nourishment to growing souls, and now its care for activity must be
noted. Since the subject will be discussed more fully in a succeeding
chapter, only the necessity for the nurture will be considered here.
This necessity appears in the four-fold result of activity.

(1) New Experiences.

This is the first result to the child from ceaseless movement of hands
and feet and eager eyes. In early life he is not conscious of seeking
the new experience, he only wants to be in motion. In later life, energy
is definitely put forth for some desired end. But whatever the motive,
experiences helpful or harmful, according to the sort of activity,
result, and they enter character at par value.

(2) Growth or Increase in Size.

Activity is necessary before anything given to the body or the soul can
become a part of life. Food must be acted upon by the digestive,
circulatory and assimilative organs to make it bone and muscle and
nerve. The mind must think upon the fact in order to add it to the store
of knowledge. The heavenly vision must be obeyed before Christian
experience is enlarged by it.

But there is another aspect of this same thought. Just as truly as
activity must precede assimilation, so truly does assimilation follow
activity. It may be stated more simply in this way. Nothing can become a
part of the life until it has been acted upon; when it has been acted
upon it can not be taken out of the life. When digestion is finished and
the food is bone and muscle, it can not be withdrawn. When the idea has
been thought in or acted upon, it has by that process become a part of