onsidering the "hereafter," as to "rewards and punishments";
what gods, devils, angels, or men may do _to us_, here or hereafter; but
what we may (if we choose) do _for ourselves_.

This question is practical to the last degree. Put the question, "does it
pay?" and I answer: It pays like nothing else on earth; it is the only
thing that is independent of time, place, or circumstance.

It concerns man's _actual possessions_, of which nothing in "the three
worlds" can ever dispossess him. I know of nothing so beneficent, in any
concept of God or Nature, Providence or Destiny, as this birthright and
opportunity of man, to build character, and _be_ what he chooses to be.

He who knows his power, realizes his opportunity and utilizes his
resources, may build a Palace of the Soul, in which he may dwell,
literally, in a "kingdom of heaven." And because God is the Architect, and
Man the Contractor and Builder, working strictly to the "plans" and the
designs, "that house shall stand." It is founded on the "Rock of Ages."

Did anyone ever know or see a noble character that was not built by the
Individual himself, by personal effort, by self-control, by self-denial,
by justice and kindness to others; often in the face of Poverty; often in
spite of wealth; often in the face of sickness, pain and deformity;
perhaps deaf and dumb and blind; and yet, like Helen Keller, the soul
triumphant and glorified?

To-day, as I write, I went to the Crematory to see the dissolution of a
poor, twisted, deformed, and tortured body of a woman past fifty, in which
had dwelt a soul so serene, cheerful, and patient, that the beatitudes
clustered around her, like doves in a garden of roses. It required no
stretch of the imagination to determine what society she had entered.
"Like seeks like," and each "goes to his own place." Her motive, the
day-star of her life, was the Mother-Love for an only son. In spite of
poverty and pain, she must reward him for love and loyalty, by being
bright and cheerful and by belittling her own discomfort to save him
sorrow.

Her reward was the growth of the soul that has now risen to its great
reward, and dearer and sweeter than all this to the Mother-heart, was to
see and realize the growth, the tenderness, and the beautifying of the
soul of the Son.

Did it pay? I can almost hear her shouting for joy as she joins the anthem
of the Invisible Choir of Helpers that welcome her just over the border.
She prayed many tim