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no wrong is not good;
72 LIGHT FROM THE
because for any thing to be good, it must do good; and doing good is not
remaining idle, when the calls for relief ring in our ears from winter to
summer, and summer to winter, from all conditions where the plague of
ignorance scatters its mournful desolation, and where the awful wretchedness
of worldly policy controls the works of man. We see what we will expose. We
see men, women, and children, writhing under a policy which neither God nor
angels can approve. We see them groaning under a system which withers
every soul with evil, which no policy other than divine can cure; because two
wrongs never make one right, and two evils never make one good. We see
what no man in the body can see without our aid. We see one policy
conflicting with another. We see wrong and evil disputing and wrangling with
each other, and whole empires convulsed with the policy of worldly interest.
We see anarchy and insubordination to laws, established on the basis of
human policy, converting men into machines for mischief, and making
machines of men to convert others to worse than mercenary outcasts. We see
whole nations, writhing over the fire of jealousy, and burning over the coals
of wretchedness. We understand the secret. Policy is what has done all this.
Policy is what will cure all this. Policy is what we shall study and use, and
policy is what we shall oppose and overcome. But when? When the world
shall write, preach, and publish, as we write, preach, and publish. When
writing, preaching, and publishing shall be subservient to our control, or to the
wisdom which controls us. And not till then. How long that will be, progress,
in the knowledge of the truth to the wisdom of God, must answer. We see
only a gleam of light on the face of the earth. We see gross darkness baffling
almost every effort to dissipate the gloom. We see
SPIRIT WORLD. 73
the policy which closes the gates of entrance against us. We see the reason
which men employ, the why and the wherefore of their opposition. We see
some have concerns which need not be told, fears which should be
commiserated, doings which solicit no revealment, wrongs which afford them
subsistence, errors which are a monopoly in crime, evils which cover their
souls like sores of leprosy, wounds which degrade and disgrace by exposure,
minds which will what is congenial to no reform, hearts which spurn advice
from angels, feelings which sympathize in word and deed with ulcers of
corruption, festering on the back of slaves, and man wronging man without
remedy or restoration. We have sympathized and relieved, while they have
scorned and derided. We have toiled and labored, while they have wondered
and abused. This is the policy of men. This is the gratitude of men. This is the
folly of men. This is the wages of ignorance. This is the reward of mischief.
This is the doing of policy a policy which subverts the good of the world a
policy which stains the soul with blemish that weary years of repentance can
not remove a policy which time nor eternity can overcome, while the will of
man is set in its favor; while the mind hugs it with the affection of a brother,
and nurses it as a child whose good demands its everlasting protection. Yes:
this is policy; but who admires, who adores, who loves, who obeys its
mandates? Look over the history of the present era! Look over the history of
angel visits to the sphere of man. Who writes, who preaches, who publishes,
without consulting the ignorance and approbation of men? Alas! Who?
We will answer. He who writes, preaches, and publishes, that which does
good, that which does no evil, that which wrongs no man but benefits all. He
is the man whose policy is governed by the
74 LIGHT FROM THE
wisdom of heaven. He seeks good, and his works prove it. He stands like an
oasis in the desert, like a pillar in the temple of God, like a ship on the wave
of waters, like a rock on columns of granite, like a planet on the circle of
spheres, like a world on worlds of affinity, like a man who acknowledges a
responsibility to God and a duty to others. His policy will stand when rolling
years shall vanish away. It will not be moved when crumbling earths and
wider seas shall sink to rise no more. It will be forever wise, and forever good
as wise.
Minds will show wisdom or folly. The day will come when works will reveal
their merit or demerit. The day has come when spirits see who seeks to please
God, and who covets the approbation of worldly wisdom. The eyes of the
upper world are on the lower. The works of iniquity, as the works of good, are
all within our vision. No retreat can conceal crime from us. Its naked
deformity overcomes the midnight. No wisdom of man can hide the sins
which open to our view. No work or device escapes the inspection of God. All
things written, preached, and published, never can, and never will, pass the
judgment of his bar, without a just recompense of reward. He sits on the
throne of the universe, and, that throne is the invisible presence of his infinite
justice. He loves, but he rewards. He chastens, but he loves. He lays open the
sores of disease, but he cures. He writes, but nature is the parchment. He
preaches, but it is a still and sweet voice that breathes words of mercy on the
noiseless air. He publishes, but his book is worlds on worlds with infinity
superadded. No man can comprehend the wisdom of his writings. No man can
soar to the brightness of his message of love love which no imagination can
survey love which no mind can fathom love without centre or circle,
degree or limits, boundless as the immensity
SPIRIT WORLD. 75
of his works, eternal as the durability of eternity, and unchanging as the
structure of his mind is infinite. No mind need wish what is not his to give,
nor hope what is not his will to grant; for vain must be the attempt to wish or
hope for mercies beyond the measure of his wisdom to bestow, or love to
grant to mind in the progress of its development.
Works produce changes changes in men and things changes in conditions
and relation changes in morals and religion changes in duties and
obligations changes in social and civil contracts changes in government
and discipline changes in rewards and punishments changes in customs
and habits changes in means and measures changes in every thing but
what is unchangeable. Change is nothing new, as a change, but all changes
develope new things. When change comes over mind or matter, the thing
changed is different it is not what it was before. Change is work, work is to
change. Change is to change what is supposed requires a change. All
suppositions, however, are not useful. All changes, wrought upon
suppositions, are not beneficial. Suppositions are not always facts. Changes
wrought not on facts are false to progress, false to happiness, false to the good
of man. Supposition is often mischievous, and works of mischief are works of
wrong. When men desire a change, they will be wise to consult the facts
concerned in the change. If they overlook the facts, the change may be
ruinous. When men consult facts, they can not be deceived; but when they
reason from suppositions, mischief may ensue. When men suppose, they
suppose upon probabilities. Probabilities are not always facts. When
probabilities are not facts, disappointments must result. When men are [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]