In a complicated piece of machinery we may see wheels. acting contrary to other wheels, and weights and drags that seem to impede its onward progress; but a more intimate knowledge of its mechanism would show that these are all necessary to its completeness, and serve to give it regularity, accuracy, and force. So in the moral world the opposition that truth, and righteousness, and goodness meet with here tends to their farther development.1

May we not well believe that the Deity, not ordaining, but foreseeing sin, and decreeing to permit it2 in the begin

affections most exerted and employed: for heroism and philanthropy are almost one and the same."-(SHAFTESBURY.) "Pain," says Dr. Thomas Brown, "is of advantage to the moral character in two ways; as warning from vice by the penalties attached to vicious conduct, and as giving strength to virtue by the benevolent wishes which it awakes and fosters. and by the very sufferings themselves which are borne with a feeling of moral approbation."-(Philosophy of the Human Mind.) "Death is a necessary part of the great system; the death of individuals constitutes the life of the whole, and to suppress death would be to suppress the world." -(VINET.) “Out of the view of death comes the view of life beyond the grave, as out of the view of sin... comes the glorious hope.' (FARADAY.) "Divine Providence is at all times, and over the whole face of the earth, constantly bringing good out of evil and bending the lawless passions and ill-conceived pursuits of men to purposes different from those which they had in view; . . . and punishment does not the less fall on those who do wrong, nor is their infamy and guilt abated, because a wisdom infinitely above theirs turns all evil to good." "A skilful ruler can often make the rebellious and mischievously conceived schemes of the people to issue in giving a firmer establishment to constituted authority, and a more progressive direction to public good; but it does not, on that account, the less follow that those are rebels who have countenanced these schemes of mischief, nor is their deserved punishment remitted because they have failed in their purpose, or because that purpose has been the means of bringing forth, under a management better than their own, the welfare of the community."-(Manual of Conduct.)

1 ❝ 'Nature is God's instrument to do whatsoever he pleases; and there is nothing so contrary but he may bring to his own ends; as in some engines you may see wheels having contrary motions, and yet all in order to one and the same end."-(CHARNOCK: Divine Providence.) "Man is placed under an economy in which there are numberless restraints and correctives, medicaments and penalties, all originating in the very constitution of the world, falling out in the order of Providence and ready to meet him at every turn-now with their bristling points to stop his career, anon with their whips to punish, and forthwith, with their counter-moves to frustrate all his labour, and throw him far back when he seems to be making the most eager progress." "We discover everywhere in the world traces of design and wisdom; but of design and wisdom, so far as the government of man is concerned, directed to the prevention or punishment of evil."-(McCosн.)

"The Incarnation came, not within the coasts of time, but had its

ning established the laws of the universe so that the very effects produced by sin should eventually be the means of its own destruction, and of restoring man to his original, or even to a higher state of being?1 We may not, with Edward Irving, believe that God ordained nature in its present form, and established it under its present laws for the express purpose of shadowing forth that future state of perfection into which it is to be brought ; but we do believe

origin in the divine purpose before the foundation of the world."(EDWARD IRVING). "God from all eternity did by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of his creatures."-(Westminster Confession of Faith.) "When I say this work (i.e., redemption) is carried on from the fall of man to the end of the world. . . it is not meant that nothing was done in order to it before the fall of man. There were many things done in order to this work before that. Some things were done before the world was created, yea from all eternity. . . . And there were things done at the creation of the world in order to that work before man fell; for the world itself seems to have been created in order to it. The work of creation was in order to God's work of providence." (JONATHAN EDWARDS: On Redemption.) "The holiness of God could never intend sin as sin. But the wisdom of God foreseeing it, and decreeing to permit it, intended the making it subservient to his own honour."-(Dr. CHARNOCK.) God "may from all eternity have foreseen it (i.e., sin), and it may even be said in some sense that he ordained it, to manifest his justice and his glory, and to show his mercy and sovereignty in redeeming men."—(Rev. C. H. SPURGEON.)

1"We may readily believe the human body to have been so planned, from the first, as that its form might adapt itself to another and a different internal economy."-(ISAAC TAYLOR.) "By an act of disobedience, he (man) fell from the condition of holiness and happiness in which he was created, into an estate of sin and misery; and as the result of that single backward step, the whole world has been subject to a curse which falls upon soul and body, and extends through time and eternity. And yet, by a wonderful interposition of divine love, this retrograde step which issued in so much disaster, has raised man to a higher position than he could have attained, even had he continued pure and sinless as at the first. He is not merely brought forward to the point from which he retrograded; he is advanced greatly beyond it. Schiller boldly says, 'The fall was a giant stride in the history of the human race.' (Rev. HUGH MACMILLAN.) "As sin had dishonoured him at its entrance, in defacing his works and depraving his creature, so he would make use of the sins of men in repairing his honour and restoring the creature.”—(Dr. CHARNOCK.)

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2" I believe God hath ordained nature in it present form, and established it according to its present laws, for the single and express purpose of shadowing forth that future and perfect condition into which it is to be brought; so that, from man down to the lowest creature, and from the animated creation down to the lowest plant, and from the vegetable creation throughout the elemental and inorganic world, everything con

that the present order and disposition of things has been established expressly with the view of bringing about the final restoration of man; and that whatever happens either of good or bad is under the direction and control of the Almighty, and is intended by Him in his own good time and way for the accomplishment of this end." Thus the necessity for labour which is commonly viewed as a hardship, and looked upon as one of the evil consequences of the fall, in place of being regarded as a curse, ought rather to be looked upon as a blessing.3 Had man in his fallen

taineth the presentiment of its own future perfection, hath been so constituted of God as to be prophetic thereof, and is bearing silent witness to the redemption and restitution of all things which is yet to be."-(IRVING : Sermons.)

1" Reason tells us that a wise being proposes to himself a reasonable end in everything he does, and that he uses all the necessary means to attain it. The end which God had in view, with regard to his creatures, and particularly with respect to man, cannot be any other on the one side than his glory; and, on the other, the perfection and happiness of his creatures, as far as their nature or constitution will admit."-(BURLAMAQUI: Natural Law.) "When we see how graciously he has turned our very lapse into an occasion of improving our condition; how from this evil he was pleased to advance us to a greater good than we had lost; how that life which was forfeited may be restored; how, by grafting the redemption of man on the very circumstance of his fall, he has raised him to the capacity of a higher condition than that which he had forfeited, and to a happiness superior to that from which he fell,-what an impression does this give us of the immeasurable wisdom and goodness of God; of the unsearchable riches of Christ."-(HANNAH MORE: Practical Piety.) "The evils which God pronounced on the first transgressors. ... were altogether in harmony with the new state of merciful discipline and hope.”—(Rev. J. H. HINTON.)

2 “The sanctification of his people being the universal and all-inclusive will of God, it is likewise towards its accomplishment that all human events tend. It is for the enlargement and strengthening of the Church that all the empires of the world have their rise, history, and decay. For this, God changes their laws, alters their boundaries, desolates them by war, or blesses them with peace."—(Dr. H. DARLING.) "The evils which we now suffer, because of Adam's sin, are not laid on us penally, or as of the nature of punishment, but beneficially for the purpose of salutary discipline."-(Rev. J. H. HINTON.) "Divine justice is the justice of goodness, and therefore cannot delight to punish. It has always some good end before it, and therefore would not punish but for the attainment of further good. . . The great design of divine justice is to establish the eternal and immutable law of right, and to maintain its integrity inviolable.”—(Rev. J. SMITH: Discourses.)

8" In the beginning of the Bible it is said, 'In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread.' This the multitude have ever looked upon as a curse the philosopher alone perceives in it a universal medicine."(SALZMANN.) "From the merciful and wise provision conveyed in that

condition been allowed to continue without the desire or necessity for labour the race would speedily have degenerated physically, morally, and intellectually.1 The curse portion of the sentence passed upon man which insists that he should earn his livelihood by labour, we might fairly gather that he was not really cursed by the Almighty; for who has not felt the great benefit resulting from this portion of the sentence being literally carried out to the sweat of the brow in the eagerness of some pursuit, or in the glow of manual labour?... Am I not justified in asserting that the earth was cursed for man's benefit, inasmuch as it thus becomes not merely a proper receptacle for him, but one best fitted for the improvement of his fallen nature." -(TOPHAM: Philosophy of the Fall.) "God told Adam that the ground was cursed for his sake, but not that his labour was cursed. He told him that in the sweat of his face he should eat his bread till he returned to the ground. But so far from labour partaking of the curse, it was given him as the means of triumphing over the curse. The ground was to produce thorns and thistles, but labour was to extirpate these thorns and thistles and to cover the face of the earth with fruit trees and bounteous harvests."

-(WM. HOWITT.) "Work in itself is not the curse of man. Work was

before the fall; work shall be after the restoration. No course which could have been devised for human sin would have been so formidable as that of compulsory idleness. If God had sought only punishment, this might have been its nature: a perpetual and an inevitable inactivity. But God, even in wrath remembering mercy, designed the curse of man to be remedial, yet more than penal, and therefore he deprived him not of occupation."(Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN.) "It is to Providence having made it necessary that the bulk of mankind should be engaged in one sort of employment or another, that we owe a great part of that sobriety and virtue which still remains in the world."-(Dr. T. FOTHERGILL.) "To this are owing the birth and improvement of the arts and sciences which contribute so much both to the use and embellishment of life, and serve to lift men up so much above inferior ranks of creatures. Great and numberless are the advantages which men derive from arts and sciences, and consequently from industry, by which they are both begun and carried on." (Rev. J. BALGUY.) Were mankind not under the necessity of labouring for a subsistence, so far from becoming philosophers, I am inclined to think they would ever have remained a race of ignorant savages, scarcely raised above the brute creation. What motive would they have had for exertion, what incentive to awaken their faculties, and arouse them from the apathy of indolence, so natural to man? The necessity of regular industry, to secure subsistence, appears to be the first step towards the development of their faculties, both physical and mental." (Mrs. MARCET.) "What was inflicted upon man for the punishment of his first transgression is now become the most likely means of preserving us from all other sin. It is by labour that we are furnished with all the necessaries and advantages of this life. And I doubt not, if we consider the matter right, it will be found that our being engaged in some business and employment conduces as much to our eternal as to our temporal welfare... Industry fixes the mind, and keeps it clear and free from all loose thoughts and wandering desires, and guards us in every way against the attacks of our spiritual enemy."-(Dr. GASTREL.)

1"It is generally supposed, and sometimes said, that labour was imposed upon man as a curse, but we are unable to assent to this view. . . . Idle

lies not in labouring, but in spending one's time in idleness and ease-a prey to a multitude of physical and mental disorders, to dissipation and vice. Nay, is not labour the very means by which the curse is being removed and the earth again rendered fruitful and lovely as at first ?2

In creating man, and in establishing the laws of this lower world, God doubtless did so in view of all that was subsequently to take place, in view also of the means by which this was to be effected; and can it be doubted that He would other than have selected the best and most efficient means for the accomplishment of His purposes ? 3 Nor ness weakens the body, brings apathy to the spirit, and stupefies the mind; misery and crime, therefore, follow in its train, and whatever drives it away must be a blessing, not a curse. For this purpose, God has enjoined labour; and to ensure the practice of it, He has made the supply of man's wants to depend upon it. Wisdom and goodness were, therefore, commingled when God said to our forefather, Cursed is the ground for thy sake.'. . Industry is a preventive to crime, as well as a reformer of those who have fallen into it. Many blessings does it bring in its train, and well may its praises be celebrated."-(Rev. H. SMITH: Mental and Moral Training.) We acknowledge that man would have been more wretched than he is had he not been placed in circumstances which compel him to exert himself in body or mental labour... With man's present nature an Eden would not have been suited to him."-(Dr. McCosн.)

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1"Never despise work as your reproach; never hate work as your curse. He who works is not contemptible; he who works not, high or low, rich or poor, has the mark of the curse: yea, of a curse which God never uttered, branded in fire upon his brow."-(Rev. C. J. VAUGHAN.) "We are convinced that, if man were not obliged to toil for his bodily sustenance and comfort, his natural restlessness would compel him to deeds which would throw society into hopeless disorder and deluge the earth with blood... Such is the nature, temper, and spirit of man that, if not constrained to be busy, he would be wretched and vicious beyond endurance." (Dr. McCOSH.)

2" When all men worship the true God, then the earth is to yield her increase;' the grapes are to hang in heavier clusters: the oil is to flow in richer streams; the corn is to yield a more golden harvest; the pastures are to be covered with more numerous flocks; a man's temporal life is to be happier, nobler, more beautiful, when the whole race is brought back to the love and worship of the Creator."-(Rev. R. W. DALE.) "Behold every plant of the field ministering to us either food, or clothing, or medicine. Behold how kindly the fruits of the earth have become, how generous and cheerful; behold how beautiful they are; how large, juicy, and productive when recovered from their natural wildness; how they rejoice and sing for joy in the midst of us, because God has made them glad." (EDWARD IRVING.)

8"A true providence, on the part of God, demands a perfect foreknowledge; but it demands not only that he hath foreseen everything, but also that he hath provided for everything, otherwise he is deficient either of the wisdom to foresee or the power to provide."-(LEIBNITZ.)

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