bjection of that selfishness which is the principle of all
sin, and whose recoil is the spring trap of hell, to that
disinterestedness which is the germ of redemption and the perfume
of heaven.

It is not an unfrequent occurrence for a mixture of heaven and
hell to be experienced. Here is an able and upright merchant who
is about to fail, in consequence of disasters which he could
neither foresee nor prevent, and for which he is in no sense
responsible. He shrinks from bankruptcy with inexpressible shame
and distress. He is mortified, cut to the quick, robbed of sleep,
can hardly look his creditors in the face. Now, he reflects, "This
is not my fault. I have been honest, prudent, economical,
unwearied in effort, I have done my duty to the best of my
ability. God approves me, and all good men would if they knew the
exact facts." If that assurance does not shed an element of heaven
into his hell, spread a soothing veil of light and oil over his
stormy trouble, then it is because his pride is greater than his
self respect, his vanity more keen than his conscience is strong,
his regard for appearances more influential than his knowledge of
the truth. And in that case the misery he suffers is the penalty
of his excessive self sensitiveness.

The elements of hell are pain, slavery, imprisonment, rebellion,
forced exertion, forced inaction, shame, fear, self condemnation,
social condemnation, universal condemnation, aimlessness, and
despair. He who seeks good only in the just order of its
successive standards, gratifying no lower function, except in
subservience to the higher ones, escapes these experiences, feels
that he fulfills his destiny, and is an approved freeman of God.
The service of truth and good alone makes free; all service of
evil is slavery and wretchedness. For freedom is spontaneous
obedience to that which has a right to command. The thirsty man
who quaffs a glass of cold water does an act of liberty; but he
who constantly intoxicates himself in satiation of a morbid and
despotic appetite, knows that he is a slave, and feels condemned,
and chafes in the hell of his bondage.

The dissipated sluggards and thieves who feed the vices and prey
on the interests of the community, writhe under the rebuke of the
higher laws they break in enthroning their selfish propensities
above the cardinal standards of the public good; and in the stale
monotony of their indulgences, they know nothing of the glorious
zest shed