ghest good of the universe may, no doubt, be promoted in various
ways by the redemption of our fallen race, of which we have no conception
in our present state of darkness and ignorance. But we are furnished with
some faint glimpses of the true source of that admiration and wonder with
which the angels of God are inspired, as they contemplate the
manifestation of his glory in reconciling the world to himself. The
felicity of the angels, and no doubt of all created intelligences, must be
found in the enjoyment of God. No other object is sufficiently vast to
fill and satisfy the unlimited desires of the mind. And as the character
of God must necessarily constitute the chief happiness of his creatures,
so every new manifestation of the glory of that character must add to
their supreme felicity.

Now, if there had been no such thing as sin, the compassion of God would
have been forever concealed from the eyes of his intelligent creatures.
They might have adored his purity; but of that tender compassion which
calls up the deepest and most pleasurable emotions in the soul, they could
have known absolutely nothing. They might have witnessed his love to
sinless beings; but they could never have seen that love in its omnipotent
yearnings over the ruined and the lost. The attribute of mercy or
compassion would have been forever locked up and concealed in the deep
recesses of the Divine Mind; and the blessing, and honour, and glory, and
dominion, which shall be ascribed by the redeemed unto Him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever, would not have been
heard in the universe of God. The chord which now sends forth the sweetest
music in the harmony of heaven, filling its inhabitants with deep and
rapturous emotions of sympathy and delight, would never have been touched
by the finger of God.

How far such a display of the divine character is necessary to the ends of
the moral government of God can be known only to himself. We are informed
in his word, that it is by the redemption of the world, through Christ,
that the ends of his moral government are secured. It pleased the Father,
saith St. Paul, that in Christ all fulness should dwell; and having made
peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. Thus we are
told that all things in heaven are reconciled unto God, by the blood of
the cross. But it may be asked, How