himself remaining eternally the same unescapable and incomprehensible
mystery as ever.

There are, therefore, two supreme maxims for souls conditioned in
time and space but destined for eternity and infinity a maxim of
comfort for those who suffer, and a maxim of impulse for those who
aspire. The one, to be used in view of every fear, every evil or
limit. This, too, shall pass away! The other, to be used in view
of every insatiable desire, Over all those things for which men
struggle with each other, there is one thing, out of the sphere of
struggle, which indivisibly belongs to every man, and that one
thing is the whole universe!

Nothing but the Absolute Good is everlasting: and that must belong
to all who, being essential personalities, are superior to death.
Blessed, blessed, then, are they who hunger and thirst after God;
for, by a real transubstantiation assimilating Him, they shall as
divinely live forevermore. They shall cease to say any more of
anything, This, too, shall pass away! because the infinite God
shall have said to each of them, Son, thou art ever with me, and
all that I have is thine!

If the view above marked out, a view in many respects so sublime
and satisfactory, a view which goes so far to explain the
mysteries, reconcile the contradictions, and transfigure the evils
of our transient life and lot below be not true, it must either be
because some other higher and better view is the truth in which
case we certainly ought to be contented or else the creative and
providential plan of God is inferior to the thought of one of his
creatures. It is not possible for me to suppose that a speculative
theory of my brain can transcend in harmony and beneficence the
design of the infinite God. Could it do so, then, in reality, I
should be a higher being than He. I should veritably have
dethroned Him and vaulted into his place. Is not that a pitch of
impiety and absurdity too great even for the pride of man,
insurgent atom of criticising assumption, set, baffled at every
point, amidst the awful immensity of existence? Here, then, is
rest. Either our highest view is the truth, or the truth is higher
and better than that. For to think that his thought is superior to
the purpose of God, thus making himself the real God, is too much
for the extremist human egotist within the limits of sanity.

Therefore, until a better theory is propounded, we hold that the
destiny of the soul is to become, through the prog