All through the latter half of the nineteenth century we were brought up to believe that if we made a bargain with God our past and future sins would be forgiven and our place in Heaven secure. We might be poor or rich--as men count poverty and riches in this life--but a belief in the sacrifice of our Lord would bring us safely to Paradise at last. As a boy I grew up with the most wonderful idea of Heaven. I imagined it a place where in very deed we should see God and Christ and the angels, with the whole company of redeemed sitting on thrones beside the Jasper Sea. My picture of Hell was that of a veritable lake into which were cast all wicked men and women, and little children who disobeyed their parents, told lies, or stole. It was often a nightmare question to me whether, after all, my place might not be the lake of fire, eternal torment and damnation. Though the Heaven and Hell of my childhood have gone, it is true to say that, whatever else I have lost hold of in this connection, I have lost no shred of faith and hope in the continuance of life after death. I am heir of all the ages, and am also part of the life of the future. Somewhere in that future there is a tiny corner for me which, by the grace of God, I shall fill; but as to a life of indolent ease, it is all banished from my mind. I know that for me all life will be one long struggle upwards. It may be I shall not get, as it were, one yard forward, but that does not matter; what is important is that I should make the effort.