No. 1 On the Deity, Personality, and Work of the Holy Spirit; From the texts: II Cor. 8:17; John 14:26

80807 No 1 A Discourse On the Deity, Personality, and Work of The Holy Spirit; From the texts: Now the Lord is that Spirit. II Cor. VIII: 17. But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you. John XIV: 26th Read XIVth Chapter of John. 15th - 18th and XVth 24th - 26th and XVIth 6th - 14th Hymns for worship: 1. 256th Hymn S. Ml. 2. 259th Hymn C. Ml. 3. 261st Hymn S. Ml. Dox. Give to the Father praise. IId. Cor. VIIIth: 17th & John XIVth:26th The doctrine of the Trinity which is justly regarded as fundamental in the Xtian System, is one of those mysteries which are presented in Scripture, to be recd. by us with humble and implicit faith while its entire comprehension is confessed by beyond the compass of the human mind. We can set forth the doctrine in intelligible language. We can so present it that you may not fail to grasp the idea we intend to convey. You may be quite clearly impressed with the [the] whole system of Truth which is involved in this cardinal article of our Creed. But after all, when we come to analyse the whole and separate it into its component elements and endeavor to understand how it is possible for these things to be, we find that the mind has reached the full limit of its capabilities. We receive the Scripture representation of this doctrine with unhesitating credence. But to understand ourselves, or to explain to others how it can be that there are Three persons in the Godhead the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost That these three are One God the same in substance, equal in Power and Glory, is an utter impossibility. And indeed all that man can do is to prove, (as he can beyond the shadow of a doubt) that the Doctrine is true, that it is Scriptural, and urge the reception of it upon the simple principle of unquestioning Faith. My heavens will not hesitate to accept the doctrine that the Father is Divine. That even Unitarians have never doubted. And Deists maintain the existence of a God, whom they reckon as the Father of all the race. And the proper Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ has been so often illustrated and established as to induce the hope that no further discussion of this topic is needed at present. But it is the purpose of my present Discourse to array before you the proofs of the Deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, & to point out the work assigned this Person of the Godhead, in the Economy of Divine Grace. I am very much inclined to the opinion that most of my hearers and indeed [most] the majority of men, underneath the position of the Holy Spirit in the Xtian System; and it may be that a greater amt. of ignorance prevails in reference to Him, than with regard to the Father or to the Son. But as we will perceive on further investigation such undervaluing of the Blessed Spirit and such ignorance of His true Grade in the Scheme of Divine Truth, is equally as fatal to the salvation of the soul, as the same omission would be in regard to either of the other persons in the Trinity. Hence arises the importance of a just and right appreciation of the Xter and Nature of the Holy Spirit. [person in this] For the worship which we render to God can never be acceptable to Him without the full Faith in the mystery of the Trinity. That mystery which however impenetrable it may be to the mind of man, still presents to us the idea that these three persons are one God. And as we are distinctly assured that he that cometh to or worshippeth God must believe that He is (that is,) that he is God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, since we have this representation of Him in Scripture, [and] it follows of course that unless we entertain just this idea of Him when we approach him, we cannot properly appreciate His Being. We are also cut off forever from attempting to render this great mystery more clear, by having recourse to earthly similitudes. For there is no natural similitude among all the creatures, that has in any sense even a remote resemblance to this marvellous matter. And such an attempt is indeed the originating cause of Heathen idolatry. It was thus they subjected themselves to a judicial abandonment of God to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, because they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man thus changing the truth of God into a lie, and worshipping & serving the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen! Let us then receive it as entirely a matter of Faith, & let us adore it, and beware of prying curiously into what is not revealed. But we are not chargeable in the least with a violation of this injunction when we request your attention to the proofs of the Deity & Personality of the Holy Spirit, which we shall now proceed to adduce. And our First Proposition is that the Holy Spirit is God. Now the definition of Divinity is familiar to many a child before one, and it is one which commends itself at once to the approval of every mans judgment and Reason, as one eminently comprehensive and truthful. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in His Being, Wisdom, Powe, Holiness, Justice, Goodness, and Truth. We presume that no one would object to this definition, and that every one would [be] admit at once that whatever Being might be found in whom these attributes meet, that Being must be Divine. We meet the issue then thus presented, and affirm that 1st to the Holy Spirit are applied directly the names of God, 2d Attributes which belong to none but God, are applied to him. 3d Works which none but God can perform, are done by Him. 4th worship, which is due to God alone is rendered to Him. You admit that if Scripture call Him God, he must be Divine. Accordingly Peter in his interview with the lying Ananias says: why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?... Thou hast not lied unto man but unto God. And the same truth is asserted in the words of our text: The Lord is that Spirit. We learn no less than this from a careful collation of different passages of S.S. For example God says in Leviticus: I will set my tabernacle amongst you; and I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people. This of itself would be no proof of the Holy Spirits having the name of God; but Paul tells us in 2 Cor. Ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said I dwell in them & walk among them tc. referring to this very passage in Leviticus; Now when we ask who dwells in & who walks among Gods people? Paul answers in 1 Cor by an emphatic question: [?] ye not that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? For the temple of God are ye! Here we ascertain from Pauls interpretation of the promise in Lev. 1st That it si God who dwelleth in the people & then 2d that the God here spoken to is the Holy Spirit. And yet again when we learn from Deuteronomy that it was The Lord alone who did lead the chn. of Israel, & then find that Isaiah says it was The Spirit of the Lord that did lead them, we are forced to the conclusion that the name of God is given to the Spirit. Once more we find that the same conduct of these people which is said in the Psalms to be sinning against God and provoking the the Most High, is characterized by Isaiah as rebelling against and vexing His Holy Spirit. Now from this collation and comparison of passages, we think the inference is fairly deducible, & the conclusion irresistible that the name of God is applied in Scripture to the Holy Spirit. So far as this goes, we regard His divinity proven. But a second form of proof is based on the fact that Divine Attributes are applied to the Holy Spirit. Now Eternity we all admit is predictable only of a Divine Being. Accordingly the Spirit of God is styled by Paul in his Epistle to the Heb. The Eternal Spirit. Immensity or Omnipresence is also a divine Attribute. None but God can be everywhere present and at all times. And yet David teaches us in the 139th Psalm that the Spirit of God is possessed of Omnipotence, is those sublime declarations there interrogatively set forth: Whither shall I go from thy [Spirit] presence, If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there if I make my bed in Hell, behold! Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold one. Omnipotence, again belongs to God only. And yet we find it attributed to Gods Spirit, in an interrogative form when the Prophet Micah asks of the people of Israel Is the Spirit of the Lord is not [stra???] or limited in His Power there are no limits to be set to His Power. Foreknowledge is a Divine Attribute and this is repeatedly appropriated to the Holy Spirit. It is not only declared that it is by the moving of the Holy Spirit that the Prophets spake in times past but express assertions are found wherein specific predictions are said to have proceeded from this Person; for example; This Scripture must needs to be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas. And not only Prescience but omniscience which belongs to no being inferior to God, is attributed to the Holy Spirit: The Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God. If therefore [all things] nothing at all not even excepting the secret mysteries of the Divine Nature are hidden from the Spirit we must conclude Him to be a Divine Being, Holiness= (H.G.) (H.S.) Sp. of Holiness Grace (Sp of G) Truth (Sp. of T.) Glory (Sp of Gl. & of God) Goodness Thy Good Sp. But we have this truth established in the 3d place by the fact that Divine WOrks are ascribed to Him. (1.) Creation is ascribed to Him. Job lets us The Spirit of God hath made me. David says Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created. (2.) He is said to give Life. Paul to the Romans says The Spirit is Life. and if so, He must be the source & Giver of Life. (3) To raise the dead. Peter tells us distinctly that Jesus Christ was quickened by the Spirit, & John declares that it is the Spirit that quickeneth. A 4th proof of the Deity of the Holy Spirit is based upon the fact, that He receives the same worship that is rendered to the Father and the Son. The great Commission given by Xr to his Apostles gives minute directions as to the manner in which the sacred initiatory Ordinance of Baptism is to be performed, Baptizing them says he in the name of the Father, & of the Son, and of the Holy [Spirit] Ghost. Now we are most emphatically warned in God; Holy Word to worship God only. Since therefore Xr. commands in this solemn act of worship that the same homage which is paid to God the Father & to God the Son shall also be rendered to the Holy Ghost, we are to conclude that it was the design of the Savior to teach us that this Holy Ghost is God equal with the Father and the Son. And to close this array of proof, let it be observed that in the Apostolical Benediction pronounced upon Xtians by the sacred writers, we find that the Holy Spirit is united with the Father & the Son. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Xr. & the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. From all which we learn that the same Names, titles, attributes, ordinances, honors, words and works which are ascribed to the Father and the Son, are equally to be ascribed to the Holy Ghost. Whence we conclude Him to be God in every sense equal to the Father and to the Son. But 2ndly it is to be observed that the Deity of the Holy Spirit is not so much the point of objection & denial by Anti-Trinitarians as the Personality. We are told that they admit the Spirit to be Divine but deny that he is a distinct person from the Father. As the Spirit of a man is the man himself, so say they The spirit of God is God, or the Wisdom or the Power of God. The chief subject of debate therefore. (I quote from Dr. Dwight) between us and the Unitarians is whether the Holy Ghost be a Person or an attribute. I beg you to bear it in mind that Unitarians assert that the H. G. is only an Attribute, sometimes presented in S.S. as the Wisdom, but usually the Power of God. The first argument against this theory is one which may come appropriately under the head of Internal Evidence; that is the proper interpretation of S.S. requires that this Theory be at once It is that form of argument by which the position assigned is disproved by showing its absurdity rejected. For example, Paul speaking of the style of his preaching to the Cor. says it was in demonstration of the Spirit & of Power. Here all is clear & intelligible upon the supposition that the Being spoken of is a person But on the theory in question it will be read as follows: it was in demonstration of Power & of Power! Here it is all nonsense. Again, he is writing to the Romans & endeavoring to show the method adopted by God to make the Gentile obedient by word & deed, & says that injunction of the Apostle Paul, so strange and incomprehensible to the worldly minded, and unspiritual; Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the Glory of God; and that other exhortation, Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men. It may not [be] cannot be then but that all men were intended to be workers in some one of the multiplied and diversified departments of earthly effort. I know and I have already intimated that men love not to work. The idea of service, the name of servant seem to those who thus love indulgence and ease as implying something of disgrace, or of degradation at least. But I gladly present to you the sentiments of a living educator fully and heartily indorsing [endorsing] every word he has uttered. Every man who lives as he ought is a servant, and every man was intended to be a servant. In the family the father and mother are the servants of the children; in the State, the Magistrate is the peoples servant; his relation to the people being in this respect the same, whether they choose him, or whether the power in the State falls to him by hereditary right; in the church, the Pastor and teacher is the servant of the congregation, for which reason he is called minister. Thus no dignity, no no height of station, no grasp of mind, takes a man out of the necessity of serving others, if he would fulfill the end for which he was made. It is a great mistake to suppose for a moment that a mans glory and honor is to be estimated by the mere fact that he has the power and the right to demand the services of others; it is, on the contrary, measured by the number of those who have been benefited by his services. A man who can serve nobody is the lowest of human beings except him who can do service to his fellow beings and will not; he is the lowest of the low. So we reach the conclusion that the degree of service rises with the number whom we can serve; and the illustration of this rule of proportion is found, it may be, first, in the characters of the Apostles who, through Paul, the chief of them, declare that themselves are our Servants for Jesus sake; and reaches its loftiest limit in Christ himself, whose greatness consists in being the servant of the human race through all lands and ages, since he himself declares that he, the Son of Man, came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. And we find ourselves driven inevitably to the great truth that the highest style of man is the worker, the diligent faithful sevant [servant] of his own generation. There is a latent form of this truth also couched in this thing of doing the work which our hand findeth to do, the work appointed us by God, which, in the main, has escaped the attention. It is that when we undertake to serve in our appropriate and appointed sphere, we do not meet the measure of this service, when we regard what we do [is] merely the accident of events around us, or when we deem it becoming & required by the position we occupy, nor is this service rendered so as to be acceptable to God, & beneficial to our generation, when it is performed as the indirect result of our selfish aims; nay, it is not a full satisfaction to the exactive nature of true service service, even when it is done merely as the fruit of a kind, benevolent disposition. There must be, at the basis of this service, a purity of motive and a goodness of spirit that alone can meet [the] its demands. [of] There must be a direct reference to the will of God, and a prominent desire & determination to be useful. Hence we may feel well assured that even abortive efforts to do this service, to do good, honest efforts to do the work appointed us, though pronounced [to be] failures by the fallacious standard of human judgment, are accepted in that infallible Court, where [the] unerring Justice is tempered by gracious mercy, as service done to God. On the other hand, it matters not at all how apparently successful one may be in his work; how he may apparently have done good to multitudes, and filled the land with the monuments of his good deeds; and how his name may be upon all lips as a public benefactor; yet if he may have done all this, with the ulterior aim of benefitting himself; then surely, whatever earthly result may have followed, no reward will be bestowed by the gracious hand of the All-wise, the All-just God. II. The second lesson of interest, and importance evolved from this injunction of the wise man is that whatsoever our hand findeth to do, whatsoever our life-work may be, must be done with earnestness; do it with thy might. It may not be deemed a rash or hazardous remark, it is indeed a well considered opinion, that no man ever succeeded in any enterprise whose heart and soul were not enlisted in it. A man who is without moral earnestness is the veriest trifler of all. He sports with his own most serious and important interests. He is diverted from the prosecution of most noble ends by the merest passing incident. He regards no engagement however solemn, too sacred to be broken for the slightest reason, or for no reason. Nor does it palliate his criminality in the smallest degree that we may be told that he has a kindly nature and a gentle heart, and all the defects enumerated are the result of thoughtlessness, thoughtlessness, and that no malicious design was to be found in all his unfortunate ways. A master of human nature has told us that want of thought is as bad as want of heart; and if any modification of this sentiment were admissible, it might perhaps [be said] not be going too far to say that this want of considerateness, or earnestness, is worse than want of heart, or a cold and ordinarily selfish heart. We have only to see the workings of this principle of Moral earnestness, where it is the controlling power, to know that it is indispensable to to success. Have you marked the earnest man in his chosen pursuit? How his days are devoted to watching its progress, removing obstacles in its way, providing by a sort of forecast forecast or sagacity that seems more than human, against any obstruction, sacrificing all to this one thing; holding it up prominently above and before all things else; wearing out his physical frame, destroying health; thinking, speaking, laboring for this alone, making everything else tributary to it; the last thought at lying down, the subject of his dreams by night, the first thought on awaking; and finally, yielding up his life a sacrifice to this darling object of his thoughts and affections. When you behold such an exhibition as this of supreme devotion to one object, you see an illustration of Moral earnestness, of concentrated, absorbing, moral earnestness; you see a man doing whatsoever his hand findeth to do, and doing it with his might. I know that this principle is a two-edged sword; I know that a man may be earnest in a cause whose successful accomplishment may result in ruin, as well as one whose triumph may promote the true, & the good. Yet I contend that we are so constituted as to admire and imitate earnestness under any circumstances; and we know of such a character that he is no trifler at least; so that while we say his zeal is worthy of a better cause, yet it is zeal; it is something good and worthy of a man; it is not indolence; or indifference; such as characterizes the sluggard, or the drone, or the driveller; and of such an one we may confidently hope & pray that the earnestness and devotion which mark him not to be a true man, true at least to his cause though it may be [a] bad, may be by a Gracious Spirit turned into the channel that will cause it to contribute to the Glory of God, and the good of man. Such is earnestness; moral earnestness. This quality is stamped with a seriousness of purpose which is as far from moroseness on the one hand, as it is from levity on the other; a seriousness compounded of intense desire for success, fixed attention to all that concerns his cherished object; and a solemn determination that the effort to succeed shall cease only when it shall have been demonstrated beyond all doubt, that the man is laboring for an impossible object. Such a man may be reminded that tis not in mortals to command success, but in his defect he may be well consoled by the reflection that he has done more; deserved it. All along the pathway of life here and there stand out in bold relief the grand historical characters whose records have, in all conceivable departments of human effort, illustrated the necessity and the glory of moral earnestness; of what is accomplished by men by doing with their might whatsoever work their hands found to do. Among those whose lives remind us that life may be made sublime, by the amount which may be accomplished in a comparatively brief period, I hold that no grander name is recorded than that of John Calvin of Geneva. His whole life was spirit; in him the bodily element was wonderfully subdued. He died at the comparatively early age of 55 years, but in that short life he lived actually far longer than the vast multitudes of his fellow men, who number their three or four score years, for his life was filled with work. His literary labors were utterly amazing. His Institutes, the work by which he is best known, was published at the early age of twenty four, and though it might be suspected that it was but the faulty result of precocious genius, the historical fact is that it remains to this day after the lapse of 300 years, and after it has been subjected to the trying ordeal of the severest criticism, the grandest fountain of theological truth ever filled from the great reservoir of Divine revelation. To this however were added the yearly issuance of volume after volume, and the voluminous mass of his vast correspondence. But all this work was done not by a man of elegant leisure, whose life was devoted to the pen & the press, but it was in progress at the time when, he was daily engaged in the business of the courts of morals and the Consistory, in that arising from the assembly of the Clergy, and his connection with the congregation. During all this time he lectured three days in the week on theological subjects, and every alternate week he preached daily He is reported never to have forgotten anything pertaining to his office, however much disturbed on all sides, or oppressed with applications! As one of the watchmen of [the] Israel, he was in perpetual conflict with secret and open enemies, so that he was compared to a bow always strung. He carried on a correspondence that extended all over Europe, and still found time to translate most of his learned works himself. He formed and sent forth preachers. The Council charged him with numerous weighty affairs. He had frequent journeys to perform, and was consulted on all important subjects. He was never happier than when he was obliged to do many and important things. A plague invaded the city, and in the midst of its ravages, Calvin was conspicuous in the discharge of the offices of humanity everywhere; a siege was threatened and he and his Colleagues of the Faculties were found laboring at the fortifications. Uncomplaining in regard to the excessiveness of his labors, he was always ready to render service wherever it was demanded. Now let it not be imagined that all this was done by a man whose body was in health and vigor. On the contrary, seven different disorders combined their strength to crush him at the last; and it was at the very time when his bodily organs were shaken as by convulsions, and his head racked with pain, and his life-springs were drying up with ague-and-fever, that he accomplished such an amt. of work, and he ceased not dragging himself about hither & thither in order that he might fulfil his most necessary duties, notwithstanding the host of sufferings that assailed him in his latter years. The real greatness of the man is shown in his agony. So he worked on wearily but unrestingly; never stopping to refresh his frame, but doing with a giants might what his hands found to do, until his worn and attenuated frame yielded to the conqueror and he lay upon his bed of disease and death, and wielded the last weapons that he could still control, his pen and his tongue, writing, and counseling all around him, until death released him from his labors and laid him away to rest. Often have I turned my eye upon the sad & worn face & form which hang upon the wall of my study, with amazement & self-rebuke [and] and I seem to hear from those thin and wasted lips the voice of earnest exhortation, and the warning against self-indulgence, and I have thought that there is the embodiment of the words whatsoever they hand findeth to do, do it with thy might! Night cometh when none can work. [Nearly He] Calvin had been preceded [by] twenty-five years by Martin Luther who acted upon the same principle in his work, [processed] urged forward in his course by the irresistible pressure of a stern sense of duty. No one will deny that Luther was one of the mighty workers. He had an earnest and honest Nature a stranger alike to cowardice and dissimulation. Whatever he did, he did with his might. His own statement concerning himself is; I was born to fight with devils and storms. His labors were incredible. Whether we behold him In his early youth [he was] convicted of sin, & before the true light dawned upon his darkened spirit, [he] we see him [sought] seeking earnestly, & it may be foolishly, for peace, in watching, fasting, praying, reading and doing penance. Or when relieved, [he immediately] [began to] preaching with that vigor, impetuosity and eloquence which attracted immense crowds. Or shocked by what he saw of corruption at Rome, on a visit to that city and when with his spirit fired into an inextinguishable blaze by [the] Tetzels sale of indulgences in Germany, he nailed to the door of of the Castle Church his 95 theses and challenged the commissioner to a debate, Or when summoned to appear before the Papal legate, Cardinal Cajetan, and answer for his conduct, he triumphed over his foes; or when excommunicated by Papal bull, he publicly & contemptuously burnt it in the presence of an immense multitude at Wittenberg, or when warned by his timid friend Spalatin against going to Worms to be tried he exclaimed: Though there were as many devils in Worms as tiles upon the house tops I will enter it in all these and thousands of similar fiery ordeals through which he passed, we find him the same earnest tireless, intrepid champion of Truth, & righteousness; the same great worker, ever doing with his might what his hands found to do. About 150 years after this giant of the elder times was laid to rest from his life labor, one of those mighty agents for Gods great work in this world was ushered into existence at Epworth, England and [for a] during his long and [wondrous] arduous career of eighty-eight years, he demonstrated what a mighty work can be done by one man who [works] does with his might what work he finds to do. This man was John Wesley, and few more energetic or successful workers have ever figured in the worlds history. And the many thousands of miles traveled; the many thousands of sermons preached; the incessant care of multiplied chhs. of his founding; amid contumely, and persecution; contempt and hatred; marked him as one of the Historical workers. His works still survive in that mighty host of Christian followers, whose numbers and influence are ever increasing; whose bold pioneers everywhere penetrate to the frontiers of Society & there in the heart of the wilderness unfurl the banner of a free gospel, and prepare the way of the Lord, making his paths strait [straight]. No such result could ever have followed from the labors of any [one] but one who did with his might whatsoever his hand found to do. All of these men had faults no doubt, but assuredly want of earnestness was not one of them. All of them had ever before their view their great Prototype Paul who, when compelled, by false teachers who endeavored to undermine his influence [his influence] with his Chhs., to defend himself exclaimed: Are they ministers of Xt.? [So am I.] I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in deaths oft; Of the Jews five times recd. I forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night & a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers; in perils by mine own country-men, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea; in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness. A man who can, under such an accumulation of suffereings, continue to prosecute the grand mission of his life with an undeviating purpose, an unfaltering courage, and unhesitating faith in its ultimate success, could only be one who did with his might whatever his hand found to do. I might point out to you another and a greater and more illustrious example of this quality of earnestness, in the Son of God, the Son of Man, Jesus of Nazareth! But I content myself with saying that He is the fountain from whence streams of inspiration flowed into the souls of all these workers, [and] as well as [he] the great [exemplar of all that] illustration of a Divine [is] earnestness that consumed him in His heavenly mission to fallen humanity. Young gentlemen of the Graduating Classes: In the progress of your academic studies you have learned that the mathematical definition of a line is length without breadth. or thickness. This simple primary principle which to our gross conception seems an impalpable abstraction, difficult if not impossible of localization, is nevertheless often realized by us in the varied transitions and mutations of life. The diversified departments of Nature; the fixed domains of life, and death, the separate Kingdoms of the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral world; the distinct fields of human effort, are all separated from each other by just such a line invisible intangible, inappreciable by the senses, yet real. The vicissitudes of day and night; the transit of nature from the cold grasp of winter to the gentle embrace of Spring; and thence on the gorgeous and fiery reign of summer, soon to pass under the soothing and pleasantly sad dominion of Autumn all exhibit to us a real change; but the bounding limit the line of separation, is itself invisible. The parallels of latitude; the meridians of longitude the Equational and Ecliptic lines, the solstitial, the Arctic, and antarctic [lines] circles, are all, so far as palpable perception may take note of them, imaginary and invisible, and in a sense accepted, they are all real and fully defined. The similitude common to all these varied spheres, is that the line of transition is unfelt, and ere you are aware of it, the transit is made youve passed from what you once have been and neer can be again. As sweetly and slowly brightens in grey of summer dawn, the light of morn through twilights meeting [medi??] then bathes the earth in golden flood of day; so youths morn shining in gentle light merged now in early manhoods day, in cloudless skies reveals the sun of life in full-orbed glory. You stand before us now in changed relations. You have heard for the last time the signal bell summoning you to the presence of the Professor to receive receive instruction. The sense of reverent respect which has so long rested upon you in this relation is rapidly yielding to the more familiar feeling of friendly regard, as you approach the level of a common manhood. You enter now upon a new and untried scene, and all the endearments of Collegiate Association are soon to be exchanged for the sterner realities of the wide, wide world. Your future conflicts will consist not in the struggle for college honors with generous rivals simulated by a noble emulation, and untainted by the bitterness of malice. You go forth now upon the broad plain of life where manhoods stern encounters take place, and where the antagonists are, on the one hand, selfishness, fraud, malice, and treachery; and on the other, the impulses of generosity, and the emotions of purity and kindliness, under the influences of truth, honor, and justice. To many a rude shock of your sensibilities, trained under the principles of virtue and peace, and confiding kindliness of heart are you inevitably destined. You are not however to be discouraged by these homely hints, nor may you yield to the temptation, which may even now assail you, to shrink back and take refuge in retirement and obscurity, from the toils of your onward way. The necessity is upon you to go on, and the stern voice of inexorable destiny, and imperious duty is heard sounding your marching order Onward! Lifes hills are to climb; Lifes work is in outline before you; Lifes Sun will rapidly ascend to the Zenith, and ere it commence its declining path, beware lest you falter, or prove a laggard in the race. You need then to be reminded that you enter the worlds broad stage at a most important and interesting period of its history. To live in these solemn times, is a great matter involving mighty responsibilities, and connected with issues of vast magnitude. A most legitimate inference from this fact then is, that the demands of the age are for men of a peculiar stamp and for none others. Triflers may have lived and flourished in their ephemeral existence and passed into their original nothingness, without leaving any mark of their career behind them, during times of less seriousness, than those in which we are non-living. But if ever such men were before in demand, Let me use the language of another to say they are uncalled for now. The great want of the age is men! Men who are not for sale, men who are honest, sound from center to circumference, circumference, true to the hearts core, men who will condemn wrong in friend or foe, in themselves as well as others, men whose conscience is as steady as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right, though the heavens totter and the earth reel; men who can tell the truth, and look the world and the devil right in the eye, men that neither brag, nor run, men that neither flag nor flinch; men who can have courage without whistling for it, and joy without shouting to bring it; men in whom the current of everlasting life runs still, deep, and strong; men too large for sectarian limits and too strong for sectarian bands; men who do not strive, nor cry, nor cause their voices to be heard in the streets, but who will not fail nor be discouraged till judgment be set in the earth, men who know their message & tell it; men who know their duty and do it; men who know their place & fill it; men who mind their own business; men who will not lie; men who are not too lazy to work, nor too proud to be poor; men who are willing to eat what they have earned, and to wear what they have paid for. Now do you hold out to us the promise that you will be such men? Such believe it you must be if you would fill your station worthily, honorably gloriously for God, and for man. III. Hear then the argument of the wise man by which he enforces the injunction of the text! for there is no work nor device nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest. Ah, methinks if you should in the joyous buoyancy of youth be prone to forget this homely truth, the new made graves of Maupin, Richardson, & Mitchell whose remains you followed so recently from this [place] spot to their last resting place, would recall it to your recollection. A sad, but friendly voice comes up this day from their tombs, reechoing the words of the savior: work while it is called to day; the night cometh when none can work; and the words of my text; whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might Prepare for labor, royal labor; toil, honestceaseless toil; work, unselfish work for others, & not for self only; fill up life nobly with some grand mighty monumental work, and do the work that is set before you earnestly through disease, and care weigh you down, and obstacles plant themselves thick all along your pathway; and work on, fight on till death come to your relief! And yet death to you will be no relief unless life preceding be right be a life hid with Christ in God. Such life too must be the result of the Xtian faith no other principle can produce it. Come, then let me entreat you each one for the last time, Come to Jesus Xt. and receive the boon of eternal life; a boon richer than earths brightest jewels from the mine, or pearls from the depths of the sea; higher than crowns of kingly power, or garlands of Earthly honor. Seek it, get it, keep it every one! Then I will be glad to