I shall have to lead up to this gateway by a very familiar path.
But as this path is strangely unfrequented where it passes into
the religious sphere, I must ask your forbearance for dwelling for
a moment upon the commonest of commonplaces.

I. Effects Require Causes

Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God
of order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and
never at random. the world, even the religious world, is governed
by law. Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by
law. The Christian experiences are governed by law. Men, forgetting
this, expect Rest, Joy, Peace, Faith to drop into their souls from
the air like snow or rain. But in point of fact they do not do so;
and if they did, they would no less have their origin in previous
activities and be controlled by natural laws. Rain and snow do
drop from the air, but not without a long previous history. They
are the mature effects of former causes. Equally so are Rest and
Peace and Joy. They, too, have each a previous history. Storms and
winds and calms are not accidents, but brought about by antecedent
circumstances. Rest and Peace are but calms in man's inward nature,
and arise through causes as definite and as inevitable.

Realize it thoroughly; it is a methodical, not an accidental world.
If a housewife turns out a good cake, it is the result of a sound
receipt, carefully applied. She cannot mix the assigned ingredients
and fire them for the appropriate time without producing the
result. It is not she who has made the cake; it is nature. She
brings related things together; sets causes at work; these causes
bring about the result. she is not a creator, but an intermediary.