luded effort to put himself in charge of the best part of himself,
filling the throne of an imaginary heaven with an impossible exaggeration
of his own virtues.

But it is far better to hold with Jesus Christ than with such reasoners.
Jesus Christ tells us that a man cannot be wrong if he argues towards God
from what he finds best in himself. _If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your Heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? What man of you, having an
hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine
in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth
not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find
it? ... Likewise, I say unto you, There is joy in the presence of the
angels of God over one sinner that repenteth_.

That is a true witness, and strikes Amen out of every chord of our hearts.
The Power, so evident in nature that He needs no proof, the Being so far
beyond us in wisdom and in might, must also be our great superior in every
quality which is more excellent than might. With thoughts more sleepless
than our thoughts, as the sun is more constant than our lamps; with a
heart that steadfastly cares for us, as we fitfully care for one another;
more kingly than our noblest king, more fatherly than our fondest
fatherhood; of deeper, truer compassion than ever mother poured upon us;
whom, when a man feels that he highest thing in life is to be a shepherd,
he calls his Shepherd, and knows that, as the shepherd, _whose the sheep
are_, shrinks not to seek one of his lost at risk of limb or life, so his
God cannot be less in readiness of love or of self-sacrifice. Such is the
faith of strong and unselfish men all down the ages. And its strength is
this, that it is no mere conclusion of logic, but the inevitable and
increasing result of duty done and love kept pure--of fatherhood and
motherhood and friendship fulfilled. One remembers how Browning has put
it in the mouth of David, when the latter has done all he can do for
'Saul,' and is helpless:

Do I find love so full in my nature,
God's ultimate gift,
That I doubt His own love can
compete with it? ...
Would I fain in my impotent yearning
do all for this man;
And dare doubt he alone shall not
help him, who yet alone can?
Could I wrestle to