A STIMULUS TO PERSONAL

PROGRESS and DEVELOPMENT

BY

JAMES I VANCE, D.D.

Author of "Royal Manhood," "The Young Man Four-
Square," "The College of Apostles,"
"Church Portals," etc.

Copyright 1902
by

FLEMING H, REVELL COMPANY
(June)

011-22-39 J.A..

Sometimes the soul climbs slowly, and three score years and ten are spent upon the altar stairs. Sometimes the climb is swifter than the light, and steps which outrun the flight of angel wings, leave baby foot-prints on the altar stairs.

To the Demory of a Little Pilgrim
Whose flight was from the cradle to the glory,
whose tiny grave is under Southern suns, and
whose baby hands beckon us

to the Summit, the book
is dedicated.

How does the soul grow? Not all in a minute;
Now it may lose ground, and now it may win it;
Now it resolves, and again the will faileth;
Now it rejoiceth, and now it bewaileth;
Now its hopes fructify, then they are blighted;
Now it walks suddenly, now gropes benighted;
Fed by discouragements, taught by disaster;
So it goes forward, now slower, now faster;
Till, all the pain past, and failure made whole,
It is full-grown, and the Lord rules the soul."

SUSAN COOLIDGE.

ONF. Butler 11-21-39

FOREWORD

GOETHE calls life "the childhood of immortality," and David calls eternal life the immortality of youth.

The German singer does not contradict the Hebrew bard. Both poets are prophets of the soul's growth and development.

It is this thought, which Goethe and David have in common, and whose message is the true gospel of human greatness, that measures itself into the chapters which follow.

The writer's attempt is to tell the story of the rise of a soul in the four experiences of "Vision," Shadows," "Ascent," and "Summit."

66

The first division is concerned with the prospect of the soul's possible greatness; the second with the things which obscure the prospect; the third with the steps and helps by which the upward climb is made; and the fourth with the goal and its abiding value.

The fundamental law throughout is, that souldevelopment is neither accidental nor mechanical, but organic and rational. The enabling force by which growth is achieved is divine energy imparted through Jesus Christ and his Spirit to