Year: 1859

AfuPN'iAehAi


PreSchings upon Popular Proverbs.



BIT TIMOTHY T1rooMB.-NuNmER rwENrY-sEvES.


"Consder we'll and oft why thou camest into the world and
how thou must 60 out Of t."


"Careoss let their end steal upon them and
unprOvded."


"our birth made us mortal our death will make us mmor.
tall"


ale that fears not the future may enjoy the present"


Why was I--why was you-called forth
from Dotbingness into q world of danger
and pain, and sin and death ? That is a
question that has blistered the lips of a
million of wretches, and we who are hap
pier, though still the subjects of evil, may
well ask it, and consider it.


The earth has been the subject of two
grand experiments, and in the results of
these, we are to find the answer, if any
where. Six thousand years ago two per-
sons-a man and woman-were born in
the world, and awoke to the consciousness
of existence They were so pure and so
good that they we're open to free intercourse
with God and spiritual intelligences. Their
tent was the blue sky, the floor of their
dwelling was carpeted with Eden's grass
and flowers, and fruits, heaven provided
hung on every hand They knew no dan
ger, they felt no pain, they were free from
guilt, and had no fear of death. They
were adapted to drink in happiness from
the things around them, and the things
around them were adapted to supply their
desires A pair Of perfect bodies, pair
of pure spirits, they found themselves in
what seemed to be, and was to them. per-
Iaof vvnplI fNhou da in fna ipoa IN
of God, and were therefore free. This free
dom was essential to their perfection, their
dignity, and that development to which
their maker looked as the crowning excel
lence and glory of those whom He would
call his children.


But there could be no such thing as right
without its pposite-wrong and no good
without its opposite-evil. They were Free
and could obey the laws placed upon them,
and thus perpetuate their happy estate, or
they could do wrong, and blast it. They
yielded to the first temptation to do wrong,
and found themselves and the world trans
formed. The first experiment contemplated
the development Of humanity into its high
form and noblest quality without the min
istry of evil. 1t was a failure, and God,
who instituted the experiment that we might
answer the great question we are consider
ing, knew it would be 1t was brief terri
bic and decisive. The parents and repre-
sentatives of the race were driven out of
the garden, and they and all their posterity
have been subjected to new experiment
"a better and safer one. 1t was better
that Adam and Eve should fall then and
ibara than n fhnncan1 oftarmord
The experiment was tried under the most
favorable circumstances, and did not sue
ceed. That was enough for the world
There had been experiments before-how
many we know not-but we know that
there were great beings who had failed to
keep their first estate, and had done i'm
measurable mischief in the spiritual universe.
The Bible tells of this.


The new experiment-that of which all
of us are the subjects-contemp the
introduction of the race into its highest
estate through the vestibule of evil. We
are to take evil at this end, and not at the
othe. We are to become familiar with sin
and its effects, to overpower temptation, to
become perfect through suffering" We
are to win strength by struggle, and to
have our love of that which is good devel-
oped side by side with our hatred of that
which is bad Our spiritual natures are to
be knit into frmness by toll to be harden
ed into power by conflict, to be softened in-
to humility by the experience of their weak
ness, to be rendered tractable by affliction,
and thus fitted for safe eternity. What
do you say of this experiment Is not a
nd Il
Tell me not one of the millions who fail of
this ! leave them in the hands of that
beneVolence that has devised such great
things for you and for me. That this is
the exact motive Of the experiment now in
progress in this world, have no doubt !;
and | do not believe, considering the length
of time it has perseVered in, and the nature
of the agencies that have been introduced
that it will prove to be failure. If 1 did,
| should lose all faith in God. 1 believe
that the world, as it is-oonsidering the
nature and duration of our existence and
the nature of ourselves and the service and
society for which we are designed-is the
best and safest world we could be placed
in. There leave it.


WE'LL is this existence, which have en-
tered upon by no act of my own, on the
whole blessing Do you feel it to be so
to you, or not ? How would you like to
be annihilated-to be wiped out as q con-
scious existence, and plunged into the dark
nothingness from whence you came You
shrink from The thought, and so do l.
Why ? Because, and only because, we be-
lieve, with all healthy souls, that existence
is blessing. We love life, here and now,
in this world Of sickness, sorrow and death
II, then, existence be blessing, little or
large, to us, and we were born into world
of suffering and of sin for the purpose of
fitting us to live safely and securely through
all the coming ages of our existence, cer-
tainly it becomes us to take it contentedly,
to front our destiny boldly and trustfully,
and see what we can make of it. We are
to consider not only why we came into ex-
istence in such a world as this, but how soon
we must go out of it, and how brief, at
longest the period of this momentous ex.
pertinent will be.


If this world be not place for educa-
ton of some sort, it has little meaning
The idea that man should be placed in the
La, noas fhaf currOund ns ond cnh-