The great Jehovah contemplated the whole of the events connected with the earth, pertaining to the plan of salvation, before it rolled into existence, or ever the "morning stars sung together for joy," the past, the present and the future, were, and are with Him one eternal now; He knew of the fall of Adam, the iniquities of the antediluvians, of the depth of iniquity that would be connected with the human family; their weakness and strength, their power and glory, apostasies, their crimes, their righteousness and iniquity; He comprehended the fall of man and their redemption; He knew the plan of salvation and pointed it out; He was acquainted with the situation of all nations and with their destiny; He ordered all things according to the counsel of His _own_ will, He knows the situation of both the living and the dead, and has made ample provision for their redemption according to their several circumstances and the laws of the Kingdom of God, whether in this world, or in the world to come. The idea that some men form of the justice and mercy of God, is too foolish for an intelligent man to think of; for instance it is common for many of our orthodox preachers to suppose that if a man is not what they call converted, if he dies in that state, he must remain eternally in hell without any hope:-- "Infinite years in torment must he spend And never, never, never, have an end." And yet this eternal misery is made frequently to rest upon the merest casualty,--the breaking of a shoe-string, the tearing of a coat of those officiating, or the peculiar location in which a person lives may be the means indirectly of his damnation, or the cause of his not being saved. I will suppose a case which is not extraordinary: Two men who have been equally wicked, who have neglected religion, are both of them taken sick at the same time; one of them has the good fortune to be visited by a praying man, and he gets converted a few minutes before he dies; the other sends for three different praying men, a tailor, a shoemaker and a tinman. The tinman has a handle to solder on to a can; the tailor a button-hole to work on some coat that is needed in a hurry; and the shoemaker has a patch to put on somebody's boot; they none of them can go in time, the man dies and goes to hell; one of these is exalted to Abraham's bosom; he sits down in the presence of God, and enjoys eternal, uninterrupted happiness, while the other who was equally as good as he, sinks to eternal damnation, irretrievable misery and hopeless despair; because a man had a boot to mend, the button-hole of a coat to work, or a handle to solder on to a saucepan. The plans of Jehovah are not so unjust; the statements of holy writ so visionary; nor the plan of salvation