give you rest"? Ah no, sweet soul. I know your words are true. I know
that what we all want is inward rest; rest of heart and brain; the calm,
strong, self-contained, self-denying character; which needs no
stimulants, for it has no fits of depression; which needs no narcotics,
for it has no fits of excitement; which needs no ascetic restraints, for
it is strong enough to use God's gifts without abusing them; the
character, in a word, which is truly temperate, not in drink or food
merely, but in all desires, thoughts, and actions; freed from the wild
lusts and ambitions to which that old Adam yielded, and, seeking for
light and life by means forbidden, found thereby disease and death. Yes;
I know that; and know, too, that that rest is found, only where you have
already found it.

And yet: in such a world as this; governed by a Being who has made
sunshine, and flowers, and green grass, and the song of birds, and happy
human smiles; and who would educate by them--if we would let Him--His
human children from the cradle to the grave; in such a world as this,
will you grudge any particle of that education, even any harmless
substitute for it, to those spirits in prison, whose surroundings too
often tempt them, from the cradle to the grave, to fancy that the world
is composed of bricks and iron, and governed by inspectors and policemen?
Preach to those spirits in prison, as you know far better than we parsons
how to preach: but let them have besides some glimpses of the splendid
fact, that outside their prison-house is a world which God, not man, has
made; wherein grows everywhere that tree of knowledge which is likewise
the tree of life; and that they have a right to some small share of its
beauty, and its wonder, and its rest, for their own health of soul and
body, and for the health of their children after them.