Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/212

 penalty linked with transgression as effects are linked with causes.

But that higher life of the soul which those come into who escape hell—the life which we call heavenly—the life which allies us to God and the angels—that which the Scripture calls "eternal life," whose very breath is that unselfish love enjoined by the two great commandments—that life has to be begotten, formed, developed, born in us, generally after the corporeal life has reached maturity. This is the new birth—the birth into a higher, even the heavenly state—to which our Lord has reference when He says: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

How does this new birth of the soul take place? or how is this higher life developed and matured? In the same way that art-life, mechanical ingenuity, industrial skill, oratorical or mathematical power, is developed and perfected. Each follows as the normal result of self-compelled obedience to certain principles or laws.

Ask those who have attained a proud distinction as poets, artists, mechanics, scholars, statesmen, how they won their lofty eminence. And they will tell you that, under God, they are indebted mainly to their own persistent efforts;—to their ceaseless study, their tireless industry, their resolute struggles, their unflinching perseverance, their unremitting toil. They labored while others lounged. They studied while others slept. They were busy while others were idle. They were climbing