very man, and, when he hears it, he asks: How may I reach
that goal? It is far away and the path is confused. Then a voice within
makes answer, and, if he heeds that, he will make no mistake. That
voice, I believe, is the result of no evolutionary process, but is the
holy God immanent in every soul, making His will known. Evolution
gradually gives to conscience a larger place, but there is no evidence
that it is produced by any physical process. It may be hindered by
physical limitations, but it can be destroyed by none. Why are we so
slow in learning that conscience, being divine, is authoritative and may
be trusted? I know no answer except this: We so often confuse ignorance
with conscience that at last we conclude that the latter is not
trustworthy. But there we mistake. It is trustworthy. It never fails
those who heed its message. That realization may now and then come
early, but it seldom comes all at once. Nevertheless it is a step to be
taken before the progress of the soul can be either swift or sure.

The moment that the soul realizes that God is not far away, but within;
that all the divine voices did not speak in the past, but that many are
speaking now; that whosoever will listen may hear within his own being a
message as clear and sacred as any that ever came to prophet or teacher
in other times, it will begin to realize the luxury of its liberty, and
something of the grandeur of its destiny. Truth and right are not
fictions of the imagination, they are realities opening before the
growing soul like continents before explorers. They always invite
entrance and possession. They have horizons full of splendor and beauty
and music. They alone can satisfy. But the soul has not yet fully
escaped from the mists and fogs and glooms of the earth. It is
surrounded by those who still wallow in animalism, and the sounds of the
lower world are yet echoing in its ears. But at last its face is toward
the light; the far call of its destiny has been heard; it knows itself
to be in a moral order; it is assured that, however closely the body may
be imprisoned, no bolts and no bars can shut in a spirit; that before it
is a fair and favored land, far off but ever open; and, best of all,
that within its own being, impervious to all influences from without, is
a guide which may be implicitly trusted and which will never betray. Why
not follow its suggestions at once and press on toward that fair land
of truth and beauty which so e