And such a revelation is given us, to inspire our hearts with hope, and to guide our feet in paths of safety. We have, in the written word of God, promises to cheer us, counsels to direct us, reproofs to admonish us; and a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well that we take heed, as "unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day-dawn, and the day-star arise." It is this /Lamp to the Path/ which a friendly hand extends to the wanderers and toilers in a benighted and sinful world; in the hope that many may turn their feet into God's testimonies, and their faces towards that city where the Lamb is the light, and where gloom and darkness are unknown; and prove in their own glad experience the truth of the word of Him who said, "He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." H. L. H. Boston, July, 1884. A LAMP TO THE PATH. CHAPTER I. RELIGION IN THE HEART. As years roll over us, and as our delusive expectations from earth and time slowly melt away, the complaint is very often heard that the world is growing worse. The truth is, that we are only then beginning to see the world in its true light. The visionary hopes which we once entertained have vanished, and the mirage is discovered to be neither a lake nor a stream. Perhaps we have had to eat the fruit of bitter disappointment or of blighted hope; and because our baseless anticipations have not been realized, we hasten to the conclusion that the world is fast sinking into hopeless corruption; that is, because the accounts which the Scriptures give have been found to be true, we are ready to suppose that the world is every year more and more distempered. Hence the peevishness of some--hence activities cramped--hence querulous complaints--hence, in a few cases, the very spirit of Ishmael, whose hand was against every man, while every man's hand was against him. SORROW AND ITS ORIGIN. Against this, however, as against every form of error, we are carefully warned in the Word of God. "Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." The truth is, they were /not/ better--it is we that look at them from a different point, or try them by a different standard; in other words, /we/ change. Our dreams have ended in the nothing whence they rose. We looked for only smiles and sunshine, and have had to grapple with very stern realities. We persisted in regarding this world as something very different from what the Word of God describes--a place where man's only sure portion is grief; but have at length discovered that the Word of God is true. Hence our sorrow and disappointment; hence the morbid complaints, and the cheerless repinings of age not seldom succeed to the visions, the dreams, and the delusions of youth.