Browning has in his poem of
'Christmas Eve and Easter Day,' how hard it is to be a Christian. Do
you remember its tremendous dream of the Judgment Day:

'When through the black dome of the firmament,
Sudden there went,
Like horror and astonishment,
A fierce vindictive scribble of red
Quick flame across; as if one said
(The angry Scribe of Judgment), There,
Burn it!'

And who can read the pleading of the youth who has chosen the world,
and not recognize the amiable young man of to-day, unable to put the
cup of pleasure utterly away, but resolving to let

'the dear remnant pass
One day--some drops of earthly good
Untasted.'

Do you want to know the end of this choice? Browning has told us in
words no young man should be ignorant of."

"Go on, Doctor," said the Professor. "It will do us all good."

"God reserves many great sinners for the most awful of all
punishments--impunity. We can despise the other life, until we are
refused it. This youth got the world he desired. A Voice tells him it
is--

'Flung thee freely as one rose
Out of a summer's opulence,
Over the Eden barrier whence
Thou art excluded. Knock in vain!'

He is made welcome to so rate earth, and never to know

'What royalties in store
Lay one step past the entrance door.'

So he tries the world, tries all its ways, its intellect, and art; and
at last, when everything else fails, he tries love. Surely love will
not offend; and he looks upward to _The Form_ at his side for
approval. But its face is as the face of the headsman, who shoulders
the axe to make an end. Love? Asking for love, when He so loved the
world as to give His only beloved Son to die for love. Then lost and
bewildered, and weary to death, the youth cowers deprecatingly, and
prays that at least he may not know all is lost; that he may go on,
and on, still hoping 'one eve to reach the better land.'" And the
minister's eyes were full of tears, and his voice was full of despair,
and there was a moment's intense silence. Harry broke it. "Surely,
sir," he said, "the poet did not leave the youth in such hopeless
distress?"

"He knew his God better," was the answer. "I will tell you in the
youth's own words what happened:

'Then did _The Form_ expand, expand--
I knew Him thro' the dread disguise,
As the whole God within his eyes
Embraced me!'"

"If you are not tired of Browning," said