patience, experience; to experience, hope; to hope, faith;
to faith, understanding; and to understanding, Love tri- [30]
umphant!

In proportion to a man's spiritual progress, he will

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indeed drink of our Master's cup, and be baptized with [1]
his baptism! be purified as by fire,--the fires of suffering;
then hath he part in Love's atonement, for "whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth." Then shall he also reign
with him: he shall rise to know that there is no sin, [5]
that there is no suffering; since all that is _real_ is _right_.
This knowledge enables him to overcome the world, the
flesh, and all evil, to have dominion over his own sinful
sense and self. Then shall he drink anew Christ's cup,
in the kingdom of God--the reign of righteousness-- [10]
within him; he shall sit down at the Father's right hand:
_sit down_; not stand waiting and weary; but rest on the
bosom of God; rest, in the understanding of divine Love
that passeth all understanding; rest, in that which "to
know aright is Life eternal," and whom, not having seen, [15]
we love.

Then shall he press on to Life's long lesson, the eternal
lore of Love; and learn forever the infinite meanings of
these short sentences: "God is Love;" and, All that is
real is divine, for God is All-in-all. [20]

Message To The Annual Meeting Of The Mother Church, Boston, 1896

_Beloved Brethren, Children, and Grandchildren_:--
Apart from the common walks of mankind, revolving
oft the hitherto untouched problems of being, and [25]
oftener, perhaps, the controversies which baffle it,
Mother, thought-tired, turns to-day to you; turns to
her dear church, to tell the towers thereof the remarkable
achievements that have been ours within the past few
years: the rapid transit from halls to churches, from un- [30]

[Page 126.]

settled questions to permanence, from danger to escape, [1]
from fragmentary discourses to one eternal sermon; yea,
from darkness to daylight, in physics and metaphysics.

Truly, I half wish for society again; for once, at least,
to hear the soft music of our Sabbath chimes saluting the [5]
ear in tones that leap for joy, with love for God and
man.

Who hath not learned that when alone he has his
own thoughts to guard, and when struggling with man-
kind his temper, and in society his tongue? We also [10]
have gained higher heights; have learned that trials lift
us to that dignity of Soul which sustains us, and finally
conq