If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let 285 How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord LECTURE I. DISSENT IN GENERAL. Even in the best state which Society has yet reached, it is lamentable to think how great a proportion of all the efforts and talents in the world are employed in merely neutralizing one another. It is the proper end of government to reduce this wretched waste to the smallest possible amount.' (Mill, Political Economy, bk. v. ch. xi. § 16.) B LECTURE I. DISSENT IN GENERAL. 'A sower went forth to sow: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side.' No Matt. xiii. 3, 4. O thoughtful man can possibly contemplate the history of the Church of Christ, without the keenest sense of disappointment. That man's work should fail, and be impaired by loss and waste, would be but little matter of surprise. That God's work should be thus impaired and obstructed, is indeed—at first sight-astonishing. And yet our Lord, in the words which I have just quoted in the text, distinctly recognizes this fact; and His words ought to have prepared our minds to receive it. Nay, ordinary observation too should come to our aid. For it corroborates beyond all question the truth, that the Almighty has not chosen to shield even His own works from the operation of the causes which produce loss and waste; nor (in other words) thought fit so far to subordinate all other considerations to the carrying out of some one leading idea, that no unemployed material shall be left for fulfilling the collateral purposes of His providence. If then in the Church itself -which the Christian believes to be the special object of God's care, and to which the promise belongs, 'Lo, I |