s
to be a universal law rather than an isolated text. All life is
strenuous because it is always attended by growth. The soul moves not
only onward but upward, and climbing is always a difficult process.

Before a second step is taken the soul begins to experience suffering
and sorrow; and as its growth advances it never afterward, so far as
human sight has penetrated, escapes from them. Why are they allowed? and
what purpose do they serve?

The soul exists in a body, and the body is the seat of sensations. Those
sensations, whether pleasing or painful, belong to the physical organs,
but they affect the spirit, and escape from them is impossible. Pain has
a perceptible effect on the soul, even though the latter has no other
relation to the body than that of tenant to a house. It suffers because
of the intimate relations which it sustains to the organs through which
it works.

The individual soul is related to other souls. Therefore it has plans
and purposes concerning them, and it has affinities which are
inseparable from existence in society. Those purposes and affinities may
be gratified or thwarted. The soul sometimes finds a response from the
one whom it seeks and sometimes it does not. Pain belongs to the body,
and sorrow is an experience of the soul.

The body is in constant limitations, subject to diseases and accidents,
and the soul is affected by all that the body feels. Because of these
intimate relationships the soul is limited by ignorance, and defeated in
its purposes. It becomes attached to other souls, and those attachments
are either rudely shattered or roughly repulsed, and, consequently, the
life of the soul is as full of sorrow as is a summer day of clouds.

It faces its hindrances and rises by overcoming them. It finds pain
besetting nearly every step of its advance, and the constant shadow of
its existence is sorrow. Along such a pathway it moves in its ascent
and, in spite of all opposition, it is never permanently hindered; while
sorrow and suffering continually add to its strength. The austere
experiences through which all pass hasten their spiritual growth. They
are ever ministers of blessing; they pay no visits without leaving some
fair gifts behind.

Questions arise here which it is difficult to answer. Why are such
ministries needed? Why could not the ascent of the spirit be along an
easier pathway? Why should it be necessary to write its history in tears
and blood? Inquiries like thes