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Prosperity has never enriched the world as adversity has done. The best thoughts, the richest lessons, the sweetest songs that have come down to us from the past have not come from the minds and hearts of those who have known no privation, no suffering, no adversity, but are the fruit of pain, of weakness, of trial. Men have cried out for emancipation from the bondage of hardship, of sickness, of infirmity, of self denying necessity, not knowing that the thing which seemed to be hindering them in their career was the very making of whatever was noble, beautiful, and blessed in their life. The cost of all truly helpful life is pain. We must not forget that redemption and heaven come to be ours only through the cross of the Son of God. In all life, the sweetest comforts and the richest blessings come to us at the cost of suffering and tears in those who went before us. The fruit of earth’s “thorns” seems bitter to the taste, but it is the wholesome food of human souls.