s does a hunted animal to the depths of the wilderness. So long as
he looked to God, he was victorious over his enemies and fearless as a
lion; they could not harm him. But when he looked upon the strength of his
foes and his own weakness and lost sight of God, he was overcome with fear
and fled terror-stricken.

What made the difference in his conduct? Were not his enemies the same?
Was not their wrath to be feared as much one time as another? Was not God
protecting and keeping him all the time? Had he need to fear them more at
one time than at another? The secret of his different behavior was his
attitude toward them. When he feared them, they were stumbling-stones to
him. When he feared them not, their enmity became the stepping-stone by
which he was raised to the lofty height of victory.

The same principle is true in our lives. If we approach a conflict or
trial with fear and trembling and shrinking, it will very likely prove a
stumbling-stone to us; but if we approach it with calm confidence in God
and a settled determination to overcome, we may make it a stepping-stone
upon which we may mount to higher and better things.

Sometimes things that are at first very discouraging to us afterwards
become sources of help and encouragement; not that the things themselves
change, but because we see them from a different angle. This is well
illustrated by the effect of my long affliction. One of the worst things
that I had to face in the first two or three years was the consciousness
of the depressing and discouraging influence that it was having upon
others, not only upon those about me, but upon many persons here and
there, as evidenced by numerous letters showing that the effect was
wide-spread. It seemed to be a hindrance to the faith of many people. But
in the last two or three years I have received many letters telling me how
greatly the writers had been encouraged and helped by my affliction. The
affliction itself was the same; the change was in them; for that which was
once a source of discouragement would have continued so had they continued
to look at it as they had formerly done. The fact that the changed point
of view, or changed attitude, changed the effect shows that it is not so
much the thing itself as our attitude toward it that affects us.

It is so in regard to all things. We have need to learn the lesson that
one sister learned. Speaking of the early months of my affliction, she
writes, "At that time i