corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things; and changed the truth concerning God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Therefore, even as they did not like to retain the true God in their knowledge, he gave them over, in his righteous judgment, to a reprobate mind, to the indulgence of their evil propensities under the instigation of their chosen leader, "the Devil, who deceiveth the whole world;" assuming to be, and usurping the place of, God; leading his deluded followers "captive at his will," and foreshowing, by their condition and conduct on earth, their ultimate doom, as the final destiny of the angels who kept not their first estate is manifested by their conduct while under sentence of condemnation prior to the final judgment. Throughout the history of this antagonism as recorded in the Old Testament, the great question was, Who is the true God, the Creator, Ruler, Benefactor, to whom all creatures owe allegiance--Jehovah or _the_ Baal? This question was specially and publicly tried on various occasions, as in the plagues of Egypt, in the controversy conducted by Elijah, in that relating to the image erected by Nebuchadnezzar, and many others of less notoriety. In several scores of instances it is the declared purpose of particular dispensations and events that those to whom they referred might be made to know that He, the true God, in opposition to _the_ Baal, was Jehovah. And such, at the final termination of the conflict, will be the resistless and universal conviction: "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Having, in his official character and complex Person, maintained the conflict throughout all the periods and in all the forms of its exhibition, vanquished the great Adversary, redressed the consequences of the fall, and destroyed even death itself, his triumph is complete and final; vindicating all his offices and agency, establishing the facts and doctrines, prerogatives and rights upon which his government is founded, securing for ever the loyalty and bliss of the unfallen and ransomed portions of his empire, and filling the universe with the glory of his person and his name, and with the boundless riches of his wisdom, grace and love. Then will be displayed the vastness and grandeur of the scheme purposed in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, and involving this conflict between the Divine Mediator and the Arch-rebel and his party, that through the redemption, resurrection, and final exaltation and glory of the Church, the Divine perfections might be made known to the unfallen, the principalities and powers in heavenly places.