keep them combined. Else . . .'), and
if by any effort we can enter into their lives, and transcend the
barriers between us, we are not only enriching our own life, but we are
doing our best to show a combined front against the almost overwhelming
forces of evil.

Even the Apostles must have found it hard to work together. We know they
did. Look at Peter and Paul. Yet the spirit of unity was stronger than
all that opposed Him, and the One Body was in some measure realised.
What was difficult in the childhood of the Body is still more difficult
in its manhood. And Englishmen, with their strong sense of
individuality, find it a terrible lesson to learn.

But pray. You enter then into another man's 'ego.' You see him in God.
You see him as an end in himself. Remember Kant's maxim--a wonderful
maxim from one who would not, I suppose, be {177} technically called a
Christian--'Treat humanity, whether in thyself or in another, always as
an end, not simply as a means.' Put aside a certain amount of time, and
pray for one man. If your thoughts wander, do not be disturbed, do not
try to find when they began or how they began to wander; do not despair,
go back to the subject in hand. And God will have mercy. Your
influence, your life, your all, depends on prayer.

We must faint sometimes. But let your saddest times, your deepest
struggles be known to God. Gain there the strength and quietness which
you need for life. But don't let men see the agony--let them see the
peace which comes from wrestling alone with God--wrestling for them.

You are not one man, but two or three. Thank God for that. It means
that you will have a hard life--an awful struggle with self or selves:
but it also means more influence, more power to enter into man's life.
So many of the finest men owe their attractiveness to their diverse,
many-sided nature. You will be able to feel for such, and perhaps to
help them. You are half a Greek with your yearning for beauty and
knowledge, half a Hebrew with your loathing for sin and love of God. The
Greek in you must not be annihilated, but it must be subordinated to the
Hebrew. Conscience must be absolute master. You must sacrifice the
'Greek' to Christ; but He will give you back what is best in the Greek
ideal, all the better for the mark of the Cross on it. He will give it
you back partly in this world, partly in the next, when you have learnt
to renounce it--if need {178} were, for ever--