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At the base stands the Conservative, the Presbyterian, the Calvinist, whom no entreaties, no prospective views, can induce to try the ascending slope. Friends urge -- enemies deride -- but all in vain. Immovable he stands, confident he sees, from his low stand-point, all there is to be seen of the vast landscape of eternal truth spread out before him.

Henry Ward Beecher leaps from their ranks and rises one step above his cotemporaries -sic-. He reports his views from his new stand-point to those below him. But, alas! The spring was unpropitious.

"Our confidence in your firmness and inflexibility of purpose is shaken."

Beecher has lost the confidence of some of his former friends: but in losing old friends he has found new and untried ones, who gladly extend to him the welcome hand. Upward they all move in company; and as they rise, new and more extended views of the surrounding country break upon their pleased and excited vision.

Again they report to the conservatives at the base

"Nay, verily, we will not heed thy tales of new truths. Our Bibles confidently say, there is nothing new under the sun."

"But come and see for yourselves."

"No, no. We are satisfied -- Trouble us not."

Onward and upward the ascending party, go, until they behold on the right side, the Methodist creed -- on the left, the Baptist creed in view. On they go in a winding course, and they see the Unitarian view. Onward they move to the Universalist stand-point, and they see the Universalist view. Onward they see the Christian view. Again, the Swedenborgian view, the Episcopalian, the Puseyite, and at length, the Catholic position. All and each presenting a distinctly different view of the same landscape below.

The further they ascend the more friends they find in the great human family, all equally intent to reach the Observatory above them all.

At length one man from the summit shouts out:

"You are all right!"

The Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Unitarian, the Universalist, the Christian, the Swedenborgian, the Episcopalian, the Puseyite, the Catholic, each and all, from your own stand-point have reported correctly.

He ascends to the top of the Observatory and takes the footprints of his Master -- he and Christ "see eye to eye," for they see from the same stand-point.

One by one the travelers after holiness or likeness to Christ arrive at his stand-point upon the pinnacle of the Observatory. All see now, as Christ sees: and all "see eye to eye." Their charity is now God-like. It embraces all races, all sects, all men: and as they ascended through distinct paths, each being true to himself, has safely arrived at his destined goal.

But no one can see just as another saw; for his angle of vision, his organization, differs from each and all others, and yet he is true to himself -- and true to God.

So, can we but start the conservative, we shall at length all "see eye to eye." But I fear some will compel us to pul -sic- them with a lasso up to a higher stand-point before we can convince them there is one! But let us try chafing them before hanging them; rub their feet -- give a start to the circulation, by tempting even a retaliatory passion, rather than let them become pillars of salt, or die of dyspepsia, for we cannot have an universal jubilee until the last tardy conservative has attained the pinnacle of the Observatory.

Oh, Conservative! For the sake of the world above you, if not for your own sake, be persuaded to try one advance movement. And let not the consummate age of righteousness be longer retarded by your obstinate, inflexible determination never to know any more than you do at present!

Again -- from the sunny side of this vast hill, enlightened by the sun of civilization, can be seen the cultivated farm, the verdant stream whose banks are studded with the mill, the factory -- and from the peaceful, quiet village stands out in bold relief the school-house, the academy, the college, the university -- and above all is seen the church-spire, pointing heavenward to the fount and source of all the blessings of cultivated life.

And from the shady side, which the sun of civilization has not yet reached, is seen the unbroken forest, where the wild man roams, hunting his forest prey. And from India's vast plains may be seen the heathen temple, the car of Juggernaut, the Mahommedan paradise, bounded by the Ganges, upon whose banks may be seen the devoted conscientious mother sacrificing the object dearer than her own life, to the crocodile and the flood, to propitiate the favor of her deity.

But as the sun of civilization moves onward in its westward course, leaving the sunny plains of civilization eclipsed by the principles of Calvinism, it is only to chase away the darkness of ignorance by which the conscience of the Pagan has been hitherto darkened and eclipsed.

Day of judgment! Day of wonders! Again -- on the side of this hill stand the different trees of God's great unbroken forest -- each perfect -- because true to the respective functions with which God has endowed it. And being true to itself, each perfects its own appropriate fruit -- the walnut, the chestnut, the butternut, the hazelnut -- all perfect -- yet all different; all unlike, yet all right. All good, that have life enough in the nut to sprout another like it; all bad, that have not vitality enough to rise again.