the Lord God WILL CAUSE righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."-Isa. lxi. 10, 11. The comparison here is equally intelligible and positive. As surely as the earth puts forth its bud, and the garden causes the seed sown in it to spring up, so surely will the truth and grace of God put forth their bud also, and in due time cause righteousness to spring up in the hearts of all the nations of the earth. The productive relations of seed and soil are not more fixed in the order of nature, than the results of the regenerating power of divine truth in the soul of man.

And how can it be otherwise? Look at it. If the atmosphere, the sunshine, the rain, electricity, fire, the ocean, the tree, the grain of wheat, every element of nature, answers the purpose in the material world for which it was created; why should the Holy Spirit, why should the Infinite Love of God, be eternally defeated of their ends in the spiritual world?

But this thought is repeated in other words, and the point of the comparison made more significant, if possible. "For As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."-Isa. lv. 10,

11.

Can anything be more direct and conclusive than this proclamation of the efficiency of the divine will

and spirit in the salvation of mankind? Was it ever known that the rain came down from heaven and went back again without watering the earth? Was it ever known that God failed to restore the earth in spring time, and make it bud and bring forth? Never! Just as surely, then, as the rain does not return to the heavens without doing the work for which it was sent, so surely the word of God shall not return to him void. As certainly as the forces of nature in spring renew and freshen the earth into life and beauty, and abundance, so certainly shall his truth, the gospel of his grace, renovate and restore the moral world to its primeval beauty and purity. And this is the argument and witness of God himself, to show that, having infinite spiritual power, he will use it for the salvation of mankind, as efficiently as he uses his infinite physical power in the creation and renewal of the earth.

But there are other texts going directly, without comparison, to the same result. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord-for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."-Heb. viii. 10-12. Observe, here, not only the universality of the phraseology, but the absoluteness of it. God says, I will put my law in their hearts-they shall be my people, and they shall

know, and their sins and iniquities shall be put away. He not only has the moral power to change and save them, but he declares he will employ it to this end.

"There is no God beside me; a just God and a Saviour. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear, surely shall say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength-to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed."-Isa. xlv. 21-25. Here we have the same direct and unqualified language from the Lord himself, affirming the truth, that the infinite energies of his spirit will be used in renewing the soul of man unto righteousness. There are no conditions nor contingencies here" BE ye saved"-" every knee -"every shall bow"-absolute and certain, wrought out by the will of God, whose omnipotence cannot fail of its end.

§ II. The Freedom of the human will, or “Free Agency."-It may be said in reply to the preceding reasoning, that this is simply compelling men to be saved, without regard to their voluntary action. We answer, No; for all this is done in harmony with spiritual laws and man's freedom. There is no compulsion, no force. The comparison of the garden and the rain is still in place. The earth is not com pelled mechanically to bud and bring forth, and there is no violation of atmospheric laws when the rain falls. The seed do not lose their freedom or indi

viduality as seed, because the air, and rain, and sunshine, operating through the soil, develope the germ within, and push it out into leaf, and bud, and blossom, and fruit. So with the soul of man; there is no violation of law, no loss of freedom, no conflict of forces, when the Spirit of God, acting with the truth, sends in the light upon the darkened mind, quickens the affections, and lifts the whole being into the eternal life of faith and love. Paul was as free when he preached the Gospel, as when he persecuted the disciples; and he followed the impulses of his heart as truly, when he asked, submissively, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" as when he left the Damascus gate, "breathing out threatenings and slaughter! The only difference was that, in the meantime, God had changed his heart; or, in other words, the truth and light of heaven had streamed in upon his soul, and he willingly and rejoicingly followed their lead. And this is the case with every converted soul. As Dr. Woods, of Andover Seminary, says: "The true convert wills or chooses as really as before. The difference is, he now chooses right. He now has a will truly free. Before his will was free from compulsion-free in every sense necessary to his being a moral, accountable agent. But after all he was a slave to sin, and under the bondage of corruption. Now he is free, and his will is free in the best sense, free from the slavery of depraved passions and desires. The work of God in conversion emancipates the sinner from this degrading bondage, and brings him into subjection to the will of God. This is true liberty, "The glorious liberty of the sons of God." 1

1 WOODS' Works. vol. v., p. 549. See also his "Letters to Unitarians," Letter X., and "Reply to Ware," Works, vol. iv. 81-90, 250.

And the philosophy of this method of conversion and salvation which Paul had experimentally known in his own soul, he afterwards asserted and illustrated in his letter to the Hebrew believers: "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." Chap. xiii.

In our anxiety to assert the freedom of man's will, we must not forget that God is free as well as man ; free to choose, free to work. It is said that, if God influences man so as to make the result certain, then he is not free, he cannot do as he pleases. But if man can so abuse his freedom as to defeat the purpose of God, then God is not free; he cannot do as he pleases!

Suppose Paul had possessed a "free agency" which would not yield to the enlightening influences of the Holy Spirit- suppose in the exercise of his freedom, he had chosen to remain Saul, the persecutor, instead of becoming Paul, the apostle, according to the purpose of God; whose freedom would have been greatest in this case? whose will the strongest? whose plans overturned? But is not the principle involved in this case the same operating in the case of every soul finally wrecked and ruined? If God created man for endless happiness and glory, and man abuses his agency to his endless destruction --if God is not free to bring him to heaven, and man is free to go to hell; whose freedom is mightiest in