Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1837, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maine. BANGOR: 5. S. SMITH, PRINTER. 891 44477 INTRODUCTION. THIS world is full of evidence that it is the workmanship of God, belongs to God, and is rightfully subject to his control. Still, we do not find it in all respects such as, at first view, we might expect, under the government of the Supreme Being. We find earth to be a place of comparative darkness, of temptation, of error, and of wickedness. We find it, too, a place of suffering; and of suffering not following regularly and proportionately in the track of sin, but falling indiscriminately on the good and the bad, the just and the unjust. We find the world filled up with mysteries and changes, and death extending its ravages over it, laying its cold hand on every thing that hath life, and turning it back to dissolution and emptiness. This state of things has perplexed the hearts of some good men, from the creation to the present time; and had we no light but that of nature, must be perplexing and inexplicable to all. But the volume of revelation unfolds, in part, the mystery. This sets before us the design, the end of the present life, and shows us how all things around us are fitted to answer this important end. We learn from the Bible, that this life was intended to be a state, not of retribution, but of probation, of trial; and that most of the otherwise inexplicable things which take place in the world are but the prerequisites or appendages to such a state. Thus the strange command given to Abraham to sacrifice his son, was intended for his trial. Gen. 22: 1. Heb. 11: 17. The afflictions of Job were "When he permitted for the same purpose. hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Job 23 10. God led the Israelites through their long and perilous journey in the wilderness-fit emblem of the present life-that he "might humble them, and prove them, and know what was in their heart." Deut. 8: 2. And when he had brought them into Canaan, he left a remnant of the idolatrous Canaanites in the land, that through them he might prove his people, "whether they would keep the way of the Lord." Judg. 2: 22. "In the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon," God left Hezekiah, "to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart." 2 Chron. 32: 31. Our Saviour "Behold the devil will cast some of you into prison, that he may try you." He also predicts " an hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." says to the church at Smyrna, Rev. 2 10, 3: 10. Indeed, God is said in the Scriptures to try his intelligent creatures in this world " every moment.' He tries them with manifold temptations. James 1 12. He tries them with changes and afflictions. Dan. 11 35. 1 Pet. 4 12. He tries them with deceivers and deceits. Deut. 13: 3. 1 Cor. 11: 19. He tries them in the fire, as gold is tried. Zach. 13:9. And when the purposes of their trial are accomplished, the period of it is brought at once to a close. The thread of life is severed, and men go to their retribution in another state. Such being the circumstances of the present life, it is of the greatest importance to every human being to understand the nature of that probation on which he is here placed. What is its object? What is implied in it? In what is it distinguished from a state of settled and confirmed character? When is pro |