should always continue children, but rise in knowledge to
the strength of manhood. We ought not to be "ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Paul said to his brethren
"when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one
teach you" &c. "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood
as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away
childish things."

The Scriptures are calculated for every capacity--for a child as well
as a philosopher. We must rise from one degree of glory to another. We
are not to fasten our minds down on the inventions of men, and live
and die children. No--we must "forget the things that are behind, and
reach forward to those that are before." As full grown men, we are not
to suppose that prayer of any mortal can move the Almighty to pardon
him. But says the objector, if we sincerely ask God to do thus and so,
he will certainly grant our request. Very well, admit this for a
moment. God, you say, will answer every _sincere_ prayer. Now suppose
two armies are to meet in battle, one from France and the other from
Holland. The hour when the engagement is to commence is precisely one
month from tomorrow noon. Every day, there are millions of sincere
prayers offered to God to give them the day. Holland, with one voice,
prays for victory and for the preservation of her subjects; and
France, with united supplication, prays right the contrary. How, we
ask, are all those _sincere_ opposing petitions to be answered?
Impossible. Again--one denomination prays for the prosperity of its
cause, and the destruction of error. And as each believes all others
to be in error, of course pray for their downfall. If the Lord
answered their petitions, all denominations, of course, of course
would fall! One man prays far rain, and another, that it may not rain.
If God answered all these petitions, he would be as changeable, not as
_one man_, but as the whole human family together.

As it respects God's pardoning the human race, I contend that this
pardon existed from the beginning. Do not the Scriptures declare that
God chose us _in Christ_ before the foundation of the world? Yes, for
"he calleth those things which be not as though they were." Well,
could we be chosen _in Christ_ without being pardoned? No, for the
apostle says, "he that is _in Christ_ is a new creature;" and,
certainly, a man cannot be a new creature _in Christ_ without being
pardoned i