Lecture Two.

HONESTY AND POLICY.

The Two Grand Principles of Action-Honesty-The Martyrs of HonestyHonesty Triumphant-God's Nobleman-The Three Kinds of GreatnessGreatness in Action-Greatness of Intellect-Greatness of Conscience-A New Era-Policy-The Broad Way-Politic Honesty-The Politeness of PolicyHonesty and Policy in Life-Honesty and Pol in Trade, Literature, and Reilgion-A Bargain with God-Honesty Eternal, Policy Temporal.

THERE are two grand principles of action by which men govern their lives. Some choose one, some the other, while a few try to unite the two, but they will not amalgamate. They are as distinct and separate principles, as are oil and water. They have no affinity for each other. They dwell apart-are antipodes. Put them together, they will not unite. Force them into the same soul, and one will rise to the top and the other will Isink to the bottom. One is from beneath, the other is from above. Men choose them at will, as they do their wives. They are Honesty and Policy.

There are men who choose Honesty as a soul-companion. They live in it, and with it, and by it. They embody it in their actions and lives. Their words speak it. Their faces beam it. Their actions proclaim it. Their hands are true to it. Their feet tread its path.

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THE MARTYRS OF HONESTY.

It is to them like a
With religious awe

They are full of it. They love it. God. They believe it is of God. they obey its behests. Not gold, or crowns, or fame could bribe them to leave it. They are wedded to it from choice. It is their first love. It makes them beautiful men; yea, more, noble men, great, brave, righteous men. When God looks about for his jewels, these are the men his eye rests on, well pleased. He keeps his angels employed in making crowns for them, and they make crowns for themselves too! Crowns of honesty! To some men they seem not very beautiful in the dim light of earth; but when the radiance of heaven is opened upon them, they will reflect it in gorgeous splendor. Nothing is brighter; nothing is better; nothing is worth more, or more substantial. Honesty, peerless queen of principles! how her smile enhaloes the men who love her! to suffer for her, to die for her. See them. What a multitude! some in stocks; some in prison; criminals; some on gibbets, and some on the cross. But they are all sustained. They smile on their foes. They have peace within. They are strong and brave in heart. Their souls are dauntless as the bright old sun, and nearly as radiant. But they are not all martyrs. Some of them triumph on the field of strife; some in the halls of science; some in high places of trust and honor; some in all the common walks of life. Wherever they are, they triumph. Victory perches on their banner

How ready they are They are the martyrs. Some at the stake; some before judges as

THE THREE KINDS OF GREATNESS.

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An honest man is invincible. He can not be conquered. Come with swords and muskets; he is brave and calm. Come with smiles and praises; he is serene and unmoved in resistance. Come with gifts and money; he still stands a Gibraltar of strength. Intimidation, flattery,

force, bribery, are alike powerless against him.

God's nobleman is the honest man. Angels stand by his side and feel proud of his company. There is greatness in his soul, the greatness of principle; such greatness as lifts a man toward God; greatness, by the side of which all the men of policy that ever played the stratagems of war, or managed the game of tyranny, or pulled the wires of promotion, in senate hall or popular forum, are pigmies. An honest man, be his hands hard or soft, be his face sun-burned or study-paled, be he street-sweep or president, is a great man. And his earthly position. does not add one cubit to his greatness, nor take one He is beautiful, brave,

from it. He is great in himself. and strong. This is the Divine estimate of an honest man. As men grow toward the Divine, they approve this estimate.

There are three kinds of greatness: greatness of action, greatness of intellect, and greatness of conscience. The last is the highest, the greatest. Honest men possess it. These three kinds of greatness have operated upon men's minds in different ages of the world according to their advancement. Long ago men sought to be great on the field of battle, on the gladiatorial stage, or in the knightly tournament. They wrestled and fought.

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GREATNESS OF CONSCIENCE.

It was a battle of muscles and will. Some won, some lost. The winners were great in actions. After that dawned another age; we may call it the Baconian age. It opened with Columbus, Luther, Bacon, and Franklin. It brought navigation, the printing-press, science, and art, and ushered in the era of philosophy, thought, research, reason. In this age men struggled to be great by the might of their minds and the skill of their hands. Poets, sculptors, painters, philosophers, orators, statesmen, writers, and mechanics have multiplied. They have been led on by the splendor of intellectual greatness.

But there is now another age dawning (so I dare to prophesy), in which men will struggle for principle, for right, for righteousness, for truth in virtue, life, or motive. What mean the voices that speak for right, that proclaim equality, that stand for the higher law and listen to the inward monitor? What mean the deep subterranean tones of the muffled conscience of restless Europe, moaning like the first low utterings of the wind-harps of the forest ere the storm comes on? What mean the breakings away from the old moorings in the bay of Selfishness, of so many all over Christendom, where for ages men have fancied their spiritual barks were safely. anchored, ready rigged and manned to sail for the port of eternal peace? Have they not learned that peace is found only in principle, only in an honest heart and a true life before men and God?

The men who feel thus are moved by greatness of conscience. Conscience has not occupied its true place

But it is rising. A Honest men are multi

in the direction of the world. brighter day is dawning for it. plying. Honest principles are in the ascendant. Men are learning that Honesty has a power above will and intellect. An honest soul in its still, calm purpose has no superior below God. No threat, no force can daunt an honest man. He is nerved with strength that steel can not reach, that chains can not hold, that prisons can not weaken. It is a cheering thought that such a class of men are among us. Well for the world if the class were larger.

There are men, and their number is not small, who choose Policy to guide them. They are honest when they think it Policy to be honest. They smile when it is Policy, though they design to stab the next minute. They speak and act when Policy dictates, but remain silent and inactive when true honor would demand a sacrificing word and action. They are the men who go with the multitude.

few that be saved?"

Jesus was once asked, "Are they "Enter ye in at the strait gate," was his reply, "for strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there be that find it; but wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” The multitude to which he referred, that walked the false way, were the men of policy, the men who lacked principle, who acted from selfish motives, in whom the love of gain, emolument, power, ease, or fame was a ruling principle. The "few" were the honest men, the