Year: 1859

lating to the future think that the lack
of trust in God and our universal distrust
of men grow out of sense of our i'll desert
and our own untrustworthness. find al
ways those who are the richest in trust tow
ard God and man the most trustworthy in
themselves l find those who go about
with open hearts and honest lips, with no
intent of evil toward others, those who
trust men the most invariably. The
child trusts because it finds no reason in it.
self why it should not The charity that
thinketh no evil trusts in God and trusts
in men. The heart that knows itself to be
false, trusts neither in God nor men. So,
naturally, and after the common order of
things, we shall get no more trust in this
world until the world which must bring the
grace into exercise is better AS this world
grows better, the trust which forms the ba-
sis of its happiness will grow broader, a
more luxuriant, social life will spring up, &
the great brotherhood of humanity will
not only come nearer and nearer together
but they will be blended and fused in an
all-pervading sympathy.


Naturally, and after the common order
Of things, say, the world will have no
more voluntary trust until it is better; but
trusting as policy may be instituted for
the purpose Of making the world better
and it is the policy that I propose to make
the subject of that article A child that
comes to me in danger, or sorrow, or per-
plexity, and takes my hand, and looks into
my eyes, and utters its wants in trust, be-
gets in me trustworthiness, on the instant.
1t rouses into action all within me that is
good and honorable and true, and 1 cannot
betray that trust without loss of self-re-
Spect that will make me contemn myself
for lifetime. A maiden who comes into
my presence in guileless trust, and in any
way places her destiny in my hands, would
shame me into trustworthiness were my
heart teeming with impurity. Even the
timid hare, hunted from field to field, and
hard beset by the baying hounds, would
find protector in me should it leap des-
perately into my arms, and lay the tumult
Of its frightened heart upon the generous
beatings of mine The child, the maiden,
the hare would beget in me trustworthiness,
simply by trusting me. They would make
me considerate and generous and honorable.
/ should despise myself were 1 to harm
either by thought. Such beings, under
such circumstances, would come to me as
missionaries, bearing one Of the sweetest of
the lessons of Christ


These illustrations seem tome to be preg-
nant with meaning, and instinct with illu-
imitation. They open to me the door Of a
policy, and reveal to me ministry equally
beautiful and benefcient, yet they involve
no new law, and spring out of no newly
discovered principle. All seed produces
after its kind If | plant corn, reap
corn if plant lilies, gather lillies.-
Like produces like, in the spiritual no less
than in the material universe. Love be-
gets love anger begets anger. If SOW
to the wind, reap the whirlwind. So, if
l sow trust, reap trust The soil will
honor the seed Of course, state this as
general fact. There are souls as we'll as
soils that will produce nothing good. There
are souls as well as soils so sour, so rank
with pollution, or so poor that nothing but
weeds will grow in them but as general
fact, in the worlds of mind and matter, the
soil will honor the seed. Wherever there
may be the slightest promise of return, we
are to SOW our trust


Now what is the aspect that life presents
to us Is it not that of universal dis
trust Nay, has not diStrust become an
instituted thing, that has taken form in
maxims and proverbs There is hardly q
language that does not contain a proverh
which says in words, or effect trust thy
self only, and another shall not betray
thee"-a proverb that bears the very SINCE
and scent of hell. Thus distrust is not on
ly fact, but it has become policy. 1t
is inculcated by universal human society
and as like produces like, distrust is every


where reaped because It's everywhere
sown. We take no pains to nurse honor


by trusting it, We trust interest and ap'
petite and everything base and selfish in q


man quicker than we do any good quality


in him. We trust that which is beast-likC


in men, and refuse to trust that which il


Godlike We decline to bring honor into


exercise, and honor dwindles the treatment


One of the most notable illustrations o


the evil consequences of distrust is that af


forded by the relative position of the sexes


The institutions of society and education
so far as they have to do with these rela
, tions are established on the theory tina
men and women are not to be trusted to
gether. Our colleges and schools, and al
, the institutions and usuages of social life
recognize as a cardinal fact, the untrust
: worthness of men and women. They pro
ceed upon the theory that men will betra.
: if they can, and that virtue in women i
only name. Wherever this theory is push


ed to its extreme there we shall find al
, ways the qualities suspected suppos
, that there is no country in the world wher
young women are guarded with with sue
! care as in France The very extreme Q
punctilio is exacted On the part of parents
, and woman is hardly allowed to see he
lover alone until after her marriage. Th
duenna is her companion in society, as cor
, stantly as her own shadow. Yet in France
as in all countries where this extreme G
t caution is observed-where this dstrus
5 takes its severest FORMS female Virtu
e the rarest, and licentiousness the most un
r versal. Virtue shrinks and refuses to liv
D in the atmosphere of universal distrust.-
. Manly purity and honor find no use fc
themselves where they are neither believe
in nor appealed to. This distrust of til