It would be interesting to know how many there are who appreciate the fact that we are all helping to make history, and how many estimate in my degree their obligation to posterity. While it is true that we stand "In the foremost ranks of time," we should never forget that eternity stretches out before us with glorious possibilities for the unfoldment of man's divinely bestowed capacities.
In the vista of the past we behold the heroic characters who helped to determine the events of their day, and who thus made posterity their debtor. In no case do we find that any important step was taken, any great advance made save as the result of a mighty struggle between good and evil,—Mind and materiality. We also discover that few, if any, among those who strove to better human conditions, foresaw the price they would have to pay for that which they sought; otherwise, surely not many would have endured "unto the end." In most cases, too, results must have been sadly disappointing, so far as they were measured by the outward evidences.
Reformers have almost invariably suffered from entire misapprehension of their motives and actions; from ingratitude and betrayal. They have often been hindered and thwarted by those who should have been their best helpers, but in spite of this,—in spite of all that happened or could happen,—the world has moved toward the final goal, thus proving that God reigns, and all is well. The grand lesson to be learned, however, is that the final result of all these struggles far exceeds the hopes of the noblest and best, unless their vision pioreed the heavy clouds of material conditions, and embraced that which God ever beholds,—the triumph of right.
