152 A Walk from 



and the light which it was its mission to bring to the 

 fostering, growth and glory of the human soul. These 

 were man's means wherewith to shape it for its great 

 destiny ; these he was to bring to its training and 

 expansion ; with these he was to co-work with the In- 

 finite Father of Spirits to fit it for His presence and 

 fellowship, just as he co- works with Nature in develop- 

 ing the latent life and faculties of the rose. What 

 distillations of spiritual influence have dropped down 

 out of heaven, through the ages, to help onward this 

 joint work ! What histories of human experience have 

 come in the other direction to the same end ! fraught 

 with the emotions of the human heart, from the first 

 sin and sorrow of Adam to our own griefs, hopes, and 

 joys ; and all so many lessons for the discipline of this 

 high-born nature within us ! 



And yet how slow and almost imperceptible has been 

 the development of this nature ! How gently and 

 gradually the expanding influences, human and divine, 

 have been let in upon its latent faculties ! See with 

 what delicate fostering the petals of love, faith and 

 hope were taught to open, little by little, their hidden 

 life and beauty, taking Moses' history of the process. 

 First, one human being on the earth, surrounded with 

 beasts and birds that could give him no intelligent 

 companionship and no fellow-feeling. Then the beau- 



