Consider the report in a practical point of view. If it tends to subdue or repress the cravings of our lower nature, and stimulate all our higher faculties; if it enlarges our ideas of the moral universe and quickens our noblest aspirations; if it exalts our conception of the Divine character and attributes, and of the dignity, possibilities and true glory of man; if it tends to make the believer more humble, trustful and Christ-like in disposition and feeling, more sincere, upright and honest, more pure in heart and life,—a more earnest, wise and useful inhabitant of earth; if it gives increased distinctness to his idea of heaven, and makes the heavenward path more plain and sure; if the teaching of this volume, I say, does or tends to do all this, then the objector can settle for himself the question of its truth and origin. For it is not the tendency of error, or of mere human imaginings however brilliant, to produce such results. "Of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble-bush gather they grapes." No: Nor of a mind enamored of its own fancies or dazzled by bewildering dreams, may we expect to gather the pearls of wisdom or catch the inspirations of unselfish love.
Let the practical tendency, therefore, of what is here related—its proper and legitimate influence on life and character—be well considered. B. F. B.
Germantown, Feb. 1, 1876.
