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Page 9
He who is sensitive to life can hardly survey this universal human
struggle with undimmed eye or with unquestioning faith. The young are
driven here and there by heartless and, sometimes, almost furious
passions; some are weak and fall because they are blind, and others
because they love and trust; and many who desire to do good mistake and
choose evil. The strong often try to run away from themselves but can
find no solitude in which to hide; and all the time right and truth
shine in the darkness like stars. What shall we say of these confusing
conditions? To ignore them is foolish; to insist that the struggle is
but a delusion is nonsense. The only sane course is to face facts and
adjust our theories to them.
The battle between duty and inclination, between the ideal and the
actual, will continue as long as life in the body endures. It is not an
unmixed evil. In the end right is never worsted. The way that leads to
holiness is long and sometimes bloody; but it always develops strength
and courage. The fight, for each individual, will be ended only by the
full and perfect choice of truth and virtue, which are always the will
of God. The victory will be secure long before it is fully won. Enough
for us to know that conformity to the will of God at last will be the
end of strife.
It is not well to be overmuch troubled when we see those whom we love
fighting a hard battle against inherited tendencies and an evil
environment, for the fight, however fierce, is a good sign. Those alone
are to be pitied who are drifting, and not resisting. Progress is ever
by a steep and spiral pathway. Sometimes the face of the ascending soul
is toward the sun and sometimes it is toward the darkness. No man can
deliver his friend from the forces which oppose him. Each must conquer
for himself and none can evade the conflict. From the hour when the soul
awakens to a consciousness of its powers and possibilities, its
movement, in spite of all hindrances and difficulties, must be to the
heights. Those only need cause anxiety who are not yet awake; or who,
having been awake, have turned backward instead of pressing onward.
We are now face to face with a momentous inquiry. When the soul is
awake, when it realizes something of its descent from God and of its
relation to Him and to other souls, what should be its environment?
Intelligent and otherwise sane people at this point have been strangely
insane and blind. We are always affected by influence more than by
teaching. Education by atmosphere is quite as effective as education by
study. Involuntarily all become like their ideals. Personalities absorb
characteristics from surroundings as flowers absorb colors from the
light. The awakened soul, therefore, from the first should have a
spiritual environment. Parents and friends should be helps, not
hindrances, to its progress. I once read a letter from one who had
changed an old for a new home. The letter was full of aspiration for the
best things, of thoughts about God and the spiritual verities. It was
not difficult to see that the new home in its reverence for truth, its
loyalty to right, its reaching for reality, was providing the same good
influence as the old one. If, in the environment, truth and duty are
honored, virtue reverenced, God worshipped sincerely and devoutly,
manhood held to be as sacred as deity, the unseen and spiritual never
spoken of unadvisedly or lightly, courage always found hand in hand with
character, the soul will never long fight a losing battle.
The home should be organized to promote, as swiftly as possible, the
awakening of the souls of the children; and, from the moment of this
awakening, everything should be planned to help their growth. The books
on the tables should tell the life-stories of those who have bravely
fought and never faltered. Biographies of men like Wilberforce and
Howard who have lived to help their fellow-men; and of women like
Florence Nightingale and Lady Stanley, who have regarded their social
gifts and ample wealth as calls to service; histories of charities,
intellectual development and noble achievement, pictures like Sir
Galahad and The Light of the World are potent forces in the formation of
character. The ideal side of life should ever be presented in its most
attractive form to the awakened soul in its near environment. Because
the ideal culminates in the religious, and the feeling of moral
obligation rests at last upon the conviction that God is, and that He is
not far from any one, Jesus, in all the beauty and pathos of His earthly
career, in all the tragic grandeur of His death and glory of His
Resurrection, in all the nearness and helpfulness of His continuing
ministry, should be the subject of frequent, earnest, honest, sane, and
sympathetic conversation.
The awakened soul needs first of all an environment which will be
favorable to its growth. Its development then will usually be steadily
and swiftly toward God and conformity to His will. There ought to be no
need of any re-awakening. If the soul opens its eyes among those who
reverence truth and righteousness, who guard virtue and revere love, to
whom God is the nearest and most blessed of realities, and Jesus is
Master, Saviour, and daily Friend, its growth toward the spiritual goal
will be as natural and beautiful as it will also be swift and sure.
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