66 YEARS OF DISCIPLINE. [1843,

it acts dynamically; it changes my very sub stance. I cannot do what before I did. I can not be what before I was. Other chains may be broken, but in the darkest night, in the re motest place, I trail this thread. Then things cannot happen. What if God were to confide in us for a moment ! Should we not then be gods?

How subtle a thing is this confidence ! No thing sensible passes between ; never any conse quences are to be apprehended should it be mis placed. Yet something has transpired. A new behavior springs ; the ship carries new ballast in her hold. A sufficiently great and generous trust could never be abused. It should be cause to lay down one s life, which would not be to lose it. Can there be any mistake up there? Don t the gods know where to invest their wealth ? Such confidence, too, would be recip rocal. When one confides greatly in you, he will feel the roots of an equal trust fastening themselves in him. When such trust has been received or reposed, we dare not speak, hardly to see each other ; our voices sound harsh and untrustworthy. We are as instruments which the Powers have dealt with. Through what straits would we not carry this little burden of a magnanimous trust ! Yet no harm could pos

sibly come, but simply faithlessness. Not a