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 are 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. She does not expect random causes to
produce specific effects--random ingredients would only produce random
cakes. So it is in the making of Christian experiences. Certain lines
are followed; certain effects are the result. These effects cannot but
be the result. But the result can never take place without the previous
cause. To expect results without antecedents is to expect cakes without
ingredients. That impossibility is precisely the almost universal
expectation.

Now what I mainly wish to do is to help you firmly to grasp this simple
principle of Cause and Effect in the spiritual world. And instead of
applying the principle generally to each of the Christian experiences in
turn, I shall examine its application to one in some little detail.
The one I shall select is Rest. And I think any one who follows the