infrequently is denied.

Is this all? There is another possibility which observation has never
detected and which science is powerless to disprove. Can we be sure that
no malign spiritual influences hinder and bewilder? We cannot be sure.
The common belief of nearly all peoples ought not to be rudely brushed
aside. No one willingly believes in lies nor clings to them when he
knows that they are lies. Superstitions always have some element of
truth in them, and the truth, not the error, wins adherents. The most
that we can say, at this point, is that we do not know. It is possible
that the common beliefs of many widely separated people have no basis
in fact, that they are born of dreams and delusions; and, on the other
hand, it is equally possible that the spaces which we inhabit, but which
we cannot fully explore, have other inhabitants than our vision
discerns, and that those beings may help and may hinder us in our
progress. It is not wise to dogmatize where we are ignorant. While the
scales balance we must wait.

Are the hindrances in the path of the soul without any ministry? That
cannot be; for then they are exceptions to the universal law, that
nothing which exists is without a purpose of benefit.

All the analogies of nature indicate that human limitations are intended
to serve some good end, since, so far as observation has yet extended,
it has found nothing which is caused by chance. Emerson says, "As the
Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he
kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptations we
resist;"[5] and St. Bernard says, "Nothing can work me damage except
myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a
real sufferer but by my own fault."[6]

[Footnote 5: Essay on Compensation.]

[Footnote 6: Quoted by Emerson in Essay on Compensation.]

And St. John says, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the
tree of life."[7]

[Footnote 7: Revelation 2:7.]

The mission of the austere is the development of strength. Concerning
this suggestion we shall inquire later. The souls which have reached the
serene summits have ever been those which have most resolutely faced the
obstacles in their pathways. Even apparent hindrances always exercise a
beneficent ministry. As Jesus was made perfect by the things which He
suffered, so, in the Cosmic plan, all souls must come to strength and
perfection by the difficulties which they overcom