I shall assume as true the fact revealed by Jesus Christ that the only way of salvation is by faith in our Creator; not a mere intellectual belief in his existence and laws, but a faith including this belief and also practical obedience to his laws; by repentance, not a mere emotion of sorrow, but including the ceasing of disobedience; by love, not chiefly emotional, but rather that which is thus defined by inspiration, "This is the love of God, that ye keep his commandments."
Obedience to the laws of our Creator, physical, social, and moral, being the chief element of the faith, repentance, and love by which alone we escape the dangers of the future world, the question will be urged as to the degree of obedience which will secure safety. Here we find in Christ's teachings that perfect obedience is not indispensable to salvation. The demand is that "the heart" (that is, the chief aim and interest) be devoted to such obedience. We are to "seek first" the kingdom
of God and his righteousness. And all who do this, in both the Old Testament and the New, are recognized as the righteous, as the children of God, and as heirs to the eternal blessedness of his kingdom.
It is the revelation of the dangers of the life to come which decides the character of the worldly educator in contrast to that of the Christian. The one has for the leading interest and aim to secure the enjoyments of this life; the other has as the chief interest and aim to follow Christ in self-denying labors to save as many as possible from the dangers of the life to come. The one lives as if there were little or no danger in the future world. The other toils, as if in the perils of a shipwreck, to save as many as possible and at whatever personal sacrifice of ease or worldly enjoyment. The one finds little occasion for self-sacrificing labors; the other is constantly aiming to save others from sin and its ruin by daily self-denying efforts.
It was "for the joy that was set before him" that "the Shepherd and Bishop of souls"
"endured the cross, despising the shame." And when he invites his followers to take and bear the same cross, he encourages with the assurance that this yoke is easy and this burden light, and that it brings "rest to the soul."
And here, for the encouragement of my pupils and friends, I feel bound to give my testimony to the verity of these promises.
It is now more than forty years that my chief interest and aim has been to labor to save my fellow-men to the full extent of my power. To this end I have sacrificed all my time, all my income, my health, and every plan of worldly ease and pleasure. With sympathies that would naturally seek the ordinary lot of woman as the ideal of earthly happiness, with no natural taste for notoriety or public action, with tastes for art, and imaginative and quiet literary pursuits, I have, for all that period, been doing what, as to personal taste, I least wished to do, and leaving undone what I should most like to do. I have been for many years a wanderer without a home, in delicate health, and often baffled in favorite plans of usefulness.
And yet my life has been a very happy one, with more enjoyments and fewer trials than most of my friends experience who are surrounded by the largest share of earthly gratifications. And since health is restored, except as I sympathize in the sorrows of others, I am habitually as happy as I wish to be in this world. And this is not, as some may say, the result of a happy temperament; for in early life, at its most favored period, I was happy chiefly by anticipations that were not realized, and never with that satisfying, peaceful enjoyment of the present, which is now secured, and is never to end.