And when allevil that can be remedied is done away
with, and when that evil which was remediless ia
turned by the Dii-ine wisdom to conduce lo the Divine
gloiy, may not this world seem better to its Almighty
Maker's eye, may it not affoi-d Him greater joy when
He looks upon it, than even when He beheld it, all
very good, upon the evening of the Sixth Day ? Ah,
it was fair and beautifid then ; it was right then ; but
it never had been tried; it had gone threugh nothing.
Far more fair will it be to see, right once more, after
being so sadly wrong, — sought and found, after hav-
ing wandered away so far !

And now, my brethren, as we look once more at
the Redeemer's gracious words, we think, Were there
ever words so fitted fo carry hope to the most despair-
ing ! What worse can yon be than lost ! Is not that
just the word which the world applies to those who
have strayed the fai-fhest and sunk the lowest ? Tou
never can be worse than lost! All sin, all misery.
b/ Google



204 THE REDEEMER-S EEeAND TO THIS WOELD.
are comprelieniled in that woid. And yet, for jon
Jeaus died. He did not undertake to save yon m
ignorance of the extremity of your case. He knew
quite well how sick you vfere when He undertook
your cure, — how far away, when He undertook to
triug you bafk. You may have read that beautiful
and touching story, which tells us how one who in
the pride of intellect had reached within a few paces
of the grave, without ever betaking liimself to Jesua,
was arrested at last, and hrought to intense concern.
