the truest good of each and with the sole good of all. On every
gate of hell may be written. Wherever retribution is actual,
salvation is possible, equivalent to the great maxim of
jurisprudence: Ubi jus ibi remedium! So, even the dark door of
retribution, when men will advance by no other way, leads them to
thoughtfulness, regret, and a redemptive readjustment of their
passions and acts. Thus it becomes the ultimate gate of heaven.
And, alas! what a dismal crowd of sufferers, refusing all shorter
and happier ways, wait to be drawn through this torturing passage
of remedial mercy! May the number entering by the other gates ever
increase, and those entering this dwindle! And yet, may it forever
stand open for the unhappy culprits who must be lost unless saved
here!

Besides all these gates, and commanding them all, there is one
everywhere accessible, and never shut on any soul which has the
grace to try it the omnipresent gate of resignation. Remove the
conditions of resistance, or friction, by a total surrender of
self will and an absolute acceptance of the Divine Will, and, it
matters not where you are, the essence of perdition is destroyed
in your soul. The utter abandonment of pride, a pious submission
to the laws of things, a glad and grateful acquiescence in
whatever the Supreme Authority decrees this is the unrestricted
way into heaven which waits before the steps of all who will only
exhibit the requisite spirit, and enter. Yes, let any being but
banish from himself every vestige of personal dictation before God
and unexactingly identify his desires with universal good; and,
even though he stand on the bottom of hell, heaven will be directly
before him through the open gate of resignation. For the organic
attitude of a pure and loving submission tunes the discordant
creature to that eternal breath of God which blows everywhere
through the universe of souls, sighing until they conspire with
it to make the music of redemption.

CHAPTER V.

RESUME HOW THE QUESTION OF IMMORTALITY NOW STANDS.

IN THE leading nations of Christendom, the belief in the
immortality of the soul has for some time past obviously been
weakening. The number of those who assail the belief increases,
and their utterances become more frank and dogmatic. A multitude
of instances, clear to every careful observer, prove this.
Especially at the present moment do examples of painful doubt,
profound misgiving, bold and exultant denial, mocking