December 4th. In the natural world we absorb heat, breathe air, draw on
Environment all but automatically for meat and drink, for the nourishment
of the senses, for mental stimulus, for all that, penetrating us from
without, can prolong, enrich, and elevate life. But in the spiritual
world we have all this to learn. We are new creatures, and even the bare
living has to be acquired. Natural Law, p. 267.

December 5th. The great point in learning to live the spiritual life is
to live naturally. As closely as possible we must follow the broad, clear
lines of the natural life. And there are three things especially which it
is necessary for us to keep continually in view. The first is that the
organism contains within itself only one-half of what is essential to
life; the second is that the other half is contained in the Environment;
the third, that the condition of receptivity is simple union between the
organism and the Environment. Natural Law, p. 268.

December 6th. To say that the organism contains within itself only
one-half of what is essential to life, is to repeat the evangelical
confession, so worn and yet so true to universal experience, of the utter
helplessness of man. Natural Law, p. 268.

December 7th. Who has not come to the conclusion that he is but a part, a
fraction of some larger whole? Who does not miss at every turn of his
life an absent God? That man is but a part, he knows, for there is room
in him for more. That God is the other part, he feels, because at times
He satisfies his need. Who does not tremble often under that sicklier
symptom of his incompleteness, his want of spiritual energy, his
helplessness with sin? But now he understands both--the void in his life,
the powerlessness of his will. He understands that, like all other
energy, spiritual power is contained in Environment. He finds here at