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married or single, diseased or well, none of these things mattered, that that was the meaning of life. We were here only for a few years of probation; and our eternal destiny was to be fixed by the way we filled, not some other place, but the place in which we found ourselves here. If a man was ever so poor, he could at least be true and faithful and obedient to the Church; and his eternal destiny was safe. He might be ever so rich, but he must be equally faithful to the Church, humble, and obedient; but his future destiny would be no better than that of the beggar who knelt in the church by his side. None of these problems could exist in that kind of a universe. There was none of this paralyzing uncertainty. No matter what question might arise, an authoritative answer direct from God could be given. Man's whole duty was obedience.

What is the cause of the change from that condition of fixity, certainty, that settled state of affairs? Is it because the world is less wise? Is it because the world is less good? Has this great change come upon the world as a calamity, as something to make us fear and doubt and tremble? What is the cause of it? Every now and then I come across a certain class of minds who seem to be fully persuaded that the doubts concerning the New Testament are the work of critics who are enemies of God; that if only they would keep still, if only they would not write their questions and arguments, all would be well. I find people who seem to think that Mr. Darwin, for example, is guilty of impugning and opposing the truth of God, because he teaches a doctrine of the origin, destiny, and end of man different from that which once was held as an authoritative revelation from the Father.

But what is it that these men have done? What have the critics done? They have not changed any truth. They have not impugned any truth. They have not unsettled any truth. They have simply found out truth, and told it to a waiting world. What has Mr. Darwin done? He has not changed the nature of man. He has not changed any fact

concerning man's origin, the method of his development or his destiny. In so far as he has demonstrated what he teaches, he has simply told us the truth; and, when a man loses an error and finds the truth, he loses an evil and finds a good, he gains something more of the divine. As a matter of fact, then, we do not know so much as we used to merely because we know so much more. It is a new revelation of God, a flood of light out of his heaven, that has come to the modern world; and it has shown us a world so much larger, so much older, so much grander, than we supposed it to be with our little schemes and theories and figments that what we supposed to be truths are swept away on the bosom of this flood of new light and truth pouring from the very heart of God. It is not a calamity, then, that has come to man: it is a great advance that has come to him.

The universe we have discovered to be not six thousand years old, but so many millions that we dare not even attempt to express the term in definite figures. We have found out that this little world of ours is hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years old. We have found out that our humanity reaches back into a time of mystery that we cannot fathom. We have found out that man instead of having fallen has been rising from the beginning. We have learned how bibles grow, that they grow as naturally as grasses, flowers, and trees. We have found out in regard to the origin of religions how they took shape and came to have their great power over men. We have traced the origin of civilization. We have found out how political systems have sprung up and changed and died. We have found out how social orders began. We have found out what are the conditions of human prosperity and welfare; what are the laws that must be obeyed if we are to escape decay and death. We have discovered so much new truth that all the old headlands have disappeared, and we seem to be at sea.

The one great purpose that I have in mind this morning. is, in the midst of this uncertainty, to call your minds back to some things that are not at all uncertain, and to assure

you, if you need any assurance, that there is not one single truth that is vital to human life or human welfare that is not clearly enough discernible for all the practical purposes of modern life.

When Copernicus discovered the true nature of the universe, and the little system of Ptolemy fled away, not a single star was put out, not a single ray was dimmed. Rather did we find an infinite number of grander, brighter stars in the place of those that they supposed were understood before. So to-day there need not be in the minds of any serious, earnest man or woman the slightest question as to making this year grand, noble, purposeful, outreaching towards what is worthy of the attainment of any human soul.

Let me, then, put my finger on a few things that are practical certainties. We need a place to stand that seems solid under our feet. We need to see at least one step ahead of us, so that we can take that. We need to be persuaded that it is worth while to take it. We need to be persuaded that there is something to be done that pays for the trouble. Can we be certain of so much? What, then, are we certain of?

In the first place, we are certain that we are in the midst of and are parts of a great universe that is growing in accordance with law, that had a beginning, that is reaching towards an end, so that it seems to us and must seem to any rational thinker the fulfilment of a purpose. The universe is growing to something better, something higher, something finer year by year, century by century. It is the manifestation of a power that is resistless, that is working in accordance with law that is perfect and invariable. So much we are certain of.

Are we certain as to the nature of this universe? We are certain that it is not essentially a material universe. We are certain that it is not a mere play of mechanical forces. We are certain that the deepest secret of this universe is life, spirit, what we have a right to call God, and, by virtue of the spirit which we feel to be the deepest thing in our own selves,

akin to this infinite spirit and life, its children. So much we are certain of.

In the third place, we are certain that we can either work against this growth or that we can work for it. We can cooperate with this great infinite, divine life, make ourselves a part of the infinite plan that sweeps through the ages out of the darkness of the past into the darkness that is before. We all know that the only thing that is needed to redeem our little petty, personal lives from littleness, from inefficiency, is to feel that we are part of some grander movement, that we can link ourselves with and co-operate with some great sweep of the force that is lifting and leading the worlds. This we may do. We can help on the progress of the race. We can become part of this great movement, so that we can share at last in its great triumph.

To bring it down to more practical detail, we can help some other life. We can be the means of lifting, leading, guiding, teaching, helping, the growth of some other soul. We can do something to make some other life brighter, cheerier, sweeter, better. Look over the universe, and you find that by discovering the secret law of the life of any particular thing we can modify that life, we can improve that thing. We can take a family of birds, for instance, and develop a finer type of birds. We can develop a finer type of horse or dog. We can cultivate our trees into something finer and better. We can develop a finer kind of rose. So in any department of life, by learning the secret law that controls it, we can become in that sphere a creator, lifting things, making them better, simply by understanding and obeying. So when we come to dealing with human nature, with individual lives or with some particular cause that may pass under the name of reform, social, political, or industrial, we can, if we choose to make ourselves close, calm, earnest students, understand enough of the divine law at work in this individual or this reform, so that we can help it on and make it better.

Another certainty has been demonstrated millions of times,

all life is a renewed demonstration of it, that happiness, the development of our own souls, is to be found in precisely this labor, in co-operating with the universal advance, in seeking to help the life, the growth, the culture, of some other soul. Because, as you will see, this kind of labor calls into play the finest thinking, the noblest feelings, the grandest impulses and motives of the heart. And, calling these into play, what does it mean but self-culture, self-development, the training of ourselves into the likeness of that which is divinest? And we know that, as obedience to the law of each department of life is the condition of the happiness that may be found in that department, so obedience to the laws of the highest is the only pathway towards the attainment of the highest, the finest happiness of which it is possible to conceive.

I have stated these things that are certain in somewhat scientific terms, because I wish to assume nothing, simply to plant my feet on that which is demonstrated beyond all question; but now let me call your attention to what these things mean in the more ordinary conversation of life.

These practical certainties involve trust in God, who is the power and life of things. It involves religion, the essence of which is the seeking the right relation between ourselves and God and between ourselves and others, and the fulfilling of those relations. It involves all that was grand and sweet in the thought of the old Bible revelation. It is the eternal unfolding of all divine truth apprehensible. by human reason. It involves the church; for what is the church but the voluntary association of men and women for the purpose of helping each other to find the laws of life and obey them? It is helping each other to be the noblest and best conceivable. It involves the eternal law of duty, of life, for that means again simply the discovery of the laws of God as embodied in all the forces and facts of the universe and of human life, and obedience to those laws; for these laws of life are the laws of right, and they are eternal and hold within themselves the eternal promises of God.

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