The Prosperity of the Soul.
[We believe the following article contains much of practical and vital truth. The reader will please understand by the term soul, the affections and intellectual faculties of man.] We very naturally reason concerning the soul and its inner life by analogies of outward things. The very words we employ to describe the soul's actions and conditions, have been borrowed from the service of expressing what we look upon as analogous things in the material world. Thus the Apostle John, writing to one whose name was in high honor with the primitive church—"the well-beloved Gaius"—makes use of the same word to express the welfare of the outward life and that of the soul: "I wish, above all things, that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." Among the elements of the soul's prosperity, we should name, first, returning health. While the soul is held under the power of sin, with all its faculties and forces disordered and corrupted by evil passion and ungodliness, prosperity is impossible. No matter how much the soul may be drinking of earthly pleasure, or how much it may be cultivating and indulging its tastes, appreciating all that is glorious in literature or exquisite in art; no matter how earnestly it may be pressing onward in the paths of science, or exulting in the discovery of hidden truths—all these can no more give prosperity to a soul from which the malady of sin has not loosened its grasp, than a miser tortured with bodily pain can find prosperity in the abundance of his gold. But when the soul's health, through the kind ministrations of God's truth and grace, is coming back; when the fever of evil passion is broken, and the powers and faculties are returning to the healthy and orderly action for which they were designed; when it is coming out of the darkness and malaria that have been generated around it by a life of sin, to see the light of the Gospel, and to breathe its pure and healing air—then we say, and justly, "The soul prospereth." The welfare of the spirit of man implies also a complete and symmetrical development of Christian virtues. It is often hindered by a distorted, one-sided growth of character. Christians often cultivate some one virtue, or some one manifestation of religious feeling, to the neglect of all the rest; so that it is not an uncommon thing to see a Christian whose zeal is altogether beyond his knowledge, or one whose devotions are out of all proportion to his charity; or one who is fluent in religious talk, and fertile in religious experiences, but destitute of the spirit of good-will to men; or one who is liberal of his gifts, but hard, unscrupulous, dishonorable, even dishonest in his gains. In all such cases we cannot say that the soul is prosperous, any more than the body is healthy and well developed when the strength that should have been distributed through all its members is concentrated in one, or when a part of it has grown into an enormous and unsightly wen, stealing life and nourishment away from all the rest. Every virtue—faith, hope, charity—must be increasing with a symmetrical and proportionate growth in order that the soul may really prosper. The soul itself must be expanding under the teaching of Christ—taking wider and more comprehensive views of the truth; coming into relations of more perfect sympathy with Christ himself; bringing all its faculties into active exercise in obedience to the commands of Christ, and in beneficent toil for mankind under his inspiration. It must be advancing in all that constitutes a Christian—knowledge, faith, obedience, principle, joy, peace, usefulness, purity. For it should never be forgotten that, with the soul, there can be no prosperity without progress. This is inevitable from the very imperfection of its present state. If spiritual life is stagnant, the forces of evil that are gathered thick around the soul are not idle, and cannot be defeated by a merely passive resistance. Only to the Christian who is growing stronger and more active in the face of the foe; who is driving back from his lines the armies of sin, and occupying, with principles and deeds of righteousness, the strong positions from which they are expelled—only to him whose faith and love are increasing, and whose path is "shining more and more unto the perfect day," can it be truly said, "Thy soul prospereth." The rules for the attainment of spiritual prosperity are substantially the same as an upright and successful man of business would give. There must be an intelligent and earnest purpose to secure the result—the raising of the soul out of death and ruin into a state of righteousness and life. There must be diligence and perseverance in carrying out this purpose. There must be constant attention to little things. The soul as well as the mercantile establishment often makes a failure solely through its neglect of these. There must be a reliance upon one's daily, regular, habitual work, rather than a looking for sudden and unexpected gains. It is not what the soul does occasionally under great pressure, nor what it learns or receives at rare intervals, that sets it forward in true prosperity and life, so much as what it does from abiding principles and from a controlling purpose of life daily pursued. There must be a careful use of the means and agencies which God has provided for the culture of the soul, and of the aid which he has promised to every one that seeks it. And finally, there must be common sense—which is worth as much in securing the soul's prosperity as it is in making a fortune.—Independent.