THE UTILITY OF TRIBULATION. - There can be no perfect happiness without a knowledge of misery. The excellence of righteousness can not be made manifest, without a contrast of sign, and no man can feel the sweet satisfaction of righteousness unless he has been on probation; and no situation can be properly considered a state of probation, unless there are some failures therein. Therefore, it becomes the holiness of the Divine Being, in order to produce the greatest degree of rational happiness, to place his creatures on probation, although he knows that some of them will sin, and fall under condemnation;-the happiness of the obedient being thereby promoted, not by the misery of those who fall, but by the consciousness of having escaped. God will give to men the praise of righteousness and obedience, while they, with abundant propriety, will give to God all the glory of their salvation.