promises well, but does not fulfil; and all of us (taking our
lives altogether apart from religious prospects) begin with hope, and end
with disappointment. Doubtless, there is much difference in our
respective trials here, arising from difference of tempers and fortunes.
Still it is in our nature to begin life thoughtlessly and joyously; to
seek great things in one way or other; to have vague notions of good to
come; to love the world, and to believe its promises, and seek
satisfaction and happiness from it. And, as it is our nature to hope, so
it is our lot, as life proceeds, to encounter disappointment. I know
that there are multitudes, in the retired ranks of society, who pass
their days without any great varieties of fortune; though, even in such
cases, thinking persons will have much more to say of themselves than at
first sight might appear. Still, that disappointment in some shape or
other is the lot of man (that is, looking at our prospects apart from the
next world) is plain, from the mere fact, if nothing else could be said,
that we begin life with health and end it with sickness; or in other
words, that it _comes_ to an _end_, for an end is a failure. And even in
the quietest walks of life, do not the old feel regret, more or less
vividly, that they are not young? Do not they lament the days gone by,
and even with the pleasure of remembrance feel the pain? And why, except
that they think that they have lost something which they once had,
whereas in the beginning of life, they thought of gaining something they
had not? A double disappointment.

Now is it religion that suggests this sad view of things? No, it is
experience; it is the _world's_ doing; it is fact, from which we cannot
escape, though the Bible said not a word about the perishing nature of
all earthly pleasures.

Here then it is, that God Himself offers us His aid by His Word, and in
His Church. Left to ourselves, we seek good from the world, but cannot
find it; in youth we look forward, and in age we look back. It is well
we should be persuaded of these things betimes, to gain wisdom and to
provide for the evil day. Seek we great things? We must seek them where
they really are to be found, and in the way in which they are to be
found; we must seek them as He has set them before us, who came into the
world to enable us to gain them. We must be willing to give up present
hope for future enjoyment, this world for the unseen. The trut