of our great High Priest and Saviour; and so marked are the special differences, notwithstanding the general resemblance, between the priesthood of Aaron and that of Jesus.

And to the glorious result set forth in this Epistle, all Scripture points. The prophet declares it in the very passage which represents him as bearing our iniquities; for, says the man of God, "he shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand."

And what is this pleasure of the Lord which shall prosper in his hand? Answer: "It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself." Col. i.

Thus the pleasure and the purpose of the Lord, the sacrifice and atonement, the travail, desire and satisfaction of Christ, and the deliverance of all souls from sin, unite on one point; and shed the splendors of the celestial world on the love of God to man, as displayed in the perfected plan of universal holiness and happiness.

Having thus, by aid of the Scriptures, obtained a correct understanding of the character and office of Christ, the meaning and purpose of his death and atonement, and his relation to Man as a Saviour; the next step in our inquiry is to ascertain the nature and moral status of man, the being who is to be saved, and to discover the causes of his sinful condition, and the reasons for his need of a Saviour.

This becomes necessary in order to understand the exact moral relation existing between God as Creator and Man as the creature; as well as for the purpose of exhibiting the true relation of Christ as the Redeemer, to Man as the redeemed. We wish to know the organic condition of man, his spiritual structure, at the time he comes from the forming hand of his Maker; and to ascertain through what agency he has fallen from innocence into a condition requiring the help of a Saviour; and what this condition is into which he has fallen, its effect upon his nature or character. All this we must know that we may be able to form a clear idea of what it is the Saviour does for man, what the nature of the salvation he works out for him, and the precise, character of the evil or evils from which he saves him.

And thus we shall discover how the creative work of God, in its moral aspects, connects, through Christ the Saviour, with the moral nature of man, and his present sinful condition; and how these, in turn, connect with the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, and the great Redemption of the Gospel.

CHAPTER III.

MAN-THE RECTITUDE OF HIS NATURE-ORIGINAL SIN-NATURAI

DEPRAVITY.

SECTION I,

THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE AND THE EARLY CHURCH RESPECT ING MAN'S MORAL ABILITY.

It cannot but be evident to every careful reader, that the Old and New Testaments are based, from first to last, on the ability of man to obey the law of God, on the presumption that he has the power to be good in word, thought, and deed. All the exhortations and warnings, all the counsels, commands, and encouragements, all the rewards and punishments of the old dispensation and of the new, of the Law and the Gospel, proceed upon the ground that mankind are equally capable of good and evil, of holiness and wickedness. There is no meaning in these things, but

upon this supposition. If it be not so, the whole Bible is an enigma, without moral force or authority; for where there is no power to obey, there is no authority in the law. If the moral precepts of Christunity were addressed to the beasts of the field, or the fowls of the air, they would have no moral weight, nor would these creatures be under any obligations to obey. Where there is no moral sense,

there can be no moral obligation. If, therefore, the commandments and precepts, if the promises and threatenings, of the Bible have any authority, force or meaning to them, and we are under the slightest ob-. ligation to obey, we are so far capable of obeying. Our moral responsibility goes precisely to the extent of our moral ability.

But suppose, as is so largely believed and taught in Christian churches, that we are born into the world depraved, with a corrupt and perverted nature inherited from Adam; that we are created by God "utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil." Suppose this were so, why does God require us to be good, and do good? Does he expect a corrupt tree to bring forth good fruit? Does he insist on gathering grapes of thorns, and figs of thistles?

And why has he given us the Bible? Why has he given us a moral law? What reason or justice is there in such commands as these-" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the heart, and soul, and strength, and thy neighbor as thyself; If thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink; Recompense no man evil for evil, but overcome evil with good; Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, be put away from you, with all malice; Abstain from all fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, for as he that hath called you is holy, so be ye holy, perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect; Abstain from all appearance of evil."

Is it possible for any intelligent Christian, in the face of these and a thousand other like exhortations

and commands, to believe that mankind are by nature totally depraved, and wholly incapable of good in deed, or thought, or feeling? Is it likely that the •God who commands these virtues, has made it impossible for us, of ourselves, ever to attain to them? That he has suffered us to come into the world inheriting from Adam a nature "prone to all evil, full of all wickedness," and then bidden us, under the threat of endless torment, to be holy as he is holy, perfect as he is perfect? Is it possible for any sincere and pious believer in the Christian Scriptures, so shockingly to defame the justice and goodness of our Father in Heaven? Is it not much more reasonable to suppose, since he has exhorted and commanded us to be good, that we can be good of ourselves; and that if we are evil, it is because we choose it, and not because we have "wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good?"

Take this example: "What doth the Lord require of thee, O man, but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God." On reading this, is it not the first thought and conviction with every man, that he can do it? that, if he will make the effort, he has the moral ability to obey this requirement? And does not every one who reads this, instinctively feel that the very fact that God has given us this commandment, is proof conclusive that we have the power to conform to it? Truly, as we have said, the whole Bible is a complete riddle, an insolvable problem, if the doctrines of original sin, and hereditary total depravity, be true.

The plain doctrine of the Scriptures, direct and inferential, is that of the entire rectitude of human