e) fascinated by the miseries within us. And hence
it is that the whole structure of society is so artificial; no one
trusts another, if he can help it; safeguards, checks, and securities
are ever sought after. No one means exactly what he says, for our
words have lost their natural meaning, and even an Angel could not use
them naturally, for every mind being different from every other, they
have no distinct meaning. What, indeed, is the very function of
society, as it is at present, but a rude attempt to cover the
degradation of the fall, and to make men feel respect for themselves,
and enjoy it in the eyes of others, without returning to God. This is
what we should especially guard against, because there is so much of it
in the world. I mean, not an abandonment of evil, not a sweeping away
and cleansing out of the corruption which sin has bred within us, but a
smoothing it over, an outside delicacy and polish, an ornamenting the
surface of things while "within are dead men's bones and all
uncleanness;" making the garments, which at first were given for
decency, a means of pride and vanity. Men give good names to what is
evil, they sanctify bad principles and feelings; and, knowing that
there is vice and error, selfishness, pride, and ambition, in the
world, they attempt, not to root out these evils, not to withstand
these errors;--that they think a dream, the dream of theorists who do
not know the world;--but to cherish and form alliance with them, to use
them, to make a science of selfishness, to flatter and indulge error,
and to bribe vice with the promise of bearing with it, so that it does
but keep in the shade.

But let us, finding ourselves in the state in which we are, take those
means which alone are really left us, which alone become us. Adam,
when he had sinned, and felt himself fallen, instead of honestly
abandoning what he had become, would fain have hid himself. He went a
step further. He did not give up what he now was, partly from dread of
God, partly from dislike of what he had been. He had learnt to love
sin and to fear God's justice. But Christ has purchased for us what we
lost in Adam, our garment of innocence. He has bid us and enabled us
to become as little children; He has purchased for us the grace of
_simplicity_, which, though one of the highest, is very little thought
about, is very little sought after. We have, indeed, a general idea
what love is, and hope, and faith, and truth,