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or so wise as the goodness of our Heavenly Father 

 manifested in the arrangements of Nature and 

 emphasized in the revealed Word? How, then, 

 should He remain content and cynical, absorbed 

 in the contemplation of His own perfections and 

 the adoration of angels, while countless myriads 

 of His offspring are weltering in tears and anguish, 

 ready to perish for lack of the light and strength 

 which He alone can impart ? 



Besides, it may be that the redemption of our 

 race is an element in the happiness of other beings, 

 and is necessary to the moral equilibrium of all 

 worlds. Let but one star slip from its orbit and 

 every other will eventually be affected. So man's 

 apostasy is perhaps related to other disturbances 

 in God's realm in such a way as to make his 

 salvation an essential factor of universal holiness 

 and bliss. 



But however this may be, the earth is a portion 

 of the Creator's dominions, and it is not incredible 

 that He should desire it to be governed by His 

 laws. Kings and nations concentrate all their 

 energies upon winning back provinces that have 

 rebelled, or that have been wrested from them. 

 A few years ago I witnessed a touching spectacle 

 in Paris, when she was still suffering from 

 the wounds of the German conquest. Close by 

 the spot where the palace of her last emperor 

 used to rear its majestic facade, stands the statue 

 of Strasbourg, more dear to France than ever now 

 that the city of which it is the emblem is lost. 

 Around the neck and arms of that sculptured figure 



