hopeful. And when times look dark about you, and they sometimes
will, you must still hope.

"O it is hard to work for God,
To rise and take his part
Upon the battle-field of earth,
And not sometimes lose heart!

"O there is less to try our faith
In our mysterious creed,
Than in the godless look of earth
In these our hours of need.

"Ill masters good; good seems to change
To ill with greatest ease;
And, worst of all, the good with good
Is at cross purposes.

"Workman of God! O lose not heart,
But learn what God is like;
And in the darkest battle-field
Thou shalt know where to strike.

"Muse on his justice, downcast soul!
Muse, and take better heart;
Back with thine angel to the field,
Good luck shall crown thy part!

"For right is right, since God is God;
And right the day must win;
To doubt would be disloyalty,
To falter would be sin."

Hope on, be strong and of a good courage. For in the dark hours
others will lean on you to catch your hope and courage. To many a
poor discouraged soul you must be "a hiding-place from the wind and
a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the
shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Every power and force in
the universe of environment makes for the ultimate triumph of truth
and right. Defeat is impossible. "One man with God on his side is
the majority that carries the day. 'We are but two,' said Abu Bakr
to Mohammed as they were flying hunted from Mecca to Medina. 'Nay;'
answered Mohammed, 'we are three; God is with us.'"

And not only the race will triumph and regain the Paradise lost. The
city of God shall surely be with men, and God will dwell with them
and in them. But you and I can and shall triumph too.

We are prone to feel that the individual man is too insignificant a
being to be the object of God's care and forethought. But we should
not forget that it is the individual who conforms, and that the
higher and nobler race is to be attained through the elevation of
individuals, one after another. God deals with races and nations as
such. But his laws and promises are made almost entirely for the
individuals of which these larger units are concerned.

But there is another standpoint from which we may gain a h