Instead of being a curse, labor, to a legitimate extent, is found to be a blessing; and this law refers not alone to man and the earth, but to the whole Universe. We admit that excess of labor is an evil; but so, also, is excess in anything. It is beneficial to eat and to drink; but prejudicial to eat and drink too much. It is delightful to labor; but disagreeable to exhaust one's self in doing in one day the work of two or three days. It is labor, labor alone, that raises man to his true position. It is imposed upon him for no angry or revengeful purpose--if such were possible to God--but with the kindest intention. It was instituted to promote his happiness, in order that he might be induced to improve his faculties, physical, moral and intellectual. He is born naked; out of his necessities come mental and physical cultivation, civilization, and all the ennobling arts and graces that follow in its train. In the gratification of man's wants consists the enjoyment of life; for, if he had no wants in this life, he would have no pleasures. Were he to draw his food out of the atmosphere by the act of breathing, had he no call to cultivate the earth or to labor for shelter or covering, he would be without that stimulant and that incentive to do and be doing-without that prompting to activity of body and spirit-which is indispensable to buoyancy, and health, and the giving zest to life. Action is the order of nature. The air sweeps over hill and dale. It dallies wantonly with the foliage, and on the surface of the waters. It rustles in the trees, plays with the grass and the flowers of the fields, and fans the waving grain that sways gracefully before its breath. The clouds move majestically about from one part of the heavens to another. The sea uplifts its waves for joy, and embraces again and again the rock-bound shore, leaving its impress and its

bounds in circles on the sands, as it daily ebbs and flows. The animals participate in this general law of existence. They are ever busy, providing for and protecting themselves in every emergency. And thus we see that all nature is alive with activity.

Stop the wheels of Nature,

And Nature will cease to be.

Let stagnation lay her hand upon the earth, and this fair and lovely Paradise, now instinct with movement and health, will become the dreary seat of sterility and death.

In like manner, pain, thought to be a curse secondary only to death, is not only useful, but necessary and beneficent. It is a special warning to us that something has gone wrong, and may go further wrong, in this our curious and mysterious physical constitution, if we do not see to it to set the wrong right.

Pain is the friend and guardian of the wise.

Would'st place thy hand

In the consuming and destroying fire,

And ask it not to burn? Would'st fall from heights
Upon the strong bosom of the earth,

And ask it not to bruise? Would'st break the laws

That govern and uphold the universe,

The modulation of harmonious Heaven,

And, without knowledge of thy sacrifice,

Destroy thy being? Wise, and good, and just
Are all the laws and purposes of God.

Death is naturally the dread of all, to the end that all may cling to life while they may; yet death is no more an evil, than pain or labor. The world was constituted

and prepared for death from the beginning. Millions of years ago, as geology has discovered, there were life and death on this globe; life and death in the waters, and on the dry land. A square inch of the chalky cliffs of Dover or the Isle of Wight contains the shells of myriads of minute sea-fish, that must have lived and died hundreds of thousands of centuries ago-even before the world was ready for the habitation of man, and consequently before man's transgression could have involved this supposed penalty.

Death is no evil. Cease, O, foolish man,
Thy querulous moaning, and consider death.
No longer as thy foe. A ministering saint,
Her hand shall lead thee step by step to God.
Be worthy of her; and so learn to live,
That every incarnation of thy soul

In other worlds, and spheres, and firmaments,
Shall be more perfect. God's eternity

Is thine to live in.

This we hold to be man's destiny hereafter; and it is his high privilege to participate in working out the supreme happiness in store for him. Discarding therefore all these obsolete and unworthy ideas of labor, pain, and death-products of the early want of knowledge by man, and the erroneous teaching of theologians—and investigating fairly and candidly the capabilities of man, and the purposes of God in creating him, it will be found by the study of natural laws that man is especially charged, within certain limits, with the guardianship of himself. God intended that man should participate in taking care of both his soul and his body; that he should look to the preservation and perpetuation of his kind; and both morally and physically so perform the duties imposed upon him as to conduce to his own well-being,

MAN'S WONDERFUL ORGANIZATION.

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and the well-being of his fellow men, both in time and in eternity. The numerous instincts, appetites, senses, and other faculties with which he is endowed, God has given him as guides for this purpose. Without these guides, he might fail in the great duty of self-preservation, and the procreation of his kind, so as to endanger the continuance of his race. Without the cravings of appetite and the pleasure which its gratification affords, he might fail to supply himself with the food and drink requisite to preserve life. But for the suffering, which is the penalty of neglect, he might not be sufficiently vigilant in protecting himself from injury. But for the pain and discomfort which are the necessary and wholesome monitors of excess, he might habitually indulge in eating and drinking too much. But God's goodness and care do not stop here. Besides these checks and admonitions given to him for his improvement, there are offices to be performed on his behalf, over which he has little or no control, and some over which he has no supervision whatever. There are chemical and mechanical processes continually in operation within him, about which he knows very little, and of which God has altogether taken charge. These are so completely provided for in his organization, that they go on while he is unmindful of them. Such are, the circulation of the blood, the drawing of the breath, the generation of vital heat, the digestion of food, and the distribution of the nourishment thus obtained, to all parts of the body, to promote growth and serve for the repair of the system. To subserve these ends, and to give rest to the body and spirit, in order to prevent the too rapid expenditure of vital energy, and the consequent premature decay of the beautiful and complex human machine, it is indispensable that the active brain

and intellect should, at certain periods, not too far apart, be brought to that state of quiet and repose which sleep alone can superinduce. Hence it is put out of man's power to resist sleep to any considerable extent, without injury or death. And thus God's laws are constantly operating for man's benefit, though man is unconscious or unmindful of the kindly despotism by which, for his own good, those laws are imposed upon him.

How beautiful and full of goodness, not only to man, but to all living creatures, are what are called the instincts! The new-born babe is taught by this divine prompting, the moment it comes into the world, to seek its nourishment at the mother's breast. All living things the bees, the ants, the beavers, the birds, the wild animals of whatever description, the flocks and herds belonging to men, even the flowers and herbs-are governed and govern themselves by the instincts which God has given them, and are preserved to life and enjoyment by their obedience thereto. This is in accordance with logic of the highest order; and yet these happy creatures do not reason on the subject, any more than the infant at the breast. Instinct is as divine a gift as reason itself. It is the gift of God to every living thing. It is implanted upon each according to its kind, at creation, and transmitted without alteration to the feeble and the

strong alike. God's superior intelligence, thus made manifest and available in all created beings, is necessary to the divine purpose. Without it, no living creature on the earth could exist. All those beings that people the air, the earth, or the waters-various as they may be in their forms and organization-have each their own set of laws, instincts, and intuitions, which are especially adapted to them, and harmonize in the most minute par