noa it is
said that "she took cognizance of things, only as they were presented
to her in succession, MOMENT BY MOMENT." To her holy soul, "the divine
moment was the present moment, ... and when the present moment was
estimated in itself and in its relations, and when the duty that was
involved in it was accomplished, it was permitted to pass away as if it
had never been, and to give way to the facts and duties of the moment
which came after."[175] Hinduism, mind-cure, and theosophy all lay
great emphasis upon this concentration of the consciousness upon the
moment at hand.

[174] Compare these three different statements of it: A. P. Call: As
a Matter of Course, Boston, 1894; H. W. Dresser: Living by the Spirit,
New York and London, 1900; H. W. Smith: The Christian's Secret of a
Happy Life, published by the Willard Tract Repository, and now in
thousands of hands.

[175] T. C. Upham: Life of Madame Catharine Adorna, 3d ed., New York,
1864, pp. 158, 172-74.

The next religious symptom which I will note is what have called Purity
of Life. The saintly person becomes exceedingly sensitive to inner
inconsistency or discord, and mixture and confusion grow intolerable.
All the mind's objects and occupations must be ordered with reference
to the special spiritual excitement which is now its keynote. Whatever
is unspiritual taints the pure water of the soul and is repugnant.
Mixed with this exaltation of the moral sensibilities there is also an
ardor of sacrifice, for the beloved deity's sake, of everything
unworthy of him. Sometimes the spiritual ardor is so sovereign that
purity is achieved at a stroke --we have seen examples. Usually it is
a more gradual conquest. Billy Bray's account of his abandonment of
tobacco is a good example of the latter form of achievement.

"I had been a smoker as well as a drunkard, and I used to love my
tobacco as much as I loved my meat, and I would rather go down into the
mine without my dinner than without my pipe. In the days of old, the
Lord spoke by the mouths of his servants, the prophets; now he speaks
to us by the spirit of his Son. I had not only the feeling part of
religion, but I could hear the small, still voice within speaking to
me. When I took the pipe to smoke, it would be applied within, 'It is
an idol, a lust; worship the Lord with clean lips.' So, I felt it was
not right to smoke. The Lord also sent a woman to convince me. I was
one day in a house, and