Self-Culture. A LECTURE BY THE REV. HUGH STOWELL, M.A., OF CHRIST CHURCH, SALFORD: HON. CANON OF CHESTER. SELF-CULTURE. A SINGLE word expresses the subject on which I am to address you, yet volumes could not exhaust the fulness of its meaning. My difficulty will be to condense-to say what ought to be said, and yet compress the whole within reasonable limits. At the same time, my theme may fairly challenge, and, if rightly handled, can hardly fail to command, your earnest and sustained attention; for it is not speculative, abstract, or irrelevant, but comes directly home to the business and the bosom of every one of us. There are many objects which only few can aim at, many pursuits which only few can follow; but Self-Culture, or the improvement of a man's nature, this is a task from which no human being can be exempted. Ought not, then, a topic which so intimately concerns, no less intensely to interest every one of us? Let us look to the Author of all wisdom, that He would grant to us His grace and guidance on this occasion, that He may be glorified and we may be edified. Little needs to be said in proof of the necessity of self-culture. It is a law of universal nature, and more especially of human nature, that cultivation should be essential to improvement. This law would appear to have been in force from the beginning, for our first parents were placed in Paradise to ss the trees of the garden. Even Eden needed to be tended. Nor may we doubt that, as the primitive pair had to dress the garden in which they dwelt, they must much more have had to train, unfold, and mature the garden in their own breast. But if culture was requisite ere man fell, how much more has it been required since the fatal fall? Nature now only yields to toil what our exigencies demand. The ground of itself brings forth thorns and thistles, and it is in the sweat of his face that man must eat his bread. The most exuberant soil, left to itself, will be prolific only in jungle or in weeds; and as it is with the ground which man tills, so it is with his own corrupted heart. Without cultivation he is little removed from the beast that perisheth. Whatever the powers, capabilities, faculties, dispositions, and affections with which God hath endued him, all will make him no better than a splendid abortion. So essential is the task, that it is needed by the most gifted as well as by the least endowed; no man, whatever the natural capacity of his mind or the natural excellence of his disposition, can, if he neglects to improve himself, attain to distinction or usefulness; whilst the humblest and least talented ought only to be stimulated by the very smallness of his gifts to redoubled diligence. The less he has the more it behoves him to make the most of that little. Though such an one cannot hope to become like the sun, "the light of the world," or like a "city set upon a hill that cannot be hid," yet may he at least, through the grace of God, become a lighted candle, which is not to be put under a bed or a bushel, but in a candlestick, to give light to them that are in the house; thus filling up its own small sphere honoured and honourable, blessed and a blessing. No less obligatory than essential is the cultivation of a man's own self. Indeed, the very fact that it is necessary ought to be sufficient proof that it is obligatory; for what is the law of our nature, rightly understood, but the law of the God who created that nature? Since, then, He has so constituted us that except we cultivate ourselves we can be little better than abortions, it must follow that it is our solemn duty to make the most of the powers with which He has endued us; and as we may infer this from reason, so we find it clearly inculcated by revelation. The word of God teaches us that we must "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling;" that whatever our hand findeth to do, we must do it with our might; that the slothful servant is a wicked servant; that he will not be condemned because he had only one talent, but because he hid that one talent in a napkin ; whilst, on the other hand, he that had received five talents will not gain the recompense of the reward because five had been entrusted to him, but because he increased those five to ten. Faithfulness, not ability, is the standard by which we shall be judged. "He," says the Judge of all, "that is faithful in little is faithful also in much, and he that is unfaithful in little is unfaithful also in much." No gifts so small as to furnish a plea for neglect; no endowments so large as to render diligence superfluous. "To whom much is given, of the same much will be required; and to whom little is given, of the same little will be required." It follows that as self-improvement is thus the duty of every man, so it is also within the reach of every man. It is practicable to all possessed of reason and the ordinary properties of our species. There is no man, however scanty his faculties, however limited his advantages, who may not make the most and the best of himself. Nor can he tell to what he may attain; for "every one that hath, to him shall be given; but from him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have." He may be carrying on this great first work whether he be in private or in public life; whether he be servant or master; whether he live in obscurity or in publicity; whether studying in the halls of learning, or plying his daily task in the manufactory at the loom, in |