-which is the only evil for which
we are responsible--is the result of palpable violation of Divine laws.
Humanity here is as powerful as Divinity. The age of miracles is past.
God does not interfere to contravene His own laws. His part in man's
creation He long ago defined, and delegated all the rest to the souls
that He had made. Man is as able as God to check the destructive tide.
And it is mere shuffling and shirking and beating the wind, for a people
to pray God to mitigate the ill which they continually and
unhesitatingly perpetuate and multiply.

The great mistake made by the believers in total depravity is in
counting the blood of the covenant of little worth. We admit that in
Adam all die; but we are slow to believe that in Christ all can be made
alive. We abuse the doctrine. We make it a sort of scapegoat for
short-coming. But Christ has made Adamic depravity of no account. He
came not alone to pardon sin, but to save people from sinning.
Father-love, mother-love, and Christ-love are so mighty that together
they can defy Satan, and, in his despite, the soul shall be born into
the kingdom of heaven without first passing through the kingdom of hell.
And in this way only, I think, will the kingdom of this world become the
kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.

* * * * *

"Now, Jamie, having set the world right,--you and I, for which the world
will be deeply grateful,--let us see what you are about, for you have
been suspiciously still lately. What doing, Jamie?"

"Hay-puh!" says Jamie, very red, eager, and absorbed, with no
intermission of labor.

"Making hasty pudding! Oh, yes! I know what that means. Only taking all
the chips and shavings out of the wood-box in the closet and carrying
them half across the room by the eminently safe conveyance of his two
fat hands, and emptying them into my box of paper, and stirring all
together with a curling-stick. That's nothing. Keep on, Jamie, and amuse
yourself; but let us hear your geography lesson.

"Where are you going one of these days?"

"Min-nee-so-toh."

"Where is Minnesota?"

Jamie gives a jerk with his arm to the west. He evidently thinks
Minnesota is just beyond the hill.

"Where is papa going to buy his horses?"

"Ill-noy."

"And where does Aunt Sarah live?"

"Cog-go."

"What river are you going to sail up to get to Minnesota?"

"Miss-iss-ipp-ee."

"That's a _good_ little boy! He knows ever so much; and here