It is a most unseemly and unpleasant thing, to see a man's life full
of ups and downs, one step like a Christian, and another like a
worldling; it cannot choose but both pain himself and mar the
edification of others.
The same sentiment, only with a special application to the maxims and
measures of our Cabinet and Statesmen, has been finely expressed by a
sage Poet of the preceding generation, in lines which, no generation
will find inapplicable or superannuated.
God and the World we worship both together,
Draw not our Laws to Him, but His to ours;
Untrue to both, so prosperous in neither,
The imperfect Will brings forth but barren Flowers!
Unwise as all distracted Interests be,
Strangers to God, Fools in Humanity:
Too good for great things, and too great for good,
While still "I dare not" waits upon "I wou'd."