Year: 1874




of transcendent importance to manli-


ness of life, and do not thank any


man that goes around and blows out


my hope of Immortality and calls hi :


self scientist. | want the hope.-
You tell me | shall not exercise my


Imagination in daily air-castles -


don't l know that? My home in


Peekskill, which build every year, is


castle in the air. and not built yet,


but / draw the plans for it and that


don't cost anything. l build it with
Just so many rooms. and can see just


how the light falls through the vari-


Gus windows, and all this comforts me;


and shall man say to me, where
fore build an air castle? It's all air."
| know that, because L did not pay
ANYTHING for it, but it is rot nothing


for all that: it is the realization of hap
piness it is Joy, and that l think is


what we are all after. And so, If the


use of the imagination is good in fa-
! milliar things, how much more in
| grander things how much more that


sweeter one by which manhood is


lifted out of its littleneSs here, and we
feel ourselves to be the sons OF God,
| though we do not know what We
I shall be? This hope is not to be ex-


tinguished because / can not prove 1T


as chemist or naturalist can prove


certain physical formula. It may be


demonstrated that man is an animal,


and has very little conscious need. l


watch my cows and my oxen, and one


of the most striking things L observe


in them is, how cOntented they are. l


hear men refer to the animal creation


as an example TO men. | would not be


an OK for the sake of being contented.


The OK is satisfied with grass and wa


ter, but how small Il man must he be


whose heart is fed with grass and wa


ter. Are we to take our examples


from them. that only have for them
selves what nature gives 70 them p
| We want more, or we ought to want


more. The development Of man does
| not lead to cOutentment here but to
| the conscious need of something more
| and higher. AS they rise higher and
| higher. men feel that the world does
| not satisfy, ahd that there is, in fact, q
more perfect development, and man
| 10y education perceiYes that his man.
hood cannot he perfected in time
Happiness is the proper state of man,
but il does not follow that it is to be III


this world. All the way up We are
rude, we are coarse, we are anything
| but radiant. Now, it is true that hap
| piness in low spheres is the test of life,
| but take the race. and it is fact that
| happiness is not the best thing for US.
1t is a fact that those men that are
born under circumstances in which
they are content, and ale pleased all
the time, and that enjoy all the while,
men in this stage of existence, are gem
orally very poor sort Of men. JOY Is
our portion. when we are able to bear
1t, but in all the earlier stages it is
found that men are made by hal dship,
by suffering, by hard knocks and dis
appointments. The children of poor
parents have better chance than the
children of the rich, because they
have more nerve to endure. \ man
says, My child shall not walk the hard
way that had to walk, - and he does
not ;; he walks by soft ways and is soft
all the while. In such world as this
you can understand how men should
look out TO another stage Of existence
when these things will have passed
away because the necessity Will have
passed away. We shall have learned,
we shall start in life i'll the new world
with capital, with some experience. l
know that it is thought that men have
had an existence before. When / con-
slider what the sum of some men is, if
they ever did exist before and accu-
mulated anything, it must have been in
world where infinitesimal quantities
may be found, they ca;4e ioto this
world so near zero.


Abiding to the teachings of Paul,
Mr.. Beecher said;


There never was a man of so much
manhood as Paul, and there will be
ten Shakespeares before there will an
other Paul, He had the sense of the
spirit world, and it acted upon his
whole interior nature in such q way
that every throb and pulsatiOn that ex-
pressed itself in his writings was that
of man who longed for more com
plete seIf-bood. No man can be man
tnat does not bear great deal of sOr-
row on account of the race, and he
may well long fOc state in which ne
shall be elevated above that necessity.
The highest longing is that which
cannot be eXpreseed-a longing to be
with God. ! do not think that this
longing ever comes in such shape as
the catech' SIN and theology methods
attempt to produce it in. When
think of God [ never long for him
the intellectual state, so long as it ex-
lists, prevents the emOtive state, but
there are states of the mind when the
soul pants for God, as the heart after
the water-brooks, The use of the fu-
ture is to inspire patience in the pres
ent, to give new courage under diff
culties, to give new fruitfulness in ev-
cry stage of existence to which they
are called. Oye, on whom the har-
ness CRATES, We. that are tired and
heart sick, whose cup has been broken
at the fountain; ye for whom life hath
little worth, weak and sick, hopeless
and Gespondent, heart aching; here is
your consolation. Hope you on, the
morning comes, the days hasten into
weeks, the weeks hasten into months,
the months into years. You are not
| what you seem to be. This life is not
all. Here are disciplines you cannot
| understand, but the future lies before
you, inspired by which, hope on APP
proved, rejoiced in by thousands whom
YOU have known before. Do not be
discouraged because on the way you
falter. Trust in God, and hope for
| the future. Do not call it vlssiOn.-
| From that high and blessed estate,


from that kingdom, from that resplen-
dent city, from Gods immediate
household, towards which you are
hastening-bring down from that
strength, the comfort which that hope
shall give you. Be cheerful. patient
do not count yourselves unworthy Of
suffering. Shall the master wear the
crown of thOrns and you never know
one innocent nettle? Shall he be cut
Off with ignominy and you have no
badges that ehafe? Is the disciple bet
ter than the master? By his suffering
what have you escaped? BE content
to reap some benefit from your own
suffering. BE manly, bope, courages.
Do not look at the grave as being
prisoned land ; do not look at sickness,
limitations, weakness, as so many evils
to he dreaded. They are all Gods
messengers. The gate of death-black,
is it? Ifyou could but take the black
ness from your own eyes, the gate of
death is that gate of pearl of which
the records speak most glorious gate.