M A N
AND H IS M  OTIVE S.
BY
GEORGE MOORE, M.D.,
.,~
MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, LONDON, ETC.; AU  THOR OF "THE POWER OF THE SOUL OVER THE BODY," "THE
USE OF THE BODY IN RELATION TO THE MIND," ETC.
II live to move."-Sir J. Davies, 1599.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARF.
1862.
1., I       
z, - 2 y, - -.
PREFACE.
THIS work is somewhat religious; but it is
hoped that the reader will not deem an apology
necessary on that account, since it is impossible to
reflect on the nature and motives of man, without
concluding that religion is the end and purpose of
reason.
It was formerly the author's ambition to write
acceptably on subjects more strictly professional,
but circumstances having pressed the higher objects of thought upon his attention, he feels constrained to express his convictions, not because
others have not better exhibited those truths which
influence his own mind, but because the manner
in which he has felt and presented them may suitably meet the state of some other hearts, and induce in them those sympathies, without which life,
instead of brightening toward its close, is apt to
become dark indeed. # 
The topics propounded demand and deserve the
fullest consideration of every man, but especially
of him whose business it is to administer to the
relief of mental and physical disorder.  The medical practitioner can scarcely be engaged in his
duties, with a right feeling of their importance,
without discovering that moral influences operate
very extensively, both in causing and in curing
the majority of maladies.  Hc sees, too, that religious hope enables a patient to bear calmly,
and even cheerfully, those evils which therapeutic
agents, however important, can neither remove nor!
ameliorate, while the absence of religion often
aggravates disease, and adds terror to death,
The thoughts presented in this volume are such
as occurred to the author, while fully occupied in
his profession, and are those that his intimacy with
sufferers and with suffering leads him to believe
are most needed and most neglected.
The sick bed tests a man almost as much as the
martyr's pyre; and those who there see something
more than bodily disorder, often learn lessons of
the greatest practical value, in relation to the spiritual training of man. The physician thus gains instruction for himself, and he who does his best to
render such lessons availab# to others also, ought
iv
PREFACE.. 
PREFACE.
rather to be deemed worthy of praise than of
blame. Those views, which have encouraged the
writer's own heart, under appointed and appropriate trial, will probably tend also, in some degree,
to improve the faith, feeling, and practice of those
who shall peruse, with candor and kindness, what
has been writen in patience and hope.
This volume was designed, in connection with
two others —" The Power of the Soul over the
Body in relation to Health and Morals," and" The
Use of the Body, in relation to the Mind"-both
of which have been so far favorably received as to
warrant the expectation of an equally indulgent
reception of this, which, although of rather a different complexion, will probably be thought an
appropriate companion to them.  Those persons
who are disposed to dig deep, will discover indications in these works that they are based upon a
substratum of more difficult materials, designedly
kept out of sight. We give an architect credit for
laying a good foundation, notwithstanding he conceals it under what is intended to be familiai'.
The suggestion of an argument is usually sufficient
for all the practical purpose of persuasion, since
those who are reasonable enough to judge of
moral truth, readily work out ideas in their own
v 
PREFACE.
minds, without anll elaborate logic, but still in keep ing with their self-consciousness and experience.
Truth itself is of no advantage to any man, but as
it helps to rectify and regulate his desires, by directing his mind to right objects, thus enhancing
his hopes as well as his enjoyments, while imparting motives to look further on in the pathway of
heaven.
A  more philosophical style might easily have
been assumed, with the appearance, at least, of
greater profundity; but that is not always shallow
which appears transparent, not that deep which is
dark. The author prefers'to express what he feels
in such a manner as to seem but superficial truth,
provided what he writes excites his readers to look
deeper. He would rather invite them to contemplate distinct objects than endeavor to pierce indefinite space, where worlds of light appear but
as clouds, because our sight is insufficient for the
vastness before it.  Man, himself, is the grand
wonder, "mira prof nditas, Deus  mess, mira profunditas," a depth of which each one of us may
see a little by looking into himself; and another's
aid is valuable only but as it may dispose or enable a man to look within. The main object of
the writer has been to preserve before the mind
vi 
PREFACE.
tne grand truth, that intelligent love is the only
rightful power of government among rational
beings. The subject is divided into chapters,
which may be read either consecutively or in a
detached maner, each receiving illustration from
the rest, and yet not requiring that illustration in
order to be understood. There is no metaphysi
cal evolution attempted, but throughout the work
will be found scattered some of the writer's reasons for believing that the Bible. is consistent with
nature, with the necessities of man, and with all
we can conceive of his Maker. Should any injurious error have been introduced, it is sincerely
hoped that it may be corrected by reference to
the standard of truth, for it is the author's earnest
prayer that all his readers may be led to walk in the
light of a heavenly life, struggling against all delusion with unfettered soul.
Apil, 1848.
vil 
.0 
C ONTENTS.
CHAR                                                PAGY
1.-MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE-.-... —. —. —.. 11
2.-SELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT................... 33
3.-IMMORTALITY................................... --------— 51
4.-MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER................. 70
5.-MENTAL MANIFESTATION ------------------------- 89
6.-SELF-MANAGEMENT.... —---------------------------- 110
7.-ASSOCIATION ----------------------------------- 127
8.-LIKING AND DISLIKING —--—... ____.___.       148
9.-TEACHINGS OF LIGHT............................  167
10.-KNOWLEDGE ---------------------------------—... 188
ll.-FAITH ---------------------------------------- 205
12.-HOPE AND FEAR._____,.._.._..._._.__.      -226
13.-LOVE ---------------------------------------—. 247
14.-THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER. —------------- 272
15.-CONSCIENCE..................................... 287
I 
I 
MAN AND HIS MOTIVES.
CHAPTER I.
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
MAN is not a natural production, and the elements
of earth are not sufficient for his completion. He
is an embodied spirit, and from the source of his
existence he must derive those supplies which may
fit him to fulfill the purposes of his creation, and
satisfy his capacity for knowledge and happiness.
It is worthy of especial notice that there is scarcely
a people to be named which has not among them the
tradition or the prophecy of a perfect human nature;
and probably every mind imagines some model man,
some ideal type or standard of humanity, which all
ought to admire and imitate. But earth, as it is, has
never been deemed his home. Some suppose him
to have existed in a golden era long since departed;
others expect him yet to come. Some think that we
are his degenerated offspring; others believe that we
are progressively improving upon our ancestors, and
that, in due time, the progeny of our successors shall
be perfect beings, according to an orderly development,, from inherent qualities," by which at length
living monads become spiritual paragons, under astronomical influences and in virtue of gravitation, and
" the modes of action depending solely on organiza 
12    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
tion." We can not exactly calculate how long a period
may be necessary for the purpose of converting an
infusorial animalcule into a man, such a transformation
never having yet been observed in progress; but we
are pretty well assured, by the reluctant testimony
of infidels, as well as by the careful research of believers, that man can not have been an inhabitant
of earth  above  seven  thousand  years.   Geology,
ethnology, and the natural history of our race, bear
ample testimony, in this respect at least, to the truth
of the book of Genesis, which testimony is itself a fact
strongly in evidence of the inspired origin of that book;
since to guess at such coincidences in chronology and
science is beyond the reach of fancy. This length of
time seems not to be quite enough to answer the purposes of the development theory, but we can get no
more. We are not ignorant that skulls and other
bones of man have been discovered in caves and in
stalagmite formations, mixed with those of extinct
mammals, both ruminants and carnivora; and that
these bones in no respect differ from modern specimens.   It is also true  that geologists are nearly
unanimous in assigning these remains to periods far
within the date above named, and all their conclusions on the subject tend to confirm rather than invalidate the statement in the book of Genesis. If,
however, man had existed at an earlier period there
can be no very evident reason why his fossil remains
should not be found imbedded with those of other
creatures in the anterior formations.
As it appears from recent theorists that even now
man is at best but a paulo-post chimpanzee, he could
scarcely have become bimanal and biped at that date,
or, at least, monkeys and men ought then to have been
mingled in the same family circle.
History, either sacred or profane, has no respect for
the theory of development, and does not quite agree 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.    13
with it. Instead of finding mankind brutal and destitute of the arts of social comfort in the early periods
of our race, we have reason to believe that they were
highly civilized and cultivated; not, it may be, after
the complicated manner of the moderns, but still with
sufficient decision, in two forms at least, very much
as they now present themselves. There were those
among the people of most ancient date who took
pleasure in exercising power, in tyranny and rapine;
while others, impressed by the manifestations of divine
wisdom in the wondrous works of creation, or by the
tradition of God's covenant with man, took delight in
meditating upon his providence, and preserved a life
of quiet thoughtfulness and worship. According to
moral motives ancl the state of will, with regard to the
reve]alions of existence, the minds of men  appear
always to have been actuated to the attainment of
ends in keeping with their faith and knowledge.
Religion always made  the grand difference  among
mankind. There were always sons of God as well
as of Belial.  Those who, being instructed concerning righteousness, and believing and loving truth, were
looking forward to a future life, occupied their faculties
in subserviency to that end, while those wvho regarded
the present life as their only hope, gave themselves to
the indulgence of their tastes for sensual pleasures,
and to the contrivance of such means as best promised
the-fulfillment of their unholy desires. This, substantially, is all we learn of the history of mankind up to
the deluge.
The anxiety of infidels to dispose of the deluge, and
to satisfy themselves that they need not believe the
Bible, is most wonderful and deplorable. How eagerly
some of the French savans seized upon the zodiacs
sculptured on the temples of Dendera and Esneh,
with the hope that they had therein discovered a
demonstration that the Mosaic statement was a mis
4 
14    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
take. Their ingenuity would have been amusing had
it not been impiously absurd. M. Jomard proved to
his own satisfaction that these zodiacs were three
thousand, and M. Dupuis that they were, at the very
least, four thousand years older than the Christian
era, while M. Gori would not abate a week of seventeen thousand years. That their mathematical wvits*
were racked to little purpose is seen in their discrepancy. But observe how the truth at last prevails.
M. Champollion comes forward in the promising manhood of his intellect, and gives his life to the study
of Egyptian antiquities, and instead of guessing at the
mnieaning and dates of these zodiacs, learns really to
read them, and finds that the zodiac, the date of which
M. Dupuis had so clearly demonstrated to have been
at least four thousand years before Christ, wag actually erected in the reign of Augustus Caesar, and that
which M. Gori had carried back in his imagination
seventeen thousand years, had been raised in the time
of Antoninus, A.D. 140.
If we may credit the oldest history we possess, the
correctness of which none can invalidate, the mnost
difficult arts were not unknown amidst the family
of the first man. And there is little doubt that before
the flood the imaginations of men were refined enough
for the invention of whatever might contribute to
leighten the enjoyment of mere outside beauty, and
to render evil so indomitable in the heart of man that
to allow him to live on would be but to permit the
propagation of iniquity in such fascinating forms as to
banish the beauties of holiness from the earth. It
could not have been mere ignorance that was hardened
* " Mathematics is based upon nothing, and therefore arises
out  of nothing."-(Oken's Physio-philosophy, p. 5.)  These
words are not quoted because they are true-we can have
no idea of plus or minus, point, limit. form, dimension, or pro
portion, but from real things; a man born blind knows nothing
of a triangle unless he has felt its parts
b 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
against the preaching of Noah: ingenuity and unbelief,
satisfied with their own substitutes for divine order in
the appliances of a proud and perverted reason that
delights in its own works, were always the resisters
of righteousness. Savages would have been converted.
The antediluvians in general, at the time of Noah,
must have been skeptical geniuses, rationalists, and
despots, who could not believe in especial judgments,
abrupt transitions, and miraculous interferences for
the punishment of vice. They lived under the reign
of violence and terror, and being ingenious in disobedience, invented their own religion, and worshiped a
mock reason while they blasphemed God, and polluted
his sacred image in the form of man. Their spirits
were fit to be imprisoned.
The flood came-need it be proved?  All nations
acknowledge it. A reserved few replenished the new
world. Whence have we the tradition of a deluge if
it never happened? It was not a partial event-the
world owns it. The Chaldeans, Assyrians, Egyptians,
Grecians, Romans, Phoenicians, Syrians, Armenians,
Persians, Chinese, Hindoos, Arabians, Turks, Africans,
the North and South Americans, the Aborigines of the
South Seas, and every stray tribe of man, all hold a
tradition of the deluge; and science finds the record
written on the earth-the grand catastrophe assuredly
occurred, and faith "reads its significance. The Almighty altered the face of the world which he had
made, because the spirits of men required a judgment
co-extensive with their abode, and they were removed
to a place adapted to their wickedness. The living
earth perished in the great deep; but Noah and his
sons were not barbarians-they could enter into covenant with their Maker, for they had obeyed his voice.
But the original evil was in their blood, and soon we
find their offspring madly desirous of reigning without
righteousness.   That they were not, however, with
15 
1(;   MAN —PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
out skill, the tower of Babel bears them witness. The
city of Nineveh was magnificent in works of art, and
the ancient Memphis was not mean.  But we will pass
on a few hundred years. What does the progress of
time prove? Not that man was not mentally developed, but that his intellect was ever prone to seek
satisfaction without obeying God, and that Almighty
interference has always been required to prevent the
total apostasy of our race. Was Abraham, the friend
of God, less a man than any of us, or more so than
the first son of Adam?   No;  but he had superior
motives, and in the largeness of his heart he believed
God, and was also fit to associate with kings. In trusting to the absolute power of Jehovah as the sovereignty
of mercy, and reaching forward in faith for life beyond
death, and for an endless futurity of blessing at the
hand of the Omnipotent, he exhibits, in his brief story,
all that constitutes the sublimity of a human soul;
while yet, in the folly of his fears, we see a perfect
picture of man's infirmity and guiltiness. Thus we
are taught, as he was, that our recovery from degradation to the true standing of an obedient and a believing spirit is a divine work, accomplished by the
intelligent apprehension of God's purpose to oneself,
and a growing conformity to his will from a growing
confidence in his love.
The men of old were not minors in humanity. If
we may judge from what Moses has written, he was
as great a man as Newton: he preferred to suffer with
the people of God rather than to dwell as a prince
among ingenious idolaters; and he has presented us
with reasons for trusting in Jehovah. It is true that
he has not given us the mathematical elements of the
celestial mechanism; but yet Newton could discover
such plain indications in the writings of the chosen
shepherd that Omniscience was his teacher, that the
philosopher would at once have distrusted his own cal 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
culations had they in any instance contradicted the
Mosaic statement.  Who  could credit Moses if he
wrote merely like a philosopher? He does not seek
for causes, but sees the hand of God; he states facts,
explains not physics; he writes history, not theories;
he defends no hypothesis; he does not speculate; and
instead of doubtful opinions he annunciates positive
precepts. The moral law which he first conveyed to
mnen is so perfectly suited to man's social and spiritual
relations that to break it in any particular is evidently
in spirit to contravene the whole, and it is so intimate
and consistent, that, like creation itself, it bears the
impress of its Maker, and can be no other than a transcript of the Eternal Mind, humanly expressed.
The present state of the world is L proof that Moses,
in describing the distribution of Noah's descendants,
stated an anticipated truth. The prediction may be
tested now-it is the history of the world in a few
lines. Philosophers, in tracing mankind to their origin,
are obliged to terminate their researches in Asia, as
the center of civilization, and the source of all those
streams of light which have flowed over the earth.
Both creation and the deluge place man in the central
East. From thence Shem, Hamn, and Japheth divide
the world among their offspring.  Europe was peopled
by those of Japheth; those of Ham spread over Africa
and the south-western parts of Asia; and those of
Shem populated the teeming Orient., By these were
the nations of the earth divided after the flood." (Gen.
x. 32.) The slight statement given by Moses is sufficient for the purposes for which it was recorded-it
effectually serves to prove the truth of prophecy God
spake by all the prophets since the world began. Thus
we see the fulfillment of Noah's prediction concerning
his sons, and that the nation from whom the Deliverer
came is not obscure. The providence of God is thus
traced with specific relations to the final arrangement
17
2 
is    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVA'TI-E.
of the nations, when in the reign of Heaven it shall
be manifest, that fromn the commencement of history
and prophecy to their consummation, the earth and
its inhabitants have been held in the hand of their
Maker, and regarded by Him in their totality, for glo  rious purposes ere long to be completed. Who told
Moses that Noah knew that the islanders of Europe
should colonize the East, or that Africa should be an
oppressed land? And so with regard to all he foretells.
Did Moses study the doctrine of chances in Egypt,
and speak truth by accident?  Then chance is no
longer a name for incongruous contingencies, but the
mistress of sciences, that not only predicts but fulfills
the miracles she utters.  Avaunt, deceiving spirit!
Ascribe not to chance the word and power of God.
Trace a raindrop from the ocean through the clouds
and back again to the'deep, and find it there, and then
perhaps you may be able to foretell what should hap  pen among the sons of men thousands of years before
their birth. It is this evolution of man's destinies, as
foreshown in prophecy, that renders the Bible so mar  velous, astounding, and trustworthy a book, possessing
in its own testimony its own divine credentials, and
proving that none have a right to question its doctrines
until they have invalidated its authority.
Physiologists persuade us that they have proved
that the Caucasian is the highest variety of man, and
that the descending scale from  this is Mongolian,
American, Malay, Negro. If this be true, does it not
follow that man came from his Maker's hand as a
Caucasian rather than a Negro? Surely it is more
consistent to suppose that man was made in his high  est form at first, and that he afterward degenerated
in his habits and cranial development, than to suppose
that he improved upon his Creatbr's workmanship,
and raised himself from the lowest type to the highest.
-It would be easy to show how the highest might, by 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
neglect of the means bestowed by providence, have
descended from the proper standard and model of man.
Physiology, history, and the sacred scriptures agree
in showing that human degradation has always result  ed from neglecting the knowledge and advantages
which God bestowed on man for the preservation of
society in due order, under the influence of industry,
religion, and law.
The origin of man, the law, the divine covenant
with man, and man's incessant failure, all the facts
and all the prophecies in the Pentateuch, belong more
or less to the fuller developments of providence which
we recognize as history, and we must nullify our own
knowledge to deny that of Moses; and far more: we
must resign our trust in Jehovah's dealings with man
as his Saviour and his Sanctifier; for to destroy the
Pentateuch is to destroy the foundation on which
Christianity, with all our hopes, is built.  With such
interests at stake, we have reason to be in earnest in
our defense of the credibility of the Hebrew found ling. But to question the authenticity of Moses is
like endeavoring to prove that God forsook the world
as soon as he had made it, and has had no intercourse
with man since his creation. We may agitate the
question-the result will still be an unavoidable conviction that a written revelation is not less a fact than
the world we live in. But our object was to show
that the nature of man has not been gradually evolved
from an inferior form, and we appeal to the totality
of history as summed up in the Bible, in proof of our
position.
Were the subject exhibited in its physiological bearings, we should see abundant proof that the creative
fiat has fixed specific limits within which all creatures
continue to propagate their kind after their own likeness, so far at least as never to approximate to-a new
order.   Distinction is preserved amidst variety;  the
19 
20    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
shades of gradation are separate lines; and however
near the resemblance between species may be, yet
there is no mixture. To suppose otherwise were to
ascribe confusion to the work of omnipotence, and to
regard nature as a force beyond rule, operating at
random to an infinite enormity.  Those who assert
that one race of living creatures may be developed
firom another are required first to show us an instance
of the fact; but let them be careful to avoid mistakes,
for their business is to contradict the conviction of all
ages, and to prove that it is absurd to believe that, God
made the-beast of earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the
earth after his kind." The greater caution is necesssary in endeavoring to falsify these words, since those
who have hitherto attempted it have only so far succeeded as to prove that the presumption of man is at
least indefinite.
It might be easily demonstrated that as long as mnan
has been known to man he has appeared in the same
general form and proportion as at present, wonderfully
adapted to his place and occupation on earth; but it
is of far more importance to observe that, as a thinking
being, man was the same when Moses wrote as he is
now; and that though fully capable of considering the
wonders of creation with a reasonable discernment of
their Author's power and wisdom, yet the true awakening and appetite of reason were proved rather in
demand for spiritual light than speculative knowledge,
for then, as now, man could not reflect without feeling
himself a sinner; nor think of God without asking how
he was to be justified with Him; nor hope for an im mortality of good without finding an Almighty Saviour.
Humanity was, at least in this respect, as much de veloped when Job and his friends discoursed concern ing- the government of Providence as it is among mod ern philosophers who labor under the disadvantage of 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.   21
not having received the New Testament; and it must
be granted that the Hebrew prophets knew the holy
character of God, and were remarkable for their insighlt into coming events, since much that they predicted is now visible to our eyes. But if the prophets with their sublime ideas, Job and his friends with
their mysterious discussions, and Moses with his august record of the verified order of creation, are realities, we learn that Omnipotence has always operated
in keeving with the morals of men, and that Providence is not the development of a mere physical contrivance, but the direction of a spiritual supremacy
over beings capable of spiritual instruction by appeals
'to their understandings, and their motives as rational
agents.
Man. then, is not a ripening organism, but a peculiar
being, having relation both to the past and to'the future,
and an interest both in history and prophecy, because
time, eternity, and man belong to God, who uses them
all for the manifestation of Himself. Hence there can
be no bound to man's capacity for intelligence, nor
limit to his life, since both life and intelligence are
united in him for the purpose of evincing God himself
as the Eternal Reason. From this cause it arises that
all men who have looked upon this world of light, with
their spiritual eyesight open to perceive its beauties,
have in all ages exhibited that degree and standard of
intelligence which reach at once to the highest conclusions of science, and induce a man to join heart
and soul with Job, Moses, David, and the prophets in
celebrating the majesty of the Eternal, who in Himself
gives unity to all the varieties of nature, makes the
worlds of matter and of minds one universe, and
claims our confiding trust in His hand, because unceasing providence is His one continued act.
From the foregoing and many other considerations,
both scientific and religious, we shall probably be justi 
22    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
fled in preferring to believe the statement that man
was expressly created in relation to his Maker rather
than that he was developed from an inferior creature.
We  would  not, however,  question  the fact, that
Omniscience is at work in all the universe, diffusing
life and mind among innumerable beings, none of
which stands alone, and among the minutest of which
not a feeling is awakened that is indifferent to the
heart of the Creator. He regards all his works, in
their infinite totality, with a full knowledge of each
inscrutable particular.  His love is not divided, His
mercy is over all, because all is His; but it is through
man that the unity of nature is revealed, and the
loving kindness of Omnipotence made manifest. And
as no other creature on earth is conscious of God's
love, so if he fail, through ignorant or malicious motives, to dbey that love, he departs from his right
place in creation, and bears a curse where he should
have conveyed blessing.
Human existence is not an accident-God has a
purpose in it; let us, therefore, endeavor to discover
what belongs to us, and by learning how we are provided for, learn also what is demanded on our parts, in
order to obtain our right position as individual spirits.
If we may judge from the more recently imported
specimens of scientific surmise concerning man's derivation, there appears to be no such great improvement
in the theory of development, as will serve to account
either for our hopes or our fears, The mere fact that
we are conscious beings, that can think of the demands
of Deity on our consciences, is, however, the only
omission in the scheme! Polarization and matter
being given, make a man, says the physio-theorist.
There is the difficulty; the materials may suffice to
form a body, all we want is the soul; in short, the
theory fails in its working, and gives us the man-all
but himself! 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.    23
-, Man is also a child of the warm and shallow parts
of the sea," says Oken, the logical physio-philosopher,
(~ 213, Ray Soc. Transl.), It is possible that man
has only originated on one spot, and that, indeed, the
highest mountain in India. It is even possible, that
only one favorable moment was granted in which men
could arise.   A  definite mixture of water, definite
heat of blood, and definite influence of light, must
concur to his production; and this has probably been
the case only in a certain spot and at a certain time."
" The deluge cast up the first men," (Oken, p. 324.)
" They were littoral inhabitants, and, without doubt (!),
carnivorous, as savages still are (?). From whence
could they have obtained also fruits, cabbage, and turnips?" Whence, indeed-ask Moses. The certain
time and the certain place of theory are the most uncertain things in the world, and the assumed definite
mixtures necessary to make a man are more undefined
than the man in the moon.  But there are two or three
points in this anthropology which are worthy of remark.
The author acknowledges the deluge, and derives man
from the East, and traces him, so to say, to one source.
Would he have done so if he had not been compelled,
in spite of his theory, to yield to the evidences in favor
of these facts?
The philosopher ascribes the production of man to
sea-mucus, or, to use chemical language, hydrated
carbon. From this, he asserts, all organized beings
have originated, and, by self-elevation, issued forth
into higher organisms.   Thus creative will is dispensed with; and man, like all the rest of moving
things, grew up of his own accord, from the infusorium of a putrid sea-mucus. There stands the word,
and there, the fact-,, Male and female created He
them." If it could but be proved that there is no
personal God, and that he did not create male and
~e4ale, this theory would not be half so wonderful; 
24    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
but that, with the definite mixture of heat, light, carbon, and water, in some certain time and certain place,
two of each kind, male and female, of all the myriads
of animated being, should have sprung up as a natural
matter of course, and that only once, is very marvelous
indeed, since we can see no reason why what has
emerged from the shallow and warm sea should not
emerge again. Sea-mucus is under as favorable circumstances for forming a man as ever, both in the
West and in the East, or otherwise man and mucus
could be scarcely existing in the same globe together.
Whence can the organic have originated but from the
inorganic? asks the philosopher again.   We  reply,
Could not God create both?
It will probably best promote our object, if we look
back to the more authentic record of our origin, and
learn our Maker's estimate of our existence.
The first man-the man of earth, e terrd terrenus,
was, in his outward  existence, fashioned and conformed with the materials of this objective world, in
bodily keeping with the order of the elements from
which he was to derive the sustentation of his physical life, and those impressions which should excite in
his soul ideas and experience.  Raised erect from the
ground, as if by the hand that formed his body of the
dust, he stood forth mature and perfect, exquisitely
organized to be the fit inhabitant of the Paradise prepared by the Almighty, on purpose to prove the greatness of His goodness to His most august and stupendous
creature. The spirit of animation, the very breath of
God, kindled every fibre of his frame, and constituted
within it a distinct selfhood, a being of thought and
will, which thus reflected the mind that made it
capable of perceiving and appreciating Divine purpose.   In self-consciousness man responded to the
movements of his living heart; within himself he felt
existence to be a personality. Gradually the life with 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
in him opened the avenues of knowledge, and, as he
stirred and felt, motion and sensation seemed one with
himself. As a babe, tenderly nestled by its mnother's
loving heart, finds every thing around it so thoroughly
arranged to meet the demands of its awakening mind,
that nothing jars upon its senses; so man, by degrees,
awoke to the presence of his prepared place, lapped
in Paradise, with nothing wanting to the growth of his
soul in knowledge and bliss. All things were so consistent with his nature, that surprise entered not
amidst the expanding harmony of his enjoyments.
The light, attempered in heaven, touched with the
gentleness of God's own finger, the fine sensitive
nerves of vision, even through his sealed eyelids, so
as to cause them, with an involuntary action, to open
of themselves, like the petals of a flower, and to admit into the soul, as at one draught, the whole paradise of sight. Thus man seemed united to all he saw,
and, as one that dreams of peaceful glories, the scenes
around him appeared but as if formed by his own
spirit. Perfume blended with beauty in the dewy
radiance, and the varied utterances of love and joy
from every living thing mingled their music in the
balmy air, and passed together so sweetly into his soul,
that they became a world of ideas within him, more
mighty in their influence, as thoughts, than were the
things that caused them. Man began to reason, and
then God met him, and that in such a manner, that he
needed not to be told who was his Maker. The Almighty
met man to command him, and to call upon him to
name every animated thing according to his apprehension of its nature. He invested man with authority,
and imparted to him power to hold dominion over all
that moved in earth, and air, and sea; because he
understood, by converse with Divine Intelligence,
why and for what ends all were created. Without
laborious research and elaborated logic, man saw the
.25 
26     MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
meaning of each form and physical attribute, and re quired no anatomy to prove the benevolence of design;
since every creature expressed, in every action, its
own happiness, and all nature responded in joy to the
benediction of God. The power, the will, and the
pleasure of activity were in man united, in tilling the
ground and replenishing the fruitful earth with all that
might be cultivated by his skillful hand, to administer to
his taste for beauty, or his need for aliment; and it
was man's appointed business so to direct his knowledge
of nature and necessity, as to contribute, by his wise
employment of nature's productiveness, to the wants
and pleasures of all the sentient creatures over which
he held dominion. Thus the life of man was actively
engaged in multiplying blessings, and therefore he felt
that life was blessed; he loved to live, because he
lived in love, and satisfied the demand of every day by
daily taking fresh fiuit from the tree of life, as if from
the hand of his God and Father. But he still needed
a reciprocity of affectionate intercourse, and a fellowship in worship and authority. From his own flesh a
help was formed for him by the finger of his Maker,
for God knew that man required more than to reign
alone over a dumb world, in order to the completion
of his blessedness; since finite reason, without a corresponding heart, would need no tempter to turn the
Garden of Eden into a solitary waste. Jehovah consummated his gifts, and brought to man a being that
might lean upon his bosom, and with kindred love
claim to speak with his heart. But human nature
was intended to be the revelation of Omnipotence,
and therefore, with all. its duties, came also danger,
and with every good, the possibility of evil. But the
highest good was the highest test of the will, and
therefore, with affection, man entered on that trial by
which he proved himself dependent on God for the
.nower of loving with a right spirit. Man chose to 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.    27.
partake with woman of the vain hope of living inde pendently of God for knowledge and for wisdom. He
loved the best creature that he could love more than
he loved the Being who gave him that object of his
heart; and woman wished to have something to confer
on man besides herself and her love. He forgot that
he was bound, by the very terms of his existence, to
hold all his affections in the sanctity of obedience to
the loftiest love, and she forgot that love was better
than knowledge and dearer than life.  They were
created under law; they felt, they thought, they desired, they acted, they reigned under law; and the
happiness of their disposition, of their ideas, of their
actions, proved that the law of their creation and wellbeing was the benevolence and love of the Creator
toward them, for God had so ordered Paradise, on
purpose to please and to employ them. But there is
duty in law, the creature must obey in order to be
blest. The power imparted to man must be regulated
by his own will to right ends, he must behave like a
thinking spirit, and that can only be by limiting his
actions in voluntary and intelligent obedience to acknowledged truth. With this necessary condition, the
exercise of power leads only to the enjoyment of
present realities, and, with ever-coming hopes, to the
enlargement of faculty and fuller bliss. The knowledge of facts and objects is but mental chaos, without
an understanding of the Divine intention in the order
and plan of nature and Providence; and this intention
is revealed to us, that we may learn that love is obeyed
only by being trusted.
What might have been but for the fall we need not
ask. Perhaps the words, might be" mean impossibility, and whatever is could not have been but as it is.
At least we know that all events are managed by the
Might that reconciles all things to himself. We may
still do what Adam did. He doubtless saw more and 
28    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
more clearly as he studied the handiwork of God,
that there is a constant coincidence between the lessons taught by physical order and those taught by
moral ordinances; because the will of Heaven is expressed in both, and that will is alike wise and good.
But in undue creaturely affection Adam lost sight of
goodness and wisdom, and yielding to the voice that
contradicted God, he neglected the first of all duties,
that of self government, and fondly, and in mere sympathy, subordinated the lordship of his soul by giving
to a beauteous creature the whole of his heart, and
thus converted God's own temple into the house of
idolatry and sin. We habitually do the very same
thing. Herein we find proof of our fall, and the profundity of that fall. All the qualities which the first
man possessed are visibly lapsed into disorder, and we
see and feel them to be so in ourselves and in our associates. The fall is a fact in our own experience;
we are born into it and can not raise ourselves out of
it. Still, however, in some sort we retain those-characteristics of mind which must have distinguished the
first human being. There is sense, but it is abused;
there is the love of life, but it regards not its source;
there is the desire for knowledge, but it is naturally
a vague curiosity, or, at best, but the love of natural
science blended with curious doubts of manifest truth;
there is the love of exercising power, but instead of
the fostering dominion of a charitable reason devising
good for all that it can serve, it is apt to become an
assumption of a right to rule, so as to make government a tyranny of terror, and all obedience mere eyeservice; there is the love of sociality and of sex, but
it is always ready to degenerate into the calculation
of comforts, the dalliance of fond souls, or the luxuriance of romance and wantonness. Instead of affianced
faith, with hopes sure and certain, there is fancy with
her deluding phantasms, and expectations incompati 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
ble with Divine government; instead of wisdom learn
ing humbly to work with her own hands in cultivating
the rooted tribes of earth, while her soul is turned
heavenwards, there is self-satisfied conceit, seeming
to see something to laugh at in the distortions of humanity, and yet wondering at man's folly. Instead
of a conscience open as light to light, there is cringing and cowardice, and creeping behind the trees to
hide from God in the twilight; and instead of a free
will, refusing to know evil, there is now a crash of
opposing volitions and desires too frequently devoted
to works of darkness. But we need not search for
sin, it is every where-the similitude to God is gone
from the soul of man. We acknowledge that we see
his likeness in the moral law, but we do not find it in
our hearts. If we look at them in the light we discern a substitute there which the grand Deceiver
might have furnished. But, nevertheless, we know
a way in which the image of God may be indelibly
restored in true knowledge, righteous activity, sensible
manifestation, unfailing faith, obedient power, love unfeigned, clear conscientiousness, and liberty of will.
The reception of truth in love is the restoration of
the perfect man, and God's own spirit is its source.
We must be conscious of what we need before we
shall seek for it, and we must know what is essential
to a right state of mind before we shall discern our
defects and desire their removal. Let us therefore
look a little more closely into this subject.
For the purpose of obtaining a succinct and simple
view of the prominent peculiarities of our mental and
moral constitution, it will probably be sufficient to consider man in relation to his pleasures. In this view
we must, in fact, include both his desires and his endowments, since he can desire only what he may believe shall contribute, either directly or indirectly, to
his pleasure; and he can attain this end only by such
29 
30    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
means as are placed within his power. Thus by
studying our inclinations and our aims we shall learn
what is essential to our happiness, and ascertain
whether we are employing our faculties in a manner
calculated to secure our ultimate satisfaction. Every
faculty is associated with its appropriate desire, and is
exercised with an appropriate pleasure.
1st. Man is endowed with senses; hence the de sire and the enjoyment of sense.
2d. Man is enabled to exert himself, and he desires
to do so, and finds enjoyment in action.
3d. Man possesses the faculty of conceiving and
contemplating the mental images of things not present
to his senses; hence he possesses the desire, and
experiences the pleasure, of exercising imagination,
memory, and fancy.
4th. Man has intellect, or the power of thinking on
the nature and property of things in relation to each
other; hence he desires knowledge, and enjoys reflection and comparison.
5th. Man is capable of crediting statements beyond
his actual experience, and he is apt to believe more
than he can learn through his own senses; and in believing he finds pleasure.
6th. Man loves certain qualities which he esteems
amiable; hence his desire for objects of affection and
his pleasure in them.
7th. Man has the capacity of distinguishing good
from evil in relation to moral law; he has a conscience, in the right state of which he desires to do
his duty, and in so doing receives pleasure in selfapproval, and the approbation of God, and the good
and goodwill of his neighbor.
Will, in the abstract, may be regarded as characteristic of consciousness: there is no mind without it.
As the possibility of any pleasure implies the possibility of its opposite, pain; so there can be no sensp 
MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.   31
of things, either agreeable or otherwise, but because
the willing being, or agent, is correspondingly affected.
But there is a higher form of will pertaining to rational
existence, by which we choose, not merely according
to sensation, but also according to moral conviction.
We do not always obey our desires, but sometimes
deny ourselves a pleasure in consideration of results
that may affect our future well-being; hence it evidently appears that we possess the power, if willing,
to exert our faculties either to oppose or to encourage
any of our natural desires for the purpose of accomplishing some end, in pursuing which all our endowments are modified, both as regards the dispositions
and pleasures connected with them.
Desire, power, and pleasure, imply the existence
of a selfhood that desires, acts, and is pleased. The
existence of these faculties implies the love of life,
and this conducts us to the consideration of immortality.  The selfhood has relation to an outward consciousness, through the senses, by which images of
objects are impressed on the mind. Desire, action,
and pleasure, must of course relate to objects either
perceived or inferred. We can not see God, but we
can believe in his existence, and love him too, if we
feel his benevolence through the many proofs which
he presents to our senses. The groundwork of all
thought is objective. Our Maker teaches us by what
he has actually done for us both in body and in spirit:
he does not demand our allegiance but on palpable
evidence and conviction.
We can in no case see the cause either of action or
reaction, motion or rest, either mentally or materially.
We witness only the media and vehicles of power,
either dynamic or resistant; and whether we study
physical forces or moral influences, we find that
objects are alike but signs of spiritual existence; so
that all we can know of truth is but inference con 
32    MAN-PRIMITIVE AND DERIVATIVE.
cerning the relation of things ostensible to things beyond the sphere of our senses, or else but the direct
communication to our minds of intelligence from some
being better informed concerning the secrets of creation in their union and totality. Reason must either
infer from effects to causes, or be instructed by revelation. Belief in God is the end in both cases. By
inference man forms a notion of Deity according to the
extent of his own knowledge of nature, but by revelation he is taught the moral attributes of God, as a being
causing himself to be known to man in righteousness
and love forever.
It will therefore be but consistent and reasonable to
treat our subject with reference both to natural and
revealed truths, while still confining our attention, for
the most part, to man's inherent love of pleasure, and
the means provided for its gratification Keeping the
capacity either for enjoyment or misery always in
view, we may distribute our thoughts without regard
to any artificial system; still, however, preserving, as
far as possible, throughout our disquisitions, the distinction felt by us all between the intellectual, moral,
and emotional conditions of our nature.
This plan is a deviation from that indicated by metaphysicians, but we may, notwithstanding, be able to
show that it is not the less congruous with what we
know of ourselves, and with what the Maker of mind
has condescended to teach us. We would not, however, depreciate the labors of those capacious and masculine intellects that have investigated and expounded
the science of mind, but would rather freely and thankfully acknowledge our obligation to many of them, who,
like men of faith and reason, have met infidelity on its
own ground, and there defeated it, by casting in its
eyes a new light, and causing it to see the hideousness of its own features, as if reflected in the bright
shield of truth. 
CHAPTER II.
BELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT
WHAT is a soul?  It is yourself.  Some notorious
physiologists tell us they can not discover the soul
and, according to the best of their judgment, that
which is moved by the rational will is the same thing
as that which wills to move.  Bones, muscles, nerves,
bloodvessels, antid brain, constitute a thinking and feel
ing machine, say they, working on chemical and me
chanical principles-and that this machine is a man
when arranged in the form of a wingless biped, and a
brute when contrived for walking on four feet. Moses
was not enlightened, like a modern philosopher, by
feeling his way in the dark. He saw a little further
into the mysteries of man's existence than these
physiologists, and certainly concluded, by the divinity
within him,  rather than  by inference, that mere
machinery is not disposed to think of the personal
character of the Deity; but that a being that reflects
upon the past, and pries into the future, with a desire
to know God, and to resemble him, is really his representative on' earth. If man may be in any respect a
similitude of his Maker, it can only be in his mental
and moral nature, unless, indeed, the Almighty-preposterous thought!-be himself a bodily being, and
nothing more.   Of course, no one will deny that
matter would feel, and think, and worship, if Omnipotence ordained that it should; but then that must
be a matter of which we can not conceive the existence, for it must be a matter with a personal will.
Without turning to the-Bible, we can discern that
understanding and will, in a moral and religious sense,
3 
34      SELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRFr.
can proceed only fron God's own direct impression
of truth on the mind of man. We can know nothing
-but by Divine teaching, the thinking faculty and the
object of thought being both created.   The  apprenension of God as a personal Being, demanding our
obedience and adoration, is surely not a property of
matter-adoration is mental conformity to God's will.
This power, proceeding from the Creator to the creature, and enabling it to think and will with a recognition of himself, can not be organic. Matter exists,
indeed, as a medium for manifesting to us the thoughts
even of God himself, but this must be to a mind, to a
being, that thus perceives the purpose and will of the
Creator, and this being, when conformed to that will
and purpose by a corresponding will and purpose in
his own person or individuality, is the image of God in
as far as any creature can resemble Deity, or reflect
his character.
It is the man himself that perceives, thinks, and
determines; but the power to perceive, think, and
determine can not be predicated of the body, or any
part of it, therefore the man himself can not be the
body, but something occupying and influencing the
body so as through it to become acquainted with the
objects of sense.   Desire, emotion, intellect, result
fromn the operation of the discerning and reasoning
power in consequence of sensation, which is itself a
mental perception of bodily impression, and which in duces the percipient principle to act according to its
own nature.   That which perceives is the subject
of sensation, and therefore can not have been caused
by sensation. Without the anterior existence of an
agent to receive impressions through the senses, sense
could not be.  Reason thus seems indubitably to de mand our assent to the fact asserted in the commtnon
language of mankind as to the existence of a distinct
agent as the actuating principle in a living human body. 
SELFHOOD —SOUUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
But a new kind of rationalism has arisen of late,
which, while acknowledging the reality of revelation,
nevertheless refuses to receive as truth any thing.
which can not be demonstrated to the senses. Those
who addict themselves to the dogmatism of such a
sensible faith not being able to see, hear, touch, oi
taste the soul, nor to test it by any chemical agents
very consistently deny its existence altogether. And
yet, yielding somewhat to the fashion of belief in
favor of the Bible as an authoritative document, be cause its historic, internal, and collateral evidences
amount to a demonstration of its rightful claims to our
credence, these rational believers have succeeded at
last in convincing themselves, that in that marvelous
Book there is no such thing spoken of as a soul or
spirit irrespective of the body, and therefore they
conclude that bodily existence, such as we witness,
is all we are taught by the words spirit and soul as
applied to man, either in this life or the next.
It is my anxious desire to found all my metaphysical opinions upon the Bible, because 1 think this book
contains an explicit statement of God's mind as regards
all that is essential for us to believe, in order to our
everlasting prosperity, both as intellectual and moral
beings. The sacred volume, indeed, is not constructed
on philosophical principles, because it is God's word, and
therefore there is no speculation in its announcements;
for God does not propose to theorize on his own work,
but yet whatever can be proved true in philosophy and
science  must be found in keeping with scriptural
statements if these are true, since one truth can not
contradict another.  I believe in the truth of revelation
because I have not been able to discover any thing of a
demonstrable kind, either in the science of matter or
of mind, at variance with it, and therefore if I now
hear of a doctrine like that which asserts the non-existence of any thing but what niay bo seen, heard, tor
35 
36       SELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
handled, and find that it does not agree with what we
know of physical, mental, or divine teaching, it is no
difficult task to determine to what class of productions
the said doctrine belongs.
But what does revelation as well as common reason
announce concerning the soul as a distinct spiritual
existence?
There is much dispute about the words spirit and
matter, but what we want is meaning.   Probably all
men understand by matter something capable of impressing the senses, something to be estimated on physical principles. Now that which thinks and wills can
not be perceived by our senses, nor have its properties
and forces tested by physical means. We can not see
thought with the eye, like light; we can not cause it to
travel by a wire, like electricity; it is something more
subtile than either, but yet it operates on matter, and
causes it to impress our senses; and thus you, my reader,
have before you a visible expression of the ideas in my
mind.   But the ideas are not on the paper; you see
the signs of them, and by the eye of the mind see
them in your own soul, where they are formed as they
are in mine, because we are both of us thinking beings.
We can not now perceive each other by the bodily eye,
nor could we if we mnet; we should only see the outward form of an inward power; because it is not the
thinking being that is seen, but that which the thinking
being acts upon. Yet a consciousness of our thoughts
and desires is not a consciousness of any particular object as present to our senses, for we think of ideas, and
ideas have no physical existence, and yet they are real
and potential in their influence on our conduct and
comfort. Now that which thinks and wills we may call
spiritual and immaterial since we find no analogy between its nature as experienced by ourselves, and any
material object.
Those who deny the existence of immaterial or 
SELF[HOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
spiritual being are obliged to conclude that the Deity
Himself is material, and some have daringly asserted
that they intend this. But we will suppose they are
using terms in an unusual sense, and that they really
mean that the matter of a spiritual existence is different from any of which we have any notion. If so,
it is manifest that neither we nor they can comnprehend what kind of matter they write about.   If the
matter they mean is incorruptible, and immortal, and
thoughtful per se, then it is not matter in its common
sense character, but something else, and this something
nmay be called spirit, to distinguish it from things that
are insensible, corruptible, and mortal, or liable to atomic
change and integral destruction.
Unless moral law be the same as physical law, there
must be moral existence as well as physical existence.
Does not reason every where acknowledge that love to
God and our neighbor is utterly different from elective
affinities and the forces that bind materials together?
Have we no conscience, no response within us to the
rightfulness of doing unto others as we would that they
should do to us under similar circunmstances?   Yes;
we can will in keeping with an ordinance that is not a
physical law; we can acknowledge the benevolence of
our Maker, and consent to His demand upon us to act
in keeping with His love.
Physical law is an ordinance that has nothing to do
with obedience; it is irresistible, and yet capable of
being altered by Divine determination, so that the visible universe might cease to be what it is; but moral
law is unalterable, because it expresses the character
of God himself, and therefore we may infer that the
beings to whom it applies are also indestructible; but
of course only because Divine will constitutes them
responsive with respect to the Divine attributes That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."  Spiritual
laws are addressed to spiritual beings, and we can,not
37 
38      SELIHOOD-S.:,UL, MIINDO  PIRP'P.
be otherwise than of the nature of spirits if we are enabled so to think and will as to desire truly to adore the
Deity, who is a Spirit; for surely intelligent worship
;s but as the conscious response of an understanding
soul bowing through all its being inii the felt glory of
Jehovah's presence. It is mind apprehending the terrible beauty of holiness, and looking, in the consciousness
of dependence, for Almighty sustentation, because it
feels itself created on purpose to receive its own sufficiency only firom the fullness of its God.
If we believe the Bible we believe that our Maker
calls men spiritual beings. It is true that, in the sacred scriptures, from which alone we can learn anything concerning existence beyond sense, the word
spirit (rrvevua) is used in several significations, but
still it is certainly often employed to designate the
power or attribute of a distinct conscious, active agent,
and by implication, therefore, to designate that agent
itself. God is a Spirit-not.the energy of a being, but
energetic being itself. The spirits of just men made
perfect are perfect men, and so with regard to beings
of every order to whom the word spirit is applied. It
expresses both the mode or state of an existence, and
the existence itself, because mode and state can not
be predicated of that which does not exist.
A great degree of confusion exists with regard to
the use of the terms mind, -soul, and  spirit, which
probably might be obviated by considering the word
soul as significant of the self hood, which is exhibited
by will and understanding, these together being called
mind, or the soul, in relation to emotion and perception; the term spirit being restricted to designate the
attribute, character, or nature of the mind. Thus
man is proved to be a psychical being, or soul, by his
mental faculties; and these prove themselves, by the
mode of their operation and their motives, to be essentually spiritual, in distinction from physical. 
SELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
I
It is not for us to determine whether a created spirit
is necessarily conjoined with some kind of body or
not.   Conjunction is not unity.  We  neither know
what spirit nor what body is. The elements with
which we are familiar are but different forms of force
according to the fiat of Omnipotent will, and, for
aught we can say, spirits may always embody their
wills by expressing them in appropriate forces, so as
to be sensibly seen, heard, and felt, by beings in a like
order of existence. We need not, however, speculate
curiously concerning this subject, since it is enough
for us that, whether in the body or out of the body,
it is the expressed purpose of our God to provide
means for all the happiness which, as confiding creatures, we can require. There is a spiritual body, we
are told, and the idea of a body is necessary, in order
to convey to our conceptions the idea of action, because
a bodily form is essential to all we know of outward
operation; nor can we imagine mental influence but
in relation to a body; but yet it is the influence or
power of one thing upon another, agent and subject,
and therefore they can not be the same things.
But the term soul (ipvyr), as employed in the New
Testament, is most peculiarly significant of a conscious
individuality. Though it is often translated life, mind,
and heart, in accommodation to the English idiom, it
has always a personal property and power, and it is
evident that it was understood by the Apostolic writers to mean something besides bodily life, or any thing
pertaining to existence limited to earth, since it is
mentioned in reference to a continuance of being after
the death of the body. Thus our Lord says,, Fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul." (Matt. x. 28.) And his beloved disciple
uses these emphatic words:, I saw under the altar
the souls of them that were slain for the word of God."
(Rev. vi. 9.), I saw the souls of them that were be
39 
40      SEILFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
headed," &c. (Rev. xx. 4.) Here we can not mistake the intention of the writer, since, whether the
language be figurative or literal, it is clearly meant to
state that those spoken of were veritable men, notwithstanding they had died.
The word soul may almost invariably be understood
to signify a selfhood, and therefore we so often find
that the personal pronoun may be substituted for it.
We have a striking instance of this in relation to the
resurrection of our Lord, as stated in Acts ii. 31.,, His soul was not left in hades, neither did his flesh
see corruption." Here is a broad distinction between
the actual personal being and the body: and as if the
more powerfully to convey a sense of this distinction,
we find the word signifying soul is not in the original
of this verse, and the passage retlly stands thus: —
,, He (David) seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ, that He was not left in hades."
That I and my soul are equivalent terms, is seen in the
Divine announcement,-,, Behold my servant, whom
I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well
pleased."  To deny oneself for the sake of following
Christ is the same as to forego one'sown soul in order
to save it, as we find, on comparing Matt. xvi. 24, with
Mark viii. 34, 35. In short, great part of the Bible
might be quoted to show that the soul and the self are
the same, according to inspired language, as when the
Son of the Highest, groaning under His sense of
man's iniquity, said, " My soul is exceeding sorrowful
even unto death."
Can we suppose that Paul could employ the following phrases without believing in his own existence,
independent of the, corpus humilitatis of which he complained: "I desire to depart, which is far better."
,, We are confident and willing rather to be absent from
the body and to be present with the Lord." Probanus
mtagis peregrinari e corpore, et incolere a Domino.
0 
SELFIIOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
(Griesbach.), Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," said the
dying proto-martyr, when he committed himself to his
Saviour for eternity, and the thought next before death
was becoming a resister of sin and a follower of the
crucified One-,, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep." Fell
asleep; is it not somewhat strange that this gentle and
frequent phrase, which so sweetly expresses the peaceful departure of a believer, should have led to the conclusion that the Christian soul continues without wakefulness until the end of time? Strange, that because
the man of faith closes his eyelids upon the light of
earth and reposes as confidently in the arms of his God
as a weary child upon the bosom of its mother, therefore the soul awakes not to the light of heaven, although
the very scripture in which the phrase is placed also
tells us that the Lord, to whom the martyr'had.com
mitted his being, was seen by him in spirit at the right
hand of God, and with God's glory, in that heaven to
which he looked.
A name* famous in the subtleties of logic is associated with the defense of this notion, but it appears as if
it had been with a total abandonment of his accustomed
acumen, and in a desperate hope of modifying the objections of materialists to the broad and unaccommodating language of revelation.   It is a grief of soul to
see the benevolent efforts of a lordly spirit so completely defeated by the extravagance of his ready accommodation to those spiritual paupers who so sturdily
ask charity because they have no faith. Not being able
to discover the least glimmering of a reason to infer
from the words of the Bible, or its spirit, that man dies
with his body, the gifted writer referred to, met the
smiling skeptic halfway, with a surmise that as the body
seemed so essential to action in this world, it might be
the appointrment of Omnipotent wisdom to keep the
* Archbishop Whately.
41 
42       SELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
soul in a sound sleep, somewhere, until the resurrection, when it would find itself suitably provided with a
machinery to work with. But this purposeless slumber
of the soul served only to excite the greater ridicule of
the unbelieving and profane while deepening the sorrow
of the devout; for the notion seemed to imply that the
Maker of all worlds being deficient in materials to employ human and departed spirits, laid them by in dormant idleness until a new organization could be conveniently arranged for their use, which might be after
indefinite ages had rolled over their transmuted dust.
It is said, "Them also who sleep in Jesus will God
bring with him." In keeping with this language is that
most ancient and unfulfilled prophecy,, Behold, the
Lord cometh with the myriads of his saints.", The
Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee."
(Zech. xiv. 5.) Now if they come, they must exist;
but do they come as resuscitated frameworks and nerve
systems? No, unless we are deluded with a nominal
revelation, there is another mode of being besides the
visible and material, and in that mode they come.
In insisting on the spiritual existence of man I would
desire to guard against conveying the notion that material existence is contemptible. That God is the
maker of both souls and bodies, is sufficient to give
dignity to both, and that the fact that every being but
the Infinite must be localized, is sufficient to prove that
human beings must be corporeally accommodated with
media of action and manifestation in whatever sphere
they'may dwell.
Those who doubt that the soul may perceive out of
the body, should inform themselves how and why the
soul perceives in the body. What relation has an object to the sensation which it produces?   There is no
sensation but in a riind: ther'e is no other necessity for
the connection between an image on the retina and the
'Idea which we call sight, than that it is the ordinary 
SELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
law of our constitution while in the body.   It is the
soul that sees, according to this law, but it sometimes
happens that the soul does not see according to this
law, but to some other still more inscrutable. Thus in
certain states of mind the soul does not perceive the
idea of the object really before the eye, but some other
idea suggested by that object.   This often happens in
delirium and mental derangement. Therefore it is
manifest that the mind itself makes the idea in such
cases. And, indeed, it always produces its own ideas,
in so far as there is no idea but by an act of the mind.
Thus to confine ourselves to sight, by way of illustration, images are constantly impinged on the retina, but
we do not discriminate between them unless we attend
to them. We must look at them with the mind's eye,
or we discern nothing; as we find, if we are busy in
thought instead of minding what is about us, we run
against a post and beg its pardon. We might always
live in such abstraction but for the demands of the
body, and, in some diseases, this is a permanent state.
Sensation is but one mode of the soul with regard to
this objective world, and we know that there is at least
one other mode of perceiving-namely, memory, which
includes imagination, and by the exercise of which we
realize our past experience and make it available knowledge.
We recall ideas in a great measure at will, and we
reason on them, and strongly feel them too, without
using our eyes, or ears, or tactual organs. Ideas are
sometimes vivid enough in meditative minds to obscure
all present objects by their brightness. We actually
reproduce sensation by pure mental conception and
association, and that so powerfully as that emotion also
is excited even to a greater degree than when the
sensation was first experienced. Thus I have often
known a person so disgusted at the remembrance of a
disagreeable medicine as not only to seem to taste it,
43 
44      SELIFHOOD —SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
but really to suffer a repetition of all its effects. We
do, then, perceive objects again without their presence,
and ideas are compounded and multiplied also in our
minds, without the use of the senses, so that we may
be capable of thinking out of the body, so far as the
continuance of mere sensation is concerned. We may
have thoughts even if we may not have sensations out
of this body, and thought is quite enough to make us
either happy or miserable, according to the habits and
convictions of our souls. But as sensation is a mode
of the soul, and is subject to variations according to the
mental states, there appears to be no reason, in the
philosophy of the subject, why sensations also may not
be experienced in other modes than any with which
we are familiar in this world, since those we experience are but mental states and adaptations of our
minds in relation to our present life.
Brown, Butler, and other metaphysicians distinguish
between outward and inward affections, as if sensation
were not mental as well as memory, pain, and desire.
In dreams, are our affections outward or inward? I
dream, for instance, that I receive a letter, and actually
seem to read it with deep interest; I feel the strongest
emotion, and on waking I remember many of the
sentences, just as I thought I saw them in my dream.
Now these sentences were not produced by memory
in the act of dreaming, for they had no evident connection with any thing previously in the mind; they
were fabricated by the mind without the use of the
senses, and without extraneous impression. Therefore the so-called external and internal affections have
the same source.
Some persons always dream; others never. Are
those that do not dream justified in denying that others
do? No; the testimony is too strong to be resisted.
]3ut supposing there was but one man in the world
who could affirm that he had dreams, ought we to 
SELFI'HOOD-"SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
deny the fact simply on the ground that we could not
understand it, and it did not accord with our experience?
Exceptions are not contradictions, but they prove
the existence of other laws than those in common
operation. St. Paul informs us of facts in his experience, by which we learn that a man may enjoy a
wondrously higher mode of perception than ordinary:
whether he were in the body or out of it he indeed
knew not; but yet he in rapture entered Paradise,
and in unutterable words received a superabundance
of revelations. This was at least an exalted and
superior state of mind, something above ordinary sensation-a vast but sudden development of perceptive
power, concerning the reality of which we ought no
more to doubt, than when an honest person relates to
us a dream. We can no more account for the dream
than we can for the heavenly ecstasy, and, under
certain circumstances, the one might be as common as
the other. There are, then, various mnodes of mental
sensation and perception, so unlike each other, that
they can scarcely be compared, and therefore we
have no reason to question the possibility of still other
modes of mind in other conditions of that which is mind,
since it is constituted to experience an incalculable
variety in its emotions and its perceptions under the
government of the Power whose resources are infinite.
The doctrines of the Bible are in direct contradiction to much that goes under the name of philosophy.
The former teaches us, that the universe is controlled
by spiritual agencies or beings; the latter, that mental
and moral existence is the result of physical arrangements, and consequently, that action, affection, feeling,
faculty, reason, and religion, are properties of matter.
On this system the cessation of cerebral function is
the death of the thinking being.  Death is the annihi
45 
46      SELFHOOD-SOUL,' MIND, SFIRlT.
lation of the mind, says the materialist: it is departure
to a life far better than this, says the Christian.
What is materiality, but the result of certain im
material forces co-operating to produce resistance,
form, and whatever property any thing may possess
in relation to any other thing? As a natural body
exists by the laws of matter, or on the principles of a
material manifestation in obedience to the creative will,
so a spiritual body exists on other principles, or in
keeping with another system of laws or forces in obedience to the same will. Now we see and feel that
there is a material body, but how do we know that
there is a spiritual body?  For the very same reason
that we know the one, we know the other also. As
we infer from their effects that there are physical forces,
although not perceptible through our senses, so we
infer that there are spiritual forces, because their
effects are demonstrated to our reason. In short, the
physical properties of things indicate the existence of
forces which are immaterial; and the material world
itself is a proof that there is a world of spirits, since
matter can exist only as the result of will and purpose,
in keeping with beings that think. Omnipotence constitutes every agency. A spiritual body or system is
but another mode of accommodating the willing being.
We know that our senses and our mental faculties are
limited and restrained by the organization through
which they now act. There are forces at work that
are intererences with sensation, will, and thought.
The mind may be withdrawn from these interferences,
so as to act only in connection with agencies that may
facilitate action. The medium required is always and
every where present. The universe consists of forces
mutually influencing each other, and all forces are
subservient to spiritual influences.
The medium by which life and thought are brought
into acti(on is probably the same in all worlds. It is 
SELFHOOD-SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
not air, nor heat, nor light, nor electricity, nor magnetism, but something by which these become what they
are in relation to matter in general. There is something universal, the law of which is polarity. It pervades all other things, and produces a tendency to
union among individuals similarly constituted or related to each other with regard to negative or positive
state. It is not subject to gravitation and cohesion,
but is fitted at once to the demands of the spirit; and
in it the spirit that thinks and wills may perhaps be
as really and substantially accommodated  and evinced
in selfhood and sociality as in the palpable materiality
of this lowlier body; for the one mode of existence as
well as the other results from spiritual forces put in
operation by the will of God.   Even  now there is a
spiritual body as well as a natural body belonging to
each of us; and as the consciousness of our existence
in human form depends not on our continued consciousness of this flesh and blood, so, if we were at
once to depart from this frame of things, we doubtless
should still feel a bodily existence, since our spirits
would exist in a system of their own, by which we
should be altogether human in form, affection, and
faculty, and as capable as now, or more capable, of
reciprocity and intercourse with other spiritual beings.
As far as reasoning by analogy can prove any thing,
it has been proved by Butler and others, that death
can have no influence upon  any thing belonging to
ourselves or our souls; it expends its power upon the
body. But if we depart from this body and this world,
we must pass into some other state, in which some
other mode of soul equivalent, or even superior to sensation and perception may.be developed. We go to
some place, and place implies objects as well as souls;
for objects and souls are created for each other.
Some mansion is prepared for us. He who ordered
our entrance and accommodation here, arranges for
47 
48      SELFHOOD —SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
our entrance and accommodation elsewhere; and as
it is by an operation of the Almighty that we perceive
and understand now, so we believe that, hereafter,
He will not leave us without means of discerning his
wisdom and obeying his will. Before we conclude
that the soul can be injured by being merely separated from the body, we must prove that the soul is not
provided for by its Maker, but cast adrift upon eternity without a home, divested of all faculty of appropriation or of rest.
Millions have asked what is the nature of the soul,
and have received no answer except from death. We
know not what any thing is; but we become acquainted, through sensation, with Certain properties of matter by their impressions upon ourselves, and thus distinguish one thing from another; and this is the
extent of our demonstrated knowledge. But whoever
attends to the operations of his own mind, and considers the marvels of his own consciousness in remembering past ideas, in comparing, in reasoning, in foresight, and in all that mind has done, and can do, is
learning the nature of a soul. Had Adam lived till
now, among his fallen progeny, his soul would have
been still young and undeveloped. Earth and time
are not large enough for the unfolding of a soul to the
full. We look for the forest in the acorn; we look
for the universe and its Maker in the soul. Eternity
must manifest it, or rather that light, which is God,
must so fill the profundity within us, to reveal eternity
unto us before we can know the vastness of our own
being. In the soul lie hidden powers which are like
the living seeds that the Almighty cast with his own
hand into the new-made earth, which have not yet
produced all their fruits. The dew of ages beyond
ages, the eternal sunshine, the tempering of seasons
by the breath of Jehovah forever, are requisite for the
germination and mature development of all those ca 
SELLFHilOO — SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.        4
pabilities, for bliss or bane which reside within our selves, and can not die.
The salvation of the soul, or the perfect health and
safety of the man, is the object we are directed to seek
in the revelation of God; and the redemption of the
body, from the claim and rightful dominion of death
and the grave, is insured in that of the soul,-the full
price was paid for both by the Just for the unjust;
therefore God giveth it a body as it hathpleased Hint,
and to every seed his own body.
The man who has passed into the life beyond decease or severance, will never be destitute of the
means which mnay be necessary to complete the manifestation of his character, whether it be good or bad,
malignant or benevolent.  The glorified body of our
risen Lord is the type and representative, before all
heaven, of the body proper to all those who through
faith in Him obtain the restoration of the Divine likeness in their moral nature. The sanctification of the
mian, or his separation in soul to the obedience of
righteousness by love, includes the sanctification of all
that may pertain to the body or medium of his spirit.
But it is necessary for us always to remember, that
we are not saved by any thing derived from earthly
parentage-it is the birth by the Spirit of God that
gives the title to the heavenly inheritance.  Hence the
difference between the first Adamn, who was made a
living sou], and the second Adam, who is the quickening spirit. The former had no spilrit of life to conmmunicate. The mnan of the soul (1 Cor. ii. 14) can not
even perceive the things of the Spirit of God, but this
power of discernment is imparted in the Divine regeneration effected by the second Adam, the Lord from
heaven, who is the life-giving Spirit. In their resurrection-life, true believers are to possess bodies in
keeping with this spirit, and thus to resemble the celestial source of their new existence.  Blessed beyond
4
.49 
50      SELFHOOD —SOUL, MIND, SPIRIT.
utterance must they be who feel within them the gernlinating power of this God-life; but unless both the
soul and the body are brought under the commenced
dominion of this quickening spirit, even here, it is
manifestly a woful delusion to call ourselves Christians; therefore, let every one who nameth the name of
Christ depart from iniquity.
Every believer has his own reasons for his hopes.
and of course those who receive the Scriptures as
their creed have no doubt about the immortality of the
soul. But no one fully appreciates the life that is
brought to light in the Gospel, unless he desires to
possess it as a state of being totally exempt from all
liability to departure from the source of holiness and
truth. Arguments why we should believe in the immortality of the soul are wasted on those who do not
know why they should wish for it; nevertheless we
will proceed in the next chapter to say a few words on
the subject. 
CHAPTER III.
IMMO RTALIT Y.
]DEATH is every where; but man caI not die.  He
exists forever, and therefore he must think, and atg   onize to think; and it is because he is capable of an
endless succession of ideas with an incessant con   sciousness of his own selfhood, that the desire for life
becomes intensified into an instinct for immniortality in
man.  Reason is born dogmatical, and she asserts her
nobility by demanding a life suited to her nature; she
discourses with intelligence, and draws an argument
for her deathlessness from the'fact that to love truth
is to love existence for its highest purposes, since all
the truth she learns so far reveals God, and therefore
prompts the hope of enjoying a perpetuity of supply
fiom the fountain of wisdom and goodness.  But to
suppose a desire for acquaintance with the wisdom of
God, is to suppose a desire also for his goodness; and
*  to feel this is to have in the heart that right love
which believes itself incapable of death; to look for a
continuance of life beyond the grave from any other
motive, is to expect existence, only because we expect
a retribution and an eternal vengeance suited to the
rebellion of a fallen and malignant spirit. All our ideas
concerning a futurity of living, thinking, and acting are
mere phantoms seen in the dark, without revelation;
and yet there is no reasonableness in reasoning, unless
a man seek something more than daily amusement,
occupation, and aliment; if he knows what he wants,
he will seek for eternal life, and truth, and good, to
live upon forever; since, whether we think of the right
means or not, what we wish for is happiness without
0
I 
IMIMMORTALITY.
death.  Would you tell a niant he is to pei-ish to-morrow, and forever, and then exhort him to thank God?
He can not be truly grateful to his Maker without the
hope of an imperishable existence as an irrevocable
boon. But there is really no possibility of finding any
distinct evidence in favor of such a hope, except in the
Bible; forbowever ready men may be to promise
themselves what they wish, they only deceive themselves with their desires, and rest only in the Rhadamanthine dreams of natural heathenism, if they found
not their hopes upon what God offers.
It is of small importance to determine when creation began; but it is of vast importance that neither
reason nor revelation will allow us to believe that what
is can ever cease to be.  Form may alter, and the
elements may be newly arranged; but omnipotence
would be opposed to omniscience, could there be annihilation. The material world has existed an indefinite period, but we, as individuals, are but just now
created, and we are intent to know where and why
we are; and, in endeavoring to learn, we  find that
nothing of the past is lost to us, since what has been
still is, and eternity is before us, to throw all its light
into our being.  An immortality of mind can be conferred only for mental purposes,-to know and to Jove,
to will and to act.
Not a particle of even the insensate world can be
altered in its nature as a center of forces, but yet it
continues not everlastingly without change; it must be
relatively altered, although in its affinities the same,
and so it must be with the soul. Every atom of every
block of granite has been otherwise situated than it is,
and it is in process of being put in new relations to the
other elements, for nothing has yet reached the ultimatum of its existence. The progress must be onward, without limit, in subserviency to the Mind, fromn
which all power, motive, and purpose originate. God
.52
-1 
IMMORTALITY.
is the eternal cause of eternal consequences.  Each
atom of each element must answer its end, and so
must we, and that according to our nature. Atoms
act according to physical laws; beings oT thought and
will, according to the state of thought and will, in re lation to spiritual laws. The subtile and unsearchable
mind of man, although, as mind, unalterable, must
yet be exposed to mutations from without, and in the
exercise of its affinities, according to orderly appoint ments yet to be evolved from the hand of the Almigh ty. But whatever results toward us in the eternity
to come, must still be in keeping with the nature of
our minds, as evinced in reason and affection  for the
soul, like every thing else, is formed on fixed principles
in relation to the rest of creation, and therefore subjected to laws which can not be abolished, because
the unchangeable is their source, and His glory their
fulfillment.
Morality and religion are based upon immortality;
and not only so, but the emotions proper to moral and
religious conduct necessarily indicate deathlessness. In
short, we can not entertain a notion of right and wrong,
without believing in a future state, or a life in which
good or evil dispositions find their results. We are
bound to right conduct, because the laws of heaven are
the laws of eternity, and we can not escape the judg
ment already against us if we neglect our salvation.
If nominal death, the death of the body, were the end
of man's being, he might dismiss the claims of conscience from his soul; he would then have nothing to
mind, nothing to concern himself about but to take his
ease as long as it lasted, and to seize upon the accom
modations of'this world of promise and provision to the
bes  of his ability.  Might would then be right.  No
onie could blame another for trying with all his heart
to have his own way in spite of his neighbor's claim,
,lice he would have no account to render to any one
53 
5.IMMORTAT1,ITY.
who did not demand it before his death, for in that
event his Maker would forever absolve him fiom all
his obligations.  Those who do not look forward to a
life beyond the grave really act on this unaccountable
princip)le-,, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die." And they would be quite justified in so doing,
if something did not say within them-you can not die
— your God has to do with you forever.
Indifference to results is all the ethics of ignorance.
The 1profanum vulgus of all conditions are those who,
practically believing in death as their finale, endeavor
to pass their lives in desperate disregard of the coming
event; and lest it should abbreviate their guilty pleasure before its time, even by its shadow, they resolve
to look another way. Thus desperado is the becoming
name of every consummate criminal, and the dark
souls that, crowd our jails have usually advanced in
vice without the visible fear of any judgment higher
than that which here condemns them. They are adversaries to society, perhaps because society has been
adverse to them, and has not convinced them that
heaven reigns in righteousness forever. They have
not been trained on principle to subdue impulse. No
revealing light has entered the chambers of imagery
to show them their own characters: they have not
seen the hideousness of guilt, boldly raising an unblushing brow in the presence of the Holy One: they
have not been taught, or in their habits they have been
oblivious, that darkness holds no. secrets from God.
The doctrines of existence as to power, purpose, and
eternity, they have not listened to: the light that
awakens conscience has not fallen on their spirits.
Eternal life, therefore, has not dwelt in their thoughts;
and thus men have been prepared for murder as only
a trans;tory matter, forgetting that the soul of the
slain and of the wronged will call for vengeance from
beneath the throne of God, and, in a world without
54 
IMMORTALITY.
mistakes, will meet the murderer and the oppressor
face to face, and say,, Thou art the man."
Repentance is not denlanded, but because immor tality is revealed and a day of judgment appointed
for the world, the certainty of which is known to all
who have received the hostages of God and looked into
the evidence-Christ is risen. If indeed there be any
virtue, it can not be without results; it must be pro ductive of present happiness, either in the enjoy_
ment of what is passing or in the hope of what
is to come; it must give a warrant of future bliss,
not from a possibility of merit, but sinmply from the
assurance which a mind rightly engaged can not but
feel that it is walking in the way that wisdom appoints, and hence in a path that, though it may' not
be naturally pleasant in itself, is yet evidently conducive to a perpetuity of peace and joy, because God has
ordained it as a way to an end. There is, however,
no virtue in merely pleasing oneself-the word means
nothing unless it signifies a state of mind with regard
to Heaven, a state that is blessed, because it is an obedience to some law acknowledged by the mind as good
in itself; for both the motive and the joy of virtue consist in conscious fulfillment of duty. But duty depends
on relationship between the mind that yields obedience
in love, and the mind that commands in love. Without
love there is neither authority nor duty. Therefore
there is always reason in moral law, and every man
who can apprehend it is bound to submit to it, or to
suffer in his conscience, because he sees it to be per-.
fectly good; and he could not be required, as a rational
being, to obey, except in the faith and affiance of a
soul satisfied that righteousness in God is one with
benevolence. But where is the reasonableness, where
the righteousness, where the benevolence, in the Omnipotent, if He grant only a short lease of life and enioyment to His reasoning and confiding creature that
55 
lIMM)RTALITY.
it love submits to His will?   Does not the Almighty
liit-self, in man's brief earthly life, inspire him with
gratitude only because he is also inspired with a hope
that his present happiness, in the emotions awakened
by God, is but a foretaste and earnest of an unending
abundance from the same source?
Surely there are contradictions and inconsistencies
innumerable in the short-lease philosophy, without renewal, but none in the Christian Testament.   Here
Jehovah is seen as the constant rewarder of those that
diligently seek Him, and those who thus seek, feel
that, because they come to God as the Everlasting
Father, in Him they possess not merely a quiet life
for a few years, while obedience may be possible,
and then death, but rather an eternal inheritance of
active and happy service. Within them stirs a sublimer
spirit, witnessing to their consciousness that, as they
have a right to call God Father, because they love him
for His love, they are not thus born as heirs of death
and unquickened dust, but to an immortality of honor
in the faithful exercise of those endowments bestowed
by Him, and by Him sustained in motive and power for
evermore, and by the possession of which they know
themselves as sons of God. Any thing short of an
eternal inheritance in God and His universe, reason
itself, when roused up to its vocation convinces us
must be thoroughly incompatible with the idea of
Divine existence, as related to man, and manifested in
man; and if the Deity were not thus related and thus
manifested, man would have had no capacity to believe
in the existence of God. But he does so believe as
soon as he is capable of thinking religiously and consecutively, therefore he must act and expect accordingly,
with the consciousness of being either at one with the
Almighty, or else in will opposed to Him, and that forever. Now if a man feel assured that the Omnipotent
owns and loves him eternally, he can not faint under
5(; 
I,MM)RTAI,ITY.
His hand.  lie must have seen the Saviour-God, &:d
therefore be capable of incessantly acquiring strength,
from the touch of the Divinity by which he lives, to
bear all things well, because his heroism is religion.
Hence he sees that trial is but the path of glory; he
sees the end already. The spirit that moves him to
obedience and to hope is the spirit that confers per fection and eternal freedom, and therefore he looks
forward undauntedly, expecting, without doubt, to be
mighty in thought and in action, but incapable of suffer ing when he shall entelr into that world and state of life
where there can be nothing to oppose a will submissive
to Heaven.
The immortality of the soul was implied in all the
commandments of God under the Mosaic economy,
and in the history of the patriarchs, and in all the trials
of men's spirits from the beginning, because there was
no sufficient end to be answered by the Divine permission and providence as regarded man, unless in
sustaining him in the hope of a future and enlarged
existence.   Hence the great cloud of witnesses adduced by Paul (Heb. xi.)as having acted under the
power of faith with respect to the better resurrection,
believing as they did in God as the rewarder of his
worshipers. And the translation of Enoch and of
Elijah was the visible regeneration of the body itself
under the act of the Almighty's will, by which man
was fitted in a moment to exchange earth for heaven,
as a spiritual being accommodated to a physical universe by a mediate body, capable of change according
to the demands of the inhabiting spirit and the place
in which it was required to dwell. There was always
sufficient  evidence on earth to induce the hope of
another life, and plain facts asserted, to all who could
credit honest testimony, the reasonableness of looking
beyond this world for the fruition of a soul set on finding its Maker.
51 
IMIMORTA.lITY.
The reasonableness of such a belief may be shown
not only by reference to the evidences which revelation
bears in itself, but also firom the natural constitution of
things, and from the unavoidable inferences of reason
concerning the Creator's purpose, as evinced in the
existence of mind and matter. But I will briefly sum
up the arguments that prevail in my own mind.
1st. Human immortality may be inferred because a
mind that is constituted to look forward to futurity
with religious hope, and for the satisfaction of rational
desire, can not have answered the purpose for which
it was created without the fulfillment of that hope and
that desire. He who satisfies the desire of every
living thing, has not yet satisfied this desire.  This
argument, however, can have no weight but with those
who experience the expressed state of mind. Those
who are in the pitiable condition of being without this
hope and this desire must be living without any consciousness of Divine existence, and they need to be
roused into spiritual vitality and vigilance before they
can listen to arguments for eternal life.  This is the
work of God, and He is engaged in it by constraining
men to reason firom their experience, and their hopes,
and their fears; for even doubt is an argument for
immortality, since it implies the question of a mind that
can not rest in the expectation of nothingness, but
believes only in an ever-coming to-morrow.
2d. If there be no future or continued existence,
then the Maker of man has made him capable and
desirous of learning more of His wisdom from His
works, and yet has left him without any code of laws
to govern his moral being, or any instruction sufficient
to guide his inquiries concerning his future destiny;
for moral laws are not binding on creatures destined
to perish, and that doctrine is only deceptive which
points to the light of Heaven, and then leaves the soul
to be quenched in everlasting darkness.
58 
IMMORTALITY.
3d. If God has not left man without revelation, then
oman is immortal, because the only intelligence which
man has received with any indication of its being revealed firom God, is that which informs him of eternal
safety as a reward, and eternal damage as a punishment, as the necessary consequence, firom the essential order of moral government.
4th. As what we learn concerning our Maker firom
his works and his word, begets in all devout minds a
happy reliance upon him and an adoring love, because
of the cumulative proofs thus afforded of his benevolence and wisdom; and as this reliance and this love
are in relation to a being who can not cease to be adorable, there would be an incongruity of God's own making between the power to adore and the object of
adoration, if man were not constituted, when actuated
by indwelling truth, with a ceaseless capacity of worshiping and loving his Creator. But to suppose incongruity in God is to deny him.
5th. Without immortality, man would he a total contradiction to every idea of Deity; and all earthly mental existence would be useless, because, although it
seems to serve the purpose of manifesting God, it only
serves, in fact, to excite hopes, to end in disappointment, and to afford a taste of life which yet conveys
to the spirit only death.   The insect at the fountain
may sip and sustain its powers, to fulfill the purposes
of its little being; but man must drink destruction at
the source and streams of life, since his eagerness for
intelligence and enjoyment leads only to his being lost
amid the flood that flows from beneath the throne of
God, unless he be immortal.
These arguments are mutually resolvable, the one
into the other-and, after all, merely express an intuitive conviction that, because we are what we are, we
must be sonmething greater hereafter, and that we
inust continue to exist, since we can not suppose our
59 
IIMMORTA.LITY.
present state to be other than as a stage in our progress toward the full purpose of our existence.
If we do not believe in our future being, we must
believe in something still more difficult to apprehend,
for to expect continued life is according to our habit
and our sense of probability; but not to believe this,
we must believe in annihilation, but this we can not,
because we find no ground on which to proceed to
such a conclusion, since there is no instance of such an
event in all our knowledge, and therefore there can be
no possibility of our supposing the Omnipotent engaged
in blotting out his own work. We will not, however,
enter on the argument by analogy, since that is exhaustless, and has been abundantly expounded. The
preceding are the reasons which determine my own
convictions, and they appear to me most consonant
with the doctrines of the Bible and with man's moral
consciousness. In short, I believe the soul is immortal, merely because it is a soul; but without revelation
there could not be a sufficient reason for a man's believing in immortality, since without that he would
not have known enough of himself. What the heathen philosophers wanted in order to satisfy them, or at
least to impart to them a hope full of immortality, was
a true knowledge of God and of man. A mythology
without an omnipotent Deity is a system without a sunthere is no cause of light or life in it-there is no being
as the source and center of existence, no mind interested
in all other minds, no unity in intelligence, no bond of
reason, no parent of spirits to whom they might come
to dissipate their doubts.  What was needed was a
Logos to demonstrate that the divinity was not a multitude of conflicting attributes, which men had imagined and adored as distinct deities, but that God was
one, who, reconciling all things to himself, came forth
to show himself as the Father of our spirits. When
God was seen as love manifest in humanity, man was
60 
IMMIORTALITY.
visibly imlmorital.  It is in vain to reason of life everlast ing without a demonstration of its cause, and that was
never seen, except in as far as the Almighty made
himself known as the immediate friend of man. In
the book of God we thus behold him.
In the early ages of our race, the tradition of God's
pledge to man as the conquerer of him who originated
death was clearly taught. This we see in the religion
of Egypt, and in all the old nations of the earth. Of
this tradition, immortality was, of course, an essential
part. The unity of the Divine nature, though so soon
concealed in vulgar symbols, was a doctrine associated
ever with the idea of immortality; and the deathlessness of the soul was never doubted until the unity of
the divine nature was lost sight of.   But wherever a
glimmering of this one light was seen, there the notion
of immortality began also to arise, and that not as a
gross continuance of life through mysterious metempsychoses in earthly forms, but as the progress of
a veritable spiritual being advancing in life on the
principles of justice and of love; to be happy in the
knowledge of God, or in the retribution. that visited a
rebellious soul, left with a disordered will to its own
eternal misery.
There is much said by religious writers concerning
the difference between a natural or necessary immortality and a derived immortality. Let us understand
our own words. What God wills, that is nature-what
he does, that is necessary; arid he does what he wills.
If, then, he wills that man should be immortal, man's
mmortality is natural and necessary.  All that the
,reature possesses is, of course by gift. God has immortality, but he has it to bestow:, the gift of God is
eternal life by Jesus Christ."   Such is the scriptural
'iew of the matter.  Immortality is, then, conferred; but is it conferred on all men?  We  find that
some persons who are readv implicitly to submit to the
61 
IMMORTALITY.
(loctrines of that established authority, the Bible, have,
notwithstanding, come to the conclusion that the emphatic death so frequently mentioned in that book means
annihilation, or return to nothingness, in contradistinction to the life obtained by the atonement. It is not the
purpose of this volume to discuss the difficulties of
theology or to expound the doctrines of the Gospel,
but yet a few observations, on a question which is now
disturbing not a few pious spirits, may here be not
inaptly considered. For my own part, I see no more
reason to believe in immortality for myself than for any
other man. I have no reason to suppose the firee gift of
the Lord of life to be the monopoly of any class. Yet, as
the authority of the Scriptures is incontestable, we are
bound to forego our conclusions if therein we clearly
find the doctrine we deny.   But is the notion of annihilation derived fiom the Bible?   We  wot not.  The
word, as well as the thought, belongs to Epicurus, who
invented it, in contradiction and despite of his own
theory of the self-existent eternity of matter; and one
who knew not the Scripture nor the power of God
might easily so contradict himself.
The word perish, and other forms of expression of
similar imnport, frequently occur in the New Testament; but if we look into their meaning as interpreted
by usage and by the relation in which they stand, we
shall find them in no respect favorable to the idea which
some minds entertain of them.   Without pretending
to erudition any one may see the force of the few Greek
words translated perish in the New Testament. First,
there is arroOvqoto; this is usually applied to death,
in the ordinary sense, as in that passage where it is
said,, In due time Christ died"-he was not annihilated.    Next there is arrolLAvut, which means to be
lost.  He came to save that which was lost; the word is
used also in the case of the woman whose piece of
money was lost-this was not annihilated.  The same
62
I 
IMMORT'ALITY.
word is employed by St. Peter, when he states that the
world at the deluge, being overflowed with water,
perished-it is not annihilated. But perhaps it would
seem to signify more when hypothetically employed,
as by St. Paul, when he says,, Then they also
which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished;"  but
the verse before explains his idea of perished:, If
(,hrist be not raised your faith is vain; ye are yet in your
sins." To be, and continue to be, with all the weight
of unatoned sinfulness, is to be unjustified by a risen
Saviour.   There is a word, KicaTabOtp), which, being
in one place translated perished utterly, might seem to
mean annihilation, if any did, but we find it signifies
only, shal become thoroughly ccrrupt; and the samne
word is applied to men of abandoned disposition. as if
to int:mnate their utter departure from all excellence.
But to proceed further woul'd be a needless waste of
time and natience; it is enough to observe, that wherever the word perish occurs, it expresses a state of
something that exists, anrd therefore can not mean annihilation.   And so with regard to the word rendered
destruction, nerdition, and so forth-it indicates,  in
every instance, condemnation, as of somnething pernicious, perverse. or frustrating right purpose, as in waste
or the misapplication of means; and when  limited t,
the body, as it often is, it signifies dissolution, as oppos
ed to its edification. We may then fairly conclude
that there is no word in the New Testament whicd
must mean annihilation in the strict sense-for in fact
it implies a contradiction in terms-a production oj
nothingness.
Death is the negation of life, say you?  True, but
what is life in the scriptural sense?   " This is life
eternal, to know thee,. the only true God, and Jesus.
Christ, whom thou hast sent." Death, spiritually considered, is the opposite of this life; that is, to be ignorant of the true God is eternal death-a death, such as
6'O' 
IMMORItTALITY.
a man without faith must feel; a state, the reverse of
that for which the breath of God first inspired the heart
of Adam. Destruction is not the contrary to creation,
but to the right use of existence; and damnation is not
merely condemnation, but danger and damage, as opposed to salvation, or health and safety. Those who
contend so literally for the true significance of death,
ought to conclude that the grand serpent was no deceiver when he said,, You shall not surely die." The
prohibition had been enforced with the penalty-,, In
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die;" as if to show that disobedience is death, and that
the proper life of a reasonable being is forfeited by the
breach of Divine law; the moral vitality, the likeness
of God is departed, and as a mirror without light is no
longer a mirror, notwithstanding its substantial existence, so the human soul is dead to its purpose if it reflect not the glory of God. In this true and full sense,
the busy people of this world are living in a deadly
dormancy-,, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise fror
the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." (Eph. v. 14.)
Life and death, then, in Scripture language, are used
not in respect tocreation and its contrary, annihilation,
but with regard to our happiness, as rational and voluntary agents. Lif'e is a great fact, death is a great
fact, but life from the dead is the great fact. If it be
the purpose of the faithful and ever-living Creator
ultimately to annihilate some portion of mankind, why
is there a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust?,,By man came death, by man came also the
resurrection from the dead. As in Adam all die, so in
ChVrist shall all be made alive." We are not to limit
these words to suit our whims of interpretation; the
life is as extensive as the death, the quickening spirit
is vaster than the living soul, and has abolished the
last enemy. The price is paid for. the ransom of all,
and its value must be testified., We trust in the liv
64 
IMMORTALITY.
tng God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of
those that believe." 1 Tim. iv. 10.
Of course, the declaration of our Lord, that God is
the God of the living, and not of the dead, and that ALL
live unto Him, will be a sufficient argument with those
who believe the record. But is there not an indispu table reasonableness in regarding man as the property
of God, and that man, as God's, can not cease to exist
in relation to his Maker? The authoritative announce ment and natural argument with which our Lord met
those Jewish materialists, the Sadducees, is as plain a
statement of man's necessary immortality as words
can furnish. (Luke xx. 27-38.) The children of this
world, that is, all men, are put in contrast with those
of the anastasis, or future state, which therefore refers
to all; and as it is in keeping with the condition of
bodily mortality, that the race of man should be replen ished and perpetuated in this world by marriage, so it
is in keeping with the coming condition of life to be
without the power of multiplication because without
the capability of dying. They can not die any more;
the body died, and that was all that could die. As it
is consistent with Divine ordinance that human souls
should enter on that state of existence, so it is but
congruous that they should henceforth be, on a par
with the angels" in regard to their immortality.
The idea expressed in the existence of a tree may,
perhaps, be expressed by any tree of its kind; yet it
can be expressed only to a mind, because it originates
in a mind, it is the living manifestation of a design,
from its embryo in the seed to its full expansion: but
the idea of a mind, as a whole, can be expressed only
to itself, and therefore only by its continued existence,
as a being having memory and desire. Material or
compound things exist for the sake of minds, but minds
themselves exist with especial reference to the attributes of Deity, since min'ds alone are capable of good
65 
IMMORTALITY.
or evil. If a mind be not indestructible, it must be a
compound of elements that may go to form some other
thing, just as the carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which
form the plant now before me, may be resolved, and
become the aliment and ingredients of other living or
dead beings. But one mind or soul can not be a part
of another. Hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, answer a thousand purposes, and exist in a thousand combinations;
but mind exists individually only, and with a simple
unity of purpose. It is a mind, and can exist only as
A mind, that is, to be conscious, or what is the same
thing, to perceive and will.   The existence of any
thing is the expression of God's purpose in that thing:
an element answers its end, as the element of some
other thing; but a mind answers no purpose but as a
conscious being-in perception and will it fulfills the
purpose of its creation, and it is thus, and thus only,
related to its Maker. Now the intention of the Omniscient with regard to any being is expressed in the nature of that being, but to intend annihilation is really to
have no intention, since there can be no purpose in
that which is not; God can have no relation to non-existence, and therefore the annihilation of a human soul
is an unimaginable event.  He is not the God of the
dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him.
Is there to be anseternal tradition of the Divine
glory, as manifested in the annihilation of beings
brought into existence  by  Divine energy?   Does
reason teach us that it would be an appropriate dem
onstration of God's power, as the creator of light, to
extinguish the sun, and blot it out forever? And is
the soul of any man a lesser light, to be forgotten of its
Maker, or to be spoken of in angelic story as a thing
that was? That must be an insane charity that would
distrust the judgment of God, and think it impossible
for the Almighty to prove His benevolence, without
annihilating those whom He created. Our experience
66 
I1MMORTALITY.
does not speak of such a Father in heaven.  Know, O
man of tenderness and terror, that perfect love casts
out fear, and that thy Maker has more charity than
thy small heart can hold. All the love in the infinite
universe is but as the breathing of its Maker over it.
The full utterance of His heart you can not know,
without inhabiting eternity in union with Himself.
Not until you so dwell, and so live, shall you be able
to fathom the abyss, and see how love is there. It is
in vengeance, but still it is the vengeance of love-love
that wills that all men should be saved, and that proves
He will have mercy rather than any sacrifice but that
of self-devotedness to the recovery of the lost. Yet
let us not deceive ourselves by our habit of catching
sounds instead of sense. The figures of speech em ployed in the Holy Volume are not like the poetic or naments of Corinthian discourse, but veritable illus trations of truth, and therefore who can doubt that
these words, the place where their worm dieth not,
and their fire is not quenched,"-are meant to express
a perpetuity of pain existing there? Is Divine jus tice revenge? We can answer this bold question
without denying the eternal condemnation of the wick ed and impenitent; but we must enter into the modes
of the spiritual world, before we shall be able to apprehend either the darkness of hell or the light of
heaven. This we plainly perceive-the seeking of
glo'y and immortality in God insures eternal life in the
fullest sense, because it is consistent with His will and
nature that he should be the everlasting source of
blessedness to all creatures in a state of soul to receive
from His fullness with the acknowledgment of his
favor.
I hope always to be able to join in the prayer of the
Liturgy-,, That it may please Thee to have mercy
upon all men:" God willeth not the death of a sin
ner; but in order to the possibility of a remission of
67
0 
IMMORTALITY.
the Divine sentence, that banishes a soul from light,
it is necessary that there should be a change of mind;
for while malignity continues, hell endures. The soul
that wills not to be holy denies that God is good, and
can not have forgiveness, either in this world or in
that to come, but is in the danger of eternal condemoation.  But it is the business of theologians to propound and adjust whatever difficulties they may discover in the divine Scriptures; yet we dare not entertain any interpretations at variance with the character
of Jesus. In him alone God is manifest. We know
nothing of holiness, nothing of divine love, and nothing
of justice, but as seen in Him. He came to show how
God was just, and yet a Saviour. He told his most beloved disciple that he knew not what spirit prevailed
in his heart, when he would have called down fire
from Heaven to devour those who rejected Him; and
he tells us all, that he came not to destroy men but
to save: still it is nevertheless certain that to reject
His salvation, as the cure for sin, is to continue under
the dominion of evil, and that is itself anathema maranatha.
Ceasing to breathe this common air is not itself
alone death. Men are accustomed to call it so because it is that part of mortality that most strikes the
eye; but death itself is what sin gets as the wages for
its every day's work-a deadliness of heart, a state
of affection excluding God.   Those who  keep the
saying of Christ, or obey His teaching, alone live truly
and in a godly sense; for, as He says, they can not
see death, because they are in spirit one with him
who is the resurrection and the life. To feel under
the eternal burthen of unforgiven sin, without a hope
of deliverance, because without a disposition to receive
regenerative life as from the blood of the Saviour's
heart, is death, and all the proper purposes of being
are then lost in the immortality of torment belonging
68 
IMMORT'ALITY.
to a mind distrustful of its God. Even now we feel
that to reflect on the bare fact of immortal existence
without a consciousness of God's love is intolerably
awful; what, then, must it be to have all our faculties
open to the everlasting reality of having voluntarily
rejected mercy on the only terms on which it can be
offered by the Holy and Omnipotent Author of our
being?
69 
CHAPTER IV.
MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
WERE not deathlessness a felt fact, there would be
no motive for writing or reading a volume like this,
which has been commenced, and it is hoped will be completed, with the conviction that both the writer and the
reader have an everlasting futurity which must be influenced by present mental engagements and the nature
of the will to which we yield obedience.
Qui obdormierunt non _perierunt. Because man is immortal, and the awakening up from death will be with
a restoration of the past to the spirit, in as far as all
intelligence and the final destiny must grow out of
remembrance, we have good reason for earnestness
whether we set ourselves to meditate upon the means
of self,improvement, or would rouse other minds to
think of the purposes of life and thought.
Man is the only creature on earth that meditates.
He alone treasures ideas, compares them with each
other, and reasons concerning what he may expect
from what he has experienced. Hope and fear look
beyond the horizon of earth, and every exercise of intellect influences the tendency of our affections and our
faith, either by extending our acquaintance with goodness, with freedom, and with truth; or by binding our
souls more closely with the fetters of error and of failsehood. These, like siren sisters, meet us smilingly
every day and unless we are fortified by the virtue of an
indwelling and uncreated light, we must be deceived by their pleasant songs, and soothed into a slumber
rom which we shall awake only to find ourselves bound
with grave-clothes, and buried deep in the marble dark 
MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
ness of a tomb which can be penetrated only by that
Divine voice which said,, Lazarus, come forth."
We must be taught. By whom? By our Maker.
He alone is capable of instructing us in the truth, since
He made it and possesses it, and He alone knows what
we need, and how we can bear the impartation of knowledge. The Almighty must make enjoyment safe. All
our business on earth is to be educated both feelingly
and intellectually, and God has filled the earth with
objects from which we are to learn the Divine will,
and think of the eternal relation of that will to ourselves.
His great facts are before us, but unhappily men are
rather disposed to learn of one another than of the Allwise; consequently the world abounds with deception,
and life is apt to become a lie, and history a romance.
Thus education may be either good or bad, merely
human and delusive, or divine and determinately excellent. What is education? It is every thing that
influences the mind, and it includes the consideration
of all circumstances and all affections. Its means are
those of reason, the knowledge both of good and of evil,
pain and pleasure, the sympathy of mind with mind,
and any thing by which a soul may be induced to desire and to determine for itself as an associate spirit in
God's company of intelligences. The end of education
in its highest sense is to form habits of mental fellowship, and to beget love after the celestial mode offeeling
and thinking. To ascertain how a human being should
be trained, it is therefore necessary to inquire what are
his capacities, and what are their objects-what are the
soul's appetites, and what has God provided for them?
We need not puzzle ourselves with refined disquisitions on the nature of the mind, since it is enough for
as to know that every variety in moral character is
simply a variety in the state of our will with regard to
objects of sense, and that no improvement can be
effected in the moral aspect of any being but by
71 
72   SMAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
increasing love for what is absolutely good, while teaching it properly to appreciate what is good, relatively
considered.
The will is the spring of action, but its character is
determined by the nature of the affections, for what
we desire is what we love-and, therefore, unless the
affections be rectified, the understanding remains in
darkness. We labor in vain to be learned, unless we
also aimn at being wise.   But wisdom is not acquired
by dint of study-it is the gift of God to a spirit, that
kindles into earnestness by a desire duly to fulfill the
sublime purposes of existence, humbly, yet boldly,
comes before his God with all the burden of his being,
and seeks to sustain himself upon the unupbraiding
Giver of all good.
Here we pause as if in the twilight, on the edge of
a precipice, from which a boundless ocean stretches
before us.  The infinite heavens reflected in the deep
oppress us with their inscrutable vastness. We feel
how vain is our desire to fathom the profundity which
surrounds us, and we are glad, throughout our souls,
when a star gleams forth amidst the purple gloom to
assure us that the Maker of all worlds is our friend,
and wishes us to behold the glory of his boundless
dwelling-place, lit up by his own hand to accommodate
his creatures.   Here, with light upon our brow, we
may stand and ask, What is good? And cheerfully,
and without doubt we answer Light. Why? Because
we can enjoy it without fear. There is liberty in light,
and it seems to call on us to exercise our faculties to
their fullest extent, with the understanding that wherever the Almighty throws a sunbeam or a ray of starlight, there the way is safe and holy, and open to us.
We may travel as far as we can in any direction
indicated bythe luminous footsteps of the Creator, since
he has illuminated all his works to attract our attention
to the truths, which through them he would convey to 
MAN JN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
us, Nature is the shadow of divinity, and both are
manifested by the same light. Why do we enjoy light?
Because it is opposed to doubt as well as to darkness,
and it penetrates our being with a sense of beneficence,
and the reality of our Creator's good-will toward us,
appealing to our hearts from heaven to draw our desires
thitherward. As long as we see light, or hear of it we
do not feel forsaken. God is light! As surely as the
universe exists in pervading glory, as if folded in the
embrace of God, so surely does the power by which
we gaze into heaven, with its countless realms of light
beaming around us, speak to us of eternal love. O
God, I believe in thy goodness, for it is over all thy
works. Blot out the sin of my doubt, says the convinced
soul; I had feared I was alone and forgotten, and
doomed to tangible darkness for ever, because I had
not seen and felt that the light which clasps this diurnal
world so tenderly, was the revealer of thy love. But
now I know the everlasting truth is to be ceaselessly
opening before me, like worlds evolved from worlds
at the touch of thy finger, and in the breath of thy
mouth, which is life.  It is good to live in light-Deus
lux est, et in eo tenebrv non sunt ullne.
But the enlightened mind is humbled, and would
say-How dare I look up rejoicingly when the eye of
the Holy Searcher of hearts is visibly upon me! He
sees through the depth of darkness in my soul; but he
sees also that it is to be enlightened that I dare look
up. I open my eyes that light may enter-I come to
be reproved I come openly before the open heavens
to call upon Omniscience to supply my exigencies, and
save me; I come ashamed and silent, yet with words
heard by the ear of God. He listens to my uttered
soul-search, purify, lead me, O thou Way, Truths
Life. I dread the darkness in myself, and I would
escape into light-and now I see life and immortality
brought to light by the revealing Word. That re
73 
74    MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
moves all restraint, and bidsme go on eternally in peace
and hope and thankfulness, Decause gratitude and joy
are the properties of those who believe in the faithfulness of the Creator, and desire heartily ever to obey
the love that has revealed itself as always ready to
bless the soul that trusts it. He will not forsake the
work of his own hands.
Beautiful colors, forms and faces, speak to me responsively. My soul goes out to seek for objects on
which to express my love, and I meet a face to smile
on me with a happy recognition of my heart, and in
confidence and joy our loving thoughts become prayers
in the presence of the Majesty that fille]th heaven and
earth. And my little child knows that I love him, although never told the fact in words-deeds have revealed it.  He intuitively perceivesland understands
love; for he is constituted to need, expect, and believe
it, and therefore he takes my hand, and calls me
Father, and trusts me to guide him home through the
darkness.  0 my God! this is thy mode of teaching
-may we never forget thy instruction, but praise thee
in thought and in action; let our thoughts be actions
and our actions thoughts, because thou hast manifested
thy goodness in life, in light, and in love.
There is a disposition in every reasonable soul to
inquire into causes and consequences. To be pleased,
we know not why and care not wherefore, is animal
enjoyment, mere instinct, the working of a consciousness that can not ask for a greater good, because it
knows nothing of purpose-asking no questions, it can
get no answers.
Whatever comports with the orderly advancement
of our being as endowed with spiritual life, whatever
tends to enlarge the sphere of our intelligence and fill
it with divine light, whatever improves our affections
and causes intellect to pursue the truth in love, is good,
and all else is evil. Thus in a summary manner we 
MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
arrive at our conclusion-whatever is fitted by our
Maker to the improvement of our moral life, our
understandings, and our feelings, is good, and that
alone, because it is the will of God toward us as the
lawgiver and rewarder.
Good education includes appropriate enjoyment, and
whatever opposes this is in the nature of sin, and
death, and condemnation; but obedience to the will of
Heaven is safety, and health, and life, and bliss. The
will of God is good for man, because it alone is truth,
and truth alone is the end and satisfaction of reason.
If a man, in his madness and wickedness, seem to
enjoy evil deeds and erroneous thoughts, it is only because he is perversely ignorant of goodness and truth,
and so in love with the false that his affections are
awry and unreasonable. The perversion of his heart
sets him altogether beside his proper place and purpose. It is of the very nature of his soul to be governed
by the object of his love; but he is apt to embrace a
demon in every creature of his desire, and to wander
in a desert without rest, and without light, and without
fellowship, startled and frenzied by the glaring hideousness of his own thoughts, unless some mind, having
faith in the faithfulness of Jehovah, the Creator, the
Saviour, meet him boldly in the spirit of that Lord,
and take him by the hand, commanding him to repent,
believe and obey, because God is the proprietor of
souls. It is manifest that such a one must be convinced
of his being thoroughly wrong, both as regards his will
and his understanding, before he can be set right.
There is no way of accomplishing this but by showing
him he may trust you, and this he can not do without
some proof of your love for him, and a better proof
you can not give than by opening before him the books
of God-creation and revelation; in other words, show
him plainly, and to the best of your ability, what you
know of tile true nature of things in relation both to
75 
76    MAN IN RELATION TO IIIS MAKER.
him and to yourself. Show him that God is his providence and yours forever. But you will only prove
yourself a willful and conceited bungler, unless you
really sympathize with sinners as a sinner with a new
heart. Then do not be afraid-Faith will remove the
mountain. Believe you work with the power of God,
and you will find that power is nothing but intention,
and intention is action in the Omnipotent, and he
means what you desire-salvation, therefore be strong
in Him who is unfailing.
Above all things, do not be afraid of finding the
handiwork of the Almighty in nature at variance with
the word of His covenant with man, as expressed in
the Bible. But do not take a step without His book.
He does not contradict Himself, and therefore creation
is nothing but a consecutive indication of his wisdom,
power, and love, to minds capable of appreciating the
language in which He has thus written His attributes.
Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the
operation of his hands, he shall destroy them and not
build them up.-Ps. xxviii. 5.
All nature, physical and spiritual, is a theology to
Enlightened reason; but yet, for a perverted soul, in
the profundity of its ignorance, to look for the revelation of life and immortality in the elements of earth, is
to look for the living among the dead. Earth would
be but the grave of our hopes, but for Him who spake
with Mary at the sepulcher concerning the ascension
to his Father and our Father. The -Lord is risen,
and our life is hid with Him; and through Him alone
shall we find it. Yet,,without Him was not any
thing made that was made," consequently we may
wisely worship and glorify Him while endeavoring to
investigate and apply to our improvement some of the
great facts of existence, and the interests of our natural relationships to each other as alike the creatures of
His goodness. 
MAN IN RELATION TO IHIS MAKER.
Every mind has its select wonders, but existence it
self is the grand mystery to all of us. It points from
eternity to eternity, from the unbeginning to the unending. Man is the only being on earth that recognizes this mystery; none but he thinks, and therefore if there be any design in the creation of the
human mind, the perception of this sublime subject
mnust be intended for some end in relation to the wellbeing of that mind. As far as we can at present conceive, this end is only to direct us to a self-existent,
all-productive Being, who intends-to make Himself
known to us, and therefore confers on us a disposition
to inquire after Him, and in keeping with this disposition, and as necessary to its fulfillment, He imparts
to us a desire for an existence never to terminate.
Thus, in meditating on creation, thoughts will follow
thoughts in higher and higher series, until man, from
his intellectual elevation, gazing into the boundlessness
that surrounds him, finds no rest for his spirit but
upon the bosom of the Eternal.
The appreciation of our existence as intelligences
related to the Everlasting is, then, the basis of all becomning effort to attain whatever belongs to the true
dignity of man. If we know not our nobility, we shall
not behave nobly. If we feel not our constituted capacity for greatness, we shall not desire to be great.
If, in the striivings of our souls toward the light, we
do not recognize our fitness for fellowship with heaven,
we shall shrink back, and clothe ourselves fruitlessly
in darkness, and, losing sight of the eternity in which
we really live, shall in our misery find no time for
mental improvement and moral progress. We may
talk of life and enjoyment in our gloom, but it will be
with a mortal taint upon our spirits, and our gayety
will be like the delirium of persons smitten with the
plague, turning the sounds of lamentation and the signs
of death into laughter and madness. It is, indeed, but
77 
78    MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
too prevalently true that we are so busy in watching
the phantasmagoria of successive fancies, that we
rather seem to dream than to realize the objects that
surround us. Even while we gaze, delusion takes the
place of sight, and when we would seize what appears so substantial and so pleasing, we destroy even
the shadow at which we grasp.
It is not until some unselfish real love, like a spirit
firom heaven, takes possession of our hearts, that we
obtain the full and inmost consciousness of ourindividuality.  In the fixed attachment of our souls with the
feeling of an everlasting affinity to some-other being,
we begin to doubt of death by recognizing the true
purpose of life, and in the ceaseless nature of love,
with its possibilities of agony and bliss, we experience
the full weight and burden of the awful mystery comprehended in the fact that we are and must be.   We
may long for knowledge, we may long for power, but
it is love alone that appropriates and employs intelligence and energy, and until this felt capacity of loving
becomes as one with our life, we find all teachings l)ut
as the play of sunshine and shadow on atroubled stream.
When we acquire this new kind of consciousness,
our existence is no longer instinctive, imitative, sympathetic, physiological, and reflex, but spiritual, and in
felt relation with the Divinity who originates all things
but for the purpose of expressing himself as love, that
we may trust him as our sufficient good.   Then we
feel no longer little and limited, but capable of becoming
expansive, vast, immovable, eternal, real as the heavens,
and formed to regard the universe as a creation suited
to ourselves, to elicit admiration, and satisfy our research, while awakening love within us as the response
of our spirits to our God. Until this godlike animation
enters into man, his morality, philosophy, and religion
seem but as the speculations of vanity instead of the
visions of truth, coming close in upon the soul like the 
MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
revelation of Heaven, still obscure to us because of its
intolerable glory. Incomprehensible, thou must sustain
us; thou must satisfy us firom thyself with thy knowledge and thy charity. O Light, thou must illumine
us, though now we look and are blind; soften thy glory
to our vision, that we may see and worship.
By our aspirations we are heirs of the Everlasting,
for we feel, when brought to reflect on our capacities
and requirements, and to set our hearts upon attaining
truth, that our fellowship with creatures is not enough
for us; since they can not comprehend us nor completely sympathize with us, being able neither to look
back upon the strugglings of our secret past, nor forward
to our coming necessities, they can neither rectify our
wishes nor supply our wants. They can explain nothing of the mysteries we would solve, they can only
respond to us by questions like our own-Whence are
we and why?   The Being who made us thus largely
necessitous, dependent, and inquisitive, must have
made us for himself; and he must reveal himself in all
his fullness as personally bound to us forever, as our
originator and our end, in order that reason, looking
abroad on his illuminated worlds, should be able sufficiently to hope, sufficiently to believe, sufficiently to
love. - It is the Infinite in power, the Infinite in love,
the Infinite in will, the Infinite in means, that can alone
fill us with ideas' large enough to satisfy the longings
of our souls after the good, the beautiful, the true, the
immortal; for it is not an indefinite notion, but a,grow
ing idea which possesses the soul that seeks satisfaction
in seeking to understand the relation of the Self-existent to his creature, mnan.
Since He has given us the understanding and the
will to look to Him, it must be his intention to supply
us out of his exuberance; he can not have directed
our desires by his promises, in order to disappoint us;
but rather that he may bestow more and more abun
79 
8s    MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
dantly at each advance of our spirits toward Himself,
in dependence upon his hand and thus on forever,
world without end; for every good hope is a prophecy
fulfilled already in the divine plan and purpose of our
being.   All things consist-nothing is but as a part of
all-God's all. As we scarcely feel conscious of living
in eternity until we look outwards and onwards, with
the scrutiny of reason directing the eye into the blue
ether, inquiring, Where does it terminate?- and finding
our only possible answer is, Nowhere; so, until-we
look into ourselves, we do not perceive what it is that
discerns the everlasting, and is the everlasting. In the
visible universe we see the works of Mind; these
must be changed, in conformity to Divine thought,, As a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall
be changed;" but the constitutg Mind itself is unalterable, and therefore essentially eternal; and the mind
that apprehends must be akin to the mind that creates.
We recognize in ourselves the reflection, at least, of
the forming force of purpose and of understanding, and
because of our inability to think in a godly manner,
without desiring and expecting to think forever, we
dare not, with respect to our own existence, say we
see its termination. \We can not determinately meditate
on thoughts and say, for certainty, our end is in the
grave.   Reason boldly asserts that the possibility is
otherwise; but our hearts go before our logic, and
speak more positively still, for either our hopes or our
fears take us beyond doubtfulness at once into the untried being of unavoidable futurity.
Why is this? Is it not because the life of man is
the breath of God? When the Almighty had fashioned
the dust into a form of beauty and majesty fit to be
animated and actuated by a spirit that should assert its
relationship to Himself, He imparted to the wondrous
organism a principle of action and of thought, and man
became a living soul. Thus life is not an inherent and 
MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.    81
detached principle, but the indwelling power of the
present Deity. To enjoy divine life we must feel that
it is imparted; as the light and warmth of the sun
enter the substance of a flower, and fill its fibres and its
luids with expanding life, so the Divine power vivifies
man by pervading all his existence, and thus the quick ening Spirit of God himself is the immediate cause of a
living, reasoning soul.
A living soul is a distinct but dependent being,
susceptible of sympathy with every other being, capa ble of perception and emotion.  Because the whole
immediate creation was constituted in correspondence
with the faculties of the new-made self hood, man looked
abroad upon all things, and saw the reason of existence
by thus beholding the wisdom and benevolence of his
Maker. This was the original prerogative of humanity,
and if it has been forfeited, it has also been restored
and increased, after the manner of an endless life, for
eternity must stil} reveal the purpose of God in making
man as his own image. Man alone, amidst all the creatures of earth, can recognize in nature the attributes
of Jehovah, for no other creature on earth can know
there is a God. He was from his origin inspired to
respond to the Creative Spirit.  His inmost being, his
very self, became conscious of divine impressions, or
was impelled intuitively to inquire, with the expectation
of obtainingintelligence concerning God, because reason
itself does not assert her power but in seeking to know
the Divine will, and in doing it. This reason dwelt
once unclouded in man's bosom, and therefore he at
once apprehended, or inferred, or' hoped aright, since
all he saw, or heard, or handled, or in any way
experienced, referred him directly to the Author of all
and called him rather to worship than to wonder. He
alone could believe, he alone could conceive of meanings, he alone could acknowledge the great first and
final Cause, the Mind conforming the elements to His
6 
82    MIAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
own purposes, and inducing existence every where to
express His love and power.
Thus creation, however marvelous in itself, was but
as the mirror of the Almighty to the eye of man, and
therefore to perceive was to adore. He found in his
Maker alone a perfect object of study, of faith, of hope,
of love, and all sensible objects were but as media between the Ineffable and himself.   He saw the Allsufficient, and was satisfied. In Him man felt himself
possessed of an omnipotent friend, who as his originator,
must especially and everlastingly love him, the highest
earthly production of His energy. He who is the
Creator of reason, must supply the ceaseless and evergrowing demands of His rational creature. Thus, as
long as the human spirit walked in confidence and
fellowship with the Holy One, man could feel no desire
but as an intimation that it should be fulfilled in further
evidence of the favor of his Patron and his God. Man's
faith was then absorbed in his love, and he wondered
not at the goodness and greatness of the Eternal, for
then there was nothing in his own nature at variance
with light and with love. There was then no occasion
for patience, because there was no unholy disposition
to be worn out, but heavenly affections grew strong on
their own enjoyment.   Such is our notion of the pristine or perfect state of man, because it is the state for
which human nature, when rectified and regulated,
seems to be designed. The test of creatureship, however, is law; and as man was to know himself safe only
in union with God, the simplest temptation of his
nature, as a creature of desires, was sufficient to prove
his incapacity to obey and live through his own power.
Without a better understanding of weakness and of
strength-weakness his own, and strength to be perfectly manifested through it-he could but fall.  The
first man being left to do the best to fulfill God's law,
with reason alone, fell; but may we not say he gained 
MIAN IN RELATION TO IIS MAAKPER.
ultimate honor firom his degradation, since the com passionate Creator took occasion thus to evince His
infinite love, by giving man a divine hope with a divine
power, by which to vanquish evil; for is not Omnipo tence revealed in reconciling all things to Himself
through human nature; and are not fallen beings
thoroughly exalted, and yet the Holy One in wisdom
vindicated, when the human will itself is so renewed
in righteousness, through faith, that it becomes just in
God not to imipute sin?
We are fallen, and great is the depth of our fall.
In our ignorance, our doubt, our distrust, we are over whelmed in amazement the moment we truly think,
for pure thought brings us as if into the presence of
God, but does not reveal him to us. We are afraid to
trust ourselves alone with the Almighty. When we
think of Him, we try to turn away from the awfulness
of his felt presence. We divert our souls with ", the
sweet music of speech," or by seeking the smiles of
those who, like ourselves, are in love with the earth
and its objects. We shun the thought of our only
Benefactor, and thus we can not rest, because we can
not rightly love; and we can not thus love because our
thoughts are hard, and dark, and suspicious. We imagine the Almighty to be a revengeful being, a despot
surrounding us with spies and accusers, instead of a
parent beseeching us, by every means, to be reconciled, and to be blest in trusting to His heart and to His
hand for constant protection and supply.
These ideas are not irrelevant to our purpose.   Man
is an awful fact to himself. In order to feel this fully,
it is important that we should dwell upon the truth
that our spiritual life is manifested by our consciousness of being more than we seem, and of having desires not to be satisfied on earth. We do not wonder
so much at the existence of objects, and at their insufficiency, as that we are conscious of them and of our
8113 
84    MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
selves, but as an intimation of something yet to be
known, and of an existence beyond this. But all that
philosophy might infer, or reason in her guessing
might surmise, concerning the future, would be unavailing, futile, cold, dead, unless religion kindled and
quickened our hopes with her own life. The creation
of mind is indeed the only manifestation of God. He
is known only in a soul made after his own image, an
intelligent being, constituted immortal by the will of
the Infinite, so that the perfection of Divine existence
might be forever revealing itself to a reason preserved
in correspondence with it, by the operation of the
Spirit inhabiting humanity. Hence He who manifested God as love, and thus illustrated the law as
the code of His own honor, is the brightness of the
Father's glory, and we are to be like him, when we
see him as he is, for we are to be thus created in
righteousness and true holiness, after the image of the
Creator. This resemblance to God, in the character
of man, made perfect in spirit, is the sufficient end of
our being, the reason why we exist.   But this we
should never have looked for, had not heaven informed
us what to aim at and to hope. Everlasting progres
sion and development are involved in our spiritual
union by faith with Him, who is the Head over all.
Had not reason been too busy with phantasms, she
might have seen that truth. The objects of creation,
spiritual or material, new or old, can not have been
produced, but for the purpose of expressing to created
intellect what exists entirely at once, now and ever,
in the Self-existent. Mind answers to mind. Each
of us must say there was a time when I was not; but
AO man can say the time will never come when  I
shall know all that has been. It may be, that as the
believing man  looks through the light of God into
eternity, he shall be as if he had himself forever ex
isted; for is not spiritual consciousness capable of rec 
MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
ognizing all the past, as if now present? and shall we
not, of course, feel, in every manifestation of Omni potence, that He designs all things in relation to man?
Are we not taught, concerning that wisdom which
was from everlasting, that before the heavens were
prepared, or the circling deep spread forth, Jehovah
possessed the thought of this habitable earth, as his
own delight with the sons of men, and that therefore
He calls upon them to give heed to His instruction,
that they may find life, and be blessed in following the
footsteps of their God?
By thinking on existence we learn, first, physical
order-the relation of matter to matter, world to
world; then, moral order-the relation of mind to
mind. The absence of physical order is chaos, the
absence of moral order is misery. Order is law in operation. Thus nature is perpetuated. But moral law
is distinct both from mental and physical law. Every
element and material mass is governed by a constitution of its own, it operates always in the same manner in similar circumstances, and the mind has also
fixed laws by which it also acts. Thus no man can
avoid remembering from association, or prevent his
will from being excited by pleasure or pain. But
moral law is addressed to the will of man as a spirit
capable of choosing between good and evil, because
he is capable of thinking on the fitness of things as appointed by God. A consent to this is mental conformity to the law of God as good; willing opposition to
this is sint, consistency of conduct in obedience to this
is holiness. That is good which is congruous with the
happiness both of the. individual mind and the community of minds, and the reverse of this is evil.  The
law which requires this congruity is love or benevolence; and the mind that yields to love because it is
love, is of similar disposition. The man who does
good because God is good, partakes of God's spirit; his
85 
86      MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
will coincides with God's-he obeys from the heart.
T'his is the doctrine of Christianity. Therefore it is
that love relates equally to God and man, and it is impossible for a man truly and religiously to venerate and
adore the Creator for his goodness without manifesting kindness to his fellow creatures., If ye love not
your brother whom ye have seen, how can ye love
God whom ye have not seen?" But oh, the jesuitry
of the human soul! Men hunt each other to bloody
and burning death in the name of Charity, while knowing nothing of him who died for all of them. If God
were not good, it would be unreasonable to worship
Him; and none can worship him without good-will to
man, for benevolence is the glory in which God reveals
himself.
Human knowledge is the progressive perception of
Omniscience and Omnipotence, the reception indeed,
so to say, of an atom at a time of the meaning of the
Infinite Mind. Every production of that Mind bears
in it the evidences of all its attributes, and successive
revelation is but the development of a single truth.
Thus, if we could detach a single point firom the universe of matter, and look at it in the light of pure
reason, we should see the force of the Almighty there,
imbuing it with properties and affinities, fitting it for
its place in the harmonious whole. The will of God
gives it inherent faculty of existence, in relation to his
own  purpose.   Infinite power and infinite wisdom
are there, and if these exist to the apprehension of
our minds, must not our minds exist in relation to that
power and wisdom?
But if beings like ourselves are conscious of Infinite
Wisdom and Power, how can this be but in connection
with Infinite Love? What purpose can there be in
the revelation of the Deity to His creatures but to express a reason why they should confide in Him?
Thus we are constantly obliged to revert to tne 
MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
standing truth-", God is love." The doctrine of util ity is the doctrine of love. Now there is a use in
every thing, and in every atom of every thing.  But
what is a use? It is an order or purpose in the crea tion of whatever exists-an inherent quality or prop erty in the constitution of a thing which renders it
subservient to the benefit of some conscious agent.
Thus all creation in its minutest parts becomes an ev idence to thinking persons of the Divine intention
toward themselves, as beings feeling and acknowledging the Divine goodness; for every act of Omnipotence
is consistent with all other of His acts, and is directed
to an end, which must be the eternal, infinite good of
every mind that depends on the wisdom and benevolence of Almightiness.
The use of any thing is, then, resolved into the
proper employment and enjoyment of the means
which are provided for the formation of ideas and the
rectification of desires. Right desires are all provided
for.  All that we can know concerning the use of any
thing is therefore summed up in the word submission,
for it teaches only this-Let your intellect and then
your will, yield to the instruction and to the law of
God, and you will find yourself satisfied at the source'
of love, power, beauty, and thought.   In every instance that we discern the use of any object or any
idea, we discern a benevolent adaptation, and it is an
appeal to our understandings, an appeal of our Maker
to our souls as an evidence of His interest in our own
existence. He has made us capable of perceiving His
perfection, as far as created things, thought, and inspiration reveal it, that we might love, and obey, and
be blessed; for salvation is not an appendage to Jehovah's plan in creation, but an essential part to every
being that needs it, and beholds God as love, and
cleaves to Him for sustentation, for will, for ability,
for intellect, for all. Thus the confiding spirit wor
87 
88    MAN IN RELATION TO HIS MAKER.
ships and glorifies The Father, and rejoices in His
fullness for ever, and that not blindly, but from a sympathizing relationship, and therefore with the actual
enjoyment of an everlasting heritage in His providence
and graciousness. 
CHAPTER V.
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
THE living organism is the medium between objects
and the soul. In this respect it is divisible into two
principal parts-the sensitive and the active; the sensitive being subservient to sensation and perceptionthe active, enabling the soul to seek objects and to
evince its feelings.   We  will to move the foot, for
instance, and it obeys us in the 1,200,000,000th of a
second, and impression from without becomes ours at
the same rate. Such is the velocity and inscrutable
nature of spiritual action, even through the medium
of matter. The motive power of the soul in its action
on the limbs, and also the sensitive faculty associated
with this motive power, are demonstrated by the physiologist to reside in the brain and spinal cord, as the
centers of the nervous system; and therefore the
ability of the human spirit to perceive and to act
through the body must mainly depend upon the integrity with which these nervous centers fulfill their
office. It is manifest that disorder of sensation and
of muscular action must result from disease in the
nerves, because will and perception are never exercised in this world but in connection with nerves. The
lesson we learn from this liability to morbid manifestation is mutual charity. We ought always to regard
each other with every allowance for bodily constitution; as the state of the soul is mainly dependent on
the accommodation thus afforded for the operation of
the mind.
Disease, whether personal or relative, is the most
prevalent test of our affections and our faith; and
through it the spirit of man when rightly established 
90        MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
in truth, grows mighty in endurance, and triumphant
over fear and death. We are required to look conmpassionately upon the faults of others, considering
that we also are in the body; and while throwing the
light of a loving heart over peculiarities that may not
please us, do our utmost to ameliorate the physical
condition of those whose minds are diverted from their
right objects by discomfort.  Let us teach, at least by
example, that it is only in the right use of the body
that mental integrity is proved-and, although temptation and torment may assail us through the nerves,
let us show that a soul fortified by faith in God finds
the victory in the condition of its will, and comes forth
more than heroic in the conquest of evil by the might
of good.
The soul operates with nerve-matter; the will
causing currents of energy to be excited in different
portions of that matter, according to the purpose of
the mind in attending and acting, so as to induce a
state of muscle and nerve in keeping with the state of
feeling; and of course, therefore, disorder in the mnaterials of mental manifestation disorders the manifestation itself.  We  are indebted to physicians for this
knowledge; but reason, without the help of physiology, teaches us with sufficient clearness that the personality of a human being does not consist of nerves
and muscles subject to physical derangement, but that
there is something superadded to this organism which
through it perceives other things and expresses itself.
This something is, as we have shown, the true man,
the soul or self, and every influence, either from without the body or within it, affects him as a personal
being related by creation to other beings; and, therefore, the most comprehensive method of studying the
endowments and destiny of the soul is to investigate
its personal relationships, and their influence upon individuoil clariactei and experience. 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
As regards the doctrine of ideas, disputes are end
ess. I am quite content, however, to believe that
thought is the soul thinking, and ideas are but states
of mind, or soul at work under the impression either
of present or remembered objects. Emotions in man
are connected with ideas, and, in proportion to the
vividness of thought, will be the feeling associated
with the thought, always, of course, according to the
state of the body and the habit of our affections. We
will not, however, involve ourselves in the mists of
metaphysical disquisition concerning affections internal and external, and faculties definite and indefinite.
With regard to the habit of viewing'the mind as so
many distinct faculties, we  may say, with  Locke,
(Book ii. chap. xxi. sect. 6.), This way of speaking
has misled many into a confused notion of so many
distinct agents in us, which had their several provinces and authorities, and did command, obey, and perform several actions as so many distinct beings; which
has been no small occasion of wrangling, obscurity, and
uncertainty, in questions relating to them." We would
not cavil with those who, in studying mental manifestations, divide these manifestations, as if distinct from
the mind itself; things must have names in order to
be scientifically considered; but we may well object
to a nomenclature that, instead of indicating the mere
instrumentality of organization, represents the organs
as one with the faculty evinced through them-and
thus not only divides a man into thirty or forty imaginary cerebral sections, but makes him nothing more
than a piece of mechanism, with about as much responslbility as a locomotive or a mill. In discoursing
of faculties and susceptibilities, we only refer to objects of sense or of thought, and to their effects upon
us; for all our experience; either intellectual or emotional, depends on the nature of the soul in relation
to other beings.   When, for instance, the benevolent
91 
92         MEN'TAL MANIFESTATION.
I
man sees another injured, it is not a sentiment that is
sympathetically pained, but the man himself, who, according to his character, exerts his faculties, and, like
a good Samaritan, sets about relieving the sufferer, for
whom he feels, because constituted with a nature in
like manner susceptible of injury and suffering. It
can only be a willing being that can respond to the
will of another.  If a man obey the known commands
of God, it is not a faculty of conscientiousness and veneration, as powers operative of themselves, but a soul
that is conscientious, and venerates and obeys.
A man acts either from instinct, which relates to
some bodily necessity, or else from some purpose having respect only to the mind. The motive of organic
sense is instinct, the motive of mind is reason.   Man
combines both in his present state; his organism supplies physical impulse, and his mind operates partly in
obedience to bodily appetite, and partly for the attainment of some spiritual advantage, which he expects
only because he has affections and faculties which can
not be satisfied without the interchange of thoughts
with other minds.
All that any man can really recognize as truth in the
doctrines of metaphysics, he must know from the
study of his own mind., Know thyself" is, however,
a maxim too deep for men in general, and we are all
apt to wander in a barren waste of speculation, and
rather bewilder ourselves with the mirages of a
weary imagination than quietly draw water firom the
fountain of truth, or sit beneath the tree of life, and
eat its fruit with a thankful heart.
A feeling of personal identity is, of course dependent on the will of the Almighty; but it must, in theo
nature of things, imply self-consciousness; for that
which does not feel its own existence, can not be
aware of the existence of other beings. It must also
imply successive impressions, or successive states of 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
consciousness, and the power of recognizing the difference between them; so that memory and cornpar-'
son are essential to conscious selfhood. All our passions, emotions and reasonings arise fromn the consciousness of self, in relation to objects as remembered
things. Hence knowledge, habit, and physical condition are the only causes which modify man's affections.
On the affections is founded all we conceive of agreeable or disagreeable, and desire is but the state of the
will with regard to what we know and feel, for we can
not desire, for its own sake, what is merely painful,
nor avoid, for its own sake, what is pleasant.  If we
look beyond immediate gratification, it must be from
attachment to some other being, or for the sake of
qualifying ourselves the better for companionship with
what we love, or because we fear the consequences
to ourselves in offending the Being who has the right
to command and to punish us.
There is an inherent relation of our souls to certain
objects, for without any previous knowledge we are at
once affected, either painfully or pleasantly, by their
presence.   Our natural attachments are born with us.
The visible and audible expression of strong emotion,
in any creature, affects our nerves in such a manner
as to convey its own meaning.   This susceptibility to
emotion, irrespective of intelligence, is properly denominated affection; and as no training can have produced
this, so it is manifest it must be the especial ground of
all the ideas which occupy a-man's mind. Whether
true or false, good or bad, a man's ideas will be grouped
and associated according to the qualities of his affections,
or the adaptation of his soul to objects as capable of
awakening like or dislike, love or hatred. These feelings express the intrinsic quality or condition of the
mind, and therefore, if we know a man who intellectually perceives the beauty of any truth, without being
moved by the love of it, we at once see that the will
93 
94        MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
of that man is engaged in a manner not appri-oved by
lhis reason; he is in a perverted and profaine state of
affection, and can not be brought into an appropriate
disposition of mind for seeking eternal fellowship with
the intelligence that is one with goodness, until he has
undergone a process of rectification by teachings and
trials, in connection with whatever affection may have
predominated in his heart to the detriment of his conscience.
Man is so apt to overlook the unity of his being, that
it is quite common for him to lose all feeling of responsibility, by supposing himself a compound of incongruous parts over which he has no control.  Heathens,
giving form to their fancies, and outward expression
to the state of their minds, have, in all ages, carved
their own characters in marble or in wood, and have
deified their own affections, desires, and ideas, by
making them  visible in all imaginable combinations
of beauty and hideousness. Having thus rendered
poetry into sculpture, and mnade feeling a permanent
presence they fall down to adore their own conceits.
They divide their divinity, by personifying their own
lusts and think they see a god when they behold an
image of themselves; they people the empyrean with
heroes that outrage humanity, and crowd their heaven with horrors that earth can scarcely tolerate.
Perhaps a disposition has always existed in human
minds to represent their own feelings as different fi'om
themselves, and therefore it is no wonder that, in this
respect, the philosopher but emulates the savage. A
modeler of minds here and there demonstrates his rational status by presenting us with casts of his mental
faculties and affections as distinct from himself, but
resident in the numberless cells of his brain; while the
savage, with equal ingenuity, evinces his mental condition. by attributing the powers of his own soul to insensate substances, which he calls gods, because tie is 
MENTAL MANIFESTA'I'ION.
natural philosopher enough to know that bodies do not
act without spirits residing in them. Philosophers of
the more material kind settle their incongruities  by
arranging them in opposite compartments, like prisoners
in a penitentiary. The re is, however, this difference
in the cases: in the penitentiary one individual inspects
many others, but the philosopher distributes himself
in firagments through a multitude of darkened cells, and
thus disposes of his faults and his faculties together,
while the individual is lost and the mind is nowhere.
Others would analyze intellect and volition, as they
would the soil, and having separated its elements, and
set them aside, they wonder what we mean when we
ask them what they have done with the soul? The
ego has been so complacently busy in research as to
forget itself; and the man believing only as he works,
through his eyes and his hands, observes that, having
submitted humanity to a dry distillation, he finds no
residuum, but a caput mortuunt of dust.
We are strangely taught, by some of our best ethical
writers, that desires and affections exist without volition, but unless they mean more than their words signify, we can not understand them; for where is the desire
without will, and where the affection that is neither
pleasing nor displeasirg? Will must be excited in
every manifestation of self for all we feel is but the
result of the correspondence between the sensitive
soul and its objects; and if these be so indifferent to
us as not to produce volition, we must soon lose sight
of them, and, falling asleep, enter the world of dreams,
for even dreams are more real than sights and sounds
without effect upon us.  We never attend without an
exercise of will, and the qualities of things induce a
state of mind in the individual regarding them according to his intuitive perception, habit, or association. By
intimacy with the feelings of others, we are apt to feel
like them. Their tastes become ours; we sympathize
95 
96        MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
with them until we resemble them. Thus our affections are educated as well as our intellect, and we are
always capable of departing as widely from good feeling as from sound thinking by fellowship with erroneous
souls; forto depart from God is not only to forsake truth,
but to pass into falsehood, which is never an abstract
negation, but an active evil positively at work to corrupt
the will. Thus minds always both stray and suffer
when -left untutored and unrestrained by those wise
spirits that.care for others. We can not separate the
emotion from the affection, nor the desire from the will,
except in speculative words. Will in action is desire,
and a will inactive is no will. The mind, operating in
relation to objects of sense, is mind under more or less
of emotion-self more or less impressed by what is
agreeable or otherwise; thus the soul evinces its will;
and the mind, attending to ideas and comparing them,
whether from direct impression or in memory, is a
thinking mind or intellect.   Now it is evident, that
both will and the power of knowing or being impressed
are essential to a conscious being. And man's superiority, as a mind, is shown in his capacity of abstracting
his attention from objects to fix it upon ideas, so as to
reason concerning them. His reason is his faith. So
then man, fully manifested, wills, knows, believes, and
loves. This is his nature. Therefore he must be
provided with objects in steeping with his naturethings to desire, to understand, and to believe. And
in as far as man is created with a capacity ofthinking
of the Creator as the originator of all things, he must
be constituted to find in Him the supreme object of
desire, of knowledge, and of faith.   In other,words,
man's will and intellect must find their satisfaction in
God, and in what He provides; for man can not rationally enjoy any thing in creation but as he finds in it the
expressions of his Maker's mind toward himself; therefore,in iireli,ious man  is so far unreasonable-his 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
r3ason is without its chief end, the efficient object of
love, the only source of light and joy.
To know truly, to love truly, to believe truly, is to
know, love, believe, what God has provided; and to be
deprived of this, is to be ignorant and unhappy. But
He has not left himself any where without witnesses
of his tender care for humnan beings.  He has given us
all something for the exercise of whatever faculties we
possess, leading us on in thought from the deficien cies of the past and the present to the fullness of the
future, that-we may be conscious that we hang upon
His unpailing Providence for all we have and all we
hope.
Let us not suffer ourselves to be beguiled out of our
birthright as intelligent beings, by the vapory modes of
speech invented by the misty order of metaphysicians,
or the more mechanical surveyors of our brains, but
let us remember, that whatever the peculiarities of
our mental manifestation, we are still individuals, and
not complicated thinking machines.  We  hear, feel,
see, taste, smell; we desire, hope, fear, confide, venerate, determine; we compare, reflect, reason; we exercise intellect and feel emnotion; we sin; we suffer; we
live forever; and we need a Saviour, that knows our
nature in all it is, and all it can be, and who is capable
of providing for us according to the vastness of our
necessities.
Superinduced upon the vitality of his physical framework, man, in his present state, has two modes of
psychical manifestation, which distinguish him from
animnals. He is capable of living in an ideal world
produced in his mind by the impression of exterior
objects, and he is capable of enjoying thoughts which
the material universe could not engender nor suggest,
unless to a reason enlightened by iunderived Intelligence. Man is the prophet and the seer, the expositor
of nature, the student of events, the only being on
7
97
I 
98        MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
earth that concerns himself with the plans of Providence and the prospects of the future. And while he
voluntarily dwells upon his own past for the renewal of
its pleasures, or to indulge in the luxury of recollected
sorrow, he feels called on to look further back, and
forward, and around, not as if he were alone the subject of his own insight, but as if the inheritor in spirit
of all that has been accomplished and all that is to come."
It is true, that he alone beholds the autobiography of
the heart, and sees written in his memory, as in a book,
the indelible record of his life. But his individual experience is but a small part of his treasury of facts;
he glances in the retrospect of thought, to witness, as
in a moment of time, and as in a living panorama spread
before the eye of his soul, the grand lessons of history,
as the especial science of his race, in respect to the
promises and providence of God; he mingles in imagi
nation with the generations that are gone; his heart
glows at the songs of bards two thousand years old; his
nerves thrill at the eloquence of men that can nevel
die; his spirit is kindled by thoughts that have passed
from soul to soul since souls have been; he sympa
thizes in the struggles of human spirits erroneously
laboring to be free, and, where truth brings the liberty
of knowledge and of power, he seems to join the
nations in their welcome to the light; he weeps at
their griefs, and laughs when they are glad; every
utterance of humanity affects his own heart, like a
familiar interest, and he feels the touch of kindred and
of love that vibrates through all time; he trembles in
agony, to behold mighty souls losing their way and
groping in the darkness of tradition, and feeling after
God without finding him; and, if a Christian, he burns,
perhaps, to speak of Jesus to Pythagoras, to Plato, and
to Socrates; and, to satisfy his hopes, expects to find
them learned in the Word of God and glorious in his
kingdom. Thus the human spirit can take its part in 
MENT'AL MANIFESTATION.
all the progresses of its race; go back, as if with Milton,
to the beginning, when, the heavens and the earth
iose out of chaos;" associate in soul with the first Adam
in his perishable Paradise, and then, deliberately look ing through all the passages of a fallen and redeemed
world, go forth in the strength of an unfailing faith
to meet the second Adam, the Lord from heaven,
returning to establish among men the immovable do minion of righteousness and love.
Man's character is formed by his ideas, and these
are of three classes:   1st. Those which he has in common with inferior
creatures-the mere reflex of nervous impression.
2dly. Those that are purely human, rational, reflective, but limited to natural or physical objects.
3dly. Those that are revealed and divine, and tending to bear the soul onward to futurity, in consequence
of what it perceives as the moral necessity of its own
existence.
Perhaps there is not a being in human form so
unhappily associated or so miserably uninstructed as
to live entirely in the lowest or brutal state, unless
from necessity, as is the case of certain idiots, who
can obtain no associate ideas, in consequence of some
defect in the organization of the brain through which
the soul perceives. The relation between thoughts
and things is lost in such cases, because the soul can
not rest upon sensation so as to make comparison distinctly. Perfect idiots can attend to impressions only
so far as to act instinctively; they are, therefore, removed beyond the pale of humanity, excepting as they
serve to exercise our faith in Omnipotence, and lead us
to look forward to the manifestation of His benevolence
in the emancipation of souls from the imprisonment ot
incommodious and impeding bodies.
It is manifest that when the mind has not the power
or opportunity of working, whatever of the inferior
.99
I 
MENTAL MANIFESTA TION.
cast belongs to human nature will then operate unrestrained.  The history of idiotism is a doleful illustration of this truth, but yet, like every evil, it points to
good, and calls us to exercise faith in God, as the
provider of means against misery. Idiotism proves
thle debasing influence of neglecting humanity.  Even
in its worst forms it is still somewhat amenable to
kindness and to skill.  Whenever a human soul can be
reached by another, so as to feel a good intention,
there is an improvable being.  As long as the organization of the senses and their associate brain are not so
imperfect as to prevent connected attention to objects,
it is in the power of one man to elicit the light hidden
in another; and many men, seeing this, and devoutly
loving human souls for love's sake, have set themselves
with patience to the task of redeeming idiots from the
hideousness of confused instincts, undirected and without aim.  By  persevering  efforts, in attracting and
fixing their attention steadily and sympathetically to
the actions of their teachers-teachers, so to say, by
contact-multitudes of such forlorn beings have been
brought into smiling association with humanity and
reason; thus proving that those left to neglect and
ill-treatment must be the pests and terrors of social
and domestic life, until the unconquerable philanthropy
of practical wisdom and charity is brought to bear upon
them and bring them forth fromn degradation into
rational relationship. If asylums for idiots had done
nothing more than teach us that beautiful souls may lie
completely concealed under disgusting coverings, they
had done much; but they have also taught us that the
might of patience, sympathy, and kindness, is greater
far than the world yet knows.  They have, moreover,
indicated how much may, in general, be done to restore
human nature to its right place, by true knowledge
and love, duly exercising the authority which alone
elongs to them, by showing how mental and physical
ior 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
evils niay be prevented by moral restraints, and renmedied, as far as man mnay remedy, by insisting on obedience to the laws of nature and of God.
If the brain be not so diseased or deficient as to preclude the soul from attention, through it moral education is probably always possible. A superior mind asserts its power, first by controlling its own impulses,
and then by the orderly purpose of action in visible
self-management, sympathetically governing the minds
of others also. Thus, by persevering determination in
regulating muscular movements, by bringing the senses
steadily into use, and by exercising the will intelligently in every action, M. Sequin, and others on his
plan, have succeeded in training the most unpromising
idiots into conscientious agents. The philanthropy
thus  beautifully and wisely at work, opeas to  our
view more of the practical science of education than
all the discourses on mental discipline with which
schoolmen have afflicted us: it has demonstrated that
mind rules mind most effectually by asserting its right
to be attended to, and that none can be lost to improvement who can be brought into willing obedience, and that this obedience, or yielding of self, is
induced by the visible and constant interest of the
governing in the governed. Mere coercion fails, even
with an idiot: the mind is not brought out into intercourse, except by a strong will dominating over it
by engaging it agreeably.. The state of the body is a
state of will, in as far as it tends either to pleasure or
pain; and if the mind be perverted by an ill state of
body, the only way to recover it from wrong desires
is to command attention to other perceptions than
those produced by the disorder or ill condition of the
body or of any of its organs and functions; a new state
of will must be induced. This is exemplified to the
full by M. Sequin's treatment of the perverted and
disordered idiot.  He at first governs the idiot's mus
101 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
cles for him, by putting himself completely in the idlot's way as, so to say, his only object. All the senses
that poor imbecile may possess he confines to his own
movements: he masters the forlorn being by infusing
a new will into his limbs; he takes hold of them gently and firmly, and slowly moves them, as he wishes,
consecutively, and for the attainment of certain ends.
Thus the mindless, purposeless pupil moves with his
master, until his muscles are educated into associate
action. In short, the teacher adopts the only method
open in such a case to obtain any degree of fellowship, and thus he draws out the idiot's mind into consistent action, as far as possible with so incommodious
an organization of brain, nerve, and muscle, as an idiot
existence implies.  And all embodied minds must be
reached and ruled on the same principles-the will of
one must be brought into relation to the other by
physical helps; there must be co-operation until there
is established sympathy; and then, where sympathy
is established, if mental development and manifestation be not a physical impossibility, an order of kindred thinkings may be conducted through one mind
to the other, and that moral intercourse will result for
which reason exists and language is given.
The exercise of memory is generally the chief part
of education, as usually conducted, but this is really
the least important in itself; for if memory alone be
cultivated, a man may learn to have no thoughts of his
own, although as full of words and facts as an encyclopedia. The intellect may be quickened into such
intense activity, memoriter, as to be ever busy with as
sociations and comparisons, and even to be poetically
and even mathematically insane, but yet make no
progress in practical truth. The man of large re
membrance may be not a whit the more moral, or the
more religious, or the  nlore useful to society and
home, foil' is;    )krowle(] g.  He may be only a i an
I()2 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
of ideas, after all,-a mere psychological curiosity,unless he learn to regulate his body as the outward
and visible part of the formal social system. Religion
and morality are not ideal things. We recognize, indeed, most fully the fact that man is a psychical being, a soul: for physical senses and frameworks would
be useless if an operative and percipient agent were
not engaged, through them in forming ideas.  Objects
and sensations can never become thoughts but to a
thinking being. But a man must perceive and understand his relation to objects before he can justly reflect or properly feel. Thought is altogether wide of
its purpose, but as from an intuitive sense of the fitness
of other created things to the individual mind. Without this the symbols of thought are never interpreted,
and the senses serve only to awaken impulses that
have no meanings beyond those of the idiot and the
brute.  The human being must be taught to perceive
and feel his relation to other intelligences before his
moral nature can be developed. He must be drilled
as well as disciplined.  His will must be brought into
coincidence with others; he must move with them as
well as reciprocate their affections, before there can
arise a sense of duty or a disposition to act with respect to another's claim upon his conduct. Free will
does not begin to be evinced until the mind perceives
this duty, and until then moral consciousness is not
awakened. The distinctive attribute of man slumbers
until the mind is conscientiously cultivated by practical lessons, or by the embodiment of good thoughts in
good actions. If a man have never seen any but malignant or evil passions at work, how can he have a
good thought? Human minds must not be judged by
the heavenly standard until they have been brought
under Divine doctrines, and that not in abstract terms,
not in words alone, but in words interpreted by the
language of life, by example, by excellence made visi
103 
M- EN'TAL MANIFESTATI(oN.
ble in deed, just as the Son of God taught the bewil dered sons of men. Thus Christians stir the world,
agitate spirits, rouse wills, grapple other minds, and
shake them with the truths that shake you; propagate
the energy that is to regenerate mankind, because it
is the will of God that is in you.
There are many among men so satisfied with the
brutal kind of accommodation, that they forget that
blood, nerve, and muscle were placed in relation to the
human soul only to subserve it with means of learning
truth and of exercising will, so as to prove that mind
is eternal and irresistible when in the possession of
ability firom God to believe in Divine goodness, and
thus to conquer evil.  These men, having their souls
biased by depraved habit, prefer what they call
sense, and so modify their reason with the constancy
of their search for pleasures of sight, sound, taste, and
touch, as not to allow ideas of a higher order to remain
before the eye of the mind, or even to enter on the
field of their perceptions.   Their Paradise is not
merely one of fools, but of idiots, since to be quite fit
for it men must content themselves with the grossest
bodily sensations.
A third class are on earth-but are they not few?whose ideas are not all convertible into dreams and
phantasms. There is a reality of life about these men
as regards the purposes of their minds, which will not
suffer them to limit their attention to images of objects
merely; they have moral notions, and believe in God,
and in a grand arrangement to take place in a world to
come, on decisively righteous principles, so that each
soul shall stand eternally in relation to happiness precisely according to the state of its w'ill and affection
toward the Holy One.   Men with these convictions
and expectancies are, of course, disposed to use this
world without abusing it, and always aim at the subjection of the animal nature, both in sensation and
104 
MENTAL  MANIFESTlATION.
idea, that their conduct may tend to demonstrate the
excellence of reason, by proving its power to rule on
principles derived from Heaven, and from motives,
that, as they arise from love to the Lord of life, must
defy death, and regulate the springs of thought and
action forever.
This is the really reasonable class, for in its full exercise reason is always religious, since veneration to
the Supreme is the only truly exalting tendency of
the soul; and it elevates the whole man, as if by the
Divine attractiveness of light and love, into fellowship
with the Maker of heaven. If we are not capable of
recognizing the power and wisdom of God in the objects of creation and in its ordinances of harmonious
co-operation, we are not, indeed, rational, and can not
discern right from wrong. The law of heaven is then
hid from our eyes, because we have not entered on
the proper exercise of our higher faculties, since for
these there can be no occasion, except in the investigation of truth, as revealed to our understandings in
the workings of the Almighty in matter and on minds.
If men discover nothing of God in nature, or in the
spiritual revelations of thought, they must be dark at
heart and unreasonable in conduct; for this is that
form of ignorance that makes deities of lusts, and fate
of lawless will, because men living under its influence,
being filled with falsehood and delusion, can believe
only either sensually or superstitiously. Being tyrannized over, in one case by their sensations, and in the
other by their fears, their ideas have nothing to do
with logic, nor their morality with love. They tolerate each other only from convenience, just as a frightened herd crowd their heads together for mutual
defense; they begin to butt at each other as soon as
the motive for such association is past, and obedient
only to selfish impulses, they separate, to roam or to
ruminate, as the bodily state of each may suggest
105 
MENTAL MANIFE,STAT1ON.
The reason why many really live a brutal kind of
existence arises, as we have seen, from the circumstance
that human beings are constituted in a great measure
with relation to mere animal life. They possess bodies
formed on natural or physical principles, and confining
their attention, either from ignorance or from indolence, too much to this body and its conveniences,
they lose sight of the supernatural or spiritual relations
of their minds, and satisfy themselvesas, well as they
can, with brutal comforts and bodily enjoyments.
In these days when so much ingenuity is evinced in
endeavoring to reduce man to the elements of nature,
it is important clearly to see wherein the human mind,
when permitted to be manifested, differs from that of
mere animals. If a dog had a brain like a man's, say
some physiologists, he would be reasonable and religious. This is the same as saying, if a dog were
human he would not be a dog. All such ifs are simple
impossibilities, because what is one thing can not be
another. A human brain belongs to a human being,
and no other being ever had such a brain; and yet the
brain no more makes the man, or the dog, than the
man or the dog make the brain. God constitutes his
creatures, and he leas determined that no creature on
earth but man should voluntarily control his impulses
for moral purposes. Man can train himself by the apprehension of a will wiser than his own, but animals
can not will otherwise than as their senses may impress
them and excite desires. Man'can believe in God as
a Lawgiver, and he can wish to love his neighbor as
himself, because he can perceive that it is essential to
the well being of all intelligences endowed with active
powers, that they should mutually regard each other's
interests, or they would be mutually injurious.  Where
are the morals of beasts-and what are their charities?
Can a brute reflect on the probable effect of his conduct on the feelings of another? Can it perceive any
106 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.
evil in its will? Is it capable of acting conscientiously?
Can it put itself in relation to history? Can it arrange
past facts into new pictures? Can it obey God, from
love and gratitude? Can it trust to His hand? It can
do nothing of the sort-and, therefore, until those expounders of natural history, who include Omnipotence
only as a part of the theory of development, have
brought forth for us some specimen of a quadrumanous
or other mammal, not born of woman, but yet devout
toward God, and consequently conscientious toward
man, we must take the liberty of doubting their admrission to the councils of the Almighty. But, alas!
it is easy to find men so far resembling brutes, that
they neither venerate the Author of their being nor
justly regard the claims of their fellow creatures. But
they are not forced to remain in such a state. If they
are not idiotic, they may so attend to the doctrines of
nature and revelation, as to see that the Maker of
beauty is a proper object of love, and that He who
harmonizes the universe by light must be the source of
blessedness to all who obey His laws.
Whatever similarity may exist between the mental
manifestation of brutes and the actions of some men,
there is still an immeasurable and impassable gulf between the human mind and the brutal, which can be
accounted for only from the supposition that God has
imparted to the soul of man a power of desiring and of
acquiring ideas in infinite succession, through which it
may learn and love for eternity. The human soul can
be educated on moral and religious, that is to say, on
rational principles, because it is constituted to reflect the
mind of its Maker, as evinced in beauty and order, or
law and government. In short, man alone can acknowledge a Creator, or be instructed from his works
and his word, to trust him and to honor him. Reason is the  mirror of God, and  reflects his image
-and the soul of man, perceiving in itself this reflex
107 
1TMENTAL MANIFESTATION.
of perfection, is able in some measure to appreciate
the love and understand the power, which belong to
Him-who, as the one origin and end of being is the
only object demanding his devotion and worthy of
his worship. Until we find animals equally endowed,
we shall have no reason to compare man with them.
When they begin to exercise free will and conscience,
we may talk of their morality, and then consider their
expectations of immortality. They can not desire a
spiritual life, or a conformity with the Divine will, by
its emnbodimnent in person or in action.  They  see
neither life nor death, and truly, as before said, the mall
who lives not in truth, and loves not God, is so far like
them. The lower order of mind firom physical defect,
or groveling mismnanagement and ignorance, is humanly
brutal: the next order is rationally intelligent, so far
as the use of this world's elements of knowledge and
advantage may serve the purposes of thought and action.
The third order of minds is devoutly spiritual, from
some degree of Divine illumination in the understanding, by the entrance of truths addressed directly to the
heart and intellect of man, as being conscious of entire
dependence on the All-wise for every endowment that
shall qualify him for association with the intelligences
that bow adoringly and hearken to the words of God.
In this order of minds the thoughts are apt habitually
to take the form of prayer. They trust actively, they
praise actively, they pray actively, they live silently,
unostentatiously, divinely, efficiently, because they live
feelingly upon the beneficence of the Might that thus
always operates both on earth and in heaven.
Without spiritual knowledge, or the consciousness
of good and evil, man has no free will, and can only
choose evilly, selfishly, or simply to answer the sensual purposes of this bodily life; and thus it must be,
until he so understands the character of his Maker as
to lave it, and to hate whatever is opposed to it. This
108 
MENTAL MANIFESTATION.. 
perceptlion and apprehension of Divine perfection can
be conferred only by God himself; for how can man
willingly conform to the law of God, without being instructed by His Spirit? Thus men do the will, and
learn the wisdom of God, by the operation and impartation of a creative power, which induces a change of
mental direction, equivalent to a new nature in the
thoughts and purposes of man, so that he becomes holy
in body, soul, and spirit, by acting in faithful obedience
to the demands of his Maker. Instead of seeking for
a self-satisfaction for today, the really religious man
should live, every conscious momernt, with his mind
set upon conformity to a higher, holieri will, and thus
seeking an unfading glory, and looking to God, find in
Him the happiness, the end, the sufficiency of his
being.  He who is thus spiritually alive can not but
believe in eternal life, because he has already begun
to enjoy it in earnest; and he can not but believe in
everlasting love, because he knows that if we, being
evil, give good gifts to our children, our Father in
heaven will much rather give His Holy Spirit to them
that ask Him; and thus religion proves itself divinethe end and purpose of reason to the man who receives the revelation of Heaven.
109 
CHAPTER VI.
S E L F-M A N A G EMEN T.
WITH an endeavor to simplify the science of mind,
it has been my aim, I hope not presumptuously, always to keep in view the unity and individuality of the
being which feels, thinks, and acts. It is a self, or ai
soul that is conscious of sensation, thought, and will.
Whatever be the experience of the mind, it is a condition of the ego, with relation either to objects or the
ideas of objects. It is a personal being, existing experimentally, and in the actual perception of realities.
or in the remembrance of them, and weal or woe is
the state of the individual in his inward life and selfconsciousness. But the soul of man has relation to
a three-fold order of consciousness-of thought or intellect; of feeling, or some degree of emotion; of desire, or some exercise of will. These correspond with
the three-fold division of the nervous system, the cerebral, the cerebro-spinal, and the ganglionic. But it
is important to observe that this division destroys not
the unity of the soul, since in thought, feeling and desire are involved, and in every degree of emotion,
thought and desire are included, and in desire, emotion is blended with thought. Willing and feeling are
essential to intellect; and either the one or the other
predominates, according as the soul manifests itself in
its different bodily relations. This division of manifestation is a practical truth, that demands to be borne
in mind in our endeavors at self-cultivation; for all
defects in education are traceable to mismanagement,
both of the body and the mind, in one or all of these
divisions; and it is in the relation which these divis. 
SELF-MANAGEMENT.
ions bear to each other that we find the limit to the
power of mental training.  We  have to preserve a
just balance between intellect, emotion, and will, or
the mind becomes more or less deranged in operation.
The person whose thinking faculties are cultivated at
the expense of his affections and natural desires, lives
in a world of abstractions, as if amid ideas that find no
representatives in the universe of God. One whose
thoughts are left to wander at random in the region
of romance, becomes a being full of sentimentalism,
and is lost in inordinate affection, either in idea or real ity; while he whose natural desires are neither re strained by natural affection nor regulated by thought,
descends to the baser madness of the habitual sensualist.
Thus we see that mental and moral fortitude, or
virtue, consists in maintaining that adjustment of our
nature which includes the management of bodily impulses, under the feeling of those superior motives
that spring only firom the understanding of our duty
to God and our neighbor, and a firm resolution, under
the encouragement of Divine and ever ready help, to
do it. It is in this way that man walks with God in
health, and enters heaven as his natural home.
I would thus define the three-fold division of mental
operation:  Intellect is the self, or soul, perceiving physical and
'ogical relations, and acting on them.
Moral feeling is the self, perceiving the relation of
conscious beings to itself, and acting accordingly.
Emotion is the effect of ideal or present objects upon
one's sense of self, as regards pain or pleasure.
Each of these conditions of mind is modified by bodily state and the employment of the senses. Healthy
organization of nerve and brain is essential to the exercise of that attention on which clear ideas depend
while using the body; and, therefore, in as far as at
III 
SELF-MANAGElMENT.
tention modifies emotion, our feelings must be influenced by the body.
Moral perception will of necessity be obscure,
where reason itself is darkened; but its defects ap
pertain rather to the will than to the understanding,
though will itself is limited, in certain respects, by
physical necessity.
Emotion, as far as the mind can act voluntarily in
controlling its own feelings, will be evinced according
to the state of the intellect and the acuteness of moral
perception; but in as far as the susceptibility to impression from objects depends on nervous sensibility,
it is manifest that whatever modifies this sensibility
will also modify emotion. Hence it is, that sex and
temperament exercise so large an influence over the
formation of character, and in the conduct of individuals, under the same rational and moral convictions.
In considering the connection between the mind and
the body, it is of the highest importance always to remember that the mind, or rather the being that thinks
and wills, is the active agent. The body, with all its
beautiful and wondrous adaptations, only supplies the
means of perception and of acting. Nerve-matter is
the evident medium and instrument of the being that
perceives and acts through it.  Physiologists appear
to have demonstrated that an imponderable principle,
akin to electricity, is evolved in the nervous system,
and that currents of this fluid are constantly traversing
the different sets of nerves, according to their office
and function, either as the media of sensation, volition,
or of vegetative life. There is, in short, an action
going forward in all the nerves and their centers, similar to the electro-magnetic, and consequently every
nerve is polarized. The soul appears to operate upon
these electro-magnetic currents, and to be imrpress'ed
by them. The imponderable energia passing in these
currents is apparently the medium between the soul
112 
SELF-MANAGEMENT.
and the more palpable materials forming the body.
This may  be inferred from the fact, that whatever
alters the force of these currents alters the condition
of the mind in relation to the body. Thus the arrest
of the current in a nerve subservient to voluntary muscular action, whether by chemical or  mechanical
mneans, prevents the mind from exercising will in the
use of the muscle with which the nerve experimented
on is connected.  The same occurs, also, in the like
case with any nerve through which we obtain sensation of the presence of any body which, in a natural
state, would so affect the nerve as to produce feeling.
Another evidence that the soul acts through this fluid
is afforded in the circumstance that, by strongly directing attention to any part, as, for instance, the eye,
a new sensation is perceived in the organ; and if this
kind of attention be persisted in, or frequently repeated, the eye becomes inflamed and painful. It is
also evident, that those nerves that belong to parts, the
natural functions of which are carried on without our
consciousness-such  as the stomach-may be rendered sensitive by a strong action of the will; and the
operation of all the reflex, or ordinarily involuntary
system, is modified by mental emotion. In fact, every
thought changes the nerve-current. Moreover, the
brain itself, and all the nerves connected with-it, are
so far influenced by the will of the individual as to be
not only directed into new modes, so as to effect an
entire alteration in the habit of mental and muscular
action, but also to such a degree, that, the completely
organized brain is partly a creation of self-directing
and self-repeating mental activity," (Feuchtersleben,
p. 123.) It is, so to say, developed by the habits of
the soul.
The rapidity of the mental processes seems to require an electric or some similar medium, by which
tle\- may be effected in connection with the body, since
8
113 
SELF-MANAGEMENrT.
they result so instantaneously that the will to move
for instance, and the motion, are simultaneous. Professor Wheatstone has proved that electricity, like light,
travels at the rate of 192,000 miles in a second: and
this appears to be an agency sufficiently subtile to
answer all the purposes of the soul as an active being.
Probably electricity and light are but one agent, acting
under different relations. It is interesting to consider
ourselves as operating, by each act of our will, upon
embodied light; but whatever be the immediate agency
between mind and muscle, it is vastly more interesting
to know, that the willing being is something as really
and distinctly existing as the light itself, but in its
nature infinitely more subtilely and exquisitely constituted, since it is indivisibly and inscrutably associated
with the Being who  said,, Let light be, and light
was."
If we advance further in contemplating our mental
existence in connection with the body, we shall more
clearly perceive, that the body itself is not the cause
but the instrument of mind. In order that it should
be a ready instrument, it is, as we see, constructed on
electromagnetic principles, so that it serves the purposes of the mind in many spontaneous actions, without even awakening consciousness. Whatever is essential to the processes of life is carried on in the
economy, without our consent; and until some demand
is made by the body, requiring our voluntary interference for the removal of inconvenience or for the supply
of aliment, our attention is not so far attracted to the
body as that our desires are distinctly perceived to arise
from its state. Thus we feel hunger or thirst, and use
means for their removal. But our emotions and affections are at all times influenced by bodily condition, and
in many respects, may be traced to a physical origin.
They are so far involuntary, that their causes are in
operation before we are aware, and they are apt to
114 
SELF-MANAGEMENT.
evince their power against our wills; yet reason is
tested by their presence, and she prevails over them in
proportion to the clear perception and experience of
spiritual motives, or those moral convictions which arise
from religious enlightenment. Were it not that our
connection with the body subjects us to feelings against
which we are conscientiously and reasonably required
to contend, we should be incapable of that self-conscious ness by which we distinguish ourselves fiom our bodies
In fact, those who find no other inducement to thought
and action than the body affords, are really incapable
of apprehending any other than bodily existence, and
they live not according to spiritual but sensual motive
The passions being heightened impulses, consented
to by the mind, are evidently connected with the
emotions.  They are strong expressions of pleasure or
displeasure, according to the state of the will or the
mental intention at the time of the impulse. We desire
whatever promises us pleasure, but this desire may be
removed from the mind by the previous consideration
of the nature and consequence of such a pleasure in a
moral view.  The enjoyments of sense may give place
to those of thought. The inclination of reason will be
directed by the knowledge of results and by its disposition to yield to what it recognizes as Divine law. The
object pursued by rational choice will be according to
our apprehension of the nature of that which is presented, with respect to good and evil morally considered.
But, of course, without the reception of the Divine
moral law as a standard of conduct, there can be no
other sense of good and evil but that which many infidels have advocated-namely whatever the individual
may find agreeable or otherwise, with no other modification than that of selfish convenience.
Those who deny that our Maker has revealed His
will as the rule of life, are perfectly consistent in
representing every heart as being rightfully a law to
115 
SELF-MAANAGEMIENT.
itself-not fi'om conscience but for pleasure, not for
eternity but for time, not for life everlasting but for
speedy death.
The emotions and passions, as regards man, are in
deed but different conditions of the sense of self; but
then they receive modification, according to the degree
of mental culture and the purity of moral motive and
pulrpose, as well as from the state of the body. Let
us consider that state of mind known as cheerfulness.
W\Vliat is this but an undefined pleasure in the consciousness of life, with that degree of satisfaction which
is felt during the absence of any thing annoying, and
without the presence of anyobject that excites passion?
Yet it can never exist without a quiet hopefulness, and
hence the man who busily sets about doing his duty
is most disposed cheerily to whistle at his work. A
certain forgetfulness of consequences, whether from a
careless disposition or from the influence of a stimulus,
often induces this state of mind, but a wise man is not
likely to rejoice without a good reason.
Some metaphysicians include certain emotions in
their catalogue of passions, and others classify certain
passions among the emotions. This discrepancy probably arises from a disregard of the fact that both our
passions and our emotions, with reference to objects of
sense, are but states of self, in relation to impression,
and the energy with which they may be manifested depends on the state of the body and its organs at the time
thlat any impulse acts upon us. To illustrate my meaning more fully, I will examine anger-the most violent
of our emotions, and emphatically designated passion.
However sudden the seizure of this furor brevis, it
springs directly from a feeling of interference with the
accomplishment of some desire; it is the energetic
expression of offense at the resistance of our wills. It
therefore operates throughout the muscular system,
and makes a strong demand upon our hearts for a rapid
116 
SEI,F-MANAGEMENT.          -
supply of blood, and summons the brain-to put forth all
its energy.  The degree to which the brain atnd heart
may be excited will depend upon their state. We well
know that the nervous system and the blood may be in
a condition to favor irascible feeling, and render even
a wise man in danger of appearing both foolish and ill tempered. Who has not seen or heard enough of the
mysteries of madness, to be aware that ungovernab.,
rage is one of its most terrible modes, in consequence
of the feeling of offense coinciding with a state of body
so predisposed to promote its expression, that total ex haustion of energy can alone terminate the paroxysm?
That the cause of the emotion may sometimes be
purely  mental, and  sometimes  physical  is, in this
case, very evident. The state of the body suggests
the angry ideas, and any slight cause of mental disturbance at once rouses the brain and circulation to the
Irage point. All our passions are more or less subject
to the same reciprocal influence, and hence? in the
New Testament, self-government is enforced by cominands that require us to keep the body in subjection
while seeking a conformity of will to Divine example.
To be angry without sin, is the standard of perfection;
since such a state'of feeling is but holy zeal in the vindication of God's character, as the faithful Creator, and
a resistance to whatever would tempt us to doubt or
disobey Him.
There are a thousand degrees and kinds of indignation: the moral condition, together with the intellectual cultivation determnining, the kind; for an exhibition
of conduct that would only excite an offensive sense of
meanness in one man, will produce in another the
most earnest expressions of compassionate concern.
A feeling of anger exists in both; in the former it is
pride and wrath, constituting contempt, but in the
latter it is a sense both of the impropriety and tlieo
danger of the ind(lividu,tl offending. In short, every
117 
S,TEI,F- MANAGEMNIlNT.
emotion acts as a stimulus to the brain, only to elicit
an expression of the general character and habit of the
mind; since whatever impulse a man may feel, he
will act under it, according to his moral and religious
convictions.  Thus the temptations of one man drive
him to the secret place of the Almighty, while anotliei
is led captive at the will of the tempter; one seekit,
comfort in prayer, and another in potations.
We shall do well to reflect still further on anger, as
the type of passion.  In the human mind, without religious motives, anger is essentially hatred; but a well
constituted man can allow it no rest in his bosom, except in the form of that constant odium with which he
regards any thing positively unjust and.injurious, as
opposed to the universal law of love, to which he himself wishes ever to be obedient. Love is the proper
antagonist both of anger and of hatred; and as he who
hates his brother is a murderer, devoid of all idea concerning eternal life, so he that truly loves the human
brotherhood has passed from death to life, and feels
the value of the price paid for man's redemption.
The method by which God reconciles men to himself
is the only method by which men  can be perfectly
reconciled to each other. There is no other cause of
peace in the world. Men may, indeed, be too busy in
their pursuits to quarrel; but the very eagerness of
their engagements produces war whenever they come
into collision without love, because the natural will can
not then be excited to anger without also awakening
hatred, and that is a desire which knows To rest but
in the extermination of whatever opposes it.
There is an instructive distinction between animals
and man, with regard to the irrascible disposition.
As animals are not capable of moral emotions, they
are incapable of malice; for this requires intellect and(
reason to engender and to foster it.  This fact is illustrated by reference to the tempers of lower animals,
]is 
SELIF-MANAGEMENT. 
It may, I think, be questioned whether they can ex perience anger in any respect similar to what man
feels.  They resist any opposition to their natural de sires or convenience, but they do not resent it, because,
in fact, they have no real sense of wrong.  Infants and
idiots, in whose minds moral motives are not in opera tion, are so far instinctive in their consciousness of
resistance to the fulfillment of their wills: however
they may struggle to overcome and even destroy what
may stand in the way of their wishes, we hold themn
irresponsible, because they can not compare another's
claim with their own, nor apprehend the law of right.
Hence a sense of vengeance, or revenge, properly
speaking, no more mixes with their emotion than does
a sense of justice.  As they are actuated by instinct to
resist opposition, so the instant the obstacle is removed, or a new object attracts their attention, they are
appeased. They harbor no ill will. Revenge is not
a motive in their anger. The lioness robbed of her
whelps will fight for their recovery, but their restoration obliterates her wrath in natural pleasure, pro-.
vided the despoiler disappears. Man's anger is not of
this simply protective nature; there is vengeance in
it.  He reasons wrathfully, he nurses his indignation,
he maliciously exaggerates the injury, he reflects his
own spirit upon it, he pursues the offender, not only
as a foe, but as a culprit, whose crime can not be expiated but by a consummate punishment-he seeks his
revenge. This is the natural course of man's anger,
until religion changes the style of his affections, and
directs his thoughts to God. He then foregoes all
thoughts of revenge, because he feels that he could
have no hope of salvation were not righteousness
necessarily love.
There is some sense of justice in man, however wild,
and this appears to be engrafted upon mere animal
resentment, or that result of constitutional antipathy
119 
SELF-MANAGEMENT.
by which the different tribes are kept apart, for their
better enjoyment of the means of life. But the spirit
of revelation, of reason, and of religion, masters the
animal in man, and causes him to feel an interest in
his fellow man, commensurate with his own consciousness of eternity and God.  All we  know of man's
nature from physiology, from the Bible, and from selfconsciousness, shows us, that in proportion as the will
is regulated by religion, will our emotions be kept ini
orderly submission, and our conduct be directed to
right ends. There is no security against the tyranny
of our passions but from that dominion of the spirit,
which consists in the formation of correct mental habits,
under the influence of Divine truths and proper objects
of affection. These must take possession of our hearts
and nerves, in order to our safety; for if they do not,
ideas from evil sources will prevail over us, and that in
such a manner as neither to be cast out by agony, nor
controlled by terror. The enemies of God are the
enemies of man, and the sensuality of our fallen nature
is so far coincident with evil, that if we refuse to obey
the exhortation that addresses us as the children of a
Heavenly parentage, we must be ruled by the hand
that can not suffer an enemy to prosper, because the
Omnipotence of Love is pledged to promote only the
devout and the benevolent.
The mightiness of those motives which Providence
has appointed for our government, is strikingly exemplified in that most awful state of human degradation,
insanity. We will refer to this subject merely to
illustrate the influence of hope and fear under the
most unfavorable circumstances.  iMI.  Esquirol employed the actual cautery, a red hot iron, in rousing the
dormant will of insane patients, and thus succeeded, in
some cases, in establishing the rational dominion of the
mind over the confused emotions induced by disease
ef the brain.  Pinel employed a plan, more humane
120 
SEI,LF-MANAGEMENT.
but perhaps equally efficient. He directed the cold
douche, not only as a means of changing the nervous
action, but also as a punishment, where the mind was
still amenable to the persuasions of fear, and he has
recorded that he thus occasionally cured an obstinate
insanity. But the more philanthropic method is now
recommended to the world by the gentle firmness
with which Dr. Conolly manages to engage the minds
and interest the hearts of the numerous inmates of
Hanwell Asylum, with employments, and with hopes
suited to the different states of their affections and
intellect.
But it is evident that many of the various diseases
of the nervous system are of a kind that limits this
power of appealing to the mind for motives to control
itself. When disease so interferes with the action of
the senses and of judgment, as to hinder the right
perception of time and space by too rapid an excitement, then a whirling and confused sense of present
objects begins, and is speedily superseded by imagined
or remembered impressions.  Responsibility is at an
end-the man is no longer capable of comparing one
thing with another-lihe employs not his senses under
the guidance of knowledge-he is no longer capable of
acting toward others with consciousness of moral relationship-he is mad as a drunkard.
But it may be said of any man, that unless he hanitually employ his faculties and affections on their
appropriate objects, his experience, however craftily
acquired, is still but a self-controlled insanity, for to
live without an intelligent and amiable purpose, is
really to serve an inferior nature, and to aggravate
the degradation of the selfhood by the indulgence of
its depraved desires.
If self-control, and the subjection of bodily impulses
be not founded on love to others as well as to ourselves, mnoral derangement is already commenced
121 
SELF-MANAGEMENT.
there is an established aptitude for mnoomaniia.  This
state of mind is usually no other than a perversion of
intellect, in consequence of moral obliquity, or the
habit of acting with a view to selfish gratification, ir respective of all that conscience may dictate or rela tive affection may demand. Hence, it is no uncommon
thing for Inonomaniacs to charge their crimes upon
the defects of their education or the mismanagement
of their childhood. A youth, who, after a course of
outrages against morality, murdered his father, thus
addressed the dead body —" Ah, my father, where are
you now? You and my mother have caused this
misfortune.   If you had brought me  up better, it
would not have happened."* Let parents so pray,
and so act, that such a charge may not be valid
against them before the throne of God.
Every remarkable instance of deficiency in self
management we regard as an evidence either of defect
inl mental culture, or of some disproportion and disorder in the organization by which the mind operates
and is impressed. Mental derangement is complete
whenever any disease of the nervous system in any of
its divisions has so far advanced that the power of the
will is insufficient to control physical impulse, or the
impressions of the mind so rapid, that to compare
ideas, and to determine with consistency, is impossible.
Habitual misuse of the mind produces mental derangement as surely as disease in the organs of perception,
volition, and emotion. The evil influence of bad example, of ignorance, or the immoral training of the
intellect, encouraging malignant motives of conduct
while restraining all the higher exercises of reasonthese, and whatever else pertains to an abandoned
soul, contribute largely to populate our mad-houses
with patients of the least curable kind. And we might
reasonably suppose it would be so, since such states of
*Georet, Discussion Medico-Legale sur la Folie, p. 144.
122 
SELIF-MANAGEMENT.
mind imply the habitual and voluntary abuse of those
organizations which are the instruments of thought,
will, and feeling. Yet every one of these wretched
beings who has so much of sense remaining as to
allow him to attend to his keeper, is controlled by
moral  motive.   See  the happy  hundreds, in their
festival at Hanwell.  Having a purpose to fulfill, for
their own pleasure, they hold themselves in order,
and co-operate with their fellows in promoting harmony and happiness; but the moment any one of them
loses sight of the motive for self-control, some disturb
ance of his passions commences-the demon again
takes possession of the man, and he must be hurried
off to his cell until the evil influence works itself out
by temporary exhaustion of the body.
Our moral emotions are excited both by physical and
moral causes, and if our desires be not habitually restrained by reason, and the love of truth and of God,
our moral nature is necessarily deranged.  As the
Apostle exhorts us, so in fact we find it necessary to
abstain even from the appearance of evil. The lion's
cub is harmless till it has tasted blood, but then he becomes outrageous; and the evil in our heart may be
dormant till excited by its appropriate aliment and indulgence, when it becomes uncontrollable. I refer to
insanity, as the strongest exemplification of the influence of disorderly passions. Even in the York Retreat, 112 cases in 135 arise from that kind of disappointment which might have been prevented by the
right employment of the senses, and by proper objects
of thought. By reference to the records of insanity,
we see, indeed, as by the united testimony of many
thousands gathered together before us, as from all the
Asylums of the world, in all the frightful forms of humanity deranged and demonized, that knowledge, faith,
and love, alone furnish the soul with competent motives for self-management, amidst the many maddening
123 
SELFL-MANA GE lMl - N T.
influences of this world of trial. With our best appli ances, we still rest in the hand of MIercy for protection
from the evils around us and within us, through the
disobedience of man.
Power is proved by resistance. There is always
something to be overcome in exercising will while we
are in the body. If it were not so, will would either
act as a creative power, or otherwise it must be always
so anticipated by the provision made by the Creator for
its indulgence, as that moral cultivation would be irnmpossible, which of course can only be the case where
moral training is unheeded-that is to say, among
perfect beings, whose wills can never contravene the
holiness of God's behests, and with whom not a desire
can be felt-at variance with Divine wisdom and benevolence.
It is well for us that our physical constitution, with
all its wonderful conveniences, offers, nevertheless, so
frequent an impediment to the fulfillment of mental
purpose, as to force us to reflect on our dependence on
higher power; for otherwise malevolence might work
its way without interruption fronm the necessities of the
body, and instead of being sometimes obliged to limit
its activity to dreams, it would always be vigilantly
mischievous with the plottings and the powers of a Satanic malice and ambition.
As the existence of the soul as a distinct being is
proved by its thoughts and by its power over the body,
so its spiritual standing as a moral agent is proved by its
self-control, and its resistance to the undue demands
of those appetites and passions which appertain to its
bodily habitation in this earthly state.
The mind must act with whatever motives it possesses.  Its tendency is to act incessantly, but there are
restraints upon us. We feel that there is nothing in
the mind itself to hinder our willing and doing according to out' own pleasure, forever.  Tlhe impediment is
124 
SEILF-MiANAGEMENT.
inot in that which wills and acts, but in the body by
which it acts, or in the restraints of circumstances and
connection to which Providence binds every spirit he
has formed.
There being, then, no check upon soul-power in
thinking and willing but in the motive which determines the choice of subjects on which to think, and of
objects on which to fix our affections, let us exercise
the reason God has given us, in soberly considering
what He renders imperative upon us, in order to our
reception of the happiness which, on fixed principles,
He has appointed as the portion of every spirit that
takes its right position in the universe.
If an insane waywardness may be arrested, and the
charmed mind be led back to the path of sobriety and
reason, by the gentle hand of wise, firm, indomitable
kindness, how mighty and commanding must be that
charity which is the spirit of Christianity, when made
to influence as it ought all the relations of life. This
alone has a touch of efficacy sufficient to dispossess
wickedness of its willfulness, to attract the urgent soul
from its chosen misery, and to conduct it to peaceful
activity. If we possess not this spirit we are not philanthropists, but madmen, and have no more right to
our own way than the inmates of Bedlam, since without it we can not rightly co-operate with others for
mutual good.
We are strikingly taught the importance attached
to our habits of action by observing that our mental
constitutions are confirmed into evil, by our bodies
themselves taking on a corresponding condition. Even
the mimicry of a passion produces a state of nerve
which  excites the very emotion  imitated.  Garrick
always, after acting Lear or Othello, suffered convulsions for some hours, from the struggling of his mind
to resist the excitement of his nerves, produced by
acting, in keeping with the supposed character of his
125 
SELF-MANAGEMENT.
heroes. Hence we learn how desirable it is that persons suffering from any strong emotion, or mental disorder, should refrain from those bodily motions which
express it, and endeavor rather to divert themselves
by adopting some action of an opposing kind; since
otherwise they may yield to the indulgence of embodying their feelings in action, until the feelings themselves are prolonged into physical habits, and, by
mismanagement, actually become confirmed into mad
ness.
126 
CHAPTER VII.
ASSOCIATION.
WE draw rational motives of thought and action
from experience through our senses. We become
conscious of ourown existence, and the existence and
character of other beings, by their impression upon
ourselves. Sensation is the exciting cause of ideas
and of sentiments. We, however, interpret impressionDs according to a law implanted in our souls. Thus,
if a child see an angry face, it need not be told what
it means; and one who looks on an infant lovingly is
intuitively met with a responsive smile.
Man, without possessing senses superior to the
brute, is endowed with a far nobler faculty of perception, by which he associates thoughts with objects,
and thus nature is representative to him of something
higher than itself. We conceive from what we perceive, and that is far more than we can see, hear, or
handle.
The human mind is so constituted, that every present object that awakens interest also suggests others,
and by the law of association excites the remembrance
of the past or the hope of the future; and, as both
memory and anticipation are brought into exercise by
our intellect, in relation to our own experience, we
necessarily compare idea with idea with regard to
probabilities for or against ourselves, and those in whom
we are concerned. It is, indeed, the business of
reason to consider causes and effects in their bearing
upon minds, and therefore all rational research is but
an inquiry into the design of things, with reference to
conscious beings, and hence our feelings, in connection 
ASSOCIATION.
with objects, will be generally influenced by our sense
of the importance of those objects in the economy of
existence. In short, the full revelation of Deity is in
humanity.
All truth is really experimental to us; and before
we can fully believe any thing, we must perceive its
relation not only to the senses but to our souls.   O.r
faculties are all associated with reason, and therefore
we infer from things perceived to things possible, and
that because we can compare and combine ideas ana
logically; hence, from space we infer infinitude-fiom
tinme, eternity-from ceaseless effects, the unbeginning Cause. Wherever we turn the eye, there infin —
itude begins. We look into the limitless heavens, and
feel that time is but eternity, measured to our conceptions by the everlasting revolutions of suns and planets; and perceive that the wonderful beauty and
beneficence seen in the adjustments of the celestial
mechanism are not due to extraneous influences, but
to a Power that operates also in our own being, since
we find that our intercourse with each other is governed by the visible laws of Heaven, and our daily experience springs from the correspondence of our
firame-work with that of the boundless skies.
The very power which excites our imaginations,
and conveys to our minds a sense of loveliness or majesty, suggests also some moral truth, because every
thought has some personal relationship, and induces a
desire to reciprocate the emotion we experience with
some other being. We scarcely behold an object in
nature, or receive an impression.which interests our
hearts, without thinking of some one who might enjoy
it with us, or the expression of whose feeling and
knowledge might not enlarge our own conceptions or
increase our confidence, and thus tend to fill us with
still happier emotion. This social tendency, in all the
operations of our minds, indicates that physical exist
I - 8 
ASSOCIATION.
ence, in all its parts, was designed for moral ends, in
keeping with those laws of our minds by which we are
drawn into fellowships with each other, while we feel
ourselves to be equally the dependents of that Provi dence, to which we ought to look in adoration and in
gratitude, as the source of good, and as our only
guardianship from evil. In short, we shall discover, if
we seek the truth, that morality and religion are es sential to the right use of our faculties, even in relation
to things that perish, and much more so in regard to
those thoughts which are awakened in our minds by the
constitution of our senses, in correspondence with the
outward world, and which abide with our perceiving,
reasoning, believing spirits, forever.   There  arises
not in our intellect a single conception of beauty or
sublimity, or an idea of good or evil, but firom the
adaptation of the wonders of this universe to the soul,
as a being capable of loving truth, because it is the
manifestation of the All-wise, who confers on us tastes
and sensibilities correspondent with the properties of
nature, and renders them all, when rightly exercised,
subservient to our advancement in social happiness and
the bliss of worship.
The laws of association are those of our bodies as
well as our minds. Our nervous systems, and indeed
our whole natures, are constituted in a two-fold relation
to all objects: the one, as they influence our understandings; and the other, as they move our wills. Our
emotions act on our intellects, and our intellects re-act
on our emotions; and our habit of mind and nerve is
determined by the manner in which our desires are
engaged, for if we do not perceive the beauty of moral
truths, and are not governed by the love of them, we
must be actuated altogether by instinct and sensation.
Whether the impression received by the mind be
purely mental in its origin, as in a conviction from
alilonal induction, or whether it be the mere idea of
9
129 
ASSOCIATION.
an outward object, it equally operates on the soul,
and, so far as it continues to possess the attention, promotes the formation of our mental character. Whatever affects the organs of sense, affects the thinking
being, and every thought that passes through the mind
modifies the nervous system, and tends to render habit
unalterable. Sensation and thought alike influence
habit, and as the soul is engaged either in pleasing
itself with the passing impressions of sense, or reflecting on ideas, so we are becoming either more sensual
or more rational. The only method of preventing our
entire subjection to sensual influences is to imbue the
mind with moral principles, and to fix attention upon
those facts which reveal to us the moral government
of the Creator in relation to the consciences of men.
If we yield not to truth, we shall to delusion.  All appearances deceive us, except as they are interpreted
by reason in reference to the designs of God. The
pillar of cloud and of light which led the Israelites
to safety, drew the Egyptians to destruction. The
former recognized the Divine hand; the latter saw
only a natural phenomenon.
If we would arrive at ends worthy of immortal
beings, the daily course of our conduct requires to be
regulated on spiritual principles; for if our common
sympathies be not pre-engaged and governed by right
reason, we shall be the slaves of a thousand successive
masters. If we decide not for ourselves, by choosing
our associations, on the dictates of a wise and informed will, our circumstantial associations will altogether
determine our lot for us. To be free, we must judge
whether we will obey the right or the wrong; and in
order to this freedom, good and evil must be clearly
presented to our consciences. But how can we know
the nature of things, without instruction? If good and
truth are not communicated, evil and error will be.
But there is nothing in sights and sounds of themselves
130 
ASSOCIATION.
to show us spiritual relationships-Heaven must teach
us to teach one another.
The seeds of a rank and dangerous fruition are
scattered over us by every wind; the soil is prepared
to nourish them; and unless pre-occupied by the good
seed of the kingdom of God, the luxuriance of evil will
cover the soul.
Bishop Butler but expressed the experience of
every spiritual man, when he said that,he was all
his life struggling against the devilish suggestions of
his senses, which would have maddened him, if-he
had relaxed the stern watchfulness of his reason for a
single moment." This exercise of his reason required
that strong stimulus or motive which religion alone
supplies. But what shall those souls, destitute of
such motives, be able to accomplish toward the suppression of,the offending Adami?"  How shall they
bring the curb of reason to bear upon the mad impetuosity by which they are hurried on to death? O
God, be merciful! Thou hast committed the lamp of
life to the custody of men; but instead of diffusing
that eternal flame, having in itself the seed of an
endless increase, from house to house and from hand
to hand, like familiar light, they have endeavored to
hide it in the sepulchers of the dead, or confine its
illumination to the temples they have built.
Religious conviction imparts the character to nations; and every individual mind is mainly determined
by an apprehension of the Divine Being and'His
requirements, since every new conception of God
modifies the spirit of man, and gives a new aspect to
all the facts of his existence. But religion is nothing
to a man, unless it palpably engage his body as well as
his mind, his conduct as well as his thoughts; but
when it is thus practically demonstrated, it takes possession of all his life and energy, because he then
really feels it to contain within itself whatever is most
131 
ASSOCIATION.
interesting to our relationships, and most sublime in
the hopes of a deathless spirit. It is by the associations
of mind produced by religious ideas and actions that
society is governed, and it is the reception of revealed
triuth alone that elevates either masses or individuals
fiom degradation and degeneracy. Do we wonder at
the wretchedness obtruding itself amidst the bustling
nlagnificence of our great towns?  A  slight insight
inito the mental and moral destitution of the neglected
classes would remove our surprise at their defects, and
lead us to wonder rather that, with such associations,
so much of a fine humanity yet remains among them.
I see now a squalid mother with four children by
her side, whom she loves like a savage. She wears
the rags of a widow's weeds; she lives by the compassion of passers-by, who fling her pence to avoid
the pain of her presence; she can not smile, and
never had any reason to do so; her heart is strong in
the feeling of fatality; she doubts not that her wretchedness is the inevitable appointment of a Power whose
name she has never heard but in blasphemy, and with
which the idea of love would be the most unlikely
association. Her husband died in an hospital, where
a medical student gave him a tract which he could
not read, and whispered at last, in his dying ear, of
Jesus and the resurrection; and in death that man
wept and wondered that such words had never reached his ear before.  His parents and his wife's parents
were vagabonds and outcasts, and it was never known
that any of their generation could read. The creed
of the Egyptians under the Pharaohs was a creed of
light, compared to the palpable darkness of their minds.
That haggard widow can only be a whispering beggar
in the metropolis of calculation and commerce.  What
wonder! Two little girls creep feebly by her side;
their faces are livid, and withered, and sad; they will
soon die The baby on her bosom is also wasting
132 
ASSOCIATION.
away. But the diminutive boy, about nine years old,
standing at the corner, begging of those speechless
ladies with feathered bonnets, has some vigor in him;
he was born when his mother's heart was warmer,
and his father was drudging on with some hope in his
ignorance. That boy will, if left alone, probably be a
thief, and come to the gallows, or be sent to Norfolk
Island.  He is shrewd, quick, sensitive, and already
heroic in his efforts to cheat mankind, whom he sup poses to be all against him. How shall that child be
improved? He dwells in the midst of uncleanness
and cruelty, catching the contagion of sin from the
expression of almost every face, and he is in sympa thy with polluted humanity in every form. How
shall that susceptible young being be transformed in
the spirit of his mind, so as to grow godlike, while all
the influences about him tend to make and keep him
hideous within? Educate-educate; stamp burning
truth upon his soul, show him that you are in sympathy
with Heaven; impress the character of Jesus on his
mind; let him feel the Saviour's love in yours; let
him see how you adore actively, because the Maker
of worlds and of souls and of bodies is pledged to redeem us from all evil.  Teach him the Lord's Prayer;
bid him look abroad upon the universe of light, and
give him the key to its glories; give him knowledge,
and you will then furnish him with motive for behaving
as if he might hope to become an heir of God. That
boy may be either a Barabbas or a Barnabas.  Under
the guardian influence of Christian associations, and
the spirit that unites souls in the love of a glorified
Master, who was once crucified for them, the incarnated inheritance of evil would be exchanged by that
boy for a godly heritage; and instead of growing up as
an Arab among men, he would be able to smile like an
angel, even if they should stone him, for he would
still look into heaven and pray for them.
133 
ASSOCIATION.
Moral law is founded on our sense of ourselves, for
it requires us to consider ourselves in another's situation, and then imagine what would be our' feelings,
and what the consideration that would be due to us
from others in such circumstances. Because we can
sympathize, we can- act conscientiously. We feel for
those who exhibit painful emotion, and we  smile responsive to the joy expressed in another's countenance.
We detect what is good or evil in another's behavior
by its effects upon our own consciousness, and our
wills are excited to detest or to admire, to approve or
to condemn, according as the action would be personally agreeable or otherwise, in relation to ourselves.
Hence our minds are exalted with the tale of generous
deeds, as in' the noble philanthropy of a Howard, or
horrified at the recital of murderous outrage and revenge. But unless we exercise our fine feelings amidst
the realities of life, and by reciprocal offices of social
relationships, our sympathy degenerates into morbid
sensibility, that finds its indulgence in religious reports
as well as in romance and the sentimentalism of trashy
novels.
Our sympathies are intended to be practical, and to
bind us with the ties of kindred and common humtnanity; but if our fellowships and fellow-feelings are not
governed by some true, steady, elevating love, we are
but the subjects of instinctive impulse and of passion.
In short, if our affections are not held in obedience to
the directing will, and the authority of God, as the
supreme object of love, we can not rise above mere
accidental and circumstantial motives, and shall be incapable of attaining the high standing of beings amenable to the undeviating principles of rectitude and
truth. We need an unerring standard, and the knowledge of a will altogether wise and good, in order to
give a right direction to our desires or stability to our
conduct. And where is this? It is nigh thee, and
134 
ASSOCIATION.
within thee. In fact, unless we purposely submit our
minds to the guidance of a holy law and a holy spirit,
we  act without intending to be good, and therefore
without the possibility of moral excellence, or resem- 
blance to our Maker.  We can not properly obey the
precept to love our neighbor as ourselves, until we
feel that He who thus commands us has a right in His
nature to our hearts, and minds, and soul, and powers,
and that because of his inexhaustible good-will and
charity in personal relation to ourselves. Hence, thus
to reverence God, to believe and obey Him is the whole
duty of man. But how are we to distinguish good
from evil?  By conscience-by that power belonging
to our reason, which acknowledges the righteousness
of the law which is love. We can not mistake-it
is impossible for us to believe that the two tables,
fulfilled in the word love, can have originated but from
the mind and will of Him who created the universe,
because it is impossible for the intelligent beings formed
by Him to live harmoniously together, and work out
His plans for their mutual happiness, without obedience to that law, for that is the only principle that
reduces a moral chaos, from dairkness, deformity, and
confusion, into light, order, and beauty.
To dwell together in peace, we must know why
we are to esteem each other. In the first place, we
should feel that we are not called on to judge any but
ourselves, because we can not. Each one has an experience peculiarly his own, and therefore not to be
judged according to that of another. There can be
no hope of our agreeing with others, if we dispute
about our differences, for every one has good reason
for his own opinion; but that is the very thing to be
given up, in order to live faithfully. Others can never
have seen exactly as we have, and we shall never be
able to see the same things precisely in the same light
until,"we see as we are seen, and know as we are
.....
X   ~,.  
135 
ASSOCIATION.
known." Each man has a world of his own, by which
ll his mental associations hale been formed, and to
which they belong; and therefore it would be foolish,
s well as unfeeling, to insist on his conformity to
another's rule,.except so far as there may be a wise
and proper agreement among persons equally ignorant,
that they may use the best means in their power to
help each other forward in seeking after truth.  To
be faithful is to be full of love for truth, and valiant in
defense of it; but the more we see of truth, the less
critical and the more charitable we shall be, because
the more we discern of the truth and rejoice in the
love of it, the more we perceive of the Divine character and feel its charity. The highest angels are the
most courteous; they love most. A man would never
enter heaven, if he were not received there in kindness. The most gentle in dealing with ignorance and
prejudice is God himself; and the Son of God would
never have been the personal and familiar friend of
Martha, Mary, -and Lazarus, and of every confiding
soul, if He had not been like the Father in heaven.
If, then, the undefiled Imnmanuel endeavored to win
the esteem of guilty beings, because He loved them,
surely we may well bear mwith each other patiently,
and believe, and hope, and act for each other, as with
the certainty of being required to live together in love
forever.
Our intercourse with each other is regulated by our
notions of time and space. There could have been no
order or harmony in our associations, had not the Creator, with his own hand, measured our movements,
both of thought and action, on some common principle.
We are all alike subject to the pulses of time, and one
mind communicates its impressions to another by expressing itself, more or less, in keeping with that mind,
as regards its sense of time; for every feeling is as if
set to appropriate music, and the manner of its utter
136
'. I
I1...:
..I
I. 
ASSOCIATION
ance is more or less either adagio or allegro, according
to its nature. Individuals do not well agree together
if their nervous systems are very differently strung, or
if the expression of their feelings and affections do not
keep time with each other. If the mode of one is
quick, and that of the other slow, their states of mind
scarcely ever correspond; and if bound to act together,
they become wonders and trials to each other, and
perhaps perfectly intolerable: for if they do not deem
each other somewhat deranged, they at least think one
another excessively perverse, if not very wicked. Alas!
there are few souls brought together so attuned to the
music of the spheres as to move together in unerring
harmony and fellowship. But the temper of heaven
is true love, and that exhibits itself on earth in patience
and forbearance, rather than in the radiance of smiles
blending with smiles, and the happy response of heart
to heart, conscious of nothing to suffer or desire. And
the worth of love is demonstrated by its power to hold
dominion over all the other passions, like a spirit so
actuated by an intuitive excellence, that it can not believe any evil to be indomitable. It meets with opposition always and every where; but, knowing that no
one can be blessed without its presence, it ever addresses each heart according to the state of feeling that
there is manifested; for, without sin, it is in the nature
of love to sympathize with humanity in all its tribulations, and so to adapt its utterance and expression to
the agitations of the soul as to seem moved by the same
impulse, until, gradually prevailing by an insinuated
might, it brings the wayward spirit unconsciously into
obedience to a better will. Like a master of harmony,
it knows how so to mingle its voice with discordant
sounds as to reduce them to the right key, and to lead
the listening soul to join, as if from a spontaneous
movement of its own, in a new and heavenly melody.
Thus love never rebukes, but in order to subdue; foil
137 
ASSOCIATION.
it acts in the consciousness that there can be no repent         ance unless the heart feel that it has sinned against a
spirit which always seeks to harmonize and bless it.
Persistence in the habit of self-love must terminato
in malignity and the positive and active manifestation
of hatred, for it is in the nature of a mind always bent
upon its own selfish gratification to become more and
inore dissociated, and therefore desirous of destroying
whatever opposes it, since every passion grows in pro         portion to its indulgence. And selfish desire can know
no corrective restraint but in the impossibility of its ful         fillment, which is torment and despair, or else in regard
to other beings, which is, in fact, the commencement
of its destruction.
The habit of co-operating with others, even in drudg         ery, brings into action the social principle, so that a
man's impulses are no longer altogether selfish.  This
is exemplified in the case of S. Jackson, who lately died
at St. Thomas's Hospital. He was employed, with
several others, in sinking a shaft for a railway tunnel
at Blackheath. He was at the top of the shaft, which
was forty-five feet in depth, and had drawn up )by a
windlass a pail filled with water, when, while in the act
of tipping it over, he fell back. He immediately called
out,, Below!" and thus warned those in the shaft,
who saved themselves by moving on one side as he fell
in the midst of them. Thus the safety of others was
a consideration with this poor man, in the very mo         ment of his deadly peril. And it is true that the habit
of mutual help is the only efficient check upon the
natural waywardness of the human will, and therefore
our Maker requires us always to regard our neighbor
as ourselves.  Those who voluntarily isolate themselves
from socialities and relationships are living on principles
unfit for earth, and unless their affections are so set
upon things heavenly as to absorb their whole souls in
*. a continual ecstacy of worship, some less holy power
t * 
138 
ASSOCIATION.
holds them in thrall. In either case they are dead to
duty, and becoming disqualified for all the happy activities of the near next world, while rendering themselves disagreeable impediments to the business of the
present.
Religion is founded on mental association, and man's
belief in the Self-existent arises from his capacity of
reflecting on his own consciousness. This feeling of
being refers him from objects to their origin, and by
intuition rather than inference, assures the reasonable
soul of the necessity of an unbeginning, never-ending
NMind, which perceives and wills through eternity; as
one infinite presence. The soul sinks beneath the
weight of that thought into an abyss of interminable
darkness, until God himself speaks, and calls the spirit
back into light among the associations of creaturely
convenience, by which lie demonstrates His accommodating kindness.  He comes to man in human sympathy, and demands his heart. He bids him not be
afraid of the vastness of unsearchable power, since the
Almighty effectuates nothing but good in gentle manifestations to the trustful soul, and shows it incessant
reason why it should incessantly confide. And thus
Jehovah hides the majesty of His might in the homely
and hourly charities in which he trains his children by
little and little, as they can bear the revelation of their
own existence as belonging to the Eternal Source of
all ability and blessing. Through kindred He teaches
us kindness; and through humanity, obedient to law
as love, He illustrates the Divine nature as supremely
worthy to be loved. A God not humanly revealed is
no God to man. We may, indeed, obtain, poetical,
sentimental, and even philosphical notions of a Deity,
but his moral perfections are lost in his natural attributes, and his love in his power. unless he be known to
us as the giver and expounder of laws for the regulation of our intercourse with each other, in the acknowl
139 
ASSOCIATION.
edgment of his goodness, and in acting upon the feeling of that goodness, as a sufficient motive to obedienco
and worship. Without this moral revelation, in per sonal appeal to our own spirits, the Godhead becomes
an unapprehended and diffused energy, apt to be re duced to a mere word-and that word, Nature.
In this world, however, our faculties and affections
operate, as we have said, in a bodily manner. As our
senses are constructed on temporal principles, so also
our memories furnish their stores of ideas to the demands of life, and reason with relation to time and the
action of our muscles; thus we move in keeping with
the movements of objects around us, and thus our intercourse with those we love is modified by motion,
for motion is the only means of expressing feeling and
power. From this universal fact we learn the importance of wisely controlling our visible actions, as
they may influence the feelings of others, or embody
to their view the state of our own souls; not that we
should study to be hypocrites, but that we should be
careful to attain such a condition of thought and affection that its natural manifestation in our movements
should bring others into better sympathy, or at least
demonstrate to the apprehension of the depraved that
there is a nobler mode of energy and action than usually prevails among themselves. But this nobler mode
consists only with true humility, which is the firmness
of a mind well grounded, that stoops not to earth, but
stands erectly upon it, conscious of God's power and
presence and favor. Abandoned characters can appreciate this standing, and honor it; but they are very apt
to imagine the existence of pride as the moving power
of those who come to teach them bare lessons of morality, and therefore they often repel the approach of
such persons, and scoff at and scorn them most mradly;
but when, by a man's style of action and address, they
are convinced that he is governed by a simple, trie,
140 
ASSOCIAT1ION.
and obedient spirit, they bow like children in a superior
presence, and listen but to learn. The success of Mrs.
E. Fry and Sarah Martin, in teaching the most forlorn
of beings, exemplifies these observations.
Unnaturalness, or that artificial mannerism in speech
or action, which is acquired by minds aiming to imi tate some real or ideal master, is of the nature of this
repellent pride. No one is fit to be a Christian min ister who does not honestly descend from all preten sions, and exercise the simple life-gifts with which his
Mlaker has authorized him to act upon others for their
benefit. How often have we seen a spare and chilly
congregation of barren formalists under the unctionless
preachings of men who could not forget themselves,
while pretending to feel awfully alarmed lest sinners
should fall headlong into perdition. Those that such
men thus seem to tremble to think of, are, however,
not such as they usually see before them, for men are
not snatched from the hand of the mighty slave-driver,
and gathered into the fold of the Bishop of souls by
polished and polite rhapsodists, but by men in the
rough, like John the Baptist, stirred up by the spirit
of great truths, which have entered into them while
reading the Bible. Such men have their senses all
alive to the great facts of nature and of books, for free
mninds are always great in their grasp, and use all their
knowledge so feelingly as to make all they know tell
within them upon the formation of their own  characters, and thus increase their power of influencing, by
utterance and action, the characters of others.  Such
men are ministers of the Spirit, and they would be
more numerous were it not for the pride of affectation and the disposition to substitute intellect for
heart-work.
Unnaturalness in utterance and the distribution of
ideas into sentences without euphony, hinder usefulness.  Men, firom an affected  mannerism, or from
141 
ASSOCIATION.
aiming at peculiarity, or from too artificial a training,
disjoint their language in a great variety of ways.
Some, in pursuing thoughts, forget harmony-while
others seem to set their ideas so completely to music,
that their hearers or readers are apt to lose sight of
the subject, in listening to the sweetness of the melody. Occasionally we find a man who speaks and
writes as if his soul stuttered, so as to form a hundred periods in a page. The jet from the fountain
comes in fits, so many times a minute.  The conju,,tions are all disjunctive. It is as if a long piece of
music with all its variations should be staccatoed
throughout, with a rest at every bar: however einphatic, it is apt neither to be understood nor remembered.  Others take no breath, and rush on like a
cataract, confounding the waters of life into foam.
Sober reason instinctively adopts the medium, and
measures her eloquence by the nature of the subject
and-the state of feeling proper to the occasion. Tne
cause of so much ineffective utterance is found in the
fact, that the thoughts and the feelings do not flow
together. They are sought apart, and keep apart in
spirit and-in power, although seemingly wedded together by sound-vox et preterea nihil. This would
be avoided if each man expressed his own thoughts in
his own way, instead of seizing ideas from all sources
and trying to fit them with those which he happens
already to have trimmed in his own staid style. A
natural ear can always detect an unnatural eloquence,
and none but the habituated lovers of listening can feel
the truth inviting them except from lips touched with
its living fire.
There is an art in love. The only way of rigntl)
influencing other minds is to put ourselves in synipa
thy with them. We must use means for this; we,
must in some degree feel with them as well as for
them.  Their perceived or imagined s!ate must acton
142' 
ASSOCIATION.
our own emotions, so as to excite an appropriate expression in our features, our action, our utterance.
To withdraw them from unholy passion or disastrous
pursuit, we must enter into their feelings so far as to
show that wve can sympathize with them in intensity
of purpose, while superior to them in the direction of
our wishes and the disposal of our means. We must
fall into the same key, but only to utter emotion and
intelligence of a higher order, guided by a will under
spiritual control; thus counteracting the evil influence,
not by vehement resistance, but as sunshine quenches
fire, by the gentle force of a purer warmth, and a light
unextinguishable, because it flows from heaven. Every
feeling tends to action, and we must be conscious of
the expression in our own persons, and be roused to a
perception of the thoughts and affections in keeping
with the excited state of our nerves, before we can
set our minds to the counteraction of this state. In
short, we must not only suppose ourselves in the situation of those whom we would persuade, but we must
so far feel like them as to find it necessary to persuade
ourselves. We must control the very emotions in
ourselves which we wish to control in others. Not
till we are brought to this state shall we fully be able
to influence other minds with our reasonings, for not
till then are those ideas suggested which are natural
to the occasion. The associations of our minds will
then become the associations of those we address, and
their bodies, as well as ours, will be imbued with the
same excitement. Thus the eloquent man utters the
reflex of his own feelings in the contemplation of evils
that he deprecates. Thus Hall, when he had busied
and burthened his soul with the arguments of infidels,
until he almost felt what it was to be destitute of
faith, exclaimed,, Eternal God! on what are thine
enemies intent?  What are those enterprises of guilt
and horror, that for the safety of their performers, re
143 
ASSOCIATION.
quire to be enveloped in a darkness which the eye of
Heaven must not pierce. Miserable men! Proud of
being the offspring of chance-in love with universal
disorder; whose happiness is involved in the belief of
there being no witness to their designs, and who are
at ease only because they suppose themselves inhabitants of a forsaken and fatherless world!"
The orator felt that apostrophe, and all who heard
it felt it too. But the plain words of Sarah Martin, in
the prison at Yarmouth, told as well upon her audicnce, because she visibly felt for them, and could not
be discouraged, because her faith was in God. It is
the productive, creative, or poetic mind, that possesses
power to excite other minds to the degree requisite to
facilitate the vivid reproduction of ideas in the memory,
so as to repeat the emotion first induced by them.
This it accomplishes with great natural ease, from
its own feeling of analogy, contrast, and comparison.
Thus one idea is illustrated by another in such a
manner, that the recurrence of one causes the re-appearance of the other, and renders both more distinct
and more apt to be re-felt as well as remembered.
The ideas of the persuasive man are not abstractions,
but objects, that really influence himself, and which
he desires others to perceive as he perceives them,
with all the feeling of a spiritual correspondency. Our
Saviour's teaching was the essence of eloquence and
poetry, because it was truth spoken naturally, and
with a feeling reference to the familiar incidents of
humanity, thus ever leading the mind on to sublimer
apprehensions of Divine power, and insuring the recollection of the ideas presented by placing them, so
to say, upon the heart with its daily interests. If we
do not regard nature as God's storehouse of truths, to
be employed spiritually, we shall be but low disciples
of the Great Teacher.  Speech is thought and feeling,
uttered to be heard, and letters, like musical notations,
144 
A5Ot.CI;ATIO(N.
are the symbols by which language and sounds become
visible; but the universe is God's uttered thought, to
be perceived spiritually, both by men and angels. But
there is a sublimer Word-the Logos-that created
the heavens and the earth, and keeps them in harmony,
as the vehicle of spirits related to Himself.   The Word
was madeflesh, to speak as man to man. It should be
our business to know the meaning of that Word, for it
must be a personal revelation to ourselves, since it is in
person and in presence alone that God addresses us.
Intelligent beings are conscious for the purpose of
understanding each other; and our Maker imparts
rational consciousness to us, that we may understand
his intentions toward us individually.
Every living creature is governed by languageeither in visible or audible signs; for language is meaning, feeling, thought, intelligence, actively signified.
Animals have a language of emotion, but not of thought;
man's language expresses both. Hence, there are so
many voices in the world, and none without significance; and an uncertain sound is itself the utterance
and the occasion of doubt. If a man set not his heart
determinately to obtain God's truth, and utter it, he is
already in a state of mind and nerve indicative of a
lying spirit-there is nothing decided about him but
what is false; he is deluded by appearances, and therefore the expression of his mind is but the utterance of
deception; his will itself actively lies, and his tongue
is set on fire of hell; he contradicts heaven, and helps
to disorder earth, by propagating falsehood; he is an
antagonist of God, and must so continue, unless the
omnipotent Spirit of Truth speak, through the voice
of man, in such a manner as to strike the sinner dead
with terror, and raise him again, with a new and living
hope, in righteousness, after the likeness of the true
man-God manifest.
If a man bridle not his tongue., whatever be his
!({         -     
145 
ASSOCIATION.
religious opinions, they are all in vain. Why is this?
Simply because there can not be a right converse
without a right spirit. Every man is an oracle, either
of truth or of falsehood; he must speak either life or
death-for God, or against him. The man who feels
his position will be well assured that indifferentism
consists not with the order of the world.  To  be
negative in one respect is to be positive in another.
To be in keeping with the Divine mind is the purpose
of the human mind; but to be thus harmonious with
Deity, is to will like Him; and in order to this, we
must attend to God, listen to His language, and learn
His love; for not till we are thus imbued with His own
Spirit, can we be free in will to serve Him as his sons.
From  the nature of things, and the Maker of all,
neither the thought nor the tongue of the spiritually
disobedient man can be at liberty; there is nothing in
the universe in keeping with him Lat evil spirits. But
love has no limits to its range or its language; it is
always seasonable; it may at all times utter all it feels,
for kindness must belong to its feeling; and it may be
ever busy, and travel as far as'the light. All it utters
is truth, all it does is beauty, and all it aims at is harmony and happiness. This love is the response of
the soul to the Creator, as when He first saw in his
works the-reflection of his own goodness, and the sons
of God shouted for joy.
Emotions in man are ideas formed by his mind, and
are only suggested by objects. The feeling of fear,
joy, love, hope, is as strongly excited by an imagined
object as by a reality; but the imagined object is formed
by the mind, according to its habit of association with
real things, or according to a man's faith.   Thus one
man dreads what another desires, because he thinks
of it with different connections. A Christian, believing
death to be only a passport to glory, may well long for
it as at rapture from this wearisome, because wicked
146 
ASSOCIATION.
world; and being confident that the Father loves all
that man ought to love, far better than man can do, a
believer leaves wife, children, friends, to the gracious
conduct of His careful hand, expecting to meet them
purified hereafter. But what can make death beauti
ftill and blessed to an unbeliever? How wide the difference in the emotion produced by the same object,
simply because the mind of one clothes it with light,
and that of the other with darkness!  It is the same
in regard to all objects. If we would enjoy happy
emotions, we must have a happy creed. We must
believe in something besides earthly objects, to receive
heavenly ideas firom themn. We must hold Divine
truths before we can be moved by Divine affections.
We must trust in the will of God as love itself, before
we can be so governed by this love as to fear no evil;
for as we think, so we shall feel, as long as thought and
feeling together constitute human experience. Why,
then, do we complain of our tyrant passions? Our
ideas are wrong. We see not as we ought; we deceive ourselves; we receive not God's testimony; we
believe falsehood; the truth is not in us, or we should
be free; in the truth of real love, in the truth of real
hope, in the truth of real joy, in the truth of a real
Saviour and his peace, we should be free.
147 
CHAPTER VIII.
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
MIND is the cause of all action and re-action. It
originates polarity, or the existence of opposites. All
matter is both negative and positive, because the will
of Omnipotence is expressed in it. Each atom is related to other atoms, so as to be attracted or repelled
according to their mutual states. It is thus with all
things, because they are created-with souls as well as
with bodies. But the human mind is endowed with
the power of will, so far beyond that of any other creature, that it is capable of altering its own state in relation to other beings. Thus we use our senses, not
merely according to the direct and immediate action
of objects upon them, but in a pre-determined manner.
We render the passive senses active by thought, and
change the direction of the vital forces in the brain in
such a manner, that through it we attend to ideas as
well as realities, and reverse, so to say, the poles of
those nerves by which we receive impressions from
without, so that they seem to convey them back from
within.  According to the state of our wills is our attention. Our material as well as our spiritual relation
to objects is affected by our capacity to will, and by the
manner in which we will. Thus the state of Our desires modifies our power to attend, for desire implies
the engagement of the mind about some particular object. Inattention is either the result of bodily unfitness or of intense mental occupation-either excess
of feeling or deficiency. In either case, there is something to be overcome before the mind so affected can
be duily educated. 
LIKING AND  DISLIIKING.
We have seen how the obstacle to attention is at tempted to be removed in case of bodily unfitness. Ex cessive mental occupation is self-absorption, and to be
remedied only by drawing the soul away from its in ward objects, by presenting such external ones as must
be attended to. The most direct way to divert inor dinate feeling is to put one's self in personal contact
with the patient-seize his hand, for instance, and at
once address him with some intelligence concerning
facts, some piece of news from heaven or earth. Common sense teaches us how to obtain the attention of
healthy children; we must pleasantly take them in
hand, and whisper to them face to face; we must be
engaged with them alone, and soul to soul, in order
to disengage them.   Men are but children of a larger
growth, and must be managed pretty much in the same
manner, with all due allowance for their greater obstinacy in evil habit. Still let them have something
real to look at, and with it some evidence of the sympathy of another spirit.
We must control ourselves and others on the same
principles. We must polarize the sense-powers by
an act of will; we must determine to set our attention
upon what we know to be proper objects. If we are
indisposed, we must do as Johnson did with his writings, we must go doggedly to work, and before we
have done our best we shall be well pleased with our
efforts. The reason of our pleasure is in the fact, that
we have put our brains voluntarily into a condition to
impress our nervous systems throughout with our new
ideas-our thoughts become connected with emotions,
we feel them in our bodies. We are constituted to
enjoy novelties, especially of our own creating. They
act upon us somewhat after the manner of outward
objects that are agreeable to us; they are in keeping
with our bodies as well as minds, in consequence of
our thorough attention to themn, and therefore their
.149 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
light, their sound, their motion, is ideally and essentially communicated to us so as to actuate our nerves.
\Ve willingly polarize ourselves with regard to objects, so as to become passive to their action, until we
are positively affected by them, and are in a state positively to influence the minds of others by our own
force and energy. This is the way that men master
each other mentally. They attend to things until tho3
accumulated impressions overpower them, and to relieve themselves they must show others what they see,
and express themselves in words and actions.
But, alas! those whose heads and hearts are full to
overflowing of the great things of outward existence,
can scarcely speak, but they seem like enthusiasts and
madmen. It is, therefore, essential to the success of
strong and sensitive souls, that they study all the arts
of prudence and wisdom, in order to win their way,
and persuade men to be happier. But with the best
oratory, and the ablest argument, it is still almost impossible for even a wise man to speak from his heart
the truth as he feels it, without presenting it in so individual a manner as to offend. It is, to a certain
extent, his duty to do so; the scandal is not in the
honest speaker, but in the uncharitable hearer. Minds
that are equally positive are of necessity repulsive to
each other, unless they are equally attracted to the
same point. The truth, as it is personally felt by another, is, however, the very thing that a party man
needs to tolerate with cheerfulness; for unless he
can so bear it, and even enjoy it, he can never be converted from the popery of self-opinion and partisanship to the catholicity of Christdom.
Truth is intended to neutralize opposition, and to
be the bond of union between all rational minds; but
every attachment to mistake induces dislike and antagonism, because error is of the nature of evil or disorder, and therefore always tending to maintain dis
150 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
union. Where charity is the only cloak a man wears,
he is ready to fling it over the faults of any person,
and press him to his bosom, if he have proved that he
loves truth, by an uncompromising submission of all
his faculties to its influence, as far as he sees it.
Truths adapted to the prevailing fashion, and taken
up and cast off according to convenience, do no more
to enlighten and improve the world than the fireworks
at Vauxhall. It may be true fire, but it is manufactured of evil materials, like the pyrotechnics of
Milton's Pandemonium, to amuse miserable beings.
Truths, to prevail upon many minds, must be constantly
about a man, so as to seem embodied in him, like the
glory about the sun.
Provided a speaker be understood, he usually excites
just that degree of emotion proper to his words, and
which he feels in connection with them at the time
of speaking. But although the amount of feeling,
between the orator and those who are attentive among
his audience, be similar, yet in kind it is very different, for this depends on the previous state of will in
each individual. Let us imagine, what is real enough,
that a number of persons, in several mental conditions,
go to hear the same sermon, and we shall see how
liking and disliking depend on the state of the mind,
with regard to love of truth. The preacher is ready
to open the large Bible, and all eyes are up to catch
the preparatory language  of his looks, and all ears
eager to receive the first sound from his lips. There
is an Arminian Methodist, near the clerk's desk: he
may be recognized by his light smooth hair, sprightly,
sanguine face, and white cravat without a visible tie.
There is a swarthy Calvinist, as unkempt as a Scotch
presbyter, just at his elbow. There is a very gentlemanly Socinian, thoughtfully in ambush at the corner
of the next pew, almost behind the pillar. Verily,
there is a Friend in the organ gallery. In the peow
151 
ILIKING AND DISLIKING.
with the Alderman, there is a Free-thinker, of a very
German and billious aspect: he is foreign correspondent to a religious society and a great smoker. And
what is oddest, there is an Infidel by his side, very
much like him; and in that curtained pew sits an
avowed Atheist, with a prayer-book still in his hand.
'I'he preacher solemnly, slowly, strongly utters his
text., The WVord was  God."  He  fully feels the
force of these words, as the language of the Logos,
and cleaves to the truth with all his might. He eloquently sets forth the idea-Omnipotence in union
with human nature-God manifested in the flesh. He
is apt to teach, and all who understand his plain words
feel with him, just in proportion to their power of attending. But we may well imagine how the kind of
feeling is modified by the previous convictions or notions of the hearers. Thus the Methodist is moved
by a sense of duty, as if to co-operate with God, -who
is the minister of man.   The  Calvinist, believing in
the majesty of Divine action, feels only the passive
impotence of the creature, forgetful that to be moved
by God is to move with God's might. The Quaker
seems to hear the Logos as a voice in his soul, with a
resolution that his life should speak of it. The Socinian mentally suggests a correction of the text, supposing the original might just as easily be read,, The
WVord was of God;" the Rationalist deems the phrase
a figure of speech, and enjoys it figuratively speaking;
the Infidel almost laughs as he listens; and the Atheist
pants with hatred at what he hears, and curses cant,
metaphysics, and priestcraft.
The points on which those who were real Chris
tians differed were lost sight of by each of them as
they thought of Christ; and no doubt, if they generally thought more of Him than of their private interpre
tations, they would realize more of what is essential
to Christian fellowship than can be found in the watch
152 
IIKING AND DISLIKING.
words by which parties are kept in their places, as in
centers of mutual repulsion. If we would in charity,
or even fiom the hope of informing ourselves, give
heed to the truth as it actuates any one, we should
find more of a common attraction; for he who attends
to man for the truth's sake that is in him, attends to
God Himself, for all truth is His, and this it is that
draws honest hearts together, because it attracts them
all to the same center.
None can attend to truth felt, and therefore spoken,
without a lasting influence. The speaker and the
listener are put in bodily and spiritual relation to each
other, as by the word that said,, Let there be light."
The thought and feeling of the mind in active utter
ance brings the attentive mind into sympathetic action
with it; and the effect of that action continues forever in the soul of the man with relation to God,
whose providence brought him into the position that
tested the state of his will, and presented motive for
the higher direction of desire. Hence the momentous consideration, how and what we hear. Truth is
either the savor of life unto life, or of death unto
death. It always meets us, according to our state of
mind, to actuate hope or to deepen our condemnation,
and yet it can never say, Despair-that is the teaching
of truth's strong opponent, that incessantly flings darkness in the face of light.
We never yield attention to words without gaining
good or evil, because it is the design of Providence
that they should both be communicable by language.
Hence we see the wisdom and the mercy of the
evangelical institutions of preaching and teaching by
words, uttered audibly or in print. By this means the
treasury of Heaven's own truth is thrown open to
the world of spirits; and thus the sustenance of souls,
the bread of life, is distributed to dying men. Without the propagation of the Word, yea, the Word that
153 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
was with God, and was God, human minds wouli
become like a putrid sea, unmoved but by the corrupt
and incongruous monstrosities bred within its bosom.
The breath of heaven must ruffle the great deep, and
the life of light enter into it. The Spirit must move
upon the face of the waters, that a world for God to
dwell in may arise out of them. But it is in tongues
of fire that the Spirit comes as advocate, as comforter,
and as witness to the truth, and to the triumph and
glory of our risen Lord; and it is by the living voice
that He is exalted in spirit to draw all men unto Him.
There is no tendency to improve the moral or
spiritual condition of men except from the diffusion of
revealed doctrines, because the genius that is not an imated with their living power is really actuated only
by pride and love of position.  Society is constantly
changing its character, according to the style of those
ambitious nminds that guide its opinions and fill its
fancy. Some wizard is always scattering his enchant ments, like the Sybilline leaves, before all winds, till
the nations admire, and are mad. At one time the
mighty influence comes in the form and with the na tive gloom of a demon, and at others in the glittering
array of light. Now converting the horrors of history
into amusement by the colorings of romance, and then
bidding all classic remembrances speak the language
of the misanthrope, genius flings its own colors over
the multitudinous minds that, like the waves of a rest less ocean, arise for a moment to reflect any light that
falls upon them, and then sink again into a dark eter nity. Whatever the direction of the prominent intel lects of the day-whether merely imaginative, or also
scientific and philosophical-still the tendency is never
heavenward, except so far as the truths of revelation
are standing too mightily in the way to be thrust aside
without at least some reverence to their greatness.
The reason why genius without grace only tends to
154 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
refine evil is evident-the man of genius perceives the
spirit of the times, and garnishes his soul, and makes
it ready, that he may be thoroughly possessed by that
spirit.  Then the fire of infernal enthusiasm is kindled
within him;  he  seizes the ideas prevailing around
him, subdues them to his own purposes, infuses into
them his own energy, polarizes them into new combinations, sees himself in every crystallized thought, and
then sends back upon society a moral idol formed to
express its own character, and which, therefore, for a
time delights it, just as a flattering likeness wins the
smiles of a vain beauty. The spirit of this world
never rises above the clouds; except volcanically, to fall
back again in dust and ashes, death and ruin.  But
that which is above brings with it an organizing and
beautifying and animating light which attracts to its
source all those into whom it enters.
It is necessary for us to be careful, above all things,
lest the sensual causes of liking and disliking should
influence our relative and social feelings to such a
degree as to banish morality. We see that this is the
case with the baser order of minds- their partialities
and prejudices being founded on appearances, sympathies, and antipathies of sensual origin. The only
means of counteracting this liability is to become imbued with principles of spiritual truth, not notionally,
but practically, so as to be habitually acting and hoping
in reference rather to what we know of Divine charity
than with a view to the gratification of our natural
tastes of any kind. Thus delight of a heavenly order
will supplant earthly pleasure, and our desires, expectations, and faith, will grow in keeping with our apprehension of the beneficence of God, and we shall love
souls for what they may be, rather than what they now
appear.  If we are earnest in our efforts to obtain a fitness for the inheritance of light, it must be by a transformation of character. The beauty of holiness must
155 
156         LIKING AND DISLIKING.
be on'is as the beauty of God, and this is the beauty
we then shall desire alone to see in all around us.
If we feel any thing of true loveliness, we shall, above
all things, promote love.  But alas! men dislike deformity, and hate evil in every one but themselves,
because they find no mirror to reflect their own moral
image, and will not look into the law of God. Hence
they can worship exterior beauty while unconscious of
intrinsic hideousness. So deeply deluding is our outward life, that unless we are honest at heart, the more
that is said and thought of the moral and personal excellence of others, the more apt are we to question the
motives that influence them. Those who are hateful
are always ready to become calumnious, and those are
already outrageous who seek for pictured and extraneous beauty rather than to be beauteous in their souls.
The most horrible deeds of darkness and cruelty have
been perpetrated by the worshipers of a pictorial religion, and the fiercest defense of nominal public virtue
has been the fruit of intensest private vice.
The worship of a beauty, exalted and apart from any
relation to a man's own soul, is consistent with a zeal
that leads to massacre and murder. The fifty thousand
victims of St. Bartholomew were sacrificed to the
power that presided over imposing formns in the name
of God. The men who would have bowed to a picture
of the Blessed Virgin, as divine, could stab a living
mother with a babe upon her bosom. Because they
had no beauty in their souls, they pierced again the
heart of Jesus while they seemed to kneel at his cross,
and they thought to serve the Son of the Highest by
execrating those for whom he died. Light had lost its
meaning to their eyes. As sight is a spiritual sense,
and we do not behold the objects as material things, but
only perceive the different degrees of antagonism between light and darkness, which we call colors, so these
zealots of beauty made their own colors out of the dark 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
ness that was in them when the true light shone upon
it.
The love of beauty is one with the love of goodness,
in a mind purified by holy truth. But a nice taste
for the fine arts, as means of pleasure, may prevail in
a breast without humanity. The mob of murderers,
with guns and bayonets, in the French Revolution of
1792, pursued the fugitives from the Palace of the
Tuileries into the gardens; but they refrained from
firing on those who, in vain efforts to escape their assassins, climbed up the marble monuments abounding
there; and, lest the statues should be injured, they
pricked down their victims, murdering them at their
feet, with steel dripping with gore warm from the
heart;  Thus the divine beauty of the human form was
mangled by lovers of beauty in stone. As usual, men,
women, and children were butchered at the feet of
idols; for devotion to Apollo and to Venus is but the
madness of pride and lust. The true perception of
beauty was of course impossible in such savages. Men
can not see beauty while they merely look at appearances, because the spiritual relation of things is not
discerned by the bodily vision. It demands a spitirual
eyesight and apprehension. Beauty in the abstract is
truth-the embodiment of moral law: it is an attribute
of God. But in our relative view of the Divine love
and power as exhibited in the uses of created forms,
beauty is, in fact, that order of things which tends to
preserve the complacency of man; and, while pleasingly exciting his attention, encourages the social affections. It is, in short, the visible expression of God's
purpose in nature, the end of which is to promote harmony between thought, feeling, and action. -
Ideas of beauty must be as diversified as minds; for
every kind of love meets with its corresponding object,
and every taste finds something to please it. There
must be an inward, as well as an outward sunshine to
157 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
illuminate the true beauty; for it is formed of a light
that is not visible but in union with pleasant thoughts;
and hence it constitutes the poetry of existence, because it never appears but in association with love
and hope: if it speak not peace, it is at once trans
formed. Wherever there are smiles, there is beauty;
and there are smiles all over the dimpled earth and
the great deep. All nature is beautiful, when seen
without an idea of danger; and the vast globe is a
mass of beauty, when we contemplate it as floating
along in light, with all heaven about us.
There is beauty in motion, while it means gladness-in rest, when it signifies content, yea, even in
agony, when it expresses faith; for then we think
rather of the coming cure than the present malady —
of the salvation, more than of the suffering-the eternal
weight of glory, rather than the momentary pang.
Beauty is never seen by the eye of fear, since the
most fascinating being on earth turns hideous and
hateful the moment it ceases to suggest ideas of heartrest and confidence. Venus becomes like Hecate,
when we see through her exterior, and in her heart
behold the image of Mars. The more lovely the outward appearance, the more loathsome the felt reality,
when the smile is known to be a mask. The angel
hypocrite is seen only as the more infernal fiend, when
detected through the disguise of light. The only unchangeable beauty is sincere love.  Something of this
love appears in all plain, manifest good meaning, such
as Gods puts into innocent beings, and in all things in
heaven and earth by which he would teach us to trust
Himself. Not to know his love is to find his name our
terror; therefore he every where gives evidence of
infinite benevolence.
Beauty, in dead matter, is order, or many parts in
unity of design, with becoming color. The true beauty
in human faces and formns is the soul expressing itself
158 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
as God's' likeness, ready to bless any mind that can
acknowledge Divine love.
There is always a sentiment of charity in whatever
is pleasing, and a mind satisfied with its position is
always generous. In order to enjoy beauty, we must
feel ourselves safe; the instant we cease to trust, we
cease to admire. The gentle hand of the young child
wvas attracted to the burnished crest of the serpent
that fed with it from the same cup; but when, in the
(dismnay of its mother's face, it was taught that there
was danger, the idea of a serpent, instead of pleasure,
inspired terror. The tiger, with its gracefulness and
waved  dark stripes, upon a smooth, bright ground,
charms us while we see her encaged, asleep, or playing with her cubs. Her maternal instincts enhance
her beauty while we think of her as harmless; but
should we meet her in the jungle, then she is a
demon.
Where we can not trust, we can not lPve; for
amiable thoughts can not be associated with treachery.
We may, indeed, be conscious of an interest in the
lineaments of one'whose every movement and expression speaks of evil, but it is the interest induced by a
fiend. We might say the form was lovely, if we could
withdraw the spirit, but that is a power that forbids
thoughts of peace in its presence. The value of
beauty is estimated by every heart, according to its
aptness to suggest ideas of happiness.   The beauty
that suffers us not to feel at home with it, soon becomes a hateful distraction; and that is beautiful in
the highest sense, which  elevates our minds with
heavenly hopes, and seems, by the love that belongs
to it, to assure us of a perpetual reserve of blessings,
to be in due time enjoyed.
Whether we know it or not, we love beauty only
because we love joy: and it is in vain for the most
fascinating person on earth to expect to maintain any
159 
. LIKING AND DISLIKING.
but an infernal influence who does not persistingly
endeavor to promote happiness. Children, before they
reason, and idiots and creatures without rational intention, may be loved after an instinctive manner,
whatever their temper may be; but voluntary agents
can not be loved without being amiable, or in the
hope that the capacity of becoming so will at last be
established.
The love of variety is essential to inquiring minds,
because we know only by comparison; and our inner
life is supplied with objects of thought by the scenes
and sounds which memory furnishes for the employment of imagination. This disposition of mind is
beautifully in harmony with the constitution of the
world. The word of God in creation was the utterance of his will toward man. The wondrous exhibitions of Divine wisdom are seen but as beneficence.
The arrangements of nature are most marvelous, in
the means provided for the entrance of an endless diversity of enjoyments through the eye and the ear.
Analogy and resemblance characterize all the kingdoms of nature; but uniformity and monotony, like
discords, are only admitted as incongruous exceptions,
as if more plainly to express the benevolence of God
in harmonizing the elements.
The more extensive the scope of the mind, the
vaster is the variety brought within the field of its perceptions; and the more minutely we examine the
economies of existence, the more unsearchable they
appear. The study of nature is, indeed, the study of
the Divinity in action; hence, no mind can be freely
and devoutly given to the contemplation of realities,
without obtaining a sublime elevation and an enlargement of spirit, with a feeling of life, as if it were one
with that of the Eternal. But the addiction of the soul
to any artificial employment reduces and darkens it.
Circumstances may constrain men into apparent mean
160 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
ness, but they become little, only from the littleness
of their chosen pursuits. Like the Dutch, we may
all cultivate for ourselves, so to say, an artificial nature,
so that the world of God's making may not appear
before our eyes. But, as Coleridge, I think, says of
the Dutch-What is the consequence? They are
artificially comfortable-in vain do you look for the
sweet breath of hope and advancement among them.
Natural objects, whether beautiful or marvelous,
produce ideas rather according to the state of the
mind than according to their intrinsic qualities; for
creation, in all its forms of loveliness or magnificence,
is intended to impress the soul as a voluntary and
reasoning being, and therefore it is that nature has
ever a moral aspect toward man.  If he have but one
religious truth, or a single idea in relation to the
claims of God upon him, he can not behold beauty nor
look into sublimity, without some thought or feeling
being awakened which shall cause him to become mnore
conscious of his worth as a creature through whom
and to whom the Eternal manifests Himself. The
very joy that expands his bosom, as he gazes upon a
wide-spread prospect, glowing in the life and light of
the embracing heavens, fills him with a sense of unut
terable hope, in the felt power and beneficence of the
Creator of all things. That hope is a Divine promise
to him, and while it burns at his heart, he prophesies
to himself of the glories of a world to come, and confirms his confidence in immortality as if by visions of
a deathless Paradise.,
Thus the training of his conscience in holy sensibility will proceed with the cultivation of his taste for
natural beauty; and the enjoyment of God's works
will aid his reason in drawing those inferences which
form his religious character, and establish his faith as
a happy feeling, as well as an intellectual conviction.
Eveiyv ohject which affects our minds affects the-X
I1
161 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
according to our moral state, or according to the manner in which our intellect has been cultivated, in relation to sociality and religion. Our sense of beauty or
of sublimity is emotional. It is the awakening of as
sociation.   Some  objects, however, are intrinsically
adapted to excite pleasing, and others, painful feelings
Certain expressions of feature and gestures of the body
induce agreeable sympathies, while their opposites produce corresponding emotions. They naturally express
states of mind with which we are constituted to sympathize, when our own minds are attentive to them.
They are the motives by which our Maker designs to
influence our social behavior, and by these we are
preserved in relation to our fellow beings. But if
those truths which teach us our relation to our Maker
are not fixed upon our minds, the expressions of life
and feeling in our actions will always be perverted, so
as to render our whole existence evidently sensual
for every pleasure apart from its moral and religious
purpose, is merely a temptation and a snare, detaining
the soul from the enjoyment and the end for which
it was created.
There are other objects-those inanimate, for instance-to which ideas of beauty may be attached conventionally. The whole series of things, all the universe within our vision, may be regarded as the means
by which our understandings are aroused, through
emotions more or less associated with our desires.
In short, we are drawn toward hope or fear by
every thing we contemplate-we are either disposed
to entertain a hopeful complacency, or we become
more  susceptible to apprehension.   Thus  the  verdure and the bloom, the songs of birds, the living
streams, the blending of sparkling light with the billows of a summer sea, and the varied features of a
picturesque and rural prospect, encourage sentiments
of kindliness; and the heart, if not possessed by some
162 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
painful bosom-interest, is ready at once to respond to
any face that beams pleasantly upon it, and cordially
to reply like a friend, to any one that greets it with
a word of the bright weather.  But when clouds
gather, winds howl, waves roll, or if we find our selves in a position otherwise sublimne, if we speak' to
each other, it is with more or less of consternation and
of gloom.
Unless we have an inner motive to abstract our
minds, our thoughts are always in keeping with the
scene around us; and hence we perceive the reason
why men erect temples of stately or solemn architectuie, with a view to encourage religious emotion,
and that the place may accord with the intention of
assemblage.  A want of keeping between the object
of a building and its ornaments and proportions is,
therefore, a want of taste in the builder, and it requires a spirit devoutly engaged at heart to be superior
to the influence of such incongruity. The fact that
souls are so strongly influenced by appearances, is a
sufficient motive for the study of those arts by which
the properties of nature are made to bear upon the
feelings of society. God himself has sanctioned such
studies, and inspired men with skill to construct edifices, in detail and in general, suited to promote those
solemn ideas which accompany devotion. To neglect
these considerations is, therefore, to neglect Divine
teaching. Our Lord Himself suited his discourse to the
position of his disciples, and followed the intimations
of nature in the sublime doctrines which He taught
in the temple, by the sea, or on the mountain side,
with the Divine magnificence of heaven and earth
around Him; and the successful propagation of truth
has always been influenced by these adventitious or
rather Divine aids, and the direction of the mind impressed by objects in nature, and in those suggestions
of nature which are supplied by art.
163 
164         LIKING AND DISLIKING
Our attention is first arrested by that which appeals
to our emotions, before we regard arguments; and
our affections must be aroused before we can perceive
the validity of reasoning. We must feel that we are
naturally God's creatures before we can apprehend
our spiritual relationship; but if we are spiritually
minded, the humblest hut, equally with the noblest
fi'ne, becomes an appropriate place of worship; and
yet not a temple on earth has ever been erected that
could reach to the idea of Christian worship in its
august simplicity, holiness, and love.  There is not
majesty enough even in the starry dome of heaven;
the rosy light of morning upon the mountains, and the
sunshine reposing upon fields of ripening plenty, are
not sufficiently suggestive of the peacefulness, benevolence, and hope of Christianity. There is nothing
visible vast enough to indicate its dominion, nor a
flower fair or frail enough to show forth the fostering
gentleness of its Omnipotent  Spirit.  The  Virgin
Mother, clothed in light, with the Son of God upon
her bosom, is its tenderest embodiment; but we can
not obtain a sufficient glory in the pictured charity,
the colors of light can not form faces so radiant as to
image in our eyes even our faint ideas of Divine love
made human. It is better seen in death than in life;
for the love that is Divine must teach us to believe
that God will raise the dead, even as at first he breathed
life into the dust in His hand. It brings us with Mary
to gaze into the tomb where Jesus was laid, and where
the angel stood in light to say that He was risen.
Hence the mature Christian feels that his heart is
but mocked by attempts to excite its devotion by earthly objects.  He can look at beauty and magnificence,
in their symbols, and be thankful; but he realizes far
more than these, because his spirit is truly worshiping
in that heaven where no temple is seen, for the Lord
God Almighty and the Lamb are the sanctuary there. 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
In proportion as men have been influenced by that
pure spirit which freely breathes in Christianity, have
they exhibited in their writings an admiration of nature
as the work of God, and, while honoring the power,
adored the love that constitutes the universe as the
abode of various intelligences. Whenever asceticism
has taken the place of active Christianity, the poetry
as well as the science of existence has alike been
darkened with artificial gloom, and the cloudiness of
fanaticism has usurped the splendor which God designed to occupy the visions of the soul; for the soul
was made expressly to be informed and delighted by
Divine truth, as seen both in His handiwork of creation
and the wisdom of His written word. Artificial and
fictitious religion fastens fetters of iron on all the faculties of man, but that of truth calls the spirit forth to
the firesh air, and to breathe vitality in open, happy
light, and bids it contemplate what Benevolence has
done to secure the joy and gratitude and praise of all
reasonable creatures.  If, therefore, we meet any ordinance against the intercourse of souls with souls, or
the slightest interdict opposed to the spirit of inquiry
after either natural or revealed truth, we  may be as
fully assured as if God himself had instructed us, that
such ordinance' and such interdict is not of Divine but
of human, if not demoniac origin; for the doctrine of
Christianity denies that man can attain his true nobility
without research, and without seeing and feeling the
difference between God's teaching and all erroneous
and imaginary devices.
We are called to the light; let us walk, then, as
children of the light.  It requires only the' courage of
trusting God to act worthy of our vocation. Wherever
we may dwell-in the luxuriance of the south or the
chill of the north-we shall see enough in living tribes,
in the forms and colors of vegetation, in the flowing
waters, in the verdant plains, in the proud hills, in the
165 
LIKING AND DISLIKING.
sublime mountains, in, those eternal flowers of the
skies"-the stars, in the endless heavens, and in the
great deep, to lift our spirits from the visible to the
invisible, and raise our thoughts above this grave of
things-from moving time to steadfast eternity, from
ourselves to God-in whom our hopes may rest for
fiuition, far beyond what the brightest and highest
faith can promise. Thus we receive firom the Parent
of our spirits, if we trust Him, a sustaining consolation
proportioned to the need we may experience in our
pilgrimage. The beauties of nature are subject to
decay; darkness may obliterate the skies, and a dart
from the clouds may quench our sight, but there is
no interruption to the benevolence of God, or to the
peace of those that trust Him.
166 
CHAPTER IX.
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
As, in treating of sensation in this place, it is not
the object to teach its physiology, but merely to point
out the influence of moral nmotive upon the formation
of ideas, it will suffice to direct our thoughts more
particularly to sight, sinee this is the most intellectual
of our senses, and the medium through which we or
dinarily become conscious of our moral relation to ex
istence.   Without  light-poetry, philosophy, literature, and religion must have remained unknown to
man. But we are not appointed like our kindred
worms to house ourselves in darkness.   Our souls,
familiar with the light, expatiate in immensity, and
converse with beauty.
The direction of the eye expresses the state of
man's mind, but it turns not to Heaven except when
we are excited by strong emotion, or by the urgent
longing for comfort, light, and truth. Every feeling
has its appropriate action. Adoration and pathos naturally express themselves in much the same manner,
by raising our eyes upward, because these states of
soul call those muscles into action which are peculiar
to the eye of man. No other creature is formed voluntarily to look upward; but devotion and agony
equally constrain us to turn from the troubled earth
toward the calm of eternity and heaven, as if in our
necessities to demand the help of the Highest.
Light was made for us, and therefore the soul looks
for it in all directions. It comes to us in its sevenfold
harmony from above, and the sublimest vision of our
spirits is heaven itself. Whether we contemplate the 
TEACHING, OF' LIGHT.
abyss of stars, the serene mnoon walking in her bright ness, or the sun enthroned in his glory, we are almost
ready, in the bare sensation of unsearchable magnificence, to bow in worship to the visible majesty above
us. Thus the earliest idolatry began when men looked up to heaven, antd forgot their origin. But we have
been spiritually instructed, and in spirit would adore
the uncreated Light that in the beginning called all
things into being. Thus the eye becomes the instrument of intelligence, and by its aid we perceive that
the moral law is founded in the nature of physical, in
relation to rational existence.  The  Commandments,
written by thile finger of God on the top of Sinai in the
tablets of granite, and also in the heart of man, are
but a condensed transcript of the law of the universe,
brought into direct accommodation to the human socialities of earth.  The grand code of God, as the
moral Governor of all worlds, is inscribed by his own
hand upon the starry firmament of his power, and all 
existence is the development of law. If we ascend
into the heavens, He is there.  In the Father's house
are many mansions; the glories of the revealing night
speak of the household of our God. Suns and systems indicate in light the overflowing beneficence of
their present Maker, and it is not in the power of our
reason to believe that the associated spheres revolving
together in their varied radiance, and modifying seasons to each other, as they roll on in eternity, are
without the doctrines of love among them. We can
not believe that the ten thousand beauties unknown
to earth, with influences innumerable, effectuating accommodations intricate and excellent beyond conception, belong to dead and spiritless worlds. No: a
plenitude of goodness is for beings who can enjoy
gifts, and praise the Giver.  Those arrangements, so
vast, various, and sublime, for the unceasing manifestation of benevolence and power, must be intended to
I C)S 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHi'.
meet the demands of moral and intellectual existence.
The myriads on myriads of worlds must teem with
appropriate inhabitants, who learn from the reciprocal
ministrations of Heaven that the Creator is among
them. We can not look up, and think otherwise than
morally, for the socialities of heaven are visibly expressed in the very light that enters into our souls;
and as surely as light is every where, and every
where brings visions of Divine beauty to minds formed
to receive them, so surely must we conclude that the
worlds above and on every side of us are the abodes
of beings having some discernment of their relation to
each other and to their Maker.
There must be ideas among them, and ideas are but
the responses of reason to the intentions of the Creator, in the existence of objects.  Ideas, therefore, must
be attended by corresponding emotions and affections;
and wonderful beyond our thoughts must be the pleasures of beings who reciprocate sentiments of joy
and of knowledge, in their contemplation of the magnificence, wisdom, loveliness, and love, revealed every
where in the scenery and arrangements of the heavens.
All objects and all elements are but adaptations to
the social necessities of mind. We may not be able
clearly to infer the moral and physical constitutions of
the dwellers in those far-off worlds, but we are certain
that all their experience in the marvels of creative
skill, so richly at work for their bliss, must largely
teach the universal lesson-,, God is love." All who
can receive this word so far apprehend the Divine nature, and must feel that law which says, Hie alone is
worthy of supreme affection who bids us love one another.  This, at-least, is the law propounded to man;
and turning from the heavens to our homes, we fee]
that beings incapable of love are incapable of reason
and of happiness. Moral beauty is the image of God,
and we minister His spirit only when we enjoy and
161,) 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
diffuse His charity. The world that is not constituted
on this plan must be a world of darkness and disorder
-a place of minds that would hide themselves from
God, because they wil. not trust Him. Would they
but think of Him as love, they would ask and feel forgiveness, and then walk on rejoicing in light.
Thus, whether we look to the associations of heaven
or those of earth, we return, at last, to our moral consciousness, and therein seem to stand as upon the interminable firmament, from whence we every where
perceive the operation of the same law wrought into
the very materials of existence, as well as into the very
being of our souls-love-the bond between the Creator and the creature, without the felt indwelling of
which it is the manifest will of God that none shall be
blessed.  The absence ofthis principle is thatouterdarkness, in the uinsearchable depth of which every spirit
wanders who in selfish loneliness seeks a path to which
wisdom has not pointed. There is no curse but in the
essential malediction which the perverse heart utters
on itself, and on all that oppose it; for the mind that is
willfully set upon merely obtaining its own way, finds
the happiness of others is apt to be an impediment to
its selfish aims, since the law of righteousness is the
law of charity, embracing all alike: hence disobedience
is always associated with wrath, and its anger is so mad
that it always acts as if it thought the law was hate;
for to be at variance with heaven is to depart alike from
love and from truth.
All power is God's; we see it in creation, we feel it
in our minds, and our very eyesight informs us that
love and power are infinite, and therefore impartial.
We turn toward the -heavens, and the boundary is not
there, but in ourselves: we fined no limit but in our capacity to expatiate, and if in thought we would follow our
vision into space, and pass Oli, we become conscious
that we have entered into eternity, for there is no
I i () 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
chronology among the stars, and time as well as space
is lost to our perception, ere we can take the first step
along the pathway of unutterable glory that opens before us. Thus is it also in every attempt to contemplate the Divine attributes-,, The center is every
where, the circumference nowhere."
Begin where we may, there the eternal is before
us. Wisdom, and power, and love, are visibly infinite
and equal; though we could calculate with an angel's
skill, we should find the hosts of heaven beyond our
arithmetic. But-yet, wherever we might fix our observation, we should perceive each system moving in
all its intricate circuits with an equilibrium so adjusted
as to prove that the touch of Omnipotence is there;
for no other hand is gentle enough to hang worlds upon
nothing, and roll them on in their inconceivable vast
ness and multitude, upon lines finer than an atom of
light, through billions of billions of miles, uandeviating
and unbroken, both in their progress and their revolutions. And this governance would not be that of power
and wisdom if it were not also that of love, for, as before observed, all the adjustments of matter must have
been induced for the sake of minds. We can not imagine that the distant glories that gleam in faint starlight on our homes are wasted. There are intelligences every where to kindle into ecstacies of thought,
amidst the sublimities and beauties that crowd around
them, and bring into their existence the consciousness
of the universal life. There must be reason where
there is divinity, and there, too, must be worship, morality, and religion-for the mind that owns not God,
both in thought and in deed, is not intelligent, but
unenlightened, and either brutal or insane..
Whether with the telescope we search into the endless magnificence of heaven, or with the microscope
we peep into worlds of infinite minuteness, all we see
is that the Almighty is there, and therefore we infer
171 
'TEA(CHINGS OF LIGHT.
that created minds are every where cognizant of the
movements of His might, for His handiwork is the
revelation of Himself to beings that can discern His
power and learn somewhat of His wisdom. The glimmering intuitions of our reason thus assure us, with a
faith immovable, that Omnipotence can only evince
himself as love, and that He produces intelligent creatures only to supply them with the means and the motives of happiness, by expressing His will in His works.
The glory of God is a visible thing. When Moses
said,, I beseech thee. show me thy glory;" Jehovah
answered,,I will cause all my goodness to pass before
thee."
There is much indefinite use of this word, glory;
but as it is applied to the ineffable Author of all things,
it can mean only what he has done, and the only way
in which we can glorify him is to learn his character
as expressed in his acts, and so to regard his character
as to become transformed into its resemblance.   To
reflect God's light is, in short, to be glorified ourselves,
and this is the manner in which the fountain of excellence is revealed in us. Whoever receives his supplies from this source becomes at.once an overflowing
spring of joy to other beings, for the glory of God is
love and light, and their nature is everlasting diffusiveness without diminution.
I reiterate my thoughts, because I feel them. Creation is a fact full of this meaning-power, wisdom,
and benevolence are one; and they equally announce
to us also, though we seldom regard the truth, that
happiness can be fpund only by acting and thinking in
consistency with the working of this wisdom, power,
and love, as expressed in the natural ordinances of
earth or of heaven. The law of blessedness, thus fixed
in the very nature of things, is the law of moral being,
and declares itself unalterable; and therefore, if a will
be found in any, world at variance with that law, it
I 7 2 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
ran find no refuge from its doom of disappointment and
perdition, but in a change of purpose, or by seeking to
have desires consistent with its creaturely position and
a life of faith upon the loving hand that can restore it to
its proper place. The Almighty, because He is Love,
must of necessity oppose the Disobedient, and can only
overcome the perverse will-perverse either from ignorance or design-by removing the means of its perversity, or by controlling its movements by still persisting evidences of loving-kindness.and tender mercy,
in always presenting impediments to its progress in
misery.  Thus we find, from our experience, that the
physical government of God is never separated firom
his moral government, except in the abstract speculations of our bewildered minds. All we see assures us
that we are in soul naked, and open to the scrutiny of
God.-He who formed the eye, shall not He see?  He
who created light, shall not he perceive?
We might profitably follow out this stupendous subject into its details in relation to human duties, but'every
reader will find arguments ready in his own thoughts.
This much may here be affirmed-there are no safe
data for metaphysical investigations but in revealed
truth; and therefore we shall save ourselves from a
world of trouble, by grounding our reasoning upon revelation, and conforming our conduct to its light.  It is
true, that what we find received under this name is a
humanized inspiration; and it would be useless if it
were not so, since  man can learn only in a human
manner. God's truth speaks to common sense; we are
required to believe only what is demonstrated-not, indeed, always to our eyes, but to our souls.  By all we
know of history, and by all that the highest class oe
minds have been able to discover in nature or in themselves, by prophecy and by fulfillment, by necessity and
by supply, by all we are and all we would be, we are
bound to the Bible as the book of God. Its doctrines
l'i'3 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT
are in keeping with all the intelligences and teachiL:gs
of the universe; but without its culminating truths, all
the light in all the worlds would leave such beings as
we are as spiritually blind as ever, and utterly unsound,
unsafe, unsatisfied.  The religious men of'1d may
have known but little of Astronomy, but yet they knew
the meaning of the heavens. To what degree Job,
Moses, David, and the Prophets were informed of the
physical laws which regulated the movements of the
glorious hosts, we can not learn, but they saw and understood that the heavens and the earth formed but one
universe in the hand of the Almighty. They could not
weigh the masses of rolling orbs, with Newton, but
they believed in Him who held them in the balance,
appointed their places, and directed their influences.
They felt His power was infinite, and therefore conceived no limit to His dominion, and named eternity as
His abode.
Though the Cosmos has been reduced to mathematical admeasurements for us, and the ideal statistics of
the skies are familiar in our schools, yet it would indeed be a feeble sentimentality to talk of mental cultivation taking the magic charm from the mysteries of
nature; but alas! men are too apt to enjoy a sublime idea of the universe, while forgetful of Him who
" telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all
by their names." This, however, is not the fault of
knowledge, but of ignorance; for in contemplating the
manifestation of creative power, the demands of creative love are overlooked, unless the spirit that perceives the order of the visible heavens also perceives
that natural systems are but the outward symbols of
inward and spiritual relationships. But the knowledge
of the one conducts to the other; and as surely as the
knowledge of natural phenomena is increased. may we
be assured that moral truths are also to appear; since
general mental development is no accident, but an ac
0
174 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
cordancy with the Divine intention, that determined
that all human history should subserve to the explanation of prophecy, and all science tend to demonstrate
that the plan of nature is that of Providence, to prove
that man was placed upon earth, and scattered over its
face in families and nations, with reference, from first
to last, to some grand consummation, which shall reveal the character of God as especially concerned with
all humanity.
Thus informed, a youth stood on a hill at Bethlehem,
waiting for the stars, and it was in his soul to sing, with
a burst of adoration,, When 1 consider thy heavens,
what is man, that Thou art mindful of him;" and that
youth was fit to be a king of God's anointing. Though
he seemed among men but as an amiable lad, his mind
in worship had been conversant with the wondrous
works of creation; and therefore, though still a rustic
and a shepherd, something divine was manifestly in
him. He could touch the chords of human sympathy,
and utter melodious notes in praise of God, so as to stir
the souls of others, as if with involuntary responses to
his own spirit; and when the defense of the feeble
demanded prowess, his knowledge of the ways of Deity
filled him with a fearless virtue. The Lord of Heaven
corresponded with his heart, and called him the Beloved; and his heart replied,, I will love thee, O Lord,
my strength." The heavens declared the glory of God
to him, not only as the Creator, but also as the Lawgiver. (Ps. xix.) He heard within him the intelligence
uttered by the day and by the night; and it prompted
him to meditate acceptably on the enlightening ordinances of Jehovah, as if the voice of the Omnipotent
were addressed to his conscience, and caused him to
pray that sin, presumptuous sin, might not hold domninion over him. Thus viewing the Almighty at work
among His worlds, he at once associated the idea of the
Power every where present with the Love that de
175 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
ianded obedience in the daily duties of his life.  This
idea was doubtless the source of that dignity which
visibly ennobled his youthful manhood, and made him
notable in Israel, as one honored of Jehovah.   He
wished his thoughts and the language of his life to be
in harmony with the mind of his Maker, as the source
of power and salvation  and therefore, though beguiled
by the treachery of his own heart, he nevertheless
heard the reproving voice, felt at once his contriariety
to the holy law, abased himself, bewailed in secriet
his guiltiness of soul, and sought prevailingly the'enewal of a rightful spirit.  Hence he was qualifiedl lo
speak the words of inspiration, and to pour the overflowings of his heart into the ear of Heaven, in songs
of praises and pleadings of necessity, which mingled so
eloquently with the music of his harp, that adoring'
angels might linger to listen, while demons were dispelled, and all things in nature seemed to feel him call
upon them loudly to laud the righteous Ruler of all
intelligence and of all elements.
In the Bible we are not directed to mental imaginings, but to see the glory of God in what He  has
outwardly and openly done. David thought and sung
in the spirit of the universe; hence he says of Jehovah,
" The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the
people see his glory." (Ps. xcvii. 8.)  And therefore
those who trust in idols are called on to turn to Him.
,, The heavens declare the glory of God, and the
firmament showeth His handiwork," is but the commencemnent of his song of prais.,"Day unto day
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." And then, as if the universality of the Divine
beneficence were shadowed in the sun, he appeals in
rapturous words to the world-wide diffusion of its
light and warmth. He saw therein the type of truth;
and, with seeming abruptness, he turns from the tabernacle that God had set for the sun, to show forth the
176 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
glory of the perfect law. The exordium of inspiration
concerning the visible majesty of heaven was a fit introduction to the spirit and meaning of all the Creator's manifestations-the enlightenment of man and
the removal of moral darkness.-,, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty," is but one
par,; of the vast anthem of immortals; Just and true
are thy ways, thou King of saints," completes the
parallelism of praise; for in the greatness of Jehovah's
works is seen the righteousness of His ways.
What made the difference between David and Laplace? Motive. Laplace scrutinized the universe with
only himself before his eyes; David looked up only to
adore God. Laplace never mentions the Might that
made the heavens; he concerned himself only with
their mechanism, and, though with an angel's ken he
gazed into the temple of Omnipotence, it was not' to
worship, while David felt the sublimity of the boundless glory but as the shekinah of his Maker.  Now, as in nature, so in the book of God, there are no
sentimentalisms and no mistakes. These are man's,
but both nature and the Bible tell the truth, and tell it
to us, if we would listen. The one shows us our littleness, the other our need. They both say that science
is not salvation, and that truth is a practical and personal matter. The Creator thus addresses us by all
visible things, to awaken moral motives into activity,
and leads the mind at every glimpse to further light,
until we see that the universal light, is the emblem of
God, and that as there is but one source of vision to
all eyes, so there is but one source of righteousness
for all intelligences.
We can not imagine the power that set the universe in action, but we feel that it could neither have
begun nor been exerted. Motion, space, duration, as
manifested to us in what we behold of God's plan of
action. are yet all inconceivable. We mnay multiply
177
1 -2 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
moments on paper, and calculate the rapidity of light
as it travels from world to world, but the numbers employed appear only as figures; their sum is not apprehended as an idea by the mind. Light flew from the
stars, as they were produced by Omnipotence, in all
directions, at the rate of 200,000 miles in a second,
and with this speed the light of those stars next and
nearest to our system would probably require thirty
millions of years to reach our eyes. Such is speed,
such is space. What do we learn from these physical
facts? Only this-the Almighty has to do with us,
and has created light that we may look to Him.
We perceive that time and space, past and to come,
are identical with regard to Omniscience and Omnipo
tence, since reason, in thinking of Deity, can not limit
Him to possibilities, as we are limited by our creaturely organization. The Eternal sees not His universe
on mechanical and material principles, as it presents
itself to our senses. He sees things as they are, but
it is in the nature of the senses to modify things according to their mechanism; thus the world wears
quite a different aspect to two persons, the convexity
of whose eyes in the slightest degree differs.  What
is real and true must be so to thought, and we-with
awe may we say it-must perceive as God perceives,
to distinguish the possible from the impossible, the true
from the false. As we are situated with regard to the
external world, we can not think, and at the same time
use our senses, without being subject to organic laws
or to the movements of things which of course can
take place only in time and space. Even when we
withdraw our minds from sensation, we still attend
only to one idea at a time. We therefore can not
perceive things as they are-God alone can do that,
because He alone perceives without succession or interruption9 and therefore without period, pause, or
place. He who knows all things at once, alone knows
178 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
them as they are, because in fact there is no break in
the universe; and no mind can be taught the truth
but by Him who addresses spiritual arguments to our
reason.
To be every where equally, and to see every thing
equally, and that forever, can not but be possible to
Him by whom all things consist; and whatever is possible with God is not only practicable, but a fact.  In
short, -whatever men call impossible, is that which
Deity has done and is doing. He sees, at this very
moment, every movement in every star that existed
millions of ages before Adam's creation; and the state,
place, and thoughts, of each of us, as they will be,
myriads of ages hence, are now evident to Him.
Reason must allow that there is no real past, except
to finite perception, since all that is called past, not
only remains present in the sight of God, but is also
written in light upon the materials of the universe.
Reason, however, can bring no evidence to prove the
visibility of all the future as well as all the past; but
yet we must believe it, because we must believe in the
Infinite mind, in whom past, present, and future can
not exist; because they are, so to say, but as organizations belonging to the creature. Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnipresence, Eternity, are one in God;
and by our abode with him, and by our capacity of annihilating time and space by thoughts of His deeds, we
are involved in these attributes, and must forever be
learning what they signify.
Motion results from mind, and it began in the will
of God. None but a being whose intellect is biased
by desires incompatible with the plan of creation, can
fail to perceive that the Divine will and power are
goodness in design and deed.  If men look abroad
over the works of the Almighty, and yet deny his existence, or fail to adore, it is because they prefer wor
shiping something rmore like thermsales.  lThey can
179 
TEACIINGS OF LIGHT.
clearly see that all things must have been made, and
therefore they can not doubt the eternal power and
Godhead; and on that very account it is impossible for
them to escape condemnation, since their inference
concerning the righteousness of God must be as distinct
as their inference concerning his power, for reason
tells us that Omnipotence can not be unjust.,Behold the heavens," says Cicero;, must we  not acknowledge that there is a perfect being?"  By  the
Logos, the divine Wisdom, were all things made; but
the darkness does not comprehend the light, and the
evil in us still excludes it, or we should discover a
world within in correspondence with Jehovah. We
turn away from the glorious revelation, although it is
but a personal expression of the fact, that, as a Creator, God is faithful and fatherly and loving. He calls
on us to repent of our miserable contempt of true existence, and to submit to be informed and to be happy.
We have seen that the meaning of existence, as far
as we can discern it, is love, boundless love. This is
our idea of God in creation, and it implies created intelligence to recognize and enjoy it as a manifestation
of God, for a latent Deity is a deity unknown; the
natural light agrees with the light of revelation. The
attributes of the Almighty exist only in creation, since,
without action, Omnipotence is but a word. Almightiness is infinite, and acts in infinitude; and, -like Omniscience must have infinite objects on which to evince
itself. Immensity of means is the expression of immensity of power, and the scene of love must ever be
as boundless as the Divine beneficence; and, therefore,
to assert that thiere ever was a time when God was
without intelligent creatures, is to assert there was a
time when Deity was dormant. There is succession
to the creature, but none to Him. Existence is His
one act, His everlasting object; hence every thing
which we can conceive is connected with all other
ISO 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
things, boundlessly as to space, and endlessly as to
duration, because all begin and end in the Infinite.
There is no dissociation, because every thing is part
and parcel of God's one eternal act of manifestation to
created beings, by referring reason to Himself. We perceive successively; but to perceive truly, is to see as
God sees-all things at once-and as they are, in seculo
seculorum, with all their variety, a harmonious whole.
The eternal character and consistency of Jehovah's
works have been used as an argument against the
reception of any other revelation than that.of science.
What science will answer all the purposes of the Bible,
we are not informed.  Astronomy and geology show
us no Saviour; and the heroics of infidelity have not
been those of heaven. Its exploits, either at home or
abroad, notwithstanding its pride in sciential appliances,
have never evinced any tendency to promote the glory
of God or good-will among men. To convince men of
sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come, has
neither been the end of their doctrines nor the motive
of their revelations. In fact, this kind of conviction is
just that which infidels desire very scientifically to
dispense with, and the firuits of their doctrines have
fully demonstrated the bitterness of their nature.
Yet let us not blame science, since this could never
impede religion but in minds determined to find their
own way, without the help of that light which the God
of mercy pitifully offers them. That there is nothing
in real science opposed to the Scriptures, has only been
the more clearly manifested, by the astonishing trouble
which infidels have taken in endeavoring to draw evidence from nature, against revelation. They have
been digging into the earth, as if to hide themselves
from the sun, and to bury themselves beyond the
reach of the only source of life and joy. Geology will
not help them, the mountains will not fall on them,
the caves will not hide them, they are ]riven out as
181 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
if by a centrifugal force to meet their antagonists in
the light, if not to be convinced, yet to be silenced
there. A fact will show how the motive with which
a man looks will pervert his judgment., Oh," says
one,, it was found, that in sinking a pit at Jaci, near
Mount Etna, seven distinct layers of lava. with a thick
bed of earth covering each, were pierced through."
This, observes the infidel, could not have occurred in
less than fourteen thousand years. But true and eminent geologists, who looked with the fear of God before
their eyes, found that there was no earth between the
layers. The narrator who so confidently announced
these ideal beds, immediately afterward states that
" the country about Hybla being overwhelmned by the
lava of Etna, became totally barren, but in a second
eruption, by a shower of ashes from the mountain,
it soon re-assumed its ancient beauty and fertility,"
Thus we see, that when he had forgotten his doubts
of the Mosaic record, he found no need for the two
thousand years in order to convert the lava into luxuriant fields. Real science tells nothing but the truth.
It is remarkable, that the facts of geology and other
sciences have led to the denial of Christianity on the
Continent, where the spirit of inquiry is trammeled
by usurped authority, and Christian doctrines have
been cast into fixed and unalterable forms; but in
England, where the mind is left comparatively free
to ask for itself, investigation has only tended to confirm the faith.
We must allow that time is not a consideration in
the business of the Eternal; and we can well suppose
that the ages which geologists believe to have passed
aver this earth previous to the formation of man, were
preparative of conveniences for human population, and
anticipative of human exigencies. Moses does not inform us how long the earth had existed, but only gives
us the earliest chronology of events in relation to man.
1 812 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
The indefinite periods of geology may be the days of
successive creation mentioned in Genesis, since it is
certain that the orders of creation, as shown in the
stratifications of the earth's crust, are exactly such as
follow the order of creation as described by the first
historian-a fact sufficient in itself to puzzle infidels to
account for the information possessed by the Jewish
legislator.
The use of the eye is to see what God has done.
Can, God  work  miracles?" says the sentimental
Rousseau;,"can He derogate from the laws which
He has established? The question, treated seriously,
would be impious if it were not absurd." Yes, it
would indeed be impious to suppose the Almighty at
variance with Himself.  But the impiety and the absurdity belong to the mind that conceives a God limited
by His own laws, not as they relate to moral existence,
but to natural phenomena. Surely Omnipotence may
alter His own works, in evidence of His power, and
for the instruction of intelligent agents, without contradicting Himself. But the infidel does not see God
as the author of righteousness, or as a lawgiver to
understanding spirits, but only as the power at work,
originating and maintaining material operations. The
scoffer looks up into the heavens through his telescope,
and catches a few glimmerings of glory through his
tube; he calculates orbits, and watches planets undeviating in their courses, and utters that very thought
which Peter, the Apostle of Jesus, 1800 years ago,
said he would utter-," There shall come in the last
days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were
from the beginning of the creation." A power superior
to nature is not acknowledged, and' to imagine it is
irrational., The probability of the continuance of
the laws of nature," says Laplace, " is superior in our
183 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
estimation to every other evidence. What has a
Christian to state, by way of argument, against this
probability?  Facts, facts-natural facts; nothing but
fact is an argument. The testimony is experience,
and there is no other evidence. We appeal to what
God has manifestly done, in order to give a reason
for our belief in His promises. He Himself always
directs us to His deeds; He did so from the firstHe does so now. The faith of Christians stands in
the power of God. Let us not, like the unbeliever,
be willfully ignorant; we do well to take heed to the
sule word of prophecy: it is full of facts; it points us
incessantly to visible things, accomplished, and now
doing and about to be done. It told us that scoffers
would plead the continuance of nature, in statu quo,
from the beginning, as a reason for not believing in its
Lord; and the thing is before us-we have the fact
in their writings. The argument is, however, a recent
affair, drawn out of these last times, because not until
now have we seen enough of the laws of nature to
conceive of their invariable order and operation. It
is well, and blessed be God for the light of science-it
has banished chance from the world of matter; but
faith had banished it from all worlds at the very moment she believed in God.
True science is light from heaven, and will conduct
minds upward, if they will but trace it to its source.
But does science, indeed, demonstrate the invariable
character of natural laws? Does it prove that all
things have continued as they were fromn the beginning of the creation? The Apostle Peter again gives
us a word with which to silence the scoffer:-,, For
this they willingly are ignorant of; that by the word of
God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing
out of the water and in the water."* It is semi-science,
or rather science by piecemeal and in fragments, that
See Keitih's Demonstration of the Truth of Christianity.
184 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
irreligious men, like the giants warring against Jove,
have so hastily turned against the word of God; but
the very fragments fall back to crush the rebels.
The more men examine this earth, the more they
find to show that the system of this world has been
subjected to change., Every part of the earth,"
says Cuvier (Theory of Earth, 5th Ed. p. 7), " every
hemisphere, every continent, every island of any extent exhibits the same phenomenon.", It is the sea
which has left them (shells, &c.) in the places where
they are now found.", The basin of the sea has
undergone one change, at least, either in extent or in
situation.  Such is the result of the very first search,
and of the most superficial examination.", The traces
of revolutions become still more decisive when we ascend a little higher, and approach near to the great
chains. There are still found many beds of shells;
some of these are even thicker and more solid; the
shells are quite as numerous and as well preserved,
but they are no longer of the same species.", The
sea, previous to the deposition of the horizontal strata,
had formed others, which, by the operation of problematical causes, were broken, raised, and overturned
in a thousand ways; and as several of these inclined
strata, which it had formed at more remote periods,
rise higher than the horizontal strata which have succeeded them, or at least shoals and inequalities; and
this must have happened whether they had been
raised by one extremity, or whether the depression
of the opposite extremity had made the waters subside. Thus is the second result not less clear nor
less satisfactorily demonstrated than the first, to every
one who will take the trouble of examining the monuments on which it is established."
", A glance at the best geological maps will satisfy an
inquirer that a greater part of the present land has been
raised from the deep."-Lvell's Geology, vol. i. p. 135
185 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
I All observers admit that the strata were formed
beneath the waters, and have been subsequently converted'nto dry land."-Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 44.
So, then, the most superficial observation is sufficient
to show that, the calculating the probability of the
continuance" of things as they were at first would
make a man a very sorry philospher.  Any one may
satisfy himself, if he will use his eyes, that the earth
has undergone a series of vast changes, and that there
was a time when it was not fit for human habitation,
and another, when, although habitable by man, it yet
was submerged. What a series of transitions from
zoophytes to man-what changes of nature from a
brute world to a world of minds, reasoning concerning their Maker, acknowledging His benevolence, and
hoping for an end in keeping with God's character; or
else, like Hume, studying history without religion, and
despising the forewarnings of Heaven, and viewing
humanity in all its pathos only as an accident of the
elements, without a purpose but to die.
It would, no doubt, be argued that these changes are
themselves the results of the invariable laws which
govern the universe. Where is this discovered? There
is nothing in the known laws of matter and of motion,
as manifest in earth or heaven, to account for changes
such  as  have  transpired.   Unalterable  ordinances
can not create new eras. Some hypothesis must be
invented, some cosmogony indiscoverable in facts, and
unrevealed to man, must be imagined to suit the nice
reason of the skeptic. The secret is this-he has an
object to serve, some motive for disparaging the claims
of the Bible; like Rousseau and Hume, he wishes to
prove it false, because he can not bear to believe Christianity. It will not administer to pride, nor suffer a
man to hope without holiness: it dembands self-denial.
It can not be endured-away with it. But how? Can
186 
TEACHINGS OF LIGHT.
not th ey direct us to a theory which will dispense with
Divine legation and Almighty interference with the
workings of worlds? Will not the nebulous notions
account for evely thing like successive developments.
geological and astronomical? and may not man be an
expanded monkey, and a monkey an expanded monad?
Laplace mathematically sets the heavens in motion, to
dispense with the management of their Creator; but
he derives his vortices from his own fancies. There
are no nebulae but in our minds and in our defective
vision. Wherever man can penetrate with the telescope into open space, he sees only orderly worlds, with
nothing among them, in all the planes of all the planets,
to warrant the notion that things might not have always been as they now are. And yet this earth takes
her place among these planets, with the records of
many changes in her bosom. What is the conclusion,
but that God has interfered with the regulations of his
own world, and may do so again? There is no power
but in the hand of the Almighty to alter the aspect of
worlds, and what that hand sets in order no other can
disturb. The motive with which man regards creation
will determine his conclusion; and if he has no reverence for God, he will soon contrive to find that there
is no evidence of his superintendence. Newton saw
the universe with his soul enlightened by religion; he
believed in Christianity, and thus saw heaven opened,
and the throne of God: and the devout spirits of olden
time looked with the same intelligence; and though
they did not measure the spaces between the stars, nor
calculate the speed of light, they had yet a sublimer
motive for looking up into the skies, for they felt that
the Almighty was;, riding on the heaven of heavens by
His name, Jah."
187 
CHAPTER X.
KNOWLEDGE.
Notional knowledge, or that knowingness which comes
to nought, is twin-born with ignorance; and it is that
for which mankind naturally entertain an early passion,
since it serves to occupy the mind, and divert it from
those realities which are of too solemn a nature to allow guilty beings quietly to forget that they have an
account to render to the great Judge. It is that, also,
which gives rise to all those wordy disputes which
cause unmeaning divisions among men, because those
disputes, being destitute of definite or real ideas, present nothing for minds to perceive and agree on. It is
the opposite of that confident apprehension of something imparted by the Almighty to the mind, and which
therefore is worth contending for, as pro traditdfide,
and without which we have none but the fool's right
to dispute, since, in fact, we have no assured truth to
offer, and nothing to testify but that our opinion is superior to our wisdom.
True knowledge is the knowledge of truth, and truth
is the parent of faith, hope, and charity. To understand is to perceive the meaning of another mind, and
we must perceive the intentions of our Maker before
we can adore. Man willingly co-operates with man,
from mutual intelligence; and when man discerns the
Divine idea in any thing or event, and is personally and
affectionately influenced by that idea, then he becomes
truly devout-his religion being founded on a felt truth,
which so operates on his rational nature, that his motives and actions correspond with the light in his understanding. Thus true knowledge is essential to true 
KNOWLEDGE.
religion, for this consists in conformity of mind with
the recognized teaching of God, both in natural and in
spiritual revelation, for the divinity in Nature requires
her seers as well as the divinity in the Bible. Hence
every real science contributes to theology, and instructs
man concerning the goodness and power of his Maker,
and thus far, also, sustains the reliance of the mind
upon His providence for intellectual, moral, and physical supply, according to the demand rightfully made
upon his bounty as a faithful Creator.  But thisways
implies the use of means, in accordance with the plan
of creation, as regards both mind and body.  Faith in
a falsehood is a false faith, and that will not save us.
True faith trusts in what God has done, and therefore
what He also will do.
It requires a clear soul to see a truth so as to believe
it at first sight, and there is nothing more doubtful
than a fact to an ignorant mind. The reason of this is
that nothing is understood while standing alone.   To
separate any idea from its connection is to put it out of
its place, and thus to make it a puzzle. It is like presenting a fossil to a man, and asking him what it belonged to when alive, and begging him to describe the
nature, property, and fashion of the creature of which
it once formed a part. A large and exact extent of
knowledge is demanded mentally to allocate any thing,
or to form a complete idea of any object before us.
Small knowledge has a small vocabulary, and no meanings, or at least few truths, and whatever does not
seem to fall in with these few is looked at as awonder
or a lie.
Science is not salvation, and every truth does not
confer liberty of spirit; there may be health of soul
with very little knowledge. A robust infancy of spirit
is indeed often witnessed among comparatively uninformed persons, who evince a strong appetite for truth,
and eagerly enjoy it, as tile sincere food of the soul.
189 
KNOWLEDGE
There are others, however, who have a voracious desire for informotion, who yet, morally speaking, are
but atrophies and living skeletons, simply because they
are vitally wrong in their intellectual functions, and,
like Pharaoh's kine, devour, not that they may digest,
grow strong in spirit, and be fit for work, but that they
may gratify a depraved disposition, and merely please
themselves. These persons are like intellectual cretins, living and moving and chattering among the great
wondtrs of creation; but, not seeing the meanings of
things, they do not worship God nor learn any thing
of Him. They are too busy with phenomena to look
beyond the elements of their amusement; they make
knowledge a thing of mere sensation, and thus truth
itself deceives them, because their affections are awry.
Self-denial is in no case more requisite than in resisting our appetency for knowledge. The fair tree
that flourished in the midst of the lost Paradise shed
its seed upon the earth, and the deluge did not destroy
it. The tempting fruit is now habitually eaten, but
still it is forbidden; and its effects are still to make us
feel our nakedness, not with the shame of repentance,
but of pride. To indulge our curiosity, irrespective of
right ends, is the worst of sensualities. But, of course,
the pleasure of indulgence is the sole object with minds
not morally enlightened, and if our affections are not
trained by association and sympathy with charitable
and loving spirits, we must live selfishly.
Yet, how gracious in His tenderness is our God!
He constitutes the senses and the soul of the young
child to dally with its dangers and its safety with equal
delight; and the little creature, ignorant of evil, plays
with the crested snake as it would with its mother's
tresses. But affection watches over its dalliance, and
while it drinks knowledge and finds amusement in
every object that does not bear on its front the aspect
of anger, it also learns to love and to smile. It needs
190 
KNOWLEDGE.
no law to teach it faith, but it relies, because its selfhood is provided for without inquiry, and the very
feebleness of its undoubting life makes its whole existence like a prayer anticipated and answered, ere its
utterance. But as it grows in knowledge, it finds both
good and evil; it becomes suspicious, and then desire
springs up, without a love that may be blessed, and
therefore disappointment soon teaches it to mnourn,
because its will is inconsistent with the universal wisdom that calculates its good in opposition to itself.. In
this manner we are taught the last lesson that we
learn, to submit ourselves to a guiding hand, and to
trust our wants, without hurry, to the Mind that furnishes us with knowledge to regulate our affections
unto safe indulgence.
This natural tendency, merely to seek gratification
for selfish ends, is in no respect more manifest than in
our pursuit of knowledge. We are rather disposed to
seek a succession of pleasing emotions from ideas as
they flit across our brains, than to collect a treasure for
eternity, by detaining, analyzing, and arranging them,
so as to form a science in our souls. By thus amusing
ourselves we frustrate our own aim, and lose the high
and holy enjoyment which is ultimately attained by
patiently waiting upon truth, from the love inspired
by a few glimpses of her vailed beauty. The successful investigation of nature is like that quiet, hopeful
wooing which proceeds about its heart-work reverently
and religiously; and it finds that recompense which is
due only to the fortitude and faith that rely upon God
as the author of truth and love, in the possession of
which all labor is forever rewarded.
Time is an essential element of our knowledge.
Every inquiry into science should be conducted with
the assurance, that by observing fact after fact we shall
rise beyond the region of doubt, and ascend as by steps
to the holy place where God reveals His glory. If,
191 
KNOWLEDGE.
indeed, we enter with the right hope, we advance into
a gradual revelation, and feel that the mind of our Maker is meeting us with endless intelligence and joy.
God's words, whether established in the elements or
written in the Bible, always express the perfection of
His character as the parent and the patron of all who
seek rest for their spirits in His liberality and wisdom.
Thus a man with the temper of Newton will think
becomingly about the grandeur of the Creator's physical universe, until by degrees he rises into a clear
elevation, firom whence, with sublime but sober rapture, he beholds the heavens and the earth as one
system of diversified wonders, in which Omnipotence
reveals Himself, both as loveliness and love.  Thus, too,
he perceives, at last, that all that the prophets of Jehovah spake, and all that the apostles of Jesus preached concerning redemption and eternal health, is in
beauteous harmony with the teachings of providence,
and that the spiritual system of revealed science presents whatever is required to complete and consummate the wisdom inscribed with light upon the world
of nature. In short, all inquiry is fruitless and disappointing, unless directed in a divine manner; for
there is no science, no beauty, no truth, no loveliness,
but in the works of God. Men have ever been able
to use their reason to happy and ennobling ends only
when they have discarded all fond fancies, and followed the indications mercifully granted to them in
nature, when seen in the light that flows from Heaven. God has not left Himself without witness, but
men have shown their origin from a fallen father,
in their disregard of God's voice. They have not
been disposed to retain the thought of Him in their
knowledge, nor can they admit His authority over
them until they have seen enough of His majesty to
humble them in the consciousness that He is the sole
source of all power and endowment. In fact, befoie
192 
KNOWLEDGE.
man can rightly think, he must be so far religious as
to be persuaded that wisdom presides over all true
knowledge. He otherwise but confirms himself in
delusion, and instead of becoming devout, surrounds
himself with the palpable darkness of his doubts. But
he who seeks wisdom finds it in every department of
knowledge. His faculties refresh themselves at the
eternal fountain, and, in the perpetual ecstasy of adoration, he interprets the meaning of objects, and finds
all things but symbols of the present God. Thus the
mind, properly employed, is exquisitely happy. The
eagerness of a godly ambition is sustained by immortal
hope, and the tree of knowledge, planted by God's
own hand, bears ripe fruit as well as beauteous blossomns, to be gathered freely, and fireely enjoyed, by all
who are entitled to partake, which none can be until
arrayed in that robe of light in which the Lord of
glory clothed himself to teach us how to wear it-huinility.
In the desire for knowledge, as in every other disposition of the mind, we see the distinction between
the will belonging to the animal, and that proper to
the spiritual man. The animal will is determined
only by bodily condition and convenience; but the
spiritual will asserts its superiority by desires after intelligence, because, in truth, it enjoys God. The animal mind -.ay have mathematical habits, and be offended at contradictions and deformities; but this is
not reason-it is only instinct still.  Reason, indeed,
prompts men to build beautiful cities, full of splendid
palaces, museums and churches, but the reason is not
in the materials, but in the ideas thus rendered visible.
The policies of an ant-hill or a bee-hive are just as
reasonable as the thoughts of those who enjoy mere
sights.   Not  that I would  disparage sight-seeing.
Every object in creation has in it an idea peculiar to
itself. and is worth knowing for its own sake.  But the
13
.193 
KNOWLEDGE.
difficulty is to get at it so as to see it. Without purity
of purpose, which is the result of a regenerated will,
our opinions and prejudices blind us to all beauty, and
we can not place ourselves in the right position to behold the divine idea: it is therefore no wonder that
people in general are amused with the superficies
of things, and know nothing. They do not seek for
ideas, because their wills are animal, and desirous only
of sensations. Unless there are minds in the beautiful palaces, museums, and churches, capable of abstracting themselves from conveniences, curiosities, and
decorations, and of living amidst ideas, and traveling
hither and thither in thought, searching after those
spiritual realities which objects of sense only very imperfectly intimate-these things might as well not be,
as regards spiritual art rational ends.  It is the perception of this reason which constitutes what men call
genius. It discovers the capabilities of nature, and
intuitively proceeds along a path of its own beyond
knowledge.   Imagination  is the  pioneer  of such
minds, opening vistas of vision not to be reached by
common eyesight, and crowded with objects, some few
of which are now and then imperfectly made palpable
and visible by the gifted seers who materialize their
thoughts in words, in colors and in marble.
But, alas! evermore there is danger in endowment,
without the binding of the soul to its Maker by obedient love-love responding to love commanding. God
must speak the Law in keeping with our fellowships,
and write it on the heart, or else men will fabricate,
their own  ideas, however foolish, and worship and
serve them, however false.  All the histories of earth
show that unless we are presented with means adequate to our desire for knowledge concerning the
world beyond our senses, we must be busy with delusions. But revelation brings the means home to us.
In the uncreated Word we have what we want to en
194 
KNOWLEDGE.
lighten thought. We may now learn and love infinitely and everlastingly, because we have objects set
before us both appropriate and worthy. The relationships of our humanity to other beings, capable, like us,
of expatiating in the productions of Jehovah's mind,
when rightly felt, conmpel us to be religious.  Understanding the purpose of our Maker to be our happiness, we can truly delight in His works, and through
them sustain our spirits with a perpetual streami of
knowledge direct from the fountain of all intelligence;
and, imbued with the Divine spirit which communicates
life to our affections, the exercise of intellect itself
thus becomes essentially worship, and therefore blessedness. Without religion, knowledgemis but pomp and
vanity; a matter of the earth to die and to be buried.
Indeed the love of knowledge is only the love of mere
pleasure, unless it is also the love of truth, and truth
is never followed for her own sake, except when the
mind is guided by those principles which rectify the
conscience, and render a man desirous above -ill things
to walk without blame, as in the presence of the Holy
One.
As there is no true science but of Divine origin, so
there is no morality without religion-nor, in fact,
does man possess manly ideas without some apprehension of his position, as the vicegerent of the Almighty
on earth, holding his faculties in responsibility to their
Bestower. He then feels that obedience is beatitude,
and perversity is suffering. There must be some mental association with superior intelligence, some perception of moral relationship to Him whose will is law,
before we can entertain a noble thought, or an idea
capable of raising our desires above corporeal demnand,
or elevating our actions out of the impulses of bodily
selfhood.  But knowledge, united with true love, is
religion.  There must be sympathy with heaven, as
well as an insight of heavenly order, before we can
195 
KNOWLEDGE.
will and work in its spirit; and any motive less than
this can be but brutal, if it be not diabolical.
The heavenly feeling or principle is easily distinguished from every other.  It is that of a power irresistible, when once admitted- but still of so delicate a
nature, that it may at any time be dissipated by a distirustful thought.  It is that  unselfish  spirit which
seeks enjoyment only by diffusing it, and knows nothi.ng of violence, offensive or defensive; for it has no
pretensions to ownership and authority in knowledge
as for itself, because its whole existence is evinced,
like that of the peaceful light, by the life, beauty, joy,
harmony, and happiness, which it was created to promote and to exhibit.  But this spirit operates in the
soul by improving our ideas with the addition of heavenly truths to the images of earth.  It binds heart to
heart, not only by natural affections, but by spiritual
thoughts and the interchange of hopes and assurances
that spring from the consciousness that God has spoken
what it believes, and that faith can not be shaken from
its stability of bliss, because it is built upon the knowledge of what Omnipotence has done and said. The
witness is within; logic is unnecessary to love, since
its life is all demonstration, and it begins as well as
ends with probatum est.
If education proceed not under the power of
this approving spirit, it is better that the soul should
be left to the elements to fight its way onward,
through darkness and suffering, to light and satisfaction, with the help of God's direct teaching in the
mercies of His providence; for the soul is safer in feeling after God in ignorance than in presuming upon
knowledge without love. To educate without Christian principle is to educate selfishness, and to refine
and intensify the ingenuities of hell: for knowledge,
whatever be its kind, must always evince itself in correspondling action.  But to be busy about self is not
19(i 
KNOWLEDGE.
proper to humanity; and even the beasts that perish
are better employed than to live only for tl,emiselves.
Yet this will be the end of knowledge, without the
impartation of the principle that excites to action for
the extension of social blessedness, in the enlargement
of the mind by truths that elevate the affections while
strengthening the faculties. These truths are found
only in creation, as investigated by true science-and
in the Bible, as read by a soul that waits on God. I
mean, by science, a system of facts on certain general
principles-the classification of the properties of things
for the clearer apprehension of God's works. The
ideas that do not present us with the true characters
of objects are neither scientific nor poetical; and however prevalent they may be, serve no other purpose
than to delude the soul by exciting unamiable em-otions, to terminate in misery.
Such is the substance of the romance which untried
youth, and firivolity at all ages, are apt so greatly to
admire. Fancy, when left to her license, unrestrained
by a cultivated conscience, has the faculty of a mnagician, and makes a fool's paradise out of phantoms, and
places a glass before the eye of her victim, which distorts every object and decks it with false colors that
please those who find it painful to think.
All great and good thoughts are truthful and practical, and true poetry itself is so. But when poetry is
realized, Slow and shallow minds lose sight of the
poetry, as if it were not in the facts before them.
They look at the outside of the materials, and forget
to look for what is in them.  They admire the carved
foliage of the chapiters, but see not the shekinah;
they are dazzled at the blazing brilliance of the gems
upon the high-priest's breast-plate, but discern no divine meaning in their renderings of light; they handle
the wires of the electro-telegraph, but perceive not
the tractable lightning, and feel not the g~'andenr of
1 9 -i 
KNOWLEDG E.
xlie thiougl!t, that man has made the glittering arrows
of the Almighty the medium between soul and soul
hundreds of miles apart. They acknowledge that the
prophet's words are poetical when he says,, for
stones they shall have iron;" but they see nothing
of this troth in thousands of miles of railway, and the
means of bringing this broad, fail world of minds into
one compact and sensitive community. The poetry
of truth is nothing to those whose business is only a
trade, and knowledge is valued only as a saleable commodity by those whose souls live in the market.
There are but two kinds of knowledge-the one of
mind, the other of matter.  The knowledge of matter
and its laws is physical science: the knowledge of
mind is self-analysis, which is the highest and most
interesting of all sciences, since it includes all we feel
as well as think. God reveals Himself in both forms
of knowledge. By the material evidences of His
power around us, we are taught ideas of time, space,
formr, color, odor, and every thing that suggests bodily
action and presence. By self-consciousness, together
with that of external things, we are enabled to reason
and associate in spirit with other thinking beings, and
even with the Maker of all. The true end or purpose
of all science is to inform us concerning the attributes
of God, and his relation to ourselves. Whatever fails
of indicating this end is error and falsehood. These
are sinful, so far as they are willful; they are departures from Divine direction, and therefore also
from happiness. As truth is in all respects infinite,
so also is its opposite; and hence our chief motive for
desiring the constant guidance of truth, as this alone
can lead to God, while its opposite conducts to endless
darkness.  Truth, or the expression of Divine wisdom, alone rectifies the will or instructs the understanding.
-The state of the will is tested by the application of
7 , , 
KNOIVLEDGE.
the knowledge we possess, as well as by our endeavors
to acquire more. Mlind can not exist inactively; it
must be busy, in good or evil, as long as we are awake;
and he who is not engaged in some usefiul pursuit,
either real or ideal, had better sleep. The feeling of
ennui is a weariness of soul verging on mnalignity; and
it is peculiar to educated society, because the habit of
sleeping, when we have nothing good to think of, is
deemed barbarous and impolite. But as surely as a
mind is not well employed, nor permitted to withdraw
itself in sleep, it will become either imbecile or immoral.  There is nothing for educated minds to do
but sin, if they will not work. Ceasing to cultivate
themselves or their neighbors, and unwilling or unfit
to practice the various husbandries of life, they must
live on bad books, or qualify themselves for Bedlam.
He who is not preparing for the skies, ought to be
busy in improving matters on earth, since reason was
given to man for no other purpose but to apply knowledge to use, either in this world or some other. As
there are but two kinds of knowledge, so there are
but two ways of being useful-the one by providing
comforts for bodily existence, and the other by providing for the happiness of the soul.
It is useless to educate, unless education itself tend
to the employment of man's natural powers, in a natural manner. When knowledge promotes not comfort, it promotes wretchedness and temptation. A
man, intellectually cultivated, must be either a patient
saint, or a gloomy misanthrope, if placed, by the selfshness of society or his own will, in such a position
,hat he can not profitably or happily apply his knowledge. He may be able to interpret the eloquence of
uature, and look out among the stars with a feeling of
Lie infinite glories of heaven, but yet he lies buried in
tte earth alone with all his burning thoughts. He
fals the darkness, the uselessness, and the rotten
199 
KNOWLEDGE.
ness of death, because he lives in the consciousness
of all that might have been, and ought to have been
for him; but that although awakened into earnestness by the urgencies of his own nature, and by the
affected officiousness of artificial teachers, he is still
left to shift for himself, though imprisoned in poverty,
as if in cold iron, stone, and gloom. Such is the lot
of many a classic mind, to whom the plowman,whistling o'er the lea" is a prince. And the reason of this
misery is in the fact, that the knowledge which has
nothing to do with daily employment, induces pride,
false or unnatural taste, and makes this world a wilderness, because the heathen gods are banished, and
the vale of Temp6 requires tillage, that its inhabitants
may eat. And all kinds of education are equally maddening that do not give vigor and liberty to human
sympathies induce a disposition to labor, and make
,demand for it.  There is no happiness without action;
and if a man be crippled in every limb, his mind must
be right busy, or he must either bemoan himself, or
sleep as a brute does when its senses are not acted
on.  And he who, from the state of his mind and the
style of his ideas, or the mismanagement of monopolists, can not get to work, might as well be palsied, or
in the penitentiary. Nothing but the stronghold of
faith on the right hand of God, as the vindicator of the
oppressed, and the omnipotent opener of prisons and
graves, can comfort the man who knows and wills, and
can not act. Christianity is a business-spirit come
from heaven to regenerate the earth, and men are
moved by it to exertion, if only to turn the sod with
the spade, that the curse which fell upon the ground
for Adam's sake, may, by toil, be cured, and the dust
of which man was molded might bloom and breathe
again of Paradise. But toil must have good hope in
it, as well as good knowledge, or it, too, is woe.
\Work must be done for something —some social pur
2I)o 
KNOWLEDGE 
pose, some comfort, some heart-end. In short, as
knowledge without love is only vexation, so, unless
love and knowledge equally nerve the arm to labor, it
is but slavish drudgery; and those who would enforce
toil without making it intelligent, and conducive to
domestic, social, patriotic, and philanthropic ends, are
only Satan's slave-drivers, and receive his wagesliving death and inherent condemnation.
The end and purpose of all precept, teaching, providence, and evangelizing, is to make  men God-like,
that they may endure all contradiction patiently, and
persist in forgiving and loving until all faults are lost
in the fullness of mercy, and all hearts are either won
by the beauty of holiness or forever repelled into their
own place by the irresistible force of truth and light.
Happily in this country education always helps to
elevate the mind by bringing it into association with
useful employment, since there is a commercial demand for knowledge of every kind; but the higher
advantage of even secular instruction is shown in its
moralizing influence: for by supplying the mind with
intellectual objects, it is the better enabled to resist
vulgar temptations, and the more so, since education,
in a Christian land, involves an acquaintance with much
religious and revealed truth. Facts speak strongly on
this subject. In the journal of the Statistical Society,
(November 1847) Mr. G. A. Porter, states that only
one educated person in 76,227 of the male population, and only one in 2,034,133 of the female population, was accused of crime, on the yearly average,
from 1836 to 1846, throughout England and Wales.
In 1846, only one educated person in Middlesex was
rendered amenable to the laws of his country; the
annual aggregate of accusations being 25,412. Such
facts need no comment.
All true knowledge is divine, since there is no truth
but of God's making.  But it may be maliciously ea
2(-)l 
KNOWLEDGE.
ployed, and the proof of maliciousness is the fact that
a soul willfully perverts, to selfish or malignant purpose, the truth that benevolence places before our
minds, to rectify our motives, and thus sin turns the
truth of God into licentiousness, and takes occasion,
from the liberality of Heaven, to render light itself a
cloak for disguise and deception. Herein we see the
hideousness of a lying spirit: it craftily takes advantage of the gifts of God to deceive honest, unsuspicious,
true, credulous souls, and wins upon their affections
through their ignorance, in order to obtain some sacrifice on the altar of its cupidity, whether for fame, foi
lucre, for lust, or for the satisfaction of whatever disposition or desire may be the dominant principle or
motive of its character. Hence the endless variety in
the forms of beguiling fiction and of artifice with which
men trade with others, and pander to the encourage
ment of their own passions. But the most Satanic of
all deceptions is the common one of employing one
truth for the purpose of concealing another. Thus
men believing in the light of nature deny the light of
the Spirit, and because God reveals Himself in creation, require Him not to address them in any other
way; and thus, too, under the mask of conscientiousness, men cease to exercise charity, and pretend to
obey God while they would smite with a curse the
brotherhood of Christ, as if they were the rightful
monopolists of all wisdom, and as if knowledge dwelt
alone with them.   Surely, those who  lay down laws
for consciences, and condemn unheard, must arrogate
to themselves the prerogatives of Divine intelligence,
and assumne such authority only because they believe
themselves infallible, while in fact. the immensity of
their conceit conceals the enormity of their error.
But it is of the nature of knowledge, or an acquaintante with facts and things, to confirm the humility of
a truly humbled mind, because it is the quality of such
202 
KNOWLEDGE.
a mind to feel its own ignorance and deficiency, in
consequence of its perceiving somewhat of the excellent glory of Him by whose liberal hand all means are
administered, and by whose inspiration all minds are
endowed with whatever of understanding they may
possess. In every mind that is not humble, knowledge
is but knowingness, since each new insight into the
relation of things only induces such a one to think
more of himself, as if he were indeed a gifted seer, to
be admired for his consciousness of eyesight.  He
looks not forth to wonder and to worship. He may,
indeed, be well pleased that the universe is so nicely
adapted to his individual comfort, but in his self-complacency he never thinks of being thankful to Him
who has adapted the sunshine to his sight, and objects
to his soul. Though capable of reasoning, concerning
the movements of heaven and earth, as fitted to himself, yet, with face opposed to the firmament of Jehovah, he looks up and laughs, without a thought but of
himself.  The  soul, somewhat acquainted  with  tho
moral character of his Maker, however, and having
respect to His holy law, as the mirror of His perfec.
tion, feels that wisdom and love are both infinite, and
that the utmost keenness of created vision can but
serve the soul to gaze into the profundity before it, so
as to discern those rays of light that indicate the glory
beyond sight. Like the devout astronomer, peering
into space among stars that appear but as points,
although they are really centers of revolving and populous worlds,, in number beyond number," the more
he beholds the more he feels his incapacity to penetrate the depths of Divine knowledge and goodness.
Conscious that he dwells but as an atom of dust on
the outskirts of a galaxy of immeasurable glory, moving through eternity in the hand of Omnipotence, ho
becomes, in his own estimation, as nothing, and he
loses all perception of himself in the overwhelming
203 
KNOWLEDGEF.
apprehension of the Presence that fills immensity,
and crowds the boundless existence He has fashioned
with proofs of His power and His wisdom. The Author of beauty and majesty and thought is the object
of every right]y-thinking spirit. But what is the vision of the heaven of heavens to a mind that sees not
God? It is but as a brilliant chromatropic display,
revolving to please a child, that expresses its joy by
exclaiming, I see-I see!  Thus the undevout natural philosopher, without a spiritual insight, contents
himself with regarding the orrery of God but as an
invention for his amusement. But there is truly no
meaning but moral meaning in the sights and sounds
that penetrate to the soul of man; and the Divinity
addresses himself personally to each one of us, and
demands our hearts, while engaging our intellects.
Almightiness is only so far evinced to our understandings, as to teach us to trust Him in His faithfulness
for all futurity. Thus every lesson in true knowledge
-knowledge of ourselves, of our position, and our
Maker-ends in faith, to show us that we are not yet
arrived at maturity of life, and shall not know the love
that always embraces us until we are born into the
atmosphere of a higher and a brighter world, and are
able unabashed to meet the eye that guards us. But
this fellowship with Heaven is not complete in any
partial knowledge, but in that which realizes God so
perfectly as to be filled with His own charity, for it is
complete love alone that is complete light, and reveals
all things without the possibility of error or of doubt.
The true idea of any thing is its perfection.   Humanity in its completeness has not yet been seen by any
of us, but it is that after which every intelligent
believer is seeking: when he finds it, he will behold
God, and know even as he is known.
04 
CHAPTER XI.
FAITH.
THE duty of doubting is the first consequence of a
Lational faith, and of our liability to sin.  The ignorant
and willful have few doubts except of the truth: the
false is the most probable to their apprehension, and
vwhatever suits their tempers is apt to become their
delusion; for passion is the mightiest of deceivers, and
corrupts the reason of every man who has not been
instructed to distinguish right from wrong by the test
of conscience, rectified by divine law. What we most
vividly and selfishly hope or fear is most apt, in this
twilight of reason, to deceive our senses and our judgment. If we look into the marvelous history of those
deceptions which have deluded the masses of mankind,
wve shall discover that they have always flourished in
proportion as minds have been unblest by the knowledge of natural and revealed realities, and consequently
unestablished in any true faith.  For however strongly
such persons may believe, yet their best convictions
amount merely to credulity, since they give credence to
something demonstrably inconsistent with some truth
clearly evident to all who will use their reason.  Whatever is contrary to any known fact is a falsehood.
Hence they are forced to set about confirming their
folly by persuading themselves out of their senses. It
is really a question whether all great impostors are not
~mad, in consequence of first adopting some notion contrary to moral and physical law, and then reducing all
their thoughts into keeping with their chosen absurdity and wickedness. Even a pretense, when pertinaciou lV defended, readily assumes the appearance of 
FA UI'I.1.
a truth to the mind of the ignorant 1lrietender, partly
from the readiness with which a weak intellect assents
to a pleasing error, but mainly because the falsehood,
being adopted from vanity, administers to the maintenance of pride and so quickly intoxicates the soul and
blinds it to all evidence opposed to its delirious indulgence. This is illustrated in a forcible manner by
Joanna Southcote's monstrous delusion, which may bo
referred to, the rather, because its history is recent,
undeniable, and well known. Joanna was the daughter
of a small farmer in Devonshire, and born in 1750.
She lived as a servant, of good character, in Exeter.
But observe, though she studied the Scriptures diligently, she did so, not to believe them in the true spirit
of religion, since she made her duty depend on outward
signs and inward feelings, instead of submission to the
plain commands of God. She did not worship, but converted the language of religion itself into her delusion, by the heretical device of detaching herself from
others, and interpreting the Bible with a private and
particular reference to her own person. As usual in
such cases, a strong sense of self, with very deficient
natural attachments, and no faith, converted all she
knew of the Bible or of the universe into confirmation
of her egotistic enthusiasm. Pride was the demon
that possessed her, and therefore she soon found that
she was especially gifted-she had her commission, and
of course her credentials were mysterious enough.
She wrote prophecies, which were sealed up from
1794 to 1803, and then being scrutinized during seven
days by twenty-three persons appointed by herself, it
was henceforth decided by them and some of their
friends that her calling was of God. The grand object
of her mission was consistent with her state of mind;
it was of a very personal nature-she was to bring forth
the promised Shiloh. The event was year after year
deferred, for very natural reasons.  She had reached
206 
FAITH.
hei sixty-fourth year, without producing any thing
but promise. The credulity of her disciples was still
stronger in its dotage and so was hers. Mr. Mathias,
an upright and intelligent medical practitioner, was at
length called to testify to the proximity of the grand
event, but he found only a tympany,,and, protesting
against her blasphemy, was dismissed, to give place to
an easier believer who was soon found. Mr. Mathias
considered notoriety, and the love of ease and of affluence, the prevailing passions of the prophetess.  She
passed her time in downy indolence, ate much and
often, and never prayed until disease began to cure her
of her delusion. Her followers, however, were not to
be so readily cured. On her death-bed she thus addressed a number of the most prominent, that is, the
most wealthy among them:-,, My  fiiends, some of
you have known me nearly twenty-five years, and all of
you not less than twenty: when you first heard me
speak of my prophecies, you sometimes heard me say
that I doubted my inspiration; but at the same time
you would never let me despair. When I have been
alone, it has often appeared delusion; but when the
communication was made to me, I did not in the least
doubt. Feeling, as I now feel, that my dissolution is
drawing near, and that a day or two may terminate
my life, it all appears delusion."  She wept bitterly.
-,, Mothei," said Mr.  Howe,,your feelings  are
human; we know that you are a favorite of God, and
that you will produce the promised child; and whatever you say to the contrary, it shall not diminish our
faith." Instead of faith, he should have said madness.
Thousands of educated people deluded themselves
in this case, but it is evident that there were no
Christians among them. It is also clear that pride
and vanity deceived them all; but the deception is
just of the same kind as that which is the prevailing
,,'7
21, 
FAITH,
epidemic-they all thought that they were especial
favorites of heaven, and were appointed to enjoy salvation in a convenient and flattering way, with peculiar
privileges, under Joanna's red wax seal, instead of
rejoicing in the common redemption, and the testimony
of a good conscience both toward God and man.
These people had no faith in the truth, and therefore
they were  prepared to believe a strong  delusion.
And so it is with all who have not their principles
fixed on those moral and religious convictions which
induce the instant doubt and denial of every thing
which flatters self-love, and contradicts the testimony
of truth, as established by Divine Providence, consistently working out its revelations from the beginning to
the end-from the fall of Adam to the consummating
advent of Christ. A rational faith is proved by rational
doubts. In her lucid intervals, Joanna could doubt;
for reason believes not by fits, nor according to bodily
feelings, but by preserving before the mind's eye clear
ideas of those objects which God has revealed. But
delusions are always both indefinite and singular.
Truth is so decided, that she looks at every step, and
tries the ground she treads on, because she knows the
enemy would entrap the unwary; and yet she is not
suspicious, but wise.   As, in scientific respects, a
supposed discovery, if not congruous and consistent
with the known system of facts, may be quickly
pronounced a fallacy by all who are grounded in first
principles, so in religion, whatever has not a catholic
and uniting tendency must be declared to be assumption, delusion, and imposture; and all who have not
that charity which would cover the faults of others
but yet bring their own hearts to be tried by the
manifesting light, may be assured that, whatever
they may think of themselves, they are much in the
same predicament as Joanna and her silly flock of
followers.
208 
The man of faith has distinct intentions, and he
knows what he means by his creed. He has clear
and defined ideas of his own wants when he prays,
and gives good reasons for his strong hopes to those
whom he would persuade. His mental objects are
even more distinct than those of his senses, for they
are the true things which reason discerns as belonging
eternally to the design of God in making man a reasonable and religious being, and in creating an endless
series of worlds to exercise and develop his intellect
and affections forever. But doubt should not destroy
.nquiry. Every great truth, when first announced,
meets with many antagonists, since that numerous
class, the conceited, are not at first disposed to give
their fellow-men very much credit for superior scientific, rational, or spiritual discernment, however apt
they may be to believe, superstitiously, and to exaggerate the renown of those whom it is the fashion to
applaud., Faith, however, is not our reason's labor,
but repose."
As the mathematician has his axioms which he can
not doubt, and on which he elaborates his demonstrations, so the mnan who thinks of morality and religion,
or his relations to society and to Heaven, must have
his fixed and sure principles of argument and mental
regulation. These principles constitute his spiritual
faith. Hence true faith is the opposite of fancy, and
the negation of fanaticism. it is knowledge made
vital, and therefore potential.  It is truth, so convincingly perceived by reason, as to be a felt and controlling
influence.  Like wisdom, faith evinces its intelligence
ini deeds, or, rather, it is the governing and actuating
power of the whole being, like a response of the soul
to the impression of realities around it.  As the sight
uf an object of interest, whether abhorrent or amiable
pervades all the body with a feeling of its presence, and
~,viy -fiber of the framne is rioused ito a4ppr)opriate
'} -
209
FAITH. 
action, so the perception of things as they are in their
moral aspect toward us, stirs the whole soul with
corresponding emotion. Such is the operation of
faith; it pervades with its power all who feel it
because it sees the true relationship of souls to their
source, and to other beings. It is not dependent on
intellectual acuteness, but on the entrance of that light
which gives understanding and actuates reason. As
all objects of interest appeal to the will, so those truths
which are the objects of faith influence our desires and
volitions, according to our moral perception rather than
our mental acumen. Thus we discriminate between
the true and the false, as well as between the good and
the evil; and it is the mode of the faithful mind rather
to detect the false, by feeling what is evil, than by
iesearch after the true, to discover what is good.
Trusting in God, the soul bears a talisman which
indicates the character of'whatever it touches. It has
something to confide in, as well as to believe; but it
often happens that the wise and prudent fail to discern
the beauty and suitableness of those revealed verities
which come, like light, bearing its own evidence, and
making heaven visible to simple minds that trust in
God, because they feel his goodness as well as his
wisdom.
We believe many things in a casual way that have
no influence on our conduct. We do not feel that they
have any direct connection with our well-being; we do
not experience real faith with regard to them. Thus
we read a grand discourse on astronomy, admire it,
consent to its truth, its wonderfulness, and then walk
out, amidst the glories of the heavens, in pursuit of
our pleasures, without thinking of the sun, moon. and
the stars, because they seem to have nothing to do with
us, nor we with them. Thus, too, we read the Bible,
believe in God indifferently, admire his commandments,
deem His anointed One the most sublime of sages
210
FAITH. 
FAITH;
and of sufferers, and then go about our little businesses,
forgetful alike of heaven and its excellences.   The
divinity of truth has not entered into our souls to live
in us like a love unless it rules us. Such is the man ner of true faith; it realizes the fact, that heaven is
really engaged about us, with us, and in us.
Faith has an object and end, and employs the appointed means for its attainment. To use the appointed means for the attainment of ends, desired and foreseen, is the business of faith.  Like  the mariner,
whose hope and safety depend on his steering rightly,
if we have faith, we can no more neglect to look outward, onward, and upward, than he can fail to regard the chart, the compass, and the stars, while he
breasts the tempest, or takes advantage of the wind
that wafts him  homeward.   Skill, chart,  compass,
stars, and a good bark, may not save the mariner from
wreck, but faith never fails-Providence is always
fbr it.
I am speaking of Christian faith. There is a virtue,
'and there is a power in this faith, not from the logic by
which it may be sustained and defended, but firom the
love which lives with it, of which love it is well saidOmnia tegit, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia sustinet.  Reason belongs to it, because it derives its light
from the Divine Logos, the source of knowledge and
wisdom.   Its discernment is far above intellectual
keenness, since it perceives-and acts accordinglythat not a desire can be induced in keeping with celestial charity, without a constraint upon Almightiness to
fulfill it. The very nature of goodness demands this
coincidence. True Christian faith is, therefore, incapable of denial. It works with the power of God;
for he who dwelleth in love, dwellelh in God. Thus it
performs those miracles which are wonders only to the
ignorant and unbelieving, such as converting a profane
iian into a visely devout being, and filling a wretch
211 
FAITH.
with peaceful raptures, by creating a new world of
sinless thought and feeling within the soul. It is not
afraid amidst the billows. It sees and hears, and holds
Him who says to the winds, Peace, and to the waves.
Be still. Nothing can resist it but the selfishly busy,
hard heart of man-and that it strives to soften and
subdue, not so much by upbraiding its obduracy, as by
persuading it to trust the outstretched arm of Hiii
whlose nature and property it is ever to have mercy.
It calls no fire from heaven but that which shall kindle
a new life to diffuse itself in everlasting blessedness.
Though this faith comes by hearing, it is not by
merely hearing arguments.  It comes by hearing the
Word of God, which does not ratiocinate, because that
word is reason itself, and comes home to the heart that
is open to it, and commends itself to the conscience as
the address of the creative to the created mind. What
it speaks is vital truth-the expression of the Divinity.
tan a real Christian be found walking in his new life
merely because he has been convinced by documrentary evidence?  If so, there is a delusion somewhere,
and Christianity, instead of proving its origin by its di,ine consistency, contradicts itself.   No, it is Godwork-a new existence.  The Author of this faith declares that he receives not testimony from man, and
that the Spirit bears witness because the Spirit is
;ruth.  And we do not see how any other witness can
be available toward forming the faith of a disciple of
Jesus; since, in order practically to know his doctrines
in their living power, it is first of all necessary, according to His own saying, to obey His will and do what
He commands.
The secret cause of skepticism is the habit of imtmorality. Bosom-sins make infidels. If a man have
no restraint upon the passions but that of his physical
convenience and the desire to avoid the reproach of
society, he already denies the right of God to corn
212 
FAITHL.
mand him.  He does not honor his Maker by obeying
His laws, nor will he, because he seeks honor only
fromin man, so that he can not be approved in his conscience, nor clear in his judgment, concerning any
question of duty. In short, how can he, whose principles of acting and thinking are not based upon the Diville authority of the moral law, be capable of concluding rightly concerning the religion that grows out of
that law?  He must be immoral in the fullest sense,
and therefore his understanding must be darkened in
all spiritual respects.   He  can not desire to have
Christianity proved to him: it would be madness and
despair to him, by convincing him of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, from which he could have no
escape until, thoroughly repentant, and changed in
soul, he so believe as to embrace the Saviour, who
comes as God, to bestow a new nature and eternal life
on all who welcome the salvation, and long for immortal honor after the divine method, or in a manner coincident with the plan of God.   To seek immortal
benefit in any other way, must be to disregard the perfection of the Deity, and to despise the consistency of
His attributes.
But, as before suggested, morality itself is unknown
without religion; and the religion that is not divine is
false, and so must be the morals derived firom it. This
is confirmed by all the theism, and mythology, and
polite usages of the world, without revelation; for
without the expression of the mind of God on the subject of duty, however commnunicated, there is not sufficient truth manifested to elevate the soul of man
above his selfishness, nor sufficient motive to cause
him to love his neighbor as himself; because the beauty
and the bliss of holiness are never seen until the Holy
One reveals Himself, either in the law, which speaks
His will, or in the gospel, which livingly illustrates it.
The man, therefore, who knows nothing practically of
213 
FAITH.
the doctrines of the Bible, so far from being capable of
purity of conduct, can not even imagine what the word
sin means. Hence moral ignorance, or, what is the
same thing, irreligious education, is necessarily productive both of hardness of heart and obtuseness of
mind, with regard to good and evil, whatever may be
the sensitiveness to natural emotion, and whatever the
intellectual acuteness.  The remedy for this is godly
training, not task-work, but Christianity exemplified —
the light of life. The child nurtured in the charity of
Jesus never doubted his Divinity and never will.
That was better than a mathematical demonstration,
which the man felt who stretched out his palsied hand
when the Son of God said-Do it. The power was
in the will which obeyed, because the act of will was
faith. Lazarus, and the son of the widow of Nain,
did not want reasons beyond their own consciousness,
for believing Him who is the resurrection and the life;
nor does the man who, having obeyed the word, comes
as impotent, to receive power, need any other evidence
in behalf of the Saviour's claims than the fact, that, in
having come, he feels full of a new life, and delights in
the law of love, because God therein binds Himself to
be mnan's salvation eternally. The suitability of a remedy is proved only by its use, and so the evidence of
Christianity is experimental, and not a matter either of
logic or of hearsay merely. Though a statement of
facts is essential to belief, yet the credential of the
statement is in the very nature of the facts, and not in
the seeming trustworthiness of the persons who announce them. Therefore, if an angel from heaven declare any other, this gospel alone can be true, because
in it God speaks to the conscience of man. Truth, like
the light, bears witness for itself, to those who can
see it.
But it will be said, What is truth? It is Heaven's
answer to the demands of reason. It is whatever is
214 
FAITH.
true; and, moreover, it is whatever has been or will
be, of God's making, in revelation to a soul, and for its
good. Falsehood and delusion are whatever God has
not made; and if the New Testament did not meet the
necessities of the soul, we should be bound to reject it
as an imposition. Faith tells the truth, and has courage
to own doubt concerning what is doubtful,. because, in
this world, darkness is as necessary as light. Faith,
however, is always positive in will, but it is good-will.
It can not hate any thing but uncharitableness.
The manifestation of moral and religious truth is in
the moral consciousness; and the arguments of infidels are altogether beside the mark, unless they have
obeyed the gospel, and found it not to answer its professed purposes.
The doctrines of the New Testament are so reasonable, and yet so much superior to our reason that it is
impossible that man could have invented them.   Men
really do not naturally like such truths. There is not
one of them to be found among  the philosophers of
heathenism; and those of infidelity may be defied to
show any instance in the history of mankind, in which
the nature of evil and'its cure was taught, except by
revelation.  So far fiom this, the Divine nature was
acknowledged, only to be dishonored.
He that is not willing to renounce his sins is not
ready to receive the Saviour. What men refuse to believe in the Bible is exactly that without which there
is no hope nor godliness. They have no notion of being
deemed so deeply iniquitous as to require that Omnipotence Himself should redeem themn by adopting
their nature in a sinless state, and making atonement
in it. They do not desire new principles of thought
and holy motives of action; they do not wish to exchange their own spirit for that of Divine love.  But
mercy will be heard, and when man begins to feel that
his necessities are eternal, and yet all things fail, and
215 
FAITH.
all friends forsake him, and leave him alone to meet
death and darkness, then God makes Himself known,
at the first cry for help, as the only and sufficient
deliverer.
The heavens reveal man's iniquity, and the earth
rises up against him. All things conspire to condemn
him, because all things demand faith in God, and yet
God is not trusted nor sought. The Dispenser of
all blessings must meet the evil-hearted in darkness.
Their thoughts exclude the light, they can not see out
of the solid grossness of their souls.  They must still
believe and tremble, from the consciousness that the full
revelation of the Righteous One is yet to come. The
reply to all questions is-Wait. God owns eternity;
futurity, as well as the past, is all His, and in that futurity the reason of the present will appear. Such convictions are inevitable to reason, but reason can not
bear them without perceiving some clear proof that
God undertakes the cause of all who will trust Him, to
remove the curse by removing its cause.
Perfect conformity to the known will of God is the
object and aim of Christianity, and any thing less than
this is not religion, but notional amusement and ceremonious observance. The test of the truth is open to
all who sincerely desire to be satisfied, and philosophers have no right to their adopted name if they disclaim the authority of Jesus Christ, before they have
strictly observed the rules of His science.
The experiment he proposes is this:-Yield to the
will and see the result.  Now, who among the scoffers
has fulfilled the conditions which may qualify them
to judge Christ? Have any of them worked out in
their lives and thoughts the predicates of Divinity
in the fruits of its spirit-love, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance?
There is no law against these qualities. Whoever will
pro}actie tlem will know whether God is the Author of
11-1 
FAITH.
Christianity or not, for no one can practice them with
out living and walking in the spirit of Christianity, and
then, in fact, the kingdom of heaven is in him, and he
can no more deny the divinity of the doctrines than he
can the reality of his own life and happiness. The
theory of divine morals is no more capable of making
us moral, in the godly sense, than the theory of sounds
can make us musicians. In order to excel, or even to
understand excellence, we must practice what we
know.  The test is simple and perfect.  That must be
a bad religion which does not teach charity, and we
must be bad at heart if we obey not that which enjoins
it. Apply this to Christianity. It, and it alone, stands
the test. Its Founder demands faith in its purity, faith
working only by love-love to God, as the supreme
good, and to man, because he is God's. Evil is to be
overcome by good, cursing by blessing, malignant treatment by benevolence and prayer. In short, universal
good-will, exemplified in the life, is the only consistent Christianity, for that alone is Christ's spirit; and
therefore, intolerance and persecution, in every form,
can spring from those only in whom  His spirit is not.
We  see that the rule is most perfectly fair, because
obedience must end in blessedness, and the only objection to the required submission must arise from
aversion to all that deserves the name of virtue, or
else, why not be patient, good, gentle, faithful, temperate, charitable, in the divine sense? He who would
be great in soul must endure all that seems contrary
to himself, from some mighty love, which shall enable
him, with its unconquerable hopes, to stand unshaken
as a rock amid the billows.
Patience is the foundation of all virtue, and includes
in it all excellences. The patience of earthly ambition is but pride working on in the obstinacy of its own
nature. The patience of godliness is like that which
would have borne the cross to Calvary, despite the
217 
FAITH.
fainting of the body. The love within it is faithful
unto death, despising such shame as mere  suffering
can bring, while demonstrating the charity of Heaven,
even toward those who, in their bitter imbecility, sneer
at God thus manifest.
The man of faith is, then, a decided character. The
instinct of his reason is a strong will, firom a strong
motive. He answers the questions, What will you do?
what will you be? and says, I will walk worthy of my
vocation; I will be a son of God. The Almighty allows
and grants what such a mind wishes. A man without a
determined final faith, an undoubting trust in the true
God, is but as a dry leaf on the wings of the wind, carried about by impulses unresisted and unavoidable. As
the leaf can not take root, and it rests but to rot, so the
faithless man has no living power in him to draw vigor
and beauty fronm the elements. There is no settled hope
without faith, and therefore, no going forth of the prophetic and realizing soul into the future eternal firmament of the true heavens; but fancy, instead, makes
dreams of memory, and amuses or terrifies with phantoms uncertain as the dance of moonbeams on the
sea. Such a mind has no supreme good, for the sake
of which every other object is felt to be inferior and to
be held in abeyance, to be enjoyed or endured, merely as it may serve as means to the attainment of the
grand end-the unalienable possession of that good. If
we meet a man asking for opinions, we meet one incapable of making up his mind;  he has not found any
object for his faith, he is not in love, he is not living
for the Being that demands and deserves his whole
devotion.   His earth may be like the garden of Ed(o
to him; but he walks in the midst of it, as Adam min;t
have walked in Paradise, without God, and without
Eve, without the bosom evidence of Divine love to his
large human heart, with its power of multiplying objects of love, infinitely and forever.
218 
FAITH. ~
Christianity, then, is full of motives for us. It is the
religion of experiment, research, knowledge, faith,
hope, and love. Hence science follows it. Examine,
is its watchword, make manifest, bring all things to
the light and see how all truth is conformable to the
character of the revealed God, and every real discovery is the expression of His mind. Hence the tendency of true philosophy to ameliorate the fall of man
Thus beauty is truth, order is truth, law is truth, love
is truth, holiness is truth, happiness is truth, because
they originate in the Divine will, and are seen in creatures only as evidences of the Creator. We can not
account for them without faith in His perfections; not
can we behold their contraries without a conviction
that an opposing agency has been permitted, only that
Goodness may be manifestly Almighty. Antagonism is
universal, that created intelligence might every where
know that the Infinite One holds the balance of existence in eternity.  Good and evil are positive conditions of God's own existence, as made known to
creatures, for He can not be known but as the Author of law, thus constituting obedience-good, disobedience-evil. Created mind must grow by exercise,
inquiry must be carried to the utmost, and this it can
not be without the permission of evil. It can not doubt
enough without this contradiction. Do you say daringly, What is the use of sin? If you feel afraid of
its horrible nature, as well as of its consequences, God
himself will answer you-it is to prove the love and
power of him who cures it, and yet condemns it
Penitence is always met by mercy. But, if you would
be happy in unholiness, God will yet reveal himself to
you-but in fire, for the Divinity is to be seen also as
the terribleness of righteousness.  Herein is the reason of faith; souls are required to rely upon their Ma.
ker as the reconciler of all things to Himself. He
must reconcile them by His own acts, because all
219 
FAITH.
things are possible with Him. Thus Christianity bids
us look to the contrariety within us and around us,
in creation, in history, in our own experience, for the
purpose of teaching us whose is the power, and to
force us upon Jehovah's help, as the only sufficiency
of a deathless spirit.
All mystery begins and ends in one word-God.
Every mind must be stopped in its progress by pain,
unless it turn toward the Almighty. He has imparted
to us rational consciousness, that we  might feel our
need of His guidance, and enjoy it by apprehending
that His purpose is love, and that He is our everlasting
Providence.  \We would ignorantly satisfy ourselves,
from ourselves and from creatures, but our wants
refer us back to Him from whom we wander. He is
the competency of our reason, and, whether we know
it or not, our spiritual nature demands exactly what
the New Testament reveals as the birthright of our
regenerated being-to be heirs of God, and to be actuated by an inhabiting spirit that shall respond to the
benevolence of the Father who makes the Son of man
the inheritor of His kingdom and glory. This is not a
mere sounding sentiment, but the necessary result of
Divine and human being.
The love that conquers all things is the love of
truth.  This is the living principle of faith.  But absolute truth is the will of God. It can not be a creature's, but faith is given, that is, spiritual strength, to
struggle for self-mastery. This power is called into
action by insights into the vastness of Divine love, for
conformity with which it causes a man to hunger and
thirst, because the soul, instructed by Heaven, sees
that the happiness fit for man is completed only in
fellowship with God. The true believer always connects the moral attributes of Deity with his conceptions of Divine power, and with him, therefore, Providence is but another name for the Creator's faithful
220 
FAITH.
ness to His creatures. Throughout the wide universe,
Faith beholds evidence that Goodness regulates Might,
so that all her expectations are raptures, because all
futurity, all eternity, can be nothing but the unfolding
of love. Hence Death is no longer the King of Terrors, with uplifted hand ready to strike the trembling
heart, but like an angel at the bed of a slumbering
child, fanning it to sleep with a lily plucked in Paradise, and filling the soul with visions of Heaven, by
blending in brightness before its eyes the sweetest
images of earthly beauty and affection.
Charity, in its full acceptation, is nothing but faith
in God, applied to one's own necessities, and proved
by practice.  From this loving faculty of faith it enters
into the heart of a man to understand that the doctrine of forgiveness is divine, and shows us how the
love of the Father obliterates iniquity, just as the light
removes darkness, by destroying it and taking its place.
By faith, we learn all things pertaining to the ways of
the Almighty, in creation and in regeneration, in the
life that now is, and in that which is to come. It sees
that the ground of our standing in the anastasis is that
on which we stand now-the redemption of our nature, and its perfect restoration, through the going
forth of salvation from the heart of Immanuel, to all
who are drawn to God by trusting to the immensity
of love seen in that heart. When our Lord said,
,, Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted," did
he not teach the same truth as when he instructed his
disciples to pray-,, Forgive us our debts as we forgive
our debtors?" If we forgive not those who trespass
against us, our Heavenly Father will not forgive us.
What must it be to remain unrepentant and unforgiven,
with eternity ui)on us? The terrors of the infinite
abyss and of utter darkness may express it-words can
nlot. The devils that believe and tremble mnay conceive it, but no unbeliever can conceive it yet, nor can
221 
FAITH.
he until he believes without hope, and has in his heart
that faith of fear which excludes love, a state of mind
sometimes witnessed here. What if it should last
eternally? To be unforgiving and unforgiven, to dwell
forever in the burnings of our enmity against the Almighty, must be the fruition of faithlessness, for, without the hearty reception of mercy, sin must grow in
its malignity forever.
Good will is one with good faith. We can not show
the real spirit of forgiveness without being in a fit state
to ask and obtain pardon from Heaven.   Althlough universal charity is the universal law, and all sins abhorred
by the sinner are covered by the hand of God, yet forgiveness is the proper business of the Son of man.  It
is the creature alone that is injured by sin, and the
Holy One removes it, because He is the lover of His
creatures.  He gave the law because He could not but
love what He had made, and He gloriously illustrated
the nature of His law when He made full provision for
curing the consequences of its breach. And it is because the Almighty is the Father and the Saviour, that
He insists on a temper in man fully ready to forgive all
offense when fully repented of, and this forgiveness is
demanded by Him as an evidence of our estimation of
His own mercy toward ourselves. But God can be
merciful only as the Holy One, and those who would
blaspheme His Spirit, by expecting mercy without
holiness, have never forgiveness.
We can not overlook or put out of our sight the idea
of another's scandal and offense against ourselves, as
long as we desire to keep at a distance from him; and
what is needed to make a true evangelical alliance is
mutual repentance and forgiveness, or a fuller feeling
of Divine love, for surely all sectarianism among
Christians is a sin against Christians and against Christ.
The separation of Christians and their dislike of each
other, in consequence of opinions or of forms, seem to
222 
intimate that those forms and opinions, of however little
importance in themselves, are made to appear of great
magnitude by the mnist through which they are seen.
The true faith doubtless possesses warmth enough in
its charity to melt and remove all mere superficial distinctions, not, indeed, by reducing them to a dull uniformity of aspect, but as if into that sea of glass where
the full beauty of heavenly light is seen in the variety
of its harmonious refractions.
Now we have probably perceived that man is very
defective, without finding in his heart and his circumstances strong motives for desiring an increase of faith.
So there are motives for faith as well as in faith, because it is the submission of the soul to reason from
the felt fitness of truth to our understandings, and because truth and reason are created for each other, and
are one in the All-wise. Hence faith is evinced in
obedience to the Divine will, because that will is the
best, and alone to be infinitely trusted. God's will, indeed, is the real essence or life of any'being, for what
He wills it to be, that is its perfection; and we know
what His will is toward  us-sanctification, devotedness to Himself-a life of light like His. We know
the wisdom of heaven, by seeing what it has done,
and, if we believe it livingly, it will be manifested in
us, either by doing or suffering, with the light and bloom
of immortality upon us.
The same power of mind by which we understand
that the worlds were formed by the word of God, and
that things that are seen were not made of things that
appear, is that by which we also believe whatever is
consistent with the character of the Creator.  The
man who, with a pure conscience, is brought into any
trial, hopes for deliverance by the Almighty, and therefore will not accept of any compromise with sin or Satan, tyrants or death. He aims according to his hope,
and trusts in him who shall abolish whatever is oppos
223
FAITH. 
FAITH.
ed to himself. Men of whom the world is not worthy,
and who are rejected by it, are the trusters in God.
Having become persuaded and possessed by the truth,
or by a distinct consciousness of some Divine attribute
in relation to themselves, they are incapable of doubting the existence of whatever may be necessary to the
if'ull manifestation of that attribute in their own souls;
and, knowing that contradictions exist only in created
intellect, they look for the harmonizing of all Jehovah's
appointments and permissions. Any act of God, felt
in an especial manner by the man of faith, is therefore
like a direct promise to his soul, the fulfillment of which
is expected without faltering or fear. His reliance is
on the Omnipotent. There is no faith but that which
endures, as seeing Him who is invisible. But then it
is not incongruous and unreasonable. It infers from
facts to facts, and judges what to hope from what is
and has been. Thus faith looks for life through death,
because both life and death are but parts of one purpose in God. It keeps the end in view, and knowing
nothing of chance-work, it looks for future things but
as the results of things present, since the Divine Being is evolving all events in the revelation of himself as
the rewarde] of those who diligently seek him. And,
as surely as a man yielding to nature, and trusting to
feeling and experience, calmly closes his weary eyes
at night, with an assurance, rather than a hope, that
there will be a sunrise to-morrow; so undoubtingly
does the man of spiritual life and consciousness, when
the shadows of death fall upon his eyelids, compose
himself to sleep, with the certainty of a coming morn
img and a glory above the clouds.
Such belief is essential to reason, for reason is nothing
without religion, since she can not question the perfection of Deity, nor suppose that the design of things is
left incomplete, or can fail in execution. But this must
be the case if man be made with hopes that end ili
2 ' 4 
FAI1TH.
nothing-with capacities for life and knowledge, and
the beatitudes of adoration, to be dashed to the ground
like a beautiful vase, either in anger or by accident,
fi'om the trembling hand of its maker!  There is not
any accident with Omnipotence, and the wrath of
Love must praise him. What he wills is what we
want-and when our wills are coincident with holiness,
we can not believe what shall not be.
We have many motives why we should pray for an
increase of faith, and not the least is the desirableness
of being prepared to meet death peacefully.  Christian
life, when vigorous, always exemplifies this power of
quietly triumphing over the last enemy, because faith
realizes the fact of being already risen with him who
died for us.  But this peace precludes expression.
WThen Dr. Hope was asked by Dr. Lathlam, shortly
before his death, whether he felt quite happy, he replied,, Perfectly so-I could not have imagined the
joy I now feel; my only wish is to convey it to the
minds of others, but that is impossible. It is such as
I could not have conceived possible." Now this was
not a false peace, for he afterward said,, Christ is
all in all to me."
Faith is the necessity of the creature, without which
there is no true idea of existence-for we can not bear
to look into eternity without it. There is nothing possible in the trackless future, save to faith; but faith always sees its way, and can not miss it. Though, like
Columbus on the waves of an untried Atlantic, it find
no guide nor guerdon below, yet heaven above directs
it in a right course to the riches of a new world, where
all who arrive may exclaim, with the sublime navigator,, It was Thou, O great God, who inspired me and
conducted me!"
15
225 
CHAPTER XII.
HOPE AND FEAR.
HOPE and fear are the great ministers, masters,
prophets, and seers of our life. But they are great
deceivers as well as great seers, and always prophesy
falsely to those who are ill-disposed. They connect
the past and the present with the future in their visions, and impart a power to our spirits by which we
experience whatever degree of pleasure or of pain
may arise from the prospect of the fulfillment or the
disappointment of our desires. Hope governs us by
promises-and fear, by threats. They have, consequently, an influence on all our motives, and constitute
the sole persuasives to voluntary action, with a view
to coming events. They are, therefore, involved in
the consideration of every part of our subject, and
might, perhaps, with propriety have been disposed of
without distinct investigation, but that a clearer notion
of these emotions may enable us more fully to discern
the nature of moral government, and the manner in
which anticipated punishment or reward operates on
the mind to improve its volitions. Here a world-wide
expanse of metaphysical speculation opens before usthe lights and shadows of interminable mysteries are
there; but we will not enter, lest both writer and
reader should find no end amidst those mazes in which
angels have lost their way. There is sufficient of a
plain and practical nature to be seen, while we stand
on safe ground, and observe what is doing among the
denizens of this world, under the persuasions of these
eloquent, but also most delusive teachers.
There are three modes in which both hope and
fear influence our nature,-by appealing to our in 
HOPE AND FEAR.
stincts, to our natural affections, and to our reason.
Our instincts are moved by those impressions on our
senses which convey ideas of pain or pleasure, irrespective of moral considerations: thus certain properties of things, being the natural provocatives of appetite, are associated with desire for indulgerce; and,
as far as those appetites are concerned, we may hope
for the possession of their appropriate object, or we
may fear their loss.  These instincts imperatively demand attention, since they are the groundwork of our
social existence, as creatures dependent  on bodily
adaptation and supply; and however philosophic may
be our habits of contemplation when well furnished
with bodily appliances, our reasonings will avail nothing in appeasing the pangs of hunger or of thirst. It
is doubtless the prerogative of reason to control the
instincts by religious and moral motives, by hopes and
fears, in relation to our Maker, our fellow-man, and
our family affinities; the body must be so far kept in
subjection, as that appetite may be appeased, as a necessity toward higher purposes, rather than indulged,
as an end in itself; but yet the physical demands of
our existence are so immediately imperative, and so
regular in their recurrence, that to reason against
their dominion, without providing for their moderate
indulgence, is as vain as to bid the ordinances of nature
to obey your voice, because the alternation of light and
darkness happens not to suit your notions of propriety.
Holiness is obedience to law for divine purposes, and
God is obeyed, by using the body under the blessed
restrictions of Christian temperance; for thus the
whole life becomes eucharistic, being dedicated to the
Holy One in prayer and thanksgiving. If then, even
the devoutest saint must yield, and that in faith. to the
instinctive cravings which arise from the state of the
body, how shall we suppose that men whose minds
are moved for the most part by appetite alone, shall
227 
HOPE AND FEAR.
be able to resist them.  He must have a strong spir.tual faith of some kind who is not a rebel at heart,
when called upon by authority to starve, while he sees
that the plenty of his neighbor is so protected that
even charity can not touch it.
Although reason has no morality but in goveIning
tile instincts, yet if the instincts be not suitably provided for, nature is outraged.  To offer a book to a
ilan who wants bread, or to promise the advantages of
intellectual advancement to one who sees no prospect
of obtaining another meal, is to insult the God of providence in the person of his needy creature; and to
inform a man of religious duty who has never seen a
family virtue, is to tell him of something beyond his
faculties. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, are as
binding and. as divine as any commands in the decalogue; and the way in which the Almighty teaches
the hopes of heaven, is daily to supply the wants which
belong to earth; and those who plaice themselves willingly in the way, so as by the craft of covetousness to
divert the gifts of God's bounty firom the hoires of
their fellow-men, are hateful at heart now, and are to
be hereafter especially marked as the accursed. To
do good, is to communicate to the needy, and to
administer comfort to the distressed. This word cornfort means so much of present accommodation as will
allow hope to sit smiling with us in our homes, and
prevent the intrusion of any dispiriting apprehensions
of coming want.  But if hope and comfort be wanting
in any dwelling, what can be the motive most prevalent
there? Ask what is the temper of a tiger hunted into
his lair, and there torn. by dogs; and then ask what
a sinful man feels, withh is capacity of loving, hating,
hoping, and fearing aggravated to the utmost, and
having persuaded himself that the selfishness of his
potent neighbor has rendered his home a hell.  It is
true, he may experience even a more intolerable and
'228 
HOPE AND FEAR.
a more common tormnent; he may feel that he has
brought desolation and misery upon himself and his
family by his own guilt. But in either case, how is he
to be helped? I say by encouragement to hope, and
by his reasons to fear. Let him feel that the condemnation of his neighbor does not deliver himself
firom judgment. As a rational being, let him be persuaded to exert himself. But how can that be, without
hope? Instinct prompts to seek death, rather than to
live on in a world without hope; and it will be no
wonder, if one who knows nothing of the Divine method
of doing justice, should imagine he is fulfilling the law
of Heaven, by wreaking his own vengeance according
to the blindness of his fury and his ignorance. That
man can have no idea of hope, but in relation to his
instincts. First, show him plainly how to satisfy his
appetites safely, comfortably, and with a sense of
home and fellowship and responsibility, and then you
may be able to convey to him the idea of a nobler
enjoyment and a diviner hope. Give him means; give
him something to do for himself; and then instruct
him as to what the Saviour has done for him.  He
will scarcely be convinced of sin by his sufferings; he
must be able to look at the reason for his hopes and
his fears; he must be softened and soothed by the
sacred spirit of kindness bringing proofs before his
eyes, that Heaven has not forsaken him, but rather
has sent angels to minister unto himn, before he can
feel afi'aid of his own sins. The thief on the cross
was not converted by his own crucifixion, but because
he saw that the Son of God was crucified. This man
hath done nothing amiss, was his reason for calling him
Lord, since his own conscience informed him that, if
the righteous suffer, there must be a kingdom beyond
this world. The Saviour's good deeds had been such
mighty witnesses for him, that his Divinity was plainly
seen by the man who felt that he needed salvation;
229 
HOPE AND FEAR.
and thus God ever reveals Himself through those who
are obedient to His will; and if we expect to teach
the divine character of Christianity without embodying
its spirit in ourselves, in deeds of kindness, we are but
verbal Christians, ready, perhaps, to give (;ur bodies to
be burned in proof of the sincerity of our opinions, and
,ill our goods to feed the poor, for the magnification of
cur bubble merits; while charity, in the true sense,
never moved a thought in our minds or a muscle in
our limbs. But there is nothing so terrible as the
unresisting gentleness of a soul governed only by truth,
and determined to prove it by dying, if necessary, to
declare it. It is this that appeals to the Almighty, as
the vindicator of the oppressed, the innocent, the
obedient; and it proves that Jesus, the I,amb led to
the slaughter, was really the Son of God, and that his
blood was on his murderers only to save them, if they
repented in His name.
WVe can not, however, make men comfortable any
more than we can make them conscientious, in spite of
themselves-they must themselves be improved-their
souls must be set right before their circumstances can
be permanently benefited. Those can not be helped
who can not be caused to feel their own responsibility,
and be induced to use the means that Providence supplies for the purposes of social intercourse and comfort.
The grand difficulty with criminals, in all grades of depravity is to convince them that they are so very faulty
as you seem to think them. If their feelings were as
sensitive as those who pity them, they would die of
remorse; but this is a state of mind rarely known in
our prisons, except by those who, under some sudden
provocation, have committed violence against those
whom they really loved.  Hence it is that inspectors
of prisons have declared so many of their inmates to
be incurable. There is no power in manacles and
misery to convince of sin-but a few soft words
230 
HOPE AND FEAR.
tnd gentle looks firom Sarah Martin or Elizabeth Fry,
or some such firm, fine soul, possessed by God's
charity, can bring tears from the heart of any mar.
who is not mad, and even from the mad too. Re
morse can have no place in a,mind that has no desire
for amendment, and that desire can not spring from
fear, since fear knows nothing of desire but to avoid
suffering. Something morally beautiful must be apprehended, some lovely spirit of encouragement must
come, some hope with regard to a better standing foi
the poor wretch himself must be induced, and then
there will be some foundation on which to build. But
public justice, in the estimation of criminals in general,
is but a cunning trap contrived to catch them, and preserve others from their depredations and violence
They commonly no more associate ideas of sin with
their sufferings than they would with those of a wild
beast caught in a gin. They only think themselves unfortunate in not having their own way, while, at the
samie time, they grant that you have a perfect right to
protect yourself firom them. Hope or fear, in a moral
sense, they scarcely understand. Such a state of mind
may be traced to three causes.-First, a habit of discomfort; secondly, total ignorance of religious, and
therefore of moral obligation, thirdly, positive defect of
understanding, from some degree of insanity or idiotism. The majority of criminals spring at first firom a
class that are born and bred in crowded wretchedness,
to whom it is an object of ambition and honor to become
members of a swell-mob, or to act in the capacity of a
meretricious decoy to perdition.  Nor can this be very
surprising, when we find medical men reporting to the
Poor-Law Commissioners thus:-,, I attended a family
of thirteen, twelve of whom had typhus fever, without
a bed, in a cellar-without straw or timber shavings,
firequent substitutes.  In another house I attended
fourteen patients: all lay on the boards, and during
231 
HOPE AND FEAR.
their illness never had their clothes off. I met with
many cases in similar conditions.  Yet, amidst the
greatest destitution and want of domestic comfort, I
have never heard, during twelve years' practice, a complaint of inconvenient accommodation." This was at
Derby, in 1836, without a famine.  We  see that this
habit of discomfort and wretchedness exists till it
actually destroys humanity, by so blunting the mental
faculties, and depressing the sensibilities both of soul
and body, as to render men and women incapable of
reasoning and acting for themselves.  I have referred
to a comparatively comfortable place and people; but
if we look into the abodes of wretchedness in Ireland,
for instance, or only peruse the record scattered to the
world in newspapers, we  shall find whole ftimilies
consisting of scores-fathers and mothers, and their
parents and their children, sleeping, starving, and dying
togethler, on the same floor, with scarcely a sheet or a
blanket among them, amidst indescribable accumulations of dirt from the cattle under the same roof. Thus
the malaria accompanying ignorance and want poisons
the mind as well as the blood.  In this prevalence of
inhuman destitution, we see at once the impossibility
of moral training, since those decencies of life which
form the basis of virtue must be unknown among
such herds of unhappy beings. That a state of brain
amounting to irresponsible incapacity must certainly
often result from thiis degradation, need scarcely be
shown, especially when we remember that raw spirits
are the common stimulants of parents in such states (at
least in our large manufacturing towns), and that their
children consume immense quantities of opium.  The
business of people under such circumstances, is to place
themselves as nearly as possible in a state of mind that
knows neither hope nor fear in connection with things
ariound them; and by listless vacancy, or by intoxication,
to indulge themselves with dreams in which the soul,
23,2 
HOPE AND FEAa,R.
unfettered by cold and rigid facts, may vindicate her
attributes, and bring into being a world where the wildest affections may riot as they list. The absence of
physical comfort, while forbidding its proper enjoyments, and diminishing the probability of its continuance, tends to destroy the hope of life, and of course,
also, in every respect, to lessen its value.  Death
becomes so familiar as to be no longer fearful; the
fostering of life is then but a weak instinct, and natural
affection only an excitant of desperation. Where half
the children die before reaching the fifth year, and
seventy-six out of one hundred of these die before they
reach nine months, as is the case in thosd dense places
populated by the poor, as in Liverpool and Manchester,
we can not wonder that domestic hopes and fears soon
die, or live only in confusion.
It is not to be questioned that immorality constantly
tends in all respects to degrade human nature, and
that the more strikingly from contrast, in highly civilized society; and the strongest proof of this debasing
tendency is found in the fact, that neither hope nor
fear will rouse those who are once brought down to
its depths to make any effort to elevate themselves,
unless constantly encouraged and directed and assisted by those who are sustained by Christian motives to
work with all their might, as for the salvation of immortal souls.
Those who have no consideration for the comfort
of others are in danger of losing their own, just as the
man without objects of affection soon becomes a burden to himself as well as to others. This state of
indifference to others never occurs without the subjection of the man to some sensual vice that obscures
his moral perception, and so far causes him to appreoach to the state of an idiot. The social decencies
gradually disappear, and, as in the awful case of the
habitual drunkard, so, in all selfish abandonment, the
233 
HOPE AND FEAR.
horrible derangement of the heart daily grows stronger,
until reason is at length led captive by the tyrannous
fiend. Habitual drunkenness is the type of all vice,
and it is that form of madness which is not only the
most disgusting, but also the most-difficult to manage.
Hope and fear lose their hold upon the soul, or have
no power to persuade to better conduct. The man
can not refuse to destroy himself as long as he can
reach the stimulus that shall hurry him to destruction.
Imprisonment for a long period is useful to such persotns, because it forces on them the necessary abstinence, and allows reason to awake from her frightful
trance. But yet, unless a pledge bind the conscience,
and the man feel socially engaged to improve, with
the consciousness of many eyes being on him, and
many hearts interested in his success and watching
for his welfare, his hopes and fears will die away, and
he will fall again into the slough.
We  must raise men's ideas of good and evil, and
give them God's estimate of right and wrong, if we
would induce them to make effectual efforts to save
themselves. The noble hope and the worthy fear of
the Christian can alone animate society in the divine
manner. The fear that is the principle of wisdom,
and the hope that can not be confounded, do not spring
out of the ground, but they are communicated firom
soul to soul, under that ministry of the Spirit in which
mnen taught of Heaven speak faithfully of their knowledge and expectancies. But the child that is informed
of no duty but to help itself, and knows no object of
interest for his soul. beyond the means of obtaining
the meals of the day or a shelter firom the weather,
hopes and fears only in relation to the bitter pains
and savage pleasures of his miserable necessities, nor
throughout his stinted lifetime can he riso out of this
entire pauperism of existence, unless, lifted by some
kind spirit above the direct dead weight of his fleshly
234 
HOPE AND FEAR.
wvants, he beorme sensible of his spiritual being and
necessities, and, through the teachings and the sympathy of an awakened soul, taste the true privilege
of an undying humanity. Immorality and its misery
must be great hardeners, indeed, to produce such
indifference to life and immortality as we constantly
witness among the ignorant and ungodly. But if we
look into the facts of such cases, what do we learn?
Is it true that the haggard wretch in the condemned
cell now argues with the chaplain, that, as he exlpresses himself, to be hanged is the end of it?  Is it
tirue that a life of guilt has been so hard and horrible,
that the sinner's only consolation is an endeavor to
persuade himself, with a scornful smile, that in a few
hours he is to be as if he had never been?  It is true.
And is it true that that miserable being was once
hushed to sleep upon a bosom warmed  by a love
intensified with the remembrance of Him who drew
mysterious life from a woman's breast, and called her
mother? Is it true that the culprit is he who was
nurtured in heavenly reverence and love, and who, as
a child, heard gentle whisperings of prayer for him,
firom the lips that kissed his pleasant cheek? and did
that child's own mother teach him to kneel, with
hands upraised in hers, and eyes like hers turned
toward heaven, and lisp, Our Father? It is not true.
Such a case we can not find. These words of prayer
have never been the earliest to form themselves in an
infant's language and understanding, without being
the last to leave the heart of the man. Many a child
trained in godly admonition, has indeed turned prodigal, and been selfish and miserable enough in his waywardness; but in coming to himself, he has remembered his father's house, and with the remembrance
came humility and hope; but the unhappy man, who,
because he knows not why he should hope, is determlined not to fear, has really never been vitally, pi-ac
2 13 Iz, 
HOPE AND FEAR.
tically, instructed to believe in God as the author of
life and immortality to the guilty and condemned.
That is a valid plea with Jehovah, which David utters,
Thou didst cause me to hope upon my mother's breast."
Yes, God is the God of hope and patience, and every
soul that He has made has a right to depend upon his
hand for every help, as long as the claim is made in
the name and for the sake of the Divine humanity.
Human beings are to be treated in a humane manner.
But it requires immense faith to be kind enough to
those who seem to have nothing to recommend them
to our hearts, but their depravity and their danger.
We can not conquer them but with a godlike spirit.
We, at least, must have no fear in our love, that we
may show them the terrible nature of disobedience,
and prove that it is an advantage to die in resisting
sin, because there is a life to come. Our life must be
the expression of our faith in the eternal decision.
", I will continually hope, and yet praise Thee more
and more," must be the temper of our spirits, because we hope in the Almighty, in despite of all
appearances. This devotedness to God's service and
manifest joy in it can alone demonstrate the fearfulness of offending the Discerner of'hearts. The most
obtuse of criminals, in this manner, can not but see
that the pleasure of doing good is a fact; and as there
is no power of seeing God without benevolence in
one's own heart, so there is no way of manifesting
the demands of God upon the conscience without
,, the visible rhetoric of a holy life," and depraved
men never tremble but when they witness this vital
mode of preaching righteousness and judgment to
come. When Mrs. Fry first addressed the female
prisoners in Newgate, she spoke of Christ having
come to save sinners, even those who might be said
to have wasted the greater part of their time in estraingeniert firom their Maker.  WVhat was the con
236 
HOPE AND FEAR.
sequence? " Some asked who Christ was; others
feared that their day of salvation was passed."  Ignorauce had done its work, but it was not because those
abandoned creatures had no taste for truth, but because no one had cared for their souls. With tears
of joy they welcomed the formation of schools for
their children.  iM's. Fry succeeded in making prisons
places of reformation, simply because she set about
the work with faith enough for the mighty occasion.
The slheriffs, the ordinary, and the governor of Newgate, thought her experiments hopeless.   But the
humble and meek are always to be exalted, for they
rely on something above themselves; faith takes hold
on the hand of the Almighty, and passes over difficulties without seeing them. Mrs. Fry, at first, indeed,, felt as if going into a den of wild beasts, such
was the yelling and struggling; " but, trusting in
Heaven, she labored calmly in love, and. great was
the change that came over the outcasts-,, They soon
became harmless and kind;" or, in other words, the
kindness shown to them was reflected in their own
characters; fear fulfilled its right office, in connection
with hope, when opportunity and encouragement were
afforded to industry and attention. What they needed was right occupation for their minds and handssomething to accomplish, with a reasonable expectation of pleasure to themselves, and to those whomn
they could still love; for reformation is impossible
without employment and without hope. The wants
of the mind being thus supplied, many of those outcasts had reason, as one of them afterward wrote,
,, to bless the day that brought them inside the walls
of Newgate." This was written by one who appeared hardened beyond recall, only because the angel
Hope, with her stories of love and devotion, had never
entered her miserable home. And who is there among
the best of men and women that might not have been
237 
HOPE AND FEAR.
equally incorrigible in vice, if those motives had not
been presented to their hearts, without which humanity so readily gives place to ferocity, desperation,
and madness.
Hanging has been invented as a convenient substitute for Christian kindness; and it has even been
thought by grave men who read the Bible, that society
has been improved by reflecting on the fact, that the
wife of a forger has been hanged for helping her husband; and it has been deemed to be obedience to God
and the Saviour, to take the wailing babe, not a week
old, from the bosom of its mother, that she might be
pinioned for the scaffold. The criminal code, imprisonment, banishment, stripes, and the gallows, are inventions contrived in vain to cure or prevent those
evils which grow in the heart of man.  Under the
artificial fostering of society, vices of the darkest dye
luxuriate to the full. Law can not check them, because acts of parliament do not enter into the affections, and make no provision for their natural exercise
and protection, development and prosperity.  They
provide only for the security of money, and those who
have it to spend, or possess a craft by which they may
get it. There is nothing in the law to encourage
faith, hope, and charity, or to cheer the sensitive soul
in its hunger after something it may, in the true
sense, call its home and its own. The heart is not
instructed by statutes, nor can its rights be defined and
defended by folios. It is the Bible alone that presents
religion as the refiner of our hopes and our fears; the
truths contained in that book are those which alone
have force enough to render morality a business of the
life, by claiming and controlling the thoughts and feelings, with respect to our eternal relationships, rather
than from considerations of any passing convenience.
It is God's truth that causes a man to feel that he belongs to God, and is to be judged impartially.
238 
HOPE AND FEAR.
The courts, either ecclesiastical or civil, are alike
incapable of vindicating the oppressed and delivering
the weak from the wicked. God must do that, and
He does. But He has given into the hands of men
the means of rendering all that is proper in human
emotion promotive of social happiness, and woe be to
those who possess those means and will not use them.
Every child in the land should feel that he is loved
both by God and man; and in love it should be trained
with something for its heart to work with. Give it
Bible-truths, with all their terribleness of beauty, not
in mere letters, but in spirit, by mixing its interests
with the interests of those who live out those truths
in their daily activities. We want schools, not for
tasks of book-work and stitching, but for fellowships
in affection, industry, and thought, and wholesome
fears.  Without heart-work and the morality of homes
on tie plan of heaven, there is rno remedy against the
propagandism of hell, with its subtleties of misery,
nursing infernal fire in the dark, till it bursts into
flames that devour its irrecoverable victims, while society looks on and delicately shudders. Philanthropists, go on-your business must prosper; you work
for those who laugh, but you work that they may
reason and be saved. By the terror of iniquity, by
the terror of the love that can not save the impenitent,
by the holiness of Heaven, by the worth of souls,
Christian philanthropists go about, like your Master in
His work, for by the certainty of death and of life you
shall conquer.
But while advocating the authority of kindness and
hope, we would not forget that fear is the parent of
prudence and the teacher of wisdom; since the anticipation of danger is often its avoidance, and without
foresight there can be no preparation. Fear is essential to systematic perseverance in well-doing.  There
must always be a woe in not doing what is known to
239 
HOPE AND FEAR.
be a duty, and the extent of this woe can not be too
plainly declared. Even St. Paul felt that he would be
but a castaway, if he relaxed in his faithfulness as anl
apostle and evangelist; but yet fear was not his motive: he was constrained by love and affection and
gratitude and hope, though he could have experienced
nothing of these feelings, without a sense of the evils
from which, through mercy, he was delivered.  He
felt the fearfulness of falling into the hands of the living God, without a propitiation; and when he understood how justice was satisfied by the just atoning for
the unjust, he saw that both reason and affection required the entire submission of the redeemed life to
the service of the Saviour. If we feel the terror of
being eternally lost, it must be in the fact, that love
itself must condemn us, because we are incapable, in
our chosen maliciousness, of appreciating the love that
would save us. There can be no hope for those who
will not accept of mercy; but, of course, with them
remains a fearful looking forward to the fiery indignation that must consume every adversary of God. But
the energizing fear has always hope to help it. There
must be the felt possibility of escape from the object
dreaded, or fear at once deadens the soul in despair.
Desire is the spring of all action and hope; and therefore, to leave a man without something to desire,
which may also be hoped for, is to chain him to death
itself. But have men, under the Christian dispensation, a right to deprive criminals of life, except to save
life, as in case of deliberate murder? Are we to commend men to the mercy of God and entreat them to
trust to it, and at the same time tell them that God in
streects us not to show them any mercy ourselves, in
any other way than by depriving them of the possibility of showing the sincerity of their repentance and
amendment;   We  must acknowledge  the question
difficult to answer.
2110 
HOPE AND FEAR
.'Iis. Fry in her evidence before the committee of
the'louse of Commons, well expressed the secret of
successful government:, I think I may say we have
full power among them (the female prisoners), for one
of them said that it was more terrible to be brought
up before me than before the judge, though we used
nothing but kindness. I have never punished a woman,
nor proposed a punishment." It is the holiness of
this charity that subdues the heart. It would bring
peace and order into the home of devils, if it could enter there, for it would bring reverence and hope along
with it, like a revelation, as it is, of God himself. Yet
fear is necessary; it is the only restraint upon those
who have no regard for the interests of others. It is
the only counter force to the hopes of the wickedthe only mastery over minds uninformed, uncharitable,
selfish; and therefore without the power of punishment there can be no government.
Threatening and violence are the only arguments
of those who obey not the law of God. It is but the
depraved policy of cowards and hypocrites to resort to
such means. Every generous mind can feel the force
of generous motives, and therefore the best policy of
government is to foster all that is generous, so that
men may dread the dishonor of crime rather than its
punishment. The opposite system excites a pride
and hardihood in vice, and gives crime a coloring of
heroism, since it seems to set the villain at defiance,
through his fears. But sin soon learns to be courageous, and a conscience that knows nothing of righteousness counts it honorable to brave death.
Those who fear nothing are in the most fearful
state; all the danger of carelessness or a false confidence is theirs, and they rush on destruction like the
horse in the battle, crying, Ha, ha! There is a natural daring in some minds that seek enjoyment only in
the face of danger. Their fiber is so insensible, that
16
241 
HOPE AND FEAR.
they find the common aliment of souls insipid, and as
with the rhinoceros, thorns, so to say, are but the
condiments that increase their relish; yet they may
be led by a chi]d's hand.
The only persons saved from the deluge were those
who feared the threatened judgment, for God gives
warning, and with it hope, that fear may work salvation, and not despair. Fear is the proper state of
guilt, and Cain would have had no protective mark set
upon him if, in his terror he had not cried unto God;
for he who fears the wrath of Heaven is in a condition
of mind to bear being preserved from the vengence of
man. As long as there exists in the mind a dread of
the just consequences to accrue from evil actions, the
man is not incorrigible, as there yet remains a power
of amendment, by presenting to him an object worthy
of trust, and a means by which he may hope to escape. But If he be saved, it is by hope-by something
that inspires a reasonable expectation, something that
nerves the arm and animates the heart. Fear may
drive a man to the city of refuge, but hope imparts her
strength to his limbs by her encouragements, and she
runs before to open the gate of salvation, that he may
quickly enter.
The love of life is the desire of happiness, a desire
not here fulfilled-our hearts being set on wrong objects, since our hopes and our fears equally deceive
us. Every conscious creature desires to live as long
as it finds it possible to hope and to enjoy, but we are
apt to give our hearts to things that can neither be enjoyed nor trusted. If there are more suicides in the
world than those believe who call the breath of the
body the sole life of man, it is because there are so
many men mad enough not to perceive that their Maker has provided a remedy for all evil, and that He
will supply abundance and peace to those minds that
proceed in obedient confidence, trusting for provision
242 
IIOP.E AND  FEAR'.
to the hand that guides us on the way. If at any time
we feel dissatisfied with the prospect of existence, it
can only be from distrust of God or entire ignorance
of His nature and property.  We  fail to look toward
the light that flows down upon us from heaven: we
have fixed the eyesight of our souls, with all the delirious love of our willful hearts, upon things that neither
trnin,smit nor reflect that light; and when our imaginations cease to clothe them with delusive brightness,
it seetms as if the sun were quenched, and we were
left alone with darkness and with death. We then
feel the palpable gloom of that hell which is created
within the heart, by fear constantly uttering a denial
that the dominion of God is love. The faith that then
actuates us is but as the trembling terror of a soul filled
with the idea of the power that seems to encircle existence with the shackles and scourges of an eternal
tyranny. Guilt, that is self willfully seeking gratification without love, must despair when left without a
desire that can be gratified but by aggravating its own
misery. This doom of darkness appears to be impossible, but from the ignorance and insanity of believing
life to consist of what we now possess rather than in
what we are, as related to our Creator, both by our
hopes and by our exigencies. The passion for death
always springs from disappointment, and this arises
alike from unwarrantable hope and panic fears. Thus
we find that persons who live without-religious feeling
or a sense that life is the perpetuated gift of God, and
who are unconscious of the Eternal's claim upon their
souls, think of self-destruction whenever their headlong passions are thwarted by Providence. There are
others who are driven to despair by false notions of
religion. If they think of God, it is with no knowledge of His grace, imagining that He can forsake and
forget them, just like those creatures whom we unduly
trust.  They take the evidence of their own emotions
243  
HOPE AND FEAR.
in testimony of the character of the changeless One,
and therefore they can not know Him who is really
seen only as the Saviour. They mistake the weariness of their own nerves for a sign of being appointed
to perdition, while at the very moment they are invited by all the tenderness of Jesus to partake of his
rest.  Oh, that we  always believed  the words and
deeds of God!  Our own evil will would then  no
h nger conjure up a relentless avenger to pursue us
beyond refuge, but we should see that He who is the
Just is also the Justifier. There may be, and, indeed,
often is such a vision of sin in the heart, as to induce
self-abhorrence and consequent despair; but it is an
error, or rather an entire confusion of things that differ, not to see that sin is hateful because it is inhuman, and that man should not so regard his own nature as to forget that.the Lord of life has created and
redeemed it for his own glory.
We must not overlook the physical connections of
despair. A brain that can not rest will be apt to cause
hopelessness, from the bare irritation of restlessness,
because the mind must feel destitute of all remedy
when the nervous system can not sleep. The state
of the body then becomes like that which accompanies
the most painful emotion, and the muscular actions
resorted to for the relief of the undefined uneasiness,
together with the central disturbance of the brain, produce a reflex operation on the mind, and fix upon it
an accumulation of despondent ideas which frequently
result in a madness so complete, thatmoral discernment
is lost in the hurry of confused emotion, and the destruction of the body seems the only mode of escape
from the misery that is in it. The earliest appearance
of this state should be met by the fullest sympathy, entire exemption from all demand, with change of occupation and of scene, with opportunity to use the muscles rather than the mnind; but, above all, the calm of
244 
HOPE AND FEAR.
religious hope is the medicine for the troubled heart
and the weary brain.
Religious despair is never witnessed except where
revealed truth is either partially known, while some
essential part of it is practically concealed, or else
where the conduct contradicts the faith. A change
of heart is demanded, but the free gift of the Spirit to
that end, for all that ask it, is perhaps not positively
announced or accepted.  The heinousness of transgressing against a righteous God is fully and properly
exhibited, and then, perhaps, so far firom showing that
He is waiting to be gracious to all that come, the terrors of an unknown reprobation are proclaimed, instead of the reconciling efficacy of the cross.  Thus
sensitive spirits are driven to despair.  They feel the
serpent sin coiling around them, and crushing them
with tortuous embraces. The poison works within
them mightily, but the antidote they can not reach.
The prevention of this awful malady is to be found
only in the loving education of the faculties, and in reliance upon Him who surely will impart the blessing
he has promised to all who seek it. From the earliest
dawning of light upon the mind let it be busy with appropriate objects, and be taught from the first that the
proof that God hates sin is the fact that He loves
every body. That blindness of soul which does not
permit a man to know the fitness of the provision made
for our nature in all its needs, can be cured only by
the finger of God. With Him all things are possible,
and therefore we dare not to talk of despair while
professing to trust in Him. He carries on the training of our spirits beyond the grave, and causes the minutest seed of living faith to germinate and unfold into
the fruition of eternity.
" Timer fiindamentum salutis."  Yet fear itself is
proportioned to our hopes, and our dread is rather to
lose what we love than of meeting an indefinite evil.
2,lz) 
HOPE AND FEAR.
Terror can not persuade those who have no hope, and
desperation is beyond the influence of fear. The
doctrines of the New Covenant are terrible to impenitence, but inviting as light to the repentant.  Eternity
offers nothing to be hoped without faith, and therefore
there is no room for presuming on a salvation if not
sought now; for hope is a present and praying principle. He who fears God is afraid of nothing but sin,
because he knows that nothing else can injure him.
Thus Luther said,, Let them threaten me with death,
with torture and the stake-what is all this to me?
It makes no impression on me. It is the merest trifle
to the agony I endured in my religious life before I
found a Saviour."
246 
CHAPTER XIII.
LO V E.
FAITH is the test of love, and love is the test of
faith. We can not believe and love, but because faithfulness and love are manifest in deed. Thus our
Father in heaven never calls upon us to endure, as
seeing him who is invisible, until he has demonstrated
his claim upon our hearts. He gives us occasion to
trust when he has taught us to love; but only that
faith and love, growing together, may find a fuller bliss
in further evidence of His favor.
If then you would train a child aright, imitate Heaven. Above all things make him believe you, because
he has reason to love you. Let him feel and hear and
fear your authority, because you obey and are bound
to obey-God.   Let him know who holds the absolute right to rule without being doubted; and that as
Christ has commanded you to train the child for Him,
you do so because the source of power is the source
of good. A child needs not much reasoning; he is
convinced intuitively. Let him feel that you have
right, by feeling that you are right. But when that
child begins to say,, why?" know that fallen reason is
urging it to further exercise of faith and love; therefore answer it in the language given you by God, for
if that child's soul be not thus met with admonition,
godly nurture, and instruction, it will speedily obtain delosive answers for itself in false desire and fearful credency.  Good education is the training of the mind to
good feeling-the communication of intelligence in love
tund faithfulness-in short, religion: but bad education
is whiatever induces a mind to distrust  )tlleors Irathter
-'i 
LOVE.
than itself, and sets it selfishly at work to find satisfac tion in knowledge without love, in facts without faith,
in dependence on the senses for sufficiency rather than
on God.
Love, itself may abuse power. Howard was, as
a philanthropist, a blessing tb the world, but, as a
father, however affectionate, he seems to have been
unwise;  a mistaken sense of duty caused him  to
pierce his own heart. He thought it his duty to insist
on obedience merely on the authority of parental pow er, instead of enforcing it by the attractiveness of father ly feeling and consistency. Natural faith and affection
are not blind, but well able to distinguish their proper
objects. He taught his child, while still an infant, not
to cry, and never in all its childhood permitted it to
have what it demanded with tears! God forbid that
our Father in heaven should thus treat us. He ex pects us to be in earnest. But, said Howard, the gov
ernment of a being that can not reason a bout the fit
ness of things should be only coercive and in fear. Hf
overlooked the discernment that is keener than reason
he forgot that the heart has to be educated' as well at
the head, and that it is ruled aright only as long as
love is visible in power. A child that must always govern its feelings, from fear of others, will soon be a
hypocrite and a tyrant.  When the fetters upon it are
removed, the soul will rush into selfish extravagance.
and, perhaps, perish; like a bird from a cage, unfit to
use its wings, and aiming only at pleasure, while incapable of providing for its own wants. Thus Howard's son was in infancy coerced, without fondness;
in youth, commanded to be moral; in manhood, became debauched, and then mad.
If a man's heart be governed by love for God, he may
trust to its naturalness for the proper expression of
that love in all his relationships. It is, however, very
easy to say that we love God, and yet deceive ourselves.
248
r' 
LOVE.
We  can not love Him  without loving holiness and
hating evil. But we know neither what is evil nor
what is holy, until taught of God to estimate the loveliness of his own character. We must see the beauty
vf holiness, before we can desire to be holy; and this
wve learn fiom the fact, that every doctrine that is divine
begins and ends in love. If God were not Love, how
should we have thought that was His name? An evil
spirit never suggested that word. God must have revealed Himself ere we could have believed it. There
is no Almighty Love among the worshipers of evil
spirits-they tremble in their idolatries, and know nothing of a power to cast out fear. Nor should we have
found a way out of torment, had not God himself come
to dwell in humanity among us. To know the true
God and eternal life, is to know Him whom God has
sent. If, then, we would govern rightly either the
passions of others or our own, we  must evince the
divine life as a power utterly opposed to all evil, and
bound to resist it even unto death, and make ourselves
a sacrifice rather than resign that which alone is really
life.
The law of love is the law of liberty. Supposing we
were at liberty to choose our own pleasures, should we
decide on self-denial,' as the beginning of bliss? If the
care of oneself is virtue, as we are taught by some
who treat largely of our moral constitution on physical
principles, then, of course, self-denial is foolishness.
But mere self is not the main motive any where in
nature. Love is stronger than death; and love is the
law of Heaven, written in the hearts of all creatures.
From the lowest impulse of natural instinct up to that
of the highest angel, the sense of others absorbs that
of self; and all happiness is found in that intensity
of feeling that blends self-consciousness so completely
with the sense of some beloved being, as to render
them but one.  Even among the lower animals, the
249
"I 
LOVE.
love of offspring is mightier than that of self-preservation. That is a beautiful but yet common kind of fact
which Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, relates.-,, We
had one very bad winter, so that our sheep grew lean,
and disease carried off many. Often have I seen these
poor victims, when fallen down to rise no more, and
even when unable to lift their heads from the ground,
holding up the leg, to invite the starving lamb to the
miserable pittance that the udder could still supply."
How many a human parent endures the bitterness of
this world with heroic flont for the sake of his little
ones, but for whom he would prefer to hide himself
and die! Thus, by love, our Maker provides for our
spiritual progress, amidst the trials of our affections,
and if we know Him, enables us, in their very agony,
to approach most nearly to Himself, in the apprehension of His charity who heads the army of faithful
sufferers, and will ultimately lead them, triumphant
over self, to that home of rest where excellence shall
no more need denial, but where intelligence, effort,
and experience, shall completely, and forever, harmonize with love., Endure, as seeing Him who  is
invisible.'.' Tribulation is the channel of blessing. Love
mingles its virtue with the troubled waters, and a weak
man, who enters them with faith, grows strong in soul
as he struggles with the wave that would otherwise
overwhelm him. He breasts it, and rises above it, and
returns to the work of life no longer impotent.   But
it is He who asked the man if hlie would be healed, and
who -touched him, and said,, Go-sin no more," that
must be still the healer. It is only fiom a consciousness of what He is to us,' as the Saviour, that we  can
fulfill the duty of bearing trouble, and walk in the dignity of a citizen of heaven. ", Endure as seeing Himnt
who is invisible."  Where is the man with a heart that
would call that woman unhappy who should lose her
own life in rescuing her child from the flames? or
250 
LOVE.
who is there among men, who would love him who
could never do a good action without calculating howit
might be accomplished without hurting himself? The
infidel system of morals knows'nothing of love in its
Divine forms, and its abettors would have scoffed, as
those like them did, at the Man of Sorrows, who bowed
His head as He hung upon the cross; they could. not
have seen what faith learns from love-that the Son of
God suffered Himself to be immolated merely to demonstrate what love can do to win hearts and to teach
men to understand the nature of the mercy they would
trust.
WVe can not, if we would, live only to ourselves;
heaven and our hearts forbid it; the eternal future of
weal or woe forbids it; the revelation of God in providence and grace forbids it; and Christianity is, in its
spirit and its deeds, a total denial of this self. But the
law of Heaven is not incongruous; it enjoins love, and
so orders causes and consequences, that the obedience
of love enlarges the power of loving, and with it the
capacity of obeying and enjoying. And there is no
substitute for love: when this is wanting, its opposite
is present-those who obey not love, submit to fear,
and fear is the most cruel passion in the world; since
it will commit any crime to calm itself, if only for a
moment, although the more wickedness it commits,
the more is its torment. Now this must be the government of infidelity; and what are its modes of action
and rewards, the outrages of the reign of terror may,
without comment, suffice to show. Where a righteous God is not acknowledged, there the very love
that is divine must form a hell, and rule in fire.
Love can not be partial, but, nevertheless, it must be
according to faith. Most persons will own that the
law of love is a beautiful law for the government of
sl)irits in general; but, unfortunately, the majority of
p)ersons condemn tlletnselves as often as they make this
251 
LOVE.
acknowledgment. They well approve of being treated
according to the rule of a considerate and charitable
regard for all their own interests, but some blinding
conceit, or selfish deception, hinders them from acting
on this rule with regard to others., Love thy neighbor as thyself," is mentally applied as a Divine direction for the regeneration of society; but we are apt to
forget that the renewal of our own minds in the spirit
of this law is the only proof that we feel its value. It
is possible to make ourselves so completely our own
objects, as really to look at nothing else with any
degree of love, and then to render it the business of
life to be adulated and admired. The passion for
human approbation scruples at nothing that may serve
to win applause; and men can imitate demons from a
desire to be idolized.  But the true hero is not ambitious of distinction. He wishes, indeed, to rise to the
height of excellence, but he aims not at being alone in
heaven; he loves others as himself, and believing in
God as the source of blessings to the innumerable
company that walk alike in light, desires all the families
of mankind to be as the children of one Father. His
idea of love is the love of Him who would have all
men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth; of Him who laid down his life for his friends,
that they might be made perfect in love; and be with
Him in glory.  The love that can not bear all contradiction and injustice, in order to remove the curse
upon prejudice, is a love that can not stand the test;
it lives not in the faith of God, and therefore will
endeavor to excuse itself from obeying the command
that requires the manifestation of love to others in
spite of their hatred. Love is due to none, if not to
all-and if to all, it is not because we have any especial right in it, but as the common gift of God, like the
sunshine that falls equally upon the just and the unjust,
although none rightly enjoy it but those who feel that
252 
LOVE.
light is love, for without faith in the Giver we find no
spirit of goodness in the gift.
Love makes the character of a man, and the selfish
are the mliserly, who, in their eagerness to possess,
lose the power to enjoy, and set themselves at their
right value, as worth only so much in pounds sterling,
to be used by their heirs and undertakers.
Unhappy man —most wretched of all disconsolate
lovers-ini love with thyself! Most unworthy is the
object of thy affection; but, alas! it will incessantly
obtrude itself, and utterly shut out even the capacity
of enjoying a pleasant thought.   How can he rest
upon his heart's love, who is forced to show himself
so much attention as to exclude all other objects, as
if God had not another creature worthy of his care?
Even Narcissus saw something to admire: though
but the reflection of himself, it returned his smile;
but he who thinks only of himself, sees nothing that
can permanently please him.  The world of light is
a blank creation to such a soul, and compared with it
an oyster at the bottom of the sea is a princely being,
since it voluntarily opens its shell that life may play
about its heart; and when the sunshine reaches down
to its home it feels that it is alive with its neighbors;
for even the creeping things in the great deep have
senses, and rejoice in the use of thenm.
The Maker of man designed him to be unhappy,
except when his heart is engaged in making others
happy. This is the only way in which man can imitate God; and though man can create nothing for
himself, yet his proper satisfaction is not otherwise
than divine when rightly using divine gifts. We are
to behold that God's works are very good, and we are
so to feel the goodness that they manifest, as livingly
to express the benevolence of their Maker. Hle gives
us senses to put us in relation to all outward sources
of delight: He gives us reason and affection, that we
253 
may think and love; He gives us will and muscle that
we may hope and act. Thus we are called on to attend to every thing rather than ourselves; and not to
live in the enlargement of our souls as unequaled and
unmatched but by minds in communion with each
other, with God and His universe, is to frustrate the
purpose of our being. We are to be happy, but only
in living activity and in sympathy with happiness.
We are to produce joy, in order fully to perceive it.
We are to look for smiles, and so act that those about
us may always meet us with a cheerful face and a confiding heart.
Love judges righteously. If we judge our friends
before we judge ourselves, we condemn them for the
evils that are in us, and are thus in danger of feeling
hatred, and entering into the fire unquenchable.   That
charity begins at home and ends there, which does not
act with a clear conscience. If you love those only that
love you, what thanks have you?  That is the love of
men, who think they can find nothing in themselves
to be hated and avoided. Christian charity is of a
'holier order; it repents of the evil at home first, and
then, finding the pleasantness of the light that shines
into the soul from heaven, sets about awakening other
hearts to a sense of their own evils, only that they may
reap at length the joys of goodness.  God being on the
side of this love, it fears the power of no adversary,
and feels indeed, that enmity is destroyed so far as
concerns itself.  This Love has, in fact, no enemies,
except in the will of those who oppose it; but, as they
can do it no harm, and it can do them great good, it
embraces them with prayer, and would teach them
the secrets of a new nature. As charity thinks no
evil, so it speaks none. It meets even Satan himself
with becoming dignity, and would not ignorantly abuse
a power it understands not, but says,, The Lord re
buke thee."  AnD how did the Lord rebuke the Prince
254
LOVE. 
LIOVE.
of darkness? Not by accusing him, but by meekly
telling him the truth, and so defying him. To accuse and to calumniate is the fallen spirits' own business, and they are his advocates who imitate his doings.
How great must be our proneness to evil, and how
vast our demand upon long-suffering mercy, since,
though good and evil have been equally before us all
our lives, yet, in spite of our convictions, the evil most
readily cleaves to our mind. The ideas that most
prevalently haunt our souls, in solitude or in society,
the readiest associations of our memories, either in profane places or in sacred, are still of a kind that should
make  us ashamed  of ourselves.  But we  scarcely
blush so deeply as we ought, even though they present themselves and come in the way when we would
bow in spirit before our Maker.  Indeed, so little do
we faithfully realize the perversity of our affections,
that our very prayers, whether in godly words before
our eyes, or in God's own language on our lips, are
offered rather as carnal wishes, to be gratified for our
pleasure; than as the real wants of a guilty spirit
needing to be purified.   0  thou holy searcher of
hearts, cleanse thou our thoughts by the inspiration
of thy Spirit, that our love and our desires may be fit
for heaven.
Love is antagonist to self-will. Self-will in man
is self-love, and this is always murderous, because it is
lawless: seeking only the gratification of impulses as
the only reason for action, it necessarily becomes enraged at any will opposed to its own. It aims only at
destroying what it dislikes. It can not submit, because
it can not trust nor give credit to any authority that
would regulate its violence. It can not tolerate any
oider but its own, and that is seen only as a desire for
the destruction of.every impediment to the reign of
its own growing tyranny. It may exhaust its moans
,5r) 
LOVE.
of action, but itself is still the same, and it can neither
be expended nor be made to repent. This self-will
slew Abel and slew Christ, merely because they were
willing to obey, and, as sons of God, worshiped and
served in a way appointed by Divine wisdom rather
than  human  will.  It converts  natural  attachment
itself into occasion for its worst exercise.   Thus,
when James and John knew Jesus only in the light
of a natural affection, as a good man in his earthly appearance,  they would  have  called down  fire from
heaven to consume those Samaritans that would not
receive him. Now God in Christ is constantly opposihg this spirit.  Those, therefore, who  think they
worship him aright, and yet with a pious self:will set
up their own authority, deceive themselves with a notion that they are serving thle Holy One and the Just,
while they are only pleasing themselves. They know
not their own spirit, nor that the spirit of truth is the
spirit of love, or they would not vilify their brethren
and devote them to perdition, because they walk not
with them. The only cure for this Satanic disposition for exclusiveness and vengeance is to know God
as Love, and submit to Him. Thus we shall find the
highest motives and the highest bliss in renouncing
the natural impulsive self, and partaking of the very
selfhood of the Divine nature, be wholly governed by
Jehovah's spirit, with a consciousness that his will is
holiness itself and happiness.
The  innumerable conflicting elements of human
passion are ordinarily set in motion by this unsanctified
self-will, and therefore we see throughout history and
on every hand, lawlessness at work to obtain forbidden
ends, and struggling with a burning zeal to reduce society to clanships under opposing heads, by systematizing religion itself on the principles of hell.   The
remedy is plain-obey God. But we may pray and
sing praises in the name of obedience, while yet ador
256 
LOVE.
ng only our own blind wills. The spirit of Heaven
must be in us before we shall really obey, and this
spirit does not so much command us as constrain us to
act with the charity that never fails, because it absorbs
our hearts in devotedness to our. Maker and Redeem
er, and therefore induces us in truth to love our neighbors as well as ourselves, because they equally with
us are loved of our Father in heaven. Thus the only
sufficient motive for self-denial is that which our Saviour felt-a benevolence that knows no will but the
love of God.
Christianity proposes an excellent way for the set
tlemnent of all disputes; it sets up love as superior to
all other authority, and as the only interpreter of God's
mind. If any teaching tend to encourage an overbearing temper, or the assumption of a right to dictate
to consciences, except by preaching the charity of
God's word, it evidently comes not from above. Whoever endeavors to secure advantage to himself, or his
party, to the prejudice of others, is not moved by the
spirit of Heaven, and the only proof we can afford of
our believing the truth must be seen in our practice of
charity. This is the only spirit that is infallible: it
works with the hand of the Almighty, and trusts to the
decisions of the All-wise, and presents God himself as
the salvation of all who submit to Him in faith, hope,
and love. Tile church must fail to persuade the
world until it is visibly one in the light of its love, for
it is not the temple of God unless His glory manifestly dwell in it. The word of life is the lamp of light.
It is utterly vain and vexatious for men to dispute
about the significance of this or that doctrine, creed,
form, or ceremony, until they feel the love that thinketh no evil; for until then God is not with them, and
therefore their discussions must end, as they began, in
darkuess, distrust, and ill-will.
I,ove is the nmainspring of all action and enjoyment
1. X
257 
LOVE.
but its might is revealed only by its trials, and that is a
mockery of love that is not faithful unto death, because
all things perishable must terminate in that. But it is in
the nature of love to live on with growing strength to
the end, and it brings a man up to the very entrance
of Hades, with his whole soul transformed into the
likeness of his prominent love, as if to intimate that
ie must thus appear before the Judge of spirits; and
according to the character stamped by his affections
upon his life, be appointed to his everlasting place
and fellowships. We become like what we love-the
will is the man himself, as regards desire, action,
thought;  and to know the state of a mnan's will is
therefore to know  his spiritual standing as God sees it.
In order, then, to become godlike, we must love God.
But how can a creature of such conflicting passions,
and with a mind debased by attachment to the meanest objects, be capable of turning his attention from the
attractions of forms and colors and voices, which he
calls beautiful, to contemplate invisible perfections?
How can we cease to seek satisfaction through the
senses, that we may possess it in our souls?  This
change implies the presence of a transforming spirit;
it is equivalent to a new creation; every faculty must
change its place as well as its employment. It is effected by a word, but it is a word that not only creates
light but also the power of seeing, and is itself dwelling in all that it produces. God speaks and it is done;
the man who lived in the world of sensation begins to
breathe in the world of spirit; the heart that was agitated by earthly emotions is awakened to the consciousness of heavenly affections; the mind that deemed the play of shadows and the impressions of the
elements on his nerves to be truth, now exercises a
discernment that reaches far beyond the region of the
senses, and is impressed by objects worthy of an t!rnal love.  The soul of the true believer li;ke the    at
258 
LOVE.
deep, may be agitated on its surface by passing winds,
and be partially darkened by clouds and eclipse, but
while earth influences its currents, it is still penetrated
throughout by the attractions of heaven, and the light
of other worlds is always on its bosom.
By faith man sees God.  He recognizes Divinity in
all that the universe utters of excellence, and he loves
with a true adoration, because he feels that the united
attributes of his Maker constitute the one perfection
of beauty. He no longer perceives Jehovah in divided
properties, but in his personal majesty and goodness,
not as an abstraction, but in relationships, and that not
simply to existence as a whole, but to himself as'a
member of His family; and feeling the gentleness of
His gracious hand, the new man responds to the touch
of his Maker, and, like a son, fiom the heart exclaims,
not only, My Lord and my God," but also, Thou art
our Father."
But we can not thus love our Creator without sympathy with Him. We need not merely to believe in the
Almighty, but also in Immanuel. God must be with
us. We can not sympathize with an unrevealed Deity,
and he can not be revealed to us but in our own nature,
since there is no other way in which we can have
communion. Love must be humanized in order to be
known by us, since the principles of Divine and human
existence in fellowship of spirit, knowledge, love, and
truth, require us to see exactly, and in demonstration,
what obedience signifies-even the fulfilling of the law
to its most perfect illustration, as the expression of
Divine love to reasonable and yet sinful creatures.
Hence the beauty of God is seen in Jesus, since no other
being ever gave us an idea of perfect love, or a love
without a motive beyond itself. Heroes have been
worshiped because of their exploits, but there is not
one among the host of the great doers that a little
child could love for his deeds. Earthly heroes are all
259 
LOVE.
helmeted, and the nodding plume bears terror in it to
every simple heart; but the majesty on the brow of
the Lord Jesus was that meekness that would invite
a little child to smile in his face, and cause all heaven
to bow down in love, while smilingly He whispered of
happy things to the trustful being in His arms. He
took them in His arms, and blessed them.  That is
lthe place of blessing. May we be as His childrenbelieving, sustaining, blessed.
O  Lord  Jesus, all miracles are performed in thy
name!  Impart thy spirit to us, that we  may so use
thy words as to feel ourselves passed from death, and
able to call the dead to behold thy life, and live like
thee and with thee, in the glory everlasting of thy love.
,, The true morality is love of thee."  It requires that
all the demands of the soul should be satisfied firom thy
fullness. Complete salvation is what we need-a wellbeing that can not be disturbed. But this can only be
obtained by union with Him who is one with God;
and this is possible only because our individual welfare
is one with the glory of the Redeemer. In Him we
have sympathy with Heaven, because love is infinite;
in Him we learn the significance of duty to the Deity,
because He has fulfilled all righteousness, and shown
us how obedience is love. Thus we gain the highest
good, since thus the peace of God is brought by love to
our consciences. This delight of the soul in the law
of God is opposed to all disorderly and mean desires,
and, in fact, the warfare of the Christian consists in
maintaining a struggle against all inferior motives, from
the transcendent excellence of this love. Hence it is
manifest, that as man possesses no sufficient motive for
self-denial without a Divine communication, so it is
impossible for a man to be truly moral without being
religious.  He can not feel bound to consider the happintiess of his fellow-beings unless he feel bound to obey
God, and he can not faithfully acknowledge his obliga
60 
LOVE.
tion to God until he knows somewhat of the love of
God.  There is an especial adaptation of the necessities of intelligent creatures to the spiritual bountifulness of the Creator, and we are capable of attaining tm
His love, because He has made provision in the new
covenant to meet every demand upon His mercy,
without denying that of justice, since, in conferring his
fivor as obtained through Christ, He imparts his own
spirit.  Therefore, we can not ask too freely from the
giver of all good gifts, since in proportion as we ask we
receive, and in proportion as we receive we are made
like God. and therefore meet for the inheritance of the
kingdom where love reigns, in all its manifestations, as
God revealed in man.
Human love can not reach content until it rests in
God.  We  shall surely find, that the affection and the
friendship that lead us not to the fountain of life, will
deceive and afflict us, and leave us amiidst the shadows
of death, seeking rest and finding none.   The soul of
man must, in all its attachmnents, tend either to heaven
or to hell. The spirit within us is either holy or profane, and either opens the heart to admit the reproving
and rectifying light, or wraps it up in darkness to brood
over sin. Every character is known by its affinities,
and reason is distinguished by its relationship to the
Divinity. Hence rational love is always religious; it
realizes a sacramental meaning in all its engagements;
it feels full of eternal life.
As Adam received the companion of his nature and
being from the hand of Jehovah, as an everlasting evidence of Divine love accommodated to himself, and as
that love constituted man and woman one in all the
purposes of existence, so all real love unites those who
feel it as heirs together of the same life. Any thing in
the name of love beneath this is mere passion, either
instinctive or Satanic.
Since all true love is so far Divine in its nature as
2(111 
I.OVE.
always to conduct the soul to God, for safety and satisfactior  both for its object and for itself, whatever
has the opposite effect, has in it the spirit of idolatry
There are three kinds of passion especially idolatrous
which yet are designated loves-the love of wealth,
avarice; the love of praise, ambition; the love of
bodily pleasure, voluptuousness. They all set up something to be worshiped, not to symbolize, but to conceal the claims of God. The most dangerous is the
most fascinating,-that incontinent love of mere beauty
of person and pleasure of sense, which, when suffered
to possess the soul, holds it in captivity, like the demon
which the disciples of our Lord could not cast out; it
needs an Omnipotent interference, as well as fasting
and prayer. This unloving spirit of false pleasure,
impiously absorbing the soul in the flesh, is the type
and the reality of all God-forsaking. Every thing that
has true love in it is lawful because love can neither
tempt nor yield to temptation without denying itself,
since it seeks pleasure only by being blessed in blessing, and therefore can not deviate firom the path of
obedience, faith, and honor. A man can not love an
object that he would injure, for it is of the nature of
love to constrain to any self-sacrifice for the sake of its
object; it always speaks and acts after this manner:
,What ye shall say unto me, I will give. Ask me
never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me; but give me the damsel to
wife."
The worst of all mockeries is a marriage without
love, a yoking together, but not a union, bondage
without a bond, a multiplication of all the burthens of
life for both parties, without a mutual life-interest, and
like the offering of a whole family to false gods, whose
demands are never satisfied, because, whatever the sacrifice, there is still no atonement. Too many. matches
are made in a confusion-they have no faith in their
2(' )2 
LOVE.
composition, and therefore an abundance of sin. There
may be sincerity enough in them, but too often it is
sincere selfishness; a sense of God's favor has nothing
to do with it; the compact is a merely civil affair, as
if the Lord of life had not instituted nuptials to evince
His own love and dominion, His own union in powerl
with submissive humanity, so that command and obedience should be the expression of.one spirit, and that
spirit, love.  The chief concern of this life is least
understood-the science of union is not studied, the
principles of peace and of happiness are lost in commercial relations, or left to the discernment of mninds
blinded by passion.  In this artificial state of society,
nature attempts sometimes to vindicate her own majesty, but, being thwarted in every direction, the heart
usually becomes attached to inappropriate objects, and
either cherishes its own maudlin romance, or resigns
itself to some ignoble decision, that plants a thorn in
every step of life. Those who do not think that their
hearts need any instruction from their Maker, will, of
course, be indifferent about the doctrines of revelation
on the subject of love, but they will learn, perhaps too
late, that in this, as in all other matters that belong to
the soul, there is no security but in following Divine
guidance. Where the spirit of Jesus is, there is
liberty, and there only, and he who chooses to act
without submission to the mind of Christ is so far not
a Christian. The ethics and true philosophy of every
form of love are found in the New Testament, and it
will be quite enough for all practical purposes if young
men and women will study and apply the philosophy
there taught, for then they will find no danger in each
other's society.  They will there see what sobriety
means, and if, under the laws of nature and of providence, they should be drawn into closer association, it
will be in all respects a sacred adaptation for the help
of each other's faith, inr mutual confessions of faults,
263 
IL OVF.
and in mutual encouragements to trust their God, as
the source of hope, faith, love, and joy.  Far be it
from us to deny that almost every heart has something
of sincerity in its love. This would be to assert that
mankind are more generally governed by the intellect
than the heart.  But the love that is most sincere is
almost always the most impolitic, and therefore society
protests against, condemns, and punishes it, or else
some passion of a more hardening and ambitious char acter is in the mean time roused up in the bosom and
banishes the true love from the thoughts, or forces it
to give way to the prouder tyranny. There are but
few who have not felt the potent and transforming
touch of a real, generous, unselfish love, if not in their
own hearts, yet in appeals of other hearts to theirs.
It is this apprehension of love, as a thoroughly unselfish
spirit, that lights up the conscience, and whispers, with
a mighty voice, commanding us to confess that love had
rightful claims upon us, which have been awfully resisted, and must hereafter be vindicated even in our
woe. It is love that inspires hope, and makes salvation
possible. It is love that redeems the lost, and preserves the blessed  it is love that brings a man to
judgment and condemns him; it is love that calls true
hearts to inherit the kingdom of the Father; it is love
that stamps perdition upon faithless spirits.
All who have felt the purity and power of unselfish
affection, with an acknowledgment that to be just or to
be happy  they should obey it, must feel self-condemned in the remembirance of those motives that
have induced them to act in defiance of its dictates.
It was probably thus that the mind of Napoleon, when,
under disease and weakness, he approached the verge
of the spiritual world, was brought to reflection. Then
the one whom he had most injured came to him in
vision, as if to reprove in order to encourage him, by
intomating the undying nature of love, and to call up, in
?C)4 
L1,V0 E.
the fallen and desponding man, a consciousness of the
wrong he had wrought, and to prove that the best
hopes of the heart are associated with quiet, relying,
and domestic affections, and that life is worth nothing
without a love that endures all things, and survives
death.
,, It was on the 26th of April, after a calm night, he
said to 3lontholon, with extraordinary emotion,, I have
seen my good Josephine, but she would not embrace
me; she disappeared at the moment when I was
about to take her in my arms; she was seated there;
it seemed to me that I had seen her yesterday evening;
she is not changed-still the same, full of devotion to
nme; she told me that we were about to see each
other again, never more to part.  She assured me of
that.  Did you see her?'  Whether it were a feverish
dream or a real and actual vision, its purpose was
equally experienced. It impressed its moral on the
few melancholy hours which now lay between hint
and the grave." —History of the Captivity of Napoleon
at St. Helena, by General Count Montholon.
What is it to have resisted the claims of natural
affection and the appeals of a true love but to have
resisted the Almighty? He speaks to us by all that
would invite us to the active fellowships of benevolence
and peace, and it must be the felt contrariety of will to
the love that constitutes the brightness and bliss of.
heaven, which kindles the flames unquenchable, and
gives its life and venom to the gnawing worm that can
not die. But the suffering of guilt is not the final
object of reason and of faith-it is deliverance.  The
lessons of love are those of adversity dealing in no
falsehoods, but promising true happiness by right
means, and assuring us that God afflicts not tyrannically, but only for our good. Love must be tried,
and purified even as by fire; it alone is worth the
crucible. But why, throughout this checkered world,
(-;5 
LOVE.
dlo the inoffensive and undefended become the prey of
the rapacious? Why is death the origin and end of
life? Human philosophy would say it signifies nothing
more than that a greater numnber should enjoy them selves through successive destruction. But O Thou
Maker of man, is that thy teaching? Is it for this
that the whale creation groaneth together until now?
There is a restitution, a liberty, a redemption, for the
glorious coming of which the creature waits in hope
that can not be confounded, since it is the expectation
of the sons of God, in whose hearts Omrnipotence
diffuses a sense of His own love.
But yet, O my God, why dost thou permit the innocent to suffer? \Why was the sweet child whom thou
didst give me to love as my life, why was its smiling
beauty made hideous with agony before my eyes, and
then lulled to sleep with new loveliness in the arms
of death? Love must live by faith. That was the
vision of my own sin, reigning unto death; I must
look beyond.
,, Eloi,  Eloi,  lama  sabachthani."  God hath for
saken his only begotten Son; the holy child of the
Highest bows his head upon the cross, and it is finished. But why does it behove Jehovah to bring sons
unto glory, by making Jesus perfect through sufferings? It was because he was holy that he did suffer,
and that for us. We bless thee, 0 manifest God, that
we are not left to infer from our fears how we must
be brought to thee, but to learn from thy love; and
though reason can not create a single star to gleam upon our midnight, yet thou hast given us the faith that
operates with love, by which we penetrate the gloom,
and look into the infinite light beyond our prisontiouse. We are therefore entitled thus to challenge
tie Almighty, and say,, Though thou slay me, yet will
I trust thee," for by the abundance of thy love, righteousness reigns in life everlasting, since through the
266 
risen Saviour we enter into the glory of his own res
urrection, and find our own perfect humanity one
with God's.
Love is a motive for immortal hope and advancement.
It may be said that our natural affections present us
with sufficient  motives for moral conduct, since they
can not prosper without reciprocal restraints.  If we
love an object, we shall undoubtedly seek to adminster
to the happiness of that object. Purie love always
blesses where it can, and it is never disappointed as
long as it is met by a corresponding heart; yet misery
most assuredly comes upon it either because it is not
duly appreciated, or because it witnesses pain and sorrow where it would fain speak peace and joy. And
then, supposing it to have ripened into its best maturity
between the most friendly hearts, disease and death
must arrest it there, so that earthly love itself terminates in darkness, to be felt the more palpably in proportion to the strength and the intensity and devotedness of that love. Sad ultimatum of that which alone
promised happiness, and alone could feel it! If ill this
life only we have hope, so far from inducing us to cultivate the family and friendly charities up to their highest refinement, it would seem that the less we knew
of them the better, since despair must be their end.
Surely this deadly view of love can not be of that order
which casts out fear, for torment is the only fruit
which it prepares for death to lay in the dust, without
a living seed within it to spring into new life.
The stoic philosophy is becoming for mortals. To
refine the feelings by lessons of benevolence is but a
cruel mode of education if the young spirits, thus trained to diffuse their charity in smiles and gentle sympathies, are only at last to encounter.pangs and then to
perish. If we have suffered our intellects to be thus
schooled by tile doctrines of skepticism, it has beec
against the teachings of our hearts, for they are wiser
267
LOVE. 
LOVE.
We feel that our affections are comfortless without
hope —but what hope?  Hope that dies, if it dare to
look forward a few years? That, indeed, is godless,
and does not deserve the name of hope.  It is desola tion and despair, when it comes out from its creeping
and crawling state.  When it gets its wings, it finds
no food, and perishes. WVe do not, we dare not, sit
down deliberately, with all the brightness of the world
about us, and teach our children that death is to be the
end of hope and of love. They know better, and will
not believe us in our reasoning against reason. Human
nature wants motive to take it beyond the grave, or it
must grovel, and grub, and sink into brutality, and hid eous, hateful, hating fleshliness.  It can not go onward, it can not climb, it can not look toward heaven,
if the glory from afar do not draw it upward. It must
bound itself like an earthworm in the clay-it needs
no eyes-the light is useless, but to stir it into life,
which serves no purpose except to gather grossness,
that it may nourish the soil in which it crawls. Human
nature nowhere decently submits to this deadly philosophy, and wherever kindly affections have room to
flourish, they assert their origin, and point to immortality. Even the laws that man imposes upon society
found their force upon divine authority and order; and
they would be without sanction, if without acknowledgment of God. And those closed hearts, that try
to accommodate their affections without religion, must
also do so without reason, without hope, and without
morality; for whatever their feelings may be, their instincts alone guide them, and the love of a lioness to
her cubs is quite as amiable as that of a human mother,
if she press not her baby to her bosom with the consciousness that God warms her soul with parental fondness, as an intimation that He loves forever. She can
not breathe the proper breath of love, as she looks
upon the cheek of her dependent child, unless she
9,,68 
LoVE,
sigh a prayer for eternal blessings on it. Thus she
comes in faith to Heaven, and finds in God that quiet
for her heart which He inspires with affection, only to
instruct her how largely to trust Himn with demands
upon His providence and favor.
Love is not an accident of matter-a casualty in
creation-a  phosphoriescence firom  a dead  fungus;
there is meaning and motive in it, devised in the
Eternal Mind from which it flows, to indicate to every
soul that feels it truly tliat God is not far from any one
of us.  It is a ray from the source that never sets-a
line of light connecting us with the Everlasting, among
which we may live in correspondence with the Father
in the assurance that we never shall be forsaken here
or hereafter.  It is to this human love and its necessi  ties that the divine love of Christianity addresses itself
For this the Lord Jesus was a child of woman; and
the maternal love is imperfect, peaceless, almost pro  fitless and destitute, without the fulfillment and satis  faction of'ts wants-without the spiritual and celestial
spirit that appeals to it and completes it, by expanding
it into full life by submission to God, as its everlasting
source and sustentation. All love must end where it be  gan-with impulse, if it be not principled in the soul;
for without faith it does not realize its relationship to
the Creative Being. But thus conscious of its true ex istence in Deity being sanctified, it becomes immortal.
It longs to be eternal, and believes that all its proper
objects will be provided, purified, and preserved for it
inii heaven.
Lote is the basis of repentance and forgiveness.-The
normal influences of both natural and spiritual existence
* are to no other end but to evince the benignity of
God. But the will of man is not forced into conform ity to this universal law, but on rational conviction,
)otherwise it would be impossible he should be con s(,ious of willing.  Yet man feels. wlteniev, r he reasons,
269 
that if he do not thus rightly use the means with which
he is endowed, he is positively opposed in his inten
tions and actions, to the constitution of the universe,
and therefore, to the Almighty, whom he must meet
only as a constant antagonist,unless, by the entrance of
moral light into his understanding a change of mind be
effected, and his motives and desires take the direction
which God has appointed. This can occur from no
other cause than a persuasive knowledge and feeling
of the Divine character, as entirely worthy of the highest affection and confidence of an intelligent creature.
Thus reason becomes religion. It is felt to be iniquitous and malevolent willingly to do any thing inconsistent with the kindness and charity of the Godhead, or
irrespective of the majesty and government of Goodnress. But a man thus convinced in his conscience of
having set himself against the purposes of his Creator,
and knowing, from this intuitive admonisher, that the
will of God must be utterly resistent and destructive to
every thing that is not conformable to good-will, per
ceives no escape from the righteousness of the Divine
decision against himself; for love itself would be resolved into an empty sentiment unless it were one with
justice. Thus the man self-condemned must breathe
in terror, until he discovers the way of forgiveness,
without derogating from the glory of His diadem
whose decree against a perverse will is unalterable.
This he can not find, until he perceives that the faithfulness and righteousness of Jehovah are required to
absolve the truly penitent, and to purify him from guilt,
because true penitence itself can arise only fiom God's
own spirit in the man. In fact, the doctrines of that
wondrous book, the Bible, so much quoted, and so little
appreciated, are the only doctrines among men which
elucidate the enormity of moral evil and at the same
time illustrate the manner of its removal; for no other
truths than those therein revealed, tend in any measure
270
LOVE. 
LOVE.
to demonstrate the necessity of repentance, and a new
mode of spirit and of life.
Since without love we feel no sorrow for having
offended, so we cordially seek forgiveness only from
those in whose love we have reason to believe. It is
the apprehension of the forgiving heart of true love
that brings tears into our eyes, on remembering our
sins against it.  Could Judas have met the eye of
Jesus, and felt His love as Peter did, instead.of going
to his own place, through despair and suicide in the
field of blood, his soul would have been drawn more
closely to his Lord, while in some secret place he
wept bitterly, because the sense of his own treachery
would have deepened in proportion as he felt the
greatness of his dying Saviour's love.
The most unhappy are the mnost amiable, if they but
know the worth of love. Not those who spitefully
make themselves wretched; but those who find themselves out of place, undone, and in despair, and ashamed to look up, because of self-reproach, and because
no kindly eye speaks to them. These are they that
the Son of God prefers to converse with alone, and to
touch with His burning words of love, ur}til their hearts
leap up in the light of heaven. Such are fit to feel
the divinity of compassion, and respond with a life to
the smile of God seen in the Saviour's face, whet- Ma
says,,Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. 
271 
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.
THE infant no sooner moves its limbs, and feels that
they are moved  at its will, than it begins to enjoy
itself in the use of its own power, for power is evinced
only in action, and every action is a certainty-an advance in positive knowledge. The infantine motive is
the motive of all. It is the love of power, or rather
the pleasure of self-consciousness in the use of means,
by which we obtain outward evidence of our own inward life and of the reality of things, in relation to ourselves. Every voluntary bodily act is an action of
mind, in which there are both attention and intention,
and, therefore, the very essence of all that constitutes
actual enjoyment. This love of action in the use of
power is shown in a great variety of manners, but in
all its manifestations it appears only either as a desire
to influence others or to employ ourselves.  Every
new exertion of power being so far an extension of our
faculties, or a larger realization of our own existence,
it is no more wonderful that we love to exercise this
power than that we should wish to use our eyes, and
help them with the telescope to look further into the
heavens. All advancement is due to this love of power.
When rightly exercised, it serves to prove that God
does not deceive us with appearances, but that by His
very nature there is truth in all he has made.  Whatever a man contrives to accomplish by new means, or
to a greater extent, brings his owvn spirit more into vital
connection with the moving universe, and more out of
the region of death. Hle who first traveled, without
fear, sixty miles an hour on a railway, was conscious 
lH[tE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.  273
of a new kind of life; but the man who invented the
steam locomotive that drew the train, containing himself as the mind of the moving mass, was the man who
most enjoyed the love of power and of action.
All the delights of discovery arise from our admiration of power, as evinced in the divine disposal of the
elements for given purposes; and it is in the nature
of the mind, according to its prominent disposition, always to aim at making a practical use of knowledge,
by rendering science the minister of pleasure, by presenting new combinations to the senses, and by enabling man to extend and establish his dominion over
the earth. Were Napoleon now in his former place,
he would summon the lightning to his aid, cause it to
open passages through the mountains, and transport
his armies on its wings, and the world would admire,
while trembling at the power that converts savants into
slaves.
So great is our sympathy with the bare exercise of
power, that the ambition of tyrants and conquerors
inspires a feeling of sublimity, when, with commanding skill, they wield the energies of millions, and so
enchant the nations as to make them submit to their
caprices. And indeed, it is wonderful that he who led
so many thousands to inglorious destruction in Russia,
should, at a word, call armies to the slaughter at Waterloo.
Those who do not habitually contemplate the demonstrations of Omnipotence, as seen in creation and in
providence, are always ready to be captivated by daring spirits; and those who do not addict themselves to
the quiet activities of science and of social commerce,
are ever the first to talk of glory, and, under the pretense of defending their own rights, to trample on
those of mankind. In short, those who do not worship God, will worship themselves, in the form of some
ostensible hero; and, whether it be such a one as Na     s18 
*274  THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.
poleon, or even,that spirit unfortunate" that reigns
in hell, they care not, so that he is active and ingenious enough to keep their pride astir, while employing
them for his own purposes.
Some men work with their own means, others take
adyantage of those of their neighbors.  Society is
maintained by this love of power, but in one class of
minds it takes the direction of activity, and in another
the desire for possession; the co-operation of these
constitutes commerce, and introduces those arts of industry which supply the means of luxury and comfort.
But as it is more blessed to give than to receive, so it
is happier to be active than passive. It is better to be
busy in devising and employing the means of turning
nature to advantage, though seemingly reluctant, than
to be supplied like a plant without personal effort.
All the free creatures of earth, air, and sea, are constrained to exert themselves for the supply of their
own wants, and the feeling of necessity which causes
exertion is the means of all their happiness. Thus
it is also with man; and therefore, if he who is provided with a daily sufficiency without toil, turn not
his mind to the consideration of his spiritual progress
and usefulness, he must be running riot in iniquity,
and studying how he may please himself in the indulgence of whatever taste may happen to predominate,
since it is impossible for the soul to cease from action
as long as the nerves will obey it. Activity without
faith, or a feeling of duty, is the turmoil of hell, and
to seek the power of being idle is to court the company of demons, with their torments. The mind will,
while in the body, become subject to the body, unless
struggling on in the pursuit of truth, it holds dominion
over appetite. Unholy, unsocial, and brutal pleasure
will debase all man's faculties into bodily passions, if.
in the leisure of exemption from labor, his heart and
mind are not busied about those nobler objects which 
THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.  275
the worlds of nature and of providence offer so frieely
to our souls. It is not surprising, therefore, that when
men of sober and industrious habits succeed in acquiring the means of retirement, and withdraw, it is too
often neither with ease nor with dignity; but in fact,
they leave all their pleasure in town, with their business, and, not being mentally provided for, they sigh,
amid their paradise, for the loss of that cordial with
which  Mammon sweetened toil; and, finding nothing
at hand in which they are fit to be employed, become
either hypochondriacal, dreamy, or dangerous in their
miserly irritations.
The love of power takes as many forms as there are
minds, since every mind possesses something in some
measiiure peculiar to itself, either in its nmotive or its
means.  But the aims of men are generally directed
according to their social feelings; for whether we
seek knowledge, eloquence, or wealth, we usually acquire and employ them only that we may attain a station in society, ori an influence among our friends or
in our families, that will enable us to enjoy an extension of our individual endowments, by fellowship with
others, or by inducing them to act in keeping with
our own wishes.
There are, however, misers of all complexions,
whose only business is to wrap up their acquirements,
and hide them away, as the Indians do their choice
gods; and well mnay they conceal them, for they are
but paltry idols at the best. The desire of possession
of any kind, like that of gold, merely as money, is a
monomania of the hoarding disposition, which gets its
own punishment, if not its cure, by depriving itself of
the means of enjoyment in the very act of increasing
the store.
Thought must precede, accompany, and follow experiment, or industry will be wasted, and we shall
make  no advance in true observation.  Many enjoy
I 
076   THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER
their senses for a lifetime, and die without being the
wiser for their experience.
Want is the parent of industry and research; but
the wants of man arise partly firom his bodily demands,
and partly from those of his mind.  Reason has desires of its own, which lead to action. The appreliension of a possible advantage induces an effort for
its attainment in proportion as we feel its desirableness; but we judge between the degree of difficulty
in an enterprise and the benefit to be derived from it;
and prudence decides whether it would be better to
undertake the task, with the means we possess, or
forego the advantage. WVe say-Is the object worth
the labor?  Some kinds of labor bring only sorrow.
Industry expended on that which helps not to satisfy
some proper desire of the mind, is only productive of
greater discontent, since the intention is always to
happ;ness, and this intention must of course be disappointed as often as our aims are not directed to the
attainment of right ends.  It is, therefore, essential to
the prosperity of the mind, that a man should first of
all determine that what he seeks is compatible with
the Divine appointment, as regards the means  by
which man shall really obtain good. The inquiryIs it lawful? should precede every undertaking.
Conscience will reply correctly, or at least suggest a
test for self-determination, by recalling to the mind
the royal law-Do as thou wouldst be done unto.
This applies to all affairs-handicraft, or head-work,
for both are worthless if the heart be not in them to
good purpose. Now, whatever' will contribute to the
benefit of society is a good employment. Industry,
simply considered, is a benefit in itself, and idleness a
curse, because he who has no duty to engage him is a
hindrance to others. Of course, those who can not
work-as firom disease, for instance-may yet be
blessings, by giving others occasions to work for the 
THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.  277
best wages, the reward of active Christian charity.
But those who will not toil for themselves and their
own house are not worthy even of their food.
There was business on earth for man  before sin
entered it. The spirit that animated man, before the
breath of Satan blighted the blooming Paradise, was
the spilit of industry, that went cheerfully and rightheartedly to work, and wisely directed all the aptitudes of nature to the noblest ends, by engaging every
gift of God, so as to develop the growing-fund of goodness contained within it. The happiness of every
creature consists in its appropriate action, and if we
would feel that God, in mercy to man, uttered a ma]ediction on the ground, we must learn that the way to
the highest, holiest, most sabbatical rest, is through
patience, and toil, and death, and burial in the dust,
for thus we secure that fullness of earthly blessing
which is poured upon the soul like a flood of light, and
animates to duteous activity, not as a mere contented
obedience, but as a feeling that God himself has called
a man to walk in the path he occupies, as the way that
shall end in the unutterable joys of heaven.
The  first employment of man, even in Paradise
was to increase the comforts of earth to every creature in it; therefore no one can be wrong who, with
a right motive, sets about improving the facilities, or
increasing the productiveness, of agriculture and corn
merce.  He is obeying God, he is helping to supply
the natural demands of human kind, and promoting
the establishment of universal peace.   He is blessed.
And the man who searches after truth, and diffuses it
when he has found it, is also industrious in the right
way, and he also is blessed in his labor. Whatever
calls to action in a right cause opposes discontent, by
exciting a hope that has the property of happiness, ini
itself, because it engages the soul in a pursuit that
ends only in finding some higher and happier eniplloy 
278   THE LO)VE OF ACTION AND POWER.
ment. The man duteously busy is heavenly in hope,
in action, in habit, and in end, because he is using
divine means for divine purposes, and for the advancement of himself in the good of his neighbors.
There are no good works withoutfaith.-We must believe in the reward and the Rewarder, before we can
possess a right spirit for labor; since, otherwise, our empl)oyment will amount to no more than the drudgery of
seeking vain amusement, or of slaving on in greater degradation than a muzzled ox under the sharp stimulus of
the goad. But patience, too, has perfect work, and it
is blessed, indeed, for its life is faith; therefore plod on,
weary workers, and your souls shall yet be free.
Youth is especially the period of activity, and if the
habit of mental economy be not then formed, it can
rarely be afterward acquired. Without the active
vitality of spring, we look in vain for the blooming
vigor of summer and the rich firuits of autumn. How
weighty, then, the responsibility of youth, and how
urgent the duty of every individual who possesses
influence on the young, to cause all means in their
power to bear upon the formation of the characters of
those to whom society must look for new impulses and
power.  Young  men, stir up your strength; your
country looks to you, not merely for the maintenance
of its greatness, but for the fuller development of its
majesty, as the mistress of the world.  Think, that
you may act, and act worthily of your high vocation, as
the transmitters and improvers of all that is noble in
institution or intention. Remember, the means are in
your hands of changing the aspect of the whole world,
and causing it to reflect the glory of heaven in its face.
The machinery by which states and all their societies
are to move onward is to be kept at work, and governed by your management and strength. It is not
placed in your power for yourselves, nor by yourselves:
you serve God, or you are called to serve. If you 
THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.  275
refuse, you serve God's everlasting antagonist, and you
know his wages. The Almighty has brought you into
being, and made you men, that the business of human
ity may be yours, as it is His. He demands your
hearts and your hands, to co-operate with omnipotence
in the service of the Son of man and of God, that you
may inherit together the glory that is coming. The
world must be set in motion, both mechanically and religiously; therefore He gives you the steam-engine
and the Bible, with which to regenerate mankind.
Truth and engineering, science natural and science
spiritual, are the only civilizers and reformers; the one
for the body, the other for the soul. If you would
succeed, you must use both, with a consciousness that
all power is God's. He bids you deposit the lightning,
that it may conduct your thoughts, as rapidly as they
arise, from land to land, and He requires you to take
the light from heaven into your hearts, and speak it
every where. Thus the wide earth shall be as if
condensed into a chrysolite, with radiance streaming
through it, and all its inhabitants shall be united in soul
by divine knowledge, and feel that their homes are
hanging upon heaven by bands of glory. All nature
shall be spiritualized to the apprehension of mankind,
and they shall see, like angels, that the meaning of all
things is the mind of God.
All God's universe is in motion under His handmove with it. Let the harmony of His purpose be
yours. Let power be ruled by love; let the activities
of that animating spirit govern you, for if it do not, all
the elements that are so inscrutably active about you
and within you will war against you, and whirl you
into outer darkness. But your minds being regulated
by obedience to the Divine Word, you will find all
things working together for your good, and you will,
in fact, be obedient to the very thought that, being
spoken, brought light into existence, and thence all 
280   THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.
things; and thus you will act at last as if constituted
like it, by being really, and in spirit, united with the
Word, that was God, and dwelt among us, and whose
glory we beheld as full of grace and truth. Minds not
thus submissive to Heaven become more miserable in
proportion to their efforts.  They  may strive to be
idle, but they will only be wretched.
The indolent disposition is not punishable by British
laws, as it was by those of Athens and Rome, yet it
surely meets the misery it merits, and, like every
other indulgence in iniquity, bears within itself the
elements of torment. Neglect of means will substantiate the final condemnation-,, Inasmuch as ye did it
not" will be the damning decision. - ot to serve Him,
before whose judgment-seat all must stand, is to serve
the enemy of God and man.  It is not a mere waste of
spirit and of power, but it is the employment of gifts
against the Giver.
Would it not be strange, if in countries professing to
deem God's word the only moial directory, that there
should be less of public devotedness than amonog people
who did not like to retain God in their knowledge?
The youthful Hannibal dedicated himself to vengeance
for his country's sake; but you, Christian young men,
devote yourselves to the good of man for God's sake.
You gird yourselves to battle, not against earthly foes
merely, but against spiritual principalities and powers,
that the enemy may be driven fiom the home of your
neighbor, as well as fromn your own heart.  You fight
under the banner of Heaven; the sun is your shield;
you conquer with light, which is both your defense
and your weapon. Go on, from conquering to conquer.
The Christian, thus armed,
" Can hold no parley with unmanly fears VWhere duty bids, he confidently steers;
Faces a thousand dangers, at her call,
And, trusting in his God, surmounts them all." 
THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.  281
The triumph will be glorious, if only you are sure
that you are battling in a right cause and with the right
weapons.
Young men who believe in Jesus,, I write unto you,
because ye are strong, and have overcome the Wicked
One." Consult the living oracles in all your movements. So surely as Providence endows you with
vigor and social impetuosity and power, so surely are
you responsible for the use of those means by which
society might be blessed by you. The energy and lifeblood of society are in your veins, and if the body
politic be stagnant or disordered, it is from some defect
in you-some unwillingness to work as God would
have you work. Whether a feverish delirium distract,
or a perverted energy convulse the hearts of lawmakers and laborers, whether the land languish like a
swamp, or thrive like a well cultivated field, will mainly
depend upon the manner in which you thitik and act.
Therefore look into history for wise examples, and
into your own relations to God and man for motives,
for means. Your time is embryo eternity. Whether
your activity shall be blessed or baneful, rests with
your will-on your moral intelligence and conscience.
What do you mean to do? Trust not your own judgments; but let the experience of age and staid reflection regulate your energies, and then advancement will
be safe as well as certain. A glowing disposition, a
sunny enthusiasm, a hearty devotedness, will only
aggravate ruin and disappointment, without a good
cause and a sound discretion. Therefore, let youth
never think itself safe and in the right way, until it has
at least felt enough doubt concerning its own power of
discernment to induce inquiry, and the right estimate
of reverend and tried men. There is no escape from
the consequences of misconduct, and their condemnation is the deepest who abuse advantages in the presumption of self-confidence. The Lofty One inhabiting 
282   THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.
eternity blesses none but the humble, and blesses
them because they are in earnest in seeking and work
ing out their salvation. They receive power from on
high, and consume not the bounties of Heaven upon
their lusts in the pride of a lying life.
Since man fell, toil has been a necessity, and therefore so far a sorrow.  The same amount of exertion
which, when voluntary, is a pleasure, under compulsion becomes a pain. Yet, by setting the thoughts
on the end and object of'labor, rather than on the thing
itself, we find the necessary exertion to be the direct
means of tranquilizing both mind and body, while, at
the same  time, it increases and  accomplishes our
hopes. Thus, having fulfilled our daily toil in the act
of meditating on the sunshine of to-morrow, we peacefully close our eyes on to-day, without a doubt or a
dream, the darkness passes over us, and we awake in
light with new life in our limbs.  By making labor an
exchange for commodities, God has taken away much
of the curse from the ground. He might have enslaved us all without redemption, but that He is love.
MWe might have been driven as convicts, as we are, in
chains to toil, without wages or reward, but that when
he enjoined labor, He also promised rest, and giving
us six days for neighborly co-operation in our common
weal, demands that we all meet Him together on the
seventh. He has made the Sabbath for man, to teach
him that the soul that comes to God ceases from his
labors, as to all trust in them;'and that, though his
works follow him, it is into rest; for the business of a
worshiping spirit is performed without effort, and is
but as the activity of life infused into the body by the
breath of the Creator. Wherever this spirit of freedom and of power, from the consciousness that God
inspires us, is not felt, there is bondage, and the debasement of the drudge, even in attempts at worship.
The Lord of the Sabbath is the Lord of life, and of 
THE LOVE OF ACTION AND FOWEr,.  283
liberty; and wherever his authority is denied or not
known, there the curse of slavery is felt, and the
whole creation groans.   No  people can be blessed
without keeping a holy day-a day sacred to God; for
the animal nature will tyrannize and suffer, unless
both the soul and the body enjoy their sabbaths. All
the functions of a man's life are ordered with respect
to weekly periods, and the habit of observing a seventh
day, as an entire respite from toil, favors the regular
distribution of vital power; and the repose of a spirit
retiring firom worldly employment to the inner sanctuary, is like drawing a fresh supply from the fountain of health and salvation. It will be vain for philanthropists to endeavor to teach gorgeous barbarians
and tyrannical savages their own value and the value
of their fellow men, at any thing more than a marketable estimate, unless they first demonstrate the fact,
that the Almighty has put a price upon each soul, and
values it as that of His own Son. Let men know and
feel the meaning of the Lord's day, as the promise and
pledge of the glorious rest of regeneration into spiritual activity and life, to which all are called to aspire,
and then, and not till then, will humanity be developed as the spirit of true industry and neighborhood and
ioy.
But work on earth is the business of man. Each
in his sphere has something to do, and happy is he
who does it with all his heart, as unto God, and not
o man. The only care essential to a right industry
is to see that one is doing his duty. The encouragement to exertion is to feel that we are not working
ander a task-master, to make bricks without straw, but
that each of us is at liberty, or should be, to do the
best with the ability that God gives us, under the conviction that we shall not be condemned for deficiency,
unless we willingly and indolently abuse the abundance of means bestowed on us.  There is a ministry 
284  THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.
for every man; we must all serve; and all that is necessary to render our service acceptable to God, and
really serviceable to man, is a right spirit in our place.
Any one who has the power of acting, or, I may say.
even of willing, has the power of acting, speaking, or
praying, in such a way as shall do some good to some
body. Every one exerts an influence by his ver)
thoughts. By right thinking, we shall use every op
portunity of- so working as necessarily to do the best
under the circumstances, for the good of society and
ourselves. Therefore let us say with Augustine, Insiste, anime meus, et adtende fortiter.
Industry is essentially social. No man can improve
either himself or his neighbor without neighborly help
and to better the world is to set the world to work together. Every useful invention has been carried out
and perfected by the co-operation of many minds, or
by the successive applications of varied genius to the
same objects, age after age. The mechanic must aid
the philosopher, or he must stand still in his demonstrations; and the philosopher must aid the mechanic,
or he will work and work without wisdom. The astronomer needs his telescope, and the chemist his
materials and apparatus. The sciences hang on the
arts, and the arts'on the sciences. But without the
philosophy from Heaven, neither art nor science would
look off the earth, and industry-would die a natural
death and rise no more, for religion alone is the living
spirit of human sociality and power.
' If any strength we have, it is to ill;
But all the good is God's, both power and also will."
SPENSER's Fa?iry Queen.
Even those who can do nothing but receive help, c &
receive it in such a manner as to bless the helper, if
only by causing him to feel that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive. A soul sensible of realities 
THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.  285
ailways sets itself and others to work to some purpose.
There is always hope in true activity; the will works
in the brain and muscles of a man who works because
he wills and knows what he is about, and why he is
busy.  But what kind of willingness that is which animates a man under the lash, the coward conscience
of the slave-driver, when God speaks to him silently
aotd alone in the stillness of death, can best say.
i.lost persons have an activity of impulse, a sort of
(hildclish playfulness, in wasting energy.  Such persons please themselves and benefit others only by accident, and because they can not help it.  There is no
steadiness without an aim, and unless the aim, be a
worthy one, the spirit does not fully nerve the arm.
All evil disposition is impulsive, and therefore fitful,
foolish, wayward. It may be obstinate, but it can not
be truly'persevering, since it does not look to the end,
but merely goes on pleasing itself to the best of its
ability, as suitable objects may happen to offer excitement and inducement. It can not be hopeful in a rational sense, because no man can discover a reason for
hoping that ultimate success, in a satisfactory sense,
can crown a bad action, much less a habit of such action.
Hence it follows that healthy and hopeful activity is
impossible, without an approvable motive-; in short,
there is no blessing for a bad will. A good and
honest intention is blessed already, and works with
increasing blessing, since what is consistent with
the real welfare of one's neighbor is in keeping with
one's own safety, because it is according to the law
of God which is the law of blessing to all who will
obey it. Good intentions, then, set men properly to
work with what means they possess. Therefore be
strong, 0 man of poverty. Believe in the Giver of
strength and opportunity, and you shall feel the seeds
of an immortal vigor growing in your veins. See that
you pray and live, desiring exactly what the All-wise 
286 THE LOVE OF ACTION AND POWER.
knows to be best, and then you will bear your burden
with a light heart, and sometimes look up into heaven
so joyously as to forget that the earth must be dug into, even to make a grave. It is not real good intent
but hypocrisy that paves the pit of darkness, while
sincere, love-born purpose lays the golden pavement
of the city of God.
Every individual should feel that he has some business.that must be blessed, if he use his means for the
best, since the God of providence calls for exertion
only because He grants the ability and intends a happy
result, which must arrive. We should therefore act
as integral members of a whole company, where God
is overseer, and then we shall find also a time for rest
as well as for labor, and the soul will indeed enjoy a
perpetual sabbath of its own, in the peace of that faith
which animates it with Divine energy, and with hopes
that terminate only in the eternal happiness to which
they point. 
CHAPTER XV.
CONSCIENCE.
HOWEVER diversified may be the estimates which
men in general form of virtue, and however widely
they deviate in their conduct from the line they deem
right, they are always so far self-complacent, as very
adroitly to supply excuses to satisfy their own consciences. They measure themselves one by another
and see so many faults in their neighbors, that they
feel entitled to be lenient to their own. This kind of
conscience is uncharitableness, and belongs to those
who are most scrupulous in demanding license for
themselves, while most punctiliously rigid in refusing
all liberty to others. Nevertheless, even these men
of most unconscionable consciences are open to some
sort of conviction: for when the law of God is manifested to their understandings, they at once acknowledge its goodness, justness, holiness, and thus they
bear witness against themselves and in favor of Divine
purity; but then they are very apt to infer that this
holy, just, and good law has nothing to do in regulating the duties of their own lives, not because it ought
not, but rather, perhaps, because they see not how it
can. They can not endure their own legal condemnation, and therefore imagine they are to be saved by a
faith that does not work by rule, but trusts in a righteousness that it will not adopt, forgetful that though
man is saved by God, yet it is not in spite of himself.
Happy indeed is it to have a soul freed from terror by
a vision of grace reigning through righteousness unto 
CONSCIENCE.
li'fe; but this is not seen in its heavenly manner until
we love the Father, because he first loved us. Then,
indeed, a sublimer motive penetrates the spirit, like
the angels' strain stirring the heartsof the shepherds on
the plains at Bethlehem-,, Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to man." But this glory,
peace, and love are most visible to man when the Lawgiver illustrates the beauty of holiness, in human submission to the Divine will, for then we see how the
agony that breaks the heart is triumphantly endured by
love, and then the bowing down of the head, in obedience unto death, shows us how the God-life of humanity
enlightens Hades, and enters into Heaven. Conscience
lies dark and dormant until the light of the Divine character shines into mnan's understanding. We can not be
conscientious until we believe in Love.   The testimony of moral perception is never clearly elicited from
our hearts until reason is illuminated by a manifestation of truth as the will of God.  Until then we only
speculate on ethics, like the heathen who knew not
God, and therefore could not see the ground of moral excellence.   As  Dr.  Thaer pertinently says:  The ancient philosophers have much disputed whether there be one virtue only, or many; one vice, or
many. It depends, as it appears to me, on what our
notion of virtue or vice is; for him who strives after a
steady perfection in soul, there is but one virtue. He
who, on the contrary, looks upon virtue, in relation to
civil society, and calls that virtue which advances public and private happiness, and that vice which disturbs
it, he may have many virtues and many vices. I believe that these opinions are not merely speculative,
but have a real influence on practice. He who adopts
the first notion, not in word merely, but embraces it
'as warmly and sincerely as I did-he, if he sinks in
one respect, sinks in all. Christ says, Whosoever
shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,
, 8 8 
CONSCIENCE.
he is guilty of all.' I feel, Lord, thy truth!"* A consciousness of sip is an experimental and personal
matter.
We may perceive that many things are really good
or really evil, but we do not discern truth in its nature
until we perceive that every truth involves the idea of
perfect righteousness, and implies the entire intolerance of all injustice by the Author of all truth, and that
therefore every evil disposition must be essentially
hateful to any mind that is in accordance with perfect
love. Truth and love are united, as the necessary expression of the divinity to all intelligences, and they
that separate them, in their thoughts and actions, have
an evil and unhappy state of spirit and a growing tendency to darkness and doubt. If they follow truth without love, in the divine sense, it is also without moral
feeling, and therefore merely to gratify some proud or
debased passion; for if they possess any kind of love,
without the love of truth it can only be either sensually or diabolically. When they believe they must also
tremble; since, in either case, the revelation of Deity
must be surprising, hateful, and condemning to them.
In the light their consciences may and must awake,
but only like a wounded man that has slumbered
dreamily with opiates, to be roused to the realities of
agony. When truth, as a ray of the Sun of Righteousness, shines into the secret depths of a man's soul,
he must acknowledge the Holy One.  Then he ceases
to speculate about sin; he feels it, not merely as an
evil, because it is apt to produce inconvenient effects,
but as essentially iniquitous and horrible, because
against the will and ordinances of pure love. The
heart of Him who lamented over Jerusalem, and was
pierced on Calvary, is the place in which to see sin in
its hatefulness; since there we see hqw a man that
From a biographical notice of Albert Thaer, in the Moral
Aspects of Medical Life, by Dr. Mackness.
19
289 
CONSCIENCE.
could not sin must suffer, in sympathizing both with
God, as the Father, and with man, as the prodigal.
Many writers have learnedly and elaborately discoursed to prove that it is the natural right and office
of conscience to condemn the wrong-doer. If it be
meant, as it appears to be, that conscience thus acts,
although no divine enlightenment reach it extraneously
-then, surely, more is asserted than either experience
or revelation will warrant. Faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. It is the office of the
Holy Spirit to convince of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment to come. How could a man like St. Paul
have persecuted the early Christians with so ready a
spirit, and think all the while that he was doing God
good service, if his natural conscience had been a sufficient guide and governance for his conduct, in the
difficult affair of choosing to resign all his old prejudices,
while obstinately bent upon proving his zeal, by imprisoning and stoning those who preached against
them? " Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do," was the Saviour's dying prayer. The evil
conscience of unbelief is blind as well as impious. The
law of God must be felt as God's charity in the soul
before it can conscientiously do its duty; and we may
as well look for a world of beauty without the sun, as
for any right discernment or moral excellence in man,
without the light which flows into his mind fiom revealed truth and the revealing Spirit. Whatever be
man's discernment, he is not in a state prepared to do
unto others as he would be done by;,- until the law of
love enters into all his desires and actions like a new
life; for, without this how can he avoid thrusting his
own selfish claims in the way of his neighbors, instead
of making his neighbors' interest one with his own?
It is true that certain heathens eloquently discourse
concerning the vera lex and the recta ratio, naturdcongruens, diffusa in omnes, sempiterna et immortalibus; but
290 
CONSCIENCE.,
alas! hlie who wrote these words said, also, that he wis
entirely faultless. Thus, amidst their prevalent superstitions, and their worshipings of deified lusts, how obscure were their notions of the Divine law. Theit
conscience never condemned their creed, nor does any
man's.  The lex vera of their minds was not divine,
and did not reach the thoughts and intents of the
heart. if it condemned the man who willfully injured
his neighbor, or broke. the laws of his country, retaliation or retribution could expiate the offense, for guilt
was not understood to be, as it is, a pollution cleaving
to the spirit, to be removed only by that repentance
which accompanies an entire change in the state of
the will and conscience. There was no forgiveness
in their law, because there was no charity; and if
their fabled gods were ever to be appeased, it was by
cruelty and vengeance.
The atonement made by love attracting men to God,
by subduing their hearts, was God's own method,
which men untaught could never have discovered; and
not knowing and feeling this, their consciences could
not recognize either the law of life or of liberty. Even
the slight glimmering of the recta ratio, which the
heathen recognized as from Heaven, was probably
conveyed to them through tradition from a period
when the only God was worshiped, or else they derived it directly from the Hebrew bards and prophets,
for the chosen people were a testimony to all nations.
But truth did not suit man's disposition; he did not
like to retain God in his knowledge, and eternal life
had no abidence in him-nor has it ever, but by the
inhabiting of the Holy Spirit imparted to all believers
in the redemption. Hence it is that, among the ignorant and faithless, the law of God has no felt authority,
and charity is at best but a family virtue. A law that
could regard every human being as equally entitled to
be loved with a man's own self, is altogether beyond
29i 
(CON;-CIENCE,
tlheir alipprelension; so that the words, juast and groot
;.e telrIs expressive of unknown qualities, or only
narrowly applied to the very partial relationships of
kindred and of clans.
A society of philanthropists endeavored to encourage
deeds of charity and virtue among the Pawnee Indians. They found a young man of that tribe who
had daringly signalized himself by rescuing a young
vwoman from an awful death: while she was surrounded by her intended executioners, he rushed into the
midst of theii and bearing her away to a spot where he
had placed a fleet horse, he escaped with her before
they had time to recover from their surprise.  It might
be supposed that a sense of that injustice with which a
number of warriors were about to expiate somne small
offense in their helpless victim, moved him to this noble deed; but when the philanthropists presented this
young warrior with a silver medal for his reward, he
exclaimed, I did, not know t7iat I did right! In short,
his conscience had only condemned him for interfering
with the cruel usages of his savage countrymen, and
the only excuse he had to offler for his daring deed,
was the sufficiently manly one, that he wanted a
wife.
So far is it indeed from being true, that conscience
holds supremacy over the soul, that the facility with
which we naturally excuse our own acts is a demonstration of the need for a rectifying and enlightening
power from above, in order that man should perceive
his duty, and fulfill it.  Without this, men yield to
whatever passion may happen to predominate, and exhibit no more conception of moral rectitude, in the
workings of their affections, than any gregarious tribe
of animals.  -\itness the degradation of woman, where
the Christian spirit does not assert her dignity; witness the universal subjection of the weak to the willh'u~ where God does not speak.  Without the recti
'9 
tfy'ing spirit of truth, men always seek their own
I)leasure, and their love is as lawless as their hate.
Their ideas of righteousness extend no further than
to expediency and convenience, and they interpret
even the word of God by the principles of the market,
counting that loss which another gains, and that fair
profit which aggrandizes selfishness, by taking advantage of ignorance and trust.
In order to study to have a conscience without of-fense, we must know the Divine will, and willingly
obey it.
Those without the written law are a law unto themselves, and they are judged according to the light that
is in them. Did the Hindoos deem Suttee sinful? No.
Neither their gods nor their consciences taught them
any thing of the real nature of sin.  They would have
thought it sin not to burnl thle widow with the dead
body of her husband, because such gods as they knew
were likely enough to be pleased with such sacrifices.
Thus the understanding of every nation and every
mant is darkened by some deluding demon, so that conscience can not see, until the true light shines upon
the soul, by giving it the knowledge of the true God in
Jesus Christ, who is the Judge of all. In Him alone
the authority of conscience is asserted and vindicated,
and no spirit but His can clear the earth or the heart
fi'oni that darkness in which cruelty delights to dwell,
and cause faith, hope and charity to take its place.
The  condemnation, however, comes with the true
light that flows from heaven, and awakens the con science while convincing the understanding; and if
lien will not bring their deeds to be reproved, it is be cause they prefer darkness to light, and would rather
erish than part from the sins they love.
Before wie can approve what is riight,  there must
be the entrcrace of that light which brings with it the
'-ri;:,~ of  Divin e  purity.  Th   cI,ltiv'aIion of con
CONSUILINCE. 
CONSCIENCE.
science, even in a Christian requires something more
than intellectual apprehension.   A  cordial faith in
God's goodness must actuate the life, and produce in
the conduct a reflex manifestation of the love which
is revealed in the believer's mind; for as warmth is
mingled with radiance in the vivifying sunbeam, so the
light of a true and heavenly faith never enters a human
soul divinely to quicken it, without a corresponding
love.
Christianity is not a system of ethical philosophy,
mierely to make us acquainted with the names of the
virtues, but a system of means by which we are
brought to God, and caused to resemble Him. The
truths embodied in Christian doctrines minister their
own spirit to those who obey them in love, for this is
obedience to God, and therefore the union of the human with the Divine will. The reception and enjoyinent of Christian truth must, therefore, prove the
value of the soul, by expanding its affections, desires,
and capacity, in a manner coincident with the beauty,
sublimity, and vastness of the objects thus presented to
the mind, as fit for its love.  Truth supplies the spirit
with true hopes, because, being obeyed, it renders the
conscience void of offense. It promises only what it
must fulfill, since we thus enter on the enjoyment of
our eternal patrimony, as heirs of the Almighty.
Plato truly says, that the conscience is the god withi- the soul.  But then a holy state of conscience can
spring only from faith in a holy God, and the soul's possession of a false god must be a false faith, a false conscience, and a life of delusions. With a right apprehension of the Divine character, as revealed in the sacred
Scriptures, we shall always be able to discriminate between moral good and evil, and shall not be deceived
by facts, as unbelievers constantly are, since in reality
they reject the master or key-truths, simply because
these truths do not please them, and they subject them
!294 
C)NSC(IEN CE 
selves, by choice, to those errors which confirm then
condemnation.
They excuse themselves from serving God, even
though they can not deny his right to their obedience.
But if they were utterly ignorant of God and His demands, we should not be surprised at their having no
conscience in respect to God, and therefore no sense
of having sinned against Him. They believe in some
other than the true God-some undefined power, some
energia, some mathematical principle, some omnipotent agency without personality, against which there
can be no such thing as sinning. A Copper Indian,
who worships a personal god, though wrapped up in
his mystery-bag, has some check upon his conscience;
but a man who is neither a heathen nor a Christian
worships nothing, and has a conscience that can not be
cultivated, but on the principle of pleasing himself, as
his own supreme.
There is no duty where there is no law, and no true
law where there is no love, for no being has authority
to control the actions of another, but for his advantage.
Resistance to mere despotism is not disobedience, except in case some authority, superior to that whidh
would tyrannize over us, commands submission to the
tyranny for the sake of the superior authority. But,
even then, we recognize in that superior authority a
right to command, only because some ultimate good is
to result to ourselves and to others. Hence Christians
are content to suffer wrong rather than resist the ap
pointed power, so long as, by so doing, they are exercising faith upon the good-will of Him who thus commands them to submit. Yet if the appointed power
assume a right to compel our submission in a manner
that clearly contravenes the superior law, we are, in
fact, called upon to refuse obedience. Thus, when the
apostles were commanded to cease speaking in the
29.;i 
CONSCIENCE.
name of Jesus, they preferred to suffer the conse
quences of resisting this command, because they had
received distinct instructions from Heaven to preach in
lthat name:-,, Whether we ought to obey mnen rather
tlan God, judge ye."  They were conscientious, they
acted fiom a sense of duty, and felt where the authority resided, and on what that authority rested-even
the benevolence of God.
Conscience, then, is the principle which perceives
duty, and prompts to its fulfillment. Duty itself is altogether dependent on relationship. Thus every rationali member of society owes a duty to the rest, as far as
they become connected with each other, in maintaining the well-being of that society.  Our domestic relationships are regulated by laws written on our hearts,
and fathers and mothers feel the claims of their oftspring upon their affections.and vigilant care, to protect
and to do them good, and every child feels, as soon as
it can reason, that reverence and obedience are due to
that parental love. But we all instinctively perceive
that the claim ceases, unless enforced by affection; for
in fact, the right to govern is founded entirely on love,
and he is disobedient to the law of God who endeavors
to hold dominion on any other principle. This is the
bond of all Divine appointment, in the relationships of
humanity, and nothing can be tolerated by God which
may be hurtful, for His law means only-Thou shalt do
no ill, but love thy fellow-being as thyself. And whosoever, apprehends this law, and does otherwise, acts
against his conscience, and is condemned by his own
heart.
But where there is no law there is no transgression.
The Almighty, however, has not left himself without
witness, for wherever reason exists, there are to be
seen evidences innumerable of His wisdom and goodness   But reason itself grows blind, and without dis
,296 
CONSCIENCE.
cernment, when mankind are driven by each other's
cruelty and neglect to depend upon their animal
cunning and instinct for sustenance and protection.
Physical comfort and mental enjoyment, amidst appropriate objects of affection, and with a knowledge of
those grand truths most interesting to humanity, are
essential to the right development of reason, and
without them man's sublimer faculties of foresight and
reflection, and his power of inferring the future from
the past, and the invisible from the evident, are all surrounded by a cloud, through which the light of heaven
fails to pierce. The truth of this observation is demonstrable by reference to examples, which are found
wherever hunger and ignorance, the two great brutalizers of the human race, have done their worst, in reducing men to physical and mental degradation, as
among those inhabitants of Sligo and northern Mayo
who were driven out from their homes in 1641 and
1689, and forced to live almost like wild beasts surrounded by their foes. Thus, also, is it with the Bushmans, in their depth of miserable abasement, absolutely
burrowing in holes of the earth, and supporting a low,
dwarfish, and monstrous existence, with a loathsome
industry by which they scarcely live.
Ignorance and hunger, as before stated, are indeed
the grand brutalizers of mankind. If we take a child
from among the most degraded of the humnan family,
and treat him as we would be treated-by kindness,
and kindly associations, and suitable instruction-he
becomes gradually elevated into a style of man altogether above his progenitors; and with the enlargement of his mind begins the enlightenment of his
conscience. But such is the inveteracy of inbred evil,
that it requires as many generations to pass under
advantages as had passed in degradation, before physical and mental improvement can reach any consider
297 
4 bONSCIENCE.
able excellence.  With these advantages, however, the
savage features, both of body and mind, disappear, and
instead of bearing the disgusting signs of barbarism
upon the face, human beauty then mingles in the
expression of all that is amiable and intelligent. Although, even in the lowest, most destitute, and miserable state of human beings, some traces of kindly
sociality are still visible among tribes and families, yet
it is indisputable that conscience must be as degraded
as their condition, for, in fact, such wretched depression
precludes all but the merest animal claims upon the
intellect. When men are without God they are also
destitute of ennobling and elevating hopes; a sense of
moral deficiency is unknown, and conscience, therefore.
finds no occasion for exercise beyond the low accusings
and excusings that spring from the acknowledged propriety, in some mean degree, of those affections without which kindred and kindness would be unknown.
\Ve perceive that argument agrees with fact, in assuring us that human reason possesses but small ability
to discover moral and spiritual truth, abstractedly considered, or in the principles that are the foundation of
correct thinking and acting. This inaptitude of our
reason to reflect on spiritual motives, as the right
ground of sociality and of religious feeling, arises not
from inadequate endowment or from too limited a
power of perception, but from the perversion of our
affections. The faculties are usually engaged in a
manner so far below their proper functions, that those
ideas can not be excited in the soul by which it might
be prompted and induced to look back, to meditate on
its origin, or to penetrate the future, in search of its
final appointment and the end and purpose of its being.
Although, while without a knowledge of God's
claims upon our spirits, we necessarily move like wandering stars without definite orbits, and subject to laws
1'298 
CONSCIENCE.
and attractions beyond calculation, yet His attributes
are not naturally and spontaneously the objects of our
thoughts, and, indeed, when left to ourselves, we
really do not acknowledge Him in any of our ways.
But herein the prerogative of reason is manifested.
When we are instructed concerning the being of God,
either by inference from His handiworks, or from the
dictation of His word, we at once, and as if intuitively,
confess that lie is truly Almighty and All-wise, the
Author of all, and therefore the proper object of adoiation and of trust, in whom we live, and move, and
htave our being, and everlastingly possess the springs
and energies of all our capacity of action and of existence.   And  whosoever  has  received intelligence
enough to discern this degree of truth, must either, in
a corresponding faith, commit himself in obedient reliance unto his God, or else feel conscious of struggling
on in a darkened path, according to the miserable
waywardness of selfish habitude, believing, trembling,
and defying, because, like an apostate spirit, the will
is not at one with revealed Wisdom. The man who
is in a state of will to receive revelation from the God
of all wisdom, perceives the necessity and the blessedness of living in conscious dependence upon the instruction, strength, and love of Him who is the faithful and unfailing Creator, because revelation itself is
God's appeal to the heart and to the intellect of a*
being, that can make no progress in moral and spiritual
improvement but as he is taught and attracted by the
Divine character, as if speaking to him in the demonstration of deeds done in his own nature, that truth might
be felt'in human consciousness as the reflex of God's
will, and that thus true worship might be verily founded
eternally upon sympathy between man and his Maker.
Thus Muller, the great historian, says,, The Gospel is the fulfillment of all hopes, the perfection of all
299 
CONSCIENCE.
philosophy, the interpreter of all revolutions, the key
to all seeming contradictions in the physical and moral
world. It is life; it is immortality. Since I have
known the Saviour, every thing is clear; with Him
there is nothing that I can not solve."
When conscience speaks the truth, she declares
that the Bible is the book of God. They both con  demn us on the very same principles-the breach of
known law; and they both assure us that there can be
no safety or blessedness but in such a change in the
state of the will as will not suffer us to rest in soul
without a conformity of our desires and actions to the
standard that we feel to be holy, just, and true. In
short, enlightened reason tells us that we need a res  toration of the moral image of God, in order to salva  tion, and the Bible tells us the same thing, but with
the important additional truth by which we are in  structed how that resemblance to the Holy One is
obtained and perpetuated. Neither conscience nor
the Bible will countenance any known evil, whether
among nominal Christians or professed Infidels. By
their condemning power they alike declare the voice
of God. He speaks in both. To the heart he speaks.
He will not tolerate any habit that opposes charity.
He declares that every spirit that submits not to kind  ness is utterly reprobate, ungodly, unchristian, and in
&itself anathematized and hopeless, until convinced that
Omnipotence is Love. Then repentant, it clings to
the Almighty, and will not let Him go. Then its plea
is valid. It claims eternal blessing froim The Ever lasting Father, and can not fail, because it hangs upon
the bounty of that heart so freely opened to bestow its
immense benevolence on all who seek the fellowship
of the faithful Creator. To trust God, is to honor
Him; to believe Him as our Parent, is to find Him
so. To feel assured that He can not forsake us, is to
300 
CONSCIENCE.
know that He more freely gives than we can ask.
To cast off selfish anxiety, is to rest upon the Father's
bosom; and to look forward without fear, is practically
to own and to enjoy the love that is perfect, and therefore always prepared to sympathize with us in our
trials, to rectify our souls, to anticipate our exigence,
and eternally to provide for us.
THE END
301  
Miss Sedgwick's Works.
Mliss Sedgwick has marked individuality; she writes with a higher
aim than merely to amuse. Indeed, the rare endowments of her mind
depend in an unusual degree upon the moral qualities with which they
are united for their value. Animated by a cheerful philosophy, and
anxious to pour its sunshine into every place where thore is lurking
care or suffering, she selects for illustration the scenes of every-day experience, paints them with exact fidelity, and seeks to diffuse over the
mind a delicious serenity, and in the heart kind feelings and sympathiies, and wise ambition, and steady hope. Her style is colloquial, picturesque, and marked by a facile grace, which is evidently a gift of nature. Her characters are nicely drawn and delicately contrasted; her
delineation of manners decidedly the best that have appeared.-Prose
Writers of Amnericas.
MEMOIR  OF JOSEPH CURTIS.  A Model
Man.  By the Author of "Married or Sin
gle?" "Means and Ends," "The Linwoods,"
"Hope Leslie," "Live and Let Live," &c., &c.
16mo, Muslin, 50 cents.
MARRIED  OR  SINGLE?  By Miss CATHA        RINE M. SEDGWICK, Author of "Hope Leslie,"
"The Linwoods," "Means and Ends," "Live
and Let Live," &c., &c. 2 vols. 1 zmo, Muslin, $1 7 5 
2        MISS SEI1GWICK'S WORKS.
LIVE AND  LET  LIVE;  or, Domestic Service
Illustrated. By Miss C. M. SEDGWICK. I 8mo,
Muslin, 45 cents.
M    EANS AND ENDS; or, Self-training.  By Miss
C. M. SEDGWICK. 18mo, Muslin, 45 cents.
A  LOVE TOKEN FOR CHILDREN.  De    signed for Sunday-School Libraries.   By Miss
C. M. SEDGWICK. I Smo, Muslin, 45 cents.
HE POOR RICH MAN AND THE RICH
POOR MAN. By Miss C. M. SEDGWICK.
I Smo, Muslin, 45 cents.
STORIES FOR YOUNG PERSONS. By Miss
C. M. SEDGWIcK.  I Smo, Muslin, 45 cents.
W  ILTON HARVEY, AND OTHER TALES.
By Miss C. M. SEDGWICK. x S8mno, Muslin,
4; cents