You are happy or miserable, you are honoured or degraded, just as you neglect or observe this primal duty. Armed with a sense of duty, you are proof against all representations of danger. In confirmation of this, we can adduce a cloud of witnesses, an host of martyrs, multitudes of all nations and ages, and conditions and sexes, for whom the flames of the tormentor were kindled in vain; against whom the sword of persecution was drawn to no purpose; and who held fast their integrity, though they knew death to be the consequence. Those who are nerved with a sense of duty cannot be worsted. They fall back upon the strength of the Eternal, and set all the powers of evil at defiance.
We are not unmindful of the difficulty of cultivating in due proportion the qualities we have now described. Only a very few of our race have possessed, in an eminent degree, strong passions and strong command over them, a conscience quick in its discernment, and a will unswerving in its purpose. But while we recognise this, we contend that moral discipline is something possible. It has foundations in your nature. Its elements and means are simple and common. Every condition of life furnishes aids to it. Storms, disasters, hostilities, and sufferings are designed to school selfish feeling and promote generous satisfaction. Goodness is not worth much unless tried in these fires. Home is indeed the great sphere for preparing the young to act and to endure. “What would my mother say?” is the first whisper of conscience in the breast of the simple child; and, “What would my mother think?” its last note as it expires under a course of debauchery and sin. Nevertheless, it is equally certain that the best training will not make you women apart from your own efforts. On the other hand, however bad your early training may have been, with a resolute will, a brave heart, and Divine help, you may conquer your early habits, and stand forth moral heroines. Human nature grows in every direction in which it is trained, and accommodates itself to every circumstance placed in its way; therefore, you may take all the flowers that grow in the moral garden and hang them round your neck for a garland. Dr. Chalmers well says: “In moral education, every new achievement of principle smooths the way to future achievements of the same kind; and the precious fruit or purchase of each moral virtue is to set us on higher and firmer vantage-ground, for the conquests of principle in all time coming.”
SPIRITUAL CULTURE.
Atheism is the most unnatural thing in the universe. The creed inscribed on its black flag is absolutely dreadful. It proclaims, in characters visible to every eye, that there is no God, no resurrection, no future state, no accountability, no virtue, no vice, no heaven, no hell, and that death is an eternal sleep. But atheism only proclaims human weakness; it does not disprove God’s existence. There is something in your very nature which leads to the recognition and worship of a superior Being. The evidence of this propension is as extensive as the race, and as prolonged as the history of humanity. The religious rites and idolatries to be found in each of the four quarters of the globe, and the piercing cry which has resounded in every age, “Where is our Father? We have neither heard His voice, nor seen His shape. Oh that we knew where we might find Him, that we might come even to His seat!” are the proofs of this capacity for worship. In every human breast there springs up spontaneously a principle which seeks for the infinite, uncreated cause; which cannot rest till it ascend to the eternal, all-comprehending Mind. Nothing but the contemplation and enjoyment of Deity can satisfy the souls that He has formed for Himself. Until that is obtained, the usual want in humanity never can be filled.
Christianity is the great necessity and the only sufficiency of your nature. It stirs up the lowest depths of your spiritual being, that the soul, in all its completeness, may lay hold on God and be blessed. All infidel philosophy is wrecked here. It does not understand, and consequently cannot explain, your relations to the Invisible, and your capacities for a blessed immortality. It can mark the contrasts in your character, but is unable to reconcile them. The grave, although a shallow, is to it a soundless abyss. All is over and done with the being who is deposited there. Christianity alone elucidates the mystery of humanity. It utters certain sounds as to whence you came, what you are, and where you are going. The Scriptures teach that you derive a corrupt nature from your original progenitors, and this is a satisfactory solution of the aversions and propensions you display. A scheme is also propounded for the remission of human guilt, and the renovation of the human soul. The fact that one condition essential to spiritual culture is a supernatural condition, does not affect self-effort; for here, as everywhere in the whole economy of grace, it will be found that the reaping will be in proportion to the sowing. Let us now see the influence of true religion upon the spiritual powers of the soul.
The faculty of hope cannot stop at what exists in time, but must wander through eternity. Its due exercise redoubles all your pleasures, by enabling you to enjoy them twice,—in anticipation as well as fruition. In trouble, this principle is a sure support.
“Hope, like the glimmering taper’s light,
Adorns and cheers the way;
And still, as darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray.”