s design and destiny. Our morality and religion should be
adapted to our nature. They should meet the every-day wants of men.

The philosopher, the moralist, and the minister should aim at practical
utility in all their labors, and men and women should study carefully
the great book of every-day life. The relation of men and women to each
other is one of the most important lessons in that book. If we would be
wise, useful, or happy, we must understand at least the _duties_ growing
out of this relation. If we would bless mankind or please God, we must
fulfill these duties. I have but little faith in any philosophy or
religion that would shun the walks of practical life. We have too much
ethereal philosophy and spasmodic religion. Men reason profoundly about
etherealities, and go into ecstasies about glory and joy to come. This
may be all well enough, but I submit whether it would not be better to
reason how to live well the life that now is, and how to sanctify it
with the redeeming presence of the spirit of the lowly Jesus. Our chief
concern is with this life. If we make it right, no harm can come to us
in the future life. To me our present life is full of holy solemnities.
Its most interesting relations are holy, and the duties that grow out of
them are to be performed with religious sincerity and joy. To me God is
in our present life, walking with us daily and entreating us to walk
with him. I see His arrangement in the relation of man and woman. I feel
his benediction in the joy and blessed influence that arise from this
relation. I can not consider it or enjoy it in any other than a
religious sense. Nor can I conceive of any true religion in the heart of
him who practically sinks this relation to a level with sensualism or
folly. I hear almost daily from the lips of professedly religious men
and women, language and thoughts on this subject which bespeak a carnal
heart and an unsanctified mind. They treat the relation with levity.
They make it a practical joke. They look at it through carnal eyes, and
listen to its language with carnal ears. Their whole conception and
practical understanding of it is sensuous. I have but little confidence
in their religion. It is only an emotion of the heart. It has never
sanctified the conscience nor consecrated the life.

With these introductory remarks let us observe in the first place, that
the most potent influence that bears on our earth-life grows out of this
relation. This is