But as our object here is to attempt placing her before the reader
as asserting and illustrating the highest life of humanity, as a true
preacher of the doctrine of the Cross, even when least formally so, we
leave these features, as well as her position as an artist, untouched on,
the rather that they have all been already discussed by previous critics.
The 'Scenes of Clerical Life,' delicately outlined as they are, still
profess to be but sketches. In them, however, what we have assumed to be
the great moral aim of the writer comes distinctly out; and even within
the series itself gathers in clearness and power. Self-sacrifice as the
Divine law of life, and its only true fulfilment; self-sacrifice, not in
some ideal sphere sought out for ourselves in the vain spirit of self-
pleasing, but wherever God has placed us, amid homely, petty anxieties,
loves, and sorrows; the aiming at the highest attainable good in our own
place, irrespective of all results of joy or sorrow, of apparent success
or failure,--such is the lesson that begins to be conveyed to us in these
"Scenes.
Pages:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31