A SUNDAY IN CH 



" Man," says Carlyle, " little as he may suppose it, 

 is necessitated to obey superiors ; he is a social being 

 in virtue of this necessity ; nay, he could not be gre- 

 garious otherwise ; he obeys those whom he esteems 

 better than himself, wiser, braver, and will forever 

 obey such ; and ever be ready and delighted to do 

 it." Think in how many ways, through how many 

 avenues, in our times, the wise man can reach us and 

 place himself at our head, or mould us to his liking, 

 as orator, statesman, poet, philosopher, preacher, edi- 

 tor. If he has any wise mind to speak, any scheme 

 to unfold, there is the rostrum or pulpit and crowds 

 ready to hear him, or there is the steam-power press 

 ready to disseminate his wisdom to the four corners 

 of the earth. He can set up a congress or a parlia- 

 ment and really make and unmake the laws, by his 

 own fireside, in any country that has a free press. 

 " If we will consider it, the essential truth of the mat- 

 ter is, every British man can now elect himself to 

 Parliament without consulting the hustings at all. 

 If there be any vote, idea, or notion in him, or any 

 earthly or heavenly thing, cannot he take a pen and 

 therewith autocratically pour forth the same into the 

 ears and hearts of all people, so far as it will go ? " 

 (" Past and Present.") Or, there is the pulpit every- 

 where waiting to be worthily filled. What may not 

 the real hero accomplish here ? " Indeed is not this 

 that we call spiritual guidance properly the soul of 

 the whole, the life and eyesight of the whole?" 

 Some one has even said, " Let me make the songs of 



