and pleasure, the race of man has never been content with things as they have been.  As the moon draws the tides by unseen attractions, so by unseen attractions the souls of men have been made dissatisfied, and drawn toward truth and beauty, love and holiness; and this desire for some better country has never been absent.  The passage from Egypt to the promised land is the eternal parable of humanity, which is always getting out of some Egypt, with its slavery and tyranny, and pressing toward some intellectual and spiritual Canaan.  This is one of the most marvelous facts in the history of our race—­its discontent with things as they are, its faith in something better, and the perfect confidence with which it embarks on unknown seas in its search for ampler and fairer worlds.

The history of the past is the record of the weak receiving strength, of the wicked being made uncomfortable in their wickedness, of limited and provincial creatures reaching out to broad and high horizons, of weakness, suffering, agony, willingly endured in the confidence that relief and blessing will come at last, though far off, to all.

Moreover, there is no indication of any cessation of such phenomena.  In these days, when we say that no man should be asked to affirm anything which he cannot verify, voices of warning and entreaty are vivid, the consciousness of protection is distinct, support in trial is frequent, and the evidence that some force, or some person, is steadily leading humanity toward truth and righteousness is as convincing and constant as ever.

What shall be said of these facts which are so numerous and so evident as to make an effort at classification and explanation imperative?

Four answers to this inquiry are possible.  Is the old doctrine of Guardian Angels true?  Possibly we may be, individually, under the care of spiritual beings who are appointed for that service.  That conviction often prevails, although so far as I have observed, not usually in association with perfect sanity.  A man of noble bearing and grave and solemn manner who was talking about using the telephone for trans-Atlantic communication, once declared that all men living now are under the leadership of those who have gone, and that the great of other times are continuing their work through those now on earth.  He added:  “I am confident of my success for I am the representative in these days of Sir Isaac Newton.”  Subsequent events proved that Sir Isaac Newton must have lost most of his common sense since his departure from the earth, or he would have chosen a more rational representative.

This theory in no way solves the problem before us, but rather complicates it, because it does not explain how the relation of souls is adjusted.  That there may be some truth in this speculation may be freely granted.  One text at least appears to give it a little confirmation:  “Are not their angels ministering spirits sent forth to minister to such as shall be the heirs of salvation.”  That seems to teach that some who have never dwelt in earthly bodies are the appointed ministers of those who live on the earth.