ucees, nor to
read the precepts and lessons _phylacteried_ on the garments of the
Jewish priesthood; he said nothing of different creeds or clashing
doctrines; but he opened at once to the youthful mind the everlasting
fountain of living waters, the only source of eternal truths: "Suffer
little children to come _unto me_." And that injunction is of perpetual
obligation. It addresses itself to-day with the same earnestness and the
same authority which attended its first utterance to the Christian
world. It is of force everywhere, and at all times. It extends to the
ends of the earth, it will reach to the end of time, always and
everywhere sounding in the ears of men, with an emphasis which no
repetition can weaken, and with an authority which nothing can
supersede: "Suffer little children to come unto me."

And not only my heart and my judgment, my belief and my conscience,
instruct me that this great precept should be obeyed, but the idea is so
sacred, the solemn thoughts connected with it so crowd upon me, it is so
utterly at variance with this system of philosophical _morality_ which
we have heard advocated, that I stand and speak here in fear of being
influenced by my feelings to exceed the proper line of my professional
duty. Go thy way at this time, is the language of philosophical
morality, and I will send for thee at a more convenient season. This is
the language of Mr. Girard in his will. In this there is neither
religion nor reason.

The earliest and the most urgent intellectual want of human nature is
the knowledge of its origin, its duty, and its destiny. "Whence am I,
what am I, and what is before me?" This is the cry of the human soul, so
soon as it raises its contemplation above visible, material things.

When an intellectual being finds himself on this earth, as soon as the
faculties of reason operate, one of the first inquiries of his mind is,
"Shall I be here always?" "Shall I live here for ever?" And reasoning
from what he sees daily occurring to others, he learns to a certainty
that his state of being must one day be changed. I do not mean to deny,
that it may be true that he is created with this consciousness; but
whether it be consciousness, or the result of his reasoning faculties,
man soon learns that he must die. And of all sentient beings, he alone,
so far as we can judge, attains to this knowledge. His Maker has made
him capable of learning this. Before he knows his origin and destiny, he
kn