LD 4622 1878 Copy 1 THE PROPRIETY Acknowledging the. Lord IN ALL OUR WAYS. PREACHED BEFORE THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY,, June i6th, 1878. _ BY JAMES McGOSH, D.D., LL.D., PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS. - PRINCETON: McGINNESS & RUNYON. 1878, THE PROPRIETY OF Acknowledging the Lord IN ALL OUR WAYS. PREACHED BEFORE THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, June i6th, 1878. BY JAMES McCOSH, D.D., LL.D., PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE. NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS. 1878, '-^i:'' ^ W EXCHANGE JAN Z\ I92t Edward O. Jenkins' Print, 20 N. William St. THE PROPRIETY Acknowledging the Lord IN ALL OUR WAYS. '' In all thy ways acknowledge Hijn and He shall direct thy Path.''''— Vxo\. iii. 16. " A man^s heart deviseth his way^ but the Lord divecteth his steps.'''' — Prov, xvi. 9. '' There are many devices in a man's heart : nevertheless the coun- sel of the Lord^ that shall stand.''''— Vxow. xix. 21. IT is very interesting to look on a company of young people, such as I now see before me. We shall find that the wise man has some lessons to them. I. Let us look at the many ways before the YOUNG. As the sky bends all around him, the boy regards his father's house as the center of the world, and in a sense it is so to him as is every other spot in which he may be. In a like way every man's present position, rather than the past or the future, is the center of his world — his sky bends all around it. The whole of his past has come down to it ; his future starts from it. All the roads lead to it ; all the roads go out from it. In the metropolis of this country the streets go out toward the various States. From 4 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNO WL EDGING the point they have reached, the young men may look out on the ways spread before them. There are the professioual walks anxiously regard- ed by thoughtful youths : the learned professions, business, farming, travel, literature, science, the pas- toral, the missionary office. There are the various motives and ends seen at a distance, which would lead you to enter these walks, such as wealth, fame, fash- ion, usefulness in the church or world. Some set one of these aims before them and pursue it eagerly. Most mingle more or fewer of these ends in all kinds of ill-assorted and undefined proportions, leading to very incongruous lives. There are ways before you which lead through time into eternity, and through eternity itself. There is the wide gate, and many going in thereat, with a number of paths going out from it : the path of pleas- ure with flowers on either side ; and the path of am- bition with promised crowns apparently ready to be placed on your brow ; but v;ith the issues carefully concealed, the dismal swamps, the deseits strewn with the carcasses of slain reputations, and the end of the whole everlasting darkness. There is the strait gate where you have to leave your sins be- hind you, that you may go unburdened with a pros- pect ever becoming more pleasant under a shaded avenue, and ever and anon opening to you glimpses of the city which hath foundations. These two gates are before you ; you must enter one or the other. Choose ye this day which ye will take. A curious sight would be disclosed to us, if we THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS, 5 could have a horoscope to reveal to us the coming destiny of those now before me. Suppose the class- roll were called at a certain time in the future, say ten or twenty years hence, and as the name came up, a note taken as to the position of each one. How divers the marks we would have to take down. The ma- jority we might still find toiling in one or other of the dusty walks of life, not having yet reached their end, but still laboring in hope. Some are prosper- ing ; others have met with one disappointment after another. Some are already wealthy ; more, perhaps, have still to struggle for the bare means of subsist- ence. A few have reached an eminence more or less lofty ; most are still climbing the hill. Some we may fear are living for self and for this world ; others, we trust, are living for God and to do good. Many, we hope, are sustaining a high character ; one or more have fallen through pride and lust, and are living with a blackened character. It is certain that for a num- ber, less or more, others have to answer ; for they have been called away to the other world, where their destiny is fixed forever : their friends believing that they are in the land of light and love; but some, alas ! — the experience of the world leads us to make the supposition — leaving behind them a name, which their friends seldom mention, because it is as offen- sive as the odors which issue from an open grave. But from our present point, we can not thus look into the future, and ascertain what is to be the particular lot of any one. God has in wisdom and in kindness drawn an impenetrable veil over the details of the 6 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNOWLEDGING future, and all that we may attend to the duties of the present. We can, indeed, see in a general way, that those who pursue an evil course will, sooner or later, be visited with God's righteous judgment ; and that those who walk in the right way will be encouraged and strengthened, and reach a blessed termination in this world or the next. Beyond this no one has any vision of what is to come ; and it is well that it is so, as premature disclosures, if gloomy, might unfit us for exertion, and, if bright, might slacken our energy. So, from our present position, our duty is to choose the proper path and walk steadily in it. II. Let us consider the heart as devising its WAY. The heart, as the word is now used, stands for the feelings. But it should be observed that the word ** feelings " is not used in Scripture, and the word ** feeling'' occurs only twice, and in neither case in our sense of the phrase. Some are spoken of in Eph. iv. 19, as being ^^ past feeling," aatXyua^ past modesty ; and in Heb. iv. 15, Jesus is said to be ** touched with a feeling of our infirmities,'' Gviinadrjroi:, with a sym- pathy. Nor is there in the Greek or Roman languages a word of exactly the same meaning as our '' feelings." The phrase used in Scripture is a more comprehensive and expressive one, *^ heart," denoting something deeper than mere floating or fleeting emotions. We read in Scripture again and again of the '^ imagina- tions," the 'devices," the ^Vthoughts," the ''pur- poses " of the heart. THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS, 7 In the Word of God the phrase *' heart '' denotes what we now call the ^' Motive " part of man*s nature (the Orecl iv^e of Aristotle), that which raises up de- sire and leads to action. It embraces the springs of action, the *^ heart, out of which are the issues of life.'* It denotes not so much the streams as the fountain out of which they flow. It is the choosing, the moving power, out of which come our projects, purposes, devices, plans, in thought and imagination, as well as our affections and feelings. Hence we read, Prov. xvi. I, of '^ the disposings of the heart.*' Had this meaning of the word been kept in view, we should have been saved an immense amount of confused and confusing controversy as to whether faith, whether religion, is an affair of the feelings or the understand- ing. Faith is an operation of the heart — " with the heart man believeth" — but of the heart in the enlarged sense of Scripture, embracing will and motive and purpose, being specially ^^ trust," the word used in the Old Testament. We see how wide and compre- hensive the command, *' Keep thy heart with all dili- gence, for out of it are the issues of life." It directs that the fountain be made pure, that the streams may be pure. The work of Christ, when He enters the heart, must be of the same kind as that of the good King Heze- kiah, when he entered the Temple which had been so polluted during the reign of his predecessors. On approaching it, he sees the porch shut up; on en- tering it by force, he finds the golden candlestick, which, for ages, had burned with light from heaven. 8 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNO WLEDGING extinguished in darkness. When a Hght is brought what a scene is disclosed ; the vessels of the house of the Lord cut in pieces, and the house of the Lord filled with all uncleanness. The altar was still there, but no holy incense had for years risen from it. And what was the first work of Hezekiah in these circum- stances? It was a work of overthrow and purifica- tion, and for long successive days were the Levites employed in bringing out these abominations from the Temple, and casting them into the brook Ke- dron. Now, there is such a scene disclosed to our view when God opens the heart which should have been His temple, and there must, in the first instance, be a similar work of overthrow. Or, rather, the work more nearly resembles that in which Hezekiah's son, the ungodly son of a pious parent, engaged in his declining life when he was brought to know that ^^ the Lord he is God." That poor man had made his children pass through the fire to Moloch, and reared up altars to Balaam, and altars to all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and set a carved image, the idol which he had made, in the. house of the Lord. But, on being brought to repentance, he has to enter the Temple, and undo all his work. ^^And he took away the strange gods and the idol out of the house of the Lord, and the altars which he had made in the mount of the house of the Lord, and in Jerusalem, and cast them out of the city." Now, the Vv^ork in which the sinner, brought to see his sin, has to engage, more nearly resembles the work of Manasseh than the THE LORD IN ALL OUR IV A YS. g work of Hezekiah ; for the deeds which he has to undo are his own deeds, the altars and idols which he has to cast down are the altars and idols which he had raised. And what a scene is beheld by him, and beheld by him with dismay, and with all the greater dismay, because he used to survey it with pleasure and complacency ! Here is pride blocking up the very entrance ; here is covetousness, which is idolatry ; here is vanity, a carved image, and lust and passion, with their abominations nestling in this spot and in that spot, in the very temple of God. There is need of a work of preparation. There must be a way prepared by and for the Lord. In order that the heart may be pure, it must first be purified, and to have it purified is our first duty. Our first duty is not to do certain works : to give alms, to keep the Sabbath and give up particular sins ; all these are duties and important duties, but they are not the first, though they should immediately follow, or rather go along with, the first. When a man's body is diseased, his first duty is to be rid of the malady. When a man's house is on fire, his first business is not to furnish or adorn it, but to extinguish the flames. So the first work of a sinner, under sin and condemnation, is to be delivered from the fatal mal- ady, from the consuming fire. The first care of the burdened pilgrim is to be rid of his load, that he may pursue his journey. This is the decisive step in the Christian's life ; it is, in fact, the crisis of his being. It is called the '' new birth," '* conversion," '' regener- ation ;" it is the step by which we are born into the I o THE PROPRIE TV OF A CKNO WLEDGING kingdom of heaven, as by our natural birth we were born into the world. Till this change is wrought in him, the devices of the man's heart are sure to be worldly, sinister, perverted, crooked. Even when we would do good, evil is present with us. While alto- gether unaware of it, we may be swayed by selfish and ungodly motives, leading us into one sin after another. The diseased eye needs to be rectified be- fore it can see things in their proper form and color. But being so purified, we are now ready to discern our way. It is a man's duty to devise his way, to choose a way among those spread out before him. God has given him faculties for this purpose ; among others, powers of observation and of discernment. He can look back on his past experience and gather wisdom from it. He can take the advice of friends in whom he has confidence, that they know the world and mankind, and have a regard for him. He should calmly survey the position in which he is placed, and his prospects as to any given line of life that may be open to him. He may survey his bodily strength and determine whether his health is likely to stand the labor which he has to undertake. He is called specially to estimate his talents, and to find what they are adapted to. This is somewhat difficult and delicate work, as men are often very inadequate judges of their own capacities, frequently overrating them, and so trying tasks beyond their strength, but at times through a morbid modesty underrating them, and so declining work which they could ac- THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS, 1 1 complish if only they had the courage to undertake it. Still, by means of trials of various kinds, success- ful and unsuccessful, the candid man will be able to ascertain what he is fit for. In a subordinate way the youth may consider not only his gifts, but his very tastes : as special tastes often proceed from special talents ; and as he is most likely to succeed in a line of life for which he has an inclination. Look- ing thus to his position and his capacities he may discover a fitness which determines for him his choice and his path. He may then go forward, feeling as if he had been dravv^n in, or shut in by God, who has not indeed spoken to him by an audible voice, but has called him by His Providence. Having thus weighed everything, and devised his way, he should set out courageously and hopefully, and pursue his way steadfastly, hearing by faith a voice behind him saying: "" This is the way, walk ye in it." This faith will impart a hope and an energy to him in the path he takes. Nothing can be more despicable than the aimless, inconsistent life w^hich many lead. If you ask them for what purpose they are living, they can scarcely tell you, for in fact they have no end before them, except to eat and drink, and act as others do, and according to the whim of the moment, or their surroundings at the time. There are youths to whom God gives a special call to enter on the work of the minister or the mis- sionary. A father or mother dedicated him, as Hannah did Samuel, to the service of the Lord in His temple, which is His Church. Prayers have been offered for him continually all toward this end. 1 2 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNO WLEDGING There has been a constant reference to it in the training in the family, in the school, and in the col- lege. Or prompted from above, he purposed at the time when he entered the Church to consecrate his life to the proclamation of the Gospel at home or abroad. He sees that he would serve higher ends, and be more useful in this service than in any other work. When he looks to all this, he should feel that the call is of God, and immediately obey. As he does so, he is not to be frightened by difficulties, or refuse to go forward because they are in the way, or until they are removed. " He that observeth the word shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.'' But when we hear the command, " In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand,'' let us go forth and obey, and the winds will blow in our favor, and the clouds discharge gracious showers. There is a timidity and a fear on the part of many that is cowardly. When God is calling for soldiers let us hasten to be enrolled. When the order is given, "' Speak unto the people that they go forward," let us go forward, even though the sea be rolling at our feet, and we shall find that God will make a way even in the depths of the sea for His people to pass in, and the waters shall be a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. HI. The Command is, Acknowledge the Lord in ALL THY WAYS. We should do so, if for no other reason, yet, for this, that while man may have many THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS, 13 devices, *^ the counsel of the Lord, it shall stand/' We should plan, but should all the time remember that there is One above us whose plans overrule ours, to thwart them or bring them to a successful issue. God often shows that He is above man, and that He is stronger than man. We are all made to feel how dependent we are on Him. A youth sets out on his professional career with bright prospects of success, but is prostrated by disease and loses the tide, and knows not that another will rise in his favor. More than one of the grand old Greek plays teach that the gods carried their purposes not only in spite of the opposition of men, but by means of the very opposi- tion. It having been foretold that a son is to kill his father, the son is banished, in consequence, to a dis- tant country, but it is so ordered by fate that the son falls in with the father and murders him, without knowing who he is. The truth thus brought out strongly, but rudely, by those old poetical moralists, is clearly and accurately declared and illustrated in the Old Testament by numerous incidents. Thus, Ahitophel, who had all his life been a man of deep policy, on his abandoning David at the time when Absalom rebelled, is detected and exposed in the view of the whole world, and lays violent hands on himself. Haman is suspended on the gallows which he had erected for the execution of a noble-minded Jew. *^ The wicked," says the Psalmist, "^ are caught in their own snare." We are to acknowledge the Lord in all our ways. We are to acknowledge Him at starting, that He may 14 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNO WLEDGING keep us from setting out on the wrong path. We are to acknowledge Him throughout, lest He abandon us at a critical time, the time of danger and temptation, and leave us to walk in our own way, which may be one of folly ending in misery. You remember how the children of Israel, without consulting God, en- tered into a treaty with the Gibeonites, who deceived them, and were allowed to dwell in the land where for ages they were as thorns in the sides of the chil- dren of Israel, and on one occasion came down upon them with nine hundred chariots of iron and oppress- ed them mightily. We are to acknowledge Him by constantly and habitually looking to His Word, es- pecially to His law in the Old Testament form, rigid and unbending, and the New Testament form, com- prised in the Sermon on the Mount, irradiated all over with the smiles of love beaming from the coun- tenance of Jesus. For this purpose we should read a portion of it daily, that its precepts may be kept be- fore us. Even when we are not thinking of a par- ticular passage, we will be walking in the light of God's law shed around us, as we walk in the light of the sun even when we are not looking directly at it. Walk- ing thus we will draw back from whatever is discoun- tenanced by that law ; and not act as Balaam did w^hen, lured by the wages of iniquity, he went on his way without leave from God, and did not take the warning of the angel with the drawn sword standing across his path, and in the end perished in his sin. In that light we shall see light, and see openings of usefulness on the right, hand and on the left. THE LORD IN ALL GUR WA YS, 15 We are to acknowledge Him by prayer offered daily, as the day opens and the day closes, and by ejaculatory petitions from time to time, rising calmly out of the midst of the bustle and temptations of life, reaching the ear of God and moving His arm for our protection and deliverance. There may be prayer where no words are uttered, as we read of Hannah's prayer being offered and heard by God when Eli standing by perceived nothing but her lips moving. Nay, the heart may be moved when the lips are not. We are commanded to *^ pray always," to " continue instant in prayer." Not that every instant we are using the language of prayer, not even that at all times our feelings may be strong and lively ; but we are to cherish a prayerful and devotional spirit of mind, which is to be very much like the sacred fire which the priests kept continually burning on the altar ; that fire was not always rising into a flame, but it was always there ready to rise into a flame, morning and evening, and on other occasions when the sacrifice was laid upon it. In like manner we must never allow the fire of devotion to be extin- guished in our hearts ; it must be always there, ready to break forth into fervent feeling, and utterances when circumstances admit and require it. It has to be added that, while we can pray without words, we will find it useful generally to pray in the use of words, either breathed by the lips or breathed in the heart. When we would pray without any verbal expression, the thoughts are apt to wander, and be- come scattered and distracted hither and thither upon 1 6 THE PROPRIE TV OF A CKNO WLEDGING the mountains of vanity; or should we succeed in preventing this, the mind apprehends everything dimly, and may sink into a state of painful vacancy. Even in secret we may find it expedient to employ fit words to restrain the imagination and to call forth and guide the feelings. Words may not, in them- selves, be of much value, but they are a channel in which the waters of the affections flow. They are, as it were, the vessel which contains the incense pre- sented before the Lord ; they are the cords which bind the sacrifice to the altar, that our prayers '* may be set forth before the Lord as incense, and the lift- ing up of our hands as the evening sacrifice.'' Schleiermacher, the great German theologian, repre- sented the essence of religion as consisting in a sense of dependence on God. This is a mistake ; it would make religion too like the obedience which a dog renders to its master. The essence of religion and of all virtue consists in love — in love to God, and love to man, rendered because it is due, and leading us to bow before God and to do His will. This is the essence of religion to all intelligent beings throughout the universe. Religion to those who are sinners consists in believing — in believing in Christ the Saviour, in surrendering ourselves, and following Him in love. They who come fully under its power walk with God. They have the privilege of access to Him at all times. They can unbosom themselves to Him as a man does to his friend, and find relief in doing so. They walk in a way prepared for them : in a way shut in for them ; it may be, by thorns on the right side and THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS, 17 the left ; but all that they may be kept from wan- dering, and protected from intruders coming in upon them from the waste. At any one point in the jour- ney they may see but a very little way before them ; but they see the path defined as for the time present, and they walk on under a shady canopy, having a glimpse ever and anon of the restored Para- dise toward which they are traveling. IV. The Lord directs our steps. God has two special ways of directing us. There is His Provi- dence, which has formed a path for us through this world, which is as tangled as a forest, and draws or drives us into it. The road has windings of which we do not see the meaning at the time ; but "" what thou knowest not now thou shalt know hereafter " ; as we discover that the road struck off at that place to avoid a mountain, or a precipice, which would have interrupted our progress, or a river into which we might have fallen. When the children of Israel went out of Egypt, the Lord did not lead them by the near way — which was the way of the Philistines, a warlike people, who would have fallen upon them and slain them ; but by the wilderness, where they were purified by the air of the desert, and saw His won- ders in the manna lying on the bare waste, and water flowing from the smitten rock, and the pillar of cloud by day, ever kindled into the pillar of fire by night. He led them forth, not by the near way, but " by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. 1 8 " THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNO WLEDGING At the time we may not see it to be the right way. "All these things are against me/' was the language which Jacob was tempted to use on one occasion. And at the time all things seemed to be against him. His favorite son went out in youthful buoyancy to visit the encampment of his brothers, and the only record of him was his coat dipped in blood, indicat- ing that he had been torn by wild beasts. Beset by famine, he sent out ten of his sons to buy corn in Egypt ; and nine of them returned to tell how one of them had been retained as a prisoner, and would not be released unless the- youngest brother were sent to that country. We do not wonder that in these circumstances the expression should ha«ve escaped him, "AH these things are against me.'* But as he followed reluctantly the will of God, he was made to see that the departure of Joseph was the means of preserving the whole family from famine and furnishing a refuge for the race on which hung the destinies of mankind; and in allowing his Ben- jamin to go, it turned out that the whole household was reunited and preserved. He then saw, to use the language of a man of stronger faith in a more advanced age, " that all things work together for good to them that love God and are the called ac- cording to His purpose." It is a characteristic of the Old Testament that it shows us the path by which believers are led ; while they walked in it, it seemed tortuous to them ; but the Bible discloses the issue. Many an aged Christian is able, ere he departs, to testify that an unseen hand has been guiding him. I THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS, ig am still on the journey, and do not yet see the inten- tion of all I have passed through ; but I find it curious and instructive to note that the few offices I coveted and applied for were not given me, and that the important offices in the Church and in the col- leges which I have held in two countries, were offered me without any application whatever on my part. I believe that, when we reach heaven, we will a.l see the wisdom of the way in which we have been led ; not the way we should ourselves have chosen, but a far better way. In these days, when physical science is studied in a narrow and exclusive spirit, people confuse them- selves as to the possibility of God answering prayer and accomplishing His ends. The laws of nature are so fixed, they say, that there is nothing for God, if there be a God, but to lay by and see them working. They forget, in the first place, that the laws of nature are, in fact, the laws of God ; as the Psalmist express- es it, *^They continue this day, according to Thine or- dinances, for all are Thy servants.'' This was a truth clearly seen and often expressed by the eminent phi- losopher lately taken from us, who was so long and intimately connected with this College, who was, for years past, the head of the science of this country, who w^as described by Brewster as the successor of Franklin in America, and who discovered those scien- tific principles which made it possible to communi- cate with lightning velocity with the most distant parts of the earth : he delighted to ascribe all the operations of nature to God. 20 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNO WLEDGING I could show you, if time admitted and the occasion were appropriate, that the predestination, so express- ly laid down in Scripture, is the same as the uniform- ity of nature as established by modern science. It is one and the same truth seen under different aspects, the one from above, on the side of God and heaven, and the other from below, on the side of man and of the earth. Both are quite consistent, on the one hand, with the freedom of man, who may use these agents to accomplish his ends ; and, on the other hand, with the freedom of God, who thus executes His eternal purposes. They forget that in order to an end there is need not only of laws, but an arrangement, an adjustment of these laws. In that machine there is need not only of wheels, joints, straps, cylinders, but of a distribution of them, and a fitting of them one to another, in order that it throv/ off its valuable products in wool, cotton, or metal. So in the mighty works of God, there are not only laws, but a colloca- tion of laws, not only agencies, but an adjustment of agencies in order that He may guide and protect His creatures. The eye looking up to the sky can see a star millions of miles away, and this not merely be- cause of the laws of light and the laws of the coats and humors of the eye, but because the light from that distant object is suited to our organism. It is by such pre-arrangements that God gives an answer to the prayer of faith and fulfills His promises to His peo- ple, "The very hairs of our head are all numbered.'' "A sparrow can not fall to the ground without Him." THE LORD IN ALL O UR^ WA YS. 2 1 But there is another way in which God directs our steps, and this is by means of His Word and Spirit. I put these two together, for in addressing us the Spirit acts through the Word, and the Word as an instrument needs the Spirit to wield it, and give it force. In His ordinary operations the Spirit does not reveal anything new; He simply applies the truths of God's Word to the conscience and to the heart, making them convince and convert, sanctify and comfort. On the other hand, the Word itself can not regenerate a soul ; it is merely the sword which the Spirit uses to the dividing asunder of the flesh and spirit. But by the Word and Spirit He is speak- ing to us as effectually as He did to His ancient people. True, He may not speak to us in the whirl- wind, as He once did to the patriarch Job, or visit us in earthquake, as He once did Jerusalem, or descend in fire, as He once did in answer to the prayer of Elijah ; but though the Lord is not in the strong wind, or in the earthquake, or in the fire. He address- es us in the still, small voice of His Word spoken by the Spirit. He speaks to us in the passages which we read. Nay, as v/e read, the truth impresses itself upon our hearts — as the words spoken to the phono- graph do upon the metal, and the law is written on the heart and speaks to us from day to day. With God's providence overshadowing him as an avenue, and with God's graca to buoy him up within, the Chris- tian v/alks on his way, leaning on the arm of Jesus as his beloved, and with heaven in his eye. 22 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNO WLEDGING Gentlemen of the Graduating Class : — Hav- ing completed an extended course of education of a general kind, you are now about to set out on your special professional walks. Some of you, I know, are very anxious, and so are your fathers, mothers, and friends, as to what line of life you should pursue. From the height you have now reached you will look into the country before you thoughtfully and care- fully. The atmosphere is somewhat dim, and the land woody and tangled ; you see the openings, but not the terminations, of the roads. In these circum- stances you should take counsel from Him who sur- veys all things from a greater height, and knows the end from the beginning. " Show me the way where- in I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto Thee." Every one in this life has to take his own way. The path in which we have to go has never been trodden by any one before us. No one, father or mother or friend, can go the whole way with us. With some now present the time has come when they have to go forth from the dear home in which they have been reared, and are no longer to be under the special care of those who have hitherto guided them so faithfully and tenderly. Every one has to cut a way for himself, as the ship has in the broad ocean ; it is to him a new one, he has to take it once for all, and can not return upon it. Every man has only one life; he has to live it only once; and he can not^ — though this is the vain wish of many an old man — live it over again. How important that you should choose the right way, and when you can THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS. 23 not have a human, to have a divine and infallible Guide. Your feeling this day will be a mixed one, partly of gladness and partly of sadness, that one stage of life has been run. You will have much the same feeling as the daughter has when she has to leave her mother's house, to enter into a house of her own, with one she can trust. You will have devices and hopes as to the new path on which you have entered ; but this will not prevent you from feeling sorrow in parting with the place which you have learned to love, and from companions with whom you have had pleasant social intercourse. I can not but feel an interest in young men who have been for years within our walls, and with whom I have come in contact weekly — in a sense, daily. I can sincerely say that, as I look back on your course here, I have no unpleasant, and many pleasant, mem- ories : of character developed, of progress in study, of attachments gained, and friendships formed among those who, long under me, now feel as if they are on the same level. We will remember you with in- terest and affection, and look forward to your future career with hope and expectation. We confide in you, that you will never do anything unworthy of the institution at which you have been trained, and which will cause your Alma Mater to be ashamed of you. You will, I trust, return from time to time to these pleasant heights, to visit these shaded walks, and these rooms so full of memories, to pay your respects to those who have taught you so faithfully. 24 THE PROPRIETY OF ACKNOWLEDGING who will follow your career with interest, and always be glad to renew their acquaintance with you. You have here enjoyed, you will admit, many privi- leges. You came to us while we were multiplying our teachers so as to subdivide our instruction and make it more efficient and embrace the important branches of knowledge taught in our best colleges, and furnishing our libraries and museums so as to en- able you to look into what has been done in the past and penetrate into the secrets of nature, and, I may add, beautifying our lawn and our buildings so as to elevate the taste by the objects pressing themselves on your notice. As vastly more important, you have had able and faithful instructors who have taken great pains to disclose to you the refinements of liter- ature, the truths of science, and the elevations of philosophy. Here, too, you have had the volume of inspiration opened and seen there more precious treasures than apparatus and books and lectures, and seen as in a glass the glory of the Lord revealed in the face of His Son. It is most interesting to us to find that the pre-eminent value of Scripture and the need and preciousness of the salvation in Christ were truths as firmly held by Dr. Henry as the principles of science which he did so much to advance — in this as in character honorable and pure, he has set an example to the youth of this College which they should delight to follow. We who have been placed over you, feel, I am sure, as if we had not always improved, as we should have done, our opportunities of doing good ; and THE LORD IN ALL OUR WA YS. 25 some of you may have to confess that you might have profited more than you have done by the instruction imparted. Some of us might wish that we could only this day make up for our defects. But this can not now be done. The past is past ; but we may and should remember that '' God requireth that which is past ; " we may ask forgiveness for the past, and require of it to give us lessons so that we may profit by our very failures, by avoiding int he future the mistakes of the past. Let us feel, however, that we are not to be contented with mere empty purposes ; v/e are ^^ to bring forth fruits meet for repentance." The model of rousing preaching who uttered these words used to address each particular class of his hearers as he saw they needed — bidding the publicans exact no more than had been appointed them, and the soldiers to do no violence to any man, and the self-righteous Jews not to trust to having Abraham as their father, and all to repent and believe. So, trusting that the memorable occasion may give impressiveness to my words, I say to you intending lawyers, see that ye yield to no crookedness ; and to you intending merchants, that ye be honorable in all your trans- actions ; to you journalists, that ye write only what ye know to be true, and to you ministers of the ever- lasting Gospel, that your aim be to win souls to Christ ; and to all, that ye live soberly, righteously, and- godly. Setting you forth with these purposes, the College now in parting with you, leaves its bless- ing on you and prays for a higher blessing. '' The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil ; He shall pre- 26 ACKNO WLEDGE THE LORD. serve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth even for- evermore." We may never meet again on earth. But there is one place where we must all meet, and that is at the judgment day, there to be re-united and never sepa- rated, or to be separated and never re-united ; how- ever widely you may be sundered on earth, you will all have to come together from the east and the west, the north and the south, and the earth and the sea will have to give up their dead. A roll will then be called, to which all will have to answer. How wretch- ed those who have hid their Lord's talent in the earth. How blessed those whose names are written in the Lord's Book of Life ; '' they rest from their labors and their works do follow them." LIBRARY OF CONGRESS mil 028 333 655 4 DR. McCOSH'S WORKS. I. LOGIC-LAWS OF DISCURSIVE THOUGHT : Being a Text-book of Formal Logic. i2mo. $1.50. The work has been reviewed lately (1876) in the leading philosophic peri- odical of Germany, the '• Zeitschift fur Philosophic," by Dr. Ulrici, one of the editors, who points out thie leading^ characteristics of the treatise and closes a long and able discussion with declaring, " 1 hesitate not to declare that Dr. McCosh's work is the best Text-book of Logic in the En- glish language." Dr. Uberweg, the famous historian of philosophy, de- clares that Dr. McCosh has made important additions to Logic. This work is used in a considerable number of the Colleges and Upper Schools of the United States and of Canada ; and strong testimonies have been given, both by teachers and pupils, in_ favor of its being practically adapted to the understanding of youth. It is brief, simple, and intelligible, and abounds in examples and illustrations. II. HISTORY OF SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY. 8vo. $4.00. This work bas been lately reviewed, with high commendations, by X)r. Dor- ner, of Berlin, in the '* JahrbticherfUr Deutsche Philosophic," and in Feb- ruary, 1878, by Prof. Ferri, one of the editors, in '"'• La Filosofia delle Scuole Italiane." III. THE METHOD OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT, Physical and Moral. 8vo. -1=2.50. : "• It is refreshing to read a work so distinguished for originality and sound- ness of thinking, especially as coming from an author of our own country." — Sir IViliiajJt Hamilton. IV. TYPICAL FORMS AND SPECIAL ENDS IN CREATION. By James McCosH,LL.D., and Dr. Dickie. 8vo. '^2.50. '' It is alike comprehensive in its range, accurate and minute in its details, original in its structure, and devout in its tone and tendency."— y^r^z/j, V. THE INTUITIONS OF THE MIND. New and Improved Edition. 8vo. $3-oo. - - ^^ It is the only scientific work adapted to counteract the school of Mill, Bain, and Herbert Spencer, which is so steadily prevailing among the students of the present generation."- — Lv7tdon Quarterly Revieiu., April., 1865. VI. A DEFENCE OF FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH. Being an Examination of Mr. J. S. Mill's Philosophy. 8vo. $3.00. "' The spirit of these discussions is admirable. Fearless and courteous, McCosh never hesitates to bestow praise when merited, nor to attack a heresy wherever found." — Congregational Reviezu, VII. CHRISTIANITY AND POSITIVISM. A Series of Lectures to the Times on Natural Theology and Apologetics. i2mo. $1.75. VIIL IDEAS IN NATURE OVERLOOKED BY DR. TYNDALL. Being an Examination of Dr. Tyndall's Belfast x\ddress. i2mo. Cloth. 50 cents. IX. THE DEVELOPMENT HYPOTHESIS. 50 cents. ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS. New York.