and nations. It has corrupted its millions. From the family to the cabinet it has sown its seeds of deception and reaped its harvest of lies. And still it is luring us all, and in ten thousand little ways we exhibit in Show what we have no warrant to pretend to from Substance.

II. I said, there is Substance without Show. It is even so. In God's great house of natural industry the most efficient agents in the performance of their natural functions work steadily and powerfully onward, without any show. Among her elements, in the secret laboratory over the door of which is written, "No admittance" to human eye, are at work the busy and numerous gases, powerfully and rapidly evolving the solid framework of nature, as well as the delicate finish which garnishes and garlands her glorious temple. They are eternal Substance without Show. Coming out, we find the whole outward temple swept by the viewless plumes of the wind. Over every continent, island, and ocean she shakes her ethereal pinions, and whirls, dashes, plays, shrieks, and moans among her strong mountains, and forests, and waves, tossing, and tearing, and upturning, as in lawless sport or maddened fury, in proof of a powerful Substance without any Show.

Examining a little closer, behind the wind and the elements, we find a still more ethereal agent working, with a still more wonderful power, and evolving its results from a still deeper mystery. It seems to be the nervo-vital fluid of the body of Nature. It never shows itself, save

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LOVE, PATRIOTISM, AND RELIGION.

when in fits of sport or moods of anger it flashes and rattles among the clouds for a moment, and then retires to its unseen caves. Here is a sublimely wonderful Substance with no Show, when in the performance of its natural functions.

The most valuable and imperishable things in nature have Substance without Show. It is equally so among men. The largest, noblest, most valuable qualities of manhood are not showy. And the largest and noblest men are alike unshowy. Conscious of possessing the Substance, they care little for the Show. Great worth is modest and retiring. The more a man has to enjoy in himself the less he cares to become a showman for others. Charity loves to accomplish its mission in secret. Honesty is content to be honest without heralding its own virtue. Love is timid in the open world; she delights in the sweets of domestic retirement. Humility dwells in a sequestered spot, the hermit of the vale. Worship loves most the closet or the still grove for its altar. The noblest patriotism is that which honors its country with a dutiful life, and the best religion is that which does its alms and pours its prayers so far from ostentation, that its left hand knows not what its right does. The purest integrity is that which walks in duty's path for duty's own sake, and the most hearty goodness is that which does its work for the sake of goodness. All this is Substance without Show; and it is the very essence of righteousness, the vitality of morality, and the life-blood of religion. Substance without Show is the highest form of moral life,

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the nearest approach to the heavenly, the first step fully and fairly in the realm of the spiritual.

III. I have said, there is Substance and Show together. This, too, is true. Man is a microcosm, an epitome of the universe; what is true of the universe is true of him. He is the spiritual daguerreotype of the great outward world. In this outward world Substance and Show are often united. This is especially true of superficial aspects. The sun, an opaque body, shines with a glorious show. The noon, a dense and dark globe of solid matter, glitters in gorgeous splendor. The stars are other suns and other worlds lit up with the torch of unapproachable magnificence. On our earth the broad sea shines with the reflex of the bending heavens; the tall mountain shows its mingled work of rock and tree, and light and shade; the prairie glows with its living gems of flowers, and the forest waves in matchless grace. In all these Substance and Show are united. But Show is always based on Substance; there is no Show without Substance. But where Substance and Show are united, they are simply the result of superior forces which lie behind them, which are Substance without Show. So in man. Our characters may and should be seen. Our lights should be set on bushels. Our wisdom should shine in our lives; our love should breathe in our acts; our prayers should be heard in our daily piety of deed; our taste should write itself on our outward forms, chisel itself in our homes and public edifices. We praise the poet when he embodies nature in a poem. That poem is but the

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THE WORKMAN AND HIS WORK.

outward Show of the poetic Substance within him. The sculpturer's statuary is the Show of the profoundest Substance in his character. The religionist's prayer and song are the Show of his highest Substance of will and love. The mechanic's work is the outward Show of his inward Substance. So our dress, our houses, our equipage, and style of life and manner of address, if truthful, are but the Show of the Substance we possess in and of ourselves. And so far as all these are the simple reflex of our real substance, they are truthful and right. Taste is as much a real Substance as beauty is a real Show. The two are the legitimate correspondents of each other; they are halves of the same golden whole. And religion recognizes them as readily as philosophy. never clothe all men in drab, nor domicile them in the same form and style of dwelling, nor cut their garments after the same pattern, nor mold their manners to the same etiquette. Religion asks that men should be truthful, and yield their spirits to the superior law of eternal Substance which is without Show, and then that the fashioning which shall follow shall exhibit itself truthfully, humbly, and happily in the daily life.

Religion can

The sum, then, is this. Show without Substance is vain, foolish, and wicked. It is a species of deception and dishonesty, which leads others astray, and dwarfs and corrupts the soul that uses it. It is a species of wickedness widely practiced and wofully ruinous. Few are they whose garments are wholly free from its stain. Substance without Show is that essence of goodness which

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originates with the Divine Fountain, that root of purity, that fount of righteousness which is a law unto itself, the first and highest form of spiritual force; such as dwelt in Jesus; such as exists in the fullness of infinity in God; such as some great and pure souls feel; and such as makes heaven the glorious place it is. Substance and Show together consists in the possession of real worth with its honest expression; of divine qualities with their humble but faithful exhibition-an exhibition not for the mere purpose of show, but for the good they may do. It is that form of moral life, attainable by all, useful to all, between the abstractly spiritual and the sensualistic material, which leads along the beautiful path of the Redeemer's kingdom below, and is a meet preparation for the eternal home above.