Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/76

 sonably explained upon any other principle; and there have been periods in our history when the ascendency of some evil influences has been evident. Without deliverance and protection from those influences, no merely external impression for good can find an abiding place with men. To destroy the weed, the root must be dug up. It is necessary to "cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also." A wound externally healed when corruption is beneath, is always in danger of fresh suppuration. The malady of the patient cannot be removed so long as the source of it is active. The wise physician applies his remedy to the cause of the disease; when that is reached he knows that a cure may follow. And this has been the Lord's purpose whenever He has visited His people. He has come when men were suffering from "wounds and bruises and putrefying sores," and mercifully removed the wicked causes by which those maladies were induced; and the result has always been some improvement in the spiritual health of the people. Such, specially, were the occasion and purpose of the Lord's first advent. He came to "destroy the works of the devil;" "that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

But we will endeavour to open out these facts with a few additional considerations. It is commonly admitted that the Lord came, into the world in consequence of the fall of man, and that Redemption was the purpose of that coming. The opinions entertained upon those subjects are, that the fall of man was completed in Adam's transgression, and that Redemption consisted in the deliverance of man from the wrath of God, which that transgression had incurred.