Looking forward, let us hope and cleanse all fear out of life—­trust God, love him and rejoice.  Even our largest problems need not dispirit us.  Problems are not to be analyzed, but accepted.  He who analyzes a flower loses it.  He who cracks a diamond to see what it is, is without both gem and knowledge.  Life’s great questions are seeds.  Plant a seed, then wait.  Some day the flower and fruit will explain the seed.  It is well to lay aside difficult questions to be asked some day at the throne of God.  Then we will look back to smile at what now disturbs us exceedingly.  Remember the Russian Cathedral—­travelers tell us the din and noise of the crowds thronging under the dome to those above the dome become a strain of soft music.  It is good to hope and wait.  Because God lives and loves, man should enter the future as he enters temple or cathedral—­to dedicate all its days to hope and aspiration.

  INDEX.

  Anti-slavery movement, the, Wilberforce, 211
  Arnold, Benedict, 243
  Arnold of Rugby, 189
  Audubon, wife of, 98

  Bacon; Pascal, 75
  “Baucis and Philemon”, 249

  Caesar, the value of personality, 16
  Carey, William, 171
  Carlyle, wife of, 186
  Christ, coming of, 122
  Christian manhood, the, 259
  Christ the supreme example, 30
  Civilization, achievements of, 136
  Civilization, Christ’s promise for, 52
  Classic writer, tale of a, 24
  Culture, Character, Beauty, the secret of, 163

  Darwin on Christian teachers, 168
  Desert, oases of, 35
  Divine Teacher, the, 177

  England, career of, 253
  England, orphan babes of, 210
  English visitor, the, 148

  Fame a holy ambition, 29
  Faneuil, Peter, 215
  Fathers, the; uprising of 1861, 55
  Feeling and sentiment, 142
  Forest, a—­differing conceptions of, 60
  Fourth century, the, 223
  France—­king of; Marie Antoinette; Carlyle, 63, 64
  Friendship an open sesame, 231

  Garfield, 158
  Genius marred by absence of humble virtues, 207
  Gentleness, lack of, 181
  God, erroneous conception of, 191
  God, man’s attitude toward, 65
  God, punishments of, 85
  God the ground and basis of all hope, 194
  God’s world a good world, 36
  Gough, John B., 144
  Great hearts, 134
  Greatness an accumulation of little deeds, 202
  Grey, Jane, 201
  Growth by accretion; from seed, 242

  Heart and intellect, 138
  Heart and the age of cruelty, 139
  Heart transformations, 145
  Heroism—­the Divine Teacher; Henry Grady; Napier;
    Browning; Ruskin, 92-95
  Holland, greatness of; William the Silent, 170
  Homer’s ideal, Helen, 119
  Hope and aspiration, functions of, 282
  Hope, enemies of, 286
  Hope long deferred, 112
  Howard; Goodyear; Patteson, 79, 80
  Hugo, Victor, 165
  Human life, enemies of, 205
  Humanity and social sympathy, 100