_Fantom._ You take all your notions of the Deity from the vulgar views your Bible gives you of him. "To be sure I do," said Trueman. "Can you tell me any way of getting a better notion of him? I do not want any of your farthing-candle philosophy in the broad sunshine of the gospel, Mr. Fantom. My Bible tells me that 'God is love;' not merely loving, but LOVE. Now, do you think a Being, whose very essence is love, would permit any misery among his children here, if it was not to be, some way or other, or some where or other, for their good? You forget, too, that in a world where there is sin, there must be misery. Then, too, I suppose, God permits this very misery, partly to exercise the sufferers, and partly to try the prosperous; for by trouble God corrects some and tries others. Suppose, now, Tom Saunders had not been put in prison, you and I--no, I beg pardon, _you_ saved your guinea; well, then, our club and I could not have shown our kindness in getting him out; nor would poor Saunders himself have had an opportunity of exercising his own patience and submission under want and imprisonment. So you see one reason why God permits misery is, that good men may have an opportunity of lessening it." Mr. Fantom replied, "There is no object which I have more at heart; I have, as I told you, a plan in my head of such universal benevolence as to include the happiness of all mankind." "Mr. Fantom," said Trueman, "I feel that I have a general good will to all my brethren of mankind; and if I had as much money in my purse as love in my heart, I trust I should prove it. All I say is, that, in a station of life where I can not do much, I am more called upon to procure the happiness of a poor neighbor, who has no one else to look to, than to form wild plans for the good of mankind, too extensive to be accomplished, and too chimerical to be put in practice. It is the height of folly for a little ignorant tradesman to distract himself with projecting schemes which require the wisdom of scholars, the experience of statesmen, and the power of kings to accomplish. I can not free whole countries, nor reform the evils of society at large, but I _can_ free an aggrieved wretch in a workhouse; I _can_ relieve the distresses of one of my journeymen; and I _can_ labor to reform myself and my own family."