mother Eve had been allowed to remain in their neat garden home longer than their majority. The finite mind can not go out so far as to fathom the full length, breadth, and depth of eternity, much less to conceive of what condition things might have been in here, afterwhile, if the monster death had not interfered with the progeny of that first pair.

Whether the brute creation would have lived on and bred forever, but for the sin of man, is a question which I have heard debated but little; the general opinion seems to be that they would. Well, if they had, all I will say about it is, there would have been a good many animals here by this time. Snakes would have been plenty.

We will suppose the fruit untouched; that Adam and all his family had lived even up to the present time; all the little children who have died would have grown up to mature life, and bred and lived on, too; what would have been the present population of the world? No arithmetic. can answer this question; neither can I. How could animal life have found food for its sustenance? I can not tell. As all will see at a glance, the number of human beings alone, to say nothing of other animals, would, in that case, have been sufficient to have covered the whole face of the earth, and to have piled up, one on another, mountain high; so that nothing would have saved them from starvation or suffocation, but that they could not die. This world would have been wholly inadequate to the purpose of its creation, if it was not intended that man should sin and die, as he did; and a most signal failure on the part of the Creator would have ensued. Such a mistake, if made by the most perfect tyro who ever sat on cobbler's bench, would have been looked upon as supremely ridiculous even for such an one to have made.

But it is said God knew man would sin and die, and the preparation for him was, therefore, sufficient. I admit that also. Did Adam do just what God intended for him to do? I answer, yes; others say, no. If he did that which it was desired he should not do, was not God disappointed? If he did that only which God intended him to do, should

he have been punished for it? I answer, yes; for, although God knew he would do it, Adam was commanded not to do it, and he disobeyed the divine command, and that was sin in him; while it was just what God knew he would and intended he should do. Although Adam was doing only that which he was created to do, and was strictly fulfilling his destiny, he did not know that fact, and was, therefore, just as guilty, as if God had been thereby really disappointed in His great scheme of creation.

I hold that God made man and placed him here for probation; and that Adam, Eve, and Satan, all acted the part which God knew each would act in that awful tragedy in Eden, and which He intended each should take-just that much, and no more. And that if either had failed in the part assigned, God would have been disappointed, and His plans, to that extent, would have failed of success; a thing which never has, and never can occur. God is supreme,

and His divine will can not be thwarted by man or devil, or all of each combined.

CHAPTER XI.

Seventh Proposition-The Soul of Man a Fallen Angel-If Taught in the Bible, why not Discovered before?—A Full Knowledge of our Condition would have Defeated God's Scheme of Probation— His Mercies Extended to the Penitent only—Some of Them may have Repented—Character of the War in Heaven-Different Shades of Guilt Probable-Revelation Progressive—Always just Sufficient-Why Secret Things should now be Revealed-Science Advancing-Revelation must keep Pace with it—If this be Error neither God nor Satan will Favor it—And why-If Truth, it will Prevail-A Safe Doctrine.

THE most important questions which it was thought best to notice, as preliminary to the main proposition, on which the theory herein presented to the Christian world depends, having been for the present disposed of, we have now arrived at the great and vital question—IS IT TRUE "That the body only was then 'created, 'formed,' and the soul which was 'breathed' into it was a pre-existent spirit -A'FALLEN ANGEL?""

I have endeavored, in the preceding pages, to prove that there is nothing in the Sacred Writings, or natural reason, inconsistent with this hypothesis; and from this point, propose to call attention to such Scriptures as tend to establish its truth. And, right here, a perplexing question may present itself to the mind of most, if not all, who attempt to investigate this subject. If a fact of such thrilling import is taught in the Bible, and so plainly, too, that evidences of it are everywhere to be met with in that Sacred Volume, and which consist with all else that is therein written, and one also, which more than any other, serves (as the first rays of morning light, to drive the darkness. of the night) to open up to our affrighted vision a true

sense of our awfully responsible condition in this life, why has it not been known, and our lives guided by that brilliant light all the time?

Before proceeding further, therefore, I propose, with the Divine assistance, to remove all difficulty arising in that direction.

This is, for us, a state of probation. All so consider it. The whole scheme was devised by the Father and Son in heaven. There was wisdom to plan and power to execute. Bear this constantly in mind. Failure was, therefore, impossible. Now, suppose I am right as to the nature and origin of the human soul, and that God had informed Adam and all his descendants fully of all the facts and circumstances connected with his and their history and fall, and His plans and purposes connected with their present state of being, so plainly as to admit of no mistake or doubt, would not the whole probationary scheme have proven a signal failure? If I am right, where is the sinner so hardened that he would not repent if he were placed as on Pisgah's top, and the whole panorama of the heavens above, the world around, and hell uncapped below, were at once open to his astonished view, where he could learn all for himself, as to where and what he had been, why and for what he is here, and how and on what terms he can be restored to all the bliss of the glory-world above; and why, on his rejection of such merciful pardon, he must be cast into the yawning gulf beneath him, "where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched," there to abide forever! yes, forever and ever! I repeat, who, in such case, would have rejected the offered pardon?

What sort of probation (putting on trial) would that have been? Men may, and often do, deal in farce. But God, never!

What would we think of a temporal monarch, who should issue his edict against the crime of murder: for instance, prescribing the penalty of death against all who may be duly convicted of that heinous offense, and proceed, in the same paper, to say: "I wish all my liege subjects to understand, however, that I have no thirst for

blood, but love mercy; and pledge myself now to extend my gracious pardon to all who may be so found guilty, and who will, at any time before they are executed, repent of their sin, believe that I can and will pardon and forgive them, and promise to do so no more?" Are not the cases parallel? In the one case, how many sinners is it likely would go to hell? and how many murderers would be hung in the other?

If man has ever yet committed such folly, history has failed to record it. That a Being possessed of foreknowledge of all future events, and power without limit, should have done so, no sane man will pretend.

In such case, instead of putting us on probationary ground, that which would have amounted to the same as an unconditional pardon would have ensued. If a general amnesty and full pardon of all, even the most active instigators and efficient leaders of that rebellion, had been intended, there could have been no necessity for the creation of this world, and putting us on a mere formal trial, as, under the circumstances supposed, this would have been.

We will not believe that the Divine Wisdom acted in this, or anything else, without a wise motive and benign intention. If any of the lost angels, for any reason, deserved pity, they received it. "The pity of the Lord" reaches all his penitent creatures, no matter what their fault may have been or their condition may be. We find no evidence in the Bible that the Lord does not sympathize with, or that he will not pardon any soul or spirit of His creation, who does sincerely repent of his or their sins, humble themselves, and bow down before the "mercy seat," and with deep contrition of soul and desire for restoration to His divine favor, seek for mercy and pardon at His throne of grace. But to the contrary, the whole tenor of that blessed Book teaches us that its divine Author is full of compassion for His rational beings, who, though they err, repent of their evil doings. And every page of the Bible beams with the resplendent light of God's undying love for all His holy or repentant creatures.

Were it not so, on what ground could the highwayman,