Go ye thus apart and rest awhile if God permits.

* * * * *

=_Albert Taylor Bledsoe,[16] about 1809-_=

From "The Theodicy."

=_45._= MORAL EVIL CONSISTENT WITH THE HOLINESS OF GOD.

The argument of the atheist assumes, as we have seen, that a Being of
infinite power could easily prevent sin, and cause holiness to exist. It
assumes that it is possible, that it implies no contradiction, to create
an intelligent moral agent, and place It beyond all liability to sin.
But this is a mistake. Almighty power itself, we may say with, the most
profound reverence, cannot create such a being, and place it beyond the
possibility of sinning. If it could not sin, there would be no merit, no
virtue, in its obedience. That is to say, it would not be a moral agent
at all, but a machine merely. The power to do wrong, as well as to do
right, is included in the very idea of a moral and accountable agent,
and no such agent can possibly exist without being invested with such
a power. To suppose such an agent to be created, and placed beyond all
liability to sin, is to suppose it to be what it is, and not what it is,
at one and the same time; it is to suppose a creature to be endowed with
a power to do wrong, and yet destitute of such a power, which is a plain
contradiction. Hence Omnipotence cannot create such a being, and deny to
it a power to do evil, or secure it against the possibility of sinning.

[Footnote 16: The most prominent among the living philosophical writers
of the South: at present editor of the Southern Review.]

* * * * *

=_Richard Fuller,[17] 1808-_=

From a Sermon.

=_46._= THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME. _Haggai_ ii. 7.

Follow the adorable Jesus from scene to scene of ever deepening insult
and sorrow, tracked everywhere by spies hunting for the precious blood.
Behold his sacred face swollen with tears and stripes; and, last of all,
ascend Mount Calvary, and view there the amazing spectacle: earth and
hell gloating on the gashed form of the Lord of Glory; men and devils
glutting their malice in the agony of the Prince of Life; and all the
scattered rays of vengeance which would have consumed our guilty race,
converging and beating in focal intensity upon Him of whom the Eternal
twice exclaimed, in a voice from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased." After this, what are our emotions? Can we ever
be cold or faithles