through as easily as Samson flung off the withes
of the Philistine harlot--is, one is tempted to think, at a terrible
disadvantage in life's battle, compared with the man who has a halo of
saintly glory around his brow from his birth. It is a dark, sad mystery,
much of which, after all our brooding over it, we must leave in trust
with God.

I believe firmly that inequalities arising out of circumstances are
after all far less real than they appear. The facilities and
opportunities for a fair unfolding of life are not so uneven, in
the various classes and callings, as they seem. There must be some
deep meaning in the Saviour's words, "_Blessed are ye poor_," and
in the terrible sentence, "_How hardly shall they that have riches
enter into the kingdom of God_." There is an amount of practical
Christianity--daily, hourly trust in God and ministry to each
other--developed by the circumstances of the lot of the poor, which
we may fairly set against the intelligent beliefs, the doctrinal
correctness, and the measured charities of the richer class, as in
the sight of God of equal or of higher price. There is nothing in a
workman's lot or toil, to remove him farther from the gate of the
kingdom than rich men, nobles, priests, or kings; nay, the balance
is altogether in his favour. But, alas! there is a class far below
the workman, a vast class, vastest in the great cities where
Christian civilization is at the height of its splendour and power,
whose lot it is terribly difficult to comprehend in a theodicy, and
of whom it is hard to believe that they are not from the first at a
fearful disadvantage as respects nearness to the gate of the
kingdom of heaven. But the gravest side of the difficulty is not
circumstantial; it concerns nature and temperament. Though perhaps,
if we could search a little more deeply, we should see that each
type of character has its own peculiar class of difficulties and
temptations; and that the most beautiful and saintlike have their
dread perils of shipwreck, which make their course as arduous as
that of the souls which bear about with them a great load of
fleshliness and groan under the bondage of tyrannous passions
and lusts. Still it is a truth which is not without its awful
significance, that temperaments, passions, and powers, are very
variously distributed to men, while the burden of existence is laid
equally upon all, and "every soul must bear its own burden" in time
and in eternity.

Thes