felon's death.

My good friends, instead of believing the carnal and selfish philosophy
which cries, Every man for himself--I will not finish the proverb in this
Holy place, awfully and literally true as the latter half of it
is--instead of believing that, believe the message of Passion-week, which
speaks rather thus: telling us that not selfishness, but unselfishness,
mutual help and usefulness, is the law and will of God; and that
therefore the whole universe, and all that God has made, is very good.
And what does Passion-week say to men?

"Could we but crush that ever-craving lust
For bliss, which kills all bliss; and lose our life,
Our barren unit life, to find again
A thousand lives in those for whom we die:
So were we men and women, and should hold
Our rightful place in God's great universe,
Wherein, in heaven and earth, by will or nature,
Nought lives for self. All, all, from crown to footstool.
The Lamb, before the world's foundation slain;
The angels, ministers to God's elect;
The sun, who only shines to light a world;
The clouds, whose glory is to die in showers;
The fleeting streams, who in their ocean graves
Flee the decay of stagnant self-content;
The oak, ennobled by the shipwright's axe;
The soil, which yields its marrow to the flower;
The flower which breeds a thousand velvet worms,
Born only to be prey to every bird--
All spend themselves on others; and shall man,