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If a man evolves a new science in society, and claims that it is better than anything that has preceded it, and it proves to be better, he is apt to turn and say, "Where are your priests now? Where are your churches? Where is your theology? Here is something that your religion never brought out." No, our religion never brought it out; but it belongs to our religion, notwithstanding; because Christianity means, not just so much as is in a book, not just so much as has been unfolded, but all possibilities. Whatever combinations can take place under better conditions, under nobler inspirations—all these belong to the idea of Christianity, according to the declaration of the apostle Paul in an almost parallel passage :

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Christianity is universal. It is illimitable. It is not simply what has been gained in the past; it is not simply the excogitations of the present; it is not simply that which belongs to the churches; it is inclusive of all that is to come. It is not a close corporation. It is not confined to Christian organizations. It is not confined to the narrow limits of human creeds. Books cannot contain it. It belongs to the great realm of ever-changing experience. It is a living state. Therefore it is to take in the ends of the earth, the fullness of time, and the grandeur of the race. It is not narrowed down to mere technicalities, or instrumentalities, or philosophies, or any of the arrangements which belong to the lower forms of spiritual development.

Consider, now, further, the view of the apostle.

"Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things [if you pursue this line, seeking after and attaining the amplitude and the combination of these qualities], ye shall never fall [neither now nor hereafter]; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."

That is a verse as bold as it very well can be in our translation, and as magnificent as poet can imagine in the original, where the verb which is translated an abundant entrance shall

be ministered unto you is a word derived from the practice of receiving conquerors by pouring out processions with banded. music from the cities, to meet them as they approach to enter in.

If you pursue this high perception of life in Jesus Christ, seeking for the divine nature in the respects which are enumerated here, and in other respects which are not here mentioned, it will not be in vain; for at death you shall not go out like a bubble. It shall not be in vain when you pass from this material realm, and approach the other life, if you have with patience and perseverance pursued these things. When you draw near to the other side, not having been barren nor unfruitful in these things, but having given energy and enthusiasm and power to this exalted sense of character, this conception of Christ in you the hope of glory, transforming reason, and moral sense, and the social affections, and over-ruling the lusts and appetites-if thus you have been abundant and fruitful, then, when you die, no matter what the circumstances of your death may be, you will die gloriously.

As from the weary war, with torn and tattered clothes the conqueror comes back bearing on his person and habiliments something of every soil which he has traversed; as worn and tanned and wrinkled, he marches out from some forest, and all the thoroughfare is thronged, and he sees banners flying in the distance, and hears sounds rising, and growing nearer and more distinct; as at length couriers rush forth to meet him, and the magistrates come out, and then his own friends and household and neighbors, and then all the chief citizens and dignitaries, and finally he is caught up in a whirl of enthusiasm, and swept in, while banners are waving, and bands are playing, and crowds are shouting; so, the apostle says they who give their souls to the exemplification of this conception of Christian manhood shall have ministered unto them an exceeding abundant entrance into the kingdom of God.

It will make a great deal of difference in heaven how you live here. If you live penuriously here, you may limp into. heaven like a pauper-and that will be a great deal better

than going to hell. You may escape so as by fire. As men 1ush out from a burning house, not able even to seize their raiment, or take any property with them, so some men may go out of this world unclad, and get into heaven. But if you live according to the spirit, the genius, the intent, of Christ and his apostles; if you have a sense of the grandeur and manliness which there is in a Christian life, and give force and enthusiasm to it, and fill it out; then when you come to the other life you shall have no doubtful, no single-handed, no mean entrance: you shall come in crowned with triumphs, and met and greeted by long processions of those who have known you, and those whom you have known; those who have helped you, and those whom you have helped; those who carried you in their arms, and those whom you have carried in your arms; those over whose graves you have wept. All that blessed company-those that have dwelt long in heaven, and those that have lately gone there; those of high estate; thrones, principalities, dominions, powers; those of every reverend and sacred name; prophets, apostles, and martyrs; all holy men; all men that loved their kind; all patriots, philanthropists, good men-shall joyously throng to behold the new comers, and you among them, crowned, not with gold, but with that which is better, royalty of heart; and then you shall enter in to be forever with the Lord, the strife at last being over, and the blossoming time having come.

I shall this week plant seeds that I shall not see blossom this summer. They must go over, and lie still through the winter. Next summer they will come to themselves, and blossom.

We are in this life biennials. The first summer we spend in this world, and the second in the other. And when we shall rise into that other life, and come to the fullness of ourselves, to the beauty and power and glory of holiness, to the transcendent wealth and amplitude of love, to the grandeur and dignity that lie in the possibilities of human nature-oh, then, with what triumph shall we look upon all the danger of the way! With what pity shall we smile at ourselves, to think at what things we cried, and what things we called burdens and self-denials!

A man takes down from the garret a cradle, and says to nimself, "In that you once lay;" and he laughs, and imagines himself crying because he is hungry, and being taken up by the nurse, and fed. He cannot realize that he was ever in a state of infancy, and that he has unfolded so much.

So, when, from the other life, in its power and glory, you look back to the conditions of this life, you will pity yourselves that you were ever in such a low estate; but the grandeur of the outcome will a thousand times repay you for all the strife and struggle that you have gone through.

I call you, young men and young women, to a Christian life. I call you not to join a church—a church is a mere school-house, whose educating influences may help you or not, according as you use it; but. I call you to something grander than joining a church: I call you to join God; to become partakers of the divine nature; to unite yourselves to all that is glorious in universal being. I call you to the utmost stretch of development, to largeness, to liberty, to strength, to all that is magnificent in the possible conception of manhood. I call you to take it easily if you can take it easily; or, I call you to take it with tears if you can take it only so. If the way is strait and narrow to you, nevertheless tread it it is worth your while. If it be difficult, nevertheless tread it, and come to that which is true, that which is pure, that which is courageous, full of faith, full of self-government, and full of joy, springing out of right living. I call you to an inward life. I call I call you to virtue. I call you to glory and immortality.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

THOU hast drawn near to us, our Father, and thou hast called us by endearing names that our heart knows right well; or else why should we desire thee and yearn for thee? When we lift cur thoughts and our affections to thee we know that thou hast teen calling us, and we rejoice to think that we are needed by theenot needed by thy power, not needed by thy glory, but needed by thy love. Having loved thine own, thou dost love them unto the end. Thou hast not forgotten, and never dost forget, those toward whom thou hast expended thy thoughts of mercy and grace. And now, O Lord our Saviour, we desire, looking upon thee, to discern what we should be. We would take no ignoble conception of life, and character, and duty. We desire to be conformed to thy glorious image. We desire to walk in the possession of those virtues which make thee illustrious in time, and glorious through eternity. Teach us the way of humility, of self-abasement, of self-denial, and of joy in suffering. Teach us how to partake of thy nature, and so become thy children, not by name, but in very spirit. Forgive us the long delays which have prevented the work of grace in our hearts; forgive our dullness, our constantly turning back, our discouragement and our weariness by the way. Forgive our imperfection, and whatever has grieved thee; and give not up the work which thou hast begun in us, and which shall be more glorious inasmuch as it is difficult. If thou shalt perfect in us the image of holiness and of God, and make us like unto thyself, and present us before the throne of thy Father, pure and spotless, how great shall be the glory of this achievement of thy grace! For thine own sake we beseech of thee forsake us not, nor give us over to doubt, or to backsliding, or to apostacy. May we have a faith that shall not fail, a virtue that shall abound more and more, and all patience, all self-denial, and self-government; and grant that we may be steadfast therein.

Grant, we beseech of thee, that by the power which we derive from thee of joy, of peace, of hope and of courage, we may not only make our own lives more radiant, but may make the lives of those around us more cheerful.

Since men are bearing heavy burdens, and are goaded with cares and many troubles from day to day, may it be ours to be messengers of peace to them. Teach us how to comfort; how to illumine; how to make men happy; how to fill the world around us with rejoicing. May we please, not ourselves, but others, for edification.

We pray, O Lord, that thou wilt grant that those who are engaged in good works, in labors among men in imitation of thee, may be strengthened with all patience and with all hopefulness. Wilt thou be pleased to grant, very speedily, to them that sow the seed, the sheaf garnered. We thank thee that there is so much encouragement to labor. We thank thee that there is between the asking and the answer so brief a space. We thank thee that those who go forth come again rejoicing so soon.

Bless all those who are engaged in making known the word of

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