132 LERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



" I will with pleasure, Bertha," said he. " It 

 gives me great satisfaction to perceive that you 

 reflect on what you are told. Never allow your- 

 self to be contented with half knowledge. 



< You know that, in consequence of the fall 

 of man, a system of divine grace for his re- 

 demption was promised by the Almighty ; and 

 that it commenced with the mysterious promise 

 that the seed of the woman should bruise the 

 head of the serpent. But as things in the natural 

 world are only permitted to reach perfection 

 gradually, rising from infancy to maturity, so it 

 is, likewise, in the moral world : and this gracious 

 scheme of mercy, instead of being at once dis- 

 played in its full extent, was gradually unfolded 

 at different periods, until the promised seed was 

 at length manifested in Jesus Christ. These 

 successive communications have been called dis- 

 pensations, because the knowledge of God and 

 of his merciful intentions were dispensed or re- 

 vealed by them. There have been three of these 

 dispensations, the patriarchal, the Levitical, and 

 the Christian ; but they belong to the one system 

 of Providence, and are all linked together, the 

 redemption of the human race being the begin- 

 ning and the end of the whole. The proper 

 modes of worship were at the same time dis- 

 tinctly ordained ; and, however different the in- 

 stitutions which were severally dispensed may 

 appear to us, we may feel assured that each of 



