Live always as in the "great Taskmaster's eye"; and remember that every one of us must give an account of himself to GOD. Soon, this life, with all its inequalities, will be over. Death destroys all earthly distinctions; he is the great leveller of human society. All classes and conditions of men are equal in the grave. We are, moreover, hastening on to a state where the great distinctions will be, not rich and poor, high and low; but holy and unholy, saved and lost. Character, rather than condition, will be the great element of division between men in a future world. There will be difference of condition, no doubt; but it will all depend on individual character. "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for he shall eat the fruit of his doings. Woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.-Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." Behold," saith the Judge, "I come quickly; and my reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." LECTURE II. THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE. A "Now I know in part."-1 COR. xiii. 12. MONG the memorable death-bed sayings of great men, one of the most striking is that of GOETHE,— "Let the light enter." More light! this is what we need all through our life on earth. We plunge into mystery at the very outset. Our earliest questionings embrace the most profound subjects. ARCHER BUTLER says, in his History of Ancient Philosophy, that it is one of the paradoxes of the human mind, that amongst its earliest efforts it reaches its farthest limits,—that the geometry of a school boy is conversant with subjects which the geometry of LAPLACE cannot overpass,—and that, although the young mind has not indeed explored the immeasurable riches of the intervening country, it has, nevertheless, truly reached its boundaries. From the first, we are encompassed by mystery. The cloud of obscurity is over us. Every subject which presents itself to the mind contains unfathomed depths. There is mystery in the natural world. Who can tell how the unconscious roots and fibres of the vine or the wheat plant, select from the soil in which they grow, that, which ultimately produces the grape and the corn? Who can tell where the light is born? Or explain electricity? Or make clear the principle of life? "Not a living thing," says one, "grows out of the earth, or walks upon it, or flies above it; not an inanimate object exists, in heaven, earth, or sea, which is not filled and circled about with mystery, as truly as in the days of ADAM or JOB, and which is not really as much above the understanding of science as the deepest things of GOD's eternity, or of His secret life." Nature is full of unsolved problems. The greatest minds are baffled in almost every nook of her works. The most ordinary things are surrounded by impenetrable darkness. Man is a mystery to himself. Who knows how mind and matter unite in his own person? How the will produces movement in the muscles and members of his body? Who can explain all about pulsation and respiration? After science has done its best, mystery remains. NEWTON Compared himself to a child picking up pebbles and shells on the shore, while the boundless ocean of truth lay unexplored before him. "It is the little we know," said LAPLACE; "it is the great that remains unknown." Providence has its mysteries, that have perplexed men in all ages. They are interwoven with the very fabric of human life,-make a part of its very constitution. It is useless to say we will not heed them. We cannot help heeding them. Who can avoid asking why the intelligent and virtuous often die young, while fools and wicked men live long; why good men often suffer adversity, while evil men prosper. The existence of sin and suffering is a mystery. Mrs. BEECHER STOWE makes Aunt Chloe say, when Uncle Tom is sold down south, "De LORD lets drefful things happen sometimes." He does, and we cannot tell why. Why has He permitted the existence of evil? Why does He not destroy it? What are all the purposes it is to serve? These are questions to which we can give no answer. GOD has not taken us into His counsel. We see only parts of His ways. The wrong side of a carpet presents nothing but a confused mass of coarse threads. To judge of the fabric,-the beauty of its colours, the harmony and design, we must see the other side. So we must wait to see the whole, before we can judge the work of Providence. JOHN FOSTER says, that as to the grand system and series of GOD's government, we are like a man, who, confined in a dark room, observes through a chink of the wall, a large animal passing by; he sees but an extremely narrow strip of the object at once, and is utterly unable to form any idea of its size, proportions, or shape. We cannot always see where Providence starts from, or to what point He is working; but so far as we are able to follow the converging lines, they point to the spot where the Divine meaning shall one day be made known. GOD's written revelation has its mysteries. This is natural. We should doubt the genuineness of a book which pretended to be from the Infinite One, if there was nothing in it above our comprehension. The mysteries of the Bible are part of its credentials. Its definition of GOD is a mystery. Who can tell where He dwells, or what are the conditions of His being? Creation is a mystery. Redemption is a greater mystery still. The Christ of the Gospel,-"strong Son of God, immortal Love," is a mystery. The influence of the Spirit of GOD on men is a mystery. These and other truths of revelation are all too great for the grasp of man's intellect. The plumb-line of his reason is too short to fathom them. The future has its mysteries. Who knows what is before him in this life? Who can tell what shall be on the morrow? The astronomer can predict when this or that comet shall appear; but he cannot foretell the hour of his own death. "We can become familiar with a landscape; we know where to find the waterfall, and the shady ledge where the violets grow in spring, and the sassafras gives forth its odours; but we can never become familiar with our life landscape; we can never tell where we shall come upon the shady dell, or where the fountains will gush, and the birds sing. That is with GOD." What living man has explored the future beyond the grave! How many questions we ask concerning it! What is heaven, and where? What is the mode of existence there, or its employments? Do our departed friends interest themselves in our affairs? "Oh, CHRIST! that it were possible, For one short hour to see, The souls we loved, that they might tell LAZARUS, on his return, told his sisters nothing of his four days' absence; or, if he did, we have no record of his testimony. Impervious darkness enshrouds all. Of the future, as of the present, we know only in part. How are we to account for these mysteries? We may assign various reasons. Some things GOD purposely conceals. He could have made them plainer at first; he could make them plainer now; but He keeps us in the dark, for our good, and for His glory. It is useless to quarrel with Him on this account, or to endeavour forcibly to pry into the unknown. If we wait patiently, we shall in due time know all. "GOD's plans, like lilies pure and white, unfold; And then when we have learnt all, the things we cannot now understand, and over which we fume and fret, will fill us with rejoicing. The greatness of some subjects forbids our understanding them. Take the nature of GOD. GOD is a spirit; but who can tell what spirit is? Take the mode of GOD'S |