These reasonings might be indefinitely extended. The result which follows from them is clear, that if we attempt to reason from abstract principles to the constitution of a universe, we shall produce one utterly unlike that which actually exists. It follows, that as they cannot account for the facts of the universe, as they come under our observation, they are unsafe guides on all similar questions. Consequently they are unable to show that the existence of evil beings possessed of superhuman powers, is inconsistent with the perfections of God. Nor is there any greater force in the objection, that if such beings exist at all, it is inconsistent with our conceptions of the divine government, that they should be allowed to interfere in the affairs of men. I reply, that it is equally inconceivable, that God should have allowed a man, to whom he has imparted the greatest mental endowments, and whom he has placed in an elevated position in society, who lived centuries ago, to exert an evil influence on the present generation. The difficulty that a powerful influence for evil can be exerted by men on those who have never seen them, and of whose existence they have never heard, is just as great as the one under consideration. Yet it is one of the most undeniable of facts, that men do exert the most powerful influence on one another, and that such influence can be exerted by generations long since passed away on those who live ages afterwards; and that it can be exerted unconsciously. I am far from wishing to deny, that the difficulty is a real one. On the contrary, I fully admit it; and that it is one which our present faculties are unable to explain. But it is one which is not peculiar to Christianity, nor has it originated in it. The interference of superhuman beings in human affairs for the purposes of evil, would be only another form of the same difficulty. Precisely similar reasonings to those which have been employed to prove that the existence of a being like Satan is impossible, when they are applied to other subjects, bring us into direct collision with realities. There can be no doubt, that if the constitution of the universe had been placed in our hands, its phenomena would have been very different. But our function is a far humbler one. It is not to erect a universe according to our conceptions of what is best, but to learn the order of that in which we live, and to accept facts on sufficient evidence, however strongly they may conflict with abstract theories.