through all those channels, but yet if we were doomed to be solitary
beings, without any companion or friend with whom to communicate or
share our gladness, or were prevented from expressing our thoughts and
desires by action, the result in either of these supposed cases would
not be perfect happiness. But, on the other hand, if we can imagine a
man with his whole nature in a state of perfect health, each portion
demanding and obtaining its appropriate nourishment, and with all his
powers beautifully balanced and in perfect harmony with the plan of
God, "according to the effectual working of the measure in every
part,"--the senses ministering to the most refined tastes,--the
intellect full of light in the apprehension of truth, and strong
in its discovery,--the moral being possessing perfect holiness and
unerring subjection to the will of God,--the love of society able
to rest upon fitting objects, and to find a fall return for its
sympathies in suitable companionships, while ample scope was afforded
for activity by congenial labour;--then would such a state be
perfection or fulness of joy in God's presence here below. I do not,
of course, allege that every part of our being has the same capacity
to afford us joy, or that the flood can pour itself into the soul with
the same fulness through each of these channels, as if, for instance,
we depended in the same degree for enjoyment upon our sentient as we
do upon our intellectual or moral nature. All I mean to assert is,
that whatever proportion may come through each, God has so made us,
that perfect joy is derived only through all. Such is man's actual
constitution as he came from the hands of his Maker; and such would
have been his happiness had he remained unfallen. Placed, as Adam was,
in a material world so rich in sources of physical happiness, with
an intellect capable of unlocking the countless treasures of
science,--with a nature pure and spotless, delighting in the excellent
God,--with society begun with woman as a helpmeet for him, and