Now I do not intend to throw out any such flings as, “comparisons are odious”—­“this is the modern Christian age”—­“the age of Christian privileges,” and all that sort of nonsense.  Still, I am rather inclined to the opinion, that if we were all—­in and out of the Church—­disposed to live up to, or carry out what we professedly know to be right, it would be almost as difficult to find real trouble, as it is now to find real happiness.

The sources of contentment and discontentment are discoverable, therefore, without going into a metaphysical examination of the subject.  Just in proportion as we happen to discharge, or neglect known duties, are we, according to my view, happy or miserable on earth.  Philosophy tells us that our happiness and well-being depends upon a conformity to certain unalterable laws—­moral, physical, and organic—­which act upon the intellectual, moral, and material universe, of which man is a part, and which determine, or regulate the growth, happiness, and well-being of all organic beings.  These views, when reduced to their simple meaning, amount to the same thing, call it by what name we will.  Duties, of course, imply legal or moral obligations, which we are certainly legally or morally bound to pay, perform, or discharge.  And certain it is, there is no getting over them—­they are as irresistible as Divine power, as universal as Divine presence, as permanent as Divine existence, and no art nor cunning of man can disconnect unhappiness from transgressing them.  How necessary to our happiness, then, is it, not only to know, but to perform our whole duty?

One of the great duties of man in this life, and, perhaps, the most neglected, is that of doing good, or benefiting one another.  That doing good is clearly a duty devolving upon man, there can be no question.  The benevolent Creator, in placing man in the world, endowed him with mental and physical energies, which clearly denote that he is to be active in his day and generation.

Active in what?  Certainly not in mischief, for that would not be consistent with Divine goodness.  Neither should we suppose that we are here for our own sakes simply.  Such an idea would be presumptuous.  For what purpose, then, was man endowed with all these facilities of mind and body, but to do good and glorify his Maker?  True philosophy teaches that benevolence was not only the design of the Creator in all His works, but the fruits to be expected from them.  The whole infinite contrivances of everything above, around, and within us, are directed to certain benevolent issues, and all the laws of nature are in perfect harmony with this idea.

That such is the design of man may also be inferred from the happiness which attends every good action, and the misery of discontentment which attends those who not only do wrong, but are useless to themselves and to society.  Friend K——­’s case, above quoted, is a fair illustration of this truth.