It gives joy,--the joy that is unspeakable and full of
glory. It opens our lips in the sight of sorrow, and enables us to give
the sufferer consolation. It gives the universe a head. It gives it
unity. It gives to man a Ruler. It gives to law a commanding force. It
gives to conscience a controlling power. It makes virtue duty, while it
gives to it fresh grandeur and beauty. It exalts it in our eyes; and it
endears it to our hearts. And it furnishes the all-perfect example. And
it makes reasonable the inculcation of humility and charity, of
forbearance and forgiveness. And it dignifies the work of beneficence.
It makes us the allies and fellow-workers of the infinite. It makes us
one with Him. In teaching the ignorant, in bringing back the erring, in
strengthening the weak, in reforming the vicious, in cheering the sad,
in blessing the world, we are working as children in fellowship with
their infinite Father, and the pulses of our generous nature beat in
harmony with the living, loving, all-pervading Spirit of the universe.
And while it brightens the present, it gilds the future. It makes a
blessed immortality a natural certainty. If God our Father lives, then
we His children shall live also. Death is abolished. Day dawns at last
on the night of the grave.
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