We have said that most men, who are not atheists, profess to believe in the justice of God. But it may be feared that many, who have no doubts on that point, have not duly considered the importance of this attribute, in its bearing on the Divine character and government. To this part of the subject, therefore, we will now direct attention.

And our first remark is, that the perfect justice of God is an admirable and glorious trait of His character. This attribute consists in the disposition to do right-universally, immutably and forever right. It prompts the Divine Being to maintain inviolate His own dignity, and honor, and rights, as a moral governor; in other words, to be just to Himself. It prompts Him to maintain, to the last iota, the claims of His holy law, and to administer His government with unflinching, unfaltering rectitude. It prompts Him to extend the wing of His omnipotent protectio over every loyal, obedient subject, and to reward him to the full measure of what he deserves. It further prompts him, as of necessity it must, to punish the incorrigibly disobedient; not harshly, not cruelly, but in measure and manner according to their works. And now what is there in all this which is not honorable, glorious to the Supreme Being,-which does not render Him the more worthy to be feared, adored, and loved?

Many persons are displeased with the justice of God. They cannot think of it without shrinking, and almost shuddering. But why shudder in the presence of a Being who will do exactly and forever right? The thought of God's justice does not make the holy angels shudder; and why should it have such an effect upon us? It is conscious guilt which makes us tremble. This alone could make us shrink away, in shame and terror, before a Being who is so gloriously just.

The justice of God is not only a glorious attribute in itself, it is indispensable in order to the perfect symmetry and proportion of the Divine character. There is much in the character of God that is mild, gentle, forbearing, compassionate, disposing its benignant possessor to forgive iniquity, transgression and sin. Now, suppose the character of the Supreme Being to be made up entirely of these milder traits, so that He could not resent an injury, or punish an offence. Suppose He were all mercy, in such sense as to be entirely divested of the attribute of justice. Would such a character be a perfect one? Would such a being be qualified to stand at the helm of universal dominion, and govern the worlds which God has made? Such a being would possess some amiable, excellent traits of character; such as actually belong to God; but they would need to be balanced, set off, by others. There would be needed the great make-weight of justice, to come in on the other side. A character such as we have supposed, unless balanced, regulated, perfected by justice,

would be altogether a one-sided character. It would lack symmetry, proportion, perfection. It would be a character of weakness-childish weakness, and altogether unsuited to the Supreme Governor of the universe.

Again; the justice of God is that which gives stability to His government, and entitles it to the confidence of the intelligent creation. "Justice and judgment are the habitation"—or as it might be rendered, the establishment-" of his throne." They go to settle and confirm it, and render it immovable and glorious. The creatures of God hnow now on what to depend. Whether loyal or disloyal, obedient or disobedient, they know on what they are to depend. They know there is an inflexible rule of right, that God understands it, and that he is immutably determined to conform His administration to it. Were God other than perfectly and unchangeably just, were He liable to be moved by partiality, or swayed by passion or caprice; His intelligent creatures would no longer know on what to depend. The wicked might be rewarded, and the righteous punished. The inhabitants of heaven might be cast down from their high estate, and the inhabitants of hell might be exalted. And all this, without any regard to justice or right, from the mere prejudice and caprice of the Sovereign. It is perfectly evident, on a moment's reflection, that it is the strict justice of God which gives to His government its stability and consistency. It is this glorious attribute of justice, which removes the apprehensions and inspires the confidence of all the dutiful part of His creation. It is the justice of God which makes it certain that the obedient will be forever cared for, protected, and rewarded. It is the justice of God which makes it as certain that the incorrigibly rebellious will be forever punished.

Says the writer of the Apocalypse, on one occasion: "I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments; for he hath judged the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication. And again they said, Alleluia; and her smoke rose up forever and ever." It is here represented that the final enemies of God's church, symbolized by the great whore, are to be punished forever and ever; not because God is partial, or passionate, or capricious, or revengeful, or cruel, or unjust, but because "true and righteous are his judgments;"-in other words, because, He is inflexibly and eternally just, and this justice is glorious in the view of heavenly beings. "Again they said, Alleluia; and her smoke rose up forever and ever.

It is of vast importance to understand and maintain the justice of God, because on this rests the entire scheme of Redemption by the blood of Christ. Why must the Lord Jesus Christ appear in

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our world, and pour out His blood upon the cross? It was to satisfy the violated justice of God, and thus open a way for the exercise of mercy. If God had not been just, inflexibly just; if He had not had a strict regard for His own authority and rights as a Sovereign, and for the honor and authority of His law; He had been capable of disregarding the claims of justice, and thus putting at hazard all the interests of the universe; in this case He might have pardoned sin, with or without an atonement, with or without repentance, in any way that caprice and prejudice might have dictated. But the great God of heaven and earth is a just God. "Justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne." And His justice must be satisfied, ere His mercy can be exercised. A governmental equivalent, as before explained, must be rendered, ere the penalty of the law can be remitted. A full atonement must be made in the sufferings and blood of the Son of God, or the provisions of gospel grace and mercy can never be unfolded. It thus appears that the great plan of Redemption, with all the mighty interests involved in it, rests entirely on the justice of God. Redemption is indeed a display of mercy, but it is also, and equally, a display of justice. It is a provision of God's love which rests entirely on His justice, and which, but for His justice, need never have been made.

It follows from the principles here laid down, that those who, in their conceptions of God, divest Him in great measure of His justice, leave His character deformed and imperfect. They leave it essentially different from what it is; and thus the God in whom they believe and confide is, in reality, a false God. And is not this the mistake of many, very many, in this Christian land? They believe there is a God, and they clothe the being whom they call God, it may be, with all His natural attributes; but of an essential part of His moral attributes they, in imagination, divest Him. He is mild, gentle, forbearing, compassionate, desiring the good of all His creatures, and deeply grieved at their transgressions; but with no heart to vindicate His authority and His rights, to maintain His justice, and punish the guilty as they deserve. We have only to say, that the God of such persons is a false God. It is not the God of nature, or of Scripture. It has no existence out of their own fancies. And the service which they render it cannot be accepted by the God of heaven. Such persons may love the God of their own creation, and yet hate the true God. They may admire and adore an imaginary divinity, while all their feelings are hostile to the holy and just God of heaven and earth.

From the importance to be attached to the justice of God, it follows that a display of this attribute is essential to the Divine glory. God's essential glory consists in His being just what He S. His declarative glory consists in the manifestation, the dis

play of His glorious attributes and character. Thus "the heavens declare the glory of God," by showing forth His wisdom, His greatness, and His power. And His providential dispensations declare His glory, by manifesting His general goodness. God is glorified in the display of His mercy, His compassion, His forbearance, His grace. And God is equally glorified in the display of His glorious justice.

God's justice is manifested in the cross of Christ. It was to satisfy and glorify Divine justice, that the cross was erected. So taught the apostle Paul. "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that God might be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Rom. 3: 25, 26.

God's justice is also displayed, in the rewards of the obedient, and the punishment of the disobedient; and in the one as signally as in the other. No one doubts that God is glorified, in preparing mansions of everlasting rest for His willing, devoted, and obedient people. But is He not equally glorified, in preparing an eternal prison for the confinement and due punishment of the incorrigible disturbers of His dominions and His throne?

God's justice, let it be kept in mind, is an essential part of His moral character; so essential, that, without it, He would, in fact, be no God. And it is as necessary to the glory of His character, that His justice should be displayed in all appropriate and suitable ways, as it is that His goodness should be displayed. And His true friends love, they are pleased with, the displays of the former attribute, not less than with those of the latter.

We conclude with the inquiry, which we would press upon our readers, as well as upon our own heart: Do we love the justice of God? This question, it will be perceived, is equivalent to another: Do we love God at all? God is just-inflexibly and gloriously just; and unless we love His glorious justice, we do not love Him in His true character, as manifested in His works and in His Word.

This

As sinners against God, His justice does indeed condemn us. But if we are penitent sinners, we condemn ourselves. We accept the punishment of our iniquities. Nor do we love the Divine justice at all the less, because it condemns us. Indeed, we could not love it, and approve of it, if it did not condemn us. sense of condemnation, if it have its proper effect upon us, will lead us, not to quarrel with the Divine justice, nor to sink in despair, but to flee away to the cross of Christ; in which God's justice and mercy are alike displayed, and through which alone the sinner can be accepted.

ARTICLE III.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF MAN IN HIS SPIRITUAL RELATIONS.

By SAMUEL ADAMS, M. D., Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, Illinois College.

Und was die innere Stimme spricht,
Das tanscht die hoffende Seele nicht.

SCHILLER

The Necessity of a Miraculous Revelation.

In a previous article' we argued the probability of a miraculous revelation on the ground of a universal anticipation of the human race. We also touched upon certain rationalistic objections to miracles, based first upon the assumption of their incredibility, and secondly upon the allegation of their inutility, even though it were admitted, that they were not incredible, and though it had been proved, that they had actually been wrought.

The first form of the objection assumes the incredibility of miracles. This objection, when analyzed, amounts to this: "The mind instinctively believes in a uniform order of nature, and ever clings to that belief as true. A miracle assumes to be a deviation from the uniform order of nature, and is thus contrary to an inevitable instinctive belief of the human mind, and, therefore, utterly incredible."

Now we are ready to admit, that the mind spontaneously believes in a uniform order of nature, and that nature conforms to that belief. Nay more, we contend that this belief and the conformity of nature to it, are essential to the possible conception and very existence of a miracle. For if the mind did not believe in an established order of nature, how could it recognize a deviation from that order? And if there be absolutely no order of nature, how can there be a deviation from it?

Admitting, however, all that the objector alleges with regard to the order of nature, and the corresponding belief of the human mind, we affirm that it is also true, that the mind just as spontaneously believes that under certain circumstances there will be deviation from the established order of nature. proof that such a belief exists, we need do little more than refer to the railings of infidelity against the alleged credulity and su

'Bib. Repos. Oct. 1844., p. 353.

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