It is said, and we grant, that the righteous are trodden under foot, and the vilest men exalted; that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; that virtue starves, while vice is fed, and that schemes for doing good are frustrated, while evil plots succeed. But we may reply: 1. The prosperity of the wicked is often apparent, and well styled a shining misery. Who believes that Nero enthroned was happier than Paul in chains? 2. We are often mistaken in calling such or such an afflicted man good, and such or such a prosperous man bad. 3. The miseries of good men are generally occasioned by their own faults, since they have been so fool-hardy as to run counter to the laws by which God acts, or have aimed at certain ends while neglecting the appropriate means. 4. Many virtues are proved and augmented by trials, and not only proved, but produced, so that they would have had no existence without them. Many a David's noblest qualities would never have been developed but for the impious attempts of Saul. Job's integrity was not only tested but strengthened by Satan being permitted to sift him as wheat. Passions, experience and hope were brought as ministering angels to man, of whom the world was not worthy, through trials of cruel mockings and scourgings. 5. The unequal distribution of good and evil, so far as it exists, carries our thoughts forward to the last judgment, and a retribution according to the deeds done in the body, and can hardly fail of throwing round the idea of eternity a stronger air of reality than it might otherwise have done. All perplexities vanish as we reflect that, "He cometh to judge the earth."