Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/247

 those in whom evil has been more and more subdued, and who have been continually gaining an ascendancy over self. I should be glad to awaken that disinterested self-sacrificing human love, both in you and in myself, as well as a more profound consciousness of our own spiritual nature, reliance on the divine principle within us, the innermost work of our loving, and on God's infinite love to that divine life. Nothing can harm us but infidelity to ourselves, but want of reverence for our own sublime spirit. Through failure in this respect we become slaves to circumstances and to our fellow men.” Everywhere, and on all occasions, one sees Channing turning to that divine teacher in the human breast, which is one with the divine spirit of God for the fulfilling of the law, and it is from this inward point of view that he regulated his outward conduct.

And never indeed has God's blessing more visibly rested upon a human being. How fresh, how full are the expressions of his joy and gratitude as he became older; how he seemed to become younger and happier with each passing year! He reproached himself with having enjoyed too much, with being too happy in a world where so many suffered. But he could not help it. Friends, nature, the invisible fountains of love and gratitude in his soul all united themselves to beautify his life. All only the more enlarged his sphere of vision, all the more, during declining health, increased his faith and hope in God and man, all the more his love for life, that great, glorious life!

It was during his old age that he wrote— “Our natural affections become more and more beautiful to me. I sometimes feel as if I had known nothing of human life until lately—but so it will be for ever. We shall wake up to the wonderful and beautiful in what we have seen with undiscerning eyes, and find a new creation without moving a step from our old haunts.”