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dispenser. And this brings us to the nature of the distinction of the different principles in the Deity, the mode of whose action we have now considered. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." Divine Life and Light are Divine love and wisdom. God is spoken of in Scripture as a sun, and as such we must regard Him as dispensing heat and light to His dependent creatures. The sun of the world is His most perfect image in inanimate nature. In the sun there are the two distinct principles of causticity and lucidity. In the sun there is fire, and there is light in its origins, and proceeding from the sun there are light and heat combined.

It may seem as if this doctrine of degrees in the Divine nature had no reference to the subject of education. It has, however, a direct and most intimate relation to it. Man was created in the image and likeness of God. The creation of man was the envelopment of the Divine image; the regeneration of man is the development of the Divine image. And as regeneration is the end of education, we must know what regeneration is to know what education is, and to be able to conduct it rightly, so as to make it promotive of its true object. As creation is an outbirth from God, and must bear a certain relation and resemblance to Him, we have now to see what these are and where they are to be found.

It is an ancient doctrine, and one founded on a profound philosophic view of the subject, that all the objects of creation are images of ideas existing in the Divine mind. And if the worlds came, so to speak, out of the depths of infinite love, and were "framed" by infinite wisdom, creation must present the Divine love and wisdom in a certain image. Creation is the finite of which God is as the infinite. Finite is nothing unless it be the image of the infinite. While there is this similarity there is this infinite difference between God and His creation God is life, and light, and activity; creation is but a receptacle of these, not a receptacle that can be filled, and kept in possession of its fulness, but a receptacle into which life flows as a perpetual stream, as a spring from its fountain, separate from which it has no more life than has nature separate from the sun. God could not and cannot create life, that is, He cannot create love and wisdom and their activity; He could and can only create forms and organisms, into which life may flow, and in and through which it may act. Organisms must be adapted to their indwelling, or rather inflowing, life. But creation would not be a receptacle of life, or of love and wisdom, unless it had been created from and in the form of love and wisdom.

The created universe, as consisting of heaven and earth,-the heaven where angels dwell, and the earth where men reside, the whole spiritual and natural world, is, as far as the thing formed can be to Him who formed it, a type and emblem of its infinite Creator. Heaven is God's throne, the earth is His footstool, made and fashioned so that His love and wisdom may rest upon them and rule in the midst of them, not only by a controlling but by a plastic power.

Heaven is thus not only the throne, but the temple of God,-the place where His honour dwelleth. And that earthly tabernacle and temple, which were made after the pattern of things in the heavens, (Acts vii. 44; Heb. viii. 5.) may teach us something of the structure of its anti-type. Heaven, like the tabernacle, as its ceremonial type, consists of three different parts, compartments, communicating with, but distinguished from, each other, the holy of holies, the holy place, and the court. These are the outbirths, the correspondences, and the habitations of the Lord's love, His wisdom, and His power. They were also formed for the reception and habitation of three distinct classes of glorified spirits: the spirits of the just made perfect. The inmost or highest heaven, an anti-type of the holiest place, was formed to be the dwelling place of those who live and act from love, the Divine love being throned on the inmost affections of their purified and yielding hearts. The second heaven, the anti-type of the holy place, was formed to be the dwelling-place of those who live and act from wisdom, the Divine wisdom being throned on the inmost perceptions of their understanding. And the last, or ultimate heaven, the anti-type of the out-lying court, was formed to be the dwelling-place of those who live and act from duty, the Divine command being enthroned on their submissive dispositions and rigid habits of external order. The natural world, which is a material copy of the spiritual world, exhibits analogous distinctions in the three kingdoms of nature.

We have pointed out these distinct degrees in the Divine Being, and in heaven and earth as the created habitation of His presence, for the purpose of showing the distinct degrees in the nature and mind of man, as the image of his Maker, and as a heaven and earth in miniature. Man has three distinct faculties, which comprise his whole mental nature the faculties of willing, of understanding, and of acting. will is analogous to the Divine love, which indeed is the Divine will; his understanding is analogous to the Divine wisdom, which is the Divine understanding; and his action is analogous to the Divine power, which is the Divine action.

His

But these human faculties are not merely the analogies, but are designed to be the receptacles of the Divine principles, or of those principles from the Divine. The human will was created to be a receptacle of God's love, the understanding to be a receptacle of His wisdom, and his action to be a receptacle of His power. Of all these the human faculties can only receive a finite measure, but a measure that can grow, increasing to infinity. By virtue of simply possessing these faculties, man is a created image of God, a miniature light of heaven; but when these faculties are developed and perfected by the actual reception in them of love, wisdom, and power from God, he becomes a regenerated image, and a little heaven. And here we may

remark that when we speak of development in regard to man, we do not mean the simple unfolding of what lay concealed-progress from a rudimentary to a mature state; our idea of development includes the addition of whatever is necessary to make a regenerated of a created human being. But indeed all development involves the accession of new materials. The difference between human development and any other development in nature is this, that human development, in man's fallen state, is not now spontaneous, but has to be effected by a special process and by special means, the knowledge and use of which belong to, and may be said to constitute, education—always understanding by this, education for heaven as well as for the world.

(To be continued.)

THE LAWS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN RELATION TO CRIME.*

A Sermon, by Mr. E. G. DAY, minister of the Adelaide New Church Society. "For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrows upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart." (Psalm xi. 2.)

IN willingly responding to the invitation of the Government to observe this day as one of special Thanksgiving, it has occurred to me that a

This discourse has been sent for publication in the Repository by request of the congregation before whom it was preached. Delivered at the time and place of the crime which occasioned it-the attempted assasination of an estimable son of our loved and honoured Queen,-it has been written under strong emotion, which is naturally and properly expressed in strong language. What, however, was quite suitable, and in unison with the state of public feeling, when and where it was preached, would be rather out of place here, and at this date. We have, therefore, felt constrained to leave out some portion of its temporary matter, but leaving enough to convey a sufficient idea of the loyalty of our esteemed Australian brethren, and their zeal for the laws of God and man.

few words upon the Divine Providence, in relation to crime and its victims, spoken in the light of the New Jerusalem, might usefully supplement our special prayers. I have, accordingly, selected a text in which the act of assasination is plainly referred to as specially the act of the wicked; and the subsequent portion of the Psalm speaks of the inevitable consequence of crime to the criminal.

The Old Testament history furnishes several instances of direct assasination: some as the result of private and personal revenge, and some from what might leniently be called a mistaken patriotism. The ancient history of Greece and Rome, and the modern history of two great countries of Europe, furnish examples of both kinds of assasination. It is not our province, however, to particularise individual cases, but rather to consider the law of the Divine government in relation to crime and its punishment. Without any clear ideas of the Divine Providence, the Christian Church has for a long period only regarded deliverances from natural dangers and death as providential, whereas, our Lord teaches that all things are under the rule of the Divine Providence; that the Divine Providence is at once universal, and most particular; but it is not special. In the obscurity of our natural state we may pray for special mercies, and give thanks for special deliverances, but, God is no respector of persons,—makes no special interference on behalf of prince or peasant. And yet, notwithstanding this, it is our duty and our privilege to make our wants known, by prayer and supplication, and to give Him, for His mercies to us and to all men, most humble and hearty thanks; and this, because the supplications prepare us for reception of God's truth, and the thanksgiving for His goodness.

The Divine Providence is the government of the Divine love and wisdom; it is universally exercised according to fixed laws, and extends to the minutest things of every one's life, the evil as well as the good. The laws, however, are of a two-fold order, because applied to human beings endowed with liberty and rationality, and consequently, in all his dealings with man, the Lord has respect to the freedom he has bestowed upon him. Hence come the laws of appointment and permission by which Providence continually operates. All good is provided-all evil permitted; and the evil permitted is over-ruled for the greatest good to every one, the wicked as well as the righteous. The good, which the Divine Providence is continually compassing, is, however, an eternal good, and therefore it must be believed that eternal ends are what are primarily sought by all the appointments and permissions of the Divine Providence. So far as these can be secured,

man's well-being in this life is at the same time provided for. But as the Lord is continually seeking to lead man in freedom, and to join his temporal things with the eternal things of the heavenly kingdom, He makes no account of things transitory except in relation to things. eternal. While, therefore, man acts from liberty according to his own ideas of reason, he brings into existence certain circumstances and conditions which are in agreement with, or in opposition to, the Divine love and wisdom. Those which disagree are evil, and are as much as possible over-ruled for, and bended towards, good, so far as man is But evil can neither be prevented nor removed

willing to concur.

unless it appear.

In cases of crime against the person, where comparatively innocent men, women, and children are made to suffer wounds and death, we are apt, in the darkness of our natural state, to think that if the Divine Providence were constantly operative, such deeds of violence could and would be prevented by God, and that if He does not appoint these things, He permits them as one who could but will not prevent them. Be it known, however, that God permits evil as one who cannot hinder. In saying this let it not be thought that we are limiting the Almighty. The Apostle says it is impossible for God to lie; the impossibility resulting from the fact that God is truth itself, and cannot do that which is contrary to His own nature. So in the per

mission of evil; if otherwise than because unable to hinder it, the permission would be contrary to the essential nature of Infinite goodness. "God is love;" He willeth not the death of a sinner; all events are over-ruled to promote, as far as possible, the salvation of all, the murderer not less than his victim. And although the wicked who shoot at the upright cannot be delivered from the consequences of their crime, they do not, as some have supposed, excite any anger or wrath in God. It is said, indeed, in the Psalm before us— "The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth; upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone and a horrible tempest shall be the portion of their cup." But all the statements in the Word which imply the existence of emotions opposite to love in the Divine mind, must be expressed in the language of apparent truth. His own language by the mouth of His holy prophet is—“I am Jehovah, I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." The unchangeableness of God is the guarantee of man's preservation, and the asserted unchangeable character of Jehovah before the incarnation is re-affirmed when, in the person of Jesus Christ, He

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