The more we study the Cross, the more we shall see that every question of good and evil was [therein] brought to an issue, and the immutable basis laid for perfect blessing according to what God is in righteousness and grace and majesty too, [even] for the new heavens and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. We come by the blessed testimony that it meets all our wants; but, in contemplating it at peace, we see man in absolute sin, hating and rejecting God in grace and goodness; Satan's full power, the disciples fled in fear, and all the world else in his power against Christ; Man in absolute goodness, loving the Father and obedient, glorifying God in the very place of sin where it was needed, and at all cost; God in perfect righteousness against sin as nowhere else, and in perfect love to the sinner. If innocence was conditional blessing, [grace] is complete in perfectness, and its value never can change. It is everlasting righteousness. Hence the blessing of the new heavens and new earth is immutable. We have had an innocent Eden; and a sinful world; we shall have, besides the reign of righteousness, new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. J. N. D.