness ; that the author of our being is the source of our well-being ; that
the God of nature is the God of Scripture ; that we are all made for pro-
gress and are making progress either for good or evil, for weal or for
woe ; that our future condition will bear an exact correspondence to our
present condition, morally considered ; and that all revolves upon the two
pivots of obedience to Divine Law, or of disobedience to Divine Law.

I now submit the plan I propose to secure the objects in view.

PLAN STATED.

Iiidividual progression in moral per/edion, as Us Imsis ; from supreme
love to God and sincere love to our fellow-men, as its molive ; and the amel-
ioration of mankind, as its end,

L The Review of the Age will come first, in order to see its wants.

IL The System of Atheism, examine d next, under its various phases and
proved to be a barrier in the way of progress, that requires to be removed.

in. The Being and Benignity of God established on seven rational
scientific grounds in order to reach the infinite fountain of happiness with
intelligence, with faith, with love, and deepest reverence.

IV. The Book of Books, wherein God has been pleased to reveal His
great promise to man, and the corresponding obligation to do His will;
and lastly :

V. The deeply important enquiry ?s to the origin of sin in a holy
universe, (i) traced to its source; (2) its awful consequences; (3) the
divine remedy ; (4) mankind placed in new conditions of probation superior
to 1 le old conditions ; (5) glorious results; (6) important lessons ; (7) the
un' ilding of the plan submitted through individual progression in moral

' pc. lection, from love to God and love to man, proved to be effectual for
the end proposed in the amelioration of human society and the attainment
of true happiness.

ill

THE AGK WE LIVE IN REVIEWED.

SECTION I.— THE AGE WE LIVE IN REVIEWED.

Seven Leading Characteristics. — (i) It is a mechanical age;
(2) A money-loving age ; (3) An age of unprecedented progress in science,
art, and education ; (4) It is a superficial age ; (5) A truth-forsaking age ;
(6) A sinful age ; and (7) It is a lawless age, and near its close.

Much has been said in high eulogy of the 19th century, and nearly as
much in severe censure of it. The authorities on either side have equal
( laims on our credence. Consequently, the only alternative left is to examine
the evidence of fucts, with unbiased minds, and impartially judge for our-
selves. The magister dixit, or human authority, is a thing of the past. Free-
dom of thought and discussion now takes the place of mental bondage.

Our age has seen a glorious day, in the breaking of many fetters.
Freedom of speech and a free press are among the glories ot our age. Our
fore-fathers purchased our civil and mental freedom for us, at the expense
of imprisonment and blood. May we worthily use it as the offspring of
such illustrious ancestors !

Mental thraldom is adverse to menial progress. Mental freedom is
the nurse of intellectual and moral vigor, and to these there is no limit.
For, if the accomplishment of philosophy imply a cessation of discussion, if
the result of speculation be a paralysis of itself, the consumn\ation of
knowledge is the condition of intellectual barbarism. But we need not
be afraid of this. We are but in the beginning of the onward progress
of our being ; great achievements in knowledge, as well as in human amel-
ioration and happiness, are yet to be made.

But the glorious freedom we now enjoy, as it produces more diversity
of opinion, so it necessitates more careful consideration ; it demands more
thoroughness of enquiry, to arrive at the truth in its harmony, so as to
approximate to the epoch when diversity will become unity.

The high intelligence of our age requires of all who live in it to be
intelligent ; and the numerous errors that jjievail should make us all the
more vigijant. Weeds grow faster than fruits, if not checked. Our single
aim should be to sacrifice everything to truth, so as to get at "the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Truth is the precious gem
we should all dig for, and knowledge is the wing whereby we fly to heaven.

THE AGE WE LIVE IN.

(i.) Our age, I have said, is "a mechanical age." The age, above and
beyond all others in the world's history, which, with its whole might, for-
wards, teaches, and practices the great art of adapting means to ends. The
19th century ushered in that triumph of mechanical skill, James Watts'
steam engine, perfected. This marvellous machine has communicated a
(juickening impulse to the mechanical genius in man, multiplied our indus-
trial activities, increased our riches, annihilated space, and enhanced the
value of time. It has girdled the globe with railways, made highways for
commerce along rivers, seas and oceans, and now a journey round the world
can be performed with far more ease and comfort, and in less time than it
took to visit the land of Palestine in a former age.

The advantages it has conferred are numerous ; se« how it wafts us

THE GREAT WANT OK IHK AGE.

across the Atlantic in spite of wind and weather, how it manufacturcsi our
garments, sows the corn, and reaps the golden grain ; see how it draws
water from the fountains, coal from the coal mines, oil from the oil wells,
prints literature to enlighten us and diffuses religion to bless us ; see how it
has been the promoter of peace, progress, and union among che nations,
and united mankind in the sanctities of brotherhood, and, with "one touch
of nature, n^akes the whole world kin !"

But, like everything that is good in our world, has not the steam
power been attended with some disadvantages ? If it has diminished man-
ual toil, has it not increased the demand for more physical activity and
mental energy, so that human life is often endangered ? If it has benefitted
the rich mill-owner, the large ship-owner, and the extensive railway share-
holder, has it adequately improved the condition of our operatives in the
mills, the mariners on the seas, and the employes on the railway's ? If it
has made millionaires of monopolists, has it not made bankrupts of smaU
traders, and created huge inequalities between the rich and poor ? whicli
inequalities are subversive of the spirit of Apostolic Christianity, which
exultei in fraternity, equality, and heaven-born liberty !

But the greatest evil attending our mechanical age is seen in its effect
on mechanical students, leading them to think that " mechanical law con-
forms everything to itself; " they have raved and said " man is a
machine," ♦' nature is a machine," " the human body is a piece
of clock-work, and the Deity is a mechanical power !" What wonder-
ful discoveries ! How very smart this is ! But the drollest of their
drolleries is when they assert : ** The brain secrets thought as the liver
secrets bile." The ground on which this mental law is founded is set
forth thus : that " the brain is the mind and the mind is the brain,
for everything is '•educible to matter," and, therefore, " the atomic theory
solves the problem of the universe and accounts for its origin." Thus it
would seem that what Jean Paul Ritcher predicted, has come to pass, that
" an age would come when of the world will be made a world-machme, of
the ether a gas," [well this may pass, but what follows cannot without pro-
test,] " of God a force and of the next world a coffin." Bosh ! Just a
a remark or two on this nonsense, that " mechanical law conforms every
thing to itself." Who does not see how this delusion arises? Let any
single idea become an all-absorbing idea in the mind and it will shape and
conform everything to itself? Everyone views things from his own stand-
point and through his own media, through his own glasses, for everyone
wears glasses of some sort, except the impartial and cmdid. Lord Bacon
has cleared up this well in his '* Doctrine of the Fallacy," wherein he shows
how the human mind is biased and misled in its judgment by preconceived
opinions, prejudices, idle conceits, ignorance and error, which he appro-
priately designates "the idols of the mind." Enquiring and reflective
young men and women would do well to read Lord Bacon on the *' Doct-
rine of the Fallacy," which dissects the human mind with the hand of a mas-
ter. Who has not been amused and amazed at the different opinions about
the same things that are entertained without any jight and clear knowledge
of what they are so positive about, making one laugh to split their sides at

THE AGE WE LIVE IN REVIEWED.

their funny observations. As Virgil's peasant compared great things with
small, Rome with Mantua, so many compare London with its millions to
their little village or town with its units. So is it with mechanical law, in
some minds conforming everything to itself.

But it 13 not true in point of fact, but a gross blunder to say
" mechanical law conforms everything to itself," because there are other
laws besides the mechanical law in operation in the universe, — the law of
attraction, the law of of electricity, the law of magnetism, etc., not to speak
of spiritual laws or the hidden principle of life, all of which are quite
different from the principle of mechanical law or dynamics. Besides, who
gave these laws their birth and their different modes of operation ? The
scientists hailed machinery as a new revelation of the structure of the
universe to get rid of the supreme intelligence who constructed it ! How
strangely men will contradict themselves ! See how they admired James
Watt's genius in discovering the mechanical law and lauded him to the
skies while the infinite intelligence who formed the mechanical law is
regarded as without intelligence and that a congress of brainless atoms origi-
nated it ! Is not the framer of a law greater than he who interprets it ? Who
but an infinite intelligence could construct the machinery of the material
universe, and what mind but an infinite mind could have impressed upon it
the laws that regulate its uniform modes of operation ? To say '* the brain is
the mind and the mind is the brain," is equally untrue, as to say " mechan-
ical law conforms everything to itself" For the brain is not the mind, but
the organ of the mind, ai the eye is the organ of vision and the ear the
organ of hearing. The mind is as distinct and different from the brain, as
a man is distinct and different from the house he lives in. The house is
not the man and the man is not the house. The soul of man is as distinct
from the body, as the house is, he lives in. There is a spirit in man and
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

Matter is not mind, and mind is not matter. Take the attributes of
the one and the attributes of the other, compare them, and you will find
they have nothing in common, but are entirely different. What are the at-
tributes or properties of matter ? Matter has in it, — take for example a
stone, a basin of water, a clod of the valley, a fiower, or a tree, — and you
will find in all these objects the properties of extension ; they can be meas-
ured and weighed, and so can the brain. Resistance — the stone you touch
resists your touch ; the water you put your hand into waves its yielding
drops to receive your hand, but still retains its gentle resistance, and is,
therefore, a powerful astringent. Divisibility— you can divide the stone,
or cut the diamond finer and finer, still it sparkles, and you. only want in-
struments and strength of vision to divide it still more and more, an infini-
tum. And matter has the property of "vis inertite," inactivity, or mo-
bility, the power of motion when put into motion.

These are the principal properties which matter, with its endless mod-
ifications, possesses, and by means of these properties belonging to matter
we judge of its essence.

Now, consider the attributes or properties of mind. Mind has the
property of perception ; it can discern, or apprehend, and obtain know-

THE f;REAT WANT OF THE A<iE.

>:.■

ledge through the senses, and form ideas. Matter can not do this. It is
the spiritual essence in the brain, through the external senses, that does it.
Mind has the property of consciousness of a living principle within. It
can think, can will, choose, or refuse ; it can recall the past, anticipate the
future, can combine, create, and originate fresh thoughts and new ideas
of things, and this senseless matter can not do.

Matter dies when it has served its end ; mind never dies, but lives
forever. It has the impress of immortality stamped upon it. When the
brain and the senses have served the end of their existence an the organ
and the vehicles of the mind, they return to their kindred dust, but the
soul returns to Him who gave it. The body goes down to the grave, but
the living and undying essence within us enters upon the boundless expanse
of eternity. Reason and revelation teach this.

The attributes of progress distinguish the mind from matter. In all
the organized productions of nature, we see that they require only a limited
time to reach their perfection and accomplish their end. Take, for ex-
ample, that noble production — a tree. Having reached a certain height
and borne leaves, flowers, and fruits, it has nothing more to do. Its powers
are fully developed ; it has no hidden capacities, of which its buds and
fruits are only the beginnings and pledges. Its design is fulfilled ; the
principle of life within it can effect no more. Not so the mind. It is
always growing, and expanding, and yielding higher and richer fruits in
virtue, and goodness, and intellectual attainments.

" 'Tis immortality disciphers man, and explains the mysteries of his
Maker " The mind, by going forwards, does not reach insurmountable
prison-walls, but learns, more and more, the boundlessness of its powers
and its unending progress.

The superiority of mind to matter is great. A child, by touching a
valve,can put the great steam engine into motion to drive a thousand shuttles.
Therefore, while we hail our mechanical age for its awakening the slum-
bering intellect, by the ingenious adaptation of means to ends, which is cer-
tainly better than stolid indifference and mental inactivity, it is deeply to
be regretted that this gam of man's intellectual progress should have cost
so much loss to man's spiritual progress, in the highest realm of our being
— the holy of holies in the inner shrine of the spirit.

Men have exercised their intellect so much upon matter that they
have lost sight of the spirit within them, and have doubted the existence of
the Infinite Spirit without them.

It has been observed that the study of the physical sciences, as chem-
istry, is unfavorable to spirituality of mind, and the same may be said of
anatomy ; when in the dissecting room vivisection is performed, to find
the hidden essence of life, and scalpels are us^ed to discover in death the
laws of health, and the same applies to the astronomer, who searches for
the Invisible Spirit in the material universe.

"an undevout astronomer is mad!"

One of the most gifted star-gazers of the age, to whose mental eye the
whole system of the universe appeared in all its glory and harmony, con-

THK AiiE WE LIVE IN . REVIEWED.

: they

tinually sought and expected some materia" representati- n of the Infinite
Spirit, and refused to believe in God, because he did not see His glory
with his bodily eye. How unreasonable are our scientists, since, if they
got what they wished, it would be " no God " — no more than the universe
itself is. " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
showeth his handy work." The material universe is an emanation from
God, a bright shadow of the Infinite Spirit that dwelleth in the light whicli
is unapproachable and full of glory, God never wrought a miracle to con-
vince Atheism ; His ordinary works convince Atheism, for His invisible at-
tributes are thereby revealed so that Atheism is without excuse and with-
out reason. — (Rom. : i, 20). For God is a Spirit which cannot be seen as
material things are seen, but by the eye of faith. Physical science, by ab-
sorbing the mind, banishes reflection upon spiritual objects, and leaves the
soul destitute of God, and deprives it of communion with him, vhich is
man's highest good. " To be carnally minded is death ; but to be spiritu-
ally minded is life and peace."

To reduce every thing to matter is attended with most serious consc-
(juences. The noble aspirations of the hum.an soul are transferred to cast
metal mouldings that are cold, hard and dead. It robs man of all the
tender feelings of the heart, of the gush and glow of all genuine poetry of
the glories of a future state and the purifying hope of heaven and of God
himself, our infinite portion. I would rather have them if they were not
immortal than be without them although they are.

Materialism spreads a withering blight over the life and health of true
religion and makes the present '* life not worth living for," and the next
what no good man can ever be reconciled to, for he instinctively loves to
live and shrinks from annihilation. An improved mind understands the
greatness of its own nature, and the worth of existence ! The thought of its
destr action suggests to it an extent of ruin that the unimproved mind
connot comprehend. The thought of such faculties as reason, conscience,
and moral well-being extinguished, — of powers, akin to the divine energies,
Deing annihilated by their author, — of truth and virtue, those images of
God, being blotted out, of progress towards perfection, beir.g broken off
almost at its beginning — this is a thought fitted to overwhv'^lm a mind in
which the consciousness of its own spiritual nature is in a good degree
unfolded. The more the mind is true to itself and to God, the more it
clings to existence, the more it shrinks from extinction as an infinite loss.
Therefore material Atheism is one of the greatest evils connected with our
mechanical aee.

From the review of our age thus far, do we not perceive that the
extinction of material atheism and all practical atheism by the substitution
of an enlightened and heal*hy and vigorous spirituality is the one great want
of the age. This two-fold itheism lies at the root of all existing evils in
society, and if this two-headed monster be not-emoved society is bound to
get worse in its sin and misery. I have heard some young men say in a
haughty defiant tone : " How can I believe in God ? I have never seen
him !" And I have replied : "You cannot see your own thoughts, yet you
believe in them ! You cannot see your own feelings, yet you believe in

1 1

'A t

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

their existence ! How many places you believe in that you .have never
seen ! therefore seeing is not essential to believing.

There was once a rich man talking to a poor 'man, and the rich man
said, " I never saw God and how can I believe there is a God unless I
see Him ? If you will show Him," said the rich man to the poor man, " I
will believe in Him." " I cannot show you God," said the poor man,
" but I can show you one of his livery servants." " Oh, I would like to
see one of his livery servants," the nobleman, in a spirit of irony and sport,
replied. The sun was shining in his noon-tide splendor. He bade the noble-
man to accompany him to his cottage door. " Look up," he said, " into
the face of that glorious sun, and you will see the face of one of God's
livery servants — the livery he wears is made of golden lace, golden sun-
beams !" " Oh, I cannot look into the sun's disc, it would blind me," said
the nobleman. " Then," the poor man said, " if, sir, you cannot look on
the face of one of God's servants, how can you see God, whose glory is
infinitely brighter ?" The poor man was right, for no man hath seen God
at any time, the only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
declared Him. God can only be seen and known by Jesus Christ, who is
the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person.
Christ is all that God is. In all that Christ said and did we see the divine
character of God revealed. Faith in Christ is the seeing faculty of the
Boul. It is the " eye salve." It enlightens the eyes of the understanding.
Faith gives us visions of spiritual realities, as science gives us discoveries
of material phenomena. It plants new eyes in the soul ; it realizes the
invisible, as John Milton found in his blindness. And every man is spirit-
ually blind until he is thus divinely enlightened, and sees God.

Oh, there is nothing so deadening to the soul as materialism, nothing
so destructive to the spirituality of religion and its true glory. Therefore
Christians should be on their guard against the material tendencies of our
age. The ministers of religion, Sunday-school teachers and the noble-
minded gentlemen of the Press should all strive to counteract these mate-
rial tendencies, for they are immoral tendencies, they are sweeping away
all that is great and good and God-like from the earth, and disqualifying
the soul for a higher state of being.

*' Mind, It Seeth ; Mind, It Heareth ; — All Besides is Deaf

AND Blind.

''The sequences of law we learn through mind alone,

We see but outward forms, the soul — the one thing known,

If she speak truth at all, the voices must be true

That gave these visible things, those laws their honor due,

But tell of One that brought us hither,

And holds the keys of whence and whither.

"To matter or to force, all is not confined,
Beside the law of things, is set the law of mind,
One speaks in rock and star, and one within the brain.
In unison at times, and then apart aeain.
And both in one hath brought us hither,
That we may know our whence and whither. ' - • •-

WE LIVE IN A MONEY LOVING AGK.

Have we not reached, in the lapse of the ages, the predicted age of
the " iron and the clay" -'that formed the legs and feet in Nebuchadnez-
zar's image ?— a sign, this, that it will soon walk off and be no more, I
trust. For, as the other parts of the vision have been fulfilled, in the de-
struction of the world-powers, by parity of reasoning, so will the last part
of it be fulfilled in the destruction of the materialism of our age. The lit-
tle stone cut out of the mouncain, without hands, is destined to become a
great mountain, and fill the whole earth with its light and shade, its ver-
dure and living water, and fill it with the beatitudes of heaven ! For the
kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. Is not the tiridegroom now addressing his bride, saying,
'* Awake, awake ; put on thy atrength, O Zion ; put on thy beautiful gar-
ments, O Jerusalem, the hcly city, for henceforth there shall no more come
unto thee the uncirc^mcised and unclean. Arise and sit down, O Jerusa-
lem ; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive, daughter of
Zion." — Is. Hi.: i, 2.

(2.)— WE LIVE IN A MONEY-LOVING AGE.

It is a money-loving age, because it is a money-making age. The age
of machinery has made it a golden age. The whole aim and end of mod-
em enquiry into the laws of nature, and the subjugation of material forces
to the human volition, has been to make money and to make more money.
Machinery has found the philosopher's stone, what the old Alchemists
sought for in vnin to transmit all baser metals into gold. Never were so
many fortunes made than during the past forty years. The annual returns
of England, including Canada, and of the Republic of America prove a
gradual increase every year, until now they are simply beyond our utmost
comprehension, very easy to write down and report, but incomprehensible
to thought Machinery has, as it were, with the power of magic, opened
innumerable silver and golden mines, and has said to England and America,
*' Take as much as you like, and come for more." The result is that these
two foremost nations of the earth are elevated in influence and power above
all other nations '* High on a throne of royal state, which far outshines the
wealth of Ormus and of Ind, or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold," they "exalted" sit.

Without their spirit of enterprise, and industry, and energy, mighty
England and gigantic America could never have reached their pre-emin-
ence. But who gave them that spirit ? Who prepared them, by a long
series of ages of conflict in various ways, and gave them the golden oppor-
tunity to improve ? Every right thinking mind will ascribe it to the God in
whom we live and move and have our being. For a man can have nothing
good except it come from the author of all good. The earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness thereof, and God has honored these two illustrious nations
■above all others, because they have honored him, But is there not much
prodigality among the rich ? and improvidence among the poor ? Is there
not much prevalence of the sentiment, " My money is my own," " My
self-created treasure," and "I have aright to do with it as I please"? Has
not the stewardship of money under God been fearfully lost sight of? To

THF. OREAl' WAN I OF THF. AdE.

whom much is given, whether in money or talents of any kind, of them
much shall be required. Has not the accumulation of money in our day be-
come a vice, and the love of it a crime, and its abuse an abomination tiiat
maketh desolate ?

Instead of money proving a blessing, has it not been made a curse to
its possessor ? Instead of it being employed to benefit the poor and weak,
to relieve the needy and help the industrious honest tradesman, to prevent
bankruptcy and establish business on a sounder basis, and in philantrophic
en*^crprises for the general good of mankind, in i)romoting education,
c'vlization, religion and human happiness, and thereby bring the highest
satisfaction to its possessor from the luxury of doing good, and receiving
in his bosom the benediction of heaven. Has it not been either niggardly
hoarded or prodigally wasted and made to pander, to pride, *o self-aggran-
dizement and to base selfish ends in every degrading form ? There arc of
course many notable exceptions, such as the late Mr, I'eabody, J.ord
Shaftesbury, Lady Coutts and others in humble life, but doubtless there
are many faithful stewards of their means both among the great and among
the industrious poor, and people of moderate means whose charities are
least known, for they are always the best contributors to all the benevolent
and religious institutions that adorn our age. But,

Still the love of money among the rich and the poor and the well-to-do
is the besetting sin of our age. It has become to an extent as it never
was before, the insatiable moloch of the human heart, before whose
remorseless altar all the finer feelings of humanity are saciified. What will
men not do to get money ; th jy will lie for it, steal for it, starve for it,
forge for it, lose their soul for it, and die for it ! Hence the love of money
is a root of all evil among us.

" In England," says the Right Honorable W. E. Gladstone, "wealth is
no longer the possession of a few, but rather what is termed a drug." IJut
if the distinction it once conferred is now lost, its love is not lessened.

According to the spirit of the Gospel and the Christian dispensation,
no one has any right to set his heart upon riches, its express command is,
" If riches increase set not your heart upon them. You cannot serve God
and Mammon."

2. No one has a right to accumulate money for its own sake or from
love to it, or to hoard it up. The Master expressly forbids it. " Lay not
up for yourselves treasures upon earth," — but lay up for yourselves treas-
ures in heaven. [Mati;. vi. 19, 2o,l

3. No one has any right to be anxious to get rich. " They that will be
rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts which drown men in perdition. For the love of money is a root of all
evil, which while some coveted after (or reaching after) have erred from the
faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." [i Tim.vi.: 8, 9.]

4. No one has any right to be over-anxious about his temporal interests.
Take no thought for the morrow or be not anxious for the morrow. Be
•anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. [Phil, iv., 6.]
"Trust God for the future," and "/>e noi idle," are heaven's mandates.

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WE LIVi: IN A MONEY LOVINd AtlK.

5. No one has any right to do what he likes with his money, except to
do good to others with it, " To do good and to communicate, forget not :
for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." — Heb., xiii : 16. " Look not
every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others."
—Phil. ii. : 4-

6. No one has any ri^ht to live a luxuriant, self-indulgent life, while
there is one poor indigent fellow-creature to be found in the world. Who-
so hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth
up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in
him ? The rich man spoken of by the Saviour, who was clothed in purple
and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day, found himself in the next
world where he fared badly, and was grievously tormented by hell's bitter
reflections.

. jL.astly. 7. No one has any claim to the name of Christian who is des-
titute of self-denial for the express benefit of others. Heaven's mandate
is this, "Let this i.iind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." And the
Saviour stipulates self-denial as the condition of true discipleship. "If any
man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and
follow Me" in doing good to others. Do not our own souls bear witness
to the teaching of Christ, that it is the narrow way of self-denial for His
sake which leadeth to life — brings us true happiness here and hereafter.
All the true blessedness that is tasted in this world is the .esult of the self-
denial of Qhrist Jesus, and all the real good that one man does best for another
man costs self-sacrifice of some kind. All great deeds bear the impress of
self-denial. Without self-denial history could have nothing in it to thrill
us with admiration. Without self-denial we should have no consciousness
of the power and greatness of the human soul. Without self-denial we love
feebly and coldly, because we perceive nothing in one another to love
earnestly, vehemently, and unto death.

Our age is a money-loving age, — it loves gold more than God. It is
no heroic age. it is no deep philosophic age, it is no devotional age, and
it is no golden age except in the lowest sense — its accursed love of gold.
Gold is the dust that now blinds all eyes. The love of money, like a
kanker worm, is killing the life of piety in Christendom. Cur age is
making quite an opposite application of money to that which the Word of
Godtteaches and requires, as the seven particulars above show. i. Its
heart is set on money ; 2. It accumulates it for its own sake ; 3. It is
anxious to get rich ; 4. It is over-anxious about its temporal interests ;
5. It does what it likes with it, and has no right to do so ; 6. It is living
in luxury, while many are dying of want ; and, 7. It has no claim to the
Christian name, while it does not exercise self-denial for the honor of Christ
and for the benefit of others.

The deceitfulness of the human heart is no where revealed so much
as by the deceitfulness of riches. How many who, when poor, wished to
become rich to do good to others and forget it all afterwards. A lady who
when in humble circumstances so wished, and she had her wish granted.
But what was the result ? Whereas, while in her humble circumstances she
was remarkably liberal with her means in promoting the cause of Christ,

IHE (.RF.AT WANT OF THE AdK.

which is the cause of human happiness in every form, when in God's pro*
vidence she became rich, she left off giving as she used to do. On being
reminded of her oft repeated wish to be rich that she might give more, and
asked why it was she used to give so freely and so well when poor, and
now when rich gave so little and so grudgingly, she replied, " When I was
poor I had a golden heart, but now that I am rich I have a poor, miserable,
greedy heart, which will scarcely part with anything."

This is a type of rich Christians in modern society. Many have been
greatly enriched, but their helping hand for the amelioration of their fellow-
men has not been put forth in proportion to their riches and increased
responsibility as stewards under God. This is one ot the great wants of
our age — to make a right use of money.

The love of money is burning out Christianity from the heart, and
erecting the god of this world in its place. It is the greatest sin in our
times. Far more extensive than intemperance and drunkenness, and yet
how little is said against it from the pulpit, nor is there any society
formed to suppress it ! Money is now cleaving like a curse to its
possessor instead of proving a blessing to its possessor and others, which
it has been given for, as " a thank-offering to the Lord in righteousness."

How many are attempting whit infinite wisdom has pronounced an
impossibility — " Ye cannot seri'e Cod and mamnion.^^ Many think them-
selves wiser than God, herein the man of sin is revealed.

By conforming themselves to the world, by seeking their own personal
aggrandisement and importance, and by gratifying the carnal mind, they
prove they have not a particle of pure Christianity in them ; for," if any man
love the world the love of the Father is not in him", and the true Christian
is one who is crucified to the world, and the world to him and for him to
live is not self to live in him, but Christ to live in him, and to bs carnally
minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because it
is to be possessed of a God-like benevolence and a Christ-like self-denial,
which brings life and peace and true bliss. Now this deep and dreadful
evil — the love of money — which is a root of all evil in our times, must be
removed from the earth and no longer cleave as a curse to its possessor,
but be turned into a blessing — the love of gold changed mto the love of God.

The infallible Teacher said, " Where your treasure is there will your
heart be also ?" Tell me where your treasure is, and I will tell you where
your heart is. God has a supreme and exclusive right to our whole heart.
If we do not love God with the ».hole heart, we do not love him at all.
Many love him with a divided heart : " No man can serve two masters"
of opposite interests, for either he will hate the one and love the other ;
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.

But many, as I have said, commit a horrid crime in our day. They
make Qod a liar, for God has saidj " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon;"
but they say we can and mean to do it. Those who exalt themselves
above God in their opinions and practises have no Christianity in them,
because they are without its work of faith and its service of love. They
have never perceived the claims of God to their supreme affection, they
have never perceived how God is the sum of all excellence and the source

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«3

of all ha|)pin( SN. How He has an exclusive right in us ns oui maker and
preserver, our benefactor and redeemer, our moral governor and eternal
judge ! How He has established his claims to our Hupreme love by the
infinite love he has exercised towards us in the gift of his only begotten
Son to be \hc propitiatory sacrifice for our sins. Herein is love like a God.
Our hearts are naturally alienated from God. But this is no excuse for
not loving him. It is all the greater reason why we should begin now to
love him. Our obligations to love God supremely arise from his right in
us, his love to us, his infinite excellency and his authoritative command,
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy strength." [Deut. vi, 5.] There is no law more
reasonable than this. For God is supreme in Himself as God, and if He
is not supreme in our regards, something else is, and we rob God of his
right, as the child, who does not love a kind and dutiful and loving father,
robs him of his right of filial affection. But the only way we really come
to love our Father in heaven is by believing his love to us, on the principle
that love begets love. It is in this way the early Christians explained their
great love to God, because of His infinite love to them in the gift of His
Son to be their Saviour, saying with exquisite delight, " We love Him
because He first loved us." And sometimes from the contemplation of
His revealed character, saying, " We have known and believed the love
that God hath to us, God is love."

O let us (deeply fix it in our hearts, that God cherishes an infinite
interest in the welfare of every one of us ; that He does love each one of
us with an mfinite love, and let us see its manifestation in the cross of
Christ till our heart burns with love to God in return, and let the undivided
sentiment of our heart be, " Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there
is none on all the earth whom I desire besides Thee," and prove it by
keeping His commandments, or wr are lost !

When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss •

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,

Th^t were a present far too small :

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul, my life, my all !

(3.)— WE LIVE IN AN AGE OF UNPRECEDENTED PROGRESS
IN SCIENCE, ART, AND EDUCATION.

Extraordinary activity and mental energy marks our age. The speed
of the steam engine, and the lightning of the telegraph have changed en-
tirely the face of human society. The dull sluggishness of former ages has
given place to progress in everything, and given an upward direction to
civilization, intelligence, and refinement. Narrow, contracted ideas have
g iven place to broad and liberal ideas ; ignorance, to knowledge ; and the
bondage of mental thraldom, to the freedom of mental independence.
Science has achieved most brilliant discoveries, art has elaborated most
wonderful inventions, and education has in our age made most rapid

Ili;

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514

THE GREAT WAN 1 OF THE AOE.

i!i'!:

Strides. Education has come down from the sequestered and expensive
halls of learning to the humblest cottages, and the schoolmaster is abroad
as he never was before, knocking at every door for admission to give the
boon of a liberal education to all.

During the last half century science has made the progress of many
centuries, which is familiar to every one, for the wonderful manual of our
age — the daily newspaper, tells everybody everything, so that Jno one
can boast he knows more than his neighbor. Thus the Scripture
prophecy has become history, when "many shall run to and fro, and know-
ledge shall be increased." — Dan.,xii., 4. And what I have been struck
with IS the avidity with which the knowledge is received, for, go
where you will, in the old world of Europe or in the new world
of America and Canada, you will find, by sea and by land, by rail
and by river, in store and in parlor, the newspaper, spread and read,
which shows the mighty power the gentlemen of the press possess
for good or for evil, in meeting the love in the human mind for news, and
to gratify curiosity and higher attributes of the mind. Whatever they write
or communicate, let it be truth ; let it be wholesome food for the mind,
and not sensational trash and deadly poison.

Our able men in science are deserving of our aeepest gratitude for
their grand revelations of the material universe. They have shed a flood
of light inourtimes on many of the sciences in nature, which would fill mary
volumes torecord, they haverevealed the vastness of creation, unknown to the
ancients, the harmony of nature's laws and forces, all reducible to one, viz.,
motion, and the beauty with which nature is adorned, as Professor Tindall
and others have so well brought to light, and charmed us with.

By the discoveries of science, and the application of its laws to prac-
tical purposes, new conditions in society are being rapidly brought about.
Science is rapidly restoring man to his lost sovereignty over nature. As at
first God made man upright, and he departed from God by seeking out
many "inventionsfl^ so God is again making man upright by teaching him
loyalty to his laws. There is homage paid to these laws in the study and
discovery of them. As man fell by seeking after forbidden knowledge —
the knowledge of evil — so man is yet to rise through communicated know-
ledge of good. As it was at first, he lost his rectitude by his "inventions" —
his moral delinquencies, so it is by the reverse road of righteousness he is
to regain true happiness. The teachings of science are the teachings of
unerring nature. Nature was man's first book of knowledge. This first
book does not differ in its teachings from the second book — the Book of
Scripture. They may look different to the superficial thinker, — the one a
Gospel of Works, the other a Gospel of Faith ; but they are both founded
on the same foundation, namely, rectitude. Nature is homage to the law
of rectitude, so is Christ's Gospel. See how nothing which God does, or
God sanctions, but is right. He is holy in all His works, and juai in all
His ways. The foundations cf the material universe are laid in unerring
precision to truth, so is its superstructure reared in unerring adherence to
truth. All natt:re's laws and forces obey their ordinances with unerring

WE LIVE IN AN AGE OF UNPRECEDENTED PROGRESS.

*f^

regularity and uniformity, to do His will, which is holy, just, and good.
Not one faileth unto this day.

So in the Gospel system. Its foundations aie laid in equity. For
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. It is reared in obedience to
rectitude, the just shall live by faith, no faith without righteousness, and
its crown is a crown of righteousness. It is revealed by the exercise of
faith to the believing mind, because it is a system of truth based on testi-
mony, and there is no other possible way for testimony to operate, but
through faith, as our daily transactions prove. But Gospel faith leads to
holiness of life, or it is dead. It works by love, and purifies the heart. 'And
without holiness no man shall see the Lord. The two books are one and
the same, in reality, although they differ in the mode of their manifestation
of the same inner principle — rectitude. God, in His providence, is send-
ing us all back to learn the first book, that we may be better enabled
to interpret the second book ; and do His will and be happy.

On the mission of Science, morally considered, it would be easy to
write a volume to show how, by her unfoldings of the growth and develop-
ment and designs of physical law, a gospel of glad tidings is preached by
every flower of the field and every fowl of the air, as Christ taught his
disciples, and said to his disciples, who were rather earthly minded like
ourselves : " Take no thought" — no distracting thought — the Greek verb
here used as elsewhere in the New Testament being derived from
" merimn a," distracting thought — and rendered in the new version " Be
not anxious for your life," your present eartMy life, " what ye shall eat, or
what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on." This is
all that many think about who call themselves Christians, alas ! "Is not
the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment ? Behold the
fowls of the air or the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into bams ; and your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are not ye of much more value than they ? And why are ye anxious con-
cerning raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they
toil not neither do they spin. Yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in
all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothe
the grass of the field, which to-day is and to-morrow is cast into the oven
(as in Oriental lands) shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little
faith?" [Matt, vi, 25-30.] See and hear how dumb nature speaks forth lessons
of dependence and humble faith in God's providential care, lessons that
we all need to learn. While at the same time the Gospel of Christ incul-
cates "diligence in business" and is a scolder of indolence.

But it is not in my plan to dwell on nature's teachings nor on any
point long, as the field to be traversed does not admit of it. All I can do
is to serve the purpose of a finger post along the road to happiness, and
to show the way to it. Not that he that " runneth may read," a text always
so misquoted — there is too much running in our day — but that " he may
run that readeth it." [Hab. ii, 2,] First read then run the right road, and
don't make a mistake nor take the wrong road in running too fast.

To the able and worthy men of science I would venture a word or
two, I cannot but admire their industry and perseverance, for

THE GREAT WANT OK IHIC AGE.

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» !

' ^

•' Science will not be searched with saucy looks,"
they who would discover the hidden treasures of science must be content
to dig deep, to wait long, and to thankfully accept any kind or amount of
riches which may reward their perseverance, lest their discoveries may in
a future age be contradicted by greater accuracy in the interpretation of
nature's unerring laws. For this is the weak point in science, that the
discoveries of one age are contradicted bythe next.

I would seek to cheer and encourage our able men of scientific
pursuits to search deeply and diligently into every particular of their
laborious investigations by the consideration that a fuiuro age will confirm
their accuracy and reward their memory for it.

What is wanted from our scientists, as they well know, is this, above
everything else, the accurate knowledge of fact?, not fancies, not conject-
ures, but truth. What care, therefore, is needed, lest their senses may
deceive them, and lest their instruments and calculations may mislead
them. Since the discoveries of science can only benefit mankind in as far
as they are correct readings of nature, and it is no, easy task to discover
new truth or to find out flaws in what has been received as truth. But the
greater the difficulty the greater the reward and the merit of overcoming^it.
Neither are scientific men responsible for the consequences which result
from their disclosures, however they may exasperate the odium Theolo-
gicuin ; let them fearlessly propound what they have faithfully found to be
in accordance with the incontrovertible evidence of facts, and let conse-
quences go to the winds. Be independent men. All truth is one, not two.
It is a' ways in harmony with-titself and never contradictory, for " no lie is
of the truth," wherever it is found in the volume of nature, in the volume
of Scripture, or in the volume of the human consciousness, for these three
are one, as God in his trinal nature is One.

And, oh ! now cheering is the thought that the triumph of truth in its
complete oneness and internal harmony is* only a question of time, and
your diligent "earch in reaching it is the help vre need from you to reach
the glorious goal ; therefore, let the progress you make be your stimulus to
advancement.

I have only one consideration more to submit. Stupendous and vast
as the additions to our knowledge in every department of physical science
have been during the last half century, and grateful though we are for them
all, still it should never be forgotten that we are but still standing in the
threshold of the temple of truth. And without in the least disparaging
the brilliant discoveries of late years, permit me to ask how little do we
really know of the planet we inherit and the system to which it belongs ?
How little do we know, as we ought to know, of the wonderful magazine
of the atmosphere by which our planet is encompassed ? So as to purify it
to the utmost and rendered it salubrious as Eden ? How little do we know
of the evolution of the winds, so as to make them subservient to greater
practical ends ? Why should we not be able to sail in the air in oerial
carriages, as ships float in the sea ? How little do we know of the laws of
desolating storms and inundations and earthquakes? How little do we as
yet know of the crust of the earth and its interior, and are not its hidden

WE LIVi: IN AN ACE OF UNPRECEDENTED PROGRESS.

treasures brought more to light through accident than through research.

We live in a practical age, and if our able Scientists would direct their
enquiries more to practical purposes, how much more would be gained
for the good of mankind, than speculatit^e enquiries about remote phe-
nomena, with which we are as little benefitted as the puzzling problems of
the old schoolmen about entities and non-entities^ and about how
many angels could dance on the point of a needle, forgetting that the
angels are spirits, and the question is without a point ! If our Scientists,
with their great abilities, would come down from the lofty heights they
love to dwell in, and condescend to men of low degree like us mortals,
and help us to understand more of our physical relationships, and how bet-
ter to fulfil the conditions of our physical nature, while we inhabit cot-
tages of clay which we must soon quit, they would become more useful, I
fancy, as the scientific lights of the age we live in, and supply one great
want of our age in furtherance of human amelioration and happiness.

The sanitary laws is a proof how much health and longevity have
been promoted by public attention being called to them of late years, and
how the enforcement of sanitary conditions during the last thirty years has
driven away cholera and pestilence from the crowded cities of England
and the continent of Europe, and gigantic America. Let this qnestioa be
still pursued by medical men, as well as by scientific philanthropists, until
the ravages of the crops by armies of foreign invaders, and prevailing
epidemics, and ague, and consumption are known no more. What a boon !

P or it is evident to my mind that this is in accordance with the divine
arrangement.. God has given us bodies to keep in accordance with physi-
cal law, and He has given us reason to guide us in the discovery of physi-
cal law, and we are as much under the obligation to obey physical law
for the health of the body, as we are under obligation to obey the moral
law for the health of the soul.

Men forget God has written all the science we can ever need in the
volume of nature, and, therefore, a second volume did not require to be
written upon science, and we as much require to go and enquire what He
has written in the volume of nature, as to go and read what He has written in
Scripture. God treats us as rational and responsible beings, endowed with
reason, having created us in His image. "What a piece of wor i is a man !
How noble in reason ! How infinite in faculties !"

I now turn the attention of the reader to the progress achieved in our
times in the Fine Arts. The works in sculpture and painting of our day,
that adorn our museums, crystal palaces, and private dwellings, will bear
comparison with the immortal works of Athens in sculpture, and the old
masters in painting, and in some respects they surpass them. Those
ancient works are now seen at a discount, let it be remembered, in conse-
quence of the lapse of time, since the breathing marble and the glowing
canvas came from the hand of the artist in all their freshness and splendor.

But my reason for stating that our age is distinguished by its progress
in the Fine Arts, specified, not to mention others, such as architecture, (for
arf hitectural pride we cannot boast of) derives its confirmation from the

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IHE GREAT WANT OF THK AGE.

progress made during the last thirty years, or since the International Ex-
hibition in London in 1851, the first of all the Industrial Exhibitions, and
which owed its existence to the illustrious Prince Albert, "the Good," the
warm admirer and zealous promoter of taste and refinement, of social in-
dustry, and education, and who gave a tone to the fine arts, and an upward
progress to their execution, that has left its impress on our age, and has
vitalized the world of art ever since ; that great exhibition was opened by
him, and flits across the fancy like a fairy scene, with exquisite delight,
as a noble conception and a "joy forever."

The progress made since in the Fine Arts has been very considerable.
We had some great masters in the fine arts then, but how they have in-
creased since, and have called forth latent talent of marvellous excellence,
slumbering in obscurity, even in the lower strata of li e, both in sculpture
and painting. Let no one think little of this department of human pro-
gress in society, for in the essence of beauty there is a divineness that is
most refining and elevating and purifying to the mind, and is much needed
in our age of "iron and clay."

We advocate the cultivation of the Fine Arts, because they have a close
affinity with the essence of true religion, and because of their refining
influence. Refinement may exist without true religion, but true religion
cannot exist without true refinement. The Greek nation was a nation that
was refined in a high degree, bui the Greek nation was not a religious
nation. The ancient Greeks excelled all others in the refinement of their
language and literature; they cultivated their language to the highest
degree, and there is not a more flexible and beautiful language under
heaven than the Greek ! So that of old it was said if the immortal gods
came down to earth they would speak in the language of Plato. They so
excelled all nations in Sculpture, so that now every fragment of a leg or
arm they have left is hailed as a rich and invaluable treasure of art. They
excelled all other nations, too, in philosophy through their native depth of
insight. Evolution was its fundamental principle, as it is the foundation
of all philosophy, which, no doubt, they got from the Hebrew scriptures.
Evolution is the gradual development ol any organism requiring develop-
ment. It is illustrated in nature, it is revealed in Grace. Taught in
Christ's parables, as in the parable of the mustard seed. But the
Greeks lacked the true knowledge of God, for by wisdom they knew
not God, and, as a nation, they have come to naught, as every nation
does, and every individual does, without trua religion. The French
nation is a polite and refined nation, but it is not a religious nation. Many
persons are polite and refined who are without true religion, and too often
their sweet refinement, their exquisite taste, their love of the beautiful is
made a substitute for true religion, which is a fearful blunder.

But true religion cannot exist without refinement, for it softens the
dispositions, it elevates the heart, it purifies the imagination, it refines the
sensibilities of our God-like nature, producing tenderness and gentleness,
and an incessant longing after progression in moral perfection, in likeness
to Jesus, — the beau ideal of the race — who was " full of grace and truth."

We advocate the cultivation of the Fine Arts, because they give us a

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WE LIVE IN AN AGE 01" UNPRECEDEX IKD PROC.RESS.

good substitute for true poetry, which seems to have fled from us. They
speak the language of true poetry in a much more impressive way than by
words. They give us pictures that address the eye and the imagination
instead of the ear and understandine;, and take us back to the original
sources and fountains of true poetry ; and music, heavenly music, now
comes with its entrancing strains, as the soul of poetry embodied in sound,
as it never did before for the glorious oratorios of Handel and all the great
masters, both ancient and modern, are rendered now by thousands of
trained voices and stringed instruments, and how enrapturing they are !

Nature is full of the Fine Arts. They embody the truth and beauty of
nature, and are in essence ♦he same as the moral law of God ; therefore,
their cultivators and promoters are engaged in a holy calling and should
be encouraged.

RELIGION AND THE FINE ARTS.

There is no danger of the Fine Arts being neglected as long as the
essence of true religion exists among us. And that they have not decreased,
but greatly increased in our times, is a cheering fact. Schools of Art are
in every English town and American city. Annual exhibitions
and prizes are given, and in this way latent talent is developed, to the
admiration of all who attend these exhibitions.

And here I must not omit to mention the name of one who has done
more to advance and elevate art than any man in our times — the gifted Mr,
Ruskin, of world-wide renown as a professor and teacher and critic of art.
He has done signal service in this department of education. He has
made color to speak in a new language unknown before, and has exalted
painting to a science, and proved the harmony of true painting with the
moral law of God. And so it is for truth and beauty in nature, are synony-
mous with rectitude and love in the Decalogue. They are only different
ways of expressing the same thing.

For truth and beauty in lovely harmony is the universal law of the
universe. It blooms in every flower, it shines in every star, it sparkles in
every dew drop, and glows in the sun. It is beheld in the rainbow and in
all nature- -in the whole creation of God ! The heavens are resplendent
with his glory, and the earth is replete with his riches ! And when trans-
fered to the human sphere it is seen in every good deed that shines in this
naughty world. In all the just transactions of commerce and in all the
upright conduct of business. In the halls of learning. In the treaties of
nations, and in the life of a good man, whose path shines more and more
unto the perfect day. But above all it is seen best in the Gospel of Christ,
which is the quintessence of truth and heavenly beauty !

Let the cultivators and promoters of the fine arts be encouraged in
their divine calling, and amidst their arduous and often thankless task be
cheered with the thought that they are helping forward the great cause of
the amelioration of society. Let sculptors and painters, musicians and
photographers, and all in any way connected with the fine arts, cherish
the hidden and undefinable essence of truth and beauty, which God has
so richly endowed them with, and seek to embody the impalpable image in

THI, (iKF.AT WANT 01' Tlil': A(;i-

»!

I ii

H !

a diviner and truer expression, and rise in adoration to the sum and source
of all truth and beauty in God.

The faculty of invention, when rightly directed, is one of our most use-
ful faculties. It forms the foundation of mechanical contrivances, the foun-
dation of the fine arts, and it reaches its highest point in education, which is
the greatest of all inventions. By means of our faculty of invention, we are
allied to the Infinite Intelligence, who taught Nature to form all things un-
der His volition, by the word of His power. It distinguishes us from the
lower animals. They have no such faculty. Their divine instincts
remain the same from age to age. Man is of a progressive
nature. His necessities call forth his faculties, for "necessity is the mother
of invention," and he is always seeking to better his conditions, and the
faculty of invention is his great factor for attaining progress.

As it was by the wrong application of this divine attribute man lost
the primeval paradise, so it is by its right application he attains the heavenly
paradise. This fact'is illustrated every day. How often do we see men,
highly gifted with this faculty, as thieves, and burglars, and forgerers, mak-
ing a bad use of it, and, instead of rising to eminence, as they could have
done, falling into the lowest depths of degradation and misery ? It is on
this principle that every man is the architect of his own fortune. In all
our human progress, there is first the physical, then the intellectual, and
lastly the spiritual. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." First there came the physical, the raw material to be manufac-
tured. In the productions of the tarth, all our food, and clothing, and
material sources come. God formed the earth as a fit abode for man, —
out of chaos formed a Kosmos. So man develops his intellectual facul-
ties on the raw materials of nature, and by the faculty of invention, manu-
fac ifes them into suitable uses. Then, as God, our Maker, formed man
in His own likeness and image, and gave him power over all nature, in
the regal sway of his will ; so man retains his lordly will still, while God re-
tains His supremacy, man can alone develop his spiritual niture in harmony
with the Supreme Will> which has nothing in it that is despotic or arbitrary,
but is the supremacy of wisdom and love.

In tracing the progress of our age, we see it exactly tpkinr^this shape.
There is progress, first, in the invention of machinery. Next, ihere is pro-
gress in national education, and, lastly, progress in morals wh\ch is yet to
come. There was James Watts, looking at the machinery of the steam en-
gine, for he was not its inventor,but perfecter. He saw its defects, he labored
eighteen years to rectify them, and he succeeded, after indefatigable indus-
try and earnest study, by means of his condensing apparatus, to regulate
its power so that it could wield a force that could crush a town, or oppose
the utmost resistance to its action ; and with ease be made to manufacture
the finest and most delicate fabrics.

Here is a trophy to genius ! some will say, for genius alone could
win such a victory ! I say. No ; it is the reward of industry and per-
severance in the application of the inventive faculty. For the facts of the
case mentioned prove this. The last eighteen years of the last century
saw James Watts working with a will to perfect the steam engine, until he

\Vi: I.IVK IN AN ACIE OF UNPRECEDKNTED I'KOCRESS.

succeeded. Perseverance is the bridge by which difficulty is overcome.
Genius is 9. talent for industry and pe'-severance and conquest. Little
strokes fell great oaks, if they are continued. This glorious land of
Canada could never have bloomed like the rose, as it does now, without
the little strokes, and big strokes, too ! Examine all the products of
human genius in inventions, in science, and in learning, and in art. and in
everything else, and you will find, as in James Watts' case, success is the
reward of well applied industry and a soul burning with enthusiastic ardor
to conquer every difficulty by perseverance. It is J>eu et peu — by little
and little, for "littles make mickles." Let this consideration fire young
hearts with the aspirations that are fed and nourished thus, and what an
age will their's become ! This age will dwindle into insignificance in com-
parison, and be left far behind, and it iy their noble destiny, decreed by
heaven, to achieve it. The mill cannot grind with tie water that is past,
and the hasty angler loses the fish. Labor omnia vincit. Well directed
application conquers everything. This world has been given to man to
subdue it, and it is said the sweetest rose grows upon the sharpest thorns.

Our world does not owe its progress in science and art, and educa-
tion, so much to great minds as to industrious minds, for all minds are much
alike, as my observations have proved, and they all carry within them the
stamp of divinity, which is slumbering in our souls, and not half awakened
in any one of us.

But, when it is fully awakened, what exploits will be achieved ! And
this is the specific design of the glad tidings of salvation — to awaken man's
immortal nature to the things that are immortal.

For the many useful and elegant inventions of the mechanical genius
of our age, and their daily increase, we feel very grateful. They lessen
human toil and drudgery, they minister to our convenience and comfort
and refinement They display great ingenuity, because they are con-
structed on the principle of simplicity, which is the great secret of nature, for
nature's simplicity is its greatest nobility. And in exanil^Ing these useful
and beautiful inventions that crowd upon us every day, for ships are loaded
with them from the ingenious and wonderful people of America to all
parts of the world, and, in examining their construction, Milton's pithy
lines are suggested :

"The invention all admir'd, and each how he
I To be inventor miss'd, so easy it seemed,

Once found, which yet unfound most "would have thought
Impossible !"

While ignorant of its principle it seems very puzzling, but, when found
out, its simplicity is surprising.

In the struggle to secure a national system of education in England
and elsewhere we see the law of progress developing itself like the achieve-
ments of genius by conquest. The conquest of difficulties i" tliC reward
of perseverance in overcoming them. Long did Lord John l.assell. Lord
Brougham, Prince Albert, Thomas Carlyle, the Messrs. Chambers of
Edinburgh, and others of that stamp, labor to obtain this great de^deralum,
and it came at last. Thus reminding us that progress is the law of all

THE CREA'f WANT OF IHF, A(;r..

rich and the

low vulgarity

All Christ's

noble natures, and that the future amelioration of human society is as
certain as the day succeeds the night, when vice, which is as much an
error in the judgment as a disease in the heart, shall be succeeded by
virtue, and when wickedness shall be exchanged for a genuine love of and
oreference for goodness ; and all iniquity as ashamed shall hide its head.

Secular education will not of itself effect this. But a good secular edu-
cation is a step in the right direction. For a richer moral growth, a brighter
divineness, will come out of an educated mind than an uneducated mind.
The want of a good education has, in a great measure, marred the growth
of true religion in the past, having taken its rise and progress among the
uneducated and having remained very much among the uneducated till this
day, with, of course, numerous exceptions. " Not many noble are called."
But the time is fast approaching when learning and latent talent and
genius and the highest culture will exhibit the glories of true religion,
with an attractiveness and winning loveliness that the
great will no longer be repelled as hitherto by the
of uneducated minds in its disciples and teachers,
first apostles and disciples were much more educated than ignorant people
think they were, who fancy they have co-equals in them. Christ's first dis-
ciples could all speak two* languages, which attainment I take to be one
of the most important attainments in the cultivation of the human intellect ;
and why the study of languages is falling into disuse and cried down so
much as it is in our day, I cannot comprehend. All the New Testament
penman thought in their mother tongue, the Hebrew, and wrote in the
Hellenistic Greek, and by this means the translation of thought out of one
language into another gave them a clearness and distinctness to their con-
ceptions of vast value, for we can only know one thing by another, and
the early preachers of the Gospel were endued with the gift of tongues
and the gift of prophecy, and the gift of miracles, and were well equipped
for giving utterance to " the glorious things spoken of thee, O Zion, the
city of God !" Therefore, while secular educacion differs widely from reli-
gious education, it will prove a good prepaative for the rising race to
grasp the infinite truths of the Gospel, thrjugh the cultivation of their
intellect, on which the new spiritual tree of life will be engrafted. Even
now we discern in the rising generation far more acuteness, far more appre-
ciation of mental vigor, and far greater natural endowments than in the
former generation ; therefore, our race is not deteriorating, and our new
school system is decidedly improving it, intellectually considered.

It is foreign to my aim to enter largely upon the new system of edu-
cation as it exists among us. It is easier to find fault than to mend faults.
Let us be thankful for the improvement made, for nothing is ever great at its
commencement. The principle of evolution will develop it. Everything
requires to grow before it comes to maturity, and time is required for that,
to rectify mistakes, such as the cramming system, to make a display of
nothing, but what passes for something, and something very different from
what it really is. It is not healthy for the mind. It is not based on the
principles of gradual, general, well-paced, accurate education. It stunts
the growth of the mind. Forced plants are always feeble plants. But

Ol'RS IS A SUPERFICIAL AC.I-.

to give prominence to two branches of education (such as calculation and
geography) to the neglect of other branches less fitted for intellectual
display, but none the less valuable ; this is highly objectionable, although
everyone knows it is too much the case, who have visited the schools in
England, in America and Canada.

The great object of education, the highest development and accom-
plishment of invention, as I take it, is not simply to learn to read, write,
cast up accounts, translate the classics, soWe algebraic and mathematical
problems, to rehearse the events of history, repeat the facts of science,
describe the beauties of art, and unfold the glories of literature by rote ; —
these are all necessary as means to an end, as tools for the mind to handle ;
but they are only the ground work of education, the grand end of which
is : to teach the mind itself to think, to reason, to observe, to deduce prin-
ciples, to combine forms of the good, the great, the sublime and the beau-
tiful, to have supreme sympathy with infinite goodness and wisdom, to
learn humility, to do what is right, to shun falsehood, and to practise
virtue ! These are the beneficient fruits of a good education. Delightful
task ! to teach the young idea how to shoot and pour the fresh instruction
o'er the youthful mind !

The teachers, therefore, require to be men of high accomplishments,
of well-trained faculties, of high moral character, lovers of God, lovers of
children, and living exemplars of what they teach. Such educators our
age demands, may God raise them up !

The mind is the man and the knowledge of the mind. A man is what
he knoweth. And as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. The truth of being
and the truth of knowing is all one.

I have said a great deal hitherto in commendation of our age, but
nothing beyond what it deserves. And it is far more pleasant to com-
mend than to condemn. "We are to take things by the smooth handle Md
touch everything on the divine side, and look upon the bright side of
everything as much as we can. But regard to truth requires us to be
faithful and will not always allow us to do the agreeable. And faithful are
the wounds of a friend. Better is he that exposes a fault than him that in-
wardly jeers at it and has not the moral courage to kindly and candidly
expose it. " For ithers see us better than oursels,'' and self-knowledge is
the hardest and highest of all attainments. " Man know thyself, all wisdom
centres there."

(4.)— OURS IS A SUPERFICIAL AGE.

I have spoken of the progress of our age in science, in art, and in
education. Now I am going to speak of its glaring superficiality, which is
a grevious characteristic of our age, and lies at the root of all that is weak
and worthless in it, and tends to evil

Our age is unfavorable to deep or accurate thought, and there is
much to account for this defect. The hurry and the^scurry, the rush and
ihe push in our times of unprecedented activity, when everything must be
got through quicker than it can be got through — with the speed of light-
ning — necessarily prevents the mind from going deeply into prolonged and

THE (IREAT WANT OK THK AflE.

■• '

lli'i

careful enquiries into things of utmost importance. And this remark does
not merely apply to men in business, whose whole thoughts are swallowed
up in their business, and therefore they have no lime for reading and re-
flection on the great concerns of the unseen and eternal. But it applies
to professional men, also, who are overtaxed with the demands of their
profession, and cannot fulfil these demands as they could wish.

But a remedy is needed here, and it must be found, and the cure is
in the hands ol those who need more leisure. Let them take the relief
they require for contemplation and study, lest worse consequences than
being a little poorer follow by having more leisure for higher objects, as
thereby they may live longer and to better purpose, and make up for
the loss in money, which is as nothing in comparison with the gain.
Many of our best professional men, and business and commercial men,
with great abilities, are falling everywhere into premature graves, and re-
ligion is sadly neglected by them. Oh, let such and all be wise to-day,
and not leave to ;.he mercy of a moment the vast concerns of an eternal
scene. The great injunction of the Saviour is full of tenderness and in-
finite wisdom, in which he rays : "Labor not (or work not with exclusive
regard) for the meat which, perisheth, but for the meat that abideth unto
eternal life." This is the one thing needful. Heavenly food for the soul,
which the Son of Man, who is the living bread, shall give you.

Our age is characterized by sharpness, and smartness, and a great
deal of talkativeness. Every one tries to be awfully clever, or smarter
than another. Sound often passes for sense. A man with a great voice
like a trumpet is wonderfully admired and extolled by the uneducated ;
and sensationalism is terribly desired and fired, while good common sense
(which is the best sense) and solid argumentation go for nothing almost.
Does not all this prove that superficiality is a characteristic of orr age ?

Knowledge makes humble,

Ignorance makes proud,

Knowledge talks lowly,

Ignorance talks loud ;
Knowledge is modest, cautious and pure.
Ignorance is boastful, conceited and sure. •

Our current literature is more brilliant than it is profound. It is not
all gold that glitters. Ours is neither a philosophical age nor an heroic age,
nor a moral age, nor a devotional age, nor a deep thinking age, but a
superficial age. Few deep, original thinkers, with the grasp of Thomas
Carlyle or Sir William Hamilton, are found among us. The science of
he mind is without an author like Aristotle, Lord Bacon, Dugald Stuart,
Dr. Reed, or Sir William Hamilton. No great poet exists like Shakespeare
or Milton, and as for theology — the queen of the sciences, the science of
God— our age is without a master mind like John Howe or any of the
Puritan fathers. There are many able and excellent preachers and able and
learned professors and journalists, but talent is chiefly consecrated to physical
science and business and for money-making. The men of the "modem
thought," who call themselves "Advanced Thinkers," are for the most part
wers, going back to old Greek philosophers for their illu-

OIKS IS A Sl'I'ERFlCIAI- ACE.

minations — to Democritus, Epicurus, and others of like inferior type of
mind, to enlighten the nineteenth century with exploded theories for
modern discoveries, which discoveries are hailed as new truths.

Does noi all this prove ours a superficial age ? The present scarcity of
great, original, deep thinkers in our age, may be accounted for, an age
which differs so much in this, respect from the Elizabethan age, when
there were intellectual giants in the earth, such philosophers ! poets I and
theologians ! as have never been surpassed.

What may be the divine design ? Not to produce superficiality; of
course not, but to make us feel all the more our need of the great Teacher
sent from God, and to " hear Him." We are too apt to go to man
for instruction, and too reluctant to go to Christ. But man has had his day,
and Christ means to have his. One by one our distinguished great men
are passing away, but Christ remains and means to become the one great
central figure of our age ! and the one thing needful is his teaching.

As long as we have Jesus Christ as our teacher, we will never want
the best of all teachers and the deepest of all thinkers. For I have made it
my business to acquaint myself with the deepest thinkers of ancient and
modern times, and I have been privileged to converse with many of the
deepest thinkers who are departed this life, and am prepared to prove that
Jesus Christ as much surpassed all human thinkers, as much as the glorious
sun in its meridian splendor surpasses a glimmering farthing candle !

Just take this as a proof : Transport yourself in imagination to the
sweet and lovely home in the village of Bethany, where Lazarus and his
sisters, Mary and Martha, dwelt. The sun has now gone down behind .
the western hills, Jesus with his twelve disciples and others leave the city
of Jerusalem, proceeding Along the mountain range towards the East, two
miles distance, they are kindly welcomed into this abode of peace and
love, where Jesus often spent the night after being fatigued with his inces-
sant daily labors in healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, and casting
out devils, and preaching the Gospel to the poor, and found the solace
here of earthly friendship, and the balm of mutual kind affections. The
Saviour is reclining on a couch in the open parlor, and Mary is sitting on
the same couch at His feet, while Martha is busily engaged in preparing
the evening meal. Mary was of a reflective cast of mind and liked instruc-
tive conversation and the sweet fellowship of the Saviour. Martha was of
a kind and active disposition, and liked to spread a good tab?e and make
her illustrious visitor well provided for. All the work, except what was
prepared before hand, devolved on her ; she thought it was too bad of
Mary to leave her to do all the work now, and sit by Jesus idle. And
Martha, therefore, advanced to Jesus and said, " Lord, dost thou not care
that my sister did leave me to serve alone ? bid her, therefore, that she
help me." But the Lord answered and said unto her, " Martha, Martha,
thou art anxious and troubled about many things ; but one thing is need-
ful ; for Mary hath chosen the good part which shall not be taken from
her." (Luke x, 40-42.)

The point here to consider is the judgment given in the case by the
Saviour. He gently chides Martha, not for lier warm-heartedness, but for

THK CRE.Vr WANT OF TIW. Ac.K

M ;

* her over-carefulness. There was no need for her mind being wholly swal-
lowed up with such a very small matter. In all probability she had servants
in her house to whom she might have committed the rest of the work. In
Martha we have a representative character. How many are there in our
world like Martha ? Good, warm-hearted, hospitable and kind people who
cannot make enough fuss over their visitors, in having everything in such
apple pie order, with a little touch of womanly vanity in it, and courting
approbation for it, and with the hastiness of temper that usually accom-
panies the warm-hearted and impulsive fretting herself to death over noth-
ing at all. Jesus, therefore, just draws a picture of herself, that she might
see and know herself, which is the hardest lesson we have to learn.

" Martha, Martha," He says in a sweet, gentle, tender tone of voice,
not in a scolding way, " thou art anxious and troubled about many things."
Everything to put on the table distracted her — one thing not rightly baked,
another thing not rightly cooked, one thing overdone, and another under-
done, everything wrong and nothing nice, and all spoilt, — " oh dear, dear
me, whatever shall I do ! It's all Mary's fault, I will go and get her to help
me." You see how her whole soul is swallowed up, without a moment to
give for the food of her soul. Just like our busy, bustling age, all the time
given to business, not a moment for thoughtful reflection about infinite
and eternal interests. Oh, no ! none. Mary's quiet, thoughtful, heavenly
mindedness is commended in contrast to Martha's solicitude about many
things. Jesus brings in the antithesis, and says, " but one thing is needful,'^
— but one thing.

Oh! in that "one thing" everything else is included and subordinated to
it, and in this single utterance there is a depth of thought that infinitely
exceeds all human thought ; all the deep thougl^ of all the ancients and
all the modern thought is contemptible in comparison. For it is to have
fellowship with infinite wisdom and to partake of the mind of God, and be
qualified to share iu His immortal felicity ! This is something worth
having. This is the one thing needful. The one great want of our age !
Mark, instead of complying with Martha's request Jesus, knowing what
was in Mary's mind at the time — some great, anxious thought she wished
explained and to be better understood. Oh, what a relief it would be to
her mind to have that thaught resolved and rightly apprehended and
understood, and p ' .o have not many such thoughts that require the great
Teacher to make plain !

Jesus you see, therefore, is between the two sisters' wishes, and His
decision is admirable. His conduct noble. His wisdom profitably to direct
both them and us. Christ approves Mary's choice — we have all free-
dom of choice. Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken
from her. She is not only approved of, but allowed to remain to have
further converse with Him, whom her soul loveth, and enjoy His elevating
and purifying and ennobling fellowship, and it is what will never be taken
away from her, " the one thing needful," the free choice of it, the good
part or portion ; what is it ? It is quiet, conscious, endearing fellowship
witn Jesus ! This is the one thing needful for every one of us to keep the

IH'"

A 1*1 111 I (.'K-'AkiN<. \i;r.

«oul from famishing, and fiotii barrenness and lukewarmness in thii Lot
bustling age.

Often let us steal away to our closets for secret prayer and short
reading of the Scriptures, and get that good part — even eternal life in the
wealth of God, which shall not be taken away from us, but abide for ever.
Oh, why is it that a portion so good, so great, so immortal, so infinitely
precious, is so little thought of ! as th«; loving personal fellowship with
the infallible Teacher ? Why should it be so little thought of? nothing can
give such depth ot thought, such elevation of mind, such purity of heart,
such happiness to the mind as this, and nothing can make our superficial
age so quickly change into the opposite of what it now is ! O, that men
were wise, that they understood this, and would consider their latter er.u,
their immortal and future good, and enter into its possession now through
fellowship with the incarnate Ood.

Superficiality is the greatest foe to human amelioration and true hap-
piness. No progress can result from it, except progress in frivolity, levity
and folly. What preceded the downfall of the Roman Empire wil
assuredly precede the downfall of Christendom if superficiality be net
checked and taken out «f the way. Take up the stumbling block. Super-
ficiality in religion is worse than no religion ; it leads to wrong views of
divine truth, to an empty form of Godliness, which gives the lie to iti
power, and it is an illusion and a snare, an abomination that niaketh deso-
late ! Christ's teaching aione can cure it.

(5.) -A TRUTH-FORSAKING AGp:.

There is a close connection between superficiality and truth-forsaking.
Superficial thinking is usually inaccurate thinking, and leads to wrong appre-
hensions and wrong conclusions. Its examination of things, if examination
it can be called, is too quick to be correct, and too sntart and sweeping
to be jvi\ and lasting. It is neither deep enough nor comprehensive
enough, and leads to error ; inferences, often at fault ; premises oftener.
Take an illustration : Suppose you ate sick and your doctor visits you.
He makes a superficial examination of your symptoms, feels your pulse,
and looks at that well-known member that " tells" so much. He forms his
judgment ot your case and prescribes accordingly. He omitted to apply
his tube to your lungs and attend to other symptoms. He prescribed
wrong medicine. It inflicts injury and hastens the disease lurking in your
system, whereas, by taking everything into his calculations he would have
given you right medicine and prevented serious results. Or take this
illustration : A banker is very superficial in counting the money in the
bank. He gives his customers, in honoring thpir drafts, more money than
he ought to have given out. In a short time the bank is ruined.

These cases relate to the body and to money, but what I am refering
to relates to the soul and its unspeakable riches, and inaccurate thinking
kills many precious souls and ruins the immortal interests of myriads.

This was the great fault in the early ages of the Church of God,
and it is the great fault oi the Church of God in our age — incorrect think-

IHK CiREAT tV'ANT OF THE AGE.

ing ; .'or incorrect thinking about divine truth invariably leads to the
falling away from divine truth. Therefore, intellectual unrighteousness
leads to n>oral unrighteousness, and moral unrighteousness leads to unhap-
piness.

It was by the early Christians forsaking the truth that error sprung
up in the apostolic age, and has accumulated in our age. This is
a subject ef the deepest importance, to which I most earnestly entreat the
attention of every thinking man and woman, and its importance is increased
by the circumstance that we are walking in the shadow of the last time,--the
end of the age is drawing near — a matter on which much obscurity and error
prevail, which we should strive to understand in connection with the sub-
ject of our Truth-forsaking age.

Oh, it lay as a heavy sorrow on the heart of the Apostle of the
Gentiles, and he earnestly sought to crush the first appearance of the evil
that was to ruin the Church of the living God. He earnestly warned the
Galatian converts, and the Corinthian converts, and all the early Christians
against its insiduous approaches and its appalling consequences. It was
his thetne in his intercourse in private and in his preaching in public, as
well as the subject that most heavily pressed upcn his spirit in his won-
derful epistles. It is sketched with his masterly hand in his second epistle
to the Thessaloniang, chapter second. Will the reader be so good as to
Jceep the New Testament open at the place before him.

II THES. II, I-I2. <^ •

The coming of Christ was the bright prospect ever before the
Apostle's mind. But the early Christians, like later Christians, had wrong
thoughts on the subject ; they thought it was the end of the world, and that
it wab right upon them. To remove this wrong idea from their minds, he
here wrote as follows : — " Now, we beseech you, brethren, by the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that
ye be not soon shaken in mind nor be troubled neither by spirit, nor by
word, nor by letter as from us, as thai the day of Christ is at hand. Let
no man deceive you by any means : for thai day shall not come, except
there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of
perdition." Sensationalism was practised in those days as well as in ours.
There were many alarmists then who made the primitive Christians believe
in the speedy dissolution of all things, (as all have heard of many
modem Christians believing in, like good Dr. Gumming, who wrote that
the world would be at an end in X847), and the poor creatures, that Paul
wrote to, just out of the ignorance and darkness and thraldon of Paganism,
became so swallowed up with the speedy dissolution of all things that they
could think of nothing ehe, and neglected their daily calling and every-
thing, and longed for martyrdom for relief from the coming of that awful
day of the Lord. To correct this mistake, Paul wrote as above to comfort
their roinds and relieve them from distraction about the end of the world.
Paul explicitly told the Christians of his day that the day of Christ would
not come, except there cwne,

A TRUTH-FORSAKING AGE.

" the falling away first. "

This is an important expression, not only as it marks a great epoch
in the history of the Church, but as assigning the reason for the downfall
of Christianity in the world.

What are ve to understand by it ? How did it come about ? And
what has it led to ? In the original Greek what is here rendered " a falling
away," is only one word — hei apostasia — " the apostacy." It comes from
apo, from, and histeemi, to stand, and means " standing from," or
"departure from," here rendered "a falling awav," but as the definite
article is used it should be not a falling away, but " the falling away."
From what ? the truth. That is the nature of the apostacy referred to.
Jifst as the first apostate of the universe ** abode not in the truth," stood
not in it, so *' the falling away" is tl.a falling away from the truth. But
what is truth ? Jesting Pilate asked this question, when incarnate Truth
stood before him as the King of truth ; because Jesus told Pilate when
he asked, " Art thou King ?" " To this end was I born, and for this cause
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one
that is of the truth heareth my voice." Thus Christ claims to be the
witness bearer of truth and the King of truth, for every one that hears and
obeys the truth are his subjects, — they are " of the truth."

" The falling away" was the depai'ting from the truth, as it is in Jesus,
the true Light of men, " the Truth." And it came about by other thoughts
than correct thoughts coming into the mind of the early Christians, incor-
rect thinking about Christ and his truth led to it. The reader may ask :

Can you give me an instance and proof of that ? Yes. Paul tells us, at
the second verse, that " the mystery of iniquity doth already work." " The
falling away" had already begun,which he here calls^the "mystery of iniquity."
It was a secret, concealed enemy working against the saving truth of the
Gospel, undermining it and destroying it by neutralizing its saving power,
as a man will throw poison into a well, so the wells of salvation were early
poisoned through error, — incorrect thinking coming into the mind, and
causing " the falling aw^y from the truth."

There are two ways of perverting truth : mixing s-mething with it, or
substituting something for it. Just as one might do with a bottle of good
medicine when he mixes it with what neutralizes and spoils it, or throws it
away and fills the bottle with something else that is poisonous.

The mixing process was the first way " the " mystery of iniquity"
began, and the Gospel was rendered ineffectual thereby. Christ will not
save us if we attempt to add anything to his merits. The Judaizing teachers
prepared the mixture. These Judaizing teachers were Tews who professed
themselves converts to Christianity. They retained their Jewish predilec-
tions and added the Jewish ceremonies, especially circumcision, to the
Gospel's discoveries, and added thereby a mixture of merit of their own to
Christ's infinite merit, thinking it would be an improvement, and everywhere
propagated the mixture of a lie with the sovereign remedy of the perfect
Truth. Paul had learnt from his deep personal experience that the error
he once entertained in his thinking about the perpetual obligation of the law

THE GREAT W.VNl- 01' JHE AGE.

■t\

of Moses (ceremonial) was the devil's snare he fell into, when he persecuted
the Christians, and having bought '' the gold tried in the fire," he discarded
the beggarly elements of the world, and having received " the white
raiment, clean and white," and " the eye salve" of a renewed spirit, he flung
away " the garments spotted with the flesh," and crushed the rising heresy
of the Judaizing teachers in the bud and checked its progress, as a man
rushes to extinguish a fire at its commencement.

With a soul kindled with holy zeal for the honor of Him who met
him along the road to Damascus, in His heavenly refulgence, and said,
" Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" With an ardor that burned like
re in his spirit for the love of souls and their eternal interests and welfare^
he poured forth a flood of eloquence lull of holy indignation at the foul
crime of polluting the pure water of life with the poison of Jewish ceremo-
nialism, he denounced and anathematized the Judaizing teachers, and said
to the Galatian church [i, 6-9] : " I marvel that ye are so soon removed
from Him that called you in the grace of Christ unto another Gospel,
which is not another ; but there be some that trouble you, and would
pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven preach
any other Gospel unto you than that which we hav^ preached unto you,
let him be accursed." And to prove he had weighed ' s words, and knew
what he was saying, to be just, although strong, he repeats the same words
again, and adds : ** As we have said, so say I now again : If any man
preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be
accursed, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not
obey the truth ?" Paul stood as a noble champion for " Christ and Him
crucified," as the only ground of a singer's acceptance before God.

There is a hindrance to the mystery of iniquity mentioned by Paul
m the succeeding, clause of the 7 th verse deserving of attention, " only he
who letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way ;" as it stands there in
the old version, it is scarcely intelligible. And a curious circumstance
accounts for the obscurity arising from the English word " let," having
changed the sense it had when the Scriptures were translated. ** To let,"
then, meant the veiy opposite of what it means now. Then it meant to
hinder, to restrain, to prevent. Now it means to permit, to 3liow, to give
leave to, as to let a house to a tenant, to occupy. Usage gives Ic- vvo to lan-
guage and changes the meaning from one time to anoui&i . The new
version, which always adheres closely to the original, although is vi^nglish
is often poor, gives a truer translation, but is also very obscure and puzzling
to know what is meant by " only t/iere is one that restraineth now until he
be taken out of the way."

Endless conjectures have been given to explain this clause about the
" one that restraineth the mystery of iniquity from increasing until he be
taken out of the way that restraineth it." Some considering it was the
secular powers restraining the ecclesiastical domination that was by the
Pope, it is said, sought after, which Tertulian, Augustine, Chrysjstom are
thought to favor.

To my mind the original explains it in a most satisfactory and instruc-
tive manner, as meaning that what prevented departure frorn the truth, as it

A TRUTH-FORSAKINO AGE.

4*'-

is in Jesus, was the steadfast adherence to Christ that characterized the early
Christians— their oneness with Christ. " Noneb'it Christ, none but Christ,
and nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ,' ras the heroic cry of their
spirit when they suffered martyrdom for His sake ; and their oneness in
heart and hand with each other, extorting the commendation from their
enemies: "See how these Christians bve one another." In their union
with Christ and with one another was their strength, and while that lasted
the mystery of iniquity was restrained. United they stood ; divided they
fell. Paul's original words contain, I think, both a promise and a threaten-
ing, a commendation and a caution. Christ himself is he that alone res-
traineth the mystery of iniquity until it is generated in their midst. There-
fore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. What I
have said is the spirit of the passage.

Paul told these Thessalonians that they knew that which held the
evil back. He had told them about it when he first saw them, so that he
only repeats it again. For my part I cannot see any obscurity at all in the
original, although the sentence, as rendered in both the old and new
version, is one of the most obscure and puzzling sentences in the Ne v
Testament. But I think any reader ordinarily acquainted with the Greek
language will agree with me that the language is verj simple as it stands •
" monou " only, "ho katehoon," he who restraineth, "arti" now, or opposeth
now, orholdcth out against the mystery of iniqviity novi, shall restrain it now^
"heoos" until "ek mesou," out of your midst, or from among yourselves,
"genetai," it be generated, or arises, then it will increase and spread like a
Hood. Instead of it being taken out of the way, as oujj translations both
have it, it will be brought into existence, and then, as is stated in the 8th
verse, the mystery will be revealed and prevail. It is in harmony with
the Scriptures : " Resist the devil and he will f^ee from you, encourage
him and he will overcome you." The way to h'^ld out against evil is to
stop it in its first beginnings, which is easy at first ; but if entertained or
encouraged it will grow and increase until it overpower you, as a mighty
giant, and slay you. Little sins grow into big sins if encouraged, as little
seeds grow into great weeds if allowed to grow in your garden.

The Apostle thus warned the early Christians of the danger they were
in if they did not bring all the antagonism of their moral nature against
the mystery of iniquity, for it would originate with them or among them ;
and how early it arose and spread, let the history of the seven c'lurches in
Asia Minor prove to whom the Book of Revelations was primarily address-
ed, which Churches are now extinct. How it spread, let the subsequent
history of the church, piove from the second century of the Christian era
up to the time Martin Luther was raised up of God to preach a pure
Gospel in the dark ages of Christendom, when the nations of the earth
were covered with Papal darkness and error. But it is now receiving its
fulfilment as it never did in the history of the Church on earth since
Martin Luther's time.

In Martin Luther's time it had its fulfilment in the Church of Rome
with the accuracy of history to such an extent that the prediction has
always been applied to that Church alone. But, if that were the true in-

'iffi

THE GREAT WANT 01" THE AGE.

terpretation and fulfilment of the prediction, the question arises, why has
Christ not come ? If the usurpation of the Papacy in divine things i^ so
unequalled and terrible, according to Protestant divines, who have said,
" that if this passage be not applicable to it, it is difficult to say who there
ever has been, or can be, to whom it should belong." Then, I ask, why
is it the Lord has so lon^ delayed his coming ? Facts are stronger than
words, and facts do not warrant such an interpretation, in my humble
opinion. Bad as the Church of Rome may be, she is not without her ex-
cellences. She has a nrmer grasp of all the essential doctrines of the Gos-
pel of Christ than almost any of the Protestant churches have. Where she
errs is in having added so many things that the Scriptures do not warrant
any church on earth to add, belonging to Paganism. But she has many
in her Church, both among'h.?r priests and her adherents, that would be a
credit to any of the Protestant churches. Their charities and their zeal,
their character and their worth, in many respects should make Protestants,
with their purer Gospel and higher pretensions, blush for shame at their
deficiencies. God would never have tolerated Roman Catholics so long
if there was not some good thing in them ; and undoubtedly there is, and,
therefore, the Church that is so much condemned by Protestants- which
has existed from the earliest ages, which is increasing all over the earth —
the Church of Paschal and Massilon, Manning and Newman ; the Church
which excels all others for high talents and scholarship, for devotedness and
zeal, for liberality and charity, is not th , only church lo whom this prophecy
applies, as I will demonstrate in the next, where ** the man of sin " is
revealed as the effect of the falling away, which ** man of sin " is so vehe-
mently held as applicable only to the Church of Rome.

Great prominence is given in the epistles of the New Testament to
this propagator of destructive error. He figured in early times, and cor-
rupted Christianity, and ruined the Church of God on earth. He figured
in olden times of the world ; there were false prophets among the people of
old, such as Balaam. Now, there are only two forces in the moral world —
Truth and Falsehood. These have always been in conflict since sin entered
o£ir world, by the corrupter of truth, the father of lies, and they will always
be in conflict till falsehood is extinguished. The Son of God becar>^e in-
carnate that He might witness to the truth and destroy the works <^»f the
devil, which works were originated in falsehood, and are the operations of
falsehood and the development of falsehood. The revelation of God in
Christ, which is " the Truth," and is contained in the Gospel of Christ, is
a force sufficient to destroy all the works of falsehood, and will yet accom-
plish this, for the Lord Jesus Christ will *' consume it with the breath of
His mouth, and destroy it before the brightness of His coming," as here
predicted in the passage under consideration, at the 8th verse. But God
treats men as free agents, and as rational and responsible beings, who are
capable of receiving the truth, so as to be saved from falsehood ; and it
proves their fearful criminality "^hen they reject the saving truth, and
cherish and propagate falsehood. '

The propagators of the falsehood which went with the direct intent of
destroying the Truth, are referred to by^the Apostle Peter, Second Epistle,

A TRUIH FORSAKING Adf.,

ii., I, 2, 3 verses : " But there were false prophets among the people, even
as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall privily bring in
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring
upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their lascivious
doings, by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of.
And in coveteousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of
you ; whose judgment now from of old lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not."

Paul, to the same effect, says in his Second Epistle to Timothy, IV.,
3rd and 4th verses : **.For the time will come when they wiU not endure
sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will heap to themselves
teachers after their own lusts ; and will turn away their ears from the truth,
and turn aside unto fables."

How completely these predictions have been verified, ecclesiastical
history proves, and our own age reveals.

Alas ! how the glory of primitive Christianity faded under the wither-
ing blight of a corrupted Christianity. In the first century of the Christian
era it shone forth as the purest and brightest emanation from heaven the
world ever saw. To oe a Christian then, was a very different thing from
what is to be a Christian now ! It was an age of persecution in its most
awful form. By fierce persecution the father of lies sought to crush and anni-
hilate Christianity, and therefore, its disciples had to sacrifice all for Christ,
who is •' the Truth " incarnate — '* God manifest in the flesh."

To be a Christian in the first ages of Christianity was to be a Christian
indeed! It signified no faint convictions, no equivocal condition, no
questionable motives. It was identical with all tha; could elevate and en-
noble mankind ! The zeal it spoke of was an unextinguishable flame, the
hope it argued, an anchor immovable before the rudest tempest. The joys
of which it was the symbol were as life from the dead, the charity it sig-
nalized was warm as a mother's love, and gentle as the dews of heaven.
No danger could alarm its possessor, no opposition quell the spirit of
consecration to •Jesus and active beneficence to man it was knovtn to indi-
cate and produce ! The fury of the persecutor and the derision of the
scorner were alike powerless before it, and he who possessed it stood cohei-
posed and dauntless against th^ combined assaults of earth and hell ; as if
a shield of triple brass begirt his bosom ; as if the shield of the cherubim
were outstretched over his head, he was insensible to weakness and incap-
able of fear !

You might crush his limbs with torture, his affections with solitude^
his name With infamy and his freedom with the chain ; but he had that
within him that which could not be crushed nor impaired — it was the energy
of a livinj faith. This, like electric fire, acquired force by repression, and in-
tensity by resistance? and borrowed increase of splendor from surrounding
gloom. He might fall, but he could not fly. He might perish, but he
could not yield. His blood might be spilt upon the ground, but his hope
could not waver. His character might be calumniated, as Tacitus tells us,
by bloody Nero and other malignant foes, but his honor remained pure

The GREA'i WANT OK THE AGE.

■^1

and uritarnished, and like the fabled Phoenix, the Christian rose from of
^ the flames that consumed his body, to dwell wilh Christ in glory !

Chrisiiinity then was the religion ol* heroes, saints, apostles, martyrs !
It transiurnned all it touched into its own celestial likeness, and it endued
its subjects with an inflexible constancy and an inexhaustible ardor, before
which the virtues of the ancient pilriot and warrior dwindled intt> ordinary
things. O ! to be a Christian then was to hold fellowship with uncreated
wisdom, to walk in the steps of Jesus, and to breathe a philanthropy as
pure as it was unquenchable, and as benevolent as it was divine.

What is Christianity now ? and what is it to be a Christian now ?
Christianity now i$ just anything you like to make it, and to be a Christian
now is to be as unlike Christ as it is possible to be — the -nore unlike
Christ the better will you suit the spirit of the age. The father of lies has
succeeded by changing his tactics. He first tried persecution, to crush
the infant cause, but per-ecution gave it the strength of a giant, because in
its weakness it was made strong through Christ, by asking His strength,
and the blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the Church. But satan
LOW makes Christianity so pleasant and agreeable as to make nothing in it
disagreeable ; no self-denial in it, nor philanthropy, nor anything to cost a
pang or a cent. What he could not do by faggot and s#ord, he succeeds
by our fashionable Christianity, and the power of the Cross is lost because
the offence of the Cross has ceased ! And " the man of sin," who is the
incarnation of the devil, is the chief agent, ind he is represented in the
pulpit and in the pew everywhere ! and a'l hell exuUs and rejoices that the
ancient faith is so fast fading away from the mind of man, and man lost
in sin and misery ! - '■

(6)— IT IS A SINFUL AGE.

Look at the word-painting, Paul' here gives, and you wi*l see "the
man ot sin" in his assumptions, ar^d what airs he puts on of self-importance
in his hellish work, in attempting to undeify the l^eity.

" And the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that
exalteth and oppostth himself against all that is called God or is worship-
ped ; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God."

It is unnecessary to conjurs up the Pope here, because every man
has a Pope in himself, until his self-assumed arrogance and native pride
be subdued by the humiliating and self-mortifying truth of the glorious
Gospel, and Jesus Christ takes the seat of the scorner, and reigns supreme
as the Lord of the conscience. Men read the Bible as they read a human
author, and sit in judgnnent over it as something very much inferior to them.
The human reason is certainly to be called into vigorous exercise in read-
ing the sacred Record, but let it be with some degree of reverence, not
that we approve of Bibliolatry,- -the worship of the Bible — but the author
of such revelations deserves deference, for they are lilie the revelations of
natute, whose reverenti'l students are always the most successful students.
God resisteth the proud, but He giveth grace to the humble !

The condition of all knowledge is humility, because humility is the
essence of docility and reverence. And one reason all philosophy is con-
ditioned is to teach us humility, fo' chc more philosophy enlightens the

A SINFUL AGE.

more we discover our ignorance. Socrates was pronounced the wisest of
men by the oracle at Delphi, because he only of all men best knew his ignor-
ance or was most conscious of it. Sir Isaac Newton, when complimented
on his discoveries of the laws of light and gravitation, and other laws of
nature, compared himself with his characteristic humility to a little child
walking along the sea shore picking up a few pebbles more beautiful than
others, while the great ocean of unexplored truth lay before him covering
its innumerable precious pearls.

But the province of the supernatural as much surpasses the province
of the natural, as heaven surpasses earth, and eternity exceeds time, and
for any one to enter that sacred province with the spirit indicated in the
passage above, shows the absence of reason, and reveals unwisdom and
self-conceited arrogance ! *' Men trample where devils tremble."

If ever mortal man needed divine illuminaiion and inspiration it is in
the investigation and study of. the Gospel of the grace of God. It is
utterly impossible to advance one step here without divine teaching.

The current of religious thought in our age has decidedly been in the
direction to eliminate the supernatural from religion altogeihej:. The
Neology and Rationalism of Germany has spread its influence far and
wide. It has gratified the pride qf the human intellect arid the self-suffi-
ciency of erring men. How plausible have been its preteusions to simpli-
plicity ! How readily hailed by the ignorant ! And how satisfying to the
shallow-brail. _'d, kid-glove age we live in. Only the divinely taught of the
Lord know the necessity and indispensableness of supernatural religion,
— nothing else can satisfy the religious emotions.

Never was there a falser maxim prof a<?ated than the following :
" Where mystery begins, religion ends," for fhere can be no religion with-
out mystery worthy the name of religion, and the converse is more correct :
where religion begins, mystery begins ; and when mystery ends, religion
ends. By mystery I do not mean mysticism, but sucfi heights and depths
of truth that require divine illumination in the mind to understand
"them, and in the knowledge and experience of which we advance in pro-
portion as we receive mo'-e and more divine illumination, because the finite
mind can never comprehend what is infinite fully to all eternity, but we can
know now in part by means of God himself revealing himself to the mind,
a^ none but God can make God known.

The cry for '* simple views" — " simple views" of the Gospel — so long
ringing in our ears have resulted in superficial views, delusive and soul-
destroying views. The law ot the Lord is perfect, converting the soui,
making wise the simple and sincere. We cannot improve God's word. It
cannot be made simpler than it is. The entrance of Thy word giveth light,
it giveth understanding to the simple.

I referred, when speaking of " the falling away" from the truth, by
adding something of human merit to it, as taught by the Judaizing teachers
and denounced by Paul. Now "the man of nn" adopts the opposite
method of taking away from the truth of the Gospel, till nothing is left of
the divine Gospel, and it is turned into a human gospel, and the glory of
God from beginning to end i? departed !

THE GREAT WANT OK THK Al!E.

II THBS. 11, 8, 9, AND lO.

*' Where no vision is the people perish," — w'thout divine illimination
souls periih. And if the only standard of truth be explained away as we
have seen is the drift of the religious thought of our age, lawlessness, as a
necessary consequence will take the place of law ; for when the Gospel is
gone divine illumination is gone, and all is goue. The doctrine of the
Holy Spirit's work has disappeared among us.

What does the generality of professing Christians and the irreligious
care about the Gospel ? What value do they attach to correct views of the
Gospel ? Tell them how to put monsy in their pocket, how to become
rich, and they are all ear and earnestness with their mouth gaping to
swallow down the good news ! But tell them about salvation and the
unsearchable riches of Christ, and they care nothing for heaven's good
news. As for sound, pratical, expeiimental preaching, ibey loathe it. They
all think they are good enough already, they compare theinstlves by them-
selves, and think they are a great deal better than anybody else and sure
to go to heaven when they die.

But if you lay down such fundamental principles as the following, and
hear them afterwaros in their homes talking over it, how mightily offended,
they are when spoken to, thus : " Dost tfiou not known, O man, O woman,
who callest thyself a Christian, that thine election of God, thine effectual
calling of God, and thine eternal salvation cannot be proved, unless thou
art conformed to the image of God's Son," for whom God foreknew he also
foreordained to the image of his Son, and whom he chose in Him before
the foundation of the world, He chose that they should be holy and with-
out blemish before Him in love ! If, therefore, thy ruling motive in thy
life be not the constraint of Christ's love, if love to Christ be not thy ruling
passion, thou art still in thy sins, and art none of His, none of His ! Self
is thy God, thyself the God whom thou dost worship, and self-adulation is.
the incense thou art continually seeking to be offered to thee, and thou
art no Christian, but a practical atheist ! Be not deceived, God is not
mocked." Such preaching as this in our day would empty half our churches,^
starve the minister in many lo.oalities,and make him retire and go somewhere
else. People in general do not go to God's house to be instructed, and
taught in the Lord, to worship before Him and be built up in faith and
holiness.

People go to church as they go to a theatre, to be pleased, to see on
another and be seen, to keep up an appearance, to see the last shape and
style of the new fashions, to be fashionable with their gold chains and
trinkets, to be solaced with a soothing unction to their conscience for
going to church, and to lay God under an obligation to prosper them next
week in the world !

What do sneering skeptics, blaspheming atheists, and pampered
ministers and priests care about the inward glory and harmony and blessed-
ness connected with the religion of Christ, as revealed in the divine Word ?•
That Word is no word for them, they will have thei.' own will and way for
their guide, and have none of God's word.

A SINFUL AOE.

Are not all divisions among Chiistians traceable to departure from the
oneness ot the one revealed God and violation of God's law ? Christ never
came to found a sect, but to establish a kingdom, whose foundation is
faith in Him, whose bond is love to one another, and whose end is individ-
ual progression in moral perfection, in a growing likeness to iis founder by
keeping his commandments. But where is the faith that lays hold on
Christ to life eternal ? Where is Christ laid hold on alone for salvation ?
Where is the love to one another ? Alas ! alas ! Where is the growing
likeness to Christ, or aay likeness at all ? Let facts demonstrate ! And
where is the obedience to His holy commandments and the soul-saving
power of His people ? Where is it ? and where arc they ?

The Lord certainly has not left Himself vithout witnesses on the
earth. And doubtless He has many hidden ones> whose hearts are true as
steel, but their visibility is not what it should be.

On the other hand, the wicked in the world are greatly more numer-
ous than the righteous.

But the worst thing of all is, that such a large number— by far the
greater number — who profess theniselves as Christians, are "self-deceivers,"
having a name to live while they are dead.

I feel I mu»t sound an alarm in Zion, for things are not at their worst
y^t. The thrilling description here given by the inspired Apostle Paul,
and the inspired Apostle John, in his Apocalyptic visions, is as yet unveri-
fied, although fast hastening on in these days of defective views of Christ's
most precious Gospel, in these days of defection and lukewarmness in
hearty zeal for Christ's cause, when many have lost their first love and the
prestige of their forefathers — in these days of worldly conformity among
God's people, and their unfaithful stewardship of money, all which
prognosticate and prepare the way for the predicted onslaught of the
archfiend and adversary, who knows how to make ready for the day of
battle and finsl conflict, as soldiers in the field of battle know when to
attack the enemy, " W^hose coming is according to the working of satan,
with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of un-
righteousness; for them that are perishing !" The lawless one means to
gain a victory in his final conflict, which is at hand, and ensnare and ruin
thousands 'vho are now his certain prey, but are unconscious of it.

The lawless one is now in our midst. We can trace his footsteps in
many marks of iiis iai^igc oa the spirit and practices of our Age.

What Archbishop Tillotson said many years ago is more fully verified
in our times, viz., "That fine old English plainness and sincerity, that
generous integrity of nature and honesty of disposition which argues true
greatness of mind, and is usually accompanied with undaunted courage and
resolution, is in a great measure lost among us." I don't think we hear it,
as we once did, in the very ring of the voice ; nor see it, as we once did, in
the countenance beaming with affection and frankness 3 nor feel it in the
cordial, open-hearted shaking of the hand, and in the whole expression of
the inner man, made visible in the eye and in the eotire demeanor.

People now-a-days are far more selfish and hidden and suspicious and
regardless of the feelings and welfare of others than they used to be.

i :53

! ■:\:

4«

•IHK,(;REAI WAN! OF I HK Mil)

Everyone now-a-days is weighed by the weight of his purse, and for the
ends of selfishness man is held in admiration, while the poor are despised.
All in pposiiion to the spirit of the Gospel, which is a spirit of kindness,
generousntas, and helping one another on, as tender-hearted, sympathizing
brothers.

If we look into the business world nothing is more conspicuous than
the unscrupulousness with regard to truth respecting articles to be sold,
and in the mania for competitive advertisements, where everyone professes
to sell better and cheaper goods than another, which is a barefaced false-
hood ; but most of all, in the prevalence of adulteration in food and
raiment, the specious falseness of our age is seen, for we do not know the
half we eat, nor half the stuff we wear. We may be eating poison for what
we know, or the babies die, and rve don't know why, and have a coat of
shoddy or made of devil's dust, and not know it. But things like these, ye
know, must be in the reign of lawlessness, and a thousand tricks in trade
besides best known to the swindling fraternities that practice such frauds
and wickedness.

(7.)— IT IS A LAWLESS AGE.

People in business and of the world who rail so often upon the
religious community, quite eclipse *' the hypocrites " by their cant and
dexterity in deceiving the public ; but they can't deceive God, and one day
they will come to know this, and be punished for their crimes. If all this
selfish cold-heartedness on the one hand, and dishonesty on the other, in-
crease as they have done the last thirty years or so, what will society become
by-and-bye ? Like what the old philosopher thought it was when he went
through all the world with a lantern in his hand, to see if he could find an
honest man in it ; but a second lantern will be required in our world soon
to find if there be a true, warm-hearted man in it !

The gifted Charles Dickens, who was a keen observer of human
character, drew the following picture of human society while he was among
us, which is being verified more and more every day in the world :

" LEARN FROM THE LESSON OF THE PRESENT DAY."

How pride engenders pride, and wrong breeds wrong.

And truth and falsehood, hand in hand along

High places walk in monster-like embrace.

The modern Janus with a double face.

How social usage hath the power to change

Good thought to evil in the highest range.

To cramp th? noble soul and turn to ruth

The kindling impulse of the glowing youth.

Crushing the spirit in its house of clay.

Learn from the lesson of the present day.

Whaf is the lesson ? The downfall of " the Truth," and the enthrone-
ment of lawlessness in its stead, as it is at this day.

O God, interpose for the downfall of Satan's empire, and for the estab-
lishment of Thy kingdom on its ruins ! Come, Lord, come quickly.
Amen ; even so, come, Lord Jesus.

But alas, the most melancholy evidence of lawlessness is among
Christians.

A LAWLKSS AGK.

Non- professors hear that Christ's religion makes its possessors happy ;
but many that profess it, they see, are miserable, morose and gloomy.
They are told that true piety is inseparable from personal holiness ; but
they have detected some of its professors as scarcely honest, nay, dis-
honest ! They have heard that Christians set their affections on things
above, and are laying up treasures in heaven ; but many whom they know
as professed Christians are such as ardently mind earthly things, and give
their hearts supremely to Mammon. They hear that Christ asserts an
absolute property in His people, demanding an unreserved consecration of
all they are and all they have, in His service. But in the lives and conduct
of some professed Christians they see no practical proof nor demonstration
of such an ''nnobling principle ; they act as if all they had were their own,
fc they cannot part even with a little of what they hold as stewards under
God, to a brother in need, and hold their possessions with so firm a grasp
that they are without any regard to this law of Christ's kingdom, and are,
therefore, spreading the lawlessness of the age !

When we look at these inconsistencies of professed Christians, need
we wonder at the spread and progress of infidelity ? Fas doceri ab hoste.
It is lawful to learn from an enemy. I know the Christian system as a
system of Truth, is impregnable. I know that all that malice can suggest,
and all that ingenuity can devise, cannot overthrow it, and, therefore, we
have nothing to fear from its foes, who are incapable of themselves to
comprehend it or judge of it, without its personal experience. Faith gives
us visions, as science gives us revelations.

What we have to fear is the professed friends of Christianity, who
contradict it in every part by their life and conduct. " Save me from ray
friends !" have many said, and have thanked God for their enemies.
Christ has always suffered most from His professed friends, who. Judas-
like, have said " Hail, Master !" and with the kiss on the cheek, have held
the dagger in their hand, to crucify Him afresh. And now at this day He is
wounded in the house of His friends — the Church — as He never was.
The Church, as it is now constituted, is the greatest obstacle to the pro-
gress of Christ's kingdom on earth, and the Infidels, while they have no
logical argument for remaining Infidels whatever, on the ground of the in-
consistency of Christians — still, they are doing an important service by
their attacks on this vulnerable part.

If some reply, ''Are not both the good and the wicked to grow
together, as the parable of the tares sown in the field, tells us, till the
harvest?" Yes; but the field is not the Church, but the world, where
Christ represented the enemy as sowing the tares among the wheat. See
Mat. 13, 38, "The field is the world." Christ's invisible kingdom — His
body of the faithful — is His true spiritual Church, and these tares are not
His Church at all. They are outside of it, and are to be kept outside
of the Church, in the world. But they are the veeds now that disfigure
it — the plague spot that infect it — which have no right in it, and must be
got rid of and burned out of it. And that Christ will, ere long, come and
do, and the heaviest vengeance of heaven will fall upon the vile hypocrites,
the detestable self-deceivers, who always succeed by their success in de^

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i ,■

5°

Tin; r.RKAT WANT OK THE AflF..

reiving others to deceive themselvofs, and believe the lie they got others to
beheve, that they were Christians, after all. This is the working of error,
that (iod sends those who received not the love of the truth, that they
should be saved, who believe a lie that they all might be judged — fairly
dealt with — who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous-
ness. — Verses ii -12— whose end is destruction.

THIi "lawless one" WHERE HE SHOULD NOT BE.

If you wish to see the " lawless one" in our midst go not to Infidels,
go not to the world . but go to Christians, go to the churches of our land,
and you will find them swarming in myriads. You will find " the lawless
one there." just as Judas was found among the Disciples, as a professed
friend of Jesus, but a traitor, selling Him for money. They are just like
Judas, trying to serve God and Mammon. And discerning outsiders see
this and remain outsiders on account of it, and infidels are gratified by it,
becauBe it helps them out with their illogical arguments for remaining
infidels.

Just as the inlet to *• the falling away" from the truth at first was
opened by admitting the unregenerated into the fellowship of the faithful and
led to all the mischief that followed afterwards, so impurity of church
fellowship is the sole cause of all the lawless ones swarming like wasps
that steal away the honey and make none, and " the lawless one" has so
increased in our times that the expression has become representative not
of one here and there among the faithful, but is the type o odern Christian
society. For the Christian church is become the snarf he towler. All
people know how men catch birds, how they have ne. , c^ud strings and
poles, and an enticing bird — the call-bird — to sing so beautifully that all
the silly birds come to hear it and see it, and become friends with it, and
so they are caught. All people know how the spider catches the fly and
eats it, so the archfiend, who is '' the lawless one" incarnated in the hypo-
crites, entices them into the churches to serve his vile purposes, and to
turn the house of God into a den of thieves.

The door of admission says to every passer-by : " Welcome, welcome
stranger to come in, and sit on a cushioned seat for you have got a gold
chain on." ** Welcome, welcome, beautiful little fly, come in, and stop, and

die !" This it says to every passer-by. And the passers-by enter,

and are so pleased with so much attention — given to serve wordly interests,
' — and they are so pleased with the sweet, comforting preaching, and the
devil is pleased too.

The door of admission does not say, ** You must be bom a||Bain
" You must be regenerated, or you cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
•' Ye must repent, or ye shall all likewise perish." Oh, no ! " Membership
in this church on easy terms, or any terms you like." And " the lawless
one" has fine scope for his lawlessness 1 And it is in the temple he sits
and exalts himself above God's truth. And in the holy place his iniquity
is practised as he is here described, whose coming, or presence, as the word
used (parousia) means (vs. 9 and 10, 11, 12,) " The presence of whom is
according to the working of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying

)»

A LAWLESS AGE.

5«

-wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them tha^ are perishing ;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they raight be saved.
And becausd of this God sends them a working of error that all may be
Judged who believed not the truth, but took pleasure in (adikia)
unrighteousness."

There is a striking contrast and rivalry here implied between the
Prince of darkness and thn Prince of life ? Satan, incarnated in " the law-
less one," attempts to imitate and surpass Christ. Did Christ come with
miraculous attestations to prove the divinity of His mission ? The working
of Satan is with all power, and signs, and wonders, but they are lying
wonders ! Did Christ come to establish the truth on earth, that it might
produce righteousness in them that were perishing because of their depart-
ure from truth ? Satan's aim is to establish falsehood with all deceit of
unrighteousness in them that are perishing ! Did Christ come to save men by
their loving the truth, believing it and practising it ? Satan's aim is to des-
troy men by prejudicing them against pure Christianity, and giving thein
something they will like better and more agreeable to their carnal nature,
that they might not believe the saving truth, but take pleasure in iniquity !
Did God send a working of error through " the lawless one" in keeping
with the exercise of man's free agency, that they might be fairly dealt with
in the day of judgment, and eat of the fruit of their own ways ? Then how
necessary it is that we should look to how we stand in His sight, and
cherish the love of t le truth that we may be saved. Oh, there is nothing
so precious and valuable on earth as the truth I

The enquiry of it, is the love making or wooing of it ; the knowledge
■of it, is the presence of it ; and the belief of it, is the enjoying of it ; and
the practical conformity to it, is the sovereign good of man. But to know
it and hold it in unrighteousness, is to act the part of tlie " lawless one."'
No one can practise deceit without knowing it, for it could not be deceit
without the perception of its opposite, and when the perception is lost the
heaviest penalty is inflicted in our becoming the prey of self-deception and
the victim of lawlessness, — this is the working of error God sends as its
necessary consequence and its righteous retribution. There is no being
more to be pitied, therefore, than the self-deceiver, who has practised
hypocrisy so long as not to know he is a liypocrite, but believes he is what
he is not, until the conscience is awakened by some visitation of the
Almighty out of the self-condemning dream, which, perhaps, the terrible
day of judgment will be the only thing to show the self-deceiver his true
position ; and then to alter it, impossible ! Oh, it is here the awful issues of
the habitual perversion of truth are seen, and the Church is the archfiend's
•selected sphere for its highest, and fullest, and saddest developments.
Therefore, the remedy must be applied here.

I ,

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE IN THE CHURCH.

It is sad, indeed, to think that where we should expect the least need
o( improvement, there should be found the greatest need of improvement.
All the other wants of our age are as nothing compared with the magnitude

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

and urgency of the one great want of our age in the Church of the living
Cod.

The Church in our day is Satan's chief seat, where he sits and exalts^
himself above God. The Church is where he has now his chief princi-
pality. It is here where he exerts his greatest power. In the world he
has everything his own way, for the world lieth in the wkked one. The
world is on his side, carried captive at will. The Church is his opponent,
or ought to be. To the Church is given the high commission to conquer
the world for Jesus. Satan is determined to prevent this. And what does
he do to prevent his subjects becoming the subjects of another King?
He tries to turn the Church into a specially-favored province of his
kingdom. And how does he act ? He comes there with all his energy,
to sow tares into it, — aa our Lord has told us, to get unregenerated men
and women into it as members, and as ministers of the Church.

Impure Church fellowship, as I have said above, was the inlet, at first,
to Satan — to all the falling away from the Tmth — from the Christ ; and the
inlet to all tiie evils ever since, in the Church. Consequently, purity of
Church fellowship is the one remedy.

A New Testament Church, according to Christ, and the teach ngs of
His Apostles, is a society of regenerated men and women.

Christ solemnly legislated this law as the fundamental law of His
kingdom. (John III., 3-5.) The visible Church is to correspond to the
invisible Church, as nearly as possible. None but the saved on the Day of
Pentecost were added to the Church. (Acts II.,47.) And the whole tenor of
the Nfcw Testament proves this. That which restrained the mystery of
iniquity, was the firm adherence to purity of Christian fellowship. When
that was relaxed, the mystery of iniquity began to reveal itself The
visible body of Christ had no schism in it till then. No diversity of sects,
till then. No error in doctrine till then. And no destructive element in it
till then. But what do we see now ? Never so many sects, never so many
doctrines, never so many destructive elements, that it is a wonder that we
have any Church at all. But it is " the living in Jerusalem " that preserve
the Church. But for the true and faithful Christians, Christianity would
have ceased. It is only in such.

The adversary of God and His people never objects to any of hi^ sub-
jects becoming a member or an office bearer in a Christian Church, pro-
vided they remain his dutiful subjects. He rather approves of it, because
it will be for the promotion of his rule and dominion just where he wants it
more and more to be. Now, don't let any laugh, and say there is no devil,
but the devil in yourself, for when I come to speak upon the Origin of
Evil in a Holy Universe, the reader will come to think otherwise, or I am
mistaken. There are more things in heaven and earth than "thy philosophy
ever dreamt of, Horatio ! "

The broad distinction between a servant of Christ and a subject of
the devil, is simply this : The servant of Christ is under law to Christ in
everything. (Rom. VI., 17-18.) The subject of the devil is without law
to Christ, and, therefore, " the lawless one." He does not think himself
a subject of the devil, because his own will is his law in everything. But

A LAWLESS ACE.

law

jelf

this just proves he is the subject of the devil, for the "Spirit" that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, is the devil ; and when you follow
out the bent of your owi; will, you do not submit yourself to the will of
Christ. This is just what the devil wants you to do, for thereby you serve
him, and disobey Christ. " Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants, to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye yield obedience,
whether the service be of sin unto death, or of righteousness unto life ?'
(Rom. VI., i6.) The man who does not serve Christ, serves the devil. And
a man can serve the devil better in a church than out of a church. He is
in a church hke leaven, to leaven the whole lump. Evil communications
corrupt good manners. The tone of the Church's piety is lowered thereby,
the conversion of souls hindered. This is the plague spot that must be
burned out. The express command of heaven to Christ's Church on earth,
is, "Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. What communion hath
light with darkness ? Wherefore, come ye out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord." (II. Cor., 14, 17).

Purity of Church fellowship is God's decree, and it must be, whatever
it costs, or the Church of Christ is ruined, and pure religion is doomed and
lost.

WHERE THE EVH. LIES, THE CURE APPLIES.

This, above everything else, is the " one great want of the age" — a
pure Church. But I fear it will not come. And, therefore, I warn the
faithful in the Church of what must inevitably follow. The prediction in all
its awful import, as here given by inspiration of God. There is nothing
but " the truth" as it is in Jesus, the pure Gospel, that can check and
remove the lawlessness in the Church, and where are we to look for the
right exemplification of that heavenly purity and bengnity the Gospel
imparts, but to the Church Christ has purchased with his own blood ? But
if its members belie that Gospel by unholy and selfish lives, then the stand-
ard of the Cross is fallen, because the professed disciples of Jesus have
fallen away from its requirements ; and if they have never been crucified in
their lusts and passions, they have no right to be in the Church as Christ's
members, for " they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affec-
tions and lusts." The cure is in the hands of the faithful, and if they cannot
reorganize their churches anew, so as to adhere to Christ's specific for
making and keeping his churches as He requires them to be, then the only
alternative left is for the faithful, the living in Jerusalem, to come out from
among them and be separate, for this mixed state of things cannot be suf-
fered to remain much longer without the most diastrous consequences. In
view of which I tremble. Because the passage before us does not refer to
some distant period of our world's history, nor to some foreign nation, but
this passage speaks home now, to you and me, and all the dwellers now on
the earth, for every " lawless one" is simply every one who is living now
without Christ, and has not Christ formed in them as '* the tfuth" to regu-
late their intellect and understanding, their affections and their heart, and
their entire life and conduct. "Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ
Jesus" is as authoritative as the command, "Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt

\\m

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

not Steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, and thou shalt not covet." If the
truth of the Gospel be not the power of God unto our salvation, it will be
the power of God unto our condemnation. None can be neutral in the
matter of the Gospel : it is either a savor of life unto life, or a savor of
death unto death to every one. Oh, let this solemn passage speak home to
every one of us, which passage taken in connexion with other passages in
the Apocalypse, foretells an increasing progress in the reign of the *' lawless
one" in the churches of Christ, where now he has chief quarters established,
and in the world at large, to an extent exceeding all comprehension. I am
no alarmist. I speak to facts. Paul feared lest the adversary should by any
means corrupt the minds of the early Chr.^tians in his day from the sim-
plicity of their genuine attachment, and sympathy, and union, aiid oneness
with Jesus, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness. What Paul feared
has transpired. It has become a dread reality in our day in the complexity
of the Church at the present hour, and it appears to me to forbode an
awful coming conflict between Satan and the Saints of God, such as never
was beheld in the earth since the Christian era began.

J ust £0 give one single proof, the passage in the Book of Revelation,
which has many parallel passages on the principle of evolution and present-
t"' .on of different aspects of the same epoch, and as now drawing nearer
-and nearer and fulfilling now, you will f.nd in chapter xiii. i.

Here a hellish monster is seen rising out of the sea — which is the
'emblem of tribulation, as the sea is the residence of storms and tempests —
having seven heads, (to which three were afterwards added), making ten
heads and it had ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon nis
crowns, the name of blasphemy (see v. 6,) and he was full of blasphemy !
Never was there a time in the history of the Church on earth when more
blasphemy prevailed than now. Thirty years ago Atheism came forth in
England, Mr. HoUyoake, in London, publicly debating with Rev. Brewin
•Grant whether there was a God, and Hollyoake was succeeded by other
atheists, who blasphemed the God of heaven more than he, and now the
placards posted up in our great centres of industry : Manchester, Liverpool
and Glasgow, are shocking to reid and indecenc, and both men and women
harangue large audiences in a manner that almost bids defiance to the
Almighty, and fills one with terror and trembling to hear them taking God's
name in vain! France, however, in the last century, was just as outrageous,
in this respect, as England is now. And to this hellish monster great power
was given him, combining the strength of the untamable leopard with the
feet of the ferocious bear, the mouth of the lion and the power of the
dragon, with a throne and great authority, proving the time had come for
the utmost intensity of action and the utmost malignity of combination
among the powers of hell were to be jut forth in full force !

This awful monster is received with universal homage, whose name is
blasphemy, whose nature is cruelty, and whose aim and end is destruction,
presenting a striking contrast to the partial reception the Saviour received
on earth, whose name is ' the altogether lovely," whose nature is benignity,
and whose mission was salvation.

The whole earth wondered after the beast. Why ? Because of its

. < :l '-.IB

A LAWLESS AGE.

1 1 ■<»•"

fighting qualities. What a low set of blackguards ! who shouted in admira-
tion of its physical strength.— Who is like the beast?— Who is able to
make war with him ? And there was given him a mouth, uttering great
things, and blasphemies. Bui, we are informed his time is limited.
Power was given to him to continue forty and two months — a period in
prophetic language I do not pretend to fix, although I have my own im-
pression, as denoting a good many years, but still limited in duration,
which is a relief to the mind. But what follow.s reveals to us a deep moral
conflict, for we are told at the seventh verse : And it was given him to
make war with the saints. This war is now raging. And it is added, " to
overcome them." God of heaven shield them m the fierce day of battle,
and give them strength to witness for Thee, since they are Thine.

The progress of devil worship and devil supremacy increases. Verse
8. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him whose names are
not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the woiid. The faithful and true to Christ shall never be lost, nor worship
the beast ; and they will be made strong in the Lord, and in the power of
His might.

Now, when you connect, in your mind, such a scene as this with the
description of the lawless one, whose presence is with aU power and signs
and lying wonders— undeifying tb*- Deity, if he could, and deceiving the
very elect of God — perverting liie truth, so as to make them believe a lie.

PONDER THE INEVITABLE RESULTS!

What may we expect from the reign of lawlessness — when he has got
it all his own way, and is crowned as the entire world's king, and the
Church's god ? What can w^e expect from lawlessness but its effects ?
What but the destruction of human happiness and the disorganization of
human society, by the perpetration of all that is wrong, and the violation
of all that is right, in sanctioning crime and legalizing vice, by subverting
truth and upholding falsehood, increasing selfishness and checking benevo-
lence, favoring the bad and persecuting the good ; by hellish malignity riot-
ing over the destruction of human happiness and human life by murder
and suicide and villainy; with dynamite, infernal devices and machines as
yet unknown ! Above all precious and immortal souls eternally lost, that
might have been saved !

Such will be the inevitable results of the reign cf lawlessness, through
Christians wandering away from the purity of the Gospel, and giving place
to the devil, if Divine mercy do not interpose.

Let no one imagine I have over-drawn the fearful crisis which is
rushing upon us with hellish fury and direst malignity. Neither let anyone
think it is at a distance. The terrible crisis is at hand, and is in our midst
already, to an appalling extent.

The apathy and indifference to it in all Christendom at the present
hour,'shows it has come to a head ; for this very apathy and indifference
are spoken of by Christ Himself, as the signs that were to precede its full-
grown magnitude, by the images he employed ; and they are the very con-
ditions for the enemy to take advantage of, in his final grasp at the crown

'■: '-"*?

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

!l J

rights of the King of Heaven. There is one point here, however, I must
clear. It is not the end of the world, but the end of the age, which is the
point to be kept in view. And it is not to the manner of Christ's coming,
but to the fact of His coming, that I insist upon, at present, as near.
While the preceding signs of it, and the effects of it, are the things I wish
to speak of now, and the practical lessons to be learnt from this most im-
portant event, predicted by the Apostle, when " The Lord shall consume
'i the lawless one " with the breath of His mouth, and shall destroy (him)
with the brightness of His coming. (Verse 8, II. Thess., second chap.) By
taking a rapid glance at these points, we shall learn what Israel, knowing
the times, ought to do.

I. The prevailing apathy and indifference among Christians to the
necessity of Christ's coming in the existing state of society to rectify it is
predicted to precede His coming. In the parable of the tares, Christ tells
us (Mat. xiii., 25,) " While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares
among the wheat." This is exactly fulfilled, as I have adverted to by the
admission of the unconverted into church fellowship. They aie the tares
which the enemy sows among the wheat, and the indifference about pure
communion is represented by sleep. It was while men slept Christ's enemy
came and sowed the tares among the wheat. Having by this means ruined
the Church, they care little about reorganizing it, and as little about Christ's
coming to rectify it. When the time for judgment is to begin at the house
of God, and if it begin first at us, what shall be the end of them that obey
not the Gospel of God, whether in the Church or out of it ! The deacons
say," we must get in money to pay our expenses, you know ; and the minister
likes a large church and a large stipend, you know ; and we are no worse
than our neighbors, you know, — not half so bad ! and laugh." So the
devil's work is done while the deacons are wide awake and the minister,
too, to their own wordly interests, but asleep to Christ's sorrowing heart,,
and the devil is glad !

In the parable of the ten virgins (xxv Mat. 5,) '* Wh(!n the bridegroom
tarried, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there is a cry,
' Behold the bridegroom ! Come ye forth to meet him ! Behold the bride-
groom Cometh, etc' " There is so much crying in the streets outside that
the sleepy virgins are startled and awake out of their sleep, and five were
wise to prepare beforehand their flambeaus with their vessels of oil, but the
other five were foolish and delayed to have their torches ready, were with-
out oil to keep them burning, and could be of no use in the procession m
the darkness of night without the torch burning, so they are in a terrible
way to get the oil. They run to the wise virgins to borrow some. Oh, no,
said they, we require all we have, but go to those who sell oil and
and they will give you oil ; and after they have gone to the meally-mouthed,
the honey-lipped, popular preachers that sell passports to heaven, and
while getting some fresh, soothing unction to their disquieted conscience,,
and making up for their lost time on the road, when they arrive the wise
virgins had got in, but they were too late and the door was shut ! And
they could not get in, all they could do. Do you know the reason ?

Tlie Lord did not know them. They had not got the *' oil of gladness"

A LAWLESS AGE.

from the Lord Jesus, or He would have known them. They had got some
combustible stuff from ** the man of sin," " the son of perdition," *' the law-
less one," and it only gave them a flaring light of a profession that was an
exact imitation of the '* light of life," but it was as bad as dynamite at last,
for it brought them to destruction. The improvement Christ made of this
parable was an admonition, which is now much needed among his true
disciples : " Watch, for ye know not the day nor the hour." Indifference
and apathy about the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom is here predicted
and required to be caanged into watchfulness and preparedness for His
coming. " Awake thou that sleepest and arise from among the dead."
Again, in the parable of the unjust judge, Christ evidently refers to
the state of mind in society about His coming, in saying " When the Son
of man cometh shall He find faith on the earth ?" — Faith in Himself or
even any belief in His coming ? Society will be in such a state of indiffer-
ence about it, as not to believe in it when the time arrives. His coining
to personally reign in Jerusalem is largely believed in ; but His coming as
intimated in the Scriptures, as I will show presently, is fast fading from the
mind of Christians ; and, therefore, it is all the more in keeping with this
question, " When the Son of man cometh shall He find faith on the earth?"
Neither faith in Himself nor belief that He is coming shall be much exercised
or cared about, and, therefore, giving the adversary all the more advantage,
for then is the hour and power of darkness, and men are never more in
danger than when they grow indifferent about it ; and further, apathy and
indifference about the appalling crisis of our times adds to the magnitude
of the evil and gives a terrible significance to it, when those who should be
alarmed and concerned about it are careless about it. It indicates a sad
state in the Christian community — want of sympathy with Jesus, whose
heart is filled with an infinite sorrow just nc ^ because of the growing
wickedness and rebellion in the earth. Apathy and indifference to it is the

2. This fearful crime of indifference to the present low state of religion
worst feature in it.

and unconcern about it, is easily accounted for. The Apostle has indicated
the three things as signs of the end of the age we have already considered,
viz., first, " the falling away," next, " the revealing of the man of sin," and
then " the lawless one ;" after these have come, as they have done, need
we wonder that apathy about the regeneration of society should be found
in the Church of God itself ?

John Bunyan had a clear idea of it when in his " Holy War," he said,
" When the giant had thus far proceeded in his work, he betook him to
build some strong holds in the town. And he built three that seemed to be
impregnable. The first he called the hold of Defiance, because it was made
to command the whole town, and to keep it from the knowledge of its
ancient King. The second he called Midnight hold, because it was built
on purpose to keep Mansoul from the true knowledge of itself. The
third was called Sweet-sin-hold, because by that he fortified Mansoul
against all desires of good. The first of these holds stood close by Eye-gat^
that as much as might be light might b% darkened there. The second wa$
buUt hard by the old castle, to the end that it might be made more blind,

, "I

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

if possible. And the third stood in the market place." Strange to find a
method, even in madness, where we would expect to find none. But, you
see there is a close connection — a method in the three signs above as
much as in the three things John Bunyan had in view — the lust of the eye,
the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life, for they always go together in
this order, and have a close correspondence or analogy in them to the
three-fold process mentioned ; and how strikingly the last just brings us
where we are in our time, called by Paul the '* lawless one or lawlessness,"
by another way of putting it, " the pride of life ;" by John Bunyan, the
" market place," and so it is in our day for disregard of God's truth, a
good position in society, and the way to reach it in the market place is all
that people care about. Satan has got the victory. All the world is admiring,
and worshipping the beast, and the Saints are overcome. Their apathy and
indifference to the existing state of society proves it.

Only one here and there seems to be concerned about it. They think
it cannot be otherwise than it is — no use to try and improve it ; they are
well provided for, and feel very comfortable in themselves, and the rest
must just be left with the decrees of heaven they inwardly think, and some-
times openly assert, *' It can't be helped."

Our modern Christianity is a lie, a delusion and a snare ! It is des-
troying churches, it is destroying souls by the million, and Christians can't
see it, nor do they want to see it. " A deceived heart hath turned them
aside, so that they cannot deliver their soul, nor say, ' Is there not a lie in
my right hand?'" The standard must be raised. The Bible standard
reached and lived up to.

We don't need to fear Infidelity nor Atheism. They are purifying fires.
Christianity — the religion of Christ, falsely so called because falsely con-
ceived of, is what we have to fear. Its exact and true ideal is lost.

" And now Diabolus thought himself safe , he had taken Mansoul;
he had ungarriscned himself therein ; he had put down the old officers,
and had set up new ones ; he had defaced the image of Shaddai (the
Almighty,) and set up his own ; he nad spoiled the old law books, and
promoted his own vain lies ; he had made him new magistrates, and set up
new aldermen ; he had built him new holds, and had manned them for
himself. And all this he did to make himself secure in case the great,
good Shaddai, or His Son, should come and make an incursion upon
them," — just that, acute John Bunyan, the glorious dreamer !

This the Son of God is coming to do, for there is great need for it.
** Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly."

Why tarrieth the coming of Thy chariot ?

Many, who are deeply interested in this great matter, have said to
themselves and others: "Why is His chariot so long in coming? Why
tarry the wheels of His chariot ?" It is because his bride is not ready to
receive him. If the truly Godly would wake up, and prepare for His com-
ing, He would come to-day or to morrow. Yes, He would.

3. Let us understand what the coming means,and whatChrist will do by
His coming in the souls of His people, and then we will understand what
His people have to do to secure His coming. By the coming of the Lord>

I \

A LAWLESS AGE.

in the great passage before us, is meant the presence of the Lord,"parousia."
Well, we want the presence of the Lord. Now, it is here said what He
will do, the lawless one the Lord Jesus will destroy by the Spirit of 7iis
mouth, and abolish by the effulgence of His presence.

His coming then does not mean His coming to destroy the world or
to destroy men's souls, but to destroy men's sms and save men's souls. And
when this is effected, all evils now existing in society will be banished from
it, every curse turned into a ble&iing, and every one made truly ha\)py.
Oh, how glorious, how desirable is this ! — which is the one great want of
tne age.

Now, we have been upon the road to happiness all the way, since we
started from the first page of this book, seeing as we went along the evils
that exist and have to be remedied, and what science can do and must do,
what art and education can do and must do, and now we have come to the
terminus, and have had as quick a railroad journey to it as I could find
rather too quick, I fear, to see things fully and fairly ; which a railroad
journey never allows us in passing along, as the old stage coach system
did. The subject is so vast that it is not an easy thing to grasp every part
of the problem, and keep everything, as we go along, in view. But now we
have reached the goal.

But here again much requires to be carefully and clearly, aud rightly
understood, so as to avoid the mistakes that have been fallen into by many.
For I think of all subjects, the subject of Christ's coming is least under-
stood. Some think it wijl be like a great transformation scene, which the
Almighty Saviour will effect by his leavmg His heavens, leaving His ever-
lasting throne, and fixing it in glorious magnificence in Jerusalem. Others
think it will be such an energy put forth by the Spirit of God, as to leave
them nothing to do, but only wonder and adore. While, perhaps, most
think of the coming of the Lord as an instantaneous destruction of our world,
the resurrection of the dead, and the change of the living and all mankind
to appear before the judgment seat of Christ, — being the end of the world
and the last day, which they think may be a very long day — a thousand
years !

The great essential point in Christ's coming, I think, is quite over-
looked by all these views of it, which I take to be this : Christ's coming
is Christ's presence in His people, and through them, by the power of His
Spirit, creating a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth right-
eousness.

The Greek original, any one at all acquainted with Greek will perceive,
is clearly and forcibly brought out by the rendering I have given to
" parousia."

It is the presence of Christ in his people, and not away at Jeru-'
salem, or up in heaven, but His presence in their thoughts, their affections,
and their life and conduct, that is to destroy the lawlessness of the age.
It is something we have now, it is the greatest moral force in the universe.
It is very faintly felt, it is very dimly seen now. It has only to be more
felt and more seen, and sinners will be converted to God. There is nothing
in wordly-minded Christians, which is a misnomer and a contradiction in

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THF. (IRF.AT .VANT OF THE AUE.

terms — for the friendship of the world is enmity with God, and a wordly-
minded Christian is no Christian at all— there is nothing in such Christians
to convert the world— the people in the world are just as good, or as
bad, as worldly people in the church ; there is no difference, and there is no
need nor possibility of changing them, when they ^re six of one, and half a
dozen of the other.

How beautifully and strikingly the Greek orig'nal presents the great
truth here taught, the delightful promise here G;iven, the glorious prediction
here foretold about ** the lawless one," whom the Lord Jesus shall consume
— "too pneumati tou stomatee," — ** with the breath of his mouth," — not a
malediction breathed in curses, as the wicked do and serve one another,
but what will bring the 1 wless one to nought by, "tee epiphaneia tas
parousias autou," by the bright manifestation of His presence. It can only
be manifested in one way, by one sort of people in the world, only by those
in whom the Divine Breath is breathing thoughts and wishes, holy emo-
tions and performing holy, God-like actions, for it can breathe none unlike
itself. Oh, it is the Divine Breath that is needed to breathe on the dry
bones that they may live 1

What was it in the first age of the Church that made Christianity such
a power in the 'jarth ? It was not the miracles, with which it was divinely
attested, or Simon Magus would not have made such a fool of himself ! It
was not the sad and cruel death of the innocent Man they condemned and
crucified at calvary ! It was not the preaching of a few Galilean fishermen
setting forth the miraculous resurrection of our Lord from the tomb ! It
was the divine power from on High that attended their preaching 1 It was
the divineness that beamed in their lives, and that shown in their character.
Had there been no falling away, there would have been no crevice for the
mystery of iniquity to enter the holy Church of God by, and defile it and
destroy it.

The living spirit of God — the life of God in man made Christianity
in the first age of the Church what it was ; and by the same method Cl\rist
means to make His Church what it should be now, and what it will hv. in
the futuie. For it is here predicted that the lawless one the Lord Jesus s lall
slay by the spirit of His mouth, as already quoted, — by the breath of His
mouth — not by human breath — and by the effulgence of His presence.
Where ? In his people, whose lawlessness he has slain ! There is no other
way for religion to exist, to extend, to conquer! Bu^ here is the power of omni-
potence predicted to be vouchsafed, before which every evil shall vanish,
but not without we have the enmity of our own hearts slain, and fhaf law-
lessness that exists in every man, until he be made a new man — a different
' man from what he was. Now, this change can alone be effected through
the power of the holy Spirit. It is not by might, nor by power, but by
my Spirit, saith the Lord, that the living temple df the Deity is to be built.

But the doctrine of the Spirit has disappeared from the Christian
Church, and so Satan is having a fine time of it. He is the spirit men like
best to have, although they acknowledge it not, and would be ashamed to
:say it. The accursed thirst of gold proves it.

But all is nothing without the life of God in the soul, and where this

A Lawless age.

life is, and is exemplified, Christianity can never die in the earth, and by
this living power it can alone prevail. It is not treatises on the evidences of
Christianity that are wanted, but those that God has written in the human
consciousness of the new spiritual divine life that are to overthrow infi-
delity, confound atheism, and extend pure and undefiled religion in the
world.

4. It is recorded of the children of Issachar that they had understanding
of the times to know what Israel ought to do. God's children should go
and do likewise. The children of Issachar v.ent to the coronation of King
David, so let God's children go to the coronation of King Jesus. King
David had a rival, so has King Jesus.

Now, the best way to see Christ crowned is for each of us to be loyal
subjects, and honor Him by a fuller and heartier obedience to Him in our
hearts and lives. As He has promised to come in the power of His Spirit
— the crowning blessing of the Gospel dispensation — so let us pray for the
fulfilment of that promise in its New Testament amplitude and glory,
which none of us has yet formed, perh-^ps, a proper conception of the
divine intention in this respect, or we would pray for it without ceasing
until it is fulfilled.

God's Spirit is to be a spirit in our spirit to make us divine, giving
us divine thoughts, divine feelings and divine lives. Until the Church is
filled with the Spirit it will never accomplish the work of the Church as
God designs it. And the only way to set about the great and ennobling
enterprise of Christ's Church on earth, is by each member of the Church
of God (which is not of men) to pray for the Spirit, encouraged by the
gracious promise : *■ I will give the Spit it to him that asketh it."

Some say the Spirit is already given, and that is true. I.ut the Spirit
is not all given. The Spirit has been given and has been grieved away.
And now he is not given, because Christ is not glorified. Oh, that this
were a deep felt need. It is the one great want of our times. Oh, that we
felt our deficiencies more, for who .rmong us has lived up to his privi-
leges? Oh, that God's people h d a deeper sense of their individual res-
ponsibilities and shortcomings. Oh, that the Spirit were poured forth upon
all God's true people, as a Spirit of deep heart-searching and humiliation,
and confession in secret and in public before Him to the acknowledgement
of our deep personal transgressions, as well as our national sins and our
church sins, and that all would unite in what I have here written in devout
prayer to God.

A PRAYER FOR GOD'S DEAR PEOPLE IN THE PRESENT CRISIS.

Let US corne b fore the Lord our God, who is a refuge for us in the
•awf 1 crisis that is now reached in our day, and bow down ourselves before
the God of heaven and earth with lowliness of mind and deep sorrow and
■contrition of heart, and say unto the hearer of prayer : —

" We have sinned, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly,
and have rebelled even by departing from Thy precepts and from Thy
Judgments. Neither have we barkened to Thy servants, the prophets
who have spoken in Thy name unto us, nor unto Ihy Son,

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

the Lord from heaven, nor to the Apostles who have taught us Thy
holy Go'pel and Thy holy commandments, and to all the people of the
land. O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion
of faces, as at this present time, when the love of many waxeth cold, when
the standard of the cross is fallen, and when there is such a falling away
from Thy truth, and when the enemy has come in like a flood. O Lord,
to us belongeth confusion of face, to our ministers, who have erred with
ourselves, from Thy holy commandments. But to Thee, O Lord, belong
mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Thee. Neither
have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God to walk in His laws, which
He set before us by His inspired servants. Yea, all Israel — Thy chosen
people — have transgressed Thy law, even by departing that they might not
obey Thy voice ; therefore, this curse is poured out upon us, because we
have sinned and encouraged others to sin byour unholy example set before
them. Yea, all this fearful crisis in rebellion against Thee throughout the
whole world has arisen through the falling away of Thy chosen ones from
the precepts of Thy holy word, and from the truth and holy commandments
and ordinances of Thy dear Son our Lord, yet made we not our prayer
before the Lr rd our God that He might turn us from our great iniquities,
and understand Thy truth, and rise to the fulness of the stature of perfect
men in Christ Jesus ; therefore, hath the Lord watched upon the evil and
hath brought it upon us, as at this day, for the Lord our God is righteous
in all His works which He doeth ; for we obeyed not His voice.

" And now, O Lord our God, that has brought us out of the bondage
of sin and Satan with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, through the
blood of Thy dear Son our Lord, and given us Thy holy Spirit to purify
and sanctify us, and exceeding great and precious promises to comfort and
sustain us, as at this great Gospel day — we confess before Thee that we
have sinned, that we have done wickedly. O Lord, according to Thy
righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and fury be turned from
Thy Church and Thy people, who are become a reproach to all that are
round about us.

" Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant and his
supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy people and Thy
sanctuaries that are become desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God,
incline Thine ear and hear ; open Thine eyes and see, and behold our deso-
lations and the Church which is called by Thy name, for we do not present
our petitions before Thee for our righteousness, but for Thy great mercies.
O Lord, hear ; O Lord, forgive ; O Lord, harken and do ; defer not for
Thine own sake, O my God, for Thy people and Thy Church that are
called by Thy name. Amen."

If the Spirit here breathed be felt and cherished by God's people every-
where, how soon would we find His anger turned away, and His judgments
averted, which He has threatened against His people when they back-slide
from His holy word.

If deep humiliation before the Lord with penitential confession of our
individual sins, our family sins, our church sins, and our national sins of
Sabbath desecration, drunkenness, vice and despising Gcspel ordinances^

A LAWLKSS AGE.

II*

be sincerely felt and cherished by God's people, He will forgive us and
send His holy Spirit, the health-giving Spirit of His grace, unto us, and
slay the lawless one, and bring him to naught, as He has promised.

Is there anything too hard for the Lord ? The Lord said to Abraham
(Genesis xviii., 14): Nothing is too hard for the Lord, that He has
promised. The Lord is not a man, that He should lie and break His
promises, nor the son of man, to repent of His promises. Faithful is he
that hath promised who shall also bring it to pass. But prayer is the
condition of fulfilment. " I will yet for this be enquired of by the house
of Israel, to do it for them." Prayer is the means |of turning all God's
promises into blessings, and preparing us for them.

Prayer makes the darken'd cloud withdraw,
Prayer climbs the Ladder Jacob saw —
Gives exercise to faith and love,
Brings every blessing from above .

Prayer makes impotence omnipotent, turns every curse into a blessing,
and is the golden gate of heaven.

Our extremity is God's opportunity. In infinite condescension, our
Father in heaven has said to His regenerated ones : " Ask me of things
to come. Concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hand, com-
mand ye me." The Lord waiteth to be gracious. He has been waiting
now of a long time, and we have made Him wait.

God's method all along, and will be till the end of time, is to make
good His covenant of grace with His people, which in substance is this :
" In blessing, I will bless you, and make you a blessing." He blesses us,
not for our own benefit alone, but to be the means of blessing to others.
We reach the end for which He has given us a new heart, and renewed
within us a right spirit, in the exact proportion as we reach the highest end
it is possible for God to employ us in, by being instruments in saving souls
from death. This is the end of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus;
but this end can only be attained by us, by our making it our end— in being
more and more qualified for it, like Paul, who said : One thing I do, for-
getting past attainments, I strive to reach higher attainments, in being more
like Christ, so to reach the goal of my being, and obtain the prize of my
high calling of God in Christ Jesus. The two go together — reaching the
goal and winning the prize.

Oh ! when will Christians be aroused from their lethargy and apathy,
and fulfil heaven's design in their new creation ?

God has sent none into this world to make and amass money, as the
design of their life here on earth. God has sent none into this world to
seek ease and comfort for themselves, as the design of their life on earth.
Much less has God created anyone anew into His glorious image, for the
purpose of making and amassing money, or in seeking after ease and com-
fort to themselves, and fortunes for their families. He has sent every one
of His new creation into the world to be the honored instruments of reveal-
ing to others the value of the " unsearchable riches " of Christ, and to ex-
hibit to others the worth of the " peace that passeth all understanding " to
them that know it not, and the sweet satisfaction an^ true blessedness such

«4

THK ilREAl" WANT OF IHK AdK.

posses? in the "joy unspeakable and full of glory" that thrills in their
hearts, to draw others to seek after true happiness where regenerated souls
have found it— in Christ. Christians, therefore, pervert the purpose of
their new creation, and perpetrate a crime of awful magnitude when they
go into the world to make and amass money, to reach a good social
position, and to find ease and comfort when God says, " This is not your
rest, arise and depart, for it is polluted."

God sends His children of the regeneration as He sent His only be-
gotten Son into the world, "to seek and to save sinners." And Jesus
Christ sought to impress His genuine disciples with this one grand ideal,
that as He was the sent of the Father, as the world's Evangelist, so were
each of His true disciples to be each in his own sphere, by the perpetual
sermon of a holy life, to preach " the glad tidings of salvation," which they
had c me to know through knowing Him. " Ye are the light of the world."
'* Ye are the salt of the earth." What a moral dignity He elevated them
lo, as the enlighteners ot mankind, as the conservators of a world on the
eve of perishing. He raised His disciples far above other men, to such a
sublimity and grandeur, that angels in heaven might have envied — when
he pointed to a city on the top of a hill, and said, " A city set on a hill
•cannot be hid." It is there for observation, and so are you. It is an em-
blem of the heavenly city, the city that hath foundations whose builder and
maker is God ; and so are you a citizen ot heaven, and you are to walk
worthy of your high vocation, and take others with you to heaven, and
breathe its purity and its blessedness all around.

As Christianity was glorious at its commencement, so shall it be still
more glorious at its consummation. Before that joyous era arrives churches
shall rouse themselves and awake as from the tomb. " Their dew shall be
as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth her dead." In that pros-
perous era, thought, learning, genius, shall not remit their toils, nor veil their
brightness, science shall not abandon her researches, nor eloquence her
glory. But all shall be invested with a holier beauty, and shine amidst
diviner light. " The loftine!=r of man shall be bowed down, and the haught-
iness of man shall be made ow, and the Lord alone shall alone be exalted
in that day." Wealth consecrated by religion shall no longer cleave as a
curse to its possessor, but it shall be unto the Lord as an offering in right-
eousness. While happy and contented poverty, relieved from the burden of
want, not by mercenary hirelings, but by the hand of a brother, shall be
adorned and hallowed like the penury of the Son of God by tranquil rest-
ing on a never failing providence, and the calm certainty of an inheritance
in heaven. The hoary head shall be encircled with lambent glories, and a
brightening diadem already half revealed And then ardent and generous
youth panting after deeds of holy enterprise, and filled with no other ambi-
tion than might glow within the breast of angels, shall stand prepared for
every summons, and be ready to spring forth either to honorable service or
triumphant death. The apathy and indifference, which now so generally
prevails, shall be exchanged for enthusiastic zeal and unreserved consecra-
tion to Christ the Lord. The infidelity and atheism, and brutality, and
blasphemy, and reckless lawlessness, which now abound, shall be exchanged

THE SYSTKM OK ATHEfSM FAAMINED.

for fidelity and piety, and v'Hl (lodliness, charity and love, and rectitude.
" The sun shall be no more thy light by day ; neither for brig itness shall
the moon give light unto thee ; but the Lord shall be unto thee an ever-
lasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down (as
in the early days,) neither shall thy moon (in its reflection of the Saviour's
light) withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the
days of thy mourning be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous, they
shall inherit the land (the glorious blessings of salvation) for ever, the
branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A
little one shall become a thousand, and a small one (as the Christian church
is now) a strong nation T, the Lore, will hasten it in his time. (Is. 60:19-22.)

Thus have I endeavored to sketch the leading characteristics of our
age, the einls growing out of them, and the sovereign remedy to be applied
to remove them. But it would be an insufficient review of our times if the
religious errors of our times in the bold advances ofatheismhadnot special
prominence, and the counteractives brought forward in the solid rational
grounds we have for believing in the existence of the Supreme Being, a
subject not sufificiently dwelt upon among the rising race.

Young people should be well instructed in the reasons and grounds of
our belief in sacred matters, if ever theology is to grow out of its puerilities
and keep up with the age of progress in everything else ; for of all subjects
it is the least progressive and the least taught in the public teachings of our
day, and must ere long die of inanition. How sad that the most glorious
subject in the range of human knowledge — theology — the queen of the
sciences, the science of God, should be of all subjects the least grappled
with, and least looked into, and taught. And yet upon no subject does
the mind require to be more enlightened by the public teachers of Chris-
tianity, for upon nothing does the assimilation of the soul to God so much
depend as upon clear Scriptural views of the character of God, and the
relations in the interior of the God-head. The soul can never enter into
its fulness of blessing here until it becomes personally acquainted with the
true God ; nor be qualified for its entrance on the infinite blessednesa
hereafter, unless it becomes personally acquainted with the infinite God
now. Wherefore I proceed to examine the doctrine of atheism as held in
our day, and to piove its untenableness and unreasonableness, and then
give seven rational and scieutific grounds for believing in the being and
benignity of God.

SECTION II.— THE SYSTEM OF ATHEISM EXAMINED.

EPHESIANS II : 12 "WITHOUT GOO IX IKE WORLD."

It will serve to clear our way at the outset, if the English reader will
recollect that the Greek word ** <7///e?^/," rendered "without God" in this
passage, answers to the English word "atheists," and that it exactly
means — " without God." Atheism, in our day, is growing into a sys-
tem of many difTerent forms and shades of opinion about God. It is not
a total disbelief in God, as it is commonly considered, but it is a system of
false views and fatal errors about God, which is sweeping away thousands

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

J.,

I .

from rectitude in their thought and life, and, therefore, it is high time this
gfowing system of most destructive error be carefully examined, and our
young people be thoroughly enlightened regarding it, and see through its
hollowness and superficiality, and be prepared to refute it, as it is at
variance with the dictates of sound reason, not to speak of the testimony of
divine revelation, and utterly ridiculous and absurd, as I will prove.

I will be scrupulously careful, however, to do justice to the atheists, in
stating their views with exactness, and in giving them credit for their good
intentions, and saying all I can say in their favor, remembering the saying
of old Lucian, thyon monee tee aleetheia, " to sacrifice everything
for the sake of arriving at the truth." And I am certain that the r-theists
will find me a truthful and candid and kind interpreter of their v ws, only
stating what is correct about them, and what is just ; not for the sake of
victory, but for the sake of veracity. And I will do this, not only for the
sake of justice to atheists, but for the good of those who are in ignorance of
their distinctive views, and who rUii them down as all alike, with railing accu-
sations and severest censures, without knowing what they are attacking, and
■Going more harm than good.

Christians have yet to learn a great deal from the atheists, for while I
firmly hold they are " enemie? of the Cross of Christ," and I pity them from
the depths of ray heart, they are not rightly understood. Christians have
made men atheists by not faithfully witnessing for God, their Saviour in the
world, by 'eading them to form ^rrong views of the God of heaven, and the
generality of professed Chi istians are nothing but practical atheists under
another name, and know it not. " A deceived heart hath turned them
aside, so that they cannot deliver their soul and say. Is there not a lie in
my right hand ?" and are going down to peruition while they fancy they are
on their way to heaven, while they are not. False views of God lie at the
foundation of all that is false in religion, whether the person that holds them
be an avowed atheist or a professed Christian. And to both, the faithful re-
monstrance of Paul may be applied : " Awake to righteousness, and sin
not, for some have not the knowledge of God. 1 speak this to your
shame."

Now, as it is lawful to learn from an enemy, Christendom has much to
learn from the atheists in our day. Many of them resemble the skeptoi
(" the skeptics ") among the Greeks and Romans, who were called
atheists, not because they disbelieved in the existence of a Supreme Being,
such as Socrates, Plato, Seneca, Ciccro ; but because they did not believe in
the divinities the heathens worshipped. Their moral sense was shocked by
the brutalities, sensualities and Infernalities ascribed to Jupiter, Juno and
Mars, &c. So, many called atheists in our day disbelieve in the gods many
and the lords many, that Christians worship ; because every one, like the
rnen of Athens, have a divinity of their own, not the God in Christ, tut a
god of their own conception, and of their own liking and devising, and this
is the baleful root ol all the irreligion in the world. It is lo be " without
God." the true God, as revealed to the eye of faith in Ciirist, instead of
being with God, in sympathy and unity of holy living, and loving, and like-
ness to Him.

THE SYSTEM OF ATHEISM EXAMINED.

io make this difficult subject simple to the most ordinary capacity, I
will conduct its discussion in the form of a conversation with the atheists, b}'
asking and answering questions with an assumed shrewd young friend — one
of the advanced thinkers and leaders of modern thought, who has passed
through all the different phases of atheism, till the last phase of it, namely,
Agnosticism, v/hich I will hereafter explain, asking only one thing of the
reader — a little patience — to read it to the end.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN MR. FREDERICK

AND THE WRITER.

" O, dear Mr. Frederick, I am so glad to see you. I have been think-
ing much about the 'atheists ' of late, and as youare well acquainted wi'h
all their different views and arguments in support of their opinions, and have
now got to the 'top of the ladder," as you call it, I would like to have a talk
with you about your ' advanced views.' " Well, dear sir, I am equal)/ glad
to see you, and to tell you tijat the ' free thinkers,' to whom I belong, are
making rapid progress all over the world, carrying all before them, while
your old-fashioned, stereotype religion, is dying out as fast as it can, all the
world over." " My dear Frederick, I am sorry to hear it, although I be-
lieve it ; for truth i falling away, the last glimpse of godliness is leaving
the earth, ard falsehood is spreading fast, and is being enthroned in human
hearts. Th s is just what I have been writing in the previous section of
this book, .'.nd proving it from Scripture predictions and actual facts in the
present age of our world's history."

" I want you to read it, and to tell me if what is stated be not ' The
Great Want of the Age.' And now, from you, dear Fred., I want to learn

* The Great Want of the Age,' as further revealed by atheism, or, as you are
pleased to call it, ' the advanced thought of the age.' " " Yes, we considor
ourselves ' advanced thinkers,' because we have got beyond Christianity and
the Bible, and we glory in the name of * free thinkers,' and in the law of

* progress,' and all that will advance human well-being and the happiness
of the human brotherhood ; that is our Bible and our cieed."

" I am aware of all that, for I have heard it over ai\d over again ; but
I want to know the principle, my dear Frederick, on which you are going to
work ov.t your scheme of human amelioration and philanthropy, which I
wish you to succeed in a xomplishing. As an intelligent leader of the
modern thought, you are, no doubt, convinced that religion of the purest
kind is that which sets b'^ibre us what we need in reaching — true nobleness
of character, -* which is the basis of all human progress and improvement
and human amelioration and happiness.'" "Yes, I admit that is the
mighty lever that is to lift up society — * true nobleness of character.' "

" Very well, Frederick. I wish to apply this test to the entire system
of. atheism, to see how it can reach true nobleness of character in its ad-
herents. You can help me to solve the problem, because you are well ac-
quainted with all its different aspects; and as you have come to the last
edition of atheism, and think you are right now, you will be able to tell me
about the different stages you have passed along, and to show me why you
abandoned these stages as insufficient to reach your ideal."

it-

1 •

■1'

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

Mr. Frederick now gives, in a short analysis, a dear account of the
different sects amone the atheists, as follows :

'* No man or woman of any intelligence can ever become an * Anti-
theist,' for the ' no God ' theory is in defiance of all intelligent reasoning.
Few, comparatively, among the atheists, hold it. This is well enough known,
because they would cease to be sound reasoners if they did. No one would
listen to them if they uttered such an unproven negative. It being so utterly
illogical in its basis and assumption — without adequate proof that any
superstructure built on it would be equally illogical, and go for nothing, and
be suicidal."

" You are right, then, Frederick, in not including the Antitheists among
your • advanced thinkers,' for it is very evdent they are no thinkers at all,
and will never be able to sit in the chair of logic in any university, only in
the chair of the scorner, over their drink and debauchery. But how strange
it is, Fred., that almost everyone in society looks upon the atheists as being
exactly as you describe the anti-atheists."

" Yes, ignorant people that know no better, all think we all deny the
existence of the Supreme Being — the ' advanced thinkers' do not."

" Will you tell me, then, Fred., why you call such as stoutly disbelieve
in the existence of God, antitheists ? And not simply atheists ?"

" The word ' atheist ' strictly means what you have said at the outset,"
said Frederick, "and as the Scriptures translate it — 'one without God.'
Whereas the word ' antitheist' means ' one against God ;' one who is out
and out opposed to God,' and ' one who puts himself in the place of God
and is a God to himself.' "

" I see you make a correct use of the Greek preposition — " antt," —
and I think, Frederick, the philological history of that little word, ' anti,'
in its gradual applications and development will throw light upon the tran-
sitions of the human mind in its gradual departure from God, until it reaches
the awful climax arrived at by the antitheists. for I firmly believe man was
originally made in the image of God, that every one born into the world
has that image in him, defaced and defiled though it may be, and that
none, but a few hordes among the degraded savages, have been found
among all nations without the inborn idea of a (iod. " For when the Gen-
tiles (the heathen,) which have not the law (of supernatural revelation), as
the Apostle says, do by nature the things contained in the law, these
having not the law, are a law unto themselves.' [Ro. ii, 14.] And it is
only by perverting the law of God in the human conscience, and erasing
the divine image written in the heart, doing violence to all his nobler
nature, that anyone can ever become an antitheist. You will remember
what I am going to tell you about the history of the Greek preposition
" anti" or if you are not accjuainted with its developed usage, you will
easily find it in the Greek classics according to the laws of language gov-
erning this word, as language is a transcript of the human mind and of
human experience. ist. In its primary meaning, or root-meaning, it
signifies ** in front of,'' next [2] *' in opposition to," then [3] " in preference
to," next [4] " in exchange for,' and lastly " in place of, or instead of."
The antitheist passes through all tJiese transitions, until he comes to say,

THE SYSTEM OF ATHEISM EXAMINED.

" I am, instead of God, a god to myself, and T will icknowledge no other,"
thus fulfilling the prediction of the adversary, " Ye shall be as gods." First
doubling God, next opposing God, next preferring someth ng else to God,
then exchanging one thing after another for God, and, lastly, putting him-
self in the place of God, and resolutely worshipping himself and all that
will gratify self and selfishness to the utmost."

■1

THE DIFFERRNT SECTS AMONG THE ATHEISTS,
(I.)— THE ANTITHEISTS.

((

I. This is the lowest order of the atheists, to which Jack Simmins
belongs. They are directly opposed to the possibility of any Supreme Being
having any existence in the universeat all; they are *'an^ttAetsfs," not atheists,
in our acceptation of the term, and let me tell you the highest order of
" free thinkers," of whom I am one, and so is Mr. Herbert Spencer, my
apostle, repudiate the name of athei ts, for we do believe in the infini-
tely Supreme Power, as all Agnostics do. But those who say, " There is no
God, and there cannot be any, are, strictly speaking, " antitheists," out and
out disbelievers and deniers of God, and blasphemers of His name. And
their position is utterly untenable, illogical and absurd." " Why, Fred-
erick ?" " Because it all rests upon a fallacy." " Will you explain what
you mean, Frederick ?" " I mean that antitheism, the *• no God" system
of thought and opinion rests upon a " Petitio Principii" — a begging of the
question, assuming the thing to be proved without sufficient evidence.
And, therefore, it is a position that is unwarranted and unsound, and he
is nothing better than a fool that will say, " there is no God." " And here
I may just tell you," said Frederick, " here is a gross perversion, and
setting aside of the grand, logical and sound principle and basis the
advanced thinkers always act upon *' to have a sufficient ground for what-
ever we believe in, and adequate evidence, or reasons, for what we do not
believe in," for a negative becomes an affirmative, when it is acted upon ;
and it often requires more exhaustive evidence for the adoption of a nega-
tive tha for the reception of an affirmation." "You are perfectly right
here, Mi I'rederick ; a truth in reasoning, which has been overlooked by
the philosophers. Will you please to corroborate and confirm your point
of argument, which I consider vastly important ?" " To arrive at the nega-
tion : there is no God, the antitheist would need such an induction and
collection of universal knowledge that no mortal man, were he to live
through eternity, could obtain. He would require to visit all the millions
of fixed stars with their vast systems and suns that modem science has
discovered, and pass along from them through all the boundless universe,,
for space can have no bounds, as we can never go so '"'^r in our concep-
tions, but we can go further, so that many eternities and immensities of
boundlessness would be required to be gone through, and others succeed-
ing these before the evidence there is ' no God ' could be exhausted and
made cocrlusive, inasmuch as there might be some unvisited region where
the object of the searching esiquiry, is there a God ? could be found.

•'ill*

1 f

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

Where He is pleased to unveil His face and reveal His glory with a mag-
nificence and splendor transcending all conception, and yet attemper-
ing the refulgence of His beams to human vision, that it is beheld with
infinite rapture and delight as the beatific vision of God !" This is truly
grand reasoning, Frederick, but I fear it goes a great way beyond agnos-
ticism. However, let that pass. You have proved your point completely :
that the antitheist holds a position he cannot prove, and believes in an
assumption he cannot defend, and in a negative he dare not as a rational
being avow ; therefore, it is absurd. The antitheist, therefore, must have
some other reason than that, which reason can give him, or logic can
afford him, for the a Joption of his hypothesis, and I dare say it will be found
stated in the Bible. You think as one of the advanced thinkers, you have
confirmed what is written : " The fool hath said in his heart there
is no God," or viuld there were none. [Ps. xiv, i.l And the character
described there, you will note Frederick, is exactly what you find Jack
Simmins to be — nothing of nobleness in it, for he has no exalte>i ideal in
his soul. *' They are corrupt, they have done abominable works." " That
is its invariable concomitant. "

" Therefore, the antitheist can never rise above the idol he worships
and serves, and having destroyed all the nobleness of his nature he can
never be a benefactor to others or ameliorate others, but prove an injurer
and a curse to the race."

" Yes, I can bear my witness to all this," said Frederick, ** for I have
seen it, and felt it, and we free-thinkers, therefore, who detest the antitheists,
never allow ourselves to be classed with them, and think it wrong
on the part of others to rank us with them. We can then dismiss the
antitheists altogether."

(2.)— THE PANTHEIST.

2. " The opposite of the antitheist is the pantheist, is he not ?" "Yes,
he is quite the oppa>I:e. The pantheist sees God everywhere, in everything.
The antitheist sees God no where and in nothing. With the pantheist the
universe is God, and God is the universe. With the antitheist the universe
is not God, and God is not the universe, he has no God but himself ; but
the pantheist sees a God in everything but himself. These are two extremes
as opposite as the poles asunder."

"So they appear. But will it surprise you, dear Frederics, if I prove
to you that they are both alike ?" "It will surprise me, indeed, because
they are in my view totally dissimilar." " Well, you will find that
extremes meet here, as they always do, (in the middle.) And that the one
denies the personality of God as much as the other. For you know that
pantheism robs God of his personality, as it makes everything to be God ;
it reduces the great first cause of all things to nothing, for God is '^nothing
to you, or to me, as an object of intelligent worship, if He be not an infi-
nite intelligence, but an infinite intelligence cannot exist without a distinct
consciousness apart from the universe, and a distinct consciousness part
from the universe cannot exist without a distinct personality. Therefore,
if you rob God of His personality, you rob God of His consciousness and

THE SYSTEM OF ATHEISM EXAMINED.

of His infiaite intelligence, and reduce Him to nothing, so that the logical
landing place of the pantheist and the antitheist is the same, that is : noth-
ing, or tantamount to noihing, as an object of intelligent worship without
consciousness residing in a personality."

" The poor, crouchinfj, trembling Hindoo, filled with idolatrous devo-
tion, is a pantheist ; he prostrates himself before every trembling bush at
his feet that shakes under the wind, and entreats its succour and protection;
who will call that religion? It is superstition ! Religion is intelligent devo-
tion and homage offered to the Infinite Spirit, our Father in heaven, with
enlightened views of His character, as Jesus, the great Teacher, taught the
woman of Samaria to " worship the Father." " Ye worship ye know not
what." The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." [John iv,22-24.]
" Pantheism, is just diffused idolatry and heathenism, worshipping it
knoweth not what. This is an insult to the God of heaven I It can never
elevate the humiu race. It never has. It never will. I know there is much
in the heavens above and in the earth beneath to exalt and exult in ; and
in the sweet influences of nature much to soothe and to delight the mind
of the intelligent, but if they tell us they are unconscious of their heavenly
Father, and we say the same, what are we better than they ? But if we are
conscious of a living intelligence within us that seeks a living intelligence
without us, to whom can we go but to Him who made all things, as a per-
sonal consciousness to find the fellowship we need even to the Father of
our spirits ? We can have no fellowship with an impersonal God. The
Hebrew bards had none. They were not pantheists. " I am that I am,"
was the object of their worship, ''who fiUeth heaven and earth with His
presence,"

Pintheism confounds the distinction between God and the works of
God, and is a gross blunder, just as you would confound a man with the
the works of a man, and say there is no difference between them, that they
are one and the same, which is a palpable contradiction. Pantheism con-
founds this immutable distinction ; therefore, pantheism disbelieves in
God as much as antitheism does as to His glorious personality.
Pantheism prevailed among the Greeks. Aratus, the Greek poet that Pari
quoted from in his masterly address to the Athenians on Mars' hill, was a
pantheist. Cicero, who was a great lover of the poet Aratus, imbibed his
spirit, for in answer to the question " What is God ?" on his work con-
cemmg the nature of the Gods, he replied : ^^Dios esse mundos — the universe
is God." iEschylus, the great Greek tragedian-poet, was a pantheist, for
with him " the air, the earth, the heaven, all is Jupiter." " But we need
not wonder at this, when the one great fact of Christ in the glory of His
person, as the Lord from heaven, was not revealed to man. who is the
central figure, and the one grand truth in the inspired record, as the beau-
ideal of the race. Pantheism was taught by Spinoza in the 17th century,
and by Hegel and Schelling in the fgth century. It has been revived in
<jermany. It has appeared in the writings of Bailey, Carlyle, and Emerson,

lii

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

I' 'i

but it will never take root in England nor America, because of the prac-
tical character of the people."

" Now you see, Mr. Frederick, that pantheism by shutting out the
personal God from the mind ignores his existence as such entirely ; and
without a personal God there can be nothing for our personal conscious-
ness to lay hold on, so that, in reality, there is no difference between pan-
theism and ' no God' at all."

" Well, sir, I never saw pantheism so before, and I can see plainly it
brings us to the same result, practically considered, as antitheism. So we
can dismiss it also."

" Now, who will you next name, Frederick, for a little further consid-
eration ? I would suggest that large class of free-thinkers, whom many
designate,

(3.)—" THE MATERIAL ATHEISTS, OR DEISTS."

" Do not these differ very much in their views from one another ?'*
" Yes !" " Is it that form of being "without God" that sometimes takes
shelter from the avowed denial of Him ; because He may possibly exist, as
they have not been through all the universe to be able to dispute or dis-
believe His existence, and which shrinks from openly confessing Him,
because He is not suf^ciently proven to their satisfaction whether He is,,
nor what He is ?" " Yes, that is a broad enough definition. I think it
covers all the ground. Although it branches off into a great many different
modes of reasoning and ways of thinking on the subject."

" To the all important inquiry, " Who, or what is God ?" what is the
answer ? Some say it is " nature," others it is " matter," and others sayfit
is the " forces of nature," and some go so far as to say, " It may be
something else different from all these;" they make it an open question for
further light and knowledge, and say they are waiting for it. Few think it
is " chance," as many once did, for chance they perceive is a word used
to acknowledge only their ignorance ; so is the word " fate," or " destiny,"
an acknowledgement of ignorance. Some trace the origin of the universe
to the " nebular hypothesis," or to the atomic theory," or the doctrine ^of
" evolution." But all agree in this, " while we don't deny the existencefof
Qod, we disbelieve that He is the God of the Jews, or the God of the
Christians." This is about the sum of their views." " Then come "

(4.)— "THE SECULARISTS."

The name " Secularists" was adopted by Mr. Hollyoake and others,^
which name, I think, perhaps, more clearly expresses what these people
aim at better than any other, for they are not religionists but secularists.
They are trying to make the best of this world. For it is very certain that
all their reasoning and mode of thought leads them further and further away
from the Great First Cause, and the only thing they seem to care about is
" earthly things " and "secular interests." It is perfectly clear they can
never find the living among the dead — the living Go<1 among dead matter ;
— and that is where they are looking to find him, and where they never

;i-'!' 3

THE SYSTEM OF ATHEISM EXAMINED.

':A

can find him. God is found not in the objective but in the subjective ; not
out of a man but in him, in them " to whom He is pleased to reveal His
Son." — " God can only be known in Christ." " This I have proved from
my own personal experience ; and God can not be known satisfactorily in
any other way but by Christ," — who is "the way the truth and the life," " no
man cometh unto the Father but by Him." It is mere trifling to try and
argue out the origin of the universe from the things which the material
athiests or deists contend for; the diversity of opinion amongst them shows
how puzzled and perplexed they are in their own minds in solvli^g the
problem, and I can see nothing new in their theories, for they have all been
advanced centuries ago by many Greek philosophers of a very ordinary
type of mind, and they have all been refuted over and over again and
ought to be abandoned." " The next "

(5.)—" THE POSITIVISTS :"

The material athiest, the great M. Comte, is the founder of the new
school of philosophy, has acted wisely and shown both vigor of intellect
and practical benevolence of heart in giving up such idle speculations,
having found no satisfaction from them because they fail of their task. He is
shrewd enough to see this, and instead of spending any more time in this
direction, he calls on the philosophers to set about active measures for the
amelioration of society and to be kind and generous to the poor and weak.
Professor Clifiord and others hailed the new school, and called them-
selves by the name of Positivists, for they mean to do something positive
and no longer be speculative. Strange to say that this new school have
gone back to the old philosophy, for Jesus Christ is their chosen Leader
and Guide as the greatest philanthropist that eveir this world saw, and
by following the example of Him who went about doing good, the Positiv-
ists are earnestly seeking to ameliorate mankind.

Well, Frederick, is not this borrowing from the old book you despised,
and from the Christianity you "advanced Thinkers" say you have superseded ?
If ycu and they strip Jesus Christ of His essential divinity you will rob
Him of His infinite glory, and if you think that human effort can reach His
superhuman excellence without superhuman aid you will find yourselves mis-
tak:^n ! It is remarkable that after all that has been said about modem
thought and advanced Thinkers the secret of their strength and supposed
progress should come from the man Christ Jesus ! How can they call it a
new philosophy when it is as old as the nineteenth century? Strange how
free thinkers contradict themselves. Kenan, the great skeptic, whose pro-
longed and determined effort during his life time was to strip Christianity of
its supernatural element greatly contradicts himself when he afterwards
said, by way cf panegyric, with reference to Christ : " Rest now in Thy
glory, noble initiator. Thy work is completed. Thy divinity is established :
fear no more to see the edifice of Thy efiforts crumble through a flaw. For
thousands of years the world will extol Thee. Banner of our contradic-
tions, thou wilt be the sign around which will be fought the fiercest .of
battles. A thousand times more living, a thousand times more loved since
Thy death than during the days o Thy pilgrimage here below. Thou wilt

ii ]

t", !;

\ if

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

become to such a degree the corner stone of humanity, that to tear Thy
name from this world would be to shake it to its foundations. Between
Thee and God men will no longer distinguish. Complete conqueror of
death, take possession of Thy kingdom, whither by the royal road Thou
hast traced, ages of adorers will follow Thee." " You see how this skeptic
could contradict himself in first striving to explain away the supernatural
firom Jesus' life, and then say that between Christ and God men would no
longer distinguish, and that His name would be so interwoven with the
life of men that to tear it away would be to shake humanity to its founda-
tions." " Lecky, the Rationalist and historian of Rationalism, is compelled
to speak in a similar strain of Jesus of Nazareth as the beau-ideal of the
race, " as not only the highest pattern of virtue, but the highest incentive
to its practise." " Strauss, whose one aim was to destroy Christianity,
speaks of Christ as the " Being, without whose presence in the mind per-
fect piety was impossible." And now the new school of philosophy in
Germany with atheists and secularists composing it, finding they can do
nothing towards solving the problem of th*^ universe, are now setting about
to reform, and elevate, and purify society by the adoption of Jesus Christ
as their inspiration, and model man to efifect it ! and to do it by leaving
out the supernatural element in Chistianity, as if the supernatural
in the religion of Christ was the source of its weakness instead
of the source of its strength ! another stroke/ of the mystery of
iniquity, already considered. Truly, mv dear Frederick, there is some-
thing in all this very strange. It can only be accounted for by
the mystery of iniquity in our times working as an imposter and a
deceiver, to make out Christianity, under the charm of Christ's name, to be
nothing after all, and obliterate Christianity entirely, for nothing can ever
benefit man unless it comes from God ;" Christ is God's unspeak-
able gift, and Christ is God, and Christianity is God in man, as we have
shown." " Then come "

(6.)— "THE AGNOSTICS."

" But, dear Fred., I have spoken a long time, and now you will have
your ' say' about the agnostics you have joined. I shall be glad to hear
what their special views are, who their founder is, and your grounds of
preference, but what a strange name ! — ' agnostics !' It reminds me of the
inscription on an altar in Athens, that Paul saw, ' To an Unknown God I*
" Agnoosko theo."

"Yes, the term is derived from that same Greek word, Agnosko, and,
as applied to God, means that we regard him as the ' Unknowable God.'
Well this, Frederick, does not provt much * advanced thought !* "

" Oh, the idea \fe entertain of God is so great, so grand, and so
unlike what Christians entertain," replied Frederick, " that it exalts the
mind to infinitude, and imparts nobleness to it, and that is the reason I
like agnosticism ! which, we consider, is far in advance of all other
conceptions among religionists, and therefore, we have a right to call
ourselves 'advanced thinkers,' and the 'leaders' of the new 'modem
thought,' about God, whom we call the ' first cause' of all things, the

THK SYS 1 KM OF AIHK15M EXAMINED.

' supreme power' is so infinitely great, and inconceivably glorious, that we
call ourselves the ' agnostics,' for we believe in the exbtence of the
' unknowable one,' and therefore we are no atheists, and refuse to be called
atheists. Mr. Herbert Spencer is our founder, the most advanced thinker
of the age, the greatest philosopher of the age, and the most intellectual
and powerful reasoner of the age. He has cleared up all the mystery
about the origin ot the universe, and proves the existence of the ' supreme
power' most satisfactorily in this thorough practical mr.nner, in his first
principles thus : ' We cannot think at ail about the impressions which the
external world produces, without thinking of them as caused ; and we
cannot carry out an enquiry concerning their causation without inevitably
committing ourselves to the hypothesis of a first cause.' This is most
logical reasoning, is it not ?"

" Certainly it is. But the first cause is more than a hypothesis —
a grand reality, as I will prove before we end our conversation, with the
force of an irresistable demonstration, when we come to speak of the
evidences for the existence of God." "Now, sir, I should feel obliged if you
favor me with your remarks, at length, on agnosticism ; as I consider it is
quite a new discovery Mr. Herbert Spencer has made, and when com-
bined with the new philosophy of M. Comte, great good must be the result ;
therefore, I ask you if the exalted conception of the supreme power of Mr.
Spencer, and the practical common sense of M. Comte, when united
together, be not calculated to usher in a new era into the world, and
ameliorate the race ? And if we who embrace this exalted view of the
divinity, and seek, in a thorough, practical way, to be philanthropists, be
not entitled to the name of 'advanced thinkers?' — true reformers and
benefactors of mankind ! And if the * moder'^ thought,' as I have put it,
be not in advance of the obsolete Bible and the obsolete Christianity in
our times ? and ;vhether it be not the one great want of the age ? Now tell
me."

" You ask me, dear Frederick, so many important questions all at once
that I will require some little time to answer them fully, but I will fairly
meet them with as much brevity as possible, ist — I admire your enthusi-
asm arising from your new views, and I wish your sanguine hopes of
the benefits they may bring in the improvement of others, may
be realized, with your sanguine temperament, your aspiration of spirit,^
and benevolence of heart, it is not unnatural for you so to feel.
2. — Now, whether a new era will come through these new views, as
you regRrd them, I cannot say, but to you the belief in a '* Supreme Power"^
in the Universe is a new era in your mental history — a great transition
state from the determined denial of a Supreme Being ; and I grant also,
that the transcendent and stupendous loftiness of the ineffable conception
of the agnostics is calculated to be a counteractive to the extremely low
and miserable, and degrading idea of God, which the generality of Chris>
tLns in our age of professional Christianity seem to have formed, or idly
entertain in their minds — the worst thing they could do, as it is destruc*
tive to all that is divine in religion, for our idea of God always moulds
and conforms our religion to itself, and we can never have too lofty too

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THE GREAT WANT OK THE AGE.

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exalted an idea of the infinitely excellent and glorious one — the Creator
of the Universe, and the uncaused cause of all things, and to find one who
was an athiest, a man of princely intellect, one of the clearest thinkers,
and foremost philosophers of the age abandoning his atheism for theism,
logically driven to believe in the hypothesis of a first cause, and who will
not allow himself to be classed with the athiests, is, certainly, an advance
in the ri^ht direction on his part, and is calculated, as in your case, to lead
free thinkers not to think so freely, but according to the strictness of
reason and the restraint of inexorable logic. For the Supreme Power has
made all things conditioned to teach us humility, and that no flesh should
glory in his presence. All this I frankly admit in favor of agnosticism.
3. — But it has many grievous drawbacks. It makes you think too
highly of yourselves, and I will show you how you base it all upon com-
paratively nothing. Your new conception i? nothing new. It is as old as
the old fashioned Bible you so much disregard, because you don't know
its worth and value, which taught your great transcendental unknowable
Supreme Power thousands of years ago, as you will find in the book of Job
xi., 7-8. " Canst thou by searching find out God ? Canst thou find out
the Almighty unto perfection ? It is as high as heaven ; what canst
thou do t deeper than sheol what canst thou know f The nieasure thereof
is longer than the earth and broader than the sea," and in the 136 Ps. we
have a most exalted view given us of the infinite God and His ineffable
greatness and glory as past finding out, is gloriously described in the Old
Testament by Isaiah 40th < Habakkuk iii ch., and all the prophets ; and
then, as you call yourselves advanced thinkers, I should like to know what
you are '• advanced thinkers" in ? for it appears to me you are infinitely su-
perseded by the Apostle Paul, who undertook to instruct the advanced think-
ers at Athens, who were very much like you, and used your very title and
distinguishing name as an inscription on one of their altars, as I have
already referred to, for each of you agnostics is an altar like it, dedicated
— " to an unknown God." Paul was then in the palace of intellect, ad-
dressing the master spirits of mankind who, by their wisdom, knew not
<jrod. For " God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."
You remember what the great Chrysostom said, the golden -mouthed, that
when he read the gifted writings of men, the Greek and Roman classics
he derived much pleasure from them, but none of them could bring rest to
his troubled heart like these words of the adorable Jesus, " Come unto me all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. for I am metk and lowly in heart, and ye
shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is
light." — Mat. xi., 28-30. It is in Jesus Christ we see what is "knowable
of God through man to man ; and likewise what is " unknowable" of God,
for, " without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness," God mani-
fested in the flesh."

" AGNOSTICISM AS A SYSTEM."

" Now, dear Frederick, I would just add that your agnosticism may serve
the purpose of a lofty idealism for the highest order of intellect to revel in

THE SYSTEM OF Ai HEISM EXAMIMKD.

it, but it will aot serve the purpose of a practical religion, because it is not
suited to the ordinary class of intellect to take any interest in it, whereas
the gospel system is universal in its suitability to the man of well re-
plenished brain, and to the man of ill-replenished brain, having heights
and depths infinitely surpassing the most gigantic minds that ever ap-
peared in the earth, as, for instance. Sir Isacc Newton, Shakespeare,
Bacon, and Milton ; and yet so simple and intelligible in its so^l-saving
and soul-elevating utterances that the little child can understand them,
anci " a way-faring man," though a fool, (of weak and imbecile mind)
" nt ed not err therein," as many interesting cases have proved, as in the
case of poor Joseph, so well known, and others I have met with. Further,
your agnosticism presents to my view the mental abstraction of a deity,
which the epicuiean philosophers entertained of a Supreme Power so
remote and exalted that no one could approach unto, and so indifferent
to the interests of his creatures as to be shut up in the solitude of heaven,
regardless of the wants and woes of sorrowing and 'suffering humanity, as
if man was so insigrificant as to be unworthy of hi notice ! Whereas,
infinite tenderness in the true God is most endearing, and attracts to God,
as Jesus did when upon the earth, who was full of tenderness and truth."
" Paul evidently viewed the agnosticism at Athens, in his day, as very
similar to the agnosticism of our day. For you will observe how he ad-
dressed the Athenians as those who believed in a " First cause," a "Supreme
Power," but disbelieved in the Providence of God, the fatherhood of God,
His loving interest in man, His longing after us to return to Him, to seek
Him, that we might find Him, to participate in his fellowship and loving
favor, and no longer remain in ignorance of Him, but to change our views
respecting Him, and to anticipate the judgment day in the which he will
judge the world in righteousness by a man " en andri " whom He hath
ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath
raised him from the dead." (Acts xvii., 22-31). Paul delivered no meta-
physical arguments to prove the existence of God, the origm of the uni-
verse, and the doctrine of final causes, and the true character of God,
human responsibility, and the necessity of a judgment day. All these
matters he proved by a statement of facts that included them. But the
chief point he urged was for them to get rid of their " agnosticism," their
ignorance of God. He began with this (verse 23) — "Whom ye ignorantly
worship, Him declare I want unto you." He kept to this as his text all the
way through, and concluded by saying, (verse 30) " The times of this
ignorance (in the past about the godhead) God winked at, (overlooked),
but now God commandeth all men every where to repent," (metanoien) to
change their mind — get new views of God's character, and makes his ap-
peal by reference to the day of judgment to enforce the dutj of immedi-
ately giving up their agnosticism -their ignorance of the true God ! (Acts
17., 22-31) if you carefully read this grand oration of Paul before His
Athenian congregation, who prided themselves in their wisdom, and who
" by their wisdom knew not God," you will, I hope, dear Frederick, think
e of your new light, and find it is like a glimmering tapei in the presence

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THE OREAT WANT. OF THE AOE.

of the sun — light of divine revelation in the glorious gospel of the blessed
God."

Agnosticism, is not atheism, it is deism ; but it is not much better
than atheism. It denies the fatherhood of God, it denies the providential
care of God over us, it denies the efficacy of prayer, and it denies the ex-
istence or possibility of miracles. It gives us no conviction of sin, no
hope of pardon, no consolation in sorrow, nor support in trouble, nor joy
in death ! It tells us of no future world, no glorious heaven, no da^ of
final judgment, no reward of virtue, no punishment of vice, and no Saviour
to save us ! All it does is this — it sets before us a high mental abstraction
— the deity of abstract reasoning;, which, instead of operating upon the
mind like a vital force of healthfulness, it grows weaker and weaker, till it
is reduced to nothing. For, observe, the Supreme Power it presents is
one too great to be gentle and compassionate ; it is too mindful of the
universal welfare, or too regardless to be concerned for any single in-
dividual in the infinite universe; it is too; awful to be approached, too re-
mote to be communed with, and too overwhelming to be loved. The
Eedestal is too high for the ima{;e to be seen, the splendors in which it is
id are too overpowering to look upon, it is lost in its own splendor, and
it defeats the object it intends for by acknowledging a Supreme Power,
we loose a Supreme Being and have no God ! Tekel !

SECTION III— EVIDENCES OF THE BEING AND BENIGNITY

OF GOD.

Established on seven rational scientific grounds, namely : i. Causa-
tion. 2. Design in nature. 3. The human consciousness. 4. Universal
history. 5. The human conscience, 6. Providence and prayer, and 7.
Human experience.

Some may think this is a subject that should not be taken up, that it
savors of impiety, and may do harm rather than good. I hope this haziness
will be dissipated by such as thus object reading the section. Truth never
shuns enquiry, but invites it. It is open and candid, and sincere, and
needs no cloak to conceal i* " transparent loveliness. Times alter opinions.
The defiance and blasphen.^ of our age, engendered by ignorance and
wickedness, must be shamed out of existence, and a dear young rising
race must be tenderly cared for, and be instructed, and qualified to put to
flight the army of the aliens, and be made bold and courageous in the
panoply of truth.

This great fundamental truth is required to be clearly and forcibly
stated and argued out, and no longer taken for granted, without any clear,
correct, and comprehensive view of it, or well-considered arguments in
support of it, to give to others satisfactory reasons for the holding of it,
with the grasp of an unflinching fidelity, and to confound those who deny
it, and make themselves fools by their ignorant talk about it.

We must have fair play in religion as well as in everything else.
Sunday-school teachers, I trust, will be up to the times we live in, and
thoroughly master the subject, so as to be able to instruct their dear

EVIDKNCES OK IHE HEING AND IIENIGNITV Ol OOD.

children concerning the beirg and benignity of God, and implant in their
tender and plastic minds the " root-idea " of all true religion soundly and
Scripturally, tor f ccording to the idea they ente/tain of God in early life
will be their future life.

My aim will be to make this profound subject simple as possible, and
avoid abstruseness, so that a child may be able to comprehend it.

The seven proofs of the being and benignity of God, which are stated
above, and which I am about to unfold, will form a mass of evidence and
argument which nothing will be able to overthrow. And the deep and
delightful insight they are calculated to give us, increasingly as they are
carried out (beyond the length my time limits) of the endearing character
of God, should render the great subject an interesting study, both (or the
old and the young, and prepare us for thinking about Ood our Maker with
greater interest, higher intelligence, stronger faith, intenser love, deeper
reverence, and loftier admiration and devouter adoration than we have
even hitherto cherished and experienced.

^i.)— FIRST PROOF DERIVED FROM CAUSATION.

By " Causation" is meant the working of a cause in producing an
effect. As every effect has a cause, so every cause is adequate to the effect
it produces. The thing sought to be established is to prove here that :
God is the great first cause of all things. And the method of handling it is
this : — I. Something must have always been. II. That which has always
been must be adequate to account for all that is, and III. That which has
always been, and is adequate to account for all that is, is God.

/. Something must have always been. — I would here admonish the
young reader, and those who have not exercised their reasoning faculty
much, and to whom reasoning seems difficult to follow, because they have
not tried what they can do in it, to read slowly, and follow a few easy
steps, and they will soon find themselves masters of the entire argument.
This remark is, I dare say, almost unnecessary in the Dominion ot Canada
and the United States, for the faculty of reasoning, like the imagination,
I have observed, is in wonderful vigor in the Western Hemisphere, and
the rising race here is astonishingly sharp.

Being sure, then, that something now is — the entire universe — we will
be able to trace it back to something that has always been. For what is
plainer than that, if all being at one time was not, it must have had a
beginning, when it began to be ; and that some one was without a begin-
ning to be able to give a beginning to all other things ; since if nought
had ever been, nought would ever be ; therefore, something must have
always been without a beginning, self-existent, uncaused and eternal as the
first cause of all other things, or all other things could not exist. Don't
think I am begging the question or assuming what requires to be proved.
For, to use the words of Herbert Spencer : " We cannot think at all about
the impressions which the external world produces on us without thinking
ot them as caused, and we cannot carry out an enquiry concerning their
causation without committing ourselves to the hypothesis of a first cause."
It is an inevitable starting point.

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

The Strict laws of reasoning that govern the mind in its search after
truth, both in the deductive and inductive methods, are regulated by the
connection between cause and tiFect. Out of this connection we cannot
go. For the moment we depart from it we are brought into inextricable
confusion. Whereas, while we keep in it, everything is made plain as two
and two make four. Since every effect must have an adequate cause to
produce it, and the original cause of all things must necessarily be uncaused,
or it could not b" the originator of all things, either by permission, as in
the case of evil, or by direct operation, as in the case of good, which dis-
tinctions shall afterwards be made plain under the last section — on the
" origin of sin in a holy universe."

To get lid of the everlasting * Yea," the attempt has been made to set
up an " eternal series of successive existences," which theory breaks down
at every successive step of its antecedents, till, at the end, it is utterly
vTiuiout any eternity at all, and proves to be inadequate to account for the
everlasting " Yea." The atomic theory, the nebular hypothesis, the silly
nonsense about chance, all partake of this illogical and unsatisfactory rea-
soning, which may be illustrated by means of a chain consisting of a great
niimber of links. If you remove link after link, you come to the first link.
Then, who made it ? It could not make itself, since in that case it began
to be, and if it began to be it could not be from everlasting, since it had a
beginning ; and since the whole is the same as its parts, if the parts be
dependent existences, like the races of mankind, then they are of limited
duration, and if of limited duration they cannot reach back to unlimited
unbeginning existence, and, therefore, cannot be eternal. The first link
in the chain must have been made by some one, and that some one must
have been without beginning of days, as without this there can be no first
cause at all.

To believe in an *' eternal series of successive existences," to get rid
of the everlasting " Yea," is to depart from the demands of our reason, as
we huve proved, and to believe in it is the greatest credulity, because it
has no adequate basis to rest upon, and, therefore, no one can commit
themselves to such an absurd conclusion of something out of nothing,
except they be bereft of the faculty of reasoning — something eternal, there-
fore, must have been or nothing is. Therefore, the existence of a first
cause, itself uncaused, is in the strict sense of the word no " hypothesis,"
or assumption, although Mr. Spencer, no doubt, used the word "hypo-
thesis" in the sense of what is incapable of being understood, of course it
is ; but we are driven to its adoption by inexorable logic, as a great pri-
mordial truth, and self-evident fact, according to the strict laws of reason-
ing that g7ve;n the human mind, that something uncaused, and from
everlasting, must have always been, else nothing could be. This is per-
fectly clear. Hence we proceed.

2. That which has always been must be adequate to account for all
that is. — Because 'that which has always been" is possessed of the attribute
of eternal existence, and this attribute includes all perfection, and is neces-
sarily the everlasting fountain of all being. Nothing could be before it was,
and nothing can be without proceeding from it ; therefore, " that which

EVIDENCES OF THE I5EING AND BENIGNITY OF GOD.

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has always been must be adequate to account for all that is." Hence the
great problem of the origin of the universe is solved, being directly trace-
able to that which has always been. Its Almighty Creator. The God in
whom we live and move, and have our being, and by whom all things
exist This is equally clear, and requires no further elucidation. I once
heard Mr. Hollyoake, of London, England, one of the clearest thinkers
among the secularists, and so-called atheists, declare that, that which was
" eternal, was clothed with infinite perfection in itself, and adequate to
account for all derivative existence and the author of ?11 things."

J. That which has always beeti, and is adequate to account for all that
is, is " God." — For the eternal is alone adequate to account for all that is ;
and as we jadge of man by his works, so we can form our estimate of God
by his works. For,

" The just Creator condescends to write,
In beams of inextinguishable light.
His names of wisdom, power and love.
On all that blooms below or shines above."

Let UB lift up our minds then in contemplation to Him who hath
alwayi:^ been and always shall be, the self-existent and glorious I am, who
has formed all things, the most minute, and the most stupendous through-
out His illiriltable universe, and how august and incomprehensible He
appears ! Whose arm is omnipotence, whose eye is omniscience, and
whose presence is everywhere at one and the same moment of time,
clothed with infinite perfections, and who is past finding out ! How grand
and glorious a Being i

To say that Ood is, and that he is the author of^all that is or shall be,
is as far and as high as we can go in our conceptions of the infinite and
uncreated one. But who can comprehend those two definitions of God ? —
Of His absolute being and doing ? Indeed they may be reduced to the
first — the fulness of personal being. But it can never be brought to the
level of our finite understandings, nor is it a thing to be desired. If there
were no object for ever rising above us, and beyond us — for ever reveal-
ing and yet never realized, we should lose our higher thoughts of our
more divine consciousness. How dull and insipid would our life become,
if there was no infinite in whose immensity our thoughts might run out
and be lost — no incomprehensible in whose grandeur and glory we might
become absorbed, and in whose mysterious presence we might bow in
wonder and adoration.

" Dark with excessive bright His skirts appear.
Which dazzle heaven, that brightest seraphim
Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes."

We are to conceive of Him as existing before the mountains were
brought forth, from all eternity, and to whom a past and a future eternity is
an ever present *• now." All finite being relates to time and space ; but
God is to be conceived of as before all time and space. His^existence ia
an illimitable distance from all finite existence. Not only did all finite
existence flow from Him, but the time and space by which all existence is

THE c;reat want of the A(.;E.

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conditioned, are to be traced up to Him as their efficient cause. Though
He himself has a life in time and with time, he is yet exempted from all
succession and all limitation. His nature can have no finality, for he lays
His essence on infinitude ; His years can have no change, for to Him the
past and the future are no mere negations. We never say that God was
or God will be when we think of God in His essence, but that God is. The
present, the ever present is His existence. Of Him it can be said, with
all the force of a living truth, that from everlasting to everlasting He is
God ; but were we to change the language, and to affirm that from ever-
lasting He has been God, and that to everlasting He will be God, we
should convert truth into falsehood. We should thus separate Him from
the God that is, whereas the God that is, is the God that was and is to
come.

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

In the vain struggle to rid the universe of a personal God adequate
to account for ail its personal existences (for nothing that exist;: but has an
organism or an individuality of its own,) and to reduce the infinite glories
of creation to " cold material laws," no more ingenious theory has ever
been devised, or has obtained greater force and celebrity than the nebular
hjpi"»:hesis associated with the name of La Place. The nebulae is the
name g^ven to those masses of matter of different defjrees of density, which
are stretched along the skies, and appear as tracts of light brightening
towards the centre, and meltinsr away in their outline into an irregular
haze. The zone of the Milky Way, and the sword of the constellation of
Orion, are examples ff the self luminous substance spread throughout the
space of the heaven, from which, it is alleged on the hypothesis of LaPlace,
(which is nothing but conjecture,) that the stars and planets originally
took their form. Modern astronomy has proved this hypothesis to be with-
out the least shadow of truth in it. What were thought to be the factories
of worlds, where the raw material of a dusky vapor was the primal matter,
out of which stars were made and systems were formed, powerful telescopes
have revealed them to be clusters of stars already made, instead of being
a fortuitous concourse of atoms in a chaotic and incompact state, like the
dust flying about in a cotton or woollen mill, they have been proved by
the telescopes of Herschell and Rosseto be beautiful .stars in clusters, like
bouquets from the garden of Him who dwells in light. More powerful
telescopes are only needed to discover more wonders in the architecture
of the heavens.

THE ATOMIC THEORY.

This is another attempt to account for the origin of the universe
otherwise ' a that of an adequate cause. The ato Tiic theory, that atoms
arranged i mselves into the universe ; or that they came by chance ; or
that matter is eternal ; or that the present system of things always existed,
and wi*! continue as it is, are all inadequate to solve the problem of the
univerjc.

Such illogical reasoning and nonsense might have been excused among

EVIDENCES OF THE BEING AND BENIGNITY OI COD.

Pagan philosophers, but to hear it all revived in our day, and spouted
about as the modem solution of the universe by the advanced thinkers,
(with the exception of the agnostics,) by the skeptics who pnde them-
selves so much in the strength of their intellects and the soundness of their
reasonings, theories as baseless as the fabric ot a vision, is one of the
strangest aberrations of the human mind in our age ot boasted intelligence
than can be found. Their defenders must know they are not of recent, but
of ancient origin, that the authors of them were confuted by far abler men
they were who tried to propagate them in the ancient times of Socrates and
Cicero, Plato and Aristotle, who put them to silence then. And they n: ust
also know that all that their wild speculators could advance in their sup-
port were nothing better than frivolous fancies, which could not satisfy the
demands of the himan mind then, nor now, and are only what the sophists
of that age attempted to defend in spite of sound reasoning, since they are
totally inadequate to account for the origin of the universe. What is there
in a concoursf 1 atoms, like the dust driven before the wind, to account
for the universe, which modern astronomy has revealed ; a universe so vast
and magnificent that the human mind cannot, with all its utmost efforts,
form anything like an idea of, and which biology and electricity and
chemistry in tUeir specific departments are only beginning to find out, and
all the other sciences are helpine us to perceive in endless manifestations
a power that is infinite, and a skill that is absolutely perfect ?

What but an infinite intelligence could originate such a glorious uni-
verse as this we live in? Since the cause must be adequate to produce the
effect in everything else, are we to give up this maxim in connection with
the greatest of all effects of an effici'^nt cause — the creation of such a uni-
verse?

IS MATTER ETERNAL ?

But some tell us matter is eternal. How do they know matter is
eternal ? AH the proof they can give us that matter is eternal, is this, " I
think so, or I believe so." But there is no proof in that to satisfy anyone,
for it IS just as likely another may say the contrary, " I don't think matter
is eternal, and I don't believe it." If you ask this one what proof he can
give ? He can at once give you the great Scripture testimony : " In the
beginning God created the heaven and ihe earth" — the raw material —
and it was in a chaotic state a long time, until it was transformed into a
universe, such as it now is. — (Gen. i. 1-3.) Geology proves this.

■ IS THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF THINGS ETERNAL ?

And yet the assertion has been made and held, in opposition to the
written revelation, by many, that the present system of things must have
existed from eternity — an allegation based on the undeviating recurrence of
the seasons, and the perfect security which presides over human interests and
concerns. Astronomy has testified tha t even within the range of the solar system
there are disturbing causes which must ultimately precipate its destruction ;
and which, therefore, on the supposition that it has existed from eternity,
must have long since swept it with its final fires. "The very regularity ol

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

the planetary motions in theirluminousoibits," says Whewell, "which is so
adapted to impress the mind with the conviction that there is some in-
telligent and presiding power which directs the whole, has been adduced
by skepticism as a proof that this syEtem of movements never had either a
beginning or a maker. But while there is a wonderful provision for cor-
recting all those disturbing forces which would interfere with its regularity,
there are facts which militate strongly against the perpetual duration of
our system.

Whatever light is, whether it radiates from the sun, or results from the
vibration of an ethereal fluid, the planetary spaces cannot, it seems, be en-
tirely devoid of matter, consequently of what must tend, in however small
a degree, to interfere with the motion of the bodies. But the appearance
of a comet of a very singular kind, the extreme tenuity of which allowed
the constellations to be seen through its body, and the observations of its
motions, have produced in the minds of astronomers a strong belief that
there does exist a resisting medium which, though extremely rare, must
yet tend to retard the motions of the planets, and in time — though, without
the mterference of a superior power, it might be millions of ages — to effect
the destruction of the whole system. That which is destructable, which
is wearing itself out, the duration of which is lessened every moment of its
continuance, cannot have existed from all eternity." And thus science
conducts us by a pathway of facts to the conclusion, long since announced
in the sacred records, " Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the
foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands ; they
shall perish, but thou remainest ; and they all ishall w^ax old as doth a gar-
ment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed ;
but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail."

In God, the infinite, there is no succession of time. He is from
eternity to eternity theaame. He is immutable ; and because He is im-
mutable. He is immortal. Not only is He perfect life, but that life knows
neither change nor end, and because " I live," he says to His people, " ye
shall live also."

In God, therefore, we have an adequate cause for all that is, and all
that shall be. In Him we live and move and have our being, and He is
before all things, and by Him all things consist. Therefore, nothing can
be more self-evident than our syllogism based on " causation " in proof of
the existence ot God, ( i) something must have always been ; (2) that which
has always been, must be adequate to account for all that is ; and (3) that
which has always been and is adequate to account for all that is, is God.

(2.)— SECOND PROOF DERIVED FROM DESIGN IN NATURE

Design implies a designer, and the evidences of design in nature are
evidences of a directing mind presiding over the universe. These evidences
are so abundant that wherever we look they are apparent, and bear the
impress of an infinite intelligence, whether we direct our attention to the
starry heavens, or the green earth, the great sea, or the wonderful magazine
of the atmosphere, to our curiously formed phys;c«.i ■ a u. .s, or our wonder-

EVIDENCES OF THE UEING AND BKN'IGNIiV OF GOD.

fully constituted minds, — we are furnished with illustrations of a wisdom
that is exquisite for its skill and overflowing with a benevolence transcend-
ing all ♦he productions of humau skill and benevolence by infinite degrees.
And the more they are invi.-:tigated, the more do they reveal the excellency
of their Maker, and suggest, beyond what they at first present, a vast and
abundant store of undiscovered perfection for us further to perceive, and
be delighted with as we extend our researches.

THE DOCTRINE OF FINAL CAUSES.

The conopleteness of the argument, however, has been marred by the
different views entertained by scientists and philosophers on the doctrine
of " final causes." By the expression " final causes" is meant the ultimate
design of the author of nature in his works. The expression was originated
by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who possessed a most wonderful mind
for penetration, depth and clearness. He always looked below the surface
of things, and searched out their causes. With him every " why" had a
" wherefore," and every "what" had a "how." He called the "why" the
•* efficient cause" — that to which anything owes its origin. The " therefore,''
the final cause — the design, or end, or p'lrpose, which it is intended to
serve. The " what," the " material cause," — the materials it consists of;
and the " how," the formal cause, — the mode or manner of its formation.

This classification of causes is exceedingly useful, as it helps us to
understand the philosophy, or underlying principle of all derivative exist-
ences ; and enables us to interpret almost everything in a clear and satis-
factory manner, and should be well considered, and practically applied, for
the classification of our knowledge.

The young reader will be able to understand this classification of
knowledge very easily, when I tell him, if he should go into a watchmaker's
shop and see a beautiful gold watch lying before him. Its maker is the
efficient cause of it ; the materials it is made of is the material cause of it ;
the size and shape, the formal cause of it ; and the notification of time is the
final cause of it. The " why" and the " wherefore," or the efficient cause and
the final cause, usually go together, for the efficient cause looks at the final
cause ; the watchmaker kept in view the design of the watch when he con-
structed it, or when he gave out the different parts to be constructed by
his workmen. Also, the " what" and the " how" usually go together, for
the material cause looks at the formal cause, — the size and shape of the
thing. Now, the efficient cause in nature is the Author of nature. He that
made all things is God. The final cause is the design or end everything
that is made is to serve, or the different purposes each thing is to answer,
pr there are often more ends or purposes to be answered than one only.

THE DIFFERENT THEORIES OF PHILOSOPHERS.

It is here the dispute arises about the final causes in nature. One class
of philosophers think that every object is designed for some use (Harvey);
another class of philosophers think that every organism is designed for reach-
ing a perfect ideal in its species (Dr. Owen) ; a third class of philosophers

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THIC (JREAT WANT OK THE ACK

think, differently from the other two, that the design in nature is inscrut-
able, because imperfection mars the usi ind ruins a perfert ideal (Herbert
Spencer); while a fourth class of philo. phers think the design in nature
is a perfect ideal in the infinite mind, which will be ultimately revealed
(Plato). I don't wish to puzzle and perplex the reader with this vexed
question. I only want to try if something may not be done to solve the
problem. I think " the lost link " may be found to make all the different
links, or different opinions, harmonized, and thereby prove that nature
speaks truth, and corresponds with facts, even when she appears to depart
from truth and consistency.

THE DIFFERENT THEORIES RECONCILABLE.

The labors of all the philosophers are not without important results.
They take different views or aspects of the same thing. Their differences,
are harmonies ; because they don't disturb the relationship of facts by
their differences, but strengthen the relationship of facts. A man who is
I'^oking at objects at one angle, sees them differently from another man
who sees them from a different angle ; but the objects are still the same,
although from the different standpoints iliey appear to Vciiy. The aeronaut,
the man m a balloon, sees our earth very differently from those who see it
on terra firma. But these differences of opinion, while they have retarded
the true progress of scientific discovery, and have tinctured the minds of
many scientists with infidelity and with unworthy thoughts of the great
Author of nature, still the^ serve to shed light on the subject they obscure,
and darken, and perplex, I will show this.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD.

The aeronaut — the man in the baloon — sees our earth from a lofty
scope of vision. All its hills and mountains appear nearly on a level, and
everything looks so fair, and beautiful, and enchanting. It is with a lofty
mind our philosophers and scientists pursue their scientific method of
inquiry into the phenomena of nature. They expect to find perfection in
everything, in every organism, and in every function of every organism.
Perfection is what they expect to find, it is their beau ideal. And with their
well-cultivated minds and keen perceptions, they can discover a fliw where
an unscientific mind cannot discover it.

THE -BATTL, BETWEEN THE SCIENTISTS AND THEOLOGIANS.

Theologians, not so well versed in " the scientific method " as the
scientists, dispute the accuracy of their discoveries, and send the scientists
back to nature to search again. The scientists, on the other hand, main-
tain their position that much imperfection exists in nature. And so the
battle rages between them. The scientists are at fault in drawing the
inconclusive inference that because there is imperfection in nature, its
Author is imperfect ; and the theologians are at fault in so stoutly defend-
ing nature's perfection, and in not receiving the well-proven results of "the
scientific method." Because facts are revelations of law, and should never

EVIDKNCES OK THE liEINO AND BEXIGNITV OK GOD.

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be perverted but held sacred. To draw wrong inferences from Ihem is a
great error ; and to pervert or wrongly interpret them in their relationship
is wicked.

THE KEY TO UNLOCK THE MYSTERY.

The violation of moral law in God's holy universe accounts for the
disturbances of physical law in nature. As when one member suffers all
the members suffer with it. This subject is fully gone into in the last
section.

Now, harmony appears where there is apparsntly no harmony, and
the different theories of the doctrine of final causes are harmonized ; and
all of them help us to understand and solve the great problem on which
they all differ and become all united, — each in its turn doing its part, and
all taken together, completing the solution and forming a perfect chain of
reasoning, i. Everything in nature is designed for some use. 2. Perfection
is not discovered in every organism, but is found in each species. 3. Design
in nature is interfered with and marred, and becomes inscrutable. 4. Design
in nature is a perfect ideal in the infinite mind, which will be ultimately
revealed.

There is a gradation of great thoughts here, most wonderfully verified,
and they strengthen and complete the evidence of a directing mind in the
universe.

THE HARMONY AMONG THE ANTAGONISTIC VIEWS.

I . Harvey, who discovered the circulation of the blood, owed his
discovery to the deep impression on his mind of design in everything, and
he pursued this line of thought on this important subject, and in all his
investigations in nature ; and saw design manifesting itself wherever he
turned his inquiries, proving that God has made nothing in vain, and that
everything He has made has its use and design, if we could only under-
stand it. Modern science has made great additions to our knowledge on
this point.

Professor Darwin, who was no atheist, although oiten claimed by
atheists, says : " The more I study nature, the more I become impressed
with ever increasing force with the conclusion, that the contrivances and
beautiful adaptations transcends in an incomparable degree the contri-
vances and adaptations, which the most fertile mind of the most imagi-
native man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal."

Kant, the celebrated metaphysician, who was no atheist, although also
claimed by the atheists, says : " The right contemplation of a well-meaning
mind on so much casual beauty, and so much combination answering the
end, as the order of nature displays, finds proofs enough to gather from
them a Will accompanied with great wisdom and great power ; and the
common conceptions of the understanding are sufficient to this conviction,
so far as it shall suffice for a virtuous conduct, that is morally certain."

Monsieur Comte, the founder of the new philosophy, who is also
claimed by the skeptics and atheists, says : '' The order of nature is doubt-

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less very imperfect, but its production is far more compatible with the
hypothesis of an intelligent Will, than with that of blind mechanism."

Sir Isaac Newton, the greatest of all modern philosophers and
scientists, as is well known, saw design in all God's works, and was quite
enraptured with the stately order and uniform harmony among the celestial
bodies, and continually looked through nature up to nature's God.

2. No one can deny the law of adaptation and the law of subserviency
that pervades the universe. But the perfection of nature is called in ques-
tion. The existence of this fact led Dr. Owen to enquire whether there
might not be specimens of perfect organization in each species, and he
labored until he found it in the vertebrae of animals. This line of investi-
gation is now much pursued by the attention given to agricultural exhibi-
tions, etc., yielding results of great value.

God has left just so much beauty and harmony and perfection in the
material universe as to prove there is a perfect Being in existence ; and
yet so much imperfection, as to demonstrate the need of a remedy to per-
fect it or to supersede it.

3. That design in nature is broken off and not complete is undeni-
able. And, therefore, those scientists, who have called attention to this
fact, have evinced great moral courage in stating it, knowing the opposi-
tion and persecution it would rouse up against them, especially from igno-
rant bigots and stupid ecclesiastics. But great is the reward which the
valiant propagator of truth obtains from the consciousness of rectitude.
When, however, imperfection in nature's works attaches imperfection to
the Author of nature, great is the injury infl cted on the propounder of it,
which injury would have been prevented by a larger and correcter knowl-
edge of the case. It is to charge God foolishly, since the imperfection
comes not from God.

The imperfection in the material universe comes through secondary
causes, and not from its great original Author, as I have stated and proved,
and illustrated in the last section, which relates to the ** Origin of sin in a
holy universe."

The philosophers and scientists go too far, when they infer from the
imperfections visible, that the Author of nature is imperfect. Let the facts
speak for themselves as facts ; and let the origin of imperfection be
separately considered, as another fact, quite distinct from the existence of
the imperfection, capable of being explained without impugning the infi-
nitely perfect God.

Suppose you have a beautiful gold watch lying on your table, and a
child lifts it, and lets it fall upon the ground, and all the fine workmanship
is deranged thereby ; would it be right to jjlame the maker of the watch
for this result? Was it not caused by the child ? The watch was made
perfect by the watchmaker, it came perfect from his hands, and, therefore,
he is not to blame for the action of the child, who has rendered the watch
useless by the accident.

When M. Comte makes this remark : " The idea of final cause and
Providential government is ruined by the irresistible evidence of modern
science," he goes too far, so does Prof. Tindall, etc., etc., etc. It is both

EVIDENCES OF THE IlEING AND BENIGNITY 01' GOD.

>'{

presumptuous and ignorant, so to speak. And the crucial test of the 'c/irys'
taline tens' connected with the organ of the eye, which M. Comte adduces,
fails to prove his point, because, although it be subject to disease and
imperfection thereby, and although evil prevails in the universe to a vast
extent, neither *' the id«»a of final cause," nor a " Providential government"
is ruined, but carried to a higher end, to the fulfilment of moral purposes,
which are far more exalted and important than the fulfilment of physical
laws.

4. Those philosophers who, like Plato, regard the subject of design
in nature as " a perfect ideal in the infinite mind, which will ultimately be
revealed and fulfiled," show far greater depth of mind, and far deeper
reverence of spirit than M. Comte and the whole atheistic school of
modern pretenders to advanced thought.

Herbert Spencer the leader and founder of the agnostics, tells us, in
his *' Principles of Miology," v. i., p. 332, that he adioiits a first cause, a
supreme power, because he ii >lriven to it by an intellectual necessity ; but
rejects the tiiuil » Ause cimnected with 'he universe, because it is to him
" inscrutable and unknowable." There is candor biere and great intellect ;
but when we are taught by Divine revelation the filial cause connected with
the univo>4t', why should we ignore it? We need to be $0 taught. God
alone knows His intention.

How foolish it. is to exclude the interpretation of His works and His
ways God gives us in his Word ! Which lie has expressly given as a lamp
to our feet, and a light to our path. The moral purposes of God are made
clearly known in His inspired Record. And every Christian philosopher,
who is enlightened by the Divine Spirit, as all Christ's faithful ministers
are, and heavenly taught Suuday-school tea '.hers and the divme election
are, can rise infinitely above the great men of science through the revela-
tions of a divine faith, and see unfoldings of a plan truly God-like,
and sublime, and glorious, which casts the conjectures of philosophers
into the shade when they attempt to darken counsel by words without
knowledge, and only expose their ignorance ! The gifted Plato far excelled
them, who, in his travels into Egypt, read, it is believed, the books of
Moses, iind became divinely enlightened, and I think his * Monotheistic
System' goes to prove this. Were our great men of science to study God's
Word, how much more enlightened and useful they would become. Here
we are taught that God suffered evil to enter into His holy universe as a
punishment for sin, that He controls it, and makes it subservient for good •
and that while it threatens the subversion of His supremacy, and the des-
truction of the harmony and happiness of His universe, yet He renders it
conducive to the establishment of His supremacy, and to raise His universe
to a higher harmony and happiness, through His own interposition in its
behalf, so that a plan of consummate wisdom is carried forward by means
of those very imperfections which seem to baffle and obstruct His designs,
and stronger evidence of His Providential government is given thereby,
than if these impeifections did not exist. His immutable law of rectitude
He will not abandon, nor suffer to be trampled in the dust, and by the
very means that were used to render it nugatory, He ujakes it all the more

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THK (IREAT WANE 01 TM!; AGF..

binding and inviolate. Hence the flaws that are pointed to in His works,
He is no more the author of than the watchmaker whose handy work the
naughty child shivered and deranged, and His being and benignity are
demonstrated all the mere by His maintenance of a universe so injured
by the voluntary rebellion of His creatures, and destined to destruction in
consequence, and, which will be fashioned according to the working of his
own will into a new universe of resplendent glory and unparalleled beauty
without spot or blemish.

The Almighty fiat that created a Kosmos out of a Chaos, can bring
order out ot confusion, and create a new heaven and a new earth wherein
dwelleth Ighteousness !

" Deep in unfathomable mines of never failinj; skill,
He treasures up his bright designs and works His sovereign will.
IJlind unbelief is sure to err, and scan His works in vain,
(iod is His own interpreter, and He will make il plain."

No greater fallacy was ever uttered than that of Herbert Spencer,
that the presence of " disease a fid entosoa " entirely upsets the perfect ideal
which the scientific proof demands for the existence of design in the
universe, for " disease and entosoa " are under God, workir.^, out the very
problem which they seem to perplex and ruin. " For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory," under the purifying grace of God. " I reckon," says Paul,
" that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us," — to whom they are sanctified.
" For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of
the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of His
own will, but by reason of him who subjected it in hope, because the
creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into
the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth together until now. And not only so,
but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we our-
selves groan within ourselves waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemp-
tion of our body," — the resurrection morn, when this mortal shall put on
immortality ! (ii Cor. iv. 17., Rom. viii., 18-23.)

A higher reading of the divine design in the whole system, of which
we form a part, is necessary to comprehend his perfect ideal. Whatever
human teachers may tell us, the divine Word assures us that the great
problem of the universe is being solved every day and every hour of every
day with infallible accuracy, just as things are and are approximating to —
a glorious consummation, which is the Christian's cherished hope and his
enrapturing and transporting joy ! There is a Supreme Intelligence, an
Infinite Directing Mind presiding over the great universe, a benignant
Providence regulating ail things to a glorious issue. There are infinitely
higher ends in contemplation in the mind of God than displays of per-
fection in the phy.cal universe, which is only a scaffolding for erecting a
superb building — a spiritual temple — of infinite moral grandeur, suitable

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EVIDll.NCI.S Ol' TUi; UKING AND 11P;NIGN1TV OF tUJiJ.

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for the ineffable Deity to dwell in and His holy angels and His glorified
saints, there to worship Him and to enjoy His love and fellowship for
evermore.

Here both good and evil exist these two; our probationary state
under them is the third thing (the lost link among philosophers), and the
fourth thing is the ultimate result in each of us, which will correspond
exactly to our state here. Oh, may we all reach that infmitely blessed
state, and so fulfil the design God is seeking to fulfil in each of us.

THIRD PROOF— DERIVED FROM CONSCIOUSNESS.

This is a most interesting subject, and I want to interest my dear
young readers in it. Every bright young mind likes to be instructed and
get fresh knowledge. Now I want to tell you something about the fresh
knowledge connected with this new branch of evidence derived from
Consciousness. It forms a distinct department of knowledge by itself,
and it is exceedingly valuable and I think you will like it. It is one of
the great original fountains ol knowledge ; and if you wish to be an original
thinker, go to the fountains of all knowledge, and drink of the living
waters ; all original thinkers do this, they don't go to the streams. Now
there are three great fountains of knowledge, (i) The fountain of external
Nature, without us, in the works of God — beautiful nature whose dome
is heaven, and whose temple is the universe. (2) The fountain of Scripture,
in the Word of God — beautiful Scri )ture, whose canopy is the heaven of
heavens, and whose sanctuary is tho holy of holies, where God dwells ;
and (3) The fountain of knowledge m the human Consciousness — the
world within you, where your own thoughts and feelings and experiences
live and are enshrined in your own mind, in which you are personally
interested. Now hitherto we have been considering what relates to
knowledge in the objective ; but this relates to knowledge in the subjective;
and in this distinction you have all knowledge included, it is either
objective — without us, or subjective — within us,

I don't wish you to undervalue the former — knowledge in the objective
— but I wish you to value very highly the latter — knowledge in the sub-
jective. Its importance can scarcely be over-valued. For as I remarked
at page 33, " The mind is the man, and the knowledge of the mind. A
man is what he knoweth. The truth of being and the truth of knowing is
all one ; for as a man thinketh in his heart so is he." The huma'i mind is
the brightest display of the infinite mind with which we are acquainted.
It is created and placed in this world for a higher state of being beyond
the grave. Here its faculties begin to unfold ; here those mighty energies,
which are to bear it forward to unending ages begin to discover them-
selves ; and the chief object we should keep in view is to train our minds,
so as to enable us to fulfil our duties rightly here, and to stand on high
vantage ground when we leave it for the great hereafter.

There is one thing connected with the knowledge derived from our
Consciousness worth a great deal. It gives us inward tests of truth that
are infallible. These tests cannot be questioned.

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The facts of our Consciousness are placed by metaphysicians — men
who have studied the mind — both ancient and modern, above the reach
of question, as facts to rely upon. In confirmation of this, I might refer,
to a great many who have made the science of the human mind their chief
study, and who are admitted by free-thinkers (as they call themselves,)
and sceptics — men who don't believe in the Bible — as good authorities on
mental science ; such as Lacretius, Sextus, Empiricns, Descartes, Hume,
Schuize, Platner, Reinholdt, St. Austin, Scotus, Buffier, Mayne, Reid,
Cousin, Sir Wm. Hamilton, and a great many besides. They all hold
that the data or cognitions or experiences or facts connected with cur
individual Consciousness, are such that we cannot doubt or disbelieve.

And the current of human thought in our times is running in this
channel very much. It is an old fashioned way, but a right way, to test
everything by our own personal cognitions or certain knowledge. For
whatever comes home to our own Consciousness, and is corroborated by
our own experience, we readily and firmly believe in, just as we believe
that two and two make four, or that honey is sweet and aloe is bitter. It
is therefore a reliable way to prove anything and an easy way, as I will
show you. I don't think it has been applied to prove the Being and Irving
kindness of God, but it will be a good way to apply it ; since the transition
from our own Consciousness to the Divine Consciousness is, a natural
transition, and a very delightful one. It is like a child coming to its father,
and recognizing him ; for if, we have been made in God's image. He must
be our Father. The more we look into ourselves, the more we will be
convinced that none but an Infinite Intelligence could be the author of our
being, having such wonderful capacities given us, and since every effect
must have always an adequate cause to account for its existence.

I will now show the young reader the two sources of our knowledge
in connection with Consciousness, [i] The first is myself, the subject of
my experiences, which experiences I cannot doubt of, no more that I can
doubt that I exist. [2] The second is that there is something distinct
from me, external to me — this I can have as little doubt of.

First : The facts connected with our individual consciousness tve cannot
doubt or disbelieve. — Now you will find it difficult to prove to another that
you exist ; yon can have no doubt about it in your own mind, because it is
one of those primal convictions or cognitions that is self-evident, and does
not require to be proved. You know, that you exist, within yourself, you
are conscious of it. When David Hume, the historian of England,
attempted to prove that his personal identity was only an idea, and that
everything was a mere idea, no reality in anything \ he was soon brought
to his senses when another philosopher to whom he was talking, gave him
a blow with his walking-stick across his legs, the phantom was soon dis-
persed from his mind. He felt there was a reality both without him and
within him for he felt the heavy blow inflicted. It is by the attributes of
our being that we are conscious of our being or existence. It was by the
attribute of thinking that the celebrated philosopher Descartes [pronounced
Decart] proved his identity in the well-known words : Cogito ergo sum.
[I think, therefore I am.]

EVIDENCES OF THE BEING AND BENIGNITY OK GOD. 93
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Some have said there is a fallacy in this reasoning, that he required to
prove his thinking as much as his existing, and that he reasoned in a circle.
But on closer examination, it will be found strictly correct reasoning. He
was satisfying his own mind of his existence by one of the attributes of his
mind ; and the exercise of that attribute — his capacity of thinking — proved
by his writings, convinces others that he did exist. VVe judge of everything
by its attributes — a rose by its flagrance, its color and its formation. The
personal identity of ourselves by the attributes of our being. It is in this
way the infallible fact is proved by its infallible witness, — to use the lan-
guage of St. Austin, who said : " Nothing is so well-known to an intelli-
gence as that he feels that he thinks, that he wills and that he lives."
Therefore all we are personally conscious of we need have no doubt about
— our feelings, our thoughts, our volitions, and our existence and ourselves
are, one and the same thing and are inseparable from ourselves, so that it
would be easier to deny ourselves than to deny our conscious experiences
or the facts of our Consciousness. For we cannot doubt of what we are
conscious of, because if we are conscious of any experience, we cannot
doubt that the experience exists, since to doubt the experience exists, and
at the same be conscious of it, is a contradiction.

I cannot be conscious of myself and at the same time doubt that I am
conscious of myself, therefore all eur conscious experiences are without
doubt. They are realities, they do not admit of disbelief or doubt, or we
could not be conscious of them as realities. Hence our conscious expe-
riences constitute the original bases of our knowledge and of truth in the
mind itself. We have not only wonderful capacities for acquiring kno\v •
edge from without, but we have original criteria from within to judge it by.
The great Apostle of the Gentiles could on this ground appeal to his
hearers and say : " I speak as unto wise men,"— men capable of thinking,
comparing and judging, intelligent men, therefore "judge ye" — discern —
" what I say," if it be not right. The facts of our individual consciousness
debar doubt from the mind. They shut out skepticism from the mind, as
a thief and a robber is shut out by doors and bars ; and they lock the
doors and keep the key, lest any crawling, crouching, cruel serpent of
doubt and disbelief enter in and make us incapable of confiding in the
certainties they reveal in our conscious experiences and cognitions, in the
theatre of the soul. On this rock will Christ yet build His Church and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it in the conscious experience of
His presence.

Second : The fact that there is an external world from without us of
which we are conscious — something distinct from me — is likewise without
the shadow of a doubt. And this is the second source of all our knowl-
edge. Here however there is often room for doubt and need of caution.
Our eyes may deceive us, appearances may disappoint us, and our criterion
ofjthe inward experience has to be exercised — the light within brought to
bear upon it.

There is a class of men who call themselves " Idealists," that I must
tell the young reader about. Many think, idealists deny the existence of
the external world and shut out its existence altogether ; that it is with

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them a mere idea, and not a reality, as their name idealists seems to imply,
but this is a mistake. The " idealist" has a different way of looking at the
external world from the " realist," as we do. He transfers everything to
the internal world within him, sees everything that is objective as a sub-
jective — all the phenomenal as reflected by the internal, like the camera
obscura, which throws the images of external objects on a white surface
placed within a dark chamber or box, as when your photo is taken and
afterwards made transparent.

The idealist does not deny the internal world in himself, he sees
everything in this internal world, as an idea, or image of it, reflected to his
views which comes by reflection as you often do when you recall scenes in
your childhood and have them photographed to the eye of your mental
vision. The external world to the idealist appears as the reflex of his own
spirit, he does not deny it or he could not have its reflex because the one
is the counterpart of the other.

There is a curious instance of extremes meeting between the materialist
and the idealist which may interest the young reader and be instructive.
The materialist, who holds the old atomic theory, of every atom being
surrounded with an atmosphere of its own even in the firmest wood or
hardest steel — a strange unproved theory ! And the idealist, on the other
hand, who conceives that a spiritual substratum pervades and supports
everything. The materialist sees nothing but matter, the idealist nothing,
as it were, but spirit in his idealism ; and yet they both meet together,
[although as far apart as the poles asunder,] /// this — they are each in quest
of the Invisible Being that formed every atom and gives each atom its
position in the material universe and also that framed the human spirit,
which is the reflex of the infinite Spirit, for the living consciousness within
the materialist and the idealist and in every one of us clearly testii '' to a
living consciousness without us as its originator \ since every effect must
have an edequate cause and every cause must contain in itself all its
effects. This is a near way to go to God, to go by the way of our own
individual consciousness to the infinite consciousness, in whom all live
and move and have their being.

From my own personal consciousness, I have found the infinite
PERSONAL CONSCIOUSNESS, and this is the proof of God's being and
benignity which every man carries in himself, that I now wish briefly to
put before the young reader.

Just reflect for a little upon the phenomena of the human Conscious-
ness in relation to [i] The capacity of thought. [2] The sovereignty of
the will. [3] The strength of the affections and [4] The mysterious func-
tion within us of life, and who I ask can be the autnor of these things, but
a Being whose understanding is infinite and whose powe; is incompre-
hensible! !

I. Consider the capacity of human thought. Just look at its grasp
and rapidity. Although light, which is the most refined of material sub-
stances, files in its golden beams from the sun with a matvellous rapidity,
95 millions of miles in a few minutes, human thought travels the 95 millions
of miles and back again in the twinkling of an eye and annihilates distance

EVIDENCrs OK THF. DEIUC. AND I5KNK;N'rrV Or C.OV.

altogether ! Nay it can travel through the illimitable universe, through
boundless spaces in an instant ! It can soar to the starry hosts above and
dive into the deepest abyss of the sea beneath. It can take the wings of
the morning, and travel where human foot never trod, be at the home of
our childhood, be communing with distant friends and dearest relations
far, far away, and feel no fatigue in all its rapid flight nor obstruction to its
musings. Whence then this capacity — so vast and so wonderful which can
grasp all worlds and all space and a past and future eternity, but from a
Being who is capable of producing it ?

2. Consider the Sovereignty of the Human Will. Man has a lordly
will of his own. He has the power of choosing and of refusing, among
an endless profusion of objects soliciting his preference. You can eat or
drink or refrain from the one or the other or both just as you decide. You
can sit down or rise up, walk or stand. Take up a book and read it or go
and do something else. What freedom of will therefore we all possess !
And to what is such a sovereignty to be traced, but to One whose sov-
ereignty is free and absolutely infinite ? We are neither the offspring of
chance nor the offspring of a blind necessity nor of an arbitrary despot !
Of the different theories about the human will, I cannot now speak.
Only the fact that we are free agents, and have the power and privilege
to exercise our volitions as we choose in all ordinary matters is perfectly
clear and the fact proves J}oth the being and benignity of an infinite intel-
ligence — as the cause must be adequate to account for the effect.

J. Consider the Strength of the Ifuman Passions. Where is the poet
who has ever been able to describe them ? They have a strength in them
that exceeds the vigor of Byron; a tenderness that exceeds the sweet ten-
derness of Cowper and Burns, of SheMey and Collins and Longfellow ; and
a grandeur that surpasses the sublimity of Milton and Shakespeare ; and
raptures which the poet Laureate of England cannot with all his ability ex-
press, and which the poets of the Bible often excel in revealing. But after
all, the emotional nature within man exceeds all the poets, all the philoso-
phfers, all the great prophets and the greatest preachers that ever succeeded
best in portraying our emotional nature. Every one is conscious of this
from their own experience. All the efforts of historians and novelists have
never been able to write the history and the facts of the human conscious-
ness, as they have been experienced, therefore man rises above the con-
ditions by which he is surrounded and hence his true origin can only be ac-
counted for by an infinite maker — " What a piece of work is a man ! How
noble in reason ! How infinite in faculties ! In form and moving how
express and admirable ! In action how like an angel ! In apprehension
how like a God ! "

4. Consider^ in fine, the function of Life in Man. Life even in its
lowest form is incomprehensible, and in itj highest range and development
it exceeds all the efforts of the acutest and profoundest biologists and phi-
losophers to tell us what it is. Much less can our ablest scientists commu-
nicate life even to a frog with all their animal magnetism and ingenuity.
To whom then can the mysterious function of life within us be traced, bu

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

to the life giving God, who breathed into man the breath ot life and he be-
came a living soul.

" Knovvest thou the importance of a soul immortal 1

Behold the midnight glory ; worlds on worlds,

Amazing pomp ! redouble the amaze

Ten thousand add and twice ten thousand more

Then weigh the whole !

One soul outweighs them all

And calls the astonishing munificence

Of unintelligent creation poor!"

In view of all I have said about our individual consciousness let this
be our resolve, my dear young friends, for whom I have expressly written
this article, " O may I live as long as I live to Him who gave me my life
and all the capacities of my being." "Bless the Lord, my soul and all
that is within me bless His holy name" — who is the infinite personal Con-
sciousness of the universe !

FOURTH PROOF— DERIVED FROM THE UNITED TESTI-
MONY OF ALL NATIONS.

A universal cognition carries in it the evidence of a universal truth.
The point then here is to prove whether such a universal cognition has
been found among all nations of the Being and Benignity of God. Of
course we cannot expect to find any very exalted conception or idea of the
infinite spirit among ignorant and debased nations ; nor to find any idea at
all of God, much less the benignity of God, where the human mind has
been without any elevating thought in it — such witnesses are out of court
as witnesses in the case. It is observable that where exalted views of the
character of the Supreme Being are found, there corresponding elevation
in the character of the people is found, proving that exalted ideals are
necessary to reach true nobleness of character. I will advance some evi-
dence from ancient and modern sources to prove the universal cognition of
a supreme being ; and meet some objections that are advanced against it
with all possible brevity. Indeed this branch of evidence is so well knoWh
that very little need be said upon it. Cicero, the renowned Roman Sena-
tor and orator — one of the most candid and enlightened men of antiquity
— took cognizance of the universal cognition when he said in his treatise —
De Natura Deorum — concerning the nature of the gods — " What nation is
there or sort of men that hath not, without teaching, a certain prolepsis (an-
ticipation or conception) of the gods? There is no nation so barbarous,"
he adds, " no one ot all men so savage as that some apprehension of the
gods hath not tinctured their mind ; that many so think corruptly of them,
which h the effect of vicious custom ; but all do believe that there is a di-
viae power and nature. Nor hath men's minds by agreeing together ef-
fected this. It is not an opinion settled in men's minds by public consti-
tutions and sanctions ; but in every matter the consent of all nations is to
be reckoned a law of nature." Now it is in the very nature of man tc have
such a cognition — written in his consciousness, and therefore to be re-
ved as a universal truth that cannot be disputed or disbelieved, as we

EVIDENCES OF THE liElNCl AND nENIGNlTV OF COD.

said when speaking upon the undeniable cognitions and self-evident con-
Tictions of the human consciousness.

Plutarch, the well known biographer and historian, bears a similar tes-
timony when he says : " That if one travel the world, it is possible to find
cities without walls, without letters, without kings, without wealth, without
coin, without schools and without theatres. But a city without a temple,
or that useth no worship, prayers, etc., no one ever saw. And he believed
a city may be more easily built without a foundation, or ground to sit on,
than any community of men have or keep a consistency without a religion."
All modern travellers and missionaries have confirmed the universal
cognition, which, these ancient writers state, the exceptions to it in some
savage hordes, discovered by Dr. Moffat in Africa, whose language had no
word to express any god; and of others found in Brazil, who were destitute
of the idea of a god, simply prove that they were so deteriorated as to be
incapable of rising to any superior being above themselves, and were
mined for the want of it, both intellectually and morally degraded below
the bruia creation; and such therefore are not to be regarded as constitut-
ing any valid objection to the universal cognition of mankind.

Nor does it explain away the testimony of the human race to the exist-
ence of God because of the imperfection of the idea of God entertained
among the heathen, since that proves a deterioration in the mind of the
heathen through their own corruption. Nor does the objection that there
were skeptics disprove the cognition of the Supreme Being, for as we be-
fore remarked, some of the skeptics in ancient times, like some of the
skeptics in modern times, were possessed of a higher conception of God
than that which generally prevailed, as in our day tnere are many of the
skeptics possessed of superior minds and higher moral culture than those
they differ from and hold a loftier conception of God than many who call
themselves Christians ! The noble minded Cicero defended Velleius on
this very ground. He was denounced as an Atheist because he did not
hold with the ''gods many" among the Greeks and Romans ; but as firmly
believed in the fact as Cicero did, and was the first to notice, that " the
notion of God was impressed by nature upon the minds of all men as a
universal belief." — Phrenology witnesses to this fact.

It is no use to deny and falsify this great and important fact written
into the very nature of man that there is a God above us. It may be ig-
nored. It may be disliked. It may be effaced. But it can never be to-
tally eradicated. Men may try to disbelieve it and succeed for a time in
living " without God," but it will assert its sway at last over their minds
with an overpowering strength, when danger and death overtake them.
This reminds me of a doctor who professed himself to be an atheist on
board ship and laughed at the idea of people praying, but when the ship
was overtaken in a storm, he was found on his knees praying. The storm
threatened shipwreck — the passengers became alarmed and none more ter-
rified than he ; and when the captain looked down from the " poop " on
the passengers on the lower deck he saw them filled with consternation,
and who did he see conspicuous among the passengers but the man who
had ridiculed prayer bewailing his condition and crying to Almighty God

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for mercy and deliverance ! " Conscience makes cowards of us a)l," and
the proof from Conscience will fall next to be considlsred.

FIFTH PROOF— DERIVED FROM CONSCIENCE.

Is there such a thing as Conscience ? and if so, what is Consciencr ?
Some men auJ women, who are public teachers of others, tell us there is
no such thing as Conscience ; — no inherent, primordial, original sense,
within us of right and wrong ; that conscience is the result of education;
and they refer to the savage and the civilized, the educated and the uned-
ucated, and the environment by which we are surrounded and the circum-
stances in which we are placed and the way we are trained, and brought
up, as giving us a knowledge of right and wrong ; and consequently that
there is no such thing as any moral sense whatever, but these things that
have been mentioned make the Conscience ! Education and circumstan-
ces, we admit, greatly modify our perceptions of right and wrong, and so
does habit and our surroundings. But education and circumstances, habit
and our surroundings, however they may modify our cognitions of truth
and error, of what is just and unjust, and of what is right and wrong in
human conduct ; these, cannot account for the universal possession of the
human Conscience. Consequents can never be evolved out of antece-
dents which are themselves only consequents, as effects cannot at the s-ame
time be both causes and consequences, since effects and consequences are
distinct from causes and antecedents. The fruit of the tree is not the tree
that produces the fruit. The fruit did not produce the tree, but the tree
produced the fruit ; so, consequents or effects can never come out of an-
tecedents or causes which are not adequate to account for them, and which
are not the causes or the antecedents at all !

Every rational be'ng has some inward enter ion of right and 7t>rong,
whence came it ? Education, habit, circumstances cannot put into a man
what nature has not in any shape given him.

Without an inward criterion of rectitud'j in a man how could he be
capable of judging between what is right s:nd what is wrong ? It is just
the same as trying to measure a lot of things without any rule or standard.
There must be a given standard or thev cannot be measured. Therefore
there must be some inward criterion orrectitude in every responsible being
or he cannot be responsible !

The law of God i i written on men's hearts, conscience bearing wit-
ness to it. Every man carries this witness within him, therefore there is a
Conscience in every man, which is found accusing them when they do
wrong, or else excusing them under some pretext or another. And every
man is conscious of a conscience in his own thoughts, abuse it or stifle ii
or pervert it as they may, and if it should be silenced for a time, some
event or circumstance will awaken it with all the more terrib'e force of self-
condemnation on account of that very injury and violence done to it.
Sometimes suicide is perpetrated to get rid of its agony, as if that could
extinguish what it only increases and perpetuates ! or reason is dethronctl
and the maniac is tortured with self-inflicted tortures that reveal how inex-

EVIIiENCES or TlIK HEINC AND BEXIliNITV OF COD.

orable the law of conscience is when it maddens its violator into a very
fiend!

When speaking of Consc iousness — the knowledge of our thoughts
and feelings and experiences, I referred to the facts, the data, the pheno-
mena of which we are conscious, that we never doubt them or disbelieve
in their existence, because they are self-evidencing .ind we cannot divest
ourselves of them, for they are parts of our very selt--()ur own most in-
ward being, and so full of reality that we need no proof of their reality—
their voices are so articulate, their strong evidence so irresistible, that we
cannot mistake them for our own experiences, no^ those of some one else.
Even those who have the double consciousness, still believe in iheir own
experiences, although they appear double, which can be explained.

Now the Conscience is just the law-court of our Consciousnkss,
where everything of moral wrongs is brought up sooner or later for trial
and cannot be got rid of without justice being satisfied and equity reached.
And wbjt a great thing is this that our divine nature implanted within us
is seeking to build up within us in our probation even a character by the
living reality of truth. How deplorable would be our case were it other-
wise ! If everything in our consciousness was unreal and false and untrue
only to be misled by it and the root of our nature a lie ! Who in that
case could be a sinner? What an outrage would we be subjected to in
being continually deceived, falsified and bewildered ! Would not the
author of our nature be suspected and hated and despised if this were so ?

Do not divines forget the primordial foundation of our being laid in
rectitude and confound our own perversity which is the cause of our de-
pravity, with the effects of it, in the ruin of our Godlike nature which was
made upright ? Yet still the voice of the witness in the conscience to rec-
titude remains, and never can be extinct.

We are so constituted that falsehood can have no existence within us
v/ithout the knowledge of truth, nor conscious wrong be perpetrated with-
out the consciousness of rectitude, nor deception cunning and fraud exer-
cised without their opposites present in the mind. Therefore if we have
not a conscience, a moral sense within us, how can these things be ? How
could we know right from wrong and wrong from right without it?

Where can we find then clearer evidences of the being of God and the
perfections of God — of His truth and rectitude, his forbearance and
benignity than from the Conscience He has ijnplanted within us i* None
but a God of truth and rectitude could have been its author, and none but
a God of infinite forbearance and benignity would put up with us His re-
bellious ofispring, under its violations. We ourselves have tried to get rid
of it, and never can education account for it. The devil could never have
implanted the Conscience in us for he is a liar from the beginning. God
alone is its author, and a truthful image it gives us of the moral character of
God as the God of truth, of justice, of rectitude and holiness : as well as
of infinite forbearance and tenderest benignity and benificence.

The Conscience is a tribunal erected in the breast of every human
being, both young and old, male and female, savage and civHized, educated
and illiterate. Before this tribunal every thing we think and feel and say

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

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and do takes its stand and is judged as right or wrong, good or evil, blame-
worthy or praiseworthy, althr-'gh our moral sense is far fri>m perfect and is
often seared and perverted a? n the well-known case of Lady Macbeth con-
templating the murder of the king prayed that she might see wrong to be
right and right to be wrong, yet the monitor was not gone or she would not
have so prayed or wrestled with herself as she did.

The decisions of this inner monitor, the advocate for the true, the just,
the upright and the pure within us is more or less clear and decisive.
Happy is the man, the woman, the child who has the answer, or the in-
terrogation of a good Conscience ! Were each to cultivate a good Con-
science by obeying its dictates how soon would all the evils that now pre-
vail in human society disappear, every curse under which humanity groans
be turned into a blessing and every one be made truly happy ! This is the
very end and design for which God has implanted the Conscience — the
sense of right and wrong within us. Therefore in all our personal conflicts
with evil we have a powerful helper for good and a sweet comforter in the
midst of all that is so depressing in doing "the painful right, "arising from the
treachery of false friends and the indiscretions of true friends and above all
from the deceitfulness of our own hearts and erring judgments and how
much we need the guidance, the solace and the strength of the author of
our Conscience to r^aintain within us tAe individual progression in moral
excellence^ which is the very goal of our being. Thi God of Conscience
will help all who believe in Him, for He is a rewarder of all them that be-
lieve in Him and seek His help.

The Conscience, I need scarcely add is not a code of ethics — it is
not the moral law, but it is the faculty whereby we distinguish between
good and evil. It is the hand that points to the moral law already written
in our hearts, and says " Thou shall notj^ and '* thou shall /' on the penalty
of moral death or the benefit of moral life.

Were the law of Conscience strictly adhered to even if its author were
disowned and denied or forgotten and grieved, so holy just and good is it,
that society would become morally perfected, virtuous, honest and upright.
But it would not be religious, nor spiritually minded, nor heavenly minded ;
nor enjoy the solace and comfort, the peace and inward purity whxch faith
in God and in the invisible things of eternity and heaven impart. Morality
is a thing that can be distinguished from religion ; although there can be
no true religion, without morality ; there can be morality, without true re-
ligion ; at least I think so, and the history of the world proves it and the
loss of God and heaven through eternity will confirm it, if my reasoning be
valid.

This is a very great and lefty subject, and an all important subject in
the critical times we live in, when religion is professed without morality ;
and morality is possessed without religion ; and will fall to be considered in
our last proof of the being and benignity of God.

All that I want to establish under this branch of the evidence is, that
there is a criterion within us by which we are enabled to distinguish between
goad and evil, right and wrong ; and however it may be affected like ever>-
thing else within us, by our environment, and however it may be perverted

■-VIDFNCKS Ol 1..K I'.LINC AND BENIt;NITV OF (iOI».

101

and destroyed or cultivated and strengthened, still there it is, os God's vice-
recent in the soul of man. Call it by any name you like, the name of Con-
sciKNCE, is (juite sufficient to denote it, as the moral sense within us ; and
what I contend for is, that this law of our mor^il nature proves the existence
of a Moral I^awgiver, whose moral character it substantiates ; and the in
ference flowing from the fact of a Moral Lawgiver is inseparable from it,,
namely the same Lawgiver will be our Judge ; that as this law brings us to
its tribunal now in everything we think and feel and say and do ; so will
its Lawgiver bring us before His tribunal and judge each of us at the last
day and our individual destiny will correspond in the next world, with our
individual moral character and conduct in this world.

SIXTH PROOF — DERIVED FROM PROVIDENCE AND

PRAYER.

The most precious things are often least valued and often slighted.

It is recorded in history that *' when pearls became plentiful at Rome,
they were little valued and even slighted."

Of all precious things, none are more precious than Providence
and Prayer ; for by the former the wealth of the infinite Clod is daily
showered down upon us, and by the latter we become possessed of "the pearl
of great price" — an infinite treasure.

And yet to talk to some people about Providence and Prayer is, — to
use an Orientalism, — like casting pearls before swine who not only despise
them, but who turn and rend you because they can't eat them and don't
understand their value. Some who see the above heading may say the
evidence you are going to bring forward requires more to be evidenced,
than what you are going to evidence. Providence and Prayer require more
faith from a man than the being and benignity of God does ! Now I think
it is well to kcv^p the points before us that have been already considered,
and to see their bearing as we advance in our royal pathway to happiness.
And a little reflection on these points, I think, may be sufficient to give us
a strong presumptive argument in favor of the reality of Providence and the
efficacy of Prayer ; and if these can be established, the most convincing evi-
dences of the being and benignity of God will be established and the way
cleared for the consideration of the last crowni.ig proof of the glorious
Deity.

1 . Now if it be true that " Causation " necessitates our belief in a
first cause and that first cause is necessarily possessed of the attribute of
eternity ; and that attribute necessarily includes all infinite perfection, to
whom the plenitude of being in a past and a future eternity is a present
now ; and whose presence and infinite power and omniscience are essen-
tially connected with His being, and who is therefore everywhere present,
whose power is continually in operation, whose eye sees all things as
perfectly as His na'ure is perfect, then what is more reasonable than to in-
fer that His Prov ience is exercised over all His works with the care and
love of an all-perfect parent ?

2. If in the next place this all-perfect Being manifests His wisdom by

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AliK.

" DESIGN IN NATURE " to bc SO far reaching as to exceed the scrutiny of
the profoundest philosophers, who have only been able, as yet, to *:ike in a
small part of His plan, and His revealed wii* in the Sacred Record enables
us to perceive the " design " contemplated v^orthy of His matchless wis-
dom. His immaculate purity, His unbounded knowledge, His infinite
power and unsearchable goodness and love ! Does it appear to be incredi-
ble to believe that the same Almighty Being is superintending and govern-
ing all things by His providential care and incessant vigilance and influen-
tial control towards the fulfilment of that glorious " design ?"

3. If again this infinite Being has made us in His own likeness, en-
dowed us with a "consciousness " of such vast capacities in the power of
thought, in the strength of our affections and passions, in the sovereignty
of our volitions and in the mysterious attributes of our life, — embracing an
epitome of the universe, — and if none but an infinite personal consciousness
is adequate to account for our wonderfj' nnture — is there anything at
variance with reason in concluding that such a Maker cares for the works of
His hands, that He is mindful of man and visits him, like as a tender
parent visits his children and provides for their daily wants, and delights to
dwell with them, rejoices in their joy and sympathizes with their sorrows
and over rules all things for their good ?

4. If history proves that the human race have in all ages and among
all nations and in all climes acknowledged a divinity although in a very im-
perfect manner, and have departed from Him in their hearts, but still have
maintained a united cognition of Him after a manner ! Is it to be won-
dered at, if the Father they have forsaken should yearn over their exile
from Him, and night and day seek their return and tenderly care for them,
when human fathers feel and act in their degree with the very same solici-
tude and affection?

5. In fine, if the human "conscience" looks after our moral well-
being, seeks to deter us from what is wrong and false and base and to en-
courage us in what is right and true and kind ! Is it to be held as a mere
fancy that the maker of that " conscience " within us concerns Himself
about our moral well-being and is tenderly seeking to deter us by this very
" conscience " from evil and its consequences, and to produce in us what
is good and make us blessed and happy like Himself, and is infinitely in-
terested in our individual welfare and showing us how to reach it, by build-
ing up a character in us of moral rectitude, and goodness, and nobleness, so
that we may be qualified for a higher state of being hereafter ? Surely there
is nothing at variance with the dictates of sound reason then, in believing in
the Divine Providence, when all this makes it so consistent with reason
and therefore the evidences that prove the being and benignity of God,
which have been already adduced prove the reality of the Providence of
God and the ef!icacy of Prayer to Him ?

But if further proof be necessary to make the most skeptical believe
in God's Providence there is nothing so convincing so conclusive so irresist-
ible as Prayer — ^just as the best proof for believing in the personality of
any one is to fellowship with him — there is nothing like friendly intercourse
for finding out what any one is— so is prayer to God, heartfelt intercourse

EVIDENCES OF THE BEING AND UENIGNITV OK *;0D.

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Mrith the Father of our spirits is, the most powerful proof that i know of for
those that don't know God to get acquainted with Him, for I can stake my
life on this, ^hat all real .prayer is efficacious, when real. It is a wonderful
thing. It can give us strength in weakness, joy in sorrow, health in sick-
ness, avert every evil and meet every exigency. I'rayer can do for us what
nothing else can ! It can bteak the galling fetters of sin ! It can turn
every curse into a blessing ! It can turn the scales of fate more than the
edge of the sword !

Prayer has arrested the wing of time, turned aside the scythe of death,
and discharged heaven's frowning and darkest cloud in a shower ot blessing !

Prayer changes impotence into omnipotence! It is the hand that
strikes down satan our greatest adversary ! It moves the hand that moves
the universe and secures the resources of the infinite God ! V/hat battles
has it not fought ! What victories has it not won ! What burdens has it
not carried ! What wounds has it not healed : What griefs has it not
assuaged ! What deliverances has it not wrought ! What blessings of in-
calculable worth has it not secured I It is the wealth of poverty ! the refuge
of affliction! and the blessedness of heaven! Indeed there is nothing it
cannot do and there is nothing it need want.

In short. Prayer is a privilege too exalted for our just comprehension
and a power too vast for our right apprehension. It turns the evils of ad-
versity into greater blessings than those of prosperity !

Socrates believed— and philosophy has revered him for his faith— that
an invisible spirit swayed his thought. Napoleon believed — and poetry has
discovered piety in the faith — that supernatural power intervened in his
destiny. Shakespeare believed — and facts have proved it — that " there is a
divinity in our ends rough hew them how we may."

Prayer is much more than a reflex influence on the mind of the sup-
pliant — it is that, and it is very valuable — the mind lifted up in communion
with the infinite Spirit — it is far more than that, it brings a real answer
from the Hearer of Prayer, it brings the power of God to operate for good
in a great many ways, which never would have been put into operation
without it, and which eternity will alone be able to reveal !

Prayer is a subject miserably understood. It is ridiculed by some as
superstition. Laughed at by others as weakness. Sneered at by some as
fanaticism, and not half believed in by the most devout. It is a subject
imperatively requiring deep, earnest and thorough examination and most
deserving of it. I will try to state a few points, to elucidate the branch of
evidence for the being and benignity of God, derived from Providence and
prayer and answer objections, with all brevity.

(i.) — Prayer is a law of nature

It is as much a law of nature, as it is for the artist to paint from his
own soul having regard to the higher law. Oh how he prays. How he
desires to gain his end. That's prayer. All the aspirations of genius is
prayer. They are the innermost essences of prayer. For the following
reasons, (i) Because they have in them a felt deficiency, so has all true
prayer before God, it feels what it wants.

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THE GREAT VVaNT OF THE ACK.

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(2) There is an intensity of desire to have that felt want met. So it
is with all true prayer, it must have what it feels it wants.

(3) There is a lofty aim or purpose to be reached — tc execute the
work in hand perfectly. So is it with all true prayer/ it is an exalted motive,
as well as an intense desire and a deep-felt want.

The motive with the artist may be right, or wrong — that does not
affect the question, because it is homage to this law — with the Christian
the motive is everything — such as will be for the good of those his prayers
are offered for — not anything selfish or sinful, but lofty in its aim. If we
regard iniquity in our heart the Lord will not hear us. " Ye ask and have
not because ye ask amiss — to consume it ( a your own lusts."

The law of prayer is the same law of nature as makes the child cry for
bread when hungry — a deep-felt want, a desire to have that want supplied
and taking the best means to secure it. Prayer is the voice of weak and
afflicted humanity crying to its benevolent and omnipotent parent for relief.
Is there anything weak or childish or superstitious in this ? or in any k^
of nature ? Prayer is as much a law of nature in the mind as breathing is a
law of nature in the body. We cannot live without breathing, neither can
we live without praying.

<*^' rr.iyer is the Christian's vital breath.
The Christian's native air."

(2.) — Prayer is a law of the kingdom of God.

Prayer is based on the principle of cause and effect, on the connection
between asking and receiving, " Hitherto you have asked nothing in my
name," said infinite Wisdom and Love. '^Ask and ye shall receive that
your joy may be full or fulfilled." It can neither betray a weakness nor
presumption nor superstition to obey this law which is appointed by the
King of heaven. It proves a weakness, and an arrogance and what is
worse than superstition — infatuation to disobey it.

(3.) — Prayer is an unspeakable privilege.

It invites us to hold audience with the Deity, which infinitely surpasses
the most exalted intercourse with the greatest and best of the gifted and
honored among men. It is not merely to ask and to receive what we can
only obtain by asking and receiving by means of prayer. But it is to enjoy
the fellowship of the most High, to drink of His Spirit, to participate in
His favor, and to partake of the mind of God and be raised above the
Iretting cares, the grovelling pursuits, the anxious fears that grind us down
and be lifted above them into the calm serenity of unshaken confidence
in the wisdom and over-ruling Providence of our Father in heaven.

Therefore all objections to prayer are groundless.

The objections derived from the decrees of God, the unchangeable-
ness of God, the fixed laws of nature, the supposed impossibility of miracles,
and everything else. For this all comprehensive reason, prayer fulfils God's
decrees ; its efficacy is based on the immutability of God ; it does not set

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EVIDENCES OF THE liElXG AND DENIGNITY OK GOD.

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aside the fixed laws of nature ; nor is it in materialism its efficacy lies ;
but in moral miracles its efficacy consists ; and without interfering with the
ordinary course of nature, prayer finds its evolutions in moral results^
through the operation of spiritual laws, and yet subordinates all things or
makes them subservient to its fulfilment, according to the subduing power
of God.

Prayer and Providence are inseparably connected as cause and effect.
For he that pours out his heart before God in secret, will be openly reward-
ed. To deny the efficacy of prayer is to prove that those who deny it have
never known what real prayer is; and to disbelieve in the Provider.ce if
God is to prove the absence of spiritual vision. Is conscience disburdened
of its load of guilt? Is the tumult of agitated passion hushed into tran-
quiUty ? Is the gloom of fear exchanged for the radiancy of hope and joy ?
Are the snares of temptation felt to have been broken and the soul'to exult
in a new born freedom, as she escapes like a bird from the fowler ? Are
the suggestions of an unbelieving heart silenced and the force of conviction
secretly repaired ? Do the oracles of Scripture, on whicli we had long
unsuccessfully pondered become at once clear and luminous ; and is their
application to our circumstances perceived as if they had been written for
ourselves alone ? In all these cases what can be more certain than that the
Father of our spirit has visited our souls and made us recipients of a direct
and special illumination and renovation so that we can no longer doubt of
the reality of His Providence or the efficacy of prayer. This poor man
cried and the Lord heard him and delivered him out of his distresses. The
angel of the Lord encampeth about them that fear Him. O taste and see
that the Lord is good, blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Do
we not discover the utmost minuteness of calculation often as to each
ihcident which may concern our comfort ! the greatest comprehensiveness
of foreught respecting the remotest influence which bears upon our safety !
the tenderest solicitude and readiness and promptitude to afford^ us help
and sucor, however momentary be the exigency, however sudden the
emergency ! Is he not about her bed and about our path, and in our
habitation, and through all the stages of our life, so near us that were we
even the single objects of His tender care. He could not manifest more
convincingly His proximity and solicitude. Is it not to His watchful care
over us in His Providence that we owe numberless coincidences on which,
though apparently fortuitous, our whole career is practically suspended ?
Each circumstance is a link in a chain of causes and effects, which result in
such astonishing combinations, by means of which numerous events that
would have separately proved most perilous and disastrous to our interests,
have been rendered subservient to our benefit and surrounded us with an
impregnable defence.

Thus the malice of our bitterest foes, the perfidy of our most unfaith-
ful friends, the pressure of our heaviest calamities, the frustration of our
best conceived and coivcerted plans, and the very danger and disaster of our
most humiliating misconceptions and infirmities have been by the wheels
within wheels, the links withm links made auxiliary to the attainment of
what neither any prudence of ours could have compassed, nor any watch-

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

fulness on our part could have insured nor the highest faculties could have
achieved — such is the relation and bearing of the Divine Providence which
has watched over us froni our childhood to the present moment, !*s it has
been verified in every separate individual and much more than this could
we only see it. But such knowledge is too wonderful for as to comprehend.
It is too high and deep for any one to attain ! And yet how ungrateful we
have been to think so little of it !

There is a two-fol J history of the world that may just be noticed in
connection with the moral government of God. The one relates to time, the
other to eternity. To the one belongs the records of great empires which
in succession rose to maturity and then faded away and perished. To the
other belongs a kingdom that shall not pass away but be everlasting and extend
to all people and nations and tongues. In the one are the memorials of
conflicts, revolutions and the shock of opposing states. In the other are
seen the recovery of fallen spirits, the overthrow of satanic powers and the
triumphs of the Redeemer — the Prince of Peace. The one of these histories
is near to its termination ; the other scarcely yet at its commencement.

Each has its striking epochs, its illustrious transactions, its critical con-
junctures, its famous characters, its memorable scenes, its appropriate
memorials.

In the secular, we read of great battles and where they were fought
familiar to all readers of civil history, Cannae, Marathon, Thermopylae,
.Rome, Athens, Persepolis, Babylon. In the spiritual we read of spots sig-
nalized by greater and more illustrious battles and more lasting results such
as the plains of Haran, the fields of Palestine, the solitudes of the Arabian
Desert, the shores of the Red Sea, the mountains of Sinai, Horeb and Tabor,
the desolated walls of Nazareth and of Jerusalem — the gardens of Olivet,.
Gethsemane and the hill cf Calvary !

By the one we might be pointed with rapture to the researches of a
Pythagoras, the instructions of a Confucius, or a Zoroaster, the genius of an
Aristotle, the labors of an Archimedes, the glories of the intellect in a Bacon,
a Newton, a Locke, and a Milton. By the other how by the advent of a
Hebrew child born into our world all the wisdom of the ages all the glories
of the divinity all the blessedness of heaven should not only be disclosed
but produce the most astonishing results infinitely exceeding all that poets
ever sung and holy prophets foretold and angels conceived and whose career
on earth and its results shali form the theme of contemplation and wonder
amidst the glories of a never ending existence— Jesus of Nazareth ! — God
manifested in the flesh ! This brings us now to the crowning evidence for
believing in the being and benignity of God.

THE SEVENTH PROOF DERIVED FROM EXPERIENCE.

This is the last ri the evidences of the being and benignity of God
named, and it is by f r the most interesting and the strongest especially to
the believer, who has been favored with the saving knowledge of Christ and
has experienced the manifestation of God to his soul. The " Experimental
evidence" not only proves that God is,but it reveals what he is; as a just God

EVIDENCES OF THE BEING AND BENIGNITY OF GOD.

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and a Saviour to the beiicving mind. It makes the possessor of it more
than a match for all the skeptics in the world. He may not be able to
refute their arguments, to detect their sophistries or to overthrow their
objections ; but his consciousness of the love of (jod, and of the salvation
of God, and the witness of the spirit of God within him, nothing can upset
or destroy. The "Experimental evidence," deep down in the depths of his
soul of the revealed character of God in Christ of his eternal life in Christ
and of his hope of salvation through Christ, fills him with joy and peace in
believing in God as the God of his salvation. He is firm as a rock here,
because of the manifestation of God to his soul, through the saving know-
ledge of Jesus Christ our Lord, and all the cavils of infidels go for nothing.

*' Should all the forms that men devise
Assault my faith with treacherous art,
I'd call them vanity and lies
And bind the gospel to my heart."

Of many things is the saved man and woman conscious, and perfectly
satisfied with, (i) Of the essential divinity of Christ, that Christ Jwas more
than a mere man, that he was perfect God and perfect man — the Revelation
•f God in the flesh. (2) Of the mediatorship of Christy " He the just one
having suffered in the room of us the unjust, that he might bring us unto
God," by his revealing God to us through his Spirit, who works within u
the works of God unto eternal life. (3) Of his perfect safety in and through
Chritt ; and (4) of the renewal of his nature into the image of Christy through
faith in Him ; as having become a new man in Christ Jesus, quite a differ-
ent man to what he once was ; and he feels under the most binding obliga-
tions to follow Christ in the ' regeneration,' till faith is lost in sight, and
hope rises into full fruition, and mortality is swallowed up of life ! And
never so many things more is the '■^Experimental evidence^^ full of, that I have
not time to write them and many of them cannot be written, but only
experienced in the inner shrine of the spirit and in th*? deepest depths of
the heart and in the soul's own sacred, secret consciousness, with ever
growing increase, for the heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger
intermedleth not with his joy ! But all strengthening to the soul
in the being and benignity of God to the exclusion of all doubts on the
matter. There is such an overwhelming mass of evidence in the experi-
mental proof to the being and infinite benignity of God as might fill
volumes and yet not the half be told, so that I feel a confidence here that
nothing can shake,and I only wish every one possessed the great "Experimen-
tal proof," for it is here in the subjective data and inner cognitions that
Christianity brings all her strength and proves ' the doctrine all divine,' and
to stand not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. It is within,
that all its conflicts and conquests are ; and it is but a small part of the
" Experimental proof" that can be written with pen and ink, it is written on
the fleshly tablets of the heart and comes out in the life and that only in
part. But I have a duty to fulfil in undertaking this work and must do
the best I can to unfold this last and best of all the proofs of the being and
benignity of my God so as to benefit others for this grand " Experimenta

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

proof" is beyond question the one great want of the age for securing its
highest amelioration and its truest well-being and perfect happiness while
other things are by no means to be discarded or overlooked. Its special
province is this, to put everything in its right place and keep it there, to
give us heavenly wisdom that we may adorn the doctrine of Christ our
Saviour in all things — in business and in pleasure, in earnest labor and
cheerful industry under the load of heavy toil, and vast responsibility ; as
well as in sweet refreshing rest and hai)py leisure j and in all the social
amenitiesof life— we are to use this beautiful world as not abusing it, and
try and do all we can to relieve the heavier loads, the deeper wants, the
^eater cares and troubles, of others ; while we don't forget to explore in
secret depths the tracks of sacred meditjltion, that we may try to impart to
others the science and the elements of an imperishable happiness ! Nor
should we forget that this unwritten volume of secret history, which cannot
be written in time out of the experimental proof, is traced among the annals
and archives of eternity. Every event that affects our individual lives and
in any wise affects the kingdom of jesus passes (as the electric currents over
land and sea) to those ever growmg and celestial annals, for we are far
better known in heaven, if we are in Christ, than we are known on earth,
and by and by we will all pass away too and " Know even as we are
known" for here we are all strangers and sojourners in a foreign land, and
at a distance from our true home as all our fathers were before us, who are
now looking down upon us, and know all about us and deeply interested
in us to an extent we know nothing of.

I. The Deitv of Christ, requires some consideration, as being
essential to the fulness of the " Experimental proof."

For if Christ were a mere man He could not save us and our faith in
Him as our Saviour would be in vain. Everything contains only what is in
it. A vessel has just in it what it contains or it is empty. Jesus Christ
is the chosen vessel of God filled with the Divinity. The treasure was put
in the earthen vessel that the excellency of the power might be of God and
not of man for us to see God in Him and worship Him, to render our hom-
age without any scruple aiising out of His humanity which was hallowed and
sanctified as its shrine and the temple of the Deity and inseparable from
it in the glory of His divine personality. In Him dwelt all the fulness of
the God-head bodily. Christ came to reveal God and make His glory
known— the glory — of the combined beauty of all the divine perfections
harmonized into a focal point and beaming through the opaque boJy of
His humanity at times transcending the glory of a million suns.

Referring to His transfiguration on the Mount the Apostle John says :
" The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us and we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth." (John 1-14.) And the Apostle Peter who also saw it and enraptured
to an overpowering ecstacy referring to it says of the Master in vindication
of the divine origin of Christianity : " We have not followed cunningly
devised fables, when we m'^de known unto you the power and coming
(parousia — presence) of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of
His majesty, for He received from God the Father honor and glory, \\hen

EVIDENCES OF THK 1!E1N(; AND IJENKINITV Ol' t;oi).

109

there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came
from heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy Mount.
(II Pet. i., 16.)

The utmost care has been bestowed to make the fact clear and incon-
trovertible that Jesus »vas Divine — not a semblance, not a partial embodi-
ment, not a temporary manifestation, but a true, a full, complete and
abiding manifestation of the essential Divinity — the very of God of the very
(jod ; so that if any fact was ever proven, this has been proven that all that
(iod 'vas Jesus is, that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of
the New, that the Lord who sat in the throne of heaven and was worshipped
by the radiant angels, the seraphim and the cherubim and all the hierarchies
of heaven was the same Lord that shone on Mount Hermon, that was
despised by the carnally-minded Jews, derided by the Gentiles, and suffered
on the Cross of Calvary as the propitiator for our sins, that arose from the
dead and ascended to heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Majesty
on Hi^h until all His enemies be His footstool to prove He is Lord of all !

The evidence of this most important fact has every element of evidence
in it that Bacon has so wonderfully brought together in his great doctrine
of '* Evidence" to prove, confirm and establish it, and a great deal more
than he never thought about, so that the one grand solitary monument in
the ages in its unique grandeur in its towering magnificence is the one fact
of the glory of Christ in His Divine Personality— 2& the Revealer of God
and the revealed Divinity in a nature like our own. Foretold by prophets
hundreds and thousands of years, before He bowed His heavens and came
down and appeared among men as the babe at Bethlehem and the P^ather
of the everlasting age ! Sung by poets in the most enrapturing strains of
eloquence as " WonderfnV in all He should be and do .md suffer; and
the glory that should follow is a theme when they think of they break into
rapture and talk of the honor of His majesty and the glory of His power
and His renown with a brilliancy and sublimity that is truly of divine
inspiration. They lay all nature under tribute to reveal His worth and to
celebrate His praise. Christ is the one grand central figure in the Old
Test ment und the one grand central figure of the New. '* To Him gave
all the prophets witness," and of Him all the apostles and evangelists
te tified. The former dispensation, in all its temple service and gorgeous
ritual, presented Him in bold relief as the victim of sacrifice and the great
High Priest who should offer it, as the Lamb for sinners slain before the
foundation of the world, and yet the scape goat of the wilderness who
should bear away our sins into a land unknown ! as a prophet of the
Lord like unto Moses ; as a priest forever like unto Melchizedek who was
of a peculiar priesthood ; ai'.d as a King whose dominion was to be co-ex-
tensive with creation and lasting as eternity. All the names and titles in
the Old Testament in the Hebrew, that are exclusively appropriated to God
Almighty bearing the insignia of uncreated being and infinite perfection,
and divine prerogative, are all applied to Christ in the Greek, by the writers
of the New Testament. And Christ Himself claims them as His own by
assuming them and all the predictions in the prophets and in the Psalms

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THE GREAT WANT OP THE AGE.

He applied as refening to Himself while His own birth and life and death
and resurrection, His doctrine, His character, His spiritual kingdom find
their exact fulfilment in the specific and glorious events themselves, so that
no fact in all history is so fully established as the essential Divinity of
Jesus Christy our Lord.

At page 7 1 I rematked that, " God can only be known in Christ," and
that I have proved this from my own experience ; and that God cannot be
known so satisfactorily in any o^her way but by Christ, who is "the Way, the
Truth and the Life." Christ Himself has told us : — " No man can come
unto the Father but by me." This implies two things, ist. that Christ is
essentially Divine, and by Knowing Him we know the Father ; 2nd. that
it is in virtue of His mediatorship, we poor sinful creatures are privileged
and permitted to come to God the Father. Into all the depths of this great
subject I cannot now go ; however inviting and delightful and profound
— proving that the science of theology infinitely surpasses all the sciences.
'' AH other knowledge in her presence falls degraded and like folly shows."

For in this science — this knowledge, we pass from the finite to the
infinite, from the creation to the Creator, from the human consciousness to
the divine consciousness, which by the way is the fourth original fountain
of knowledge and the greatest and best of all knowledge — the knowledge
of God.

Now the method, God — the invisible essence of Deity — has taken to
reveal Himself to our humanity is by forming a man like ourselves on pur-
pose to enable us through our own nature to know the divine nature as
full of tenderest benignity and loveliest humility — attributes cognizable in
sweet and lovely external nature, in the works that God has made, in the
flowers and the ministries of nature everywhere,— attributes which always
adorn the most amiable and most estimable among men ; and have their
fullest and highest exhibition in Him who is "altogether lovely" and was
full of loveliest condescension without making others feel it was exercised,
being real ; and therefore, although the very God incarnate. He mingled
among men as one like themselves, which He really was — Behold Him at
the festive board He provides good cheer, wine that could exhilarate but
not inebriate, as a lesson to teach the marriage guests at Cana of the wine
of His kingdom ; and how He approved of the social amenities of human
life and how He the uncreated glory of the universe haJ married our
human nature that we might marry His divine nature. Behold Him when
wearied and worn with His incessant labors of love resting at noon by the
well of Jacob and entering into friendly conversation with the v/oman of
Samaria, without her being able to see any resplendent beams of His infinite
majesty, and giving her to drink of the water of life of which if any man
drinks, he will never ihirst after the polluted streams of earthly pleasures
as he did before drinking of it, and hear how He invites the weary and
heavy laden, without ostentation or unreality and says—" Come unto me
all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will jj've you rest." He gives
the weary rest. He gives His beloved sleep to drown their earthly cares
and bears them for them. And then what emphasib must we give to what
follows : " Take my yoke upon you and learn of me" — submit to your

EVIDENCES OF THE BEING AND BENIGNITY OF GOD.

Ill

environment, and circumstances which we are so ready to t<iink are beneain
us and we above them ; " And learn of me" — " learn of me ;"— for I am
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest to your souls. There is
no lesson more needed in the age we live in. Its spirit is quite the oppo-
site of the self-denying, the meek and lowly Jesus — an age full of self-will,
independence, arrogance, pomposity and pride I I wonder what it is all
for ? Can't serve another or help another or cheer another; but assumes
such airs and such nonsense, such self-conceit and suspiciousness and
empty pride ? Self-abnegation was the law of paradise, it was the law of
Christ that He constantly illustrated — " who though He was ' rich ' in all
the uncreated glories and prerogatives of Deity, became poor," — so poor,
as to be dependent on the poor for his support, and haa not where to lay
His head, "that we through his poverty might be made rich" — in the
" riches" that are " unsearchable " in value and can make us perfectly
happy now, and infinitely rich hereafter. Where was ever such a sublime
proof given of the costliest sacrifices and the noblest nature ! — Is it not
like a God ?

Need we wonder that most men who have been distinguished for
superior mental powers, although skeptics, have admired the loveliness of
Christ's character and been enraptured with it ! let us hope they admired
more than merely intellectually ? Some of their beautiful and wonderful
sayings I will record presently for they are worth recording and preserving.

Strange it is however that those very attributes which adorn the
Saviour's most lovely character should not draw every heart to Him for
salvcfion and life eternal, and make Him the enrapturing object of their
homrige and worship and delight, since by these very attributes He is
proven without the shadow of a doubt to be all He claimed to be the
essential Divinity enshrined in our poor, frail, suffering humanity to enrich,
strengthen, beautify and glorify it !

Some of the tesHinonics of skeptics re<ipecting Jesus Christ.

1. Spinoza, who was a Jevif by birth, and a pantheist by religion, says,
" He is the best and truest sj*nbol of heavenly wisdom, or of ideal per-
fection." This is the loftiest eulogy that could be uttered coming from one
who was a Jew by birth and education.

2. Voltaire, who only ridiculed Religion and continually sneered at
it, was " overawed by the life and character of Jesus Christ." I refer the
reader to his Philosophical Dictionary in proof of this which can be perused
at leisure.

3. Napoleon I., who often said wonderful things, says, "I know men
and Jesus Christ is not a man," — meanu'o; He was supernatural and divine.

4. Strauss, one of the greatest infidols of Germany whose entire life
was spent in trying to prove that Christianity was only a system of mytho-
logy without anything of the supernatural in it speaks of Jesus Christ, the
founder ot Christianity, thus : " The highest object we can possibly imagine
with respect to religion, the Being without whose presence in the mind
perfeqj: piety is impossible." This is a remark that shows he perfectly
understood the theory of Christianity for without Christ's indwellmg spirit

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

-within us we are none of His. But to reconcile perfect piety with myth-
ology is an impossibility and proves the futility of his prolonged eflbrt to
do it.

5. John Stuari- Mill, one of the leading sceptics in London, Eng-
land, some years ago, and one of the members of the J^ritish Parliament
for Westminster states it as his conviction that the conception of the lifb
and character of Jesus Chiist was above all human invention and conse-
quently of supernatural origin. It is strange to find so much contradiction
in the views of sceptics. Read this, *' Whatever else may be taken away
from us by rational criticism, Christ is still left, a unique figure, ndt
more unlike all His precursors than all His followers, even those wh6
had the direct benefit of His personal teaching. It is of no use to say that
Christ, as exhibited in the Gospel is, not historical, and that we know not
how much of what is admirable has been superadded by the tradition of
His followers. The tradition of His followers suffices to insert any number
of marvels, and may have inserted all the miracles which He is reputed to
have wrought. But who among His disciples or among his proselytes was
capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to Him, or of inla^ining the life
and character revealed in the Gospels. Certainly not the fishermen of
Galilee, as certainly not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasies werfc
of a totally different sort, still less the early Christian writers in whortl
nothing is more evident, than that the good which was in them was all
derived, as they always professed it was derived from the higher source."
John Stuart Mill is greatly prized and continually quoted by free-thinkers,
but they never quote this passage, for it goes to prove the impossibility of
Jesus Christ to be of human invention how then can His life and character
be accounted for ?

6. Lfcky, the historian of Rationalism and himself one of the free-
thinkers as they are called says : •• It was reserved for Christianity to pre-
sent to the world an ideal character which through all the changes of
eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love,
and has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments
and conditions, has not only been the highest pattern of virtue, but the
highest incentive to its practice and has exercised so deep an influence that
it may be truly said the simple record of three short years of active life has
done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions and
philosophies and all the exliortations of moralists."'

7. Rousseau, the famous P>ench infidel said while living " Can it be
possible that the personage whose history the Gospel contains should be a
mere man? What sublimity in His maxims ! What profound wisdom in
His discoveries 1 If the life and death of Socrates are those of the sige,
the hfe and death of Jesus are those of God."

8. Fichte, the noblest representative of recent Pantheistic speculation
in Germany, makes Jesus Christ the propo^under of his philosophy, and
bears the highest testimony to His superior excellency.

Goethe, the greatest genius of Germany says ; " Chiist is the divine
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EVIDENCES OF THE UEING AND BENIGNITY OV GOD.

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9. Byron, the gifted, the eloquent poet, has left this record behind
him, " If ever man was God, or God man, Jesus Christ was both."

10. Theodore Parker, the impassioned and brilliant Unitarian
preacher, while rejecting miracles and utterly denying the supernatural —
thus reducing Christ to the condition of a man, with no powers, but such
as belonged to his own human nature, yet wrote as follows :

• "Jesus there is no dearer name than thine

Which time has blazoned on his magic scroll ;
No wreaths, no garlands, ever did entwine,
So fair a temple of so vast a soul.

* There every virtue set his triumph seal,

Wisdom conjoined with strenpth and radiant grace
In a sweet coi)y heaven to re al,
And stamp i)erfcction on a mortal face.

Once, on the earth, wert Thou before mine eyes

That did not half Thy beauteous brightness see,

K'en as the emmit does not read the skies

Nor our weak orbs look through immensity.

Once on earth wert Thou a living shrine

Wherein conjoining dwelt the ( iod, the Lovely the Divine !'

It would be easy to multiply similar testimonies given by free thinkers
in all ages of the world and they are on the increase in our age. These
testimonies coming from such great men deserve,

A FEW REMARK.S.

THE AUOVE TESTIMONIE?

Arc self-condemning, Christ exalting, and point a moral. — ^^ Self -con-
demning^' for if Christ was so admired by them why did they not ac-
knowledge Him and believe in Him and renounce their skepticism ? The
position these men took was a false one. For, if Christ was so lovely in
his character, so perfect in his manners, so profound in his wisdom, he
must have been more than man, which many of them affirm. And He
himself claimed to be divine, and he suffered on the cross for the claim he
put forth because one ground of his condemnation was that " He called
God his own father makinj; Himself equal with God." (John v. 18).
How then can these men justify themselves ? On the pretext that he was
either an imposter or a fanatic ? But they did not say he was either ;
therefore the only alternative is that he was what he professed to be — God !
"I and my Father are one. ' — ^^ Christ exalting," becau.se as they belong to the
Master-spirits of mankind, — men of the most exalted order of intellect,
they are intellectually on our side acknowledging against themselves that
Christ was so exalted in his character and life above all, therefore Chris-
tianity in its founder has compelled its very enemies to exalt what in their
falseness they repudiated and showed a weakness thereby notwithstanding
all their power and strength of intellect, — and it ^^ points a moral" viz :
that head-knowledge is not heart-experience ; and that there is something
far greater and better in man than " mere intellect " — the devil has plenty

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I'HE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

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of intellect, all bad men are made worse by great intellect. The moral
excellencies of the heart in man are infinitely better than greatness of in-
tellect. When will men learn this ? God has stamped his deepest repro-
bation upon the idolatrous worship of intellect as a divinity. There is
far more to admire in a sweet, innocent, lovely babe than in the profound-
est philosopher who is all intellect and without a sincere heart in him ! Is
not such a cynic ? and often a surly, snarling misanthrope?— a hater _, of
good men aod of God ? When will this worship of intellect cease ? Never
is Christ extolled f n the Word of God for his intellect ! Never are any of
the saints extolled fcr their intellect ! The greatest instances of intellect in
the Bible are Balaam the false prophet and Solomon the erring king ! AU
the graces of the Spirit belong to the heart. All the good in man and wo-
man flows from the same fountain — and it is much much more in the power
of woman than man to elevate the race through the heart that God has
given her under the sanctifying power of divine love purifying and ennobling
it. All the angels in Heaven are portrayed by their possession of holy love ;
and all the apostate angels by their want of holy love.

Now it is just here, the amelioration of human society is to take its
rise, and the happiness of the human family is to be attained — in the moral
renovation of the heart — in the true, the tender the pure, the refining, the
elevating feelings of the heart — it is here, the love of God in Christ comes
to remedy all that is false and cruel and base and grovelhng. The gospel
is glad tidings of love — love that is infinite and divine ! Professor Tindall
is right when he says — " The problem of problems is the satisfaction of the
relieious emotions." Christ has come to give us its solution because God
sent him. " Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

" For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting
life." This is the gospel in brief.

It conies in the form of a testimony of love — the testimony of God
concerning his son based on facts that are incontroveitable. It addresses
itself to our credence. For there is no other way for testimony to be dealt
with but through credence or faith. Anything more would make salvation
to be of works or of merit. Anything less would not meet the case.
Therefore it is by believing in the love of God in the gift of His only
begotten son that we can only get * eternal life.' Faith worketli by love
and purifieth the heart It is to them that believe that the arm of the
Lord is revealed, which is Christ as God. " The Gospel is the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believeth," for it puts the believer in
possession of Christ, and through the revelations of faith the believer sees
God in Christ, and is delivered from the wrath to come upon unbelievers and
delivered from the power, the love and practise of sin as well as its awful
consequences. " Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with
God," — arc reconciled to him, " through our Lord Jesus Christ and have
access into this grace," — the free loving favor of God which is his grace — his
infinite compassion, " and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God" — in the
sure prospect of heavenly glory, " and not only so but we glory in tribula

EVIDENCES OF THE IIE!NO AND BEHIGNITV OF (K>D.

tions also because tribulation worketh patience and patience experience
and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed," — will not be disap-
pointed, " because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy
Spirit which is given unto us." Romans V. 1—5.

Hence what we contend for is not an intellectual but a spiritual
apprehension of the glor^ of God in Christ, which comes through faith in
Christ as dying for our sms, accompanied with .i deep sense of our need of
Him as sinners before God and producing moral renovation in the soul in
likeness to Christ by loving obedience to God —as revealed in Christ.
Where this is experienced all the fruits of the holy Spirit will be found, and
nothing else can be a substitue for it.

The morality without the Gospel may suffice for a genteel respectable
sort of life, but it c?" never meet the spiritual demands of God's holy law,
nor atone for personal transgressions of it, nor bring true solid peace into
the mind, nor loving fellowship with God nor into the inheritance of the
saints in l^ht.

'* Talk they of morals, *0 ! thou bleeding; love
The grand morality is love of Thee.' ''

It was this which made the early Christians what they were — the
constraint of Jesus' love — and nothing can bring back primitive Christianity
but its holy flame rekindled in the church by the living fire of the ho'y
Spirit. Where it is found there will be found self-denial for Christ, a pure
life and unreserved consecration to God, and soul-saving power. To
possess it is to be all that we require to he and to be without is not only the
greatest calamity but the deepest crime ! How blessed, O God is the man
whom Thou choos^st and causest to approach unto Thee from whom Thou
takest not away Thy Holy Spirit but to whom Thou impartest the
joy of Thy salvation ! He has never need of tearful eyes nor of a sad coun-
tenance. His losses are gains, his crosses are crowns His Father in
heaven cares for him and manages his affairs, death is his friend and heaven
his home. " If a man love Me he will keep My words and My Father will
love him and We will come and make our abode with him and manifest
Ourselves to him."

" This is life eternal to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent."

Thus have I endeavored to demonstrate the *' BEING AND
BENIGNITY OF GOD," from the seven proofs adduced,—!. Causa-
tion, which is a logical necessity in the laws of reasoning that inevitably
conducts us to a great first cause. 2. Design in nature, which proves
when rightly interpreted by the higher reading a most glorious issue worthy
of such an infinite Being. 3. The human consciousness, on the prin-
ciple, every effect must have an adequate cause, there must be an infinite
intelligence residing in ar. infinite personal consciousness as the author of
the human consciousness, or it is without any adequate cause. 4. Uni-
versal History, carrying in it a universal cognition which has the force of
a universal truth. 5.C0NSCISNCE, being our inner criterion of right and wrong,
testifies as a law of our nature to the existence of a lawgiver from whom it

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THE GKI:AI NVANi 01 TIU: AGE.

has originated. 6. I'uovidknck and Prayer, being clearly deduciblcfron-k
the preceding proofs already advanced, lend a further additional copfirma
tion in themselves of the being and benignity of God and explain the rela-
tionship existing between the moral governor of the universe and us His
rational and responsible creatures. 7. And lastly, Human Experienck,
completes and crowns the whole argument in the heart of every true Chris-
tian and makes the evidence complete as any mathematical problem ever
was demonstrated with irresistible force ; —

To dispute the IJeing and Benignity of God, or disbelieve that there is
One All-perfect Supreme Power is unreasonable, since He is proved to be
from everlasting to everlasting God, and the Creator of all things, since '* in
Him we live and move and have our conscious being," since to Him,
the whole human race, in all ages, a) d in all languages, and in
all climes, hns instinctively cried " Abba," although very imperfectly, and
also since the moral stnse is God's vice-regcnt in the soul of man;
and since from the supernatural revela'.ion of God given in His only Son, —
Jesus Christ, our Lord, — we perceive His glory and are enabled to
articulate the endearing •* Abba," with intelligence, and with a heart of
true filial adoration and supremest love and grateful praise ; *' for of Him
and through Him and to Him are all things ; to whom be glory for ever
Amen."

'* We praise Thee, O God : we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. .All
the earth doth worship Thee ! the Father everlasting. To Thee all angels
cry aloud : the heavens and all the powers therein. To i'hee the Cherub m,
and Seraphim ; continually do cry. Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabbaoth ;
heaven and earth arc full 01 the majesty : of Thy glory. The glorious com-
pany of the apostles : praise Thee. The goodly fellowship of the prophets :
praise Thee. The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge
Thee ; Thou art the Father : of an infinite majesty ; Christ is Thine honor-
able, true : and only Son ; also the Holy Spirit : is the Comforter " — of Thy
people ! To Thee, O God, the Triune God, the only true God, the only
wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now
and ever. Amen."

In the next section I am going to have an animated conversation with
Mr. Frederick about a very important matter which " hope will be interesf-
ing and instructive especially to my dear young readers— about the Bible.

SECTION IV.- A NEW VIEW OF THE BIBLE.

Presenicd in a conversation resumed between the assumed Agnostic —
Mr. Frederick and the writer.

" The Bible I must tell you," says Mr. Frederick, " has always been a
puzzle to me. I have never been able to comprehend its structure, its
scope and design. It is certainly very interesting in some parts. Its his-
torical sketches about the babe among the bulrushes found by Pharoah's

NEW I.K.Hr ON AN OLD Si iijm 1.

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its

lis-

Ih's

daughter in the river Nile, who afterwards distinguished himself as the lib
erator and leader and Icgislatur of the Israelites in the wilderness and as u
fine historian, writing in such pure Hebrew ; and all about Joseph and hi»
brethren whom they sold through envy to the Israelites, and who aflerwardd
rose through the nobleness of his character to sit on the throne of Egypt,
and acted as a wise governct in providing beforehand corn for the nation
against the seven years of famine; and all about the old patriarchs— the
stories it gives us are certainly very interesting and wel! put. I like too the
glorious rhythm of the old Hebrew poetry — the grandeur and sublimity of
Isaiah, the sweetness of the odes of David, the vigorous style of Paul, the
tenderness of John, the bold earnestness of i'eter and the practicalness of
James and above all the wonderful character and noble life and tragic death
of the great hero of the Book — Jesus of Nazareth — and all its contents, f(ir
such an old book — the oldest in existence— I must say it has often stirred
my soul to its very depths ; but what it was ever written for, or why some
make such an " ado over the old Bible I could never comprehend for it
appears to me without any given design at all !"

'* I don't wonder, Mr. Frederick, that you have experienced difficulty
in getting ac the one great design contemplated in the Bible from beginning
to end, for I have had great ditficulty on this subject myself. And the dif-
ferent theories given about it rather increase the difficulty instead of remov-
ing it. The same thing viewed from different standpointsdoesnotoften reach
the same results or come to one and the same end. Although when the
right rationale is discovered — the true principle on which it is based is
clearly apprehended, then view it as you may from any point, the same
thing is seen always, only underdifferent aspects which makes it all the more
interesting and important and valuable, as then its detail is comprehended
under the same principle. When you get at any time into a lighthouse in
the ocean and look into all the concave mirrors in Ihe lighthouse reflecting
the light on all the angles and objects outside on the ocean how valuable
for saving the ships, but how queer your own face looks ! You will laugh
when you look into these funny looking glasses, you would not believe that
it was you but some one else that you never saw before and never knew.
But you know that it is your own personal identity and not another's. Well
when we get the right key to unlock the treasures of the rich treasury it
will enable us to see all the angles of human life and all the dangers in the
ocean of life and how the shipwrecks happen. Yes and far more delight-
ful and exalting views besides !"

" O my dear Frederick how I have been enraptured by the lovely views
that many have taken and given of the great Bible mirror. As when Robert
Pollock in his Course of Time calls it '• the star of eternity " — how sweetly
suggestive! Or when Dr. James Hamilton of London, of loveliest memory
compares it to nature in its hills and dales and streams and lakes and land-
scapes always interesting us by its freshness and novelty arresting the atten-
tion sometimes by its sublime and towering grandeur among the everlasting
hills sometimes by its sweetness and loveliness at the eajfly dawn the glorious
sun streak by streak shoots up its golden beams until all — the whole
horizon is flooded with its splendor. You know His inimitable way of

till!

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THE CREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

describing nature with the hand of a master ! You perceive vvhat I am at?
Mr. Frederick ! I am drawing your attention to its structure — its wonder-
fully varied character and records that have so much puzzled you as reveal-
ing its myriads of mirrors, and the Bible reveals its g/ory where you and I once
found only difficulty, confusion, and mystery, for all is harmony and sim-
plicity! It infinitely excels Charles Dickenstin his graphic descriptions,
.and Shakespeare who surpasses every word-painter among men."

I would compare the fiible to a precious sparkling costly diamond,
which looks charming from every point of view. The diamond has this
great peculiarity connect .d with it that it sparkles all the wore it is broken
into pieces and is therefore indestructible. So is the Bible broken up
into never so many texts — for originally it was not so divided into chapters
and texts — the translators did this to make it handy for reference it came
in masses of solid diamonds and how it sparkles in all these particles of it,
each text being a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it and es-
teems it precious, whithersoever it turneth it prospereth, and diffuses its
radiance and beauty, the single texts have prospered in the thing designed
by them, how many a dark mind they have enlightened with the light of
life eternal ! how many a sorrowful downcast spirit they have revived and
comforted with the joy of salvation ! how many a poor broken-down trav-
eller in their weary journey in life, overtaken by misfortune and ruin and
desolation, they have enriched with the pearl of great price, healed the
heart wounds of adversity and set them in the pathway of happiness and
acted the part the good Samaritan acted towards the man that went down
from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers who stript hira of his
j-aiment, and wounded him and left him half dead and who was passed by,
by the Levite, and shunned by the priest, both taking the opposite side of the
road, like the unfeeling selfish miserable Christians of our day who profess
so much and do so little in a right spirit towards the poor unfortunates the
world is filled with ! Such are just brought into the position that fits them
to look away from man to God — to go to His Word and are guided to the
text that just suits them and it acts the, part of the good Samaritan who
bound up that poor ill-used man's wounds, pouring in oil to heal the
wounds, and wine to m?ke his heart glad and set him on his own beast and
walked himself on foot, and brought him to an inn and took care of him and
paid all his expenses. This the Book of God has so often done, jusf be-
cause it has God's heart of infinite compassion in it towards the poor
and needy and him that hath no helper just like the good Samaritan who
had compassion on the man robbed, wounded and found half dead on his
journey.

The Bible is given as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path in our
journey through life. You observe here, Mr. Frederick, the doul>/e meta-
phor, drawn from the case of the Oriental traveller who had a lantern in his
hand and a light on his breast, the lantern in the hand would mislead
in a long journey, without roads and railways, without the light shining
alonp his path from his breast. It is the darkness which makes the lamp
jind the lantern so welcome. And it is the darkness of misery in the sick-

NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD SUBJECT.

119

room and in the house of mourning in which the light trom the divine
Word shines with its heavenliness— as a light from Heaven for so it is."

" A glory gilds the sacred page Majestic, like the sun
It gives a light to every age It gives bvit borrows none.'"

The Specialty of Scripture.

Before I go into the exposition of my subject and show you dear
Frederick how its unique design becomes fulfilled in the most simple man-
ner possible, I want to impress your mind with a sense of the excellence of
Scripture because of the special province it deals with and the greatness
of it.

It does not undertake to teach us science, nor business, nor art.
These belong to the other books God has already written and we must go
to them — the books of nature without and of the human consciousness
within — exereising our reason, etc.

The province of scripture is to teach the ethia of human life. It teaches
human duty and how to fulfil it. It points the way to human well-being
and true happiness. It unfolds our highest interests in both worlds and
informs us how as moral responsible free agents how to secure them.

A moment's reflection on the magnitude of this sacred province will
convince you that none is competent to write such a book and legislate re-
specting our moral and spiritual relationships with infallibility and accu-
racy but the author of our being — the fountain of law, the source of all bless-
ing and the sum of all excellence. Because the ethics of human life none
but the author of life is capable of comprehending and our moral relation-
ships none but Him in whom they centre can legislate upon, no voice but
His can bind us, under obligation to fulfil the duties resulting from them,
therefore the one grand excellence of Scripture is this, that in it is •* The
Word of God:*

" Well " says Frederick, " I shall be glad to have the vexed and diffi-
cult question of the Inspiration of the Sciprtures cleared up and settled !"

"That will come as an inference from the contents of the Scriptures
and the direct way to see the whole structure and design of the record will
be to take the following proposition and work out the problem thus,

Given : The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

Required : To find and prove the * Word of God ' is in them.

Now the ' Word of God,' I require to produce is, what has been
spoken by God as the Word of God and not by man ? "

" Yes, if you do that you will find what is required." " Well to my
mind the structure of the Scriptures looks like this. It consists of two
elements — a divine element and a human element. The divine element
contains the ' Word of God,' the human element the ' word of man.' I
don't say this mark to lessen the value of the Scriptures, but to reach the
structure." " Will you show me the structure then ?" ** Yes. All that God
the Lord from heaven has spoken I would call

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THE

' niBLE PROPER.'

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

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All the rest I would call

THE * BIBLE NON-PROPER.'

I don't mean improper — but the ^ Bible non-proper ' to distinguish it
from the ' Bible-proper.' Would you enable me to understand the dif-
ference and how to apply the test ? For I can't very well see how I am
to distinguish them without first knowing what is Divinely inspired and
what is not. " Never mind the subject of Inspiration at all just now, it
will come afterwards. Let us look at the contents, the structure first.

The Structure of the Bible.

If you visited a fine temple St. Paul's in London England, or the
Westminster Abbey or St. Peter's at Rome, you would examine the struc-
ture first and then enquire about the architects afterwards.

The Bible is the temple of truth and in that temple you will find as
you look into it 9. promise and a command. And these two things consti-
tute the ' Bible-proper.' The ^oxvq\x% promise of a Saviour and the divine
command to obey Him — the first was proclaimed among the bowers of
Eden by the Lord God from heaven after the fall of man. The second
was proclaimed from Mount Sinai when the Lord God in terrible majesty
proclaimed the Moral Law. These two things are the entire 'Word of God.'
They are his " Word " lor they were spoken by Him and their internal evi-
dence proves it All that is added in the ' Bible-proper ' is only a further
development of them and all spoken or authorized by God himself the
Lord God from heaven. The ' Bible-proper ' therefore is of verbal inspira-
tion in the strictest sense of the term and cannot possibly be otherwise as I
stated at the commencement, for none but God could give iYit promise and
none but God could prescribe tV>e law. TYi^ promise is couched in these
ever memorable word^ of God (Gen. iiL 15), '< The seed of the woman
(that is Christ) shall bruise thy head (that is Satan's) and thou shalt bruise
his heel." It was addressed to the adversary and fell upon him as a male-
diction—foretelling his doom; but it came as a benediction to lost and
ruined man ! It was i\iQ first oracle of mercy spoken by God from heaven
and it includes every other as the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

The language is enigmatical or metaphorical and is remarkably ex-
pressive. By "the seed of the woman "is meant as I have already said
Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners. He is the promised "seed." So much
was this accredited that every woman, even Eve herself, when she gave
birth to Cain, her first-bom, hoped it was Him, and ever/ Hebrew mother
thought the same until the virgin mother had its fulfillment. The Jews
till this day believe the promised "seed" is yet to come, and nothing has
tended so much as this expectation to keep the Jewish nation, although
scattered abroad, intact and united.

OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS PERSONAGE HERE PREDICTED.

" In the great promise of the Saviour of the world (Gen. iii., 15), you
will observe, dear Frederick, the words employed to designate Him, he is^

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NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD SUHJECT.

121

called ' the seed {or the offspring) of the woman,' — not ' of man,' but * of
woman/ — the greatest honor ever conferred upon woman, — lovely woman !
although she was first in the transgression, the honor conferred proves the
tenderness of the divine mercy towards her, notwithstanding her great
transgression, and how < mercy rejoices over judgment,' and how by the
very instrument Satan sought to ruin the human race, God designs in his
love to bring salvation to it.

This great promise I need not tell you had its fulfilment in " Maty
the virginl^ as we are informed in the gospels of the New Testament with
its interesting particulars (Mat. i., 18-25. Luke i., 26-38), and Paul advert-
ing to it in Galatians (iii., 19) makes use of the very expression here used
and says, "The law was added because of transgressions till ^U he seed'*
should come to whom the promise was made." And further on (ch. iv., 4)
he states : " But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his
son, born of a woman born under the law, that he might redeem them that
were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons."

This is a deep and sacred mystery — the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord,
which should be regarded with great reverence. There is a peculiarity con-
nected with it that distinguishes it from all other births among men. He
^as " born of a woman " and yet " the sent of God " as " his only begotten
son," " through the power of the holy Spirit," while He himself as the
second person of the God-head did not abhor the virgin's woman, so that
the Saviour as God was not passive in the formation, but voluntarily be-
came man " for He took not on Him the nature of angels, but the nature
of man," when he became " bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh," that
he might " succor " and " save" us, — as one united to the race in virtue of
his humanity, and yet distinct from it, in virtue ot his divinity ; hence the
name of "Emmanuel" given to him — God with us, God in our nature, as
having come to save us, which the parallel name "Jesus" given to Him
implies — the first part of which (Je or Jah) meaning "God," and the latter
part an abbreviation of Shua or Joshua meaning Saviour, taken together
denominates Him as God our Saviour. "Thou shaltcall his name Jesus,"
said the angel to Joseph who was taken into council in the great matter,
"for he shall save his people from their sins." (Luke i., 31. Mat. i., 21.)

I know how skeptics jeer over this sacred and hallowed mystery, and
how they cavil ever the genalogies given and utter horrid blasphemies, but
this is on?y a fulfilment of the first part of the ancient prediction in Gen.
iii., 15 — "I will put enmity between thy seed" — the devil's seed or off-
spring " and her seed or offspring " and therefore it is just what we may ex-
pect. A greater fact than this illustrious birth never came into existence
in the annals of the world or of the universe ; and a fuller confirmation of
no fact was ever given which I am prepared to prove, and therefore believe
it and rejoice in it."

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THE ENIGMA EXPLAINED.

The great fact contained in the promise is the one grand achievement
of the Saviour's life — the conquest of " him who had the power of death."

122

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

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The promise makes little allusion to the event of his illustrious birth^
it points us to the glorious victory of hia marvellous life.

Now,although no record of his birth had ever been written, althoufi;h an
impenetrable darkness had covered his ancestral home in the inn at Bethle-
hem, where he was refused admittance, which history informs us was his an-
cestral home — because it was the home where David was born, and where
Br ^x married Ruth ; although the place of his birth were disputed like that
of Homer, and his parentage disputed like that of Shakespean^, still the
grandeur of his character and the might of his achievements could never
have been blotted out from the memory of mankind ; for he is the admired
of believers in all ages of the world, and the admired of unbelievers, who
claim to be judges of true greatness ; and if any one should dispute the
fact whether the marvel of all mankind, the beuu-ideal of the race — ^Jesus
of Nazareth — ever lived, he would only expose his deplorable ignorance of
all history, ecclesiastical and civil, in the Augustan era, and all through
the ages, for the Christ of history is so interwoven with all history as its
living spirit, that his birth and life and death cannot be denied !

In language that at first looks obscure and enigmatical the promise is
given — " 7%e seed of the ivoman shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bniise
his heelJ' But the revealing light of time enables men to perceive that no
words could have been more fitly spoken. In these few monosyllables are
found the 'Golden Legend ' of all ages. Traces of it are found in all lands,in
all languages. It is the fount of inspiration among the poets of the west,
in Homer and Virgil, and of the philosophers and poets of the east, among
the Magi. In this promise we see the star of Bethlehem shining over a
drooping, despairing world, kindling hope and joy, bringing the dawn of a
glorious day. These few monosyllables, dear Frederick, spoken by the
Lord God from heaven, unlock the treasures of an infinite wisdom and love.
They contain the germ of * the tree of life ' from which our first parents were
thrust away through their guilty alienation from the God of love and of su-
premest excellence ; and we too have all forfeited the tree of life through
our own heinous transgressions. But the promise brings back the tree of
life with its golden bough?,and under its delightful shade the weary find rest
and are sheltered from the noon-day heat of the divine displeasure, and find
sweet refreshment under all the sorrows of life and protection from the roar-
ing lion of hell seeking to devour them,and partaking of its ambrosial fruit as
the plant of Jehovah's right hand planting we enter into a new life and being,
and are made gainers instead of becoming losers by the fall. But the key
to open the hidden meaning of this exceeding great and precious promise
is to be found in what preceded — a greater fall than the fall of man —
the fall of the angels in heaven ! This is quite overlooked by nearly all,
and the result is that they read the words and wonder ! or are amused and
smile and lose an infinite joy. For it leads them through their ignorance
and stupidity to form wrong views of the character of God and his loving
interest in man and the true conditions of the case.

The malediction fell on the arch fiend who was the first rebel in God's
holy universe and the ring-leader of rebellion against God. He forsook
his service and dragged legions of holy angels with him. He has just

NFW LIGHT ON AN OLD SUBJECT.

i»3

come into the bowers of Eden and spread his foul influence there and
ruined mankind. Oh the woe ! the woe ! the woe ! God the Lord comes
to avenge himself upon the great adversary and in words of wondrous import
he denounces his doom, while they promise an infinite boon to man by
raising up one who would be his destruction and man's salvation.

In the serpent, Satan had concealed himself, the doom therefore falls
upon the serpent. In the head of the serpent is the deadly sting, by crushing
his head the sting is destroyed. The victor is to endure the bruising of his
heel. During allChrist s life timeSatan sought to supplant him — been always
at his heels, till at length he succeeded in securing his crucifixion and his
* heel ' was then sadly bruised while nailed to the accursed tree. The in-
jury Christ received was partial like the bruising of the heel, but the con-
quest he obtained was complete. For "through death" he destroyed him who
had the power of death, that is the devil." So that he could not destroy
any more worlds, or gain the final victory over man. Having spoiled
principalities and powers he made a show of them openly. Great in-
deed were the sufferings he bore, unspeakable the anguish he endured,
but their duration was short and their effects upon his body, like the scars
of the soldier in the field of battle, are to his honor, while the adversary
is foiled, disgraced and in effect destroyed. Christ then took the prey from
the mighty one and delivered the lawful captive. His chosen ones were made
secure of eternal salvation. For by his death on the cross Christ extract-
ed the sting of death, which is sin. As then he made a perfect aionevient
for sin. He not only sealed his testimony with his blood as ever any
martyr did, but his testimony was only preparatory to his death — the
completion of the prediction of Daniel — "to finish transgression" — check
its progress, "make an end of sin offering, make reconciliation for iniquity
and bring in anevenasting righteousness." His death was the culminating
point of his life, the consummation of the holy purpose of God, to stamp sin
with his infinite abhorrence, so that the moral influence of the cross spreads
its salutary health among all the realms in God's moral universe and pur-
chased redemption for his elect — all who should believe in Christ to the sav-
inp" of their souls. The atonement was for the whole world commensurate
'..ith the race, for without this not one sinner could be saved. His propi-
tiatory sacrifice had in it an infinite efficacy and therefore on the ground of
it all are welcomed to receive eternal life through faith in the propitiatory
sacrifice which reveals the infinite love of God to all mankind, " For God
so loved the world " — the world of mankind, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have eternal life, — the evety believing one is cer-
tain of eternal salvation. But the belief is not a mere assent of the under-
standing, but the full consent of the heart, not " I once believed," but al-
ways believing, perceiving our need of his atonement, under a deep sense
of our guilt, understanding the doctrine of his substitutionary death, its di-
vine intention, and knowing the love it reveals as a love that passeth know-
ledge and so findina; eternal life welling up within us.

I know, dear Frederick, the doctrine of the cross is an humbling doc-
trine-^a pride-killing doctrine and a sin-killing doctrine. Much has it
been perverted and sadly abused. Ever since the days ofColeridgfe — the

i ;■)!■',

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184

THE GREAT WANT CF THE AGE.

gifted Coleridge — you remember his enchanting poem, " The Ancient
Mariner ?" , "O, yes, I remember it well. Poor Coleridge with his opium
smo»ing." '* I fear his opium smoking impaired his understanding in his
opposing the true doctrine of the vicarious death of Christ. Many drank
in the poison he distilled, and departure from this vital soul-saving truth
has broken the symmetry and completeness of the Christian system, for it is
the golden thread that runs through the whole web of divine revelation —
from this first oracle of mercy to the end of the book which discloses to
our view the glo'ified saints before the throne as having '* washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb."

To understand this one point correctly is to understand the whole
Bible — the "bruising of the serpent's head and it bruising his heel."

" Well," replies Frederick, •' I did not look at the Bible at all in this
light before. It opens up the whole volume under a revealing light to my
mind, and I shculd like to hear more about the structure and design and
unity of the Bible." " It will give me pleasure to do so. And before we
leave this oracle of mercy in Eden spoken by the Lord God, let me just
add that wherever it is further developed by the Old Testament prophets
who could not of themselves develop it,God is found speaking through them
to his people in these far distant ages and to us also. He revealed it to
Abraham and gave him to understand that it was by faith. or trust or confi-
dence in God to fulfil his promises in "the seed" that he was to be saved.
And all the particulars and prophetic visions respecting Christ's kingdom,
as well as his sufferings and the glory to follow, are of course included in this
first view of the •* Bible proper " relating to the coming Saviour. Then of
course in the New Testament when Christ appears on the stage of his
public ministry, it has ie fulfilment of the promise completed when " God
who in sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the
fathers or patriarchs by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us
toy his son," who "spake as never man spake." And the conception ot such
apersonnge, as John Stuart Mills has said in his testimony I quoted, could
never have entered into the minds of his apostles or the evangelists, there-
fore it accords with such a promise spoken by God as " /it's Word'* uttered
in the garden of Eden thousands of j ears B. C, exactly fulfilled by Christ
the " Word of God*' by all he said and suffered and achieved.

SECOND PART OF THE * BIBLE-PROPER.'

"But the 'Bible- Proper' I have said contains also ' the word of god,'
spoken by God himself, not only as a promise but a command. And if in
the former God comes to us as a tender loving father, not willing that any
of us should perish, by providing for us a Saviour in his only begotten and
well beloved son. In the latter God comes to us as the Sovereign Ruler,
and issues his law at Mount Sinai in the ten commandments, and in the
judicial and ceremonial law to his ancient people, for their observance ;
which judicial and ceremonial law is s\m'g\y z. prejiguration of the promise
about Christ already considered, which law was certainly of divine institu-
tion and the Jews who observe it to this day regard it as such.

But I wish to confine your attention, Frederick, to the moral law.

NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD SUBJECT.

i,'!-

All the words of this law were spoken by God at Mount Sinai. (Erxx.) No
one will dispute this. It is such as no one but God the Lord could ever have
conceived. And none but an all-perfect being could ever prescribe, be-
cause it challenges and requires our supreme love to Him, which none
could claim but a being of infinite excellence as the Supreme Being ; while
it prescribes a love, co-ordinate with the love we cherish towards ourselves,
towards others. Christ was the great expounder of the moral law when
on earth. He cleared it of the false interpretations of the Jewish Rabbis,
and the false conceptions of the Jewish people, who sadly perverted God's
holy law and gave a poor representation as a nation of the high toned
morality which the old Judaism imperatively required, for instead of being
a light to the surrounding nations and the glory of the God of Israel,
they were rather the opposite giving a dark repulsive representation of the
only true religion on earth, That religion was not to blame, for any de-
fects, but its representatives. Just as Christianity in its glory is obscured
and obstructed by us, its poor representatives.

So original is the Decalogue that none but a God of infinite love
could have originated it. Fur love is the fulfilling of the whole of it. In its
essence it is the innermost appreciation of goodness in God the infinite ex-
cellence, and of the creatures formed in his image. Its spirit is not to look
at their faults, but to throw ihe mantle of oblivion over them ; not to ele-
vate ourselves above them, but to find out the good that is in them ; for
none is entirely destitute ot the good atm the true and the kind, and to set
before them with all humility and tenderness a strength of self-denying af-
fection that will lead them to rise higher in the scale of moral excellence.
Now the moral law as thus expounded is nothing else but the purely
bright, lovely image of God, put into words by God himself and with the
authority of an infinite regard for his creatures' best good, he legislates
" thou shalt" and "thou shalt not."

THE SECOND PART OF THE "BIBLE PROPER "-

-THE "COMMAND"-

-IS TO LOVE.

" And the deeper you go into the moral law of God the firmer will
be your belief and the stronger your conviction that it is holy, just, and
good. Holy in its essence — the purest of the pure — just in its require-
ments between God and man and man and man, and good or beneficial in
its tendency. So much so that if the woral law were fully obeyed, hu-
man society would be perfected — every evil abolished, every curse now rag-
ing turned into a blessing, in ten thousand ways, and every one made truly
happy !

There can be no doubt of this. But strange to say how it is obstructed.
Some say,"Oh,that is not the way God wants us to be saved." " It is not by
doing but by believing." As if the love in the promise of his Son comin
to save his people from their sins should be opposed to the love in his law,
which is one and the same thing, only coming with the force of law; and
this should render it all the more imperative and binding upon our obedi-
ence. *' Oh, no," say they, "Christ has done it all by dying for our sins, and
all are safe through the blood and we must only trust in the blood and not in

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136

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

any excellence of our own !" Don't you see, Frederick, the utmost soph-
istry is here ?

Well it is just here where what is called evangelical Christianity is this
day walking in darkness. From a praiseworthy regard to discard all self-
righteousness, they think themselves saved without personal holiness which
is an impossibility.

And from an incorrect view of what Paul means by the word " law,"*
in his most wonderful and precious epistles, which he uses in several sensea
or different applications, they always attach the sense of legal obedience or
acting like the self-righteous Jews who turned the means into the end.
instead of seemg their need of the atonement of Christ so clearly revealed
by the ceremonial law as their schoolmaster to bring them to Ohrist, re-
vealed in every rite — the altar, the sacrifice, the priest, the blood, the
hyssop-branch and laying hold on " eternal life " in the Saviour to come,
and loving God for it supremely and their neighbors ardently, as them-
selves, they converted or turned the ceremonial law into a Saviour by a
most rigid scrupulousness to its minutest requirements ; while they ne-
glected the weightier matters of the moral law — "judgment and mercy and
fai!^h " — they strained out the little gnat and swallowed down the great
camel, and Christ denounced woe upon them and called the Scribes and
Pharisees — " hypocrites^' and " blind guides'* History repeats itself it has-
been said !

THE TWO ARE ONLY ONE AND THE SAME.

There is no difference between the innermost essence of the mora)
law and the innermost essence of the everlasting gospel. The only differ-
ence between them is this, that the moral law puts before our eyes what
God's law requires to be in us, and the everlasting gospel gives it ; first in
the promise objectively, which as we have seen is Christy ** the seed " and
in the heart subjectively when Christ is received into it, by a hef^rty belief
in him, by a joyous acceptance of him, then the law is writter npon th&
heart, a new nature is given and old things are past away which is wrought
in us by the holy spirit of God.

The principle involved, dear Frederick, is this, ^^The highest good is^the
ultimate rule " — God in his infinite excellency is the highest good ; like-
ness to Him is the ultimate rule to reach that highest good ; and in reach-
ing it the highest and healthiest activity of all the powers he has given us
is called forth in reaching the end for which life and all its powers are
given.

God designs to restore us to his image or his likeness — that image is
pure and holy love, to trace his image anew in our selfish nature, he re-
veals his love in the promise — gives us Himself in sacrifice and self-denial
and death to win back our alienated hearts, and on the ground of this as if
it were not enough he commands us to exercise it, with all the sanctions of
law to enforce it, — life and death ; so that he enforces by these sanctions
the command of believing in his infinite love in the promise — in Christ— r
in the gift of eternal life, inclusive of all blessing for as he knows there is no>

NFAV LICHT ON AN OLD SUBJECT.

127

Other way by which we can have the blessing and the likeness but by be<
lieving in the gospel of love.

Now, Mr. Frederick, I wish to ask you, if I have proved my point that
the Old Testament and New Testament scriptures contain the fVord of
God? If the "promise" given in the garden and the moral iajv pro-
claimed at Mount Sinai be not the Word and Will of God ? and whether
they be not in essence the revelation of divine love ? and whether they be
not more fully developed in the gospel of Christ as spoken by Him — the
Lord from heaven ? " Yes, I think you have very clearly established your
point, and thrown quite a new light upon the Bible and prove d i t
most unique and simple and truly grand 1 For the one great leading
idea in all the three things — the promise, the moral law, and the gospel
is one and the same in essence, only receiving a fuller and fuller develop-
ment and therefore I now see the rationale or underlying principle
of the divine record in a new and attractive light. But I should like to
heai what you mean by the Bible non-proper ?"

I mean by the " Bible non-proper " what is outside the spoken Word
of God. In the ** Bible Proper " we have the divine consciousness, if I
may so speak — the inner thought and feeling and will of God revealed to
us. In the Bible non proper we have the human consciousness — the inner
thought and feeling and will of man revealed to us.

ist. In the Godly and 2d, in the Ungodly and 3rd all that partakes of
the consciousness of man and belongs to the human side, in science and
human history and the ordinary affairs of human life.

1st. The Bible non-proper in the Godly is the counterpart of the
Bible proper. It is the revealed love of God within the soul. The word
of God spoken by God in the promise, in the law, and in the gospel as
oome home to the heart and received in the love of it slaying the natural
enmity removing the natural selfishness, destroying the idols of the heart,
and producing love to God, reverence of his name, contrition for sin, hatred
of sin, rejoicing in Christ, likeness to Christ and the fruits of the Spirit, To
the Word of God in the Scriptures there is a response within the heart of all
the Godly.

The outward Word has an inward correspondence. Just as the seed
you sow in your garden or farm contains the germ of the future flower or
grain or fruit, but does not grow if it is outside of the earth, but when it is
sown the flowet, the fruit, the whole original germ is yielding according to
its seed, so the incorruptible seed of the word sown in a genial soil in the
heart and warmed and watered by the Sun of Righteousness and the dew of
the spirit and the discipline of our Heavenly Father, until it is breathing
fragrance and yielding fruit and growing into the divine likeness silently,
steadily, attractively, and progressively as a tree of righteousness the plant-
ing of the Lord that he may be glorified until it is removed to the paradise
above where it shall forever bloom in all the spiritual excellencies of the
renewed nature and be developed into a full representation of the tree of
life and never wither nor decay nor die. No chilling blasts to weaken it,
no pestilential vapors to poison it, no boar out of the wood to mutilate it,

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128

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

no deadly serpent to injure it as all the Godly have now to encounter and
overcome.

And there is one remarkable fact, dear Frederick, all the godly, both
in the Old Testament and in the New, in all ages in all lands, and under
all circumstances, resemble one another^ because they all correspond to the
same original copy in the divine word, partake of the eame spirit that was
breathed in the promise, uttered by the law and revealed in the gospel,
and are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the
" Lord the Spirit." They all cherish the same feelings of reverence for God
and love to God,have all the same aspirations, cherish the same hopes and
fears encounter the same temptations from the M'orld, the devil and the
flesh, have the same desires in prayer, have the same spiritual warfare. Of
course there are diiTerences in attainments, in knowledge and in consecra-
tion ; but they all hate sin, they all love God, and they all wish others to be
saved, and have the same blessedness, though different in degree.

Skeptics know nothing of the inner life of the godly and never can
they, nor any one until they have believed in the infinite love of God and
experienced it in their hearts and walk with God and delight themselves
in God.

This is the reason that the harp of David, in all its variety of heavenly
minstrelsy, is the ever abiding harp of the church of the living God. This
is the reason the patriarchs of old and the prophets of old and all God's
people of old in their records left in the Old Testament in speaking of
God or of their own experiences in religion are so much relished by God's
people now for they were all men of like passions with ourselves and had
God's love within them. Oh how they prize God's Word uttered by the
prophets in the promises and how they relish too God's Word in his threat-
enings ! Nineteenth Psalm is a proof of this — which expands the thought
of the divine love revealed in his law and shows how much more the reve-
lation of God in the Words of his mouth excel the works of his hands in na-
ture ; but modern scientists don't think so, because they are not conscious
of such divine experience, or they would ! Sir Isaac Newton, &c., did.

And how precious are the precepts of the holy word in their applica*
tion to human relationships. The divine assurance of succor and guidance
and protection in every possible position and circumstances in this change-
ful life ! The sweet prayers ! the calm confidence ! the ecstatic joys ! and
what adds an infinite value to them all — they are all real, sincere and true !
and as applicable to the tried Christian now as to the tried believer then.

All the difference is, the saints of old looked forward to the fulfilment
of the promise in the coming seed. God's saints now look back and trust
to the finished work — the finished work of Christ — and look upwards to
Him on his heavenly throne interceding for them, sympathizing
with them and over-ruling all things for their good.

And when we come to the New Testament and read the recorded ex-
perience of a Paul and a Peter and a James and a John and the recorded
experience of the early Christians in the whole detail, what a divine com-
mentary we have confirmatory of the Word of the Lord on the sublime utter-

\ liM

NEW LIGHr ON AN OLD SL'UJF.Cl'.

1 89.

ances of the Saviour, how exalted their experience, how progre«sive their
Christian growth in likeness to the Master where all culminates.

Paul gives us ihe logical view of the doctrine of Christ, James the practi-
cal view, Peter theardentearnestheroicand hopeful viewand Johnthedisciple
whom Jesus loved gi/es us the interpretation of one whose whole heart and
soul was full of love and I think rises above them all. Each speaks as he
was moved by the holy Spirit according to their different temperament and
way of viewing the same thing — the doctrine of Christ — what Christ taught
his disciples — the imperishable truth of God ! So that >ou will find there
is an entire oneness and unity in the inspired Record. And a marvellous
progressiveness in the development and structure of it. And therefore the
sceptical views of Christianity now in vogue are horrid lies — that " Chris*
tiaaity is now dying out of the heart of Christendom !" that " it resembles,
nations that rise to their maturity and decline and disappear" — that "it re-
sembles the religions in the Eist that are fast vanishing away 1" Robert
IngersoU and others who talk in this way are false prophets. Notwith-
standing all I have said with regard to the age we live in — the sins and the
errors that prevail, the falseness of merely professional Christianity which can-
cannotbe too much condemned,and the urgent need of God's people becom-
ing more earnest more consecrated and filled with the Spirit, to have a deeper
devotion, a robuster faith, more self-denial and especially more zeal at such a
time as this considering our exalted privileges and what great things God has.
done for us. Still I believe there was never an age when there were more ex-
cellent ones in the earth among ministers, private Christians and Sunday
school teachers, and no moie can Christianity become obsolete and fade
away and disappear, than the sun in the heavens can cease to give light and
warmth and produce vegetation in the earth as long as it continues tn the
heavens ; so never can Christianity fade away and expire as long as the Sun
of Righteousness continues to shine in the heaven of heavens, who is the
everlasting fountain of all being and beauty and bounty and has assured us
that the present state of things is fast hastening to a close, when irreligron
and false religion shall perish and a brighter day is near, when Christ shall
take unto himself his great power and reign in the hearts of the children of
men !

" The stars shall fade away,

The sun himself grow dim with age

and nature sink in years ;
But it shall flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amid the war of elements, the wreck of matter

and the crash of worlds !"

" Do you perceive the distinction, Frederick, here drawn between the
' Bible-proper ' and the ' Bible non-proper,' and how they so harmoniously
blend together as one and the same Word?" "Yes. In the 'Bible
PROPER ' it is God Himself speaking to man, in the * Bible non-proper '
it is renewed man speaking God's Word, through the Holy Spirit dwelling
in him." " Yes, I see you understand it It is a i*rong evidence that
God's Word is true when the correspondence is so decided."

" I must tell you," adds Mr. Frederick, " you are opening my mind

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130

IHF f.KEAT WANT OF Till; A(,K,

to the g/ories of the Bible ! You have placed the true Divine Word of
Ood on a so/id vasts, which no one is able to overthrow, and I like the in-
ductive method yon are pursuing-^drawing the inferences from well-
established facts, and not conjecturing a theory and then trying to prove
it according to the deduction method."

'* Yes, that last method has prevented the progress of true knowledge
both in science and religion, ever since it was devised and adopted by
Aristotle, although the Aristotlean logic has been useful in other respects."

" What has given my mind a wrong bias against the Scriptures was,
was led to think all tie Saiptures came from God direct, now I begin
to see much of it comes Irom man."

" Yes, Frederick, that important distinction has been overlooked and
been productive of much evil. Just as the scientists, finding imperfec-
tions in nature, have attributed these imperfections to God and inferred
that God could not be perfect, since if perfect He could not be the author
of nature, wl\ich is imperfect. So many have reasoned in like manner
about the Bible. They have attributed its imperfections to the author of
the Bible and then have said God cannot be its author, He who is abso-
lute perfection, because of these imperfections — overlooking the human
element in it.

3. They have disliked the disclosures of human crime, they have mar-
velled at its inaccuracies in natural science, and been perplexed by
numerous discrepancies and come to the conclusion : 'No, it cannot be
any book from God at all.'

" It is here Frederick where the prolonged battle field has been — on
the debatable ground of Scripture, as I formerly stated, — between the
theologians and scientists. The scientists and others, of advanced views
of things, have said under the increasing light of modern discovery,
' Why this contradicts the Scriptures therefore the Scriptures cannot be
true.' The theologians, on the other hand, revering the Bible — * The
Bible is right whatever it says, and you must be wrong.' "

" How then can you get over the difiiculty ?" asks Frederick. " In
this way. In the two other books — the book of nature which God has
written, and the book of the human consciousness which man has written,
in the facts they reveal — God in ] lis unerring|regard to truth never contra-
dicts in His Holy Word. He does not write a second book to teach
science having written that book already in the glorious universe. Neither
does He write a third book to deprive man of the consciousness that He
. has given him. If God undertook to teach science He would leave the
province which in the Sacred Record He has prescribed to Himself, viz.,
to reveal His Will and make known His Divine Consciousness to man for
man's moral guidance. He invites man to read the book of nature which
science with its beautiful discoveries unfolds to him and be instructed in
the works of His hands. He does not correct human errors in science as
that would interfere with another book — the book of the human con-
sciousness, for if God did that, He would prevent the labors of science, its
progressive discoveries and the book would become that large that no one
could read it and the world of mind would not be able to contain it. He says

NFAV LIGHT ON AN OLD SUHJKCT.

«3»

' Use your reason, read that book for yourselves. I don't need to inter-
pret science, let science mind its own business, the book is before you, I
hav" written the book of science already in nature for your investigation,
minJ my ' Word ' and hear it ' and your soul shall live.'

" Don't you perceive infinite wisdom and rectitude in the Divine
method ? Don't you see how each book is kept original, kept in its own
separate sphere to serve its own specific purpose ? If man err in his de-
ductions in science let him go to the original book and correct his errors
by reading and interpreting that book correctly. Nature keeps so steadily
to her divine laws as to teach man many lessons, he is slow to learn. She
corrects his blunders in one age by her steady prosecution of the divine
laws to show him in a future age " you did me a wrong then but you have
yourselves to blame. I pursue the even tenor of my way with the precision
of truth and unerring rectitude and in the ministry of love, I forbear with
^our ill-treatment and I forgive it too, if you will only forsake your falsify-
ing conduct and repent — Change your mind and learn of me for I am meek
and lowly in heart and ye will find rest in your labors — true satisfaction in
them and not be tossed tc and fro with every wind of doctrine and specu-
lation and torture 'loe another and calumniate one another from age to
age even as ye do — Ye proud Piiarisees and hypocrites, ye blind guides !"

And so with regard to all other discrepancies in the Sacred Record
touching chronology for instance, which a great bishop in the Episcopalian
Church made so much noise about a few years ago — these inaccuracies all
coming from the human side which God in His infinite mercy and forbear-
ance has permitted to arise in keeping to Ilis own prescribed phn in His
precious Book. The prejudices and ignorance regarding this Book of
Books further proves the infinite loving kindness of our God as everything
else proves it — in His Providence^ which by the way I must not forget to
state makes another great original book of God just as imperfectly under-
stood as the rest — as the book of nature^ Scripture, the Divme conscious-
ness, the human consciousness^ so is the book of Providence — making five
in all, as many as the fingers on each hand, reminding us that as we have
two hands and the fingers on each hand correspond to each other, so there
is a correspondence between them — a unity in them, and everything is
double of that which is, but without divine illumination they remain un-
appreciated and unlcnown ! It is that and that alone that opens our blind
«yes to see God in everything and be made like unto Him which is the
one grand design of them all. But the Book of Scripture is the Book of
Books. It sheds light over all the other books and is full of light within
itself — It is a self-contained book and its own interpreter.

The records it gives us of the sins and follies of good men proves its
fidelity and genuineness and are held up as beacon-lights to warn us on the
ocean of life of its dangers and even to comfort us amidst our sad
deficiencies as fallen erring creatures, but never to encourage but deter us
from them, seeing their fearful consequences in others, but not to be guilty
-of the same, seeing their consequences but be deterred from them. While
the records it gives us of the wickedness of bad men likewise proves its fidelity
and genuineness as the great reflector of human character in all'ages how

:! \\

ija

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

everything connected '"'th the human consciousness is viewed frona the
standpoint of the Divine Corsciousness and that verily there is a God that
judgeth in the earth and will at last prove that He is a hater of evil-doera
and a rewarder of them that do well.

It is not in my plan to write fully upon any point but to bring every-
thing to bear on the given object I have in view How to reach happiness
and the amelioration of the race. And I would therefore here observe
that

Bible Inspiration is the Great Want of the Age.

Man has been long enough going to fallible guides for reaching the
object of his wishes. Let him now go to the infallible Word of God and
learn the wisdom he needs and receive the instruction it gives. Our age
needs above everything else a clearer, fuller, and deeper knowledge of
God's Word — the knowledge that accompanieth salvation. To the Word
of God every overthrow of despotism^ every advancement in human liberty,
all national progress and moral elevation in society both in ancient and
modern times is to be traced. To the Word of God is to be traced that
invisible power^ the Christ in history, which has in all ages of the world
crushed the head of the serpent, coiling round human hearts and human
homes and human happiness to drink their blood. It brought God's
grievously oppressed people out of Egyptian bondage, and brought them
uto the promised land. It is that Almighty arm which crushed the Lead
of the serpent or the Cross of Calvary that is to be vouchsafed ere long to
sweep away ever/ vestige of the old dragon the devil and emancipate our
ruined race from his cruel captivity into the glorious liberty of the children
of God. Awake, O arm of the Lord, awake as in the ancient days and
come and save Thy chojen and redeemed people whom Thou hast re-
deemed by Thine own blood !

" Art Thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon ?
Art Thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep ?
that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over ?
Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing
unto Zion : and everlasting joy shall be upon their head ; they shall
obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away."
(Is. 51, lo-n).

" If there be one thing more than another I would recommend to you,,
my dear Frederick, it is your constant study and daily perusal of
the Word of God. Oh

" Read and revere the sacred page
A page where triumphs immortality,
Which not the whole creation could produce
Which not the conflagration shall destroy
'Tis buried in the minds of gods forever. '

" Remember, Mr. Frederick, the Scriptures are the life nourishment
of the soul. O therefore, my friend ! cease to kill the inner man with
hunger, to torture him with a cruel rxivation, not of bread and water, but
of the words of the Lord. Do you need repentance and confession of

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

133

sin ? Are you assailed by trials and sufferings? Are you waylaid or per
secuted ? Are you weighed with grief and anxiety, or does anything else
trouble you ? Do you strive to become virtuous, or do you desire to
praise and thank God ? Here you find something to suit all these cases.
Only read it in such a manner as if it had been written to answer your
situation, your frame of mind ; follow it up with your disposition, conse-
crating yourself to the Lord. The Holy Scriptures excel beyond com-
parison, all science and learning. They not only present the saving truth
in myriads of forms, but invite you to partake of it, and be satisfied in
>our understanding with true knowledge, in your conscience with true
peace, in your heart with pure joy; while they invite you to a sweet
heavenly home. They divert the mind from seeking after earthly treasures
ana possessions and direct it to infinitely higher objects. By means of
their occult passages they exercise the minds of che strong, and by their
simple language they entice the weak. You will find that their occasional
obscurity is not so great that you need fear through careful study to over-
come it, nor their sense so easily comprehended even in simple passages
that it will not reward you to read them again and again for always fresh
light comes out of the simplest passages most.

" In the Sacred Record men of maturer judgment meet with ideas of
higher things and reach through further contemplation still higher like
ascending a range of mountains you can always go higher and higher, until
you are lifted above creation, in your thought I mean, and- dwell in the
presence of the uncreated and invisible and be lost in silent rapture and
wonder and praise and join in your song of gratitude with the glorified
saints before the throne in heaven, be like Paul caught up into the third
heaven and be unconscious of everything terrestrial whether in the body or
out of the body you cannot tell.

" But yet the histories here recorded, the precepts here inculcated
and the duties here enjoined are all practical and suitable to our earthly
state and must be conscientiously fulfilled with the help of God and above
all, dear Frederick, unite earnest prayer with your perusal of God's Word
for diviiie illumination to re:ich the inner sense. Bene orasse bene studuhse^
was Luther's motto and it is like all his strong-minded corarnon-sense cor-
rect — To study well is to pray well. Now will you do it?" " Yej."

„ ;k

i|!

SECTION V.

:nt
ith

)Ut

OF THE ORIGIN OF SIN IN A HOLY
UNIVERSE.

"The origin of fin," it has been siid, "is a problem too deep to be
solved, a mystery too dark to be cleared up — in enigmi too hidden ever to
be found out. M my have tried to solve it and have failed, the Scriptures
are almost silent on the matter, and for anyone to attempt to unravel it, is,
to attempt to be wise above what is written, and it savors of presumption !"

This language has often been employed and much more to the same
effect, and were it not that I am convinced tliat this eiJ4-''"y is closely con-
nected w^'fh the things relating to the " One Great Want of the Age,"
I woul'-' ■ ■ ■ '-renture to discuss it.

134

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

I am aware it is a difficult subject rightly to handle, I am fully sen-
sible of the limits of the human understanding, and I claim no superiority
over others ; but I am deeply impressed with the great importance of the
subject, and I consider no subject is more required in the present critical
state of things to be brought to the front and rightly understood. I think
the Sacred Scriptures are more luminous upon the subject than is generally
considered, — that owing to prevailing ignorance and false reasoning on
the subject, the Gospel system of truth is feebly grasped, that great injury
is done to the prejudice of the moral government of God, and the
immaculate purity of the Divine character, to the doctrine of the Divine
decrees, the sovereign monarchy of the Most High in His sublime and
glorious supremacy, the freedom and vast responsibility of His rational
creation, and fearfully obstructive to the law of progress in human society,
— for these reasons I undertake to solve the deep problem of the Origin
of Sin in a holy universe .

I undertake the mighty task with a deep sense of its magnitude, and
rely upon the sympathy and forbearance of my readers in the hope that
abler men may be induced to take it up and do it more justice than I can ;
and yet I am not without the cheering hope that some light will b- eak
forth out of the dark cloud and that order will spring out of confurion, and
most unfeignedly do I seek divine succor and guidance in going into the
full consideration of this mystery of mysteries for in addition to the light
of reason and the light of divine revelation, there is need most of all of
the light of divine illummation, —

" And chiefly thou O Spirit, that dost i^refer

Before all temples the upright heart and pure

Instruct nie, for Thou knowest.

What in mc is dark

Illumine ; what is low raise and support,

That to the summit of this great argument

I may ascend and justify the ways of God to man !'

Deeply impressed with the solemnity and' sacredness of this awful
mystery I feel awed and subdued and laid prostrate in the dust, feeling my
utter weakness and inadequacy to venture near it, as though I heard a
voice from heaven saying " Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, fo-. the
place whereon thou standest is holy ground " — Divested then of all
worldliness, carnality, and secularity and clothed with humility, sanctity
and devotion, I will " turn and see this great sight " — " Behold the bush
burning ye* not consumed !" Behold how in the midst of its smoke and
blackness and darkness and tempest a radiant glory beams and brightens
and yet brightens still, all the lonely solitudes and lofty cliffs of Mount
Horeb are clothed with a splendor surpassing a million suns and the name
of the Lord is to Moses revealed in its uncreated majesty of ineffable
being, so out of the dark cloud of sin shall come a glorious light that shall
yet gladden all hearts that are loyal to the King of glory in all His holy
universe !

The lint oj thought that presents itself is this.

Sin exists and what is sin ? a. Whence came sin ? God is not its

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

»35

author — proved. Who then was the author or originator of sin ? 3. What
caused it ? How did sin enter into a holy universe? Ho wean it be account-
ed for ? 4. What consequences followed — in heaven and on earth ? 5. What
has God done to thwart it and remedy it ? 6. What results have followed —
affecting the interests of man and the whole moral creation of God ? 7.
And lastly, what are we warranted to expect in the future history of our
race from this disclosure and the future of God's universe ?

Question : Does the plan stated at the ccvwiencement of this book ful-
fil the reguireinetits of the emse, and meet the one great want of our age,
as inclusive of all conceivable wants ? To proceed :

(i.) Sin Exists — and JVhat is Sin?

If there were no sin we
our starting point as

On the existence of sin the enquiry is based,
would not require to find out its origin. Sin then
existent. The problem is simply this :

Given : sin exists ;

Required : to find its origin.

But the question arises, What is sin ? This point requires to be
settled— -the import to be attached to the term, fixed. What may be
viewed as sin by me, may not be viewed as sin by another. The exist-
ence of sin as an entity we have assumed, but not defined. This therefore
requires to be agreed upon. The distinction between the verax and the
verum is important. The ancients knew it better than the moderns. Cicero
is clear upon this. Verax meant true of speech. (See Oraculum Verax de
Div. I., 19). Speaking tohai is believed and according to fact is ' Verax. ^

But Verum meant, truth in the apprehension but not in reality. (See
Cie. Off. I, 4.) This may appear to some unnecessary to be here gone into,
but nothing is more essential than, as Locke says, to ^^ bottom our ideas"
We must be agreed and rightly understand ti'/iat sin is, for while all will ad-
mit it, because their conscience bears w'tness to its existence and if any
man thinketh he hath no sin he deceiveth himself. Nay, what is worse
we all have a sinful nature. But we must find out and settle the question
what is sin ?

" Sin is the transgression of, or want of conformity to the moral
law of God " — which we have proved and established as the immutable
law of rectitude — consisting of supreme lov'e to God — the infinite ex-
cellence — and coordinate love to others. (See Section IV.) Our English
word sin is of Anglo Saxon origin from syn, and it is a curious thing.
That the word sin is nearly the same word in the root and sound in all
the following languages, only with a slight difference : In Iceland and
Danish synd, in German sunde, in Latin sons sentis, which is from the old
Greek sintees, derived from sinoo, to hurt, that which is hurtful, guilty.
God's law is that which is right and good, therefore its violation is wrong
and hurtful. The moral law is the foundation of all good national law in
every nation under heaven. Solon adopted it and constructed his twelve
tables upon it, and Lycurgus, etc., did the same. God's law is admitted
by all to be founded in equity. For if God be the best of the best, as we
have proved him to be, then that is the reason he is entitled to be admired,

■ '1! I

\ '11

. »•

i ' V

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136

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

ador:d, loved, obeyeci and revered above all, and that most supremely, and
is entitled by right to be the sole monarchy of the universe,especial!y when
as we have seen that the inmost essence of the moral law is the reflex of
God's own essence ; and consequently the moral law is the conservative
force of his moral creation and the material creation too. It is the
law that binds the universe into a universe — a unity, harmony, oneness,
rectitude. To violate the moral law is to derange the ph}sical laws and
bring their whole force into antagonism against the sinner, and hence vio-
lation of the moral law affects the physical laws of nature and produces
disorder and evil, as infliction ot punishment, consequently it is to the
transgression of the moral law of God we are to trace all evil in the material
universe of God as well as all evil in his moral creation, the evil being just
and righteous penalty. This shows what an evil and bitter thing sin is.
Oh, how hurtful ! In the first table of the moral law the first four com-
mandments relates to the duty we owe to God in its application to ourselves ;
in the second table, the six succeeding commandments, what relates to the
duty we owe to our fellow-men. This mode of arrangement in the moral
law is adapted to man. It is simply a matter of detail in relation to us of
the essential principle of love \ therefore the principle is the same however
it may be applied. In relation to higher orders of God's intelligent crea-
tures, it is conceivable, the same essential principle holds good, therefore
the law of holy love is the law of God in relation to every holy being in
every holy realm.

If sin then be admitted to be the violation of the moral law of God,
there must have been a first violator of it, some one who first violated the
moral law of God — must have been because sin exists in God's universe; it
must have had a beginning in some one, or otherwise sin would be without
a beginning or of eternal duration ! If of eternal duration as the old Greek
philosophers imagined, then sin existed before it began to exist, since we
have already proved that the existence of an infinite all-perfect Being as
alone eternal is a logical necessity to account for all other being, therefore
if sin was without a beginning sin began to exist before it could exist which
is a contradiction in terms. But before sin could exist moral law had to
exist for without a moral law there can be no sin, for where there is no law
there is no sin. Therefore sin must have had a beginning, because sin
exists, and as sin is the violation of the moral law the moral law existed
before sin could be committed or began to exist. This leads us then to the
next point,

(2.) Whence Came Sint Who was its Originator?

It must have originated with some one since sin could not exist with-
out beginning to exist, therefore it must have begun with some one. Who
originated sin in the universe ? I here reply emphatically that sin could
not originate with God, as some have supposeu, because s'.n is at utter
variance with His nature and the supposition involves' a contradiction,
because God cannot be the sovereign and the rebel — he cannot rule in
righteousness and break His sceptre ! His supremacy arises from Hi

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

J37

infinite excellency, the moment infinite excellency ceases, infinite excel-
lency ceases to be supreme, because its supremacy is lost.

GOD WAS NOT THE AUTHOR OF SIN.

It is possible for an earthly monarch or magistrate to administer the
law to others and break it himself, but this is impossible with the Monarch
of the Universe. There is an essential difference between the adminis
trator of law and the fountain head of law, as great a difference as can be,
erefcre the analogy cannot apply, and where the analogy does not arply
the reasoning fails. A magistrate may live as a violator of the law he ad-
ministers, but it is not in virtue of his immorality he lives, for he lives in
spite of his immorality ; apply this to God and God ceases to exist, for the
essential essence of the Divine Being is in His holiness — His perfection of
love and rectitude — ** I am that I am " — what God is, is God. His uu-
changable and everlasting being is His unchangable and everlasting per-
fection ; His perfection is, His being ; and the perfection of His being ; and
perfection and being are indissoluble in the nature of His bein,?, therefore
//"God ceases to be perfect He ceases to be.

Let us think rightly on this profound subject. Let us reverently think
of the Supreme Power, who is a spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangable in His
being ; in His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth, whose
inmost essence is love, and all His attributes are the attributes of His love.
We have already proved His infinite being and benignity by seven proofs
in the third section. If these proofs are not conclusive, what is conclusive ?

I CHALLENGE THE WHOLE WORLD TO DISPROVE THEM ! If they be COtl-

clusive, then this point is a foregone conclusion — God is perfection itself.
And therefore to imagine He can be the author ot sin in any manner or
measure or way is an utter impossibility ! For the simple reason that it
would be suicidal to Himself and He would be no longer God. There-
fore God cannot be the author of sin in any form or shape.

This ill-conceived hypothesis cuts the throat of its own argument — it
is an outrageous and most monstrous lie — a weak sophism — a blundering
fallacy — a ridiculous absurdity — away with the blasphemy, away with it
forever ! The Holy One the author of sin !!!

Consider what sin is. Sin is a thief and a robber ! It steals from
God, it robs God in whom all glory dwells as light in the sun, of his in-
alienable and imperishable right as the supreme and sole monarch of the
vast and boundless universe he has made. It sets up a rival, it tramples
his authority in the dust, for sin is opposed to the law of God and to the
nature of God and is his infinite abhorence, therefore Grd cannot be the
author of sin.

As no man can be a robber in the usual sens'e of the word, and be the
person he robs, as no man can be a murderer and be the person he mur-
ders, and yet live, so no more can God be the holy one that inhabiteth
eternity, and be the author of sin, for he could not in any form connive at
sin and live !

Sin aims a death blow at the Deity and says, *' would there were no
God ! no judge and avenger ! no superior to me ! no holy supreme being,

ilMJ

138

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

that I might just do as I like in my lawlessness and be my own great boss !
Hence sin is God's antagonist and adversary and foe.

Can a man carry fire in his bosom and not be burnt ? Can he nurse a
snake in his breast and not be stung ?

But there is another ground to place the horrid indictment upon to see
its untenableness. Since sin is the violation of God's moral law, the de-
parture from Tightness, the erection of rebellion and revolt against infinite
perfection — look at the consequences that would ensue, if the Almighty con-
nived at sin, or was in any shape or form the author or abetter of sin, or
if he allowed it to pass with impunity in any part of his moral empire, un-
checked and unpunished ! Thefr his authority as moral governor of the
universe would be disregarded, then the fire of seraphic love would be
quenched, then the pillars of justice and judgment would be no longer the
establishment of his throne, then faithfulness would no longer be the girdle
of his loins, then (and with reverence be it spoken), there would be a disso-
lution of the moral character of God — anarchy and rebellion would spread
its terrible comusion, then ruin and woe unutterable would everywhere
prevail, the dark demon of death would sweep over the dreadful scene of
desolation, like the vulture over the field of battle to feast on the carnage,
— all the forces of nature would be in most awful conflict and all the rebel-
lious spirits destroying one another, till not one solitary living creature
was left, and then the universe with its creator would be wrecked and
ruined as ever any gallant ship at sea was lost in a dreadful stoim ! But
God still lives — his law is still in force, his holy angels still worship Him, all
creation hotvs before Him and rejoices in His benignant smile ! Therefore
God is not the author of sin, neither tempteth he any one. Sin, to be sin,
is a voluntary transgression on the part of a free, responsible and rational
intelligence, therefore we will find it where it can alone be found, in some
creature whom God has made as its originator.

Who, then, 7c/as the Attthor or Originator of Sm in God's Most Holy

Universe "i

On this important subject we might have been left uninformed. We
might have been left as many seem to be left, in ignorance about it. Many
ancient Greek philosophers, like many modern English philosophers, have
been left to their own conjectures. But one fact is worth a thousand con-
jectures. Now valid testimony is declaration to prove fact, and the very
testimony needed has been given by Jesus Christ, who is the true and faith-
ful witness. In His testimony we are safe. All the laws of valid testimony
are f'llfiUed in Him, and even more than Lord Bacon and all great lawyers
ever dreamed of. For he was not only an " eye witness of the fact " and
a " competent witness to bear His testimony to the fact," but He is " the
7>«M" itself!

In the "Bible-proper" (Section IV.) we saw the "word of god"
revealea. Christ as the incarnate " Word of God." In Him are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and He has revealed these treasures to
us. Hehas spoken on the origin of sin, and His testimony is final. Being the

THU ORIGIN OF SIN.

139

Lord from heaven, as we proved under the experimental proof of the being
and benignity of God, in Section III. We are bound, therefore, to accept
His testimony, for He is the true " Verax " — the living Oracle of God.
His testimony is confirmed by the writers of the divine Epistles — God
speaking in them to us by the human element of their own inward convic-
tions under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that was promised to bring all
things to their remembrance whatsoever Christ said unto them. His words
were the seed plot of their thoughts, which words they cherished and de-
veloped in their own minds, giving each the color and complexion of their
own individual idiosyncrasy, as each reveals his own peculiar temperament
and formation of mind. And upon this subject of the origin of ain they
are all agreed, entirely united, each in his own way referring to it, and mak-
ing different remarks and reflections upon it touching their point of view,
and giving us valuable information of a practical nature regarding it. It
was well known among the Apostles of our Lord — an accepted truth, and
among the early Christians, who were not favored as we are, with the entire
canon of Scripture, therefore our ignorance on this matter makes us not
unblameworthy.

Having seen, in answer to the important question, — " Whence came
SIN ?" — that God cannot be its author, abettor, or in any shape or form its
originator, or father, since sin is God's greatest foe. To have originated it
would have been suicidal to His own existence, subversive of His own
supremacy, and destructive to His own creation, and therefore impossible.

To say, as many have said, '* God could have prevented sin," is tanta-
mount to saying God could give and not give voluntary free agency to His
intelligent creatures, that He could make them responsible and , not re-
sponsible, that He could teach them and at the same time not teach them,
that to obey Him is better than to disobey Him, that He could not punish
transgression if it was committed by the creature, transferring to himself
the homage due alone to the Creator — it would prove a reducto ad
absurdum — a contradiction in terms.

Some people have the wildest 7ieas possible about the Omnipotence
of God, when physical might is not involved in the question, but moral
power is involved only in the question, and moral power is never at variance
with the whole moral character of God, which is never at variance with the
moral well-being of His creatures.

On this deeply important subject how many seem to forget that God's
sufterance of sin reveals His infinite forbearance towards His adversaries,
as He is the greatest sufferer in the case. They seem to forget that obedi-
ence, to '^e acceptable, must be voluntary obedience on the part of all who
render obedience, and that disobedience, to be blameworthy, must be vol-
untary disobedience. They seem to forget that by these issues God appeals
to our higher reason, to lay the foundations of His moral government in
the principles of equity and justice and love, since it proves that no good
can come from acting contrary to His holy will, while individual progres-
sion in moral perfection comes from doing His holy will.

^"«l

! *

:.'j

-ji

11n

'r:Xi

Hi;

ill.

Hi I

X40

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

WHO THEN WAS THE AUTHOR OR ORIGINATOR OF SIN ?

The only authority admissible, we have said, is the authority of God
himself on the origin of sin in his holy universe. Conjecture here is inad-
missable. One divine testimony is worth a million conjectures — the more
the worse. God in our nature has clearly divulged it. The divine "Word "
has spoken upon it and that is enough. He has not left us in ignorance,
as many seem to think. I can put my finger on the divine disclosure. It
is written in John viii. 44., as spoken by the Lord God from heaven. The
passage reads thus : "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of
yo\xx father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode
net in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a
lie, he speaketh of his own ; for he is a liar, and \ht father of it."

Note here three times is the term "father" mentioned. What is the
import of the term as here employed by the Saviour ? The term " father "
as applied to the devil is very significant. It at once points to him as the
originator of sin, and this is the sense the term " father," when not applied
to natural descent, bears, when it is used to denote the father or foun^lar or
originator, of any sect or class or combination among men — as, Zeno was
the father of the Stoics, or the founder and originator of the Stoics, —Abra-
ham was iht father of the faithful — this is the us,e Christ himself makes of
the term when He here distinguishes between the natural descent of those
he addressed and their want of claim to " Father Abraham " in their spirit-
ual character, and tells them of their father in the true sense of the term :
" Yt are of your father the devil.

The Orii^iji of Sin in God's Holy Universe Traced to the Father of It.

The full force of the term, however is not brought out as it stands in
the original. You see in the translation given the word '^your " is printed
in italics — " Ye are of jw/r father the devil" and you know when any
word is printed in italics in the translation, it does not occur in the origi-
nal. Now lead it without (" your "). " Ye are of the father the devil," —
this is just as the words are in the original. The definite article " the " is
twice used — " the father the devil'^ He is " the father "^ — the founder,
the author and the originator and leader of all evil in the universe. It all
came from him as the father oVii, and not from the Father God — the good,
as the word God means.

That this is the import of the term " the father " here, I will now
proceed to show. Observe what the Saviour adds. He comprises the
whole history of sin, under lusts, murder and lies — these he traces to the
devil as the father of tbem, whose own history and character he describes
in what follows that, he " abode not in the truth," " that there is no truth in
him," that when he speaks bespeaks the lie, speaks of what belongs to his
own realms (Toon idioon), that he is a liar,and the father of it, — the father of
tfie lie, that corrupted creation and made others swerve from the truth, the
divine rectitude, in which God created him and them. Therefore upon
him is chargable all the guilt and crime in God's moral universe.

To appreciate and comprehend the full bearing of this wonderful pas-

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

141

sage it is necessary to glance at the circumst&nces that called it forth.
Christ is now in the thick of battle. He is surrounded with a murderous
crew. They are intent upon killing him. The prediction of the enmity
between the two seeds (in the first part of Gen. iii., 15. which my time did
not permit me to go into), is now fulfiled to the letter — *' and I will put en-
mity betwean thy seed and her seed " — Christ stands alone in all the dig-
nity of inr ocence and the majesty of truth — the greatest champion the world
ever witnessed — '* faithful among the faithless " — He discerns his invisible
foe. He identifies him in his seed, who now thirsted for his blood. Be
opens upon him with a charge that all the artillery ot earth could not wield,
that all the artillery ot the heavens could not send forth, or if they did they
would fall powerless. The arch-fiend is now intent upon the destiuction,
by horrid villainy and violence, of the lonely man of Nazareth, he thinks
he is getting it all his own way. The devil with his legions of infernal
fiends are there, they are all unseen by any eye but that of Jesus himself.

The Saviour now utters an indictment against the ringleader of the in-
furiated mob who claimed God as their father and Abraham as their father,
and says :

" Ye are of the father the devil, and the lusts of your father
ye will do, he was a murderer from the beginning and in the
truth he abode not because there is no truth In him. When
he speaks the lie, he speaks of what belongs to him because
he is a liar and the father of it."

Oh, how this terrible indictment against the Originator of sin in God's
holy universe must have told upon the adversary who was urging on the
infuriated mob to slay the Son of God — a heavier indictment never was
uttered against any being in God's universe before and never can be again.

How it must have stung and mortified and appalled the Evil One— -
the great adversary of God and man, and convinced him that Jesus was the
eternal Son of God . Search ail languages for gravest charges and most
formidable indictments among all the law courts on earth, and you will find
nothing so concise, so coniprehensive, so awful, as this indictment of Jesus
against him whom He here charges as the originator of sin in God's most
holy universe !

There is a thrill of piercing censure in it that no invective has ever
reached. Cicero against Cataline, Deraosthei:es against Phillip of Macedon,
although powerful, are as nothing compared with this concise, compre-
hensive and terrible charge of the Son of God against the adversary.

There is no need, after this testimony from the Son of God, spoken
against the adversary as the author of all sin, so pungently put, so irresist-
ibly proved, so terribly told --no need for us any longer to enquire or
doubt who is the originator of sift ?

God is cleared. All others are cleared. And the true author of all
sin as the father of it, is declared by tlim who is the " true and faithful
witness," and who cannot lie ; and the manner he follows up the indict
ment afterwards confirms it in a manner that makes the evidence irresist
ible that, He who is " the Truth" spoke " the truth, the whole truth

142

THE GREAT WANT OF THE ACE.

and nothing but the trut'h" in the case, for He was Himself the eye wit-
ness of it all, as w* will show, further on.

GREAT IMPORTANCE IN WHAT FOLLOWS — JOHN VIII., FROM V. 45 TO 59.

What follows is exceedingly important in two ways. It carries in it
internal evidence that the passage quoted above, on which I have been
commenting, is not a cunningly devised fable, nor invented by man, but
contains the Word of God — a revelation from God on the origin of sin,
and (2) what follows proves how unreasonably men will act who pretend
to be seeking after truth and great adepts in reasoning, and yet are so in-
consistent and illogical that when truth is presented for their acceptance
they shun it, and instead of being thankful for it, they calumniate and per-
secute its teachers. So Socrates, the greatest teacher of truth among men
500 years B, C., was treated — even put to death. And so is Christ here
treated and afterwards put to death, because of the very truth He taught.

Although the spiritual truth He taught is the aliment of the spiritual
nature, and when understood, chosen and adopted into the soul, is the
priceless good, and brings blessedness, freedom, power, and wealth, and is
an imperishable treasure !

Need we wonder, then, Christ knowing the hearts of th'jse proud
Scribes and Pharisees, thus addressed them, v. 45, " And because I tell you
the truth, ye believe Me not." It was because they hated the truth-bearer
and the spirituality of the truth He made known, With reference to the
former — Himself, He says : " Which of you convicteth Me of sin ?" And
with reference to the latter He says : " And if I tell you the truth, why
do ye not believe Me ?" And now He as forcibly applies it to their con-
sciences : " He that is of God heareth God's words ; ye, therefore, hear
them not, because ye are not ot God " — a most logical conclusion. They
are shut up. And all they can do is to adopt the sceptic's weapons of per-
uonal abuse, slander and ridicule, although He had just challenged them
to bring a single charge of sin against Him — which, if Christ had been like
other men, they could soon have done, but all they could do in defense of
their unbelief and their uncalled-for vindictiveness is, to rail against Him
and say (v. 48) taking praise to themselves for the hackneyed expression,
" Say not we well, thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil ?" For a Jew
to call any one a Samaritan was to use the bitterest epithet of scorn and con-
tempt he could use, and to say of any one he was possessed of a demon
was equivalent to say he was possessed ol lunacy, and the wildest kind of
lunacy, as in the loth chap, and 20th v., they said, '■'He hath a devil and is
?nad /" And that was what they meant now, for the terms are synonymous.

Oh, just think of the Infinite Glory of the Universe thus spoken to !
What infinite forbearance is here !

THE PRINCE OF REASONERS IS HERE IN THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.

But it is the devil himself that is employing these unbelieving Jews to
defend him under the indictment, as so many powdered-wigged advocates
in a law-court set up defenses in behalf of the criminal at the bar, now

THE ORKJIN OK SIN.

'43

s to

charged with the greatest crime in the universe, and a poor case they make
of it. They simply retort, a very common way of self-defense. But it has
nothing to fasten upon, and therefore Christ repudiates the retort, and it
falls powerless and pointless — (v. 49) — Jesus answered, " I have not a
devil— -a demon f'** daivwnion "^; but I honor my Father, and ye do dis-
honor Me ; and I seek not my own glory ; there is one who is seehi/ii; (his own
,i;lo)-y) and judging " — this has reference to the empannelled criminal now at
the bar — Jesus had already appealed to His Father.

Now I consider He is making His appeal to their father, who was
zealously seeking to take advantage of the opportunity to get the glory that
did not belong to him, and was discerning and judging of all that was
spoken by the Pr'*>ce of Life, and was looking forward to the extinction of
the Saviour as his last expedient to get rid of Him. When lo ! Christ
meets his foul, murderous thought by saying (51) "Verily, verily, I say
unto jrou, if a man keep My saying (My Word — My doctrine) he shall
never see death." Here Christ claims the power over death. Satan had
obtained the power of death through his lie in deceiving our first parents
and slandering the name of the Most High — for his name of devil means
" the slanderer," so that where he expected to obtain the victory he is to
find his deepest ignominy, for Christ's Word, when kept, can turn death
into life, and mortal agony into immortal glory.

On this declaration of His dominion over the devil, and his regions of
the dead, the captious Jews said, with their superficiality, " Now we know
that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead ; and
thou sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art
thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead ? and the prophets who
are dead ; whom makest thou thyself?" These blinded Jews neither un-
derstood the spiritual life Jesus came to give to them that believe on His
Word, nor who the Saviour was who came to destroy him who engulfed
our race in the yawning pit of death, and to advance us to a state so
glorious and happy that the dissolution of our mortal nature scarcely de-
serves the name of death ; they thought He spoke merely of natural death,
and that His disciples would be exempted from the common lot of
humanity, and therefore they thought now He must be a lunatic altogether,
and press home the question, " Whom dost thou pretend thyself to be by
assuming such distinguishing honors and glory as belonging to thee ?"
Jesus meets the question fairly and fully (v. 54) "Jesus answered, if I
glorify (doxazoo) Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father that
glorifieth Me ; of whom ye say, that He is your God ; and ye have not
known Him ; and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be like unto
you, a liar." A most logical argument, so pungent as to make Christ fly
for His life.

" But I know Him and keep his Word." This is most admirable. I
do not know which to admire most, the power and the cogency o . the rea-
soning, or the character that shines through it, Frederick I But as if He
had not exercised enough of patience to convince them that he was neither
a lunatic nor a fanatic, he tells them how their father Abraham wished to
enjoy the privilege which they were now abusing by their disregard of Him,

THE fJREAT WANT OF THE ACE.

I't *

as unworthy of their notice — (56) *' Your father Abraham rejoiced to see
my day ; and he saw it and was glad " — God vouchsafed to reveal it to his
believing mind — faith has its visions, most undoubtedly and as certainly as
science affords its revelations to the diligent student of science.

But these carnally minded Jews could not comprehend this. (57).
Tne Jews therefore said unto Him, 1 hou art not yet fifty years old, and
hast thou seen Abraham ? Jesus said unto them — with great emphasis —
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am." " J am " —
meaning what they, in the language he spoke, understood to mean — "/<?•
/lova/i " — distinctly claiming equality with God — the everlasting fountain
of all being.

Oh, how this would thrill the soul of the arch fiend, it affected his
emissaries with the fury of murder, regarding it as horrid and intolerable
blasphemy, (v. 59). "They took up stones therefore to cast at him " —
although in the temple — a place so sacred. All they were intent upon
was to stone Him to death — lifting up stones with which the temple was
being repaired at the time.* "But Jesus hid himself, and going through
the midst of them went his way and so passed by " — unseen and untouched !
He that claimed and proved himself to be the " I am," could as easily con-
ceal himself and pass away out of sight, as he can clothe the heavens with
clouds and the earth with the mantle of darkness, for the physical omnip-
otence of the Son of God has no limits to its power for by him were all
things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and 'nvisi-
ble, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or pov all

things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all thi . ^nd
by Him all things consist. (Col. ii , 10).

The infallibility of the testimony to the origin of sin in God's holy
universe cannot be disputed. The divine Logos directly traces it to "M<
father the devil.'^ And the New Testament penmen, under the guidance
of the infallible Spirit of God, attributes it to the same originator, therefore
this point is settled.

Jude, the Apostle, referring to it, extends the view and includes the
fallen angels that the prince of devils dragged with him in his revolt from
the throne of God to set up one of his own. Epistle of Jude v. 6. " And
the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he
hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of
the great day."

The inspired Apostle John to the same effect. I. Epistle iii., 3 —
" The devil sinneth from the beginning," and "he that committeth sin is of
the devil."

The Epistles of Paul and Peter to the same effect. Paul frequently
warns us against his devices. Peter speaks of his doom, II. Ep. ii., 4, and
our duty of resisting him, I. Peter ii., 8. Some have wondered how the
first sin should begin in heaven — such a holy place ! But where else could
it begin but in God's holy universe, since before it began there was no sin
in the holy universe of God ?

* Josephus informs us that the temple was undergoing repair all the time of Christ's
ministry and life. [Joseph. Antiq. Jud. Cil. xv., Cap. 11.] and other authorities besides.

Tl(l<: OKKilN OK SIN,

145

holy

" the

3—

lis of

jntly

and

the

)uld

sin

[rist's
lides.

Job, adverting to the folly of the fallen angels, says (Ch. iv., i8) ;
" And bis angels he chargeth with folly or instability." Although this pas-
sage may be intended to exalt the human mind to the mfinite purity of
God in whose sight the heavenH are not clean as the Hebrew word em-
ployed by Job may simply denote the imperfection of the creature com-
pared with the infinite perfection of the Creator.

But what has amazed me most, touching the subject of the originator
of sin is the grv^ss ignorance about the exis'encc and infernal influence of
the devil. For I have been actually asked by othenvise intelligent men,
" If ever there was such a being spoken of in the Bible?' and "if he was
not only a creation of the poet Milton ?" Thus proving most lamentable
ignorance of the Scriptures. While others have (rcquently told mc that
they *• did not believe there was any devil aI all, except the de%'il that was
in us and that it was wrong to blame him instead of ourselves, as he has
no existence except in the imagination." It is certanily wrong to blame
the adversary for our own yielding to his temptations for the command of
the divine Scripture is : "Resist the devil and he will tie*? froiii ' ou."
For he is a great coward — more so than many I have met with among his
human agents, who, when you resist them, instead of fleeing from you, they
fly at you.

But it is high time people had more knowledge upon this subject and
all others relating to their highest intm-ests and all cant and humbug disap-
peared and the true philosophy of salvation were better understood and
practised, which is pure benevolence and neither malevolence nor pride, nor
selfishness with a cloak of religious pretence ; nor orthodoxy of creed
without a particle of the divine element ol self-sacrificing love in them. Oh,
when will professing Christians learn the divine law of love ? and cease
from fancying that because they have a good opinion of themselves they
are perfectly safe for eternity and heaven while they are full of suspicion
and malice towards others, and are the devil's most active servants he has,
and are on the road to eternal perdition and fit for nothing else ! Truly
we are living in the age of the Lawless One l It is high time that souls
going to hell were fully aroused out of their sleep of death and warned of
their awful delusion and danger arising from the position they are in, es-
pecially in connection with the adversary of God and man, who is leading
them captive at will, and they know it not. For ** the God of this world
hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glori-
ous gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should sh ne into them."
" And the whole (unrenewed) world lieth in the wicked one," and are con-
tent to remain ignorant of th% god they worship and serve, who is their im-
placable foe.

How many who regard themselves as good Christians both in the
pulpit and in the pew are self-deceivers ? Unless the love of God be in the
heart and in the life, we are no better than the Scribes and Pharisees who
called themselves the children ot Abraham and the children of God, whilst
Christ discerned them to be the children of the (fevil., This state of things
at the near close of false Christianity and the reign of the arch fiend can
not be tolerated any longer. It is the reverse of charity, it is cruelty to-

i \

146

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

wards those who are at ease in Zion not to sound an alarm in the consciences
of so many who are now deluded and spiritually dead. " What meanest
thou, O, sleeper ? Arise and call upon thy God," lest he come and sweep
thee away from his footstool and consign thee to the awful doom of thp im-
penitent hypocrites and unbelievers. "Awake thou that sleepestand arise
from among the dead" — hail the light of the Sun of Righteousness, "and
Christ shall shine upon thee."

A Scriptural Vieiu of the Adversary, the Devil.

Before concluding this part of my subject I feel it incumbent to set
before my young readers in the perilous times before them, a Scriptural
statement of the character and agency of the originator of sin, who,
although he be mortally wounded and is doomed to destruction, he is now
intensifying:, his action and malignity against the cause of God and the
Church of God and the people of God, because he knows his time is short.
I wish also to awaken the utmost vigilance against his wiles, and to call
out the whole force of our moral nature into the fullest antagonism and re-
sistance against him — on the part of every one who reads this book —
with all brevity.

MucJi Instruction May be\Derivcd from the Names Given to Him,

The Het rciv ^^../;ies are Always Descriptive of Character and Agency.

He is called Satan because satan signifies '"■ adversary ^^ and he is the
greatest adversary of God and man.

Devil — the slanderer, because he began, and has continued his evil
course by slander.

Beelzebub, because he is the prince of devils, and has proven himself
such.

Apollyon — the destroyer, because none of God's creatures ever de-
stroyed so much, and he is restless to destroy or annoy every one.

" The Dragon and that old Serpent the devil " emblematical of his
power and his cunning.

" The prince of the poiver of the air," so powerful as can " wield
these elements, and arm himself with the force of all their regions," and
but for divine interposition would hurl our earth to destruction.

*' The spirit that now wo^keth in the children of disobediem e " in a
vari.'^ty of ways, to serve his purposes of mali^ity and wickedness.

These references are sufficient to prove he is a being of great energy,
of powerful intellect, of vast resources, and deep craftiness and destruc-
tiveness, — one of the chief of God's works originally, and a powerful
antagonist, requiring of us to seek the divine omnipotence to overcome
him, or he will overcome us.

There is no evil work' on the face of the earth, but he has the chief
part in it. He hinders the Gospel, by drunkenness, by vice, by lust and
crime and falsehood. He perverts the Scriptures and opposes the cause

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

147

of Christ in every possible way. He beguiles men into sin, he knows how
to work upon their weakest part, whether it be ambition, love of approba-
tion and flattery, love of pleasure or love of gain and riches, or love of ease
and indolence.

He induces the unconverted to believe they shall not be punished for
their sins and for remaining unrenewed in the spirit of their mind. And
he tempts good men into false positions, and persecutes them in right
positions. He is characterized by deceitfulness and craftiness, by envy
and malice, by presumption and pnde, which he communicates to all his
children. He is fierce and cruel, active in doing evil and mischief con-
tinually. He tempted Christ, and he tempts Christ's best servants to de-
stroy their usefulness, and those he can't destroy he worries and vexes in a
thousand ways, by hard thoughts about God, and blasphemous thoughts
against Christ.

He sows discord and strife in families and in churches and among
nations. God's people are admonished to be armed against his wiles, to
resist his temptations, and to be vigilant and sober-minded, and to quench
"..is fiery darts by the shield of faith, and to give him no inlet into their
minds by their entire consecration to God.

We are informed that he will be condemned at the judgment, that
everlasting fire is prepared for him, and that God will bruise him under
His people's feet shortly, and give them the victory through their faith in
God.

The above sketch is sufificient to prove there is a devil and no mis-
take, and that we have all need of a might that is supernatural, to over-
come him, or he will overcome us.

I NOW ADVANCE TO THE THIRD PARTICULAR, VIZ.

(j.) How Did Sin Enter Into the Mind of a Holy Angel 1
it and How Can it he Accounted for ?

W/iat Caused

This is one of the deepest and most important enquiries we could
turn our minds to in earnest thoughtfulness.

It is here in connection with the primal sin — the crisis of all being,
when war broke out in heaven, the dwelling place of God, among His
most exalted intelligences, that we will find most difficulty of all to grapple
with, as in all originations and beginnings, the modus operandi is most
occult and difficult to comprehend, even in material thingo, how much more
in spiritual things !"

So deep and dark the subject seems, that it almost forbids us search-
ing into it ; yet if we reverently pursue the enquiry no harm, but much
benefit, will result from it, as will afterwards appear.

THE PRIMAL SIN — THE MOST INSTRUCTIVE AND WONDERFUL OF ALL EVENTS.

It will prove when fairly and fully considered how unnecessary the
old apologetic system of vindicating eternal Providence and justifying the
ways of God to man is, when we get the key to reveal the deep mystery

148

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

I 1

; I:

into our hand. It will dissipate many idle and groundless conjectures. It
will invest the cross of Christ and the gospe' system of sublimest truth
with a new glory. It will reveal much connected with our highest and
best interests, scarcely ever thought of, and prove not a dry abstract and
obstruse subject, but a most interesting and profitable and most marvellous
subject we can take up.

It is in itself the most sensational event in all the annals of history in
God's universe — for it marks both the beginning and end of all things,
reaching to interminable ages in the issues and results — to all eternity af-
fecting all things created and increate,*and the most wonderful manner in
which God acts in his might and majesty, in his mercy and benignity, to-
wards all his rational creation — towards the fallen and unfallen when the
blow was struck against Him and Hi-- throne, when the great adversary
rose up in rebellion against his mild andclementand equitable government,
and there was war proclaimed in heaven ! — there is an interest and a mar-
vellousness here beyond all conception — all the marvels of romance and
fiction, all the history of nations on earth and the most fascinating descrip-
tions of the most giited among men oifaci and of fable are as nothing com-
pared with this one overwhelming event of the primal sin in God's most
holy universe ca v;^ enquire into the origin of it, how it was brought about 1

I can conceive it although I cannot promise to give anything like
an adequate delineation of it such as it requires and deserves !

In what Way was the Primal Sin Originated?

The fall of the angels in heaven has a closer connection with the fall
of man in paradise than people are generally aware of. It is usual with
most to trace sin to its source as the glorious Milton traced it to ** Man's
disobedience and the forbidden fruit whose mortal taste brought death
into the world and all our woe." Few go further back than this in tracing
the origin of sin. Consequently much darkness remains in the mind re-
specting the moral government of God and his remedial scheme in its vast
scope and significance. To go back to the fall of the angels in heaven
brings us to the root of all evil, it is fitted to expand the mind, to open
fresh and new realms of thought, to understand the great system of Provi-
dence better, to open flood gates of light upon the obscurest moral rela-
tionships and the most important moral relationship in which we stand in
God's universe — obscure because they have been entirely overlooked and
forgotten and not because God has not revealed them and not because he
does not want us to know them — the only limit to man's knowledge lies in
his indolence, and indiff"erence to know more ; for it is absolutely infinite
and boundless and the light of modern science '>as in part revealed this,
but the divine light of revelation reveals it to an infinite extent beyond
physical science, and theology has been the least progressive of the sciences
because it has been the least explored. But the age of enquiry we are now
beginning to live in is destined to extend theology — the greatest of tdl
knowledge into yet unknown depths and this u one of them. Christ and
his apostles knew it and made it known, the early apostacy from the trutlr

THE OiilGIN OK SIX.

149.

to-

re-
vast
aven
open
rovi-
rela-
d in
and
e he
js in
inite
this,
ond
ices
now
all
and
rutlr

in the early ages of the church has greatly obscured our true knowledge of
God and of sin and spiritual things, a new era hits come and progress is in-
evitable and most salutary results will follow .

THE USUAL WAV THIS PROFOUND oUr'-JECT IS REGARDED.

AH that has been thought about it is this — "It was pride that caused the
angels to fall in heaven,"and with this brief superficial way of regarding the
great subject it is dismissed as one of those things which is *' involved in
mystery," and every kind of conjecture has been formed and we are " left in
utter ignorance about it." The question seems never to have lieen raised —
If the angels fell through pride, jc/iai caused the pride ? Fur pride enters
into all sin. And therefore .sin had entered into their once holy minds be-
fore the pride began to display itself in their arrogant defiance of the Al-
mighty.

Of course it is a diflicuU and intricate enquiry as every one must ad-
mit to find out how sin could come into existence at all in God's holy uni-
verse, and most of all how it could enter into the mind of such an exalted
and holy intelligence as that of an angel of hght ?

What I most of all regret is that on this profound mysterious subject s&
many gratuitous and God-dishonoring thoughts and dark suspicions have
been cherished. For to say on the one hanT] : ** We don't know how
sin eniered into God's holy universe," and ' to say," on the other hand,.
"God determined it, God had a purpose to serve by it" is to implicate God
as either its author or its promoter in some way or another, and if I can
succeed only thus far to disprove these blasphemous thoughts in addition
to what has already been advanced to combat them and silence them, I will
have done some good by this enquiry, not to speak of still higher objects^
touching the remedial scheme in us far reaching moral influences that will
be attained I trubt by it.

' OF THE GREAT PRIMAL SIN OF THE FALLEN ANtlELS.

Three points I now undertake in the solution of this question to
prove: ist. Whatever the sin was which the fallen angels committed, it
was voluntary in its nature. 2<1. An abuse of privilege of the highest order,
and 3d, In all probabiliry it had its root in envy, therefore, self -induced y,
most unreasonable and most heinous in the extreme.

i^i St.) The Primal Sin was Voluntary in its Nature.

All sin of course is voluntary disobedience against God, Sin could'
not be sin unless it had the consent of the will. If it were not voluntary,
it could not be blameworthy, and if it were not blameworthy it could not
be punishable.

The obedience God requires to be acceptable must be free, spontan-
ecus, and spring from love. Love is not love unless it be free and spon-
taneous. Love cannot be coerced. Love is delighting in its object or in
its labor of love. This is the high motive that God— ///c Supnme Exccl-

iSo

THE GREAT WANT OF THE A(;E.

ienc€ — sets before U8 in his holy law, which we have rea^oa to believe is the
law of God for every holy being of every holy realm. J t is not, however,
a matter of voluntary choice in the sense of any rational creatuic being a/
libe/ty to love,or not to love God supremely, God has made us and all his ra-
tional creation lor Uimselt — made us to the end of loving Him, delighting
in Him, honoring Him, serving Him, obeying Him, and doing, in shoit,
Uia will, that we may have no will but His and therefore to love Him su-
premely is the law of our being, as rational intelligences, capable of know-
ing such a father and oi finding our tiue well being in his approval of us.
If this be true with respect to man, it must be tiue of the holy angels, who
are higher in the scale of creation than man and consequently better able
to know God and receive high':r delight from their communion with the
Father of their spirits than man is capable of in his lapsed condition.
( rod's claims upon their free, spontaneous and voluntary supreme love and
obedience are obviously without limit. While therefore the law of God to
love — to love Him supremely and their fellow angels with the love they
love themselves their own being is botii most binding and inviolable while
it is nevertheless free, spontaneous and voluntary — binding in the sense of
infinite obligation, and voluntary in the sense of it being most agreeable
and moot natural and most dutiful and most rational as well as moot bene-
ficial. No higher end can be gained, no wiser course can be pursued.

The moment, therefore, tree, spontaneous, voluntary, supreme love to
God cases, that moment the law of the lational moral nature is broken,
and another object takes the place of God and he is disowned, forsaken,
and disobeyed and dishonored, and instead of iindirg freedom there is now
slavery, bondage, death. There to the admiring view of the holy angels
was a manifestation given of an infinitely perfect creator, possessed of every
possible excellency in the utmost petfection calculated to call forth most
sweetly and spontaneously their highest admiration, their prof ounaest ad-
oration and ecstatic delight and jubilant joy and suoremest love and warm-
est affection and adoring praise and infinite rapture !

There was therefore nothing in God to alienate them from Him, but
on the contrary everything to bind and unite them to Him.

There was nothing in the universe to estrange them fiom Him. And
there was nothing in themselves as they sprung from His crtating energy,
pure and perfect with exalted intellects far above man, with hearts attuned
into harmony with the infinitely perfect nature of God — the supreme
excellence.

How then did they become different from what God made them?
How could they fall at all ? That they did become different from what
they were originally made is matter of fact, that they did fall is matter^of
historv !

No conjectures of ours can account for a thing so unaccountable.
We are shut up to the necessity of seeking a higher wi«Hom than our own.
Has Scripture afforded us any help here? It has. What then saith the
Scripture ? It tells us plainly rheir sin was self induced because it tells us
it was voluntary transgression. Where?

ffe'

THt ORIGIN OF SIN.

15*

JUDE v., 6.

That the sin by which these once glorious beings fell from their ex-
alted state was, their own personal and voluntary sin is, here clearly dis-
closed :

" And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation, He (God) hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness
unto the judgment of the great day." This Taken aloug with what the
Saviour said about the originator of sin, that " he abode not in the truth/'
will be sufficient evidence to prove that their sin was voluntary in its natur
— the point to be proved and established.

And here the original requires to be carefully considered, it brings ottt
this point far more clearly and forcibly than either the old or new version.
I would here remark at the same time, that no English reader need be
shaken in their confidence and reliance upon the translations — all of
them, the Vulgate, the French (which is often more transparent and cor-
rect than almost any other) and every other version, are substantially cor-
rect, and cannot mislead the English reader, or any other reader of any
translation. Why, then, " bother" about the original at all ? Simply for
this reason — in all matters of careful enquiry, as the present, why not
" bother " about the original, since it is in the shades of the meaning that
we get at Xhtpith of the matter under consideration.

Any one who has studied foreign languages must know that no trans-
lation can possibly give the original text in its idiomatic nicety and exact
similitudes, it is like taking plants out of their vir^nn soil and putting them
into a hot-house, or into an uncongenial, unnatural soil, they lose their original
lustre and strength and freshness, although you still have the plant in its root
and stem, and I would far rather avoid so much reference t~ the original for
this very reason, that it cannot be sufficiently understood by the effort made
without seeing it. And this fact should make the English reader exercise a
kindly, grateful feeling towards all the repeated efforts of translators, and
not get suspicious or faultfinding, when they all do the best they can to
instruct the English reader, with their laborious and often thankless task.

This digression I consider necessary, both as a shield to myself and
my honored and learned brethren in the path of educating others, who
need it.

T/ie Voliiniary Nature of the Primal Sin,

Is clearly indicated and satisfactorily proved by the testimony of the
Saviour as traceable to the sad conduct of the adversary, of whom He
said, " he abode not in the truths Christ could not have blamed him as
He did, if he had not of his own accord lost his original integrity by his
apostacy from God. The very point of His denunciation centred in this,
that " he abode not in the truth," and if it had not been voluntary it could
not have been blameworthy.

Tne Apostle Jud2 seems to have been looking at the apostacy of the
angels that fell in this very aspect of it, when he wrote these distressing and
melancholy words in his epistle (v. 6) " And the angels which kept not

t I

IS*

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AOL.

their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in ever-
lasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." And
the fact of it being a voluntary apostacy is more intensely expressed in the
original in the words he uses, by the mould in which they are ca^t.

First he puts their case before us in the light of not holding to their
original condition of high personal monarchy, but of themselves divorcing
themselves from their primeval nature of strict rectitude and integrity ; and
next he puts their case in the light of its issues, having disqualified them-
selves for remaining in heaven, he tells us, they left their glorious princi-
pality. He does not say whether they were intent upon further rebellion,
although facts prove that they were, but he informs us they were put under
restraint, not destroyed, but chained up, as criminals among men are put in
chains in a prison, and reserved for trial at the next assizes, so the fallen
angels are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, in their gloomy
cells, unto the judgment of the great day — the great assizes of the universe,
when we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to answer for
the deeds done in the body, as well as he.

Their case may be illustrated by a man holding a high position of
trust as a banker, when he does not retain his integrity, but defrauds the
bank and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him, he has to
abscond from the bank. If the angels had kept their original integrity
they would have been in heaven still, like the unfallen angels, just as the
absconding banker need never to have absconded had he kept his integrity,
if he had not forsaken his true self and divorced himself from himself, so to
speak. He lost his situation by it, and so did they lose their principality
in heaven by it. liut for the banker to lose his charac ter was a far greater
loss than that of his situation. As soon as his integrity was gone he was
morally ruined, and so were they as soon as they divorced themseh es from
their original nature ; and as the banker was voluntary in his act of defraud-
ing the bank, so were they voluntary in their act of defrauding God and
heaven of their just and rightful claims to their dutiful service.

Further, we learn from another Apostle another view of their case.
Peter ii., Eph. ii , 4, *' God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them
down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved
unto judgment." Here is a proof of the awfulness of their crime, "God
cast them down to hell." Would not suffer them to remain in heaven any
longer, being unfit to remain in it. And God would not have so dealt
with them if their sin had not been their own act and deed —their own
self-induced and voluntary transgression. And the great judgment day will
prove it.

(2.) The Apostacy of the Aiige/s k>os an abuse of pi<ivile(;e oJ the

Highest Order Conceivable.

The fall of the angels nnplies they were placed in a position of pro-
bation, or trial. Just as our fir?t parents were placed in, and as we all are
placed in, with all the intelligent creation of God.

The principle of moral probation is a most ec^uitable principle. It

founded on justice to the well-deserving, and of justice to the ill-deserving.

It is the principle on which men act in all the moral spheres of life ;
and human life could not exist without it. The prizes in life are won by
those that work for them and win them.

Young men, when industrious and persevering, and dutiful and faith-
ful to their employers, " get on," are promoted, and rise. It is to the in-
terests of the employer to keep hold of them and reward them for their
good merits, and encourage them in well-doing. " Seest thou a man
diligent in his business ? he shall stand before kings : he shall not stand
before mean men."

God is pleased to act upon this principle. " Them that honor me I
•will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed " God is
always found identifying His glory and honor with our interests and advan-
tage, and connecting our duty with our felicity.

The holy angels, while unfallen, knew all this law of divine equity for
the promotion of progress by well-doing, and for the prevention of moral
elevation in the ill-doing, better than we can conceive of it.

Consequently their voluntary disobedience is all the more to be won-
dered at. How they could ever relinquish such an exalted state of bless-
edness and ennobling elevation, getting higher and higher in moral excel-
lence and attainments for evermore, and for them deliberately to choose
the reverse position and sink downwards and downwards for ever in
irretrievable wretchedness and woe, is scarcely credible ! But the very ring
ef the words of Jude is in our ears : " The angels who kept not their first
estate, but left their own habitation " — are now in perdition ! And the
Saviour, who was ever meek and mild, we have heard Him denouncing the
devil as their ringleader, and guilty of a crime the most awful and atrocious
in the universe ! for he became " the father of the lie " that has corrupted
the mo.al creation of God, and ruined man, as we heard Him delivering the
terrible indictment against the prince of the fallen angels, as "he who
abode not in the truth," but " was a murderer," " a liar from the beginning
and the father of the lie," that has done all the mischief and spread all the
sin and misery among angels and men.

We can form no adequate idea of the exalted blessedness and moral
greatness the rebel angels forfeited by their voluntary apostacy, but they
knew it, and therefore their rebellion was an abuse of privilege of the most
exalted order, that w^e can scarcely believe it to have been possible. But
alas, it is only too true.

Oh, what golden crowns of glory, 'honor and immortality they cast
away ! What unsearchable riches in knowledge, in moral excellence and
spiritual blessedness they forfeited ! What exalted privileges ! What mag-
nificent prospects ! What rapturous joys ! What infinite blessings 1 they
sacrificed. And for what did they make the exchange, by becoming con-
tentious, by not obeying the truth, but obeying unrighteousness ? Tribu-
lation and anguish, and a heritage of woe unutterable and unending. How
unequal to the task they attempt, of disenth'roning the King of Glory ! the
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle !

'* Ascribe ye greatness to our God, he is the rock, his work is perfect ;

154

THF GREAT WANT OF THK AGE,

i f

IS
id.

H'..

for all his ways are judgment ; a God of truth and without iniquity, just
and right is He. They have corrupted themselves.^' The rebel angels are a
corrupted race of angels, God the Holy One infused no ingredient of evil
into their nature, as it came pure and spotless and perfect from his omnip-
otent hand.

By their own voluntary disobedience they fell from their exalted
eminence.

By their own spontaneous, self-willed abuse of privilege they sank to
the bottomless pit, and all they have gained by their infatuated choice is,
only evil and nothing but evil, and that continually.

This leads to the great fundamental question : —

(j.) Henv Can it be Accounted Fot 1 Was it not Envy f

How a holy creature could sin is a profoundly interesting question.
The solution of this problem is however extremely difficult. No predeter-
mination on the part of God can be permitted to enter the mind, as that
would destroy the free agency of the creatuje He had made responsible for
his own acts.

God moves in His circle, the creature moves in his. God never inter-
feres with the creature's freedom. He knows from eternity all he will do,
and so much does he respect his creatures' freedom that he suffers its abuse.
The existence of sin proves this, and our daily observation and experience
proves it. But there is more than prescience, there is his eternal purpose,
which He carries into effect that nothing can possibly frustrate. But His
secret will being unknown, except in as far as he is pleased to reveal it, is,
his own determinate council

All good comes from the author of good essentially. Al! evil comes
from the creature of his own will entirely. His over-ruling power and infi-
nite love are seen in his providence. Day unto day uttereth speech, night
unto night showeth us knowledge. He only doeth wondrous things. But
he never infringes on the freedom of his responsible creatures which is
their inalienable birth-right. He has made such provision that all can be
made eternally happy ; but such a provision that has its sanctions as law,
that regulates its participation by the creature, and is even a law to the
Creator^ being the expression of his own most holy, wise and benignant
will. Order is heaven's first law and thererore God is not the author of
confusion but the God of infinite perfection, therefore every mouth shall
be stopt that quarrels with its maker and his eternal reprobation of sin
marks the absolute purity of his infinite nature and cannot be found in
Him by predetermination or in any other sense whatever. Christ's sublime
Utterance : "Who of you convicteth me of sin ?" will ever remain un-
answerable.

I have said in reply to the enquiry now under our consideration, how
could sin enter into a holy angel, that in all probability its root was ''envy."
T freely admit that what I now advance is only a theory of my own, for the
simple reason that nothing explicit is stated in Scripture upon this point.
It is an open question, and theorising is the only possible way of reaching

THK OKIC.IN OK SIN.

tS5

what is unknown. As in Algebra we reach an unknown quantity by known
quantities, so here by means of three known things respecting envy I want
to find a fourth thing, whether the Apostacy of the fallen angels may not
have sprung from the working of envy in their minds ?

I St. Envy is a prolific root of sin among men. 2nd. Envy, in its en-
trance into the minds of our first parents, when innocent of sin, produced
their apostacy from God, and in its course on earth, envy is the rival of
heavenly wisdom. 3. Envy is the equivalent of what zeal is in a bad
sense. The enquiry can do us no harm, it may be the means of doing
some good.

(/.) Envy is a Prolific Root of Sin A,nong Men.

There are many root-evils among mankind. ' The love of money is a
root (not the root) of all evil. (No definite article is used in the passage,
I Tim,, vi., 10.) The love of approbation, fame, pleasure, ease, power,
&c., are all root-evils. Horace, in his first ode, gives a very complete
picture of the motives or springs of human conduct.

But of all root-evils, envy, although least thought of, is the greatest.
If we look around us and trace the origin of the most of evils in society —
discontentment, covetousness, detraction, strife, pride, quarrelling, war, etc,
envy will be found to be the most prolific root of evil among men. One sees
another possessing something he does not possess, and he becomes envious
of it, and cannot rest till he has it, whatever it may cost, or whomsoever its
acquisition may injure. The devil is called the " envious man " in Scrip-
ture, \*ho sowed tares among the wheat, because he did not wish his neigf
bor to have a better crop of wheat than himself.

Now, as like produces like, and as we can always judge of the cause
by the effects, may we not see the adversary almost everywhere in society
under the aspect of envy and greed and covetousness ?

Envy slew Abel, sold Joseph and murdered Christ, Envy has de-
stroyed more than the sword, pestilence and famine. It is cruel as the
grave and stabs with a mortal wound the reputation of noble minded men,
whom death cannot harm !

Go where you will — in any country, enter the society of any circle —
rich or poor, religious or irreligious, and you will find envy at work tearing
neighbors' characters to pieces, under-rating others to exalt themselves with
vanity and lies.

Envy is the gre'tsst violater of the second table of the decalogue. It
is therefore the most prolific rort of evil among men. It is the devil s
chief factor and what we find In the representative usually agrees with the
represented.

{2.) Envy led to the fall of man and thefefore it may have led to the fall

of the devil and his angels.

It is the rival of heavenly wisdom all the world over and it may have
been God's rival in heaven.

■I I i

'a ■

If;

9S$

HE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

The Apostle James (Ch. iii , 14) contrasts envy with heaven'y wisdom
thus : " If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and
lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but 's
earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confu-
sion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good
fruits, without partiality and without hypocricy." In carnal wisdom and
envy we have the very devil incarnated among men ; in heavenly wisdom
and charity we have Christ incarnated as the former was and is Christ's
rival on earth he may have been the rival of Christ in heaven through envy,
■and fell and came to finish his rebellion among men.

(j.) " Efwy " IS the Equivalent of what " Zeal " is, in a Bad Sense.

It is a curious circumstance that the same word has often two quite
diffpient and opposite meanings in all languages. The word " Zeal^' in a
good sense is, •' holy fervor,'* in a bad sense " wicked envy." It is so ren-
<iered in Scripture, Because the original word (zeelos) from which our
English word ** zeal " is derived, bears these two meanings according to its
application, which I say is a curious circumstance, and as it is a common
law of language, it reveals a law of the mind, which law will help us to
establish our theory, respecting the feeling in the mind, when misdirected,
that may have precipitated the holy angels to headlong destruction, and it
seems to teach us many a lesson. " Z?a/," in a good sense, means burning
ardor in the soul for that which is right and holy and good and commend-
able, when rightly guided — tempered with prudence, enlightened by know-
ledge, and pure in its motive, being actuated in its glowing ardor, its bright
burning flame, and kindled by love to God and love to man.

But "s^a/," in a bad sense, is quite the opposite of this, when it burns
from self-aggrandizement and from selfishness in any form, when it burns
to gratify the malevolent affections in man or angel !

Likewise when " zeal " is misdirected in connection with religion and
the highest objects in existence, how injurious it becomes, and how it
cloaks itself under the pretense it is zeal for God. The same burning
ardor which would lead to martyrdom with triumphant valor, and place its
hallowed shrine with unmoved decision on the burning pile, and exult in
the flames that consumed the body to ashes, would, when misdirected,
draw the sword of persecution, destroy human life without a single scruple
or self-accusation, and go to every city and village, " breathing out threaten-
ings and slaughter," as Saul of Tarsus once did, and glory in it, as evincing
devotion to the cause of religion and God !

The Deeds which Men Most Admire ; Stark Naked, are Deformities that
are Painted with Unhallotved Fire.

Of course everything is conditioned. All knowledge, all emotion, all
motive, all action is, in its nature and tendency, good or bad, according to
the principle of its relationship, in which it exists and moves in its orbit.

THE ORKilN OF SIN.

157

Guided by this general law, our translators give an illustration of its con
nection in the particular use of the word, which is always the same word in
the Greek original, /eelos — zeal. It occurs about sixteen times in the New
Testament Scriptures, and their rendering is in all the cases where it occurs,
very happily or appropriately given. It is derived from the verb (zeoo)
to burn or glow, and in itself it means simply '* afetvid affection^' while its
play and exercise, as directed, shapes its nature and proves its meaning in
that which is good or bad— the author of it being the responsible agent for
its production and direction. And therefore there is soinethitig here worth
diving into, in connection with the most astounding fact in the universe of
God — how sin could by any possibility get an entiance and find a dwelling
place— a home, in the bosom of such holy, upright and pure and iiitelligent
beings as the holy angels ?

The IVoni 'Zeal' in its Two-fold Sense.

But to establish my ground of argument, and strengthen the basis of
my theory concerning this most inexplicable, most marvellous phenomenon,
I will produce the evidence of the fact that the word zeal is so translated
in New Testament, and so regarded and distinguished in the Greek classics,
with all brevity, so as to arrive at the disclosure it opens up, or may be con-
ceived to reveal,inthis most thrilling tragedy of all tragedies in all the universe
of God! John ii., 1 7 — as applied to Christ, when His holy zeal burned for the
pur.ty of His Father's house, predicted in Ps. Ixix., 10, • The * zeal' of Thine
house hath eaten me up ' — consumes me like a flame with its very intensity.
And the Hebrew word here quoted (Kineah) means ^ zeal' or " envy^ ac-
ording to its application, and often ^jealousy' (Numbers v., 14, 15, &c.)
II. Cor., vii., 7, — Translated '■fervent mind,' indicating the zeal or warm
affection of the Corinthian Church towards Paul, the glorious champion of
the Gospel he once despised. 11. Cor , xi., 2, — Translated 'Jealousy,' as
indicating Paul's zeal for the unity and purity of the Corinthian Church,
both the verb to be zealous and the noun zeal are here used.

These are three instances of the word * Zeal ' as used in a good sense.
See Rom. x. i, for its perversion by the self-righteous Jews, and Phil, iii., 6
for its perversion by Paul in persecuting the church.

Now for its application as indicating ^envy' In Acts v. 17, when
the high priest rose up and all they that were with him — being the sect of
the S:.dducees — and were filled with * indignation '—the zeal of 'envy'
rather I think here, or a mixture of the malevolent feelings — " and laid
their hands on the apostles and put them in prison," because they were
proving their apostleship too well in the miraculous powers conferred on
them in healing the sick and casting out demons— and doing no harm
whatever. " Zeal " here was worse than " envy," it was malice mixed with
arrogance and spite, etc.

II. Cor, xii., 20. Classed with the worst passions of human nature and
closely allied to them and usually productive of them, such as debate,
wrath, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings of pride and tumults of

i' »

>58

THE flREAT WAN! OF THF. AOK.

disorderly meetings—" Envyitigs " (plural used) can claim all these for her
offspring. And so is it in the plural used in Gal. v. 20, in the obvious
sense of the most debasing and corruptive passions of depraved humanity
** Envyings " or wicked emulations— {y\^ of lust and crime and abominable
idolatry — enmities, seditions, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such
like works of the flesh which exclude from the Kingdom of God !

NOW AMONC THE GREEK CLASSICS

the same applications are made of the Greek word zeelos, in a good sense
it is equivalent to the Latin ' ^mulatio' — 'emulation,' that is commendable
and so translated by I^atin writers. In a bad sense its Greek equivalents
prove it to mean dark suspicion, cruel jealousy, insatiable greed, foul ambi-
tion, and connected with all the basest human passions. So say Plutarch,
Plato, Hesoid, Lucan, Euripedes, Sophocles, Demosthenes as well as Seneca
and Cicero, Virgil, Horace — invidia — looking between rival interests pro-
ducing ' envy,' hatred, ill-will, spite, grudging, an ill opinion one man has
of another, malice, maliciousness, displeasure against one — so that it is very
prolific of evil when once it enters the mind.

'• A sound heart is the life of the flesh, but ' envy,' " says Solomon, " is
the rottenness of the bones."

A UTTI.E LIGHT REGINS TO SHINE ON THE DARK MVSTFRY.

Now, what I have got to do is to find a link of connection to lead from
these known quantities, admitted facts that envy among men is a prolific
root of sin, that the course of its history illustrates whence it came from.
Envy is the tempter of the happiness of the embowered pair in paradise and
produced envy in the tempted to secure their fall and from the rivalry be-
tween Satan and Christ on earth — the only two combatants in it as illus-
trated by the religion and dominion of the false god and the true God and
further from the third fact that the wo- . zeal in a bad sense means envy — I
raise the question. May not envy havp something to do with the fall of the
rebel angels, inducing in some way or another their rebellion against God? —
the good zeal, the holy flame through an error of judgment turned into an
unholy flame of evil passion, as all will admit that sin is in every case of its
committal an error of the judgment at least in its initiation or commence-
ment.

The great difficulty now to overcome is, to find out by means of these
known quantities the unknown quantity — the solution of the problem.

We found the unknown quantity before, from the three known quantities
for the Scientists, perhaps we will do the same here. The reader will remem-
ber when considering the doctrine of the "final causes" — speaking of design
in nature [Sec. III.] In seeking to reconcile the different theories of the
philosophers I adduced the two facts of good and evil, the third fact proba-
tion — and out of these came the revelation of the divine Archetype in the
universe ox fourth quantity confirmed by divine revelation. Probably out
of iht probation of the angels in heaven we may find the lost link here also.

THE ORir.lN OK SIN.

'59

The Lost Link Searched for and Found.

1 have found the lost link, and I think I sec the key attached to it
that will fit all the wards in the lockcd-up mystery, and open it to our
amazement. At least we will see whether it is so or not. But still the sub-
ject is difficult to grapple with.

A few moments' reflection will show us the lost link. And after it is
found every one will say, " Of course that's it " — " and everybody knows
that." If so there is no need for me to say a word more.

"Now, Mr. Frederick, you have been sitting silent never so long- 1
want you, Frederick, to tell me what _, ou think about this matter, and I
want to ask you if you can tell me how to unravel this mystery — how sin
came into God's holy universe ?" "Well, sir, I think it is impossible for
any one to account for the entrance of sin into the holy mind of a glorious
intelligence as that of an angel of God. And if any one should say after
you tell us where the lost link is to be found, it is what no one, as far as I
know, ever knew anything about it. At the same time you have already
stated it would be found where the ether lost link was found, for getting at
the final and grand design of God in connection with all that is so perplexing
in His material universe, and if I recollect right, you said it would be found in
the probation, or state of trial, we were now in, and come out of that."
" Exactly so, Mr. Frederick, I am glad you are paying so much attention."
" And further, I think you said a little ago, the same thing might be applic-
able to the angels. But what you can make out of their probation I don't
know, nor any body else, but I should Uke to hear it."

The Probation of the Angels in Heaven.

" I have said, Frederick, a little reflection upon the probation of the
angels will find us the link that seems to be lost, or the thing in which the
mystery will necessarily come out of, because their course of conduct put an
end to their probation in heaven, and as that course had the entrance and
working of evil in it to their expulsion from heaven, it is there we are
to find the lost link. You understand me, Mr. Frederick ?" ** Perfectly.
You say it is in connection with their state of probation in heaven that we
are to find out how they lost their original rectitude." " Of course it is,
and now you will see the force of my remark, that every one will reply
there is no other way but that to account for it." " Yes, true, but then the
thing is to find out the origin of their voluntary transgression, their abuse
of privilege so exalted and glorious, when they distinctly knew how sinful
how unreasonable and hurtful and disastrous the consequences, both to
themselves and the moral creation of God, their conduct would prove, and
above all, how dishonoring to their Maker and rightful Sovereign in heaven
it would be. Indeed, the* more I think of it, dear sir, the more inexplicable
it appears to me, and I get quite bewildered over it, and can scarcely think
at all. It is unaccountable, so perplexing, so entirely unreasonable as to
appear utterly impossible, and I begin to ask, can it be true ! Is it not a
■wild delusion ?"

r6o

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

! I

"But, Frederick, it is nevertheless too true, alas i" " Well, it must be
so, because of all the evidences that prove it into which you have gone so
thoroughly, and at the time you v^ere bringing forward these evidences of
the fact, it appeared to me to be unnecessary, for who can deny or disprove
them?"

" Yes, Frederick, the whole creation groans under the burdens that first
transgression laid upon it — aU the misery, all the tears, that ever have
flowed from eyes^nce bright and happy, all the anguish, the agony, the un-
utterable woe, which these six thousand years and ages previous have
recoraed in the experience of the wretched victims of the primal sin, which
none but themselves and heaven know anything of, bear witness to the
awful fact that these once bright and holy intelligences drifted away from
happiness to misery, from glory to ignominy, from holiness to wickedness,
like some gallant bark sailing on the glassy sea, and making a pleasant and
prosperous voyage, springs a leak and sinks down into the abyss, and can
never rise to sail again !

" It is too painful a subject to dwell on, dear P'rederick, and therefore
too true a reality to doubt of. And however difficult to comprehend,
Rouse up and give me your attention a little longer, and perhaps we will
find it out after all. We will have to adopt an expedient, however, to help
us." " And what can that be ? "

'' It is the usual help that comes when everything else fails, as in ex-
ploring expeditions, when all positive kncv, ledge fails us, when only doubt
and difficulty and darkness surroun^! us."

•' What in all the world can that expedient be ?"

" It comes to light up our pathway in the dark, it comes to take us on
its wings, and bear us away into new regions, where the foot of man has
never trodden, and where all is bright I There is no other way to master
the problem, I guess "

Here Frederick half thinks I have gone out of my mind with the in-
tense study and application this deepest, darkest mystery has required.
He eyes me with a sort of strange bewilderment, and I burst into laughter
ano say, " What's :he matter, Frederick, what's the matter ?" " Oh,
nothing," says he, "I was only thinking you were getting out of your line
of thought a bit, and I was puzzled where you would find your expedient."
" Well, Frederick, here it is. It is Imagination."

Imagination must help us where positive statement leaves us. No
sound reasoner can ever object to our calling in the aid of tke imagination
when reason is its guide, and well authenticated facts such as the three
factors I have mentioned are made use c.*", and other available sources of
knowledge are drawn upon. Tor imagination so guided is only a higher
form of reasoning, although it takes the form of speculation. For if specu-
lation be inadmissible where imagination is necessary to reach the invisible,
how can it ever be reached ? Imagination is one of the most exalted fac-
ulties God has endowed us with. Its sphere lies in the invisible — the un-
seen, the spiritual and the eternal. To deny its aid is to shut ourselves out
from the mo.st exalted spheres that we are capable of soaring into. There-
fore, if speculation be denied, our highest knowledge can never be reached,

THL ORIGIN OF SIN.

for if the result of speculation be a paralysis of itself, the consummation of
knowledge is the condition of intellectual barbarism. I claim, therefore,
the legitimate use of imagination in the present case, in keeping with estab<
lished facts, as necessary to the solution of our problem, how Sin could enter
the mind of a holy angel ?

Scenes in Heaven.

In plain words, in order to realize the Probation of th-i angels before
the rebellious ones fell, it is necessary- to conceive of their probation, and to
have the test of it by which they fell.

Now we know that God is pleased to reveal His mind and will front
time to time to the angelic hosts, because in the divine revelation of John
such communications as the two I am about to mention are stated. These
communications relate to the coming events in the Book of the Providence
of God.

In Revelation, chap. v.. we thus read : " And I saw on the right hand
of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, close
sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a
great voice, who is worthy to open 'e book and to loose the seals thereof?
And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to
open the book or to look th irein." It is a divulgence of vast interest. The
Apostle John, like ourseiv^'", was desirous to know things, and he is represent-
ed as weeping because no one was found worthy to open the book.and he was
desired not to weep, because the Lion of the tribe of Judah, which is
Jesus Christ, would unfold the book, and He came and took the book, and
all heaven paid Him their homage, and they sung a new song, saying,
** Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof ; for
Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with Thy blood oui of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation," and so forth. This was
an announcement about the progress of the Gospel in our world.

In another part of the Apocalypse we find this vision, cha]). xv.,
relative to judgments upon the earth reflected by a glossy sea mingled with
fire, and the victorious disciples of Christ that overcame tlie adversary are
represented as standing, by the glassy sea with harps of God, and they sing
the song of triumph, — the &ong of Moses md the Lamb, saying, Great and
marvellous are Thy works, O Lord God Almighty, righteous and true are
Thy ways, Thou King of Saints, Th'.s celebrating Jehovah's praise for
the conciuest tliey had g:t'ned over the beast and over his image, and
showing that heaven is much interested in our best interests and what tran-
spires here is recorded tliere and calls forth songs of praise to God the
Lanil). •

.rl I

!•

ie un-

iSOUt

"here-
[ched,

THE lALL OF rHl. AM ( f.S I'kOIIAlUA- FORETOLD TO IHEM.

It is conceivable that a divine conimurication was niade respecting
the creation and fall and redem[)tion of man lo the holy angels
before our world was formed.

And it is to this announfcnK-nt that I utUu h i^reat importance as giving

l62

THE GREAT WANT OK THE AGE.

US the solution of the problem and requiring the exercise of the imagination
to reach it.

The points to be very guarded in are the substance of the revelation
given and the manner of it, such as is calculated not to diminish but in-
crease the holy fervor of supreme love to God, such as is calculated not to
weaken but strengthen their steadfastness and devotedness and loyalty to
their rightful and sovereign Lord, — to awaken vigilance because danger is
near, to kindle their zeal for the honor and glory of God in his service and
prove the test of their future career in their being advanced to higher
honors and richer crowns of glory or to deep and eternal disgrace and
misery. — And nothing in the revelation in the least calculated to have the
effect of awakening envy or jealousy or to precipitate them into lebellion
and revolt, but to test their zeal, their faith, their love, and to be for their
highest interests and progress in their moral perfection.

I''or it is wrong to think the holy angels are beyond increase of know-
ledge and increase of moral perfection, since they are neither possessed of
absolute perfection like God nor can ever be without progression both in
knowledge and moral excellence on the principle that God is infinite and
they are finite and it cannot be otherwise.

Far be the thought from every mind that God ever tempted any one of
his creatures to sin in all his condescending communications and inter-
course with his creatures as their probation is founded on his infinite equity
and love.

THE ANNOUNCEMENT CONCEIVED TO BE GIVEN IN HEAVEN.

In keeping with these conditions stated and far more in the infinite
essence to guard the announcement and make it worthy of his immutable
and glorious perfection, let us soar away to heaven and see its glory and
hear its rapturous songs and realize some great and wonderful anrwunce-
ment given relative to the fall of the angels.

It is a high court day in the royal palace of heaven. The Son of God
in his uncreated glory appears in the likeness of the son of man (as de-
scribed by John in the book of Revelation, Ch. i. 12-15,) sitting in glory in-
effably bright on his exalted throne, a vast assembly of all the hierarchs of
heaven are there representing all its innumerable thrones and dominions
and principalities and powers, clothed with majesty, in robes of resplendent
brightness and beauty, and their countenances beaming with intelligence
and love and gracefulness surpassing the splendor of the meridian sun, sit-
ting on their magnificent thrones. But the Saviour in his glory increate
infinitely outshines them all. And now and for some time

'■'There 7vas SiUnce in Heaven^

Deepcot silent tliought and fervid emotions and wonder now fill the
minds of all these angelic hosts above. They anticipate a new and great
revelation from tlie great eternal Son of God that is now to be vouchsafed
to them. They are searching out what it will Ixe. They know it will be of
surpassing interest and of infinite moment. A glorious song is sung in

!11!

THE ORIGIN OF SIN,

163

lions
[dent
lence
sit-
teate

the
treat
lafed
k of
in

deepest adoration of the great eternal Son of God with harps of gold — a
song of praise and of triumph, resembling that which Moses and the chil-
dren of Israel sang when Pharoah and his hosts were drowned in the Red
Sea, saying, " I will sing unto the Lord for He hath triumphed gloriously "
— in anticipation of the conquest over the foe that is to arise in the universe
of God to dethrone the eternal Son of God, the majesty of heaven and
earth !

The Saviour opens His mouth, and words flow forth with grace so
sweet, and in grandeur so great, yet with tidings so wonderful as to exceed
all they had ever thought or heard before, that all their hearts are full of sym-
pathy with Christ going forth to conquer the foe, and with zeal for His victor-
ious conquest they all unite in triumphal song, as from blessed voices sweet
uttering joy, and heaven's high arches ring with their loud hozannas, blend-
ed, however, with deep personal emotions of sympathy with their dishonored
monarch and concern for themselves at the prospect of a malicious foe in-
vading heaven to dethrone their King and endanger their own peace and
safety, and tli.-i; mighty foe to be one of themselvt and thus they sing :

" Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts— the whole earth is full of
His glory '• — Who shall ever dare from among us to rise up in rebellion
against Thee ? O Lord, the Lord who is strong and mighty ? He shall
ever be, He shall ever be, our <fz;^/--glorious, our ever-glorious KING, and
we His most loyal. His most loyal subjects for ever and ever ! For He
alore is entitled to our supremest worship and service and praise !
None can ever dare Him to battle, ' r lift up their puny arm of re-
bellion against Him I For He is the i .urd — the Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle ! Non^; can ever conquer Him ! He is the
King of Glory ! and nothing but victory and renown can attend the
goings forth of our adorable King, for He is the Lord of Hosts, and
terrible is His name ! He is the Lord God Almighty. He will triumph.
He will triumph, over all His foes ! He will triumph over all His foes, for
holy IS His name ! H holy, holy, great and mighty is our King ! He
is the King of Glory, the Lord of Hosts is His name. Allelujah
AUelujah, Amen."

The announcement made bythe eternal Son of God to all the assembled
hosts of heaven on this great (Kcasion of His revealings of His Providence,
let us reverently conceive to have been to the effect :

" That a new world would be formed as the residence of a ne7o order
of creation, very different from them. They would not all be created at
once, but gradually increase from the first two of that race to such a num
ber that no man among them woulJ be able to number. Man is the name
to be given to that new creation, being made out of the ground as to his
body, but formed after the Divine image as to his intelligent mind. That
in that world a great conftact between good and evil would be waged, and a

-■11

164

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

great question decided as to Hi's own rights of sole monarchy over the uni-
verse. That man, created in the Divine image, would be tempted by one to
disobey the will of God, and fall from his state of happiness and holiness.
That the Son of God would go down to their habitation and proclaim a
Saviour, and predict the doom of the tempter, who should be one from
AMONG THEMSELVES, who would Hse up against the Son of God in heaven !"
And at this revelation all the angelic hosts are filled with consternation and
alarm and astonishment ! " That He would restrict and punish that
seducer, and take up the race Himself as the special object of His care and
solicitude, unite Himself to it by making the nature of man the temple of
the Deity ; and in single combat as a man. He would contest the claim of
riglit to that alienated offspring, anr' suffer and expiate their guilt through
His own death on an ignominious cross ! That He would thereby conquer
His antagonist, and through the instrumentality of men specially raised up
and (lualified to make known His purpose of grace, many sons and
daughters would be brought to heaven, who should rise to the highest
honors in heaven, and the Son of God would Himself sit as the Son of
Man in the throne of heaven, and the saved who through Him overcame
the adversary of God and man, would sit with Him on His throne," — or
something, probably, to this effect, as the sacred Scriptures suggest to us.

Misdirected Zeal Nozv Begins to Manifest Itself in Heaven.

A mighty prince among the angels, whom we shall call Lucifer, in his
zeal for the honor of the Son of God, begins to entertain a thought, he regards
the condescension of the eternal Son of God as too great a condescension for
Him to stoop to, and thinks the enterprise might be transferred to o le of
their own number, and that he himself, if permitted, would undertake to
be man's deliverer, would be willing for Christ to take His nature upon
him for the pleasure he would have in saving man, and for the glory of God
in undertaking it, r.nd he revolves and revolves the matter in his mind, and
says, like Peter, " Far be it from Th^e. Lord ! Let me go instead ! I will
go and die for Thee." He thinks of the prize to be won, and he desires to
win it, and t)ecoiiie heaven's king. He informs his large principality of it.
They approve of his zeal for God, and perceiving how it would exalt their
chief, they unite with him in the proposal, nay, they insist upon it being
done as a wise, benevolent and dutiful thing to be undertaken, and approve
of his proposal and intention.

The Saviour informs Lucifer that He Himself must alone undertake it.
At this the prince is displeased, and his flaming zeal for the honor of the
Most High is changed into flaming zeal against Him, and there is war in
heaven instantaneously, among the angels, which results in the expulsion
of the rebel angels, witli their prince, from heaven.

Reviewing flic Conception.

I don't know, Mr. Frederick, how niany objections and faults and ex-
ceptions will be made aiul taken against the above conceptioii of the prob-
able wa}- sir cnie into existence in the mind of that once so great, so ex-

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

165

pheir
jeing
Irove

te:t.
the
in
iion

ex-

alted, so zealous an angel of God, as he who rose up in rebellion against the
Son of God — who is the only revealed God in heaven and on earth. But
I know that thr re is a great deal connectei with the conception that might
go to strengthen it in its bearings upon the *' solution of the mystery " of
evil and the mystery of godliness— God-man manifested in the flesh, seen
of angels, etc. Of course the way 1 have put the case partakes of the im-
perfection of our fallen nature, and I almost feel afraid of my conception,
lest it be at variance with Milton's suggestion, when he says :

" Heaven is too high for thee to know
What passes there, be lowly, wise."

Mr. Frederick says : — " Nothing can be done without some one think-
ing it is at fault and the most ignorant and empty heads are always the most
conceited and the first and loudest in their talk ; it matters not what it is,
they will have their self-assertions made for they like to hear themselves
speak and offer up the incense of self-adulation to themselves so that it is
best never to mind them."

That's true enough, Frederick, but I want you to tell me how the state-
ment, given by way of a supposed communication to the angels in heaven,
approves itself to your mind, and how it may possibly give us the key to
the solution of the mystery and if there be any valid objection to it ? Does
it fulfil the conditions that were stipulated ?

" I see nothing whatever in the conception of the statement," says
Frederick, " to offend the most fastidious taste or to warrant any valid ob-
jection, because it fulfils the conditions required in it to preserve the free
agency of the exalted intelligences in heaven, to bind them to the throne of
God in their loyalty and love, and nothing in it to induce disaffection, alien-
ation and disobedience to his all-wise and unerring will. It is free from
objection I consider on the side of the philosophy of mental science, trac-
ing the feelings to the thoughts and the actions to the feelings. The men-
tal law of suggestion with reflection is clearly follov ed and what serves the
purpose in view — the issue corresponds with the thing sought for in the ter-
rible crisis in the fall of the rebel angels and its consequences. So that out
of their probation comes the solution of the problem and the conception is
the key hanging upon that link — a link lost to them and lost among men.
The basis of the conception of free communication of the purposes of God
in heaven is laid in his recorded revelations in the Apocalypse, and the bold-
ness of the conception being kept within the limits of the recorded facts of
the Bible and within the sphere of probability, not to speak of possibilities,
justifies the moral courage by which the conreption is distinguished."

" But, Frederick, what I wish to know is, wherein it is at fault in any
way or open to objection, for mind, it is only a theory and as such it should
be regarded, and not regarded as a dogma but kept where all theories should
be always kept, sub judice, in an even balance of the mind."

"Well, the only thing wanting, I think," says Frederick, ** is for you,
sir, to show and open out the process of the solution, how the known quan-
tities have readied or enabled you to reach the unknown quantity especially
relating to "zeal" turned into "envy," and to produce further confirmations
of the result arrived at as being in accordance with sound reasoning, for

i66

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

■*i

even should your conception after all be not the solution of the mystery,
if you can demonstrate further the probability of it, that is all any reasonable
mind can ask, smce to prove the absolute certainty ot it the high require-
ment, of the Word of God, as a voucher, is needed.

'* While let me add," says Frederick, " the line of thought like this, if
it does not reach the absolute fact in the case, off/ie origin of sin in God's
holy universe, it spreads light as it goes on other subjects of vast importance
which cannot but do good for enlightening the mind."

" The demands you make, Frederick, are just, and I am bound to meet
them, but the time required for their full discussion is not mine to give,
other duties are pressing their urgent claims and therefore it is only a brief
glance at these demands I can give."

" Well, you will recollect how I proceeded to deal with this grave and
profound question — the deepest of all mysteries, ^^ How sin could enter
into the mind of a holy angel ?" when there was no sin in existence in God's
universe, and might never have been but for the sin committed, I first of
all endeavored to establish two propositions : ist, That whatever that sin
was, it was " voluntary in its nature," and 2d, " An abuse of privilege."
Here I left the subject of probation, but it was only to come back to it re-
inforced by searching for something with which to look at the probation
under its light, and that I found in " zeal turning to envy " as I considered.
And to make the working of envy to bear upon the case it was here required
to show, I St, how envy was a great root-evil in human society — next, how
a parallel seemed to run with it in the course of the adversary in our world
from the beginning, and lastly, how zeal and envy are synonymous when
zeal is turned from good to evil. And thus equipped by the digression, I
returned to the lost link of the probation and then by the help of the imagi-
nation saw the key hanging from that lost link to open the mystery in the
supposed communication given in heaven which through misdirected zeal
turning itself into envy, for " zeal of God without knowledge " becomes
injurious, and may have led to the defection, the apostacy and the
ruin of the rebel angels. So that from the three known facts stated
connected with zeal we reach the unknown quantity or fact, now
supposed to be made known, or perhaps a close proximity to it.
For whether by divine revelation or otherwise, whatever may have
been the immediate occasion or circumst?ince that led to their fall -
from being pure, upright and holy and obedient they became the
opposite, it is certainly correct for us to conclude it was in some way
effected through the flame of zeal being changed into the flame of envy,
— mixed with presumption, pride, ignorance and rebellion, for "where
there is envying there is strife, confusion and every evil work." And I ap-
prehend it is just here that a great deal that is unknown will become known to
prove that the great conflict in Keaven arose between the adversary and the
Son of God for the tempter made this his ground of attack continually
against Christ, " If thou art the Son of God," etc. " Christ was manifested
to destroy the works of the devil " — his works of envy and falsehood.

The communication supposed to have been given, was of course given with
that infinitude of mind in God which transcends the grasp of created intel-

way
pvy,
ere
ap-
nto
the
ally
ted

nth
itel-

THE ORIf.IN OF SIN.

167

lects.but which the infinite mind so wonderfully and perfectly works in its own
almighty orbit without in the least interference, — in all its prescience, in all its
eternal purposes of infinite wisdom, rectitude and love, — with the free, vol-
untary, responsible agency of his rational creatures, and while to our weak,
limited minds it may appear to interfere, it is just as impossible as it is for the
absolute independency and sublime monarchy of the Most High, whose
' spirit is a free spirit,' to become dependent upon his creatures for the per-
petuity of his existence, while he is as independent of his creatures as the
sun in the heavens is independent of the earth to make it shine. But like
the sun which gives us light and never consults us in the matter, God gives
us light unasked for, for our good, and humbles himself to Lehold the
things in heaven and to hold fellowship with them and to come and taber-
nacle among men to make us happy and kind and pure like himself, that
through his association wit' us there may be friendship and fellowship and
assimulation in us to Him : It is a lelic of the fall in us ever to fancy
there can be the least interference on the part of God for the limitation of
our liberty, or the slightest infringement upon our free agency when he
seeks us to make us thereby free indeed ; for then^ it is in harmony with the
laws of our mental constitution which he has implanted within us, for
*' He is the freeman whom the truth makes free and all are slaves besides."

It is equally untenable in relation to the angels for us to imagine that
they had to fall to serve any purpose he could not have done without.
What! Did God require the angels *to do evil that good might come?'
(mee genoito) " God forbid !" What a narrow contracted soul that man
must have in him ever to think so ! Nay, more, it is making God a fiend
by the horrid thought,and to utter the words of blasphemy when that thought
is put into words !

If the angels had never fallen and man had never fallen the resources
of the infinite mind would not have been in the least diminished. All na-
ture proves in myriads of forms the boundlessness of his research, the infini-
tude of his resources, and eternity will only serve to prove that He is
" past finding out !"

And if he has been pleased to deal so mercifully and patiently with his
fallen angels and with fallen man and has at infinite cost of expense and
suffering evinced hi. prerogative ' to bring good out of evil,' would it not
have been infinitely better had there been no Such cost and no such fall
among angels and men ?

Oh,- Frederick, the illogical way people draw inferences' from the pro-
cedure of the infinite mind has damned the progress of religion beyond all
calculation !

TWO OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE THEORY REFUTED.

Mr. Frederick says, to recall and repeat, ** The process of the prob-
lem is as useful as to rehearse a problem in Euclid after it is solved. It en-
ables us to test afresh the grounds of the argument whether they are ad-
missable and sound, and to judge of the conclusion whether it be correct.
As to the grounds or data you have taken care to establish them previously,
and as to the conclusion it follows I think legitimately enough."

■ 1

1 68

THK GREAT WANT OF THK AOE.

^ "There are however two objections to upset the theory, if these objec-
tions could be made valid which you have already labored to show the
hAUowness of, but nevertheless deserve here at this point to be, I think,
considered, viz: " The Predestination of evil from all eternity," and that
" God is indirectly the author of etiil."

** These two objections have taken a firm hold of some minds and your

* theory,' while it is meant to overthrow them, I should be glad if you
would grapple with them ' hand to hand ' and ' box them well ' and lay them
prostrate in the dust never to hold up their ugly heads again."

"Ah, Frederick, it is easier said than done. Like Goldsmith's
" Domine," how many are to be met with,

Who if you argue with, against their will,
Although quite beaten, they argue still.

" I despair altogether of such people ever learning anything. They are
so dogmatic that they have no docility, and without docility, that is open-
ness to conviction and candor of mind, there can be no adv.,ncement in true
learning and excellent knowledge. This is just another aspect of human

• supe^ciality * with an awful amount of ' cheek ' in it. It is best I think
not to argue with such, for they are past improvement and enormously self-
conceited as all dogmatists are, I don't say * dominies ' are, but ' dogmatists,'
they are more like dogs than men, they can only snarl, and bark and bite ;
and it is best to keep as far away as you can from them.

It is the best evidence that one has reached truth when he can pro-
duce sound reasons for embracing it, and these reasons should be the only
defense, not any flimsy nonsense like — "It is so, because / think so;" and
" It must be so, what I say. because / believe it." The grounds of the convic-
tions here, consist not in the soundness of their data, but in the weakness
of their supposed truth. The former is the " verax " and the latter the
" verum." Don't you see the importance of this distinction ?" " Yes, I am
beginning to see it, like a light shining in a dark place." " What do you
mean by that, Frederick?" " I mean by it, that all seem to me to be in the
dark about it." " Well, you get out of the dark ard keep out it. For it is
one thing to have a firm grip of truth as truth ; and quite another to be
grasping at a shadow which is only a figment of the fancy, a delusion and a
snare, which the adversary is getting many to believe in, each after their
own fashion, to their injury."

" But an exposure of the holJowness of the two objections I have
stated may be useful to truth-seekers and fbr the good of the rising race ?"
" Well, Frederick, I will do anything for them. Tha false ground taken in
the dogma that " Evil is a divine pre.lestinaiion from all eternity " arises
from a wrong view of the doctrine of "predestination" in connection with
the " divine decrees." Chiefly from the error of viewing God as one of our-
selves, and also from the received opinion of many, that prescience in the
divine mind depends on divine predestination of events, which is absurd.
For this reason — the two separate orbits involved, which I mentioned be-
fore. Every rational, responsible creature has one orbit, and God has His.

To apply this to our subject. If the sin of the fallen angels was

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

169

*' voluntary in its nature" and was "an abuse of privilege of the highest
order," it was their own act and deed, and no predetermination or toreor-
dination of the infinitely Holy God ; because I have proved this already
to be an impossibility, approaching to blasphemy since sin is so diverse
from and contrary to the nature of God — so destructive to the existence of
all being and happiness and harmcny in God's holy universe — and so in-
finite an offense and sorrow to God and utterly suln^ersive of his authority.
Its remedy^ therefore, is as wonderful as God is great and past finding out
in his perfections.

DIVINE PREDESTINATION AND DIVINE PRESCIENCE DISTINGUISHED RELATIVE

TO FUTURE EVENTS.

In the contemplation of the sublime doctrine of the " Divine Decrees,"
Frederick, we should guard against confusing the divine predestination of
events with the divine prescience of events, as they are events that are dis-
tinct and separate in their character and consequently distinct in the divine
mind. They fall under the "decretive will" and the "permissive will" of God.
Not that God has two wills. But the events are different in themselves,
and therefore differently viewed, as we ourselves view the good and the bad
with different sentiments. The good are viewed with divine approval, the
bad with divine disapproval. Regarding good events or actions, God is their
author essentially, as he is the fountain head and source of all good — as Christ
said, " there is none good but God," absolutely, so that he creates or pro-
motes and furthers all that is good in the creature and brings it to a suc-
cessful issue and is always ready and pleased to do so. Under this, falls
the divine predestination of events.

Regarding bad events or acti*^ ns God suffers them to come into exis-
tence, disapproves of them and visits them with punishment according to
" His determinate council and foreknowledge " of them, in the exercise of
his infinite wisdom, overflowing love and influential control, and in accord-
ance with the free agency and moral responsibiUty of his intelligent crea-
tion. He does not in any way whatever encourage or sanction them or
approve of them or in any way whatever is He implicated in them !

On the grave question of God tempting any one to sin, * the living
oracles ' have uttered no uncertain or ambiguous sense, like the heathen
oracles of the pagan divinities. In the inspired volume the remotest in-
sinuation of any such dark suspicion is met with the firmest remonstrance
and debarred and shut out and condemned ; for such a dark suspicion,
such a wicked thought is sin, a base slander against the character of the in-
finitely " Holy One who inhabiteth eternity." All that is good is essen-
tially from God, all that is evil is essentially from the creature and the crea-
ture alone.

Let me give you one passage from the divine record to prove the im-
possibility of God tempting any one to sin, in the sense now under consid-
eration to implicate God in any sin ever committed by any creature simi-
lar to the adversary in his tempting power, or in the slightest degree in any
manner or form or shape whatever.

■ < \

170

1HE GREAT WANT OF IHK AGE.

In u

To prevent all such wrong thoughts, it is written : 'Let do man
(" no cuf," in the original, (meedeis) neither man nor angel) say when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God ; for God cannot be tempted with evil
things and he himself tempteth no man — ^oudena) no one ; "but each one
(Hekastos) is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed,
Jas. i., X2-14. In the case under consideration the prince of the rebel
angels was " drawn away and enticed by his own lust," of envy, ambition
and pride into rebellion against God, as we have seen his sin was self-
induced and self-originated. " He stood not in the truth." "He along
with his confederates retained not of themselves their original condition ;
but forsook their principality of their own accord " — such is as close and
faithful a rendering of the original as I can give. And our own experience
confirms the fact that we are the authors of our own sins in our voluntary
departures from rectitude, of which we are perfectly conscious, in losing
the sovereignty, the right dominion over ourselves and m ceasing to be
true to ourselve' , for to be true to self, in the right sense, is to be true to
all besides — since we can only know falsehood by truth and can only know
what is wrong by what is right and the violation <i{ rectitude by the know-
ledge of rectitude, as I showed when speaking of the Moral Sense.

The holy angels before they fell, having far clearer views than we can
possibly have of right and wrong, — their defection, alienation and rebellion
was all thf ir ownheinous act and deed — all this repetition is required to meet
the hypotiesir, now under consideration — nan iy, '^ the divine predestination
ofwhats ever comes to pass beitig necessary, <. // is thought^ in order to the
divine f.^rek'.owledge oj whatsoever comes to pass.'^

With the infinite mind of God this hypothesis of requiring God to fix
events before being able to know them will be seen to be erroneous, be-
cause the divine omniscience can know the events that are going to be
fixed by others, to whom he has delegated the extraordinary right and
greatness of free agency accompanied with responsibility, as well as the
events in the exercise of his own sovereignty he has Himself fixed from
eternity. Therefore there is an important distinction betM'een God's pre-
destination of events and his prescience of events, which distinction is very
much overlooked and disregarded and leads to wrong conclusions upon
most vital points.

THE DISTINCTION ILLUSTRATED.

Take this illustration. Suppose you are informed that on a certain
night your house will be entered by a band of burglars known to be very
desperate and determined men, who will either have your jewelry and
money or your life, or both. That night you have everything prepared to
frustrate their design. You have constables and firearms all ready. At
the dead hour of that very night they arrive and proceed to their villainy.
You allow them to come into your house and to rob you of your jewelry
and your money and when they are walking off with the spoil, exulting at
their easy procured prize, they are arrested, put into chains and committed
to prison. Did your foreknowledge of the robbers, of their intended at-
tack upon your valuable treasures, y?^: their horrid burglary in their minds ^

THE OKIi.rN or SIN,

'7»

Was it not their own act and deed and none of yours ? So is it with the
case in point. God's prescience of the conduct of the rebel angels did not
require his predestination of it ! But it required his " determinate council
and foreknowledge " to enable him to defeat the attempt to rob God of his
property, his rights and his precious jewels, just as your foreknowledge and
previous council ano arrangement protected what belonged to you. This
is perhaps the reason the devil is called by Christ a "thief and a robber
and a murderer," as he was nothing short of all this in his lawless invasion
in the royal palace of heaven as well as in the euibowered groves of
paradise.

So in like manner the passage quoted to support this hypothesis of
(lod decreeing the wickedness of the Jews and of Judas serves to illustrate
the distinction I refer to between the permissive will of God and his de-
cretive will, viz.:

When the Apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost accounted for the
outpouring of the Divine Spirit and his marvellous agency accompany I's; it
in the divine afflatus and gilts of tc-jues, making the Jews think ;hat
Christ's apostles were all intoxicated. Peter said : " Ye men of Judaea
and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken
unto my words. For these are not drunken, as ye suppose ; seeing it is
but the third hour of the day (nine o'clock in the morning) but this is that
which was prophecied by Josel," etc. * * * Then he brings home to their
consciences their horrid crime and says — "Yemen of Israel hear these
words : Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God," etc. — " being deliv-
ered up bv the determinate connsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have by the
hand of lawless men crucified and slain." (.^cts ii. 1423). You will see
that the aforesaid hypothesis is entirely without support from this passage,
because this fculest deed — the most awful murder ever committed on
earth was their own act and deed. God foresaw t, he suffered it, and by
the very means which Satan, through these wicked men sought to extin-
guish the Saviour and his cause, God foreordained from all eternity to be
the means of extinguishing Satan and his causi. ultimately, and crown the
son of man in heaven as Lord of all.

It is therefore necessary to be very careful in thinking of these pro-
found matters of the " divine decrees " belonging to the infinite mind — to
think of them accurately and to guard against confounding things that dif-
fer, lest we charge God foolishly or strip his responsible creatures of their
responsibility." "I see the whole now clearly," says Frederick. "Well I
will now say a little in behalf of the theory."

The Theory of the Fall of the Angels Defended on the Ground of the Great

Principh' it Upholds, and the Collateral Evidences

by 7vhich it is Supported.

That principle is, the probation of the angels in heaven, a principle
laid deep as we have seen, in the foundations of Equity. The test I ad-
duced was simply designed as an illustration of that principle, and however
imperfect, the principle remains the same.

^f'

! t»

••tl

1 1

173

THE (;REAr WANT OF THE AOE.

It is certainly little that is given in the divine volume touching th«
occasioft of the fall of the angels, as ihe Scriptures have been written not for
angels but lor us men, and teach " the ethics of human life," and not of
angelic life.

From the silences of Scripture we can learn much.

Had the angels that fell never have fallen they niight have been with-
out probation as fttr as we could know. The tact of their fall proves it.
But to hear some how they speak, they would never have been placed on
probation at all nor man either, because they think God should have pre-
vented it

For Go'' to have prevented the possibility of their fall or man's fall, it
would have required on the part ol God either to have made all his rational
creation absolutely perject^ but as there is none absolutely perfect but God,
and as there can be no mure than one absolute Supreme Being, the rational
creatioii could i.ot be absolutely perfect j or if God had made his rational
creation without probation to prevent the possibility of their falling, then
they would have been like stars without orbits of their own to move in, like
organisms without functions, with stationary instincts like the beasts that
periih, and would hive had an existence without improvement, a being
without progress, like a machine I

Man's glory is that he is a free agent. It is this which invests him
with responsibility, for wherein lies his responsibility his monarchy con-
sists, and are not angels greater than men ?

But angels could not be superior to men, which we know they are,
unless they were free responsible agents, for men are. It is because their
responsibility is greater, that they are superior to men^ and their responsi-
bility is greater because their capacities are greater than man's.

To whom much is given, among men, of the same much is required —
a manager of a large concern among men is more responsible than some
little clerk in the counting house. This principle is applicable to the higher
orders of ihe intelligent creation.

The rationale or ground of reason o\ probation proves its desirableness
and equity. It makes life exceedingly desiral le and worth living for, be*
cause probation is based oh the law of progress nd promotion.

To the superior in trlligences it holds out an ennobling prize — the prize
of higher excellence, higher capacity, higher participation in the endless
life ot God, and this is the only way by which they can possibly reach the
end of their being. As it is with regard to ourselves the end of our being
is assimilation to God. And in the infinite nature of God the superior
intelligences. have 'scope and verge enough ' to risi higher and higher in
knowledge and excellence, in capacity and perfection, in honor and glory
and blessedness through the unending ages of eternity.

Therefore God has placed them on the principle oi probation and trial
not to fall, but to rise for their own immortal good and a higher ptize the
holy angels could not seek ! But alas, some of these holy argels did tall by
their own voluntary transgression, that voluntary transgression must have
had some cause or another. I have ventured to attribute it to ' envy ' and
have shown how zeal when perverted is the equivalent of zeal in a bad

THK ORKIIN OF SIN.

tfi

cense and is called " envy." In the parallel case of a holy mind becoming
«inful in the case of our first parents, envy was the cause. They sa^' the
forbidden fruit to be desired, they envied it, partook of it and fell.

Is it not probable that the mind of Satan " lusted to envy "and fell,
in consequence ? The pride and ambition mentioned in Scripture as
the condemnation of the devil may therefore have been produced through
' envy.' He knew from his own experience how most successfully to tempt
and ensnare — hew to induce evil into a holy mind and the facts of tie case
reveal that he distilled the poison of " envy " and succeeded. And all
history proves that there is nothing more prolific of evil as an originating
cause than " envy." Indeed it has in it the essence of all sin, and gives
us the very origin and process of sin in the mind. First the object al-
though forbidden is viewed as desirable for several reasons, next resolution
fostered by self>will, pride ambition fans the rising flame, then all conse-
quences are disregarded and the sin is committed and then the penalty
comes as certain as the day follows the night, as the cause accounts for
the effect.

M'^

T/ie Hccne in Heaven Paralled by Another Scene on Earth.

A very memorable scene indeed took place in an upper room in Jeru-
salem, like history repeating itself, for both Christ and Satan were there.
The Saviour was surrounded by all his attached disciples as in heaven by
his loyal angels. Only one of these disciples was disaffected — only one
among the angels of exalted rank was disaffected — that one disciple was
his adversary and traitor, that one exalted angel was his adversary and
traitor. Judas as Christ's traitor had many confederates on earth. The
devil had, us the Son of God's traitor, many angels as his confederates in
heaven. Tlie sin by which Judas fell was covetousness ; the sin the devil
if\i by was the same sin, for envy is covetousness.

Christ did not in any way induce Judas to become his adversary nor
to betray him, during all his sojourn with him on earth, neither did Christ
induce Satan to become his adversary or to betray his confidence a)l the
time of his sojourn in heaven ; Judas betrayed Christ to his enemies for
the sake of a liitle paltry sum of money that he could not spend, and did
him no good, he afterwards committed suicide. Satan betrayed his master to
his confederates for the sake of a paltry gain which can yield them no good,
but result in their ruin and eternal misery.

Christ knew beforehand what Judas was going to do, and told him of
it in presence of His apostles in the upper room at Jerusalem, " One of
you sitting with Me at supper shall betray Me," etc. They were all
amazed, and asked, "Is it I ?"

Christ announced beforehand to His angels in heaven, His high mes-
sengers, that one of them would become His adversary and betray Him,
and they were all amazed, and made a similar enquiry in all probability,
for even Judas made the enquiry.

The announcement was calculated to deter Judas, and so was it calcu-
lated to deter Satan. After the announcement Satan entered into the mind

!,;

174

'IHK GREAT WANT OF IHi; AGK.

?f*1

of judas on earth ; after Christ's announcemenf, sin entered into the mind
of Satan in heaven. Christ's announcement had nothing in it to induce
Juuas to betray Him to his confederates ; Christ's announcement in heaven
had as little in it to induce sin to ^nter the mind of satan, and influence
him to misrepresent Christ to his confederates in heaven ; — Satan was " the
father of the lie," he was a murderer from the beginning of his fatherhood
of lies, and it is a remarkable thing, the word * begitming' has no deBnite
article in the original, therefore it point<! back to a beginning of a remoter
period than the lie with which he roistepresented the Divine character to
our first parent , when he was a murderer, for he had in him the heart of
the murderer in heaven before he left it. So that the conception I have
ventured to make holds good in all these particulars, besides the one I fur-
ther mentioned, that Satan desired Christ to take his nature upon Him, in-
stead of the nature of man, which verifies aa obscure Scripture, that
" Christ took not on Iiini the nature of angela, but the seed of Abraham"
(Heb. ii., i6) whic'a He Himself was predicted to be, as the promised
•♦seed."

RESULTS GAINED BY THE THEORY SUBMITTED.

1. It proves that God is not the author of sin.

2. It disproves the absurdity of sin being eternal.

3. It traces sin to its real author, *' the father of the lie."

4. It reveals the probation of the angels, laid in equity.

5. It proves the primal sin to be self-induced, and the act and deed
of satan.

6. It demonstrates the eternal Son of God, the object of his attack.

7. It shows that only " One " of His exalted princes fell, with His
angels.

8. It proves that Satan was "the slanderer and liar and traitor of
God."

9. It shows how much evil one sin can produce.

10. It proves what an evil and hurtful thing sin is, and how unreason-
able.

IT. It traces the origin of sin to holy zeal degenerating into "envy."

12. It l:»aches a great lesson to beware lest we have wrong zeal for
God.

13. It proves that the universe is ruled by a holy being.

14. It shows how wrong it is to trace imperfection to a perfect being.

15. It sheds I'ght on the whole Providential Government of God.

16. It makes known the inf?:iite forbearance of God towards His
creatures.

1 7. It proves that sin brings its own punishment and penalty.
It reveals the foreknowledge of God as distinct from His predes-

18.
tination.

19.

20.
creaturep

It proves that God is capable of fufilling His own mind and will.
Tt demonstrates the free agency and responsibility of His rational

THK ORIGIN OF SIN.

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While it gives us an' insight into the amazing resources of the eternal
mind that are truly infinite, snd sheds light on the greatness of the reme-
dial scheme of redemption as not confined in its issues to our little world,
but that they extend through all the universe of intelligent creatures, and are
lasting as eternity. And it reminds us that our o^xv probation is sadly over-
looked, and that its full recognition is " the one great want of the
age" And to "beware of covetousness " and ''envy!" And this
leads us now to consider the next question, Mr. Frederick.

(4.) What Consequences Followed the Fall of the Rebel Angels in

Heaven and on Earth.

I — The Rebel Angels were Cast Out of Heaven and Put Under

Restraint.

Heaven was no place for them to remain any longer in.

For heaven is the dwelling jilace of the most High, where He reveals
His face and where there are exalted pleasures for evermore, which the pure
and holy can only enjoy, for without holiness no cue can see the Lord in
His glory and resplendent effulgence, in which He dwells.

The rebel angels unfitted themselves to find any pleasure there, it was
a greater hell than the one they we*-? cast down into, although that is only
an abode ot misery beyond all conception. By their own awful crime they
were disqualified, like criminals, to oe in the society of well-conducted
citizens. And were intent, like those miserable creatures, upon committing
more crime. They* were as anxious to leave heaven as God was decided
upon expelling them from heaven. Neither were they deprived of life nor
of the opportunity they sought to leave heaven for to follow out the bent of
their own wicked devices, but put within the length of their chains, in
which they were bound, as men chain up lions, bears and tigers in a public
exhibition, for satan and the rest were the Spectacle of holy angels from
heaven. Presumably the end was to try their strength upon the plundering
and destruction of the new creation of the. race of man, and presumably the
point of debate in heaven, our world therefore became the battle field of
conflict between satan -and Christ on earth, who should be the greatest
— who should be the conqueror and the world's King and God ? So that
the necessity of the conflict was a foregone conclusion that could not be re-
called, and of such tremendous issues that the oft-repeated objection and
sneer that our world was too insignificant for its Creator to bow His
heavens and come down into — never thinking that it was required to con-
test its rightful Sovereign, and which objection is as frivolous on the part
of its authors — the sceptics, as their defense can make it, because the real
nature of the case is wrongly viewed, inasmuch as the nature of a battle
and its importance among nations on earth never depends upon the kind
of battle field where the contest is waged.

For it is a notorious fact that all the greatest battles have been fouj^ht
and won upon the most insignificant battle fields, and their localities have
never added anything to the prowess of the arms on either side of the com-

IHE GREAT WANT OF THE AC.E.

batants, but always been derogatory to the splendor of the achievements
gained therein. So that the once bright and burning seraph that flamed
in zeal before Jehovah's throne and the Son of God whom he worshipped
in rapt devotion, who came down from his exalted throne to contest this
greatest of all battles is not for a moment to be considered in the least
affected by the /oca/e where that battle was fought and won, because it was a
conflict between the greatest and highest interests of the moral creation —
between truth and error, love and envy, life and death — not of a mere tem-
porary nature, as mortal life and bodily death, but of an eternal and spirit-
ual life and death, these were the interests at stake, and they are of such
magnitude <,hat no human and even no angelic mind is competent to com-
prehend th' m,so that though the sovereign creator of all the millions of suns
and s^^stems that are beyond the " ken " of the most enlightened astrono-
mer and the grasp of any human mind to conceive, and though he was
equal with God and it was no prize for him to be owned as such tor he was
that before creation dawned, for his motiye and his end justified his laying
aside the robes of his uncreated royalty and assuming the meek and lowly
garments of our humanity, having declined the angelic vestment he became
man that in the very nature in which the adversary sought to gain his vic-
tory and rise to higher conqu^sts even the monarchy of the uiiverse, the
Son of God himself conqi' ;red the usurper ! It was by the results of that
victorious conquest, not by the garments he wore nor by the obscure and
paltry dim spot called earth, that the battle is to be estimated by.

Places where the greatest battles have been fought and won, as I have
said, always have been distinguished for their insignificance. Cannae,
where Hannibal conquered the Romans and slew 40,000 of patrician blood
and sent three bushels of rings belonging to the slain, in proof of whom
they were he had slain, everyone knows, who knows anything of. Roman
history, was a poor, pitiful village of Naples.

Marathon, where Miltiades with 10,000 brave Athenians routed an
army of Persians consisting of 100,000 foot and 10,000 horse, was a poor
paltry Athenian town only known by the victory so famous, renowned, that
was gained there.

Thermopyloe, where Leonidas successfully opposed a great army of
Persians was, as is well known, a miserable narrow strait between the
mountains of Thessaly and Phoces — and pray what was the renowned field
of Waterloo? where the terror of Europe and of the world was struck down
never more to menace mankind and sent to the solitary Su Helena to eke
out a lonely existence and die ! What was it and what is it even now, but
a common or ordinary tract of land which no doubt Byron has immor-
talized, not because of what the field was when he saw it, but what was
done upon it when he said as he walked over it,

Stop ! for thy ti 1 is upon a nation's dust,
An t:arthquakt''s spoil is sepulchred below !
Is the spot marked with no collossal bust
Or column ' jphied for triumphal show?
None ; but the morals truth tells simpler so.
As the ground was before, thus let it be.

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

177

How that red rain hath made the harvest grow !
And is this all the world has gained by thee,
Thou first and last of fields king-making victory.

Therefore, to speak of the insignificance of our world in comparison of
the glorious universe, to weigh the results of the spiritual conflict waged in
it by the Lord from heaven against the great adversary of God and man, is
no better than to fix the triumphs in arms by the battle fields where they
were gained, instead of by the greatness of the victories themselves, and is
as illogical as it is without any relevance to the mighty moral conflict under
consideration, whose results afTect the whole universe of God, material and
spiritual, and to all eternity ! both angels and men !

2 — Satan Enters Paradise,

and plunders it, and the Saviour immediately appears, as He was wont
to come and hold fellowship with the lovely pair, and utter His denun -
ciation and doom upon him, and howe / sceptics may jeer and laugh over
the scene, there is as much truth in th <. whole dialogue, first between satau
and our first parents, and the one that succeeded, between the Lord God
and them, as it is possible to crowd into words of the most sententious kind
that ever were used on earth.

The whole that transpired can be proved from the history of the race
among all nations of the earth to have left an indelible impression, and to
have floated down along the stream of time into all the habitable globe.
And more than all this, the palpable results of that first temptation are to
this day seen and read in every man's moral nature, which I am prepared
to prove, so that it is neither a myth nor any symbolical fable, but as true a
record as ever was written !

But the doctrine of original sin — the sin of our first parents, and the
effects of it in their offspring, is nov/ in our age as much shunned and put
out of sight as the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's work is carefully shunned
and forgotten, at least too much so.

THE SCENE CHANGED FROM HEAVEN TO EDEN.

The Great Importance of Understanding Rightly the Fall of Man.

To our individual selves and to the rising race rightly to understand
the consequences of the apostacy of man is of paramount importance. For
without rightly understanding them, we cannot rightly understand almost
any of the great truths of God's Divine Record, nor perceive what concerns
us in our most vital interests for time and eternity.

The statement given of the temptation is concise and comprehensive.
It comes in the form of a dialogue. How remarkable that all the greatest
events in history arise out of dialogues, as well as all the greatest transac-
tions in commercial life, in business, in science, in literature, in art, in
peace and war, in politics and progress, in nations, in the advancement of
religion and human happines?, in all that relates to human life, both its
large Interests and small interest?, are the result of dialogues between two's

ii
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■1 tl*!

1: "
11

i I

: 5

III

'IS'

!■ if!

THE (IREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

and three's, a/ the outset, so that human history is only an extended
dialogue.

And the reason of it is this. Human history is real life^ and real life
when recorded is the Dialogue of life — not a fancy, but a reality, and what
makes it so arises invariably from colloquial intercourse between man and
man, not to speak of man and his better half as being of course required.

The Bible is the greatest book in existence because it contains the
greatest Record of real human life in all its different aspects in all ages,
— anywhere and everywhere — the mode and fashion of it, and its grand
design is to transmit the highest form of life, but here we read the record
of death, resulting too from a dialogue between two or three.

Satan expelled from heaven finds in due time his entrance into Eden.
He knew his way bacV to it since the happy time when he sang as one of
the " morning stars, and all the sons of God shouted for joy !" at the
creation of the world, when the holy angels came to see our world so
clothed with beauty and its paradise so fair, fit for angels to dwell in !

He comes now on a very different errand, not as a spectator, but as a
plunderer, alas ! And with his acute intellect he selects his instrument in
the sleeky, winsome, charming and beautiful creature called the Serpent.
He informed himself in this beast, being a spirit, he could as easily do this
as we can put on a garment, and he also selects his victim best suited to
his diabolical purpose to prevail with man, he selects the gentle, beautiful,
guileless woman, to reach the soft side of man and prowess of woman.

GEN. lU., 1-6.

Being thus situated, he starts the dialogue as here given — which im-
plies there was some conversation that preceded it — " Yea hath God said
thou shalt ?iot eat of every ttee of the garden ?" The enquiry is very natural
seemingly, but exceedingly dexterous. It breathes a sort of feeling of kindly
interest and sympathy under a sort of cruel privation ! and surprise and
doubt about it — a sort of fawning half flattering fault-finding for the better-
ing of one's condition that we meet with among subtle, hollow-hearted ser-
pents in the world and so often met with. "Yea is it so?" "Oh, it cannot be ?"
implying it should not be, and I can put you in the way of something bet-
ter than being so straitened and restricted ! " I would not stand it ', oh,
you are jesting, it cannot be true ? that God has said thou shalt not taste
of every tree in the garden 1" As if all the trees but one were not enough !
and more than enough !

The little casual mistake was intended all the time. Eve in candor
corrects it and says (v. 2) : "And the woman said unto the serpent, We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden ; but of the fruit of the tree ivhich
is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither
shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

Here the tempter has gained his object in the parley and he seizes his
victim with the grasp of death and immediately follows up the opportunity
by instilling doubt, detraction and envy into her soul and all is over !
(4.) And tne serpent said unto the woman, " Ye shall not surely dv fo?

THE ORUilN OK SIN.

179

God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall he
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Tnis was quite
enough. Envy, disregard of consequences, and an apparently good motive
impel the woman to transgress u.p mild reairictio/i of her Maker and she
yields anH falls from her high and holy state and is lost (v. 6.) "And when
the womiiii saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to
the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof and did eat, and gave it to her husband yith her ; and he did eat."

The tale is soon told but the consequences are not soon ended.
There is perfect naturalness in it, and a simplicity in it, that makes it *' the
least adorned, adorned the most." I see nothing in it to And fault with,
when it is read under the light of the fall that preceded it and rightly un-
derstood. "

" Well, says Mr. Frederick, I thought it was all " />os/i " before, but not
now after the awful tragedy we have heard, and have beheld; and looking at
the different points from its side lights. I can now understand the matter
of probation better, the serpent and the antecedents affecting the serpent's
illustrious employer and inliabitatit, and the victims of his cruel malice quite
in a new light altogether and certainly the fall of the rebel angels in heaven
gives the key to the fall of our first parents in paradise. But as to the
consequences of it I want to understand them clearly and correctly for I now
see tnere is more in them than I had any idea of before."

The Consequences 0/ Adam's

Transgression.

"Of the original nature of man, we are expressly told it w.is perfect,
without the least taint of sin, or ingrediein of defection, for "it was created
in the image of God." Just as the holy .uigels were made pure and perfect,
man only less in degree of capacity a.ud roignificence of mental power and
spiritual replenishment, but capable of culture and growth as all God's
rational creatures are and for their own good our first parents were placed
like the angels on the

PRINCIPLE OF PROIiATION.

For as all created being is derivative being, and if there be proprietor-
ship in existence none has a fuller title to it tlian the author of created
being. As the streams flow from the fountain, the principle of dependence
is a necessary condition in the creature upon the living and life-giving foun-
tain. And in proportion to the value of the gift so is the gratitude that is
due to the giver of it. Therefore in every possible way you view the re-
lations between the creator and the created, he is entitled to fix his own
terms of requirement from those to whom he has given life and breath and
all things. Oh, what a privilege, what an ennoblement of living to be per-
mitted to love the infinitely lovely, to be capable of adoring the infinitely
adorable, and to be privileged to participate in his fellowship, which is to
possess and enjoy a life worth having and " worth living for."

The mildness and the reasonableness of requiring only one restriction
of their freedom, not as an arbitrary requirement, but as at once a test of

i: il»'

fif

'! t^w

i;1 .

i|!

1 80

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

their having no will but God's, and by evincing it, to be remove from their
sojourn on earth to the higher realrris of his created intelligen ^s and in
virtue of their innocence and intef,'rity and unreserved consecration to par-
take of immortal felicity, taste 01 ^^the tree of life," and never see death,
surely this was a condition extremely mild and kind and beneficent for
them to fulfil and God to reward them if they kept it with his high appro-
val which is life, and with his loving kindness which is better than life.
And all the flimsy, silly nonsense about the apple so hackneyed and weak,
is unworthy of notice.

But " man in honor abode not !" Behold the crown has fallen from his
head ! and the pure gold of unalloyed pristine excellency has become
changed into the base dross of moral deformity and degeneracy !

The tempter has succeeded with his temptation and thus lar triumphed
over the God of heaven, for by his subtlety and insinuations and sophistry
and lies, and the alluring bribe he held forth of their freedom from restraint,
high attainments in knowledge and godlike greatness and dignity, he fasci-
nated their guileless mind^ persuading them to believe it was a right and
proper thing to " eat of that forbidden tree " and assert their own freedom,
and that no harm would result from the act, he succeeded, alas, thereby in
obtaining over them " the power of death, which is the power of God's
wrath," and " the power of falsehood." In the former he has been foiled,
in the latter he has been rendered inoperative through the divine in-
terposition in behalf of all the seed of the woman who know the truth and
lay hold on eternal life and " overcome the wori ' the devil and the flesh,"
for we are all on our trial and probation too and these are the conditions
of our successfully fulfilling our high probation under God which yields
its grand product !

(i.) AdanCs Offspring Partakes of Adams Fallen Nature.

This is one of the necessary consequences of the fall of man which I
am very anxious to set clearly before you, Mr. Frederick, for it is now al-
most forgotten or not so scripturally apprehended as it ought to be.

Fiercely and long was the discussion about original sin discussed.
Strong and untenable positions were taken by its defenders which had the
fate that extreme views always have, they ended in the opposite extremes
and were abandoned altogether, for push any truth to an extreme and it
becomes an error, so little is believed of th > really sensible and instructive
and deeply important and vital doctrine, that Adam's offspring partaken of
Adam's nature, that it is seldom heard of except by the extremists — if I
may coin a word. Oh, it is the glory of truth that it will stand the utmost
searching, but no rough banc ling, it is like a delicate flower, in the hands
of those that handle it roughly, it withers and fades away and they lose the
fragrance and beauty of it, but to the truth-seeker it expands and blooms
brighter and brighter and never perishes.

Whatever that fallen nature became, by a necessary law it is tran5mitt;ed
to Adam's ofTspring. If there be one truth more clearly revealed by mod-
ern science than another it is that "every organism is according to the condi-

THE ORIcaN OF SIN,

i8i

tions of its birth." Parents represent their offspring before they are born, as
a tree represents its fruit before it is produced. They affect the physical, the
intellectual and moral organism of their offspring by the lives they live, as
the fruit of the tree is affected by the soil the tree grows in, or the culture it
receives or is denied and the circumstances that affect the growth and de-
velopmentof the tree has its outcome in its fruit and so all progenitors, ac-
cording to the light and teaching of modern science, live their lives over
again in their future offspiing. Since then this law is so thoroughly establised,
it goes to prove that whatever the fallen nature of our first parents was it has
been transmitted to their offspring and therefore in this respect we all par-
take of the consequences of Adam's sin. And this exactly corresponds
with the Scripture that man's hereditary corruption is handed down from
father to son. And the cheering truth connected with it in the same
Scripture that "Christ has redeemed us from our vain conversation received
by tradition from our fathers," which just means the hereditary corruption
which is handed down from father to son.

All history, all observation, all experience, as well as all science, con-
firms this important fact that Adam's offspring partakes of Adam's fallen
nature. What that nature is it is unnecessary for me to state because it is
visible before our eyes.

And the remarkable point is this, dear Frederick, that the more closely
the statement of the fall of man is gone into the more strongly is it proved
to correspond with the human nature we all have.

And the very temptation of the old serpent the devil in its ingre-
dients we all drink in with our mothers' milk and are all characterized by
80 that the deadly poison of the serpent has mixed itself with our very
blood, and these ingredients can be detected in all the characteristics of
our age, and can be traced up to this source as their originating cause.
But no one will blame roe for the strong representations of human de-
pravity which many hold, after the principles I have so fully stated under
the third section respecting the human consciousness and the human
conscience, (Section III.)

These are most important points, which inductive reasoning most
powerfully establishes.

(2.) Natural Death is Another Consequence of Adams Sin.

This is a fact which no ©ne acquainted with the subject at ail can
question or deny. Indeed, it matters little whether it be denied or
doubted, facts daily prove we are all mortal, only the worst of it is that " all
men think all men mortal but themseives."

And what is more, spiritual death immediately followed Adam's trans-
gression to his own soul. Never was a prediction more certainly fulfilled
than this : " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." In
that very day dying they did die spiritually. As when we sin we die
spiritually, in that moment lose the favor of God, which is life. For
" the soul that sinneth it shall die."

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182

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

(J.) But the Third and Mat Important Point I Wish Chiefly to Insist

Upon Here is the Representative Position of our First

Parents were Created in and How we Are All

Affected by It.

The human race was not created like the angelic race — all at once in
maturity and without matrimony.

God has created the one individual man, and from that one individual
man, all the other individuals of the race sprung. This was according to
the Divine idea, who has made different orders of intelligent creatures. In
the one man, therefore, the whole race was represented, and by his conduct
the whole race was affected physically, intellectually, morally and spiritu-
ally in every possible way. Adam was the one head to represent all the
body of the human race, as the cause contains all its effects and as the
whole includes all its parts as one.

People may object to this as they may, their objections will not alter
the fact. It is a positive truth. As certain as a member of Parliament
affects his constituency by his representation of them by every vote he
gives and every official act he performs in Parliament as their representa-
tive, and the constituency is bound by his acts and deeds, and cannot alter
them.

Adam stood as our federal representative, and in his first sin we all
sinned, and in his condemnation and death we all partook, as the first
temptation of man has in it the elements of all temptation.

As the first sin of man has in it all the elements of all sin.

So the first transgressor includes the whole race in the effects and con-
sequences of that first transgression.

It is of no use to try and shut our eyes against this most solemn fact.

By losing sight of it or by ignoring it we gain nothing ; but we lose an
immense deal. We lose the clear, plain state of the case, and become un-
concerned about our true condition.

And we fail to appreciate the representation of the second Adam, the
Lord from heaven, in all the divine adaptation of it to our circumstances and
true wants, and perish in our sins — the greatest of wh ch is unflelief, a sin
we in this very way disqualify and constitute ourselves unable to avoid,
because it nullifies and makes us hostile to the saving truth, and conse-
quently we are lost.

I have no object to gain by stating these facts — no creed to defend,
no sect to uphold, no church to vindicate. I seek only the tiuth of God
to defend, to uphold and to vindicate. And its vindication will immediately
be forthcoming. We should ^jtrive to see the very worst of our case and
get it rectified, to find out onr danger and escape from it, to be aroused out
of our sophistries and lying refuges, so as to get at the plain luatteis of
fact and the everlasting refuge that will not fail us when it is most needed.

Our Saviour came as the one man to represent the race anew, and to
place us in entirely new conditions of probation from those we were
brought into by the one man Adam.

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

183

The parallel between the two representatives can onlj be rightly seen
by the full acceptance of the consequences of Adam's first transgression.
And the vindication I promised to give is derived from one of the most
syllogistic and argumentative passages in the whole writings of Paul, the
most logical writer in the New Testament, or perhaps you can meet with
anywhere. The parallel he diaws is given in the well-known passage in
his Epistle to the Romans, chap, v., 12-19. It begins with an ioferencs.
*• Therefore," — Paul has just been giving reasons for the justified rinnerre*
joicing in every blessing of salvation, and in every trial and dispensation
of Providence, but more especially in the great love of God, as manifested
in Jesus Christ, and how through the propitiatory death of Christ we have
been, from our natural state of enmity to God, reconciled to God and made
to rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have
received the reconciliation. Our hostility to God is now changed into
friendship with God. Now he draws the vuteresting parallel — " As through
the sin of one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin ; and
death passed unto all men because all Kiuned : - tbr until the law sin wa« in
the world ; but sin is not imputed "—laid to one's charge, "wht. a there ?fs no
law, nevertheless death reigned from Adam till Moses, even over them that
had not sinned, atUr the likeui^tii vU Adam's transgression " — over children
who had not committed actual transgi ission — " who," that is Adam, is a
figure (tupos) a type or an emblem of Him that was to come, that is
Christ.

Having thus traced sin to Adam, and death tn sin, and Adam as a
type of Christ, now he shows the superiority of Christ, as our representative,
over Adam, thus (v. 15) ** But not as the oflfence — ttie fall, so also is the free
^ift of Christ, for if by the trespass or fall of the one, the many died, much
more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus
Christ (righteousness which brings eternal life) should abound to the many ;
■and not so through one thaf. sinned, so is the gift ; for the judgment came
of one unto condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses unto
justification (v. 17) For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned
through the one ; much more shall they that receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus
Christ. So then as thrr ugh the trespass or fall of the one it issued or
reached unto all men to condemnation ; even so through one act of
righteousness, or the righteousness of one, the free gift came unto all men
to justification of life. For as through the disobedience of one man (hoi
polloi, the many) all were conditioned (kalestatheesan) sinners , so also by
the obedience of the one shall the many (all) be conditioned righteous
(dikaioi).

From this passage or course of reasoning I am led to infer that by
the fall of Adam, sin, death and judgment have resulted, and sprung upon
the race. But there is a bright side to the fall of man, through the powerful
representation of the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, righteousness,
eternal life and divine approval are conditioned to all men upon their
faith in Him.

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184

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

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Therefore we have nothing to complain of, but every reason to be
thankful for everrtore.

We should not blame Adam nor Eve in the matter, but the adversary
oi God and man.

And it was in the sufferance of the God of justice and Jove to suffer
the adversary to overwhelm our race with sin, death and misery, that the
blow was struck, as the murderer of the race, for he murdered then all the
souls of men, struck death into the soul of every one of the human race.
But the infinite love of God brings the second Adam to our rescue, to en-
dure " the death " for us, to open up a new and living way for us to life
eternal, to holiness and true blessedness.

We have seen that it was th ; act and deed of the once bright angel
who rose up in heaven as His enemy, and the crown rights of the
Son of God being denied him, he comes into the Garden of Eden
in the form of a reptile, to have his revenge, and God permits
him to try his strength in battle against Him. The challenge was
made in heaven, and earth is the selected arena to fight it out between
Satan and the Son of God, and the prize is the kingdom of men — a universe
to be lost or won ! 1 tiiink this is the right way to put the case,
Frederick ?"

** Well, I think so, too, and it is truly a most marvellous thing alto-
gether, and deserving of deep reflection, as it concerns our deepest
interests. The overthrow of the first man Adam by such a powerful
antagonist, is not, after all, so much to be wondered at. I don't suppose
that any of the human race would have been able to do any better than he
did, although we don't like to suffer for another man's sins ?"

" No, we don't. And hence the complaints raised against Adam as the
representative of the race. The sin of our parents consisted, of course, in
their listening to the tempter, and in yielding to his temptation, and if he
succeeded with them in their state of perfection, there is less hope for any
of us, with our fallen nature, overcoming him, so that we have need to
guard against his wiles, and give him no encouragement, and to seek the
constant help of the Captain of our Salvation, to enable us to resist him,
and never to parley with him. For he that committeth sin is of the devil,
as the Apostle John tells us. And the best way is to have the Spirit of
Christ dwelling in us, and our whole heart and life consecrated to God."

Haying thus considered the consequences that followed the primal
sin and the fall of our first parents, let us now come to our next enquiry.

(S-) J^^i^^ ^^^ ^^^ Done to Thwart and Remedy Sin and Save

Sinners,

This has been partly considered already, as it was necessary to obviate
objections by bringing forward the interposition of " the Christ " as our
second Adam, as the conqueror of Satan, and to place us in better condi-
tions as regards our probation, than we were by the first representative of
the race.

For it is ihe race as such that the Apo&tle speaks of, and not a part of it.

THE ORIGIN OK SIN.

185

Since all the race have been conditioned sinners, through Adam's fall, so
by Christ, our second Adam, all are conditioned righteous, that they might
be saved through Him.

This is a point of immense importance, and not sufficiently under-
stood, I will now establish and prove the inexcusablcness of any going
to hell, or of being lost through sin.

On the Universality of the Provision of Gospel Salvation.

I. The reasoning of the Apostle Paul in the parallel above quoted
between Adam's representation of the entire race oi mankind, and Christ's
representation of the race, is a representation on both sides that is
CO equal, or it is a parallel without parallelism. If Christ represented
all Adam represented, then the provision of Gospel salvation is universal,
and commensurate with the need of it. There is nothing in the
passage against this view, the richness of the provision, as exceeding
the consequences of the fall, is the chief point the apostle here la-
bors to prove, therefore the provision is not in any way limited in its
universality for the race. It would be an injustice to the race were it so
limited. The expression (hoi polloi) " the many," is known by all Greek
scholars to be an equivalent for the expression " all," without distinction
and without exception. The two forms of expression are used by the
apostle in the passage as synonymous — in v. 12 he employs the expression
"all," to represent the universality of death, and in v. 15 he uses the ex-
pression " the many," to represent the same idea, so that the " all that
dif d " are " the many that died " through sin. In lik ; manner " the
many " that died are " the many " to whom the grace of God and the gift
by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded, nay, much more
abounded in the 15th verse. So that there is an abundance '\\s the provision
of gospel salvation exceeding the many that died through the fall of Adam.
Like the boundless love of God, it is greater than the lost among men
needeth, therefore the provision, instead of being limited to a few of the race,
exceeds "the many" of "the many," **the all" — of the race. I am not speak-
ing at present about the actual recipients of Gospel salvation, but the actual
extent of its provision. And it is similar here in its provision to what was in
Christ's representation of the Gospel salvation under the beautiful meta-
phor of a bountiful supper, when there was more provided than guests to
partake of it.

And neither does the Master, nor Paul, nor any of the New Testa-
ment heralds of salvation, ever limit Gospel salvation to a few, such as the
" Elect" but press its acceptance on all, and as honest and sincere heralds
of Gospel salvation, they could not offer what did not exist, or press their
hearers to believe in that which was untrue.

The Gospel offer, to be sincere, must have a basis, that basis can only
be the universality of its provision, or it would be false to make a universal
offer if there was no universal provision, therefore Gospel salvation must
be universal in its provision, consequently the theory of election, as com-
monly held, is unscriptural when that theory is based on a limited atone-
ment.

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

2. If Gospel salvation be limited in its provision only to the " elect,'^
meaning by that tenn those v-^o believe ^ then how can Paul put the solemn
enquiry about neglecting a Gospel salvation that does not exist, to those
that cannot escape if they neglect it, since they prove they are unbelievers
by neglecting it? when he says. How shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation ? ( Heb. ii. )

Further, if Gospel salvation be limited in its provision to the elect
alone, then how can the apostle Peter speak as he does (in his Second
Epistle, V. I.) about certain fals3 teachers bringing damnable heresies and
denying the Lord that bought them ?

Again, if Gospel salvation be limited to believers alone, then how can
one be condemned for not believing in what is not true, for by remaining
unbelievers there can be nothing for them to believe in, if the provision of
Qospel salvation be limited to believers only ?

I hold the greatest sin a man can commit is not to believe in God's
testimony He has given of His Son, for he makes God a liar, and deprives
himself of eternal life, by his unbelief. (John v., lo.) He that believeth
not God hath made Him a liar ; because he hath not believed in the testi-
mony that God has given concerning His Son.

Belief in anything'does not make it true, nor unbelief untrue ! I may
believe what is false, that will not make it true, or I may not believe in
what is tnie, but my unbelief will not make it untrue. The *^verum" belief
in the mind of what is not in reality will not make it a reality.

Truth is the " verax,^ it remains true whether you believe it or not.
Truth is not affected by our states of mind, although our states of mind are
affected by truth, when believed.

Truth is immutability, and such is the glorious Gospel. If we believe
in it, having a right understanding of it, and sincerely receiving it with all
the heart, it ^U save the believing soul, but unbelief in that glorious Gospel
will condemn the sinner who does not believe in it, because it is true,
therefore, to hold Christ has died only for the elect, or believers alone, is a
fallacy. Our way is now better prepared to lo9k at

THE REMEDY GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR LOST MAN.

WHAT GOD HAS DONE TO THWART THE DOMINION OF EVIL, AND TO DB'

LIVER MAN FROM ITS POWER AND RESTORE HIM

ANEW TO THE DIVINE IMAGE.

The covenant made with Adam having been broken through the
temptation of the adversary, by our first parents yielding to his temptation
ftnd ruining then: happiness and the happiness of the race, as we have
briefly sketched ; our attention is now to be directed to the new covenant,
(although 'everlasting') arranged in the divine councils of eternity, com-
monly called the " covenant of grace," comprehended in the first oracle
of mercy proclaimed by the Lord in paradise, which all future revelations
were designed to unfod and illustrate, both as a promise to man and as a
denunciation on the devil and his works, man is thereby placed in a new

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

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state of PROBATION from that of our first parents and the representation of
the race is transferred from Adam to Christ, who suffers the penalty of
death, thot it might not fall in all its dreadful import on the race through
faith in Him, and who works out a perfect righteousness by complete
obedience to the holy law of God to secure an honorable ground of justifi-
cation in behalf of man. that through his representation of the entire race,
all who believe in Him should be delivered from tbe consequences of
Adam's first transgression and th^ir own sins, and by their vital and spirit-
ual union with Him as their new head and representative they might become
partakers of a new moral nature, grow up into his likeness and obtain a far
better paradise than the one which was lost by their first head and repre-
sentative and become a new race of an exalted order and made eternally
blessed.

To demonstrate those delightful and glorious truths by adequate evi-
dence the first thing is to examine (i) the nature, (2) the design and (3) the
extent of what is called the atonement for human transgression made by
the Son of God.

The atonement of Christ is a theme of inexhaustible interest. It is
the key-stone of Christian doctrines, the foundation of Christian hopes, the
main-spring of Christian morals, the pulsating heart of the Christian life
and the very soul of Christianity. In itself considered the atonement is
the greatest and most glorious of God's works, and in its issues throughout
the intelligent creation the most influential, abiding and comprehensive.
Arjgels desire to look into its deep disclosures of moral and everlasting
truth and love. Here they behold justice crowned with honor, mercy tri-
umphant, wisdom most profound and holiness shining in infinite splendor
and matchless glory, while sin is punished, the sinner rescued, Satan de-
feated and destroyed. Seraphim stoop from their heavenly thrones tu min-
ister to Him in the Garden of Gethsemane and having gazed on the amaz-
ing spectacle of the cross, they ascend to hestven to prostrate themselves
before the infinite Majesty on high, and cherubim and seraphim unite with
all the hosts of the Lord of Sabaoth, and with rapture sing under the far-
reaching revelations of a future glory in this accursed world of ours : Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And
so our earth will be when the great atonement of the eternal Son of God
has become rightly understood and duly appreciated by the inhabitants of
our earth !

(\.) In its Nature t/ie Atonement of Christ is His Expiation of Human

Guilt.

It was prefigured under the former dispensation by the sacrifices of the
sin offerings and whole burnt offerin(j;s on which the sins of the Jewish na-
tion were laid by the officiating priest laying his hands on the heads of the
victims and making confession of them and likewise the live scape-goat
who was similarly used by the officiating priest confessing the sins of the
people on his head, and who afterwards sent him away into the wilderaess,
as recorded in Exodus and Leviticus. Isaiah alludes to this when speak-

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

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ing of Christ (ch. liii, 6), '• All we like sheep have gone astray ; *ve have
turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him themiquity
of us all — made to meet upon his head the iniquity of us all." Frequently is
the principle of the substitutiofi of Christ, the innocent one, in the room of
us, the guilty, referred to in the New Testament. " He who knew no sin was
made sin for us or a sin-cffering for us." '' Christ the righteous one suffered
in the room of us the unrighteous." '' Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse cf the law having been made a curse for us."

2. In its design the atonement of Christ is to effect our reconciliation to
God by the infinite love and mercy it exhibits on the part of God and of
his well beloved Son, thus " God commendeth his love towards us in that
while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." That the enmity of our
hearts might be slain, that the love ot God may be shed abroad in our
hearts, that by faith in Gud we may be justified, adopted and saved from
the penalty, the power, the love and the practice of sin, and be made new
creatures in Christ Jesus. It is only by perceiving our need of Christ's
atonement and understanding it as suited to our need, and believing in it,
that we can be saved. For it is through the exercise of our faith in the
atonement we obtain forgiveness of our sins and eternal life in a rational
manner and that our whole moral nature is changed and transformed into
the divine nature. This part respecting the designs of the atonement will
be fully considered when I come to speak of man's new condition and
probation.

(3.) As Regards the Extent of the Atonement of Christ'

It is commensurate with the race and made for all without exception.
Less than this could not meet the demands of the case. The remedy
would not be commensurate with the disease nor the parallel betw; i the
consequences of the fall and our own sins and the provision cf salvation in
Christ be realized. The two lires cf the parallel would not be equal. The
demands would exceed the atonement, if it were not universal in its extent,
ror could one single sinner be saved unless provision was made fcr the
salvation of all. Since in Adam as representative of the race all fell, if
the race was not fully represented by Christ, as it was by Adam, the repre-
sentation of the case would not be adequate to fulfil the demands. Sup-
pose a member in parliament, as the representative of a constituency, repre-
sents only par: of the constituency and fails to represent the interests of his
whole constituency, he would be justly complained of as partial and un-
faithful to his constituency. The whole or none is the condition of his ap-
pointment and therefore if he does not fulfil the condition of his appoint-
nient he has forfeited the right to act at all for the constituency as their
proper representative in parliament, therefore no sinner could be honorably
represented by Christ as the representative of the race unless all were re-
presented by Christ, and the sins of none atoned for unless the sins of all
were ator^d for. And so the Scriptures everywhere represent the atone-
ment of the Son of God, not as limited, but universal, not as specially made
for a portion of the race, but for the whole race.

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THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

189

This is a point requiring to be made clear. For although the Scrip-
tures use every fwim of expression that can be conceived of 10 express the
extent of the atonement of Christ as universal and without distinction and
without exception as having been made for " all " and ** every one," for the
" world " and the " whole world," many limit it to the " elect " ol God and
thereby exclude the nou elect from its provision of infinite blessings with-
out having a single passage in the sacred Scriptures to &uppoit their view,
for we nowhere read that Christ died for the elect only or for believers in
Christ ONLY. This view of the atonement evidently arises from looking at
the atonement in relation to its ultimate issue and not in relation to the
race in its rich provisions of infinite mercy and boundless love and the fact
of the atonement/^r se^ in itself considered, is lost sight of and much injury
is thereby done to the relationship of facts which is the relationship of
divine laws in the divine mind, since the atonement of Christ relates to the
provision of salvation made by God in Christ, and election relates to the
actual possession of its blessings, for many are called but few are chosen.
The provision warrants " the many," " all," to be invited to partake of it,
but only those who comply with the invitation participate in the rich and
boundless provision, as many interesting illustrations are given in Scrip-
ture to point out the distinction, and it is herein the principles of man's
probation under the new covenant find their free and full operation and
constitute man's responsibility and free agency and God's righteous sov-
ereignty and infinitely wise and merciful and equitable moral government.

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1 HE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST PROVED TO BE Universal IN ITS EXTENT.

The interests of truth and of immortal souls requires some extended
consideration of this ^reat fact. It is the basis of the gospel system which is
founded upon the equitable principle of it being an adequate remedial
arrangement.

But if the consequences of Adam's transgression and our own trans-
gressions be not atoned for to the extent of the whole race, then the remedial
arrangement fails to meet the exigencies of the race, if Christ by his atone-
ment as man's second representaiive, does not rescue the race that Adam
ruined, if he only represented some of the race and not the whole ol the race,
then this inadequacy would imperil the remedial arrangement and God would
be regarded as partial and unequal in his dealings, and the gospel system
would be open to most serious objections and be unworthy of its author !

I am aware, Mr. Frederick, these are strong words, and will sound
harshly on the ears of many highly esteemed and worthy ministers and ex-
emplary private christians, whose hearts are good, but whose logic is defec-
tive, but if truth cannot stand the stern tests of logic it cannot be truth at
all, for the science of logic is the science of truth — it teaches us how to de-
tect error and avoid it and how to test truth and reach it.

In the case of a limited atonement to meet an unlimited demand, the
reasoning is as defective as to expect the whole in a part — an equivalent for
what it is not, and therefore not a " quid pro quo " — an equivalent — but a

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190

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

" non sequetur," a result that does not follow to satisfy the demand, just as
a million dollars will not satisfy the demand of a million millions !

But here again is the " verum " in opposition to the " verax " — a truth
cherished in the mind, or an idea rather regarded as truth, in the minds of
those who entertain it, that " Christ by his vicarious death only died for a
portion of the race," whereas the truth in the thing itself— in the fact, is not
perceived, but falsified, although never intentionally f far from it. the
" verum " never does this — it is a sincere belief in the mind of what is not
true out from the mind, in the thing believed. Whereas the " veray " is
truth in the fact apprehended by the mind and believed in, and its utterance
is the speech of what is real and true, and not imaginary and false!

This is what I have got to establish, and it will prove * a double edged
swofd* as truth always is — it will cut away the error of ihe univbrsalist,
whom it affects (for there is a variety of Universalists), on the one hand,
and it will cut away the error of the limitarian of the infinite atonement
of the Son of God on the other.

" Well," remarks Mr. Frederick, " you are in the battle again sword in
hand, to slay error. I wish you success. Give me, if you can, a short
syllogism that will at once logically refute the ' verum,' and establish the

* verax ' "

" That, Frederick, can be done with the greatest ease, for every truth
uttered in God's Word is a syllogism carrying conviction en the soundest
principles of logic, for it is the science of the highest * reason.'

" We cannot do batter than take the first oracle of God that oflFers
itself to the mind — that glorious passage which comprehends the whole
* Bible proper ' in brief— xht very foundation of the salvation of God and
the whole philosophy of Divinf salvation — a passage known by every one
who knows anything of God's Word — a passage which gives us the begin-
ning, the middle and the end of Divine salvation — a passage which has
done a wonderful amount of good, and deserves to be written in letters of
gold, and which none can object to, as it contains its own vindication and
carries the self contained proof in itself of its sublime truth, as spoken by
the Lord from heaven. Himself (John iii., 16)

' For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begot-
ten Son, that whosoever belleveth in Him should not perish,,
but have everlasting life.' "

*' O, how charming is Divine philosophy ! Not harsh and crabbed,
As dull fools suppose, but musical as is Apollo's lute, a perpetual feast
Of nectared sweets where no crude surfeit reigns !"

" You will find in this wonderful utterance, Frederick, a perfect syllo-
gism in the mood Barbara, with its major and minor terms and conclusion
conesponding to both :

Here is the major term— "GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD AS
TO GIVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON."

ffere is the minor term^ as included in the major — " THAT WHOSO-
EVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT
HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE."

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

191

Then :omes its delightful conclusion or application — '* i, Robert h.

CRAIG, BELONG TO THE WORLD GOD SO LOVED, AND I BELIEVE IN GOD'S
ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THEREFORE I HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

" Examine ihe major term closely — what was it " God so . loved ?'
" The world." " What are we to understand by ' the world ?'. Is it the
elect world?" " or the habitable globe?" " or the human race ?" " Well,
read it so now with that idea in your mind, and see the result." " God so
loved the (elect) world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoso-
ever of the (elect) world believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life." " But will not all the elect believe in Him ?" *' Tes,
certainly." " What, then, is there here by way of instruction and divine
consolation ?" " A great deal" " Granted." " That all believers are
certain of eterna! life ?" " Yes, certainly."

" Now let us read the great words as Christ gave them. < God so
loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him — (in the original — tlie every believing one in Him) shall
not perish, but have everlastling life.' " " What difference is there in the
two readings?" "In the former reading we are directed to the elect
T^orld as the world God so loved ?" " Yes, and that is certainly true.
God loved them. Is there anything besides ?" " Yes, the love of God is
confined by it to believers only^ whereas by the ' world,' viewed as mankind
universally, all the race is so loved as declared." " Now which is the cor-
rect reading of Christ's words ?" *• The latter, for no word ' elect ' is fou^^d
in the passage." *' Very well. Is not this adding to God's word ?"^
"Yes." " Is that right ?" "No." "Why?" " Because a heavy anathema
or curse is pronounced upon such as shall add to God's Word." (Rev. xxii.,
18.) " But you would not consider it adding to God's Word if the addi-
tion was in accordance with the mind of the Spirit in God's Word ?" " No,
in that case it is not adding anything to subvert the Divine Word, but an
elucidation of it." " Granted. But what is required of those who put in
the restriction thus given to this passage ?" " They have to prove that
God's love is restricted to the elect worlds and that in pursuance of this love
He gave His only begotten Son for them, and them alone, and that He
died for the elect world only'* ** Well, Frederick, if that limitation in the
love of God can be proved, and the limitation of Christ's atonement can be
proved by the testimony of other scriptures, as being in harmony with the
mind of the Spirit, the passage would bear that interpretation. I press,
then, for the/n7^ and I defy any man to produce the proof that God so
loved the elect world only^ or all believers only, and that Christ died for '
believers only^ because no such passage is contained within the boards of
the Bible. And I am prepared to prove that God's love extended to the
* world of mankind sinners as such,' with an infinite, boundless compassion
God-like and Divine, and that in pursuance of this infinite love of God,
Christ died for all without exception, and further, that the insertion of the
word " elect" in connection with the ' world ' la not only unw? rantable, but
leads the enquirer after salvation for some warrant to believe in God's love
towards him, instead of basing his belief on the testimony of God without
him, while he is an unbeliever, and is without the experience of the love of

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192

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

r.3
i '«

"II

li.i'

God, as God's way of bringing the sinner to experience it, after believing in
it, and not before believing in it, on the simple and authoritative testimony
of God, as here given by Christ, and elsewhere in the Divine Record.
This is a matter of great practical importance, and must be made clear.
The alteration which a single word will produce in a passage has changed
the course of many a bill in Parliaments, and many a legacy and legal in-
strument. And slight as the alteration may appear in this great passage to
some, and even desirable to square with their preconceived views on a
limited redemption scheme, the consequences it produces are incalculable,
and detrimental in the extreme, ist. It misleads. 2nd. It perverts. 3rd.
It is untrue. 4th. It is high time it were given up."

I St — // misleads. For if the love of God only extends to the elect,
then it leads the mind away from the saving truth to the enquiry whether
" I be one of God's elect, and be warranted to believe that God so loved me
as to give His only begotten Son for me,"and not on the ground of the Divine
testimony, and be satisfied with that, and that alone, for no higher authority
can be found in the universe to base our belief upon than God's own testi-
mony. " I require to know and be assured whether I am one of the elected
whom God so loved," as here plainly stated — to perplex my mind about the
evidences of the elect, or the believers, before I am one, to seek for evi-
dences before I am in a position to have them, that I am one of God's
children and chosen in Christ." Now where is the man that has ever read
the names that arc written in the Lamb's Book of Life ? Has any one seen
it, been in heaven to read it ? Is my name in it, I wonder ? Oh, do I feel
sorrow for my sins ? Oh, do I possess the evidences of God's regenerated
ones? and so forth. Is not this calculated to mislead the young enquirer
who wishes to be saved and does not know what to believe ? Told often
to believe, but never told w/u7i to believe, and why to believe, but only to
believe there is an elect number, and to try and be one of the elect of God.
But others take up another position, that proves how untenable this view is,
and say,'Well, " if I am elected I will be sav^jd, and if I am not elected I can-
not be saved, and there is no use in me troubling myself about it . I must
just wait till God's time comes to be saved." And souls are perishing who
need not perish, and who would not perish except for lack of knowledge.
Oh, how sad !

2 — It perverts. Christ dM not say " God so loved the (elect) world,"
but that "God so loved the world" ' There is not a word about election in
» the passage, that I can see. Can you see any, Mr. Frederick ? " No." "The
only way to see it is for one to forge it and force it into the passage. It is
not found in any of the Greek manuscripts, not in one of them 1" " But even
for the sake of argument, how could any one, know whether he was one of
the elected — really I wish for you Sir to make the matter of election a little
clearei to my mind, for I am using a word I don't understand ? — I was going
to say how could any one, even supposing he read the names of the elected
in the heavenly record, be able to know whether he was meant or not, see-
ing there are so many of the same name living in the same locality, and even
two I have met with having the same name in the same family. Who is
who ?" "Yes, that i^ the reason I am going to state that the alteration in the

THE OillGIN OF SI.V.

193

passage not only misleads the mind of the reader, but perverts the great
truths in the glorious passage, ist, the infinite love of God for a lost world
(in the major term) and the wise, the wonderful, the reasonable, the
righteous requirement (in the middle term) — ^just whosoever beliereth. It
matters not what his name is, nor where he lives, all that he has to make
out is whether he belongs to the world of sinners lost by t!;*^ fall of Adam or
not, and if he can make out he is not one of the human race, but something
very superior to anybody else, for that would only prove him to be inferior
and a lunatic 1 or if he should think he had no need of a Saviour, that
Adam's sin never touched him in its effects, nor had he any sins at all — the
greater is the pity ! for he is giving the strongest proof of his need of a
Saviour, although he does not know it, because he is spiritually blind and
spiritually dead, and therefore he is truly an object of pity for God to love
with the love of pity and infinite compassion, and send His Son and His
Spirit to quicken him out of spiritual death.

3 — // is untrue. It cannot be proved God's love extended to the
elect alone. It cannot be proved that Christ died for the elect alone. On
the contrary, it can be proved God loved " all," the " whole world," that
Christ died for " the whole race," and I will put it beyond dispute shortly.
Some think God's love is such that he cannot love wicked people, only
good people, that he cannot love sinners, only the righteous, and I have
heard some say they did not require anything from God but a little for-
giveness, and they were sure of that, because God loved good, honest,
truthful, upright people, as they were, so that you see, Frederick, how the
plainest words will be misunderstood, and errors can be taken out of
truths, and be believed in as truths, and truth lost !

Of course the love of God here is the love of compassion, not the love
of complacency. And if ever a poor, miserable, fallen, ruined race can
have a claim on the infinite benevolence of the Deity, it is the human race !
Tempted by such a fiend ! Engulfed in such misery ! With a nature so
vile ! In a state of moral ruin ! Spiritual disease and spiritual death !
Not an object of pity ? Not an object of compassion ? In the name of
heaven what is ? — Oh, enough^ enough to melt the heart of a stone, and
make the cold, hard steel melt and flame into sympathy for man ! O how
the God whose name and whose nature is love itself, is misjudged, abused
and misrepresented and calumniated by cold, selfish, proud, arrogant man,
who dares to limit infinite compassion, when infinite compassion is all needed
so much to save lost man ?

Just hear a passage or two from the Inspired Book, confirmatory of
John iii., 16, we have been considering. " In this was manifested the love
of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the
world that we might live through him." — **Z;W through Him /" Herein is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be
the propitiation for our sins. And lest any one should, in their narrow,
contracted souls, limit the infinite propitiation of Christ, here again the
disciple of love does not fail to tell us that the propitiation of Christ is not
for our sins only— but also for the "WHOLE WORLD." And this
is no isolated proof of the boundless love and compassion of our

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194

THB UREAT WANT OF THE AOE.

Father in heaven, whose love ia like a God come to weep over the scene of
woe and desolation sin has xused, and gives Hi« son as a sin offering,
to tell the universe how free.. He pardons, and how willingly. His only
begotten Son comes to our rescue — comes to save us a//, and weeps because
men will not believe it I And how sad, Fredericic, that men whom God
has raised up to preach Christ, restrict that infinite love to a portion of the
race, and call it the " election** and know not who they are or what they are
talking about, only they have been taught by others to think so — and how
untrue — because they can't think for themselves, and see they are falsifying
God's Word, and preferring man's word to God's Word.

The love of God is His love for sinners, not because they were
sinners, and extending to the ungodly, not because they were ungodly, but
in spite of it, for they had all the same need of it, as love alone can change
that nature, and is God's method of saving sinners, for nothing else in the
universe but love like God's love can turn His enemies into friends — can
arrest the wicked in their wickedness — can make them say, « Well, in my
wretchedness, if man has no pity for me, God has ; if man would crush me,
yillify me, God sympathizes with me !" Oh, it is this, // is this^ and nothing
but this, that will save lost, ruined, helpless man. It is by this power God
wins back our alienated affections, and saves the lost, and for any limitation
to be put on it is a. 9nce dishonoring to God and cold-hearted cruelty to
man ! No wonder Christianity in our day is such a poor, cold, lifeless,
miserable thing, partaking more of the detraction and malice and damna-
tion of the devil, than the " true life," the " yearning compassion," the
" self-sncrificing and boundless love of God ! whose very nature and essence
is love." — Read ist Epistle John, 4, 8; Epistle to Romans, chap, v.,
6, 7, 8, 2nd Cor. v., 1 4- 1 5 — and see how the matter stands in the sunlight of
God's Word.

Revealed truth is the great instrument by which God accomplishes His
merciful and holy " purpose of grace " — of saving the fallen, converting sin-
ners from the error of their ways, making them happy on earth and pre-
paring them for eternal glory in heaven, and tue least thing we poor,
miserable mortals can do is to search into that revealed Truth earnestly and
carefully, avoid most vigilantly all errors, in our judgment of it, take
nothing at second-hand, through slothfulness ; and above all, let us, dear
Frederick, endeavor too to keep the mind free from the biases of educa-
tional influences, and seek to remove those accretions that come and
deaden and neutraliz ". the revealed Truth, as plants and vines are weakened
and die from the little insects that beset them, and the accretions they
gather upon them, and look so sickly and wither away, if not purged from
them. " Every branch in Me," says the Saviour, " that beareth fruit My
FatJier purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit."

We must undergo the ordtal^ however severe at times, and get purged
from the accretions of second-hand views and cherished errors, gathered
from human authors and erring commentators, and- get our views direct
fl-om the revealed Truth itself, and be always learning more and more of
the fulness and completeness of the revealed Truth of God, and see it in
its harmony and unity and beauty, reflecting everywhere in the Divine

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

195

Record the countenance of the King, who is the Glory of angels, and the
Saviour of men, seeking to save a world lost through sin. Oh, there are
depths here, Frederick, which have never been fathomed, heights here which
have never been scaled, and breadths and lengths in " the purpose of grace"
which we can never fully comprehend, but we are to ** follow on to know tht
Lord" and not stand still, as some do, incrusted in their great-grandfather's
opinions, and like the cold, ice-bound lake, with the frozen stones in it,
remain with these opinions as fixed and immovable as do the cold, life-
less, frozen stones in the beautiful and enchanting lake. We are to search
the Scriptures for hidden treasures until we find them, and then not to
hoard them up to ourselves, as so many do, but scatter them all around us,
to enrich others, and above all, Frederick, let us never be afraid to hear
different opinions from others, for we can always learn something good
from everything and everybody, if we have only a mind to do it. And
why should we not, as progress is the law of life and stagnation the law of
death 1

But bear it in mind, Frederick, the revealed Truth will not bear rough
handling. It is like the sensitive plant, that shrinks and folds up its
tender leaves, and withholds its sweet, refreshing influences and fragrance
and sweet loveliness from all such rude treatment, and says plainly, my
heavenly secrets are not for you, " To them that aie froward I am froward,"
" the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and to them will He
reveal His covenant," or His " purpose of grace," even His " loving favor."
And while you are intent on getting more of the Divine illumination into
your soul, oh don't be intent upon novelty and running after every new
view and every " new-fangled notion," because so many err here, — it is the
love of novelty, and not the love of trutf>, that so many are continually in
pursuit of, like children that are tossed lu and fro with every wind of teach-
ing, and have no fixed principles witiuu them. Satan tempted man at first
through novelty and curiosity, and he is doing this still, for the multiplicity
of sects in the Christian Church is the deepest disgrace of our age— one of
the saddest proofs of the aberrations of the human intellect arising from the
disorder in the human heart, because the imperishable and immutable
truth of the "One Lord, the one faith and the one baptism " is gone from
our midst.

Oh, when will all the human family of God come together into the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Soii of God unto full grown
Christian manhood, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of
Christ ? When, oh when will this golden age arrive among Christians ?
The question is easily answered. As soon as they give up and abandon
all human additions to the revealed Truth of God, and all human excisions
or subtractions from the revealed Truth of God, and in short, substitute the
** verum " by the " verax " — then the union will be vital and eternal, and as
it should be, based on the rock of truth, and pervaded with the spirit of
love, then jealousy and discord shall cease lo be exercised, the strife of
opinion and the r ;alry of interests be no longer known, then Christ's fer-
vent prayer for th union of His Church shall be fulfilled, and then she will
look forth like the morning without a cloud to obscure her glory, be fair as

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196

THK (IREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

the moon in her purity, walking in celestial brightness, clear as the sun,
with the divine fire of heavenly love in her heart of heart8,and be terrible as
an army with banners, and chase the dt .-i< und his angels out of the world,
and when all will vie with one another in holy deeds of benevolence and
who will serve the Master best, and be most like Him, the King of
Beauty ! And oh, what crowns of glory the> shall win and wear when the
last traces of evil in our world shall be obliterated — when the sceptre of
death shall moulder, and the darkness o'i the grave shall be dispersed —
when the Church of Christ shall be gafWered to her rest — when the last
• elect vessel ' shall be saved — when the festival of heaven shall be prepared
— when the song of eternity shall begin, and when the glory of a ransomed
world shall add its last triumphs and splendors to the glorious crown of the
Redeemer of men !

Now, Frederick, the mightiest lever power to lift up the fallen down
Church of God, and the fallen world of lost souls, is the great and glorious
Truth of the Atonement of the Son of God iOr human transgression rightly
apprehended in its divine design, and acted out in all its human results.
This is the lever^ worked by the arm of the Lord — the Spirit — that is to
revolutionize the world, regenerate mankind, and renovate the church of
the living God. Rightly to understand this Truth is above everything else.

"THE ONE GREAT WANT OF OUR AGE."

THE ATONEMENT OF THE SON OF ODD

is heaven's Sovereign Remedy for "all the ills that flesh is heir to." This
truth, rightly understood and felt /// the great heart oj the world, will effect
far more than paradise could have done for us, had it never been invaded
by the foul robber and murderer. It will prove the epic of human history,
the epic soug of Paradise regained. It will bring us infinitely better re-
turns than we would have had if the earthly paradise had never been lost. O !
if our ruin has touched the heart of the Divinity with such a sympathy for
man under the griefs, the tears, the woes, and the inexpressible and in-
numerable sufferings of poor, ruined, and suffering humanity, that he is re-
solved not only upon crushing the vile serpent and his crew, and dealing
with him and them in a manner which will receive the sanction of the great
jury of the whole assembled intelligent universe, before it is finally carried
into effect — and this in some measure accounts for the delay, seemingly, of
the fulfilment of prophecies and promises : but this delay and forbearance
will tend to justify the divine moral government all the more when the hid-
den things of darkness are brought to light — when the hearts of all the
actors in the fearful drama shall be revealed, and when the returns of com-
pensation will be rendered all the greater to his poor, despised, tried and
persecuted ones, who have been since sin began its course on earth, and who
are now seeking, with all their weaknesses and numerous infirmities, to
prove they are only seeking to do His will, and, however painfiil to flesh
and blood, however misconstrued their course and their conduct, these hid-
den ones He comforts and gladdens by His own abiding presence ; and
when He appears, they shall appear with Him in glory, ineffably bright

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

»97

the

knd
£ht

It is not here, it can not be here, where the ransomed of tue Lord, who
have been redeemed by Hii power, as well as by the price of His blood,
ca'i have the fruition of his purpose of Grace (or this is but the bud of our
being, the dim dawn, the twilight of our days, here the battle with evil is
to be fought, but the Great Beyond is to bring the conqueror's crown, and
it is in virtue of the close connection between time and eternity in our
80J3urn in this world, and the results of the transaction of the Atonement
terminating upon the mighty issues that are to be evolved by it, that the
great Trurh should be gone into, and apprehended in its divine design as
universal in its efficacy, and the greatest exhibition of the infinite love of
God and of His wisdom, and the most wonderful means of forever shutting
out the entrance of sin again from His hol> universe that could ever be
conceived of !

But the theory of a Limited Atonement completely destroys the glorious
Truth connected with it, as a lie in the very heart of the truth, like the
kanker worm in the heart of the beautiful rose bud tk:at eats away its vital'
ity, till it drops from its parent stem dead.

It is not only a theory, without a single verse of Scripture to support
it by its assumed restriction as " only* for the elect or believers that Christ
died, a voucher which is absolutely required to warrant its assumption — ^but
it is expressly contradicted by every possible predicate that the powers of
language possess, to indicate it is not only for them that believe in it, and
receive its benefits, but for all the world, all the race— for them that doiit
believe tn it, as well as for them that do believe in it — the believing or the not
believing is a thing quite distinct from the fact that Christ died, that
" he died for all," that " he tasted death for every man ;" and therefore it is
neither logical nor rational to limit a thing by ihe way it is used, after it
has been provided for all — the abuse of a thing does not disprove its ex-
istence, since men could not be guilty of unbelief — in not believing in a thing
that had no existence, therefore on this ground of a limited atonement the
unbelievers are not unbelievers at all ! they are honest truthful believers
according to the theory, because they do not belive at all — they cannot be
condemned for not believing in an atonement that was not made or not
intended for them, when they don't believe in it at all. This is the logical
landing-place of a limited atonement. Whereas in God's word the unbe-
lief of unbelievers is made the very ground of their condemnation, and
therefore it must be true that Christ died for those who are condemned for
not believing in Him, and this shows how the sanctions of law — of life %t
death — are now transferred from the legal system to the Gospel, system
with such wonderful force in the glorious passsage — "God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believbth

ON HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH, BUT HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE," implying they

will have everlasting death if they do not believe in Him.

It is unbelief now that is the soul-destroying crime — a crime as bad
on earth as the devil's crime in heaven — it makes God a liar, as the devil
did, it thrusts God away — God the Lamb, and asserts its independence
of Him as the devil did, and it aims another prolonged quarrel with God,
who will be greatest, and they shall have the trial, and the proof, too, as the

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

devil is now having it, and they will be his associates, and share
in his doom nost assuredly, for of all unreasonable ihinrs, the act of
disbelieving in such a glorious truth is the most unreasonable, because it
is true tliat Christ's atonement is as universal in its extent as Adam's sin
was, and infinitely efficacious for the expiation of a thousand worlds, and the
only hope for our world, and/ree to all — Oh ! it is no lie, but a solemn
truth that Christ died lor those who deny him. (2 Peter, ii., 2), for those
• that reject Him, (John in, 18&36; i Ep. John, v, 10 — 1)2, and for
those that perish. (Acts xiii, 41). Therefore the doctrine of a limited
atonement is untrue, and the universalitv of Christ's atonement is the great
truth that is to eradicate the lie from God's moral creation that corrupted
it, and it will do it according to the divine purpose of infinite love.

(4.) // is high time tha this misleading, perverting, untrue
THEORY of a LIMITED ATONEMENT Were given up by all who hold it
It turns the Remedial scheme into a miserable fallacy and failure. It
cannot meet the demands or the conditions involved in the Remedial
scheme if it does not provide a free and full, a present and everlasting sal-
vation for the entire race ruined by the first representative of ft, if the
second repsesentative (with deepest reverence) has failed to fulfil these con-
ditions. How dishonoring and dreadful a doctrine is this ! that will lift up
its voice and tell me that my God and Saviour failed to fulfil the demands
of law and justice in any single case of those lost and ruined by sin com-
mited by another before he was born ? For this is the root of the evil.
In Adam all the race died, spiritually^ for he stood at the head of the race,
and represented the race as we have already proved from God's Word
(Rom, v., 12-18). In every man's own sins his voluntary concurrence is
involved, as we have proved, but " by nature we are the children of wrath
even as others."

It is no use to cover up original sin. It is no use to be flimsy and
illogical here, and never see the deep, the awful necessity of a remedy
required, as nothing short of the infinite love of God offering up itself as a
sacrifice for lost man, and so it was nothing short of this^ and where this
infinite love of God touches the heart it expands it, it bums up its
selfishness and makes an incarnation for itself to dwell in, as it is designed.

If the head should say, through human teaching and human limita-
tion, " The atonement is limited to believers," the heart will cry out,
" Well, get all men to be believers," and if the head should again say,
" but what are you to tell them to believe ? — If it is only known to God
for whom Christ died, you may be asking your hearers to commit a fraud !
if you get them to believr that Ohrist died for them, if he did not die for
them ! '• Well," replies tiie heart, " I know it is illogical^ but there are many
other things we cannot understand as well as the general ofier of salvation
on the basis of? particular redemption." " Well," says the head, " I never
siw a pyramid yet standing upon its apex instead of its base, and if this be
the sort of irrational nonsense and insincere preaching and humbug, the
sooner you go ra-A be a butcher, and kill sheep fi'om the meadows instead
of the poor, wardeting sheep among men, the better."

" Now I call this, Frederick, " humbug:' What do you call it ?" " I

the

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

199

call it an outrage upon reason ! and don't wonder that free thinkers who
must have sound reasoning from men who assume to be teachers of others
and it is because ot the want of it among the clergy, not of course all,
but generally such total want of even common sense, that the intellect of
the age is fast withdrawing from places of divine worship, because there is
so much mere " twaddle" and the eternal cry. " believe," without ever
stating " what it is we are to believe," and " a/Ay" we are to believe !
and of course to hold that Christ died only for those that believe in Him
without knowing who they are out of the human race, for whom Christ
died is the most successful way of getting none to believe in Him^ for if th'^iy
say he came to save sinners, and make a restriction to His power, ai d
his willingness to save sinners, and then affirm they know he is willing, when
they restrict His atonement to a certain number ol sinners, so that we are
told to believe, and then told not to believe ! — how any honest man can
preach at all with such a thing as a limited atonement I cannot compre-
hend, although I believe they are sincere ?"

"Oh, certainly, theyare sincere in the "7;*r«w," but not in the ^^verax"
and this distinction defends their sincerity, because their hearts are better
than their heads. And in this, we will get at the solution of the theory. It is
derived from tradition, from reading, human teaching, and it < tands in the
wisdom of men, and not in the power of God, and the great human heart
will not believe in it, even the preacher's own heart spurns the unsound
doctrine !

Paul's heart yearned over the spiritually dead, just as these good men
do, but Paul's convictions in his judgment always governed the feelings of
his heart, and these convictions were derived, not from a limited e^tone-
ment,- or a particular redemption theor}', but from a universal atonement,
and a redemption work finished on the Cross, consequently there was har*
mony between the judgment and the feelings. To prove this, Paul says,
" The love ot Christ constraineth us because we thus judge, that if one died
for*all (that is Christ), therefore all died (spiritually of course) and He died
for a// (the all that died — the entire race) that they who live (spiritually of
course, through believing in Christ) should no longer live to themselves (a
selfish life — they cannot) but unto Him who died for them and rose again,"
hence the substitutionary death of Christ is the vitalizing truth of the race.
Paul here tells us plainly — the all who died in Adam Christ died fo^^
therefore this glorious truth is the life of the race, and his statement here
confirms his parallel, formerly considered in Rom. v., 12-19 — "For as
through the one man's disobedience the many were made (or constituted
or conditioned) sinners, even so through the obedience of the one (Christ)
shall the many be made (constituted or conditioned) righteous."

You see, therefore, Paul held no limited view of the atonement, or he
could not have so stated the parallel between our fall and ruin in Adam,
and our redemption and life in Christ, for we have life from His death.
And the probation of man is therefore laid deep in the infinite love of God,
and faith with its necessary e/idence and fruits is the test by which we
are now on our trial. Ooaiu anything be more reasonable f You see
the love is to destroy the enmity, and the belief of it the devil's lie ! So

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300

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

that from supreme love to God and sincere love to man, produced by the
faith of the great atonement, the amelioration of mankind is to be reached,
all existing evils banished from society, every curse turned into a b'essing,
and every one be made truly happy !

" I hope I have proved to your satisfaction, Frederick, the extent of the
atonement of Christ to be according to the Scriptures, coextensive with the

race?"

" I consider you have. It is necessarily so, because, ist — You have
stated, in opposition to the Limitarian theory, that it is without the least
foundation from Scripture, inasmuch as there are not any restrictions given
to it, that there is no such word as that Christ died only for them that
believe in Him. When Christ's death is spoken of, it is presented as dying
for W/' — dying for ^sinners* for the ^ungodly,* dying for Uveryoni — given by
God for the ''world," and as a propitiation for the "whole world." Next, you
Irave shown how, if election is brought in as inclusive of those for whom
He died only^ and to the exclusion of the non-elect, it is an assumption
without any voucher from God's Word, since to view the atonement in that
connection is to remove the basis of belief from the atonement to the elec-
tion, therefore this method of viewing the Gospel misleads the enquirer
perverts the Gospel, and is not founded on fact, and the sooner
It is given up the better. I would only remark on the argument, that
it appears to me to be as necessary lo have a universal provision of
salvation, as the effects of sin are universal, and that reason demands it to
make every man who refuses to believe the fact an unbeliever or disbeliever,
while the necessity of faith in it is as essential as the atonement itself for
salvation, therefore, wh le the Limitarian view is proved to be a baseless
theory, the Universalist who infers that all mankind will be saved because
Christ died for all, is a fallacy, because believing in Christ is as clearly
necessary to personal participation in the benefits of Christ's atonement as
the atonement itself. The atonement being made for all, all are sincerely
invited and required to believe in it, as the great means God has employed
to save us from the consequences of sin, being in answer to the demands of
justice for Adam's first transgression and all our own sins, while the love of
God, exhibited by the gift and sacrifice in the sinless and righteous life and
the substitutionary death of His own dear Son, is fitted to draw our hearts
to God, to love and obey Him on account of it." " Yes, all correct^
Frederick. And the infinite merit and value of such an atonement, made
by One possessing the atiributes of Deity, can never be limited in its effi-
cacy except by those who reject it and limit it. In itself it is infinite and
free to all."

Thus I have endeavored, dear reader, to answer the question at the
heading of this part of my discussion on the great subject of evil in God's
universe, namely^ What God has done to thwart the dominion of evil, and to
remedy it ? by referrin _, to the marvellous interposition of the Son of God
Himself, to thwart XY adversary in his malicious designs to destroy the
spiritual and eternal interests of the human race by His all-prevailing
atonement and expiation of human guilt and transgression, that the remedy
is as universal as the evil is universal ; and that it is an answer by divine

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

20I

appointment for your every ain, as well as every one else, and so is at once
a perfect satisfaction to divine law and justice for your sins and mine, and
for the sins of the whole race of mankind, without let or hindrance, except
the one hindrance of unbelief. The reasons for this I now will explain, I
trust to the satisfaction of every one, — because it is in the matchless mani*
festation of the infinite love of God we are bid to look and see and realize a
motive so powerful as to draw us to God, because it produces within us a new
moral nature, so as to slay all love of sin in our hearts, — root out our natural
selfishness from within us, — remove all our fears and hard Ihoughcs about
God we have too often cherished, and coming in our thoughts and affections,
and with all our grievous transgressions, through Christ, the new and living
way, putting our implicit confidence in Him as our own dear Redeemer
and personal Saviour, and receiving the free forgiveness of all our sins,
divine acceptance, peace with God and eternal life, we learn under the
moral influence of a justified state the light, the love, the life and the liberty
of God's saved ones, and are made more than conquerors through Him that
loved us, for He takes us under the special care of His Providence, gives us
the Holy Spirit, makes us useful and holy and happy ,support8 us under every
trial, sustains us under every sorrow, and at last receives us to Himself into
His heavenly mansions, that we may enjoy Him forever, and dwell with
Him and His saints in light and eternal blessedness, wheras unbelief pre*
vents all this.

" He came to raise our fallen race

And our lost hopes restore,
Faith leads us to the mercy seat,

And bids us fear no more."

(6.) What Results Have Followed Affecting the Interests of Man and

the Whole Creation of Godi

We have seen the dark and dreadful cloud of evil dispelled by the
l}right shining of the Sun of Righteousness. No sooner did the primal sin
enter into God's holy universe than it was checked in its influence by the
expulsion of its perpetrators from heaven, and they were put under restraint
by the omnipotence of God. We all know something of the strength of a
deranged human spirit, wken under the fits of insanity, it takes sometimes
several strong and powerful men to hold down the maniac under the fury of
madness, although of slender build, and comparatively of little muscular
strength, naturally. Conceive of the control required to hold in check the
strength of will in such a mighty spirit as that of the chief of the apostate
angels— a being so exalted in rank, as he evidently was, who could influence
his angels under him to unite with him in assaulting the very Majesty of
heaven — of what use would chains of adamant be to bind such a mighty
Power,peihaps next to the archangel of God,when you conceive of the potency
of this mighty being when his spirit was kindled into fury by being thwarted
in its dominion of evil and rebellion against the Most High, when the
angels under him are possessed of far greater power than any human spirit
— " the least of whom could wield these elements, and arm him with the
force of all their regions," But the Son of God — the manifested God

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

(Elohim) could as easily keep him in check and expel him and his angels by a
single volition of His will, as we can pass a thought through our mind, or
perform the easiest act in our daily life. Of course the chains spoken of
are in accommodation to our modes of thinking and acting in putting into
chains great, stalwart criminals. — ^Therefere, the devil and his angels are
put under restraint.

The permission given to Satan to enter Paradise proves, I think, that
the primal sin was in some way connected with the fall of man, as I have
endeavored to put into words in the imagined scene in heaven, when the
fall of the angels took place.

The immediate interposition of Elohim — in the Garden of Eden — the
Lord God from heaven, to predict his doom, and the remarkable way in
which the destruction of Satan's power was to be effected through One of
the race, as the Son of Man, accomplishing it, and so exactly fulfilled in
Christ, the Son of God, which has passed under review, proves the reality
of the whole thing from first to last, and not any fiction or romance — it is
infinitely more marvellous, surpassing all human conception, up to the time
the Saviour cried on the Cross — " // is finished"

The extreme difficulty connected with a subject like this arises from
the nature of it, as being connected with " spirits," as being purely and en-
tirely in the empire of mind.

The conflicts of nations, with their diplomacy and despatches, and the
marches of their armies, can be all seen, and are tangible to the external
senses, whereas here the whole thing is different. " Every battle of the
warrior is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood, but this with
fuel and fire."

The fuel of envy changing the fire of seraphic love and holy zeal for
God into the fire of animosity and malice against God, accounts for the
primal sin, taken in connection with ihe communication I have conceived
as a probable circumstance, which does not in the least afford any pretext
for it. While to the fuel of the Divine indignation burning in the fire of
the infinite love of God for the welfare of the universe, is to be traced the
overthrow of this great and mighty antagonist, and teaches us many lessons
which time prevents me fully going into.

But there is one great lesson that grows out of the whole subject,
which I wish to derive from it for myself as well as others, namely, " that
what Christ was in the world we are to be in the world."

He conquered the devil, and so must we. He trusted in God, and :^
must we. He would allow him no quarter, and so must we. That so the
prediction which was so closely kept in view as relating to Christ as the
promised seed of the woman, who was to bruise the serpent's head, may be
fulfilled in each of us by us. For this is the other side of the prediction,
that the seed of the woman, as the entire race of mankind, should overcome
the Evil One. Christ, as the Captain of our Salvation, has gone forth
before us, and in His humanity in our own flesh and blood, has overcome
the mighty foe, and has said to every son of Adam, Follow Me, as I was in
the world so are you, fear not I am the Forerunner follow me — giving us an
easy pathway to victory, for fighting in our Saviour's strength, we shall bruise-

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

305

Satan under our feet, and obtain the conqueror's crown. We constantly
read in the Apocalypse of the victory of the saints, over " the beast and his
image" who arecounted worthy to enter heaven — such are the chosen of God,
they are approved of by God, and counted worthy of heaven, but they who
are overcome by him are cast into the lake of fire with him for ever ind
ever, because they, like hiui, believe a lie and act upon it. That lie is this,
"God is not God," "God is not love." "God is partial, cruel, tyrannical, He
did not die for the sins of men, or give His Son to die for the sins of men,
or if He had there would be no more sin nor sinners in existence " while
they themselves are^ so they believe in a lie, in a falsification of the Di-
vine character.

I believe every man is sent into this world to lessen evil in it, and not
to increase it, that all greatness lies in goodness — in self-sacrificing love —
this is love like a god, it is the very love of the very God, this is heaven's
way of over :;oming evil in His holy universe, and the Cross of Calvary sits
perpetual monument. He bids all the intelligent universe look at it and
live, and so they do, with the exception of somr angels of God and some
among men, who will not look, and therfore cannot live, and so they die
eternally.

This is summing up the whole results in a few words, and as they may
be called in question, I proceed to the proof.

God, in consequence of evil coming into His holy universe, has taken
means to prevent it ever coming into His holy universe again, and has turned
the battle against the foe, taken the pray from the mighty, and delivered the
lawful captive, and established His throne the firmer by the measures adopted
to shake it and undermine it He has endeared Himself to all His good
and true angels in heaven by His oblation on the Cross, given them new
views of sin. revealed its unutterable malignity and baseness and moral
turpitude, and deepened His law of love in their hearts by His own volun-
tary atonement for its transgression, extending its benefits to all the guilty
— they who believe in it live, they who disbelieve it peiish without the hope
of ever living inHis presence.

So that by the sanctions of the law fulfilled in Himself through His
only begotten Son, He brings forth the equity of His government under a
new revelation of its equity, in proof of the impossibility of that law being
broken with impunity, that its sanctions are inviolable — the law might be
broken, but the sanctions cannot be altered. Therefore, " die He or justice
must." But rather than suffer justice to die, or the penalty of the violation
of His law not to be carried into effect, the only expedient is for Himself
to interpose and ofier up His only begotten and well beloved Son in the
enactment of the penalty.

" With outstretched arms stern justice and soft, smiling love embrace,
supporting in full majesty His throne when seemed its majesty to need sup-
port — or that, or man, inevitably lost I"

Survey the wondrous cure, and at each step let higher wonder rise,
Pardon for infinite offence, a pardon bought with blood, with blood Divine,
Of Him I made my foe, persisted to provoke, though woo'd or aw'd ;
Bless'd or chastised, a flagrant rebel still, nor I alone, a rebel progeny,

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204

JIIF. GREAT WANT OK THR AGE.

My species up in arms ! Yet for the vilest of the vile He riies,

Most joy'd o'er those of deepest guilt, as if our race were held of highest rank,

And Godhead dearer as more kind to man I

Yes, nothing but love — love like a god could devise and carry into effect
the great Expedient. It pleased the Father to bruise Him, to make His
soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong their days,
and the pleasure cf the Lord shall prosper in His hands, therefore shall I
divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall div de the spoil with the
strong who stood with Him in battle on the plains of heaven, who minis-
tered to Him in His agony in the Garden, who gazed upon the Cross with
amazement and deepest sympathy, who hovered over His dead body in the
tomb, who were ever ready to fill all the earth with their radiant presence,
and smite His enemies with their glittering swords, and hurl them to de-
struction in a moment ; but the love of God prevented them, who ascended
with Him in triumphant songs to heaven, who met Him then in numbers
without number at heaven's gate, who shouted, " Lift up your heads ye
gates and be ye lilted up, that the King of Glory may come in." "Behold
God is gone up with a shout"— the shout of victory and triumph. " The
Lord with the sound of a trumpet, blown by no human breath, sing praises
to God, sing praises, sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is
the King of all the earth, sing ye praises with understanding. God
reigneth over the heathen, God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness.
The princes of the people are gathered together, the people of the God of
Abraham, for the shields of the earth (that quench the fiery darts of the
wicked one) belong unto God : He is greatly exalted !" And now sits in the
throne of His glory, at His Father's right hand, until He maketh His
enemies His footstool, to step up higher into the realms of a new spiritual
creation, where there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and
the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall
see His face, and a brightening diadem shall be on every head, and they
shall reign for ever and ever !

And the reason of it all is " because he poured out his soul unto death
and was numbered with the transgressors " — the taunted friend of publicans
and sinners, a glutton and a wine bibber, the jeered beelzebub, and yet
*' holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," clad in t' * garments
of the son of the carpenter, invested with the lowly garments of our
mortality, and yet the thrice holy Lord God Almighty who came to de.stroy
death, and him that had the power of death, to expiate human gvilt, to
save a world lost through sin./r^w sin^ "to fir ish transgression" — check and
extirpate the lie that corrupted and ruined creation, " to make an end of
sin-offering," and fulfil all the foreshadowing of the former dispensation "to
make reconciliation for iniquity" — slay the enmity of human hearts, and
raise His redeemed and regenerated people in a body like His own from
the corruption of the grave — and "bring in an everlarting righteousness" for
the saved, never to be corrupted nor defiled through jin again. Yes, every
vestige of the curse shall be removed, and the last enemy shall be
destroyed — death shall no longer be a king rioting over human slaughter,
and human tears, and human degradation, no longer the "King of Terrors !"

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

20$

For Christ's death is the death of death, Christ then said, " I will ransom
them from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from deaih. O
death I will be thy plagues (to the wicked one). O grave, I will be thy des-
truction (to the saved) repentance shall be hid from mine eyes" — the lion
of hell is doomed — the corruptor of 'he universe shall never be permitted
to stand in glory bright, in heaven again. The day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and repentance is hid from mine eyes."

And this doom must by parity of reasoning be the doom the unre-
vokable doom of all who are leagued with the great adversary of God and
man— who believe the lie they are so willing to believe in as a truth, and
turn the truth of God into a lie — the lie — that our God If not the God of
love ! He has given the last proof of it that they can have, and if that be
not the savor of life unto life it will prove the savor of death unto death.

Christ is the King of the invisible world, he holds the keys of hades,
He openeth and no one shutteth and he shutteth and no one openeth —
the prize to the believer in him is everlasting life, the doom of the disbe-
liever from Him is eternal dt-:h. "So that these shall go away into everlast-
ing punishment, but those into life everlasting."

Christ even now turns His enemies into His servants. The very Devil .
is advancing his kingdom which he is seeking to destroy, the very sinners
he employs as the enemies of the cross are helping to reveal its brighter
glories, and the very saints whom he persecutes and accuses of sins never
-committed by them with railing accusations, serves to remind them of sins
they have committed, and through the healing virtue cf the cross tears of
anguish are wrung from their hearts ; and Death the dark gloomy slave,
Christ employs to watch over the expiring saint and remove from this world
of woe, and not only that, but the reason Death is " called the last enemy"
is this, that Christ employs him to watch over His victims, as a king looks
over his subjects, and exults in having the greatest dominion of all kings, and
as a shepherd watches over his flocks by night, so the last enemy is compelled
thus to watch over the dust of the saints, doing good service after all, for
he is so stationed and commanded to serve, that they may be safe and
undisturbed during their season of rest, that the prey he thought was his
may be taken from the mighty monarch, and the lawful captive be freed
from his bondage and cruel humiliation, and raised up from the dark
shades of the grave when the blessed morning dawns, when at the sound of
the archangel's clarion^ the dead shall rise, clothed in celestial beauty, and
looking back on the grave exult and sing, "O Grave where is thy triumph
now, and where O death thy sting !" So when that bright morning of the
resurrection comes, death having delivered up his trust, shall himself die
not being any longer required to serve the x.-'andates of our King of glory,
his term of service has expired. Life in eveiy possible sense shall issue
forth in all its refreshing and enduring and beautifying springs. Our
whole nature " body, soul and spirit" shall be purified, perfected, and
endowed with endless incorruptible life — for the gospel not only reveals
the immortality of the human spirit which can never die as long as God is
pleased to sustain it in existence, but it reveals the immortality of our
humanity for it was in our humanity or our human body where the lie was

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9o6

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

fostered and brought forth death, alas, in every sense of the word. But
here is the marvel I This corruptible must put on incomiption, and thi»
mortal must put on immortality, and when this corruptible has put on in-
corruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought
to pass the wonderful saying, ' Death is swallowed up in victory.'

So let thine enemies perish, O Christ of the living God ! and let them
that love thee be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. Oh, they
shall be this as thy " sons of light" thy dear " children of the resur-
rection" for hast thou not said they shall shine as the stars and as the
brighness of the firmament ; nay, more — they shall shine forth as the sun in
the kingdom of thy Father, hast thou not said for their consolation and
comfort in this dark and dreary rale of tears — " Let not you hearts be
troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me In my Father's
house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you, I go to
prepare a place for you, and since I go I will come again that where I am
ye may be also." " Yes, I believe, even so come Lord Jesus." We can not
follow Thee now and see those bright and beautiful mansions worthy of thy
creating hand as the architect of the universe, but thy wurd of faithful
promise is enough to make us patient and wait for it, for " we are saved by
hope !"

Oh, how complete will be the Saviour's conquest over all evil, and oh,
how glorious will be its returns ! He took the stakes. He allowed the invest-
ment at which all marvel and think wrongly of the king of heaven, but the
investment so full of sorrow to His own heart to see His fair creation so
ruined, the compensation will prove His permission of evil wai> right.

As a wreck may sink in mid-ocean, and the foaming billows roll over
it, so that not a vestige of it is seen, nor a wavelet to revolve around the
place to mark where the wreck perished as Phaorah and his hosts sank like
lead in the Red Sea, the representatives of the devil and his crew, and all that
wished to accompany them on their piratical expeditions ; So shall the
destruction of the wicked One be and his angels and his seed, the foaming
billows of the just displeasure of God shall roll over them, the darkness of
death with its everlasting chains shall bind them, they shall never beable again
to hurt or annoy in all God's holy mountain — the universe will be better in-
finitely without them, and they shall eat of the fruit of their own ways, and
be compelled to acknowledge the justness of their awful doom. *' The
memory of the wicked shall rot, but the righteous shall be had in ever-
lasting remembrance."

The Righteous shall enter into life eternal — life — immortal, sinless,
godlike and divine I And, oh, what rejoicings shall be heard at the ter-
mination of this successful war, as on earth the termination of successful
wars is celebrated by rejoicings, and the insignificance of the battle-field
is forgotten in the triumphs of right over wrong, freedom over depotism,
liberty over slavery, and all the nation rings out the came of the battlefield
and it is immortalized for ever. So shall this little planet of ours, be immor-
talized among all the nations of the universe throughout all the empire of
God, and held in everlasting remembrance, and its very significance shall
draw forth more and more ecstatic praise at the infinite condescension of

THK ORIGIN OF SIM.

aox

heaven's king in assumins a nature so poor and mean, dwelling in the midst
of a people thatcould so little appreciate His excellence, despised Him and
put Him to death only through malice— the obsurity and littleness of our
earth in the map of the universe, where, the feet of God in the flesh walked,
where, the voice of God was heard, spoken by human lips, where the works
of God were performed of such a peculiar nature, as could not be per
formed anywhere else, and their astonishing character and extraordinary
results will add a significance to our world, and a splendor and glory to it
that no other spot in the universe was ever so exalted by and can never be !

At the termination of this war between God and Satan, between slants
and devils, between good and evil, the successful King and all His success-
ful subjects shall be hailed with triumphal songs and rejoicings infinitely
surpassing the triumphal procession of thw Roman general, when he returned
with the conquests and spoils of foreign nations to the capitol of Rome,
and the mistress of the world, was overjoyed. Angels and archangels
shall joyfully come and meet them, and welcome them to their fellow-
ship and companionship, they will be better able to speak about the points
of the battle, and tell us where we failed, and where we succeeded, be-
cause they were spectators to see it all, and oh, how we shall then see how
it was u/i got the victory corresponding exactly to God's Word that tells us
all about it The angels will not think us unfit or unworthy to be so ex-
alted even above them, but exult and rejoice over the sons of earth raised
as kings and priests unto God in the heavenly places, so that under all these
considerations, an incalculable importance is given to the question, /tow we
nre spending our life in this worlds and no subject can claim more attention
from us than to know what MAN'S TRUE PROBATION is on earth,
wherefore let us look at it closely, and examine the matter thoroughly, for
nothing can be compared with it in this life, and our utmost attention should
be given to the matter.

The full consideration of which will, therefore, now come under the
last particular of my long discussion, namely :

(l.) What are we to Expect in the Future History of our Race, from
this Disclosure^ and in the Future of God*s Universe.

By " this disclosure " I mean the light given by the whole discussion on
the question of human privilege and human responsibility, what goo
HAS given, and the things god requires of us, and how we are to
FULFIL our state OF PROBATION here as we ought to do, doth for our own
personal good and the good of others ^ and reach the goal of our being and win
its glorious prize. After this is set fully before our view, we will be able to
draw the legitimate inferences in favor of a glorious future^ as it cannot fail
to come " forth from the Lord of Hosts." And may none of us be wanting
in helping it forward with all our might.

To reduce this vast subject to the simplest form, it may be thrown into
a simple proposition, thus :

given : The infinite self-sacrificing love of God.

REQUIRED : To sccure the supreme self-sacrificing love of man.

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308

IHE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

Corollary : The faith of God's love mcessary to produce man's love, ana
the absence of the faith of the former^ the only thing to prevent the latter.

This will give us a clear insight into the whole subject. It will enable
us to see how OUR PROBATION is laid in equity— on the foundations
of divine love and rectitude, and how just the demands are in return, of
love and rectitude from us. And further, the reasonableness of faith in
God, and the unreasonableness of not exercising faith in God, and how the
^^ election of grace '^ is fulfilled by the former — by faith in God, and how
eternal condemnation is provoked and fulfilled by the latter, — by disbelief in
God's infinite, fre i . ove for the race of man, and each one in particular, as
resulting or terminating in character, as the essential conditions of eternal
destiny, which the Word of God reveals, which human reason confirms, and
which no law In existence, nor creature in existence, nor conceivable cir-
cumstance can ever alter or upset. These are the points to be proved and
clearly understood.

THE importance OF UNDERSTANDING EACH FACT CLEARLY AND THE RE-
LATIONSHIP OF DIVINE FACTS.

I need not detain the intelligent reader, but for the sake of my dear
young readers, who have not, perhaps, exercised their reasoning faculties
much, how necessary it is, not only to understand each particular fact stated
clearly, but the connection of each fact with another, and the bearing and
relationship of the whole argument upon the subject under discussion, to
see each particular fact by itself, as so many links in a chain, and then the
connection of the separate links, one by one, and then to see the entire
chain in its completeness, as a whole. For all knowledge is based on the
principle of relationship of oi.e thing to another, or comparison, we can only
learn one thing by another thing, as a picture book teaches a child — analysis,
gives us the particulars, as you take a watch and separate all its parts one
from another, and each part by itself, that is analysis ; then synthesis gives us
the relationship of each, and the completeness of the whole, after each part
of the watch is put into its right place, and the watch is seen in its entirety.
The greatest difficulty lies in understanding the relationship of the particular
facts, and the bearing of the whole together, in their completeness. Any
one can pull a watch to pieces, but it requires knowledge to put the pieces
together, and arrive at the right completion of the watch. Now it is just
herein the progress in theology is lacking, and the greatest good of man
consists. Separate truths are apprehended, but their relations requires to
be more clearly understood. The relations of facts in the kingdoms of
nature, for example, are where the divine wisdom is most seen, and most
disclose the infinite skill and knowledge of God, just as we see the skill and
knowledge of the watchmaker, putting the separate parts of the watch
together, so between the different kingdoms of the mineral, the vegetable,
the animal, the intellectual, the moral and the spiritual, there is such a won-
derful law of subserviency seen, that reveals the skill and the knowledge of
the Infinite Mind, as in the mineral — the earth producing the vegetable
life, the vegetable life sustaining the animal life — in the sheep and the cow

THE ORIGIN OF SIM.

209

and the oxen, — the animal life in man sustaining the intellectual life, the in-
tellectual sustaining the moral life, and the moral life, the spiritual— and the
spiritual the divine life in the soul of man.

The hasty way I have put this illustration is not the strictly scientific
way of putting it, but it may serve my present purpose to open a fresh field
of contemplation that is scarcely ever looked into, and to reach a higher
object, to yf;i^ out more than has yet been found in the highest realm of
knowledge, DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. The Scripture doctrines seen in
their mutual relations to each other^ and in thdr perfect whole, is onk of the
GREATEST WANTS OF OUR AGE. Here we trace the divine wisdom as
nowhere else. Here we see a plan so perfect that it carries in it the force
of a mathematical demonstration. This is now most of all needed to anni-
hilate every possible objection that can be brought against the Christian
system of truth, and impi '•t its mighty impetus to the progress of ** pure and
undefiled religion," which it has lost and never been permitted to exert itself
since the apostolic ages, and which will ultimately reveal " the glory of the
Lord, and all flesh shall see it together," and humanity become the living
temple of the Divinity throughout the whole eai th !

Christians are to take unto themselves the whole armor of God ^ and not
a few detached parts of it, as most are doing now — some making most of
the '* helmet of salvation," others " the shield of faith," some " the sword of
the Spirit," and others *• the girdle of truth," some " the minutiie of Chris-
tian duties," others "the minutiae of Christian ordinances," few the *' all
prayer weapon," fewer still the all-glorious '* praise and triumphal song " —
least of all, though the greatest of all — the aggressive onslaught of the
devil's dominions and the world's conquest for Jesus, as an army terrible with
banners, making ev. ry vestige of the foe flee before them, being fully
equipped in the whole panoply of omnipotence, to accomplish the one
great end of the Church militant on earth !

ir'

HOW HUMAN PROBATION AS ARRANGED BY GOD IS PERVERTED BY MAN.

The quickest and surest road to this glorious consummation now lies
before us. The road that is to lead us to man's probation under the dis-
pensation we are privileged to live in. The most practical thing we can
take up in this great practical age. But the most obscured, perplexed and
perverted thing in existence. Nothing more vital and important, and yet
nothing less thought of and more disregarded. Nothing requiring more
to be kept in view, and yet nothing so much forgotten. Many seem to
think they have no responsibility at all, thai they are at liberty to do what
they like, to believe what they like, or not to believe anything at all, That
they can be perfectly neutral in religion, that it does not concern them in
the least, and ask, why should it ? I will tell them this immediately. Some
think and say, " it does not matter what a man believes, but how he lives,
that ' handsome is that handsome does.' " Others, that all a man requires, to
be saved, is " only to believe, only to believe in the precious blood of
Christ." Some think "Christ has done everything, and they are left to do
nothing." Others go so far as tc fall into the whirlpool of antinemianism,

f,1

'»Li

Si, Il

n II

3IO

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AOE.

that " the moral law is no longer binding upon them who believe in Christ,
that He is the end of the law for righteousness," that they have all their past,
their present and future sins all forgiven, even before they are committed,
and may commit never so many more that their sins will not condemn
them, for they are justihed already, and where sin abounds grace much
more abounds — a very comfortable doctrine for the flesh, but not according
to the Spirit of all grace, which is a holy Spirit, and '* they that are Christ's,"
it is written, " have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." Others,
again, say, " the moral law is binding, and Christ has atoned for human
transgression, and has commenced the work which they are to complete by
their good works, so as to get to heaven, and not go down to hell." This
IS pervaded by much that is right and truthful, while it has a legal spirit in
it that may prove detrimental. Some, again, make out that " God's elective
love will reach to aH that shall be finally saved, that Christ died for none
but the elect, and that God's Spirit will effectually work in them and save
them, with means or without means^ just as God sees fit." And many think
so much of themselves and of their Christian experience as to conclude that
they are God's elect, and like the Pharisee, they complacently say, " Stand
by, I am holier than thou," and they have usually a great deal of Spiritual
pride, and can hear almost nothing but what they call the " high doctrines
of grace " about predestination, election and Divine sovereignty, etc., and
leave man without any responsibility, or anything to believe in except a law
work comes first, and thereby be made sensible of their being among God's
elect, although many of these hyper-Calvinists are very strict, good people,
and not antinomians. And then a large class attend the place of worship
of their fathers, whether they are Roman Catholics or Protestants, and
think they cannot do better than just adhere to the religion they were
brought up in, and do the best they can.

But how few among all these really understand the great question of
man's PROBATION on earth ! Far be it from me to say they don't under-
stand it, or that they may not be fulfilling it rightly after their own idea.
But what I am anxious to reach and set forth is the Divine idea of Man's
Probation — the "verax" instead of the *'verum."

And it is truly delightful and a great relief to the mind, amidst all the
chaos of human ideas about it, to rise above them and away from them, and
see it in

ONE THING— IN ONE THING ONLY,

as comprehending all things as the Divine idea, and which has in it the very
essence of God — His image, and which never fails to produce God's image, —
to produce purity, piety, humanity, — god-like benevolence towards man, a
supremacy of moral power over self, and infinite affection towards God, its
giver, in eve'y possessor of it.

It is that one only thing which is to " banish all evil frovi human society^
7vhich is to turn every curse into a blessing (which I will presently prove),
and to make every one truly happy."

It is called by the most endearing name in all the languages of earth —

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

a name which has been everywhere idolized — a name which is above every
name, immortalized on earth in the greatest productions of human genius —
in song and in history, in romance and in reality — a name designating a
thing which has done more for man in his childhood and life than anythmg
else, and is yet destined to do more good than ever it has hitherto done —
the elixir of life and the very essence of all human progress and ameliora-
tion — it is

"LOVE!"

The infinitely pure^ the infinitely free^ the infinitely perfect love of God

towards man.

This, if I may be permitted to use the expression, is the stake God has
laid against Satan in the mighty conflict to regain our lost world from him.
God stakes His all to win it over from the devil to Himself, and having
given all. He can give no more, and those of the race whom Satan succeeds
in keeping, God loses, and they are lost forever, and are exiled from God's
paternal bosom by their own voluntary choice of the devil in preference to
God, as their god, whom they worship and bow down to and serve for
" lusts," " murders " and " lies " that can profit nothing, as all know who
have by the infinite power of the love of God been delivered from them.
And there is no power but that in all the universe that can save us out of
the devil's grasp, his dreadful drudgery, his cruelty and his tyranny and his
ETERNAL DOOM, in whUh all who are his shall share for ever and ever^ and
it cannot be otherwise.

• Oh f there is need of knounn^ this subject by every one.

■ •

There is no subject so claiming uur thought as this subject. Would
to God I could make it clear and plain to the ac'mowledgment of every
reader. O Heavens help me in my mighty task, to remove the prejudice,
the darkness, the misconceptions, the misconstructions that have so much
prevailed, and do now blind the minds of them who believe not, in whom
the god of this world has blinded their minds, lest the light of the glorious
Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine into them. O that
the devil may be now seen falling like lightning from heaven. He has been
long enough in Thy lower heaven on earth — Thy Church under the Gospel
dispensation. O let the time of his downfall now come ! Oh let the victory
be Thine, Thou God of Love, by the captives of the devil loosing his hold
of them, through the omnipotence of Thy gentleness, through Thy Spirit of
love being so poured forth that every one may clearly see how tenderly and
consistently with the laws of the conquest Thou art acting, and canst do no
more, to win them to Thyself!

These previous remarks I deem necessary to call forth the attention
this most momentous subject demands. None of us has ever seen its vast
importance and relationships as we ought. Angels desire to look into these,
things they are personally interested in them, it is no idle curiosity that makes
them bend from their exalted thrones to look into the infinite depths of the

■i

212

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

love of God in its far-reaching issues and results. We need Divine illumi-
nation to understand it more thoroughly. And therefore let us seek it,
and from personal interest in it awaken our attention to it, as if we had
never heard or thought of it before, lest the benefit be lost by us which
more intense consideration of it would yield. How to get gain, make
money, become rich, or get pleastire and become happy, are points that
prove how much interest and attention can be called forth in connection
with the fleeting things of this life. Is it, then, unreasonable to ask a
similar amount of interest and attention on what is so much more important
as heaven is higher than earth, and eternity is longer than time. For too
often has the love of God been slighted by us.

IT IS THE INFINITE, SELF-SACRIFICING LOVE OF GOD

THAT IS GIVEN

TO SECURE THE SUPREME, SELF-SACRIFICING LOVE OF MAN.

If this can be proved to be the fundamental principle of our
probation, with the test of our obedience to God under it, then
there will be found not only a correspondence between it and the
probation of the angels, as we saw infinite love in God to them, and su-
preme love from them to God, was its sum and substance ; but the.e is
vastly more here on God's part to us — a self sacrificing love of God toward
us which they never had which is the peculiarity in our case, and justly
demands a self-sacrificing love in return from us, on the principles of jus-
tice, in which all systems of right probation or trial are laid.

And then the product it yields is what places man on the high moral
ground of all God's intelligent creation, it removes the selfishness of his
fallen nature, lifts him up to delight in supreme goodness, and to fulfil his
position in the universe towards his fellows — now on earth a benefactor of
the race, no longer an injurer to ethers, no longer seeking any personal
object, as riches, pleasure, power, as the object of his life, but self-sacrificing
benevolence for the good of all men, as much as in him lies, and God's
glory.

The two things, then, I am t9 prove is the fact first stated, God^s love
to man ; and second, the faith of that fact producing supreme love in man
to God, and securing sincere love to his fellow-man, and the self-sacrifice in
God's love producing self-sacrifice in man's love.

( I.) The Infinite Love of God is Proved by the Gift of His Son.

This, we have shown, was the firzt oracle of mercy that fell as a doom
on Satan, and the promise of deliverance to fallen man. " The seed of the
woman sliall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." No fact is
more bound up with the history of the race than the birth, the life, the death
and the resurrection of the Son of God, which we have already proved.
That the gift was given, or that Jesus Christ came into our world and lived
and died in it, no one in bis senses can dispute or deny. But that this
same Jesus Christ proved the infinite, self-sacrificing love of God to the race
remains to be shown and satisfactorily attested.

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

213

(2.) It is in the Sacrifice of Christ we see God's Self-sacrificing Love.

This is just where the proofs are given, and most needed, but it is here
where they are usually most omitted, not by the sacred writers, not by Jesus
Christ, not by God the Father, but by the defective way the subject is
usually considered, both by divines and infidels.

Some distinguished prelates in a large section of the Church of Christ
— and a most worthy section of it, too — have spoken in such a way, I fear,
as to impair the sacrificial character of God's love.

Unitarians have^ with their benevolent souls in them, frowned away the
vicariousness of the death of Christ, regarding Him very grandly in the
light of a teacher and a pattern and model man for the race. Which, of
course. He is.

(3.) This has been the Battle-ground Betwee?i Infidels and Christians.

Nothing more contested, perhaps, in the history of Scripture doctrine
than this — the self sacrifice — the punishment and suffering endured by the
Son of Qod, as expressing at once not only the design of God's love, but the
greatness of it in the Cross of Calvary. It is not in the least to be wondered
at that this should be made the selected arena and battle-ground of dispute,
because it is just here where the point of attack on the part of the devil,
and the point of defense on the part of the Son of God centres. The mur-
derer in heaven aimed a death-blow against God, as all sin does, all hatred
carries heart-murder in it. As the murderer was in the Garden of Eden, it
was "death " he aimed at. He knew how the penalty of death — spiritual
death — was the necessary punishment or consequence of sin, and how God
could not revoke that sentence, he knew, it was, an impossibility, and he
longed for Christ's death to be accomplished, but for God in that death to
offer up Himself as a sacrifice for sin, in the person of His Son, would be,
in his view, impossible, and if so, man's doom would be inevitable, and his
ruined state beyond redemption I

(4.) Some of the Objections to the Sacrificial Nature of Christ's Death.

And a great deal that is plausible can be advanced in support of the
opposite view, and that is just what makes God's truths to be all the more
important and vital, for the truths that are most important and vital are the
truths that are always most imperilled, for it is just there the boundary line
between the two kingdoms is drawn, showing the shrewdness and craftiness
of the adversary against God and man, and especially in intellectual ques-
tions, where the mighty intellect of the arch fiend so adroitly ensnares the
great intellects among men, and gains the advantage over them, whereas
the simple heart of the pious peasant, or the honest heart of the poor old
woman that reads her Bible without any sophistry, understands its deep
mysteries infinitely better than the most gigantic intellect among skeptics —
a fine humiliation to the pride of human intellect ! Great and good men,
tc«, have erred here, I have hinted. One of the prelates of the Church oif
England, of great eminence - one whose genius is said to have been mi

214

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

honor to human nature — Bishop Butler, and also the distinguished and
illustr.ous Dr. MacGee, who has written largely on the atone^nent, are
•considered not to have grasped the awful Spiritual exigencies and necessi-
ties of the case, as the Word of God, and even reason demands.

(^i) It has been considered harsh and unreasonably severe, rcen cruel, for
God to exact satisfaction from His own Son — the innocent in room of the
guilty — forgetting that God's law binds Him to fulfil its sanctions, and that ,
God is Himselt the object of the rebellion, who " so loved the world as to
give His only begotten Son" to suffer and die for it, for " He spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." The legal obstacles that rose up
against the free flow of His love to the fallen and guilty had to be removed
before He could be declared as just, and the justifier of him that believed
in Jesus. Where was the cruelty ? Not against Christ, for He willingly
undertook to seek and to save the lost out of His infinite love, to communi-
cate the blessings of salvation, for the sake of the good it would do, as pure
love is always disinterested, and " seeketh not her own." In John iii., 14.

Hear how Jesus tells Nicodemus, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life." That was His
object in being lifted up on the Cross, as' the expression implies, here used
by the Saviour — (Hupsootheenai) for these words were evidently uttered by
the Saviour, and not the words of the Evangelist, as Erasmus and others
think, for they beautifully explain to Nicodemus how the " new birth " is
effected, viz., by believing in the sacrificial death of Christ, and they were
often upon the Saviour's lips (see John viii., 28, 32 and 34) to intimate
what death He would die, that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder-
ness (Numbers xxi., 8-9) as a remedy to heal the dying Israelites stung by the
serpents, so must the Son of Man be lifted up on the cross, so that sinners,
through His death, might have me sting of death removed, and participate
in a new and noble life, that believing in Him they might not perish, but
obtain eternal life.

Never was any truth more perverted and obscured than the infinite,
self-sacrificing free love of God. To turn this greatest of all facts into a
fable or a lie is the malignant design of the adversary. To get men to
think as he does about God is his most persevering effort, the thought of
all his malicious thoughts he persists most to fix in the hu.iian heart, for he
knows that the mind which entertains it is certain to be on his side, and
sure to be his victim. And the method he adopts is to perplex and per-
vert the nature and design of the death of Christ. To remove from it the
idea of a sacrifice for sin, to eliminate from it the atonement for human
transgression, which presents the most powerful demonstration of the self-
sacrificing love of God in the universe. For by doing this he prevents the
faith of it, he takes away the hope of salvation from the lost soul, and
obstructs the operation of the powerful motive to win back the human
heart to God, to subdue it, transform it and beautify it with His own
image. Therefore, this is the truth which, above all others, should be
most thoroughly and clearly understood and valued, for it is a matter of
life and death — nothing so important.

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

215

And as I am upon the subject of the objections against it, I will take
them up one by one, and show how false they are, and what ridiculous sub-
terfuges they are —nothing but refuges of lies from the father of lies.

These objections are usually based on a wrong view of the Divine
nature, and supported by endless theories of " virtue," which is just another
name for "human probation." But sadly perplexed by metaphysics,and easier
to go into than to come out of, they are such labyrinths, and have such un-
fathomable depths in them. Let us go to the pure, simple Word of God,
which liveth and abideth forever. For these theories about virtue have
come and gone through all the ages> ever since the days of Cain, the first
perverter of the great atonement by his "theory of virtue," and the first mur-
derer of a brother among men. They are like so many airy nothings or
fanciful delusions, which have done more harm than good, and divorced
morality from theology, instead of getting from theology the grandest
morality that it is possible for man to have, which comes from the infinite
love of God, as the sun and centre of the Christian system of truth, irradi-
ating it with celestial light, heavenly beauty and divine life, and is the only
thing in existence to warm and vitalize and purify the cold, dead, selfish
human heart, and make it pure as God is pure, and benevolent as God is
benevolent, and restore Paradise again to us by a tenure which shall never
be broken and a blessedness even now on earth scarcely ever dreamed of,
for it is heaven's antidote against all evil.

In addition to the objection of " cruelty " alleged against the atone-
ment, which we have seen to be so groundless, a second objection brought
against the sacrifice of Christ is that it represents God as '* unjust," another
form of the same thing. A third, that it represents God as " vindictive,"
and a fourth is, that God could pardon sin without it, and that no atonement
was needed, and a fifth objection is opposing the fact of Christ's vicarious
death by trying to •' disprove it altogether, and by making out sacrifice to
mean something in Scripture quite different from any sin-offering or expia-
tion or atonement of Christ at all."

OBJECTIONS TO IHE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST REFUTED.

(2.) To say —the sacrifice of Christ for human transgression is to repre-
sent GOD as '* VINDICTIVE," — is to say white is black, and to fix a stigma on
the holy, benevolent character of God, which is full of malignity, because it
is quite the opposite. The sacrifice flows from God's free love as its
source, and love is its motive-power to win the alienated heart of man
fiack to God, it is therefore without vindictiveness, because it reveals God's
own infinite, sacrificing love. What vindictiveness QPuld there be in God so
loving the world as to give His Son to die for it ? T'here could be nothing
revengeful or vindictive against man in it ! " Beloved," says the Apostle
John, *' let us love one another ; for love is of God, and every one that
loveth is born of God, and knoweth God ; for God is love." (God not oiily
loves, but is love itself, and therefore, in the sacrifice of His Son He could
not be vindictive in the least against man, for man was the object of this
wonderful manifestation of His love, for the apostle adds) " In this was
manifesttsd the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only be-

< \

3l6

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

gotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." And as if
this declaration was not enough, he adds —delighting to dwell upon this
marvellous proof of the infinite love of God — " Herein is love (love like a
god) not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be
the propitiation " — or propitiatory sacrifice — " for our sins." (i John, iv.,
7-10.) And lest any might possibly think God's love only extended to the
good and the righteous and godly among men, or such as God foresaw
would become good and righteous and godly, and thereby have some claim
or His mercy and love, hear the words of another inspired apostle :

Paul, in writing to the Church at Rome, says (Rom. v., 5-8) "For
when we were yet without strength, in due season Christ died for the un-
godly. For scarcely for a righteous man - the man that is just — will one
die ; yet peradventure for a good man — the man that is good " — a benevo-
lent man — "some would even dare to die. But God commenoeth His
love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners " — transgressors — " Christ
died for us" — "/or us" (huper) in behalf of us — in our room and stead.
Where did the vindictiveness in this great transaction appear ? Where ? If
vindictiveness neans revenge? It 'vas a holy revenge against sin, and
against the originator of sin, and this ])roves the purity and benevolence of
the love — when God in Christ appears " the sinner's friend and

Sin^s eternal foe .'"

(3.) To say " the sacrifice of Christ for human transgression represents
GOD AS UNJUST," because " // makes the innocent suffer in the room of the guilty^
the jusi for the unjust" — The substitution of Christ was certainly as here
stated, for He, the Righteous One, suffered in the room of us, the un-
righteous, " and He who knew no sin was made a sin-offering for us (huper
heemoon — in our behalf — in our room and stead.) But the inference drawn
from this stupendous fact is unwarranted, because instead of making God
appear as unjust, it proves Him to be (juite the opposite — to be just in jus-
tifying him that has faith in Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to show and demonstrate His justice and
righteousness in the view of the holy angels and the rebellious devils, that
He was too holy to pass sin with impunity, and had too much regard to the
authority of His own law, which bound Him to see the fulfilment of its pre-
cept and penalty. How shall man, then, be just with God without an
adequate atonement and perfect satisfaction being made for man ? And as
none could do that but Himself, in the person of His Son, who voluntarily
undertook to fulfil all righteousness, and endure the death of the cross as
inan, in the nature sin was committed, for man, as the substitute of man, a
way has thus been opei^d up — a consecrated channel opened for His infinite
free lo7ie and mercy toTJow forth to all the race, through Christ, bringing
eternal life to all who accept the gift, who believe in Christ, who receive Him
as the manifested God into their hearts, and in Hiin find righteousness and
strength and eternal salvation and true blessedness ! The substitute brings
more honors to the justice of God in behalf of those for whom He stood,
than the perpetual obedience of all the race could bring, or the everlasting
destruction of all the transgressors could bring, for the substitute is God's

THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

217

own Son — His Son by His right of inheritance, as a son inherits the nature
of his father, and has, therefore, a more excellent name than the angels —
the angels are God's sons by creation, Jesus Christ is God's Son by an in-
alienable right, as the manifested God in heaven, against whom the rebellion
in heaven arose — in His pre-exittent state He thought it no robbery to be
equal with God — it was no prize for Him to be on an equality with God (as
the New Version has ably translated the original words in the passage now
quoted fiom Phil il, 6), and He bore the same divine equality with God
on the earth, for He was the outbeaming effulgence of the Father's glory,
and the express image of His glorious personality. And in proof of this
God spoke of the sword of justice falling upon Him as our surety, when He
said, " Awake, O sword, against My fellovy ; smite the shepherd. For it
pleased the Father to bruise him. He made His soul an offering for sin. He
made to meet upon His head the iniquities of us all, so that what man could
not do, what angels could not do, God in the person of His Son did, to
vindicate the inviolability of His law, the inflexibility of His justice, the
purity of His holiness, while He freely justifies the guilty who believe in
the substitute, and magnifies the law and makes it honorable. Not tha
there was any conflict in God's attributes, or that God might love us because
Christ died for us, but Christ died for us because God so loved us. (John
iii., 14, taken in connection with v. 16.) A sublimer proof of the infinite
justice of God could not be given, while the believer in God's love is freely
pr-idonedand saved through Christ.

Therefore, the substitution of the innocent in room of us, the guilty, so
far from representing God as "unjust," it reveals His "justice" in the
most conspicuous manner possible. For rather than not punish sin, He
punished it in the person of His only begotten Son, that He might extend
pardon and salvation to all who believe in His Son, in harmony with. His
justice. There is, therefore, no injustice here done by God towards man in
providing such a Saviour, and no injustice done by God towards His Son,
as we have already proved. Christ in our nature, as the second subsistence
in the Godhead, voluntarily undertook to suffer as the Just One in the room
of us, the unjust, for the love of Christ for man moved Him to leave His
celest' u throne, to bow His heavens and come down to our rescue, for He
emptied Himself of all His glory when He took upon him the form of a ser-
vant, and was made in the likeness of man. " Lo I come to do Thy will, O
my God, Thy love is in my heart." He became our brother-man, and
loved God supremely, as man, and loved us, His brothers and sisters,
with a love passing knowledge, for He humbled Himself, and became
obedient unto death — even the death of the -cross, and He despised
its shame and endured all its cruelty which came from man, and all the
malice which came from the Devil and his angels, for the joy that was set
before Him, of bringing many sons and daughters to glory, and it would
have been cruelty to have preven'ed Him. The cruelty is in those who
will not believe in His infinite sufferings on theif behalf — this is to wound
Him afresh, and no sorrow goes to His heart so much as to have suffered
all, and atoned for the sins of all, and so many not to believe it. There-

8l8

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

fore, the objector is the author of an injustice to the Redeemer, which he
better take home to his own heart

(4.) To say — " God could have pardoned our sins without the atonement"
— this is to think quite differently from the way God in His infinite
wisdom has acted in the case, for it there be any fact to be believed in on
adequate evidence, it is the fact of Jesus Christ having made a full, a reaF
and a perfect atonement for the sins of men. It is the burden of the
prophets read Isaiah 53 — a chapter which has converted more Jews than
any other to Christ, and many Gentiles— which reads more like history than
prophecy, and is verified by history and by the Saviour's life and death, and
the New Testament is full of the doctrine. The objector who demurs to
it on the plea that God could pardon our sins without it, is to assume a
wisdom above God's, for if He; could have pardoned us without the atone-
ment of His well-beloved Son, why did He not do it ? Would all the agony
and ignominy be useless in this very thing for which it was endured, can
any one imagine ? I am at a loss to see, unless it be so in .he case of the
objector himself. For if, sin could have been pardoned and man saved
without the atonement of Christ — if the atonement was not needed — I
press the question, why was the atonement made ? Because the most ex-
plicit language is used to convey this idea, and God never misleads by His
Word, He always means what He says, and says what He means.

Under the former dispensation the great truth was continually incul-
cated, that " Without the shedding of blood is no remission." The whole
Levitical system was built on this principle — sacrifice, according to the
teaching of Christ and His apostles. The fulfilm.ent of it is found in Christ,
as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, who came in the
fullness of the time, and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself in Hi*
own body on the tree To Him the former sacrifices and offerings all re-
ferred, from Him they all derived their temporary efficacy, and in Him
they were all consummated and fulfilled. The first name He was called by
on His entrance on His public ministry, when His forerunner called the
attention of His disciples to Him was that ot *'theLamb ^6^^^whichtaketh
away the sin of the world," and the constant emblem of Him in heaven in
the Apocalypse is that of a " Lamb as it had been slain." And on this
representation of Himself, all heave.ii is filled with songs of praise.

Christ took special pains to teach the same truth in various ways, both
in His parables and His direct allusions to Himself—" Think not," He said,
in His sublime sermon on the mount, ** that I am come to destroy the law or
the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto
you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass, till
all be fulfilled." (Mat. v., 17-18.) When He would impress His disciples
with the duty of serving one another. He held Himself up as their exemplar,
and said, " Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many — His life was the ransom
price for our redemption from death." (Mat. xx., 28, Mark x., 45.) Thus
the Saviour spoke again the words of Rosea xiii., 14, "I w^ill ransom them
from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death." And the
apostles speak the same great truth of the sin-atoning Saviour everywhere

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THE ORI(;iN' OF SIN.

219

in their epistles, when they allude to His death, as when Paul says He was

delivered for our offences and raised again (on account of) our justiHcat ion.

(Rom. iv., 25) Who gave Himself a ransom for all (huper, in behalf of)

all. ^i Tim., ii., 6.) Peter speaks of the precious blood of Christ, by which

we are redeemed, as do all the apostles. Paul especially, in the Epistle to

the Hebrews, which is a luminous commentary on the Book of Leviticus,

showing the connection between the Levitical law and its fulfilment by

Christ, and the necessity and nature of Christ's sin-atoning death, so that the

Divine forgiveness cannot come in any other way but by faith in His blood,

or sacrifice for sin Any other way is precluded as a foregone conclusion.

** I do not frustrate the grace of God," says Paul, " for if righteousness come

by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Gal. ii., 21.) Again Paul tells

us in the next chapter, v. 22, " But the Scripture hath concluded all under

sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that

believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto

the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our

schoolmaster (paidagoogos, pedagogue) to bring us unto Christ, that we

might be justified by faith." And how Paul gives prominence to the

gratuitousness of Gospel justification on the ground of Christ's merits and

none of our own. " For all have sinned and come short of the glory of

Goo ; being justified by God's ^ace through the redemption (apolutrooseoos)

that is in Christ Jesus," whom God hath set forth a propitiation

(hilasteerion) through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for

the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God ; to

declare, I say, at this time His righteousness : that He might be just and

the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus, etc. (Rom. iii., 23-26.)

So that the atonement of Christ demonstrates the Divine rectitude, as
well as the Divine love, in the method He pardons and saves the believer
in Christ. Whereas the pardon contended for without the atonement of
Christ is conceived to come from the benevolence of God, but the benevo-
lence of God is never at variance with the righteousness of God, for a God
all mercy would not be just — the Divine nature and essence is certainly
love, but it is love regulated by all the perfections of His natnre, which are
the attributes of His love, and He cannot act otherwise, therefore the views
of the objector under consideration is at variance with the nature of God,
and is untenable.

Lastly, and in brief, the attempt to explain away the scriptural term of
sacrifice by viewing sacrifice apart from sin and independent of sin is to per-
vert the whole truth involved in the sacrifice of Christ which he made for sin^
and in behalf of sinners, and an infinitely great sacrifice it was in the true
sense of the term — sacrifice — "a giving up and suffering privation and loss to
gain a worthy end." Christ sacrificed heaven's glory and felicity, sacrificed
His life, Himself, as Phil. ii.. 6 and 8, i Cor., 5 and 7, &c., prove that in
His mediatorial woik He was both the victim of sacrifice and the great High
Priest who oflfered up His humanity on the altar of His divinity. But by
Mr. Maurice " On sacrifice" he considers that •' sacrifice is entirely indepen-
dent of sin." That sacrifice is but another name for love, holiness, goodness
and truth. Now in un fallen worlds where there is no sin there can be no

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

such thing as sacrifice, where the Seraphim and Cherubim and holy angels
are we read of " service" but of no " sacrifice." This is a perversion of the
true import of the word "sacrifice.'^ Christ was made sin, or constituted a
sin offering, and as such He offered Himself unto Ood a holy oblation to
save us from the punishment, from the guilt and indefilement of sin as well
as to deliver .us from the power, the love, and the practice of sin. And it is
employed as the most powerful motive to a holy life. " Be ye followers or
imitators of God as dear children ; and walk in love (holy love) as Christ
also loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to
God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication and all uncleanness or
covetousness, let it not be even named among yuuas becometh saints." (Rph.
v., I and 2). Mr. Maurice's idea on the ancient sacrifices under the law
contains certainly valrable truth when he says, " The ancient sacrifioea
were symbolical, and designed to express man's subjection of himself to
God — his submission to the will of God, his yielding himself up to God,
or as he more frequently expresses it, His self-sarrifice ? This is all right and
important as far as it goes, but on the "great day of atonement" and in all
the sin-ofierings as well as in the thankofferings Christ was the lamb for
sinners slain before the formation of the world, and His obtaining for us
the remission of sins, deliverance from future punishment, redemption from
the slavery of sin, and an inheritance among the sanctified through faith
that is Jesus is by far the chief truth, symbolically, and designed to be
taught,and ot course we are to be as Christ, dedicated to God in our life
and being, and present a willing sacrifice of ourselves, and count all things
but loss — mean and valueless in view of the excellent knowledge of Christ
Jesus our Lord and count them but dung that we may win Christ, and be
found in Him, not having our own righteousness, but His as the Lord,
our righteousness both for justification and sanctification, as branches in
the vine grow from Him the root and be found yielding the fruits of holi-
ness, thanksgiving and praise to God for His unspeakable gift, even cruci-
fied with Him.

A sentimental atonement will nevet satisfy the demands of divine law
and justice, which requires perfect obedience to its precepts and lerfect
satisfaction to its injured rights through punishment, and all this v/e have
already proved that He was the lamb of God for sinners slain. This is
the essential idea of Christ's sacrifice, its merit stands to our account,
and in Christ's mtrit we are accepted before God m His beloved in
whom we have redemption through His blood. But the divine idea of the
scriptural love of God to us in Christ does not stop here, it is to teach
us the evil of sin and to hate it, it is to teach the infinite purity of God,
and to love it, and it is to reveal to us His infinite mercy that we may
confide in it, and above all, it is to fill us with such a sense of the infinite
self-sacrificing love of God, His boundless compassion towards our lost
souls and our lost world, as 10 make us unreservedly consecrated to Him
as living sacrifices in our bodies and in our whole being, and sacrificing
ourselves for the good of others, temporally and spiritually for their eternal
good. Such is an epitome and a very imperfect one of the divine inten-
tion of the great sin atoning sacrifice of the eternal Son of God. Would to

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THE ORIGIN OF SIN.

231

God all the world knew it and fulfilled it 1 Having thus cleared our way
to the contemplation of the infinite self-sacrificing love of God towards
fallen, sinful, lost, man, let us now fix our attention for a few minutes upon
this most interesting and delightful truth.

Here at the cross of Christ is the spot in the great ui\iverse where
God in His moral nature may be best beheld and understood. It may be
compared to that one spot in a noble cathedral lying right beneath the
lofty dome, where the spectator, commanding all the grandest features of
the edifice, is reminded to look around him if he would see the monument
of its architect. If we wish to obtain at one view the magnificence and
splendor of some mighty city, we seek the loftiest tower to command the
survey. If we wish to see a landscape famed for its beauty and grandeur, we
climb the sides of some lofty hills to behold it, and had we the illimitable
universe to range over, where would we go to obtain the fullest manifesta-
tion of the godhead ? Should we soar on angels wings to the heights of
heaven to see its pure and exalted happiness and to hear its angelio
anthems ? Should we, cleaving the deep darkness descend to the regions
of the lost to weep over them, or go down to the horrid abyss where the
rebel angels are incarcerated in their everlasting chains, to hear their wail
of woe ? No j sweeping away from those blissful heights and these dole-
ful depths we would find it better even to remain in this world of ours,,
and go to Calvary and realize while standing on that hallowed hill the
scene enacted there nearly nineteen centuries ago. For on that conse-
crated spot where the cross of salvation rose, and the blood of the Re-
deemer fell, we would find the centre of a spiritual universe and the fullest
display of the manifold wisdom, the matchless mercy and the infinite love
of God, where the hosts of heaven came and learnt new views of sin, new
views of God in Christ, and new prospects for our fallen world, while the
Creator they worshipped before in heaven, they beheld in human form
nailed to an accursed tree, and all nature sympathizing with His inconceiv-
able sufferings, for the sun was clothed in mourning and the heavens were
covered with sackcloth and the adamantine rocks were rent, and the very
dead came forth to see the awful spectacle, and, although it was for the
sake of man Christ thus bled and died, man will not spend a few moments
to contemplate it !

This is of all things the most strange and unaccountable, when we con-
sider that it is their greatest benefactor their truest friend, their very Maker
dying and exclaiming " it isfinished !" What was finished ? A perfect atone-
ment for our sins. A finished work of salvation for our souls, a full free
pardon purchased for criminals who have all justly merited eternal punish-
ment for their crimes, a blessed peace for rebels doomed to die, a glorious
liberty to captives in deepest bondage bound, a happy life for those who
are in deepest misery, and spiritually dead, an infinite salvation for those
who lie in the borders of hell, and a crown of glory for those who are under
condemnation;, and expos'^ every moment to endless ignominy, and woes
unutterable, and above ;< 11, it is the Kind's Son that languishes and dies be-
cause of His infinite free love for man, and wonderful to tell they care
nothing about it !

333

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

Oh, why is this? Was ever mortal courted so in groans of an ex-
piring prince of matchless dignity, for he is the Prince of the king's of the
earth ? And yet he knew it all before He died for them, that they would
treat Him so, and it did not deter Him I

It is true. He was terribly afraid during His agony in the garden of
Gethsemane when His soul was almost dissolved from His body, and He
sweat as it were great drops of blood, and He sighed and cried "Father if it
is possible let this cup of anguish pass from me," but that bitter cup was
not the cross, it was not His awful death there he was shrinking from, it
was the fear He would not be able to reach it, it was the bitterness of death
then which made Him utter strong crying with tears and made Him so over-
come ! "And He was heard in that He feared," mighty angels ministered
unto His human weakness, and He was strengthened to go forth through
all His conflicts — His apprehension, when Judas betrayed Him with a kiss
into the hands of His enemies— His mock trial, when He stood at Pilate's
bar, and underwent a scene of inhuman injustice, and when He carried His
cross until He had no more strength to carry it, and Joseph of Aremethea^
helped Him, and when He endured the jeers, the scoffs, the barbarous
cruelty of the Roman soldiers, who put upon Him the garment of ironical
royalty, put a reed into His hand as a mock sceptre, spat on His face,
and performed many barbarities, and crowned His head with thorns,
nailed Him to a cross, and His latest voice was heard praying for His
murderers, " Father forgive them for they know not what they do !" neither
do ye who now feel unaffected by it all ?

Do any of you ask, can all this be true ? Yes, it is the greatest truth
that ever existed, whether you believe it or no. To believe it is your
privilege now, and by beliving it enter into life eternal, and all the bless-
ings I have mentioticd. To remain indifferent to it and disbelieve it is to
forfeit them all and be lost !

Nothing is more certain. Oh^ let me with deepest affection warn
you of your danger, lest that prediction be verified in you, " Behold ye des-
pisers and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work
which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare unto you."

If it were not true that Christ the Lord of glory did not die for you,,
there would be no crime in you disbelieving it, but because it is true,
therefore, not to believe it is to add insult to rebellion, ingratitude the
most unaccountable, the most base which you would not be guilty of to
your fellow man, if your house was on fire and he rescued you from its
flames and perished in the effort, while you were saved from the burning
pile 1 Oh, what infatuation ! Is the service of sin so sweet that you never
wished to be delivered from its scorpion stings ? Is the bondage of the
devil by which you are enthralled so delightful that you never longed to
be emancipated from its cruel tyranny ? What is it that so entices you
away from such a Saviour whose service is so p'easant, whose yoke is so
easy, and whose burden is so light ? Why, oh, why, will ye die in your
sins and be lost ? " How shall ye escape if ye neglect so great a salvation ?"^
It is an easy way to be saved, although it cost the Saviour much to make
it so easy. He came into the world to die for the salvation of the world.

THE ORIGIN OK SIM.

aaj

To deliver them who believe in Him from death spiritual and eternal —
the sad consequences of sin, and to bestow upon them who believe the gift
of eternal life. This is the gospel of the kingdom. It goes through this
plague-stricken world crying, O sin smitten soul ! wouldstthoube healed ^
Look to Jesus lifted up on the cross for thy salvation, O tormenting con-
science ! Wouldst thou be stilled ? Look to Jesus lifted up for thy healing t
O soul condemned and dying I Wouldst find again thy life ? Look to

Jfesus and thou shalt be saved, and whosoever would not perish, let him
ook to Jesus and be saved.

" Seize the kind promise while it waits, and march to heaven's pearly gates,
Believe and take the promised rest, obey and l)e for ever blest. '

How awfully perilous is that gospel hearer's state, who has heard the

Sospel's joyful sound without experiencing its joy, and become so gospel
ardened and indifferent as to care nothing for the consequences of that
state, and the danger of being swept away every moment into that place
where the blackness of darkness ever reigns, and where there is weeping
and wailing and gnashing of teeth, where the worm of remorse dieth not,
and where the fire of God's holy indignation is not quenched ?

Now, this is the probation under which we are all placed. It is a pro-
bation of infinite privilege, but of the infinite self-sacrificing love of God.
In addition to all the infinite excellence which God possesses in Himself
to challenge and entitle Him to our personal supreme love, and all the
claims He has upon us as our Maker and preserver, our daily benefactor
and governor and eternal judge, He adds that of His revelation of love
to us in the cross of Christ to reconcile us to Himself, and secure our
supreme affection in return. Is it not a reasonable requirement ?

As our first parents were lost through believing a lie, so we are saved
through believing a truth which harmonizes with the moral law on the
principle of love.

As our first parents were deceived by Satan and mined, so we are to
place implicit confidence in Christ, our Saviour, and be restored to the fellow-
ship and favor and family of God.

As Satan got the power of falsehood and death over our first parents,
so Christ seeks to satisfy our minds with truth and quicken us into a new
spiritual life.

Faith in Christ is necessary to secure confidence; no friend would con-
sider they had our confidence if we did not believe in their word of promise,
nor would we feel they had confidence in us if they doubted our word of
promise We may fail to fulfil our promise through many causes ; Christ
can never fail to fulfil His promise.

Now the whole system of probation under which we are placed is
this, to believe a fact, trust in a promise, and do the will of God. The
alternative not to believe in a fact, forfeit a promise and incur the just dis-
pleasure of Almighty God. The fact we are to believe in is God's infinite
free love to each of us based on His infinite free love to our race.
The promise that God gives to such as believe with all their heart in His
infinite free love, is eternal life, and the will of God is to keep His cooi-

! if

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THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

mandments love Him supremely, and our fellows sincerely. If we do not
believe in God's love we forfieit His promise and perish.

THE QUESTION OF INDIVIDUAL PROGRESSION IN MORAL

PERFECTION.

The conclusions arrived at theoretically are the following. There is a
fitness in the infinite love of God to produce love in return in every human
heart, since " love begets love," and the infinite love in God is calculated
to produce supreme love in us. It is most reasonable to believe in the
infinite love of God, so convincingly proved, so abundantly attested ; and
the most unreasonable thing on the part of any one not to believe in it. It is
by believtng in *^the loDe that God hath to us," that obedience is produced
within us. And where the faith the love, the obedience exists an noble
character will be formed. And in that character a guarantee is given of
human amelioration and happiness that can be found no where else.
Hence we are warranted to expect a glorious futute, through the love of
God, being believed in and universally exemplified.

" O divine love !" The sweet harmony of souls ! the music of angels 1
The joy of God's own heart I The very darling of His bosom ! The source
of true happiness ! The pure quintessence of heaven 1 that which reconciles
the jarring principles of our world, and makes them all chime together and
melts hearts into one another ! — When wilt thou have thy dwelling place
in every human bosom ? It is thy right to be so welcomed and cherished,
and it is in the interest of every one to yield to thee thy right, and :iince God,
Himself is love, and has assured us of thy future increase in the earth,
we believe in thy increase " O Divine love," and in thy amelioration of
mankind ! For it is in the power of thy potent sceptre " to banish all ex-
isting evils from society, turn every curse into a blessing and make every
one truly happy." Therefore, we will seek thy speedy and wide spread —
increase over all the earth by the diffusion of the everlasting gospel — the
gospel of love !

It is in this way I reach the mighty lever which is yet to lift up fallen
man, and regenerate mankind, namely — " individual progression in
MORAL PERFECTION," as founded on iht faith of the gospel, which produces
supreme love to God and sincere love to our fellow-men, and purifies the
heurt of every one in whom the faith of the gospel dwells, or rather lives and
progresseSy for there can be no spiritual progress without spiritual life, and no
spiritual life without God's love in the heart purifying and expanding the
heart and producing a noble life.

Into MsiR full practical beamings of this great subject, it is impossible,
from my narrow limits to enter. I must speedily bring my book to a close.
But I will do what I can to establish my principle for the amelioration of
mankind.

The basis of our plan has been stated as . .

individual progression in moral perfection.
I will look at this principle, first of all, apart from Religion, as the

INDIVIDUAL PROGRESSION IN MORAL PKRFECTION.

92$

last's of Human Amelioration and test it. And for the sake of testing it
with all fairness I will view it and define it thus,

Moral Perfection Defined.

*' Aa Fairness for falseness, Kindness for selfishness. Tenderness — in
regarding the feelings of others — for roughness — or disregard of the feel-
ings of others — and Rightness for Wrongness."

Now grant this shape of moral Perfection to be attained in Society,
and what have you got ? Morality without Religion^ and this species of
morality is contending for the mastery over Religion at present in our Age.

Itcalls ithclf by a significant name, vis., " ldothe-Right"2Si6. isopposed
to " I do-the- Believe.'* And it is curious to observe how the One seeks
Morality without Religion, and the other seeks Religion without Morality.
They are two great opposing Forces reaching the same end — the DestruC'
Hon of True Religion in the earth, and they appear to me to present the
Last Scene in the Devil's Drama.

■Quite a masterpiece, perhaps his most ingenious and successful One.
And it is to be hoped, like all extraordinary clever masterpieces, it is carry-
ing things too far and will prove suicidal, and be the last Act in the awful
Tragedy of Evil, which the Devil has originated.

// ts a marvellous phenomenon, and deserves looking closely into, for
it just suits two large classes in Society — the one class who wishes Morality,
apart from Religion, and the other class, who wishes Religion apart
from Morality.

We can almost read the two classes in the shape of their heads, (for
I believe there is a great deal yet to come out of Phrenology for the future
progress of Society in many ways.)

There are those who have naturally strong Religious Instincts in them,
who must have some sort of religious devotion and worship to gratify these
instincts, and it matters not where they are born — if in a barbarous
heathen Isle of the Sea, they would have been ** heathens most devout."
If born in a Christian land, *' Christians most devout." But they have no
intelligent, clear, scriptural convictions in their minds, they are just what
their parents were, and as they were brought up to, very well satisfied to " do-
the-Believe," and no more that the " I do-the- Believe" contented with a
creed, a form of worship, a religious life " without the power of godliness,"
which turns out to be a Religion without Morality 1 And they would be
offended if you told them they were without true Religion.

Then there are those who have naturally small Veneration, ivge scU-
esteera, cmd tremendous firmness and high conscientiousness, and they are
very independent, self-asserting, strong-willed people, naturally, who want
Morality, but don't care about religion much. They consider religion
superstition, a vain childish weakness, a jangle of nonsense for paying
priests and clergymen.

The two positions taken by the " I do-the-right," and '• / do-the-Be-
lieve," are both false. For there can be no true religion in a man or weman
without morality, and there can be no true morality without genuine reli-
gion. The morality contended for above, as " moral perfection," although

ia6

THE GREAT WANT OF THE A<;E.

it would improve society Tery considerably, it can have no proper standard
of morality, with the force of the Law of God and the precepts of the
Gospel, for each is left to his own standard, or conception of " fairness for
unfiurness. Kindness for selfishness, tenderness for roughness, and Tight-
ness for wrongness." It can have nothing of the motive-power of the true
Christian and it can never raise society above its oivn level

*^ I do-the-Right' sounds right, but it may be wrong.

Of course, I wish to carry such honorably-minded men and women
(I speak sincerely) with nie by the strength of truth and reason, not for the
sake of party interests for I have none, but for the sake of their own best
mterests. While I wish to enlighten the "/ do-the-believe,'^ as not
believing at all.

I am a firm believer in the necessity of having something stronger
than " human resolutions and utilitarian motives" for effecting the amelior-
ation and happiness and upward progress of society. I think all humaih
goodness of the purest and higest order is a divine Inspiration^ or divine
tmanation. And in addition to this, we need a perfect model constantly
kept before ns.

To the former conviction — a divine inspiration or emanation, I have
been brought through deep personal experience ; and to the latter — a
perfect model constantly required, I have been brought from a well-
known law of nature — the law of imitation, for man is an imitative being
all his life through — from his cradle to his dying bed.

Now we havt^ both these wants supplied in the glorious Gospel, —
faith in it^ brings tlie former — a divine emanation into the soul, a divine
inspiration^ if ever there was one, breathing the life of God into the soul of
man and his image anew into it, and Jesus Christ is the perfect model it
sets before us, that we may grow up into Him — the beau ideal of the
i-ace.

I will give here three reasons to prove that something stronger than
" human resolution and utilitarian motives" are needed for the upward
progress of Society, such as is urgently required.

These three reasons are based on the Dictates of Reason, on Observa-
tion, and Experience.

The first reason^ showing the necessity of something stronger than
" human resolution and utilitarian motives" — even a divine emanation or
divine inspiration as necessary for attaining to virtue or the highest morality,
is derived from the enlightened dictates of human Reason, proved by the
most enlightened 'philosophers of antiquity.

Socrates, the prince of ancient philosophers, says, " Wheresoever virtue
comes, it is the fruit of a divine dispensation."

mnsi'iplato, his illustrious pupil, says, " Virtue is not to be taught bat by
divine instruction."

Seneca, the greatest of heathen moralists, says, " Are you surprised
that men should approach to the Gods ? It is God that comes to man,
nay, which is yet more he enters into him, for no man can become virtuous
but by divine assistance."

Of course it is well known these men had a very exalted conception of

INDIVIDUAL PROGRESSION IN MORAL PERFECTION.

aa7

virtue. They regarded it as partaking of the nature of the immortal gods,
which conception of virtue harmonizes exactly with the Faith of the Gospel^
which works by love, and purifies the heart, and makes us partakers of the
Divine nature.

Simplicius, the noble Roman, says : " This I say Lucilius, a holy
spirit dwelleth within us, of our good and evil works the observer and
guardian. As we treat him, so he treateth us, and no man is good except
God be with him. Can any rise above external fortim<.s unless by his aid ?
He it is from whom every good man receiveth both honorable and upright
purpose."

Cicero says, " No man can attain to excellence without a certain
divine inspiration."

It jfowXA be easy to multiply similar testimonies, to prove how much
the deep thinkers in ancient times, from the light of P eason and their own
experience perceived the necessity of a divine power for attaining a high
moral life and character. Just listen to this remarkable prayer of Simpli-
cius : " I pray thee O Lord, as the Father and guide of reason so to co-
operate with us, as to purge us from all carnal and brutish affections, that
we may be enabled to act according to the dictates of reason and attain to
the true knowledge of thyself."

These statements prove what the noblest of men felt and experienced
in ancient times, and what the best of men feel and experience in modern
times, not any superstition^ but the very reverse the dictates of enlightened
reason under high culture.

(2.) Observation proves it. What are all the ei:>'orts of moral reformers
"worth ? Who has not found in their efiforts to reclaim "drunkards," and the
"profane," and the ** licentious," that their best advices and precepts, and
their good example are alwajrs useless, and the resolutions of the drunkard
to be a total abstainer are soon broken, '>'ui hopes raised soon disappointed.
Therefore something stronger than - numan resolutions and utilitarian
motives " are needed to effect the auielioration of human society.

(3.) Experience proves if. Who has not found how easy his resolu-
tions give "ivay, how much he falln short of his good intentions, and how
necessary a strength stronger than his own is needed to overcome evil ?

Even a heathen moralist could say, " Video bonum^ sed sequor malur^i."
^I see what is good, but I follow what is bad.)

" Behold I am vile*^ says Job, when he got a right view of himselfl
** Iwas alivey' said Paul," without the law once," I entertained high views
of my character, but when the commandment came — ' Thou shalt not
covet' — cherish evil desire, sin revived." He felt the opposition of his
rebellious heart against the commandment, " and I died," — lost all hope in
himself as a perfect man, as he formerly thought he was. " The Law of
tiie Lord is i)erfect." It cannot be lowered to meet our imperfections,
because it is immutable, like its author. Therefore we need a perfect
righteousness to stand to our account, and to trust in before God, to be
justified in his sight and be accepted before him, as Paul learnt and found,
and it is the lord our righteousness within us as fallen creatures, that

328

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

produces both the aim and the attainment of a righteousness of a truly
divine nature within us, as Paul found, and all true believers in Christ find.

" The transformation of apostate man, from fool to wise,'
From earthly to divine, is work for Him
That made Him !"

As long as men compare themselves among themselves, they come to
wrong conclusions, because the Standard is wrong. It is a Standard of their
own making, the result of their imperfect conceptions, and not God's
Standard — His holy and perfect law, which requires supreme love from us
in the heart to God, and sincere love in our hearts towards our fellow-
creatures, and this high standard can never be reached by mere human
" resolutions and utilitarian motives." And therefore moral perfection in
its right sense can never be attained in this way much less " progression in
moral perfection." A •close scrutiny of our inward feelings and motives
will disclose much that is at fault, much that is selfish and false, cruel and
base, and whoever has not perceived such things within him is blind,
For " the" human " heart," — notwithstanding its perceptions of the true,
the good, the pure, the praiseworthy and the upright — as drawn by the
pencil of inspiration, — " is deceitful above all things and desperate i"
wicked, who can know it ?" The question remains unanswered by all ex-
cept by God Himself — " / the Lord search the heart, I try the reins,
(the thoughts) even to give every man accordiut^ to his ways, and according to
the jruit of his doings" — (Jer. 17-9.)

All our thoughts and ways are inspected by the eye of om>
niscience now, and will witness for us or against us at the day of judg-
ment, and decide our destiny then. All of us will be tried by the require-
ments of the Gospel in that day. The new heart, the right spirit, the work
of faith, the labor of love will be required. A much higher character than
many iniagine, a much loftier morality than tLe " / do-the-right" have ever
dreamed of, will be required to evidence that we have improved our state
of PROBATION of privilege, and responsibility in this life.

• Our Individual Progression in Moral Perfection,

through faith in God's infinite love and resemblance to Christ, is absolutely
required, not only for the good of others, and the amelioration of the r£.:e,
but for our own personal good and progress.

Ohi this is a subfect of the deepest importance and not half understood.

Neither the *^ Jdo-the-right" or morality without religion, nor the " Ido-
the-helievi^ — religion without morality will meet the demands that will
justly be required from us at the last day, in that holy transformation of
Character which it is the privilege, as well as the duty of every one to attain
now, in the state of probation we are placed under the gospel dispjnsa-
tion. " For God will render to every man according to his works ; to
them who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, and honor, and immor-
tality, eternal life ; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey

INDIVIDUAL PROGRESSION IN MORAL 1't.kFKCriON.

229

^d.

the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribula-
tion and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil ; but glory and
honor, and peace to every man that worketh good." The Amelioration of
the race therefore springs out of the Amelioration of each individuil in
the race, and it is not a matter of mere sentiment to des're it, but a matter
of stern necessity in each of us to acquire it. To "grew in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

I have enunciated just now some of the deepest and most solemn
and momentous matters that we could think of, affecting the great and de<
cisive principles of tlie final judgment, which would require extended con-
sideration, and are well deserving of it, but my limits will not allow me at
present to go into them.

I wish to present another contrast between the two opposites now
under consideration — the "/ do-ihe-ng/W' and the "/ do-the-believe"
whereby will be seen the disadvantage of the former in contrast to the lat-
ter. Having seen the ** / do-the-believe" in a false position, justice demands
that it should be seen in its right and proper position. And as thi *' I do-
tke-right" has been proved deficient and inadequate for effecting the
upward progress of mankind because *' human resolutions and utilitari^ii
motives" cannot cope with the difficulties of the case, for the reasons
stated ; I will now show how the " / do-the-right is still more the ^ I do
the-wrong" with respect to Religion, in order that those who hold by this
principle may see their errors, and those who hold by the ** I do-the-believe''
may see they are in the right.

The phrase *'/ do-the-righf* sounds right, but sounds sometimes
deceive us, as well as sights. It may prove the reverse — " I do-the-ivrong."
And I am anxious to gain over these well-meaning philanthropists and
moral reformers. I believe they are sincere well-wishers of the human
family. We are all agreed upon the desirableness of the amelioration of
human society, and for more human happiness, for there is great need for
both. We are all agreed upon the principle as the right principle by
which moral elevation is to be secured, viz., individual progression in
moral per fedion^ The difference, therefore, between the New School of
Philosophy, headed by the great and large-hearted M. Comte, along with
the earnest leaders of the " Modern Thought," and my co-religionists, is
narrowed to z. point, viz.. They leave out ^^ faith in God,'^ we hold by ^^ faith
in God." They place confidence in themselves. We place our confidence
in God. They separate religion from morality. We connect morality
with religion, because Our faith in God's infinite love makes us lo/e our
fellow-men better than we otherwise would. A Christian could no more
live the natural lite without life, than he could live thft religious life without
faith in God, and we hold to it, because we believe there can be no pro-
gression in moral perfection without faith in God. Faith in God is our
sheet anchor ?

When the " / dothe-righf' is regarded in itself of course it is light,
but when regarded in certain relations it will be found to be wrong.

Paradoxical as this may seem, it can be easily proved.

It has often proved so in the experience of myriads, both in the ordin-

230

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

ary affairs of life and in the higher concerns of religion — so much depends
as every one knows, upon time and circumstances to alter entirely the na-
ture of things. But there is another ground on which to place this " I do-
thc-right" and it turns out to be the reverse, ** / do-the-wrong^ when, what
we think in our mind is right and do it, and we have been wrong in our
thinking altogether. Suppose we are on a journey and take the wrong
road, our thinking it the right road will not make it right, for every advance
we make removes us further away from the end of our journey, it we have
taken quite the opposite direction, and made a blunder ; as I dare say we
have all done when two cross roads meet and we take the wrong road.

SOMK OF IHE WRONd DIRECTIONS OF THE " 1 DC-THF,-RIGHT

NECTION WITH REI.IOION.

IN CON-

( I.) Wlien the " / do-the-riglit Invades the Heart Before Cofiversion.

The " / do-t he- right" then says — " I mufjt get into a better state before
coming to Christ and believing in Him as my Saviour, I must feel better
first, pray more, and do better, reform my lite and conduct, and become
holier." This was what John Bunyan did for a long time before he saw
'* grace abounding, to the chief of sinners." And thi= is the reason he
placed the " wicket gate " at the commencement of his pilgrimage from the
city of destruction to the celestial city, instead of placing the cross of
Christ as the starting point, where all true religion begins.

The "/ do-the-right" is a great obstacle in the way to Christ. It i.5
the natural language of the human heart, under conviciions of sin and con-
cern about the soul's salvation. It always cries out like the Philippian
jailer, /VWhat must I do to be saved ?"

" / do-the-believe," or grace in the heart, says, " Behold God is my salva-
tion, I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and
my song ; He also is become my salvation." (Is. xii., 2.) " Though He slay
me yet I will trust in Him." (Job xiii., 15.) In the New Testament the "/
do-the-believc " says : " I know in whom I have believed, and I am per-
suaded He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against
that day." (11. Tim. i., 12.) " Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but
loss (worthless) in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and
do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith (or upon faith)
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellow-
ship; of His sufferings being made conformable unto His death." But
Paul does not rest with the *' / do-the-belteve," it is a /ivt'ng principle of " pro-
gression in moral perfection " with him. " Not as though I were already
perfect " — . . . . "but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which
are behind|[and reaching forth unto those which are before, I press towards
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,"
(Phil. iii.,*3, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14.)

INDIVIDUAL PROGRESSION IN MORAL PERFECTION.

23»

Here is the difference between them. The ^^ I do-the-bdime" comes
first, the *^I doihe-right" comes afterwards j but the uninitiated in the
(iospel reverses the order, tries the " I dothe right^^ first, and wants to do
the " / do the- believe " afterwards, and therefore it is wrong placed. It tries
to be the man, before it is the child, or as though you might look for a crop
of golden grain before the seed is sown in your farm. It is putting the
tftect before the cause, and makes the " / do-the-right" become the " / do-
the-wrong." " We are saved by grace through faith," and " not by works,"
although faith without works, as the product of faith, is dead — inoperative
and of no use.

(2.) " I do-the-right" is stone-blind, whereas "/ do-the-believe ' has clear

visions.

Tht^^ Idothe-right" is very exact about equivalents. It must have
the full amount paid before it will trust any one, and then it trusts most
cordially up^to the exact amount paid, it is so just it will not trust the buyer
with his goods a single cent beyond, and it does not ask favors from any
one, nor will it be indebted to God ! It cannot, therefore, see how it can
be justified through another's substitution and righteousaess, or compre-
hend how God can be justified in justifying any one in that way.

The ^^ I do-the-right" AoQS not wish to be under obligations to any
one, and that is an honorable spirit, but it may be full of pride and self-
sufficiency. We are all dependent less or more upon o ^ another in this
world, and most of all dependent upon God — "in Him we live ?nd move
and have our being." And when this spirit of independence is carried intD
religion, it savors of presumption and pride, and **God resisteth the proud,
but He givelh grace to the humble."

The first lesson the Gospel teaches is humility. And where there is
no humility, there can be no self-knowledge of personal deficiency, and
every such person is a fool, if he only knew if.

The " / do-the-right," who looks so much at equivalents, can neither l)e
kind nor generous, nor love God supremely, nor his neighbor as himself,
which are the equivalents God requires from him, and because he has
failed to give them God provides salvation for him, at the expense of an
infinite sacrifice, and an infinite equivalent, to which all must be indebted
or be lost.

The '^ / do-theright" is *' righteous over-much" when he seeks to be
justified by what condemns him. It is nothing but ignorance, and arises
from a false estimate of himself ** We have all sinned and come short of
the glory of God." But the self-righteous man does not thin'i himself un-
righteous, and this is his mistake, and the strongest proof that the *' /do-the-
right" is the " I do-the-wrong." Like the self-righteous Jews '* who went
about to establish a righteousness of their own, not submitting themselves
to the righteousness of God," as revealed in the Gospel. The " I do-the-
right " seeks to justify himself by a righteousness of his own. Whereas the
** / do'ihe-believe," conscious of guilt, and alarmed at his state as under con-

232

THE GREAT WANT OF THE AGE.

detnnation, and exposed to the curse of a violated law, he is humbled
before God, and cries for mercy, saying wiih the penitent publican, " God
be merciful to me a sinner," and willingly accepts the gift of God — the
righteousness of God by faith, which brings eternal life. And he deter-
mines to know nothing in this great matter, but "Jesus Christ and Him
crucified," and says with a grateful heart :

Oh my Redeemer for me was slain,
He bringeth me forgiveness and release,
His death has ransomed me to God again,
And now my heart can rest in perfect peace.
Still more and more do Thou my soul redeem
From every bondage, set me wholly free,
Though evil oft the mightiest foe may seem,
Still make me more than conqueror in Thee !

Without going further into this interesting and important subject, any
one can see at a glance the striking difference between the two principles
stated from the illustrations given of them. They are as opposite as the
" poles asunder." And it is in the evolution and development of faith in
God — living under the practical influence of the Gospel, and growing up
in likeness to Christ, that " individual progression in moral perfec-
tion" is to be attained, human society perfected, and all that we wish
accomplished.

But mark not by the " I do-the believe" who makes no progress except
in a retrograde motion — goins; backwards. And herein is the need we
all have of the Holy Spirit to quicken, strengthen, and establish us in faith
and holiness. The need of a good Gospel ministry — an ordinance of God
for the perfecting of the saints, and for the edifying of the body of Christ.
The need of the " communion of saints," so well adapted to our social
nature, for strengthening, comforting and advancing believers in the
div^ine life. The need of the daily reading of the holy inspired Book of
God, that the Word of Christ may dwell in us richly in all wisdom and spirit-
ual understanding. The need of active personal efforts for the salvation of
souls perishing for lack of knowledge around us, and in heathen lands.
The need of watchfulness and prayer, and fellowship with God. — And all
with a view to individual progression in moral perfection for the
amelioration of mankind.

Oh for a mighty faith in God ! Oh for a mighiy outpouring of the
Holy Spirit from on high ! Oh for deep yearning compassion for the per-
ishing ! Oh for the conversion of the world to Christ ! Oh that
this may be the great event of our age ! All things are ready.
"God is waiting to be gracious at the voice of our cry." Let the
watchmen on Zion's walls awake to their high and responsible duty ia these
critical and eventful times, and be clothed with salvation, that the saints of
God may shout aloud for joy ! Let the people of God awake to their
responsibility and to prayer, and give God <no rest till He establish and
make Jer^^alem a praise in the earth ! God is ready ! Are we ready ?
He is waiting till we are ready.

INDIVIDUAL PROCKESSION IN MORAL PERFECTION.

333

What is wanted above every thing else, in the present transition-state
of society is, a fuller and higher development of Christian character. More
of the " mind that was in Christ," our Divine master, more fidelity towards
one another, and more of the meekness, and gentleness of Christ, more of
the distinguishing virtues of our heaven born faith, and more of the divinely
formed graces of the Holy Spirit This will do more to refute Infidelity
and Atheism than hundreds of volumes on the evidences of Christianity.
It is by the //ViVi^ power of Faith in God, and by a living likeness to Christ
in our dispositions and in the fulfilment of all our duties — realizing that we
are blood-bought, that we are not our own but Christ's, and doing everything
as unto the Lord, and glorifying God in our bodies and in our spirits which
are His, as those who are in the world, and yet not of the world, who have
the highest motives to incite us, and the irresistible love of Christ to con-
strain us, not to live to ourselves, but unto Him who has died for us, and by
proving that we are personally conscious of the exalted dignity and the deep
responsibility of the " name of Him by which we are named," in the midst
of those who are either denying Him or despising Him — that pure and
undeflled Religion is to be revived in the churches and the world be con-
verted from the error of its ways to God,

In travelling through noble America and lovely Canada, I have been
delighted to see so much d«>ep earnest faith in God and exemplary piety
among all denominations of Christians, and I feel an assurance strongly in
my mind that the time is not far distant when the windows of heaven shall
be opened and blessings shall be poured out until there be not room
enough to receive them. Earnest^ believing, united praytrfor it is all that
is needed to accomplish it, with, of course all that earnest, believing,
united prayer comprizes — faith in God's promises and unreserved consecra-
tion to his service. For He has said, " According to your faith be unto
you." "I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for
them." " Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat
i n mine house and prove me now herewith," saith the Lord of hosts, " If I
will not open you the windotvs of heaven and pour you out a blessing^ that
there shall not be room enough to receive it." Presenting to our view

" Scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,
Scenes uf accomplished bliss, which who can see
Though e'en in distant prospect, and not feel
His soul refreshed with foretaste of the joy."

/ *

ADDENDUM.

'I'o THE Reader.

The question how far this book answers to its title, I must leave with
the judgment ol my respected readers.

I here subjoin a brief summary and raise a question. The jireceding
argument is this: First — The Great want of the age I have slated to be
this — ** To banish all existing evils from society, turn every curse
into a blessing, and make every one truly happy." No one will dis-
pute this position, as this is what every one wishes, and enough has been
advanced to show what the evils are that require to be removed from the
reviews taken of the age we live in, in connection with error, sin and
misery. Second— The Remedy pioposed, I have stated to be '* Individual
progression in moral perfection from supreme love to God, and sincere
love to our fellow-men for the amelioration of mankind," and this no one
'will dispute, since all are agreed about its desirableness and upon moral
progression as its basis. Third — The means whereby it is to be attc-'ned
I have endeavored to show, consists in the underlying principle of Faith in
the infinite love of God in Christ and likeness to Him, for securing moral
perfection and true happiness to the race.

Now I wish to raise a question. My argument is only half got
through. The practical working of it out is yet to be filled in. Matters
cf deepest interest and of the very greatest importance are yet to be
taken up. Never was there an age in the world's history more critical and
more perillous, especially to the young — our only hope for the future is in
them, and I want to instruct them in the precious teaching of the
GREAT teacher. What, then, is to be done ? — Not wishing to make an ex-
pensive book, my limits prevented me from doubling it in size and price.
The only alternative is to write another, as a companion volume, same size
and form, which could be appropriately called,

"THE GREAT REMEDY FOR ALL THE WANTS OF OUR

AGE."

Well, I am willing to undertake it if you will all help me to get a
speedy sale and wide circulation for this volume. Now will you do it /
That is ihe questio" I raise, and I wait your response. Tell me how you
like this work. In the next, I will use the simplest words poallUy and
adapt it to the capacity of the young, whom we must cars for in these
^^ perilous times'* with extra care.

Orders for this volume, with the name and address, to be sent to me —
Rev. R. H. Craig, 175 John street, London, Ontario, with remittance
of $1.50 each, for the nunaber of volumes which will be forwarded, /<?£/
free. A subscription list for the second volume will be opened like the
first for $1.25 to subscribers, paid on completion. Neve^ was there more
need for Christian effort than at present to rectify error and aavance
the saving Truth, and therefore I appeal to tte friends of Jesus and the
lovers of progress for their help in the reading country of lovely Canada.

CONTENTS.

The Great Want of the Aoe, being viewed as this—" To banish all extalimj
evils from society, turn evfrij curse, into a blessing, and make every one truly happy." —
I'he question wherein true happiness vjonsists and how it is to be attained is gone into, and
the plan whereby the amelioration of the race is to be accomplished is summed up in this —
" Individual progression in moral perfection as its basin— from snpreme love to Ood and
sincere love to our /elloirmen, as its motive — and the amelioration of mankind as its
end." (pp. 4-12.)

THK DISCUSSION OF THE WPIOLE SUBJECT FALLS UNDER 5 SECTIONS-

I. THE AGE REVIEWED — to ascertain its specific wants. Seven leading character-
istics. — (i) It is a Mechanical Age. (2) A Money-loving Aj^e. (3) An Age of un-
precedented progress in Science, Art, and Education. (4) \ Superficial .Vge. (5)
A Truth-forsaking Age. (6) A Sinful Age. (7) A L.iwless Age, and near its
close, as it now is the dawn of something unspeakably better, (p. 13-65.)

H. 'I'HE SYSTEM OF ATHEISM— regarded as a barrier to progress, proved to be
absurd, and must be got rid of. Its various phases exposed and proved to be unten-
able and insufficient to meet the want of the age, viz., Antitheism, Pantheism, Mate-
rial Atheism, Secularism, Positivism, and Agnosticism, (p. 65-78.)

MI. THE BEING AND BENIGNITY OF GOD— established on seven rational and
scientific grounds, viz., (i) Causation. (2) Design in nature. (3) Human Conscious-
ness. (4) Universal History. (5) Conscience. (6) Providence and prayer. (7)
Experience. The doctrine of Final Causes gone thoroughly into in this section
under proofs of design in nature — a subject of great importance under a new light.
(Seep. 8391)

The fountain of all goodness and hapi^incss being in God — this section is deserv-
ing of earnest study, extending from page 78 to page 116.

IV. A NEW VIEW OF THE BIBLE— its Divine Origin and Authority demon-
strated beyond question. Its structure and grandeur and glorious design exhibited,
as the Book of Books. Its two elements — the Divine and the Human — Discrepan-
cies in Science, Chronology, &c., explained and accounted for, and perfectly reason-
able, could not be otherwise, proofs of its genuineness and truthfulness — Bible
Instruction and Inspiration the great Want of the Age. (p. 116- 133.)

V. THE ORIGIN OF SIN accounted for — Quite a new view taken of this great and
awful mystery. (133-184.)

(i) Sin TRACfen to its Sourcf.— Sin exists and what is sin.— p. 135. Whence
came sin? — 136 God not ifs author . . . proved — 137-138. Who, then, was
the originator of sin i<i (iod's most holy universe ?—i38-9-i40. Its origin
traced to the father of it — the devil. — 140-147. How sin entered into the mind
of the once bright and holy angel — the primal sin, the most instructive and won-
tlerful of all events. — 147. Tn what way the primal sin came about — 148. How
this profound subject is usuiJly rc,;aiJcd by Christians — 149. The mystery
disclosing itself as a sin voluntary in its natui», an abuse of highest privilege
and a'; having its root in envy. — 149-152-154-160. Scenes in Heaven — 161.
The fall of the angels probably foretold. — 161. The announcement conceived
to be given.— 162. How it was received. — 163. Reviewing the Conception.—
164. The Theory defended, objections anticipated, distinction between Divine
Prescience and Predestination. — p. 167-174.

(2) The Awi^ul Consequences that followed in Heaven and on earth. Expulsion
of the rebel angels from heaven. .Satan enters Paradise as a thief and a mur-
derer — the fall and its consequences. — p. 175-184.

(3) The Divine Remedy by the Interposition of the Second Adam, the Lord
from heaven. — p. 184-196. [4] Man's new Moral Conditions superior now
to what they were before the Fall of Man. — p. 196. [5] Glorious Re-
sults. — p. 201. [6] Important Lessons affecting men and angels. — p. 207.
[7] The Lnkoldino of the Plan. — p. 224. Question, Sow does the
means proposed meet the end required ? Is the book true to its Title ' See
Addendum. — p. 234.

ERRATA.

Will the reader correct the following typographical errors : —
Page 9, instead of " mortal," read moral, in the quotation from Charles

Dickens — "Can this eventful life no moral teach?"
I*^c 15, instead of "congress," read concourse of brainless atoms. Near
the bottom of same page, instead of " an infinitum," read ad infinitum.
Page 16, instead of "Maker," read make, in the quotation — "'Tis immor-
tality deciphers man, and explams the mysteries of his make." Line

25-
Page 34, at the bottom, the words omitted — " great borrowers " — supply.
Page 46, read know, instead of " known," 19th line.
Page 57, connect the 29th line with the 31st, and the 30th line with the

32nd, and read — " Apathy and indifference to it is the worst feature

in it. 2. This fearful crime of indifference to the present low state

of religion, and unconcern about it," &c.
Page 113, in the last Imeof Theodore Parker's poetic effusion, instead of

" the God," read the good.

Ifpppfpplp