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physical phenomena of the universe, we obtain distinct indications 
of a possibility quite in accordance with those records which come 
to us as the word or revelation of God. It is when we turn away 
from the safe guidance of material facts, and look to the ideas and 
suppositions of men, that we find anything antagonistic to those 
records. The great history of human mistakes has yet to be 
written. 
II. The importance of understanding the laws affecting all 
created beings and substances is very great, lest infraction of them 
lead to loss and death. These considerations pre-eminently apply 
to man himself, the most important animal of all. Man, the 
highest of organization, the most compiex and delicate, subject 
therefore to laws and conditions equally complex is the most 
likely to suffer from infractions of those laws ; and the conse- 
quences are with him more disastrous than in the case of any 
other creature. Every rational educated person, with 40 or 50 
years’ experience, knows how true all this is. For in that space of 
time, how many must he have seen whose lives were failures ; 
some ruined in health by intemperance, by licentiousness, by un- 
wholesome place or mode of living, by insufficient food, by mis- 
taken management, by hurtful employments, by inherited disease, 
(the sins of the fathers being not seldom visited upon the children) 
or by causes not well known, — some ruined in mind, by passion, self- 
indulgence, or other means; some ruined in capacity for the occu- 
pations of life, by idleness, restlessness, pride, impatience, want of 
proper training, disorderly habits, or love of amusement ; some 
ruined in reputation by vice, ill-temper, disregard to law, and to 
the rights of others, or by crime; some ruined in purse by 
extravagance, gambling, betting, speculation, or by being too 
idle or weak to manage their affairs properly ; some ruined in 
person by accidents, injuries, diseases, or deformities; some 
ruined in an infinite variety of other ways. We have all noticed 
many such failures, such wasted lives, various both in kind and 
degree. One may compare the course of human life to a very 
narrow path surrounded with dangers mostly hidden, into which 
the slightest deviation either way makes us glide or fall. The 
dangers are wonderfully numerous: far beyond anything that 
young persons, or, indeed, many others, can be induced to credit. 
Certain conditions are required to ensure a good and prosperous 
life, and any breach of these conditions or laws invariably bring its 
exactly measured proportion of failure. Again and again is this 
observed to be verified. It comes true of our moral nature, of 
our intellectual powers, of our bodily strength and condition, of 
our health, and of. our worldly position and means, and that 
without any exception. 
III. In many aspects of Nature, we find suggestions of the 
