CCCCI XVI.-Dependence on the Future.......By Rev. Erskine Mason, D.D., CCCCLXVII.-The End at Hand..... Danger of making a Profession of Religion without Piety.. CCCCLXVIII.—The Fathers and the Prophets. By Rev. John M. Krebs, D.D., CCCCLXIX.-Sympathy with Christ.... ...By Rev. James M. Macdonald, CCCLXX.--Submission to God.-....... By Rev. George W. Bethune, D.D., CCCCLXXII.--The Grace of Religious Conversation. By Rev. Samuel T. Spear, CCCCLXXIII.-Christ a Sympathizing Friend.......By Rev. J. M. Sherwood, CCCCLXXIV.-The Remission of Sin..... CCCCLXXV.-Religion the true Element of Reformation. By Rev. John Marsh, The Church the Light of the World... CCCCLXXVI.-The Moral Dangers of 11 Health.....By Rev. Henry T. Cheever, CCCCLXXVII.-Home Evangelization the First Duty of American Christians. CCCCLXXVIII.-Discretion in Worldly Affairs......... By Rev. T. S. Clarke, CCCCLXXXII.-Eminent Holiness Essential to Success in the Missionary Enterprise. By Rev. J. B. Condit, D.D. CCCCLXXXIII.-The Happiness of Christians in being with Christ. CCCCLXXXIV.--Thy Kingdom Come.. CCCCLXXXV.-The Difficulties of Ministers.....By Rev. John Richards, D.D. CCCCLXXXVI.-Importance of a Scriptural Ministry....By Rev. Asa D. Smith, CCCCLXXXVII.-The Thoughts of God....... By Rev. Robert Turnbull, Pastor of the Bleecker Street Presbyterian Church, New York. NEW YEAR'S SERMON FOR 1848. DEPENDENCE ON THE FUTURE. "To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant."-ISAIAH 56: 12, last clause. If we have ever occupied some elevated and commanding position, we must have observed, that the scenery, at a great remove from us, far surpassed in beauty that which was directly under the eye. The spot we descried far off in the mighty distance, was of all others the most interesting; and we have sometimes thought that could we but reach that spot, we might settle down with perfect content, because there we should find none of those anxieties and discomforts which mar almost every scene in which we mingle. We are all aware that there is deception here, and we explain it upon this simple principle, that in the distant perspective we really perceive only an outline, which our imagination fills up and colors. I allude to this, as an experience with which perhaps we are all perfectly familiar, and the explanation of which as thus given, we are ready to admit. Now, I do not lay an interdict upon this play of human fancy, or say, that it is wrong ever to allow the mind to follow it and to be amused with its beautiful delineations. I would not condemn the indulgence of imagination, any more than the exercise of memory or of judgment; a day dream may be very pleasant, and the most fanciful reveries can never harm us, if they do not affect us improperly towards sober realities. But, should the tendency of such fancy pictures, and such visionary enchantments be to disgust us with the objects around us, and make us dissatisfied with the circumstances amid which Providence has called us to move, should they indispose us toward the duties of our present station, or lead us lightly to estimate, if not utterly to neglect the advantages which belong to it, then imagination becomes the master, instead of the servant of judgment, and the sooner its spell is broken and its enchantment dissolved, the better for our interest as well as our enjoyment. How idle, how ruinous is it to everything like peace of mind, to be perpetually sighing after the fancied beauties of some distant, and perhaps inaccessible habitation, and thus to become indifferent to the realities and dissatisfied with the comforts of one's actual home. It must be evident to every one, that what is thus true of space, is equally true of time. The coloring which fancy throws over the distant scenery of nature is no more beautiful, nor captivating than that which hope throws over the perspective of the future. How apt we are to live amid coming scenes. How constantly do we find ourselves forming our calculations, and laying out our plans for futurity, and rejoicing, by anticipation, in pleasures we have yet to reach-thus are we perpetually framing, and peopling with images of our own creation the worlds in which we expect to dwell. "To-morrow," we think," shall be better than to day." The scenes before us are brighter than any which are past, or present the results yet to be evolved, grander and richer, than any which have been developed; the enjoyment expected more intense and permanent, than any we have hitherto experienced. Thus we make up the deficiencies of the present, by the anticipations of the future; our enjoyment to-day is owing to the vision of to-morrow, our happiness is the creature of our expectations, and hope gives us fortitude for endurance, and energy for action. Now you do not understand me as finding fault with this peculiarity of our nature, a peculiarity belonging to us, as we came from the hand of our Creator, or as denouncing the impropriety and wickedness of forming plans for the future. We might as well try to put an arrest upon the movement of the natural world, as to prevent man from looking forward; we cannot help it, and if we could, religion forbids the indulgence of an improviden spirit. And yet, there is a distinction to be maintained, between the right exercise and the perversion of any faculty of the human mind. There is nothing wrong in the simple exercise of hope-nothing foolish or criminal in the anticipations of the future. But when our expectations, as immortal creatures, are altogether earthly, when they are connected with irrational, because unfounded, confidences, when our calculations for the future lead us to overlook or underrate privileges or advantages actually in possession; when they lead us to neglect the duties of to-day under the im pression that they may much more easily, and in a better manner be performed to-morrow; when, in short, hope becomes the parent of procrastination, then are we living under an influence which controls us only by means of its deceptions, and which must be disastrous, as it can end only in disappointments, painful and bitter, as our calculations have been confident, and our hopes sanguine. The state of mind I have thus set before you is the one to which the words of my text give expression, and one against which the whole strain of inspired teaching is directed. The Word of God comes home to us, rebuking these strong confidences and inordinate hopes for the future, by telling us that they are wholly unfounded, since we do not know whether the developments of that future will honor one of our confidences, meet one of our calculations, or answer one of our hopes. This is the argument of inspiration, and yet of all arguments, it is perhaps the most difficult to commend to the human mind. Who of us does not find it almost impossible to entertain the thought which it involves? Who of us can bring himself to think, that his wisest and best digested plans may come to naught, his strongest confidence prove to be utterly worthless, and his longest cherished and most sanguine hopes be entirely blasted? And yet this is the sentiment which the Bible would have us to understand and incorporate among our elements of thought and feeling; and it strikes us that we can never ponder it so well as upon an occasion like the present. We occupy to-day* a position which commands the past, where our thoughts naturally run back over the scenes which have been enacted and the events which have transpired, and where we can gather up the lessons of the months which have fled, and as we study them, see how clearly they illustrate and impressively enforce the sentiment before us, as they throw the light of facts upon the vanity of most of our future confidences. We would carry you then to-day in pursuit of our general object, amid some of the walks of ordinary life over which you have already travelled, and where yet we find you. We enter the scenes of earthly business, and we hear from many directions and from many lips the utterance of complaint, as we see many signs of dissatisfaction, if we are not compelled to listen to the sighs, and groans of a deep and bitter disappointment. But a short time since, in these same circles, and upon these same walks, everything was different. There were joyous faces and sanguine hopes. There was one, perhaps, who should have talked of our melancholy and misanthropic spirit, had we attempted to throw in a suggestion of doubt between his mind and the vision which entranced and captivated him. Borne high by hope upon the wave of prosperous experiment, he feared no mountain-billow which might overwhelm him, he dreaded no hidden rock upon which his proud bark might strike, and be dashed to pieces. But *The first Sabbath of the year. |