When stress becomes toxic, who/what can help children cope better?*

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

the answer is

edwards uses the phrase "o who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! " in order to illustrate that this type of suffering is unimaginable. the word "express" denoted that the state of a suffering soul is required to be described by any person, but it would not happen because no one can imagine how this suffering is felt.  

-show what might happen if the reader disobeys edwards is not correct because this is described trhough the text, not by the phrase used.

-describe what endless suffering looks and feels like is not correct because this description might be the porpuse of the excerpt provided, not the porpuse of using the phrase during the writting.

-prove that few people have survived limitless suffering is not correct because it is implied that the soul of a person is already suffering and doesn't have any way to escape.