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THE MANIFOLDNESS OF MAN. 
 
 BACCALAUREATE SERMON, 
 
 DELIVERED AT 
 
 ¥ILLIAMSTO¥N, MS. 
 
 JULY 31, 1859. 
 
 BY MARK HOPKINS, D.D, 
 
 President of Williams College. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CLASS. 
 
 TKH ' OF THE 
 
 yrriVf^RS'T^' ".f •^• 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PEESS OF T. R. MARVIN & SON, 42 CONGRESS STREET. 
 18 5 9. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, 
 
 By T. R. Marvin, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 

 SERMON. 
 
 LUKE I. 66. 
 
 WHAT MANNER OP CHILD SHALL THIS BE ? 
 
 ^ The circumstances preceding and attending the 
 ^ birth of John the Baptist, were extraordinary. As 
 Vhis father, Zacharias, then ''well stricken in years," 
 f^ " executed the priest's office before God in the or- 
 der of his course," " there appeared unto him an 
 angel of the Lord standing on the right hand of 
 the altar of incense," and foretold the birth of the 
 child. When Zacharias did not believe him, " the 
 angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that 
 stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak 
 unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. 
 And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to 
 speak, until the day that these things shall be per- 
 formed." Accordingly Zacharias was dumb until 
 the time came for naming the child. Then, after 
 he had written the name given by the angel, " his 
 mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue 
 loosed, and he spake and praised God." These 
 things " were noised abroad throughout all the 
 hill-country of Judea;" and it is not strange that 
 
" all they that heard them laid them up in their 
 hearts," or that they said, " What manner of child 
 shall this be V Of a child whose birth was thus 
 heralded and signalized, something extraordinary 
 could not fail to be expected. 
 
 But while this inquiry was thus naturally made 
 respecting John, may it not also be appropriately 
 made respecting every child that is born ? There 
 may be nothing extraordinary, either in connection 
 with the birth of the child, or with the child itself, 
 and yet that child shall be different from every 
 other child that ever was born, or ever shall be ; 
 and its capacities of development, and the possi- 
 bilities of its future, shall run in lines of such 
 divergency from those of every other, that we may 
 well ask respecting it, "What manner of child 
 shall this be T' 
 
 There is nothing in the works of God more 
 striking than the differences there are of things 
 that are similar, and the similarities of things that 
 are different. In the perception of these two we 
 have the element of science on the one hand, and 
 of practical skill on the other. So far as beings or 
 things are similar, they may be named alike, and 
 treated alike, and so a knowledge of one becomes 
 the knowledge of all. This is science. Through 
 this the individuals which God has made, vast as 
 they are in number and variety, are marshaled, and 
 ranged in regiments, and battalions, and companies. 
 In this, and so far as it goes, exceptions and indi- 
 vidualities disappear ; what seemed promiscuous 
 and irregular falls into order, and the universe 
 
assumes the appearance of troops marching and 
 countermarching in a grand review. But so far as 
 things are different, each individual must be studied 
 by itself, and treated by itself; and as differences 
 constantly appear, they furnish the occasion of 
 constant study. Thus it is that through similar- 
 ities the dictionary of human knowledge is greatly 
 abridged, while, through diversities, the faculties 
 are kept constantly awake. At the point where 
 we cease to discriminate differences, all interest 
 ceases from uniformity and monotony. At the 
 point where we cease to discern similarities, inter- 
 est again ceases from diversity and confusion. 
 
 But while these elements pervade the works of 
 God, while our scientific interest in those works 
 and practical power over them are from these, yet 
 are they nowhere more striking, and nowhere as 
 interesting to us, as in man. Every man has, and 
 as a man must have, the great features and char- 
 acteristics which make him a man, and yet how 
 infinite the diversity ! No two are there that look 
 alike, no two that think alike, no two that act 
 alike ; and doubtless this diversity will become 
 greater and greater, so long as they shall exist. 
 Here, and here only, in this diversity ever increas- 
 ing yet not divorced from unity, do we find the 
 basis of a harmony that shall also ever increase. 
 
 This diversity it was which was implied in the 
 question of the text. That referred not merely to 
 the childhood, but to the whole career of John. 
 What manner of man should he become ? What 
 part should he perform in the great drama of 
 
6 
 
 human affairs 1 Should he be a monarch, a con- 
 queror, a sage, a lawgiver ? Should he play over 
 again the old games of ambition, and pleasure, and 
 gain ? or should he be something new and fresh in 
 the world's history ] 
 
 The question supposes a great difference between 
 the child then, and what he would become. And 
 how great w^as that difference ! Now he is an in- 
 fant of eight days, with no visible distinction from 
 other infants ; just as helpless and dependent. A 
 Pharisee might have taken him under the enlarged 
 border of his garments, and have borne him through 
 the streets of Jerusalem, and no one have known it. 
 But pass on now thirty years, and what is he ] He 
 is " the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Pre- 
 pare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths 
 straight." He cries, and all Judea, and Jerusalem, 
 and the region round about Jordan are stirred, and 
 go out to him. He is the fulfillment of prophecies 
 made centuries before, the forerunner of the Mes- 
 siah, a bright and shining light, one of whom it 
 could truly be said, that of those born of women, 
 there had been none greater than he. 
 
 But great as this change was, there was nothing 
 in it so unusual as to attract attention. The man 
 attracted attention, but not the change. This was 
 so gradual, that wonder was superseded by famil- 
 iarity. It was but a single exemplification of a 
 general law. Hence I observe, in the first place. 
 
 That there is a great difference in all organic 
 ^ beings, between what they are at first, and what 
 we see them become. 
 
We might ask of any seed just germinating, 
 What manner of plant shall this be ] See ; here 
 is a point of green just visible. Look again. It 
 has become a violet, with its eye on the sun, 
 suffused with beauty, and throbbing with the pulses 
 of the universal life. Here is a filmy substance ; it 
 lies upon the palm of your hand, and a breath 
 wdll blow it away. From this, too, emerges a 
 point of green no larger than the other, and with 
 no perceptible difference between them. But this 
 shall become the elm with its pendent branches, 
 towering and spreading, the pride of the meadow. 
 We may ask the egg^ ' What manner of creature 
 shall this be ? ' Now there is in it a beating 
 speck — a mere point that pulsates. The philoso- 
 pher is peering at it through his microscope, 
 searching for the principle of life, as the child 
 chases the foot of the rainbow. That principle he 
 finds not, he shall not find it, but it embodies and 
 perfects itself, and from points undistinguishable, it 
 becomes now a wren, chattering and vivacious; now 
 a golden oriole, warbling and weaving its pendent 
 nest ; now a solemn owl ; a peacock, with its 
 " goodly wings ; " an ostrich, with its " wings and 
 feathers," fleet and powerful ; an eagle, screaming 
 and breasting the storm-cloud far in the sky. It 
 is indeed now said, that every plant, from the 
 lichen to the oak, and every animal, from the 
 insect to man, has its beginning in a single cell. 
 It is in these cells, undistinguishable by us, that 
 Omniscience can see the future, and from them 
 that Omnipotence can call " the things that are 
 not, as though they were." 
 
8 
 
 This capacity of transformation and growth, by 
 which beings seem to us to pass from the very 
 verge of nonentity to great perfection and magni- 
 tude and power, is among the most striking char- 
 acteristics of the present state. It is also one 
 which we think of, and Revelation confirms the 
 impression, as belonging to this state alone. There 
 are not wanting those who believe that this world 
 is the nursery for peopling this planetary system at 
 least, if not the worlds scattered through all space. 
 
 The individuals thus starting from what seems a 
 common point, are different in rank, and fall into 
 difi*erent classes ; and we next inquire what the 
 rank of each will be. 
 A The rank of each will be determined, first, by its 
 rank in its own class ; and, secondly, by the rank 
 of the class. 
 
 The rank of an individual in its own class will 
 I be determined by its capacity of development, and 
 by its actual development in one direction. The 
 California pine may reach a circumference of thirty 
 feet, and a height of three hundred and fifty, and 
 so be the first of its class ; but it is by a repetition 
 always of the same processes, an extension and 
 increase in one line. Between the greatest and the 
 least of them there is no difference, except that of 
 development in a particular direction. Among 
 men, a man will be really first, who possesses most 
 perfectly what is distinctively human ; and in gen- 
 eral, whatever individual of a class shall manifest 
 most fully its distinctive characteristic, will be the 
 first in that class. 
 
But while rank in a class is determined by 
 development in one direction, the rank of a class ^ 
 is determined by the capacity of individuals in it 
 for development in different directions ; thus giving 
 wide scope to the imagination in answering the 
 question, ' What manner of being shall this be ? ' 
 The power in a tree of varying from a given line 
 is as nothing. So it can grow, so only. In ani- 
 mals, this power is greater ; in man, greater still — 
 and the more things it is possible for him to be- 
 come, the more complex must be his nature, and 
 the higher his rank. As the scheme of the creation 
 is, that that which is above takes up into itself all 
 that is below, the more complex the nature is, the 
 higher it must be, the more directions it may take, 
 and the greater is the uncertainty that must hang 
 about its final destiny. 
 
 And here I observe, in the third place, that, in 
 sensitive and moral beings, a capacity of develop- ^^ 
 ment in one direction involves its opposite, and 
 that in an equal degree. In this we find startling 
 indications respecting the possibilities of our future. 
 In creatures merely sensitive, perhaps a diff'erent 
 constitution was possible, but we know of no in- 
 stance of it. A capacity for pleasure always in- 
 volves that of pain, and, so far as we can judge, in 
 a degree precisely correspondent. But whatever 
 may be possible in the region of simple enjoyment, 
 in a moral being the capacity of development in 
 one direction must imply that in the other. He 
 who is capable of moral elevation, must also be of 
 moral degradation. He, and he only, who is capa- 
 
10 
 
 ble of great moral excellence, is capable of great 
 sin. This is the basis of the maxim, universally 
 true, that the best things, corrupted, become the 
 worst. The better, the higher, the purer, the no- 
 bler any being is capable of becoming, the more 
 utter and awful may be its downfall and ruin. It 
 requires an angel to make a devil. 
 
 From what has been said, it appears that the 
 rank of man will be determined by the range 
 of his possible development in different directions. 
 And how wide is that range ! How different in 
 this is man from any other being on the earth ! 
 Let us look at the breadth of this range, first, in 
 respect to belief. An animal cannot be said to 
 believe at all, but for an infant how wide is the 
 range of possible belief! Wonderful is it, that 
 with the same faculties, thrown into the same 
 world, with the same phenomena, and orders of 
 succession, and similarities and differences, such a 
 range should be possible. Especially is this true 
 of religious belief, where the range is the widest 
 conceivable. 
 
 Here are two infants just opening their eyes 
 upon the light, and beginning to gather those 
 materials which are to be the basis of their belief. 
 What manner of men shall they be ? They seem 
 alike ; but when manhood comes, one of them 
 shall stand upon this earth so full of the goodness 
 of God, under these heavens which declare his 
 glory, he shall see all there is in them of order, 
 and beauty, and beneficence, and yet be an atheist. 
 
11 
 
 Causeless, aimless, fatherless, hopeless, with noth- 
 ing to respond to his deepest wants, for him the 
 universe shall be whirled in the eddies of chance, 
 or swept on by the current of a blind and remorse- 
 less fate. The other shall believe that there is one 
 God, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, omnipo- 
 tent and omnipresent, holy, just and merciful, the 
 Creator and Governor of all things, to whom he 
 may look up and say, My Father. For him, com- 
 pared with this God, the universe is as nothing. 
 In Him it has its being. It is irradiated with his 
 glory, as the evening cloud with the glory of the 
 setting sun. Except as expressing his attributes 
 and indicating his purposes, it had no grandeur 
 and no significance. 
 
 One of these again shall look forward to death, 
 and see in it the end of man. For him, the sullen 
 sound sent back from his coffin when the sod falls 
 upon it, is the last which the conscious universe is 
 to know of each individual man, unless, indeed, 
 the geologist of some future era may find in the 
 impression of his bones, a record of this. For 
 him, man has, in death, no pre-eminence over the 
 beast. By the other, death shall be welcomed as a 
 friend. It shall be for him the beginning of a 
 higher life, of clearer insight, of purer joys, of a 
 greater nearness to God, and of an unending pro- 
 gression. He shall 
 
 " The darkening universe defy, 
 To quench his immortality." 
 
 He shall believe with a certainty that shall enable 
 him to say with one of old, that he kiiows 'that 
 
 3 
 
12 
 
 if this earthly house of his tabernacle were dis- 
 solved, he has a building of God, a house not made 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens,' and so his 
 great hope shall lie beyond the tomb. One of 
 these, again, shall believe in no accountability 
 after death ; the other shall believe, that " every 
 idle word that men shall speak, they shall give 
 account thereof in the day of judgment." 
 
 So these two may come to believe, and yet be 
 men. These three great doctrines — of God, of a 
 future life, and of accountability — without which 
 there can be neither religion nor morality, one 
 shall receive, and the other shall reject. Side by 
 side they may stand, separated by scarcely a point 
 in space ; but in that whole interior life which is 
 most intimate and essential to them, they are as 
 wide asunder as the poles. 
 
 But here it is to be noticed, that while the pos- 
 sibility of this divergence in belief indicates eleva- 
 tion in rank, yet the fact of such divergence indi- 
 cates for some a low position in that rank. A 
 perfect instinct is uniform. So is perfect reason, 
 and these would coincide. These are the extremes, 
 and between these, imperfection and diversity lie. 
 Truth is one, and a failure to see it is always the 
 result either of feebleness or of sin. Hence, diver- 
 sity of belief is not among those needed for har- 
 mony, but the reverse. A measure of it is com- 
 patible with harmony, that is, such as this world 
 admits of, but the harmony of the universe will be 
 perfect only when all rational creatures, so far as 
 they see at all, shall see eye to eye. 
 
13 
 
 But if the divergence of men in religious belief, 
 and in all belief, is great, it is not less, and is even 
 more striking, in their objects of worship. 
 
 One " planteth an ash, and the rain doth nour- 
 ish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn. He 
 burneth part thereof in the fire, and the residue 
 thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image ; 
 he falleth down and worshipeth it ; he prayeth 
 unto it and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my 
 god." He may worship, as men have done, flies, 
 and serpents, and crocodiles, and oxen, and the 
 sun, and moon, and stars, and heroes, and devils ; 
 and worshiping these, he becomes, so far as is 
 possible, assimilated to them. How diff'erent these 
 from Him who is ' the Lord, the true God, the 
 living God, and an everlasting King ; — who hath 
 made the earth by his power, who hath established 
 the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out 
 the heavens by his discretion.' And can the intel- 
 ligent worshiper of this God, the holy prophet, or 
 apostle, rapt in vision, or swallowed up in adora- 
 tion, be of the same race with the idolater casting 
 himself beneath the car of Juggernaut, or with 
 the cannibal savage eating his victim, and dancing 
 before a carved, besmeared, and hideous log ? Can 
 it be that those who do thus, might have changed 
 places ] 
 
 Here, again, diversity is not the basis of har- 
 mony. If harmony requires diversity, it has its 
 root in unity, the unity of truth and of God ; and 
 so, of belief and of worship. 
 
 We may further ask what any child shall be in 
 
14 
 
 position, in attainments, and in the extent of his 
 influence. Shall he be a miner, thousands of feet 
 beneath the earth's surface, untaught, unknown, 
 unthanked, uncared for, with a mind as narrow 
 and as dark as the sphere of his labors ] Shall 
 he be a slave, w^hose range is the plantation, and 
 to whom cupidity and fear forbid the knowledge 
 of letters ] Shall he be a misanthrope, self-exiled 
 from society, who dies alone, and whose body is 
 found by accident ? Shall he be, as probably he 
 will, neither rich nor poor, neither learned nor 
 ignorant, neither widely known nor wholly ob- 
 scure — one of the countless throng on life's thor- 
 oughfare of whom the casual observer would take 
 no note'? Or, shall he tread the high places of 
 art, of learning, and of power ? Shall the canvas 
 or the marble wait for his touch to become immor- 
 tal ] Shall he be a poet, " soaring in the high 
 region of his fancy, with his garland and singing 
 robes about him ] " Shall he govern nations, com- 
 mand armies, sway senates, wrest from nature her 
 secrets, lead the van of progress, and make his 
 thought and will felt over the globe ? 
 
 But chiefly may we ask concerning any infant, 
 What manner of child shall this be in character, 
 and in the kind of influence he shall exert. Upon 
 ^.character every thing depends, and from this, influ- 
 ence flows. And shall these be in the line, and 
 on the level of sensuality and of sense? or of a 
 selfish and all-absorbing ambition 1 or of a pure 
 philanthropy? or of a whole-hearted consecration 
 to the will of God ? Shall the child be an apostle 
 
15 
 
 of righteousness ? a martyr missionary "? a preacher 
 like Whitfield, whose eloquence and zeal shall set 
 a continent on fire ? Shall he be a fashionable 
 exquisite, admiring himself, and supposing himself 
 admired by others '? Shall he be a political in- 
 triguer ? an adroit depredator upon society ? Shall 
 he be a drunkard, and die in a ditch ] Shall he 
 be a thief? a murderer'? a pirate ] Can it be that 
 he who sails under the black flag of death, and 
 whose motto is, that " dead men tell no tales," 
 once drew his life from the breast of a human 
 mother, returned her caress, and answered to her 
 smile '? Who is this upon whom every eye in the 
 vast multitude is fixed ? Over his face the fatal 
 cap is drawn, and he stands upon the drop just 
 ready to fall. It is but a few years, and his tiny 
 hand held the finger of his mother, and in him 
 were garnered up her fond hopes and high expec- 
 tations. 
 
 At this point the import of the question is 
 deepest, because the dread issues involved in our 
 immortality are here at stake. Here are harnessed 
 the forces that are to move on the plains of eter- 
 nity. Every thing indicates that in the mind, as 
 well as in the body, there is a possibility of ruix ; 
 that there are there also processes that are cancer- 
 ous and leprous ; and that they may gradually per- 
 vade, and at length utterly pervert and corrupt the 
 whole being. Awful and significant it is, to see 
 such a disease spreading itself over the body, taint- 
 ing the fluids more widely, and implicating more 
 tissues, till deformity becomes only the more ob- 
 
16 
 
 trusive, and hideous, and persistent, as the forces 
 of nature were originally greater and more benefi- 
 cent. And so it may be in mind. Whatever the 
 fact may be, no one can doubt the fearful capacity 
 for this. It belongs to our conception of spiritual 
 forces that they are indefinite, or without limit in 
 their capacities, in whatever direction they may 
 move. It is the natural pledge of their immortal- 
 ity, that whatever point they may reach in knowl- 
 edge or aff^ection, in virtue or in vice, it will always 
 be possible for them to advance still further. This 
 point, whatever it be, must be reached under the 
 law of habit, and under that still more general law 
 that "• to him that hath shall be given," and thus 
 the time must come when there can be no return. 
 For the same reason that the path of the just shall 
 be as the shining light, that shines more and more, 
 the gloom of to-day shall become the darkness of 
 to-morrow, and the deep midnight of the day fol- 
 lowing. Selfishness, passion, hate, shall gain a 
 permanent ascendency, and the reign of retribution 
 begin. The immutability of law is the rock to 
 which the sinner shall be bound ; the ceaseless 
 action of the spiritual powers is the immortal liver 
 that shall grow as it is consumed, and the diseased 
 action is the vulture that shall prey upon it. The 
 worm shall gnaw till it shall become undying, the 
 fire shall burn till it " cannot be quenched." This, 
 not crumbling arches, not mouldering cities, but 
 this, this is ruin. 
 
 What a contrast between this and the possibili- 
 ties we see before us and in us, when we look at 
 
17 
 
 the man Christ Jgsus. In him, in him alone, can 
 we form a right estimate of onr natnre ; and that '-^ 
 he has enabled ns to do this, is no small ground 
 of our indebtedness to him. So far as he was 
 man only, there was in him no excellence or per- 
 fection which we may not attain ; and the perfec- 
 tions in him were not only an example to us, but 
 were a pledge to his followers that they shall 
 attain the same. The disciple shall be as his 
 Master. They shall be like him, for they shall 
 see him as he is. Christ was the Son of God as 
 Adam was not ; and in him humanity was glorified 
 as it could have been in no other way. There 
 was stamped upon it the seal of an infinite value. 
 It was so taken into union with God as to show 
 that God can dwell with it, and that the highest 
 divine perfections may be manifested through it. 
 Christ was the " brightness of his glory," as mani- 
 fested on the earth, '' the express image of his 
 person," and whoever would see the capacities 
 there are in man for elevation and excellence must 
 look to him. '' Looking unto Jesus," is the motto 
 of the Christian. He is the only type of normal 
 development for the race. I point you to no 
 heroes or sages, but to Him ; to no abstract con- 
 ception, but to embodied excellence, living, walk- 
 ing, speaking, sympathizing, suff*ering among men. 
 The divine image, marred in Adam, was restored 
 in Christ, and is so held in him that it can be lost 
 never more. The gem is now set forever. It will 
 belong to the riches of eternity. This image ive 
 may attain. Between the attainment of this and 
 
18 
 
 any thing else, the difference is infinite. This is 
 the true good. And O how great, how infinite is 
 this good ! In view of it, how forcible the ques- 
 tion of our Saviour, ' What shall it profit a man if 
 he shall gain the whole world and lose his soul 1 
 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
 souir Fully attained, this good is heaven. What- 
 ever outward circumstances may be, potentially, 
 substantially, ultimately, this is heaven. He that 
 is like God shall dwell with God. The son shall 
 be in his father's house. He shall abide forever. 
 For this we bless thee, O our Father. Cease, my 
 friends, your disputes about religion. He that is 
 like God shall dwell with God, and he that is not 
 like God, shall not dwell with him. 
 
 We thus see that man must be in the highest 
 rank of created beings, and how it is that his 
 manifoldness is a proof of his greatness. Touch- 
 ing the extremes of being, he is capable of devel- 
 opment on the level of any nature of which he is 
 partaker, and at any point along a line that 
 reaches from the instinct of the animal up to God 
 himself. He may become an animal, or simply 
 human, or devilish, or divine. Made in the image 
 of God, capable of indefinite progress, of falling 
 to a depth profound in proportion to the height to 
 w^hich he can rise, no wider scope could be given 
 to the imagination than is now given, when the 
 question is asked concerning any child, " What 
 manner of child shall this be ? " 
 
 :! My beloved Friends of the Graduating Class, 
 Jil^- this discussion is especially for you, and in apply- 
 
19 
 
 ing its principles, I address myself directly to you. 
 You are no longer children, but men, and in view 
 of the wide range of possibilities now presented 
 before you, I ask you. What manner of men 
 will you be? I come to you individually, and 
 with affectionate earnestness and deep solicitude, 
 ask each one of you. What manner of man will 
 you be \ 
 
 The question, observe, is not. What will you 
 get ? but, What will you he ? The first is the par- 
 amount question with selfishness ; the second, with 
 reason and religion. In asking the first, you are 
 not necessarily selfish ; in making it paramount, 
 you are. In seeking, on the other hand, to be 
 great, good, noble, like God, you are indeed con- 
 sulting your own good most wisely, but are not 
 selfish, for how can a man be selfish, when his 
 very object is to he benevolent. How be selfish in 
 seeking to be like God, for God is love. This 
 question, then, I ask with emphasis, for under the 
 government of God your all must depend upon it. 
 And not only do I ask it, this College that has 
 watched over you, and will follow you with an 
 abiding interest, and which you will either honor 
 or disgrace, asks it. Your parents and near 
 friends, to whom you owe every thing, ask it. 
 Your country asks it. The church of God asks it. 
 The nations that are in ignorance, and under 
 oppression, ask it. And I doubt not there is, at 
 this solemn moment in your own hearts, a " still 
 small voice," in which God is, that asks it. What 
 manner of men will you be ? 
 
 4 
 
20 
 
 This question, as put to you, I desire to limit as 
 I have not done in the general discussion. That 
 was in view of two kinds of diversity that must be 
 discriminated. There is one having its root in 
 repugnance and opposition, involving elements that 
 can never be brought into harmony, and that can 
 have no unity even, except as there is fixed between 
 them a great and impassable gulf For this gulf 
 there is provision in the essential difference of 
 moral good and evil ; and while these may be em- 
 braced in the unity of one government of eternal 
 righteousness, yet this can be only on the condition 
 that that gulf shall be fixed. 
 ^ But there is also a diversity which springs from 
 unity, and is the basis of harmony ; and within 
 this limit diversity is a good. Only through this 
 can we have the riches and beauty, as well as the 
 harmony of the universe. In this we have the 
 one light refracted into its seven colors, making 
 the earth green, and the sky blue, and the clouds 
 gorgeous. In this is the one sound now parting 
 itself into its seven notes for music, now articulat- 
 ing itself in speech, now becoming the chirp of 
 the cricket, and now the roar of the thunder. In 
 this is the one water seen in mist, in dew, in 
 steam, in ice, in snow, in the green heaving ocean, 
 and in the rainbow that spans it. In this is the 
 one body with its organs, the one tree with its 
 branches, the one universe with its suns, and 
 planets, and satellites, and comets. Within this 
 limit, the wider the diversity, the richer are the 
 fields opened to us in science, in beauty, and in 
 character. 
 
And now, when I put this question to you, I 
 would have all your diversity within this limit. I 
 wish to speak with you of no other. This will 
 involve no restriction, no monotony, or tameness, 
 or repression of any manly energy, no abatement 
 of the zest and foam and sparkle of life. It will 
 only lift you above obstructions, and enable you 
 to move calmly and freely, as the balloon that 
 floats in the long upper currents, instead of being 
 whirled in the lower tempests, and wrecked among 
 the branches. O, could I but know that all your 
 diversity would range within this limit, that you 
 would all be Christians, true followers of the 
 Lord Jesus, almost would I say to you, Be what 
 you please. Certainly I should prefer, since one 
 star differs from another star in glory, that you 
 should not be among those less bright. But only 
 be a star. Shine, and choose your own shade 
 of light. Be Paul, or Peter, or John, or James, 
 or even Thomas ; any of them but Judas. Be a 
 Luther, or Melancthon ; be Jonathan Edwards, or 
 Harlan Page ; be — but I will go no further ; I 
 will rather recall what I have said, and say to you, tW 
 Be yourselves. Bring out your own individuality. ^ 
 It is your own. As such, respect and cherish it, 
 only avoiding all affected singularity. You will, 
 I think, allow that that individuality has been 
 respected in your course of instruction here ; that 
 the object has been, not to put upon you the ear- 
 mark of any system, but to bring your individuality 
 out under the inspiration of a love of truth. If 
 it be different from that of others, do not be trou- 
 
22 
 
 bled. It ought to be. Bring it out in its sim- 
 plicity, any where within the broad light and 
 expanse of the one perfect example. Christ was 
 peculiar, but not singular, except as Mont Blanc 
 and the Ocean are singular. So be you, and you 
 shall polish a gem for its setting in the diadem 
 of Him who weareth many crowns, that shall have 
 in it shades and lines that no other can have. 
 
 And while I thus call upon you to bring out 
 your own individuality, let me say to you also, 
 Respect that of others ; and not only so, appre- 
 ciate it, and rejoice in its manifestation. Nothing 
 is more needed among men than the power and 
 readiness to do this, and to accept, in religion, in 
 politics, and in social life, those diversities of belief 
 and of forms which spring from this, but which 
 yet have their root in essential unity, and no more 
 cease to be of it than men of different colors cease 
 to be of the race. To do this, is liberality, in dis- 
 tinction from laxness and indifference to the truth. 
 This God intended should be. It is not for noth- 
 ing, that the notes of birds, and the colors of 
 flowers, and the outlines of mountains difi'er, yet 
 are all pleasing. It is not for nothing, that we are 
 told that the foundations of the New Jerusalem 
 are of twelve manner of precious stones ; and the 
 jasper is not better than the sapphire, nor the sap- 
 phire than the emerald, nor the emerald than the 
 amethyst, and all are better than any one would be, 
 and all are one in their common nature as gems, 
 and in their common office of adorning and sup- 
 porting the heavenly city. How to draw the line 
 
23 
 
 rightly, in particular cases, no rules can be given ; 
 but you see the general principle, and I beseech 
 you to do this wisely and liberally, remembering 
 that it is the tendency of egotism and selfishness to 
 fall into clannishness, and into a party and secta- 
 rian spirit, and to magnify non-essentials. 
 
 In the light of what has been said, let me turn 
 your thoughts to the provision God has made for , 
 the growth and enjoyment of his creatures as intel- 
 ligent, and aside from the affections. For these the 
 great conditions, in the construction of his works, 
 are, first, unity. By this is not meant an indivisible 
 unit of which there may be any miombor without 
 either unity or harmony, and which must remain 
 imfruitful ; but a unity like those spoken of above, 
 capable of being parted into diversity, and of 
 returning to itself again. The second condition is 
 diversity — not merely numerical, but that which is 
 implied in parts having relation to a common 
 whole. The third condition is harmony, that is, 
 such a relation of parts to each other and to the 
 whole, as to realize and complete our conception 
 of that whole. For intellectual growth and enjoy- 
 ment, a perception of these is all that is needed ; 
 and how inexhaustible these are, and how wonder- 
 fully blended in this universe, I need not say. In 
 this view of it, the universe is an organ that con- 
 stantly discourses music to angels and to God. 
 The relations of its parts at a given moment, in 
 their adjustment to each other and to ends, are its 
 harmony, and the succession of its events are its 
 melody. Its harmony we can begin to study. Of 
 
24 
 
 the melody we can know comparatively nothing, 
 for our time is too brief; but we may be sure that 
 both will forever increase. 
 
 In view of what has been said, you will also be 
 able, not only to estimate the place and value of 
 diversity in the universe, but also of what has been 
 called many-sidedness, in the individual. Plainly 
 this is a proof of greatness. At times the admira- 
 tion for this has been overdone, and there has been 
 about it, in certain quarters, something of cant. 
 On the other hand, there are those who say that a 
 man can excel in but one thing, and should attend 
 to but one. - Doubtless the greatest effect requires 
 concentration, and there should be no attempt at 
 varied excellence that would diminish this ; but 
 there are few occupations in which all that a man 
 can do may not be done with less than his whole 
 energies ; the use of the powers in different direc- 
 tions gives diversion and strength, and there seems 
 no good reason why a man may not gain excellence 
 in all the directions in which he is capable of 
 development. Why may not a man cultivate both 
 muscle and mind, both mathematics and music, 
 both poetry and philosophy? I trust you will 
 shrink into no one channel, but as you have be- 
 gun, so you will continue to advance in a liberal 
 culture. 
 
 Once more, if the rank of man be so high and 
 his capacities so great, then is this world a fit 
 theatre for that great redemxption which the Scrip- 
 tures reveal. Between him and that redemption 
 there is no want of congruity or proportion. Some 
 
25 
 
 there are who speak of this world as a mere speck 
 in the universe, and of man as too inconsiderable 
 to be the object of such regard as is implied in the 
 coming and death, for him, of the Son of God. 
 But so far as is possible for any creature, man 
 takes hold on infinity. He is a child of God, and 
 in the dealings of God with him there may be 
 involved all those principles of wisdom and right- 
 eousness and mercy which can be involved in the 
 divine government any where, and so the whole 
 universe, mighty as it is, may be brought, through 
 man, to the " light of the knowledge of the glory 
 of God." Little can they who think thus, have 
 meditated upon those sublime and consoling words 
 of the Apostle, " Beloved, now are we the sons of 
 God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; 
 but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall 
 be like him ; for we shall see him as he is."' This 
 redemption, O let us magnify, for in it is all our 
 hope. This redemption I commend to you renew- 
 edly, earnestly, affectionately, in this solemn and 
 parting hour. 
 
 Finally, my beloved friends, if there is, in the 
 capacities of man, a fit occasion and ground for the 
 redemption revealed in the Scriptures, so is there 
 in his diversities a fit occasion and ground for that 
 future and final Judgment which they also reveal. 
 How could these diversities be greater? How is 
 every thing respecting God and his government, 
 even to his very being, denied, questioned, chal- 
 lenged, ridiculed, mocked ] Taken by itself, how 
 tangled, perplexed, and insoluble by reason, is the 
 
 > 
 

 26 
 
 present state ? What shades of character ! What 
 modifications of responsibility ! What wrongs un- 
 redressed ! What questions cut short by death ! 
 And in connection with these, what scope for the 
 application, in every delicate adjustment, of every 
 principle of moral government! Probably in no 
 other way than by such a Judgment, could these 
 diversities be reduced to the comprehension of 
 finite minds, and the ways of God to man be vindi- 
 cated. Here, as elsewhere, the reality of what God 
 does, and proposes to do, transcends all that man 
 could have imagined to be possible, and hence 
 many deny this also. They say, " Where is the 
 promise of his coming ] " " But the day of the 
 Lord will come as a thief in the night." '' The 
 Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, 
 and before him shall be gathered all nations." 
 This, we believe, will be the next great epoch in 
 this world's history. And in view of it, I ask the 
 question no longer in regard to this world, What 
 manner of men will you be ? This world and its 
 scenes, now so bright before you, will be nothing 
 then. I ask this question in view of that day when 
 there will be but one alternative. What manner 
 of men will you then be]_/ Will you be among the 
 righteous ] Will you be on the right hand ? Will 
 you all be there '? May you all hear the music of 
 that voice which shall say, " Come, ye blessed of 
 my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you 
 from the foundation of the world." 
 
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