fore the sculptor passed it by, preferring the flawless block of
snowy marble. Is the soul soiled by sin, to be cast off by the divine
Sculptor?

Journeying across the plains, travelers looking through the car
windows behold the California trail. The wagon ruts have become
ditches, and the old route is marked by human graves. But long ago men
exchanged the ox cart, the deep wagon ruts, and the wearisome journey,
for palace cars. Thus there are many paths of sin worn deep by
pressure of human feet. Many would fain forsake them. But is there any
divine power to cast up some divine highway? Is there a happiness?
Nature is kind to her grains and sweeps them forward toward harvests;
is kind toward her apple seeds and bids them journey unto orchards; is
kind unto the March days, and bids them journey into perpetual summer.

And man would fain find some divine friend who will lead him unto
great personal worth. As if to fulfill man's deepest needs, Jesus
Christ enters the earthly scene. He comes to hasten man's step along
that pathway that leads from littleness unto largeness. Before our
admiring vision the Divine Teacher seems like some sacred husbandman,
His garden our earth, good men and great earth's richest fruit. He
asks each youth to love and make the most of himself, that later on he
may be bread to the hungry, medicine to the wounded, shelter to the
weak. He bids each love his own reason, getting wisdom with that eager
passion that Hugh Miller had for knowledge. He bids each make the most
of friendship, emulating Plato in his love for his noble teacher. He
asks each to love industry, emulating Peabody, whose generosity gushed
like rivers. He asks each to make the most of courage and
self-reliance, emulating Livingstone in self-denying service. He bids
each emulate and look up to Jesus Christ, as Dante, midst the pitchy
night, looked up toward the star. He bids each move heaven and earth
to achieve for himself a worthy manhood. For thus only can earth ever
be moved back unto heaven.

INDEX

Abelard, 166

Abraham, influence on posterity, 16

Abundant Life, 29

AEschylus, 198

Agassiz, 102, 237

Aristotle, 124

Arkwright, 99

Arnold, 135, 216, 292
Thos., 164

Aspirations and Ideals, 53
number and kind, 61
power to lift life, 58
the use of, 63
rebuke lower life, 66
enemies of, 70

Babbage, 287

Bancroft, Geo., 10

Beatrice, 44

Beecher, 19, 95, 134, 142, 188, 258

Bible