e precept. Is He asked, for example, to divide a heritage? He
refuses; and the best advice that He will offer is but a paraphrase of
the tenth commandment which figures so strangely among the rest. Take
heed, and beware of covetousness. If you complain that this is vague, I
have failed to carry you along with me in my argument. For no definite
precept can be more than an illustration, though its truth were
resplendent like the sun, and it was announced from heaven by the voice
of God. And life is so intricate and changing, that perhaps not twenty
times, or perhaps not twice in the ages, shall we find that nice consent
of circumstances to which alone it can apply.

*****

But if it is righteousness thus to fuse together our divisive impulses
and march with one mind through life, there is plainly one thing more
unrighteous than all others, and one declension which is irretrievable
and draws on the rest. And this is to lose consciousness of oneself. In
the best of times, it is but by flashes, when our whole nature is clear,
strong, and conscious, and events conspire to leave us free, that we
enjoy communion with our soul. At the worst we are so fallen and passive
that we may say shortly we have none. An arctic torpor seizes upon men.
Although built of nerves, and set adrift in a stimulating world,
they develop a tendency to go bodily to sleep; consciousness becomes
engrossed among the reflex and mechanical parts of life; and soon loses
both the will and power to look higher considerations in the face. This
is ruin; this is the last failure in life; this is temporal damnation,
damnation on the spot and without the form of judgment: 'What shall it
profit a man if he gain the whole world and LOSE HIMSELF?'

*****

To ask to see some fruit of our endeavour is but a transcendental way
of serving for reward; and what we take to be contempt of self is only
greed of hire.

*****

We are are all such as He was--the inheritors of sin; we must all bear
and expiate a past which was not ours; there is in all of us--ay, even
in me--a sparkle of the divine. Like Him, we must endure for a little
while, until morning returns, bringing peace.

*****

A human truth, which is always very much a lie, hides as much of life
as it displays. It is men who hold another truth, or, as it seems to
us, perhaps, a dangerous lie, who can extend our restricted field of
knowledge, and rouse our drowsy consciences.

*****

Truth of intercourse