straight and as unerringly to the crown and consummation of his course, as the dispositions of other creatures do lead them to the perfect development of their powers and the perfect discharge of their functions in the economy of nature. "It is as if weapons had been placed in the hands of man which he has not the strength, nor the knowledge, nor the rectitude of will to wield aright. It is in this contrast that he stands alone. In the light of this contrast we see that the corruption of human nature is not a mere dogma of theology, but a fact of science. The nature of man is seen to be corrupt not merely as compared with some imaginary standard which is supposed to have existed at some former time, but as compared with a standard which prevails in every other department of nature at the present day. We see, too, that the analogies of creation are adverse to the supposition that this condition of things was original. It looks as if something exceptional must have happened." Observe now the harmony of science and religion in their teachings respecting the result of sin. Science teaches us that there is in every living organism a law of death. "We are wont to imagine," remarks Henry Drummond, "that Nature is full of life. In reality it is full of death. One cannot say it is natural for a plant to live. Examine its nature fully, and you have to admit that its natural tendency is to die. It is kept from dying by a mere temporary endowment, which gives it an ephemeral dominion over the elements-gives it power to utilize for a brief span the rain, the sunshine, and the air. Withdraw this temporary endowment for a moment and its true nature is revealed. Instead of overcoming Nature it is overcome. The very things which appeared to minister to its growth and beauty now turn against it and make it decay and die. The sun which warmed it, withers it; the air and rain which nourished it, rot it. It is the very forces which we associate with life which, when their true nature appears, are discovered to be really the ministers of death. "This law," continues Mr. Drummond, "which is true for the whole plant world, is also valid for the animal and for man. Air is not life, but corruption-so literally corruption that the only way to keep out corruption, when life has ebbed, is to keep out air. Life is merely a temporary suspension of these destructive powers; and this is truly one of the most accurate definitions of life we have yet received-'the sum total of the functions which resist death.' "Spiritual life, in like manner, is the sum total of the functions which resist sin. The soul's atmosphere is the daily trial, circumstance, and temptation of the world. And as it is life alone which gives the plant power to utilize the elements, so it is the spiritual life alone which gives the soul power to utilize temptation and trial; and without it they destroy the soul. How shall we escape if we refuse to exercise these functions-in other words, if we neglect? "This destroying process, observe, goes on quite independently of God's judgment on sin. God's judgment on sin is another and more awful fact of which this may be a part. But it is a distinct fact by itself, which we can hold and examine separately, that on purely natural principles the soul that is left to itself unwatched, uncultivated, unredeemed, must fall away into death by its own nature. The soul that sinneth it shall die.' It shall die, not necessarily because God passes sentence of death upon it, but because it cannot help dying. It has neglected the functions which resist death,' and has always been dying. The punishment is in its very nature, and the sentence is being gradually carried out all along the path of life by ordinary processes, which enforce the verdict with the appalling faithfulness of law." And so in respect to all the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Science is finding out in the natural world the great laws to which the underlying principles of the Christian Religion are analogous. When science has more fully completed her investigations, and risen somewhere near perfection in her demonstrations, it may be found that the kingdom of Nature and the kingdom of Grace exist together in entire harmony as the ordering of Almighty Wisdom, while all our wrangling and confusion have been simply the result of ignorance of the basal truths upon which these kingdoms are founded. THE FACT OF SIN. Is sin a fact, or a fancy?—a practical experience, or a theological speculation? We would be plain and direct. Sin is a fact, an awful fact, declared to be such in Scripture, and clearly proven by the lives and confessions of men. "What havoc hast thou made, foul monster, Sin! Sorrow had never been." The word "sin" first occurs in Gen. iv. 7, and is there very pointedly defined. Cain and Abel had brought their offerings to the Lord. Abel's offering was accepted; Cain's was not. The latter was enraged, and his countenance fell. Then said Jehovah, "Why art thou wroth? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door." Here we learn that sin consists in not accomplishing the will of God, or in disobeying his commands. This agrees with the definition of James: "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." (James iv. 17.) It agrees with the definition of John: "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law for sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John iii. 4.) It agrees with Paul: "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." (Rom. vii. 14-17.) Throughout the Bible sin is spoken of as a fact, a transgression of God's holy law, an actual incurrence of guilt. Mankind in general are sinful. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom. iii. 23.) Man was made upright (Eccl. vii. 29); his moral nature was clean; it resembled the divine. (Gen. i. 27.) Man was constituted a free agent; otherwise, he bore not the image of his Maker. He was placed in a state of trial, the regulations of which were plainly made known to him. He was taught what would be the reward of obedience, and what the result of disobedience. Yet he broke through the restraint, transgressed the law, and incurred the penalty, which was death. (Gen. ii. 16, 17; Rom. v. 12; vi. 23; Heb. ii. 14.) This first sin of Adam, the federal head of the human race, entailed upon himself and upon his offspring the most momentous consequences. It changed his entire moral nature from a holy to a sinful state, and involved his descendants in the same awful ruin. (Rom. v. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 22.) Yet every man is responsible for his own sin, and only this. (Deut. xxiv. 16; John iii. 19, 20.) The doctrine of man's depravity is held by the whole Christian world, and we have adverted to it for the good reason that it alone makes intelligible the testimonies and experiences of the Christian life. "Here," says Hannah More, "is where the mistake of many in religion lies; they do not begin with the beginning. They do not lay their foundation in the persuasion that man is by nature in a state of alienation from God. They consider him rather as an imperfect than as a fallen creature. They allow that he requires to be improved, but deny that he requires a thorough renovation of heart. But genuine Christianity never can be grafted on any other stock than the apostacy of man." How can that be reinstated which has not fallen? How can that be restored which is not lost? How can a cure be effected where there is no disease? Christ would never have come into this world had there been no reason for his coming. His advent to earth, together with the whole redemptive scheme, is grounded on the truth that man is under the curse of a broken law. Man is redeemed. This, also, is not speculation. It is a fact, a glorious fact. Mankind are rescued from sin and death by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ. Paul says, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." (Rom. v. 19.) The guilt of original sin is covered by the atonement. All who accept this remedy escape death. Those who reject it are doomed to perdition. The ends of redemption, therefore, are the delivery of mankind from the curse of the law, the guilt of sin, spiritual death, and endless hell, and the bestowment of everlasting blessedness. This is the groundwork of the Christian's hope. As sustaining the position that man is a sinner and Christ his only Saviour, let a few citations be given from the expressed convictions of eminent persons. The celebrated John Foster wrote: "Evangelical Christianity contains a humiliating estimate of the moral condition of man as a being radically corrupt; the doctrine of redemption from that condition by the merit and sufferings of Christ; the doctrine of a divine influence being necessary to transform the character of the human mind, in order to prepare it for a higher station in the universe; and a grand moral peculiarity by which it insists on humility, penitence, and a separation from the spirit and habits of the world." These principles constituted no mere creed or theory, but actuated John Foster's whole spiritual nature. He rested his eternal all on the sacrifice of Christ. The great missionary, Robert Morrison, declared, some years after his conversion, "I have gradually discovered more of the holiness, spirituality and extent of the divine law, and more of my own vileness and unworthiness in the sight of God, and the freeness and richness of sovereign grace. I have sinned as I could; it is by the grace of God I am what I am.'" Mrs. Isabella Graham, a noted Christian lady who died in New York in 1814, once wrote to a friend in Edinburgh: "It is now thirtyfive years since I simply, but solemnly, accepted of the Lord's Christ as God's gift to a lost world. I rolled my condemned, perishing, corrupted soul upon this Jesus, exhibited in the gospel as a Saviour from sin. My views then were dark compared with what they now are; but this I remember-that at the time I felt a heart-satisfying trust in the mercy of God as the purchase of Christ, and, for a time, rejoiced with joy scarcely supportable, singing almost continually the one hundred and third Psalm." The renowned John Bunyan says of his condition previous to conversion, “My original and inward pollution-that was my plague and affliction. That I saw at a dreadful rate, always putting forth itself within me; that I had the guilt of to amazement; by reason of that I was more loathsome in my own eyes than a toad; and I thought I was so in God's eyes too." The eminent English philanthropist, |