And if such had not been the purpose of God from the beginning, who can believe that he would have permitted, much less have caused, the existence of such sin and suffering?

It is certain, therefore, and clear to our mind that good must be the final result of all sin and suffering, past, present, and to come, as the existence of God. Predestinarianism is therefore true in its fullest extent and meaning, and the renowned John Calvin was right-all but one word, viz. :-damnation; put salvation instead thereof, and his system is invulnerable. Neither was he, so much as the early Christian Fathers, accountable for that error, as he would doubtless have used the right word had he not been taught by those Fathers the dogma of infinite evil and sin, and the consequent vengeful character of God, vicarious suffering of Christ, and endless sin and misery. Calvin taught, and proved clearly, that God foreknew and foreordained whatsoever cometh to pass, but did not see that an infinitely good being could not ordain final evil and sin, and the eternal damnation of his own offspring, and that for no purpose but his own will and pleasure, and he very honestly argued that no other cause existed for that damnation. The true definition of sin, according to the scriptures to which we have referred, is the violation of the principle or law of equity between man and manthat principle or law having its origin in the oneness of nature of the human kind—and that equity is both the written and unwritten law of God; but duty and obligation to God spring from a different

relation, viz. filial and paternal; and it will be shown in that day that such relation is eternally indissoluble; no act or wickedness of the child, or other cause, can destroy it-God being immutable and man immortal. And that God seeth not as man seeth; the latter seeth only the outward, sinful, fleshly man, and his sinfulness, but God sees, even in the chief of sinners, the soul and spirit, which is his own offspring, made in his image and after his likeness.

Such is the scriptural, and, to our mind, the rational definition of the term sin. But the Scriptures show further that excessive indulgence of the fleshly appetites and passions, and the unnatural use and prostitution of them is sin, being a defilement and desecration of the body, which is made in the divine image, as above shown. And the sinner necessarily "receives in himself the recompense of his error, the suffering for his sin which is meet."

THE JUSTICE OF GOD.

Justice is a conformity in principle and conduct to the laws of equity. God is above or beyond the reach of that or any other law or rule of conduct out of himself. All beings having rights have received both their beings and rights from him. He is himself the eternal and only good of the universe, of which he, being the author, loves all beings and things therein. His love, therefore, is the rule of his conduct, and as the sun naturally diffuses

light, so God dispenses the highest good to the universe, and his grace and glory to the humanity, in and through Christ their head.

FAITH IN GOD.

Faith is belief, more or less strong, according to evidence. Faith in God, like all other blessings, is a gift from him, given to different persons and portions of mankind at different times, and to a greater or less degree of assurance, and in and by divers ways and means; and, like other divine bestowments, is to be sought for, although given unsought for, when the promised or intended good is universal or national.

Instance God's promise to Abraham of the salvation of the world, and his appearing to Moses at the burning bush; and when the word of the Lord came to the prophets to be spoken by them to the Israelites (which word of the Lord, as we have before shown, was the spiritual Son of God, called the "Holy Ghost," or the "spirit of prophecy"), and all God's miraculous manifestations of himself and his power and presence to Adam and his posterity before, and to Noah and others after the deluge. God has from the beginning given to the humanity a progressive knowledge of himself, and of his love and kindness toward them, according to which has been the degree of their faith in that love; and the object of all miracles, inclusive of the audible words spoken to the first parents and

their descendants, has been the increase of their faith. It is clearly inferable from the Scriptures that there has been from the formation of man a gradual but constant development of the faculties and powers of the human mind. And that miracles have increased in number and in the greater · manifestations of God, until the coming of his Son from the opening heavens, which period of about four thousand years we may designate as the first age of miracles.

The second age continuing from that time until the second coming of Christ and his Kingdom, or Kingdom of God, as he predicted, in great power and glory. Which Kingdom, as hitherto stated, was no other than the Gospel Church, which coming and power and glory were simultaneous with the destruction of Jerusalem, the abolishment of the legal dispensation, and the resurrection, about the close of the apostolic age, and as we gather the history of the second and last age of miracles, a period of about thirty-four years. And we have searched in vain for a reliable account of a single miracle after that date. Except-and for ourself we always do except-that mental assurance of the presence of God and love of God given spiritually, and therefore supernaturally, in answer to the prayer of penitent sinners; and which we have elsewhere shown has been and continues to be given to millions of such sinners in all Christendom and among all sects who preach Christ. And that miracle will continue to be wrought as long as there are sinners to pray, and to be born of love, and of

God. And why should not all other miracles have ceased in the coming of the Kingdom or Church state, in which the chief of sinners may thus commune with God, and feel his presence and his love, and rejoice therein with "joy unspeakable and full of glory." And inasmuch as the coming of Christ, his death and resurrection, his ascension to the Father, and his return from thence to pour out in miraculous effusion his "Holy Spirit or Ghost” upon the millions or whole nations of men, which power and great glory was to all other miracles what the perfect glory of the day is to its earliest dawn. And why should we look for starlight when we have the light of the sun? Another question, alike simple and plain, is not for the Church alone, but for all to answer who believe in a God, infinitely wise, powerful, and omnipresent, who is the sole origin and cause of all beings and things in the universe, in whom all beings move and have their existence, viz.: Is it in the nature of things possible that such a being could suffer any positive or final evil to exist in the universe, or any being to oppose or act in any wise contrary to his will, or permit anything to transpire that can offend him?