he apparent thing: the daily dying that
underlies it is out of sight to the passing glance.

Yes, life is the uppermost, resurrection life, radiant and joyful and
strong, for we represent down here Him who liveth and was dead and is
alive for evermore. Stress had to be laid in these pages on the death
gateway, but a gateway is never a dwelling-place; the death-stage is
never meant for our souls to stay and brood over, but to pass through
with a will into the light beyond. We may and must, like the plants,
bear its marks, but they should be visible to God rather than to man,
for above all and through all is the inflowing, overflowing life of
Jesus: oh let us not dim it by a shadow of morbidness or of gloom: He
is not a God of the dead, but a God of the living, and He would have
us let the glory of His gladness shine out.

Think of the wonder of it--the Fountain of Life Himself wells up
within us, taking the place of all that we have delivered, bit by
bit, into His grave. "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."
Little have we proved, any of us, the resources that lie in that
mighty indwelling, little have we learnt what it is to have all our
soul-fibres penetrated by its power. May God lead us, no matter what
the cost, into all that can be known of it, here on earth.

And the results need not end with our earthly days. Should Jesus
tarry our works will follow us. The closing in of the signs around us
make it seem as if we should not taste of death, and as if the time
left us to work and suffer for Him were growing very short; but if
that last gate has to be passed before our spirits are sent free into
the land of perfect life, God may use, by reason of the wonderful
solidarity of His Church, the things that He has wrought in us, for
the blessing of souls unknown to us: as these twigs and leaves of
bygone years, whose individuality is forgotten, pass on vitality
still to the new-born wood-sorrel. God only knows the endless
possibilities that lie folded in each one of us!

Shall we not let Him have His way? Shall we not go all lengths with
Him in His plans for us--not, as these "green things upon the earth"
in their unconsciousness, but with the glory of free choice? Shall we
not translate the story of their little lives into our own?

For all their teaching of surrender and sacrifice is no fanciful
mysticism; it is a simple reality that can be tested at every
turn--nay, that must be so tested. If we are apprehen