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Therefore, my soul is greatly at ease now. I look at these men, with their magic-lanterns and lights, and hear them tell me, "This is the Tower of Babel, that was never finished; for the men were dispersed, and their language confounded;" but I am not troubled when the show is past. No, no; learn, learn this-when it is wise that a child. should pause before it kisses its mother, until a copy of its baptismal certificate is produced; when I cannot be hospitable to a man, until I know his pedigree; when I cannot take a stranger into my house, until I know who his fathers were; when righteousness depends upon legitimacy, and charity upon chronology; when food cannot be sweet in my mouth, if I know not whence it came-then you may be certain there is something wrong. These things are linked in life in these strange, arbitrary ways; but charity is eternal. Do you think I am going to faint to-day, because I do not understand Nebuchadnezzar? No; obliterate these records, and leave me to root my ethics in my nature; if need be, erase the whole, and my faith remains still; for it is not based upon these things.

Therefore, it becomes our duty to watch the troubled spirits who, because doubt has been cast

upon Nebuchadnezzar, ask, “What is to become of faith?" My humble task is to go round as showman-to point out the Tower of Babel, its brick and slime; the scraps of chronology, floating driftwood, "wood, hay, stubble," and the precious stones of God-the wood to be burned, the hay to rot, the stubble to be scorned; but the things of God to remain imperishable. "My son, hear the conclusion of the whole matter-Fear God, and keep His commandments." When the wood, the hay, and the stubble shall have passed away, there will be more chance for the earnest soul to see the eternal depths of the goodness, and righteousness, and mercy of God.

CHRISTIANITY A NECESSARY

DEVELOPMENT:

(LAW IN ALL THINGS).

Morning, June 18th, 1876.

"The gospel of God (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures).”—ROMANS i. 1, 2.

WE will let these words rest for awhile, because by-and-by we shall come to the principle which is unfolded in them. Now, as you well know, it takes a man a long time to get rid of the phrases of old beliefs, after the beliefs themselves are done with. This partly arises from carelessness in speech, and partly from the careless way in which people investigate subjects.

For instance, take your coroner's verdicts: "Died by the visitation of God." This is but a remnant of old times. To us (some of us, at least), it is

Paganism, and a survival of the unfittest. Once it was pious, but now it has become a mere phrase. If you are to die, you shut your eyes, as a wise man should, because the darkness is come, and it is time to sleep-if God visits you in your dying hour in quiet, ordinary fashion, and by His spirit sings to you the lullaby of eternity, that your weary eyes may find their coveted repose. That calls for no notice; but if it chance that by some strange touch of fever, or pestilence, you are called to die a death, sudden (yet not to be feared, though not to be desired), oh, then, that is "The visitation of God." As though the dear God were more likely to visit you in storm and pestilence than in the quiet twelfth hour! Once it went by chance and speciality, and it was thought that God rushed in upon occasions, and showed Himself to man.

A remnant of these old things may be seen, when, in the case of accident, one man gets killed, and another " escapes by the merciful interposition of providence." What absolute nonsense! If there is such a thing as the interposition of God, it is as likely to be shown to one man as to another. But does it not arise out of the large egotism of humanity to suppose that God should specially intervene in our behalf? And is it not the Theism

of true wisdom to be able to trust in the all-pervading love of that Father, who suffers not one sparrow to fall to the ground without His notice? Had He then forgotten that child of His that met his death by accident? Not He.

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When men get wise in God, they will understand that every creature is in that exact place, and in those exact circumstances, which for its eternal welfare it is necessary that it should be in. But it will take you a day or two to understand that To see that clearly and to feel it passionately-that is Theism, that is a belief in God.

So that phrase about the "Visitation of God" still lingers. I have no anger with those who once held it; but to us it has ceased to be expressive. The revelation of the Almighty (made to-day, you know), teaches me this-that there is nothing in this world that is fortuitous, that "chance" is but a relative expression, with regard to man's foreknowledge and man's ignorance; that the most exceptional thing that happens is as much and as necessarily under the government of law as the most usual thing. Until you see that, you are a baby, a dunce, a mere child in God. That which only happens once in a thousand years is as dependable as that which happens every day; for the

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