grandest display of the higher perfection of human life is also seen in the self-sacrifice of man. In the struggles against sin, and in his rising superior to evil, man displays the noblest heroism of his finite life.

4. If the overruling of evil even in this life be involved in the grandest and most sublime act of the Divine operation, and if the loftiest displays of human heroism be manifested in the same manner, may it not be so likewise in the future state of being? If God, in the ascent to the loftiest display of the Divine heroism, has passed through numerous epochs of creation, providence, and grace, may not the consummation of the work of salvation similarly employ epochs of duration? If passing through evil in order to rise out of it has, even in time, given the means of a higher education and discipline to man's immortal spirit, may not God employ similar modes of training throughout man's endless being? If the higher life of the saint on earth be that which is consecrated to the conversion of sinners, may not the loftiest employment of the redeemed in heaven be devoted to a like service? They cannot be unemployed in the service of God. "They serve Him day and night in His temple." And we cannot conceive of a nobler or of a more illustrious service than

being employed in the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom-bringing rebel spirits from the bondage of sin into the consciousness of the Divine life. A glorious employment, a glorious triumph, and a most blessed consciousness!

5. In the revolutions of time, under the Divine permission of evil, there are no perversions of Divine power, principle, or law. It is only states of consciousness, or of conscious realizations, that change. And so in the spiritual region there is ample scope for an endless variety of manifestations of the Divine will, and for the richest experiences of the finite mind. "God moves in a mysterious way"-in ways incomprehensible to man in his present life; but ways which are ever working out God's "bright designs" in such a manner as will, in the end, display in purest radiance the Divine glory.

6. Who will be bold enough to assert that the permission of evil has not been made subservient to the education and discipline of spirits created in the image of God, by bringing them into the loftiest conditions of the consciousness of selfsacrifice in passing through infinite varieties of experience of evil, and infinite realizations of its bitterest fruits? The education and discipline of human souls for the highest conditions of life

and being is the work which the Godhead is now accomplishing through the Church. The fall of man thus opens up to view boundless possibilities for still more wondrous displays of the Divine self-sacrifice. Are these infinite possibilities even dimly discerned by the Church, as it is certainly desirable they should be? If the fall of man in Paradise opened up possibilities of self-sacrifice to both God and man -if the fall of Israel was made subservient to the riches of the Gentiles-if the restoration of fallen Israel shall be as life from the dead to the Gentiles, in their fuller consciousness and manifestation of the Divine glory-may not the permitted continuance of so vast a number of the human race in an unconverted state passing into the invisible world be overruled in connection with the Divine self-sacrifice for higher and more god-like ends of grace ? May not a glorious work be going on even now in the invisible regions, which eye hath not seen, nor selfish human spirits conceived of as possible?

7. The Son of God's mission in time-His great work of atonement for the manifestation of the Divine grace in self-sacrifice, and for bringing back the Divine kingdom, that God may be "all in all "—is the grandest undertaking of God

in time or in eternity. Is that event designed to influence only a few of the race? Is it not intended to embrace universal being in all its possibilities of education and discipline, and to be a work destined to prove worthy of the infinite heart of the Almighty and all-loving Father?

I.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE POSSIBLE FUTURE.

HE self-sacrificing love of the Godhead

THE

towards its enemies may contain in it such a power of softening rebellious hearts as will overcome even the bitterest enmity of fallen spirits. And it will doubtless put forth its utmost efforts to reclaim the most inveterate foes. That it should so act is involved in its very nature. To hold an opposite opinion is to make God partial in the display of His grace. The purpose of Divine grace cannot be conditioned by any thing external to itself. We cannot conceive of its resting in any thing short of the fullest display of its inmost depths and the exercise of its loftiest powers. There may be in the future such a revelation of the infinite grace of Self-sacrificing Love-its light may so flood the universe with its radiance— as to overcome all enmity to God.

2. It is beyond our power to conceive of the possibility of Infinite Love being ultimately baffled. "With God all things are possible "