is
dawning upon us--a step towards a still larger social life to be realised
in the brotherhood of nations.

_To F. J. C._

Christ's College, Cambridge: February 1, 1903.

I am slow to suggest to another man that what seems bad luck is in
reality the voice of God making itself felt in his busy life, calling him
to fuller sacrifice. But I am sure that we are right when we interpret
it {180} thus for ourselves. I share your wish for 'some really strong
man' to come as a prophet and read the writing on the wall, and tell us
'what it all means.' Yet the absence of human help is not accidental.
It must be designed, in order that we may learn to fall back on the
everlasting arms--to find by experience that the unseen is more real than
the seen.

There is an arm that never tires
When human strength gives way.

I like that phrase, 'worthy to suffer.' It is to those whom God loves
best and most that He gives--as He gave to His Son--the chance of
suffering. Sympathy, strength, reality--these are some of its fruits for
those who allow them to grow. 'He cannot be My disciple.' I can't help
sometimes thinking of these words. Unless the man is prepared to make
sacrifice the basis of his life, he _cannot_ be Christ's disciple. I
don't think we always realise the 'trans-valuation of values' found in
Christ's teaching. 'Blessed are the poor--the hungry. He that would
save his life shall lose it. He that loseth, saveth. He that would be
greatest shall be least. It is more blessed to give than to receive.'
As I think over such statements as these, I find that I have again and
again to revise, as it were, my moral arithmetic--to change my standards,
to revise my ideas of great and little, happiness and misery, importance
and insignificance.

I am sure that nothing but the highest will satisfy you. God has given
you singular powers of influence and of attracting others. He will
demand an account {181} of those powers. You know Matthew Arnold's lines
on his father. I believe the day will come when men will say like words
of you.

But thou would'st not _alone_
Be saved, my father! alone
Conquer and come to thy goal,
Leaving the rest in the wild. . . .
Therefore to thee it was given
Many to save with thyself.

That is what I want you to be--a tower of strength--strength perfected,
it may be, in weakness--weakness forcing you to despair of self, and find
the Rock of Ages. You have been so mu