wth meets obstacles often
insurmountable; inheritance limits; circumstances betray; we see sudden
falls and slow deterioration; whole races wane.

But we see that evil is somehow a stepping-stone to all our good.
Heroism, piety, tenderness, have been born out of pain. The
expectation of a hereafter gives hope that no individual moral germ is
lost. And we see that the crowning victory of life is the persistence
of man's good against the evil; as in the mother whose love the
prodigal cannot exhaust; in the Siberian exile who will not despair; in
Jesus when before the cross he prays, "Thy will be done." This is
faith, this is the soul's supreme act,--the allegiance to good, the
trust in good, in face of the very worst. Man, in that depth feels
lifted by a power transcending himself. So, when the beloved is taken
by death, the heart, in face of that loss, loves on; feels its love
greater than that which has befallen; says, "O Death, where is thy
sting! O grave, where is thy victory!"

The best living unites us closely and mysteriously with some greater
whole of which we are a part. The three great faculties are knowledge,
conduct, love. Knowledge finds always new objects, new connections, a
more perfect and wonderful whole. Right conduct brings a sense of
being in true relations,--of fulfilling some high destiny. Love blends
the individual with the universal; its successive steps are the highest
form of human education.

Christianity was a feminine religion in its virtues, as purity and
tenderness; and also in its attitude of pure dependence, submission,
petition. The masculine elements have not been duly recognized as
religious, even when having a great place in the actual working of
things,--self-reliance, physical hardihood, civic virtue, the pursuit
of truth.

In her subject state, woman has learned piety. She brings that as she
emerges into her free state, her gift to man, as his to her is strength
and self-reliance.

The moral power of the dogmatic systems has been very limited. They
pretended to all knowledge and all power, but they have only gone a
little way to sweeten and purify human life. The "enthusiasm of
humanity" advances society farther in a decade than the old religion
did in a century.

We are taught by scientists the extreme slowness with which races have
improved. But do we know how fast races or families can improve if
brought in contact with the most helpful influences