are stirred up and made active, when we are led into dreadful temptation, and spiritual doubt and despair, out of which we are finally delivered by the Lord. Our heavenly Father thus utilizes the devils to the utmost, and turns to some good use every evil thing they inflict upon us.
This amelioration of the hells can only be possible after the thorough regeneration of men upon earth. When all men in the flesh react against evil spirits just as the angels do in heaven, the powers of hell will have no corresponding ultimate upon earth; and they must either be annihilated, or reduced into external correspondence with the lowest sphere of human life, which is neither spiritual nor rational, but sensual and corporeal. There they may find rest and peace.
It is a happy and ennobling thought, that he who performs a single good deed from a pure motive, contributes his little mite, not only to the salvation of his own soul, but to the order and beauty of the world, to the strength and glory of heaven, to the amelioration and repose of hell, and to the final reign of eternal peace!
