This is why "without Me ye can do nothing." Powerlessness is the normal
state, not only of this, but of every organism--of every organism apart
from its Environment. Natural Law, p. 268.

July 21st. Friendship is the nearest thing we know to what religion is.
God is love. And to make religion akin to Friendship is simply to give it
the highest expression conceivable by man. The Changed Life, p. 49.

July 22d. The entire dependence of the soul upon God is not an
exceptional mystery, nor is man's helplessness an arbitrary and
unprecedented phenomenon. It is the law of all Nature. The spiritual man
is not taxed beyond the natural. He is not purposely handicapped by
singular limitations or unusual incapacities. God has not designedly made
the religious life as hard as possible. The arrangements for the
spiritual life are the same as for the natural life. When, in their hours
of unbelief, men challenge their Creator for placing the obstacle of
human frailty in the way of their highest development, their protest is
against the order of Nature. Natural Law, p. 269.

July 23d. The organism must either depend on his environment, or be
self-sufficient. But who will not rather approve the arrangement by which
man in his creatural life may have unbroken access to an Infinite Power?
What soul will seek to remain self-luminous when it knows that "The Lord
God is a Sun?" Who will not willingly exchange his shallow vessel for
Christ's well of living water. Natural Law, p. 270.

July 24th. The New Testament is nowhere more impressive than where it
insists on the fact of man's dependence. In its view the first step in
religion is for man to feel his helplessness. Christ's first beatitude is
to the poor in spirit. The condition of entrance into the spiritual