WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING

Or, The Vital Law of True Life, True Greatness Power and Happiness

by

RALPH WALDO TRINE

New YorkDodge Publishing Company220 East Twenty-Third Street

PREFACE. 

There are two reasons the author has for putting forth this littlevolume: he feels that the time is, as it always has been, ripe for it;and second, his soul has ever longed to express itself upon this endlesstheme. It therefore comes from the heart--the basis of his belief thatit will reach the heart. 

R. W. T. Boston, Massachusetts

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION. 

It is impossible for one in a single volume, or perhaps in a number ofvolumes, to reach the exact needs of every reader. 

It is always a source of gratitude, as well as of inspiration for betterand more earnest work in the future, for one to know that the truthsthat have been and that are so valuable and so vital to him he hassucceeded in presenting in a manner such that they prove likewise ofvalue to others. The author is most grateful for the good, kind wordsthat have come so generously from so many hundreds of readers of thissimple little volume from all parts of the world. He is also grateful tothat large company of people who have been so good as to put the bookinto the hands of so many others. 

And as the days have passed, he has not been unmindful of the fact thathe might make it, when the time came, of still greater value to many. In addition to a general revision of the book, some four or fivequestions that seemed to be most frequently asked he has endeavored topoint answer to in an added part of some thirty pages, under the generaltitle, "Character-building Thought Power. " The volume enters thereforeupon its fifteenth thousand better able, possibly, to come a little moredirectly in touch with the every-day needs of those who will besufficiently interested to read it. 

R. W. T. Sunnybrae FarmCroton-on-the-HudsonNew York

CONTENTS. 

PART I. THE PRINCIPLE

PART II. THE APPLICATION

PART III. THE UNFOLDMENT

PART IV. THE AWAKENING

PART V. THE INCOMING

PART VI. CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER

WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING. 

PART I. 

THE PRINCIPLE

 Would you find that wonderful life supernal, That life so abounding, so rich, and so free? Seek then the laws of the Spirit Eternal, With them bring your life into harmony. 

How can I make life yield its fullest and best? How can I know the truesecret of power? How can I attain to a true and lasting greatness? Howcan I fill the whole of life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, asatisfaction that is ever rich and abiding, that ever increases, neverdiminishes, that imparts to it a sparkle that never loses its lustre, that ever fascinates, never wearies?

No questions, perhaps, in this form or in that have been asked oftenerthan these. Millions in the past have asked them. Millions are askingthem to-day. They will be asked by millions yet unborn. Is there ananswer, a true and safe one for the millions who are eagerly andlongingly seeking for it in all parts of the world to-day, and for themillions yet unborn who will as eagerly strive to find it as the yearscome and go? Are you interested, my dear reader, in the answer? The factthat you have read even thus far in this little volume whose title hasled you to take it up, indicates that you are, --that you are but one ofthe innumerable company already mentioned. 

It is but another way of asking that great question that has comethrough all the ages--What is the _summum bonum_ in life? and there havebeen countless numbers who gladly would have given all they possessed tohave had the true and satisfactory answer. Can we then find this answer, true and satisfactory to ourselves, surely the brief time spent togethermust be counted as the most precious and valuable of life itself. _Thereis an answer_: follow closely, and that our findings may be the moreconclusive, take issue with me at every step if you choose, but tell mefinally if it is not true and satisfactory. 

There is one great, one simple principle, which, if firmly laid hold of, and if made the great central principle in one's life, around which allothers properly arrange and subordinate themselves, will make that lifea grand success, truly great and genuinely happy, loved and blessed byall in just the degree in which it is laid hold upon, --a principlewhich, if universally made thus, would wonderfully change this old worldin which we live, --ay, that would transform it almost in a night, and itis for its coming that the world has long been waiting; that in place ofthe gloom and despair in almost countless numbers of lives would bringlight and hope and contentment, and no longer would it be said as sotruly to-day, that "man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousandsmourn"; that would bring to the life of the fashionable society woman, now spending her days and her nights in seeking for nothing but her ownpleasure, such a flood of true and genuine pleasure and happiness andsatisfaction as would make the poor, weak something she calls by thisname so pale before it, that she would quickly see that she hasn't knownwhat true pleasure is, and that what she has been mistaking for thereal, the genuine, is but as a baser metal compared to the purest ofgold, as a bit of cut glass compared to the rarest of diamonds, and thatwould make this same woman who scarcely deigns to notice the poor womanwho washes her front steps, but who, were the facts known, may beliving a much grander life, and consequently of much more value to theworld than she herself, see that this poor woman is after all hersister, because child of the same Father; and that would make the humblelife of this same poor woman beautiful and happy and sweet in itshumility; that would give us a nation of statesmen in place of, with nowand then an exception, a nation of politicians, each one bent upon hisown personal aggrandizement at the expense of the general good; thatwould go far, ay, very far toward solving our great and hard-pressingsocial problems with which we are already face to face; that, in short, would make each man a prince among men, and each woman a queen amongwomen. 

I have seen the supreme happiness in lives where this principle has beencaught and laid hold of, some, lives that seemed not to have much inthem before, but which under its wonderful influences have been sotransformed and so beautified, that have been made so sweet and sostrong, so useful and so precious, that each day seems to them all tooshort, the same time that before, when they could scarcely see what wasin life to make it worth the living, dragged wearily along. So thereare countless numbers of people in the world with lives that seem not tohave much in them, among the wealthy classes and among the poorer, whomight under the influence of this great, this simple principle, makethem so precious, so rich, and so happy that time would seem only tooshort, and they would wonder why they have been so long running on thewrong track, for it is true that much the larger portion of the worldto-day is on the wrong track in the pursuit of happiness; but almost allare there, let it be said, not through choice, but by reason of notknowing the right, the true one. 

The fact that really great, true, and happy lives have been lived in thepast and are being lived to-day gives us our starting-point. Time andagain I have examined such lives in a most careful endeavor to find whathas made them so, and have found that in _each and every_ individualcase this that we have now come to has been the great central principleupon which they have been built. I have also found that in numbers oflives where it has not been, but where almost every effort apart from ithas been made to make them great, true, and happy, they have not beenso; and also that no life built upon it in sufficient degree, otherthings being equal, has failed in being thus. 

Let us then to the answer, examine it closely, see if it will standevery test, if it is the true one, and if so, rejoice that we have foundit, lay hold of it, build upon it, tell others of it. The last fourwords have already entered us at the open door. The idea has prevailedin the past, and this idea has dominated the world, that _self_ is thegreat concern, --that if one would find success, greatness, happiness, hemust give all attention to self, and to self alone. This has been thegreat mistake, this the fatal error, this the _direct_ opposite of theright, the true as set forth in the great immutable law that--_we findour own lives in losing them in the service of others_, in longerform--the more of our lives we give to others, the fuller and thericher, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the morehappy our own lives become. It is as that great and sweet soul who whenwith us lived at Concord said, --that generous giving or losing of yourlife which saves it. 

This is an expression of one of the greatest truths, of one of thegreatest principles of practical ethics the world has thus far seen. Ina single word, it is _service_, --not self but the other self. We shallsoon see, however, that our love, our service, our helpfulness toothers, invariably comes back to us, intensified sometimes a hundred ora thousand or a thousand thousand fold, and this by a great, immutablelaw. 

The Master Teacher, he who so many years ago in that far-away Easternland, now in the hill country, now in the lake country, as the peoplegathered round him, taught them those great, high-born, and tendertruths of human life and destiny, the Christ Jesus, said identicallythis when he said and so continually repeated, --"He that is greatestamong you shall be your servant"; and his whole life was but anembodiment of this principle or truth, with the result that the greatestname in the world to-day is his, --the name of him who as his life-work, healed the sick; clothed the naked; bound up the broken-hearted;sustained the weak, the faltering; befriended and aided the poor, theneedy; condemned the proud, the vain, the selfish; and through it alltaught the people to love justice and mercy and service, to live intheir higher, their diviner selves, --in brief, to _live_ his life, theChrist-life, and who has helped in making it possible for this greatestprinciple of practical ethics the world has thus far seen to beenunciated, to be laid hold of, to be lived by to-day. "He that isgreatest among you shall be your servant, " or, he who would be trulygreat and recognized as such must find it in the capacity of a servant. 

And what, let us ask, is a servant? One who renders service. To himself?Never. To others? Alway. Freed of its associations and looked at in thelight of its right and true meaning, than the word "servant" there is nogreater in the language; and in this right use of the term, as we shallsoon see, every life that has been really true, great, and happy hasbeen that of a servant, and apart from this no such life _ever has beenor ever can be lived_. 

O you who are seeking for power, for place, for happiness, forcontentment in the ordinary way, tarry for a moment, see that you are onthe wrong track, grasp this great eternal truth, lay hold of it, and youwill see that your advance along this very line will be manifold timesmore rapid. Are you seeking, then, to make for yourself a name? Unlessyou grasp this mighty truth and make your life accordingly, as the greatclock of time ticks on and all things come to their proper levelaccording to their merits, as all invariably, inevitably do, you willindeed be somewhat surprised to find how low, how very low your levelis. Your name and your memory will be forgotten long ere the minute-handhas passed even a single time across the great dial; while yourfellow-man who has grasped this simple but this great and all-necessarytruth, and who accordingly is forgetting himself in the service ofothers, who is making his life a part of a hundred or a thousand or amillion lives, thus illimitably intensifying or multiplying his own, instead of living as you in what otherwise would be his own little, diminutive self, will find himself ascending higher and higher until hestands as one among the few, and will find a peace, a happiness, asatisfaction so rich and so beautiful, compared to which yours will bebut a poor miserable something, and whose name and memory when his lifehere is finished, will live in the minds and hearts of his fellow-menand of mankind fixed and eternal as the stars. 

A corollary of the great principle already enunciated might beformulated thus: _there is no such thing as finding true happiness bysearching for it directly_. It must come, if it come at all, indirectly, or by the service, the love, and the happiness we give to others. So, _there is no such thing as finding true greatness by searching for itdirectly_. It always, without a single exception has come indirectly inthis same way, and it is not at all probable that this great eternal lawis going to be changed to suit any particular case or cases. Thenrecognize it, put your life into harmony with it, and reap the rewardsof its observance, or fail to recognize it and pay the penaltyaccordingly; for the law itself will remain unchanged. 

The men and women whose names we honor and celebrate are invariablythose with lives founded primarily upon this great law. Note if youwill, every _truly_ great life in the world's history, among thoseliving and among the so-called dead, and tell me if in _every_ case thatlife is not a life spent in the service of others, either directly, orindirectly as when we say--he served his country. Whenever one seeks forreputation, for fame, for honor, for happiness directly and for his ownsake, then that which is true and genuine never comes, at least to anydegree worthy the name. It may seem to for a time, but a great law saysthat such an one gets so far and no farther. Sooner or later, generallysooner, there comes an end. 

Human nature seems to run in this way, seems to be governed by a greatparadoxical law which says, that whenever a man self-centred, thinkingof, living for and in himself, is very desirous for place, forpreferment, for honor, the very fact of his being thus is of itself asufficient indicator that he is too small to have them, and mankindrefuses to accord them. While the one who forgets self, and who, losingsight of these things, makes it his chief aim in life to help, to aid, and to serve others, by this very fact makes it known that he is largeenough, is great enough to have them, and his fellow-men instinctivelybestow them upon him. This is a great law which many would profit by torecognize. That it is true is attested by the fact that the praise ofmankind instinctively and universally goes out to a hero; but who everheard of a hero who became such by doing something for himself? Alwayssomething he has done for others. By the fact that monuments and statuesare gratefully erected to the memory of those who have helped and servedtheir fellow-men, not to those who have lived to themselves alone. 

I have seen many monuments and statues erected to the memories ofphilanthropists, but I never yet have seen one erected to a miser; manyto generous-hearted, noble-hearted men, but never yet to one whose wholelife was that of a sharp bargain-driver, and who clung with a sort ofsemi-idiotic grasp to all that came thus into his temporary possession. I have seen many erected to statesmen, --statesmen, --but never one tomere politicians; many to true orators, but never to mere demagogues;many to soldiers and leaders, but never to men who were not willing, when necessary, to risk all in the service of their country. No, youwill find that the world's monuments and statues have been erected andits praises and honors have gone out to those who were large and greatenough to forget themselves in the service of others, who have beenservants, true servants of mankind, who have been true to the great lawthat we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others. Nothonor for themselves, but service for others. But notice the strange, wonderful, beautiful transformation as it returns upon itself, --_honorfor themselves, because of service to others_. 

It would be a matter of exceeding great interest to verify the truth ofwhat has just been said by looking at a number of those who are regardedas the world's great sons and daughters, --those to whom its honors, itspraises, its homage go out, --to see why it is, upon what their liveshave been founded that they have become so great and are so honored. Ofall this glorious company that would come up, we must be contented tolook at but one or two. 

There comes to my mind the name and figure of him the celebration ofwhose birthday I predict will soon be made a national holiday, --he thanwhom there is no greater, whose praises are sung and whose name andmemory are honored and blessed by millions in all parts of the worldto-day, and will be by millions yet unborn, our beloved and saintedLincoln. And then I ask, Why is this? Why is this? One sentence of histells us what to look to for the answer. During that famous series ofpublic debates in Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, speaking atFreeport, Mr. Douglas at one place said, "I care not whether slavery inthe Territories be voted up or whether it be voted down, it makes not aparticle of difference with me. " Mr. Lincoln, speaking from the fulnessof his great and royal heart, in reply said, with emotion, "I am sorryto perceive that my friend Judge Douglas is so constituted that he doesnot feel the lash the least bit when it is laid upon another man'sback. " Thoughts upon self? Not for a moment. Upon others? Always. He atonce recognized in those black men four million brothers for whom he hada service to perform. 

It would seem almost grotesque to use the word _self-ish_ in connectionwith this great name. He very early, and when still in a very humble andlowly station in life, either consciously or unconsciously grasped thisgreat truth, and in making the great underlying principle of his life toserve, to help his fellow-men, he adopted just that course that has madehim one of the greatest of the sons of men, our royal-hearted elderbrother. He never spent time in asking what he could do to attain togreatness, to popularity, to power, what to perpetuate his name andmemory. He simply asked how he could help, how he could be of service tohis fellow-men, and continually did all his hands found to do. 

He simply put his life into harmony with this great principle; and in sodoing he adopted the best means, --the _only_ means to secure that whichcountless numbers seek and strive for directly, and every time sowoefully fail in finding. 

There comes to my mind in this same connection another princely soul, one who loved all the world, one whom all the world loves and delightsto honor. There comes to mind also a little incident that will furnishan insight into the reason of it all. On an afternoon not long ago, Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher was telling me of some of the characteristics ofBrooklyn's great preacher. While she was yet speaking of some of thosealong the very lines we are considering, an old gentleman, a neighbor, came into the room bearing in his hands something he had brought fromMr. Beecher's grave. It was the day next following Decoration Day. Hisstory was this: As the great procession was moving into the cemeterywith its bands of rich music, with its carriages laden with sweet andfragrant flowers, with its waving flags, beautiful in the sunlight, apoor and humble-looking woman with two companions, by her apparentnervousness attracted the attention of the gate-keeper. He kept her inview for a little while, and presently saw her as she gave something shehad partially concealed to one of her companions, who, leaving theprocession, went over to the grave of Mr. Beecher, and tenderly laid itthere. Reverently she stood for a moment or two, and then, retracingher steps, joined her two companions, who with bowed heads were waitingby the wayside. 

It was this that the old gentleman had brought, --a gold frame, and in ita poem cut from a volume, a singularly beautiful poem through which wasbreathed the spirit of love and service and self-devotion to the goodand the needs of others. At one or two places where it fitted, the penhad been drawn across a word and Mr. Beecher's name inserted, whichserved to give it a still more real, vivid, and tender meaning. At thebottom this only was written, "From a poor Hebrew woman to the immortalfriend of the Hebrews. " There was no name, but this was sufficient totell the whole story. Some poor, humble woman, but one out of a mightynumber whom he had at some time befriended or helped or cheered, whoseburden he had helped to carry, and soon perhaps had forgotten all aboutit. When we remember that this was his life, is it at all necessary toseek farther why all the world delights to honor this, anotherroyal-hearted elder brother? and, as we think of this simple, beautiful, and touching incident, how true and living becomes the thought in theold, old lines!--

 "Cast thy bread upon the waters, waft it on with praying breath, In some distant, doubtful moment it may save a soul from death. When you sleep in solemn silence, 'neath the morn and evening dew, Stranger hands which you have strengthened may strew lilies over you. "

Our good friend, Henry Drummond, in one of his most beautiful andvaluable little works says--and how admirably and how truly!--that "loveis the greatest thing in the world. " Have you this greatest thing? Yes. How, then, does it manifest itself? In kindliness, in helpfulness, inservice, to those around you? If so, well and good, you have it. If not, then I suspect that what you have been calling love is something else;and you have indeed been greatly fooled. In fact, I am sure it is; forif it does not manifest itself in this way, it cannot be true love, forthis is the one grand and never-failing test. Love is the statics, helpfulness and service the dynamics, the former necessary to thelatter, but the latter the more powerful, as action is always morepowerful than potentiality; and, were it not for the dynamics, thestatics might as well not be. Helpfulness, kindliness, service, is butthe expression of love. It is love in action; and unless love thusmanifests itself in action, it is an indication that it is of that weakand sickly nature that needs exercise, growth, and development, that itmay grow and become strong, healthy, vigorous, and true, instead ofremaining a little, weak, indefinite, sentimental something or nothing. 

It was but yesterday that I heard one of the world's greatest thinkersand speakers, one of our keenest observers of human affairs, state ashis opinion that selfishness is the root of all evil. Now, if it ispossible for any one thing to be the root of all evil, then I thinkthere is a world of truth in the statement. But, leaving out of accountfor the present purpose whether it is true or not, it certainly is truethat he who can't get beyond self robs his life of its chief charms, andmore, defeats the very ends he has in view. It is a well-known law inthe natural world about us that whatever hasn't use, that whateverserves no purpose, shrivels up. So it is a law of our own being that hewho makes himself of no use, of no service to the great body of mankind, who is concerned only with his own small self, finds that self, small asit is, growing smaller and smaller, and those finer and better andgrander qualities of his nature, those that give the chief charm andhappiness to life, shrivelling up. Such an one lives, keeps constantcompany with his own diminutive and stunted self; while he who, forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness, andkindliness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding, himself becoming large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, loving, sympathetic, joyous, and happy, his life becoming rich and beautiful. For instead ofhis own little life alone he has entered into and has part in a hundred, a thousand, ay, in countless numbers of other lives; and every success, every joy, every happiness coming to each of these comes as such to him, for he has a part in each and all. And thus it is that one becomes aprince among men, a queen among women. 

Why, one of the very fundamental principles of life is, so much love, somuch love in return; so much love, so much growth; so much love, so muchpower; so much love, so much life, --strong, healthy, rich, exulting, andabounding life. The world is beginning to realize the fact that love, instead of being a mere indefinite something, is a vital and livingforce, the same as electricity is a force, though perhaps of a differentnature. The same great fact we are learning in regard to thought, --thatthoughts are things, that _thoughts are forces, the most vital andpowerful in the universe_, that they have form and substance and power, the quality of the power determined as it is by the quality of the lifein whose organism the thoughts are engendered; and so, when a thought isgiven birth, it does not end there, but takes form, and as a force itgoes out and has its effect upon other minds and lives, the effect beingdetermined by its intensity and the quality of the prevailing emotions, and also by the emotions dominating the person at the time the thoughtsare engendered and given form. 

Science, while demonstrating the great facts it is to-day demonstratingin connection with the mind in its relations to and effects upon thebody, is also finding from its very laboratory experiments that eachparticular kind of thought and emotion has its own peculiar qualities, and hence its own peculiar effects or influences; and these it isclassifying with scientific accuracy. A very general classification injust a word would be--those of a higher and those of a lower nature. 

Some of the chief ones among those of the lower nature are anger, hatred, jealousy, malice, rage. Their effect, especially when violent, is to emit a poisonous substance into the system, or rather, to set up acorroding influence which transforms the healthy and life-givingsecretions of the body into the poisonous and the destructive. When one, for example, is dominated, even if for but a moment by a passion ofanger or rage, there is set up in the system what might be justly termeda bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring or corroding thenormal and healthy secretions of the body and making them so thatinstead of life-giving they become poisonous. This, if indulged in toany extent, sooner or later induces the form of disease that thisparticular state of mind and emotion or passion gives birth to; and itin turn becomes chronic. 

We shall ultimately find, as we are beginning to so rapidly to-day, thatpractically all disease has its origin in perverted mental states oremotions; that anger, hatred, fear, worry, jealousy, lust, as well asall milder forms of perverted mental states and emotions, has each itsown peculiar poisoning effects and induces each its own peculiar form ofdisease, for all life is from within out. 

Then some of the chief ones belonging to the other class--mental statesand emotions of the higher nature--are love, sympathy, benevolence, kindliness, and good cheer. These are the natural and the normal; andtheir effect, when habitually entertained, is to stimulate a vital, healthy, bounding, purifying, and life-giving action, the exact oppositeof the others; and these very forces, set into a bounding activity, willin time counteract and heal the disease-giving effects of theiropposites. Their effects upon the countenance and features in inducingthe highest beauty that can dwell there are also marked andall-powerful. So much, then, in regard to the effects of one's thoughtforces upon the self. A word more in regard to their effects uponothers. 

Our prevailing thought forces determine the mental atmosphere we createaround us, and all who come within its influence are affected in one wayor another, according to the quality of that atmosphere; and, thoughthey may not always get the exact thoughts, they nevertheless get theeffects of the emotions dominating the originator of the thoughts, andhence the creator of this particular mental atmosphere, and the moresensitively organized the person the more sensitive he or she is tothis atmosphere, even at times to getting the exact and very thoughts. So even in this the prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled, --there isnothing hid that shall not be revealed. 

If the thought forces sent out by any particular life are those ofhatred or jealousy or malice or fault-finding or criticism or scorn, these same thought forces are aroused and sent back from others, so thatone is affected not only by reason of the unpleasantness of having suchthoughts from others, but they also in turn affect one's own mentalstates, and through these his own bodily conditions, so that, so far aseven the welfare of self is concerned, the indulgence in thoughts andemotions of this nature are most expensive, most detrimental, mostdestructive. 

If, on the other hand, the thought forces sent out be those of love, ofsympathy, of kindliness, of cheer and good will, these same forces arearoused and sent back, so that their pleasant, ennobling, warming, andlife-giving effects one feels and is influenced by; and so again, so fareven as the welfare of self is concerned, there is nothing moredesirable, more valuable and life-giving. There comes from others, then, exactly what one sends to and hence calls forth from them. 

_And would we have all the world love us, we must first then love allthe world_, --merely a great scientific fact. Why is it that all peopleinstinctively dislike and shun the little, the mean, the self-centred, the selfish, while all the world instinctively, irresistibly, loves andlongs for the company of the great-hearted, the tender-hearted, theloving, the magnanimous, the sympathetic, the brave? The mereanswer--because--will not satisfy. There is a deep, scientific reasonfor it, either this or it is not true. 

Much has been said, much written, in regard to what some have beenpleased to call personal magnetism, but which, as is so commonly true incases of this kind, is even to-day but little understood. But to my mindpersonal magnetism in its true sense, and as distinguished from what maybe termed a purely animal magnetism, is nothing more nor less than thethought forces sent out by a great-hearted, tender-hearted, magnanimous, loving, sympathetic man or woman; for, let me ask, have you ever knownof any great personal magnetism in the case of the little, the mean, thevindictive, the self-centred? Never, I venture to say, but always in thecase of the other. 

Why, there is nothing that can stand before this wonderful transmutingpower of love. So far even as the enemy is concerned, I may not be toblame if I have an enemy; but I am to blame if I keep him as such, especially after I know of this wonderful transmuting power. Have I thenan enemy, I will refuse, absolutely refuse, to recognize him as such;and instead of entertaining the thoughts of him that he entertains ofme, instead of sending him like thought forces, I will send him onlythoughts of love, of sympathy, of brotherly kindness, and magnanimity. But a short time it will be until he feels these, and is influenced bythem. Then in addition I will watch my opportunity, and whenever I can, I will even go out of my way to do him some little kindnesses. Beforethese forces he cannot stand, and by and by I shall find that he whoto-day is my bitterest enemy is my warmest friend and it may be mystaunchest supporter. No, the wise man is he who by that wonderfulalchemy of love transmutes the enemy into the friend, --transmutes thebitterest enemy into the warmest friend and supporter. Certainly this iswhat the Master meant when he said: "Love your enemies, do good to themthat hate you and despitefully use you: thou shalt thereby be heapingcoals of fire upon their heads. " Ay, thou shalt melt them: before thisforce they cannot stand. Thou shalt melt them, and transmute them intofriends. 

 "You never can tell what your thoughts will do In bringing you hate or love; For thoughts are things, and their airy wings Are swifter than carrier doves. 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. "

Yes, science to-day, at the close of this nineteenth century, in thelaboratory is discovering and scientifically demonstrating the great, immutable laws upon which the inspired and illuminated ones of all ageshave based all their teachings, those who by ordering their livesaccording to the higher laws of their being get in a moment of time, through the direct touch of inspiration, what it takes the physicalinvestigator a whole lifetime or a series of investigators a series oflifetimes to discover and demonstrate. 

PART II. 

THE APPLICATION

 Are you seeking for greatness, O brother of mine, As the full, fleeting seasons and years glide away? If seeking directly and for self alone, The true and abiding you never can stay. But all self forgetting, know well the law, It's the hero, and not the self-seeker, who's crowned. Then go lose your life in the service of others, And, lo! with rare greatness and glory 'twill abound. 

Is it your ambition to become great in any particular field, to attainto fame and honor, and thereby to happiness and contentment? Is it yourambition, for example, to become a great _orator_, to move great massesof men, to receive their praise, their plaudits? Then remember thatthere never has been, there never will, in brief, there never can be atruly great orator without a great _purpose_, a great cause behind him. You may study in all the best schools in the country, the bestuniversities and the best schools of oratory. You may study until youexhaust all these, and then seek the best in other lands. You may studythus until your hair is beginning to change its color, but this ofitself will _never_ make you a great orator. You may become a demagogue, and, if self-centred, you inevitably will; for this is exactly what ademagogue is, --a great demagogue, if you please, than which it is hardfor one to call to mind a more contemptible animal, and the greater themore contemptible. But without laying hold of and building upon thisgreat principle you never can become a great orator. 

Call to mind the greatest in the world's history, from Demosthenes--Menof Athens, march against Philip, your country and your fellow-men willbe in early bondage unless you give them your best service now--down toour own Phillips and Gough, --Wendell Phillips against the traffic inhuman blood, John B. Gough against a slavery among his fellow-men morehard and galling and abject than the one just spoken of; for by it thebody merely is in bondage, the mind and soul are free, while in this, body, soul, and mind are enslaved. So you can easily discover the great_purpose_, the great cause for _service_, behind each and every one. 

The man who can't get beyond himself, his own aggrandizement andinterests, must of necessity be small, petty, personal, and at oncemarks his own limitations; while he whose life is a life of service andself-devotion has no limits, for he thus puts himself at once on theside of the _Universal_, and this more than all else combined gives atremendous power in oratory. Such a one can mount as on the wings of aneagle, and Nature herself seems to come forth and give a great soul ofthis kind means and material whereby to accomplish his purposes, wherebythe great universal truths go direct to the minds and hearts of hishearers to mould them, to move them; for the orator is he who moulds theminds and hearts of his hearers in the great moulds of universal andeternal truth, and then moves them along a definite line of action, nothe who merely speaks pieces to them. 

How thoroughly Webster recognized this great principle is admirablyshown in that brief but powerful description of eloquence of his; let uspause to listen to a sentence or two: "True eloquence indeed does notconsist in speech. .. . Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. .. . Affected passion, intense expression, thepomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it. .. . Thegraces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studiedcontrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives andthe fate of their wives and their children and their country hang on thedecision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric isvain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself thenfeels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Thenpatriotism is eloquent, then self-devotion is eloquent. The clearconception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, thefirm resolve, the dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beaming fromthe eye, informing every feature and urging the whole man onward, rightonward to his object, --this, this is eloquence. " And note some of thechief words he has used, --_self-devotion, patriotism, high purpose_. Theself-centred man can never know these, and much less can he make use ofthem. 

True, things that one may learn, as the freeing of the bodily agents, the developing of the voice, and so on, that all may become the _truereporters of the soul_, instead of limiting or binding it down, as is sofrequently the case in public speakers, --these are all valuable, ay, arevery important and very necessary, unless one is content to live belowhis highest possibilities, and he is wise who recognizes this tact; butthese in themselves are but as trifles when compared to those greater, more powerful, and all-essential qualities. 

Is it your ambition to become a great _states man?_ Note the very firstthing, then, the word itself, --_states-man_, a man who gives his life tothe service of the State. And do you not recognize the fact that, whenone says--a man who gives his life to the service of the State, it isbut another way of saying--a man who gives his life to the service ofhis fellow-men; for what, after all, is any country, any State, in thetrue sense of the term, but the aggregate, the great body of itsindividual citizenship. And he who lives for and unto himself, who putsthe interests of his own small self before the interests of thethousands, can never become a states-man; for a statesman must be alarger man than this. 

Call to your mind the greatest of the world, among those living andamong the so-called dead, and you will quickly see that the life of eachand every one has been built upon this great principle, and that allhave been great and are held as such in just the degree in which it hasbeen. Two of the greatest among Americans, both passed away, wouldto-day and even more as time goes on, be counted still greater, had theybeen a little larger in one aspect of their natures, --large enough tohave recognized to its fullest extent the eternal truth and importanceof this great principle, and had they given the time to the service oftheir fellow-men that was spent in desiring the Presidency and in alltoo plainly making it known. Having gained it could have made them nogreater, and having so plainly shown their eager and childish desire forit has made them less great. Of the many thousands of men who have beenin our American Congress since its beginning, and of the very, verysmall number comparatively that you are able to call to mind, possiblynot over fifty, which would be about one out of every six hundred ormore, you will find that you are able to call to mind each one of thisvery small number on account of his standing for some measure orprinciple that would to the highest degree increase the human welfare, thus truly fulfilling the great office of a _statesman_. 

The one great trouble with our country to-day is that we have but fewstatesmen. We have a great swarm, a great hoard of politicians; but itis only now and then that we find a man who is large enough truly todeserve the name--statesman. The large majority in public life to-dayare there not for the purpose of serving the best interests of thosewhom they are supposed to represent, but they are there purely for self, purely for self-aggrandizement in this form or in that, as the case maybe. 

Especially do we find this true in our municipalities. In some, thegovernment instead of being in the hands of those who would make it suchin truth, those who would make it serve the interests it is designed toserve, it is in the hands of those who are there purely for self, littlewhelps, those who will resort to any means to secure their ends, attimes even to honorable means, should they seem to serve best theparticular purpose in hand. We have but to look around us to see thatthis is true. The miserable, filthy, and deplorable condition of affairsthe Lexow Committee in its investigations not so long ago laid bare topublic gaze had its root in what? In the fact that the offices in thatgreat municipality have been and are filled by men who are there toserve in the highest degree the public welfare or by men who are therepurely for self-aggrandizement? But let us pass on. This degradedcondition of affairs exists not only in this great city, but there arescarcely any that are free from it entirely. Matters are not always tocontinue thus, however. The American people will learn by and by whatthey ought fully to realize to-day--that the moment the honest people, the citizens, in distinction from the barnacles, mass themselves andstay massed, the notorious, filthy political rings cannot stand beforethem for a period of even twenty-four hours. _The right, the good, thetrue, is all-powerful, and will inevitably conquer sooner or later whenbrought to the front. _ Such is the history of civilization. 

Let our public offices--municipal, state, and federal--be filled withmen who are in love with the human kind, large men, men whose lives arefounded upon this great law of service, and we will then have themfilled with statesmen. Never let this glorious word be disgraced, degraded, by applying it to the little, self-centred whelps who areunable to get beyond the politician stage. Then enter public life; butenter it as a man, not as a barnacle: enter it as a statesman, not as apolitician. 

 * * * * *

Is it your ambition to become a great _preacher_, or better yet, withthe same meaning, a great _teacher?_ Then remember that the greatest ofthe world have been those who have given themselves in thoroughself-devotion and service to their fellow-men, who have given themselvesso thoroughly to all they have come in contact with that there has beenno room for self. They have not been seekers after fame, or men who havethought so much of their own particular dogmatic ways of thinking as tospend the greater part of their time in discussing dogma, creed, theology, in order, as is so generally true in cases of this kind, toprove that the _ego_ you see before you is right in his particular waysof thinking, and that his chief ambition is to have this fact clearlyunderstood, --an abomination, I verily believe, in the sight of Godhimself, whose children in the mean time are starving, are dying for thebread of life, and an abomination I am sure, in the sight of the greatmajority of mankind. Let us be thankful, however, for mankind is findingless use for such year by year, and the time will soon come when theywill scarcely be tolerated at all. 

It is to a very great extent on account of men of this kind, especiallyin the early history, that the true spirit of religion, of Christianity, has been lost sight of in the mere form. The basket in which it hasbeen deemed necessary to carry it has been held as of greater importthan the rare and divinely beautiful fruit itself. The true spirit, thatthat quickeneth and giveth life and power, has had its place taken bythe mere letter, that that alone blighteth and killeth. Instead ofrunning after these finely spun, man-made theories, this stuff, --forstuff is the word, --this that we outgrow once every few years in ourmarch onward and upward, and then stand and laugh as we look back tothink that such ideas have ever been held, instead of this, thinkingthat thus you will gain power, act the part of the wise man, and go eachday into the _silence_, there commune with the Infinite, there dwell fora season with the Infinite Spirit of all life, of all power; for you canget _true power_ in no other way. 

Instead of running about here and there to have your cup filled at theselittle stagnant pools, dried up as they generally are by the continualrays of a constantly shining egoistic sun, go direct to the greatfountain-head, and there drink of the water of life that is poured outfreely to every one if he will but go there for it. One can't, however, send and have it brought by another. 

Go, then, into the _silence_, even if it be but for a short period, --aperiod of not more than a quarter or a half-hour a day, --and there comeinto contact with the Great Source of all life, of all power. _Send outyour earnest desires for whatsoever you will; and whatsoever you will, if continually watered by expectation, will sooner or later come toyou_. All knowledge, all truth, all power, all wisdom, all thingswhatsoever, are yours, if you will but go in this way for them. It hasbeen tried times without number, and has never yet once failed where themotives have been high, where the knowledge of the results beforehandhas been sufficiently great. Within a fortnight you can know the truthof this for yourself if you will but go in the right way. 

All the truly great teachers in the world's history have gotten theirpowers in this way. You remember the great soul who left us not longago, he who ministered so faithfully at Trinity, the great preacher ofsuch wonderful powers, the one so truly inspired. It was but an eveningor two since, when in conversation with a member of his congregation, wewere talking in regard to Phillips Brooks. She was telling of hisbeautiful and powerful spirit and said that they were all continuallyconscious of the fact that he had a power they hadn't, but that alllonged for; that he seemed to have a great secret of power they hadn't, but that they often tried to find. She continued, and in the very nextsentence went on to tell of a fact, --one that I knew full well, --thefact that during a certain period of each day he took himself alone intoa little, silent room, he fastened the door behind him, and during thisperiod under no circumstances could he be seen by any one. The dear ladyknew these two things, she knew and was influenced by his great soulpower, she also knew of his going thus into the silence each day; but, bless her heart, it had never once occurred to her to put the twotogether. 

It is in this way that great soul power is grown; and the men of thisgreat power are the men who move the world, the men who do the greatwork in the world along all lines, and against whom no man, no power, can stand. Call to mind a number of the world's greatest preachers, or, using again the better term, teachers, and bear in mind I do not meancreed, dogma, form, but religious teachers, --and the one class differsfrom the other even as the night from the day, --and you will find twogreat facts in the life of each and all, --great soul power, grownchiefly by much time spent in the silence, and the fact that the life ofeach has been built upon this one great and all-powerful principle oflove, service, and helpfulness for all mankind. 

Is it your ambition to become a great _writer?_ Very good. But rememberthat unless you have something to give to the world, something you feelmankind must have, something that will aid them in their march upwardand onward, unless you have some service of this kind to render, thenyou had better be wise, and not take up the pen; for, if your object inwriting is merely fame or money, the number of your readers may beexceedingly small, possibly a few score or even a few dozen may be alarge estimate. 

What an author writes is, after all, the sum total of his life, hishabits, his characteristics, his experiences, his purposes. _He nevercan write more than he himself is_. He can never pass beyond hislimitations; and unless he have a purpose higher than writing merely forfame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks his own limitations, andwhat he seeks will never come. While he who writes for the world, because he feels he has something that it needs and that will be a helpto mankind, if it _is_ something it needs, other things being equal, that which the other man seeks for directly, and so never finds, willcome to him in all its fulness. This is the way it comes, and this wayonly. _Mankind cares nothing for you until you have shown that you carefor mankind. _

Note this statement from the letter of a now well-known writer, onewhose very first book met with instant success, and that has beenfollowed by others all similarly received. She says, "I never thought ofwriting until two years and a half ago, when, in order to disburden mymind of certain thoughts that clamored for utterance, I produced, " etc. In the light of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable success of hervery first and all succeeding books. She had something she felt theworld needed and must have; and, with no thought of self, of fame, or ofmoney, she gave it. The world agreed with her; and, as she was largeenough to seek for neither, it has given her both. 

Note this also: "I write for the love of writing, not for money orreputation. The former I have without exertion, the latter is not wortha pin's point in the general economy of the vast universe. Work done forthe love of working brings its own reward far more quickly and surelythan work done for mere payment. " This is but the formulated statementof what all the world's greatest writers and authors have said or wouldsay, --at least so far as I have come in contact with their opinions inregard to it. 

So, unless you are large enough to forget self for the good, for theservice of mankind, thus putting yourself on the side of the universaland making it possible for you to give something that will in turn ofitself bring fame, you had better be wise, and not lift the pen at all;for what you write will not be taken up, or, if it is, will soon be letfall again. 

One of our most charming and most noted American authors says in regardto her writing, "I press my soul upon the white paper"; and let me tellyou the reason it in turn makes its impression upon so many thousands ofother souls is because hers is so large, so tender, so sympathetic, soloving, that others cannot resist the impression, living as she does notfor self, but for the service of others, her own life thus having a partin countless numbers of other lives. 

It is only that that comes from the heart that can reach the heart. Take from their shelves the most noted, the greatest works in anylibrary, and you will find that their authors have made them what theyare not by a study of the rules and principles of rhetoric, for this ofitself never has made and never can make a great writer. They are whatthey are because the author's very soul has been fired by some greattruth or fact that the world has needed, that has been a help tomankind. Large souls they have been, souls in love with all the humankind. 

 * * * * *

Is it your ambition to become a great _actor?_ Then remember that if youmake it the object of your life to play to influence the hearts, thelives, and so the destinies of men, this same great law of nature thatoperates in the case of the orator will come to your assistance, willaid you in your growth and development, and will enable you to attain toheights you could never attain to or even dream of, in case you play forthe little _ego_ you otherwise would stand for. In the latter case youmay succeed in making a third or a fourth rate actor, possibly a secondrate; but you can never become one of the world's greatest, and thechances are you may succeed in making not even a livelihood, and thushave your wonderment satisfied why so many who try fail. 

In the other case, other things being equal, the height you may attainto is unbounded, depending upon the degree you are able to forgetyourself in influencing the minds and the souls, and thus the lives andthe destinies of men. 

 * * * * *

Is it your ambition to become a great _singer?_ Then remember that ifyour thought is only of self, you may never sing at all, unless, indeed, you enjoy singing to yourself, --this, or you will be continually anxiousas to the size of your audience. If, on the other hand, you choose thisfield of work because here you can be of the greatest service tomankind, if your ambition is to sing to the hearts and the lives of men, then this same great law of nature will come to assist you in yourgrowth and development and efforts, and other things being equal, instead of singing to yourself or being anxious as to the size of youraudience, you will seldom find time for the first, and your anxiety willbe as to whether the place has an audience-chamber large enough toaccommodate even a small portion of the people who will seekadmittance. You remember Jenny Lind. 

 * * * * *

Is it your ambition to become a _fashionable society woman_, this andnothing more, intent only upon your own pleasure and satisfaction? Thenstop and meditate, if only for a moment; for if this is the case, younever will, ay, you never can find the true and the genuine, for youfail to recognize the great law that there is no such thing as findingtrue happiness by searching for it _directly_, and the farther on you gothe more flimsy and shallow and unsatisfying that imitation you arewilling to accept for the genuine will become. You will thereby rob lifeof its chief charms, defeat the very purpose you have in view. And, while you are at this moment meditating, oh grasp the truth of the greatlaw that you will find your own life only in losing it in the service ofothers, --that the more of your life you so give, the fuller and thericher, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the morehappy your own life will become. 

And with your abundant means and opportunities build your life upon thisgreat law of service, and experience the pleasure of growing into thatfull, rich, ever increasing and satisfying life that will result, andthat will make you better known, more honored and blessed, than the lifeof any mere society woman can be, or any life, for that matter; for youare thus living a life the highest this world can know. And you willthus hasten the day when, standing and looking back and seeing theemptiness and the littleness of the other life as compared with this, you will bless the time that your better judgment prevailed and savedyou from it. Or, if you chance to be in it already, delay not, butcommence now to build upon this true foundation. 

Instead of discharging your footman, as did a woman of whom I chance toknow, because he finally refused to stand in the rain by the side of hercarriage, with his arms folded just so, standing immovable like a mummy(I had almost said like a fool), daring to look neither to one side northe other, but all the time in the direction of her so-called ladyship, while she spent an hour or two in doing fifteen or twenty minutes'shopping in her desire to make it known that this is Mrs. Q. 's carriage, and this is the footman that goes with it, --instead of doing this, givehim an umbrella if necessary, and take him to aid you as you go on yourerrands of mercy and cheer and service and loving kindness to theinnumerable ones all about you who so stand in need of them. 

Is there any comparison between the appellation "Lady Bountiful" and "aproud, selfish, pleasure-seeking woman"? And, much more, do you thinkthere is any comparison whatever between the real pleasure and happinessand satisfaction in the lives of the two?

 * * * * *

Is it the ambition of your life to _accumulate great wealth_, and thusto acquire a great name, and along with it happiness and satisfaction?Then remember that whether these will come to you will depend _entirely_upon the use and disposition you make of your wealth. If you regard itas a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind, thenwell and good, these will come to you. If your object, however, is topile it up, to hoard it, then neither will come; and you will find it alife as unsatisfactory as one can live. 

There is, there can be, no greatness in things, in material things, ofthemselves. The greatness is determined entirely by the use anddisposition made of them. The greatest greatness and the only _true_greatness in the world is unselfish love and service and self-devotionto one's fellow-men. 

Look at the matter carefully, and tell me candidly if there can beanything more foolish than a man's spending all the days of his lifepiling up and hoarding money, too mean and too stingy to use any butwhat is absolutely necessary, accumulating many times more than he canpossibly ever use, always eager for more, growing still more eager andgrasping the nearer he comes to life's end, then lying down, dying, andleaving it. It seems to me about as sensible for a man to have as thegreat aim and ambition of life the piling up of an immense pile of oldiron in the middle of a large field, and sitting on it day after daybecause he is so wedded to it that it has become a part of his life andlest a fragment disappear, denying himself and those around him many ofthe things that go to make life valuable and pleasant, and finally dyingthere, himself, the soul, so dwarfed and so stunted that he has really ahard time to make his way out of the miserable old body. There is notsuch a great difference, if you will think of it carefully, --one a pileof old iron, the other a pile of gold or silver, but all belonging tothe same general class. 

It is a great law of our being that we become like those things wecontemplate. If we contemplate those that are true and noble andelevating, we grow in the likeness of these. If we contemplate merelymaterial things, as gold or silver or copper or iron, our souls, ournatures, and even our faces become like them, hard and flinty, robbed oftheir finer and better and grander qualities. Call to mind the person orpicture of the miser, and you will quickly see that this is true. Merelynature's great law. He thought he was going to be a master: he findshimself the slave. Instead of possessing his wealth, his wealthpossesses him. How often have I seen persons of nearly or quite thiskind! Some can be found almost anywhere. You can call to mind a few, perhaps many. 

During the past two or three years two well-known millionaires in theUnited States, millionaires many times over, have died. The one startedinto life with the idea of acquiring a great name by accumulating greatwealth. These two things he had in mind, --self and great wealth. And, ashe went on, he gradually became so that he could see nothing but these. The greed for gain soon made him more and more the slave; and he, knowing nothing other than obedience to his master, piled andaccumulated and hoarded, and after spending all his days thus, he thenlay down and died, taking not so much as one poor little penny with him, only a soul dwarfed compared to what it otherwise might have been. Forit might have been the soul of a royal master instead of that of anabject slave. 

The papers noted his death with seldom even a single word of praise. Itwas regretted by few, and he was mourned by still fewer. And even at hisdeath he was spoken of by thousands in words far from complimentary, alluniting in saying what he might have been and done, what a tremendouspower for good, how he might have been loved and honored during hislife, and at death mourned and blessed by the entire nation, the entireworld. A pitiable sight, indeed, to see a human mind, a human soul, thusvoluntarily enslave itself for a few temporary pieces of metal. 

The other started into life with the principle that a man's success isto be measured by his _direct usefulness_ to his fellow-men, to theworld in which he lives, and by this alone; that private wealth ismerely a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind. Under the benign influences of this mighty principle of service, we seehim great, influential, wealthy; his whole nature expanding, himselfgrowing large-hearted, generous, magnanimous, serving his State, hiscountry, his fellow-men, writing his name on the hearts of all he comesin contact with, so that his name is never thought of by them withoutfeelings of gratitude and praise. 

Then as the chief service to his fellow-men, next to his own personalinfluence and example, he uses his vast fortune, this vast privatetrust, for the founding and endowing of a great institution of learning, using his splendid business capacities in its organization, havinguppermost in mind in its building that young men and young women maythere have every advantage at the least possible expense to fitthemselves in turn for the greatest _direct usefulness_ to theirfellow-men while they live in the world. 

In the midst of these activities the news comes of his death. Manyhearts now are sad. The true, large-hearted, sympathizing friend, theservant of rich and poor alike, has gone away. Countless numbers whom hehas befriended, encouraged, helped, and served, bless his name, and givethanks that such a life has been lived. His own great State rises up ashis pall-bearers, while the entire nation acts as honorary pall-bearers. Who can estimate the influence of a life such as this? But it cannot beestimated; for it will flow from the ones personally influenced toothers, and through them to others throughout eternity. He alone who inHis righteous balance weighs each human act can estimate it. And hisfinal munificent gift to mankind will make his name remembered andhonored and blessed long after the accumulations of mere plutocrats arescattered and mankind forgets that they have ever lived. 

Then have as your object the accumulation of great wealth if you choose;but bear in mind that, unless you are able to get beyond self, it willmake you not great, but small, and you will rob life of the finer andbetter things in it. If, on the other hand, you are guided by theprinciple that private wealth is but a _private trust_, and that _directusefulness_ or service to mankind is the only real measure of truegreatness, and bring your life into harmony with it, then you willbecome and will be counted great; and with it will come that rich joyand happiness and satisfaction that always accompanies a life of trueservice, and therefore the best and truest life. 

One can never afford to forget that personality, life, and character, that there may be the greatest service, are the chief things, and wealthmerely the _incident_. Nor can one afford to be among those who are toomean, too small, or too stingy to invest in anything that will grow andincrease these. 

PART III. 

THE UNFOLDMENT

 If you'd have a rare growth and unfoldment supreme, And make life one long joy and contentment complete, Then with kindliness, love, and good will let it teem, And with service for all make it fully replete. 

 If you'd have all the world and all heaven to love you, And that love with its power would you fully convince, Then love all the world; and men royal and true, Will make cry as you pass--"God bless him, the prince!"

One beautiful feature of this principle of love and service is that thisphase of one's personality, or nature, can be grown. I have heard itasked, If one hasn't it to any marked degree naturally, what is to bedone? In reply let it be said, Forget self, get out of it for a littlewhile, and, as it comes in your way, do something for some one, somekind service, some loving favor, it makes no difference how _small_ itmay appear. But a kind look or word to one weary with care, from whoselife all worth living for seems to have gone out; a helping hand orlittle lift to one almost discouraged, --it may be that this is just thecritical moment, a helping hand just now may change a life or a destiny. Show yourself a friend to one who thinks he or she is friendless. 

Oh, there are a thousand opportunities each day right where youare, --not the great things far away, but the little things right athand. With a heart full of love do something: experience the richreturns that will come to you, and it will be unnecessary to urge arepetition or a continuance. The next time it will be easier and morenatural, and the next. You know of that wonderful reflex-nerve systemyou have in your body, --that which says that whenever you do a certainthing in a certain way, it is easier to do the same thing the next time, and the next, and the next, until presently it is done with scarcely anyeffort on your part at all, it has become your second nature. And thuswe have what? Habit. This is the way that all habit is, the way that allhabit must be formed. And have you ever fully realized that _life is, after all, merely a series of habits_, and that it lies entirely withinone's own power to determine just what that series shall be?

I have seen this great principle made the foundation principle in aninstitution of learning. It is made not a theory merely as I have seenit here and there, but a vital, living truth. And I wish I had time totell of its wonderful and beautiful influences upon the life and work ofthat institution, and upon the lives and the work of those who go outfrom it. A joy indeed to be there. One can't enter within its walls evenfor a few moments without feeling its benign influences. One can't goout without taking them with him. I have seen purposes and lives almostor quite transformed; and life so rich, so beautiful, and so valuableopened up, such as the persons never dreamed could be, by being but asingle year under these beautiful and life-giving influences. 

I have also seen it made the foundation principle of a great summercongress, one that has already done an unprecedented work, one that hasa far greater work yet before it, and chiefly by reason of thisall-powerful foundation upon which it is built, --conceived and put intooperation as it was by a rare and highly illumined soul, one thoroughlyfilled with the love of service for all the human kind. There are nothoughts of money returns, for everything it has to give is as free asthe beautiful atmosphere that pervades it. The result is that there isdrawn together, by way of its magnificent corps of lectures as well asthose in attendance, a company of people of the rarest type, so thateverywhere there is a manifestation of that spirit of love, helpfulness, and kindliness, that permeates the entire atmosphere with a deep feelingof peace, that makes every moment of life a joy. 

So enchanting does this spirit make the place that very frequently thesingle day of some who have come for this length of time has lengtheneditself into a week, and the week in turn into a month; and the singleweek of others has frequently lengthened itself, first into a month, then into the entire summer. There is nothing at all strange in thisfact, however; for wherever one finds sweet humanity, he there finds aspot where all people love to dwell. 

Making this the fundamental principle of one's life, around which allothers properly arrange and subordinate themselves, is not, as a casualobserver might think, and as he sometimes suggests, an argument againstone's own growth and development, against the highest possibleunfoldment of his entire personality and powers. Rather, on the otherhand, is it one of the greatest reasons, one of the greatest arguments, in its favor; for, the stronger the personality and the greater thepowers, the greater the influence in the service of mankind. If, then, life be thus founded, can there possibly be any greater incentive tothat self-development that brings one up to his highest possibilities? Adevelopment merely for self alone can never have behind it an incentive, a power so great; _and after all, there is nothing in the world sogreat, so effective in the service of mankind, as a strong, noble, andbeautiful manhood or womanhood_. It is this that in the ultimatedetermines the influence of every man upon his fellow-men. _Life, character, is the greatest power in the world, and character it is thatgives the power; for in all true power, along whatever line it may be, it is after all, living the life that tells_. This is a great law thatbut few who would have great power and influence seem to recognize, or, at least, that but few seem to act upon. 

Are you a writer? You can never write more than you yourself are. Wouldyou write more? Then broaden, deepen, enrich the life. Are you aminister? You can never raise men higher than you have raised yourself. Your words will have exactly the sound of the life whence they come. Hollow the life? Hollow-sounding and empty will be the words, weak, ineffective, false. Would you have them go with greater power, and thusbe more effective? Live the life, the power will come. Are you anorator? The power and effectiveness of your words in influencing andmoving masses of men depends entirely upon the altitude from which theyare spoken. Would you have them more effective, each one filled with aliving power? Then elevate the life, the power will come. Are you in thewalks of private life? Then, wherever you move, there goes from you, even if there be no word spoken, a silent but effective influence of anelevating or a degrading nature. Is the life high, beautiful? Then theinfluences are inspiring, life-giving. Is it low, devoid of beauty? Theinfluences then, are disease laden, death-dealing. The tones of yourvoice, the attitude of your body, the character of your face, all aredetermined by the life you live, all in turn influence for better or forworse all who come within your radius. And if, as one of earth's greatsouls has said, the only way truly to help a man is to make him better, then the tremendous power of merely the life itself. 

Why, I know personally a young man of splendid qualities and gifts, whowas rapidly on the way of ruin, as the term goes, gradually losingcontrol of himself day after day, self-respect almost gone, --already thethought of taking his own life had entered his mind, --who was soinspired with the mere presence and bearing of a royal-hearted youngman, one who had complete mastery of himself, and therefore a young manof power, that the very sight of him as he went to and fro in his dailywork was a power that called his better self to the front again, awakened the God nature within him, so that he again set his face in thedirection of the right, the true, the manly; and to-day there is nogrander, stronger, more beautiful soul in all the wide country than he. Yes, there is a powerful influence that resolves itself into a servicefor all in each individual strong, pure, and noble life. 

And have the wonderful possibilities of what may be termed an inner orsoul development ever come strongly to your notice? Perhaps not, for asyet only a few have begun to recognize under this name a certain greatpower that has always existed, --a power that has never as yet been fullyunderstood, and so has been called by this term and by that. It ispossible so to develop this soul power that, as we stand merely and talkwith a person, there goes out from us a silent influence that the personcannot see or hear, but that he feels, and the influences of which hecannot escape; that, as we merely go into a room in which severalpersons are sitting, there goes out from us a power, a silent influencethat all will feel and will be influenced by, even though not a word bespoken. This has been the power of every man, of every woman, of greatand lasting influence in the world's history. 

It is just beginning to come to us through a few highly illumined soulsthat this power can be grown, that it rests upon great natural law thatthe Author of our being has instituted within us and about us. It isduring the next few years that we are to see many wonderful developmentsalong this line; for in this, as in many others, the light is justbeginning to break. A few, who are far up on the heights of humandevelopment, are just beginning to catch the first few faint flushes ofthe dawn. Then live to your highest. This of itself will make you ofgreat service to mankind, but without this you never can be. Naught isthe difference how hard you may try; and know, even so far as your ownhighest interests are concerned, that the true joy of existence comesfrom living to one's highest. 

This life, and this alone, will bring that which I believe to be one ofthe greatest characteristics of a truly great man, --humility; and whenone says humility, he necessarily implies simplicity; for the two alwaysgo hand in hand. The one is born of the other. The proud, the vain, thehaughty, those striving for effect, are never counted among the world'sgreatest personages. The very fact of one's striving for effect ofitself indicates that there is not enough in him to make him reallygreat; while he who really is so needs never concern himself about it, nor does he ever. I can think of no better way for one to attain tohumility and simplicity than for him to have his mind off of self in theservice of others. Vanity, that most dangerous quality, and especiallyfor young people, is the outcome of one's always regarding self. 

Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher once said that, when they lived in the part ofBrooklyn known as the Heights, they could always tell when Mr. Beecherwas coming in the evening from the voices and the joyous laughter of thechildren. All the street urchins, as well as the more well-to-dochildren in the vicinity, knew him, and would often wait for his coming. When they saw him in the distance, they would run and gather around him, get hold of his hands, into those large overcoat pockets for the nutsand the good things he so often filled them with before starting forhome, knowing as he did full well what was coming, tug at him to keephim with them as long as they could, he all the time laughing or runningas if to get away, never too great--ay, rather let us say, greatenough--to join with them in their sports. 

That mysterious dignity of a man less great, therefore with less ofhumility and simplicity, with mind always intent upon self and his ownstanding, would have told him that possibly this might not be just the"proper thing" to do. But even the children, street urchins as well asthose well-to-do, found in this great loving soul a friend. Recallsimilar incidents in the almost daily life of Lincoln and in the livesof all truly great men. All have that beautiful and ever-powerfulcharacteristic, that simple, childlike nature. 

Another most beautiful and valuable feature of this life is its effectupon one's own growth and development. There is a law which says thatone can't do a kind act or a loving service for another without itsbringing rich returns to his own life and growth. This is an invariablelaw. Can I then, do a kind act or a loving service for a brother or asister, --and all indeed are such because children of the sameFather, --why, I should be glad--ay, doubly glad of the opportunity. If Ido it thus out of love, forgetful of self, for aught I know it may do memore good than the one I do it for, in its influence upon the growing ofthat rich, beautiful, and happy life it is mine to grow; though the joyand satisfaction resulting from it, the highest, the sweetest, thekeenest this life can know, are of themselves abundant rewards. 

In addition to all this it scarcely ever fails that those who are thusaided by some loving service may be in a position somehow, some-when, somewhere, either directly or indirectly, and at a time when it may bemost needed or most highly appreciated, to do in turn a kind service forhim who, with never a thought of any possible return, has dealt kindlywith them. So

 "Cast your bread upon the waters, far and wide your treasures strew, Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go! You may think it lost forever; but, as sure as God is true, In this life and in the other it will yet return to you. "

Have you sorrows or trials that seem very heavy to bear? Then let metell you that one of the best ways in the world to lighten and sweetenthem is to lose yourself in the service of others, in helping to bearand lighten those of a fellow-being whose, perchance, are much moregrievous than your own. It is a great law of your being which says youcan do this. Try it, and experience the truth for yourself, and knowthat, when turned in this way, sorrow is the most beautiful soul-refinerof which the world knows, and hence not to be shunned, but to bewelcomed and rightly turned. 

There comes to my mind a poor widow woman whose life would seem to havenothing in it to make it happy, but, on the other hand, cheerless andtiresome, and whose work would have been very hard, had it not been fora little crippled child she dearly loved and cared for, and who was allthe more precious to her on account of its helplessness. Losing herselfand forgetting her own hard lot in the care of the little cripple, herwhole life was made cheerful and happy, and her work not hard, but easy, because lightened by love and service for another. And this is but oneof innumerable cases of this kind. 

So you may turn your sorrows, you may lighten your burdens, by helpingbear the burdens, if not of a crippled child, then of a brother or asister who in another sense may be crippled, or who may become so butfor your timely service. You can find them all about you: never pass oneby. 

By building upon this principle, the poor may thus live as grandly andas happily as the rich, those in humble and lowly walks of life asgrandly and as happily as those in what seem to be more exaltedstations. Recognizing the truth, as we certainly must by this time, thatone is _truly_ great only in so far as this is made the fundamentalprinciple of his life, it becomes evident that that longing forgreatness for its and for one's own sake falls away, and none but adiseased mind cares for it; for no sooner is it grasped than, as abubble, it bursts, because it is not the true, the permanent, but thefalse, the transient. On the other hand, he who forgetting self and thiskind of greatness, falsely so called, in the service of his fellow-men, by this very fact puts himself on the right track, the only track forthe true, the genuine; and in what degree it will come to him dependsentirely upon his adherence to the law. 

And do you know the influence of this life in the moulding of thefeatures, that it gives the highest beauty that can dwell there, thebeauty that comes from within, --the _soul beauty_, so often found in thepaintings of the old masters. _True beauty must come, must be grown, from, within_. That outward veneering, which is so prevalent, can neverbe even a poor imitation of this type of the true, the genuine. Toappreciate fully the truth of this, it is but necessary to look for amoment at that beautiful picture by Sant, the "Soul's Awakening, " a facethat grows more beautiful each time one looks at it, and that one nevertires of looking at, and compare with it the fractional parts ofapothecary shops we see now and then--or so often, to speak moretruly--on the streets. A face of this higher type carries with it abenediction wherever it goes. 

A beautiful little incident came to my notice not long ago. It was avery hot and dusty day. The passengers on the train were weary andtired. The time seemed long and the journey cheerless. A lady with aface that carries a benediction to all who see her entered the car witha little girl, also of that type of beauty that comes from within, andwith a voice musical, sweet, and sparkling, such as also comes from thissource. 

The child, when they were seated, had no sooner spoken a few wordsbefore she began to enlist the attention of her fellow-passengers. Shebegan playing peek-a-boo with a staid and dignified old gentleman in theseat behind her. He at first looked at her over his spectacles, thenlowered his paper a little, then a little more, and a little more. Finally, he dropped it altogether, and, apparently forgetting himselfand his surroundings, became oblivious to everything in the fascinatingpleasure he was having with the little girl. The other passengers soonfound themselves following his example. All papers and books weredropped. The younger folks gave way to joyous laughter, and all seemedto vie with each other in having the honor of receiving a word or asmile from the little one. 

The dust, the heat, the tired, cheerless feelings were all forgotten;and when these two left the car, the little girl waving them good-by, instinctively, as one person, all the passengers waved it to her inreturn, and two otherwise dignified gentlemen, leaving their seats, passed over to the other side, and looked out of the window to see heras long as they could. Something as an electrical spark seemed to havepassed through the car. All were light-hearted and happy now; and theconditions in the car, compared to what they were before these twoentered, would rival the work of the stereopticon, so far ascompleteness of change is concerned. You have seen such faces and haveheard such voices. They result from a life the kind we are considering. They are but its outward manifestations, spontaneous as the water fromthe earth as it bursts forth a natural fountain. 

We must not fail also to notice the effect of this life upon one'smanners and bearing. True politeness comes from a life founded upon thisgreat principle, and from this alone. This gives the truegentleman, --_gentle-man_, --a man gentle, kind, loving, courteous fromnature. Such a one can't have anything but true politeness, can't beanything but a gentle-man; for one can't truly be anything but himself. So the one always intent upon and thinking of self cannot be the truegentleman, notwithstanding the artful contrivances and studied effortsto appear so, but which so generally reveal his own shallowness andartificiality, and disgust all with whom he comes in contact. 

I sometimes meet a person who, when introduced, will go through a seriesof stiff, cold, and angular movements, the knee at such a bend, the footat such an angle, the back with such a bend or hump, --much less pleasantto see than that of a camel or a dromedary, for with these it isnatural, --so that I have found myself almost thinking, Poor fellow, Iwonder what the trouble is, whether he will get over it all right. It isso very evident that he all the time has his mind upon himself, wondering whether or not he is getting everything just right. What arelief to turn from such a one to one who, instead of thinking always ofself, has continually in mind the ease and comfort and pleasure he cangive to others, who, in other words, is the true _gentle-man_, and withwhom true politeness is natural; for one's every act is born of histhoughts. 

It is said that there was no truer gentleman in all Scotland than RobertBurns. And yet he was a farmer all his life, and had never been awayfrom his native little rural village into a city until near the close ofhis life, when, taking the manuscripts that for some time had beenaccumulating in the drawer of his writing-table up to Edinburgh, hecaptivated the hearts of all in the capital. Without studiedcontrivances, he was the true gentleman, and true politeness was his, because his life was founded upon the principle that continually broughtfrom his pen lines such as:--

 "It's coming yet, for a' that, That man to man, the warld o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that!"

And under the influence of this principle, he was a gentleman by nature, and one of nature's noblemen, without ever thinking whether he was ornot, as he who is truly such never needs to and never does. 

And then recall the large-hearted Ben Franklin, when sent to the Frenchcourt. In his plain gray clothes, unassuming and entirely forgetful ofhimself, how he captured the hearts of all, of even the giddy societyladies, and how he became and remained while there the centre ofattraction in that gay capital! His politeness, his manners, all theresult of that great, kind, loving, and helpful nature which madeothers feel that it was they he was devoting himself to and not himself. 

This little extract from a letter written by Franklin to GeorgeWhitefield will show how he regarded the great principle we areconsidering: "As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have beenof more service to you. But, if it had, the only thanks I should desireis that you would always be equally ready to serve any other person thatmay need your assistance; and so let good offices go around, for mankindare all of a family. For my own part, when I am employed in servingothers, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as payingdebts. In my travels, and since my settlement, I have received muchkindness from men to whom I shall never have any opportunity of makingany direct return, and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitelyabove being benefited by our services. These kindnesses from men I can, therefore, only return on their fellow-men; and I can only show mygratitude for these mercies from God by a readiness to help his otherchildren and my brethren. "

No, true gentlemanliness and politeness always comes from within, and isborn of a life of love, kindliness, and service. This is the universallanguage, known and understood everywhere, even when our words are not. There is, you know, a beautiful old proverb which says, "He who is kindand courteous to strangers thereby shows himself a citizen of theworld. " And there is nothing so remembered, and that so endears one toall mankind, as this universal language. Even dumb animals understand itand are affected by it. How quickly the dog, for example, knows andmakes it known when he is spoken to and treated kindly or the reverse!And here shall not a word be spoken in connection with that great bodyof our fellow-creatures whom, because we do not understand theirlanguage, we are accustomed to call dumb? The attitude we have assumedtoward these fellow-creatures, and the treatment they have beensubjected to in the past, is something almost appalling. 

There are a number of reasons why this has been true. Has not one beenon account of a belief in a future life for man, but not for the animal?A few years ago a gentleman left by will some fifty thousand dollars forthe work of Henry Bergh's New York Society. His relatives contested thewill on the ground of insanity, --on the ground of insanity because hebelieved in a future life for animals. The judge, in giving his decisionsustaining the will, stated that after a very careful investigation, hefound that fully half the world shared the same belief. Agassizthoroughly believed it. An English writer has recently compiled a listof over one hundred and seventy English authors who have so thoroughlybelieved it as to write upon the subject. The same belief has beenshared by many of the greatest thinkers in all parts of the world, andit is a belief that is constantly gaining ground. 

Another and perhaps the chief cause has been on account of a supposedinferior degree of intelligence on the part of animals, which in anotherform would mean, that they are less able to care for and protectthemselves. Should this, however, be a reason why they should beneglected and cruelly treated? Nay, on the other hand, should this notbe the greatest reason why we should all the more zealously care for, protect, and kindly treat them?

You or I may have a brother or a sister who is not normally endowed asto brain power, who, perchance, may be idiotic or insane, or who, through sickness or mishap, is weakminded; but do we make this anexcuse for neglecting, cruelly treating, or failing to love such a one?On the contrary, the very fact that he or she is not so able to planfor, care for, and protect him or her self, is all the greater reasonfor all the more careful exercise of these functions on our part. But, certainly, there are many animals around us with far more intelligence, at least manifested intelligence, than this brother or sister. Theparallel holds, but the absurd falsity of the position we assume is mostapparent. No truer nobility of character can anywhere manifest itselfthan is shown in one's attitude toward and treatment of those weaker orthe so-called inferior, and so with less power to care for and protectthemselves. Moreover, I think we shall find that we are many timesmistaken in regard to our beliefs in connection with the inferiorintelligence of at least many animals. If, instead of using them simplyto serve our own selfish ends without a just recompense, without athought further than as to what we can get out of them, and then manytimes casting them off when broken or of no further service, and manytimes looking down upon, neglecting, or even abusing them, --if, insteadof this, we would deal equitably with them, love them, train andeducate them the same as we do our children, we would be somewhatsurprised at the remarkable degree of intelligence the "dumb brutes"possess, and also the remarkable degree of training they are capable of. What, however, can be expected of them when we take the attitude we atpresent hold toward them?

Page after page might readily be filled with most interesting as well asinspiring portrayals of their superior intelligence, their remarkablecapabilities under kind and judicious training, their _faithfulness_ and_devotion_. The efforts of such noble and devoted workers as Henry Berghin New York, of George T. Angell in Massachusetts, and many others invarious parts of the country, have already brought about a great changein our attitude toward and relations with this great body of ourfellow-creatures, and have made all the world more thoughtful, considerate, and kind. This, however, is just the beginning of a workthat is assuming greater and ever greater proportions. 

The work of the American Humane Education Society[A] is probablysurpassed in its vitality and far-reaching results by the work of noother society in the world to-day. Its chief object is the humaneeducation of the American people; and through one phase of its workalone--its Bands of Mercy, over twenty-five thousand of which havealready been formed, giving regular, systematic humane training andinstruction to between one and two million children, and thesecontinually increasing in numbers--a most vital work is being done, suchas no man can estimate. 

The humane sentiment inculcated in one's relations with the animalworld, and its resultant feelings of sympathy, tenderness, love, andcare, will inevitably manifest itself in one's relations with hisfellows; and I for one, would rejoice to see this work carried intoevery school throughout the length and breadth of the land. In manycases this one phase of the child's training would be of far more vitalvalue and import as he grows to manhood than all the rest of theschooling combined, and it would form a most vital entering wedge in thesolution of our social situation. 

And why should we not speak to and kindly greet an animal as we pass it, as instinctively as we do a human fellow-being? Though it may not getour words, it will invariably get the attitude and the motive thatprompts them, and will be affected accordingly. This it will do everytime. Animals in general are marvellously sensitive to the mentalconditions, the thought forces, and emotions of people. Some arepeculiarly sensitive, and can detect them far more quickly andunerringly than many people can. 

It ought to help us greatly in our relations with them ever fully torealize that they with us are parts of the one Universal Life, simplydifferent forms of the manifestation of the One Life, having their partto play in the economy of the great universe the same as we have ours, having their destiny to work out the same as we have ours, and just asimportant, just as valuable, in the sight of the All in All as weourselves. 

"I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me. 

"I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemnedfor a while to roam four-footed among the brambles. I caught theclinging mute glance of the prisoner, and swore I would be faithful. 

"Thee my brother and sister I see, and mistake not. Do not be afraid. Dwelling thus for a while, fulfilling thy appointed time, thou, too, shall come to thyself at last. 

"Thy half-warm horns and long tongue lapping round my wrist do notconceal thy humanity any more than the learned talk of the pedantconceals his, --for all thou art dumb, we have words and plenty betweenus. 

"Come nigh, little bird, with your half-stretched quiveringwings, --within you I behold choirs of angels, and the Lord himself invista. "[B]

But a small thing, apparently, is a kind look, word, or service of somekind; but, oh! who can tell where it may end? It costs the givercomparatively nothing; but who can tell the priceless value to him whoreceives it? The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of coldwater, may grow and swell into a boundless river, refreshing andcarrying life and hope in turn to numberless others, and these toothers, and so have no end. This may be just the critical moment in somelife. Given now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. So don'twithhold the bread that's in your keeping, but

 "Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go. "

There is no greater thing in life that you can do, and nothing thatwill bring you such rich and precious returns. 

The question is sometimes asked, How can one feel a deep and genuinelove, a love sufficient to manifest itself in service for all?--thereare some so mean, so small, with so many peculiar, objectionable, oreven obnoxious characteristics. True, very true, apparently at least;but another great law of life is that _we find in men and women exactlythose qualities, those characteristics, we look for, or that are nearestakin to the predominant qualities or characteristics of our ownnatures_. If we look for the peculiar, the little, the objectionable, these we shall find; but back of all this, all that is most apparent onthe exterior, in the depths of each and every human soul, is the good, the true, the brave, the loving, the divine, the God-like, that thatnever changes, the very God Himself that at some time or another willshow forth His full likeness. 

And still another law of life is that others usually manifest to us thatwhich our own natures, or, in other words, our own thoughts andemotions, call forth. The same person, for example, will come to twodifferent people in an entirely different way, because the larger, better, purer, and more universal nature of the one calls forth thebest, the noblest, the truest in him; while the smaller, critical, personal nature of the other calls forth the opposite. The wise man istherefore careful in regard to what he has to say concerning this orthat one; for, generally speaking, it is a sad commentary upon one'sself if he find only the disagreeable, the objectionable. _One livesalways in the atmosphere of his own creation_. 

Again, it is sometimes said, But such a one has such and such habits orhas done so and so, has committed such and such an error or such andsuch a crime. But who, let it be asked, constituted me a judge of myfellow-man? Do I not recognize the fact that the moment I judge myfellow-man, by that very act I judge myself? One of two things, I eitherjudge myself or hypocritically profess that never once in my entire lifehave I committed a sin, an error of any kind, never have I stumbled, never fallen, and by that very profession I pronounce myself at onceeither a fool or a knave, or both. 

Again, it is said, But even for the sake of helping, of doing someservice, I could not for my own sake, for character's, for reputation'ssake, I could not afford even to be seen with such a one. What wouldpeople, what would my friends, think and say? True, apparently at least, but, if my life, my character, has such a foundation, a foundation soweak, so uncertain, so tottering, as to be affected by anything of thiskind, I had better then look well to it, and quietly, quickly, butsecurely, begin to rebuild it; and, when I am sure that it is upon thetrue, deep, substantial foundation, the only additional thing thennecessary is for me to reach that glorious stage of development whichquickly gets one out of the personal into the universal, or rather thatindicates that he is already out of the one and into the other, when hecan say: They think. What do they think? Let them think. They say. Whatdo they say? Let them say. 

And, then, the supreme charity one should have, when he realizes thefact that _the great bulk of the sin and error in the world is committednot through choice, but through ignorance_. Not that the person does notknow many times that this or that course of action is wrong, that it iswrong to commit this error or sin or crime; but the ignorance comes inhis belief that in this course of conduct he is deriving pleasure andhappiness, and his ignorance of the fact that through a different courseof conduct he would derive a pleasure, a happiness, much keener, higher, more satisfying and enduring. 

Never should we forget that we are all the same in motive, --pleasure andhappiness: we differ only in method; and this difference in method issolely by reason of some souls being at any particular time more fullyevolved, and thus having a greater knowledge of the great, immutablelaws under which we live, and by putting the life into more and evermore complete harmony with these higher laws and forces, and in this waybringing about the highest, the keenest, the most abiding pleasure andhappiness instead of seeking it on the lower planes. 

While all are the same in essence, all a part of the One Infinite, Eternal, all with the same latent possibilities, all reaching ultimatelythe same place, it nevertheless is true that at any particular time someare more fully awakened, evolved, unfolded. One should also be careful, if life is continuous, eternal, how he judges any particular life merelyfrom these threescore years and ten; for the very fact of life, inwhatever form, means continual activity, growth, advancement, unfoldment, attainment, and, if there is the one, there must ofnecessity be the other. So in regard to this one or that one, no fearsneed be entertained. 

By the door of my woodland cabin stood during the summer a magnificenttube-rose stock. The day was when it was just putting into bloom; andthen I counted buds--latent flowers--to the number of over a score. Someeight or ten one morning were in full bloom. The ones nearer the top didnot bloom forth until some two and three weeks later, and for some ittook quite a month to reach the fully perfected stage. These certainlywere not so beautiful, so satisfying, as those already in the perfectbloom, those that had already reached their highest perfection. Butshould they on this account be despised? Wait, wait and give the elementof time an opportunity of doing its work; and you may find that by andby, when these have reached their highest perfection, they may even fartranscend in beauty and in fragrance those at present so beautiful, sofragrant, so satisfying, those that we so much admire. 

Here we recognize the element of time. How foolish, how childish, howpuerile, to fail or even refuse to do the same when it comes to thehuman soul, with all its God-like possibilities! And, again, howfoolish, because some of the blooms on the rose stock had not reachedtheir perfection as soon as others, to have pronounced them of no value, unworthy, and to have refused them the dews, the warm rains, thelife-giving sunshine, the very agencies that hastened their perfectedgrowth! Yet this puerile, unbalanced attitude is that taken by untoldnumbers in the world to-day toward many human souls on account of theirless mature unfoldment at any given time. 

Why, the very fact that a fellow-man and a brother has this or thatfault, error, undesirable or objectionable characteristic, is of itselfthe very reason he needs all the more of charity, of love, of kindlyhelp and aid, than is needed by the one more fully developed, and hencemore free from these. All the more reason is there why the best in himshould be recognized and ever called to the front. 

The wise man is he who, when he desires to rid a room of darkness orgloom, does not attempt to drive it out directly, but who throws openthe doors and the windows, that the room may be flooded with the goldensunlight; for in its presence darkness and gloom cannot remain. So theway to help a fellow-man and a brother to the higher and better life isnot by ever prating upon and holding up to view his errors, his faults, his shortcomings, any more than in the case of children, but byrecognizing and ever calling forth the higher, the nobler, the divine, the God-like, _by opening the doors and the windows of his own soul_, and thus bringing about a spiritual perception, that he may the morecarefully listen to the inner voice, that he may the more carefullyfollow "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. "For in the exact proportion that the interior perception comes will theouter life and conduct accord with it, --so far, and no farther. 

Where in all the world's history is to be found a more beautiful orvaluable incident than this? A group of men, self-centred, self-assertive, have found a poor woman who, in her blindness andweakness, has committed an error, the same one that they, in allprobability, have committed not once, but many times; _for the rule isthat they are first to condemn who are-most at fault themselves_. Theybring her to the Master, they tell him that she has committed asin, --ay, more, that she has been taken in the very act, --and ask whatshall be done with her, informing him that, in accordance with the oldenlaws, such a one should be stoned. 

But, quicker than thought, that great incarnation of spiritual power andinsight reads their motives; and, after allowing them to give fullexpression to their accusations, he turns, and calmly says, "He amongyou that is _without sin_, let _him_ cast the first stone. " So saying, he stoops down, as if he is writing in the sand. The accusers, feelingthe keen and just rebuke, in the mean time sneak out, until not oneremains. The Master, after all have gone, turns to the woman, hissister, and kindly and gently says, "And where are thine accusers? dothno man condemn thee?" "No man, Lord. " "_And neither do I condemn thee:go thou, and sin no more_. " Oh, the beauty, the soul pathos! Oh, theroyal-hearted brother! Oh, the invaluable lesson to us all!

I have no doubt that this gentle, loving admonition, this calling of thehigher and the better to the front, set into operation in her interiornature forces that hastened her progress from the purely animal, theunsatisfying, the diminishing, to the higher spiritual, the satisfying, the ever-increasing, or, even more, that made it instantaneous, but thatin either case brought about the new birth, --the new birth that comeswith the awakening of the soul out of its purely physical sense-life tothe higher spiritual perception and knowledge of itself, and thus thebirth of the higher out of the lower, as at some time or another comesto each and every human soul. 

And still another fact that should make us most charitable toward andslow to judge, or rather refuse to judge, a fellow-man and abrother, --the fact that we cannot know the intense strugglings andfightings he or she may be subjected to, though accompanied, it is true, by numerous stumblings and fallings, though the latter we see, while theformer we fail to recognize. Did we, however, know the truth of thematter, it may be that in the case of ourselves, who are so quick tojudge, had we the same temptations and fightings, the battle would notbe half so nobly, so manfully fought, and our stumblings and fallingsmight be many times the number of his or of hers. Had we infiniteknowledge and wisdom, our judgments would be correct; though, had weinfinite knowledge and wisdom, we would be spared the task, thoughperhaps pleasure would seem to be the truer word to use, of our ownself-imposed judgments. 

Even so, then, if I cannot give myself in thorough love and service andself-devotion to each and all of the Father's other children, to everybrother, no matter what the rank, station, or apparent condition, itshows that at least one of several things is radically wrong with self;and it also indicates that I shall never know the full and supreme joyof existence until I am able to and until I regard each case in thelight of a rare and golden opportunity, in which I take a supremedelight. 

Although what has just been said is true, at the same time there areoccasions when it must be taken with wise discretion; and, althoughthere are things it may be right for me to do for the sake of helpinganother life, at the same time there are things it may be unwise for meto do. I have sympathy for a friend who is lying in the gutter; but itwould be very unwise for me to get myself into the same condition, andgo and lie with him, thinking that only thus I could show my fullestsympathy, and be of greatest help to him. On the contrary, it is only asI stand on the higher ground that I am able to reach forth the handthat will truly lift him up. The moment I sink myself to the same level, my power to help ceases. 

Just as unwise, to use a familiar example, far more unwise, would it befor me, were I a woman, to think of marrying a man who is a drunkard ora libertine, thinking that because I may love him I shall be able toreform him. In the first place, I should find that the desired resultscould not be accomplished in this way, or rather, no results that couldnot be accomplished, and far more readily accomplished otherwise, and atfar less expense. In the second place, I could not afford to subjectmyself to the demands, the influences, of one such, and so either sinkmyself to his level or, if not, then be compelled to use the greaterpart of my time, thought, and energy in demonstrating over existingconditions, and keeping myself true to the higher life, the same timethat might be used in helping the lives of many others. If I sink myselfto his level, I do not help, but aid all the more in dragging him down, or, if I do not sink to his level, then in the degree that I approach itdo I lose my power over and influence with that life. Especially wouldit be unwise on my part if on his part there is no real desire for adifferent course, and no manifest endeavor to attain to it. Many timesit seems necessary for such a one to wallow in the deepest of the mire, until, to use a commonplace phrase, he has his fill. He will then beready to come out, will then be open to influence. I in the mean time, instead of entering into the mire with him, instead of subjecting mylife to his influences, will stand up on the higher ground, and willever point him upward, will ever reach forth a hand to help him upward, and will thus subject _him_ to the higher influences; and, by preservingmyself in this attitude, I can do the same for many other lives. In itall there will be no bitterness, no condemnation, no casting off, butthe highest charity, sympathy and love; and it is only by this methodthat I can manifest the highest, only by this method that I can the mosttruly aid, for only as I am lifted up can I draw others unto me. 

In this matter of service, as in all other matters, that supremeregulator of human life and conduct--good common sense--must always beused. There are some natures, for example, whom the more we would dofor, the more we would have to do for, who, in other words, would becomedependent, losing their sense of self-dependence. For such the highestservice one can render is as judiciously and as indirectly as possibleto lead them to the sense of self-reliance. Then there are others whosenatures are such that, the more they are helped, the more they expect, the more they demand, even as their right, who, in other words, areparasites or vultures of the human kind. In this case, again, thegreatest service that can be rendered may be a refusal of service, arefusal of aid in the ordinary or rather expected forms, and a stillgreater service in the form of teaching them that great principle ofjustice, of compensation, that runs through all the universe, --that forevery service there must be in some form or another an adequate servicein return, that the law of compensation in one form or another isabsolute, and, in fact, the greatest forms of service we can render anyone are, generally speaking, along the lines of teaching him the greatlaws of his own being, the great laws of his true possibilities andpowers and so the great laws of self-help. 

And, again, it is possible for one whose heart goes out in love andservice for all, and who, by virtue of lacking that long range of visionor by virtue of not having a grasp of things in their entirety orwholeness, may have his time, his energies so dissipated in what seemsto be the highest service that he is continually kept from his ownhighest unfoldment, powers, and possessions, the very things that intheir completeness would make him a thousand-fold more effective andpowerful in his own life, and hence in the life of real service andinfluence. And, in a case of this kind, many times the mark of the mostabsolute unselfishness is a strong and marked selfishness, which willprove however to be a selfishness only in the seeming. 

_The self should never be lost sight of. It is the one thing of supremeimportance, the greatest factor even in the life of the greatestservice_. Being always and necessarily precedes doing: having always andnecessarily precedes giving. But this law also holds: that when there isthe being, it is all the more increased by the doing; when there is thehaving, it is all the more increased by the giving. _Keeping to one'sself dwarfs and stultifies. Hoarding brings loss: using brings evengreater gain_. In brief, the more we are, the more we can do; the morewe have, the more we can give. 

The most truly successful, the most powerful and valuable life, then, is the life that is first founded upon this great, immutable law of loveand service, and that then becomes supremely self-centred, --supremelyself-centred that it may become all the more supremely unself-centred;in other words, the life that looks v/ell to self, that there may be theever greater self, in order that there may be the ever greater service. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: Headquarters at Boston, Mass. ]

[Footnote B: Toward Democracy. ]

PART IV. 

THE AWAKENING

 If you'd live a religion that's noble, That's God-like and true, A religion the grandest that men Or that angels can, Then live, live the truth Of the brother who taught you, It's love to God, service and love To the fellow-man. 

Social problems are to be among the greatest problems of the generationjust moving on to the stage of action. They, above all others, willclaim the attention of mankind, as they are already claiming it acrossthe waters even as at home. The attitude of the two classes toward eachother, or the separation of the classes, will be by far the chiefproblem of them all. Already it is imperatively demanding a solution. Gradually, as the years have passed, this separation has been going on, but never so rapidly as of late. Each has come to regard the other as anenemy, with no interests in common, but rather that what is for theinterests of the one must necessarily be to the detriment of the other. 

The great masses of the people, the working classes, those who as much, if not more than many others ought to be there, are not in our churchesto-day. They already feel that they are not wanted there, and that theChurch even is getting to be their enemy. There must be a reason forthis, for it is impossible to have an effect without its precedingcause. It is indeed time to waken up to these facts and conditions; forthey must be _squarely_ met. A solution is imperatively demanded, andthe sooner it comes, the better; for, if allowed to continue thus, allwill come back to be paid for, intensified a thousand-fold, --ay, to bepaid for even by many innocent ones. 

Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, andself-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-men be made thefundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these greatand all-important questions will become. Indeed, they will almost solvethemselves. It is the man all for self, so small and so short sightedthat he can't get beyond his own selfish interests, that has done moreto bring about this state of affairs than all other causes combined. Letthe cause be removed, and then note the results. 

For many years it has been a teaching even of political economy that anemployer buys his help just as he buys his raw material or any othercommodity; and this done, he is in no way responsible for the welfare ofthose he employs. In fact, the time isn't so far distant when theemployed were herded together as animals, and were treated very much assuch. But, thanks be to God, a better and a brighter day is dawning. Even the employer is beginning to see that practical ethics, or trueChristianity, and business cannot and must not be divorced; that the manhe employs, instead of being a mere animal whose services he buys, is, after all his fellow-man and his brother, and demands a treatment assuch, and that when he fails to recognize this truth, a righteous Godsteps in, demanding a penalty for its violation. 

He is recognizing the fact that whatsoever is for the well-being of theone he employs, that whatever privileges he is enabled to enjoy thatwill tend to grow and develop his physical, his mental, and his morallife, that will give him an agreeable home and pleasant familyrelations, that whatever influences tend to elevate him and to make hislife more happy, are a direct gain, even from a financial standpoint forhimself, by its increasing for him the efficiency of the man's labor. It is already recognized as a fact that the employer who interestshimself in these things, other things being equal, is the mostsuccessful. Thus the old and the false are breaking away before theright and the true, as all inevitably must sooner or later; and thedivinity and the power of the workingman is being ever more fullyrecognized. 

In the very remote history of the race there was one who, violating agreat law, having wronged a brother, asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?"Knowing that he was, he nevertheless deceitfully put the question inthis way in his desire, if possible, to avoid the responsibility. Manyemployers in their selfishness and greed for gain have asked this samequestion in this same way. They have thought they could thus defeat thesure and eternal laws of a Just Ruler, but have thereby deceivedthemselves the more. These more than any others have to a great degreebrought about the present state of affairs in the industrial and socialworld. 

Just as soon as the employer recognizes the falsity of these oldteachings and practices, and the fact that he cannot buy his employee'sservices the same as he buys his raw material, with no furtherresponsibility, but that the two are on vastly different planes, thathis employee is his fellow-man and his brother, and that he is hisbrother's keeper, and will be held responsible as such, that it is tohis own highest interests, as well as to the highest interests of thosehe employs and to society in general, to recognize this; and just assoon as he who is employed fully appreciates his opportunities and makesthe highest use of all, and in turn takes an active, personal interestin all that pertains to his employer's welfare, --just that soon will asolution of this great question come forth, and no sooner. 

It is not so much a question of legislation as of education and rightdoing, thus a dealing with the _individual_, and so a prevention and acure, not merely a suppression and a regulation, which is always sure tofail; for, in a case of right or wrong no question is ever settledfinally until it is settled rightly. 

The individual, dealing with the individual is necessarily at the bottomof all true social progress. There can't be anything worthy the namewithout it. The truth will at once be recognized by all _that the goodof the whole defends upon the good of each, and the good of each makesthe good of the whole_. Attend, then, to the individual, and the wholewill take care of itself. Let each individual work in harmony with everyother, and harmony will pervade the whole. The old theory ofcompetition--that in order to have great advancement, great progress, wemust have great competition to induce it--is as false as it is savageand detrimental in its nature. We are just reaching that point where thelarger men and women are beginning to see its falsity. They arerecognizing the fact that, _not competition, but co-operation, reciprocity, is the great, the true power_, --to climb, not by attemptingto drag, to keep down one's fellows, but by aiding them, and being inturn aided by them, thus combining, and so multiplying the power of allinstead of wasting a large part one against the other. 

And grant that a portion do succeed in rising, while the other portionremain in the lower condition, it is of but little value so far as theirown peace and welfare are concerned; for they can never be what theywould be, were all up together. Each is but a part, a member, of thegreat civil body; and no member, let alone the entire body, can beperfectly well, perfectly at ease, when any other part is in dis-ease. No one part of the community, no one part of the nation, can standalone: all are dependent, interdependent. This is the uniform teachingof history from the remotest times in the past right through to thepresent. A most admirable illustration of this fact--if indeed the word"admirable" can be used in connection with a matter so deplorable--wasthe unparalleled labor trouble we had in our great Western city but afew summers ago. The wise man is he who learns from experiences of thisterrific nature. 

No, not until this all-powerful principle is fully recognized, and isbuilt upon so thoroughly that the brotherhood principle, the principleof oneness can enter in, and each one recognizes the fact that his owninterests and welfare depend upon the interests, the welfare of each, and therefore of all, that each is but a part of the one great whole, and each one stands shoulder to shoulder in the advance forward, can wehope for any true solution of the great social problems before us, forany permanent elevation of the standard in our national social life andwelfare. 

This same principle is the solution, and the only true solution, of thecharities question, as indeed the whole world during the last few yearsor so, and during this time only, is beginning to realize. And thesplendid and efficient work of the organized charities in all our largecities, as of the Elberfeld system in Germany, is attesting the truth ofthis. Almost numberless methods have been tried during the past, but allhave most successfully failed; and many have greatly increased thewretched condition of matters, and of those it was designed to help. During this length of time only have these all-important questions beendealt with in a true, scientific, Christ-like, common-sense way. It hasbeen found even here that nothing can take the place of the personal andfriendly influences of a life built upon this principle of service. 

The question of aiding the poor and needy has passed through threedistinct phases of development in the world's history. In early times itwas, "Each one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. " From thetime of the Christ, and up to the last few years it has been, "Helpothers. " Now it is, "_Help others to help themselves_. " The wealthysociety lady going down Fifth Avenue in New York, or Michigan Avenue inChicago, or Charles Street in Baltimore, or Commonwealth Avenue inBoston, who flings a coin to one asking alms, is _not_ the one who isdoing a true act of charity; but, on the other hand, she may be doingthe one she thus gives to and to society in general much more harm thangood, as is many times the case. It is but a cheap, a very cheap way ofbuying ease for her sympathetic nature or her sense of duty. Never letthe word "charity, " which always includes the elements of interestedservice, true helpfulness, kindliness, and love, be debased by making ita synonym of mere giving, which may mean the flinging of a quarter inscorn or for show. 

Recognizing the great truth that the best and only way to help anotheris to help him to help himself, and that the neglected classes need notso much alms as friends, the Organized Charities with their severalbranches in different parts of the city have their staffs of "friendlyvisitors, " almost all voluntary, and from some of the best homes in theland. Then when a case of need comes to the notice of the society, oneof these goes to the person or family as a _friend_ to investigate, tofind what circumstances have brought about these conditions, and, iffound worthy of aid, present needs are supplied, an effort is made tosecure work, and every effort is made to put them on their feet again, that self-respect may be regained, that hope may enter in; for there isscarcely anything that tends to make one lose his self-respect soquickly and so completely as to be compelled, or of his own accord, toask for alms. 

It is thus many times that a new life is entered upon, brightness andhope taking the place of darkness and despair. This is not the only callthe friendly visitor makes; but he or she becomes a _true friend_, andmakes regular visits as such. If by this method the one seeking charityis found to be an impostor, as is frequently the case, proper means ofexposure are resorted to, that his or her progress in this course may bestopped. The organizations are thus doing a most valuable work, and onethat will become more and more valuable as they are enabled to becomebetter organized, the greatest need to-day being more with the truespirit to act as visiting friends. 

It is this same great principle that has given birth to our college anduniversity settlements and our neighborhood guilds which are so rapidlyincreasing, and which are destined to do a great and efficient work. Here a small colony of young women, many from our best homes, and theablest graduates of our best colleges, and young men, many of them theablest graduates of our best universities, take up their abode in thepoorest parts of our large cities, to try by their personal influenceand personal contact to raise the surrounding life to a higher plane. Itis in these ways that the poor and the unfortunate are dealt withdirectly. Thus the classes mingle. Thus that sentimentalism which may doand which has done harm to these great problems, and by which the peopleit is designed to help may be hindered rather than helped, is done awaywith. Thus true aid and service are rendered, and the needy are reallyhelped. 

The one whose life is built upon this principle will not take up work ofthis kind as a "fad, " or because it is "fashionable, " but because it isright, true, Christ-like. The truly great and noble never fear thus tomingle with those poorer and less fortunate. It is only those who wouldlike to be counted as great, but who are too small to be so recognized, and who, therefore, always thinking of self, put forth every effort toappear so. There is no surer test than this. 

Very truly has it been said that "the greatest thing a man can do forGod is to be kind to some of His other children. " All children of thesame Father, therefore all brothers, sisters. Man is next to God. Man isGod incarnate. Humanity, therefore, cannot be very far from being nextto godliness. Many people there are who are greatly concerned aboutserving God, as they term it. Their idea is to build great edifices withcostly ornaments to Him. A great deal of their time is spent in singingsongs and hallelujahs to Him, just as if _He_ needed or wanted these forHimself, forgetting that He is far above being benefited by anythingthat we can say or do, forgetting that He doesn't want these, when forlack of them some of His children are starving for bread to eat or aredying for the bread of life. 

Can you conceive of a God who is worthy of love and service, --and Ispeak most reverently, --who under such conditions would take asatisfaction in these things? I confess I am not able to. I can conceiveof no way in which I can serve God only as I serve Him through my ownlife and through the lives of my fellow-men. This, certainly, is theonly kind of service He needs or wants, or that is acceptable to Him. At one place we read, "He that says he loves God and loves not hisfellow-men, is a liar; and the truth is not in him. "

Even in religion I think we shall find that there is nothing greater ormore important than this great principle of service, helpfulness, kindliness, and love. Is not Christianity, you ask, greater or moreimportant? Why, bless you, is this any other than Christianity, isChristianity any other than this, --at least, if we take what the MasterTeacher himself has said? For what, let us ask, is a Christian, --thereal, not merely in name? A follower of Christ, one who does as he did, one who lives as he lived. And, again, who was Christ? He that healedthe sick, clothed the naked, bound up the broken-hearted, sustained andencouraged the weak, the faltering, befriended and aided the poor, theneedy, condemned the proud and the selfish, taught the people to livenobly, truly, grandly, to live in their higher, diviner selves, that thegreatest among them should be their servant, and that his followers werethose who lived as he lived. He spent all his time in the service ofhumanity. He gave his whole life in this way. He it was who went aboutdoing good. 

Is it your desire then, to be numbered among his followers, to bearthat blessed name, the name "Christian"? Then sit at his feet, and learnof him, love him, do as he did, as he taught you to do, live as helived, as he taught you to live, and you are a Christian, and not unlessyou do. True Christianity can be found in no other way. 

Naught is the difference what one may call himself; for many callthemselves by this name to whom Christ says it will one day be said, "Inever knew you: depart from me, ye cursed. " Naught is the differencewhat creeds one may subscribe to, what rites and ceremonies he mayobserve, how loud and how numerous his professions may be. All of theseare but as a vain mockery, unless he _is_ a Christian; and to be aChristian is, as we have found, to be a follower of Christ, to do as hedid, to live as he lived. Then live the Christ life. Live so as tobecome at one with God, and dwell continually in this blessedat-one-ment. The trouble all along has been that so many have mistakenthe mere person of the Christ, the mere physical Jesus, for his life, his spirit, his teachings, and have succeeded in getting no farther thanthis as yet, except in cases here and there. 

Now and then a rare soul rises up, one with great power, greatinspiration, and we wonder at his great power, his great inspiration, why it is. When we look deeply enough, however, we will find that onegreat fact will answer the question every time. It is living the lifethat brings the power. He is living the Christ life, not merely standingafar off and looking at it, admiring it, and saying, Yes, I believe, Ibelieve, and ending it there. In other words, he has found the kingdomof heaven. He has found that it is not a place, but a condition; and thesong continually arising from his heart is, There is joy, only joy. 

The Master, you remember, said: "Seek ye not for the kingdom of heavenin tabernacles or in houses made with hands. Know ye not that thekingdom of heaven is within you?" He told in plain words where and howto find it. He then told how to find _all other_ things, when he said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shallbe added unto you. " Now, do you wonder at his power, his inspiration, his abundance of all things? The trouble with so many is that they actas if they do not believe what the Master said. They do not take him athis word. They say one thing: they do another. Their acts give the lieto their words. Instead of taking him at his word, and living as if theyhad faith in him, they prefer to follow a series of old, outgrown, man-made theories, traditions, forms, ceremonies, and seem to besatisfied with the results. No, _to be a Christian is to live the Christlife_, the life of him who went about doing good, the life of him whocame not to be ministered unto, but to minister. 

We will find that this mighty principle of love and service is thegreatest to live by in this life, and also one of the gates whereby allwho would must enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Again we have the Master's words. In his own and only description of thelast judgment, after speaking of the Son of Man coming in all his gloryand all the holy angels with him, of his sitting on the throne of hisglory with all nations gathered before him, of the separation of thisgathered multitude into two parts, the one on his right, the other onhis left, he says: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you fromthe foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave memeat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye tookme in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was inprison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, and fed _thee_? orthirsty, and gave _thee_ drink? When saw we _thee_ a stranger, and took_thee_ in? or naked, and clothed _thee_? Or when saw we _thee_ sick, orin prison, and came unto _thee_? And the King shall answer, and say untothem, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one ofthe least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me_. 

"Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, yecursed. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Thenshall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye didit not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me_. "

After spending the greater portion of his life in many distant climesin a fruitless endeavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail, [C] thinkingthat thereby he was doing the greatest service he could for God, SirLaunfal at last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. He finds thathis castle is occupied by others, and that he himself is an outcast. Hiscloak is torn; and instead of the charger in gilded trappings he wasmounted upon when as a young man, he started out with great hopes andambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a staff. While sitting there andmeditating, he is met by the same poor and needy leper he passed themorning he started, the one who in his need asked for aid, and to whomhe had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on in his eager desire to bein the Master's service. But matters are changed now, and he is a wiserman. Again the poor leper says:--

 "'For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms';-- The happy camels may reach the spring, But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing, The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone, That cowers beside him, a thing as lone And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas In the desolate horror of his disease. 

 "And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee An image of Him who died on the tree; Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns, -- Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns, -- And to thy life were not denied The wounds in the hands and feet and side: Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me; Behold, _through him_, I give to thee!'

 "Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway be Remembered in what a haughtier guise He had flung an alms to leprosie, When he girt his young life up in gilded mail And set forth in search of the Holy Grail. The heart within him was ashes and dust; He parted in twain his single crust, He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink, And gave the leper to eat and drink, 'Twas a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread, 'Twas water out of a wooden bowl, -- Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed, And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul. 

 "As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face, A light shone round about the place; The leper no longer crouched at his side, But stood before him glorified, Shining and tall and fair and straight As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate, -- Himself the Gate whereby men can Enter the temple of God in Man. 

 "And the voice that was calmer than silence said, 'Lo, it is I, be not afraid! In many climes, without avail, Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail; Behold, it is here, --this cup which thou Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now; This crust is my body broken for thee, This water His blood that died on the tree; The Holy Supper is kept, indeed, In whatso we share with another's need; Not what we give, but what we _share_, -- For the gift without the giver is bare; Who gives himself with his alms feeds three, -- Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me. '"

The fear is sometimes entertained, and the question is sometimes asked, May not adherence to this principle of helpfulness and service becomemere sentimentalism? or still more, may it not be the means of lesseninganother's sense of self-dependence, and thus may it not at times do moreharm than good? In reply let it be said: If the love which impels it bea selfish love, or a weak sentimental ism, or an effort at show, ordevoid of good common sense, yes, many times. But if it be a strong, genuine, unselfish love, then no, never. For, if my love for myfellow-man be the true love, I can never do anything that will be to hisor any one's else detriment, --nothing that will not redound to hishighest ultimate welfare. Should he, for example come and ask of me aparticular favor, and were it clear to me that granting it would not befor his highest good ultimately, then love at once resolves itself intoduty, and compels me to forbear. A true, genuine, unselfish love forone's fellow-man will never prompt, and much less permit, anything thatwill not result in his highest ultimate good. Adherence, therefore, tothis great principle in its truest sense, instead of being a weaksentimentalism, is, we shall find, of all practical things the _mostintensely practical_. 

And a word here in regard to the test of true love and service, indistinction from its semblance for show or for vain glory. The test ofthe true is this: that it goes about and does its good work, it neversays anything about it, but lets others do the saying. It not only saysnothing about it, but more, it has no desire to have it known; and, thetruer it is, the greater the desire to have it unknown save to God andits own true self. In other words, it is not sicklied o'er with asemi-insane desire for notoriety or vainglory, and hence never weakensitself nor harasses any one else by lengthy recitals of its good deeds. It is not the _professional_ good-doing. It is simply living its naturallife, open-minded, open-hearted, doing each day what its hands find todo, and in this finding its own true life and joy. And in this way itunintentionally but irresistibly draws to itself a praise the rarest anddivinest I know of, --the praise I heard given but a day or two ago toone who is living simply his own natural life without any consciouseffort at anything else, the praise contained in the words: And, oh, itis beautiful, the great amount of good he does and of which the worldnever hears. 

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote C: "According to the mythology of the Romancers, the Sangreal, or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the Last Supperwith his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea, and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for manyyears in the keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent uponthose who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but, one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Graildisappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knightsof Sir Arthur's court to go in search of it. "--_James Russell Lowell_. ]

PART V. 

THE INCOMING

 O dull, gray grub, unsightly and noisome, unable to roam, Days pass, God's at work, the slow chemistry's going on, Behold! Behold! O brilliant, buoyant life, full winged, all the heaven's thy home! O poor, mean man, stumbling and falling, e'en shamed by a clod. Years pass, God's at work, spiritual awakening has come, Behold! Behold! O regal, royal soul, then image, now the likeness of God. 

The Master Teacher, he who appeals most strongly and comes nearest to usof this western civilization, has told us that the whole and the highestduty of man is comprised in two great, two simple precepts--- love toGod and love to the fellow-man. The latter we have already fullyconsidered. We have found that in its real and true meaning it is not amere indefinite or sentimental abstraction, but that it is a vital, living force; and in its manifestation it is life, it is action, it isservice. Let us now for a moment to the other, --love to God, which ingreat measure however let it be said, has been considered in dealingwith love to the fellow-man. Let us see, however, what it in its trueand full nature reveals. 

The question naturally arising at the outset is, Who, what is God? Ithink no truer, sublimer definition has ever been given in the world'shistory, in any language, in any clime, than that given by the Masterhimself when standing by the side of Jacob's well, to the Samaritanwoman he said, God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Himin spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, the Infinite Spirit, the InfiniteLife back of all these physical manifestations we see in this changingworld about us, and of which all, including we ourselves, is the body orouter form; the one Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe withHimself, so that all is He, since He is all. All is He in the sense ofbeing a part of Him; for, if He is all, there can be nothing that isoutside of, that is not a part of Him, so that each one is a part ofthis Eternal God who is not separate from us, and, if not separate fromus, then not afar off, for in Him we live and move and have our being, _He is the life of our life_, our very life itself. The life of God isin us, we are in the life of God; but that life transcends us so that itincludes all else, --every person, every animal, every grass-blade, everyflower, every particle of earth, every particle of everything, animateand inanimate. So that God is _All_; and, if all, then each individual, you and I, must be a vital part of that all, since there can be nothingseparate from it; and, if a part, then the same in nature, incharacteristics, --the same as a tumbler of water taken from the oceanis, in nature, in qualities, in characteristics, identical with thatocean, its source. God, then, is the Infinite Spirit of which each oneis a part in the form of an individualized spirit. God is Spirit, creating, manifesting, ruling through the agency of great spiritual lawsand forces that surround us on every side, that run through all theuniverse, and that unite all; for in one sense, there is nothing in allthis great universe but law. And, oh, the stupendous grandeur of it all!These same great spiritual laws and forces operate within us. They arethe laws of our being. By them every act of each individual life isgoverned. 

Now one of the great facts borne ever more and more into the innerconsciousness of man is that sublime and transcendent fact that we havejust noticed, --that man is one with, that he is part of, the InfiniteGod, this Infinite Spirit that is the life of all, this Infinite Whole;that he is not a mere physical, material being, --for the physical is butthe material which the real inner self, the real life or spirit uses tomanifest through, --but that he _is_ this spirit, this spirit, using, living in this physical, material house or body to get the contact, theexperience with the material world around him while in this form oflife, but spirit nevertheless, and spirit now as much as he ever will orever can be, except so far of course, as he recognizes more and more histrue, his higher self, and so consciously evolves, step by step, intothe higher and ever higher realization of the real nature, the realself, the God-self. As I heard it said by one of the world's greatthinkers and writers but a few days ago: Men talk of having a soul. Ihave no soul. I am a soul: I have a body. We are told moreover in theword, that man is created in the image of God. God is Spirit. What thenmust man be, if that which tells us is true?

Now one of the great errors all along in the past has been that we havemistaken the mere body, the mere house in which we live while in thisform of life for a period, --that which comes from the earth and which, in a greater or less time, returns to the earth, --this we have mistakenfor the real self. Either we have lost sight of or we have failed torecognize the true identity. The result is that we are at life from thewrong side, from the side of the external, while all true life is fromwithin out. 

We have taken our lives out of a conscious harmony with the higher lawsof our being, with the result that we are going against the greatcurrent of the Divine Order of things. Is it any wonder, then, that wefind the strugglings, the inharmonies, the sufferings, the fears, theforebodings, the fallings by the wayside, the "strange, inscrutabledispensations of Providence" that we behold on every side? The moment webring our lives into harmony with the higher laws of our being, and, asa result, into harmony with the current of the Divine Order of things, we shall find that all these will have taken wings; for the cause willhave been removed. And as we look down the long vista of such a life, weshall find that each thing fits into all others with a wonderful, asublime, a perfect, a divine harmony. 

This, it will seem to some, --and to many, no doubt, --is claiming a greatdeal. No more, however, than the Master Teacher warranted us in claimingwhen he said, and repeated it so often, Seek ye first the kingdom ofheaven, and all these other things shall be added unto you; and he leftus not in the dark as to exactly what he meant by the kingdom of heaven, for again he said: Say not, Lo here, nor lo there. Know ye not that thekingdom of heaven is within you? _Within you. _ The interior spiritualkingdom, the kingdom of the higher self, which is the kingdom of God;the kingdom of harmony, --harmony with the higher laws of your being. 

The Master said what he said not for the sake merely of using a phraseof rhetoric, nor even to hear himself talk; for this he never did. Butthat great incarnation of spiritual insight and power knew of the greatspiritual laws and forces under which we live, and also that supremefact of the universe, that _man is a spiritual being, born to havedominion_, and that, by recognizing the true self and by bringing itinto complete and perfect harmony with the higher spiritual laws andforces under which he lives, he can touch these laws and forces so thatthey will respond at every call and bring him whatsoever he wills, --oneof the most stupendous scientific facts of the universe. When he hasfound and entered into the kingdom, then applies to him the truth of thegreat precept, Take ye no thought for the morrow; for the things of themorrow will take care of themselves. 

Yes, we are at life from the wrong side. We have been giving all timeand attention to the mere physical, the material, the external, the mereoutward means of expression and the things that pertain thereto, thusmissing the real life; and this we have called living, and seem, indeed, to be satisfied with the results. No wonder the cry has gone out againand again from many a human soul, Is life worth the living? But from onewho has once commenced to _live_, this cry never has, nor can it evercome; for, _when the kingdom is once found, life then ceases to be aplodding, and becomes an exultation, an ecstasy, a joy_. Yes, you willfind that all the evil, all the error, all the disease, all thesuffering, all the fears, all the forebodings of life, are on the sideof the physical, the material, the transient; while all the peace, allthe joy, all the happiness, all the growth, all the life, all the rich, exulting, abounding life, is on the side of the spiritual, theever-increasing, the eternal, --that that never changes, that has no end. Instead of crying out against the destiny of fate, let us cry outagainst the destiny of self, or rather against the destiny of themistaken self; for everything that comes to us comes through causeswhich we ourselves or those before us have set into operation. Nothingcomes by chance, for _in all the wide universe there is absolutely nosuch thing as chance_. We bring whatever comes. Are we not satisfiedwith the effects, the results? The thing then to do, is to change thecauses; for we have everything in our own hands the moment we awake to arecognition of the true self. 

We make our own heaven or our own hell, and the only heaven or hell thatwill ever be ours is that of our own making. The order of the universeis one thing: we take our lives out of harmony with and so pervert thelaws under which we live, and make it another. The order is the allgood. We pervert the laws, and what we call evil is the result, --simplythe result of the violation of law; and we then wonder that a just andloving God could permit such and such things. We wonder at what we termthe "strange, inscrutable dispensations of Providence, " when all is ofour own making. We can be our own best friends or we can be our ownworst enemies; and the only real enemy one can ever have is the self, the very self. 

It is a well-known fact in the scientific world that the great work inthe process of evolution is the gradual advancing from the lower to thehigher, from the coarser to the finer, or, in other words, from thecoarser material to the finer spiritual; and this higherspiritualization of life is the great work before us all. All passultimately over the same road in general, some more rapidly, some moreslowly. The ultimate destiny of all is the higher life, the finding ofthe higher self; and to this we are either led or we are pushed, --led, by recognizing and coming into harmony with the higher laws of ourbeing, or pushed, through their violation, and hence through experience, through suffering, and at times through bitter suffering, until throughthis very agency we learn the laws and come into harmony with them, sothat we thus see the economy, the blessedness of even error, shame, andsuffering itself, in that, if we are not wise enough to go voluntarilyand of our own accord, it all the more quickly brings us to our true, our higher selves. 

Moreover, whatever is evolved must as surely first be involved. Wecannot conceive even of an evolution without first an involution; and, if this is true, we cannot conclude otherwise than that all that willever be brought forth through the process of evolution is alreadywithin, all the God possibilities of the human soul are now, at thisvery moment, latent within. This being true, the process of evolutionneed not, as is many times supposed, take aeons or even ages for itsaccomplishment; for the process is wonderfully accelerated when we havegrasped and when we have commenced to actualize the reality of thatmighty precept, Know thyself. 

It is possible, through an intelligent understanding of the laws of thehigher life, to advance in the spiritual awakening and unfoldment evenin a single year more than one otherwise would through a whole lifetime, or more in a single day or even hour than in an entire year or series ofyears otherwise. 

This higher spiritualization of life is certainly what the Master had inmind when he said, It is as hard for a rich man to enter into thekingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of aneedle. For, if a man give all his days and his nights merely to theaccumulation of outer material possessions, what time has he for thegrowing, the unfolding, of the interior, the spiritual, what time forfinding that wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the Christwithin?

This certainly is also the significance of the temptation in thewilderness. The temptations were all, you will recall, in connectionwith the material, the physical, and the things that pertain thereto. Doso and so, said the physical: follow after me, and I will give you breadin abundance, I will give you great fame and notoriety, I will give youvast material possessions. All, you see, a calling away from the real, the interior, the spiritual, the eternal. Dominion over all the kingdomsof the _world_ was promised. But what, what is dominion overall theworld, with heaven left out?

All, however, was triumphed over. The physical was put into subjectionby the spiritual, the victory was gained once for all and forever; andhe became the supreme and royal Master, and by this complete andglorious mastery of self he gained the mastery over all else besides, even to material things and conditions. 

And by this higher spiritual chemicalization of life thus set intooperation the very thought forces of his mind became charged with aliving, mighty, and omnipotent power, so as to effect a mastery over allexterior conditions: hence the numerous things called miracles by thosewho witnessed and who had not entered into a knowledge of the higherlaws that can triumph over and master the lower, but which are just asreal and as natural on their plane as the lower, and even more real andmore natural, because higher and therefore more enduring. But thiscomplete mastery over self during this period of temptation was just thebeginning of the path that led from glory unto glory, the path that foryou and for me will lead from glory unto glory the same as for him. 

It was this new divine and spiritual chemistry of life thus set intooperation that transformed the man Jesus, that royal-hearted elderbrother, into the Christ Jesus, and forever blessed be his name; for hethus became our Saviour, --he became our Saviour by virtue of pointingout to us the way. This overcoming by the calling of the higherspiritual forces into operation is certainly what he meant when he said, I have overcome the world, and what he would have us understand when hesays, Overcome the world, even as I have overcome it. 

And in the same sense we are all the saviors one of another, or maybecome so. A sudden emergency arises, and I stand faltering and weakwith fear. My friend beside me is strong and fearless. He sees theemergency. He summons up all the latent powers within him, and springsforth to meet it. This sublime example arouses me, calls my latentpowers into activity, when but for him I might not have known themthere. I follow his example. I now know my powers, and know them foreverafter. Thus, in this, my friend has become my savior. 

I am weak in some point of character, --vacillating, yielding, stumbling, falling, continually eating the bitter fruit of it all. My friend isstrong, he has gained thorough self-mastery. The majesty and beauty ofpower are upon his brow. I see his example, I love his life, I aminfluenced by his power. My soul longs and cries out for the same. Asupreme effort of will--that imperial master that will take one anywherewhen rightly directed--arises within me, it is born at last, and itcalls all the soul's latent powers into activity; and instead ofstumbling I stand firm, instead of giving over in weakness I stand firmand master, I enter into the joys of full self-mastery, and through thisinto the mastery of all things besides. And thus my friend has againbecome my savior. 

With the new power I have acquired through the example and influence ofmy savior-friend, I, in turn, stand before a friend who is struggling, who is stumbling and in despair. He sees, he feels, the power of mystrength. He longs for, his soul cries out for the same. _His_ interiorforces are called into activity, he now knows his powers; and instead ofthe slave, he becomes the master, and thus I, in turn, have become hissavior. Oh, the wonderful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings ofresponsibility, the deep sense of power and peace the recognition ofthis fact should bring to each and all. 

God works through the instrumentality of human agency. Then forever awaywith that old, shrivelling, weakening, dying, and devilish idea that weare poor worms of the dust! We may or we may not be: it all depends uponthe self. The moment we believe we are we become such; and as long as wehold to the belief we will be held to this identity, and will act andlive as such. The moment, however, we recognize our divinity, ourhigher, our God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of ourfellow-men, we become saviors, and stand and move in the midst of amajesty and beauty and power that of itself proclaims us as such. 

 * * * * *

There is a prevalent idea to the effect that overcoming in this sensenecessarily implies more or less of a giving up, --that it meanssomething possibly on the order of asceticism. On the contrary, thehighest, truest, keenest pleasures the human soul can know, it findsonly after the higher is entered upon and has commenced its work ofmastery; and, instead of there being a giving up of any kind, there is agreat law which says that the lower always and of its own accord fallsaway before the higher. And the time soon comes when, as one stands andlooks back, he wonders that this or that that he at one time calledpleasure ever satisfied him; for what then satisfied him, compared towhat now is his hourly peace, satisfaction, and joy, was but as poorbrass compared to the finest, purest, and rarest of gold. 

From what has been said let it not be inferred that the body, thephysical, material life is to be despised or looked down upon. This, rather let it be said, is one of the crying errors of the times, andprolific of a _vast_ amount of error, suffering, and shame. On thecontrary, it should be thought all the more highly of: it should beloved and developed to its highest perfections, beauties, and powers. God gave us the body not in vain. It is just as holy and beautiful asthe spirit itself. It is merely the outward material manifestation ofthe individualized spirit; and we by our hourly thoughts and emotionsare building it, are determining its conditions, its structure, andappearance. And, if there are any conditions we are not satisfied with, we by an understanding of the laws, have it in our power to make it overand change these conditions. Flamarion, the eminent French scientist, member of the Royal Academy of Science, and recognized as one of themost eminent scientists living, tells us that the entire human structurecan be made over within a period of less than one year, some elevenmonths being the length of time required for the more compact and moreset portions to respond; while some portions respond much more readilywithin a period of from two to three months, and some even within amonth. 

Every part, every organ, every function of the body is just as clean, just as beautiful, just as sweet, and just as holy as every other part;and it is only by virtue of man's perverted ways of looking at some thatthey become otherwise, and the moment they so become, abuses, ill uses, suffering, and shame creep in. 

_Not repression, but elevation. _ Would that this could be repeated athousand times over! Not repression, but elevation. Every part, everyorgan, every function of the body is given for _use_, but not for misuseor abuse; and the moment the latter takes place in connection with anyfunction it loses its higher powers of use, and there goes with this thehigher powers of true enjoyment. It is thus that we get that large classknown as abnormals, resorting to the methods they resort to forenjoyment, but which, in its true sense, they always fail in finding, because law will admit of no violations; and, if violated, it takes awaythe very powers of enjoyment, it takes away the very things that throughits violation they thought they had secured, or it turns them into ashesin their very hands. God, nature, law, the higher self, is not mocked. 

Not repression, but elevation, --repression only in the sense ofmastery; but this means--nay, this is--elevation. In other words, weshould be the master, and not the body. We should dictate to the body, and should never, even for an instant, allow it to dictate to us. 

Oh, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men and women who areeverywhere being driven hither and thither, led into this and into thatwhich their own better selves would not enter into, simply because theyhave allowed the body to assume the mastery; while they have taken theplace of the weakling, the slave, and all on account of their ownweakness, --weakness through ignorance, ignorance of the tremendousforces and powers within, the forces and powers of the mind and spirit. 

It would be a right royal plan for those who are thus enslaved by thebody, --and we all are more or less, each in his own particular way, andnot one is absolutely free, --it would be a good plan to holdimmediately, at this very hour, a conversation with the body somewhatafter this fashion: Body, we have for some time been dwelling together. Life for neither has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The causeis now apparent to me. The mastery I have voluntarily handed over toyou. You have not assumed it of your own accord; but I have given itover to you little by little, and just in the degree that you haveappropriated it. Neither one is to blame. It has been by virtue ofignorance. But henceforth we will reverse positions. You shall becomethe servant, and I the master. From this time forth you shall no longerdictate to me, but I will dictate to you. 

I, one with Infinite intelligence, wisdom, and power, longing for afuller and ever fuller realization of this oneness, will assume control, and will call upon you to help in the fuller and ever fuller externalmanifestation of this realization. We will thus regain the ground bothof us have lost. We will thus be truly married instead of farcically so. And thus we will help each the other to a realization of the highest, most satisfying and most enduring pleasures and joys, possibilities andpowers, loves and realizations, that human life can know; and so, handin hand, we will help each the other to the higher and ever-increasinglife instead of degrading each the other to the lower andever-decreasing. I will become the imperial master, and you the royalcompanion; and thus we will go forth to an ever larger life of love andservice, and so of true enjoyment. 

This conversation, if entered into in the spirit, accompanied by anearnest, sincere desire for its fulfilment, re-enforced by the thoughtforces, and continually attended by that absolute magnet of power, firmexpectation, will, if all are firmly and persistently held to, bring thefull realization of one's fondest desires with a certainty as absoluteas that effect follows cause. The higher self will invariably masterwhen it truly and firmly asserts itself. Much the same attitude can beassumed in connection with the body in disease or in suffering with thesame results. Forces can be set into operation which will literallychange and make over the diseased, the abnormal portions, and in timetransform them into the healthy, the strong, the normal, --this when weonce understand and vitally grasp the laws of these mighty forces, andare brought to the full recognition of the absolute control of mind, ofspirit, over matter, and all, again let it be said, in accordance withnatural spiritual law. 

_No, a knowledge of the spiritual realities of life prohibitsasceticism, repression, the same as it prohibits license and perverteduse. To err on the one side is just as contrary to the ideal life as toerr on the other. _ All things are for a purpose, all should be used andenjoyed; but all should be rightly used, that they may be fully enjoyed. 

It is the threefold life and development that is wanted, --physical, mental, spiritual. This gives the rounded life, and he or she who failsin any one comes short of the perfect whole. The physical has its usesjust the same and is just as important as the others. The great secretof the highly successful life is, however, to infuse the mental and thephysical with the spiritual; in other words, to spiritualize all, and soraise all to the highest possibilities and powers. 

It is the all-round, fully developed we want, --not the ethereal, pale-blooded man and woman, but the man and woman of flesh and blood, for action and service here and now, --the man and woman strong andpowerful, with all the faculties and functions fully unfolded and used, all in a royal and bounding condition, but all rightly subordinated. Theman and the woman of this kind, with the imperial hand of mastery uponall, --standing, moving thus like a king, nay, like a very God, --such isthe man and such is the woman of power. Such is the ideal life: anythingelse is one-sided, and falls short of it. 

 * * * * *

The most powerful agent in character-building is this awakening to thetrue self, to the fact that man is a spiritual being, --nay, more, thatI, this very eternal I, am a spiritual being, right here and now, atthis very moment, with the God-powers which can be quickly called forth. With this awakening, life in all its manifold relations becomeswonderfully simplified. And as to the powers, the full realization ofthe fact that man is a spiritual being and a living as such brings, theyare absolutely without limit, increasing in direct proportion as thehigher self, the God-self, assumes the mastery, and so as this higherspiritualization of life goes on. 

With this awakening and realization one is brought at once _en rapport_with the universe. He feels the power and the thrill of the lifeuniversal. He goes out from his own little garden spot, and mingles withthe great universe; and the little perplexities, trials, anddifficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy him, fall away oftheir own accord by reason of their very insignificance. The intuitionsbecome keener and ever more keen and unerring in their guidance. Therecomes more and more the power of reading men, so that no harm can comefrom this source. There comes more and more the power of seeing into thefuture, so that more and more true becomes the old adage, --that comingevents cast their shadows before. Health in time takes the place ofdisease; for all disease and its consequent suffering is merely theresult of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally or unintentionally. There comes also a spiritualpower which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the healing of othersthe same as in the days of old. The body becomes less gross and heavy, finer in its texture and form, so that it serves far better and respondsfar more readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself intime responds to the action of these higher forces; and many things thatwe are accustomed by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous orsupernatural become the normal, the natural, the every-day. 

For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Nothing more nor less than this: ahighly illumined soul, one who has brought his life into thoroughharmony with the higher spiritual laws and forces of his being, andtherefore with those of the universe, thus making it possible for thehighest things to come to him, has brought to him a law a little higherthan the ordinary mind knows of as yet. This he touches, he operates. Itresponds. The people see the result, and cry out, Miracle! miracle! whenit is just as natural, just as fully in accordance with the law on thishigher plane, as is the common, the every-day on the ordinary. And letit be remembered that the miraculous, the supernatural of to-daybecomes, as in the process of evolution we leave the lower for thehigher, the commonplace, the natural, the every-day of to-morrow; and, truly, miracles are being performed in the world to-day just as much asthey ever have been. 

And why should we not to-day have the powers of the foremost in the daysof old? The great universe in which we live is just the same, the greatlaws under which we live are identically the same, God the same andworking in His world now just as then. The only difference we shall findis in ourselves, in that we have taken our lives out of harmony with thehigher laws of our being, and consequently have lost the higher powersthrough not using them. Mighty men we are told they were, mighty menwho walked with God, --and in the last clause lies the secret of thefirst, --- men who lived in the spirit, men who followed after the reallife instead of giving all time and attention to the mere external, menwho lived in the higher stories of their being, and not continually inthe basements. 

With here and there an exception we reverse the process. We live in thevalleys, so to speak, often disease-infected valleys, when we mightmount up to the mountain-tops, and there dwell continually in the warmand mellow sunlight of God's, or if you please, of nature's great, unchangeable laws, and find ourselves rising ever higher and higher, andrevelations coming new every day. 

The Master never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim forall mankind; but, quite to the contrary, he said and continuallyrepeated, Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than theseshall ye do; for I have pointed out to you the way, --meaning, thoughstrange as it evidently seems to many, _exactly_ what he said. 

Of the vital power of thought and the interior forces in mouldingconditions, and more, of the supremacy of thought over all conditions, the world has scarcely the faintest grasp, not to say even idea, as yet. The fact that thoughts are forces, and that through them _we havecreative power_, is one of the most vital facts of the universe, themost vital fact of man's being. And through this instrumentality we havein our grasp and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life andall its manifold conditions exactly what we will. 

Through our thought-forces we have creative power, not in a figurativesense, but in reality. Everything in the material universe about us hadits origin first in spirit, in thought, and from this it took its form. The very world in which we live, with all its manifold wonders andsublime manifestations, is the result of the energies of the divineintelligence or mind, --God, or whatever term it comes convenient foreach one to use. And God said, Let there be, and there was, --thematerial world, at least the material manifestation of it, literallyspoken into existence, the spoken word, however, but the outwardmanifestation of the interior forces of the Supreme Intelligence. 

Every castle the world has ever seen was first an ideal in thearchitect's mind. Every statue was first an ideal in the sculptor'smind. Every piece of mechanism the world has ever known was firstformed in the mind of the inventor. Here it was given birth to. Thesesame mind-forces then dictated to and sent the energy into the hand thatdrew the model, and then again dictated to and sent the energy into thehands whereby the first instrument was clothed in the material form ofmetal or of wood. The lower negative always gives way to the higher whenmade positive. Mind is positive: matter is negative. 

Each individual life is a part of, and hence is one with, the InfiniteLife; and the highest intelligence and power belongs to each in just thedegree that he recognizes his oneness and lays claim to and uses it. Thepower of the word is not merely an idle phrase or form of expression. Itis a real mental, spiritual, scientific fact, and can become vital andpowerful in your hands and in mine in just the degree that we understandthe omnipotence of the thought forces and raise all to the higherplanes. 

The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood before the Christ, who said, Receive thy sight, rise up and walk, or, be thou healed; and o! _it wasso_. The spoken word, however, was but the outward expression andmanifestation of his interior thought-forces, the power and potency ofwhich he so thoroughly knew. But the laws governing them are the sameto-day as they were then, and it lies in our power to use them the sameas it lay in his. 

Each individual life, after it has reached a certain age or degree ofintelligence, lives in the midst of the surroundings or environments ofits own creation; and this by reason of that wonderful power, _thedrawing power of mind_, which is continually operating in every life, whether it is conscious of it or not. 

We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought. The veryatmosphere about us is charged with the thought-forces that are beingcontinually sent out. When the thought-forces leave the brain, they goout upon the atmosphere, the subtle conducting ether, much the same assound-waves go out. It is by virtue of this law that thoughttransference is possible, and has become an established scientific fact, by virtue of which a person can so direct his thought-forces that aperson at a distance, and in a receptive attitude, can get the thoughtmuch the same as sound, for example, is conducted through the agency ofa connecting medium. 

Even though the thoughts as they leave a particular person, are notconsciously directed, they go out; and all may be influenced by them ina greater or less degree, each one in proportion as he or she is more orless sensitively organized, or in proportion as he or she is negative, and so open to forces and influences from without. The law operatinghere is one with that great law of the universe, --that like attractslike, so that one continually attracts to himself forces and influencesmost akin to those of his own life. And his own life is determined bythe thoughts and emotions he habitually entertains, for each is buildinghis world from within. As within, so without; cause, effect. 

A stalk of wheat and a stock of corn are growing side by side, within aninch of each other. The soil is the same for both; but the wheatconverts the food it takes from the soil into wheat, the likeness ofitself, while the corn converts the food it takes from the same soilinto corn, the likeness of itself. What that which each has taken fromthe soil is converted into is determined by the soul, the interior life, the interior forces of each. This same grain taken as food by twopersons will be converted into the body of a criminal in the one case, and into the body of a saint in the other, each after its kind; and itskind is determined by the inner life of each. And what again determinesthe inner life of each? The thoughts and emotions that are habituallyentertained and that inevitably, sooner or later, manifest themselves inouter material form. Thought is the great builder in human life: it isthe determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, andyour life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health andbeauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forthin evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts oflove, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, andyou will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind. 

It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own"atmosphere"; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of thethoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thoughtatmosphere--the atmosphere which other people detect and are influencedby. 

In this way each person creates the atmosphere of his own room; afamily, the atmosphere of the house in which they live, so that themoment you enter the door you feel influences kindred to the thoughtsand hence to the lives of those who dwell there. You get a feeling ofpeace and harmony or a feeling of disquietude and inharmony. You get awelcome, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-to-get-away feeling, according to their thought attitude toward you, even though but fewwords be spoken. So the characteristic mental states of a congregationof people who assemble there determine the atmosphere of any givenassembly-place, church, or cathedral. Its inhabitants so make, sodetermine the atmosphere of a particular village or city. Thesympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast amphitheatre of people, as theycheer a contestant, carry him to goals he never could reach by his ownefforts alone. The same is true in regard to an orator and his audience. 

Napoleon's army is in the East. The plague is beginning to make inroadsinto its ranks. Long lines of men are lying on cots and on the ground inan open space adjoining the army. Fear has taken a vital hold of all, and the men are continually being stricken. Look yonder, contrary to theearnest entreaties of his officers, who tell him that such exposure willmean sure death, Napoleon with a calm and dauntless look upon his face, with a firm and defiant step, is coming through these plague-strickenranks. He is going up to, talking with, touching the men; and, as theysee him, there goes up a mighty shout, --The Emperor! the Emperor! andfrom that hour the plague in its inroads is stopped. A marvellousexample of the power of a man who, by his own dauntless courage, absolute fearlessness, and power of mind, could send out such forcesthat they in turn awakened kindred forces in the minds of thousands ofothers, which in turn dominate their very bodies, so that the plague, and even death itself, is driven from the field. One of the grandestexamples of a man of the most mighty and tremendous mind and will power, and at the same time an example of one of the grandest failures, takinglife in its totality, the world has ever seen. 

Again, as has been said, the great law operating in connection with thethought-forces is one with that great law of the universe, --that likeattracts like. We can, by virtue of our ignorance of the powers of themind forces and the prevailing mental states, --we can take the passive, the negative, fearing, drifting attitude, and thus continually attractto us like influences and conditions from both the seen and the unseenside of life. Or, by a knowledge of the power and potency of theseforces, we can take the positive, the active attitude, that of mastery, and so attract the higher and more valuable influences, exactly as wewill to. 

We are all much more influenced by the thought-forces and mental statesof those around us and of the world at large than we have even theslightest conception of. If not self-hypnotized into certain beliefs andpractices, we are, so to speak, semi-hypnotized through the influence ofthe thoughts of others, even though unconsciously both on their part andon ours. We are so influenced and enslaved in just the degree that wefail to recognize the power and omnipotence of our own forces, and sobecome slaves to custom, conventionality, the opinions of others, and soin like proportion lose our own individuality and powers. He who in hisown mind takes the attitude of the slave, by the power of his ownthoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the slave. Hewho in his own mind takes the attitude of the master, by the same powerof his own thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes themaster. Each is building his world from within, and, if outside forcesplay, it is because he allows them to play; and he has it in his ownpower to determine whether these shall be positive, uplifting, ennobling, strengthening, success-giving, or negative, degrading, weakening, failure-bringing. 

Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing more powerful, nothing moreirresistible in its operations, when rightly applied and held to with afaith and fidelity that is unswerving, --a faith and fidelity that neverknows the neutralizing effects of doubt and fear. If one haveaspirations and a sincere desire for a higher and better condition, sofar as advantages, facilities, associates, or any surroundings orenvironments are concerned, and if he continually send out his highestthought-forces for the realization of these desires, and continuallywater these forces with firm expectation as to their fulfilment, he willsooner or later find himself in the realization of these desires, andall in accordance with natural laws and forces. 

Fear brings its own fulfilment the same as hope. The same law operates, and if, as our good and valued friend, Job, said when the darkest dayswere setting in upon him, --that which I feared has come upon me, --wastrue, how much more surely could he have brought about the oppositeconditions, those he would have desired, had he have had even theslightest realization of his own powers, and had he acted the part ofthe master instead of that of the servant, had he have dictated termsinstead of being dictated to, and thus suffering the consequences. 

If one finds himself in any particular condition, in the midst of anysurroundings or environments that are not desirable, that havenothing--at least for any length of time--that is of value to him, forhis highest life and unfoldment, he has the remedy entirely within hisown grasp the moment he realizes the power and supremacy of the forcesof the mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently use these forces, he drifts. Unless through them he becomes master and dictates, hebecomes the slave and is dictated to, and so is driven hither andthither. 

Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration for higher and betterconditions or means to realize them, the thought-forces actively sentout for their realization, these continually watered by firm expectationwithout allowing the contrary, neutralizing force of fear ever to enterin, --this, accompanied by rightly directed work and activity, willbring about the fullest realization of one's highest desires andaspirations with a certainty as absolute as that effect follows cause. Each and every one of us can thus make for himself ever higher andhigher conditions, can attract ever and ever higher influences, canrealize an ever higher and higher ideal in life. These are the forcesthat are within us, simply waiting to be recognized and used, --theforces that we should infuse into and mould every-day life with. Themoment we vitally recognize them, they become our servants and wait uponour bidding. 

Are you, for example, a young man or a young woman desiring a college, auniversity education, or have you certain literary or artistic instinctsyour soul longs the more fully to realize and actualize, and seems thereno way open for you to realize the fulfilment of your desires? But thepower is in your hands the moment you recognize it there. Begin at onceto set the right forces into operation. Put forth your ideal, which willbegin to clothe itself in material form, send out your thought-forcesfor its realization, continually hold and add to them, always stronglybut always calmly, never allow the element of fear, which will keep therealization just so much farther away, to enter in; but, on thecontrary, continually water with firm expectation all the forces thusset into operation. Do not then sit and idly fold the hands, expectingto see all things drop into the lap, --God feeds the sparrow, but he doesnot throw the food into its nest, --but take hold of the first thing thatoffers itself for you to do, --work in the fields, at the desk, saw wood, wash dishes, tend behind the counter, or whatever it may be, --befaithful to the thing in hand, always expecting something better, andknow that this in hand is the thing that will open to you the nexthigher, and this the next and the next; and so realize that each thingthus taken hold of is but the agency that takes you each time a stepnearer the realization of your fondest ideals. You then hold the key;and bolts that otherwise would remain immovable, by this mighty force, will be thrown before you. 

We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars, but to dominion and toplenty. This is our rightful heritage, if we will but recognize and layclaim to it. Many a man and many a woman is to-day longing forconditions better and higher than he or she is in, who might be usingthe same time now spent in vain, indefinite, spasmodic longings, inputting into operation forces which, accompanied by the right personalactivity, would speedily bring the fullest realization of his or herfondest dreams. The great universe is filled with an abundance of allthings, filled to overflowing. All there is, is in her, waiting only forthe touch of the right forces to cast them forth. She is no respecter ofpersons outside of the fact that she always responds to the demands ofthe man or the woman who knows and uses the forces and powers he or sheis endowed with. And to the demands of such she always opens hertreasure-house, for the supply is always equal to the demand. All thingsare in the hands of him who knows they are there. 

Of all known forms of energy, thought is the most subtle, the mostirresistible force. It has always been operating; but, so far as thegreat masses of the people are concerned, it has been operating blindly, or, rather, they have been blind to its mighty power, except in thecases of a few here and there. And these, as a consequence, have beenour prophets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our men of great andmighty power. We are just beginning to grasp the tremendous truth thatthere is a _science of thought_, and that the laws governing it can beknown and scientifically applied. The man who understands and whoappropriates this fact has literally all things under his control. Heredity and its attendant circumstances and influences? you ask. Mostsurely. The barriers which heredity builds, the same as thoseenvironment erects, when the awakened interior forces are considered, are as mud walls standing within the range of a Krupp gun: shattered andcrumbled they are when the tremendous force is applied. 

Thought needs direction to be effective, and upon this effective resultsdepend as much as upon the force itself. This brings us to the will. Will is not as is so often thought, a force in itself; will is thedirecting power. Thought is the force. Will gives direction. Thoughtscattered gives the weak, the uncertain, the vacillating, the aspiring, but the never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the get-no-where, theattain-to-nothing man or woman. Thought steadily directed by the will, gives the strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the never-know-defeatman or woman, the man or woman who uses the very difficulties andhindrances that would dishearten the ordinary person, as stones withwhich he paves a way over which he triumphantly walks, who, by the veryforce he carries with him, so neutralizes and transmutes the veryobstacles that would bar his way that they fall before him, and in turnaid him on his way; the man or woman who, like the eagle, uses the verycontrary wind that would thwart his flight, that would turn him andcarry him in the opposite direction, as the very agency upon which hemounts and mounts and mounts, until actually lost to the human eye, andwhich, in addition to thus aiding him, brings to him an ever fullerrealization of his own powers, or in other words, an ever greater power. 

It is this that gives the man or the woman who in storm or in sunnyweather, rides over every obstacle, throws before him every barrier, and, as Browning has said, finally "arrives. " Take, for example, thesuccessful business man, --for it is all one, the law is the same in allcases, --the man who started with nothing except his own interiorequipments. He has made up his mind to _one_ thing, --success. This ishis ideal. He thinks success, he sees success. He refuses to seeanything else. He expects success: he thus attracts it to him, histhought-forces continually attract to him every agency that makes forsuccess. He has set up the current, so that every wind that blowsbrings him success. He doesn't expect failure, and so he doesn't inviteit. He has no time, no energies, to waste in fears or forebodings. He isdauntless, untiring, in his efforts. Let disaster come to-day, andto-morrow--ay, even yet to-day--he is getting his bearings, he issetting forces anew into operation; and these very forces are of morevalue to him than the half million dollars of his neighbor who hassuffered from the same disaster. We speak of a man's failing inbusiness, little thinking that the real failure came long before, andthat the final crash is but the culmination, the outward visiblemanifestation, of the real failure that occurred within possibly longago. _A man carries his success or his failure with him: it is notdependent upon outside conditions. _

Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilotwhich, after the vessel is started by the mighty force within, puts iton its right course and keeps it true to that course, the pilot underwhose control the rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, eventhrough storms and gales, to an exact spot in the Liverpool port withina few minutes of its scheduled time, and at times even upon the veryminute. Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses thesun's rays that they quickly burn a hole through the paper that is heldbefore it. The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus focused, wouldfall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is themeans for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of thethought-forces. Thought under wise direction, --this it is that does thework, that brings results, that makes the successful career. One objectin mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily held before themind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from, --this, with persistence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power ofthought, when thus directed by will. 

May not this power, then, be used for base as well as for good purposes, for selfish as well as for unselfish ends? The same with thismodification, --the more highly thought is spiritualized, the more subtleand powerful it becomes; and the more highly spiritualized the life, thefarther is it removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But, even if itcan be thus used, let him who would so use it be careful, let him neverforget that that mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right, oftruth, of justice, that runs through all the universe and that cannever be annulled or even for a moment set aside, will drive him to thewall, will crush him with a terrific force if he so use it. 

Let him never forget that whatever he may get for self at the expense ofsome one else, through deception, through misrepresentation, through theexercise of the lower functions and powers, will by a law equallysubtle, equally powerful, be turned into ashes in his very hands. Thehoney he thinks he has secured will be turned into bitterness as heattempts to eat it; the beautiful fruit he thinks is his will be aswormwood as he tries to enjoy it; the rose he has plucked will vanish, and he will find himself clutching a handful of thorns, which willpenetrate to the very quick and which will flow the very life-blood fromhis hands. For through the violation of a higher, an immutable law, though he may get this or that, the power of true enjoyment will betaken away, and what he gets will become as a thorn in his side: eitherthis or it will sooner or later escape from his hands. God'striumphal-car moves in a direction and at a rate that is certain andabsolute, and he who would oppose it or go contrary to it must fall andbe crushed beneath its wheels; and for him this crushing is necessary, in order that it may bring him the more quickly to a knowledge of thehigher laws, to a realization of the higher self. 

This brings to our notice two orders of will, which we may term, forconvenience' sake, the human and the divine. The human will is the onejust noticed, the sense will, the will of the lower self, that whichseeks its own ends regardless of its connection with the greater whole. The divine will is the will of the higher self, the god-self, that thatnever makes an error, that never leads into difficulties. How attain toits realization? How call it into a dominating activity? Through anawakening to and a living in the higher, the god-self, thus making itone with God's will, one with the will of infinite intelligence, infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite power; and when this is done, no mistakes can be made, any more than limits can be set. 

It is thus that the Infinite Power works through and for us--trueinspiration--while our part is simply to see that our connection withthis power is consciously and perfectly kept. And, when we come to aknowledge of the true nature, a knowledge of the true self, when we cometo a conscious realization of the fact that we are one with, a part of, this spirit of infinite life, infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinitepower, and infinite plenty, do we not see that we lack for nothing, thatall things _are_ ours? It is then ours to speak the word: desire inducesand gives place to realization. If you are intelligence, if you arepower, if you are that all-seeing, all-knowing, all-doing, all-loving, all-having, that eternal self, that eternal one without beginning andwithout end, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, then all things_are_ yours, and you lack for nothing; and, when you come consciously toknow and to live this truth, then the whole of life for you is summed upin the one word _realization_. The striving, the pulling, the runninghither and thither to accomplish this or that, that takes place on allplanes of life below this highest plane, gives place to this_realization_; and you and your desire become one. 

And what does this mean? Simply this: that you have found and haveliterally entered into the kingdom of heaven, and heaven means harmony, so that you have entered into the kingdom of harmony, --harmony oroneness with the Infinite Life, the Infinite God. And do we not, then, clearly see the rational and scientific basis for the injunction--seekye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall beadded unto you? Than this there is nothing in all the wide universe morescientific, nothing more practical; and in the light of this can we notalso see how readily follows the injunction--Take ye no thought for thethings of the morrow, for the things of the morrow will take care ofthemselves? This realization gives you that care-less attitude, freefrom care. The Infinite Power does the work for you, and you arerelieved of the responsibility. Your responsibility lies in keepingyourself in a faithful and a never-failing connection with this InfiniteSource. Why, I know a few lives that have come into such a consciousoneness with the Infinite Life, and who so continually live in itsrealization, that all things that have just been said are _absolutely_true in their cases. The solution of all things they thus put into thelaw, so that, when the time comes, the difficulty is solved, the courseis clear, the way is opened, or the means are at hand. When one knowswhereof he speaks, of this he can speak with authority. 

When this realization comes, fear goes, hope attends, faithdominates, --the faith of to-day which gives place to the realization ofto-morrow. We then have nothing to do with the past, nothing to do withthe future; for the whole of life is determined by the ever-presentto-day. As my life to-day has been determined by the way I lived myyesterday, so my to-morrow is being determined by the way I live myto-day. Let me then live in this _eternal now_, and realize that I am atthis very moment living the eternal life as much as I ever shall or canlive it. I will then waste no time with the past, except perhapsoccasionally to give thanks that its then seeming trials, sorrows, errors, and stumblings have brought me all the sooner into harmony withthe laws of the higher life. Let me waste no time with the future, notime in idle dreaming, neither in fears nor forebodings, thus invitingand opening the door for the entrance of their actualizations; butrather let me, by the thoughts and so by the deeds of to-day, make thefuture exactly what I will. 

Every act is preceded and given birth to by a thought, the act repeatedforms the habit, the habit determines the character, and characterdetermines the life, the destiny, --a most significant, a most tremendoustruth: thought on the one hand, life, destiny, on the other. And howsimplified, when we realize that it is merely the thought of the presenthour, and the next when it comes, and the next, and the next! so life, destiny, on the one hand, the thoughts of the present hour, on theother. This is the secret of character-building. How wonderfully simple, though what vigilance it demands!

What, shall we ask, is the place, what the value, of prayer? Prayer, asevery act of devotion, brings us into an ever greater conscious harmonywith the Infinite, the one pearl of great price; for it is this harmonywhich brings all other things. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, andthus is its own answer, as the sincere desire made active andaccompanied by faith sooner or later gives place to realization; _forfaith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itselfwhatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects_. Thisis absolute, and the results will be absolute in exact proportion asthis operation of the thought forces, as this faith is absolute, andrelative in exact proportion as it is relative. The Master said, Whatthings soever ye desire, when ye pray, _believe_ that ye receive themand ye shall have them. Can any law be more clearly enunciated, cananything be more definite and more absolute than this? According to thyfaith be it unto thee. Do we at times fail in obtaining the results wedesire? The fault, the failure, lies not in the law but in ourselves. Regarded in its right and true light, than prayer there is nothing morescientific, nothing more valuable, nothing more effective. 

This conscious realization of oneness with the Infinite Life is of allthings the one thing to be desired; for, when this oneness is realizedand lived in, all other things follow in its train, there are no desiresthat shall not be realized, for God has planted in the human breast nodesire without its corresponding means of realization. No harm can comenigh, nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to fear; for we shallthus attract only the good. And whatever changes time may bring, understanding the law, we shall always expect something better, and thusset into operation the forces that will attract that something, realizing that many times angels go out that arch-angels may enter in;and this is always true in the case of the life of this higherrealization. And why should we have any fear whatever, --fear even forthe nation, as is many times expressed? God is behind His world, inlove and with infinite care and watchfulness working out his great andalmighty plans; and whatever plans men may devise, He will when the timeis ripe either frustrate and shatter, or aid and push through to theirmost perfect culmination, --frustrate and shatter if contrary to, aid andactualize if in harmony with His. 

It will readily be seen what a power the life that is fully awake, thatfully grasps and uses the great forces of its own interior self, can bein the service of mankind. One with these forces highly spiritualizedwill not have to go here and there to do the greatest service formankind. Such a one can sit in his cabin, in his tent, in his own home, or, as he goes here and there, he can continually send out influences ofthe most potent and powerful nature, --influences that will have theireffect, that will do their work, and that will reach to the uttermostparts of the world. Than this there can be no more valuable, more vitalservice, nor one of a higher nature. 

These facts, the facts relating to the powers that come with the higherawakening, have been dealt with somewhat fully, to show that the mattersalong the lines of man's interior, intuitive, spiritual, thought, soullife, instead of being, as they are so many times regarded, merelyindefinite, sentimental, or impractical, are, on the contrary, powerfully, omnipotently real, and are of all practical things in theworld the most practical, and, in the truest and deepest sense, the onlytruly practical things there are. And pre-eminently is this true when welook with a long range of vision, past the mere to-day, to the finaloutcome, to the time when that transition we are accustomed to calldeath takes place, and all accumulations and possessions material areleft behind, and the soul takes with it only the unfoldment and growthof the real life; and unless it has this, when all else must be leftbehind, it goes out poor indeed. And a most wonderful and beautiful factof it all is this: that all growth, all advancement, all attainment madealong the lines of the spiritual, the soul, the real life, is so muchmade forever, and can never be lost. Hence the great fact in theadmonition, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where mothdoth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up foryourselves treasures in heaven, --the interior, spiritual kingdom, --whereneither moth doth corrupt nor where thieves break through and steal. 

What then, again let us ask, is love to God? It is far more, we havefound, than a mere sentimental abstraction. It is this awakening to thehigher, the god-self, a coming into the conscious realization of thefact that your life is one with, is a part of, the Infinite Life, thefull realization of the fact that you are a spiritual being here andnow, at this very moment, and a living as such. It is being true to thelight that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and so afinding of the Christ within; a realization of the fact that God is thelife of your life, and so not afar off; a realization of a oneness soperfect that you are able to say, as did His other son, "I and my Fatherare one"--the ultimate destiny of each human soul, each of the Father'schildren, for all, no matter what differences man may see, are equal inHis sight; and He created not one in vain. So love to God in its trueexpression is not a mere sentimentality, a mere abstraction: it is life, it is growth, it is spiritual awakening and unfoldment, it isrealization. Again, it is life: it is the more abundant life. 

Then recognize this fact, and so fill your life with an intense, apassionate love for God. Then take this life, so rich, so abundant, andso powerful, and lose it in the love and service of your fellow-men, theFather's other children. Fill it with an intense, a passionate love forservice; and when this shall have been done, your life is in completeharmony with all the law and the prophets, in complete harmony with thetwo great and determining facts of human life and destiny, --love to Godand love to one's fellow-men, --the two eternal principles upon which thegreat universal religion, which is slowly and gradually evolving out analmost endless variety and form, is to rest. Do this, and feel once forall the power and the thrill of the life universal. Do this, and findyourself coming into the full realization of such splendors and beautiesas all the royal courts of this world combined have never been able evento dream of. 

When the step from the personal to the impersonal, from the personal, the individual, to the universal, is once made, the great solution oflife has come; and by this same step one enters at once into the realmof all power. When this is done, and one fully realizes the fact thatthe greatest life is the life spent in the service of all mankind, andthen when he vitally grasps that great eternal principle of right, oftruth, of justice, that runs through all the universe, and which, thoughtemporarily it may seem to be perverted, always and with never anexception eventually prevails, and that with an omnipotent power, --hethen holds the key to all situations. 

A king of this nature goes about his work absolutely regardless of whatmen may say or hear or think or do; for he himself has absolutelynothing to gain or nothing to lose, and nothing of this nature can comenear him or touch him, for he is standing not in the personal, but inthe universal. He is then in God's work, and the very God-powers arehis, and it seems as if the very angels of heaven come to minister untohim and to move things his way; and this is true, very true, for hehimself is simply moving God's way, and when this is so, the certaintyof the outcome is absolute. 

How often did the Master say, "I seek not to do mine own will, but thewill of the Father who sent me"! Here is the world's great example ofthe life out of the personal and in the universal, hence his greatpower. The same has been true of all the saviors, the prophets, theseers, the sages, and the leaders in the world's history, of all oftruly great and lasting power. 

He who would then come into the secret of power must come from thepersonal into the universal, and with this comes not only great power, but also freedom from the vexations and perplexities that rise from themisconstruing of motives, the opinions of others; for such a one caresnothing as to what men may say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as heis true to the great principles of right and truth before him. And, ifwe will search carefully, we shall find that practically all theperplexities and difficulties of life have their origin on the side ofthe personal. 

Much is said to young men to-day about success in life, --successgenerally though, as the world calls success. It is well, however, always to bear in mind the fact that there is a success which is amiserable, a deplorable failure; while, on the other hand, there is afailure which is a grand, a noble, a God-like success. And one cryingneed of the age is that young men be taught the true dignity, nobility, and power of such a failure, --such a failure in the eyes of the worldto-day, but such a success in the eyes of God and the coming ages. Whenthis is done, there will be among us more prophets, more saviors, moremen of grand and noble stature, who with a firm and steady hand willhold the lighted torch of true advancement high up among the people; andthey will be those whom the people will gladly follow, for they will bethose who will speak and move with authority, true sons of God, truebrothers of men. A man may make his millions and his life be a failurestill. 

 * * * * *

The promise was given that our conversation should not be extended; andunless we conclude it now, the promise will not be kept. Our aim at theoutset, you will remember, was to find answer to the question--How can Imake life yield its fullest and best? how can I know the true secret ofpower? how can I attain to true greatness? how can I fill the whole oflife with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satisfaction, that is ever richand abiding, that ever increases, never diminishes?

Two great laws come forward: the one, that we find our own lives inlosing them in the service of others, --love to the fellow-man; theother, that all life is one with, is part of, the Infinite Life, that weare not material, but spiritual beings, --spiritual beings here and now, and a living as such, which brings us in turn to a realization of thehigher, the god-self, thus bringing us into the realm of all peace, allpower, and all plenty, --this is love to God. 

And I wonder now if we have found the answer true and satisfactory. Wehave sat at the feet of the Master Teacher, and he has told us that wehave. We have found that through them, and through them alone, _true_greatness, power, and success can come; that through them comes therichest joy, the greatest peace and satisfaction this world can know. Wehave also found that, if one's desire is to make life narrow, pinched, and of little value, to rob it of its chief charms, the only requirementnecessary is to become self-centred, to live continually with thelittle, stunted self, which will inevitably grow more and morediminutive and shrivelled as time passes, instead of reaching out andhaving a part in the great life of humanity, thus illimitablyintensifying and multiplying his own. For each act of humble service isthat divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the springwhereby he leaps to ever greater heights. We have found that arecognition of these two laws enables one to grow and develop thefullest and richest life here, and that they are the two gates wherebyall who would must enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Around this great and sweet-incensed altar of love, service, andself-devotion to God and the fellow-man, can and do all mankind bow andworship. To it can all religions and creeds subscribe: it is theuniversal religion. 

Then become at one with God, as did His other son, through the awakeningto the real self and by living continually in this the higher, thegod-self. Become at one with humanity, as did His other son, by bringingyour life into harmony with this great, immutable law of love andservice and self-devotion, and so feel once for all the power and thethrill of the life universal. 

Yours will then be a life the greatest, the grandest, the most joyousthis world can know; for you will indeed be living the Christ-life, thelife that is beyond compare, the life to which all the world stretchesout its eager palms, and innumerable companies will rise up and call youblessed, and give thanks that such a life is the rich heritage of theworld. The song continually arising from your lips will then be, Thereis joy, only joy; for we are all one with the Infinite Life, all partsof the one great whole, and the Spirit of Infinite Goodness and Love isever ruling over all. 

PART VI. 

CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER

 _A thought, --good or evil, --an act, in time a habit, --so runs life's law: what you live in your thought-world, that, sooner or later, you will find objectified in your life. _

Unconsciously we are forming habits every moment of our lives. Some arehabits of a desirable nature; some are those of a most undesirablenature. Some, though not so bad in themselves, are exceedingly bad intheir cumulative effects, and cause us at times much loss, much pain andanguish, while their opposites would, on the contrary, bring us muchpeace and joy, as well as a continually increasing power. 

Have we it within our power to determine at all times what types ofhabits shall take form in our lives? In other words, is habit-forming, character-building, a matter of mere chance, or have we it within ourown control? We have, entirely and absolutely. "I will be what I will tobe, " can be said and should be said by every human soul. 

After this has been bravely and determinedly said, and not only said, but fully inwardly realized, something yet remains. Something remainsto be said regarding the great law underlying habit-forming, character-building; for there is a simple, natural, and thoroughlyscientific method that all should know. A method whereby old, undesirable, earth-binding habits can be broken, and new, desirable, heaven-lifting habits can be acquired, --a method whereby life in part orin its totality can be changed, provided one is sufficiently in earnestto know, and, knowing it, to apply the law. 

Thought is the force underlying all. And what do we mean by this? Simplythis: Your every act--every conscious act--is preceded by a thought. Your dominating thoughts determine your dominating actions. The actsrepeated crystallize themselves into the habit. The aggregate of yourhabits is your character. Whatever, then, you would have your acts, youmust look well to the character of the thought you entertain. Whateveract you would not do, --habit you would not acquire, --you must look wellto it that you do not entertain the type of thought that will give birthto this act, this habit. 

It is a simple psychological law that any type of thought, ifentertained for a sufficient length of time, will, by and by, reach themotor tracks of the brain, and finally burst forth into action. Murdercan be and many times is committed in this way, the same as allundesirable things are done. On the other hand, the greatest powers aregrown, the most God-like characteristics are engendered, the most heroicacts are performed in the same way. 

The thing clearly to understand is this: That the thought is alwaysparent to the act. Now, we have it entirely in our own hands todetermine exactly what thoughts we entertain. In the realm of our ownminds we have absolute control, or we should have, and if at any time wehave not, then there is a method by which we can gain control, and inthe realm of the mind become thorough masters. In order to get to thevery foundation of the matter, let us look to this for a moment. For ifthought is always parent to our acts, habits, character, life, then itis first necessary that we know fully how to control our thoughts. 

Here let us refer to that law of the mind which is the same as is thelaw in connection with the reflex nerve system of the body, the lawwhich says that whenever one does a certain thing in a certain way it iseasier to do the same thing in the same way the next time, and stilleasier the next, and the next, and the next, until in time it comes topass that no effort is required, or no effort worth speaking of; but onthe contrary, to do the opposite would require the effort. The mindcarries with it the power that perpetuates its own type of thought, thesame as the body carries with it through the reflex nerve system thepower which perpetuates and makes continually easier its own particularacts. Thus a simple effort to control one's thoughts, a simple settingabout it, even if at first failure is the result, and even if for a timefailure seems to be about the only result, will in time, sooner orlater, bring him to the point of easy, full, and complete control. 

Each one, then, can grow the power of determining, controlling histhought, the power of determining what types of thought he shall andwhat types he shall not entertain. For let us never part in mind withthis fact, that every earnest _effort_ along any line makes the endaimed at just a little easier for each succeeding effort, even if, ashas been said, apparent failure is the result of the earlier efforts. This is a case where even failure is success, for the failure is not inthe effort, and every earnest effort adds an increment of power thatwill eventually accomplish the end aimed at. We _can_, then, gain thefull and complete power of determining what character, what type ofthoughts we entertain. 

Shall we now give attention to some two or three concrete cases? Hereis a man, the cashier of a large mercantile establishment, or cashier ofa bank. In his morning paper he reads of a man who has become suddenlyrich, has made a fortune of half a million or a million dollars in a fewhours through speculation on the stock market. Perhaps he has seen anaccount of another man who has done practically the same thing lately. He is not quite wise enough, however, to comprehend the fact that whenhe reads of one or two cases of this kind he could find, were he to lookinto the matter carefully, one or two hundred cases of men who have lostall they had in the same way. He thinks, however, that he will be one ofthe fortunate ones. He does not fully realize that there are no shortcuts to wealth honestly made. He takes a part of his savings, and as istrue in practically all cases of this kind, he loses all that he has putin. Thinking now that he sees why he lost, and that had he more money hewould be able to get back what he has lost, and perhaps make a handsomesum in addition, and make it quickly, the thought comes to him to usesome of the funds he has charge of. In nine cases out of ten, if not inten cases in every ten, the results that inevitably follow this areknown sufficiently well to make it unnecessary to follow him farther. Where is the man's safety in the light of what we have been considering?Simply this: the moment the thought of using for his own purpose fundsbelonging to others enters his mind, if he is wise he will _instantly_put the thought from his mind. If he is a fool he will entertain it. Inthe degree in which he entertains it, it will grow upon him; it willbecome the absorbing thought in his mind; it will finally become masterof his will power, and through rapidly succeeding steps, dishonor, shame, degradation, penitentiary, remorse will be his. It is easy forhim to put the thought from his mind when it first enters; but as heentertains it, it grows into such proportions that it becomes more andmore difficult for him to put it from his mind; and by and by it becomespractically _impossible_ for him to do it. The light of the match, whichbut a little effort of the breath would have extinguished at first, hasimparted a flame that is raging through the entire building, and now itis almost, if not quite impossible to conquer it. 

Shall we notice another concrete case? a trite case, perhaps, but one inwhich we can see how habit is formed, and also how the same habit can beunformed. Here is a young man, he may be the son of poor parents, or hemay be the son of rich parents; one in the ordinary ranks of life, orone of high social standing, whatever that means. He is good-hearted, one of good impulses, generally speaking, --a good fellow. He is out withsome companions, companions of the same general type. They are out for apleasant evening, out for a good time. They are apt at times to bethoughtless, even careless. The suggestion is made by one of thecompany, not that they get drunk, no, not at all; but merely that theygo and have something to drink together. The young man whom we firstmentioned, wanting to be genial, scarcely listens to the suggestion thatcomes to his inner consciousness--that it will be better for him not tofall in with the others in this. He does not stop long enough to realizethe fact that the greatest strength and nobility of character liesalways in taking a firm stand on the side of the right, and allowhimself to be influenced by nothing that will weaken this stand. Hegoes, therefore, with his companions to the drinking place. With thesame or with other companions this is repeated now and then; and eachtime it is repeated his power of saying "No" is gradually decreasing. Inthis way he has grown a little liking for intoxicants, and takes themperhaps now and then by himself. He does not dream, or in the slightestdegree realize, what way he is tending, until there comes a day when hewakens to the consciousness of the fact that he hasn't the power noreven the impulse to resist the taste which has gradually grown into aminor form of craving for intoxicants. Thinking, however, that he willbe able to stop when he is really in danger of getting into the drinkhabit, he goes thoughtlessly and carelessly on. We will pass over thevarious intervening steps and come to the time when we find him aconfirmed drunkard. It is simply the same old story told a thousand oreven a million times over. 

He finally awakens to his true condition; and through the shame, theanguish, the degradation, and the want that comes upon him he longs fora return of the days when he was a free man. But hope has almost gonefrom his life. It would have been easier for him never to have begun, and easier for him to have stopped before he reached his presentcondition, but even in his present condition, be it the lowest and themost helpless and hopeless that can be imagined, he has the power to getout of it and be a free man once again. Let us see. The desire for drinkcomes upon him again. If he entertain the thought, the desire, he islost again. His only hope, his only means of escape is this: the moment, aye, _the very instant_ the thought comes to him, if he will put it outof his mind he will thereby put out the little flame of the match. If heentertain the thought the little flame will communicate itself untilalmost before he is aware of it a consuming fire is raging, and theneffort is almost useless. The thought must be banished from the mind theinstant it enters; dalliance with it means failure and defeat, or afight that will be indescribably fiercer than it would be if the thoughtis ejected at the beginning. 

And here we must say a word regarding a certain great law that we maycall the "law of indirectness. " A thought can be put out of the mindeasier and more successfully, not by dwelling upon it, not by attemptingto put it out _directly_, but by throwing the mind on to some otherobject, by putting some other object of thought into the mind. This maybe, for example, the ideal of full and perfect self-mastery, or it maybe something of a nature entirely distinct from the thought whichpresents itself, something to which the mind goes easily and naturally. This will in time become the absorbing thought in the mind, and thedanger is past. This same course of action repeated, will graduallygrow the power of putting more readily out of mind the thought of drinkas it presents itself, and will gradually grow the power of putting intothe mind those objects of thought one most desires. The result will bethat as time passes the thought of drink will present itself less andless, and when it does present itself it can be put out of the mind moreeasily each succeeding time, until the time comes when it can be put outwithout difficulty, and eventually the time will come when the thoughtwill enter the mind no more at all. 

Still another case. You may be more or less of an irritablenature--naturally, perhaps, provoked easily to anger. Some one sayssomething or does something that you dislike, and your first impulse isto show resentment and possibly to give way to anger. In the degree thatyou allow this resentment to display itself, that you allow yourself togive way to anger, in that degree will it become easier to do the samething when any cause, even a very slight cause, presents itself. Itwill, moreover, become continually harder for you to refrain from it, until resentment, anger, and possibly even hatred and revenge becomecharacteristics of your nature, robbing it of its sunniness, its charm, and its brightness for all with whom you come in contact. If, however, the instant the impulse to resentment and anger arises, you check it_then and there_, and throw the mind on to some other object of thought, the power will gradually grow itself of doing this same thing morereadily, more easily, as succeeding like causes present themselves, until by and by the time will come when there will be scarcely anythingthat can irritate you, and nothing that can impel you to anger; until byand by a matchless brightness and charm of nature and disposition willbecome habitually yours, a brightness and charm you would scarcely thinkpossible to-day. And so we might take up case after case, characteristicafter characteristic, habit after habit. The habit of fault-finding andits opposite are grown in identically the same way; the characteristicof jealousy and its opposite; the characteristic of fear and itsopposite. In this same way we grow either love or hatred; in this way wecome to take a gloomy, pessimistic view of life, which objectifiesitself in a nature, a disposition of this type, or we grow that sunny, hopeful, cheerful, buoyant nature that brings with it so much joy andbeauty and power for ourselves, as well as so much hope and inspirationand joy for all the world. 

There is nothing more true in connection with human life than that wegrow into the likeness of those things we contemplate. Literally andscientifically and necessarily true is it that, "as a man thinketh inhis heart, so _is_ he. " The "is" part is his character. His character isthe sum total of his habits. His habits have been formed by hisconscious acts; but every conscious act is, as we have found, precededby a thought. And so we have it--thought on the one hand, character, life, destiny on the other. And simple it becomes when we bear in mindthat it is simply the thought of the present moment, and the next momentwhen it is upon us, and then the next, and so on through all time. 

One can in this way attain to whatever ideals he would attain to. Twosteps are necessary: first, as the days pass, to form one's ideals; andsecond, to follow them continually whatever may arise, wherever they maylead him. Always remember that the great and strong character is the onewho is ever ready to sacrifice the present pleasure for the future good. He who will thus follow his highest ideals as they present themselves tohim day after day, year after year, will find that as Dante, followinghis beloved from world to world, finally found her at the gates ofParadise, so he will find himself eventually at the same gates. Life isnot, we may say, for mere passing pleasure, but for the highestunfoldment that one can attain to, the noblest character that one cangrow, and for the greatest service that one can render to all mankind. In this, however, we will find the highest pleasure, for in this theonly real pleasure lies. He who would find it by any short cuts, or byentering upon any other paths, will inevitably find that his last stateis always worse than his first; and if he proceed upon paths other thanthese he will find that he will never find real and lasting pleasure atall. The question is not, What are the conditions in our lives? but, Howdo we meet the conditions that we find there? And whatever theconditions are, it is unwise and profitless to look upon them, even ifthey are conditions that we would have otherwise, in the attitude ofcomplaint, for complaint will bring depression, and depression willweaken and possibly even kill the spirit that would engender the powerthat would enable us to bring into our lives an entirely new set ofconditions. 

In order to be concrete, even at the risk of being personal, I will saythat in my own experience there have come at various times into my lifecircumstances and conditions that I gladly would have run from at thetime--conditions that caused at the time humiliation and shame andanguish of spirit. But invariably, as sufficient time has passed, I havebeen able to look back and see clearly the part which every experienceof the type just mentioned had to play in my life. I have seen thelessons it was essential for me to learn; and the result is that now Iwould not drop a single one of these experiences from my life, humiliating and hard to bear as they were at the time; no, not for theworld. And here is also a lesson I have learned: whatever conditions arein my life to-day that are not the easiest and most agreeable, andwhatever conditions of this type all coming time may bring, I will takethem just as they come, without complaint, without depression, and meetthem in the wisest possible way; knowing that they are the best possibleconditions that could be in my life at the time, or otherwise they wouldnot be there; realizing the fact that, although I may not at the timesee why they are in my life, although I may not see just what part theyhave to play, the time will come, and when it comes I will see it all, and thank God for every condition just as it came. 

Each one is so apt to think that his own conditions, his own trials ortroubles or sorrows, or his own struggles, as the case may be, aregreater than those of the great mass of mankind, or possibly greaterthan those of anyone else in the world. He forgets that each one has hisown peculiar trials or troubles or borrows to bear, or struggles inhabits to overcome, and that his is but the common lot of all the humanrace. We are apt to make the mistake in this--in that we see and feelkeenly our own trials, or adverse conditions, or characteristics to beovercome, while those of others we do not see so clearly, and hence weare apt to think that they are not at all equal to our own. Each has hisown problems to work out. Each must work out his own problems. Each mustgrow the insight that will enable him to see what the causes are thathave brought the unfavorable conditions into his life; each must growthe strength that will enable him to face these conditions, and to setinto operation forces that will bring about a different set ofconditions. We may be of aid to one another by way of suggestion, by wayof bringing to one another a knowledge of certain higher laws andforces, --laws and forces that will make it easier to do that which wewould do. The doing, however, must be done by each one for himself. 

And so the way to get out of any conditions we have gotten into, eitherknowingly or inadvertently, either intentionally or unintentionally, isto take time to look the conditions squarely in the face, and to findthe law whereby they have come about. And when we have discovered thelaw, the thing to do is not to rebel against it, not to resist it, butto go with it by working in harmony with it. If we work in harmony withit, it will work for our highest good, and will take us wheresoever wedesire. If we oppose it, if we resist it, if we fail to work in harmonywith it, it will eventually break us to pieces. The law is immutable inits workings. Go with it, and it brings all things our way; resist it, and it brings suffering, pain, loss, and desolation. 

But a few days ago I was talking with a lady, a most estimable ladyliving on a little New England farm of some five or six acres. Herhusband died a few years ago, a good-hearted, industrious man, but onewho spent practically all of his earnings in drink. When he died thelittle farm was unpaid for, and the wife found herself without anyvisible means of support, with a family of several to care for. Insteadof being discouraged with what many would have called her hard lot, instead of rebelling against the circumstances in which she foundherself, she faced the matter bravely, firmly believing that there wereways by which she could manage, though she could not see them clearly atthe time. She took up her burden where she found it, and went bravelyforward. For several years she has been taking care of summer boarderswho come to that part of the country, getting up regularly, she told me, at from half-past three to four o'clock in the morning, and workinguntil ten o'clock each night. In the winter-time, when this means ofrevenue is cut off, she has gone out to do nursing in the country roundabout. In this way the little farm is now almost paid for; her childrenhave been kept in school, and they are now able to aid her to a greateror less extent. Through it all she has entertained no fears norforebodings; she has shown no rebellion of any kind. She has not kickedagainst the circumstances which brought about the conditions in whichshe found herself, but she has put herself into harmony with the lawthat would bring her into another set of conditions. And through it all, she told me, she had been continually grateful that she has been able towork, and that whatever her own circumstances have been, she has neveryet failed to find some one whose circumstances were still a littleworse than hers, and for whom it was not possible for her to render somelittle service. 

Most heartily she appreciates the fact, and most grateful is she for it, that the little home is now almost paid for, and soon no more of herearnings will have to go out in that channel. The dear little home, shesaid, would be all the more precious to her by virtue of the fact thatit was finally hers through her own efforts. The strength and nobilityof character that have come to her during these years, the sweetness ofdisposition, the sympathy and care for others, her faith in the finaltriumph of all that is honest and true and pure and good, are qualitiesthat thousands and hundreds of thousands of women, yes, of both men andwomen, who are apparently in better circumstances in life can justlyenvy. And should the little farm home be taken away to-morrow, she hasgained something that a farm of a thousand acres could not buy. By goingabout her work in the way she has gone about it the burden of it all hasbeen lightened, and her work has been made truly enjoyable. 

Let us take a moment to see how these same conditions would have beenmet by a person of less wisdom, one not so far-sighted as this dear, good woman has been. For a time possibly her spirit would have beencrushed. Fears and forebodings of all kinds would probably have takenhold of her, and she would have felt that nothing that she could dowould be of any avail. Or, she might have rebelled against the agencies, against the law which brought about the conditions in which she foundherself, and she might have become embittered against the world, andgradually also against the various people with whom she came in contact. Or again, she might have thought that her efforts would be unable tomeet the circumstances, and that it was the duty of some one to lift herout of her difficulties. In this way no progress at all would have beenmade towards the accomplishment of the desired results, and continuallyshe would have felt more keenly the circumstances in which she foundherself, because there was nothing else to occupy her mind. In this waythe little farm would not have become hers, she would not have been ableto do anything for others, and her nature would have become embitteredagainst everything and everybody. 

True it is, then, not, What are the conditions in one's life? but, Howdoes he meet the conditions that he finds there? This will determineall. And if at any time we are apt to think that our own lot is aboutthe hardest there is, and if we are able at any time to persuadeourselves that we can find no one whose lot is just a little harder thanours, let us then study for a little while the character Pompilia, inBrowning's poem, [D] and after studying it, thank God that the conditionsin our life are so favorable; and then set about with a trusting andintrepid spirit to actualize the conditions that we most desire. 

 * * * * *

Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of allsuccess or failure, of all that is desirable or undesirable in humanlife. The type of thought we entertain both creates and draws conditionsthat crystallize about it, conditions exactly the same in nature as isthe thought that gives them form. Thoughts are forces, and each createsof its kind, whether we realize it or not. The great law of the drawingpower of the mind, which says that like creates like, and that likeattracts like, is continually working in every human life, for it is oneof the great immutable laws of the universe. For one to take time to seeclearly the things he would attain to, and then to hold that idealsteadily and continually before his mind, never allowing faith--hispositive thought-forces--to give way to or to be neutralized by doubtsand fears, and then to set about doing each day what his hands find todo, never complaining, but spending the time that he would otherwisespend in complaint in focusing his thought-forces upon the ideal thathis mind has built, will sooner or later bring about the fullmaterialization of that for which he sets out. 

There are those who, when they begin to grasp the fact that there iswhat we may term a "science of thought, " who, when they begin to realizethat through the instrumentality of our interior, spiritualthought-forces we have the power of gradually moulding the every-dayconditions of life as we would have them, in their early enthusiasm arenot able to see results as quickly as they expect, and are apt to think, therefore, that after all there is not very much in that which has butnewly come to their knowledge. They must remember, however, that inendeavoring to overcome an old or to grow a new habit, everything cannotbe done _all at once_. 

In the degree that we attempt to use the thought-forces do wecontinually become able to use them more effectively. Progress is slowat first, more rapid as we proceed. Power grows by using, or, in otherwords, using brings a continually increasing power. This is governed bylaw the same as are all things in our lives, and all things in theuniverse about us. Every act and advancement made by the musician is infull accordance with law. No one commencing the study of music can, forexample, sit down to the piano and play the piece of a master at thefirst effort. He must not conclude, however, nor does he conclude, thatthe piece of the master _cannot be_ played by him, or, for that matter, by any one. He begins to practise the piece. The law of the mind that wehave already noticed comes to his aid, whereby his mind follows themusic more readily, more rapidly, and more surely each succeeding time, and there also comes into operation and to his aid the law underlyingthe action of the reflex nerve system of the body, which we have alsonoticed, whereby his fingers coordinate their movements with themovements of his mind, more readily, more rapidly, and more accuratelyeach succeeding time; until by and by the time comes when that which hestumbles through at first, that in which there is no harmony, nothingbut discord, finally reveals itself as the music of the master, themusic that thrills and moves masses of men and women. So it is in theuse of the thought-forces. It is the reiteration, the constantreiteration of the thought that grows the power of continually strongerthought-focusing, and that finally brings manifestation. 

 * * * * *

All life is from within out. This is something that cannot be reiteratedtoo often. The springs of life are all from within. This being true, itwould be well for us to give more time to the inner life than we areaccustomed to give to it, especially in this Western world. 

There is nothing that will bring us such abundant returns as to take alittle time in the quiet each day of our lives. We need this to get thekinks out of our minds and hence out of our lives. We need this to formbetter the higher ideals of life. We need this in order to see clearlyin mind the things upon which we would concentrate and focus thethought-forces. We need this in order to make continually anew and tokeep our conscious connection with the Infinite. We need this in orderthat the rush and hurry of our every-day life does not keep us away fromthe conscious realization of the fact that the spirit of Infinite lifeand power that is back of all, working in and through all, the life ofall, is the life of our life, and the source of our power; and thatoutside of this we have no life and we have no power. To realize thisfact fully, and to live in it consciously at all times, is to find thekingdom of God, which is essentially an inner kingdom, and can never beanything else. The kingdom of heaven is to be found only within, andthis is done once for all, and in a manner in which it cannot otherwisebe done, when we come into the conscious, living realization of the factthat in our real selves we are essentially one with the Divine life, andopen ourselves continually so that this Divine life can speak to andmanifest through us. In this way we come into the condition where we arecontinually walking with God. In this way the consciousness of Godbecomes a living reality in our lives; and in the degree in which itbecomes a reality does it bring us into the realization of continuallyincreasing wisdom, insight, and power. _This consciousness of God in thesoul of man is the essence, indeed the sum and substance of allreligion. _ This identifies religion with every act and every moment ofevery-day life. That which does not identify itself with every moment ofevery day and with every act of life is religion in name only and not inreality. This consciousness of God in the soul of man is the one thinguniformly taught by all the prophets, by all the inspired ones, by allthe seers and mystics in the world's history, whatever the time, wherever the country, whatever the religion, whatever minor differenceswe may find in their lives and teachings. In regard to this they allagree; indeed, this is the essence of their teaching, as it has alsobeen the secret of their power and the secret of their lastinginfluence. 

It is the attitude of the child that is necessary before we can enterinto the kingdom of heaven. As it was said, "Except ye become as littlechildren, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. " For we thenrealize that of ourselves we can do nothing, but that it is only as werealize that it is the Divine life and power working within us, and itis only as we open ourselves that it may work through us, that we are orcan do anything. It is thus that the simple life, which is essentiallythe life of the greatest enjoyment and the greatest attainment, isentered upon. 

In the Orient the people as a class take far more time in the quiet, inthe silence, than we take. Some of them carry this possibly to as greatan extreme as we carry the opposite, with the result that they do notactualize and objectify in the outer life the things they dream in theinner life. We give so much time to the activities of the outer lifethat we do not take sufficient time in the quiet to form in the inner, spiritual thought-life the ideals and the conditions that we would haveactualized and manifested in the outer life. The result is that we takelife in a kind of haphazard way, taking it as it comes, thinking notvery much about it until, perhaps, pushed by some bitter experiences, instead of moulding it, through the agency of the inner forces, exactlyas we would have it. We need to strike the happy balance between thecustom in this respect of the Eastern and Western worlds, and go to theextreme of neither the one nor the other. This alone will give the ideallife; and it is the ideal life only that is the thoroughly satisfactorylife. In the Orient there are many who are day after day sitting in thequiet, meditating, contemplating, idealizing, with their eyes focused ontheir stomach in spiritual revery, while through lack of outeractivities, in their stomachs they are actually starving. In thisWestern world, men and women, in the rush and activity of our accustomedlife, are running hither and thither, with no centre, no foundation uponwhich to stand, nothing to which they can anchor their lives, becausethey do not take sufficient time to come into the realization of whatthe centre, of what the reality of their lives is. 

If the Oriental would do his contemplating, and then get up and do hiswork, he would be in a better condition; he would be living a morenormal and satisfactory life. If we in the Occident would take more timefrom the rush and activity of life for contemplation, for meditation, for idealization, for becoming acquainted with our real selves, and thengo about our work manifesting the powers of our real selves, we would befar better off, because we would be living a more natural, a more normallife. To find one's centre, to become centred in the Infinite, is thefirst great essential of every satisfactory life; and then to go out, thinking, speaking, working, loving, living, from this centre. 

 * * * * *

In the highest character-building, such as we have been considering, there are those who feel they are handicapped by what we term_heredity_. In a sense they are right; in another sense they are totallywrong. It is along the same lines as the thought which many before ushad inculcated in them through the couplet in the New England Primer:"In Adam's fall, we sinned all. " Now, in the first place, it is ratherhard to understand the justice of this if it is true. In the secondplace, it is rather hard to understand why it is true. And in the thirdplace there is no truth in it at all. We are now dealing with the real, essential self, and, however old Adam is, God is eternal. This meansyou; it means me; it means every human soul. When we fully realize thisfact we see that heredity is a reed that is easily broken. The life ofevery one is in his own hands and he can make it in character, inattainment, in power, in divine self-realization, and hence ininfluence, exactly what he wills to make it. All things that he mostfondly dreams of are his, or may become so if he is truly in earnest;and as he rises more and more to his ideal, and grows in the strengthand influence of his character, he becomes an example and an inspirationto all with whom he comes in contact; so that through him the weak andfaltering are encouraged and strengthened; so that those of low idealsand of a low type of life instinctively and inevitably have their idealsraised, and the ideals of no one can be raised without its showing forthin his outer life. As he advances in his grasp upon and understanding ofthe power and potency of the thought-forces, he finds that many timesthrough the process of mental suggestion he can be of tremendous aid toone who is weak and struggling, by sending to him now and then, and bycontinually holding him in the highest thought, in the thought of thehighest strength, wisdom, and love. 

The one who takes sufficient time in the quiet mentally to form hisideals, sufficient time to make and to keep continually his consciousconnection with the Infinite, with the Divine life and forces, is theone who is best adapted to the strenuous life. He it is who can go outand deal with sagacity and power with whatever issues may arise in theaffairs of every-day life. He it is who is building not for the years, but for the centuries; not for time, but for the eternities. And he cango out knowing not whither he goes, knowing that the Divine life withinhim will never fail him, but will lead him on until he beholds theFather face to face. 

He is building for the centuries because only that which is thehighest, the truest, the noblest, and best will abide the test of thecenturies. He is building for eternity because when the transitionwe call death takes place, life, character, self-mastery, divineself-realization, --the only things that the soul when stripped ofeverything else takes with it, --he has in abundance. In life, or whenthe time of the transition to another form of life comes, he is neverafraid, never fearful, because he knows and realizes that behind him, within him, beyond him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and in this heis eternally centred, and from it he can never be separated. WithWhittier he sings:

 "I know not where His islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. "

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote D: "The Ring and the Book, " by Robert Browning. ]