ment of the
pleasures of the next stage of life.

But what struck me most was her fundamental assumption that Pleasure was a
valid object in life, and that she was sent into the world to get as much
as she could.

If so, I think the world is a great Failure. I often hear people saying,
"I cannot believe in God, because of the Pain in the world;" and if this
world was the end of things, that would be reasonable; if Pleasure is the
object of Life, it would be better never to be born! But if we are sent
here to grow, then I cannot understand Pain being a reason for doubting
God's love. Looking back on life, I am sure each will feel, "I could not
afford to miss one of its shadows, no matter how black they were at the
time." And the fact that you and I each feel that the key of God's love
fits the lock of our individual life, should be one valid reason for
believing that all Life is ordered for a right and noble purpose; our
happy lives are as real a bit of Life, and as good a specimen of God's
government, as sad ones.

People say to me, "Yes, I feel as you do about myself, but others have
such terrible shadows that I cannot feel God is good!" Well, some
sufferers tell me they would not change their life, for they feel God's
love in it: surely they have a right to speak. We learn from them that
Pain works rightly into life.

What makes a woman's life worth living? That she has had this or that
pleasure--that she has riches or poverty--that she is married or lonely,
that she married the right man or the wrong?

No! What matters is, whether she is growing more and more into tune with
the Infinite? Is she learning God's lesson, and fitting herself for the
still nobler life He wants to give her?

You and I came into the world to do our part in a noble battle--

"'Twere worth a thousand years of strife,
'Twere worth a wise man's best of life.
If he could lessen but by one
The countless ills beneath the sun."

Besides, you will not find Pleasure-seeking pays in the long run! If you
are feeling that Pleasure with a big "P" is your due, then all the little
annoyances prick and irritate. If you pay heavily for a new dress which
hangs badly, it is trying; if you never expected a new dress at all, and
that same dress was unexpectedly given you, the drawback would be looked
at very differently.

It would pay pleasure-seekers to try the old plan of looking on life as a
Duty, where pleasures came by accident or