question at issue. To sum up our conclusions, the matter will stand thus:

That God created all mankind in his natural image, and is the Father of all in the sense of Creator.

And that this image is the essential being of every rational intelligence, and can never be lost except by the annihilation of the soul; and as this image has no moral character, being only the foundation of the moral image, which alone possesses character; and as God must retain the relation as Father in the sense of Creator as long as the natural image endures; and as this relation can have no moral character because the natural image has none, and as it is acknowledged "to exist independent of moral character." Therefore this relation can never necessarily result in the final holiness and happiness of the human family, for the very obvious reason, that the holiness and consequent happiness of any creature consist in and are an exhibition of moral character, and therefore can never be the product of a cause, or relation void of moral character. In the act of creation God cannot be the Father of any thing in a higher sense than of all created objects, except as one creature. possesses more intrinsic good than another in the position and scale of the works of nature; provided this does render the paternal relation more valuable and glorious. This we do not pretend to decide. But one thing is certain, that this relation cannot be moral in a given case, and be void of holiness in all other instances. If it were holy in the creation of man, it would be so down the scale of creation to the smallest animalculæ that float in the sunbeam. But we have shown that whatever relation God may sustain to the works of his hand from the fact of their creation, this cannot involve moral character, for that must be the result of his moral government, and in order for his creatures to secure holiness and happiness in this life or in the world to

come, they must obey and carry out the claims which God imposed upon them as their Sovereign. Therefore it is undeniable, that if God is the Father of all, because He created them in His image, then He is the Father, in the same sense, of all the other works of His hands, though he crowned man with more glory and honor, than all other created objects. The same moral character adheres to the relations He sustains to all things created, and if it results necessarily in the holiness of any creature, it will to all; if not to any, it will to none, and will have no influence on the future destiny of the human race in making them holy and happy.

WHO THEN CAN BE SAVED?

All who are the children of God, not by creation, but by adoption. In losing the moral image of God, we lost holiness, righteousness and pure felicity, and in character became aliens to God, children of disobedience and wrath. We forfeited all claim to holiness, the inheritance of heaven, the harp, the crown, and glory. In order to secure holiness and happiness, we must be created anew in righteousness and true holiness, receive the spirit of Christ, and be adopted into his family. God will then become our Father in grace, in addition to the fact that He is so by creation, which relation will secure to all believers final holiness and happiness; "for by grace are ye saved, through faith." Eph. ii. 8. "Ye are all the Christ Jesus." Gal. iii. 26. the adopted children of God, and God has no children, who shall be heirs of salvation, of holiness and happiness, but such as are adopted into his family by grace. “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." Rom. viii. 17.

children of God by faith in This is the way to become

In the above sense, all are not the children of God, and none are but those who are adopted. Let us quote a few more passages to sustain this position. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name." John i. 12. Here the "sons of God" are mentioned as having obtained this character, and all the privileges growing out of this relation to God as their Father, by receiving Christ in the sense of believing on his name. This is the way they became the sons of God. Now, it does not require great mental discernment, to understand, that if faith in Christ is the condition of sonship with God, then all unbelievers cannot be the children of God, and if not the children of God, then they will be disinherited of holiness and future happi

ness.

Who are the sons of God All those and only such as As many as are not subject

“But as many as are led by the Spirit of God, are the sons of God." Rom. viii. 14. according to this testimony? are led by the Spirit of God. to the law of God, and this then cannot be while governed by a carnal heart, cannot be the sons of God by adoption, and must fail of heaven or of a title to heaven while void of the Spirit of Christ.

"But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Gal. iv. 4, 5. If all are the sons of God by creation, and by virtue of that relation are entitled to become finally holy and happy; then what need of the Savior entering into this world, "made of a woman, made under the law." But if God's rational creatures can only secure heaven by being "redeemed from under the law and by receiving the adoption of sons," then the entrance of Christ into the world is magnified into significant value

and shown to be of indispensable importance. And if only those who are redeemed and receive the adoption of sons, are the children of God in that sense which shall effect holiness and end in unmingled felicity, then all others are not the children of God. How many do we see who are still under the law, in condemnation and servants of sin, consequently all are not the sons of God by adoption.

"In this the children of God are manifested and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." 1 Joh. iii. 10. If all are the children of God, who then are the children of the devil? Are God and the devil one and the same, or do they claim the human family as common stock? If not, then those who are the children of God, are distinct from those who are the children of the devil. If God is our Father because he created us, then God is also our Father in a different sense; in which sense all are not the children of God, for some are the children of the devil. This latter relation, formed by grace and adoption, secures to all its subjects holiness and happiness. Righteousness which restores the moral image of God to the soul, manifests who are the sons of God. He who fails to do righteousness and to love his brother is a child of the devil. Now, how many in the world do not righteousness, but rather wickedness and folly, and instead of love, they harbor enmity in the heart; all these cannot be the sons of God in a gospel sense, and have no claim to holiness and happiness.

“And said, O̟ full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" Acts xiii. 10. Elymas, the sorcerer, is called the child of the devil, because he hated righteousness, and perverted the right ways of the Lord, therefore he could not be the

child of God. Neither creation nor grace gave him that relation which secures holiness, for adoption into the family of God must be acquired by grace through faith, which he had never sought for, and which alone can entitle to the immunities of the gospel, the moral image of God and heaven.

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." Joh. viii. 44. If the Jews had the devil for their father, then they could not be the children of God, nor have any prospect, while retaining this character, of ever reaching a heaven of holiness. Yea, even the fact that they were created in the image of God, could not prevent them from becoming the apostate children of the devil, how can it then ever necessarily make the human race finally holy and happy? It must be wisdom above what is written, and there can be "no light in them."

In this 8th chapter the Jews claimed to be the children of Abraham; Christ admitted that they were the natural descendants of Abraham, but not his spiritual seed, for if they were, they would delight to do his works. Driven from this point, they then exclaimed, "we have one Father, even God." Christ declared that they could not be the children of God, and hate him, for he came forth from God; but by their works they manifested, that they were of their father the devil.

What we have quoted from the Bible must unequivocally, decide that all mankind are not the children of God in a gospel sense, which constitutes the only saving relation; and that Universalism must be false, which predicates the final holiness and happiness of all our race, because God is the Father of all, inasmuch as he created all in his own image. We see Christ and the Universalists in the arena of moral combat; while the latter declare all will be saved because God is the Father of all; and Christ authoritative