Of all the high and solemn mysteries that enshroud the spirit-life none are more inscrutable, yet invested with a deeper and more vital interest, than those apparently irreconcilable paradoxes--predestination and free will. Our possession of this latter attribute is a tenet held, and carelessly acquiesced in, by Christians of every denomination; yet how little do we realise or estimate its practical importance! It is impossible to reflect, even for a moment, on so vast a field of thought without eliciting ideas at once salutary and impressive. Nor can we fully recognise our obligations as responsible beings until, in tracing the fortunes of some follow-creature, of whose path through life our limited powers enable us to perceive only the dim and shadowy outline, we see how what appear trifles--made a right use of, as they should be, or abused, as they too often are--influence a lifetime here, and, fearful thought, determine an eternity hereafter! In things spiritual, as well as in things material, cause governs effect; and the laws which regulate consequences are equally stringent and immutable in both cases, although in the former they are not so easily traceable. Still, to the earnest, careful, and patient observer of the mysterious ways of Providence, suggestive glimpses are afforded, aided by which he may reason from things seen to things unseen. Thus, remarking how some strange train of events result from a single act which we may long have feebly proposed to perform, but the execution of which we have delayed from day to day, until some unexpected excitement has quickened our resolve into action, we may legitimately argue that these events have been, as it were, waiting for the touch which was to set the train in motion; that if that motive power had been applied sooner, the same results would have been proportionably hastened; and that if it had never been applied at all, the history of events would have borne a different record. We are so fearfully and wonderfully constituted, and the dealings of the Creator with his creatures are so complicated and inscrutable, that we know not what great events may hinge upon our slightest actions. The avalanche lies in all its dread sublimity, apparently as immovable as the mountain-side it rests on; the careless foot of some chamois hunter dislodges a stone--the spell which enchained the destroyer is broken--with the velocity of the whirlwind the mass descends, crushing and overwhelming all before it--and heart-rending memories are all that remain to bear witness of some once prosperous village and its inhabitants.