THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR ACTIONS, BOTH GOOD AND BAD, SPREAD AROUND US INDEFINITELY.

We

e see this tendency to an indefinite extension of the consequences of our good or bad deeds occasionally manifested in a very striking manner ;—for we sometimes perceive the effects of what seemed, at the moment of its occurrence, to be a very unimportant event spreading in all directions till the eye and even the fancy of man are incapable of estimating the magnitude of the result,—as when, for instance, a trifling uneasiness which led to the death of a person of consequence, sometimes has been known, in its more distant consequences, to alter the destiny not only of individuals and nations, but of the human race throughout many generations.

Had that uneasiness not occurred, or had it occurred under different circumstances, or at a different time, everything that followed, would, in most cases, have been materially changed;-and though there are many instances constantly occurring in which we cannot trace the consequences of our actions to the same extent,-instances in which they rather seem to perish in the performance,—or at least to exert an influence which is gradually weak

ened till it seems to pass away ;- we have no reason to conclude, from the multitude of instances in which we fail to trace the effect, that it is on that account less real or less widely diffused;—for the character either of good or of evil is not altered, nor their consequences diminished, simply by the circumstance of their having escaped from our view; -but, on the contrary, the quantity of vice or of misery that we have dropped into the vast ocean of events, by which, as living agents, we are surrounded, retains its power, and is constantly widening its sphere of operation long after our eye has ceased to mark its progress,-and long even after we ourselves have ceased to have any interest in all the things that are done upon the earth.

In the same manner, a small portion of good which we have done may exert a healing or regenerating influence on the spot on which it immediately falls,—which influence shall be extended, with still increasing power, to other and more distant spheres in which the same blessed operation was required; -and thus the beginnings of a process which is eventually to cover a wide portion of the kingdom of God with fertility and beauty may be found in an occasional exertion of virtuous principle from

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whose operation no such extent of good was anticipated.

Indeed, unless Divine Providence, by particular arrangements, shall at any time see fit to counteract this tendency, the amplification of which we are now speaking, both in the case of our good and of our bad actions, must, according to the natural tendencies of things, take place in every instance;-for the tendency of all good is to generate greater and more extensive good;-and the effect of all evil is to produce more extensive and more irremediable disaster;-so that we may safely state the principle of this section in its most general and unqualified form,—namely,—that the tendencies of all our actions, either for good or for evil, are to amplify themselves to an indefinite extent ;-or that these consequences, whether our eye can trace their

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tion or not, actually extend around us indefinitely.

And hence any individual, by a faithful and effectual use even of the smallest means of doing good, may become the instrument, in accordance with this beautiful arrangement of Divine Providence, of producing an extent of good to the universe far greater than his imagination would venture to anticipate.

The same observation applies to the ultimate results of the evil which we may do ;-and hence, on the one hand, the most powerful of all inducements to use well even the smallest means of good,—and, on the other, an awful prohibition issued by Nature herself against the commission of evil even in its least striking forms.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF OUR GOOD OR BAD DEEDS ARE NOT, IN MOST INSTANCES, ENTIRELY REMOVED DURING THIS LIFE.

Our preceding observation was intended to show that the consequences of our actions spread around us to an indefinite extent of space;—and, in the present section, our object is to show that these consequences have as decided a tendency to propagate themselves, with still increasing power, along the lapse of time.

Indeed the tendency to amplify themselves being native to our actions, we have no reason to conclude, either that these natural consequences are interrupted or changed, simply, in the case of our bad actions by our subsequent sorrow for them,-nor, in the case of our good deeds, by the fact that they have escaped from our memory.

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And all our observations of what actually takes place in life correspond with this anticipation ;—for if, in the first place, I have done ill to any one of my fellow-men,-my sorrow for my misconduct may af terwards be as sincere as it may,—but the injury that I have perpetrated may continue to affect his well-being, and even that of those who are to descend from him, or who are connected with him, throughout many generations.

In the same manner, though I may have forgotten any acts of well-doing that have occurred in my history, these also continue to exert a secret power, which I may yet perceive " after many days;”—and blessings may thus come to me from my former and forgotten good deeds, long after I have forgotten them, and through channels, which seemed least likely, to my dark anticipations, to have conveyed to me such benefits,-but from all of which I cannot prevent myself from seeing, that my actions have continued to have their natural effects long after they had passed from my notice,—and by means which lay far beyond the scrutiny of my feeble powers.

Even from the mind that has sinned, sorrow for sin will not completely remove the bad effects of its con