This has led me to doubt God's direct interference in the affairs of men, and to attribute all results to that unrelenting law whose operations culminate in the survival, not exactly of the fittest, but of the strongest and most crafty.

Believing that as the bonds of the toiling millions are tightening, this sentiment is also growing, you will pardon me if I begin at the root of this subject:

In the first place, reason and observation and experience, all teach us that nothing exists or takes place without a cause; and the existence of a Great First Cause, I think no sensible person will attempt to deny: and whether, in the language of the freethinker, we choose to call that Cause-Nature, or whether, in the language of the Scriptures, we say-God! does not in the least affect his personality; but what most directly concerns us is, What relation exists between us and that Great Cause, and how are we affected by such relation?

In the vegetable and in the animal kingdoms, everything does indeed appear to be

governed by some general and immutable law. The tender shoot springs from the seed, takes root, develops into the tree, puts forth its leaves, flowers and fruit; and the eagle builds his nest, and the wild beast his lair, the same as centuries on centuries ago; no progress, no improvement.

But with man all this is changed. Born into the world the most helpless of all creatures, he matures into a being endowed with those higher attributes of inventive and creative power which so emphatically distinguish him from all else created; and which under favoring conditions rise to a grandeur of achievement, bearing unmistakably the imprint of divine preferment.

Is it strange then, that this distinctive and superior being should have been made the recipient of God's special consideration and care? But the question may be raised, Why then did he leave man free to fall into temptation and sin, whereby came death, and all our woes? I will try to answer that anticipated question by the use of a homely, though I think, pertinent illustration:

We will suppose you have a beautiful horse far more beautiful and intelligent than any you have ever before possessed or cared for; so intelligent, in fact, that you decide on giving him a few extra points in horse culture. You attach a long cord to his bridle and start him toward the street, saying, Now sir! when I call Halt! you are to stop. And when I say, Return! then you must turn, and come back to.me.

When the horse reaches the street, you draw firmly on the cord, call Halt!- and the horse stops, because he does not feel at liberty to do any other way. You say, Return! and begin to reel in the cord hand over hand, and he comes back to you, for the same reason. You repeat the lesson several timesalways with the same result, of course.

Well now, you are not very much elated over that animal's behavior,- he has only done for you what you compelled him to do; but finally you strip off the bridle, and send him out free. As he again nears the street, you call, Halt! and (anxious moment) the horse stops! You say, Return! and pirou

etting gracefully, he hastens back to you. O, how the glad smiles illumine your countenance, and how heartily you caress that noble animal, who has honored you by his obedience, though free to transgress.

The inspired poet, Milton, expresses this sentiment in loftier phrase in his "Paradise Lost," where he assumes God to say:

"I made him (man) just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall. Such I created all the ethereal Powers And Spirits, both them who stood, and

them who failed;

Freely they stood who stood, or freely fell. Not free, what proof could they have given Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, Where only that they needs must do appearNot what they would? What praise [ed,

could they receive,

What pleasure I, from such obedience paid; When will and reason (reason also is choice) Useless and vain, of freedom both despoiled, Made passive both, had served necessity, Not Me?"

Milton.

Thus the poet very reasonably raises the question, What satisfaction, what recompense would it have been to God, to endow man with these higher attributes, and then place him in leading-strings, by which he would be compelled to serve Him; instead of leaving him free, that he might honor and glorify God, by serving Him of his own volition? "For verily I say unto you, that joy shall be in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, (or comes back to God of his own free will,) more than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance."

With this brief argument in support of the doctrine of man's free moral agency and consequent fall, we will now proceed to consider the reasonable requirements and the efficacy of the Gospel plan of redemption:

The Scriptures inform us that as men multiplied on the face of the earth, through an evil influence they became disobedient to the extent that God repented of ever having created man, and that he determined to cut off the whole human race; but finding one righteous family, he mercifully spared them