“Reflect, but for a moment,” urged the minister, “and I am sure it will be plain to your mind. We are spiritually organized beings, the creatures of a wise, good, and eternal God, who has stamped upon our souls the impress of immortality. We are not made for time, but for eternity; and, therefore, time to us and all that appertains to it, must refer to and involve what is eternal. The great error of our lives is, a resting in the things of time and sense as real and substantial things, and to be most desired, when they are only intended to be the means of our spiritual purification and elevation. To so rest is to look down at the things that are beneath, and which will perish in a little while, instead of looking upward at those substantial things which endure forever. Now, from the very nature of our Heavenly Father, he must ever be seeking to lift our minds above these natural and unsubstantial affections, into the love of such things as are eternal; and in order to do this, he finds it often necessary to break our natural loves, as with a hammer of iron, lest they become so selfish and inordinate as to extinguish all love for what is good and true, and thus render us unfitted for the pure, unselfish joys of heaven. It is far better for us, Mr. Townsend, to suffer the destruction of our natural hopes, and the blighting of our natural affections, if by these means eternal hopes are rekindled in our minds, and the love of things spiritual and eternal formed in our hearts.” To this, Mr. Townsend was silent. Only to a limited extent did he feel it to be true, and as far as he saw it did his heart rebel against it. He had no affection for any thing beyond this world, and the crossing and crushing of these affections, he felt to be the greatest calamity he could suffer. The things of this world were good enough for him, and he was content to enjoy them forever, if the boon could only be granted; any interference with this enjoyment he could not but feel as uncalled for and arbitrary. This was his state of mind, which had changed, at least, in one important feature during the lapse of two years. There was a time, when, in the pride of success and conscious power, he had fully believed, with the fool, as well as said in his heart, “There is no God.” But, he had realized, by painful and disheartening experiences, that there was an invisible and all-potent Being, who governed in the affairs of men, and determined the course of events at will. Against such interference, as he impiously felt it to be, his heart arose, angry and rebellious.