. thousands were won to Christianity, and confirmed in the faith, by his labors. How often, in the ordination or installation of clergymen, especially in the presentation of the Scriptures, did he express his strong faith in the word of God, and assure the candidate that the service was founded on the belief that the candidate, as well as he who performed the service, held fast to the word of God. In his defence of divine revelation against the attack of Kneeland (as recorded in vol. II., 112-126), how ably did he defend the Bible. SECTION V. THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY. He Having shown father Ballou's belief in God, and in Christ as the Son of God, and in the authenticity of the Scriptures, we come now to speak of his views of the divine sovereignty. We have already shown, in the course of this analysis, that man was regarded by him, not merely as the creature, but the child of God, from the fact that he is a moral being, and that he was created in the image of God. At the first, although created in the divine image, man was designed for this lower state. was made subject to vanity, liable to temptation, liable to sin. God saw fit to make him so, with a full foreknowledge of all the consequences that would grow out of it. God could have made man above the power of temptation and sin, had he seen fit; but he did not see fit so to constitute him. It was not agreeable to his own vast and gracious plan. Had God made man above the power of sin, father Ballou held, there could have been no redemption, no Saviour, no salvation. All that is in teresting to us as sinners, in the just and amiable life of Christ, in his meekness, patience, resignation, forgiveness, in the whole process of the love of enemies and overcoming evil with good all this would have been lost to the world. Suffice it to say, God saw fit that man, for a time, should be a sinner; and when sin entered into the world, God, in the view of father Ballou, was neither surprised nor disappointed. The law entered that the offence might abound. Man became a sinner, because, in the vast plan of God, he saw fit that it should be so. "Even so, Father, for thus it seemeth good in thy sight." The existence of sin is consistent with God's wisdom, goodness, and purity. Father Ballou held that God is the sovereign Ruler of the universe. This lower world, a mere atom compared with the whole, is his, and he made it.-Ps. 95: 4, 5. He made it for his pleasure. Rev. 4: 11. He made it as a theatre for the exhibition of his goodness and grace to all that are here. It is his world, and all the creatures who are in it are his. He has the right to do by them as he pleases, for he can do them no harm. His dominion over them is the best. He consults their good, no less than his own glory, in all that he does for them. His sovereignty is therefore perfectly consistent with his benevolence. "Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory forever." God, then, said father Ballou, is the author of all things. What God permitted, having the power to prevent, he preferred upon the whole. He did not prefer everything for what it was in itself singly, but as a part of the great whole, and for the consequences which he foresaw would result AT HIS DEATH. from it. Father Ballou then avowed it as his undoubted conviction that everything which takes place is wisely permitted by God, for holy and beneficent purposes. In itself sin is repulsive, and on the part of the sinner it is wrong; but on the part of God it is right. He has a good object in permitting it, and will certainly overrule it for good. The kind parent will submit his tender child to a very severe pain, even to the amputation of a limb, or anything worse, if possible, to save the child's life. He permits the pain for the attainment of a great good, and he is right in so doing. It is precisely on the same principle that God ordains the evils of the present life; not that they are to be long-continued evils,—they shall be changed into blessings; and he who has a strong and proper faith in the benevolence of God will hold that He will overrule all for good. Rev. G. H. Emerson has said: "That God is a sovereign, working all things after the counsels of his own will, though an idea of immense importance in father Ballou's theology, was by no means a new idea with him. This idea, in fact, is older than the Bible; philosophers in Greece and Rome had found out so much. This fact I understand Paul to recognize in the first chapter of Romans. But the credit of giving this idea a fixed and intelligible form in Christian theology is due to John Calvin; a service which will ever go far to compensate for much of error in the Geneva reformer. Father Ballou did not, then, first give a definite form to the idea of God's complete sovereignty; but he did first give a definite form to the idea of God's benevolent sovereignty. Understand me, I do not say that Hosea Ballou first taught this idea; I simply say he first gave it an intelligible and consistent form as a part of Christian theology. Thus viewed, it became his ruling, inspiring genius; and, warmed and impelled by it, he has emphatically made an epoch in the religious history of the world." The fact that God is a sovereign, and is the author of all things, Mr. Ballou believed all his life long. We see it fully and clearly stated in the Treatise on Atonement, published in 1805; and more especially in the sermon entitled "God the Author of all Things," preached in 1829. (See vol. III., pp. 42-57.) If it be said God is not the author of all things, what possible reason can be assigned why he is not? Is he not the absolute governor of the world? Mr. Ballou allowed that he is not the sinful author of anything. He fully believed that the cause of what is called evil may be innocent. He believed that God is the innocent cause of even criminality itself. The innocence of the cause consists in the fact that God's design is good; but the sinfulness of the sinner consists in the fact that his design is evil. In sending Joseph into Egypt, God's design was perfectly good; but his brethren sent him there in malice and wickedness. God's object in permitting the brethren to entertain malice against Joseph was good. He overruled it for good. Had he seen fit, he might have prevented it, or induced the brethren to send Joseph to Egypt for other reasons; but suffice it to say he did not so choose. "Even so, Father, for thus it seemeth good in thy sight." If Joseph's brethren had been governed by a good design in sending him into bondage, then they would have been worthy of praise; but their design was to crush him, to AT HIS DEATH. put him out of the way of their ambitious purposes. God had a good purpose in sending Joseph into Egypt; they had a bad one. We must, said father Ballou, recognize the double purpose. Joseph understood it so himself. "Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life."—Gen. 45: 5. God sent Joseph to Egypt, and yet the brethren sold him to go there. Again, "Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good." Gen. 50: 20. Father Ballou held that there was a use, a purpose, a benefit, in the present temporary existence of evil. Who can forget the article written by him, in the last years of his life, and entitled "The Utility of Evil"? He showed that evil must have originated in good; and, if it originated in good, there must be a utility in it. If evil is not self-existent, it must have had a cause to produce it; and if it had a cause to produce it, that cause must have been good. If we say that evil was produced by evil, we say there was evil in existence before evil existed! If we allow that the present existence of evil was produced by good, then we must allow that there is a utility in it; for infinite wisdom would not permit evil to exist without a wise and good design. The truth is, the "unrighteousness of men commends the righteousness of God." The love of God to sinners could never have been manifested if there had been no sinners. The angels of God could never have seen it, nor could it have melted hard and sinful hearts into contrition and love. The sickness of the patient commends the skill of the physician, and the power of the medicine with which the disease is treated. Did not the unright |