ing of innocents to be
reconciled with the Benign Will of a God Who is Perfect Love? Let
us cease thinking that indiscriminate suffering to creatures is the
Will of God. What is it, then? It is the inevitable--the long
drawn-out sequence to the soul's departure from God--the Source of
Happiness.

To inhabit flesh is no paradise, but it is a means of regaining heaven.
There is no misfortune, suffering, sorrow, disappointment, or pain,
which is not consequent upon this departure of the soul from God.
Are there here any truly "innocent" persons? To be here at all points
to a fault of the soul, to infidelity to God--the "Original sin" in
which we are born.

The beginning of Salvation is to think. Nothing causes us to think so
much as sorrow, suffering, and pain; and they melt the heart also,
and they humble pride. The man who has never suffered, and never
loved, is more to be pitied than the paralytic: his chance of Life is
remote.

How can we reasonably expect that the road back to our long-since
forsaken God is to be smooth, pleasant, velvet-covered. What
divides us from God? Is it happiness, beauty, and light?
No--self-indulgence, rocks of evil, ugly greeds, places of sin and
selfishness. Can we climb back through all this, most of it in
darkness, without tears, without pain, without every kind of anguish?

Over this part of the road is no peace; but continue, and, little by
little, peace comes.

* * *

We say that we must find Christ; but where, and how, shall we find
this Mighty Lord, Who comes out from the Father to meet the
Prodigal? Must we study in ecclesiastical colleges, travel to distant
lands, visit holy places, kneel on celebrated sacred ground, kiss
stones, attend ceremonies, look at bones?

No! Stand still! Just where we are is the place where we can meet
Him. Just where we stand to-day can be as sacred, as blessed, as the
Holy Land. Some little wood sprinkled with flowers, our own quiet
room, an unknown, nameless hillside--these can be as holy as Mount
Carmel, because He meets us there.

* * *

In all these experiences of the soul which has refound God, what is
it that truly rejoices her? Is it the learning and knowledge that the
pursuit of Truth may bring her to? She values Truth and knowledge
because they lift her towards Him Whom she seeks and loves. Does
the soul rejoice in ecstasies because they are ecstasies? No: what she
values is the recaptured knowledge and certainty of heavenly
livi