ay, "Tho' I have borne a burdened mind,
Have tasted neither pleasure nor repose,
Yet this remains--to all men, friends or foes,
I have been kind."_

_'Tis something, when I hear Death's awful tread
Upon the stair, that his swift eye shall find
Upon my heart old wounds that often bled
For others, but no heart I injured--
I have been kind._

_Praise will not comfort me when I am dead;
Yet should one come, by tenderness inclined,
My heart would know if he stooped o'er my bed
And kissed my lips for memory, and said
"This man was kind."_

_O Lord, when from Thy throne Thou judgest me,
Remember, tho' I was perverse and blind,
My heart went out to men in misery,
I gave what little store I had to Thee,
My life was kind._

X

A CONFESSION

In speaking thus I do but speak of those things which have been
revealed to me in my own experience. For many years I preached the
truths of Christianity with a real sincerity, but with a fluctuating
sense of their authority and value. Sometimes their authority seemed
supreme, and then I trod on bright clouds high above the world; at
other times they appeared to crumble at my touch, and then I walked in
darkness. One thing I saw at intervals, and at last with complete and
agonized distinctness, that however I preached these truths, they had
little visible effect upon the lives of others. Those to whom I
preached lived after all much as other people lived. I did not find
them more magnanimous than the ordinary men and women of the world, nor
less liable to take offense, to utter harsh words, to indulge in
resentments, and to retaliate on those who injured them. I did not
find that they loved humanity any better than their fellows; like all
mankind they loved those who loved them, and had domestic virtues and
affections, but little more. It was impossible to say that
Christianity had produced in them any type of character wholly and
radically different from that which might be found in multitudes of men
and women who made no pretense of Christian sentiment. Christianity
had no doubt imposed upon them many valuable restraints, so that
without it they might have been worse men and women, but this was a
merely negative result. Where was the spectacle of a character
composed of new qualities, a life wholly governed by novel impulses and
principles? I could not find such a life; nor ought I to have been
surprised;