152

THE TRUE ECONOMY OF LIVING.

pending. It would seem as though all the past were but the thought and the hint of the existence of that eternity; and yet, you are squandering before you reach it what you will need there. You are losing the other life because you are determined to have this life. You want this world, and you are paying the whole of the other world for it.

May God grant that wisdom to you by which you shall understand that he who lives rightly for heaven inherits the earth; while he who inherits the earth first forfeits heaven. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

Our Heavenly Father, thou hast made the way to thy feet plain and pleasant to us. We once sought thee as strangers, seeking a strange place in a strange far country; but now we are children of our home, and have been made so well acquainted with thee, that it is as drawing near to our Father's house. And as there were around about our home in childhood a thousand associations which cannot die out, and after which we go back, now renewing pleasure at every step, so, besides what we get of thee from day to day in asking, there are all the sweet memories of the past; all the times of sorrow in which we came trooping to thee, and went away walking erect as the sons of God; all the days in which we went to thee full of uncertainty and doubt, and went away seeing and most happy. We have been to thee with heavy burdens; and though sometimes the burdens were taken away, of tener thou hast given us strength to bear them. We have been to thee in times of remorse and shame, and so gracious wert thou that we forgot to be ashamed, and only admired and adored the greatness and goodness of thy soul. And now we have learned to think of thee as ineffable in love. speakably kind art thou. Our thoughts praise thee better than our lips can. Silently we are more to thee than we can be in open petition. And thou lookest upon our souls, O blessed Father, and dost accept the incense of praise and gratitude, the thoughts of love, and the joys that sing to thee silently.

Un

We rejoice that thou art such an One, and that there is such affluence of understanding between thee and us. Looking out of thy greatness as from a palace, thou dost behold us, though we are poor, and draw near to thee in all our insignificance. But we are to be like thee. This is thy work-to draw us up out of these beginnings, that seem so far away and so poor, to a glorious ending. As from seeds that are most insignificant, we behold the vines and blossoms that come in all their glory, when the sun hath wrought long enough at them; so thou dost, out of this miserable beginning of human life, work up finally the glory of immortality. And thou dost bring forth out of homeliness rare beauty; and out of hated things, things most sweet and beautiful. We bless thee, that thou art working in us, and rejoice that it is God that worketh in us to will and to do. For who could possibly find his way to manhood, who could withstand all the

THE TRUE ECONOMY OF LIVING.

153

temptations and wiles which beset us, without thy help? It is because we are guided and guarded and evermore inspired, that we have hope that we shall persevere unto the end, and finally be saved; and that we shall be exalted into glory and honor and immortality; and that beauty shall descend upon us to depart no more; and that all those things which cause us, here on earth, weakness, and pain, and shame, shall pass away and return no more forever.

And now, O Lord our God! we thank thee for all thy faithfulness. We beseech of thee that we may not provoke it by our continuous pride; by our hardness of heart; by our indocility. We do not know, as thou dost, how poor and needy we are; and yet we know and feel that we are needy every day. And to-day we come to be filled with generous affections. We desire, to-day, to have our faith made more comprehensive, and bolder. To-day we desire, by hope, to take possession of the things that are ours. Come hither, as we have, from every source and every quarter of life; come hither, as many of us have, in troubles, under burdens, and with crosses and yokes to bear; come hither, as many of us have, from poverty, and anxiety, and distress, and bereavements, and anguish of soul, our wants are plain to thee, thou Bounty-giver. And for every one thou hast a message of duty to-day. And as, in the garden, thou didst call Mary by name, and she knew thee, so silently call by name every one in thy presence to-day, that each one may know that it is the Saviour, and their Saviour, drawing near for mercy; knowing them altogether-a High priest that can be touched with the feeling of infirmities, and has been tempted in all points as we are, and yet without sin, and is able to succor those that come boldly now to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and help in time of need. Oh! look upon all whose need is great at this time. Look upon all that need thee, and know it; and upon all those, more wretched, who need thee, and know it not.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt grant that we may be awakened to things beyond our senses, and beyond the range of this earthly life. Grant that we may come into the full faith and rejoicing of our whole manhood, as we stand in Christ Jesus. And we pray that thou wilt fill the heart of every one that comes hither to day, with thy mercies, as they severally need. Strengthen the weak. Inspire hope in the desponding. Give consolation to those that are afflicted. Teach wisdom to those that lack it, and ask thee. And grant, we pray thee, that there may be an inspiration that shall lead aright those that look to thee for direction in perplexing circumstances in life. Be all things to all, this morning. Make every one to feel how gracious and how condescending and how abounding is his God.

We beseech of thee, O Lord !that thou wilt look upon all those that are gathered this day to worship thee, strangers in a strange land; and grant that they may find here their mother, their father, and their brethren, in their Father's house. And look upon their heart-yearnings. Look upon all their ways and desires. And grant that they may be surprised by God's great goodness this day. Crown them abundantly with thy blessings.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt look upon all those, this day, that are coming to thee and asking for righteousness, and hungering and thirsting for higher disclosures of thy nature, and for higher ways of life. May they, O Lord! be filled-for thou has promised it.

Draw near to those that to-day would see thee, the Chief among ten thousand, altogether lovely. Reveal thyself unto them as thou dost not unto the world. Be near to all those, we beseech of thee, who are here to-day, looking wistfully upon the face of things, and yet knowing that they are not thine, and their life is not according to truth, nor according to the word of the Lord. And we beseech of thee that thou wilt inspire them with a nobler purpose, with a more generous determination. May they be able to contradict and throw away their old life. May they be able to take on a new life in Christ Jesus. May they be able to take a higher measure, and to live hereafter by a nobler ideal. And we beseech of thee that thy kingdom may come, and that thy will may be done, in hearts that are now rebellious.

154

THE TRUE ECONOMY OF LIVING.

Among the outcast and the needy, O Lord, our God, be thou found; and raise up many that shall go forth out of a living experience, to teach a new Gospel-the old Gospel made new by the experience of the heart that teaches it.

And we pray that love may prevail everywhere. We long for a time when the passions shall not be in ascendency; when faith and righteousness and true holiness shall rule in all the earth; when our laws shall be made in the spirit of justice, and executed impartially; and when all our officers shall be men of righteouness, seeking God's favor and the welfare of man. When shall the day come, that the earth shall be no more ravaged? How long is it needful to wait? O thou that dwellest in clouds and darkness. O thou that seemest to be slumbering through ages, but that never slumberest nor sleepest, when wilt thou come forth? When shall this guilty term end? When shall men awake and come forth from all their degradations? When shall wars cease, and superstitions, with all their cruelties, pass away? When shall knowledge shine brightly, bringing men to love and to God? Hasten that day, O Lord, we beseech thee, when nations shall learn war no more; when justice shall be the stability of the times; when righteousness shall prevail; when nations shall seek each other's good; when the spirit of the beast shall pass from out of the earth, and the spirit of men in Christ shall come to take its place. For thou hast promised that the whole earth shall see thy glory. Let it dawn. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly; for the whole earth doth wait for thee, and in thine absence is dark and sad and sorrowful.

And we beseech of thee that this day thou wilt strengthen the hands of all those that are setting forth the kingdom of our dear Saviour. Be with those that are in destitute places, far remote from civilization. Remember those that are in sickness and under discouragements, seeking in new states to lay the foundations for future generations. Comfort them. Give them holier thoughts than other men have for the vicissitudes of their life. And we beseech of thee that thou wilt raise up more and more to teach everywhere the poor and the ignorant. And grant that men may be inspired by thy example, and by the example of holy men in every age, to go forth doing good to their fellows, seeking not their own but others, welfare.

And so let thy kingdom be advanced, let thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, and all the world filled with thy glory.

Which we ask for Christ's sake. Amen.

PRAYER AFTER THE SERMON.

Command thy blessing, Our Father, to rest upon the word which we have spoken. Grant that we may arouse ourselves as becomes men, and look at truth as becomes the sons of God. May we never forget our birth, our lineage, our destiny. May we hear in ourselves the calls from the heavenly land. All those monitions, all those fugitive inspirations, all those yearnings, and hungerings, and unsatisfied appetites, which the soul knows, may we understand to be thy call. Send forth from the land, beyond, O our Father! those messengers that shall hail us, and lead us, and guide us to thy heavenly estate. Let us not be content to build three tabernacles here, though it be even on the mount of transfiguration. May we be strangers and pilgrims on earth, seeking another and a better country, even an heavenly one. Bring us there that we may see each other. Grant that there we may see all that we have known and loved on earth. Grant that, beholding the light of thy countenance, and loving thee supremely, we may be strengthened to a grander love than we have known upon earth. And to the Father, the Son and the Spirit, shall be praises everlasting. Amer..

LAW OF HEREDITARY INFLUENCE.

"Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."-EXOD. xxxiv. 7.

This is the abrupt close of perhaps the most remarkable passage in the whole Scripture. We are accustomed to think that the knowledge of God's character, like all other human knowledges, has been subject to an unfolding process; that it dawned little by little upon the world; that at first God was taught as the Source of power, the Author of all phenomena; that he was monarchic and governmental; and that in the amelioration of manners, and in the growth of civility and of affection, there was a preparation made to teach larger and more interior views of God; namely, what may be called the domesticity of the divine nature-his private and personal sympathies and affections.

And so, when we have arranged this theory of the gradual opening of the divine character upon the world according to the most approved modern notions of science, suddenly there blazes up on the far horizon of time the most perfect description of God that yet exists; and not only the most perfect, but the earliest. There it stands, the fullest and sweetest and most perfect description of divine mercy and love. Listen to this description, which was given thousands of years ago:

"The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty."

And then, abruptly, we fall on that passage which we have selected for our text the doctrine of hereditary influence:

"Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."

As it surprises us to find antedating our philosophy this moral character of God, so one may be surprised, also, to see, long before the era of science, this clear disclosure of that great principle which pervades human life, and which modern science is now beginning to formulate, and to teach as a principle—the transmission of hereditary influences, good and bad.

SUNDAY EVENING, May 1, 1870. LESSON: PSA. XXVII, HYMNS (Plymouth Collection) : Nos. 249, 906, 1263.

Some have thought that men existed before they lived in this world. It is a pleasing dream. It can claim to be nothing more than that. But admitting it to be so, they certainly were not consulted as respects their introduction into this life. It is not given to any of us to say when, nor where, nor of whom, we shall be born, nor what circumstances shall surround us. We are born into life finding nature already completed. Her works are infrangible, inevitable. We are placed within the circuit of a system the minutest part of which has been determined. And we are not at liberty to overleap that circuit. Neither can we creep under it, nor in any way turn aside from it. We are born into a world where the whole economy of things was arranged before we came hither; and we are obliged to take things as we find them. And the circuit within which we have any power to form or change issues is very narrow. There is a circuit of liberty; but it is a very narrow circuit, within wide bounds of arbitrary and absolute enforcement.

ence.

Among the things which we find fixed inevitably in this life, is the circumstance, the necessity, of exerting influence and receiving influThere is no evidence that this economy pervades the vegetable world. We see no proof that one plant acts directly upon others. It is true that a tree affects the things that grow near it; but the tree does not act directly on those things. It prevents a certain influence from being exerted upon them by interposing itself between the sun and them. But men cannot stand alone in juxtaposition without more than simply affecting each other in this way. Men are made curiously, marvelously, both to exert and to receive influence; and it is difficult to to determine which tendency is the strongest. They are equipollent, probably. In some, perhaps, they may not be exactly balanced; but the average is about the same.

races.

The mind of man is unlike the attributes of the lower and nascent The nature of the human mind is such that a man must take on influence from all that are around about him, and must give out influence upon all that are around about him. We have no choice in the matter. Except by self-immuring, or absolute seclusion, we cannot break the force of this law. We do not alone influence men when we purpose to do it. When we bring the enginery of thought and emotion to bear, and determine voluntarily to produce effects upon men, then, to be sure, we influence them; but more often we influence them when we do not think of it even. We cannot help ourselves.

It is impossible for a stove in an apartment, being filled with fuel, and the fuel being set on fire, to retain its heat. It has to throw it out. And it is impossible for a man, living under the stimulus of power and emotion, to retain his influence. He must throw it out

upon men that are round about him.