them, look at them with eyes prejudiced with fear, and the least
difficulties rise like mountains. In winter some people worry
themselves into malaria over the mosquitoes they may meet next summer.

Mistaken ideas of religion are responsible for a great many of the
unnecessary wrinkles on the human face. Too many have thought it would
be impossible to be happy in two worlds, and so, having elected
happiness in the one which they thought would last longest, they have
no choice but to be unhappy in this one. In fact, some seem to suppose
that the greater their misery here the more intense will their bliss be
there. If heaven is to be bought that way certainly many are paying
full price for it.

Burdens we all must bear; but they need not break us. Sorrows we all
must share; but they need not unmake us. They will not if we have
learned the Teacher's secret of living; He, the man of sorrows, was the
man who could bequeath to His friends His joy. To Him life lost its
anxiety, because the chief things of life were not food or raiment, or
even social standing, but manhood and unselfishness to men, and the
possibilities of these were as easily realized in need and adversity as
in riches and prosperity.




V

The Curriculum of Character

_The Great School_