Undue solicitude about popular estimation is
a weakness against which all real Christians must guard with the
utmost jealous watchfulness. The more you can retain the
impression of your being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses of
the invisible world, to use the scripture phrase, the more you
will be armed against this besetting sin.' But suddenly it seemed
as if such a warning could, after all, have very little relevance
to Manning; for, on his leaving Oxford, the brimming cup was
dashed from his lips. He was already beginning to dream of
himself in the House of Commons, the solitary advocate of some
great cause whose triumph was to be eventually brought about by
his extraordinary efforts, when his father was declared a
bankrupt, and all his hopes of a political career came to an end
forever.
It was at this time that Manning became intimate with a pious
lady, the sister of one of his College friends, whom he used to
describe as his Spiritual Mother. He made her his confidante; and
one day, as they walked together in the shrubbery, he revealed
the bitterness of the disappointment into which his father's
failure had plunged him. She tried to cheer him, and then she
added that there were higher aims open to him which he had not
considered. 'What do you mean?' he asked. 'The kingdom of
Heaven,' she answered; 'heavenly ambitions are not closed against
you.
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