THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHEEPFOLDS 549

Christ, and stand on earth in place of Christ. I have heard this said by Protestant clergymen.

28. Now the word ambassador has a peculiar ambiguity about it, owing to its use in modern political affairs; and these clergymen assume that the word, as used by St. Paul, means an Ambassador Plenipotentiary; representative of his King, and capable of acting for his King. What right have they to assume that St. Paul meant this? St. Paul never uses the word ambassador at all. He says, simply, “We are in embassage from Christ; and Christ beseeches you through us.” Most true. And let it further be granted, that every word that the clergyman speaks is literally dictated to him by Christ; that he can make no mistake in delivering his message; and that, therefore, it is indeed Christ Himself who speaks to us the word of life through the messenger’s lips. Does, therefore, the messenger represent Christ? Does the channel which conveys the waters of the Fountain represent the Fountain itself? Suppose, when we went to draw water at a cistern, that all at once the Leaden Spout should become animated, and open its mouth and say to us, See, I am Vicarious for the Fountain. Whatever respect you show to the Fountain, show some part of it to me. Should we not answer the Spout, and say, Spout, you were set there for our service, and may be taken away and thrown aside* if anything goes wrong with you? But the Fountain will flow for ever.

29. Observe, I do not deny a most solemn authority vested in every Christian messenger from God to men. I am prepared to grant this to the uttermost; and all that George Herbert says, in the end of “The Church-porch,”¹

* “By just judgment be deposed,” Art. 26.

¹ [Stanzas lxviii.-lxxiv., where Herbert says of the preacher-

“God sent him, whatsoe’er he be; O, tarry,

And love him for his Master; his condition,

Though it be ill, makes him no ill physician.”

Compare a passage in Letters to a College Friend, Vol. I. p. 489.]

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