of the commandments which Christ has directed those who
love Him to keep, am I too troublesome or too exigent in asking from one
of those whom the Holy Ghost has made our overseers, at least a distinct
chart of the Old World as contemplated by the Almighty; and a clear
definition of even the inappropriate tenor of the orders of Christ: if
only that the modern scientific Churchman may triumph more securely in
the circumference of his heavenly vision, and accept more gratefully the
glorious liberty of the free-thinking children of God?

159. To take a definite, and not impertinent, instance, I observe in
the continuing portion of your letter that your Lordship recognizes in
Christ Himself, as doubtless all other human perfections, so also the
perfection of an usurer; and that, confidently expecting one day to hear
from His lips the convicting sentence, "Thou knewest that I was an
austere man," your Lordship prepares for yourself, by the disposition of
your capital no less than of your talents, a better answer than the
barren, "Behold, there thou hast that is thine!" I would only observe in
reply, that although the conception of the Good Shepherd, which in your
Lordship's language is "implied" in this parable, may indeed be less
that of one who lays down his life for his sheep, than of one who takes
up his money for them, the passages of our Master's instruction, of
which the meaning is not implicit, but explicit, are perhaps those which
His simpler disciples will be safer in following. Of which I find, early
in His teaching, this, almost, as it were, in words of one syllable:
"Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou away."

There is nothing more "implied" in this sentence than the probable
disposition to turn away, which might be the first impulse in the mind
of a Christian asked to lend for nothing, as distinguished from the
disciple of the Manchester school, whose principal care is rather to
find, than to avoid, the enthusiastic and enterprising "him that would
borrow of thee." We of the older tradition, my Lord, think that
prudence, no less than charity, forbids the provocation or temptation of
others into the state of debt, which some time or other we might be
called upon, not only to allow the payment of without usury, but even
altogether to forgive.

160. (D) "Just as we are told." Where, my Lord, and by whom? It is
possible that some of the schemers in physical science,