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the whole system, so that although the frame-work is good and divine,
the spirit and life within it are evil. Thus, for instance, to be in a
high station is the gift of God; but the pride and injustice to which
it has given scope is from the Devil. To be poor and obscure is also
the ordinance of God; but the dishonesty and discontent which are often
seen in the poor is from Satan. To cherish and protect wife and family
is God's appointment; but the love of gain, and the low ambition, which
lead many a man to exert himself, are sinful. Accordingly, it is said
in the text, "The world lieth in wickedness,"--it is plunged and
steeped, as it were, in a flood of sin, not a part of it remaining as
God originally created it, not a part pure from the corruptions with
which Satan has disfigured it.

Look into the history of the world, and what do you read there?
Revolutions and changes without number, kingdoms rising and falling;
and when without crime? States are established by God's ordinance,
they have their existence in the necessity of man's nature, but when
was one ever established, nay, or maintained, without war and
bloodshed? Of all natural instincts, what is more powerful than that
which forbids us to shed our fellows' blood? We shrink with natural
horror from the thought of a murderer; yet not a government has ever
been settled, or a state acknowledged by its neighbours, without war
and the loss of life; nay, more than this, not content with
unjustifiable bloodshed, the guilt of which must lie somewhere, instead
of lamenting it as a grievous and humiliating evil, the world has
chosen to honour the conqueror with its amplest share of admiration.
To become a hero, in the eyes of the world, it is almost necessary to
break the laws of God and man. Thus the deeds of the world are matched
by the opinions and principles of the world: it adopts bad doctrine to
defend bad practice; it loves darkness because its deeds are evil.

And as the affairs of nations are thus depraved by our corrupt nature,
so are all the appointments and gifts of Providence perverted in like
manner. What can be more excellent than the vigorous and patient
employment of the intellect; yet in the hands of Satan it gives birth
to a proud philosophy. When St. Paul preached, the wise men of the
world, in God's eyes, were but fools, for they had used their powers of
mind in the cause of error, their reasonings even led them to be
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