XI.
Ps 103 Pt 2.
H 222 {2d & 7th}
H 255
Belknap. H LXXXVI
H. C
H CXCIX
or of the sick in soul or in body.
It has been made the excuse of intemperance & of squandered time. It has been
made the excuse of vices to which men resort as they say for excitement with the
wretched pretence that they are so constituted that the time which is not marked
by new events+,* is of itself an insupportable burden. They +speak as if
their* their days +shd* be each freshened by new pleasures or embittered by
unexpected distress. One who heard them would imagine that in them the ordinary
feelings of man were reversed that they fear from afar the coming of a quiet
hour & count no greater calamity than an innocent day. It /is tho't/seems/ to
argue some signal incompetency in the means & objects of human action to
occupy the powers employed upon them & charges on Providence the faults of
man. And this in the face of all that immense treasury of knowledge
which lies before men unexplored whilst life is too short for the understanding
of all the mighty works of man & infinitely too short for us to compass the
works of God.
But there is quite another explanation to be given of this evil by those who
narrowly examine the fact. Let it be compared with a closely parallel case. He
who reads a book in a language unknown to him, or he who shuffles the
draughtsmen in a game he does not understand may easily tire of his employment &
complain of its insupportable dulness. But in the first instance the practised
eye that traces the well-known characters of his native tongue receives from
those mute signs (these black strokes on paper) the inspiration of thought. By
that dumb page his understanding is enlarged his passions startled from their
sleep he is moved with wonder he is stung with remorse. In the other instance
the player watches with equal anxiety the chips of carved wood with which he
plays his game, & the petty alterations of place on a checquered board which
move the scorn of the beholder have to him sometimes an +intense
interest* passing that of words, a fatal eloquence often which intoxicates his
spirit & overcomes his virtue. It is almost needless to explain the
appositeness of these illustrations. Ignorance is the cause whence life as
well as the book & the game appear worthless & dull. We rest in the objects of
sight without extending our regard to the consequences which they involve. We
examine the particulars we examine letters & baubles which are in themselves
unmeaning & give no heed to the train of real events of which they are made
arbitrary signs.
The cause of this (so common, that it is, in some measure, known to every one of
us,) is ignorance. But whence this ignorance? & how may it be remedied? It is
not like sin a malady contracted on the earth nor is it an incidental defect
foreign to the purposes of our existence but it is an original want with which
which we were created & which it is a chief business of life to supply. As
hunger stimulates us to procure the food appointed for the sustenance of life
ignorance is but an appetite which God set us in the beginning to gratify. And
if it be contrary to nature to deny our bodies food, it is contrary to a higher
nature,--it violates the order of Providence to +let* the mind lie
torpid, & refuse to procure that knowledge which is its vital principle. Sloth
is sinful & this neglect is punished by loss & ruin to the mind that permits it.
So apparent is the duty of expelling our natural ignorance {of using our
faculties of chasing from the mind this great darkness by the light of
intellectual truth that}
The wise pagan represented wicked men as involuntary offenders, as doing what
seemed to them right & profitable in the thick mist which hid from their eyes
their real interests. In all languages also this easy & natural metaphor from
knowledge to light & from ignorance to darkness hath gone into common use.
The remedy for the evils, the unhappiness of life, is wisdom. "Happy is the man
that findeth wisdom." I need hardly remind you of that just & unmeasured eulogy
which the wise son of David has bestowed upon it, +when he declared
in the language of* strong persuasion that her ways were ways of pleasantness,
and her paths peace. Wisdom, he said, is the principal thing; keep her, for she
is thy life.
But where shall this wisdom be acquired? What are the topics to be preferred?
Where are the teachers to guide & the facilities to aid us? My friends I cannot
think that we need +go* far to be satisfied in this point. In the age
in which we live, our senses may be our instructors. A man with an inquisitive
eye only needs to look around him to find abundant exercise for his sluggish
faculties. Let us consider then for a moment in succession the different walks
wherein wisdom may be sought, +not alone* to relieve the irksomeness of life but
with the nobler end of supplying an immortal mind with immortal happiness. Let
us look first at the objects that surround us in life & see if they be wholly
wretched & worthless & afterward at moral nature.
I. It is a great & moving scene that the world offers us. The noble &
unexpected trains of events, the simple & untiring grandeaur of the great globe
on which they pass the number & character of the agents+,* their forms &
qualities the apparent minuteness of their means in comparison with the ends
they bring about+,* & the religious sentiments which men entertain touching the
invisible spectators of their action combine together to make a very attractive
spectacle. These are all things precisely adapted to exercise our minds by the
study of them & to fill the void of which we complain. The sciences as they are
called+,* or the classes of facts which human investigation into the laws of
nature has laid open have attained by the patient collection of so many
generations of inquirers a maturity & magnitude sufficient to occupy alone the
best part of a man's years & to deserve a great expense of time. The arts are
at this day so numerous & have made the +d*ominion of man over nature so
considerable as to add very greatly to the worth & beauty of the spectacle. Not
content with the satisfaction of his first wants--to be wholesomely fed & warmly
clothed & lodged & making it his sole philosophy to reduce the number of his
wants & +wisely despising* the imaginary greatness of that primitive
state of society "when wild in woods the noble savage ran," man has invented new
wants for the sake of providing new gratifications. He has emerged from the
woods where he shivered under the storm & the cold. The sheep is sheared the
loom is contrived & mines vegetables & fishes lend to his raiment their splendid
dye. Granite & marble are quarried for his structure+s* {He descends to the
margin of the sea & launches his little bark into its unfathomable waters. ts sovereign of its course Its curious
furniture of helm & sail & compass lead the little adventurer on in safety, &
the the whirlwind from heaven sweep across his path, & the tempest tear his
canvass as in sport, he contends with the elements, & rides out the storm, and
comes at last over nearly a straight line of thousands of leagues of water to
visit the farthest corners of the world. When the message of another nation is
delivered here, & the fruits of the tropics are bartered for those of the pole,
when the character, language & country has been scrutinized by the eyes of the
stranger he sets his sail anew & flies over the deep, to enrich the science of
his own land with his strange tidings, & its wealth with those gifts of
Providence which are denied to its soil.
This is but a small part of> +These are but units in* the catalogue of his arts.
The manufacture of books is the art of arts, that has impelled thought &
information like a torrent over the globe; the art by means of which he that
sits recluse & obscure over a midnight lamp is able to speak in thunder to
societies & nations & in the exercise of a higher power leave behind him the
impotent prerogatives of kings. It is the device by which the subtile creations
of the intellectual power which come & go in the vision of genius but leave no
trace when the soul that entertained them is extinct are invested with the
permanent attributes of matter, & made to speak to all countries & times. But I
desist from any attempt to enumerate +his* endless +*
inventions . The world is shaken by the
enginery which man's wit has confided to his industry. It ploughs the deep; it
lays bare the river beds or arches them with stone; it perforates mountains or
climbs on their precipices into the kingdom of eternal cold & builds
observatories amid Alpine avalanches & compares the purity of upland & lowland
air & the altitude of hills. (When the summits of Andes have been
surmounted indefatigable art descends into the valleys & searches the bosom of
the earth & ransacks the subterranean chambers of nature for gems & gold,
for iron, & silver, & coal. A thousand feet below the surface in chasms whence
the sun & the moon & the face of the Universe were never beheld, man is immured
& wears out his cheerless years in the streets of salt mines.) In short Art is
every where seen. Art dives into the sea & traverses land. Art arms man
against man with chemical forces that can hardly be computed & joins men
together with facilities for joint useful action which separates taught from
untaught man by an almost infinite interval.
But what are these arts & sciences? They are only the +use &* effect of those
faculties which God gave man in their right operation and in all their beautiful
triumphs, a pious eye my friends will discern no cause for pride, but much for
meditation, & much for thanksgiving. These sketches are taken with a design of
shewing that the scene which the world offers us is not wholly void of interest
& worth; & that a spectator, who turns his attention only to the occupations of
men, need not deplore the total unprofitableness of leisure devoted to these
occupations. It is intended to suggest, that, to minds so constituted as ours,
such a scrutiny into the works of man, as is proposed, can be made to lighten
the intolerable burden of vacant time, & enliven it by exciting a curiosity to
be gratified. I honour the discretion that assigns a large portion of youth to
the pursuit of these inquiries. I respect that ardour which is not quenched by
mature years. But I will not disguise the fact that these also may fail of
their end, & that the man who is best acquainted with what is known & done, will
sometimes sigh at the vanity of his acquisitions, & the barrenness of life. The
eye is dazzled at first, & tires at last of the magnificence with which it has
become familiar. When this has exhausted its power to please, we have yet a
capacity & an appetite which it fails to fill & satisfy.
+Shall we then* recede from our first position that our unhappiness is caused by
our ignorance, & our ignorance is our fault? +Not in the least;* we +are*
only +to* look elsewhere for its food.
II. There is another class of facts, there is another world of thought that is
open to the diligence of the Mind. There is the moral universe--the native
land, the final home of the soul. There +are the* endless & wonderful
contrivances by which God has adjusted the soul to its objects in
life, & to the society of all other souls. There is the strange & awful history
of the divine +compensations*; the strict measure of
+retribution* for every deed of good & evil to every being in the
world. There is the great array of confederated causes, +the
manifestations of design* whereby we get the evidence of the being & perfections
of God. There is the idea of God himself--the stream without a source, the age
without an infancy, the glory, the energy that fills the universe without
beginning & without ending--the idea so graven in the human +heart* that
wherever society exists+,* there is religion, & yet the most towering soul that
yet has lived was all unable to compass the infinite idea +Insert X
X and last of all--the mysteries of man who investigates them all the soul the
human soul that indefatigable inquirer that wonderful stranger the citizen of
another. Who has uncovered its history unseen it came uncomprehended it acts
alone & unbeheld it departs--these may furnish &c* may furnish occupation &
entertainment to the most ardent & insatiable curiosity. +Insert A
{A Is there no occasion worthy of your effort in the study which these
things offer to your mind, in the study of those mighty final causes which
testify the existence of God; for example, in that curious & admirable
disposition of moral forces by which the general advantage is inseparably linked
to particular, the social to the selfish, so that whatsoever effort is anywhere
made for the most confined personal betterment, the same effort, to its whole
extent, ameliorates the condition of mankind, or in watching the unerring
progress of Gods retribution in public & private affairs, wherein a man, that
has lived sixty or seventy years in the world, is able to discern sometimes in a
long line of events, the fire, which was smothered at one point, stealing
secretly along until it broke out at a distant interval & made amends to
destruction for its delay. Or+,* +can you not*
find most profitable occupation in pondering the gracious revelation of Deity to
man, by that exalted person in whose external fortunes God was pleased to rebuke
the pride & prejudice of the world by appointing him +for our sin* to sorrow &
poverty, a cup of vinegar & a crown of thorns, to birth in a manger, & to death
on a cross.}*
These are studies which ennoble the character of the student & really possess
for those who have +entered* them, that +absorbing* interest which
throws things that are seen & present very much into the shade. Yes, before these, which are the glory of the unseen world, all other
things do fade & die. What, I pray you, are the arts that decorate our
dwellings, that clothe our bodies, that increase the conveniences of travelling
by land & by water, that please the eye, that pamper pride, when compared with
the divine art that formed in secret the soul of man, that established in the
Universe the firm boundaries of good & evil? What, though grand, are the
material laws that keep the planets in their orbits, to the laws that hold the
passions in their awful places, & ordered the faculties, & balanced Reason &
Desire in the mind of man?
III. But there yet remains another part of wisdom to which none can plead
the want of power or time "Behold, the fear of the Lord that is wisdom & to
depart from evil is understanding." An operative wisdom, a wisdom
of good works, it is this, which is the end & perfection of the character. It
is this which demands the whole effort of the first archangel & the incipient
energies of the little child. The highest speculations, the +most* rapt
devotion, the collected conclusions of all philosophy, the retentive memory that
stores up all the libraries of learning & science, are all a dead letter, are
worthless rubbish by the side of the living principle, which, in the word of the
Scripture, makes men wise to eternal life. It is this alone, which can cope
with the untried extent of the powers of the mind, & which can last as long as
life lasts in the soul. For whether there be prophecies, they shall fail,
whether there be tongues, they shall cease, whether there be knowledge, it shall
vanish away, but charity never faileth. +And what is charity but wisdom of good
works?* Let it not disparage the high duties of meditation & the study of the
word & works of God +that we lay such high emphasis on this wisdom* for these
are the best preparation for exalted usefulness. Good works are the fruit which
grow best & most naturally from this honorable stock.
It is the peculiar nature of this wisdom, that it needs not schools & manuscipts
to teach it. It may be learned & professed & exhibited in shops & warehouses,
in our house & on the way. It will never be unseasonable; it will never, like
some kinds of knowledge that give men the conceit of wisdom, grow out of use &
profit. It will prepare us for heaven; it will lead us there My friends let us
be exhorted to the attainment of this heavenly wisdom whose fruit is happiness.
Let us be assured we shall not when every day bears witness to this wisdom of
our life complain of life that it is barren & weary & curse the day when we were
born. I will not say it shall deliver you from all the sufferings to which
flesh is heir but it shall enable you to bear them without shame or loss
"The good man wears disaster as the angel wears
His wings to eleavte & glorify"# Samor.# It shall elect &
appoint you to immortal life. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom. Happier
in the life that now is, than the most favoured child of unsanctified
prosperity & happy beyond what eye hath seen or the heart of man conceived in
the life which is to come.-- +27 minutes*
Chauncey Place, 26 Aug. 1827.
--"The good man wears
Disaster as the angel wears his wings
To elevate & glorify."