brief, at longest, is human life, to waste it in protracted and dreamy conjecturings as to the possible origin of suffering, or its possible design. Your apologies or mine are unneeded to preserve untarnished the lustre of divine attributes. Our vindications of the Deity are wholly gratuitous. The character of the Infinite and Supreme, whether for justice or for mercy, is not likely to suffer in the absence of our defence. Here we are, in the midst of this brief passage of existence, with its vicissitude of joys, sorrows, regrets, and anxieties, its learnings and its labors. As the world is, the best of us must experience our share of goods and evils, disappointments and successes, enjoyments and sufferings. Why can we not be so truly wise, so truly philosophical, so truly Christian, so apostolic and so Christ-like, as to accept the world as it is, and, during the brief period for which it is our field of action, avail ourselves of actual knowledge justly to improve that which is obviously within our reach, and gratefully enjoy that which we improve, using this world as not abusing it? Man is great, -great in his nature, great in his capacities; his duties are great, and great is the destiny before him; yet, withal, he is only relatively great. On every side we perceive the confines of our knowledge. Ignorant of the hidden forces which may every hour combine in the atmosphere around us; unable by our most piercing vision to penetrate one inch below the surface of the earth beneath our feet; unable to foresee or distinguish the elements of nutriment or destruction, life or death, which we inhale in our momentary breathings; unable to look through this thin casement of flesh and read the

heart of a single human being, as to whether it throbs with hatred or with love; unable in our profoundest wisdom to comprehend the formation of a single bud, or leaf, or seed, the most diminutive;in such comparative ignorance of the very objects, the material objects, immediately before our eyes and beneath our hands, shall we bring down the Infinite Life? Shall we arraign the Creative Power and Supreme Disposer before the court of our puny, trembling judgment? Shall we, who cannot see one hour before us, - shall we challenge the controlling Power which moves myriads of worlds, and judge God for his deficiencies, pronounce to be imperfections in God's work, the merest vicissitudes within our narrow observation? The instinct of common modesty alone would pronounce these the most unreasonable pretensions of a reasonable being. As to corporeal suffering, the fact of its existence is undeniable; but these other facts must also be acknowledged, namely, that by proper precautions much suffering may be averted, and by proper applications most suffering may be mitigated, and much of it removed. All vindications of Providence, all defences of Deity, therefore, on the ground of the necessity of suffering, are unreasonable, as they are gratuitous, alike unbecoming to the philosopher, the man, or the Christian. We perceive that the occasion of suffering is either our ignorance or our sin, our want of knowledge or our wilful disregard of knowledge, except in case of voluntary pain for others' relief, and even then it is disregard. Though the proportion of suffering in the world is ver small to that of enjoyment or the absence of yet

there is enough to enlist our attention for its alleviation, and both the brevity of human life and the narrow limits of human knowledge forbid all dreamy and profitless conjecture as to its possible origin or design. By lightning-rods we avert the lightning, with the destruction and suffering which it might - occasion. By precaution we actually avoid much disease, and by medicine we actually remove much disease and the suffering it brings. These facts, then, that suffering may be, to a great extent, avoided or alleviated, are those which most concern us, which demand all the time and thought and aid, which, as moral agents, we have to render. True, suffering has its uses; it sometimes incidentally leads to health, and develops character, and elicits virtues. So cold winter leads to genial spring, and revival follows decay, and life proceeds from death. But it would be presumptuous indeed to deny that all the good which actually follows human suffering could not, in the natural order of Providence, be equally effected by other agencies, in the entire absence of corporeal pain or mental anguish. It would be as reasonable to allege that man cannot enjoy health without first a course of sickness, or enjoy food without a previous period of starvation; that man could not be innocent or virtuous without first being guilty or vicious. We now know something- let us diligently study and know more of the occasions of human suffering; and by enlarging the boundaries of our knowledge, by quickening the acuteness of our perceptions, by deepening our sympathies and stimulating our energies, we may elevate ourselves and do much toward accomplishing one of the no

blest ends of our individual existence, in ameliorating the present condition, and thus increasing eternally the aggregate happiness, of mankind. In loving, we become godlike, for God is love. Blessed are the pure in heart; for pure-heartedness, integrity of soul, unoffending conscience, these alone constitute now, and shall eternally constitute, that kingdom of Heaven in which suffering can achieve no victories, for death itself only opens the door to the full glory of its infinite riches.

DISCOURSE XV.

THOUGHTS CONNECTED WITH THE ORIGIN OF EVIL. THE OBJECT OF HUMAN LIFE.

CAN I DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL? 2 Samuel xix. 35.

IN meditating on the original design of things, and the adaptation of means to ends, the reflecting mind is led to inquire whether all that we call evil and all that we call good, all we regard as misfortune and all we regard as prosperity, may not be justly described as a matter of knowledge, more or less, all things being good with a true knowledge of their capacities and uses, and all evil in proportion to our want of knowledge and consequent misuse of things.

Does not all past history of human action strongly indicate that the object of human life is simply to acquire and to improve, and, as we acquire and improve, to appropriate and enjoy? Every faculty of our human nature, as far as we can discern, is adapted to ends which we recognize as good. Why then is there not a correspondence between each faculty and each one of its operations? May we