Throughout the wide domain of heavenly life;
Each angel forms a chain which in God’s throne begins,
And winds down to the lowest plane of earthly minds;
And only as each lifts his lower friend
Can each into superior joys ascend.”
We are told that we must seek our salvation. That is bad advice. He that seeketh to save his life shall lose it. It is this very seeking to save ourselves that damns us and the race. It is the very selfish desire for salvation which allies us to the sphere of lust. The true spirit is to seek to save our fellow-man; and as we can not save him except by adapting our ideas to his needs, we must, as instruments to his salvation, put away our lust. That effort will result in our own salvation. There is but one way to save ourselves, and that is by fitting ourselves as the instruments for the redemption of the world. Laboring to redeem our outcast and down-trodden brother and sister is the very best kind of labor to elevate ourselves, since it exercises in us the true love for our fellow-men. Thus it appears that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
I may go out into the streets some cold morning, and seeing a beggar, stop and debate with myself whether he is worthy or not; or for fear that I may refuse the right one, I may drop a sixpence in his hand. From such an act I will not receive a blessing. But if I (in forgetfulness of considerations of that kind, from the overflowings of a loving heart, from a sincere desire to do good to a fellow-man who is in need) give him alms, it is laying up treasure in heaven. I have placed it at my Father’s disposal—have intrusted it to one of his messengers.
We have a fashionable way of doing charities in this world. We do not like to be troubled with charities. We are willing to be taxed some—we are very generous to give sometimes; but then we do not want the trouble of finding the object, and bestowing it with that love, kindness, and sympathy of soul which carries more joy to the stricken heart than the poor pittance. He needs it as much as he does your other charities. But instead of taking this trouble, we raise contributions, appoint a committee, and go and drop our gifts by machinery here and there. If you will look up a poor sufferer some of these cold mornings, and give but a dime, with a blessing, you will not only carry joy into the heart of the suffering poor, but rejoicing into the Angel-spheres. In that way you must cast your bread upon the water, and you will find it after many days—will hear, eternally you will hear, the music of that poor sufferer’s thankful heart. If you once in purity of soul, in the pure affection of your heart, go and bestow a kindness from a pure and fervent spirit, you will awaken a chord which will vibrate harmoniously in your soul to all eternity.
As man develops in himself a love of his fellow-man irrespective of exterior relation, but as a child of God, as possessing in his bosom the germ of immortality, and as endowed with a facility of eternal unfolding in the eternal future, he comes into the sphere of true charity; and when his work is faithfully done here, he will enter upon that reward which he has been laying up in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where thieves do not break through and steal.
There is between the first and second spheres, speaking of them in the affectional sense, another sphere, called the intellectual sphere. Man as an intellectual being has loves or delights. The quality of the intellect, you are aware, is to investigate, to think. Intellect of itself has no affection, no sympathy. It can be allied with vice or virtue. It can attend the missionary in his labor or the pirate in his murderous work. It has of itself no conscience, no moral quality. Hence you will find that men may be highly intellectual and vicious or virtuous. Intellect can join upon vice or crime, and upon charity and virtue, and that, too, without experiencing antagonism from such union. Man may be developed intellectually without affecting particularly his moral character. Intellect’s particular mission is to investigate that which addresses the perception. It can join upon the sphere of lust or the sphere of charity. Were it not for this, the selfish and charitable natures could not unite in man, and there would be such an antagonism in the individual, he could not be possibly developed from the plane of his lustful nature to the plane of his moral nature. Intellect is a sort of John Baptist that goes between the Moses and the Christ of man’s nature. It does not partake of the lust of Moses nor of the love of Christ. Its delights are sometimes mistaken for love, or the joys of love. People often say of things which are beautiful that they love them. They say that they love the study of mathematics. That expression seems to me to be improper. The heat of love is never known to the cold intellect. The intellect can discourse eloquently respecting justice and right; but, so far as the heart is concerned, it may trample upon all justice. You will see men who, so far as theory is concerned, will discourse eloquently concerning human justice and morality, yet they utterly disregard and ignore all moral restraints in their private character and practices. These men are babes in their moral natures—they are less than babes. Intellect has to do with the relations of things—pertains to dead matter. The difference between intellect and morals is the difference between the essence and spirit of matter and the essences or spirit of the soul. While science, which belongs to the province of intellect, may harmoniously journey with the moral affections, it may also journey with the sensuous affections. I make these remarks so that you may not suppose that a man belongs to the second sphere because of his having an intellectual character.