Year: 1859

trained from Jne nfSt QaWnlng OF their re-
gard for one another to believe in their mu-
tual untrustworthiness They are seated
on different sides of the room where they
meet to worship q common Lord They
are Gagged in boarding schools, kept from
association by all possible means, kept as
much as may be from all knowledge Of each
other, trained to impurity of imagination
by the very restraints which are put upon
them to keep them pure. believe in man
ly honor and womanly virtue and that
the more we trust them the more we devel-
op them. believe that an honor never
developed by the trust of pure and womanly
hearts, and virtue that has always lived
in the poisonous atmosphere of distrust,
and has never come out to stand alone in
its own sweet sell-assertion, are as good as
brown paper, and only better in exception
al instances | believe that all that is need
ed in America to make our nation as un-
trustworthy as France, is to draw the reins
still tighter, build the walls of partition
still higher, and come up, or down, to the
policy of ignoring or contemning any pow
er of virtue in men and women that will
keep them from sin.


Now let us take very simple and sug-
gestive illustration of this principle of trust
as it bears upon our general life. We meet,
passing through the streets Of the city or
town where we live, q stranger He ap-
proaches us, and informs us that he has
lost his way, and inquiries the direction of
his lodgings He places himself in his ig-
norance and helplessness, in our hands
He trusts the direction of his footsteps en-
tirely to US. We can deceive him if we
will but we are upon our honor at once.
We are trusted, and our hearts spring ma.
turally and inStantaneously up to honor
that trust. Now there is not one man in
one hundred, in any class of society, who
will not honor so simple trust, and who
does not feel that he is happier and better
in consequence of honoring it. AS polite
and hearty Offices of kindness has it been
my lot to receive from entire strangers, un-
der circumstances like these, as I have ever
received in my life To my mind, this lit
tie illustration denotes the general trust
worthinesS of men, and shows to me that
if / approach my fellows in a simple, honest
trust, they will deal fairly with me- Per
haps should except itinerant dealers ii
crockery and glass ware, professional Petel
Funks, Irishmen who work by the job, an(
others whose sole living it is to get larg


returns for Insignificant investments. Blu


1 do not propose to deal with these The,
are not my fellows, and have no relation


with them.


Everything good in man thriVes bes
when properly recognized. Men do abou
what we expect of them. IF man will
whom l have business relations perceive
that expect him to cheat me if he can
be will commonly do it. IT. on the contra
ry, he see that place implicit faith in his
honor-that trust him-everything good
in the man springs into life, and demands
that that trust be honored. The sordit
elements of his character may possibly tri
umph, but they will triumph by struggle


which will weaken them. fl am unwilling
to trust my son or my daughter out of m!
sight, may reasonably expect to plant anC
nourish in them precisely those qualities


which would make it dangerous for them tt
be out of my sight. If / refuse to trust thD
word of an honest man. may reasonabl.
expect that with me, at least, he will breal
faith at the earliest opportunity. If
place all men and women at arms length
in the fear that one will be treacherous t,
me, place myself beyond the desert o
good treatment at their hands-beyond tn


reach of their sympathies and their goot
will in short, insult them, and volunta
rily institute an antagonism which natural
II breeds mischief in them towards me.


So advocate the policy of universe


faith, as an essential condition of universe
faithfulnesS-of universal trust as q pre-
requisite for universal trustworthiness. Th


world does not half comprehend the princi
pie of overcoming evil with good. but cling


to the Internal policy Of overcoming evi
with evil / know of no power in tn
world but good with which to overcom


evil, and when / see on every side exhib
E bitions of a lack of personal honor knoV
that I can foster the honor that remains i


no way except by recognizing it and calling


it into development by direct practical az


peal One of the most remarkable an
suggestive passages in the Bible, as it seem
to me, is this :-"If we love not our brC


ther whom we have seen, how can we lov


God whom we have not seen I" Many wi
fail to see how such conclusion NATURAL
follows from such premises but a littl
consideration will show that by the amour
in which Godlike elements enter into hu
manity, do human elements enter into d
vinity and that if we fail to recogniz
and love these elements as they are exhibit
! ed to us in human life, we shall necessaril
! fail to recognize and love the same element
{ in being removed beyond our vision, anc


save as We see Him in humanity, beyon
: our comprehension. Now this thing is jui
q as true of trust as it is of love. If we ia
!. to trust that which is good in our brothe
. whom we we have seen, how can we tru'
t the same qualities in a Being whom "
{ have not seen, and of whom we know notl
3 ing definitely, save as He has exhibite
Himself to us in human life know
e nothing that antagonizes more directly wit


trust in the divine Being than the attituC
r and habit of distrust which we maintai
/ towards our fellows. / believe that histOl
Q and observation will prove the entire SCUM
| ness of this principle, and will show tht
!. every soul that sits apart from its brothe
, hood, in settled distrust, is devoid OF fail
n and trust in the Being from whom 1t spran
o l believe that God has laid the way to tru