Ever since that bait was offered to the Redeemer and rejected, the
tempter has been constantly setting the perilous alternative before
the souls of men. The glittering bait is specially dangled before
the greatest and noblest souls, and these prove their greatness and
nobility by exchanging it for a cross.
Both John Knox and Richard Baxter were offered by carnal state
powers a bishopric in the Erastian Church. How unspeakably
poorer would have been the religious history of both Scotland
and England had these men found their popular success in
ecclesiastical preferment! To-day Spinoza is honored for
declining the fortune that was offered to him, and it is
refreshing to read how Diderot instantly said “No” to the bribe
of a hundred thousand francs a year from Catharine the Great
to become a member of her court. It is the glory of the memory
of Faraday that he declared “He could not afford to be rich.”
Cobden stood for the poor, and therefore he stood out against
Palmerston’s offer of a baronetcy and a seat in his Cabinet.
Gold weighed heavy then, as now, but it did not outweigh the
souls of these heroes. (Text.)
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