in his handicraft;
the mason and builder are not only erecting a house; each is, in and
through his toil, making his own soul. And so, too, suffering and
temptation are the tools which God commits to His creatures for the
shaping of their own lives. Saints {209} and sinners are made out of
the same material. By what Bosanquet has finely called 'the miracle of
will' the raw stuff of life is taken up and woven into the texture of
the soul. (_b_) The so-called _secular opportunities of culture_.
Innumerable sources of self-enrichment are available. Everything may
be made a vehicle of moral education. Knowledge generally, and
especially the ministry of nature, the influence of art, and the study
of literature, are potent factors in the discipline and development of
Christian character. To these must be added (_c_) _The special
religious aids and means of grace_. From an ethical point of view the
Church is a school of character. It 'guards and keeps alive the
characteristic Christian ideas, and thereby exhibits and promotes the
Christian ideal of life.'[18] Its fellowship, worship, and ordinances;
its opportunities of brotherly service and missionary activity, as well
as the more private spiritual exercises of prayer and meditation--all
are means of discipline and gifts committed to the stewardship of
individuals in order that they may realise the greatness of life's
possibilities, and attain through union with God to the fullness of
their stature in Christ.

But while the truth that the soul has an inalienable worth is
repeatedly affirmed, the New Testament touches but lightly upon the
duties of self-regard. To be occupied constantly with the thought of
one's self is a symptom of morbid egoism rather than of healthy
personality. The avidity of self-improvement and even zeal for
religion may become a refined form of selfishness. We must be willing
at times to renounce our personal comfort, to restrain our zest for
intellectual and aesthetic enjoyment, to be content to be less cultured
and scholarly, less complete as men, and ready to part with something
of our own immediate good that others may be ministered to. Hence the
chief reason probably why the Scriptures do not enlarge upon the duties
of self-culture is, that according to the spirit of the Gospel the true
realisation of self is achieved through self-sacrifice. Only as a man
loses his life does he find it. To horde [Transcriber's note: hoard?]
one's {