So from the sally each obeys
The unseen almighty nod;
So till the ending all their ways
Blindfolded loth have trod:
Nor knew their task at all, but were the tools of God.

*****

A few restrictions, indeed, remain to influence the followers of
individual branches of study. The DIVINITY, for example, must be
an avowed believer; and as this, in the present day, is unhappily
considered by many as a confession of weakness, he is fain to choose one
of two ways of gilding the distasteful orthodox bolus. Some swallow it
in a thin jelly of metaphysics; for it is even a credit to believe in
God on the evidence of some crack-jaw philosopher, although it is a
decided slur to believe in Him on His own authority. Others again (and
this we think the worst method), finding German grammar a somewhat dry
morsel, run their own little heresy as a proof of independence; and
deny one of the cardinal doctrines that they may hold the others without
being laughed at.

*****

In particular, I heard of clergymen who were employing their time in
explaining to a delighted audience the physics of the Second Coming. It
is not very likely any of us will be asked to help. If we were, it is
likely we should receive instructions for the occasion, and that on more
reliable authority. And so I can only figure to myself a congregation
truly curious in such flights of theological fancy, as one of veteran
and accomplished saints, who have fought the good fight to an end and
outlived all worldly passion, and are to be regarded rather as a part of
the Church Triumphant than the poor, imperfect company on earth.

*****

The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together. It is the common
and the god-like law of life. The browsers, the biters, the barkers,
the hairy coats of field and forest, the squirrel in the oak, the
thousand-footed creeper in the dust, as they share with us the gift of
life, share with us the love of an ideal; strive like us--like us are
tempted to grow weary of the struggle--to do well; like us receive at
times unmerited refreshment, visitings of support, returns of courage;
and are condemned like us to be crucified between that double law of the
members and the will. Are they like us, I wonder, in the timid hope of
some reward, some sugar with the drug? Do they, too, stand aghast at
unrewarded virtues, at the sufferings of those whom, in our partiality,
we take to be just, and the prosperity of such as in