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influence to their amelioration and removal, so that sin and sorrow nowhere appear but a desire to apply the remedy is immediately awakened.

In this survey we have seen new forms of moral evil arise, contrary to the relations in which man stands to his fellow-man, and subversive of his welfare; but on their appearance the life itself is found sufficient to meet them, and in their suppression to present a pattern of excellence which for all time enlarges its scope. Thus, in the accredited forms of its development, this life presents every kind of human virtue, and supplies a power adequate to the removal of all existing or possible evil; while every one, in the measure in which he possesses the life, feels himself called and impelled to join in the labour for the common good. Thus, then, the communal character of the spiritual life is shown, in resemblance to the intellectual, and answering to the broader spaces and improved conditions of the lower kinds of life.

Further, as science shows that the same power and skill which were required for the beginning of the substance, the forces, and the life of the material universe, are required

for their continuance, so also we may expect the continual operation of those influences which are necessary for the beginning, in the maintenance of the spiritual life. And as the maintenance of the universe as a whole involves the exercise of maintaining skill and power with every atom of the substance, with every exercise of force, and with each individual life, so also must the same individual operation occur in the origin and maintenance of the spiritual life.

As in man we have correspondence of nature with the Creator, so that we can understand His modes of operation, discern the reason of His acts, and, so far as the limited range of our nature permits, can work on the same lines and produce the same results; and as the spiritual life is the highest side of our nature, requiring every other part as its servant, so we may expect that in this lifewhich from its nature requires direct Divine action -there will be the most full and free intercommunion between man and his Maker. And as an enlarged and more accurate knowledge of the acts of the Creator and Upholder of the universe is the only way by which the intellectual life of man can be strengthened and enlarged

so, in like manner, we can conceive of no means by which the spiritual life of man can be matured but by a fuller and more precise knowledge of the operations of the same Creator and Upholder in the spiritual sphere—that is, in the moral government of the universe, and of the individual possessors of the life in particular. But for this there must be a continual action of God, and a continuous power of perceiving that action, analogous to sensation. Such a power the Scriptures declare to be an essential element of the spiritual life, and describe it as 'the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' It is by this faith, taking hold upon 'every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God,' that man lives the spiritual life.

That man possesses such a power naturally, is evident by the practice of intuition, by which we apprehend all axiomatic truth, of which no proof is possible, but on which all exact science is based. In the sphere of the spiritual life, under the quickening power of the Holy Ghost coming to us through the second Adam, we are able to perceive the reality and value of all Divine and spiritual things, with a conviction of their certainty

which surpasses our intuition of mathematical axioms. Further explanation appears to be impossible. The appeal can only be to human experience in both cases. I cannot explain or prove that I intuitively perceive any mathematical axiom. I can only declare it, and show that the declaration is true, by using the axiom to develop my mathematical system. In like manner, I can only declare, that by the same native power under a Divine quickening I am able certainly to perceive spiritual facts, and show that the perception is real, by living a new and higher life, which is impossible but from the perceived facts. And the testimony on the side of faith is as universal and unwavering as on the side of intuition.

We conclude, therefore, that a revelation which is necessary for us must be broad enough to meet the whole race, sufficiently sensuous to be open to the apprehension of the least intellectual, and direct, individual, and thorough enough to lead to the most perfect development of our nature.

CHAPTER IV.

THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD.

HAVING learned that the revelation we require is one which must appeal to our entire nature, and which must establish a thorough intercommunion between us and God, we now proceed to the most perfect example of this intercommunion-the Incarnation of the Son

of God.

We are no more able to expound the mode of the union of the Creator and the creature, so as to form one person only, than we are able to expound the mode of the union of an immaterial essence with a material body, so as to form one undivided person, as in our own experience. But, as in our own case, from the presence of two sets of irreconcilable qualities in one person, we necessarily infer the union of a twofold essence, so also, when we find a junction of the infirmity of humanity and the sufficiency of Godhead, by the same necessity

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