Notes from Plymouth pulpit : a collection of memorable passages from the discourses of Henry Ward Beecher ; with a sketch of Mr. Beecher and the Lecture-room

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PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY

From the Librpry of

J^jdn-e Charles' Glllett Hubbard

McKear Cour^tv, Pennsv^'^^arla

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NO TE S

FROM

PLYMOUTH PULPIT:

A COLLECTION OF MEMORABLE PASSAGES
FROM THE DISCOURSES OF

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

WITH A SKETCH OF

MR. BEECHER AND THE LECTURE-ROOM.

By AUGUSTA MOORE.

:^cb) lEtJitfon. Kebfseti anti eJrcatli? IBnIargcTj.

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,

FRANKLIN 8QUAKE.

1865.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand
eight hundred and sixty five, by

AUGUSTA MOORE,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District

of New York.

INTRODUCTION,

BY

REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.

The Pulpit Notes of Miss Moore were origin-
ally published without my revision or inspection,
but with my consent. They have been far more gen-
erally circulated in Great Britain than in my own
country. Indeed, there they are bound up with
"Life Thoughts" as a second part of that work.

Having proved themselves useful, I am pleased to
know that, under the care of another publisher, they
are to be put into circulation again.

Henry Ward Beecher.

Brooklyn, May 3, 18Go.

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

When Henry Ward Beecher is dead, there will be
made a great effort to learn just how he looked and acted,
as well as just what he said.

And perhaps it will fall out, in his case, as it has in
regard to many others of renown, that with much labor
and with heavy cost, men shall succeed in discovering
nothing very definite or reliable.

It is easy to enumerate the points in a man's personal
appearance, if that were all. Mr. Beecher is of medium
height, is full in flesh, has a strong, well developed frame ;
every organ is active and healthy. He has full command
of his limbs, which are pliant and supple as a child's ; his
body is as elastic as an india-rubber ball, and handled
by him wdth about as much ease as he would toss about
a ball. His face is full and fresh ; his eyes large, expres-
sive, and blue — sometimes grey ; his forehead is square
and broad, his hair brown, and worn long ; his glance
quick, keen, and discerning ; his smile humorous and
pleasant.

Who, now, that has not seen the man, can tell how he

appears to the eye that actually beholds him ? and who

can ever gather from such points the endless variety in a

man's appearance ?

A

11 HENKT WARD jBEKCUP:k.

To describe Mr. Beecher's mind, there are not half a
dozen writers in the country who could be trusted ; and
only the pen or the brush of a master could do anything
like justice to his mere physical maa. "Would that there
might arise, betimes, some efficient limner.

Like the mountains of which Mr. Beecher delights to
talk, he has numberless diverse moods and aspects. Like
them, he is sometimes cloudy and obscured ; and some-
times, like them, he stands out bold and clear, in the full
light of noon.

Never was human face more variable ; of no one that
ever lived could it more emphatically be said, " On differ-
ent days he looks a different man."

At one time, and in one mood, his face is red, his eyes
dull and half covered with the swollen flesh of the heavy
lids. There is no brightness to be seen about him ; no
briskness of motion, no erectness or strength of posi-
tion. The animal nature has gained temporary ascend-
ency over the spiritual, and an enemy might be expected
to describe Mr. Beecher as an unrefined ploughboy,
or a butcher in a minister's clothes, or rather, in a
minister's desk, for Mr. Beecher's clothes are not minis-
terial.

But let the enemy wait until he sees our mountain in its
more usual aspect. Let him wait until the strong, and
perhaps somewhat rough and rugged intellect has stirred
itself, and arisen for action, till the torpedo-hke heart is
on fire, till the fervid words burst forth, and the face, but
now so dull, begins to shine with the interior glory.

HENFvY WARD BEECUEK. ill

Then comes the transfiguration I The material shrinks
from sight, and the spiritual beams forth, causing in his
countenance a change almost inconceivable. His face
assumes all the rich softness of a mezzotint engraving —
round, fair, and dimpled you now perceive it to be ; and
its whole expression becomes pure and elevated, almost
like the ano^els' faces that we have seen in dreams.

His forehead is white and high, and shines like the
brow of a sun-touched mountain ; his eyes beam clear and
mild, now with the strength of the man, again with love
and innocence, like the eyes of a babe ; his close-shaven
chin, and the lower part of his cheeks are shaded, as if by
the brush of an artist ; there is no longer a rugged line,
or a rough look about him, his aspect is altogether noble,
beautiful, serene.

This, until he stands forth as Boanerges, and then he is
the mountain in a winter storm. Mingling in his tones,
are heard reminders of the cataract, and of the crash of
thunder ; while his flashing eyes and changing features
have upon you the effect of lightning, and his gestures
represent the rushing wind. Then, while you are yet
thrilling to the sweep of the storm, you are melted to
tears by some sorrow, or some longing, started into
new life by the magic tenderness of tones silvery
liweet.

Mr. Beecher's voice alone is a wonderful power. It
mingles in its various utterances, all loud, and wild, and
awful tones, with the sound of fairy harpstriugs, and the
chime of bells. It has the high battle-call of the trum-

IV HKNKY WARD BEEOHER.

pet or the clarion, and all the touching gentleness of a
mother's cradle hymn.

A man whose voice combines the three sorts of power
with which the three following sentences were spoken,
has in his possession an engine fitted to move the world :

" When they come forth from their graves — when
from mountain, from valley, and from the dark waves of
the sea, they lift up their blanched faces to their Judge
they will be speechless."

" Butterflies, the interior spirit of rainbows, sent down
to salute those kisses of the seasons on the ground-
flowers."

"Women, who have such need of love, ought not to
find it hard to come to Jesus Christ, and put their arms
about his neck, and tell him, with gushing love, that they
give themselves, body and soul, into his keeping."

What has been said and written of Dr. Chalmers' pul-
pit appearance, manners, and diction, reminds one very
forcibly of Mr. Beecher. As plain " in dress and gait "
as was that celebrated preacher, and as impressive in
discourse as he, is the subject of this sketch. Alike in
plainness of speech, in intense earnestness, in quick and
deep emotion, in apt and striking imagery and illustration,
are the sermons of these two men — Men. Alike, in
the sermons of each, when at full flood, deep calls unto
deep, spirit speaks to spirit, and the hearer almost forgets
that he yet wears the veil, and dwells amid the false and
deceptive scenes of the flesh. Often it seems as if the
judgment were already set, and the hearer there. Few

HENRY WARD BEEOHER. V

indeed, are the preachers who have power to strike di-
rectly to the heart, to Uy hold with such forcible and
tenacious grasp upon the moral sense, as does Henry
Ward Beecher. Every man's soul may be reached in
some way, and Mr. Beecher knows the open path. Let
that man who does not wish his conscience roused, his
nerves thrilled, and his tears started, keep away from the
genuine and impassioned power of truth, as presented —
as thrust in upon men's souls, by Henry Ward Beecher.

A cold, polished, cynical man of the world, going one
evening, at the invitation of a lady, to Plymouth Church,
remarked upon his way, " I go to hear Henry Ward
Beecher with the same feelings that I go to witness the
performances of Burton."

The sermon that night, though not one of Mr. Beecher's
greatest efforts, was a powerful one, appealing to man's
own consciousness of sin and ill desert ; every word told.
There was no escape. It was extempore, only the heads
thoroughly analyzed and accurately worded, being written
out. The speaker's logic, at which the visitor had seemed
inclined to sneer, was perfect ; and his presentation of
the truth was truly appalling to all out of Christ.

The face of the gentleman who thought he was going
to be amused that evening, belied his feelings if he was
amused.

The aptness of Mr. Beecher's comparisons ; the acute-
ness with which he lays the knife to what needs cutting ;
the unexpected descents which he makes upon errors of
thought and conduct, frequently excite irresistible laugh-

VI HENRY WARD BEECHEK.

ter. From this fact, those that lie in wait seeking how
they may harm him, have represented him in the light of
a clerical buffoon. Nothing can be more entirely or
malignantly false. He is as far from levity and irrever-
ence as those who pm'posely malign him are from noble-
ness and honesty. Gravity sits upon him with a native
grace.

But his imagination is so rich and strong, his flaw of
language is so great, and the heart that beats like a great
hammer in his breast, is such a volcanic heart, so impetu-
ous, so prone to overflow, that he does sometimes lose the
reins of prudence. He is occasionally like a man who
has struck his foot so hard against a stone, that, to save
himself from falling on his face, he needs must run awhile,
though every step be upon vipers. The temperament
which God gave a man must be considered in judging of
him ; and considering that of Mr. Beecher, also the mul-
titude of things that he has said, and is forever saying ;
and the pressure of the various extreme excitements which
are upon him ; it is a proof that he possesses a remark-
able share of discretion and common sense that he has
said so few imprudent things as he has said.

Mr. Beecher is frequently humorous, both in tone and
expression, when he is altogether unaware that he is so.
It is conceded that, great as is this orator, and nobly as
truth and earnestness are stamped on all that he says and
does, that master as he is of gesture and expression, there
still is hovering about him somewhat of the ludicrous.

Certain notions he has which alwavs incline one tc

HENRY WARD BEKCHER. VU

smile. The wag of his head when he is about to clinch
an argument ; the shake of his elbows and his knees,
when he knows that he has you penned ; the eager-
ness with which he seizes upon that devoted handkerchief,
when he is about to " charge f the strength with which,
as he commences his tilt, he squeezes it (turning his hand-
palm towards his chair and back towards the desk, leaning
on knuckles and thumb, one foot crossed over the other,
and supported npon its toe) ; the force with which he throws
it from him, as he comes forward to close in the conflict
he has waged ; are all manoeuvres certain to be repeated,
almost constantly; and one cannot avoid being amused
by seeing them so unconsciously, yet energetically, per-
formed.

Although Mr. Beecher himself seldom appears to be iu
much haste, there is always an air of being in a hurry
about his clothes and his hair. They manifest inten-
tions of going forward, whether he goes or remains
standing still. His neck is so short that he never ven-
tures a standing-up collar. This, probably, in considera-
tion for his ears.

One very remarkable singularity in his face is the utter
incongruity between its front and its side views. Upon being
told that he resembled Henry Ward Beecher, a relati\^e
of that clergyman replied, laughingly, " I know that I am
said to look like him ; but 'tis such resemblance as a sheep
bears to a lion." Now the fact is, were that humble-
minded relative of the famed "Lion" a great deal more

Vlll HENRY WARD BEECHKR.

like a " sheep " than he considers himself to be, he might
still bear striliing resemblance to his cousin ; for though
when he turns full towards jou, in the heat of discourse,
Mr. Beecher frequently does present the appearance of a
lion, it is next to impossible for a person of an imaginative
turn of mind to view his j^rofile without being strongly
reminded of ovine faces, seen and perhaps loved, in the
days and the years gone by.

The timidity of the sheep is not there ; but its long
favoredness, its serenity, its gentleness, and modesty of
expression, most certainly are. His face is mobile to the
last degree : to the play of his features there appears to
be no limit. There is not a feeling of the heart that he
cannot strongly express without the utterance of a word.
And his strong, well-knit and flexible frame is an engine
for action tL^^n which no mortal never need desire a
better.

The question is sometimes asked, is Henry "Ward
Beecher a handsome man ? Don't you ask it, reader. It
is a question that cannot be answered. Can any one
think those heavy eyes, that indescribable nose, those
pouting, I-don't-care sort of lips, that tumbled hair, that
boyish face, handsome ? Not very easily. But, can we
call that glowing eye, that soul-lit face, those eloquent
lips, and that royal brow, ugly — homely ? Impossible I
Let the question rest.

When not in " a brown study," Mr. Beecher's manners
are the most free and genial that can be imagined ; but

HENRY WARD BEECHER. IX

every year seems to render him more and more abstracted.
People are sometimes hurt and offended by his indifference
and forgetfulness of them, when he is utterly unconscious
of all outward' things, intent upon his next sermon or lec-
ture ; for he makes his sermons in the streets, in stores, in
lumber yards, on ferry-boats, or wherever he may chance
to be. And it is plain to be seen, that a man in the midst
of sermon making, cannot be very thoughtful of his man-
ners to those who chance to pass or to pause beside
him.

It is said that a polished and courteous brother cler-
gyman one day called on Mr. Beecher ; and on being
shown into his study, found him stretched upon the floor,
from which he made no haste to rise. *' I am studying
my sermon," said Mr. Beecher, looking steadily and
gravely into the fire which burned before him.

On one occasion it was thought needful that Mr.
Beecher should be waited on by a committee of ministers,
in order that they might reassure themselves and the
churches of his sound orthodoxy. When the object of
their visit was stated — " Let us pray," said Mr. Beecher
instantly — " let us pray ;" and the prayer, if we mistake
not, settled the matter satisfactorily.

The children like Mr. Beecher — that shows what his
nature is. They all love to speak to him, to play with
him, to hand him flowers. They crowd his pulpit stairs ;
the boys gather almost about his feet. After meet-
ing one spring evening, while Mr. Beecher was talking

with several gentlemen, upon some apparently important

A 2

X HENRY WARD BEECHER.

* business, a little rosy-faced girl stepped on to the plat*
form, and holding out a bunch of white and red clover,
said : " Here, Mr. Beecher." He instantly bent towards
the child, and taking the flowers, said in a pleased tone,
and with a kind smile : " Thank you ; these smell like the
country." The child looked perfectly delighted as she
darted away. The mystery and secret of Henry Ward
Beecher's wonderful success as a preacher, may b.e ex-
plained in his own words, which he applied to another ;
" He preaches life-truths in life-forms, with the power of
his life in their utterance."

He is not a greater man, not a more learned man, not
a better man, than many other ministers who never can
keep people awake. But he is more alive. Why ; there
is intense life in all that, in desk or pulpit, he does or
says. What wonder that he who is so vivid there should
sometimes sog and smolder, when the excitement of his
work is over.

Many excellent Christian people, growing anxious lest
the preaching of a man whose influence must necessarily
be so great and wide should be pernicious, take long jour-
neys for the object of satisfying themselves of the truth
of the matter. Hardly, a Sabbath passes in which several
of these intent and anxious faces cannot be seen, narrowly
regarding the minister, as, all unconscious of them, he
delivers his message for the day.

Although every now and then, such good people get
some remark which causes them to look a little doubtful,
their faces clear before the sermon is over ; and when the

HENRY WARD BEKCHER. XI

final prayer is ended, and the "final hymn sung, they go
away praising God for the good that he is accomplishing
through the instrumentality of the man whose influence
they had feared.

The whole country knows that the singing of Plymouth
Church is Conorreorational. It knows also that some of
the hymns sung there are those that are forbidden to
many orthodox and dignified churches. But too great a
price is often paid for dignity. Not all the dignity on
earth is worth the feelings with which the thousands of
that great congregation, standing up together, sing joy-
fully the hymn commencing —

" Amazing grace ! how sweet the sound," etc.

and its chorus (in which even the children join) of

" Oh ! that will be joyful to meet to part no more."

and then listen to the parting blessing of their pastor —
"And until that blessed day, to which he is bringing us
on, may the blessing of God be with us ; and the glory
shall be given to the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, Amen."

No man can be truly great whose central life-purpose is
to be great. Selfish ambition is certain death to those
principles which give men immortality. Love to God, or
love to man, or both of these, must lie at the foundations
of all true fame. For the sake of preaching the Gospel —
the Gospel of redemption and of freedom — Henry Ward
Beecher lives; for this sake he would die. This is his pur-

Xll HENRY WARD BEECHEK.

pose; and into this work he throws all that there is in
him, and all that he, by seeking throughout the height
and depth of life, can obtain.

That he has stood — that he is standing — where the
temptation to pride and self-conceit is strong, he knows
well ; and with all his heart he has besought the Lord to
keep him clothed in the garments of humility. Year
after year the multitudes throng him; they press around
him, till the place that holds him is too strait for them.
They hang upon his words, they love him, they revere
him. The man is not deaf nor blind; his heart is not a
stone, and it needs no philosopher to say that in his posi-
tion only the grace of God can keep a man humble, and
without any affectations of vanity. The Lord has heard
the prayer of his servant. The " Mountain " knows that
it is high; the " Lion " knows that he is strong. It would
be mere affectation to deny that; but though he has pro-
per self-respect, it is well proportioned and justly com-
bined with self-abnegation. No man forgets himself more,
or regards himself more soberly, than does Henry Ward
Beecher.

This is the opposite of what was feared in the beginning
of his course.

Ten — eleven years ago, when first people began to
talk of the great numbers Henry Ward Beecher was
drawing, there were remarks like the following made :

" It's a new thing; people will run after novelties."

" It won't last long, depend on that. These young
guns burst suddenly —vanity charges them too heavily."

HENRY WARD BEECHEB. XI 1 1

" Oh it's more the name of Beecher than anything

else."

"He is the tail end of the heap ; he never would

study."

" Any man that has tact and boldness, and that knows
how to swell, can draw a crowd for a while." *

And Rev. Dr. Shepard, of the Theological Seminary
in Bangor, Maine, remarked, " If Mr. Beecher continues
to draw so large a congregation for six years, he will
prove himself a remarkable man." And now, having seen
how the matter turned, that heroic divine (heroic in the
fullest sense of the word, for men who would not fear to
die in battle, or to risk hfe in other ways, often lack hero-
ism to stick to their post when money beckons them away),
who excels as scholar, preacher, and critic, has become a
hearty approver and admirer of Mr. Beecher. It needs
no more than this to show that the feet of the pastor of
Plymouth Church stand on firm and solid ground.

He has his faults, and they are numerous, and not too
small to be seen with the naked eye. Perhaps the very
reason why he so admires gentleness, is because he has
not in his own disposition overmuch of that quality. Bnt
of his faults there are sufficient who are ready to speak,
and to rejoice in them. Well, as he says, " There always
will be persons who have in them the carrion nature."
Such as their pastor is, with all his glorious powers, or
with reactive dullness, with all his virtues, and with all
his faults, his people love him.

They have, however, one cause of regret in regard to

THE LEGTURE-ROOM.

• 9 •

The Lecture-room of Plymouth Church is entered
from both ends, and is capable of seating about
four hundred persons. Mr. Beecher's desk stands
directly before the door at which he always enters.
Between the desk and the door is a high and wide
white screen of boards. Towards this screen all
eyes are directed, from the time the people are
assembled until the pastor appears. The meetings
are always well attended — generally they are
crowded ; and better or more interesting prayer
and conference meetings there are not. People
flock to them with a real, living pleasure, which is
printed upon their features. A sensation of glad-
ness is always experienced when the pastor's face
appears.

Taking his seat, Mr. Beecher gives out a hymn,
and then calls upon some brother to pray. This is
three times repeated. The h^anns are not read,
unless one happens to strike with peculiar force the

THE LKCTURE-ROOM. XVJl

pastor or some brother ; or unless it set to ringing
some "silver bell" in Mr. Beeclier's heart; in
which case he reads it, in his own touching man-
ner.

After the third prayer the meeting is open for
remarks ; and speakers are heard from various
parts of the room. The brethren make known
an experience, a want, or they ask a question.
Anything practical the pastor is glad to hear.
" Anything," as he says, " that has life in it."
And when one takes into consideration the
transcendent prayer and conference-meeting apti-
tude of the pastor, it is really astonishing with what
freedom the most halting and uneducated persons
rise up, and unabashed before him, express their
minds, and open their feelings.

Strangers attending the meetings are prone to
think that, after hearing the pastor talk, no one
else would dare to open his mouth. But Mr.
Beecher's aim is to encourage and draw out the
humble and stammering disciple, and in this he suc-
ceeds to admiration. The minister sits smiling in
his seat, like a loved teacher ; and to him both old
and young submit any question of duty or of doc-
trine by which they are exercised. He is faithful
to warn, exhort, check, or encourage ; and his
power of applying cures to right places seems,
sometimes, well-nigh miraculous. It is a strange

Xvili THE LECTURE-ROOM.

thing to see old, grey-headed men arise and ask
that comparatively young one, of things too deep
for their understanding ; and stranger still is it to
hear how, without a moment's hesitation, the young
one pours light upon the whole subject, while the
inquirer sinks to his seat silent and satisfied.

When a man stands up and begins, after a dead
and formal manner, to make a long, set exhortation
upon generalities, he is very liable to be requested
to alter the tone of his remarks, or to make them
brief. That brother will be liable to be asked if he
thinks his religion renders him any more amiable
than he was ; if he is any more agreeable and
patient in his family, any more merciful and just
with his clerks, any more upright and humble in
every part of his life. Such home thrusts are useful
in bringing people down from that convenient
generality that we " are all great sinners," from
reflections and remarks that hit no one, and help
no one, and they fasten attention on particular
points where attention is needed.

But while cantino; exhortations and heartless
prayers are thus discouraged, the most trembling
lisper who really has a thing to say, and don't un-
dertake to speak or pray merely from " a sense of
duty," is kindly heard. If a timid beginner in the
prayers and the language of Zion, break down in
the midst of his utterance, instead of the dead

THE LECTURE-KOOM. XIX

and awkward, the half killing silence, made appal-
ling to the stammerer by exchanged glances and
nods, perhaps, also, by smiles from those j)resent,
the word is instantly taken np by the pastor, or by
some brother, and the distress of the young convert
is covered and cured.

Any one who has ever witnessed such scenes as
^ave taken place within the last year, in some con-
ference meetings, will know Ixow fully to appreciate
the delicacy and skill of management like this.

People accustomed but to solemn faces in prayer-
meetings, are frequently shocked at seeing a smile,
or hearing a sound as of subdued laughter, go
round the lecture-room of Plymouth Church. Well ;
the charge that people laugh there cannot be de-
nied ; they do.

But tho laughter of levity, or of trifling with
things sacred, is not that which Mr. Beecher's re-
marks excite, and he holds the strange belief that
man was made to laugh, when he feels like it, even
in the presence of God himself. And if there is a
man or woman with a face so stiff as not to smile,
or laugh outright, at the sudden and skillful hits
made by Mr. Beecher at various faults and errors,
surely it is not one that would be welcomed every-
where with love and joy.

Laughter thus caused has oftentimes more power
to send an evil into annihilation than twenty

XX . THE LECTURE-ROOM.

years of grim and solemn argumentation would
have.

A nickname well applied can paint a man better
than any brush of artist. '' Go tell that i^ca?," says
Jesus, and what labored description could set He-
rod more vividly before us ?

It is a fact that Mr. Beecher cannot keep his face
to that devout measure and expression which those
who gravely censure, him, so holily wear.

The people smile at their pastor, and at each
other, and he smiles at them. Thus there is
sunshine at evening there. Anon they look at
him with falling tears, and his own eyes till, and
the tears roll down as he speaks of Christ's love and
pity, or of man's ingratitude. Certainly, if it is
better to suppress all such signs of feeling, it is
more painful, and those who sit side by side un-
moved, while are poured the prayer, the song, the
entreaty, cannot love each other as they do who
have, in their meetings, looked through smiles and
tears, through sorrow and laughter, into each other's
very hearts.

Since the coming hither of Dr. Lyman Beecher
the meetings have often been more interesting
than ever. He stands like a glorious old ruin,
speaking of the good days of the past. And he
utters a few words more of love and invitation to
the world before lie leaves its shores forever.

THE LECTUEE-KOOM. XXI

How ardently he loved his work ! how he loves
it now !

One night the subject of remark during con-
ference was " Looking unto Jesus." Mr. Beecher,
with his usual power, had illustrated this looking,
by the looking of a child towards its parents, a
soldier to his officer, etc., and had then proceeded
to show how much greater encouragement one
would take by looking unto Christ. Said he, " 'Tis
hard to make people habitually do this, but far
harder to cause them to realize that Jesus is actu-
ally always looking upon them. I think that more
Christians, and the same one for a greater number
of times, take comfort by what they do towards
the Lord, than by what the Lord does towards
them. We know that we do, sometimes at least,
look upwards, lovingly, confidingly ; but that he
looks down on us with real, throbbing love, we
can't seem to believe that. There are many rea-
sons why this seems impossible. Our own con-
sciousness of ill desert, our meanness, our coldness,
our entire unloveliness, all appear to stand in the
way of our being objects of love to him. Yet it
was against this very feeling that he aimed his dis-
course in the chapter whero he asks if an earthly
parent will give his child a stone for bread, or a
serpent for a fish, etc. We say, "Oh, of course, an
earthly parent would not deal so ; he must love his

XXll THE LECTUKE-KOOM.

offspring, but God is different ; he is so far off, so
much above iis ; there may bo reasons why he
cannot regard us."

Nay, but Christ twists the argument the other
way. '• If 2/6, BEING EVIL, know how to give
good gifts, etc. Is it because your child is good,
and does all things to please you, that you give of
your fullness to him ? Or is it because he is your
oion^ and you love him ? ]^ow you reach it, that
is the manner of feeling which God has for all
who once and heartily have given themselves to
him. But don't you think that your poor, un-
steady and imperfect love is more true and endur-
ing than his. Out of his infinite goodness his love
flows to us ; the reasons for it are in his own
nature, not in ours."

Here the venerable Dr. Beecher rose and said :
'' I want to say one thing about this looking of God.
There must always be something to look at."

He sat down. It was plain that the watchful
Father in Zion feared that, from some omission in
his son's remarks, the ignorant and foolish might
take occasion to think, " We will do evil that love
may abound."

Mr. Beecher had been sitting in his chair, as his
manner is when he speaks often, and but a few
moments at a time, in the meetings ; but now he
rose and moved aside his table. Bending forward

THE LECTURE-ROOM. ' XXIU

over the edge of his platform, he said, "I should
like to know what He saw to look at when he so
loved the world that he gave himself to die for it.
When a man's back is towards God, and he is hat-
ing him, I don't think that God ever sees that man's
face. Even for such persons God's love is compas-
sionate, though it cannot be the peculiar affection
one feels for his own child ; but the moment that
the man's face is turned towards God, the love of a
father to his son is but a feeble sign of the infinite
tenderness with which the Almighty Father regards
him. It is the world that needs to be reconciled,
not God."

" That is just what I meant," said old Mr.
Beecher.

" I knew you did, father ; but I wanted them to
understand it in my words too."

At another time. Dr. Beecher hearing a blind
brother, who rather inclined to the doctrine of per-
fection, make some remarks to the effect that the
way of perfection was the way of peace, rem.arked :
''If we are to have no peace, and no sense of justi-
fication, until we do love the Lord with all our
heart, and soul, and strength, and until we are
conscious that we are free from offences, no man
who knows his own heart can emr have them. Tlie
love of God is with his children the paramount
love, but never, till they get to heaven, will it be

XXIV TEE LECTCEE-KOOM.

all that the commaud requires. Measuring our-
selves by the law of absolute perfection, every man
falls short every day. There are two sorts of per-
fection Iby which God's creatures stand : one, the
perfection, of absolute obedience ; the other, the
perfection of faith. By the first the angels stand,
by the last stands man. Faith is counted to us for
righteousness. Faith is shown by love and good
works, but both of these are imperfect, and
accepted only for Jesus' sake."

" This meeting," said Mr. Beecher at one time,
" is the bellows which keeps the fire going, yonder
in the Great Congregation. I am sure that more
depends upon it than upon the Sunday service — at
least without it the preaching would be almost
powerless. This is a pleasant place — we all love it
I think that we can say, Ihat here we have spent
some of the happiest hours of our whole livos.'^

NOTES

FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

There are two views of the Gospel, hoth of which

some churches use.

One view of it i^, that it is a power which makes
laws for the protection of all men who will quietly
yield up their rights, and submit themselves to
■what will inevitably crush out of them their man-
hood.

The other view is, that the Gospel is a power
which secures to man all the inherent rights of
his nature, and which protects him in them.

The first view regards men as mere passive bricks
for the building of the palace of society, which is
considered the important thing. The latter view
considers society as the school for training indi-

vidual men.

Man is the most important thing created on the
earth. Eulers, societies and systems are but liis
servants and protectors.

The churches are welcome to which one of

B

26 LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

these views they like best. Thej shalh not have
both. I take the latter side, and declare that those
who don't believe in it had better stop sending out
Bibles. Thej had better stop ministers, at any
rate such ones as I am ; for I preacii hiowing that
the Gospel is a bombshell in the midst of thrones,
and a mine beneath every fortress of power whose
strength is used against the people's rights instead
of for them.

Take from the Bible the Godship of Christ, and
to me it would be but a heap of dust. I would as
soon have all Egypt raked into a heap, wherein not
a stone of its cities, nor a trace of its inhabitants
could be found, as that book if its Christ be not
God.

Man is required to pour all that is in him — all
of his life and love — into the bosom of Christ ; and
when that is done, what is there left for God ?

The man who, after having cast his care on
Christ, goes to fretting and worrying himself about
anything or anybody, is like one who, having pur-
chased a through ticket from here to — anywhere,
and receiving a check for his baggage, gets out of
the car at the end of a mile or two, and, shoulder-

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 27

ing his trunk, starts to go the rest of the way alone.
Christ never rolls back upon us burdens ihat we
lay on him ; we take them back ourselves.
What is a religion worth that will stay with a man
in the sunshine, but clear out in a storm? The
Christian has a right, and it is his duty, to be free
from all care and anxiety. Let him lie on the pro-
mises, and be at rest. " Oh ! but," says the doubt-
ing, worrying disciple, " the promises are made to
the righteous ; and I am so full of imperfections I
dare not claim them." Well, brother, if you wait
for that righteousness which is by the law, you'll
never be able to rest on the promises ; but if you
trust in Christ, that is counted to you for righteous-
ness ; and your right to the comfort of the promises
is as good as though you were as holy as an angel.
Christ's love sweeps away the unworthiness of all
who sincerely love him. God has undertaken for
you ; trust him, though you know not where to get
your next supply of bread.

That Christ does not hold men to proper and un-
selfish motives when they come to him for healing,
we may see by the cleansing of the nine selfish and
ungrateful lepers. He knew their dispositions and
motives, as well before as after he had granted tlieir
prayer. God allows men to cry out to him from sel-

28 LIVING WOKDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

fish fear; and he never refuses to attend to any earnest
cry. If he did not attend to such cries, or receive
such persons, whom would he receive ? Dare any
man lift up his face and say, "When Z cried unto
God, I cried worthily, from pure and disinterested
motives." The conditions are not " Come with pure
hearts and motives unto me ;" they are "Come, and
your motives shall afterwards be made right." A
true conversion will do that work. ^Nothing else
will. If you are awake to your danger, if you see,
at last, that your only hope is in Jesus, don't stop
to examine your motives, or his willingness to
receive you just as you are. Hush to his feet this
moment. All that you cannot do, he can and will
do. All that you now have to do is heartily to
come. Drop every hope and every dependence but
Christ, and give your whole life and soul into his
keeping.

A TEAK, dropped in the silence of a sick chamber,
often rings in heaven with a sound wdiich belongs
not to earthly trumpet or bells.

God is more willing to give good gifts unto them
that ask him, than men are to give them unto their
children ! God could not have struck the founda-
tion note of human desire squarer than he did by
this declaration.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 29

There is no honor toward God, either in the
heart of man or woman. Suppose that I dared to
go into a school and take some young maiden — one
the least hackneyed in the ways of life, and, calling
upon her the attention of all her companions and
teachers, declare that her soul was base, mean and
vulgar ; tliat she was without natural affection or
human feeling ; that she regarded not the good of
brother nor sister, and that she returned the affec-
tion of father and mother with ingratitude and con-
tempt. Why! she would not for a moment bear
such charges — she would die — she would suffocate
with shame. Yet I stand here and I charge upon
you young maidens, and young men — upon every
one of you into whose eyes I look, if you have not
given your hearts to Christ, conduct infinitely worse
than this ; because 'tis towards one who is more to
you than any earthly friend can possibly be. I
charge upon you the meanest, the most base and
unnatural conduct that can be imagined ; but you
sit calmly under that^ you look me in the face and
do not blush, and not a feeling of shame stirs in
you, solely because this atrocious behavior is main-
tained towards God !

I THINK that the outreaching of God'cj heart of
love has more power in it than the beating of God's
mark has. Love is mightier than indignation.

30 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

It makes a difference to God liow we act. ,His
happiness is affected by the conduct of his child--
leu ; for his heart is the heart of a father. If,
when my child sins, a pang goes through my own
i^oul, and I fly to rescue him from further iniquity,
it is because God struck into my breast a little
spark of what in him is infinite.

Some men are, in regard to ridicule, like tin-
roofed buildings, in regard to hail — all that hits
them bounds rattling off, not a stone goes through.

Christ never stands rebuking before he pardons
and helps the suppliant.

God hates sin, because it destroys what he loves.
He could live high and lifted up above all noise of
man's groaning — all smoke of his torment ; but his
nature is to come down after man — to grope for
him amid all the dark pollutions of sin, and if pos-
sible, to rescue and cleanse him.

God hates sin very much as mothers hate wild
beasts. One day a woman stood washing beside a
stream. She was in a wild, frontier country, and
the woods were all around. Her little, only child
was playing about near lier. By and by she

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 31

missed the infant's prattk, and looking about her
called its name There was no answer. Alarmed,
the mother ran to the house, but her babe was not
there. In wild distress the poor woman now fled
to search the woods, and there she found her child.
But it was only its little hody that she clasped to
her heart. A wolf had seized her treasure, and
when, at last, she rescued it from those bloody
fangs, its spirit had gone. Oh ! how that mother
hated wolves ! ! And do you know that this is the
very figure Christ uses to show what feeling he
has towards the sin that is seeking to devour his
children ?

When we sin we are not going against a cold,
unfeeling law ; but are striking, with cruel hand,
direct at the living, loving heart of God.

" This loving God," you say ; " I can't do it.
How can I love infinity — omnipotence? I might
as well try to love a cloud, or to try to embrace in
my warm palpitating affections the vast expanse of
ether." True, you cannot love God — you cannot
love this expansive, mysterious essence of omnipo-
tence. God knows very well that you cannot, and
for that reason among others, he condescended to
bring himself down to your capacity ; to come

32 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

within the reach of your aff'ections in the person of
.] esiis Christ. " God manifest in the flesh." From
my soul I pity that man who goes behind Christ
and seeks to fasten himself uj)on God unrevealed.
As you say, he may as well seek to embrace with
warm love the elastic and invisible air. But it is
with Christ that we have to do, and if you desire to
fashion him to your mind that your heart may love
him, I will tell you how. Sit down and read his
(ife — not in parts ; not a chapter one day, and
another the next ; nor a paragraph with your coat
and hat at your elbow, ready to start for ]^ew
York ; but read his life straight through, giving
your mind and your heart time to take in the
meaning of w^hat you read. Thus you may view
him in his loveliness, and your affections cannot
fail of being touched. If you went into an artist's
studio to look- at the picture of some distinguished
person of whose appearance you wished to get a
clear idea, how do you think it would answer to
have, at your first visit, all of that painted face
except the forehead,^ covered? Looking at that a
little while, you go away and come again the follow-
ing day. The forehead is covered now, and the
lower parts of the face, but the eyes are visible.
You look at them a few moments and go away as
before. The next day they give you a view of the
nose, exclusively ; the next you behold the upper

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 33

lip ; next they give you the lower lip, and finally
the chin. Now you have seen the whole face ; but
do you know how it looks ? 'No, you don't. You
can form no idea of the effect of such a combina-
tion of features ; you can't imagine what the
expression of the face is, you don't know it from
Adam's. ISTow, who would for a moment put up
with such portrait seeing ? We say when we
come up before a picture : " Get out of the way —
let me see the whole effect of this." But it is in
this dissected manner that men look at the char-
act<3r of Christ. !Not so do they study Washing-
ton; nor any other man of whose character they
wish to form an opinion, and of whose personal
deserts they wish to judge. Why should Christ be
so unjustly treated ? Did it ever occur to you that
there are four lives of Christ, each one written by
men of different minds, that all forms of minds
might be suited ? Study those lives hy the whole,
and you will find how to love him.

'Tis not safe for any man, whether Christian or

not, to measure himself by any other than God's

own rule. Let him measure himself by God, and let

him judge of himself by how he looks there. Let

him hold up in the light of God's word the

thoughts and intents of his inmost soul.

B 2

34 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Perfect love casteth out fear. While the heart
is filling, the agitations of fear remain ; but, when
the lake is filling by the moon-drawn and star-
drawn tides, what commotion is there in its bosom —
liow the sands are swept about, how the muddy
bottom sends its rile through all the waters. There
are ripples and eddies, and struggling currents ;
there is seething and boiling ; there are bubbles
and foam, until the lake is almost filled. But as
the waters deepen, as the banks grow less and less,
the agitation subsides. The sand settles, the foam
is blown away, the bubbles are scattered. And
when the lake is filled to its utmost capacity it
clears itself, and lies unruffled and serene, reflect-
ing in its calm bosom, the moon, the stars, and the
tranquil heavens. Thus is it with the heart of
man. When love ebbs low in his soul he is tossed
and whirled by the agitations and torments of fear;
but when the Spirit of God flows in and fills his
heart with divine love, the tumults are stilled ; and
looking up with confidence and joy, the man
reflects from his overflowing soul the image of his
God and Father.

Farmers have learned a lesson which many mo-
ralists have not learned ; namely, that when ^eed is
sown grain must be looked for at the latter end of
the harvest, and not at the beginning.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 35

Christ reveals himself unto his own in ten thou-
sand ways, but often they do not know him when
he comes. Many times he speaks to them when
they do not even suspect that they have had a reve-
lation. They dare not think it ; they fear that it
would be a lack of humility to believe that the
Saviour really has made good his promise, and
come unto them. When we are burdened and cast
down, how often does some passage of Scripture
dart suddenly into our mind, lighting up all our
darkness like a flash from Heaven? It is from Hea-
ven. Christ thus reveals himself to strengthen and
encourage us. We may be beset by sore tempta-
tions, and just upon the point of yielding, when the
word of warning comes; or we may be feeling deso-
late and forsaken, having none to lean ujDon, and yet
not knowing how to stand alone, when the revela-
tion has been of love that passeth understanding —
of pity deep as the bosom of Almighty God. I sat
once under a tree near a little stream, holding in
my hands a bunch of flowers. Suddenly, from the
air came swooping down upon them a little bird.
He had not seen me ; when he did so he instantly
fled : but he could not take from me the sweet sur-
prise and the exciting pleasure of his visit. Thus
comes flying to us the new revelation from our God.
New in effect, though old in letter. Like the bird
that only touched me with its little feet and bill, it

3C) LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

may but alight a moment on our heart, and depart
as suddenly as it came, but it does its work. As, at
a touch from some passing thing, t]ie dew-laden
bushes shake off at morn the weight of the burden
that has been pressing down all their leaves, so, at
one shock, do our hearts shake off their burdens,
and rise up in thanksgiving and joy.

A MAN who is very much afraid of sins that
bring immediate shame and punishment, while he
cares nothing at all for those which are of a nature
to recur, increase and form character, is like a child
who should come laughing into a room with his
apron full of asps ; but be very much terrified at
being chased by a butterfly.

There is no enduring happiness apart from God.
As well mischt a branch broken from a tree in the
forest say, " Now I am free — I will grow and be a
tree by myself," as any human soul say, " I will be
free — I will do as I like and be happy in my own
way," when he does not draw on God for his enjoy-
ment, lie is a broken bough — a reed plucked up ;
a waif floating no whither. True happiness he can
never know until he comes to draw it from its only
source — God.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 37

There are sins which, like asps, always carry
their sting with them. The instant one meddles
with them, he is struck by the poisoned dart.
Such sins are generally rare and admitted to be
very wrong. But there are others that are far
more dangerous. Men in tropical climates may be
very much afraid of tigers ; but there are multi-
tudes of minute insects flying in the woods whose
bite is death. Shall they be less afraid of these ?

Men often hunger and thirst after God when
they don't know what ails them. There is cra-
dled in every man's soul, though often nearly
smothered, something which is the child of God,
ever crying out for its Father. You may say, '' 1
cast religion, priests and churches overboard ; I'll
have no more to do with them, I've seen through
them, and they are worthless." But you will have
more to do with them, for when you have destroyed
the outward forms, the living want will still be in
you. Eeligion is not a thing of arbitrary requisi-
tions it is an inherent need of the soul. The Bible
and ordinances are but evoked by man's necessities,
to help him. You come to church, you think youi
cheeks are hard, and they are; you think your
hearts are hard, and they are hard ; you think you
can resist the dogmas, and so you can ; therefore T

38 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

shall not present them. I won't tlirow pearls
before swine, but being crafty, I catch you with
guile. Many of you are ashamed that you want to
come here ; some of you go out cursing because
your hearts are touched. But you come again and
again. You are what is called gospel hardened ;
but in reality you are word hardened. You have
heard the same things presented in the same way
so long that you are tired of them ; therefore I go
out of my way to get new forms in which to pre-
sent old truths. For your sakes I forsake all set
rules of sermonizing, and strike direct at that
within you which I Tinow will echo to my words.
I know that in every man's bosom there is that
which at times longs for something better and
purer than he is. At your interior consciousness I
aim my thrust. I strike my blow. Those old bells
in you, I will make them ring. You ma}^ turn out
the sexton, you may cut off the rope. I'll throw
stones and hit your bells if I can do nothing more.
To the truth they shall peal out, and your soul shall
tremble at the peal.

Journals are often the devil's vanity trap. Men
write in them pretending to themselves that they
don't expect them to be published, when all the time
they know that they will be ; and are writing
under the influence of that idea.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 39

In some waters a man may drive strong piles
and bnild his warehouses upon them, sure that the
waters are not powerful enough to undermine his
foundations ; but there is an innumerable army of
minute creatures at work beneath the water, feed-
ing themselves upon those strong piles. They
gnaw, they bore, they cut, they dig, into the solid
wood, and at last a child might overthrow those
foundations, for they are cut through and eaten to
a honeycomb. Thus by avarice, revenge, jealousy
and selfishness, men's dispositions are often cut
through and they don't know it.

There are men who delight to see evil in those
professing godliness. They doubt, they leer, they
jeer. Well, there are birds appointed to seek for
carrion, and they always find it. By their very
seeking they declare their own nature. Don't you
imitate their dirty flight. They are of the carrion
family.

God values men according to what they have had
to walk through. Some men are so made that they
are obliged to hold perpetual warfare with them-
selves. They must have a hand always on the en- -
gine, or something will blow up in them every
minute.

40 LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

There are doubts and troubles that never can be
settled. The only thing to be done with them is to
lay them down and leave them. This the Christian
must do if he wants peace ; and if the impenitent
won't do it they will torment him to death.
That's all he'll gain by clinging to them. There is
no system by which everything can be made to look
clear to men while they live in the flesh. As long
as we live there must continue to be many things
that to us seem dark and mysterious. It matters
not. Enough that there is no darkness, no mystery
which is not clear to God. To him let us trust mat-
ters, and not take the care of things upon ourselves.

God will certainly take care of you if you bear
your whole weight on him. Tie may not do it just
in your way ; but he will do it. He cannot let one
of your real interests perish, or be hurt, without the
most dreadful perjury of himself.

Great crimes ruin comparatively few. It is the
little meannesses, selfishnesses, and impurities, that
do the work of death on most men ; and these
things march not to the sound of fife or drum.
They steal with muffled tread, as the foe steals on
the sleeping sentinel.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 4.1

What a man has thought and felt bears intimate
relation to what he now thinks and feels. There is
no such thing as divesting one's self of the influences
of former living. A man's life is a concatenation —
he is rolled over and over on himself.

There are many men who have a dyspepsia of
books.

In love, the freshness and charm of youth have
caught men's attention, and they have pronounced
the first love best ; but it is the poorest. One does
not know how to love till he has felt the discipline of
life. Young love is a flame ; very pretty, often very
hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering.
The love of the older and disciplined heart is as
coals, deep-burning, unquenchable.

A REALIZATION of the Spiritual nature and the
-eternal duration of man purifies and elevates our
social intercourse. The clearer a man sees man's
destination and true life, the more he reveres hu-
manity as a thing sacred and honored of God.

I don't believe in definitions of feelings or classes
of feelings. They can be illustrated— not defined.

4:2 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

There is a time when one is neither one thing nor
another ; not exactly in boyhood, and not exactly
in manhood, but in the limbo of vanity. This is the
time when parents become foolish, and not worth
minding ; when the theology of one's childhood be-
comes bigotry, narrow, simple ; when one yearns
for largeness, liberty. This is the time of danger.
Infidelity with dark wing hovers near, and if the
youth be not now guided wisely and betimes they
become its victims. Having myself narrowly es-
caped this doom, I know how to sympathize with
those who are in danger.

Eeason is like a telescope — you can arrange it so
that with it you can see only the things near to you,
but it has other powers. By drawing it out and
properly adjusting the glasses, you can make what
is near you to grow dim, and the things far off to
come near, and by and by, when the lenses arc
all right, you can see beyond the stars and into the
heavenly city, and the magnificent background to
your view is the glory of God.

Suffering rightly borne weakens that part of us
that should ])e weak, and strengthens what should

be strong.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 43

Will men's prayers be answered ? Not if they
pray as boys whittle sticks, absently, hardly know-
ing or caring what they are about. I've known
men to begin to pray about Adam, and go on from
him away down to the present time, whittling their
stick clear to a point with about as much feeling,
and doing about as much good as the boy does.

Eefinement is one of the outworkings of faith in
the spiritual. It is the lifting of one's self upwards
from the merely sensual, the effort of the soul to
etherealize the common wants and uses of life. A
really refined man who ignores Christianity is a
creature to beo-et wonder. A man whose sense of
color is so exquisite that one wrong shade cannot
escape his eye, that harmony of hues is his soul's
delight, I marvel that that man's eye has never
pierced the blue, and caught the sparkle of the gems
that glow with matchless dyes upon the gates of the
eternal city. A man whose ear is all attuned to
melody, who has brought music to its highest
earthly perfection, and stands entranced by the
sweetness of its passing tones, I marvel that he
never hears the ringing of the harps of heaven.
And he who has lifted his affections until no touch
of grossness ever defiles them, who has made them
pure as crystal from the taint of life's vulgarity, I

44 LIVING WORDS FTOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

marvel, more and more, that along their edges
plays no fire from the celestial treasury of love —
that as the lightning from the earth leaps forth and
joins and mingles with the lightning from the cloud,
his love is not touched and intensified by the love
of God. AYhat rapine ! what havoc ! when such an
one — his life being touched — goes forth, naked and
alone, to find that he has stopped infinitely short of
any preparation which could make the happiness of
Heaven possible to him.

Men who concentrate themselves all upon one
point may be sharp, acute, pungent — they may
have spear-like force of character, but they are
never broad and round, never of full-proportioned
manhood ; which can only be obtained by the
carrying forward of the whole of a man in an even-
breasted march. •

Many a man never sees into heaven, till he sees
there through the grave of his little child, or till he
loses his wife, not only the better half, but often the
whole better part of himself. That unutterable loss
which darkens the house, which darkens life itself,
which takes the breath out of the years, and leaves
a man to go staggering through the world, like one
smitten at noonday with blindness.

Livma woKDs from Plymouth pulpit. 45

^ To some it is appointed to wander in Getlisemane,
liaving no variation to their lives except a walk
over to Calvary. There are faces lifted up to me
from this congregation, into which I cannot look
witliont revelations of their owners' peculiar histo-
ries, which seem like flashes from another world.
They sit calm and still before me ; but I know that
no scorpions or vipers can sting as they are stung
through every one of their best affections. Every
day their tears fall. For years and years they
have borne this, and yet they can bear witness that
through faith they have been enabled to endure.
More ; that though they expect no relief, faith will
support them to the end. Is religion, then, a fan-
tasy, v/hen it can so uphold the soul amid all the
waves of trouble ? I tell you no. Let who chooses
to do so, swelter in philosophical anguish ; I prefer
to stand serene upon my Christian faith and hope.
You may scoff at it and call it folly. I tell you it
is a very comfortable thing to find refuge from every
distressful and corroding care in the love of God.

I THINK no man could have his arm rot and drop
away, from wrist to shoulder, and not know it ; but
you shall find numberless men whose consciences
have rotted, from circumference to core, and they ,
know nothing about it. They are less concerned

4:6 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

about themselves than when the corruption first
began. This silence of the hollowing out of a man
• — this noiseless process of preparing him for de-
struction, is an element of very great fearfulness.
It fills me with grief and sadness, as I look on men,
to know that as the snow falls, fiake by flake, and
no sound tells of its accumulation — that as the dust
sifts in, and no noise warns of its choking rise, so
silently, so surely, man is heaping to himself wrath
against the day of wrath, and does not know it.

She was a woman, and by so much nearer to God
as that makes one.

Live not for selfish aims. Live to shed joy on
others. Thus best shall your own happiness be
secured ; for no joy is ever given freely forth that
does not have quick echo in the giver's own heart.

Evert action of the intellect, save that which is
purely scientific, is based upon some feeling. Am-
bition says to intellect, ''Look out for me ;" fear
cries " Look out for me." Greed also, " Arouse,
sharpen yourself; pierce the darkness, teach me
how to gain ;" and love cries passionately, pleading-
ly, " Awake, be my advocate, think, think for me."

LIVING WORDS FKOM TLYMOUTH PULPIT. 47

N^EiTHEK I 1101" my family ever put on the gar-
ments of mourning. I will not permit it. Yet I
would not refuse to those who think differently from
me, the right to change their garments in memory
of their beloved dead. But do not borrow of the
devil ; choose some color that shall speak of hope,
of release, of victory. Draw not over yourselves
the black tokens of pollution. Do not blaspheme
by naming that despair^ which is triumph and
eternal life.

" Thekefoee let no man glory in men, for all
things are yours. Whether Paul, or Apollos, or
Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things
present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are
Christ's, and Christ is God's." This is a wonder •
ful ownership ; nowhere else in the world is there
such 'an one. The time is coming when even to the
grosser property of earth this w^ll apply ; for the
heirs of heaven are not to be forever^ the paupers
of earth ; but now it is true of all things pertaining
to the realm of mind. The things our Father made
are ours, not in the sense of our having any right
to deprive others of them, but ours as our earthly
father's home and goods were ours in the days of
our childhood. Were not our parents, our brothers
and sisters, was not the infant sleeping in its cradle,
ours ? Was not the shelter of the roof-tree ours ?

48 LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Was not the homestead ours ? Were not the fields,
the gardens, the trees, the flowers, ours, in the full
heart-possession, which is the interior, the true
ownership. W^ere they not just as" sensibly our
own as though we alone possessed them ? And
were they not ours because we were the children of
our father ? And were they any the less ours be-
cause they belonged to our brothers just the same ?
If we are the children of God, we are the owners
of all the erood thinofs in the universe. Read here
the title ; it has our Father's seal. We read of the
noble ones, the mighty and holy ones of old, and
we say : " These men are ours— They know it now,
for they are where the light is clear, and ere many
days they will give us loving welcome.

We stand before the gifted, refined, and noble
men of our own time ; they do not know or heed us,
but they are ours, as we are theirs, and soon we
shall rejoice together in the glad possession. We
walk among the well-known princes of reform and
progress. They have an influence over us, that we
cannot resist — they make us laugh or weep — they
steal our hearts, they direct our thoughts, but they
reo:ard us not amid the crowds that flock to hear
them. They do not see or know their brothers, but
we know them right well, and we bide our time ;
eternity is long — there is no haste there — no over-
work, no weariness, and no indifference ormisinter-

LIVING WOKDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 49

pretation, and those great, rich souls shall yet ac-
knowledge and receive us. We are among them
now, as a disguised man in his father's house.
He sees his parents and his brethren, and he is
happy to be with them, though they know him
not. He knows them well, and he can afford to
wait awhile until they discover him. The Christian
who lives near to God, finds a fulfillment of the
promise that whoever for Christ's sake forsakes'
aught, shall receive in this world many fold more
than he loses. But oh ! that world to come ! that
world eternal which is also ours ! Why should any
Christian feel himself poor ? I believe there is no
feeling more universal in the human heart than
that of loneliness. At the outset of life every face
glows ; every heart has its high hopes, and no one
thinks much of the insufficiency of the things
of time ; but when the middle hours of life draw
on, not more than one-third of the faces are still
bright — two-thirds are disappointed and almost dis-
' couraged. When the evening comes, not more
than one in a thousand^ carries the light still in his
eye and on his forehead. The nine hundred and
ninety-nine have fallen by the way. They have
tasted the cold selfishness of the w^orld ; their breasts
and their sides have been pierced by the jagged
points and the poisoned thorns ^ against which rude

winds and struggling waves, have dashed them.

G

50 LIVING WOEDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

They have felt the ntter insufficiency of human
help and sympathy ; and it has been well for them,
if instead of lying down in the bitterness of despair,
they have turned for what they so greatly needed to
the only fountain of availing sympathy and aid.
" Alone ! alone !" has been and is the wail of every
human heart that has not been satisfied by the
love of God. And the Christian, while on earth, is
' subject to seasons of the same distress, when he will
feel unknown, unloved, forsaken of his kind. But
he knows that 'tis only for a moment that his deso-
lation can endure, and then he will enter where
all are his, and where they all will own him. Then^
when he walks with wings and not with feet, he
may measure his possessions, and never again will
his heart be cold, or lone, or sad.

To some men the mere fact of existence, the
simple walking through the air and light, gives
more pleasure than others find in the whole round
of so-called pleasures.

Paul was converted as the germ of a peach
sprouts. In splits its shell clear off, and has free
room to root and grow. Many conversions only
crack the shell; and it is worn so long that the
man's Christian character is stunted and shallow for
liis whole life.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 51

To live altogether in the affections is not safe.
Death will overleap the fold, and bear away the
precious lambs that are therein ; and then the man
will go wailing through the world, shorn of all that
was life to him. A man's life should not " consist
in the abundance of the things that he possesseth."

We are all writing books — histories of our own
lives, and we can omit nothing, soften nothing.
Only the naked truth can be marked upon those
pages.

Let your sorrows, when they rise and swell, be
like the waves of the Sound, when they at night
flash forth their glories of phosphorescent light — or
like the clouds that reflect the sunlight glorified.

It is a bad thing to live exclusively in taste and
refinement. It begets a very wicked sort of selfish-
ness. The man who lives too much in these facul-
ties will be perpetually stumbling upon things
shocking to his feelings, for God forgot to polish all
the rocks in this world. He didn't make trees all
smooth. There are a thousand things that he didn't
put velvet on. It's a pity men should grow too re-
fined to keep company with God in his provi-
dences.

^'

52 LIVING WOEDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

I WILL declare the whole counsel of God ; I will
make it to bear hardest and hottest, and to cast its
light strongest and clearest on the most open and
obstinate sins. I will bring it down hissing hot
upon the hydra-headed monster, that many think it
best to pat and soothe. I will, while the Lord
spares my breath, cry aloud, and loudest w^hen men
would fain teach me prudent silence, " Woe unto
them that decree unrighteous decrees ; that turn
aside the needy from judgment; that take away
the right of the poor ; that make widows their
prey ; that rob the fatherless ; that oppress the
poor to increase their riches. Behold, the hire of
the laborers who have reaped down your fields,
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth ; and
the cries of them which have reaped are entered
into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have
lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton ;
ye have condemned and killed the just, and he
doth not resist you ; but, behold, the judge standeth
before the door."

Tears often prove the telescope by which men
see far into heaven.

Christian graces are natural faculties which have
blossomed under the influence of divine love.

LIVING!- WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 53

Sorrows are like clouds, which, though black
when they are just passing over us, when they a7'e
overpast, become as if they were the garments of
God thrown off in purple and gold along the horizon.

Merchants who play at snatch and grab, or at
pinch and squeeze games, have need to be taught
the first principles of the Gospel.

This world is like a battle-field full of little hills
and hollows ; and to each soldier in the war, the
small valley where he fights seems the whole, or at
least the chief part of the field. He cannot see the
contest on the other side of the hill ;' and he thinks,
in his small judgment, that as go things in his hol-
low, so goes the whole battle. Thus either his
defeat or his victory looks to him of far more con-
sequence than it really is. But God looks at things
by the whole, and in heaven he will show them so
to us. When we have fouo;ht lonoj in a 2:ood cause,
and have been at last thrown away backward, and
lie gasping, perchance dying, upon our banners, we
must not think that the good cause has failed.
God's work never goes backward. lie takes the
large view of things, and when we are come up out
of the blood and dust of conflict, he will show it
to us, and we shall be comforted. For all that I

64 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

know to be right and good I shall do battle till I die.
For the enconragement and sympathy I have met,
I thank God. I thank God also for the contumely
and abuse which bad men have heaped upon me.
It is no honor to be praised by the selfish and evil
man, and the oppressor ; but I would that my
brethren, the sons of my Father, my fellow workers
in the vineyard of the Lord, understood and loved
me. But in one thing I am su^Derior to my brother
ministers who call me so bad a minister : I know
that many of them are good and true men, though
over careful and most mistaken ones, and I know
that they have, sooner or later, got to own ine for a
good man. They are mine. They cannot help
themselves. I 'love all that is good in them ; and
they have got to love me. There is no escape for
them, " for all things are mine, and I am Christ's,
and Christ is God's." Does any one ask for the full
meanino; of this threefold heart enshrinement ?
They cannot have the exposition from mortal lips ;
but we shall all learn its meaning when we get to
heaven.

Once I thought of heaven with the cold rigid
thoughts of the old teaching. It was a stately,
solemn, unnatural place, full of everlasting practis-
ing in music. But now I take the liberty of pro-
phecy. I see that wlien the oriental saints, or

LIVING W.OEDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 55

when Christ himself described that glorious place,
they made use of whatevei' of earthly beauty and
glcay seemed greatest to those to whom they were
speaking as images of it. I do the same. Every
one may do the same. There is in heaven what
will more than satisfy every mind. As a place for
studying mathematics it could attract ]N"ewton, but
I fear that I should hardly want to go there if that
were to be the employment of all. But for my
nature there will be abundant food, and for your
natures, too, all various as they are. There is not a
day passes over me here, that I do not sicken at
some unworthiness or hypocrisy ; but I think
" Yonder there can enter nothing that defileth, or
that inaketh a lie." !N"ot a day but that tears
start to my eyes at the sight of other's tears ; but
I know that there "there shall be no more
sorrow, nor crying." Here, I shrink daily from
the contact of those that are mean and sordid;
there, all is noble and generous. Here, I am often
chilled by want of affection ; there, all is love, per-
fect and undefiled. Of wdiatever is most beloved
by me ; of all that is most grand and glorious ; of
all that is most warm, winning and delightful, I
can think and yet be sure that I have not risen to
a tithe of the warmth and beauty of the glorious "
home awaiting the sons of God — the joint heirs of
Jesus Christ.

5G LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

There is scarce a time wlien men meet to-
gether, when they could not, if they listened for it,
hear the sharp, shrill singing of ten thousand
petty lies buzzing around them. Men have vio-
lated truth so long, that they have come to lie
almost unconsciouslv.

A man's religion is not a thing all made in
heaven, and then let down, and shoved into him.
It is his own conduct and life. A man has no more
religion than he acts out in his life.

"Take no thought for the morrow," that is, no
anxious, fretful thought. Walk through to-day as
well as you can, and God will undertake for your
future. When you go forward out of to-day, to
worry about it, you are over the fence, you are
trespassing, and God will scourge you back into
your own lot. When I have been fishing in a
mountain stream, I have always found that so long
as I kept a short line I could manage my fishing
very well ; but when I let my line run out, the
stream took it down, and there I was, at the mercy
of every stick that stuck up in the stream, and every
rock that jutted out from the banks. I lost my
fish and I tangled my line ; very likely I lost my
footing also, and got over head and ears in the

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 57

stream. Kow, most men have cast out their line
into life forty years long, when it ought to be but
cue day long. In consequence, they are not able to
manage their tackle at all ; but are pulled after it,
stumbling first into this hole, and then into that ;
slipping up here, and slipping down there, strug-
gling and splashing about in far more distressed
fashion than the fish at the other end of the line —
and, as a general thing, there is no fish there.
Haul in your line ! !

Before men we stand as opaque beehives. They
can see the thoughts go in and out of us ; but what
work they do inside of a man they cannot tell.
Before God we are as glass beeliives, and all that
our thoughts are doing within us he perfectly sees
and understands.

Caution and conservatism are expected of old
age ; but when the young men of a nation are pos-
sessed of such a spirit, when they are afraid of the
noise and strife caused by the new applications of
the truth. Heaven save the land ! Its funeral bell
has already rung.

Christians who are forever livins: on their own

experiences, are like a leaf which has got into an

eddy in the river, where it keeps whirling round

C 2

58 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PPLPIT.

and round in its own track. You sliall see it there,
whirling ; and shall go away and sleep, and in the
morning you shall come again and find the leaf
there still. At noon there it is, and when night
comes it is still nothing but whirl, whirl, whirl.
Working, travelling, hard enough, to be sure, but
making no progress. E'ow, let something break it
loose from that whirlpool, and away it will go,
merrily down the stream. Too much looking back-
ward and inward is bad for piety and progression.

The assertion that the " common people " heard
Christ gladly, seems to imply that the higher
classes cared but little for him.

The Bible don't pretend to teach fully of any-
thing save man's lost condition, and of his way of
returning to God. The truth of it is not a subject
for logic; it can only be tested by consciousness
and experience. To test the truth of a Christian's
experience try the life of a Christian. Go on your
knees before God. Bring all your idols, bring self-
will, and pride, and every evil lust before him, and
give them up. Devote yourself, heart and soul, to his
will and see if you do not '' Icnow of the doctrine."

This is the only way to examine, and study into
Bible truths;' and none that ever tried this way till

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 59

their hearts grew warm with love to Christ ever
had much trouble about doubting the truths of
revelation. There are men who are avowedly try-
ing to get rid of the Bible, and there are other men
who sorrowfully fear that it must be given up.
But destroy it, and what then ?

Why we should be like men who had burned up
all the wills and title deeds which would have given
them a large estate — or, like sick and wounded
men, who had destroved all the means of relief.
Suppose that the wounded men in the Crimean hos-
pitals had raised an insurrection. Suppose that one
man, having lost a leg, had said to another who had
lost an arm, and to another with a part of his head
and features shot away : " Come, let us take no
more of this medicine. Let us put an end to the
directions and attentions of these doctors and
nurses ;" and suppose that then the poor wretches
had hobbled up and turned all their kind and skill-
ful physicians out of doors ; had ejected Florence
Nightingale after them, and flung the nurses and the
medicines, and all the surgeon's instruments out of
the winddws. Would all this have done them any
good ?

They would thus have got -rid of all who could
have helped them, but while the doctors, and
nurses, and the remedies and balm for the wounds,
were all outside of the walls, the wounds and putri-

(30 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

fjiiig sores, the burning anguish and tormenting
pain would all have continued within.

But what is a Crimean hospital to this groaning
world ? this lazar-house of corruption and woe, that*
goes swinging through the ages to one unceasing
anthem of pain. Men would make their fate utterly
hopeless, their damnation doubly sure, could they
extinguish the only light which can lead them from
that doom of unrepented sin, whose horror is that it
forever gathers blackness as it rolls and rolls through-
out eternal nio^ht.

There are persons who judge of Christians as a
man would judge of apples, who should enter an
orchard and go stooping along upon the ground in
search of them. He picks up on^, a hard, green
thing, no bigger than a v/alnut. He bites it ; it is
sour and bitter ; it puckers up his mouth and sets his
teeth on edge. " Ha !" he says, throwing the un-
timely fruit away, " I hear them speak of apples as
being so delicious — I'm sure I don't think much of
this one."

He picks up another which looks yellow. There's
a hole in it, but he don't know what that means, so
he bites into it and finds a worm.

"Bah! apples! delicious indeed !" he cries in
disgust; and then picks up a third which is crushed

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 61

by liis touch, for it is rotten. So he condemns
apples, because he has looked for them npon the
ground instead of on the trees above his head, where
they hang ripe, juicy, and luscious, a chief treasure
of autumn.

Just so men judge of Christians so long as they
take for fair samples those that lie rotten on the
ground.

The young minister, having just finished his
course, sometimes says, " Now here 1 am, poor,
miserable sinner that I am, with the harvest of
. twenty years' study in my brain ; what must I do
with myself? Must all this learning, must my
powers and genius be buried in some obscure ham-
let ? ISTo ! I must have a field worthy of my tal-
ents." And so he is found hanging about the pur-
lieus of large towns and cities, waiting for vacancies
in distinguished places. If he gets such a place as
he thinks worthy of him, he soon gets a hint from
his own people that he had better go down lower ;
and then he gets the bronchitis, or is called to a
professorship, or something of that sort (for people
will lie like witches about this sort of thing) ; and
his people will endow a professorship and place
their D.D. there in order to get rid of him respect-
ably when ho has used himself up on their hands.

62 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Tlie stoiy that goes out to the world is : " The Rev,
Dr. So-and-so was called to take a professor's seat,
and has therefore resigned the charge of his people
for this new, and in some respects, more important
field of labor."

J^ow, to all in general, but to young ministers in
particular, does Christ's injunction to take first the
lowest seat, apply. It is sense and sound philoso-
phy as well as proper humility to do so. The call
will be " Come up higher " as soon as the man
has filled and made to overflow the first place
assigned him. Learn from nature how to become
great and strong. Look at the acorn — it is content
to go into the ground and be covered — it is content
to lie long in darkness hidden away from the know-
ledge of all. And what then? Why then it is
content to be a little germ no larger than a knit-
ting-needle ; and what then ? Why then it goes on
for a long time striking its roots hither and thither,
grappling itself more and more firmly into the
earth, working with all its strength under ground.
And then? Why then it is content to be for a
whole year, a single shoot no bigger than a whip ;
and for another year it is content to be two shoots ;
the third to have its shoots grow a little longer and
be headed by green tips. And for ten years it
grows no larger than that a man's strength can up-
root it; but in fifteen or twenty years it is beyond

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 63

the strength of man ; and in thirty or forty years
it stands aloft — a wrestler with the winds, able to
:ake a hug with storm and winter. In fifty or a
hundred years, tempests cannot upheave it from the
eai'th ; its foundations are as the rock ; they cannot
be shaken. Thus should it be with man. Art
called to be a scullion or a street-cleaner? act
well your humble part and you shall soon find
yourself in one that is higher; but be sure that God
will never commence for you the work of saintship
where you are not^ but where you are. Fill full,
of yourself, the spot where God has placed you ;
grow daily till the place overflows with you, and
your borders will surely be enlarged. So shall you
rise upward, step by step, on secure footing, until
at last you shall sit down in that highest of all
apartments from which, since its name is heaven,
none are ever ejected.

My heart is sick ! I see men going to destruc-
tion on every hand, and I have no power to stay
them.

What a business is that of a preacher. What a
calling is that which sends one to seek men's souls
even at the very gates of perdition, and often
vainly — only now and then one rescued. If you
could know what causes lie at the foundation of

64 LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

this and that sermon that I preach here, with my
soul faint with yearning over this one and that in
this great congregation, you would not wonder that
I say I feel crushed, overborne, by the weight that
is upon me.

There are some men who are so proud that they
don't intend to enter the church until they become
so good that they can confer an honor upon the
church by entering it. They say, " Look out for a
striking conversion, and for a high-tonod, consistent
Christian life, when I start. I'll set an example to
tliose members who are such a disgrace to the
church that I, sinner as I am, am ashamed of them."
Ah ! self-deluded man, you never w^ill get God to
dwell in your heart until it comes out of that proud
frame. He don't expect you to confer honor on his
church by entering it, at least not in the way you
imagine. You have got to go in through the door
of humility ; you have got to come to that state in
which you shall forget everything but that you are
a lost and ruined sinner, and that your only hope,
as the only hope of a murderer, is in him who will
accept nothing but a broken and contrite heart.
The language of a man entering the church is not,
" I have become so good, that I will now join
myself to the members of Christ, and thenceforfh
])e a pattern to all wlio know me, and an honor to

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 65

God ;'' it is, " I have discovered my lost arid
wretched condition, and that I am too weak to
stand alone. I liave cast my soul upon Christ's
mercy, and I beseech his children, if there is any
strength or safety in the church, to take me in and
watch over and help me." When you have been
humbled then you may be lifted up, but " before
honor goeth humility." Suppose one went to the
wheat, as it waved in the field, and said : " Would
you like to be made into a loaf for the queen?"
"Yes," answers the wheat, "oh! yes, we should
like to be presented to the queen," and on it waves,
swelling with pride at the thought of its conse-
quence. But the reaper comes, and the wheat gets
a stroke at the roots and is laid prostrate. " Alas !"
it sighs, "is this going to the gueenV But there it
lies, drying in the scorching sun ; and then 'tis
drawn to the threshing floor, and bruised and
beaten without mercy. After this 'tis winnowed,
and then tied up in darkness and carried to the
mill. "Is not this almost over?" cries the poor
wheat, but 'tis poured into the hopper and ground
to powder. Then 'tis pressed and packed, and that
is not all. It is mixed with water ; it is worked
and kneaded; it is subjected to various rapid
changes, and finally to the process of cutting and
shaping into loaves. " Ah ! shall I not rest now?"
sighs the poor wheat. " Yes ; now you may rest,"

6(> LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULriT.

says the baker; and fortliwitli shoves the loaf into
a heated oven. When baked, and not till then, it
is fit to be eaten; and is presented to the queen.
If God intends to honor you by allowing you to
honor him, he will lay you low, he will flail you,
he will winnow you and grind you, he will knead
and fashion you, and pass yoii through the fir^ ; and
then you will have discovered what it is needful to
do with pride.

Men should all have their feet on the same level,
with leave to grow as high as they can from the
charter God put in their souls. Oregon pines are
three hundred feet high — how solitary their tops
must be ; but they start from the same place that
the shrub does.

Some men — good men after a fashion, think there
is nothing in the world so hard as that they are not
so high now as they have been. Their pride and
their vanity suffer. "What is the trouble, friend ;
can't you walk down there ?

" Oh, yes."

" Can't you procure enough to eat?"

" Oh, yes."

"Have you not shelter?"

" Yes, I have."

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PT]T,PIT. 67

« And clothes ?"

" Well, yes."

" Can't you get along comfortably ?"

" Yes ; but then I used to live in a four-story
house, and move in higher society. And my child-
ren are not where I intended that they should
be," etc.

Man ! are you a child of God ? Have you not
the inheritance of the universe by reversion?
Only wait awhile. Have you not the sympathy
and love of your Father, and a birth-right to eter-
nity ? What are you grumbling at ? Stand up-
right like a man, a prince. Lift up your front and
say in true manliness, " P can afford to stand in the
valley. I think I could stand safely on the toj) of
the mountain, but there are many there who could
not afford to stand in the valley with me.

Prater covers the whole of a man's life. There
is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, how-
ever low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it,
which, if it affects our real interest or happiness,
we may not lay before God and be sure of his sym-
pathy. His nature is such that our often coming
does not tire him. The whole burden of the whole
life of every man may be rolled onto God and not
weary him, tliongh it has wearied the man.

68 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Some mav be content to regard God as a being
of crystalline purity and awful majesty, to be wor-
sliipped afar off, and not troubled with the details
of daily life and conflict; but others need a God to
whom they can come near^ and on whose bosom
they can lean their heads, and be welcome there.
They think of him nine times with a gush of filial
love, where they do so once with solemn and
shivering awe. They know that he loves each one
of his children with a separate and peculiar love,
and that he knows each one by name.

Pray out 3^our life to God. " Be instant in
prayer," and the only way to do this, is to go to
him in all moods ; in joy and sorrow, in depression
and mirth, in hope and fear; with everything that
is in you, or that touches you. Confide in God —
make him your familiar friend. Keep open the
path from your heart to the heart of God, and let
airy feet be always treading its trackless way.

There is prayer that is too deep for words, or
even groans. Have you never lain prostrate
before God in thp consciousness that his eye was
reading all that you could not tell him?

No need to explain things lo God, as one must
do to the dearest human friend. No fear of his
betraying wdiat we pour into his ear. Come
boldly and gladly to his feet; let him be to you
as sunshine on the mountains, to attract and warm,

LIVING WOKDS FROM TLYMOUTH PULPIT. 69

rather than as the shadows of those mountains
which can only awe.

The heart tliat cannot open to the eye of man,
goes naked and open into the presence of its God.
There, all the sealed fountains are unclosed ; there,
all the secrets which must ever be secrets from the
nearest and most beloved earthly friend, are dis-
closed, and the shrinking and sensitive soul has no
reserve. Thus, we have sat down in the forest on
a summer's day, and as long as men and boys
tramped by, and the clatter and clash of business
was heard, there was no movement in the forest ;
but when the din had ceased, when the footsteps
had died away, and we sat motionless as the tree
which supported us, there was a twitter overhead,
and then an answer from another tree-top. Then out
hopped a bird, and lifted up its voice in song, and
then a squirrel ran along the ground, and one by
one all the mysteries and confidences of the forest
were revealed to us. Thus unfolds the soul of man
when none but God is near ; Avhen it is hungering
and thirsting after either the higher or the lower
wants of life ; when it is yearning foi* its Father, or
when it is home-sick for heaven.

There be ecstacies in prayer, when the soul
exults like birds on a fair morning in spring ; and
there be agonies of prayer, when the burden of
the soul cannot be even groaned out. We must

70 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

bear the burden of Clirist, the burden of souls;
this he permits, and when we are before God,
wresthng for the brother, the child, the loved friend
of whatever name, when we think of that dear
soul, glowing amid everlasting light, or wailing
amid everlasting shadows, what words can ease
us?

It is not truth nor philosophy to say that prayer
alters nothing, that the laws of nature are fixed,
and that entreaty cannot change them. The laws
of nature are fixed on purj)Ose to he used for the
granting ofj^rayer. Any ma^n can use the laws of
nature" to grant the requests of his child. Does he
say that God, who made those laws, cannot do as
much with them as he can ?

Spontaneity in prayer we claim, as that which is
most natural to us ; but far be it from our thought
to condemn form for those who can thus pray best.
Let no man bind or shackle another man's con-
science, or try to walk by another man's light. Let
each be true to himself. Oh ! let the soul alone ;
respect its moods and impulses. Judge not each
oth^r. Let each sinner ]3ray as best he can, come
unto God as best he may, but let him come.

The soul of man sways hither and thither like
the sea, tossed by restless yearnings, and passions,
and fears ; and there is no shore against which it
may break and rest, but the bosom of its God.

LIVING WOEDS FilOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 71

Christ spoke most to tlie masses clinging to the
edge of life, struggling, and straining all their
nerves to keep from slipping off. Their most im-
portant petition, the burden of their daily crj —
" bread," " bread !" not " home," " pleasure,"
" children," but simply " bread."

I've seen luxuriant grasses growing on the tops
of graves ; I've seen flovrers springing from the
crevices of tombs ; and like these are the fair and
lovely moralities, and the social virtues which
adorn the character of him who is not born of
God's Spirit. The corpse, with its corruptions, its
wasting flesh, and its decaying bones, is beneath
the fragrant flowers.

To understand how the imagery of Jesus seemed
to those who heard it, we should try to enter into
their circumstances. To speak of the delight and
refreshment of water in Great Britain, where it is
almost a nuisance, would be folly. To discourse
eloquently of the refreshment of the shadow of a
great rock to an inhabitant of mountain gorges,
where sunshine is the thing desirable, would be a
waste of power and time.

But when we remember that in the land where

72 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

most of tlie Scriptures were written there was, for
the greater part of the year, but burning and-
Bcorching heat ; that there was no winter, as we
understand the term ; that water was as precious as
gold ; and that the digging of a well was the work
of kings and princes ; that shadow was a luxury, to
attain which hours of sore and weary travel-
ling were accounted well spent — we can better
understand the beauty and force of such figures
as Jesus uses in speaking to the woman of
Samaria.

Di2ro:ino: a well rendered a man the benefactor of
his race. '' Canst thou do more than dig a well ?"
was the meaning of the woman's question to Jesus.
This discourse of Jesus to her is an example of his
usual mode. Never did he begin at abstractions,
or first things. He never began by thinking away
back amid mist and mystery ; but from the simple,
every day events of life he took his texts, and
preached backward and upward to principles. In
what entirely difiTerent keys were the two (Christ
and the woman) conversing : This was one of those
double meaning conversations that Christ delighted
in. The woman and he were standing as two might
stand with a wire gauze window-shade between them.
He that is within the shade can see out well enough,
but he that is without cannot see in. Christ was
* within ; he saw on both sides of the curtain ; but

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 73

the woman stood witliout, darkly wondering of
what water he was speaking.

Men shonld not be mere indexes ; not condensed
and abridged editions ; they should be themselves
in full. Every man has a right to be all that God
intended he should be, all that he has God's com-
mission for in his own nature. And none have a
right to hinder human growth. Take off the
millstones ; untie the bands ; give man room —
freedom.

CoisiMON things are dearer to Christ than the
refined and exclusive evolvements of culture.
Things common to all men are more and better in
his estimation than the things that are peculiar to
a class.

The Christianity of the present age is dead com-
pared with what it should be. When I lived out
West our wells were all dug very shallow, and
when a drought came the water failed. Then we
sent a man down into the well to dig another with-
in it, and by and by he came to water far below
the first well. But if the rain was long withheld
this well also failed. Then the man was sent a

third time to dig and dig, until at length he struck

D

74 LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

the living springs, wliich flow perpetually, which
no drought can affect. Many people think that
after conversion religion will take care of itself.
That water once gained there will always be a suffi-
cient supply. There are whole churches whose
religion is but a few feet deep. As long as showers
are abundant this may do, but when tliey do not
fall often the wells are dry. Let this not be so with
you. Sink the shaft deeper and deeper still, until
within you bubbles up that living water which
runneth from beneath the throne of God. Don't
depend on sJiowers of, grace. Be not at all content
until the river is within your own souls.

We must either conclude that the piety of the
present day is a different thing from what it was
intended by Christ to be, or that he spoke the lan-
guage of exaggeration. That he did not thus
speak we know by the momentary elevations which
we experience, when we rise into some nearness
to the place where it is our right always to stand ;
and can return wit]^ rapture the smile of our
Father's love. There are seasons when our souls
exhale, and sit singing, like birds, in the very tree
of life.

Oh ! when I look upon the sun, and see what it
has power to do — when I see that on the barren
soil it flings a warm and radiant scarf of light, and
that beneath that scarf springs up life! life ! life ! and

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 75

gorgeous beauty, and lavish and redolent bloom,
I know tliat tJie Sun of Righteousness has a greater
power than tliis, if men's stiff, and frozen and
faithless hearts will, but open themselves to his
rajs.

The love of God ! who can fathom it ? We soon
cloy with honey ; 'tis not very hard to satisfy our-
selves with sugar; even of bread we may tire ; but
who ever tired of air ? All day we breathe it ; at
morning, at noon, at night, all night — all our lives,
and we are not weary. Love is the mtal air of
the soul.

Every earthly pleasure wearies, but of spiritual
pleasures we never tire. The more we are filled
with them the more hungry and thirsty after them
we grow ; and we are more sure, the more we
taste the love of God, that it can fill us, and be
always about us, and be always peace and ever-
lasting joy.

Why do we not bud and bloom more gloriously
beneath the shining of this sup of love ?

It is because we have portioned him, we have
limited him, we have not consecrated to him the
whole of our lives. We give him our Sabbaths, our
morning and our evening hours of prayer, our feel-
ings of solemnity and self-condemnation, our hours
of depression and tears ; we go to him in trouble,
and gloom, and fear, we call upon him early when

76 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

all is dark about us ; but from our business, from
our pleasure, from our social and common life, we
put liim away. Our brightest and most agreeable,
and our busiest and most useful hours we keep for
ourselves and our fellows ; but we go with our un-
happy and unattractive moods and feelings, with
long, forlorn faces, and tearful eyes, to wait upon
our God. Can this be well-pleasing in his sight ?
If a lover or a bridegroom gave his chosen fair a
diamond to wear npon her breast, and she should
wear it joyfully at all times, save when she came
into his presence, and then should carefully hide it
from sight, would he not have a right to complain ?
but what diamond ever sparkled with so radiant a
light as shines a smile upon the human face, and
when it is a heart-smile, it hath a priceless value.
God gave man power to smile — and man only, of
all creatures, possesses that power — Avhy should he
seek to hide his smiles and innocent mirth from
him who made and loves them?

Did Christ keep his religion for the pulpit, and
fear to " degrade his office " by mixing with and
trying to influence tlie masses ? Did he attempt to
keep his disciples unspotted from the world by
shutting them from the rush and turmoil of the
world ?

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 77

Consecrating your life to Christ is not giving
up all the pleasures and beauties of life. Take all
of these that he gives you, and use them gladly
and gratefully, as gifts from him, to be resigned if
he so wills it. Be as joyful, as happy — aye, as
merry as you will, while the sunshine is upon you,
but when the shadows fall be patient ; and be
filled alway with abundant love for him. Let that
love for him go into every act of your life, whether
civil or religious. Make every act a religious
act.

When Christians learn to do all things as unto
Christ, then will the church arise and her light
come ; l>ut while religion and ministers are kept
pretty much confined to the pulpit, the prayer-meet-
ing, the " study, and the family altar, darkness will
be on souls and over the earth.

There are two great difficulties in presenting this
subject. One is that you all know so little about
it; the other is, that Zknow so little about it. We
have become so accustomed to the cant of piety
— so satisfied with a heavy heart, and a solemn
face, so used to pray and pray, and then go away
and forget that every act should be as a prayer;
that, say what we may, we hardly realize that love
to God should be love^ or that his love to us is
actual love — a passion, warmer than ever swells in
human breast — real, throbbing, yearning love, that

78 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

knows us each by name, and longs to have us al-
low him to fit us for that larger life where all that
is here denied to us shall be freely given.

For in heaven fhe good things that we have
now but in part shall be perfected ; and every single
pure yearning of our nature shall be abundantly
fulfilled.

Here we are like plants which the gardener
keeps in pots till they are ready to be transplanted.
Often we are in every way very much cramped
while here ; there we shall have root room, and
branch room, and the promise of our nature shall
be more than made good. TVe shall be made all
glorious, and be satisfied with our inheritance.

God does not mock us. He plants no yearning
in the human soul which he does not intend to
satisfy ; he gave no capacity, which he does not in-
tend shall find scope for everlasting accomplish-
ment.

I apprehend that the words of Scripture are
often more literal than we suppose. The Christian
really has truer possession of the things that now
are, as well as ownership of the things that are to
come.

Alas! for the sorrowful, the lonely, and the
hopeless, that refuse their rightful inheritance !

Tlie difi'erence in the life of a believer and in
that of an unbeliever is the difi'erence of eternity.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 79

The latter plans for a few years, eighty at most.
He says, " My faculties will improve for so long,
and then decay ; my genius will lighten for so
long, and then grow dim ; my friends are my
friends while I live ; my children I love for all this
life." The whole range of his thought of living is
within a hundred years»

But the Christian says, " My faculties may fail
because of the failing of flesh ; but they will rally,
and open, and grow forever. I am not improving
myself for a few years' use, but for eternal ages.
If my genius slumbers here, it will awake yonder,
beyond the stars, and sparkle in the brightness of
God's glory. My friends, familiar and dear, are
to be mine, and our love is to strengthen and deep-
en forever. My children! the grave may hide
them, but only for a moment ; they are mine^ for
the cycles of eternity. Yea, and all that is iri^the
universe is mine, and God is mine, and I am his
forever."

The man who knows he has but one talent feels
easier about improving it than he can who is con-
scious of possessing many.

The more a man rises the more earnest is he to
do the work which he was sent to do. Life seems
short and every step of it full of his destiny. ]^o
man, can do the luork of any other vian.

80 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

To persons sincerely anxious to leave the world
wiser and better tlian they found it, but who feel as
if they were as yet almost useless in their genera-
tion, let this thought give consolation. Many per-
sons live out half their lives, some even three-
quarters, before they come to the peculiar work
which they were sent to do. Meantime they are
doing good by shedding a right influence.

The mourner over a wasted life may yet be shown
that he was fruitful of good when he knew it not.
From him there may be going sweet influences like
the fragrance of flowers.

Some people blossom almost as soon as they enter
life, and then they depart. Tlie flower that opens
when it first breaks from the ground, and then
dies, is an emblem of our infants that die. Yiolets
are the children and youth who finish their mission
neai* life's entrance, and then depart. We mourn
for them, and say : " How mysterious ! cut off
when so full of promise !" but we should congratu-
late them.

Then there are June flowers, and flowers that
do not blossom till July or August. These latter,
and the strong September flowers, go all the spring
time, and for months after, gathering strength for
final putting forth. Their time has not been
wasted ; though to the eyes of those who know
them not they have seemed but idle, homely things.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 81

When they do put forth they hold on bravely till
the frost kills leaf and flower.

Let not that man think his life wasted who can
go home to heaven bearing blossoms, though late
blossoms, on every limb.

There is something beautiful to me in the thought
that there is a specialty of work for each man.

In work, as in character, disposition, history and
destiny, there is a specialty ; and when the church
arises to the New Jerusalem it will not be to sit there
as one vast photographic likeness, nor shall one be
able to say of its members, " I have heard their his-
tory," wlien the story of one has been told.

The history of the church will be made up of in-
dividual histories; and each, one shall possess its
own peculiar interest.

Tour history w411 be none the less interesting
when tnine has been told, nor mine when yon have
related yours. Your head and heart will not be as
mine, nor mine as yours ; we shall not be mere frag-
ments of a universal church ; but we shall be fully,
roundly, and conspicuously ourselves, in the church
of which we make a whole, and perfect, and un-
exampled individual.

"We regret that all Christ's words were not saved,
even though they multiplied books as John sup-
poses they w^ould. Yet we already have more than

D 2

82 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

we lieed; and necessity demands no "more, though
curiosity does. When I remember how closely that
rough, knotty, gnarled old Johnson was followed,
and every word from his lips treasured up ; when I
think how the words of that incarnation of refined
selfishness, Goethe, were saved, I cannot but say in
my heart : Why was there no such record kept of
the sayings of the man Christ Jesus ?

What labor seems too hard when it is done for
love ? I don't think it would be very easy to induce
me to become a basket-maker ; hut were it by that
trade alone that I could hope to gain some maiden
whom I loved, I would like to see the man who
would sing w^ore than I would over his weaving.
Now to vou whose lot in life is cast in some uncon-
genial field, whose labor is with distaste and heavi-
ness of heart, Christ says : " Do it as if for Tne. I'll
be your lover. Work where vou are for me, and
my love shall reward you."

The heart of woman yearns for love more than for
any other thing, and when she asks it of God, he
replies : " Certainly, my child, if you can bear all
that goes with love." But if God loves her, and
sees that she is asking what will do her harm, he
will not grant her prayer.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 83

The man that prays for wealth may have it, if he
IS able to bear the discipline necessary to prevent
it from proving his ruin.

One who is bound for destruction may escape the
stripes that will fall upon the Christian's back who
attempts to set liis heart on mortal lover, or on un-
certain riches.

They who make gods of goods, and go bowed
down under the gold they carry, are worse off than
they are who journey wearily over the hot sands of
the desert. For the pilgrims have camels to bear
their burdens, while they who trust in riches are
their own beasts of burden. They crouch down
and cry, " More, pile on more," and more is often
given them ; for if a man will have his portion on
earth it is sometimes given him, and so he goes toil-
ing beneath his load, with gold on his back, and
hell in his heart, down to destruction.

It has ever been a mystery to the so-called Lib-
erals, that the Calvinists, with what they have con-
sidered their harshly despotic and rigid views and
doctrines, should always have been the staunchest
and bravest defenders of freedom. The working
for Liberty of these severe principles in the minds
of those that adopted them has been a puzzle. But
the truth lies here — Calvinism has done what no

84: LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

other religion has ever been able to do. It presents
the highest human ideal to the world, and sweeps
the whole road to destruction with the most appall-
ing battery that can be imagined. It intensifies,
beyond all example, the individuality of man, and
shows in a clear and overpowering light liis respon-
sibility to God, and his relations to eternity. It
points out man as entering life under the weight of
a tremendous responsibility ; having, on his march
towards the grave, this one sole chance of securing
heaven and of escaping hell.

Thus the Calvinist sees him pressed, burdened,
urged on, by the most mighty influencing forces.
He is* on the march for eternity; and is soon to
stand crowned in heaven, or to lie sweltering in
hell, thus to continue forever and ever.

Who shall dare to fetter such a being ? Get out
of his way ! Hinder him not ! or do it at the peril
of your own soul. Leave him free to find his way
to God. Meddle not with him or with his rights.
Let him work out his salvation as he can. No
hand must be laid crushingly upon a creature who
is on such a race as this. A race whose end is to be
eternal glory, q>v unutterable woe forever and
forever.

They tell us that Calvinism plies men with ham-
mer and with chisel. It does ; and the result is
the monumental marble.

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 85

Other systems leave men soft and dirty. Calvin-
ism makes them of white marble to endure forever.

You all hate tyrants ; but not half so much as
God hates a slave. Not that he does not pity the
DOor slave ; but when he looks on him he says,
" This is not iny work. I never made this. This
is not what I intended when I made a man. I
made him in my image, to stand royally before me,
to be united to me by loyal love, not to become a
creature like this."

When a man says to me, " When I saw that mo-
ther weeping, and her house burning, and when I
rushed into the flames, and at the peril of my own
life saved and restored to her her child, am I to be
told that that was not a good action — that it w^as a
sin in the sight of God ?"

ITot by me, friend, not by me. That was a good
action. It was a hint of what there is planted in
your nature by God ; and it shows your guilt in not
coming to the Sun of Righteousness, that all such
things within you may be warmed into a continual
life.

A man who is capable of such generous acts
ought to be ashamed not to be what the love of God
would make liiin. And it he will not love God,

86 LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

and be made into his image, he needs no other con-
demnation. It is not bj the fits and starts of your
conduct that you are to be judged, but by its wJiole
course. And if the centre and ruling principle of
your life be not love to God, you are radically and
fatally wrong.

"When we tell you that you are without God, you
run and gather up all your occasional emotions of
gratitude towards him, and of admiration for him,
and heaping them together before us, say, "What!
/without God!"

Now, you may feel admiration, even very warm
admiration, for God — every refined and thoughtful
mind must ; and perhaps, when you are on the
summit of your joys, just as you cross the highest
line, you look off, and say, "Thank God! thank
God !" it may be very heartily ; but does your gra-
titude and love for him go down beneath thought
and feeling, and take hold upon the secret springs
of your soul ? Is your life directed, ruled, and
formed by that love ? Can you look upward
and say, with glowing breast, " Father, Abba,
Father!" "

If not, your love is but the starlight, and the
moonlight, when it should be the light of the fervid
sun.

Why, when the sun shines with long, slant ray,
on Greenland, what lives or thrives beneath its

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 87

power? But when he pours down straight from
his meridian, there springs up life and luxm'iant
growth.

Such love as you speak of is the slant beam of the
winter sun, or like the shining of moonbeams on '
Nova Zembla.

You cannot go to heaven with that love. You
must be born again. Your course must be changed.

Why, suppose a shipmaster starts from New
York harbor for the Mediterranean Sea. He goes
beautifully out of the harbor, and steers straight
for Greenland. Off Newfoundland he is hailed by
another sail. His destination is inquired and
given.

" Bound for Malta !'' shouts the stranger. " You %
Why, you're steering for the North Pole,"

" Don't tell me tliat^'' returns our cajDtain, very
much offended — " Don't tell me that. My ship is
good and well stored ; my men are good, and they
find me the most generous of captains. They have
long sleeping hours and short watches ; they have
abundance of all that is good for food. In my
cabin are plenty of books and flowers, and we have
fine times down there. We enjoy ourselves very
much indeed — don't tell me that all this time we
are on our way to any place but Malta ; I don't be-
lieve it."

The stranger passes on, saying derisively : 'M

88 Livma words from Plymouth pulpit.

don't care bow good you are to your men, or how
many good books or beautiful flowers you have got
below ; all this is very fine, no doubt ; but I say that
the man that's going to Malta, and heading direct for
the North Pole, is afoolP And so he is ; all his flow-
ers won't save him. His course must be changed ;
and it's just so about the sinner. He's heading for
hell ; and all the flowers and all the good things
that are in him won't save him, if lie don't turn
short about. He is living for self when he should
be living for God. Self is his idol, when he should
worship God. He is all wrong, wrong, and will
certainly be lost if he doesn't come to Jesus for
help, safety, and grace to fit him for heaven.

" But," do you say : '' must a man be converted
when he is already good enough ?"

Certainly not. If he is as good as conversion
can make him, he may go to heaven on that
ground ; there is no jealousy in the matter. If
you can deserve heaven, God is perfectly willing
that you should do so.

If any of you can go to him and say truly,
" Lord, I've always loved thee with all my heart,
and strength, and mind, and my neighbor as my-
self— need I be converted? Can't I go to heaven
as I am ?" God will answer :

" Yes, certainly, you are like the angels, and need
no conversion or redemption."

LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 89

Now I would like to see all in this, congregation
who feel as though they could honestly say this to
God^ rise iijp where they are, I would like to count
thein. What ! not one ? Is there not one in this
great congregation who clare make such a plea %
Then you have no plea that will stand you for a
moment.

Suppose that some provision for all your past
sins could be made, and you started to-morrow
morning to begin life anew. You say to pride :
" ITow, pride, you're not going to be master any
more. I'm going to be master now ; I'll hold you
in ; I'll tread on you." And you go forth and re-
turn at night lamenting thus : " Pride has over-
come me, and ran away with me ; it has dashed me
almost to atoms ; I cannot stand at all against its
diabolical power." •

Then you say to your other passions, " Lie down.
I will be master ;" and they rise up and roar at
you ; they wrestle with and cast you down ; they
rend and worry you, leaving you nigh to death.
Then you begin to see what you are and where
you are, and you bemoan yourself thus : " I never
was half so bad as this till I tried to grow better.
I had not a thought of the strength of tlie evil
nature in me ; I cannot reform. Oh ! wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body
of this death." Now you are in the right place to

90 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

hear that Jesus Christ will deliver yon. His
power can convert you, and will do it if you are in
earnest in asking. And then he will take care of
your sins ; all you will have to do will be to forget
them. Go heartily to work for him ; work for him
in your own heart, for you will always find plenty
to do there ; and work for him in the world, in
your business, your studies, your pleasure, your
whole life, work for him. Your most radical and
central ideas must be Godward before you will be
headed right and sailing heavenward. Beware !
if a slow-match be placed by the magazine, you
may heap the building with gardens full of flowers,
but they will not save you from being blown sky-
high when the fire reaches the powder.

Oh! men! men! men! struck through with the
rottenness of sin, come out of the darkness, escape
for your lives. Ye young, come to the light, come
to joy, come to immortal life.

If all unkind and, unjust words were arrows, like
needles and pins ; and if, instead of piercing the
ear and then the heart, they flew against the bodies
of those to whom they were directed, the child-
ren in some men's families would be like pin-
cushions stuck completely full of sharp and painful
weapons.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 91

The command of Christ to take up the cross has
been signally and widely misunderstood. The
Christian life presents so broad a front, that all
views blend in it. This is but one. They err who
would make it the characteristic of religion.

Deny thyself, and take thy cross ; but still be not
seeking for burdens. If the Lord says to thee, " Go
forward," go^ though the next step be over a preci-
pice five hundred feet deep, where far below you
trees look like grass. The air may become solid
beneath your feet ; but if not, go forward where
duty calls, and the end shall be peace and life ; but
don't be ever feeling as if the burden of the Lord
was heavy, and to be borne with groans, and bent
frame, and sighings — or that you must turn from
life's pleasures, merely because they are pleasures,
and it would be denying yourself to forsake them.

Christianity asks no such sacrifices. She gives
fullness to the joys of life, saying only, walk in the
love and fear of God ; rejoice freely in all life's
pure pleasures, but murmur not if God see fit to
take them from you. Be patient when the trial
comes, but be not seeking poverty of any earthly
delight.

E^ot such Jesuitical notions are those of Christ-
ianity. Men are not called upon to empty them-
selves of the loves of earth, and to become ghostly,
and ghastly despisers of its warmth and beauty.

92 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

They are called to bring all that is natural within
them, given of God in the beginning, and have it
sanctified, then love shall tell them where to take
lip the cross, and where to deny themselves ; and
soon there will be only strength in the cross, and
choice in the self-denial ; for as the higher faculties
grow and rise, the lower will cause less and less
pain in submitting. They will mind quickly, at the
first start of their superiors, and what was sore self-
denial will be so no lono-er.

The time when Christians will be no longer called
to poverty and hardness, to narrowness and com-
monness of outward life, is coming. We are on tlie
edges of it, and therefore I speak to warn you to
consecrate your prosperity and your pleasures to
the Lord. The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness
thereof ; and all that is rich, and tasteful, and beau-
tiful, he will give into the hands of his own child-
ren. The devil has stolen the wealth and beauty
of this world; but, he cannot retain it. All that
taste and riches can command is yet to be bestowed
upon the church ; when she §hall have become so
pure that she can stand blameless, generous, honest,
and humble, in prosperity and luxury. Christians
have yet to learn — and they will learn it — the les-
son of humility and godliness in the midst of riches.

LIVING WOEDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 93

They will learn how to walk aright not in sack-
cloth, but in velvet ; how to be not only steadfast
under afEiction, but under blessing. They will be
able to endure not only hardness, but what is far
more dangerous, softness — and will be able to bear
not t)nly defeat and baffling, but victory.

I WISH that I could see a right sort of prayer-
meeting. We have better prayer-meetings her5
than they do in many places ; but I have heard in
this lecture-room prayers that I don't think went
higher than the ceiling, and talks that had no life
in them, said simply because you had come to say
something, and thought that was about the right
thing to say.

E'ow if I could hear a man standing up in his
place, say,

" I'm cross at home. I trouble my wife. I am
harsh and ungentle to my children. I don't repre-
sent to them at all the character of God. Indeed,
I'm afraid if God were presented to them as their
father^ that they would be more inclined to run
away from him than if they viewed him solely as
a judge. My brethren, I don't want to be such a
wicked Christian. I am sorry and sad because I
am such. Can you tell me how to improve ?"

Or : " Brethren, I'm stingy — dreadful stingy and

94 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PCLPIT.

harsh. I do give sometimes ; but it comes very
hard. I want to get as much work out of every-
body as I can for the least pay. I try to be prudent
by getting good bargains out of other people.
When I can buy a good garment at half price, or
when I can get a day's work out of a poor person
for half a day's wages, I generally do it. Can any
of you show me how to get a generous heart?"

Or : " I'm growing rich, and I feel the swellings
of vanity and self-importance already beginning in
my heart. Can you tell me how to keep humble,
and to glorify God in what I keep for myself, as
well as in what I give away ?"

Then I should say we are having a genuine work
of grace in our meeting. My people, we must
make our religion fit our times, oivr dispositions,
and OUT wants, and not try to torture ourselves into
the shapes of ancient times. The first Christians
were forced to apply religion chiefly to supporting
themselves under losses, privations, and persecu-
tions ; but we need to apply it more in other direc-
tions. Our temper?, our households, our business,
our political duties, our pecuniary circumstances,
must all be guided by religion, or we are faithless
in our generation. '

I don't know which is most lovely and admir-
able, a poor and devoted saint at the very gate of

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 95

Btarvation, who is fall of love and grace, and who
is ever doing good, or a rich and lifted up saint,
who, with not a want that need go ungratified, who
is yet as pure and humble, as self-denying and
generous as though he had never known wealth.
But the latter needs most grace to keep him.

The world is God's journal wherein he writes
his thoughts, and traces his tastes. The world
overflows with beauty. Beauty should no more be
called trivial, since it is the thought of God.
Through beauty things become useful. It is a
religious duty for a man, so far as honestly he
can, to surround his children with creations of taste
and beauty, that their finer instincts may be cul-
tured and gratified. The love of beauty is the gift
of God, and it is born in the heart of every child.

Many good people think it wrong to indulge in a
taste for the fine arts. They are even much exer-
cised by conscience for wearing expensive clothing.
They lay oif broadcloth and silks, and dress in lin-
sey-woolsey ; but they may then still retrench and
retrench, that they may have more for the poor ;
for this principle, cai-ried out, would lead back to
barbarism. It is not the right one. Every man
should do his part for the poor, and his heart should

96 LIVING WORDS FKOAl PLYMOUTH PULPIT,

enlarge as his means increase / but he who can earn
them has a right to refinements for himself and for -
his children.

Men have got to learn how to unite the elegances
of high polish and luxury with self-denjing humil-
ity and generosity ; they have got to learn how to
revel amid the delights of music, poetry and paint-
ing, and not be hurt by any or all of these before
the millennium will be fully established ; for God's
children are to walk amid all the good and beauti-
ful things of the earth, and be holy there. No
man has any business to be unrefined, or neglectful
of the cultivation of taste. By the love of nature ;
by music and poetry, and painting ; by fiowers,
and by the neatness and elegance of household
appliances, grossness will be destroyed. It is a
mark of a sinking nature to be indifferent to every-
thing but food, clothing and shelter. Beauty in
the house, beauty on the person, beauty all around,
should be a man's aim ; and every home should
resound with melody, and be bright with the
results of genius and taste — thus will be the homes
of the latter day.

It is more worthy of a Christian man to take
gladly and gratefully all these delights, and to
learn to carry himself aright in the use of them,
than it is to refuse them all, and go stinted and
starved of beautv, throuoh the world.

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 97

Accustom your cliildren to the elegancies, reiine-
meiits and beauties of life, while at the same time
you train them robustly in the exercise of all
that is good within them. Thus they shall grow
up around you elegant, refined, beautiful ; and as
agreeably^ as they are thoroughly^ good ; which will
be a very great advantage that they will have over
some of the good people of the present day, who
are the most disagreeable peoj)le on earth.

Clothes and manners don't make the man ; but
when he is made, they improve his appearance.

The sweetest and most generous natures are the
ones in greatest danger of becoming soured through
the ingratitude of the world.

The family is the first, and by far the most im-
portant, institution in the world. It is the true
church ; the best expounder of the truths of Christ-
ianity. It is from the family that the only real
idea of the relationship between God and man can
be obtained ; for God is more a father than he is a
kmg, or a judge ; and thus men should be taught to
regard him. Paternity is the strangest of life's
mysteries, and the most solemn. Men come here to
watch that the priest teach his church right things.

Look at home, father priest, mother priest, your

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98 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPn\

church is a hundredfold heavier responsibility than
mine can be. Your priesthood is from God's own
hands, and it is a solemn thing to have God lay his
bands upon you in paternity — to give you a church
from your own loins. You would all condemn
the man who should rush with haste and levity into
the ministry ; but not half so worthy of condemna-
tion would he be, as they are who enter thought-
lessly, led but by fancy and youthful inclination^
into the marriage state, and are constituted priests
of the family. They are the formers of immortal
characters as no other priests can ever be. Let
them look well to how they form them.

Children are not given primarily for your love,
or for your amusement, though incidentally they
are for these ; nor are they given for a staff for your
old age, though they shall be this also, if you are
the wise support of their youth ; but they are given
for your education, and to become, like you, inde-
pendent beings.

You are not to consider them as burdens, or to
repine that you are wearing out your life for them,
but you are to guide them carefully ; to instruct
them fully in the path by which they are to jour-
ney when they may no longer cling to your hand.
Teach them so that when you leave them to go on
alone, they may know how to steer for the safe
haven. If vou do your dutv faithfully, you will

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 99

reap your reward as you go along; if you fail, ^
hitter will be your punishment ; for no keener suf- ' ^
fering can be known on earth, than, that which j
the heart of a parent bleeds under when the -^
hand that administers it is the hand of his own :J
child.

A man who has never had the care nor felt the
love of little children, who has not been taught self-
denial by his desire for their good, is, so far forth,
not a perfect man.

I do not say that the discipline must of necessity
come through children of his own blood ; but he
must be taught of childhood, or he is forever
unfinished.

For a poisoned heart there is nothing in the
world so poisonous as men. It is not well to see too
much of men.

I CAN" conceive of a state of public sentiment
and morals, in which there might properly be
free utterance of truths, which in the present
state of society a minister has not a right to
express.

The people could not understand or bear them
now, and to speak them out would be to touch
morality, and to cause great evil. This, in the days

100 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

ot Christ and his apostles, was the case in regard to
many truths which it is now the leading duty of his
ministers to proclaim boldly. As the ages pass, the
circumstances of men change, and truth must be
brought to bear on men as they can bear it. Pre-
mature developments work mischief. This prin-
ciple both Christ and his disciples fully recognized,
and 7nany yet are the secret truths of God. The
future will unfold them as they are needed.

"When sick of humanity, away to the desert, the
forest, or the ocean shore ; there is balm in nature
for the wounded and weary heart ; healing is in
all her low uttered voices.

Men who were to treat their social affections as
we treat our religious ones, would be regarded as
fools — and with reason. While we are busied with
the pressing affairs of life, we cannot feel the glow
of religious affection — nor is it expected. If, when
the pauses of business come (not when we pause
from exhaustion, but in the-leisure hours) — our soul
gladly returns unto its love ; or if, when in the
hurry of work and trade, a question of principle
comes up, our thoughts glance quickly Godward,
and we decide as in his presence^ we need not fear

LIVING W0KD3 FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 101

that we are in a cold, back-slidden state, though we
be, indeed, very diligent in business. To have the
fear of the Lord alwa^^s before one, it is not neces-
sary that one should be always directly thinking of
hrm, or of spiritual things. This is impossible in
those pauses of daily life, where it is our duty
to concentrate thought upon secular concerns.
" Ye cannot serve God and mammon," has been
perverted to mean that it was unchristian for a man
ever to give liis whole attention to money mak-
ing.

Now the whole attention of a man must be given
to study, during study hours, or he will never make
a scholar; and it must be equally given to business,
during business hours, or he will never succeed in
the proper support of his family, or the Gospel.
When the work and the strain is over, then the
soul of the Christian will consciously rejoice in the
Lord.

What if I, on awaking,, were to say: ''Kow, I
will love my family with all my heart — nothing
shall, this day, interfere with my love for them,"
and were then to go into a furious fervor about it,
embracing and kissing them, and declaring my
affection for them. I might try to w^ork, with my
mind so hotly fixed on them, but I could not do it.
I should soon say : " I can't hunt up these texts — I
can't write these sermons — they require my wliole

102 LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

attention, and that is not justice to my wife and
children — they turn away my thoughts and affec-
tions from my family — I will no longer try to work
at ' them." I then impatiently toss books and
papers aside, and devoting myself to the decla-
rative form of love for my famiily, forget ail else.
How much good should I do them under such cir-
cumstances ? The true w^ay to prove my love for
them is, to devote myself steadily to some way of
supporting them. Then, at the season of relaxa-
tion from work, I shall be sure to enjoy them and
their love.

Just so in spiritual matters ; for the family is the
best teacher of theology. The men who walk in
lonely places, thinking only of God and the angels,
are not the most "reliable Christians — are not the
bone and sinew of the church. This has been
proved throughout the ages.

Any such thous'ht of the things unseen and
eternal, as shall unfit a man for his daily secular
duties, or teach him to despise them, is lorong
thought, and should^ be discarded. Religion un-
derlies all things. It is intended to fit a man for
yfe — to teach him how to carry himself in his busi-
ness, his pleasures, and his pains, as much as to aid
him when he dies. It was not meant to lift him
out of, or beyond, the common work or wants of
life, until life is passed.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 103

The frozen ship which, last week, came strug-
gling towards New York harbor, is a figure of
man's soul before grace enters it.

Look at her condition ! Her ropes and rigging
incased in shining ice ; her men mailed in ice — ice
in their hair, ice on their beards, their feet and
legs clad in the frozen mail, the gauntlets on
their hands heavy and stiff with the same cold
armor, and their hearts freezing in them from long
struggling and despair. The pumps must be
worked incessantly, to keep the ice-loaded ship
afloat ; but the strokes fall slower and slower, for
the life is congealing in the arms of the hopeless
mariners.

Hark ! a hail. * See ! a pilot-boat is near. An-
other moment, and the pilot is on board.

"Give me the helm," he -says to the worn-out
man at the wheel. "I know just where you
are, and will get you safe into port in a few
hours."

The men find themselves suddenly endowed with
new powers of motion. They rush about the
decks, obeying the pilot's orders. Tliey pull at the
ropes ; they rattle the icy shrouds, they make the
crust fly from the tackling. Up the slippery rat-
lines they climb ; they dash from the frozen rigging
masses which before they could not move. The
cordage creaks and groans, and its shivered mail

104 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

rattles down upon the decks ; sails are reefed and
unreeled, they hoist this sheet, and take in that,
all with the same stiff and frozen hands and limbs
which, an hour before, were yielding to the torpor
of death.

Cheerfulness is on all faces, liope in every heart.
They have got a p)ilot. He will guide them into
port. Their lives are saved.

The soul is that ice-bound vessel; its unrenewed
powers are those ice-clad, helpless men. Grace is
the pilot, whose coming renews the life and hope
of all.

And grace alone can encourage one who has
once seen himself to be in the wretched condition
which has been described. Grace can strengthen
and cheer; it can guide the soul into the safe
haven. Without it there is no true life — only frost
and ice, and hopeless and heavy gloom, ending in
eternal death.

I WOULD pave hell with doubts ; yea, I would
so fill and choke it uj) with doubts that it could
contain nothing else, could I by that undo the
reality of it, and necessity for it.

Hours are like sponges — they wipe out good

resolutions.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 105

'No man ever becomes a Cliristian by beginning
with his outward life. Reformation is not religion ;
though it often precedes, and always accompanies
it. He who is constantly laboring to reform his
conduct, and to square his life by the rules of
morality while his heart is not right with God, has
all the burden and cross of religion, but none of its
peace.

And he will never gain much upon the work he
is trying to do ; for, if the very faults, from which
he has for a time- escaped, do not overtake him,
others, perhaps worse, will, as long as the principle
within him remains unchanged. He may, with
strong hand and iron will, curb the outgoings of
pride and passion in some old direction, but they
will find new courses. There is no curing efiects
until causes are reached.

Camping down upon the edges of a sin from

which a man has just escaped, is dangerous work.

A person in such a position is like one who, upon

finding himself in the running current of a river

which is rising, swollen by heavy rains, struggles

desperately until he reaches its banks, and there

settles himself in false security. In the morning,

the waters of the freshet are booming about him,

and he files to the meadow, a little higher. But

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106 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

the floods are out, and tliej rise and rise, faster
than he can run, and the man who, by fleeing at
once to the mountains^ when he came up from the
river, would have been saved, by tarrying upon ,
the lowlands, perishes.

!Never was there such a contrast in a conversa-
tion as that presented in the conversation between
Christ and the woman of Samaria. Christ speak-
ing from the top of all spiritual apprehension, the
woman from the bottom of sensuous knowleds-e.

In the higher sense, there is no right action
without right motive, and the only right motive is,
Love to God.

You may spend your whole life picking off your
old dried leaves and dead branches, but if in the
centre springs of your soul you are not subdued to
God, your work, although rewarded in this life, as
all morality is, will not be accepted in heaven.

I have seen a gardener at work upon a tree
which had a worm gnawing into it at the point
where the root and the trunk united. The earth
hid the worm, and so, when the leaves withered,
the owner went and picked them off, and washed
the tree with the various things that he had heard
recommended for diseased trees.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 107

When the branches began to perish he hewed
them oiF, and he worked and worked all summer at
that tree, but it died. JSTow, had the gardener
called for a spade, and removed the earth about
the roots, and Mlled that worm^ he might have
given himself no farther trouble about the withered
leaves, or the dying branches. There would have
been no more of them.

The reason why inquirers cannot find the peace
for which they seek, is because there is self-will
hiding somewhere out of sight ; like the main-
spring of a watch, which cannot be seen, and
which yet is the very life of motion in the watch,
self-will is the ruling power in every sinner's heart.
It lurks in such darkness that the man himself can-
not always see it. But often he knows very well
where it is snugged away ; and when conviction
comes upon him, when he longs to be religious
and at peace, he goes with a candle into every
place where this rebel is not, to hunt him out and
make him surrender to God. Into all the cham-
bers of his soul he goes with his candle. He sees
how sinful he is in them, and he freely opens them
to God's cleansing. He never set much store by
anything in these rooms ; but there is a dark, close
closet in the mansion, from which the sinner keeps

108 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH rULPIT.

carefully away. He don't thrust liis candle in
theve^ and say to the thing tliat cowers within,
" There you are ; come out and be made captive."
Oh ! no. This is the worm at the core ; and you
may go on with your hard working out your salva-
tion till you die ; and if you do not unearth him,
you will land in perdition.

This enemy will lurk in a closet only while he is
hunted for. A culprit is hid in a house ; the offi-
cers come to seek for him ; the master of the man-
sion shows them hither and thither, bids them
open this door, and that ; go up garret, and down
cellar, and be satisfied. But when they pass a
panel in which there is a secret spring, he says
not a word about it ; and it remains untouched.

The officers are satisfied that the man they seek
is not there, and they dej^art. When the door
shuts behind them, the panel opens, and a face is
seen at the window watching them away.

Now the culprit is out. He walks about the par-
lors, the halls, the chambers, just as he was wont,
until there is a sound as of returning footsteps ;
when he instantly vanishes behind the closing panel.

Thus difficult to discover is the hiding-place of
self-will. When once that principle is reached
and grasped, the whole man can be easily guided.
He is guided whithersoever that subtile principle
wills that ]ie should go.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 109

Look at that stately ship. What a mighty hull
she has — three hundred feet long ; her masts a hun-
dred feet high. How well set is her rigging, how
clearly defined her spars. We may see lier dis-
tinctly, but not all. Away down under the water,
hiding at the ship's stern, there is a little plank that
is of more importance than all that so proudly
towers on the breast of the billows.

I^either hull, nor decks, nor main-mast, nor
mizzen-mast, nor bowsprit, nor yards, nor sails,
would be of any use without that plank down under
water. Suppose that some person, ignorant of this
fact, should attempt to guide that ship^s course.
He would say, in despair, after wearing himself out
with fruitless efforts : " What does ail this ship ? 1
have pulled at her bows ; I have furled and unfurled
her sails ; I have tugged at every rope in her, but
she will not keep her course. I cannot manage
her. She will do nothing right. What can it
mean?"

Now, suppose an old salt should say, " Have you
tried the wheel ?"

" Wheel ?" says the man, " what wheel ? ]^o ;
I've tried no wheel."

'' Lay hold here, my hearty," cries the sailor.
The landsman grasps the wheel, and the little plank
below turns two inches, and the ship, though she be
ten times as large, and ten times as heavily laden,

110 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

moves submissively round to the strength of one
man's hand.

'Now you may tug at your topmasts, or toil at
your bows, and you will die with your course all
wrong. You never will head for the safe harbor
till you take your stand at the wheel.

Never think that God is going to make a Christ-
ian out of you without effort of your ow^n. When
the lion crouches down before you, and his eyes
glare upon you, and he is about to spring, you need
not expect Providence to fire your gun for you ;
you must do it yourself or die. 'Tis kill or be
killed with you then. God has already done his
part in the work of your salvation. If you don't
choose to do your part you will perish.

The moralist says, " It has cost me severe labor to
be as good as I am ; how shall I ever be able to do
greater things than these ?" Friend, there is a rock
which on one side is supported by the solid earth,
on another side by other rocks, on a third by trees,
but upon the fourth side it has no support, and it
requires there but a few pounds' weight to tip it
downward.

Now you inay go and destroy yourself in efforts

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. Ill

to remove that rock, and only imbed it deeper
in the earth, or fasten it more firmly in the trees or
among other rocks ; but, push it in the right direc-
tion^ and it is no longer there. J tell you it would
not be half so hard to be a great deal better
Christian, than to be the moralist you are.- You
are all the time pushing the rock the wrong way.
Do you say : '' Well, it is the most earnest desire
of my life to become a Christian. "What lack I
yet? What is in the way?" I cannot tell — I
might tell, in particular cases, but not generally.
But, 'tis a question that each one can answer for
himself, if he is sincere in wishing to know.

God will answer all prayer for help in such cases,
when it is patiently and honestly continued.

The law is a battery which protects all that is
behind it, but sweeps with destruction all that is
before. Repenting toward the law is repenting
toward destruction, but repenting toward God is
repenting toward life and peace.

We count it marvellous that Christ bore our sins
a few hours for us. (^ Ah ! God bore them long
before — he bears them yet.' The agony upon the
cross was but one outshining upon us of his unut-
terable pity and love. 'Tis not at cold, bloodless,
senseless law, that we strike by sin ; but straight

112 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

home upon the throbbing, yearning heart of God,
our Father.

The world has an ugly way of forgiving. It can
forgive ; but as to forgetting^ that's quite another
thing; and. it must give the offender its mind. It
sets him down before the blowpipe of its indigna-
tion, and scorches him through and through. ]N"ow
that is not the way that God forgives — he runs to
meet a penitent while he is yet a great way off.
Buns is the figure — not waits, not walks — runs y
and he don't tell the trembling sinner what he
thinks of him ; he don't excoriate, bruise, and
taunt, as the world does, till the penitent wishes a
hundred times that he never had repented ; but — as
he himself declares — he forgives with no upbraiding ;
and the transgressions of the sinner shall not be
even mentioned to him, or Tememhered against him,
any more.

There are sitting before me, in this congregation,
now two hundred men who stuff their Sundays fall
of what tliey call religion, and then go out on Mon-
days tor catch their brothers by the throat, saying :
" Pay me that thou owest ; it's Monday now, and
you needn't think that because we sat crying toge-
ther yesterday over our Saviour's sufferings and
love, that I'm going to let you off from that debt,
if it does ruin you to pay it now.*"

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 113

Fear, in its normal action, leads towards hope.
In its place it is good ; but when you find that it
leads to despondency, be sure that 'tis out of its
place, and acting morbidly. Water is good to fi.oat
timber, but a water-logged tree will certainly sink.
Don't allow yourself to be water-logged by fear or
anxiety.

Bad men may keep up long, but when once they
fall they cannot rise again. They. are like apples I
have seen hanging from a tree, round and fair as
they could be, but also inside as rotten as they
could be. As long as they could swing upon
their stem they did well enough, but when they had
fallen and smashed upon the ground, I never heard
of their being made good apples of afterwards.

A MAN who makes calculation and provision for
this life only, is like a sea captain who, starting on
a voyage to Europe, lays in provisions sufficient to
last him only until he gets safe past the lighthouse,
and out into the open sea.

There are some men's souls that are so thin, so
almost destitute of what is the true idea of soul^ that
were not the guardian angels so keen-sighted they
would altos^ether overlook them.

114 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Men are differently built. There are men who
are broad and strong at the base, in the middle, and
up until you reach the moral faculties. These are

shrunken in, and almost vanished.

«

Such men are like lighthouses, built well at the
bottom, and all the way uj). All right, only they
have no lantern, and no light. And the two things,
the man and the house, are equally valuable.

Each one is at liberty to fashion God so that his
thought can clasp him ; else there can be no love
to God. Make him to suit your want, and you
will have gratitude and love to him.

Some people, when they think of God, have a
vague idea of greatness — and when they pray, they
pray into nothing, hoping that, perchance, some
good angel will gather up their prayers, and bear
them into the divine presence.

All truth is equilibrated. Pushing any truth
out very far, you a^e met by a counter truth. A
man generally runs one truth out till he meets an-
other, and then he drops his first truth and goes
over to its counter. By and by he swings back and
gains his true position, that of a hub in t\. wheel,
with all truth pointing towards him, and meeting
where he stands.

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 115

Tlie truth of man's freedom, carried to a certain
extent, is met by his dependence upon, and action
according to, the will of God. The truth of a man's
individuality meets, at a certain point, the truth of
his sociality of being. These things are all true,
and to be rights a man must be on hoth sides.

The idea of right living seems to be, with some
men, not doing anything wrong ^ as if righteousness
consisted in negatives, " Why," says the man
charged with being a sinner worthy of death,
" why, I never hurt anybody in my life ; I never
committed a sin in my life — that is, you know, a
real sin. You don't mean that I should be shut out
of heaven were I now to die."

Perhaps the man puts great restraint upon him-
self, and is really at a great deal of trouble not to
do wrong. He keeps himself shut in very closely,
even more so than many a real Christian does ; but
if he be not right at the springs of life, he is on the
way to eternal ruin just as surely as is the thief
or murderer, though on a different charge, and
though he is, as far as this world goes, a far better
man.

But what sliip-owners would justify the captain
who should say to them, upon returning from some
foreign land, " Here is your ship in the same order

116 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. •

as when I took her. I have not harmed her, nor
used her for unlawful or piratical purposes. She is
C7}ipty^ to 1)6 sure I I have done no business for you ;
but here is that which is yours."

God has sent men out upon the sea of time.
They are freighted as no ship ever was. Do you
think that he will exonerate them if they dare to
go up before him with a plea like that just nrged ?
Our talents must be improved, that at his coming
he may receive his own with usur3^

It is a man's duty to bring the influence of love
to God, to bear on every faculty of his soul, that it
may be educated and expanded thereby. A man
should liv^e in every part of himself, and not be con-
fined to one, two, or six' apartments. The world
calls a man made or ruined when he has made or
lost — what ? Wife, children, character, honor,
reason ? Oh, no — not these ; but inoney ! Thafs
the thins: in which the world makes '' the life " of
man to consist. Ships are made in various com-
partments, each air and water-tight, so that when a
rock dashes through the bows of the hull, the good
ship does not sink, because there are enough other
compartments to buoy her up till she gets where
she can be overhauled for repairs ; but men who
have naturally the means of outfloating all the
storms, and all the leakages of life, allow most of
their compartments to become ruinous for want of

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 117

use and care. And then, when into the one, or
perhaps two or three compartments where they
do live, bm'sts the sunken reef, they are foundered
at once. The waters dash in upon them, and they
are gone — sunk like a bullet in the sea.

And for this they will be brought into judgment.
1^0 man has any right to live in his animal nature,
or in his affections, in his tastes and sentiments, in
his reason and intellect, or even in his moral na-
ture, to the undue depression of the rest of himself.
He should open his whole house, and let light
stream into and gleam from the windows of every
apartment. Ye who live otherwise are dead w^hile
you live. But Christ can give you life. Come
unto him.

Make it clear that Christ on earth, with his
fathomless love, his unutterable pity, his divine
gentleness, and quick and tender notice of all
appeals from the humble and poor, was different,
in Jcind, from wdiat he is in heaven — prove that he
acted from design, more than from the impulse of
character, and that now the tenderness of that
strange love and pity is no more, and you take away
my Lord, and I know not where ye have laid him.
You have robbed me of my God. But now I look
upon the story of his acts on earth, when he was, in
some sort, fettered by flesh, and tlie laws which are

118 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

the masters of flesh, and I say, " If his pity, and his
patience, and his love, were such as this while here,
what must they he now, in their full expansion V'

Christ came to die for our sins ; but he came also
to show us what is the charaoter of God — to teach
us, by lessons that we can understand, lohat sort
of disjposition he has who made us ; and now, in-
stead of wishing to go back 1800 years, in order to
sit at his feet in Jerusalem, let us rejoice that every
year brings us nearer to the hour when we shall go,
not to Jesus hampered by fleshly laws, and shrouded
as lights are from the eyes of the sick — but to
our Saviour glorified and waiting to welcome his
children and his brothers to their long-sought
home.

I would have loved to listen to my Saviour as he
taught upon the plains, or on the mountains, or in
the cities of Judea ; I would have loved to sit at
his feet, to watch his looks as he uttered the blessed
words that are recorded ; I would have loved to
speak with him, face to face — to have seen his smile
— to have touched,his hands ; but, thank God ! I can
do better than that — I can have him, and can hold
him in my heart of hearts, as that sweet Friend
and Comforter, who could not come down to
earth till the inan^ Christ Jesus, was received up
into heaven. By love I am conjoined to him,
and I feel his soul touch mv soul. Thus I can

LIVING AVOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 119

abide with liim until I see liim, face to face, in
heaven.

It seems a hard thing to realize, that so great
and high a being, and one so holy as God is, should
trouble himself at all about man — a worm — one of
these little angling worms that crawls out of his
earthy hole, and suns himself a moment, and then
crawls in again. But if even the hairs of our heads
are all numbered — if he takes notice of hair^ than
which nothing seems more worthless, 'tis a lifeless
thing that we cut and throw away — a mere appen-
dage, i]iQ fringe of a man — what notice must God
take of OUT living hearts / our thoughts, which are
but the souls of things ? We can no longer believe
that thoughts and hearts are a matter of small mo-
ment to him who made us. He knows us each one
by name, by disposition, by character, and he
loved us before we were born. I^ovv when he
asks us to love and trust in him, he only asks what
we know perfectly well liow to do — what, ever
since we were born, we have been doing, only not
towards him. Didn't we love our mother ? Was it
hard to love her ? Don't we trust our friends ? Is
it hard to trust them ?

But where is there mother, or father, or friend,
like God ? And do you say, '' It is hard to love

120 LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

and trust in him ?" Or do you say : '' 1 believe
in fore-ordination, and am waiting 'God's time.'"

Fore-ordination ! that is a shameful sham. God's
time is " now," he never has any other time. Fore-
ordination is nothing for you to meddle with, any
more in religious than in money-making matters.
In each it is in equal force, but 'tis God's business,
not yours. If you will meddle with it, you deserve
to get befogged and puzzled, though there's nothing
against, but everything for you in it. But let it
alone, if it troubles you.

What farmer, when the sun runs high, and the
earth is ready for the seed, and the small rain and
the dew are coming on the earth, says : " I believe
in fore-ordination ; I shall not take the trouble to
plant. If I'm to have a harvest, I shall have one."

Or what merchant, when he goes to his store in
the morning, says : " If I'm to have a good large
heap of money in my till to-night, I shall have it
there. Xo need for me to trouble mj^self to please
customers, I believe in fore-ordination."

Men are not fools enough for this in temporal con-
cerns, though plenty of them are so in regard to the
interests of their immortal souls. ISTo, when they
see God working for them in nature^ they take
hold, with a right good will, and work too. And,
as a general thing, they gain the blessing for which
tliey strive. In other words, they do, in these

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 121

minor matters, " work with God," to will and to
do of his own good pleasure ; but when it comes to
spiritual work, they hold quickly back, and ex-
claim : " Oh ! fore-ordination !" But this will be no
plea for them, when they come forth from their
graves ; and when, from mountain and valley, and
from the dark waves of the sea, they lift up their
blanched faces to their Judge. Of all the myriads
who will stand before him, there will not be one
who will have a word to say — they will " be
speechless." For five dollars a man will appeal to
a higher court. He will go from court to court,
sooner than lose " his rightsP He will have new
trials, if such a thing can be accomplished, and
spend three times the sum for which he is contend-
ing, sooner than he will submit to be wronged out
of it. Men do not suffer injustice tamely, but here,
where all that is of value to the never-dying soul
is at stake, here, just upon the edge of the ever-
lasting and most dreadful woe ; here, where, if
there was one single consideration which would tell
for them, they would be most patiently and gladly
heard, there will not be found one — not one — who
shall have the assurance to utter a single syllable.

So clear will be to them the utter folly and will-
fulness of their self-ruin, that when sentence is
pronounced, they will turn in dead silence from

the face of Him who sought them all their lives,

F

N

122 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

and veiling tlieir faces, they will take the plunge,
from which he could not save them. There will be
but one expression, and one wail through all that
endless falling, and that will be : " Soul, thuu hast
destroyed thyself."

Becoming a Christian is not becomiug better than
one's neighbor ; it is becoming better than one's
self It has no reference whatever to other people.
No one need to feel, when his neighbor becomes a
Christian, " That man has set up to be better than
we are now, we will therefore watch him, and see
how his saintship gets along."

The language of a man standing here to enter
the church is not, as many suppose, "I have be-
come so good that I think it will do for me to
join myself to Christians." Far from it; his lan-
guage-is, "I have come to see that I am so wicked
and so helpless that I cannot stand alone. I am not
fit to stand out in the world. I shall certainly
perish there. Oh! brethren, I have got my eyes
open to my danger and my sin ; I have had a
vision of the Lord Jesus Christ, of his love and pity
for me. I am touched with love for him. I would
be fashioned by him ; but I dare not stand alone.
If you can help me, if there is any safety among
you wliich in the world I do not know, for the love

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 123

of God receive me, and hold me up mitil I am able
to sustain myself."

There are men who come into this church who
are a great deal worse, in many respects, than some
others whom I would not vote to admit as mem-
bers, simply because the first I believe to be Christ-
ians, and the latter not.

Suppose five brothers went West to farms,
bought here ; when they got there, one found his
farm to be a swamp ; another found his to be full
of stumps and rocks, with a poor soil when he got
at it ; another found his rather better, but still
poor enough ; a fourth found his good land, but
uncleared; while the fifth had a farm on the rolling
prairie, with a rich, dark soil that only needed seed
to yield abundantly.

At the end of a year, the man who owned the
marsh has, by great effort and unremitting indus-
try, got his land drained, manured, and a few acres
of it under cultivation ; the second has progressed
a little further, though with less labor ; the third,
still further ; the fourth has, with one quarter the
pains and expense of the first, got four times as
much done ; while the fields of the fifth are laden
with a rich harvest. He is making money the first
year. One, judging from appearances of the merits
of these farmers, might say the man who owns the
fifth farm is the best farmer. I tell you, nay. He

124: LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

is the man for work and for courage who has
struo-o-led throuo-h the disadvantages of that first
farm, and has made it hegin to bear fruit.

There are some men who are born of a good
stock ; they have well balanced minds, good
natural dispositions, and are educated in the very
hot-beds of piety. "When such are converted there
can be but little change in their conduct. The
springs and motives of life are touched, and what
before was done as unto man, or from a mere sense
of duty or propriety, now flows from love to God.
Men look at such persons and say, "Well, they ought
to go into the church ; they will be an honor to it."
But when the poor, crooked, crabbed, ill-conditioned,
ill-constructed sinner, who is so bad that it needs a
whole conversion for every faculty in him ; who is
possessed not only of seven devils, but of seven
devils for qyqyj one of his powers, comes humbly
saying, " The love of Christ has touched even 7ny
heart — oh help me to grow into his image —
receive even me \mt@ his table," men say,
"Away with him. -> He'll be no credit to the
church."

Now when such a man really does get his own
consent to be a Christian, and sets resolutely about
it, he has to worh for it. He does have " a work to
do." It takes not one quarter of the religion to
make perfect saints of men who by nature have

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 125

almost everything doue for them, that it does to
render this other one even decent.

Emphatically, '' The first shall be last, and the
last first."

There are men who dread religion, because they
think it circumscribes them.

Doubtless the life of a mere fvofessw of religion
^s a life of circumscription ; but to one who has the
love of God within him, there is freedom such as
no other man can know .

What is there of pleasure or of joy, that is
worthy of a man, that Zmay not have ?

Is the air less free, the earth less beautiful to me,
because I am a child of God, and can rejoice in my
sonship to him who created all things ?

Is love less to me, because I know and feel that
it is to last forever?

Are social pleasures less keenly relished, or
friendship less valued by me, because I know that
they will be eternal, and are to brighten forever
beneath the smile of my God ?

I tell you there is no man that has half the right
to the things that now are, that he has who by faith
and love has laid hold upon the things which are
to come. To a Christian, earth is both substance and
shadow. It is, in its better joys, a hint of the perfect
joys to come. It is a glass into which one may

126 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

look and see reflections of eternity. It is an atter
impossibility to have any true and continuous satis-
faction in life, unless you do feel that you have the
love of the Giver of Life ; unless you love him.
If that consciousness is yours, though you be shorn
of all other joys, that will sustain you ; but the
probability is, that all other joys will grow firm,
founded upon that one ; for ours are not the days
when religion arrayed all earthly power against men !

There are men who will not seek for religion
when no one else is seeking, because they don't
want to be thought singular — shame working
through the organ of approbativeness — and then,
when a revival comes, they won't seek it, because
they don't want to get excited, and go with a crowd
— shame working through self-esteem — and thus,
between those two guards, warding them off from
the door of salvation, the poor fools perish.

Many a man, awakening to a sense of his wick-
edness and trying to, do better, finds himself so
much worse that he cries out in terror of himself.

If any of you who are unconverted doubt of
your need of the help of Christ to curb your sins,
just try for a few days to do it alone. They will
give you work of it ! You'll say you never were
so bad before. You never were so universally in

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 127

rebellion. While your will goes with your selfish
or evil desires there is no conliict — or none that
makes much stir and dust. I don't know as water
would ever make any noise if it were allowed to
flow unobstructed ; but put rocks in its way, let
logs stick up in the current, dam it up, or in any
way obstruct it, and then see — such a noise, such
a commotion, such a determined overflowing as it
makes ; and it will get out somewhere. So with
yourselves — as long as your heart is let to flow un-
disturbedly hellward, there may be but little trou-
ble ; you may hardly be conscious that you are a
rebel at all ; but lay on the bands, mark out the
bounds, hold in the lines — and what then ? Why,
then you will see how desperate is your case, and
will soon discover that there is none but the Son of
God that can help you. Then do not be afraid to
go to him, because you fear you can't hold out;
take the first step and he'll help you ; when you
fail and fall he'll always forgive you ; if you are
strong, and never give over trying to work with him
against your besetting sins, he has promised, " I
will never leave thee nor forsake thee."

Oh ! friends bound with me to the judgment, put
not this matter aside. I feel that I could plead with
you till the sun goes down, my heart is so in it.
Talk not, I beseech you, as you go from here, of the
speaker, the gestures, or the striking passages — talk

128 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

of the passages that struck^ or go thinking silently
of what is to come to every one of yon. Let the
sun go down, and when it is set we will pursue the
subject, and may God direct his own word and
truth to the salvation of souls.

If there is joy in heaven over one sinner that re-
pents, I don't know what the angels will do now
that men everywhere are taking the kingdom of
heaven by force."^

How marvellous is that part of the nature of God
that permits him, while himself so pure and holy,
to take tenderly to his bosom, and comfort with his
love, creatures so full of sin as we are. Sinners un-
regenerated are perplexed by the joy and courage
of Christians who cannot but be conscious that they
are yet very imperfect, sinful beings. They do not
see how we dare to trust in Christ while we yet do
wrong. If we did no wrong we should have no fur-
ther need of Christ. Believing on him is not in-
stantaneous cure fronj sin ; it is release from the
curse and bondage of it, and surety that the cure is
coming. Christians are like men with some disease
upon them ; who have faith in the physician that
has engaged to heal them, and they lend themselves
with earnestness to the work of getting well. Ke-

* March, 1858.

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYM(vUTH PULPIT. 129

lapses grieve them, but do not discourage. They
rise up as often as they fall down. They groan and
long; to be delivered from the burden of death
which is upon them, and they know that deliverance
will come.

Sinners, until awakened, don't know that they
are burdened. They are like sick men with no
shelter, no physician, no nurse, growing worse and
worse forever. When they are awakened, their first
thought and effort is to try to get worthy to come
to Christ. Could they do that, which none ever
can do, they would not need him. The point at which
a man comes to see that he is utterly evil and help-
less, and consequently turns to Christ as his only
hope and help, is thepoint at which conversion takes
place. On one side of this point a man is a sinner
without hope ; on the other side he is a Christian,
A sinner still, to be sure ; but with a certainty of
healing, rescue, and salvation.

Men take the world, filled, stuffed as it is with all
good and beautiful things, very much as gipsies
would take some glorious mansion, furnished with
rare taste, and adorned with masterpieces of art.
The chief room they would attempt to occupy
would be the kitchen, 2a)A they would take the
treasures of manuscripts, in which were written

F 2

130 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

wonderful secrets of invention and science, and the
solutions of great mysteries, to kindle the fire under
their dinner pot. They would like the pictures, be-
cause they had oil in them and would burn the
faster. Thus blind to the higher uses of the things
of the world are men. And it is the way of God
never to stir one step from his path to show them
better. He has given them the faculty to find out,
and there he leaves them. In the physical economy
of the world there is provision for all physical
wants ; but they lie for the most part hidden. ]^ot
till the earth is scarified and rent, forced oj)en and
bored into, does she disclose or yield her treasures.
Near acres of wheat, men may starve ; by the side
of forests and beds of fuel, they may freeze. Grod
will not move one inch, or one finger to save man,
if he will not, with what he has already done for
him, save himself. So in the spiritual world, pro-
vision for all men is plenteously made ; but they
will be allowed to perish unless they come and
appropriate it.

All things are to be had for the taking ; nothing
without.

Let no man dare to think, '' God, the gentle and
merciful, will save me, whether I come to his terms
or not." The whole analogy of life is against the
thought. God will not* save you, body or soul,
except in appointed ways. It is turn or die.

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PtJLPlT. 131

Unutterably dreadful is the thought of eternal
death. Eternal! It is absolutely suffocating. I
have felt my whole nature revolt against the horror
of the conception ; and I would have disbelieved it
if I could. But no ! it is true — it is an awful truth,
and the mentions of it in the Bible are not so much
threats as merciful disclosures of what lies at the
end of the sinner's course, that he may be induced
to flee for refuge to the hope set before nim. Even
if the passages regarding hell could be made to
mean something else it would not unsettle my faith
in this doctrine. It would never be enough for me
to take these passages of the eternal word, and,
placing them in the rack, wrench and torture thsm
until I made the poor words shriek forth some other
meaning, unless I could see that the Lord, who is
dominant over the natural as well as the spiritual
world, turned aside in that for the sake of helping
those who in natural things will not "come" to
what he has appointed for help and healing.

The ages have rolled and rolled, and through
them all the sound of the earth's groaning has gone
up to God, and he has never stirred. Man must
avail himself of what has been done for him, or he,
must die. God has done all that he will ever do
in the matter of providing means for salvation.
The rest is left to man.

132 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

No man has any business to try to be a Christian
secretly. The light of love is not one for him to
hide under a bushel. And, usually, a man's first
duty after conversion, is to make the fact known
to the very persons from whom he most wishes to
keep it.

I think no sufficient reason has ever yet been
given for the great reserve felt by us toward those
persons who are most dear to us. We shrink more
from saying to our parents, wives, husbands and
children, the things that lie deepest, than to any
one else in the world. Why this should be so it is
not easy to understand.

I can very well understand how and why a man
liates to say to his business partner, with whom he
has long been engaged in cheating people — " I
have become a Christian." I know that it rrncst
make him twinge, and feel i^aTticularly uncom-
fortable to stand up and own this, and to have
his partner say, " Ah ! well, how is it to be
now about those profits that we have hitherto
shared between us? .Those extra profits — profits
that we got in those ways^ you hnow. Am I to
have them all now?"

I can imagine how a liquor-dealer would feel to
own his conversion, and to hear, "Well, what are
you going to do ? — going to join the church?"
"Yes, if they'll have me."

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMODTH PULPIT. 133

" Going to set up family ]3rayer?"
" Yes, I shall pray in my family."
" Well, what else are you going to do?"
" Why, I shall try to do my duty."
" Yes, lut about the liquor, I mean."
ISTo doubt all this comes hard. But these things
have got to be met and dealt with. If a man is
noble he will say, " Not only will I put out my eye
if it offends me, but I will put out both eyes ; for
I have got two eyes opened in my soul that are
worth more to see with than forty ^ bodily eyes."

Sins against society— which is money— are felt to
be very sinful, by those who have the money and
who mean to keep it. Strike the side of a bee-hivo
and see how the bees will swarm out, and buzz and
buzz to defend themselves. Go on to Wall street
or Broadway with any indulgences for financial
sins, and there will be equal buzzing there. Crirnes
are owned to be sins indeed, because they touch
the material interests of men, or hurt their aifec-
tions— their selfishness ; but when you pronounce
men sinful in the higher, spiritual sense, they can-
not feel anything about it. There are greater sins

* "Forty" and "five hundred" are Mr. Beecher's favorite, and
most frequently mentioned numbers. He seems to have exempted
them from his general dislike to figures.

13i LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

and smaller sins, it is true ; but all that is not of
faitli and love is sin. Jonathan as truly broke the
law of his father the king, by tasting the honey on
the end of his rod, as if he had slaughtered an ox
and partaken of its flesh. As long as a man com-
mits no crime he don't feel himself condemned,
though his spiritual nature be dumb, dead, petrified.

There are seasons peculiarly fitted for becoming
a Christian. There are no feelings or sentiments
of which the soul is capable but what have their
tides. They ebb and flow like the sea. This seems
to be one of the laws of our nature.

There are times when the popular tide sets
towards religion ; when all outward circumstances,
as well as all inward yearnings, conspire to invite
and even press the sinner towards God.

Some persons object to revivals, saying, '' We
don't believe in feeling and impulse. We think
religion too serious a matter to be entered upon
hastily. We think it requires calm consideration."

Well, you man, twenty, thirty, forty years old,
you with the grey hairs fast covering you, how
much longer do you wish to consider ? Kemember
that Death sometimes strikes without much con-
sideration. What if he strikes you? Where will
your calm thoughts be then ?

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 135

Truly, 'tis a wise piece of business for a man,
hanging by no more than a single hair over the
bottomless pit, to say to the friend who throws him
a stout rope, " Wait, I must consider calmly of this
— I don't believe in being in a hurry." There are
some cases where consideration is crime — where de-
liberation is death. Unutterable fools ! that think,
and think, and only think, npon the borders of
perdition. The sands beneath their feet are crum-
bling and shifting away ; but they must think, they
say, when one calls to them to run. And so they
pause, and perish.

Feelings oicgfit to be regarded; sympathetic
emotion is good for hearts. As much so in religion
as elsewhere.

Resist not the spirit when your heart is tender
and your thoughts turn in you, and lift themselves
up towards God.

What shall we do to be saved ? this is now
the daily utterance of men's voices. Believe on
Christ — drop instantly and forever all known sins —
all meannesses, all dishonesties, all unkindnesses,
at home and everywhere, all wrong thoughts and
evil imaginations. You never can go in at " the
strait gate," with any of these clinging to your
will.

Do you cry out, " I cannot do this ; the work is

136 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

too Lard for me — if I quit mj sins they won't quit
me. 1 cannot say to passion, avarice, selfishness,
and pride, ' lie down and move no more ;' I cannot
think right, and act right. I aon not able to enter
the gate if this is the way." If you think thus,
how comes it that you have been putting off this
matter of repentance to a sick-bed, or to old age ?
If you cannot reform your thoughts and disposition
now, how can you then ? You say truly, you cannot
reform them, and for this cause you need a Saviour.
But you can remove them, and turn from them, and
consecrate your whole body and soul to him, and
he will reform you by aiding all your efforts. He
will forgive as often as you break down, if you
carry a steadfast purpose to conquer self, for the
sake of his love. He will not fail you, if you are
sincere in seeking him ; but he will abhor your
offering if you do not mean to make clean work
with yourself by laying open your whole heart
and life to his influence.

Many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be
able ; but not hecause of any trouble in the gate^
or in the Lord that stands at the head of the way,
but because they try to carry in their barrels of
spirit, or their selfishness, or their vile and evil
dispositions and habits. Such can never enter.
No rich man can go through that gate carrying
with him his usury, or his exorbitant rents, wrung

LIVING WOKDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PITLPIT. 137

from sweating and groaning tenants. 'No unjust
judge can go throngli with his oppressions. But
there never was, and never will be, a naked, trem-
bling soul, sincerely sorry for sin, and heartily de-
sirous of escaping from its power, and to be made
white in the blood of sprinkling, for which there is
not abundant room. And yet " Many shall seek
to enter in and shall not be able." Many are the
secret sins of heart and life whose clinging shall
prevent the sinner.

Ships, when the tide rises and sets strongly in
any direction, sometimes turn and seem as if they
would go out upon it. But they only head that
way, and move from side to side, swaying and
swinging without moving on at all. There seems
to be nothing to hinder them from sailing and
floating out to sea ; but there is something.

Down under the water a great anchor lies buried
in the mud. The ship cannot escape. The anchor
holds her. And thus are men holden, by the cords
of their ow^n sins. They go about trying to dis-
cover some way to be forgiven, and yet keep
good friends with the devils that are in them.
And this they call " being serious." It is almost all
self-will fighting against the Spirit of God. Now,
let men be honest with themselves, and if they
think their sins, any or all of them, are better than
the love of God and the salvation of tlieir souls,

138 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

why stick to tliem, that is all ; and give up think-
ing; but if they feel that the redemption of the soul
is precious, and that it ceaseth forever^ let them
abandon all that hinders it, and begin at once to
work with God for their own salvation. What
they can do they must do, or be lost, and that is,
stop all wrong doing that they can stop ; what they
canH^ Christ will attend to, reforming their in-
terior dispositions by the love which he will shed
abroad in their souls. Turn ye, tarn ye, for why
will ye die ? Kow is the accepted time — all things
now are ready. The Lord has brought you nigh.
unto him, and on every side of you men are hasten-
ing to make their peace with God. Beware how
you let this opportunity pass. You may not have
another. What would you say when some great
steamer had run aground where there was but one
tide in a year that would float her, if, upon the day
before that tide came, her officers got together for
a council, and decided that as there was but one
tide a year, and they didn't believe in taking advan-
tage of extraordinary times, that they should make
no effort to get the ship on. When the tide rose, surg-
ing and booming about the ship, if they had got up
steam and set all sail, and worked her giant wheels,
grating, groaning, and reluctant, she might have
moved and struggled off into deep soundings. But
they let the flood tide pass; and the water sank

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 139

away from the ship's keel, and she cracked and
parted asunder.

Anon the beautiful and mighty ship was floating,
but it was plank by plank, and spar by spar.

What, I ask, would you think of those officers ?

But what is a skip when compared to a human
soul; which, being created, is to go step by step
with God throughout eternity ; forever rising in
purity and love, or forever sinking into the black-
ness of darkness ?

When you and I, my hearers, stand in the fore
front of the judgment ranks to hear our doom,
when all above us and around is the glory and the
brightness of the Holy City, and all beneath us is
the blackness of despair, you will not accuse me of
exaggeration in saying to you that there are none
60 unwise, so blind, so miserably foolish and despe-
rate, as those who, for any cause, do not first
attend to the safety of their own souls. With all
my powxr I warn you ; with all my strength I
entreat you ; with all my skill I will aid you. Oh !
seek ye the Lord while he may be found.

I OFTEN find, in talking with people, that they
are in a state amounting to, or which ought to
amount to, conversion. ^ They see and feel their sin-
fulness and need of Christ ; they are prepared to

14:0 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

cut off limbs or pluck out eyes in his service.
They tell me with tears, that they have moments
of great affectional yearning towards him ; and yet
they don't " go off." They are waiting to get
something more, although they don't exactly know
what, aboard. When I go and talk with them
they seem all right ; but I leave them, and they
stand still. I find them in the same spot day after
day. ISTow, there's no use in my going to talk
with such people. They must get themselves to
work ; they must begin to do something, as well as
feel so much. Let them enter upon the Christian
life at once ; perform every known duty — stop
every known sin.

Here is a clock; the works are all right, the
hands point to the right time, and 'tis all properly
wound up. Everything is in prime order, and
ready to go. But it donH go. What is the mat-
ter? You'look at it an hour hence, and the hands
have not stirred. You move them forward and
leave it, and the next hour you have got to set
them again. This sort of work you may keep at
forever. As long as tlie pendulum is not moved
the clock won't go. Let that begin to tick, and all
is at once right and busy. Now, let those persons
who are all wound up just begin to tick. Start
your pendulum and the trouble is over.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 141

There are many persons, and I find tliem chiefly
women, who do not experience any deep throes or
trouble in entering the right way.

Their conviction of sin is not such as catches
them and plunges them headlong into agonies and
horrors of great darkness ; but they look on. Christ
and love him, and at once accept him. They have
a real^ but not particularly powerful . knowledge
that they are lost without him. They are con^
scious that they are poor and sinful, very much as
a little child is conscious that he is ignorant, and
they go to Jesus for riches and righteousness very
much as the child goes to school for learning. The
child has faint ideas of how utter is his ignorance ;
but after he begins to learn he sees it more and
more. These penitents are but faintly aware
how deep is their sinfulness until they have begun
to see as God sees, which is not for some time after
he has blessed them with his adoption. Often the
fact that there was so little struggle in their con-
version has caused them to doubt its genuineness ;
and so they have got into great darkness ; but they
must remember that God leads men to him in ways
best suited to their own natures and dispositions,
and while they who are naturally passionate and
willful, who have more strength than tenderness in
their dispositions, are often seized and rent like
him out of whom went the furious devil, and are

14:^ LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

left wallowing upon the earth before they will look
to their Saviour, those who are of a gentle and lov-
ing disposition, whose will has been trained to sub-
mission, and who have lived chiefly in their higher
nature all their days, will not, they ought not to, find
it hard to come to Jesus Christ to put their arms
about his neck, and tell him with gushing love, that
they give themselves, body and soul, into his keeping.
Blessed are they who can look upon the Saviour,
and so instantly feel his goodness and beauty, and
be so penetrated by his wonderful love, that with
hardly a thought of self, they run to him and offer
him themselves. This is the highest form of con-
version. Convictioh will be sure to be felt by such
hearts as these* every time the thought of what it is
to grieve such a Saviour touches them. And the ^
longer they live the worse will their own sins, and
all sins, look to them. Let no one then, who has
enough conviction to honestly desire to forsake sin,
and to understand that in Christ lies all his help,
wait for more or for a deeper feeling. If the wind is
blowing two knots an hour, don't wait till it blows
ten knots before you start your ship. If there's
enough wind to start on, start — be off. If you want
to come to Christ, come^ don't wait for anything
If you can't feel as bad as you want to, don't stop
on that account. When you've learned to love God
you'll feel more than you can ever imagine now.

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 143

When serious persons ask me what to read, 1 am
accustomed to say : " There is a little old book
called Matthew's Gospel, which I think would suit
your case. And there are three others which are
just as good: Mark, Luke, and John."

Don't go to the side helps of commentaries until
after conversion. I think that commentaries for
inquirers are like the spider webs of fifty years over
windows, for sight. You must brush them all
away before you can see clearly. 'No book in the
wide world has been so be-webbed as the Bible.
Commentaries are very well for those who need
helps in dates, or in sacred history ; but let the
awakened sinner go straight to the fountain-head of
truth — the Bible. And is the reading all? Oh I
no, read jyraying. And here again is where there
are many and deplorable mistakes made. The
inquirer, and the young convert, try to pray too
long and not often enough. They try praying as
they have always heard the deacon and the minis-
ter pray, or as their father does ; and then they get
into great distress because their " thoughts wan-
der." That is the hest thing about it. When they
attempt to do what for them is as impossible as for
a lisping babe, to converse like a philosopher, their
thoughts will and ought to wander. If this were
otherwise, they would but the better play the hypo-
crite before God by praying things for which they

144 LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

don't and can't feel the need, and in cold set forms
of chilling reverence. Now we have a model for
the praj^ers of beginners, and 'tis this : " God be
merciful to me a sinner." You can feel all of that ;
you see it begins abruptly ; and it ends when the
man is done.

Ko " Oh ! thou mighty, mysterious and everlast-
ing Lord." 1^0 " Forever and ever, amen !" abont
that.

Let it be a lesson to you, beginner. Pray what
you feel, and not one word onore.

Read on; and if you are perplexed, and your
thoughts look np, say : " Lord, I can't understand
this. I pray thee help me." Then stop, if you a^re
done.

Kead on ; and if a scene, or an action, or saying,
of your Saviour touches the fount of feeling, let that
feeling out, saying freely: "Dear Lord, I love thee,
for thou truly art worthy !"

And so on through his whole recorded life, and
through your own life. Be instant in prayer.
Warm, true, impulsive, and affectionate in commu-
nion with your God.

The utterances of real feeling only are acceptable
to him. Forced prayer, or insincerity in prayer, is
like foul odor in his nostrils.

It is enough that he is willing to forgive us our
sins, and to excuse the imperfections of our earnest

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 145

prayers; let ns spare him mochery added to
Bin.

If we can't feel like praying for everybody, and
for everything, or like praying when we think we
ought to pray, and if we are sorry that we feel so
dull and prayerless, let us say that to God, and keep
silence till we can feel more. God's heart is like
our hearts — like a parent's heart. Our hearts are
made by the pattern of his.

How would a man like to have his own children
observe only set times of coming to converse with
him ? Com.mg from a sense of ditty at that ? How
would he like to have them arrange all that they
have to say in set and studied forms, very respect
ful, perhaps, very laudatory, very humble and de-
vout, but very heartless ?

Think you that what would cut you to the heart,
coming from your own offspring, does not at all
hurt him whose tenderness is the ocean out of which
your dro^ is drawn ?

When I was in Paris, I used to rise early and sit

at my open window. I always knew when the

stores beneath me were open, for one was a flower

store, and from its numberless roses, and heaps of

mignonnette, arose such sweet, sweet fragrance,

that it proclaimed what was done. It seems to me

that Christians should be as a flower store, and that

G

14:6 LIVING WOKDS FEOM! PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

the odor of sanctity should betray them wherever
tliey are. ISTot that they should go about obtrud-
ing themselves and their actions on others, with
the cant of usefulness, but that they should live the
purity and joy of religion, so that men might see
the desirableness of it, both for the sake of noble-
ness, and for the enjoyment both of this world and
that which is to come.

Conviction comes upon men in a thousand dif-
ferent ways ; sometimes a little child climbs upon
his father's knee, and says, looking up earnestly,
"Pa, why don't you pray?" I tell you, there's
many a man would rather a pistol were snapped in
his face, than to hear that question from a little
child.

Do you say : " I want to be a Christian, but
I'm waiting to be convicted of sin ; it isn't right
for me to do anything till I've felt myself to be a
sinner " — then to you I am sent to say, you have
no right to wait for anytliing. Begin, this instant,
to love God, and to act like a Christian.

"But I carCt^'* you say.

Ah ! have you come to that knowledge already ?
That is conviction of lieliDlessness in the direction
of goodness. Just go earnestly and perseveringly

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 147

to work to act right and to think right, and you'll
get conviction enough.

Yon may stand still and wait for it, looking into
your own heart to see what you are, forever^ and
not get it ; but just try living right, by the rules
Christ gives, and it will come upon you, so that you
shall cry out, " God be merciful, and hel'p me ; for
there is no good thing in me."

It's everybody's duty to begin at once to live like
a Christian ; and when they find how they fail of
all they want to do, they will be convicted ; and
when they give themselves utterly into the hands
of Christ, they will be converted ; that is conver-
sion, it won't be hecoming perfect^ but it is the^^^^
step towards perfection. You must always keep
trying to be good, just as hard as if you had all to
do for yourself; but you must no more be discour-
aged by failures than if you had nothing to do, for
you have always, night and day, an advocate with
the Father — one who is righteous, though you are
not — and who will oiever leave nor forsake those
who trust in him. Therefore, come boldly to him,
asking for grace to help in all times of need, and
hnowing, that though you fall, you shall rise again.

Some people seem to make a merit of great anx-
iety for their friends ; now there is no merit, and
no use, and there is positive harm in more anxiety

148 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

for them than will excite you to do all that you
can to influence them aright. "When that is done,
and you have committed them to God, then go
away, SLudfeel happy about them.

"We are a singing church, and when we are
dead, and men come and scrape the moss from our
graves, they will say : " These were Christians who

sang much."

You are planting seeds for the future as you sing
these hymns. Were you to go away to Oregon
next year, this book, out of which we have all sung
together, would be a hundred books to you ; how
it would make you remember these morning meet-
ings, these lectures, these Sabbaths.

While Brother was praying,"^ the words,

" Come up hither," came to me. As I wondered
what it meant, instantly' it opened up to me in this
way.

Suppose that I had gone away from here for
years, and came back to find my daughter living
in some low, obscure place, bound out to hard labor

* In a prayer-meeting.

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 149

for people who took no notice of her; or worse,
noticed her only to abuse her. Suppose ray son
were in another place, half clothed, half fed, and
suffering all manner of ill treatment. And thus
with all my children.

What should I be likely to do ? Should I not at
once set about lifting them out of such situations,
and getting them up where I was, I should say to
them,

" Come up, my children ; you were not born to
live down there. Your place is where I am. Come
up here to me ; here is where you belong."

Well, this is what God is doing to men. He has
a few, a very few children living in the high places
of spiritual life — those regions of hope and love
where he himself dwells.

But most of his earthly family dwell far below,
and he is constantly coming down to seek for
them.

He looks in the region of awe and reverence, in
the region of conscience, in that of despondency
and fear ; yes, he even goes down cellar after them,
and sometimes can't find them even there. But
wherever he does find them, he says to them :

" Come up hither — come up into the region of
warmth and love, where your Father dwells. You
were not made to live down there. This is where
3^ on belong. Come up hither."

150 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

We must not settle down indolently to wait for
God to make fruit grow in ns. He never does
anything for us in regard to character without our
cooperatioD. "Work out your own salvation with
I^Jear and trembling, not servile fear, or abject
trembling, but with such eagerness as men often
feel in an engrossing work they are so eager about
that their nerves quiver a little. It is in doing
our duties, and bearing our trials and vexations,
that Christ is with us, and will dwell in us for our
comfort ; but he will not dwell in us in any such
way as that we shall have no more trouble and
pain in struggling with our passions, our failings,
our avarice, our pride, and all our besetting sins.
It is by fighting and overcoming these that we get
to be fruitful. " "Work out your own salvation
with fear and trembliug, for it is God that worketh
in you, both to will and to do of his own good plea-
sure." These things God put together, and no man
ought to put them asunder. As you climb difficult
hills your prospects will be brighter and clearer ; but
not until you have gained the highest peak of expe-
rience will you be able to see, from horizon to
horizon, the presence with you of God ; and then
you will soon begin to descend ; for it is generally
not until near death tliat the Christiau gets a view
like this.

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 151

The great truth which God is driving through
our times, as with a chariot of fire, is the im])OTt'
ance of man ! When this truth comes up to the
church, does she welcome it ? No ! oh no — she
cannot attend to new comers ; she is busy in the^
smoke-house of theology, dusting the flitches of old
truth which have hung there for ages.

A GRAND mistake of the old reasoners in their
arguing for the goodness of God, was that they
tried to prove that in the world there is more evi-
dence of design for happiness than there is of
design for pain.

I'Tow that position cannot be maintained. There
is just as much evidence of a design to produce
pain as to produce pleasure.

For every adaptation for pleasure that you will
show me I will undertake to show you one for pain.
This life is clearly rudimentary. Men are here to
be hammered into something of worth in the next
state of existence. Pleasure is to be desired or
expected but as incidental. Earth is not the place
iov pleasure. It is the place where men are fash-
ioned for eternity. A piano factory is not the place
to go to in order to hear music. Suppose a man
were to start for some great piano manufactory,
with the expectation of being enchanted when
tliere by innumerable Thalbergs.

152 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

He goes along dreaming of the divine harmo-
nies which will greet him when he approaches the
place where these sweet-toned instruments are
made.
▼» He anticipates as much more of delight than
Thalberg had given him, as there are more instru-
ments in the factory than were on the boards of the
concert hall.

" I am going to the place where all those pianos
are made," he says, as he hastens on. "They turn
out hundreds of them in a day. Oh ! how will all
sweet, bewildering sounds entrance my senses when
I draw near. Hymns and songs of never-wearying
melody will leap out at me from every door and
window."

He comes in sight of the building, and instead
of hymns and choral melodies, he hears harsh
noises. There are heavy poundings, gratings, saw-
ings, and raspings. There are legs, uncouth and
clumsy, to be worked into proper size and graceful-
ness. There are strings to be tried, and separate
parts to be fitted and knocked together ; there are
great, heavy packing-boxes to be made, and vari-
ous other awkward and noisy work to be done.

Tools are thumping about ; cords and tackling
rattling ; plenty of confounding noises, but no
music.

The man stands and sees the workmen ply the

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 153

hammer, and saw, and file, and punch, and chisel,
and auger ; he sees dust, boards, and shavings fly-
ing in all directions. Clatter and clatter surround
him.

From the windows come broken bits of board,
wire, and iron ; also all the different notes of
racket and din ; but he hears no sweet melody.

Then the man says in astonishment, " Do they
call this a piano manufactory — this confused
place, full of all jangling noises? No, no; this is
no piano producing establishment. This is only a
dusty and noisy workshop."

Yes, it is a workshop, where are being fashioned
the instruments, which, when touched by skillful
fingers, have power to enchant the world.

But it is not the platform on which they are to
he played. 'Eoi there are they to give forth their
sweet harmonies.

We are in the workshop of humanity. We see
evidences of this, turn which way we will.

Evidences are numerous of a design of pounding
us. We must feel the mallet and the saw ; the
punch and the bore. We must be split, and ground,
and worked smooth. The pumice and the sand-
paper are for us, also, as well as for the things we
fashion ; and at last, when we are all set together,
polished, and attuned, we shall be played upon by

the music-waking influences of heaven.

G 2

154: LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Fighting faults is the most discouraging thing
in the world.

When corn reaches a certain height, no more
weeds can grow among it. The corn overshadows
and grows them down. Let men fill themselves
full of good things. Let them make their love and
.purity and kindness to grow up like corn, that every
evil and noxious thing within them may be over-
shadowed and die.

Men are not put into this world to be everlast-
ingly fiddled on by the fingers of joy.

Those persons who do most good are least con-
scious of it. The man who has but a single virtue
or charity is very much like the hen that has but
one chicken. That solitary chicken calls forth an
amount of clucking and scratching that a whole
brood seldom causes.

Sometimes, when mists conceal the bed of a river
in which work is to be done, or which is to be
forded, men are placed in the tops of trees along its
banks, that they may look across, and sing out to
those below, " Go on ; you are in the right way.
We see the other shore, though you cannot. March

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 155

on." Tims has God put look-outs in the trees along
fehe banks of the River of Death.

]!!^ot many — many are not needed ; but in every
Christian community there are some men who can
see clear across the misty waters to the shores of
heaven. God says to them, " Bear witness. Call
cheerily out unto your brothers who cannot see for
the fog through which they are walking. Tell them
that all is right. Tell them not to flag or fear ; that
they are in the right way, and that the shore is not
hard to gain if, only, they press onP

One such man in the tree will do for the encour-
agement of hundreds below in the river.

There was but one Moses to the thousand of
Israelites that entered the Jordan.

Young Christian, do you want a prophecy of the
future % I'll tell you how to get it. In the first
place, let the future alone^ then call to your heart,
" Heart, art ready for each large or small duty of
to-day ? If your heart answers, as bells do him who
strikes them, if it cry lustily, and with no tarrying,
" Heady, aye, ready !" and if this is, day by day,
its sincere cry, you have your prophecy. You will
not be troubled about dying when you are dying.

When Joseph sent for his father to come to
Egypt, he sent men, and chariots, and horsemen,

156 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

and provisions, all in profuse abundance. He
didn't suppose that the old patriarch could journey
with only his staff for company, finding himself by
the way ; and do you think that when God sends
for you he will provide less bounteously for the
journey to his home? ISTo, no ; when your work is
ended, when your royal day has come, you shall
have cause to cry out, in rapturous praise, Sufficient !
sufficient ! sufficient ! is the escort which thou hast
provided to bear me over to the Heavenly Land.

If you really wish to know your faults, ask your
enemies. What your friends will never tell you (in
that not acting the true part of friend) your enemies
will. When they aim an arrow, it will be at the
place where there is a break in your harness. They
can hit the sore place in you with unerring aim.

Where Christianity is fruitful of speculations and
barren of good conduct, infidels always abound.

It is not death but life that we long for when we
sigh to flee away and be at rest.

When we think of the grave, of the chill and
ghastliness of death, we cannot say that we are so
willing to try it ; but when we leap the grave^ sink

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 157

the very memory of it, and land safe over in
heaven, then, indeed, are we ready, aye, longing
to depart.

How skillfully does Paul sail past the two
unpleasing points, without touching too hard on
either. " It is not that we would be nnclothed, but
that we would be clothed upon."

It is not desirable to be borne away alone, to lie
and moulder in the cold, damp grave; but \tis
desirable, soon as may be, to enter heaven.

When you can make an oak out of a mushroom,
then, and not till then, you may hope to make a
living tree out of that poisonous toadstool, the the-
atre.

It was, even among the heathen nations, con-
sidered a disgrace to be connected with one ; and
down through all the thousands of years which it
has lived since then, it has come with perpetual
dishonor on its head.

Men say we must be honest ; it is our duty. But
they think there is no duty about being happy any
more than about having fine weather. The weather
is just as it happens, and so they suppose it is about
happiness. But I tell you there is no more positive
command in the Bible than this reiterated one,

158 LIVING WOEDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

" Rejoice in tlie Lord alway ; and again I say
rejoiceP And this rejoicing is not to be in plea-
sure and profit, in good prospects, or in sunny days,
but " in the Lord," a joy that shall be independent
of circumstances — a joy that men shall be obliged
to confess must come of religion. A Christian is
indeed allowed to rejoice where other men can; but
he is bound to rejoice where other men cannot.

Who cannot rejoice when he holds his first-born
to his breast? But, Christian, you are to rejoice
when you bend, with falling tears, over his coffin.
Weep ! it is your right ; but " rejoice in God."

Who cannot rejoice when he walks with his
bride smiling beside him? But you are to rejoice
when she lies stiffened in death on her bier.

Do you say it is imj)ossible for you thus, at will,
to banish sorrow, and recall joy ?

It is not impossible. You cannot do it as you
can will your eye to open or shut ; but you can do
it by controlling the causes of things.

You can live in such abiding consciousness of
eternity, that time and the things thereof shall be
to you but as pictures hung up in a hall, which may
all be taken away without touching you.

When losses come upon you, you may and ought
to sorrow for pain of ^Dresent bereavement, but you
should rejoice with a joy which no man may take
from you, in the promise that all of yours which is

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 159

worth having will be restored to you, where it will
be clearer and better than ever.

Live so that your peace and joy shall be the
" lighi " that shall shine on men, showing them the
power of religion thus^ rather than by seriousness
and gloom of face and temper.

You are not to follow after happiness as an end
of life. So sure as you do this, you will never be
happy. But be happy while you work with God.
Ye are the temples of God. Be cheerful while
you help your Master Builder to perfect his tem-
ple.

Under all discouragements, bear up cheerfully,
remembering that it is by trouble that God puts
temper into the steel. If it will not bear tempering,
it is not worth much. He has promised, once for
all, " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee ;" and
has declared, " There hath not entered into thy
heart the joys that are laid up for them that love
me." What need we more ?

. "What feeble and ungrateful wretches we are, not
to be able to rejoice always, when we have such
joys before us.

Much harm has been done by the idea that a
certain gloom, and a restriction of the lively emo-
tions, bear some relations to piety.

160 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

These bear the same relation to it tliat rust does
to the sword-blade — they eat into it.

The command, " Be sober," does not mean be
unmirthful.

I WOULD rather break stone on the road, were it
not for the disgrace of working in a chain-gang,
than to be one of those beings who are so rich that
they have nothing to do but to " seek happiness,"
as they call it.

The " upper class," as they style themselves, are
th.Q flies of humanity \ and if there could be some
great fan invented to sweep them all out of the
way, it would be a benefit to the world.

The working of such a fan would be a very good
business for somebody.

And yet these beings presume to make society's
laws. I must repeat, as the only true description
of them that 1 know in the English language
Pope's lines — " If the gods be monkeys, what must
the people be ?"

"What does Paul mean in saying, " I am perse-
cuted, but not forsaken ?" It's a very pleasant
thing, sometiines^ to be persecuted — it's delicious !
When a man has his own house, and his family
around him, as much salary as he can spend, and
more friends than he knows what to do with, it is a

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 161

pleasant excitement, when breakfast is over, to open
the papers and look to see how he is "persecuted;"
but this was not the way with Paul. He was
driven out, and hunted up and down ; he had
neither father, mother, wife, sister, brother, nor
constant companion, save his dark-browed jailer —
yet he did not feel forsaken. He was troubled on
every side, yet not distressed.

As a mailed warrior might stand amid flying
darts from Indian bows, feeling them hurtling and
rattling against helmet and corselet, and shield, and
falling about him like hail, until they were piled a
thousand high, and yet smile, saying : " They hit
me indeed ; I am pelted and shot at of the archers,
but I am not hurtP So stood Paul in his armor of
proof.

A man in the lists fights first with lance and
spear ; then, dropping these, he seeks in the closer
contest, with the shorter dagger, to stab and kill.
Then flinging this away closes in the deadlier grap-
ple. Then the two sway and bend, and topple to
their fall, each struggling to overthrow his enemy,
knowing well that who goes down is the dead
man.

They reel, they stumble, they fall, and at the
overthrow one feels the knee of the conqueror on
his breast, and sees the deadly steel sliortened
above his heart. Thus was it with Paul — yet there,

162 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

lying prostrate in the dust, dying by cruel hands,
he uttered his voice, and its triumphant joy comes
ringing down the path of ages, to teach us how, in
the loss of all things, to rejoice in God.

Ah ! look not in the throne for strength.

The prisoner in the dungeon was mightier than
the king. He that was under the throne was
stronger than he that sat upon it.

We are not to seek pain ; but when it is sent to us
we are not to fret and grumble at it, but try and go
cheerfully along, as though we did not feel it. It is
for our good, our purification — for nothing is so
purifying as pain, if it be rightly borne.

Suppose I could have these faces gathered and
brought to me, and could hold them thus, and
should ask: "Whose image and superscription is
stamped on this face ?"

" Care marked this face," would be the (fre-
quent) answer.

" Who marked this one ?"

" Fretfulness."

"And this?"

" Selfishness."

"This?"

LIVING WOEDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 163

" Suffering stamped this."

*' What this ?''

^'Lust! lustr'

" And this ?"

*' Self-will."

" And who stamped this face ?" I should ask of
one — a rare and sweet one.

*' This ! why where did you get it ? Whose face
is this ? — how beautiful i It is marked by the sweet
peace of a contented spirit." I never saw more
than a dozen of these in my life.

The change from a burning desert, treeless,
springless, and drear, to green fields and blooming
orchards in June, is slight in comparison to that
from the desert of this world's affection to the
garden of God, where there is perpetual tropical
luxuriance of blessed love.

I HAVE heard people say, '• What a fortunate cir-
cumstance it w^as .that that trouble came to-day,
just as I was so well prepared to meet it. I really
don't think I could have borne it if it had come at
some other time." Yery true ; you could not.
God knew that, and he did not send it upon you
until he had prepared you to bear it. It was fortu-
nate for you that he thus cared for you ; yet you

164: LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

speak as if its coming just at that time were all
accidental.

H-h-h-h-m ! what a fortunate thing it was for the
tree that there Tiajpjpened to be a blossom just where
the fruit wanted to grow; and what a fortunate
thing it was that a bud happened to grow just
where the blossom wanted to open.

It is a fortunate thing for my head that I've got
a neck-; and it is a very line thing for my neck that
I've got shoulders, and trunk and limbs under it ;
and a fine thing for all these that I've got feet to
move them all about upon. I don't know what I
should have done if things had not happened to
come just as they did.

These things do not come one whit more along
the line of sequences than did your strength made
equal to your day.

That was God's promise fulfilled and you refused
to see it. Your privilege is to be troubled about
nothing. " Work well to-day / there all your duty
lies."

Don't imagine trouble; don't borrow it; don't
die before your time. When God wants you to
die he will show you how to do it easy.

ToF come to church to be told how to be the
saint ; you go out into the world to he it.

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 165

There is a question in the air that no set of men,
be they of what sect they may, can steer quite
clear of in their talk.

This question is sizzling everywhere. Hush it
up, cover it down, as you please, it will keep burst-
ing out. 'Tis bubbling up on all sides of you.
You micst agitate it.

God is in this thing, doing what I have all along
prayed that he would do, viz., working in a way that
will make all parties feel that the thing is not of man.

He has overturned the plans both of agitators
and of quietists ; but still he is putting on the
spurs. He is forcing men to agitate the matter ;
and until they do it, he will agitate them.

Order and quiet are good things, when they can
be had without the sacrifice of things that are bet-
ter. But who says, when he looks upon the splen-
did marble buildings that adorn our cities, that all
the noise, dust, and rubbish which obstructed the
sidewalks, while those buildings were rising, had
better not have been made, even though the price
of unbroken neatness and order had been the per-
petual continuance of the old, rat-riddled shanties,
which were once where those palaces now stand ?

New England is the right arm of the States,
and Boston is the hand of that arm.
That arm is now outstretched, and that mighty

166 LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

hand is clenclied to give a death-blow to slavery.
I never felt so willing to drop my oars as now.

Who would 7'ow when he could go hy sailing?

Here is a letter from a southern slaveholder, a
woman, who has written to me, me! for advice as
to how to get rid of the slaves in a way which shall
make them free, and not utterly impoverish her-
self.

When southern slaveholders write to me on such
a subject as this, then I say it is not hard for us to
believe that the millennium is drawing nigh.

To have God and the things of eternity con-
sciously always in mind is impossible.

There is no provision, either in nature or grace,
for such a state of things.

But to have him in our hearts, as the governing
power of our lives, and to carry our love for him,
consciously and unconsciously, as a mother carries
the love of her first-born child, is what is our privi-
lege and our duty to do^ and our only safety. The
mother thinks of ten thousand things which, for the
• time, mw5^ crowd her babe out of her mind ; but
never does she get free of the influence that her
love for him has over her. AYe must make these
natural loves our teachers of how we are to be
filled with the love of God. We may go up by

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 167

tliem till we are far, far above them in regard to
wliat we feel for him, who has all loves in himself;
but we never need to attempt impossibilities, for
he will have no such worship. Hemember grace is
only nature llossomed out j it is no new thing
grafted in upon nature, but nature won and warmed
into its true growth ; that for which the God of
nature made it. A Christian is one brought back to
true growing. • Educate your children aright, inure
them to hardness. Make them to be like the wil-
low tree, that when broken from the parent stem,
they may immediately root themselves wherever
they strike ground, and bravely flourish on their
own responsibility, instead of being forever graft-
ing themselves on your old trunk and limbs.
Don't make women of your sons; for thus would
they have all woman's weakness, without her regal
excellence.

A woman made of a woman is God's noblest
work ; but a woman made of a man is his meanest
one.

There is no religion in the Bible — I hope if
there are any reporters here, that they will wait
until I finish my sentence before they run to the

paper — any more than there is a road upon

the guide-board. The Bible is the rule, the direc
tion, by which man is to work out his own salva-

168 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

tion, as the guide-board is the direction by which.
he is to walk out his journey. Religion is in the
man^ or it is not anywhere.

Religion should not be used as calking, some-
thing to stuff into the cracks and crevices of a
man's life ; but it should be regarded and used as
the very warp and woof of life.

"When all goes smoothly, men imagine them-
selves fully equal to driving their own team ; but
when their affairs begin to run away with them,
they cry out quick enough, " Where's God ?
Where's God ?"

It ought to grow more and more easy to Christ-
ians to do right, until at last the acts that were
Bore self-denial become a pleasure.

AVhen this has come to pass do not be frightened,
and begin to doubt your piety. Be glad and
grateful, for your graces are growing ripe.

What was once sour and bitter has become
sweet and agreeable.

When you first entered the Christian path, you
found it hard to do those things as conscience com-
manded, and you were often tempted to cry out :

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 169

*' Thy paths are not the paths of peace, O
God !"

You were as children who, hearing their father
discourse of the rare and luscious apples that his
orchard yielded, straightway ran thither, expecting,
though it was in the early summer, to be able to
judge of the flavor of the fruit. JBiting into it, they
cry with wry features, spitting and casting the
apples to the ground. " Is this the perfumed,
saccharine flavor our father talks of? We want no
,' more of it."

The miser, when converted, finds that he must
be a miser no more. He sees, perhaps, that duty
requires him to give fifty dollars to a poor man.
He wishes that twenty-five would do ; but it wonH
do. He knows that. He puts his hand into his
pocket and — considers. He tries to go away with-
out giving the sum.

" Do it — do it," growls conscience from within.

The man casts down the money hastily, and runs
away.

That was a victory, but a hard and painful one ;
and the miser finds himself put through years of
just such discipline, until at last he is a miser no
more.

Giving has become a blessing and a jpleasure to

his heart. Shall lie now say, dolefully ? "I fear

I am not a true Christian. I cannot see that I

H

170 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

carry any cross, or deny myself any, as once I
did. Why, I remember when it was like cruci-
fixion to give away five dollars. But I overcame
nature and gave it, and then I had sure evidence
that the root of the matter was in me. But now —
oh ! I'm so much at ease now, something must cer-
tainly be wrong ; nothing seems to try me."

Why, man, your graces are growing fully ripe ;
or take another figure.

It is a great trick among the boys to ferule each
other in order to harden their palms preparatory .,
to blows thereon from the teacher.

It's a good thing sometimes to have the palms
hardened. Yours have been hardened so that giv-
ing does not hurt them now.

There are localities where the gnats, flies, and
mosquitoes are so thick that a man cannot see for
them. They swarm about his head and eyes in
such blinding numbers that it is utterly in vain to
try to seek for anything upon the ground.

Thus, . I think, it is with the Bible. It has
been so beswarmed by commentators that it is
next to impossible to think of a text without
instantly hearing the buzz, buzz, buzz, of 'Q.ve hun-
dred constructions and explanations, each one of
which is further from being any help than the
others are.

LIVING WOJRDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 171

Our real commentators are our strongest traits
of character ; and iisiiallj, we come out of the
Bible with such of its texts stickino^ to us as our
idiosyncrasies attract.

The texts we least need are the ones we like best,
and remember longest. A kind-hearted, lazy man
will remember " Blessed are the merciful," long
after he has forgotten the injunction to be " di-
ligent in business."

Health "underlies all there is of a man. I think
a man ill-bodied cannot think healthily. It would
surprise people to see how many things which have
shaken the world with controversy, and burdened
it with error, had their origin in indigestion. It is
humbling, but it is true, that the action of the mind
depends upon the state of the sinews and the
blood. To be sure, there have been cases in which
from a diseased body the mind has shone out
strong and good, triumphant over fleshly ill ; but
these are not the rule, '^o man would think of
going into battle with a handful of unarmed men,
because such have won victories ; or of going to
sea in an unrigged ship because dismasted and
dismantled vessels have come safely into port.
Health is a duty. If a man would carry his mind
aright, and have it work with power ^ let him seek
to be healthy.

172 LIVING WOKDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Chkistians all want to have graces, but they are
not so willing to take what is necessary in order to
obtain them. The pale think it a fine thing to be
painted — all the lovely flowers and gay colors so
skillfully laid on by the cunning hand of the artist;
but when it comes to being daubed all over with
some dark substance, when the very gold that is
upon them becomes as black as ink ; when they are
thrust into the heated furnace, how then ? how then ?

Christians are like vases, they must pass through
the fire ere they can shine. And often the very
furnace and the flame which they call destruction,
is only burning in the graces which are to be their
everlasting beauty and glory.

!N'oT so much is it onuch working as it is easy
working, which tells. If a man only knows how
to use himself, if he use all his faculties in due
measure, he will scarce ever tire. Most men use
but very few of their faculties. They are like a
man who owns a tower in which are thirty bells ;
but he never attends to them. By and by there
comes a day on which he would rejoice, and he
goes to ring his bells. He draws this rope and
that, but there is no response, or only a jingle now
and then, from some cracked and rusty bell.

At last, from one great, hoarse throat, at the

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 173

top of the tower, comes crashing out a heavy

sound.

That bell is the only one of the whole thirty that

will ring.

Or, men are like houses, lidlt very high, but
which the owner had no means o^ furnishing higher
than the first story— and there he lives, his upper
chambers all going to rack and ruin. Or they are
like ships well freighted and furnished, when they
started out from port, but which, when they near
their other harbor, have nothing left of them but
their hull. They have made fuel of everything
within themselves. They are self-consumed.

A man's worth should be reckoned by what he
is, not by what he has.

A WISE man is one that knows how to turn to
good account the knowledge which he has. He is
not wise who has mastered all languages, all sci-
ences, if he lacks the ability to use this knowledge.
He is only stuffed.

The man who tries to cut himself and square his
conduct merely by the outward pattern of morality,
is as the artist who, instead of studying his art from

174 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

the boundless and glorious pictures God lias painted
on the earth and in the sky, goes into some dim
gallerj^, and pores over what hangs there until he
can badly imitate the stiff drapery, uncouth figures,
inhuman adults, and monstrous pumpkin-headed
children, that the canvas before him exhibits. Ha !
you love to laugh at the artists ; but what do you
think the angels do at you^ who prostitute not
merely your fingers and imaginations, but your
whole spiritual nature, to the work of making, not
bad pictures, but bad, incomplete, poverty-stricken
men. "Is not morality good, as far as it goes?"
say you. " Yes, certainly, as far as it goesP
" Isn't my cable as good as yours, as far as it goes ?"
says the sailor who has a short cable, to him who
has one very long. "Yes," says the other, " as far
as it goes ; but what of that, when it won't go within
fifty fathoms of bottom." And of what use, oh,
moralist, is your cable, when it will not go within
fifty fathoms of the place where it can take hold
upon the soul's anchorage ?

I don't blame a man for not understanding the
mysteries of God any more than I should blame one
who was standing in the Atlantic Ocean for saying,
" I can't."

" Can't what f "

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 175

" I cannot P

'' Not what ?"

'* I've been in ankle deep, and knee deep, and
thigh deep ; I've been in all over, and it's no use ; I
never can wade across the Atlantic Ocean."

" Of course you can't — nobody told you to.
What did you try for ? God never meant to have
you do it, or he would have made it more shal-
low."

Just in this way do men act in regard to doc-
trines. They go out a little way on election, and
back they come, shaking their heads, and saying,
" It's very mysterious ; I can't understand it."
Then they try free agency, then decrees, etc., but
they have no better success with them. Well,
what of it ? Man, by all his searching, cannot find
out God. I am not ashamed to say that I do not
understand his mysteries. I believe that what he
says is true, if I cannot reconcile it. My own con-
sciousness agrees with the most seemingly contra-
dictory passages concerning free will and sover-
eignty. I know that I am free, that by my own
choice I perform moral acts. That with me lies the
power of sinning or refraining from sin, and yet
when I go forth with my most buoyant sense of
freedom to think and act, I am conscious of influ-
ences, of barriers which say, " Thus far, and no
further."

176 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

I feel in my very nature that I am free, and yet
that I do not direct my own steps, nor aj)point my
own bounds. I cannot reconcile this. I know it ;
and there it must rest.

God does us no violence. He uses us through
the very nature which he gave to us, and through
our free will.

The mulberry leaves are stripped from the tree,
and the food which ihey make for the worm acts
upon it according to its own nature. As their na-
ture dictates, the worms spin their cocoons and
sleep in them.

Then, when the little spinners have been de-
spoiled, the loom is made and the silk is woven and
stamped by the skill of man. Everything has been
used according to its nature in the construction of
the silk.

And the web which God is weaving, and the
pattern with which he will mark it, will all be
done in the same way.

The whole plan is in his mind now, and it will
result as he intends, but only through the free
action of the nature he has given to man. His
plan embraced this idea from the very beginning
of things, and every contingency is provided for in
the eternal mind.

A man is better than a peer, a prince, or a king.

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 177

Some ministers are forever hammering out doc-
trines, making ploughs with which they do no
work after they are made.

Now /make ploughs ; but when I have finished
them, I don't lay them away to be taken out and
re-beaten the next year.

No ; my business is to put handles in my plough,
and then to fasten to it a team strong as eternity,
and then to force it deep, deep into the soil, and
rip, rip, rip, ousting the vermin, scattering the
moles and nibbling mice, and making broad fur-
rows, in which I may sow seed.

Doctrinal furrows are good for nothing unless
they are planted, and doctrines should not be
preached so high that they are above the head of
everybody who walks on the ground.

- It is by trouble that God puts temper into the
heart.

Each living man bears a relation to his whole

race. His having lived will never cease to be felt

throughout the universe. ISTo man can live unto

himself. We own each other, and God owns us all.

A man never stands alone unrelated to any thing ;

but his closest relation is always to his Creator.

A willow tree may stand far from the banks of

H2

178 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

the stream, and with no apparent support, except
from the ground about its trunk. But what are its
roots doing? Down burrowing amid the rocks —
forcing a way through the earth, seeking for open-
ings— pushing whithersoever is the smell of moist
soil — diving to the level of the cool well, and drink-
ing deep of its nourishing waters, shooting out by
the brookside, many, many rods away, till its banks
are fringed like a shawl, seeking everywhere for
the nutriment which gives life to the tree above
them, is what the roots are doing ; and man is like
a tree, only his roots shoot upward as well as down-
ward, and his firmest tie is to the heart of God, as his
surest and best supply is from thence.

Who then can say, "I am mine own; I stand
alone uninfluenced and uninfluencing."

There is little hope of ever uniting men on doc-
trines or ordinances.

I think I can see in the IlTew Testament authority
for Episcopacy, for Presbyterianism, and for Con-
gregationalism. To me it seems, therefore, that
the Apostle's idea was tliat the churches should be
governed according to their necessities, taking one
form, or another, as was best suited to them.

The only ground on which all Christians can
have perfect union is the ground of love.

LIVING WORDS KKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 179

Why, a little while ago they gathered themselves
together from the four corners of the earth to form
one great Christian union ; and the very first thing
they did after they were assembled, was to disfran-
chise the whole band of Quakers — among whom
God has his saints and angels, if he has any on
earth. May they not have been permitted to pre-
sent to the world this absurd spectacle for the pur-
pose of showing the impossibility of Christians
uniting on mere grounds of opinion. Love is
the only fusing power in the universe — all may
meet there.

Three naturalists once went into the woods to
find a nightingale's nest. When they had found it,
each took from his pocket his favorite work on or-
nithology and began to describe the looks and the
size of the nightingale that was not there. All
gave a different description, and they quarrelled
over the empty nest, and tore each other's books,
and made a great noise. But now from the thicket
where she had been resting, the bird began to pour
a flood of song. The disputers stopped to listen.
The very leaves quiver in the gush of melody
— the waves of air are moved — the forest is bathed
in music as in a flood. When a hush falls around
them — for the song is done, tho men straightway
shut their books and go home.

Men read about God, and his character, and

180 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

they try to tliink about it, and undertake to de-
scribe it, and finally they get to quarrelling about
what none of them at all understand. But some-
times when the truth shines out clearly on them,
they forget all their supposed wisdom, and in silence
go their ways to love and to adore.

Suppose that I knew a body of men conspicuous
for their faith, hope, love, gentleness, generosity,
etc., but before I gave them my confidence I
wanted to dig down a little deeper than practical
life, and I said, " My dear sirs, what are your ideas
concerning the Trinity ?"

" Well," they reply, ^' we don't know much
about that. In fact, we have no theory in regard,
to it."

I then question them in regard to the " per-
severance of saints."

" We have all been so busy trying to persevere
that we haven't had time to study upon the doc-
trine," is the answer. And so on to the end of the
doctrines.

Then, in order to be Orthodox, I should have to
shake my head at them and say ;

"You tnay escape into heaven, so as by fire; but
I don't know, I don't know — I will pray for 3^ou."

" Sound doctrine," says Orthodoxy, " is the found-

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 181

atiou of religion." No such thing— Jesus Christ
is the foundation of religion. Doctrine is the most
delusive goblin that ever existed, when it is in the
hands of certain men. They frame a form for
Truth, and when she has outgrown and forsaken
that form they stuff it with doctrine and bid men
clinff to the old shell and let the living spirit escape
them.

I THINK that it is the sense of right and wrong
that marks the line between man and the brutes.
I'm sure I've seen some dogs that had more
jiense of right and wrong than some men have ;
and I think when you get down so low that this
sense is wanting, you have come to beings that are
neither human nor accountable, be their form what
it may. But at least it is dark and twilight explor-
ing in this direction.

The ministry is inclined to think that a truth has
no chance at all with refined and educated men,
unless it have a refined dress. Now, although it is
true that such men do look for what shall accord
with their delicate and elevated tastes,. and although
even the truth of God is better if presented in chaste
and elegant language, there are always, in every
man's heart, great cords underlying all these

182 LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

lighter desires, which will answer instantly and
powerfully to the touches oi feeling — even though
it be rudely expressed. When a man overflows,
and in his efforts to express himself knocks his lan-
guage in all directions, his honest, earnest, outright,
downright feeling is the power which moves. It
would be mightier were it well expressed, but the
feeling is the thing after all ; and when a man holds
back feeling until it chokes in the sand, that he
may present a correct and refined discourse, he
hetrays Christ to rhetoric.

When Paul said he w^as determined to know
nothing but Christ and him crucified, he was upon
this same theme. He was telling the people that
he was not going to tickle their ears with fine,
smooth periods. He said : " My power upon you
shall not be in my refined and elegant language, in
my persuasive eloquence. It will not be in me at
all^ but in my moving subject, Christ and him cru-
cified. He was going to throw over them no lasso
of ensnaring art; he would declare to them the
plain truth in words that all could understand and
feel. Paul meant no such thing as ministers mean
now-a-days, when they make this declaration. He
did not mean by it that he should shun all touchmg
upon the things on which duty called him to speak
out boldly, that he should meddle with nothing
that could offend the sinning public, but talk per-

LIVING WORDS FROM TLYMODTH PULPIT. 183

petually of Christ and him crucified, without mak-
ing this his lever to heave from their foundations
the evils of the world. Such talk is nonsense, in
the pulpit or out of it — consummate nonsense.

Sometimes we feel as if it were true that this
world had broken forth from the womb of chance
and were swinging in her dismal orbit, groaning,
aifrighted and running away.

Were one to ask me in which direction I think
man strongest, I should say, in his capacity to hate.

I THINK that Scripture passages are like wayside
flowers. We have seen them all our lives, and
therefore do not know or feel their beauty ; or they
are like the beautiful creations of art that are in old
cathedrals, covered by the dirt and moss of ages.
Men go by them and do not know that they have
passed forms that gave expression to the thoughts
of ancient masters. 'No man cares for them, or
cleans them, until by and by some enthusiastic
Ruskin comes along and does it, and then 'tis seen
that the things which all their life long they have
thought homely, are beautiful beyond description.

What an idea of God's prodigality must have

184 LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

been in Paul's mind when he thus struggled to
express himself : " unto him who is able to do for
you exceeding abundantly more than ye can ask or
think." And this was his view of his master's
character when he was in prison, and wlien, appa-
rently, affairs with the church were desperate.
This view he held up in the sky for Christians to
steer by. Such abundance belonged to God, and
God was theirs. Abundance is a relative word.
A shepherd would not consider that abundance for
him which might be so for a wayfarer. What
would be abundance for a nomad would not do
for the supply of the settled farmer, and the farm-
er's abundance would be a scant portion for the
merchant. A petty prince of a German province
would require far more than the abundance of the
merchant to support his state, yet what would make
his coronet resplendent would be but a trifle in that
of the Russian czar. When from these we look up
to heaven, and try to imagine what that can be
which Infinity names abundance — " more than ye
can ask or think " — we are bewildered, and give
up in despair. In the hours when the spirit
wafts our souls upward as the wind sometimes lifts
a bird, aiding its flight, we wish, and think, and
ask such things, as afterwards we wonder how we
dared to mention ; we cannot believe ourselves that
we ever soared so high as we yet are conscious

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 185

of having clone. When the heart yearns for our-
selves, or for others, we ask such blessings as we
almost fear are presumptuous. But even a mother's
heart, deep as the eternal wells, when in her closet
she kneels amid the sound of groans, and the plash-
ing of falling tears, to pray for her wandering child ;
even the prayers of martyrs, in their utmost agony,
when their words swept like the Amazon, and were
yet but bubbles on the sea of feeling that was
beneath, were shallow and poverty-struck compared
to what he will give to each one who loves him.
Why, look at the beginning ; when a child is sent
to earth, what preparation of soft quilted fabric, of
all delicate and curiously- wrought garments, scented
with sweetest perfumes, is made for the little pil-
grim of love ! But what is all this to the expense
and lavish outfit of earth, the cradle of man's
infancy ? See how its furniture is wrought. One
fragrant bank, could he, in his whole lifetime, pro-
duce such a one, would render an artist immortal.

God has quilted the earth with beauty, and
combed the hair of ten niillion flowers and reeds
over its verdant banks. No emperor's child was
ever rocked in such a cradle.

Does the mother lavish less love upon her child
as it grows in stature and capacity? And shall God
do less lovingly than those whose hearts he made
and filled with love from his own heart?

186 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

Some men think of God as of one sitting like a
tliunderstorm in the sky. They know that tliere is
no safety but in going to him, but they apprehend
a great deal of danger even in that.

They approach him under an nmbrella of excuses,
and have, here and there, a covert under which to
dodge, if they think a bolt is coming. They forget
who Christ meant by the " Father " of the prodigal
Son ; and they lose all the encouragement that he
meant for repentant sinners, when he represented
God as in such a hurry to welcome him who had
returned that he ran to meet him while he was yet
a great way off^ and would not for kisses let him
tell AaZ/'his shame and sorrow. Some say 'tis dan-
gerous to say too much of God's love. Men take
advantage of it, and become nniversalists. They
say : " Preach justice for bread ; let mercy be cake."

The Bible is the centre jewel of which creation is
the setting.

Were the office of deacon rotary in all churches,
as it is in ours, we should not see the absurd spec-
tacle of deacons trying to turn away a minister
because he had removed deacons who deserved
removal — thus trying to make the higher office sub-
servient to the lower.

LIVING- WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 187

While I heartily despise the whole crew of reli-
gionists— the scribes, pharisees, and learned dunces,
of onr Saviour's time, who saw the most wonderful
things passing about them, and did not know it, I
don't want to be caught playing the same fool's
part, in respect to what God is working in our land
and times.

I want to praise God, and take part in helping it
along.

The most of everything is that which is unex-
^ pressed.

Words are but little bubbles thrown up to
express what lies below, forever inexpressible.

Ecclesiasticism has always been the devil's cloak
under which to work evil.

The faults of those first Cliristians do me more
good than their virtues do. If they had been exem-
plary men we should have been apt to feel that as
a matter of course God would take care of them,
and hear their prayers, and we could take little
encouragement from it ; but we see that they were
very much like ourselves, and that gives ugs cour-
age..

188 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

There is not a street in Brooklyn where I could
not point you out heroic women before whom the
chronicled deeds of the historic dames of the
ancient world would blush for very shame of their
own insignificance. The world has advanced.
Heroic deeds have become so common that they
pass unnoticed.

"When you have repented of your wrong and
turned from it — no matter with how little feeling,
for who feels enough to forsake his sin feels suffi-
ciently, and the man that is scourged like a hound
by feeling is none the better for more than it took
to turn him — you are not to trouble yourself about it
any more.

God forgets your sin when he forgives it. So
may, so ought you.

Great sinners who have offended against honesty
and purity, when they are converted, sometimes try
to keep their former sins up before them ; lest, una-
ware, they who had been so awfully wicked, should
forget it, and enjoy themselves.

They check every pleasurable emotion by the
reflection : " Ah ! think, think, what it was that you
did. You are not worthy to laugh and be glad."

True ; they are not worthy. Nor is any one, in
and of himself; but I care not what their sins may
have been, when they are forgiven of God, they

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 189

should be cast into the depths of the sea, aud
remembered no more forever.

The man that keeps tormenting himself by the
memory of repented and forsaken sins, is a fool — a
fool ! To repent and forsake sin is sufficient, when
there is no way of making an atonement ; but if
there is a way, the atonement must be made, or
you may be sure that your repentance is a sham,
and will never be accepted.

Men confess everything but their own besetting
sins. They steer quite clear of these. Who ever
heard a man say : '' O Lord ! I am as proud as
Satan— humble me ;" or, " O Lord ! I am so mean
and stingy, that 'tis only with great pain that I can
unclose my fists. Make me generous."

Suppose I were to set out on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, and before I started were to go to
Brown Brothers & Co., and obtain letters of credit
for the cities of London, Jericho, etc. Then, with
these papers which a child might destroy, which
would be but ashes in the teeth of flame, which a
thousand chances might take from me, I should go
on with confidence and cheer, saying to myself,
" As soon as I. come to London I shall be in funds.

190 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

I have a letter in mj pocket from Brown Brothers
& Co., which will give me five hundred dollars
there ; and in the other cities to whicli I am bound
I shall find similar supplies, all at my command,
through the agency of these magic papers and pen
strokes of these enterprising men." But, suppose
that instead of this confidence I were to sit down on
shipboard, and go to tormenting myself in this
fashion : " Now, what am I to do when I get to
London ? I have no money, and how do I know
that these bits of paper which I have with me mean
anything, or will amount to anything? AVhat shall
I do ? I am afraid I shall starve in the strange
city to which I am going." I should be a fool, you
say; but should-I be half the fool that that man is
who, bearing the letters of credit of the Eternal
God, yet goes fearing all his way, cast down and
doubting whether he shall ever get safe through his
journey? No fire, no violence, nor any chance,
can destroy the checks of the Lord. When he says :
"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," and
" my grace shall be sufiicient for thee," believe it ;
and no longer dishonor your God by withholding
from him the confidence which you freely accord to
Brown Brothers & Co.

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 191

The years! how they have passed. They are
gone as clouds go, on a summer day. They came,
they grew, they rolled full-orbed ; they waned, they
died, and their story is told.

Years that wrought upon us, in thought and deed,
with the force and power of eternity ; years, whose
marks we sliall carry forever, were dissolved like
the dew, and their work is finished.

And the days have gone. With a gentle swell
comes their knell backward to us, over the ocean.
Slipped from their cables, the bright days glide one
by one away from us, drifting with airy speed over
the shoreless tide, beating faint, sweet measures as
they recede from our longing view. We may stand
long upon the shore, and call them ; but they will
not return ; they are ours no more.

Awful is the dirge of years. It is an anthem
too solemn and grand for tears ; but we may weep
for the dying days. Faintly they sigh to us of
by-gone hours, of moments fragrant with all human
joys, of friends and familiars, whose smiles at morn-
ing cheered our way, but whose faces at evening
were covered ; for still as life lengthens the shadows
fall, and the ijast is forever gathering treasures.

The hopes that are born, that grow ripe and die,
float out, as the days, on the ebbing tide.

Gorgeous and rich are the shrines in many
lands, but what temple was ever builded as some

192 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

days are. Marvellous fancies, deeds, in whose do-
ing the heart grows strong, thoughts too mighty for
words, feehngs that are deeper than the utmost '
depths of thought ; these are the material out of
which days are built, and no Vatican or cathedral
walls ever blazed with such glories of picture as are
often painted on single days.

As they move softly towards the far horizon, how
do our hearts follow, with yearning love, the mo-
tions of the parting days ! We would hold them
back, but we cannot, and in the golden sunset the
bright days sink. And with them how many that
we loved depart. Loved ! nay, love^ for the love
remains to shine on the memory of those who have
left us, like the lamps that are kept burning in
sepulchres.

Two weeks ago I told you that three thousand
dollars had got to be raised to pay for the repairs
of this house.

The plates were sent round, and about six hun-
dred dollars were raised.

I was heartily ashamed, and have not got over
it yet. Last week the trustees came, and asked me
if I would name the matter again, and I said :
"IS'o, I will notP But this week, upon their re-
newed application, I have consented to speak once
more. If this doivt do, 3'ou may pay your debt

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH rCLPIT. 193

how you can; for I will never mention it again.
I'm not going to be a pump to be thrust into men's
pockets to force up what ought to come up freely.

When the surgeon comes to a place where he
must cut, he had better cut. For more than a year
I've seen that our plate-collections grew meaner
and meaner. I didn't want to face you with such
things as I've got to say to-day, and I put it off as
long as I could. Now I shall speak plainly once
for all, not having the face to bring the matter up
again. This debt has got to be paid, and will you
meet it honorably, and pay it like men, or will you
let it drip, drip, drip out of you reluctantly, a few
dollars at a time ? You can take your choice. I'm
not going to try to drill money out of you as I would
drill stones. Our lecture-room holds about three
hundred people, and we collect from thirty to eighty
dollars there every time we pass the plate. Our
best Christians attend the weekly meetings, and
they are always the most generous. In this con-
gregation, that numbers over three thousand, we
don't average one cent per head in our collections.

While there are, thank God, many of his poor
among us, who cannot give him a shilling without
making a difference in all their arrangements for a
whole w^eek, there are hundreds of men here who
ought to be ashamed ever to give anything but
gold, or, at least a bill. And they are ashamed to

I

194 LIVING WOKDS FliOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

do it. Don't they, when the plate approaches, and
they have put their fingers in their pockets and
selected a quarter — the smoothest one that they can
find — use admirable tact and skill in conveying it
to the plate, so that no one shall see what they give?
Pious souls! they don't allow their left hand to
know what their right hand doeth. If they have
two bills, one good, one broken, they'll generally
give the broken one to the Lord. The amount of
meanness among respectable people is appalling.
One needs to take a solar microscope in order to
see some men. I'm willing to give my share, to do
whatever the trustees desire ; I shall say no more.

I WOULD not, for the world, bring up h child to
have that horror of death which hung over my own
childhood.

I think I never came nearer swooning than when
I heard of the death of one of my young com-
panions. I walked in a shadow for two days,
hardly able to tell whether I was in the body or
out of it.

The thought of death was to me awful beyond
description. The toll of the funeral bell would
cheat me out of my most desired meal. To my
imaofiuation its stroke was thus: "Death! hell!
damnation !" Our children should be taught that

LIVING WOKDS FROM. PLYMOUTH PULPIT, 195

a funeral is the nearest place to lieaven ; instead of
which, I think, they oftener feel it to be the nearest
place there is on earth to hell.

I do not say wliat death should be to the impeni-
tent— it is a pass at which no mistake can be recti-
fied— let all beware how they come np to it ; but
I say this, that to the Christian, and to the little
child, it is the best and most joyful thing that life
leads to — the portal into everlasting blessedness;
and thus it should always be represented.

Tell your child when, after long imprisonment
in school, he one day hears his father at the gate,
come to take him home, and while his young heart
shakes his whole frame in nervous ecstasy, that this
is like what dying is, but not half as much, or half
as joyful. Death is vacation. God comes to take
us from this old, rolling academy, a good school,
but a hard one, and bear us home with him. Then,
should the house be draped with signs of woe, as if
it were plague-smitten ?

Young men, you come here to get good advice ;
now hear ic. I tell you there is nothing in the
world so profitable as are lying and stealing — I
should not like to drop down now, before I finished
this sentence — so profitable in the beginning, but
so sure to be hit by God's lightning at the end.

196 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

You can gain fast, but you will lose fearfully and
rapidly.

When suspicion begins to touch you the end is
near.

And when that time comes, if the rocks would
fall from their everlasting beds and crush you and
hide you, it would be unutterable mercy, compared
with the burden of shame and contempt that you
must bear.

My heart is towards the young yet. Only when I
look in the glass and see how the grey hairs are com-
ing on my head, do I know that I am growing old.
By the beating of my heart I should never know it.
My heart is towards the young yet. "Would that I
could'^diVTL them so that they would heed ; but they
hear me, and they will go away and remember
naught. They will follow their footsteps who are
as sui'e to topple and go down to ruin as the sun is
to rise and shine.

There are men in both these cities, whose names
I could call, on whom the eyes of those just enter-
ing the work of life are fixed for imitation, but
whose end is damnation.

See how it is with many corrupt public men.
One lately died in iN'ew England. They prosper
for a time. Then sink into obscurity, and after a
while there is a little paragraph in the paper —
" Such a one is deadP That is all that men see.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 197

But could tliey look into the man, and see his men-
tal history for his last few years ; could they see
the disappointed hopes, the defeated plans, the cha-
grins, the mortifications ; see all the vermin that
haunted the secret chambers of that abused house ;
the evil thoughts, the wicked wishes that ran in and
out, like rats and reptiles in old, dilapidated and
gipsy-haunted fortresses, see the man stranded,
high and dry, dropping, dropping, dropping ; until
at last the rotten thing sunk entirely and fell into
utter corruption," and the papers said, "He is dead,"
they would not be so eager so follow his steps, nor
to dare his end. A snake can lap itself around till
it inserts its tail into its mouth ; if I had power to
ring life thus, and make its ends meet, I could save
many ; but the sweet comes first, and men will not
believe in the bitter until it is too late.

The lad tries being industrious for a week, and
because he d^n't see immediate good results he
gives up the effort. He tries dishonesty, and the
gain is in his hands at once ; so he calls evil, good ;
forgetting that evil is always ready grown, and
yields its pleasant fruit at once. That's the best he
will ever have from it ; afterwards it grows worse
and worse continually.

Good is ungrown and imperfect in this life, and
often its fruit is very long in ripening. Evil is the
plump, round Qgg ; Good, the callow and unfledged

198 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

bird, unshapely, helpless, and that cannot even
peep with any strength.

But by and by the true nature of each will ap-
pear. Su^Dpose a man were to go out and sow rad-
ish seed and acorns at the same time. In a few
weeks he goes to see how they do.

■'' Oh!" he says, "radishes are a great deal better'
for timber than oak is. Here I sowed my seed a
month or more ago, and the acorns haven't even
sprouted, while the radishes are as big as my wrist."

You plant your evil, and it springs up like rad-
ishes, when your good has not even sprouted. A
man says, "I told the truth all last week, even
many times to my own hurt, and I got into a great
deal of trouble by it. This week I've told lies all
the week, and I can see that there has been much
advantage to me in it." l^obody thinks indiscrimi-
nate lying would be good, but each man thinks
that if everybody else would speak truth, he should,
then, be a great gainer by lying.

Often it does look to us as it looked to the psalm-
ist himself, that the way to bo prosperous and
happy is to be bad, and the way to be miserable is
to be good. But the truth is not so.

God works upon man by means of all events, all
natural influences. The mere naturalist goes abroad

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 199

and says, " Don't tell me that I'm what God makes
me. I'm what my parents make me, what natural
law makes me, what social influences make me.
I'm the child of ten thousand different influences."
The pious dreamer says, " I am fashioned by God ;"
he jumps all intervening causes, as entirely unwor-
thv of notice. As usual, extremes meet in a com-
mon blunder. God does not work directly on man,
save in exceptional cases. Where a man was born
and how he is nurtured and taught, make him ; but
all the influences that play upon him are ordained
of God. Man is as an instrument of music whose
key board is so broad that a hundred hands may
play upon it, and each player execute different
tunes. Many and diverse influences operate at
once upon the mind of man, and although the direc-
tion in which he was set at his birth will have
something, perhaps much, to do with what he be-
comes, his native tendencies will be modified by
ten thousand circumstances. The natural things
which touch the man are all under the control of
the Supernal Power. .

Children think much more and much more
deeply than we are aware, upon religious subjects.

I remember that I was seriously exercised upon
the doctrines of election, free-agency, etc., by the
time that I was eight years old. I was brought up

200 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

on doctrine. The things that most influence child-
ren are acted things ; not things that are said.

I don't remember to have been affected by any
sermon nntil I was more than thirteen years old.
But the prayer and talking meetings were the ones.
I used to be convicted there ; and I would go about
trying to be " pricked in the heart." I had got
that figure and so tried to prick myself. I wanted
to be taken up by some resistless wind of convic-
tion, and to be made to suffer such agonies about
my sinful state as I had heard others tell of; for I
tliought that right after that would follow conver-
sion, and I should be safe.

I don't think fear has much really good influence
upon children — a ])owerful influence it certainly
does have. I remember once we children were all
called together into our kitchen — which we thought
the best room in the house ; its windows looked out
upon trees and flowers, and its door, when opened,
revealed the long line of road along which we
always made haste to run as soon as we could gain
our freedom. We were called into the kitchen to
be talked to by a minister who was staymg at my
father's. He told us how wicked boys and girls
were by nature, and what an awful end was before
them if they never repented. He told us the story
of one wicked bov who saw the devil comincr after
him. The idea almost froze our young blood with

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 201

horror, and we resolved with all" our might to be
good, that such a fate might not befall us. But as
for myself I don't think that talk ever did me one
particle of good ; on the contrary, I believe I never
did cut up so bad any one week as I did that week,
spite of all my efforts to stop myself by thoughts
of that dreadful story, and of how I should feel to
see the devil coming up the road after Trie.

I remember that one Sunday morning, as soon as
I awoke, I began to play, picking the cotton out of
the quilt, and rolling it into balls to throw at my
brother. Suddenly came the thought " You wicked
boy ! to begin the Sabbath by playing."

At once I was condemned, and ducked beneath
the bed-clothes lest something dreadful should catch
me. There I lay quietly five minutes, as long as I
ever kept still.

There came a woman to live with us — Aunty
Chandler we were taught to call her ; she became
my fast friend, and used to beg me off from whip-
pings. There was a tree whose apples used to get
me up and out early in the morning. I was often
whipped for stealing them ; but whippings used to
make me very brave. One morning, just as I was
stealing out to go for the apples. Aunty Chandler
stopped me : '' Oh ! Henry," she said, tears rolling
down her face, ^' I cannot bear to have yon
whipped so; why vnll you go and get those apples?"

I 2

202 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

This was a new idea. It had never struck mc
that Aunty C. got the whippings on her heart.
After that there were not ropes enough in old Con-
necticut to draw my young feet to that tree.

In those days people used to get together and
pray and make a solemn time of it when a train of
emigrants were about to start for Ohio. It was
almost as if they were to start for another world.
Well do I remember the Ions: lines of white-covered
wagons that used to wind through Litchfield, and I
used to run into the house and hide under the table
that they might not steal and carry me off. Well,
the time came when Aunty Chandler went away in
one of those slow-moving^ trains. I shall never for-
get it. I thought I was near the end of Tny gospel
when she went. Her life was strong in its good
influence upon me. Kext came a negro servant.
He was my next evangelist. I used to watch him
in the field, and in the house, and even now, with
my mature reflection, I cannot remember ever to
have seen him do a wrong act. As I worked be-
side him in the field, he used to tell me his expe-
rience, and where he learned this and that hymn ;
and then he would sing as only the African can
sing, and I used to wish that I could have such
religion as that negro enjoyed. When we went to
bed — he and I slept in the same garret, he in one
corner and I in the other ; some people would think

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 203

it a dreadful tiling to have to share a garret with a
negro — when we went to bed he used to pile his
pillows up behind him so that he could lie sitting
up^ take his hymn-book, fasten his candle up some-
where so that he could see, and commence having
a regular good time. He would sing hymn after
hymn with such relish and enjoyment, the big
tears frequently rolling down his dark face, that 1
used to be cut to the heart with remorse, that I, a
minister's son, brought up with every advantage,
should be so much worse than a poor negro. I
would lie there and pretend to be asleep, while all
the time was singing right at my con-
science, and I was crying heartily to hear him.
Oh ! how glad I should have been could I have
changed places with that poor negro serving-
man, if it hadn't been for cheating him. I think
that lived, acted out religion does more good to
children than all the talking that can be done,
though talking CQrtainly should not be omitted.
That African did me more good than all the minis-
ters that ever came to my father's house.

The infidelity of the last twenty-five years has
been that which has sought to emasculate religion,
by separating it from practical life, and lifting it so
far above everybody's daily and familiar use, that
they might as well be without it. The pretence is,

204 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

that religion is too sacred to be rendered useful in
common matters. Over the church doors men
write : " Religion is religion ;" and o^-er the store
door: ^'Business is business." And the church sa3^s
to business : ^' Don't you come in here ;" and the
store says to religion : " Don't you come in hereP

Man rejects the interference of the higher law in
his business as an impertinence. But when Sunda}^
comes, he says : " We've had enough of business
all the week ; now let us have the blessed Gospel."

And the minister must confine himself to
" Christ and him crucified." He mustn't mention
love to God and man shown in business transac-
tions, for he must preach the Gospel ; he mustn't
exhort to temperance, for he must j)i'e^ch the
Gospel; he mustn't preacb of justice, purity, and
humanity, for he must preach the Gospel.

Why, if men catch ''the higher law" on 'change,
or in the street, they hoot at it, they chase it, they
hit it, and drive it from among them, crying out :
" Here is this higher law escaped out of the
church, and out of the Sunday."

The worst spectacle which this country now
presents is not, I think, the governmental or politi-
cal corruptions, though these are enormous; but it
is that of a religious body, like the one in New

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

205

York, utterly refusing to open its mouth against
the blackest iniquity of the age.

And for what, in the name of Heaven? What
reason do they give for their strange silence?
Why, because if it does speak against this sin it
will not be allowed to preach the Gospel. If every
sin were as powerful as is the sin of slavery, what
would these preachers of the Gospel do? Keep
silence in regard to them all, of course; for, accord-
ing to their views, only the smaller and least pow-
erful sins can be safely hit.

That ponderous body can bombard men bravely
for usins: tobacco, but it can't say one word against
selling men and women to raise it. It can spend
itself and exert its tremendous machinery against
the awful sin of the dancing of young men and
maidens; but can't utter a sound when maidens
are sold to prostitution, and young men are driven
off, in chain-gangs, to the rice swamps of Georgia.

The use which I make of such men, is to point
the young to them, and say: ''There are men
whom you must shun to resemble."

The worst stamp of Phariseeism was not in our
Saviour's Tiay. It has, after years of monstrous
growth, exhibited itself in the nineteenth century.

The Bible sets us an example of fashioning
for ourselves a personal God to suit our need.

206 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

When I iind Paul using figures to represent to
himself God, as his wants required him, I know
that I may do the same thing. When I want love,
I may make God my tender and loving father, or
sister, or mother. When I v/ant pity, I may make
him a being of unfailing and boundless pity.
When I want courage, he is my lion ; when I
want light and cheer, he is my bright and morning
star — my God alert, my sun, my bread, my wine.
We may imagine him everything that is to us good
and beautiful, tender and true, and know that we
are not cheating ourselves by vain fancies, but have
only touched the extreme outer edge of the ever-
blessed reality. There may be dangers in this
freedom and variety of our representation of our
God ; but there are dangers in all forms of our
thought of him, and in none half so much as in
having no realization of him at all, in considering
him as an abstraction of all the omnis. Thinking
of him thus, none can ever love him^ or walk with
hi'/n.

This everlasting twaddle of infidelity about fixed
natural laws, is simple foolishness.

I should like to know, now, if tnan even has not
as much power over natural laws, wherever they
touch him, as natural laws have over him. True,
God says to man, in one place, " Obey ;" but in
other places, he says: " Command !"

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 207

Nature can work ronglily and coarsely in gene-
ralities ; but she needs men's intellect and will to
give effect to what she does.

Through hundreds and thousands of years she
tried her hand at making apples, and they were
but crab-apples at last.

Man said, " I will help you ; and by his industry
and wisdom, the sour, miserable fruit soon covered
all the hills with luscious apples.

I have power over nature's laws to make them
work for my own and my children's good. I can
make the lightning my amanuensis and my messen-
ger. I can make the sun himself my artist; but
when did ever the unassisted sun paint a picture?
Man whispers to him : " Come down here, and I
will tell thee something that thou knowest not,"
and the sun obeys. "Go through there," says man,
and the sun goes through, and finds himself paint-
ing pictures. I should like to see him try to do that
alone. I can say to the sea, " Wait on my will,"
and it obeys me; to the stream : "Thou lazy thing,
llow no longer down hill, but up," and it flows up.
When I turn it into a machine, I say to the water,
" Grind," and it grinds my food. Natural laws are
God's horses, and he says to man : " Yault," and he
who can ride them is their master. By working
them according to their nature, we can make them
to do a million things that they could never do

i08 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

without us. By obeying, we command. They are
the blind giants which our will and wisdom guide.
Is not this true ? Have I perplexed you with meta-
physics ? Have I not rather showed you plain
facts, which you can follow out to almost any
extent ?

Remember, the question between me and the
infidel naturalist is not, " Does God disturb natural
laws in order to answer the prayers of his people,
or does he do violence to nature that he may do
any man good ?" but it is this : " Is it, or is it not^
likely that he is able to do for those who call upon
him and whom he loves as well as man can do by
means of natural law for those dear to liimV In
other words, " Is it likely that one who has given
to his creatures such wonderful power over laws of
his own creating, should be himself so bound and
hampered by them that there should be with him
no possibility of any modification of their working
to suit circumstances? The idea is absurd, and
they are fools who indulge it. That man who says
and believes that there is no effect on God's feel-
ings and actions by prayer, is not a Christian. I'd
rather a man would do as Martin Luther did — lay
down his hand on a promise and say to God,
" ISTow, here is thy word, O ! Lord ! fulfill it to me,
or I never will believe thee again, as long as I
live." God will interfere and help us, no matter

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 209

what laws we have broken. If we didn't break
laws wef shouldn't need his help ; because we have
broken, and do break them, he does help all who
trust in him and even most of those that don't.
When it is proved that praying alters nothing, I
will say of the Bible, " It was a pleasant book ; but
it has passed."

Not all prayers are answered. When you ask
for what would take away motive for exertion ;
when you ask for what you do not really need, or
for what would hurt you, you will not, probably,
get what you desire.

But when a man, out of his deep want, goes to
God for a good gift which he is powerless to gain
for himself, he shall have it. This is the seal.
God is more willing to give good gifts unto them
that ask him, than parents are to give good gifts
unto their children. Do you believe that f

I DO not fear science ; I love it. I do not look
with jealous eye upon it lest it cut off some of my
ground. I accept all truth, when it is proved, no
matter where it carries me ; but I don't accept
what every man calls truth, any more than I be-
lieve the tale of every beggar that comes to my
door.

Infidels are working for God, though they do not

210 LIVING WORDS FROM P1.YMOUTH PULPIT.

know it. Tliey shake and rend his truths until
they think that they have destroyed thetn, but
they have only cleared them of the shuck. 1
think infidels are like swine that, going into a corn-
field tear down the mighty grass, and crunch its
leaves and ears, trampling into the earth all that
they cannot eat. Then, they go out thinking that
they have devoured or buried all the corn. Yes,
they have buried it for resurrection ; for from its
grave it shall rise in tenfold glory, to wave all the
more luxuriantly for that husbandry of hoof and
snout. So is it with infidel swine in the corn-
field of God's Word.

"Whoever has been enabled to take hold upon
another's interest in such a manner as to give him-
self^ for the time being, for that other, and to feel
that his friend's life is dearer than his own, has at-
tained to one of the purest and highest states into
which man on earth ever comes. And he should
understand that a very high experience has been
granted him.

To be lifted above temptations ; never to have a
wrong thought, or a wrong moving of the afi:ections,
is a very good thing, but it is not being so Christ
like as he is who bears upon his soul another's
life — who suffers for him, yearns for him, would
give his life to do him good. This is the very

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 211

spirit of Christ Jesus, and if we suffer with him wo
shall also reign with him. And we must suffer
with him, if we would reign with him. But now,
the other truth which meets this. We have no
business to be so linked with any other human
being as that their destination shall- be ours. All
suffering more than that which makes us ready to
do all in our power for their good, we must fight
against. It can do only harm. We must have our
best and dearest friends to know that our peace in
God cannot be destroyed. JSTot husband nor wife,
brother nor sister, nor friends have any right to cause
rust and canker to enter our souls for them. Who
shall separate us from the love of God ? We must
do all we can, and do it in a cheerful, winning
way, so as not to repel and torment them, thus hin-
dering the very thing we would hasten. But when
w^e have done all we 'must wait God's time. This
is what all those injunctions to patience mean.
But there is another thought, " What if our friends
should die ?" You have no right to meddle with
that, nor to try to settle the state of any one who
does die. And, beside, do you not know that this
necessity of seeing men go unprepared to death,
was what the apostles, the prophets, yes, and
Christ himself was obliged to look upon and bear ?
But remember, God's pity is for the time of trouble
and distress. He is your tower — run into it, and

212 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

be safe. I would not give Invo cents for a faith
that wouldn't help me while I need help. Christ
has offered to bear mj burdens, and he shall have
them. Here are my trials, temptations, and woes,
not in heaven, and here is where I have most need
of my Saviour.

No man is born into the full Christian charac-
ter, any more than he is born into the character
of a man when he comes into the world. A man
at conversion is in the state of one who has just
come into possession of an old homestead. He has
the title and he can make for himself a beautiful
home. But the dust, the dirt, and the cobwebs
of years choke all the rooms, and must be cleared
away. Many sills and beams are rotten and must
be rejDlaced by new ones. Chambers must be re-
fitted, walls newly plastered, the whole roof must
be searched over, and every leak stopped. There
must be a thorough cleansing and repair before the
mansion is habitable ; and when all this is done
'tis only an envpty house that the man has.

The same kind of thing that a man is, who has
trained himself into freedom from wrong, without
having become faithful in right deeds.

!N^ow for a man's house he may buy carpets ready
made ; but there is no loom that will weave car-
pets for his heart, except the loom that is in him-

LIVING- WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PCLPIT. 213

self. Furniture, beds, cliairs, and tables, he may
buy for his house, but rest and peace for his soul
can only be worked out within his soul, and long
labor it often proves. He may purchase paintings,
whose voiceless language shall make eloquent his
walls, and statues to grace niche and pedestal, and
books to fill his many shelves, but the painter, the
sculptor and the publisher for the man's mental
house are all in his own heart.

We are all painting pictures in the dark. Oh !
this painting in the dark ! what is to be revealed
when the light cometh ? It is fearful.

I THINK that persons who are sincerely resolved
to fashion themselves upon the pattern of Christ,
but who can see no marks upon, or in themselves
of their own success, are like artists painting in the
dark, beautiful pictures which shall astonish them
with their loveliness when the morning shines upon
their work. Or, they are like flowers, talking to-
gether in the night, and saying; "We are not
beautiful as we desire to be." They wished to be
arrayed in gay colors, and to have jewels of dew
upon their buds and leaves; but they answer
mournfully to each other's questionings : " It is all

214 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT

darkness upon you ; nothing can be seen." Then
they hold u^p their heads, and stretch out their
leaves ; but a weight oppresses them, and again
they droop, complaining that no brightness or
beauty is given them. But all the while the night
is distilling its gentle moisture on those uncon-
scious flowers, and the very jewels for which they
murmur and sigh, are gathering thickly on every
leaf and stem. They are bathed in the dew of
freshness and fragrance, and crowned with the
most radiant gems. And by and by, the morn-
ing breaks, and the moment that the glorious sun
rolls above the horizon, and floods, with his slant
beams, the world, ten million flowers glisten and
glow with jewels of such lustre as was never known
in diamond from Golconda's mines, nor in any pre-
cious stone on monarch's brow.

Periodical excitements are normal to the hu-
man constitution. Our very life stands on this
foundation. Sixteen hours' excitement and eight
hours' stupor — sleep.

There is in the human "soul " a common feeling,"
which, being roused and stimulated, renders it pos-
sible for men to do in one hour the ordinary work
of ten. It is somewhere said, " God never works
by periodical fits." But I can hardly think of an
instance in which he works otherwise.

LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 215

A man has a right to stimulate himself, for right
purposes, in his lower, intermediate, and higher
nature. It is needful tliat he should do so. All men
recognize this need in regard to business, politics,
social life — but if needful here, where the senses
and even selfishness have much influence, how
much "inore needful when we rise into the realm of
moral and spiritual things ! Revivals of religion
are in strict accordance with natural law. They
are not to supersede the regular, calm, organized
action of the church, but to work with all tliis, as
an occasional, especial power. Men are energized
by the Holy Spirit, and made able to work rapidly.
But when the excitement is worn out, let it go.
Don't try to keep it up unnaturally, or by efibrt.
All strong feeling must rest qidck.

To men who object to this intensifying a work,
or to repenting in a hurry and under excitement, it
may be said, " See to it, then, that you take the first
calm moments when the reaction arrives to become
a Christian, or you will prove that these objections
of yours are all mere excuses to escape conver-

• 55

sion."

When men have a great stone to move, they first
dig away all the earth around it, working moder-
ately and taking care to reserve their strength.
When the earth is removed, they apply their lever,
and now all take hold. At the word, "Now

216 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

heave, men, heave !" each man strains with nerve
and sinew — he throws his whole strength into that
moment's effort, and the stone is forced from its
bed.

Now what if some man, just as the final effort
were about to be made were to cry out, " Stop, men,
stop ! Have you reflected well on what you are
about to do ? Have you thought whether you will
be able to keep on working all day at the rate you
will work while upheaving that stone ?"

"What better than this is he who objects to being
lifted up upon the spring tide of a revival, because
he is afraid he cannot always afterwards live up to
that mark.

He is not required to live so. It is not possible.
His feelings should always be deep like the sea ;
but they should not always roll and swell like the
sea's agitated waves.

There are seasons in which the social and the
moral feelings should thus move and mount, and at
such times becoming a Christian is much easier
work than at others ; and althougli there are many
very good Christians born when all is calm, and
there is no religious excitement about them, yet /
like a revival-born Christian best ; for he is apt to
be more open-hearted and of more use.

Some say revivals cause a great deal of self-
deception — quick conversions are not apt to bo

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 217

thorough. This might be a sensible remark among
lieathens who do not know the first principles of
the Gospel ; but in communities like ours, where
from the very cradle men are taught all the head
knowledge that they need, and where the question
is simply one of the will, " Will you submit to
the rule of Christ, renouncing the ways of wicked-
ness, or will you not V it's a mere quibble of unbe-
lief. The 'New Testament pauses not a moment
over such miserable arguments. " Repent and be-
lieve now^'^ is its doctrine, and three thousand souls
were added to the church in one day. The Lord
recognized the fact that many tares would be
gathered in with the wheat ; but he never, on that
account, sanctioned people to loait to he soundly
converted. " Let both grow together till the har-
vest," is his command.

This doctrine of delay, of shunning excitement
upon a subject which ought always to excite men
more than anything else can, and which ought to
cause them to be in the greatest possible haste, is a
delusion and trap of the devil, in which he has
caught thousands of souls.

-Struggling and distressed Christian, when we
meet in heaven where will be that heart-break that
you told me of?

K

218 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

Will you not look me in the eyes and laugh to
think jou told me that jour heart was breaking ?

From my window I saw, after the last dreadful
storm, a ship struggling into port. Her sides were
all chafed and scarified, as if she had been beset
by the robber waves and forced to battle for her
life. Her mast was broken, her sails draggled and
torn. Her spars and yards were gone, and she
looked almost a wreck.

Out on the sea the waves had risen against her,
and all the thievish winds had sought to do her
harm. A desperate time she had indeed of it,
but she had made her port ; and now, as she
dropped her anchor and lay securely in her moor-
ings, her hull sound, her cargo all safe, her crew
alive and well, what to her was it that she had
been obliged to fight her way, or that out at sea
the waves and winds were even yet raging and
mad with storms ? She had gained her harbor ;
she had made a prosperous voyage. The end
for which she was sent forth she had accomplished
— not the less nobly that through storm and tem-
pest she had held upon her way.

But what was it to the ship John Milton, wlfen
she was floating, piece by piece, upon the waves —
when liei cargo was all sunken, and her crew all

LIVING AVORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 219

drowned and lying on the beach, or in the sea —
that all the first part of her voyage had been plea-
sant, that all the middle of it had been over smooth
and sunny seas, that she had passed in safety all the
islands, and sailed prosperously over the equator ?
Her voyage was a failure, for she rtever entered
port. The end — the end stamps a career as success-
ful or disastrous ; and the John Milton did not
answer the end for which she was sent forth.

Men are as ships sent forth upon the sea, and
that man who gains the port of heaven, though he
be more battered and bruised than any ship that
ever sailed up yonder river to its anchorage, he
is the successful man ; but lie who founders on the
beach, no matter how close it be to the open gates
of heaven, has made a bad voyage, though his log-
book may tell of sunshine and fair winds all the way
to the shoal whereon he struck and found destruction.

God's glory is his goodness. This, by his own

showing.

The ship of morality draws too much water ever
to ride into the harbor of salvation. No one ever
was or ever will be able to enter with her. Hei*
keel always reaches too far down. A lighter craft
must be obtained, or you Tvill be forever outside of

moorings.

220 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

In man's natural state, he inhabits only the
ground floor of his soul's dwelling — the apartments
which look out upon the back yard, where is accu-
mulated all the filth and garbage of the household.
The upper apartments are all fastened up and
injured from disuse.

When a man has deliberately and understand-
ingly resolved to turn from all his evil ways and
devote himself heart and soul to the service of
God, he is converted. There has been too much
fog and darkness thrown about this simple matter
of conversion. The whole difference in the state
of a justified man and a man under condemnation
is, that one uses himself first for God and his fellow
creatures, and the other uses himself first for him-
self^ and second only (if at all) for God and his
fellows. There are multitudes of men who would
like to be Christians, if they only knew how ; but
they are waiting to be struck by some mysterious
and romantic flash, which will never come. If
they feel like praising and loving now, let them do
it ; there is no danger of its being wrong. Many
wish to be able to hegin their Christian course with
joy and triumph. Let them begin, even if it be
in darkness and doubt. The joy and triumph will
await them at the other end.

If I had only had somebody to tell me the things
that I now tell you^ how much trouble I should

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIl. 221

have escaped ! 1 used to sing hymns from the out-
side, just as hungry boys, who have no pennies^
look in at bake-shops, through the windows.

"Ah !" I used to think, smelling the hymns, "I,
too, could enjoy them, just as all these Christians
do ; but they are not for me. I am not a Christ-
ian.'" ]!!Tow, I say, if there is any one in this lec-
ture-room, who is holding his heart back from
feelings that he thinks should belong only to Christ-
ians, unhand yourselves ; give your heart its will ;
let it rise, exult, love and praise. God is working
in you. To check these feelings, or to hide them,
is to smother the Holy Spirit. There is no reason
why any soul before me this hour should not resolve
to take Jesus Christ for his Lord and love, and rise
up from his seat a converted man. There is no need
to go days and weeks under conviction of sin. It
is no credit to a man to have a terrible time being
converted. It is a mean business. Suppose that
I had lied to my partner in business. Suppose he
were to charge it upon me, and I were to try to
evade the matter, and were to oblige him to chase
me through a whole week, crowding me here, pok-
ing me there, and pressing me in every possible way
to own my fault ; imtil at last he cornered me so
closely, that seeing escape to be impossible, I gave in,
and said, "Well, I have lied, and I am sorry;" just
because I could not help yielding. How mean a

222 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

spirit should I thus show. How much better, if
upon sudden press of temptation I had sinned, for
me to stop at once when the lie was charged upon
me, and say honestly, blushing crimson with shame,
" Yes, yes, I am wrong, all wrong. I am sorry,
and will do so no more."

Why will not men, when they see their guilt and
danger, face right about and make short work with
themselves ?

Mirth is the sweet wine of human life. It should
be offered sparkling with zestful life unto God. He
desires no emasculated or murdered offerings.

That which is wickedness jper se in man would
be infinitely worse in God.

Christians all ought to reflect the character of
Christ. But the young Christian says : " It cannot
be that the Spirit of God is really in me, or I
should be more like brother so and so. He, now,
seems a good deal like Christ, but who ever would
guess what Christ was like, if he judged by me ? I
wish my experiences were like that good brother's."
Now suppose the flowers in a garden were to say :
" Since the rose is the queen of flowers, she should

LIVING WORDS FROM TLYMOUTH PULPIT. 223

be our example ; we should all bud, and leaf, and
blossom, just as the rose does, if we wish to do it
right."

But you say : ^' The work of the Spirit of God
should be the same, should it not ? Is it ever the
same ? Does God allow any two men ever to per-
form the same radical acts in the same manner i
Does he not seem to abhor sameness ? Your
Christian graces must be such as consist with your
original nature, the character and disposition which
God implanted in you at your birth. Your expe-
riences will be such as consist with your education
and circumstances ; they will be unlike those of any
other person. And you must not be discouraged
because they do not now shine as do the graces of
the older Christian ; nor think your graces are
worthless because they are yet unpolished. The
negro slave in Brazil, when he works the diamond
mines, is allowed his freedom when he finds an unu-
Bually large diamond.

A poor slave who has never seen any diamonds
but those that are worn upon the breasts of his mas-
ter, his mistress, and their family and friends, is sent
to the mines. Working away there, he picks up a
large stone which looks as if it might be a diamond,
if it was only bright ; but the negro don't know
what to think of it. He says it can't be a diamond ;
but a .companion thinks that it is one. The slave

224 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

takes it to his master, who seizes it with exclama-
tions, and declares to the slave : " Yon are a free
man. There never before was such a diamond
found in these mines !"

" What ! massa !" says the trembling slave, in
great trepidation and bewilderment of joy ; for bad
as freedom is for negroes, it always excites in them
powerful emotions of pleasure. "What, massa?
dat dull stone a diamond ? It don't look nothing
like what massa wear in his shirt bosom."

" But, don't you know. Sambo, that diamonds
have always to be taken to the lapidary, and
ground and polished, sometimes for two or three
years, before they are ready to wear ? This is a
most valuable diamond; and you are, from this very
moment, a free man."

There are diamonds in the rough among you ;
but you will be ground and polished in good time.
The Lapidary has you in hand.

There are men who hold themselves aloof and
look askance on this mighty revival.* They see men
hurrying along at noon towards the various prayer-
meetings, and they say : " It's a fever which must
have its way, and then it will subside." They see a
young man going to the meeting, and think it no-
thing to excite interest. They do not know that that

* The great revival of 1857-8.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 225

young man had come up to a point where, if
nothing had occurred to save him, he would have
been bound over to destruction at the very next
step. They do not see, in some far distant village,
the mother or the sister praying and weeping for
him— no sound of a father's groan is heard— none
of these things— the petitions that for years have
assailed the heavens, both day and night, do not
cling about the youth as he walks the street;
but that prayer-meeting God made to answer the
desire of the parents, and to bring salvation to the
son. And, eternity will show that the young man's
walking towards that place of prayer was the begin-
ning of his march to heaven.

I WOULD rather be reckoned with the lowest and
meanest children of God, than take rank with the
crowned kings of the earth. I am sorry that all •
Christians don't live so as to glorify their heavenly
Father ; but even as they are, I would rather clasp
in my embrace the most imperfect one who really
is born of God, than to link hands with monarchs
Where is the man (there are creatures by courtesy
called men who are ashamed of their old-fashioned
parents, or of their country relatives when they
meet them in the city streets— it would take a regi-
ment of these miscreants to make a decent-sized

K2

226 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Iiair for the bead of a genuine man) who would
not rush from the presence and communion of
princes, if he saw on some forlorn and ragged little
child in the street, the lineaments of his father or
his mother, and knew that the wanderer was his
own brother? Do you tliink that man would not
choose the ragged child to a dozen princes ? And
in the Christian's face I ever see the lineaments
of my beloved Father — God.

A REVIVAL is as when a sportsman goes out with
his gun, and sends its charge into a flock of pigeons.
Some fall dead at once, and he sees and secures
them ; but others, sorely hurt, limp off and hide, to
die among the bushes. The best part of this* revival
is, that while you can only see those who are shot
dead and fall down before you, there are, thank
God ! thousands in all parts of the land, being hit
and wounded, to go off unnoticed to their own
homes, and God heals them there.

Y^ou will bear me witness that two years ago,
when we were right in the midst of the great
political excitement of 1856, I said once and
again, that it was utterly impossible to intone the

* The great revival of 1857-8.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOOTH PDLPIT. 227

American public so with the sentiment that Christ-
ianity must enter into and rule in politics as truly
and entirely as elsewhere, without laying the foun-
dations for a revival of religion as ' broad as the
whole land. The seed then sown is now ripening.

I THINK, when men sincerely try to work for God
and souls, they are as men who go out to sow seed
in a windy day. A few, very few may drop where
they think that they sow all ; and when they go to
seek for fruit, lo ! there is but a handful, and the
men are disappointed and grieved. But their seed
is growing in other fields, by the- wayside, on the
mountains, in the forest, everywhere ; and at the
end they shall be astonished to behold their har-
vest.

We say to men, are you willing to serve Christ,
and to love him ? They answer readily — " Yes, we
are ; but we want to be converted^ By this they
mean that they want to have all that hlessedness of
sensation that they have heard about ; they want to
find that every tendency and aptitude to sin is cut
up by the roots. They want to be converted so
that they'll never have anything more to do but to
feel the joy of salvation. They want God to do all
their fio^htins^ for them, and that is what he never

228 LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

will do. TThen a man is converted, he is set rights
armed for conflict, and ordered to go on througli his
enemies, until he reaches heaven. He often inust
have hard and bitter times in his struggles witli
himself; but God's grace will be his stay and con-
solation, and at the other end he will find what he
is too apt to look for at this.

I HAVE hope, I have courage. Our churches are
certainly purifying themselves ; they are coming
up to a higher type of religion. That John Baptist
work before our last election prepared the way, and
we are going forward. A speech like that just
made in this meeting,* twenty years ago w^ould
have blown it up like a bombshell ; now I don't
think that we have even lost grace or good nature
through it. God used to walk by inches ; now he
goes by seven-league strides.

This one thing I have noticed in everybody — the
moment they come to a clear apprehension of the
love of Christ, they turn-^ right about upon the min-
ister, or upon the Christians who have been labor-
ing, perhaps for years, to bring them to that very

* By a well-known anti-slavery man.

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 229

point, and say, "Why didn't you tell us tins be-
fore ?"

Why, it's what we've been always telling them.
I think that trying to point a man to the love of
Jesus is like trying to show one a star that has just
come out, the only star in the whole cloudy sky.

" I can see no star," says the man. " AVhere is
it?"

" Why, there ; don't you see ?"
But the man shakes his head ; he can see no-
thing. But by and by, after long looking, he
catches sight of the star ; and now he can see
nothing else for gazing at it. He wonders that he
had not seen it before.

Just so it is with the soul that is gazing after the
star of Bethlehem. ISTo thing in the world seems so
hidden, so complex, so perplexing, as this thing,
until it is once seen by the heart, and then, oh T
there never was anything that ever was thought of
that is so clear, so simple, so transcendently glo-
rious. And men marvel that the whole world does
not see and feel as they do.

I THINK that I am a man-of-war, and every gun
in me is a fifty-four-pounder; and when circum-
stances call for the grace of indignation, I can bear
ray part ; but wrath is not so good as love.

230 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH l^LPIT.

The everlasting God, who sittetli at the head and
top of universal dominion, makes himself the ser-
vant of the very least and lowest of his creatures.
Should we, then, be too proud to help each other ?
Should we scorn to lend our helj), or influence, or
sympathy, to the least among our brothers ? How
despicable must such a disposition in us look to
God.

There is nothing of which men know less than
of themselves. They do not understand how their
own characters are formed ; they stand in great
doubt as to their own moral states before God.
They cannot judge or take account of themselves,
much less of their fellows. It is a great comfort to
know that there is One who perfectly knows all
that is in us, and all that concerns us ; and who will
take us for just our real worth. It is a comfort to
trust in God. Oh ! when a little child is weary,
marching through a desert towards his home, when
he feels that he has no longer strength to travel,
nor wisdom to direct his way, how glad is he to
have his father take him in his arms to rest him.
And when the child, just before falling asleep,
raises his eyes for one more glance at the lace above
him, and sees it firm and calm and set for home,
how sweetly he resigns himself to slumber, confi-
dent that all is well. And thus do we, in the

LIVII^G WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 231

weary march through life, sometimes love to recline
upon the bosom of the Eternal Traveller, and take
our hour of rest confiding in our God.

There are men in this congregation who are in
the situation of undermined towers of a beleao-uered
citj. I have seen the enemy hollowing them out
at the foundations, I have seen the kegs of gun-
powder rolled in, and the train laid, and now I see
the enemy hiding just behind his covert, with his
slow match in his hand, waiting for the word to fire
the train. I have warned the fated men, but they
will not heed me. I cannot even pray for them
any more ; but I live in daily expectation of the
explosion ; I wait the hour which shall blow them
to destruction ; for I know, almost as though it were
already passed, that their doom is sealed.

ISTow if any of you before me tremble, and think,
despairingly, " It is I," probably it is not you.
The anxious and troubled ones are not those who
are given over to ruin.

We are all so imperfect, that when we really
consider of our case, remembering that God sees us
as if by candles, into the very darkest parts of our-
selves, we wonder how he can love even the best of
PS. All men believe that God exercises a general

232 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PUl.PIT.

benevolence towards men ; but that liis feelings to-
wards them amount to actual love — yearning, ten-
der, desiring love, and tliat in regard to the most
wicked, the prowling thief, the vile lecher, the lost
and desperate — even the murderer. This is what
staggers us. That he loves not only his elect, who
strive to serve him, but wretches, just because it is
in his own disposition to love what needs love, is
our God's chief glory. That he has something in
his pure and holy nature which causes him to love
sinners, while he abhors their sins, is Gospel teach-
ing. Herein lies our hope and our salvation, for it
was while we were yet at enmity with God that he
sent his Son to die for us.

A PIRATE cannot be pardoned for his piracy
because he is generous, and in most respects a
moral fellow. He is out on the high seas as a
pirate, and is game for hemp and gallows, though
he read his Bible every day, and do a thousand
kind and good actions every week. But if he
repent of his ways, and try to become an honest
seaman, a few forgetful oatjis may be forgiven him.
If he is sailing right, and with right intentions, he
will not be strictly dealt with, though he do knock
down a man now and then when he ought not.
So a man who has not accepted Christ as his

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 233

Saviour, who is using himself just as God did not
intend that he should be used, need not hope that
his occasional good and generous deeds can do him
any service in the matter of salvation. A man
who has given himself to Christ can be forgiven
and helped anew, if he halt and stumble, because
his face is set in the right way, and his heart's
desire is that he may attain unto a perfect obedi-
ence. His sins will be each day pardoned by the
mercv of him to whom he looks for all of this life,
and that which is to come.

There are no troubles which have such a wast-
ing and disastrous effect upon the mind, as those
which must not be told ; but which cause the mind
to be continually rolling and turning over upon
itself, in ceaseless convolutions and unrest.

There are a thousand things which between the
right persons are pure, but which are so sacred and
delicate that the merest touch from the world can-
not be given without causing the utmost pain.
One who would go eavesdropping to catch the con-
fidences of parent and child, husband and wife, or
lover and lover, and would then, to the distress
and confusion of those concerned, report what he
had heard, is a scoundrel.

234 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

•

The common way of rej^resenting God as being
very anxious for and jealous of bis own glory, bas
a bad influence on tbe minds of men until tbey
justly understand wbat bis glory is. We are not
left in doubt as to tliat. Moses prayed and said,
" I beseecli tbee, sbow me tby glory." And tbe
Lord passed b}^, proclaiming, not miglit, majesty,
and dominion, not omnipotence, nor any awful at-
tribute, but, "Tbe Lord, tlie Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long suffering and abundant in good-
ness and trutb."- Tbese are tbe tilings in wbicb
God places bis glory ; and tbis is tbe glory wbicb
man is called upon to promote, and wbicb God is
bent upon preserving.

The old-fasbioned ligbtning-rods were made all
in one ; and w^ben tbey drew tbe bolt it came witb
migbty force, and tbe crasb often did mucli damage;
but now tbe old plan is improved, and by baving
many points to tbe rod tbe ligbtning is scattered, and
made to strike witb greatly divided and dimiii-
isbed force, and to sink barmlessly to tbe eartb.
If conviction were to strike tbe sinner as ligbtning
strikes tbe first sort of rod, tbe man could no more
live tban be could were be to look into the face of
God. But tbrougb tbe mercy of Jesus Cbrist, it
strikes only point by point, a separated and en-

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 235

feebled force. There is no need, in most cases, tliat
it should be otherwise. More feeling than is
needed to produce right action is unnecessary.
God be thanked that we are not allowed to see all
the plague of our own hearts !

There is no mercy nor pardon for any man who
does not feel himself utterly helpless and lost. A
hopeless sinner ^s the only one who has reason to
hope for forgiveness. If a man comes to Christ
asking only a little help, thinking that he can patch
himself up with that, without the humiliating con-
fession of utter unworthiness, he will get nothing.

There are materials enough in every man's mind
to create a hell there.

When my head, that is worth so little, aches, I
feel it to be unspeakable relief that I may lay it
upon his breast whose head is worth so much.
God's head never aches. He does not have to
study. He sees — sees the naked soul of every
creature. When the apostle says to the Jews that
the word of God is quick and powerful, etc., he
brings to their mind the idea of the priest's exam-
ination of the sacrificial victims. The Hebrew
priests not only examined each animal externally,

236 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

•

but they also took the beast and split him open at
the back bone, and made a minute investigation
into his internal state, before he was offered. This
habit was the foundation of the form of expression
in the verse ; * and then the apostle goes on to say,
that before God every creature is laid open, as the
sacrificial beast was before the priest. The argu-
ment which he draws in these verses seems at a
first view to be a strange one ; but the apostle
always speaks from depths which the world knows
not how to sound. God's perfect knowledge of ns,
of all our countless interlacing thoughts, of the
checkered play of all our passions, of all our acts
and motives, of the very darkest and foulest pits
and crevices down to the very bottom of our sonls.
The idea of liis escapeless gaze, why it seems terri-
hle, if we think of him only from the standpoint
of our sins; but when we begin to consider his
perfect love, and his perfect honor, that he has
known us from everlasting, even as he knows
ns now, and that he is never surprised (as we are
ourselves) at anything we do, but has sworn to give
ns everlasting life, and to cleanse us from all un-
righteousness, if we only trust to him, we can begin
to understand that, hecause he knows us, we may
come holdly to his footstool for help in every time of
trouble. I think it is not safe or best for us to give

* Heb. iv. \2 et seq.

LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 237

unreserved confidence to any human friend, liow-
ever dear, for none are always altogether noble and
unselfish, none that will not in some way, or at
some time, abuse such confidence. The power of
hiding ourselves fj-om each other is most mercifully
given, for men are wild beasts, and they would
devour and destroy each other but for this protec-
tion. But into the ear of God we may pour out
each secret — our very self, and the confidence will
be kept sacred. He invites our confidence, not
because he does not already know all that we can
tell him, but for our own sake he bids us pour out
our souls to him, and he will, in return for our con-
fidences, give us pity and consolation ; for he can
be touched with a feeling for our infirmities.

/ We look on men, and judge them; but it is not
right — we see but the outward appearance. I meet
a man with a face so hard and grim, and an eye so
cold, that I thank God that I do not live with that
man. But if I could see the path by which he has
come up to where he now is — if I could see how he
leaned with all the weight of a once generous and
confiding heart, on what failed him in time of need
— if I could see how he has been stood from under,
and been pierced and bored, and the very life-blood
of his afi'ections pressed out by a thousand troubles

238 LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

aud crosses, and perhaps by the infernal machi-
nery of the household^ I should feel more like
throwing my arms about him, and trying to console
him for all that had made him what he is.

Whatever there is in election and reprobation —
and I don't know what there is in them, therefore
I never preach them, for I will not preach what I
cannot at all understand — there certainly is nothing
that hinders any man from gaining salvation.
When /undertake to preach election, I turn to the
last chapter of the Bible, and read : " And the
Spirit and the Bride say come," etc. It is the last
utterance of the sacred volume, and it is sincere.
If I doubted God's perfect sincerity and simplicity,
in such invitations, I should say that those who
worshipped him were the sinners, and those who
refused to pay him homage were the saints. I
think the doctrines of the Bible are like flowers
that are in the morning all covered with spiders'
webs. They are obscured and mystified by mis-
creant theological spiders. There is nothing so
simple that these men will not change it into a
mystery, which they themselves, nor any who hear
or study them, shall be able to understand.

A MAN who impoverishes his soul for the sake of
worldly gain, is like one who, desiring to learn to

LIVING WOBDS FEOM PLYMOCTH PULPIT. 239

play upon a harp, tears out all its strings, where-
with to pay for his tuition. He gains gold, per-
haps, but when it is his, he has left to him no capa-
city to enjoy it.

Perfection has usually been understood to mean
absence of evil, but it does not mean that any more
than absence of weeds means harvest.

The Bible measure of perfection is the measure
of the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. This
ought long ago to have settled the much vexed
question of Christian perfection. Until a man can
measure himself by Christ, and come up to his
stature, he must not claim to be perfect, and he
will not arrive at that fullness in this world. Con-
version is not instant deliverance from all wroug
tendencies, from all errors and follies, nor even
from all sins. It is but the beginning of a good
character.

There mav be instances where men are converted
into a very high state of righteousness at the out-
set ; but I Tcnow that this is rarely the case. Gene-
rally, the young convert is but set about, and has
his way to cut through ten thousand native heart-
born foes. There are his passions and his appetites
that for many years have had their own head-
long will ; and there are all the selfish instincts ;
there is rampant pride to be subjugated, and tho

240 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

work is long and.- hard. But every man is encou-
raged to work hopefully by the command : " Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling ;
for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and
to do of his own good pleasure." Let no hard,
fault-finding man of the world look npon the
Christian when he fails or falls, and say, " He is
no Christian else he would do better than that."
He will often fall and fail ; but he must always rise
again, and with renewed courage and faith go for-
ward working out his own salvation. He never
need despair, for God worketh in him, and that is
strength enough for anything.

There are some men who have not much native
strength or stability of character, and though while
they are out of the way of trial they walk well,
w^hen they are among the every-day influences of
life, they are drawn far from what they know to be
right. Here in church, where there is prayer and
singing, they feel all right, and are sure that they
are very near to heaven ; they are inspired by the
spirit of the place, and feel melted w^ith love and
devotion. But to-morrow they go over to New
York. They don't hear many hymns there. Keli-
gion is not much the subject of conversation and
consideration over there ; it is all sharpness, shrewd-
ness, warding off, grasping, stocks, money-market,
etc. ; and the man goes with the hurrying, hasty

LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 241

tide. Selfishness, duplicity, greed, are about him
and within him, and so he wanders from the way
and does a hundred wrong things. But by and
by is his meeting evening ; and among his church
brethren the wavering man sits down to hear of
Jesus and of duty, and of the experiences of
others. The same nature that caused him to go so
wrong when among those whose influence was
wrong, now draws him another wa}^ A brother
rises and gives utterance to some touching thought,
the man is broken down at once ; tears stream
down his cheeks, his heart swells, he must rise and
speak — he sings with his brethren, and his face
shines with inward happiness. He feels very good
again ; and, for the time, he is as sincere as any-
thing can be; but the world looks on and cries,
" Look at him ! he is an old knave and hypocrite."
He is no more a hypocrite than a thermometer is.
It may indeed he that he is not a Christian. He
whose feet are upon the Rock of Ages should stand
more firmly than this ; but he is sincere.

There are many Christians who in their affec-
tions are thoroughly submissive. When they sufler
there they grow more sweet and humble — their
trials make them better. Thouo-h their afiections
are deep and tender they bow before God when he

242 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH TDLPIT.

touches their hearts in them, and they say and feel
that he does all things well, and that he is blessed ;
but you take these same men and trouble them in
their business, and where is their Christian submis-
sion then? — apparently they are no better than
infidels. They have not educated themselves to
yield their wills to the will of God in their business
affairs ; afflictions there cause them, as it seems, to
grow worse and worse all the time.

At first it is sufficient that the Christian believes
the truths of the Gospel because they are in the
Bible, given by the Spirit of God.

AYhen first the traveller follows the direction of
the guide-board, he does so because it says that is
the way to go ; but when he has gone that way
once, and again, and finds that it always ends
just where he intended to stop, he looks at the
guide-board no more. He has forgotten it, for he
does not need it now. He believes in the road, be-
cause he knows by experience that it will lead him
whitlier he desires to go.

Thus should the Christian, of ten or a score of
years, believe in the vital truths of religion, not
alono because Christ declares them, but because
he has felt and known them in his own heart and
life. Faith is first, but afterwards is actual know-
ledge— we do " know of the doctrine."

LIVmG WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 243

Many persons have read tlie Bible so much that
to them it has come to have very little practical
force or meaning. A man will read aloud the pas-
sage on " charity," or " love," as it should be ren-
dered, and not an echo of its meaning will be in his
heart. He will read it reverently, as lie thinks a
Christian man should, and will then arise and begin
straightway to be not '' long suffering" nor " kind;"
not to bear all things, believe all things, or hope all
things ; not to think no evil ; but to he " easily pro-
voked," and to behave unseemly, without one pass-
ing thought that what he has just read should have
aught to do with his daily life among his associates.
This scripture is thus a dead letter.

If vou desire a new church which will accommo-
date six thousand people, if you will raise the full
amount required for its erection and furnishing, I
will engage to speak in it so that all shall hear me.
I will do my part in the contribution also ; but I
tell you beforehand, that I will have nothing to do
with building a church, or with preaching in it, of
which, when it is finished, even the poorest work-
man can truly say, as he stands and looks upon it,
" I lost by that job."

If you will have such a building for me to preach
in, no man, from the largest contractor down to

244: LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

the poorest laborer that carries a hod, must be
able to saj that he lost a single penny by the enter-
prise. Money sufficient to pay to each man what
is just and right must be raised, or the matter must
be dropped quicker than it was taken up. As to
my being able to speak so as to be heard in any
part of such a building as you contemplate, I should
think you might be satisfied of that by the way in
which I am speaking now.

Men are agreed in this, that all do glory in some-
thing. Each one glories according to his society.
The honesty and gentleness, the truth and guileless-
heartedness, which are the glory of the true gentle-
man, would render a man the mark for scorn and
contempt among burglars, and gamblers, and alder-
men, and otlier thieves.

We are not to try to crush out any quality. If
we put a ball through the head of a wild young
horse, he will be made quiet and harmless enough ;
but he will be good for nothing. The right way is
to break him, and harness' him ; then he will be fit
for use. Just so it is with the faculties of a man's
mind. They all need breaking, harnessing, and
right directing ; but they must not be killed or

LIVINQ WORDS FROM PLYMOTJTH PULPIT. 245

maimed. That faculty whose perversion becomes
pride is the gift of God, and he has given directions
for its proper action. " Let him that glorieth glory
in this^ that he understandeth and knoweth me."
To ''glory" means to value one's self; to feel self-
complacency, because of some real or fancied supe-
riority. But w^e are forbidden to glory in anything
except in our knowledge of God.

How far do men come from obedience to this in-
junction ! They glory in everything hut that.
One walks the streets with such an air that vou
would say he supposes that God had fashioned
a very masterpiece w4ien he fashioned him — yet
no ; it is not even his body that he so much glories
in, as in the things which he has stuck on to it.
He glories in his dress, and in his perfumes.
Another glories in his muscular form, in his fine
proportions, and in his strength. He goes thi-ougli
the streets almost wishing that some one would
come at him that he might display his power of
self-defence. The pride of these men lies in the
things which they possess in common with the
beasts of the field. But others glory in their riches
and their skill ; others again in their genius.
These things are not to be despised. Even riches
God reckons as good ; for they are among the re-
wards promised to those who diligently serve him.
Beauty and attractiveness of person, and the pos

246 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

session of winning manners have this much in them :
they are the gift of God; they give pleasm-e to
others, and ought to do so to their owners. Thej
should be a cause of gratitude, but never of '^ glory-
ing:." It is a sortoforo-anic affectation with some to
pretend to despise personal symmetry and beauty.

Wealth, in the economy of Providence is made a
powerful means of civilization, and it is right to
value it, in its place. It is good, sometimes it is
even grand, to know how to fill the day with
profitable transactions, to make every movement
tell for the advancement of some one enterj^rise ;
but men should not glory in their business or exe-
cutive force of skill, or in their sharp foresighted-
ness. They should glory in this that they under-
stand and know the Lord.

Perhaps there may be men now before me who
are saying: "I have valued myself all wrong —
God help me — I will try to benefit by this dis-
course ;" and perhaps some man will go home and
make a note in his journal to the effect that his
heart was touched, and he resolved to do differ-
ently for the future. Monday morning he will rise,
and as lie starts for the city he wiU say to himself:
" Now, rememherP As he walks towards the ferry,
a quick step sounds behind him, and a laughing
voice says, as he gets a friendly slap on the shoul-
der : " Ah I all ! but that was a capital hit of yours

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 247

—that mortgage, you know— I've heard all about
it. But didn't you trip that fellow's heels up well?
I declare ; it loas capital."

"^o! you didn't hear about it, though, did
you !"

The man is instantly as full of vain glory as
champagne is full of bubbles. Sunday and its im-
pressions are forgotten ; the week is here ; his good
resolves are gone^where the bubbles go. That
one compliment in regard to an act of wicked
shrewdness, has shot him all through of infernal
electricity, and he is a hisi7iess ma7i until the next
Sunday. In what does that man glory ?

As we ascend in the ranks of humanity, we won-
der on what the great thinkers, the great inventors,
the painters, the poets, the orators, and architects,
most valued themselves. TVe think we should like
to know w^hat Shakspeare, that great student of
iiuman nature, thought of " the immortal Will,"
when he, in turn, arose before him, as probably he
did — and we think it would be grand to know what
Dante and old Homer valued most in themselves.
Then our thoughts, still lifting themselves, look on
the angels, and wonder what is their self-estimate.

k

"We tremble as we approach God, and hardly dare
to wish to hear in what he glories. He, infinitely
above all things that are created, the architect of
all architects. Why, St. Peter's is a mere rat-hole

248 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

compared to the smallest worlds that God flings
from his fingers faster than sparks fly from the black-
smith's anvil; but he has told lis in what he glories :
and first and chiefest is his "loving kindness/'
Not merely kindness — it is a compound word.
There are ten thousand kindnesses that have in them
not one spark of love ; but that word, " loving," has
a personal meaning — it shows ns that there is the
tie of aflection between us and our Creator. God
glories in his " loving kindness, his judgment, and
his righteousness," and man should glory in under-
btanding and trying to imitate the same.

I think it would be a good sermon for a man to
take pen and paper and write down, first, all the
ihmgs in which he does glory ; next, the things in
which he ought to glory ; and then an indiscrimi-
nate list of his acts, and thoughts, and plans, and
Welshes. But I think it would be easier to induce
men to go alone, at midnight, and in the dark, into
the charnel-house, and drive a nail into a cofiin,
after the manner of the superstition of some, than
to go down into the depths of their own selves, and
write out truly, with real judgment writing, what
there they would see.

Coin that is current in one place, is valueless in
another. Suppose an Indian, far in the western

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 249

wilds, were to say, " I will become a trader with
the whites. I will go to New York city and buy
up half the goods there, and come back and sell
them, and then what a rich Indian I shall be." lie
then collects all his wampum beads, which are his
money ; and compared with other Indians he is very
rich, and away he journeys to yonder city. Im-
agine him going into Stewart's, and offering his
wampum there, in exchange for their goods. They
are refused. They were money in the woods — in
the city they are worthless. And there are thou-
sands of men who are carrying with them, to offer
at the judgment, what is no better than the Indian's
beads. They are reckoning on their generosity,
their prompt payment of all their debts, their vari-
ous good natural qualities ; but when they present
them, they will all be found worthless trash. The
things that have made them strong, and valued,
and important here, will there be worse than use-
less to them.

Critics say that Eaphael's transfiguration trans-
gresses the rules of art. It is two pictures in one.
Christ is represented upon the mountain top, in his
glory, the disciples having fallen, in wonder and awe,
to the earth ; beneath this scene is the one of the
possessed child, about whom the horror-stricken dis-
ciples stand, unable to afford relief. With the

L 2

250 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

merit or fault of this double representation I have
nothing to do ; all that I know is this, tliat picture
is a figure of human life. Above, Christ often
hovers in glorious light ; while below, the devil is
tearing the child.

What a man is, is not what he is on Sunday,
when the organist plays to him, and the minister
plays to him, and all good influences play to him ;
but it is what he is in the week-day, when his life
is wearing, and working, and weaving for him the
garment in which he is to stand and be judged.

Many that are last shall be first, and the first
shall be last. There are men whose entrance into
Wall street is like the appearance of blue sky after
a northeast storm. They move along, leaving a
trail of bows and smiles, and heartburnino^s and
envy behind them. How the sallow faces light up
as old Moneybags approaches. He is pointed after.
" Do you know him ? A wonderful man ! — worth
his millions — smart as lightning," etc. That old
obese abomination of money is their god ; and yet
there is not one particle of genuine worth in him.
He has utterly defiled and destroyed his manhood
in the manufacturing of wealth; he is a ^reat

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH POLPIT. 251

epitomized, circulating hell on earth, and when he
dies, hell will groan — one more woe.

But there are other men — they are seen some-
times ; business-men say of them : " Oh, yes, we
know them — clever fellows enough — mean very
well — do some good among the poor — have classes
in mission schools, etc. They are just suited for
that ; but, bless your life ! there might be a million
such men in the world, and nothing wonld ever be
done."

These men die, and heaven rings with new shouts
of melody. There they are known and waited for,
and with triumphant joy are welcomed home.

The artist, when he begins to learn to draw,
finds the greatest difficulty in making straight lines
and circles, but when he has coaxed the juice of his
brain down into his fingers, so that theij think,%e
has but to give one glance at the object he desires
to represent, and the lines appear, the circles fly ofl'
from his fingers, and the picture is drawn, almost
without thought. Thus involuntary should be
right-doing with the Christian. He should form for
himself a settled habit, a sort of refined, spiritual
instinct, by which he should be led constantly and
almost unconsciously, to shun the evil, and to
choose the good.

252 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULl'IT.

CnRisTiAN men, what testimony does yom- life
yield to your sons? Is it that religion, your duty
to God, has the first place in your regard, and busi-
ness success the subordinate place? Or is your
practical life (I do not say your theoretic life, that
is more frequently right), such as to cause them to
conclude that you think religion a good thing, but
that a man must succeed in business, anyhow, and
after that he ouo;ht to serve God as well as he can.

Some men have pronounced the rebukes of con-
science to be the punishment for sin. I marvel
how they can reason thus ; or I should marvel if I
did so at anything in man. Either all is marvellous
in him, or nothing is.

But can any reasonable being believe that the
Creator would institute a punishment which should
deal most severely with the smallest sins, and least
severely with the greatest? AVould God decreee
that the worst man should bear least punishment,
and the best man most? Yet look at facts, and
deny not that this is the way in which conscience
punishes. Everybody knows that it is the first and
least sins that are most soundly scourged by this
feeling. It is in proportion as a man is pure that
his sins aflfiict him. It is at the beginning of a
wrong course that we run against the spears, that

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 253

we kick against the pricks, that we are excoriated.
When a man is in the deeper i^hices of guilt, he is
generally far more comfortable than he was before
he had descended so low. How can any one ima-
gine that the Almighty would contrive such a
miserable, one-sided mode of punishment ?

Repentance is not feeling bad about your sins,
or talking humbly about them, or calling yourself
hard names, or thinking that you are the greatest
of sinners, or writing in your journal about your
depravitj^, or praying, or going forward to the anx-
ious seat ; it is turning from your si7is to righteous-
ness. When you feel bad enough to do that, it is
sufficient. More feeling is useless, and often dan-
gerous. It is this firing up of feeling which causes
most of the mischief complained of in revivals.
There is no merit in deep feeling. It is no credit
to a man that God was obliged to shake him over
fire and brimstone to make him a convert. Turn —
blessed are they who," the moment they are made
to see that they are sinners, and are lost without
the Saviour, go straight to him, without waiting to
be lashed thither — such are the best conversions —
such are the most noble natures. But some have
presented God and his law in such a way, as to
oflfend against all of taste, generosit}^, and manli-

254 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

ness — I bad almost said against every affection there
is in man ; and then they call the stirring that
there is within against this view of God the rebel-
lion of the natnral heart, and they teach that there
must now be a pitched battle between God and the
soul — God saying, " You shall submit," and the
soul declaring, "I won't;" until, finally, when
driven to the very verge of perdition, by the thun-
ders of the law, the soul turns short about and
hastens to God — rather than fall into hell. There
may be, there are, experiences like this, but they
are not the rule, they are not needful — at least not
to many. In my office of pastor, I am often called
upon to talk with persons who are in trouble,
because they think they were converted too easy,
or because they never had such times as Payson
liad, when he had dyspepsia, and fasted, and had
horrible views of " the exceeding sinfulness of
sin." "If I was really converted, why was I not
converted just as Brother A. was? If conversion
is the work of God, it will be alike, won't it?
There will be no mistaking it."

3fe7i are the work of God — did ever you see two
vnen Avho were in all respects exactly alike ? God's
taste evidently does not choose uniformity.

Two ships come into ISTew York harbor. One
has crossed the ocean with a favoring^ breeze. She
liad all sails set, everything below and aloft spread

LIVING WORDS FitOM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 255

to the pleasant wind, and not one hindrance was in
her way. But another soon enters, and everybody
hastens to board her. The captain of the fortunate
craft is one of the first to greet his brother captain :
" How came you in such a plight ? Did you
have a storm?" he says. "Storm!" repeats the
other, " I guess we did. I've been upon the ocean
forty years (you know witli captains the last storm
is the worst that they ever saw), and I never saw a
time like the one we've just passed — we've been near
foundering a dozen times. We've lost our top-
masts and our bowsprit, our sails are torn into rib-
bons, our bulwarks are stove in, we've lost our
boats ; I've lost all I had, and my men are nearly
worn out. It has been hurricanes one side or
another all the way across, and we have but just
got into port alive." The captain of the uninjured
ship goes back to her decks and says, dubiously,
shaking his head : " Well, boys, I begin to doubt
whether we really are in New York, after all. It
can't be that we have crossed the ocean, we never
had any experience like thatP

ISTever did a summer pass that did not smite on
the storehouse of autumn, and cause it to open its
doors and bring forth of its abundant treasures.

256 LIVING WQKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

There was a time when honesty, truth and fair-
ness of general behavior were the chief things that
religious teachers insisted upon ; and men ahnost
forgot that Christianity had any inner life ; but the
reaction came, and to this external religion arose
an opposition. The defrauded faculties asserted
their claim, and now was the era of intense spiritual
devotees, who taught that there might be a true
and vital Christianity in a man's heart, distinct
from, and independent of, his outward life and con-
duct. It was faith and works at war with each
other, and religiously bombarding each other with
texts ; instead of walking hand in hand in holy
union. There is no way in which a man can
prove that he has true faith in his heart, except
by good works in his life

Many persons suppose that there is required, in
order to a man's satisfactory conviction that he is a
child of God, a vivid and unmistakable assurance
of faith. They think that the heart is as wax, and
like inert wax they suppose it lies, until the Lord
takes his signet ring or seal, and stamps it with his
name. Then, after feeling that impression, the soul
is certain of its son-ship. It may wander away,
and the name may be covered from sight by ten
thousand faults and sins, but down beneath them
all, it is there^ and it cannot be erased. Now this

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 257

is not the way in which the Spirit of God usually
bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons
of God. Without doubt there is immediate actual
contact of God's Spirit with the spirit of man,
whenever this is best; but ordinarily all our expe-
riences are made to come to us through the medium
of our own natural states ; through the influences
of things around us, and within us. Anything
that produces in the mind the reasonable, sober
conviction that we are his, is the true witness of
God's Spirit with ours. The evidences of a man's
Christianity (if he is a Christian) are not so diffi-
cult and serious a matter as men think. Why, any
one who has sense sufficient to judge whether he is
a good citizen or not, or whether he is the affec-
tionate son of his own parents, can tell whether he
is a child of God. " If ye love me ye will keep
my commandments." " Ah !" you sigh, " but 1
don't always keep them." AYell, ask that little
child how he knows that he loves his parents ; he
will answer you, " Because I love to do what they
want me to do." "Why, my dear child, you are
always doing what they donH want you to do. You
can't prove your love to them by that rule." The
poor child hangs its head, and says, " I don't know
as I can." He cannot answer you. You ask again,
" My child, how do you Icnow that you love your
parents?" "Why, why I do love to please them

258 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

better than anything else in the world." "Ah!
but I have just shown you that you do not always
try to please them ; how can you say that this is
your proof of love to them?" The child is
silenced ; but in his little heart he knows that in
spite of his disobedience he does desire to do his
parents' will ; and that he does love them, whether
he perfectly obeys them or not. He thinks, per-
haps, " I am a poor child, a hard child to mai:age ;
I give them a great deal of trouble, but I love
them ; I am their own child after all. They would
never give me up ; and nothing on earth could take
me from them."

Faith is the life of a child, and that is why the
Saviour declares, "Except ye become as little
children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven." When, therefore, you examine yourself
by the rule of obedience, and find that you are not
perfect there, see if it is your greatest desire to
honor Christ by keeping his commandments, and
if you are trying to do so ; and if it is the grief
and pain of your life that you fail as you do. If
you wish, more than anything else, to be his ; if
you yearn to have him for yo,ur friend ; if you feel
that you onust and will belong to him or to nobody s
you need no more remarkable " witness." If you
were not his before, you are so now ; so enjoy him
afresh — His sweet making love again.

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 259

Suppose one of the sheep in a fold were to go to
the shepherd, and say, " I think I'm your sheep,
because you get six pounds of wool off me ;" and
another should say, " And I think I'm your sheep,
because you get four pounds of wool from me ;"
and a third, " I hope I am your sheep, but I don't
know, for you only get three pounds of wool from
me ; and sometimes it is but two." Finally, sup-
pose one poor scraggy fellow comes who don't know
whether he is a sheep or a goat, and makes his
complaint ; the shepherd would say, " I know who
are the best sheep, and who are the worst. I wish
you could all give me ten pounds of wool; but
whether you give me ten pounds or one, you are
all mine. I bought you, and paid for you, and you
are all in my fold, and you every one belong to
me." It is not how much a sheep brings his owner
whicli proves him his. The proof that the sheep
belongs to the shepherd is, that the shepherd
bought him and takes care of him.

The main thing is to be determined to go towards
heaven. If the man resolutely aims for that place,
he will not fail to reach it in the end, however
much he may wander off his track ; pushed this way
and that by temptations. The most unskillful navi-
gator may gain the port for which he steers, even

260 T.IVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

though his course across the sea be zigzag, if

every time he takes the sun he comes back to his

course, and perseveres in his endeavors to gain his

desired haven. He may justly say : " Though I am

a bungler, and a very poor navigator, I am no

smuggler, no pirate; I work hard to gain my

port, and I believe that I shall gain it in safety."

Thus the Christian often is constrained to cr^^ out :

" Lord, thou knowest that I mean to hold an even

course towards thee ; but thou knowest, also, how I

am pushed off here by wrong imjDulses, and drawn

off there by vain desires — how pride, and vanity,

and selfishness impede my way ; and how often my

appetites and passions trip up my feet, and cast me

to the earth. Yet I will come back to the path. I

do desire to keep it. The settled and deliberate

resolve and aspiration of my soul is to walk in the

way of thy commandments."
/

"When I was at Fall River, I was obliged to rise
at four o'clock in the morning to take the train. I
took my carpet-bag in my hand and ran, but was in
trouble lest I might be running directly from the
cars instead of towards them. There was not a pei
son in sight; but I saw a light in one upper
window. A watcher was there. I ran a: the bell,
and asked information as to my way. It was given.

LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 261

I was about right — only needed a little help ; aud
now, knowing that I was in the right w^ay, I did
run. A bird might have counted it doing well to
keep up with me ; for 1 expected every moment -to
hear the bell, and the rushing off of the train, and
then I should be there and my people without a
sermon for Sunday. Only let me be sure that
I was in the right way, and I was willing to run.
So says the Christian : " Only let me be sure tlmt I
am on my way to heaven, and there is nothing that
I am not willing to do or to bear."

"Well, if you are so earnest, know that Christ is
the way ; and if you are desirous to cast away all
that shall hinder your race, I think you need not
doubt that you are already in it.

There is nothing on earth better than a good
woman ; and there is nothing on earth worse than a
wicked one. The nature of a true, pure-hearted
woman is lifted up until it well-nigh touches that
of angels; but the nature of a bad woman strikes
beneath, until her roots are fed by the fiery sap of
hell.

There are some things that money cannot buy.
The spot of land where your child lies buried,
could it buy that f Or the last letter or gift of the
best friend that you ever had on earth?

262 LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Ahab was just sucli a man as would have done to
appoint governors for Kansas. He could cause the
doino- of mean and wicked acts, and yet not know
anything about them. He was not responsible for
the murder of Naboth — of course not — how should
he know what his wife intended ? He knew that
she had promised him the vineyard ; and he knew
that when she had determined to give it to him, it
v/as already as good as his. He was aware, also,
that the woman who was thus pledged to oblige
him knew no law which could stand a moment
against her desires. Resolute, crafty, cruel, not
" hard faced ;" for she was, probably, very beauti-
ful, she marched straight on to the accomplishment
of her purposes, whatever might be trampled under
her feet in her way. But he gave no orders ; he
merely said : " There is my desk, Jezebel ; there
is my pen, my papers, and my signet ; use them
as you choose. Of course, you will do nothing
wrong." Imagine the two to look at each other
just here. "Of course^ Jezebel, you will do no-
thing wrong."

No doubt ISTaboth might have had twice the
wortli of his vineyard had he chosen to sell it. He
might have had a great deal better land, and have
raised tliree times as many grapes. But lie knew
that there were some crops raised on his farm which
he could get nowhere else. The larger yield of

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 263

grapes might be very well in their way ; but he,
beneath the trees and the vines nnder which his
fathers had for generations sat, and where, beside
his mother, he had sported when a child, and where
his brothers and sisters were born, could drink
sweeter nectar out of airy cups, than all the juice
of grapes ever pressed upon the hills of Samaria.
I^aboth was right to hold on to his home. There
were garnered memories that all the wealth of
Ahab could not buy.

But Jezebel wrote her letters to the elders and to
thejpiobles of her kingdom — to the " Elders and the
Nobles P'' — and she ordered them to proclaim a
fast. When people meditate a deed of wickedness
particularly atrocious, they often feel that they had
better have a fast first. What devout men those
" Elders " must have been ! and how noble those
" ISTobles !" How acceptable to God must such
fasts be ! And they set ]^aboth on high among the
people, and the false witnesses were found ; no
trouble about that, when the queen commanded it,
and the good man %as dragged out and stoned, and
dogs licked his blood. Well ! ]^aboth deserved
his fate — he was " an agitator." He agitated the
king ; he would not let him have his vineyard for a
kitchen garden ; and Ahab was so agitated about it
that he couldn't eat his dinner ; and that agitated
Jezebel very much. She did not like to see the

2C4 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

king rolled over on the bed, like a great baby, with,
his face to the wall. And they were " the govern-
ment " — so ISTaboth was an agitator of the govern-
ment of his country ; and he deserved stoning.

When this agitator w^as dead, Ahab went down
to take possession of the coveted vineyard, which,
as its owner had died as a criminal, lapsed from his
heirs to the crown.

As the king was complacently viewing his prize,
lo ! there stood before him, the first growth of this
desired garden, sprung to full size in one night — the
prophet who was sent to pronounce to the wMved
monarch his doom.

" In the place where the dogs licked the blood of
Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood — even thine — and
the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the walls of Jezreel."
And this was literally fulfilled ; for they w^ere soon
after miserably slain and dog eaten. When Ahab
and Jezebel laid their plans, and executed their
wickedness, they had forgotten God. Men do so
still. Because he that sitteth in the heavens keeps
quiet, they think that he is not*i'egarding ; but he
is. l*oor JSTaboth may have felt that the Lord
knew not his wrongs and his distress, but we see
how that was. And we see, too, by this account,
how God looks upon the unrighteous actions caused
by the hands of agents. Ahab was not going to
hold himself accountable for the results of what Je-

LIVING- WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH TULPIT. 265

zebel, liis agent, chose to do. God, however, held
him to a strict account. Ketribution has a lonoj
arm ; it reaches down through many years, and it
is a sheriff from which there is no escape, however
skillfully we may dodge all others. Thousands and
ten thousands of men, would they speak out their
secret convictions, would say that the very wicked-
ness upon which they had built their highest hopes
of worldly prosperity and happiness was the open-
ing of the pit which whelmed them in destruction.

We must not too sharply blame the elders and
the nobles for their part in this matter. They were
but obeying the law. They did not want to trouble
their minds, or endanger their interests, about the
wild and romantic notions of " the higher law."
As good citizens they must obey the requirements
of government.

This is exactly what was done in our country at
the time of the enactment of the fugitive slave law,
and there were not wanting efforts to induce the
clergy to exhort the people to submit to the law's
requirements, and to aid in its enforcement.

The young ministers were very refractory ; but
there were numbers of the old, and hitherto respect-
ed and honorable clergymen, who were prevailed
upon to aid in trying to cloak that enormous ini-
quity. They did not cloak it ; they only uncloaked

themselves.

M

266 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Daniel Webster stooped to influence these men
to this step, both by letters and by personal address,
and it was taken. When our own elders advocate
the enforcement of this manner of government, why
should we bear too severely upon the elders who
procured the death of ISTaboth ?

It is not worth while for any one who is yet
young, who has not yet soiled virtue, or honesty, or
manly honor, to try the elfect of doing so. Young
men, be true to virtue, be honest, be religious, so
shall you have peace in your later years.

A Cheistiait, just born into the kingdom, is often
like a loaf of bread when its materials are just put
together. The baker has mixed them, and left the
bread to rise. You go to the dough and say, " Are
you bread?" " No," says the dough, "I am not."
In an hour you go again and ask, ''Are you bread?"
" No, I am not," replies the dough ; " I feel a little
stirring" (said with a rising of the shoulders) "in
me, but I am not bread." In two hours more you
try, "Are you bread now?" "ISTo," is still the
reply, " I'm sponge ; but not bread. I'm not
baked, nor eaten yet." But by and by, after the
baker gives it the final kneading, and it is ready
for the oven, when it is haked^ it owns that now it

LIVING WOKDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

267

is really bread. Yet it has gained no new element
since the first mixing. The kingdom of heaven in
the heart is like leaven which a woman hid in a
measure of meal until the whole was leavened.

It has been said that a statesman will not soil his
hands by doing the vile and dirty work that is de-
manded by the present system of politics ; but that
he keeps for his use persons who are not squeamish
as to what they do, so long as they are well paid
for it. But the story of Ahab tells how that sort of
management is dealt with by the Lord.

There are men in these cities known as abolition-
ists who, when occasion calls for it, shut their eyes
and bid their southern agent do the best he can for
them. They say, " I must do business ; and I can't ,
afford to lose ten thousand dollars by my southern
customers. 'Tis a bad affair, no doubt. Don't let
me hear a word about it. Here, I leave the matter
with you. Do the best you can for me. I wa,h my
hands of the whoU hudness." _

Ah ! it's rather difficult getting that sort of stain
off I tell you, the pious merchant, seated in his
slippers^omfortably by his Sunday fire, reading Im
religious paper, while his agent at the Southis sell-
ing men. women, and children, body and soul too

26S LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

often, is held accountable for all the wrong, disaster
and misery thus caused.

Don't you believe it? I appeal to God's judg-
ment bar ; and we will take up the subject and de-
bate it again there.

Any dishonest deed done by the most extensive
and respected firm — the making out of false bills
of sale — the giving in of wrong invoices at the
custom-house — no matter if these things be done
by the hand of the greenest clerk or the last and
smallest boy employed in the business, will be reck-
oned for, first and most rigovously^ with the first in
power in that firm.

Ah ! there is a great deal of craft and cunning
among men — they are very shrewd and subtile,
and can go far and long in artifice and duplicity ;
but God is a match for them all.

A GREEDY man is not long in growing covetous,
and when the grasping and avaricious passions be-
come swollen and inflamed, there is always danger
that they will break out into some deeds of deeper
wickedness. He who finds himself feeling sorry
that another's house is larger and better, or that
his prospects in life are fairer than his own, may
be sure that the worst form of envy is upon him ;
before he knows it, he will covet that which is

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 269

another's ; and tlien he will be in perpetual clanger
of committing crime, in order to obtain it. The
more he looks at what he wants, the more he will
want it ; which is always the case with ns when we
want what we must not have. It is right to wish to
have good things like those owned by our neigh-
bors, if we can make fair trade for them ; and if our
neighbor is willing to sell that which is his, we
have a right to wish for and purchase that ; but our
desire must go no further than this. The moment
we cherish a desire to get from him that with which
he does not wish to part, we sin. The desire, cher-
ished, to steal makes a man a thief.

When an old man, who has spent seventy long
years in this world, who has seen almost the whole
of life, and is trembling on the very verge of the
grave, comes at last to the Saviour, drawn by that
gracious Spirit that will save unto the uttermost
rather than permit the prayers of his saints to be in
vain, I am glad that his soul is saved — glad for his
sake — glad for the sake of the parents long ago gone
home, and glad for the sake of the other faithful
friends who have prayed scores and scores of years
for his conversion ; but after all, 'tis a mean husi'
ness.

This giving all the greenness and efflorescence of

270 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

one's life — all one's strength and beauty — to the
devil, and then, when one has sucked all the plea-
sures that he can get out of sin and the world,
coming and offering the dregs of his life — his old
worn-out corn-husk, to the Lord ! 'tis dirt mean !
If any of you young people meditate such a course,
you will not be likely to be allowed the chance.

I AM not afraid of -a laugh, even in the meeting-
house, nor on the Sunday, if it come of a right
spirit. It is often better to laugh than to weep ;
and to laugh in the very presence of our Maker is
well, if it be the laughter of Abraham, and not the
scornful and unbelieving laughter of Sarah.

Why is it, when the coffin is unearthed, and that
which has lain long within it is exposed, and
when the father and the mother, bending over it
with tears and anguish, call tenderly with the soul's
utmost yearning : " My son ! my son !" that the
dust makes no reply ? Why is not the mouldering
mass moved ? Why does it make no sign, but only
the nimble worms creep in and out, and the'noi-.
some dust settles closer together? It is because
the man is dead.

Why is it, when lover calls to lover to return,

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 271

when the confiding one who has believed in man,
as she should believe alone in her God, and has
been 7'ewardedr-~2i^ man rewards — ^pleads with the
miscreant who has stolen from her her store of love,
making no requital, when her tear-dimmed eyes
and quivering lips beseech him, when all her soul
is poured before him, and she utters her hopeless
cry in his very ear, does he not pity and regard
her? It is because tke wretch is dead, dead.
Dead to all that lifts him above the brute ; dead to
whatever is not earthly, sensual, devilish. And
God calls to men, he wooes them, he entreats them,
and they answer not, nor hear, because, as he
declares, " They are dead in trespasses and sins."

The man who designedly wins the love of a
woman when he knows that he either cannot or
ought not fully to requite it — there is not an evil
thing on the earth or beneath it that is so base a
knave as he.

When you come to Christ you must come as an
offender — you must be sorry for your sins, and per-
fectly willing to give them all up, or he will never
receive you. Suppose a man were to strike a child,
or a sick man, or a feeble woman, everybody would
cry " shame !" But if he, upon reflection, grew

272 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT.

ashamed, and went humbly and confessed his fault,
and tried, all in his power to make up for it, men
would let him up. If, however, the man who struck
happened to be one of yf>uv consistent men, obstinate
and conceited (whose consistency is not in never do-
ing wrong, but in never confessing it), he won't re-
pent, nor atone. He will say, " Well, I did it, and
it must remain^ The world will call that man a
brute. In these things the judgment of the world
is that of Christ.

Suppose a man were to call upon the physician
and. say, " Well, sir, I want your services."

" Are you sick ?" says the physician.

" ;N"o ; not that I know of."

" What, then, do you want of me ?"

" Oh ! I want your services."

" But what for ?"

The man makes no reply.

" Are you in pain ?"

"ISTo."

" Is your head, out of order?"

" No."

" IRor your stomach ?"

"No; I believe not. I feel perfectly w^ell ; but
still I thought I should like a little of your help."

What would a doctor think of such a case as this ?
What must Christ think of those that ask his help,
not feeling that they really need it ?

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 273

The Jews were as pious as people are now-a-days.
They hated everybody that didn't belong to their
church. They looked upon the Canaanites just as
we look on infidels, heathens, and abolitionists.

I THINK that one reason for my great love for
trees, and flowers, and birds is, that through the
gentle ministrations of these things I was taught a
better way of prayer than any which before I had
known. I found my way to God stepping on the
soft green leaves, and lifted by the songs of birds.

"When men complain to me of low spirits, I tell
them to take care of their health, to trust in the
Lord, and to do good^ as a cure.

Man's face is a disturbed face ; it shows that in
his soul there is no rest, not even in his home.
Disquiet is with him in the broodings of the night,
and repose comes not with the flush of morning.

Attempt to be aristocratic in the church, and the

church dies. Its true power consists in cutting the

loaf of society from top to bottom.

M2

274 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Time is to us as a beleaguering army; parallel
after parallel is drawn around us, and ever and
anon we see an enemy's flag waving over
some outwork. Charge after charge is made
against us ; and as sight, and hearing, and touch,
fail before the assaulting army, O woe to man if
he has no hereafter as a final citadel into which to
retreat.

Ask any man and he will tell you, " I expect to
live again." All men believe it ; but this cold
faith of the head is a different thing from that cer-
tainty which sometimes thrills through the heart,
and makes us long for the future life, as a school-
boy longs for his father's house.

There is a pass beyond which no man's honor
can go. Beware the narrow and intense moment
of the pressure of temptation.

It is time we were done talking of death as
" The Great Tyrant," " The Enemy," etc. Death-
it is only God's call, " Come home." It is but the
messenger to bring them home sent to homesick
children at a boarding-school ; or the permission to
return to his native land sent to an exile.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 275

Eeligion is the Bread of Life. I wish we better
appreciated the force of this expression. I remem-
ber what bread was to me when I was a boy. I
could not wait till I was dressed in the morning,
but ran and cut a slice from the loaf— all the way
round, too, to keep me until breakfast; and at
breakfast, if diligence in eating earned wages, I
should have been well paid. And then I could not
wait for dinner, but ate again, and then at dinner ;
and I had to eat again before tea, and at tea, and
lucky if 1 didn't eat again after that. It was bread,
bread, all the time with me, bread that I lived on
and got strength from. Just so religion is the
bread of life ; but you make it cake— you put it
away in your cupboard and never use it but when
you have company. You cut it into small pieces
and put it on china plates, and pass it daintily
round instead of treating it as bread; common,
hearty bread, to be used every hour.

A man's ledger does not tell what he is worth.
Count what is in a man, not what is on him, if you
would know whether-he is rich or poor.

Love that has no fear of God is always false and
weak.

276 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Of all impotent creatures, man is weakest, when
he attempts by his own strength to put himself
down. It is ocean trying to put down waves with
waves. No storms are like the storms that rise
when man attempts to conquer liis passions.

There are men standing high in the church, their
hands have borne about the broken bread, and the
dripping, blood betokening wine to their compan-
ions. They are careful to observe the Sabbath and
the prayer-meeting, and do their part well in public,
stated generosities ; but under all they bear a heart
that is hard, grasping, avaricious. In the world
they carry themselves so that they grind and bruise
all that stands in their way. They are proud, sel-
fish, supplanting, envious, malicious — they are mean.
There is no worse word than that. When you have
descended so low in language, the hottom falls out.
For such a character as the one I have just de-
scribed I cannot express my utter contempt and
loathiner.

'»•

When a man gives proof that his heart is sound,
and that his life is sound, there is no divergence of
opinion that should keep us from fellowship 'with
him. I am sensitive in behalf of theolodes ; but
wlien theology puts its hoof upon the living, pal-
pitating heart, my heart cries out against it.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 277

Those truths which, though rugged, have gripe in
them, have in themselves presumptive evidence of
their truth. We are to have toleration, but not of
falsehood, nor that which is founded on indiffer-
ence to the truth. It makes all the difference be-
tween life and death, between destruction and sal-
vation, what a man believes. Because a man
sincerely believes there is no chasm before him,
when there is one there, will God the sooner save
that man's neck if he goes forward ?

Most of the religious controversies are of details.
The great denominations now stand apart from each
other on grounds which, by their own general con-
fession, do not touch the individual Christian cha-
racter.

If there was no grit in a grindstone, how long
would the axe be in grinding ? and if affairs had no
pinch in them, when would there be made a man ?
How can a man walk by faith, unless compelled to
go where he cannot see ?

The most powerful way of teaching truth is to
show what it has done for you.

278 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Sentimental aspirations after goodness may be
very well in their way; but it takes more than
these to make a saint. A man (or a woman) may
sit and read the Bible all day, and cry over it, and
think how precious and holy it is, and how good
God is, and then may go away and pray all night ;
but if the reading, and reflection, and 'praying,
don't make a better man of him — if their effect is
not to brighten and sweeten his disposition, and
make him more kind and loving to God's creatures
that are in his company, or in his power — if he can
shut his Bible, and turn with scowling brow and
unpitying heart to the orphan or the stranger within
his gates, he has the very spirit of the Pharisee.
He that loves God let him love his brother also.

God works by the church just as far as he can,
but when she makes herself stiff or shallow, his
workings overflow and run in a hundred ducts be-'
sides.

Those who think that the whole army of human
deeds must go roaring through the thoroughfares
of life whelming men in the general rush, and that
no Sabbath notice must be taken of it — who make
the pulpi'j too holy, and the Sabbath too sacred, to
be used in bringing individual courses and develop-

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 279

ments of society to the bar of God's word for trial,
are the lineal descendants of those Jews who con-
sidered the Sabbath so sacred that our Saviour
desecrated it by healing the withered hand. Would
God he could appear to his church in this our
day and heal withered hearts.

The world was made what it is ^that you might
be made what you ought to be. Your daily duties
are a part of your religious life just as much as
your devotions are.

Because our impressions are right we have no
business to flash them, unpreparedly and unad-
visedly, in the faces of men.

The firm skull must conform to the growth of the
brain, the softest mass in the whole body. So laws
and institutions, however hard they may seem, must
yield and fashion themselves according to the
growth of the national character.

When God means to make a man useful in the
world, he generally sends him first through fire —
he puts him into the forge and onto the anvil — and
often he chastens most whom he loves best.

280 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Men confound earnestness and solemnity. A
man may be very much in earnest and not be very
solemn ; or he may be awfully solemn without a
particle of earnestness. A solemn nothing is just
as wicked as a witty nothing. A man may be a
repeater of stale truisms, he may smother living
truths by conventional forms and phrases, but if he
put on a very solemn face, and employ very solemn
gestures before, an audience of sound men — men
soundly asleep, at least — that will pass for decorous
handling of God's truth. The diflerence between
Christ and his contemporary teachers was that he
spoke live truths with the power of his own life in
their utterance. The rabbins spoke old orthodoxy,
dead as a mummy ; but they spoke it very reve-
rently ; they never violated any professional propri-
ety ; they never forgot how to move, how to speak,
how to maintain professional dignity. They forgot
nothing except living truths and living souls.
What if they did not do any good ? "What if every-
body died about them ? What if they never had
any fruit? They charged that all to divine sove-
reignty.

Young Christians often get discouraged, and
tliink that they bear no fruit, and shall be cut off.
They see that Christ promised his disciples that
he would dwell in them, and that they shall bear

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 281

much fruit. Christ did not mean that fruit should
come at once, all ripened. Remember to whom, he

spoke men wlio were for years after this getting

it through their heads that he was to die for them.
It was twenty years before the fruit grew upon
them that we find clustering in the epistles ; and
then only two or three of them had anything to do
out of their own time.

When the gardener looks in the spring to see if
the branches of his vines are alive, he is satisfied if
he sees the tip of the most tiny bud — he don't call
that a dead branch. There was but one of the
disciples that seemed much changed for the better,
during the life of Christ — that was John. He was
one of those persons who, soft and velvety outside,
have in them a core of granite, who, under a
smooth aspect, carry the charge of thunder. He
was the one who wanted to call down fire from
heaven to burn up the peoj^le who had ofi*ended
his Master. His aflfections, when not disturbed,
were tender and sweet; but thwarted, he grew
bitter as gall. Yet he came at last to that gentle-
ness of character, by which he is now known ; and,
after a score of years, grew able to pen those fer-
vent letters, so remarkable for ringing all the
changes of love. Indeed John seems to have forgot
every word in the language but " love." It is not
in one year, nor five, nor ten, that you will ripen.

282 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

But you are dissatisfied, and 3^ou sit down and
try to think how Christ looks, and try to feel that
he is with you ; and you take the Bible, expecting
that now you are converted, it will shine out at you
like a house whose windows are illuminated.
Christ will not reveal himself to you in that way,
and that is not the manner in which the Bible will
be a light to you. You must make it " the man of
your counsel." What a word is that! what an
idea it gives you of how you should use the
Bible.

A. man ofiers you a note. You are not quite
sure about it. You say to him : " I don't know.
Hold on ; I'll let you know in half an hour ;" and
away you run, round the corner. Your lawyer
lives near by. You show him the note. " Such a
one offered me this. I tliought I'd just speak to
you about it. What would you do?" "Better
have notliing to do with it," says the lawyer, shak-
ing his head. You run back, and say to the man :
" I've concluded not to take that note."

Then some transaction is urged upon you. You
hesitate. You don't know exactly whether it will
Btand in law : " Wait," you say, " wait a minute —
I can't decide yet," and away you go, roand tlie
corner. "Oh, yes," says your lawyer, "that's all
perfectly riglit and safe ;" and back you run, and
the matter is settled. He is the "man of your

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 283

counsel." Just in this way should you consult tho
Bible, in regard to all the actions of your life. You
may read all your life in it, and never get tho
meaning out of half its texts ; for I think that
many texts of Scripture are long in their periods,
like comets, and only cast their light upon us
when the appointed time comes ; but unlike the
comet, when once they have risen upon our hori-
zon, they leave it no more, but their splendor
burns on bright unto the end. There are texts
which I got into twenty years ago, and I'm not half
through them yet.

Christian graces are not in the Bible. The
Bible tells us what they are ; but it is in the strug-
gle of life that we are to find them. A book of
tactics is good to teach the soldier evolutions, but
it is the parade ground and the battle-field that
makes veterans. Men can make an idol of the Bible.

Each one of our faculties, when well cultivated,
becomes an interpreter of God, a window through
which we can look out and see God. Take benevo-
lence ; in its natural state 'tis mere good-nature,
not much of a window then ; but when you have
exercised and trained it, until you see the inter-
est of another lying side by side, on the same

284 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

plane with yours, and can choose that first, doing
good to another rather than to yourself ; when you
give up rest, and comfort, and health itself; when
you uncomplainingly endure martyrdom and cruci-
fixion for the sake of your nervous, and sick, and
fretful children, who have wound you up, and run
you down, and almost worn you out, then your
benevolence shows you what kind of feeling was
Christ's when he sufi'ered and died for you.

It is all very well to have a minister to preach
about religion ; but you get used to him. I stand
here, and say over and over to you the same things
till I wear the year smooth. Every Christian who
has come to a realization of Christ, is a natural
and appointed preacher of him. You all know
what is the efiect here, when from one part of the
room and another, men rise to corroborate each
other's witness to the truth and efl'ects of reliecion.
1^1 ow, if the church would make the week a witness
that should answer back and confirm the Sabbath ;
if you, in all your places of business, about the
streets, everywhere, would but corroborate, by
word and deed, in spirit and in truth, all the truths
that I utter from the pulpit; if the young convert
would call to the companions that he has left in the
world, and the more advanced Christian would

LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 285

encourage the young one, and the white-haired
saint again stand on the heights, and call : " Come
lip, come ; from where we stand can be seen the
gates of the Holy City," how would the influence
of the church be felt, and how would be hastened
the conversion of the world !

"When we begin to climb a hill, 'tis hard work ;
we begin to puff, our legs begin to ache, and by
the time we reach the top of the hill, we are pretty
well tired out. But once np, we begin to descend,
and now we wonder that we could have made so
much ado about our climbing. "We resolve that
we never will do so again. And we shall not until
the next time. But when another hill is to be
ascended, it will be the same thing over, nnless we
resolve with something more than the ordinary
fimmess of men.

There are hills in the moral as well as in the
natural world, and we manage worse about the
former than the latter.

How few people there are who have a really
trusting spirit. 'Tis easy enough to trust, in regard
to things you don't care anything about ; but upon
the point where you are most sensitive, how far do

286 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PI3LPIT.

you trust in God, and not worry? Have you,
within five years, learned to trust yourself and
your i^roperty, and the health and life of those
dearest to you, with God, in a settled confidence
that he will do what is best with all ? And can you
be cheerful in this trust ? The husbandman goes
often to examine whether his fruit ripens fast. You
are spiritual husbandmen, and should do likewise.
It is astonishing, as one walks the streets, to see
how few good-looking people there are. Yery rare
is it to see a luminous, transparent face, open and
trustful. There are such natures, but they are
rare. There are some people that can trust God
about everything, but their soul's salvation.

When a hunter goes out to hunt, he seldom finds
all that he hits. But going about the woods the
next day, he finds here a buck, there a turkey, and
something else elsewhere. "Ah!" he says, "I
thought I brought down more game than I found
yesterday. Here it is now." As I go about the
country lecturing, I am so frequently being met by
persons who say to me, shaking my hand : " I was
converted among you. I have reason to know
YOU, though you don't know me," that I am begin-
ning to feel that, on these jaunts, I only go a little
wider into my own field of jurisdiction. Lately I

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH rULPIT. 287

was struck bj the gratitude and humility of a
mother whose son came last winter to I^ew York.
With parting injunctions and prayers, the mother
very earnestly warned her hoy to keep out of dan-
gerous places ; and, especially to be sure and not go
near that wicked place, Henry Ward Bcecher's
church. She made this such a particular object of
her caution, that, of course, the young man came.
He was converted, and returned to his mother so
changed, that she, too, was converted. When I
was there, she, from gratitude, had gone over as far
one way, as she had been the other ; and was feel-
ing very bad to think she had judged ill of one,
who, since he was the instrument of her dear son's
conversion, must be so very good a man. I do
feel that the influence of this church is wide.
There will hardly be, ere long, a town in the land
that will not have branches from us. How humble
and how careful ought they who exert so wide-
spreading an influence to be.

When I dig a man out of trouble, the hole that
he leaves behind him is the grave where I bury
my own trouble.

There are some assertions of Scripture which
imply high attainments in the whole round of

288 LIVING WOEDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Christian character. " If any man offend not in
word, the same is a perfect man ;" that is, if a man
has obtained that self-command which shall enable
him never to say a wrong thing, the battle with
him is nearly over. He may reckon it already won.

" God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son," etc. The life and death of Christ
was but the working out of the love of God. The
affection and the yearning of heart towards his
erring creatures, was just the same in God before
Christ came, that Christ showed it to be while he
was on earth. It is just the same still. There is qio
change in God, or in his love. Man, nor woman,
need fear disappointment there. It has been the
custom of some, a custom too much prevailing, to
represent God as being under no manner of obliga-
tion to do anything for his creatures after they had
broken his law. The trouble with this statement is
that there is a great deal of truth in it ; and yet it
has been made in such a manner as to give a very
wrong impression. In God's own nature there is
a necessity for his efforts for man's redemption.
Where is the earthly father, worthy to bear the
name, who would not feel that it w^as as much his
duty as his desire to do all in his power to restore to
the paths of lionor and honesty a child wdio had
fallen ? And, shall we imagine that God, the Infi-

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 289

nite Father, is under less obligations to do good to
the creatures lie has made than we are ? or that the
laws bj which his nature are governed are directly
the reverse of t-hose which he has imprinted in our
souls ? '' God is so great !" say some ; and they
hold up that greatness — sincerely desiring to show
forth his praise, though mistaken in the thing

wherein lies his greatest glory till they seat

him on a throne so high that no man can touch
even its base ; till they cut him entirely off from
man's sympathy. They say he might have justly
let the world alone, after its revolt, and have con-
cerned himself no more about it ; and they declare
the love and mercy which refused to do so, past
finding out — a mystery of love at which mortals
should forever wonder and adore. Yes, he might
have let his rebels alone, in such a way that there
would have been no propagation of the condemned
and hopeless race ; but that he did not do this, can
any heart that is a parent's marvel? Man can
understand God, when God has given, in his own
breast, the key which can unlock his mysteries —
Tnade in the image of God.

God is great ! but in proportion to his greatness
is his love, and his obligation to do good. ]S["o
being in the wide universe is so marked out and
belted around with " ought " — witli obligations to

rectitude, as is the Almighty.

N

290 LIVING WORDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Because he is mighty and high is not the reason
why he has a right to make conditions, and mark
out the bounds of men — ^but because his wisdom
and his goodness are so great. It is for their own
saJce^ as well as for his, that God would have men
serve him ; for all good and all happiness are inevi-
tably connected with his service. This is in the
nature of things. He loves every one of us with a
warmer and heartier love than that which it is pos-
sible for the fondest of our human friends to feel for
us ; and all his desires an,d all his commands are for
our eternal good. His help is so often promised
that men have got an idea that it is some nearly
impossible thing one has to do in order to become
a Christian ; but this is wrong. The help that we
need is already with each one of us. In every
man's hand God hath 23ut a price with which to get
wisdom, and if he does not obtain it, he will have
none but himself to blame. We are asked to do
nothing but what we can do, and do do every day,
only not towards God. "Who does not often feel
the sense of guilt ? Who is there that has not often
regretted a wrong act ? Who is there that has not
faith in things unseen ? Who is there that has no
power to love that which is lovely ?

My liearers, if it should be that any of you stand
unfriended at tlie judgment, unclotlied and shiver-
ing before the Judge, it will not be Iiis voice alone

LIVING WORDS FEOM PLYMOUTH TULriT. 291

that you will hear pronouncing sentence against
you. Your own understanding, your own conscience
and social affections, even your own worldly wisdom,
will cry out that your ruin was needless, that it was
only because you would not that you was not saved.

The more refined and elevated men are, the more
sensitive are they — the more is expected from them.
A thing that you would pass without notice in a
low, ignorant person, you would expect and de-
mand apology for in a person higher on the social
plane. Man, as well as God, exacts from man
according to that which he hath.

The present time with men, is as the sight ol a
rifle. They look through' it to see what is before
them.

Changes of motive and purpose are often in-
stantaneous ; but it may take years to get all the
conduct in exact agreement with that changed
mind. Suppose that the men on board a pirate
vessel began to falter in their purpose, and to talk
to each other about becoming honest seamen. By
and by, having consulted all but the captain, they
conclude to refer the whole matter to him ; and if

292 LIVING WOKDS FKOM TLYMOUTH PULPIT.

lie consents tliey will all abandon the life of

pirates.

They surround their captain*, and make known to
him their thoughts. " The whole thing depends on
you, captain ; what do you say ?"

The captain thinks and thinks — he shakes his
head. " I don't know, bOys, about this. If we be-
gin to be honest men, we must hold out so ; and
perhaps we can't. And then we may get caught
and punished for what we hai)e done. Still, I don't
know. I guess we will give up this way of life — we
— I suppose we had better decide to do so — we wiliy

It was done — at that instant the men had ceased
to be pirates. True, the black flag still swung from
their mast ; the last blood was hardly washed from
their decks ; they had been fitted out to attack and
plunder the West Indian islands ; and they were
still full of the implements of death. But no mat-
ter, they were no longer pirates, any more than
when they had pulled down the flag, cast away
their weapons, and entered upon their lawful voyage.

The Lord's Prayer stops at " deliver us from
evil." The doxology, though excellent, vis gener-
ally admitted to be an interpolation. Who may
pray? May the Christian ? certainly. It has been
considered that prayer was a privilege peculiarly

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PDLPIT. 293

that of the saint. This is an error. Whoever has
a loant^ may pray. Has not the man in the fire
or in the flood, a right to cry out for help, regard-
less of his character ? What ! may the sinner ad-
dress God? Well, if "the sinner" may not, who
in this wide world may ? But " the sacrifice of the
wicked is an abomination to the Lord,'' says Scrip-
ture. That passage has been wrested till it has
been made the means of the loss of many souls ; it
has gone up and down the earth, destroying like a
sword. It is the hy])OGritical sacrifice that God
abhors. No earnest heart-sent cry is displeasing to
him. When a man who would twist his neighbors
neck for gain, or who for it would thrust his arm
up to the shoulder in blood, who loves and means
to continue in the indulgence of riot, uncleanliness
and wassail, makes his sacrifice, or ofi'ers his prayer
for the sake of covering his real character ; or, say-
ing in his heart, " There ! I hope that's enough to
keep me safe " — that is the abomination of whicli
the Bible speaks.

How should men pray % If any man c^n best
approach God, and open his heart to him by means
of prearranged prayers, in God's name, allow him
to use them. But the spontaneous utterance of
thought, feeling and desire is best suited for
specific cases. Printed prayers are generic.

By his conduct and his relations, Christ tauglit

204 LIVING WORDS FROM rLYMOTJTH PULPIT.

that it was God's pleasure to be taken firm hold of
by the soul in prayer. He taught us plainly that
there are some things which he will give to his
children if they will plead for them long enough,
and with sufficient intensity of desire, and which
otherwise they shall not have. He enjoined it
upon us that in prayer we should be, to the last
degree^ earnest, constant, and importunate. But
God wants no man to make watch-j)reparation for
communion with him. Don't look at your watch,
and say, " It's noon, or it's six o'clock — I must go
and pray — whether you've anything to say or not.
Some men pray three times a day ; they have three
regular hours. If this suits their case let them do
it. Others pray regular oral prayers but once a
day. There are some birds that sing when the sun
rises, and then they are done for that day. All
Christians ought to be much in prayer. They
should even in secret pray with the voice — for
the voice helps to fix the thoughts; and no man
will ever grow much in the grace of pra3^ing who
prays in his heart only. Social prayer also is a
duty and a benetit to the Christian ; but, above all
things, let them strive to be sincere, simple, and
natural in ])raver. Faults of manner in addressino-
God are not confined to young converts — if so,
there would be more prospect of having them all
corrected. The young should beware of falling

LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 295

into these faults. Don't allow yourself to have
a praying tone, one much higher or lower than
that which is natural to you. The moment I hear
a man go up or down an octave in his voice, I am
left an octave behind. Then some men's voices
have a roll, they have a swinging undulation like
the waves of the sea. All this is very unpleasant
— even revolting to refined taste.

When young Christians complain to me that
their thoughts wander in their devotions, I tell
them that they pray too much. Pray often, hut
not too long at a time. I have heard very stam-
mering, staggering prayers — sprayers that broke
down in the middle, that were yet real, living
prayers. Far better are such than those w^hose
composition is perfect, but in which words have
outrun feeling. All the first troubles in regard to
this intercourse and confidence with God will pass,
and, by and by, the Christian who really desires
it, will come to live, as it were, in a perpetual
prayer. He will walk through the days with a
consciousness that he is " naked and open before
him with whom he has to do," and he will rejoice
in that consciousness. Every new event, every
new emotion of his life will be with him an impulse
towards God. He must tell it there. His confi-
dences and his warmest gushes of feeling are con-
tinually lifting themselves up to the being of his

296 LIVING- WORDS FROM TLYMOUTH PULPIT.

supreme love and reverence ; and this is to " pray
without ceasing." When the heart of man attains
unto this state, he can no more be left comfortless
or alone, though the grave hide all who love him,
and though a dungeon shut him from the light of day.
You will frequently need some preparation for
prayer. When a man is full of the fretting cares
of business ; sore, smarting, tormented by the
untoward events of the day, he often feels that he
is in an unfit state to enjoy communion with his
Maker. The mind needs some relief before it can
settle itself to prayer. With me music is one of
the best aids here. One deep and solemn strain of
music is enough to separate as far between me and
any past state of mind, as the Red Sea separated
between Pharaoh and the Israelites.

-«►■

'^ O, God ! we know not what life in heaven is ;
nor what disposition is made of occupation there ;
but we know that whatever here is most briofht,
whatever is most beautiful and lovely, what-
ever is most delightful in experience and most
pleasing in sensation, is used to excite our imagina-
tion of the joys that await thy children, and that
after all these things are exhausted we are told
tluit it doth not yet appear what we shall be.

* The following passages are from prayers by Mr. Beecher,

LIVING WORDS FROM TLYIVIODTH PULPIT. 297

How long, O, Lord! liow long? Since tliou
wentest up into heaven, hast thou forgotten the
earth ?

Givest thou no more heed to the voice of her

groaning?

For eighteen hundred years, since thy departure,
she has swung round about thy throne, uttering,
evermore her cries of bitterness and pain. Is it not
enough? Oh! hear the wail of nature, and come.
Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Thy coming, and that alone, can redeem us.
And when thou art here, the waters of bitterness
will all be turned to sweetness ; and the song of
earth, as she swings in her orbit, shall be like the
melody of heaven.

Our Father, we love thee, though we so often
grieve thee. Our God, our Saviour, we desire to
walk in thy love ; why do our feet so constantly

falter ?

Oh! come unto us, and possess us in every
faculty of our souls. Abide with us, thou Heavenly
Guest, and so draw us that we turn from thee no

more.

When we look abroad into the world, and see
what a place it is ; see how full it is of jangling
and selfishness ; of violence, of passion and blood ;
thy Fatherhood, and our brotherhood unacknow-
ledo:ed, and men everywhere at strife. And when
^^ N 2

298 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

we look within, and see the evil there : the lurking
enemies, crouching in secret places, waiting for us
to lie down in slumber, or to ungird our armor for
a moment's rest, that they may spring out and
assassinate us, we are ready to sink down in despair,
and cry out that all is lost, and that thou hast
indeed forsaken us. But we know that thou art
not gone — that thou art not afar off, and that thou
dost regard the cry of thy children.

Then, hear us now, O, God ! while we reach
out after thee, and are sick for want of thee. Come
unto us with healing, and speak comfortable things
unto us, and hasten the salvation of the world.

"When the clouds are over us so black that those
who know thee not, see in them only wrath and
destruction, may we, looking up, behold and know
that thou art near, and that we are only standing in
the twilight of the shadow of our God.

May we be over-arched by our faith in Thee ;
may we stand under it as our shadow and protec-
tion from all the storms, and sins, and woes of life.

While we walk througli the places of crucifixion
here, may the thought of our Father's home sustain
us.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 299

Is our liome indeed awaiting us ? Art thou look-
ing upon us with yearning, and thinking that the
time draws near when thou majest call us to thine
arms ? Dost thou love us, and long for us, oh ! our
God? for iis^ so full of all unquietness and unclean-
ness, so barren of all loveliness.

" Oh ! teach us the meaning of that word
" Love." Teach us, too, that with thee it means
not less, but more than it does in the truest and
warmest human heart — that our love is as the
brook, shallow and defiled, while thine is as the
ocean flowing to meet the brook, and swallowing
up all its impurity as though it had not been.

May the thought of thy tenderness and pity give
us courage. May it not encourage us to think sin
less dreadful, but cause us to hate and shun it
more ; and yet, in spite of all our oft falling and fail-
ing, to take comfort in thee ; and to struggle, not
from fear, and to escape thy frown, but with a great
yearning to get upward nearer and nearer to thy
smile.

May the thought of thy love make sin more hate-
ful and fearful to us than all the thunderings of
conscience ever did ; and may it look even blacker
while we feel the throbbings of thy divine pity,
than when viewed in the light of thy pure and per-
fect law.

Our Father, may grieving thee be the one

300 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

terror of our lives. Teach us how to love each
other, and how, hating all sin, to have mercy
on the sinner, even as thou dost. Look not upon
our sins, nor enter into judgment against us, for
which of us could stand one moment before thee ?

When we are alone and desolate — forsaken of all
that makes life dear, be not thou afar off. Be near
us, O Thou who canst make thyself so much more
unto us than parents, or brother, or sister, or hus-
band, or wife, or lover, or friend : for these are but
sparks struck out from thee. They are only names,
which, gathered and grouped together, mean God.

To trust in human love is often to be pierced as
with thorns ; to lean on human faithfulness is to feel
the broken shaft enter our side ; but no man ever
trusted in Thy love and found it grow cold towards
him ; no heart ever yearned towards Thee, and
stayed itself upon Thee, and found Thee unfaithful
or unkind.

We pray Thee that Thou wilt give us grace to
bear with the troubles that are in our daily life.
What are we that we should ask to go crowned
with joy when all through the world there is so

\

LIVING WOEDS FKOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 301

much sorrow ? We pray tliee not so much to take
away our burdens, not so much to lift from us the
cross, or to pluck away the thorns, as to show us how
patiently and lovingly to bear them.

Our days are passing ; O God ! that dwellest
where they sing who have done with weeping ; they
whom we buried with tears and anguish, but whom
thou didst raise again with gladness and everlasting
exaltation ; and hast given them so much more and
better than we, in our largest and most ardent
desires, know how to ask for them, that they, look-
ing down from their glorious exaltation, see immea-
surably below them the dust that we have named
as blessings ; when it shall be our turn to hear that
call which men name " death," may we, waking as
children called by mother's voice at morning, see
bending above us thy face of eternal beauty and
infinite love, and feel beneath us thine everlasting
arms, and break into the first notes of that rap-
turous song which shall not cease, with our head
upon thy bosom.

Be with and bless our friends, wherever they arc.
Scattered abroad in the earth, they are toiling, eacl
with his duties and his burdens, and his wearing
sorrows. We would fain gather them in the bosom
of our love, O Lord ! and there shelter and give
them consolation ; but it cannot be ; for our hearts

1

302 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

are filled with their own burdens and sorrows, and
they are powerless to bear even these alone — how
then shall we help our brothers ; but what is our
love and pity when compared with thine ? And, are
they not all beneath the shadow; nay, in the sun-
shine of thy care ? and canst thou, without whom
not a sparrow's strength faileth, permit any heart
that stays itself on thee to be broken by its trouble ?
Tliou wilt never leave us nor forsake us ; and they
that are ours by love are parts of our own soul, and
the promise and the covenant is for them also.
Therefore, O our God ! we commit those united to
us, yet, by space, divided from »us, into thy faithful
and tender keeping, and we hnow that they are
safe.

-*►-

Our* souls rejoice, O Thou blessed one! when
we feel ourselves drawn towards Thee, for it is not
in us to rise ; and when our thoughts are all tending
with sweet affection towards heaven, we know that
there have been solicitations, and that God hath
yearned for us, and hath sent forth ministering in-
fluences to waken love, and lift our souls towards
him. And as the sun doth draw up all vapors, and
wreathe the mountain tops therewith, so in Thy

* A Prayer from a Phonographic Report in the American Pulpit,
by Prof. ITcnry Fowler.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 303

high and holy place — yea, towards Mount Zion
above, Thou, with sweet and blessed looking, dost
draw our affections ; and our hearts to-day exhale
towards Thee.

For though we have not seen Thee, we hiow
Thee, Thou mighty one ! Though we have never
beheld Thee in outward form and guise, our hearts
have taken hold upon Thee.

The hand that was pierced for us hath never been
laid upon us in our path ; nor have those sacred
wounded feet crossed our threshold ; but that heart,
that mind of Thine, the soul of God, hath crossed
the threshold of our dwellings ; and with our hearts,
full often, we have had communion with Thee, as
friend with friend.

And in the times of darkness, and of temptation,
we have wrestled with Thee, even as the Patriarch
of old, and thou hast given us victories, which the
tongue may not mention, but which the heart will
think of with joy and everlasting gratitude.

In times when affliction seemed to dissolve us —
when our heart was as fruit about to drop from the
bough, when there was no more strength by which
to lay hold upon life, tliou hast conie. Thou blessed
one ! and given us strength again to lay hold on
life, and to be happy in life, and to rise above the
darkness of personal distress, and the struggle and
the conflict of immingled evils. We have been

304: LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

fearful of dangers ; but afterwards Thou hast made
us to laugh, as children laugh when alarmed and
then looking back, see that it was but the shaking
of a leaf. And when things have seemed to settle
around us in darkness, and troubles have come
thick upon us. Thou hast lifted us up, and put our
feet upon a rock, where no tide could reach us and
no wave could dash against us, and no flood could
sweep with destroying eddies about us, to unsettle
our peace, or do us harm in thought or feeling.

And we have been made masters that before
were servants to our circumstances. We have
been able to stand undaunted and to beat back
troubles that came upon us. Thou hast lifted us up
from sorrows, from violence, from unexpected evil.
When periods of dismay have come drifting in upon
us like diffused mist, cold and chill — those days of
doubt when we could see nothing, when the pall of
silence lay upon everything, then, likewise. Thou
hast manifested thyself unto us. Thou hast given
us, /it last, a sweet patience to stand still, and
to wait; and we have found that waiting by
thy side is better than running alone ; and that to
be empty and weak, for Christ's sake, is better than
to be full for our own sake.

We rejoice that Thou hast, in a thousand ways,
manifested thyself to us in all the desires and yearn-
ings of our hearts. We have looked out upon life

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 305

Bometimes with joy, and then with a sweet sadness,
because, after all, there was so little in it that its
brightness grew dim almost before it flashed its
brightness forth ; and we have been glad of
it.

We thank Thee that Thou hast addressed thy-
self to us by our nobler thoughts, and redeemed
the world from emptiness and given it back to us
when we have yielded it to Thee, crowned and
glorified. Thou hast made the things that are
round about us — the very flowers that perish — the
leaves that wither and drop away, the changes of
the season — to be the teachers and Thy preachers
to our souls.

But these things alone do not content us ; for
they are things of the lower life, and we have
yearned for that which we have not. We have had
divine incitements ; we have had blessed inspira-
tions ; when all that we knew seemed so fragment-
ary, and all that we were so exceedingly little and
less than fragmentary ; when we have felt that our
affections were so cold and ignoble ; when from a
thought of our own ungratefulness and selfishness
and pride, we have turned to the bright vision of
thy love — so sweet, so lasting, so deep, so gentle,
BO delicate beyond all expression from human
tongue ; when we have seemed to ourselves to be
SO coarse, so low, so ignoble, that we scarcely could

306 LIVING WOKDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

lift up our ejes unto Thee. But Tliou, O blessed
one ! hast been pleased to look upon us out of the
brightness and radiance of thine own perfections.
Out of the depth and purity and sweetness of
Thine own love, Thou hast looked forgivingly upon
our rudeness, and our hollowness, our pride, our
selfishness, our jealousy ; and hast uttered to our
souls promises that we should not always be thus
— that if we would have faith Thou wouldst
have jpatieiice; and that Thou wouldst bring us on-
ward and ujjward, step by step, shining brighter
and brighter unto the perfect day.

Lord Jesus, Thou wilt not forsake one word Thou
hast ever uttered. Tliou wilt not betray one single
hope or expectation in our hearts which Thou hast
ever suggested ; and all which Thou hast promised
Thou wilt not only do, but exceeding abundantly
more. Thou wilt outrun our most fruitful con-
ceptions ; Thou wilt be more gentle than our heart
has felt in its most raptured moments ; Thou wilt
be more patient than our utmost conceptions of
patience ; Thou wilt be more full of love and good-
ness than our loftiest aspirations.

We rejoice that there is in Thee such infinite
goodness, and such height, and length, and
breadth, and depth of mercy.

Still, we are not willing to be sinful, or low, or
ignorant, or poor, because of Thy goodness ; though

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 807

we have a strange wonder of gladness that we are
weak, because it sets forth to us such glories in
Thee, thou nourishing God ! patient with us, as a
nurse is patient with her children !

Yea ! Thou hast thyself declared that the mother
shall forget her nursing child sooner than Thou wilt
forget those whom Thou dost love. Wo take the
promise that is in Thy declarations and we set it
against the -darkness of time and trouble, and
weighing down of heart v/ith sadness, and we lift
ourselves by this divine help above them all.
When we stand under the darkest cloud, we see
the bow of promise, and we know that God will
not sufier thS soul that loves him to be over-
whelmed by any deluge.

And now may we have these bright days more
frequently, so that their shining may cast a twi-
light into the dark days that intervene. As they
that watch in the night shall behold the glow-
ing light of morning reaching up the hillsides,
mounting the highest cliiFs, and coming down into
the valleys beyond, so may est thou who watchest
for us, see that the light of hope and the glory of
God is more and more perfectly enwrapping our
whole experience. For it is Thy work, blessed
Saviour ; we are being fashioned by Thy hand, and
for thy sake, as well as for our own. Thou art yet
to present us spotless before the throne of Thy

308 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Father, and lieaven is to resound with acclamations
for our sake, and for Thy sake.

Thou, Lord Jesus! thou who art mighty over all'
things, and with whom we are fellow-heirs, we
rejoice that in all the things that we ask for our-
selves there is also thine own interest, and thine
own glory and joy enwrapped !

ISTow, we beseech of Thee that Thou wilt speak
peaceably unto every heart in Thy presence this
morning, according to our various necessity. If
there be those here that do not know their own
trouble, but only know that they are troubled —
Thou Icnowest^ and thou canst enter in, and make
the darkest chamber of their heart serene with
light and peace. We beseech of Thee that thou
wilt sustain those who are bearing the pressure of
affliction. Thou thyself didst bear affliction for
them. Thou wert acquuinted with grief. And
may they look up, while their tears flow, into the
face of Him who wept, who lived, who suffered,
who died for them and for their consolation.

Grant Thy blessings to those who are suffering
the bafflings and trials of poverty. Lord, are they
poorer than thou wert, who hadst not where to lay
ihy head ? Yet, so far as is consistent with their
good, alleviate their trouble ; raise them up friends
and comforts of life.

Bless all those that are tried in their worldly

LIVING WOEDS FEOM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 309

•

affairs ; who, whatever way they turn, find fears
prevailing. Will the Lord be gracious unto them
that they may not think their life consisteth in tlie
abundance of the things which they possess. May
they feel that the things of this life and all the
troubles that harass it pass quickly away; and may
they also feel that they are not in any wise ruined,
or overturned. May they lay np their treasures
where no misfortunes may ever assail. May they
believe in Him who is rich beyond all bankruptcy.
We beseech of thee that thou wilt be very near to
all that are in doubt of mind, and are perplexed in
their thoughts and belief of things religious. Do
Thou teach them the greatest of all truth — how to
love God^ and how to difi'use that love upon men.
And may they, at last, find encouragement in this,
that Thou art their God.

We beseech of Thee, that to all those who are in
the trust of this life's prosperities, who are sur-
rounded with friends and comforts, and who have
been blessed abundantly. Thou wilt grant humil-
ity, that they may not become proud, nor hard
and unfeeling towards those who are less successful
and skillful than they ; and by so much as they are
above them, may they see to it not only that they
use their goods, but also their hearts and minds for
the benefit of their fellow-men.

Be near to strangers in our midst, whose hearts

310 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

yearn for those wlio have been wont to worship
with them. Will the Lord bring them by faith
very near. And as they meet at the foot of the
cross, may they consciously be united to all who
love the Lord Jesus, and whom they love.

Diffuse the blessings of the Gospel over all the
earth. May slavery cease; may war cease; may
intemperance cease; may justice reign, and love upon
justice ; and may the whole earth be filled with the
glory of God ! "We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.

Our language is singularly wanting in terms of
endearment. It is, in this respect, far behind every
other modern tongue. AYe have "dear," and its di-
minutive, "darling;" but when we seek to give ex-
pression to our affection, we soon are made sensible
of the extent to which we are straitened.

Listen to the mother talking to her little child:
how she is obliged to coin words that shall be ex-
pressive of the fervor and rapture of her love. "We
must needs be dumb when our feeling rises beyond
what "dear" and "darling" will express. We have
no word that is equivalent to that which the Apos-
tle Paul uses in saying to his Galatian Church what
we have translated merely " my little children."

We should hardly expect ^ find Paul, of whom
wc think as of one grave, dignified, and perhaps of
manner somewhat austere, employing terms of ex-

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 311

treme endearment, and this to grown-up men and
women. But such is the fact; and he enjoins ujjon
the Christian brotherhood an affectionatencss, a ten-
derness of loving and of expression that the churches
of the present time know nothing of, and about which
they have hardly any conscience. This is all wrong.
It must all be changed before Christ's reign can be
on earth as in heaven.

Men must learn to love each other. Eespect is not
the word, nor good-will, nor esteem, nor like. They
must love^ and be neither afraid nor ashamed to mani-
fest it.

Christians are, like sweet-scented flowers, of two
kinds. One kind, as the violet, are ever giving of
their life to all around, pouring their exquisite breath
generously, unceasingly forth, whether there are any
to inhale it or not. The others are inodorous unless
shaken or pinched, and then they are delicious.

Many Christians are good when you get at them,
but they need pinchinrj.

I HAVE received and accepted an invitation to
preach, on the coming Sabbath, to the church of
Theodore Parker, who is now \ymg very low, if still
living, in the city of Florence.

It is hardly possible to find a man with whose ro-
ll f^ous sculluionls and theories mine are more widely

312 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

and radically at variance. There is scarcely a point
of theological union between us.

There are two respects in which he has interested
me. One is his stand as an anti-slavery man, the
other because he w^as punished for using his-^ight of
free speech. Few things wdth me come nearer to a
personal affront than any infringement of this funda-
mental right. Besides these two, I do not know that
Mr. Parker and I have any points of sympathy ; yet,
for some cause, about every two months I am in-
vited to supply his pulpit. Now I am going. For
the misjudging remarks that will be made I do not
care one cent. My business is to preach the Gospel
of Jesus Christ, and when the way is open shall I
not preach it there ? Mr. Parker's whole aspect and
position toward Christ revolts me. I can not read
his expressions wdth regard to the Saviour without
pain. He treats him as a being to hQ patronized \ and
his manner is toward him as toward one that he
would slap on the shoulder and call "a good fellow."
I have read in his printed sermons things that were
so conrse it was difficult to believe that any gentle-
man could utter them. And his published sermons
are not so bad as he preaches. There is nothing in
Tom Paine that is worse than Theodoro^ Parker's
language respecting Christ. But I am going to his
people, not in the spirit of one who says, ^^Noiu you
shall have the bones of sound theology, if you never

l^IVING AVORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 313

had tliem before." But I desire to present Christ to
them in all his loveliness and beauty, so that there
may be at least some souls among them who shall
see him as he is. I hope you will all pray for me
and for them.

If I could never feel ready to die till I felt good
enough, I should never feel ready. I am very sure
that if any sensation of approximate perfectness is
the requisite preparation for death, that I shall never
be prepared ; for the better I desire to be, and the
higher my reach after a worthy and Christlike char-
acter, the more clearly I see how deplorably imjDer-
fect I am. It is not when I "feel good" that I want
to depart — far from it. I never long to go so much
as when I am consciously wicked. The sense of
what it must be to be unrooted from sin — to be set
perfectly free from all biasing, prejudicing, and baf-
fling influences — is never so strong in my mind as
then; and I long to die as much as ever a man in
Southern bondage longed for freedom.

No man has any right to conduct his business in
such a way that his sudden death would bring bur-
dens and losses on other people. There may be
cases where a man really cannot help entangle-
ments, or when, from inexperience or lack of judg-
ment, he has brought his affairs into such a state that

O

314 LIVING WORDS FROjM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

upon bis life the interests of others depend ; but he
should make all possible haste to extricate himself
from such a position.

nonesty and honor demand no less. In every
transaction of life it is a man's duty to be influenced
by the fact that on any day or any hour he may
die.

Parents often say, " "Were it not for my children
I could gladly depart ; but I desire to see them far-
ther on their way. They need my care." Our best
feelings take on a little vanity. We feel our care
and love to be very important to God in the rearing
of our families. We take care of our children — that
is to say, God takes care of them and of us ; and we
are often a very great hinderance to him in the very
matter that we think he could hardly manage alone.
We need not be troubled about dying on account of
our children, for orphans are, as a class, luonderfulhj
protected and advanced in life. Not that many do
not fall by the way, but the promises to the father-
less are performed in a manner that is amazing.

A child could bind no name upon his brow that
would open to him so many hearts as that one word
" orphan." A motherless girl in a village has a
mother in every mother there ; and a fatherless boy
has the hearty good-will and good wishes of every
father that knows him. Don't be afraid that the

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 315

Lord cannot take care of your children without help
from you.

AVhen you are in the midst of trouble — when you
feel almost discouraged, and as if you could bear no
more, take comfort and courage from this thought :
"By-and-by this will all be ended, for I shall die."

How distinctly do present days and years stand
out to our thought! But when we look backward
over those that are past, they seem folded together,
and their events have gone from sight, save here and
there a memory which, like Teneriffe to the mari-
ner, stands in the horizon. As we recede from our
youth, the high-topped years sink down and disap-
pear ; only the persons and things that we have loved
remain.

Whatever has been taken hold on bj the love of
the heart can never be forgotten.

Life is to a great extent a reiteration. Year re-
peats year.

Any such longing for heaven as makes this life
distasteful, and its duties dull and uninteresting, is
wrong. Such yearning is carrying the matter too
far. Our place is not uncertain, one that must be
hastened for or lost; it waits for us. "There re-

316 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

maineth a rest for the people of God." We are in
this world as heirs who from sixteen to twenty-one
are held in poverty and hardship, but who, on com-
ing of age, are to inherit a splendid propert}^ The
lads say, cheerfully, " It don't matter; what if it is
disagreeable being under masters, and enduring va-
rious hardships now? 'tis but for a few years' pov-
erty now ; but when w^e are of age we shall be
rich enough, and have our liberty." In this way
should Christians think of and desire heaven, being
willing patiently to work out and to wait out their
time.

The events of days and years do not pass from
being because they seem to roll away from our mem-
ory. Like a panorama, our life is passing from our
sight ; but it only goes behind the scenes. Kothing
is ever obliterated, and in eternity it will again pass
before us, and we shall look upon all our days and
years when we stand in the presence of our Judge.
What we paint now upon passing time can never be
retouched nor altered ; for Life is not as oil-painting,
which the artist can change or improve ; it is fresco-
painting, whose colors, laid upon the fresh walls of
the days, strike in, and are at once set undterably
and for eternity. Beware what you paint.

" That all men might honor the Son even as they

LIVING AVORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 817

honor the Father." If any one here is afraid to wor-
ship Christ as God, here is a text for him. If, when
I appear in judgment, I see lightning in the eye of
God because I have rendered to another that which
belonged to him alone, I will take this passage, and,
holding it up before me, it shall open as a screen,
many-leaved and ample, to spread between me and
the wrath of God. It will prove a shield which can-
not be pierced.

I WAS not fortunate with Mr. Spurgeon. I don't
like to have clergymen who come to hear me preach
come up after service and talk to me, and I thought
I would be very considerate and do as I would be
done by when I went to hear Mr. Spurgeon. But
he did not understand it. He saw me in the house
and expected to have me come to him, and my not
doing so was construed as a slight. It was in vain
that in a note I explained and tried to set the matter
right. I failed.

What was still farther unfortunate. Brother H ,

the Baptist (who is said to resemble me, and to whom

I said more than once, "Brother H , you will be

the ruin of me, going about and acting as you do"),
being in the office of a religious paper, compared
rather unfavorably with mine the preaching of Mr.
Spurgeon.

In the next issue of that paper was an article to

318 LIVING AVORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

the effect that H.W. Beecher, supposing himself un-
known, had in that of&ce commended himself, to the
disparagement of the Eev. Mr. Spurgeon. This I
did not see or know of nntil some time after, while I
w^as on the Continent. As soon as \Ye returned to

London, Brother H visited the office of the

, and said to the editor, "Who do you suppose

me to be?"

" Mr. Beecher," was the repl}' .

"Well, I am not; I am Mr. II , a Baptist cler-
gyman, and now will you correct that false statement
of yours?"

Of course this was promised ; but the correction
wfis short, made in fine print, and placed in an incon-
spicuous corner of the paper. It is not likely Mr.
Spurgeon ever saw it. I w^as very sorry for the
misunderstanding. I liked him very much, even
better than I had expected, and think him a strong,
good man, and that he is doing a good w^ork w^ell.

Every man has need to pray every day, "Lead ns
not into temptation, and deliver us from evil." An
ignorant man placed in the laboratory of a chemist,
and amid a hundred pungent and subtle poisons,
there to prepare his bread, and cook his meat, and
season all his food, w^ould not be in such danger as
we are from the untried and unknown powers and
passions within us.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 319

As much as education and habit has to do with
our good conduct, circumstances have more to do
with it. No man can afford to be taken out of bis
circumstances, and no man has a right to say to any
deHnquent, " tried as you were tried, I should have
stood firmer than you." You might not break in
the same place where I should break, but you can-
not be sure that you would not fall quite as low
through some other cause. A man may go twenty-
five years unhating, unrevengeful ; he may go thus
till fifty years old, and say, " I thank God that he has
kept me sweet-minded and untemjDted by those evil
passions ; I think that hatred and revenge are not
among the number of my sins." Right; they are
not. You have never been assailed with any consid-
erable force at the gates behind which they crouch
and slumber; you have been pricked on the skin,
perhaps ; you have been struck at through your
property ; but you cared little for that ; such things
could not materially ruffle your good-will towards
men. But at fifty-five you are smitten, tlLVOucjli your
daughter ; noio you see lohat there is in you. All bell
is not hotter than your heart, and the right hand of
murder is not so red with blood as is the hatred and
revenge within your eyes. !Men's hearts, before they
are proved, are like menageries where arc lions and
tigers, full fed and sleepy, lying calmly down, with-
out roaring or ferocity ; but they are lions and tigers

320 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Still, and liuiager and opportunity will prove their
nature.

A Farmer digging over his frozen fields turns
up a twisted knot of something that looks like tree-
roots. Hb soon sees that it is a bunch of snakes.
He touches them with his foot ; there is no motion,
not a single hiss. He takes them in his hand ; they
do not offer him the least harm. What then ? It
is January. The man, inspired by a sudden taste
for natural history, takes them to his house, saying
as he goes, there has been a vast deal of nonsense
written about rattlesnakes. They are a perfectly
harmless creature. He la3^s them on the floor in a
warm room, goes about some other business, and for-
gets them. By-and-by the influence of the fire is
felt, and the twisted heap uncoils. The long snakes
stretch out and bask in the warmth ; they lift their
heads and look about. Now they glide away, one
under the bed, one under the table. They are scat-
tered all about the room, alive, active, venomous as
death. All at once the man bethinks him of his
acquisition ; he looks for his bunch ; it has disap-
peared. But a rattlesnake is hissing in this corner,
and another in that; and now let child, or "niaid, or
man dare venture to approach them and they strike
death to the vitals.

Inoffensive as frozen snakes seem men's passions

LIVING AVORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 321

■until the heat of temptation inflames them, and then
they hiss and sting to death body and soul. One
act may ruin the good character of three quarters of
a lifetime, as one insane or drunken smouch of the
brush dipped in ink would destroy the most valua-
ble painting, the work of many years.

N6 man knows hoiu many ways there are by
which temptation can reach and overcome him. By
what he is when he is calm and untried in his weak-
est points, he can form no judgment of what he
would become under stress of temptation. Of what
abominable actions have men been guilty under the
demoniac influence of anger, who were fair and hon-
orable men in their sober hours. To their own as-
tonishment and shame, and to that of all their friends,
they have made the discovery that there was in their
nature the malignity of the pit.

This capability and liability of evil in ourselves
ought to make us pitiful and tender-hearted towards
all evil-doers. Abhor evil, but never abhor a living
man. Grood men sin in this regard, and do not ex-
hibit the spirit of Christ. They abhor and despise
the sinner, and render their own goodness hard and
hateful in the eyes of the fallen.

Kemember that the good man is not so good as he
seems, nor the wicked man so wicked. God, look-
ing upon the Church in this relation, has 'often seen

02

322 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

cause to repeat, " Yerily, the publicans and harlots
go into the kingdom of God before you."

Christ's goodness attracted to him all the misera-
ble and outcast sinners ; how, then, can that good-
ness which repels be of him ?

There is not a man who has the power to stand
against temptation unless he lives as seenig Him who
is invisible. Many may be overthrown by tempta-
tions through benevolence, gratitude, and affection,
who could stand firmly against every other attack.
The longer a sensible man lives, and the more he
sees of human nature, the more fully he is convinced
that all his dependence is on God.

I am not bound to believe that I shall become a
burglar; I never expect to join the pirates on the
hio'h seas, nor to do such thino's as dishonest mer-
chants and religious editors'-^ do; but I feel a con-
sciousness that, if God held me not up, I should sure-
ly stumble and fall, and it matters not what a man
falls over when he is once down.

This fact of dependence on God is as pleasant to
me as it was, when a child, to nestle close to the bo-
som of my nurse or of my mother.

When a man tells me, "Now I have found it all
out" — a plan by which man can be independent,
can stand by his own strength, and take care of him-

* At this time Mr. Beecher probably did not "expect" to be-
como a "religious editor."

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 323

self, I feel as if he had taken me from the "warm
sunshine in which I delight, into his parlor, where
the windows had shutters outside and blinds within,
and one rolling up shade and two hanging down
curtains, and where, if there were ten suns, not one
of them could get in ; and there I must shiver in the
darkness, or take what consolation I can get from
artificial light.

I AM willing that a man's preaching should roll
like bands of music, and that his serried bands of
arguments should march like lancers, provided the
music and the marching be but the secondary ob-
jects. The primary object of all preaching at cdl
times should be to save men's souls. There are
many ministers who say, when Sunday comes, "What
under the sun shall I preach about ?" and their peo-
ple, when they go home, say, " What under the sun
did he preach about?"

A man's conscience is not built like the hull of
some ships. They are made in several separate, wa-
ter-tight compartments, and the ship will float very
well although several of these compartments are
stove. A man is an open hull from stem to stern.
Stave in his week-day conscience, and he is stove all
the way through. A mere Sunday conscience will
keep nothing afloat.

324 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

The young make a capital mistake when they
think that hajDpiness is to be started in life where
their rich parents are. The salvation of youth is that
it is poor. Thus it is obliged to toil, and to exercise
the hardy and manly virtues.

The poor young man, marrying, feels ashamed to
take the girl who has always been used to luxury
home to bare boards and two rooms. But if she
don't love him well enough willingly to begin life
with him as far back as he is obliged by his means
to go, she don't love him well enough to marry him.
If she is a woman of the royal sort, she will cheer
him in his poverty by hopes of the better years to
come ; but she will utterly refuse to let him go a step
beyond his means for her sake. No man is fit to be
rich till he has been baptized in poverty. When a
young pair have struggled along for a few years, just
able, by the closest economy and by all manner of
careful management, to subsist, they will know how
to use money when it comes easier. But they will
never know happier days than those in which, side
by side, they studied out ways and means for making
their earnings and their wants agree. I have plenty
now; but I well remember that when my wife and
I arrived at the place where was the first church
over which I was pastor, the whole amount of my
worldly funds was eighteen and three quarter cents.
And for ten years it vms a tussle with poverty; but

LIVING AVORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 'S25

I beat, and I can bear witness that it was a pleasant
fight. I have never known, and I never shall know,
in this world another ten years so happy as that ten.

The more difficult it is to do your duty, the more
sweet and acceptable is the offering by that, in doing
it, you make to God. The harebells that grow pro-
fusely on the ground are not half so beautiful or de-
sirable as the one solitary harebell that grows from
a rift in the rock a hundred feet above the earth.
"When the juices of our duties are our very hearts'
blood, they make the flowers that God loves best to
see.

Every promise that you make to your fellow-man
goes up and swears before God ; and it matters not
what the character of him to whom you bound your-
self, you have no right to break your word, or to for-
get your honor with him. His wickedness towards
you, let it be what it may, will never justify you in
refusing to be as good as your promise.

There ^ire men who are always waiting for great
opportunities to act heroically. Be heroic in the in-
cidental and little duties of life. There is not one
of us that has not passed doors enough for heroic ac-
tion to have made ourselves renowned in heaven.

326 LIVING WORDS FR0:M PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Noble mental states, wliether they have any form
of action or not, and whether they are in obscure
spheres or not, are truly heroic.

OxE great reason why we find it so hard to be
Christians is that our Christian graces are in such a
low state. If zeal or love were regnant, how easy it
would be to subdue sins. My friends, sins are like
hairs, and our zeal is often like a dull razor, and it is
very hard to accomplish anything with a dull razor.

The child of fortune, cultured, exquisite in taste
and sensitive in every moral feeling, sits alone — at
three and four o'clock in the morning alone. At
last the longed-for sound, now hated, of the footsteps
of him for whom she waits, comes to her ear. He
comes, rude, and red, and round, into the room ; and
she, with every feeling harrowed, with every taste
offended, w^ith her whole nature outraged, revolts.
Yet it was the first love, it was the only love, it was
the husband of her youth, it was hers ; and she tries
to forget her revolting, her shrinking, and to meet
him, to quiet him, to lead him to his disgraced bed,
to kneel while he snores in his drunken sleep, and,
amid tears, and prayers, and heart-breaking, and an-
guish, like an angel of God to him, to implore mercy
for him. And not her own mother knows it. With
her own life she is hiding his deformity.

LIVING WORDS FROxM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 327

JSTow do you tell me there is heroism like that on
battle-fields or in council chambers ?

How dreadful the battle is that one must ficrht
against poverty, especially if he has to go down in
life and change his circle in society ! and, hardest of
all, change it to the damage of his children ! If they
were grown up he would not care ; but they are
growing up. The boys can take care of themselves ;
but that the girls should go out into life, and be
kicked round like foot-balls, is too much. Kow when
a man, out of the midst of poverty, and discourage-
ments, and humiliations, lifts himself up, and, with-
out losing faith in God, says to all the world, "I can
be poor and yet be a man," oh, crown him ! Such
men are the kings that walk your streets.

Be charitable and lenient to everybody in the
world but yourself

I HAVE seen persons with troubles and cares that
seemed like those that had fragments of glass in their
bosoms cutting them, and cutting more and more the
tighter they pressed them.

Some say they do not believe there is a devil that
tempts men to wickedness. They think it does not
consist with the goodness of God. But if there are

328 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

millions of devils in this world that try to prevent
men from doing right, is it inconsistent to suppose
that there may be one devil that tempts men to do
wickedly ?

Wherever Calvinism has prevailed there civil
liberty has prevailed.

No man has any right to wait for preaching, for
conversion, for revivals. Every man is bound to
take care of his own case, without waiting for any-

thing.

I SHOULD have no trouble, as far as my conscience
is concerned, in preaching to the slaves. I should
tell them that, if they chose to remain slaves, it was
their duty to obey their masters. The first duty of
every slave that has the power of his own tody is to
run away. For his encouragement and help in this
he has the whole Bible, which, like a stationary en-
gine, is pulling him towards the North Star. And
if a son of mine were to remain for one rolling
month in slavery without using all that he had of
life and strength to escape therefrom, I would write
against his name "Disowned." But if any man
chooses to be a slave, to him I would freely preach
"Servants, obey your masters," after having first
preached to the master "Render unto servants the

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 329

things that are just and equal" I say I should
have no trouble from my conscience about preaching
at the South, but I apprehend that there might be,
'after all, a difficulty about it. A man would have
about as good an opportunity to preach sitting at
the mouth of a cannon about to be discharged as I
should have to do it in the Slave States.

People keep saying to me, "Why do you preach
these things here at the North? Why don't you
go South and preach them?" Because I am in no
haste to be hanged, and there I am sure that my
ascension would not tarry. You may call it cow-
ardice, or what you please. Besides, I think I
preach to as many slaveholders here as I should
there, because I have slaveholders in this congrega-
tion that need me. Many of you know of the fail-
ure of your Southern debtors, and know, too, that
you did not lose much. Your agent sent word on,
" I can secure you by taking fifty able-bodied men."
And you wrote back, "Take them, and do the best
you can." And your agent, a bold, determined man,
and you, a mean sneak, went into the slave-market
and sold your fellow-men. You were both there —
you as much as he. You are a Northern slave-dealer.

I knew a good Methodist several years ago who
had a Christian slave. He couldn't exactly keep
him, and he <jouldn't exactly sell him. I have never
heard what he did do with his evangelical treasure.

330 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

I NEVER go out of my way to speak of slavery,
and I never go out of my way to get rid of speaking
of it.

There are men who, to get anything out of them,
must be drilled, and drilled, and then crammed with
motives like gunpowder, until at last, if they go off
at all, they nearly kill you with the rocks which, in
the explosion, they throw at you.

Strange, indeed, would be that experience a i^e-
flection of which could not be found in the Psalms
of David. There is not a feeling, nor a shade of feel-
ing, that has not there its full expression. No im-
provement can be made. The Psalms are the flow-
er-garden of the Bible, and some plant may be found
there for the healing of every wound which human
nature knows.

There are fords in every life. When the sum-
mer dries the river so that we can go over almost
dry shod, or even when short storms have caused the
water to rise knee high over the stepping-stones, we
can trust God without much trouble ; but until we
can trust him when the waters reach our waist — un-
til we require the jielp of the strong, sure-footed steed
to bear us over — yea, until the rushing waters boom
and foam high above our head so that we cannot

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPI'I'. 331

cross at all, we have not learned to trust him as we
need to trust. " Though he slay me, yet will I trust
in him," should be the lano^uaii'e of our souls.

A MAN cannot trust merely because he ought, nor
because he wishes to do so. He must understand
God's true character in order to confide in him.
There are towers so hard polished that even the fine-
fingered vine can find nothing by which to hold. It
tries to cling to the tower, and to grow upward tow-
ards heaven ; but every breath of wind, and even
the weight of the smallest bird, unroots and thrusts
it downward, and it grows twisted and involved upon
itself

It is in the power of the pulpit to present a view
of God so high, so polished and proper, so coldly
perfect, that the heart can find nothing by which to
hold, and life itself may pass in fruitless efforts to
trust and to love, reaching out and essaying to climb,
only to be perpetually thrust down and back by
every touch of disquiet and trouble. The soul must
be assured of sympathy, of personal regard from God,
its father, or it cannot trust him. And if there is
one thing that the whole Bible teaches with the ut-
most positiveness, it is that God is our father. Men
rob themselves of the comfort and benefit of this
truth b}^ saying that he is not, after all, just like hu-
man father and mother. He is ?io^ just like them;

332 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

but the want of likeness is not in his being less to us
than they are, but infinitely more and better than
they. This is the way Christ explains it : " Shall ye,'
«eing evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children," etc.

I CANXOT very well imagine a Christian with less
religion than I have. The most of my religion is
what God is always doing for me. There are days
in which, from morning until night, I am filled with
a grateful sense of the wonderful mercy and goodness
of God towards me, and then I understand how it
might be that I, too, could become one of that great
company which, with harp and song, in eternal rap-
ture praise the Lord.

JSTatubal dispositions and qualities are no excuse
for not doing our duty, though they have a great deal
to do with the amount of effort required to do it.

Grace gives no new natural qualities; it stimu-
lates what is right in us, and represses what is wrong.

The question of moral ability has for ages exer-
cised the minds of the Church. We knoW^ that, in
respect to single duties, we are able to perform each
one ; but, as to the whole round of life, it is the daily
experience of every Christian man that he is oioi able

LIVING WORDS FROxM PLYIMOUTH PULPIT. 333

to live up even to his own standard of duty. What !
says one, would God require us to do what is not in
our power ? Well, now, in playing a game at battle-
door and shuttlecock, I can keep two birds going;
but, in order to be perfect in the game as my mas-
ter is, I am required to keep eight birds constantly
in the air. I try earnestly, with all my strength, to
do so, but down they go in spite of me. I give np
in confusion and discouragement, and say, " It is im-
possible; I cannot do it." "What!" cries the mas-
ter, " do you pretend to say that you have not the
power to do as I do ? Have you not the same limbs,
and muscles, and sinews, and have you not as clear
sight and as much strength as I?" "Why, yes, I
suppose I have ; but then they are not j^et trained.
I see that in me is the power to become perfect in
this difficult game, but it will take long drilling and
practice to give me perfect control over my own
powers. I can do the thing, and yet I cannot do it
now. I can now hegin to do it. That is all."

But what is it to keep half a dozen birds flying
by one's slight of hand, to what it is to keep in per-
fect order the whole force of thirty wild and head-
strong faculties which every man has, and which are
all bent on having their own way ? We can, by the
grace of God, begin to do it now ; but I do not hesi-
tate to say that, through ignorance and weakness, it
is impossible for any man to fulfill perfectly the

834 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

whole law. That is why we have hourly need of
Christ. He must stand by every one of us, supple-
menting our imperfections, for imperfect we shall go
through life, and imperfect we shall enter heaven.
So long have I been accustomed to this thought that
I believe I would rather have it so. I think I would
rather, instead of walking into heaven by my own
merits, and saying " Here I am," have Christ carry
me in upon his breast, and say "Here he is."

It is not so much what there is in the object loved
as what there is in the lover that makes the quality
of the love. The large, generous, royal nature in-
vests the object of its affection with all noble and
beautiful traits, and then does homage to the being of
its own creation. By how much depth, and strength,
and richness the heart has is the fervor and faithful-
ness of its love. The pledge of love's faithfulness is
in the lover's own soul, not in any worthiness of the
object.

God is perfect in love and faithfulness because he
is perfect in goodness. The more man or woman is
like God, the more tenderly and truly will he or she
love.

The strong hearts of the world, not the weak ones,
are the hearts that have been bowed and broken by
unhappy love.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH i'LLlMT. o35

Men fight against the idea of depravity when they
are talking of religion and theology, but they all act
upon it when they go out to their business.

The body is so constituted that it rejects with the
utmost peremptoriness and decision many things that
are injurious to its health. There are things which
the stomach will not tolerate for a moment, but with
violence and indignant wrenching and repulsion it
casts them forth. So, too, the windpipe, if the least
particle of food enters it, with instant struggle and
throe it ejects the intruder. Thus promptly and ef-
fectually should the soul deal with evil. ISTot as a
woman, yielding, pushes with soft palm the flatterer
from her but to have him draw more near, but as
the warrior, finding on his tower a steel-clad foe,
seizes him, and, spurning him with foot and hand in
right deadly earnest, casts him from the battlements,
and sends him rattling through the air and crashing
to the earth, so should the soul treat every evil thing
that seeks admission to it.

Questions of divine Providence we cannot ex-
plain. If the New Testament teaches anything it
teaches this, that God does exercise a peculiar care
and oversight of the affairs of those that love him.

The misery and wickedness of the human race is
the hardest thinpr to reconcile with the love of God.

336 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

We cannot reconcile it. No man on earth can look
at the facts of the case and not be confounded. The
loss of one soul is enough ; but when you remember
that every year nearly thirty millions of people die ;
that of these, twenty-nine and a half millions do not
even bear the Christian name — if you are not made
of stone, it is enough to turn you to stone to contem-
plate it. "What do you do' with this truth?" you
ask. I do nothing with it. "But how do jovl man-
age it with your doctrines ?" I don't run away from
it, but I let it alone.

"But how do you answer people who come to you
with questions upon it?" I tell them to let go of it
when they have got enough of it. Still water always
breeds trouble and sickness, and if you tarry in the
still pool of reflection you will turn greener than any
frog-pond. When you are troubled with God's af-
fairs, go to work, and work so hard that you are too
tired to think. It may save you from infidelity.
If you are sinking under the trouble of the world,
hurry about some work for its relief; run out to
some poor suffering family, and, helping them, jj-our
stream will clear itself A loaf of bread in a basket
on the way to a poor man's house is the best cure for
such questioning and distressed contemplation. Mat-
ters which we are not able to understand we must
let alone, if we would have peace. Our duty does not
require us to understand God's mysteries, but to trust

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 337

ill him, and do all tlie good we can to those nearest
us, for soon the night cometh when no man can work.

No bird of the air and no bee among the flowers
was ever happier than I in my childhood, so long as
I could keep my mind from all thoughts of religion ;
but just as soon as I began to reflect on that I was
most unhappy.

There are hymns which now sing to me of lonely
evenings when I used to sit on my father's door-step
after the family had gone to meeting. The door
looked towards a pond where was a whole choir of
untiring singers, and there I would sit, the songs of
the frogs and the crickets, and the solemn tick, tick,
tick of the tall old clock in my ears, and I would
sing those hymns and cry, and cry and sing, scarce
knowing what ailed me, but concluding, on the whole,
that I was very miserable. Then I would creep away
up stairs to bed, to the great room with the white
moonlight lying on the floor, so that there I dared
not sing, and would cover my head with the bed-
clothes and go to sleep. These hymns are to me
like a transcript of my unformed, fantastic, imagina-
tive childhood.

Vesuvius and Etna represent human life — surging
up in fire, running down in lava and desolation. This
has been life's history since the beginning.

P

338 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

Would any sane man go all the sowing season
sowing Scotch thistles in his fields, and then look for
a harvest of grain ? The man that sows to his faults
and to his vices is sowing Scotch thistles run mad.

How fast the years fly ! Eighteen hundred sixty-
one chased out eighteen hundred sixty. How fast
then eighteen hundred sixty-two ran down its pre-
decessor ! and now the belted racer, eighteen hund-
red sixty-three, is out ; and, almost before we know
it, if I live, I shall be standing in this accustomed
place rehearsing the lessons of the old year.

Man is a being that, under all the disguises of hu-
man life, is carrying the lineaments and likeness of
his Father; and Christ's teachings are that, in the
future, under more favorable circumstances, he shall
expand and develop till his powers shall bear no
more resemblance to what they are in this imperfect
life than the morning-glory, the fairest and shapeliest
almost of all twining flowers, which, when covered
with blossoms from top to bottom, and wet with the
morning dew", fills you with surprise as the light
glances through it, bears to the little round black
seed from which it is unrolled. Man here' is a little
black seed compared with that blossoming vine, dew-
wet and sun-glorified, which shall flourish in the
world to come.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 839

Methinks that some men wlio bend and sweat,
laboring for otliers, are God's princes, and are to
stand at the portals of heaven, and unloose the bars,
and swing back the flashing gates to those who are
in station their superiors, and perhaps their masters
on the earth.

Think of every human creature as a being of im-
mortality, a child of God, and you will never dare to

wrong one.

Men who have no foundations on moral convic-
tion are like leaves in the road. They are blown
hither and thither by the wind ; under this fence to-
day, and over that fence to-morrow, and are never to
be trusted.

Eegard to old age effaces all distinctions of con-
dition. An old man, though a pauper, is sacred. A
woman with silver locks, no matter if all her life
long her hand has grown hard in service, is vener-
able ; and I should be sorry to carry a heart that did
not instinctively honor and respect such an one.

One slave in a nation is like one dead rat in a cis-
tern.

Cut a wasp in two and his head will creep off;

840 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

but that is of no account, it will never do any harm.
But put your finger at the other end if you dare !

You may cut slavery in two with the sword, but it '
will still have a venomous sting, with which it can
inject the body politic with poison. There is one
way to kill a wasp, and that is to smash him. Be
not satisfied to sever slavery with the sword — grind
it to powder.

The right development of veneration is so much
neglected in American families that persons brought
up in this country are known the world over. "When
I stood in one of the old cathedrals of Europe, and
the janitor addressed me, he addressed me as an
American. "How did you know that I was an
American ?" I asked. He was a little put to it at
first ; but, after a while, he said there was a peculiar
way in which Americans carried themselves that
amounted, as he described it, to a seeming disregard
of everything in heaven and on earth, and a deport-
ment which implied that there was nothing to fear or
to respect anywhere. I was not aware of it in my
own carriage ; but I began to see, in this respect, the
contrast between myself and those whom I met. I
perceived a sort of reserve and respect to usages and
things in foreign-bred men that I had not.

I HOLD that a man owes whatever gifts of under-

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 341

standing and genius God has conferred on him to
the community to which he belongs ; that, in propor-
tion as God has made them eminent, he makes him
a minister of them to others. There is no selfish-
ness that is so accursed as the selfishness of genius.

I HAD rather have written one of Charles Wes-
ley's hymns than to have built the proudest monu-
ment in Egj^pt, or to have produced the noblest stat-
ue that the world ever saw. Though Wesley, and
Watts, and Doddridge have died, their sweet and
almost ubiquitous voice never will die. All the
sounds will have died out of the sea before their
hymns will cease their carols and their singings.
Where there is a weary heart the hymn will sing;
where there is a sorrow the hymn will chant on;
where there is an aspiring soul it will be winged up-
ward by these hymns.

If a book is laid so that a chapter or a page is
open before you in the morning, and you read it
while you are dressing, it will not be very much;
but, in the long run, it will amount to considerable.
Our mothers used to read and knit ; I don't know
why you cannot read and button. A page every
morning is seven pages at the end of the week.
You individualize what you read by scraps. What
I read by the hour I forget by the hour, but things

342 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

that I read by scraps are apt to fix themselves in
my memory.

Never was a boy more ignorant of money mat-
ters than was I when I went to college. I had the
sacred hunger of books on me ; and I distinctly rec-
ollect asking my father if he would not make an
estimate of what my necessary expenses would be,
and then give me that amount, that I might contrive
to pay all my college bills, and, if possible, save a
little to buy books with. "Pooh! pooh!" said he;
" I know how it will be. You will spend all your
money for books, and then come on me for more to
pay your expenses with." So that project was dis-
missed, and my bills were paid, and paid liberally,
by my father, and I had no little surplus. But
books I must have, and, possessing some gift of
talking, even so early as my college life, that was
of service to me, in a few instances, in obtaining
them. I was sent as a delegate to a temperance
convention at Pelham ; my expenses were paid. I
walked all the way there and back, and saved my
money. I recollect going to Brattleboro' to lecture
on temperance, and getting, I think, ten dollars for
it. I walked all the way there, and nearly all the
way back, and saved my money. I saved the mon-
ey sent me to go home to Boston with, and walked
there, spending a little for food and lodging. All

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 343

this money I spent in books; and, before my col-
lege course was finished, I had Paradise Lost, and
Burke's "Works, and many other valuable books —
about fifty choice volumes. They were my pride
and glory — the apple of my eye. I had earned ev-
ery one of them by the hardest kind of labor. I
think I shall .never read any other books as I used
to read those. I used to look at them, and pat them
as a mother does the cheek of her child. I felt that
I had given, if not my blood, my sweat for every one
of them.

There is not a young man that cannot earn books
— that cannot cheat his clothes and cheat the day to
buy books. And the education of getting the book
will sometimes be as good as the book itself.

One reason why many persons appear less lovely
after they are converted than before is that they
have got new clothes on. A man with new clothes
on cannot help thinking of himself all the time, and
he is ill at ease.

When I was in Grhent I called on the King of
Belgium. I would not borrow a court suit ; but I
t did consent to get a white vest, some white gloves,
and a stiff hat. When I got myself arranged for
going to court I procured a splendid carriage and
started. All the boys in the streets looked at me,
and I felt very much like a fool. As I came to the

344 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYxMOUTH PULPIT.

king's residence, I thought the soldiers knew that I
was dressed up for the first time in my life in such
things. I did not know what to say to the servi-
tors at the foot of the stairs, nor the servitors at the
top of the stairs ; but I made my way along some-
how, and they conducted me through the hall, and
whisked me at once before the king. He is th^
Mentor, the adviser of European monarchs. If you
were to see him ordinarily clad, you would think
him a plain American citizen ; but he was dressed,
from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet,
in all sorts of beautiful things and ornaments. He
walked towards me in a very stately manner, his
sword rattling on the ground at his side, and I
walked towards him the best way I could. He
bowed, and I bowed. We talked together, and I
called him " Sir" all the way through, and said
many things I should not have said.

I wanted to observe court forms, but the very de-
sire to do so rendered it imjjossible. I saw that he
knew my trouble, for he smiled benignantly, and
seemed to have a fatherly consideration for me.
Finally, in leaving the room, I ought to have backed
out. I did go backward for one or two steps, but
then turned, and whisked through the door face fore-
most.

It may seem amusing to think of my blunders and
awkwardness before an earthly prince ; but I do not

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 345

doubt that the angels laugh to see men walk before
the Lord in unaccustomed thino^s, and assumine:
strange postures, as heartily as you laugh at this lit-
tle narrative. If we expect to have beauty in our
holiness, it must be not a Sunday dress, but a dress
for every day and every hour in the week. The
only clothes that look better the more one wears
them are the clothes that God gives the soul.

We are proud of our Saxon blood, but, I think,
drunkenness is a part of that blood. It may have
many good qualities, but that has been the historic
vice of the national stock. And in all questions
which relate to the use of wine, and such things, we
must remember that there is a stock tendency in us
towards excess in drinking. In our nation this is
stronger than in others because we are more excita-
ble, and love excitement. Our work, our institutions,
our very atmosphere gives us stimulus ; we crave
other stimulus. English and French men drink be-
cause they love their drink ; our men bolt their
brandy, and rinse their mouths with water. What
they drink for is excitement. They want flame ;
they are putting on steam. Drinking with us is so
dangerous ; it has the presumption of going to excess
because we belono; to the nation that we do.

Many men may be able to use tobacco with com-

P2

346 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

parative safety ; but we are a nervous people, and,
as a matter of fact, with us smoking is apt to lead to
tliirst and drinking. The cup and the cigar are well
acquainted with each other.. The use of tobacco al-
ways tends to weaken the nerve force and the brain
force, and in thousands of cases there can be no ques-
tion that it squanders life by leakage right from the
centre. And who knows that he is not the one in
five that will be prematurely destroyed ? Were there
one single reason for this habit there might be some
excuse for it, but it is utterly without reason. In
the first place, you must make superhuman exertions
to persuade yourself to touch tobacco. It would
seem that God, when he made that weed, said, " I in-
voke all spirits of nausea and nastiness to stand round
about and defend it from every touch." It is repug-
nant to every human feeling; the whole nature re-
volts from it ; not a single element of health does it
give you, and the pleasure that is derived from its
use is, in the main, illusive pleasure. Such is its ef-
fect as a poison upon many constitutions that the
struggle of breaking away from it is next only to
that of breaking away from the cup. If you chew
and smoke your misery is double ; and if you do but
one, do not try to cure yourself by doing the other,
for you will end by doing hotli. On the grounds of
simple common sense, I ask, is it worth while to en-
tail upon yourselves unnecessary expense for the

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 347

sake of a habit that incommodes others, that will
probably have a bad influence upon your health, and
that will possibly injure your morals?

The habit, unfortunately, is no distinction ; to re-
frain from smoking will make you rather remarkable.

In London, in Schoolbrad's great store, the young
men have their rooms under the roof where they do
their work. I visited their rooms ; they were clean,
airy, and pleasant. Each had a little locker, with
books and other things, which rendered them home-
like and pleasant. There was also a dining-hall in
the same building, and a kitchen, and- a laundry. I
saw the kind-hearted matron that plays mother to
these hundreds of young men. She nurses them
when sick, she advises them, she watches over them.
They have also a lecture-room and a library of well-
selected books. They are accustomed to invite trav-
ellers and gentlemen of science and learning to speak
to them. I went into their drill-room, for they have
military instruction. Fire-arms and all things that
are needed are furnished by the establishment. Do
you suppose that these are worse young men because
so much pains is taken to enhance their comfort and
elevate their position ? Do you suppose they are less
valuable as clerks ? Do you suppose they study less
the interest of their employer ?

348 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

"What are the promises given for, if not to cling
to amid present gloom and distress ? Every one has
faith when things go to suit him, when he can see he
trusts ; but when all goes wrong — that is, against his
plans and wishes — he loses faith. Faith is present
when not needed, but absent when needed. A sick
man, rising in the night to get some medicine, misses
his matches. lie can make no light, so can't find his
medicine, and only stumbles over the furniture about
the room. ' But, when the sun rises, he sees his
matches, and about noon he says, "Now I'll make
amends for last night's darkness ; now I'll have light."
So he lights his candle. But it was when the sun
was the other side of the world that he needed the
candle, and not when it was at its midday splendor.
So do men use their faith. Out in the country, in
my little inclosures for them, my hens walk about as
far as they can ; but when their feet can go no fur-
ther, they never nse their wings to overcome the ob-
stacle. My doves, too, walk along the paths upon
the earth ; but when they meet with any hindrance
to their progress, they spread their wings and soar
aloft, and wheel in glorious circles through the path-
loss sky, which is all path. So should it be with
Christians. Let them walk by sight where that
avails, then spread the wings of faith, and soar be-
yond all darkness, all unbelief, into those purer skies
where light is, and perpetual peace.

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 349

The Christian should not carry a heavy heart nor
a cheerless face. If a man cannot help looking som-
bre, solemn, and severe, he may not be to blame,
but he should struggle against it. A Christian may
be behind such a face, but the /ace is not Christian.

Oh, if I had a voice that could speak conviction
to the young, I would cry out over every village,
and over every farm, " Abide at home, and seek not
the unequal encounter of city life. Let the leaves
still hush you to sleep as they hushed your fathers
to sleep; let the sun shine upon your brown skin
that shone upon your fathers' skin. Seek intelli-
gence, and knowledge, and usefulness, and seek them
where you are. Let the city, if it needs you, come
and find you. Dispel the illusion, and its glory, and
its power, and the lying hopes with which it beguiles
you." Blessed are they that, being born in the coun-
try, know enough to stay there !

The mind is not a unit, moving with its whole
force in any one direction ; it is rather a confederacy
of thirty or forty faculties, each one working in its
own time and way, but no one of them continuously,
for all our feelings move with inconstant force.

Like those small insects which render night lumin-
ous, and which, after a yard of darkness, make one
flash of light, our fliculties are ever intermitting their

350 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

action — a long line of inactivity, and then a flash of
feeling. What men call perpetual sorrow is alter-
nate sorrow and forgetfulness. It is so with joy, and
hope, and love. We are incapdbh of more than fitful
strength in any direction.

The life of different people is in different things.
The scholar or the business man may, at seasons,
turn aside to domestic and social enjoyments, but his
meat and his drink are not there. He is never so
powerfully and sensibly living as when in his own
congenial field of action. Some persons live most
intensely in their affections. If there be not light
and cheer there, all within them is darkness. If
they be not loved — if they be forbidden to love,
though they be placed never so high, though they
be loaded with all the wealth, and honors, and pleas-
ures of this world, they walk sepulchral and see no
joy. They are void and helpless. They fall down,
and seem like persons dying of starvation. They
are starved. Give them but love^ and it matters not
what outward gloom overshadows them, they be-
come like glorious palaces, from all whose windows
flash lights like glancing day.

On this solemn and joyful day* we again lift to
the breeze our fathers' flag, now again the banner of

* April 14, 18G5. [The next five paragraphs are from the Fort
Sumter Oration.]

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 351

the United States, with the fervent prayer that God
would crown it with honor, protect it from treason,
and send it down to our children with all the bless-
ings of civilization, liberty, and religion. Terrible
in battle, may it be beneficent in peace. Happily,
no bird or beast of prey has been inscribed upon it.
The stars that redeem the night from darkness, and
the beams of red light that beautify the morning,
have been united upon its folds. As long as the
sun endures, or the stars, may it wave over a nation
neither enslaved nor enslaving. . . . Hail to the flag
of our fathers, and our flag ! Glory to the banner
that has gone through four years black with tem-
pests of war ! And glory be to God, who, above all
hosts and banners, hath ordained victory, and shall
ordain peace ! . . . Eeverently, piously, in hopeful
patriotism, we spread this banner on the sky as of
old the bow was planted on the cloud, and, with sol-
emn fervor, beseech God to look upon it, and make
it the memorial of an everlasting covenant, and de-
cree that never again in this fair land shall a deluge
of blood prevail. There is scarcely a man born in
the South who has lifted his hand against this ban-
ner but had a father who would have died for it. Is
memory dead? Is there no historic pride? Has a
fatal fary struck blindness or hate into eyes that
used to look kindly towards each other — that read
the same Bible — that hung over the historic pages

352 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

of our national glory — that studied the same Consti-
tution ? Let this uplifting bring back all of the past
that was good, but leave in darkness all that was
bad. In the name of God we lift up our banner,
and dedicate it to peace, union, and liberty, now and
forevermore. Amen.

I CHARGE the whole guilt of this war upon the
ambitious, educated, plotting political leaders of the
South. They have shed this ocean of blood. They
have desolated the South. They have poured pov-
erty through all her towns and cities. They have
bewildered the imaginations of the people with phan-
tasms, and led them to believe that they were fight-
ing for their homes and liberty, when their homes
were unthreatened and their liberty in no jeopardy.

The habit of industry among free men prepares
them to meet the exhaustion of war with increase
of productiveness commensurate with the need that
exists. Their habits of skill enable them at once to
supply such armies as only freedom can muster with
arms and munitions such as only free industry can
create. Free society is terrible in war, and after-
wards repairs the mischiefs of war with celferity al-
most as great as that with which the ocean heals the
seams gashed in it by the keels of plowing ships.

Free society is fruitfal of mihtary genius. It

LIVING WORDS FROM I'LYMOUTII PULPIT. 353

comes wlien called ; wlien no longer needed it falls
back, as waves do to the level of the common sea,
that no wave may be greater than the undivided
water. With proof of strength so great, yet in its
infancy, we stand up among the nations of the world,
asking no privileges, asserting no rights, but quietly
assuming our place, and determined to be second to
none in the race of civilization and religion.

We are not seeking our own aggrandizement by
impoverishing the South. Its prosperity is an indis-
pensable element of our own. We have shown, by
all that we have suffered in war, how great is our
estimate of the Southern States of this Union, and*
we will measure that estimate now, in peace, by
still greater exertions for their rebuilding.

• From this pulpit of broken stone* we speak forth
our earnest greeting to all our land. We offer to
the President of these United States our solemn
congratulations that God has sustained his life and
health under the unparalleled burdens and sufferings
of four bloody years, and permitted him to behold
this auspicious consummation of that national unity
for which he has waited with so much patience and
fortitude, and for which he has labored with such
disinterested wisdom.

* Sumter, April 14, 18G5.

354 LIVING AVORDS FROM TLYMOUTH PULPIT.

There is no historic figure more noble than that
of the Jewish lawgiver. After so many thousand
years the figure of Moses is not diminished, but
stands up against the background of early days dis-
tinct and individual as if he had lived but yester-
day. There is scarcely another event in history
more touching than his death. The last stage was
reached. Jordan only lay between them and the
promised land. The promised land ! Oh, what
yearnings had heaved his heart for the divinely
promised place ! He had dreamed of it by night,
and nursed it by day. It was holy and endeared
as God's favored spot. It was to be the cradle of
an illustrious history. All his long, laborious, and
now weary life, he had aimed at this, as the consum-
mation of every desire, the reward of every toil and
pain. Theii came the word of God to him, "Thou
mayest not go over. Get thee up into the mount-
ain, look upon it, and die. . . ."

Again a great leader of the people has passed
through toil, sorrow, battle, and war, and come near
to the promised land of peace, into which he might
not pass over. Who shall recount our martyr's suf-
ferings for this people? Since the November of
1860 his horizon has been black with storms. By
day and by night he trod a way of danger and
darkness. On his shoulders rested a government
dearer to liim than his own life. At its integrity

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYiAIOUTII PULPIT. 35o

millions of men were striking at home. Upon this
government foreign eyes lowered. It stood like a
lone island in a sea full of storms, and every tide
and wave seemed eager to devour it. Upon thou-
sands of hearts great sorrows and anxieties have
rested, but not on one such, and in such measure, as
upon that simple, truthful, noble soul, our faithful
and sainted Lincoln. Never rising to the enthusi-
asm of more impassioned natures in hours of hope,
and never sinking with the mercurial in hours of
defeat to the depths of despondency, he held on with
unmovable patience and fortitude, putting caution
against hope, that it might not be premature, and
hope against caution, that it might not yield to
dread and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly through
four black and dreadful purgatorial years, wherein
God was cleansing the sin of this people as by fire.
At last the watcher beheld the grey dawn for the
country. The mountains began to give forth their
forms out of the darkness, and the East came rush-
ing towards us with arms full of joy for all our sor-
rows. Then it was for him to be glad exceeding-
ly that had sorrowed immeasurably. Peace could
bring to no other heart such joy, such rest, such
honor, such trust, such gratitude. But he looked
upon it as Moses looked upon the promised land.
Then the wail of a nation proclaimed that he had
gone from among us. . . . Never did two such orbs

356 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

of experience meet in one hemisphere as the joj and
the sorrow of the same week in this land. The joy
was as sudden as if no man had expected it, and as
entrancing as if it had fallen from heaven. It rose
over sobriety, and swept business from its moorings,
and ran down through the land an irresistible course.
Men embraced each other in brotherhood that were
strangers in the flesh ; they sang ; they prayed.
That peace was sure ; that government was firmer
than ever ; that the land was cleansed of plague j
that the ages were oi^ening to our footsteps, and we
were to begin a march of blessings ; that the dear
fatherland, nothing lost, much gained, was to rise up
ill unexampled honor among the nations of the
earth — these thoughts kindled up such a surge of
joy as no words may describe.

In one hour joy lay without a pulse, without a
gleam or breath; A sorrow came that swept through
the land as huge storms sweep through the forest
and field, rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling
the flowers, daunting every singer in thicket and
forest, and pouring blackness and darkness across
the land and up the mountains. Did ever so many
hearts in so brief a time touch two such boundless
feelings? It was the uttermost of joy; it was the
uttermost of sorrow, noon and midnight, without a
space between.

The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 357

terrible that at first it stunned sensibility. Men
wandered in the streets as if groping after some im-
pending dread or undeveloped sorrow, or after some
one to tell them what ailed them. There was a pit-
eous helplessness. Strong men bowed down and
wept. Other and common griefs belonged to some
one in chief; this belonged to all. Every virtuous
household in the land felt as if its first-born were
gone. Men walked for days as if a corpse lay un-
buried in their dwellings. There was nothin^c else
to think of, they could speak of nothing but that;
and yet of that they could speak only falteringly.
All business was laid aside. Pleasure forgot to
smile. The city for nearly a week ceased to roar.
The great leviathan lay down and was still. . . .
Rear to his name monuments; found charitable in-
stitutions, and write his name above their lintels ;
but no monument will ever equal the universal,
spontaneous, and sublime sorrow that in a moment
swept down lines and parties, and covered up ani-
mosities, and in an hour brought a divided people
into unity of grief and indivisible fellowship of
anguish.

The voice of our brother's blood cried to us from
the ground, but we did not hear the cry ; but now
the father's blood cries to us, and that we hear.

358 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

As a miniature gives all the form and features of
its subject, so, epitomized in tliis foul act, we find the
whole nature and disposition of slavery. . . . We
needed not that he should put it on paper that he be-
lieved in slavery, who, with treason, with murder,
with cruelty infernal, hovered around that majestic
man to destroy his life. He was himself but the long
sting with which slavery struck at liberty, and he
carried the poison that belonged to slavery. As long
as this nation lasts, it will never be forgotten that we
had one martyr President !

In a council held in the city of Charleston, just
preceding the attack on Fort Sumter, two commis-
sioners were appointed to go to Washington, one on
the part of the army from Fort Sumter, and one on
the part of the Confederates. The lieutenant that
was to go for us said it seemed to him it would be
of little use for him to go, as his opinion was immov-
ably fixed in favor of maintaining the government,
in whose service he was. Then Governor Pickens
took him aside, detaining for an hour and a half the
railroad train that was to convey them on their er-
rand. He said, distinctly and repeatedly, that the
South- had never been avenged, and that altpretenses
of grievance in the matter of tariffs, or anything else,
were invalid. "But," said he, "we must carry the
people with us, and we allege these things, as all

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT. 3o9

statesmen do many tilings that tliey do not believe,
because tliey are the only instruments by which the
people can be managed." He declared that it was
foreordained that ISTorthern and Southern men must
keep apart on account of differences in ideas and poli-
cies, and that all the pretense of the South about
wrongs suffered were but pretenses, as they very well
knew. This is testimony given by one of the lead-
ers in the rebellion, and which will probably be
given, ere long, under hand and seal, to the public.
. . . The blow has signally failed; the cause is not
stricken, it is strengthened. The nation has dis-
solved, but in tears only. It stands four-square, more
solid to-day than any pyramid in Egypt. This peo-
ple are neither wasted, nor daunted, nor disordered.
How naturally and easily were the ranks closed!
Another stepped forward in the hour that the one
fell, to take his place and his mantle ; and I avow
my belief that he will be found a true man to every
instinct of liberty ; true to the whole trust that is re-
posed in him. . . . Where could the head of govern-
ment in any monarchy be smitten down by the hand
of an assassin, and the funds not quiver nor fall one
half of one per cent. ? Our funds stand as the granite
ribs in our mountains. . . . He who now sleeps has,
by this event, been clothed with new influence, . . .
Now his simple and weighty words will be gathered
with those of Washington. . . . I swear you on the

360 LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT.

altar of his memory to be more faithful to the coun-
try for which he died. ... I swear you, by the mem-
ory of this martyr, to hate slavery with an unappeas-
able hate. . . . You I can comfort; but how can I
speak to that twilight million to whom his name was
as the name of an angel of God ? When in hovel
and in cot, in wood and in wilderness, in the field
throughout the South, the dusky children, who looked
upon him as that Moses whom God sent before them
to lead them out of the land of bondage, learn that
he has fallen, who shall comfort them? O Shep-
herd of Israel, that didst comfort thy people of old,
to thy care we commit the helpless, the long-wronged,
and grieved. And now the martyr is moving in tri-
umphal march mightier than when alive. The na-
tion rises up at every stage of his coming ; cities and
states are his pall-bearers, and the cannon beats the
hours with solemn progress. . . . Disenthralled of
flesh, and risen to the unobstructed sphere where
passion never comes, he begins his illimitable work.
Pass on, thou that hast overcome, pass on. Four
years ago, O Illinois ! we took from your midst an
untried man ; wc return him to you a mighty con-
qu^or. 'Not thine now, but the nation's ; not ours,
but the world's. Give him place, oh ye princes ! In
the midst of this great continent his dust shall rest, a
sacred treasure to mj^riads who shall pilgrim to that
fihrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Ye

LIVING WORDS FROM PLYMOUTH I'LLIMT. 361

winds, that move over the mighty plains of the West,
chant his requiem ! Ye people, behold a martyr
whose blood, as so many articulate words, pleads for
fidelity, for law, for liberty.

All that I have said I repeat. I would not shed
blood — I would not shed blood ; but upon the guilty
originators and leaders of this rebellion let the rec-
ompense of trial, condemnation, confiscation, and ex-
patriation come.

Q

INDEX.

• »•

A

rAQ£

A Sketch of Henry Ward Beecher i

A Christian hke bread 266

Acorns and young ministers 61

Actions based on feelings 46

A fool's part 187

A general question 228

A grave for trouble 287

A great contrast 106

Ahab and Naboth 262

All Christians should be preachers 284

All men writing books 51

All truths not to be spoken in one age 99

A man better than a king 176

A man of war 229

Answered prayers 224

Anxiety for friends 147

Applying the knife 192

A prophecy of the future 155

Aristocracy destructive to piety 273

A singing church 148

A sound life the best theology 276

Asps and butterflies 35

Assurance of faith 256

364 INDEX.

B

PAGB

BhIiti in nature for sick hearts lOU

Battlefields of the world 63

Bear your weight on God 40.

Best way to teach truth 277

Be sure of the path 260

Betraying Christ to rhetoric 181

Be true to virtue, honesty, and piety 266

Boys in the limbo of vanity 42

Blue sky in Wall street 250

Bright days and dark ones 276

Brown, Brothers & Co 189

O

Galvinism the safeguard of freedom 83

Camping on the edges of sin 105

Carrion natures 39

Casting one's care on Christ 26

Change of motive and purpose instantaneous 291

Christian graces not in the Bible 283

Christians not required to give up the pleasures of this life ... 77

Christians must learn to bear prosperity 92

Christianity should rule in politics 226

Christianity too shallow in churches 73

Christ and the woman of Samaria 71

Christ pardons before rebuking 30

Christ spoke most to the poor ... 71

Christ the foundation of Christianity 180

Christ the standard of perfection 239

Christ to have all 26

Climbing hills 285

Come up hither 148

Commentators 170

Common things dearest to Christ 73

Conscience rotting 45

Creation's centre jewel .^ 186

D

Dark lighthouses 114

Deacon's oflice 183

INDEX. 3G5

PAOR

Dead '^,70

Death God's call 274

Declaring God's whole counsel 52

Descendants of the Jewish bigots 278

Difference between a Christian and a worldling 220

Discontent 60

Doctrines 177

Doing evil by proxy 207

Don't expect other people's experiences 222

Don't fret 56

Duty of rejoicing 157

Dyspepsia of books 41

E

Earnestness confounded wath solemnity 280

Easy working better than much working 172

Election and reprobation .... 238

Emasculating religion 203

Encouragement to young Christians 280

Escapeless gaze of the Almighty 235

Equal evidence of design for pain as for pleasure in this world 151

Extremes meet in a common blunder ... 198

Excitements in religion right and desirable. 214

F
Faces 162

Fall of bad men final 113

Falsehood in love 271

Fiddles, men not 1 54

Fighting faults 1 54

Figure of the wheat 64

First love not best. . . 41

Flies of humanity 160

Flower stores of Paris 145

Frozen ship and the Spirit of God. ... 103

G

Giving one's self for another 210

God willing to give good gifts 2?

366 INDEX.

PA08

God, honor towards 29

God feels our conduct 30

God works by means 198

God the servant of man 230

God's glory his goodness. 219 and 234

God's hatred of slavery 85

Godship of Christ 26

Good advice 195

Good and bad women 261

Gospel, two views of the 25

Grace must be burnt in 172

Grace, nature blossomed out 166

Graces growing ripe 168

Gradual growth of Christian character 212

Grain at the end of harvest ... 34

Greed and covetousuess 268

Greedy for w^ealth 83

H

Happiness not the end of life 159

Hatred man's strongest capacity 183

Hardness good for men 277

Head faith and heart faith different 274

Hell in the heart 235

Hell real and necessarv 104

Heroic women 188

Hidden troubles worst 233

Horror of death 194

Hours like sponges 104

How to think of heaven 64

How conviction sometimes comes 146

How to test the truth of Christianity 58

How men glory 244

How they should glory 244

How men arc prepared for usefulness 279

Human nature should shun dangerous passes '. 274

I

Impoverishing the soul for the sake of gain 238

In danger men call on God ^ . 168

Infidels are working for God 209

INDEX. 367

PACK

Infidels and fixed laws 20G

Influence on social intercourse of a belief in llie immortality

of man 41

Is conscience our punisher ? 252

J

Journals the devil's vanity trap 38

Journal of God 95

Judge not by appearances 237

Judging of Christians 60

L

Lecture room, the xxxix.

Life a concatenation 41

Lightning rods 234

Living in Gethsemane 45

Living altogether in the affections unsafe 51

Longing for life 156

Look out along the banks of life 154

Loving God in Christ — studying a picture 31

Loving men makes them ours 47

Love to God the only right motive of action 106

Love the only ground of perfect union 178

Love's labor — basket making 82

M

Make God to suit your need 206

Making a dead letter of the Bible 243

Man not required to umlHrstand God's mysteries 174

Mean conversions 269

Measuring by God 33

Meeting in heaven 217

Men not to be judged by Sunday conduct 250

Men must be more than indexes 73

Men too refined for God 51

Men of one idea 44

Ministers should mingle with the masses 76

Mirth the wine of life 222

Monday versus Sunday 112

Moralitv a short cable 17.7

368 INDEX.

PAGB

Morality compared to a ship 219

Most dangerous sins o7

Most expected from those who have most 291

Motives not always required to be unselfish 27

Mourning garments 47

N

Natural faculties blossomed 52

No creature so impotent as man 276

No defining classes of feelings 41

No happiness apart from God 36

No man can do another's work 79

No man can live unto himself 177

No quiet for the soul of man 273

No religion in the Bible 167

Not afraid of a laugh 270

Not good to see too much of men 99

O

One virtue 154

Only the hopeless may hope 236

Opposing ideas of Christianity 256

Oregon pines 66

Our actions aflect God's happiness .....*. 29

Our churches growing pure 228

Our faculties interpret God 283

Our hour of rest 230

Outward and occasional morality 85

P

Pain purifying 162

Passages from prayers 296

Paul's conversion 50

People not apt to confess besetting sins ^ 189

Perfect love S4

Persecuted, but not forsaken 1 GO

Phonographic report of a prayer 302

Pictures for eternity 213

Planting seeds by singing 148

INDEX. 369

PAOB

Poor and rich saints contrasted 94

Prayer 67

Praying into nothing 114

Praying tone . . 295

Praying too long 295

Preparation for prayer 296

Prodigahty of God 183

Pushing the rock the wrong way 110

R

Raphael's transfiguration 249

RcaUty of God's love 231

Reason like ». telescope 42

Reckoned with the children of God 225

Refined, yet unchristian 43

Reformation not religion 105

Rehgion, a need of the soul 37

Religion the bread of life 275

Religion the warp and woof of life 168

Religious and family affection compared 100

Religious controversies 277

Remarks respecting a new church 243

Rest on the promises 26

Revelations 35

Ridicule, men impervious to 30

Right between the right persons 233

Right doing should be involuntary 251

Right living more than abstaining from sin 115

Right sort of prayer-meeting 93 y

3

Security of trusting spirits 285

Self-will prevents conversion 107

Sentimental goodness 278

Scruplf^s of good men in regard to the indulgence of taste for

the fine arts 95

Short of provisions 113

Sight of a rifle 291

Sins like undermining worms 80

a 2

370 INDEX.

PAGB

Slaveholder's letter 165

Some doubts never settled ... • 40

Sorrows like clouds 53

Sowing seed on a windy day 227

Strength equal to your day. ... 163

Submissive in the aflfections, but rebellious in business affairs,

■when troubled 241

Suffering rightly borne 42

Summer smiting on the store-house of Autumn 255

Sweetest natures soonest soured 97

Taking up the cross 91

Tear ringing in heaven 28

Tears often telescopes 52

Test of a good institution 279

The church not God's only instrument 278

The devil's cloak 187

The family the most important institution 97

The grave a window into heaven 44

The law a battery Ill

The leaf in a whirlpool 57

The man of your counsel 282

The moral pirate 232

The preacher's a painful business 63

The prosperous voyage 218

The question in the air 165

The slave and the diamond 223

The sportsman 226

The theatre 157

The vanished years 191

Things that money cannot buy 2G1

Thin souls 113

Thoughts and reasonings of children — Satan catching wicked

boys — Andy Chandler, the old Negro servant, etc. ...... 199

Time a beleas;ueriunr army 274

Tormenting ont-'s self with the memory of repented sins 188

Truth cquilibriated 114

Truth that leaves false impressions 288

INDEX. 371

PAGH

Truths that take hold 277

Turning tlie helm 109

U

Uncurrent coin 248

Undermined towers 231

Unkind words like pins and needles 90

Unselfishness the surest way to happinef-a 46

V

Virtues of the moralist 71

Volcanic natures ii^

W

Waiting for conviction of sin 146

Warning against Plymouth Church 286

Water-logged bv fear US

Weak love 276

We shall know of the doctrine 242

We want to be converted 227

What is the testimony of your life V 262

What repentance is 253

Which crimes ruin most 40

Whittling out prayers 43

Who is wise 1 ' ^

Whose are the sheep ? 259

Who should pray 292

Why the world was made what it was 279

Wickedness worse in God than in man 222

Wisdom and modesty to be used in expressing even our right

opinions

Wolf-like sin 30

Woman's yearning for love • • ^2

Woman more godlike than man 46

Words are bubbles ^^^

Words of Christ ^ •

179

372 INDEX.

I

PAGE

Work out your own salvation 110

Worst spectacle of this country 204

y

Ye would take away my Lord llY

Z

Zigzagging to liea ven . . . . 25S

ADDED IN LATEST EDITION.

PA<IE

A reverence for age 33'J

Bearing the yoke in one's youth 324

Belief in the existence of a devil 327

Calvinism the friend of liberty 328

Childhood's associations 337

Christians that need pinchinji; 311

Clinging to sharp troubles 327

Comfort from the thought of dying 315

Conscience has no compartments 323

Costly sacrifices most precious 325

C rossing the fords 330

Duty borrows no excuses 332

Events not obliterated » 31 G

Feeling ready to die 313

Fullness of the Psalms 330

God's princes in disguise 339

Grace sharpens zeal 32G

Grace transforms, not creates. 332

Heroism in seclusion -^ 32fi

Honesty in business dealings 313

How to deal with evil 335

Immortals to be held in estimation 339

Life a i-eiteration 315

Life like a volcanic eruption 337

374 INDEX.

\ I'AGK

Loved ones never forgotten . 315

Love qualifies its objects 334

Man in his maturity 335

^lissed opportunities for heroism 325

INIoral ability to do right 333

Mr. Spurgeon 317

Mysteries of Providence insoluble 335

No dodging the question 330

None proof against temptation 318

No waiting for outside help 328

Object of preaching to save souls : .*..... 323

One slave carries the taint 339

Orphans 3U

Preaching for Theodore Parker 311

Preaching to slaves 328

Reaping what is sown 338

Religion all of God 332

Rule for judgment 327

Sacredness of a promise 325

The affectionateness of the Scriptures 310

The battle with poverty 327

The flight of time 338

The Son equal to the Father 316

Thought heroic as well as action 326

Troublesome and dangerous helpers 330

Unoxcited passions like frozen snakes 320

Unstable men like leaves in the wind 339

Wait patiently for heaven 315

What is necessary to trust 331

THE END.

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