must triumph at last. Christ brought truth into the
world. Truth, then, is a personal, experimental and practical thing.
It is a thing of the heart, and not mere outward forms; a living
principle in the soul, influencing the mind, employing the affections,
guiding the will, and directing as well as enlightening the conscience.
It is a supreme, not a subordinate matter, demanding and obtaining the
throne of the soul-giving law to the whole character, and requiring the
whole man and all his conduct to be in subordination. Truth blends
with every occupation. It is noble and lofty, not abject, servile and
groveling; it communes with God, with holiness, with Heaven, with
eternity and infinity. Truth is a happy, and not a melancholy thing,
giving a peace that passeth understanding, and a joy that is
unspeakable and full of glory. And it is durable, not a transient
thing, passing with us through life, lying down with us on the pillow
of death, rising with us at the last day, and dwelling in our souls in
Heaven as the very element of eternal life. Such is truth, the
sublimest thing in our world, sent down to be our comforter and
ministering angel on earth.

It is plainly God's intention, as in nature and in history, that our
human life should grow better and more joyous as it advances, and that
the best shall not be at the first, but shall wait until we are ready
for it. The highest and largest blessings can come to men only when
the men are fitted to hold and to use them. If you are going to give a
man a purse or a diamond you can thrust it into his hand in his youth,
or on the street, even when he is asleep; but if you would give to him
a great truth or virtue, if you would make him a noble character, you
must wait upon the man's growth, and be content if after many years you
see only a flash of what you would give him appearing. Step by step,
through all the gradations, we travel, and if faithful to truth, Christ
will make in us a perfect manhood, and of us a perfect society. His
gift is so great, vital and complex, that He can not bestow it all in
the beginning. He would make our life an increasingly joyous life, and
give us the best of its wine at the last of its feast. Christ would
have us always increasingly hopeful and joyous, and never of sad
countenance. All our faculties were designed to minister to our joy.
All the great world of life below is a happy world. The children of
the air and the water are