3 oo THE OLIVE LEAR CHAP. xvi. 



emotions they call up." Many a body broken down by 

 disease has become a shrine in which the sweetest 

 worship is held ; the familiar daylight being charged 

 with heavenly visions, and the common air turned into 

 heavenly music. The saddest things of life are ever 

 the most beautiful, and the most provocative of that 

 mental activity which is itself a joy ; and if they 

 suggest thoughts of the infinite life beyond, the sadness 

 in them grows short and dim as a shadow at noon. 



And still more in the highest world of all, the 

 spiritual, in the things that concern the everlasting 

 peace of man, we see the same beneficent principle at 

 work. Out of the thorny curse of the ground God 

 brings the purple blossom of the world's blessing. That 

 sin which darkened the world has been made the means 

 of its brightest illumination ; has brought to view attri- 

 butes in the nature of God which neither man nor angel 

 could ever otherwise have known. Out of the cross has 

 flowered the salvation of the world ; and through the 

 temptations and falls of individual men come forth their 

 highest virtues. Man's divinest life is the result of his 

 sorest pains. By the discipline of suffering, his sins and 

 backslidings, his repentances and restorations are made 

 the means of enabling him to rise to the full height of his 

 Godlike stature and grow into the likeness and fellow- 

 ship of God. The apples of Sodom may become by 

 divine transforming grace the fruits of the tree of life 

 in the midst of the heavenly paradise. 



