tragedy, with all that made
the joy and light of life withdrawn,--can he encounter this form of
tribulation with serene poise, with unfaltering purpose, with an intense
and exalted faith? It is "not enjoyable," indeed, as Doctor Babcock, in
the quotation above, at once concedes; but that the experience has a
meaning,--a very profound meaning, one must believe; and believing this,
he must feel that the responsibility rests on himself to accept this new
significance that has, in an undreamed-of way, fallen into his life; to
read its hidden lesson; to transmute it, by the miracle of divine grace,
into something fairer and sweeter; to let its scorching fire make steel
of that which was only iron. To accept, to believe, to _feel_ this, in
every fibre of his nature, is to "glory" in the tribulation. It is to
extract its best meaning, and to go on in life better equipped than
before. "The tests of life are to _make_ and not _break_ us." Here is
the truer view, and one that reveals the divine significance in all
mysteries of human experience. Beyond all these views, also, is that
inflorescence of joy that springs from this more complete identification
of one's own will with that of the divine. One comes into the full glow
and beauty of that wonderful assurance of Jesus: "These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy
might be full."

This fulness of joy is a condition freely offered for perfect
acceptance. The varied experiences are, as Browning has said, "just a
stuff to try the soul's strength on." The kingdom of heaven lies open to
all; it is _at hand_, not waiting afar in some vague futurity. Shall we
not enter to-day into this kingdom of heaven which is at hand? Shall we
not enter to-day into the very joy of the Lord? Pain and sorrow may
invest the conditions of the moment, but they are forces which are
transmuting the inconsequential into the significant; the common and
trivial into the exalted and the sublime. The discord is merged into
sublime harmonies that thrill the air; the glory of the Lord shines
round about, and we enter into its illumination; we are ascending the
Mount of Vision and the soul looketh steadily onward, discerning the
beauty of holiness, in whose transfiguration gleams the fairest ideal
revealed to humanity,--even the Life Radiant.

INDEX.

Abbott, Rev. Dr. Lyman, 83, 223.
Academy of Science, 10.
Adams, Hon. Alva, his tribute to Nathan Cook