The great Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany and King of Spain and
all the Indies: our own great Queen Elizabeth, who found England all
but ruined, and left her strong and rich, glorious and terrible:
Lord Bacon, the wisest of all mortal men since the time of Solomon:
and, in our own fathers' time, Napoleon Buonaparte, the poor young
officer, who rose to be the conqueror of half Europe, and literally
the king of kings,--how have they all ended? In sadness and
darkness, vanity and vexation of spirit.
Oh, my friends! if ever proud and ambitious thoughts arise in any of
our hearts, let us crush them down till we can say with David:
'Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I
exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
'Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned
of his mother; my soul is even as a weaned child.'
And if ever idle and luxurious thoughts arise in our hearts, and we
are tempted to say, 'Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many
years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry;' let us hear the
word of the Lord crying against us: 'Thou fool! This night shall
thy soul be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which
thou hast provided?'
Let us pray, my friends, for that great--I had almost said, that
crowning grace and virtue of moderation, what St. Paul calls sobriety
and a sound mind.
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