standard of feeling and action, and cultivate the habit of trying
ourselves by this, and this alone; inquiring daily, "Oh, am I benevolent
as Christ?" "Do I sympathize with him over a ruined world?"

3. That God created us to occupy a position near himself. As all our
springs are in him, communion with him was to be our life and joy. We
were to be full of God; to see him everywhere and in everything, and to
value nothing only as the work of his power, the fruit of his love, or
as showing forth his praise. We were to dwell so far up the mount, that
earthly objects would appear insignificant; approach continually its
lofty summit, till our views of the world and the glory of it should
harmonize with God's views of them; for not only were our feelings to
accord with Jehovah's; but also our sentiments concerning sublunary
things were to be in unison with his own. So familiar were we to be
with the glories of our spiritual existence; our tastes and moral
sensibilities were designed, by intercourse with Infinite Purity, to
become so elevated and refined, that the glitterings of gold, and the
fascinations of wealth, would fail to charm. Our home was to be so near
the throne, that its light would perpetually shine in upon our souls;
its spirit always bathe our spirits; so that seraph-like, possessing the
benevolence of heaven, we should breathe the love of heaven on all
around.

4. That merely becoming rich is not the great object for which we were
sent into the world. Man's being aims at a higher goal. This is a
point which should be distinctly understood; and to bring out the
thought clearly, I will make two distinctions. 1. The very obvious
difference between benevolence and indifference to property or its
acquisition. Benevolence means "wishing well," and beneficence "doing
well," to others. Benevolence, then, bears no resemblance to