_THE ROYAL AIR_
GALATIANS iii. 6-14.
Emerson says somewhere that he has noticed that men whose duties are
performed beneath great domes acquire a stately and appropriate manner.
The vergers in our great cathedrals have a dignified stride. It is not
otherwise with men who consciously live under the power of vast
relationships. Princes of royal blood have a certain great "air" about
them. The consciousness of noble kinships has an expansive influence upon
the soul. The Jews felt its influence when they called to mind "our Father
Abraham."
So is it with men and women of glorious kinships in the realm of faith.
Their souls expand in the vast and exalted relations. "The children of
faith" have vital communion with all the spiritual princes and princesses
of countless years. They have blood-relationship with the patriarchs, and
psalmists, and prophets, and they dwell "in heavenly places" with Paul,
and Augustine, and Luther, and Wesley.
Surely, such exalted kinship should influence our very stride, and set its
mark upon our "daily walk and conversation." It ought to make us so big
that we can never speak a mean word, or do a petty and peevish thing.