to break the treaty of Amiens. He then began preparations for the invasion of both England and Germany. In May, 1804, he had himself declared Emperor, Napoleon I of France. At a later date, in order to establish himself more firmly on the throne, he divorced his wife Josephine, and married Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria.

The British navy forced him to abandon his scheme of invading England, so in 1805 he suddenly turned eastward. Without consideration he trampled neutral countries under foot, and so was able to surprise and defeat the Austrians at Ulm on the Danube. He entered Vienna in November, in December he defeated the Russians at Austerlitz, and as a result he broke up the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1806 he defeated the Prussians at Jena, and in October entered Berlin. As a result, at the Peace of Tilsit, in 1807, Prussia lost half her territory. He next sent armies against Spain and Holland, in which countries he tried to set up his brothers as kings. During this time he carried on further campaigns in the Danube country, and was continually harassing England. Finding himself unable to defeat her openly, he tried to force all Europe to boycott her ships by what is known as the "continental system."

In 1812 he invaded Russia with a vast army of 600,000 men. The Russians pursued a policy of retreating and laying waste their own territory, so that Napoleon and his men found it a desert on which they could not subsist. He captured Moscow, the ancient capital of Russia, but winter and the burning of the city forced him to retreat. He reached central Europe with barely 120,000 of his vast army.

But

His ambition, however, knew no bounds. He returned to France and raised a new army of 400,000, with which he held the line of the Elbe, with headquarters at Dresden. France and his own body were being weakened by the excesses which were being put upon them. All Europe was in arms against him, and his final decisive defeat came at Leipzig in October, 1813. He retreated on Paris with a remnant of 70,000 men, where he was forced to abdicate in April, 1814.

In his hour of defeat his one thought was of self. He clung to empty and vanished honors like a child to a broken toy. He was therefore made "Emperor of Elba," a tiny island between his native Corsica and the shore of Italy, where he was in reality a prisoner.

His imprisonment, however, was short. The Allies placed indignities on France; the alliance broke up; Napoleon's veterans began returning from the prisons of Germany and Russia. In February, 1815, he escaped from Elba, returned to Paris, and was welcomed by the French army; for he had always appeased his soldiers with booty, and they idolized him. The alliance was hastily reconvened against him. He immediately began preparations for another campaign, and in June marched into Belgium. A few days later he was defeated at Waterloo by the British under Wellington and the Germans under Blücher. This time the Allies chose a safe place for him, the small island of St. Helena in the middle of the south Atlantic, where he died in 1821, friendless and almost alone. "As a systematic slayer of men he has never been equaled."

DAILY READINGS

Seventh Week, First Day: Napoleon's Boyhood

And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. And his parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of the feast. And it came to pass, after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both hearing them, and asking them questions: and all that heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him, they were astonished; and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? knew ye not that I must be in my Father's house?-Luke 2: 40-42, 46-49.

The career of most great men has been determined in their youth. Alexander had conquered the world and died at thirty-two; Shakespeare wrote some of his best plays at twenty-five; William Pitt entered Cambridge at fourteen and won fame in Parliament at twenty-two; so we are not surprised to find that Napoleon played the war game at the age of twelve, that under his direction the scholars filled the school yard with forts, entrenchments, and redoubts, and that, when these were completed, Napoleon, "as General, directed the orders of both attack and defense." How far he

was a product of native genius, how far a product of the times, no one can determine. Certainly he had a brilliant mind and remarkable physical endurance. But that he could have put his endowments to other than military uses is shown by his winning an important literary prize in his youth, and by the administrative and financial genius he displayed at the height of his career. His chief joy in reading was Plutarch's "Lives," and it is evident that the visions he saw while reading Plutarch, of a great Oriental empire, deeply influenced his later career. His campaigns in Egypt and Palestine were a fulfilment of those visions, but it was the fascination of these dreams that led to his overreaching himself, and to his final fall. Jesus, on the other hand, as a boy of twelve, was filling his mind with the visions of Isaiah and the melody of the Psalms.

Compare Napoleon's dream of empire with Christ's idea of the Kingdom, as to extent, purpose, and method of attainment.

What is the central idea of any kingdom? (See John 6: 38.) Does Christ mean by the Kingdom of God a future heaven after death or doing God's will on this earth?

Seventh Week, Second Day: Napoleon's Temptation

And he led him up, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, To thee will I give all this authority, and the glory of them: for it hath been delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship before me, it shall all be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.-Luke 4:5-8.

DeNorvins, a great contemporary biographer of Napoleon, says of him that he "chose between Cromwell and Washington, and he preferred to be a Cromwell." Napoleon says of himself, “If I had been in America I would of my own accord have been a Washington, and should have had but little merit therefor, for I do not see how it would have been possible for me to act otherwise. But if Washington had found himself in France, with dissolution within and invasion from without, he would have found it impossible to

be himself." But Napoleon's expression "of my own accord" (volontiers j'ausse été) gives his case away. He admits his own will and the element of choice. Napoleon's failure came through his boundless ambition: witness his divorcing his wife in order to marry royalty, and his placing his brothers on the thrones of Europe.

Was it necessary for him to do this in order to save France? Did Washington have equal excuse for claiming a crown? Did Napoleon, with all his powers for good or for evil, fall before the second temptation which Christ successfully resisted?

Read also Matt. 4:1-10 and express the meaning of the three temptations of Christ in your own language.

Seventh Week, Third Day: Napoleon's Opportunity

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and a fame went out concerning him through all the region round about. . . . And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor:

He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty them that are bruised,

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. -Luke 4:14, 17-19.

Napoleon lived in troublous times, and we are willing to excuse him much. Allison says, "Not only had the throne been overturned, the nobility exiled, and the landed estates confiscated, but the institutions of religion, law, commerce, and education were almost annihilated." With such conditions within and powerful enemies without, France needed a compelling personality to save her from dissolution, and such a one had first to be a military leader before he could attend to the internal affairs of state. Napoleon's great opportunity came in 1801, when, after establishing peace with the world, he restored the Church, codified the laws, established

1" Memoriale de Saint Helene," Vol. I.

the judiciary, extended local government, and founded the University, the Bank of France, and the Legion of Honor, most of which have endured to this day. But because when a boy he had not mastered himself, because he had systematically always sought advancement for himself and the public good only incidentally, ambition mastered him, he broke the peace of Amiens in 1803, and embarked on a wild orgie of world conquest.

Was Napoleon's opportunity a real one? When did it come, when he was a First Consul in full command of the destinies of France, or when he was a boy and did not command his own character and imagination?

Seventh Week, Fourth Day: Napoleon's Mission

And he went forward a little, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again a second time he went away, and prayed, saying, My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, thy will be done.-Matt. 26:39-42.

All that which the Father giveth me shall come unto me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.-John 6:37, 38.

Napoleon undoubtedly had a mission. He found the French ship of state decayed, leaking at every seam, about to founder in a sea of her own blood. With him at the helm she weathered the storm, but instead of taking her to port he headed for the high seas and a career of national piracy. So the command was taken from him. God was with him in the great task of saving France, but as we see it, he left the will of God and tried to carve out for himself a destiny that had not been decreed. Lord Rosebery says of him, that "he was a scourge and a scavenger, and when he had accomplished that work, he was withdrawn as quickly as he came." Na2" Napoleon, the Last Phase."