he devil in so far as our
standards of life are negative, and not positive,--in so far as we are
only busy in protecting ourselves from worse sin or from worse disease,
instead of casting out _all sin and disease_ as fast as we perceive them
in ourselves, and working toward the highest possible standard of
wholesome life for body and soul. To "_look to the Lord and shun evils
as sins_," means to hold to the standard of health given us by the Lord
for both body and soul, so that it may become more and more clear as we
apply it to life with persistent strength. Our present standards of life
are warped. The abnormal has become so familiar to us as to seem normal.
The joy and life-giving power of fresh air for soul and body is too
little known to us. A thoroughly healthy world, with wholesome habits of
mind and body, is almost out of our ken. The lower standards have
become too generally a matter of course,--that is why we do not think of
brave and wholesome manhood when we use the expression "a man of the
world."

It is a certain fact that no man can understand and live in what is good
and wholesome, _of his own free will_, without having had
temptations,--and strong ones,--to what is evil and unwholesome. Thus a
knowledge of the evil in the world enlarges a man's experience just in
so far as he uses that knowledge to lead him to the opposite good. A
knowledge of evil warps a man's character,--however broad his
experience may be,--just in so far as he yields to the evil and allows
it to become a part of himself.

"And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." The
truth which makes us free is the truth about ourselves, the truth about
evil, the truth about everything, and our freedom is full and expansive
in proportion as we recognize, acknowledge, and live by the truth, both
in general and in detail.

II

"I am a man and nothing human do I consider alien to me," said Terence
two thousand years ago.

A man who thoroughly knows the world must be capable of understanding
all phases of life,--not only those of his own country, class,
profession, or sect. It is the humanity in all its phases that he loves
and understands,--not the phase itself; and therefore nothing that is
human can be so remote as to be unintelligible to his mind or without
the power of appeal to his heart. Iago could never understand honesty or
generosity. Don Juan could never understand chastity. On the other hand
it is poss