not His own glory. In his works, how clearly
displayed is His divine benevolence! I need only direct your thoughts
to nature. I need only refer you to the fact that the Lord causes the
sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and the rain to fall alike
upon the just and the unjust. Even upon those who oppose His laws, and
despise and hate his precepts, does He pour down streams of perpetual
blessings. How unlike man--selfish, vain man--ever seeking his own
glory."

"You draw a strong picture, Harvey," the friend said.

"But is it not a true one?"

"Perhaps so."

"Very well. Now if we are seeking to be truly great, let us imitate Him
who made us and all the glorious things by which we are surrounded. He
that would be chief among you, said the Lord to his disciples, let him
be your servant. Even He washed his disciples' feet."

"Yes, but Harvey, I do not profess to be governed by religious
principle. I only account myself a moral man."

"But there cannot be any true morality without religion."

"That is a new doctrine."

"I think not. It seems to me to be as old as the Divine Word of God. To
be truly moral is to regard others as well as ourselves in all our
actions. And this we can never do apart from the potency and life of a
religious principle."

"But what do you mean by a religious principle?"

"I mean a principle of pure love to the Lord, united with an unselfish
love to our neighbour, flowing out in a desire to do him good."

"But no man can have these. It is impossible for any one to feel the
unselfish love of which you speak."

"Of course it is, naturally--for man is born into hereditary evils. But
if he truly desires to rise out of these evils into a higher and better
state, the Lord will be active in his efforts--and in just so far as he
truly shuns evils as sins against him, looking to him all the while for
assistance, will he remove those evils from their central position in
his mind, and then the opposite good of those evils will flow in to
take their place, (for spiritually, as well as naturally, there can be
no vacuum,) and he will be a new man. Then, and only then, can he begin
to lead truly a moral life. Before, he may be externally moral from
mere external restraints; now, he becomes moral from an internal
principle. Do you apprehend the difference?"

"Yes, I believe that I do. But I must confess that I cannot see how I
am ever to act from the motives you propose. If I wait for them, I