Hence they
worship an idea rather than a reality.
The noblest pleasures of life, in fact the only real, permanent,
exalting, and, I might add, _developing_ pleasures, are divided into two
classes, those of the heart, and those of the intellect. Yet both,
though different in their action, spring from the same central truth.
The happiest man is he whose life is spent in doing good, seeking no
other reward than the gratification of beholding the true happiness of
his fellow beings. His pleasures are of the heart, and he only is the
true Christian of our day and generation. For he who so ardently loves
his fellow men cannot but love his God.
The pleasures of the intellect can never pall, but do constantly
increase and brighten, because in them the soul enters its native
province and acts in that sphere which is its own for all eternity. Yet
how do they all lead the mind up to its great Creator! Not a single
discovery in science, not an investigation of the simplest law of
nature, not an examination of the most insignificant bud or flower or
leaf; and, above and beyond all, not an inquiry in the great truths of
morals, of ethics, of religion, or of the very constitution of the mind
itself, but at once, and in the most natural consequence, reveals the
power and the goodness of God--brings God himself as clearly before us
as he _can_ be manifested to our fettered souls. Yet if these pleasures
too were but temporary, if they were to pass from our sight with all our
other earthly surroundings, the pursuit of them would but beget disgust
and discontent, and they would be classed with the fragile things which
awaken no feelings of awe, nor enhance the glory of the soul.
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