356 HENRY KIKKE WHITE S REMAINS. 



resignation. We then, at ler.gth, are enabled to con- 

 template our being in all its bearings and in its full ex- 

 tent, and the result is that superiority to common views 

 and indifference to the things of this life which should 

 be the fruit of all true philosophy, and which, therefore, 

 are the more peculiar fruits of that system of philosophy 

 which is called the Cliristian. 



To a mind thus sublimed, the great mass of mankind 

 will appear like men led astray by the workings of wild 

 and distempered imaginations — visionaries who are wan- 

 dering after the phantoms of their own teeming brains, 

 and their anxious solicitude for mere matters of worldly 

 accommodation and ease will seem more like the effects 

 of insanity than of prudent foresight, as they are es- 

 teemed. To the awful importance of futurity he will 

 observe them utterly insensible, and he will see, with 

 astonishment, the few allotted years of human life wasted 

 in providing abundance they will never enjoy, while the 

 eternity they are placed here to prepare for scarcely em- 

 ploys a moment's consideration. And yet the mass of 

 these poor wanderers in the ways of error have the light 

 of truth shining on their very foreheads. They have 

 the revelation of Almighty God himself, to declare to 

 them the folly of worldly cares, and the necessity for 

 providing for a future state of existence. They know 

 by the experience of every preceding generation, that a 

 very small portion of joy is allowed to the poor sojourners 

 in this vale of tears, and that, too, embittered with much 

 pain and fear ; and yet every one is willing to flatter 

 himself that he shall fare better than his predecessor in 

 the same path, and that happiness will smile on him 

 which hath frowned on all his progenitors. 



Still, it would be wrong to deny the human race all 

 claim to temporal felicity. There may be comparative, 

 although very little positive happiness ; — whoever is 

 more exempt from the cares of the world and the cala- 

 mities incident to humanity — whoever enjoys more con- 

 tentment of mind, and is more resigned to the dispensa- 

 tions of Divine Providence — in a word, whoever pos- 

 sesses more of the true spirit of Christianity than his 



