Page:God Manifest.djvu/80

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
70
GOD'S GOODNESS

Knowing and feeling all this, Howard wished all the glory to be given to Him to whom it was due,—none reserved for himself: "let me" he said, "be forgotten." And thus is it ever: the highest are the humblest. The man, who on earth rises most nearly to the heavenly state, and is most closely conjoined in spirit with his God, feels himself as nothing in the Divine Presence, as lost in the Divine Glory:—just as the 'Star of the morning,' which from its nearness to the sun flames brightest of them all, yet oftenest is lost within his blaze.

And now might we turn to other instances of human goodness, and call them up as witnesses to the Divine goodness. We might adduce the devoted Oberlin, the good pastor of the Ban de la Roche, who, for fifty years, gave himself, with all the ardor and energy of an apostle, to the work of civilizing, instructing, and elevating the rude inhabitants of a secluded and mountainous district of France: and who, by united precept and example, so completely succeeded, as to convert a wild and semi-barbarous population into an orderly, industrious, Christian people, filled with love to God and to their neighbour. Truly, in humble imitation of his Divine Master, was he a "good shepherd," sent to seek the "lost sheep among the mountains;" and he found them, and brought them into the "green pastures," and into the heavenly fold. Again, we might adduce the heavenly-minded Fenelon, who, a Catholic and an archbishop, was yet one of the humblest and purest of men: for to no religion, and to no rank or country, is goodness confined: it is to be found wherever men open their hearts to the Divine influence. Fenelon seems in some respects to approach more nearly to