possesses infinite perfections, can no more sin, can no more create what might prove evil in its ultimate result, than the heat of the noon-day sun can turn the waters of yonder lake into ice! The Apostle Paul, in Hebrews, declares that it is impossible for God to lie. But this does not destroy the infinity of his attributes, nor of any one of them, whatever contradiction there may appear to be in the use of terms. But instead, this very impossibility proves his infinity. A finite being may be good or bad, judged by his acts as they appear to us. He may be upright to-day, and to-morrow he may sin, from the fact that he is finite. But God is the same forever,--being infinitely wise he cannot err,— being infinitely good he cannot do wrongbeing infinitely holy he cannot commit sin -were he to do either it would disprove his infinity. He can do nothing contrary to his nature. Whatever he does must be right.

In the boundless realm of creation there is nothing to obstruct the operation of his goodness, it operates infinitely, but whatever it produces, whatever it brings to pass, must partake of the nature of its Cause and harmonize with it. Infinite goodness cannot produce infinite evil,

God's goodness is infinite; therefore there can be no absolute or infinite evil.

If God is infinitely good, it is absurd to say that he has created a single spirit, and spirit is the only immortal creation that we know of in the universe, to be evil, and to do evil to all eternity. What, infinite goodness create infinite evil! As christians we believe that there is an endless heaven of peace, purity and harmony bending above our prayers and our hopes; a heaven worthy of a being of infinite perfections, as christians, a large portion of us believe also in an endless hell of sin, misery and corruption unworthy even of a devil. If there is, as according to the popular theology, a local heaven, it must have been created, if there is a local hell, it must have been created-but not by the same original Power. God, with his glorious attributes, could no more have created the infernal hell that burns and swelters through the popular theology, than Satan, I speak as if it were possible for such a monster to exist, could have created the beautiful and serene heaven that glows through the same. If such a heaven is created, it must have been created by a being of infinite perfections and power; and hell by a being equally powerful and as vicious as the

former is good. Therefore, as they could not have been created by the same Power, it follows that there are two infinite, antagonistic powers acting behind all that is created. But such cannot possibly be the case. There can exist but one infinite power. Two powers of equal magnitude and force could neither of them be infinite because the one could not overcome the other, and therefore each would be limited. Nor can an infinite being carry forward two infinite plans, nor can two such plans possibly exist. An infinite plan, because infinite, and consequently boundless, embraces necessarily all things else. Therefore, if there is an infinite God there can be no other infinite being or power-if he has laid an infinite plan, he can have laid but one such plan; and if he is infinitely wise, good and just, it follows that that one plan must be perfect in all its parts, and if so, that it must result in harmony, order and the best possible good.

The plan of an infinite being must tend, according to the attributes of that being, toward an accomplishment of infinite good, an infinite heaven, or an accomplishment of infinite evil, an infinite hell, as unerringly as the needle tends toward its attracting magnet.

If there were such a being as the Satan that

is represented in the popular theology, and were his diabolical passions and power infinite, and were he the framer of the one infinite plan, could we look forward to the accomplishment of that plan as to the accomplishment and triumph, forever and forever, of the good, the pure and the beautiful? or as the triumph of good in one sphere and of evil in another? Rather would we not look upon it as the accomplishment and the triumph of all evil without one relieving ray of good, from the fact that there could not exist in the framer and executor of the plan one principle to engender such a ray?

As God is the very opposite of the being thus represented, must we not look forward to the accomplishment of his divine plan as to the accomplishment of all good without a stain of evil, from the fact that there does not exist in that great and glorious being one principle to produce such a stain?

An infinite being must be infinitely good or infinitely bad. If he is infinitely good, wise and powerful, it follows that nothing whatever could exist, however things may appear to us in our ignorance and shortsightedness, unless favorable in its tendency and its ultimate bearing to the first of the foregoing, goodness. If

God has created a single soul that shall sin forever, and if he knew before that soul was created what would be its destiny, our belief in his infinite goodness and wisdom falls to the ground. The very act of creating that soul was a sin vastly greater than any sin which that soul will ever commit-a sin equal in itself to all the sins which that soul will ever commit united.

If God is perfectly good and wise, it follows as a natural and unavoidable consequence that all the evils of life must be designed to effect a benevolent purpose, and that ultimately they will work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. As finite beings, we are incapable of judging how the world ought to be governed; and it is not for us, feeble and blind as we are, to reconcile all the seeming inequalities of the divine government. As well might the puny babe, drawing its food from its mother's breast, grasp and understand all the complex machinery of human government. We are, the wisest and best of us, but infants pleased with our coral and rattle in this great nursery of God's universe. We shall be wiser by and by when freed from these swaddling bands of flesh. It is enough for us to obey our Father and not murmur; to trust in him and be hope