The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1868-08-29

The hdud that made us is DIVINE
than in the destruction of poor, helpless, and
dying worms Of the dust-mOre gOdlike to
raise the fallen than trample upon and grind
them to powder.
He who had governed all these worlds,
and all the inteliigences of his illimitabl6
empire, righteously from their birth, needed
no such eXpedient to manifest his " glorious
Justice" If this doctrine be true, then JUS
tice is but another name for power, and the
most cruel and outrageous injustice Sinful
men DO not hold their fellows amenable to
the penalty Of the law for actions of which
they are guiltless, or which they were pow
erless to prevent They do not say to their
fellows, You shall be incarcerated in the
penitentiary for life, or hang by the neck
until you are dead, merely to manifest the
power and justice Of the government Such
action on the part Of the strongest govern
meut on earth would so outrage the innate
conceptions Of right and justice Of its sub
IeCts, that they would rise in mass and de-
strOy it. And how much better is the case
under consideration God determines and
DEGREES from all eternity to create men, and
without any foresight of their thoughts or
actions (fOr this IS the position assumed)
" tOreOrdains them to destruction to mani
fest his sovereign power" For, mark you,
what their actions may be, does nO5 inhu-
CLCt MS AttLCC All l4lt lCaSb AlCN bIC AOb
ordained to torment because he fOreknOws
they will sin and reject all the gracious pro
visions he contemplatcs for them through
his Son, but merely TO manifest his power
and glorious justice" ! affirm that this is
inconsistent with every idea of justice, and
subverts the very genius of the gospel, which
Is glad tidings Of great JOY TO all people,
and the object Of which Is to reconcile God
and the race. God, the Almighty Father,
yearns for the estranged love Of his erea-
lures; he cries unto them, My son, give
me thy heart But if this doctrine were
universally believed all might fear and
tremble before him, but none ever love.
The design of the Almighty, in the crea-
ton Of worlds and OF intelligences, was not
selfish And while the ultimate motive Of
all his acts is In himself, yet that motive was
not the childish desire to display himself
lncouceivably happy In the contemplation of
himself, he needed no intelligences to whom
he might exhibit his excellency. Neither
the fear nor the love of inferior beings
could augment his glory. Creation might
become q vast solitude, but still he would
remain the same glorious, independent God
That desire, common to all the good, to
make others happy, was the great motive Of
creation and subseryient to this end are all
his purposes. Y ca, beuevolence, as it swelled
the great heaft Of Deity, was the source
whence Minerva, ike countless worlds,
leaped into existence. God is love" God
became incarnate through love to save man.
Love to man offered his soul and body a sac
rifice for sin-the same love that filed his
heart on creations morn Yea, the same
love erected the cross far back in the cycles
Of eternity on the foresight of mans fall,
and to which, all along the history Of time,
God has turned the longing eyes of the
world until it rose in blood on Calvary.
j. w PoINDEXTEE.