Page:Letters of Life.djvu/191

Rh It would be found the most effectual course to eradicate ill-will, revenge, and hatred, with all the bitter and baneful fruits that flourish within their dark enclosures. Benevolence would thus be quickened, humility made more profound, and the warm wish that all men be blest, ascend a constant and pleasing orison to a Deity whose nature is love.

Let us meditate more frequently on this inspired command. Formed as we are for social intercourse, the universal brotherhood of our kind should be an acceptable doctrine. The paired birds seek the shelter of one nest; all animals of gentle heart are gregarious; it is only the savage beast that chooses to stalk forth alone, prowling for prey and blood. To civilized man, the sweetest sound is the voice of man; the fairest sight, that countenance which was made in the image of its Creator. Christian faith, by sublimating these impulses, is able to make his purest delight consist in doing good—in expanding the circle of his charities; until, embracing the whole, household of humanity, he is moved in the ardor of devotion to spread the wants of "all men" before his Father and their Father, his God and their God.

A work on the subject of Prayer bears date among my early compositions. Its plan was threefold: first, all the instances recorded in Scripture of the efficacy