the enjoyment of the body, mind, and spirit are of the earth, earthy, if not of the devil, devilish. Now if we want to understand what God intended us to be, we must try to understand the nature of our mental and physical constitution. God has ordained that you shall learn about Him when you have learned something about yourselves and something about human society. He proposes by the voice of general experience, by the voice of health, by the voice of conscience, by the many voices of joy and sorrow, to be your master and your guide through the revelation of His nature in your nature. Settle it in your own minds that these bodies of ours are intended, amongst other things, for pleasure; that these minds of ours are intended for pleasure, and that these spirits of ours are also intended for pleasure. All three are intended also for work and for duty, and this, no doubt, primarily; but God has made your body capable of responding pleasurably to an external world, He has given you senses, and unless you think He has made your body all wrong, you are bound to think that those senses were intended to correspond to, and lay hold on certain outward objects, and take pleasure in them. You may or you may not approve of this, but that is the way God has made man, and you are forced to acknowledge thus much. Brethren, I do believe that the new Christianity, as it will shine in our Church of the Future, will lead us to understand our human nature in its complex entirety, as it has never been understood before; our religion will not be an unbalanced thing; it will not be a dull and irksome thing; but it will show us how we can enjoy without sinfulness, how we may do our duty without bitter constraint, and how we may rise out of the slavery of obedience to the mere moral law, into the joy of well-doing, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. There are 126. I deal first with physical pleasure. many here present in the bloom of health and early vigour, and you know what a glorious sense of buoyancy and freedom comes to you in the exhliaration of what you call animal spirits. I remember perfectly well when I was a child, and the memory, amongst others, of a similar kind remains to me now as bright and vivid as possible; I remember the glorious sensation of rushing down a green lawn one summer's afternoon, when I was not conscious of any physical infirmity in my body, but conscious of bounding health, and the air seemed to be alive to me, God's blessed sunshine was around me, and breathing the fresh, wild perfumes of summer, I seemed to become a part of that great Nature, one, as it were, with the trees, the birds, and the blue heavens above me, and I felt in every vein of my body a new swelling sense of life and health, which made me almost cry out with a kind of joyful intoxication of feeling, the fulness of the physical life. Will you tell me that that is not a good thing? I only know I wish I had it more often now. I believe it is a most wholesome feeling, and if we understood the laws of health a little better we should more often experience that kind of natural, simple pleasure, the pleasure of mere existence, and the pleasure of being in the full healthy possession of the great, glad, aboriginal instincts. 'Tis life, not death, for which we pant, 'Tis life of which our nerves are scant, 127. Then there are the pleasures of the mind. You who are men of study know, when you come up to some new fact in history, in philosophy, in science, what a pleasure there is—it runs through you like an electric shock, when you see suddenly the connection, the subtle connection, between things which have baffled you, or when you bring the experiences of the study out into the world and lay them before men; you know what a noble thrill of pleasure sometimes bears you up in the statement of your truth, and in the working out of some practical course of duty; why, there is the calm sense, not only of having done your work, but also of downright mental exhilaration in the doing of it.. You won't tell me that pleasure is not good to have. The schoolboy, when he goes tired to bed after having well worked and well played, deserves his satisfaction; the tradesman after a busy day, the professional man after a long round of visits, or the settlement of several trying cases, deserves his satisfaction; it is the gift of God; the cloud clears from his brow, and honest Pleasure sits enthroned and claims her own. 128. Then there are the social pleasures of life. A man is surrounded by his friends, and in assemblies where well-balanced mind meets mind, there is an understood sympathy between conversers, speakers, and listeners, and on the broad human ground of fellowship, there is a vast amount of refreshment, of geniality, and of real unselfish pleasure, the pleasure of friends with friends. You won't tell me that that is wrong. It is high, it is legitimate pleasure. 129. Then there are the affectional pleasures, when a man is happy in his family relations, when a man is happy in his nearest socialities, when he believes in those about him and they believe in him, when he loves his wife and his wife loves him, when he is a good father, when he has good children and dear children, who grow up loving and honouring what is lovable and honourable, and looking to him as an example, and giving him back sweetly and naturally, with childlike simplicity, his great paternal feeling of love for them. Ah! many images will rise before you as I speak of the family life so dear to thousands of English hearts around me; for how many, many here this morning have experienced the sacred and glorious rushes of feeling which come upon the unspoiled affectional life of man. Here is a man who has been toiling all day in the workshop, or behind the counter, at his office, or on 'Change. He has had his mind ruffled by a number of things, but he looks forward to that bright, bright spot he calls 'home,' where all the toils of the day are forgotten, and the careworn side of life is put away. The rain may beat upon his face, the frost may begin to congeal as the night falls damp and chill around him, he hastens on to that one spot, where those dear faces are waiting to greet him, he sees the light shining through the windows. As he approaches, the blind is hastily lifted and as hastily dropped, and before he has raised the knocker, and before he has rung the bell, the door is burst open, and laughing, rosy children rush out to meet him, and they pull him into the house, and take off his damp coat and set him down in his own chair, and a soft hand smooths the last business wrinkle from his brow, and gentle arms are soon about his neck, and where is the hard wind and the winter snow? Are such scenes unfrequent amongst us? are they wrong? nay, can pleasure come in a form more pure, more salutary than in the form of family life. 'Whoso findeth a wife,' says Solomon, 'findeth a good thing, and he shall have favour from the Lord.' 'She shall keep house and be a joyful mother of children,' says David. 130. Then, God has given to all those who call upon him faithfully a pleasure or deep sense of joy in worshipping Him. Indeed, some of us, I fear, make far too much of the pleasures of prayer and too little of the pleasures of work. Almost all religions have condemned pleasure in most departments of life, but they have forgotten to condemn it in religion. We find, on the contrary, a most unbalanced state of ecstacy prevalent in religious. communities past and present, which ecstacies often lead into dangerous practical heresies. I find constantly around me men and women who have an intense feeling |