IN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE

or

Fullness of Peace, Power, and Plenty

by

RALPH WALDO TRINE

Author of "What All the World's A-Seeking, " "The Greatest Thing Ever Known, " "Every Living Creature. "

 _Within yourself lies the cause of whatever enters into your life. To come into the full realization of your own awakened interior powers, is to be able to condition your life in exact accord with what you would have it. _

Seventy-Seventh Thousandin England and America

LondonGeorge Bell & Sons1903

First English Edition, Dec. 1899Reprinted April and October 1900February and June 1901; April 1902; January 1903

PREFACE. 

There is a golden thread that runs through every religion in the world. There is a golden thread that runs through the lives and the teachingsof all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in the world's history, through the lives of all men and women of truly great and lastingpower. All that they have ever done or attained to has been done infull accordance with law. What one has done, all may do. 

This same golden thread must enter into the lives of all who today, inthis busy work-a-day world of ours, would exchange impotence for power, weakness and suffering for abounding health and strength, pain andunrest for perfect peace, poverty of whatever nature for fullness andplenty. 

Each is building his own world. We both build from within and weattract from without. Thought is the force with which we build, forthoughts are forces. Like builds like and like attracts like. In thedegree that thought is spiritualized does it become more subtle andpowerful in its workings. This spiritualizing is in accordance withlaw and is within the power of all. 

Everything is first worked out in the unseen before it is manifested inthe seen, in the ideal before it is realized in the real, in thespiritual before it shows forth in the material. The realm of theunseen is the realm of cause. The realm of the seen is the realm ofeffect. The nature of effect is always determined and conditioned bythe nature of its cause. 

To point out the great facts in connection with, and the great lawsunderlying the workings of the interior, spiritual, thought forces, topoint them out so simply and so clearly that even a child canunderstand, is the author's aim. To point them out so simply and soclearly that all can grasp them, that all can take them and infuse theminto every-day life, so as to mould it in all its details in accordancewith what they would have it, is his purpose. That life can be thusmoulded by them is not a matter of mere speculation or theory with him, but a matter of positive knowledge. 

There is a divine sequence running throughout the universe. Within andabove and below the human will incessantly works the Divine will. Tocome into harmony with it and thereby with all the higher laws andforces, to come then into league and to work in conjunction with them, in order that they can work in league and in conjunction with us, is tocome into the chain of this wonderful sequence. This is the secret ofall success. This is to come into the possession of unknown riches, into the realization of undreamed-of powers. 

R. W. T. 

CONTENTS. 

 I. PRELUDE II. THE SUPREME FACT OF THE UNIVERSE III. THE SUPREME FACT OF HUMAN LIFE IV. FULLNESS OF LIFE--BODILY HEALTH AND VIGOR V. THE SECRET, POWER, AND EFFECTS OF LOVE VI. WISDOM AND INTERIOR ILLUMINATION VII. THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE VIII. COMING INTO FULLNESS OF POWER IX. PLENTY OF ALL THINGS--THE LAW OF PROSPERITY X. HOW MEN HAVE BECOME PROPHETS, SEERS, SAGES, AND SAVIOURS XI. THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS--THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION XII. ENTERING NOW INTO THE REALIZATION OF THE HIGHEST RICHES

FULLNESS OF PEACE, POWER, AND PLENTY. 

PRELUDE. 

The optimist is right. The pessimist is right. The one differs fromthe other as the light from the dark. Yet both are right. Each isright from his own particular point of view, and this point of view isthe determining factor in the life of each. It determines as towhether it is a life of power or of impotence, of peace or of pain, ofsuccess or of failure. 

The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and intheir right relations. The pessimist looks from a limited and aone-sided point of view. The one has his understanding illumined bywisdom, the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance. Eachis building his world from within, and the result of the building isdetermined by the point of view of each. The optimist, by his superiorwisdom and insight, is making his own heaven, and in the degree that hemakes his own heaven is he helping to make one for all the worldbeside. The pessimist, by virtue of his limitations, is making his ownhell, and in the degree that he makes his own hell is he helping tomake one for all mankind. 

You and I have the predominating characteristics of an optimist or thepredominating characteristics of a pessimist. We then are making, hourby hour, our own heaven or our own hell; and in the degree that we aremaking the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it forall the world beside. 

The word heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the old English_hell_, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be _helled_ wasto be shut off from. Now if there is such a thing as harmony theremust be that something one can be in right relations with; for to be inright relations with anything is to be in harmony with it. Again, ifthere is such a thing as being _helled_, shut off, separated from, there must be that something from which one is held, shut off, orseparated. 

THE SUPREME FACT OF THE UNIVERSE. 

The great central fact of the universe is that Spirit of Infinite Lifeand Power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itselfin and through all; that self-existent principle of life from which allhas come, and not only from which all has come, but from which all iscontinually coming. If there is an individual life, there must ofnecessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes. If thereis a quality or a force of love, there must of necessity be an infinitesource of love whence it comes. If there is wisdom, there must be theall-wise source behind it from which it springs. The same is true inregard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard towhat we call material things. 

There is, then, this Spirit of Infinite Life and Power behind all whichis the source of all. This Infinite Power is creating, working, rulingthrough the agency of great immutable laws and forces that run throughall the universe, that surround us on every side. Every act of ourevery-day lives is governed by these same great laws and forces. Everyflower that blooms by the wayside, springs up, grows, blooms, fades, according to certain great immutable laws. Every snowflake that playsbetween earth and heaven, forms, falls, melts, according to certaingreat unchangeable laws. 

In a sense there is nothing in all the great universe but law. If thisis true there must of necessity be a force behind it all that is themaker of these laws and a force greater than the laws that are made. This Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all is what Icall God. I care not what term you may use, be it Kindly Light, Providence, the Over Soul, Omnipotence, or whatever term may be mostconvenient. I care not what the term may be as long as we are agreedin regard to the great central fact itself. 

God, then, is this Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe withHimself alone, so that all is from Him and in Him, and there is nothingthat is outside. Indeed and in truth, then, in Him we live and moveand have our being. He is the life of our life, our very life itself. We have received, we are continually receiving our life from Him. Weare partakers of the life of God; and though we differ from Him in thatwe are individualized spirits, while He is the Infinite Spiritincluding us as well as all else beside, _yet in essence the life ofGod and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one_. They differ not in essence, in quality; they differ in degree. 

There have been and are highly illumined souls who believe that wereceive our life from God after the manner of a divine inflow. Andagain, there have been and are those who believe that our life is onewith the life of God, and so that God and man are one. Which is right?Both are right; both right when rightly understood. 

In regard to the first: if God is the Infinite Spirit of Life behindall, whence all comes, then clearly our life as individualized spiritsis continually coming from this Infinite Source by means of this divineinflow. In the second place, if our lives as individualized spiritsare directly from, are parts of this Infinite Spirit of Life, then thedegree of the Infinite Spirit that is manifested in the life of eachmust be identical in quality with that Source, the same as a drop ofwater taken from the ocean is, in nature, in characteristics, identicalwith that ocean, its source. And how could it be otherwise? Theliability to misunderstanding in this latter case, however, is this: inthat although the life of God and the life of man in essence areidentically the same, the life of God so far transcends the life ofindividual man that it includes all else beside. In other words, sofar as the quality of life is concerned, in essence they are the same;so far as the degree of life is concerned, they are vastly different. 

In this light is it not then evident that both conceptions are true?and more, that they are one and the same? Both conceptions may betypified by one and the same illustration. 

There is a reservoir in a valley which receives its supply from aninexhaustible reservoir on the mountain side. It is then true that thereservoir in the valley receives its supply by virtue of the inflow ofthe water from the larger reservoir on the mountain side. It is alsotrue that the water in this smaller reservoir is in nature, in quality, in characteristics identically the same as that in the larger reservoirwhich is its source. The difference, however, is this: the reservoiron the mountain side, in the _amount_ of its water, so far transcendsthe reservoir in the valley that it can supply an innumerable number oflike reservoirs and still be unexhausted. 

And so in the life of man. If, as I think we have already agreed, however we may differ in regard to anything else, there is thisInfinite Spirit of Life behind all, the life of all, and so, from whichall comes, then the life of individual man, your life and mine, mustcome by a divine inflow from this Infinite Source. And if this istrue, then the life that comes by this inflow to man is necessarily thesame in essence as is this Infinite Spirit of Life. There is adifference. It is not a difference in essence. It is a difference indegree. 

If this is true, does it not then follow that in the degree that manopens himself to this divine inflow does he approach to God? If so, itthen necessarily follows that in the degree that he makes this approachdoes he take on the God-powers. And if the God-powers are withoutlimit, does it not then follow that the only limitations man has arethe limitations he sets to himself, by virtue of not knowing himself?

THE SUPREME FACT OF HUMAN LIFE. 

From the great central fact of the universe in regard to which we haveagreed, namely, this Spirit of Infinite Life that is behind all andfrom which all comes, we are led to inquire as to what is the greatcentral fact in human life. From what has gone before, the questionalmost answers itself. 

_The great central fact in human life, in your life and in mine, is thecoming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with thisInfinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divineinflow_. This is the great central fact in human life, for in this allelse is included, all else follows in its train. In just the degreethat we come into a conscious realization of our oneness with theInfinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do weactualize in ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life. 

And what does this mean? It means simply this: that we are recognizingour true identity, that we are bringing our lives into harmony with thesame great laws and forces, and so opening ourselves to the same greatinspirations, as have all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours inthe world's history, all men of truly great and mighty power. For inthe degree that we come into this realization and connect ourselveswith this Infinite Source, do we make it possible for the higher powersto play, to work, to manifest through us. 

We can keep closed to this divine inflow, to these higher forces andpowers, through ignorance, as most of us do, and thus hinder or evenprevent their manifesting through us. Or we can intentionally closeourselves to their operations and thus deprive ourselves of the powersto which, by the very nature of our being, we are rightful heirs. Onthe other hand, we can come into so vital a realization of the onenessof our real selves with this Infinite Life, and can open ourselves sofully to the incoming of this divine inflow, and so to the operation ofthese higher forces, inspirations, and powers, that we can indeed andin truth become what we may well term, God-men. 

And what is a God-man? One in whom the powers of God are manifesting, though yet a man. No one can set limitations to a man or a woman ofthis type; for the only limitations he or she can have are those set bythe self. Ignorance is the most potent factor in setting limitationsto the majority of mankind; and so the great majority of peoplecontinue to live their little, dwarfed, and stunted lives simply byvirtue of the fact that they do not realize the larger life to whichthey are heirs. They have never as yet come into a knowledge of thereal identity of their true selves. 

Mankind has not yet realized that the real self is one with the life ofGod. Through its ignorance it has never yet opened itself to thedivine inflow, and so has never made itself a channel through which theinfinite powers and forces can manifest. When we know ourselves merelyas men, we live accordingly, and have merely the powers of men. Whenwe come into the realization of the fact that we are God-men, thenagain we live accordingly, and have the powers of God-men. _In thedegree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow are we changed frommere men into God-men_. 

A friend has a beautiful lotus pond. A natural basin on hisestate--his farm as he always calls it--is supplied with water from areservoir in the foothills some distance away. A gate regulates theflow of the water from the main that conducts it from the reservoir tothe pond. It is a spot of transcendent beauty. There, through thedays of the perfect summer weather, the lotus flowers lie full blownupon the surface of the clear, transparent water. The June roses andother wild flowers are continually blooming upon its banks. The birdscome here to drink and to bathe, and from early until late one can hearthe melody of their song. The bees are continually at work in thisgarden of wild flowers. A beautiful grove, in which many kinds of wildberries and many varieties of brakes and ferns grow, stretches back ofthe pond as far as the eye can reach. 

Our friend is a man, nay more, a God-man, a lover of his kind, and as aconsequence no notice bearing such words as "Private grounds, notrespassing allowed, " or "Trespassers will be prosecuted, " stands onhis estate. But at the end of a beautiful by-way that leads throughthe wildwood up to this enchanting spot, stands a notice bearing thewords "All are welcome to the Lotus Pond. " All love our friend. Why?They can't help it. He so loves them, and what is his is theirs. 

Here one may often find merry groups of children at play. Here manytimes tired and weary looking men and women come, and somehow, whenthey go their faces wear a different expression, --the burden seems tobe lifted; and now and then I have heard them when leaving, sometimesin a faint murmur, as if uttering a benediction, say, "God bless ourbrother-friend. " Many speak of this spot as the Garden of God. Myfriend calls it his Soul Garden, and he spends many hours in quiethere. Often have I seen him after the others have gone, walking to andfro, or sitting quietly in the clear moonlight on an old rustic bench, drinking in the perfume of the wild flowers. He is a man of abeautifully simple nature. He says that here the real things of lifecome to him, and that here his greatest and most successful plans, manytimes as by a flash of inspiration, suggest themselves to him. 

Everything in the immediate vicinity seems to breathe a spirit ofkindliness, comfort, good-will, and good cheer. The very cattle andsheep as they come to the old stone-fence at the edge of the grove andlook across to this beautiful spot seem, indeed, to get the sameenjoyment that the people are getting. They seem almost to smile inthe realization of their contentment and enjoyment; or perhaps it seemsso to the looker-on, because he can scarcely help smiling as he seesthe manifested evidence of their contentment and pleasure. 

The gate of the pond is always open wide enough to admit a supply ofwater so abundant that it continually overflows a quantity sufficientto feed a stream that runs through the fields below, giving the puremountain water in drink to the cattle and flocks that are grazingthere. The stream then flows on through the neighbors' fields. 

Not long ago our friend was absent for a year. He rented his estateduring his absence to a man who, as the world goes, was of a very"practical" turn of mind. He had no time for anything that did notbring him direct "practical" returns. The gate connecting thereservoir with the lotus pond was shut down, and no longer had thecrystal mountain water the opportunity to feed and overflow it. Thenotice of our friend, "All are welcome to the Lotus Pond, " was removed, and no longer were the gay companies of children and of men and womenseen at the pond. A great change came over everything. On account ofthe lack of the life-giving water the flowers in the pond wilted, andtheir long stems lay stretched upon the mud in the bottom. The fishthat formerly swam in its clear water soon died and gave an offensiveodor to all who came near. The flowers no longer bloomed on its banks. The birds no longer came to drink and to bathe. No longer was heardthe hum of the bees; and more, the stream that ran through the fieldsbelow dried up, so that the cattle and the flocks no longer got theirsupply of clear mountain water. 

The difference between the spot now and the lotus pond when our friendgave it his careful attention was caused, as we readily see, by theshutting of the gate to the pond, thus preventing the water from thereservoir in the hills which was the source of its life, from enteringit. And when this, the source of its life, was shut off, not only wasthe appearance of the lotus pond entirely changed, but the surroundingfields were deprived of the stream to whose banks the flocks and cattlecame for drink. 

In this do we not see a complete parallel so far as human life isconcerned? In the degree that we recognize our oneness, our connectionwith the Infinite Spirit which is the life of all, and in the degreethat we open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into harmonywith the highest, the most powerful, and the most beautiful everywhere. And in the degree that we do this do we overflow, so that all who comein contact with us receive the effects of this realization on our part. This is the lotus pond of our friend, he who is in love with all thatis truest and best in the universe. And in the degree that we fail torecognize our oneness with this Infinite Source, and so close, shutourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into that state where thereseems to be with us nothing of good, nothing of beauty, nothing ofpower; and when this is true, those who come in contact with us receivenot good, but harm. This is the spot of the lotus pond while the farmwas in the hands of a renter. 

There is this difference between the lotus pond and your life and mine. It has no power in itself of opening the gate to the inflow of thewater from the reservoir which is its source. In regard to this it ishelpless and dependent upon an outside agency. You and I have thepower, the power within us, to open or to close ourselves to thisdivine inflow exactly as we choose. This we have through the power ofmind, through the operation of thought. 

There is the soul life, direct from God. This it is that relates us tothe Infinite. There is, then, the physical life. This it is thatrelates us to the material universe about us. The thought lifeconnects the one with the other. It is this that plays between the two. 

Before we proceed farther let us consider very briefly the nature ofthought. Thought is not, as is many times supposed, a mere indefiniteabstraction, or something of a like nature. It is, on the contrary, avital, living force, the most vital, subtle, and irresistible forcethere is in the universe. 

In our very laboratory experiments we are demonstrating the great factthat thoughts are forces. They have form, and quality, and substance, and power, and we are beginning to find that there is what we may terma _science of thought_. We are beginning also to find that through theinstrumentality of our thought forces we have creative power, notmerely in a figurative sense, but creative power in reality. 

Everything in the material universe about us, everything the universehas ever known, had its origin first in thought. From this it took itsform. Every castle, every statue, every painting, every piece ofmechanism, everything had its birth, its origin, first in the mind ofthe one who formed it before it received its material expression orembodiment. The very universe in which we live is the result of thethought energies of God, the Infinite Spirit that is back of all. Andif it is true, as we have found, that we in our true selves are inessence the same, and in this sense are one with the life of thisInfinite Spirit, do we not then see that in the degree that we comeinto a vital realization of this stupendous fact, _we, through theoperation of our interior, spiritual, thought forces, have in likesense creative power_?

Everything exists in the unseen before it is manifested or realized inthe seen, and in this sense it is true that the unseen things are thereal, while the things that are seen are the unreal. The unseen thingsare _cause_; the seen things are _effect_. The unseen things are theeternal; the seen things are the changing, the transient. 

The "_power of the word_" is a literal scientific fact. Through theoperation of our thought forces we have creative power. The spokenword is nothing more nor less than the outward expression of theworkings of these interior forces. The spoken word is then, in asense, the means whereby the thought forces are focused and directedalong any particular line; and this concentration, this giving themdirection, is necessary before any outward or material manifestation oftheir power can become evident. 

Much is said in regard to "building castles in the air, " and one who isgiven to this building is not always looked upon with favor. Butcastles in the air are always necessary before we can have castles onthe ground, before we can have castles in which to live. The troublewith the one who gives himself to building castles in the air is notthat he builds them in the air, but that he does not go farther andactualize in life, in character, in material form, the castles he thusbuilds. He does a part of the work, a very necessary part; but anotherequally necessary part remains still undone. 

There is in connection with the thought forces what we may term, thedrawing power of mind, and the great law operating here is one withthat great law of the universe, that like attracts like. We arecontinually attracting to us from both the seen and the unseen side oflife, forces and conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts. 

This law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it ornot. We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought, andthe very atmosphere around us is continually filled with the thoughtforces that are being continually sent or that are continually goingout in the form of thought waves. We are all affected, more or less, by these thought forces, either consciously or unconsciously; and inthe degree that we are more or less sensitively organized, or in thedegree that we are negative and so are open to outside influences, rather than positive, thus determining what influences shall enter intoour realm of thought, and hence into our lives. 

There are those among us who are much more sensitively organized thanothers. As an organism their bodies are more finely, more sensitivelyconstructed. These, generally speaking, are people who are always moreor less affected by the mentalities of those with whom they come incontact, or in whose company they are. A friend, the editor of one ofour great journals, is so sensitively organized that it is impossiblefor him to attend a gathering, such as a reception, talk and shakehands with a number of people during the course of the evening, withouttaking on to a greater or less extent their various mental and physicalconditions. These affect him to such an extent that he is scarcelyhimself and in his best condition for work until some two or three daysafterward. 

Some think it unfortunate for one to be sensitively organized. By nomeans. It is a good thing, for one may thus be more open and receptiveto the higher impulses of the soul within, and to all higher forces andinfluences from without. It may, however, be unfortunate and extremelyinconvenient to be so organized unless one recognize and gain the powerof closing himself, of making himself positive to all detrimental orundesirable influences. This power every one, however sensitivelyorganized he may be, can acquire. 

This he can acquire through the mind's action. And, moreover, there isno habit of more value to anyone, be he sensitively or less sensitivelyorganized, than that of occasionally taking and holding himselfcontinually in the attitude of mind--I close myself, I make myselfpositive to all things below, and open and receptive to all higherinfluences, to all things above. By taking this attitude of mindconsciously now and then, it soon becomes a habit, and if one is deeplyin earnest in regard to it, it puts into operation silent but subtleand powerful influences in effecting the desired results. In this wayall lower and undesirable influences from both the seen and the unseenside of life are closed out, while all higher influences are invited, and in the degree that they are invited will they enter. 

And what do we mean by the unseen side of life? First, the thoughtforces, the mental and emotional conditions in the atmosphere about usthat are generated by those manifesting on the physical plane throughthe agency of physical bodies. Second, the same forces generated bythose who have dropped the physical body, or from whom it has beenstruck away, and who are now manifesting through the agency of bodiesof a different nature. 

"The individual existence of man _begins_ on the sense plane of thephysical world, but rises through successive gradations of ethereal andcelestial spheres, corresponding with his ever unfolding deific lifeand powers, to a destiny of unspeakable grandeur and glory. Within andabove every physical planet is a corresponding ethereal planet, or soulworld, as within and above every physical organism is a correspondingethereal organism, or soul body, of which the physical is but theexternal counterpart and materialized expression. From thisetherealized or soul planet, which is the immediate home of our arisenhumanity, there rises or deepens in infinite gradations spheres withinand above spheres, to celestial heights of spiritualized existenceutterly inconceivable to the sense man. Embodiment, accordingly, istwo-fold, --the physical being but the temporary husk, so to speak, inand by which the real and permanent ethereal organism is individualizedand perfected, somewhat as 'the full corn in the ear' is reached bymeans of its husk, for which there is no further use. By means of thisindestructible ethereal body and the corresponding ethereal spheres ofenvironment with the social life and relations in the spheres, theindividuality and personal life is preserved forever. "

The fact of life in whatever form means the continuance of life, eventhough the form be changed. Life is the one eternal principle of theuniverse and so always continues, even though the form of the agencythrough which it manifests be changed. "In my Father's house are manymansions. " And surely, because the individual has dropped, has goneout of the physical body, there is no evidence at all that the lifedoes not go right on the same as before, not commencing, --for there isno cessation, --but commencing in the other form, exactly where it hasleft off here; for all life is a continuous evolution, step by step;there one neither skips nor jumps. 

There are in the other form, then, mentalities and hence lives of allgrades and influences, the same as there are in the physical form. If, then, the great law that like attracts like is ever operating, we arecontinually attracting to us from this side of life influences andconditions most akin to those of our own thoughts and lives. Agrewsome thought that we should be so influenced, says one. By nomeans, all life is one; we are all bound together in the one common anduniversal life, and especially not when we take into consideration thefact that we have it entirely in our own hands to determine the orderof thought we entertain, and consequently the order of influences weattract, and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstance, unlessindeed we choose to be. 

In our mental lives we can either keep hold of the rudder and sodetermine exactly what course we take, what points we touch, or we canfail to do this, and failing, we drift, and are blown hither andthither by every passing breeze. And so, on the contrary, welcomeshould be the thought, for thus we may draw to us the influence and theaid of the greatest, the noblest, and the best who have lived on theearth, whatever the time, wherever the place. 

We cannot rationally believe other than that those who have labored inlove and with uplifting power here are still laboring in the same way, and in all probability with more earnest zeal, and with still greaterpower. 

"And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that hemay see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw:and, behold, the mountain _was full of horses and chariots of fire_round about Elisha. "

While riding with a friend a few days ago, we were speaking of thegreat interest people are everywhere taking in the more vital things oflife, the eagerness with which they are reaching out for a knowledge ofthe interior forces, their ever increasing desire to know themselvesand to know their true relations with the Infinite. And in speaking ofthe great spiritual awakening that is so rapidly coming all over theworld, the beginnings of which we are so clearly seeing during theclosing years of this, and whose ever increasing proportions we are towitness during the early years of the coming century, I said, "Howbeautiful if Emerson, the illumined one so far in advance of his time, who labored so faithfully and so fearlessly to bring about these veryconditions, how beautiful if he were with us today to witness it all!how he would rejoice!" "How do we know, " was the reply, "that he isnot witnessing it all? and more, that he is not having a hand in itall, --a hand even greater, perhaps, than when we _saw_ him here?"Thank you, my friend, for this reminder. And, truly, "are they not allministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirsof salvation?"

As science is so abundantly demonstrating today, --the things that wesee are but a very small fraction of the things that are. The real, vital forces at work in our own lives and in the world about us are notseen by the ordinary physical eye. Yet they are the causes of whichall things we see are merely the effects. Thoughts are forces; likebuilds like, and like attracts like. For one to govern his thinking, then, is to determine his life. 

Says one of deep insight into the nature of things: "The law ofcorrespondences between spiritual and material things is wonderfullyexact in its workings. People ruled by the mood of gloom attract tothem gloomy things. People always discouraged and despondent do notsucceed in anything, and live only by burdening some one else. Thehopeful, confident, and cheerful attract the elements of success. Aman's front or back yard will advertise that man's ruling mood in theway it is kept. A woman at home shows her state of mind in her dress. A slattern advertises the ruling mood of hopelessness, carelessness, and lack of system. Rags, tatters, and dirt are always in the mindbefore being on the body. The thought that is most put out brings itscorresponding visible element to crystallize about you as surely andliterally as the visible bit of copper in solution attracts to it theinvisible copper in that solution. A mind always hopeful, confident, courageous, and determined on its set purpose, and keeping itself tothat purpose, attracts to itself out of the elements things and powersfavorable to that purpose. 

"Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possibleway. The strength of your body, the strength of your mind, yoursuccess in business, and the pleasure your company brings others, depends on the nature of your thoughts. . . . In whatever mood you setyour mind does your spirit receive of unseen substance incorrespondence with that mood. It is as much a chemical law as aspiritual law. Chemistry is not confined to the elements we see. Theelements we do not see with the physical eye outnumber ten thousandtimes those we do see. The Christ injunction, 'Do good to those whohate you, ' is based on a scientific fact and a natural law. So, to dogood is to bring to yourself all the elements in nature of power andgood. To do evil is to bring the contrary destructive elements. Whenour eyes are opened, self-preservation will make us stop all evilthought. Those who live by hate will die by hate: that is, 'those wholive by the sword will die by the sword. ' Every evil thought is as asword drawn on the person to whom it is directed. If a sword is drawnin return, so much the worse for both. "

And says another who knows full well whereof he speaks: "The law ofattraction works universally on every plane of _action_, and we attractwhatever we desire or expect. If we desire one thing and expectanother, we become like houses divided against themselves, which arequickly brought to desolation. Determine resolutely to expect onlywhat you desire, then you will attract only what you wish for. . . . Carry any kind of thought you please about with you, and so long as youretain it, no matter how you roam over land or sea, you willunceasingly attract to yourself, knowingly or inadvertently, exactlyand only what corresponds to your own dominant quality of thought. Thoughts are our private property, and we can regulate them to suit ourtaste entirely by steadily recognizing our ability so to do. "

We have just spoken of the drawing power of mind. Faith is nothingmore nor less than the operation of the _thought forces_ in the form ofan earnest desire, coupled with expectation as to its fulfillment. Andin the degree that faith, the earnest desire thus sent out, iscontinually held to and watered by firm expectation, in just thatdegree does it either draw to itself, or does it change from the unseeninto the visible, from the spiritual into the material, that for whichit is sent. 

Let the element of doubt or fear enter in, and what would otherwise bea tremendous force will be so neutralized that it will fail of itsrealization. Continually held to and continually watered by firmexpectation, it becomes a force, a drawing power, that is irresistibleand absolute, and the results will be absolute in direct proportion asit is absolute. 

We shall find, as we are so rapidly beginning to find today, that thegreat things said in regard to faith, the great promises made inconnection with it, are not mere vague sentimentalities, but are allgreat scientific facts, and rest upon great immutable laws. Even inour very laboratory experiments we are beginning to discover the lawsunderlying and governing these forces. We, are now beginning, some atleast, to use them understandingly and not blindly, as has so often andso long been the case. 

Much is said today in regard to the will. It is many times spoken ofas if it were a force in itself. But will is a force, a power, only inso far as it is a particular form of the manifestation of the thoughtforces; for it is by what we call the "will" that thought is focusedand given a particular direction, and in the degree that thought isthus focused and given direction, is it effective in the work it issent out to accomplish. 

In a sense there are two kinds of will, --the human and the divine. Thehuman will is the will of what, for convenience' sake, we may term thelower self. It is the will that finds its life merely in the realm ofthe mental and the physical, --the sense will. It is the will of theone who is not yet awake to the fact that there is a life that fartranscends the life of merely the intellect and the physical senses, and which when realized and lived, does not do away with or minifythese, but which, on the contrary, brings them to their highestperfection and to their powers of keenest enjoyment. The divine willis the will of the higher self, the will of the one who recognizes hisoneness with the Divine, and who consequently brings his will to workin harmony, in conjunction with the divine will. "The Lord thy God _inthe midst of thee_ is mighty. "

The human will has its limitations. So far and no farther, says thelaw. The divine will has no limitations. It is supreme. All thingsare open and subject to you, says the law, and so, in the degree thatthe human will is transmuted into the divine, in the degree that itcomes into harmony with and so, acts in conjunction with the divine, does it become supreme. Then it is that "Thou shalt decree a thing andit shall be established unto thee. " The great secret of life and ofpower, then, is to make and to keep one's conscious connection withthis Infinite Source. 

The power of every life, the very life itself, is determined by what itrelates itself to. God is immanent as well as transcendent. He iscreating, working, ruling in the universe today, in your life and inmine, just as much as He ever has been. We are too apt to regard Himafter the manner of an absentee landlord, one who has set intooperation the forces of this great universe, and then taken Himselfaway. 

In the degree, however, that we recognize Him as immanent as well astranscendent, are we able to partake of His life and power. For in thedegree that we recognize Him as the Infinite Spirit of Life and Powerthat is today, at this very moment, working and manifesting in andthrough all, and then, in the degree that we come into the realizationof our oneness with this life, do we become partakers of, and so do weactualize in ourselves the qualities of His life. _In the degree thatwe open ourselves to the inflowing tide of this immanent andtranscendent life, do we make ourselves channels through which theInfinite Intelligence and Power can work_. 

It is through the instrumentality of the mind that we are enabled toconnect the real soul life with the physical life, and so enable thesoul life to manifest and work through the physical. The thought lifeneeds _continually_ to be illumined from within. This illumination cancome in just the degree that through the agency of the mind werecognize our oneness with the Divine, of which each soul is anindividual form of expression. 

This gives us the inner guiding which we call intuition. "Intuition isto the spiritual nature and understanding practically what senseperception is to the sensuous nature and understanding. It is an innerspiritual sense through which man is opened to the direct revelationand knowledge of God, the secrets of nature and life, and through whichhe is brought into conscious unity and fellowship with God, and made torealize his own deific nature and supremacy of being as the son of God. Spiritual supremacy and illumination thus realized through thedevelopment and perfection of intuition under divine inspiration, givesthe perfect inner vision and direct insight into the character, properties, and purpose of all things to which the attention andinterest are directed. . . . It is, we repeat, a spiritual senseopening inwardly, as the physical senses open outwardly; and because ithas the capacity to perceive, grasp, and know the truth at first hand, independent of all external sources of information, we call itintuition. All inspired teaching and spiritual revelations are basedupon the recognition of this spiritual faculty of the soul, and itspower to receive and appropriate them. . . . Conscious unity of man inspirit and purpose with the Father, born out of his supreme desire andtrust, opens his soul through this inner sense to immediate inspirationand enlightenment from the Divine Omniscience, and the co-operativeenergy of the Divine Omnipotence, under which he becomes a seer and amaster. 

"On this higher plane of realized spiritual life in the flesh the mindholds the impersonal attitude and acts with unfettered freedom andunbiased vision, grasping truth at first hand, independent of allexternal sources of information. Approaching all beings and thingsfrom the divine side, they are seen in the light of the DivineOmniscience. God's purpose in them, and so the truth concerning them, as it rests in the mind of God, are thus revealed by directillumination from the Divine Mind, to which the soul is opened inwardlythrough this spiritual sense we call intuition. " Some call it thevoice of the soul; some call it the voice of God; some call it thesixth sense. It is our inner spiritual sense. 

In the degree that we come into the recognition of our own _true_selves, into the realization of the oneness of our life with theInfinite Life, and in the degree that we open ourselves to this divineinflow, does this voice of intuition, this voice of the soul, thisvoice of God, speak clearly; and in the degree that we recognize, listen to, and obey it, does it speak ever more clearly, untilby-and-by there comes the time when it is unerring, _absolutelyunerring_, in its guidance. 

FULLNESS OF LIFE--BODILY HEALTH AND VIGOR. 

God is the Spirit of Infinite Life. If we are partakers of this life, and have the power of opening ourselves fully to its divine inflow, itmeans more, so far as even the physical life is concerned, than we mayat first think. For very clearly, the life of this Infinite Spirit, from its very nature, can admit of no disease; and if this is true, nodisease can exist in the body where it freely enters, through which itfreely flows. 

Let us recognize at the outset that, so far as the physical life isconcerned, _all life is from within out_. There is an immutable lawwhich says: "As within, so without; cause, effect. " In other words, the thought forces, the various mental states and the emotions, allhave in time their effects upon the physical body. 

Some one says: "I hear a great deal said today in regard to the effectsof the mind upon the body, but I don't know as I place very muchconfidence in this. " Don't you? Some one brings you sudden news. Yougrow pale, you tremble, or perhaps you fall into a faint. It is, however, through the channel of your mind that the news is imparted toyou. A friend says something to you, perhaps at the table, somethingthat seems very unkind. You are hurt by it, as we say. You have beenenjoying your dinner, but from this moment your appetite is gone. Butwhat was said entered into and affected you through the channel of yourmind. 

Look! yonder goes a young man, dragging his feet, stumbling over theslightest obstruction in the path. Why is it? Simply that he isweak-minded, an idiot. In other words, _a falling state of mind isproductive of a falling condition of the body_. To be sure minded isto be sure footed. To be uncertain in mind is to be uncertain in step. 

Again, a sudden emergency arises. You stand trembling and weak withfear. Why are you powerless to move? Why do you tremble? And yet youbelieve that the mind has but little influence upon the body. You arefor a moment dominated by a fit of anger. For a few hours afterwardsyou complain of a violent headache. And still you do not seem torealize that the thoughts and emotions have an effect upon the body. 

A day or two ago, while conversing with a friend, we were speaking ofworry. "My father is greatly given to worry, " he said. "Your fatheris not a healthy man, " I said. "He is not strong, vigorous, robust, and active. " I then went on to describe to him more fully his father'scondition and the troubles which afflicted him. He looked at me insurprise and said, "Why, you do not know my father?" "No, " I replied. "How then can you describe so accurately the disease with which he isafflicted?" "You have just told me that your father is greatly givento worry. When you told me this you indicated to me cause. Indescribing your father's condition I simply connected with the causeits own peculiar effects. "

Fear and worry have the effect of closing up the channels of the body, so that the life forces flow in a slow and sluggish manner. Hope andtranquillity open the channels of the body, so that the life forces gobounding through it in such a way that disease can rarely get afoothold. 

Not long ago a lady was telling a friend of a serious physical trouble. My friend happened to know that between this lady and her sister themost kindly relations did not exist. He listened attentively to herdelineation of her troubles, and then, looking her squarely in theface, in a firm but kindly tone said: "Forgive your sister. " The womanlooked at him in surprise and said: "I can't forgive my sister. " "Verywell, then, " he replied, "keep the stiffness of your joints and yourkindred rheumatic troubles. "

A few weeks later he saw her again. With a light step she came towardhim and said: "I took your advice. I saw my sister and forgave her. We have become good friends again, and I don't know how it is, butsomehow or other from the very day, as I remember, that we becamereconciled, my troubles seemed to grow less, and today there is not atrace of the old difficulties left; and really, my sister and I havebecome such good friends that now we can scarcely get along without oneanother. " Again we have effect following cause. 

We have several well-authenticated cases of the following nature: Amother has been dominated for a few moments by an intense passion ofanger, and the child at her breast has died within an hour's time, sopoisoned became the mother's milk by virtue of the poisonous secretionsof the system while under the domination of this fit of anger. Inother cases it has caused severe illness and convulsions. 

The following experiment has been tried a number of times by awell-known scientist: Several men have been put into a heated room. Each man has been dominated for a moment by a particular passion ofsome kind; one by an intense passion of anger, and others by differentother passions. The experimenter has taken a drop of perspiration fromthe body of each of these men, and by means of a careful chemicalanalysis he has been able to determine the particular passion by whicheach has been dominated. Practically the same results revealedthemselves in the chemical analysis of the saliva of each of the men. 

Says a noted American author, an able graduate of one of our greatestmedical schools, and one who has studied deeply into the forces thatbuild the body and the forces that tear it down: "The mind is thenatural protector of the body. . . . Every thought tends to reproduceitself, and ghastly mental pictures of disease, sensuality, and vice ofall sorts, produce scrofula and leprosy in the soul, which reproducesthem in the body. Anger changes the chemical properties of the salivato a poison dangerous to life. It is well known that sudden andviolent emotions have not only weakened the heart in a few hours, buthave caused death and insanity. It has been discovered by scientiststhat there is a chemical difference between that sudden cold exudationof a person under a deep sense of guilt and the ordinary perspiration;and the state of the mind can sometimes be determined by chemicalanalysis of the perspiration of a criminal, which, when brought intocontact with selenic acid, produces a distinctive pink color. It iswell known that fear has killed thousands of victims; while, on theother hand, _courage is a great invigorator_. 

"Anger in the mother may poison a nursing child. Rarey, the celebratedhorse-tamer, said that an angry word would sometimes raise the pulse ofa horse ten beats in a minute. If this is true of a beast, what can wesay of its power upon human beings, especially upon a child? Strongmental emotion often causes vomiting. Extreme anger or fright mayproduce jaundice. A violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy anddeath. Indeed, in more than one instance, a single night of mentalagony has wrecked a life. Grief, long-standing jealousy, constant careand corroding anxiety sometimes tend to develop insanity. Sickthoughts and discordant moods are the natural atmosphere of disease, and crime is engendered and thrives in the miasma of the mind. "

From all this we get the great fact we are scientifically demonstratingtoday, --that the various mental states, emotions, and passions havetheir various peculiar effects upon the body, and each induces in turn, if indulged in to any great extent, its own peculiar forms of disease, and these in time become chronic. 

Just a word or two in regard to their mode of operation. If a personis dominated for a moment by, say a passion of anger, there is set upin the physical organism what we might justly term a bodilythunder-storm, which has the effect of souring, or rather of corroding, the normal, healthy, and life-giving secretions of the body, so thatinstead of performing their natural functions they become poisonous anddestructive. And if this goes on to any great extent, by virtue oftheir cumulative influences, they give rise to a particular form ofdisease, which in turn becomes chronic. So the emotion opposite tothis, that of kindliness, love, benevolence, good-will, tends tostimulate a healthy, purifying, and life-giving flow of all the bodilysecretions. All the channels of the body seem free and open; the lifeforces go bounding through them. And these very forces, set into abounding activity, will in time counteract the poisonous anddisease-giving effects of their opposites. 

A physician goes to see a patient. He gives no medicine this morning. Yet the very fact of his going makes the patient better. He hascarried with him the spirit of health; he has carried brightness oftone and disposition; he has carried hope into the sick chamber; he hasleft it there. In fact, the very hope and good cheer he has carriedwith him has taken hold of and has had a subtle but powerful influenceupon the mind of the patient; and this mental condition imparted by thephysician has in turn its effects upon the patient's body, and sothrough the instrumentality of this mental suggestion the healing goeson. 

 "Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene Supports the mind, supports the body, too. Hence the most vital movement mortals feel Is _hope_; the balm and life-blood of the soul. "

We sometimes hear a person in weak health say to another, "I alwaysfeel better when you come. " There is a deep scientific reasonunderlying the statement. "The tongue of the wise is health. " Thepower of suggestion so far as the human mind is concerned is a mostwonderful and interesting field of study. Most wonderful and powerfulforces can be set into operation through this agency. One of theworld's most noted scientists, recognized everywhere as one of the mosteminent anatomists living, tells us that he has proven from laboratoryexperiments that the entire human structure can be completely changed, made over, within a period of less than one year, and that someportions can be entirely remade within a period of a very few weeks. 

"Do you mean to say, " I hear it asked, "that the body can be changedfrom a diseased to a healthy condition through the operation of theinterior forces?" Most certainly; and more, this is the natural methodof cure. The method that has as its work the application of drugs, medicines and external agencies is the artificial method. The onlything that any drug or any medicine can do is to remove obstructions, that the life forces may have simply a better chance to do their work. _The real healing process must be performed by the operation of thelife forces within_. A surgeon and physician of world-wide famerecently made to his medical associates the following declaration: "Forgenerations past the most important influence that plays uponnutrition, the _life principle_ itself, has remained an unconsideredelement in the medical profession, and the almost exclusive drift ofits studies and remedial paraphernalia has been confined to the actionof matter over mind. This has seriously interfered with theevolutionary tendencies of the doctors themselves, and consequently thepsychic factor in professional life is still in a rudimentary orcomparatively undeveloped state. But the light of the nineteenthcentury has dawned, and so the march of mankind in general is taken inthe direction of the hidden forces of nature. Doctors are nowcompelled to join the ranks of students in psychology and follow theirpatrons into the broader field of mental therapeutics. There is notime for lingering, no time for skepticism or doubt or hesitation. _Hewho lingers is lost, for the entire race is enlisted in the movement_. "

I am aware of the fact that in connection with the matter we are nowconsidering there has been a great deal of foolishness during the pastfew years. Many absurd and foolish things have been claimed and done;but this says nothing against, and it has absolutely nothing to do withthe great underlying laws themselves. The same has been true of theearly days of practically every system of ethics or philosophy orreligion the world has ever known. But as time has passed, thesefoolish, absurd things have fallen away, and the great eternalprinciples have stood out ever more and more clearly defined. 

I know _personally_ of many cases where an entire and permanent curehas been effected, in some within a remarkably short period of time, through the operation of these forces. Some of them are cases that hadbeen entirely given up by the regular practice, _materia medica_. Wehave numerous accounts of such cases in all times and in connectionwith all religions. And why should not the power of effecting suchcures exist among us today? The _power does exist_, and it will beactualized in just the degree that we recognize the same great lawsthat were recognized in times past. 

One person may do a very great deal in connection with the healing ofanother, but this almost invariably implies co-operation on the part ofthe one who is thus treated. In the cures that Christ performed hemost always needed the co-operation of the one who appealed to him. His question almost invariably was, "Dost thou believe?" He thusstimulated into activity the life-giving forces within the one cured. If one is in a very weak condition, or if his nervous system isexhausted, or if his mind through the influence of the disease is notso strong in its workings, it may be well for him for a time to seekthe aid and co-operation of another. But it would be far better forsuch a one could he bring himself to a vital realization of theomnipotence of his own interior powers. 

One may cure another, but to be _permanently healed_ one must do ithimself. In this way another may be most valuable as a teacher bybringing one to a clear realization of the power of the forces within, but in every case, in order to have a permanent cure, the work of theself is necessary. Christ's words were almost invariably, --Go and sinno more, or, thy sins are forgiven thee, thus pointing out the oneeternal and never-changing fact, --that all disease and its consequentsuffering is the direct or the indirect result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally orunintentionally. 

Suffering is designed to continue only so long as sin continues, sinnot necessarily in the theological, but always in the philosophicalsense, though many times in the sense of both. The moment theviolation ceases, the moment one comes into perfect harmony with thelaw, the cause of the suffering ceases; and though there may beresiding within the cumulative effects of past violation, the cause isremoved, and consequently there can be no more effects in the form ofadditions, and even the diseased condition that has been induced frompast violation will begin to disappear as soon as the right forces areset into activity. 

There is nothing that will more quickly and more completely bring oneinto harmony with the laws under which he lives than this vitalrealization of his oneness with the Infinite Spirit, which is the lifeof all life. In this there can be no disease, and nothing will morereadily remove from the organism the obstructions that have accumulatedthere, or in other words, the disease that resides there, than thisfull realization and the complete opening of one's self to this divineinflow. "I shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live. "

The moment a person realizes his oneness with the Infinite Spirit herecognizes himself as a spiritual being, and no longer as a merephysical, material being. He then no longer makes the mistake ofregarding himself as body, subject to ills and diseases, but herealizes the fact that he is spirit, spirit now as much as he ever willor can be, and that he is the builder and so the master of the body, the house in which he lives; and the moment he thus recognizes hispower as master he ceases in any way to allow it the mastery over him. He no longer fears the elements or any of the forces that he now in hisignorance allows to take hold of and affect the body. The moment herealizes his own supremacy, instead of fearing them as he did when hewas out of harmony with them, he learns to love them. He thus comesinto harmony with them; or rather, he so orders them that they comeinto harmony with him. He who formerly was the slave has now becomethe master. The moment we come to love a thing it no longer carriesharm for us. 

There are almost countless numbers today, weak and suffering in body, who would become strong and healthy if they would only give God anopportunity to do His work. To such I would say, _Don't shut out thedivine inflow_. Do anything else rather than this. Open yourselves toit. Invite it. In the degree that you open yourselves to it, itsinflowing tide will course through your bodies a force so vital thatthe old obstructions that are dominating them today will be driven outbefore it. "My words are life to them that find them, and health toall their flesh. "

There is a trough through which a stream of muddy water has beenflowing for many days. The dirt has gradually collected on its sidesand bottom, and it continues to collect as long as the muddy waterflows through it. Change this. Open the trough to a swift-flowingstream of clear, crystal water, and in a very little while even thevery dirt that has collected on its sides and bottom will be carriedaway. The trough will be entirely cleansed. It will present an aspectof beauty and no longer an aspect of ugliness. And more, the waterthat now courses through it will be of value; it will be an agent ofrefreshment, of health and of strength to those who use it. 

Yes, in just the degree that you realize your oneness with thisInfinite Spirit of Life, and thus actualize your latent possibilitiesand powers, you will exchange dis-ease for ease, inharmony for harmony, suffering and pain for abounding health and strength. And in thedegree that you realize this wholeness, this abounding health andstrength in yourself, will you carry it to all with whom you come incontact; for _we must remember that health is contagious as well asdisease_. 

I hear it asked, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to thepractical application of these truths, so that one can hold himself inthe enjoyment of perfect bodily health; and more, that one may healhimself of any existing disease? In reply, let it be said that thechief thing that can be done is to point out the great underlyingprinciple, and that each individual must make his own application; oneperson cannot well make this for another. 

First let it be said, that the very fact of one's holding the thoughtof perfect health sets into operation vital forces which will in timebe more or less productive of the effect, --perfect health. Thenspeaking more directly in regard to the great principle itself, fromits very nature, it is clear that more can be accomplished through theprocess of realization than through the process of affirmation, thoughfor some affirmation may be a help, an aid to realization. 

In the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of youroneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individualform has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that throughthis realization you open yourself to its divine inflow, do you setinto operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physicalbody into a state of abounding health and strength. For to realizethat this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of nodisease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you, byrealizing your oneness with it, you can so open yourself to its moreabundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions--effects--willrespond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quicklyor more tardily, depending entirely upon yourself. 

There have been those who have been able to open themselves so fully tothis realization that the healing has been instantaneous and permanent. The degree of intensity always eliminates in like degree the element oftime. _It must, however, be a calm, quiet, and expectant intensity, rather than an intensity that is fearing, disturbed, andnon-expectant_. Then there are others who have come to thisrealization by degrees. 

Many will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by apractice somewhat after the following nature: With a mind at peace, andwith a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your owninterior self, holding the thought, --I am one with the Infinite Spiritof Life, the life of my life. I then as spirit, I a spiritual being, can in my own real nature admit of no disease. I now open my body, inwhich disease has gotten a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowingtide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in andcoursing through my body, and the healing process is going on. Realizethis so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warming glowimparted by the life forces to the body. Believe the healing processis going on. Believe it, and hold continually to it. Many peoplegreatly desire a certain thing, but expect something else. They havegreater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and henceremain ill. 

If one will give himself to this meditation, realization, treatment, orwhatever term it may seem best to use, at stated times, as often as hemay choose, and then _continually hold himself in the same attitude ofmind_, thus allowing the force to work continually, he will besurprised how rapidly the body will be exchanging conditions of diseaseand inharmony for health and harmony. There is no particular reason, however, for this surprise, for in this way he is simply allowing theOmnipotent Power to do the work, which will have to do it ultimately inany case. 

If there is a local difficulty, and one wants to open this particularportion, in addition to the entire body, to this inflowing life, he canhold this particular portion in thought, for to fix the thought in thisway upon any particular portion of the body stimulates or increases theflow of the life forces in that portion. It must always be borne inmind, however, that whatever healing may be thus accomplished, effectswill not permanently cease until causes have been removed. In otherwords, _as long as there is the violation of law, so long disease andsuffering will result_. 

This realization that we are considering will have an influence notonly where there is a diseased condition of the body, but even wherethere is not this condition it will give an increased bodily life, vigor, and power. 

We have had many cases, in all times and in all countries, of healingthrough the operation of the interior forces, entirely independent ofexternal agencies. Various have been the methods, or rather, varioushave been the names applied to them, but the great law underlying allis one and the same, and the same today. When the Master sent hisfollowers forth, his injunction to them was to heal the sick and theafflicted, as well as to teach the people. The early church fathershad the power of healing, in short, it was a part of their work. 

And why should we not have the power today, the same as they had itthen? Are the laws at all different? Identically the same. Why, then? Simply because, with a few rare exceptions here and there, weare unable to get beyond the mere letter of the law into its real vitalspirit and power. It is the letter that killeth, it is the spirit thatgiveth life and power. Every soul who becomes so individualized thathe breaks through the mere letter and enters into the real vitalspirit, _will have the power_, as have all who have gone before, andwhen he does, he will also be the means of imparting it to others, forhe will be one who will move and who will speak with authority. 

We are rapidly finding today, and we shall find even more and more, astime passes, that practically all disease, with its consequentsuffering, has its origin in perverted mental and emotional states andconditions. _The mental attitude we take toward anything determines toa greater or less extent its effects upon us_. If we fear it, or if weantagonize it, the chances are that it will have detrimental or evendisastrous effects upon us. If we come into harmony with it by quietlyrecognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it, in thedegree that we are able successfully to do this, in that degree will itcarry with it no injury for us. 

No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it findtherein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. Andin the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can comeinto our lives unless there is already in them that which invites itand so makes it possible for it to come. The sooner we begin to lookwithin ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better itwill be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions withinourselves such that only _good_ may enter. 

We, who from our very natures should be masters of all conditions, byvirtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions ofevery description. 

Do I fear a draft? There is nothing in the draft--a little purifyingcurrent of God's pure air--to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold, perhaps an illness. The draft can affect me only in the degree that _Imyself_ make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affectme. We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions. The draftis not cause, nor does it carry cause with it. 

Two persons are sitting in the same draft. The one is injuriouslyaffected by it, the other experiences not even an inconvenience, but herather enjoys it. The one is a creature of circumstances; he fears thedraft, cringes before it, continually thinks of the harm it is doinghim. In other words, he opens every avenue for it to enter and takehold of him, and so it--harmless and beneficent in itself--brings tohim exactly what he has empowered it to bring. The other recognizeshimself as the master over and not the creature of circumstances. Heis not concerned about the draft. He puts himself into harmony withit, makes himself positive to it, and instead of experiencing anydiscomfort, he enjoys it, and in addition to its doing him a service bybringing the pure fresh air from without to him, it does him theadditional service of hardening him even more to any future conditionsof a like nature. But if the draft was cause, it would bring the sameresults to both. The fact that it does not, shows that it is not acause, but a condition, and it brings to each, effects which correspondto the conditions it finds within each. 

Poor draft! How many thousands, nay millions of times it is made thescapegoat by those who are too ignorant or too unfair to look their ownweaknesses square in the face, and who instead of becoming imperialmasters, remain cringing slaves. Think of it, what it means! A mancreated in the image of the eternal God, sharer of His life and power, born to have dominion, fearing, shaking, cringing before a little draftof pure life-giving air. But scapegoats are convenient things, even ifthe only thing they do for us is to aid us in our constant efforts atself-delusion. 

The best way to disarm a draft of the bad effects it has beenaccustomed to bring one, is first to bring about a pure and healthy setof conditions within, then, to change one's mental attitude toward it. Recognize the fact that of itself it has no power, it has only thepower you invest it with. Thus you will put yourself into harmony withit, and will no longer sit in fear of it. Then sit in a draft a fewtimes and get hardened to it, as every one, by going at it judiciously, can readily do. "But suppose one is in delicate health, or especiallysubject to drafts?" Then be simply a little judicious at first; don'tseek the strongest that can be found, especially if you do not as yetin your own mind feel equal to it, for if you do not, it signifies thatyou still fear it. That supreme regulator of all life, _good commonsense_, must be used here, the same as elsewhere. 

If we are born to have dominion, and that we are is demonstrated by thefact that some have attained to it, --and what one _has_ done, soon orlate all _can_ do, --then it is not necessary that we live under thedomination of any physical agent. In the degree that we recognize ourown interior powers, then are we rulers and able to dictate; in thedegree that we fail to recognize them, we are slaves, and are dictatedto. We build whatever we find within us; we attract whatever comes tous, and all in accordance with spiritual law, for all natural law isspiritual law. 

The whole of human life is cause and effect; there is no such thing init as chance, nor is there even in all the wide universe. Are we notsatisfied with whatever comes into our lives? The thing to do, then, is not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something wecreate and call fate, but to look to the within, and change the causesat work there, in order that things of a different nature may come, forthere will come exactly what we cause to come. This is true not onlyof the physical body, but of all phases and conditions of life. Weinvite whatever comes, and did we not invite it, either consciously orunconsciously, it could not and it would not come. This mayundoubtedly be hard for some to believe, or even to see, at first. Butin the degree that one candidly and open-mindedly looks at it, and thenstudies into the silent, but subtle and, so to speak, omnipotentworkings of the thought forces, and as he traces their effects withinhim and about him, it becomes clearly evident, and easy to understand. 

And then whatever does come to one depends for its effects entirelyupon his mental attitude toward it. Does this or that occurrence orcondition cause you annoyance? Very well; it causes you annoyance, andso disturbs your peace merely because you allow it to. You are born tohave absolute control over your own dominion, but if you voluntarilyhand over this power, even if for a little while, to some one or tosome thing else, then you of course, become the creature, the onecontrolled. 

To live undisturbed by passing occurrences you must first find your owncentre. You must then be firm in your own centre, and so rule theworld from within. He who does not himself condition circumstancesallows the process to be reversed, and becomes a conditionedcircumstance. Find your centre and live in it. Surrender it to noperson, to no thing. In the degree that you do this will you findyourself growing stronger and stronger in it. And how can one find hiscentre? By realizing his oneness with the Infinite Power, and byliving continually in this realization. 

But if you do not rule from your own centre, if you invest this or thatwith the power of bringing you annoyance, or evil, or harm, then takewhat it brings, but cease your railings against the eternal goodnessand beneficence of all things. 

 "I swear the earth shall surely be complete To him or her who shall be complete; The earth remains jagged and broken Only to him who remains jagged and broken. "

If the windows of your soul are dirty and streaked, covered with matterforeign to them, then the world as you look out of them will be to youdirty and streaked and out of order. Cease your complainings, however;keep your pessimism, your "poor, unfortunate me" to yourself, lest youbetray the fact that your windows are badly in need of something. Butknow that your friend, who keeps his windows clean, that the EternalSun may illumine all within and make visible all without, --know that helives in a different world from yours. 

Then, go wash your windows, and instead of longing for some otherworld, you will discover the wonderful beauties of this world; and ifyou don't find transcendent beauties on every hand here, the chancesare that you will never find them anywhere. 

 "The poem hangs on the berry-bush When comes the poet's eye, And the whole street is a masquerade When Shakspeare passes by. "

This same Shakspeare, whose mere passing causes all this commotion, isthe one who put into the mouth of one of his creations the words: "Thefault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we areunderlings. " And the great work of his own life is right good evidencethat he realized full well the truth of the facts we are considering. And again he gave us a great truth in keeping with what we areconsidering when he said:

 "Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win By _fearing_ to attempt. "

There is probably no agent that brings us more undesirable conditionsthan fear. We should live in fear of nothing, nor will we when we comefully to know ourselves. An old French proverb runs

 "Some of your griefs you have cured, And the sharpest you still have survived; But what _torments of pain_ you endured From evils that never arrived. "

Fear and lack of faith go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. Tell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much helacks in faith. Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain, the sameas worry is: so expensive are they that no one can afford to entertainthem. _We invite what we fear, the same as, by a different attitude ofmind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire_. The mind dominated by fear opens the door for the entrance of the verythings, for the actualization of the very conditions it fears. 

"Where are you going?" asked an Eastern pilgrim on meeting the plagueone day. "I am going to Bagdad to kill five thousand people, " was thereply. A few days later the same pilgrim met the plague returning. "You told me you were going to Bagdad to kill five thousand people, "said he, "but instead, you killed fifty thousand. " "No, " said theplague. "_I killed only five thousand_, as I told you I would; _theothers died of fright_. "

Fear can paralyze every muscle in the body. Fear affects the flow ofthe blood, likewise the normal and healthy action of all the lifeforces. Fear can make the body rigid, motionless, and powerless tomove. 

Not only do we attract to ourselves the things we fear, but we also aidin attracting to others the conditions we in our own minds hold them infear of. This we do in proportion to the strength of our own thought, and in the degree that they are sensitively organized and so influencedby our thought, and this, although it be unconscious both on their partand on ours. 

Children, and especially when very young, are, generally speaking, moresensitive to their surrounding influences than grown people are. Someare veritable little sensitive plates, registering the influences aboutthem, and embodying them as they grow. How careful in their prevailingmental states then should be those who have them in charge, andespecially how careful should a mother be during the time she iscarrying the child, and when every thought, every mental as well asemotional state has its direct influence upon the life of the unbornchild. Let parents be careful how they hold a child, either younger orolder, in the thought of fear. This is many times done, unwittingly ontheir part, through anxiety, and at times through what might well betermed over-care, which is fully as bad as under-care. 

I know of a number of cases where a child has been so continually heldin the thought of fear lest this or that condition come upon him, thatthe very things that were feared have been drawn to him, which probablyotherwise never would have come at all. Many times there has been noadequate basis for the fear. In case there is a basis, then far wiseris it to take exactly the opposite attitude, so as to neutralize theforce at work, and then to hold the child in the thought of wisdom andstrength that it may be able to meet the condition and master it, instead of being mastered by it. 

But a day or two ago a friend was telling me of an experience of hisown life in this connection. At a period when he was having a terrificstruggle with a certain habit, he was so continually held in thethought of fear by his mother and the young lady to whom he wasengaged, --the engagement to be consummated at the end of a certainperiod, the time depending on his proving his mastery, --that he, verysensitively organized, _continually_ felt the depressing and weakeningeffects of their negative thoughts. He could always tell exactly howthey felt toward him; he was continually influenced and weakened bytheir fear, by their questionings, by their suspicions, all of whichhad the effect of lessening the sense of his own power, all of whichhad an endeavor-paralyzing influence upon him. And so instead of theirbegetting courage and strength in him, they brought him to a stillgreater realization of his own weakness and the almost worthless use ofstruggle. 

Here were two who loved him dearly, and who would have done anythingand everything to help him gain the mastery, but who, ignorant of thesilent, subtle, ever-working and all-telling power of the thoughtforces, instead of imparting to him courage, instead of adding to hisstrength, disarmed him of this, and then added an additional weaknessfrom without. In this way the battle for him was made harder in athree-fold degree. 

Fear and worry and all kindred mental states are too expensive for anyperson, man, woman, or child, to entertain or indulge in. Fearparalyzes healthy action, worry corrodes and pulls down the organism, and will finally tear it to pieces. Nothing is to be gained by it, buteverything to be lost. Long-continued grief at any loss will do thesame. Each brings its own peculiar type of ailment. An inordinatelove of gain, a close-fisted, hoarding disposition will have kindredeffects. Anger, jealousy, malice, continual fault-finding, lust, haseach its own peculiar corroding, weakening, tearing-down effects. 

We shall find that not only are happiness and prosperity concomitantsof righteousness, --living in harmony with the higher laws, but bodilyhealth as well. The great Hebrew seer enunciated a wonderful chemistryof life when he said, --"As righteousness tendeth to life, so he thatpursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death. " On the other hand, "Inthe way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there isno death. " The time will come when it will be seen that this means farmore than most people dare _even to think as yet_. "It rests with manto say whether his soul shall be housed in a stately mansion ofever-growing splendor and beauty, or in a hovel of his own building, --ahovel at last ruined and abandoned to decay. "

The bodies of almost untold numbers, living their one-sided, unbalancedlives, are every year, through these influences, weakening and fallingby the wayside long before their time. Poor, poor houses! Intended tobe beautiful temples, brought to desolation by their ignorant, reckless, deluded tenants. Poor houses!

A close observer, a careful student of the power of the thought forces, will soon be able to read in the voice, in the movements, in thefeatures, the effects registered by the prevailing mental states andconditions. Or, if he is told the prevailing mental states andconditions, he can describe the voice, the movements, the features, aswell as describe, in a general way, the peculiar physical ailmentstheir possessor is heir to. 

We are told by good authority that a study of the human body, itsstructure, and the length of time it takes it to come to maturity, incomparison with the time it takes the bodies of various animals andtheir corresponding longevity, reveals the fact that its natural ageshould be nearer a hundred and twenty years than what we commonly findit today. But think of the multitudes all about us whose bodies areaging, weakening, breaking, so that they have to abandon them longbefore they reach what ought to be a long period of strong, vigorousmiddle life. 

Then, the natural length of life being thus shortened, it comes to bewhat we might term a race belief that this shortened period is thenatural period. And as a consequence many, when they approach acertain age, seeing that as a rule people at this period of life beginto show signs of age, to break and go down hill as we say, they, thinking it a matter of course and that it must be the same with them, by taking this attitude of mind, many times bring upon themselves thesevery conditions long before it is necessary. Subtle and powerful arethe influences of the mind in the building and rebuilding of the body. As we understand them better it may become the custom for people tolook forward with pleasure to the teens of their second century. 

There comes to mind at this moment a friend, a lady well on to eightyyears of age. An old lady, some, most people in fact, would call her, especially those who measure age by the number of the seasons that havecome and gone since one's birth. But to call our friend old, would beto call black white. She is no older than a girl of twenty-five, andindeed younger, I am glad to say, or I am sorry to say, depending uponthe point of view, than _many_ a girl of this age. Seeking for thegood in all people and in all things, she has found the goodeverywhere. The brightness of disposition and of voice that is herstoday, that attracts all people to her and that makes her sobeautifully attractive to all people, has characterized her all throughlife. It has in turn carried brightness and hope and courage andstrength to hundreds and thousands of people through all these years, and will continue to do so, apparently, for many years yet to come. 

No fears, no worryings, no hatreds, no jealousies, no sorrowings, nogrievings, no sordid graspings after inordinant [Transcriber's note:inordinate?] gain, have found entrance into her realm of thought. As aconsequence her mind, free from these abnormal states and conditions, has not externalized in her body the various physical ailments that thegreat majority of people are lugging about with them, thinking in theirignorance, that they are natural, and that it is all in accordance withthe "eternal order of things" that they should have them. Her life hasbeen one of varied experiences, so that all these things would havefound ready entrance into the realm of her mind and so into her lifewere she ignorant enough to allow them entrance. On the contrary shehas been wise enough to recognize the fact that in one kingdom at leastshe is ruler, --the kingdom of her mind, and that it is hers to dictateas to what shall and what shall not enter there. She knows, moreover, that in determining this she is determining all the conditions of herlife. It is indeed a pleasure as well as an inspiration to see her asshe goes here and there, to see her sunny disposition, her youthfulstep, to hear her joyous laughter. Indeed and in truth, Shakspeareknew whereof he spoke when he said, --"It is the mind that makes thebody rich. "

With great pleasure I watched her but recently as she was walking alongthe street, stopping to have a word and so a part in the lives of agroup of children at play by the wayside, hastening her step a littleto have a word with a washerwoman toting her bundle of clothes, stopping for a word with a laboring man returning with dinner pail inhand from his work, returning the recognition from the lady in hercarriage, and so imparting some of her own rich life to all with whomshe came in contact. 

And as good fortune would have it, while still watching her, an oldlady passed her, --really old, this one, though at least ten or fifteenyears younger, so far as the count by the seasons is concerned. Nevertheless she was bent in form and apparently stiff in joint andmuscle. Silent in mood, she wore a countenance of long-faced sadness, which was intensified surely several fold by a black, sombre headgearwith an immense heavy veil still more sombre looking if possible. Herentire dress was of this description. By this relic-of-barbarism garb, combined with her own mood and expression, she continually proclaimedto the world two things, --her own personal sorrows and woes, which bythis very method she kept continually fresh in her mind, and also herlack of faith in the eternal goodness of things, her lack of faith inthe love and eternal goodness of the Infinite Father. 

Wrapped only in the thoughts of her own ailments, and sorrows, andwoes, she received and she gave nothing of joy, nothing of hope, nothing of courage, nothing of value to those whom she passed or withwhom she came in contact. But on the contrary she suggested to all andhelped to intensify in many, those mental states all too prevalent inour common human life. And as she passed our friend one could notice aslight turn of the head which, coupled with the expression in her face, seemed to indicate this as her thought, --Your dress and your conductare not wholly in keeping with a lady of your years. Thank God, then, thank God they are not. And may He in His great goodness and love sendus an innumerable company of the same rare type; and may they live athousand years to bless mankind, to impart the life-giving influencesof their own royal lives to the numerous ones all about us who stand somuch in need of them. 

Would you remain always young, and would you carry all the joyousnessand buoyancy of youth into your maturer years? Then have careconcerning but one thing, --how you live in your thought world. Thiswill determine all. It was the inspired one, Gautama, the Buddha, whosaid, --"The mind is everything; what you think you become. " And thesame thing had Ruskin in mind when he said, --"Make yourself nests ofpleasant thoughts. None of us as yet know, for none of us have beentaught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautifulthought, --_proof against all adversity_. "

And would you have in your body all the elasticity, all the strength, all the beauty of your younger years? Then live these in your mind, making no room for unclean thought, and you will externalize them inyour body. In the degree that you keep young in thought will youremain young in body. And you will find that your body will in turnaid your mind, for body helps mind the same as mind builds body. 

You are continually building, and so externalizing in your bodyconditions most akin to the thoughts and emotions you entertain. Andnot only are you so building from within, but you are also continuallydrawing from without, forces of a kindred nature. Your particular kindof thought connects you with a similar order of thought from without. If it is bright, hopeful, cheerful, you connect yourself with a currentof thought of this nature. If it is sad, fearing, despondent, thenthis is the order of thought you connect yourself with. 

If the latter is the order of your thought, then perhaps unconsciouslyand by degrees you have been connecting yourself with it. You need togo back and pick up again a part of your child nature, with itscareless and cheerful type of thought. "The minds of the group ofchildren at play are unconsciously concentrated in drawing to theirbodies a current of playful thought. Place a child by itself, depriveit of its companions, and soon it will mope and become slow ofmovement. It is cut off from that peculiar thought current and isliterally 'out of its element. '

"You need to bring again this current of playful thought to you whichhas gradually been turned off. You are too serious or sad, or absorbedin the serious affairs of life. You can be playful and cheerfulwithout being puerile or silly. You can carry on business all thebetter for being in the playful mood when your mind is off yourbusiness. There is nothing but ill resulting from the permanent moodof sadness and seriousness, --the mood which by many so long maintainedmakes it actually difficult for them to smile at all. 

"At eighteen or twenty you commenced growing out of the more playfultendency of early youth. You took hold of the more serious side oflife. You went into some business. You became more or less involvedin its cares, perplexities and responsibilities. Or, as man or woman, you entered on some phase of life involving care or trouble. Or youbecame absorbed in some game of business which, as you followed it, left no time for play. Then as you associated with older people youabsorbed their old ideas, their mechanical methods of thinking, theiracceptance of errors without question or thought of question. In allthis you opened your mind to a heavy, care-laden current of thought. Into this you glided unconsciously. That thought is materialized inyour blood and flesh. The seen of your body is a deposit orcrystallization of the unseen element ever flowing to your body fromyour mind. Years pass on and you find that your movements are stiffand cumbrous, --that you can with difficulty climb a tree, as atfourteen. Your mind has all this time been sending to your body theseheavy, inelastic elements, making your body what now it is. . . . 

"Your change for the better must be gradual, and can only beaccomplished by bringing the thought current of an all-roundsymmetrical strength to bear on it, --by demanding of the Supreme Powerto be led in the best way, by diverting your mind from the manyunhealthy thoughts which habitually have been flowing into it withoutyour knowing it, to healthier ones. . . . 

"Like the beast, the bodies of those of our race have in the pastweakened and decayed. This will not always be. Increase of spiritualknowledge will show the cause of such decay, and will show, also, howto take advantage of a Law or Force to build us up, renew ever the bodyand give it greater and greater strength, instead of blindly using thatLaw or Force, as has been done in the past, to weaken our bodies andfinally destroy them. "

Full, rich, and abounding health is the normal and the naturalcondition of life. Anything else is an abnormal condition, andabnormal conditions as a rule come through perversions. God nevercreated sickness, suffering, and disease; they are man's own creations. They come through his violating the laws under which he lives. So usedare we to seeing them that we come gradually, if not to think of themas natural, then to look upon them as a matter of course. 

The time will come when the work of the physician will not be to treatand attempt to heal the body, but to heal the mind, which in turn willheal the body. In other words, the true physician will be a teacher;his work will be to keep people well, instead of attempting to makethem well after sickness and disease comes on; and still beyond thisthere will come a time when each will be his own physician. In thedegree that we live in harmony with the higher laws of our being, andso, in the degree that we become better acquainted with the powers ofthe mind and spirit, will we give less attention to the body, --no less_care_, but less _attention_. 

The bodies of thousands today would be much better cared for if theirowners gave them less thought and attention. As a rule, those whothink least of their bodies enjoy the best health. Many are kept incontinual ill health by the abnormal thought and attention they givethem. 

Give the body the nourishment, the exercise, the fresh air, thesunlight it requires, keep it clean, and then think of it as little aspossible. In your thoughts and in your conversation never dwell uponthe negative side. Don't talk of sickness and disease. By talking ofthese you do yourself harm and you do harm to those who listen to you. Talk of those things that will make people the better for listening toyou. Thus you will infect them with health and strength and not withweakness and disease. 

To dwell upon the negative side is always destructive. This is true ofthe body the same as it is true of all other things. The followingfrom one whose thorough training as a physician has been supplementedby extensive study and observations along the lines of the powers ofthe interior forces, are of special significance and value in thisconnection: "We can never gain health by contemplating disease, anymore than we can reach perfection by dwelling upon imperfection, orharmony through discord. We should keep a high ideal of health andharmony constantly before the mind. . . . 

"Never affirm or repeat about your health what you do not wish to betrue. Do not dwell upon your ailments, nor study your symptoms. Neverallow yourself to be convinced that you are not complete master ofyourself. Stoutly affirm your superiority over bodily ills, and do notacknowledge yourself the slave of any inferior power. . . . I wouldteach children early to build a strong barrier between themselves anddisease, by healthy habits of thought, high thinking, and purity oflife. I would teach them to expel all thoughts of death, all images ofdisease, all discordant emotions, like hatred, malice, revenge, envy, and sensuality, as they would banish a temptation to do evil. I wouldteach them that bad food, bad drink, or bad air makes bad blood; thatbad blood makes bad tissue, and bad flesh bad morals. I would teachthem that healthy thoughts are as essential to healthy bodies as purethoughts to a clean life. I would teach them to cultivate a strongwill power, and to brace themselves against life's enemies in everypossible way. I would teach the sick to have hope, confidence, cheer. Our thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits to ourpossibilities. No man's success or health will ever reach beyond hisown confidence; as a rule, we erect our own barriers. 

"Like produces like the universe through. Hatred, envy, malice, jealousy, and revenge all have children. Every bad thought breedsothers, and each of these goes on and on, ever reproducing itself, until our world is peopled with their offspring. The true physicianand parent of the future will not medicate the body with drugs so muchas the mind with principles. The coming mother will teach her child toassuage the fever of anger, hatred, malice, with the great panacea ofthe world, --Love. The coming physician will teach the people tocultivate cheerfulness, good-will, and noble deeds for a health tonicas well as a heart tonic; and that a merry heart doeth good like amedicine. "

The health of your body, the same as the health and strength of yourmind, depends upon what you relate yourself with. This Infinite Spiritof Life, this Source of all Life, can from its very nature, we havefound, admit of no weakness, no disease. Come then into the full, conscious, vital realization of your oneness with this Infinite Life, open yourself to its more abundant entrance, and full and ever-renewingbodily health and strength will be yours. 

 "And good may ever conquer ill, Health walk where pain has trod; 'As a man thinketh, so is he, ' Rise, then, and think with God. "

The whole matter may then be summed up in the one sentence, "God iswell and so are you. " You must awaken to the knowledge of your _realbeing_. When this awakening comes, you will have, and you will seethat you have, the power to determine what conditions are externalizedin your body. You must recognize, you must realize yourself as onewith Infinite Spirit. God's will is then your will; your will is God'swill, and "with God all things are possible. " When we are able to doaway with all sense of separateness by living continually in therealization of this oneness, not only will our bodily ills andweaknesses vanish, but all limitations along all lines. 

Then "delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desiresof thine heart. " Then will you feel like crying all the day long, "Thelines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodlyheritage. " Drop out of mind your belief in good things and good eventscoming to you in the future. Come _now_ into the real life, andcoming, appropriate and actualize them _now_. Remember that only thebest is good enough for one with a heritage so royal as yours. 

 "We buy ashes for bread; We buy diluted wine; Give me the true, -- Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled Among the silver hills of heaven, Draw everlasting dew. "

THE SECRET, POWER, AND EFFECTS OF LOVE. 

This is the Spirit of Infinite Love. The moment we recognize ourselvesas one with it we become so filled with love that we see only the goodin all. And when we realize that we are all one with this InfiniteSpirit, then we realize that in a sense we are all one with each other. When we come into a recognition of this fact, we can then do no harm toany one, to any thing. We find that we are all members of the onegreat body, and that no portion of the body can be harmed without allthe other portions suffering thereby. 

When we fully realize the great fact of the oneness of all life, --thatall are partakers from this one Infinite Source, and so that the samelife is the life in each individual, then prejudices go and hatredscease. Love grows and reigns supreme. Then, wherever we go, wheneverwe come in contact with the fellow-man, we are able to recognize theGod within. We thus look only for the good, and we find it. It alwayspays. 

There is a deep scientific fact underlying the great truth, "He thattakes the sword shall perish by the sword. " The moment we come into arealization of the subtle powers of the thought forces, we can quicklysee that the moment we entertain any thoughts of hatred toward another, he gets the effects of these diabolical forces that go out from us, andhas the same thoughts of hatred aroused in him, which in turn return tothe sender. Then when we understand the effects of the passion, hatredor anger, even upon the physical body, we can see how detrimental, howexpensive this is. The same is true in regard to all kindred thoughtsor passions, envy, criticism, jealousy, scorn. In the ultimate weshall find that in entertaining feelings of this nature toward another, we always suffer far more than the one toward whom we entertain them. 

And then when we fully realize the fact that selfishness is at the rootof all error, sin, and crime, and that ignorance is the basis of allselfishness, with what charity we come to look upon the acts of all. It is the ignorant man who seeks his own ends at the expense of thegreater whole. It is the ignorant man, therefore, who is the selfishman. The truly wise man is never selfish. He is a seer, andrecognizes the fact that he, a single member of the one great body, isbenefited in just the degree that the entire body is benefited, and sohe seeks nothing for himself that he would not equally seek for allmankind. 

If selfishness is at the bottom of all error, sin, and crime, andignorance is the basis of all selfishness, then when we see amanifestation of either of these qualities, if we are true to thehighest within us, we will look for and will seek to call forth thegood in each individual with whom we come in contact. When God speaksto God, then God responds, and shows forth as God. But when devilspeaks to devil, then devil responds, and the devil is always to pay. 

I sometimes hear a person say, "I don't see any good in him. " No?Then you are no seer. Look deeper and you will find the very God inevery human soul. But remember it takes a God to recognize a God. Christ always spoke to the highest, the truest, and the best in men. He knew and he recognized the God in each because he had first realizedit in himself. He ate with publicans and sinners. Abominable, theScribes and Pharisees said. They were so wrapped up in their ownconceits, their own self-centredness, hence their own ignorance, thatthey had never found the God in themselves, and so they never dreamedthat it was the real life of even publicans and sinners. 

In the degree that we hold a person in the thought of evil or of error, do we suggest evil and error to him. In the degree that he issensitively organized, or not well individualized, and so, subject tothe suggestions of the thought forces from others, will he beinfluenced; and so in this way we may be sharers in the very evil-doingin which we hold another in thought. In the same way when we hold aperson in the thought of the right, the good, and the true, righteousness, goodness, and truth are suggested to him, and thus wehave a most beneficent influence on his life and conduct. If ourhearts go out in love to all with whom we come in contact, we inspirelove, and the same ennobling and warming influences of love alwaysreturn to us from those in whom we inspire them. There is a deepscientific principle underlying the precept--If you would have all theworld love you, you must first love all the world. 

In the degree that we love will we be loved. Thoughts are forces. Each creates of its kind. Each comes back laden with the effect thatcorresponds to itself and of which it is the cause. 

 "Then let your secret thoughts be fair-- They have a vital part, and share In shaping words and moulding fate; God's system is so intricate. "

I know of no better practice than that of a friend who continuallyholds himself in an attitude of mind that he continually sends out hislove in the form of the thought, --"Dear everybody, I love you. " Andwhen we realize the fact that a thought invariably produces its effectbefore it returns, or before it ceases, we can see how he iscontinually breathing out a blessing not only upon all with whom hecomes in contact, but upon all the world. These same thoughts of love, moreover, tokened in various ways, are continually coming to him fromall quarters. 

Even animals feel the effects of these forces. Some animals are muchmore sensitively organized than many people are, and consequently theyget the effects of our thoughts, our mental states, and emotions muchmore readily than many people do. Therefore whenever we meet an animalwe can do it good by sending out to it these thoughts of love. It willfeel the effects whether we simply entertain or whether we voice them. And it is often interesting to note how quickly it responds, and howreadily it gives evidence of its appreciation of this love andconsideration on our part. 

What a privilege and how enjoyable it would be to live and walk in aworld where we meet only Gods. In such a world you can live. In sucha world I can live. For in the degree that we come into this higherrealization do we see only the God in each human soul; and when we arethus able to see Him in every one we meet, we then live in such a world. 

And when we thus recognize the God in every one, we by this recognitionhelp to call it forth ever more and more. What a privilege, --thisprivilege of yours, this privilege of mine! That hypocritical judgingof another is something then with which we can have nothing to do; forwe have the power of looking beyond the evolving, changing, error-making self, and seeing the real, the changeless, the eternalself which by and by will show forth in the full beauty of holiness. We are then large enough also to realize the fact that when we condemnanother, by that very act we condemn ourselves. 

This realization so fills us with love that we continually overflow it, and all with whom we come in contact feel its warming and life-givingpower. These in turn send back the same feelings of love to us, and sowe continually attract love from all quarters. Tell me how much oneloves and I will tell you how much he has seen of God. Tell me howmuch he loves and I will tell you how much he lives with God. Tell mehow much he loves and I will tell you how far into the Kingdom ofHeaven, --the kingdom of harmony, he has entered, for "love is thefulfilling of the law. "

And in a sense love is everything. It is the key to life, and itsinfluences are those that move the world. Live only in the thought oflove for all and you will draw love to you from all. Live in thethought of malice or hatred, and malice and hatred will come back toyou. 

 "For evil poisons; malice shafts Like boomerangs return, Inflicting wounds that will not heal While rage and anger burn. "

Every thought you entertain is a force that goes out, and every thoughtcomes back laden with its kind. This is an immutable law. Everythought you entertain has moreover a direct effect upon your body. Love and its kindred emotions are the normal and the natural, those inaccordance with the eternal order of the universe, for "God is love. "These have a life-giving, health-engendering influence upon your body, besides beautifying your countenance, enriching your voice, and makingyou ever more attractive in every way. And as it is true that in thedegree that you hold thoughts of love for all, you call the same fromthem in return, and as these have a direct effect upon your mind, andthrough your mind upon your body, it is as so much life force added toyour own from without. You are then continually building this intoboth your mental and your physical life, and so your life is enrichedby its influence. 

Hatred and all its kindred emotions are the unnatural, the abnormal, the perversions, and so, out of harmony with the eternal order of theuniverse. For if love is the fulfilling of the law, then these, itsopposites, are direct violations of law, and there can never be aviolation of law without its attendant pain and suffering in one formor another. There is no escape from this. And what is the result ofthis particular form of violation? When you allow thoughts of anger, hatred, malice, jealousy, envy, criticism, or scorn to exercise sway, they have a corroding and poisoning effect upon the organism; they pullit down, and if allowed to continue will eventually tear it to piecesby externalizing themselves in the particular forms of disease theygive rise to. And then in addition to the destructive influences fromyour own mind you are continually calling the same influences fromother minds, and these come as destructive forces augmenting your own, thus aiding in the tearing down process. 

And so love inspires love; hatred breeds hatred. Love and good willstimulate and build up the body; hatred and malice corrode and tear itdown. Love is a savor of life unto life; hatred is a savor of deathunto death. 

 "There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave, There are souls that are pure and true; Then give to the world the best you have, And the best will come back to you. 

 "Give love, and love to _your_ heart will flow, A strength in your utmost need; Have faith, and a score of hearts will show Their faith in _your_ word and deed. "

I hear it said, --How in regard to one who bears me hatred, towards whomI have entertained no such thoughts and feelings, and so have not beenthe cause of his becoming my enemy? This may be true, but the chancesare that you will have but few enemies if there is nothing of anantagonistic nature in your own mind and heart. Be sure there isnothing of this nature. But if hatred should come from another withoutapparent cause on your part, then meet it from first to last withthoughts of love and good-will. In this way you can, so to speak, soneutralize its effects that it cannot reach you and so cannot harm you. Love is positive, and stronger than hatred. Hatred can always beconquered by love. 

On the other hand, if you meet hatred with hatred, you simply intensifyit. You add fuel to the flame already kindled, upon which it will feedand grow, and so you increase and intensify the evil conditions. Nothing is to be gained by it, everything is to be lost. By sendinglove for hatred you will be able so to neutralize it that it will notonly have no effect upon you, but will not be able even to reach you. But more than this, you will by this course sooner or later be ableliterally to transmute the enemy into the friend. Meet hatred withhatred and you degrade yourself. Meet hatred with love and you elevatenot only yourself but also the one who bears you hatred. 

The Persian sage has said, "Always meet petulance with gentleness, andperverseness with kindness. A gentle hand can lead even an elephant bya hair. Reply to thine enemy with gentleness. Opposition to peace issin. " The Buddhist says, "If a man foolishly does me wrong I willreturn him the protection of my ungrudging love. The more evil comesfrom him the more good shall go from me. " "The wise man avengesinjuries by benefits, " says the Chinese. "Return good for evil, overcome anger by love; hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love, "says the Hindu. 

The truly wise man or woman will recognize no one as an enemy. Occasionally we hear the expression, "Never mind; I'll get even withhim. " Will you? And how will you do it? You can do it in one of twoways. You can, as you have in mind, deal with him as he deals, orapparently deals, with you, --pay him, as we say, in his own coin. Ifyou do this you will get even with him by sinking yourself to hislevel, and both of you will suffer by it. Or, you can show yourselfthe larger, you can send him love for hatred, kindness forill-treatment, and so get even with him by raising him to the higherlevel. But remember that you can never help another without by thatvery act helping yourself; and if forgetful of self, then in most allcases the value to you is greater than the service you render another. If you are ready to treat him as he treats you, then you show clearlythat there is in you that which draws the hatred and ill-treatment toyou; you deserve what you are getting and should not complain, norwould you complain if you were wise. By following the other course youmost effectually accomplish your purpose, --you gain a victory foryourself, and at the same time you do a great service for him, forwhich it is evident he stands greatly in need. 

Thus you may become his saviour. He in turn may become the saviour ofother error-making, and consequently care-encumbered men and women. Many times the struggles are greater than we can ever know. We needmore gentleness and sympathy and compassion in our common human life. Then we will neither blame nor condemn. Instead of blaming orcondemning we will sympathize, and all the more we will

 "Comfort one another, For the way is often dreary, And the feet are often weary, And the heart is very sad. There is a heavy burden bearing, When it seems that none are caring, And we half forget that ever we were glad

 "Comfort one another With the hand-clasp close and tender, With the sweetness love can render, And the looks of friendly eyes. Do not wait with grace unspoken, While life's daily bread is broken-- Gentle speech is oft like manna from the skies. "

When we come fully to realize the great fact that all evil and errorand sin with all their consequent sufferings come through ignorance, then wherever we see a manifestation of these in whatever form, if ourhearts are right, we will have compassion, sympathy and compassion forthe one in whom we see them. Compassion will then change itself intolove, and love will manifest itself in kindly service. Such is thedivine method. And so instead of aiding in trampling and keeping aweaker one down, we will hold him up until he can stand alone andbecome the master. But all life-growth is from within out, and onebecomes a true master in the degree that the knowledge of the divinityof his own nature dawns upon his inner consciousness and so brings himto a knowledge of the higher laws; and in no way can we so effectuallyhasten this dawning in the inner consciousness of another, as byshowing forth the divinity within ourselves simply by the way we live. 

By example and not by precept. By living, not by preaching. By doing, not by professing. By living the life, not by dogmatizing as to how itshould be lived. There is no contagion equal to the contagion of life. Whatever we sow, that shall we also reap, and each thing sown producesof its kind. We can kill not only by doing another bodily injurydirectly, but we can and we do kill by every antagonistic thought. Notonly do we thus kill, but while we kill we suicide. Many a man hasbeen made sick by having the ill thoughts of a number of people centredupon him; some have been actually killed. Put hatred into the worldand we make it a literal hell. Put love into the world and heaven withall its beauties and glories becomes a reality. 

Not to love is not to live, or it is to live a living death. The lifethat goes out in love to all is the life that is full, and rich, andcontinually expanding in beauty and in power. Such is the life thatbecomes ever more inclusive, and hence larger in its scope andinfluence. The larger the man and the woman, the more inclusive theyare in their love and their friendships. The smaller the man and thewoman, the more dwarfed and dwindling their natures, the more theypride themselves upon their "exclusiveness. " Any one--a fool or anidiot--can be exclusive. It comes easy. It takes and it signifies alarge nature to be universal, to be inclusive. Only the man or thewoman of a small, personal, self-centred, self-seeking nature isexclusive. The man or the woman of a large, royal, unself-centrednature never is. The small nature is the one that continually strivesfor effect. The larger nature never does. The one goes here and therein order to gain recognition, in order to attach himself to the world. The other stays at home and draws the world _to him_. The one lovesmerely himself. The other loves all the world; but in his larger lovefor all the world he finds himself included. 

Verily, then, the more one loves the nearer he approaches to God, forGod is the spirit of infinite love. And when we come into therealization of our oneness with this Infinite Spirit, then divine loveso fills us that, enriching and enrapturing our own lives, from them itflows out to enrich the life of all the world. 

In coming into the realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life, we are brought at once into right relations with our fellowmen. We arebrought into harmony with the great law, that we find our own lives inlosing them in the service of others. We are brought to a knowledge ofthe fact that all life is one, and so that we are all parts of the onegreat whole. We then realize that we can't do for another without atthe same time doing for ourselves. We also realize that we cannot doharm to another without by that very act doing harm to ourselves. Werealize that the man who lives to himself alone lives a little, dwarfed, and stunted life, because he has no part in this larger lifeof humanity. But the one who in service loses his own life in thislarger life, has his own life increased and enriched a thousand or amillion fold, and every joy, every happiness, everything of valuecoming to each member of this greater whole comes as such to him, forhe has a part in the life of each and all. 

And here let a word be said in regard to true service. Peter and Johnwere one day going up to the temple, and as they were entering the gatethey were met by a poor cripple who asked them for alms. Instead ofgiving him something to supply the day's needs and then leaving him inthe same dependent condition for the morrow and the morrow, Peter didhim a real service, and a real service for all mankind by saying, Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee. _Andthen he made him whole_. He thus brought him into the condition wherehe could help himself. In other words, the greatest service we can dofor another is to help him to help himself. To help him directly mightbe weakening, though not necessarily. It depends entirely uponcircumstances. But to help one to help himself is never weakening, butalways encouraging and strengthening, because it leads him to a largerand stronger life. 

There is no better way to help one to help himself than to bring him toa knowledge of himself. There is no better way to bring one to aknowledge of himself than to lead him to a knowledge of the powers thatare lying dormant within his own soul. There is nothing that willenable him to come more readily or more completely into an awakenedknowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within his own soul, than to bring him into the conscious, vital realization of his onenesswith the Infinite Life and Power, so that he may open himself to it inorder that it may work and manifest through him. 

We will find that these same great truths lie at the very bottom of thesolution of our social situation; and we will also find that we willnever have a full and permanent solution of it until they are fullyrecognized and built upon. 

WISDOM AND INTERIOR ILLUMINATION. 

This is the Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, and in the degree that we openourselves to it does the highest wisdom manifest itself to and throughus. We can in this way go to the very heart of the universe itself andfind the mysteries hidden to the majority of mankind, --hidden to them, though not hidden of themselves. 

In order for the highest wisdom and insight we must have absoluteconfidence in the Divine guiding us, but not through the channel of someone else. And why should we go to another for knowledge and wisdom?With God is no respect of persons. Why should we seek these thingssecond hand? Why should we thus stultify our own innate powers? Whyshould we not go direct to the Infinite Source itself? "If any man lackwisdom let him ask of God. " "Before they call I will answer, and whilethey are yet speaking, I will hear. "

When we thus go directly to the Infinite Source itself we are no longerslaves to personalities, institutions, or books. We should always keepourselves open to suggestions of truth from these agencies. We shouldalways regard them as agencies, however, and never as sources. We shouldnever recognize them as masters, but simply as teachers. With Browning, we must recognize the great fact that--

 "Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise From outward things, whate'er you may believe. There is an inmost centre in us all, Where truth abides in fullness. "

There is no more important injunction in all the world, nor one with adeeper interior meaning, than "To thine own self be true. " In otherwords, be true to your own soul, for it is through your own soul that thevoice of God speaks to you. This is the interior guide. This is thelight that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. This isconscience. This is intuition. This is the voice of the higher self, the voice of the soul, the voice of God. "Thou shalt hear a voice behindthee, saying: This is the way, walk ye in it. "

When Moses was on the mountain it was after the various physicalcommotions and manifestations that he heard the "still, small voice, " thevoice of his own soul, through which the Infinite God was speaking. Ifwe will but follow this voice of intuition, it will speak ever moreclearly and more plainly, until by and by it will be absolute andunerring in its guidance. The great trouble with us is that we do notlisten to and do not follow this voice within our own souls, and so webecome as a house divided against itself. We are pulled this way andthat, and we are never _certain_ of anything. I have a friend wholistens so carefully to this inner voice, who, in other words, alwaysacts so quickly and so fully in accordance with his intuitions, and whoselife as a consequence is so absolutely guided by them, that he alwaysdoes the right thing at the right time and in the right way. He alwaysknows when to act and how to act, and he is never in the condition of ahouse divided against itself. 

But some one says, "May it not be dangerous for us to act always upon ourintuitions? Suppose we should have an intuition to do harm to some one?"We need not be afraid of this, however, for the voice of the soul, thisvoice of God speaking through the soul, will never direct one to do harmto another, nor to do anything that is not in accordance with the higheststandards of right, and truth, and justice. And if you at any time havea prompting of this kind, know that it is not the voice of intuition; itis some characteristic of your lower self that is prompting you. 

Reason is not to be set aside, but it is to be continually illumined bythis higher spiritual perception, and in the degree that it is thusillumined will it become an agent of light and power. When one becomesthoroughly individualized he enters into the realm of all knowledge andwisdom; and to be individualized is to recognize no power outside of theInfinite Power that is back of all. When one recognizes this great factand opens himself to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, he then enters uponthe road to the true education, and mysteries that before were closed nowreveal themselves to him. This must indeed be the foundation of all trueeducation, this evolving from within, this evolving of what has beeninvolved by the Infinite Power. 

All things that it is valuable for us to know will come to us if we willbut open ourselves to the voice of this Infinite Spirit. It is thus thatwe become seers and have the power of seeing into the very heart ofthings. There are no new stars, there are no new laws or forces, but wecan so open ourselves to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom that we candiscover and recognize those that have not been known before; and in thisway they become new to us. When in this way we come into a knowledge oftruth we no longer need facts that are continually changing. We can thenenter into the quiet of our own interior selves. We can open the windowand look out, and thus gather the facts as we choose. This is truewisdom. "Wisdom is the knowledge of God. " Wisdom comes by intuition. It far transcends knowledge. Great knowledge, knowledge of many things, may be had by virtue simply of a very retentive memory. It comes bytuition. But wisdom far transcends knowledge, in that knowledge is amere incident of this deeper wisdom. 

He who would enter into the realm of wisdom must first divest himself ofall intellectual pride. He must become as a little child. Prejudices, preconceived opinions and beliefs always stand in the way of true wisdom. Conceited opinions are always suicidal in their influences. They bar thedoor to the entrance of truth. 

All about us we see men in the religious world, in the world of science, in the political, in the social world, who through intellectual pride areso wrapped in their own conceits and prejudices that larger and laterrevelations of truth can find no entrance to them; and instead of growingand expanding, they are becoming dwarfed and stunted, and still moreincapable of receiving truth. Instead of actively aiding in the progressof the world, they are as so many dead sticks in the way that wouldretard the wheels of progress. This, however, they can never do. Suchalways in time get bruised, broken, and left behind, while God'striumphal car of truth moves steadily onward. 

When the steam engine was still being experimented with, and before itwas perfected sufficiently to come into practical use, a well-knownEnglishman--well known then in scientific circles--wrote an extendedpamphlet proving that it would be impossible for it ever to be used inocean navigation, that is, in a trip involving the crossing of the ocean, because it would be utterly impossible for any vessel to carry with itsufficient coal for the use of its furnace. And the interesting featureof the whole matter was that the very first steam vessel that made thetrip from England to America, had among its cargo a part of the firstedition of this carefully prepared pamphlet. There was only the oneedition. Many editions might be sold now. 

This seems indeed an amusing fact; but far more amusing is the man whovoluntarily closes himself to truth because, forsooth, it does not comethrough conventional, or orthodox, or heretofore accepted channels; orbecause it may not be in full accord with, or possibly may be opposed to, established usages or beliefs. On the contrary--

 "Let there be many windows in your soul, That all the glory of the universe May beautify it. Not the narrow pane Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays That shine from countless sources. Tear away The blinds of superstition: let the light Pour through fair windows, broad as truth itself And high as heaven. . . . Tune your ear To all the worldless music of the stars And to the voice of nature, and your heart Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant Turns to the sun. A thousand unseen hands Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights, And all the forces of the firmament Shall fortify your strength. Be not afraid To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole. "

There is a great law in connection with the coming of truth. It is this:Whenever a man or a woman shuts himself or herself to the entrance oftruth on account of intellectual pride, preconceived opinions, prejudices, or for whatever reason, there is a great law which says thattruth _in its fullness_ will come to that one from no source. And on theother hand, when a man or a woman opens himself or herself fully to theentrance of truth from _whatever_ source it may come, there is an equallygreat law which says that truth will flow in to him or to her from allsources, from all quarters. Such becomes the free man, the free woman, for it is the truth that makes us free. The other remains in bondage, for truth has had no invitation and will not enter where it is not fullyand freely welcomed. 

And where truth is denied entrance the rich blessings it carries with itcannot take up their abode. On the contrary, when this is the case, itsends an envoy carrying with it atrophy, disease, death, physically andspiritually as well as intellectually. And the man who would rob anotherof his free and unfettered search for truth, who would stand as theinterpreter of truth for another, with the intent of remaining in thisposition, rather than endeavoring to lead him to the place where he canbe his own interpreter, is more to be shunned than a thief and a robber. The injury he works is far greater, for he is doing direct and positiveinjury to the very life of the one he thus holds. 

Who has ever appointed any man, whoever he may be, as the keeper, thecustodian, the dispenser of God's illimitable truth? Many indeed aremoved and so are called to be teachers of truth; but the true teacherwill never stand as the interpreter of truth for another. The _trueteacher_ is the one whose endeavor is to bring the one he teaches to atrue knowledge of himself and hence of his own interior powers, that hemay become his own interpreter. All others are, generally speaking, those animated by purely personal motives, self-aggrandizement, orpersonal gain. Moreover, he who would claim to have all truth and theonly truth, is a bigot, a fool, or a knave. 

In the Eastern literature is a fable of a frog. The frog lived in awell, and out of his little well he had never been. One day a frog whosehome was in the sea came to his well. Interested in all things, he wentin. "Who are you? Where do you live?" said the frog in the well. "I amso and so, and my home is in the sea. " "The sea? What is that? Whereis that?" "It is a very large body of water, and not far away. " "Howbig is your sea?" "Oh, very big. " "As big as this?" pointing to alittle stone lying near. "Oh, much bigger. " "As big as this?" pointingto the board upon which they were sitting. "Oh, much bigger. " "How muchbigger, then?" "Why, the sea in which I live is bigger than your entirewell; it would make millions of wells such as yours. " "Nonsense, nonsense; you are a deceiver and a falsifier. Get out of my well. Getout of my well. I want nothing to do with any such frogs as you. "

"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free, " is thepromise. Ye shall close yourselves to truth, ye shall live in your ownconceits, and your own conceits shall make fools and idiots of you, wouldbe a statement applicable to not a few, and to not a few who pridethemselves upon their superior intellectual attainments. Idiocy isarrested mental growth. Closing one's self for whatever reason to truthand hence to growth, brings a certain type of idiocy, though it may notbe called by this name. And on the other hand, another type is thatarrested growth caused by taking all things for granted, without provingthem for one's self, merely because they come from a particular person, aparticular book, a particular institution. This is caused by one'salways looking without instead of being true to the light within, andcarefully tending it that it may give an ever-clearer light. 

With brave and intrepid Walt Whitman, we should all be able to say--

 "From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, Going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will divesting myself of the holds that would hold me. "

Great should be the joy that God's boundless truth is open to all, open_equally_ to all, and that it will make each one its dwelling place inproportion as he earnestly desires it and opens himself to it. 

And in regard to the wisdom that guides us in our daily life, there isnothing that it is right and well for us to know that may not be knownwhen we recognize the law of its coming, and are able wisely to use it. Let us know that all things are ours as soon as we know how toappropriate them. 

 "I hold it as a changeless law, From which no soul can sway or swerve, We have that in us which will draw Whate'er we need or most deserve. "

If the times come when we know not what course to pursue, when we knownot which way to turn, the fault lies in ourselves. If the fault lies inourselves then the correction of this unnatural condition lies also inourselves. It is never necessary to come into such a state if we areawake and remain awake to the light and the powers within us. The lightis ever shining, and the only thing that it is necessary for usdiligently to see to is that we permit neither this thing nor that tocome between us and the light. "With Thee is the fountain of life; inThy light shall we see light. "

Let us hear the words of one of the most highly illumined men I have everknown, and one who as a consequence is never in the dark, when the timecomes, as to what to do and how to do it. "Whenever you are in doubt asto the course you should pursue, after you have turned to every outwardmeans of guidance, _let the inward eye see, let the inward ear hear_, andallow this simple, natural, beautiful process to go on unimpeded byquestionings or doubts. . . . In all dark hours and times of unwontedperplexity we need to follow one simple direction, found, as all neededdirections can be found, in the dear old gospel, which so many read, butalas, _so few interpret_. 'Enter into thine inner chamber and shut thedoor. ' Does this mean that we must literally betake ourselves to aprivate closet with a key in the door? If it did, then the command couldnever be obeyed in the open air, on land or sea, and the Christ loved thelakes and the forests far better than the cramping rooms of city dwellinghouses; still his counsels are so wide-reaching that there is no spot onearth and no conceivable situation in which any of us may be placed wherewe cannot follow them. 

"One of the most intuitive men we ever met had a desk in a city officewhere several other gentlemen were doing business constantly and oftentalking loudly. Entirely undisturbed by the many various sounds abouthim, this self-centred, faithful man would, in any moment of perplexity, draw the curtains of privacy so completely about him that he would be asfully enclosed in his own psychic aura, and thereby as effectuallyremoved from all distractions as though he were alone in some primevalwood. Taking his difficulty with him into the mystic silence in the formof a direct question, to which he expected a certain answer, he wouldremain utterly passive until the reply came, and never once through manyyears' experience did he find himself disappointed or misled. Intuitiveperceptions of truth are the daily bread to satisfy our daily hunger;they come like the manna in the desert day by day; each day bringsadequate supply for that day's need only. They must be followedinstantly, for dalliance with them means their obscuration, and the morewe dally the more we invite erroneous impressions to cover intuition witha pall of conflicting moral phantasy born of illusions of the terrencewill. 

"One condition is imposed by _universal law_, and this we must obey. Putall wishes aside save the one desire to know _truth_; couple with thisone demand the fully consecrated determination to follow what isdistinctly perceived as truth immediately it is revealed. No otheraffection must be permitted to share the field with this all-absorbinglove of _truth_ for its own sake. Obey this one direction and neverforget that expectation and desire are bride and bridegroom and foreverinseparable, and you will soon find your hitherto darkened way growluminous with celestial radiance, for with the heaven within, all heavenswithout incessantly co-operate. " This may be termed going into the"silence. " This it is to perceive and to be guided by the light thatlighteth every man that cometh into the world. This it is to listen toand be guided by the voice of your own soul, the voice of your higherself. 

The soul is divine and in allowing it to become translucent to theInfinite Spirit it reveals all things to us. As man turns away from theDivine Light do all things become hidden. There is nothing hidden ofitself. When the spiritual sense is opened, then it transcends all thelimitations of the physical senses and the intellect. And in the degreethat we are able to get away from the limitations set by them, andrealize that so far as the real life is concerned it is one with theInfinite Life, then we begin to reach the place where this voice willalways speak, where it will never fail us, if we follow it, and as aconsequence where we will always have the divine illumination andguidance. To know this and to live in this realization is not to live inheaven hereafter, but to live in heaven here and now, _today and everyday_. 

No human soul need be without it. When we turn our face in the rightdirection it comes as simply and as naturally as the flower blooms andthe winds blow. It is not to be bought with money or with price. It isa condition waiting simply to be realized, by rich and by poor, by kingand by peasant, by master and by servant the world over. All are equalheirs to it. And so the peasant, if he find it first, lives a life fartranscending in beauty and in real power the life of his king. Theservant, if he find it first, lives a life surpassing the life of hismaster. 

If you would find the highest, the fullest, and the richest life that notonly this world but that any world can know, then do away with the senseof the separateness of your life from the life of God. Hold to thethought of your oneness. In the degree that you do this you will findyourself realizing it more and more, and as this life of realization islived, you will find that no good thing will be withheld, for all thingsare included in this. Then it will be yours, without fears orforebodings, simply to do today what your hands find to do, and so beready for tomorrow, _when it comes_, knowing that tomorrow will bringtomorrow's supplies for the mental, the spiritual, and the physical life. Remember, however, that tomorrow's supplies are not needed until tomorrowcomes. 

If one is willing to trust himself _fully_ to the Law, the Law will neverfail him. It is the half-hearted trusting to it that brings uncertain, and so, unsatisfactory results. Nothing is firmer and surer than Deity. It will never fail the one who throws himself wholly upon it. The secretof life then, is to live continually in this realization, whatever onemay be doing, wherever one may be, by day and by night, both waking andsleeping. It can be lived in while we are sleeping no less than when weare awake. And here shall we consider a few facts in connection withsleep, in connection with receiving instruction and illumination whileasleep?

During the process of sleep it is merely the physical body that is atrest and in quiet; the soul life with all its activities goes right on. Sleep is nature's provision for the recuperation of the body, for therebuilding and hence the replacing of the waste that is continually goingon during the waking hours. It is nature's great restorer. Ifsufficient sleep is not allowed the body, so that the rebuilding mayequalize the wasting process, the body is gradually depleted andweakened, and any ailment or malady, when it is in this condition, isable to find a more ready entrance. It is for this reason that those whoare subject to it will take a cold, as we term it, more readily when thebody is tired or exhausted through loss of sleep than at most any othertime. The body is in that condition where outside influences can have amore ready effect upon it, than when it is in its normal condition. Andwhen they do have an effect they always go to the weaker portions first. 

Our bodies are given us to serve far higher purposes than we ordinarilyuse them for. Especially is this true in the numerous cases where thebody is master of its owner. In the degree that we come into therealization of the higher powers of the mind and spirit, in that degreedoes the body, through their influence upon it, become less gross andheavy, finer in its texture and form. And then, because the mind finds akingdom of enjoyment in itself, and in all the higher things it becomesrelated to, _excesses_ in eating and drinking, as well as all others, naturally and of their own accord fall away. There also falls away thedesire for the heavier, grosser, less valuable kinds of food and drink, such as the flesh of animals, alcoholic drinks, and all things of theclass that stimulate the body and the passions rather than build the bodyand the brain into a strong, clean, well-nourished, enduring, and fibrouscondition. In the degree that the body thus becomes less gross andheavy, finer in its texture and form, is there less waste, and what thereis is more easily replaced, so that it keeps in a more regular and evencondition. When this is true, less sleep is actually required. And eventhe amount that is taken does more for a body of this finer type than itcan do for one of the other nature. 

As the body in this way grows finer, in other words, as the process ofits evolution is thus accelerated, it in turn helps the mind and the soulin the realization of ever higher perceptions, and thus body helps mindthe same as mind builds body. It was undoubtedly this fact that Browninghad in mind when he said:

 "Let us cry 'All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh, more now, Than flesh helps soul. '"

Sleep, then, is for the resting and the rebuilding of the body. The soulneeds no rest, and while the body is at rest in sleep the soul life isactive the same as when the body is in activity. 

There are some, having a deep insight into the soul's activities, who saythat we travel when we sleep. Some are able to recall and bring overinto the conscious, waking life the scenes visited, the informationgained, and the events that have transpired. Most people are not able todo this and so much that might otherwise be gained is lost. They say, however, that it is in our power, in proportion as we understand thelaws, to go where we will, and to bring over into the conscious, wakinglife all the experiences thus gained. Be this, however, as it may, itcertainly is true that while sleeping we have the power, in a perfectlynormal and natural way, to get much of value by way of light, instruction, and growth that the majority of people now miss. 

If the soul life, that which relates us to Infinite Spirit, is alwaysactive, even while the body is at rest, why may not the mind so directconditions as one falls asleep, that while the body is at rest, it maycontinually receive illumination from the soul and bring what it thusreceives over into the conscious, waking life? This, indeed, can bedone, and is done by some to great advantage; and many times the highestinspirations from the soul come in this way, as would seem most natural, since at this time all communications from the outer, material world nolonger enter. I know those who do much work during sleep, the same asthey get much light along desired lines. By charging the mind on goingto sleep as to a particular time for waking, it is possible, as many ofus know, to wake on the very minute. Not infrequently we have examplesof difficult problems, problems that defied solution during waking hours, being solved during sleep. 

A friend, a well-known journalist, had an extended newspaper articleclearly and completely worked out for her in this way. She frequentlycalls this agency to her aid. She was notified by the managing editorone evening to have the article ready in the morning, --an articlerequiring more than ordinary care, and one in which quite a knowledge offacts was required. It was a matter in connection with which she knewscarcely anything, and all her efforts at finding information regardingit seemed to be of no avail. 

She set to work, but it seemed as if even her own powers defied her. Failure seemed imminent. Almost in desperation she decided to retire, and putting the matter into her mind in such a way that she would be ableto receive the greatest amount of aid while asleep, she fell asleep andslept soundly until morning. When she awoke her work of the previousevening was the first thing that came into her mind. She lay quietly fora few minutes, and as she lay there, the article, completely written, seemed to stand before her mind. She ran through it, arose, and withoutdressing took her pen and transcribed it on to paper, literally actingsimply as her own amanuensis. 

The mind acting intently along a particular line will continue so to actuntil some other object of thought carries it along another line. Andsince in sleep only the body is in quiet while the mind and soul areactive, then the mind on being given a certain direction when one dropsoff to sleep, will take up the line along which it is directed, and canbe made, in time, to bring over into consciousness the results of itsactivities. Some will be able very soon to get results of this kind; forsome it will take longer. Quiet and continued effort will increase thefaculty. 

Then by virtue of the law of the drawing power of mind, since the mind isalways active, we are drawing to us even while sleeping, influences fromthe realms kindred to those in which we in our thoughts are living beforewe fall asleep. In this way we can put ourselves into relation with whatever kinds of influence we choose and accordingly gain much during theprocess of sleep. In many ways the interior faculties are more open andreceptive while we are in sleep than while we are awake. Hence thenecessity of exercising even greater care as to the nature of thethoughts that occupy the mind as we enter into sleep, for there can cometo us only what we by our own order of thought attract. We have itentirely in our own hands. 

And for the same reason, --this greater degree of receptivity during thisperiod, --we are able by understanding and using the law, to gain much ofvalue more readily in this way than when the physical senses are fullyopen to the material world about us. Many will find a practice somewhatafter the following nature of value: When light or information is desiredalong any particular line, light or information you feel it is right andwise for you to have, as, for example, light in regard to an uncertaincourse of action, then as you retire, first bring your mind into theattitude of peace and good-will for all. You in this way bring yourselfinto an harmonious condition, and in turn attract to yourself these samepeaceful conditions from without. 

Then resting in this sense of peace, quietly and calmly send out yourearnest desire for the needed light or information; cast out of your mindall fears or forebodings lest it come not, for "in quietness and inconfidence shall be your strength. " Take the expectant attitude of mind, firmly believing and expecting that when you awake the desired resultswill be with you. Then on awaking, before any thoughts or activitiesfrom the outside world come in to absorb the attention, remain for alittle while receptive to the intuitions or the impressions that come. When they come, when they manifest themselves clearly, then act upon themwithout delay. In the degree that you do this, in that degree will thepower of doing it ever more effectively grow. 

Or, if for unselfish purposes you desire to grow and develop any of yourfaculties, or to increase the health and strength of your body, take acorresponding attitude of mind, the form of which will readily suggestitself in accordance with your particular needs or desires. In this wayyou will open yourself to, you will connect yourself with, and you willset into operation within yourself, the particular order of forces thatwill make for these results. Don't be afraid to voice your desires. Inthis way you set into operation vibratory forces which go out and whichmake their impress felt somewhere, and which, arousing into activity oruniting with other forces, set about to actualize your desires. No goodthing shall be withheld from him who lives in harmony with the higherlaws and forces. There are no desires that shall not be satisfied to theone who knows and who wisely uses the powers with which he or she isendowed. 

Your sleep will be more quiet, and peaceful, and refreshing, and so yourpower increased mentally, physically, and spiritually, simply by sendingout as you fall asleep, thoughts of love and good-will, thoughts of peaceand harmony for all. In this way you are connecting yourself with allthe forces in the universe that make for peace and harmony. 

A friend who is known the world over through his work along humane lines, has told me that many times in the middle of the night he is awakenedsuddenly and there comes to his mind, as a flash of inspiration, acertain plan in connection with his work. And as he lays there quietlyand opens himself to it, the methods for its successful carrying out allreveal themselves to him clearly. In this way many plans are enteredupon and brought to a successful culmination that otherwise would neverbe thought of, plans that seem, indeed, marvelous to the world at large. He is a man with a sensitive organism, his life in thorough harmony withthe higher laws, and given wholly and unreservedly to the work to whichhe has dedicated it. Just how and from what source these inspirationscome he does not fully know. Possibly no one does, though each may havehis theory. But this we do know, and it is all we need to know now, atleast, --that to the one who lives in harmony with the higher laws of hisbeing, and who opens himself to them, they come. 

Visions and inspirations of the highest order will come in the degreethat we make for them the right conditions. One who has studied deeplyinto the subject in hand has said: "To receive education spirituallywhile the body is resting in sleep is a perfectly normal and orderlyexperience, and would occur definitely and satisfactorily in the lives ofall of us, if we paid more attention to internal and consequently less toexternal states with their supposed but unreal necessities. . . . Ourthoughts make us what we are here and hereafter, and our thoughts areoften busier by night than by day, for when we are asleep to the exteriorwe can be wide awake to the interior world; and the unseen world is asubstantial place, the conditions of which are entirely regulated bymental and moral attainments. When we are not deriving informationthrough outward avenues of sensation, we are receiving instructionthrough interior channels of perception, and when this fact is understoodfor what it is worth, it will become a universal custom for persons totake to sleep with them the special subject on which they most earnestlydesire particular instruction. The Pharaoh type of person dreams, and sodoes his butler and baker; but the Joseph type, which is that of thetruly gifted seer, both dreams and interprets. "

But why had not Pharaoh the power of interpreting his dreams? Why wasJoseph the type of the "truly gifted seer?" Why did he not only dream, but had also the power to interpret both his own dreams and the dreams ofothers? Simply read the lives of the two. He who runs may read. In alltrue power it is, after all, living the life that tells. And inproportion as one lives the life does he not only attain to the highestpower and joy for himself, but he also becomes of ever greater service toall the world. One need remain in no hell longer than he himself choosesto; and the moment he chooses not to remain longer, not all the powers inthe universe can prevent his leaving it. One can rise to any heaven hehimself chooses; and when he chooses so to rise, all the higher powers ofthe universe combine to help him heavenward. 

When one awakes from sleep and so returns to conscious life, he is in apeculiarly receptive and impressionable state. All relations with thematerial world have for a time been shut off, the mind is in a freer andmore natural state, resembling somewhat a sensitive plate, whereimpressions can readily leave their traces. This is why many times thehighest and truest impressions come to one in the early morning hours, before the activities of the day and their attendant distractions haveexerted an influence. This is one reason why many people can do theirbest work in the early hours of the day. 

But this fact is also a most valuable one in connection with the mouldingof every-day life. The mind is at this time as a clean sheet of paper. We can most valuably use this quiet, receptive, impressionable period bywisely directing the activities of the mind along the highest and mostdesirable paths, and thus, so to speak, set the pace for the day. 

Each morning is a fresh beginning. We are, as it were, just beginninglife. We have it _entirely_ in our own hands. And when the morning withits fresh beginning comes, all yesterdays should be yesterdays, withwhich we have nothing to do. Sufficient is it to know that the way welived our yesterday has determined for us our today. And, again, whenthe morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should betomorrows, with which we have nothing to do. Sufficient to know that theway we live our today determines our tomorrow. 

 "Every day is a fresh beginning, Every morn is the world made new; You who are weary of sorrow and sinning, Here is a beautiful hope for you, A hope for me and a hope for you. 

 "All the past things are past and over, The tasks are done, and the tears are shed. Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover; Yesterday's wounds, which smarted and bled, Are healed with the healing which might has shed. 

 * * * * * *

 "Let them go, since we cannot relieve them, Cannot undo and cannot atone. God in His mercy receive, forgive them! Only the new days are our own. Today is ours, and today alone. 

 "Here are the skies all burnished brightly; Here is the spent earth all reborn; Here are the tired limbs springing lightly To face the sun and to share with the morn In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn. 

 "Every day is a fresh beginning, Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain, And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning, And puzzles forecasted, and possible pain, Take heart with the day and begin again. "

Simply the first hour of this new day, with all its richness and glory, with all its sublime and eternity-determining possibilities, and eachsucceeding hour as it comes, but _not before_ it comes. This is thesecret of character building. This simple method will bring any one tothe realization of the highest life that can be even conceived of, andthere is nothing in this connection that can be conceived of that cannotbe realized somehow, somewhen, somewhere. 

This brings such a life within the possibilities of _all_, for there is_no one_, if really in earnest and if he really desires it, who cannotlive to his highest for a single hour. But even though there should be, if he is _only earnest in his endeavor_, then, through the law that likebuilds like, he will be able to come a little nearer to it the next hour, and still nearer the next, and the next, until sooner or later comes thetime when it becomes the natural, and any other would require the effort. 

In this way one becomes in love and in league with the highest and bestin the universe, and as a consequence, the highest and best in theuniverse becomes in love and in league with him. They aid him at everyturn; they seem literally to move all things his way, because forsooth, he has first moved their way. 

THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE. 

This is the Spirit of Infinite Peace, and the moment we come intoharmony with it there comes to us an inflowing tide of peace, for peaceis harmony. A deep interior meaning underlies the great truth, "To bespiritually minded is life and peace. " To recognize the fact that weare spirit, and to live in this thought, is to be spiritually minded, and so to be in harmony and peace. Oh, the thousands of men and womenall about us weary with care, troubled and ill at ease, running hitherand thither to find peace, weary in body, soul, and mind; going toother countries, traveling the world over, coming back, and still notfinding it. Of course they have not found it and they never will findit in this way, because they are looking for it where it is not. Theyare looking for it without when they should look within. Peace is tobe found only within, and unless one find it there he will never findit at all. 

Peace lies not in the external world. It lies within one's own soul. We may travel over many different avenues in pursuit of it, we may seekit through the channels of the bodily appetites and passions, we mayseek it through all the channels of the external, we may chase for ithither and thither, but it will always be just beyond our grasp, because we are searching for it where it is not. In the degree, however, that we order the bodily appetites and passions in accordancewith the promptings of the soul within will the higher forms ofhappiness and peace enter our lives; but in the degree that we fail indoing this will disease, suffering, and discontent enter in. 

To be at one with God is to be at peace. The child simplicity is thegreatest agency in bringing this full and complete realization, thechild simplicity that recognizes its true relations with the Father'slife. There are people I know who have come into such a consciousrealization of their oneness with this Infinite Life, this Spirit ofInfinite Peace, that their lives are fairly bubbling over with joy. Ihave particularly in mind at this moment a comparatively young man whowas an invalid for several years, his health completely broken withnervous exhaustion, who thought there was nothing in life worth livingfor, to whom everything and everybody presented a gloomy aspect, and hein turn presented a gloomy aspect to all with whom he came in contact. Not long ago he came into such a vital realization of his oneness withthis Infinite Power, he opened himself so completely to its divineinflow, that today he is in perfect health, and frequently as I meethim now he cannot resist the impulse to cry out, "Oh, it is a joy to bealive. "

I know an officer on our police force who has told me that many timeswhen off duty and on his way home in the evening, there comes to himsuch a vivid and vital realization of his oneness with this InfinitePower, and this Spirit of Infinite Peace so takes hold of and so fillshim, that it seems as if his feet could scarcely keep to the pavement, so buoyant and so exhilarated does he become by reason of thisinflowing tide. 

He who comes into this higher realization never has any fear, for hehas always with him a sense of protection, and the very realization ofthis makes his protection complete. Of him it is true, --"No weaponthat is formed against thee shall prosper;" "There shall no ill comenigh thy dwelling;" "Thou shalt be in league with the stones of thefield, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee. "

These are the men and the women who seem to live charmed lives. Themoment we fear anything we open the door for the entrance of theactualization of the very thing we fear. An animal will never harm aperson who is absolutely fearless in regard to it. The instant hefears he opens himself to danger; and some animals, the dog forexample, can instantly detect the element of fear, and this gives themthe courage to do harm. In the degree that we come into a fullrealization of our oneness with this Infinite Power do we become calmand quiet, undisturbed by the little occurrences that before so vex andannoy us. We are no longer disappointed in people, for we always readthem aright. We have the power of penetrating into their very soulsand seeing the underlying motives that are at work there. 

A gentleman approached a friend the other day, and with great show ofcordiality grasped him by the hand and said, "Why, Mr. ------, I am soglad to see you. " Quick as a flash my friend read him, and looking himsteadily in the eye, replied, "No, you are mistaken, you are not gladto see me; but you are very much disconcerted, so much so that you arenow blushing in evidence of it. " The gentleman replied, "Well, youknow in this day and age of conventionality and form we have to put onthe show and sometimes make believe what we do not really feel. " Myfriend once more looked him in the face and said, "Again you aremistaken. Let me give you one little word of advice: You will alwaysfare better and will think far more of yourself, always to recognizeand to tell the truth rather than to give yourself to any semblance ofit. "

As soon as we are able to read people aright we will then cease to bedisappointed in them, we will cease to place them on pedestals, forthis can never be done without some attendant disappointment. The fallwill necessarily come, sooner or later, and moreover, we are thus manytimes unfair to our friends. When we come into harmony with thisSpirit of Peace, evil reports and apparent bad treatment, either at thehands of friends or of enemies, will no longer disturb us. When we areconscious of the fact that in our life and our work we are true to thateternal principle of right, of truth, of justice that runs through allthe universe, that unites and governs all, that always eventuallyprevails, then nothing of this kind can come nigh us, and come what maywe will always be tranquil and undisturbed. 

The things that cause sorrow, and pain, and bereavement will not beable to take the hold of us they now take, for true wisdom will enableus to see the proper place and know the right relations of all things. The loss of friends by the transition we call death will not causesorrow to the soul that has come into this higher realization, for heknows that there is no such thing as death, for each one is not only apartaker, but an eternal partaker, of this Infinite Life. He knowsthat the mere falling away of the physical body by no means affects thereal soul life. With a tranquil spirit born of a higher faith he canrealize for himself, and to those less strong he can say--

 "Loving friends! be wise and dry Straightway every weeping eye; What you left upon the bier Is not worth a single tear; 'Tis a simple sea-shell, one Out of which the pearl has gone. The shell was nothing, leave it there; The pearl--the soul--was all, is here. "

And so far as the element of separation is concerned, he realizes thatto spirit there are no bounds, and that spiritual communion, whetherbetween two persons in the body, or two persons, one in the body andone out of the body, is within the reach of all. In the degree thatthe higher spiritual life is realized can there be this higherspiritual communion. 

The things that we open ourselves to always come to us. People in theolden times expected to see angels and they saw them; but there is nomore reason why they should have seen them than that we should see themnow; no more reason why they should come and dwell with them than thatthey should come and dwell with us, for the great laws governing allthings are the same today as they were then. If angels come not tominister unto us it is because we do not invite them, it is because wekeep the door closed through which they otherwise might enter. 

In the degree that we are filled with this Spirit of Peace by thusopening ourselves to its inflow does it pour through us, so that wecarry it with us wherever we go. In the degree that we thus openourselves do we become magnets to attract peace from all sources; andin the degree that we attract and embody it in ourselves are we able togive it forth to others. We can in this way become such perfectembodiments of peace that wherever we go we are continually sheddingbenedictions. But a day or two ago I saw a woman grasp the hand of aman (his face showed the indwelling God), saying, "Oh, it does me somuch good to see you. I have been in anxiety and almost in despairduring the past few hours, but the very sight of you has rolled theburden entirely away. " There are people all around us who arecontinually giving out blessings and comfort, persons whose merepresence seems to change sorrow into joy, fear into courage, despairinto hope, weakness into power. 

It is the one who has come into the realization of his own true selfwho carries this power with him and who radiates it wherever hegoes, --the one who, as we say, has found his centre. And in all thegreat universe there is but one centre, --the Infinite Power that isworking in and through all. The one who then has found his centre isthe one who has come into the realization of his oneness with thisInfinite Power, the one who recognizes himself as a spiritual being, for God is spirit. 

Such is the man of power. Centred in the Infinite, he has thereby, soto speak, connected himself with, he has attached his belts to, thegreat power-house of the universe. He is constantly drawing power tohimself from all sources. For, thus centred, knowing himself, conscious of his own power, the thoughts that go from his mind arethoughts of strength; and by virtue of the law that like attracts like, he by his thoughts is continually attracting to himself from allquarters the aid of all whose thoughts are thoughts of strength, and inthis way he is linking himself with this order of thought in theuniverse. 

And so to him that hath, to him shall be given. This is simply theworking of a natural law. His strong, positive, and hence constructivethought is continually working success for him along all lines, andcontinually bringing to him help from all directions. The things thathe sees, that he creates in the ideal, are through the agency of thisstrong constructive thought continually clothing themselves, takingform, manifesting themselves in the material. Silent, unseen forcesare at work which will sooner or later be made manifest in the visible. 

Fear and all thoughts of failure never suggest themselves to such aman; or if they do, they are immediately sent out of his mind, and sohe is not influenced by this order of thought from without. He doesnot attract it to him. He is in another current of thought. Consequently the weakening, failure-bringing thoughts of the fearing, the vacillating, the pessimistic about him, have no influence upon him. The one who is of the negative, fearing kind not only has his energiesand his physical agents weakened, or even paralyzed through theinfluence of this kind of thought that is born within him, but he alsoin this way connects himself with this order of thought in the worldabout him. And in the degree that he does this does he become a victimto the weak, fearing, negative minds all around him. Instead ofgrowing in power, he increases in weakness. He is in the same order ofthought with those of whom it is true, --and even that which they haveshall be taken away from them. This again is simply the working of anatural law, the same as is its opposite. Fearing lest I lose evenwhat I have I hide it away in a napkin. Very well. I must then paythe price of my "fearing lest I lose. "

Thoughts of strength both build strength from within and attract itfrom without. Thoughts of weakness actualize weakness from within andattract it from without. Courage begets strength, fear begetsweakness. And so courage begets success, fear begets failure. It isthe man or the woman of faith, and hence of courage, who is the masterof circumstances, and who makes his or her power felt in the world. Itis the man or the woman who lacks faith and who as a consequence isweakened and crippled by fears and forebodings, who is the creature ofall passing occurrences. 

Within each one lies the cause of whatever comes to him. Each has itin his own hands to determine what comes. Everything in the visible, material world has its origin in the unseen, the spiritual, the thoughtworld. This is the world of cause, the former is the world of effect. The nature of the effect is always in accordance with the nature of thecause. What one lives in his invisible, thought world, he iscontinually actualizing in his visible, material world. If he wouldhave any conditions different in the latter he must make the necessarychange in the former. A clear realization of this great fact wouldbring success to thousands of men and women who all about us are now inthe depths of despair. It would bring health, abounding health andstrength to thousands now diseased and suffering. It would bring peaceand joy to thousands now unhappy and ill at ease. 

And oh, the thousands all about us who are continually living in theslavery of fear. The spirits within that should be strong andpowerful, are rendered weak and impotent. Their energies are crippled, their efforts are paralyzed. "Fear is everywhere, --fear of want, fearof starvation, fear of public opinion, fear of private opinion, fearthat what we own today may not be ours tomorrow, fear of sickness, fearof death. Fear has become with millions a fixed habit. The thought iseverywhere. The thought is thrown upon us from every direction. . . . To live in continual dread, continual cringing, continual fear ofanything, be it loss of love, loss of money, loss of position orsituation, is to take the readiest means to lose what we fear we shall. "

By fear nothing is to be gained, but on the contrary, everything is tobe lost. "I know this is true, " says one, "but I am given to fear;it's natural to me and I can't help it. " Can't help it! In sayingthis you indicate one great reason of your fear by showing that you donot even know yourself as yet. You must know yourself in order to knowyour powers, and not until you know them can you use them wisely andfully. Don't say you can't help it. If you think you can't, thechances are that you can't. If you think you can, and act inaccordance with this thought, then not only are the chances that youcan, but if you act fully in accordance with it, that you can and thatyou will is an absolute certainty. It was Virgil who in describing thecrew which in his mind would win the race, said of them, --They canbecause they think they can. In other words, this very attitude ofmind on their part will infuse a spiritual power into their bodies thatwill give them the strength and endurance which will enable them to win. 

Then take the thought that you _can_; take it merely as a seed-thought, if need be, plant it in your consciousness, tend it, cultivate it, andit will gradually reach out and gather strength from all quarters. Itwill focus and make positive and active the spiritual force within youthat is now scattered and of little avail. It will draw to itselfforce from without. It will draw to your aid the influence of otherminds of its own nature, minds that are fearless, strong, courageous. You will thus draw to yourself and connect yourself with this order ofthought. If earnest and faithful, the time will soon come when allfear will loose its hold; and instead of being an embodiment ofweakness and a creature of circumstances, you will find yourself atower of strength and a master of circumstances. 

We need more faith in every-day life, --faith in the power that worksfor good, faith in the Infinite God, and hence faith in ourselvescreated in His image. And however things at times may seem to go, however dark at times appearances may be, the knowledge of the factthat "the Supreme Power has us in its charge as it has the suns andendless systems of worlds in space, " will give us the supreme faiththat all is well with us, the same as all is well with the world. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. "

There is nothing firmer, and safer, and surer than Deity. Then, as werecognize the fact that we have it in our own hands to open ourselvesever more fully to this Infinite Power, and call upon it to manifestitself in and through us, we will find in ourselves an ever increasingsense of power. For in this way we are working in conjunction with it, and it in turn is working in conjunction with us. We are then led intothe full realization of the fact that all things work together for goodto those that love the good. Then the fears and forebodings that havedominated us in the past will be transmuted into faith, and faith whenrightly understood and rightly used is a force before which nothing canstand. 

Materialism leads naturally to pessimism. And how could it dootherwise? A knowledge of the Spiritual Power working in and throughus as well as in and through all things, a power that works forrighteousness, leads to optimism. Pessimism leads to weakness. Optimism leads to power. The one who is centred in Deity is the onewho not only outrides every storm, but who through the faith, and so, the conscious power that is in him, faces storm with the same calmnessand serenity that he faces fair weather; for he knows well beforehandwhat the outcome will be. He knows that underneath are the everlastingarms. He it is who realizes the truth of the injunction, "Rest in theLord, wait patiently for Him and He shall give thee thy heart'sdesire. " All shall be given, simply given, to him who is ready toaccept it. Can anything be clearer than this?

In the degree, then, that we work in conjunction with the Supreme Powerdo we need the less to concern ourselves about results. To live in thefull realization of this fact and all that attends it brings peace, afull, rich, abiding peace, --a peace that makes the present complete, and that, going on before, brings back the assurance that as our days, so shall our strength be. The one who is thus centred, even in theface of all the unrest and the turmoil about us, can realize and say--

 * * * *

 "I stay my haste, I make delays, For what avails this eager pace? I stand amid eternal ways, And what is mine shall know my face. 

 "Asleep, awake, by night or day, The friends I seek are seeking me; No wind can drive my bark astray, Nor change the tide of destiny. 

 * * * *

 "The waters know their own, and draw The brooks that spring in yonder height; So flows the good with equal law Unto the soul of pure delight

 "The stars come nightly to the sky; The tidal wave unto the sea; Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high, Can keep my own away from me. "

COMING INTO FULLNESS OF POWER. 

This is the Spirit of Infinite Power, and in the degree that we openourselves to it does power become manifest in us. With God all thingsare possible, --that is, in conjunction with God all things arepossible. The true secret of power lies in keeping one's connectionwith the God who worketh all things; and in the degree that we keepthis connection are we able literally to rise above every conceivablelimitation. 

Why, then, waste time in running hither and thither to acquire power?Why waste time with this practice or that practice? Why not godirectly to the mountain top itself, instead of wandering through theby-ways, in the valleys, and on the mountain sides? That man hasabsolute dominion, as taught in all the scriptures of the world, istrue not of physical man, but of _spiritual man_. There are manyanimals, for example, larger and stronger, over which from a physicalstandpoint he would not have dominion, but he can gain supremacy overeven these by calling into activity the higher mental, psychic, andspiritual forces with which he is endowed. 

Whatever can't be done in the physical can be done in the spiritual. And in direct proportion as a man recognizes himself as spirit, andlives accordingly, is he able to transcend in power the man whorecognizes himself merely as material. All the sacred literature ofthe world is teeming with examples of what we call miracles. They arenot confined to any particular times or places. There is no age ofmiracles in distinction from any other period that may be an age ofmiracles. Whatever has been done in the world's history can be doneagain through the operation of the same laws and forces. Thesemiracles were performed not by those who were more than men, but bythose who through the recognition of their oneness with God becameGod-men, so that the higher forces and powers worked through them. 

For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Is it something supernatural?Supernatural only in the sense of being above the natural, or rather, above that which is natural to man in his ordinary state. A miracle isnothing more nor less than this. One who has come into a knowledge ofhis true identity, of his oneness with the all-pervading Wisdom andPower, thus makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mindknows of to be revealed to him. These laws he makes use of; the peoplesee the results, and by virtue of their own limitations, call themmiracles and speak of the person who performs these apparentlysupernatural works as a supernatural being. But they as supernaturalbeings could themselves perform these supernatural works if they wouldopen themselves to the recognition of the same laws, and consequentlyto the realization of the same possibilities and powers. And let usalso remember that the supernatural of yesterday becomes, as in theprocess of evolution we advance from the lower to the higher, from themore material to the more spiritual, the common and the natural oftoday, and what seems to be the supernatural of today becomes in thesame way the natural of tomorrow, and so on through the ages. Yes, itis the God-man who does the things that appear supernatural, the manwho by virtue of his realization of the higher powers transcends themajority and so stands out among them. But any power that is possibleto one human soul is possible to another. The same laws operate inevery life. We can be men and women of power or we can be men andwomen of impotence. The moment one vitally grasps the fact that he canrise he will rise, and he can have absolutely no limitations other thanthe limitations he sets to himself. Cream always rises to the top. Itrises simply because _it is the nature of cream to rise_. 

We hear much said of "environment. " We need to realize thatenvironment should never be allowed to make the man, but that manshould always, _and always can_, condition the environment. When werealize this we will find that many times it is not necessary to takeourselves out of any particular environment, because we may yet have awork to do there; but by the very force we carry with us we can soaffect and change matters that we will have an entirely new set ofconditions in an old environment. 

The same is true in regard to "hereditary" traits and influences. Wesometimes hear the question asked, "Can they be overcome?" Only theone who doesn't yet know himself can ask a question such as this. Ifwe entertain and live in the belief that they cannot be overcome, thenthe chances are that they will always remain. The moment, however, that we come into a realization of our true selves, and so of thetremendous powers and forces within, --the powers and forces of the mindand spirit, --hereditary traits and influences that are harmful innature will begin to lessen, and will disappear with a rapiditydirectly in proportion to the completeness of this realization. 

 "There is no thing we cannot overcome; Say not thy evil instinct is inherited, Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn, And calls down punishment that is not merited. 

 "Back of thy parents and grandparents lies The Great Eternal Will! That too is thine Inheritance, --strong, beautiful, divine, Sure lever of success for one who tries. 

 * * * * * *

 "There is no noble height thou canst not climb; All triumphs may be thine in Time's futurity, If, whatso'er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt; But lean upon the staff of God's security. 

 "Earth has no claim the soul cannot contest; Know thyself part of the Eternal Source; Naught can stand before thy spirit's force; The soul's Divine Inheritance is best. "

Again there are many who are living far below their possibilitiesbecause they are continually handing over their individualities toothers. Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself. Don't class yourself, don't allow yourself to be classed among thesecond-hand, among the _they-say_ people. Be true to the highestwithin your own soul, and then allow yourself to be governed by nocustoms or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are notfounded upon _principle_. Those things that are founded upon principlewill be observed by the right-minded, the right-hearted man or woman, in any case. 

Don't surrender your individuality, which is your greatest agent ofpower, to the customs and conventionalities that have gotten their lifefrom the great mass of those who haven't enough force to preserve theirindividualities, --those who in other words have given them over asingredients to the "mush of concession" which one of our greatestwriters has said characterizes our modern society. If you do surrenderyour individuality in this way, you simply aid in increasing theundesirable conditions; in payment for this you become a slave, and thechances are that in time you will be unable to hold even the respect ofthose whom you in this way try to please. 

If you preserve your individuality then you become a master, and ifwise and discreet, your influence and power will be an aid in bringingabout a higher, a better, and a more healthy set of conditions in theworld. All people, moreover, will think more of you, will honor youmore highly for doing this than if you show your weakness bycontributing yourself to the same "mush of concession" that so many ofthem are contributing themselves to. With all classes of people youwill then have an influence. "A great style of hero draws equally allclasses, all extremes of society to him, till we say the very dogsbelieve in him. "

To be one's self is the only worthy, and by all means the onlysatisfactory, thing to be. "May it not be good policy, " says one, "tobe governed sometimes by one's surroundings?" What is good policy? Tobe yourself, first, last, and always. 

 "This above all, --to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. "

"When we appeal to the Supreme and our life is governed by a principle, we are not governed either by fear of public opinion or loss of others'approbation, and we may be sure that the Supreme will sustain us. Ifin any way we try to live to suit others we never shall suit them, andthe more we try the more unreasonable and exacting do they become. Thegovernment of your life is a matter that lies entirely between God andyourself, and when your life is swayed and influenced from any othersource you are on the wrong path. " When we find the kingdom within andbecome centred in the Infinite, then we become a law unto ourselves. When we become a law unto ourselves, then we are able to bring othersto a knowledge of laws higher than they are governed or many times evenenslaved by. 

When we have found this centre, then that beautiful simplicity, at oncethe charm and the power of a truly great personality, enters into ourlives. Then all striving for effect, --that sure indicator of weaknessand a lack of genuine power, --is absent. This striving for effect thatis so common is always an indicator of a lack of something. It bringsto mind the man who rides behind a dock-tailed horse. Conscious of thefact that there is not enough in _himself_ to attract attention, incommon with a number of other weaklings, he adopts the brutal method ofhaving his horse's tail sawed off, that its unnatural, odd appearancemay attract from people the attention that he of himself is unable tosecure. 

But the one who strives for effect is always fooled more than hesucceeds in fooling others. The man and the woman of true wisdom andinsight can always see the causes that prompt, the motives thatunderlie the acts of all with whom he or she comes in contact. "He isgreat who is what he is from nature and who never reminds us of others. "

The men and the women who are truly awake to the real powers within arethe men and women who seem to be doing so little, yet who in realityare doing so much. They seem to be doing so little because they areworking with higher agencies, and yet are doing so much because of thisvery fact. They do their work on the higher plane. They keep socompletely their connection with the Infinite Power that _It_ does thework for them and they are relieved of the responsibility. They arethe care-less people. They are care-less because it is the InfinitePower that is working through them, and with this Infinite Power theyare simply co-operating. 

_The secret of the highest power is simply the uniting of the outeragencies of expression with the Power that works from within_. Are youa painter? Then in the degree that you open yourself to the power ofthe forces within will you become great instead of mediocre. You cannever put into permanent form inspirations higher than those that comethrough your own soul. In order for the higher inspirations to comethrough it, you must open your soul, you must open it fully to theSupreme Source of all inspiration. Are you an orator? In the degreethat you come into harmony and work in conjunction with the higherpowers that will speak through you will you have the real power ofmoulding and of moving men. If you use merely your physical agents, you will be simply a demagogue. If you open yourself so that the voiceof God can speak through and use your physical agents, you will becomea great and true orator, great and true in just the degree that you soopen yourself. 

Are you a singer? Then open yourself and let the God within pour forthin the spirit of song. You will find it a thousand times easier thanall your long and studied practice without this, and other things beingequal, there will come to you a power of song so enchanting and soenrapturing that its influence upon all who hear will be irresistible. 

When my cabin or tent has been pitched during the summer on the edge orin the midst of a forest, I have sometimes lain awake on my cot in theearly morning, just as the day was beginning to break. Silence atfirst. Then an intermittent chirp here and there. And as theunfolding tints of the dawn became faintly perceptible, these grew moreand more frequent, until by and by the whole forest seemed to burstforth in one grand chorus of song. Wonderful! wonderful! It seemed asif the very trees, as if every grass-blade, as if the bushes, the verysky above, and the earth beneath, had part in this wonderful symphony. Then, as I have listened as it went on and on, I have thought. What astudy in the matter of song! If we could but learn from the birds. Ifwe could but open ourselves to the same powers and allow them to pourforth in us, what singers, what movers of men we might have! Nay, whatsingers and what movers of men _we would have_!

Do you know the circumstances under which Mr. Sankey sang for the firsttime "The Ninety and Nine?" Says one of our able journals: "At a greatmeeting recently in Denver, Mr. Ira W. Sankey, before singing 'TheNinety and Nine, ' which, perhaps, of all his compositions is the onethat has brought him the most fame, gave an account of its birth. Leaving Glasgow for Edinburg with Mr. Moody, he stopped at a news-standand bought a penny religious paper. Glancing over it as they rode onthe cars, his eye fell on a few little verses in the corner of thepage. Turning to Mr. Moody he said, 'I've found my hymn. ' But Mr. Moody was busily engaged and did not hear a word. Mr. Sankey did notfind time to make a tune for the verses, so he pasted them in his musicscrapbook. 

"One day they had an unusually impressive meeting in Edinburg, in whichDr. Bonar had spoken with great effect on 'The Good Shepherd. ' At theclose of the address Mr. Moody beckoned to his partner to sing. Hethought of nothing but the Twenty-third Psalm, but that he had sung sooften. His second thought was to sing the verses he had found in thenewspaper, but the third thought was, how could it be done when he hadno tune. Then a fourth thought came, and that was to sing them anyway. He put the verses before him, touched the keys of the organ, opened hismouth and sang, not knowing where he was going to come out. Hefinished the first verse amid profound silence. He took a long breathand wondered if he could sing the second the same way. He tried andsucceeded; after that it was easy to sing it. When he finished thehymn the meeting was all broken down and the throngs were crying. Mr. Sankey says it was the most intense moment of his life. Mr. Moody saidhe never heard a song like it. It was sung at every meeting, and wassoon going over the world. "

When we open ourselves to the highest inspirations they never fail us. When we fail to do this we fail in attaining the highest results, whatever the undertaking. 

Are you a writer? Then remember that the one great precept underlyingall successful literary work is, _Look into thine own heart and write. Be true. Be fearless. Be loyal to the promptings of your own soul_. Remember that an author can never write more than he himself is. If hewould write more, then he must be more. He is simply his ownamanuensis. He in a sense writes himself into his book. He can put nomore into it than he himself is. 

If he is one of a great personality, strong in purpose, deep infeeling, open always to the highest inspirations, a certain indefinablesomething gets into his pages that makes them breathe forth a vital, living power, a power so great that each reader gets the sameinspirations as those that spoke through the author. That that'swritten between the lines is many times more than that that's writtenin the lines. It is the spirit of the author that engenders thispower. It is this that gives that extra twenty-five or thirty per centthat takes a book out of the class called medium and lifts it into theclass called superior, --that extra per cent that makes it the one ofthe hundred that is truly successful, while the ninety-nine never seemore than their first edition. 

It is this same spiritual power that the author of a great personalityputs into his work, that causes it to go so rapidly from reader toreader; for the only way that any book circulates in the ultimate isfrom mouth to mouth, any book that reaches a large circulation. It isthis that many times causes a single reader, in view of its value tohimself, to purchase numbers of copies for others. "A good poem, " saysEmerson, "goes about the world offering itself to reasonable men, whoread it with joy and carry it to their reasonable neighbors. Thus itdraws to it the _wise and generous souls_, confirming their secretthoughts, and through their sympathy _really publishing itself_. "

This is the type of author who writes not with the thought of havingwhat he writes become literature, but he writes with the sole thoughtof reaching the hearts of the people, giving them something of vitalvalue, something that will broaden, sweeten, enrich, and beautify theirlives; that will lead them to the finding of the higher life and withit the higher powers and the higher joys. It most always happens, however, that if he succeeds in thus reaching the people, the becomingliterature part somehow takes care of itself, and far better than if heaimed for it directly. 

The one, on the other hand, who fears to depart from beaten paths, whoallows himself to be bound by arbitrary rules, limits his own creativepowers in just the degree that he allows himself so to be bound. "Mybook, " says one of the greatest of modern authors, "shall smell of thepines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my windowshall interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into myweb also. " Far better, gentle sage, to have it smell of the pines andresound with the hum of insects than to have it sound of the rules thata smaller type of man gets by studying the works of a few great, fearless writers like yourself, and formulating from what he thus gainsa handbook of rhetoric. "Of no use are the men who study to do exactlyas was done before, who can never understand that _today is a new day_. "

When Shakspeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies:"Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon deadbodies and brought them into life. " This is the type of man whodoesn't move the world's way, but who moves the world his way. 

I had rather be an amanuensis of the Infinite God, as it is myprivilege literally to be, than a slave to the formulated rules of anyrhetorician, or to the opinions of any critic. Oh, the people, thepeople over and over! Let me give something to them that will lightenthe every-day struggles of our common life, something that will add alittle sweetness here, a little hope there, something that will makemore thoughtful, kind, and gentle this thoughtless, animal-natured man, something that will awaken into activity the dormant powers of thistimid, shrinking little woman, powers that when awakened will beirresistible in their influence and that will surprise even herself. Let me give something that will lead each one to the knowledge of thedivinity of every human soul, something that will lead each one to theconscious realization of _his own divinity_, with all its attendantriches, and glories, and powers, --let me succeed in doing this, and Ican then well afford to be careless as to whether the critics praise orwhether they blame. If it is blame, then under these circumstances itis as the cracking of a few dead sticks on the ground below, comparedto the matchless music that the soft spring gale is breathing throughthe great pine forest. 

Are you a minister, or a religious teacher of any kind? Then in thedegree that you free yourself from the man-made theological dogmas thathave held and that are holding and limiting so many, and in the degreethat you open yourself to the Divine Breath, will you be one who willspeak with authority. In the degree that you do this will you studythe prophets less and be in the way of becoming a prophet yourself. The way is open for you exactly the same as it has ever been open foranyone. 

If when born into the world you came into a family of theEnglish-speaking race, then in all probability you are a Christian. Tobe a Christian is to be a follower of the _teachings_ of Jesus, theChrist; to live in harmony with the same laws he lived in harmony with:in brief, _to live his life_. The great central fact of his teachingwas this conscious union of man with the Father. It was the completerealization of this oneness with the Father on his part that made Jesusthe Christ. It was through this that he attained to the power heattained to, that he spake as never man spake. 

He never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim equally forall mankind. "The mighty works performed by Jesus were notexceptional, they were the natural and necessary concomitants of hisstate; he declared them to be in accordance with unvarying order; hespoke of them as no unique performances, but as the outcome of a stateto which all might attain if they chose. As a teacher and demonstratorof truth, according to his own confession, he did nothing for thepurpose of proving his solitary divinity. . . . The life and triumphof Jesus formed an epoch in the history of the race. His coming andvictory marked a new era in human affairs; he introduced a new becausea more complete ideal to the earth, and when his three most intimatecompanions saw in some measure what the new life really signified, theyfell to the earth, speechless with awe and admiration. "

By coming into this complete realization of his oneness with theFather, by mastering, absolutely mastering every circumstance thatcrossed his path through life, even to the death of the body, and bypointing out to us the great laws which are the same for us as theywere for him, he has given us an ideal of life, an ideal for us toattain to _here and now_, that we could not have without him. _One hasconquered first; all may conquer afterward_. By completely realizingit first for himself, and then by pointing out to others this great lawof the at-one-ment with the Father, he has become probably the world'sgreatest saviour. 

Don't mistake his mere person for his life and his teachings, an errorthat has been made in connection with most all great teachers by theirdisciples over and over again. And if you have been among the numberwho have been preaching a dead Christ, then for humanity's sake, forChrist's sake, for God's sake, and I speak most reverently, don't stealthe people's time any longer, don't waste your own time more, in givingthem stones in place of bread, dead form for the spirit of livingtruth. In his own words, "let the dead bury their dead. " Come outfrom among them. Teach as did Jesus, _the living Christ_. Teach asdid Jesus, _the Christ within_. Find this in all its transcendentbeauty and power, --find it as Jesus found it, then you also will be onewho will speak with authority. Then you will be able to lead largenumbers of others to its finding. This is the pearl of great price. 

It is the type of preacher whose soul has never as yet even perceivedthe _vital spirit_ of the teachings of Jesus, and who as a consequenceinstead of giving this to the people, is giving them old forms anddogmas and speculations, who is emptying our churches. This is thetype whose chief efforts seem to be in getting men ready to die. TheGermans have a saying, Never go to the second thing first. We need menwho will teach us first how to live. Living quite invariably precedesdying. This also is true, that when we once know how to live, and livein accordance with what we know, then the dying, as we term it, will ina wonderfully beautiful manner take care of itself. It is in fact theonly way in which it can be taken care of. 

It is on account of this emptying of our churches, for the reason thatthe people are tiring of mere husks, that many short-sighted people arefrequently heard to say that religion is dying out. Religion dyingout? How can anything die before it is really born? And so far as thepeople are concerned, religion is just being born, or rather they arejust awaking to a vital, every-day religion. We are just beginning toget beyond the mere letter into its real, vital spirit. Religion dyingout? Impossible even to conceive of. Religion is as much a part ofthe human soul as the human soul is a part of God. And as long as Godand the human soul exist, religion will never die. 

Much of the dogma, the form, the ceremony, the mere letter that hasstood as religion, --and honestly, many times, let us be fair enough tosay, --this, thank God, is rapidly dying out, and never so rapidly as itis today. By two methods it is dying. There is, first, a large classof people tired of or even nauseated with it all, who conscientiouslyprefer to have nothing rather than this. They are simply abandoningit, the same as a tree abandons its leaves when the early winter comes. There is, second, a large class in whom the Divine Breath is stirring, who are finding the Christ within in all its matchless beauty andredeeming power. And this new life is pushing off the old, the same asin the spring the newly awakened life in the tree pushes off the old, lifeless leaves that have clung on during the winter, to make place forthe new ones. And the way this old dead leaf religion is being pushedoff on every hand is indeed most interesting and inspiring to witness. 

Let the places of those who have been emptying our churches by reasonof their attempts to give stones for bread, husks and chaff for thelife-giving grain, let their places be taken even for but a few timesby those who are open and alive to these higher inspirations, and thenlet us again question those who feel that religion is dying out. "Itis the live coal that kindles others, not the dead. " Let their placesbe taken by those who have caught the inspiration of the Divine Breath, who as a consequence have a message of mighty value and import for thepeople, who by virtue of this same fact are able to present it with abeauty and a power so enrapturing that it takes captive the soul. Thenwe will find that the churches that today are dotted here and therewith a few dozen people will be filled to overflowing, and there willnot be even room enough for all who would enter. "Let the shell perishthat the pearl may appear. " We need no new revelations as yet. Weneed simply to find the vital spirit of those we already have. Then indue time, when we are ready for them, new ones will come, but notbefore. 

"What the human soul, all the world over, needs, " says John Pulsford, "is not to be harangued, however eloquently, about the old, acceptedreligion, but to be permeated, charmed, and taken captive by _a warmerand more potent Breath of God than they ever felt before_. And Ishould not be true to my personal experience if I did not beartestimony that this Divine Breath is as exquisitely adapted to therequirements of the soul's nature as a June morning to the planet. Nordoes the morning breath leave the trees freer to delight themselves anddevelop themselves under its influence than the Breath of God allowseach human mind to unfold according to its genius. Nothing stirs thecentral wheel of the soul like the Breath of God. The whole man isquickened, his senses are new senses, his emotions new emotions; hisreason, his affections, his imagination, are all new-born. The changeis greater than he knows; he marvels at the powers in himself which theBreath is opening and calling forth. He finds his nature to be anunutterable thing; he is sure therefore that the future must haveinconceivable surprises in store. And herein lies the evidence, whichI commend to my readers, of the existence of God, and of the Eternalhuman Hope. Let God's Breath kindle new spring-time in the soul, startinto life its deeply buried germs, lead in heaven's summer; you willthen have as clear evidence of God from within as you have of theuniverse from without. Indeed, your internal experience of life, andillimitable Hope in God will be nearer to you, and more prevailing, than all your external and superficial experience of nature and theworld. "

There is but one source of power in the universe. Whatever then youare, painter, orator, musician, writer, religious teacher, or whateverit may be, know that to catch and take captive the secret of power isso to work in conjunction with the Infinite Power, in order that it maycontinually work and manifest through you. If you fail in doing this, you fail in everything. If you fail in doing this, your work, whateverit may be, will be third or fourth rate, possibly at times second rate, but it positively never can be first rate. Absolutely impossible willit be for you ever to become a master. 

Whatever estimate you put upon yourself will determine theeffectiveness of your work along any line. As long as you live merelyin the physical and the intellectual, you set limitations to yourselfthat will hold you as long as you so live. When, however, you comeinto the realization of your oneness with the Infinite Life and Power, and open yourself that it may work through you, you will find that youhave entered upon an entirely new phase of life, and that an everincreasing power will be yours. Then it will be true that yourstrength will be as the strength of ten because your heart is pure. 

 "O God! I am one forever With Thee by the glory of birth; The celestial powers proclaim it To the utmost bounds of the earth. 

 "I think of this birthright immortal, And my being expands like a rose, As an odorous cloud of incense Around and above me flows. 

 "A glorious song of rejoicing In an innermost spirit I hear, And it sounds like heavenly voices, In a chorus divine and clear. 

 "And I feel a power uprising, Like the power of an embryo god; With a glorious wall it surrounds me, And lifts me up from the sod. "

PLENTY OF ALL THINGS--THE LAW OF PROSPERITY. 

This is the Spirit of Infinite Plenty, the Power that has brought, thatis continually bringing, all things into expression in material form. He who lives in the realization of his oneness with this Infinite Powerbecomes a magnet to attract to himself a continual supply of whatsoeverthings he desires. 

If one hold himself in the thought of poverty, he will be poor, and thechances are that he will remain in poverty. If he hold himself, whatever present conditions may be, continually in the thought ofprosperity, he sets into operation forces that will sooner or laterbring him into prosperous conditions. The law of attraction worksunceasingly throughout the universe, and the one great and neverchanging fact in connection with it is, as we have found, that likeattracts like. If we are one with this Infinite Power, this source ofall things, then in the degree that we live in the realization of thisoneness, in that degree do we actualize in ourselves a power that willbring to us an abundance of all things that it is desirable for us tohave. In this way we come into possession of a power whereby we canactualize at all times those conditions that we desire. 

As all truth exists _now_, and awaits simply our perception of it, soall things necessary for present needs exist _now_, and await simplythe power in us to appropriate them. God holds all things in Hishands. His constant word is, My child, acknowledge me in all yourways, and in the degree that you do this, in the degree that you livethis, then what is mine is yours. Jehovah-jireh, --the Lord willprovide. "He giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not. " Hegiveth liberally to all men who put themselves in the right attitude toreceive from Him. He forces no good things upon any one. 

The old and somewhat prevalent idea of godliness and poverty hasabsolutely no basis for its existence, and the sooner we get away fromit the better. It had its birth in the same way that the idea ofasceticism came into existence, when the idea prevailed that there wasnecessarily a warfare between the flesh and the spirit. It had itsorigin therefore in the minds of those who had a distorted, a one-sidedview of life. True godliness is in a sense the same as true wisdom. The one who is truly wise, and who uses the forces and powers withwhich he is endowed, to him the great universe always opens hertreasure house. The supply is always equal to the demand, --equal tothe demand when the demand is rightly, wisely made. When one comesinto the realization of these higher laws, then the fear of want ceasesto tyrannize over him. 

Are you out of a situation? Let the fear that you will not get anothertake hold of and _dominate_ you, and the chances are that it may be along time before you will get another, or the one that you do get maybe a very poor one indeed. Whatever the circumstances, you mustrealize that you have within you forces and powers that you can setinto operation that will triumph over any and all apparent or temporarylosses. Set these forces into operation and you will then be placing amagnet that will draw to you a situation that may be far better thanthe one you have lost, and the time may soon come when you will be eventhankful that you lost the old one. 

Recognize, working in and through you, the same Infinite Power thatcreates and governs all things in the universe, the same Infinite Powerthat governs the endless systems of worlds in space. Send out yourthought, --thought is a force, and it has occult power of unknownproportions when rightly used and wisely directed, --send out yourthought that the right situation or the right work will come to you atthe right time, in the right way, and that you will recognize it whenit comes. Hold to this thought, never allow it to weaken, hold to it, and continually water it with firm expectation. You in this way putyour advertisement into a psychical, a spiritual newspaper, a paperthat has not a limited circulation, but one that will make its way notonly to the utmost bounds of the earth, but of the very universeitself. It is an advertisement, moreover, which if rightly placed onyour part, will be far more effective than any advertisement you couldpossibly put into any printed sheet, no matter what claims are made inregard to its being "the great advertising medium. " In the degree thatyou come into this realization and live in harmony with the higher lawsand forces, in that degree will you be able to do this effectively. 

If you wish to look through the "want" columns of the newspapers, thendo it not in the ordinary way. Put the higher forces into operationand thus place it on a higher basis. As you take up the paper, takethis attitude of mind: If there is here an advertisement that it willbe well for me to reply to, the moment I come to it I will recognizeit. Affirm this, believe it, expect it. If you do this in full faithyou will somehow feel the intuition the moment you come to the rightone, and this intuition will be nothing more nor less than your ownsoul speaking to you. When it speaks then act at once. 

If you get the situation and it does not prove to be exactly what youwant, if you feel that you are capable of filling a better one, thenthe moment you enter upon it take the attitude of mind that thissituation is the stepping-stone that will lead you to one that will bestill better. Hold this thought steadily, affirm it, believe it, expect it, and all the time be faithful, _absolutely faithful_ to thesituation in which you are at present placed. If you are _not_faithful to it then the chances are that it will not be thestepping-stone to something better, but to something poorer. If youare faithful to it, the time may soon come when you will be glad andthankful, when you will rejoice, that you lost your old position. 

This is the law of prosperity: When apparent adversity comes, be notcast down by it, but make the best of it, and always look forward forbetter things, for conditions more prosperous. To hold yourself inthis attitude of mind is to set into operation subtle, silent, andirresistible forces that sooner or later will actualize in materialform that which is today merely an idea. But ideas have occult power, and ideas, when rightly planted and rightly tended, are the seeds thatactualize material conditions. 

Never give a moment to complaint, but utilize the time that wouldotherwise be spent in this way in looking forward and actualizing theconditions you desire. Suggest prosperity to yourself. See yourselfin a prosperous condition. Affirm that you will before long be in aprosperous condition. Affirm it calmly and quietly, but strongly andconfidently. Believe it, believe it absolutely. Expect it, --keep itcontinually watered with expectation. You thus make yourself a magnetto attract the things that you desire. Don't be afraid to suggest, toaffirm these things, for by so doing you put forth an ideal which willbegin to clothe itself in material form. In this way you are utilizingagents among the most subtle and powerful in the universe. If you areparticularly desirous for anything that you feel it is good and rightfor you to have, something that will broaden your life or that willincrease your usefulness to others, simply hold the thought that at theright time, in the right way, and through the right instrumentality, there will come to you or there will open up for you the way wherebyyou can attain what you desire. 

I know of a young lady who a short time ago wanted some money verybadly. She wanted it for a good purpose; she saw no reason why sheshouldn't have it. She is one who has come into an understanding ofthe power of the interior forces. She took and held herself in theattitude of mind we have just pointed out. In the morning she enteredinto the silence for a few moments. In this way she brought herselfinto a more complete harmony with the higher powers. Before the dayclosed a gentleman called, a member of a family with which she wasacquainted. He asked her if she would do for the family some work thatthey wanted done. She was a little surprised that they should ask herto do this particular kind of work, but she said to herself, "Here is acall. I will respond and see what it will lead to. " She undertook thework. _She did it well_. When she had completed it there was put intoher hands an amount of money far beyond what she had expected. Shefelt that it was an amount too large for the work she had done. Sheprotested. They replied, "No; you have done us a service thattranscends in value the amount we offer to pay you. " The sum thusreceived was more than sufficient for the work she wished to accomplish. 

This is but one of many instances in connection with the wise andeffective use of the higher powers. It also carries a lesson, --Don'tfold your hands and expect to see things drop into your lap, but setinto operation the higher forces and then take hold of the first thingthat offers itself. Do what your hands find to do, _and do it well_. If this work is not thoroughly satisfactory to you, then affirm, believe, and expect that it is the agency that will lead you tosomething better. "The basis for attracting the best of all the worldcan give to you is to first surround, own, and live in these things inmind, or what is falsely called imagination. All so-called imaginingsare realities and forces of unseen element. Live in mind in a palaceand gradually palatial surroundings will gravitate to you. But soliving is _not_ pining, or longing, or complainingly wishing. It iswhen you are 'down in the world, ' calmly and persistently seeingyourself as up. It is when you are now compelled to eat from a tinplate, regarding that tin plate as only the certain step to one ofsilver. It is not envying and growling at other people who have silverplate. That growling is just so much capital stock taken from the bankaccount of mental force. "

A friend who knows the power of the interior forces, and whose life isguided in every detail by them, has given a suggestion in this form:When you are in the arms of the bear, even though he is hugging you, look him in the face and laugh, but all the time keep your eye on thebull. If you allow all of your attention to be given to the work ofthe bear, the bull may get entirely out of your sight. In other words, if you yield to adversity the chances are that it will master you, butif you recognize in yourself the power of mastery over conditions thenadversity will yield to you, and will be changed into prosperity. Ifwhen it comes you calmly and quietly recognize it, and use the timethat might otherwise be spent in regrets, and fears, and forebodings, in setting into operation the powerful forces within you, it will soontake its leave. 

Faith, absolute dogmatic faith, is the only law of true success. Whenwe recognize the fact that a man carries his success or his failurewith him, and that it does not depend upon outside conditions, we willcome into the possession of powers that will quickly change outsideconditions into agencies that make for success. When we come into thishigher realization and bring our lives into complete harmony with thehigher laws, we will then be able so to focus and direct the awakenedinterior forces, that they will go out and return laden with that forwhich they are sent. We will then be great enough to attract success, and it will not always be apparently just a little ways ahead. We canthen establish in ourselves a centre so strong that instead of runninghither and thither for this or that, we can stay at home and draw to usthe conditions we desire. If we firmly establish and hold to thiscentre, things will seem continually to come our way. 

The majority of people of the modern world are looking for things thatare practical and that can be utilized in every-day life. The morecarefully we examine into the laws underlying the great truths we areconsidering, the more we will find that they are not only eminentlypractical, but in a sense, and in the deepest and truest sense, theyare the only practical things there are. 

There are people who continually pride themselves upon beingexceedingly "practical, " but many times those who of themselves thinknothing about this are the most practical people the world knows. And, on the other hand, those who take great pride in speaking of their ownpracticality are many times the least practical. Or again, in someways they may be practical, but so far as life in its totality isconcerned, they are absurdly impractical. 

What profit, for example, can there be for the man who, materiallyspeaking, though he has gained the whole world, has never yet becomeacquainted with his own soul? There are multitudes of men all about uswho are entirely missing the real life, men who have not learned eventhe a, b, c of true living. Slaves they are, abject slaves to theirtemporary material accumulations. Men who thinking they possess theirwealth are on the contrary completely possessed by it. Men whose livesare comparatively barren in service to those about them and to theworld at large. Men who when they can no longer hold the body, --theagency by means of which they are related to the material world, --willgo out poor indeed, pitiably poor. Unable to take even the smallestparticle of their accumulations with them, they will enter upon theother form of life naked and destitute. 

The kindly deeds, the developed traits of character, the realizedpowers of the soul, the real riches of the inner life and unfoldment, all those things that become our real and eternal possessions, havebeen given no place in their lives, and so of the real things of lifethey are destitute. Nay, many times worse than destitute. We must notsuppose that habits once formed are any more easily broken off in theother form of life than they are in this. If one voluntarily grows acertain mania here, we must not suppose that the mere dropping of thebody makes all conditions perfect. All is law, all is cause andeffect. As we sow, so shall we also reap, not only in this life but inall lives. 

He who is enslaved with the sole desire for material possessions herewill continue to be enslaved even after he can no longer retain hisbody. Then, moreover, he will have not even the means of gratifyinghis desires. Dominated by this habit, he will be unable to set hisaffections, for a time at least, upon other things, and the desire, without the means of gratifying it will be doubly torturing to him. Perchance this torture may be increased by his seeing the accumulationshe thought were his now being scattered and wasted by spendthrifts. Hewills his property, as we say, to others, but he can have no word as toits use. 

How foolish, then, for us to think that any material possessions _areours_. How absurd, for example, for one to fence off a number of acresof God's earth and say they are _his_. Nothing is ours that we cannotretain. The things that come into our hands come not for the purposeof being possessed, as we say, much less for the purpose of beinghoarded. They come into our hands to be used, to be wisely used. Weare stewards merely, and as stewards we shall be held accountable forthe way we use whatever is entrusted to us. That great law ofcompensation that runs through all life is wonderfully exact in itsworkings, although we may not always fully comprehend it, or evenrecognize it when it operates in connection with ourselves. 

The one who has come into the realization of the higher life no longerhas a desire for the accumulation of enormous wealth, any more than hehas a desire for any other _excess_. In the degree that he comes intothe recognition of the fact that he is wealthy within, external wealthbecomes less important in his estimation. When he comes into therealization of the fact that there is a source within from which he canput forth a power to call to him and actualize in his hands at any timea sufficient supply for all his needs, he no longer burdens himselfwith vast material accumulations that require his constant care andattention, and thus take his time and his thought from the real thingsof life. In other words, he first finds the _kingdom_, and he realizesthat when he has found this, all other things follow in full measure. 

It is as hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, saidthe Master, --he who having nothing had everything, --as it is for acamel to pass through the eye of a needle. In other words, if a mangive all his time to the accumulation, the hoarding of outward materialpossessions far beyond what he can possibly ever use, what time has hefor the finding of that wonderful kingdom, which when found, brings allelse with it. Which is better, to have millions of dollars, and tohave the burden of taking care of it all, --for the one always involvesthe other, --or to come into the knowledge of such laws and forces thatevery need will be supplied in good time, to know that no good thingshall be withheld, to know that we have it in our power to make thesupply always equal to the demand?

The one who enters into the realm of this higher knowledge, never caresto bring upon himself the species of insanity that has such a firm holdupon so many in the world today. He avoids it as he would avoid anyloathsome disease of the body. When we come into the realization ofthe higher powers, we will then be able to give more attention to thereal life, instead of giving so much to the piling up of vastpossessions that hamper rather than help it. It is the medium groundthat brings the true solution here, the same as it is in all phases oflife. 

Wealth beyond a certain amount cannot be used, and when it cannot beused it then becomes a hindrance rather than an aid, a curse ratherthan a blessing. All about us are persons with lives now stunted anddwarfed who could make them rich and beautiful, filled with a perennialjoy, if they would begin wisely to use that which they have spent thegreater portion of their lives in accumulating. 

The man who accumulates during his entire life, and who leaves even allwhen he goes out for "benevolent purposes, " comes far short of theideal life. It is but a poor excuse of a life. It is not especiallycommendable in me to give a pair of old, worn-out shoes that I shallnever use again to another who is in need of shoes. But it iscommendable, if indeed doing anything we ought to do can be spoken ofas being commendable, it is commendable for me to give a good pair ofstrong shoes to the man who in the midst of a severe winter ispractically shoeless, the man who is exerting every effort to earn anhonest living and thereby take care of his family's needs. And if ingiving the shoes I also give myself, he then has a double gift, and I adouble blessing. 

There is no wiser use that those who have great accumulations can makeof them than wisely to put them into life, into character, _day by daywhile they live_. In this way their lives will be continually enrichedand increased. The time will come when it will be regarded as adisgrace for a man to die and leave vast accumulations behind him. 

Many a person is living in a palace today who in the real life ispoorer than many a one who has not even a roof to cover him. A man mayown and live in a palace, but the palace for him may be a pool-housestill. 

Moth and rust are nature's wise provisions--God's methods--fordisintegrating and scattering, in this way getting ready for use in newforms, that which is hoarded and consequently serving no use. There isalso a great law continually operating whose effects are to dwarf anddeaden the powers of true enjoyment, as well as all the higherfaculties of the one who hoards. 

Multitudes of people are continually keeping away from them higher andbetter things because they are forever clinging on to the old. If theywould use and pass on the old, room would be made for new things tocome. Hoarding always brings loss in one form or another. Using, wisely using, brings an ever renewing gain. 

If the tree should as ignorantly and as greedily hold on to this year'sleaves when they have served their purpose, where would be the full andbeautiful new life that will be put forth in the spring? Gradual decayand finally death would be the result. If the tree is already dead, then it may perhaps be well enough for it to cling on to the old, forno new leaves will come. But as long as the life in the tree isactive, it is _necessary_ that it rid itself of the old ones, that roommay be made for the new. 

Opulence is the law of the universe, an abundant supply for every needif nothing is put in the way of its coming. The natural and the normallife for us is this, --To have such a fullness of life and power byliving so continually in the realization of our oneness with theInfinite Life and Power that we find ourselves in the constantpossession of an abundant supply of all things needed. 

Then not by hoarding but by wisely using and ridding ourselves ofthings as they come, an ever renewing supply will be ours, a supply farbetter adapted to present needs than the old could possibly be. Inthis way we not only come into possession of the richest treasures ofthe Infinite Good ourselves, but we also become open channels throughwhich they can flow to others. 

HOW MEN HAVE BECOME PROPHETS, SEERS, SAGES, AND SAVIOURS. 

I have tried thus far to deal fairly with you in presenting these vitaltruths, and have spoken of everything on the basis of our own reasonand insight. It has been my aim to base nothing on the teachings ofothers, though they may be the teachings of those inspired. Let us nowlook for a moment at these same great truths in the light of thethoughts and the teachings as put forth by some of the world's greatthinkers and inspired teachers. 

The sum and substance of the thought presented in these pages is, youwill remember, that the great central fact in human life is the cominginto a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with the InfiniteLife, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow. I andthe Father are one, said the Master. In this we see how he recognizedhis oneness with the Father's life. Again he said, The words that Ispeak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth inme, He doeth the works. In this we see how clearly he recognized thefact that he of himself could do nothing, only as he worked inconjunction with the Father. Again, My Father works and I work. Inother words, my Father sends the power, I open myself to it, and workin conjunction with it. 

Again he said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And he left us not inthe dark as to exactly what he meant by this, for again he said. Saynot Lo here nor lo there, know ye not that the kingdom of heaven iswithin you? According to his teaching, the kingdom of God and thekingdom of heaven were one and the same. If, then, his teaching isthat the kingdom of heaven is within us, do we not clearly see that, putting it in other words, his injunction is nothing more nor lessthan, Come ye into a conscious realization of your oneness with theFather's life. As you realize this oneness you find the kingdom, andwhen you find this, all things else shall follow. 

The story of the prodigal son is another beautiful illustration of thissame great teaching of the Master. After the prodigal had spenteverything, after he had wandered in all the realms of the physicalsenses in the pursuit of happiness and pleasure, and found that thisdid not satisfy but only brought him to the level of the animalcreation, he then came to his senses and said, I will arise and go tomy Father. In other words, after all these wanderings, his own soul atlength spoke to him and said, You are not a mere animal. You are yourFather's child. Arise and go to your Father, who holds all things inHis hands. Again, the Master said, Call no man your Father upon theearth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Here he recognizedthe fact that the real life is direct from the life of God. Ourfathers and our mothers are the agents that give us the bodies, thehouses in which we live, but the real life comes from the InfiniteSource of Life, God, who is our Father. 

One day word was brought to the Master that his mother and his brethrenwere without, wishing to speak with him. Who is my mother and who aremy brethren? said he. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father whichis in heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother. 

Many people are greatly enslaved by what we term ties of relationship. It is well, however, for us to remember that our true relatives are notnecessarily those who are connected with us by ties of blood. Ourtruest relatives are those who are nearest akin to us in mind, in soul, in spirit. Our nearest relatives may be those living on the oppositeside of the globe, --people whom we may never have seen as yet, but towhom we will yet be drawn, either in this form of life or in another, through that ever working and never failing law of attraction. 

When the Master gave the injunction, Call no man your father upon theearth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven, he here gave us thebasis for that grand conception of the fatherhood of God. And if Godis equally the Father of all, then we have here the basis for thebrotherhood of man. But there is, in a sense, a conception stillhigher than this, namely, the oneness of man and God, and hence theoneness of the whole human race. When we realize this fact, then weclearly see how in the degree that we come into the realization of ouroneness with the Infinite Life, and so, every step that we makeGodward, we aid in lifting all mankind up to this realization, andenable them, in turn, to make a step God-ward. 

The Master again pointed out our true relations with the Infinite Lifewhen he said, Except ye become as little children ye shall not enterinto the kingdom of heaven. When he said, Man shall not live by breadalone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, hegave utterance to a truth of far greater import than we have as yetcommenced fully to grasp. Here he taught that even the physical lifecan not be maintained by material food alone, but that one's connectionwith this Infinite Source determines to a very great extent thecondition of even the bodily structure and activities. Blessed are thepure in heart for they shall see God. In other words, blessed are theywho in all the universe recognize only God, for by such God shall beseen. 

Said the great Hindu sage, Manu, He who in his own soul perceives theSupreme Soul in all beings, and acquires equanimity toward them all, attains the highest bliss. It was Athanasius who said, Even we maybecome Gods walking about in the flesh. The same great truth we areconsidering is the one that runs through the life and the teachings ofGautama, he who became the Buddha. People are in bondage, said he, because they have not yet removed the idea of _I_. To do away with allsense of separateness, and to recognize the oneness of the self withthe Infinite, is the spirit that breathes through all his teachings. Running through the lives of all the mediaeval mystics was this samegreat truth, --union with God. 

Then, coming nearer to our own time, we find the highly illumined seer, Emanuel Swedenborg, pointing out the great laws in connection with whathe termed, the divine influx, and how we may open ourselves more fullyto its operations. The great central fact in the religion and worshipof the Friends is, the inner light, --God in the soul of man speakingdirectly in just the degree that the soul is opened to Him. Theinspired one, the seer who when with us lived at Concord, recognizedthe same great truth when he said, We are all inlets to the great seaof life. And it was by opening himself so fully to its inflow that hebecame one inspired. 

All through the world's history we find that the men and the women whohave entered into the realm of true wisdom and power, and hence intothe realm of true peace and joy, have lived in harmony with this HigherPower. David was strong and powerful and his soul burst forth inpraise and adoration in just the degree that he listened to the voiceof God and lived in accordance with his higher promptings. Whenever hefailed to do this we hear his soul crying out in anguish andlamentation. The same is true of every nation or people. When theIsraelites acknowledged God and followed according to His leadings theywere prosperous, contented, and powerful, and nothing could prevailagainst them. When they depended upon their own strength alone andfailed to recognize God as the source of their strength, we find themovercome, in bondage, or despair. 

A great immutable law underlies the truth, Blessed are they that hearthe word of God and do it. Then follows all. We are wise in thedegree that we live according to the higher light. 

All the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in the world's historybecame what they became, and consequently had the powers they had, through an entirely natural process. They all recognized and came intothe conscious realization of their oneness with the Infinite Life. Godis no respecter of persons. He doesn't create prophets, seers, sages, and saviours as such. He creates men. But here and there onerecognizes his true identity, recognizes the oneness of his life withthe Source whence it came. He lives in the realization of thisoneness, and in turn becomes a prophet, seer, sage, or saviour. Neither is God a respecter of races or of nations. He has no chosenpeople; but here and there a race or nation becomes a respecter of Godand hence lives the life of a chosen people. 

There has been no age or place of miracles in distinction from anyother age or place. What we term miracles have abounded in all placesand at all times where conditions have been made for them. They arebeing performed today just as much as they ever have been when the lawsgoverning them are respected. Mighty men, we are told they were, mighty men who walked with God; and in the words "who walked with God"lies the secret of the words "mighty men. " Cause, effect. 

The Lord never prospers any man, but the man prospers because heacknowledges the Lord, and lives in accordance with the higher laws. Solomon was given the opportunity of choosing whatever he desired; hisbetter judgment prevailed and he chose wisdom. But when he chosewisdom he found that it included all else beside. We are told that Godhardened Pharaoh's heart. I don't believe it. God never hardens anyone's heart. Pharaoh hardened his own heart and God was blamed for it. But when Pharaoh hardened his heart and disobeyed the voice of God, theplagues came. Again, cause, effect. Had he, on the contrary, listened, --in other words, had he opened himself to and obeyed thevoice of God, the plagues would not have come. 

We can be our own best friends or we can be our own worst enemies. Inthe degree that we become friends to the highest and best within us, webecome friends to all; and in the degree that we become enemies to thehighest and best within us, do we become enemies to all. In the degreethat we open ourselves to the higher powers and let them manifestthrough us, then by the very inspirations we carry with us do we becomein a sense the saviours of our fellow-men, and in this way we all are, or may become, the saviours one of another. In this way you maybecome, indeed, one of the world's redeemers. 

THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS--THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION. 

The great truth we are considering is the fundamental principle runningthrough all religions. We find it in every one. In regard to it allagree. It is, moreover, a great truth in regard to which all peoplecan agree, whether they belong to the same or to different religions. People always quarrel about the trifles, about their personal views ofminor insignificant points. They always come together in the presenceof great fundamental truths, the threads of which run through all. Thequarrels are in connection with the lower self, the agreements are inconnection with the higher self. 

A place may have its factions that quarrel and fight among themselves, but let a great calamity come upon the land, flood, famine, pestilence, and these little personal differences are entirely forgotten and allwork shoulder to shoulder in the one great cause. The changing, theevolving self gives rise to quarrels; the permanent, the soul selfunites all in the highest efforts of love and service. 

Patriotism is a beautiful thing; it is well for me to love my country, but why should I love my own country more than I love all others? If Ilove my own and hate others, I then show my limitations, and mypatriotism will stand the test not even for my own. If I love my owncountry and in the same way love all other countries, then I show thelargeness of my nature, and a patriotism of this kind is noble andalways to be relied upon. 

The view of God in regard to which we are agreed, that He is theInfinite Spirit of Life and Power that is back of all, that is workingin and through all, that is the life of all, is a matter in regard towhich all men, all religions can agree. With this view there can be noinfidels or atheists. There are atheists and infidels in connectionwith many views that are held concerning God, and thank God there are. Even devout and earnest people among us attribute things to God that norespectable men or women would permit to be attributed to themselves. This view is satisfying to those who cannot see how God can be angrywith his children, jealous, vindictive. A display of these qualitiesalways lessens our respect for men and women, and still we attributethem to God. 

The earnest, sincere heretic is one of the greatest friends truereligion can have. Heretics are among God's greatest servants. Theyare among the true servants of mankind. Christ was one of the greatestheretics the world has ever known. He allowed himself to be bound byno established or orthodox teachings or beliefs. Christ ispreëminently a type of the universal. John the Baptist is a type ofthe personal. John dressed in a particular way, ate a particular kindof food, belonged to a particular order, lived and taught in aparticular locality, and he himself recognized the fact that he mustdecrease while Christ must increase. Christ, on the other hand, gavehimself absolutely no limitations. He allowed himself to be bound bynothing. He was absolutely universal and as a consequence taught notfor his own particular day, but for all time. 

This mighty truth which we have agreed upon as the great central factof human life is the golden thread that runs through all religions. When we make it the paramount fact in our lives we will find that minordifferences, narrow prejudices, and all these laughable absurditieswill so fall away by virtue of their very insignificance, that a Jewcan worship equally as well in a Catholic cathedral, a Catholic in aJewish synagogue, a Buddhist in a Christian church, a Christian in aBuddhist temple. Or all can worship equally well about their ownhearth-stones, or out on the hillside, or while pursuing the avocationsof every-day life. For true worship, only God and the human soul arenecessary. It does not depend upon times, or seasons, or occasions. Anywhere and at any time God and man in the bush may meet. 

This is the great fundamental principle of the universal religion uponwhich all can agree. This is the great fact that is permanent. Thereare many things in regard to which all cannot agree. These are thethings that are personal, non-essential, and so as time passes theygradually fall away. One who doesn't grasp this great truth, aChristian, for example, asks "But was not Christ inspired?" Yes, buthe was not the only one inspired. Another who is a Buddhist asks, "Wasnot Buddha inspired?" Yes, but he was not the only one inspired. AChristian asks, "But is not our Christian Bible inspired?" Yes, butthere are other inspired scriptures. A Brahmin or a Buddhist asks, "Are not the Vedas inspired?" Yes, but there are other inspired sacredbooks. Your error is not in believing that your particular scripturesare inspired, but your error is--and you show your absurdly laughablelimitations by it--your inability to see that other scriptures are alsoinspired. 

The sacred books, the inspired writings, all come from the samesource, --God, God speaking through the souls of those who openthemselves that He may thus speak. Some may be more inspired thanothers. It depends entirely on the relative degree that this one orthat one opens himself to the Divine voice. Says one of the inspiredwriters in the Hebrew scriptures, Wisdom is the breath of the power ofGod, and _in all ages_ entering into holy souls she maketh them friendsof God and prophets. 

Let us not be among the number so dwarfed, so limited, so bigoted as tothink that the Infinite God has revealed Himself to one little handfulof His children, in one little quarter of the globe, and at oneparticular period of time. This isn't the pattern by which God works. Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in everynation he that revereth God and worketh righteousness is accepted ofHim, says the Christian Bible. 

When we fully realize this truth we will then see that it makes butlittle difference what particular form of religion one holds to, but itdoes make a tremendous difference how true he is to the _vital_principles of this one. In the degree that we love self less and lovetruth more, in that degree will we care less about converting people toour particular way of thinking, but all the more will we care to aidthem in coming into the full realization of truth through the channelsbest adapted to them. The doctrine of our master, says the Chinese, consisted solely in integrity of heart. We will find as we search thatthis is the doctrine of every one who is at all worthy the name ofmaster. 

The great fundamental principles of all religions are the same. Theydiffer only in their minor details according to the various degrees ofunfoldment of different people. I am sometimes asked, "To whatreligion do you belong?" What religion? Why, bless you, there is onlyone religion, --the religion of the living God. There are, of course, the various creeds of the same religion arising from the variousinterpretations of different people, but they are all of minorimportance. The more unfolded the soul the less important do theseminor differences become. There are also, of course, the variousso-called religions. There is in reality, however, but one religion. 

The moment we lose sight of this great fact we depart from the real, vital spirit of true religion and allow ourselves to be limited andbound by form. In the degree that we do this we build fences aroundourselves which keep others away from us, and which also prevent ourcoming into the realization of universal truth; there is nothing worthythe name of truth that is not universal. 

There is only one religion. "Whatever road I take joins the highwaythat leads to Thee, " says the inspired writer in the Persianscriptures. "Broad is the carpet God has spread, and beautiful thecolors he has given it. " "The pure man respects every form of faith, "says the Buddhist. "My doctrine makes no difference between high andlow, rich and poor; like the sky, it has room for all, and like thewater, it washes all alike. " "The broad minded see the truth indifferent religions; the narrow minded see only the differences, " saysthe Chinese. The Hindu has said, "The narrow minded ask, 'Is this mana stranger, or is he of our tribe?' But to those in whom love dwells, the whole world is but one family. " "Altar flowers are of manyspecies, but all worship is one. " "Heaven is a palace with many doors, and each may enter in his own way. " "Are we not all children of oneFather?" says the Christian. "God has made of one blood all nations, to dwell on the face of the earth. " It was a latter-day seer who said, "That which was profitable to the soul of man the Father revealed tothe ancients; that which is profitable to the soul of man todayrevealeth He this day. "

It was Tennyson who said, "I dreamed that stone by stone I reared asacred fane, a temple, neither pagoda, mosque, nor church, but loftier, simpler, always open-doored to every breath from heaven, and Truth andPeace and Love and Justice came and dwelt therein. "

Religion in its true sense is the most joyous thing the human soul canknow, and when the real religion is realized, we will find that it willbe an agent of peace, of joy, and of happiness, and never an agent ofgloomy, long-faced sadness. It will then be attractive to all andrepulsive to none. Let our churches grasp these great truths, let themgive their time and attention to bringing people into a knowledge oftheir true selves, into a knowledge of their relations, of theironeness, with the Infinite God, and such joy will be the result, andsuch crowds will flock to them, that their very walls will seem almostto burst, and such songs of joy will continually pour forth as willmake all people in love with the religion that makes for every-daylife, and hence the religion that is true and vital. Adequacy forlife, adequacy for everyday life here and now, must be the test of alltrue religion. If it does not bear this test, then it simply is notreligion. We need an everyday, a this-world religion. All time spentin connection with any other is worse than wasted. The eternal lifethat we are now living will be well lived if we take good care of eachlittle period of time as it presents itself day after day. If we failin doing this, we fail in everything. 

ENTERING NOW INTO THE REALIZATION OF THE HIGHEST RICHES. 

I hear the question, What can be said in a concrete way in regard tothe method of coming into this realization? The facts underlying itare, indeed, most beautiful and true, but how can we actualize inourselves the realization that carries with it such wonderful results?

The method is not difficult if we do not of ourselves make itdifficult. The principal word to be used is the word, --Open. Simplyto open your mind and heart to this divine inflow which is waiting onlyfor the opening of the gate, that it may enter. It is like opening thegate of the trough which conducts the water from the reservoir aboveinto the field below. The water, by virtue of its very nature, willrush in and irrigate the field if the gate is but opened. As to therealization of our oneness with this Infinite Life and Power, afterseeing, as I think we have clearly seen by this time, the relations itbears to us and we to it, the chief thing to be said issimply, --Realize your oneness with it. The open mind and heart wherebyone is brought into the receptive attitude is the first thingnecessary. Then the earnest, sincere desire. 

It may be an aid at first to take yourself for a few moments each dayinto the quiet, into the silence, where you will not be agitated by thedisturbances that enter in through the avenues of the physical senses. There in the quiet alone with God, put yourself into the receptiveattitude. Calmly, quietly, and expectantly desire that thisrealization break in upon and take possession of your soul. As itbreaks in upon and takes possession of the soul, it will manifestitself to your mind, and from this you will feel its manifestations inevery part of your body. Then in the degree that you open yourself toit you will feel a quiet, peaceful, illuminating power that willharmonize body, soul, and mind, and that will then harmonize these withall the world. You are now on the mountain top, and the voice of Godis speaking to you. _Then, as you descend, carry this realization withyou_. Live in it, waking, working, thinking, walking, sleeping. Inthis way, although you may not be continually on the mountain top, youwill nevertheless be continually living in the realization of all thebeauty, and inspiration, and power you have felt there. 

Moreover, the time will come when in the busy office or on the noisystreet you can enter into the silence by simply drawing the mantle ofyour own thoughts about you and realizing that there and everywhere theSpirit of Infinite Life, Love, Wisdom, Peace, Power, and Plenty isguiding, keeping, protecting, leading you. This is the spirit ofcontinual prayer. This it is to pray without ceasing. This it is toknow and to walk with God. _This it is to find the Christ within_. This is the new birth, the second birth. First that which is natural, then that which is spiritual. It is thus that the old man Adam is putoff and the new man Christ is put on. This it is to be saved unto lifeeternal, whatever one's form of belief or faith may be; for it is lifeeternal to know God. "The Sweet By and By" will be a song of the past. We will create a new song--"The Beautiful Eternal Now. "

This is the realization that you and I can come into this very day, this very hour, this very minute, if we desire and if we will it. Andif now we merely set our faces in the right direction, it is then but amatter of time until we come into the full splendors of this completerealization. To set one's face in the direction of the mountain andthen simply to journey on, whether rapidly or more slowly, will bringhim to it. But unless one set his face in the right direction and makethe start, he will not reach it. It was Goethe who said:

 "Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute: What you can do, or dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage and then the mind grows heated; Begin and then the work will be completed. "

Said the young man, Gautama Siddhârtha, I have awakened to the truthand I am resolved to accomplish my purpose, --Verily I shall become aBuddha. It was this that brought him into the life of the EnlightenedOne, and so into the realization of Nirvana right here in this life. That this same realization and life is within the possibilities of allhere and now was his teaching. It was this that has made him the LightBearer to millions of people. 

Said the young man, Jesus, Know ye not that I must be about my Father'sbusiness? Making this the one great purpose of his life he came intothe full and complete realization, --I and the Father are one. He thuscame into the full realization of the Kingdom of Heaven right here inthis life. That all could come into this same realization and lifehere and now was his teaching. It was this that has made him the LightBearer to millions of people. 

And so far as practical things are concerned, we may hunt the wideuniverse through and we shall find that there is no injunction morepractical than, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousnessand all other things shall be added unto you. And in the light of whathas gone before, I think there is no one who is open to truth andhonest with himself who will fail to grasp the underlying reason andsee the great laws upon which it is based. 

Personally I know lives that have so fully entered into the kingdomthrough the realization of their oneness with the Infinite Life andthrough the opening of themselves so fully to its divine guidance, thatthey are most wonderful concrete examples of the reality of this greatand all-important truth. They are people whose lives are in this wayguided not only in a general way, but literally in every detail. Theysimply live in the realization of their oneness with this InfinitePower, continually in harmony with it, and so continually in therealization of the kingdom of heaven. An abundance of all things istheirs. They are never at a loss for anything. The supply seemsalways equal to the demand. They never seem at a loss in regard towhat to do or how to do it. Their lives are care-less lives. They arelives free from care because they are continually conscious of the factthat the higher powers are doing the guiding, and they are relieved ofthe responsibility. To enter into detail in connection with some ofthese lives, and particularly with two or three that come to my mind atthis moment, would reveal facts that no doubt to some would seem almostincredible if not miraculous. But let us remember that what ispossible for one life to realize is possible for all. This is indeedthe natural and the normal life, that which will be the every-day lifeof every one who comes into and who lives in this higher realizationand so in harmony with the higher laws. This is simply getting intothe current of that divine sequence running throughout the universe;and when once in it, life then ceases to be a plodding and moves alongday after day much as the tides flow, much as the planets move in theircourses, much as the seasons come and go. 

All the frictions, all the uncertainties, all the ills, the sufferings, the fears, the forebodings, the perplexities of life come to us becausewe are out of harmony with the divine order of things. They willcontinue to come as long as we so live. Rowing against the tide ishard and uncertain. To go with the tide and thus to take advantage ofthe working of a great natural force is safe and easy. To come intothe conscious, vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite Lifeand Power is to come into the current of this divine sequence. Comingthus into harmony with the Infinite, brings us in turn into harmonywith all about us, into harmony with the life of the heavens, intoharmony with all the universe. And above all, it brings us intoharmony with ourselves, so that body, soul, and mind become perfectlyharmonized, and when this is so, life becomes full and complete. 

The sense life then no longer masters and enslaves us. The physical issubordinated to and ruled by the mental; this in turn is subordinatedto and continually illumined by the spiritual. Life is then no longerthe poor, one-sided thing it is in so many cases; but the three-fold, the all-round life with all its beauties and ever increasing joys andpowers is entered upon. Thus it is that we are brought to realize thatthe middle path is the great solution of life; neither asceticism onthe one hand nor license and perverted use on the other. Everything isfor use, but all must be wisely used in order to be fully enjoyed. 

As we live in these higher realizations the senses are not ignored butare ever more fully perfected. As the body becomes less gross andheavy, finer in its texture and form, all the senses become finer, sothat powers we do not now realize as belonging to us gradually develop. Thus we come, in a perfectly natural and normal way, into thesuper-conscious realms whereby we make it possible for the higher lawsand truths to be revealed to us. As we enter into these realms we arethen not among those who give their time in speculating as to whetherthis one or that one had the insight and the powers attributed to him, but we are able _to know_ for ourselves. Neither are we among thosewho attempt to lead the people upon the hearsay of some one else, butwe know whereof we speak, and only thus can we speak with authority. There are many things that we cannot know until by living the life webring ourselves into that state where it is possible for them to berevealed to us. "If any man will do His will, he shall know of thedoctrine. " It was Plotinus who said, The mind that wishes to beholdGod must itself become God. As we thus make it possible for thesehigher laws and truths to be revealed to us, we will in turn becomeenlightened ones, channels through which they may be revealed to others. 

When one is fully alive to the possibilities that come with this higherawakening, as he goes here and there, as he mingles with hisfellow-men, he imparts to all an inspiration that kindles in them afeeling of power kindred to his own. We are all continually giving outinfluences similar to those that are playing in our own lives. We dothis in the same way that each flower emits its own peculiar odor. Therose breathes out its fragrance upon the air and all who come near itare refreshed and inspired by this emanation from the soul of the rose. A poisonous weed sends out its obnoxious odor; it is neither refreshingnor inspiring in its effects, and if one remain near it long he may beso unpleasantly affected as to be made even ill by it. 

The higher the life the more inspiring and helpful are the emanationsthat it is continually sending out. The lower the life the moreharmful is the influence it continually sends out to all who come incontact with it. Each one is continually radiating an atmosphere ofone kind or the other. 

We are told by the mariners who sail on the Indian Seas, that manytimes they are able to tell their approach to certain islands longbefore they can see them by the sweet fragrance of the sandalwood thatis wafted far out upon the deep. Do you not see how it would serve tohave such a soul playing through such a body that as you go here andthere a subtle, silent force goes out from you that all feel and areinfluenced by; so that you carry with you an inspiration andcontinually shed a benediction wherever you go; so that your friendsand all people will say, --His coming brings peace and joy into ourhomes, welcome his coming; so that as you pass along the street, tired, and weary, and even sin-sick men and women will feel a certain divinetouch that will awaken new desires and a new life in them; that willmake the very horse as you pass him turn his head with a strange, half-human, longing look? Such are the subtle powers of the human soulwhen it makes itself translucent to the Divine. To know that such alife is within our living here and now is enough to make one burstforth with songs of joy. And when the life itself is entered upon, thesentiment of at least one song will be:

 "Oh! I stand in the Great Forever, All things to me are divine; I eat of the heavenly manna, I drink of the heavenly wine. 

 "In the gleam of the shining rainbow The Father's Love I behold, As I gaze on its radiant blending Of crimson and blue and gold. 

 "In all the bright birds that are singing, In all the fair flowers that bloom, Whose welcome aromas are bringing Their blessings of sweet perfume;

 "In the glorious tint of the morning, In the gorgeous sheen of the night, Oh! my soul is lost in rapture, My senses are lost in sight. "

As one comes into and lives continually in the full, consciousrealization of his oneness with the Infinite Life and Power, then allelse follows. This it is that brings the realization of suchsplendors, and beauties, and joys as a life that is thus related withthe Infinite Power alone can know. This it is to come into therealization of heaven's richest treasures while walking the earth. This it is to bring heaven down to earth, or rather to bring earth upto heaven. This it is to exchange weakness and impotence for strength;sorrows and sighings for joy; fears and forebodings for faith; longingsfor realizations. This it is to come into fullness of peace, power, and plenty. This it is to be in tune with the Infinite.