racle, but because it would
be to work a contradiction.

But we are becoming weary of such replies. The very question is, _Why_ is
there not a universal interposition of the divine power? and the reply,
Because this would be a universal interposition of the divine power! What
is all this but a grand attempt to solve the awful mystery of the world,
which ends in the assurance that God does not universally interpose to
prevent sin, because he does not universally interpose to prevent it? Or,
in fewer words, that he does not, because he does not?

Since sin exists, says the sceptic, it follows that God is either unable
or unwilling to prevent it. "Able, but _unwilling_," replies the theist.
Such is the answer which has come down to us from the earliest times; from
a Lactantius to a Leibnitz, and from a Leibnitz to a M'Cosh. No wonder
that in all this time they have not been able to find the reason why God
is unwilling to prevent sin; since, in truth and reality, he is infinitely
more than willing to do so.

But, saying that he is willing, shall we concede that he is unable? By no
means: for such language implies that the power of God is limited, and he
is omnipotent. We choose to impale ourselves upon neither horn of the
dilemma. We are content to leave M. Bayle upon the one, and M. Voltaire
upon the other, while we bestow our company elsewhere. In plain English,
we neither reply unwilling nor unable.

We do say, however, that although God is infinitely willing to secure the
existence of universal holiness, to the exclusion of all sin, yet such a
thing is not an object of power, and therefore cannot be produced by
omnipotence itself. The production of holiness by the application of power
is, as we have seen, an absurd and impossible conceit, which may exist in
the brain of man, but which can never be embodied in the fair and orderly
creation of God. It can no more be realized by the Divine Omnipotence than
a mathematical absurdity can be caused to be true.

Hence, we no longer ask why God permits sin. This were to seek a ground
and reason of that which has no existence, except in the imagination of
man. God does not permit sin. He chooses it not, and he permits it not, as
an essential part of the best possible universe. Sin is that which his
soul abhors, and which all the perfections of his nature, his infinite
power and wisdom, no less than his holiness, are pledged to wipe out from
the face of his creation. He does n