e and the enemies which
they subdue.

What should be the attitude of the soul in view of the hindrances by
which it is environed? It should be taught to fight them at every point.
Nowhere is the kindness of nature more evident than in the patience and
persistence with which this instruction is conveyed.

Nature withholds her favors until they are earned. New light comes only
to those who have used-the light they had. Strength is developed by
resistance. Growth is for those who place themselves where growth is
possible. Nature gives the soul nothing, but she always waits to
cooeperate with it. This lesson was impressed long ago. It ought never to
require new emphasis. Let the younger study the experiences of their
elders. They will be saved many failures and much pain. The soul can
never be coerced, but it may be taught. Milton has enforced this great
lesson in Comus:

"Against the threats
Of malice or of sorcery, of that power
Which erring men call Chance, this I hold firm--
Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt,
Surprised by unjust force, but not enthralled;
Yet, even that which mischief meant most harm,
Shall in the happy trial prove most glory;
But evil on itself shall back recoil,
And mix no more with goodness, when at last
Gathered like a scum, and settled to itself,
It shall be in eternal restless change
Self-fed, and self-consumed; if this fail
The pillar'd firmament is rottenness
And earth's base built on stubble."

No one should believe, after all the growth of the ages, that the soul
was made to be imprisoned in a fleshly prison. It was intended that it
should burst its barriers and press toward the light. There is an
eternal enmity between the serpent and the soul, and the serpent's head
must be bruised, but the soul resisting all the forces and fascinations
of the flesh, rising on that which has been cast down to higher things,
slowly but surely, painfully but with ever added strength moves toward
the ideal humanity which has never been better defined than as "the
fullness of Christ."

Meanwhile it is well to reinforce our faith by remembering that it is
written in the nature of things that truth and goodness must prevail.

This is a moral universe. Error never can be victorious. It may be
exalted for a time, but that will be only in order that it may be sunk
to deeper depths. Evil and error are doomed and always have been. Evil
is mo