Benjamin Fiske Barrett

“ Everywhere and always life seeks that which is in agreement with its nature. Nothing else will satisfy its cravings. Such is the nature of the devils, that the scenery of hell, so dismal and repulsive to our imagination, is quite agreeable to them;—more beautiful, indeed, to their eyes than would be the splendors and magnificence of heaven. Their life being what it is—degraded, bestial, infernal—the objects that surround them are the very ones with which they are best pleased; for they suit their tastes, being in perfect correspondence with their life. ”

“ Having bound themselves to us by the strong cords of affection, when they are removed from earth to heaven, those everlasting cords remain, detaching our hearts from the things below, and gently drawing us to that upper world. And thus ten thousand golden chains are every year let down from the mansions of rest, to draw us upward to our heavenly home;—let down in mercy to the children of men, to bind more closely the heavens and the earth. The matchless love and wisdom here displayed, are such as no human tongue can utter, no pen of man record. ”

“ Or ask that youth or maiden who stands overwhelmed with anguish by the bedside of a dying father, mother, sister or brother, and feels as if the extinction of this mortal life were the end of human joys and hopes: Or ask that sad and thronging crowd who mourn the departure of those they love, and whose dark apparel is but a faint emblem of their darker sorrow, and the funereal gloom that shrouds to them the spirit-land,—ask them if a truthful revelation of the realities of that world to which their friends have so lately gone, would ring no comfort to their riven hearts. ”

“ Infinite love permits nothing to befall us, which infinite wisdom cannot in the end convert into a blessing. The sternest discipline of life, its most wearying vexations, its sorest disappointments, its hardest trials, its bitterest griefs—they are all permitted and overruled for our own or others' ultimate good. No cup of sorrow is proffered to our lips, but the hand of Infinite Love is there, ready and eager to make the bitter draught contribute to the best welfare of our own or others' souls. ”

“ While the more passionately he loves any object or being—it may be a woman, it may be wealth, it may be literary or scientific fame, it may be civil or military glory—the more alive and active he is. See how the lower kinds of love—the purely selfish and worldly—the love of gold or glory, incite men to days of toil and nights of watchfulness! And the higher and nobler kinds—loves purer and more angelic—are the springs of action in all men's higher and nobler achievements, in all deeds done to improve and bless mankind. Take away all love from human hearts, and what would men do then? ”

“ Do they not, on the contrary, act with sole reference to their own private interests, regardless of the welfare or the rights of their neighbor? Do not the past history and present condition of mankind prove that an absorbing and predominant selfishness is the withering curse of our race? Has it not eaten like a canker into the souls of men, and left its sad and sickening blight on every feature of human society?
And if we look into our own hearts, do we not there learn the same melancholy fact? Do we not find that self-love is naturally our ruling love? ”

“ There is the most perfect freedom coupled with unspeakable bliss; for every one acts as his ruling love prompts, but he loves nothing which is not good and true. Be his office high or low, he does precisely that which he is qualified to do best, and in the doing of which he finds a pure delight. Conscious that he could not be so useful or happy in any other sphere, he has no desire to be anywhere or anything else than he is. Whatever there is, therefore, of exaltation or subordination, of authority or obedience there, neither is felt or thought of as such, any more than in the human body. ”

“ And thus through all our journey from the cradle to the grave, Divinity in organic union with humanity; God in the person of Jesus Christ; God invested with our infirm nature; God living and laboring and suffering as man among men; God as Enlightener, Redeemer, Regenerator and Saviour,—the very embodiment on earth of all human and all divine excellence; God in a form approachable and comprehensible by finite minds; God able to come to us through the medium of his Divine Humanity, as the invisible soul of your friend comes to you through the medium of his visible body ”

“ And as self-love is the source of all other evil loves when it reigns supreme, therefore the devils are thoroughly immersed in evil. They are full of hatred, malice, craft and subtlety;—full of falsehood, tyranny, cunning and cruelty. Their life is one of unmitigated selfishness. It is their delight to do all manner of mischief;—to foment hatreds, strifes and divisions;—to stir up envies, jealousies and revenges—to intensify all the worst passions of the human heart;—to blind, and mislead, and if possible make slaves of, all who come within the sphere of their influence. ”

“ Nature no longer mourns or frowns, but greets us everywhere with benignant smiles. The very air seems balmy, as if laden with the perfume of flowers. The faces of friends beam with unwonted lustre. There is music in the rain's dull drizzle, and in the wind's low sigh. The aspect of the whole outward world is changed, and that which seemed so sombre and frowning but a little while ago, is now radiant with beauty and with smiles.
Such is the controling, power which our inner or subjective exerts over our outer or objective world, even here on earth. ”

“ BESIDES this outer world of matter, there is another realm of being;—a world of spirits, both good and evil;—a heaven of angels and a hell of devils. Nor is this realm remote from the world in which we are now living and acting, but intimately present with it, interpenetrating every part of it, as the soul of man pervades and animates every part of his body.
In the midst of this viewless host our own souls live and breathe and act. With one or another class of spirits we internally hold close companionship; and are powerfully influenced by them for good or for evil. ”

“ Who are those that love the bonds of marriage most intensely? Who contemplate wedded life with the highest delight, and find in it the purest and most abundant joy? Not the carnal-minded and vicious, but the most spiritual and richteous—those whose walk with God is closest and humblest, and who discharge with the greatest fidelity all their daily duties. Consorts whose character is nearest like that of the angels—provided there be some internal fitness of each to each—experience a pure and heavenly delight in marriage which the vicious can never know. ”

“ Why, indeed, but because new light has dawned on the world, making more and more manifest the things of darkness? Why, but because heaven has been opened, and the rejoicing beams of the spiritual Sun have begun to penetrate the dark corners of the earth, and compel the creatures of the night to retire to their hiding-places? ”

“ And the less passionately one loves, the more sluggish he is in thought and action—the less is he alive. So obvious is it that love is the quickener and enlivener of the human soul, the very fire of every man's life. ”

“ The outer is ever taking on the complexion of the inner world, even here. There are times when a dismal pall seems spread over all creation; when all around us seems like a desert; when the sweetest flowers are undelightful, and the laughter of children has no music to our ears, and the faces of dearest friends no beauty to our eyes;—times when the loveliest scenes in nature—the brightest sunshine and the verdant earth—have for us no cheerful smile, but rather an indignant frown. ”

“ They turned the light that was originally in them into darkness—God's love into hatred—just as the henbane and fox-glove convert the sun's light and heat and the sweet dews of the morning into malignant poisons. God's life in men thus became changed into its opposite—into the life of hell. ”

“ What perfect concert of action!—all the more perfect because of their diversity. With what beautiful brotherly love do they all work together, and what tender regard has each for the welfare of all the rest! If one is out of order, all the others are more or less uncomfortable. If one suffers, all the rest sympathize and suffer with it. It is a law—and herein we have a beautiful illustration of the great law of brotherhood—that each shall discharge its appropriate function, not apart from the others and for the sake of itself alone, but in harmony with and for the welfare of all the rest. ”

“ If what has been said concerning the beauty of the angels is to be accepted as true, it follows that they do not grow old; or, at least, that age does not plow such furrows in their faces as it does in the faces of men. For we all recognize something comparatively unbeautiful in the wasted cheek, the lustreless eye, and the furrowed brow of old age. The faces and forms of men and women at ninety—however pure and innocent the lives they have led—would rarely be thought beautiful. They seldom—never, indeed—at that age realize our highest conception of the human form. ”

“ And mark the signs of this Second Coming—the consequences of this newly risen Sun. Mark how its piercing beams are dispelling the old darkness!—how they have already pervaded with their light and life nearly every department of human thought! Under their quickening influence the human intellect has everywhere burst its old swathing-bands, and leaped forth with unprecedented vigor. And on the natural plane what a magnificent harvest already begins to wave! Science, literature, philosophy, art, industry, politics, morals and religion have all begun to feel the influence of the Second Coming. ”

“ In view of such sublime revealings, what a precious boon is heaven!—yet a boon which all are made capable of attaining, and which it is the Lord's ceaseless desire and effort to help us to attain. There flows forever the stream of the water of life, and forever increases in crystal clearness. There the fountains of wisdom are ever fresh, and the flame of love burns with ever-increasing fervor. ”

“ Labor is rest to the active and energetic spirit. To not a few minds, congenial activity, eager, absorbing, all but incessant, is the element in which they find repose. And the ardent and enthusiastic soul, conscious of power, and delighting in work that calls it forth, will sometimes seem to enjoy perfect serenity only in the whirl of occupation, as the bird on the wing, in the flow of joyous strength, while it cleaves the air at fullest speed, yet seems as if at rest, poised on its outspread pinions. ”

“ The head needs the foot, and the heart the hand, no less than the foot needs the head or the hand the heart. Even the hair and nails and the coarse cuticle on the soles of the feet have their use, and add to the beauty, completeness and perfection of the whole.
Behold, here, then, in the human body, a representative image of heaven!—the most perfect image of order, harmony, unity, freedom, mutual dependence and brotherly love! ”

“ Go ask that mother as she bends over the body of her departed child, and presses upon its marble brow the last fond tribute of a mother's love:—Ask her if she could find no solace in the assured conviction that her little one is now in the tender embrace of loving angels—yes, and brighter, healthier, happier, too, and fuller of exuberant life and bounding joy than ever before. ”