d, are doing all that
lies in their power to make the rainbow impossible; they are doing all
in their power to make it impossible for us to have in the nation, in
the home, or in the individual life, purity at all. Those who look out
upon scenes which disgrace our social system, and our city, and, with a
shrug of the shoulders, lead people to believe they constitute a
necessary evil which cannot be faced, are not only unconsciously
believing in the blasphemy that God made His physical laws so that they
could not obey His moral laws; they are not only condoning the most
unblushing cruelty which is going on in our midst to-day, but, also,
they are not realizing that Jesus Christ came with the very purpose
among others of proving that the pure life was a possible one. What is
the Incarnation but the taking of a human body, with all its passions,
with all its impulses, a real Human body, and wearing it perfectly
untarnished to the end? We must take hold, by meditation and by
prayer, of the teaching of the Incarnation, that we may live as
children of the Incarnation. We were sent into the world with a
rainbow round our souls.

"Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory, do we come,
From God, Who is our home."

And we may be perfectly certain that God does not send us into this
world with a rainbow round our souls if it is impossible to preserve
the brightness and the purity of that rainbow in the world to which He
sent us.

Having realized the possibility of it, the next thing to realize is
that it is absolutely essential. No one without that rainbow can pass
to the throne of God. There are many here, perhaps, who say, "Ah! it
is too late to teach me that now; my rainbow, if I ever had one, faded
from round my brow long ago." My brother or sister, did we not see
that a rainbow was made by the light shining upon rain, and do we not
believe that, if any single one here brings the tears of real
penitence, that there shall be round him again, or round her, the most
beautiful rainbow, the rainbow of the light of forgiveness shining upon
penitence? During these six weeks, let us then look into our own
souls, and ask ourselves in the light of God, "Where are we! how about
our thoughts? how about our words? how about our characters? where is
the pristine purity of youth? what about our lives today?" If such
questions draw us on to our knees, with tears of penitence, t