{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_23559/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_23559","id":"gutenberg_23559","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23559","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","New Thought"],"text":"E-text prepared by Al Haines\n\n\n\nIN TUNE WITH THE INFINITE\n\nor\n\nFullness of Peace, Power, and Plenty\n\nby\n\nRALPH WALDO TRINE\n\nAuthor of\n  \"What All the World's A-Seeking,\"\n  \"The Greatest Thing Ever Known,\"\n  \"Every Living Creature.\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  _Within yourself lies the cause of whatever enters\n  into your life.  To come into the full realization\n  of your own awakened interior powers, is to be\n  able to condition your life in exact accord with\n  what you would have it._\n\n\n\nSeventy-Seventh Thousand\nin England and America\n\nLondon\nGeorge Bell & Sons\n1903\n\nFirst English Edition, Dec. 1899\nReprinted April and October 1900\nFebruary and June 1901; April 1902; January 1903\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThere is a golden thread that runs through every religion in the world.\nThere is a golden thread that runs through the lives and the teachings\nof all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in the world's history,\nthrough the lives of all men and women of truly great and lasting\npower.  All that they have ever done or attained to has been done in\nfull accordance with law.  What one has done, all may do.\n\nThis same golden thread must enter into the lives of all who today, in\nthis busy work-a-day world of ours, would exchange impotence for power,\nweakness and suffering for abounding health and strength, pain and\nunrest for perfect peace, poverty of whatever nature for fullness and\nplenty.\n\nEach is building his own world.  We both build from within and we\nattract from without.  Thought is the force with which we build, for\nthoughts are forces.  Like builds like and like attracts like.  In the\ndegree that thought is spiritualized does it become more subtle and\npowerful in its workings.  This spiritualizing is in accordance with\nlaw and is within the power of all.\n\nEverything is first worked out in the unseen before it is manifested in\nthe seen, in the ideal before it is realized in the real, in the\nspiritual before it shows forth in the material.  The realm of the\nunseen is the realm of cause.  The realm of the seen is the realm of\neffect.  The nature of effect is always determined and conditioned by\nthe nature of its cause.\n\nTo point out the great facts in connection with, and the great laws\nunderlying the workings of the interior, spiritual, thought forces, to\npoint them out so simply and so clearly that even a child can\nunderstand, is the author's aim.  To point them out so simply and so\nclearly that all can grasp them, that all can take them and infuse them\ninto every-day life, so as to mould it in all its details in accordance\nwith what they would have it, is his purpose.  That life can be thus\nmoulded by them is not a matter of mere speculation or theory with him,\nbut a matter of positive knowledge.\n\nThere is a divine sequence running throughout the universe.  Within and\nabove and below the human will incessantly works the Divine will.  To\ncome into harmony with it and thereby with all the higher laws and\nforces, to come then into league and to work in conjunction with them,\nin order that they can work in league and in conjunction with us, is to\ncome into the chain of this wonderful sequence.  This is the secret of\nall success.  This is to come into the possession of unknown riches,\ninto the realization of undreamed-of powers.\n\nR.W.T.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n    I. PRELUDE\n   II. THE SUPREME FACT OF THE UNIVERSE\n  III. THE SUPREME FACT OF HUMAN LIFE\n   IV. FULLNESS OF LIFE--BODILY HEALTH AND VIGOR\n    V. THE SECRET, POWER, AND EFFECTS OF LOVE\n   VI. WISDOM AND INTERIOR ILLUMINATION\n  VII. THE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE\n VIII. COMING INTO FULLNESS OF POWER\n   IX. PLENTY OF ALL THINGS--THE LAW OF PROSPERITY\n    X. HOW MEN HAVE BECOME PROPHETS, SEERS, SAGES, AND SAVIOURS\n   XI. THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS--THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION\n  XII. ENTERING NOW INTO THE REALIZATION OF THE HIGHEST RICHES\n\n\n\n\nFULLNESS OF PEACE, POWER, AND PLENTY.\n\n\nPRELUDE.\n\nThe optimist is right.  The pessimist is right.  The one differs from\nthe other as the light from the dark.  Yet both are right.  Each is\nright from his own particular point of view, and this point of view is\nthe determining factor in the life of each.  It determines as to\nwhether it is a life of power or of impotence, of peace or of pain, of\nsuccess or of failure.\n\nThe optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in\ntheir right relations.  The pessimist looks from a limited and a\none-sided point of view.  The one has his understanding illumined by\nwisdom, the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance.  Each\nis building his world from within, and the result of the building is\ndetermined by the point of view of each.  The optimist, by his superior\nwisdom and insight, is making his own heaven, and in the degree that he\nmakes his own heaven is he helping to make one for all the world\nbeside.  The pessimist, by virtue of his limitations, is making his own\nhell, and in the degree that he makes his own hell is he helping to\nmake one for all mankind.\n\nYou and I have the predominating characteristics of an optimist or the\npredominating characteristics of a pessimist.  We then are making, hour\nby hour, our own heaven or our own hell; and in the degree that we are\nmaking the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it for\nall the world beside.\n\nThe word heaven means harmony.  The word hell is from the old English\n_hell_, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be _helled_ was\nto be shut off from.  Now if there is such a thing as harmony there\nmust be that something one can be in right relations with; for to be in\nright relations with anything is to be in harmony with it.  Again, if\nthere is such a thing as being _helled_, shut off, separated from,\nthere must be that something from which one is held, shut off, or\nseparated.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SUPREME FACT OF THE UNIVERSE.\n\nThe great central fact of the universe is that Spirit of Infinite Life\nand Power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itself\nin and through all; that self-existent principle of life from which all\nhas come, and not only from which all has come, but from which all is\ncontinually coming.  If there is an individual life, there must of\nnecessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes.  If there\nis a quality or a force of love, there must of necessity be an infinite\nsource of love whence it comes.  If there is wisdom, there must be the\nall-wise source behind it from which it springs.  The same is true in\nregard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard to\nwhat we call material things.\n\nThere is, then, this Spirit of Infinite Life and Power behind all which\nis the source of all.  This Infinite Power is creating, working, ruling\nthrough the agency of great immutable laws and forces that run through\nall the universe, that surround us on every side.  Every act of our\nevery-day lives is governed by these same great laws and forces.  Every\nflower that blooms by the wayside, springs up, grows, blooms, fades,\naccording to certain great immutable laws.  Every snowflake that plays\nbetween earth and heaven, forms, falls, melts, according to certain\ngreat unchangeable laws.\n\nIn a sense there is nothing in all the great universe but law.  If this\nis true there must of necessity be a force behind it all that is the\nmaker of these laws and a force greater than the laws that are made.\nThis Spirit of Infinite Life and Power that is behind all is what I\ncall God.  I care not what term you may use, be it Kindly Light,\nProvidence, the Over Soul, Omnipotence, or whatever term may be most\nconvenient.  I care not what the term may be as long as we are agreed\nin regard to the great central fact itself.\n\nGod, then, is this Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with\nHimself alone, so that all is from Him and in Him, and there is nothing\nthat is outside.  Indeed and in truth, then, in Him we live and move\nand have our being.  He is the life of our life, our very life itself.\nWe have received, we are continually receiving our life from Him.  We\nare partakers of the life of God; and though we differ from Him in that\nwe are individualized spirits, while He is the Infinite Spirit\nincluding us as well as all else beside, _yet in essence the life of\nGod and the life of man are identically the same, and so are one_.\nThey differ not in essence, in quality; they differ in degree.\n\nThere have been and are highly illumined souls who believe that we\nreceive our life from God after the manner of a divine inflow.  And\nagain, there have been and are those who believe that our life is one\nwith the life of God, and so that God and man are one.  Which is right?\nBoth are right; both right when rightly understood.\n\nIn regard to the first: if God is the Infinite Spirit of Life behind\nall, whence all comes, then clearly our life as individualized spirits\nis continually coming from this Infinite Source by means of this divine\ninflow.  In the second place, if our lives as individualized spirits\nare directly from, are parts of this Infinite Spirit of Life, then the\ndegree of the Infinite Spirit that is manifested in the life of each\nmust be identical in quality with that Source, the same as a drop of\nwater taken from the ocean is, in nature, in characteristics, identical\nwith that ocean, its source.  And how could it be otherwise?  The\nliability to misunderstanding in this latter case, however, is this: in\nthat although the life of God and the life of man in essence are\nidentically the same, the life of God so far transcends the life of\nindividual man that it includes all else beside.  In other words, so\nfar as the quality of life is concerned, in essence they are the same;\nso far as the degree of life is concerned, they are vastly different.\n\nIn this light is it not then evident that both conceptions are true?\nand more, that they are one and the same?  Both conceptions may be\ntypified by one and the same illustration.\n\nThere is a reservoir in a valley which receives its supply from an\ninexhaustible reservoir on the mountain side.  It is then true that the\nreservoir in the valley receives its supply by virtue of the inflow of\nthe water from the larger reservoir on the mountain side.  It is also\ntrue that the water in this smaller reservoir is in nature, in quality,\nin characteristics identically the same as that in the larger reservoir\nwhich is its source.  The difference, however, is this: the reservoir\non the mountain side, in the _amount_ of its water, so far transcends\nthe reservoir in the valley that it can supply an innumerable number of\nlike reservoirs and still be unexhausted.\n\nAnd so in the life of man.  If, as I think we have already agreed,\nhowever we may differ in regard to anything else, there is this\nInfinite Spirit of Life behind all, the life of all, and so, from which\nall comes, then the life of individual man, your life and mine, must\ncome by a divine inflow from this Infinite Source.  And if this is\ntrue, then the life that comes by this inflow to man is necessarily the\nsame in essence as is this Infinite Spirit of Life.  There is a\ndifference.  It is not a difference in essence.  It is a difference in\ndegree.\n\nIf this is true, does it not then follow that in the degree that man\nopens himself to this divine inflow does he approach to God?  If so, it\nthen necessarily follows that in the degree that he makes this approach\ndoes he take on the God-powers.  And if the God-powers are without\nlimit, does it not then follow that the only limitations man has are\nthe limitations he sets to himself, by virtue of not knowing himself?\n\n\n\n\nTHE SUPREME FACT OF HUMAN LIFE.\n\nFrom the great central fact of the universe in regard to which we have\nagreed, namely, this Spirit of Infinite Life that is behind all and\nfrom which all comes, we are led to inquire as to what is the great\ncentral fact in human life.  From what has gone before, the question\nalmost answers itself.\n\n_The great central fact in human life, in your life and in mine, is the\ncoming into a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with this\nInfinite Life, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine\ninflow_.  This is the great central fact in human life, for in this all\nelse is included, all else follows in its train.  In just the degree\nthat we come into a conscious realization of our oneness with the\nInfinite Life, and open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we\nactualize in ourselves the qualities and powers of the Infinite Life.\n\nAnd what does this mean?  It means simply this: that we are recognizing\nour true identity, that we are bringing our lives into harmony with the\nsame great laws and forces, and so opening ourselves to the same great\ninspirations, as have all the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in\nthe world's history, all men of truly great and mighty power.  For in\nthe degree that we come into this realization and connect ourselves\nwith this Infinite Source, do we make it possible for the higher powers\nto play, to work, to manifest through us.\n\nWe can keep closed to this divine inflow, to these higher forces and\npowers, through ignorance, as most of us do, and thus hinder or even\nprevent their manifesting through us.  Or we can intentionally close\nourselves to their operations and thus deprive ourselves of the powers\nto which, by the very nature of our being, we are rightful heirs.  On\nthe other hand, we can come into so vital a realization of the oneness\nof our real selves with this Infinite Life, and can open ourselves so\nfully to the incoming of this divine inflow, and so to the operation of\nthese higher forces, inspirations, and powers, that we can indeed and\nin truth become what we may well term, God-men.\n\nAnd what is a God-man?  One in whom the powers of God are manifesting,\nthough yet a man.  No one can set limitations to a man or a woman of\nthis type; for the only limitations he or she can have are those set by\nthe self.  Ignorance is the most potent factor in setting limitations\nto the majority of mankind; and so the great majority of people\ncontinue to live their little, dwarfed, and stunted lives simply by\nvirtue of the fact that they do not realize the larger life to which\nthey are heirs.  They have never as yet come into a knowledge of the\nreal identity of their true selves.\n\nMankind has not yet realized that the real self is one with the life of\nGod.  Through its ignorance it has never yet opened itself to the\ndivine inflow, and so has never made itself a channel through which the\ninfinite powers and forces can manifest.  When we know ourselves merely\nas men, we live accordingly, and have merely the powers of men.  When\nwe come into the realization of the fact that we are God-men, then\nagain we live accordingly, and have the powers of God-men.  _In the\ndegree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow are we changed from\nmere men into God-men_.\n\n\nA friend has a beautiful lotus pond.  A natural basin on his\nestate--his farm as he always calls it--is supplied with water from a\nreservoir in the foothills some distance away.  A gate regulates the\nflow of the water from the main that conducts it from the reservoir to\nthe pond.  It is a spot of transcendent beauty.  There, through the\ndays of the perfect summer weather, the lotus flowers lie full blown\nupon the surface of the clear, transparent water.  The June roses and\nother wild flowers are continually blooming upon its banks.  The birds\ncome here to drink and to bathe, and from early until late one can hear\nthe melody of their song.  The bees are continually at work in this\ngarden of wild flowers.  A beautiful grove, in which many kinds of wild\nberries and many varieties of brakes and ferns grow, stretches back of\nthe pond as far as the eye can reach.\n\nOur friend is a man, nay more, a God-man, a lover of his kind, and as a\nconsequence no notice bearing such words as \"Private grounds, no\ntrespassing allowed,\" or \"Trespassers will be prosecuted,\" stands on\nhis estate.  But at the end of a beautiful by-way that leads through\nthe wildwood up to this enchanting spot, stands a notice bearing the\nwords \"All are welcome to the Lotus Pond.\"  All love our friend.  Why?\nThey can't help it.  He so loves them, and what is his is theirs.\n\nHere one may often find merry groups of children at play.  Here many\ntimes tired and weary looking men and women come, and somehow, when\nthey go their faces wear a different expression,--the burden seems to\nbe lifted; and now and then I have heard them when leaving, sometimes\nin a faint murmur, as if uttering a benediction, say, \"God bless our\nbrother-friend.\"  Many speak of this spot as the Garden of God.  My\nfriend calls it his Soul Garden, and he spends many hours in quiet\nhere.  Often have I seen him after the others have gone, walking to and\nfro, or sitting quietly in the clear moonlight on an old rustic bench,\ndrinking in the perfume of the wild flowers.  He is a man of a\nbeautifully simple nature.  He says that here the real things of life\ncome to him, and that here his greatest and most successful plans, many\ntimes as by a flash of inspiration, suggest themselves to him.\n\nEverything in the immediate vicinity seems to breathe a spirit of\nkindliness, comfort, good-will, and good cheer.  The very cattle and\nsheep as they come to the old stone-fence at the edge of the grove and\nlook across to this beautiful spot seem, indeed, to get the same\nenjoyment that the people are getting.  They seem almost to smile in\nthe realization of their contentment and enjoyment; or perhaps it seems\nso to the looker-on, because he can scarcely help smiling as he sees\nthe manifested evidence of their contentment and pleasure.\n\nThe gate of the pond is always open wide enough to admit a supply of\nwater so abundant that it continually overflows a quantity sufficient\nto feed a stream that runs through the fields below, giving the pure\nmountain water in drink to the cattle and flocks that are grazing\nthere.  The stream then flows on through the neighbors' fields.\n\nNot long ago our friend was absent for a year.  He rented his estate\nduring his absence to a man who, as the world goes, was of a very\n\"practical\" turn of mind.  He had no time for anything that did not\nbring him direct \"practical\" returns.  The gate connecting the\nreservoir with the lotus pond was shut down, and no longer had the\ncrystal mountain water the opportunity to feed and overflow it.  The\nnotice of our friend, \"All are welcome to the Lotus Pond,\" was removed,\nand no longer were the gay companies of children and of men and women\nseen at the pond.  A great change came over everything.  On account of\nthe lack of the life-giving water the flowers in the pond wilted, and\ntheir long stems lay stretched upon the mud in the bottom.  The fish\nthat formerly swam in its clear water soon died and gave an offensive\nodor to all who came near.  The flowers no longer bloomed on its banks.\nThe birds no longer came to drink and to bathe.  No longer was heard\nthe hum of the bees; and more, the stream that ran through the fields\nbelow dried up, so that the cattle and the flocks no longer got their\nsupply of clear mountain water.\n\nThe difference between the spot now and the lotus pond when our friend\ngave it his careful attention was caused, as we readily see, by the\nshutting of the gate to the pond, thus preventing the water from the\nreservoir in the hills which was the source of its life, from entering\nit.  And when this, the source of its life, was shut off, not only was\nthe appearance of the lotus pond entirely changed, but the surrounding\nfields were deprived of the stream to whose banks the flocks and cattle\ncame for drink.\n\nIn this do we not see a complete parallel so far as human life is\nconcerned?  In the degree that we recognize our oneness, our connection\nwith the Infinite Spirit which is the life of all, and in the degree\nthat we open ourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into harmony\nwith the highest, the most powerful, and the most beautiful everywhere.\nAnd in the degree that we do this do we overflow, so that all who come\nin contact with us receive the effects of this realization on our part.\nThis is the lotus pond of our friend, he who is in love with all that\nis truest and best in the universe.  And in the degree that we fail to\nrecognize our oneness with this Infinite Source, and so close, shut\nourselves to this divine inflow, do we come into that state where there\nseems to be with us nothing of good, nothing of beauty, nothing of\npower; and when this is true, those who come in contact with us receive\nnot good, but harm.  This is the spot of the lotus pond while the farm\nwas in the hands of a renter.\n\nThere is this difference between the lotus pond and your life and mine.\nIt has no power in itself of opening the gate to the inflow of the\nwater from the reservoir which is its source.  In regard to this it is\nhelpless and dependent upon an outside agency.  You and I have the\npower, the power within us, to open or to close ourselves to this\ndivine inflow exactly as we choose.  This we have through the power of\nmind, through the operation of thought.\n\nThere is the soul life, direct from God.  This it is that relates us to\nthe Infinite.  There is, then, the physical life.  This it is that\nrelates us to the material universe about us.  The thought life\nconnects the one with the other.  It is this that plays between the two.\n\nBefore we proceed farther let us consider very briefly the nature of\nthought.  Thought is not, as is many times supposed, a mere indefinite\nabstraction, or something of a like nature.  It is, on the contrary, a\nvital, living force, the most vital, subtle, and irresistible force\nthere is in the universe.\n\nIn our very laboratory experiments we are demonstrating the great fact\nthat thoughts are forces.  They have form, and quality, and substance,\nand power, and we are beginning to find that there is what we may term\na _science of thought_.  We are beginning also to find that through the\ninstrumentality of our thought forces we have creative power, not\nmerely in a figurative sense, but creative power in reality.\n\nEverything in the material universe about us, everything the universe\nhas ever known, had its origin first in thought.  From this it took its\nform.  Every castle, every statue, every painting, every piece of\nmechanism, everything had its birth, its origin, first in the mind of\nthe one who formed it before it received its material expression or\nembodiment.  The very universe in which we live is the result of the\nthought energies of God, the Infinite Spirit that is back of all.  And\nif it is true, as we have found, that we in our true selves are in\nessence the same, and in this sense are one with the life of this\nInfinite Spirit, do we not then see that in the degree that we come\ninto a vital realization of this stupendous fact, _we, through the\noperation of our interior, spiritual, thought forces, have in like\nsense creative power_?\n\nEverything exists in the unseen before it is manifested or realized in\nthe seen, and in this sense it is true that the unseen things are the\nreal, while the things that are seen are the unreal.  The unseen things\nare _cause_; the seen things are _effect_.  The unseen things are the\neternal; the seen things are the changing, the transient.\n\nThe \"_power of the word_\" is a literal scientific fact.  Through the\noperation of our thought forces we have creative power.  The spoken\nword is nothing more nor less than the outward expression of the\nworkings of these interior forces.  The spoken word is then, in a\nsense, the means whereby the thought forces are focused and directed\nalong any particular line; and this concentration, this giving them\ndirection, is necessary before any outward or material manifestation of\ntheir power can become evident.\n\nMuch is said in regard to \"building castles in the air,\" and one who is\ngiven to this building is not always looked upon with favor.  But\ncastles in the air are always necessary before we can have castles on\nthe ground, before we can have castles in which to live.  The trouble\nwith the one who gives himself to building castles in the air is not\nthat he builds them in the air, but that he does not go farther and\nactualize in life, in character, in material form, the castles he thus\nbuilds.  He does a part of the work, a very necessary part; but another\nequally necessary part remains still undone.\n\nThere is in connection with the thought forces what we may term, the\ndrawing power of mind, and the great law operating here is one with\nthat great law of the universe, that like attracts like.  We are\ncontinually attracting to us from both the seen and the unseen side of\nlife, forces and conditions most akin to those of our own thoughts.\n\nThis law is continually operating whether we are conscious of it or\nnot.  We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought, and\nthe very atmosphere around us is continually filled with the thought\nforces that are being continually sent or that are continually going\nout in the form of thought waves.  We are all affected, more or less,\nby these thought forces, either consciously or unconsciously; and in\nthe degree that we are more or less sensitively organized, or in the\ndegree that we are negative and so are open to outside influences,\nrather than positive, thus determining what influences shall enter into\nour realm of thought, and hence into our lives.\n\nThere are those among us who are much more sensitively organized than\nothers.  As an organism their bodies are more finely, more sensitively\nconstructed.  These, generally speaking, are people who are always more\nor less affected by the mentalities of those with whom they come in\ncontact, or in whose company they are.  A friend, the editor of one of\nour great journals, is so sensitively organized that it is impossible\nfor him to attend a gathering, such as a reception, talk and shake\nhands with a number of people during the course of the evening, without\ntaking on to a greater or less extent their various mental and physical\nconditions.  These affect him to such an extent that he is scarcely\nhimself and in his best condition for work until some two or three days\nafterward.\n\nSome think it unfortunate for one to be sensitively organized.  By no\nmeans.  It is a good thing, for one may thus be more open and receptive\nto the higher impulses of the soul within, and to all higher forces and\ninfluences from without.  It may, however, be unfortunate and extremely\ninconvenient to be so organized unless one recognize and gain the power\nof closing himself, of making himself positive to all detrimental or\nundesirable influences.  This power every one, however sensitively\norganized he may be, can acquire.\n\nThis he can acquire through the mind's action.  And, moreover, there is\nno habit of more value to anyone, be he sensitively or less sensitively\norganized, than that of occasionally taking and holding himself\ncontinually in the attitude of mind--I close myself, I make myself\npositive to all things below, and open and receptive to all higher\ninfluences, to all things above.  By taking this attitude of mind\nconsciously now and then, it soon becomes a habit, and if one is deeply\nin earnest in regard to it, it puts into operation silent but subtle\nand powerful influences in effecting the desired results.  In this way\nall lower and undesirable influences from both the seen and the unseen\nside of life are closed out, while all higher influences are invited,\nand in the degree that they are invited will they enter.\n\nAnd what do we mean by the unseen side of life?  First, the thought\nforces, the mental and emotional conditions in the atmosphere about us\nthat are generated by those manifesting on the physical plane through\nthe agency of physical bodies.  Second, the same forces generated by\nthose who have dropped the physical body, or from whom it has been\nstruck away, and who are now manifesting through the agency of bodies\nof a different nature.\n\n\"The individual existence of man _begins_ on the sense plane of the\nphysical world, but rises through successive gradations of ethereal and\ncelestial spheres, corresponding with his ever unfolding deific life\nand powers, to a destiny of unspeakable grandeur and glory.  Within and\nabove every physical planet is a corresponding ethereal planet, or soul\nworld, as within and above every physical organism is a corresponding\nethereal organism, or soul body, of which the physical is but the\nexternal counterpart and materialized expression.  From this\netherealized or soul planet, which is the immediate home of our arisen\nhumanity, there rises or deepens in infinite gradations spheres within\nand above spheres, to celestial heights of spiritualized existence\nutterly inconceivable to the sense man.  Embodiment, accordingly, is\ntwo-fold,--the physical being but the temporary husk, so to speak, in\nand by which the real and permanent ethereal organism is individualized\nand perfected, somewhat as 'the full corn in the ear' is reached by\nmeans of its husk, for which there is no further use.  By means of this\nindestructible ethereal body and the corresponding ethereal spheres of\nenvironment with the social life and relations in the spheres, the\nindividuality and personal life is preserved forever.\"\n\nThe fact of life in whatever form means the continuance of life, even\nthough the form be changed.  Life is the one eternal principle of the\nuniverse and so always continues, even though the form of the agency\nthrough which it manifests be changed.  \"In my Father's house are many\nmansions.\"  And surely, because the individual has dropped, has gone\nout of the physical body, there is no evidence at all that the life\ndoes not go right on the same as before, not commencing,--for there is\nno cessation,--but commencing in the other form, exactly where it has\nleft off here; for all life is a continuous evolution, step by step;\nthere one neither skips nor jumps.\n\nThere are in the other form, then, mentalities and hence lives of all\ngrades and influences, the same as there are in the physical form.  If,\nthen, the great law that like attracts like is ever operating, we are\ncontinually attracting to us from this side of life influences and\nconditions most akin to those of our own thoughts and lives.  A\ngrewsome thought that we should be so influenced, says one.  By no\nmeans, all life is one; we are all bound together in the one common and\nuniversal life, and especially not when we take into consideration the\nfact that we have it entirely in our own hands to determine the order\nof thought we entertain, and consequently the order of influences we\nattract, and are not mere willowy creatures of circumstance, unless\nindeed we choose to be.\n\nIn our mental lives we can either keep hold of the rudder and so\ndetermine exactly what course we take, what points we touch, or we can\nfail to do this, and failing, we drift, and are blown hither and\nthither by every passing breeze.  And so, on the contrary, welcome\nshould be the thought, for thus we may draw to us the influence and the\naid of the greatest, the noblest, and the best who have lived on the\nearth, whatever the time, wherever the place.\n\nWe cannot rationally believe other than that those who have labored in\nlove and with uplifting power here are still laboring in the same way,\nand in all probability with more earnest zeal, and with still greater\npower.\n\n\"And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he\nmay see.  And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw:\nand, behold, the mountain _was full of horses and chariots of fire_\nround about Elisha.\"\n\nWhile riding with a friend a few days ago, we were speaking of the\ngreat interest people are everywhere taking in the more vital things of\nlife, the eagerness with which they are reaching out for a knowledge of\nthe interior forces, their ever increasing desire to know themselves\nand to know their true relations with the Infinite.  And in speaking of\nthe great spiritual awakening that is so rapidly coming all over the\nworld, the beginnings of which we are so clearly seeing during the\nclosing years of this, and whose ever increasing proportions we are to\nwitness during the early years of the coming century, I said, \"How\nbeautiful if Emerson, the illumined one so far in advance of his time,\nwho labored so faithfully and so fearlessly to bring about these very\nconditions, how beautiful if he were with us today to witness it all!\nhow he would rejoice!\"  \"How do we know,\" was the reply, \"that he is\nnot witnessing it all? and more, that he is not having a hand in it\nall,--a hand even greater, perhaps, than when we _saw_ him here?\"\nThank you, my friend, for this reminder.  And, truly, \"are they not all\nministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs\nof salvation?\"\n\nAs science is so abundantly demonstrating today,--the things that we\nsee are but a very small fraction of the things that are.  The real,\nvital forces at work in our own lives and in the world about us are not\nseen by the ordinary physical eye.  Yet they are the causes of which\nall things we see are merely the effects.  Thoughts are forces; like\nbuilds like, and like attracts like.  For one to govern his thinking,\nthen, is to determine his life.\n\nSays one of deep insight into the nature of things: \"The law of\ncorrespondences between spiritual and material things is wonderfully\nexact in its workings.  People ruled by the mood of gloom attract to\nthem gloomy things.  People always discouraged and despondent do not\nsucceed in anything, and live only by burdening some one else.  The\nhopeful, confident, and cheerful attract the elements of success.  A\nman's front or back yard will advertise that man's ruling mood in the\nway it is kept.  A woman at home shows her state of mind in her dress.\nA slattern advertises the ruling mood of hopelessness, carelessness,\nand lack of system.  Rags, tatters, and dirt are always in the mind\nbefore being on the body.  The thought that is most put out brings its\ncorresponding visible element to crystallize about you as surely and\nliterally as the visible bit of copper in solution attracts to it the\ninvisible copper in that solution.  A mind always hopeful, confident,\ncourageous, and determined on its set purpose, and keeping itself to\nthat purpose, attracts to itself out of the elements things and powers\nfavorable to that purpose.\n\n\"Every thought of yours has a literal value to you in every possible\nway.  The strength of your body, the strength of your mind, your\nsuccess in business, and the pleasure your company brings others,\ndepends on the nature of your thoughts. . . .  In whatever mood you set\nyour mind does your spirit receive of unseen substance in\ncorrespondence with that mood.  It is as much a chemical law as a\nspiritual law.  Chemistry is not confined to the elements we see.  The\nelements we do not see with the physical eye outnumber ten thousand\ntimes those we do see.  The Christ injunction, 'Do good to those who\nhate you,' is based on a scientific fact and a natural law.  So, to do\ngood is to bring to yourself all the elements in nature of power and\ngood.  To do evil is to bring the contrary destructive elements.  When\nour eyes are opened, self-preservation will make us stop all evil\nthought.  Those who live by hate will die by hate: that is, 'those who\nlive by the sword will die by the sword.'  Every evil thought is as a\nsword drawn on the person to whom it is directed.  If a sword is drawn\nin return, so much the worse for both.\"\n\nAnd says another who knows full well whereof he speaks: \"The law of\nattraction works universally on every plane of _action_, and we attract\nwhatever we desire or expect.  If we desire one thing and expect\nanother, we become like houses divided against themselves, which are\nquickly brought to desolation.  Determine resolutely to expect only\nwhat you desire, then you will attract only what you wish for. . . .\nCarry any kind of thought you please about with you, and so long as you\nretain it, no matter how you roam over land or sea, you will\nunceasingly attract to yourself, knowingly or inadvertently, exactly\nand only what corresponds to your own dominant quality of thought.\nThoughts are our private property, and we can regulate them to suit our\ntaste entirely by steadily recognizing our ability so to do.\"\n\nWe have just spoken of the drawing power of mind.  Faith is nothing\nmore nor less than the operation of the _thought forces_ in the form of\nan earnest desire, coupled with expectation as to its fulfillment.  And\nin the degree that faith, the earnest desire thus sent out, is\ncontinually held to and watered by firm expectation, in just that\ndegree does it either draw to itself, or does it change from the unseen\ninto the visible, from the spiritual into the material, that for which\nit is sent.\n\nLet the element of doubt or fear enter in, and what would otherwise be\na tremendous force will be so neutralized that it will fail of its\nrealization.  Continually held to and continually watered by firm\nexpectation, it becomes a force, a drawing power, that is irresistible\nand absolute, and the results will be absolute in direct proportion as\nit is absolute.\n\nWe shall find, as we are so rapidly beginning to find today, that the\ngreat things said in regard to faith, the great promises made in\nconnection with it, are not mere vague sentimentalities, but are all\ngreat scientific facts, and rest upon great immutable laws.  Even in\nour very laboratory experiments we are beginning to discover the laws\nunderlying and governing these forces.  We, are now beginning, some at\nleast, to use them understandingly and not blindly, as has so often and\nso long been the case.\n\nMuch is said today in regard to the will.  It is many times spoken of\nas if it were a force in itself.  But will is a force, a power, only in\nso far as it is a particular form of the manifestation of the thought\nforces; for it is by what we call the \"will\" that thought is focused\nand given a particular direction, and in the degree that thought is\nthus focused and given direction, is it effective in the work it is\nsent out to accomplish.\n\nIn a sense there are two kinds of will,--the human and the divine.  The\nhuman will is the will of what, for convenience' sake, we may term the\nlower self.  It is the will that finds its life merely in the realm of\nthe mental and the physical,--the sense will.  It is the will of the\none who is not yet awake to the fact that there is a life that far\ntranscends the life of merely the intellect and the physical senses,\nand which when realized and lived, does not do away with or minify\nthese, but which, on the contrary, brings them to their highest\nperfection and to their powers of keenest enjoyment.  The divine will\nis the will of the higher self, the will of the one who recognizes his\noneness with the Divine, and who consequently brings his will to work\nin harmony, in conjunction with the divine will.  \"The Lord thy God _in\nthe midst of thee_ is mighty.\"\n\nThe human will has its limitations.  So far and no farther, says the\nlaw.  The divine will has no limitations.  It is supreme.  All things\nare open and subject to you, says the law, and so, in the degree that\nthe human will is transmuted into the divine, in the degree that it\ncomes into harmony with and so, acts in conjunction with the divine,\ndoes it become supreme.  Then it is that \"Thou shalt decree a thing and\nit shall be established unto thee.\"  The great secret of life and of\npower, then, is to make and to keep one's conscious connection with\nthis Infinite Source.\n\nThe power of every life, the very life itself, is determined by what it\nrelates itself to.  God is immanent as well as transcendent.  He is\ncreating, working, ruling in the universe today, in your life and in\nmine, just as much as He ever has been.  We are too apt to regard Him\nafter the manner of an absentee landlord, one who has set into\noperation the forces of this great universe, and then taken Himself\naway.\n\nIn the degree, however, that we recognize Him as immanent as well as\ntranscendent, are we able to partake of His life and power.  For in the\ndegree that we recognize Him as the Infinite Spirit of Life and Power\nthat is today, at this very moment, working and manifesting in and\nthrough all, and then, in the degree that we come into the realization\nof our oneness with this life, do we become partakers of, and so do we\nactualize in ourselves the qualities of His life.  _In the degree that\nwe open ourselves to the inflowing tide of this immanent and\ntranscendent life, do we make ourselves channels through which the\nInfinite Intelligence and Power can work_.\n\nIt is through the instrumentality of the mind that we are enabled to\nconnect the real soul life with the physical life, and so enable the\nsoul life to manifest and work through the physical.  The thought life\nneeds _continually_ to be illumined from within.  This illumination can\ncome in just the degree that through the agency of the mind we\nrecognize our oneness with the Divine, of which each soul is an\nindividual form of expression.\n\nThis gives us the inner guiding which we call intuition.  \"Intuition is\nto the spiritual nature and understanding practically what sense\nperception is to the sensuous nature and understanding.  It is an inner\nspiritual sense through which man is opened to the direct revelation\nand knowledge of God, the secrets of nature and life, and through which\nhe is brought into conscious unity and fellowship with God, and made to\nrealize his own deific nature and supremacy of being as the son of God.\nSpiritual supremacy and illumination thus realized through the\ndevelopment and perfection of intuition under divine inspiration, gives\nthe perfect inner vision and direct insight into the character,\nproperties, and purpose of all things to which the attention and\ninterest are directed. . . .  It is, we repeat, a spiritual sense\nopening inwardly, as the physical senses open outwardly; and because it\nhas the capacity to perceive, grasp, and know the truth at first hand,\nindependent of all external sources of information, we call it\nintuition.  All inspired teaching and spiritual revelations are based\nupon the recognition of this spiritual faculty of the soul, and its\npower to receive and appropriate them. . . .  Conscious unity of man in\nspirit and purpose with the Father, born out of his supreme desire and\ntrust, opens his soul through this inner sense to immediate inspiration\nand enlightenment from the Divine Omniscience, and the co-operative\nenergy of the Divine Omnipotence, under which he becomes a seer and a\nmaster.\n\n\"On this higher plane of realized spiritual life in the flesh the mind\nholds the impersonal attitude and acts with unfettered freedom and\nunbiased vision, grasping truth at first hand, independent of all\nexternal sources of information.  Approaching all beings and things\nfrom the divine side, they are seen in the light of the Divine\nOmniscience.  God's purpose in them, and so the truth concerning them,\nas it rests in the mind of God, are thus revealed by direct\nillumination from the Divine Mind, to which the soul is opened inwardly\nthrough this spiritual sense we call intuition.\"  Some call it the\nvoice of the soul; some call it the voice of God; some call it the\nsixth sense.  It is our inner spiritual sense.\n\nIn the degree that we come into the recognition of our own _true_\nselves, into the realization of the oneness of our life with the\nInfinite Life, and in the degree that we open ourselves to this divine\ninflow, does this voice of intuition, this voice of the soul, this\nvoice of God, speak clearly; and in the degree that we recognize,\nlisten to, and obey it, does it speak ever more clearly, until\nby-and-by there comes the time when it is unerring, _absolutely\nunerring_, in its guidance.\n\n\n\n\nFULLNESS OF LIFE--BODILY HEALTH AND VIGOR.\n\nGod is the Spirit of Infinite Life.  If we are partakers of this life,\nand have the power of opening ourselves fully to its divine inflow, it\nmeans more, so far as even the physical life is concerned, than we may\nat first think.  For very clearly, the life of this Infinite Spirit,\nfrom its very nature, can admit of no disease; and if this is true, no\ndisease can exist in the body where it freely enters, through which it\nfreely flows.\n\nLet us recognize at the outset that, so far as the physical life is\nconcerned, _all life is from within out_.  There is an immutable law\nwhich says: \"As within, so without; cause, effect.\"  In other words,\nthe thought forces, the various mental states and the emotions, all\nhave in time their effects upon the physical body.\n\nSome one says: \"I hear a great deal said today in regard to the effects\nof the mind upon the body, but I don't know as I place very much\nconfidence in this.\"  Don't you?  Some one brings you sudden news.  You\ngrow pale, you tremble, or perhaps you fall into a faint.  It is,\nhowever, through the channel of your mind that the news is imparted to\nyou.  A friend says something to you, perhaps at the table, something\nthat seems very unkind.  You are hurt by it, as we say.  You have been\nenjoying your dinner, but from this moment your appetite is gone.  But\nwhat was said entered into and affected you through the channel of your\nmind.\n\nLook! yonder goes a young man, dragging his feet, stumbling over the\nslightest obstruction in the path.  Why is it?  Simply that he is\nweak-minded, an idiot.  In other words, _a falling state of mind is\nproductive of a falling condition of the body_.  To be sure minded is\nto be sure footed.  To be uncertain in mind is to be uncertain in step.\n\nAgain, a sudden emergency arises.  You stand trembling and weak with\nfear.  Why are you powerless to move?  Why do you tremble?  And yet you\nbelieve that the mind has but little influence upon the body.  You are\nfor a moment dominated by a fit of anger.  For a few hours afterwards\nyou complain of a violent headache.  And still you do not seem to\nrealize that the thoughts and emotions have an effect upon the body.\n\nA day or two ago, while conversing with a friend, we were speaking of\nworry.  \"My father is greatly given to worry,\" he said.  \"Your father\nis not a healthy man,\" I said.  \"He is not strong, vigorous, robust,\nand active.\"  I then went on to describe to him more fully his father's\ncondition and the troubles which afflicted him.  He looked at me in\nsurprise and said, \"Why, you do not know my father?\"  \"No,\" I replied.\n\"How then can you describe so accurately the disease with which he is\nafflicted?\"  \"You have just told me that your father is greatly given\nto worry.  When you told me this you indicated to me cause.  In\ndescribing your father's condition I simply connected with the cause\nits own peculiar effects.\"\n\nFear and worry have the effect of closing up the channels of the body,\nso that the life forces flow in a slow and sluggish manner.  Hope and\ntranquillity open the channels of the body, so that the life forces go\nbounding through it in such a way that disease can rarely get a\nfoothold.\n\nNot long ago a lady was telling a friend of a serious physical trouble.\nMy friend happened to know that between this lady and her sister the\nmost kindly relations did not exist.  He listened attentively to her\ndelineation of her troubles, and then, looking her squarely in the\nface, in a firm but kindly tone said: \"Forgive your sister.\"  The woman\nlooked at him in surprise and said: \"I can't forgive my sister.\"  \"Very\nwell, then,\" he replied, \"keep the stiffness of your joints and your\nkindred rheumatic troubles.\"\n\nA few weeks later he saw her again.  With a light step she came toward\nhim and said: \"I took your advice.  I saw my sister and forgave her.\nWe have become good friends again, and I don't know how it is, but\nsomehow or other from the very day, as I remember, that we became\nreconciled, my troubles seemed to grow less, and today there is not a\ntrace of the old difficulties left; and really, my sister and I have\nbecome such good friends that now we can scarcely get along without one\nanother.\"  Again we have effect following cause.\n\nWe have several well-authenticated cases of the following nature: A\nmother has been dominated for a few moments by an intense passion of\nanger, and the child at her breast has died within an hour's time, so\npoisoned became the mother's milk by virtue of the poisonous secretions\nof the system while under the domination of this fit of anger.  In\nother cases it has caused severe illness and convulsions.\n\nThe following experiment has been tried a number of times by a\nwell-known scientist: Several men have been put into a heated room.\nEach man has been dominated for a moment by a particular passion of\nsome kind; one by an intense passion of anger, and others by different\nother passions.  The experimenter has taken a drop of perspiration from\nthe body of each of these men, and by means of a careful chemical\nanalysis he has been able to determine the particular passion by which\neach has been dominated.  Practically the same results revealed\nthemselves in the chemical analysis of the saliva of each of the men.\n\nSays a noted American author, an able graduate of one of our greatest\nmedical schools, and one who has studied deeply into the forces that\nbuild the body and the forces that tear it down: \"The mind is the\nnatural protector of the body. . . .  Every thought tends to reproduce\nitself, and ghastly mental pictures of disease, sensuality, and vice of\nall sorts, produce scrofula and leprosy in the soul, which reproduces\nthem in the body.  Anger changes the chemical properties of the saliva\nto a poison dangerous to life.  It is well known that sudden and\nviolent emotions have not only weakened the heart in a few hours, but\nhave caused death and insanity.  It has been discovered by scientists\nthat there is a chemical difference between that sudden cold exudation\nof a person under a deep sense of guilt and the ordinary perspiration;\nand the state of the mind can sometimes be determined by chemical\nanalysis of the perspiration of a criminal, which, when brought into\ncontact with selenic acid, produces a distinctive pink color.  It is\nwell known that fear has killed thousands of victims; while, on the\nother hand, _courage is a great invigorator_.\n\n\"Anger in the mother may poison a nursing child.  Rarey, the celebrated\nhorse-tamer, said that an angry word would sometimes raise the pulse of\na horse ten beats in a minute.  If this is true of a beast, what can we\nsay of its power upon human beings, especially upon a child?  Strong\nmental emotion often causes vomiting.  Extreme anger or fright may\nproduce jaundice.  A violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy and\ndeath.  Indeed, in more than one instance, a single night of mental\nagony has wrecked a life.  Grief, long-standing jealousy, constant care\nand corroding anxiety sometimes tend to develop insanity.  Sick\nthoughts and discordant moods are the natural atmosphere of disease,\nand crime is engendered and thrives in the miasma of the mind.\"\n\nFrom all this we get the great fact we are scientifically demonstrating\ntoday,--that the various mental states, emotions, and passions have\ntheir various peculiar effects upon the body, and each induces in turn,\nif indulged in to any great extent, its own peculiar forms of disease,\nand these in time become chronic.\n\nJust a word or two in regard to their mode of operation.  If a person\nis dominated for a moment by, say a passion of anger, there is set up\nin the physical organism what we might justly term a bodily\nthunder-storm, which has the effect of souring, or rather of corroding,\nthe normal, healthy, and life-giving secretions of the body, so that\ninstead of performing their natural functions they become poisonous and\ndestructive.  And if this goes on to any great extent, by virtue of\ntheir cumulative influences, they give rise to a particular form of\ndisease, which in turn becomes chronic.  So the emotion opposite to\nthis, that of kindliness, love, benevolence, good-will, tends to\nstimulate a healthy, purifying, and life-giving flow of all the bodily\nsecretions.  All the channels of the body seem free and open; the life\nforces go bounding through them.  And these very forces, set into a\nbounding activity, will in time counteract the poisonous and\ndisease-giving effects of their opposites.\n\nA physician goes to see a patient.  He gives no medicine this morning.\nYet the very fact of his going makes the patient better.  He has\ncarried with him the spirit of health; he has carried brightness of\ntone and disposition; he has carried hope into the sick chamber; he has\nleft it there.  In fact, the very hope and good cheer he has carried\nwith him has taken hold of and has had a subtle but powerful influence\nupon the mind of the patient; and this mental condition imparted by the\nphysician has in turn its effects upon the patient's body, and so\nthrough the instrumentality of this mental suggestion the healing goes\non.\n\n  \"Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene\n  Supports the mind, supports the body, too.\n  Hence the most vital movement mortals feel\n  Is _hope_; the balm and life-blood of the soul.\"\n\n\nWe sometimes hear a person in weak health say to another, \"I always\nfeel better when you come.\"  There is a deep scientific reason\nunderlying the statement.  \"The tongue of the wise is health.\"  The\npower of suggestion so far as the human mind is concerned is a most\nwonderful and interesting field of study.  Most wonderful and powerful\nforces can be set into operation through this agency.  One of the\nworld's most noted scientists, recognized everywhere as one of the most\neminent anatomists living, tells us that he has proven from laboratory\nexperiments that the entire human structure can be completely changed,\nmade over, within a period of less than one year, and that some\nportions can be entirely remade within a period of a very few weeks.\n\n\"Do you mean to say,\" I hear it asked, \"that the body can be changed\nfrom a diseased to a healthy condition through the operation of the\ninterior forces?\"  Most certainly; and more, this is the natural method\nof cure.  The method that has as its work the application of drugs,\nmedicines and external agencies is the artificial method.  The only\nthing that any drug or any medicine can do is to remove obstructions,\nthat the life forces may have simply a better chance to do their work.\n_The real healing process must be performed by the operation of the\nlife forces within_.  A surgeon and physician of world-wide fame\nrecently made to his medical associates the following declaration: \"For\ngenerations past the most important influence that plays upon\nnutrition, the _life principle_ itself, has remained an unconsidered\nelement in the medical profession, and the almost exclusive drift of\nits studies and remedial paraphernalia has been confined to the action\nof matter over mind.  This has seriously interfered with the\nevolutionary tendencies of the doctors themselves, and consequently the\npsychic factor in professional life is still in a rudimentary or\ncomparatively undeveloped state.  But the light of the nineteenth\ncentury has dawned, and so the march of mankind in general is taken in\nthe direction of the hidden forces of nature.  Doctors are now\ncompelled to join the ranks of students in psychology and follow their\npatrons into the broader field of mental therapeutics.  There is no\ntime for lingering, no time for skepticism or doubt or hesitation.  _He\nwho lingers is lost, for the entire race is enlisted in the movement_.\"\n\nI am aware of the fact that in connection with the matter we are now\nconsidering there has been a great deal of foolishness during the past\nfew years.  Many absurd and foolish things have been claimed and done;\nbut this says nothing against, and it has absolutely nothing to do with\nthe great underlying laws themselves.  The same has been true of the\nearly days of practically every system of ethics or philosophy or\nreligion the world has ever known.  But as time has passed, these\nfoolish, absurd things have fallen away, and the great eternal\nprinciples have stood out ever more and more clearly defined.\n\nI know _personally_ of many cases where an entire and permanent cure\nhas been effected, in some within a remarkably short period of time,\nthrough the operation of these forces.  Some of them are cases that had\nbeen entirely given up by the regular practice, _materia medica_.  We\nhave numerous accounts of such cases in all times and in connection\nwith all religions.  And why should not the power of effecting such\ncures exist among us today?  The _power does exist_, and it will be\nactualized in just the degree that we recognize the same great laws\nthat were recognized in times past.\n\nOne person may do a very great deal in connection with the healing of\nanother, but this almost invariably implies co-operation on the part of\nthe one who is thus treated.  In the cures that Christ performed he\nmost always needed the co-operation of the one who appealed to him.\nHis question almost invariably was, \"Dost thou believe?\"  He thus\nstimulated into activity the life-giving forces within the one cured.\nIf one is in a very weak condition, or if his nervous system is\nexhausted, or if his mind through the influence of the disease is not\nso strong in its workings, it may be well for him for a time to seek\nthe aid and co-operation of another.  But it would be far better for\nsuch a one could he bring himself to a vital realization of the\nomnipotence of his own interior powers.\n\nOne may cure another, but to be _permanently healed_ one must do it\nhimself.  In this way another may be most valuable as a teacher by\nbringing one to a clear realization of the power of the forces within,\nbut in every case, in order to have a permanent cure, the work of the\nself is necessary.  Christ's words were almost invariably,--Go and sin\nno more, or, thy sins are forgiven thee, thus pointing out the one\neternal and never-changing fact,--that all disease and its consequent\nsuffering is the direct or the indirect result of the violation of law,\neither consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally or\nunintentionally.\n\nSuffering is designed to continue only so long as sin continues, sin\nnot necessarily in the theological, but always in the philosophical\nsense, though many times in the sense of both.  The moment the\nviolation ceases, the moment one comes into perfect harmony with the\nlaw, the cause of the suffering ceases; and though there may be\nresiding within the cumulative effects of past violation, the cause is\nremoved, and consequently there can be no more effects in the form of\nadditions, and even the diseased condition that has been induced from\npast violation will begin to disappear as soon as the right forces are\nset into activity.\n\nThere is nothing that will more quickly and more completely bring one\ninto harmony with the laws under which he lives than this vital\nrealization of his oneness with the Infinite Spirit, which is the life\nof all life.  In this there can be no disease, and nothing will more\nreadily remove from the organism the obstructions that have accumulated\nthere, or in other words, the disease that resides there, than this\nfull realization and the complete opening of one's self to this divine\ninflow.  \"I shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live.\"\n\nThe moment a person realizes his oneness with the Infinite Spirit he\nrecognizes himself as a spiritual being, and no longer as a mere\nphysical, material being.  He then no longer makes the mistake of\nregarding himself as body, subject to ills and diseases, but he\nrealizes the fact that he is spirit, spirit now as much as he ever will\nor can be, and that he is the builder and so the master of the body,\nthe house in which he lives; and the moment he thus recognizes his\npower as master he ceases in any way to allow it the mastery over him.\nHe no longer fears the elements or any of the forces that he now in his\nignorance allows to take hold of and affect the body.  The moment he\nrealizes his own supremacy, instead of fearing them as he did when he\nwas out of harmony with them, he learns to love them.  He thus comes\ninto harmony with them; or rather, he so orders them that they come\ninto harmony with him.  He who formerly was the slave has now become\nthe master.  The moment we come to love a thing it no longer carries\nharm for us.\n\nThere are almost countless numbers today, weak and suffering in body,\nwho would become strong and healthy if they would only give God an\nopportunity to do His work.  To such I would say, _Don't shut out the\ndivine inflow_.  Do anything else rather than this.  Open yourselves to\nit.  Invite it.  In the degree that you open yourselves to it, its\ninflowing tide will course through your bodies a force so vital that\nthe old obstructions that are dominating them today will be driven out\nbefore it.  \"My words are life to them that find them, and health to\nall their flesh.\"\n\nThere is a trough through which a stream of muddy water has been\nflowing for many days.  The dirt has gradually collected on its sides\nand bottom, and it continues to collect as long as the muddy water\nflows through it.  Change this.  Open the trough to a swift-flowing\nstream of clear, crystal water, and in a very little while even the\nvery dirt that has collected on its sides and bottom will be carried\naway.  The trough will be entirely cleansed.  It will present an aspect\nof beauty and no longer an aspect of ugliness.  And more, the water\nthat now courses through it will be of value; it will be an agent of\nrefreshment, of health and of strength to those who use it.\n\nYes, in just the degree that you realize your oneness with this\nInfinite Spirit of Life, and thus actualize your latent possibilities\nand powers, you will exchange dis-ease for ease, inharmony for harmony,\nsuffering and pain for abounding health and strength.  And in the\ndegree that you realize this wholeness, this abounding health and\nstrength in yourself, will you carry it to all with whom you come in\ncontact; for _we must remember that health is contagious as well as\ndisease_.\n\n\nI hear it asked, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to the\npractical application of these truths, so that one can hold himself in\nthe enjoyment of perfect bodily health; and more, that one may heal\nhimself of any existing disease?  In reply, let it be said that the\nchief thing that can be done is to point out the great underlying\nprinciple, and that each individual must make his own application; one\nperson cannot well make this for another.\n\nFirst let it be said, that the very fact of one's holding the thought\nof perfect health sets into operation vital forces which will in time\nbe more or less productive of the effect,--perfect health.  Then\nspeaking more directly in regard to the great principle itself, from\nits very nature, it is clear that more can be accomplished through the\nprocess of realization than through the process of affirmation, though\nfor some affirmation may be a help, an aid to realization.\n\nIn the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of your\noneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individual\nform has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through\nthis realization you open yourself to its divine inflow, do you set\ninto operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical\nbody into a state of abounding health and strength.  For to realize\nthat this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of no\ndisease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you, by\nrealizing your oneness with it, you can so open yourself to its more\nabundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions--effects--will\nrespond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quickly\nor more tardily, depending entirely upon yourself.\n\nThere have been those who have been able to open themselves so fully to\nthis realization that the healing has been instantaneous and permanent.\nThe degree of intensity always eliminates in like degree the element of\ntime.  _It must, however, be a calm, quiet, and expectant intensity,\nrather than an intensity that is fearing, disturbed, and\nnon-expectant_.  Then there are others who have come to this\nrealization by degrees.\n\nMany will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by a\npractice somewhat after the following nature: With a mind at peace, and\nwith a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your own\ninterior self, holding the thought,--I am one with the Infinite Spirit\nof Life, the life of my life.  I then as spirit, I a spiritual being,\ncan in my own real nature admit of no disease.  I now open my body, in\nwhich disease has gotten a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowing\ntide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in and\ncoursing through my body, and the healing process is going on.  Realize\nthis so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warming glow\nimparted by the life forces to the body.  Believe the healing process\nis going on.  Believe it, and hold continually to it.  Many people\ngreatly desire a certain thing, but expect something else.  They have\ngreater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and hence\nremain ill.\n\nIf one will give himself to this meditation, realization, treatment, or\nwhatever term it may seem best to use, at stated times, as often as he\nmay choose, and then _continually hold himself in the same attitude of\nmind_, thus allowing the force to work continually, he will be\nsurprised how rapidly the body will be exchanging conditions of disease\nand inharmony for health and harmony.  There is no particular reason,\nhowever, for this surprise, for in this way he is simply allowing the\nOmnipotent Power to do the work, which will have to do it ultimately in\nany case.\n\nIf there is a local difficulty, and one wants to open this particular\nportion, in addition to the entire body, to this inflowing life, he can\nhold this particular portion in thought, for to fix the thought in this\nway upon any particular portion of the body stimulates or increases the\nflow of the life forces in that portion.  It must always be borne in\nmind, however, that whatever healing may be thus accomplished, effects\nwill not permanently cease until causes have been removed.  In other\nwords, _as long as there is the violation of law, so long disease and\nsuffering will result_.\n\nThis realization that we are considering will have an influence not\nonly where there is a diseased condition of the body, but even where\nthere is not this condition it will give an increased bodily life,\nvigor, and power.\n\nWe have had many cases, in all times and in all countries, of healing\nthrough the operation of the interior forces, entirely independent of\nexternal agencies.  Various have been the methods, or rather, various\nhave been the names applied to them, but the great law underlying all\nis one and the same, and the same today.  When the Master sent his\nfollowers forth, his injunction to them was to heal the sick and the\nafflicted, as well as to teach the people.  The early church fathers\nhad the power of healing, in short, it was a part of their work.\n\nAnd why should we not have the power today, the same as they had it\nthen?  Are the laws at all different?  Identically the same.  Why,\nthen?  Simply because, with a few rare exceptions here and there, we\nare unable to get beyond the mere letter of the law into its real vital\nspirit and power.  It is the letter that killeth, it is the spirit that\ngiveth life and power.  Every soul who becomes so individualized that\nhe breaks through the mere letter and enters into the real vital\nspirit, _will have the power_, as have all who have gone before, and\nwhen he does, he will also be the means of imparting it to others, for\nhe will be one who will move and who will speak with authority.\n\nWe are rapidly finding today, and we shall find even more and more, as\ntime passes, that practically all disease, with its consequent\nsuffering, has its origin in perverted mental and emotional states and\nconditions.  _The mental attitude we take toward anything determines to\na greater or less extent its effects upon us_.  If we fear it, or if we\nantagonize it, the chances are that it will have detrimental or even\ndisastrous effects upon us.  If we come into harmony with it by quietly\nrecognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it, in the\ndegree that we are able successfully to do this, in that degree will it\ncarry with it no injury for us.\n\nNo disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find\ntherein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible.  And\nin the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come\ninto our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it\nand so makes it possible for it to come.  The sooner we begin to look\nwithin ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it\nwill be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within\nourselves such that only _good_ may enter.\n\nWe, who from our very natures should be masters of all conditions, by\nvirtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions of\nevery description.\n\nDo I fear a draft?  There is nothing in the draft--a little purifying\ncurrent of God's pure air--to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold,\nperhaps an illness.  The draft can affect me only in the degree that _I\nmyself_ make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affect\nme.  We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions.  The draft\nis not cause, nor does it carry cause with it.\n\nTwo persons are sitting in the same draft.  The one is injuriously\naffected by it, the other experiences not even an inconvenience, but he\nrather enjoys it.  The one is a creature of circumstances; he fears the\ndraft, cringes before it, continually thinks of the harm it is doing\nhim.  In other words, he opens every avenue for it to enter and take\nhold of him, and so it--harmless and beneficent in itself--brings to\nhim exactly what he has empowered it to bring.  The other recognizes\nhimself as the master over and not the creature of circumstances.  He\nis not concerned about the draft.  He puts himself into harmony with\nit, makes himself positive to it, and instead of experiencing any\ndiscomfort, he enjoys it, and in addition to its doing him a service by\nbringing the pure fresh air from without to him, it does him the\nadditional service of hardening him even more to any future conditions\nof a like nature.  But if the draft was cause, it would bring the same\nresults to both.  The fact that it does not, shows that it is not a\ncause, but a condition, and it brings to each, effects which correspond\nto the conditions it finds within each.\n\nPoor draft!  How many thousands, nay millions of times it is made the\nscapegoat by those who are too ignorant or too unfair to look their own\nweaknesses square in the face, and who instead of becoming imperial\nmasters, remain cringing slaves.  Think of it, what it means!  A man\ncreated in the image of the eternal God, sharer of His life and power,\nborn to have dominion, fearing, shaking, cringing before a little draft\nof pure life-giving air.  But scapegoats are convenient things, even if\nthe only thing they do for us is to aid us in our constant efforts at\nself-delusion.\n\nThe best way to disarm a draft of the bad effects it has been\naccustomed to bring one, is first to bring about a pure and healthy set\nof conditions within, then, to change one's mental attitude toward it.\nRecognize the fact that of itself it has no power, it has only the\npower you invest it with.  Thus you will put yourself into harmony with\nit, and will no longer sit in fear of it.  Then sit in a draft a few\ntimes and get hardened to it, as every one, by going at it judiciously,\ncan readily do.  \"But suppose one is in delicate health, or especially\nsubject to drafts?\"  Then be simply a little judicious at first; don't\nseek the strongest that can be found, especially if you do not as yet\nin your own mind feel equal to it, for if you do not, it signifies that\nyou still fear it.  That supreme regulator of all life, _good common\nsense_, must be used here, the same as elsewhere.\n\nIf we are born to have dominion, and that we are is demonstrated by the\nfact that some have attained to it,--and what one _has_ done, soon or\nlate all _can_ do,--then it is not necessary that we live under the\ndomination of any physical agent.  In the degree that we recognize our\nown interior powers, then are we rulers and able to dictate; in the\ndegree that we fail to recognize them, we are slaves, and are dictated\nto.  We build whatever we find within us; we attract whatever comes to\nus, and all in accordance with spiritual law, for all natural law is\nspiritual law.\n\nThe whole of human life is cause and effect; there is no such thing in\nit as chance, nor is there even in all the wide universe.  Are we not\nsatisfied with whatever comes into our lives?  The thing to do, then,\nis not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something we\ncreate and call fate, but to look to the within, and change the causes\nat work there, in order that things of a different nature may come, for\nthere will come exactly what we cause to come.  This is true not only\nof the physical body, but of all phases and conditions of life.  We\ninvite whatever comes, and did we not invite it, either consciously or\nunconsciously, it could not and it would not come.  This may\nundoubtedly be hard for some to believe, or even to see, at first.  But\nin the degree that one candidly and open-mindedly looks at it, and then\nstudies into the silent, but subtle and, so to speak, omnipotent\nworkings of the thought forces, and as he traces their effects within\nhim and about him, it becomes clearly evident, and easy to understand.\n\nAnd then whatever does come to one depends for its effects entirely\nupon his mental attitude toward it.  Does this or that occurrence or\ncondition cause you annoyance?  Very well; it causes you annoyance, and\nso disturbs your peace merely because you allow it to.  You are born to\nhave absolute control over your own dominion, but if you voluntarily\nhand over this power, even if for a little while, to some one or to\nsome thing else, then you of course, become the creature, the one\ncontrolled.\n\nTo live undisturbed by passing occurrences you must first find your own\ncentre.  You must then be firm in your own centre, and so rule the\nworld from within.  He who does not himself condition circumstances\nallows the process to be reversed, and becomes a conditioned\ncircumstance.  Find your centre and live in it.  Surrender it to no\nperson, to no thing.  In the degree that you do this will you find\nyourself growing stronger and stronger in it.  And how can one find his\ncentre?  By realizing his oneness with the Infinite Power, and by\nliving continually in this realization.\n\nBut if you do not rule from your own centre, if you invest this or that\nwith the power of bringing you annoyance, or evil, or harm, then take\nwhat it brings, but cease your railings against the eternal goodness\nand beneficence of all things.\n\n  \"I swear the earth shall surely be complete\n  To him or her who shall be complete;\n  The earth remains jagged and broken\n  Only to him who remains jagged and broken.\"\n\n\nIf the windows of your soul are dirty and streaked, covered with matter\nforeign to them, then the world as you look out of them will be to you\ndirty and streaked and out of order.  Cease your complainings, however;\nkeep your pessimism, your \"poor, unfortunate me\" to yourself, lest you\nbetray the fact that your windows are badly in need of something.  But\nknow that your friend, who keeps his windows clean, that the Eternal\nSun may illumine all within and make visible all without,--know that he\nlives in a different world from yours.\n\nThen, go wash your windows, and instead of longing for some other\nworld, you will discover the wonderful beauties of this world; and if\nyou don't find transcendent beauties on every hand here, the chances\nare that you will never find them anywhere.\n\n  \"The poem hangs on the berry-bush\n    When comes the poet's eye,\n  And the whole street is a masquerade\n    When Shakspeare passes by.\"\n\n\nThis same Shakspeare, whose mere passing causes all this commotion, is\nthe one who put into the mouth of one of his creations the words: \"The\nfault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are\nunderlings.\"  And the great work of his own life is right good evidence\nthat he realized full well the truth of the facts we are considering.\nAnd again he gave us a great truth in keeping with what we are\nconsidering when he said:\n\n        \"Our doubts are traitors,\n  And make us lose the good we oft might win\n  By _fearing_ to attempt.\"\n\n\nThere is probably no agent that brings us more undesirable conditions\nthan fear.  We should live in fear of nothing, nor will we when we come\nfully to know ourselves.  An old French proverb runs\n\n  \"Some of your griefs you have cured,\n    And the sharpest you still have survived;\n  But what _torments of pain_ you endured\n    From evils that never arrived.\"\n\n\nFear and lack of faith go hand in hand.  The one is born of the other.\nTell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much he\nlacks in faith.  Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain, the same\nas worry is: so expensive are they that no one can afford to entertain\nthem.  _We invite what we fear, the same as, by a different attitude of\nmind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire_.\nThe mind dominated by fear opens the door for the entrance of the very\nthings, for the actualization of the very conditions it fears.\n\n\"Where are you going?\" asked an Eastern pilgrim on meeting the plague\none day.  \"I am going to Bagdad to kill five thousand people,\" was the\nreply.  A few days later the same pilgrim met the plague returning.\n\"You told me you were going to Bagdad to kill five thousand people,\"\nsaid he, \"but instead, you killed fifty thousand.\"  \"No,\" said the\nplague.  \"_I killed only five thousand_, as I told you I would; _the\nothers died of fright_.\"\n\nFear can paralyze every muscle in the body.  Fear affects the flow of\nthe blood, likewise the normal and healthy action of all the life\nforces.  Fear can make the body rigid, motionless, and powerless to\nmove.\n\nNot only do we attract to ourselves the things we fear, but we also aid\nin attracting to others the conditions we in our own minds hold them in\nfear of.  This we do in proportion to the strength of our own thought,\nand in the degree that they are sensitively organized and so influenced\nby our thought, and this, although it be unconscious both on their part\nand on ours.\n\nChildren, and especially when very young, are, generally speaking, more\nsensitive to their surrounding influences than grown people are.  Some\nare veritable little sensitive plates, registering the influences about\nthem, and embodying them as they grow.  How careful in their prevailing\nmental states then should be those who have them in charge, and\nespecially how careful should a mother be during the time she is\ncarrying the child, and when every thought, every mental as well as\nemotional state has its direct influence upon the life of the unborn\nchild.  Let parents be careful how they hold a child, either younger or\nolder, in the thought of fear.  This is many times done, unwittingly on\ntheir part, through anxiety, and at times through what might well be\ntermed over-care, which is fully as bad as under-care.\n\nI know of a number of cases where a child has been so continually held\nin the thought of fear lest this or that condition come upon him, that\nthe very things that were feared have been drawn to him, which probably\notherwise never would have come at all.  Many times there has been no\nadequate basis for the fear.  In case there is a basis, then far wiser\nis it to take exactly the opposite attitude, so as to neutralize the\nforce at work, and then to hold the child in the thought of wisdom and\nstrength that it may be able to meet the condition and master it,\ninstead of being mastered by it.\n\nBut a day or two ago a friend was telling me of an experience of his\nown life in this connection.  At a period when he was having a terrific\nstruggle with a certain habit, he was so continually held in the\nthought of fear by his mother and the young lady to whom he was\nengaged,--the engagement to be consummated at the end of a certain\nperiod, the time depending on his proving his mastery,--that he, very\nsensitively organized, _continually_ felt the depressing and weakening\neffects of their negative thoughts.  He could always tell exactly how\nthey felt toward him; he was continually influenced and weakened by\ntheir fear, by their questionings, by their suspicions, all of which\nhad the effect of lessening the sense of his own power, all of which\nhad an endeavor-paralyzing influence upon him.  And so instead of their\nbegetting courage and strength in him, they brought him to a still\ngreater realization of his own weakness and the almost worthless use of\nstruggle.\n\nHere were two who loved him dearly, and who would have done anything\nand everything to help him gain the mastery, but who, ignorant of the\nsilent, subtle, ever-working and all-telling power of the thought\nforces, instead of imparting to him courage, instead of adding to his\nstrength, disarmed him of this, and then added an additional weakness\nfrom without.  In this way the battle for him was made harder in a\nthree-fold degree.\n\nFear and worry and all kindred mental states are too expensive for any\nperson, man, woman, or child, to entertain or indulge in.  Fear\nparalyzes healthy action, worry corrodes and pulls down the organism,\nand will finally tear it to pieces.  Nothing is to be gained by it, but\neverything to be lost.  Long-continued grief at any loss will do the\nsame.  Each brings its own peculiar type of ailment.  An inordinate\nlove of gain, a close-fisted, hoarding disposition will have kindred\neffects.  Anger, jealousy, malice, continual fault-finding, lust, has\neach its own peculiar corroding, weakening, tearing-down effects.\n\nWe shall find that not only are happiness and prosperity concomitants\nof righteousness,--living in harmony with the higher laws, but bodily\nhealth as well.  The great Hebrew seer enunciated a wonderful chemistry\nof life when he said,--\"As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that\npursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death.\"  On the other hand, \"In\nthe way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is\nno death.\"  The time will come when it will be seen that this means far\nmore than most people dare _even to think as yet_.  \"It rests with man\nto say whether his soul shall be housed in a stately mansion of\never-growing splendor and beauty, or in a hovel of his own building,--a\nhovel at last ruined and abandoned to decay.\"\n\nThe bodies of almost untold numbers, living their one-sided, unbalanced\nlives, are every year, through these influences, weakening and falling\nby the wayside long before their time.  Poor, poor houses!  Intended to\nbe beautiful temples, brought to desolation by their ignorant,\nreckless, deluded tenants.  Poor houses!\n\n\nA close observer, a careful student of the power of the thought forces,\nwill soon be able to read in the voice, in the movements, in the\nfeatures, the effects registered by the prevailing mental states and\nconditions.  Or, if he is told the prevailing mental states and\nconditions, he can describe the voice, the movements, the features, as\nwell as describe, in a general way, the peculiar physical ailments\ntheir possessor is heir to.\n\nWe are told by good authority that a study of the human body, its\nstructure, and the length of time it takes it to come to maturity, in\ncomparison with the time it takes the bodies of various animals and\ntheir corresponding longevity, reveals the fact that its natural age\nshould be nearer a hundred and twenty years than what we commonly find\nit today.  But think of the multitudes all about us whose bodies are\naging, weakening, breaking, so that they have to abandon them long\nbefore they reach what ought to be a long period of strong, vigorous\nmiddle life.\n\nThen, the natural length of life being thus shortened, it comes to be\nwhat we might term a race belief that this shortened period is the\nnatural period.  And as a consequence many, when they approach a\ncertain age, seeing that as a rule people at this period of life begin\nto show signs of age, to break and go down hill as we say, they,\nthinking it a matter of course and that it must be the same with them,\nby taking this attitude of mind, many times bring upon themselves these\nvery conditions long before it is necessary.  Subtle and powerful are\nthe influences of the mind in the building and rebuilding of the body.\nAs we understand them better it may become the custom for people to\nlook forward with pleasure to the teens of their second century.\n\nThere comes to mind at this moment a friend, a lady well on to eighty\nyears of age.  An old lady, some, most people in fact, would call her,\nespecially those who measure age by the number of the seasons that have\ncome and gone since one's birth.  But to call our friend old, would be\nto call black white.  She is no older than a girl of twenty-five, and\nindeed younger, I am glad to say, or I am sorry to say, depending upon\nthe point of view, than _many_ a girl of this age.  Seeking for the\ngood in all people and in all things, she has found the good\neverywhere.  The brightness of disposition and of voice that is hers\ntoday, that attracts all people to her and that makes her so\nbeautifully attractive to all people, has characterized her all through\nlife.  It has in turn carried brightness and hope and courage and\nstrength to hundreds and thousands of people through all these years,\nand will continue to do so, apparently, for many years yet to come.\n\nNo fears, no worryings, no hatreds, no jealousies, no sorrowings, no\ngrievings, no sordid graspings after inordinant [Transcriber's note:\ninordinate?] gain, have found entrance into her realm of thought.  As a\nconsequence her mind, free from these abnormal states and conditions,\nhas not externalized in her body the various physical ailments that the\ngreat majority of people are lugging about with them, thinking in their\nignorance, that they are natural, and that it is all in accordance with\nthe \"eternal order of things\" that they should have them.  Her life has\nbeen one of varied experiences, so that all these things would have\nfound ready entrance into the realm of her mind and so into her life\nwere she ignorant enough to allow them entrance.  On the contrary she\nhas been wise enough to recognize the fact that in one kingdom at least\nshe is ruler,--the kingdom of her mind, and that it is hers to dictate\nas to what shall and what shall not enter there.  She knows, moreover,\nthat in determining this she is determining all the conditions of her\nlife.  It is indeed a pleasure as well as an inspiration to see her as\nshe goes here and there, to see her sunny disposition, her youthful\nstep, to hear her joyous laughter.  Indeed and in truth, Shakspeare\nknew whereof he spoke when he said,--\"It is the mind that makes the\nbody rich.\"\n\nWith great pleasure I watched her but recently as she was walking along\nthe street, stopping to have a word and so a part in the lives of a\ngroup of children at play by the wayside, hastening her step a little\nto have a word with a washerwoman toting her bundle of clothes,\nstopping for a word with a laboring man returning with dinner pail in\nhand from his work, returning the recognition from the lady in her\ncarriage, and so imparting some of her own rich life to all with whom\nshe came in contact.\n\nAnd as good fortune would have it, while still watching her, an old\nlady passed her,--really old, this one, though at least ten or fifteen\nyears younger, so far as the count by the seasons is concerned.\nNevertheless she was bent in form and apparently stiff in joint and\nmuscle.  Silent in mood, she wore a countenance of long-faced sadness,\nwhich was intensified surely several fold by a black, sombre headgear\nwith an immense heavy veil still more sombre looking if possible.  Her\nentire dress was of this description.  By this relic-of-barbarism garb,\ncombined with her own mood and expression, she continually proclaimed\nto the world two things,--her own personal sorrows and woes, which by\nthis very method she kept continually fresh in her mind, and also her\nlack of faith in the eternal goodness of things, her lack of faith in\nthe love and eternal goodness of the Infinite Father.\n\nWrapped only in the thoughts of her own ailments, and sorrows, and\nwoes, she received and she gave nothing of joy, nothing of hope,\nnothing of courage, nothing of value to those whom she passed or with\nwhom she came in contact.  But on the contrary she suggested to all and\nhelped to intensify in many, those mental states all too prevalent in\nour common human life.  And as she passed our friend one could notice a\nslight turn of the head which, coupled with the expression in her face,\nseemed to indicate this as her thought,--Your dress and your conduct\nare not wholly in keeping with a lady of your years.  Thank God, then,\nthank God they are not.  And may He in His great goodness and love send\nus an innumerable company of the same rare type; and may they live a\nthousand years to bless mankind, to impart the life-giving influences\nof their own royal lives to the numerous ones all about us who stand so\nmuch in need of them.\n\nWould you remain always young, and would you carry all the joyousness\nand buoyancy of youth into your maturer years?  Then have care\nconcerning but one thing,--how you live in your thought world.  This\nwill determine all.  It was the inspired one, Gautama, the Buddha, who\nsaid,--\"The mind is everything; what you think you become.\"  And the\nsame thing had Ruskin in mind when he said,--\"Make yourself nests of\npleasant thoughts.  None of us as yet know, for none of us have been\ntaught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful\nthought,--_proof against all adversity_.\"\n\nAnd would you have in your body all the elasticity, all the strength,\nall the beauty of your younger years?  Then live these in your mind,\nmaking no room for unclean thought, and you will externalize them in\nyour body.  In the degree that you keep young in thought will you\nremain young in body.  And you will find that your body will in turn\naid your mind, for body helps mind the same as mind builds body.\n\nYou are continually building, and so externalizing in your body\nconditions most akin to the thoughts and emotions you entertain.  And\nnot only are you so building from within, but you are also continually\ndrawing from without, forces of a kindred nature.  Your particular kind\nof thought connects you with a similar order of thought from without.\nIf it is bright, hopeful, cheerful, you connect yourself with a current\nof thought of this nature.  If it is sad, fearing, despondent, then\nthis is the order of thought you connect yourself with.\n\nIf the latter is the order of your thought, then perhaps unconsciously\nand by degrees you have been connecting yourself with it.  You need to\ngo back and pick up again a part of your child nature, with its\ncareless and cheerful type of thought.  \"The minds of the group of\nchildren at play are unconsciously concentrated in drawing to their\nbodies a current of playful thought.  Place a child by itself, deprive\nit of its companions, and soon it will mope and become slow of\nmovement.  It is cut off from that peculiar thought current and is\nliterally 'out of its element.'\n\n\"You need to bring again this current of playful thought to you which\nhas gradually been turned off.  You are too serious or sad, or absorbed\nin the serious affairs of life.  You can be playful and cheerful\nwithout being puerile or silly.  You can carry on business all the\nbetter for being in the playful mood when your mind is off your\nbusiness.  There is nothing but ill resulting from the permanent mood\nof sadness and seriousness,--the mood which by many so long maintained\nmakes it actually difficult for them to smile at all.\n\n\"At eighteen or twenty you commenced growing out of the more playful\ntendency of early youth.  You took hold of the more serious side of\nlife.  You went into some business.  You became more or less involved\nin its cares, perplexities and responsibilities.  Or, as man or woman,\nyou entered on some phase of life involving care or trouble.  Or you\nbecame absorbed in some game of business which, as you followed it,\nleft no time for play.  Then as you associated with older people you\nabsorbed their old ideas, their mechanical methods of thinking, their\nacceptance of errors without question or thought of question.  In all\nthis you opened your mind to a heavy, care-laden current of thought.\nInto this you glided unconsciously.  That thought is materialized in\nyour blood and flesh.  The seen of your body is a deposit or\ncrystallization of the unseen element ever flowing to your body from\nyour mind.  Years pass on and you find that your movements are stiff\nand cumbrous,--that you can with difficulty climb a tree, as at\nfourteen.  Your mind has all this time been sending to your body these\nheavy, inelastic elements, making your body what now it is. . . .\n\n\"Your change for the better must be gradual, and can only be\naccomplished by bringing the thought current of an all-round\nsymmetrical strength to bear on it,--by demanding of the Supreme Power\nto be led in the best way, by diverting your mind from the many\nunhealthy thoughts which habitually have been flowing into it without\nyour knowing it, to healthier ones. . . .\n\n\"Like the beast, the bodies of those of our race have in the past\nweakened and decayed.  This will not always be.  Increase of spiritual\nknowledge will show the cause of such decay, and will show, also, how\nto take advantage of a Law or Force to build us up, renew ever the body\nand give it greater and greater strength, instead of blindly using that\nLaw or Force, as has been done in the past, to weaken our bodies and\nfinally destroy them.\"\n\n\nFull, rich, and abounding health is the normal and the natural\ncondition of life.  Anything else is an abnormal condition, and\nabnormal conditions as a rule come through perversions.  God never\ncreated sickness, suffering, and disease; they are man's own creations.\nThey come through his violating the laws under which he lives.  So used\nare we to seeing them that we come gradually, if not to think of them\nas natural, then to look upon them as a matter of course.\n\nThe time will come when the work of the physician will not be to treat\nand attempt to heal the body, but to heal the mind, which in turn will\nheal the body.  In other words, the true physician will be a teacher;\nhis work will be to keep people well, instead of attempting to make\nthem well after sickness and disease comes on; and still beyond this\nthere will come a time when each will be his own physician.  In the\ndegree that we live in harmony with the higher laws of our being, and\nso, in the degree that we become better acquainted with the powers of\nthe mind and spirit, will we give less attention to the body,--no less\n_care_, but less _attention_.\n\nThe bodies of thousands today would be much better cared for if their\nowners gave them less thought and attention.  As a rule, those who\nthink least of their bodies enjoy the best health.  Many are kept in\ncontinual ill health by the abnormal thought and attention they give\nthem.\n\nGive the body the nourishment, the exercise, the fresh air, the\nsunlight it requires, keep it clean, and then think of it as little as\npossible.  In your thoughts and in your conversation never dwell upon\nthe negative side.  Don't talk of sickness and disease.  By talking of\nthese you do yourself harm and you do harm to those who listen to you.\nTalk of those things that will make people the better for listening to\nyou.  Thus you will infect them with health and strength and not with\nweakness and disease.\n\nTo dwell upon the negative side is always destructive.  This is true of\nthe body the same as it is true of all other things.  The following\nfrom one whose thorough training as a physician has been supplemented\nby extensive study and observations along the lines of the powers of\nthe interior forces, are of special significance and value in this\nconnection: \"We can never gain health by contemplating disease, any\nmore than we can reach perfection by dwelling upon imperfection, or\nharmony through discord.  We should keep a high ideal of health and\nharmony constantly before the mind. . . .\n\n\"Never affirm or repeat about your health what you do not wish to be\ntrue.  Do not dwell upon your ailments, nor study your symptoms.  Never\nallow yourself to be convinced that you are not complete master of\nyourself.  Stoutly affirm your superiority over bodily ills, and do not\nacknowledge yourself the slave of any inferior power. . . .  I would\nteach children early to build a strong barrier between themselves and\ndisease, by healthy habits of thought, high thinking, and purity of\nlife.  I would teach them to expel all thoughts of death, all images of\ndisease, all discordant emotions, like hatred, malice, revenge, envy,\nand sensuality, as they would banish a temptation to do evil.  I would\nteach them that bad food, bad drink, or bad air makes bad blood; that\nbad blood makes bad tissue, and bad flesh bad morals.  I would teach\nthem that healthy thoughts are as essential to healthy bodies as pure\nthoughts to a clean life.  I would teach them to cultivate a strong\nwill power, and to brace themselves against life's enemies in every\npossible way.  I would teach the sick to have hope, confidence, cheer.\nOur thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits to our\npossibilities.  No man's success or health will ever reach beyond his\nown confidence; as a rule, we erect our own barriers.\n\n\"Like produces like the universe through.  Hatred, envy, malice,\njealousy, and revenge all have children.  Every bad thought breeds\nothers, and each of these goes on and on, ever reproducing itself,\nuntil our world is peopled with their offspring.  The true physician\nand parent of the future will not medicate the body with drugs so much\nas the mind with principles.  The coming mother will teach her child to\nassuage the fever of anger, hatred, malice, with the great panacea of\nthe world,--Love.  The coming physician will teach the people to\ncultivate cheerfulness, good-will, and noble deeds for a health tonic\nas well as a heart tonic; and that a merry heart doeth good like a\nmedicine.\"\n\n\nThe health of your body, the same as the health and strength of your\nmind, depends upon what you relate yourself with.  This Infinite Spirit\nof Life, this Source of all Life, can from its very nature, we have\nfound, admit of no weakness, no disease.  Come then into the full,\nconscious, vital realization of your oneness with this Infinite Life,\nopen yourself to its more abundant entrance, and full and ever-renewing\nbodily health and strength will be yours.\n\n  \"And good may ever conquer ill,\n    Health walk where pain has trod;\n  'As a man thinketh, so is he,'\n    Rise, then, and think with God.\"\n\n\nThe whole matter may then be summed up in the one sentence, \"God is\nwell and so are you.\"  You must awaken to the knowledge of your _real\nbeing_.  When this awakening comes, you will have, and you will see\nthat you have, the power to determine what conditions are externalized\nin your body.  You must recognize, you must realize yourself as one\nwith Infinite Spirit.  God's will is then your will; your will is God's\nwill, and \"with God all things are possible.\"  When we are able to do\naway with all sense of separateness by living continually in the\nrealization of this oneness, not only will our bodily ills and\nweaknesses vanish, but all limitations along all lines.\n\nThen \"delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires\nof thine heart.\"  Then will you feel like crying all the day long, \"The\nlines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly\nheritage.\"  Drop out of mind your belief in good things and good events\ncoming to you in the future.  Come _now_ into the real life, and\ncoming, appropriate and actualize them _now_.  Remember that only the\nbest is good enough for one with a heritage so royal as yours.\n\n  \"We buy ashes for bread;\n  We buy diluted wine;\n  Give me the true,--\n  Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled\n  Among the silver hills of heaven,\n  Draw everlasting dew.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECRET, POWER, AND EFFECTS OF LOVE.\n\nThis is the Spirit of Infinite Love.  The moment we recognize ourselves\nas one with it we become so filled with love that we see only the good\nin all.  And when we realize that we are all one with this Infinite\nSpirit, then we realize that in a sense we are all one with each other.\nWhen we come into a recognition of this fact, we can then do no harm to\nany one, to any thing.  We find that we are all members of the one\ngreat body, and that no portion of the body can be harmed without all\nthe other portions suffering thereby.\n\nWhen we fully realize the great fact of the oneness of all life,--that\nall are partakers from this one Infinite Source, and so that the same\nlife is the life in each individual, then prejudices go and hatreds\ncease.  Love grows and reigns supreme.  Then, wherever we go, whenever\nwe come in contact with the fellow-man, we are able to recognize the\nGod within.  We thus look only for the good, and we find it.  It always\npays.\n\nThere is a deep scientific fact underlying the great truth, \"He that\ntakes the sword shall perish by the sword.\"  The moment we come into a\nrealization of the subtle powers of the thought forces, we can quickly\nsee that the moment we entertain any thoughts of hatred toward another,\nhe gets the effects of these diabolical forces that go out from us, and\nhas the same thoughts of hatred aroused in him, which in turn return to\nthe sender.  Then when we understand the effects of the passion, hatred\nor anger, even upon the physical body, we can see how detrimental, how\nexpensive this is.  The same is true in regard to all kindred thoughts\nor passions, envy, criticism, jealousy, scorn.  In the ultimate we\nshall find that in entertaining feelings of this nature toward another,\nwe always suffer far more than the one toward whom we entertain them.\n\nAnd then when we fully realize the fact that selfishness is at the root\nof all error, sin, and crime, and that ignorance is the basis of all\nselfishness, with what charity we come to look upon the acts of all.\nIt is the ignorant man who seeks his own ends at the expense of the\ngreater whole.  It is the ignorant man, therefore, who is the selfish\nman.  The truly wise man is never selfish.  He is a seer, and\nrecognizes the fact that he, a single member of the one great body, is\nbenefited in just the degree that the entire body is benefited, and so\nhe seeks nothing for himself that he would not equally seek for all\nmankind.\n\nIf selfishness is at the bottom of all error, sin, and crime, and\nignorance is the basis of all selfishness, then when we see a\nmanifestation of either of these qualities, if we are true to the\nhighest within us, we will look for and will seek to call forth the\ngood in each individual with whom we come in contact.  When God speaks\nto God, then God responds, and shows forth as God.  But when devil\nspeaks to devil, then devil responds, and the devil is always to pay.\n\nI sometimes hear a person say, \"I don't see any good in him.\"  No?\nThen you are no seer.  Look deeper and you will find the very God in\nevery human soul.  But remember it takes a God to recognize a God.\nChrist always spoke to the highest, the truest, and the best in men.\nHe knew and he recognized the God in each because he had first realized\nit in himself.  He ate with publicans and sinners.  Abominable, the\nScribes and Pharisees said.  They were so wrapped up in their own\nconceits, their own self-centredness, hence their own ignorance, that\nthey had never found the God in themselves, and so they never dreamed\nthat it was the real life of even publicans and sinners.\n\nIn the degree that we hold a person in the thought of evil or of error,\ndo we suggest evil and error to him.  In the degree that he is\nsensitively organized, or not well individualized, and so, subject to\nthe suggestions of the thought forces from others, will he be\ninfluenced; and so in this way we may be sharers in the very evil-doing\nin which we hold another in thought.  In the same way when we hold a\nperson in the thought of the right, the good, and the true,\nrighteousness, goodness, and truth are suggested to him, and thus we\nhave a most beneficent influence on his life and conduct.  If our\nhearts go out in love to all with whom we come in contact, we inspire\nlove, and the same ennobling and warming influences of love always\nreturn to us from those in whom we inspire them.  There is a deep\nscientific principle underlying the precept--If you would have all the\nworld love you, you must first love all the world.\n\nIn the degree that we love will we be loved.  Thoughts are forces.\nEach creates of its kind.  Each comes back laden with the effect that\ncorresponds to itself and of which it is the cause.\n\n  \"Then let your secret thoughts be fair--\n  They have a vital part, and share\n  In shaping words and moulding fate;\n  God's system is so intricate.\"\n\n\nI know of no better practice than that of a friend who continually\nholds himself in an attitude of mind that he continually sends out his\nlove in the form of the thought,--\"Dear everybody, I love you.\"  And\nwhen we realize the fact that a thought invariably produces its effect\nbefore it returns, or before it ceases, we can see how he is\ncontinually breathing out a blessing not only upon all with whom he\ncomes in contact, but upon all the world.  These same thoughts of love,\nmoreover, tokened in various ways, are continually coming to him from\nall quarters.\n\nEven animals feel the effects of these forces.  Some animals are much\nmore sensitively organized than many people are, and consequently they\nget the effects of our thoughts, our mental states, and emotions much\nmore readily than many people do.  Therefore whenever we meet an animal\nwe can do it good by sending out to it these thoughts of love.  It will\nfeel the effects whether we simply entertain or whether we voice them.\nAnd it is often interesting to note how quickly it responds, and how\nreadily it gives evidence of its appreciation of this love and\nconsideration on our part.\n\nWhat a privilege and how enjoyable it would be to live and walk in a\nworld where we meet only Gods.  In such a world you can live.  In such\na world I can live.  For in the degree that we come into this higher\nrealization do we see only the God in each human soul; and when we are\nthus able to see Him in every one we meet, we then live in such a world.\n\nAnd when we thus recognize the God in every one, we by this recognition\nhelp to call it forth ever more and more.  What a privilege,--this\nprivilege of yours, this privilege of mine!  That hypocritical judging\nof another is something then with which we can have nothing to do; for\nwe have the power of looking beyond the evolving, changing,\nerror-making self, and seeing the real, the changeless, the eternal\nself which by and by will show forth in the full beauty of holiness.\nWe are then large enough also to realize the fact that when we condemn\nanother, by that very act we condemn ourselves.\n\nThis realization so fills us with love that we continually overflow it,\nand all with whom we come in contact feel its warming and life-giving\npower.  These in turn send back the same feelings of love to us, and so\nwe continually attract love from all quarters.  Tell me how much one\nloves and I will tell you how much he has seen of God.  Tell me how\nmuch he loves and I will tell you how much he lives with God.  Tell me\nhow much he loves and I will tell you how far into the Kingdom of\nHeaven,--the kingdom of harmony, he has entered, for \"love is the\nfulfilling of the law.\"\n\nAnd in a sense love is everything.  It is the key to life, and its\ninfluences are those that move the world.  Live only in the thought of\nlove for all and you will draw love to you from all.  Live in the\nthought of malice or hatred, and malice and hatred will come back to\nyou.\n\n  \"For evil poisons; malice shafts\n    Like boomerangs return,\n  Inflicting wounds that will not heal\n    While rage and anger burn.\"\n\n\nEvery thought you entertain is a force that goes out, and every thought\ncomes back laden with its kind.  This is an immutable law.  Every\nthought you entertain has moreover a direct effect upon your body.\nLove and its kindred emotions are the normal and the natural, those in\naccordance with the eternal order of the universe, for \"God is love.\"\nThese have a life-giving, health-engendering influence upon your body,\nbesides beautifying your countenance, enriching your voice, and making\nyou ever more attractive in every way.  And as it is true that in the\ndegree that you hold thoughts of love for all, you call the same from\nthem in return, and as these have a direct effect upon your mind, and\nthrough your mind upon your body, it is as so much life force added to\nyour own from without.  You are then continually building this into\nboth your mental and your physical life, and so your life is enriched\nby its influence.\n\nHatred and all its kindred emotions are the unnatural, the abnormal,\nthe perversions, and so, out of harmony with the eternal order of the\nuniverse.  For if love is the fulfilling of the law, then these, its\nopposites, are direct violations of law, and there can never be a\nviolation of law without its attendant pain and suffering in one form\nor another.  There is no escape from this.  And what is the result of\nthis particular form of violation?  When you allow thoughts of anger,\nhatred, malice, jealousy, envy, criticism, or scorn to exercise sway,\nthey have a corroding and poisoning effect upon the organism; they pull\nit down, and if allowed to continue will eventually tear it to pieces\nby externalizing themselves in the particular forms of disease they\ngive rise to.  And then in addition to the destructive influences from\nyour own mind you are continually calling the same influences from\nother minds, and these come as destructive forces augmenting your own,\nthus aiding in the tearing down process.\n\nAnd so love inspires love; hatred breeds hatred.  Love and good will\nstimulate and build up the body; hatred and malice corrode and tear it\ndown.  Love is a savor of life unto life; hatred is a savor of death\nunto death.\n\n  \"There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,\n    There are souls that are pure and true;\n  Then give to the world the best you have,\n    And the best will come back to you.\n\n  \"Give love, and love to _your_ heart will flow,\n    A strength in your utmost need;\n  Have faith, and a score of hearts will show\n    Their faith in _your_ word and deed.\"\n\n\nI hear it said,--How in regard to one who bears me hatred, towards whom\nI have entertained no such thoughts and feelings, and so have not been\nthe cause of his becoming my enemy?  This may be true, but the chances\nare that you will have but few enemies if there is nothing of an\nantagonistic nature in your own mind and heart.  Be sure there is\nnothing of this nature.  But if hatred should come from another without\napparent cause on your part, then meet it from first to last with\nthoughts of love and good-will.  In this way you can, so to speak, so\nneutralize its effects that it cannot reach you and so cannot harm you.\nLove is positive, and stronger than hatred.  Hatred can always be\nconquered by love.\n\nOn the other hand, if you meet hatred with hatred, you simply intensify\nit.  You add fuel to the flame already kindled, upon which it will feed\nand grow, and so you increase and intensify the evil conditions.\nNothing is to be gained by it, everything is to be lost.  By sending\nlove for hatred you will be able so to neutralize it that it will not\nonly have no effect upon you, but will not be able even to reach you.\nBut more than this, you will by this course sooner or later be able\nliterally to transmute the enemy into the friend.  Meet hatred with\nhatred and you degrade yourself.  Meet hatred with love and you elevate\nnot only yourself but also the one who bears you hatred.\n\nThe Persian sage has said, \"Always meet petulance with gentleness, and\nperverseness with kindness.  A gentle hand can lead even an elephant by\na hair.  Reply to thine enemy with gentleness.  Opposition to peace is\nsin.\"  The Buddhist says, \"If a man foolishly does me wrong I will\nreturn him the protection of my ungrudging love.  The more evil comes\nfrom him the more good shall go from me.\"  \"The wise man avenges\ninjuries by benefits,\" says the Chinese.  \"Return good for evil,\novercome anger by love; hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love,\"\nsays the Hindu.\n\nThe truly wise man or woman will recognize no one as an enemy.\nOccasionally we hear the expression, \"Never mind; I'll get even with\nhim.\"  Will you?  And how will you do it?  You can do it in one of two\nways.  You can, as you have in mind, deal with him as he deals, or\napparently deals, with you,--pay him, as we say, in his own coin.  If\nyou do this you will get even with him by sinking yourself to his\nlevel, and both of you will suffer by it.  Or, you can show yourself\nthe larger, you can send him love for hatred, kindness for\nill-treatment, and so get even with him by raising him to the higher\nlevel.  But remember that you can never help another without by that\nvery act helping yourself; and if forgetful of self, then in most all\ncases the value to you is greater than the service you render another.\nIf you are ready to treat him as he treats you, then you show clearly\nthat there is in you that which draws the hatred and ill-treatment to\nyou; you deserve what you are getting and should not complain, nor\nwould you complain if you were wise.  By following the other course you\nmost effectually accomplish your purpose,--you gain a victory for\nyourself, and at the same time you do a great service for him, for\nwhich it is evident he stands greatly in need.\n\nThus you may become his saviour.  He in turn may become the saviour of\nother error-making, and consequently care-encumbered men and women.\nMany times the struggles are greater than we can ever know.  We need\nmore gentleness and sympathy and compassion in our common human life.\nThen we will neither blame nor condemn.  Instead of blaming or\ncondemning we will sympathize, and all the more we will\n\n      \"Comfort one another,\n  For the way is often dreary,\n  And the feet are often weary,\n    And the heart is very sad.\n  There is a heavy burden bearing,\n  When it seems that none are caring,\n    And we half forget that ever we were glad\n\n      \"Comfort one another\n  With the hand-clasp close and tender,\n  With the sweetness love can render,\n    And the looks of friendly eyes.\n  Do not wait with grace unspoken,\n  While life's daily bread is broken--\n    Gentle speech is oft like manna from the skies.\"\n\n\nWhen we come fully to realize the great fact that all evil and error\nand sin with all their consequent sufferings come through ignorance,\nthen wherever we see a manifestation of these in whatever form, if our\nhearts are right, we will have compassion, sympathy and compassion for\nthe one in whom we see them.  Compassion will then change itself into\nlove, and love will manifest itself in kindly service.  Such is the\ndivine method.  And so instead of aiding in trampling and keeping a\nweaker one down, we will hold him up until he can stand alone and\nbecome the master.  But all life-growth is from within out, and one\nbecomes a true master in the degree that the knowledge of the divinity\nof his own nature dawns upon his inner consciousness and so brings him\nto a knowledge of the higher laws; and in no way can we so effectually\nhasten this dawning in the inner consciousness of another, as by\nshowing forth the divinity within ourselves simply by the way we live.\n\nBy example and not by precept.  By living, not by preaching.  By doing,\nnot by professing.  By living the life, not by dogmatizing as to how it\nshould be lived.  There is no contagion equal to the contagion of life.\nWhatever we sow, that shall we also reap, and each thing sown produces\nof its kind.  We can kill not only by doing another bodily injury\ndirectly, but we can and we do kill by every antagonistic thought.  Not\nonly do we thus kill, but while we kill we suicide.  Many a man has\nbeen made sick by having the ill thoughts of a number of people centred\nupon him; some have been actually killed.  Put hatred into the world\nand we make it a literal hell.  Put love into the world and heaven with\nall its beauties and glories becomes a reality.\n\nNot to love is not to live, or it is to live a living death.  The life\nthat goes out in love to all is the life that is full, and rich, and\ncontinually expanding in beauty and in power.  Such is the life that\nbecomes ever more inclusive, and hence larger in its scope and\ninfluence.  The larger the man and the woman, the more inclusive they\nare in their love and their friendships.  The smaller the man and the\nwoman, the more dwarfed and dwindling their natures, the more they\npride themselves upon their \"exclusiveness.\"  Any one--a fool or an\nidiot--can be exclusive.  It comes easy.  It takes and it signifies a\nlarge nature to be universal, to be inclusive.  Only the man or the\nwoman of a small, personal, self-centred, self-seeking nature is\nexclusive.  The man or the woman of a large, royal, unself-centred\nnature never is.  The small nature is the one that continually strives\nfor effect.  The larger nature never does.  The one goes here and there\nin order to gain recognition, in order to attach himself to the world.\nThe other stays at home and draws the world _to him_.  The one loves\nmerely himself.  The other loves all the world; but in his larger love\nfor all the world he finds himself included.\n\nVerily, then, the more one loves the nearer he approaches to God, for\nGod is the spirit of infinite love.  And when we come into the\nrealization of our oneness with this Infinite Spirit, then divine love\nso fills us that, enriching and enrapturing our own lives, from them it\nflows out to enrich the life of all the world.\n\nIn coming into the realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life,\nwe are brought at once into right relations with our fellowmen.  We are\nbrought into harmony with the great law, that we find our own lives in\nlosing them in the service of others.  We are brought to a knowledge of\nthe fact that all life is one, and so that we are all parts of the one\ngreat whole.  We then realize that we can't do for another without at\nthe same time doing for ourselves.  We also realize that we cannot do\nharm to another without by that very act doing harm to ourselves.  We\nrealize that the man who lives to himself alone lives a little,\ndwarfed, and stunted life, because he has no part in this larger life\nof humanity.  But the one who in service loses his own life in this\nlarger life, has his own life increased and enriched a thousand or a\nmillion fold, and every joy, every happiness, everything of value\ncoming to each member of this greater whole comes as such to him, for\nhe has a part in the life of each and all.\n\nAnd here let a word be said in regard to true service.  Peter and John\nwere one day going up to the temple, and as they were entering the gate\nthey were met by a poor cripple who asked them for alms.  Instead of\ngiving him something to supply the day's needs and then leaving him in\nthe same dependent condition for the morrow and the morrow, Peter did\nhim a real service, and a real service for all mankind by saying,\nSilver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give unto thee.  _And\nthen he made him whole_.  He thus brought him into the condition where\nhe could help himself.  In other words, the greatest service we can do\nfor another is to help him to help himself.  To help him directly might\nbe weakening, though not necessarily.  It depends entirely upon\ncircumstances.  But to help one to help himself is never weakening, but\nalways encouraging and strengthening, because it leads him to a larger\nand stronger life.\n\nThere is no better way to help one to help himself than to bring him to\na knowledge of himself.  There is no better way to bring one to a\nknowledge of himself than to lead him to a knowledge of the powers that\nare lying dormant within his own soul.  There is nothing that will\nenable him to come more readily or more completely into an awakened\nknowledge of the powers that are lying dormant within his own soul,\nthan to bring him into the conscious, vital realization of his oneness\nwith the Infinite Life and Power, so that he may open himself to it in\norder that it may work and manifest through him.\n\nWe will find that these same great truths lie at the very bottom of the\nsolution of our social situation; and we will also find that we will\nnever have a full and permanent solution of it until they are fully\nrecognized and built upon.\n\n\n\n\nWISDOM AND INTERIOR ILLUMINATION.\n\nThis is the Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, and in the degree that we open\nourselves to it does the highest wisdom manifest itself to and through\nus.  We can in this way go to the very heart of the universe itself and\nfind the mysteries hidden to the majority of mankind,--hidden to them,\nthough not hidden of themselves.\n\nIn order for the highest wisdom and insight we must have absolute\nconfidence in the Divine guiding us, but not through the channel of some\none else.  And why should we go to another for knowledge and wisdom?\nWith God is no respect of persons.  Why should we seek these things\nsecond hand?  Why should we thus stultify our own innate powers?  Why\nshould we not go direct to the Infinite Source itself?  \"If any man lack\nwisdom let him ask of God.\"  \"Before they call I will answer, and while\nthey are yet speaking, I will hear.\"\n\nWhen we thus go directly to the Infinite Source itself we are no longer\nslaves to personalities, institutions, or books.  We should always keep\nourselves open to suggestions of truth from these agencies.  We should\nalways regard them as agencies, however, and never as sources.  We should\nnever recognize them as masters, but simply as teachers.  With Browning,\nwe must recognize the great fact that--\n\n  \"Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise\n  From outward things, whate'er you may believe.\n  There is an inmost centre in us all,\n  Where truth abides in fullness.\"\n\n\nThere is no more important injunction in all the world, nor one with a\ndeeper interior meaning, than \"To thine own self be true.\"  In other\nwords, be true to your own soul, for it is through your own soul that the\nvoice of God speaks to you.  This is the interior guide.  This is the\nlight that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  This is\nconscience.  This is intuition.  This is the voice of the higher self,\nthe voice of the soul, the voice of God.  \"Thou shalt hear a voice behind\nthee, saying: This is the way, walk ye in it.\"\n\nWhen Moses was on the mountain it was after the various physical\ncommotions and manifestations that he heard the \"still, small voice,\" the\nvoice of his own soul, through which the Infinite God was speaking.  If\nwe will but follow this voice of intuition, it will speak ever more\nclearly and more plainly, until by and by it will be absolute and\nunerring in its guidance.  The great trouble with us is that we do not\nlisten to and do not follow this voice within our own souls, and so we\nbecome as a house divided against itself.  We are pulled this way and\nthat, and we are never _certain_ of anything.  I have a friend who\nlistens so carefully to this inner voice, who, in other words, always\nacts so quickly and so fully in accordance with his intuitions, and whose\nlife as a consequence is so absolutely guided by them, that he always\ndoes the right thing at the right time and in the right way.  He always\nknows when to act and how to act, and he is never in the condition of a\nhouse divided against itself.\n\nBut some one says, \"May it not be dangerous for us to act always upon our\nintuitions?  Suppose we should have an intuition to do harm to some one?\"\nWe need not be afraid of this, however, for the voice of the soul, this\nvoice of God speaking through the soul, will never direct one to do harm\nto another, nor to do anything that is not in accordance with the highest\nstandards of right, and truth, and justice.  And if you at any time have\na prompting of this kind, know that it is not the voice of intuition; it\nis some characteristic of your lower self that is prompting you.\n\nReason is not to be set aside, but it is to be continually illumined by\nthis higher spiritual perception, and in the degree that it is thus\nillumined will it become an agent of light and power.  When one becomes\nthoroughly individualized he enters into the realm of all knowledge and\nwisdom; and to be individualized is to recognize no power outside of the\nInfinite Power that is back of all.  When one recognizes this great fact\nand opens himself to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom, he then enters upon\nthe road to the true education, and mysteries that before were closed now\nreveal themselves to him.  This must indeed be the foundation of all true\neducation, this evolving from within, this evolving of what has been\ninvolved by the Infinite Power.\n\nAll things that it is valuable for us to know will come to us if we will\nbut open ourselves to the voice of this Infinite Spirit.  It is thus that\nwe become seers and have the power of seeing into the very heart of\nthings.  There are no new stars, there are no new laws or forces, but we\ncan so open ourselves to this Spirit of Infinite Wisdom that we can\ndiscover and recognize those that have not been known before; and in this\nway they become new to us.  When in this way we come into a knowledge of\ntruth we no longer need facts that are continually changing.  We can then\nenter into the quiet of our own interior selves.  We can open the window\nand look out, and thus gather the facts as we choose.  This is true\nwisdom.  \"Wisdom is the knowledge of God.\"  Wisdom comes by intuition.\nIt far transcends knowledge.  Great knowledge, knowledge of many things,\nmay be had by virtue simply of a very retentive memory.  It comes by\ntuition.  But wisdom far transcends knowledge, in that knowledge is a\nmere incident of this deeper wisdom.\n\nHe who would enter into the realm of wisdom must first divest himself of\nall intellectual pride.  He must become as a little child.  Prejudices,\npreconceived opinions and beliefs always stand in the way of true wisdom.\nConceited opinions are always suicidal in their influences.  They bar the\ndoor to the entrance of truth.\n\nAll about us we see men in the religious world, in the world of science,\nin the political, in the social world, who through intellectual pride are\nso wrapped in their own conceits and prejudices that larger and later\nrevelations of truth can find no entrance to them; and instead of growing\nand expanding, they are becoming dwarfed and stunted, and still more\nincapable of receiving truth.  Instead of actively aiding in the progress\nof the world, they are as so many dead sticks in the way that would\nretard the wheels of progress.  This, however, they can never do.  Such\nalways in time get bruised, broken, and left behind, while God's\ntriumphal car of truth moves steadily onward.\n\nWhen the steam engine was still being experimented with, and before it\nwas perfected sufficiently to come into practical use, a well-known\nEnglishman--well known then in scientific circles--wrote an extended\npamphlet proving that it would be impossible for it ever to be used in\nocean navigation, that is, in a trip involving the crossing of the ocean,\nbecause it would be utterly impossible for any vessel to carry with it\nsufficient coal for the use of its furnace.  And the interesting feature\nof the whole matter was that the very first steam vessel that made the\ntrip from England to America, had among its cargo a part of the first\nedition of this carefully prepared pamphlet.  There was only the one\nedition.  Many editions might be sold now.\n\nThis seems indeed an amusing fact; but far more amusing is the man who\nvoluntarily closes himself to truth because, forsooth, it does not come\nthrough conventional, or orthodox, or heretofore accepted channels; or\nbecause it may not be in full accord with, or possibly may be opposed to,\nestablished usages or beliefs.  On the contrary--\n\n  \"Let there be many windows in your soul,\n  That all the glory of the universe\n  May beautify it.  Not the narrow pane\n  Of one poor creed can catch the radiant rays\n  That shine from countless sources.  Tear away\n  The blinds of superstition: let the light\n  Pour through fair windows, broad as truth itself\n  And high as heaven. . . .  Tune your ear\n  To all the worldless music of the stars\n  And to the voice of nature, and your heart\n  Shall turn to truth and goodness as the plant\n  Turns to the sun.  A thousand unseen hands\n  Reach down to help you to their peace-crowned heights,\n  And all the forces of the firmament\n  Shall fortify your strength.  Be not afraid\n  To thrust aside half-truths and grasp the whole.\"\n\n\nThere is a great law in connection with the coming of truth.  It is this:\nWhenever a man or a woman shuts himself or herself to the entrance of\ntruth on account of intellectual pride, preconceived opinions,\nprejudices, or for whatever reason, there is a great law which says that\ntruth _in its fullness_ will come to that one from no source.  And on the\nother hand, when a man or a woman opens himself or herself fully to the\nentrance of truth from _whatever_ source it may come, there is an equally\ngreat law which says that truth will flow in to him or to her from all\nsources, from all quarters.  Such becomes the free man, the free woman,\nfor it is the truth that makes us free.  The other remains in bondage,\nfor truth has had no invitation and will not enter where it is not fully\nand freely welcomed.\n\nAnd where truth is denied entrance the rich blessings it carries with it\ncannot take up their abode.  On the contrary, when this is the case, it\nsends an envoy carrying with it atrophy, disease, death, physically and\nspiritually as well as intellectually.  And the man who would rob another\nof his free and unfettered search for truth, who would stand as the\ninterpreter of truth for another, with the intent of remaining in this\nposition, rather than endeavoring to lead him to the place where he can\nbe his own interpreter, is more to be shunned than a thief and a robber.\nThe injury he works is far greater, for he is doing direct and positive\ninjury to the very life of the one he thus holds.\n\nWho has ever appointed any man, whoever he may be, as the keeper, the\ncustodian, the dispenser of God's illimitable truth?  Many indeed are\nmoved and so are called to be teachers of truth; but the true teacher\nwill never stand as the interpreter of truth for another.  The _true\nteacher_ is the one whose endeavor is to bring the one he teaches to a\ntrue knowledge of himself and hence of his own interior powers, that he\nmay become his own interpreter.  All others are, generally speaking,\nthose animated by purely personal motives, self-aggrandizement, or\npersonal gain.  Moreover, he who would claim to have all truth and the\nonly truth, is a bigot, a fool, or a knave.\n\nIn the Eastern literature is a fable of a frog.  The frog lived in a\nwell, and out of his little well he had never been.  One day a frog whose\nhome was in the sea came to his well.  Interested in all things, he went\nin.  \"Who are you?  Where do you live?\" said the frog in the well.  \"I am\nso and so, and my home is in the sea.\"  \"The sea?  What is that?  Where\nis that?\"  \"It is a very large body of water, and not far away.\"  \"How\nbig is your sea?\"  \"Oh, very big.\"  \"As big as this?\" pointing to a\nlittle stone lying near.  \"Oh, much bigger.\"  \"As big as this?\" pointing\nto the board upon which they were sitting.  \"Oh, much bigger.\"  \"How much\nbigger, then?\"  \"Why, the sea in which I live is bigger than your entire\nwell; it would make millions of wells such as yours.\"  \"Nonsense,\nnonsense; you are a deceiver and a falsifier.  Get out of my well.  Get\nout of my well.  I want nothing to do with any such frogs as you.\"\n\n\"Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,\" is the\npromise.  Ye shall close yourselves to truth, ye shall live in your own\nconceits, and your own conceits shall make fools and idiots of you, would\nbe a statement applicable to not a few, and to not a few who pride\nthemselves upon their superior intellectual attainments.  Idiocy is\narrested mental growth.  Closing one's self for whatever reason to truth\nand hence to growth, brings a certain type of idiocy, though it may not\nbe called by this name.  And on the other hand, another type is that\narrested growth caused by taking all things for granted, without proving\nthem for one's self, merely because they come from a particular person, a\nparticular book, a particular institution.  This is caused by one's\nalways looking without instead of being true to the light within, and\ncarefully tending it that it may give an ever-clearer light.\n\nWith brave and intrepid Walt Whitman, we should all be able to say--\n\n  \"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits\n      and imaginary lines,\n  Going where I list, my own master total and absolute,\n  Listening to others, considering well what they say,\n  Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating,\n  Gently, but with undeniable will divesting myself of the\n      holds that would hold me.\"\n\n\nGreat should be the joy that God's boundless truth is open to all, open\n_equally_ to all, and that it will make each one its dwelling place in\nproportion as he earnestly desires it and opens himself to it.\n\nAnd in regard to the wisdom that guides us in our daily life, there is\nnothing that it is right and well for us to know that may not be known\nwhen we recognize the law of its coming, and are able wisely to use it.\nLet us know that all things are ours as soon as we know how to\nappropriate them.\n\n  \"I hold it as a changeless law,\n    From which no soul can sway or swerve,\n  We have that in us which will draw\n    Whate'er we need or most deserve.\"\n\n\nIf the times come when we know not what course to pursue, when we know\nnot which way to turn, the fault lies in ourselves.  If the fault lies in\nourselves then the correction of this unnatural condition lies also in\nourselves.  It is never necessary to come into such a state if we are\nawake and remain awake to the light and the powers within us.  The light\nis ever shining, and the only thing that it is necessary for us\ndiligently to see to is that we permit neither this thing nor that to\ncome between us and the light.  \"With Thee is the fountain of life; in\nThy light shall we see light.\"\n\nLet us hear the words of one of the most highly illumined men I have ever\nknown, and one who as a consequence is never in the dark, when the time\ncomes, as to what to do and how to do it.  \"Whenever you are in doubt as\nto the course you should pursue, after you have turned to every outward\nmeans of guidance, _let the inward eye see, let the inward ear hear_, and\nallow this simple, natural, beautiful process to go on unimpeded by\nquestionings or doubts. . . .  In all dark hours and times of unwonted\nperplexity we need to follow one simple direction, found, as all needed\ndirections can be found, in the dear old gospel, which so many read, but\nalas, _so few interpret_.  'Enter into thine inner chamber and shut the\ndoor.'  Does this mean that we must literally betake ourselves to a\nprivate closet with a key in the door?  If it did, then the command could\nnever be obeyed in the open air, on land or sea, and the Christ loved the\nlakes and the forests far better than the cramping rooms of city dwelling\nhouses; still his counsels are so wide-reaching that there is no spot on\nearth and no conceivable situation in which any of us may be placed where\nwe cannot follow them.\n\n\"One of the most intuitive men we ever met had a desk in a city office\nwhere several other gentlemen were doing business constantly and often\ntalking loudly.  Entirely undisturbed by the many various sounds about\nhim, this self-centred, faithful man would, in any moment of perplexity,\ndraw the curtains of privacy so completely about him that he would be as\nfully enclosed in his own psychic aura, and thereby as effectually\nremoved from all distractions as though he were alone in some primeval\nwood.  Taking his difficulty with him into the mystic silence in the form\nof a direct question, to which he expected a certain answer, he would\nremain utterly passive until the reply came, and never once through many\nyears' experience did he find himself disappointed or misled.  Intuitive\nperceptions of truth are the daily bread to satisfy our daily hunger;\nthey come like the manna in the desert day by day; each day brings\nadequate supply for that day's need only.  They must be followed\ninstantly, for dalliance with them means their obscuration, and the more\nwe dally the more we invite erroneous impressions to cover intuition with\na pall of conflicting moral phantasy born of illusions of the terrence\nwill.\n\n\"One condition is imposed by _universal law_, and this we must obey.  Put\nall wishes aside save the one desire to know _truth_; couple with this\none demand the fully consecrated determination to follow what is\ndistinctly perceived as truth immediately it is revealed.  No other\naffection must be permitted to share the field with this all-absorbing\nlove of _truth_ for its own sake.  Obey this one direction and never\nforget that expectation and desire are bride and bridegroom and forever\ninseparable, and you will soon find your hitherto darkened way grow\nluminous with celestial radiance, for with the heaven within, all heavens\nwithout incessantly co-operate.\"  This may be termed going into the\n\"silence.\"  This it is to perceive and to be guided by the light that\nlighteth every man that cometh into the world.  This it is to listen to\nand be guided by the voice of your own soul, the voice of your higher\nself.\n\nThe soul is divine and in allowing it to become translucent to the\nInfinite Spirit it reveals all things to us.  As man turns away from the\nDivine Light do all things become hidden.  There is nothing hidden of\nitself.  When the spiritual sense is opened, then it transcends all the\nlimitations of the physical senses and the intellect.  And in the degree\nthat we are able to get away from the limitations set by them, and\nrealize that so far as the real life is concerned it is one with the\nInfinite Life, then we begin to reach the place where this voice will\nalways speak, where it will never fail us, if we follow it, and as a\nconsequence where we will always have the divine illumination and\nguidance.  To know this and to live in this realization is not to live in\nheaven hereafter, but to live in heaven here and now, _today and every\nday_.\n\nNo human soul need be without it.  When we turn our face in the right\ndirection it comes as simply and as naturally as the flower blooms and\nthe winds blow.  It is not to be bought with money or with price.  It is\na condition waiting simply to be realized, by rich and by poor, by king\nand by peasant, by master and by servant the world over.  All are equal\nheirs to it.  And so the peasant, if he find it first, lives a life far\ntranscending in beauty and in real power the life of his king.  The\nservant, if he find it first, lives a life surpassing the life of his\nmaster.\n\n\nIf you would find the highest, the fullest, and the richest life that not\nonly this world but that any world can know, then do away with the sense\nof the separateness of your life from the life of God.  Hold to the\nthought of your oneness.  In the degree that you do this you will find\nyourself realizing it more and more, and as this life of realization is\nlived, you will find that no good thing will be withheld, for all things\nare included in this.  Then it will be yours, without fears or\nforebodings, simply to do today what your hands find to do, and so be\nready for tomorrow, _when it comes_, knowing that tomorrow will bring\ntomorrow's supplies for the mental, the spiritual, and the physical life.\nRemember, however, that tomorrow's supplies are not needed until tomorrow\ncomes.\n\nIf one is willing to trust himself _fully_ to the Law, the Law will never\nfail him.  It is the half-hearted trusting to it that brings uncertain,\nand so, unsatisfactory results.  Nothing is firmer and surer than Deity.\nIt will never fail the one who throws himself wholly upon it.  The secret\nof life then, is to live continually in this realization, whatever one\nmay be doing, wherever one may be, by day and by night, both waking and\nsleeping.  It can be lived in while we are sleeping no less than when we\nare awake.  And here shall we consider a few facts in connection with\nsleep, in connection with receiving instruction and illumination while\nasleep?\n\nDuring the process of sleep it is merely the physical body that is at\nrest and in quiet; the soul life with all its activities goes right on.\nSleep is nature's provision for the recuperation of the body, for the\nrebuilding and hence the replacing of the waste that is continually going\non during the waking hours.  It is nature's great restorer.  If\nsufficient sleep is not allowed the body, so that the rebuilding may\nequalize the wasting process, the body is gradually depleted and\nweakened, and any ailment or malady, when it is in this condition, is\nable to find a more ready entrance.  It is for this reason that those who\nare subject to it will take a cold, as we term it, more readily when the\nbody is tired or exhausted through loss of sleep than at most any other\ntime.  The body is in that condition where outside influences can have a\nmore ready effect upon it, than when it is in its normal condition.  And\nwhen they do have an effect they always go to the weaker portions first.\n\nOur bodies are given us to serve far higher purposes than we ordinarily\nuse them for.  Especially is this true in the numerous cases where the\nbody is master of its owner.  In the degree that we come into the\nrealization of the higher powers of the mind and spirit, in that degree\ndoes the body, through their influence upon it, become less gross and\nheavy, finer in its texture and form.  And then, because the mind finds a\nkingdom of enjoyment in itself, and in all the higher things it becomes\nrelated to, _excesses_ in eating and drinking, as well as all others,\nnaturally and of their own accord fall away.  There also falls away the\ndesire for the heavier, grosser, less valuable kinds of food and drink,\nsuch as the flesh of animals, alcoholic drinks, and all things of the\nclass that stimulate the body and the passions rather than build the body\nand the brain into a strong, clean, well-nourished, enduring, and fibrous\ncondition.  In the degree that the body thus becomes less gross and\nheavy, finer in its texture and form, is there less waste, and what there\nis is more easily replaced, so that it keeps in a more regular and even\ncondition.  When this is true, less sleep is actually required.  And even\nthe amount that is taken does more for a body of this finer type than it\ncan do for one of the other nature.\n\nAs the body in this way grows finer, in other words, as the process of\nits evolution is thus accelerated, it in turn helps the mind and the soul\nin the realization of ever higher perceptions, and thus body helps mind\nthe same as mind builds body.  It was undoubtedly this fact that Browning\nhad in mind when he said:\n\n        \"Let us cry 'All good things\n  Are ours, nor soul helps flesh, more now,\n  Than flesh helps soul.'\"\n\nSleep, then, is for the resting and the rebuilding of the body.  The soul\nneeds no rest, and while the body is at rest in sleep the soul life is\nactive the same as when the body is in activity.\n\nThere are some, having a deep insight into the soul's activities, who say\nthat we travel when we sleep.  Some are able to recall and bring over\ninto the conscious, waking life the scenes visited, the information\ngained, and the events that have transpired.  Most people are not able to\ndo this and so much that might otherwise be gained is lost.  They say,\nhowever, that it is in our power, in proportion as we understand the\nlaws, to go where we will, and to bring over into the conscious, waking\nlife all the experiences thus gained.  Be this, however, as it may, it\ncertainly is true that while sleeping we have the power, in a perfectly\nnormal and natural way, to get much of value by way of light,\ninstruction, and growth that the majority of people now miss.\n\nIf the soul life, that which relates us to Infinite Spirit, is always\nactive, even while the body is at rest, why may not the mind so direct\nconditions as one falls asleep, that while the body is at rest, it may\ncontinually receive illumination from the soul and bring what it thus\nreceives over into the conscious, waking life?  This, indeed, can be\ndone, and is done by some to great advantage; and many times the highest\ninspirations from the soul come in this way, as would seem most natural,\nsince at this time all communications from the outer, material world no\nlonger enter.  I know those who do much work during sleep, the same as\nthey get much light along desired lines.  By charging the mind on going\nto sleep as to a particular time for waking, it is possible, as many of\nus know, to wake on the very minute.  Not infrequently we have examples\nof difficult problems, problems that defied solution during waking hours,\nbeing solved during sleep.\n\nA friend, a well-known journalist, had an extended newspaper article\nclearly and completely worked out for her in this way.  She frequently\ncalls this agency to her aid.  She was notified by the managing editor\none evening to have the article ready in the morning,--an article\nrequiring more than ordinary care, and one in which quite a knowledge of\nfacts was required.  It was a matter in connection with which she knew\nscarcely anything, and all her efforts at finding information regarding\nit seemed to be of no avail.\n\nShe set to work, but it seemed as if even her own powers defied her.\nFailure seemed imminent.  Almost in desperation she decided to retire,\nand putting the matter into her mind in such a way that she would be able\nto receive the greatest amount of aid while asleep, she fell asleep and\nslept soundly until morning.  When she awoke her work of the previous\nevening was the first thing that came into her mind.  She lay quietly for\na few minutes, and as she lay there, the article, completely written,\nseemed to stand before her mind.  She ran through it, arose, and without\ndressing took her pen and transcribed it on to paper, literally acting\nsimply as her own amanuensis.\n\nThe mind acting intently along a particular line will continue so to act\nuntil some other object of thought carries it along another line.  And\nsince in sleep only the body is in quiet while the mind and soul are\nactive, then the mind on being given a certain direction when one drops\noff to sleep, will take up the line along which it is directed, and can\nbe made, in time, to bring over into consciousness the results of its\nactivities.  Some will be able very soon to get results of this kind; for\nsome it will take longer.  Quiet and continued effort will increase the\nfaculty.\n\nThen by virtue of the law of the drawing power of mind, since the mind is\nalways active, we are drawing to us even while sleeping, influences from\nthe realms kindred to those in which we in our thoughts are living before\nwe fall asleep.  In this way we can put ourselves into relation with what\never kinds of influence we choose and accordingly gain much during the\nprocess of sleep.  In many ways the interior faculties are more open and\nreceptive while we are in sleep than while we are awake.  Hence the\nnecessity of exercising even greater care as to the nature of the\nthoughts that occupy the mind as we enter into sleep, for there can come\nto us only what we by our own order of thought attract.  We have it\nentirely in our own hands.\n\nAnd for the same reason,--this greater degree of receptivity during this\nperiod,--we are able by understanding and using the law, to gain much of\nvalue more readily in this way than when the physical senses are fully\nopen to the material world about us.  Many will find a practice somewhat\nafter the following nature of value: When light or information is desired\nalong any particular line, light or information you feel it is right and\nwise for you to have, as, for example, light in regard to an uncertain\ncourse of action, then as you retire, first bring your mind into the\nattitude of peace and good-will for all.  You in this way bring yourself\ninto an harmonious condition, and in turn attract to yourself these same\npeaceful conditions from without.\n\nThen resting in this sense of peace, quietly and calmly send out your\nearnest desire for the needed light or information; cast out of your mind\nall fears or forebodings lest it come not, for \"in quietness and in\nconfidence shall be your strength.\"  Take the expectant attitude of mind,\nfirmly believing and expecting that when you awake the desired results\nwill be with you.  Then on awaking, before any thoughts or activities\nfrom the outside world come in to absorb the attention, remain for a\nlittle while receptive to the intuitions or the impressions that come.\nWhen they come, when they manifest themselves clearly, then act upon them\nwithout delay.  In the degree that you do this, in that degree will the\npower of doing it ever more effectively grow.\n\nOr, if for unselfish purposes you desire to grow and develop any of your\nfaculties, or to increase the health and strength of your body, take a\ncorresponding attitude of mind, the form of which will readily suggest\nitself in accordance with your particular needs or desires.  In this way\nyou will open yourself to, you will connect yourself with, and you will\nset into operation within yourself, the particular order of forces that\nwill make for these results.  Don't be afraid to voice your desires.  In\nthis way you set into operation vibratory forces which go out and which\nmake their impress felt somewhere, and which, arousing into activity or\nuniting with other forces, set about to actualize your desires.  No good\nthing shall be withheld from him who lives in harmony with the higher\nlaws and forces.  There are no desires that shall not be satisfied to the\none who knows and who wisely uses the powers with which he or she is\nendowed.\n\nYour sleep will be more quiet, and peaceful, and refreshing, and so your\npower increased mentally, physically, and spiritually, simply by sending\nout as you fall asleep, thoughts of love and good-will, thoughts of peace\nand harmony for all.  In this way you are connecting yourself with all\nthe forces in the universe that make for peace and harmony.\n\nA friend who is known the world over through his work along humane lines,\nhas told me that many times in the middle of the night he is awakened\nsuddenly and there comes to his mind, as a flash of inspiration, a\ncertain plan in connection with his work.  And as he lays there quietly\nand opens himself to it, the methods for its successful carrying out all\nreveal themselves to him clearly.  In this way many plans are entered\nupon and brought to a successful culmination that otherwise would never\nbe thought of, plans that seem, indeed, marvelous to the world at large.\nHe is a man with a sensitive organism, his life in thorough harmony with\nthe higher laws, and given wholly and unreservedly to the work to which\nhe has dedicated it.  Just how and from what source these inspirations\ncome he does not fully know.  Possibly no one does, though each may have\nhis theory.  But this we do know, and it is all we need to know now, at\nleast,--that to the one who lives in harmony with the higher laws of his\nbeing, and who opens himself to them, they come.\n\nVisions and inspirations of the highest order will come in the degree\nthat we make for them the right conditions.  One who has studied deeply\ninto the subject in hand has said: \"To receive education spiritually\nwhile the body is resting in sleep is a perfectly normal and orderly\nexperience, and would occur definitely and satisfactorily in the lives of\nall of us, if we paid more attention to internal and consequently less to\nexternal states with their supposed but unreal necessities. . . .  Our\nthoughts make us what we are here and hereafter, and our thoughts are\noften busier by night than by day, for when we are asleep to the exterior\nwe can be wide awake to the interior world; and the unseen world is a\nsubstantial place, the conditions of which are entirely regulated by\nmental and moral attainments.  When we are not deriving information\nthrough outward avenues of sensation, we are receiving instruction\nthrough interior channels of perception, and when this fact is understood\nfor what it is worth, it will become a universal custom for persons to\ntake to sleep with them the special subject on which they most earnestly\ndesire particular instruction.  The Pharaoh type of person dreams, and so\ndoes his butler and baker; but the Joseph type, which is that of the\ntruly gifted seer, both dreams and interprets.\"\n\nBut why had not Pharaoh the power of interpreting his dreams?  Why was\nJoseph the type of the \"truly gifted seer?\"  Why did he not only dream,\nbut had also the power to interpret both his own dreams and the dreams of\nothers?  Simply read the lives of the two.  He who runs may read.  In all\ntrue power it is, after all, living the life that tells.  And in\nproportion as one lives the life does he not only attain to the highest\npower and joy for himself, but he also becomes of ever greater service to\nall the world.  One need remain in no hell longer than he himself chooses\nto; and the moment he chooses not to remain longer, not all the powers in\nthe universe can prevent his leaving it.  One can rise to any heaven he\nhimself chooses; and when he chooses so to rise, all the higher powers of\nthe universe combine to help him heavenward.\n\nWhen one awakes from sleep and so returns to conscious life, he is in a\npeculiarly receptive and impressionable state.  All relations with the\nmaterial world have for a time been shut off, the mind is in a freer and\nmore natural state, resembling somewhat a sensitive plate, where\nimpressions can readily leave their traces.  This is why many times the\nhighest and truest impressions come to one in the early morning hours,\nbefore the activities of the day and their attendant distractions have\nexerted an influence.  This is one reason why many people can do their\nbest work in the early hours of the day.\n\nBut this fact is also a most valuable one in connection with the moulding\nof every-day life.  The mind is at this time as a clean sheet of paper.\nWe can most valuably use this quiet, receptive, impressionable period by\nwisely directing the activities of the mind along the highest and most\ndesirable paths, and thus, so to speak, set the pace for the day.\n\nEach morning is a fresh beginning.  We are, as it were, just beginning\nlife.  We have it _entirely_ in our own hands.  And when the morning with\nits fresh beginning comes, all yesterdays should be yesterdays, with\nwhich we have nothing to do.  Sufficient is it to know that the way we\nlived our yesterday has determined for us our today.  And, again, when\nthe morning with its fresh beginning comes, all tomorrows should be\ntomorrows, with which we have nothing to do.  Sufficient to know that the\nway we live our today determines our tomorrow.\n\n  \"Every day is a fresh beginning,\n    Every morn is the world made new;\n  You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,\n    Here is a beautiful hope for you,\n    A hope for me and a hope for you.\n\n  \"All the past things are past and over,\n    The tasks are done, and the tears are shed.\n  Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover;\n    Yesterday's wounds, which smarted and bled,\n    Are healed with the healing which might has shed.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\n  \"Let them go, since we cannot relieve them,\n    Cannot undo and cannot atone.\n  God in His mercy receive, forgive them!\n    Only the new days are our own.\n    Today is ours, and today alone.\n\n  \"Here are the skies all burnished brightly;\n    Here is the spent earth all reborn;\n  Here are the tired limbs springing lightly\n    To face the sun and to share with the morn\n    In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.\n\n  \"Every day is a fresh beginning,\n    Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,\n  And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,\n    And puzzles forecasted, and possible pain,\n    Take heart with the day and begin again.\"\n\n\nSimply the first hour of this new day, with all its richness and glory,\nwith all its sublime and eternity-determining possibilities, and each\nsucceeding hour as it comes, but _not before_ it comes.  This is the\nsecret of character building.  This simple method will bring any one to\nthe realization of the highest life that can be even conceived of, and\nthere is nothing in this connection that can be conceived of that cannot\nbe realized somehow, somewhen, somewhere.\n\nThis brings such a life within the possibilities of _all_, for there is\n_no one_, if really in earnest and if he really desires it, who cannot\nlive to his highest for a single hour.  But even though there should be,\nif he is _only earnest in his endeavor_, then, through the law that like\nbuilds like, he will be able to come a little nearer to it the next hour,\nand still nearer the next, and the next, until sooner or later comes the\ntime when it becomes the natural, and any other would require the effort.\n\nIn this way one becomes in love and in league with the highest and best\nin the universe, and as a consequence, the highest and best in the\nuniverse becomes in love and in league with him.  They aid him at every\nturn; they seem literally to move all things his way, because forsooth,\nhe has first moved their way.\n\n\n\n\nTHE REALIZATION OF PERFECT PEACE.\n\nThis is the Spirit of Infinite Peace, and the moment we come into\nharmony with it there comes to us an inflowing tide of peace, for peace\nis harmony.  A deep interior meaning underlies the great truth, \"To be\nspiritually minded is life and peace.\"  To recognize the fact that we\nare spirit, and to live in this thought, is to be spiritually minded,\nand so to be in harmony and peace.  Oh, the thousands of men and women\nall about us weary with care, troubled and ill at ease, running hither\nand thither to find peace, weary in body, soul, and mind; going to\nother countries, traveling the world over, coming back, and still not\nfinding it.  Of course they have not found it and they never will find\nit in this way, because they are looking for it where it is not.  They\nare looking for it without when they should look within.  Peace is to\nbe found only within, and unless one find it there he will never find\nit at all.\n\nPeace lies not in the external world.  It lies within one's own soul.\nWe may travel over many different avenues in pursuit of it, we may seek\nit through the channels of the bodily appetites and passions, we may\nseek it through all the channels of the external, we may chase for it\nhither and thither, but it will always be just beyond our grasp,\nbecause we are searching for it where it is not.  In the degree,\nhowever, that we order the bodily appetites and passions in accordance\nwith the promptings of the soul within will the higher forms of\nhappiness and peace enter our lives; but in the degree that we fail in\ndoing this will disease, suffering, and discontent enter in.\n\nTo be at one with God is to be at peace.  The child simplicity is the\ngreatest agency in bringing this full and complete realization, the\nchild simplicity that recognizes its true relations with the Father's\nlife.  There are people I know who have come into such a conscious\nrealization of their oneness with this Infinite Life, this Spirit of\nInfinite Peace, that their lives are fairly bubbling over with joy.  I\nhave particularly in mind at this moment a comparatively young man who\nwas an invalid for several years, his health completely broken with\nnervous exhaustion, who thought there was nothing in life worth living\nfor, to whom everything and everybody presented a gloomy aspect, and he\nin turn presented a gloomy aspect to all with whom he came in contact.\nNot long ago he came into such a vital realization of his oneness with\nthis Infinite Power, he opened himself so completely to its divine\ninflow, that today he is in perfect health, and frequently as I meet\nhim now he cannot resist the impulse to cry out, \"Oh, it is a joy to be\nalive.\"\n\nI know an officer on our police force who has told me that many times\nwhen off duty and on his way home in the evening, there comes to him\nsuch a vivid and vital realization of his oneness with this Infinite\nPower, and this Spirit of Infinite Peace so takes hold of and so fills\nhim, that it seems as if his feet could scarcely keep to the pavement,\nso buoyant and so exhilarated does he become by reason of this\ninflowing tide.\n\nHe who comes into this higher realization never has any fear, for he\nhas always with him a sense of protection, and the very realization of\nthis makes his protection complete.  Of him it is true,--\"No weapon\nthat is formed against thee shall prosper;\" \"There shall no ill come\nnigh thy dwelling;\" \"Thou shalt be in league with the stones of the\nfield, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.\"\n\nThese are the men and the women who seem to live charmed lives.  The\nmoment we fear anything we open the door for the entrance of the\nactualization of the very thing we fear.  An animal will never harm a\nperson who is absolutely fearless in regard to it.  The instant he\nfears he opens himself to danger; and some animals, the dog for\nexample, can instantly detect the element of fear, and this gives them\nthe courage to do harm.  In the degree that we come into a full\nrealization of our oneness with this Infinite Power do we become calm\nand quiet, undisturbed by the little occurrences that before so vex and\nannoy us.  We are no longer disappointed in people, for we always read\nthem aright.  We have the power of penetrating into their very souls\nand seeing the underlying motives that are at work there.\n\nA gentleman approached a friend the other day, and with great show of\ncordiality grasped him by the hand and said, \"Why, Mr. ------, I am so\nglad to see you.\"  Quick as a flash my friend read him, and looking him\nsteadily in the eye, replied, \"No, you are mistaken, you are not glad\nto see me; but you are very much disconcerted, so much so that you are\nnow blushing in evidence of it.\"  The gentleman replied, \"Well, you\nknow in this day and age of conventionality and form we have to put on\nthe show and sometimes make believe what we do not really feel.\"  My\nfriend once more looked him in the face and said, \"Again you are\nmistaken.  Let me give you one little word of advice: You will always\nfare better and will think far more of yourself, always to recognize\nand to tell the truth rather than to give yourself to any semblance of\nit.\"\n\nAs soon as we are able to read people aright we will then cease to be\ndisappointed in them, we will cease to place them on pedestals, for\nthis can never be done without some attendant disappointment.  The fall\nwill necessarily come, sooner or later, and moreover, we are thus many\ntimes unfair to our friends.  When we come into harmony with this\nSpirit of Peace, evil reports and apparent bad treatment, either at the\nhands of friends or of enemies, will no longer disturb us.  When we are\nconscious of the fact that in our life and our work we are true to that\neternal principle of right, of truth, of justice that runs through all\nthe universe, that unites and governs all, that always eventually\nprevails, then nothing of this kind can come nigh us, and come what may\nwe will always be tranquil and undisturbed.\n\nThe things that cause sorrow, and pain, and bereavement will not be\nable to take the hold of us they now take, for true wisdom will enable\nus to see the proper place and know the right relations of all things.\nThe loss of friends by the transition we call death will not cause\nsorrow to the soul that has come into this higher realization, for he\nknows that there is no such thing as death, for each one is not only a\npartaker, but an eternal partaker, of this Infinite Life.  He knows\nthat the mere falling away of the physical body by no means affects the\nreal soul life.  With a tranquil spirit born of a higher faith he can\nrealize for himself, and to those less strong he can say--\n\n  \"Loving friends! be wise and dry\n  Straightway every weeping eye;\n  What you left upon the bier\n  Is not worth a single tear;\n  'Tis a simple sea-shell, one\n  Out of which the pearl has gone.\n  The shell was nothing, leave it there;\n  The pearl--the soul--was all, is here.\"\n\nAnd so far as the element of separation is concerned, he realizes that\nto spirit there are no bounds, and that spiritual communion, whether\nbetween two persons in the body, or two persons, one in the body and\none out of the body, is within the reach of all.  In the degree that\nthe higher spiritual life is realized can there be this higher\nspiritual communion.\n\nThe things that we open ourselves to always come to us.  People in the\nolden times expected to see angels and they saw them; but there is no\nmore reason why they should have seen them than that we should see them\nnow; no more reason why they should come and dwell with them than that\nthey should come and dwell with us, for the great laws governing all\nthings are the same today as they were then.  If angels come not to\nminister unto us it is because we do not invite them, it is because we\nkeep the door closed through which they otherwise might enter.\n\nIn the degree that we are filled with this Spirit of Peace by thus\nopening ourselves to its inflow does it pour through us, so that we\ncarry it with us wherever we go.  In the degree that we thus open\nourselves do we become magnets to attract peace from all sources; and\nin the degree that we attract and embody it in ourselves are we able to\ngive it forth to others.  We can in this way become such perfect\nembodiments of peace that wherever we go we are continually shedding\nbenedictions.  But a day or two ago I saw a woman grasp the hand of a\nman (his face showed the indwelling God), saying, \"Oh, it does me so\nmuch good to see you.  I have been in anxiety and almost in despair\nduring the past few hours, but the very sight of you has rolled the\nburden entirely away.\"  There are people all around us who are\ncontinually giving out blessings and comfort, persons whose mere\npresence seems to change sorrow into joy, fear into courage, despair\ninto hope, weakness into power.\n\nIt is the one who has come into the realization of his own true self\nwho carries this power with him and who radiates it wherever he\ngoes,--the one who, as we say, has found his centre.  And in all the\ngreat universe there is but one centre,--the Infinite Power that is\nworking in and through all.  The one who then has found his centre is\nthe one who has come into the realization of his oneness with this\nInfinite Power, the one who recognizes himself as a spiritual being,\nfor God is spirit.\n\nSuch is the man of power.  Centred in the Infinite, he has thereby, so\nto speak, connected himself with, he has attached his belts to, the\ngreat power-house of the universe.  He is constantly drawing power to\nhimself from all sources.  For, thus centred, knowing himself,\nconscious of his own power, the thoughts that go from his mind are\nthoughts of strength; and by virtue of the law that like attracts like,\nhe by his thoughts is continually attracting to himself from all\nquarters the aid of all whose thoughts are thoughts of strength, and in\nthis way he is linking himself with this order of thought in the\nuniverse.\n\nAnd so to him that hath, to him shall be given.  This is simply the\nworking of a natural law.  His strong, positive, and hence constructive\nthought is continually working success for him along all lines, and\ncontinually bringing to him help from all directions.  The things that\nhe sees, that he creates in the ideal, are through the agency of this\nstrong constructive thought continually clothing themselves, taking\nform, manifesting themselves in the material.  Silent, unseen forces\nare at work which will sooner or later be made manifest in the visible.\n\nFear and all thoughts of failure never suggest themselves to such a\nman; or if they do, they are immediately sent out of his mind, and so\nhe is not influenced by this order of thought from without.  He does\nnot attract it to him.  He is in another current of thought.\nConsequently the weakening, failure-bringing thoughts of the fearing,\nthe vacillating, the pessimistic about him, have no influence upon him.\nThe one who is of the negative, fearing kind not only has his energies\nand his physical agents weakened, or even paralyzed through the\ninfluence of this kind of thought that is born within him, but he also\nin this way connects himself with this order of thought in the world\nabout him.  And in the degree that he does this does he become a victim\nto the weak, fearing, negative minds all around him.  Instead of\ngrowing in power, he increases in weakness.  He is in the same order of\nthought with those of whom it is true,--and even that which they have\nshall be taken away from them.  This again is simply the working of a\nnatural law, the same as is its opposite.  Fearing lest I lose even\nwhat I have I hide it away in a napkin.  Very well.  I must then pay\nthe price of my \"fearing lest I lose.\"\n\nThoughts of strength both build strength from within and attract it\nfrom without.  Thoughts of weakness actualize weakness from within and\nattract it from without.  Courage begets strength, fear begets\nweakness.  And so courage begets success, fear begets failure.  It is\nthe man or the woman of faith, and hence of courage, who is the master\nof circumstances, and who makes his or her power felt in the world.  It\nis the man or the woman who lacks faith and who as a consequence is\nweakened and crippled by fears and forebodings, who is the creature of\nall passing occurrences.\n\nWithin each one lies the cause of whatever comes to him.  Each has it\nin his own hands to determine what comes.  Everything in the visible,\nmaterial world has its origin in the unseen, the spiritual, the thought\nworld.  This is the world of cause, the former is the world of effect.\nThe nature of the effect is always in accordance with the nature of the\ncause.  What one lives in his invisible, thought world, he is\ncontinually actualizing in his visible, material world.  If he would\nhave any conditions different in the latter he must make the necessary\nchange in the former.  A clear realization of this great fact would\nbring success to thousands of men and women who all about us are now in\nthe depths of despair.  It would bring health, abounding health and\nstrength to thousands now diseased and suffering.  It would bring peace\nand joy to thousands now unhappy and ill at ease.\n\nAnd oh, the thousands all about us who are continually living in the\nslavery of fear.  The spirits within that should be strong and\npowerful, are rendered weak and impotent.  Their energies are crippled,\ntheir efforts are paralyzed.  \"Fear is everywhere,--fear of want, fear\nof starvation, fear of public opinion, fear of private opinion, fear\nthat what we own today may not be ours tomorrow, fear of sickness, fear\nof death.  Fear has become with millions a fixed habit.  The thought is\neverywhere.  The thought is thrown upon us from every direction. . . .\nTo live in continual dread, continual cringing, continual fear of\nanything, be it loss of love, loss of money, loss of position or\nsituation, is to take the readiest means to lose what we fear we shall.\"\n\nBy fear nothing is to be gained, but on the contrary, everything is to\nbe lost.  \"I know this is true,\" says one, \"but I am given to fear;\nit's natural to me and I can't help it.\"  Can't help it!  In saying\nthis you indicate one great reason of your fear by showing that you do\nnot even know yourself as yet.  You must know yourself in order to know\nyour powers, and not until you know them can you use them wisely and\nfully.  Don't say you can't help it.  If you think you can't, the\nchances are that you can't.  If you think you can, and act in\naccordance with this thought, then not only are the chances that you\ncan, but if you act fully in accordance with it, that you can and that\nyou will is an absolute certainty.  It was Virgil who in describing the\ncrew which in his mind would win the race, said of them,--They can\nbecause they think they can.  In other words, this very attitude of\nmind on their part will infuse a spiritual power into their bodies that\nwill give them the strength and endurance which will enable them to win.\n\nThen take the thought that you _can_; take it merely as a seed-thought,\nif need be, plant it in your consciousness, tend it, cultivate it, and\nit will gradually reach out and gather strength from all quarters.  It\nwill focus and make positive and active the spiritual force within you\nthat is now scattered and of little avail.  It will draw to itself\nforce from without.  It will draw to your aid the influence of other\nminds of its own nature, minds that are fearless, strong, courageous.\nYou will thus draw to yourself and connect yourself with this order of\nthought.  If earnest and faithful, the time will soon come when all\nfear will loose its hold; and instead of being an embodiment of\nweakness and a creature of circumstances, you will find yourself a\ntower of strength and a master of circumstances.\n\nWe need more faith in every-day life,--faith in the power that works\nfor good, faith in the Infinite God, and hence faith in ourselves\ncreated in His image.  And however things at times may seem to go,\nhowever dark at times appearances may be, the knowledge of the fact\nthat \"the Supreme Power has us in its charge as it has the suns and\nendless systems of worlds in space,\" will give us the supreme faith\nthat all is well with us, the same as all is well with the world.\n\"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.\"\n\nThere is nothing firmer, and safer, and surer than Deity.  Then, as we\nrecognize the fact that we have it in our own hands to open ourselves\never more fully to this Infinite Power, and call upon it to manifest\nitself in and through us, we will find in ourselves an ever increasing\nsense of power.  For in this way we are working in conjunction with it,\nand it in turn is working in conjunction with us.  We are then led into\nthe full realization of the fact that all things work together for good\nto those that love the good.  Then the fears and forebodings that have\ndominated us in the past will be transmuted into faith, and faith when\nrightly understood and rightly used is a force before which nothing can\nstand.\n\nMaterialism leads naturally to pessimism.  And how could it do\notherwise?  A knowledge of the Spiritual Power working in and through\nus as well as in and through all things, a power that works for\nrighteousness, leads to optimism.  Pessimism leads to weakness.\nOptimism leads to power.  The one who is centred in Deity is the one\nwho not only outrides every storm, but who through the faith, and so,\nthe conscious power that is in him, faces storm with the same calmness\nand serenity that he faces fair weather; for he knows well beforehand\nwhat the outcome will be.  He knows that underneath are the everlasting\narms.  He it is who realizes the truth of the injunction, \"Rest in the\nLord, wait patiently for Him and He shall give thee thy heart's\ndesire.\"  All shall be given, simply given, to him who is ready to\naccept it.  Can anything be clearer than this?\n\nIn the degree, then, that we work in conjunction with the Supreme Power\ndo we need the less to concern ourselves about results.  To live in the\nfull realization of this fact and all that attends it brings peace, a\nfull, rich, abiding peace,--a peace that makes the present complete,\nand that, going on before, brings back the assurance that as our days,\nso shall our strength be.  The one who is thus centred, even in the\nface of all the unrest and the turmoil about us, can realize and say--\n\n      *      *      *      *\n\n  \"I stay my haste, I make delays,\n    For what avails this eager pace?\n  I stand amid eternal ways,\n    And what is mine shall know my face.\n\n  \"Asleep, awake, by night or day,\n    The friends I seek are seeking me;\n  No wind can drive my bark astray,\n    Nor change the tide of destiny.\n\n      *      *      *      *\n\n  \"The waters know their own, and draw\n    The brooks that spring in yonder height;\n  So flows the good with equal law\n    Unto the soul of pure delight\n\n  \"The stars come nightly to the sky;\n    The tidal wave unto the sea;\n  Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,\n    Can keep my own away from me.\"\n\n\n\n\nCOMING INTO FULLNESS OF POWER.\n\nThis is the Spirit of Infinite Power, and in the degree that we open\nourselves to it does power become manifest in us.  With God all things\nare possible,--that is, in conjunction with God all things are\npossible.  The true secret of power lies in keeping one's connection\nwith the God who worketh all things; and in the degree that we keep\nthis connection are we able literally to rise above every conceivable\nlimitation.\n\nWhy, then, waste time in running hither and thither to acquire power?\nWhy waste time with this practice or that practice?  Why not go\ndirectly to the mountain top itself, instead of wandering through the\nby-ways, in the valleys, and on the mountain sides?  That man has\nabsolute dominion, as taught in all the scriptures of the world, is\ntrue not of physical man, but of _spiritual man_.  There are many\nanimals, for example, larger and stronger, over which from a physical\nstandpoint he would not have dominion, but he can gain supremacy over\neven these by calling into activity the higher mental, psychic, and\nspiritual forces with which he is endowed.\n\nWhatever can't be done in the physical can be done in the spiritual.\nAnd in direct proportion as a man recognizes himself as spirit, and\nlives accordingly, is he able to transcend in power the man who\nrecognizes himself merely as material.  All the sacred literature of\nthe world is teeming with examples of what we call miracles.  They are\nnot confined to any particular times or places.  There is no age of\nmiracles in distinction from any other period that may be an age of\nmiracles.  Whatever has been done in the world's history can be done\nagain through the operation of the same laws and forces.  These\nmiracles were performed not by those who were more than men, but by\nthose who through the recognition of their oneness with God became\nGod-men, so that the higher forces and powers worked through them.\n\nFor what, let us ask, is a miracle?  Is it something supernatural?\nSupernatural only in the sense of being above the natural, or rather,\nabove that which is natural to man in his ordinary state.  A miracle is\nnothing more nor less than this.  One who has come into a knowledge of\nhis true identity, of his oneness with the all-pervading Wisdom and\nPower, thus makes it possible for laws higher than the ordinary mind\nknows of to be revealed to him.  These laws he makes use of; the people\nsee the results, and by virtue of their own limitations, call them\nmiracles and speak of the person who performs these apparently\nsupernatural works as a supernatural being.  But they as supernatural\nbeings could themselves perform these supernatural works if they would\nopen themselves to the recognition of the same laws, and consequently\nto the realization of the same possibilities and powers.  And let us\nalso remember that the supernatural of yesterday becomes, as in the\nprocess of evolution we advance from the lower to the higher, from the\nmore material to the more spiritual, the common and the natural of\ntoday, and what seems to be the supernatural of today becomes in the\nsame way the natural of tomorrow, and so on through the ages.  Yes, it\nis the God-man who does the things that appear supernatural, the man\nwho by virtue of his realization of the higher powers transcends the\nmajority and so stands out among them.  But any power that is possible\nto one human soul is possible to another.  The same laws operate in\nevery life.  We can be men and women of power or we can be men and\nwomen of impotence.  The moment one vitally grasps the fact that he can\nrise he will rise, and he can have absolutely no limitations other than\nthe limitations he sets to himself.  Cream always rises to the top.  It\nrises simply because _it is the nature of cream to rise_.\n\nWe hear much said of \"environment.\"  We need to realize that\nenvironment should never be allowed to make the man, but that man\nshould always, _and always can_, condition the environment.  When we\nrealize this we will find that many times it is not necessary to take\nourselves out of any particular environment, because we may yet have a\nwork to do there; but by the very force we carry with us we can so\naffect and change matters that we will have an entirely new set of\nconditions in an old environment.\n\nThe same is true in regard to \"hereditary\" traits and influences.  We\nsometimes hear the question asked, \"Can they be overcome?\"  Only the\none who doesn't yet know himself can ask a question such as this.  If\nwe entertain and live in the belief that they cannot be overcome, then\nthe chances are that they will always remain.  The moment, however,\nthat we come into a realization of our true selves, and so of the\ntremendous powers and forces within,--the powers and forces of the mind\nand spirit,--hereditary traits and influences that are harmful in\nnature will begin to lessen, and will disappear with a rapidity\ndirectly in proportion to the completeness of this realization.\n\n  \"There is no thing we cannot overcome;\n  Say not thy evil instinct is inherited,\n  Or that some trait inborn makes thy whole life forlorn,\n  And calls down punishment that is not merited.\n\n  \"Back of thy parents and grandparents lies\n  The Great Eternal Will!  That too is thine\n  Inheritance,--strong, beautiful, divine,\n  Sure lever of success for one who tries.\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\n  \"There is no noble height thou canst not climb;\n  All triumphs may be thine in Time's futurity,\n  If, whatso'er thy fault, thou dost not faint or halt;\n  But lean upon the staff of God's security.\n\n  \"Earth has no claim the soul cannot contest;\n  Know thyself part of the Eternal Source;\n  Naught can stand before thy spirit's force;\n  The soul's Divine Inheritance is best.\"\n\nAgain there are many who are living far below their possibilities\nbecause they are continually handing over their individualities to\nothers.  Do you want to be a power in the world?  Then be yourself.\nDon't class yourself, don't allow yourself to be classed among the\nsecond-hand, among the _they-say_ people.  Be true to the highest\nwithin your own soul, and then allow yourself to be governed by no\ncustoms or conventionalities or arbitrary man-made rules that are not\nfounded upon _principle_.  Those things that are founded upon principle\nwill be observed by the right-minded, the right-hearted man or woman,\nin any case.\n\nDon't surrender your individuality, which is your greatest agent of\npower, to the customs and conventionalities that have gotten their life\nfrom the great mass of those who haven't enough force to preserve their\nindividualities,--those who in other words have given them over as\ningredients to the \"mush of concession\" which one of our greatest\nwriters has said characterizes our modern society.  If you do surrender\nyour individuality in this way, you simply aid in increasing the\nundesirable conditions; in payment for this you become a slave, and the\nchances are that in time you will be unable to hold even the respect of\nthose whom you in this way try to please.\n\nIf you preserve your individuality then you become a master, and if\nwise and discreet, your influence and power will be an aid in bringing\nabout a higher, a better, and a more healthy set of conditions in the\nworld.  All people, moreover, will think more of you, will honor you\nmore highly for doing this than if you show your weakness by\ncontributing yourself to the same \"mush of concession\" that so many of\nthem are contributing themselves to.  With all classes of people you\nwill then have an influence.  \"A great style of hero draws equally all\nclasses, all extremes of society to him, till we say the very dogs\nbelieve in him.\"\n\nTo be one's self is the only worthy, and by all means the only\nsatisfactory, thing to be.  \"May it not be good policy,\" says one, \"to\nbe governed sometimes by one's surroundings?\"  What is good policy?  To\nbe yourself, first, last, and always.\n\n  \"This above all,--to thine own self be true;\n  And it must follow, as the night the day,\n  Thou canst not then be false to any man.\"\n\n\n\"When we appeal to the Supreme and our life is governed by a principle,\nwe are not governed either by fear of public opinion or loss of others'\napprobation, and we may be sure that the Supreme will sustain us.  If\nin any way we try to live to suit others we never shall suit them, and\nthe more we try the more unreasonable and exacting do they become.  The\ngovernment of your life is a matter that lies entirely between God and\nyourself, and when your life is swayed and influenced from any other\nsource you are on the wrong path.\"  When we find the kingdom within and\nbecome centred in the Infinite, then we become a law unto ourselves.\nWhen we become a law unto ourselves, then we are able to bring others\nto a knowledge of laws higher than they are governed or many times even\nenslaved by.\n\nWhen we have found this centre, then that beautiful simplicity, at once\nthe charm and the power of a truly great personality, enters into our\nlives.  Then all striving for effect,--that sure indicator of weakness\nand a lack of genuine power,--is absent.  This striving for effect that\nis so common is always an indicator of a lack of something.  It brings\nto mind the man who rides behind a dock-tailed horse.  Conscious of the\nfact that there is not enough in _himself_ to attract attention, in\ncommon with a number of other weaklings, he adopts the brutal method of\nhaving his horse's tail sawed off, that its unnatural, odd appearance\nmay attract from people the attention that he of himself is unable to\nsecure.\n\nBut the one who strives for effect is always fooled more than he\nsucceeds in fooling others.  The man and the woman of true wisdom and\ninsight can always see the causes that prompt, the motives that\nunderlie the acts of all with whom he or she comes in contact.  \"He is\ngreat who is what he is from nature and who never reminds us of others.\"\n\nThe men and the women who are truly awake to the real powers within are\nthe men and women who seem to be doing so little, yet who in reality\nare doing so much.  They seem to be doing so little because they are\nworking with higher agencies, and yet are doing so much because of this\nvery fact.  They do their work on the higher plane.  They keep so\ncompletely their connection with the Infinite Power that _It_ does the\nwork for them and they are relieved of the responsibility.  They are\nthe care-less people.  They are care-less because it is the Infinite\nPower that is working through them, and with this Infinite Power they\nare simply co-operating.\n\n_The secret of the highest power is simply the uniting of the outer\nagencies of expression with the Power that works from within_.  Are you\na painter?  Then in the degree that you open yourself to the power of\nthe forces within will you become great instead of mediocre.  You can\nnever put into permanent form inspirations higher than those that come\nthrough your own soul.  In order for the higher inspirations to come\nthrough it, you must open your soul, you must open it fully to the\nSupreme Source of all inspiration.  Are you an orator?  In the degree\nthat you come into harmony and work in conjunction with the higher\npowers that will speak through you will you have the real power of\nmoulding and of moving men.  If you use merely your physical agents,\nyou will be simply a demagogue.  If you open yourself so that the voice\nof God can speak through and use your physical agents, you will become\na great and true orator, great and true in just the degree that you so\nopen yourself.\n\nAre you a singer?  Then open yourself and let the God within pour forth\nin the spirit of song.  You will find it a thousand times easier than\nall your long and studied practice without this, and other things being\nequal, there will come to you a power of song so enchanting and so\nenrapturing that its influence upon all who hear will be irresistible.\n\nWhen my cabin or tent has been pitched during the summer on the edge or\nin the midst of a forest, I have sometimes lain awake on my cot in the\nearly morning, just as the day was beginning to break.  Silence at\nfirst.  Then an intermittent chirp here and there.  And as the\nunfolding tints of the dawn became faintly perceptible, these grew more\nand more frequent, until by and by the whole forest seemed to burst\nforth in one grand chorus of song.  Wonderful! wonderful!  It seemed as\nif the very trees, as if every grass-blade, as if the bushes, the very\nsky above, and the earth beneath, had part in this wonderful symphony.\nThen, as I have listened as it went on and on, I have thought.  What a\nstudy in the matter of song!  If we could but learn from the birds.  If\nwe could but open ourselves to the same powers and allow them to pour\nforth in us, what singers, what movers of men we might have!  Nay, what\nsingers and what movers of men _we would have_!\n\nDo you know the circumstances under which Mr. Sankey sang for the first\ntime \"The Ninety and Nine?\"  Says one of our able journals: \"At a great\nmeeting recently in Denver, Mr. Ira W. Sankey, before singing 'The\nNinety and Nine,' which, perhaps, of all his compositions is the one\nthat has brought him the most fame, gave an account of its birth.\nLeaving Glasgow for Edinburg with Mr. Moody, he stopped at a news-stand\nand bought a penny religious paper.  Glancing over it as they rode on\nthe cars, his eye fell on a few little verses in the corner of the\npage.  Turning to Mr. Moody he said, 'I've found my hymn.'  But Mr.\nMoody was busily engaged and did not hear a word.  Mr. Sankey did not\nfind time to make a tune for the verses, so he pasted them in his music\nscrapbook.\n\n\"One day they had an unusually impressive meeting in Edinburg, in which\nDr. Bonar had spoken with great effect on 'The Good Shepherd.'  At the\nclose of the address Mr. Moody beckoned to his partner to sing.  He\nthought of nothing but the Twenty-third Psalm, but that he had sung so\noften.  His second thought was to sing the verses he had found in the\nnewspaper, but the third thought was, how could it be done when he had\nno tune.  Then a fourth thought came, and that was to sing them anyway.\nHe put the verses before him, touched the keys of the organ, opened his\nmouth and sang, not knowing where he was going to come out.  He\nfinished the first verse amid profound silence.  He took a long breath\nand wondered if he could sing the second the same way.  He tried and\nsucceeded; after that it was easy to sing it.  When he finished the\nhymn the meeting was all broken down and the throngs were crying.  Mr.\nSankey says it was the most intense moment of his life.  Mr. Moody said\nhe never heard a song like it.  It was sung at every meeting, and was\nsoon going over the world.\"\n\nWhen we open ourselves to the highest inspirations they never fail us.\nWhen we fail to do this we fail in attaining the highest results,\nwhatever the undertaking.\n\nAre you a writer?  Then remember that the one great precept underlying\nall successful literary work is, _Look into thine own heart and write.\nBe true.  Be fearless.  Be loyal to the promptings of your own soul_.\nRemember that an author can never write more than he himself is.  If he\nwould write more, then he must be more.  He is simply his own\namanuensis.  He in a sense writes himself into his book.  He can put no\nmore into it than he himself is.\n\nIf he is one of a great personality, strong in purpose, deep in\nfeeling, open always to the highest inspirations, a certain indefinable\nsomething gets into his pages that makes them breathe forth a vital,\nliving power, a power so great that each reader gets the same\ninspirations as those that spoke through the author.  That that's\nwritten between the lines is many times more than that that's written\nin the lines.  It is the spirit of the author that engenders this\npower.  It is this that gives that extra twenty-five or thirty per cent\nthat takes a book out of the class called medium and lifts it into the\nclass called superior,--that extra per cent that makes it the one of\nthe hundred that is truly successful, while the ninety-nine never see\nmore than their first edition.\n\nIt is this same spiritual power that the author of a great personality\nputs into his work, that causes it to go so rapidly from reader to\nreader; for the only way that any book circulates in the ultimate is\nfrom mouth to mouth, any book that reaches a large circulation.  It is\nthis that many times causes a single reader, in view of its value to\nhimself, to purchase numbers of copies for others.  \"A good poem,\" says\nEmerson, \"goes about the world offering itself to reasonable men, who\nread it with joy and carry it to their reasonable neighbors.  Thus it\ndraws to it the _wise and generous souls_, confirming their secret\nthoughts, and through their sympathy _really publishing itself_.\"\n\nThis is the type of author who writes not with the thought of having\nwhat he writes become literature, but he writes with the sole thought\nof reaching the hearts of the people, giving them something of vital\nvalue, something that will broaden, sweeten, enrich, and beautify their\nlives; that will lead them to the finding of the higher life and with\nit the higher powers and the higher joys.  It most always happens,\nhowever, that if he succeeds in thus reaching the people, the becoming\nliterature part somehow takes care of itself, and far better than if he\naimed for it directly.\n\nThe one, on the other hand, who fears to depart from beaten paths, who\nallows himself to be bound by arbitrary rules, limits his own creative\npowers in just the degree that he allows himself so to be bound.  \"My\nbook,\" says one of the greatest of modern authors, \"shall smell of the\npines and resound with the hum of insects.  The swallow over my window\nshall interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my\nweb also.\"  Far better, gentle sage, to have it smell of the pines and\nresound with the hum of insects than to have it sound of the rules that\na smaller type of man gets by studying the works of a few great,\nfearless writers like yourself, and formulating from what he thus gains\na handbook of rhetoric.  \"Of no use are the men who study to do exactly\nas was done before, who can never understand that _today is a new day_.\"\n\nWhen Shakspeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies:\n\"Yet he was more original than his originals.  He breathed upon dead\nbodies and brought them into life.\"  This is the type of man who\ndoesn't move the world's way, but who moves the world his way.\n\nI had rather be an amanuensis of the Infinite God, as it is my\nprivilege literally to be, than a slave to the formulated rules of any\nrhetorician, or to the opinions of any critic.  Oh, the people, the\npeople over and over!  Let me give something to them that will lighten\nthe every-day struggles of our common life, something that will add a\nlittle sweetness here, a little hope there, something that will make\nmore thoughtful, kind, and gentle this thoughtless, animal-natured man,\nsomething that will awaken into activity the dormant powers of this\ntimid, shrinking little woman, powers that when awakened will be\nirresistible in their influence and that will surprise even herself.\nLet me give something that will lead each one to the knowledge of the\ndivinity of every human soul, something that will lead each one to the\nconscious realization of _his own divinity_, with all its attendant\nriches, and glories, and powers,--let me succeed in doing this, and I\ncan then well afford to be careless as to whether the critics praise or\nwhether they blame.  If it is blame, then under these circumstances it\nis as the cracking of a few dead sticks on the ground below, compared\nto the matchless music that the soft spring gale is breathing through\nthe great pine forest.\n\nAre you a minister, or a religious teacher of any kind?  Then in the\ndegree that you free yourself from the man-made theological dogmas that\nhave held and that are holding and limiting so many, and in the degree\nthat you open yourself to the Divine Breath, will you be one who will\nspeak with authority.  In the degree that you do this will you study\nthe prophets less and be in the way of becoming a prophet yourself.\nThe way is open for you exactly the same as it has ever been open for\nanyone.\n\nIf when born into the world you came into a family of the\nEnglish-speaking race, then in all probability you are a Christian.  To\nbe a Christian is to be a follower of the _teachings_ of Jesus, the\nChrist; to live in harmony with the same laws he lived in harmony with:\nin brief, _to live his life_.  The great central fact of his teaching\nwas this conscious union of man with the Father.  It was the complete\nrealization of this oneness with the Father on his part that made Jesus\nthe Christ.  It was through this that he attained to the power he\nattained to, that he spake as never man spake.\n\nHe never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim equally for\nall mankind.  \"The mighty works performed by Jesus were not\nexceptional, they were the natural and necessary concomitants of his\nstate; he declared them to be in accordance with unvarying order; he\nspoke of them as no unique performances, but as the outcome of a state\nto which all might attain if they chose.  As a teacher and demonstrator\nof truth, according to his own confession, he did nothing for the\npurpose of proving his solitary divinity. . . .  The life and triumph\nof Jesus formed an epoch in the history of the race.  His coming and\nvictory marked a new era in human affairs; he introduced a new because\na more complete ideal to the earth, and when his three most intimate\ncompanions saw in some measure what the new life really signified, they\nfell to the earth, speechless with awe and admiration.\"\n\nBy coming into this complete realization of his oneness with the\nFather, by mastering, absolutely mastering every circumstance that\ncrossed his path through life, even to the death of the body, and by\npointing out to us the great laws which are the same for us as they\nwere for him, he has given us an ideal of life, an ideal for us to\nattain to _here and now_, that we could not have without him.  _One has\nconquered first; all may conquer afterward_.  By completely realizing\nit first for himself, and then by pointing out to others this great law\nof the at-one-ment with the Father, he has become probably the world's\ngreatest saviour.\n\nDon't mistake his mere person for his life and his teachings, an error\nthat has been made in connection with most all great teachers by their\ndisciples over and over again.  And if you have been among the number\nwho have been preaching a dead Christ, then for humanity's sake, for\nChrist's sake, for God's sake, and I speak most reverently, don't steal\nthe people's time any longer, don't waste your own time more, in giving\nthem stones in place of bread, dead form for the spirit of living\ntruth.  In his own words, \"let the dead bury their dead.\"  Come out\nfrom among them.  Teach as did Jesus, _the living Christ_.  Teach as\ndid Jesus, _the Christ within_.  Find this in all its transcendent\nbeauty and power,--find it as Jesus found it, then you also will be one\nwho will speak with authority.  Then you will be able to lead large\nnumbers of others to its finding.  This is the pearl of great price.\n\nIt is the type of preacher whose soul has never as yet even perceived\nthe _vital spirit_ of the teachings of Jesus, and who as a consequence\ninstead of giving this to the people, is giving them old forms and\ndogmas and speculations, who is emptying our churches.  This is the\ntype whose chief efforts seem to be in getting men ready to die.  The\nGermans have a saying, Never go to the second thing first.  We need men\nwho will teach us first how to live.  Living quite invariably precedes\ndying.  This also is true, that when we once know how to live, and live\nin accordance with what we know, then the dying, as we term it, will in\na wonderfully beautiful manner take care of itself.  It is in fact the\nonly way in which it can be taken care of.\n\nIt is on account of this emptying of our churches, for the reason that\nthe people are tiring of mere husks, that many short-sighted people are\nfrequently heard to say that religion is dying out.  Religion dying\nout?  How can anything die before it is really born?  And so far as the\npeople are concerned, religion is just being born, or rather they are\njust awaking to a vital, every-day religion.  We are just beginning to\nget beyond the mere letter into its real, vital spirit.  Religion dying\nout?  Impossible even to conceive of.  Religion is as much a part of\nthe human soul as the human soul is a part of God.  And as long as God\nand the human soul exist, religion will never die.\n\nMuch of the dogma, the form, the ceremony, the mere letter that has\nstood as religion,--and honestly, many times, let us be fair enough to\nsay,--this, thank God, is rapidly dying out, and never so rapidly as it\nis today.  By two methods it is dying.  There is, first, a large class\nof people tired of or even nauseated with it all, who conscientiously\nprefer to have nothing rather than this.  They are simply abandoning\nit, the same as a tree abandons its leaves when the early winter comes.\nThere is, second, a large class in whom the Divine Breath is stirring,\nwho are finding the Christ within in all its matchless beauty and\nredeeming power.  And this new life is pushing off the old, the same as\nin the spring the newly awakened life in the tree pushes off the old,\nlifeless leaves that have clung on during the winter, to make place for\nthe new ones.  And the way this old dead leaf religion is being pushed\noff on every hand is indeed most interesting and inspiring to witness.\n\nLet the places of those who have been emptying our churches by reason\nof their attempts to give stones for bread, husks and chaff for the\nlife-giving grain, let their places be taken even for but a few times\nby those who are open and alive to these higher inspirations, and then\nlet us again question those who feel that religion is dying out.  \"It\nis the live coal that kindles others, not the dead.\"  Let their places\nbe taken by those who have caught the inspiration of the Divine Breath,\nwho as a consequence have a message of mighty value and import for the\npeople, who by virtue of this same fact are able to present it with a\nbeauty and a power so enrapturing that it takes captive the soul.  Then\nwe will find that the churches that today are dotted here and there\nwith a few dozen people will be filled to overflowing, and there will\nnot be even room enough for all who would enter.  \"Let the shell perish\nthat the pearl may appear.\"  We need no new revelations as yet.  We\nneed simply to find the vital spirit of those we already have.  Then in\ndue time, when we are ready for them, new ones will come, but not\nbefore.\n\n\"What the human soul, all the world over, needs,\" says John Pulsford,\n\"is not to be harangued, however eloquently, about the old, accepted\nreligion, but to be permeated, charmed, and taken captive by _a warmer\nand more potent Breath of God than they ever felt before_.  And I\nshould not be true to my personal experience if I did not bear\ntestimony that this Divine Breath is as exquisitely adapted to the\nrequirements of the soul's nature as a June morning to the planet.  Nor\ndoes the morning breath leave the trees freer to delight themselves and\ndevelop themselves under its influence than the Breath of God allows\neach human mind to unfold according to its genius.  Nothing stirs the\ncentral wheel of the soul like the Breath of God.  The whole man is\nquickened, his senses are new senses, his emotions new emotions; his\nreason, his affections, his imagination, are all new-born.  The change\nis greater than he knows; he marvels at the powers in himself which the\nBreath is opening and calling forth.  He finds his nature to be an\nunutterable thing; he is sure therefore that the future must have\ninconceivable surprises in store.  And herein lies the evidence, which\nI commend to my readers, of the existence of God, and of the Eternal\nhuman Hope.  Let God's Breath kindle new spring-time in the soul, start\ninto life its deeply buried germs, lead in heaven's summer; you will\nthen have as clear evidence of God from within as you have of the\nuniverse from without.  Indeed, your internal experience of life, and\nillimitable Hope in God will be nearer to you, and more prevailing,\nthan all your external and superficial experience of nature and the\nworld.\"\n\nThere is but one source of power in the universe.  Whatever then you\nare, painter, orator, musician, writer, religious teacher, or whatever\nit may be, know that to catch and take captive the secret of power is\nso to work in conjunction with the Infinite Power, in order that it may\ncontinually work and manifest through you.  If you fail in doing this,\nyou fail in everything.  If you fail in doing this, your work, whatever\nit may be, will be third or fourth rate, possibly at times second rate,\nbut it positively never can be first rate.  Absolutely impossible will\nit be for you ever to become a master.\n\nWhatever estimate you put upon yourself will determine the\neffectiveness of your work along any line.  As long as you live merely\nin the physical and the intellectual, you set limitations to yourself\nthat will hold you as long as you so live.  When, however, you come\ninto the realization of your oneness with the Infinite Life and Power,\nand open yourself that it may work through you, you will find that you\nhave entered upon an entirely new phase of life, and that an ever\nincreasing power will be yours.  Then it will be true that your\nstrength will be as the strength of ten because your heart is pure.\n\n  \"O God!  I am one forever\n    With Thee by the glory of birth;\n  The celestial powers proclaim it\n    To the utmost bounds of the earth.\n\n  \"I think of this birthright immortal,\n    And my being expands like a rose,\n  As an odorous cloud of incense\n    Around and above me flows.\n\n  \"A glorious song of rejoicing\n    In an innermost spirit I hear,\n  And it sounds like heavenly voices,\n    In a chorus divine and clear.\n\n  \"And I feel a power uprising,\n    Like the power of an embryo god;\n  With a glorious wall it surrounds me,\n    And lifts me up from the sod.\"\n\n\n\n\nPLENTY OF ALL THINGS--THE LAW OF PROSPERITY.\n\nThis is the Spirit of Infinite Plenty, the Power that has brought, that\nis continually bringing, all things into expression in material form.\nHe who lives in the realization of his oneness with this Infinite Power\nbecomes a magnet to attract to himself a continual supply of whatsoever\nthings he desires.\n\nIf one hold himself in the thought of poverty, he will be poor, and the\nchances are that he will remain in poverty.  If he hold himself,\nwhatever present conditions may be, continually in the thought of\nprosperity, he sets into operation forces that will sooner or later\nbring him into prosperous conditions.  The law of attraction works\nunceasingly throughout the universe, and the one great and never\nchanging fact in connection with it is, as we have found, that like\nattracts like.  If we are one with this Infinite Power, this source of\nall things, then in the degree that we live in the realization of this\noneness, in that degree do we actualize in ourselves a power that will\nbring to us an abundance of all things that it is desirable for us to\nhave.  In this way we come into possession of a power whereby we can\nactualize at all times those conditions that we desire.\n\nAs all truth exists _now_, and awaits simply our perception of it, so\nall things necessary for present needs exist _now_, and await simply\nthe power in us to appropriate them.  God holds all things in His\nhands.  His constant word is, My child, acknowledge me in all your\nways, and in the degree that you do this, in the degree that you live\nthis, then what is mine is yours.  Jehovah-jireh,--the Lord will\nprovide.  \"He giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.\"  He\ngiveth liberally to all men who put themselves in the right attitude to\nreceive from Him.  He forces no good things upon any one.\n\nThe old and somewhat prevalent idea of godliness and poverty has\nabsolutely no basis for its existence, and the sooner we get away from\nit the better.  It had its birth in the same way that the idea of\nasceticism came into existence, when the idea prevailed that there was\nnecessarily a warfare between the flesh and the spirit.  It had its\norigin therefore in the minds of those who had a distorted, a one-sided\nview of life.  True godliness is in a sense the same as true wisdom.\nThe one who is truly wise, and who uses the forces and powers with\nwhich he is endowed, to him the great universe always opens her\ntreasure house.  The supply is always equal to the demand,--equal to\nthe demand when the demand is rightly, wisely made.  When one comes\ninto the realization of these higher laws, then the fear of want ceases\nto tyrannize over him.\n\nAre you out of a situation?  Let the fear that you will not get another\ntake hold of and _dominate_ you, and the chances are that it may be a\nlong time before you will get another, or the one that you do get may\nbe a very poor one indeed.  Whatever the circumstances, you must\nrealize that you have within you forces and powers that you can set\ninto operation that will triumph over any and all apparent or temporary\nlosses.  Set these forces into operation and you will then be placing a\nmagnet that will draw to you a situation that may be far better than\nthe one you have lost, and the time may soon come when you will be even\nthankful that you lost the old one.\n\nRecognize, working in and through you, the same Infinite Power that\ncreates and governs all things in the universe, the same Infinite Power\nthat governs the endless systems of worlds in space.  Send out your\nthought,--thought is a force, and it has occult power of unknown\nproportions when rightly used and wisely directed,--send out your\nthought that the right situation or the right work will come to you at\nthe right time, in the right way, and that you will recognize it when\nit comes.  Hold to this thought, never allow it to weaken, hold to it,\nand continually water it with firm expectation.  You in this way put\nyour advertisement into a psychical, a spiritual newspaper, a paper\nthat has not a limited circulation, but one that will make its way not\nonly to the utmost bounds of the earth, but of the very universe\nitself.  It is an advertisement, moreover, which if rightly placed on\nyour part, will be far more effective than any advertisement you could\npossibly put into any printed sheet, no matter what claims are made in\nregard to its being \"the great advertising medium.\"  In the degree that\nyou come into this realization and live in harmony with the higher laws\nand forces, in that degree will you be able to do this effectively.\n\nIf you wish to look through the \"want\" columns of the newspapers, then\ndo it not in the ordinary way.  Put the higher forces into operation\nand thus place it on a higher basis.  As you take up the paper, take\nthis attitude of mind: If there is here an advertisement that it will\nbe well for me to reply to, the moment I come to it I will recognize\nit.  Affirm this, believe it, expect it.  If you do this in full faith\nyou will somehow feel the intuition the moment you come to the right\none, and this intuition will be nothing more nor less than your own\nsoul speaking to you.  When it speaks then act at once.\n\nIf you get the situation and it does not prove to be exactly what you\nwant, if you feel that you are capable of filling a better one, then\nthe moment you enter upon it take the attitude of mind that this\nsituation is the stepping-stone that will lead you to one that will be\nstill better.  Hold this thought steadily, affirm it, believe it,\nexpect it, and all the time be faithful, _absolutely faithful_ to the\nsituation in which you are at present placed.  If you are _not_\nfaithful to it then the chances are that it will not be the\nstepping-stone to something better, but to something poorer.  If you\nare faithful to it, the time may soon come when you will be glad and\nthankful, when you will rejoice, that you lost your old position.\n\nThis is the law of prosperity: When apparent adversity comes, be not\ncast down by it, but make the best of it, and always look forward for\nbetter things, for conditions more prosperous.  To hold yourself in\nthis attitude of mind is to set into operation subtle, silent, and\nirresistible forces that sooner or later will actualize in material\nform that which is today merely an idea.  But ideas have occult power,\nand ideas, when rightly planted and rightly tended, are the seeds that\nactualize material conditions.\n\nNever give a moment to complaint, but utilize the time that would\notherwise be spent in this way in looking forward and actualizing the\nconditions you desire.  Suggest prosperity to yourself.  See yourself\nin a prosperous condition.  Affirm that you will before long be in a\nprosperous condition.  Affirm it calmly and quietly, but strongly and\nconfidently.  Believe it, believe it absolutely.  Expect it,--keep it\ncontinually watered with expectation.  You thus make yourself a magnet\nto attract the things that you desire.  Don't be afraid to suggest, to\naffirm these things, for by so doing you put forth an ideal which will\nbegin to clothe itself in material form.  In this way you are utilizing\nagents among the most subtle and powerful in the universe.  If you are\nparticularly desirous for anything that you feel it is good and right\nfor you to have, something that will broaden your life or that will\nincrease your usefulness to others, simply hold the thought that at the\nright time, in the right way, and through the right instrumentality,\nthere will come to you or there will open up for you the way whereby\nyou can attain what you desire.\n\nI know of a young lady who a short time ago wanted some money very\nbadly.  She wanted it for a good purpose; she saw no reason why she\nshouldn't have it.  She is one who has come into an understanding of\nthe power of the interior forces.  She took and held herself in the\nattitude of mind we have just pointed out.  In the morning she entered\ninto the silence for a few moments.  In this way she brought herself\ninto a more complete harmony with the higher powers.  Before the day\nclosed a gentleman called, a member of a family with which she was\nacquainted.  He asked her if she would do for the family some work that\nthey wanted done.  She was a little surprised that they should ask her\nto do this particular kind of work, but she said to herself, \"Here is a\ncall.  I will respond and see what it will lead to.\"  She undertook the\nwork.  _She did it well_.  When she had completed it there was put into\nher hands an amount of money far beyond what she had expected.  She\nfelt that it was an amount too large for the work she had done.  She\nprotested.  They replied, \"No; you have done us a service that\ntranscends in value the amount we offer to pay you.\"  The sum thus\nreceived was more than sufficient for the work she wished to accomplish.\n\nThis is but one of many instances in connection with the wise and\neffective use of the higher powers.  It also carries a lesson,--Don't\nfold your hands and expect to see things drop into your lap, but set\ninto operation the higher forces and then take hold of the first thing\nthat offers itself.  Do what your hands find to do, _and do it well_.\nIf this work is not thoroughly satisfactory to you, then affirm,\nbelieve, and expect that it is the agency that will lead you to\nsomething better.  \"The basis for attracting the best of all the world\ncan give to you is to first surround, own, and live in these things in\nmind, or what is falsely called imagination.  All so-called imaginings\nare realities and forces of unseen element.  Live in mind in a palace\nand gradually palatial surroundings will gravitate to you.  But so\nliving is _not_ pining, or longing, or complainingly wishing.  It is\nwhen you are 'down in the world,' calmly and persistently seeing\nyourself as up.  It is when you are now compelled to eat from a tin\nplate, regarding that tin plate as only the certain step to one of\nsilver.  It is not envying and growling at other people who have silver\nplate.  That growling is just so much capital stock taken from the bank\naccount of mental force.\"\n\nA friend who knows the power of the interior forces, and whose life is\nguided in every detail by them, has given a suggestion in this form:\nWhen you are in the arms of the bear, even though he is hugging you,\nlook him in the face and laugh, but all the time keep your eye on the\nbull.  If you allow all of your attention to be given to the work of\nthe bear, the bull may get entirely out of your sight.  In other words,\nif you yield to adversity the chances are that it will master you, but\nif you recognize in yourself the power of mastery over conditions then\nadversity will yield to you, and will be changed into prosperity.  If\nwhen it comes you calmly and quietly recognize it, and use the time\nthat might otherwise be spent in regrets, and fears, and forebodings,\nin setting into operation the powerful forces within you, it will soon\ntake its leave.\n\nFaith, absolute dogmatic faith, is the only law of true success.  When\nwe recognize the fact that a man carries his success or his failure\nwith him, and that it does not depend upon outside conditions, we will\ncome into the possession of powers that will quickly change outside\nconditions into agencies that make for success.  When we come into this\nhigher realization and bring our lives into complete harmony with the\nhigher laws, we will then be able so to focus and direct the awakened\ninterior forces, that they will go out and return laden with that for\nwhich they are sent.  We will then be great enough to attract success,\nand it will not always be apparently just a little ways ahead.  We can\nthen establish in ourselves a centre so strong that instead of running\nhither and thither for this or that, we can stay at home and draw to us\nthe conditions we desire.  If we firmly establish and hold to this\ncentre, things will seem continually to come our way.\n\nThe majority of people of the modern world are looking for things that\nare practical and that can be utilized in every-day life.  The more\ncarefully we examine into the laws underlying the great truths we are\nconsidering, the more we will find that they are not only eminently\npractical, but in a sense, and in the deepest and truest sense, they\nare the only practical things there are.\n\nThere are people who continually pride themselves upon being\nexceedingly \"practical,\" but many times those who of themselves think\nnothing about this are the most practical people the world knows.  And,\non the other hand, those who take great pride in speaking of their own\npracticality are many times the least practical.  Or again, in some\nways they may be practical, but so far as life in its totality is\nconcerned, they are absurdly impractical.\n\nWhat profit, for example, can there be for the man who, materially\nspeaking, though he has gained the whole world, has never yet become\nacquainted with his own soul?  There are multitudes of men all about us\nwho are entirely missing the real life, men who have not learned even\nthe a, b, c of true living.  Slaves they are, abject slaves to their\ntemporary material accumulations.  Men who thinking they possess their\nwealth are on the contrary completely possessed by it.  Men whose lives\nare comparatively barren in service to those about them and to the\nworld at large.  Men who when they can no longer hold the body,--the\nagency by means of which they are related to the material world,--will\ngo out poor indeed, pitiably poor.  Unable to take even the smallest\nparticle of their accumulations with them, they will enter upon the\nother form of life naked and destitute.\n\nThe kindly deeds, the developed traits of character, the realized\npowers of the soul, the real riches of the inner life and unfoldment,\nall those things that become our real and eternal possessions, have\nbeen given no place in their lives, and so of the real things of life\nthey are destitute.  Nay, many times worse than destitute.  We must not\nsuppose that habits once formed are any more easily broken off in the\nother form of life than they are in this.  If one voluntarily grows a\ncertain mania here, we must not suppose that the mere dropping of the\nbody makes all conditions perfect.  All is law, all is cause and\neffect.  As we sow, so shall we also reap, not only in this life but in\nall lives.\n\nHe who is enslaved with the sole desire for material possessions here\nwill continue to be enslaved even after he can no longer retain his\nbody.  Then, moreover, he will have not even the means of gratifying\nhis desires.  Dominated by this habit, he will be unable to set his\naffections, for a time at least, upon other things, and the desire,\nwithout the means of gratifying it will be doubly torturing to him.\nPerchance this torture may be increased by his seeing the accumulations\nhe thought were his now being scattered and wasted by spendthrifts.  He\nwills his property, as we say, to others, but he can have no word as to\nits use.\n\nHow foolish, then, for us to think that any material possessions _are\nours_.  How absurd, for example, for one to fence off a number of acres\nof God's earth and say they are _his_.  Nothing is ours that we cannot\nretain.  The things that come into our hands come not for the purpose\nof being possessed, as we say, much less for the purpose of being\nhoarded.  They come into our hands to be used, to be wisely used.  We\nare stewards merely, and as stewards we shall be held accountable for\nthe way we use whatever is entrusted to us.  That great law of\ncompensation that runs through all life is wonderfully exact in its\nworkings, although we may not always fully comprehend it, or even\nrecognize it when it operates in connection with ourselves.\n\nThe one who has come into the realization of the higher life no longer\nhas a desire for the accumulation of enormous wealth, any more than he\nhas a desire for any other _excess_.  In the degree that he comes into\nthe recognition of the fact that he is wealthy within, external wealth\nbecomes less important in his estimation.  When he comes into the\nrealization of the fact that there is a source within from which he can\nput forth a power to call to him and actualize in his hands at any time\na sufficient supply for all his needs, he no longer burdens himself\nwith vast material accumulations that require his constant care and\nattention, and thus take his time and his thought from the real things\nof life.  In other words, he first finds the _kingdom_, and he realizes\nthat when he has found this, all other things follow in full measure.\n\nIt is as hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, said\nthe Master,--he who having nothing had everything,--as it is for a\ncamel to pass through the eye of a needle.  In other words, if a man\ngive all his time to the accumulation, the hoarding of outward material\npossessions far beyond what he can possibly ever use, what time has he\nfor the finding of that wonderful kingdom, which when found, brings all\nelse with it.  Which is better, to have millions of dollars, and to\nhave the burden of taking care of it all,--for the one always involves\nthe other,--or to come into the knowledge of such laws and forces that\nevery need will be supplied in good time, to know that no good thing\nshall be withheld, to know that we have it in our power to make the\nsupply always equal to the demand?\n\nThe one who enters into the realm of this higher knowledge, never cares\nto bring upon himself the species of insanity that has such a firm hold\nupon so many in the world today.  He avoids it as he would avoid any\nloathsome disease of the body.  When we come into the realization of\nthe higher powers, we will then be able to give more attention to the\nreal life, instead of giving so much to the piling up of vast\npossessions that hamper rather than help it.  It is the medium ground\nthat brings the true solution here, the same as it is in all phases of\nlife.\n\nWealth beyond a certain amount cannot be used, and when it cannot be\nused it then becomes a hindrance rather than an aid, a curse rather\nthan a blessing.  All about us are persons with lives now stunted and\ndwarfed who could make them rich and beautiful, filled with a perennial\njoy, if they would begin wisely to use that which they have spent the\ngreater portion of their lives in accumulating.\n\nThe man who accumulates during his entire life, and who leaves even all\nwhen he goes out for \"benevolent purposes,\" comes far short of the\nideal life.  It is but a poor excuse of a life.  It is not especially\ncommendable in me to give a pair of old, worn-out shoes that I shall\nnever use again to another who is in need of shoes.  But it is\ncommendable, if indeed doing anything we ought to do can be spoken of\nas being commendable, it is commendable for me to give a good pair of\nstrong shoes to the man who in the midst of a severe winter is\npractically shoeless, the man who is exerting every effort to earn an\nhonest living and thereby take care of his family's needs.  And if in\ngiving the shoes I also give myself, he then has a double gift, and I a\ndouble blessing.\n\nThere is no wiser use that those who have great accumulations can make\nof them than wisely to put them into life, into character, _day by day\nwhile they live_.  In this way their lives will be continually enriched\nand increased.  The time will come when it will be regarded as a\ndisgrace for a man to die and leave vast accumulations behind him.\n\nMany a person is living in a palace today who in the real life is\npoorer than many a one who has not even a roof to cover him.  A man may\nown and live in a palace, but the palace for him may be a pool-house\nstill.\n\nMoth and rust are nature's wise provisions--God's methods--for\ndisintegrating and scattering, in this way getting ready for use in new\nforms, that which is hoarded and consequently serving no use.  There is\nalso a great law continually operating whose effects are to dwarf and\ndeaden the powers of true enjoyment, as well as all the higher\nfaculties of the one who hoards.\n\nMultitudes of people are continually keeping away from them higher and\nbetter things because they are forever clinging on to the old.  If they\nwould use and pass on the old, room would be made for new things to\ncome.  Hoarding always brings loss in one form or another.  Using,\nwisely using, brings an ever renewing gain.\n\nIf the tree should as ignorantly and as greedily hold on to this year's\nleaves when they have served their purpose, where would be the full and\nbeautiful new life that will be put forth in the spring?  Gradual decay\nand finally death would be the result.  If the tree is already dead,\nthen it may perhaps be well enough for it to cling on to the old, for\nno new leaves will come.  But as long as the life in the tree is\nactive, it is _necessary_ that it rid itself of the old ones, that room\nmay be made for the new.\n\nOpulence is the law of the universe, an abundant supply for every need\nif nothing is put in the way of its coming.  The natural and the normal\nlife for us is this,--To have such a fullness of life and power by\nliving so continually in the realization of our oneness with the\nInfinite Life and Power that we find ourselves in the constant\npossession of an abundant supply of all things needed.\n\nThen not by hoarding but by wisely using and ridding ourselves of\nthings as they come, an ever renewing supply will be ours, a supply far\nbetter adapted to present needs than the old could possibly be.  In\nthis way we not only come into possession of the richest treasures of\nthe Infinite Good ourselves, but we also become open channels through\nwhich they can flow to others.\n\n\n\n\nHOW MEN HAVE BECOME PROPHETS, SEERS, SAGES, AND SAVIOURS.\n\nI have tried thus far to deal fairly with you in presenting these vital\ntruths, and have spoken of everything on the basis of our own reason\nand insight.  It has been my aim to base nothing on the teachings of\nothers, though they may be the teachings of those inspired.  Let us now\nlook for a moment at these same great truths in the light of the\nthoughts and the teachings as put forth by some of the world's great\nthinkers and inspired teachers.\n\nThe sum and substance of the thought presented in these pages is, you\nwill remember, that the great central fact in human life is the coming\ninto a conscious, vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite\nLife, and the opening of ourselves fully to this divine inflow.  I and\nthe Father are one, said the Master.  In this we see how he recognized\nhis oneness with the Father's life.  Again he said, The words that I\nspeak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in\nme, He doeth the works.  In this we see how clearly he recognized the\nfact that he of himself could do nothing, only as he worked in\nconjunction with the Father.  Again, My Father works and I work.  In\nother words, my Father sends the power, I open myself to it, and work\nin conjunction with it.\n\nAgain he said, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,\nand all these things shall be added unto you.  And he left us not in\nthe dark as to exactly what he meant by this, for again he said.  Say\nnot Lo here nor lo there, know ye not that the kingdom of heaven is\nwithin you?  According to his teaching, the kingdom of God and the\nkingdom of heaven were one and the same.  If, then, his teaching is\nthat the kingdom of heaven is within us, do we not clearly see that,\nputting it in other words, his injunction is nothing more nor less\nthan, Come ye into a conscious realization of your oneness with the\nFather's life.  As you realize this oneness you find the kingdom, and\nwhen you find this, all things else shall follow.\n\nThe story of the prodigal son is another beautiful illustration of this\nsame great teaching of the Master.  After the prodigal had spent\neverything, after he had wandered in all the realms of the physical\nsenses in the pursuit of happiness and pleasure, and found that this\ndid not satisfy but only brought him to the level of the animal\ncreation, he then came to his senses and said, I will arise and go to\nmy Father.  In other words, after all these wanderings, his own soul at\nlength spoke to him and said, You are not a mere animal.  You are your\nFather's child.  Arise and go to your Father, who holds all things in\nHis hands.  Again, the Master said, Call no man your Father upon the\nearth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.  Here he recognized\nthe fact that the real life is direct from the life of God.  Our\nfathers and our mothers are the agents that give us the bodies, the\nhouses in which we live, but the real life comes from the Infinite\nSource of Life, God, who is our Father.\n\nOne day word was brought to the Master that his mother and his brethren\nwere without, wishing to speak with him.  Who is my mother and who are\nmy brethren? said he.  Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which\nis in heaven, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.\n\nMany people are greatly enslaved by what we term ties of relationship.\nIt is well, however, for us to remember that our true relatives are not\nnecessarily those who are connected with us by ties of blood.  Our\ntruest relatives are those who are nearest akin to us in mind, in soul,\nin spirit.  Our nearest relatives may be those living on the opposite\nside of the globe,--people whom we may never have seen as yet, but to\nwhom we will yet be drawn, either in this form of life or in another,\nthrough that ever working and never failing law of attraction.\n\nWhen the Master gave the injunction, Call no man your father upon the\nearth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven, he here gave us the\nbasis for that grand conception of the fatherhood of God.  And if God\nis equally the Father of all, then we have here the basis for the\nbrotherhood of man.  But there is, in a sense, a conception still\nhigher than this, namely, the oneness of man and God, and hence the\noneness of the whole human race.  When we realize this fact, then we\nclearly see how in the degree that we come into the realization of our\noneness with the Infinite Life, and so, every step that we make\nGodward, we aid in lifting all mankind up to this realization, and\nenable them, in turn, to make a step God-ward.\n\nThe Master again pointed out our true relations with the Infinite Life\nwhen he said, Except ye become as little children ye shall not enter\ninto the kingdom of heaven.  When he said, Man shall not live by bread\nalone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, he\ngave utterance to a truth of far greater import than we have as yet\ncommenced fully to grasp.  Here he taught that even the physical life\ncan not be maintained by material food alone, but that one's connection\nwith this Infinite Source determines to a very great extent the\ncondition of even the bodily structure and activities.  Blessed are the\npure in heart for they shall see God.  In other words, blessed are they\nwho in all the universe recognize only God, for by such God shall be\nseen.\n\nSaid the great Hindu sage, Manu, He who in his own soul perceives the\nSupreme Soul in all beings, and acquires equanimity toward them all,\nattains the highest bliss.  It was Athanasius who said, Even we may\nbecome Gods walking about in the flesh.  The same great truth we are\nconsidering is the one that runs through the life and the teachings of\nGautama, he who became the Buddha.  People are in bondage, said he,\nbecause they have not yet removed the idea of _I_.  To do away with all\nsense of separateness, and to recognize the oneness of the self with\nthe Infinite, is the spirit that breathes through all his teachings.\nRunning through the lives of all the mediaeval mystics was this same\ngreat truth,--union with God.\n\nThen, coming nearer to our own time, we find the highly illumined seer,\nEmanuel Swedenborg, pointing out the great laws in connection with what\nhe termed, the divine influx, and how we may open ourselves more fully\nto its operations.  The great central fact in the religion and worship\nof the Friends is, the inner light,--God in the soul of man speaking\ndirectly in just the degree that the soul is opened to Him.  The\ninspired one, the seer who when with us lived at Concord, recognized\nthe same great truth when he said, We are all inlets to the great sea\nof life.  And it was by opening himself so fully to its inflow that he\nbecame one inspired.\n\nAll through the world's history we find that the men and the women who\nhave entered into the realm of true wisdom and power, and hence into\nthe realm of true peace and joy, have lived in harmony with this Higher\nPower.  David was strong and powerful and his soul burst forth in\npraise and adoration in just the degree that he listened to the voice\nof God and lived in accordance with his higher promptings.  Whenever he\nfailed to do this we hear his soul crying out in anguish and\nlamentation.  The same is true of every nation or people.  When the\nIsraelites acknowledged God and followed according to His leadings they\nwere prosperous, contented, and powerful, and nothing could prevail\nagainst them.  When they depended upon their own strength alone and\nfailed to recognize God as the source of their strength, we find them\novercome, in bondage, or despair.\n\nA great immutable law underlies the truth, Blessed are they that hear\nthe word of God and do it.  Then follows all.  We are wise in the\ndegree that we live according to the higher light.\n\nAll the prophets, seers, sages, and saviours in the world's history\nbecame what they became, and consequently had the powers they had,\nthrough an entirely natural process.  They all recognized and came into\nthe conscious realization of their oneness with the Infinite Life.  God\nis no respecter of persons.  He doesn't create prophets, seers, sages,\nand saviours as such.  He creates men.  But here and there one\nrecognizes his true identity, recognizes the oneness of his life with\nthe Source whence it came.  He lives in the realization of this\noneness, and in turn becomes a prophet, seer, sage, or saviour.\nNeither is God a respecter of races or of nations.  He has no chosen\npeople; but here and there a race or nation becomes a respecter of God\nand hence lives the life of a chosen people.\n\nThere has been no age or place of miracles in distinction from any\nother age or place.  What we term miracles have abounded in all places\nand at all times where conditions have been made for them.  They are\nbeing performed today just as much as they ever have been when the laws\ngoverning them are respected.  Mighty men, we are told they were,\nmighty men who walked with God; and in the words \"who walked with God\"\nlies the secret of the words \"mighty men.\"  Cause, effect.\n\nThe Lord never prospers any man, but the man prospers because he\nacknowledges the Lord, and lives in accordance with the higher laws.\nSolomon was given the opportunity of choosing whatever he desired; his\nbetter judgment prevailed and he chose wisdom.  But when he chose\nwisdom he found that it included all else beside.  We are told that God\nhardened Pharaoh's heart.  I don't believe it.  God never hardens any\none's heart.  Pharaoh hardened his own heart and God was blamed for it.\nBut when Pharaoh hardened his heart and disobeyed the voice of God, the\nplagues came.  Again, cause, effect.  Had he, on the contrary,\nlistened,--in other words, had he opened himself to and obeyed the\nvoice of God, the plagues would not have come.\n\nWe can be our own best friends or we can be our own worst enemies.  In\nthe degree that we become friends to the highest and best within us, we\nbecome friends to all; and in the degree that we become enemies to the\nhighest and best within us, do we become enemies to all.  In the degree\nthat we open ourselves to the higher powers and let them manifest\nthrough us, then by the very inspirations we carry with us do we become\nin a sense the saviours of our fellow-men, and in this way we all are,\nor may become, the saviours one of another.  In this way you may\nbecome, indeed, one of the world's redeemers.\n\n\n\n\nTHE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF ALL RELIGIONS--THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION.\n\nThe great truth we are considering is the fundamental principle running\nthrough all religions.  We find it in every one.  In regard to it all\nagree.  It is, moreover, a great truth in regard to which all people\ncan agree, whether they belong to the same or to different religions.\nPeople always quarrel about the trifles, about their personal views of\nminor insignificant points.  They always come together in the presence\nof great fundamental truths, the threads of which run through all.  The\nquarrels are in connection with the lower self, the agreements are in\nconnection with the higher self.\n\nA place may have its factions that quarrel and fight among themselves,\nbut let a great calamity come upon the land, flood, famine, pestilence,\nand these little personal differences are entirely forgotten and all\nwork shoulder to shoulder in the one great cause.  The changing, the\nevolving self gives rise to quarrels; the permanent, the soul self\nunites all in the highest efforts of love and service.\n\nPatriotism is a beautiful thing; it is well for me to love my country,\nbut why should I love my own country more than I love all others?  If I\nlove my own and hate others, I then show my limitations, and my\npatriotism will stand the test not even for my own.  If I love my own\ncountry and in the same way love all other countries, then I show the\nlargeness of my nature, and a patriotism of this kind is noble and\nalways to be relied upon.\n\nThe view of God in regard to which we are agreed, that He is the\nInfinite Spirit of Life and Power that is back of all, that is working\nin and through all, that is the life of all, is a matter in regard to\nwhich all men, all religions can agree.  With this view there can be no\ninfidels or atheists.  There are atheists and infidels in connection\nwith many views that are held concerning God, and thank God there are.\nEven devout and earnest people among us attribute things to God that no\nrespectable men or women would permit to be attributed to themselves.\nThis view is satisfying to those who cannot see how God can be angry\nwith his children, jealous, vindictive.  A display of these qualities\nalways lessens our respect for men and women, and still we attribute\nthem to God.\n\nThe earnest, sincere heretic is one of the greatest friends true\nreligion can have.  Heretics are among God's greatest servants.  They\nare among the true servants of mankind.  Christ was one of the greatest\nheretics the world has ever known.  He allowed himself to be bound by\nno established or orthodox teachings or beliefs.  Christ is\npreeminently a type of the universal.  John the Baptist is a type of\nthe personal.  John dressed in a particular way, ate a particular kind\nof food, belonged to a particular order, lived and taught in a\nparticular locality, and he himself recognized the fact that he must\ndecrease while Christ must increase.  Christ, on the other hand, gave\nhimself absolutely no limitations.  He allowed himself to be bound by\nnothing.  He was absolutely universal and as a consequence taught not\nfor his own particular day, but for all time.\n\nThis mighty truth which we have agreed upon as the great central fact\nof human life is the golden thread that runs through all religions.\nWhen we make it the paramount fact in our lives we will find that minor\ndifferences, narrow prejudices, and all these laughable absurdities\nwill so fall away by virtue of their very insignificance, that a Jew\ncan worship equally as well in a Catholic cathedral, a Catholic in a\nJewish synagogue, a Buddhist in a Christian church, a Christian in a\nBuddhist temple.  Or all can worship equally well about their own\nhearth-stones, or out on the hillside, or while pursuing the avocations\nof every-day life.  For true worship, only God and the human soul are\nnecessary.  It does not depend upon times, or seasons, or occasions.\nAnywhere and at any time God and man in the bush may meet.\n\nThis is the great fundamental principle of the universal religion upon\nwhich all can agree.  This is the great fact that is permanent.  There\nare many things in regard to which all cannot agree.  These are the\nthings that are personal, non-essential, and so as time passes they\ngradually fall away.  One who doesn't grasp this great truth, a\nChristian, for example, asks \"But was not Christ inspired?\"  Yes, but\nhe was not the only one inspired.  Another who is a Buddhist asks, \"Was\nnot Buddha inspired?\"  Yes, but he was not the only one inspired.  A\nChristian asks, \"But is not our Christian Bible inspired?\"  Yes, but\nthere are other inspired scriptures.  A Brahmin or a Buddhist asks,\n\"Are not the Vedas inspired?\"  Yes, but there are other inspired sacred\nbooks.  Your error is not in believing that your particular scriptures\nare inspired, but your error is--and you show your absurdly laughable\nlimitations by it--your inability to see that other scriptures are also\ninspired.\n\nThe sacred books, the inspired writings, all come from the same\nsource,--God, God speaking through the souls of those who open\nthemselves that He may thus speak.  Some may be more inspired than\nothers.  It depends entirely on the relative degree that this one or\nthat one opens himself to the Divine voice.  Says one of the inspired\nwriters in the Hebrew scriptures, Wisdom is the breath of the power of\nGod, and _in all ages_ entering into holy souls she maketh them friends\nof God and prophets.\n\nLet us not be among the number so dwarfed, so limited, so bigoted as to\nthink that the Infinite God has revealed Himself to one little handful\nof His children, in one little quarter of the globe, and at one\nparticular period of time.  This isn't the pattern by which God works.\nOf a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every\nnation he that revereth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of\nHim, says the Christian Bible.\n\nWhen we fully realize this truth we will then see that it makes but\nlittle difference what particular form of religion one holds to, but it\ndoes make a tremendous difference how true he is to the _vital_\nprinciples of this one.  In the degree that we love self less and love\ntruth more, in that degree will we care less about converting people to\nour particular way of thinking, but all the more will we care to aid\nthem in coming into the full realization of truth through the channels\nbest adapted to them.  The doctrine of our master, says the Chinese,\nconsisted solely in integrity of heart.  We will find as we search that\nthis is the doctrine of every one who is at all worthy the name of\nmaster.\n\nThe great fundamental principles of all religions are the same.  They\ndiffer only in their minor details according to the various degrees of\nunfoldment of different people.  I am sometimes asked, \"To what\nreligion do you belong?\"  What religion?  Why, bless you, there is only\none religion,--the religion of the living God.  There are, of course,\nthe various creeds of the same religion arising from the various\ninterpretations of different people, but they are all of minor\nimportance.  The more unfolded the soul the less important do these\nminor differences become.  There are also, of course, the various\nso-called religions.  There is in reality, however, but one religion.\n\nThe moment we lose sight of this great fact we depart from the real,\nvital spirit of true religion and allow ourselves to be limited and\nbound by form.  In the degree that we do this we build fences around\nourselves which keep others away from us, and which also prevent our\ncoming into the realization of universal truth; there is nothing worthy\nthe name of truth that is not universal.\n\nThere is only one religion.  \"Whatever road I take joins the highway\nthat leads to Thee,\" says the inspired writer in the Persian\nscriptures.  \"Broad is the carpet God has spread, and beautiful the\ncolors he has given it.\"  \"The pure man respects every form of faith,\"\nsays the Buddhist.  \"My doctrine makes no difference between high and\nlow, rich and poor; like the sky, it has room for all, and like the\nwater, it washes all alike.\"  \"The broad minded see the truth in\ndifferent religions; the narrow minded see only the differences,\" says\nthe Chinese.  The Hindu has said, \"The narrow minded ask, 'Is this man\na stranger, or is he of our tribe?'  But to those in whom love dwells,\nthe whole world is but one family.\"  \"Altar flowers are of many\nspecies, but all worship is one.\"  \"Heaven is a palace with many doors,\nand each may enter in his own way.\"  \"Are we not all children of one\nFather?\" says the Christian.  \"God has made of one blood all nations,\nto dwell on the face of the earth.\"  It was a latter-day seer who said,\n\"That which was profitable to the soul of man the Father revealed to\nthe ancients; that which is profitable to the soul of man today\nrevealeth He this day.\"\n\nIt was Tennyson who said, \"I dreamed that stone by stone I reared a\nsacred fane, a temple, neither pagoda, mosque, nor church, but loftier,\nsimpler, always open-doored to every breath from heaven, and Truth and\nPeace and Love and Justice came and dwelt therein.\"\n\nReligion in its true sense is the most joyous thing the human soul can\nknow, and when the real religion is realized, we will find that it will\nbe an agent of peace, of joy, and of happiness, and never an agent of\ngloomy, long-faced sadness.  It will then be attractive to all and\nrepulsive to none.  Let our churches grasp these great truths, let them\ngive their time and attention to bringing people into a knowledge of\ntheir true selves, into a knowledge of their relations, of their\noneness, with the Infinite God, and such joy will be the result, and\nsuch crowds will flock to them, that their very walls will seem almost\nto burst, and such songs of joy will continually pour forth as will\nmake all people in love with the religion that makes for every-day\nlife, and hence the religion that is true and vital.  Adequacy for\nlife, adequacy for everyday life here and now, must be the test of all\ntrue religion.  If it does not bear this test, then it simply is not\nreligion.  We need an everyday, a this-world religion.  All time spent\nin connection with any other is worse than wasted.  The eternal life\nthat we are now living will be well lived if we take good care of each\nlittle period of time as it presents itself day after day.  If we fail\nin doing this, we fail in everything.\n\n\n\n\nENTERING NOW INTO THE REALIZATION OF THE HIGHEST RICHES.\n\nI hear the question, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to\nthe method of coming into this realization?  The facts underlying it\nare, indeed, most beautiful and true, but how can we actualize in\nourselves the realization that carries with it such wonderful results?\n\nThe method is not difficult if we do not of ourselves make it\ndifficult.  The principal word to be used is the word,--Open.  Simply\nto open your mind and heart to this divine inflow which is waiting only\nfor the opening of the gate, that it may enter.  It is like opening the\ngate of the trough which conducts the water from the reservoir above\ninto the field below.  The water, by virtue of its very nature, will\nrush in and irrigate the field if the gate is but opened.  As to the\nrealization of our oneness with this Infinite Life and Power, after\nseeing, as I think we have clearly seen by this time, the relations it\nbears to us and we to it, the chief thing to be said is\nsimply,--Realize your oneness with it.  The open mind and heart whereby\none is brought into the receptive attitude is the first thing\nnecessary.  Then the earnest, sincere desire.\n\nIt may be an aid at first to take yourself for a few moments each day\ninto the quiet, into the silence, where you will not be agitated by the\ndisturbances that enter in through the avenues of the physical senses.\nThere in the quiet alone with God, put yourself into the receptive\nattitude.  Calmly, quietly, and expectantly desire that this\nrealization break in upon and take possession of your soul.  As it\nbreaks in upon and takes possession of the soul, it will manifest\nitself to your mind, and from this you will feel its manifestations in\nevery part of your body.  Then in the degree that you open yourself to\nit you will feel a quiet, peaceful, illuminating power that will\nharmonize body, soul, and mind, and that will then harmonize these with\nall the world.  You are now on the mountain top, and the voice of God\nis speaking to you.  _Then, as you descend, carry this realization with\nyou_.  Live in it, waking, working, thinking, walking, sleeping.  In\nthis way, although you may not be continually on the mountain top, you\nwill nevertheless be continually living in the realization of all the\nbeauty, and inspiration, and power you have felt there.\n\nMoreover, the time will come when in the busy office or on the noisy\nstreet you can enter into the silence by simply drawing the mantle of\nyour own thoughts about you and realizing that there and everywhere the\nSpirit of Infinite Life, Love, Wisdom, Peace, Power, and Plenty is\nguiding, keeping, protecting, leading you.  This is the spirit of\ncontinual prayer.  This it is to pray without ceasing.  This it is to\nknow and to walk with God.  _This it is to find the Christ within_.\nThis is the new birth, the second birth.  First that which is natural,\nthen that which is spiritual.  It is thus that the old man Adam is put\noff and the new man Christ is put on.  This it is to be saved unto life\neternal, whatever one's form of belief or faith may be; for it is life\neternal to know God.  \"The Sweet By and By\" will be a song of the past.\nWe will create a new song--\"The Beautiful Eternal Now.\"\n\nThis is the realization that you and I can come into this very day,\nthis very hour, this very minute, if we desire and if we will it.  And\nif now we merely set our faces in the right direction, it is then but a\nmatter of time until we come into the full splendors of this complete\nrealization.  To set one's face in the direction of the mountain and\nthen simply to journey on, whether rapidly or more slowly, will bring\nhim to it.  But unless one set his face in the right direction and make\nthe start, he will not reach it.  It was Goethe who said:\n\n  \"Are you in earnest?  Seize this very minute:\n  What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;\n  Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.\n  Only engage and then the mind grows heated;\n  Begin and then the work will be completed.\"\n\n\nSaid the young man, Gautama Siddhartha, I have awakened to the truth\nand I am resolved to accomplish my purpose,--Verily I shall become a\nBuddha.  It was this that brought him into the life of the Enlightened\nOne, and so into the realization of Nirvana right here in this life.\nThat this same realization and life is within the possibilities of all\nhere and now was his teaching.  It was this that has made him the Light\nBearer to millions of people.\n\nSaid the young man, Jesus, Know ye not that I must be about my Father's\nbusiness?  Making this the one great purpose of his life he came into\nthe full and complete realization,--I and the Father are one.  He thus\ncame into the full realization of the Kingdom of Heaven right here in\nthis life.  That all could come into this same realization and life\nhere and now was his teaching.  It was this that has made him the Light\nBearer to millions of people.\n\nAnd so far as practical things are concerned, we may hunt the wide\nuniverse through and we shall find that there is no injunction more\npractical than, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness\nand all other things shall be added unto you.  And in the light of what\nhas gone before, I think there is no one who is open to truth and\nhonest with himself who will fail to grasp the underlying reason and\nsee the great laws upon which it is based.\n\nPersonally I know lives that have so fully entered into the kingdom\nthrough the realization of their oneness with the Infinite Life and\nthrough the opening of themselves so fully to its divine guidance, that\nthey are most wonderful concrete examples of the reality of this great\nand all-important truth.  They are people whose lives are in this way\nguided not only in a general way, but literally in every detail.  They\nsimply live in the realization of their oneness with this Infinite\nPower, continually in harmony with it, and so continually in the\nrealization of the kingdom of heaven.  An abundance of all things is\ntheirs.  They are never at a loss for anything.  The supply seems\nalways equal to the demand.  They never seem at a loss in regard to\nwhat to do or how to do it.  Their lives are care-less lives.  They are\nlives free from care because they are continually conscious of the fact\nthat the higher powers are doing the guiding, and they are relieved of\nthe responsibility.  To enter into detail in connection with some of\nthese lives, and particularly with two or three that come to my mind at\nthis moment, would reveal facts that no doubt to some would seem almost\nincredible if not miraculous.  But let us remember that what is\npossible for one life to realize is possible for all.  This is indeed\nthe natural and the normal life, that which will be the every-day life\nof every one who comes into and who lives in this higher realization\nand so in harmony with the higher laws.  This is simply getting into\nthe current of that divine sequence running throughout the universe;\nand when once in it, life then ceases to be a plodding and moves along\nday after day much as the tides flow, much as the planets move in their\ncourses, much as the seasons come and go.\n\nAll the frictions, all the uncertainties, all the ills, the sufferings,\nthe fears, the forebodings, the perplexities of life come to us because\nwe are out of harmony with the divine order of things.  They will\ncontinue to come as long as we so live.  Rowing against the tide is\nhard and uncertain.  To go with the tide and thus to take advantage of\nthe working of a great natural force is safe and easy.  To come into\nthe conscious, vital realization of our oneness with the Infinite Life\nand Power is to come into the current of this divine sequence.  Coming\nthus into harmony with the Infinite, brings us in turn into harmony\nwith all about us, into harmony with the life of the heavens, into\nharmony with all the universe.  And above all, it brings us into\nharmony with ourselves, so that body, soul, and mind become perfectly\nharmonized, and when this is so, life becomes full and complete.\n\nThe sense life then no longer masters and enslaves us.  The physical is\nsubordinated to and ruled by the mental; this in turn is subordinated\nto and continually illumined by the spiritual.  Life is then no longer\nthe poor, one-sided thing it is in so many cases; but the three-fold,\nthe all-round life with all its beauties and ever increasing joys and\npowers is entered upon.  Thus it is that we are brought to realize that\nthe middle path is the great solution of life; neither asceticism on\nthe one hand nor license and perverted use on the other.  Everything is\nfor use, but all must be wisely used in order to be fully enjoyed.\n\nAs we live in these higher realizations the senses are not ignored but\nare ever more fully perfected.  As the body becomes less gross and\nheavy, finer in its texture and form, all the senses become finer, so\nthat powers we do not now realize as belonging to us gradually develop.\nThus we come, in a perfectly natural and normal way, into the\nsuper-conscious realms whereby we make it possible for the higher laws\nand truths to be revealed to us.  As we enter into these realms we are\nthen not among those who give their time in speculating as to whether\nthis one or that one had the insight and the powers attributed to him,\nbut we are able _to know_ for ourselves.  Neither are we among those\nwho attempt to lead the people upon the hearsay of some one else, but\nwe know whereof we speak, and only thus can we speak with authority.\nThere are many things that we cannot know until by living the life we\nbring ourselves into that state where it is possible for them to be\nrevealed to us.  \"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the\ndoctrine.\"  It was Plotinus who said, The mind that wishes to behold\nGod must itself become God.  As we thus make it possible for these\nhigher laws and truths to be revealed to us, we will in turn become\nenlightened ones, channels through which they may be revealed to others.\n\nWhen one is fully alive to the possibilities that come with this higher\nawakening, as he goes here and there, as he mingles with his\nfellow-men, he imparts to all an inspiration that kindles in them a\nfeeling of power kindred to his own.  We are all continually giving out\ninfluences similar to those that are playing in our own lives.  We do\nthis in the same way that each flower emits its own peculiar odor.  The\nrose breathes out its fragrance upon the air and all who come near it\nare refreshed and inspired by this emanation from the soul of the rose.\nA poisonous weed sends out its obnoxious odor; it is neither refreshing\nnor inspiring in its effects, and if one remain near it long he may be\nso unpleasantly affected as to be made even ill by it.\n\nThe higher the life the more inspiring and helpful are the emanations\nthat it is continually sending out.  The lower the life the more\nharmful is the influence it continually sends out to all who come in\ncontact with it.  Each one is continually radiating an atmosphere of\none kind or the other.\n\nWe are told by the mariners who sail on the Indian Seas, that many\ntimes they are able to tell their approach to certain islands long\nbefore they can see them by the sweet fragrance of the sandalwood that\nis wafted far out upon the deep.  Do you not see how it would serve to\nhave such a soul playing through such a body that as you go here and\nthere a subtle, silent force goes out from you that all feel and are\ninfluenced by; so that you carry with you an inspiration and\ncontinually shed a benediction wherever you go; so that your friends\nand all people will say,--His coming brings peace and joy into our\nhomes, welcome his coming; so that as you pass along the street, tired,\nand weary, and even sin-sick men and women will feel a certain divine\ntouch that will awaken new desires and a new life in them; that will\nmake the very horse as you pass him turn his head with a strange,\nhalf-human, longing look?  Such are the subtle powers of the human soul\nwhen it makes itself translucent to the Divine.  To know that such a\nlife is within our living here and now is enough to make one burst\nforth with songs of joy.  And when the life itself is entered upon, the\nsentiment of at least one song will be:\n\n  \"Oh!  I stand in the Great Forever,\n    All things to me are divine;\n  I eat of the heavenly manna,\n    I drink of the heavenly wine.\n\n  \"In the gleam of the shining rainbow\n    The Father's Love I behold,\n  As I gaze on its radiant blending\n    Of crimson and blue and gold.\n\n  \"In all the bright birds that are singing,\n    In all the fair flowers that bloom,\n  Whose welcome aromas are bringing\n    Their blessings of sweet perfume;\n\n  \"In the glorious tint of the morning,\n    In the gorgeous sheen of the night,\n  Oh! my soul is lost in rapture,\n    My senses are lost in sight.\"\n\n\nAs one comes into and lives continually in the full, conscious\nrealization of his oneness with the Infinite Life and Power, then all\nelse follows.  This it is that brings the realization of such\nsplendors, and beauties, and joys as a life that is thus related with\nthe Infinite Power alone can know.  This it is to come into the\nrealization of heaven's richest treasures while walking the earth.\nThis it is to bring heaven down to earth, or rather to bring earth up\nto heaven.  This it is to exchange weakness and impotence for strength;\nsorrows and sighings for joy; fears and forebodings for faith; longings\nfor realizations.  This it is to come into fullness of peace, power,\nand plenty.  This it is to be in tune with the Infinite.","title":"In Tune with the Infinite; or, Fullness of Peace, Power, and Plenty","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":47767}