“Everything cries out to us that we must renounce.  Thou must go without, go without!  That is the everlasting song which every hour, all our life through, hoarsely sings to us:  Die, and come to life; for so long as this is not accomplished thou art but a troubled guest upon an earth of gloom.”—­Goethe.

CHAPTER II.

Life’s great hearts, and the helpfulness of the higher manhood.

The oases in the Arabian desert lie under the lee of long ridges of rock.  The high cliffs extending from north to south are barriers against the drifting sand.  Standing on the rocky summit the seer Isaiah beheld a sea whose yellow waves stretched to the very horizon.  By day the winds were still, for the pitiless Asiatic sun made the desert a furnace whose air rose upward.  But when night falls the wind rises.  Then the sand begins to drift.  Soon every object lies buried under yellow flakes.  Anon, sandstorms arise.  Then the sole hope for man is to fall upon his face; the sky rains bullets.  Then appears the ministry of the rocks.  They stay the drifting sand.  To the yellow sea they say:  “Thus far, but no farther.”  Desolation is held back.  Soon the land under the lee of the rocks becomes rich.  It is fed by springs that seep out of the cliffs.  It becomes a veritable oasis with figs and olives and vineyards and aromatic shrubs.  Here dwell the sheik and his flocks.  Hither come the caravans seeking refreshment.  In all the Orient no spot so beautiful as the oasis under the shadow of the rocks.  Long centuries ago, while Isaiah rejoiced under the beneficent ministry of these cliffs, his thoughts went out from dead rocks to living men.  In his vision he saw good men as Great Hearts, to whom crowded close the weak and ignorant, seeking protection.  Sheltered thereby barren lives were nourished into bounty and beauty.  With leaping heart and streaming eyes he cried out; “O, what a desert is life but for the ministry of the higher manhood!  To what shall I liken a good man?  A man shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; a shelter in the time of storm!”

Optimists always, we believe God’s world is a good world.  Joy is more than sorrow; happiness outweighs misery; the reasons for living are more numerous than the reasons against it.  But let the candid mind confess that life hath aspects very desert-like.  Today prosperity grows like a fruitful tree; to-morrow adversity’s hot winds wither every leaf.  God plants companion, child, or friend in the life-garden; but death blasts the tree under which the soul finds shelter; then begins the desert pilgrimage.  Soon comes loss of health; then the wealth of Croesus availeth not for refreshing sleep, and the wisdom of Solomon is vanity and vexation of spirit.  The common people, too, know blight and blast; their life is full of mortal toil and strife,