The Ascent of the Soul

tement is the expression of a hope which is cherished in the face of much opposing evidence. Nevertheless, that this hope is cherished by so many persons of all classes is a cre

is free, and who has heard the far-off call of a spiritual destiny. It is the choice, by a spirit, of the condition from which it ought to have forever escaped. Imperfection and ignorance are not, in themselves, blameworthy and should never be classified as sins. Weakness always palliates

sciousness of moral failure is terrible and universal. This consciousness requires neither definition nor illustration. Experience is a sufficient witness. Who has been able exhaustively to delineate the soul's humiliation? ?schylus and Sophocles, Shakespeare and Goethe, Shelley, Tennyson, and Browning have but skimmed the surface of the great tragedy of human life. Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, Faust, and Wil

iritual pathway. But while the soul dimly hears voices from above it has not yet, altogether, escaped from the influence of animalism. It dwells in a body whose desires clamor to be gratified. It is like a bird trying to rise into the air when it has not yet acquired the use of its wings. Malign influences are still about it, and earthly attractions are ever drawing it downward. It falls many times. I do not mean that it is compelled to fall, but that, as a matter of fact, its lapses are frequent and discouraging. In the midst of this painful movement upward, there sometime comes to the soul a realization of a presence of which it has s

rse, with every man who is moving upward. The realization that, however deep the darkness, humiliating the moral failure, constant and i

hat those who are with it are more than those who can be against it. Thus hope, confidence, power to resist, and faith

hizedek that he was the priest of the most high God. The former was a Hebrew, but the latter was not in what was to be the chosen line of succession. The assurance that they are never alone has found many in what has seemed impenetrable darkness, and they have risen and moved upward. Instances of this kind are not limited to Christian lands, although they are most common where the Christian revelation is k

will draw it downward. Some of the bitterest hours are to follow-days and, possibly, longer periods of spiritual obscuration; darkness like that of Jesus in which He cried, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me." Who can explain the appalling humiliation of a man when, as if a

is its realization that the process of perfecting must go on, and will go on, if need be along a pathway of shame and agony, unt

r chooses to sink once more into the slime it may do so; but it will at the same time be taught with terrible inten

eing who cannot be defeated, and who, in His own time and way, will accomplish His own purposes.

be stated only in a general way. Moreover, spiritual experiences are i

to trust God. In the "Marble Faun," in the character of Donatello, the same author has furnished an illustration of one who was startled into a consciousness of manhood and responsibility by his crime. It is the revelation of a soul to itself, not of God to the soul. In Donatello we see a soul awakened to self-consciousness and responsibility, but in "The Scarlet Letter" we have the example of a man inspired to do his duty by the revelation of God. Adoniram Judson was brought to himself by hearing the groans of

s." They have seen the excellence of virtue, and in its light have learned to h

quately account for the phenomena. Probably the most complete and satisfactory answer that was ever given to such questions was that of Jesus when He was t

l's unworthiness and humiliation. Again death comes exceedingly near, and, in a single hour, the solemnities of eternity become vivid, and the soul sees itself in the light of God. And again, the essential glory of goodness is so vividly manifest that the soul instinctively rises out of its sin, and presses upward, as a man wakens from a hideous nightmare. The more such phenomena are studied,

an define the process by which Wilberforce was changed from the pet of fashionable society to one of the heroes in the world's great crusade against injustice and oppression? Such inquiries are more easily started than settled. I repeat, the

ent of spiritual subjects because poets, dramatists, and writers of fiction, more than any other class of authors, hav

lippancy in the remark that Adam's fall was a fall upward. The statement is literally true. The fall was no fiction, but a

aw Uzziah, the king, stricken

wledge is that of the prodigal son, who, when he came to him

tual enemies. One of the most pathetic stories ever told is that of the beautiful Queen Guinevere, who by shame and agony learned that "we needs must love the highest when we

y have surpassed, that a "loving worm within its clod were lovelier than a loveless God upon his Throne," and in "Thomas Wingfold" he has traced with epic fidelity the growth of a soul from moral insensibility to manly strength and vision. The description of the proce

ss poignant shame of a man who, looking into his own heart, finds nothing but selfishness and duplicity. His condition was a matter between himself, his

awakening is to the consciousness of God and of a near and vital relation with Him. The path of progress is still full of obstacles; there are still attractions for the senses in animalism and solicitations from something malign outside; but never again will the soul be without the realization that it is in the hands of a compassionate, as well as a just, God. I am inclined to think that the elder Calvinists were right in their contention that when the soul has once come to this saving knowledge of God it can never again "fall from grace," or from the consciousness of its relation to the One mighty to save. This does not m

growth toward God without the conscious choice of God; but in the latter the soul sees and ch

t it is related to God, and chooses His will for its law, is far more glad and solemn. That consciousness may be obscured, but never again will it utterly fail.

t so that the process may be hastened and made easier? Must those who have been enlightened wait for those who are dear to them to be awfully humiliated by sin, or te

the highest knowledge. He who seeks the physical or mental development of his boy and cares not to crown his work by helping him to a realization that he is a child of God, and a subject of His love, has sadly misconceived the privilege of education. All curricula should move toward this consciousness as their consummation and culminati

of whispering its secret into the ears of another who h

sibilities of his life, or never repeats to him the messages which he has heard in silent and lonely hours. The growth o

men manifests itself in ways as various and numerous as solar energy is manifested in nature. Variety in unity is the law of the sp

n the ears of another. Uniformity is neither to be expected nor to be desired. The soul which realizes that it belongs to God will choose to li

E OF JES

nowledgment of

hy reason, so

in the earth

r advanced th

the Desert

trength that I cry for

seek and I find it.

that receives thee

e loved by, for ever:

tes of new life to thee

. Bro