And this intuition is one which many of us do not doubt, though it
is a principle, which cannot be scientifically proved. Indeed, it
is incontestable that, though we believe the will of God to be on
the side of what is good, yet He puts many obstacles, or permits
them to be put, in the, way of the man who desires to act rightly.

The only way, I believe, in this last region, in which we can hope
to improve, to win victories, is the way of a quiet and sincere
submission. It is easy to submit to the Will of God when it sends
us joy and peace, when it makes us courageous, high-hearted, and
just. The difficulty is to acquiesce when He sends us adversity,
ill-health, suffering; when He permits us to sin, or if that is a
faithless phrase, does not grant us strength to resist. But we must
try to be patient, we must try to interpret the value of suffering,
the meaning of failure, the significance of shame. Perhaps it may
be urged that this too is a temptation of egotism in another guise,
and that we grow thus to conceive of ourselves as filling too large
a space in the mind of God. But unless we do this, we can only
conceive of ourselves as the victims of God's inattention or
neglect, which is a wholly despairing thought.

In one sense we must be egotistic, if self-knowledge is egotism. We
must try to take the measure of our faculties, and we must try to
use them. But while we must wisely humiliate ourselves before the
majesty of God, the vast and profound scheme of the Universe, we
must at the same time believe that we have our place and our work;
that God indeed purposely set us where we find ourselves; and among
the complicated difficulties of sense, of temptation, of
unhappiness, of failure, we must try to fix our eyes humbly and
faithfully upon the best, and seek to be worthy of it. We must try