"What doth the Lord thy God require of thee?"-DEUT. x. 12.

W

E proceed in our notice of Shakspeare's ideas concerning man's obligations. These obligations are comprehended in three classesduties to self, society, and God. The first two we have already noticed, namely, those which men owe to self and to society.

We now direct attention to

III. Shakspeare's views of MAN'S DUTY TO GOD.
He held that faith and thankfulness were due to Him.

"God's goodness hath been great to thee;

Let never day nor night unhallowed pass,

But still remember what the Lord hath done." (1)

"O Lord, that lends me life,

Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness." (2)

(1) Henry VI. Part 2, Act ii. Scene 1. (2) Henry VI. Part 2, Act i. Scene 1.

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"God is our hope, our stay, our guide,

The light which leads our feet." (1)

"We are in God's hands, brother, not in theirs.” (2)

"Praised be God, and not our strength, for it.” (3)

"O God, Thy arm was here,

And not to us, but to Thy arm alone

Ascribe we all." (4)

""Tis wonderful!

Come, go we in procession to the village:
And be it death proclaimed through our host,
To boast of this, or take that praise from God
Which is His only." (5)

“God shall be my hope,

My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet." (6)

He held that repentance and confession of sins were due to God.

"Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?

Juliet. I do, and bear the shame most patiently.

Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience, And try your penitence, if it be sound,

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Or hollowly put on.

Lest you do repent,

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,

Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not Heaven ;
Showing we'd not spare Heaven as we love it,

But as we stand in fear." (7)

'My conscience! thou art fettered

More than my shanks and wrists; you good gods, give me
The penitent instrument, to pick that bolt,

Then free for ever." (8)

"Who covers faults at last

Shame them divides." (9)

(1) Henry VI. Part 2. (2) Henry V. Act iii. (3) Henry V. Act. iv. (4) Henry V. Act iv. (5) Henry V. Act iv.

(6) Henry VI. Part 2, Act iv. Scene 3.

(7) Measure for Measure, Act ii. Scene 3.

(9) King Lear,

(8) Cymbeline, Act v. Scene 4.

Act i.

"Who by repentance is not satisfied

Is not heaven nor earth-for these are pleased;

By penitence the Eternal's wrath 's appeased." (') He held obedience and prayer as due to God.

"He whom we serve above is alone our Master." (2)

"O Cromwell, Cromwell,

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Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, He would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies." (3)

'My ending is despair,

Unless I be relieved by Prayer!

Which pierces so that it assaults

Mercy itself, and frees all faults." (")

"Have charged him

At the sixth hour of morn, at noon, at midnight,
To encounter me with orisons, for then

I am in heaven for him.” (5)

"O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine,

And ere my truce rise from the earth's cold face,
I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to THEE,
Thou setter up and plucker down of kings!
Beseeching Thee-if with Thy will it stands,
That to my foes this body must be prey—
Yet that Thy brazen gates of heaven may ope,
And give sweet passage to my sinful soul." (6)
"If you bethink yourself of any crime
Unreconciled to Heaven and grace,
Solicit for it straight." (7)

These, of course, are but specimens of passages running through his magnificent compositions, wherein he expresses man's leading obligations to the Supreme Governor of the world. And are they not all in accord

(1) Hamlet, Act v. Scene 4. Henry VIII. Act iii. Scene 2.

(2) All's well that Ends well. (4) Cymbeline, Act i. Scene 4. (5) Cymbeline, Act i. Scene 5. (6) Henry VI. Part 3, Act ii. Scene 3.

(7) Othello, Act v. Scene 2.

with that great Book which Christendom recognizes as its ultimate standard of faith and morals? Listen, for example, to what he says in relation to trust in God—

"There's no trust,

No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured,

All forsworn, all nought, all dissemblers." (1)

And again,

"O momentary grace of mortal men,

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God,
Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,

Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep." (2)

When we hear such utterances as these, are we not reminded of the language of that Book which says, "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the sons of men, but trust in Him who liveth for ever?" Then, too, his grand words touching our obligation to cherish thankfulness to heaven for the blessings we enjoy. What are they but the echoes of that inspired Book which says, "For everything give thanks?" In sooth, the duty of gratitude to heaven is written in the soul of universal man. "I shall never be wanting," says Xenophon, "in my acknowledgment to the gods, and it even troubleth me that I cannot make a suitable return for the benefits they have conferred upon Seneca, referring to the same duty, exclaims, "Wherever there is life, there is a place for it." "Truly Milton, on this point, expresses the language of the human soul throughout all ages and lands:

us."

"To th' infinitely good we owe

Immortal thanks."

And though, in some of his passages referring to prayer,

(1) Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. (2) Anth. and Cleop. Act. iii. Scene 4.

the Almighty is invoked to do that which is not only incompatible with His character but repugnant to His love; Such for example, as

"O God of battle,

Steel my soldiers' hearts," etc.

Still the duty and efficacy of prayer are recognized. In fact in many places he but gives another form to the teachings of that Book which tells us that "in everything by prayer and supplication we should make known our requests unto God."

Take, for example, his language concerning the necessity of sincerity in prayer,—

"The gods are deaf to hot and peevish vows:
They are polluted springs, more abhorred
Than spotted livers in the sacrifice.”(1)

And again,

"Words without thoughts never to heaven go." '(2)

ever answered.

How strikingly such words as these too agree with Bible language," And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." Men say, Why is prayer not answered? I say, Prayer is What is called prayer, is not prayer. "Whosoever prays to God," says Jeremy Taylor, "while he is in a state or in the affection to sin, his prayer is an abomination to God. If we be not good men, our prayers will do us no good, we shall be in the condition of them that never pray at all. The prayers of a wicked man are like breath of corrupted beings; God turns away from such unwholesome breathings.

دو

(1) Troilus and Cressida, Act. v. Scene 3.

(2) Hamlet, Act. iii. Scene 3.