iritual deflexion and depression, when
the world's madness, unusually impressive on such a man, has done its
very worst with him, and in all future errors whatsoever he will be a
little less mistaken, we may close the First Part of Sterling's Life.

PART II.

CHAPTER I. CURATE.

By Mr. Hare's account, no priest of any Church could more fervently
address himself to his functions than Sterling now did. He went about
among the poor, the ignorant, and those that had need of help; zealously
forwarded schools and beneficences; strove, with his whole might, to
instruct and aid whosoever suffered consciously in body, or still worse
unconsciously in mind. He had charged himself to make the Apostle Paul
his model; the perils and voyagings and ultimate martyrdom of Christian
Paul, in those old ages, on the great scale, were to be translated into
detail, and become the practical emblem of Christian Sterling on the
coast of Sussex in this new age. "It would be no longer from Jerusalem
to Damascus," writes Sterling, "to Arabia, to Derbe, Lystra, Ephesus,
that he would travel: but each house of his appointed Parish would be
to him what each of those great cities was,--a place where he would bend
his whole being, and spend his heart for the conversion, purification,
elevation of those under his influence. The whole man would be
forever at work for this purpose; head, heart, knowledge, time, body,
possessions, all would be directed to this end." A high enough model
set before one:--how to be realized!--Sterling hoped to realize it, to
struggle towards realizing it, in some small degree. This is Mr. Hare's
report of him:--

"He was continually devising some fresh scheme for improving the
condition of the Parish. His aim was to awaken the minds of the
people, to arouse their conscience, to call forth their sense of moral
responsibility, to make them feel their own sinfulness, their need of
redemption, and thus lead them to a recognition of the Divine Love by
which that redemption is offered to us. In visiting them he was diligent
in all weathers, to the risk of his own health, which was greatly
impaired thereby; and his gentleness and considerate care for the sick
won their affection; so that, though his stay was very short, his name
is still, after a dozen years, cherished by many."

How beautiful would Sterling be in all this; rushing forward like a host
towards victory; playing and pulsing like sunshine or soft lightni