comparable glory of incorruptible manhood and womanhood, let them suffer annihilation, if need be, but save the wicked ones of every grade and shade, if so they may come to know, in the course of eternity, something of the incomparable, ineffable joys of the moral and spiritual life.

Χ

THE MORAL LIFE IN THE LIGHT OF

IMMORTALITY

We come now to the question presented for our final chapter: What is meant by the ethics of an immortal being, what should the ethics of personal life be for one who believes in immortality as an ethical necessity? What relation should his belief bear to his daily conduct? What specific duties would devolve on one who held the faith in a future life from this highest standpoint? The author of the New Testament epistle to the Ephesians, discussing the hereafter, concludes a noble passage with the clause: "And every one who hath this hope [of immortality] will purify himself." In this sentence I read an epitome of the ethics of personal life for an immortal soul. The word "purify" sums it all up. Let me then state some of the ways in which every one who has this hope may "purify himself," some of the respects in which life here is intimately related to and governed

by the belief in life hereafter. Let me touch on three or four of the practical effects which that belief should have on the everyday life of everyone who cherishes it.

In the first place, then, I should say that such a being ought to plan his whole life like an immortal being and not like a temporary being. That is to say, he should pay special attention to those things that seem to him to have permanent value, train himself in all those interests that seem to have permanent worth, cultivate in himself all those powers which he believes will be permanently serviceable. Especially should such an one distinguish carefully and constantly between the things of time and the things of eternity. In the former class belong, among other things, wealth, fame, personal pleasure, social position and power-things that perish with the using; in the latter class belong knowledge, wisdom, love, will power-things that increase with the using. Very carefully and constantly should this immortal soul observe the distinction between those things of time and these of eternity, for the sovereign aim of his life will be to develop the imperishable portion of his personality.

Secondly, he will take a worthy and inspiring

attitude toward the failures in his life, toward the trials and the tribulations that cross every human path. If, for example, the circumstances of his life are particularly hard and trying, he will remember that it is not the circumstances, nor the conditions, but the way in which he takes them and what he makes out of them that counts. Will they be hindrances or helps, stumblingblocks or stepping-stones to higher things? That is the paramount question. If he be poor he will remember that the man is more than the means of livelihood; that the best things in this world are not the monopoly of the rich. Nay, more, he will remember, too, that the successful life is the life true to its own highest ideals, let the results be what they may.

What I aspired to be, and was not,

Comforts me,-a brute I might have been,
But would not sink i' the scale.

Above all, he will remember that this world is only a primary school and that the important thing is, not a cushioned seat in the schoolhouse, nor a morocco bound textbook, nor a costly school suit, but to get his lessons and be ready to graduate. Should any pet project fail

of completion, he will not thereupon grow sullen or morose. He knows he has put conscience and consecration into the work, knows he has used his immortal powers with intelligence and devotion, consequently he can face the seeming failure with a degree of equanimity and composure of mind and heart hardly possible to one who regards himself as merely a temporary being. In the face of any such unfulfilled power an immortal being will feel that he may rightly put the responsibility for a successful issue on some higher power. For his own sovereign aim gives him the key to successful lifewhich is so to live, so to use his immortal powers that the responsibility for a successful issue is shifted from him to a higher power.

He will rightly feel, as he contemplates the apparent failure of his project, "tis better to have failed in the high aim, than vulgarly to have succeeded in the low." Hence at the core of his being there will abide a serenity, a calm and deep peace that enhance immeasurably the worth of his daily life.

And now I come to a third mode of self-purifying, one which an immortal soul will value as of exceptional account. I mean the reserving of moments each week or, better still, out of