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thou shalt surely die. It is rather strange that this law should ever have been mistaken for a covenant.

525. LAWS OF NATURE.

Wilson, (Prof.) That obedience sharpens, and sin obscures the moral sight, is natural law.

Woods. There is an immediate and constant superintendence exercised over the whole creation, and what we call the laws of nature, are but the operations of Divine power in a regular and uniform manner. This is the exact idea of the laws of nature, which has been held by the best writers, from Sir Isaac Newton to the present time. (2, p. 15.)

N. Howe. The first law of nature is, to give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Ed. There is more beauty, truth, science, comprehension, and moral power in this clerical aphorism, than in an ordinary preacher's whole body and soul, sermons and life. The perfections and infinite glory of God, are stamped upon every object in nature, every creature, every faculty of mind, and function of body, every fibre in plants, every vestige of nature's works. The magnificent and the minute, alike, are perpetual and impresive preachers, calling upon man to obey, and glorify his Maker. This, therefore, is the first law of nature. And a law, it really is, for its authority grinds all theoretical and practical atheism to powder, and with it, virtually annihilates all deism, infidelity, and false religion. Moreover, this is a law of nature, high above all perversion. The "elder Scripture" defies all base criticism. The glory must be given unto the Lord- denoting the disinterestedness of true religion, and, consequently, annihilating the whole world of selfish religion. Moreover, all the glory we can render to the Lord is due him which shows that religious duties and services are an imperative and solemn obligation; thus subverting all the theoretical and practical works of supererogation in religion and morals. These are a few of the manifold and mighty thoughts in this aphorism.

Ed. It is a well known law of nature, that vice shall punish itself, as a premonition of the future retribution of Jehovah. This law is very broad and terrible, for it reaches every species

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of wickedness. It embraces remorse of conscience, bitter reflections, the acute pains and diseases that attend most vices, and the wretchedness of want, of popular disgrace, and of contempt, that follow the footsteps of crime. This law applies to sins personal, domestic, and public, and to both ecclesiastical and national sins. The grand law of God's moral kingdom is, supreme love to Him, and impartial, disinterested love to our neighbor; even to the significant precept, "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Individuals neglect their bodies and minds, and what is the consequence? Physical and mental diseases, which become a terrible bondage and calamity through life. Diseases seat, faults become habits. Parents neglect to give the proper instruction, and to exert the needful and indispensable restraint and good influence over their offspring. In quick time follows stubborn disobedience, ingratitude, mischief, lawless vice, and broken hearts. A Christian church slumbers, and sets a bad example, instead of rebuking and restraining the sins of the community around, and converting others from the error of their ways. And what is the consequence? General stupidity, irreligion, error, and vice, till disorders, mischief, depredations, incendiarism, and crime, imperil reputation, property, and even life. Parents, relatives, and professed Christians and moralists, allowed Bonaparte and his Frenchmen to grow up to manhood, without the needful instructions, restraints, and pious influences to form them virtuous citizens. And what was the consequence? The French Revolution, with its expenditure of millions of fortunes, rivers of human blood, and oceans of misery temporal; evils which are a mere prelude to infinitely greater evils to follow in the life to come. A ship-company imported a few Africans into one of the United States, and sold them as slaves. This outrage upon humanity was winked at, instead of being nipped in the bud, and what is the consequence? A dozen or more slave states, to be a pest to the nation, a moth and misery to themselves, and a spectacle of horror to the whole world. Such are some of the laws of nature, and they ought to be better understood. [See 629, 817, 895, 984.]

LEADERS AND GUIDES, LEARNING.

526. LEADERS AND GUIDES.

301

Those who talk like philosophers, and live like fools, are dangerous leaders.

Ed. The most common leader upon earth is an invisible one, who leads men captive at his will.

Ib. The popular "Guides to Christ," whether books or men, are often those who have never been taught of God.

527. LEARNING.

It is not what we read, but what we incorporate with our own minds, that makes us learned.

He is the best scholar, who hath learned to live well.

He that learns useful things, and not he that learns many things, is the wise man.

Learning is the ornament of youth, the honor of manhood, and the enjoyment of age.

Man has much truth to learn, but little time to live.

Learning enlarges, refines, and elevates the mind.

Em. He is a learned man, who understands one subject; a very learned man, who understands two.

Ib. It is easy to learn something about everything, but difficult to learn everything about anything.

Aristotle. Learning is an ornament in prosperity, a refuge in adversity, and an excellent provision for old age.

Antisthenes. That learning is most requisite, which unlearns

evil.

Em. Knowledge, next to religion, is the brightest ornament of human nature. It strengthens, enlarges, and polishes the human soul; and sets its beauty and dignity in the fairest light. Learning hath made astonishing distinctions among the different nations of the earth. Those nations, who have lived under the warm and enlightening beams of science, have appeared like a superior order of beings, in comparison with those, who have dragged out their lives under the cold and dark shades of ignorance. The Chaldeans and Egyptians, as well as the Greeks and Romans, while they cultivated the arts and sciences, far surpassed, in dignity and glory, all their ignorant and barbarous neighbors. Europe, since the resurrection of letters in

302

LEGACIES, LEISURE, LETTERS.

the sixteenth century, appears to be peopled with a superior species. And the present inhabitants of North America, owe all their superiority to the Aboriginals, in point of dignity, to the cultivation of their minds in the civil and polite arts. Learning has also preserved the names, characters, and mighty deeds of all ancient nations from total oblivion. A few learned men, in each nation, have done more to spread their national fame, than all their kings and heroes. The boasted glory of Britain, is more to be ascribed to her Newtons, her Lockes, and her Addisons, than to all her kings, and fleets, and conquerors. Ed. Those who will not learn here, shall be taught hereafter, to their sorrow and shame. [See 273, 514, 544.]

528. LEGACIES, PATRIMONIES, ETC.

Ed. If you would have your sons wealthy men, let their patrimony be a good reputation, and a habit of industry and economy.

Ib. Legacies, given as permanent funds to religious societies, organizations, and institutions, soon make anti-Christs o them. Hence the wise and good distribute their charitable funds while and where they can see them rightly applied.

The more you leave your heirs, the less will they mourn your death.

529. LEISURE.

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Spare minutes are the gold-dust of time -the portions of life most fruitful in good or evil; and the gaps through which temptations enter.

Ed. Leisure is a treasure, if rightly improved; a terrible curse, if abused.

230. LETTERS, THE ALPHABET.

Em. The ark was a small, elegant chest, which contained the two tables of the law, written by the finger of God in alphabetical letters. This was probably the first alphabetical writing in the world. Though the Egyptians and other heathen nations used to employ hieroglyphics, to record past events, and denote the actions and intellectual and moral qualities of men, yet they were totally ignorant of letters which compose words and sentences by their particular sounds. For there was no anaolgy be

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tween hieroglyphics and letters. Hieroglyphics were pictures, or signs, and conveyed ideas by their shape, without sounds. Letters convey ideas by their sounds, and not by their shapes. Though some conjecture that letters were a human invention, yet no author has presumed to tell us positively when, or where, or by whom, letters were first discovered; which is a strong presumptive evidence that no man ever did discover them; and consequently that they were at first revealed to Moses, at the giving of the law at mount Sinai. The law, contained in the ark, was the Hebrew Bible, written by the finger of God in alphabetical letters; and is now the oldest as well as the best book in the world.

Adams, J. Q. The employment of alphabetical characters to represent all the articulations of the human voice, is the greatest invention that ever was compassed by human genius. Plato says, "it was the discovery either of a god, or a man divinely inspired." The Egyptians ascribed it to Thot, whom the Greeks afterward worshipped under the name of Hermes. This is, however, a fabulous origin. That it was an Egyptian invention, there is little doubt; and it was a part of that learning of the Egyptians, in all of which, we are told, "Moses was versed." It is probable that, when Moses wrote, this art was, if not absolutely recent, of no very remote invention.

531. LEVITY.

A light and trifling mind never accomplishes anything great or good. Its tendency is to imbecility.

Ed. Levity always indicates a moral character minus in weight, like Belshazzar, who was "weighed in the balances, and found wanting."

Levity of manners is prejudicial to every virtue. [520, 579.] 532. LEWDNESS, LICENTIOUSNESS.

Incontinence produces imbecility of body and mind.
Sh. Lascivious metres, to whose venom-sound

The open ear of youth doth always listen.

Secker. If you would not step into the harlot's house, you should not go by the harlot's door.

Licentiousness proceeds from fulness of food, and emptiness of employment.

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