SERMON XXI.

IMPERFECTION OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE.

1. CORINTHIANS, xiii. 12.

FOR NOW WE SEE THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY; BUT THEN FACE TO FACE; NOW I KNOW IN PART; BUT THEN SHALL I KNOW EVEN AS ALSO I AM KNOWN.

ONE of the strongest impressions, which rests upon a reflecting mind, when man surveys himself, the world in which he is placed, and human life in its countless changes, is that of the imperfection of human knowledge. With respect to many subjects of anxious and reasonable inquiry, nature is entirely silent; gives no information; removes no darkness; solves no mysteries; and leaves us at the threshold of our investigations, incapable of advancing one step; and with respect to many things, which we would gladly know, revelation itself teaches little or nothing; and our burning curiosity is not satisfied but only the more excited.

We must admit that there is much positive good in life; were it not so it would be difficult to say how

there could be any positive evil. If we enjoyed nothing, we could suffer nothing. If we possessed nothing, we could lose nothing. It is ungrateful to suggest the thought that there is not great good in life; that the world, in which we live, is not good and beautiful; bearing upon every part the bright impressions of an unbounded kindness and love. The natural creation is full of beauty, transcendent beauty; a splendor, a magnificence, which language cannot describe, and which can be represented by nothing but itself. The heavens are studded with countless glories. The earth is adorned with innumerable forms of beauty, and abounds in examples of contentment and felicity. The moral world presents an aspect far more interesting to the contemplative mind. It is deformed by vice; it is stained with many blemishes; it is marked by innumerable imperfections. Yet on the other hand it is ennobled by virtue; it exhibits many examples of an integrity and purity, which seem above corruption; and by moral attainments and enterprises, which show that man has a near affinity to an excellence far superior to what is earthly and visible; and which our imagination and our reason naturally suggest as belonging to the beings of another world. Then also, after every abatement has been made, which you choose to make, there is to be found among men so much honor and magnanimity, so much kindness and generosity, so much disinterestedness, sympathy, and friendship, so much love and tenderness, that we are compelled to pronounce God's moral creation also good and beautiful, bearing the luminous tokens of his transcendent benevolence.

Yet we see none of this without great abatements; there is in human life, in man's condition, in the condition of God's moral creation, such a mixture of good

and evil, of joy and sorrow, of disappointment and hope, of clouds and sunshine; that we are often staggered in the conclusions which we form. Sometimes we impatiently question whether evil does not predominate; and too often we give to life the coloring of our particular and temporary feelings; when we are cheerful the world seems bright and beautiful; and when we are sad, the picture is reversed, and clouds and darkness overshadow our prospect. Too often it happens that we acquire a propensity and habit of looking upon the dark side of every thing; we are scarcely sensible to the common bounties of the divine Providence; and we become so accustomed to observe defects and faults and blemishes and imperfections, that we see nothing else, because we look out for nothing else.

All will admit that such a disposition is wrong, and unjust to God and man. There are many evils in the world. Sin is always and wholly evil, and there is certainly much of that. All that gives us pain we deem evil, and there is much of that. There is a great deal of unavoidable distress in life. Temptations overcome us and we are mortified and stung to the heart with the consciousness of our weakness, folly, and guilt. We determine on a course of self-government, duty, virtue, usefulness; yet our resolution fails us at the moment when we presumed most upon it; and our efforts and labors become abortive. We approach the prize, and just as we stretch out our hands to seize it, we fall, and lose our hold; and the object of our pursuit is removed from us. We indulge the bright dreams of hope; and fancy spreads before us her countless forms of beauty and wealth and honor and pleasure and all the delights of the sons of men, but we never quite reach them. Even the best attainments of

human life, certainly as far as they appertain to this world, fall short of our expectations and do not yield all nor nearly all that we confidently anticipated. There are many evils in life, which are oppressive, and overwhelming. Poverty is a real evil; hunger, nakedness, want, anxiety and fear, the too frequent concomitants of poverty, are all evils. Sickness stretches us on Malice or anger or resent

beds of pain and torture. ment, throw their bitterness or poison into the springs of our enjoyment; and render their waters nauseous and hurtful. Sudden calamities and misfortunes, against which no human foresight can guard, and which no skill can evade, prostrate us at once; and often when most at ease in our possessions, and every outward circumstance combines to promote our enjoyment and accomplish our hopes, death obtrudes himself and all is changed; changed indeed; our house is left unto us desolate; and we are compelled forcibly to put away from us, what was most dear, and what we once felt that we would not part with for worlds.

All these evils, all these disappointments, all this vice, imperfection, and sorrow, all that poor man is doomed to suffer, all these frightful and affecting alterations, which a few moments, a single parting sigh, a momentary and convulsive struggle makes in the condition of man, compel us to turn in upon ourselves; and make us feel as we observed, the narrowness of our views and the imperfection of our knowledge; that now indeed we see things through an obscure medium and know but in part. We are oppressed with, the consciousness of our ignorance; we know little why all this is so; the course of nature and of human life is a problem that we can but imperfectly solve; and the mind needs all the support and consolations under these circumstances, which reason or religion can give.

I. Through the goodness of God these supports and consolations are not few; and they are obvious and ample. There is first of all things the consideration of the universal government and sovereignty of God. We cannot too often revert to this truth; we cannot too deeply impress it upon our hearts. It is the only ground of confidence under many of the evils of life. Thé simplest statement of this great truth is the most affecting; and conveys to a reflecting mind all that it can desire to know. God governs the world; he orders all things. That he is almighty the whole creation proclaims. That his wisdom infinitely transcends any conceptions which we can form of it, the color of the humblest flower that adorns the earth, the structure of the minutest insect, that your eyes can discern, the suggestion of any single thought that flashes upon your mind, all abundantly testify. That his goodness corresponds with his power and wisdom, the countless testimonials of it in nature and in our own condition and history, will testify. Imagine to yourself the best of human beings, the kindest of earthly parents, and think of such an one as having the disposal of your lot; and then remember that the kindness of God infinitely surpasses any conceptions which your own experience or imagination can suggest. Combine every image of wisdom, kindness, purity, benevolence, which can suggest itself to you ; think of all that is great, good, lovely, useful, endearing, benevolent; and yet it will bear no more comparison to the greatness, goodness, and excellence of the divine character, than the brightness of the glow worm to the splendors of an unclouded sun; it will indeed be nothing; all language here is vain; all comparisons are futile. God is all goodness, all love, all purity; infinitely better than your best wishes, or best