ng at history in this light, we may justify God for many a heavy
blow, and fearful judgment, which seems to the unbeliever a wanton
cruelty of chance or fate; while at the same time we may feel deep
sympathy with--often deep admiration for--many a noble spirit, who has
been defeated, and justly defeated, by those irreversible laws of God's
kingdom, of which it is written--"On whomsoever that stone shall fall, it
will grind him to powder." We may look with reverence, as well as pity,
on many figures in history, such as Sir Thomas More's; on persons who,
placed by no fault of their own in some unnatural and unrighteous
position; involved in some decaying and unworkable system; conscious more
or less of their false position; conscious, too, of coming danger, have
done their best, according to their light, to work like men, before the
night came in which no man could work; to do what of their duty seemed
still plain and possible; and to set right that which would never come
right more: forgetting that, alas, the crooked cannot be made straight,
and that which is wanting cannot be numbered; till the flood came and
swept them away, standing bravely to the last at a post long since
untenable, but still--all honour to them--standing at their post.

When we consider such sad figures on the page of history, we may have, I
say, all respect for their private virtues. We may accept every excuse
for their public mistakes. And yet we may feel a solemn satisfaction at
their downfall, when we see it to have been necessary for the progress of
mankind, and according to those laws and that will of God and of Christ,
by which alone the human race is ruled. We may look back on old orders
of things with admiration; even with a touch of pardonable, though
sentimental, regret. But we shall not forget that the old order changes,
giving place to the new;

And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

And we shall believe, too, if we be wise, that all these things were
written for our example, that we may see, and fear, and be turned to the
Lord, each asking himself solemnly, What is the system on which I am
governing my actions? Is it according to the laws and will of God, as
revealed in facts? Let me discover that in time: lest, when it becomes
bankrupt in God's books, I be involved--I cannot guess how far--in the
common ruin of my compeers.

What is my duty? Let me go and work at it, lest