Physical pain beyond a certain point ceases to be pain and becomes an ecstasy. The same beneficent law controls mental and spiritual agonies. They each have their limit. To the keenest of sorrows, the deepest of griefs our Maker has spoken: "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." Nurse them as we may, draw them as deeply as we can into our soul's recesses, and make them, in our morbid states, idols to cherish, they yet lose their power to hold our souls in subjection.

Both physically and mentally, the nerves of feeling refuse to respond. They have their limitation, and time holds for every heart-breaking experience a consolation. If it were not so, this world would be turned into a vast, howling lunatic asylum. Unseen and unrecognized by stricken hearts, "The Angels of His, who do His pleasure" stand ever ready to pour healing balm upon all our wounds, and to teach the great, eternal truth that afflictions are the real educators of the soul.