regards as a mysterious and--in all humility--undeserved calamity; when
he can simply accept it as an expression of the divine action that is
moulding the soul, and thus leave it all in peace of spirit; when,
forgetting the past, he can press onward to the things that are
before,--then, indeed, does he receive of the true ministry of pain.

"Every consecration made in the darkness is reaching out toward the
light, and in the end it must come into the light, strong in the
strength which it won in its life and struggle in the dark."

There is a great renewal and regeneration of life in the actual
realization of Saint Paul's admonition as to forgetting the things that
are behind to press onward to those before. One should force himself,
simply by an act of will and by his rational convictions of the beauty
and value of life, to let go past experiences that chain him to sorrow,
and, instead, link himself in that magnetism of spiritual apprehension
possible to achieve, to the enchantment and power of the future. Even
the most tragic sorrows lose their hold over one if he will reflect that
these, as well as his joys, are alike expressions of the divine will.
"Seek you," said a devout Catholic priest, "the secret of union with
God? There is none other than to avail yourselves of all that He sends
you. You have but to accept all that He sends, and let it do its work in
you.... No created mind or heart can teach you what this divine action
will do in you; you will learn it by successive experiences. Your life
unceasingly flows into this incomprehensible abyss, where we have but to
love and accept as best that which the present moment brings, with
perfect confidence in this divine action which of itself can only work
you good."

When the divine action comes in the guise of joy and happiness, one is
swift to give thanks. But when it comes in the guise of pain, shall he
not also see in it the expression of God's will, and accept it with that
absolute confidence in the wisdom and beneficence of the divine action
that is, in itself, peace and sweetness? For it is a "light affliction
which is but for a moment," and the promise is ours that it "worketh for
us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." And this is not
merely nor mostly a religious enthusiasm; it is the only practical
working basis on which one whom experiences touch deeply can live at
all. Without this philosophy sorrow would undermine the health and
paralyze