ffect of miracle in the
electric wire? The printing-press, is it not the gift of tongues? It is
atheistic to suppose that all these wondrous agents have only a narrow
and material purpose, and play no part in the highest scheme of the
world. Like the prophet by the river Chebar, we may behold them as the
symbols in a sublime vision. These wheels within wheels, full of eyes,
full of intelligence, and full of human destiny and vast purpose, we
know not all their meaning yet. But they have a great meaning.
Beneficent intention runs through their swift motions--voices of promise
rise in their multitudinous sounds. A living spirit is in these
wheels--the influence of God; the spirit of man. And, in due time, out
of them will evolve the incalculable issues of human welfare and the
Divine glory.

THE STRIFE FOR PRECEDENCE.

DISCOURSE III.

THE STRIFE FOR PRECEDENCE.

And if a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned
except he strive lawfully.--II. TIMOTHY, ii. 5.

In walking the streets of the city, there rises the interesting
question--What are the various motives which animate these restless
people, and send them to and fro? As a French author has well
observed,--"The necessaries of life do not occasion, at most, a third
part of the hurry." They are comparatively few who struggle among these
busy waves for a bare subsistence. There are others who are impelled by
some of the deepest affections of the human heart, and who toil day
after day with noble self-sacrifice for the comfort of dependent
parents, and helpless children. While others still run on errands of
mercy, and work in the harness of unrelaxing duty. But when we have
taken all these influences into the account, and made the most of them,
there remains a large quantity of activity which, as we trace it to its
spring, we shall find issuing from a desire for influence, for
notoriety, for some kind of personal distinction. The city,--in this
instance, as in many others, representing the world at large,--is
essentially a race-course, or battle-field, in which, through forms of
ambitious effort, and cunning method, and plodding labor, and
ostentation, the aspirations of thousands appear and carry on a _Strife
for Precedence_.

And, in selecting this phase of human life as the theme of the present
discourse, I observe in the first place--that the desire for precedence
is one of the _deepest_ and most _subtle_ motives in the soul of