e,
and met the savage wilderness, a Voice saluted them; a voice not of
profane ambition and of selfish hope, but of Divine promise, intending
Divine results--proclaiming, "Thou art a great people, and hast great
power." And He will fulfil this prophecy, Who leads the course of
history over the broad deep and through mysterious ways, and Who unfolds
His own glory in the destinies of men.

THE SPRINGS OF SOCIAL LIFE.

DISCOURSE V.

THE SPRINGS OF SOCIAL LIFE.

Let them learn first to show piety at home.--I. TIMOTHY, v. 4.

The text--which I purpose to employ not as a specific precept, but as
the illustration of a general principle--indicates those Springs of
Social Life which constitute the subject of the present discourse.

The crowd in a city affords comparatively little interest, when we
contemplate it merely as a crowd. But, when we resolve it into its
individual particles, and consider each of these as endued with the
attributes and involved with the conditions of humanity, our deepest
sympathies are touched. Every drop of that great stream is a conscious
personality. In some shape, the universe is reflected in it. In some
way, it takes hold of the reality of life: and the living organism of
which it is composed both acts and suffers, receives from the world
around it and contributes to it. That entire mass of people involves
nothing more than the interest of humanity, and the same interest
pertains to the least unit of that mass.

And, doubtless, you have sometimes busied yourself with the
speculation--"Where do all these people come from? And whither do they
retire at night?" Now, this is really a very suggestive question, and to
follow it out to a practical answer would yield results of the
profoundest importance. For out of hidden channels, here and there, _do_
spring all these struggling activities, these human diversities, these
various influences good and evil, that make up the crowd and spectacle
of city life. And night after night, with the rarest exceptions, into
some retreat they all disappear. Some spot--whether it seem the veriest
mockery to style it so, or whether it be a synonym for the sweetest
sanctities--some spot each of this living multitude calls by the name of
"Home."

For some that name is associated with a more than oriental
magnificence. Man and nature wait upon them there in every conceivable
form of service. There is no method of convenience or luxury which
in