. In many ways the child is what he is made by the parent.
Therefore the welfare of the child as a spirit, and not merely as a
body, should be a continual study. He who has dared to become a parent
can never honorably shirk the duty of nurture. The connection between
souls is a great mystery, but the mystery does not lessen the
obligation. We are responsible not only for the existence of our
children, but equally for their growth. It is the parent's privilege to
make sure that they start on the journey of life properly equipped, and
with no undue obstacles in their pathway--to make them realize that they
are not only his children but also children of God; and that they are to
live not only in time but in eternity.

The training of the body is needful, and that of the mind still more so,
but that of the spirit is absolutely essential to its welfare. Therefore
plans and provisions for nurture first, last, and always should be to
the end that the soul may realize that it is from God, and that its goal
and glory are union with Him.

And those who realize that they are free, that they are in a moral
order, that a noble destiny awaits them, should make everything in
thought, in study, in association, in companionship, bend toward the
perfection of being, the development of power, and the realization of
the life of the spirit. Nurture does much for every man, his parents
and friends also do much but, at last, when all mysteries are disclosed
and self-revelation is complete, it may be found that each one does
quite as much for himself as any one else, or every one else, does for
him.

IS DEATH THE END?

It's wiser being good than bad;
It's safer being meek than fierce;
It's fitter being sane than mad.
My own hope is, a sun will pierce
The thickest cloud earth ever stretched;
That after Last, returns the First,
Though a wide compass round be fetched;
That what began best, can't end worst,
Nor what God blessed once, prove accurst.

--_Apparent Failure._ Browning.

X

_IS DEATH THE END?_

We have been studying the ascent of the soul in the successive stages of
its development, from the dawn of consciousness to the measure of
progress which our race has now attained. But a dark shadow falls across
that history. No one has yet lived who has reached what all have
believed to be the fullness of his possible development. At a certain
period in physical