SELFISHNESS INVOLVES FAILURE. £61 



been ia very deed a light in the world and in himself, for as Milton 

 says, 



" Virtue could see to do what virtue would 

 By her own light, though sun and moon 

 Were sunk in the flat sea." 



Again, a man may live in a civilized and christian community, 

 enjoy good health, work hard, save every cent, accumulate ten, 

 twenty or fifty thousand dollars, die and be buried under a splen- 

 did block of marble, and yet his neighbors will tell you honestly 

 and candidly that his life was a total failure, that the world would 

 actually have been better if he had never been born. 



And why ? Because he lived for himself alone. The poor never 

 rose up and called him blessed, he never made the widow's heart 

 leap for joy. It mattered not to him that the rent was damp with 

 the sweat and tears of midnight toil, that to obtain it orphans went 

 supperless to bed, and the fire went out upon the hearth, he only 

 took his own, and after putting it in his capacious pocket buttoned 

 his coat complacently about him and may be thanked God he was 

 not like other men, " extortioners," &c. His money has not helped 

 to build churches, (though if he was to offer his place for sale the 

 first thing he would tell of would be how near it was situated to one, ) 

 nor to endow benevolent institutions. He never sent the gospel 

 to the heathen or caused Christ to be preached to his poor neigh- 

 bors ; his rule of practice was to get the largest interest possible 

 at all times and upon all occasions, and his rule of faith, to hope 

 for a chance to get more next time. But need I pursue this fur- 

 ther ? Are you not all prepared to say with one anciently, " Let 

 me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his." 

 Ami not fully understood? "Vice is a monster of so frightful 

 mein, as to be hated needs but to be seen," but when he is richly 

 gilded too many of us are prone to look upon the gilding and for- 

 get the deformity hidden beneath. 



But the world moves. We live in an age of progress. Public 

 opinion is getting nearer right. An individual in the I9th century 

 has a destiny to work out for himself, he is not satisfied, like one 

 of Shakspeare's characters, who 



" Boating on his own bondage 

 Wears out his time 

 Much like his master's ass, 

 For nought but provender." 



I am happy to know that in this age a man stands in market at 

 nearer his true value than formerly. Events which have been cast- 



