some other. God did not make the brethren
of Joseph envious and malicious; but he caused their envy and malice to
induce them to sell their brother into Egypt, rather than to kill him
and throw him into a pit. The wickedness was their own; the particular
turn given to it was of God. God did not make Shimei a base, bad man;
but Shimei having become base and bad, God chose that his villany should
spend itself on David, rather than on some other person. God did not
make Judas a thief and a traitor; but Judas having made himself so, God
so places him, that his avarice, his dishonesty and his treachery shall
minister to the accomplishment of a great beneficent design. God did not
teach the spirits that deceived Ahab to lie; but those spirits having
given themselves to lying, God chose that they should practise their
illusions on Ahab rather than on others. God did not make Pharaoh mean
or tyrannical; but Pharaoh having become so, God chooses to employ his
evil dispositions in bringing about remarkable displays of His power.
God does not make politicians corrupt; but politicians having become
corrupt, God chooses to place them in positions in which they can rob,
and torment, and dishonor us, and so incite us to labor more zealously
for the Christianization of our country. A man becomes a thief, and
says, I will rob John Brown to-night. And he places himself in the way
along which he expects John Brown to pass, and prepares himself for his
deed of plunder. But God does not wish to have John Brown robbed; so He
arranges that David Jones, a man whom he wishes to be relieved of his
money, shall pass that way, and the thief robs _him_. The dishonesty is
the thief's own, but it is God that determines the party on whom it
shall be practised.

I have a bull-dog that would worry a certain animal, if I would take it
where the animal is feeding. But I choose to bring it in view of another
animal which I wish to be destroyed, and he worries that. I do not make
the bull-dog savage; but I use his savagery for a good purpose, instead
of letting him gratify it for an evil one. This view of things explains
a multitude of difficult passages of Scripture, and enables us to see
wisdom and goodness in many of God's doings, in which we might otherwise
fancy we saw injustice and inconsistency.

I have not time to answer all my old objections to the Bible, advanced
in the Berg debate, nor have I time to answer any of them at full
length: but I hav