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DISCOURSES

ON

HUMAN LIFE.

ΤΟ

THE CONGREGATION,

WORSHIPPING IN THE

CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, IN NEW YORK,

MY BRETHREN AND FRIENDS,

In anticipation of leaving my pulpit for an absence of two years in Europe, I have collected these out of the mass of Discourses which I have delivered to you, and I beg leave to present them to you as an expression of that interest in the true and vital prosperity of Religion among you, which neither time, nor distance, nor parting oceans nor foreign climes, nor anything else, I trust, can weaken. You will observe, that although it is a volume of Discourses on Human Life, it is scarcely a series. The Discourses were written without any original intention of making a series, and mostly without any reference to each other; and I may therefore need the public indulgence for the occasional recurrence of the same topics-of the same ideas-possibly of the same expressions. Such as the Volume is, I commit it to you, in grateful remembrance of those hours in the sanctuary, where they have been the subject of our common meditations.

Bidding you an affectionate farewell for a season, I am your friend and servant,

ORVILLE DEWEY.

U

ON THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE.

JOB iv. 12-16: "Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face, and the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof; an image was before mine eyes; there was silence, and I heard a voice."

Human life, to many, is like the vision of Eliphaz. Dim and shadowy veils hang round its awful revelations. Teachings there are to man, in solemn and silent hours, in thoughts from the visions of the night, in vague impressions and unshaped reveries; but, on this very account, they fail to be interpreted and understood. There is much teaching; but there is also much unbelief.

There is a scepticism, indeed, about the entire moral significance of life, which I propose, in this discourse, to examine. It is a scepticism -sometimes taking the form of philosophy, sometimes of misanthropy and scorn, and sometimes of heavy and hard-bound worldliness-which denies that life has any lofty, spiritual import; which resolves all into a series of toils, and trifles, and vanities, or of gross and palpable pursuits and acquisitions. It is a scepticism, not about creeds, not about Christianity-it lies farther back-lies far deeper; it is a scepticism about the very meaning and intent of our whole existence.

This scepticism I propose to meet; and for this purpose I propose to see what argument can be extracted out of the very grounds on which it founds itself.

The pertinency of my text to my purpose, as I have already intimated, lies in this: there is much of deep import in this life, like that which Eliphaz saw in the visions of the night-not clear, not palpable, or at least not usually recognised and made familiar; but it cometh, as it were in the night, when deep sleep falleth on men; it cometh in the still and solitary hours; it cometh in the time of meditation or of sorrow, or of some awful and overshadowing crisis of life. It is secretly brought to the soul, and the ear receiveth a little thereof. It is as a spirit that passeth before us, and vanisheth into the night-shadow; or it standeth still, but we cannot discern the form thereof; there is an undefined image of truth; there is silence; and at length there is a voice.

It is of these unrecognised revelations of our present being that I would endeavour to give the interpretation; I would attempt to give them a voice.

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