BY THE LATE REV. SAMUEL WORCESTER.

"With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."-LUKE vi. 38.

Ir is well known that those who are industrious and faithful in doing good to the community in which they live, generally enjoy the favor of that community, so that they receive a fair return for all that they impart. It is also plain that those who do evil are punished, and thus receive such as they give; and that those who are indolent and useless, are generally reduced to poverty.

of conduct.

Those things show that the law, With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again, generally holds good even in respect to natural things. It is from knowing this law, that men labor in their several occupations, and choose and pursue their various courses Whether they do or do not acknowledge the Divine Providence, they expect that what they do will produce certain effects, and place them in certain conditions; that nature, or Providence, or something else will render to them according to their works; that, with what measure they mete, it will be measured to them again.

If men fully acknowledged the Divine Providence, and lived in it, all natural things would conform to this law; but, because men live in opposition to the Divine Providence, there are some cases in which they do not receive according to their works. Some persons do much good, or much evil, without receiving a due reward for their deeds. But this is so only in respect to the natural reward; in respect to the things of spiritual life, both good and evil, it is strictly true that with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

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In order to explain the spiritual operation of this law, we must adduce several examples, showing that he who does good, receives good; and that he who does evil, receives evil.

You have doubtless noticed that where you have sincerely endeavored to do good to any person, you love that person better than before, and have more desire to do him good. This is so, whether you had any love of doing him good before you did it, or compelled yourself to do it against your own will, because you saw that the truths of the Word required you to do him good. If you had some love of doing him good, and acted from that love, your bringing it into act increased it. By that act you removed your selfish loves more than they had been removed, and then more love of good flowed in from the Lord. Thus your charity was increased. There was measured back to you as much spiritual good as you endeavored to impart. Doing good to your neighbor did you good; you were benefited quite as much as he was. And if you did not do him good from real love of doing him good, but only in obedience to the Lord's commandments, still, you denied self in doing him good, and you exalted in your mind the Divine truths, which are the mediums of all good. You removed your selfish loves by doing the truth; and then the good or love within that truth flowed in, and was appropriated; and then you felt that by doing good you had acquired some love of good.

We can all see that the same holds true in respect to our efforts to do good to the society to which we belong. None of us could have had any strong love for the society, before we began to do it good, or to honor it as a mother. And how plain it is that the society has been to each of us a spiritual mother-a medium of spiritual lifejust in proportion as we have devoted ourselves to the good of the society. If, in any particulars, we have faithfully performed our duties as members of the society, it has been obvious to ourselves and others that we received nourishment, and health, and happiness in proportion to the honor which we thus rendered to her; and when we have been negligent of these duties, or have been self-willed, and disposed to live independently of the society, our spiritual life and happiness have visibly declined.

The same is true in respect to the civil community of which we are members. When we perform the duties of good citizens, we enjoy the protection of the laws, and the numerous blessings of civil or der; but when we violate the laws, and act against the welfare of the community, we soon find that retributive justice overtakes us, and renders to us according to our works. But, as this is within the sphere of natural life, the operation of this law is not so uniform and perfect, as in respect to our conduct in the religious society to which we belong.

But in respect to the effects of doing evil, we must give more full explanations.

We showed that when we do good to any person, either from love to him, or in obedience to the truths of the Word, we receive good, or the love of good, and thence happiness. It is equally true that we

receive evil, or the love of evil, and thence misery, by doing evil to any person, or any society. Something of the evil that we do, exists in our own minds when we begin to do it. But, with every word and action by which we express the evil, more of it flows in to our minds, and is appropriated. Perhaps you have seen persons beginning an unfriendly conversation, and they were not very unkind, and were somewhat careful in their first expressions to avoid injuring each other's feelings; but when they had said one hard thing, they could say others more easily, and it soon appeared that nothing but hatred was in their speech, and that this hatred increased with every expression of it. Some of you may have seen other modes of fighting, and noticed that each blow prepared for a more angry blow. There was a great increase of the evil feeling, resulting from each expression of it. And this is a proof that the evil which any one does, or seeks to do to another, is actually done to himself. While he is seeking to do any injury to another, he is spiritually doing it, and the evil spirits attendant upon him are doing it, to his own soul. "He that taketh the sword, shall perish by the sword. He diggeth a pit, and holloweth it out, and he falleth into the hole that he hath made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and upon his own crown shall his violence descend. The nations are sunk in the pit which they made; in the net which they hid is their own foot taken." All this is true, not only in the cases in which we seek to do harm to others, but in the cases in which we seek to lead them to do any evil. We cannot desire another to do any evil thing, without internally doing it ourselves; and after death, when all things in the books of our lives are laid open, and we are judged out of the things written therein, the evil things which we had endeavored to induce others to do, all appear as really done by ourselves. If we have rejoiced because an enemy fell into any sin, and was exposed to shame and punishment, it is recorded that we fell into that sin; and the shame and punishment followed.

When we say that both the evil acts which man has done, and those which he has been willing that others should perform, will be found recorded against him, we do not mean that the Lord keeps a book of debt and credit with man, in which such things are charged to him. The meaning is that man writes these things in the book of his own mind, which is his own life, so that they become a part of himself. To write or record any thing means, in the spiritual sense, to do or to live it; because, by doing or living any thing, it is inscrib ed and fixed within the mind, and constitutes a part of man's future quality and life.

If any one committed murder a week ago, you say that he is a murderer; you do not say that he was a murderer last week. You suppose that the sin is still in him, and that his present quality is that of a murderer. And you continue to regard men as guilty of all the sins they have committed, until you have good evidence that they have repented of them; have put away the evil loves from which those sins proceeded, and have acquired opposite loves.

And this shows it to be according to the common sense of mankind, that when a man does any thing, he writes it in living charac

ters in his mind, so that his mind is really composed of the things which he has done. And these things remain after death; and they are the very things which determine his quality, and make up his life. Not the smallest particular of them is lost.

To open all these things and bring them to light, is to open the book of man's life; and because every one will be judged according to those things which he has stored up and made a part of his life, therefore it is said that he will be judged according to his works.

It is easy to see that in all this, with what measure we mete, it shall be measured to us again. If we live a life of charity towards others, constantly striving to do them good, and shunning all evil, we store up all the good that we do; it is all written in the books of our lives. And after death, when the books are opened, every form and degree of charity that we have exercised in this world will be developed, and become a living principle. Our grosser affections and worldly thoughts, which had covered and hidden our purer affections, will then be removed; and our charity, if it was our internal princi ple, will flow forth with a sweetness and fullness unknown in this world. All that we have endeavored to mete out to others, will then be measured to us.

And this measuring to us again will consist not only in bringing into full life all the charity that we had ever exercised towards others; but it will consist also in bringing us into such society as will exercise towards us as much charity as we exercise towards them. In this world we cannot always find society that will do all their duties to us, even if we are faithful in our duties to them. But we can go on doing good, or endeavoring to do good, to all classes of men, whether they return us evil or good; and when we come into the other world, we shall be consociated with those who can and will do as much for our good, as we are willing to do for theirs. full measure which we have meted to others, will finally be measured to us again.

Thus the

It is hardly necessary to state that, if we live in self-love and love of the world, our condition after death will be opposite to what has been now described. All our selfish and worldly acts make impressions which remain; they are all written in the book of our lives; and they will be developed with their inmost meaning after death. It will then appear that they were very different from what they had pretended and appeared to be. Many selfish and worldly acts assume the garb of decency and charity. Many of them conform to the rules of social order, and even claim to be done from religious principles. But when the books of our lives are opened, what we thought, felt, and intended, will appear, and not simply what we said and did. Opening our books will be the searching of our hearts, and the manifestation of the internal quality of our words and works.

In the natural world men do many useful things to their neighbors for the sake of gain and reputation; but in the other world it will appear that such acts as are externally good, but internally evil, are not proper expressions of one's thoughts and affections; they are hypocritical. And, for this reason, they are not allowed. Men are

there compelled to show what they are; and many who had led moral lives, are wholly devoted in the other world to the most gross and abominable forms of wickedness.

And what they receive in return is of the same quality. While they lived in this world of false appearances, what they did to others and what others did to them, was often friendly and charitable in its external form. But when the hypocrisy is removed they openly do evil to others, and others openly do evil to them. And the natural delights which they caused to others, and which they received in their intercourse with others, are all turned into things as opposite to these, as these were opposite to the internal affections of those who revelled in them.

It is somewhat difficult for us to conceive of the condition in the other world of those who have lived merely selfish and worldly lives, but have preserved the character of orderly and useful men on the earth. They conceal their principles under appearances of charity; and they do this so perfectly that they deceive not only others, but themselves, in respect to their real characters. Many of this class go into the other world in full confidence of being admitted into heaven; and they are greatly astonished and disappointed, when they find that they have no genuine love of heavenly life, and hence no ability to live it and enjoy it. They say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works." But the Lord says, "I never knew you-depart from me ye that work iniquity." Their works are internally evil, because they are not done from love of the neighbor, nor from obedience to Divine truths, but from selfish and worldly loves.

Those who are accustomed to explore their own minds acquire some ability to judge of the common difference between the real and the assumed characters of the men of this age. They see a great difference between the thoughts and feelings which they sometimes indulge, and the words and actions which they show before others. They notice a tendency in themselves to do many things which they are unwilling to have known. And they see that they have some intentions and ends in a great part of their words and works, which they endeavor to conceal even from their most virtuous friends. There are very few who are not conscious that they are not Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile. There are very few who would not dread a full manifestation of all that they keep concealed.

Those who have explored themselves, and learned their own habits of concealment, can form some idea of the difference between their apparent and their real characters; and they acquire some ability to detect the insincerity of others.

Now, if we consider that our works are to be estimated according to their internal quality, it will be obvious that we shall appear after death very differently from what we appear before the world; and that when the internal quality of what we have rendered to others is disclosed, what we shall receive in return will disappoint us in proportion as we have been deceived by our own hypocrisy.

Let us then take heed in respect to the measure that we mete to others. Let us not be satisfied with a mere external performance of