Against such an ideal are arrayed all the forces of the world.
Christ and Christ-like men have held up such an ideal to humanity;
and the sorrow of it is that, the moment that such thoughts have
won for themselves the incredible and instant power that they do
win among mortals, men of impure motive, who have desired the power
more than the service, have seized upon the source, have fenced it
off, have systematized its distribution, have enriched themselves
by withholding and denying it to all but those who can pay a price,
if not of wealth, at all events of submission and obedience and
recognition.

A man who desires the true priesthood may perhaps find it readiest
to his hand in some ecclesiastical organization; yet there he is
surrounded by danger; his impulses are repressed; he must sacrifice
them for the sake of the caste to which he belongs; he is told to
be cautious and prudent; he is praised and rewarded for being
conventional. But a man may also take such a consecration for
himself, as a king takes a crown from the altar and crowns himself
with might; he need not require it at the hands of another. If a
man resolves not to live for himself or his own ambitions, but to
walk up and down in the earth, praising simplicity and virtue and
the love of God wherever he sees it, protesting against tyranny and
selfishness, bearing others' burdens as far as he can, he may
exercise the priesthood of God. Such men are to be found in every
Church, and even holding the highest places in them; but such a
priesthood is found, though perhaps few suspect it, by thousands
among women where it is found by tens among men. Perhaps it may be
said that if a man adds the tenderness of a woman to the serene
strength of a man, he is best fitted for the task; but the truth