[As the following lecture is, in a certain sense, an introduction to Poe's "Farewell to Earth," it has been considered advisable to publish it in connection with the poem.]

THE MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS.

A LECTURE DELIVERED BY MISS LIZZIE DOTEN, AT CLINTON HALL, MONDAY, P. M., NOV. 2, 1863.

[Phonographically reported by Robert S. Moore.]

FOR several reasons, we must be as brief and comprehensive as possible in our remarks to-night. We do not intend to make any great intellectual effort, or to endeavor to astonish you with lofty strains of eloquence. We simply desire to present to you a few facts in connection with the poem about to be given, and we do this under the distinctive title of our discourse, THE MYSTERIES OF GODLI

NESS.

As Godliness was a mystery in the past, so is it in the present. And why is it a mystery? Because men understand so little of the practice of Godliness.

Socrates was accustomed to say that "a man was always sufficiently eloquent in that which he clearly understood;" and thus a man will not look upon that as a mystery which is a part of his daily life, and with which he has become familiar through experience. But as it was in the days when Jesus lived and taught, or when Paul wrote his Epistle to Timothy, so Godliness, to the great mass of minds, remains a mystery. When Paul penned those words, "Without controversy, great is the mys

tery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory," — he referred particularly to the life and teachings of Jesus. We, however, give to the passage a more comprehensive and extended application. If the "Mystery of Godliness" was made manifest in the life of Jesus because of his divinity, then do we say to the men of the present day,

Beloved, now are ye also sons of God." And if "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in the midst of men," in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, so that same Word is incarnated, in greater or less degree, in every human being, be he rich or poor, black or

white, bond or free. In the same way, also, every one possessing a living soul is a manifestation of the mystery of Godliness. And when a man goes into his own nature, when he understands himself, when he reads the mysteries of his own being, when he looks away from his positive and earthly necessities up to his Divine possibilities, and sees how vast is the range, how infinite his capabilities, then he begins to understand something of the mysteries of Godliness. The Church has used this phraseology in the past, and knew not what it meant. She had "the form of Godliness," and yet in word and deed, ay, in very thought, she "denied the power thereof." Therefore it has been, in all past time, when there were some true and sincere souls in the Church, who made manifest, both by profession and practice, that in part at least, they comprehended the mystery of Godliness, which is the highest spirituality, — not Spiritualism, and let it flow out into the beauty and harmony of perfect lives, the Church looked at them with a doubtful countenance. There was such a thing as being too holy, and the Church felt that such lives were a reproach to her self-righteousness and hypocrisy. She was not familiar with the man

ifestation of true Godliness, and consequently looked upon it as something that threatened her internal peace, and the success of her stereotyped plan of salvation. Therefore it was, that the voice of condemnation was raised against Michael De Molinos, Fenelon, Madame Guyon, and the whole host of Quietists and Reformers. By dim forecastings of the soul, and heroic struggling with flesh and sense, they had learned something of that holy mystery. It was that which could not be translated into human language. It could not be written in books, but it was that which was to be felt in the soul, and made manifest in the life. Godliness, true spirituality, cannot find expression in words, and so it must of necessity manifest its Divine beauty in the life.

But what is the idea we intend to convey when we use the term "Godliness"? Who is God, from whose name this word is simply a derivative? Godliness is the manifestation of his spirit and power in the soul of man, yet it is not God. Who, then, is He! We must look into the lexicon of every human heart to find our reply for each one worships his own Ideal of Deity according to the rev

elation of Truth which he receives, and to the capacity of his spirit to comprehend. The old philosophers sought for God in all the external world; they also went down into the mysteries of the spirit, as far as philosophy could sound its mighty depths, and yet they could not fathom his infinite nature. Although form and an external are necessary to man as a completion of his idea, yet when he reasons deeply concerning Deity, he cannot arrive at any satisfactory conclusions concerning his personality; he can only worship him as a principle, as a presence, and a power. Man, in his insignificance, can only look up to that superior Intelligence, which manifests itself throughout Nature, and worship either in the silence of the heart or in the inadequate articulations of human speech. The finite never did as yet compass and comprehend the Infinite. And before that majestic question which all the Ages have sought in vain to answer, before that mighty Oracle whose essence and nature have never been understood, man might as well remain dumb.

But where, you ask, shall man find his highest manifestation of Deity? How shall he know and understand God, so that he may attain unto the