look upward or downward, to turn to God or from God. Turning from God to self, and resting in and depending upon self, at length begat self-dependence, self-love, sin. Thus the possession of reason and mental liberty necessarily implied the possibility of sin or evil. God permitted this possibility to go into actuality, — or in other words, permitted evil, because, as just shown, it could not be prevented without destroying reason and liberty, thus destroying the essential human constitution — humanity itself. And He saw it to be better that there should be some bad humanity, than no humanity at all. He saw it to be better that there should be some evil in the world, than no good; some suffering, than no happiness; better, even, that there should be a hell, than no heaven. For what, after all, is that which is called hell, in its essence? It is simply a perverted mental state, into which the evil have themselves brought themselves. Abusing that mental liberty which is given to every man, they have chosen a perverse course, and adhered to it till it has at length become fixed with them: in the solemn words of Scripture, they have “chosen death rather than life."[1] But shall the millions, and millions, and millions more, of the good, who have lived, and have yet to live in the lapse of coming ages, be deprived of that joyous inheritance which the good Creator has provided for all who will accept of it — simply because some do not choose to have it? Surely, not. The whole scheme of existence, in a word, is this: God, in His infinite love, creates myriads and millions of beings, to the end that He may bless them and make them
- ↑ Jeremiah viii. 3.
