Blogotional

OK, I will admit that the char-acter we look at today, Adam War-lock is not really an "Omnipotent" at all. However, his legend is so tightly tied therewith that it seems appropriate to look at him in this series. Adam Warlock first sprang to my attention through following the exploits of The High Evolutionary, but he did have appearances, and definitely has legend that pre-dates such.

Adam Warlock is a space-fairing hero, and his legend is so messed up that I'll let you follow the links to dope it all out.

It is his appearance that I find so appealing. The orange/golden skin, the blond hair, the chest-bolt stolen straight from Captain Marvel - He just looks good. His first appearance under the name Adam Warlock was in "Marvel Premiere" comics and it featured a cover that looked very much like the first cover shown above. (I could not find an image of that cover, save too small to appreciate, and my copy is to fragile to dig out and scan.) That cover hooked me from the get-go.

Like the Silver Surfer (whose success I have to believe influenced the creation and look of this character) this guy just looks fantastic, particularly in space. His latest incarnation features a lot of blue in his costume and much less skin - a mistake in my mind, now he blends with space instead of stands out like a shining beacon on light in the dark vastness.

Adam Warlock stories are a bit dense and not always great, but who cares? Just read 'em and look at the pictures. It's worth it.

Andy Rowell, writing at Out of Ur, says what he likes about mainline and non-denominational churches. Apparently in an effort to always be positive, sometimes the things he remarks upon seem remarkably at odds. For example, about the mainlines he says:

Mainline churches have a greater appreciation for Christian history. The liturgies of the mainline churches reflect the thought and deliberation of several centuries of Christians. Many evangelical worship leaders say whatever springs to mind.

And about the non-denoms he says:

Nondenominational evangelical churches question traditions that no longer connect with most people.

But doesn't the "the thought and deliberation of several centuries of Christians" at some point rise to the level of near truth and therefore should not be really subject to the vagaries of modern taste?

My heart yearns to have it both ways, and yet I have never seen or heard of it being done.. The nondenoms do do outreach and newbies better, but then what? Programs designed to "go deep" usually flounder and fail, or have awful numbers. And the mainlines, when they work, which they often don't, do breed maturity, but don't exactly drawn them in like bees to honey. Efforts to "lighten up" tend to just kill the best thing about the church. What to do?

Well how about remember that the goal is not to program but to transform. The church does not do the ministry, the church members do. Imagine newcomers coming not because of advertiseing, but with someone, who escorts them through everything. Imagine someone that responds to the message not with strangers but with the friend that brought them.

Imagine growth, not exponential numbers growth, but geometric numbers growth, while accompanied by increasing depth, committment and faith on the part of those joining the community.

Ask yourself, Why did Christ train 12 apostles instead of set up a program?

Related Tags: church, growth, maturity, discipleship, evangelism

With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy!

Bonnie at Intellectuelle Quotes extensively from Tony Snow about his cancer. Snow concludes by quoting scripture (Job - Pslams?)

What is man that Thou art mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us, each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place—in the hollow of God's hand.

Do we really believe that? Earlier in the CT piece, Snow says:

Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

In the wake of my father's death that choice has been so evident to me, as the people surrounding dad have taken such different paths. Snow hits on very key points with this, "humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations..." Tragedy, whether the death of a beloved parent or diagnosis and treatment for life-threatening cancer, calls us to remember that God is in charge. We can fight to try and control our circumstances or we can choose to rest in the hollow.

If there is anything I have learned through the last couple of months, and I am certain there is much more to learn in the coming months, it is that if I am not content in the hollow of God's hand before the tragedy, I will not be content when it strikes.

Our faith is not something that we can hold at arms length until we need it. It is not a screwdriver to be kept in the drawer for the occassional repair. Our faith should at least be artisans tools - tools that require mastery and practice to make things right.

But God promises even more. You see when we have real mastery, We expend no effort to pick up the tools. They do the work and we just watch. Our faith becomes true rest.

When tragedy strikes in your life, and it will strike, if you are not already resting in the hollow of God's hand, you are gong to find it very hard to get there. But if you are there, all you really have to do is keep resting.

Related Tags: faiht, tragedy, Tony Snow, cancer, rest

Related Tags: Illuminated Scripture, Genesis, Noah

Rebecca summarizes a D.A. Carson sermon very well. She describes one of the common misunderstandings of the gospel that Carson presents this way:

The gospel is reduced to a narrow set of teachings about the death and resurrection of Christ, which rightly believed, tip people into the kingdom. After that, the real training and transformation, discipleship and maturity take place. This view is much narrower than the biblical view, in which the gospel is the embracing category which holds much of the bible together, encompassing lostness and condemnation, through reconciliation and conversion, through to the consummation and the resurrection.

Then, after presenting much else from Carson sermon, she adds some thoughts of here own:

Yet the gospel is not exclusively cognitive. Where the gospel triumphs, lives are transformed. The gospel works itself out in every aspect of a believer’s life. This is done not by attempting to abstract social principles from the gospel, nor by imposing new levels of rules, nor by focusing on the periphery in the vain effort to sound prophetic; but by preaching and teaching and living out the glorious gospel of our blessed Redeemer.

This raises and interesting question, can salvation and sanctification really be separated? Can the "narrow set of teachings" Carson refers to produce actual salvation apart from "the real trainng and tranformation" (sanctification) that follows? I realize fully the theological questions I have just raised and that there are volumes and volumes written on precisely that subject. But I am more interested in the ethical considerations here.

As I continue my work at Article VI Blog concerning the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, a Mormon, one of the more strident claims that arises about Mormons again and again is that "they lie." When asked for evidence of the charge, what is usually brought forward are teachings by the LDS that they should present a limited, restricted version of all that they believe in public and proselytizing circumstances, only letting people know what they are really all about once they are in the fold. Is that sounding familiar to anyone?

Carson is clearly accusing Evangelicals of essentially the same thing. Why is it "lying" when Mormons do it, but just good evangelistic technique when we do?

The bottom line is it is not "lying" - now that said, I do not think it is effective evangelism either, it builds the church without building the adherent. It is the evangelistic equivalent of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."

I decry this practice not because I think it is lying, but because I think when we present less than the full glory of God's good word, people are not really going to want what we have to sell. The Volkswagen and the Cadillac come at the same price, paid by Christ, no one wants the Volkswagen under such circumstances.

Back to ethics for just a moment. The Mormon faith is not our faith, and is therefore wrong. But in the battle for the souls of those around us, we cannot and will not win by accusing people of things they are not doing, especially when we are doing very much the same thing. There is an ethical problem there as well.

I seem to remember Jesus saying something about eyes, planks and specks. Look it up.

Related Tags: gospel, truth, lying, Mormon, Mitt Romney, ethics, sanctification, salvation

Perhaps I expect too much, perhaps it remains too raw, but I have yet to find the voice to really tell you about my father. But my blessed wife has put fingers to keyboard and begins to tell the tale:

John lost his father this last June, suddenly and in an abrupt fashion, due to injuries sustained in a car accident. Many, many years ago, long before I met John, I lost my father, over a period of two years, due to illness. We were able to process my dad’s departure in a far different fashion than the departure of John’s dad, Harry.

Harry’s sudden leaving caused us (mostly John) to have many, many tasks to carry out with rapidity. Harry was gone, but he left as though he walked out that morning to go get the paper and never came back, because in a way he had. So this has been the summer of amazing toil and grief.

When your loved one dies, my experience has been that over a period of time you work through your sadness, and after the greatest grief passes you are left with what mattered to you most about that person. If they were extremely close sometimes you really can’t separate the things they left inside you, that will always be a part of you. My dad was a self taught guitar player and sang moderately well, and to this day I hear certain guitar chords and song phrases and it’s as if he drifted into the room for a moment.

Harry was gone so suddenly. And we have many days and weeks ahead to experience our grief and ponder what were the important things that Harry left us. I think I started to get an inkling of this as I sat in my office at work. On a bulletin board I had pinned up a picture of the farmland in Minnesota. It was taken on a cold spring day. There is still snow on the ground and the sky is an icy blue. John and I made the trip and met John’s parents in Minnesota, Harry’s home state. During that trip I was able to get acquainted with people and places that were important to Harry and that John had visited as he grew up. I saw the home town, I met cousins, I saw John’s grandparents’ grave site. It was a get acquainted trip with the part of Minnesota Harry came from and held still very dear. As I sat in my office looking at the picture, the empty sky, the cold landscape our trip came flooding back and I could of course see Harry in my mind’s eye, so proud to show us around. He was especially proud of the school in his home town, the one that educated him when he was a kid, that same school that was specified for donations, upon his death. Minnesota will never be in my mind, without a thought of Harry. That’s just for openers.

So mourn we must. This is the summer of our mourning. And as that process takes place memories and bits will surface that seem the most important, treasured and dear. What did I, a Washingtonian know of Minnesota before I met John’s dad? And what I know of it now, will always be tinted with memories of Harry and our trip. I have a feeling that as time passes those bits that Harry left us will be more and more apparent. Hopefully as the pain of a very sudden parting with him fades, we will be able to relish them. I will look forward to those times when I will see a photograph or scene, hear some phrase or a memory will surface and cause me to remember my father-in-law and bring a smile. I know at that time he will seem to have drifted into the room, for just a minute.

Jollyblogger quotes Martin Lloyd-Jones extensively, of which I will excerpt:

I feel increasingly, that as we examine this truly, we shall see that the kind of problem facing us is altogether deeper and more desperate than that which has confronted the Christian Church for many a long century. For the problem for us is not apathy, it is not a mere lack of concern and lack of interest. It is something much more profound. It seems to me to be a complete unawareness, even a denial of the spiritual altogether. It is not just apathy, it is not that people really have at the back of their minds what is right and true, but are not doing anything about it. No, the whole notion of the spiritual has gone. The very belief in God has virtually gone. We need not at this point seek the causes of this, but the fact is that because of some supposed scientific knowledge, the average man today thinks that all his belief about God and religion and salvation, and all that belongs to the realm of the Church, is something that should be entirely dismissed and forgotten. He believes that it has been an incubus on human nature all through the centuries, that it has been something that has been preventing the development and the forward march of the human race, and that it should be got rid of. The modern man is impatient with it all. He dislikes it and he dismisses it in toto.

Now surely this is something which we should recognise. It is very difficult for us, because we are Christian people, and because we are interested in these things, to realise the mentality and the attitude of those who do not belong to the Christian church, but that I would suggest to you is what they are thinking. Not only that, the authority of the Bible is no longer recognised. In past times people did recognize the Bible to be the Word of God. They did not practise it or listen to it, but if you asked them what they thought of it, they would admit that, yes it was the good ol' book, God's book, and, yes, they felt that they were sinners. But that is no longer the case. It is regarded as an ordinary book to be treated like any other book. It is just literature, which is to be criticised, analyzed and subjected to our knowledge, historical, scientific and everything else, just a book amongst books. No longer is it acknowledged as the divine, inspired word of God.

David quotes this in the context of trying to "diagnose" problems with the world. My question is what is the cure?

If indeed, we are in an age when scripture no longer carries general authority, if indeed, we are in an age where religious institutions no longer carry authority, how is the gospel message to be authenticated? What is it that will make people find truth in our claims?

I submit to you there is only one way that truth can be established, and that is in the lives of those that carry and proclaim the message. If the church is just another institution that tries to feed it's own needs and weild earthly power, then it is in fact, just another institution and just another book.

If the preacher speaks boldly and well of the heart of the gopsel, but his actions speak to motives of greed and growth, then the message he proclaims becomes one more message amongst the many that is not for the hearer, but for the messenger.

But suppose the church were a place radically different from the world around it? Suppose the church looks first, no exclusively and sacrifically, to the genuine needs of its members. Would the gospel message not ring true?

Suppose the preacher loved rather than objectified his congregation. Would not the message of Christ's love then not be more real?

Suppose we let the gospel change us as we claim it can others? Would its truth not then be self-evident?

How can we expect the world to take the gospel seriously when we do not?

Let's start with us!

Related Tags: gospel, truth, reality, claims

Related Tags: cartoons, catblogging, Aggie, Flash

Adrian Warnock has asked me to link to this rather fascinating post of his on the "great baptism debate" that is being waged across the Godblogosphere.

Wish I could say more, but demands on my attention are simply to great to chime in on this at the moment.

Rusty Kelley, writing at CGO, discusses the confusion of culture and faith, using the movie Bruce Almighty for illustration purposes.

Most of us cannot see the presuppositions that we hold because they have been with us for so long that we take them for granted. Sometimes, it takes stepping back and questioning if the values we hold as “good” more closely model our culture rather than scripture. Perhaps it is worth watching our movies, reading our books, listening to our songs, and analyzing our thoughts with a critical mind to seek what message is truly being preached. Every spoken word has a basic belief behind it. The responsibility for deconstructing these words and themes in our society should not be a task uniquely left to pastors.

There are two huge indictments of our common Christian culture in that pull quote. The first is that we do in fact confuse our culture and our faith. The second is that we leave it up to the "professionals" to undo the confusion.

Because we are sinners, no society, no culture, no community will ever adequately reflect how God would have us be. There will always be someone, somewhere gumming up the works. We simply cannot rely on the prevailing cultural ethos to be our teacher about what God would have us do and be. That does not mean there are not some cultures and societies that come closer, and are therefore better, than others, it just means that we better have more tools at our disposal to figure out what is best than just culture. Which brings me to the second point.

Everything we do, if it really important to us, we need to learn enough to at least be able to tell the good professionals from the bad professionals so we know which to hire. And yet, we find people making choices about which worship community to join based on things like popularity and physical location, they don't bother to learn enough about what is a better or worse church.

But the really essential question is can we be sanctified by remote control? I frankly thought that was one of the primary tenants of the Reformation - that we had no preists that interceded on our behalf, that we had to figure it out for ourselves.

In the Godblogosphere, almost everyone is on a path of searching and studying, growth and depth - that's one of the reasons I like to hang out here. But what have you done lately to encourage someone else to take that path, besides blog about it? Who have you encouraged to read Scripture, to pray, to exercise any single spiritual discipline? Why not?

There is only so much we can accomplish here. Let's get out there and equip others rather than simply try and give them the benefit of our efforts.

Related Tags: depth, growth, sanctification, reformation, culture

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

TIMOTHY DWIGHT was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1752. He graduated from Yale in 1769, served as chaplain in the army during the Revolutionary War and was chosen president of his university in 1795. He died, after holding that office for twelve years, in 1817. Lyman Beecher, who attributed his conversion to him, says: “He was of noble form, with a noble head and body, and had one of the sweetest smiles that ever you saw. When I heard him preach on ‘the harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved, a whole avalanche rolled down on my mind. I went home weeping every step.”

O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. - Jeremiah 10:23.


Few of this audience will probably deny the truth of a direct Scriptural declaration. With as little reason can it be denied that most of them apparently live in the very manner in which they would live if the doctrine were false: or that they rely, chiefly at least, on their own sagacity, contrivance and efforts for success in this life and that which is to come. As little can it be questioned that such self-confidence is a guide eminently dangerous and deceitful. Safe as we may feel under its direction, our safety is imaginary. The folly of others in trusting to themselves we discern irresistibly. The same folly they perceive, with equal evidence, in us. Our true wisdom lies in willingly feeling, and cheerfully acknowledging, our dependence on God; and in committing ourselves with humble reliance to His care and direction.

With these observations I will now proceed to illustrate the truth of the doctrine. The mode which I shall pursue will, probably, be thought singular. I hope it will be useful. Metaphysical arguments, which are customarily employed for the purpose of establishing this and several other doctrines of theology, are, if I mistake not, less satisfactory to the minds of men at large than the authors of them appear to believe. Facts, wherever they can be fairly adduced for this end, are attended with a superior power of conviction; and commonly leave little doubt behind them. On these, therefore, I shall at the present time rely for the accomplishment of my design. In the first place, the doctrine of the text is evident from the great fact that the birth and education of all men depend not on themselves.

The succeeding events of life are derived, in a great measure at least, from our birth. By this event, it is in a prime degree determined whether men shall be princes or peasants, opulent or poor, learned or ignorant, honorable or despised; whether they shall be civilized or savage, freemen or slaves, Christians or heathens, Mohammedans or Jews.

A child is born of Indian parents in the western wilderness. By his birth he is, of course, a savage. His friends, his mode of life, his habits, his knowledge, his opinions, his conduct, all grow out of this single event. His first thoughts, his first instructions, and all the first objects with which he is conversant, the persons whom he loves, the life to which he assumes are all savage. lie is an Indian from the cradle; he is an Indian to the grave. To say that he could not be otherwise, we are not warranted; but that he is not is certain.

Another child is born of a Bedouin Arab. From this moment he begins to be an Arabian. His hand is against every man; and every man’s hand is against him. Before he can walk, or speak, he is carried through pathless wastes in search of food; and roams in the arms of his mother, and on the back of a camel, from spring to spring, and from pasture to pasture. Even then he begins his conflict with hunger and thirst; is scorched by a vertical sun; shriveled by the burning sand beneath; and poisoned by the breath of the simoom. Hardened thus through his infancy and childhood, both in body and mind, he becomes, under the exhortations and example of his father, a robber from his youth; attacks every stranger whom he is able to overcome; and plunders every valuable thing on which he can lay his hand.

A third receives his birth in the palace of a British nobleman; and is welcomed to the world as the heir apparent of an ancient, honorable and splendid family. As soon as he opens his eyes on the light, he is surrounded by all the enjoyments which opulence can furnish, ingenuity contrive, or fondness bestow. He is dangled on the knee of indulgence; encircled by attendants, who watch and prevent alike his necessities and wishes; cradled on down; and charmed to sleep by the voice of tenderness and care. From the dangers and evils of life he is guarded with anxious solicitude. To its pleasures he is conducted by the ever-ready hand of maternal affection. His person is shaped and improved by a succession of masters; his mind is opened, invigorated and refined by the assiduous superintendence of learning and wisdom. While a child he is served by a host of menials and flattered by successive trains of visitors. When a youth he is regarded by a band of tenants with reverence and awe. His equals in age bow to his rank; and multitudes, of superior years acknowledge his distinction by continual testimonies of marked respect. When a man, he engages the regard of his sovereign; commands the esteem of the senate; and earns the love and applause of his country.

A fourth child, in the same kingdom, is begotten by a beggar, and born under a hedge. From his birth he is trained to suffering and hardihood. He is nursed, if he can be said to be nursed at all, on a coarse, scanty and precarious pittance; holds life only as a tenant at will; combats from the first dawnings of intellect with insolence, cold and nakedness; is originally taught to beg and to steal; is driven from the doors of men by the porter or the house dog; and is regarded as an alien from the family of Adam. Like his kindred worms, he creeps through life in the dust; dies under the hedge, where he is born; and is then, perhaps, cast into a ditch, and covered with earth by some stranger, who remembers that, although a beggar, he still was a man.

A child enters the world in China; and unites, as a thing of course, with his sottish countrymen in the stupid worship of the idol Fo. Another prostrates himself before the Lama, in consequence of having received his being in Tibet, and of seeing the Lama worshiped by all around him.

A third, who begins his existence in Turkey, is. carried early to the mosque; taught to lisp with profound reverence the name of Mohammed; habituated to repeat the prayers and sentences of the Koran as the means of eternal life; and induced, in a manner irresistible, to complete his title to Paradise by a pilgrimage to Mecca.

The Hindu infant grows into a religious veneration for the cow; and perhaps never doubts that, if he adds to this solemn devotion to Juggernaut, the Gooroos, and the Dewtabs, and performs carefully his ablutions in the Ganges, he shall wash away all his sins, and obtain, by the favor of Brahma, a seat among the blest.

In our own favored country, one child is born of parents devoted solely to this world. From his earliest moments of understanding, he hears and sees nothing commended but hunting, horse-racing, visiting, dancing, dressing, riding, parties, gaming, acquiring money with eagerness and skill, and spending it in gaiety, pleasure and luxury. These things, he is taught by conversation and example, constitute all the good of man. His taste is formed, his habits are riveted, and the whole character of his soul is turned to them before he is fairly sensible that there is any other good. The question whether virtue and piety are either duties or blessings he probably never asks. In the dawn of life he sees them neglected and despised by those whom he most reverences; and learns only to neglect and despise them also. Of Jehovah he thinks as little, and for the same reason as a Chinese or a Hindu. They pay their devotions to Fo and to Juggernaut: he his to money and pleasure. Thus he lives, and dies, a mere ani¬mal; a stranger to intelligence and morality, to his duty and his God.

Another child comes into existence in the mansion of knowledge and virtue. From his infancy, his mind is fashioned to wisdom and piety. In his infancy he is taught and allured to remember his Creator; and to unite, first in form and then in affection, in the household devotions of the morning and evening. God he knows almost as soon as he can know anything. The presence of that glorious being he is taught to realize almost from the cradle; and from the dawn of intelligence to understand the perfections and government of his Creator. His own accountableness, as soon as he can comprehend it, he begins to feel habitually, and always. The way of life through the Redeemer is early, and regularly explained to him by the voice of parental love; and enforced and endeared in the house of God. As soon as possible, he is enabled to read, and persuaded to “search the Scriptures.” Of the approach, the danger and the mischiefs of temptations, he is tenderly warned. At the commencement of sin, he is kindly checked in his dangerous career. To God he was solemnly given in baptism. To God he was daily commended in fervent prayer. Under this happy cultivation he grows up “like an olive-tree in the courts of the Lord”; and, green, beautiful and flourishing, he blossoms; bears fruit; and is prepared to be transplanted by the divine hand to a kinder soil in the regions above.

How many, and how great, are the differences in these several children! How plainly do they all, in ordinary circumstances, arise out of their birth! From their birth is derived, of course, the education which I have ascribed to them; and from this education spring in a great measure both character and their destiny. The place, the persons, the circumstances, are here evidently the great things which, in the ordinary course of Providence, appear chiefly to determine what the respective men shall be; and what shall be those allotments which regularly follow their respective characters. As, then, they are not at all concerned in contriving or accomplishing either their birth or their education; it is certain that, in these most important particulars, the way of man is not in himself. God only can determine what child shall spring from parents, wise or foolish, virtuous or sinful, rich or poor, honorable or infamous, civilized or savage, Christian or heathen.

I wish it to be distinctly understood, and carefully remembered, that “in the moral conduct of all these individuals no physical necessity operates.” Every one of them is abso¬lutely a free agent; as free as any created agent can be. Whatever he does is the result of choice, absolutely unconstrained.

Let me add, that not one of them is placed in a situation in which, if he learns and performs his duty to the utmost of his power, he will fail of being finally accepted.

Secondly. The doctrine is strikingly evident from this great fact, also, that the course of life, which men usually pursue, is very different from that which they have intended.

Human life is ordinarily little else than a collection of disappointments. Rarely is the life of man such as he designs it shall be. Often do we fail of pursuing, at all, the business originally in our view. The intentional farmer becomes a mechanic, a seaman, a merchant, a lawyer, a physician, or a divine. The very place of settlement, and of residence through life, is often different, and distant, from that which was originally contemplated. Still more different is the success which follows our efforts.

All men intend to be rich and honorable; to enjoy ease; and to pursue pleasure. But how small is the number of those who compass these objects! In this country, the great body of mankind are, indeed, possessed of competence; a safer and happier lot than that to which they aspire; yet few, very few are rich. Here, also, the great body of mankind possess a character, generally reputable; but very limited is the number of those who arrive at the honor which they so ardently desire, and of which they feel assured. Almost all stop at the moderate level, where human efforts appear to have their boundary established in the determination of God. Nay, far below this level creep multitudes of such as began life with full confidence in the attainment of distinction and splendor.

The lawyer, emulating the eloquence, busi¬ness, and fame of Murray or Dunning, and secretly resolved not to slacken his efforts until all his rivals in the race for glory are outstripped is often astonished, as well as broken-hearted, to find business and fame pass by his door, and stop at the more favored mansion of some competitor, in his view less able, and less discerning, than himself.

The physician, devoted to medical science, and possessed of distinguished powers of discerning and removing diseases, is obliged to walk; while a more fortunate empiric, ignorant and worthless, rolls through the streets in his coach.

The legislator beholds with anguish and amazement the suffrages of his countrymen given eagerly to a rival candidate devoid of knowledge and integrity; but skilled in flattering the base passions of men, and deterred by no hesitations of conscience, and no fears of infamy, from saying and doing anything which may secure his election.

The merchant often beholds with a despairing eye his own ships sunk in the ocean; his debtors fail; his goods unsold, his business cramped; and himself, his family and his hopes ruined; while a less skilful but more successful neighbor sees wealth blown to him by every wind, and floated on every wave.

The crops of the farmer are stinted; his cattle die; his markets are bad; and the purchaser of his commodities proves to be a cheat, who deceives his confidence and runs away with his property.

Thus the darling schemes and fondest hopes of man are daily frustrated by time. While sagacity contrives, patience matures, and labor industriously executes, disappointment laughs at the curious fabric, formed by so many efforts and gay with so many brilliant colors, and while the artists imagine the work arrived at the moment of completion, brushes away the beautiful web, and leaves nothing behind.

The designs of men, however, are in many respects not infrequently successful. The lawyer and physician acquire business and fame; the statesman, votes; and the farmer, wealth. But their real success, even in this case, is often substantially the same with that already recited. In all plans, and all labors, the supreme object is to become happy. Yet, when men have actually acquired riches and honor, or secured to themselves popular favor, they still find the happiness, which they expected, eluding their grasp. Neither wealth, fame, office, nor sensual pleasure can yield such good as we need. As these coveted objects are accumulated, the wishes of man always grow faster than his gratifications. Hence, whatever he acquires, he is usually as little satisfied as before, and often less.

A principal design of the mind in laboring for these things is to become superior to others. But almost all rich men are obliged to see, and usually with no small anguish, others richer than themselves; honorable men, others more honorable; voluptuous men, others who enjoy more pleasure. The great end of the strife is therefore unobtained; and the happiness expected never found. Even the successful competitor in the race utterly misses his aim. The real enjoyment existed, although it was unperceived by him, in the mere strife for superiority. When he has outstripped all his rivals the contest is at an end: and his spirits, which were invigorated only by contending, languish for want of a competitor.

Besides, the happiness in view was only the indulgence of pride, or mere animal pleasure. Neither of these can satisfy or endure. A rational mind may be, and often is, so narrow and groveling as not to aim at any higher good, to understand its nature or to believe its existence. Still, in its original constitution, it was formed with a capacity for intellectual and moral good, and was destined to find in this good its only satisfactory. Hence, no inferior good will fill its capacity or its desires. Nor can this bent of its nature ever be altered. Whatever other enjoyment, therefore, it may attain, it will, without this, still crave and still be unhappy.

No view of the ever-varying character and success of mankind in their expectations of happiness, and their efforts to obtain it, can illustrate this doctrine more satisfactorily than that of. the progress and end of a class of students in this seminary. At their first appearance here they are all exactly on the same level. Their character, their hopes and their destination are the same. They arc enrolled on one list; and enter upon a collegiate life with the same promise of success. At this moment they are plants, appearing just above the ground; all equally fair and flourishing. Within short time, however, some begin to rise above others; indicating by a more rapid growth a structure of superior vigor, and promising both more early and more abundant fruit. .

Were I to ask the youths who are before me what are their designs and expectations concerning their future life, and write down their several answers, what a vast difference would ultimately be found between those answers and the events which would actually befall them! To how great a part of that difference would facts, over which they could have no control, give birth! How many of them will in all probability be less prosperous, rich, and honorable than they now intend: how many devoted to employments of which at present they do not even dream; in circumstances, of which they never entertained even a thought, behind those whom they expected to outrun, poor, sick, in sorrow or in the grave.

First. You see here, my young friends, the most solid reasons for gratitude to your Creator.

God, only, directed that you should be born in this land, and in the midst of peace, plenty, civilization, freedom, learning and religion; and that your existence should not commence in a Tartarian forest or an African waste. God, alone, ordered that you should be born of parents who knew and worshiped Him, the glorious and eternal Jehovah; and not of parents who bowed before the Lama or the ox, an image of brass or the stock of a tree. In the book of His counsels, your names, so far as we are able to judge, were written in the fair lines of mercy. It is of His overflowing goodness that you are now here; surrounded with privileges, and beset with blessings, educated to knowledge, usefulness and piety, and prepared to begin an endless course of happiness and glory. All these delightful things have been poured into your lap, and have come, unbidden, to solicit your acceptance. If these blessings awaken not gratitude, it can not be awakened by the blessings in the present world. If they are not thankfully felt by you, it is because you know not how to be thankful. Think what you are, and where you are; and what and where you just as easily might have been. Remember that, instead of cherishing tender affections, imbibing refined sentiments, exploring the field of science, and assuming the name and character of the sons of God, you might as easily have been dozing in the smoke of a wigwam, brandishing a tomahawk, or dancing round an emboweled captive; or that you might yourself have been emboweled by the hand of superstition, and burnt on the altars of Moloch. If you remember these things, you can not but call to mind, also, who made you to differ from the miserable beings who have thus lived and died.

Secondly. This doctrine forcibly demands of you to moderate desires and expectations.

There are two modes in which men seek happiness in the enjoyments of the present world. “Most persons freely indulge their wishes, and intend to find objects sufficient in number and value to satisfy them.” A few “aim at satisfaction by proportioning their desires to the number and measure of their probable gratifications.” By the doctrine of the text, the latter method is stamped with the name of wisdom, and on the former is inscribed the name of folly. Desires in¬dulged grow faster and farther than gratifications extend. Ungratified desire is misery. Expectations eagerly indulged and terminated by disappointment are often exquisite misery. But how frequently are expectations raised only to be disappointed, and desires let loose only to terminate in distress! The child pines for a toy: the moment he possesses it, he throws it by and cries for another. When they are piled up in heaps around him, he looks at them without pleasure, and leaves them without regret. He knew not that all the good which they could yield lay in expectation; nor that his wishes for more would increase faster than toys could be multiplied, and is unhappy at last for the same reason as at first: his wishes are ungratified. Still indulging them, and still believing that the gratification of them will furnish the enjoyment for which he pines, he goes on, only to be unhappy.

Men are merely taller children. Honor, wealth and splendor are the toys for which grown children pine; but which, however accumulated, leave them still disappointed and unhappy. God never designed that intelligent beings should be satisfied with these enjoy¬ments. By his wisdom and goodness they were formed to derive their happiness and virtue.

Moderated desires constitute a character fitted to acquire all the good which this world can yield. He who is prepared, in whatever situation he is, therewith to be content, has learned effectually the science of being happy, and possesses the alchemist stone which will change every metal into gold. Such a man will smile upon a stool, while Alexander at his side sits weeping on the throne of the world.

The doctrine of the text teaches you irresistibly that, since you can not command gratifications, you should command your desires; and that, as the events or lire €10 not accord with your wishes, your wishes should accord with them. Multiplied enjoyments fall to but few men, and are no more rationally expected than the highest prize in a lottery. But a well-regulated mind, a dignified independence of the world, and a wise preparation to possess one ‘s soul in patience, whatever circumstances may exist, is in the power of every man, and is greater wealth than that of both Indies, and greater honor than Caesar ever acquired.

Thirdly. As your course and your success through life are not under your control, you are strongly urged to commit yourselves to God, who can control both.

That you can not direct your course through the world, that your best concerted plans will often fail, that your sanguine expectations will be disappointed, and that your fondest worldly wishes will terminate in mortification can not admit of a momentary doubt. That God can direct you, that He actually controls all your concerns, and that, if you commit yourselves to His care, He will direct you kindly and safely, can be doubted only of choice. Why, then, do you hesitate to yield yourselves and your interests to the guidance of your Maker? There are two reasons which appear especially to govern mankind in this important concern; they do not and will not realize the agency of God in their affairs; and they do not choose to have them directed as they imagine He will direct them. The former is the result of stupidity; the latter, of impiety. Both are foolish in the extreme, and not less sinful than foolish.

The infinitely wise, great and glorious benefactor of the universe has offered to take men by the hand, lead them through the journey of life, and conduct them to His own house in the heavens. The proof of His sincerity in making this offer has been already produced. He has given His own Son to live, and die, and rise, and reign, and intercede for our race. “Herein is love,” if there ever was love; “not that we have loved him, but that he has loved us.” That He, who has done this, should not be sincere is impossible. St. Paul, therefore, triumphantly asks what none can answer: “He, that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Trust, then, his word with undoubting confidence; take His hand with humble gratitude, and with all thy heart obey His voice, which you will everywhere hear, saying, ‘‘this is the way, walk ye therein.” hi sickness and in health, by night and by day, at home and in crowds, He will watch over you with tenderness inexpressible. He will make you lie down in green pastures, lead you beside the still waters and guide you in paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake. He will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, and cause your cup to run over with blessings. When you pass through the waters of affliction He will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle on you. From their native heavens He will commission those charming twin sisters, goodness and mercy, to descend and “follow you all your days.”

But if you wish God to be your guide and your friend, you must conform to His pleasure. Certainly you can not wonder that the infinitely Wise should prefer His own wisdom to yours, and that He should choose for His children their allotments, rather than leave them to choose for themselves. That part of His pleasure, which you are to obey, is all summed up in the single word duty, and it is perfectly disclosed in the Scriptures. The whole scheme is so formed as to be plain, easy, profitable, and delightful; profitable in hand, delightful in the possession. Every part and precept of the whole is calculated for this end, and will make you only wise, good, and happy.

Life has been often styled an ocean, and our progress through it a voyage. The ocean is tempestuous and billowy, overspread by a cloudy sky, and fraught beneath with shelves and quicksands. The voyage is eventful beyond comprehension, and at the same time full of uncertainty, and replete with danger. Every adventurer needs to be well prepared for whatever may befall him, and well secured against the manifold hazards of losing his course, sinking in the abyss, or of being wrecked against the shore.

These evils have all existed at all times. The present, and that part of the past which is known to you by experience, has seen them multiplied beyond example. It has seen the ancient and acknowledged standards of think¬ing violently thrown down. Religion, morals, government, and the estimate formed by man of crimes and virtues, and of all the means of usefulness and enjoyment, have been questioned, attacked, and in various places, and with respect to millions of the human race, finally overthrown. A licentiousness of opinion and conduct, daring, outrageous, and rending asunder every bond formed by God or man, has taken place of former good sense and sound morals, and has long threatened the destruction of human good. Industry, cunning, and fraud have toiled with un¬rivaled exertions to convert man into a savage and the world into a desert. A wretched and hypocritical philanthropy, also, not less mischievous, has stalked forth as the companion of these ravages: a philanthropy born in a dream, bred in a hovel, and living only in professions. This guardian genius of human interests, this friend of human rights, this redresser of human wrongs, is yet without a heart to feel, and without a hand to bless. But she is well furnished with lungs, with eyes, and a tongue. She can talk, and sigh, and weep at pleasure, but can neither pity nor give. The objects of her at¬tachment are either knaves and villains at home, or unknown sufferers beyond her reach abroad. To the former, she ministers the sword and the dagger, that they may fight their way into place, and power, and profit. At the latter she only looks through a telescope of fancy, as an astronomer searches for stars invisible to the eye. To every real object of charity within her reach she complacently says, “Be thou warmed, and be thou filled; depart in peace.”

By the daring spirit, the vigorous efforts, and the ingenious cunning so industriously exerted on the one hand, and the smooth and gentle benevolence so softly profest on the other, multitudes have been, and you easily may be, destroyed. The mischief has indeed been met, resisted, and overcome; but it has the heads and the lives of the hydra, and its wounds, which at times have seemed deadly, are much more readily healed than any good man could wish, than any sober man could expect. Hope not to escape the assaults of this enemy: To feel that you are in danger will ever be a preparation for your safety. But it will be only such a preparation; your deliverance must ultimately and only flow from your Maker. Resolve, then, to commit yourselves to Him with a cordial reliance on His wisdom, power, and protection. Consider how much you have at stake, that you are bound to eternity, that your existence will be immortal, and that you will either rise to endless glory or be lost in absolute perdition. Heaven is your proper home. The path, which I have recommended to you, will conduct you safely and certainly to that happy world. Fill up life, therefore, with obedience to God, with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and repentance unto life, the obedience to the two great commands of the gospel, with supreme love to God and universal good-will to men, the obedience to the two great commands of the law. On all your sincere endeavors to honor Him, and befriend your fellow men, He will smile; every virtuous attempt He will bless; every act of obedience He will reward. Life in this manner will be pleasant amid all its sorrows; and beams of hope will continually shine through the gloom, by which it is so often overcast. Virtue, the seed that can not die, planted from heaven, and cultivated by the divine hand, will grow up in your hearts with increasing vigor, and blossom in your lives with supernal beauty. Your path will be that of the just, and will gloriously resemble the dawning light, “which shines brighter and brighter, to the perfect day.” Peace will take you by the hand, and offer herself as the constant and delightful companion of your progress. hope will walk before you, and with an unerring finger point out your course; and joy, at the end of the journey, will open her arms to receive you. You will wait on the Lord, and renew your strength; will mount up with wings as eagles; will run, and not be weary; will walk, and not faint.

Related Tags: Timothy Dwight, sermon, lesson