of its difficulties. Among a certain people, he says, the law is that each year they shall kidnap some foreigner, totally ignorant of their customs, and that they shall invest him with all the powers of royalty, but that, the year being ended, they shall banish him to a desert island. But occasionally it happens that the king chooses his advisers so wisely and wins them so thoroughly that they inform him of his coming fate, whereupon he quietly sets about converting the barren island into such an earthly paradise that the sweetness of his exile exceeds the delights of kingship. Brethren, God has placed us in this world for a year, for a day, and He has made us stewards, aye kings, of His creation, and by the added gift of the true faith He has made us to be the children of light. Let us beware how we conduct our affairs; let us be careful to which counsellors, the world or God, we give ear; let us remember our term of office is brief and ever drawing to a close; let us make to ourselves friends of the Mammon of iniquity, that when we fail they may receive us into everlasting dwellings.
