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ship. For it is written of Messiah, 'He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."*

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Away then display no half-reliant faith. Leap boldly forth. If He preserve thee, thou art his son indeed. If not, thou wilt but die, and that by his permission, and death were a release compared with lingering agonies of want."

Thus the mighty adversary brings the swift alternative of presumption and blind fatality. That emaciate form just totters o'er the verge, hurried with tempestuous suddenness on. No time is given, no pause for reflection. "Now," the maddening impulse is, "Now brave the awful leap!"

But in vain the complex forces of the pit resolve their many combinations to swerve that suffering soul one line from faith in God. "It is also written," is the prompt reply, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

A deeper convulsion agitates the whole abyss of woe. Dependence is not destiny. Faith is not blind fatalism. Freedom is not impaired by

* It is here presumed that the adversary was correct in regarding this as a Messianic psalm. He surely would not weakly rely on a palpable misapplication.

foreknowledge. Providence can not warrant presumption.

Instant the mighty master shifts the scene. A solitary mountain cone supplants the golden parapet beneath our feet, and clouds encircle us. The sudden silence of the desert hushes the loud oblation of the evening's worship.

Before our quickened vision, by more than mortal dioramic art, begin to pass, in living pageant, all the pomps and powers of time. Antediluvian prodigies of daring might precede. Egyptian mysteries next, and stately splendors of hierarchal despotism. Babylonian myriads shed their golden glories over Asshur's plains. Medo-Persian Cyrus pours a milder silver ray, while Alexander sweeps with brazen-coated Argives from northern snows to India's golden strand. And, merging all ancient times and ancient grandeur in one grander empire of an iron strength, Rome rises, and her legions march terrific, and her eagle stoops in conquering dread.

About us mingle shouts of victory and sounds of luxurious wealth. Clouds of incense breathe, and garlands and wreaths are strewn at our feet. We behold the mistress of the world,

"With towers and temples proudly elevate,
Porches and theaters, baths and aqueducts,
Statues and trophies, and triumphal arcs,
Gardens, and groves, and mighty monuments."

"Ah, Nazarene," a voice seems to say, as rising out of the depths of his own being, "where is thy promised throne amid all this moving, busy world of power, pomp, and splendor? What of that insignificant point of earth, thy patrimonial Palestine? Upon thy ancestral seat, who now, or what is sitting? On all thy hills Rome's eagles build their eyries. And who art thou? Amid the might of nations, a carpenter! Amid thrones, scepters, diadems; altars, robes, miters; arts, science, commerce; philosophy, poetry, religion; laws, polities, ancient systems, a base artisan! Thy mother weeps in widowhood in far Galilee.

"And wouldst thou presume to impress a change upon the gigantic whole of systems vast, inweaving, all-comprehending, impregnable? Wouldst thou introduce an element foreign to their all-pervading spirit? the instinct of a world's organic life? Art thou indeed so bold as, unmoved, to touch the life of all these energies with unguarded hand, thy name all unwhispered in the ear of nations? Or if, perchance, it came to Cæsar's hearing, what would he name thee, execrable Jew!

"How, then, canst thou invade such sway as now thine eyes behold? Where be thine armies-thy armaments of war?

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"Yet change were not impossible, not even to one obscure like thee. Change befits a race all godlike-progress, development, endless perfectibility-and thine is the genius of mastery sufficient to the benign attempt. To genius, united with pure philanthropy, what boundless is here! Once ascend the summit-once grasp the reins of wide supremacy-how easy, with thy comprehensive intellect, to dispose all to the gradual amelioration and aggrandizement of the race! Lo! how the ocean of the mighty popular mind, now sighing, surges to and fro, dimly yearning for her godlike destiny and for thee!

"But, without POWER, the attempt were vain -a reckless waste. Without the prestige of military renown, pure truth is only powerless innovation. Purity herself falls martyr to such insane hardihood. Regard the spirit of the age. Weigh well the balanced scale of dynasties, and systems civil, military, philosophical, religious. These well studied, all their power engrossed, the universal mind prepared by judicious steps for the evolution of new ideas, the very genius of humanity will then smile upon thy path, and crown thee universal benefactor as well as conqueror. Concede a little to the honest prejudices of the reverend Sanhedrim. Advance not

too far before them. Gain time to develop new ideas gradually. Spare a little their obvious vices. Raise at the proper crisis the Lion standard. Speak a few magical words to wake the martial prowess of the ancient theocratic soul. Kindle in the field that peculiar religious enthusiasm before which Rome's banner must go down. Last of an ancient line, let all thy mighty sire dash thrilling through thy veins. Speak burning on thy tongue! Leap to the head of such a host as the world ne'er saw before, and pour in thunder on the gates of the Eternal City, to plant the Lion-banner in the eagle's eyries of the Capitol!

"But ah! if thou wilt not do this-beware! Consider what a life opens in direful contrast before thee. Meanly, tamely, shalt thou sink down out of society. Thou shalt become an outcast, odious! The fickle populace, that follow thee a while in stupid admiration, shall weary at length of thy bigotry, and melt away. Yea, far in the future thou mayest discern a gathering storm-an hour of blackness and darkness. A crisis will come, when that all-pervading instinct of the world's great life, being trampled on, shall recoil, and trample upon thee. Thy heart will then become like wax. Thou wilt be given up, forlorn, forsaken of all the

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