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plank a hundred feet in the air, and although it is not physically more difficult than before, he may be unable to keep his feet upon it. He has not the. mind, which only nature or long practice can bestow. So is it with the path of virtue: high, narrow, apparently impracticable, only the cool head and the brave heart, even with the best of training, can keep a man therein—nor did God ever design or wish them to. A man who faints at the presence of a bugbear cannot die a martyr to a principle. An inexperienced lout cannot fix the lightning-rod on a slim and lofty steeple, nor stand unswerving on the summit of Mount Blanc. Most men will fall from such heights as surely as if they were stricken with a club. He that will deny it, let him mount and try it.

Still the fact remains, that God does give law, and does visit with pain the violation thereof, whether or not he causes that violation. He has said to man's flesh, Beware of fire ! and he that touches fire is burnt. Nor were it inconsistent to suppose law to be imposed upon any state of human life hereafter, and its violation visited with similar reward.—The inconsistency of the visitation will depend entirely on its objects and results, even as here. You will say, "This is not justice—to give us our will, and punish us therefor."—No, it is not justice, but benevolence. Were the penalty eternal pain, surely it were neither justice nor benevolence: but if the penalty is of limited extent, and beneficial to the recipient, perchance the hand that guides us both to err and to suffer will be for ever blessed; and that which appears punishment now may be providence in reality.