all: it could neither be called good nor any thing else, except empty. It would be as the eye, when there is no light: there is the organism still: but it is not useful, or beautiful, or bright—nor can any quality be predicated of it: that which gave it all its life and beauty and usefulness is absent. The Æolian harp hangs there;—but without the wind to breathe upon it, it is no harp, it is but a piece of soundless wood. So, the soul of man, unless breathed upon every instant by the Spirit of God, is a lifeless thing: the heartstrings of themselves, give forth no harmony of love—the voice no tune. God alone is life: man is but a recipient instrument and organ of life. God alone is good: man is but a recipient, from moment to moment, of goodness from Him. Let no man, then, lay his hand upon his heart, and say, "I am good;" or on his head, and say, "I am intellectual." He is, in fact, neither: of himself he is nothing but an empty form: but so far as his spirit is in the order in which God intended it to be, so far he is able to receive the life from God, which consists of love and wisdom,—and to manifest that life to others, in the forms of goodness and truth, or of intellect and love. And for this,—let him not be proud, but rather, thankful.
Goodness, then, we perceive, as appearing in man, is simply the result of his soul or mind being in a state of spiritual order,—such that it is a form corresponding to the Divine life, and thus able to receive and manifest it as it flows in from God. Understanding this, we shall now be able to see, by contrast, what Evil is.
If we revert to the illustration of the precious stone and the black mass, we shall observe, that the different
