And we have learned one thing more, viz., that the Over-soul is not a dream, but a reality; that the individual may be in correspondence with the Over-soul and from it be continually reinforced.  Or, to put our faith in sweeter and simpler form, we have learned by experience which cannot be gainsaid that God is a personal spirit, interested in all that concerns His children, and anxious for their growth; and that He can no more allow His love for them to be defeated than He could allow the suns and planets to break from their orbits.  How much more is a man than a sun!  Therefore, since God is in His heaven, all must be right with the world and with man, and some time all the hindrances will be changed into helps, all obstacles be converted into strength, and “all hells into benefit.”

THE AUSTERE

    We cannot kindle when we will
    The fire which in the heart resides;
    The Spirit bloweth and is still,
    In mystery our soul abides. 
    But tasks in hours of insight will’d
    Can be through hours of gloom fulfill’d.

    With aching hands and bleeding feet
    We dig and heap, lay stone on stone;
    We bear the burden and the heat
    Of the long day, and wish ’twere done. 
    Not till the hours of light return,
    All we have built do we discern.

    —­Morality. Matthew Arnold.

V

THE AUSTERE

The soul has discovered that it is in a moral order, that it is a free agent, and that it has mysterious affinities with truth and right.  It has taken a few steps, and with them has learned that its upward movement will not be easy.

It next discovers that it has no isolated existence, but that it is surrounded by countless other similar beings all indissolubly bound together and having mutual relations.  With the dawn of intelligence comes the realization of relations.  This realization is dim at the first, but it is very real.  Soon the soul learns that the relations between it and other souls are so intimate that the interest of one is the interest of all.  Appreciation of relations is a long advance in the movement upward, and it necessitates other knowledge.  The realization of relations leads, necessarily and swiftly, to the consciousness of responsibility.  The process of this growth cannot be described in detail, but the path is clearly marked and its milestones may be numbered.  Each soul is always in a society of souls.  Each one, therefore, affects others, and is affected by them.  It is free and, therefore, responsible for the influence which it exerts.  Moreover, it is bound to other souls by love, and love always carries with it the possibility of sorrow; for sorrow is usually only love thwarted.  It is not far from the truth to say that when there is no love there is no sorrow, and that the possibilities of sorrow are always increased in proportion to the perfection of being.