286 Natural Theology. 



as to bring strong inducements to bear upon us tc 

 live virtuous lives. If we choose vice, His love will 

 not save us from suffering, but manifests itself 

 rather by scourging us back into paths of rectitude 

 and virtue. 



But when we have seen how little man can accom- 

 plish in this world, even when bending all his ener- 

 gies of body and mind in the direction of virtue and 

 truth, we are struck with the small results reached 

 by him compared with his abilities and desires. He 

 evidently has the capacity for unlimited improve- 

 ment, and the desire for it, but time is wanting. All 

 other orders of beings on this gJobe complete the 

 cycle of their existence, and rise as high as they are 

 fitted to rise. But man is in this respect a failure, the 

 machinery is out of joint, or rather if this world is 

 his only home, it never was properly adjusted. There 

 is no possibility of his rising so high in this world 

 as to satisfy the conditions of his intellectual being. 

 His life, when longest, is but a summer's day for 

 labor ; while broad harvest fields wave before him 

 that he feels conscious of the power of gathering, if 

 life were longer. He can comprehend the possibi- 

 lity of another life. He feels conscious of power to 

 improve it and enjoy it for ever. He longs for it, 

 and shudders at the prospect of oblivion. Shall he, 

 of all created beings, be debarred from using the 

 powers with which he has been endowed ? Shall 

 no opportunity be given him for the development of 

 those powers ? Shall he alone have desires to 

 which there is nothing to correspond, so that it 



