APPLES OF SODOM. 



293 



And in the work of redemption, this glorious after- 

 work of God an after-work only so far as its historic 

 sequence is concerned, for redemption is no accident, 

 but lay deep down in the intimate plans of the Creator 

 from the beginning we see the pattern of God in con- 

 formity with which all things are to be made new. The 

 object of Christianity, by the power and example of the 

 new life from above which had come into the world, is 

 to remove all the disabilities, to restore all the marred 

 and blighted forms of sin, and to realize the ideals of 

 creation. Through the straitness of its nature, the bond- 

 age of necessity, and limitation of life imposed upon it, 

 the world of animals and plants, when once it sinks 

 below its primitive level, cannot again fully regain it. 

 It must be content with the lower mould to which its 

 unfavourable circumstances have reduced it. It cannot 

 heal its wounds and injuries up to the original ideal. 

 But it is widely different in the human world. Man is 

 not fixed by fate ; he has the glorious gift of liberty ; 

 and that power through the exercise of which he sinned 

 and fell is the power through the exercise of which he 

 recovers his position. Out of the possibility of sin arises 

 the possibility of goodness. On the freedom of his 

 will, which is the true image of God, the fore-ordaining, 

 nay, even the possibility of the incarnation rested ; and 

 through the wondrous incarnation he who " declined on 

 a range of lower feelings and a narrower heart " is lifted 

 to a nobler position, and realizes a higher blessing than 

 unfallen humanity could have known. Jesus came that 

 he might have, not a bare life rescued from death, but a 



