what is done by the power of man, then we
should see whether there be any real inconsistency or conflict between
them or not. This is the point on which we need to be enlightened, in
order to clear up the difficulty in question; and on this point the most
satisfactory light may be attained. If we must wait to understand the
_modus operandi_ of the divine Spirit, before we can dispel the clouds and
darkness which his influence casts over the free-agency of man, then must
we indeed defer this great mystery to another state of being, and perhaps
forever. Those who have looked in this direction for light, may well
deplore our inability to see it. But let us look in the right direction:
let us consider, not the _modus operandi_ of the divine power, but the
effects produced by it, and then, perhaps, we may behold the beautiful
harmony subsisting between the agency of God and the freedom of man.

The reason why the views of most persons concerning this relation are so
vague and indistinct is, that they do not possess a sufficiently clear and
perfect analysis of the human mind. The powers and susceptibilities of the
mind, as well as the laws which govern its phenomena, seem blended
together in their minds in one confused mass; and hence the relations they
bear to each other, and to the divine agency, are as dim and fluctuating
as an ill-remembered dream. In this confusion of laws and phenomena, of
powers and susceptibilities, of facts and fancies, it is no wonder that so
many crude conceptions and vague hypotheses have sprung up and prevailed
concerning the great difficulty under consideration. In the dim twilight
of mental science, which has shown all things distorted and nothing in its
true proportions, it is no wonder that the beautiful order and perspective
of the moral world should have been concealed from our eyes. It was to
have been expected, that every attempt to delineate this order, would,
under such circumstances, prove premature, and aggravate rather than
lessen the apparent disorders prevailing in the spiritual world.
Accordingly, such attempts generally terminate, either in the denial of
the free-agency of man, or of the sovereignty of God; and those who have
maintained both of these tenets in reality, as well as in name, have
usually refused to allow themselves to be troubled by the apparent
contradictions in which they are involved. While they recognise the two
spheres of the human and of the divine agency, they