did God condemn whole legions of His beloved angels to an eternity of excruciating torments. Oh, was not their punishment excessive — greater than their crime? Did not God act rashly and in anger? No, for our God is a just God. He punished them less than they deserved, for our God is a merciful God. He hath done and He will never repent, for our God is a wise God. Had they cried back to Him as they fell: "Father, give us but one moment for repentance, and we will serve Thee with an eternity of love and do penance with an eternity of sorrow," He would have answered them: " No, it is too late. You have sinned, you must undergo the penalty, for I am the Lord and I have sworn and I will never repent." Oh, Sin! what a monster thou art! to dare to enter into even God's own heaven; to blight the fairest work of His hands; to rob Him of His beloved angels; to populate with them the miserable hell you and you alone have created.
Brethren, turn you now to God's second creation. Baffled in His first merciful design to make creatures happy in the enjoyment of Himself, He determines on another trial, and so He creates the earth and man. To His own image and likeness He makes him; a little less than the angels He created him. He places him in an earthly paradise, and He gives him absolute dominion over his own animal nature and over the entire animal kingdom. There man would have lived a long life in the peaceful enjoyment of all imaginable blessings — no troubles from within, no care from without; no labor, no war, no
