AUTHORITY. 167

On the other hand, what help can we find for
ourselves, in satisfying this demand for a substi-
tute for Christ ? The heart and intellect of
man, each, and both, ask and need a guide, a
master — a Divine Guide and Master — a Ke-
deemer. One no stronger than ourselves cannot
redeem us. " Frater non redemit."

Alas ! we cannot answer our own wants, nor
can we afford to wait for "the new Teacher" —
" the Church of the Future." Let one, who is
now in eternity, speak of her companions who
waited : " Of those who, in hfe's morning, I saw
touched by the light of hope, many have se-
ceded. Some have become voluptuaries ; some
mere family men, who think it quite life enough
to win bread for a half dozen people, and treat
them decently ; others are lost through indo-
lence and vacillation. Yet some remain con-
stant." *

Of these constant ones, how many now re-
main ? If it were not invidious, we might speak
more definitely. To wait, means, in other
words, to yield up the soul, or to stifle its hopes
and aspirations, and court the insensibility of

* Margaret Fuller



168 KOUB.
death. Such waiting is not courage, it is not
fortitude, it is not patience ; it is cowardice, or
weakness ; it is to surrender life, rather than
dare to seek the truth, and obey it.
