Year: 1861


suspected Of jest IN this statement, wish
to assure my reader that an entirely in
earnest. Intimate contact with the nature
of o good woman, in the relation Of mar
riage, is just as necessary to the complete.
ness Of manhood, as the details Of an archi-
tectural design are to the homely convent.
ences around which they are made to clus.
ter. Every mau is better man for having
children, aud the more he extends those re.
lations which grow out Of the family life,
the more does he open up to culture and
carry to completeness the very choicest por-
tions Of his manly nature 1t is natural,
therefore, that an unmarried women should
become possessed Of the notion that all the
desirable men are married, and that tie un.
married men should be the subjects Of
similar mistake with the relation to the
other sex. 1t must bo remembered that
men and women are made desirable by
matrlmoDy, and that half finisbed work
should not be subject to any sweeping iudg.
ments. ...


Men aud women are always turning out
differently from what we expected and pre.
dieted they would Men who have been
laughed at and slightcd during oil their
early life, become quite to our surprise. We.
ry important and notable persons, and we
are mortified to ascertain tina. we havr.been
criticisiDg halffnished men. The college
faculty give a diploma to some very slow
young men, with great reluctance, but in
the course of twenty years he completes
himself, and when he comes back to honor
them with q visit they make very low
bows 10 him. All young people are pieces
of nntini shed wuik, TO be judged very care
fully, and always to be regarded rs incom-
pIete We can say that we do not like the
style OF an unfinished house. Grecian may
not be our liking, and we may perfer
Gothic.


1t seems 10 me that the Christian church
suffers more from the judgemnts of those
who criiicise unfinished work than any or
ganised body Of men and women Here is
an organization whose members do not pre.
tend o perfection whose whole theory for
bids any such idea. They are the disciples
Learners Of the Divine Master. They are
members o! school in which cue never ar.
rives at fullness of knowledge Their pray.
er Is that they may grow, and they
know that they have the true life in them
they will grow while they live. If there
is one thing in the world of which they art
painfully conscious il IL that they arc piece
of of unfinished work. Some of their mem
bers are very much lower in the scale o
completeness than others. In some there
is only a confused pile of timber and bricks
In others only part of the frame is up,
or the walls are hardly more than begun.
In others, perhaps, the roof is on. In
comparatively few do we see the outlines
all defined and the room in good degree
of completeness. In none of them is there
perfected structure, and none see and &c
knowledge their incompleteness more thar
those whose characters are farthest advanc
ed toward perfection.


Now put it to the world outside of the
Christian church to say if it has been entire
ly fair and just in its judgments of Tho
church. Has it not judged Of Christianity
by these imperfect disciples, and has it no,
condemned these imperfect disciples because
they are not what they never pretended tc
be Has it not criticised half.fnshed work
and condemned not only the work. bnt
Christianity itself, because this work wa
no: upon the sample ? 1t is very common
to hear men soy that such and such Chris
tian is no better than the average of pee
pie outside the Christian church, thus cor
demning the genuineness of his characte
because he is not perfect Christian.
house is house even if it be only half fr
ished. Az least, it is not anything else


and as Christians, cannot by any possibilit


be perfected ON the instant, it follows thu
the large majority Of Christians must be i


various stages of progress-noy, that mos
of this large majority are not even half fin
ished. The Christian church itself is
piece of unfinished work, and every ind


vidual member is the same. 1t is not pre-
tended that either is anything else. lueV
er knew a Christian to set himself up as


pattern So far as know, they are yer


shy of pretentions, and depreciate nothin


more than the thought that anybod
should take them for flushed specimens {


the work of Christianity in human life an


character.


} A sermon npon any important subject


always piece of unfinished work. l ono
. heard famous preacher say that he coul
preach throughout his whole life on the tex
+ ''tbe heart is deceitfnl above all things an


desnerately wicked" and even then haV
something left to say. The statement lilo
trates the many-sideduess Of truth and II


multitude of its relations to the life Of u
, individual and the world. Any sensib
preacher knows that within the compass
, single sermon he can only present 81
! gle aspect of a great and important trut
. vet be is criticised as if it had been expee
n cd that the work Of dozen volumes cou
q be crowded into the utterauce OF half I
' hour. What is called an exhaustive" Sc
mon would exhaust an audience long befo
5 it would its subject. A sermon is only q
d dab of brush upon o great picture, aud
d it gives a single striking view of sing
Is great truth, it accomplishes its object.
g must necessarily be an unfinished piece
q regards its exposition of truth, and I
4 same may be said of any essay on any 81
n ject. Every writer begins in the middle
d things, aud leaves of in the middle Of thin
e and everything he writes relates at so
i point to everything that everybody


written. No man cleans up the field o.
: which he walks, and leaves nothing TO
. said and the best We do Is un6nisf
. work.


,f There are those who. in view Of the