in us all we have prepared; and the admirable will enter into
our soul, the volume of its waters being as the depth of the
channel that our expectation has fashioned."

* * * * *

[Sidenote: In Proportion to Power.]

May it not be that the degree to which one is enabled to dominate his
own life in the sense of controlling and selecting and grouping its
outer events is precisely in proportion to the spiritual power that he
has achieved? Nor has this spiritual power any conceivable relation to
what is currently known as occultism, or a thing to be attained by any
series of prescribed outer actions. There has sprung up a species of
literature with explicit directions for "concentration" and "meditation"
and one knows not what,--directions to spend certain hours of the day
gazing upon a ten-penny nail or something quite as inconsequential, and
a more totally demoralizing and negative series of performances can
hardly be imagined. But all this is not even worth denunciation. The
only real spiritual power is that of the union of the soul with the
divine.

"Lift up your hearts."
"We lift them up unto the Lord."

In these lines lies the secret of all that makes for that mental and
moral energy whose union is spiritual power. The question of what
happens to one daily and constantly, as weeks and months go on, is the
one most practical question of life. In it is involved all one's
personal happiness as well as all his power for usefulness. To feel
that this ever-flowing current of events is something entirely outside
one's own choice or volition is to stand helpless--if not
hopeless--before the spectacle of life. It is out of this aimless and
chaotic state that resort is had to the seeking of all kinds of
divination, omens, prophecies, and foreshadowings, with the result of
more and more completely separating the individual from his legitimate
activities and endeavor, and leading him to substitute for spiritual
realities a mere false and mirage-like outlook,--and instead of that
rational activity and high endeavor that create events and increasingly
control their conditions, there is merely an impatient and restless
expectation of something or other that may suddenly occur to transform
the entire outlook.

The unforeseen events do occur, and they are the crowning gift and grace
and sweetness of life. But they are the product, the result, the fine
inflorescence of intense spirit