Demon. Confusion, frustration, and defeat attend us! Why, it appears that Adam and all his descendants, who have believed in Christ, are raised, by his redemption, to a station far more exalted, safe, and happy, than that which he lost in Paradise.

Lucifer. It looks like it.

Demon. And their anthem plainly implied that the plan of redemption through Christ, while it brings peace and good will to man, at the same time brings the highest glory to God.

Lucifer. It did.

"Precisely so!" cried a loud, excited voice from a distant part of the assembly; but I could not see the speaker. "Precisely so it is understood by the church on earth. So they preach, so they pray, and so they sing. Often have I heard the assembled congregation, in the sanctuary, join all their voices to swell the strain of praise in the seventy-second Psalm, where that doctrine is plainly taught. And I have marked the peculiar animation with which they would sing the following stanza, referring to the kingdom of Christ:

"Where he displays his healing power,
Death and the curse are known no more;

In him the tribes of Adam boast

More blessings than their father lost."

"Confusion, frustration, and defeat!" exclaimed the

demon.

"Why," said he, turning to Lucifer, "when your majesty returned from Eden, and brought us the news that the temptation had succeeded, and man had fallen into sin, all hell kept jubilee. We calculated of a surety that God was over-matched and grievously disappointed,

and that man was ruined beyond remedy. O, that ancient oracle! I always feared it contained some terBruise the serpent's head.

rible import. Bruised, indeed, should it turn out, in the end, that Jehovah, by redemption, is more glorified, and believers raised higher in knowledge, holiness, and happiness, than if man in primitive innocency had never been assailed by the malignant devices of an apostate angel."

Here he stopped short, for the whole frame of Lucifer was agitated and convulsed with the most violent emotions. Shame, madness, horror, alternately stared through his visage. He stamped furiously on the ground, and, wielding his enormous arm, with the speed of lightning he smote the rocky vault of the cavern a blow which caused the entire mountain to reel and rock on its deep foundations. The paroxysm, however, was brief. In a very few moments, he had entirely regained his composure, and proceeded în his narrative.

"Adam," said he, "next went on to rehearse the living interest with which the disembodied saints hung over the pathway of the Redeemer as he carried forward the mighty work of redemption. He spoke of his example, his preaching, his miracles. He dwelt at considerable length on the resurrection of Lazarus, and the circumstances of Christ's transfiguration. On this last subject he remarked, that the depth of Messiah's humiliation was so wonderful that eminent saints on earth were astonished, and their faith wavered.

"John the Baptist, one of the wisest and best of men, was so affected by the lowly condition of his Master, that he sent two of his disciples, and asked

him, 'Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?'

"Nor was this amazement at the deep things of God confined to the earth. The great company of the redeemed on high were filled with astonishment and solicitude, when they saw that the stupendous work of their eternal redemption depended on one now in the form of a servant; a man of sorrows, despised and rejected of men. Well was it known that, should the Mediator fail to meet the claims of divine justice at the awful hour appointed, their title to heaven and glory failed forever. When the period drew nigh, there was deep and earnest consultation among all the patriarchs, the prophets, and the ransomed souls in glory. It was determined to send a delegation of their own body down to converse with Christ concerning his death which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Moses and

Elias were chosen for this important mission. (Luke ix. 28-31.) They descended to earth, and appeared in glory to Christ and his disciples, on the mount of transfiguration. There, in terms of heavenly eloquence, they presented to the Redeemer the immortal interest that thrilled all the multitude of the redeemed, in view of the scenes of suffering on which he was soon to enter. 'This interview with Moses and Elias,' said Adam,' was vastly important in its connection.' But when he came to speak of the scene in Gethsemane, he made some things plain which I had never understood before. The evangelist Luke, in describing the sufferings of the Redeemer, mentions, that while in the garden, when his soul was in an agony, and his sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground,

there appeared an angel from heaven strengthening him.'" (Luke xxii. 43.)

Strengthening him! strengthening him!" ejaculated a tall, fierce-looking spirit of darkness, who now stepped forward in front of the speaker. I understood that he was one who had been chiefly employed among the heathen tribes, ever since the dispersion of man from the tower of Babel, and that in no age of the world had he been much in contact with the church of God. "Strengthening him!" he repeated, with an air at once resolute and inquiring: "why, I thought that the Redeemer was divine. How, then, could a created angel strengthen him?"

Lucifer. That passage has been thought by many commentators to be very difficult. And some of the early fathers thought it dishonorable to Christ, and supposed it must be an interpolation of some unskilful transcriber of the Gospels at an early day. They were consequently disposed to have it expunged from the copies of the New Testament. But I assure you, Adam set it in a light that was plain and powerful.

"How?" "How?" "How?" was now eagerly called out, from every part of the assembly. "We should be glad to hear what consistent explanation could be given of such a passage."

"Well," said Lucifer, "he stated that the Messiah had a true and proper humanity, as well as a true and proper divinity. He said, 'Such are the laws of the human mind, that it is deeply affected by important truth, when brought clearly and closely before it. Thus the general at the head of an army, though he is aware that perhaps every soldier under his com

mand has a general knowledge of the causes of the war, yet on the eve of battle he makes them an earnest and eloquent address, that each man may go into the engagement, with the motives to valor and to victory fully before his mind. Thus also the minister of the gospel holds up its everlasting truths before the minds of his hearers; that truth may produce its impression, though he is aware that to many of his hearers those things are well known, and have been heard before perhaps a thousand times. Now,' he observed, 'the humanity of Christ was in many respects like other men.' He illustrated it thus: 'Christ knew that Lazarus was dead four days before he came to Bethany. But when he arrived there, and saw Martha weeping, and Mary weeping, and the large circle of friends around them weeping, "Jesus wept." His humanity was deeply affected by the mournful insignia of death brought thus impressively before him. 'Now,' said Adam, 'when the Mediator in the garden stood in room of guilty man, the flood-gates of God's fearful displeasure against sin were opened upon him. The tide of his sufferings comes stronger and heavier. Billow after billow of fiery wrath rolled over him, while on the top of Sinai stood eternal Justice, flaming with indignation against sin, hurling ten thousand thunders on his spotless soul.

"He" was in agony." He offered up "strong cries and tears." "His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." His humanity was like to be crushed under the tremendous load. It was now he was approached by a mighty angel, one of the princes of a great hierarchy in heaven. That angel held up before his