Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/228

 contributes to, the growth of piety in man. To the one lofty aim of true faith and deep piety must be subordinated all the other aims, objects and endeavours of life. Only when the whole heart is possessed with, and the whole soul is absorbed in, the concerns of truth and righteousness, the supreme God blesses us and speeds us in our life-pursuits.

The third lesson conveyed to us by this noble precept is that real religion means eternal endeavour and unlimited progress. In the advancement of our spiritual interests, a halt at any time is fatal. In this holy fight with the powers of the flesh and the world, there can be no truce. The soul's one object is peace, not rest. Eternal progress is man's birth-right. To a really pious soul no degree of progress is sufficient, no stage of growth is final; man's pilgrimage is over a path that is endless ; the sacred temple of his worship has countless shrines, one within another of increasing sanctity. Progress — growth and expansion — 'through the increasing