happiness, such as he finds in the exercise of kindness towards his enemies, will be our rich reward.

What says the voice of nature on this subject? It appears to be aptly expressed in the following words :—" To love is to enjoy, to hate is to suffer. In hating, we punish ourselves, not the object of our hate. Self-interest, therefore, should be a sufficient motive to induce us to cultivate the amiable, and to suppress the vicious feelings of our nature."*

In relation to AVARICE the Scriptures declare that "The love of money is the root of all evil." The man who was rich in this world's goods, and said, I will pull down my barns and build greater, was denominated a fool.

But what are the practical effects of avarice upon body and mind? A quotation or two from the excellent work we have so often cited in this lecture, may cause all wonder to cease, that, the love of money should, in the Scriptures, be called the root of all evil. "In respect to the physical system, avarice lessens the healthful vigor of the heart, and reduces the energy of all the important functions of the economy. Under its noxious influence, the cheek turns pale, the skin becomes prematurely wrinkled, and the whole frame appears to contract, to meet, as it were, the littleness of its penurious soul.” "The extent to which this sordid passion has, in some instances reached, would appear almost incredible. An old writer tells of a miser, who, during a famine, sold a mouse for two hundred pence,. and starved with the money in his pocket." "Even the sudden and most appalling aspect of death will not always

*Mental Hygene, page 161..

banish this base sentiment from the heart. Thus, in cases of shipwreck, persons have so overloaded themselves with gold that they have sunk under its weight never to rise again. In excavating Pompeii, a skeleton was found with its bony fingers firmly clutched round a parcel of money. "When," says Dr. Brown, speaking of the miser, "when the relations, or other expectant heirs, gather around his couch, not to comfort, nor even to seem to comfort, but to await, in decent mimicry of solemn attendance, that moment which they rejoice to see approaching, the dying eye can still send a jealous glance to the coffer, near which it trembles to see, though it scarcely sees, so many human forms assembled, and that feeling of jealous agony, which follows, and outlasts the obscure vision of floating forms that are scarcely remembered, is at once the last misery and the last consciousness of life."* What more appropriate epithets could the Scriptures apply to a propensity so inordinate, than the "ROOT OF ALL EVIL.”

We will notice but one more inordinate passion, and that is, AMBITION. This passion is represented by the Bible as being forever restless and dissatisfied. "From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: Ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” Ambition can never be satisfied with success, promotion and honors, until, Haman

*Mental Hygene, pages 235 and 236.

like, its poor deluded victim has erected a gallows for his own execution.

Is this doctrine taught no where else, except in the Bible? Is not the sentiment often repeated, that "there is no satisfying the ambition of mortals?" "When Phyrrhus, king of Epirus, was making great preparations for his intended expedition into Italy, Cineas, the philosopher, took a favorable opportunity of addressing him thus: 'The Romans, sir, are reported to be a warlike and victorious people; but if God permit us to overcome them, what use shall we make of the victory?' 'Thou asketh,' said Phyrrhus, a thing that is self-evident. The Romans once conquered, no city will resist us; we shall then be masters of all Italy.' Cineas added, 'And having subdued Italy, what shall we do next?' Phyrrhus, not yet aware of his intentions, replied, 'Sicily next stretches out her arms to receive us.' 'That is very probable,' said Cineas, 'but will the possession of Sicily put an end to the war?' 'God grant us success in that,' answered Phyrrhus, ' and we shall make these only the forerunners of greater things, then Lybia and Carthage would soon be ours: and these things being completed, none of our enemies can offer any farther resistance.' 'Very true,' added Cineas, 'for then we can easily regain Macedon, and make an absolute conquest of Greece; and, when all these are in our possession, what shall we do then?' Phyrrhus, smiling, answered, Why, then, my dear friend, we will live at our ease, drink all day long, and amuse ourselves with cheerful conversation.' 'Well, sir,' said Cineas, and why may we not do all this now, and without the labor or hazard of an enterprise so laborious and uncertain?' Phyrrhus, however,

unwilling to take the advice of the philosopher, ardently engaged in these ambitious pursuits, and at last perished in them." Such is the nature and the end of ambition, as recorded on the pages of the Bible, and to which all human observation bears witness.*

We are now prepared to remark :

:

1. That we have seen in the course of our lecture that in many things the Bible teaches facts respecting the human mind which the mind teaches concerning itself. The facts enumerated are, that man has a mind distinct from the body-that the mind is the image of God-that the will is free or self-determining-that the powers of the soul are limited-the universal sinfulness of the racereligion addresses man's whole nature—religion is a source of happiness—and malevolence is the source of unhappiness.

2. We do not say that the human mind never contradicts these sentiments. It does often contradict them. But these judgments are given by men of all classes and characters, in their coolest and most rational moments, and with such frequency that they are regarded as the best judgments of the human soul. Unless for the presence of some selfish motive, strongly arrayed against these doctrines, they would, unquestionably, be universally approved by the consciences of men.

3. But these judgments of the mind afford a greater evidence to the truth of the Bible, than though the mind itself never contradicted its own sentiments. Did human minds always testify to the same sentiments, it would have been an easy

'Arvine's Moral and Religious Anecdotes, page 18.

men,

matter for men to have written those self-same sentiments in the Bible. But if the mass of men in all ages have frequently contradicted those sentiments, and if the best of in their dark hours, have often been known to swerve from them, we may justly ask, why does the Bible, having been written in different ages, and by different individuals, present us with none of the contradictions? Why are all its sentiments respecting the soul, those very sentiments which the soul gives, in its most unbiased moments, and which are found to accord with the universal consciousness of man? This is a question for the unbeliever to answer. We are aware that this method of argument to prove the truth of the Scriptures, has but little weight with some minds, but for ourself we confess that such responses of the soul, coming from its most sacred recesses, have a weight not inferior to the evidences derived from miracles or prophecy.