150 DISCOURSES OF FATHER HYACINTHE. 



a mighty conflict. It is not in a chance ^vay, for an 

 easy-going, objectless existence, that he is placed in tlie 

 world. For ns Christians, at least, men of a serious, 

 practical, spiritual philosophy, there is such a thing as 

 final causes. We believe in them with a profound faith, 

 and even a holy pride. AVe cannot be so cheaply satis- 

 fied as other men. AVe need and must have a great ob- 

 ject, Avorthy of ourselves and God. But what shall it 

 be? On an earth once trodden by the feet of Christ, 

 amid the course of ages that are illuminated from his 

 cross, is there for the soul of man and for all the race, 

 any other object than God's salvation? "Ye receive," 

 says the apostle Peter, " the end of your faith, the sal- 

 vation of your souls." * 



Salvation of souls ! But how ? For the vast majori- 

 ty — almost the entire mass of men, salvation is not 

 achieved in the deserts and in ecstatic visions, but in the 

 midst of societ}^ It is realized by faithfulness to the 

 duties of family and civil life, to all those holy obliga- 

 tions which bind us to our fellow-men ; by the practical 

 eftbrt of a life which turns heavenward in prayer for light 

 and strength, and tlien turns back to earth in labor for 

 wealth, and liberty, and above all for righteousness. 

 " For God," says the inspired book, " has formed man, in 

 his wisdom to have dominion over the creation which 

 he had made, and order the earth in equity and right- 

 eousness." t Understood in this sense, cleared of that 

 narrow aiul exclusive conception which has been fastened 

 on it by a false mysticism, so far is the salvation of the 

 individual from being isolated from tlie salvation of the 

 race, that it is well-nigh coiifouiuled with it. The tem- 

 poral conquest of the earth, in that noble sense which I 

 have just explained, is found to be the condition of the 



♦ Peter, i. 9. + Wisdom, is. 2, 3. 



