92 PERMANENCY OF DIVINE TRUTH. roam the earth, and need no more than mere animal instinct to meet every emergency, and satisfy every want; but here we have an innate sense of right, as a prompter and guide to action so strong as to have the force of law; and things would be inexplicable and irreconcilable unless we suppose man is in a state of probation, destined to another scene of existence be an actor under another and more perfect administration than this. - to We may, indeed, conceive of a state of society where virtue would be wooed, loved, and wedded for its own sake; but if we suppose this, we must conceive also a different race of beings from that which now inhabits the earth, for all our present knowledge would be inapplicable, the basis whereon. we stand would be swept away, and we should have nothing left but an indefinable ideal, or necessity for a new creation, with very little reason to hope for the interposition of the Divine Artificer to aid in fashioning models after our own miserable patterns. If things are not just as we, in our short-sightedness, would have them, how much better to take them as they are, than to risk the "chaos and dire confusion" which we should inevitably bring on ourselves by a fancied change! Thus they must be taken rather they must remain thus, for the counsels of eternal truth shall stand, and the mouldings of God's house shall be everlastingly fixed, whatever change the haughtiness of man may suggest. Whatever may be the opinions and attempts of the latter, whatever paths he would open for the present and mark out for the future, we would turn from them all to the sure adumbrations of truth and immortality which the Divine Author has traced for us in the great volume of Nature; and this great book "has been the music of gentle and pious minds in all ages it is the tendency of all human nature to read in it a figurative sense, and to find therein correspondences and symbols of the spiritual world." TEACHINGS OF NATURE. 93 CHAPTER VI. INEQUALITIES OF THE PRESENT LIFE. Teachings of Nature. Character of God. Virtue and Vice unrewarded here. Waldensian Persecution. teenth.-Days of Martyrdom. - Mysterious Providences. - Life apparently a Season of Discipline. "This life is all checkered with pleasures and woes, · Moore. A VERY few in this world, by the adjustment of self-imposed scales upon their organs of vision, have affirmed that they have never seen the evidence of a God in what others have been wont to call a divine transcript, radiant with meaning, and full of plain fact to this very end. They have looked into the great book of Nature, where every page speaks of its Divine Author, and their sight has been so dim, that they have failed to see, or, seeing, refused to receive, the evidence of their senses, and so gone on wilfully blind to the grandest conceivable expressions of beauty and truth that could come before the gaze of man on earth. It is only a few, however, that are able to resist the force of the mighty arguments that meet them on every hand; only a few that can look at the complicated structure of the human system, observing the nice adjustment, the harmony and adaptation of every part, without acknowledging a power and skill, of wondrous origin, attributable to no known source, and therefore above and beyond all they know in any being like themselves. 94 TEACHINGS OF NATURE. Such design and such contrivance must belong to some superior being; and when is superadded the weight of evidence from the external world, the conviction is overwhelming, and the majority of mankind cry out, "There is a God." Mind would trace out his character; and, as in human life the characteristics of a man are seen in the efforts of his genius, his method of action, so also do we take these divine exhibitions as a transcript of the character of this Being. Reason then asserts, that He who caused this grand display — who wrought and fashioned so glorious a scheme, so perfect a model should have it under his own immediate control, and subject to his pleasure and disposal. Any plan of action He might see fit to adopt would unquestionably be his right, and the principles which move him in the administration of his government such as no one could question until he could establish claims to higher wisdom and deeper design. The management of the elements of nature, in connection with and adaptation to the wants and welfare of man, indicate the action of infinite benevolence, while other things show that justice is not less a trait of the divine character. That perfect harmony exists in the creative mind is a conclusion very easily attained, for the proofs of this are beautifully apparent; and thus all God's attributes are traced out by the eye of reason; indeed it is all that man can know until some revelation is made; and it is enough to show God's character, and to deduce some just ideas of his government, for laws are types of the disposition of rulers—in no case more than with Him who is the great Prototype of all law. Although it be comparatively easy to trace out the attributes of God, and the nature of his government, from the consideration of his works, and his dealings with men, it is not so easy to go farther, and decide upon their ultimate destiny. All that we can know of future existence here is what we might naturally suppose a Being of such attributes, of such CHARACTER OF GOD. 95 character, would, in all probability, prepare for his subjects. Justice and rectitude, if we may so speak, are qualities of his nature; and we therefore look for the incorporation of these elements into the laws whereby he governs his creatures, and suppose that the joint inscriptions of these upon the tablets of the universe, and of the human heart, speak an importance of no slight moment that they stand, and will continue to stand, everlasting memorials of everlasting minds. But we do not find these principles wholly carried out in this life. Virtue does not always meet its reward, nor vice its punishment, and we are led to think the fullest display is reserved, and instead of the triumph being witnessed by people upon the shores of time, it will be seen on the other side. The divine character would be robbed of much of the beauty that reason sees in it, to suppose that this world is the only scene of rewards and punishments; for it would imply a strange partiality, and detract altogether from the regal majesty she had enthroned there. It would be like sweeping away the foundation-stone to a building, leaving the superstructure to totter and fall. In both cases, amazed beholders might weep over the ruins; but, while in one instance order might be easily restored, in the other no possible agency could prevent confusion. No introduce disorder where we may, the attributes of God and the principles of his government are eternally sure; and yet, as we have said, the equity of his administration is by no means observable if we limit it to time. Hence the inequalities of life must afford an argument for a future state. Virtue is born of God - He delights in it; and yet how often do we see the poor pilgrim at its shrine conversant with every form of suffering, bending beneath the burden of his woes, while every step in his course only seems to add to its weight and this not for once, but through successive years, is his constant portion. Trustful and patient, he bears his accumulated ills, always 96 INCOMPLETE REWARDS HERE. hoping for light to illumine the darkness, until the last drop of oil is spent in the lamp of life, and he expires; but of such we are wont to say, He shall have his reward. God will not suffer the child of his love to be eternally trampled under foot. And we conclude that virtue, like truth, if "crushed to earth shall rise again," lifted by a mighty hand, that will tenderly bind each bleeding wound when the feverish system will allow its perfect close. In multitudes of instances, virtue has gone through life unrewarded, while vice and wrong have revelled in prosperity, and known every species of luxury. A case comes to mind — only one of a numberless list. In a certain city, and on its principal street, may be seen a large building, the front of which shows the taste, wealth, and industry of its owner. The various wares upon exhibition show an extensive interest in trade; nor is it a false intimation. Success has crowned all his endeavors. And now ships from the seas, and engines on land, pour their treasures into his overflowing coffers. No clouds appear in his sky; on the contrary, only the undimmed brightness of prosperity; and all this while he is actuated by a selfish devotion, that makes him unmindful of God's claims, and indifferent to the obligations of piety and virtue. Even the Sabbath is secretly unwelcome, because of the transient interruption of his business engagements; and the holy convocation is turned, in effect, to a scene of merchandise. Still the song of the dawning week is success, and the years are ushered in by new columns for his book of gain, and new calls to strengthen and enlarge the bands which encircle his spreading treasures. An obscure garret in this building is rented to a poor, lone woman, who has seen, one by one, the friends of her youth desert her, and like a solitary tree the tempest has spared, living on till the "Lord of the vineyard" shall order its prostration for his own purposes. She remains to fill out the remnant of her days. Her physical system has long since ceased to feel the inspiration of healthful |