man's highest happiness to depend upon the mind, and not upon physical circumstances. There are thousands of indications that God never made man to be a creature of passive enjoyment, but a creature of virtuous activity. It was not so much the will of God, that man should be right in sentiment, and easy in circumstances, from the commencement of his natural life, as that he should ever be exerting himself, in struggling to become right, until he can find enjoyment in this very strife. Accordingly, God has not made human history to be one stream of uninterrupted progress. The children cannot begin just where the parents have left off. The old house has fallen down, and so has the stone wall, and the garden is all grown over with weeds; the old garment is worn out, the implements of husbandry are broken, the well is caved in, and government itself requires constant renewing. In almost all respects, the child has to begin with the alphabet. From the very commencement of his being, he is made to feel that he is in a world of opposition. The fond mother gradually withdraws her encircling arms, and leaves him to the mercy of his own trembling limbs, while his standing is quite doubtful; nay, when his falling once, twice, and thrice is quite certain. Well; let him fall, let him burn his fingers, till he learns better. God has made THIS BEING to take care of himselfto struggle for his own preservation and exaltation. He is not like the lamb born with a garment, not with instinct like the spider, the bee, and the beaver, to build himself a house. He is a creature of reason, and is to know no more than what he learns, and is to have no more than he works. for.

O! how easily God might have placed us in comfortable

But mere

Ah!

circumstances, from the commencement of our existence! Indeed he might! And if passive enjoyment had been the grand end of our being, he would have done so. enjoyment is not the end of our being; it is DUTY. duty is often hard, and its rugged pathway often lies through tangling thorns and briers, and is an exceedingly self-denying, cross-bearing way. O! how much there is, that is inhospitable, all around us, and scattered all over this universe, and from time to time we must encounter the worst. Still ours need not be a life of misery. God has constituted us in such a manner, that we may find our highest happiness in doing our duty, however toilsome. Does not he who has by long habit, become passionately fond of a certain kind of labor, feel happier in it, than he could feel in passive enjoyment? Now, he who has learned the great lesson of finding his highest happiness in duty, has made the improvement which the training of his whole life, was intended to teach, he fulfils the design of his being, and he can be happy irrespective of outward circumstances. God knew that there were outward circumstances enough, to make a hell of any place, especially in this world, and hence it was his design to educate his child, man, in such a manner that he could find a hell no where. No; were it possible for one, who makes it his meat and drink to do the will of God, to descend to the lowest regions of the world of darkness, it would be a heaven to him, since he would carry his heaven in his own bosom. Must not he, who has made this arrangement, be himself good?

6. God is good to all, in that his ultimate design is good. This doctrine is most clearly taught by the human

mind. The surgeon, who amputates a limb, is good to his patient, because he has his ultimate and highest good in view; whereas, the savage Khund, while feeding his victim with the richest dainties, that he may appear better on the day of slaughter, is not good to him, his ultimate design being evil. Now, in order for God to be good to man, it is not only necessary that he should yield to him present enjoyments, for this may be no evidence of goodness at all, but he must do all that can consistently be done, to secure man's highest good, throughout his endless existence.

Some, we are aware, maintain that God exhausts his goodness upon the non-elect, in temporal blessings, while they have no means of escape from wrath, through Jesus Christ, God never having intended to bless them with eternal salvation. It is in vain to deny that this doctrine has been taught, by eminent men, in various ages of the Church, and is believed by a few in this day.

But how can we say God is good to a being whom he himself, has made immortal, if his goodness consists in nothing more than sensual enjoyment, and all is to cease with his mortal existence? Could an existence under such circumstances, be regarded as a blessing? Would one have the slightest reason to thank his Maker for goodness, the highest design of which, was to fatten him for the day of slaughter? Is this the object of infinite goodness, to please the eye with ten thousand beautiful prospects, the ear with harmonious sounds, the palate with the sweetest morsels earth affords—to cause the cup of bliss to run over here, in order, that he who partakes of it, may fill up his measure of wrath, and be fitter food for the jaws of hell? Believe such a doctrine ye who can. Many do, undoubtedly, work

themselves into its belief. They may, after a long conflict, and after wandering through numerous mazes, reason themselves into the belief, that this is the most reasonable and scriptural view on this subject; but the SOUL will not be satisfied. It will often utter its living oracles from its most sacred depths, in language louder and more distinct than the voice of our theology. Refuse to hear the soul, who can? You may contradict it, and argue it down, and so you may deny your sense of sight, but all must occasionally hear it. No; the voice of my soul declares that if God is at all good to me, he is good to me as an immortal being. His is a goodness that runs parallel with my nature. It is a goodness that endureth forever. I can rely upon the testimony borne by my own soul in a matter like this, more implicitly, than I could upon a declaration uttered from the clouds of heaven.

7. Finally, it affords a very striking proof of the universal and infinite goodness of God, that as we continue to examine the subject, objections vanish, and the more satisfied we become of the truthfulness of the doctrine. We do not say that no objections can be raised to the fact of God's universal goodness. There is much, both in the natural and in the moral world, that appears inharmonious, from which the heathen have usually inferred, that this world was under the care of divinities of both good and malevolent dispositions. We may, in fact, oft times find ourselves utterly unable to reconcile much that we see in the management of this world with the idea of an infinitely good Ruler. To do this would imply a consciousness equal to that of God himself. In glancing at a vast piece of in

tricate machinery, it is no strange thing, that we should not see the harmony of all its parts; but then the consideration, that just so far as we have learned to understand it, there is harmony, and what appears to conflict with the great whole, is but a small part, should satisfy us that the machine is really a good contrivance, and that all we need is more knowledge to enable us to reconcile all apparent difficulties.

Now, in this great machinery of the universe, much that is discordant, is to be referred to man's own will, which man might have prevented; much natural evil is designed as a prompter, as the pain given by fire to warn of danger; much is to call forth the energies of our nature, to activity and enterprise, as excessive heat and cold, and sterility of soil; much is for our reformation, like the numerous forms of chastisement that succeed disobedience, much is for the good of others, like the suffering of the parent for the child, or the patriot for his country; and much may be beyond our comprehension, like the sufferings of innocent infants. We do, however, feel assured by the intimations of our own spirit, that this arrangement which admits suffering into the universe is, all things considered, the very best that could be made.

Let us now attend to the followings remarks:

1. The Bible completely confirms the teachings of the human mind, on the subject of Divine goodness. With all the materials in our possession, for forming a judgment on this subject, the mind's best conclusion, in its most lucid moments, is, that the great Creator is good, and the Bible confirms that conclusion.

2. The Bible does not teach God's goodness by mere