The World in Pawn.--Adam's transgression had put the world in pawn. The name of the pawnbroker was death, and his claim was twofold. Death held all things in his grasp, and there was no help for it this side of heaven. No part of what had been pledged could be used as the means of redemption. Adam could not redeem himself, great and mighty as he was--in the spirit; for he was no other than Michael the archangel, leader of the hosts of heaven. But this puissant Michael was now a weak, frail, mortal man, under the penalty of a broken law, and powerless to repair the injury that had been wrought. He and the race that was to spring from him were utterly lost, unless the Almighty One would intervene, and do for them what they could not do for themselves. If man could have redeemed himself, it would have been required of him; but because self-redemption was impossible, a Redeemer had to be provided. The Redemption.--Redemption must come, if at all, through some Being high enough and powerful enough to make an infinite atonement, one fully covering the far-reaching effects of the original transgression. The scales of eternal justice, unbalanced by Adam's act, had to be repoised, and right's equilibrium restored. Who could do this? Who could retrieve the situation, bring good out of evil, mould failure into success, and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? Where was the Moses for such an exodus? Where the deliverance from this worse than Egyptian bondage--a bondage of which Egypt's slavery was but typical? The life of a God was the price of the world's freedom, and that price was paid by the God of Israel, who descended from his glorious throne, made himself mortal, an exile of eternity, walked in the dust of his own footstool, and by submitting to death, broke the bands of death, and made it possible for man to live again, and go on to the goal of endless glory. He was the Lamb "without spot or blemish," typified by the lamb of the Passover, and preordained for sacrifice, to "take away the sins of the world." He gave himself as an offering, as a ransom for human redemption, and by the shedding of his own blood, paid the debt of the universe, took the world out of pawn, and became the Author of Salvation for all mankind. CHAPTER IV. The Gods in Council.