Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

XV.] CARDINAL NEWMAN. 457
to us ; One alone can be true ; One alone can be all things to
us ; One alone can supply our needs ; One alone can train us up
to our full perfection ; One alone can give a meaning to our com-
plex and intricate nature ; One alone can give us tune and har-
mony ; One alone can form and possess us. Are we allowed to
put ourselves under His guidance? this surely is the only question.'
Let me quote but one passage more of a like nature
to the foregoing one. It is from the sermon ' Warfare
the condition of Victory.' The writer has been showing
that, in some way or other, trial, suffering, is the path
to peace ; that this has been the experience common to
all Christians, and that the law remains unaltered.
' The whole Church,' he says, ' all elect souls, each in its turn
is called to this necessary work. Once it was the turn of others,
and now it is our turn. Once it was the Apostles' turn. It was
St. Paul's turn once And after him, the excellent of the
earth, the white-robed army of Martyrs, and the cheerful company
of Confessors, each in his turn, each in his day, likewise played
the man. And so down to our time, when faith has wellnigh
failed, first one and then another have been called out to exhibit
before the great King. It is as though all of us were allowed to
stand around His Throne at once, and He called on first this man,
and then that, to take up the chant by himself, each in his turn
having to repeat the melody which his brethren have before gone
through. Or as if we held a solemn dance to His honour in the
courts of heaven, and each had by himself to perform some one
and the same solemn and graceful movement, at a signal given.
Or as if it were some trial of strength, or of agility, and, while the
ring of bystanders beheld, and applauded, we in succession, one
by one, were actors in the pageant. Such is our state ; — Angels
are looking on, Christ has gone before, — Christ has given us an
example, that we may follow His steps. Now it is our turn ; and
all ministering spirits keep silence and look on. O let not your