Even should it so happen that we do approve entirely of his conduct, it is we who are approving of him, not he who is approving of us.

The old position is reversed: we become the patrons of our most worthy Judge eternal; and the moral infallibility is transferred from him to ourselves.

In other words, the practical Protestant formula can be nothing more than this.

The Protestant teacher says to us, '_Such a way of life is the best, take my word for it: and if you want an example, go to that excellent Son of David, who, take my word for it, was the very best of men._' But even in this case the question arises, how shall the Protestants interpret the character that they praise?
And to this they can never give any satisfactory answer.
What really happens with them is inevitable and obvious.

The character is simply for them a symbol of what each happens to think most admirable; and the identity in all cases of its historical details does not produce an identity as of a single portrait, but an identity as of one frame applied to many.