[Illustration: Graveyard scene] Some day certainly the fog shall rise, the clouds shall scatter, and in the perfect enlightenment of the other life the soul shall see its Lord, and be thankful for every darkest step that we took towards Him here. Devotion is like the candle which Michael Angelo used to carry stuck on his forehead in a paste-board cap, and which kept his own shadow from being cast upon his work when he was hewing out his statues. David's pilgrims, going through the vale of misery, "use it for a well." ... When they grew thirsty they looked not merely farther on into the heart of the future, but deeper down into the bosom of the present. The sense of evil in life does not _deny_, but implies the noblest capacities in men. Man must be a ray of the great sunshine under whose touch some special flower may open, and some special fruit fill itself with healthy and nutritious juice, some little corner of the field grow rich. Any honest task is capable of being so largely conceived that he who enters into it may see, stretching before him, the promise of things to do and be, that will stir his enthusiasm and satisfy his best desires. Your life cannot be frivolous or vulgar unless you are frivolous or vulgar. He who complains of his circumstances really complains of himself, and is his own accuser. God is as willing that you should read your lesson in the sunlight as in the storm. Heaven at last will be the perfect sight of Christ. [Illustration: Flowers] A life with no intention of God in it _must be_ shallow. The thoughtful trader believes that Trade, in its ideal, is generous and beautiful. It is the reality that he makes of it, by the way in which he does it, that seems to him sordid. Character is the divinest thing on earth. It is the one thing that you can put into the shop or into the study, and be sure that the fire is going to burn. Never does human nature seem so glorious and so wicked all at once as when we stand before the cross of Jesus! The most enthusiastic hopes, the most profound humiliation, have found their inspiration there. The only way to run from God is to run to Him. The Infinite Knowledge is also the Infinite Pity. [Illustration: House and yard] [Illustration: Stream and flowers] Not simply His coming and His going, not simply His birth, or death, but the living, total life of Jesus is the world's salvation. And the Book in which His life shines orbed and distinct is the world's treasure. Remember we are debtors to the Good by birth, but remember we may become debtors to the Bad by life; and both debts--of service and allegiance--must be paid alike. Not merely a Voice to be heard, but a Friend to be loved, a Shepherd to be followed, a Bread to be eaten,--so does the Christ of the Gospels present Himself in word and sacrament and every presentation of His personality. The tent-life is the true life until the building of God, the "house not made with hands," is reached.