Year: 1867

RELIGION


1t is not my province to tell you which
creed or church is superior to all others, nor
yet to argue that all Of them are equally
good, nor that belief and unbelief are Of no
practical account. On this head / will on
" say generally, that the good son Of Yir-
tuous, intelligent parents, viii be very apt
to abide in their faith and communion until
he is quite sure that his understanding is
mature, and his knowledge as to facts and
principles at least equal to theirs. What
would wish to urge, is this-that one essen
tial, fundamental, base of a noble career, in
my view is firm, clear, living conviction
that the universe Is no accident-no casual
product of fare or chance or the fortuItous
conclusions Of atoms-but the Creation Of
an omnipresent, omniseient, omnirotent
VIII.


No man is old enough OF wise enough to
solve all the problems presented to finite
minds by what we see and know. If the
universe has a Creator, must there not have
been time when it did not exist? IF God
made all things but Himself, must He not
have previously existed alone2 And must
not Infnity have been enlarged by the sub
sequent calling of the material universe into
being? Thus question after question may
be asked to which no satisfactory answer
can be given, and with reference to which
we can only say with Tennyson:


~ sink upon the altar stairs,


That dope through darkness up to God"


But, when we cult the dreary domain of
speculation. all is simple, cheerful, certain.
We are not the waits of Chance, the slaves
of Necessity. Though now we see through
a glass darkly," we can yet see enough to
render it certain that we are children Of an
infinitely powerful, wise and good Parent
too wise and too loving to permit US to defy
His laws with impunity He must punish
every alteration from the straight and mar
row path of Righteousness-that is, Recti-
tude-He would not be absolutely good if
He did not. To permit US to do wrong with
impuuity-to break His laws and secure
thereby seeming personal advantage or graf
ifcation, at the expense of general injury
would be to resign His benignant scepter,
and allow the world to drift helplessly to-
ward Chaos and the unfathomable abyss. I


The vital truth is terselY summed up by
the Psalmist, in the statement. The fool
hath said in his heart, There is no God. .
That's the one great, fatal mistake which
covers our globe with misery and woe. But
for this, there could be no libertine, no thief,
no drunkard, no helnuus transgressor. The
conceit that God justice may be somehow
evaded, circumvented the pleasures
of sin may be enjoyed, and His penalties es-
caped-is form of qualified Atheism i'm
mensely more prevalent and more baleful
than any other. 1t is the omnipresent
prompter of greed and lust and indolenee
and knayery less palpably absurd than the
notion that nothing originated everything,
it is more widely cherished, moro vastly in
furious.


Let no one harbor doubt Of the uniger-
salty, the inexorable, unavoidable certainty
of Retribution. In spite of all deceiVine
appearances, we reap as we have sown anc
receive as we have deserved. The success
sion of effect to cause is not always instan
nor obvious-appearan may often,seem t
ignore or defy as plainly as the sun seems
to revolYe around the earth; but the trutf
is obscured-never subverted. God reigns
that is the great first trnth. lie does no
merely contemplate and oversee; He de
signs, directs and DEGREES, and is never dis
concerted nor disappointed. What to u
are alterations, defeats, disasters, are t.
Him, who foreseeth the end from the be
ginning, but steps toward the fulflment 0
His transcendent, benefcent purposes o
Universal Good.


Young friends, l do not intend to preacl
to you, and you viii probably hear no NOR
from me in this precise vein. But ever
plan Of life and duty must find anchorage i