Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/288

 testantism that was evoked, a wholesome restraint was imposed upon the despotism of Catholicism which remained.

Now, who will venture to say that the Divine providence had nothing to do with those events? Can any evil be thrown down which Infinite Mercy has not helped to overthrow? Can there be any blessing in the city which the Lord has not wrought? From the facts that certain evil influences were then removed from the Church, and that several beneficent advantages resulted, it is plain that some causes of the evil must have been removed, or the effects observable in the blessing never could have been realized. But where did those causes exist and operate? Whatever places they might have had in the minds of men as a secondary habitation, there can be no doubt that their primary residence was with spirits in the world of spirits, and therefore, the Lord, in order to afford some relief to the people of His Church, must have removed them by the execution of a judgment. By whom else could they be removed? by whom else could the blessing which followed the removal be provided? Do not the existence of these facts prove that a judgment must have been accomplished? To us it seems impossible to deny this conclusion without first renouncing the Christian principles concerning the existence of a world of spirits, and man's connection with it. Of course we know that it has not been usual to trace such events to so deep a cause, nor to characterize them with so marked a providence; still every one who will carefully reflect upon the calamitous periods of the Church, must see that their causes lie in the disordered spiritual life of her people, who, after death, are collected in the world of spirits, and thence exercise an injurious influence on those remaining in the world. To bring them to judgment is a subject