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wholesome conviction presses upon our minds that there can be no forgiveness of sins, that is, no interference with, or remittance of, or protection from, their natural effects." (P. 222.) "The doctrine that sins can be forgiven, and the consequences of them averted, has in all ages been a fertile source of mischief! Perhaps few of our intellectual errors have fructified into a vaster harvest of evil, or operated more powerfully to impede the moral progress of our race Men would have been far more scrupulous watchers over conduct, far more careful of their deeds, had they believed that those deeds would inevitably bear their natural consequence, exempt from after intervention, than when they held that penitence and pardon could at any time unlink the chain of consequence." (P. 224.) "Every act must bear its allotted fruit according to the everlasting laws,must remain for ever ineffaceably inscribed on the tablets of universal nature." (P. 225.)

Thus does this unhappy evolutionist go on page after page, denying the ever-blessed Gospel of truth and mercy, setting aside the good tidings of salvation through CHRIST, blasphemously denying the forgiveness of sin. And why? because, according to his miserable principles, he cannot conceive the possibility that the GOD of the universe should reverse the law which He Himself

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DECLARATIONS OF SCRIPTURE

has given. It would be difficult to frame an argument more decisively condemnatory of evolutionary principles, than these extracts from Mr. Greg's own work. And it is not merely a question of the right of holding this or that opinion-but rather a question how many souls may have been irretrievably lost by the promulgation of such views-souls who might have been pardoned and saved, lost eternally by the flippant theories of this self-sufficient writer.

Set against these unwarrantable theories the blessed and merciful declaration of our heavenly FATHER, "To the LORD our GOD belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him." "When the wicked man turneth away from the wickedness which he has committed and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive."2 "Through this man (i.e., JESUS CHRIST) is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish."3 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against

1 Dan. ix. 9.

2 Ezek. xviii. 27.

3 Acts xiii. 38.

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the HOLY GHOST hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation." What is blasphemy against the HOLY GHOST, if it be not the deliberate rejection of the means which God has provided for forgiveness and salvation? This indeed, by a fatal necessity, results in its appropriate condemnation. For eighteen hundred years the civilized world-the best and ablest men who have lived-have believed with one consent that the Gospel of our LORD JESUS CHRIST brought the glad tidings of salvation and forgiveness of sins to all who should repent and believe in Him. Thousands and millions of men and women heavyladen with sin have come to CHRIST in humble penitence, and have lived and died in the inexpressible happiness of knowing that their sins were blotted out through the atonement made by the blood of CHRIST. Many, very many are there now living who believe surely, and without a shade of doubt, that the sins of past days are cancelled and pardoned. And with this belief they are living in the faith and fear of GOD, serving Him with an alacrity and enthusiasm which no other motive could inspire. They have given themselves heart and soul to the service of Him who hath so loved them. And now they are to be told that there is no forgiveness of sin! And why? Because certain philosophers have in

1 S. Mark iii. 28.

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FARRAR ON THE PARABLE

vented a theory, that either there is no GOD, or else that He does not interfere in human affairs: that all things are evolved without the intervention of a higher power.

With the cold-hearted atheism of the evolutionist, compare the following touching language of Dr. Farrar in commenting on the parable of the Prodigal Son :-"Never certainly in human language was so much-such a world of love, and wisdom, and tenderness-compressed in such few immortal words. Every line, every touch of the picture is full of beautiful eternal significance. The poor boy's presumptuous claim for all that life could give him; the leaving of the old home; the journey to a far country; the brief spasms of ' enjoyment' there; the mighty famine in that land; the premature exhaustion of all that could make life noble or endurable; the abysmal degradation and unutterable misery that followed; the coming to himself and recollection of all that he had left behind; the return in broken-hearted penitence and deep humility; the father's far-off sight of him and the gush of compassion and tenderness over the poor returning prodigal; the ringing joy of the whole household over him who had been loved and lost and had now come home; the unjust jealousy and mean complaint of the elder brother; and then that close of the parable in a strain of music, Son, thou art ever with me

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and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.'”1 All this is, indeed, a Divine epitome of the wandering of man and the love of GOD, such as no literature has ever equalled; such as no ear of man has ever heard elsewhere. Put in one scale all that Confucius, or Sakya Mouni, or Zoroaster, or Socrates, ever wrote or said—and they wrote and said many beautiful and holy words-and put in the other, the parable of the Prodigal Son alone, with all that this single parable connotes and means, and can any candid spirit doubt which scale would outweigh the other in eternal preciousness, in Divine adaptation to the want of man?

"He," says another writer, "if in earnest thou seek Him now and give thyself wholly to Him, will give thee back all thou hast lost; the Grace thou hast wasted; the Love thou hast chilled; the Purity thou hast stained; His Spirit which thou hast grieved. He, in the residue of thy years, will accomplish in thee all His work, will form thee to the full stature of His Grace and Love, for which He made thee: that thou mayest love Him with an everlasting love, an overflowing joy, and transporting glory; and never-sating, ever-satisfying bliss, in Himself the fountain of all bliss and all good."

1 Farrar's "Life of CHRIST," Vol. ii. p. 134.