place around him are different from what he thinks are wisest and best, therefore affirms absolutely that God cannot have appointed them so, and is not "working all things after the counsel of his own will.”

"One part, one little part, we dimly scan,

Through the dark medium of life's feverish dream,
Yet dare arraign the whole eternal plan,

If but that little part incongruous seem."

We have a record of excellent men, in ages long past, who, for a time, were in darkness on this subject. When Joseph was forced away from his aged and affectionate father, and sold in Egypt for a slave, and there for many years confined in a dungeon, how dark, how full of perplexity, was the whole transaction! Indeed, there is no evidence from the history that as yet it had ever entered Joseph's head, that this was God's plan for advancing the glory of his great name, and the interest of his Zion; and that one day he would see the harmony, and beauty, and grandeur of that whole dispensation, now so mysterious and dark. Joseph appears to have looked only at the agency of man in the transaction the agency of his brethren who sold him, the merchants who brought him to Egypt, the Egyptians who imprisoned him. Hear his language to the chief butler: "For I indeed was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into this dungeon. Think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house." (Gen. xl. 14, 15.) But Joseph lived to see the day when the plan of God was ripe for accom

plishment. Then his eye discerned a higher hand than that of his brethren, the Ishmaelites, and the Egyptians, in this whole matter. The wonderful ways of God thrilled his soul with admiration. He saw the church preserved, the kingdoms around kept alive, through a long and destructive famine, and the honor of the God of Israel exalted in the view of the nations. Then he saw that the whole transaction was planned and moved forward by the counsel of the Almighty. Hear his language to his brethren: "I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither; for God did send me before you to preserve life. God sent me before you, to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So, now, it was not you that sent me hither, but God; and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." (Gen. xlv. 4, 5, 7, 8, and 1. 20.) Take another instance. When "Jesus began to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed," Peter, "leaning to his own understanding," quite confident that such a dreadful event as the killing of the holy, harmless Jesus could form no part of the plan of a wise and holy God, "began to rebuke" his Master for holding and teaching such doctrine-"Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee." Jesus, with unusual severity, reproved him "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me; for

thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men," plainly teaching that his "suffering many things, and being killed," of which Peter did not approve, was the plan of God. (Matt. xvi. 21-23.) But Peter lived to see the day when light from on high shone on this wonderful transaction. He saw that the death of his Master brought life to the world, and that heaven should be peopled, and the praises of the Lord celebrated through all eternity, by multitudes which no man can number, washed from their sins in that fountain opened on Calvary. And now he glories in "Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Now he sees that what astounded him at first, as altogether incredible, is the plan of that God "who is wonderful in council, and excellent in working." Hear him, on the day of Pentecost, addressing the crucifiers of his Master: "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain." (Acts ii. 23.) And a few days after, to the same people he says, "And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled." (Acts iii. 17, 18.) And, indeed, all the disciples, though at first, perhaps, as reluctant as Peter to believe it, were now so thoroughly imbued with this doctrine, that we 'find it not only in their sermons, but in their prayers. In Acts iv. 27, 28, we find them uniting, with one heart, in this address to God: "For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever

thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done."

Now, it is not strange that, while the church is in a low condition, and the power of Satan is great among the nations, there should be many pious people, who, like Joseph in the dungeon, and like Peter in the infancy of his Christianity, are disposed to deny that many events which they witness belong to the wise and good plan of the great God. But as Joseph and Peter advanced in divine knowledge until they obtained more exalted views of the truth of God, so all true Christians shall grow in the knowledge of God until all their errors shall be cast away. The path of the just, like the shining light, shineth more and more until the perfect day. And thus, when the church attains the full maturity of her glory in the millennial day, all her children shall see eye to eye; and in the heavenly state God shall wipe all tears from the eyes of his people; for he will then show them that he has done all things well.

SAINTS TO EXCEL ANGELS IN GLORY.

THE prospects which the gospel presents to Adam's children are wonderful. God has created a great variety of intellectual beings. We read of angels, cherubim, seraphim, principalities, powers, thrones, dominions, &c., &c., all which terms, doubtless, denote other orders of intelligent beings, who have been formed by the hand of the Almighty. But among all creatures in God's wide empire, MAN, alone, finds his nature united to the Divinity.

In the person of Jesus Christ, humanity is joined to the uncreated Godhead. The second person of the Holy Trinity put on our nature when he came to earth. In our nature he lived. In our nature he received the stroke of death. In our nature .he arose from the grave and ascended to heaven. In our nature he now reigns above. And through the long periods of immortality, he will be clothed in the mantle of humanity. This single fact promises, to the redeemed from among men, an elevation in the kingdom of their Father, to which, while on earth, our boldest conceptions cannot rise.

It is clearly held out in the word of God, that those who are ransomed by the blood of the Lamb will, in the progress of eternal ages, ascend beyond all the angel hosts in holiness, in happiness, and in nearness to