swim away from "myself." "I" must be "I" to all
eternity. I cannot shake off my character, be it good or bad.

Realize next what you mean to the God who created you and lovingly
planned for you your magnificent destiny.

Let the soul within you feel its dignity, its priceless importance in
the eyes of its Maker. Measure the value of it by what God has done
for it.

Why was this world slowly built through thousands of ages? Just as a
platform for this "I" to develop character. Why was the Incarnation
and Death of the Everlasting Son of God? Why is the gift and energy of
the Holy Spirit? Why is the perpetual intercession of Christ in
Heaven? Why is the grace and power of the Sacraments in life? Why are
the boundless prospects opened beyond the grave?

All for the sake of this mysterious permanent supernatural being that
we call "I." Measure I say by what God has done for it, the tremendous
value He sets on your immortal soul.

[1] In a simple, popular statement such as this it would but be
confusing to go into nice metaphysical distinctions of soul and
"spirit."

CHAPTER II

THE THREE STAGES OF EXISTENCE

Section 1

Now, grip with both hands the fact that this life, as you know it, is
but one single stage in God's plan for you--the Kindergarten stage, the
caterpillar stage of your existence. That in five thousand years that
spiritual being looking out from behind the mask of your face to-day
will be living still, and feeling still, and thinking still. That what
you call death, the end of this career, is but birth into a new and
more exciting career, stretching away into the far future, age after
age, aeon after aeon, whose prospect should stir the very blood within
us.

There is nothing which so touches some of us as a thing with "makings"
in it, a thing with untold potentialities in it, a thing which may come
in the future to God only knows what. Talk of the caterpillar which is
to develop into the butterfly or the acorn which shall one day be a
mighty oak. Why, these miracles are but child's play compared with the
miracles potentially wrapped up in this poor little self. No wildest
fairy tale can suggest the wonder of its possibilities as it passes out
into the new adventure of the life beyond.

Section 2

Thirteen hundred years ago there was an eager discussion in the court
of King Edward of Northumbria. The old wattled hall was blazing with
torches and a crowd of eager lis