Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/213

 up the mountain while others were reposing in bowers of ease.

No: Eminence in any art or profession was never achieved in any other way than through the individual's own voluntary and persevering efforts;—through the patient learning and faithful application of the rules of that art or profession.

And so we may say, men are born into the kingdom of heaven—that is, born saints or angels, in the same way that they are born artists, mechanics, scholars, statesmen. For they inherit naturally the capacity or aptitude for each of these; and some have by inheritance a larger capacity or aptitude than others. But they become neither the one nor the other without personal effort and much self-imposed labor;—without first learning certain principles or laws, and then reducing these laws to practice.

Take, for illustration, the accomplished musician. How has he become such? He inherited the talent or aptitude for music, just as we all have inherited the capability of becoming angels. He has the musical talent while yet a child—but undeveloped. And so we may say the musician is there in potency. But as yet he is in embryo. The individual is all unconscious of his latent powers:—as unconscious of the sweet entrancing delights which the music now wrapped up and hidden within him will one day produce, as an infant before birth is unconscious of its yet latent capabilities, or of the joys