not upon the love of power, but upon affection and a sense of duty, which is reserved and never betrays the confidence of another. The weakest characters have often a passing desire to do good to their fellow-men, perhaps even to warn them against the weakness or vice which they have allowed in themselves. But the good which men can do to others is chiefly limited by what they are: example is better than precept. Kindness is perhaps the easiest way of doing good, and the safest; a friendly look, a hearty greeting, an unfeigned interest in the pursuits and successes of our companions. We must be able to forget ourselves before we can expect to have a place in the hearts of others.

IV

1 EXCEPT THE LORD BUILD THE HOUSE, THEIR LABOUR IS BUT VAIN THAT BUILD IT.

PSALM CXXvii. 1.

THE Psalmist expresses with a fervour and power, greater perhaps than has ever been felt or found utterance in any other age or country, the longing of the soul after God and the desire to live always in His presence. All that is good upon earth is His work; men only succeed in proportion as they obtain His favour; the best of them is that they are His servants. They have a feeling of repose and security when they meditate upon Him; they are raised above the accidents of this life when they are able to say, 'Lord, Thou hast been our refuge from generation to generation.' The law of God (not the five books of Moses, for they were not as yet collected), but the ideal of law, the highest truth and rule of life which he was capable of conceiving, was to the Israelite what the idea of good or beauty was to the Greek

1 Preached at Balliol in October, 1870; the Master's first sermon after his election. The re-building of the college

was then in progress.

philosopher. Perhaps they neither of them exactly knew what they meant,-for such thoughts cannot easily be defined, but they meant something purer and higher and holier than they found in themselves; they were trying to rise out of themselves that they might rest in God and the truth. By the help of their God the Israelites of old seemed able to do everything, without Him nothing. The victory in battle was only given them because the Lord fought for them they were only safe while He was watching over them. 'As the hills stand about Jerusalem, so standeth the Lord about them that fear Him.' In the darkness of the night, on the great waters, in the valley of the shadow of death, 'I will fear no evil, for Thou, Lord, art with me.' These and the like words will probably remain the most natural expressions of religious feeling as long as the world lasts. And at them, as at some distant light or fire, we seek to rekindle the flame of Divine love in our hearts.

Yet I think we must remark that this language of the Old Testament is liable to be a source of error, if used altogether without reflection. The religious ideas of one age require to be translated into the religious ideas of another. The religious thoughts of one age may become the feelings of another; the religious truth of one age may become the religious poetry of another. The language of the Old Testament is personal and individual, speaking heart to

heart as one man speaks to another, telling of a God who is indeed always described by the Psalmist or Prophet as the God of justice and of truth, and yet asserts His despotic power to pull down one man and put up another. And here the error of which I was speaking is liable to creep in. For some of this language might lead us to suppose that God, like men, has His favourites, that He prefers one man or one nation to another, that He encourages one undertaking and throws difficulties in the way of another. Ages upon ages pass away before men attain even to that degree of clearness in their ideas of God of which the human mind is really capable. And I think that we must recognize that the Hebrew Prophets and Psalmists do present to us an imperfect and partial conception of the Divine Nature compared with that which our own hearts and consciences, enlightened by Christianity and the study of history and nature, give us in the present day. There must be a silent correction of the familiar words of the Psalmist when we use them, if they are to express the truth for us. For we know that God is not sitting, as He is represented in some pictures, on the circle of the heavens, but that His temple is the heart of man; we know that He is not the God of one nation only, but of all mankind; we know that God helps those who help themselves. Except men build the house, the Lord will not build it; except the watchmen keep guard in the city, the Lord will not guard it. In everything the means are

to be taken first, the laws of nature are to be studied and consulted:-then, and only then, the blessing of God follows us, and, in the language of the Psalmist, 'the Lord prospers our handiwork.'

But then a very natural question may be asked :— How does this higher work differ from the results of ordinary human prudence? If I have made careful preparations, if I have military genius, if I have the material means, shall I not win the battle, accomplish the enterprise, whether (to speak very bluntly) God wills or no? The answer to this is that the best part of human actions is the spirit in which they are performed; the spirit which bears witness with His spirit and unites us to Him. And, secondly, the highest use of the means involves the recognition of the end : in politics, for example, of some final triumph of righteousness which by gradual steps we hope to approach more nearly, of some increased diffusion of enlightenment or happiness which we know to be the will of God. There is no presence of God in the higher sense in the operations of war or business, in the skill of the engineer, in the art of the painter, in the trivial round of life, any more than in the greater aims of earthly ambition. But when in war or business, or the fulfilment of their daily duties, say in this University or college, men begin to be animated by higher motives, and feel that they are living, not for themselves or for their own individual good, but for others, working together for God and His laws, then