men of the usual dimensions of character, men devoted only to small and private schemes, throw the blame of their shortcomings upon their circumstances, and pretend that they cannot manage the problem of life upon God's terms, we feel at once the absurdity and insolence of their delusion; we ask, 'Who is this, that must have the eternal laws removed out of his way? and what fine thing is he about, that for its sake the everlasting eyes of truth and justice are to wink?' And when we find that he has only to sell his sugars or to freight his ships, we are indignant that for such ends he should demand exceptions from the rule of simplicity which God governs a universe without needing to violate. But when vast interests appear at stake, and great purposes have been embraced; when the liberation of a people, or the propagation of a healing faith, engage the patriot or the prophet; when interest and imposture are garrisoning the world by mere force of unscrupulousness, and marching over it with the sword of oppression and the crozier of falsehood; and when perhaps deliverance might be won by a word of deceit or a deed of treachery; who then can be found to preach a holy abstinence ? who will not exclaim, 'Tell the lie and save the world'? And when the redeemers of mankind reply, "Not till God's time, which the index of Satan never shows, and only in God's way, which takes no windings of guilt; "there is seldom wanting some Judas Iscariot to bring the

crisis on, to move the clock hands and make the hour ring out, and force the Kingdom of Heaven to assert itself by a trifling sacrifice to Hell. And this it is that brings on the agony for so many leaders of higher faith, and lays the cross on so many a righteous cause, and seals it in the sepulchre, till God gives it a better resurrection, and it preaches to men's hearts from heaven, immortal, because unstained, and inspiring, because divine.

There is a sphere in the life of every one, except the child, in which he is appointed to rule, and to exercise some functions by the methods of his own will. From the monitor in a school to the minister of an empire, there are gradations of authority that leave no one without a place. Would you know the real worth of any soul, be it another's or your own, that is the sphere on which you must fix your eye." * It is little that a man goes right under orders and when he is obliged to serve: you may always make a good soldier by sufficient drill; and amid the pressure of custom and beneath the light of the public gaze, even a passive and pliant conscience may be shaped into good looks, and wear a gloss. But how is it with you in your place of power,among the servants whom you govern, the children whom you train, the companions who place you at their head? Do you take liberties there, as if there were

* One of the seven sages of Greece is quoted by Aristotle as saying, that "it is his place of rule that shows a man." öri ápxr) ávdpa deí§el. -Bias ap. Arist. Nicom. Eth. V. i. 16.

nothing to restrain, and fling about your self-will, as if it were free of all the field? Do you profane the law of duty by making it a homage to yourself, instead of letting its authority pass through you, as yourself chief captive of the will of God? Do you grant exemptions to yourself, exemptions of sloth, exemptions of temper, exemptions of truth, as if it were given you to loose as well as bind? There is no surer mark of a low and unregenerate nature than this tendency of power to loudness and wantonness instead of quietude and reverence. To souls baptized in Christian nobleness the largest sphere of command is but a wider empire of obedience, calling them, not into escape from holy rule, but to its full impersonation. Only now that no outer rule is given them by another, and they have nothing to copy with painful imitation, have they to bring forth the interpretation from within, and set themselves at one with the will of God by a heart of self-renunciation,—a love that seizes all divine ends, and in expressing itself realizes them. In short, power is never felt as power, except by those who abuse it. Like other things that awaken desire at a distance, no sooner is it entered, than it is found to be not more triumphant happiness, but deeper life; utterly disappointing to him who wants more for himself; ennobling to him who can dispense and administer for God.

In no sphere perhaps is the chance of failure more impatiently borne, and therefore the temptation to the

use of forbidden resources more vehement, than in the exercise of Political power. No plea can be urged to justify in the Statesman more than in private persons, the practice of dissimulation, intrigue, and guilty compromise with wrong. God has not made one law for the lofty and another for the low; or presented his holiness in Christ to sanctify our private homes in Bethany, to overawe the menials of our Jerusalem, and be spat upon and buffetted by our captains of power and high-priests of judgment. Yet the impression extensively prevails, that into public life we are not to carry the rigour of the domestic code and the purity of the Christian standard; that arts must be admitted and passions indulged in the game of parties and of states, which you would condemn in your neighbour and despise in yourself; that hollow profession in a political orator is not hypocrisy; that eaves-dropping and sealbreaking is not meanness; that to connive at the knavery of a friend and inflame the sensitive wound of an enemy is something else than fraud and malignity; and that he who can longest exclude a competitor at home or best hoodwink rival diplomatists abroad, most deftly accomplishes the legitimate functions of government. The highest heroism expected from the statesman and sometimes unblushingly paraded by himself is, that he will forego a present popularity in pursuit of a remoter Fame; a declaration, you may observe, that always surprises the well-dressed multitude into rapturous shouts,

as if the sentiment had the fresh flavour of Christian

Amid this universal laxity

nobleness, instead of smelling of the sick-room of dying heathenism: or, if there are some who deride its emptiness, and look on such aerial ambition as a precarious flight in a balloon, it is not because they rise above the average atmospheric currents, but because they stay below them; not that their faithful soul is already lifted to heaven, but that their prudent foot is clinging to the ground. To them, praise seems empty in comparison, not with the reality of justice, but with the solidity of profit; and short-lived beside, not the eternity of right, but the security of sound finance, and the durability of land. of sentiment respecting public morals, it is hardly surprising that few statesmen hesitate to accept the lowered standard, and give up the attempt to harmonize their public action and their private mind. Assured on all hands that the work before them is a sort of devil's art, boasting indeed a divine appointment, but manageable only by undivine instrumentality, they cease to believe the purer inspirations of their souls: they are dazzled with the view over the wide kingdoms of time and history, which the Tempter shows them from their mountain height: they waver and wonder; fluctuate between the sanctities within and the glories without; but in the end do not say, "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."