yours, for they give me much personal pleasure, and they are not excruciatingly transcendental. They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old doctrines or human opinions.”
Dear reader, which mind-picture, or eternalized thought, shall be real to you, — the material or the spiritual? Both Mental pictures. you cannot have. You are bringing out your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you try to have two models, then you practically have none. Like a pendulum in a clock, you will strike the ribs of matter, and be thrown back and forth, swinging forever between the real and the unreal.
Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent translation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D., of Harvard University:
| Shall mortal man be more just than God? |
| Shall man be more pure than his Maker? |
| Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits, |
| And His angels He chargeth with frailty. |
| What then are they who dwell in houses of clay, |
| Whose foundation is in the dust, |
| Who crumble to pieces as if moth-eaten? |
| Between morning and evening they are destroyed; |
| They perish forever, and none regardeth it. |
| The excellency that is in them is torn away; |
| They die before they have become wise. |
