ind that was cheerful, in union with God, and embracing all men as
brethren, had realized the prophetic ideal of a New Covenant with the
heart inscribed law; he had to speak with the poet, received God into
his will; so that for him the Godhead had descended from its throne, the
abyss was filled up, all fear was vanished. His beautifully organized
nature had but to develop itself to be more fully and clearly confirmed
in its consciousness of itself, but needed not to return to begin a new
life.

Gregg, the Deist, after presenting Jesus as the "one towering, perpetual
miracle of history," says, "Next in perfection come the views which
Christianity unfolds to us of God in his relation to man, which were
probably as near the truth as the minds of men could in that age
receive. God is represented as our Father in heaven, to be whose
especial children is the best reward of the peace-makers, to see whose
face is the highest hope of the pure in heart, who is ever at hand to
strengthen his true worshipers, to whom is due our heartiest love, our
humblest submission, whose most acceptable worship is righteous conduct
and a holy heart, in whose constant presence our life is passed, to
whose merciful disposal we are resigned by death. His relation to us is
alone insisted on. All that is needed for our consolation, our strength,
our guidance, is assured to us. The purely speculative is passed over
and ignored." It may be that the prospect of an "exceeding, even an
eternal weight of glory" may be needed to support our frail purposes
under the crushing afflictions of our mortal lot. It may be that, by the
perfect arrangements of Omnipotence, the sufferings of all may be made
to work out the ultimate and supreme good of each. He next makes this
grand concession: To the orthodox Christian, who fully believes all he
professes, cheerful resignation to the divine will is comparatively a
_natural_, _an easy_, _a simple thing_. To the religious philosopher
(meaning such as himself) it is the highest exercise of intellect and
virtue. The man who has realized the faith that his own lot is so
regulated by God as unerringly to work for his highest good--with such a
man, resignation, patience, nay cheerful acquiescence in all suffering
and sorrow, appear to be in fact only the simple and practical
expression of his belief. If, believing all this, he still murmers and
rebels at the trials and contrarieties of his lot, he is of the
childishness of