near as ever to men; still caring for them, still teaching them; and
his very stopping of all miracles, so far from being a sign of God's
anger or neglect, is a part of his gracious plan for the training of
his Church.

For consider--Man was first put upon this earth, with all things
round him new and strange to him; seeing himself weak and unarmed
before the wild beasts of the forest, not even sheltered from the
cold, as they are; and yet feeling in himself a power of mind, a
cunning, a courage, which made him the lord of all the beasts by
virtue of his MIND, though they were stronger than he in body. All
that we read of Adam and Eve in the Bible is, as we should expect,
the history of CHILDREN--children in mind, even when they were full-
grown in stature. Innocent as children, but, like children, greedy,
fanciful, ready to disobey at the first temptation, for the very
silliest of reasons; and disobeying accordingly. Such creatures--
with such wonderful powers lying hid in them, such a glorious future
before them; and yet so weak, so wilful, so ignorant, so unable to
take care of themselves, liable to be destroyed off the face of the
earth by their own folly, or even by the wild beasts around--surely
they needed some special and tender care from God to keep them from
perishing at the very outset, till they had learned somewhat how to
take care of themselves, what their business and duty were upon this
earth. They needed it before they fell; they needed it still more,
and their children likewise, after they fell: and if they needed
it, we may trust God that he afforded it to them.

But again. Whence came this strange notion, which man alone has of
all the living things which we see, of RELIGION? What put into the
mind of man that strange imagination of beings greater than himself,