, his own honour, his own duty--then he will say,
Well fed or ill fed, well led or ill led, praised and covered with
medals, or neglected and forgotten, and dying in a ditch, I, by myself I,
am the same man, and I have the same work to do. I have to be--myself,
and I have to do--my duty. So help me God. And therefore, so help me
God, I will be discontented with no person or thing, save only with
myself; and I will be discontented with myself, not when I have left
undone something extraordinary, which I know I could not have done, but
only when I have left undone something ordinary, some plain duty which I
know I could have done, had I asked God to help me to do it. Then in
that soldier would be fulfilled--has been fulfilled, thank God, a
thousand times, by men who lie in this abbey, and by men, too, of whom we
never heard, "whose graves are scattered far and wide, by mount, by
stream, by sea,"--in him would be fulfilled, I say, the words, "He that
will lose his life shall save it." Then would he have in his heart, and
in his mind likewise, a peace which victory and safety cannot give, and
which defeat, and wounds, ay, death itself, can never take away.

And are not you, too, soldiers--soldiers of Jesus Christ? Then even as
that good soldier, you may be at peace, through all the battles,
victories, defeats of mortal life, if you will be discontented with
nothing save yourselves, and vow, in spirit and in truth, the one oath
which is no blasphemy, but an act of faith, and an act of prayer, and a
confession of the true theology--So help me God. For then God will help
you. Neither you nor I know how; and I am sure neither you nor I know
why--save that God is utterly good. God, I say, will help you, by His
Holy Spirit the Comforter, to do your duty, and to be at peace. And then
the peace of God will rule in your hearts and make you kings to God. For
He will enable YOU each to rule, serene, though weary, over a kingdom--
or, alas! rather a mob, the most unruly, the most unreasonable, the most
unstable, and often the most fierce, which you are like to meet on earth.
To rule, I say, over a mob, of which you each must needs be king or
slave, according as you choose. And what is that mob? What but your own
faculties, your own emotions, your own passions--in one word, your own
selves? Yes, with the peace of God ruling in your hearts, you will be
able to become what without it you will n