THE HEART

OF

The New Thought

WRITTEN BY

ELLA WHEELER WILCOX

Associate Editor of "NEW THOUGHT. "

ELEVENTH THOUSAND

PUBLISHED BY

THE PSYCHIC RESEARCH COMPANY

TEMPLE CHAMBERS

TEMPLE AVE. , E. C. , LONDON, ENG. 

1903

Copyright

THE PSYCHIC RESEARCH COMPANY. 

All Rights Reserved. 

NOTICE: This work is protected by Copyright, and simultaneous initialpublication in United States of America, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia and other countries. All rights reserved. 

Publishers' Preface

This book is noteworthy as an interpretation of "New Thought. "

That which was vague, mystic, unreal, has become, in the hands of Mrs. Wilcox, a lovable philosophy of simplest construction. 

The backbone of this philosophy is The Power of Right Thought. 

Startling as are some of the tenets expressed, they are provably truehere and now. 

It is possible that the very simplicity of this book will encouragecareless criticism from those who believe that genius and ambiguity aretwin. 

But Mrs. Wilcox is ever the voice of the people: what she says ispractical; what she thinks is clear; what she feels is plain. 

Let the people judge this book. 

 Contents:

 Let the Past Go The Sowing of the Seed Old Clothes High Noon Obstacles Thought Force Opulence Eternity Morning Influences The Philosophy of Happiness A Worn Out Creed Common Sense Literature Optimism Preparation Dividends Royalty Heredity Invincibility Faces The Object of Life Wisdom Self-Conquest The Important Trifles Concentration Destiny Sympathy The Breath Generosity Woman's Opportunity Balance

THE HEART OF

THE NEW THOUGHT

Let the Past Go

Do not begin the new year by recounting to yourself or others all yourlosses and sorrows. 

Let the past go. 

Should some good friend present you with material for a lovely garment, would you insult her by throwing it aside and describing the beautifulgarments you had worn out in past times?

The new year has given you the fabric for a fresh start in life, whydwell upon the events which have gone, the joys, blessings andadvantages of the past!

Do not tell me it is too late to be successful or happy. Do not tellme you are sick or broken in spirit, the spirit cannot be sick orbroken, because it is of God. 

It is your mind which makes your body sick. Let the spirit assertitself and demand health and hope and happiness in this new year. 

Forget the money you have lost, the mistakes you have made, theinjuries you have received, the disappointments you have experienced. 

Real sorrow, the sorrow which comes from the death of dear ones, orsome great cross well borne, you need not forget. But think of thesethings as sent to enrich your nature, and to make you more human andsympathetic. You are missing them if you permit yourself instead togrow melancholy and irritable. 

It is weak and unreasonable to imagine destiny has selected you forspecial suffering. 

Sorrow is no respecter of persons. Say to yourself with the beginningof this year that you are going to consider all your troubles as aneducation for your mind and soul; and that out of the experiences whichyou have passed through you are going to build a noble and splendidcharacter, and a successful career. 

Do not tell me you are too old. 

Age is all imagination. Ignore years and they will ignore you. 

Eat moderately, and bathe freely in water as cold as nature's rainfall. Exercise thoroughly and regularly. 

Be alive, from crown to toe. Breathe deeply, filling every cell of thelungs for at least five minutes, morning and night, and when you drawin long, full breaths, believe you are inhaling health, wisdom andsuccess. 

Anticipate good health. If it does not come at once, consider it amere temporary delay, and continue to expect it. 

Regard any physical ailment as a passing inconvenience, no more. 

Never for an instant believe you are permanently ill or disabled. 

The young men of France are studying alchemy, hoping to learn thesecret of the transmutation of gold. 

If you will study your own spirit and its limitless powers, you willgain a greater secret than any alchemist ever held; a secret whichshall give you whatever you desire. 

Think of your body as the silver jewel box, your mind as the silklining, your spirit as the gem. Keep the box burnished and clear ofdust, but remember always that the jewel within is the precious part ofit. 

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. Awhole, clear, glorious year lies before you! In a year you can regainhealth, fortune, restfulness, happiness!

Push on! Achieve, achieve!

The Sowing of the Seed

When you start in the "New Thought" do not expect sudden illumination. Do not imagine that you are to become perfectly well, perfectlycheerful, successful, and a healer, in a few days. 

Remember all growth is slow. 

Mushrooms spring up in a night, but oaks grow with deliberation andendure for centuries. 

Mental and spiritual power must be gained by degrees. 

If you attained maturity before you entered this field of "New Thought"it is folly to suppose a complete transformation of your whole beingwill take place in a week--a month--or a year. 

All you can reasonably look for is a gradual improvement, just as youmight do if you were attempting to take up music or a science. 

The New Thought is a science, the Science of Right Thinking. But thebrain cells which have been shaped by the old thoughts of despondencyand fear, cannot all at once be reformed. 

It will be a case of "Try, try again. "

Make your daily assertions, "I am love, health, wisdom, cheerfulness, power for good, prosperity, success, usefulness, opulence. "

Never fail to assert these things at least twice a day; twenty times isbetter. But if you do not attain to all immediately, if your life doesnot at once exemplify your words, let it not discourage you. 

The saying of the words is the watering of the seeds. 

After a time they will begin to sprout, after a longer time to coverthe barren earth with grain, after a still longer time to yield aharvest. 

If you have been accustomed to feeling prejudices and dislikes easily, you will not all at once find it easy to illustrate your assertion, "Iam love. " If you have indulged yourself in thoughts of disease, theold aches and pains will intrude even while you say "I am health!"

If you have groveled in fear and a belief that you were born to povertyand failure, courage and success and opulence will be of slow growth. Yet they will grow and materialize, as surely as you insist and persist. 

Declare they are yours, right in the face of the worst disasters. There is nothing so confuses and flustrates misfortune as to stare itdown with hopeful unflinching eyes. 

If you waken some morning in the depths of despondency and gloom, donot say to yourself:

"I may as well give up this effort to adopt the New Thought--I havemade a failure of it evidently----. " Instead sit down quietly, andassert calmly that you are cheerfulness, hope, courage, faith andsuccess. 

Realize that your despondency is only temporary; an old habit, which isreasserting itself, but over which you will gradually gain theascendency. Then go forth into the world and busy yourself in someuseful occupation, and before you know it is on the way, hope willcreep into your heart, and the gray cloud will lift from your mind. Physical pains will loosen their hold, and conditions of poverty willchange to prosperity. 

Your mind is your own to educate and direct. 

You can do it by the aid of the Spirit, but you must be satisfied towork slowly. 

Be patient and persistent. 

Old Clothes

As you go over your wardrobe in the spring or fall, do not keep anyold, useless, or even questionable, garments, for "fear you might needthem another year. "

Give them to the ragman, or send them to the county or city poor house. There is nothing that will keep you in a rut of shabbiness more thanclinging to old clothes. 

It is useless to say that you cannot afford new garments. 

It is because you have harped upon this idea that you are still instraitened circumstances. 

You believe neither in God or yourself. 

Possibly you were brought up to think yourself a mere worm of earth, born to poverty and sorrow. 

If you were, it will of course require a continued effort to train yourmind to the new thought, the thought of your divine inheritance of allGod's vast universe of wealth. 

But you can do it. 

Begin by giving away your old clothes. There may be people, poorrelations, or some struggling mother of half-clad children, to whomyour old garments will seem like new raiment, and to whom they willbring hope and happiness. 

As a rule, it is not well to give people your discarded clothing. 

It has a tendency to lower their self-respect and to make them look toyou, instead of to themselves, for support. 

It all depends upon whom the people are and how you do it. 

If you can find employment for them, and arouse their hope andself-confidence and ambition, it is better than carloads of clothing orfurniture or provisions. 

But little children, suffering from cold, or hard-working, over-taxedmen and women, will not be harmed, and may be temporarily cheered andencouraged by your gifts. 

No matter if you still need your frayed-out garments--do not keep them. 

Your thoughts of poverty and trouble have impregnated them so that youwill continue to produce the same despondent mind stuff while you wearthese garments. 

Get rid of them, and believe that you are to soon procure fresh, becoming raiment. 

Rouse all your energies, and go straight ahead with that purpose inmind. 

You will be surprised to find how soon the opportunity presents itselffor you to obtain what you need. 

There is new strength, repose of mind and inspiration in fresh apparel. 

God gives Nature new garments every season. We are a part of Nature. 

He gives us the qualities and the opportunities to obtain suitablecovering for our changing needs, if we believe in the one, and use theother. 

When I read of a wealthy man who boasts that he has worn one hat sevenyears, or a woman in affluent circumstances who has worn one bonnet forvarious seasons, I feel sorry for their ignorance and ashamed of theirpenuriousness. 

Look at the apple-tree, with its delicate spring drapery, its luxurioussummer foliage, its autumn richness of coloring, its winter draperiesof white! Surely the Creator did not intend the tree to have morevariety than man!

The tree trusts, and grows, and takes storm and sun as divinely sent, and believes in its right to new apparel, and it comes. 

It will come to you if you do the same. 

High Noon

Every woman who passes thirty ought to keep her brain, heart and mindalive and warm with human sympathy and emotion. She ought to interestherself in the lives of others, and make her friendship valuable to theyoung. 

She should keep her body supple, and avoid losing the lines of grace:and she should select some study or work to occupy her spare hours andto lend a zest to the coming years. Every woman in the comfortablewalks in life can find time for such a study. No woman of tact, charm, refinement and feeling need ever let her husband, unless she hasmarried a clod, become indifferent or commonplace in his treatment ofher. Man reflects to an astonishing degree woman's sentiments for him. 

Keep sentiment alive in your own heart, madam, and in the heart of yourhusband. If he sees that other men admire you he will be more alert tothe necessity of remaining your lover. 

Take the happy, safe, medium path between a gray and a gay life bykeeping it radiant and bright. Read and think and talk of cheerful, hopeful, interesting subjects. Avoid small gossip, and be careful inyour criticism of neighbors. Sometimes we must criticise, but speak_to_ people whose faults you feel a word of counsel may amend, not _of_them to others. 

Make your life after it reaches its noon, glorious with sunlight, richwith harvests, and bright with color. Be alive in mind, heart andbody. Be joyous without giddiness, loving without silliness, attractive without being flirtatious, attentive to others' needswithout being officious, and instructive without too great a display oferudition. 

Be a noble, loving, lovable woman. 

It is never too late in life to make anew start. No matter how small abeginning may be, it is so much begun for a new incarnation if it iscut off here by death. 

If I were one hundred years old, and in possession of my faculties, Iwould not hesitate to undertake a new enterprise which offered a hopeof bettering my condition. 

Thought is eternal in its effects, and every hopeful thought whichenters the mind sets vibrations in motion, which shall help mindsmillions of miles distant and lives yet unborn. 

It is folly to mourn over a failure to provide opportunities andluxuries for children. We have only to look at the children of therich, to see how little enduring happiness money gives, and how seldomgreat advantages result in great characters. The majority of thereally great people of the world, in all lines of achievement, havesprung from poverty. I do not mean from pauper homes, but from thehomes where only the mere necessities of life could be obtained, andwhere early in their youth the children felt it necessary to go intothe world and make their own way. Self-dependence, self-reliance, energy, ambition, were all developed in this way. 

How rarely do we find these qualities in the children of wealth. Howrarely do great philosophers, great statesman, great thinkers and great_characters_ develop from the wealthy classes. 

Pauperism--infant labor--the wage-earning women--are all evils whichought to be abolished. But next to that evil I believe the worst thingpossible for a human soul is to be born to wealth. It is an obstacleto greatness which few are strong enough to surmount, and it rarelyresults in happiness to the recipient. 

Obstacles

However great the obstacles between you and your goal may be or havebeen, do not lay the blame of your failure upon them. 

Other people have succeeded in overcoming just as great obstacles. 

Remove such hindrances from the path for others, if you can, or tellthem a way to go around. Even lead them a little distance and cheerthem on. 

But so far as you yourself are concerned, do not stop to excuse anydelinquency or half-heartedness or defeat by the plea of circumstanceor environment. 

The great nature makes its own environment, and dominates circumstance. 

It all depends upon the amount of force in your own soul. 

While you apply this rule to yourself and make no scapegoat of "fate, "you must have consideration for the weakness of others, and you musttry and better the conditions of the world as you go along. 

You are robust and possessed of all your limbs. You can mount over thegreat boulder which has fallen in the road to success, and go on yourway to your goal all the stronger for the experience. 

But behind you comes a one-legged man--a blind man--a man bowed to theearth with a heavy burden, which he cannot lay down. 

It will require weeks, months, years of effort on their part to climbover that rock which you surmounted in a few hours. 

So it is right and just for you to call other strong ones to your aidand roll the boulder away or blast it out of the path. 

That is just exactly the way you should think of the present industrialconditions. 

In spite of them, the strong, well-poised, earnest and determined soulcan reach any desired success. 

But there are boulders in the road which do not belong there, boulderswhich cause hundreds of the pilgrims who are lame or blind or burdened, to fall by the wayside and perish. 

It is your duty to aid in removing these obstacles and in making theroad a safe and clear thoroughfare for all who journey. 

Do not sit down by the roadside and say you have been hindered by thesedifficulties, that is to confess yourself weak. 

Do not mount over them and rush to your goal and say coldly to thethrongs behind you, "Oh, everybody can climb over that rock who reallytries--didn't I?" That is to announce yourself selfish andunsympathetic. 

No doubt the lame, the blind and the burdened _could_ attain the goaldespite the rocks if they were fired by a consciousness of the divineforce within them; that consciousness can achieve _all things under allcircumstances_. 

But there will always be thousands of pilgrims toiling wearily towardthe goal who have not come to this realization. 

If there are unjust, unfair and unkind restrictions placed about them, see to it that you do all in your power to right what is wrong. 

But never wait to attain your own success because of these restrictionsor obstacles. 

Believe absolutely in your own God-given power to overcome anything andeverything. 

Think of yourself as performing miracles with God's aid. 

Desire success so intensely that you attract if as the magnet attractsthe steel. 

Help to adjust things as you go along, but never for a moment believethat the lack of adjustment can cause you to fail. 

Thought Force

Your spirit and mine are both part of the stupendous cause. We havealways been, and always will be. First in one form, then in another. 

Every thought, word and deed is helping decide your next place in theCreator's magnificent universe. You will be beautiful or ugly, wise orignorant, fortunate or unfortunate, according to what use you make ofyourself here and now. 

Unselfish thoughts, training your mind to desire only universal good, the cultivation of the highest attributes, such as love, honesty, gratitude, faith, reverence and good will, all mean a life ofusefulness and happiness in another incarnation, as well assatisfaction and self-respect in this sphere. 

Even if you escape the immediate results of the opposite course ofaction here, you must face the law of _cause and effect_ in the nextstate. It is inevitable. God, the maker of all things, does notchange His laws. "As you sow you reap. " "As a man thinketh so is he. "There is no "revenge" in God's mind. He simply makes His laws, and wework our destinies for good or ill according to our adherence to themor violation of them. 

Each one of us is a needed part of His great plan. Let each soul say:"He has need of me or I would not be. I am here to strengthen theplan. " Remember that always in your most discouraged hours. 

The Creator makes no mistakes. 

There is a divine purpose in your being on earth. Think of yourself asnecessary to the great design. It is an inspiring thought. And thenconsider the immensity of the universe and how accurately the Makerplanned it all. 

Do not associate with pessimists. If you are unfortunate enough to bethe son or daughter, husband or wife of one, put cotton (either real orspiritual) in your ears, and shut out the poison words ofdiscouragement and despondency. 

No tie of blood or law should compel you to listen to what meansdiscomfort and disaster to you. 

Get out and away, into the society of optimistic people. 

Before you go, insist on saying cheerful, hopeful and bright things, sowing the seed, as it were, in the mental ground behind you. But donot sit down to see it grow. 

Never feel that it is your duty to stay closely and continuously in theatmosphere of the despondent. 

You might as well think it your duty to stay in deep water with one whowould not make the least effort to swim. 

Get on shore and throw out a life-line, but do not remain and bedragged under. 

If you find any one determined to talk failure and sickness andmisfortune and disaster, walk away. 

You would not permit the dearest person on earth to administer slowpoison to you if you knew it. Then why think it your duty to takemental potions which paralyze your courage and kill your ambition?

Despondency is one phase of immorality. It is blasphemous and aninsult to the Creator. 

You are justified in avoiding the people who send you from theirpresence with less hope and force and strength to cope with life'sproblems than when you met them. 

Do what you can to change their current of thought. But do notassociate intimately with them until they have learned to keepsilent--at least, if they cannot speak hopefully. 

Learn how to walk, how to poise your body, how to breathe, how to holdyour head, how to focus your mind on things of universal importance. Believe your tender, loving thoughts and wishes for good to allhumanity have power to help the struggling souls of earth to rise tohigher and better conditions. No matter how limited your sphere ofaction may seem to you and how small your town appears on the map, ifyou develop your mental and spiritual forces through _love thoughts_you can be a power to move the world along. Rise up and realize yourstrength. Not only will you be more useful and happy, but you willgrow more beautiful and keep your youth. 

Opulence

Do not go through the world talking poverty and asking every one youdeal with to show you special consideration because you are "poor" and"unfortunate. "

If you do this with an idea of saving a few dollars here and there, youwill always have to do it, because you are creating poverty conditionsby your constant assertions. 

It is a curious fact that the people who are always demandingconsideration in money matters demand the best that is going at thesame time. 

I have known a woman to make a plea for cut prices in a boarding housebecause she was so poor, yet she wanted the sunniest room and the bestlocation the house afforded. 

It is the charity patients who make the most complaint of a physician'sskill or a nurse's attention. 

If you cannot afford to do certain things, or buy certain objects, don't. But when you decide you must, decide, too, that you will paythe price, and make no whining plea of poverty. 

There are two extremes of people in the world, one as distasteful asthe other. One is represented by the man who boasts of the costlinessof every possession, and invites the whole world to behold his opulenceand expenditure. 

His clothes, his house, his servants, his habits, seem no different tothe observer from his neighbor's, yet, according to his story, theycost ten times the amount. 

The other extreme is the man who dresses well, lives well, enjoys allthe comforts and pleasures of his associates, yet talks povertycontinually, and expects the entire community to show him considerationin consequence. 

Another thing to avoid is the role of the chronically injured person. 

We all know him. 

He has a continual grievance. He has been cheated, abused, wronged, insulted, disappointed and deceived. We wonder how or why he hasmanaged to exist, as we listen to the story of his troubles. 

No one ever treats him fairly, either in business or social life. Everybody is ungrateful, unkind, selfish, and he could not be made tobelieve that these experiences were of his own making. 

All of us meet with occasional blows from fate, in the form of insults, or ingratitude, or trickery from an unexpected source. 

But if we get nothing else but those disappointing experiences fromlife, we may rest assured the fault lies somewhere in ourselves. 

We are not sending out the right kind of mental stuff, or we would getbetter returns. 

 You never can tell what your thoughts will do In bringing you hate or love, For thoughts are things, and their airy wings Are swift as a carrier dove. They follow the law of the universe-- Each thing must create its kind, And they speed o'er the track to bring you back Whatever went out from your mind. 

In the main, we must of necessity get from humanity what we give to it. If we question our ability to win friends or love, people will alsoquestion it. 

If we doubt our own judgment and discretion in business, others willdoubt it, and the shrewd and unprincipled will take the opportunitygiven by our doubts of ourselves, to spring upon us. 

If in consequence we distrust every person we meet, we create anunwholesome and unfortunate atmosphere about ourselves, which willbring to us the unworthy and deceitful. Stand firm in the universe. Believe in yourself. Believe in others. 

If you make a mistake, consider it only an incident. 

If some one wrongs you, cheats, misuses or insults you, let it pass asone of the lessons you had to learn, but do not imagine that you areselected by fate for only such lessons. Keep wholesome, hopeful andsympathetic with the world at large, whatever individuals may do. Expect life to use you better every year, and it will not disappointyou in the long run. For life is what we make it. 

Eternity

Do you know what a wonderfully complicated thing a human being is?Every feature, every portion of your body, every motion you make, reflects your mental organization. 

I know a woman past middle life who has always been on the oppositeside of every question discussed in her presence. 

She was agnostic with the orthodox, reverential with atheists, liberalwith the narrow, bigoted with the liberal. 

Whatever belief any one expressed on any subject, she invariably tookthe other extreme. She loved to disagree with her fellow-men. It washer pastime. 

Now, to walk with that woman in silence is merely to carry on awordless argument. 

You cannot regulate your steps so they will harmonize with hers. Shewill be just ahead or just behind you, and if you want to turn to theleft, she pulls to the right. A promenade with her is more exhaustingthan a day's labor. 

She is not conscious of it, and would think anyone very unreasonableand unjust who told her of her peculiarities. 

I know a woman who all her life has been looking afar for happiness andpeace and content, and has never found any of them, because she did notlook in her own soul. 

She was a restless girl, and she married, believing in domestic lifelay the goal of her dreams. But she was not happy there, and sighedfor freedom. She wanted to move, and did move, once, twice, thrice, todifferent points of the United States. She was discontented with eachchange. She is to-day possessed of all comforts and luxuries whichlife can afford, yet she is the same restless soul. She likes to read, but it is always the book which she does not possess which she craves. If she is in the library with shelves book-filled, she goes into thegarret and hunts in old boxes for a book or a paper which has been castaside. 

If she is in a picture gallery, she wants to go to the window and lookout on the street, but when she is on the street it bores her, and shelongs to go in the house. 

If a member of the family is absent, she gets no enjoyment out of thesociety of those at home; yet when that absent one returns her mindstrays elsewhere, seeking some imagined happiness not found here. 

I wonder if such souls ever find it, even in the spirit realm, or ifthey go on there seeking and always seeking something just beyond. Itis a great gift to learn to enjoy the present--to get all there is outof it, and to think of to-day as a piece of eternity. Begin now toteach yourself this great art if you have not thought of it before. Tobe able to enjoy heaven, one must learn first to enjoy earth. 

Morning Influences

What do you think about the very first thing in the morning?

Your thoughts during the first half-hour of the morning will greatlyinfluence the entire day. You may not realize this, but it isnevertheless a fact. 

If you set out with worry, and depression, and bitterness of soultoward fate or man, you are giving the key note to a day of discordsand misfortunes. 

If you think peace, hope and happiness, you are sounding a note ofharmony and success. 

The result may not be felt at once, but it will not fail to make itselfevident eventually. 

Control your morning thoughts. You can do it. 

The first moment on waking, no matter what your mood, say to yourself:"I will get all the comfort and pleasure possible out of this day, andI will do something to add to the measure of the world's happiness orwell-being. I will control myself when tempted to be irritable orunhappy, I will look for the bright side of every event. "

Once you say these things over to yourself in a calm, earnest way, youwill begin to feel more cheerful. The worries and troubles of thecoming day will seem less colossal. 

Then say: "I shall be given help to meet anything that comes to-day. Everything will be for the best. I shall succeed in whatever Iundertake. I cannot fail. "

Do not let it discourage you if the moment you leave your room youencounter a trouble or a disaster. This usually happens. When we makeany boasts, spiritually or physically, we are put to the test. Theoccult forces about us are not unlike human beings. When a school-boyboasts of his strength, and says he can "lick any boy in school, " hegenerally gets a chance to prove it. 

When we declare we are brave enough to overcome any fate, we find ourstrength put to the test at once. 

But that is all right. Prove your words to be true. Regard thetroubles and cares you encounter as the "punching bags" of fate, givenyou to develop your spiritual muscle. 

Go at them with courage and keep to your morning resolve. 

By and by the troubles will lessen, and you will find yourself masterof Circumstances. 

The Philosophy of Happiness

There are natures born to happiness just as there are born musicians, mechanics and mathematicians. 

They are usually children who came into life under right pre-natalconditions. That is, children conceived and born in love. 

The mother who thanks God for the little life she is about to bring toearth, gives her child a more blessed endowment than if it were heir toa kingdom or a fortune. 

As the majority of people, however, born under "civilized" conditions, are unwelcome to their mothers, it is rarely we encounter one who has abirthright of happiness. 

Youth possesses a certain buoyancy and exhilaration which passes forhappiness, until the real disposition of the individual asserts itselfwith the passing of time. 

Good health and strong vitality are great aids to happiness; yet thatthey, wealth and honors added, do not produce that much desired stateof mind we have but to look about us to observe. 

One who is not born a musician needs to toil more assiduously toacquire skill in the art, however strong his desire or great his taste, than the natural genius. 

So the man not endowed with joyous impulses needs to set himself thetask of acquiring the habit of happiness. I believe it can be done. To the sad or restless or discontented being I would say: Begin eachmorning by resolving to find something in the day to enjoy. Look ineach experience which comes to you for some grain of happiness. Youwill be surprised to find how much that has seemed hopelesslydisagreeable possesses either an instructive or an amusing side. 

There is a certain happiness to be found in the most disagreeable dutywhen you stop to realize that you are getting it out of the way. 

If it is one of those duties which has the uncomfortable habit ofrepeating itself continually, you can at least say you are learningpatience and perseverance, which are two great virtues and essential toany permanent happiness in life. 

Do not anticipate the happiness of to-morrow, but discover it into-day. Unless you are in the profound depths of some great sorrow, you will find it if you look for it. 

Think of yourself each morning as an explorer in a new realm. I know aman whose time is gold, and he carefully arranged his plans to takethree hours for a certain pleasure. He lost his way and missed hispleasure, but was full of exuberant delight over his "new experience. ""I saw places and met with adventures I might have missed my wholelife. " He was a true philosopher and optimist and such a man gets thevery kernel out of the nut of life. 

I know a woman who had since her birth every material blessing, health, wealth, position, travel and a luxurious home. She was forevercomplaining of the cares and responsibilities of the latter. Finallyshe prevailed upon the family to rent the home for a series of yearsand to live in hotels. Now she goes about posing as a martyr, "ahomeless woman. " It is impossible for such a selfishly pervertednature to know happiness. 

A child should be taught from its earliest life to find entertainmentin every kind of condition or weather. If it hears its elders cursingand bemoaning a rainy day the child's plastic mind is quick to receivethe impression that a rainy day is a disaster. 

How much better to expatiate in its presence on the blessing of rain, and to teach it the enjoyment of all nature's varying moods, whichother young animals feel. 

Happiness must come from within in order to respond to that which comesfrom without, just as there must be a musical ear and temperament toenjoy music. 

Cultivate happiness as an art or science. 

A Worn Out Creed

I have a letter from an "orthodox Christian, " who says the only hopefor humanity lies in the "old-fashioned religion. "

Then he proceeds to tell me how carefully he has studied human nature, "in business, in social life, and in himself, " and that he finds it allvile--selfish--sinful. 

Of course he does, because he studies it from a false and harmfulstandpoint, and looks for "the worm of earth" and "the poor, miserablesinner, " instead of the _divine_ man. 

We find what we look for in this world. 

I have always been looking for the noble qualities in human beings, andI have found them. 

There are great souls all along the highway of life, and there aregreat qualities even in the people who seem common and weak to usordinarily. 

One of the grandest souls I know is a man who served his term in prisonfor sins committed while in drink. 

He was not "born bad", he simply drifted into bad company and formedbad habits. 

He paid the awful penalty of five years behind prison bars, but thedivine man within him asserted itself, and today I have no friend Ifeel prouder to call that name. 

Mr. John L. Tait, secretary of the Central Howard Association, ofChicago, writes me regarding his knowledge of ex-convicts:

According to my experience with a number of men of this class duringthe last two years, more than 90 per cent of them are worthy of themost cordial support and assistance. 

If this can be said of men who have been criminals, surely humanity isnot so vile as my "orthodox" correspondent would have me believe. 

A "Christian" of that order ought to be put under restraint, and notallowed to associate with mankind. 

He carries a moral malaria with him, which poisons the air. 

He suggests evil to minds which have not thought it. 

He is a dangerous hypnotist, while pretending to be a disciple ofChrist. 

The man who believes that all men are vicious, selfish and immoral is_projecting pernicious mind stuff_ into space, which is as dangerous tothe peace of the community as dynamite bombs. 

The world has been kept back too long by this false, unholy andblasphemous "religion. "

It is not the religion of Christ--it is the religion of ignoranttranslators, ignorant readers. 

Thank God, its supremacy is past. A wholesome and holy religion hastaken its place with the intelligent progressive minds of the day, areligion which says: "I am all goodness, love, truth, mercy, health. Iam a necessary part of God's universe. I am a divine soul, and onlygood can come through me or to me. God made me, and He could makenothing but goodness and purity and worth. I am the reflection of allHis qualities. "

This is the "new" religion; yet it is older than the universe. It isGod's own thought put into practical form. 

Common Sense

If you are suffering from physical ills, ask yourself if it is not yourown fault. 

There is scarcely one person in one hundred who does not over eat ordrink. 

I know an entire family who complain of gastric troubles, yet who keepthe coffee pot continually on the range and drink large quantities ofthat beverage at least twice a day. 

No one can be well who does that. Almost every human ailment can betraced to foolish diet. 

Eat only two meals in twenty-four hours. If you are not engaged inactive physical labor, make it one meal. Drink two or three or fourquarts of milk at intervals during the day to supply good blood to thesystem. 

You will thrive upon it, and you will not miss the other two mealsafter the first week. 

And your ailments will gradually disappear. 

Meantime, if you are self-supporting, your bank account will increase. 

Think of the waste of money which goes into indigestible food! It isappalling when you consider it. Heaven speed the time when men andwomen find out how little money it requires to sustain the body in goodhealth and keep the brain clear and the eye bright!

The heavy drinker is to-day looked upon with pity and scorn. The timewill come when the heavy eater will be similarly regarded. 

Once find the delight of a simple diet, the benefit to body and mindand purse, and life will assume new interest, and toil will be robbedof its drudgery, for it will cease to be a mere matter of toiling for abare existence. 

Again, are you unhappy? Stop and ask yourself why. If you have agreat sorrow, time will be your consoler. And there is an ennoblingand enriching effect of sorrow well borne. 

It is the education of the soul. But if you are unhappy over pettyworries and trials, you are wearing yourself to no avail; and if youare allowing small things to irritate and harass you and to spoil thebeautiful days for you, take yourself in hand and change your ways. 

You can do it if you choose. It is pitiful to observe what sort oftroubles most unhappy people are afflicted with. I have seen abeautiful young woman grow care lined and faded just from imagining shewas being "slighted" or neglected by her acquaintances. 

Some one nodded coldly to her, another one spoke superciliously, athird failed to invite her, a fourth did not pay her a call, and soon--always a grievance to relate until one is prepared to looksympathetic at sight of her. 

And such petty, petty grievances for this great, good life to be marredby!

And all the result of her own disposition. Had she chosen to look forappreciation and attention and good will she would have found iteverywhere. 

Then, about your temper? Is it flying loose over a trifle? Are youmaking yourself and every one else wretched if a chair is out of place, or a meal a moment late, or some member of the family is tardy atdinner, or your shoe string is in a tangle or your collar buttonmislaid?

Do you go to pieces nervously if you are obliged to repeat a remark tosome one who did not understand you? I have known a home to be ruinedby just such infinitesimal annoyances. It is a habit, like the drug oralcohol habit--this irritability. 

All you need do is to stop it. Keep your voice from rising, and speakslowly and calmly when you feel yourself giving way to it. Realize howridiculous and disagreeable you will be if you continue, what anunlovely and hideous old age you are preparing for yourself. Andrealize that a loose temper is a sign of vulgarity and lack of culture. 

Think of the value of each day of life, how much it means and whatpossibilities of happiness and usefulness it contains if well spent. 

But if you stuff yourself like an anaconda, dwell on the small worriesand grow angry at the least trifle, you are committing as great andinexcusable a folly as if you flung your furniture and garments andfood and fuel into the sea in a spirit of wanton cruelty. You arewasting life for nothing. Every sick, gloomy day you pass is a sinagainst life. Get health, be cheerful, keep calm. 

Clear your mind of every gloomy, selfish angry or revengeful thought. Allow no resentment or grudge toward man or fate to stay in your heartover night. 

Wake in the morning with a blessing for every living thing on your lipsand in your soul. Say to yourself: "Health, luck, usefulness, success, are mine. I claim them. " Keep thinking that thought, no matter whathappens, just as you would put one foot before another if you had amountain to climb. Keep on, keep on, and suddenly you will find youare on the heights, luck beside you. 

Whoever follows this recipe _cannot fail_ of happiness, good fortuneand a useful life. But saying the words over _once_ and then driftingback to anger, selfishness, revenge and gloom will do no good. 

The words must be said over and over, and _thought_ and _lived_ whennot said. 

Literature

The world is full of "New Thought" Literature. It is helpful andinspiring to read. 

It is worth many dollars to any one who will _live_ its philosophy. 

I talked to a man who has been studying along these lines for someyears. 

"Oh, I know all that philosophy, " he said; "it is nothing new. I amperfectly familiar with it. "

Yet this man was continually allowing himself to grow angry over theleast trifle; he was quick to see and speak of the faults in others; hewas demanding more of those he associated with in the way ofconsideration and justice than he was willing to give, and he wasuntidy in his person and improvident in his use of money. 

Now it is the merest waste of time for this man to read "New Thought"literature or practice "deep breathing", since he will not put intodaily and hourly practice what is taught by the New Religion. 

He is like the orthodox Christian who mumbles through the Lord's Prayerand then goes forth to do exactly as he would not be done by inbusiness, social and domestic life. 

_Man is what he thinks_. Not what he says, reads or hears. Bypersistent thinking you can undo any condition which exists. You canfree yourself from any chains, whether of poverty, sin, ill health orunhappiness. If you have been thinking these thoughts half a lifetimeyou must not expect to batter down the walls you have built, in a week, or a month, or a year. You must work and wait, and grow discouragedand stumble and pick yourself up and go on again. 

You cannot in an hour gain control over a temper which you have let flyloose for twenty years. But you can control it eventually, and learnto think of a burst of anger as a vulgarity like drunkenness orprofanity, something you could not descend to. 

If you have allowed yourself to think despondent thoughts and believethat poverty and sickness were your portion for years, it will taketime to train your mind to more cheerful and hopeful ideas; but you cando it by repeated assertions and by reading and thinking and living thebeautiful New Thought Philosophy. 

Optimism

Not long ago I read the following gloomy bit of pessimism from the penof a man bright enough to know better than to add to the mental malariaof the world. He said:

Life is a hopeless battle in which we are foredoomed to defeat. Andthe prize for which we strive "to have and to hold"--what is it? Athing that is neither enjoyed while had, nor missed when lost. Soworthless it is, so unsatisfying, so inadequate to purpose, so false tohope and at its best so brief, that for consolation and compensation weset up fantastic faiths of an aftertime in a better world from which noconfirming whisper has ever reached us out of the void. Heaven is aprophecy uttered by the lips of despair, but Hell is an inference fromhistory. 

This is morbid and unwholesome talk which can do no human being anygood to utter, or listen to. 

But it can depress and discourage the weak and struggling souls, whoare striving to make the best of circumstances, and it can nerve tosuicide the hand of some half-crazed being, who needed only a word ofencouragement and cheer to brace up and win the race. 

This is the unpardonable sin--to talk discouragingly to human souls, hungering for hope. 

When the man without brains does it, he can be pardoned for knowing nobetter. 

When the man with brains does it, he should be ashamed to look hisfellow mortals in the eyes. 

It is a sin ten times deeper dyed than giving a stone to those who askfor bread. 

It is giving poison to those who plead for a cup of cold water. 

Fortunately the remarks above quoted contain not one atom of truth!

The writer may speak for himself, but he has no right to speak forothers. 

It is all very well for a man who is marked with smallpox to say hisface has not one unscarred inch on the surface of it. But he has nopremises to stand upon when he says there is not a face in the worldwhich is free from smallpox scars. 

Life is not "a hopeless battle in which we are doomed to defeat. "

Life is a glorious privilege, and we can make anything we choose of it, if we begin early and are in deep earnest, and realize our own divinepowers. 

Nothing can hinder us or stay us. We can do and be whatsoever we will. 

The prize of life is not "a thing which is neither enjoyed while hadnor missed when lost. "

It is enjoyed by millions of souls to-day--this great prize of life. Ifor one declare that for every day of misery in my existence I have hada week of joy and happiness. For every hour of pain, I have had a dayof pleasure. For every moment of worry, an hour of content. 

I cannot be the only soul so endowed with the appreciation of life! Iknow scores of happy people who enjoy the many delights of earth, andthere are thousands whom I do not know. 

Of course "life is not missed when lost"--because it is never lost. Itis indestructible. 

Life ever was, and ever will be. It is a continuous performance. 

It is not "worthless" to the wholesome, normal mind. It is full ofinterest, and rich with opportunities for usefulness. 

When any man says his life is worthless, it is because he has eyes andsees not, and ears and hears not. 

It is his own fault, not the fault of God, fate or accident. 

If every life seems at times "unsatisfactory" and "inadequate" it isonly due to the cry of the immortal soul longing for largeropportunities and fewer limitations. 

Neither is life "false to hope. " He who trusts the divine Source ofLife, shall find his hopes more than realized here upon earth. I butvoice the knowledge of thousands of souls, when I make this assertion. I know whereof I speak. 

All that our dearest hopes desire will come to us, if we believe inourselves as rightful heirs to Divine Opulence, and work and thinkalways on those lines. 

If "no whisper has ever reached us out of the void" confirming ourfaith in immortality, then one-third of the seemingly intelligent andsane beings of our acquaintance must be fools or liars. For we havethe assertion of fully this number that such whispers have come, besides the Biblical statistics of numerous messages from the otherrealm. "As it was in the beginning, is now and shall be ever more, world without end, Amen. "

Preparation

Every day I hear middle-aged people bemoaning the fact that they werenot given advantages or did not seize the opportunities for aneducation in early youth. 

They believe that their lives would be happier, better and more usefulhad an education been obtained. 

Scarcely one of these people realizes that middle life is theschooltime for old age, and that just as important an opportunity isbeing missed or ignored day by day for the storing up of valuableknowledge which will be of great importance in rendering old ageendurable. 

Youth is the season to acquire knowledge, middle life is the time toacquire wisdom. 

Old age is the season to enjoy both, but wisdom is far the moreimportant of the two. 

By wisdom I mean the philosophy which enables us to control ourtempers, curb our tendency to severe criticism, and cultivate oursympathies. 

The majority of people after thirty-five consider themselves privilegedto be cross, irritable, critical and severe, because they have livedlonger than the young, because they have had more trials anddisappointments, and because they believe they understand the worldbetter. 

Those are excellent reasons why they should be patient, kind, broad andsympathetic. 

The longer we live the more we should realize the folly and vulgarityof ill-temper, the cruelty of severe criticism and the necessity for abroad-minded view of life, manners, morals and customs. 

Unless we adapt ourselves to the changing habits of the world, unlesswe adopt some of the new ideas that are constantly coming to the front, we will find ourselves carping, disagreeable and lonely old people asthe years go by. 

The world will not stand still for us. Society will not wear the sameclothes or follow the same pleasures, or think the same thoughts whenwe are eighty that were prevalent when we were thirty. We must keepmoving with the world or stand still and solitary. 

After thirty we must seize every hour and educate ourselves to growinto agreeable old age. 

It requires at least twenty years to become well educated in book andcollege lore. If we begin to study at seven we are rarely through withall our common schools, seminaries, high schools and colleges have tooffer under a score of years. 

The education for old age needs fully as many years. We need to beginat thirty to be tolerant, patient, serene, trustful, sympathetic andliberal. Then, at fifty, we may hope to have "graduated with honors"from life's school of wisdom, and to be prepared for another score ortwo of years of usefulness and enjoyment in the practice of thesequalities. 

Instead of wasting our time in bemoaning the loss of earlyopportunities for obtaining an education, let us devote ourselves tothe cultivation of wisdom, since that is free to all who possessself-control, will power, faith and perseverance. 

Begin to-day, at home. Be more tolerant of the faults of the othermembers of your household. Restrain your criticisms on the conduct ofyour neighbors. 

Try and realize the causes which led some people who have gone wrong toerr. Look for the admirable qualities in every one you meet. Sympathize with the world. Be interested in progress, be interested inthe young. Keep in touch with each new generation, and do not allowyourself to grow old in thought or feeling. 

Educate yourself for a charming old age. There is no time to lose. 

Dividends

 Our thoughts are shaping unmade spheres, And, like a blessing or a curse, They thunder down the formless years And ring throughout the universe. 

The more we realize the tremendous responsibility of our mentalemanations the better for the world and ourselves. The sooner we teachlittle children what a mighty truth lies in the Bible phrase "As a manthinketh, so is he, " the better for future generations. 

If a man thinks sickness, poverty and misfortune, he will meet them andclaim them all eventually as his own. But he will not acknowledge theclose relationship, he will deny his own children and declare they weresent to him by an evil fate. 

Walter Atkinson tells us that "he who hates is an assassin. "

Every kindergarten and public school teacher ought to embody this ideain the daily lessons for children. 

It may not be possible to teach a child to "love every neighbor ashimself, " for that is the most difficult of Commandments to follow tothe letter; but it is possible to eliminate hatred from a nature if weawaken sympathy for the object of dislike. 

That which we pity we cannot hate. The wonderful Intelligence whichset this superb system of worlds in action must have been inspired bylove for all it created. 

So much grandeur and magnificence, so much perfection of detail, couldonly spring from Love. 

Whatever is out of harmony in our little world has been caused by man'ssubstituting hate and fear for love and faith. 

Every time we allow either hate or fear to dominate our minds wedisarrange the order of the universe and make trouble for humanity, andourselves. 

It may be a little late in reaching us, but it is sure to come back tothe Mind which sent forth the cause. 

Every time we entertain thoughts of love, sympathy, forgiveness andfaith we add to the well-being of the world, and create fortunate andsuccessful conditions for ourselves. 

Those, too, may be late in coming to us--BUT THEY WILL COME. 

Right thinking is not attained in a day or a week. 

We must train the mind to reject the brood of despondent, resentful, fearful and prejudiced thoughts which approach it, and to invite andentertain cheerful, broad and wholesome thoughts instead, just as weovercome false tones and cultivate musical ones in educating the voicefor singing. 

When we once realize that by driving away pessimistic, angry and bitterthoughts we drive away sickness and misfortune to a great extent, andthat by seeking the kinder and happier frame of mind we seek at thesame time success and health and good luck, we will find a new impetusin the control of our mental forces. 

For we all love to be paid for our worthy deeds, even while we believein being good for good's sake only. And nothing in life is surer thanthis:

RIGHT THINKING PAYS LARGE DIVIDENDS. 

_Think_ success, prosperity, usefulness. It is much more profitablethan thinking self-destruction or the effort at self-destruction forthat is an act which aims at an impossibility. You can destroy thebody, but the _you_ who suffers in mind and spirit will suffer still, and live still. You will only change your location from one state toanother. You did not make yourself, you cannot unmake yourself. Youcan merely put yourself among the spiritual tramps who hang about theearth's borders, because they have not prepared a better place forthemselves. 

Suicide is cheap, vulgar and cowardly. Because you have made a wreckof a portion of this life, do not make a wreck of the next. 

Mend up your broken life here, go along bravely and with sympathy andlove in your heart, determined to help everybody you can, and to betteryour condition as soon as possible. Men have done this after fifty, and lived thirty good years to enjoy the results. 

Do not feel hurt by the people who slight you, or who refer to yourerring past. Be sorry for them. I would rather be a tender-heartedreformed sinner than a hard-hearted model of good behavior. 

I would rather learn sympathy through sin than never learn it at all. 

There is nothing we cannot live down, and rise above, and overcome. There is nothing we cannot be in the way of nobility and worth. 

Royalty

We get what we give. I have never known this rule to fail in the longrun. If we give sympathy, appreciation, goodwill, charitable thoughts, admiration and love--we receive all these back from humanity in time. 

We may bestow them unworthily, as the sower of good seed may cast it ona rocky surface, but the winds of heaven will scatter it broadcast, and, while the rock remains barren, the fields shall yield a goldenharvest. 

_The seed must be good_, however. 

If I say to myself without any real regard for another in my heart, "Iwant that person to like me, I will do all in my power to please him, "I need not be surprised if my efforts fail or prove of only temporaryefficacy. 

Neither need I feel surprised or pained if I find by-and-by that otherpeople are bestowing policy friendship upon me, actions with no feelingfor a foundation. 

No matter how kind and useful I make my conduct toward an individual, if in my secret heart I am criticising him severely and condemning him, I must expect criticism and condemnation from others as my portion. 

We reap what we sow. Some harvests are longer in growing than others, but they all grow in time. 

Servility in love, or friendship, or duty, is never commendable. I donot believe God Himself feels complimented when the beings He createdas the highest type of His workmanship declare themselves worthlessworms, unworthy of His regard!

We are heirs of God's kingdom, and rightful inheritors of happiness, and health, and success. What monarch would feel pleasure in havinghis children crawl in the dust, saying, "We are less than nothing, miserable, unworthy creatures?"

Would he not prefer to hear them say, proudly: "We are of royal blood"?

We ought always to believe in our best selves, in our right to love andbe loved, to give and receive happiness, and to toil and be rewarded. And then we should bestow our love, our gifts and our toil with noanxious thought about the returns. If we chance to love a lovelessindividual, to give to one bankrupt in gratitude, to toil for theunappreciative, it is but a temporary deprivation for us. The love, the gratitude and the recompense will all come to us in time from somesource, or many sources. It cannot fail. 

Heredity

American parents, as a rule, can be put in two extreme classes, thosewho render the children insufferably conceited and unbearable byoverestimating their abilities and overpraising their achievements, andthose who render them morbid and self-depreciating by a lack ofwholesome praise. 

It is rare indeed, when we find parents wise and sensible enough tostrengthen the best that is in their children by discreet praise, andat the same time to control the undesirable qualities by judicious andkind criticism. 

I heard a grandmother not long ago telling callers in the presence of asmall boy what a naughty, bad child he was, and how impossible itseemed to make him mind. Wretched seed to sow in the little mind, andthe harvest is sure to be sorrow. 

I have heard parents and older children, expatiate on the one stupidtrait and the one plain feature of a bright and handsome child, intending to keep it from forming too good an opinion of itself. 

To all young people I would say, cultivate a belief in yourself. Baseit on self-respect and confidence in God's love for his own handiwork. Say to yourself, "I will be what I will to be. " Not because your humanwill is all-powerful, but because the Divine will is back of you. Analyze your own abilities and find what you are best fitted to do. 

Then get about the task of doing your chosen work to the very best ofyour ability, and do not for an instant doubt your own capabilities. Perhaps they may be dwarfed and enfeebled by years of morbid thought;but if you persist in a self-respecting and self-reliant andGod-trusting course of thinking your powers will increase and yourcapabilities strengthen. 

It is no easy matter to overcome a habit of self-depreciation. 

It is like straightening out a limb which has been twisted by a falseattitude or correcting a habit of sitting round-shouldered. 

It requires a steady and persistent effort. When the depressing anddoubtful thoughts come drive them away like malaria-breeding insects. Say, "This is not complimentary to my Maker. I am His work. I must beworthy of my own respect and of that of others. I must and willsucceed. "

Invincibility

If we persistently desire good things to come to us for unselfishpurposes, and at the same time faithfully perform the duties which lienearest, we will eventually find our desires being realized in the mostunexpected manner. 

Our thought force has proved to be a wedge, opening the seeminglyinaccessible Wall of Circumstance. 

To read good books, to think and ponder on what you read, to cultivateevery agreeable quality you observe in others, and to weed from yournature every unworthy and disagreeable trait, to study humanity with anidea of being helpful and sympathetic, all these efforts will help youto the ultimate attainment of your wishes. 

It is a proven fact that if we devote a few moments each day toreaching exercises, standing with loose garments and stretching thebody muscles to reach some point above us, we increase our stature. 

Just so if we mentally and spiritually are continually reaching to ahigher plane we are growing. 

Every least thought of the brain is a chisel, chipping away at ourcharacters, and our characters are building our destinies. 

The incessant and persistent demand of our hearts and minds MUST begranted. 

That Mental Chisel

During a trolley ride through a thrifty New England locality, wherechurch spires were almost as plentiful as trees, I studied the faces ofthe people who came into the car during my two hours' journey. 

The day was beautiful, and all along the route our numbers wererecruited by bevies of women, young, middle aged and old, who were benton shopping expeditions or setting forth to make social calls. 

They went and came at each village through which our coach of democracypassed, and they represented all classes. 

The young girls were lovely, as young girls are the world over: theircomplexion possessed that soft tender luster, peculiar to seashorelocalities, for the salty breath of Father Neptune is the greatest ofcosmetics. Many of the young faces were formed in classic mould, theirfeatures clearly cut and refined, and severe, like the thoughts andprinciples of their ancestors. 

Often I observed a mother and some female relative, presumably an aunt, in company with a young relative; and always the sharpening andwithering process of the years of set and unelastic thought wasdiscernible upon their faces, which had once been young, and classicand attractive. 

In the entire two hours I saw but three lovely faces which were maturedby time. 

I saw scores of well-dressed and evidently well-cared-for women ofmiddle age, whose countenances were furrowed, drawn, pinched, sallow, and worn, beyond excuse; for time, sorrow, and sickness are notplausible excuses for such ravages upon a face God drew in lines ofbeauty. 

Time should mature a woman's beauty as it does that of a tree. Sorrowshould glorify it as does the frost the tree, and sickness should notbe allowed to lay a lingering touch upon it, until death calls thespirit away. 

Without question the great majority of the women I saw were earnestorthodox Christians. 

I heard snatches of conversation regarding Church and Charities and Ihave no doubt that each woman among them believed herself to be adisciple of Christ. 

Yet where was the result of the loving, tender, sweet spirit ofChrist's teaching?

It surely was not visible upon those pinched and worried faces? andthose faces were certain and truthful chronicles of the work done bythe minds within. 

One face said to me in every line, "I talk about God's goodness andloving-kindness, but I worry over the dust in the spare room, I fretabout our expenses, I am troubled about my lungs, and I fear my husbandhas an unregenerate heart. I never know an hour's peace, for even inmy sleep, I worry, worry, worry, but of course I know I will be savedby the blood of Christ!"

Another said, "I am in God's fold, well and safe, but I hate anddespise my nearest neighbor, for she wears clothes that I am sure shecannot pay for, and her children are always dressed better than mine. I quarrel with my domestics, and am always in trouble of some kind, just because human beings are so full of sin and no one but myself isever right. I shall be so glad to leave this world of woe and go toheaven, but I hope I will not meet many of my present acquaintancesthere!"

Another said, "If I only had good health--but I was born to sicknessand suffering, and it is God's will that I should suffer!"

Oh the pity of it, and to imagine this is religion!

Thank God the wave of "New Thought" is sweeping over the land, andwashing away those old blasphemous errors of mistaken creeds. 

The "New Thought" is to give us a new race of beautiful middle-aged andold people. 

To-day in any part of the land among rich, poor, ignorant orintellectual, orthodox or materialists the beautiful mature face israrer than a white blackbird in the woods. 

It is impossible to be plain, ugly, or uninteresting in late life, ifthe mind keeps itself occupied with right thinking. 

The withered and drawn face of fifty indicates withered emotions anddrawn and perverted ambitions. 

The dried and sallow face tells its story of dried up sympathies andhopes. 

The furrowed face tells of acid cares eating into the heart. 

All this is irreligious! yet all this prevails extensively in our mostconservative and churchy communities. 

He who in truth trusts God cannot worry. 

He who loves God and mankind, cannot become dried and withered atfifty, for love will re-create his blood, and renew the fires of hiseye. 

He who understands his own divine nature will grow more beautiful withthe passing of time, for the God within will become each year morevisible. 

The really reverent soul accepts its sorrows as blessings in disguise, and he who so accepts them is beautified and glorified by them, withinand without. 

Are you growing more attractive as you advance in life? Is your eyesofter and deeper, is your mouth kinder, your expression moresympathetic, or are you screwing up your face in tense knots of worry?Are your eyes growing hopeless and dull, is your mouth drooping at thecorners, and becoming a set thin line in the centre, and is your skindry, and sallow, and parched?

Study yourself and answer these questions to your own soul, for in theanswer depends the decision whether you really love and trust God, andbelieve in your own immortal spirit, or whether you are a mere impostorin the court of faith. 

The Object of Life

What do you believe to be the object of your life?

To be happy and successful, perhaps you are thinking, even if you donot answer in those words. 

That is the idea of the many. Meanwhile others, who have been educatedin the melancholy faith of their ancestors, believe the object of thislife is to be miserable, poor, and full of sorrow, that they may wear acrown of glory hereafter. 

But the clear thinker and careful observer must realize that there isone and only one main object in life--_the building of character_. 

He who sets out in early youth with that ambition and purpose, andkeeps to it, will not only attain his object, but he will, too, attainhappiness and true success--for there is no such thing as failure forthe man or woman of character. 

We often apply the two words character and success, unworthily. 

We speak of a man of "much character" when he is merely self-assertiveand stubborn, and we call a man successful, who has accumulated afortune, or achieved fame and a position, by doubtful methods. 

Then what is character, and what is success?

Character is the result of the cultivation of the highest and noblestqualities in human nature, and putting those qualities to practical use. 

Success is the conquest of the lower and baser self, and the ability tobe useful to one's fellow men. 

There are men of brain, wealth and position who are failures, and thereare men of limited abilities and in humble places who are yetsuccessful, inasmuch as they make the utmost of themselves, and theiropportunities. 

It makes no difference how lowly your sphere in life may be, and nomatter how limited your environment, you can build your character ifyou will. You need no outlay of money, no assistance from those inpower, no influence. 

Character Building must be done alone, and by yourself. The groundmust be cleansed of debris, and the structure must be erected stone bystone. 

It is dull, slow, hard work, especially the preparation. 

All preparation is drudgery. 

When this little whirling globe of ours began to cool in space thinkwhat a task lay before it! Think of the mass of chaos, which had toslowly shape itself into mighty, green, glad and snow-capped mountains, fertile vales, and noble forests. 

Each one of us is a little world, whirling alone on an individualorbit, but the divine power is within us, to grow into symmetry, beauty, and perfection if we only realize it. 

And the happiness of the work, once we begin it, is beyond the power ofdescription. 

There is no other satisfaction can compare with that of looking backacross the years and finding that you have grown in self-control, incharity of judgment, in a sense of justice, in generosity, and inunselfishness. 

If you are conscious of this growth, let no lack of material successfor one moment disturb you. That will come, enough for your need, intime. 

The man of symmetrically developed character is never a pauper. 

He is never dependent for more than a temporary period. 

To possess character is to be useful, and to be useful is to beindependent, and to be useful and independent, is to be happy, even inthe midst of sorrow; for sorrow is not necessarily unhappiness. 

The man who has made the development of a noble and harmoniouscharacter the business of his life, accepts his sorrows as means ofgreater growth, and finds in them an exaltation of spirit which isclosely allied to happiness. 

To such a nature, absolute wretchedness would only be possible throughthe loss of self-respect; the lowering of an ideal or the failure of aprinciple. 

Would you be happy and successful? Then set yourself to _buildcharacter_. 

Seek to be worthy of your own highest commendation. 

Wisdom

A great many people are attracted to the New Thought of the day, by itsdeclaration of our right to material wealth, and by its claim that themind of man can create, command, and control conditions which producewealth. 

There is no question concerning the truth of this claim. 

But woe unto him who cultivates his mental and spiritual powers onlyfor this purpose. 

His gold shall turn to dross, his pleasure to Dead Sea fruit. 

He shall be as one who drags a beautiful garment through the mud of thestreets, and while clothed in purple and fine linen is yet a repulsiveobject. 

Into the Great Scheme of Existence, as first conceived by the Creator, money did not enter. 

He made this beautiful Universe, and all that it contains was meant forthe enjoyment of His creatures. 

There was no millionaire and no pauper soul created by God. 

Each soul contains the spark of the divine spirit, and by therealization of that spark, and all it means, whatever is desired bymortal man may come to him. 

But wise is he who remembers the injunction, "Seek first the kingdom ofheaven and all other things shall be added unto you. "

Wise is he who understands the meaning of the words, "Unto him thathath, more shall be given. "

Not until you obtain the faculty of being happy through your spiritualand mental faculties, independent of material conditions, not until youlearn to value wealth only as a means of helpfulness, can you safelyturn your powers of concentration upon the idea of opulence. 

To demand, assert, and command wealth for its mere sensual benefits, tofocus your mind upon it because you desire to shine, lead, and triumph, is to play spiritual football with spiritual dynamite. 

You may obtain what you seek, you may accumulate riches, but at thecost of all that is worth living for. 

The merely ignorant, or stupid, or wholly material man who stumblesinto a fortune, through inheritance, dogged persistent industry, orchance, may enjoy it in his own fashion, and do no harm in the world. 

But the man who knows and who has developed his spiritual powers onlyfor the purpose of commanding material gain, might better have amillstone tied about his neck. For he makes himself a spiritualoutcast, and his money shall never bring him happiness. 

Make, therefore, your assertion of opulence the last in your list, asyou make Love first. 

Call unto yourself spiritual insight, absolute unselfishness, desirefor universal good, wisdom, justice, and usefulness, and last of allopulence. 

Think of yourself as possessed of all these qualities before youpicture financial independence. 

For without love for your kind, without the desire for usefulness andthe spiritual insight and the wisdom to be just before being generous, your money would bring you only temporary pleasure, and would do theworld no good. 

Neither should you labor under the impression that God's work is lyingundone because you have no fortune to command and wisely distributewhere most needed. Rest assured if you do the work which lies nearestto you, relieve such distress as is possible to you, and keep yourfaith in the ultimate justice of God's ways, that the world will moveon, and humanity will slowly attain its destined goal, even if younever become a millionaire. 

Self Conquest

Every New Idea, or supposed New Idea, is a light which attracts themoths. 

The "New Thought" is no exception. 

About it flutter hysterical women, unbalanced men: the erratic and theirresponsible. 

The possibilities of performing miracles, of healing the sick, hypnotizing the well, transforming poverty into wealth, and changingage to youth, are the rays of light which flicker through the darknessand draw them into the circle of radiance. 

The self-indulgent fat woman subscribes to New Thought literature, paysfor a course of lectures, and goes forth into the ranks of theunbelievers, proclaiming her power to become a sylph, and to causeothers to become sylphs. 

The extravagant and inconsiderate rush forth after having heard adiscourse upon the power of mind over matter, and declare that theypossess the secret of accumulating a fortune by occult means. 

The lovers of the marvelous believe that they will become great healersin a brief space of time. 

Not one of these moth converts realizes that the very first step totake in the direction of "New Thought" is self-conquest. 

The gourmand does not know that self-indulgence and a gross appetiteare incompatible with mental or spiritual growth, and will beinsurmountable obstacles in her path toward symmetry. 

The spendthrift does not take into consideration the fact that goodsense, thrift and industry, must aid his mental assertion of wealth, and the miracle lover does not understand that something greater andmore difficult is required than a mere wish to heal before healingpowers can be obtained. 

That the physical body and material conditions can be dominated by thedivine spirit in man, is an incontrovertible fact. 

But first, last and always, the lesser self must be subjugated, and theweak and unworthy qualities overcome. 

The woman who desires to reduce her flesh cannot do so by readingoccult literature, or joining mystic circles, or attending lectures, unless she permeates herself so thoroughly with spiritual truths thatshe no longer craves six courses at dinner, and three meals a day, andunless she overcomes her dislike for exercise. 

The man who wishes to control circumstances must love better thingsthan money before he can succeed. He must love, and respect, andbelieve in his Creator, and trust the Divine Man within himself, and hemust illustrate this love and trust by his daily conduct, and in hishome circle, and in his business relations. 

Once in a century, perhaps, is a man born with great powers alreadydeveloped to heal the sick, or to do other seeming miracles. Suchbeings are old souls, who have obtained diplomas in former lives; butthe majority of us are still in school, and we cannot become "seniors"until we pass through the lower grades. 

We must change ourselves before we can change material conditions: wemust heal our own thoughts and make them sane and normal, before we canheal bodily disease in others. 

It is not an immediate process. I have heard an old lady declare thatshe "got religion" in the twinkling of an eye, and she believed allpeople would be damned and burn in hell fire, who did not pass throughthis sudden illumination. 

It is possible that the religion which can worship a God cruel enoughto burn his children in fire, can only be obtained in the twinkling ofan eye; but the reverent, wholesome, and beautiful religion of "NewThought" must be grown into little by little, through patience, faith, and practice. 

All that it claims to do it can do, but not instantaneously, notrapidly. We must first make ourselves over; after absolute control ofour minds has been obtained, then, and only then, may we hope toinfluence circumstances and health. 

The Important Trifles

You will find, in the effort to reach a higher spirituality in yourdaily life, that the small things try your patience and your strengthmore than the greater ones. 

Home life, like business life, is composed of an accumulation oftrifles. 

There are people who bear great sorrows with resignation, and seem togain a certain dignity and force of character through trouble, but whoare utterly vanquished by trivial annoyances. 

The old-fashioned orthodox "Christian" was frequently of this order. 

Death, poverty, and misfortune he bore without complaining, and becameofttimes a more agreeable companion in times of deepest sorrow. 

He regarded all such experiences as the will of God, and bowed to them. 

Yet, if his dinner was late, his coffee below the standard, if hiseye-glasses were misplaced, or his toe trodden upon, he become a raginglion, and his roar drove his affrighted household into dark corners. 

There have been neighborhood Angels, who watched beside the dyingsinner, sustained orphans and widows, and endured great troublessublimely like martyrs. But if a dusty shoe trod upon a freshly washedfloor, or husband or child came tardily to the breakfast-table, orlingered outside the door after regulation hour for retiring--lo, theAngel became a virago, or a droning mosquito with persistent sting. 

The New Philosophy demands serenity and patience through small trials, as well as fortitude in meeting life's larger ills. 

It demands, too, that we seek to avoid giving others unnecessaryirritation by a thoughtless disregard of the importance of trifles. 

A man is more likely to keep calm if he wakes in the night anddiscovers that the house is on fire, than he is if, on being fullyprepared to retire, he finds the only mug on the third story is missingfrom his wash-stand, or the cake of toilet-soap he asked for the daybefore has been forgotten. 

A mother bears the affliction of a crippled child with more equanimitythan she is able to bring to bear upon the continual thoughtlessness ofa strong one. 

To be kind, means to be thoughtful. 

The kindest and most loving heart will sometimes forget and becareless; but it cannot be perpetually forgetful and careless ofanother's wishes and needs, even in the merest trifles. 

Concentration

The New Thought includes _concentration of thought_, in its teaching;and he who learns that important art is not liable to frequently forgetsmall or large duties. 

It is he who scatters, instead of concentrates his mind powers, whokeeps himself and others in a state of continual irritation byforgetting, mislaying, and losing, three petty vices which do much tomar domestic or business life. 

Concentration is a most difficult acquirement for the mature mind whichhas been allowed to grow in the habit of thought scattering. 

Wise is the mother, and as sure as wise, who teaches her child tofinish each task begun before attempting another, for that is the firststep in concentration. 

Prentice Mulford, that great and good pioneer in the field of practicalNew Thought, tells us to apply our whole mental powers to whatever wedo, even if it is merely the tying of a shoe, and to think of nothingelse until that shoe is tied, then to utterly forget the shoe string, when we turn to another duty or employment. The next lesson inconcentration he gives us, is to repeat the word often, to impress itupon the mind. 

And then to declare each day that "Concentration is mine" will aidstill farther in the acquisition of this great and important quality. 

Meanwhile, since we can be so fortunate as to always surround ourselveswith others who have acquired it, the student of the Higher Philosophymust learn to be serene and self-poised when he encounters life's pigmyworries. 

He must carry his religion into his bedroom and his office, and notforget it utterly when he loses his collar-button, or misses his car, or finds his office boy has taken a parcel to the wrong address. 

To build character necessitates a constant watch upon ourselves. TheNew Thought is not a religion of Sundays, but of every day. 

Destiny

Never say that you wish your situation were different! Never wish youhad some other person's life or troubles or worries. 

Accept your own as a _working basis_, the best for you. 

Then go ahead and _change whatever_ displeases you. 

Remember you are the maker and moulder of your own destiny. You do notrecall the fact, but you brought about the present conditions of yourdestiny in former incarnations. 

Even if you do not believe this, you must acknowledge that _you arehere_, and that the situation in which you find yourself seems to beinevitable for the present. 

But it is not inevitable for the future, unless you lie down in thefurrow and whine, and wish you were a millionaire, or a genius, andrail at the partiality of Providence. 

There is no partiality in the Universe. 

The whole scheme is well balanced. If you were allowed to change lotswith anyone on the face of the earth, you would complain and find faultin a short time. 

One of our best known millionaires, born to opulence, complains that hehas been robbed of the privilege of making his own fortune. 

He is no happier than you. His confession betrays his weakness ofcharacter just as your repining and fault-finding betrays yours. 

The real worth-while character thanks God for its destiny and says, "Iwill show the world what I can do with my life. "

Not long ago there was a great trotting-race at Brighton Beach. Theblind conqueror "Rythmic" won five consecutive races. 

Think of it! He did not, like a mortal man, shrink back and say "I amblind--that is a terrible destiny--I am cursed of God--I will not tryto win the race. " He just trusted the hand of the _Master at thereins_, did his best, and won the honors of the season. 

We are all blind racers on the track of earth. The king, themillionaire, the statesman, the lawmaker, the beggar, the laborer, thecripple, we are all in the dark. The only thing is to trust the handof the Master, and _do our best_. 

Believe your position is the right starting point for _you_, merely thestarting point. 

It is the shapeless block of stone from which you are to fashion theperfect statue. 

Or it is the mere mud from which you are to mould the clay image, andlater that is to be put into enduring marble. 

What is uglier or more unattractive than mud?

Yet think of the glorious conceptions which it imprisons. 

Take the mud of your present environment and thank God for it, and makethe image of the future you desire. 

You can do it--you must do it--you will do it. 

Sympathy

Are you of a sympathetic nature?

If so, do not let your sympathies help to add to the world's miseries. 

That may seem a strange expression, but it can be explained if you willlisten. 

Much of the misery in the world is the result of imagination. 

All of it is the result of selfishness and ignorance. 

But hundreds and thousands of people believe themselves sick, sorrowfuland poverty stricken, who would be well, glad and prosperous, if theyonly thought themselves so. 

Every time you pour out your sympathy upon these self-made sufferers, you add to their burden of wrong thought, and make it just so much moredifficult for them to rise out of their troubles. 

I do not believe all the misfortune in the world is caused by wrongthinking in this life, or can be done away with by right thinking. Thethree-year-old child who toddles in front of a trolley car and loses aleg, while the tired mother is bending over the washtub to keep thewolf of hunger at bay, cannot be blamed for wrong thinking as the causeof its trouble. Neither can the deaf mute or the child born blind ordeformed. We must go farther back, to former lives, to find the firstcause of such misfortunes. 

No "New Thought, " no amount of optimistic theology or philosophy canrestore the child's leg, or ears, or eyes. It is utter nonsense to saythat miracles like these can be performed. 

There are scores of individuals whom we meet handicapped in life's raceby such dire calamities that we spontaneously pour forth our sympathy. 

But, even to these, it were kinder and wiser to give divertingthoughts, and a new outlook, and to open up avenues for pleasure, andentertainment, and profit, in place of tears and condolence. 

Sympathy, without alleviating actions to a sufferer, is like a cloudwithout rain to the parched earth. 

But the great majority of people whom we encounter are making their owncrosses, and we who offer them sympathy, and condolence, are but addingto the burden's weight. 

I do not recommend coldness, indifference, or ridicule as a substitutefor sympathy. But instead of leading the sick man on to tell you thedetails of his illness, and to describe all his symptoms, while yourown body responds with sympathetic aches and pains as you listen, it iskinder to divert his attention to some cheerful and merry topic, or torefer to some case like his own which resulted in perfect restorationto health. Instead of going down into his underground cave ofdepression, bring him out into the wholesome sunlight of your ownhealthful state, even if for a moment only, and impress upon his mindthat health belongs to him, and must return to him. 

To the man in business trouble the same advice applies. 

Tell him you are sorry for him, but do not take on his despondency toprove it. 

Talk of the future and all the possibilities it holds for a determinedman or woman. 

Make him laugh. Speak of trouble as the gymnasium where our moralmuscles are developed. Answer him that everything he desires is his ifhe will be persistent and determined in demanding his own. If you putforce in your words you will leave an impression. 

Do not go away from the house of trouble in tears, but leave thetroubled ones you called upon smiling as you depart. 

That is true sympathy. 

The Breath

A man reproved me for my interest in New Thought creeds. 

"The old religion I learned at my mother's knee is good enough for me!"he said. "It is good enough for anybody!"

Yet this man's mother had always "enjoyed poor health, " as the old ladyexpressed it, and the man himself was forever talking of his diseases, his ill luck, his poverty, which he said he had been enabled to endureonly through the sustaining power of the religion "learned at hismother's knee. "

It would be difficult to convince the man that had his mother taughthim the creed of the "New Religion" he could have changed all theseunfortunate conditions. 

Life-long ill health would have been impossible for his mother, or forhim. 

The old fashioned religion allowed and still allows a human being tobreathe like a canary bird. 

Little children go to Sunday-School all their young lives, and grow upto be devout church members, and never hear one word about theimportance of _deep breathing_. 

Possibly you may think breathing lessons belong to physical culture, and have no place in religious teachings. 

There is where you err. 

In order to develop your whole being, you must learn how to controlbody and mind through the spirit. 

Thousands of years ago, men who gave their entire lives to the study ofthese things learned the great importance of deep breathing as an aidto religious meditation. 

By this practice, systematically observed, the body is calmed, the mindis brought into subjection, and the spirit rises into control. 

And in addition, absolute health is achieved. 

A large portion of our physical ailments result from unused lung cells, and consequent imperfect circulation of the blood. 

Fill the lungs full--every cell--with fresh air, two or three timesdaily, and do not overload the digestive organs, and sickness will flyaway to the dark regions where it belongs. 

At least ten minutes morning and night should be given to the breathingexercises. 

Sit upright in a comfortable chair, alone, facing the east in themorning and the west at night, because great magnetic force comes fromthe direction of the sun. 

Have a window or a door opening to the outer air. 

Place your hands lightly on your knees, and close your eyes and mouth. Leave your spine free, not touching the chair. Wear no compressinggarments or bands. 

Inflate the chest and abdominal regions as you inhale deep breathsthrough the nostrils, while counting seven slowly. 

Exhale while you count seven. Repeat this exercise seven times. 

Think as you inhale of whatever qualities you would like to possess, and believe that you are inhaling them. Select seven qualities--Love, Health, Wisdom, Usefulness, Power to Do Good, Success, Opulence--willcover the average human desires. The very unworldly will substitutespiritual knowledge for opulence. Fill your mind with the idea thatyou are drawing in these qualities with your breaths, and exhaling allthat is weak or unworthy. After a few moments you will be conscious ofa security and peace new and uplifting. 

And after a few weeks of steady, persistent practice of theseexercises, you will find life growing more beautiful to you, and yourstrength will be increased tenfold, both physically and spiritually. 

Generosity

Have you ever observed how invariably your "last dollar" is restored toyou, with additions, when you have given it for some worthy purpose?

Even if the purpose did not prove to be a worthy one, yet if youthought it so, and gave your last dollar with spontaneous sympathy andgood will, you were not long left penniless. 

Money is much like a man. If you do not hold it too jealously itreturns to you the more readily. 

Never hesitate to give aid where you feel there is sore and pressingneed, for fear you will be left in want yourself. You will not be. 

This does not mean that indiscriminate charity is commendable. It doesnot mean that you should lend money to everyone who asks, or lift andcarry the burdens of everyone who is ready to lean upon you. 

It is as wrong to encourage the man addicted to the vice of borrowing, as the one with the vice of alcohol or drugs. 

One depends upon his acquaintances to tide him over hard places, instead of upon his own strength of character, and the other dependsupon stimulants for the same purpose. The too ready lender is almostas great an evil to humanity as rum or opium, since he too helps a manto kill his own better nature and destroy his self-respect. 

If you were able and willing to pay rents of all the poor people youknow, and clothe their children, you would soon produce a condition ofsettled pauperism among them. Large and frequent favors of a financialnature are an injury to anyone, even if it is your son or brother. 

Let no man lean on anyone save God and his own divine self. 

But little helps, when they are unexpected, arouse hope and awaken newfaith and new ambition in a discouraged soul. 

Look about you for such souls, the worn and weary father of a brood ofhungry children, the widow struggling with adverse fate in an effort toclothe and educate a child, the tired shop girl who uses all herearnings to sustain her parents, the ambitious boy or girl eager for achance in life, and the poor cripple or invalid seeking health. Youwill find them all about you. Do not be afraid to use a dollar here orthere to give these worthy ones a happy surprise, no matter how pooryou are. 

It is an insult to the Opulent Creator to suppose you will suffer wantand poverty if you help those who are in temporary misfortune. 

You will not. 

Ofttimes we read and hear of the open-handed generous man who "helpedeverybody, " and who "never refused to aid a needy brother, " and whoended his life in penury because of his generosity. 

Never believe these tales until you investigate them. Invariably youwill find not generosity but extravagance and utter lack offorethought, caused the man's financial ruin. 

I recall a gifted young woman who gave freely to all who asked herassistance and who died a lingering death as a charity patient in ahospital. 

Yet this young woman had expended ten dollars on foolish and rapidliving where she gave one in charity; it was her wasteful extravagance, not her open heart of sympathy, which made her a pauper. 

It has been my observation that dollars planted in the soil ofbenevolence grow into harvests of prosperity. The man who is notafraid to use his small means to assist others need not fear poverty. 

Woman's Opportunity

The greatest opportunity to better the world which can come to anywoman is through the experience of maternity. 

The power of prenatal influence which a mother possesses isawe-inspiring to realize. 

It has been said upon excellent authority that Napoleon's mother readRoman history with absorbing interest during the months preceding hisbirth. 

Think of the nations and the centuries influenced by that one woman'smental concentration! The geography of the world was changed by herpower of focused thought. 

In all probability Napoleon's mother did not know what she was doing;she was not conscious of the destiny her mind was shaping for herunborn child, nor of the law governing such conditions. 

Women have been strangely ignorant of this vital truth; until recentyears it has not been considered a "proper" theme for tongue or pen, and to-day the great majority of young women marry absolutelyuninformed upon the subject of prenatal influence. 

Men are equally oblivious of any knowledge regarding the matter, andconsequently make no special effort to keep the expectant mother oftheir offspring happy, hopeful, or free of anxiety and worry duringthis period. Often they do not strive to aid them in their ownattempts to bestow a desirable temperament upon the unborn child, butheedlessly and needlessly aggravate or grieve the mind which isstamping its impress upon an unborn soul. 

It is just here that the "New Thought" can perform its greatestmiracles of good. 

Even the woman who has not been enlightened upon the law ofante-birth-influence will, if a true disciple of the Religion ofRight-living, bring healthy and helpful children into the world, because her normal state of mind will be inclusive of those threequalities; and her continued and repeated assertions of her own divinenature will shape the brain of her child in optimistic and reverentialmould. 

There is the old law of the continual falling of the drop of water uponthe stone to be verified in the spiritual plane. Continual assertionsof a mother that her child will be all that she desires it to be, willwear away the stone of inherited tendencies, and bring into physicalbeing a malleable nature wholly amenable to the after influences andefforts she may bring to bear upon it. 

It is a tremendous responsibility which rests upon the woman who knowsshe is to be a mother of a human being. 

A hundred ancestors may have contributed certain qualities to thatinvisible and formless atom which contains an immortal soul, yet themother's mind has the power to remake and rebuild all thosecharacteristics, and to place over them her own dominating impulse, whether for good or ill. 

Surely, if success in the arts or the sciences is worthy of years ofdevoted attention and interested effort, the moulding of a noble humanbeing is worth eight or nine months of concentrated thought andunflagging zeal of purpose. 

Every expectant mother should set herself about the important businessGod has entrusted her with, unafraid, and confident of her divinemission. She should direct her mind into wholesome and optimisticchannels; she should read inspiring books and think loving and largethoughts. She should pray and aspire! and always should she carry inher mind the ideal of the child she would mother, and command from thegreat Source of all Opulence the qualities she would desire toperpetuate. 

And they will be given. 

Balance

Avoid all strained and abstruse language, when conversing with peoplewho may not have entered this realm of thought. 

Do not allow anyone to think of you as a lunatic, or a crank, unnecessarily. Of course there are people in the world who considereveryone a lunatic who holds an opinion differing from their own. 

But it can do you, or your philosophy, no good to thrust its mostdifficult phases before the minds of the unawakened, by vague and highflown expressions. 

I once chanced to call upon a lady who had, quite unknown to me, entered upon the study of Christian Science. 

She remarked to me, almost as soon as the greetings were exchanged, "Ihad a claim to meet for three days this week, but I have come throughit and am victorious. "

I supposed the lady referred to some business matter, perhaps a legalaffair, and waited an explanation. 

After considerable rambling conversation, I managed to grasp the factthat the woman had been sick in the house three days, but now was well. She considered her illness a mere "claim" her "mortal mind" had madewhich she had to meet and combat. 

All this sort of talk is very ridiculous. We need not talk about everyailment which attacks us as we move along toward the condition ofperfect health which belongs to us! But if we do speak ofindisposition, let us use common sense language. 

What we want to realize is, that we are in the body, but that thespirit can control bodily conditions, if we give it the ascendency, tothe extent of keeping us well, moral, useful, and comfortable even inthe midst of sickness, vice, indolence and poverty. 

We can rise above these false elements, and subjugate them. 

Meanwhile we cannot live without food, clothes and money. 

Despise and ignore these vulgar things as we may assume to do, we yetmust have them. 

It brings only ridicule upon ourselves and our ideas to make thispretense of despising the necessities of life. 

To make them secondary in our thoughts to spiritual knowledge is rightand wise, but this is better illustrated by our lives and conduct thanby our words.