conceived in the soul, and the inward voice of God is not heard; spiritual blindness, moral darkness, is then the condition of the soul; thus it is that man becomes a slave to sense. Meanwhile, the rational, spirital nature is not destroyed; if it were destroyed, or did not exist, it would be impossible for man to sin; it exists, but in a state of partial developement; its action is too feeble to resist the earthly nature which should obey instead of ruling. Man, then, sees God through a thick mist of sense; his vision is that of idolatry; he blindly worships the powers invisible in visible symbols. His feeble spirit has only an instinctive, vague conception of the being in whose image he is made; he feels the necessity of worship, but his mind is clouded and he bows before stones, plants, animals, brazen images, sun, moon and stars. Sin, then, breeds corruption; the imprisoned soul utters its protest in tones of remorse and with the solemn voice of despair.

cause.

will. Properly speaking, these actions are only effects joined to each other, alternately seeming to be causes without actually being so, and all being referable as effects, more or less remote to the will as first The first cause for us, then, is the will, whose first effect is a volition. This is the source, at once the highest and the purest, of the notion of cause, which is there confounded with that of personality. . The phenomenon of the will presents the following momenta: 1st, to predetermine an act to be done; 2d, to deliberate; 3d, to form a resolution. If we take notice of the operation, we shall find that it is the reason which constitutes the first entire, and even the second; for it is the reason which deliberates; but, it is not the reason which resolves and determines." (Fragments Philosophiques, preface to the first edition.)

On the other hand, we do not deny the sovereignty of God. We believe in both free-will and in the divine sovereignty, but know not how to conciliate them in thought. "The futile attempts," says Sir Wm. Hamilton, "to harmonize these antilogies, by human reasoning to human understanding, have originated conflictive systems of theology, divided the Church, and, as far as possible, dishonored religion." Discus. on Phil. etc., p. 599.) A wise philosophy, as well as Scripture, reveals to us that God is incomprehensible, therefore, it is both irrational and irreligious to attempt the conciliation of things that are to be believed, and not to be understood, because beyond the reach of the understanding. "If there be not free grace in God," says St. Augustine, "how can He save the world: and if there be not free will in man, how can the world by God be judged?" (Ad Valentinum, Epist. 214.) "Abolish free will," says St. Bernard, "and there is nothing to be saved; abolish free grace, and there is nothing wherewithall to save." (De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio. c. i.)

Wickedness and idolatry go hand in hand; they are both produced by the same cause. Wrath fashions a Mars, vengeance a Moloch, avarice a Mammon, lust a Venus; while angels visit in vain the enchained soul.

But how is a cure to be effected? What can Christianity do for the enslaved reason and the oppressed spirit? How shall it bind the unruly appetites and calm the angry passions?

Christianity takes nothing away from man; it removes no element of his being, it extinguishes no passion; for every passion, every appetite, is of itself good. Neither does Christianity add any new element; it quickens into life man's spiritual nature, his moral and rational being; it enables him to govern his earthly nature, that had turned into a charnel house the body which should be a sacred temple of the Holy Ghost, that had laid the heavy hand of guilt upon the image of God. God in Christ becomes a spiritual presence to man, giving him the aid that is needed. The Word that in the beginning was with God, has, through Christ, become the light of men; a light that shines in upon the darkness of the soul; that divine Word of God, the spirit of life and light,-the spirit of power and wisdom,-fashioned the universe, animated the soul of man at the creation; through Jesus, in sense, it is brought face to face with humanity, the living presence of God's spirit. Thus the life has become anew the guiding light of men; the light that feebly lighteth every man that cometh into the world, now streams afresh upon the soul, warming it into divine life. Christ thus

3 We simply mean to say that the earthly nature is the occasion, and not the cause, of guilt. There would be no sin if there were no temptation; but temptation is not therefore to be confounded with sin. Without an enticement, and a soul that has intelligence, that deliberates, that decides, that wills, that knows the good while the wrong is pursued, that, when an action is performed, has the consciousness of being able not to perform it,-without these two, there can be no guilt. To say that temptation is the cause of sin, is to declare that there is no such thing as moral accountability; that man is not responsible for his own acts. "It is only on the supposition of a moral liberty in man," says Sir William Hamilton, "that we can attempt to vindicate, as truths, a moral order, and, consequently, a moral governor, in the Universe; and it is only on the hypothesis of a soul within us, that we can assert the reality of a God above us. Nullus in microcosmo Spiritus, nullus in macrocosmo Deus." (Dis. on Phil., etc., p. 298.)

becomes to man "the way, the truth, the life;" he is "the light of the world;" he "bears witness to the truth," for "God is in him reconciling the world unto himself," exhibiting redeeming love to his children, in hallowed speech from the lips of Jesus, in holy deeds, in acts of mercy, in forgiving patience, in a prayer of benediction from the cross. Moral power increases beneath the warmth of divine love; the iron chains of the outward law are melted away, and the holier law of love is established in the soul. The law is for those whose moral natures cannot govern their appetites, but those whose souls are quickened and thoroughly expanded under the influence of the divine spirit, walk by the light of God, and no longer need the law which they nevertheless fulfil. Man needs not a speculative, dogmatical theology, a talk about God; he needs God himself, in spiritual presence flooding the soul, giving him power to conquer that within him which begets sin.

We may now proceed from the individual to the social effects of Christ's mission. When one man transgresses, those around him are influenced. Sin thus gets itself bodied forth in the social institutions of the world. The many fountains whence spring outward organizations are corrupt, and the general result shows the average of turbidness. When sin is once introduced into the hearts of men, it stains all social life; it then becomes an organic power in the world, warring against holiness and truth, reacting terribly upon the individual soul; it shapes, to a certain extent, the organization of society, entering into legislation, corrupting religion, making laws, customs, manners, after its own fashion; fixing arbitrary standards of right and wrong; introducing, in fine, tradition and cant in the place of eternal principle and imprescriptible justice. Enthroned among mankind, this organic power of sin upholds the oppressor in his wrong, the proud man in his contumely; it enslaves the weak, crushes the spirit of the sorrowing, wrings the life-blood from the poor and the oppressed; it turns man, made in the rational, spiritual image of God, into a money-making machine; it pours poison into the springs of education; it sheds the light of genius on the corrupted fields of literature, and blends the peoples of the earth in the crimson burial of

war. This organic, social power of sin, when personified, becomes Satan, the adversary, the prince of the power of

the air.

This organic power of evil, Christ broke,-broke it when the first Christian church was organized, as a visible representative of the invisible kingdom of God; a kingdom that comes not with observation, but exists within the real disciples. In view of this breaking of the organic power of sin, Christ said, just before his crucifixion: "Now is the judgement of this world, now is the prince of this world cast out.' "" The church of Christ has been built up on the earth as a corporate power of life to destroy the corporate power of death. His spiritual church is composed of all in whom dwells the life that is the light of men. No doubt there are many within the visible church, who are not members of the invisible; no doubt there are many within the invisible church, who are not members of the visible.

The ultimate success of Christianity, then, depends upon this, that its spirit have a fit body; a form adequate to represent it. The spirit, no doubt, flows from form to form; it cannot be petrified into such or such a shape, but some visible symbols of its meaning it must always have. Those who would reject all forms, do not understand the great social laws that bind soul to soul, for evil or for good. Strip Christianity of its organic power in the form of a church, and few will be the children born into the kingdom of God. The church-spire points to the heaven that is over all, directing the gaze of busy men upward, and the voice of prayer within is echoed from the laden hearts of those without. The spirit of worship flows from heart to heart; where two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, there he is in their midst, bringing down heaven to earth. He who would burn the temple in which men bow before the Creator of heaven and earth, is the worst enemy of his kind; woe to him who would destroy the main channels of communication between hearts warm with adoration, spirits fired with the love of Christ, and the hearts of the unregenerate that need to be quickened with new life, and the spirits of the ungodly who need the kindling influence of religious fervor. Man was made for the society of man.

Reli

gious organization rests upon the principle of brotherhood itself. Since soul influences soul, Christianity must take a corporate form, must be represented by an organized church, or it will fail to accomplish its mission.

On the other hand, those equally err who would fix the form; who would make an organization that shall adequately represent Christianity in all time. One age needs one form, another another. When a form is fixed, the visible church soon becomes a mere fossil; earnest men will not worship in it; the spirit is elsewhere, weaving for itself a new form, notwithstanding the decrees of councils and the edicts of emperors. The world, like an individual, must become wise and good by degrees. In religious organizations there is always a mixture of the spirit of the prince of darkness, and the spirit of the Prince of Peace. In the visible church, there has been warfare between these two spirits since that sublime hymn went forth, worthy to be chanted by the angels of heaven, publishing "peace on earth." The contest has been warm for eighteen hundred years, but to one who is familiar with history, who understands the position of affairs among the nations, who knows what has been and is the condition of mankind, it is not difficult to see that progress has been made, that the time must come when Christianity will compass and renew the world. The evil in the external form is constantly decreasing, the good is constantly increasing. Whoever endeavors to make the ever flowing form permanent, attempts to stop progress, to hinder the developement of humanity, to destroy history, for history is only the record of the world's advancement. It must not be supposed that Christianity has nothing else to do than warring against evil. The destruction of evil is, after all, only a subordinate work. Christianity raises man above evil; its action is positive; it quickens and developes all the nobler powers, the rational and spiritual elements of man's nature. When the soul is touched with the spirit of the Infinite, the blind passions then find the reason and conscience they had trampled under foot, gaining energy and power to conquer, and to assert their lawful dominion. Christianity destroys evil by giving strength to good. It is a mistake to suppose that Christianity would be of no use if there were no sin.