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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14312 ***
+
+WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING
+
+Or, The Vital Law of True Life, True Greatness Power and Happiness
+
+by
+
+RALPH WALDO TRINE
+
+New York
+Dodge Publishing Company
+220 East Twenty-Third Street
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+There are two reasons the author has for putting forth this little
+volume: he feels that the time is, as it always has been, ripe for it;
+and second, his soul has ever longed to express itself upon this endless
+theme. It therefore comes from the heart--the basis of his belief that
+it will reach the heart.
+
+R.W.T.
+Boston, Massachusetts
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
+
+
+It is impossible for one in a single volume, or perhaps in a number of
+volumes, to reach the exact needs of every reader.
+
+It is always a source of gratitude, as well as of inspiration for better
+and more earnest work in the future, for one to know that the truths
+that have been and that are so valuable and so vital to him he has
+succeeded in presenting in a manner such that they prove likewise of
+value to others. The author is most grateful for the good, kind words
+that have come so generously from so many hundreds of readers of this
+simple little volume from all parts of the world. He is also grateful to
+that large company of people who have been so good as to put the book
+into the hands of so many others.
+
+And as the days have passed, he has not been unmindful of the fact that
+he might make it, when the time came, of still greater value to many.
+In addition to a general revision of the book, some four or five
+questions that seemed to be most frequently asked he has endeavored to
+point answer to in an added part of some thirty pages, under the general
+title, "Character-building Thought Power." The volume enters therefore
+upon its fifteenth thousand better able, possibly, to come a little more
+directly in touch with the every-day needs of those who will be
+sufficiently interested to read it.
+
+R.W.T.
+Sunnybrae Farm
+Croton-on-the-Hudson
+New York
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I.   THE PRINCIPLE
+
+PART II.  THE APPLICATION
+
+PART III. THE UNFOLDMENT
+
+PART IV.  THE AWAKENING
+
+PART V.   THE INCOMING
+
+PART VI.  CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER
+
+
+
+
+WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THE PRINCIPLE
+
+
+    Would you find that wonderful life supernal,
+      That life so abounding, so rich, and so free?
+    Seek then the laws of the Spirit Eternal,
+      With them bring your life into harmony.
+
+
+How can I make life yield its fullest and best? How can I know the true
+secret of power? How can I attain to a true and lasting greatness? How
+can I fill the whole of life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a
+satisfaction that is ever rich and abiding, that ever increases, never
+diminishes, that imparts to it a sparkle that never loses its lustre,
+that ever fascinates, never wearies?
+
+No questions, perhaps, in this form or in that have been asked oftener
+than these. Millions in the past have asked them. Millions are asking
+them to-day. They will be asked by millions yet unborn. Is there an
+answer, a true and safe one for the millions who are eagerly and
+longingly seeking for it in all parts of the world to-day, and for the
+millions yet unborn who will as eagerly strive to find it as the years
+come and go? Are you interested, my dear reader, in the answer? The fact
+that you have read even thus far in this little volume whose title has
+led you to take it up, indicates that you are,--that you are but one of
+the innumerable company already mentioned.
+
+It is but another way of asking that great question that has come
+through all the ages--What is the _summum bonum_ in life? and there have
+been countless numbers who gladly would have given all they possessed to
+have had the true and satisfactory answer. Can we then find this answer,
+true and satisfactory to ourselves, surely the brief time spent together
+must be counted as the most precious and valuable of life itself. _There
+is an answer_: follow closely, and that our findings may be the more
+conclusive, take issue with me at every step if you choose, but tell me
+finally if it is not true and satisfactory.
+
+There is one great, one simple principle, which, if firmly laid hold of,
+and if made the great central principle in one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, will make that life
+a grand success, truly great and genuinely happy, loved and blessed by
+all in just the degree in which it is laid hold upon,--a principle
+which, if universally made thus, would wonderfully change this old world
+in which we live,--ay, that would transform it almost in a night, and it
+is for its coming that the world has long been waiting; that in place of
+the gloom and despair in almost countless numbers of lives would bring
+light and hope and contentment, and no longer would it be said as so
+truly to-day, that "man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands
+mourn"; that would bring to the life of the fashionable society woman,
+now spending her days and her nights in seeking for nothing but her own
+pleasure, such a flood of true and genuine pleasure and happiness and
+satisfaction as would make the poor, weak something she calls by this
+name so pale before it, that she would quickly see that she hasn't known
+what true pleasure is, and that what she has been mistaking for the
+real, the genuine, is but as a baser metal compared to the purest of
+gold, as a bit of cut glass compared to the rarest of diamonds, and that
+would make this same woman who scarcely deigns to notice the poor woman
+who washes her front steps, but who, were the facts known, may be
+living a much grander life, and consequently of much more value to the
+world than she herself, see that this poor woman is after all her
+sister, because child of the same Father; and that would make the humble
+life of this same poor woman beautiful and happy and sweet in its
+humility; that would give us a nation of statesmen in place of, with now
+and then an exception, a nation of politicians, each one bent upon his
+own personal aggrandizement at the expense of the general good; that
+would go far, ay, very far toward solving our great and hard-pressing
+social problems with which we are already face to face; that, in short,
+would make each man a prince among men, and each woman a queen among
+women.
+
+I have seen the supreme happiness in lives where this principle has been
+caught and laid hold of, some, lives that seemed not to have much in
+them before, but which under its wonderful influences have been so
+transformed and so beautified, that have been made so sweet and so
+strong, so useful and so precious, that each day seems to them all too
+short, the same time that before, when they could scarcely see what was
+in life to make it worth the living, dragged wearily along. So there
+are countless numbers of people in the world with lives that seem not to
+have much in them, among the wealthy classes and among the poorer, who
+might under the influence of this great, this simple principle, make
+them so precious, so rich, and so happy that time would seem only too
+short, and they would wonder why they have been so long running on the
+wrong track, for it is true that much the larger portion of the world
+to-day is on the wrong track in the pursuit of happiness; but almost all
+are there, let it be said, not through choice, but by reason of not
+knowing the right, the true one.
+
+The fact that really great, true, and happy lives have been lived in the
+past and are being lived to-day gives us our starting-point. Time and
+again I have examined such lives in a most careful endeavor to find what
+has made them so, and have found that in _each and every_ individual
+case this that we have now come to has been the great central principle
+upon which they have been built. I have also found that in numbers of
+lives where it has not been, but where almost every effort apart from it
+has been made to make them great, true, and happy, they have not been
+so; and also that no life built upon it in sufficient degree, other
+things being equal, has failed in being thus.
+
+Let us then to the answer, examine it closely, see if it will stand
+every test, if it is the true one, and if so, rejoice that we have found
+it, lay hold of it, build upon it, tell others of it. The last four
+words have already entered us at the open door. The idea has prevailed
+in the past, and this idea has dominated the world, that _self_ is the
+great concern,--that if one would find success, greatness, happiness, he
+must give all attention to self, and to self alone. This has been the
+great mistake, this the fatal error, this the _direct_ opposite of the
+right, the true as set forth in the great immutable law that--_we find
+our own lives in losing them in the service of others_, in longer
+form--the more of our lives we give to others, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy our own lives become. It is as that great and sweet soul who when
+with us lived at Concord said,--that generous giving or losing of your
+life which saves it.
+
+This is an expression of one of the greatest truths, of one of the
+greatest principles of practical ethics the world has thus far seen. In
+a single word, it is _service_,--not self but the other self. We shall
+soon see, however, that our love, our service, our helpfulness to
+others, invariably comes back to us, intensified sometimes a hundred or
+a thousand or a thousand thousand fold, and this by a great, immutable
+law.
+
+The Master Teacher, he who so many years ago in that far-away Eastern
+land, now in the hill country, now in the lake country, as the people
+gathered round him, taught them those great, high-born, and tender
+truths of human life and destiny, the Christ Jesus, said identically
+this when he said and so continually repeated,--"He that is greatest
+among you shall be your servant"; and his whole life was but an
+embodiment of this principle or truth, with the result that the greatest
+name in the world to-day is his,--the name of him who as his life-work,
+healed the sick; clothed the naked; bound up the broken-hearted;
+sustained the weak, the faltering; befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy; condemned the proud, the vain, the selfish; and through it all
+taught the people to love justice and mercy and service, to live in
+their higher, their diviner selves,--in brief, to _live_ his life, the
+Christ-life, and who has helped in making it possible for this greatest
+principle of practical ethics the world has thus far seen to be
+enunciated, to be laid hold of, to be lived by to-day. "He that is
+greatest among you shall be your servant," or, he who would be truly
+great and recognized as such must find it in the capacity of a servant.
+
+And what, let us ask, is a servant? One who renders service. To himself?
+Never. To others? Alway. Freed of its associations and looked at in the
+light of its right and true meaning, than the word "servant" there is no
+greater in the language; and in this right use of the term, as we shall
+soon see, every life that has been really true, great, and happy has
+been that of a servant, and apart from this no such life _ever has been
+or ever can be lived_.
+
+O you who are seeking for power, for place, for happiness, for
+contentment in the ordinary way, tarry for a moment, see that you are on
+the wrong track, grasp this great eternal truth, lay hold of it, and you
+will see that your advance along this very line will be manifold times
+more rapid. Are you seeking, then, to make for yourself a name? Unless
+you grasp this mighty truth and make your life accordingly, as the great
+clock of time ticks on and all things come to their proper level
+according to their merits, as all invariably, inevitably do, you will
+indeed be somewhat surprised to find how low, how very low your level
+is. Your name and your memory will be forgotten long ere the minute-hand
+has passed even a single time across the great dial; while your
+fellow-man who has grasped this simple but this great and all-necessary
+truth, and who accordingly is forgetting himself in the service of
+others, who is making his life a part of a hundred or a thousand or a
+million lives, thus illimitably intensifying or multiplying his own,
+instead of living as you in what otherwise would be his own little,
+diminutive self, will find himself ascending higher and higher until he
+stands as one among the few, and will find a peace, a happiness, a
+satisfaction so rich and so beautiful, compared to which yours will be
+but a poor miserable something, and whose name and memory when his life
+here is finished, will live in the minds and hearts of his fellow-men
+and of mankind fixed and eternal as the stars.
+
+A corollary of the great principle already enunciated might be
+formulated thus: _there is no such thing as finding true happiness by
+searching for it directly_. It must come, if it come at all, indirectly,
+or by the service, the love, and the happiness we give to others. So,
+_there is no such thing as finding true greatness by searching for it
+directly_. It always, without a single exception has come indirectly in
+this same way, and it is not at all probable that this great eternal law
+is going to be changed to suit any particular case or cases. Then
+recognize it, put your life into harmony with it, and reap the rewards
+of its observance, or fail to recognize it and pay the penalty
+accordingly; for the law itself will remain unchanged.
+
+The men and women whose names we honor and celebrate are invariably
+those with lives founded primarily upon this great law. Note if you
+will, every _truly_ great life in the world's history, among those
+living and among the so-called dead, and tell me if in _every_ case that
+life is not a life spent in the service of others, either directly, or
+indirectly as when we say--he served his country. Whenever one seeks for
+reputation, for fame, for honor, for happiness directly and for his own
+sake, then that which is true and genuine never comes, at least to any
+degree worthy the name. It may seem to for a time, but a great law says
+that such an one gets so far and no farther. Sooner or later, generally
+sooner, there comes an end.
+
+Human nature seems to run in this way, seems to be governed by a great
+paradoxical law which says, that whenever a man self-centred, thinking
+of, living for and in himself, is very desirous for place, for
+preferment, for honor, the very fact of his being thus is of itself a
+sufficient indicator that he is too small to have them, and mankind
+refuses to accord them. While the one who forgets self, and who, losing
+sight of these things, makes it his chief aim in life to help, to aid,
+and to serve others, by this very fact makes it known that he is large
+enough, is great enough to have them, and his fellow-men instinctively
+bestow them upon him. This is a great law which many would profit by to
+recognize. That it is true is attested by the fact that the praise of
+mankind instinctively and universally goes out to a hero; but who ever
+heard of a hero who became such by doing something for himself? Always
+something he has done for others. By the fact that monuments and statues
+are gratefully erected to the memory of those who have helped and served
+their fellow-men, not to those who have lived to themselves alone.
+
+I have seen many monuments and statues erected to the memories of
+philanthropists, but I never yet have seen one erected to a miser; many
+to generous-hearted, noble-hearted men, but never yet to one whose whole
+life was that of a sharp bargain-driver, and who clung with a sort of
+semi-idiotic grasp to all that came thus into his temporary possession.
+I have seen many erected to statesmen,--statesmen,--but never one to
+mere politicians; many to true orators, but never to mere demagogues;
+many to soldiers and leaders, but never to men who were not willing,
+when necessary, to risk all in the service of their country. No, you
+will find that the world's monuments and statues have been erected and
+its praises and honors have gone out to those who were large and great
+enough to forget themselves in the service of others, who have been
+servants, true servants of mankind, who have been true to the great law
+that we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others. Not
+honor for themselves, but service for others. But notice the strange,
+wonderful, beautiful transformation as it returns upon itself,--_honor
+for themselves, because of service to others_.
+
+It would be a matter of exceeding great interest to verify the truth of
+what has just been said by looking at a number of those who are regarded
+as the world's great sons and daughters,--those to whom its honors, its
+praises, its homage go out,--to see why it is, upon what their lives
+have been founded that they have become so great and are so honored. Of
+all this glorious company that would come up, we must be contented to
+look at but one or two.
+
+There comes to my mind the name and figure of him the celebration of
+whose birthday I predict will soon be made a national holiday,--he than
+whom there is no greater, whose praises are sung and whose name and
+memory are honored and blessed by millions in all parts of the world
+to-day, and will be by millions yet unborn, our beloved and sainted
+Lincoln. And then I ask, Why is this? Why is this? One sentence of his
+tells us what to look to for the answer. During that famous series of
+public debates in Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, speaking at
+Freeport, Mr. Douglas at one place said, "I care not whether slavery in
+the Territories be voted up or whether it be voted down, it makes not a
+particle of difference with me." Mr. Lincoln, speaking from the fulness
+of his great and royal heart, in reply said, with emotion, "I am sorry
+to perceive that my friend Judge Douglas is so constituted that he does
+not feel the lash the least bit when it is laid upon another man's
+back." Thoughts upon self? Not for a moment. Upon others? Always. He at
+once recognized in those black men four million brothers for whom he had
+a service to perform.
+
+It would seem almost grotesque to use the word _self-ish_ in connection
+with this great name. He very early, and when still in a very humble and
+lowly station in life, either consciously or unconsciously grasped this
+great truth, and in making the great underlying principle of his life to
+serve, to help his fellow-men, he adopted just that course that has made
+him one of the greatest of the sons of men, our royal-hearted elder
+brother. He never spent time in asking what he could do to attain to
+greatness, to popularity, to power, what to perpetuate his name and
+memory. He simply asked how he could help, how he could be of service to
+his fellow-men, and continually did all his hands found to do.
+
+He simply put his life into harmony with this great principle; and in so
+doing he adopted the best means,--the _only_ means to secure that which
+countless numbers seek and strive for directly, and every time so
+woefully fail in finding.
+
+There comes to my mind in this same connection another princely soul,
+one who loved all the world, one whom all the world loves and delights
+to honor. There comes to mind also a little incident that will furnish
+an insight into the reason of it all. On an afternoon not long ago, Mrs.
+Henry Ward Beecher was telling me of some of the characteristics of
+Brooklyn's great preacher. While she was yet speaking of some of those
+along the very lines we are considering, an old gentleman, a neighbor,
+came into the room bearing in his hands something he had brought from
+Mr. Beecher's grave. It was the day next following Decoration Day. His
+story was this: As the great procession was moving into the cemetery
+with its bands of rich music, with its carriages laden with sweet and
+fragrant flowers, with its waving flags, beautiful in the sunlight, a
+poor and humble-looking woman with two companions, by her apparent
+nervousness attracted the attention of the gate-keeper. He kept her in
+view for a little while, and presently saw her as she gave something she
+had partially concealed to one of her companions, who, leaving the
+procession, went over to the grave of Mr. Beecher, and tenderly laid it
+there. Reverently she stood for a moment or two, and then, retracing
+her steps, joined her two companions, who with bowed heads were waiting
+by the wayside.
+
+It was this that the old gentleman had brought,--a gold frame, and in it
+a poem cut from a volume, a singularly beautiful poem through which was
+breathed the spirit of love and service and self-devotion to the good
+and the needs of others. At one or two places where it fitted, the pen
+had been drawn across a word and Mr. Beecher's name inserted, which
+served to give it a still more real, vivid, and tender meaning. At the
+bottom this only was written, "From a poor Hebrew woman to the immortal
+friend of the Hebrews." There was no name, but this was sufficient to
+tell the whole story. Some poor, humble woman, but one out of a mighty
+number whom he had at some time befriended or helped or cheered, whose
+burden he had helped to carry, and soon perhaps had forgotten all about
+it. When we remember that this was his life, is it at all necessary to
+seek farther why all the world delights to honor this, another
+royal-hearted elder brother? and, as we think of this simple, beautiful,
+and touching incident, how true and living becomes the thought in the
+old, old lines!--
+
+    "Cast thy bread upon the waters, waft it on with praying breath,
+    In some distant, doubtful moment it may save a soul from death.
+    When you sleep in solemn silence, 'neath the morn and evening dew,
+    Stranger hands which you have strengthened may strew lilies over you."
+
+Our good friend, Henry Drummond, in one of his most beautiful and
+valuable little works says--and how admirably and how truly!--that "love
+is the greatest thing in the world." Have you this greatest thing? Yes.
+How, then, does it manifest itself? In kindliness, in helpfulness, in
+service, to those around you? If so, well and good, you have it. If not,
+then I suspect that what you have been calling love is something else;
+and you have indeed been greatly fooled. In fact, I am sure it is; for
+if it does not manifest itself in this way, it cannot be true love, for
+this is the one grand and never-failing test. Love is the statics,
+helpfulness and service the dynamics, the former necessary to the
+latter, but the latter the more powerful, as action is always more
+powerful than potentiality; and, were it not for the dynamics, the
+statics might as well not be. Helpfulness, kindliness, service, is but
+the expression of love. It is love in action; and unless love thus
+manifests itself in action, it is an indication that it is of that weak
+and sickly nature that needs exercise, growth, and development, that it
+may grow and become strong, healthy, vigorous, and true, instead of
+remaining a little, weak, indefinite, sentimental something or nothing.
+
+It was but yesterday that I heard one of the world's greatest thinkers
+and speakers, one of our keenest observers of human affairs, state as
+his opinion that selfishness is the root of all evil. Now, if it is
+possible for any one thing to be the root of all evil, then I think
+there is a world of truth in the statement. But, leaving out of account
+for the present purpose whether it is true or not, it certainly is true
+that he who can't get beyond self robs his life of its chief charms, and
+more, defeats the very ends he has in view. It is a well-known law in
+the natural world about us that whatever hasn't use, that whatever
+serves no purpose, shrivels up. So it is a law of our own being that he
+who makes himself of no use, of no service to the great body of mankind,
+who is concerned only with his own small self, finds that self, small as
+it is, growing smaller and smaller, and those finer and better and
+grander qualities of his nature, those that give the chief charm and
+happiness to life, shrivelling up. Such an one lives, keeps constant
+company with his own diminutive and stunted self; while he who,
+forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness, and
+kindliness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding,
+himself becoming large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, loving, sympathetic,
+joyous, and happy, his life becoming rich and beautiful. For instead of
+his own little life alone he has entered into and has part in a hundred,
+a thousand, ay, in countless numbers of other lives; and every success,
+every joy, every happiness coming to each of these comes as such to him,
+for he has a part in each and all. And thus it is that one becomes a
+prince among men, a queen among women.
+
+Why, one of the very fundamental principles of life is, so much love, so
+much love in return; so much love, so much growth; so much love, so much
+power; so much love, so much life,--strong, healthy, rich, exulting, and
+abounding life. The world is beginning to realize the fact that love,
+instead of being a mere indefinite something, is a vital and living
+force, the same as electricity is a force, though perhaps of a different
+nature. The same great fact we are learning in regard to thought,--that
+thoughts are things, that _thoughts are forces, the most vital and
+powerful in the universe_, that they have form and substance and power,
+the quality of the power determined as it is by the quality of the life
+in whose organism the thoughts are engendered; and so, when a thought is
+given birth, it does not end there, but takes form, and as a force it
+goes out and has its effect upon other minds and lives, the effect being
+determined by its intensity and the quality of the prevailing emotions,
+and also by the emotions dominating the person at the time the thoughts
+are engendered and given form.
+
+Science, while demonstrating the great facts it is to-day demonstrating
+in connection with the mind in its relations to and effects upon the
+body, is also finding from its very laboratory experiments that each
+particular kind of thought and emotion has its own peculiar qualities,
+and hence its own peculiar effects or influences; and these it is
+classifying with scientific accuracy. A very general classification in
+just a word would be--those of a higher and those of a lower nature.
+
+Some of the chief ones among those of the lower nature are anger,
+hatred, jealousy, malice, rage. Their effect, especially when violent,
+is to emit a poisonous substance into the system, or rather, to set up a
+corroding influence which transforms the healthy and life-giving
+secretions of the body into the poisonous and the destructive. When one,
+for example, is dominated, even if for but a moment by a passion of
+anger or rage, there is set up in the system what might be justly termed
+a bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring or corroding the
+normal and healthy secretions of the body and making them so that
+instead of life-giving they become poisonous. This, if indulged in to
+any extent, sooner or later induces the form of disease that this
+particular state of mind and emotion or passion gives birth to; and it
+in turn becomes chronic.
+
+We shall ultimately find, as we are beginning to so rapidly to-day, that
+practically all disease has its origin in perverted mental states or
+emotions; that anger, hatred, fear, worry, jealousy, lust, as well as
+all milder forms of perverted mental states and emotions, has each its
+own peculiar poisoning effects and induces each its own peculiar form of
+disease, for all life is from within out.
+
+Then some of the chief ones belonging to the other class--mental states
+and emotions of the higher nature--are love, sympathy, benevolence,
+kindliness, and good cheer. These are the natural and the normal; and
+their effect, when habitually entertained, is to stimulate a vital,
+healthy, bounding, purifying, and life-giving action, the exact opposite
+of the others; and these very forces, set into a bounding activity, will
+in time counteract and heal the disease-giving effects of their
+opposites. Their effects upon the countenance and features in inducing
+the highest beauty that can dwell there are also marked and
+all-powerful. So much, then, in regard to the effects of one's thought
+forces upon the self. A word more in regard to their effects upon
+others.
+
+Our prevailing thought forces determine the mental atmosphere we create
+around us, and all who come within its influence are affected in one way
+or another, according to the quality of that atmosphere; and, though
+they may not always get the exact thoughts, they nevertheless get the
+effects of the emotions dominating the originator of the thoughts, and
+hence the creator of this particular mental atmosphere, and the more
+sensitively organized the person the more sensitive he or she is to
+this atmosphere, even at times to getting the exact and very thoughts.
+So even in this the prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled,--there is
+nothing hid that shall not be revealed.
+
+If the thought forces sent out by any particular life are those of
+hatred or jealousy or malice or fault-finding or criticism or scorn,
+these same thought forces are aroused and sent back from others, so that
+one is affected not only by reason of the unpleasantness of having such
+thoughts from others, but they also in turn affect one's own mental
+states, and through these his own bodily conditions, so that, so far as
+even the welfare of self is concerned, the indulgence in thoughts and
+emotions of this nature are most expensive, most detrimental, most
+destructive.
+
+If, on the other hand, the thought forces sent out be those of love, of
+sympathy, of kindliness, of cheer and good will, these same forces are
+aroused and sent back, so that their pleasant, ennobling, warming, and
+life-giving effects one feels and is influenced by; and so again, so far
+even as the welfare of self is concerned, there is nothing more
+desirable, more valuable and life-giving. There comes from others, then,
+exactly what one sends to and hence calls forth from them.
+
+_And would we have all the world love us, we must first then love all
+the world_,--merely a great scientific fact. Why is it that all people
+instinctively dislike and shun the little, the mean, the self-centred,
+the selfish, while all the world instinctively, irresistibly, loves and
+longs for the company of the great-hearted, the tender-hearted, the
+loving, the magnanimous, the sympathetic, the brave? The mere
+answer--because--will not satisfy. There is a deep, scientific reason
+for it, either this or it is not true.
+
+Much has been said, much written, in regard to what some have been
+pleased to call personal magnetism, but which, as is so commonly true in
+cases of this kind, is even to-day but little understood. But to my mind
+personal magnetism in its true sense, and as distinguished from what may
+be termed a purely animal magnetism, is nothing more nor less than the
+thought forces sent out by a great-hearted, tender-hearted, magnanimous,
+loving, sympathetic man or woman; for, let me ask, have you ever known
+of any great personal magnetism in the case of the little, the mean, the
+vindictive, the self-centred? Never, I venture to say, but always in the
+case of the other.
+
+Why, there is nothing that can stand before this wonderful transmuting
+power of love. So far even as the enemy is concerned, I may not be to
+blame if I have an enemy; but I am to blame if I keep him as such,
+especially after I know of this wonderful transmuting power. Have I then
+an enemy, I will refuse, absolutely refuse, to recognize him as such;
+and instead of entertaining the thoughts of him that he entertains of
+me, instead of sending him like thought forces, I will send him only
+thoughts of love, of sympathy, of brotherly kindness, and magnanimity.
+But a short time it will be until he feels these, and is influenced by
+them. Then in addition I will watch my opportunity, and whenever I can,
+I will even go out of my way to do him some little kindnesses. Before
+these forces he cannot stand, and by and by I shall find that he who
+to-day is my bitterest enemy is my warmest friend and it may be my
+staunchest supporter. No, the wise man is he who by that wonderful
+alchemy of love transmutes the enemy into the friend,--transmutes the
+bitterest enemy into the warmest friend and supporter. Certainly this is
+what the Master meant when he said: "Love your enemies, do good to them
+that hate you and despitefully use you: thou shalt thereby be heaping
+coals of fire upon their heads." Ay, thou shalt melt them: before this
+force they cannot stand. Thou shalt melt them, and transmute them into
+friends.
+
+    "You never can tell what your thoughts will do
+      In bringing you hate or love;
+    For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
+      Are swifter than carrier doves.
+    They follow the law of the universe,--
+      Each thing must create its kind;
+    And they speed o'er the track to bring you back
+      Whatever went out from your mind."
+
+Yes, science to-day, at the close of this nineteenth century, in the
+laboratory is discovering and scientifically demonstrating the great,
+immutable laws upon which the inspired and illuminated ones of all ages
+have based all their teachings, those who by ordering their lives
+according to the higher laws of their being get in a moment of time,
+through the direct touch of inspiration, what it takes the physical
+investigator a whole lifetime or a series of investigators a series of
+lifetimes to discover and demonstrate.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+THE APPLICATION
+
+
+    Are you seeking for greatness, O brother of mine,
+      As the full, fleeting seasons and years glide away?
+    If seeking directly and for self alone,
+      The true and abiding you never can stay.
+    But all self forgetting, know well the law,
+      It's the hero, and not the self-seeker, who's crowned.
+    Then go lose your life in the service of others,
+      And, lo! with rare greatness and glory 'twill abound.
+
+Is it your ambition to become great in any particular field, to attain
+to fame and honor, and thereby to happiness and contentment? Is it your
+ambition, for example, to become a great _orator_, to move great masses
+of men, to receive their praise, their plaudits? Then remember that
+there never has been, there never will, in brief, there never can be a
+truly great orator without a great _purpose_, a great cause behind him.
+You may study in all the best schools in the country, the best
+universities and the best schools of oratory. You may study until you
+exhaust all these, and then seek the best in other lands. You may study
+thus until your hair is beginning to change its color, but this of
+itself will _never_ make you a great orator. You may become a demagogue,
+and, if self-centred, you inevitably will; for this is exactly what a
+demagogue is,--a great demagogue, if you please, than which it is hard
+for one to call to mind a more contemptible animal, and the greater the
+more contemptible. But without laying hold of and building upon this
+great principle you never can become a great orator.
+
+Call to mind the greatest in the world's history, from Demosthenes--Men
+of Athens, march against Philip, your country and your fellow-men will
+be in early bondage unless you give them your best service now--down to
+our own Phillips and Gough,--Wendell Phillips against the traffic in
+human blood, John B. Gough against a slavery among his fellow-men more
+hard and galling and abject than the one just spoken of; for by it the
+body merely is in bondage, the mind and soul are free, while in this,
+body, soul, and mind are enslaved. So you can easily discover the great
+_purpose_, the great cause for _service_, behind each and every one.
+
+The man who can't get beyond himself, his own aggrandizement and
+interests, must of necessity be small, petty, personal, and at once
+marks his own limitations; while he whose life is a life of service and
+self-devotion has no limits, for he thus puts himself at once on the
+side of the _Universal_, and this more than all else combined gives a
+tremendous power in oratory. Such a one can mount as on the wings of an
+eagle, and Nature herself seems to come forth and give a great soul of
+this kind means and material whereby to accomplish his purposes, whereby
+the great universal truths go direct to the minds and hearts of his
+hearers to mould them, to move them; for the orator is he who moulds the
+minds and hearts of his hearers in the great moulds of universal and
+eternal truth, and then moves them along a definite line of action, not
+he who merely speaks pieces to them.
+
+How thoroughly Webster recognized this great principle is admirably
+shown in that brief but powerful description of eloquence of his; let us
+pause to listen to a sentence or two: "True eloquence indeed does not
+consist in speech.... Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way,
+but they cannot compass it.... Affected passion, intense expression, the
+pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it.... The
+graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied
+contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives and
+the fate of their wives and their children and their country hang on the
+decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is
+vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then
+feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then
+patriotism is eloquent, then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear
+conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the
+firm resolve, the dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beaming from
+the eye, informing every feature and urging the whole man onward, right
+onward to his object,--this, this is eloquence." And note some of the
+chief words he has used,--_self-devotion, patriotism, high purpose_. The
+self-centred man can never know these, and much less can he make use of
+them.
+
+True, things that one may learn, as the freeing of the bodily agents,
+the developing of the voice, and so on, that all may become the _true
+reporters of the soul_, instead of limiting or binding it down, as is so
+frequently the case in public speakers,--these are all valuable, ay, are
+very important and very necessary, unless one is content to live below
+his highest possibilities, and he is wise who recognizes this tact; but
+these in themselves are but as trifles when compared to those greater,
+more powerful, and all-essential qualities.
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _states man?_ Note the very first
+thing, then, the word itself,--_states-man_, a man who gives his life to
+the service of the State. And do you not recognize the fact that, when
+one says--a man who gives his life to the service of the State, it is
+but another way of saying--a man who gives his life to the service of
+his fellow-men; for what, after all, is any country, any State, in the
+true sense of the term, but the aggregate, the great body of its
+individual citizenship. And he who lives for and unto himself, who puts
+the interests of his own small self before the interests of the
+thousands, can never become a states-man; for a statesman must be a
+larger man than this.
+
+Call to your mind the greatest of the world, among those living and
+among the so-called dead, and you will quickly see that the life of each
+and every one has been built upon this great principle, and that all
+have been great and are held as such in just the degree in which it has
+been. Two of the greatest among Americans, both passed away, would
+to-day and even more as time goes on, be counted still greater, had they
+been a little larger in one aspect of their natures,--large enough to
+have recognized to its fullest extent the eternal truth and importance
+of this great principle, and had they given the time to the service of
+their fellow-men that was spent in desiring the Presidency and in all
+too plainly making it known. Having gained it could have made them no
+greater, and having so plainly shown their eager and childish desire for
+it has made them less great. Of the many thousands of men who have been
+in our American Congress since its beginning, and of the very, very
+small number comparatively that you are able to call to mind, possibly
+not over fifty, which would be about one out of every six hundred or
+more, you will find that you are able to call to mind each one of this
+very small number on account of his standing for some measure or
+principle that would to the highest degree increase the human welfare,
+thus truly fulfilling the great office of a _statesman_.
+
+The one great trouble with our country to-day is that we have but few
+statesmen. We have a great swarm, a great hoard of politicians; but it
+is only now and then that we find a man who is large enough truly to
+deserve the name--statesman. The large majority in public life to-day
+are there not for the purpose of serving the best interests of those
+whom they are supposed to represent, but they are there purely for self,
+purely for self-aggrandizement in this form or in that, as the case may
+be.
+
+Especially do we find this true in our municipalities. In some, the
+government instead of being in the hands of those who would make it such
+in truth, those who would make it serve the interests it is designed to
+serve, it is in the hands of those who are there purely for self, little
+whelps, those who will resort to any means to secure their ends, at
+times even to honorable means, should they seem to serve best the
+particular purpose in hand. We have but to look around us to see that
+this is true. The miserable, filthy, and deplorable condition of affairs
+the Lexow Committee in its investigations not so long ago laid bare to
+public gaze had its root in what? In the fact that the offices in that
+great municipality have been and are filled by men who are there to
+serve in the highest degree the public welfare or by men who are there
+purely for self-aggrandizement? But let us pass on. This degraded
+condition of affairs exists not only in this great city, but there are
+scarcely any that are free from it entirely. Matters are not always to
+continue thus, however. The American people will learn by and by what
+they ought fully to realize to-day--that the moment the honest people,
+the citizens, in distinction from the barnacles, mass themselves and
+stay massed, the notorious, filthy political rings cannot stand before
+them for a period of even twenty-four hours. _The right, the good, the
+true, is all-powerful, and will inevitably conquer sooner or later when
+brought to the front._ Such is the history of civilization.
+
+Let our public offices--municipal, state, and federal--be filled with
+men who are in love with the human kind, large men, men whose lives are
+founded upon this great law of service, and we will then have them
+filled with statesmen. Never let this glorious word be disgraced,
+degraded, by applying it to the little, self-centred whelps who are
+unable to get beyond the politician stage. Then enter public life; but
+enter it as a man, not as a barnacle: enter it as a statesman, not as a
+politician.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _preacher_, or better yet, with
+the same meaning, a great _teacher?_ Then remember that the greatest of
+the world have been those who have given themselves in thorough
+self-devotion and service to their fellow-men, who have given themselves
+so thoroughly to all they have come in contact with that there has been
+no room for self. They have not been seekers after fame, or men who have
+thought so much of their own particular dogmatic ways of thinking as to
+spend the greater part of their time in discussing dogma, creed,
+theology, in order, as is so generally true in cases of this kind, to
+prove that the _ego_ you see before you is right in his particular ways
+of thinking, and that his chief ambition is to have this fact clearly
+understood,--an abomination, I verily believe, in the sight of God
+himself, whose children in the mean time are starving, are dying for the
+bread of life, and an abomination I am sure, in the sight of the great
+majority of mankind. Let us be thankful, however, for mankind is finding
+less use for such year by year, and the time will soon come when they
+will scarcely be tolerated at all.
+
+It is to a very great extent on account of men of this kind, especially
+in the early history, that the true spirit of religion, of Christianity,
+has been lost sight of in the mere form. The basket in which it has
+been deemed necessary to carry it has been held as of greater import
+than the rare and divinely beautiful fruit itself. The true spirit, that
+that quickeneth and giveth life and power, has had its place taken by
+the mere letter, that that alone blighteth and killeth. Instead of
+running after these finely spun, man-made theories, this stuff,--for
+stuff is the word,--this that we outgrow once every few years in our
+march onward and upward, and then stand and laugh as we look back to
+think that such ideas have ever been held, instead of this, thinking
+that thus you will gain power, act the part of the wise man, and go each
+day into the _silence_, there commune with the Infinite, there dwell for
+a season with the Infinite Spirit of all life, of all power; for you can
+get _true power_ in no other way.
+
+Instead of running about here and there to have your cup filled at these
+little stagnant pools, dried up as they generally are by the continual
+rays of a constantly shining egoistic sun, go direct to the great
+fountain-head, and there drink of the water of life that is poured out
+freely to every one if he will but go there for it. One can't, however,
+send and have it brought by another.
+
+Go, then, into the _silence_, even if it be but for a short period,--a
+period of not more than a quarter or a half-hour a day,--and there come
+into contact with the Great Source of all life, of all power. _Send out
+your earnest desires for whatsoever you will; and whatsoever you will,
+if continually watered by expectation, will sooner or later come to
+you_. All knowledge, all truth, all power, all wisdom, all things
+whatsoever, are yours, if you will but go in this way for them. It has
+been tried times without number, and has never yet once failed where the
+motives have been high, where the knowledge of the results beforehand
+has been sufficiently great. Within a fortnight you can know the truth
+of this for yourself if you will but go in the right way.
+
+All the truly great teachers in the world's history have gotten their
+powers in this way. You remember the great soul who left us not long
+ago, he who ministered so faithfully at Trinity, the great preacher of
+such wonderful powers, the one so truly inspired. It was but an evening
+or two since, when in conversation with a member of his congregation, we
+were talking in regard to Phillips Brooks. She was telling of his
+beautiful and powerful spirit and said that they were all continually
+conscious of the fact that he had a power they hadn't, but that all
+longed for; that he seemed to have a great secret of power they hadn't,
+but that they often tried to find. She continued, and in the very next
+sentence went on to tell of a fact,--one that I knew full well,--the
+fact that during a certain period of each day he took himself alone into
+a little, silent room, he fastened the door behind him, and during this
+period under no circumstances could he be seen by any one. The dear lady
+knew these two things, she knew and was influenced by his great soul
+power, she also knew of his going thus into the silence each day; but,
+bless her heart, it had never once occurred to her to put the two
+together.
+
+It is in this way that great soul power is grown; and the men of this
+great power are the men who move the world, the men who do the great
+work in the world along all lines, and against whom no man, no power,
+can stand. Call to mind a number of the world's greatest preachers, or,
+using again the better term, teachers, and bear in mind I do not mean
+creed, dogma, form, but religious teachers,--and the one class differs
+from the other even as the night from the day,--and you will find two
+great facts in the life of each and all,--great soul power, grown
+chiefly by much time spent in the silence, and the fact that the life of
+each has been built upon this one great and all-powerful principle of
+love, service, and helpfulness for all mankind.
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _writer?_ Very good. But remember
+that unless you have something to give to the world, something you feel
+mankind must have, something that will aid them in their march upward
+and onward, unless you have some service of this kind to render, then
+you had better be wise, and not take up the pen; for, if your object in
+writing is merely fame or money, the number of your readers may be
+exceedingly small, possibly a few score or even a few dozen may be a
+large estimate.
+
+What an author writes is, after all, the sum total of his life, his
+habits, his characteristics, his experiences, his purposes. _He never
+can write more than he himself is_. He can never pass beyond his
+limitations; and unless he have a purpose higher than writing merely for
+fame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks his own limitations, and
+what he seeks will never come. While he who writes for the world,
+because he feels he has something that it needs and that will be a help
+to mankind, if it _is_ something it needs, other things being equal,
+that which the other man seeks for directly, and so never finds, will
+come to him in all its fulness. This is the way it comes, and this way
+only. _Mankind cares nothing for you until you have shown that you care
+for mankind._
+
+Note this statement from the letter of a now well-known writer, one
+whose very first book met with instant success, and that has been
+followed by others all similarly received. She says, "I never thought of
+writing until two years and a half ago, when, in order to disburden my
+mind of certain thoughts that clamored for utterance, I produced," etc.
+In the light of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable success of her
+very first and all succeeding books. She had something she felt the
+world needed and must have; and, with no thought of self, of fame, or of
+money, she gave it. The world agreed with her; and, as she was large
+enough to seek for neither, it has given her both.
+
+Note this also: "I write for the love of writing, not for money or
+reputation. The former I have without exertion, the latter is not worth
+a pin's point in the general economy of the vast universe. Work done for
+the love of working brings its own reward far more quickly and surely
+than work done for mere payment." This is but the formulated statement
+of what all the world's greatest writers and authors have said or would
+say,--at least so far as I have come in contact with their opinions in
+regard to it.
+
+So, unless you are large enough to forget self for the good, for the
+service of mankind, thus putting yourself on the side of the universal
+and making it possible for you to give something that will in turn of
+itself bring fame, you had better be wise, and not lift the pen at all;
+for what you write will not be taken up, or, if it is, will soon be let
+fall again.
+
+One of our most charming and most noted American authors says in regard
+to her writing, "I press my soul upon the white paper"; and let me tell
+you the reason it in turn makes its impression upon so many thousands of
+other souls is because hers is so large, so tender, so sympathetic, so
+loving, that others cannot resist the impression, living as she does not
+for self, but for the service of others, her own life thus having a part
+in countless numbers of other lives.
+
+It is only that that comes from the heart that can reach the heart.
+Take from their shelves the most noted, the greatest works in any
+library, and you will find that their authors have made them what they
+are not by a study of the rules and principles of rhetoric, for this of
+itself never has made and never can make a great writer. They are what
+they are because the author's very soul has been fired by some great
+truth or fact that the world has needed, that has been a help to
+mankind. Large souls they have been, souls in love with all the human
+kind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _actor?_ Then remember that if you
+make it the object of your life to play to influence the hearts, the
+lives, and so the destinies of men, this same great law of nature that
+operates in the case of the orator will come to your assistance, will
+aid you in your growth and development, and will enable you to attain to
+heights you could never attain to or even dream of, in case you play for
+the little _ego_ you otherwise would stand for. In the latter case you
+may succeed in making a third or a fourth rate actor, possibly a second
+rate; but you can never become one of the world's greatest, and the
+chances are you may succeed in making not even a livelihood, and thus
+have your wonderment satisfied why so many who try fail.
+
+In the other case, other things being equal, the height you may attain
+to is unbounded, depending upon the degree you are able to forget
+yourself in influencing the minds and the souls, and thus the lives and
+the destinies of men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _singer?_ Then remember that if
+your thought is only of self, you may never sing at all, unless, indeed,
+you enjoy singing to yourself,--this, or you will be continually anxious
+as to the size of your audience. If, on the other hand, you choose this
+field of work because here you can be of the greatest service to
+mankind, if your ambition is to sing to the hearts and the lives of men,
+then this same great law of nature will come to assist you in your
+growth and development and efforts, and other things being equal,
+instead of singing to yourself or being anxious as to the size of your
+audience, you will seldom find time for the first, and your anxiety will
+be as to whether the place has an audience-chamber large enough to
+accommodate even a small portion of the people who will seek
+admittance. You remember Jenny Lind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a _fashionable society woman_, this and
+nothing more, intent only upon your own pleasure and satisfaction? Then
+stop and meditate, if only for a moment; for if this is the case, you
+never will, ay, you never can find the true and the genuine, for you
+fail to recognize the great law that there is no such thing as finding
+true happiness by searching for it _directly_, and the farther on you go
+the more flimsy and shallow and unsatisfying that imitation you are
+willing to accept for the genuine will become. You will thereby rob life
+of its chief charms, defeat the very purpose you have in view. And,
+while you are at this moment meditating, oh grasp the truth of the great
+law that you will find your own life only in losing it in the service of
+others,--that the more of your life you so give, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy your own life will become.
+
+And with your abundant means and opportunities build your life upon this
+great law of service, and experience the pleasure of growing into that
+full, rich, ever increasing and satisfying life that will result, and
+that will make you better known, more honored and blessed, than the life
+of any mere society woman can be, or any life, for that matter; for you
+are thus living a life the highest this world can know. And you will
+thus hasten the day when, standing and looking back and seeing the
+emptiness and the littleness of the other life as compared with this,
+you will bless the time that your better judgment prevailed and saved
+you from it. Or, if you chance to be in it already, delay not, but
+commence now to build upon this true foundation.
+
+Instead of discharging your footman, as did a woman of whom I chance to
+know, because he finally refused to stand in the rain by the side of her
+carriage, with his arms folded just so, standing immovable like a mummy
+(I had almost said like a fool), daring to look neither to one side nor
+the other, but all the time in the direction of her so-called ladyship,
+while she spent an hour or two in doing fifteen or twenty minutes'
+shopping in her desire to make it known that this is Mrs. Q.'s carriage,
+and this is the footman that goes with it,--instead of doing this, give
+him an umbrella if necessary, and take him to aid you as you go on your
+errands of mercy and cheer and service and loving kindness to the
+innumerable ones all about you who so stand in need of them.
+
+Is there any comparison between the appellation "Lady Bountiful" and "a
+proud, selfish, pleasure-seeking woman"? And, much more, do you think
+there is any comparison whatever between the real pleasure and happiness
+and satisfaction in the lives of the two?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it the ambition of your life to _accumulate great wealth_, and thus
+to acquire a great name, and along with it happiness and satisfaction?
+Then remember that whether these will come to you will depend _entirely_
+upon the use and disposition you make of your wealth. If you regard it
+as a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind, then
+well and good, these will come to you. If your object, however, is to
+pile it up, to hoard it, then neither will come; and you will find it a
+life as unsatisfactory as one can live.
+
+There is, there can be, no greatness in things, in material things, of
+themselves. The greatness is determined entirely by the use and
+disposition made of them. The greatest greatness and the only _true_
+greatness in the world is unselfish love and service and self-devotion
+to one's fellow-men.
+
+Look at the matter carefully, and tell me candidly if there can be
+anything more foolish than a man's spending all the days of his life
+piling up and hoarding money, too mean and too stingy to use any but
+what is absolutely necessary, accumulating many times more than he can
+possibly ever use, always eager for more, growing still more eager and
+grasping the nearer he comes to life's end, then lying down, dying, and
+leaving it. It seems to me about as sensible for a man to have as the
+great aim and ambition of life the piling up of an immense pile of old
+iron in the middle of a large field, and sitting on it day after day
+because he is so wedded to it that it has become a part of his life and
+lest a fragment disappear, denying himself and those around him many of
+the things that go to make life valuable and pleasant, and finally dying
+there, himself, the soul, so dwarfed and so stunted that he has really a
+hard time to make his way out of the miserable old body. There is not
+such a great difference, if you will think of it carefully,--one a pile
+of old iron, the other a pile of gold or silver, but all belonging to
+the same general class.
+
+It is a great law of our being that we become like those things we
+contemplate. If we contemplate those that are true and noble and
+elevating, we grow in the likeness of these. If we contemplate merely
+material things, as gold or silver or copper or iron, our souls, our
+natures, and even our faces become like them, hard and flinty, robbed of
+their finer and better and grander qualities. Call to mind the person or
+picture of the miser, and you will quickly see that this is true. Merely
+nature's great law. He thought he was going to be a master: he finds
+himself the slave. Instead of possessing his wealth, his wealth
+possesses him. How often have I seen persons of nearly or quite this
+kind! Some can be found almost anywhere. You can call to mind a few,
+perhaps many.
+
+During the past two or three years two well-known millionaires in the
+United States, millionaires many times over, have died. The one started
+into life with the idea of acquiring a great name by accumulating great
+wealth. These two things he had in mind,--self and great wealth. And, as
+he went on, he gradually became so that he could see nothing but these.
+The greed for gain soon made him more and more the slave; and he,
+knowing nothing other than obedience to his master, piled and
+accumulated and hoarded, and after spending all his days thus, he then
+lay down and died, taking not so much as one poor little penny with him,
+only a soul dwarfed compared to what it otherwise might have been. For
+it might have been the soul of a royal master instead of that of an
+abject slave.
+
+The papers noted his death with seldom even a single word of praise. It
+was regretted by few, and he was mourned by still fewer. And even at his
+death he was spoken of by thousands in words far from complimentary, all
+uniting in saying what he might have been and done, what a tremendous
+power for good, how he might have been loved and honored during his
+life, and at death mourned and blessed by the entire nation, the entire
+world. A pitiable sight, indeed, to see a human mind, a human soul, thus
+voluntarily enslave itself for a few temporary pieces of metal.
+
+The other started into life with the principle that a man's success is
+to be measured by his _direct usefulness_ to his fellow-men, to the
+world in which he lives, and by this alone; that private wealth is
+merely a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind.
+Under the benign influences of this mighty principle of service, we see
+him great, influential, wealthy; his whole nature expanding, himself
+growing large-hearted, generous, magnanimous, serving his State, his
+country, his fellow-men, writing his name on the hearts of all he comes
+in contact with, so that his name is never thought of by them without
+feelings of gratitude and praise.
+
+Then as the chief service to his fellow-men, next to his own personal
+influence and example, he uses his vast fortune, this vast private
+trust, for the founding and endowing of a great institution of learning,
+using his splendid business capacities in its organization, having
+uppermost in mind in its building that young men and young women may
+there have every advantage at the least possible expense to fit
+themselves in turn for the greatest _direct usefulness_ to their
+fellow-men while they live in the world.
+
+In the midst of these activities the news comes of his death. Many
+hearts now are sad. The true, large-hearted, sympathizing friend, the
+servant of rich and poor alike, has gone away. Countless numbers whom he
+has befriended, encouraged, helped, and served, bless his name, and give
+thanks that such a life has been lived. His own great State rises up as
+his pall-bearers, while the entire nation acts as honorary pall-bearers.
+Who can estimate the influence of a life such as this? But it cannot be
+estimated; for it will flow from the ones personally influenced to
+others, and through them to others throughout eternity. He alone who in
+His righteous balance weighs each human act can estimate it. And his
+final munificent gift to mankind will make his name remembered and
+honored and blessed long after the accumulations of mere plutocrats are
+scattered and mankind forgets that they have ever lived.
+
+Then have as your object the accumulation of great wealth if you choose;
+but bear in mind that, unless you are able to get beyond self, it will
+make you not great, but small, and you will rob life of the finer and
+better things in it. If, on the other hand, you are guided by the
+principle that private wealth is but a _private trust_, and that _direct
+usefulness_ or service to mankind is the only real measure of true
+greatness, and bring your life into harmony with it, then you will
+become and will be counted great; and with it will come that rich joy
+and happiness and satisfaction that always accompanies a life of true
+service, and therefore the best and truest life.
+
+One can never afford to forget that personality, life, and character,
+that there may be the greatest service, are the chief things, and wealth
+merely the _incident_. Nor can one afford to be among those who are too
+mean, too small, or too stingy to invest in anything that will grow and
+increase these.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+THE UNFOLDMENT
+
+
+    If you'd have a rare growth and unfoldment supreme,
+       And make life one long joy and contentment complete,
+    Then with kindliness, love, and good will let it teem,
+       And with service for all make it fully replete.
+
+    If you'd have all the world and all heaven to love you,
+       And that love with its power would you fully convince,
+    Then love all the world; and men royal and true,
+       Will make cry as you pass--"God bless him, the prince!"
+
+
+One beautiful feature of this principle of love and service is that this
+phase of one's personality, or nature, can be grown. I have heard it
+asked, If one hasn't it to any marked degree naturally, what is to be
+done? In reply let it be said, Forget self, get out of it for a little
+while, and, as it comes in your way, do something for some one, some
+kind service, some loving favor, it makes no difference how _small_ it
+may appear. But a kind look or word to one weary with care, from whose
+life all worth living for seems to have gone out; a helping hand or
+little lift to one almost discouraged,--it may be that this is just the
+critical moment, a helping hand just now may change a life or a destiny.
+Show yourself a friend to one who thinks he or she is friendless.
+
+Oh, there are a thousand opportunities each day right where you
+are,--not the great things far away, but the little things right at
+hand. With a heart full of love do something: experience the rich
+returns that will come to you, and it will be unnecessary to urge a
+repetition or a continuance. The next time it will be easier and more
+natural, and the next. You know of that wonderful reflex-nerve system
+you have in your body,--that which says that whenever you do a certain
+thing in a certain way, it is easier to do the same thing the next time,
+and the next, and the next, until presently it is done with scarcely any
+effort on your part at all, it has become your second nature. And thus
+we have what? Habit. This is the way that all habit is, the way that all
+habit must be formed. And have you ever fully realized that _life is,
+after all, merely a series of habits_, and that it lies entirely within
+one's own power to determine just what that series shall be?
+
+I have seen this great principle made the foundation principle in an
+institution of learning. It is made not a theory merely as I have seen
+it here and there, but a vital, living truth. And I wish I had time to
+tell of its wonderful and beautiful influences upon the life and work of
+that institution, and upon the lives and the work of those who go out
+from it. A joy indeed to be there. One can't enter within its walls even
+for a few moments without feeling its benign influences. One can't go
+out without taking them with him. I have seen purposes and lives almost
+or quite transformed; and life so rich, so beautiful, and so valuable
+opened up, such as the persons never dreamed could be, by being but a
+single year under these beautiful and life-giving influences.
+
+I have also seen it made the foundation principle of a great summer
+congress, one that has already done an unprecedented work, one that has
+a far greater work yet before it, and chiefly by reason of this
+all-powerful foundation upon which it is built,--conceived and put into
+operation as it was by a rare and highly illumined soul, one thoroughly
+filled with the love of service for all the human kind. There are no
+thoughts of money returns, for everything it has to give is as free as
+the beautiful atmosphere that pervades it. The result is that there is
+drawn together, by way of its magnificent corps of lectures as well as
+those in attendance, a company of people of the rarest type, so that
+everywhere there is a manifestation of that spirit of love, helpfulness,
+and kindliness, that permeates the entire atmosphere with a deep feeling
+of peace, that makes every moment of life a joy.
+
+So enchanting does this spirit make the place that very frequently the
+single day of some who have come for this length of time has lengthened
+itself into a week, and the week in turn into a month; and the single
+week of others has frequently lengthened itself, first into a month,
+then into the entire summer. There is nothing at all strange in this
+fact, however; for wherever one finds sweet humanity, he there finds a
+spot where all people love to dwell.
+
+Making this the fundamental principle of one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, is not, as a casual
+observer might think, and as he sometimes suggests, an argument against
+one's own growth and development, against the highest possible
+unfoldment of his entire personality and powers. Rather, on the other
+hand, is it one of the greatest reasons, one of the greatest arguments,
+in its favor; for, the stronger the personality and the greater the
+powers, the greater the influence in the service of mankind. If, then,
+life be thus founded, can there possibly be any greater incentive to
+that self-development that brings one up to his highest possibilities? A
+development merely for self alone can never have behind it an incentive,
+a power so great; _and after all, there is nothing in the world so
+great, so effective in the service of mankind, as a strong, noble, and
+beautiful manhood or womanhood_. It is this that in the ultimate
+determines the influence of every man upon his fellow-men. _Life,
+character, is the greatest power in the world, and character it is that
+gives the power; for in all true power, along whatever line it may be,
+it is after all, living the life that tells_. This is a great law that
+but few who would have great power and influence seem to recognize, or,
+at least, that but few seem to act upon.
+
+Are you a writer? You can never write more than you yourself are. Would
+you write more? Then broaden, deepen, enrich the life. Are you a
+minister? You can never raise men higher than you have raised yourself.
+Your words will have exactly the sound of the life whence they come.
+Hollow the life? Hollow-sounding and empty will be the words, weak,
+ineffective, false. Would you have them go with greater power, and thus
+be more effective? Live the life, the power will come. Are you an
+orator? The power and effectiveness of your words in influencing and
+moving masses of men depends entirely upon the altitude from which they
+are spoken. Would you have them more effective, each one filled with a
+living power? Then elevate the life, the power will come. Are you in the
+walks of private life? Then, wherever you move, there goes from you,
+even if there be no word spoken, a silent but effective influence of an
+elevating or a degrading nature. Is the life high, beautiful? Then the
+influences are inspiring, life-giving. Is it low, devoid of beauty? The
+influences then, are disease laden, death-dealing. The tones of your
+voice, the attitude of your body, the character of your face, all are
+determined by the life you live, all in turn influence for better or for
+worse all who come within your radius. And if, as one of earth's great
+souls has said, the only way truly to help a man is to make him better,
+then the tremendous power of merely the life itself.
+
+Why, I know personally a young man of splendid qualities and gifts, who
+was rapidly on the way of ruin, as the term goes, gradually losing
+control of himself day after day, self-respect almost gone,--already the
+thought of taking his own life had entered his mind,--who was so
+inspired with the mere presence and bearing of a royal-hearted young
+man, one who had complete mastery of himself, and therefore a young man
+of power, that the very sight of him as he went to and fro in his daily
+work was a power that called his better self to the front again,
+awakened the God nature within him, so that he again set his face in the
+direction of the right, the true, the manly; and to-day there is no
+grander, stronger, more beautiful soul in all the wide country than he.
+Yes, there is a powerful influence that resolves itself into a service
+for all in each individual strong, pure, and noble life.
+
+And have the wonderful possibilities of what may be termed an inner or
+soul development ever come strongly to your notice? Perhaps not, for as
+yet only a few have begun to recognize under this name a certain great
+power that has always existed,--a power that has never as yet been fully
+understood, and so has been called by this term and by that. It is
+possible so to develop this soul power that, as we stand merely and talk
+with a person, there goes out from us a silent influence that the person
+cannot see or hear, but that he feels, and the influences of which he
+cannot escape; that, as we merely go into a room in which several
+persons are sitting, there goes out from us a power, a silent influence
+that all will feel and will be influenced by, even though not a word be
+spoken. This has been the power of every man, of every woman, of great
+and lasting influence in the world's history.
+
+It is just beginning to come to us through a few highly illumined souls
+that this power can be grown, that it rests upon great natural law that
+the Author of our being has instituted within us and about us. It is
+during the next few years that we are to see many wonderful developments
+along this line; for in this, as in many others, the light is just
+beginning to break. A few, who are far up on the heights of human
+development, are just beginning to catch the first few faint flushes of
+the dawn. Then live to your highest. This of itself will make you of
+great service to mankind, but without this you never can be. Naught is
+the difference how hard you may try; and know, even so far as your own
+highest interests are concerned, that the true joy of existence comes
+from living to one's highest.
+
+This life, and this alone, will bring that which I believe to be one of
+the greatest characteristics of a truly great man,--humility; and when
+one says humility, he necessarily implies simplicity; for the two always
+go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. The proud, the vain, the
+haughty, those striving for effect, are never counted among the world's
+greatest personages. The very fact of one's striving for effect of
+itself indicates that there is not enough in him to make him really
+great; while he who really is so needs never concern himself about it,
+nor does he ever. I can think of no better way for one to attain to
+humility and simplicity than for him to have his mind off of self in the
+service of others. Vanity, that most dangerous quality, and especially
+for young people, is the outcome of one's always regarding self.
+
+Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher once said that, when they lived in the part of
+Brooklyn known as the Heights, they could always tell when Mr. Beecher
+was coming in the evening from the voices and the joyous laughter of the
+children. All the street urchins, as well as the more well-to-do
+children in the vicinity, knew him, and would often wait for his coming.
+When they saw him in the distance, they would run and gather around him,
+get hold of his hands, into those large overcoat pockets for the nuts
+and the good things he so often filled them with before starting for
+home, knowing as he did full well what was coming, tug at him to keep
+him with them as long as they could, he all the time laughing or running
+as if to get away, never too great--ay, rather let us say, great
+enough--to join with them in their sports.
+
+That mysterious dignity of a man less great, therefore with less of
+humility and simplicity, with mind always intent upon self and his own
+standing, would have told him that possibly this might not be just the
+"proper thing" to do. But even the children, street urchins as well as
+those well-to-do, found in this great loving soul a friend. Recall
+similar incidents in the almost daily life of Lincoln and in the lives
+of all truly great men. All have that beautiful and ever-powerful
+characteristic, that simple, childlike nature.
+
+Another most beautiful and valuable feature of this life is its effect
+upon one's own growth and development. There is a law which says that
+one can't do a kind act or a loving service for another without its
+bringing rich returns to his own life and growth. This is an invariable
+law. Can I then, do a kind act or a loving service for a brother or a
+sister,--and all indeed are such because children of the same
+Father,--why, I should be glad--ay, doubly glad of the opportunity. If I
+do it thus out of love, forgetful of self, for aught I know it may do me
+more good than the one I do it for, in its influence upon the growing of
+that rich, beautiful, and happy life it is mine to grow; though the joy
+and satisfaction resulting from it, the highest, the sweetest, the
+keenest this life can know, are of themselves abundant rewards.
+
+In addition to all this it scarcely ever fails that those who are thus
+aided by some loving service may be in a position somehow, some-when,
+somewhere, either directly or indirectly, and at a time when it may be
+most needed or most highly appreciated, to do in turn a kind service for
+him who, with never a thought of any possible return, has dealt kindly
+with them. So
+
+    "Cast your bread upon the waters, far and wide your treasures strew,
+    Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go!
+    You may think it lost forever; but, as sure as God is true,
+    In this life and in the other it will yet return to you."
+
+Have you sorrows or trials that seem very heavy to bear? Then let me
+tell you that one of the best ways in the world to lighten and sweeten
+them is to lose yourself in the service of others, in helping to bear
+and lighten those of a fellow-being whose, perchance, are much more
+grievous than your own. It is a great law of your being which says you
+can do this. Try it, and experience the truth for yourself, and know
+that, when turned in this way, sorrow is the most beautiful soul-refiner
+of which the world knows, and hence not to be shunned, but to be
+welcomed and rightly turned.
+
+There comes to my mind a poor widow woman whose life would seem to have
+nothing in it to make it happy, but, on the other hand, cheerless and
+tiresome, and whose work would have been very hard, had it not been for
+a little crippled child she dearly loved and cared for, and who was all
+the more precious to her on account of its helplessness. Losing herself
+and forgetting her own hard lot in the care of the little cripple, her
+whole life was made cheerful and happy, and her work not hard, but easy,
+because lightened by love and service for another. And this is but one
+of innumerable cases of this kind.
+
+So you may turn your sorrows, you may lighten your burdens, by helping
+bear the burdens, if not of a crippled child, then of a brother or a
+sister who in another sense may be crippled, or who may become so but
+for your timely service. You can find them all about you: never pass one
+by.
+
+By building upon this principle, the poor may thus live as grandly and
+as happily as the rich, those in humble and lowly walks of life as
+grandly and as happily as those in what seem to be more exalted
+stations. Recognizing the truth, as we certainly must by this time, that
+one is _truly_ great only in so far as this is made the fundamental
+principle of his life, it becomes evident that that longing for
+greatness for its and for one's own sake falls away, and none but a
+diseased mind cares for it; for no sooner is it grasped than, as a
+bubble, it bursts, because it is not the true, the permanent, but the
+false, the transient. On the other hand, he who forgetting self and this
+kind of greatness, falsely so called, in the service of his fellow-men,
+by this very fact puts himself on the right track, the only track for
+the true, the genuine; and in what degree it will come to him depends
+entirely upon his adherence to the law.
+
+And do you know the influence of this life in the moulding of the
+features, that it gives the highest beauty that can dwell there, the
+beauty that comes from within,--the _soul beauty_, so often found in the
+paintings of the old masters. _True beauty must come, must be grown,
+from, within_. That outward veneering, which is so prevalent, can never
+be even a poor imitation of this type of the true, the genuine. To
+appreciate fully the truth of this, it is but necessary to look for a
+moment at that beautiful picture by Sant, the "Soul's Awakening," a face
+that grows more beautiful each time one looks at it, and that one never
+tires of looking at, and compare with it the fractional parts of
+apothecary shops we see now and then--or so often, to speak more
+truly--on the streets. A face of this higher type carries with it a
+benediction wherever it goes.
+
+A beautiful little incident came to my notice not long ago. It was a
+very hot and dusty day. The passengers on the train were weary and
+tired. The time seemed long and the journey cheerless. A lady with a
+face that carries a benediction to all who see her entered the car with
+a little girl, also of that type of beauty that comes from within, and
+with a voice musical, sweet, and sparkling, such as also comes from this
+source.
+
+The child, when they were seated, had no sooner spoken a few words
+before she began to enlist the attention of her fellow-passengers. She
+began playing peek-a-boo with a staid and dignified old gentleman in the
+seat behind her. He at first looked at her over his spectacles, then
+lowered his paper a little, then a little more, and a little more.
+Finally, he dropped it altogether, and, apparently forgetting himself
+and his surroundings, became oblivious to everything in the fascinating
+pleasure he was having with the little girl. The other passengers soon
+found themselves following his example. All papers and books were
+dropped. The younger folks gave way to joyous laughter, and all seemed
+to vie with each other in having the honor of receiving a word or a
+smile from the little one.
+
+The dust, the heat, the tired, cheerless feelings were all forgotten;
+and when these two left the car, the little girl waving them good-by,
+instinctively, as one person, all the passengers waved it to her in
+return, and two otherwise dignified gentlemen, leaving their seats,
+passed over to the other side, and looked out of the window to see her
+as long as they could. Something as an electrical spark seemed to have
+passed through the car. All were light-hearted and happy now; and the
+conditions in the car, compared to what they were before these two
+entered, would rival the work of the stereopticon, so far as
+completeness of change is concerned. You have seen such faces and have
+heard such voices. They result from a life the kind we are considering.
+They are but its outward manifestations, spontaneous as the water from
+the earth as it bursts forth a natural fountain.
+
+We must not fail also to notice the effect of this life upon one's
+manners and bearing. True politeness comes from a life founded upon this
+great principle, and from this alone. This gives the true
+gentleman,--_gentle-man_,--a man gentle, kind, loving, courteous from
+nature. Such a one can't have anything but true politeness, can't be
+anything but a gentle-man; for one can't truly be anything but himself.
+So the one always intent upon and thinking of self cannot be the true
+gentleman, notwithstanding the artful contrivances and studied efforts
+to appear so, but which so generally reveal his own shallowness and
+artificiality, and disgust all with whom he comes in contact.
+
+I sometimes meet a person who, when introduced, will go through a series
+of stiff, cold, and angular movements, the knee at such a bend, the foot
+at such an angle, the back with such a bend or hump,--much less pleasant
+to see than that of a camel or a dromedary, for with these it is
+natural,--so that I have found myself almost thinking, Poor fellow, I
+wonder what the trouble is, whether he will get over it all right. It is
+so very evident that he all the time has his mind upon himself,
+wondering whether or not he is getting everything just right. What a
+relief to turn from such a one to one who, instead of thinking always of
+self, has continually in mind the ease and comfort and pleasure he can
+give to others, who, in other words, is the true _gentle-man_, and with
+whom true politeness is natural; for one's every act is born of his
+thoughts.
+
+It is said that there was no truer gentleman in all Scotland than Robert
+Burns. And yet he was a farmer all his life, and had never been away
+from his native little rural village into a city until near the close of
+his life, when, taking the manuscripts that for some time had been
+accumulating in the drawer of his writing-table up to Edinburgh, he
+captivated the hearts of all in the capital. Without studied
+contrivances, he was the true gentleman, and true politeness was his,
+because his life was founded upon the principle that continually brought
+from his pen lines such as:--
+
+    "It's coming yet, for a' that,
+    That man to man, the warld o'er,
+    Shall brothers be for a' that!"
+
+And under the influence of this principle, he was a gentleman by nature,
+and one of nature's noblemen, without ever thinking whether he was or
+not, as he who is truly such never needs to and never does.
+
+And then recall the large-hearted Ben Franklin, when sent to the French
+court. In his plain gray clothes, unassuming and entirely forgetful of
+himself, how he captured the hearts of all, of even the giddy society
+ladies, and how he became and remained while there the centre of
+attraction in that gay capital! His politeness, his manners, all the
+result of that great, kind, loving, and helpful nature which made
+others feel that it was they he was devoting himself to and not himself.
+
+This little extract from a letter written by Franklin to George
+Whitefield will show how he regarded the great principle we are
+considering: "As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have been
+of more service to you. But, if it had, the only thanks I should desire
+is that you would always be equally ready to serve any other person that
+may need your assistance; and so let good offices go around, for mankind
+are all of a family. For my own part, when I am employed in serving
+others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as paying
+debts. In my travels, and since my settlement, I have received much
+kindness from men to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making
+any direct return, and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely
+above being benefited by our services. These kindnesses from men I can,
+therefore, only return on their fellow-men; and I can only show my
+gratitude for these mercies from God by a readiness to help his other
+children and my brethren."
+
+No, true gentlemanliness and politeness always comes from within, and is
+born of a life of love, kindliness, and service. This is the universal
+language, known and understood everywhere, even when our words are not.
+There is, you know, a beautiful old proverb which says, "He who is kind
+and courteous to strangers thereby shows himself a citizen of the
+world." And there is nothing so remembered, and that so endears one to
+all mankind, as this universal language. Even dumb animals understand it
+and are affected by it. How quickly the dog, for example, knows and
+makes it known when he is spoken to and treated kindly or the reverse!
+And here shall not a word be spoken in connection with that great body
+of our fellow-creatures whom, because we do not understand their
+language, we are accustomed to call dumb? The attitude we have assumed
+toward these fellow-creatures, and the treatment they have been
+subjected to in the past, is something almost appalling.
+
+There are a number of reasons why this has been true. Has not one been
+on account of a belief in a future life for man, but not for the animal?
+A few years ago a gentleman left by will some fifty thousand dollars for
+the work of Henry Bergh's New York Society. His relatives contested the
+will on the ground of insanity,--on the ground of insanity because he
+believed in a future life for animals. The judge, in giving his decision
+sustaining the will, stated that after a very careful investigation, he
+found that fully half the world shared the same belief. Agassiz
+thoroughly believed it. An English writer has recently compiled a list
+of over one hundred and seventy English authors who have so thoroughly
+believed it as to write upon the subject. The same belief has been
+shared by many of the greatest thinkers in all parts of the world, and
+it is a belief that is constantly gaining ground.
+
+Another and perhaps the chief cause has been on account of a supposed
+inferior degree of intelligence on the part of animals, which in another
+form would mean, that they are less able to care for and protect
+themselves. Should this, however, be a reason why they should be
+neglected and cruelly treated? Nay, on the other hand, should this not
+be the greatest reason why we should all the more zealously care for,
+protect, and kindly treat them?
+
+You or I may have a brother or a sister who is not normally endowed as
+to brain power, who, perchance, may be idiotic or insane, or who,
+through sickness or mishap, is weakminded; but do we make this an
+excuse for neglecting, cruelly treating, or failing to love such a one?
+On the contrary, the very fact that he or she is not so able to plan
+for, care for, and protect him or her self, is all the greater reason
+for all the more careful exercise of these functions on our part. But,
+certainly, there are many animals around us with far more intelligence,
+at least manifested intelligence, than this brother or sister. The
+parallel holds, but the absurd falsity of the position we assume is most
+apparent. No truer nobility of character can anywhere manifest itself
+than is shown in one's attitude toward and treatment of those weaker or
+the so-called inferior, and so with less power to care for and protect
+themselves. Moreover, I think we shall find that we are many times
+mistaken in regard to our beliefs in connection with the inferior
+intelligence of at least many animals. If, instead of using them simply
+to serve our own selfish ends without a just recompense, without a
+thought further than as to what we can get out of them, and then many
+times casting them off when broken or of no further service, and many
+times looking down upon, neglecting, or even abusing them,--if, instead
+of this, we would deal equitably with them, love them, train and
+educate them the same as we do our children, we would be somewhat
+surprised at the remarkable degree of intelligence the "dumb brutes"
+possess, and also the remarkable degree of training they are capable of.
+What, however, can be expected of them when we take the attitude we at
+present hold toward them?
+
+Page after page might readily be filled with most interesting as well as
+inspiring portrayals of their superior intelligence, their remarkable
+capabilities under kind and judicious training, their _faithfulness_ and
+_devotion_. The efforts of such noble and devoted workers as Henry Bergh
+in New York, of George T. Angell in Massachusetts, and many others in
+various parts of the country, have already brought about a great change
+in our attitude toward and relations with this great body of our
+fellow-creatures, and have made all the world more thoughtful,
+considerate, and kind. This, however, is just the beginning of a work
+that is assuming greater and ever greater proportions.
+
+The work of the American Humane Education Society[A] is probably
+surpassed in its vitality and far-reaching results by the work of no
+other society in the world to-day. Its chief object is the humane
+education of the American people; and through one phase of its work
+alone--its Bands of Mercy, over twenty-five thousand of which have
+already been formed, giving regular, systematic humane training and
+instruction to between one and two million children, and these
+continually increasing in numbers--a most vital work is being done, such
+as no man can estimate.
+
+The humane sentiment inculcated in one's relations with the animal
+world, and its resultant feelings of sympathy, tenderness, love, and
+care, will inevitably manifest itself in one's relations with his
+fellows; and I for one, would rejoice to see this work carried into
+every school throughout the length and breadth of the land. In many
+cases this one phase of the child's training would be of far more vital
+value and import as he grows to manhood than all the rest of the
+schooling combined, and it would form a most vital entering wedge in the
+solution of our social situation.
+
+And why should we not speak to and kindly greet an animal as we pass it,
+as instinctively as we do a human fellow-being? Though it may not get
+our words, it will invariably get the attitude and the motive that
+prompts them, and will be affected accordingly. This it will do every
+time. Animals in general are marvellously sensitive to the mental
+conditions, the thought forces, and emotions of people. Some are
+peculiarly sensitive, and can detect them far more quickly and
+unerringly than many people can.
+
+It ought to help us greatly in our relations with them ever fully to
+realize that they with us are parts of the one Universal Life, simply
+different forms of the manifestation of the One Life, having their part
+to play in the economy of the great universe the same as we have ours,
+having their destiny to work out the same as we have ours, and just as
+important, just as valuable, in the sight of the All in All as we
+ourselves.
+
+"I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me.
+
+"I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemned
+for a while to roam four-footed among the brambles. I caught the
+clinging mute glance of the prisoner, and swore I would be faithful.
+
+"Thee my brother and sister I see, and mistake not. Do not be afraid.
+Dwelling thus for a while, fulfilling thy appointed time, thou, too,
+shall come to thyself at last.
+
+"Thy half-warm horns and long tongue lapping round my wrist do not
+conceal thy humanity any more than the learned talk of the pedant
+conceals his,--for all thou art dumb, we have words and plenty between
+us.
+
+"Come nigh, little bird, with your half-stretched quivering
+wings,--within you I behold choirs of angels, and the Lord himself in
+vista."[B]
+
+But a small thing, apparently, is a kind look, word, or service of some
+kind; but, oh! who can tell where it may end? It costs the giver
+comparatively nothing; but who can tell the priceless value to him who
+receives it? The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of cold
+water, may grow and swell into a boundless river, refreshing and
+carrying life and hope in turn to numberless others, and these to
+others, and so have no end. This may be just the critical moment in some
+life. Given now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. So don't
+withhold the bread that's in your keeping, but
+
+     "Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go."
+
+There is no greater thing in life that you can do, and nothing that
+will bring you such rich and precious returns.
+
+The question is sometimes asked, How can one feel a deep and genuine
+love, a love sufficient to manifest itself in service for all?--there
+are some so mean, so small, with so many peculiar, objectionable, or
+even obnoxious characteristics. True, very true, apparently at least;
+but another great law of life is that _we find in men and women exactly
+those qualities, those characteristics, we look for, or that are nearest
+akin to the predominant qualities or characteristics of our own
+natures_. If we look for the peculiar, the little, the objectionable,
+these we shall find; but back of all this, all that is most apparent on
+the exterior, in the depths of each and every human soul, is the good,
+the true, the brave, the loving, the divine, the God-like, that that
+never changes, the very God Himself that at some time or another will
+show forth His full likeness.
+
+And still another law of life is that others usually manifest to us that
+which our own natures, or, in other words, our own thoughts and
+emotions, call forth. The same person, for example, will come to two
+different people in an entirely different way, because the larger,
+better, purer, and more universal nature of the one calls forth the
+best, the noblest, the truest in him; while the smaller, critical,
+personal nature of the other calls forth the opposite. The wise man is
+therefore careful in regard to what he has to say concerning this or
+that one; for, generally speaking, it is a sad commentary upon one's
+self if he find only the disagreeable, the objectionable. _One lives
+always in the atmosphere of his own creation_.
+
+Again, it is sometimes said, But such a one has such and such habits or
+has done so and so, has committed such and such an error or such and
+such a crime. But who, let it be asked, constituted me a judge of my
+fellow-man? Do I not recognize the fact that the moment I judge my
+fellow-man, by that very act I judge myself? One of two things, I either
+judge myself or hypocritically profess that never once in my entire life
+have I committed a sin, an error of any kind, never have I stumbled,
+never fallen, and by that very profession I pronounce myself at once
+either a fool or a knave, or both.
+
+Again, it is said, But even for the sake of helping, of doing some
+service, I could not for my own sake, for character's, for reputation's
+sake, I could not afford even to be seen with such a one. What would
+people, what would my friends, think and say? True, apparently at least,
+but, if my life, my character, has such a foundation, a foundation so
+weak, so uncertain, so tottering, as to be affected by anything of this
+kind, I had better then look well to it, and quietly, quickly, but
+securely, begin to rebuild it; and, when I am sure that it is upon the
+true, deep, substantial foundation, the only additional thing then
+necessary is for me to reach that glorious stage of development which
+quickly gets one out of the personal into the universal, or rather that
+indicates that he is already out of the one and into the other, when he
+can say: They think. What do they think? Let them think. They say. What
+do they say? Let them say.
+
+And, then, the supreme charity one should have, when he realizes the
+fact that _the great bulk of the sin and error in the world is committed
+not through choice, but through ignorance_. Not that the person does not
+know many times that this or that course of action is wrong, that it is
+wrong to commit this error or sin or crime; but the ignorance comes in
+his belief that in this course of conduct he is deriving pleasure and
+happiness, and his ignorance of the fact that through a different course
+of conduct he would derive a pleasure, a happiness, much keener, higher,
+more satisfying and enduring.
+
+Never should we forget that we are all the same in motive,--pleasure and
+happiness: we differ only in method; and this difference in method is
+solely by reason of some souls being at any particular time more fully
+evolved, and thus having a greater knowledge of the great, immutable
+laws under which we live, and by putting the life into more and ever
+more complete harmony with these higher laws and forces, and in this way
+bringing about the highest, the keenest, the most abiding pleasure and
+happiness instead of seeking it on the lower planes.
+
+While all are the same in essence, all a part of the One Infinite,
+Eternal, all with the same latent possibilities, all reaching ultimately
+the same place, it nevertheless is true that at any particular time some
+are more fully awakened, evolved, unfolded. One should also be careful,
+if life is continuous, eternal, how he judges any particular life merely
+from these threescore years and ten; for the very fact of life, in
+whatever form, means continual activity, growth, advancement,
+unfoldment, attainment, and, if there is the one, there must of
+necessity be the other. So in regard to this one or that one, no fears
+need be entertained.
+
+By the door of my woodland cabin stood during the summer a magnificent
+tube-rose stock. The day was when it was just putting into bloom; and
+then I counted buds--latent flowers--to the number of over a score. Some
+eight or ten one morning were in full bloom. The ones nearer the top did
+not bloom forth until some two and three weeks later, and for some it
+took quite a month to reach the fully perfected stage. These certainly
+were not so beautiful, so satisfying, as those already in the perfect
+bloom, those that had already reached their highest perfection. But
+should they on this account be despised? Wait, wait and give the element
+of time an opportunity of doing its work; and you may find that by and
+by, when these have reached their highest perfection, they may even far
+transcend in beauty and in fragrance those at present so beautiful, so
+fragrant, so satisfying, those that we so much admire.
+
+Here we recognize the element of time. How foolish, how childish, how
+puerile, to fail or even refuse to do the same when it comes to the
+human soul, with all its God-like possibilities! And, again, how
+foolish, because some of the blooms on the rose stock had not reached
+their perfection as soon as others, to have pronounced them of no value,
+unworthy, and to have refused them the dews, the warm rains, the
+life-giving sunshine, the very agencies that hastened their perfected
+growth! Yet this puerile, unbalanced attitude is that taken by untold
+numbers in the world to-day toward many human souls on account of their
+less mature unfoldment at any given time.
+
+Why, the very fact that a fellow-man and a brother has this or that
+fault, error, undesirable or objectionable characteristic, is of itself
+the very reason he needs all the more of charity, of love, of kindly
+help and aid, than is needed by the one more fully developed, and hence
+more free from these. All the more reason is there why the best in him
+should be recognized and ever called to the front.
+
+The wise man is he who, when he desires to rid a room of darkness or
+gloom, does not attempt to drive it out directly, but who throws open
+the doors and the windows, that the room may be flooded with the golden
+sunlight; for in its presence darkness and gloom cannot remain. So the
+way to help a fellow-man and a brother to the higher and better life is
+not by ever prating upon and holding up to view his errors, his faults,
+his shortcomings, any more than in the case of children, but by
+recognizing and ever calling forth the higher, the nobler, the divine,
+the God-like, _by opening the doors and the windows of his own soul_,
+and thus bringing about a spiritual perception, that he may the more
+carefully listen to the inner voice, that he may the more carefully
+follow "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
+For in the exact proportion that the interior perception comes will the
+outer life and conduct accord with it,--so far, and no farther.
+
+Where in all the world's history is to be found a more beautiful or
+valuable incident than this? A group of men, self-centred,
+self-assertive, have found a poor woman who, in her blindness and
+weakness, has committed an error, the same one that they, in all
+probability, have committed not once, but many times; _for the rule is
+that they are first to condemn who are-most at fault themselves_. They
+bring her to the Master, they tell him that she has committed a
+sin,--ay, more, that she has been taken in the very act,--and ask what
+shall be done with her, informing him that, in accordance with the olden
+laws, such a one should be stoned.
+
+But, quicker than thought, that great incarnation of spiritual power and
+insight reads their motives; and, after allowing them to give full
+expression to their accusations, he turns, and calmly says, "He among
+you that is _without sin_, let _him_ cast the first stone." So saying,
+he stoops down, as if he is writing in the sand. The accusers, feeling
+the keen and just rebuke, in the mean time sneak out, until not one
+remains. The Master, after all have gone, turns to the woman, his
+sister, and kindly and gently says, "And where are thine accusers? doth
+no man condemn thee?" "No man, Lord." "_And neither do I condemn thee:
+go thou, and sin no more_." Oh, the beauty, the soul pathos! Oh, the
+royal-hearted brother! Oh, the invaluable lesson to us all!
+
+I have no doubt that this gentle, loving admonition, this calling of the
+higher and the better to the front, set into operation in her interior
+nature forces that hastened her progress from the purely animal, the
+unsatisfying, the diminishing, to the higher spiritual, the satisfying,
+the ever-increasing, or, even more, that made it instantaneous, but that
+in either case brought about the new birth,--the new birth that comes
+with the awakening of the soul out of its purely physical sense-life to
+the higher spiritual perception and knowledge of itself, and thus the
+birth of the higher out of the lower, as at some time or another comes
+to each and every human soul.
+
+And still another fact that should make us most charitable toward and
+slow to judge, or rather refuse to judge, a fellow-man and a
+brother,--the fact that we cannot know the intense strugglings and
+fightings he or she may be subjected to, though accompanied, it is true,
+by numerous stumblings and fallings, though the latter we see, while the
+former we fail to recognize. Did we, however, know the truth of the
+matter, it may be that in the case of ourselves, who are so quick to
+judge, had we the same temptations and fightings, the battle would not
+be half so nobly, so manfully fought, and our stumblings and fallings
+might be many times the number of his or of hers. Had we infinite
+knowledge and wisdom, our judgments would be correct; though, had we
+infinite knowledge and wisdom, we would be spared the task, though
+perhaps pleasure would seem to be the truer word to use, of our own
+self-imposed judgments.
+
+Even so, then, if I cannot give myself in thorough love and service and
+self-devotion to each and all of the Father's other children, to every
+brother, no matter what the rank, station, or apparent condition, it
+shows that at least one of several things is radically wrong with self;
+and it also indicates that I shall never know the full and supreme joy
+of existence until I am able to and until I regard each case in the
+light of a rare and golden opportunity, in which I take a supreme
+delight.
+
+Although what has just been said is true, at the same time there are
+occasions when it must be taken with wise discretion; and, although
+there are things it may be right for me to do for the sake of helping
+another life, at the same time there are things it may be unwise for me
+to do. I have sympathy for a friend who is lying in the gutter; but it
+would be very unwise for me to get myself into the same condition, and
+go and lie with him, thinking that only thus I could show my fullest
+sympathy, and be of greatest help to him. On the contrary, it is only as
+I stand on the higher ground that I am able to reach forth the hand
+that will truly lift him up. The moment I sink myself to the same level,
+my power to help ceases.
+
+Just as unwise, to use a familiar example, far more unwise, would it be
+for me, were I a woman, to think of marrying a man who is a drunkard or
+a libertine, thinking that because I may love him I shall be able to
+reform him. In the first place, I should find that the desired results
+could not be accomplished in this way, or rather, no results that could
+not be accomplished, and far more readily accomplished otherwise, and at
+far less expense. In the second place, I could not afford to subject
+myself to the demands, the influences, of one such, and so either sink
+myself to his level or, if not, then be compelled to use the greater
+part of my time, thought, and energy in demonstrating over existing
+conditions, and keeping myself true to the higher life, the same time
+that might be used in helping the lives of many others. If I sink myself
+to his level, I do not help, but aid all the more in dragging him down,
+or, if I do not sink to his level, then in the degree that I approach it
+do I lose my power over and influence with that life. Especially would
+it be unwise on my part if on his part there is no real desire for a
+different course, and no manifest endeavor to attain to it. Many times
+it seems necessary for such a one to wallow in the deepest of the mire,
+until, to use a commonplace phrase, he has his fill. He will then be
+ready to come out, will then be open to influence. I in the mean time,
+instead of entering into the mire with him, instead of subjecting my
+life to his influences, will stand up on the higher ground, and will
+ever point him upward, will ever reach forth a hand to help him upward,
+and will thus subject _him_ to the higher influences; and, by preserving
+myself in this attitude, I can do the same for many other lives. In it
+all there will be no bitterness, no condemnation, no casting off, but
+the highest charity, sympathy and love; and it is only by this method
+that I can manifest the highest, only by this method that I can the most
+truly aid, for only as I am lifted up can I draw others unto me.
+
+In this matter of service, as in all other matters, that supreme
+regulator of human life and conduct--good common sense--must always be
+used. There are some natures, for example, whom the more we would do
+for, the more we would have to do for, who, in other words, would become
+dependent, losing their sense of self-dependence. For such the highest
+service one can render is as judiciously and as indirectly as possible
+to lead them to the sense of self-reliance. Then there are others whose
+natures are such that, the more they are helped, the more they expect,
+the more they demand, even as their right, who, in other words, are
+parasites or vultures of the human kind. In this case, again, the
+greatest service that can be rendered may be a refusal of service, a
+refusal of aid in the ordinary or rather expected forms, and a still
+greater service in the form of teaching them that great principle of
+justice, of compensation, that runs through all the universe,--that for
+every service there must be in some form or another an adequate service
+in return, that the law of compensation in one form or another is
+absolute, and, in fact, the greatest forms of service we can render any
+one are, generally speaking, along the lines of teaching him the great
+laws of his own being, the great laws of his true possibilities and
+powers and so the great laws of self-help.
+
+And, again, it is possible for one whose heart goes out in love and
+service for all, and who, by virtue of lacking that long range of vision
+or by virtue of not having a grasp of things in their entirety or
+wholeness, may have his time, his energies so dissipated in what seems
+to be the highest service that he is continually kept from his own
+highest unfoldment, powers, and possessions, the very things that in
+their completeness would make him a thousand-fold more effective and
+powerful in his own life, and hence in the life of real service and
+influence. And, in a case of this kind, many times the mark of the most
+absolute unselfishness is a strong and marked selfishness, which will
+prove however to be a selfishness only in the seeming.
+
+_The self should never be lost sight of. It is the one thing of supreme
+importance, the greatest factor even in the life of the greatest
+service_. Being always and necessarily precedes doing: having always and
+necessarily precedes giving. But this law also holds: that when there is
+the being, it is all the more increased by the doing; when there is the
+having, it is all the more increased by the giving. _Keeping to one's
+self dwarfs and stultifies. Hoarding brings loss: using brings even
+greater gain_. In brief, the more we are, the more we can do; the more
+we have, the more we can give.
+
+The most truly successful, the most powerful and valuable life, then,
+is the life that is first founded upon this great, immutable law of love
+and service, and that then becomes supremely self-centred,--supremely
+self-centred that it may become all the more supremely unself-centred;
+in other words, the life that looks v/ell to self, that there may be the
+ever greater self, in order that there may be the ever greater service.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Headquarters at Boston, Mass.]
+
+[Footnote B: Toward Democracy.]
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+THE AWAKENING
+
+
+    If you'd live a religion that's noble,
+      That's God-like and true,
+    A religion the grandest that men
+      Or that angels can,
+    Then live, live the truth
+      Of the brother who taught you,
+    It's love to God, service and love
+      To the fellow-man.
+
+
+Social problems are to be among the greatest problems of the generation
+just moving on to the stage of action. They, above all others, will
+claim the attention of mankind, as they are already claiming it across
+the waters even as at home. The attitude of the two classes toward each
+other, or the separation of the classes, will be by far the chief
+problem of them all. Already it is imperatively demanding a solution.
+Gradually, as the years have passed, this separation has been going on,
+but never so rapidly as of late. Each has come to regard the other as an
+enemy, with no interests in common, but rather that what is for the
+interests of the one must necessarily be to the detriment of the other.
+
+The great masses of the people, the working classes, those who as much,
+if not more than many others ought to be there, are not in our churches
+to-day. They already feel that they are not wanted there, and that the
+Church even is getting to be their enemy. There must be a reason for
+this, for it is impossible to have an effect without its preceding
+cause. It is indeed time to waken up to these facts and conditions; for
+they must be _squarely_ met. A solution is imperatively demanded, and
+the sooner it comes, the better; for, if allowed to continue thus, all
+will come back to be paid for, intensified a thousand-fold,--ay, to be
+paid for even by many innocent ones.
+
+Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, and
+self-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-men be made the
+fundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these great
+and all-important questions will become. Indeed, they will almost solve
+themselves. It is the man all for self, so small and so short sighted
+that he can't get beyond his own selfish interests, that has done more
+to bring about this state of affairs than all other causes combined. Let
+the cause be removed, and then note the results.
+
+For many years it has been a teaching even of political economy that an
+employer buys his help just as he buys his raw material or any other
+commodity; and this done, he is in no way responsible for the welfare of
+those he employs. In fact, the time isn't so far distant when the
+employed were herded together as animals, and were treated very much as
+such. But, thanks be to God, a better and a brighter day is dawning.
+Even the employer is beginning to see that practical ethics, or true
+Christianity, and business cannot and must not be divorced; that the man
+he employs, instead of being a mere animal whose services he buys, is,
+after all his fellow-man and his brother, and demands a treatment as
+such, and that when he fails to recognize this truth, a righteous God
+steps in, demanding a penalty for its violation.
+
+He is recognizing the fact that whatsoever is for the well-being of the
+one he employs, that whatever privileges he is enabled to enjoy that
+will tend to grow and develop his physical, his mental, and his moral
+life, that will give him an agreeable home and pleasant family
+relations, that whatever influences tend to elevate him and to make his
+life more happy, are a direct gain, even from a financial standpoint for
+himself, by its increasing for him the efficiency of the man's labor.
+It is already recognized as a fact that the employer who interests
+himself in these things, other things being equal, is the most
+successful. Thus the old and the false are breaking away before the
+right and the true, as all inevitably must sooner or later; and the
+divinity and the power of the workingman is being ever more fully
+recognized.
+
+In the very remote history of the race there was one who, violating a
+great law, having wronged a brother, asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
+Knowing that he was, he nevertheless deceitfully put the question in
+this way in his desire, if possible, to avoid the responsibility. Many
+employers in their selfishness and greed for gain have asked this same
+question in this same way. They have thought they could thus defeat the
+sure and eternal laws of a Just Ruler, but have thereby deceived
+themselves the more. These more than any others have to a great degree
+brought about the present state of affairs in the industrial and social
+world.
+
+Just as soon as the employer recognizes the falsity of these old
+teachings and practices, and the fact that he cannot buy his employee's
+services the same as he buys his raw material, with no further
+responsibility, but that the two are on vastly different planes, that
+his employee is his fellow-man and his brother, and that he is his
+brother's keeper, and will be held responsible as such, that it is to
+his own highest interests, as well as to the highest interests of those
+he employs and to society in general, to recognize this; and just as
+soon as he who is employed fully appreciates his opportunities and makes
+the highest use of all, and in turn takes an active, personal interest
+in all that pertains to his employer's welfare,--just that soon will a
+solution of this great question come forth, and no sooner.
+
+It is not so much a question of legislation as of education and right
+doing, thus a dealing with the _individual_, and so a prevention and a
+cure, not merely a suppression and a regulation, which is always sure to
+fail; for, in a case of right or wrong no question is ever settled
+finally until it is settled rightly.
+
+The individual, dealing with the individual is necessarily at the bottom
+of all true social progress. There can't be anything worthy the name
+without it. The truth will at once be recognized by all _that the good
+of the whole defends upon the good of each, and the good of each makes
+the good of the whole_. Attend, then, to the individual, and the whole
+will take care of itself. Let each individual work in harmony with every
+other, and harmony will pervade the whole. The old theory of
+competition--that in order to have great advancement, great progress, we
+must have great competition to induce it--is as false as it is savage
+and detrimental in its nature. We are just reaching that point where the
+larger men and women are beginning to see its falsity. They are
+recognizing the fact that, _not competition, but co-operation,
+reciprocity, is the great, the true power_,--to climb, not by attempting
+to drag, to keep down one's fellows, but by aiding them, and being in
+turn aided by them, thus combining, and so multiplying the power of all
+instead of wasting a large part one against the other.
+
+And grant that a portion do succeed in rising, while the other portion
+remain in the lower condition, it is of but little value so far as their
+own peace and welfare are concerned; for they can never be what they
+would be, were all up together. Each is but a part, a member, of the
+great civil body; and no member, let alone the entire body, can be
+perfectly well, perfectly at ease, when any other part is in dis-ease.
+No one part of the community, no one part of the nation, can stand
+alone: all are dependent, interdependent. This is the uniform teaching
+of history from the remotest times in the past right through to the
+present. A most admirable illustration of this fact--if indeed the word
+"admirable" can be used in connection with a matter so deplorable--was
+the unparalleled labor trouble we had in our great Western city but a
+few summers ago. The wise man is he who learns from experiences of this
+terrific nature.
+
+No, not until this all-powerful principle is fully recognized, and is
+built upon so thoroughly that the brotherhood principle, the principle
+of oneness can enter in, and each one recognizes the fact that his own
+interests and welfare depend upon the interests, the welfare of each,
+and therefore of all, that each is but a part of the one great whole,
+and each one stands shoulder to shoulder in the advance forward, can we
+hope for any true solution of the great social problems before us, for
+any permanent elevation of the standard in our national social life and
+welfare.
+
+This same principle is the solution, and the only true solution, of the
+charities question, as indeed the whole world during the last few years
+or so, and during this time only, is beginning to realize. And the
+splendid and efficient work of the organized charities in all our large
+cities, as of the Elberfeld system in Germany, is attesting the truth of
+this. Almost numberless methods have been tried during the past, but all
+have most successfully failed; and many have greatly increased the
+wretched condition of matters, and of those it was designed to help.
+During this length of time only have these all-important questions been
+dealt with in a true, scientific, Christ-like, common-sense way. It has
+been found even here that nothing can take the place of the personal and
+friendly influences of a life built upon this principle of service.
+
+The question of aiding the poor and needy has passed through three
+distinct phases of development in the world's history. In early times it
+was, "Each one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost." From the
+time of the Christ, and up to the last few years it has been, "Help
+others." Now it is, "_Help others to help themselves_." The wealthy
+society lady going down Fifth Avenue in New York, or Michigan Avenue in
+Chicago, or Charles Street in Baltimore, or Commonwealth Avenue in
+Boston, who flings a coin to one asking alms, is _not_ the one who is
+doing a true act of charity; but, on the other hand, she may be doing
+the one she thus gives to and to society in general much more harm than
+good, as is many times the case. It is but a cheap, a very cheap way of
+buying ease for her sympathetic nature or her sense of duty. Never let
+the word "charity," which always includes the elements of interested
+service, true helpfulness, kindliness, and love, be debased by making it
+a synonym of mere giving, which may mean the flinging of a quarter in
+scorn or for show.
+
+Recognizing the great truth that the best and only way to help another
+is to help him to help himself, and that the neglected classes need not
+so much alms as friends, the Organized Charities with their several
+branches in different parts of the city have their staffs of "friendly
+visitors," almost all voluntary, and from some of the best homes in the
+land. Then when a case of need comes to the notice of the society, one
+of these goes to the person or family as a _friend_ to investigate, to
+find what circumstances have brought about these conditions, and, if
+found worthy of aid, present needs are supplied, an effort is made to
+secure work, and every effort is made to put them on their feet again,
+that self-respect may be regained, that hope may enter in; for there is
+scarcely anything that tends to make one lose his self-respect so
+quickly and so completely as to be compelled, or of his own accord, to
+ask for alms.
+
+It is thus many times that a new life is entered upon, brightness and
+hope taking the place of darkness and despair. This is not the only call
+the friendly visitor makes; but he or she becomes a _true friend_, and
+makes regular visits as such. If by this method the one seeking charity
+is found to be an impostor, as is frequently the case, proper means of
+exposure are resorted to, that his or her progress in this course may be
+stopped. The organizations are thus doing a most valuable work, and one
+that will become more and more valuable as they are enabled to become
+better organized, the greatest need to-day being more with the true
+spirit to act as visiting friends.
+
+It is this same great principle that has given birth to our college and
+university settlements and our neighborhood guilds which are so rapidly
+increasing, and which are destined to do a great and efficient work.
+Here a small colony of young women, many from our best homes, and the
+ablest graduates of our best colleges, and young men, many of them the
+ablest graduates of our best universities, take up their abode in the
+poorest parts of our large cities, to try by their personal influence
+and personal contact to raise the surrounding life to a higher plane. It
+is in these ways that the poor and the unfortunate are dealt with
+directly. Thus the classes mingle. Thus that sentimentalism which may do
+and which has done harm to these great problems, and by which the people
+it is designed to help may be hindered rather than helped, is done away
+with. Thus true aid and service are rendered, and the needy are really
+helped.
+
+The one whose life is built upon this principle will not take up work of
+this kind as a "fad," or because it is "fashionable," but because it is
+right, true, Christ-like. The truly great and noble never fear thus to
+mingle with those poorer and less fortunate. It is only those who would
+like to be counted as great, but who are too small to be so recognized,
+and who, therefore, always thinking of self, put forth every effort to
+appear so. There is no surer test than this.
+
+Very truly has it been said that "the greatest thing a man can do for
+God is to be kind to some of His other children." All children of the
+same Father, therefore all brothers, sisters. Man is next to God. Man is
+God incarnate. Humanity, therefore, cannot be very far from being next
+to godliness. Many people there are who are greatly concerned about
+serving God, as they term it. Their idea is to build great edifices with
+costly ornaments to Him. A great deal of their time is spent in singing
+songs and hallelujahs to Him, just as if _He_ needed or wanted these for
+Himself, forgetting that He is far above being benefited by anything
+that we can say or do, forgetting that He doesn't want these, when for
+lack of them some of His children are starving for bread to eat or are
+dying for the bread of life.
+
+Can you conceive of a God who is worthy of love and service,--and I
+speak most reverently,--who under such conditions would take a
+satisfaction in these things? I confess I am not able to. I can conceive
+of no way in which I can serve God only as I serve Him through my own
+life and through the lives of my fellow-men. This, certainly, is the
+only kind of service He needs or wants, or that is acceptable to Him.
+At one place we read, "He that says he loves God and loves not his
+fellow-men, is a liar; and the truth is not in him."
+
+Even in religion I think we shall find that there is nothing greater or
+more important than this great principle of service, helpfulness,
+kindliness, and love. Is not Christianity, you ask, greater or more
+important? Why, bless you, is this any other than Christianity, is
+Christianity any other than this,--at least, if we take what the Master
+Teacher himself has said? For what, let us ask, is a Christian,--the
+real, not merely in name? A follower of Christ, one who does as he did,
+one who lives as he lived. And, again, who was Christ? He that healed
+the sick, clothed the naked, bound up the broken-hearted, sustained and
+encouraged the weak, the faltering, befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy, condemned the proud and the selfish, taught the people to live
+nobly, truly, grandly, to live in their higher, diviner selves, that the
+greatest among them should be their servant, and that his followers were
+those who lived as he lived. He spent all his time in the service of
+humanity. He gave his whole life in this way. He it was who went about
+doing good.
+
+Is it your desire then, to be numbered among his followers, to bear
+that blessed name, the name "Christian"? Then sit at his feet, and learn
+of him, love him, do as he did, as he taught you to do, live as he
+lived, as he taught you to live, and you are a Christian, and not unless
+you do. True Christianity can be found in no other way.
+
+Naught is the difference what one may call himself; for many call
+themselves by this name to whom Christ says it will one day be said, "I
+never knew you: depart from me, ye cursed." Naught is the difference
+what creeds one may subscribe to, what rites and ceremonies he may
+observe, how loud and how numerous his professions may be. All of these
+are but as a vain mockery, unless he _is_ a Christian; and to be a
+Christian is, as we have found, to be a follower of Christ, to do as he
+did, to live as he lived. Then live the Christ life. Live so as to
+become at one with God, and dwell continually in this blessed
+at-one-ment. The trouble all along has been that so many have mistaken
+the mere person of the Christ, the mere physical Jesus, for his life,
+his spirit, his teachings, and have succeeded in getting no farther than
+this as yet, except in cases here and there.
+
+Now and then a rare soul rises up, one with great power, great
+inspiration, and we wonder at his great power, his great inspiration,
+why it is. When we look deeply enough, however, we will find that one
+great fact will answer the question every time. It is living the life
+that brings the power. He is living the Christ life, not merely standing
+afar off and looking at it, admiring it, and saying, Yes, I believe, I
+believe, and ending it there. In other words, he has found the kingdom
+of heaven. He has found that it is not a place, but a condition; and the
+song continually arising from his heart is, There is joy, only joy.
+
+The Master, you remember, said: "Seek ye not for the kingdom of heaven
+in tabernacles or in houses made with hands. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you?" He told in plain words where and how
+to find it. He then told how to find _all other_ things, when he said,
+"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall
+be added unto you." Now, do you wonder at his power, his inspiration,
+his abundance of all things? The trouble with so many is that they act
+as if they do not believe what the Master said. They do not take him at
+his word. They say one thing: they do another. Their acts give the lie
+to their words. Instead of taking him at his word, and living as if they
+had faith in him, they prefer to follow a series of old, outgrown,
+man-made theories, traditions, forms, ceremonies, and seem to be
+satisfied with the results. No, _to be a Christian is to live the Christ
+life_, the life of him who went about doing good, the life of him who
+came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
+
+We will find that this mighty principle of love and service is the
+greatest to live by in this life, and also one of the gates whereby all
+who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.
+
+Again we have the Master's words. In his own and only description of the
+last judgment, after speaking of the Son of Man coming in all his glory
+and all the holy angels with him, of his sitting on the throne of his
+glory with all nations gathered before him, of the separation of this
+gathered multitude into two parts, the one on his right, the other on
+his left, he says: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
+Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
+the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me
+meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took
+me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
+prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, and fed _thee_? or
+thirsty, and gave _thee_ drink? When saw we _thee_ a stranger, and took
+_thee_ in? or naked, and clothed _thee_? Or when saw we _thee_ sick, or
+in prison, and came unto _thee_? And the King shall answer, and say unto
+them, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
+the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me_.
+
+"Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
+cursed. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty,
+and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick,
+and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger,
+or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then
+shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye did
+it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me_."
+
+After spending the greater portion of his life in many distant climes
+in a fruitless endeavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail,[C] thinking
+that thereby he was doing the greatest service he could for God, Sir
+Launfal at last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. He finds that
+his castle is occupied by others, and that he himself is an outcast. His
+cloak is torn; and instead of the charger in gilded trappings he was
+mounted upon when as a young man, he started out with great hopes and
+ambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a staff. While sitting there and
+meditating, he is met by the same poor and needy leper he passed the
+morning he started, the one who in his need asked for aid, and to whom
+he had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on in his eager desire to be
+in the Master's service. But matters are changed now, and he is a wiser
+man. Again the poor leper says:--
+
+    "'For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms';--
+    The happy camels may reach the spring,
+    But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing,
+    The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone,
+    That cowers beside him, a thing as lone
+    And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas
+    In the desolate horror of his disease.
+
+    "And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee
+    An image of Him who died on the tree;
+    Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,--
+    Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,--
+    And to thy life were not denied
+    The wounds in the hands and feet and side:
+    Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;
+    Behold, _through him_, I give to thee!'
+
+    "Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes
+      And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway be
+    Remembered in what a haughtier guise
+      He had flung an alms to leprosie,
+    When he girt his young life up in gilded mail
+    And set forth in search of the Holy Grail.
+    The heart within him was ashes and dust;
+    He parted in twain his single crust,
+    He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
+    And gave the leper to eat and drink,
+    'Twas a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread,
+      'Twas water out of a wooden bowl,--
+    Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed,
+      And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul.
+
+    "As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face,
+    A light shone round about the place;
+    The leper no longer crouched at his side,
+    But stood before him glorified,
+    Shining and tall and fair and straight
+    As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,--
+    Himself the Gate whereby men can
+    Enter the temple of God in Man.
+
+    "And the voice that was calmer than silence said,
+    'Lo, it is I, be not afraid!
+    In many climes, without avail,
+    Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;
+    Behold, it is here,--this cup which thou
+    Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;
+    This crust is my body broken for thee,
+    This water His blood that died on the tree;
+    The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,
+    In whatso we share with another's need;
+    Not what we give, but what we _share_,--
+    For the gift without the giver is bare;
+    Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,--
+    Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.'"
+
+The fear is sometimes entertained, and the question is sometimes asked,
+May not adherence to this principle of helpfulness and service become
+mere sentimentalism? or still more, may it not be the means of lessening
+another's sense of self-dependence, and thus may it not at times do more
+harm than good? In reply let it be said: If the love which impels it be
+a selfish love, or a weak sentimental ism, or an effort at show, or
+devoid of good common sense, yes, many times. But if it be a strong,
+genuine, unselfish love, then no, never. For, if my love for my
+fellow-man be the true love, I can never do anything that will be to his
+or any one's else detriment,--nothing that will not redound to his
+highest ultimate welfare. Should he, for example come and ask of me a
+particular favor, and were it clear to me that granting it would not be
+for his highest good ultimately, then love at once resolves itself into
+duty, and compels me to forbear. A true, genuine, unselfish love for
+one's fellow-man will never prompt, and much less permit, anything that
+will not result in his highest ultimate good. Adherence, therefore, to
+this great principle in its truest sense, instead of being a weak
+sentimentalism, is, we shall find, of all practical things the _most
+intensely practical_.
+
+And a word here in regard to the test of true love and service, in
+distinction from its semblance for show or for vain glory. The test of
+the true is this: that it goes about and does its good work, it never
+says anything about it, but lets others do the saying. It not only says
+nothing about it, but more, it has no desire to have it known; and, the
+truer it is, the greater the desire to have it unknown save to God and
+its own true self. In other words, it is not sicklied o'er with a
+semi-insane desire for notoriety or vainglory, and hence never weakens
+itself nor harasses any one else by lengthy recitals of its good deeds.
+It is not the _professional_ good-doing. It is simply living its natural
+life, open-minded, open-hearted, doing each day what its hands find to
+do, and in this finding its own true life and joy. And in this way it
+unintentionally but irresistibly draws to itself a praise the rarest and
+divinest I know of,--the praise I heard given but a day or two ago to
+one who is living simply his own natural life without any conscious
+effort at anything else, the praise contained in the words: And, oh, it
+is beautiful, the great amount of good he does and of which the world
+never hears.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote C: "According to the mythology of the Romancers, the Sangreal,
+or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the Last Supper
+with his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea,
+and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many
+years in the keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon
+those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but,
+one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail
+disappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knights
+of Sir Arthur's court to go in search of it."--_James Russell Lowell_.]
+
+
+
+
+PART V.
+
+THE INCOMING
+
+
+    O dull, gray grub, unsightly and noisome, unable to roam,
+      Days pass, God's at work, the slow chemistry's going on,
+             Behold! Behold!
+    O brilliant, buoyant life, full winged, all the heaven's thy home!
+    O poor, mean man, stumbling and falling, e'en shamed by a clod.
+      Years pass, God's at work, spiritual awakening has come,
+            Behold! Behold!
+    O regal, royal soul, then image, now the likeness of God.
+
+
+The Master Teacher, he who appeals most strongly and comes nearest to us
+of this western civilization, has told us that the whole and the highest
+duty of man is comprised in two great, two simple precepts--- love to
+God and love to the fellow-man. The latter we have already fully
+considered. We have found that in its real and true meaning it is not a
+mere indefinite or sentimental abstraction, but that it is a vital,
+living force; and in its manifestation it is life, it is action, it is
+service. Let us now for a moment to the other,--love to God, which in
+great measure however let it be said, has been considered in dealing
+with love to the fellow-man. Let us see, however, what it in its true
+and full nature reveals.
+
+The question naturally arising at the outset is, Who, what is God? I
+think no truer, sublimer definition has ever been given in the world's
+history, in any language, in any clime, than that given by the Master
+himself when standing by the side of Jacob's well, to the Samaritan
+woman he said, God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him
+in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, the Infinite Spirit, the Infinite
+Life back of all these physical manifestations we see in this changing
+world about us, and of which all, including we ourselves, is the body or
+outer form; the one Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with
+Himself, so that all is He, since He is all. All is He in the sense of
+being a part of Him; for, if He is all, there can be nothing that is
+outside of, that is not a part of Him, so that each one is a part of
+this Eternal God who is not separate from us, and, if not separate from
+us, then not afar off, for in Him we live and move and have our being,
+_He is the life of our life_, our very life itself. The life of God is
+in us, we are in the life of God; but that life transcends us so that it
+includes all else,--every person, every animal, every grass-blade, every
+flower, every particle of earth, every particle of everything, animate
+and inanimate. So that God is _All_; and, if all, then each individual,
+you and I, must be a vital part of that all, since there can be nothing
+separate from it; and, if a part, then the same in nature, in
+characteristics,--the same as a tumbler of water taken from the ocean
+is, in nature, in qualities, in characteristics, identical with that
+ocean, its source. God, then, is the Infinite Spirit of which each one
+is a part in the form of an individualized spirit. God is Spirit,
+creating, manifesting, ruling through the agency of great spiritual laws
+and forces that surround us on every side, that run through all the
+universe, and that unite all; for in one sense, there is nothing in all
+this great universe but law. And, oh, the stupendous grandeur of it all!
+These same great spiritual laws and forces operate within us. They are
+the laws of our being. By them every act of each individual life is
+governed.
+
+Now one of the great facts borne ever more and more into the inner
+consciousness of man is that sublime and transcendent fact that we have
+just noticed,--that man is one with, that he is part of, the Infinite
+God, this Infinite Spirit that is the life of all, this Infinite Whole;
+that he is not a mere physical, material being,--for the physical is but
+the material which the real inner self, the real life or spirit uses to
+manifest through,--but that he _is_ this spirit, this spirit, using,
+living in this physical, material house or body to get the contact, the
+experience with the material world around him while in this form of
+life, but spirit nevertheless, and spirit now as much as he ever will or
+ever can be, except so far of course, as he recognizes more and more his
+true, his higher self, and so consciously evolves, step by step, into
+the higher and ever higher realization of the real nature, the real
+self, the God-self. As I heard it said by one of the world's great
+thinkers and writers but a few days ago: Men talk of having a soul. I
+have no soul. I am a soul: I have a body. We are told moreover in the
+word, that man is created in the image of God. God is Spirit. What then
+must man be, if that which tells us is true?
+
+Now one of the great errors all along in the past has been that we have
+mistaken the mere body, the mere house in which we live while in this
+form of life for a period,--that which comes from the earth and which,
+in a greater or less time, returns to the earth,--this we have mistaken
+for the real self. Either we have lost sight of or we have failed to
+recognize the true identity. The result is that we are at life from the
+wrong side, from the side of the external, while all true life is from
+within out.
+
+We have taken our lives out of a conscious harmony with the higher laws
+of our being, with the result that we are going against the great
+current of the Divine Order of things. Is it any wonder, then, that we
+find the strugglings, the inharmonies, the sufferings, the fears, the
+forebodings, the fallings by the wayside, the "strange, inscrutable
+dispensations of Providence" that we behold on every side? The moment we
+bring our lives into harmony with the higher laws of our being, and, as
+a result, into harmony with the current of the Divine Order of things,
+we shall find that all these will have taken wings; for the cause will
+have been removed. And as we look down the long vista of such a life, we
+shall find that each thing fits into all others with a wonderful, a
+sublime, a perfect, a divine harmony.
+
+This, it will seem to some,--and to many, no doubt,--is claiming a great
+deal. No more, however, than the Master Teacher warranted us in claiming
+when he said, and repeated it so often, Seek ye first the kingdom of
+heaven, and all these other things shall be added unto you; and he left
+us not in the dark as to exactly what he meant by the kingdom of heaven,
+for again he said: Say not, Lo here, nor lo there. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you? _Within you._ The interior spiritual
+kingdom, the kingdom of the higher self, which is the kingdom of God;
+the kingdom of harmony,--harmony with the higher laws of your being.
+
+The Master said what he said not for the sake merely of using a phrase
+of rhetoric, nor even to hear himself talk; for this he never did. But
+that great incarnation of spiritual insight and power knew of the great
+spiritual laws and forces under which we live, and also that supreme
+fact of the universe, that _man is a spiritual being, born to have
+dominion_, and that, by recognizing the true self and by bringing it
+into complete and perfect harmony with the higher spiritual laws and
+forces under which he lives, he can touch these laws and forces so that
+they will respond at every call and bring him whatsoever he wills,--one
+of the most stupendous scientific facts of the universe. When he has
+found and entered into the kingdom, then applies to him the truth of the
+great precept, Take ye no thought for the morrow; for the things of the
+morrow will take care of themselves.
+
+Yes, we are at life from the wrong side. We have been giving all time
+and attention to the mere physical, the material, the external, the mere
+outward means of expression and the things that pertain thereto, thus
+missing the real life; and this we have called living, and seem, indeed,
+to be satisfied with the results. No wonder the cry has gone out again
+and again from many a human soul, Is life worth the living? But from one
+who has once commenced to _live_, this cry never has, nor can it ever
+come; for, _when the kingdom is once found, life then ceases to be a
+plodding, and becomes an exultation, an ecstasy, a joy_. Yes, you will
+find that all the evil, all the error, all the disease, all the
+suffering, all the fears, all the forebodings of life, are on the side
+of the physical, the material, the transient; while all the peace, all
+the joy, all the happiness, all the growth, all the life, all the rich,
+exulting, abounding life, is on the side of the spiritual, the
+ever-increasing, the eternal,--that that never changes, that has no end.
+Instead of crying out against the destiny of fate, let us cry out
+against the destiny of self, or rather against the destiny of the
+mistaken self; for everything that comes to us comes through causes
+which we ourselves or those before us have set into operation. Nothing
+comes by chance, for _in all the wide universe there is absolutely no
+such thing as chance_. We bring whatever comes. Are we not satisfied
+with the effects, the results? The thing then to do, is to change the
+causes; for we have everything in our own hands the moment we awake to a
+recognition of the true self.
+
+We make our own heaven or our own hell, and the only heaven or hell that
+will ever be ours is that of our own making. The order of the universe
+is one thing: we take our lives out of harmony with and so pervert the
+laws under which we live, and make it another. The order is the all
+good. We pervert the laws, and what we call evil is the result,--simply
+the result of the violation of law; and we then wonder that a just and
+loving God could permit such and such things. We wonder at what we term
+the "strange, inscrutable dispensations of Providence," when all is of
+our own making. We can be our own best friends or we can be our own
+worst enemies; and the only real enemy one can ever have is the self,
+the very self.
+
+It is a well-known fact in the scientific world that the great work in
+the process of evolution is the gradual advancing from the lower to the
+higher, from the coarser to the finer, or, in other words, from the
+coarser material to the finer spiritual; and this higher
+spiritualization of life is the great work before us all. All pass
+ultimately over the same road in general, some more rapidly, some more
+slowly. The ultimate destiny of all is the higher life, the finding of
+the higher self; and to this we are either led or we are pushed,--led,
+by recognizing and coming into harmony with the higher laws of our
+being, or pushed, through their violation, and hence through experience,
+through suffering, and at times through bitter suffering, until through
+this very agency we learn the laws and come into harmony with them, so
+that we thus see the economy, the blessedness of even error, shame, and
+suffering itself, in that, if we are not wise enough to go voluntarily
+and of our own accord, it all the more quickly brings us to our true,
+our higher selves.
+
+Moreover, whatever is evolved must as surely first be involved. We
+cannot conceive even of an evolution without first an involution; and,
+if this is true, we cannot conclude otherwise than that all that will
+ever be brought forth through the process of evolution is already
+within, all the God possibilities of the human soul are now, at this
+very moment, latent within. This being true, the process of evolution
+need not, as is many times supposed, take aeons or even ages for its
+accomplishment; for the process is wonderfully accelerated when we have
+grasped and when we have commenced to actualize the reality of that
+mighty precept, Know thyself.
+
+It is possible, through an intelligent understanding of the laws of the
+higher life, to advance in the spiritual awakening and unfoldment even
+in a single year more than one otherwise would through a whole lifetime,
+or more in a single day or even hour than in an entire year or series of
+years otherwise.
+
+This higher spiritualization of life is certainly what the Master had in
+mind when he said, It is as hard for a rich man to enter into the
+kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a
+needle. For, if a man give all his days and his nights merely to the
+accumulation of outer material possessions, what time has he for the
+growing, the unfolding, of the interior, the spiritual, what time for
+finding that wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the Christ
+within?
+
+This certainly is also the significance of the temptation in the
+wilderness. The temptations were all, you will recall, in connection
+with the material, the physical, and the things that pertain thereto. Do
+so and so, said the physical: follow after me, and I will give you bread
+in abundance, I will give you great fame and notoriety, I will give you
+vast material possessions. All, you see, a calling away from the real,
+the interior, the spiritual, the eternal. Dominion over all the kingdoms
+of the _world_ was promised. But what, what is dominion overall the
+world, with heaven left out?
+
+All, however, was triumphed over. The physical was put into subjection
+by the spiritual, the victory was gained once for all and forever; and
+he became the supreme and royal Master, and by this complete and
+glorious mastery of self he gained the mastery over all else besides,
+even to material things and conditions.
+
+And by this higher spiritual chemicalization of life thus set into
+operation the very thought forces of his mind became charged with a
+living, mighty, and omnipotent power, so as to effect a mastery over all
+exterior conditions: hence the numerous things called miracles by those
+who witnessed and who had not entered into a knowledge of the higher
+laws that can triumph over and master the lower, but which are just as
+real and as natural on their plane as the lower, and even more real and
+more natural, because higher and therefore more enduring. But this
+complete mastery over self during this period of temptation was just the
+beginning of the path that led from glory unto glory, the path that for
+you and for me will lead from glory unto glory the same as for him.
+
+It was this new divine and spiritual chemistry of life thus set into
+operation that transformed the man Jesus, that royal-hearted elder
+brother, into the Christ Jesus, and forever blessed be his name; for he
+thus became our Saviour,--he became our Saviour by virtue of pointing
+out to us the way. This overcoming by the calling of the higher
+spiritual forces into operation is certainly what he meant when he said,
+I have overcome the world, and what he would have us understand when he
+says, Overcome the world, even as I have overcome it.
+
+And in the same sense we are all the saviors one of another, or may
+become so. A sudden emergency arises, and I stand faltering and weak
+with fear. My friend beside me is strong and fearless. He sees the
+emergency. He summons up all the latent powers within him, and springs
+forth to meet it. This sublime example arouses me, calls my latent
+powers into activity, when but for him I might not have known them
+there. I follow his example. I now know my powers, and know them forever
+after. Thus, in this, my friend has become my savior.
+
+I am weak in some point of character,--vacillating, yielding, stumbling,
+falling, continually eating the bitter fruit of it all. My friend is
+strong, he has gained thorough self-mastery. The majesty and beauty of
+power are upon his brow. I see his example, I love his life, I am
+influenced by his power. My soul longs and cries out for the same. A
+supreme effort of will--that imperial master that will take one anywhere
+when rightly directed--arises within me, it is born at last, and it
+calls all the soul's latent powers into activity; and instead of
+stumbling I stand firm, instead of giving over in weakness I stand firm
+and master, I enter into the joys of full self-mastery, and through this
+into the mastery of all things besides. And thus my friend has again
+become my savior.
+
+With the new power I have acquired through the example and influence of
+my savior-friend, I, in turn, stand before a friend who is struggling,
+who is stumbling and in despair. He sees, he feels, the power of my
+strength. He longs for, his soul cries out for the same. _His_ interior
+forces are called into activity, he now knows his powers; and instead of
+the slave, he becomes the master, and thus I, in turn, have become his
+savior. Oh, the wonderful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings of
+responsibility, the deep sense of power and peace the recognition of
+this fact should bring to each and all.
+
+God works through the instrumentality of human agency. Then forever away
+with that old, shrivelling, weakening, dying, and devilish idea that we
+are poor worms of the dust! We may or we may not be: it all depends upon
+the self. The moment we believe we are we become such; and as long as we
+hold to the belief we will be held to this identity, and will act and
+live as such. The moment, however, we recognize our divinity, our
+higher, our God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of our
+fellow-men, we become saviors, and stand and move in the midst of a
+majesty and beauty and power that of itself proclaims us as such.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is a prevalent idea to the effect that overcoming in this sense
+necessarily implies more or less of a giving up,--that it means
+something possibly on the order of asceticism. On the contrary, the
+highest, truest, keenest pleasures the human soul can know, it finds
+only after the higher is entered upon and has commenced its work of
+mastery; and, instead of there being a giving up of any kind, there is a
+great law which says that the lower always and of its own accord falls
+away before the higher. And the time soon comes when, as one stands and
+looks back, he wonders that this or that that he at one time called
+pleasure ever satisfied him; for what then satisfied him, compared to
+what now is his hourly peace, satisfaction, and joy, was but as poor
+brass compared to the finest, purest, and rarest of gold.
+
+From what has been said let it not be inferred that the body, the
+physical, material life is to be despised or looked down upon. This,
+rather let it be said, is one of the crying errors of the times, and
+prolific of a _vast_ amount of error, suffering, and shame. On the
+contrary, it should be thought all the more highly of: it should be
+loved and developed to its highest perfections, beauties, and powers.
+God gave us the body not in vain. It is just as holy and beautiful as
+the spirit itself. It is merely the outward material manifestation of
+the individualized spirit; and we by our hourly thoughts and emotions
+are building it, are determining its conditions, its structure, and
+appearance. And, if there are any conditions we are not satisfied with,
+we by an understanding of the laws, have it in our power to make it over
+and change these conditions. Flamarion, the eminent French scientist,
+member of the Royal Academy of Science, and recognized as one of the
+most eminent scientists living, tells us that the entire human structure
+can be made over within a period of less than one year, some eleven
+months being the length of time required for the more compact and more
+set portions to respond; while some portions respond much more readily
+within a period of from two to three months, and some even within a
+month.
+
+Every part, every organ, every function of the body is just as clean,
+just as beautiful, just as sweet, and just as holy as every other part;
+and it is only by virtue of man's perverted ways of looking at some that
+they become otherwise, and the moment they so become, abuses, ill uses,
+suffering, and shame creep in.
+
+_Not repression, but elevation._ Would that this could be repeated a
+thousand times over! Not repression, but elevation. Every part, every
+organ, every function of the body is given for _use_, but not for misuse
+or abuse; and the moment the latter takes place in connection with any
+function it loses its higher powers of use, and there goes with this the
+higher powers of true enjoyment. It is thus that we get that large class
+known as abnormals, resorting to the methods they resort to for
+enjoyment, but which, in its true sense, they always fail in finding,
+because law will admit of no violations; and, if violated, it takes away
+the very powers of enjoyment, it takes away the very things that through
+its violation they thought they had secured, or it turns them into ashes
+in their very hands. God, nature, law, the higher self, is not mocked.
+
+Not repression, but elevation,--repression only in the sense of
+mastery; but this means--nay, this is--elevation. In other words, we
+should be the master, and not the body. We should dictate to the body,
+and should never, even for an instant, allow it to dictate to us.
+
+Oh, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are
+everywhere being driven hither and thither, led into this and into that
+which their own better selves would not enter into, simply because they
+have allowed the body to assume the mastery; while they have taken the
+place of the weakling, the slave, and all on account of their own
+weakness,--weakness through ignorance, ignorance of the tremendous
+forces and powers within, the forces and powers of the mind and spirit.
+
+It would be a right royal plan for those who are thus enslaved by the
+body,--and we all are more or less, each in his own particular way, and
+not one is absolutely free,--it would be a good plan to hold
+immediately, at this very hour, a conversation with the body somewhat
+after this fashion: Body, we have for some time been dwelling together.
+Life for neither has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The cause
+is now apparent to me. The mastery I have voluntarily handed over to
+you. You have not assumed it of your own accord; but I have given it
+over to you little by little, and just in the degree that you have
+appropriated it. Neither one is to blame. It has been by virtue of
+ignorance. But henceforth we will reverse positions. You shall become
+the servant, and I the master. From this time forth you shall no longer
+dictate to me, but I will dictate to you.
+
+I, one with Infinite intelligence, wisdom, and power, longing for a
+fuller and ever fuller realization of this oneness, will assume control,
+and will call upon you to help in the fuller and ever fuller external
+manifestation of this realization. We will thus regain the ground both
+of us have lost. We will thus be truly married instead of farcically so.
+And thus we will help each the other to a realization of the highest,
+most satisfying and most enduring pleasures and joys, possibilities and
+powers, loves and realizations, that human life can know; and so, hand
+in hand, we will help each the other to the higher and ever-increasing
+life instead of degrading each the other to the lower and
+ever-decreasing. I will become the imperial master, and you the royal
+companion; and thus we will go forth to an ever larger life of love and
+service, and so of true enjoyment.
+
+This conversation, if entered into in the spirit, accompanied by an
+earnest, sincere desire for its fulfilment, re-enforced by the thought
+forces, and continually attended by that absolute magnet of power, firm
+expectation, will, if all are firmly and persistently held to, bring the
+full realization of one's fondest desires with a certainty as absolute
+as that effect follows cause. The higher self will invariably master
+when it truly and firmly asserts itself. Much the same attitude can be
+assumed in connection with the body in disease or in suffering with the
+same results. Forces can be set into operation which will literally
+change and make over the diseased, the abnormal portions, and in time
+transform them into the healthy, the strong, the normal,--this when we
+once understand and vitally grasp the laws of these mighty forces, and
+are brought to the full recognition of the absolute control of mind, of
+spirit, over matter, and all, again let it be said, in accordance with
+natural spiritual law.
+
+_No, a knowledge of the spiritual realities of life prohibits
+asceticism, repression, the same as it prohibits license and perverted
+use. To err on the one side is just as contrary to the ideal life as to
+err on the other._ All things are for a purpose, all should be used and
+enjoyed; but all should be rightly used, that they may be fully enjoyed.
+
+It is the threefold life and development that is wanted,--physical,
+mental, spiritual. This gives the rounded life, and he or she who fails
+in any one comes short of the perfect whole. The physical has its uses
+just the same and is just as important as the others. The great secret
+of the highly successful life is, however, to infuse the mental and the
+physical with the spiritual; in other words, to spiritualize all, and so
+raise all to the highest possibilities and powers.
+
+It is the all-round, fully developed we want,--not the ethereal,
+pale-blooded man and woman, but the man and woman of flesh and blood,
+for action and service here and now,--the man and woman strong and
+powerful, with all the faculties and functions fully unfolded and used,
+all in a royal and bounding condition, but all rightly subordinated. The
+man and the woman of this kind, with the imperial hand of mastery upon
+all,--standing, moving thus like a king, nay, like a very God,--such is
+the man and such is the woman of power. Such is the ideal life: anything
+else is one-sided, and falls short of it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The most powerful agent in character-building is this awakening to the
+true self, to the fact that man is a spiritual being,--nay, more, that
+I, this very eternal I, am a spiritual being, right here and now, at
+this very moment, with the God-powers which can be quickly called forth.
+With this awakening, life in all its manifold relations becomes
+wonderfully simplified. And as to the powers, the full realization of
+the fact that man is a spiritual being and a living as such brings, they
+are absolutely without limit, increasing in direct proportion as the
+higher self, the God-self, assumes the mastery, and so as this higher
+spiritualization of life goes on.
+
+With this awakening and realization one is brought at once _en rapport_
+with the universe. He feels the power and the thrill of the life
+universal. He goes out from his own little garden spot, and mingles with
+the great universe; and the little perplexities, trials, and
+difficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy him, fall away of
+their own accord by reason of their very insignificance. The intuitions
+become keener and ever more keen and unerring in their guidance. There
+comes more and more the power of reading men, so that no harm can come
+from this source. There comes more and more the power of seeing into the
+future, so that more and more true becomes the old adage,--that coming
+events cast their shadows before. Health in time takes the place of
+disease; for all disease and its consequent suffering is merely the
+result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously,
+either intentionally or unintentionally. There comes also a spiritual
+power which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the healing of others
+the same as in the days of old. The body becomes less gross and heavy,
+finer in its texture and form, so that it serves far better and responds
+far more readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself in
+time responds to the action of these higher forces; and many things that
+we are accustomed by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous or
+supernatural become the normal, the natural, the every-day.
+
+For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Nothing more nor less than this: a
+highly illumined soul, one who has brought his life into thorough
+harmony with the higher spiritual laws and forces of his being, and
+therefore with those of the universe, thus making it possible for the
+highest things to come to him, has brought to him a law a little higher
+than the ordinary mind knows of as yet. This he touches, he operates. It
+responds. The people see the result, and cry out, Miracle! miracle! when
+it is just as natural, just as fully in accordance with the law on this
+higher plane, as is the common, the every-day on the ordinary. And let
+it be remembered that the miraculous, the supernatural of to-day
+becomes, as in the process of evolution we leave the lower for the
+higher, the commonplace, the natural, the every-day of to-morrow; and,
+truly, miracles are being performed in the world to-day just as much as
+they ever have been.
+
+And why should we not to-day have the powers of the foremost in the days
+of old? The great universe in which we live is just the same, the great
+laws under which we live are identically the same, God the same and
+working in His world now just as then. The only difference we shall find
+is in ourselves, in that we have taken our lives out of harmony with the
+higher laws of our being, and consequently have lost the higher powers
+through not using them. Mighty men we are told they were, mighty men
+who walked with God,--and in the last clause lies the secret of the
+first,--- men who lived in the spirit, men who followed after the real
+life instead of giving all time and attention to the mere external, men
+who lived in the higher stories of their being, and not continually in
+the basements.
+
+With here and there an exception we reverse the process. We live in the
+valleys, so to speak, often disease-infected valleys, when we might
+mount up to the mountain-tops, and there dwell continually in the warm
+and mellow sunlight of God's, or if you please, of nature's great,
+unchangeable laws, and find ourselves rising ever higher and higher, and
+revelations coming new every day.
+
+The Master never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim for
+all mankind; but, quite to the contrary, he said and continually
+repeated, Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than these
+shall ye do; for I have pointed out to you the way,--meaning, though
+strange as it evidently seems to many, _exactly_ what he said.
+
+Of the vital power of thought and the interior forces in moulding
+conditions, and more, of the supremacy of thought over all conditions,
+the world has scarcely the faintest grasp, not to say even idea, as yet.
+The fact that thoughts are forces, and that through them _we have
+creative power_, is one of the most vital facts of the universe, the
+most vital fact of man's being. And through this instrumentality we have
+in our grasp and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and
+all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.
+
+Through our thought-forces we have creative power, not in a figurative
+sense, but in reality. Everything in the material universe about us had
+its origin first in spirit, in thought, and from this it took its form.
+The very world in which we live, with all its manifold wonders and
+sublime manifestations, is the result of the energies of the divine
+intelligence or mind,--God, or whatever term it comes convenient for
+each one to use. And God said, Let there be, and there was,--the
+material world, at least the material manifestation of it, literally
+spoken into existence, the spoken word, however, but the outward
+manifestation of the interior forces of the Supreme Intelligence.
+
+Every castle the world has ever seen was first an ideal in the
+architect's mind. Every statue was first an ideal in the sculptor's
+mind. Every piece of mechanism the world has ever known was first
+formed in the mind of the inventor. Here it was given birth to. These
+same mind-forces then dictated to and sent the energy into the hand that
+drew the model, and then again dictated to and sent the energy into the
+hands whereby the first instrument was clothed in the material form of
+metal or of wood. The lower negative always gives way to the higher when
+made positive. Mind is positive: matter is negative.
+
+Each individual life is a part of, and hence is one with, the Infinite
+Life; and the highest intelligence and power belongs to each in just the
+degree that he recognizes his oneness and lays claim to and uses it. The
+power of the word is not merely an idle phrase or form of expression. It
+is a real mental, spiritual, scientific fact, and can become vital and
+powerful in your hands and in mine in just the degree that we understand
+the omnipotence of the thought forces and raise all to the higher
+planes.
+
+The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood before the Christ, who said,
+Receive thy sight, rise up and walk, or, be thou healed; and o! _it was
+so_. The spoken word, however, was but the outward expression and
+manifestation of his interior thought-forces, the power and potency of
+which he so thoroughly knew. But the laws governing them are the same
+to-day as they were then, and it lies in our power to use them the same
+as it lay in his.
+
+Each individual life, after it has reached a certain age or degree of
+intelligence, lives in the midst of the surroundings or environments of
+its own creation; and this by reason of that wonderful power, _the
+drawing power of mind_, which is continually operating in every life,
+whether it is conscious of it or not.
+
+We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought. The very
+atmosphere about us is charged with the thought-forces that are being
+continually sent out. When the thought-forces leave the brain, they go
+out upon the atmosphere, the subtle conducting ether, much the same as
+sound-waves go out. It is by virtue of this law that thought
+transference is possible, and has become an established scientific fact,
+by virtue of which a person can so direct his thought-forces that a
+person at a distance, and in a receptive attitude, can get the thought
+much the same as sound, for example, is conducted through the agency of
+a connecting medium.
+
+Even though the thoughts as they leave a particular person, are not
+consciously directed, they go out; and all may be influenced by them in
+a greater or less degree, each one in proportion as he or she is more or
+less sensitively organized, or in proportion as he or she is negative,
+and so open to forces and influences from without. The law operating
+here is one with that great law of the universe,--that like attracts
+like, so that one continually attracts to himself forces and influences
+most akin to those of his own life. And his own life is determined by
+the thoughts and emotions he habitually entertains, for each is building
+his world from within. As within, so without; cause, effect.
+
+A stalk of wheat and a stock of corn are growing side by side, within an
+inch of each other. The soil is the same for both; but the wheat
+converts the food it takes from the soil into wheat, the likeness of
+itself, while the corn converts the food it takes from the same soil
+into corn, the likeness of itself. What that which each has taken from
+the soil is converted into is determined by the soul, the interior life,
+the interior forces of each. This same grain taken as food by two
+persons will be converted into the body of a criminal in the one case,
+and into the body of a saint in the other, each after its kind; and its
+kind is determined by the inner life of each. And what again determines
+the inner life of each? The thoughts and emotions that are habitually
+entertained and that inevitably, sooner or later, manifest themselves in
+outer material form. Thought is the great builder in human life: it is
+the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and
+your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and
+beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth
+in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of
+love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and
+you will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind.
+
+It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own
+"atmosphere"; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of the
+thoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thought
+atmosphere--the atmosphere which other people detect and are influenced
+by.
+
+In this way each person creates the atmosphere of his own room; a
+family, the atmosphere of the house in which they live, so that the
+moment you enter the door you feel influences kindred to the thoughts
+and hence to the lives of those who dwell there. You get a feeling of
+peace and harmony or a feeling of disquietude and inharmony. You get a
+welcome, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-to-get-away feeling,
+according to their thought attitude toward you, even though but few
+words be spoken. So the characteristic mental states of a congregation
+of people who assemble there determine the atmosphere of any given
+assembly-place, church, or cathedral. Its inhabitants so make, so
+determine the atmosphere of a particular village or city. The
+sympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast amphitheatre of people, as they
+cheer a contestant, carry him to goals he never could reach by his own
+efforts alone. The same is true in regard to an orator and his audience.
+
+Napoleon's army is in the East. The plague is beginning to make inroads
+into its ranks. Long lines of men are lying on cots and on the ground in
+an open space adjoining the army. Fear has taken a vital hold of all,
+and the men are continually being stricken. Look yonder, contrary to the
+earnest entreaties of his officers, who tell him that such exposure will
+mean sure death, Napoleon with a calm and dauntless look upon his face,
+with a firm and defiant step, is coming through these plague-stricken
+ranks. He is going up to, talking with, touching the men; and, as they
+see him, there goes up a mighty shout,--The Emperor! the Emperor! and
+from that hour the plague in its inroads is stopped. A marvellous
+example of the power of a man who, by his own dauntless courage,
+absolute fearlessness, and power of mind, could send out such forces
+that they in turn awakened kindred forces in the minds of thousands of
+others, which in turn dominate their very bodies, so that the plague,
+and even death itself, is driven from the field. One of the grandest
+examples of a man of the most mighty and tremendous mind and will power,
+and at the same time an example of one of the grandest failures, taking
+life in its totality, the world has ever seen.
+
+Again, as has been said, the great law operating in connection with the
+thought-forces is one with that great law of the universe,--that like
+attracts like. We can, by virtue of our ignorance of the powers of the
+mind forces and the prevailing mental states,--we can take the passive,
+the negative, fearing, drifting attitude, and thus continually attract
+to us like influences and conditions from both the seen and the unseen
+side of life. Or, by a knowledge of the power and potency of these
+forces, we can take the positive, the active attitude, that of mastery,
+and so attract the higher and more valuable influences, exactly as we
+will to.
+
+We are all much more influenced by the thought-forces and mental states
+of those around us and of the world at large than we have even the
+slightest conception of. If not self-hypnotized into certain beliefs and
+practices, we are, so to speak, semi-hypnotized through the influence of
+the thoughts of others, even though unconsciously both on their part and
+on ours. We are so influenced and enslaved in just the degree that we
+fail to recognize the power and omnipotence of our own forces, and so
+become slaves to custom, conventionality, the opinions of others, and so
+in like proportion lose our own individuality and powers. He who in his
+own mind takes the attitude of the slave, by the power of his own
+thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the slave. He
+who in his own mind takes the attitude of the master, by the same power
+of his own thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the
+master. Each is building his world from within, and, if outside forces
+play, it is because he allows them to play; and he has it in his own
+power to determine whether these shall be positive, uplifting,
+ennobling, strengthening, success-giving, or negative, degrading,
+weakening, failure-bringing.
+
+Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing more powerful, nothing more
+irresistible in its operations, when rightly applied and held to with a
+faith and fidelity that is unswerving,--a faith and fidelity that never
+knows the neutralizing effects of doubt and fear. If one have
+aspirations and a sincere desire for a higher and better condition, so
+far as advantages, facilities, associates, or any surroundings or
+environments are concerned, and if he continually send out his highest
+thought-forces for the realization of these desires, and continually
+water these forces with firm expectation as to their fulfilment, he will
+sooner or later find himself in the realization of these desires, and
+all in accordance with natural laws and forces.
+
+Fear brings its own fulfilment the same as hope. The same law operates,
+and if, as our good and valued friend, Job, said when the darkest days
+were setting in upon him,--that which I feared has come upon me,--was
+true, how much more surely could he have brought about the opposite
+conditions, those he would have desired, had he have had even the
+slightest realization of his own powers, and had he acted the part of
+the master instead of that of the servant, had he have dictated terms
+instead of being dictated to, and thus suffering the consequences.
+
+If one finds himself in any particular condition, in the midst of any
+surroundings or environments that are not desirable, that have
+nothing--at least for any length of time--that is of value to him, for
+his highest life and unfoldment, he has the remedy entirely within his
+own grasp the moment he realizes the power and supremacy of the forces
+of the mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently use these forces,
+he drifts. Unless through them he becomes master and dictates, he
+becomes the slave and is dictated to, and so is driven hither and
+thither.
+
+Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration for higher and better
+conditions or means to realize them, the thought-forces actively sent
+out for their realization, these continually watered by firm expectation
+without allowing the contrary, neutralizing force of fear ever to enter
+in,--this, accompanied by rightly directed work and activity, will
+bring about the fullest realization of one's highest desires and
+aspirations with a certainty as absolute as that effect follows cause.
+Each and every one of us can thus make for himself ever higher and
+higher conditions, can attract ever and ever higher influences, can
+realize an ever higher and higher ideal in life. These are the forces
+that are within us, simply waiting to be recognized and used,--the
+forces that we should infuse into and mould every-day life with. The
+moment we vitally recognize them, they become our servants and wait upon
+our bidding.
+
+Are you, for example, a young man or a young woman desiring a college, a
+university education, or have you certain literary or artistic instincts
+your soul longs the more fully to realize and actualize, and seems there
+no way open for you to realize the fulfilment of your desires? But the
+power is in your hands the moment you recognize it there. Begin at once
+to set the right forces into operation. Put forth your ideal, which will
+begin to clothe itself in material form, send out your thought-forces
+for its realization, continually hold and add to them, always strongly
+but always calmly, never allow the element of fear, which will keep the
+realization just so much farther away, to enter in; but, on the
+contrary, continually water with firm expectation all the forces thus
+set into operation. Do not then sit and idly fold the hands, expecting
+to see all things drop into the lap,--God feeds the sparrow, but he does
+not throw the food into its nest,--but take hold of the first thing that
+offers itself for you to do,--work in the fields, at the desk, saw wood,
+wash dishes, tend behind the counter, or whatever it may be,--be
+faithful to the thing in hand, always expecting something better, and
+know that this in hand is the thing that will open to you the next
+higher, and this the next and the next; and so realize that each thing
+thus taken hold of is but the agency that takes you each time a step
+nearer the realization of your fondest ideals. You then hold the key;
+and bolts that otherwise would remain immovable, by this mighty force,
+will be thrown before you.
+
+We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars, but to dominion and to
+plenty. This is our rightful heritage, if we will but recognize and lay
+claim to it. Many a man and many a woman is to-day longing for
+conditions better and higher than he or she is in, who might be using
+the same time now spent in vain, indefinite, spasmodic longings, in
+putting into operation forces which, accompanied by the right personal
+activity, would speedily bring the fullest realization of his or her
+fondest dreams. The great universe is filled with an abundance of all
+things, filled to overflowing. All there is, is in her, waiting only for
+the touch of the right forces to cast them forth. She is no respecter of
+persons outside of the fact that she always responds to the demands of
+the man or the woman who knows and uses the forces and powers he or she
+is endowed with. And to the demands of such she always opens her
+treasure-house, for the supply is always equal to the demand. All things
+are in the hands of him who knows they are there.
+
+Of all known forms of energy, thought is the most subtle, the most
+irresistible force. It has always been operating; but, so far as the
+great masses of the people are concerned, it has been operating blindly,
+or, rather, they have been blind to its mighty power, except in the
+cases of a few here and there. And these, as a consequence, have been
+our prophets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our men of great and
+mighty power. We are just beginning to grasp the tremendous truth that
+there is a _science of thought_, and that the laws governing it can be
+known and scientifically applied. The man who understands and who
+appropriates this fact has literally all things under his control.
+Heredity and its attendant circumstances and influences? you ask. Most
+surely. The barriers which heredity builds, the same as those
+environment erects, when the awakened interior forces are considered,
+are as mud walls standing within the range of a Krupp gun: shattered and
+crumbled they are when the tremendous force is applied.
+
+Thought needs direction to be effective, and upon this effective results
+depend as much as upon the force itself. This brings us to the will.
+Will is not as is so often thought, a force in itself; will is the
+directing power. Thought is the force. Will gives direction. Thought
+scattered gives the weak, the uncertain, the vacillating, the aspiring,
+but the never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the get-no-where, the
+attain-to-nothing man or woman. Thought steadily directed by the will,
+gives the strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the never-know-defeat
+man or woman, the man or woman who uses the very difficulties and
+hindrances that would dishearten the ordinary person, as stones with
+which he paves a way over which he triumphantly walks, who, by the very
+force he carries with him, so neutralizes and transmutes the very
+obstacles that would bar his way that they fall before him, and in turn
+aid him on his way; the man or woman who, like the eagle, uses the very
+contrary wind that would thwart his flight, that would turn him and
+carry him in the opposite direction, as the very agency upon which he
+mounts and mounts and mounts, until actually lost to the human eye, and
+which, in addition to thus aiding him, brings to him an ever fuller
+realization of his own powers, or in other words, an ever greater power.
+
+It is this that gives the man or the woman who in storm or in sunny
+weather, rides over every obstacle, throws before him every barrier,
+and, as Browning has said, finally "arrives." Take, for example, the
+successful business man,--for it is all one, the law is the same in all
+cases,--the man who started with nothing except his own interior
+equipments. He has made up his mind to _one_ thing,--success. This is
+his ideal. He thinks success, he sees success. He refuses to see
+anything else. He expects success: he thus attracts it to him, his
+thought-forces continually attract to him every agency that makes for
+success. He has set up the current, so that every wind that blows
+brings him success. He doesn't expect failure, and so he doesn't invite
+it. He has no time, no energies, to waste in fears or forebodings. He is
+dauntless, untiring, in his efforts. Let disaster come to-day, and
+to-morrow--ay, even yet to-day--he is getting his bearings, he is
+setting forces anew into operation; and these very forces are of more
+value to him than the half million dollars of his neighbor who has
+suffered from the same disaster. We speak of a man's failing in
+business, little thinking that the real failure came long before, and
+that the final crash is but the culmination, the outward visible
+manifestation, of the real failure that occurred within possibly long
+ago. _A man carries his success or his failure with him: it is not
+dependent upon outside conditions._
+
+Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilot
+which, after the vessel is started by the mighty force within, puts it
+on its right course and keeps it true to that course, the pilot under
+whose control the rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, even
+through storms and gales, to an exact spot in the Liverpool port within
+a few minutes of its scheduled time, and at times even upon the very
+minute. Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses the
+sun's rays that they quickly burn a hole through the paper that is held
+before it. The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus focused, would
+fall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is the
+means for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
+thought-forces. Thought under wise direction,--this it is that does the
+work, that brings results, that makes the successful career. One object
+in mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily held before the
+mind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from,--this,
+with persistence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power of
+thought, when thus directed by will.
+
+May not this power, then, be used for base as well as for good purposes,
+for selfish as well as for unselfish ends? The same with this
+modification,--the more highly thought is spiritualized, the more subtle
+and powerful it becomes; and the more highly spiritualized the life, the
+farther is it removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But, even if it
+can be thus used, let him who would so use it be careful, let him never
+forget that that mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe and that can
+never be annulled or even for a moment set aside, will drive him to the
+wall, will crush him with a terrific force if he so use it.
+
+Let him never forget that whatever he may get for self at the expense of
+some one else, through deception, through misrepresentation, through the
+exercise of the lower functions and powers, will by a law equally
+subtle, equally powerful, be turned into ashes in his very hands. The
+honey he thinks he has secured will be turned into bitterness as he
+attempts to eat it; the beautiful fruit he thinks is his will be as
+wormwood as he tries to enjoy it; the rose he has plucked will vanish,
+and he will find himself clutching a handful of thorns, which will
+penetrate to the very quick and which will flow the very life-blood from
+his hands. For through the violation of a higher, an immutable law,
+though he may get this or that, the power of true enjoyment will be
+taken away, and what he gets will become as a thorn in his side: either
+this or it will sooner or later escape from his hands. God's
+triumphal-car moves in a direction and at a rate that is certain and
+absolute, and he who would oppose it or go contrary to it must fall and
+be crushed beneath its wheels; and for him this crushing is necessary,
+in order that it may bring him the more quickly to a knowledge of the
+higher laws, to a realization of the higher self.
+
+This brings to our notice two orders of will, which we may term, for
+convenience' sake, the human and the divine. The human will is the one
+just noticed, the sense will, the will of the lower self, that which
+seeks its own ends regardless of its connection with the greater whole.
+The divine will is the will of the higher self, the god-self, that that
+never makes an error, that never leads into difficulties. How attain to
+its realization? How call it into a dominating activity? Through an
+awakening to and a living in the higher, the god-self, thus making it
+one with God's will, one with the will of infinite intelligence,
+infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite power; and when this is done,
+no mistakes can be made, any more than limits can be set.
+
+It is thus that the Infinite Power works through and for us--true
+inspiration--while our part is simply to see that our connection with
+this power is consciously and perfectly kept. And, when we come to a
+knowledge of the true nature, a knowledge of the true self, when we come
+to a conscious realization of the fact that we are one with, a part of,
+this spirit of infinite life, infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite
+power, and infinite plenty, do we not see that we lack for nothing, that
+all things _are_ ours? It is then ours to speak the word: desire induces
+and gives place to realization. If you are intelligence, if you are
+power, if you are that all-seeing, all-knowing, all-doing, all-loving,
+all-having, that eternal self, that eternal one without beginning and
+without end, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, then all things
+_are_ yours, and you lack for nothing; and, when you come consciously to
+know and to live this truth, then the whole of life for you is summed up
+in the one word _realization_. The striving, the pulling, the running
+hither and thither to accomplish this or that, that takes place on all
+planes of life below this highest plane, gives place to this
+_realization_; and you and your desire become one.
+
+And what does this mean? Simply this: that you have found and have
+literally entered into the kingdom of heaven, and heaven means harmony,
+so that you have entered into the kingdom of harmony,--harmony or
+oneness with the Infinite Life, the Infinite God. And do we not, then,
+clearly see the rational and scientific basis for the injunction--seek
+ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall be
+added unto you? Than this there is nothing in all the wide universe more
+scientific, nothing more practical; and in the light of this can we not
+also see how readily follows the injunction--Take ye no thought for the
+things of the morrow, for the things of the morrow will take care of
+themselves? This realization gives you that care-less attitude, free
+from care. The Infinite Power does the work for you, and you are
+relieved of the responsibility. Your responsibility lies in keeping
+yourself in a faithful and a never-failing connection with this Infinite
+Source. Why, I know a few lives that have come into such a conscious
+oneness with the Infinite Life, and who so continually live in its
+realization, that all things that have just been said are _absolutely_
+true in their cases. The solution of all things they thus put into the
+law, so that, when the time comes, the difficulty is solved, the course
+is clear, the way is opened, or the means are at hand. When one knows
+whereof he speaks, of this he can speak with authority.
+
+When this realization comes, fear goes, hope attends, faith
+dominates,--the faith of to-day which gives place to the realization of
+to-morrow. We then have nothing to do with the past, nothing to do with
+the future; for the whole of life is determined by the ever-present
+to-day. As my life to-day has been determined by the way I lived my
+yesterday, so my to-morrow is being determined by the way I live my
+to-day. Let me then live in this _eternal now_, and realize that I am at
+this very moment living the eternal life as much as I ever shall or can
+live it. I will then waste no time with the past, except perhaps
+occasionally to give thanks that its then seeming trials, sorrows,
+errors, and stumblings have brought me all the sooner into harmony with
+the laws of the higher life. Let me waste no time with the future, no
+time in idle dreaming, neither in fears nor forebodings, thus inviting
+and opening the door for the entrance of their actualizations; but
+rather let me, by the thoughts and so by the deeds of to-day, make the
+future exactly what I will.
+
+Every act is preceded and given birth to by a thought, the act repeated
+forms the habit, the habit determines the character, and character
+determines the life, the destiny,--a most significant, a most tremendous
+truth: thought on the one hand, life, destiny, on the other. And how
+simplified, when we realize that it is merely the thought of the present
+hour, and the next when it comes, and the next, and the next! so life,
+destiny, on the one hand, the thoughts of the present hour, on the
+other. This is the secret of character-building. How wonderfully simple,
+though what vigilance it demands!
+
+What, shall we ask, is the place, what the value, of prayer? Prayer, as
+every act of devotion, brings us into an ever greater conscious harmony
+with the Infinite, the one pearl of great price; for it is this harmony
+which brings all other things. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, and
+thus is its own answer, as the sincere desire made active and
+accompanied by faith sooner or later gives place to realization; _for
+faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itself
+whatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects_. This
+is absolute, and the results will be absolute in exact proportion as
+this operation of the thought forces, as this faith is absolute, and
+relative in exact proportion as it is relative. The Master said, What
+things soever ye desire, when ye pray, _believe_ that ye receive them
+and ye shall have them. Can any law be more clearly enunciated, can
+anything be more definite and more absolute than this? According to thy
+faith be it unto thee. Do we at times fail in obtaining the results we
+desire? The fault, the failure, lies not in the law but in ourselves.
+Regarded in its right and true light, than prayer there is nothing more
+scientific, nothing more valuable, nothing more effective.
+
+This conscious realization of oneness with the Infinite Life is of all
+things the one thing to be desired; for, when this oneness is realized
+and lived in, all other things follow in its train, there are no desires
+that shall not be realized, for God has planted in the human breast no
+desire without its corresponding means of realization. No harm can come
+nigh, nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to fear; for we shall
+thus attract only the good. And whatever changes time may bring,
+understanding the law, we shall always expect something better, and thus
+set into operation the forces that will attract that something,
+realizing that many times angels go out that arch-angels may enter in;
+and this is always true in the case of the life of this higher
+realization. And why should we have any fear whatever,--fear even for
+the nation, as is many times expressed? God is behind His world, in
+love and with infinite care and watchfulness working out his great and
+almighty plans; and whatever plans men may devise, He will when the time
+is ripe either frustrate and shatter, or aid and push through to their
+most perfect culmination,--frustrate and shatter if contrary to, aid and
+actualize if in harmony with His.
+
+It will readily be seen what a power the life that is fully awake, that
+fully grasps and uses the great forces of its own interior self, can be
+in the service of mankind. One with these forces highly spiritualized
+will not have to go here and there to do the greatest service for
+mankind. Such a one can sit in his cabin, in his tent, in his own home,
+or, as he goes here and there, he can continually send out influences of
+the most potent and powerful nature,--influences that will have their
+effect, that will do their work, and that will reach to the uttermost
+parts of the world. Than this there can be no more valuable, more vital
+service, nor one of a higher nature.
+
+These facts, the facts relating to the powers that come with the higher
+awakening, have been dealt with somewhat fully, to show that the matters
+along the lines of man's interior, intuitive, spiritual, thought, soul
+life, instead of being, as they are so many times regarded, merely
+indefinite, sentimental, or impractical, are, on the contrary,
+powerfully, omnipotently real, and are of all practical things in the
+world the most practical, and, in the truest and deepest sense, the only
+truly practical things there are. And pre-eminently is this true when we
+look with a long range of vision, past the mere to-day, to the final
+outcome, to the time when that transition we are accustomed to call
+death takes place, and all accumulations and possessions material are
+left behind, and the soul takes with it only the unfoldment and growth
+of the real life; and unless it has this, when all else must be left
+behind, it goes out poor indeed. And a most wonderful and beautiful fact
+of it all is this: that all growth, all advancement, all attainment made
+along the lines of the spiritual, the soul, the real life, is so much
+made forever, and can never be lost. Hence the great fact in the
+admonition, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
+doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for
+yourselves treasures in heaven,--the interior, spiritual kingdom,--where
+neither moth doth corrupt nor where thieves break through and steal.
+
+What then, again let us ask, is love to God? It is far more, we have
+found, than a mere sentimental abstraction. It is this awakening to the
+higher, the god-self, a coming into the conscious realization of the
+fact that your life is one with, is a part of, the Infinite Life, the
+full realization of the fact that you are a spiritual being here and
+now, at this very moment, and a living as such. It is being true to the
+light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and so a
+finding of the Christ within; a realization of the fact that God is the
+life of your life, and so not afar off; a realization of a oneness so
+perfect that you are able to say, as did His other son, "I and my Father
+are one"--the ultimate destiny of each human soul, each of the Father's
+children, for all, no matter what differences man may see, are equal in
+His sight; and He created not one in vain. So love to God in its true
+expression is not a mere sentimentality, a mere abstraction: it is life,
+it is growth, it is spiritual awakening and unfoldment, it is
+realization. Again, it is life: it is the more abundant life.
+
+Then recognize this fact, and so fill your life with an intense, a
+passionate love for God. Then take this life, so rich, so abundant, and
+so powerful, and lose it in the love and service of your fellow-men, the
+Father's other children. Fill it with an intense, a passionate love for
+service; and when this shall have been done, your life is in complete
+harmony with all the law and the prophets, in complete harmony with the
+two great and determining facts of human life and destiny,--love to God
+and love to one's fellow-men,--the two eternal principles upon which the
+great universal religion, which is slowly and gradually evolving out an
+almost endless variety and form, is to rest. Do this, and feel once for
+all the power and the thrill of the life universal. Do this, and find
+yourself coming into the full realization of such splendors and beauties
+as all the royal courts of this world combined have never been able even
+to dream of.
+
+When the step from the personal to the impersonal, from the personal,
+the individual, to the universal, is once made, the great solution of
+life has come; and by this same step one enters at once into the realm
+of all power. When this is done, and one fully realizes the fact that
+the greatest life is the life spent in the service of all mankind, and
+then when he vitally grasps that great eternal principle of right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe, and which, though
+temporarily it may seem to be perverted, always and with never an
+exception eventually prevails, and that with an omnipotent power,--he
+then holds the key to all situations.
+
+A king of this nature goes about his work absolutely regardless of what
+men may say or hear or think or do; for he himself has absolutely
+nothing to gain or nothing to lose, and nothing of this nature can come
+near him or touch him, for he is standing not in the personal, but in
+the universal. He is then in God's work, and the very God-powers are
+his, and it seems as if the very angels of heaven come to minister unto
+him and to move things his way; and this is true, very true, for he
+himself is simply moving God's way, and when this is so, the certainty
+of the outcome is absolute.
+
+How often did the Master say, "I seek not to do mine own will, but the
+will of the Father who sent me"! Here is the world's great example of
+the life out of the personal and in the universal, hence his great
+power. The same has been true of all the saviors, the prophets, the
+seers, the sages, and the leaders in the world's history, of all of
+truly great and lasting power.
+
+He who would then come into the secret of power must come from the
+personal into the universal, and with this comes not only great power,
+but also freedom from the vexations and perplexities that rise from the
+misconstruing of motives, the opinions of others; for such a one cares
+nothing as to what men may say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as he
+is true to the great principles of right and truth before him. And, if
+we will search carefully, we shall find that practically all the
+perplexities and difficulties of life have their origin on the side of
+the personal.
+
+Much is said to young men to-day about success in life,--success
+generally though, as the world calls success. It is well, however,
+always to bear in mind the fact that there is a success which is a
+miserable, a deplorable failure; while, on the other hand, there is a
+failure which is a grand, a noble, a God-like success. And one crying
+need of the age is that young men be taught the true dignity, nobility,
+and power of such a failure,--such a failure in the eyes of the world
+to-day, but such a success in the eyes of God and the coming ages. When
+this is done, there will be among us more prophets, more saviors, more
+men of grand and noble stature, who with a firm and steady hand will
+hold the lighted torch of true advancement high up among the people; and
+they will be those whom the people will gladly follow, for they will be
+those who will speak and move with authority, true sons of God, true
+brothers of men. A man may make his millions and his life be a failure
+still.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The promise was given that our conversation should not be extended; and
+unless we conclude it now, the promise will not be kept. Our aim at the
+outset, you will remember, was to find answer to the question--How can I
+make life yield its fullest and best? how can I know the true secret of
+power? how can I attain to true greatness? how can I fill the whole of
+life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satisfaction, that is ever rich
+and abiding, that ever increases, never diminishes?
+
+Two great laws come forward: the one, that we find our own lives in
+losing them in the service of others,--love to the fellow-man; the
+other, that all life is one with, is part of, the Infinite Life, that we
+are not material, but spiritual beings,--spiritual beings here and now,
+and a living as such, which brings us in turn to a realization of the
+higher, the god-self, thus bringing us into the realm of all peace, all
+power, and all plenty,--this is love to God.
+
+And I wonder now if we have found the answer true and satisfactory. We
+have sat at the feet of the Master Teacher, and he has told us that we
+have. We have found that through them, and through them alone, _true_
+greatness, power, and success can come; that through them comes the
+richest joy, the greatest peace and satisfaction this world can know. We
+have also found that, if one's desire is to make life narrow, pinched,
+and of little value, to rob it of its chief charms, the only requirement
+necessary is to become self-centred, to live continually with the
+little, stunted self, which will inevitably grow more and more
+diminutive and shrivelled as time passes, instead of reaching out and
+having a part in the great life of humanity, thus illimitably
+intensifying and multiplying his own. For each act of humble service is
+that divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the spring
+whereby he leaps to ever greater heights. We have found that a
+recognition of these two laws enables one to grow and develop the
+fullest and richest life here, and that they are the two gates whereby
+all who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.
+
+Around this great and sweet-incensed altar of love, service, and
+self-devotion to God and the fellow-man, can and do all mankind bow and
+worship. To it can all religions and creeds subscribe: it is the
+universal religion.
+
+Then become at one with God, as did His other son, through the awakening
+to the real self and by living continually in this the higher, the
+god-self. Become at one with humanity, as did His other son, by bringing
+your life into harmony with this great, immutable law of love and
+service and self-devotion, and so feel once for all the power and the
+thrill of the life universal.
+
+Yours will then be a life the greatest, the grandest, the most joyous
+this world can know; for you will indeed be living the Christ-life, the
+life that is beyond compare, the life to which all the world stretches
+out its eager palms, and innumerable companies will rise up and call you
+blessed, and give thanks that such a life is the rich heritage of the
+world. The song continually arising from your lips will then be, There
+is joy, only joy; for we are all one with the Infinite Life, all parts
+of the one great whole, and the Spirit of Infinite Goodness and Love is
+ever ruling over all.
+
+
+
+
+PART VI.
+
+CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER
+
+
+     _A thought,--good or evil,--an act, in time a habit,--so runs
+     life's law: what you live in your thought-world, that, sooner or
+     later, you will find objectified in your life._
+
+
+Unconsciously we are forming habits every moment of our lives. Some are
+habits of a desirable nature; some are those of a most undesirable
+nature. Some, though not so bad in themselves, are exceedingly bad in
+their cumulative effects, and cause us at times much loss, much pain and
+anguish, while their opposites would, on the contrary, bring us much
+peace and joy, as well as a continually increasing power.
+
+Have we it within our power to determine at all times what types of
+habits shall take form in our lives? In other words, is habit-forming,
+character-building, a matter of mere chance, or have we it within our
+own control? We have, entirely and absolutely. "I will be what I will to
+be," can be said and should be said by every human soul.
+
+After this has been bravely and determinedly said, and not only said,
+but fully inwardly realized, something yet remains. Something remains
+to be said regarding the great law underlying habit-forming,
+character-building; for there is a simple, natural, and thoroughly
+scientific method that all should know. A method whereby old,
+undesirable, earth-binding habits can be broken, and new, desirable,
+heaven-lifting habits can be acquired,--a method whereby life in part or
+in its totality can be changed, provided one is sufficiently in earnest
+to know, and, knowing it, to apply the law.
+
+Thought is the force underlying all. And what do we mean by this? Simply
+this: Your every act--every conscious act--is preceded by a thought.
+Your dominating thoughts determine your dominating actions. The acts
+repeated crystallize themselves into the habit. The aggregate of your
+habits is your character. Whatever, then, you would have your acts, you
+must look well to the character of the thought you entertain. Whatever
+act you would not do,--habit you would not acquire,--you must look well
+to it that you do not entertain the type of thought that will give birth
+to this act, this habit.
+
+It is a simple psychological law that any type of thought, if
+entertained for a sufficient length of time, will, by and by, reach the
+motor tracks of the brain, and finally burst forth into action. Murder
+can be and many times is committed in this way, the same as all
+undesirable things are done. On the other hand, the greatest powers are
+grown, the most God-like characteristics are engendered, the most heroic
+acts are performed in the same way.
+
+The thing clearly to understand is this: That the thought is always
+parent to the act. Now, we have it entirely in our own hands to
+determine exactly what thoughts we entertain. In the realm of our own
+minds we have absolute control, or we should have, and if at any time we
+have not, then there is a method by which we can gain control, and in
+the realm of the mind become thorough masters. In order to get to the
+very foundation of the matter, let us look to this for a moment. For if
+thought is always parent to our acts, habits, character, life, then it
+is first necessary that we know fully how to control our thoughts.
+
+Here let us refer to that law of the mind which is the same as is the
+law in connection with the reflex nerve system of the body, the law
+which says that whenever one does a certain thing in a certain way it is
+easier to do the same thing in the same way the next time, and still
+easier the next, and the next, and the next, until in time it comes to
+pass that no effort is required, or no effort worth speaking of; but on
+the contrary, to do the opposite would require the effort. The mind
+carries with it the power that perpetuates its own type of thought, the
+same as the body carries with it through the reflex nerve system the
+power which perpetuates and makes continually easier its own particular
+acts. Thus a simple effort to control one's thoughts, a simple setting
+about it, even if at first failure is the result, and even if for a time
+failure seems to be about the only result, will in time, sooner or
+later, bring him to the point of easy, full, and complete control.
+
+Each one, then, can grow the power of determining, controlling his
+thought, the power of determining what types of thought he shall and
+what types he shall not entertain. For let us never part in mind with
+this fact, that every earnest _effort_ along any line makes the end
+aimed at just a little easier for each succeeding effort, even if, as
+has been said, apparent failure is the result of the earlier efforts.
+This is a case where even failure is success, for the failure is not in
+the effort, and every earnest effort adds an increment of power that
+will eventually accomplish the end aimed at. We _can_, then, gain the
+full and complete power of determining what character, what type of
+thoughts we entertain.
+
+Shall we now give attention to some two or three concrete cases? Here
+is a man, the cashier of a large mercantile establishment, or cashier of
+a bank. In his morning paper he reads of a man who has become suddenly
+rich, has made a fortune of half a million or a million dollars in a few
+hours through speculation on the stock market. Perhaps he has seen an
+account of another man who has done practically the same thing lately.
+He is not quite wise enough, however, to comprehend the fact that when
+he reads of one or two cases of this kind he could find, were he to look
+into the matter carefully, one or two hundred cases of men who have lost
+all they had in the same way. He thinks, however, that he will be one of
+the fortunate ones. He does not fully realize that there are no short
+cuts to wealth honestly made. He takes a part of his savings, and as is
+true in practically all cases of this kind, he loses all that he has put
+in. Thinking now that he sees why he lost, and that had he more money he
+would be able to get back what he has lost, and perhaps make a handsome
+sum in addition, and make it quickly, the thought comes to him to use
+some of the funds he has charge of. In nine cases out of ten, if not in
+ten cases in every ten, the results that inevitably follow this are
+known sufficiently well to make it unnecessary to follow him farther.
+Where is the man's safety in the light of what we have been considering?
+Simply this: the moment the thought of using for his own purpose funds
+belonging to others enters his mind, if he is wise he will _instantly_
+put the thought from his mind. If he is a fool he will entertain it. In
+the degree in which he entertains it, it will grow upon him; it will
+become the absorbing thought in his mind; it will finally become master
+of his will power, and through rapidly succeeding steps, dishonor,
+shame, degradation, penitentiary, remorse will be his. It is easy for
+him to put the thought from his mind when it first enters; but as he
+entertains it, it grows into such proportions that it becomes more and
+more difficult for him to put it from his mind; and by and by it becomes
+practically _impossible_ for him to do it. The light of the match, which
+but a little effort of the breath would have extinguished at first, has
+imparted a flame that is raging through the entire building, and now it
+is almost, if not quite impossible to conquer it.
+
+Shall we notice another concrete case? a trite case, perhaps, but one in
+which we can see how habit is formed, and also how the same habit can be
+unformed. Here is a young man, he may be the son of poor parents, or he
+may be the son of rich parents; one in the ordinary ranks of life, or
+one of high social standing, whatever that means. He is good-hearted,
+one of good impulses, generally speaking,--a good fellow. He is out with
+some companions, companions of the same general type. They are out for a
+pleasant evening, out for a good time. They are apt at times to be
+thoughtless, even careless. The suggestion is made by one of the
+company, not that they get drunk, no, not at all; but merely that they
+go and have something to drink together. The young man whom we first
+mentioned, wanting to be genial, scarcely listens to the suggestion that
+comes to his inner consciousness--that it will be better for him not to
+fall in with the others in this. He does not stop long enough to realize
+the fact that the greatest strength and nobility of character lies
+always in taking a firm stand on the side of the right, and allow
+himself to be influenced by nothing that will weaken this stand. He
+goes, therefore, with his companions to the drinking place. With the
+same or with other companions this is repeated now and then; and each
+time it is repeated his power of saying "No" is gradually decreasing. In
+this way he has grown a little liking for intoxicants, and takes them
+perhaps now and then by himself. He does not dream, or in the slightest
+degree realize, what way he is tending, until there comes a day when he
+wakens to the consciousness of the fact that he hasn't the power nor
+even the impulse to resist the taste which has gradually grown into a
+minor form of craving for intoxicants. Thinking, however, that he will
+be able to stop when he is really in danger of getting into the drink
+habit, he goes thoughtlessly and carelessly on. We will pass over the
+various intervening steps and come to the time when we find him a
+confirmed drunkard. It is simply the same old story told a thousand or
+even a million times over.
+
+He finally awakens to his true condition; and through the shame, the
+anguish, the degradation, and the want that comes upon him he longs for
+a return of the days when he was a free man. But hope has almost gone
+from his life. It would have been easier for him never to have begun,
+and easier for him to have stopped before he reached his present
+condition, but even in his present condition, be it the lowest and the
+most helpless and hopeless that can be imagined, he has the power to get
+out of it and be a free man once again. Let us see. The desire for drink
+comes upon him again. If he entertain the thought, the desire, he is
+lost again. His only hope, his only means of escape is this: the moment,
+aye, _the very instant_ the thought comes to him, if he will put it out
+of his mind he will thereby put out the little flame of the match. If he
+entertain the thought the little flame will communicate itself until
+almost before he is aware of it a consuming fire is raging, and then
+effort is almost useless. The thought must be banished from the mind the
+instant it enters; dalliance with it means failure and defeat, or a
+fight that will be indescribably fiercer than it would be if the thought
+is ejected at the beginning.
+
+And here we must say a word regarding a certain great law that we may
+call the "law of indirectness." A thought can be put out of the mind
+easier and more successfully, not by dwelling upon it, not by attempting
+to put it out _directly_, but by throwing the mind on to some other
+object, by putting some other object of thought into the mind. This may
+be, for example, the ideal of full and perfect self-mastery, or it may
+be something of a nature entirely distinct from the thought which
+presents itself, something to which the mind goes easily and naturally.
+This will in time become the absorbing thought in the mind, and the
+danger is past. This same course of action repeated, will gradually
+grow the power of putting more readily out of mind the thought of drink
+as it presents itself, and will gradually grow the power of putting into
+the mind those objects of thought one most desires. The result will be
+that as time passes the thought of drink will present itself less and
+less, and when it does present itself it can be put out of the mind more
+easily each succeeding time, until the time comes when it can be put out
+without difficulty, and eventually the time will come when the thought
+will enter the mind no more at all.
+
+Still another case. You may be more or less of an irritable
+nature--naturally, perhaps, provoked easily to anger. Some one says
+something or does something that you dislike, and your first impulse is
+to show resentment and possibly to give way to anger. In the degree that
+you allow this resentment to display itself, that you allow yourself to
+give way to anger, in that degree will it become easier to do the same
+thing when any cause, even a very slight cause, presents itself. It
+will, moreover, become continually harder for you to refrain from it,
+until resentment, anger, and possibly even hatred and revenge become
+characteristics of your nature, robbing it of its sunniness, its charm,
+and its brightness for all with whom you come in contact. If, however,
+the instant the impulse to resentment and anger arises, you check it
+_then and there_, and throw the mind on to some other object of thought,
+the power will gradually grow itself of doing this same thing more
+readily, more easily, as succeeding like causes present themselves,
+until by and by the time will come when there will be scarcely anything
+that can irritate you, and nothing that can impel you to anger; until by
+and by a matchless brightness and charm of nature and disposition will
+become habitually yours, a brightness and charm you would scarcely think
+possible to-day. And so we might take up case after case, characteristic
+after characteristic, habit after habit. The habit of fault-finding and
+its opposite are grown in identically the same way; the characteristic
+of jealousy and its opposite; the characteristic of fear and its
+opposite. In this same way we grow either love or hatred; in this way we
+come to take a gloomy, pessimistic view of life, which objectifies
+itself in a nature, a disposition of this type, or we grow that sunny,
+hopeful, cheerful, buoyant nature that brings with it so much joy and
+beauty and power for ourselves, as well as so much hope and inspiration
+and joy for all the world.
+
+There is nothing more true in connection with human life than that we
+grow into the likeness of those things we contemplate. Literally and
+scientifically and necessarily true is it that, "as a man thinketh in
+his heart, so _is_ he." The "is" part is his character. His character is
+the sum total of his habits. His habits have been formed by his
+conscious acts; but every conscious act is, as we have found, preceded
+by a thought. And so we have it--thought on the one hand, character,
+life, destiny on the other. And simple it becomes when we bear in mind
+that it is simply the thought of the present moment, and the next moment
+when it is upon us, and then the next, and so on through all time.
+
+One can in this way attain to whatever ideals he would attain to. Two
+steps are necessary: first, as the days pass, to form one's ideals; and
+second, to follow them continually whatever may arise, wherever they may
+lead him. Always remember that the great and strong character is the one
+who is ever ready to sacrifice the present pleasure for the future good.
+He who will thus follow his highest ideals as they present themselves to
+him day after day, year after year, will find that as Dante, following
+his beloved from world to world, finally found her at the gates of
+Paradise, so he will find himself eventually at the same gates. Life is
+not, we may say, for mere passing pleasure, but for the highest
+unfoldment that one can attain to, the noblest character that one can
+grow, and for the greatest service that one can render to all mankind.
+In this, however, we will find the highest pleasure, for in this the
+only real pleasure lies. He who would find it by any short cuts, or by
+entering upon any other paths, will inevitably find that his last state
+is always worse than his first; and if he proceed upon paths other than
+these he will find that he will never find real and lasting pleasure at
+all. The question is not, What are the conditions in our lives? but, How
+do we meet the conditions that we find there? And whatever the
+conditions are, it is unwise and profitless to look upon them, even if
+they are conditions that we would have otherwise, in the attitude of
+complaint, for complaint will bring depression, and depression will
+weaken and possibly even kill the spirit that would engender the power
+that would enable us to bring into our lives an entirely new set of
+conditions.
+
+In order to be concrete, even at the risk of being personal, I will say
+that in my own experience there have come at various times into my life
+circumstances and conditions that I gladly would have run from at the
+time--conditions that caused at the time humiliation and shame and
+anguish of spirit. But invariably, as sufficient time has passed, I have
+been able to look back and see clearly the part which every experience
+of the type just mentioned had to play in my life. I have seen the
+lessons it was essential for me to learn; and the result is that now I
+would not drop a single one of these experiences from my life,
+humiliating and hard to bear as they were at the time; no, not for the
+world. And here is also a lesson I have learned: whatever conditions are
+in my life to-day that are not the easiest and most agreeable, and
+whatever conditions of this type all coming time may bring, I will take
+them just as they come, without complaint, without depression, and meet
+them in the wisest possible way; knowing that they are the best possible
+conditions that could be in my life at the time, or otherwise they would
+not be there; realizing the fact that, although I may not at the time
+see why they are in my life, although I may not see just what part they
+have to play, the time will come, and when it comes I will see it all,
+and thank God for every condition just as it came.
+
+Each one is so apt to think that his own conditions, his own trials or
+troubles or sorrows, or his own struggles, as the case may be, are
+greater than those of the great mass of mankind, or possibly greater
+than those of anyone else in the world. He forgets that each one has his
+own peculiar trials or troubles or borrows to bear, or struggles in
+habits to overcome, and that his is but the common lot of all the human
+race. We are apt to make the mistake in this--in that we see and feel
+keenly our own trials, or adverse conditions, or characteristics to be
+overcome, while those of others we do not see so clearly, and hence we
+are apt to think that they are not at all equal to our own. Each has his
+own problems to work out. Each must work out his own problems. Each must
+grow the insight that will enable him to see what the causes are that
+have brought the unfavorable conditions into his life; each must grow
+the strength that will enable him to face these conditions, and to set
+into operation forces that will bring about a different set of
+conditions. We may be of aid to one another by way of suggestion, by way
+of bringing to one another a knowledge of certain higher laws and
+forces,--laws and forces that will make it easier to do that which we
+would do. The doing, however, must be done by each one for himself.
+
+And so the way to get out of any conditions we have gotten into, either
+knowingly or inadvertently, either intentionally or unintentionally, is
+to take time to look the conditions squarely in the face, and to find
+the law whereby they have come about. And when we have discovered the
+law, the thing to do is not to rebel against it, not to resist it, but
+to go with it by working in harmony with it. If we work in harmony with
+it, it will work for our highest good, and will take us wheresoever we
+desire. If we oppose it, if we resist it, if we fail to work in harmony
+with it, it will eventually break us to pieces. The law is immutable in
+its workings. Go with it, and it brings all things our way; resist it,
+and it brings suffering, pain, loss, and desolation.
+
+But a few days ago I was talking with a lady, a most estimable lady
+living on a little New England farm of some five or six acres. Her
+husband died a few years ago, a good-hearted, industrious man, but one
+who spent practically all of his earnings in drink. When he died the
+little farm was unpaid for, and the wife found herself without any
+visible means of support, with a family of several to care for. Instead
+of being discouraged with what many would have called her hard lot,
+instead of rebelling against the circumstances in which she found
+herself, she faced the matter bravely, firmly believing that there were
+ways by which she could manage, though she could not see them clearly at
+the time. She took up her burden where she found it, and went bravely
+forward. For several years she has been taking care of summer boarders
+who come to that part of the country, getting up regularly, she told me,
+at from half-past three to four o'clock in the morning, and working
+until ten o'clock each night. In the winter-time, when this means of
+revenue is cut off, she has gone out to do nursing in the country round
+about. In this way the little farm is now almost paid for; her children
+have been kept in school, and they are now able to aid her to a greater
+or less extent. Through it all she has entertained no fears nor
+forebodings; she has shown no rebellion of any kind. She has not kicked
+against the circumstances which brought about the conditions in which
+she found herself, but she has put herself into harmony with the law
+that would bring her into another set of conditions. And through it all,
+she told me, she had been continually grateful that she has been able to
+work, and that whatever her own circumstances have been, she has never
+yet failed to find some one whose circumstances were still a little
+worse than hers, and for whom it was not possible for her to render some
+little service.
+
+Most heartily she appreciates the fact, and most grateful is she for it,
+that the little home is now almost paid for, and soon no more of her
+earnings will have to go out in that channel. The dear little home, she
+said, would be all the more precious to her by virtue of the fact that
+it was finally hers through her own efforts. The strength and nobility
+of character that have come to her during these years, the sweetness of
+disposition, the sympathy and care for others, her faith in the final
+triumph of all that is honest and true and pure and good, are qualities
+that thousands and hundreds of thousands of women, yes, of both men and
+women, who are apparently in better circumstances in life can justly
+envy. And should the little farm home be taken away to-morrow, she has
+gained something that a farm of a thousand acres could not buy. By going
+about her work in the way she has gone about it the burden of it all has
+been lightened, and her work has been made truly enjoyable.
+
+Let us take a moment to see how these same conditions would have been
+met by a person of less wisdom, one not so far-sighted as this dear,
+good woman has been. For a time possibly her spirit would have been
+crushed. Fears and forebodings of all kinds would probably have taken
+hold of her, and she would have felt that nothing that she could do
+would be of any avail. Or, she might have rebelled against the agencies,
+against the law which brought about the conditions in which she found
+herself, and she might have become embittered against the world, and
+gradually also against the various people with whom she came in contact.
+Or again, she might have thought that her efforts would be unable to
+meet the circumstances, and that it was the duty of some one to lift her
+out of her difficulties. In this way no progress at all would have been
+made towards the accomplishment of the desired results, and continually
+she would have felt more keenly the circumstances in which she found
+herself, because there was nothing else to occupy her mind. In this way
+the little farm would not have become hers, she would not have been able
+to do anything for others, and her nature would have become embittered
+against everything and everybody.
+
+True it is, then, not, What are the conditions in one's life? but, How
+does he meet the conditions that he finds there? This will determine
+all. And if at any time we are apt to think that our own lot is about
+the hardest there is, and if we are able at any time to persuade
+ourselves that we can find no one whose lot is just a little harder than
+ours, let us then study for a little while the character Pompilia, in
+Browning's poem,[D] and after studying it, thank God that the conditions
+in our life are so favorable; and then set about with a trusting and
+intrepid spirit to actualize the conditions that we most desire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of all
+success or failure, of all that is desirable or undesirable in human
+life. The type of thought we entertain both creates and draws conditions
+that crystallize about it, conditions exactly the same in nature as is
+the thought that gives them form. Thoughts are forces, and each creates
+of its kind, whether we realize it or not. The great law of the drawing
+power of the mind, which says that like creates like, and that like
+attracts like, is continually working in every human life, for it is one
+of the great immutable laws of the universe. For one to take time to see
+clearly the things he would attain to, and then to hold that ideal
+steadily and continually before his mind, never allowing faith--his
+positive thought-forces--to give way to or to be neutralized by doubts
+and fears, and then to set about doing each day what his hands find to
+do, never complaining, but spending the time that he would otherwise
+spend in complaint in focusing his thought-forces upon the ideal that
+his mind has built, will sooner or later bring about the full
+materialization of that for which he sets out.
+
+There are those who, when they begin to grasp the fact that there is
+what we may term a "science of thought," who, when they begin to realize
+that through the instrumentality of our interior, spiritual
+thought-forces we have the power of gradually moulding the every-day
+conditions of life as we would have them, in their early enthusiasm are
+not able to see results as quickly as they expect, and are apt to think,
+therefore, that after all there is not very much in that which has but
+newly come to their knowledge. They must remember, however, that in
+endeavoring to overcome an old or to grow a new habit, everything cannot
+be done _all at once_.
+
+In the degree that we attempt to use the thought-forces do we
+continually become able to use them more effectively. Progress is slow
+at first, more rapid as we proceed. Power grows by using, or, in other
+words, using brings a continually increasing power. This is governed by
+law the same as are all things in our lives, and all things in the
+universe about us. Every act and advancement made by the musician is in
+full accordance with law. No one commencing the study of music can, for
+example, sit down to the piano and play the piece of a master at the
+first effort. He must not conclude, however, nor does he conclude, that
+the piece of the master _cannot be_ played by him, or, for that matter,
+by any one. He begins to practise the piece. The law of the mind that we
+have already noticed comes to his aid, whereby his mind follows the
+music more readily, more rapidly, and more surely each succeeding time,
+and there also comes into operation and to his aid the law underlying
+the action of the reflex nerve system of the body, which we have also
+noticed, whereby his fingers coordinate their movements with the
+movements of his mind, more readily, more rapidly, and more accurately
+each succeeding time; until by and by the time comes when that which he
+stumbles through at first, that in which there is no harmony, nothing
+but discord, finally reveals itself as the music of the master, the
+music that thrills and moves masses of men and women. So it is in the
+use of the thought-forces. It is the reiteration, the constant
+reiteration of the thought that grows the power of continually stronger
+thought-focusing, and that finally brings manifestation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All life is from within out. This is something that cannot be reiterated
+too often. The springs of life are all from within. This being true, it
+would be well for us to give more time to the inner life than we are
+accustomed to give to it, especially in this Western world.
+
+There is nothing that will bring us such abundant returns as to take a
+little time in the quiet each day of our lives. We need this to get the
+kinks out of our minds and hence out of our lives. We need this to form
+better the higher ideals of life. We need this in order to see clearly
+in mind the things upon which we would concentrate and focus the
+thought-forces. We need this in order to make continually anew and to
+keep our conscious connection with the Infinite. We need this in order
+that the rush and hurry of our every-day life does not keep us away from
+the conscious realization of the fact that the spirit of Infinite life
+and power that is back of all, working in and through all, the life of
+all, is the life of our life, and the source of our power; and that
+outside of this we have no life and we have no power. To realize this
+fact fully, and to live in it consciously at all times, is to find the
+kingdom of God, which is essentially an inner kingdom, and can never be
+anything else. The kingdom of heaven is to be found only within, and
+this is done once for all, and in a manner in which it cannot otherwise
+be done, when we come into the conscious, living realization of the fact
+that in our real selves we are essentially one with the Divine life, and
+open ourselves continually so that this Divine life can speak to and
+manifest through us. In this way we come into the condition where we are
+continually walking with God. In this way the consciousness of God
+becomes a living reality in our lives; and in the degree in which it
+becomes a reality does it bring us into the realization of continually
+increasing wisdom, insight, and power. _This consciousness of God in the
+soul of man is the essence, indeed the sum and substance of all
+religion._ This identifies religion with every act and every moment of
+every-day life. That which does not identify itself with every moment of
+every day and with every act of life is religion in name only and not in
+reality. This consciousness of God in the soul of man is the one thing
+uniformly taught by all the prophets, by all the inspired ones, by all
+the seers and mystics in the world's history, whatever the time,
+wherever the country, whatever the religion, whatever minor differences
+we may find in their lives and teachings. In regard to this they all
+agree; indeed, this is the essence of their teaching, as it has also
+been the secret of their power and the secret of their lasting
+influence.
+
+It is the attitude of the child that is necessary before we can enter
+into the kingdom of heaven. As it was said, "Except ye become as little
+children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." For we then
+realize that of ourselves we can do nothing, but that it is only as we
+realize that it is the Divine life and power working within us, and it
+is only as we open ourselves that it may work through us, that we are or
+can do anything. It is thus that the simple life, which is essentially
+the life of the greatest enjoyment and the greatest attainment, is
+entered upon.
+
+In the Orient the people as a class take far more time in the quiet, in
+the silence, than we take. Some of them carry this possibly to as great
+an extreme as we carry the opposite, with the result that they do not
+actualize and objectify in the outer life the things they dream in the
+inner life. We give so much time to the activities of the outer life
+that we do not take sufficient time in the quiet to form in the inner,
+spiritual thought-life the ideals and the conditions that we would have
+actualized and manifested in the outer life. The result is that we take
+life in a kind of haphazard way, taking it as it comes, thinking not
+very much about it until, perhaps, pushed by some bitter experiences,
+instead of moulding it, through the agency of the inner forces, exactly
+as we would have it. We need to strike the happy balance between the
+custom in this respect of the Eastern and Western worlds, and go to the
+extreme of neither the one nor the other. This alone will give the ideal
+life; and it is the ideal life only that is the thoroughly satisfactory
+life. In the Orient there are many who are day after day sitting in the
+quiet, meditating, contemplating, idealizing, with their eyes focused on
+their stomach in spiritual revery, while through lack of outer
+activities, in their stomachs they are actually starving. In this
+Western world, men and women, in the rush and activity of our accustomed
+life, are running hither and thither, with no centre, no foundation upon
+which to stand, nothing to which they can anchor their lives, because
+they do not take sufficient time to come into the realization of what
+the centre, of what the reality of their lives is.
+
+If the Oriental would do his contemplating, and then get up and do his
+work, he would be in a better condition; he would be living a more
+normal and satisfactory life. If we in the Occident would take more time
+from the rush and activity of life for contemplation, for meditation,
+for idealization, for becoming acquainted with our real selves, and then
+go about our work manifesting the powers of our real selves, we would be
+far better off, because we would be living a more natural, a more normal
+life. To find one's centre, to become centred in the Infinite, is the
+first great essential of every satisfactory life; and then to go out,
+thinking, speaking, working, loving, living, from this centre.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the highest character-building, such as we have been considering,
+there are those who feel they are handicapped by what we term
+_heredity_. In a sense they are right; in another sense they are totally
+wrong. It is along the same lines as the thought which many before us
+had inculcated in them through the couplet in the New England Primer:
+"In Adam's fall, we sinned all." Now, in the first place, it is rather
+hard to understand the justice of this if it is true. In the second
+place, it is rather hard to understand why it is true. And in the third
+place there is no truth in it at all. We are now dealing with the real,
+essential self, and, however old Adam is, God is eternal. This means
+you; it means me; it means every human soul. When we fully realize this
+fact we see that heredity is a reed that is easily broken. The life of
+every one is in his own hands and he can make it in character, in
+attainment, in power, in divine self-realization, and hence in
+influence, exactly what he wills to make it. All things that he most
+fondly dreams of are his, or may become so if he is truly in earnest;
+and as he rises more and more to his ideal, and grows in the strength
+and influence of his character, he becomes an example and an inspiration
+to all with whom he comes in contact; so that through him the weak and
+faltering are encouraged and strengthened; so that those of low ideals
+and of a low type of life instinctively and inevitably have their ideals
+raised, and the ideals of no one can be raised without its showing forth
+in his outer life. As he advances in his grasp upon and understanding of
+the power and potency of the thought-forces, he finds that many times
+through the process of mental suggestion he can be of tremendous aid to
+one who is weak and struggling, by sending to him now and then, and by
+continually holding him in the highest thought, in the thought of the
+highest strength, wisdom, and love.
+
+The one who takes sufficient time in the quiet mentally to form his
+ideals, sufficient time to make and to keep continually his conscious
+connection with the Infinite, with the Divine life and forces, is the
+one who is best adapted to the strenuous life. He it is who can go out
+and deal with sagacity and power with whatever issues may arise in the
+affairs of every-day life. He it is who is building not for the years,
+but for the centuries; not for time, but for the eternities. And he can
+go out knowing not whither he goes, knowing that the Divine life within
+him will never fail him, but will lead him on until he beholds the
+Father face to face.
+
+He is building for the centuries because only that which is the
+highest, the truest, the noblest, and best will abide the test of the
+centuries. He is building for eternity because when the transition
+we call death takes place, life, character, self-mastery, divine
+self-realization,--the only things that the soul when stripped of
+everything else takes with it,--he has in abundance. In life, or when
+the time of the transition to another form of life comes, he is never
+afraid, never fearful, because he knows and realizes that behind him,
+within him, beyond him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and in this he
+is eternally centred, and from it he can never be separated. With
+Whittier he sings:
+
+    "I know not where His islands lift
+      Their fronded palms in air;
+    I only know I cannot drift
+      Beyond His love and care."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote D: "The Ring and the Book," by Robert Browning.]
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14312 ***
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14312 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, What All The World's A-Seeking, by Ralph
+Waldo Trine</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING</h1>
+
+<h2>OR, THE VITAL LAW OF TRUE LIFE, TRUE GREATNESS POWER AND HAPPINESS</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>RALPH WALDO TRINE</h2>
+
+<h6>New York<br />
+Dodge Publishing Company<br />
+220 East Twenty-Third Street</h6>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE" />PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There are two reasons the author has for putting forth this little
+volume: he feels that the time is, as it always has been, ripe for it;
+and second, his soul has ever longed to express itself upon this endless
+theme. It therefore comes from the heart&mdash;the basis of his belief that
+it will reach the heart.</p>
+
+<p>
+R.W.T.<br />
+<i>Boston, Massachusetts.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_REVISED_EDITION" id="PREFACE_TO_REVISED_EDITION" />PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is impossible for one in a single volume, or perhaps in a number of
+volumes, to reach the exact needs of every reader.</p>
+
+<p>It is always a source of gratitude, as well as of inspiration for better
+and more earnest work in the future, for one to know that the truths
+that have been and that are so valuable and so vital to him he has
+succeeded in presenting in a manner such that they prove likewise of
+value to others. The author is most grateful for the good, kind words
+that have come so generously from so many hundreds of readers of this
+simple little volume from all parts of the world. He is also grateful to
+that large company of people who have been so good as to put the book
+into the hands of so many others.</p>
+
+<p>And as the days have passed, he has not been unmindful of the fact that
+he might make it, when the time came, of still greater value to many.
+In addition to a general revision of the book, some four or five
+questions that seemed to be most frequently asked he has endeavored to
+point answer to in an added part of some thirty pages, under the general
+title, &quot;Character-building Thought Power.&quot; The volume enters therefore
+upon its fifteenth thousand better able, possibly, to come a little more
+directly in touch with the every-day needs of those who will be
+sufficiently interested to read it.</p>
+
+<p>
+R.W.T.<br />
+Sunnybrae Farm<br />
+Croton-on-the-Hudson<br />
+New York<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS" />CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+ <a href="#PREFACE"><b>PREFACE.</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PREFACE_TO_REVISED_EDITION"><b>PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#CONTENTS"><b>CONTENTS.</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_I"><b>PART I. THE PRINCIPLE</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_II"><b>PART II. THE APPLICATION</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_III"><b>PART III. THE UNFOLDMENT</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_IV"><b>PART IV. THE AWAKENING</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_V"><b>PART V. THE INCOMING</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_VI"><b>PART VI. CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER</b></a><br />
+ </p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1><a name="WHAT_ALL_THE_WORLDS_A_SEEKING" id="WHAT_ALL_THE_WORLDS_A_SEEKING" />WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING.</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I" />PART I.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE PRINCIPLE</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Would you find that wonderful life supernal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That life so abounding, so rich, and so free?<br /></span>
+<span>Seek then the laws of the Spirit Eternal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With them bring your life into harmony.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>How can I make life yield its fullest and best? How can I know the true
+secret of power? How can I attain to a true and lasting greatness? How
+can I fill the whole of life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a
+satisfaction that is ever rich and abiding, that ever increases, never
+diminishes, that imparts to it a sparkle that never loses its lustre,
+that ever fascinates, never wearies?</p>
+
+<p>No questions, perhaps, in this form or in that have been asked oftener
+than these. Millions in the past have asked them. Millions are asking
+them to-day. They will be asked by millions yet unborn. Is there an
+answer, a true and safe one for the millions who are eagerly and
+longingly seeking for it in all parts of the world to-day, and for the
+millions yet unborn who will as eagerly strive to find it as the years
+come and go? Are you interested, my dear reader, in the answer? The fact
+that you have read even thus far in this little volume whose title has
+led you to take it up, indicates that you are,&mdash;that you are but one of
+the innumerable company already mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>It is but another way of asking that great question that has come
+through all the ages&mdash;What is the <i>summum bonum</i> in life? and there have
+been countless numbers who gladly would have given all they possessed to
+have had the true and satisfactory answer. Can we then find this answer,
+true and satisfactory to ourselves, surely the brief time spent together
+must be counted as the most precious and valuable of life itself. <i>There
+is an answer</i>: follow closely, and that our findings may be the more
+conclusive, take issue with me at every step if you choose, but tell me
+finally if it is not true and satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>There is one great, one simple principle, which, if firmly laid hold of,
+and if made the great central principle in one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, will make that life
+a grand success, truly great and genuinely happy, loved and blessed by
+all in just the degree in which it is laid hold upon,&mdash;a principle
+which, if universally made thus, would wonderfully change this old world
+in which we live,&mdash;ay, that would transform it almost in a night, and it
+is for its coming that the world has long been waiting; that in place of
+the gloom and despair in almost countless numbers of lives would bring
+light and hope and contentment, and no longer would it be said as so
+truly to-day, that &quot;man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands
+mourn&quot;; that would bring to the life of the fashionable society woman,
+now spending her days and her nights in seeking for nothing but her own
+pleasure, such a flood of true and genuine pleasure and happiness and
+satisfaction as would make the poor, weak something she calls by this
+name so pale before it, that she would quickly see that she hasn't known
+what true pleasure is, and that what she has been mistaking for the
+real, the genuine, is but as a baser metal compared to the purest of
+gold, as a bit of cut glass compared to the rarest of diamonds, and that
+would make this same woman who scarcely deigns to notice the poor woman
+who washes her front steps, but who, were the facts known, may be
+living a much grander life, and consequently of much more value to the
+world than she herself, see that this poor woman is after all her
+sister, because child of the same Father; and that would make the humble
+life of this same poor woman beautiful and happy and sweet in its
+humility; that would give us a nation of statesmen in place of, with now
+and then an exception, a nation of politicians, each one bent upon his
+own personal aggrandizement at the expense of the general good; that
+would go far, ay, very far toward solving our great and hard-pressing
+social problems with which we are already face to face; that, in short,
+would make each man a prince among men, and each woman a queen among
+women.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen the supreme happiness in lives where this principle has been
+caught and laid hold of, some, lives that seemed not to have much in
+them before, but which under its wonderful influences have been so
+transformed and so beautified, that have been made so sweet and so
+strong, so useful and so precious, that each day seems to them all too
+short, the same time that before, when they could scarcely see what was
+in life to make it worth the living, dragged wearily along. So there
+are countless numbers of people in the world with lives that seem not to
+have much in them, among the wealthy classes and among the poorer, who
+might under the influence of this great, this simple principle, make
+them so precious, so rich, and so happy that time would seem only too
+short, and they would wonder why they have been so long running on the
+wrong track, for it is true that much the larger portion of the world
+to-day is on the wrong track in the pursuit of happiness; but almost all
+are there, let it be said, not through choice, but by reason of not
+knowing the right, the true one.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that really great, true, and happy lives have been lived in the
+past and are being lived to-day gives us our starting-point. Time and
+again I have examined such lives in a most careful endeavor to find what
+has made them so, and have found that in <i>each and every</i> individual
+case this that we have now come to has been the great central principle
+upon which they have been built. I have also found that in numbers of
+lives where it has not been, but where almost every effort apart from it
+has been made to make them great, true, and happy, they have not been
+so; and also that no life built upon it in sufficient degree, other
+things being equal, has failed in being thus.</p>
+
+<p>Let us then to the answer, examine it closely, see if it will stand
+every test, if it is the true one, and if so, rejoice that we have found
+it, lay hold of it, build upon it, tell others of it. The last four
+words have already entered us at the open door. The idea has prevailed
+in the past, and this idea has dominated the world, that <i>self</i> is the
+great concern,&mdash;that if one would find success, greatness, happiness, he
+must give all attention to self, and to self alone. This has been the
+great mistake, this the fatal error, this the <i>direct</i> opposite of the
+right, the true as set forth in the great immutable law that&mdash;<i>we find
+our own lives in losing them in the service of others</i>, in longer
+form&mdash;the more of our lives we give to others, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy our own lives become. It is as that great and sweet soul who when
+with us lived at Concord said,&mdash;that generous giving or losing of your
+life which saves it.</p>
+
+<p>This is an expression of one of the greatest truths, of one of the
+greatest principles of practical ethics the world has thus far seen. In
+a single word, it is <i>service</i>,&mdash;not self but the other self. We shall
+soon see, however, that our love, our service, our helpfulness to
+others, invariably comes back to us, intensified sometimes a hundred or
+a thousand or a thousand thousand fold, and this by a great, immutable
+law.</p>
+
+<p>The Master Teacher, he who so many years ago in that far-away Eastern
+land, now in the hill country, now in the lake country, as the people
+gathered round him, taught them those great, high-born, and tender
+truths of human life and destiny, the Christ Jesus, said identically
+this when he said and so continually repeated,&mdash;&quot;He that is greatest
+among you shall be your servant&quot;; and his whole life was but an
+embodiment of this principle or truth, with the result that the greatest
+name in the world to-day is his,&mdash;the name of him who as his life-work,
+healed the sick; clothed the naked; bound up the broken-hearted;
+sustained the weak, the faltering; befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy; condemned the proud, the vain, the selfish; and through it all
+taught the people to love justice and mercy and service, to live in
+their higher, their diviner selves,&mdash;in brief, to <i>live</i> his life, the
+Christ-life, and who has helped in making it possible for this greatest
+principle of practical ethics the world has thus far seen to be
+enunciated, to be laid hold of, to be lived by to-day. &quot;He that is
+greatest among you shall be your servant,&quot; or, he who would be truly
+great and recognized as such must find it in the capacity of a servant.</p>
+
+<p>And what, let us ask, is a servant? One who renders service. To himself?
+Never. To others? Alway. Freed of its associations and looked at in the
+light of its right and true meaning, than the word &quot;servant&quot; there is no
+greater in the language; and in this right use of the term, as we shall
+soon see, every life that has been really true, great, and happy has
+been that of a servant, and apart from this no such life <i>ever has been
+or ever can be lived</i>.</p>
+
+<p>O you who are seeking for power, for place, for happiness, for
+contentment in the ordinary way, tarry for a moment, see that you are on
+the wrong track, grasp this great eternal truth, lay hold of it, and you
+will see that your advance along this very line will be manifold times
+more rapid. Are you seeking, then, to make for yourself a name? Unless
+you grasp this mighty truth and make your life accordingly, as the great
+clock of time ticks on and all things come to their proper level
+according to their merits, as all invariably, inevitably do, you will
+indeed be somewhat surprised to find how low, how very low your level
+is. Your name and your memory will be forgotten long ere the minute-hand
+has passed even a single time across the great dial; while your
+fellow-man who has grasped this simple but this great and all-necessary
+truth, and who accordingly is forgetting himself in the service of
+others, who is making his life a part of a hundred or a thousand or a
+million lives, thus illimitably intensifying or multiplying his own,
+instead of living as you in what otherwise would be his own little,
+diminutive self, will find himself ascending higher and higher until he
+stands as one among the few, and will find a peace, a happiness, a
+satisfaction so rich and so beautiful, compared to which yours will be
+but a poor miserable something, and whose name and memory when his life
+here is finished, will live in the minds and hearts of his fellow-men
+and of mankind fixed and eternal as the stars.</p>
+
+<p>A corollary of the great principle already enunciated might be
+formulated thus: <i>there is no such thing as finding true happiness by
+searching for it directly</i>. It must come, if it come at all, indirectly,
+or by the service, the love, and the happiness we give to others. So,
+<i>there is no such thing as finding true greatness by searching for it
+directly</i>. It always, without a single exception has come indirectly in
+this same way, and it is not at all probable that this great eternal law
+is going to be changed to suit any particular case or cases. Then
+recognize it, put your life into harmony with it, and reap the rewards
+of its observance, or fail to recognize it and pay the penalty
+accordingly; for the law itself will remain unchanged.</p>
+
+<p>The men and women whose names we honor and celebrate are invariably
+those with lives founded primarily upon this great law. Note if you
+will, every <i>truly</i> great life in the world's history, among those
+living and among the so-called dead, and tell me if in <i>every</i> case that
+life is not a life spent in the service of others, either directly, or
+indirectly as when we say&mdash;he served his country. Whenever one seeks for
+reputation, for fame, for honor, for happiness directly and for his own
+sake, then that which is true and genuine never comes, at least to any
+degree worthy the name. It may seem to for a time, but a great law says
+that such an one gets so far and no farther. Sooner or later, generally
+sooner, there comes an end.</p>
+
+<p>Human nature seems to run in this way, seems to be governed by a great
+paradoxical law which says, that whenever a man self-centred, thinking
+of, living for and in himself, is very desirous for place, for
+preferment, for honor, the very fact of his being thus is of itself a
+sufficient indicator that he is too small to have them, and mankind
+refuses to accord them. While the one who forgets self, and who, losing
+sight of these things, makes it his chief aim in life to help, to aid,
+and to serve others, by this very fact makes it known that he is large
+enough, is great enough to have them, and his fellow-men instinctively
+bestow them upon him. This is a great law which many would profit by to
+recognize. That it is true is attested by the fact that the praise of
+mankind instinctively and universally goes out to a hero; but who ever
+heard of a hero who became such by doing something for himself? Always
+something he has done for others. By the fact that monuments and statues
+are gratefully erected to the memory of those who have helped and served
+their fellow-men, not to those who have lived to themselves alone.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen many monuments and statues erected to the memories of
+philanthropists, but I never yet have seen one erected to a miser; many
+to generous-hearted, noble-hearted men, but never yet to one whose whole
+life was that of a sharp bargain-driver, and who clung with a sort of
+semi-idiotic grasp to all that came thus into his temporary possession.
+I have seen many erected to statesmen,&mdash;statesmen,&mdash;but never one to
+mere politicians; many to true orators, but never to mere demagogues;
+many to soldiers and leaders, but never to men who were not willing,
+when necessary, to risk all in the service of their country. No, you
+will find that the world's monuments and statues have been erected and
+its praises and honors have gone out to those who were large and great
+enough to forget themselves in the service of others, who have been
+servants, true servants of mankind, who have been true to the great law
+that we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others. Not
+honor for themselves, but service for others. But notice the strange,
+wonderful, beautiful transformation as it returns upon itself,&mdash;<i>honor
+for themselves, because of service to others</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a matter of exceeding great interest to verify the truth of
+what has just been said by looking at a number of those who are regarded
+as the world's great sons and daughters,&mdash;those to whom its honors, its
+praises, its homage go out,&mdash;to see why it is, upon what their lives
+have been founded that they have become so great and are so honored. Of
+all this glorious company that would come up, we must be contented to
+look at but one or two.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to my mind the name and figure of him the celebration of
+whose birthday I predict will soon be made a national holiday,&mdash;he than
+whom there is no greater, whose praises are sung and whose name and
+memory are honored and blessed by millions in all parts of the world
+to-day, and will be by millions yet unborn, our beloved and sainted
+Lincoln. And then I ask, Why is this? Why is this? One sentence of his
+tells us what to look to for the answer. During that famous series of
+public debates in Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, speaking at
+Freeport, Mr. Douglas at one place said, &quot;I care not whether slavery in
+the Territories be voted up or whether it be voted down, it makes not a
+particle of difference with me.&quot; Mr. Lincoln, speaking from the fulness
+of his great and royal heart, in reply said, with emotion, &quot;I am sorry
+to perceive that my friend Judge Douglas is so constituted that he does
+not feel the lash the least bit when it is laid upon another man's
+back.&quot; Thoughts upon self? Not for a moment. Upon others? Always. He at
+once recognized in those black men four million brothers for whom he had
+a service to perform.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem almost grotesque to use the word <i>self-ish</i> in connection
+with this great name. He very early, and when still in a very humble and
+lowly station in life, either consciously or unconsciously grasped this
+great truth, and in making the great underlying principle of his life to
+serve, to help his fellow-men, he adopted just that course that has made
+him one of the greatest of the sons of men, our royal-hearted elder
+brother. He never spent time in asking what he could do to attain to
+greatness, to popularity, to power, what to perpetuate his name and
+memory. He simply asked how he could help, how he could be of service to
+his fellow-men, and continually did all his hands found to do.</p>
+
+<p>He simply put his life into harmony with this great principle; and in so
+doing he adopted the best means,&mdash;the <i>only</i> means to secure that which
+countless numbers seek and strive for directly, and every time so
+woefully fail in finding.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to my mind in this same connection another princely soul,
+one who loved all the world, one whom all the world loves and delights
+to honor. There comes to mind also a little incident that will furnish
+an insight into the reason of it all. On an afternoon not long ago, Mrs.
+Henry Ward Beecher was telling me of some of the characteristics of
+Brooklyn's great preacher. While she was yet speaking of some of those
+along the very lines we are considering, an old gentleman, a neighbor,
+came into the room bearing in his hands something he had brought from
+Mr. Beecher's grave. It was the day next following Decoration Day. His
+story was this: As the great procession was moving into the cemetery
+with its bands of rich music, with its carriages laden with sweet and
+fragrant flowers, with its waving flags, beautiful in the sunlight, a
+poor and humble-looking woman with two companions, by her apparent
+nervousness attracted the attention of the gate-keeper. He kept her in
+view for a little while, and presently saw her as she gave something she
+had partially concealed to one of her companions, who, leaving the
+procession, went over to the grave of Mr. Beecher, and tenderly laid it
+there. Reverently she stood for a moment or two, and then, retracing
+her steps, joined her two companions, who with bowed heads were waiting
+by the wayside.</p>
+
+<p>It was this that the old gentleman had brought,&mdash;a gold frame, and in it
+a poem cut from a volume, a singularly beautiful poem through which was
+breathed the spirit of love and service and self-devotion to the good
+and the needs of others. At one or two places where it fitted, the pen
+had been drawn across a word and Mr. Beecher's name inserted, which
+served to give it a still more real, vivid, and tender meaning. At the
+bottom this only was written, &quot;From a poor Hebrew woman to the immortal
+friend of the Hebrews.&quot; There was no name, but this was sufficient to
+tell the whole story. Some poor, humble woman, but one out of a mighty
+number whom he had at some time befriended or helped or cheered, whose
+burden he had helped to carry, and soon perhaps had forgotten all about
+it. When we remember that this was his life, is it at all necessary to
+seek farther why all the world delights to honor this, another
+royal-hearted elder brother? and, as we think of this simple, beautiful,
+and touching incident, how true and living becomes the thought in the
+old, old lines!&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Cast thy bread upon the waters, waft it on with praying breath,<br /></span>
+<span>In some distant, doubtful moment it may save a soul from death.<br /></span>
+<span>When you sleep in solemn silence, 'neath the morn and evening dew,<br /></span>
+<span>Stranger hands which you have strengthened may strew lilies over you.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Our good friend, Henry Drummond, in one of his most beautiful and
+valuable little works says&mdash;and how admirably and how truly!&mdash;that &quot;love
+is the greatest thing in the world.&quot; Have you this greatest thing? Yes.
+How, then, does it manifest itself? In kindliness, in helpfulness, in
+service, to those around you? If so, well and good, you have it. If not,
+then I suspect that what you have been calling love is something else;
+and you have indeed been greatly fooled. In fact, I am sure it is; for
+if it does not manifest itself in this way, it cannot be true love, for
+this is the one grand and never-failing test. Love is the statics,
+helpfulness and service the dynamics, the former necessary to the
+latter, but the latter the more powerful, as action is always more
+powerful than potentiality; and, were it not for the dynamics, the
+statics might as well not be. Helpfulness, kindliness, service, is but
+the expression of love. It is love in action; and unless love thus
+manifests itself in action, it is an indication that it is of that weak
+and sickly nature that needs exercise, growth, and development, that it
+may grow and become strong, healthy, vigorous, and true, instead of
+remaining a little, weak, indefinite, sentimental something or nothing.</p>
+
+<p>It was but yesterday that I heard one of the world's greatest thinkers
+and speakers, one of our keenest observers of human affairs, state as
+his opinion that selfishness is the root of all evil. Now, if it is
+possible for any one thing to be the root of all evil, then I think
+there is a world of truth in the statement. But, leaving out of account
+for the present purpose whether it is true or not, it certainly is true
+that he who can't get beyond self robs his life of its chief charms, and
+more, defeats the very ends he has in view. It is a well-known law in
+the natural world about us that whatever hasn't use, that whatever
+serves no purpose, shrivels up. So it is a law of our own being that he
+who makes himself of no use, of no service to the great body of mankind,
+who is concerned only with his own small self, finds that self, small as
+it is, growing smaller and smaller, and those finer and better and
+grander qualities of his nature, those that give the chief charm and
+happiness to life, shrivelling up. Such an one lives, keeps constant
+company with his own diminutive and stunted self; while he who,
+forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness, and
+kindliness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding,
+himself becoming large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, loving, sympathetic,
+joyous, and happy, his life becoming rich and beautiful. For instead of
+his own little life alone he has entered into and has part in a hundred,
+a thousand, ay, in countless numbers of other lives; and every success,
+every joy, every happiness coming to each of these comes as such to him,
+for he has a part in each and all. And thus it is that one becomes a
+prince among men, a queen among women.</p>
+
+<p>Why, one of the very fundamental principles of life is, so much love, so
+much love in return; so much love, so much growth; so much love, so much
+power; so much love, so much life,&mdash;strong, healthy, rich, exulting, and
+abounding life. The world is beginning to realize the fact that love,
+instead of being a mere indefinite something, is a vital and living
+force, the same as electricity is a force, though perhaps of a different
+nature. The same great fact we are learning in regard to thought,&mdash;that
+thoughts are things, that <i>thoughts are forces, the most vital and
+powerful in the universe</i>, that they have form and substance and power,
+the quality of the power determined as it is by the quality of the life
+in whose organism the thoughts are engendered; and so, when a thought is
+given birth, it does not end there, but takes form, and as a force it
+goes out and has its effect upon other minds and lives, the effect being
+determined by its intensity and the quality of the prevailing emotions,
+and also by the emotions dominating the person at the time the thoughts
+are engendered and given form.</p>
+
+<p>Science, while demonstrating the great facts it is to-day demonstrating
+in connection with the mind in its relations to and effects upon the
+body, is also finding from its very laboratory experiments that each
+particular kind of thought and emotion has its own peculiar qualities,
+and hence its own peculiar effects or influences; and these it is
+classifying with scientific accuracy. A very general classification in
+just a word would be&mdash;those of a higher and those of a lower nature.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the chief ones among those of the lower nature are anger,
+hatred, jealousy, malice, rage. Their effect, especially when violent,
+is to emit a poisonous substance into the system, or rather, to set up a
+corroding influence which transforms the healthy and life-giving
+secretions of the body into the poisonous and the destructive. When one,
+for example, is dominated, even if for but a moment by a passion of
+anger or rage, there is set up in the system what might be justly termed
+a bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring or corroding the
+normal and healthy secretions of the body and making them so that
+instead of life-giving they become poisonous. This, if indulged in to
+any extent, sooner or later induces the form of disease that this
+particular state of mind and emotion or passion gives birth to; and it
+in turn becomes chronic.</p>
+
+<p>We shall ultimately find, as we are beginning to so rapidly to-day, that
+practically all disease has its origin in perverted mental states or
+emotions; that anger, hatred, fear, worry, jealousy, lust, as well as
+all milder forms of perverted mental states and emotions, has each its
+own peculiar poisoning effects and induces each its own peculiar form of
+disease, for all life is from within out.</p>
+
+<p>Then some of the chief ones belonging to the other class&mdash;mental states
+and emotions of the higher nature&mdash;are love, sympathy, benevolence,
+kindliness, and good cheer. These are the natural and the normal; and
+their effect, when habitually entertained, is to stimulate a vital,
+healthy, bounding, purifying, and life-giving action, the exact opposite
+of the others; and these very forces, set into a bounding activity, will
+in time counteract and heal the disease-giving effects of their
+opposites. Their effects upon the countenance and features in inducing
+the highest beauty that can dwell there are also marked and
+all-powerful. So much, then, in regard to the effects of one's thought
+forces upon the self. A word more in regard to their effects upon
+others.</p>
+
+<p>Our prevailing thought forces determine the mental atmosphere we create
+around us, and all who come within its influence are affected in one way
+or another, according to the quality of that atmosphere; and, though
+they may not always get the exact thoughts, they nevertheless get the
+effects of the emotions dominating the originator of the thoughts, and
+hence the creator of this particular mental atmosphere, and the more
+sensitively organized the person the more sensitive he or she is to
+this atmosphere, even at times to getting the exact and very thoughts.
+So even in this the prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled,&mdash;there is
+nothing hid that shall not be revealed.</p>
+
+<p>If the thought forces sent out by any particular life are those of
+hatred or jealousy or malice or fault-finding or criticism or scorn,
+these same thought forces are aroused and sent back from others, so that
+one is affected not only by reason of the unpleasantness of having such
+thoughts from others, but they also in turn affect one's own mental
+states, and through these his own bodily conditions, so that, so far as
+even the welfare of self is concerned, the indulgence in thoughts and
+emotions of this nature are most expensive, most detrimental, most
+destructive.</p>
+
+<p>If, on the other hand, the thought forces sent out be those of love, of
+sympathy, of kindliness, of cheer and good will, these same forces are
+aroused and sent back, so that their pleasant, ennobling, warming, and
+life-giving effects one feels and is influenced by; and so again, so far
+even as the welfare of self is concerned, there is nothing more
+desirable, more valuable and life-giving. There comes from others, then,
+exactly what one sends to and hence calls forth from them.</p>
+
+<p><i>And would we have all the world love us, we must first then love all
+the world</i>,&mdash;merely a great scientific fact. Why is it that all people
+instinctively dislike and shun the little, the mean, the self-centred,
+the selfish, while all the world instinctively, irresistibly, loves and
+longs for the company of the great-hearted, the tender-hearted, the
+loving, the magnanimous, the sympathetic, the brave? The mere
+answer&mdash;because&mdash;will not satisfy. There is a deep, scientific reason
+for it, either this or it is not true.</p>
+
+<p>Much has been said, much written, in regard to what some have been
+pleased to call personal magnetism, but which, as is so commonly true in
+cases of this kind, is even to-day but little understood. But to my mind
+personal magnetism in its true sense, and as distinguished from what may
+be termed a purely animal magnetism, is nothing more nor less than the
+thought forces sent out by a great-hearted, tender-hearted, magnanimous,
+loving, sympathetic man or woman; for, let me ask, have you ever known
+of any great personal magnetism in the case of the little, the mean, the
+vindictive, the self-centred? Never, I venture to say, but always in the
+case of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Why, there is nothing that can stand before this wonderful transmuting
+power of love. So far even as the enemy is concerned, I may not be to
+blame if I have an enemy; but I am to blame if I keep him as such,
+especially after I know of this wonderful transmuting power. Have I then
+an enemy, I will refuse, absolutely refuse, to recognize him as such;
+and instead of entertaining the thoughts of him that he entertains of
+me, instead of sending him like thought forces, I will send him only
+thoughts of love, of sympathy, of brotherly kindness, and magnanimity.
+But a short time it will be until he feels these, and is influenced by
+them. Then in addition I will watch my opportunity, and whenever I can,
+I will even go out of my way to do him some little kindnesses. Before
+these forces he cannot stand, and by and by I shall find that he who
+to-day is my bitterest enemy is my warmest friend and it may be my
+staunchest supporter. No, the wise man is he who by that wonderful
+alchemy of love transmutes the enemy into the friend,&mdash;transmutes the
+bitterest enemy into the warmest friend and supporter. Certainly this is
+what the Master meant when he said: &quot;Love your enemies, do good to them
+that hate you and despitefully use you: thou shalt thereby be heaping
+coals of fire upon their heads.&quot; Ay, thou shalt melt them: before this
+force they cannot stand. Thou shalt melt them, and transmute them into
+friends.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;You never can tell what your thoughts will do<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In bringing you hate or love;<br /></span>
+<span>For thoughts are things, and their airy wings<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Are swifter than carrier doves.<br /></span>
+<span>They follow the law of the universe,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Each thing must create its kind;<br /></span>
+<span>And they speed o'er the track to bring you back<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Whatever went out from your mind.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yes, science to-day, at the close of this nineteenth century, in the
+laboratory is discovering and scientifically demonstrating the great,
+immutable laws upon which the inspired and illuminated ones of all ages
+have based all their teachings, those who by ordering their lives
+according to the higher laws of their being get in a moment of time,
+through the direct touch of inspiration, what it takes the physical
+investigator a whole lifetime or a series of investigators a series of
+lifetimes to discover and demonstrate.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II" />PART II.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE APPLICATION</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Are you seeking for greatness, O brother of mine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As the full, fleeting seasons and years glide away?<br /></span>
+<span>If seeking directly and for self alone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The true and abiding you never can stay.<br /></span>
+<span>But all self forgetting, know well the law,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">It's the hero, and not the self-seeker, who's crowned.<br /></span>
+<span>Then go lose your life in the service of others,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And, lo! with rare greatness and glory 'twill abound.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become great in any particular field, to attain
+to fame and honor, and thereby to happiness and contentment? Is it your
+ambition, for example, to become a great <i>orator</i>, to move great masses
+of men, to receive their praise, their plaudits? Then remember that
+there never has been, there never will, in brief, there never can be a
+truly great orator without a great <i>purpose</i>, a great cause behind him.
+You may study in all the best schools in the country, the best
+universities and the best schools of oratory. You may study until you
+exhaust all these, and then seek the best in other lands. You may study
+thus until your hair is beginning to change its color, but this of
+itself will <i>never</i> make you a great orator. You may become a demagogue,
+and, if self-centred, you inevitably will; for this is exactly what a
+demagogue is,&mdash;a great demagogue, if you please, than which it is hard
+for one to call to mind a more contemptible animal, and the greater the
+more contemptible. But without laying hold of and building upon this
+great principle you never can become a great orator.</p>
+
+<p>Call to mind the greatest in the world's history, from Demosthenes&mdash;Men
+of Athens, march against Philip, your country and your fellow-men will
+be in early bondage unless you give them your best service now&mdash;down to
+our own Phillips and Gough,&mdash;Wendell Phillips against the traffic in
+human blood, John B. Gough against a slavery among his fellow-men more
+hard and galling and abject than the one just spoken of; for by it the
+body merely is in bondage, the mind and soul are free, while in this,
+body, soul, and mind are enslaved. So you can easily discover the great
+<i>purpose</i>, the great cause for <i>service</i>, behind each and every one.</p>
+
+<p>The man who can't get beyond himself, his own aggrandizement and
+interests, must of necessity be small, petty, personal, and at once
+marks his own limitations; while he whose life is a life of service and
+self-devotion has no limits, for he thus puts himself at once on the
+side of the <i>Universal</i>, and this more than all else combined gives a
+tremendous power in oratory. Such a one can mount as on the wings of an
+eagle, and Nature herself seems to come forth and give a great soul of
+this kind means and material whereby to accomplish his purposes, whereby
+the great universal truths go direct to the minds and hearts of his
+hearers to mould them, to move them; for the orator is he who moulds the
+minds and hearts of his hearers in the great moulds of universal and
+eternal truth, and then moves them along a definite line of action, not
+he who merely speaks pieces to them.</p>
+
+<p>How thoroughly Webster recognized this great principle is admirably
+shown in that brief but powerful description of eloquence of his; let us
+pause to listen to a sentence or two: &quot;True eloquence indeed does not
+consist in speech.... Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way,
+but they cannot compass it.... Affected passion, intense expression, the
+pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it.... The
+graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied
+contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives and
+the fate of their wives and their children and their country hang on the
+decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is
+vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then
+feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then
+patriotism is eloquent, then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear
+conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the
+firm resolve, the dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beaming from
+the eye, informing every feature and urging the whole man onward, right
+onward to his object,&mdash;this, this is eloquence.&quot; And note some of the
+chief words he has used,&mdash;<i>self-devotion, patriotism, high purpose</i>. The
+self-centred man can never know these, and much less can he make use of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>True, things that one may learn, as the freeing of the bodily agents,
+the developing of the voice, and so on, that all may become the <i>true
+reporters of the soul</i>, instead of limiting or binding it down, as is so
+frequently the case in public speakers,&mdash;these are all valuable, ay, are
+very important and very necessary, unless one is content to live below
+his highest possibilities, and he is wise who recognizes this tact; but
+these in themselves are but as trifles when compared to those greater,
+more powerful, and all-essential qualities.</p>
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>states man?</i> Note the very first
+thing, then, the word itself,&mdash;<i>states-man</i>, a man who gives his life to
+the service of the State. And do you not recognize the fact that, when
+one says&mdash;a man who gives his life to the service of the State, it is
+but another way of saying&mdash;a man who gives his life to the service of
+his fellow-men; for what, after all, is any country, any State, in the
+true sense of the term, but the aggregate, the great body of its
+individual citizenship. And he who lives for and unto himself, who puts
+the interests of his own small self before the interests of the
+thousands, can never become a states-man; for a statesman must be a
+larger man than this.</p>
+
+<p>Call to your mind the greatest of the world, among those living and
+among the so-called dead, and you will quickly see that the life of each
+and every one has been built upon this great principle, and that all
+have been great and are held as such in just the degree in which it has
+been. Two of the greatest among Americans, both passed away, would
+to-day and even more as time goes on, be counted still greater, had they
+been a little larger in one aspect of their natures,&mdash;large enough to
+have recognized to its fullest extent the eternal truth and importance
+of this great principle, and had they given the time to the service of
+their fellow-men that was spent in desiring the Presidency and in all
+too plainly making it known. Having gained it could have made them no
+greater, and having so plainly shown their eager and childish desire for
+it has made them less great. Of the many thousands of men who have been
+in our American Congress since its beginning, and of the very, very
+small number comparatively that you are able to call to mind, possibly
+not over fifty, which would be about one out of every six hundred or
+more, you will find that you are able to call to mind each one of this
+very small number on account of his standing for some measure or
+principle that would to the highest degree increase the human welfare,
+thus truly fulfilling the great office of a <i>statesman</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The one great trouble with our country to-day is that we have but few
+statesmen. We have a great swarm, a great hoard of politicians; but it
+is only now and then that we find a man who is large enough truly to
+deserve the name&mdash;statesman. The large majority in public life to-day
+are there not for the purpose of serving the best interests of those
+whom they are supposed to represent, but they are there purely for self,
+purely for self-aggrandizement in this form or in that, as the case may
+be.</p>
+
+<p>Especially do we find this true in our municipalities. In some, the
+government instead of being in the hands of those who would make it such
+in truth, those who would make it serve the interests it is designed to
+serve, it is in the hands of those who are there purely for self, little
+whelps, those who will resort to any means to secure their ends, at
+times even to honorable means, should they seem to serve best the
+particular purpose in hand. We have but to look around us to see that
+this is true. The miserable, filthy, and deplorable condition of affairs
+the Lexow Committee in its investigations not so long ago laid bare to
+public gaze had its root in what? In the fact that the offices in that
+great municipality have been and are filled by men who are there to
+serve in the highest degree the public welfare or by men who are there
+purely for self-aggrandizement? But let us pass on. This degraded
+condition of affairs exists not only in this great city, but there are
+scarcely any that are free from it entirely. Matters are not always to
+continue thus, however. The American people will learn by and by what
+they ought fully to realize to-day&mdash;that the moment the honest people,
+the citizens, in distinction from the barnacles, mass themselves and
+stay massed, the notorious, filthy political rings cannot stand before
+them for a period of even twenty-four hours. <i>The right, the good, the
+true, is all-powerful, and will inevitably conquer sooner or later when
+brought to the front.</i> Such is the history of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Let our public offices&mdash;municipal, state, and federal&mdash;be filled with
+men who are in love with the human kind, large men, men whose lives are
+founded upon this great law of service, and we will then have them
+filled with statesmen. Never let this glorious word be disgraced,
+degraded, by applying it to the little, self-centred whelps who are
+unable to get beyond the politician stage. Then enter public life; but
+enter it as a man, not as a barnacle: enter it as a statesman, not as a
+politician.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>preacher</i>, or better yet, with
+the same meaning, a great <i>teacher?</i> Then remember that the greatest of
+the world have been those who have given themselves in thorough
+self-devotion and service to their fellow-men, who have given themselves
+so thoroughly to all they have come in contact with that there has been
+no room for self. They have not been seekers after fame, or men who have
+thought so much of their own particular dogmatic ways of thinking as to
+spend the greater part of their time in discussing dogma, creed,
+theology, in order, as is so generally true in cases of this kind, to
+prove that the <i>ego</i> you see before you is right in his particular ways
+of thinking, and that his chief ambition is to have this fact clearly
+understood,&mdash;an abomination, I verily believe, in the sight of God
+himself, whose children in the mean time are starving, are dying for the
+bread of life, and an abomination I am sure, in the sight of the great
+majority of mankind. Let us be thankful, however, for mankind is finding
+less use for such year by year, and the time will soon come when they
+will scarcely be tolerated at all.</p>
+
+<p>It is to a very great extent on account of men of this kind, especially
+in the early history, that the true spirit of religion, of Christianity,
+has been lost sight of in the mere form. The basket in which it has
+been deemed necessary to carry it has been held as of greater import
+than the rare and divinely beautiful fruit itself. The true spirit, that
+that quickeneth and giveth life and power, has had its place taken by
+the mere letter, that that alone blighteth and killeth. Instead of
+running after these finely spun, man-made theories, this stuff,&mdash;for
+stuff is the word,&mdash;this that we outgrow once every few years in our
+march onward and upward, and then stand and laugh as we look back to
+think that such ideas have ever been held, instead of this, thinking
+that thus you will gain power, act the part of the wise man, and go each
+day into the <i>silence</i>, there commune with the Infinite, there dwell for
+a season with the Infinite Spirit of all life, of all power; for you can
+get <i>true power</i> in no other way.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of running about here and there to have your cup filled at these
+little stagnant pools, dried up as they generally are by the continual
+rays of a constantly shining egoistic sun, go direct to the great
+fountain-head, and there drink of the water of life that is poured out
+freely to every one if he will but go there for it. One can't, however,
+send and have it brought by another.</p>
+
+<p>Go, then, into the <i>silence</i>, even if it be but for a short period,&mdash;a
+period of not more than a quarter or a half-hour a day,&mdash;and there come
+into contact with the Great Source of all life, of all power. <i>Send out
+your earnest desires for whatsoever you will; and whatsoever you will,
+if continually watered by expectation, will sooner or later come to
+you</i>. All knowledge, all truth, all power, all wisdom, all things
+whatsoever, are yours, if you will but go in this way for them. It has
+been tried times without number, and has never yet once failed where the
+motives have been high, where the knowledge of the results beforehand
+has been sufficiently great. Within a fortnight you can know the truth
+of this for yourself if you will but go in the right way.</p>
+
+<p>All the truly great teachers in the world's history have gotten their
+powers in this way. You remember the great soul who left us not long
+ago, he who ministered so faithfully at Trinity, the great preacher of
+such wonderful powers, the one so truly inspired. It was but an evening
+or two since, when in conversation with a member of his congregation, we
+were talking in regard to Phillips Brooks. She was telling of his
+beautiful and powerful spirit and said that they were all continually
+conscious of the fact that he had a power they hadn't, but that all
+longed for; that he seemed to have a great secret of power they hadn't,
+but that they often tried to find. She continued, and in the very next
+sentence went on to tell of a fact,&mdash;one that I knew full well,&mdash;the
+fact that during a certain period of each day he took himself alone into
+a little, silent room, he fastened the door behind him, and during this
+period under no circumstances could he be seen by any one. The dear lady
+knew these two things, she knew and was influenced by his great soul
+power, she also knew of his going thus into the silence each day; but,
+bless her heart, it had never once occurred to her to put the two
+together.</p>
+
+<p>It is in this way that great soul power is grown; and the men of this
+great power are the men who move the world, the men who do the great
+work in the world along all lines, and against whom no man, no power,
+can stand. Call to mind a number of the world's greatest preachers, or,
+using again the better term, teachers, and bear in mind I do not mean
+creed, dogma, form, but religious teachers,&mdash;and the one class differs
+from the other even as the night from the day,&mdash;and you will find two
+great facts in the life of each and all,&mdash;great soul power, grown
+chiefly by much time spent in the silence, and the fact that the life of
+each has been built upon this one great and all-powerful principle of
+love, service, and helpfulness for all mankind.</p>
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>writer?</i> Very good. But remember
+that unless you have something to give to the world, something you feel
+mankind must have, something that will aid them in their march upward
+and onward, unless you have some service of this kind to render, then
+you had better be wise, and not take up the pen; for, if your object in
+writing is merely fame or money, the number of your readers may be
+exceedingly small, possibly a few score or even a few dozen may be a
+large estimate.</p>
+
+<p>What an author writes is, after all, the sum total of his life, his
+habits, his characteristics, his experiences, his purposes. <i>He never
+can write more than he himself is</i>. He can never pass beyond his
+limitations; and unless he have a purpose higher than writing merely for
+fame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks his own limitations, and
+what he seeks will never come. While he who writes for the world,
+because he feels he has something that it needs and that will be a help
+to mankind, if it <i>is</i> something it needs, other things being equal,
+that which the other man seeks for directly, and so never finds, will
+come to him in all its fulness. This is the way it comes, and this way
+only. <i>Mankind cares nothing for you until you have shown that you care
+for mankind.</i></p>
+
+<p>Note this statement from the letter of a now well-known writer, one
+whose very first book met with instant success, and that has been
+followed by others all similarly received. She says, &quot;I never thought of
+writing until two years and a half ago, when, in order to disburden my
+mind of certain thoughts that clamored for utterance, I produced,&quot; etc.
+In the light of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable success of her
+very first and all succeeding books. She had something she felt the
+world needed and must have; and, with no thought of self, of fame, or of
+money, she gave it. The world agreed with her; and, as she was large
+enough to seek for neither, it has given her both.</p>
+
+<p>Note this also: &quot;I write for the love of writing, not for money or
+reputation. The former I have without exertion, the latter is not worth
+a pin's point in the general economy of the vast universe. Work done for
+the love of working brings its own reward far more quickly and surely
+than work done for mere payment.&quot; This is but the formulated statement
+of what all the world's greatest writers and authors have said or would
+say,&mdash;at least so far as I have come in contact with their opinions in
+regard to it.</p>
+
+<p>So, unless you are large enough to forget self for the good, for the
+service of mankind, thus putting yourself on the side of the universal
+and making it possible for you to give something that will in turn of
+itself bring fame, you had better be wise, and not lift the pen at all;
+for what you write will not be taken up, or, if it is, will soon be let
+fall again.</p>
+
+<p>One of our most charming and most noted American authors says in regard
+to her writing, &quot;I press my soul upon the white paper&quot;; and let me tell
+you the reason it in turn makes its impression upon so many thousands of
+other souls is because hers is so large, so tender, so sympathetic, so
+loving, that others cannot resist the impression, living as she does not
+for self, but for the service of others, her own life thus having a part
+in countless numbers of other lives.</p>
+
+<p>It is only that that comes from the heart that can reach the heart.
+Take from their shelves the most noted, the greatest works in any
+library, and you will find that their authors have made them what they
+are not by a study of the rules and principles of rhetoric, for this of
+itself never has made and never can make a great writer. They are what
+they are because the author's very soul has been fired by some great
+truth or fact that the world has needed, that has been a help to
+mankind. Large souls they have been, souls in love with all the human
+kind.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>actor?</i> Then remember that if you
+make it the object of your life to play to influence the hearts, the
+lives, and so the destinies of men, this same great law of nature that
+operates in the case of the orator will come to your assistance, will
+aid you in your growth and development, and will enable you to attain to
+heights you could never attain to or even dream of, in case you play for
+the little <i>ego</i> you otherwise would stand for. In the latter case you
+may succeed in making a third or a fourth rate actor, possibly a second
+rate; but you can never become one of the world's greatest, and the
+chances are you may succeed in making not even a livelihood, and thus
+have your wonderment satisfied why so many who try fail.</p>
+
+<p>In the other case, other things being equal, the height you may attain
+to is unbounded, depending upon the degree you are able to forget
+yourself in influencing the minds and the souls, and thus the lives and
+the destinies of men.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>singer?</i> Then remember that if
+your thought is only of self, you may never sing at all, unless, indeed,
+you enjoy singing to yourself,&mdash;this, or you will be continually anxious
+as to the size of your audience. If, on the other hand, you choose this
+field of work because here you can be of the greatest service to
+mankind, if your ambition is to sing to the hearts and the lives of men,
+then this same great law of nature will come to assist you in your
+growth and development and efforts, and other things being equal,
+instead of singing to yourself or being anxious as to the size of your
+audience, you will seldom find time for the first, and your anxiety will
+be as to whether the place has an audience-chamber large enough to
+accommodate even a small portion of the people who will seek
+admittance. You remember Jenny Lind.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a <i>fashionable society woman</i>, this and
+nothing more, intent only upon your own pleasure and satisfaction? Then
+stop and meditate, if only for a moment; for if this is the case, you
+never will, ay, you never can find the true and the genuine, for you
+fail to recognize the great law that there is no such thing as finding
+true happiness by searching for it <i>directly</i>, and the farther on you go
+the more flimsy and shallow and unsatisfying that imitation you are
+willing to accept for the genuine will become. You will thereby rob life
+of its chief charms, defeat the very purpose you have in view. And,
+while you are at this moment meditating, oh grasp the truth of the great
+law that you will find your own life only in losing it in the service of
+others,&mdash;that the more of your life you so give, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy your own life will become.</p>
+
+<p>And with your abundant means and opportunities build your life upon this
+great law of service, and experience the pleasure of growing into that
+full, rich, ever increasing and satisfying life that will result, and
+that will make you better known, more honored and blessed, than the life
+of any mere society woman can be, or any life, for that matter; for you
+are thus living a life the highest this world can know. And you will
+thus hasten the day when, standing and looking back and seeing the
+emptiness and the littleness of the other life as compared with this,
+you will bless the time that your better judgment prevailed and saved
+you from it. Or, if you chance to be in it already, delay not, but
+commence now to build upon this true foundation.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of discharging your footman, as did a woman of whom I chance to
+know, because he finally refused to stand in the rain by the side of her
+carriage, with his arms folded just so, standing immovable like a mummy
+(I had almost said like a fool), daring to look neither to one side nor
+the other, but all the time in the direction of her so-called ladyship,
+while she spent an hour or two in doing fifteen or twenty minutes'
+shopping in her desire to make it known that this is Mrs. Q.'s carriage,
+and this is the footman that goes with it,&mdash;instead of doing this, give
+him an umbrella if necessary, and take him to aid you as you go on your
+errands of mercy and cheer and service and loving kindness to the
+innumerable ones all about you who so stand in need of them.</p>
+
+<p>Is there any comparison between the appellation &quot;Lady Bountiful&quot; and &quot;a
+proud, selfish, pleasure-seeking woman&quot;? And, much more, do you think
+there is any comparison whatever between the real pleasure and happiness
+and satisfaction in the lives of the two?</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it the ambition of your life to <i>accumulate great wealth</i>, and thus
+to acquire a great name, and along with it happiness and satisfaction?
+Then remember that whether these will come to you will depend <i>entirely</i>
+upon the use and disposition you make of your wealth. If you regard it
+as a <i>private trust</i> to be used for the highest good of mankind, then
+well and good, these will come to you. If your object, however, is to
+pile it up, to hoard it, then neither will come; and you will find it a
+life as unsatisfactory as one can live.</p>
+
+<p>There is, there can be, no greatness in things, in material things, of
+themselves. The greatness is determined entirely by the use and
+disposition made of them. The greatest greatness and the only <i>true</i>
+greatness in the world is unselfish love and service and self-devotion
+to one's fellow-men.</p>
+
+<p>Look at the matter carefully, and tell me candidly if there can be
+anything more foolish than a man's spending all the days of his life
+piling up and hoarding money, too mean and too stingy to use any but
+what is absolutely necessary, accumulating many times more than he can
+possibly ever use, always eager for more, growing still more eager and
+grasping the nearer he comes to life's end, then lying down, dying, and
+leaving it. It seems to me about as sensible for a man to have as the
+great aim and ambition of life the piling up of an immense pile of old
+iron in the middle of a large field, and sitting on it day after day
+because he is so wedded to it that it has become a part of his life and
+lest a fragment disappear, denying himself and those around him many of
+the things that go to make life valuable and pleasant, and finally dying
+there, himself, the soul, so dwarfed and so stunted that he has really a
+hard time to make his way out of the miserable old body. There is not
+such a great difference, if you will think of it carefully,&mdash;one a pile
+of old iron, the other a pile of gold or silver, but all belonging to
+the same general class.</p>
+
+<p>It is a great law of our being that we become like those things we
+contemplate. If we contemplate those that are true and noble and
+elevating, we grow in the likeness of these. If we contemplate merely
+material things, as gold or silver or copper or iron, our souls, our
+natures, and even our faces become like them, hard and flinty, robbed of
+their finer and better and grander qualities. Call to mind the person or
+picture of the miser, and you will quickly see that this is true. Merely
+nature's great law. He thought he was going to be a master: he finds
+himself the slave. Instead of possessing his wealth, his wealth
+possesses him. How often have I seen persons of nearly or quite this
+kind! Some can be found almost anywhere. You can call to mind a few,
+perhaps many.</p>
+
+<p>During the past two or three years two well-known millionaires in the
+United States, millionaires many times over, have died. The one started
+into life with the idea of acquiring a great name by accumulating great
+wealth. These two things he had in mind,&mdash;self and great wealth. And, as
+he went on, he gradually became so that he could see nothing but these.
+The greed for gain soon made him more and more the slave; and he,
+knowing nothing other than obedience to his master, piled and
+accumulated and hoarded, and after spending all his days thus, he then
+lay down and died, taking not so much as one poor little penny with him,
+only a soul dwarfed compared to what it otherwise might have been. For
+it might have been the soul of a royal master instead of that of an
+abject slave.</p>
+
+<p>The papers noted his death with seldom even a single word of praise. It
+was regretted by few, and he was mourned by still fewer. And even at his
+death he was spoken of by thousands in words far from complimentary, all
+uniting in saying what he might have been and done, what a tremendous
+power for good, how he might have been loved and honored during his
+life, and at death mourned and blessed by the entire nation, the entire
+world. A pitiable sight, indeed, to see a human mind, a human soul, thus
+voluntarily enslave itself for a few temporary pieces of metal.</p>
+
+<p>The other started into life with the principle that a man's success is
+to be measured by his <i>direct usefulness</i> to his fellow-men, to the
+world in which he lives, and by this alone; that private wealth is
+merely a <i>private trust</i> to be used for the highest good of mankind.
+Under the benign influences of this mighty principle of service, we see
+him great, influential, wealthy; his whole nature expanding, himself
+growing large-hearted, generous, magnanimous, serving his State, his
+country, his fellow-men, writing his name on the hearts of all he comes
+in contact with, so that his name is never thought of by them without
+feelings of gratitude and praise.</p>
+
+<p>Then as the chief service to his fellow-men, next to his own personal
+influence and example, he uses his vast fortune, this vast private
+trust, for the founding and endowing of a great institution of learning,
+using his splendid business capacities in its organization, having
+uppermost in mind in its building that young men and young women may
+there have every advantage at the least possible expense to fit
+themselves in turn for the greatest <i>direct usefulness</i> to their
+fellow-men while they live in the world.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these activities the news comes of his death. Many
+hearts now are sad. The true, large-hearted, sympathizing friend, the
+servant of rich and poor alike, has gone away. Countless numbers whom he
+has befriended, encouraged, helped, and served, bless his name, and give
+thanks that such a life has been lived. His own great State rises up as
+his pall-bearers, while the entire nation acts as honorary pall-bearers.
+Who can estimate the influence of a life such as this? But it cannot be
+estimated; for it will flow from the ones personally influenced to
+others, and through them to others throughout eternity. He alone who in
+His righteous balance weighs each human act can estimate it. And his
+final munificent gift to mankind will make his name remembered and
+honored and blessed long after the accumulations of mere plutocrats are
+scattered and mankind forgets that they have ever lived.</p>
+
+<p>Then have as your object the accumulation of great wealth if you choose;
+but bear in mind that, unless you are able to get beyond self, it will
+make you not great, but small, and you will rob life of the finer and
+better things in it. If, on the other hand, you are guided by the
+principle that private wealth is but a <i>private trust</i>, and that <i>direct
+usefulness</i> or service to mankind is the only real measure of true
+greatness, and bring your life into harmony with it, then you will
+become and will be counted great; and with it will come that rich joy
+and happiness and satisfaction that always accompanies a life of true
+service, and therefore the best and truest life.</p>
+
+<p>One can never afford to forget that personality, life, and character,
+that there may be the greatest service, are the chief things, and wealth
+merely the <i>incident</i>. Nor can one afford to be among those who are too
+mean, too small, or too stingy to invest in anything that will grow and
+increase these.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III" />PART III.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE UNFOLDMENT</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>If you'd have a rare growth and unfoldment supreme,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And make life one long joy and contentment complete,<br /></span>
+<span>Then with kindliness, love, and good will let it teem,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And with service for all make it fully replete.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>If you'd have all the world and all heaven to love you,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And that love with its power would you fully convince,<br /></span>
+<span>Then love all the world; and men royal and true,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Will make cry as you pass&mdash;&quot;God bless him, the prince!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>One beautiful feature of this principle of love and service is that this
+phase of one's personality, or nature, can be grown. I have heard it
+asked, If one hasn't it to any marked degree naturally, what is to be
+done? In reply let it be said, Forget self, get out of it for a little
+while, and, as it comes in your way, do something for some one, some
+kind service, some loving favor, it makes no difference how <i>small</i> it
+may appear. But a kind look or word to one weary with care, from whose
+life all worth living for seems to have gone out; a helping hand or
+little lift to one almost discouraged,&mdash;it may be that this is just the
+critical moment, a helping hand just now may change a life or a destiny.
+Show yourself a friend to one who thinks he or she is friendless.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, there are a thousand opportunities each day right where you
+are,&mdash;not the great things far away, but the little things right at
+hand. With a heart full of love do something: experience the rich
+returns that will come to you, and it will be unnecessary to urge a
+repetition or a continuance. The next time it will be easier and more
+natural, and the next. You know of that wonderful reflex-nerve system
+you have in your body,&mdash;that which says that whenever you do a certain
+thing in a certain way, it is easier to do the same thing the next time,
+and the next, and the next, until presently it is done with scarcely any
+effort on your part at all, it has become your second nature. And thus
+we have what? Habit. This is the way that all habit is, the way that all
+habit must be formed. And have you ever fully realized that <i>life is,
+after all, merely a series of habits</i>, and that it lies entirely within
+one's own power to determine just what that series shall be?</p>
+
+<p>I have seen this great principle made the foundation principle in an
+institution of learning. It is made not a theory merely as I have seen
+it here and there, but a vital, living truth. And I wish I had time to
+tell of its wonderful and beautiful influences upon the life and work of
+that institution, and upon the lives and the work of those who go out
+from it. A joy indeed to be there. One can't enter within its walls even
+for a few moments without feeling its benign influences. One can't go
+out without taking them with him. I have seen purposes and lives almost
+or quite transformed; and life so rich, so beautiful, and so valuable
+opened up, such as the persons never dreamed could be, by being but a
+single year under these beautiful and life-giving influences.</p>
+
+<p>I have also seen it made the foundation principle of a great summer
+congress, one that has already done an unprecedented work, one that has
+a far greater work yet before it, and chiefly by reason of this
+all-powerful foundation upon which it is built,&mdash;conceived and put into
+operation as it was by a rare and highly illumined soul, one thoroughly
+filled with the love of service for all the human kind. There are no
+thoughts of money returns, for everything it has to give is as free as
+the beautiful atmosphere that pervades it. The result is that there is
+drawn together, by way of its magnificent corps of lectures as well as
+those in attendance, a company of people of the rarest type, so that
+everywhere there is a manifestation of that spirit of love, helpfulness,
+and kindliness, that permeates the entire atmosphere with a deep feeling
+of peace, that makes every moment of life a joy.</p>
+
+<p>So enchanting does this spirit make the place that very frequently the
+single day of some who have come for this length of time has lengthened
+itself into a week, and the week in turn into a month; and the single
+week of others has frequently lengthened itself, first into a month,
+then into the entire summer. There is nothing at all strange in this
+fact, however; for wherever one finds sweet humanity, he there finds a
+spot where all people love to dwell.</p>
+
+<p>Making this the fundamental principle of one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, is not, as a casual
+observer might think, and as he sometimes suggests, an argument against
+one's own growth and development, against the highest possible
+unfoldment of his entire personality and powers. Rather, on the other
+hand, is it one of the greatest reasons, one of the greatest arguments,
+in its favor; for, the stronger the personality and the greater the
+powers, the greater the influence in the service of mankind. If, then,
+life be thus founded, can there possibly be any greater incentive to
+that self-development that brings one up to his highest possibilities? A
+development merely for self alone can never have behind it an incentive,
+a power so great; <i>and after all, there is nothing in the world so
+great, so effective in the service of mankind, as a strong, noble, and
+beautiful manhood or womanhood</i>. It is this that in the ultimate
+determines the influence of every man upon his fellow-men. <i>Life,
+character, is the greatest power in the world, and character it is that
+gives the power; for in all true power, along whatever line it may be,
+it is after all, living the life that tells</i>. This is a great law that
+but few who would have great power and influence seem to recognize, or,
+at least, that but few seem to act upon.</p>
+
+<p>Are you a writer? You can never write more than you yourself are. Would
+you write more? Then broaden, deepen, enrich the life. Are you a
+minister? You can never raise men higher than you have raised yourself.
+Your words will have exactly the sound of the life whence they come.
+Hollow the life? Hollow-sounding and empty will be the words, weak,
+ineffective, false. Would you have them go with greater power, and thus
+be more effective? Live the life, the power will come. Are you an
+orator? The power and effectiveness of your words in influencing and
+moving masses of men depends entirely upon the altitude from which they
+are spoken. Would you have them more effective, each one filled with a
+living power? Then elevate the life, the power will come. Are you in the
+walks of private life? Then, wherever you move, there goes from you,
+even if there be no word spoken, a silent but effective influence of an
+elevating or a degrading nature. Is the life high, beautiful? Then the
+influences are inspiring, life-giving. Is it low, devoid of beauty? The
+influences then, are disease laden, death-dealing. The tones of your
+voice, the attitude of your body, the character of your face, all are
+determined by the life you live, all in turn influence for better or for
+worse all who come within your radius. And if, as one of earth's great
+souls has said, the only way truly to help a man is to make him better,
+then the tremendous power of merely the life itself.</p>
+
+<p>Why, I know personally a young man of splendid qualities and gifts, who
+was rapidly on the way of ruin, as the term goes, gradually losing
+control of himself day after day, self-respect almost gone,&mdash;already the
+thought of taking his own life had entered his mind,&mdash;who was so
+inspired with the mere presence and bearing of a royal-hearted young
+man, one who had complete mastery of himself, and therefore a young man
+of power, that the very sight of him as he went to and fro in his daily
+work was a power that called his better self to the front again,
+awakened the God nature within him, so that he again set his face in the
+direction of the right, the true, the manly; and to-day there is no
+grander, stronger, more beautiful soul in all the wide country than he.
+Yes, there is a powerful influence that resolves itself into a service
+for all in each individual strong, pure, and noble life.</p>
+
+<p>And have the wonderful possibilities of what may be termed an inner or
+soul development ever come strongly to your notice? Perhaps not, for as
+yet only a few have begun to recognize under this name a certain great
+power that has always existed,&mdash;a power that has never as yet been fully
+understood, and so has been called by this term and by that. It is
+possible so to develop this soul power that, as we stand merely and talk
+with a person, there goes out from us a silent influence that the person
+cannot see or hear, but that he feels, and the influences of which he
+cannot escape; that, as we merely go into a room in which several
+persons are sitting, there goes out from us a power, a silent influence
+that all will feel and will be influenced by, even though not a word be
+spoken. This has been the power of every man, of every woman, of great
+and lasting influence in the world's history.</p>
+
+<p>It is just beginning to come to us through a few highly illumined souls
+that this power can be grown, that it rests upon great natural law that
+the Author of our being has instituted within us and about us. It is
+during the next few years that we are to see many wonderful developments
+along this line; for in this, as in many others, the light is just
+beginning to break. A few, who are far up on the heights of human
+development, are just beginning to catch the first few faint flushes of
+the dawn. Then live to your highest. This of itself will make you of
+great service to mankind, but without this you never can be. Naught is
+the difference how hard you may try; and know, even so far as your own
+highest interests are concerned, that the true joy of existence comes
+from living to one's highest.</p>
+
+<p>This life, and this alone, will bring that which I believe to be one of
+the greatest characteristics of a truly great man,&mdash;humility; and when
+one says humility, he necessarily implies simplicity; for the two always
+go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. The proud, the vain, the
+haughty, those striving for effect, are never counted among the world's
+greatest personages. The very fact of one's striving for effect of
+itself indicates that there is not enough in him to make him really
+great; while he who really is so needs never concern himself about it,
+nor does he ever. I can think of no better way for one to attain to
+humility and simplicity than for him to have his mind off of self in the
+service of others. Vanity, that most dangerous quality, and especially
+for young people, is the outcome of one's always regarding self.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher once said that, when they lived in the part of
+Brooklyn known as the Heights, they could always tell when Mr. Beecher
+was coming in the evening from the voices and the joyous laughter of the
+children. All the street urchins, as well as the more well-to-do
+children in the vicinity, knew him, and would often wait for his coming.
+When they saw him in the distance, they would run and gather around him,
+get hold of his hands, into those large overcoat pockets for the nuts
+and the good things he so often filled them with before starting for
+home, knowing as he did full well what was coming, tug at him to keep
+him with them as long as they could, he all the time laughing or running
+as if to get away, never too great&mdash;ay, rather let us say, great
+enough&mdash;to join with them in their sports.</p>
+
+<p>That mysterious dignity of a man less great, therefore with less of
+humility and simplicity, with mind always intent upon self and his own
+standing, would have told him that possibly this might not be just the
+&quot;proper thing&quot; to do. But even the children, street urchins as well as
+those well-to-do, found in this great loving soul a friend. Recall
+similar incidents in the almost daily life of Lincoln and in the lives
+of all truly great men. All have that beautiful and ever-powerful
+characteristic, that simple, childlike nature.</p>
+
+<p>Another most beautiful and valuable feature of this life is its effect
+upon one's own growth and development. There is a law which says that
+one can't do a kind act or a loving service for another without its
+bringing rich returns to his own life and growth. This is an invariable
+law. Can I then, do a kind act or a loving service for a brother or a
+sister,&mdash;and all indeed are such because children of the same
+Father,&mdash;why, I should be glad&mdash;ay, doubly glad of the opportunity. If I
+do it thus out of love, forgetful of self, for aught I know it may do me
+more good than the one I do it for, in its influence upon the growing of
+that rich, beautiful, and happy life it is mine to grow; though the joy
+and satisfaction resulting from it, the highest, the sweetest, the
+keenest this life can know, are of themselves abundant rewards.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to all this it scarcely ever fails that those who are thus
+aided by some loving service may be in a position somehow, some-when,
+somewhere, either directly or indirectly, and at a time when it may be
+most needed or most highly appreciated, to do in turn a kind service for
+him who, with never a thought of any possible return, has dealt kindly
+with them. So</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Cast your bread upon the waters, far and wide your treasures strew,<br /></span>
+<span>Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go!<br /></span>
+<span>You may think it lost forever; but, as sure as God is true,<br /></span>
+<span>In this life and in the other it will yet return to you.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Have you sorrows or trials that seem very heavy to bear? Then let me
+tell you that one of the best ways in the world to lighten and sweeten
+them is to lose yourself in the service of others, in helping to bear
+and lighten those of a fellow-being whose, perchance, are much more
+grievous than your own. It is a great law of your being which says you
+can do this. Try it, and experience the truth for yourself, and know
+that, when turned in this way, sorrow is the most beautiful soul-refiner
+of which the world knows, and hence not to be shunned, but to be
+welcomed and rightly turned.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to my mind a poor widow woman whose life would seem to have
+nothing in it to make it happy, but, on the other hand, cheerless and
+tiresome, and whose work would have been very hard, had it not been for
+a little crippled child she dearly loved and cared for, and who was all
+the more precious to her on account of its helplessness. Losing herself
+and forgetting her own hard lot in the care of the little cripple, her
+whole life was made cheerful and happy, and her work not hard, but easy,
+because lightened by love and service for another. And this is but one
+of innumerable cases of this kind.</p>
+
+<p>So you may turn your sorrows, you may lighten your burdens, by helping
+bear the burdens, if not of a crippled child, then of a brother or a
+sister who in another sense may be crippled, or who may become so but
+for your timely service. You can find them all about you: never pass one
+by.</p>
+
+<p>By building upon this principle, the poor may thus live as grandly and
+as happily as the rich, those in humble and lowly walks of life as
+grandly and as happily as those in what seem to be more exalted
+stations. Recognizing the truth, as we certainly must by this time, that
+one is <i>truly</i> great only in so far as this is made the fundamental
+principle of his life, it becomes evident that that longing for
+greatness for its and for one's own sake falls away, and none but a
+diseased mind cares for it; for no sooner is it grasped than, as a
+bubble, it bursts, because it is not the true, the permanent, but the
+false, the transient. On the other hand, he who forgetting self and this
+kind of greatness, falsely so called, in the service of his fellow-men,
+by this very fact puts himself on the right track, the only track for
+the true, the genuine; and in what degree it will come to him depends
+entirely upon his adherence to the law.</p>
+
+<p>And do you know the influence of this life in the moulding of the
+features, that it gives the highest beauty that can dwell there, the
+beauty that comes from within,&mdash;the <i>soul beauty</i>, so often found in the
+paintings of the old masters. <i>True beauty must come, must be grown,
+from, within</i>. That outward veneering, which is so prevalent, can never
+be even a poor imitation of this type of the true, the genuine. To
+appreciate fully the truth of this, it is but necessary to look for a
+moment at that beautiful picture by Sant, the &quot;Soul's Awakening,&quot; a face
+that grows more beautiful each time one looks at it, and that one never
+tires of looking at, and compare with it the fractional parts of
+apothecary shops we see now and then&mdash;or so often, to speak more
+truly&mdash;on the streets. A face of this higher type carries with it a
+benediction wherever it goes.</p>
+
+<p>A beautiful little incident came to my notice not long ago. It was a
+very hot and dusty day. The passengers on the train were weary and
+tired. The time seemed long and the journey cheerless. A lady with a
+face that carries a benediction to all who see her entered the car with
+a little girl, also of that type of beauty that comes from within, and
+with a voice musical, sweet, and sparkling, such as also comes from this
+source.</p>
+
+<p>The child, when they were seated, had no sooner spoken a few words
+before she began to enlist the attention of her fellow-passengers. She
+began playing peek-a-boo with a staid and dignified old gentleman in the
+seat behind her. He at first looked at her over his spectacles, then
+lowered his paper a little, then a little more, and a little more.
+Finally, he dropped it altogether, and, apparently forgetting himself
+and his surroundings, became oblivious to everything in the fascinating
+pleasure he was having with the little girl. The other passengers soon
+found themselves following his example. All papers and books were
+dropped. The younger folks gave way to joyous laughter, and all seemed
+to vie with each other in having the honor of receiving a word or a
+smile from the little one.</p>
+
+<p>The dust, the heat, the tired, cheerless feelings were all forgotten;
+and when these two left the car, the little girl waving them good-by,
+instinctively, as one person, all the passengers waved it to her in
+return, and two otherwise dignified gentlemen, leaving their seats,
+passed over to the other side, and looked out of the window to see her
+as long as they could. Something as an electrical spark seemed to have
+passed through the car. All were light-hearted and happy now; and the
+conditions in the car, compared to what they were before these two
+entered, would rival the work of the stereopticon, so far as
+completeness of change is concerned. You have seen such faces and have
+heard such voices. They result from a life the kind we are considering.
+They are but its outward manifestations, spontaneous as the water from
+the earth as it bursts forth a natural fountain.</p>
+
+<p>We must not fail also to notice the effect of this life upon one's
+manners and bearing. True politeness comes from a life founded upon this
+great principle, and from this alone. This gives the true
+gentleman,&mdash;<i>gentle-man</i>,&mdash;a man gentle, kind, loving, courteous from
+nature. Such a one can't have anything but true politeness, can't be
+anything but a gentle-man; for one can't truly be anything but himself.
+So the one always intent upon and thinking of self cannot be the true
+gentleman, notwithstanding the artful contrivances and studied efforts
+to appear so, but which so generally reveal his own shallowness and
+artificiality, and disgust all with whom he comes in contact.</p>
+
+<p>I sometimes meet a person who, when introduced, will go through a series
+of stiff, cold, and angular movements, the knee at such a bend, the foot
+at such an angle, the back with such a bend or hump,&mdash;much less pleasant
+to see than that of a camel or a dromedary, for with these it is
+natural,&mdash;so that I have found myself almost thinking, Poor fellow, I
+wonder what the trouble is, whether he will get over it all right. It is
+so very evident that he all the time has his mind upon himself,
+wondering whether or not he is getting everything just right. What a
+relief to turn from such a one to one who, instead of thinking always of
+self, has continually in mind the ease and comfort and pleasure he can
+give to others, who, in other words, is the true <i>gentle-man</i>, and with
+whom true politeness is natural; for one's every act is born of his
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that there was no truer gentleman in all Scotland than Robert
+Burns. And yet he was a farmer all his life, and had never been away
+from his native little rural village into a city until near the close of
+his life, when, taking the manuscripts that for some time had been
+accumulating in the drawer of his writing-table up to Edinburgh, he
+captivated the hearts of all in the capital. Without studied
+contrivances, he was the true gentleman, and true politeness was his,
+because his life was founded upon the principle that continually brought
+from his pen lines such as:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;It's coming yet, for a' that,<br /></span>
+<span>That man to man, the warld o'er,<br /></span>
+<span>Shall brothers be for a' that!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And under the influence of this principle, he was a gentleman by nature,
+and one of nature's noblemen, without ever thinking whether he was or
+not, as he who is truly such never needs to and never does.</p>
+
+<p>And then recall the large-hearted Ben Franklin, when sent to the French
+court. In his plain gray clothes, unassuming and entirely forgetful of
+himself, how he captured the hearts of all, of even the giddy society
+ladies, and how he became and remained while there the centre of
+attraction in that gay capital! His politeness, his manners, all the
+result of that great, kind, loving, and helpful nature which made
+others feel that it was they he was devoting himself to and not himself.</p>
+
+<p>This little extract from a letter written by Franklin to George
+Whitefield will show how he regarded the great principle we are
+considering: &quot;As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have been
+of more service to you. But, if it had, the only thanks I should desire
+is that you would always be equally ready to serve any other person that
+may need your assistance; and so let good offices go around, for mankind
+are all of a family. For my own part, when I am employed in serving
+others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as paying
+debts. In my travels, and since my settlement, I have received much
+kindness from men to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making
+any direct return, and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely
+above being benefited by our services. These kindnesses from men I can,
+therefore, only return on their fellow-men; and I can only show my
+gratitude for these mercies from God by a readiness to help his other
+children and my brethren.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No, true gentlemanliness and politeness always comes from within, and is
+born of a life of love, kindliness, and service. This is the universal
+language, known and understood everywhere, even when our words are not.
+There is, you know, a beautiful old proverb which says, &quot;He who is kind
+and courteous to strangers thereby shows himself a citizen of the
+world.&quot; And there is nothing so remembered, and that so endears one to
+all mankind, as this universal language. Even dumb animals understand it
+and are affected by it. How quickly the dog, for example, knows and
+makes it known when he is spoken to and treated kindly or the reverse!
+And here shall not a word be spoken in connection with that great body
+of our fellow-creatures whom, because we do not understand their
+language, we are accustomed to call dumb? The attitude we have assumed
+toward these fellow-creatures, and the treatment they have been
+subjected to in the past, is something almost appalling.</p>
+
+<p>There are a number of reasons why this has been true. Has not one been
+on account of a belief in a future life for man, but not for the animal?
+A few years ago a gentleman left by will some fifty thousand dollars for
+the work of Henry Bergh's New York Society. His relatives contested the
+will on the ground of insanity,&mdash;on the ground of insanity because he
+believed in a future life for animals. The judge, in giving his decision
+sustaining the will, stated that after a very careful investigation, he
+found that fully half the world shared the same belief. Agassiz
+thoroughly believed it. An English writer has recently compiled a list
+of over one hundred and seventy English authors who have so thoroughly
+believed it as to write upon the subject. The same belief has been
+shared by many of the greatest thinkers in all parts of the world, and
+it is a belief that is constantly gaining ground.</p>
+
+<p>Another and perhaps the chief cause has been on account of a supposed
+inferior degree of intelligence on the part of animals, which in another
+form would mean, that they are less able to care for and protect
+themselves. Should this, however, be a reason why they should be
+neglected and cruelly treated? Nay, on the other hand, should this not
+be the greatest reason why we should all the more zealously care for,
+protect, and kindly treat them?</p>
+
+<p>You or I may have a brother or a sister who is not normally endowed as
+to brain power, who, perchance, may be idiotic or insane, or who,
+through sickness or mishap, is weakminded; but do we make this an
+excuse for neglecting, cruelly treating, or failing to love such a one?
+On the contrary, the very fact that he or she is not so able to plan
+for, care for, and protect him or her self, is all the greater reason
+for all the more careful exercise of these functions on our part. But,
+certainly, there are many animals around us with far more intelligence,
+at least manifested intelligence, than this brother or sister. The
+parallel holds, but the absurd falsity of the position we assume is most
+apparent. No truer nobility of character can anywhere manifest itself
+than is shown in one's attitude toward and treatment of those weaker or
+the so-called inferior, and so with less power to care for and protect
+themselves. Moreover, I think we shall find that we are many times
+mistaken in regard to our beliefs in connection with the inferior
+intelligence of at least many animals. If, instead of using them simply
+to serve our own selfish ends without a just recompense, without a
+thought further than as to what we can get out of them, and then many
+times casting them off when broken or of no further service, and many
+times looking down upon, neglecting, or even abusing them,&mdash;if, instead
+of this, we would deal equitably with them, love them, train and
+educate them the same as we do our children, we would be somewhat
+surprised at the remarkable degree of intelligence the &quot;dumb brutes&quot;
+possess, and also the remarkable degree of training they are capable of.
+What, however, can be expected of them when we take the attitude we at
+present hold toward them?</p>
+
+<p>Page after page might readily be filled with most interesting as well as
+inspiring portrayals of their superior intelligence, their remarkable
+capabilities under kind and judicious training, their <i>faithfulness</i> and
+<i>devotion</i>. The efforts of such noble and devoted workers as Henry Bergh
+in New York, of George T. Angell in Massachusetts, and many others in
+various parts of the country, have already brought about a great change
+in our attitude toward and relations with this great body of our
+fellow-creatures, and have made all the world more thoughtful,
+considerate, and kind. This, however, is just the beginning of a work
+that is assuming greater and ever greater proportions.</p>
+
+<p>The work of the American Humane Education Society<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1" /><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> is probably
+surpassed in its vitality and far-reaching results by the work of no
+other society in the world to-day. Its chief object is the humane
+education of the American people; and through one phase of its work
+alone&mdash;its Bands of Mercy, over twenty-five thousand of which have
+already been formed, giving regular, systematic humane training and
+instruction to between one and two million children, and these
+continually increasing in numbers&mdash;a most vital work is being done, such
+as no man can estimate.</p>
+
+<p>The humane sentiment inculcated in one's relations with the animal
+world, and its resultant feelings of sympathy, tenderness, love, and
+care, will inevitably manifest itself in one's relations with his
+fellows; and I for one, would rejoice to see this work carried into
+every school throughout the length and breadth of the land. In many
+cases this one phase of the child's training would be of far more vital
+value and import as he grows to manhood than all the rest of the
+schooling combined, and it would form a most vital entering wedge in the
+solution of our social situation.</p>
+
+<p>And why should we not speak to and kindly greet an animal as we pass it,
+as instinctively as we do a human fellow-being? Though it may not get
+our words, it will invariably get the attitude and the motive that
+prompts them, and will be affected accordingly. This it will do every
+time. Animals in general are marvellously sensitive to the mental
+conditions, the thought forces, and emotions of people. Some are
+peculiarly sensitive, and can detect them far more quickly and
+unerringly than many people can.</p>
+
+<p>It ought to help us greatly in our relations with them ever fully to
+realize that they with us are parts of the one Universal Life, simply
+different forms of the manifestation of the One Life, having their part
+to play in the economy of the great universe the same as we have ours,
+having their destiny to work out the same as we have ours, and just as
+important, just as valuable, in the sight of the All in All as we
+ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemned
+for a while to roam four-footed among the brambles. I caught the
+clinging mute glance of the prisoner, and swore I would be faithful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thee my brother and sister I see, and mistake not. Do not be afraid.
+Dwelling thus for a while, fulfilling thy appointed time, thou, too,
+shall come to thyself at last.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy half-warm horns and long tongue lapping round my wrist do not
+conceal thy humanity any more than the learned talk of the pedant
+conceals his,&mdash;for all thou art dumb, we have words and plenty between
+us.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come nigh, little bird, with your half-stretched quivering
+wings,&mdash;within you I behold choirs of angels, and the Lord himself in
+vista.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2" /><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p>
+
+<p>But a small thing, apparently, is a kind look, word, or service of some
+kind; but, oh! who can tell where it may end? It costs the giver
+comparatively nothing; but who can tell the priceless value to him who
+receives it? The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of cold
+water, may grow and swell into a boundless river, refreshing and
+carrying life and hope in turn to numberless others, and these to
+others, and so have no end. This may be just the critical moment in some
+life. Given now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. So don't
+withhold the bread that's in your keeping, but</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>There is no greater thing in life that you can do, and nothing that
+will bring you such rich and precious returns.</p>
+
+<p>The question is sometimes asked, How can one feel a deep and genuine
+love, a love sufficient to manifest itself in service for all?&mdash;there
+are some so mean, so small, with so many peculiar, objectionable, or
+even obnoxious characteristics. True, very true, apparently at least;
+but another great law of life is that <i>we find in men and women exactly
+those qualities, those characteristics, we look for, or that are nearest
+akin to the predominant qualities or characteristics of our own
+natures</i>. If we look for the peculiar, the little, the objectionable,
+these we shall find; but back of all this, all that is most apparent on
+the exterior, in the depths of each and every human soul, is the good,
+the true, the brave, the loving, the divine, the God-like, that that
+never changes, the very God Himself that at some time or another will
+show forth His full likeness.</p>
+
+<p>And still another law of life is that others usually manifest to us that
+which our own natures, or, in other words, our own thoughts and
+emotions, call forth. The same person, for example, will come to two
+different people in an entirely different way, because the larger,
+better, purer, and more universal nature of the one calls forth the
+best, the noblest, the truest in him; while the smaller, critical,
+personal nature of the other calls forth the opposite. The wise man is
+therefore careful in regard to what he has to say concerning this or
+that one; for, generally speaking, it is a sad commentary upon one's
+self if he find only the disagreeable, the objectionable. <i>One lives
+always in the atmosphere of his own creation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it is sometimes said, But such a one has such and such habits or
+has done so and so, has committed such and such an error or such and
+such a crime. But who, let it be asked, constituted me a judge of my
+fellow-man? Do I not recognize the fact that the moment I judge my
+fellow-man, by that very act I judge myself? One of two things, I either
+judge myself or hypocritically profess that never once in my entire life
+have I committed a sin, an error of any kind, never have I stumbled,
+never fallen, and by that very profession I pronounce myself at once
+either a fool or a knave, or both.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it is said, But even for the sake of helping, of doing some
+service, I could not for my own sake, for character's, for reputation's
+sake, I could not afford even to be seen with such a one. What would
+people, what would my friends, think and say? True, apparently at least,
+but, if my life, my character, has such a foundation, a foundation so
+weak, so uncertain, so tottering, as to be affected by anything of this
+kind, I had better then look well to it, and quietly, quickly, but
+securely, begin to rebuild it; and, when I am sure that it is upon the
+true, deep, substantial foundation, the only additional thing then
+necessary is for me to reach that glorious stage of development which
+quickly gets one out of the personal into the universal, or rather that
+indicates that he is already out of the one and into the other, when he
+can say: They think. What do they think? Let them think. They say. What
+do they say? Let them say.</p>
+
+<p>And, then, the supreme charity one should have, when he realizes the
+fact that <i>the great bulk of the sin and error in the world is committed
+not through choice, but through ignorance</i>. Not that the person does not
+know many times that this or that course of action is wrong, that it is
+wrong to commit this error or sin or crime; but the ignorance comes in
+his belief that in this course of conduct he is deriving pleasure and
+happiness, and his ignorance of the fact that through a different course
+of conduct he would derive a pleasure, a happiness, much keener, higher,
+more satisfying and enduring.</p>
+
+<p>Never should we forget that we are all the same in motive,&mdash;pleasure and
+happiness: we differ only in method; and this difference in method is
+solely by reason of some souls being at any particular time more fully
+evolved, and thus having a greater knowledge of the great, immutable
+laws under which we live, and by putting the life into more and ever
+more complete harmony with these higher laws and forces, and in this way
+bringing about the highest, the keenest, the most abiding pleasure and
+happiness instead of seeking it on the lower planes.</p>
+
+<p>While all are the same in essence, all a part of the One Infinite,
+Eternal, all with the same latent possibilities, all reaching ultimately
+the same place, it nevertheless is true that at any particular time some
+are more fully awakened, evolved, unfolded. One should also be careful,
+if life is continuous, eternal, how he judges any particular life merely
+from these threescore years and ten; for the very fact of life, in
+whatever form, means continual activity, growth, advancement,
+unfoldment, attainment, and, if there is the one, there must of
+necessity be the other. So in regard to this one or that one, no fears
+need be entertained.</p>
+
+<p>By the door of my woodland cabin stood during the summer a magnificent
+tube-rose stock. The day was when it was just putting into bloom; and
+then I counted buds&mdash;latent flowers&mdash;to the number of over a score. Some
+eight or ten one morning were in full bloom. The ones nearer the top did
+not bloom forth until some two and three weeks later, and for some it
+took quite a month to reach the fully perfected stage. These certainly
+were not so beautiful, so satisfying, as those already in the perfect
+bloom, those that had already reached their highest perfection. But
+should they on this account be despised? Wait, wait and give the element
+of time an opportunity of doing its work; and you may find that by and
+by, when these have reached their highest perfection, they may even far
+transcend in beauty and in fragrance those at present so beautiful, so
+fragrant, so satisfying, those that we so much admire.</p>
+
+<p>Here we recognize the element of time. How foolish, how childish, how
+puerile, to fail or even refuse to do the same when it comes to the
+human soul, with all its God-like possibilities! And, again, how
+foolish, because some of the blooms on the rose stock had not reached
+their perfection as soon as others, to have pronounced them of no value,
+unworthy, and to have refused them the dews, the warm rains, the
+life-giving sunshine, the very agencies that hastened their perfected
+growth! Yet this puerile, unbalanced attitude is that taken by untold
+numbers in the world to-day toward many human souls on account of their
+less mature unfoldment at any given time.</p>
+
+<p>Why, the very fact that a fellow-man and a brother has this or that
+fault, error, undesirable or objectionable characteristic, is of itself
+the very reason he needs all the more of charity, of love, of kindly
+help and aid, than is needed by the one more fully developed, and hence
+more free from these. All the more reason is there why the best in him
+should be recognized and ever called to the front.</p>
+
+<p>The wise man is he who, when he desires to rid a room of darkness or
+gloom, does not attempt to drive it out directly, but who throws open
+the doors and the windows, that the room may be flooded with the golden
+sunlight; for in its presence darkness and gloom cannot remain. So the
+way to help a fellow-man and a brother to the higher and better life is
+not by ever prating upon and holding up to view his errors, his faults,
+his shortcomings, any more than in the case of children, but by
+recognizing and ever calling forth the higher, the nobler, the divine,
+the God-like, <i>by opening the doors and the windows of his own soul</i>,
+and thus bringing about a spiritual perception, that he may the more
+carefully listen to the inner voice, that he may the more carefully
+follow &quot;the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.&quot;
+For in the exact proportion that the interior perception comes will the
+outer life and conduct accord with it,&mdash;so far, and no farther.</p>
+
+<p>Where in all the world's history is to be found a more beautiful or
+valuable incident than this? A group of men, self-centred,
+self-assertive, have found a poor woman who, in her blindness and
+weakness, has committed an error, the same one that they, in all
+probability, have committed not once, but many times; <i>for the rule is
+that they are first to condemn who are-most at fault themselves</i>. They
+bring her to the Master, they tell him that she has committed a
+sin,&mdash;ay, more, that she has been taken in the very act,&mdash;and ask what
+shall be done with her, informing him that, in accordance with the olden
+laws, such a one should be stoned.</p>
+
+<p>But, quicker than thought, that great incarnation of spiritual power and
+insight reads their motives; and, after allowing them to give full
+expression to their accusations, he turns, and calmly says, &quot;He among
+you that is <i>without sin</i>, let <i>him</i> cast the first stone.&quot; So saying,
+he stoops down, as if he is writing in the sand. The accusers, feeling
+the keen and just rebuke, in the mean time sneak out, until not one
+remains. The Master, after all have gone, turns to the woman, his
+sister, and kindly and gently says, &quot;And where are thine accusers? doth
+no man condemn thee?&quot; &quot;No man, Lord.&quot; &quot;<i>And neither do I condemn thee:
+go thou, and sin no more</i>.&quot; Oh, the beauty, the soul pathos! Oh, the
+royal-hearted brother! Oh, the invaluable lesson to us all!</p>
+
+<p>I have no doubt that this gentle, loving admonition, this calling of the
+higher and the better to the front, set into operation in her interior
+nature forces that hastened her progress from the purely animal, the
+unsatisfying, the diminishing, to the higher spiritual, the satisfying,
+the ever-increasing, or, even more, that made it instantaneous, but that
+in either case brought about the new birth,&mdash;the new birth that comes
+with the awakening of the soul out of its purely physical sense-life to
+the higher spiritual perception and knowledge of itself, and thus the
+birth of the higher out of the lower, as at some time or another comes
+to each and every human soul.</p>
+
+<p>And still another fact that should make us most charitable toward and
+slow to judge, or rather refuse to judge, a fellow-man and a
+brother,&mdash;the fact that we cannot know the intense strugglings and
+fightings he or she may be subjected to, though accompanied, it is true,
+by numerous stumblings and fallings, though the latter we see, while the
+former we fail to recognize. Did we, however, know the truth of the
+matter, it may be that in the case of ourselves, who are so quick to
+judge, had we the same temptations and fightings, the battle would not
+be half so nobly, so manfully fought, and our stumblings and fallings
+might be many times the number of his or of hers. Had we infinite
+knowledge and wisdom, our judgments would be correct; though, had we
+infinite knowledge and wisdom, we would be spared the task, though
+perhaps pleasure would seem to be the truer word to use, of our own
+self-imposed judgments.</p>
+
+<p>Even so, then, if I cannot give myself in thorough love and service and
+self-devotion to each and all of the Father's other children, to every
+brother, no matter what the rank, station, or apparent condition, it
+shows that at least one of several things is radically wrong with self;
+and it also indicates that I shall never know the full and supreme joy
+of existence until I am able to and until I regard each case in the
+light of a rare and golden opportunity, in which I take a supreme
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>Although what has just been said is true, at the same time there are
+occasions when it must be taken with wise discretion; and, although
+there are things it may be right for me to do for the sake of helping
+another life, at the same time there are things it may be unwise for me
+to do. I have sympathy for a friend who is lying in the gutter; but it
+would be very unwise for me to get myself into the same condition, and
+go and lie with him, thinking that only thus I could show my fullest
+sympathy, and be of greatest help to him. On the contrary, it is only as
+I stand on the higher ground that I am able to reach forth the hand
+that will truly lift him up. The moment I sink myself to the same level,
+my power to help ceases.</p>
+
+<p>Just as unwise, to use a familiar example, far more unwise, would it be
+for me, were I a woman, to think of marrying a man who is a drunkard or
+a libertine, thinking that because I may love him I shall be able to
+reform him. In the first place, I should find that the desired results
+could not be accomplished in this way, or rather, no results that could
+not be accomplished, and far more readily accomplished otherwise, and at
+far less expense. In the second place, I could not afford to subject
+myself to the demands, the influences, of one such, and so either sink
+myself to his level or, if not, then be compelled to use the greater
+part of my time, thought, and energy in demonstrating over existing
+conditions, and keeping myself true to the higher life, the same time
+that might be used in helping the lives of many others. If I sink myself
+to his level, I do not help, but aid all the more in dragging him down,
+or, if I do not sink to his level, then in the degree that I approach it
+do I lose my power over and influence with that life. Especially would
+it be unwise on my part if on his part there is no real desire for a
+different course, and no manifest endeavor to attain to it. Many times
+it seems necessary for such a one to wallow in the deepest of the mire,
+until, to use a commonplace phrase, he has his fill. He will then be
+ready to come out, will then be open to influence. I in the mean time,
+instead of entering into the mire with him, instead of subjecting my
+life to his influences, will stand up on the higher ground, and will
+ever point him upward, will ever reach forth a hand to help him upward,
+and will thus subject <i>him</i> to the higher influences; and, by preserving
+myself in this attitude, I can do the same for many other lives. In it
+all there will be no bitterness, no condemnation, no casting off, but
+the highest charity, sympathy and love; and it is only by this method
+that I can manifest the highest, only by this method that I can the most
+truly aid, for only as I am lifted up can I draw others unto me.</p>
+
+<p>In this matter of service, as in all other matters, that supreme
+regulator of human life and conduct&mdash;good common sense&mdash;must always be
+used. There are some natures, for example, whom the more we would do
+for, the more we would have to do for, who, in other words, would become
+dependent, losing their sense of self-dependence. For such the highest
+service one can render is as judiciously and as indirectly as possible
+to lead them to the sense of self-reliance. Then there are others whose
+natures are such that, the more they are helped, the more they expect,
+the more they demand, even as their right, who, in other words, are
+parasites or vultures of the human kind. In this case, again, the
+greatest service that can be rendered may be a refusal of service, a
+refusal of aid in the ordinary or rather expected forms, and a still
+greater service in the form of teaching them that great principle of
+justice, of compensation, that runs through all the universe,&mdash;that for
+every service there must be in some form or another an adequate service
+in return, that the law of compensation in one form or another is
+absolute, and, in fact, the greatest forms of service we can render any
+one are, generally speaking, along the lines of teaching him the great
+laws of his own being, the great laws of his true possibilities and
+powers and so the great laws of self-help.</p>
+
+<p>And, again, it is possible for one whose heart goes out in love and
+service for all, and who, by virtue of lacking that long range of vision
+or by virtue of not having a grasp of things in their entirety or
+wholeness, may have his time, his energies so dissipated in what seems
+to be the highest service that he is continually kept from his own
+highest unfoldment, powers, and possessions, the very things that in
+their completeness would make him a thousand-fold more effective and
+powerful in his own life, and hence in the life of real service and
+influence. And, in a case of this kind, many times the mark of the most
+absolute unselfishness is a strong and marked selfishness, which will
+prove however to be a selfishness only in the seeming.</p>
+
+<p><i>The self should never be lost sight of. It is the one thing of supreme
+importance, the greatest factor even in the life of the greatest
+service</i>. Being always and necessarily precedes doing: having always and
+necessarily precedes giving. But this law also holds: that when there is
+the being, it is all the more increased by the doing; when there is the
+having, it is all the more increased by the giving. <i>Keeping to one's
+self dwarfs and stultifies. Hoarding brings loss: using brings even
+greater gain</i>. In brief, the more we are, the more we can do; the more
+we have, the more we can give.</p>
+
+<p>The most truly successful, the most powerful and valuable life, then,
+is the life that is first founded upon this great, immutable law of love
+and service, and that then becomes supremely self-centred,&mdash;supremely
+self-centred that it may become all the more supremely unself-centred;
+in other words, the life that looks v/ell to self, that there may be the
+ever greater self, in order that there may be the ever greater service.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Headquarters at Boston, Mass.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Toward Democracy.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV" />PART IV.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE AWAKENING</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>If you'd live a religion that's noble,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That's God-like and true,<br /></span>
+<span>A religion the grandest that men<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or that angels can,<br /></span>
+<span>Then live, live the truth<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of the brother who taught you,<br /></span>
+<span>It's love to God, service and love<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the fellow-man.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>Social problems are to be among the greatest problems of the generation
+just moving on to the stage of action. They, above all others, will
+claim the attention of mankind, as they are already claiming it across
+the waters even as at home. The attitude of the two classes toward each
+other, or the separation of the classes, will be by far the chief
+problem of them all. Already it is imperatively demanding a solution.
+Gradually, as the years have passed, this separation has been going on,
+but never so rapidly as of late. Each has come to regard the other as an
+enemy, with no interests in common, but rather that what is for the
+interests of the one must necessarily be to the detriment of the other.</p>
+
+<p>The great masses of the people, the working classes, those who as much,
+if not more than many others ought to be there, are not in our churches
+to-day. They already feel that they are not wanted there, and that the
+Church even is getting to be their enemy. There must be a reason for
+this, for it is impossible to have an effect without its preceding
+cause. It is indeed time to waken up to these facts and conditions; for
+they must be <i>squarely</i> met. A solution is imperatively demanded, and
+the sooner it comes, the better; for, if allowed to continue thus, all
+will come back to be paid for, intensified a thousand-fold,&mdash;ay, to be
+paid for even by many innocent ones.</p>
+
+<p>Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, and
+self-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-men be made the
+fundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these great
+and all-important questions will become. Indeed, they will almost solve
+themselves. It is the man all for self, so small and so short sighted
+that he can't get beyond his own selfish interests, that has done more
+to bring about this state of affairs than all other causes combined. Let
+the cause be removed, and then note the results.</p>
+
+<p>For many years it has been a teaching even of political economy that an
+employer buys his help just as he buys his raw material or any other
+commodity; and this done, he is in no way responsible for the welfare of
+those he employs. In fact, the time isn't so far distant when the
+employed were herded together as animals, and were treated very much as
+such. But, thanks be to God, a better and a brighter day is dawning.
+Even the employer is beginning to see that practical ethics, or true
+Christianity, and business cannot and must not be divorced; that the man
+he employs, instead of being a mere animal whose services he buys, is,
+after all his fellow-man and his brother, and demands a treatment as
+such, and that when he fails to recognize this truth, a righteous God
+steps in, demanding a penalty for its violation.</p>
+
+<p>He is recognizing the fact that whatsoever is for the well-being of the
+one he employs, that whatever privileges he is enabled to enjoy that
+will tend to grow and develop his physical, his mental, and his moral
+life, that will give him an agreeable home and pleasant family
+relations, that whatever influences tend to elevate him and to make his
+life more happy, are a direct gain, even from a financial standpoint for
+himself, by its increasing for him the efficiency of the man's labor.
+It is already recognized as a fact that the employer who interests
+himself in these things, other things being equal, is the most
+successful. Thus the old and the false are breaking away before the
+right and the true, as all inevitably must sooner or later; and the
+divinity and the power of the workingman is being ever more fully
+recognized.</p>
+
+<p>In the very remote history of the race there was one who, violating a
+great law, having wronged a brother, asked, &quot;Am I my brother's keeper?&quot;
+Knowing that he was, he nevertheless deceitfully put the question in
+this way in his desire, if possible, to avoid the responsibility. Many
+employers in their selfishness and greed for gain have asked this same
+question in this same way. They have thought they could thus defeat the
+sure and eternal laws of a Just Ruler, but have thereby deceived
+themselves the more. These more than any others have to a great degree
+brought about the present state of affairs in the industrial and social
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Just as soon as the employer recognizes the falsity of these old
+teachings and practices, and the fact that he cannot buy his employee's
+services the same as he buys his raw material, with no further
+responsibility, but that the two are on vastly different planes, that
+his employee is his fellow-man and his brother, and that he is his
+brother's keeper, and will be held responsible as such, that it is to
+his own highest interests, as well as to the highest interests of those
+he employs and to society in general, to recognize this; and just as
+soon as he who is employed fully appreciates his opportunities and makes
+the highest use of all, and in turn takes an active, personal interest
+in all that pertains to his employer's welfare,&mdash;just that soon will a
+solution of this great question come forth, and no sooner.</p>
+
+<p>It is not so much a question of legislation as of education and right
+doing, thus a dealing with the <i>individual</i>, and so a prevention and a
+cure, not merely a suppression and a regulation, which is always sure to
+fail; for, in a case of right or wrong no question is ever settled
+finally until it is settled rightly.</p>
+
+<p>The individual, dealing with the individual is necessarily at the bottom
+of all true social progress. There can't be anything worthy the name
+without it. The truth will at once be recognized by all <i>that the good
+of the whole defends upon the good of each, and the good of each makes
+the good of the whole</i>. Attend, then, to the individual, and the whole
+will take care of itself. Let each individual work in harmony with every
+other, and harmony will pervade the whole. The old theory of
+competition&mdash;that in order to have great advancement, great progress, we
+must have great competition to induce it&mdash;is as false as it is savage
+and detrimental in its nature. We are just reaching that point where the
+larger men and women are beginning to see its falsity. They are
+recognizing the fact that, <i>not competition, but co-operation,
+reciprocity, is the great, the true power</i>,&mdash;to climb, not by attempting
+to drag, to keep down one's fellows, but by aiding them, and being in
+turn aided by them, thus combining, and so multiplying the power of all
+instead of wasting a large part one against the other.</p>
+
+<p>And grant that a portion do succeed in rising, while the other portion
+remain in the lower condition, it is of but little value so far as their
+own peace and welfare are concerned; for they can never be what they
+would be, were all up together. Each is but a part, a member, of the
+great civil body; and no member, let alone the entire body, can be
+perfectly well, perfectly at ease, when any other part is in dis-ease.
+No one part of the community, no one part of the nation, can stand
+alone: all are dependent, interdependent. This is the uniform teaching
+of history from the remotest times in the past right through to the
+present. A most admirable illustration of this fact&mdash;if indeed the word
+&quot;admirable&quot; can be used in connection with a matter so deplorable&mdash;was
+the unparalleled labor trouble we had in our great Western city but a
+few summers ago. The wise man is he who learns from experiences of this
+terrific nature.</p>
+
+<p>No, not until this all-powerful principle is fully recognized, and is
+built upon so thoroughly that the brotherhood principle, the principle
+of oneness can enter in, and each one recognizes the fact that his own
+interests and welfare depend upon the interests, the welfare of each,
+and therefore of all, that each is but a part of the one great whole,
+and each one stands shoulder to shoulder in the advance forward, can we
+hope for any true solution of the great social problems before us, for
+any permanent elevation of the standard in our national social life and
+welfare.</p>
+
+<p>This same principle is the solution, and the only true solution, of the
+charities question, as indeed the whole world during the last few years
+or so, and during this time only, is beginning to realize. And the
+splendid and efficient work of the organized charities in all our large
+cities, as of the Elberfeld system in Germany, is attesting the truth of
+this. Almost numberless methods have been tried during the past, but all
+have most successfully failed; and many have greatly increased the
+wretched condition of matters, and of those it was designed to help.
+During this length of time only have these all-important questions been
+dealt with in a true, scientific, Christ-like, common-sense way. It has
+been found even here that nothing can take the place of the personal and
+friendly influences of a life built upon this principle of service.</p>
+
+<p>The question of aiding the poor and needy has passed through three
+distinct phases of development in the world's history. In early times it
+was, &quot;Each one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost.&quot; From the
+time of the Christ, and up to the last few years it has been, &quot;Help
+others.&quot; Now it is, &quot;<i>Help others to help themselves</i>.&quot; The wealthy
+society lady going down Fifth Avenue in New York, or Michigan Avenue in
+Chicago, or Charles Street in Baltimore, or Commonwealth Avenue in
+Boston, who flings a coin to one asking alms, is <i>not</i> the one who is
+doing a true act of charity; but, on the other hand, she may be doing
+the one she thus gives to and to society in general much more harm than
+good, as is many times the case. It is but a cheap, a very cheap way of
+buying ease for her sympathetic nature or her sense of duty. Never let
+the word &quot;charity,&quot; which always includes the elements of interested
+service, true helpfulness, kindliness, and love, be debased by making it
+a synonym of mere giving, which may mean the flinging of a quarter in
+scorn or for show.</p>
+
+<p>Recognizing the great truth that the best and only way to help another
+is to help him to help himself, and that the neglected classes need not
+so much alms as friends, the Organized Charities with their several
+branches in different parts of the city have their staffs of &quot;friendly
+visitors,&quot; almost all voluntary, and from some of the best homes in the
+land. Then when a case of need comes to the notice of the society, one
+of these goes to the person or family as a <i>friend</i> to investigate, to
+find what circumstances have brought about these conditions, and, if
+found worthy of aid, present needs are supplied, an effort is made to
+secure work, and every effort is made to put them on their feet again,
+that self-respect may be regained, that hope may enter in; for there is
+scarcely anything that tends to make one lose his self-respect so
+quickly and so completely as to be compelled, or of his own accord, to
+ask for alms.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus many times that a new life is entered upon, brightness and
+hope taking the place of darkness and despair. This is not the only call
+the friendly visitor makes; but he or she becomes a <i>true friend</i>, and
+makes regular visits as such. If by this method the one seeking charity
+is found to be an impostor, as is frequently the case, proper means of
+exposure are resorted to, that his or her progress in this course may be
+stopped. The organizations are thus doing a most valuable work, and one
+that will become more and more valuable as they are enabled to become
+better organized, the greatest need to-day being more with the true
+spirit to act as visiting friends.</p>
+
+<p>It is this same great principle that has given birth to our college and
+university settlements and our neighborhood guilds which are so rapidly
+increasing, and which are destined to do a great and efficient work.
+Here a small colony of young women, many from our best homes, and the
+ablest graduates of our best colleges, and young men, many of them the
+ablest graduates of our best universities, take up their abode in the
+poorest parts of our large cities, to try by their personal influence
+and personal contact to raise the surrounding life to a higher plane. It
+is in these ways that the poor and the unfortunate are dealt with
+directly. Thus the classes mingle. Thus that sentimentalism which may do
+and which has done harm to these great problems, and by which the people
+it is designed to help may be hindered rather than helped, is done away
+with. Thus true aid and service are rendered, and the needy are really
+helped.</p>
+
+<p>The one whose life is built upon this principle will not take up work of
+this kind as a &quot;fad,&quot; or because it is &quot;fashionable,&quot; but because it is
+right, true, Christ-like. The truly great and noble never fear thus to
+mingle with those poorer and less fortunate. It is only those who would
+like to be counted as great, but who are too small to be so recognized,
+and who, therefore, always thinking of self, put forth every effort to
+appear so. There is no surer test than this.</p>
+
+<p>Very truly has it been said that &quot;the greatest thing a man can do for
+God is to be kind to some of His other children.&quot; All children of the
+same Father, therefore all brothers, sisters. Man is next to God. Man is
+God incarnate. Humanity, therefore, cannot be very far from being next
+to godliness. Many people there are who are greatly concerned about
+serving God, as they term it. Their idea is to build great edifices with
+costly ornaments to Him. A great deal of their time is spent in singing
+songs and hallelujahs to Him, just as if <i>He</i> needed or wanted these for
+Himself, forgetting that He is far above being benefited by anything
+that we can say or do, forgetting that He doesn't want these, when for
+lack of them some of His children are starving for bread to eat or are
+dying for the bread of life.</p>
+
+<p>Can you conceive of a God who is worthy of love and service,&mdash;and I
+speak most reverently,&mdash;who under such conditions would take a
+satisfaction in these things? I confess I am not able to. I can conceive
+of no way in which I can serve God only as I serve Him through my own
+life and through the lives of my fellow-men. This, certainly, is the
+only kind of service He needs or wants, or that is acceptable to Him.
+At one place we read, &quot;He that says he loves God and loves not his
+fellow-men, is a liar; and the truth is not in him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even in religion I think we shall find that there is nothing greater or
+more important than this great principle of service, helpfulness,
+kindliness, and love. Is not Christianity, you ask, greater or more
+important? Why, bless you, is this any other than Christianity, is
+Christianity any other than this,&mdash;at least, if we take what the Master
+Teacher himself has said? For what, let us ask, is a Christian,&mdash;the
+real, not merely in name? A follower of Christ, one who does as he did,
+one who lives as he lived. And, again, who was Christ? He that healed
+the sick, clothed the naked, bound up the broken-hearted, sustained and
+encouraged the weak, the faltering, befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy, condemned the proud and the selfish, taught the people to live
+nobly, truly, grandly, to live in their higher, diviner selves, that the
+greatest among them should be their servant, and that his followers were
+those who lived as he lived. He spent all his time in the service of
+humanity. He gave his whole life in this way. He it was who went about
+doing good.</p>
+
+<p>Is it your desire then, to be numbered among his followers, to bear
+that blessed name, the name &quot;Christian&quot;? Then sit at his feet, and learn
+of him, love him, do as he did, as he taught you to do, live as he
+lived, as he taught you to live, and you are a Christian, and not unless
+you do. True Christianity can be found in no other way.</p>
+
+<p>Naught is the difference what one may call himself; for many call
+themselves by this name to whom Christ says it will one day be said, &quot;I
+never knew you: depart from me, ye cursed.&quot; Naught is the difference
+what creeds one may subscribe to, what rites and ceremonies he may
+observe, how loud and how numerous his professions may be. All of these
+are but as a vain mockery, unless he <i>is</i> a Christian; and to be a
+Christian is, as we have found, to be a follower of Christ, to do as he
+did, to live as he lived. Then live the Christ life. Live so as to
+become at one with God, and dwell continually in this blessed
+at-one-ment. The trouble all along has been that so many have mistaken
+the mere person of the Christ, the mere physical Jesus, for his life,
+his spirit, his teachings, and have succeeded in getting no farther than
+this as yet, except in cases here and there.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then a rare soul rises up, one with great power, great
+inspiration, and we wonder at his great power, his great inspiration,
+why it is. When we look deeply enough, however, we will find that one
+great fact will answer the question every time. It is living the life
+that brings the power. He is living the Christ life, not merely standing
+afar off and looking at it, admiring it, and saying, Yes, I believe, I
+believe, and ending it there. In other words, he has found the kingdom
+of heaven. He has found that it is not a place, but a condition; and the
+song continually arising from his heart is, There is joy, only joy.</p>
+
+<p>The Master, you remember, said: &quot;Seek ye not for the kingdom of heaven
+in tabernacles or in houses made with hands. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you?&quot; He told in plain words where and how
+to find it. He then told how to find <i>all other</i> things, when he said,
+&quot;Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall
+be added unto you.&quot; Now, do you wonder at his power, his inspiration,
+his abundance of all things? The trouble with so many is that they act
+as if they do not believe what the Master said. They do not take him at
+his word. They say one thing: they do another. Their acts give the lie
+to their words. Instead of taking him at his word, and living as if they
+had faith in him, they prefer to follow a series of old, outgrown,
+man-made theories, traditions, forms, ceremonies, and seem to be
+satisfied with the results. No, <i>to be a Christian is to live the Christ
+life</i>, the life of him who went about doing good, the life of him who
+came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.</p>
+
+<p>We will find that this mighty principle of love and service is the
+greatest to live by in this life, and also one of the gates whereby all
+who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Again we have the Master's words. In his own and only description of the
+last judgment, after speaking of the Son of Man coming in all his glory
+and all the holy angels with him, of his sitting on the throne of his
+glory with all nations gathered before him, of the separation of this
+gathered multitude into two parts, the one on his right, the other on
+his left, he says: &quot;Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
+Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
+the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me
+meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took
+me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
+prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we <i>thee</i> an hungered, and fed <i>thee</i>? or
+thirsty, and gave <i>thee</i> drink? When saw we <i>thee</i> a stranger, and took
+<i>thee</i> in? or naked, and clothed <i>thee</i>? Or when saw we <i>thee</i> sick, or
+in prison, and came unto <i>thee</i>? And the King shall answer, and say unto
+them, Verily I say unto you, <i>Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
+the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
+cursed. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty,
+and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick,
+and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we <i>thee</i> an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger,
+or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then
+shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, <i>Inasmuch as ye did
+it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After spending the greater portion of his life in many distant climes
+in a fruitless endeavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3" /><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> thinking
+that thereby he was doing the greatest service he could for God, Sir
+Launfal at last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. He finds that
+his castle is occupied by others, and that he himself is an outcast. His
+cloak is torn; and instead of the charger in gilded trappings he was
+mounted upon when as a young man, he started out with great hopes and
+ambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a staff. While sitting there and
+meditating, he is met by the same poor and needy leper he passed the
+morning he started, the one who in his need asked for aid, and to whom
+he had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on in his eager desire to be
+in the Master's service. But matters are changed now, and he is a wiser
+man. Again the poor leper says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms';&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>The happy camels may reach the spring,<br /></span>
+<span>But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing,<br /></span>
+<span>The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone,<br /></span>
+<span>That cowers beside him, a thing as lone<br /></span>
+<span>And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas<br /></span>
+<span>In the desolate horror of his disease.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee<br /></span>
+<span>An image of Him who died on the tree;<br /></span>
+<span>Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>And to thy life were not denied<br /></span>
+<span>The wounds in the hands and feet and side:<br /></span>
+<span>Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;<br /></span>
+<span>Behold, <i>through him</i>, I give to thee!'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway be<br /></span>
+<span>Remembered in what a haughtier guise<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He had flung an alms to leprosie,<br /></span>
+<span>When he girt his young life up in gilded mail<br /></span>
+<span>And set forth in search of the Holy Grail.<br /></span>
+<span>The heart within him was ashes and dust;<br /></span>
+<span>He parted in twain his single crust,<br /></span>
+<span>He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,<br /></span>
+<span>And gave the leper to eat and drink,<br /></span>
+<span>'Twas a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Twas water out of a wooden bowl,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face,<br /></span>
+<span>A light shone round about the place;<br /></span>
+<span>The leper no longer crouched at his side,<br /></span>
+<span>But stood before him glorified,<br /></span>
+<span>Shining and tall and fair and straight<br /></span>
+<span>As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Himself the Gate whereby men can<br /></span>
+<span>Enter the temple of God in Man.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And the voice that was calmer than silence said,<br /></span>
+<span>'Lo, it is I, be not afraid!<br /></span>
+<span>In many climes, without avail,<br /></span>
+<span>Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;<br /></span>
+<span>Behold, it is here,&mdash;this cup which thou<br /></span>
+<span>Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;<br /></span>
+<span>This crust is my body broken for thee,<br /></span>
+<span>This water His blood that died on the tree;<br /></span>
+<span>The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,<br /></span>
+<span>In whatso we share with another's need;<br /></span>
+<span>Not what we give, but what we <i>share</i>,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>For the gift without the giver is bare;<br /></span>
+<span>Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The fear is sometimes entertained, and the question is sometimes asked,
+May not adherence to this principle of helpfulness and service become
+mere sentimentalism? or still more, may it not be the means of lessening
+another's sense of self-dependence, and thus may it not at times do more
+harm than good? In reply let it be said: If the love which impels it be
+a selfish love, or a weak sentimental ism, or an effort at show, or
+devoid of good common sense, yes, many times. But if it be a strong,
+genuine, unselfish love, then no, never. For, if my love for my
+fellow-man be the true love, I can never do anything that will be to his
+or any one's else detriment,&mdash;nothing that will not redound to his
+highest ultimate welfare. Should he, for example come and ask of me a
+particular favor, and were it clear to me that granting it would not be
+for his highest good ultimately, then love at once resolves itself into
+duty, and compels me to forbear. A true, genuine, unselfish love for
+one's fellow-man will never prompt, and much less permit, anything that
+will not result in his highest ultimate good. Adherence, therefore, to
+this great principle in its truest sense, instead of being a weak
+sentimentalism, is, we shall find, of all practical things the <i>most
+intensely practical</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And a word here in regard to the test of true love and service, in
+distinction from its semblance for show or for vain glory. The test of
+the true is this: that it goes about and does its good work, it never
+says anything about it, but lets others do the saying. It not only says
+nothing about it, but more, it has no desire to have it known; and, the
+truer it is, the greater the desire to have it unknown save to God and
+its own true self. In other words, it is not sicklied o'er with a
+semi-insane desire for notoriety or vainglory, and hence never weakens
+itself nor harasses any one else by lengthy recitals of its good deeds.
+It is not the <i>professional</i> good-doing. It is simply living its natural
+life, open-minded, open-hearted, doing each day what its hands find to
+do, and in this finding its own true life and joy. And in this way it
+unintentionally but irresistibly draws to itself a praise the rarest and
+divinest I know of,&mdash;the praise I heard given but a day or two ago to
+one who is living simply his own natural life without any conscious
+effort at anything else, the praise contained in the words: And, oh, it
+is beautiful, the great amount of good he does and of which the world
+never hears.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> &quot;According to the mythology of the Romancers, the Sangreal,
+or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the Last Supper
+with his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea,
+and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many
+years in the keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon
+those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but,
+one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail
+disappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knights
+of Sir Arthur's court to go in search of it.&quot;&mdash;<i>James Russell Lowell</i>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_V" id="PART_V" />PART V.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE INCOMING</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>O dull, gray grub, unsightly and noisome, unable to roam,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Days pass, God's at work, the slow chemistry's going on,<br /></span>
+<span class="i9">Behold! Behold!<br /></span>
+<span>O brilliant, buoyant life, full winged, all the heaven's thy home!<br /></span>
+<span>O poor, mean man, stumbling and falling, e'en shamed by a clod.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Years pass, God's at work, spiritual awakening has come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Behold! Behold!<br /></span>
+<span>O regal, royal soul, then image, now the likeness of God.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The Master Teacher, he who appeals most strongly and comes nearest to us
+of this western civilization, has told us that the whole and the highest
+duty of man is comprised in two great, two simple precepts&mdash;- love to
+God and love to the fellow-man. The latter we have already fully
+considered. We have found that in its real and true meaning it is not a
+mere indefinite or sentimental abstraction, but that it is a vital,
+living force; and in its manifestation it is life, it is action, it is
+service. Let us now for a moment to the other,&mdash;love to God, which in
+great measure however let it be said, has been considered in dealing
+with love to the fellow-man. Let us see, however, what it in its true
+and full nature reveals.</p>
+
+<p>The question naturally arising at the outset is, Who, what is God? I
+think no truer, sublimer definition has ever been given in the world's
+history, in any language, in any clime, than that given by the Master
+himself when standing by the side of Jacob's well, to the Samaritan
+woman he said, God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him
+in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, the Infinite Spirit, the Infinite
+Life back of all these physical manifestations we see in this changing
+world about us, and of which all, including we ourselves, is the body or
+outer form; the one Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with
+Himself, so that all is He, since He is all. All is He in the sense of
+being a part of Him; for, if He is all, there can be nothing that is
+outside of, that is not a part of Him, so that each one is a part of
+this Eternal God who is not separate from us, and, if not separate from
+us, then not afar off, for in Him we live and move and have our being,
+<i>He is the life of our life</i>, our very life itself. The life of God is
+in us, we are in the life of God; but that life transcends us so that it
+includes all else,&mdash;every person, every animal, every grass-blade, every
+flower, every particle of earth, every particle of everything, animate
+and inanimate. So that God is <i>All</i>; and, if all, then each individual,
+you and I, must be a vital part of that all, since there can be nothing
+separate from it; and, if a part, then the same in nature, in
+characteristics,&mdash;the same as a tumbler of water taken from the ocean
+is, in nature, in qualities, in characteristics, identical with that
+ocean, its source. God, then, is the Infinite Spirit of which each one
+is a part in the form of an individualized spirit. God is Spirit,
+creating, manifesting, ruling through the agency of great spiritual laws
+and forces that surround us on every side, that run through all the
+universe, and that unite all; for in one sense, there is nothing in all
+this great universe but law. And, oh, the stupendous grandeur of it all!
+These same great spiritual laws and forces operate within us. They are
+the laws of our being. By them every act of each individual life is
+governed.</p>
+
+<p>Now one of the great facts borne ever more and more into the inner
+consciousness of man is that sublime and transcendent fact that we have
+just noticed,&mdash;that man is one with, that he is part of, the Infinite
+God, this Infinite Spirit that is the life of all, this Infinite Whole;
+that he is not a mere physical, material being,&mdash;for the physical is but
+the material which the real inner self, the real life or spirit uses to
+manifest through,&mdash;but that he <i>is</i> this spirit, this spirit, using,
+living in this physical, material house or body to get the contact, the
+experience with the material world around him while in this form of
+life, but spirit nevertheless, and spirit now as much as he ever will or
+ever can be, except so far of course, as he recognizes more and more his
+true, his higher self, and so consciously evolves, step by step, into
+the higher and ever higher realization of the real nature, the real
+self, the God-self. As I heard it said by one of the world's great
+thinkers and writers but a few days ago: Men talk of having a soul. I
+have no soul. I am a soul: I have a body. We are told moreover in the
+word, that man is created in the image of God. God is Spirit. What then
+must man be, if that which tells us is true?</p>
+
+<p>Now one of the great errors all along in the past has been that we have
+mistaken the mere body, the mere house in which we live while in this
+form of life for a period,&mdash;that which comes from the earth and which,
+in a greater or less time, returns to the earth,&mdash;this we have mistaken
+for the real self. Either we have lost sight of or we have failed to
+recognize the true identity. The result is that we are at life from the
+wrong side, from the side of the external, while all true life is from
+within out.</p>
+
+<p>We have taken our lives out of a conscious harmony with the higher laws
+of our being, with the result that we are going against the great
+current of the Divine Order of things. Is it any wonder, then, that we
+find the strugglings, the inharmonies, the sufferings, the fears, the
+forebodings, the fallings by the wayside, the &quot;strange, inscrutable
+dispensations of Providence&quot; that we behold on every side? The moment we
+bring our lives into harmony with the higher laws of our being, and, as
+a result, into harmony with the current of the Divine Order of things,
+we shall find that all these will have taken wings; for the cause will
+have been removed. And as we look down the long vista of such a life, we
+shall find that each thing fits into all others with a wonderful, a
+sublime, a perfect, a divine harmony.</p>
+
+<p>This, it will seem to some,&mdash;and to many, no doubt,&mdash;is claiming a great
+deal. No more, however, than the Master Teacher warranted us in claiming
+when he said, and repeated it so often, Seek ye first the kingdom of
+heaven, and all these other things shall be added unto you; and he left
+us not in the dark as to exactly what he meant by the kingdom of heaven,
+for again he said: Say not, Lo here, nor lo there. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you? <i>Within you.</i> The interior spiritual
+kingdom, the kingdom of the higher self, which is the kingdom of God;
+the kingdom of harmony,&mdash;harmony with the higher laws of your being.</p>
+
+<p>The Master said what he said not for the sake merely of using a phrase
+of rhetoric, nor even to hear himself talk; for this he never did. But
+that great incarnation of spiritual insight and power knew of the great
+spiritual laws and forces under which we live, and also that supreme
+fact of the universe, that <i>man is a spiritual being, born to have
+dominion</i>, and that, by recognizing the true self and by bringing it
+into complete and perfect harmony with the higher spiritual laws and
+forces under which he lives, he can touch these laws and forces so that
+they will respond at every call and bring him whatsoever he wills,&mdash;one
+of the most stupendous scientific facts of the universe. When he has
+found and entered into the kingdom, then applies to him the truth of the
+great precept, Take ye no thought for the morrow; for the things of the
+morrow will take care of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, we are at life from the wrong side. We have been giving all time
+and attention to the mere physical, the material, the external, the mere
+outward means of expression and the things that pertain thereto, thus
+missing the real life; and this we have called living, and seem, indeed,
+to be satisfied with the results. No wonder the cry has gone out again
+and again from many a human soul, Is life worth the living? But from one
+who has once commenced to <i>live</i>, this cry never has, nor can it ever
+come; for, <i>when the kingdom is once found, life then ceases to be a
+plodding, and becomes an exultation, an ecstasy, a joy</i>. Yes, you will
+find that all the evil, all the error, all the disease, all the
+suffering, all the fears, all the forebodings of life, are on the side
+of the physical, the material, the transient; while all the peace, all
+the joy, all the happiness, all the growth, all the life, all the rich,
+exulting, abounding life, is on the side of the spiritual, the
+ever-increasing, the eternal,&mdash;that that never changes, that has no end.
+Instead of crying out against the destiny of fate, let us cry out
+against the destiny of self, or rather against the destiny of the
+mistaken self; for everything that comes to us comes through causes
+which we ourselves or those before us have set into operation. Nothing
+comes by chance, for <i>in all the wide universe there is absolutely no
+such thing as chance</i>. We bring whatever comes. Are we not satisfied
+with the effects, the results? The thing then to do, is to change the
+causes; for we have everything in our own hands the moment we awake to a
+recognition of the true self.</p>
+
+<p>We make our own heaven or our own hell, and the only heaven or hell that
+will ever be ours is that of our own making. The order of the universe
+is one thing: we take our lives out of harmony with and so pervert the
+laws under which we live, and make it another. The order is the all
+good. We pervert the laws, and what we call evil is the result,&mdash;simply
+the result of the violation of law; and we then wonder that a just and
+loving God could permit such and such things. We wonder at what we term
+the &quot;strange, inscrutable dispensations of Providence,&quot; when all is of
+our own making. We can be our own best friends or we can be our own
+worst enemies; and the only real enemy one can ever have is the self,
+the very self.</p>
+
+<p>It is a well-known fact in the scientific world that the great work in
+the process of evolution is the gradual advancing from the lower to the
+higher, from the coarser to the finer, or, in other words, from the
+coarser material to the finer spiritual; and this higher
+spiritualization of life is the great work before us all. All pass
+ultimately over the same road in general, some more rapidly, some more
+slowly. The ultimate destiny of all is the higher life, the finding of
+the higher self; and to this we are either led or we are pushed,&mdash;led,
+by recognizing and coming into harmony with the higher laws of our
+being, or pushed, through their violation, and hence through experience,
+through suffering, and at times through bitter suffering, until through
+this very agency we learn the laws and come into harmony with them, so
+that we thus see the economy, the blessedness of even error, shame, and
+suffering itself, in that, if we are not wise enough to go voluntarily
+and of our own accord, it all the more quickly brings us to our true,
+our higher selves.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, whatever is evolved must as surely first be involved. We
+cannot conceive even of an evolution without first an involution; and,
+if this is true, we cannot conclude otherwise than that all that will
+ever be brought forth through the process of evolution is already
+within, all the God possibilities of the human soul are now, at this
+very moment, latent within. This being true, the process of evolution
+need not, as is many times supposed, take &aelig;ons or even ages for its
+accomplishment; for the process is wonderfully accelerated when we have
+grasped and when we have commenced to actualize the reality of that
+mighty precept, Know thyself.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible, through an intelligent understanding of the laws of the
+higher life, to advance in the spiritual awakening and unfoldment even
+in a single year more than one otherwise would through a whole lifetime,
+or more in a single day or even hour than in an entire year or series of
+years otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>This higher spiritualization of life is certainly what the Master had in
+mind when he said, It is as hard for a rich man to enter into the
+kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a
+needle. For, if a man give all his days and his nights merely to the
+accumulation of outer material possessions, what time has he for the
+growing, the unfolding, of the interior, the spiritual, what time for
+finding that wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the Christ
+within?</p>
+
+<p>This certainly is also the significance of the temptation in the
+wilderness. The temptations were all, you will recall, in connection
+with the material, the physical, and the things that pertain thereto. Do
+so and so, said the physical: follow after me, and I will give you bread
+in abundance, I will give you great fame and notoriety, I will give you
+vast material possessions. All, you see, a calling away from the real,
+the interior, the spiritual, the eternal. Dominion over all the kingdoms
+of the <i>world</i> was promised. But what, what is dominion overall the
+world, with heaven left out?</p>
+
+<p>All, however, was triumphed over. The physical was put into subjection
+by the spiritual, the victory was gained once for all and forever; and
+he became the supreme and royal Master, and by this complete and
+glorious mastery of self he gained the mastery over all else besides,
+even to material things and conditions.</p>
+
+<p>And by this higher spiritual chemicalization of life thus set into
+operation the very thought forces of his mind became charged with a
+living, mighty, and omnipotent power, so as to effect a mastery over all
+exterior conditions: hence the numerous things called miracles by those
+who witnessed and who had not entered into a knowledge of the higher
+laws that can triumph over and master the lower, but which are just as
+real and as natural on their plane as the lower, and even more real and
+more natural, because higher and therefore more enduring. But this
+complete mastery over self during this period of temptation was just the
+beginning of the path that led from glory unto glory, the path that for
+you and for me will lead from glory unto glory the same as for him.</p>
+
+<p>It was this new divine and spiritual chemistry of life thus set into
+operation that transformed the man Jesus, that royal-hearted elder
+brother, into the Christ Jesus, and forever blessed be his name; for he
+thus became our Saviour,&mdash;he became our Saviour by virtue of pointing
+out to us the way. This overcoming by the calling of the higher
+spiritual forces into operation is certainly what he meant when he said,
+I have overcome the world, and what he would have us understand when he
+says, Overcome the world, even as I have overcome it.</p>
+
+<p>And in the same sense we are all the saviors one of another, or may
+become so. A sudden emergency arises, and I stand faltering and weak
+with fear. My friend beside me is strong and fearless. He sees the
+emergency. He summons up all the latent powers within him, and springs
+forth to meet it. This sublime example arouses me, calls my latent
+powers into activity, when but for him I might not have known them
+there. I follow his example. I now know my powers, and know them forever
+after. Thus, in this, my friend has become my savior.</p>
+
+<p>I am weak in some point of character,&mdash;vacillating, yielding, stumbling,
+falling, continually eating the bitter fruit of it all. My friend is
+strong, he has gained thorough self-mastery. The majesty and beauty of
+power are upon his brow. I see his example, I love his life, I am
+influenced by his power. My soul longs and cries out for the same. A
+supreme effort of will&mdash;that imperial master that will take one anywhere
+when rightly directed&mdash;arises within me, it is born at last, and it
+calls all the soul's latent powers into activity; and instead of
+stumbling I stand firm, instead of giving over in weakness I stand firm
+and master, I enter into the joys of full self-mastery, and through this
+into the mastery of all things besides. And thus my friend has again
+become my savior.</p>
+
+<p>With the new power I have acquired through the example and influence of
+my savior-friend, I, in turn, stand before a friend who is struggling,
+who is stumbling and in despair. He sees, he feels, the power of my
+strength. He longs for, his soul cries out for the same. <i>His</i> interior
+forces are called into activity, he now knows his powers; and instead of
+the slave, he becomes the master, and thus I, in turn, have become his
+savior. Oh, the wonderful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings of
+responsibility, the deep sense of power and peace the recognition of
+this fact should bring to each and all.</p>
+
+<p>God works through the instrumentality of human agency. Then forever away
+with that old, shrivelling, weakening, dying, and devilish idea that we
+are poor worms of the dust! We may or we may not be: it all depends upon
+the self. The moment we believe we are we become such; and as long as we
+hold to the belief we will be held to this identity, and will act and
+live as such. The moment, however, we recognize our divinity, our
+higher, our God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of our
+fellow-men, we become saviors, and stand and move in the midst of a
+majesty and beauty and power that of itself proclaims us as such.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>There is a prevalent idea to the effect that overcoming in this sense
+necessarily implies more or less of a giving up,&mdash;that it means
+something possibly on the order of asceticism. On the contrary, the
+highest, truest, keenest pleasures the human soul can know, it finds
+only after the higher is entered upon and has commenced its work of
+mastery; and, instead of there being a giving up of any kind, there is a
+great law which says that the lower always and of its own accord falls
+away before the higher. And the time soon comes when, as one stands and
+looks back, he wonders that this or that that he at one time called
+pleasure ever satisfied him; for what then satisfied him, compared to
+what now is his hourly peace, satisfaction, and joy, was but as poor
+brass compared to the finest, purest, and rarest of gold.</p>
+
+<p>From what has been said let it not be inferred that the body, the
+physical, material life is to be despised or looked down upon. This,
+rather let it be said, is one of the crying errors of the times, and
+prolific of a <i>vast</i> amount of error, suffering, and shame. On the
+contrary, it should be thought all the more highly of: it should be
+loved and developed to its highest perfections, beauties, and powers.
+God gave us the body not in vain. It is just as holy and beautiful as
+the spirit itself. It is merely the outward material manifestation of
+the individualized spirit; and we by our hourly thoughts and emotions
+are building it, are determining its conditions, its structure, and
+appearance. And, if there are any conditions we are not satisfied with,
+we by an understanding of the laws, have it in our power to make it over
+and change these conditions. Flamarion, the eminent French scientist,
+member of the Royal Academy of Science, and recognized as one of the
+most eminent scientists living, tells us that the entire human structure
+can be made over within a period of less than one year, some eleven
+months being the length of time required for the more compact and more
+set portions to respond; while some portions respond much more readily
+within a period of from two to three months, and some even within a
+month.</p>
+
+<p>Every part, every organ, every function of the body is just as clean,
+just as beautiful, just as sweet, and just as holy as every other part;
+and it is only by virtue of man's perverted ways of looking at some that
+they become otherwise, and the moment they so become, abuses, ill uses,
+suffering, and shame creep in.</p>
+
+<p><i>Not repression, but elevation.</i> Would that this could be repeated a
+thousand times over! Not repression, but elevation. Every part, every
+organ, every function of the body is given for <i>use</i>, but not for misuse
+or abuse; and the moment the latter takes place in connection with any
+function it loses its higher powers of use, and there goes with this the
+higher powers of true enjoyment. It is thus that we get that large class
+known as abnormals, resorting to the methods they resort to for
+enjoyment, but which, in its true sense, they always fail in finding,
+because law will admit of no violations; and, if violated, it takes away
+the very powers of enjoyment, it takes away the very things that through
+its violation they thought they had secured, or it turns them into ashes
+in their very hands. God, nature, law, the higher self, is not mocked.</p>
+
+<p>Not repression, but elevation,&mdash;repression only in the sense of
+mastery; but this means&mdash;nay, this is&mdash;elevation. In other words, we
+should be the master, and not the body. We should dictate to the body,
+and should never, even for an instant, allow it to dictate to us.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are
+everywhere being driven hither and thither, led into this and into that
+which their own better selves would not enter into, simply because they
+have allowed the body to assume the mastery; while they have taken the
+place of the weakling, the slave, and all on account of their own
+weakness,&mdash;weakness through ignorance, ignorance of the tremendous
+forces and powers within, the forces and powers of the mind and spirit.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a right royal plan for those who are thus enslaved by the
+body,&mdash;and we all are more or less, each in his own particular way, and
+not one is absolutely free,&mdash;it would be a good plan to hold
+immediately, at this very hour, a conversation with the body somewhat
+after this fashion: Body, we have for some time been dwelling together.
+Life for neither has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The cause
+is now apparent to me. The mastery I have voluntarily handed over to
+you. You have not assumed it of your own accord; but I have given it
+over to you little by little, and just in the degree that you have
+appropriated it. Neither one is to blame. It has been by virtue of
+ignorance. But henceforth we will reverse positions. You shall become
+the servant, and I the master. From this time forth you shall no longer
+dictate to me, but I will dictate to you.</p>
+
+<p>I, one with Infinite intelligence, wisdom, and power, longing for a
+fuller and ever fuller realization of this oneness, will assume control,
+and will call upon you to help in the fuller and ever fuller external
+manifestation of this realization. We will thus regain the ground both
+of us have lost. We will thus be truly married instead of farcically so.
+And thus we will help each the other to a realization of the highest,
+most satisfying and most enduring pleasures and joys, possibilities and
+powers, loves and realizations, that human life can know; and so, hand
+in hand, we will help each the other to the higher and ever-increasing
+life instead of degrading each the other to the lower and
+ever-decreasing. I will become the imperial master, and you the royal
+companion; and thus we will go forth to an ever larger life of love and
+service, and so of true enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>This conversation, if entered into in the spirit, accompanied by an
+earnest, sincere desire for its fulfilment, re-enforced by the thought
+forces, and continually attended by that absolute magnet of power, firm
+expectation, will, if all are firmly and persistently held to, bring the
+full realization of one's fondest desires with a certainty as absolute
+as that effect follows cause. The higher self will invariably master
+when it truly and firmly asserts itself. Much the same attitude can be
+assumed in connection with the body in disease or in suffering with the
+same results. Forces can be set into operation which will literally
+change and make over the diseased, the abnormal portions, and in time
+transform them into the healthy, the strong, the normal,&mdash;this when we
+once understand and vitally grasp the laws of these mighty forces, and
+are brought to the full recognition of the absolute control of mind, of
+spirit, over matter, and all, again let it be said, in accordance with
+natural spiritual law.</p>
+
+<p><i>No, a knowledge of the spiritual realities of life prohibits
+asceticism, repression, the same as it prohibits license and perverted
+use. To err on the one side is just as contrary to the ideal life as to
+err on the other.</i> All things are for a purpose, all should be used and
+enjoyed; but all should be rightly used, that they may be fully enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>It is the threefold life and development that is wanted,&mdash;physical,
+mental, spiritual. This gives the rounded life, and he or she who fails
+in any one comes short of the perfect whole. The physical has its uses
+just the same and is just as important as the others. The great secret
+of the highly successful life is, however, to infuse the mental and the
+physical with the spiritual; in other words, to spiritualize all, and so
+raise all to the highest possibilities and powers.</p>
+
+<p>It is the all-round, fully developed we want,&mdash;not the ethereal,
+pale-blooded man and woman, but the man and woman of flesh and blood,
+for action and service here and now,&mdash;the man and woman strong and
+powerful, with all the faculties and functions fully unfolded and used,
+all in a royal and bounding condition, but all rightly subordinated. The
+man and the woman of this kind, with the imperial hand of mastery upon
+all,&mdash;standing, moving thus like a king, nay, like a very God,&mdash;such is
+the man and such is the woman of power. Such is the ideal life: anything
+else is one-sided, and falls short of it.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The most powerful agent in character-building is this awakening to the
+true self, to the fact that man is a spiritual being,&mdash;nay, more, that
+I, this very eternal I, am a spiritual being, right here and now, at
+this very moment, with the God-powers which can be quickly called forth.
+With this awakening, life in all its manifold relations becomes
+wonderfully simplified. And as to the powers, the full realization of
+the fact that man is a spiritual being and a living as such brings, they
+are absolutely without limit, increasing in direct proportion as the
+higher self, the God-self, assumes the mastery, and so as this higher
+spiritualization of life goes on.</p>
+
+<p>With this awakening and realization one is brought at once <i>en rapport</i>
+with the universe. He feels the power and the thrill of the life
+universal. He goes out from his own little garden spot, and mingles with
+the great universe; and the little perplexities, trials, and
+difficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy him, fall away of
+their own accord by reason of their very insignificance. The intuitions
+become keener and ever more keen and unerring in their guidance. There
+comes more and more the power of reading men, so that no harm can come
+from this source. There comes more and more the power of seeing into the
+future, so that more and more true becomes the old adage,&mdash;that coming
+events cast their shadows before. Health in time takes the place of
+disease; for all disease and its consequent suffering is merely the
+result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously,
+either intentionally or unintentionally. There comes also a spiritual
+power which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the healing of others
+the same as in the days of old. The body becomes less gross and heavy,
+finer in its texture and form, so that it serves far better and responds
+far more readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself in
+time responds to the action of these higher forces; and many things that
+we are accustomed by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous or
+supernatural become the normal, the natural, the every-day.</p>
+
+<p>For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Nothing more nor less than this: a
+highly illumined soul, one who has brought his life into thorough
+harmony with the higher spiritual laws and forces of his being, and
+therefore with those of the universe, thus making it possible for the
+highest things to come to him, has brought to him a law a little higher
+than the ordinary mind knows of as yet. This he touches, he operates. It
+responds. The people see the result, and cry out, Miracle! miracle! when
+it is just as natural, just as fully in accordance with the law on this
+higher plane, as is the common, the every-day on the ordinary. And let
+it be remembered that the miraculous, the supernatural of to-day
+becomes, as in the process of evolution we leave the lower for the
+higher, the commonplace, the natural, the every-day of to-morrow; and,
+truly, miracles are being performed in the world to-day just as much as
+they ever have been.</p>
+
+<p>And why should we not to-day have the powers of the foremost in the days
+of old? The great universe in which we live is just the same, the great
+laws under which we live are identically the same, God the same and
+working in His world now just as then. The only difference we shall find
+is in ourselves, in that we have taken our lives out of harmony with the
+higher laws of our being, and consequently have lost the higher powers
+through not using them. Mighty men we are told they were, mighty men
+who walked with God,&mdash;and in the last clause lies the secret of the
+first,&mdash;- men who lived in the spirit, men who followed after the real
+life instead of giving all time and attention to the mere external, men
+who lived in the higher stories of their being, and not continually in
+the basements.</p>
+
+<p>With here and there an exception we reverse the process. We live in the
+valleys, so to speak, often disease-infected valleys, when we might
+mount up to the mountain-tops, and there dwell continually in the warm
+and mellow sunlight of God's, or if you please, of nature's great,
+unchangeable laws, and find ourselves rising ever higher and higher, and
+revelations coming new every day.</p>
+
+<p>The Master never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim for
+all mankind; but, quite to the contrary, he said and continually
+repeated, Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than these
+shall ye do; for I have pointed out to you the way,&mdash;meaning, though
+strange as it evidently seems to many, <i>exactly</i> what he said.</p>
+
+<p>Of the vital power of thought and the interior forces in moulding
+conditions, and more, of the supremacy of thought over all conditions,
+the world has scarcely the faintest grasp, not to say even idea, as yet.
+The fact that thoughts are forces, and that through them <i>we have
+creative power</i>, is one of the most vital facts of the universe, the
+most vital fact of man's being. And through this instrumentality we have
+in our grasp and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and
+all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.</p>
+
+<p>Through our thought-forces we have creative power, not in a figurative
+sense, but in reality. Everything in the material universe about us had
+its origin first in spirit, in thought, and from this it took its form.
+The very world in which we live, with all its manifold wonders and
+sublime manifestations, is the result of the energies of the divine
+intelligence or mind,&mdash;God, or whatever term it comes convenient for
+each one to use. And God said, Let there be, and there was,&mdash;the
+material world, at least the material manifestation of it, literally
+spoken into existence, the spoken word, however, but the outward
+manifestation of the interior forces of the Supreme Intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Every castle the world has ever seen was first an ideal in the
+architect's mind. Every statue was first an ideal in the sculptor's
+mind. Every piece of mechanism the world has ever known was first
+formed in the mind of the inventor. Here it was given birth to. These
+same mind-forces then dictated to and sent the energy into the hand that
+drew the model, and then again dictated to and sent the energy into the
+hands whereby the first instrument was clothed in the material form of
+metal or of wood. The lower negative always gives way to the higher when
+made positive. Mind is positive: matter is negative.</p>
+
+<p>Each individual life is a part of, and hence is one with, the Infinite
+Life; and the highest intelligence and power belongs to each in just the
+degree that he recognizes his oneness and lays claim to and uses it. The
+power of the word is not merely an idle phrase or form of expression. It
+is a real mental, spiritual, scientific fact, and can become vital and
+powerful in your hands and in mine in just the degree that we understand
+the omnipotence of the thought forces and raise all to the higher
+planes.</p>
+
+<p>The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood before the Christ, who said,
+Receive thy sight, rise up and walk, or, be thou healed; and o! <i>it was
+so</i>. The spoken word, however, was but the outward expression and
+manifestation of his interior thought-forces, the power and potency of
+which he so thoroughly knew. But the laws governing them are the same
+to-day as they were then, and it lies in our power to use them the same
+as it lay in his.</p>
+
+<p>Each individual life, after it has reached a certain age or degree of
+intelligence, lives in the midst of the surroundings or environments of
+its own creation; and this by reason of that wonderful power, <i>the
+drawing power of mind</i>, which is continually operating in every life,
+whether it is conscious of it or not.</p>
+
+<p>We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought. The very
+atmosphere about us is charged with the thought-forces that are being
+continually sent out. When the thought-forces leave the brain, they go
+out upon the atmosphere, the subtle conducting ether, much the same as
+sound-waves go out. It is by virtue of this law that thought
+transference is possible, and has become an established scientific fact,
+by virtue of which a person can so direct his thought-forces that a
+person at a distance, and in a receptive attitude, can get the thought
+much the same as sound, for example, is conducted through the agency of
+a connecting medium.</p>
+
+<p>Even though the thoughts as they leave a particular person, are not
+consciously directed, they go out; and all may be influenced by them in
+a greater or less degree, each one in proportion as he or she is more or
+less sensitively organized, or in proportion as he or she is negative,
+and so open to forces and influences from without. The law operating
+here is one with that great law of the universe,&mdash;that like attracts
+like, so that one continually attracts to himself forces and influences
+most akin to those of his own life. And his own life is determined by
+the thoughts and emotions he habitually entertains, for each is building
+his world from within. As within, so without; cause, effect.</p>
+
+<p>A stalk of wheat and a stock of corn are growing side by side, within an
+inch of each other. The soil is the same for both; but the wheat
+converts the food it takes from the soil into wheat, the likeness of
+itself, while the corn converts the food it takes from the same soil
+into corn, the likeness of itself. What that which each has taken from
+the soil is converted into is determined by the soul, the interior life,
+the interior forces of each. This same grain taken as food by two
+persons will be converted into the body of a criminal in the one case,
+and into the body of a saint in the other, each after its kind; and its
+kind is determined by the inner life of each. And what again determines
+the inner life of each? The thoughts and emotions that are habitually
+entertained and that inevitably, sooner or later, manifest themselves in
+outer material form. Thought is the great builder in human life: it is
+the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and
+your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and
+beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth
+in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of
+love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and
+you will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind.</p>
+
+<p>It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own
+&quot;atmosphere&quot;; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of the
+thoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thought
+atmosphere&mdash;the atmosphere which other people detect and are influenced
+by.</p>
+
+<p>In this way each person creates the atmosphere of his own room; a
+family, the atmosphere of the house in which they live, so that the
+moment you enter the door you feel influences kindred to the thoughts
+and hence to the lives of those who dwell there. You get a feeling of
+peace and harmony or a feeling of disquietude and inharmony. You get a
+welcome, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-to-get-away feeling,
+according to their thought attitude toward you, even though but few
+words be spoken. So the characteristic mental states of a congregation
+of people who assemble there determine the atmosphere of any given
+assembly-place, church, or cathedral. Its inhabitants so make, so
+determine the atmosphere of a particular village or city. The
+sympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast amphitheatre of people, as they
+cheer a contestant, carry him to goals he never could reach by his own
+efforts alone. The same is true in regard to an orator and his audience.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon's army is in the East. The plague is beginning to make inroads
+into its ranks. Long lines of men are lying on cots and on the ground in
+an open space adjoining the army. Fear has taken a vital hold of all,
+and the men are continually being stricken. Look yonder, contrary to the
+earnest entreaties of his officers, who tell him that such exposure will
+mean sure death, Napoleon with a calm and dauntless look upon his face,
+with a firm and defiant step, is coming through these plague-stricken
+ranks. He is going up to, talking with, touching the men; and, as they
+see him, there goes up a mighty shout,&mdash;The Emperor! the Emperor! and
+from that hour the plague in its inroads is stopped. A marvellous
+example of the power of a man who, by his own dauntless courage,
+absolute fearlessness, and power of mind, could send out such forces
+that they in turn awakened kindred forces in the minds of thousands of
+others, which in turn dominate their very bodies, so that the plague,
+and even death itself, is driven from the field. One of the grandest
+examples of a man of the most mighty and tremendous mind and will power,
+and at the same time an example of one of the grandest failures, taking
+life in its totality, the world has ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>Again, as has been said, the great law operating in connection with the
+thought-forces is one with that great law of the universe,&mdash;that like
+attracts like. We can, by virtue of our ignorance of the powers of the
+mind forces and the prevailing mental states,&mdash;we can take the passive,
+the negative, fearing, drifting attitude, and thus continually attract
+to us like influences and conditions from both the seen and the unseen
+side of life. Or, by a knowledge of the power and potency of these
+forces, we can take the positive, the active attitude, that of mastery,
+and so attract the higher and more valuable influences, exactly as we
+will to.</p>
+
+<p>We are all much more influenced by the thought-forces and mental states
+of those around us and of the world at large than we have even the
+slightest conception of. If not self-hypnotized into certain beliefs and
+practices, we are, so to speak, semi-hypnotized through the influence of
+the thoughts of others, even though unconsciously both on their part and
+on ours. We are so influenced and enslaved in just the degree that we
+fail to recognize the power and omnipotence of our own forces, and so
+become slaves to custom, conventionality, the opinions of others, and so
+in like proportion lose our own individuality and powers. He who in his
+own mind takes the attitude of the slave, by the power of his own
+thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the slave. He
+who in his own mind takes the attitude of the master, by the same power
+of his own thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the
+master. Each is building his world from within, and, if outside forces
+play, it is because he allows them to play; and he has it in his own
+power to determine whether these shall be positive, uplifting,
+ennobling, strengthening, success-giving, or negative, degrading,
+weakening, failure-bringing.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing more powerful, nothing more
+irresistible in its operations, when rightly applied and held to with a
+faith and fidelity that is unswerving,&mdash;a faith and fidelity that never
+knows the neutralizing effects of doubt and fear. If one have
+aspirations and a sincere desire for a higher and better condition, so
+far as advantages, facilities, associates, or any surroundings or
+environments are concerned, and if he continually send out his highest
+thought-forces for the realization of these desires, and continually
+water these forces with firm expectation as to their fulfilment, he will
+sooner or later find himself in the realization of these desires, and
+all in accordance with natural laws and forces.</p>
+
+<p>Fear brings its own fulfilment the same as hope. The same law operates,
+and if, as our good and valued friend, Job, said when the darkest days
+were setting in upon him,&mdash;that which I feared has come upon me,&mdash;was
+true, how much more surely could he have brought about the opposite
+conditions, those he would have desired, had he have had even the
+slightest realization of his own powers, and had he acted the part of
+the master instead of that of the servant, had he have dictated terms
+instead of being dictated to, and thus suffering the consequences.</p>
+
+<p>If one finds himself in any particular condition, in the midst of any
+surroundings or environments that are not desirable, that have
+nothing&mdash;at least for any length of time&mdash;that is of value to him, for
+his highest life and unfoldment, he has the remedy entirely within his
+own grasp the moment he realizes the power and supremacy of the forces
+of the mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently use these forces,
+he drifts. Unless through them he becomes master and dictates, he
+becomes the slave and is dictated to, and so is driven hither and
+thither.</p>
+
+<p>Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration for higher and better
+conditions or means to realize them, the thought-forces actively sent
+out for their realization, these continually watered by firm expectation
+without allowing the contrary, neutralizing force of fear ever to enter
+in,&mdash;this, accompanied by rightly directed work and activity, will
+bring about the fullest realization of one's highest desires and
+aspirations with a certainty as absolute as that effect follows cause.
+Each and every one of us can thus make for himself ever higher and
+higher conditions, can attract ever and ever higher influences, can
+realize an ever higher and higher ideal in life. These are the forces
+that are within us, simply waiting to be recognized and used,&mdash;the
+forces that we should infuse into and mould every-day life with. The
+moment we vitally recognize them, they become our servants and wait upon
+our bidding.</p>
+
+<p>Are you, for example, a young man or a young woman desiring a college, a
+university education, or have you certain literary or artistic instincts
+your soul longs the more fully to realize and actualize, and seems there
+no way open for you to realize the fulfilment of your desires? But the
+power is in your hands the moment you recognize it there. Begin at once
+to set the right forces into operation. Put forth your ideal, which will
+begin to clothe itself in material form, send out your thought-forces
+for its realization, continually hold and add to them, always strongly
+but always calmly, never allow the element of fear, which will keep the
+realization just so much farther away, to enter in; but, on the
+contrary, continually water with firm expectation all the forces thus
+set into operation. Do not then sit and idly fold the hands, expecting
+to see all things drop into the lap,&mdash;God feeds the sparrow, but he does
+not throw the food into its nest,&mdash;but take hold of the first thing that
+offers itself for you to do,&mdash;work in the fields, at the desk, saw wood,
+wash dishes, tend behind the counter, or whatever it may be,&mdash;be
+faithful to the thing in hand, always expecting something better, and
+know that this in hand is the thing that will open to you the next
+higher, and this the next and the next; and so realize that each thing
+thus taken hold of is but the agency that takes you each time a step
+nearer the realization of your fondest ideals. You then hold the key;
+and bolts that otherwise would remain immovable, by this mighty force,
+will be thrown before you.</p>
+
+<p>We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars, but to dominion and to
+plenty. This is our rightful heritage, if we will but recognize and lay
+claim to it. Many a man and many a woman is to-day longing for
+conditions better and higher than he or she is in, who might be using
+the same time now spent in vain, indefinite, spasmodic longings, in
+putting into operation forces which, accompanied by the right personal
+activity, would speedily bring the fullest realization of his or her
+fondest dreams. The great universe is filled with an abundance of all
+things, filled to overflowing. All there is, is in her, waiting only for
+the touch of the right forces to cast them forth. She is no respecter of
+persons outside of the fact that she always responds to the demands of
+the man or the woman who knows and uses the forces and powers he or she
+is endowed with. And to the demands of such she always opens her
+treasure-house, for the supply is always equal to the demand. All things
+are in the hands of him who knows they are there.</p>
+
+<p>Of all known forms of energy, thought is the most subtle, the most
+irresistible force. It has always been operating; but, so far as the
+great masses of the people are concerned, it has been operating blindly,
+or, rather, they have been blind to its mighty power, except in the
+cases of a few here and there. And these, as a consequence, have been
+our prophets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our men of great and
+mighty power. We are just beginning to grasp the tremendous truth that
+there is a <i>science of thought</i>, and that the laws governing it can be
+known and scientifically applied. The man who understands and who
+appropriates this fact has literally all things under his control.
+Heredity and its attendant circumstances and influences? you ask. Most
+surely. The barriers which heredity builds, the same as those
+environment erects, when the awakened interior forces are considered,
+are as mud walls standing within the range of a Krupp gun: shattered and
+crumbled they are when the tremendous force is applied.</p>
+
+<p>Thought needs direction to be effective, and upon this effective results
+depend as much as upon the force itself. This brings us to the will.
+Will is not as is so often thought, a force in itself; will is the
+directing power. Thought is the force. Will gives direction. Thought
+scattered gives the weak, the uncertain, the vacillating, the aspiring,
+but the never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the get-no-where, the
+attain-to-nothing man or woman. Thought steadily directed by the will,
+gives the strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the never-know-defeat
+man or woman, the man or woman who uses the very difficulties and
+hindrances that would dishearten the ordinary person, as stones with
+which he paves a way over which he triumphantly walks, who, by the very
+force he carries with him, so neutralizes and transmutes the very
+obstacles that would bar his way that they fall before him, and in turn
+aid him on his way; the man or woman who, like the eagle, uses the very
+contrary wind that would thwart his flight, that would turn him and
+carry him in the opposite direction, as the very agency upon which he
+mounts and mounts and mounts, until actually lost to the human eye, and
+which, in addition to thus aiding him, brings to him an ever fuller
+realization of his own powers, or in other words, an ever greater power.</p>
+
+<p>It is this that gives the man or the woman who in storm or in sunny
+weather, rides over every obstacle, throws before him every barrier,
+and, as Browning has said, finally &quot;arrives.&quot; Take, for example, the
+successful business man,&mdash;for it is all one, the law is the same in all
+cases,&mdash;the man who started with nothing except his own interior
+equipments. He has made up his mind to <i>one</i> thing,&mdash;success. This is
+his ideal. He thinks success, he sees success. He refuses to see
+anything else. He expects success: he thus attracts it to him, his
+thought-forces continually attract to him every agency that makes for
+success. He has set up the current, so that every wind that blows
+brings him success. He doesn't expect failure, and so he doesn't invite
+it. He has no time, no energies, to waste in fears or forebodings. He is
+dauntless, untiring, in his efforts. Let disaster come to-day, and
+to-morrow&mdash;ay, even yet to-day&mdash;he is getting his bearings, he is
+setting forces anew into operation; and these very forces are of more
+value to him than the half million dollars of his neighbor who has
+suffered from the same disaster. We speak of a man's failing in
+business, little thinking that the real failure came long before, and
+that the final crash is but the culmination, the outward visible
+manifestation, of the real failure that occurred within possibly long
+ago. <i>A man carries his success or his failure with him: it is not
+dependent upon outside conditions.</i></p>
+
+<p>Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilot
+which, after the vessel is started by the mighty force within, puts it
+on its right course and keeps it true to that course, the pilot under
+whose control the rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, even
+through storms and gales, to an exact spot in the Liverpool port within
+a few minutes of its scheduled time, and at times even upon the very
+minute. Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses the
+sun's rays that they quickly burn a hole through the paper that is held
+before it. The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus focused, would
+fall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is the
+means for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
+thought-forces. Thought under wise direction,&mdash;this it is that does the
+work, that brings results, that makes the successful career. One object
+in mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily held before the
+mind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from,&mdash;this,
+with persistence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power of
+thought, when thus directed by will.</p>
+
+<p>May not this power, then, be used for base as well as for good purposes,
+for selfish as well as for unselfish ends? The same with this
+modification,&mdash;the more highly thought is spiritualized, the more subtle
+and powerful it becomes; and the more highly spiritualized the life, the
+farther is it removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But, even if it
+can be thus used, let him who would so use it be careful, let him never
+forget that that mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe and that can
+never be annulled or even for a moment set aside, will drive him to the
+wall, will crush him with a terrific force if he so use it.</p>
+
+<p>Let him never forget that whatever he may get for self at the expense of
+some one else, through deception, through misrepresentation, through the
+exercise of the lower functions and powers, will by a law equally
+subtle, equally powerful, be turned into ashes in his very hands. The
+honey he thinks he has secured will be turned into bitterness as he
+attempts to eat it; the beautiful fruit he thinks is his will be as
+wormwood as he tries to enjoy it; the rose he has plucked will vanish,
+and he will find himself clutching a handful of thorns, which will
+penetrate to the very quick and which will flow the very life-blood from
+his hands. For through the violation of a higher, an immutable law,
+though he may get this or that, the power of true enjoyment will be
+taken away, and what he gets will become as a thorn in his side: either
+this or it will sooner or later escape from his hands. God's
+triumphal-car moves in a direction and at a rate that is certain and
+absolute, and he who would oppose it or go contrary to it must fall and
+be crushed beneath its wheels; and for him this crushing is necessary,
+in order that it may bring him the more quickly to a knowledge of the
+higher laws, to a realization of the higher self.</p>
+
+<p>This brings to our notice two orders of will, which we may term, for
+convenience' sake, the human and the divine. The human will is the one
+just noticed, the sense will, the will of the lower self, that which
+seeks its own ends regardless of its connection with the greater whole.
+The divine will is the will of the higher self, the god-self, that that
+never makes an error, that never leads into difficulties. How attain to
+its realization? How call it into a dominating activity? Through an
+awakening to and a living in the higher, the god-self, thus making it
+one with God's will, one with the will of infinite intelligence,
+infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite power; and when this is done,
+no mistakes can be made, any more than limits can be set.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus that the Infinite Power works through and for us&mdash;true
+inspiration&mdash;while our part is simply to see that our connection with
+this power is consciously and perfectly kept. And, when we come to a
+knowledge of the true nature, a knowledge of the true self, when we come
+to a conscious realization of the fact that we are one with, a part of,
+this spirit of infinite life, infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite
+power, and infinite plenty, do we not see that we lack for nothing, that
+all things <i>are</i> ours? It is then ours to speak the word: desire induces
+and gives place to realization. If you are intelligence, if you are
+power, if you are that all-seeing, all-knowing, all-doing, all-loving,
+all-having, that eternal self, that eternal one without beginning and
+without end, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, then all things
+<i>are</i> yours, and you lack for nothing; and, when you come consciously to
+know and to live this truth, then the whole of life for you is summed up
+in the one word <i>realization</i>. The striving, the pulling, the running
+hither and thither to accomplish this or that, that takes place on all
+planes of life below this highest plane, gives place to this
+<i>realization</i>; and you and your desire become one.</p>
+
+<p>And what does this mean? Simply this: that you have found and have
+literally entered into the kingdom of heaven, and heaven means harmony,
+so that you have entered into the kingdom of harmony,&mdash;harmony or
+oneness with the Infinite Life, the Infinite God. And do we not, then,
+clearly see the rational and scientific basis for the injunction&mdash;seek
+ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall be
+added unto you? Than this there is nothing in all the wide universe more
+scientific, nothing more practical; and in the light of this can we not
+also see how readily follows the injunction&mdash;Take ye no thought for the
+things of the morrow, for the things of the morrow will take care of
+themselves? This realization gives you that care-less attitude, free
+from care. The Infinite Power does the work for you, and you are
+relieved of the responsibility. Your responsibility lies in keeping
+yourself in a faithful and a never-failing connection with this Infinite
+Source. Why, I know a few lives that have come into such a conscious
+oneness with the Infinite Life, and who so continually live in its
+realization, that all things that have just been said are <i>absolutely</i>
+true in their cases. The solution of all things they thus put into the
+law, so that, when the time comes, the difficulty is solved, the course
+is clear, the way is opened, or the means are at hand. When one knows
+whereof he speaks, of this he can speak with authority.</p>
+
+<p>When this realization comes, fear goes, hope attends, faith
+dominates,&mdash;the faith of to-day which gives place to the realization of
+to-morrow. We then have nothing to do with the past, nothing to do with
+the future; for the whole of life is determined by the ever-present
+to-day. As my life to-day has been determined by the way I lived my
+yesterday, so my to-morrow is being determined by the way I live my
+to-day. Let me then live in this <i>eternal now</i>, and realize that I am at
+this very moment living the eternal life as much as I ever shall or can
+live it. I will then waste no time with the past, except perhaps
+occasionally to give thanks that its then seeming trials, sorrows,
+errors, and stumblings have brought me all the sooner into harmony with
+the laws of the higher life. Let me waste no time with the future, no
+time in idle dreaming, neither in fears nor forebodings, thus inviting
+and opening the door for the entrance of their actualizations; but
+rather let me, by the thoughts and so by the deeds of to-day, make the
+future exactly what I will.</p>
+
+<p>Every act is preceded and given birth to by a thought, the act repeated
+forms the habit, the habit determines the character, and character
+determines the life, the destiny,&mdash;a most significant, a most tremendous
+truth: thought on the one hand, life, destiny, on the other. And how
+simplified, when we realize that it is merely the thought of the present
+hour, and the next when it comes, and the next, and the next! so life,
+destiny, on the one hand, the thoughts of the present hour, on the
+other. This is the secret of character-building. How wonderfully simple,
+though what vigilance it demands!</p>
+
+<p>What, shall we ask, is the place, what the value, of prayer? Prayer, as
+every act of devotion, brings us into an ever greater conscious harmony
+with the Infinite, the one pearl of great price; for it is this harmony
+which brings all other things. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, and
+thus is its own answer, as the sincere desire made active and
+accompanied by faith sooner or later gives place to realization; <i>for
+faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itself
+whatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects</i>. This
+is absolute, and the results will be absolute in exact proportion as
+this operation of the thought forces, as this faith is absolute, and
+relative in exact proportion as it is relative. The Master said, What
+things soever ye desire, when ye pray, <i>believe</i> that ye receive them
+and ye shall have them. Can any law be more clearly enunciated, can
+anything be more definite and more absolute than this? According to thy
+faith be it unto thee. Do we at times fail in obtaining the results we
+desire? The fault, the failure, lies not in the law but in ourselves.
+Regarded in its right and true light, than prayer there is nothing more
+scientific, nothing more valuable, nothing more effective.</p>
+
+<p>This conscious realization of oneness with the Infinite Life is of all
+things the one thing to be desired; for, when this oneness is realized
+and lived in, all other things follow in its train, there are no desires
+that shall not be realized, for God has planted in the human breast no
+desire without its corresponding means of realization. No harm can come
+nigh, nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to fear; for we shall
+thus attract only the good. And whatever changes time may bring,
+understanding the law, we shall always expect something better, and thus
+set into operation the forces that will attract that something,
+realizing that many times angels go out that arch-angels may enter in;
+and this is always true in the case of the life of this higher
+realization. And why should we have any fear whatever,&mdash;fear even for
+the nation, as is many times expressed? God is behind His world, in
+love and with infinite care and watchfulness working out his great and
+almighty plans; and whatever plans men may devise, He will when the time
+is ripe either frustrate and shatter, or aid and push through to their
+most perfect culmination,&mdash;frustrate and shatter if contrary to, aid and
+actualize if in harmony with His.</p>
+
+<p>It will readily be seen what a power the life that is fully awake, that
+fully grasps and uses the great forces of its own interior self, can be
+in the service of mankind. One with these forces highly spiritualized
+will not have to go here and there to do the greatest service for
+mankind. Such a one can sit in his cabin, in his tent, in his own home,
+or, as he goes here and there, he can continually send out influences of
+the most potent and powerful nature,&mdash;influences that will have their
+effect, that will do their work, and that will reach to the uttermost
+parts of the world. Than this there can be no more valuable, more vital
+service, nor one of a higher nature.</p>
+
+<p>These facts, the facts relating to the powers that come with the higher
+awakening, have been dealt with somewhat fully, to show that the matters
+along the lines of man's interior, intuitive, spiritual, thought, soul
+life, instead of being, as they are so many times regarded, merely
+indefinite, sentimental, or impractical, are, on the contrary,
+powerfully, omnipotently real, and are of all practical things in the
+world the most practical, and, in the truest and deepest sense, the only
+truly practical things there are. And pre-eminently is this true when we
+look with a long range of vision, past the mere to-day, to the final
+outcome, to the time when that transition we are accustomed to call
+death takes place, and all accumulations and possessions material are
+left behind, and the soul takes with it only the unfoldment and growth
+of the real life; and unless it has this, when all else must be left
+behind, it goes out poor indeed. And a most wonderful and beautiful fact
+of it all is this: that all growth, all advancement, all attainment made
+along the lines of the spiritual, the soul, the real life, is so much
+made forever, and can never be lost. Hence the great fact in the
+admonition, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
+doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for
+yourselves treasures in heaven,&mdash;the interior, spiritual kingdom,&mdash;where
+neither moth doth corrupt nor where thieves break through and steal.</p>
+
+<p>What then, again let us ask, is love to God? It is far more, we have
+found, than a mere sentimental abstraction. It is this awakening to the
+higher, the god-self, a coming into the conscious realization of the
+fact that your life is one with, is a part of, the Infinite Life, the
+full realization of the fact that you are a spiritual being here and
+now, at this very moment, and a living as such. It is being true to the
+light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and so a
+finding of the Christ within; a realization of the fact that God is the
+life of your life, and so not afar off; a realization of a oneness so
+perfect that you are able to say, as did His other son, &quot;I and my Father
+are one&quot;&mdash;the ultimate destiny of each human soul, each of the Father's
+children, for all, no matter what differences man may see, are equal in
+His sight; and He created not one in vain. So love to God in its true
+expression is not a mere sentimentality, a mere abstraction: it is life,
+it is growth, it is spiritual awakening and unfoldment, it is
+realization. Again, it is life: it is the more abundant life.</p>
+
+<p>Then recognize this fact, and so fill your life with an intense, a
+passionate love for God. Then take this life, so rich, so abundant, and
+so powerful, and lose it in the love and service of your fellow-men, the
+Father's other children. Fill it with an intense, a passionate love for
+service; and when this shall have been done, your life is in complete
+harmony with all the law and the prophets, in complete harmony with the
+two great and determining facts of human life and destiny,&mdash;love to God
+and love to one's fellow-men,&mdash;the two eternal principles upon which the
+great universal religion, which is slowly and gradually evolving out an
+almost endless variety and form, is to rest. Do this, and feel once for
+all the power and the thrill of the life universal. Do this, and find
+yourself coming into the full realization of such splendors and beauties
+as all the royal courts of this world combined have never been able even
+to dream of.</p>
+
+<p>When the step from the personal to the impersonal, from the personal,
+the individual, to the universal, is once made, the great solution of
+life has come; and by this same step one enters at once into the realm
+of all power. When this is done, and one fully realizes the fact that
+the greatest life is the life spent in the service of all mankind, and
+then when he vitally grasps that great eternal principle of right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe, and which, though
+temporarily it may seem to be perverted, always and with never an
+exception eventually prevails, and that with an omnipotent power,&mdash;he
+then holds the key to all situations.</p>
+
+<p>A king of this nature goes about his work absolutely regardless of what
+men may say or hear or think or do; for he himself has absolutely
+nothing to gain or nothing to lose, and nothing of this nature can come
+near him or touch him, for he is standing not in the personal, but in
+the universal. He is then in God's work, and the very God-powers are
+his, and it seems as if the very angels of heaven come to minister unto
+him and to move things his way; and this is true, very true, for he
+himself is simply moving God's way, and when this is so, the certainty
+of the outcome is absolute.</p>
+
+<p>How often did the Master say, &quot;I seek not to do mine own will, but the
+will of the Father who sent me&quot;! Here is the world's great example of
+the life out of the personal and in the universal, hence his great
+power. The same has been true of all the saviors, the prophets, the
+seers, the sages, and the leaders in the world's history, of all of
+truly great and lasting power.</p>
+
+<p>He who would then come into the secret of power must come from the
+personal into the universal, and with this comes not only great power,
+but also freedom from the vexations and perplexities that rise from the
+misconstruing of motives, the opinions of others; for such a one cares
+nothing as to what men may say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as he
+is true to the great principles of right and truth before him. And, if
+we will search carefully, we shall find that practically all the
+perplexities and difficulties of life have their origin on the side of
+the personal.</p>
+
+<p>Much is said to young men to-day about success in life,&mdash;success
+generally though, as the world calls success. It is well, however,
+always to bear in mind the fact that there is a success which is a
+miserable, a deplorable failure; while, on the other hand, there is a
+failure which is a grand, a noble, a God-like success. And one crying
+need of the age is that young men be taught the true dignity, nobility,
+and power of such a failure,&mdash;such a failure in the eyes of the world
+to-day, but such a success in the eyes of God and the coming ages. When
+this is done, there will be among us more prophets, more saviors, more
+men of grand and noble stature, who with a firm and steady hand will
+hold the lighted torch of true advancement high up among the people; and
+they will be those whom the people will gladly follow, for they will be
+those who will speak and move with authority, true sons of God, true
+brothers of men. A man may make his millions and his life be a failure
+still.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The promise was given that our conversation should not be extended; and
+unless we conclude it now, the promise will not be kept. Our aim at the
+outset, you will remember, was to find answer to the question&mdash;How can I
+make life yield its fullest and best? how can I know the true secret of
+power? how can I attain to true greatness? how can I fill the whole of
+life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satisfaction, that is ever rich
+and abiding, that ever increases, never diminishes?</p>
+
+<p>Two great laws come forward: the one, that we find our own lives in
+losing them in the service of others,&mdash;love to the fellow-man; the
+other, that all life is one with, is part of, the Infinite Life, that we
+are not material, but spiritual beings,&mdash;spiritual beings here and now,
+and a living as such, which brings us in turn to a realization of the
+higher, the god-self, thus bringing us into the realm of all peace, all
+power, and all plenty,&mdash;this is love to God.</p>
+
+<p>And I wonder now if we have found the answer true and satisfactory. We
+have sat at the feet of the Master Teacher, and he has told us that we
+have. We have found that through them, and through them alone, <i>true</i>
+greatness, power, and success can come; that through them comes the
+richest joy, the greatest peace and satisfaction this world can know. We
+have also found that, if one's desire is to make life narrow, pinched,
+and of little value, to rob it of its chief charms, the only requirement
+necessary is to become self-centred, to live continually with the
+little, stunted self, which will inevitably grow more and more
+diminutive and shrivelled as time passes, instead of reaching out and
+having a part in the great life of humanity, thus illimitably
+intensifying and multiplying his own. For each act of humble service is
+that divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the spring
+whereby he leaps to ever greater heights. We have found that a
+recognition of these two laws enables one to grow and develop the
+fullest and richest life here, and that they are the two gates whereby
+all who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Around this great and sweet-incensed altar of love, service, and
+self-devotion to God and the fellow-man, can and do all mankind bow and
+worship. To it can all religions and creeds subscribe: it is the
+universal religion.</p>
+
+<p>Then become at one with God, as did His other son, through the awakening
+to the real self and by living continually in this the higher, the
+god-self. Become at one with humanity, as did His other son, by bringing
+your life into harmony with this great, immutable law of love and
+service and self-devotion, and so feel once for all the power and the
+thrill of the life universal.</p>
+
+<p>Yours will then be a life the greatest, the grandest, the most joyous
+this world can know; for you will indeed be living the Christ-life, the
+life that is beyond compare, the life to which all the world stretches
+out its eager palms, and innumerable companies will rise up and call you
+blessed, and give thanks that such a life is the rich heritage of the
+world. The song continually arising from your lips will then be, There
+is joy, only joy; for we are all one with the Infinite Life, all parts
+of the one great whole, and the Spirit of Infinite Goodness and Love is
+ever ruling over all.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_VI" id="PART_VI" />PART VI.</h2>
+
+<h2>CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>A thought,&mdash;good or evil,&mdash;an act, in time a habit,&mdash;so runs
+     life's law: what you live in your thought-world, that, sooner or
+     later, you will find objectified in your life.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>Unconsciously we are forming habits every moment of our lives. Some are
+habits of a desirable nature; some are those of a most undesirable
+nature. Some, though not so bad in themselves, are exceedingly bad in
+their cumulative effects, and cause us at times much loss, much pain and
+anguish, while their opposites would, on the contrary, bring us much
+peace and joy, as well as a continually increasing power.</p>
+
+<p>Have we it within our power to determine at all times what types of
+habits shall take form in our lives? In other words, is habit-forming,
+character-building, a matter of mere chance, or have we it within our
+own control? We have, entirely and absolutely. &quot;I will be what I will to
+be,&quot; can be said and should be said by every human soul.</p>
+
+<p>After this has been bravely and determinedly said, and not only said,
+but fully inwardly realized, something yet remains. Something remains
+to be said regarding the great law underlying habit-forming,
+character-building; for there is a simple, natural, and thoroughly
+scientific method that all should know. A method whereby old,
+undesirable, earth-binding habits can be broken, and new, desirable,
+heaven-lifting habits can be acquired,&mdash;a method whereby life in part or
+in its totality can be changed, provided one is sufficiently in earnest
+to know, and, knowing it, to apply the law.</p>
+
+<p>Thought is the force underlying all. And what do we mean by this? Simply
+this: Your every act&mdash;every conscious act&mdash;is preceded by a thought.
+Your dominating thoughts determine your dominating actions. The acts
+repeated crystallize themselves into the habit. The aggregate of your
+habits is your character. Whatever, then, you would have your acts, you
+must look well to the character of the thought you entertain. Whatever
+act you would not do,&mdash;habit you would not acquire,&mdash;you must look well
+to it that you do not entertain the type of thought that will give birth
+to this act, this habit.</p>
+
+<p>It is a simple psychological law that any type of thought, if
+entertained for a sufficient length of time, will, by and by, reach the
+motor tracks of the brain, and finally burst forth into action. Murder
+can be and many times is committed in this way, the same as all
+undesirable things are done. On the other hand, the greatest powers are
+grown, the most God-like characteristics are engendered, the most heroic
+acts are performed in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>The thing clearly to understand is this: That the thought is always
+parent to the act. Now, we have it entirely in our own hands to
+determine exactly what thoughts we entertain. In the realm of our own
+minds we have absolute control, or we should have, and if at any time we
+have not, then there is a method by which we can gain control, and in
+the realm of the mind become thorough masters. In order to get to the
+very foundation of the matter, let us look to this for a moment. For if
+thought is always parent to our acts, habits, character, life, then it
+is first necessary that we know fully how to control our thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Here let us refer to that law of the mind which is the same as is the
+law in connection with the reflex nerve system of the body, the law
+which says that whenever one does a certain thing in a certain way it is
+easier to do the same thing in the same way the next time, and still
+easier the next, and the next, and the next, until in time it comes to
+pass that no effort is required, or no effort worth speaking of; but on
+the contrary, to do the opposite would require the effort. The mind
+carries with it the power that perpetuates its own type of thought, the
+same as the body carries with it through the reflex nerve system the
+power which perpetuates and makes continually easier its own particular
+acts. Thus a simple effort to control one's thoughts, a simple setting
+about it, even if at first failure is the result, and even if for a time
+failure seems to be about the only result, will in time, sooner or
+later, bring him to the point of easy, full, and complete control.</p>
+
+<p>Each one, then, can grow the power of determining, controlling his
+thought, the power of determining what types of thought he shall and
+what types he shall not entertain. For let us never part in mind with
+this fact, that every earnest <i>effort</i> along any line makes the end
+aimed at just a little easier for each succeeding effort, even if, as
+has been said, apparent failure is the result of the earlier efforts.
+This is a case where even failure is success, for the failure is not in
+the effort, and every earnest effort adds an increment of power that
+will eventually accomplish the end aimed at. We <i>can</i>, then, gain the
+full and complete power of determining what character, what type of
+thoughts we entertain.</p>
+
+<p>Shall we now give attention to some two or three concrete cases? Here
+is a man, the cashier of a large mercantile establishment, or cashier of
+a bank. In his morning paper he reads of a man who has become suddenly
+rich, has made a fortune of half a million or a million dollars in a few
+hours through speculation on the stock market. Perhaps he has seen an
+account of another man who has done practically the same thing lately.
+He is not quite wise enough, however, to comprehend the fact that when
+he reads of one or two cases of this kind he could find, were he to look
+into the matter carefully, one or two hundred cases of men who have lost
+all they had in the same way. He thinks, however, that he will be one of
+the fortunate ones. He does not fully realize that there are no short
+cuts to wealth honestly made. He takes a part of his savings, and as is
+true in practically all cases of this kind, he loses all that he has put
+in. Thinking now that he sees why he lost, and that had he more money he
+would be able to get back what he has lost, and perhaps make a handsome
+sum in addition, and make it quickly, the thought comes to him to use
+some of the funds he has charge of. In nine cases out of ten, if not in
+ten cases in every ten, the results that inevitably follow this are
+known sufficiently well to make it unnecessary to follow him farther.
+Where is the man's safety in the light of what we have been considering?
+Simply this: the moment the thought of using for his own purpose funds
+belonging to others enters his mind, if he is wise he will <i>instantly</i>
+put the thought from his mind. If he is a fool he will entertain it. In
+the degree in which he entertains it, it will grow upon him; it will
+become the absorbing thought in his mind; it will finally become master
+of his will power, and through rapidly succeeding steps, dishonor,
+shame, degradation, penitentiary, remorse will be his. It is easy for
+him to put the thought from his mind when it first enters; but as he
+entertains it, it grows into such proportions that it becomes more and
+more difficult for him to put it from his mind; and by and by it becomes
+practically <i>impossible</i> for him to do it. The light of the match, which
+but a little effort of the breath would have extinguished at first, has
+imparted a flame that is raging through the entire building, and now it
+is almost, if not quite impossible to conquer it.</p>
+
+<p>Shall we notice another concrete case? a trite case, perhaps, but one in
+which we can see how habit is formed, and also how the same habit can be
+unformed. Here is a young man, he may be the son of poor parents, or he
+may be the son of rich parents; one in the ordinary ranks of life, or
+one of high social standing, whatever that means. He is good-hearted,
+one of good impulses, generally speaking,&mdash;a good fellow. He is out with
+some companions, companions of the same general type. They are out for a
+pleasant evening, out for a good time. They are apt at times to be
+thoughtless, even careless. The suggestion is made by one of the
+company, not that they get drunk, no, not at all; but merely that they
+go and have something to drink together. The young man whom we first
+mentioned, wanting to be genial, scarcely listens to the suggestion that
+comes to his inner consciousness&mdash;that it will be better for him not to
+fall in with the others in this. He does not stop long enough to realize
+the fact that the greatest strength and nobility of character lies
+always in taking a firm stand on the side of the right, and allow
+himself to be influenced by nothing that will weaken this stand. He
+goes, therefore, with his companions to the drinking place. With the
+same or with other companions this is repeated now and then; and each
+time it is repeated his power of saying &quot;No&quot; is gradually decreasing. In
+this way he has grown a little liking for intoxicants, and takes them
+perhaps now and then by himself. He does not dream, or in the slightest
+degree realize, what way he is tending, until there comes a day when he
+wakens to the consciousness of the fact that he hasn't the power nor
+even the impulse to resist the taste which has gradually grown into a
+minor form of craving for intoxicants. Thinking, however, that he will
+be able to stop when he is really in danger of getting into the drink
+habit, he goes thoughtlessly and carelessly on. We will pass over the
+various intervening steps and come to the time when we find him a
+confirmed drunkard. It is simply the same old story told a thousand or
+even a million times over.</p>
+
+<p>He finally awakens to his true condition; and through the shame, the
+anguish, the degradation, and the want that comes upon him he longs for
+a return of the days when he was a free man. But hope has almost gone
+from his life. It would have been easier for him never to have begun,
+and easier for him to have stopped before he reached his present
+condition, but even in his present condition, be it the lowest and the
+most helpless and hopeless that can be imagined, he has the power to get
+out of it and be a free man once again. Let us see. The desire for drink
+comes upon him again. If he entertain the thought, the desire, he is
+lost again. His only hope, his only means of escape is this: the moment,
+aye, <i>the very instant</i> the thought comes to him, if he will put it out
+of his mind he will thereby put out the little flame of the match. If he
+entertain the thought the little flame will communicate itself until
+almost before he is aware of it a consuming fire is raging, and then
+effort is almost useless. The thought must be banished from the mind the
+instant it enters; dalliance with it means failure and defeat, or a
+fight that will be indescribably fiercer than it would be if the thought
+is ejected at the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>And here we must say a word regarding a certain great law that we may
+call the &quot;law of indirectness.&quot; A thought can be put out of the mind
+easier and more successfully, not by dwelling upon it, not by attempting
+to put it out <i>directly</i>, but by throwing the mind on to some other
+object, by putting some other object of thought into the mind. This may
+be, for example, the ideal of full and perfect self-mastery, or it may
+be something of a nature entirely distinct from the thought which
+presents itself, something to which the mind goes easily and naturally.
+This will in time become the absorbing thought in the mind, and the
+danger is past. This same course of action repeated, will gradually
+grow the power of putting more readily out of mind the thought of drink
+as it presents itself, and will gradually grow the power of putting into
+the mind those objects of thought one most desires. The result will be
+that as time passes the thought of drink will present itself less and
+less, and when it does present itself it can be put out of the mind more
+easily each succeeding time, until the time comes when it can be put out
+without difficulty, and eventually the time will come when the thought
+will enter the mind no more at all.</p>
+
+<p>Still another case. You may be more or less of an irritable
+nature&mdash;naturally, perhaps, provoked easily to anger. Some one says
+something or does something that you dislike, and your first impulse is
+to show resentment and possibly to give way to anger. In the degree that
+you allow this resentment to display itself, that you allow yourself to
+give way to anger, in that degree will it become easier to do the same
+thing when any cause, even a very slight cause, presents itself. It
+will, moreover, become continually harder for you to refrain from it,
+until resentment, anger, and possibly even hatred and revenge become
+characteristics of your nature, robbing it of its sunniness, its charm,
+and its brightness for all with whom you come in contact. If, however,
+the instant the impulse to resentment and anger arises, you check it
+<i>then and there</i>, and throw the mind on to some other object of thought,
+the power will gradually grow itself of doing this same thing more
+readily, more easily, as succeeding like causes present themselves,
+until by and by the time will come when there will be scarcely anything
+that can irritate you, and nothing that can impel you to anger; until by
+and by a matchless brightness and charm of nature and disposition will
+become habitually yours, a brightness and charm you would scarcely think
+possible to-day. And so we might take up case after case, characteristic
+after characteristic, habit after habit. The habit of fault-finding and
+its opposite are grown in identically the same way; the characteristic
+of jealousy and its opposite; the characteristic of fear and its
+opposite. In this same way we grow either love or hatred; in this way we
+come to take a gloomy, pessimistic view of life, which objectifies
+itself in a nature, a disposition of this type, or we grow that sunny,
+hopeful, cheerful, buoyant nature that brings with it so much joy and
+beauty and power for ourselves, as well as so much hope and inspiration
+and joy for all the world.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing more true in connection with human life than that we
+grow into the likeness of those things we contemplate. Literally and
+scientifically and necessarily true is it that, &quot;as a man thinketh in
+his heart, so <i>is</i> he.&quot; The &quot;is&quot; part is his character. His character is
+the sum total of his habits. His habits have been formed by his
+conscious acts; but every conscious act is, as we have found, preceded
+by a thought. And so we have it&mdash;thought on the one hand, character,
+life, destiny on the other. And simple it becomes when we bear in mind
+that it is simply the thought of the present moment, and the next moment
+when it is upon us, and then the next, and so on through all time.</p>
+
+<p>One can in this way attain to whatever ideals he would attain to. Two
+steps are necessary: first, as the days pass, to form one's ideals; and
+second, to follow them continually whatever may arise, wherever they may
+lead him. Always remember that the great and strong character is the one
+who is ever ready to sacrifice the present pleasure for the future good.
+He who will thus follow his highest ideals as they present themselves to
+him day after day, year after year, will find that as Dante, following
+his beloved from world to world, finally found her at the gates of
+Paradise, so he will find himself eventually at the same gates. Life is
+not, we may say, for mere passing pleasure, but for the highest
+unfoldment that one can attain to, the noblest character that one can
+grow, and for the greatest service that one can render to all mankind.
+In this, however, we will find the highest pleasure, for in this the
+only real pleasure lies. He who would find it by any short cuts, or by
+entering upon any other paths, will inevitably find that his last state
+is always worse than his first; and if he proceed upon paths other than
+these he will find that he will never find real and lasting pleasure at
+all. The question is not, What are the conditions in our lives? but, How
+do we meet the conditions that we find there? And whatever the
+conditions are, it is unwise and profitless to look upon them, even if
+they are conditions that we would have otherwise, in the attitude of
+complaint, for complaint will bring depression, and depression will
+weaken and possibly even kill the spirit that would engender the power
+that would enable us to bring into our lives an entirely new set of
+conditions.</p>
+
+<p>In order to be concrete, even at the risk of being personal, I will say
+that in my own experience there have come at various times into my life
+circumstances and conditions that I gladly would have run from at the
+time&mdash;conditions that caused at the time humiliation and shame and
+anguish of spirit. But invariably, as sufficient time has passed, I have
+been able to look back and see clearly the part which every experience
+of the type just mentioned had to play in my life. I have seen the
+lessons it was essential for me to learn; and the result is that now I
+would not drop a single one of these experiences from my life,
+humiliating and hard to bear as they were at the time; no, not for the
+world. And here is also a lesson I have learned: whatever conditions are
+in my life to-day that are not the easiest and most agreeable, and
+whatever conditions of this type all coming time may bring, I will take
+them just as they come, without complaint, without depression, and meet
+them in the wisest possible way; knowing that they are the best possible
+conditions that could be in my life at the time, or otherwise they would
+not be there; realizing the fact that, although I may not at the time
+see why they are in my life, although I may not see just what part they
+have to play, the time will come, and when it comes I will see it all,
+and thank God for every condition just as it came.</p>
+
+<p>Each one is so apt to think that his own conditions, his own trials or
+troubles or sorrows, or his own struggles, as the case may be, are
+greater than those of the great mass of mankind, or possibly greater
+than those of anyone else in the world. He forgets that each one has his
+own peculiar trials or troubles or borrows to bear, or struggles in
+habits to overcome, and that his is but the common lot of all the human
+race. We are apt to make the mistake in this&mdash;in that we see and feel
+keenly our own trials, or adverse conditions, or characteristics to be
+overcome, while those of others we do not see so clearly, and hence we
+are apt to think that they are not at all equal to our own. Each has his
+own problems to work out. Each must work out his own problems. Each must
+grow the insight that will enable him to see what the causes are that
+have brought the unfavorable conditions into his life; each must grow
+the strength that will enable him to face these conditions, and to set
+into operation forces that will bring about a different set of
+conditions. We may be of aid to one another by way of suggestion, by way
+of bringing to one another a knowledge of certain higher laws and
+forces,&mdash;laws and forces that will make it easier to do that which we
+would do. The doing, however, must be done by each one for himself.</p>
+
+<p>And so the way to get out of any conditions we have gotten into, either
+knowingly or inadvertently, either intentionally or unintentionally, is
+to take time to look the conditions squarely in the face, and to find
+the law whereby they have come about. And when we have discovered the
+law, the thing to do is not to rebel against it, not to resist it, but
+to go with it by working in harmony with it. If we work in harmony with
+it, it will work for our highest good, and will take us wheresoever we
+desire. If we oppose it, if we resist it, if we fail to work in harmony
+with it, it will eventually break us to pieces. The law is immutable in
+its workings. Go with it, and it brings all things our way; resist it,
+and it brings suffering, pain, loss, and desolation.</p>
+
+<p>But a few days ago I was talking with a lady, a most estimable lady
+living on a little New England farm of some five or six acres. Her
+husband died a few years ago, a good-hearted, industrious man, but one
+who spent practically all of his earnings in drink. When he died the
+little farm was unpaid for, and the wife found herself without any
+visible means of support, with a family of several to care for. Instead
+of being discouraged with what many would have called her hard lot,
+instead of rebelling against the circumstances in which she found
+herself, she faced the matter bravely, firmly believing that there were
+ways by which she could manage, though she could not see them clearly at
+the time. She took up her burden where she found it, and went bravely
+forward. For several years she has been taking care of summer boarders
+who come to that part of the country, getting up regularly, she told me,
+at from half-past three to four o'clock in the morning, and working
+until ten o'clock each night. In the winter-time, when this means of
+revenue is cut off, she has gone out to do nursing in the country round
+about. In this way the little farm is now almost paid for; her children
+have been kept in school, and they are now able to aid her to a greater
+or less extent. Through it all she has entertained no fears nor
+forebodings; she has shown no rebellion of any kind. She has not kicked
+against the circumstances which brought about the conditions in which
+she found herself, but she has put herself into harmony with the law
+that would bring her into another set of conditions. And through it all,
+she told me, she had been continually grateful that she has been able to
+work, and that whatever her own circumstances have been, she has never
+yet failed to find some one whose circumstances were still a little
+worse than hers, and for whom it was not possible for her to render some
+little service.</p>
+
+<p>Most heartily she appreciates the fact, and most grateful is she for it,
+that the little home is now almost paid for, and soon no more of her
+earnings will have to go out in that channel. The dear little home, she
+said, would be all the more precious to her by virtue of the fact that
+it was finally hers through her own efforts. The strength and nobility
+of character that have come to her during these years, the sweetness of
+disposition, the sympathy and care for others, her faith in the final
+triumph of all that is honest and true and pure and good, are qualities
+that thousands and hundreds of thousands of women, yes, of both men and
+women, who are apparently in better circumstances in life can justly
+envy. And should the little farm home be taken away to-morrow, she has
+gained something that a farm of a thousand acres could not buy. By going
+about her work in the way she has gone about it the burden of it all has
+been lightened, and her work has been made truly enjoyable.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a moment to see how these same conditions would have been
+met by a person of less wisdom, one not so far-sighted as this dear,
+good woman has been. For a time possibly her spirit would have been
+crushed. Fears and forebodings of all kinds would probably have taken
+hold of her, and she would have felt that nothing that she could do
+would be of any avail. Or, she might have rebelled against the agencies,
+against the law which brought about the conditions in which she found
+herself, and she might have become embittered against the world, and
+gradually also against the various people with whom she came in contact.
+Or again, she might have thought that her efforts would be unable to
+meet the circumstances, and that it was the duty of some one to lift her
+out of her difficulties. In this way no progress at all would have been
+made towards the accomplishment of the desired results, and continually
+she would have felt more keenly the circumstances in which she found
+herself, because there was nothing else to occupy her mind. In this way
+the little farm would not have become hers, she would not have been able
+to do anything for others, and her nature would have become embittered
+against everything and everybody.</p>
+
+<p>True it is, then, not, What are the conditions in one's life? but, How
+does he meet the conditions that he finds there? This will determine
+all. And if at any time we are apt to think that our own lot is about
+the hardest there is, and if we are able at any time to persuade
+ourselves that we can find no one whose lot is just a little harder than
+ours, let us then study for a little while the character Pompilia, in
+Browning's poem,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4" /><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> and after studying it, thank God that the conditions
+in our life are so favorable; and then set about with a trusting and
+intrepid spirit to actualize the conditions that we most desire.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of all
+success or failure, of all that is desirable or undesirable in human
+life. The type of thought we entertain both creates and draws conditions
+that crystallize about it, conditions exactly the same in nature as is
+the thought that gives them form. Thoughts are forces, and each creates
+of its kind, whether we realize it or not. The great law of the drawing
+power of the mind, which says that like creates like, and that like
+attracts like, is continually working in every human life, for it is one
+of the great immutable laws of the universe. For one to take time to see
+clearly the things he would attain to, and then to hold that ideal
+steadily and continually before his mind, never allowing faith&mdash;his
+positive thought-forces&mdash;to give way to or to be neutralized by doubts
+and fears, and then to set about doing each day what his hands find to
+do, never complaining, but spending the time that he would otherwise
+spend in complaint in focusing his thought-forces upon the ideal that
+his mind has built, will sooner or later bring about the full
+materialization of that for which he sets out.</p>
+
+<p>There are those who, when they begin to grasp the fact that there is
+what we may term a &quot;science of thought,&quot; who, when they begin to realize
+that through the instrumentality of our interior, spiritual
+thought-forces we have the power of gradually moulding the every-day
+conditions of life as we would have them, in their early enthusiasm are
+not able to see results as quickly as they expect, and are apt to think,
+therefore, that after all there is not very much in that which has but
+newly come to their knowledge. They must remember, however, that in
+endeavoring to overcome an old or to grow a new habit, everything cannot
+be done <i>all at once</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the degree that we attempt to use the thought-forces do we
+continually become able to use them more effectively. Progress is slow
+at first, more rapid as we proceed. Power grows by using, or, in other
+words, using brings a continually increasing power. This is governed by
+law the same as are all things in our lives, and all things in the
+universe about us. Every act and advancement made by the musician is in
+full accordance with law. No one commencing the study of music can, for
+example, sit down to the piano and play the piece of a master at the
+first effort. He must not conclude, however, nor does he conclude, that
+the piece of the master <i>cannot be</i> played by him, or, for that matter,
+by any one. He begins to practise the piece. The law of the mind that we
+have already noticed comes to his aid, whereby his mind follows the
+music more readily, more rapidly, and more surely each succeeding time,
+and there also comes into operation and to his aid the law underlying
+the action of the reflex nerve system of the body, which we have also
+noticed, whereby his fingers coordinate their movements with the
+movements of his mind, more readily, more rapidly, and more accurately
+each succeeding time; until by and by the time comes when that which he
+stumbles through at first, that in which there is no harmony, nothing
+but discord, finally reveals itself as the music of the master, the
+music that thrills and moves masses of men and women. So it is in the
+use of the thought-forces. It is the reiteration, the constant
+reiteration of the thought that grows the power of continually stronger
+thought-focusing, and that finally brings manifestation.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>All life is from within out. This is something that cannot be reiterated
+too often. The springs of life are all from within. This being true, it
+would be well for us to give more time to the inner life than we are
+accustomed to give to it, especially in this Western world.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that will bring us such abundant returns as to take a
+little time in the quiet each day of our lives. We need this to get the
+kinks out of our minds and hence out of our lives. We need this to form
+better the higher ideals of life. We need this in order to see clearly
+in mind the things upon which we would concentrate and focus the
+thought-forces. We need this in order to make continually anew and to
+keep our conscious connection with the Infinite. We need this in order
+that the rush and hurry of our every-day life does not keep us away from
+the conscious realization of the fact that the spirit of Infinite life
+and power that is back of all, working in and through all, the life of
+all, is the life of our life, and the source of our power; and that
+outside of this we have no life and we have no power. To realize this
+fact fully, and to live in it consciously at all times, is to find the
+kingdom of God, which is essentially an inner kingdom, and can never be
+anything else. The kingdom of heaven is to be found only within, and
+this is done once for all, and in a manner in which it cannot otherwise
+be done, when we come into the conscious, living realization of the fact
+that in our real selves we are essentially one with the Divine life, and
+open ourselves continually so that this Divine life can speak to and
+manifest through us. In this way we come into the condition where we are
+continually walking with God. In this way the consciousness of God
+becomes a living reality in our lives; and in the degree in which it
+becomes a reality does it bring us into the realization of continually
+increasing wisdom, insight, and power. <i>This consciousness of God in the
+soul of man is the essence, indeed the sum and substance of all
+religion.</i> This identifies religion with every act and every moment of
+every-day life. That which does not identify itself with every moment of
+every day and with every act of life is religion in name only and not in
+reality. This consciousness of God in the soul of man is the one thing
+uniformly taught by all the prophets, by all the inspired ones, by all
+the seers and mystics in the world's history, whatever the time,
+wherever the country, whatever the religion, whatever minor differences
+we may find in their lives and teachings. In regard to this they all
+agree; indeed, this is the essence of their teaching, as it has also
+been the secret of their power and the secret of their lasting
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>It is the attitude of the child that is necessary before we can enter
+into the kingdom of heaven. As it was said, &quot;Except ye become as little
+children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.&quot; For we then
+realize that of ourselves we can do nothing, but that it is only as we
+realize that it is the Divine life and power working within us, and it
+is only as we open ourselves that it may work through us, that we are or
+can do anything. It is thus that the simple life, which is essentially
+the life of the greatest enjoyment and the greatest attainment, is
+entered upon.</p>
+
+<p>In the Orient the people as a class take far more time in the quiet, in
+the silence, than we take. Some of them carry this possibly to as great
+an extreme as we carry the opposite, with the result that they do not
+actualize and objectify in the outer life the things they dream in the
+inner life. We give so much time to the activities of the outer life
+that we do not take sufficient time in the quiet to form in the inner,
+spiritual thought-life the ideals and the conditions that we would have
+actualized and manifested in the outer life. The result is that we take
+life in a kind of haphazard way, taking it as it comes, thinking not
+very much about it until, perhaps, pushed by some bitter experiences,
+instead of moulding it, through the agency of the inner forces, exactly
+as we would have it. We need to strike the happy balance between the
+custom in this respect of the Eastern and Western worlds, and go to the
+extreme of neither the one nor the other. This alone will give the ideal
+life; and it is the ideal life only that is the thoroughly satisfactory
+life. In the Orient there are many who are day after day sitting in the
+quiet, meditating, contemplating, idealizing, with their eyes focused on
+their stomach in spiritual revery, while through lack of outer
+activities, in their stomachs they are actually starving. In this
+Western world, men and women, in the rush and activity of our accustomed
+life, are running hither and thither, with no centre, no foundation upon
+which to stand, nothing to which they can anchor their lives, because
+they do not take sufficient time to come into the realization of what
+the centre, of what the reality of their lives is.</p>
+
+<p>If the Oriental would do his contemplating, and then get up and do his
+work, he would be in a better condition; he would be living a more
+normal and satisfactory life. If we in the Occident would take more time
+from the rush and activity of life for contemplation, for meditation,
+for idealization, for becoming acquainted with our real selves, and then
+go about our work manifesting the powers of our real selves, we would be
+far better off, because we would be living a more natural, a more normal
+life. To find one's centre, to become centred in the Infinite, is the
+first great essential of every satisfactory life; and then to go out,
+thinking, speaking, working, loving, living, from this centre.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the highest character-building, such as we have been considering,
+there are those who feel they are handicapped by what we term
+<i>heredity</i>. In a sense they are right; in another sense they are totally
+wrong. It is along the same lines as the thought which many before us
+had inculcated in them through the couplet in the New England Primer:
+&quot;In Adam's fall, we sinned all.&quot; Now, in the first place, it is rather
+hard to understand the justice of this if it is true. In the second
+place, it is rather hard to understand why it is true. And in the third
+place there is no truth in it at all. We are now dealing with the real,
+essential self, and, however old Adam is, God is eternal. This means
+you; it means me; it means every human soul. When we fully realize this
+fact we see that heredity is a reed that is easily broken. The life of
+every one is in his own hands and he can make it in character, in
+attainment, in power, in divine self-realization, and hence in
+influence, exactly what he wills to make it. All things that he most
+fondly dreams of are his, or may become so if he is truly in earnest;
+and as he rises more and more to his ideal, and grows in the strength
+and influence of his character, he becomes an example and an inspiration
+to all with whom he comes in contact; so that through him the weak and
+faltering are encouraged and strengthened; so that those of low ideals
+and of a low type of life instinctively and inevitably have their ideals
+raised, and the ideals of no one can be raised without its showing forth
+in his outer life. As he advances in his grasp upon and understanding of
+the power and potency of the thought-forces, he finds that many times
+through the process of mental suggestion he can be of tremendous aid to
+one who is weak and struggling, by sending to him now and then, and by
+continually holding him in the highest thought, in the thought of the
+highest strength, wisdom, and love.</p>
+
+<p>The one who takes sufficient time in the quiet mentally to form his
+ideals, sufficient time to make and to keep continually his conscious
+connection with the Infinite, with the Divine life and forces, is the
+one who is best adapted to the strenuous life. He it is who can go out
+and deal with sagacity and power with whatever issues may arise in the
+affairs of every-day life. He it is who is building not for the years,
+but for the centuries; not for time, but for the eternities. And he can
+go out knowing not whither he goes, knowing that the Divine life within
+him will never fail him, but will lead him on until he beholds the
+Father face to face.</p>
+
+<p>He is building for the centuries because only that which is the highest,
+the truest, the noblest, and best will abide the test of the centuries.
+He is building for eternity because when the transition we call death
+takes place, life, character, self-mastery, divine
+self-realization,&mdash;the only things that the soul when stripped of
+everything else takes with it,&mdash;he has in abundance. In life, or when
+the time of the transition to another form of life comes, he is never
+afraid, never fearful, because he knows and realizes that behind him,
+within him, beyond him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and in this he
+is eternally centred, and from it he can never be separated. With
+Whittier he sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;I know not where His islands lift<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Their fronded palms in air;<br /></span>
+<span>I only know I cannot drift<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Beyond His love and care.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> &quot;The Ring and the Book,&quot; by Robert Browning.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14312 ***</div>
+</body>
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, What All The World's A-Seeking, by Ralph
+Waldo Trine</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: What All The World's A-Seeking</p>
+<p>Author: Ralph Waldo Trine</p>
+<p>Release Date: December 9, 2004  [eBook #14312]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING</h1>
+
+<h2>OR, THE VITAL LAW OF TRUE LIFE, TRUE GREATNESS POWER AND HAPPINESS</h2>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>RALPH WALDO TRINE</h2>
+
+<h6>New York<br />
+Dodge Publishing Company<br />
+220 East Twenty-Third Street</h6>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE" />PREFACE.</h2>
+
+
+<p>There are two reasons the author has for putting forth this little
+volume: he feels that the time is, as it always has been, ripe for it;
+and second, his soul has ever longed to express itself upon this endless
+theme. It therefore comes from the heart&mdash;the basis of his belief that
+it will reach the heart.</p>
+
+<p>
+R.W.T.<br />
+<i>Boston, Massachusetts.</i><br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PREFACE_TO_REVISED_EDITION" id="PREFACE_TO_REVISED_EDITION" />PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.</h2>
+
+
+<p>It is impossible for one in a single volume, or perhaps in a number of
+volumes, to reach the exact needs of every reader.</p>
+
+<p>It is always a source of gratitude, as well as of inspiration for better
+and more earnest work in the future, for one to know that the truths
+that have been and that are so valuable and so vital to him he has
+succeeded in presenting in a manner such that they prove likewise of
+value to others. The author is most grateful for the good, kind words
+that have come so generously from so many hundreds of readers of this
+simple little volume from all parts of the world. He is also grateful to
+that large company of people who have been so good as to put the book
+into the hands of so many others.</p>
+
+<p>And as the days have passed, he has not been unmindful of the fact that
+he might make it, when the time came, of still greater value to many.
+In addition to a general revision of the book, some four or five
+questions that seemed to be most frequently asked he has endeavored to
+point answer to in an added part of some thirty pages, under the general
+title, &quot;Character-building Thought Power.&quot; The volume enters therefore
+upon its fifteenth thousand better able, possibly, to come a little more
+directly in touch with the every-day needs of those who will be
+sufficiently interested to read it.</p>
+
+<p>
+R.W.T.<br />
+Sunnybrae Farm<br />
+Croton-on-the-Hudson<br />
+New York<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS" />CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+ <a href="#PREFACE"><b>PREFACE.</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PREFACE_TO_REVISED_EDITION"><b>PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#CONTENTS"><b>CONTENTS.</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_I"><b>PART I. THE PRINCIPLE</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_II"><b>PART II. THE APPLICATION</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_III"><b>PART III. THE UNFOLDMENT</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_IV"><b>PART IV. THE AWAKENING</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_V"><b>PART V. THE INCOMING</b></a><br />
+ <a href="#PART_VI"><b>PART VI. CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER</b></a><br />
+ </p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h1><a name="WHAT_ALL_THE_WORLDS_A_SEEKING" id="WHAT_ALL_THE_WORLDS_A_SEEKING" />WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING.</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_I" id="PART_I" />PART I.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE PRINCIPLE</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Would you find that wonderful life supernal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That life so abounding, so rich, and so free?<br /></span>
+<span>Seek then the laws of the Spirit Eternal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With them bring your life into harmony.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>How can I make life yield its fullest and best? How can I know the true
+secret of power? How can I attain to a true and lasting greatness? How
+can I fill the whole of life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a
+satisfaction that is ever rich and abiding, that ever increases, never
+diminishes, that imparts to it a sparkle that never loses its lustre,
+that ever fascinates, never wearies?</p>
+
+<p>No questions, perhaps, in this form or in that have been asked oftener
+than these. Millions in the past have asked them. Millions are asking
+them to-day. They will be asked by millions yet unborn. Is there an
+answer, a true and safe one for the millions who are eagerly and
+longingly seeking for it in all parts of the world to-day, and for the
+millions yet unborn who will as eagerly strive to find it as the years
+come and go? Are you interested, my dear reader, in the answer? The fact
+that you have read even thus far in this little volume whose title has
+led you to take it up, indicates that you are,&mdash;that you are but one of
+the innumerable company already mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>It is but another way of asking that great question that has come
+through all the ages&mdash;What is the <i>summum bonum</i> in life? and there have
+been countless numbers who gladly would have given all they possessed to
+have had the true and satisfactory answer. Can we then find this answer,
+true and satisfactory to ourselves, surely the brief time spent together
+must be counted as the most precious and valuable of life itself. <i>There
+is an answer</i>: follow closely, and that our findings may be the more
+conclusive, take issue with me at every step if you choose, but tell me
+finally if it is not true and satisfactory.</p>
+
+<p>There is one great, one simple principle, which, if firmly laid hold of,
+and if made the great central principle in one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, will make that life
+a grand success, truly great and genuinely happy, loved and blessed by
+all in just the degree in which it is laid hold upon,&mdash;a principle
+which, if universally made thus, would wonderfully change this old world
+in which we live,&mdash;ay, that would transform it almost in a night, and it
+is for its coming that the world has long been waiting; that in place of
+the gloom and despair in almost countless numbers of lives would bring
+light and hope and contentment, and no longer would it be said as so
+truly to-day, that &quot;man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands
+mourn&quot;; that would bring to the life of the fashionable society woman,
+now spending her days and her nights in seeking for nothing but her own
+pleasure, such a flood of true and genuine pleasure and happiness and
+satisfaction as would make the poor, weak something she calls by this
+name so pale before it, that she would quickly see that she hasn't known
+what true pleasure is, and that what she has been mistaking for the
+real, the genuine, is but as a baser metal compared to the purest of
+gold, as a bit of cut glass compared to the rarest of diamonds, and that
+would make this same woman who scarcely deigns to notice the poor woman
+who washes her front steps, but who, were the facts known, may be
+living a much grander life, and consequently of much more value to the
+world than she herself, see that this poor woman is after all her
+sister, because child of the same Father; and that would make the humble
+life of this same poor woman beautiful and happy and sweet in its
+humility; that would give us a nation of statesmen in place of, with now
+and then an exception, a nation of politicians, each one bent upon his
+own personal aggrandizement at the expense of the general good; that
+would go far, ay, very far toward solving our great and hard-pressing
+social problems with which we are already face to face; that, in short,
+would make each man a prince among men, and each woman a queen among
+women.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen the supreme happiness in lives where this principle has been
+caught and laid hold of, some, lives that seemed not to have much in
+them before, but which under its wonderful influences have been so
+transformed and so beautified, that have been made so sweet and so
+strong, so useful and so precious, that each day seems to them all too
+short, the same time that before, when they could scarcely see what was
+in life to make it worth the living, dragged wearily along. So there
+are countless numbers of people in the world with lives that seem not to
+have much in them, among the wealthy classes and among the poorer, who
+might under the influence of this great, this simple principle, make
+them so precious, so rich, and so happy that time would seem only too
+short, and they would wonder why they have been so long running on the
+wrong track, for it is true that much the larger portion of the world
+to-day is on the wrong track in the pursuit of happiness; but almost all
+are there, let it be said, not through choice, but by reason of not
+knowing the right, the true one.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that really great, true, and happy lives have been lived in the
+past and are being lived to-day gives us our starting-point. Time and
+again I have examined such lives in a most careful endeavor to find what
+has made them so, and have found that in <i>each and every</i> individual
+case this that we have now come to has been the great central principle
+upon which they have been built. I have also found that in numbers of
+lives where it has not been, but where almost every effort apart from it
+has been made to make them great, true, and happy, they have not been
+so; and also that no life built upon it in sufficient degree, other
+things being equal, has failed in being thus.</p>
+
+<p>Let us then to the answer, examine it closely, see if it will stand
+every test, if it is the true one, and if so, rejoice that we have found
+it, lay hold of it, build upon it, tell others of it. The last four
+words have already entered us at the open door. The idea has prevailed
+in the past, and this idea has dominated the world, that <i>self</i> is the
+great concern,&mdash;that if one would find success, greatness, happiness, he
+must give all attention to self, and to self alone. This has been the
+great mistake, this the fatal error, this the <i>direct</i> opposite of the
+right, the true as set forth in the great immutable law that&mdash;<i>we find
+our own lives in losing them in the service of others</i>, in longer
+form&mdash;the more of our lives we give to others, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy our own lives become. It is as that great and sweet soul who when
+with us lived at Concord said,&mdash;that generous giving or losing of your
+life which saves it.</p>
+
+<p>This is an expression of one of the greatest truths, of one of the
+greatest principles of practical ethics the world has thus far seen. In
+a single word, it is <i>service</i>,&mdash;not self but the other self. We shall
+soon see, however, that our love, our service, our helpfulness to
+others, invariably comes back to us, intensified sometimes a hundred or
+a thousand or a thousand thousand fold, and this by a great, immutable
+law.</p>
+
+<p>The Master Teacher, he who so many years ago in that far-away Eastern
+land, now in the hill country, now in the lake country, as the people
+gathered round him, taught them those great, high-born, and tender
+truths of human life and destiny, the Christ Jesus, said identically
+this when he said and so continually repeated,&mdash;&quot;He that is greatest
+among you shall be your servant&quot;; and his whole life was but an
+embodiment of this principle or truth, with the result that the greatest
+name in the world to-day is his,&mdash;the name of him who as his life-work,
+healed the sick; clothed the naked; bound up the broken-hearted;
+sustained the weak, the faltering; befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy; condemned the proud, the vain, the selfish; and through it all
+taught the people to love justice and mercy and service, to live in
+their higher, their diviner selves,&mdash;in brief, to <i>live</i> his life, the
+Christ-life, and who has helped in making it possible for this greatest
+principle of practical ethics the world has thus far seen to be
+enunciated, to be laid hold of, to be lived by to-day. &quot;He that is
+greatest among you shall be your servant,&quot; or, he who would be truly
+great and recognized as such must find it in the capacity of a servant.</p>
+
+<p>And what, let us ask, is a servant? One who renders service. To himself?
+Never. To others? Alway. Freed of its associations and looked at in the
+light of its right and true meaning, than the word &quot;servant&quot; there is no
+greater in the language; and in this right use of the term, as we shall
+soon see, every life that has been really true, great, and happy has
+been that of a servant, and apart from this no such life <i>ever has been
+or ever can be lived</i>.</p>
+
+<p>O you who are seeking for power, for place, for happiness, for
+contentment in the ordinary way, tarry for a moment, see that you are on
+the wrong track, grasp this great eternal truth, lay hold of it, and you
+will see that your advance along this very line will be manifold times
+more rapid. Are you seeking, then, to make for yourself a name? Unless
+you grasp this mighty truth and make your life accordingly, as the great
+clock of time ticks on and all things come to their proper level
+according to their merits, as all invariably, inevitably do, you will
+indeed be somewhat surprised to find how low, how very low your level
+is. Your name and your memory will be forgotten long ere the minute-hand
+has passed even a single time across the great dial; while your
+fellow-man who has grasped this simple but this great and all-necessary
+truth, and who accordingly is forgetting himself in the service of
+others, who is making his life a part of a hundred or a thousand or a
+million lives, thus illimitably intensifying or multiplying his own,
+instead of living as you in what otherwise would be his own little,
+diminutive self, will find himself ascending higher and higher until he
+stands as one among the few, and will find a peace, a happiness, a
+satisfaction so rich and so beautiful, compared to which yours will be
+but a poor miserable something, and whose name and memory when his life
+here is finished, will live in the minds and hearts of his fellow-men
+and of mankind fixed and eternal as the stars.</p>
+
+<p>A corollary of the great principle already enunciated might be
+formulated thus: <i>there is no such thing as finding true happiness by
+searching for it directly</i>. It must come, if it come at all, indirectly,
+or by the service, the love, and the happiness we give to others. So,
+<i>there is no such thing as finding true greatness by searching for it
+directly</i>. It always, without a single exception has come indirectly in
+this same way, and it is not at all probable that this great eternal law
+is going to be changed to suit any particular case or cases. Then
+recognize it, put your life into harmony with it, and reap the rewards
+of its observance, or fail to recognize it and pay the penalty
+accordingly; for the law itself will remain unchanged.</p>
+
+<p>The men and women whose names we honor and celebrate are invariably
+those with lives founded primarily upon this great law. Note if you
+will, every <i>truly</i> great life in the world's history, among those
+living and among the so-called dead, and tell me if in <i>every</i> case that
+life is not a life spent in the service of others, either directly, or
+indirectly as when we say&mdash;he served his country. Whenever one seeks for
+reputation, for fame, for honor, for happiness directly and for his own
+sake, then that which is true and genuine never comes, at least to any
+degree worthy the name. It may seem to for a time, but a great law says
+that such an one gets so far and no farther. Sooner or later, generally
+sooner, there comes an end.</p>
+
+<p>Human nature seems to run in this way, seems to be governed by a great
+paradoxical law which says, that whenever a man self-centred, thinking
+of, living for and in himself, is very desirous for place, for
+preferment, for honor, the very fact of his being thus is of itself a
+sufficient indicator that he is too small to have them, and mankind
+refuses to accord them. While the one who forgets self, and who, losing
+sight of these things, makes it his chief aim in life to help, to aid,
+and to serve others, by this very fact makes it known that he is large
+enough, is great enough to have them, and his fellow-men instinctively
+bestow them upon him. This is a great law which many would profit by to
+recognize. That it is true is attested by the fact that the praise of
+mankind instinctively and universally goes out to a hero; but who ever
+heard of a hero who became such by doing something for himself? Always
+something he has done for others. By the fact that monuments and statues
+are gratefully erected to the memory of those who have helped and served
+their fellow-men, not to those who have lived to themselves alone.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen many monuments and statues erected to the memories of
+philanthropists, but I never yet have seen one erected to a miser; many
+to generous-hearted, noble-hearted men, but never yet to one whose whole
+life was that of a sharp bargain-driver, and who clung with a sort of
+semi-idiotic grasp to all that came thus into his temporary possession.
+I have seen many erected to statesmen,&mdash;statesmen,&mdash;but never one to
+mere politicians; many to true orators, but never to mere demagogues;
+many to soldiers and leaders, but never to men who were not willing,
+when necessary, to risk all in the service of their country. No, you
+will find that the world's monuments and statues have been erected and
+its praises and honors have gone out to those who were large and great
+enough to forget themselves in the service of others, who have been
+servants, true servants of mankind, who have been true to the great law
+that we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others. Not
+honor for themselves, but service for others. But notice the strange,
+wonderful, beautiful transformation as it returns upon itself,&mdash;<i>honor
+for themselves, because of service to others</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a matter of exceeding great interest to verify the truth of
+what has just been said by looking at a number of those who are regarded
+as the world's great sons and daughters,&mdash;those to whom its honors, its
+praises, its homage go out,&mdash;to see why it is, upon what their lives
+have been founded that they have become so great and are so honored. Of
+all this glorious company that would come up, we must be contented to
+look at but one or two.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to my mind the name and figure of him the celebration of
+whose birthday I predict will soon be made a national holiday,&mdash;he than
+whom there is no greater, whose praises are sung and whose name and
+memory are honored and blessed by millions in all parts of the world
+to-day, and will be by millions yet unborn, our beloved and sainted
+Lincoln. And then I ask, Why is this? Why is this? One sentence of his
+tells us what to look to for the answer. During that famous series of
+public debates in Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, speaking at
+Freeport, Mr. Douglas at one place said, &quot;I care not whether slavery in
+the Territories be voted up or whether it be voted down, it makes not a
+particle of difference with me.&quot; Mr. Lincoln, speaking from the fulness
+of his great and royal heart, in reply said, with emotion, &quot;I am sorry
+to perceive that my friend Judge Douglas is so constituted that he does
+not feel the lash the least bit when it is laid upon another man's
+back.&quot; Thoughts upon self? Not for a moment. Upon others? Always. He at
+once recognized in those black men four million brothers for whom he had
+a service to perform.</p>
+
+<p>It would seem almost grotesque to use the word <i>self-ish</i> in connection
+with this great name. He very early, and when still in a very humble and
+lowly station in life, either consciously or unconsciously grasped this
+great truth, and in making the great underlying principle of his life to
+serve, to help his fellow-men, he adopted just that course that has made
+him one of the greatest of the sons of men, our royal-hearted elder
+brother. He never spent time in asking what he could do to attain to
+greatness, to popularity, to power, what to perpetuate his name and
+memory. He simply asked how he could help, how he could be of service to
+his fellow-men, and continually did all his hands found to do.</p>
+
+<p>He simply put his life into harmony with this great principle; and in so
+doing he adopted the best means,&mdash;the <i>only</i> means to secure that which
+countless numbers seek and strive for directly, and every time so
+woefully fail in finding.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to my mind in this same connection another princely soul,
+one who loved all the world, one whom all the world loves and delights
+to honor. There comes to mind also a little incident that will furnish
+an insight into the reason of it all. On an afternoon not long ago, Mrs.
+Henry Ward Beecher was telling me of some of the characteristics of
+Brooklyn's great preacher. While she was yet speaking of some of those
+along the very lines we are considering, an old gentleman, a neighbor,
+came into the room bearing in his hands something he had brought from
+Mr. Beecher's grave. It was the day next following Decoration Day. His
+story was this: As the great procession was moving into the cemetery
+with its bands of rich music, with its carriages laden with sweet and
+fragrant flowers, with its waving flags, beautiful in the sunlight, a
+poor and humble-looking woman with two companions, by her apparent
+nervousness attracted the attention of the gate-keeper. He kept her in
+view for a little while, and presently saw her as she gave something she
+had partially concealed to one of her companions, who, leaving the
+procession, went over to the grave of Mr. Beecher, and tenderly laid it
+there. Reverently she stood for a moment or two, and then, retracing
+her steps, joined her two companions, who with bowed heads were waiting
+by the wayside.</p>
+
+<p>It was this that the old gentleman had brought,&mdash;a gold frame, and in it
+a poem cut from a volume, a singularly beautiful poem through which was
+breathed the spirit of love and service and self-devotion to the good
+and the needs of others. At one or two places where it fitted, the pen
+had been drawn across a word and Mr. Beecher's name inserted, which
+served to give it a still more real, vivid, and tender meaning. At the
+bottom this only was written, &quot;From a poor Hebrew woman to the immortal
+friend of the Hebrews.&quot; There was no name, but this was sufficient to
+tell the whole story. Some poor, humble woman, but one out of a mighty
+number whom he had at some time befriended or helped or cheered, whose
+burden he had helped to carry, and soon perhaps had forgotten all about
+it. When we remember that this was his life, is it at all necessary to
+seek farther why all the world delights to honor this, another
+royal-hearted elder brother? and, as we think of this simple, beautiful,
+and touching incident, how true and living becomes the thought in the
+old, old lines!&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Cast thy bread upon the waters, waft it on with praying breath,<br /></span>
+<span>In some distant, doubtful moment it may save a soul from death.<br /></span>
+<span>When you sleep in solemn silence, 'neath the morn and evening dew,<br /></span>
+<span>Stranger hands which you have strengthened may strew lilies over you.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Our good friend, Henry Drummond, in one of his most beautiful and
+valuable little works says&mdash;and how admirably and how truly!&mdash;that &quot;love
+is the greatest thing in the world.&quot; Have you this greatest thing? Yes.
+How, then, does it manifest itself? In kindliness, in helpfulness, in
+service, to those around you? If so, well and good, you have it. If not,
+then I suspect that what you have been calling love is something else;
+and you have indeed been greatly fooled. In fact, I am sure it is; for
+if it does not manifest itself in this way, it cannot be true love, for
+this is the one grand and never-failing test. Love is the statics,
+helpfulness and service the dynamics, the former necessary to the
+latter, but the latter the more powerful, as action is always more
+powerful than potentiality; and, were it not for the dynamics, the
+statics might as well not be. Helpfulness, kindliness, service, is but
+the expression of love. It is love in action; and unless love thus
+manifests itself in action, it is an indication that it is of that weak
+and sickly nature that needs exercise, growth, and development, that it
+may grow and become strong, healthy, vigorous, and true, instead of
+remaining a little, weak, indefinite, sentimental something or nothing.</p>
+
+<p>It was but yesterday that I heard one of the world's greatest thinkers
+and speakers, one of our keenest observers of human affairs, state as
+his opinion that selfishness is the root of all evil. Now, if it is
+possible for any one thing to be the root of all evil, then I think
+there is a world of truth in the statement. But, leaving out of account
+for the present purpose whether it is true or not, it certainly is true
+that he who can't get beyond self robs his life of its chief charms, and
+more, defeats the very ends he has in view. It is a well-known law in
+the natural world about us that whatever hasn't use, that whatever
+serves no purpose, shrivels up. So it is a law of our own being that he
+who makes himself of no use, of no service to the great body of mankind,
+who is concerned only with his own small self, finds that self, small as
+it is, growing smaller and smaller, and those finer and better and
+grander qualities of his nature, those that give the chief charm and
+happiness to life, shrivelling up. Such an one lives, keeps constant
+company with his own diminutive and stunted self; while he who,
+forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness, and
+kindliness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding,
+himself becoming large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, loving, sympathetic,
+joyous, and happy, his life becoming rich and beautiful. For instead of
+his own little life alone he has entered into and has part in a hundred,
+a thousand, ay, in countless numbers of other lives; and every success,
+every joy, every happiness coming to each of these comes as such to him,
+for he has a part in each and all. And thus it is that one becomes a
+prince among men, a queen among women.</p>
+
+<p>Why, one of the very fundamental principles of life is, so much love, so
+much love in return; so much love, so much growth; so much love, so much
+power; so much love, so much life,&mdash;strong, healthy, rich, exulting, and
+abounding life. The world is beginning to realize the fact that love,
+instead of being a mere indefinite something, is a vital and living
+force, the same as electricity is a force, though perhaps of a different
+nature. The same great fact we are learning in regard to thought,&mdash;that
+thoughts are things, that <i>thoughts are forces, the most vital and
+powerful in the universe</i>, that they have form and substance and power,
+the quality of the power determined as it is by the quality of the life
+in whose organism the thoughts are engendered; and so, when a thought is
+given birth, it does not end there, but takes form, and as a force it
+goes out and has its effect upon other minds and lives, the effect being
+determined by its intensity and the quality of the prevailing emotions,
+and also by the emotions dominating the person at the time the thoughts
+are engendered and given form.</p>
+
+<p>Science, while demonstrating the great facts it is to-day demonstrating
+in connection with the mind in its relations to and effects upon the
+body, is also finding from its very laboratory experiments that each
+particular kind of thought and emotion has its own peculiar qualities,
+and hence its own peculiar effects or influences; and these it is
+classifying with scientific accuracy. A very general classification in
+just a word would be&mdash;those of a higher and those of a lower nature.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the chief ones among those of the lower nature are anger,
+hatred, jealousy, malice, rage. Their effect, especially when violent,
+is to emit a poisonous substance into the system, or rather, to set up a
+corroding influence which transforms the healthy and life-giving
+secretions of the body into the poisonous and the destructive. When one,
+for example, is dominated, even if for but a moment by a passion of
+anger or rage, there is set up in the system what might be justly termed
+a bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring or corroding the
+normal and healthy secretions of the body and making them so that
+instead of life-giving they become poisonous. This, if indulged in to
+any extent, sooner or later induces the form of disease that this
+particular state of mind and emotion or passion gives birth to; and it
+in turn becomes chronic.</p>
+
+<p>We shall ultimately find, as we are beginning to so rapidly to-day, that
+practically all disease has its origin in perverted mental states or
+emotions; that anger, hatred, fear, worry, jealousy, lust, as well as
+all milder forms of perverted mental states and emotions, has each its
+own peculiar poisoning effects and induces each its own peculiar form of
+disease, for all life is from within out.</p>
+
+<p>Then some of the chief ones belonging to the other class&mdash;mental states
+and emotions of the higher nature&mdash;are love, sympathy, benevolence,
+kindliness, and good cheer. These are the natural and the normal; and
+their effect, when habitually entertained, is to stimulate a vital,
+healthy, bounding, purifying, and life-giving action, the exact opposite
+of the others; and these very forces, set into a bounding activity, will
+in time counteract and heal the disease-giving effects of their
+opposites. Their effects upon the countenance and features in inducing
+the highest beauty that can dwell there are also marked and
+all-powerful. So much, then, in regard to the effects of one's thought
+forces upon the self. A word more in regard to their effects upon
+others.</p>
+
+<p>Our prevailing thought forces determine the mental atmosphere we create
+around us, and all who come within its influence are affected in one way
+or another, according to the quality of that atmosphere; and, though
+they may not always get the exact thoughts, they nevertheless get the
+effects of the emotions dominating the originator of the thoughts, and
+hence the creator of this particular mental atmosphere, and the more
+sensitively organized the person the more sensitive he or she is to
+this atmosphere, even at times to getting the exact and very thoughts.
+So even in this the prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled,&mdash;there is
+nothing hid that shall not be revealed.</p>
+
+<p>If the thought forces sent out by any particular life are those of
+hatred or jealousy or malice or fault-finding or criticism or scorn,
+these same thought forces are aroused and sent back from others, so that
+one is affected not only by reason of the unpleasantness of having such
+thoughts from others, but they also in turn affect one's own mental
+states, and through these his own bodily conditions, so that, so far as
+even the welfare of self is concerned, the indulgence in thoughts and
+emotions of this nature are most expensive, most detrimental, most
+destructive.</p>
+
+<p>If, on the other hand, the thought forces sent out be those of love, of
+sympathy, of kindliness, of cheer and good will, these same forces are
+aroused and sent back, so that their pleasant, ennobling, warming, and
+life-giving effects one feels and is influenced by; and so again, so far
+even as the welfare of self is concerned, there is nothing more
+desirable, more valuable and life-giving. There comes from others, then,
+exactly what one sends to and hence calls forth from them.</p>
+
+<p><i>And would we have all the world love us, we must first then love all
+the world</i>,&mdash;merely a great scientific fact. Why is it that all people
+instinctively dislike and shun the little, the mean, the self-centred,
+the selfish, while all the world instinctively, irresistibly, loves and
+longs for the company of the great-hearted, the tender-hearted, the
+loving, the magnanimous, the sympathetic, the brave? The mere
+answer&mdash;because&mdash;will not satisfy. There is a deep, scientific reason
+for it, either this or it is not true.</p>
+
+<p>Much has been said, much written, in regard to what some have been
+pleased to call personal magnetism, but which, as is so commonly true in
+cases of this kind, is even to-day but little understood. But to my mind
+personal magnetism in its true sense, and as distinguished from what may
+be termed a purely animal magnetism, is nothing more nor less than the
+thought forces sent out by a great-hearted, tender-hearted, magnanimous,
+loving, sympathetic man or woman; for, let me ask, have you ever known
+of any great personal magnetism in the case of the little, the mean, the
+vindictive, the self-centred? Never, I venture to say, but always in the
+case of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Why, there is nothing that can stand before this wonderful transmuting
+power of love. So far even as the enemy is concerned, I may not be to
+blame if I have an enemy; but I am to blame if I keep him as such,
+especially after I know of this wonderful transmuting power. Have I then
+an enemy, I will refuse, absolutely refuse, to recognize him as such;
+and instead of entertaining the thoughts of him that he entertains of
+me, instead of sending him like thought forces, I will send him only
+thoughts of love, of sympathy, of brotherly kindness, and magnanimity.
+But a short time it will be until he feels these, and is influenced by
+them. Then in addition I will watch my opportunity, and whenever I can,
+I will even go out of my way to do him some little kindnesses. Before
+these forces he cannot stand, and by and by I shall find that he who
+to-day is my bitterest enemy is my warmest friend and it may be my
+staunchest supporter. No, the wise man is he who by that wonderful
+alchemy of love transmutes the enemy into the friend,&mdash;transmutes the
+bitterest enemy into the warmest friend and supporter. Certainly this is
+what the Master meant when he said: &quot;Love your enemies, do good to them
+that hate you and despitefully use you: thou shalt thereby be heaping
+coals of fire upon their heads.&quot; Ay, thou shalt melt them: before this
+force they cannot stand. Thou shalt melt them, and transmute them into
+friends.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;You never can tell what your thoughts will do<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In bringing you hate or love;<br /></span>
+<span>For thoughts are things, and their airy wings<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Are swifter than carrier doves.<br /></span>
+<span>They follow the law of the universe,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Each thing must create its kind;<br /></span>
+<span>And they speed o'er the track to bring you back<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Whatever went out from your mind.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Yes, science to-day, at the close of this nineteenth century, in the
+laboratory is discovering and scientifically demonstrating the great,
+immutable laws upon which the inspired and illuminated ones of all ages
+have based all their teachings, those who by ordering their lives
+according to the higher laws of their being get in a moment of time,
+through the direct touch of inspiration, what it takes the physical
+investigator a whole lifetime or a series of investigators a series of
+lifetimes to discover and demonstrate.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_II" id="PART_II" />PART II.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE APPLICATION</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>Are you seeking for greatness, O brother of mine,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">As the full, fleeting seasons and years glide away?<br /></span>
+<span>If seeking directly and for self alone,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The true and abiding you never can stay.<br /></span>
+<span>But all self forgetting, know well the law,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">It's the hero, and not the self-seeker, who's crowned.<br /></span>
+<span>Then go lose your life in the service of others,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And, lo! with rare greatness and glory 'twill abound.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become great in any particular field, to attain
+to fame and honor, and thereby to happiness and contentment? Is it your
+ambition, for example, to become a great <i>orator</i>, to move great masses
+of men, to receive their praise, their plaudits? Then remember that
+there never has been, there never will, in brief, there never can be a
+truly great orator without a great <i>purpose</i>, a great cause behind him.
+You may study in all the best schools in the country, the best
+universities and the best schools of oratory. You may study until you
+exhaust all these, and then seek the best in other lands. You may study
+thus until your hair is beginning to change its color, but this of
+itself will <i>never</i> make you a great orator. You may become a demagogue,
+and, if self-centred, you inevitably will; for this is exactly what a
+demagogue is,&mdash;a great demagogue, if you please, than which it is hard
+for one to call to mind a more contemptible animal, and the greater the
+more contemptible. But without laying hold of and building upon this
+great principle you never can become a great orator.</p>
+
+<p>Call to mind the greatest in the world's history, from Demosthenes&mdash;Men
+of Athens, march against Philip, your country and your fellow-men will
+be in early bondage unless you give them your best service now&mdash;down to
+our own Phillips and Gough,&mdash;Wendell Phillips against the traffic in
+human blood, John B. Gough against a slavery among his fellow-men more
+hard and galling and abject than the one just spoken of; for by it the
+body merely is in bondage, the mind and soul are free, while in this,
+body, soul, and mind are enslaved. So you can easily discover the great
+<i>purpose</i>, the great cause for <i>service</i>, behind each and every one.</p>
+
+<p>The man who can't get beyond himself, his own aggrandizement and
+interests, must of necessity be small, petty, personal, and at once
+marks his own limitations; while he whose life is a life of service and
+self-devotion has no limits, for he thus puts himself at once on the
+side of the <i>Universal</i>, and this more than all else combined gives a
+tremendous power in oratory. Such a one can mount as on the wings of an
+eagle, and Nature herself seems to come forth and give a great soul of
+this kind means and material whereby to accomplish his purposes, whereby
+the great universal truths go direct to the minds and hearts of his
+hearers to mould them, to move them; for the orator is he who moulds the
+minds and hearts of his hearers in the great moulds of universal and
+eternal truth, and then moves them along a definite line of action, not
+he who merely speaks pieces to them.</p>
+
+<p>How thoroughly Webster recognized this great principle is admirably
+shown in that brief but powerful description of eloquence of his; let us
+pause to listen to a sentence or two: &quot;True eloquence indeed does not
+consist in speech.... Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way,
+but they cannot compass it.... Affected passion, intense expression, the
+pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it.... The
+graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied
+contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives and
+the fate of their wives and their children and their country hang on the
+decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is
+vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then
+feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then
+patriotism is eloquent, then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear
+conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the
+firm resolve, the dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beaming from
+the eye, informing every feature and urging the whole man onward, right
+onward to his object,&mdash;this, this is eloquence.&quot; And note some of the
+chief words he has used,&mdash;<i>self-devotion, patriotism, high purpose</i>. The
+self-centred man can never know these, and much less can he make use of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>True, things that one may learn, as the freeing of the bodily agents,
+the developing of the voice, and so on, that all may become the <i>true
+reporters of the soul</i>, instead of limiting or binding it down, as is so
+frequently the case in public speakers,&mdash;these are all valuable, ay, are
+very important and very necessary, unless one is content to live below
+his highest possibilities, and he is wise who recognizes this tact; but
+these in themselves are but as trifles when compared to those greater,
+more powerful, and all-essential qualities.</p>
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>states man?</i> Note the very first
+thing, then, the word itself,&mdash;<i>states-man</i>, a man who gives his life to
+the service of the State. And do you not recognize the fact that, when
+one says&mdash;a man who gives his life to the service of the State, it is
+but another way of saying&mdash;a man who gives his life to the service of
+his fellow-men; for what, after all, is any country, any State, in the
+true sense of the term, but the aggregate, the great body of its
+individual citizenship. And he who lives for and unto himself, who puts
+the interests of his own small self before the interests of the
+thousands, can never become a states-man; for a statesman must be a
+larger man than this.</p>
+
+<p>Call to your mind the greatest of the world, among those living and
+among the so-called dead, and you will quickly see that the life of each
+and every one has been built upon this great principle, and that all
+have been great and are held as such in just the degree in which it has
+been. Two of the greatest among Americans, both passed away, would
+to-day and even more as time goes on, be counted still greater, had they
+been a little larger in one aspect of their natures,&mdash;large enough to
+have recognized to its fullest extent the eternal truth and importance
+of this great principle, and had they given the time to the service of
+their fellow-men that was spent in desiring the Presidency and in all
+too plainly making it known. Having gained it could have made them no
+greater, and having so plainly shown their eager and childish desire for
+it has made them less great. Of the many thousands of men who have been
+in our American Congress since its beginning, and of the very, very
+small number comparatively that you are able to call to mind, possibly
+not over fifty, which would be about one out of every six hundred or
+more, you will find that you are able to call to mind each one of this
+very small number on account of his standing for some measure or
+principle that would to the highest degree increase the human welfare,
+thus truly fulfilling the great office of a <i>statesman</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The one great trouble with our country to-day is that we have but few
+statesmen. We have a great swarm, a great hoard of politicians; but it
+is only now and then that we find a man who is large enough truly to
+deserve the name&mdash;statesman. The large majority in public life to-day
+are there not for the purpose of serving the best interests of those
+whom they are supposed to represent, but they are there purely for self,
+purely for self-aggrandizement in this form or in that, as the case may
+be.</p>
+
+<p>Especially do we find this true in our municipalities. In some, the
+government instead of being in the hands of those who would make it such
+in truth, those who would make it serve the interests it is designed to
+serve, it is in the hands of those who are there purely for self, little
+whelps, those who will resort to any means to secure their ends, at
+times even to honorable means, should they seem to serve best the
+particular purpose in hand. We have but to look around us to see that
+this is true. The miserable, filthy, and deplorable condition of affairs
+the Lexow Committee in its investigations not so long ago laid bare to
+public gaze had its root in what? In the fact that the offices in that
+great municipality have been and are filled by men who are there to
+serve in the highest degree the public welfare or by men who are there
+purely for self-aggrandizement? But let us pass on. This degraded
+condition of affairs exists not only in this great city, but there are
+scarcely any that are free from it entirely. Matters are not always to
+continue thus, however. The American people will learn by and by what
+they ought fully to realize to-day&mdash;that the moment the honest people,
+the citizens, in distinction from the barnacles, mass themselves and
+stay massed, the notorious, filthy political rings cannot stand before
+them for a period of even twenty-four hours. <i>The right, the good, the
+true, is all-powerful, and will inevitably conquer sooner or later when
+brought to the front.</i> Such is the history of civilization.</p>
+
+<p>Let our public offices&mdash;municipal, state, and federal&mdash;be filled with
+men who are in love with the human kind, large men, men whose lives are
+founded upon this great law of service, and we will then have them
+filled with statesmen. Never let this glorious word be disgraced,
+degraded, by applying it to the little, self-centred whelps who are
+unable to get beyond the politician stage. Then enter public life; but
+enter it as a man, not as a barnacle: enter it as a statesman, not as a
+politician.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>preacher</i>, or better yet, with
+the same meaning, a great <i>teacher?</i> Then remember that the greatest of
+the world have been those who have given themselves in thorough
+self-devotion and service to their fellow-men, who have given themselves
+so thoroughly to all they have come in contact with that there has been
+no room for self. They have not been seekers after fame, or men who have
+thought so much of their own particular dogmatic ways of thinking as to
+spend the greater part of their time in discussing dogma, creed,
+theology, in order, as is so generally true in cases of this kind, to
+prove that the <i>ego</i> you see before you is right in his particular ways
+of thinking, and that his chief ambition is to have this fact clearly
+understood,&mdash;an abomination, I verily believe, in the sight of God
+himself, whose children in the mean time are starving, are dying for the
+bread of life, and an abomination I am sure, in the sight of the great
+majority of mankind. Let us be thankful, however, for mankind is finding
+less use for such year by year, and the time will soon come when they
+will scarcely be tolerated at all.</p>
+
+<p>It is to a very great extent on account of men of this kind, especially
+in the early history, that the true spirit of religion, of Christianity,
+has been lost sight of in the mere form. The basket in which it has
+been deemed necessary to carry it has been held as of greater import
+than the rare and divinely beautiful fruit itself. The true spirit, that
+that quickeneth and giveth life and power, has had its place taken by
+the mere letter, that that alone blighteth and killeth. Instead of
+running after these finely spun, man-made theories, this stuff,&mdash;for
+stuff is the word,&mdash;this that we outgrow once every few years in our
+march onward and upward, and then stand and laugh as we look back to
+think that such ideas have ever been held, instead of this, thinking
+that thus you will gain power, act the part of the wise man, and go each
+day into the <i>silence</i>, there commune with the Infinite, there dwell for
+a season with the Infinite Spirit of all life, of all power; for you can
+get <i>true power</i> in no other way.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of running about here and there to have your cup filled at these
+little stagnant pools, dried up as they generally are by the continual
+rays of a constantly shining egoistic sun, go direct to the great
+fountain-head, and there drink of the water of life that is poured out
+freely to every one if he will but go there for it. One can't, however,
+send and have it brought by another.</p>
+
+<p>Go, then, into the <i>silence</i>, even if it be but for a short period,&mdash;a
+period of not more than a quarter or a half-hour a day,&mdash;and there come
+into contact with the Great Source of all life, of all power. <i>Send out
+your earnest desires for whatsoever you will; and whatsoever you will,
+if continually watered by expectation, will sooner or later come to
+you</i>. All knowledge, all truth, all power, all wisdom, all things
+whatsoever, are yours, if you will but go in this way for them. It has
+been tried times without number, and has never yet once failed where the
+motives have been high, where the knowledge of the results beforehand
+has been sufficiently great. Within a fortnight you can know the truth
+of this for yourself if you will but go in the right way.</p>
+
+<p>All the truly great teachers in the world's history have gotten their
+powers in this way. You remember the great soul who left us not long
+ago, he who ministered so faithfully at Trinity, the great preacher of
+such wonderful powers, the one so truly inspired. It was but an evening
+or two since, when in conversation with a member of his congregation, we
+were talking in regard to Phillips Brooks. She was telling of his
+beautiful and powerful spirit and said that they were all continually
+conscious of the fact that he had a power they hadn't, but that all
+longed for; that he seemed to have a great secret of power they hadn't,
+but that they often tried to find. She continued, and in the very next
+sentence went on to tell of a fact,&mdash;one that I knew full well,&mdash;the
+fact that during a certain period of each day he took himself alone into
+a little, silent room, he fastened the door behind him, and during this
+period under no circumstances could he be seen by any one. The dear lady
+knew these two things, she knew and was influenced by his great soul
+power, she also knew of his going thus into the silence each day; but,
+bless her heart, it had never once occurred to her to put the two
+together.</p>
+
+<p>It is in this way that great soul power is grown; and the men of this
+great power are the men who move the world, the men who do the great
+work in the world along all lines, and against whom no man, no power,
+can stand. Call to mind a number of the world's greatest preachers, or,
+using again the better term, teachers, and bear in mind I do not mean
+creed, dogma, form, but religious teachers,&mdash;and the one class differs
+from the other even as the night from the day,&mdash;and you will find two
+great facts in the life of each and all,&mdash;great soul power, grown
+chiefly by much time spent in the silence, and the fact that the life of
+each has been built upon this one great and all-powerful principle of
+love, service, and helpfulness for all mankind.</p>
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>writer?</i> Very good. But remember
+that unless you have something to give to the world, something you feel
+mankind must have, something that will aid them in their march upward
+and onward, unless you have some service of this kind to render, then
+you had better be wise, and not take up the pen; for, if your object in
+writing is merely fame or money, the number of your readers may be
+exceedingly small, possibly a few score or even a few dozen may be a
+large estimate.</p>
+
+<p>What an author writes is, after all, the sum total of his life, his
+habits, his characteristics, his experiences, his purposes. <i>He never
+can write more than he himself is</i>. He can never pass beyond his
+limitations; and unless he have a purpose higher than writing merely for
+fame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks his own limitations, and
+what he seeks will never come. While he who writes for the world,
+because he feels he has something that it needs and that will be a help
+to mankind, if it <i>is</i> something it needs, other things being equal,
+that which the other man seeks for directly, and so never finds, will
+come to him in all its fulness. This is the way it comes, and this way
+only. <i>Mankind cares nothing for you until you have shown that you care
+for mankind.</i></p>
+
+<p>Note this statement from the letter of a now well-known writer, one
+whose very first book met with instant success, and that has been
+followed by others all similarly received. She says, &quot;I never thought of
+writing until two years and a half ago, when, in order to disburden my
+mind of certain thoughts that clamored for utterance, I produced,&quot; etc.
+In the light of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable success of her
+very first and all succeeding books. She had something she felt the
+world needed and must have; and, with no thought of self, of fame, or of
+money, she gave it. The world agreed with her; and, as she was large
+enough to seek for neither, it has given her both.</p>
+
+<p>Note this also: &quot;I write for the love of writing, not for money or
+reputation. The former I have without exertion, the latter is not worth
+a pin's point in the general economy of the vast universe. Work done for
+the love of working brings its own reward far more quickly and surely
+than work done for mere payment.&quot; This is but the formulated statement
+of what all the world's greatest writers and authors have said or would
+say,&mdash;at least so far as I have come in contact with their opinions in
+regard to it.</p>
+
+<p>So, unless you are large enough to forget self for the good, for the
+service of mankind, thus putting yourself on the side of the universal
+and making it possible for you to give something that will in turn of
+itself bring fame, you had better be wise, and not lift the pen at all;
+for what you write will not be taken up, or, if it is, will soon be let
+fall again.</p>
+
+<p>One of our most charming and most noted American authors says in regard
+to her writing, &quot;I press my soul upon the white paper&quot;; and let me tell
+you the reason it in turn makes its impression upon so many thousands of
+other souls is because hers is so large, so tender, so sympathetic, so
+loving, that others cannot resist the impression, living as she does not
+for self, but for the service of others, her own life thus having a part
+in countless numbers of other lives.</p>
+
+<p>It is only that that comes from the heart that can reach the heart.
+Take from their shelves the most noted, the greatest works in any
+library, and you will find that their authors have made them what they
+are not by a study of the rules and principles of rhetoric, for this of
+itself never has made and never can make a great writer. They are what
+they are because the author's very soul has been fired by some great
+truth or fact that the world has needed, that has been a help to
+mankind. Large souls they have been, souls in love with all the human
+kind.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>actor?</i> Then remember that if you
+make it the object of your life to play to influence the hearts, the
+lives, and so the destinies of men, this same great law of nature that
+operates in the case of the orator will come to your assistance, will
+aid you in your growth and development, and will enable you to attain to
+heights you could never attain to or even dream of, in case you play for
+the little <i>ego</i> you otherwise would stand for. In the latter case you
+may succeed in making a third or a fourth rate actor, possibly a second
+rate; but you can never become one of the world's greatest, and the
+chances are you may succeed in making not even a livelihood, and thus
+have your wonderment satisfied why so many who try fail.</p>
+
+<p>In the other case, other things being equal, the height you may attain
+to is unbounded, depending upon the degree you are able to forget
+yourself in influencing the minds and the souls, and thus the lives and
+the destinies of men.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a great <i>singer?</i> Then remember that if
+your thought is only of self, you may never sing at all, unless, indeed,
+you enjoy singing to yourself,&mdash;this, or you will be continually anxious
+as to the size of your audience. If, on the other hand, you choose this
+field of work because here you can be of the greatest service to
+mankind, if your ambition is to sing to the hearts and the lives of men,
+then this same great law of nature will come to assist you in your
+growth and development and efforts, and other things being equal,
+instead of singing to yourself or being anxious as to the size of your
+audience, you will seldom find time for the first, and your anxiety will
+be as to whether the place has an audience-chamber large enough to
+accommodate even a small portion of the people who will seek
+admittance. You remember Jenny Lind.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it your ambition to become a <i>fashionable society woman</i>, this and
+nothing more, intent only upon your own pleasure and satisfaction? Then
+stop and meditate, if only for a moment; for if this is the case, you
+never will, ay, you never can find the true and the genuine, for you
+fail to recognize the great law that there is no such thing as finding
+true happiness by searching for it <i>directly</i>, and the farther on you go
+the more flimsy and shallow and unsatisfying that imitation you are
+willing to accept for the genuine will become. You will thereby rob life
+of its chief charms, defeat the very purpose you have in view. And,
+while you are at this moment meditating, oh grasp the truth of the great
+law that you will find your own life only in losing it in the service of
+others,&mdash;that the more of your life you so give, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy your own life will become.</p>
+
+<p>And with your abundant means and opportunities build your life upon this
+great law of service, and experience the pleasure of growing into that
+full, rich, ever increasing and satisfying life that will result, and
+that will make you better known, more honored and blessed, than the life
+of any mere society woman can be, or any life, for that matter; for you
+are thus living a life the highest this world can know. And you will
+thus hasten the day when, standing and looking back and seeing the
+emptiness and the littleness of the other life as compared with this,
+you will bless the time that your better judgment prevailed and saved
+you from it. Or, if you chance to be in it already, delay not, but
+commence now to build upon this true foundation.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of discharging your footman, as did a woman of whom I chance to
+know, because he finally refused to stand in the rain by the side of her
+carriage, with his arms folded just so, standing immovable like a mummy
+(I had almost said like a fool), daring to look neither to one side nor
+the other, but all the time in the direction of her so-called ladyship,
+while she spent an hour or two in doing fifteen or twenty minutes'
+shopping in her desire to make it known that this is Mrs. Q.'s carriage,
+and this is the footman that goes with it,&mdash;instead of doing this, give
+him an umbrella if necessary, and take him to aid you as you go on your
+errands of mercy and cheer and service and loving kindness to the
+innumerable ones all about you who so stand in need of them.</p>
+
+<p>Is there any comparison between the appellation &quot;Lady Bountiful&quot; and &quot;a
+proud, selfish, pleasure-seeking woman&quot;? And, much more, do you think
+there is any comparison whatever between the real pleasure and happiness
+and satisfaction in the lives of the two?</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Is it the ambition of your life to <i>accumulate great wealth</i>, and thus
+to acquire a great name, and along with it happiness and satisfaction?
+Then remember that whether these will come to you will depend <i>entirely</i>
+upon the use and disposition you make of your wealth. If you regard it
+as a <i>private trust</i> to be used for the highest good of mankind, then
+well and good, these will come to you. If your object, however, is to
+pile it up, to hoard it, then neither will come; and you will find it a
+life as unsatisfactory as one can live.</p>
+
+<p>There is, there can be, no greatness in things, in material things, of
+themselves. The greatness is determined entirely by the use and
+disposition made of them. The greatest greatness and the only <i>true</i>
+greatness in the world is unselfish love and service and self-devotion
+to one's fellow-men.</p>
+
+<p>Look at the matter carefully, and tell me candidly if there can be
+anything more foolish than a man's spending all the days of his life
+piling up and hoarding money, too mean and too stingy to use any but
+what is absolutely necessary, accumulating many times more than he can
+possibly ever use, always eager for more, growing still more eager and
+grasping the nearer he comes to life's end, then lying down, dying, and
+leaving it. It seems to me about as sensible for a man to have as the
+great aim and ambition of life the piling up of an immense pile of old
+iron in the middle of a large field, and sitting on it day after day
+because he is so wedded to it that it has become a part of his life and
+lest a fragment disappear, denying himself and those around him many of
+the things that go to make life valuable and pleasant, and finally dying
+there, himself, the soul, so dwarfed and so stunted that he has really a
+hard time to make his way out of the miserable old body. There is not
+such a great difference, if you will think of it carefully,&mdash;one a pile
+of old iron, the other a pile of gold or silver, but all belonging to
+the same general class.</p>
+
+<p>It is a great law of our being that we become like those things we
+contemplate. If we contemplate those that are true and noble and
+elevating, we grow in the likeness of these. If we contemplate merely
+material things, as gold or silver or copper or iron, our souls, our
+natures, and even our faces become like them, hard and flinty, robbed of
+their finer and better and grander qualities. Call to mind the person or
+picture of the miser, and you will quickly see that this is true. Merely
+nature's great law. He thought he was going to be a master: he finds
+himself the slave. Instead of possessing his wealth, his wealth
+possesses him. How often have I seen persons of nearly or quite this
+kind! Some can be found almost anywhere. You can call to mind a few,
+perhaps many.</p>
+
+<p>During the past two or three years two well-known millionaires in the
+United States, millionaires many times over, have died. The one started
+into life with the idea of acquiring a great name by accumulating great
+wealth. These two things he had in mind,&mdash;self and great wealth. And, as
+he went on, he gradually became so that he could see nothing but these.
+The greed for gain soon made him more and more the slave; and he,
+knowing nothing other than obedience to his master, piled and
+accumulated and hoarded, and after spending all his days thus, he then
+lay down and died, taking not so much as one poor little penny with him,
+only a soul dwarfed compared to what it otherwise might have been. For
+it might have been the soul of a royal master instead of that of an
+abject slave.</p>
+
+<p>The papers noted his death with seldom even a single word of praise. It
+was regretted by few, and he was mourned by still fewer. And even at his
+death he was spoken of by thousands in words far from complimentary, all
+uniting in saying what he might have been and done, what a tremendous
+power for good, how he might have been loved and honored during his
+life, and at death mourned and blessed by the entire nation, the entire
+world. A pitiable sight, indeed, to see a human mind, a human soul, thus
+voluntarily enslave itself for a few temporary pieces of metal.</p>
+
+<p>The other started into life with the principle that a man's success is
+to be measured by his <i>direct usefulness</i> to his fellow-men, to the
+world in which he lives, and by this alone; that private wealth is
+merely a <i>private trust</i> to be used for the highest good of mankind.
+Under the benign influences of this mighty principle of service, we see
+him great, influential, wealthy; his whole nature expanding, himself
+growing large-hearted, generous, magnanimous, serving his State, his
+country, his fellow-men, writing his name on the hearts of all he comes
+in contact with, so that his name is never thought of by them without
+feelings of gratitude and praise.</p>
+
+<p>Then as the chief service to his fellow-men, next to his own personal
+influence and example, he uses his vast fortune, this vast private
+trust, for the founding and endowing of a great institution of learning,
+using his splendid business capacities in its organization, having
+uppermost in mind in its building that young men and young women may
+there have every advantage at the least possible expense to fit
+themselves in turn for the greatest <i>direct usefulness</i> to their
+fellow-men while they live in the world.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of these activities the news comes of his death. Many
+hearts now are sad. The true, large-hearted, sympathizing friend, the
+servant of rich and poor alike, has gone away. Countless numbers whom he
+has befriended, encouraged, helped, and served, bless his name, and give
+thanks that such a life has been lived. His own great State rises up as
+his pall-bearers, while the entire nation acts as honorary pall-bearers.
+Who can estimate the influence of a life such as this? But it cannot be
+estimated; for it will flow from the ones personally influenced to
+others, and through them to others throughout eternity. He alone who in
+His righteous balance weighs each human act can estimate it. And his
+final munificent gift to mankind will make his name remembered and
+honored and blessed long after the accumulations of mere plutocrats are
+scattered and mankind forgets that they have ever lived.</p>
+
+<p>Then have as your object the accumulation of great wealth if you choose;
+but bear in mind that, unless you are able to get beyond self, it will
+make you not great, but small, and you will rob life of the finer and
+better things in it. If, on the other hand, you are guided by the
+principle that private wealth is but a <i>private trust</i>, and that <i>direct
+usefulness</i> or service to mankind is the only real measure of true
+greatness, and bring your life into harmony with it, then you will
+become and will be counted great; and with it will come that rich joy
+and happiness and satisfaction that always accompanies a life of true
+service, and therefore the best and truest life.</p>
+
+<p>One can never afford to forget that personality, life, and character,
+that there may be the greatest service, are the chief things, and wealth
+merely the <i>incident</i>. Nor can one afford to be among those who are too
+mean, too small, or too stingy to invest in anything that will grow and
+increase these.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_III" id="PART_III" />PART III.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE UNFOLDMENT</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>If you'd have a rare growth and unfoldment supreme,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And make life one long joy and contentment complete,<br /></span>
+<span>Then with kindliness, love, and good will let it teem,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And with service for all make it fully replete.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>If you'd have all the world and all heaven to love you,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">And that love with its power would you fully convince,<br /></span>
+<span>Then love all the world; and men royal and true,<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">Will make cry as you pass&mdash;&quot;God bless him, the prince!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>One beautiful feature of this principle of love and service is that this
+phase of one's personality, or nature, can be grown. I have heard it
+asked, If one hasn't it to any marked degree naturally, what is to be
+done? In reply let it be said, Forget self, get out of it for a little
+while, and, as it comes in your way, do something for some one, some
+kind service, some loving favor, it makes no difference how <i>small</i> it
+may appear. But a kind look or word to one weary with care, from whose
+life all worth living for seems to have gone out; a helping hand or
+little lift to one almost discouraged,&mdash;it may be that this is just the
+critical moment, a helping hand just now may change a life or a destiny.
+Show yourself a friend to one who thinks he or she is friendless.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, there are a thousand opportunities each day right where you
+are,&mdash;not the great things far away, but the little things right at
+hand. With a heart full of love do something: experience the rich
+returns that will come to you, and it will be unnecessary to urge a
+repetition or a continuance. The next time it will be easier and more
+natural, and the next. You know of that wonderful reflex-nerve system
+you have in your body,&mdash;that which says that whenever you do a certain
+thing in a certain way, it is easier to do the same thing the next time,
+and the next, and the next, until presently it is done with scarcely any
+effort on your part at all, it has become your second nature. And thus
+we have what? Habit. This is the way that all habit is, the way that all
+habit must be formed. And have you ever fully realized that <i>life is,
+after all, merely a series of habits</i>, and that it lies entirely within
+one's own power to determine just what that series shall be?</p>
+
+<p>I have seen this great principle made the foundation principle in an
+institution of learning. It is made not a theory merely as I have seen
+it here and there, but a vital, living truth. And I wish I had time to
+tell of its wonderful and beautiful influences upon the life and work of
+that institution, and upon the lives and the work of those who go out
+from it. A joy indeed to be there. One can't enter within its walls even
+for a few moments without feeling its benign influences. One can't go
+out without taking them with him. I have seen purposes and lives almost
+or quite transformed; and life so rich, so beautiful, and so valuable
+opened up, such as the persons never dreamed could be, by being but a
+single year under these beautiful and life-giving influences.</p>
+
+<p>I have also seen it made the foundation principle of a great summer
+congress, one that has already done an unprecedented work, one that has
+a far greater work yet before it, and chiefly by reason of this
+all-powerful foundation upon which it is built,&mdash;conceived and put into
+operation as it was by a rare and highly illumined soul, one thoroughly
+filled with the love of service for all the human kind. There are no
+thoughts of money returns, for everything it has to give is as free as
+the beautiful atmosphere that pervades it. The result is that there is
+drawn together, by way of its magnificent corps of lectures as well as
+those in attendance, a company of people of the rarest type, so that
+everywhere there is a manifestation of that spirit of love, helpfulness,
+and kindliness, that permeates the entire atmosphere with a deep feeling
+of peace, that makes every moment of life a joy.</p>
+
+<p>So enchanting does this spirit make the place that very frequently the
+single day of some who have come for this length of time has lengthened
+itself into a week, and the week in turn into a month; and the single
+week of others has frequently lengthened itself, first into a month,
+then into the entire summer. There is nothing at all strange in this
+fact, however; for wherever one finds sweet humanity, he there finds a
+spot where all people love to dwell.</p>
+
+<p>Making this the fundamental principle of one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, is not, as a casual
+observer might think, and as he sometimes suggests, an argument against
+one's own growth and development, against the highest possible
+unfoldment of his entire personality and powers. Rather, on the other
+hand, is it one of the greatest reasons, one of the greatest arguments,
+in its favor; for, the stronger the personality and the greater the
+powers, the greater the influence in the service of mankind. If, then,
+life be thus founded, can there possibly be any greater incentive to
+that self-development that brings one up to his highest possibilities? A
+development merely for self alone can never have behind it an incentive,
+a power so great; <i>and after all, there is nothing in the world so
+great, so effective in the service of mankind, as a strong, noble, and
+beautiful manhood or womanhood</i>. It is this that in the ultimate
+determines the influence of every man upon his fellow-men. <i>Life,
+character, is the greatest power in the world, and character it is that
+gives the power; for in all true power, along whatever line it may be,
+it is after all, living the life that tells</i>. This is a great law that
+but few who would have great power and influence seem to recognize, or,
+at least, that but few seem to act upon.</p>
+
+<p>Are you a writer? You can never write more than you yourself are. Would
+you write more? Then broaden, deepen, enrich the life. Are you a
+minister? You can never raise men higher than you have raised yourself.
+Your words will have exactly the sound of the life whence they come.
+Hollow the life? Hollow-sounding and empty will be the words, weak,
+ineffective, false. Would you have them go with greater power, and thus
+be more effective? Live the life, the power will come. Are you an
+orator? The power and effectiveness of your words in influencing and
+moving masses of men depends entirely upon the altitude from which they
+are spoken. Would you have them more effective, each one filled with a
+living power? Then elevate the life, the power will come. Are you in the
+walks of private life? Then, wherever you move, there goes from you,
+even if there be no word spoken, a silent but effective influence of an
+elevating or a degrading nature. Is the life high, beautiful? Then the
+influences are inspiring, life-giving. Is it low, devoid of beauty? The
+influences then, are disease laden, death-dealing. The tones of your
+voice, the attitude of your body, the character of your face, all are
+determined by the life you live, all in turn influence for better or for
+worse all who come within your radius. And if, as one of earth's great
+souls has said, the only way truly to help a man is to make him better,
+then the tremendous power of merely the life itself.</p>
+
+<p>Why, I know personally a young man of splendid qualities and gifts, who
+was rapidly on the way of ruin, as the term goes, gradually losing
+control of himself day after day, self-respect almost gone,&mdash;already the
+thought of taking his own life had entered his mind,&mdash;who was so
+inspired with the mere presence and bearing of a royal-hearted young
+man, one who had complete mastery of himself, and therefore a young man
+of power, that the very sight of him as he went to and fro in his daily
+work was a power that called his better self to the front again,
+awakened the God nature within him, so that he again set his face in the
+direction of the right, the true, the manly; and to-day there is no
+grander, stronger, more beautiful soul in all the wide country than he.
+Yes, there is a powerful influence that resolves itself into a service
+for all in each individual strong, pure, and noble life.</p>
+
+<p>And have the wonderful possibilities of what may be termed an inner or
+soul development ever come strongly to your notice? Perhaps not, for as
+yet only a few have begun to recognize under this name a certain great
+power that has always existed,&mdash;a power that has never as yet been fully
+understood, and so has been called by this term and by that. It is
+possible so to develop this soul power that, as we stand merely and talk
+with a person, there goes out from us a silent influence that the person
+cannot see or hear, but that he feels, and the influences of which he
+cannot escape; that, as we merely go into a room in which several
+persons are sitting, there goes out from us a power, a silent influence
+that all will feel and will be influenced by, even though not a word be
+spoken. This has been the power of every man, of every woman, of great
+and lasting influence in the world's history.</p>
+
+<p>It is just beginning to come to us through a few highly illumined souls
+that this power can be grown, that it rests upon great natural law that
+the Author of our being has instituted within us and about us. It is
+during the next few years that we are to see many wonderful developments
+along this line; for in this, as in many others, the light is just
+beginning to break. A few, who are far up on the heights of human
+development, are just beginning to catch the first few faint flushes of
+the dawn. Then live to your highest. This of itself will make you of
+great service to mankind, but without this you never can be. Naught is
+the difference how hard you may try; and know, even so far as your own
+highest interests are concerned, that the true joy of existence comes
+from living to one's highest.</p>
+
+<p>This life, and this alone, will bring that which I believe to be one of
+the greatest characteristics of a truly great man,&mdash;humility; and when
+one says humility, he necessarily implies simplicity; for the two always
+go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. The proud, the vain, the
+haughty, those striving for effect, are never counted among the world's
+greatest personages. The very fact of one's striving for effect of
+itself indicates that there is not enough in him to make him really
+great; while he who really is so needs never concern himself about it,
+nor does he ever. I can think of no better way for one to attain to
+humility and simplicity than for him to have his mind off of self in the
+service of others. Vanity, that most dangerous quality, and especially
+for young people, is the outcome of one's always regarding self.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher once said that, when they lived in the part of
+Brooklyn known as the Heights, they could always tell when Mr. Beecher
+was coming in the evening from the voices and the joyous laughter of the
+children. All the street urchins, as well as the more well-to-do
+children in the vicinity, knew him, and would often wait for his coming.
+When they saw him in the distance, they would run and gather around him,
+get hold of his hands, into those large overcoat pockets for the nuts
+and the good things he so often filled them with before starting for
+home, knowing as he did full well what was coming, tug at him to keep
+him with them as long as they could, he all the time laughing or running
+as if to get away, never too great&mdash;ay, rather let us say, great
+enough&mdash;to join with them in their sports.</p>
+
+<p>That mysterious dignity of a man less great, therefore with less of
+humility and simplicity, with mind always intent upon self and his own
+standing, would have told him that possibly this might not be just the
+&quot;proper thing&quot; to do. But even the children, street urchins as well as
+those well-to-do, found in this great loving soul a friend. Recall
+similar incidents in the almost daily life of Lincoln and in the lives
+of all truly great men. All have that beautiful and ever-powerful
+characteristic, that simple, childlike nature.</p>
+
+<p>Another most beautiful and valuable feature of this life is its effect
+upon one's own growth and development. There is a law which says that
+one can't do a kind act or a loving service for another without its
+bringing rich returns to his own life and growth. This is an invariable
+law. Can I then, do a kind act or a loving service for a brother or a
+sister,&mdash;and all indeed are such because children of the same
+Father,&mdash;why, I should be glad&mdash;ay, doubly glad of the opportunity. If I
+do it thus out of love, forgetful of self, for aught I know it may do me
+more good than the one I do it for, in its influence upon the growing of
+that rich, beautiful, and happy life it is mine to grow; though the joy
+and satisfaction resulting from it, the highest, the sweetest, the
+keenest this life can know, are of themselves abundant rewards.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to all this it scarcely ever fails that those who are thus
+aided by some loving service may be in a position somehow, some-when,
+somewhere, either directly or indirectly, and at a time when it may be
+most needed or most highly appreciated, to do in turn a kind service for
+him who, with never a thought of any possible return, has dealt kindly
+with them. So</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Cast your bread upon the waters, far and wide your treasures strew,<br /></span>
+<span>Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go!<br /></span>
+<span>You may think it lost forever; but, as sure as God is true,<br /></span>
+<span>In this life and in the other it will yet return to you.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Have you sorrows or trials that seem very heavy to bear? Then let me
+tell you that one of the best ways in the world to lighten and sweeten
+them is to lose yourself in the service of others, in helping to bear
+and lighten those of a fellow-being whose, perchance, are much more
+grievous than your own. It is a great law of your being which says you
+can do this. Try it, and experience the truth for yourself, and know
+that, when turned in this way, sorrow is the most beautiful soul-refiner
+of which the world knows, and hence not to be shunned, but to be
+welcomed and rightly turned.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to my mind a poor widow woman whose life would seem to have
+nothing in it to make it happy, but, on the other hand, cheerless and
+tiresome, and whose work would have been very hard, had it not been for
+a little crippled child she dearly loved and cared for, and who was all
+the more precious to her on account of its helplessness. Losing herself
+and forgetting her own hard lot in the care of the little cripple, her
+whole life was made cheerful and happy, and her work not hard, but easy,
+because lightened by love and service for another. And this is but one
+of innumerable cases of this kind.</p>
+
+<p>So you may turn your sorrows, you may lighten your burdens, by helping
+bear the burdens, if not of a crippled child, then of a brother or a
+sister who in another sense may be crippled, or who may become so but
+for your timely service. You can find them all about you: never pass one
+by.</p>
+
+<p>By building upon this principle, the poor may thus live as grandly and
+as happily as the rich, those in humble and lowly walks of life as
+grandly and as happily as those in what seem to be more exalted
+stations. Recognizing the truth, as we certainly must by this time, that
+one is <i>truly</i> great only in so far as this is made the fundamental
+principle of his life, it becomes evident that that longing for
+greatness for its and for one's own sake falls away, and none but a
+diseased mind cares for it; for no sooner is it grasped than, as a
+bubble, it bursts, because it is not the true, the permanent, but the
+false, the transient. On the other hand, he who forgetting self and this
+kind of greatness, falsely so called, in the service of his fellow-men,
+by this very fact puts himself on the right track, the only track for
+the true, the genuine; and in what degree it will come to him depends
+entirely upon his adherence to the law.</p>
+
+<p>And do you know the influence of this life in the moulding of the
+features, that it gives the highest beauty that can dwell there, the
+beauty that comes from within,&mdash;the <i>soul beauty</i>, so often found in the
+paintings of the old masters. <i>True beauty must come, must be grown,
+from, within</i>. That outward veneering, which is so prevalent, can never
+be even a poor imitation of this type of the true, the genuine. To
+appreciate fully the truth of this, it is but necessary to look for a
+moment at that beautiful picture by Sant, the &quot;Soul's Awakening,&quot; a face
+that grows more beautiful each time one looks at it, and that one never
+tires of looking at, and compare with it the fractional parts of
+apothecary shops we see now and then&mdash;or so often, to speak more
+truly&mdash;on the streets. A face of this higher type carries with it a
+benediction wherever it goes.</p>
+
+<p>A beautiful little incident came to my notice not long ago. It was a
+very hot and dusty day. The passengers on the train were weary and
+tired. The time seemed long and the journey cheerless. A lady with a
+face that carries a benediction to all who see her entered the car with
+a little girl, also of that type of beauty that comes from within, and
+with a voice musical, sweet, and sparkling, such as also comes from this
+source.</p>
+
+<p>The child, when they were seated, had no sooner spoken a few words
+before she began to enlist the attention of her fellow-passengers. She
+began playing peek-a-boo with a staid and dignified old gentleman in the
+seat behind her. He at first looked at her over his spectacles, then
+lowered his paper a little, then a little more, and a little more.
+Finally, he dropped it altogether, and, apparently forgetting himself
+and his surroundings, became oblivious to everything in the fascinating
+pleasure he was having with the little girl. The other passengers soon
+found themselves following his example. All papers and books were
+dropped. The younger folks gave way to joyous laughter, and all seemed
+to vie with each other in having the honor of receiving a word or a
+smile from the little one.</p>
+
+<p>The dust, the heat, the tired, cheerless feelings were all forgotten;
+and when these two left the car, the little girl waving them good-by,
+instinctively, as one person, all the passengers waved it to her in
+return, and two otherwise dignified gentlemen, leaving their seats,
+passed over to the other side, and looked out of the window to see her
+as long as they could. Something as an electrical spark seemed to have
+passed through the car. All were light-hearted and happy now; and the
+conditions in the car, compared to what they were before these two
+entered, would rival the work of the stereopticon, so far as
+completeness of change is concerned. You have seen such faces and have
+heard such voices. They result from a life the kind we are considering.
+They are but its outward manifestations, spontaneous as the water from
+the earth as it bursts forth a natural fountain.</p>
+
+<p>We must not fail also to notice the effect of this life upon one's
+manners and bearing. True politeness comes from a life founded upon this
+great principle, and from this alone. This gives the true
+gentleman,&mdash;<i>gentle-man</i>,&mdash;a man gentle, kind, loving, courteous from
+nature. Such a one can't have anything but true politeness, can't be
+anything but a gentle-man; for one can't truly be anything but himself.
+So the one always intent upon and thinking of self cannot be the true
+gentleman, notwithstanding the artful contrivances and studied efforts
+to appear so, but which so generally reveal his own shallowness and
+artificiality, and disgust all with whom he comes in contact.</p>
+
+<p>I sometimes meet a person who, when introduced, will go through a series
+of stiff, cold, and angular movements, the knee at such a bend, the foot
+at such an angle, the back with such a bend or hump,&mdash;much less pleasant
+to see than that of a camel or a dromedary, for with these it is
+natural,&mdash;so that I have found myself almost thinking, Poor fellow, I
+wonder what the trouble is, whether he will get over it all right. It is
+so very evident that he all the time has his mind upon himself,
+wondering whether or not he is getting everything just right. What a
+relief to turn from such a one to one who, instead of thinking always of
+self, has continually in mind the ease and comfort and pleasure he can
+give to others, who, in other words, is the true <i>gentle-man</i>, and with
+whom true politeness is natural; for one's every act is born of his
+thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that there was no truer gentleman in all Scotland than Robert
+Burns. And yet he was a farmer all his life, and had never been away
+from his native little rural village into a city until near the close of
+his life, when, taking the manuscripts that for some time had been
+accumulating in the drawer of his writing-table up to Edinburgh, he
+captivated the hearts of all in the capital. Without studied
+contrivances, he was the true gentleman, and true politeness was his,
+because his life was founded upon the principle that continually brought
+from his pen lines such as:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;It's coming yet, for a' that,<br /></span>
+<span>That man to man, the warld o'er,<br /></span>
+<span>Shall brothers be for a' that!&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>And under the influence of this principle, he was a gentleman by nature,
+and one of nature's noblemen, without ever thinking whether he was or
+not, as he who is truly such never needs to and never does.</p>
+
+<p>And then recall the large-hearted Ben Franklin, when sent to the French
+court. In his plain gray clothes, unassuming and entirely forgetful of
+himself, how he captured the hearts of all, of even the giddy society
+ladies, and how he became and remained while there the centre of
+attraction in that gay capital! His politeness, his manners, all the
+result of that great, kind, loving, and helpful nature which made
+others feel that it was they he was devoting himself to and not himself.</p>
+
+<p>This little extract from a letter written by Franklin to George
+Whitefield will show how he regarded the great principle we are
+considering: &quot;As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have been
+of more service to you. But, if it had, the only thanks I should desire
+is that you would always be equally ready to serve any other person that
+may need your assistance; and so let good offices go around, for mankind
+are all of a family. For my own part, when I am employed in serving
+others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as paying
+debts. In my travels, and since my settlement, I have received much
+kindness from men to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making
+any direct return, and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely
+above being benefited by our services. These kindnesses from men I can,
+therefore, only return on their fellow-men; and I can only show my
+gratitude for these mercies from God by a readiness to help his other
+children and my brethren.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No, true gentlemanliness and politeness always comes from within, and is
+born of a life of love, kindliness, and service. This is the universal
+language, known and understood everywhere, even when our words are not.
+There is, you know, a beautiful old proverb which says, &quot;He who is kind
+and courteous to strangers thereby shows himself a citizen of the
+world.&quot; And there is nothing so remembered, and that so endears one to
+all mankind, as this universal language. Even dumb animals understand it
+and are affected by it. How quickly the dog, for example, knows and
+makes it known when he is spoken to and treated kindly or the reverse!
+And here shall not a word be spoken in connection with that great body
+of our fellow-creatures whom, because we do not understand their
+language, we are accustomed to call dumb? The attitude we have assumed
+toward these fellow-creatures, and the treatment they have been
+subjected to in the past, is something almost appalling.</p>
+
+<p>There are a number of reasons why this has been true. Has not one been
+on account of a belief in a future life for man, but not for the animal?
+A few years ago a gentleman left by will some fifty thousand dollars for
+the work of Henry Bergh's New York Society. His relatives contested the
+will on the ground of insanity,&mdash;on the ground of insanity because he
+believed in a future life for animals. The judge, in giving his decision
+sustaining the will, stated that after a very careful investigation, he
+found that fully half the world shared the same belief. Agassiz
+thoroughly believed it. An English writer has recently compiled a list
+of over one hundred and seventy English authors who have so thoroughly
+believed it as to write upon the subject. The same belief has been
+shared by many of the greatest thinkers in all parts of the world, and
+it is a belief that is constantly gaining ground.</p>
+
+<p>Another and perhaps the chief cause has been on account of a supposed
+inferior degree of intelligence on the part of animals, which in another
+form would mean, that they are less able to care for and protect
+themselves. Should this, however, be a reason why they should be
+neglected and cruelly treated? Nay, on the other hand, should this not
+be the greatest reason why we should all the more zealously care for,
+protect, and kindly treat them?</p>
+
+<p>You or I may have a brother or a sister who is not normally endowed as
+to brain power, who, perchance, may be idiotic or insane, or who,
+through sickness or mishap, is weakminded; but do we make this an
+excuse for neglecting, cruelly treating, or failing to love such a one?
+On the contrary, the very fact that he or she is not so able to plan
+for, care for, and protect him or her self, is all the greater reason
+for all the more careful exercise of these functions on our part. But,
+certainly, there are many animals around us with far more intelligence,
+at least manifested intelligence, than this brother or sister. The
+parallel holds, but the absurd falsity of the position we assume is most
+apparent. No truer nobility of character can anywhere manifest itself
+than is shown in one's attitude toward and treatment of those weaker or
+the so-called inferior, and so with less power to care for and protect
+themselves. Moreover, I think we shall find that we are many times
+mistaken in regard to our beliefs in connection with the inferior
+intelligence of at least many animals. If, instead of using them simply
+to serve our own selfish ends without a just recompense, without a
+thought further than as to what we can get out of them, and then many
+times casting them off when broken or of no further service, and many
+times looking down upon, neglecting, or even abusing them,&mdash;if, instead
+of this, we would deal equitably with them, love them, train and
+educate them the same as we do our children, we would be somewhat
+surprised at the remarkable degree of intelligence the &quot;dumb brutes&quot;
+possess, and also the remarkable degree of training they are capable of.
+What, however, can be expected of them when we take the attitude we at
+present hold toward them?</p>
+
+<p>Page after page might readily be filled with most interesting as well as
+inspiring portrayals of their superior intelligence, their remarkable
+capabilities under kind and judicious training, their <i>faithfulness</i> and
+<i>devotion</i>. The efforts of such noble and devoted workers as Henry Bergh
+in New York, of George T. Angell in Massachusetts, and many others in
+various parts of the country, have already brought about a great change
+in our attitude toward and relations with this great body of our
+fellow-creatures, and have made all the world more thoughtful,
+considerate, and kind. This, however, is just the beginning of a work
+that is assuming greater and ever greater proportions.</p>
+
+<p>The work of the American Humane Education Society<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1" /><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> is probably
+surpassed in its vitality and far-reaching results by the work of no
+other society in the world to-day. Its chief object is the humane
+education of the American people; and through one phase of its work
+alone&mdash;its Bands of Mercy, over twenty-five thousand of which have
+already been formed, giving regular, systematic humane training and
+instruction to between one and two million children, and these
+continually increasing in numbers&mdash;a most vital work is being done, such
+as no man can estimate.</p>
+
+<p>The humane sentiment inculcated in one's relations with the animal
+world, and its resultant feelings of sympathy, tenderness, love, and
+care, will inevitably manifest itself in one's relations with his
+fellows; and I for one, would rejoice to see this work carried into
+every school throughout the length and breadth of the land. In many
+cases this one phase of the child's training would be of far more vital
+value and import as he grows to manhood than all the rest of the
+schooling combined, and it would form a most vital entering wedge in the
+solution of our social situation.</p>
+
+<p>And why should we not speak to and kindly greet an animal as we pass it,
+as instinctively as we do a human fellow-being? Though it may not get
+our words, it will invariably get the attitude and the motive that
+prompts them, and will be affected accordingly. This it will do every
+time. Animals in general are marvellously sensitive to the mental
+conditions, the thought forces, and emotions of people. Some are
+peculiarly sensitive, and can detect them far more quickly and
+unerringly than many people can.</p>
+
+<p>It ought to help us greatly in our relations with them ever fully to
+realize that they with us are parts of the one Universal Life, simply
+different forms of the manifestation of the One Life, having their part
+to play in the economy of the great universe the same as we have ours,
+having their destiny to work out the same as we have ours, and just as
+important, just as valuable, in the sight of the All in All as we
+ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemned
+for a while to roam four-footed among the brambles. I caught the
+clinging mute glance of the prisoner, and swore I would be faithful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thee my brother and sister I see, and mistake not. Do not be afraid.
+Dwelling thus for a while, fulfilling thy appointed time, thou, too,
+shall come to thyself at last.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thy half-warm horns and long tongue lapping round my wrist do not
+conceal thy humanity any more than the learned talk of the pedant
+conceals his,&mdash;for all thou art dumb, we have words and plenty between
+us.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come nigh, little bird, with your half-stretched quivering
+wings,&mdash;within you I behold choirs of angels, and the Lord himself in
+vista.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2" /><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p>
+
+<p>But a small thing, apparently, is a kind look, word, or service of some
+kind; but, oh! who can tell where it may end? It costs the giver
+comparatively nothing; but who can tell the priceless value to him who
+receives it? The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of cold
+water, may grow and swell into a boundless river, refreshing and
+carrying life and hope in turn to numberless others, and these to
+others, and so have no end. This may be just the critical moment in some
+life. Given now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. So don't
+withhold the bread that's in your keeping, but</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>There is no greater thing in life that you can do, and nothing that
+will bring you such rich and precious returns.</p>
+
+<p>The question is sometimes asked, How can one feel a deep and genuine
+love, a love sufficient to manifest itself in service for all?&mdash;there
+are some so mean, so small, with so many peculiar, objectionable, or
+even obnoxious characteristics. True, very true, apparently at least;
+but another great law of life is that <i>we find in men and women exactly
+those qualities, those characteristics, we look for, or that are nearest
+akin to the predominant qualities or characteristics of our own
+natures</i>. If we look for the peculiar, the little, the objectionable,
+these we shall find; but back of all this, all that is most apparent on
+the exterior, in the depths of each and every human soul, is the good,
+the true, the brave, the loving, the divine, the God-like, that that
+never changes, the very God Himself that at some time or another will
+show forth His full likeness.</p>
+
+<p>And still another law of life is that others usually manifest to us that
+which our own natures, or, in other words, our own thoughts and
+emotions, call forth. The same person, for example, will come to two
+different people in an entirely different way, because the larger,
+better, purer, and more universal nature of the one calls forth the
+best, the noblest, the truest in him; while the smaller, critical,
+personal nature of the other calls forth the opposite. The wise man is
+therefore careful in regard to what he has to say concerning this or
+that one; for, generally speaking, it is a sad commentary upon one's
+self if he find only the disagreeable, the objectionable. <i>One lives
+always in the atmosphere of his own creation</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it is sometimes said, But such a one has such and such habits or
+has done so and so, has committed such and such an error or such and
+such a crime. But who, let it be asked, constituted me a judge of my
+fellow-man? Do I not recognize the fact that the moment I judge my
+fellow-man, by that very act I judge myself? One of two things, I either
+judge myself or hypocritically profess that never once in my entire life
+have I committed a sin, an error of any kind, never have I stumbled,
+never fallen, and by that very profession I pronounce myself at once
+either a fool or a knave, or both.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it is said, But even for the sake of helping, of doing some
+service, I could not for my own sake, for character's, for reputation's
+sake, I could not afford even to be seen with such a one. What would
+people, what would my friends, think and say? True, apparently at least,
+but, if my life, my character, has such a foundation, a foundation so
+weak, so uncertain, so tottering, as to be affected by anything of this
+kind, I had better then look well to it, and quietly, quickly, but
+securely, begin to rebuild it; and, when I am sure that it is upon the
+true, deep, substantial foundation, the only additional thing then
+necessary is for me to reach that glorious stage of development which
+quickly gets one out of the personal into the universal, or rather that
+indicates that he is already out of the one and into the other, when he
+can say: They think. What do they think? Let them think. They say. What
+do they say? Let them say.</p>
+
+<p>And, then, the supreme charity one should have, when he realizes the
+fact that <i>the great bulk of the sin and error in the world is committed
+not through choice, but through ignorance</i>. Not that the person does not
+know many times that this or that course of action is wrong, that it is
+wrong to commit this error or sin or crime; but the ignorance comes in
+his belief that in this course of conduct he is deriving pleasure and
+happiness, and his ignorance of the fact that through a different course
+of conduct he would derive a pleasure, a happiness, much keener, higher,
+more satisfying and enduring.</p>
+
+<p>Never should we forget that we are all the same in motive,&mdash;pleasure and
+happiness: we differ only in method; and this difference in method is
+solely by reason of some souls being at any particular time more fully
+evolved, and thus having a greater knowledge of the great, immutable
+laws under which we live, and by putting the life into more and ever
+more complete harmony with these higher laws and forces, and in this way
+bringing about the highest, the keenest, the most abiding pleasure and
+happiness instead of seeking it on the lower planes.</p>
+
+<p>While all are the same in essence, all a part of the One Infinite,
+Eternal, all with the same latent possibilities, all reaching ultimately
+the same place, it nevertheless is true that at any particular time some
+are more fully awakened, evolved, unfolded. One should also be careful,
+if life is continuous, eternal, how he judges any particular life merely
+from these threescore years and ten; for the very fact of life, in
+whatever form, means continual activity, growth, advancement,
+unfoldment, attainment, and, if there is the one, there must of
+necessity be the other. So in regard to this one or that one, no fears
+need be entertained.</p>
+
+<p>By the door of my woodland cabin stood during the summer a magnificent
+tube-rose stock. The day was when it was just putting into bloom; and
+then I counted buds&mdash;latent flowers&mdash;to the number of over a score. Some
+eight or ten one morning were in full bloom. The ones nearer the top did
+not bloom forth until some two and three weeks later, and for some it
+took quite a month to reach the fully perfected stage. These certainly
+were not so beautiful, so satisfying, as those already in the perfect
+bloom, those that had already reached their highest perfection. But
+should they on this account be despised? Wait, wait and give the element
+of time an opportunity of doing its work; and you may find that by and
+by, when these have reached their highest perfection, they may even far
+transcend in beauty and in fragrance those at present so beautiful, so
+fragrant, so satisfying, those that we so much admire.</p>
+
+<p>Here we recognize the element of time. How foolish, how childish, how
+puerile, to fail or even refuse to do the same when it comes to the
+human soul, with all its God-like possibilities! And, again, how
+foolish, because some of the blooms on the rose stock had not reached
+their perfection as soon as others, to have pronounced them of no value,
+unworthy, and to have refused them the dews, the warm rains, the
+life-giving sunshine, the very agencies that hastened their perfected
+growth! Yet this puerile, unbalanced attitude is that taken by untold
+numbers in the world to-day toward many human souls on account of their
+less mature unfoldment at any given time.</p>
+
+<p>Why, the very fact that a fellow-man and a brother has this or that
+fault, error, undesirable or objectionable characteristic, is of itself
+the very reason he needs all the more of charity, of love, of kindly
+help and aid, than is needed by the one more fully developed, and hence
+more free from these. All the more reason is there why the best in him
+should be recognized and ever called to the front.</p>
+
+<p>The wise man is he who, when he desires to rid a room of darkness or
+gloom, does not attempt to drive it out directly, but who throws open
+the doors and the windows, that the room may be flooded with the golden
+sunlight; for in its presence darkness and gloom cannot remain. So the
+way to help a fellow-man and a brother to the higher and better life is
+not by ever prating upon and holding up to view his errors, his faults,
+his shortcomings, any more than in the case of children, but by
+recognizing and ever calling forth the higher, the nobler, the divine,
+the God-like, <i>by opening the doors and the windows of his own soul</i>,
+and thus bringing about a spiritual perception, that he may the more
+carefully listen to the inner voice, that he may the more carefully
+follow &quot;the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.&quot;
+For in the exact proportion that the interior perception comes will the
+outer life and conduct accord with it,&mdash;so far, and no farther.</p>
+
+<p>Where in all the world's history is to be found a more beautiful or
+valuable incident than this? A group of men, self-centred,
+self-assertive, have found a poor woman who, in her blindness and
+weakness, has committed an error, the same one that they, in all
+probability, have committed not once, but many times; <i>for the rule is
+that they are first to condemn who are-most at fault themselves</i>. They
+bring her to the Master, they tell him that she has committed a
+sin,&mdash;ay, more, that she has been taken in the very act,&mdash;and ask what
+shall be done with her, informing him that, in accordance with the olden
+laws, such a one should be stoned.</p>
+
+<p>But, quicker than thought, that great incarnation of spiritual power and
+insight reads their motives; and, after allowing them to give full
+expression to their accusations, he turns, and calmly says, &quot;He among
+you that is <i>without sin</i>, let <i>him</i> cast the first stone.&quot; So saying,
+he stoops down, as if he is writing in the sand. The accusers, feeling
+the keen and just rebuke, in the mean time sneak out, until not one
+remains. The Master, after all have gone, turns to the woman, his
+sister, and kindly and gently says, &quot;And where are thine accusers? doth
+no man condemn thee?&quot; &quot;No man, Lord.&quot; &quot;<i>And neither do I condemn thee:
+go thou, and sin no more</i>.&quot; Oh, the beauty, the soul pathos! Oh, the
+royal-hearted brother! Oh, the invaluable lesson to us all!</p>
+
+<p>I have no doubt that this gentle, loving admonition, this calling of the
+higher and the better to the front, set into operation in her interior
+nature forces that hastened her progress from the purely animal, the
+unsatisfying, the diminishing, to the higher spiritual, the satisfying,
+the ever-increasing, or, even more, that made it instantaneous, but that
+in either case brought about the new birth,&mdash;the new birth that comes
+with the awakening of the soul out of its purely physical sense-life to
+the higher spiritual perception and knowledge of itself, and thus the
+birth of the higher out of the lower, as at some time or another comes
+to each and every human soul.</p>
+
+<p>And still another fact that should make us most charitable toward and
+slow to judge, or rather refuse to judge, a fellow-man and a
+brother,&mdash;the fact that we cannot know the intense strugglings and
+fightings he or she may be subjected to, though accompanied, it is true,
+by numerous stumblings and fallings, though the latter we see, while the
+former we fail to recognize. Did we, however, know the truth of the
+matter, it may be that in the case of ourselves, who are so quick to
+judge, had we the same temptations and fightings, the battle would not
+be half so nobly, so manfully fought, and our stumblings and fallings
+might be many times the number of his or of hers. Had we infinite
+knowledge and wisdom, our judgments would be correct; though, had we
+infinite knowledge and wisdom, we would be spared the task, though
+perhaps pleasure would seem to be the truer word to use, of our own
+self-imposed judgments.</p>
+
+<p>Even so, then, if I cannot give myself in thorough love and service and
+self-devotion to each and all of the Father's other children, to every
+brother, no matter what the rank, station, or apparent condition, it
+shows that at least one of several things is radically wrong with self;
+and it also indicates that I shall never know the full and supreme joy
+of existence until I am able to and until I regard each case in the
+light of a rare and golden opportunity, in which I take a supreme
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>Although what has just been said is true, at the same time there are
+occasions when it must be taken with wise discretion; and, although
+there are things it may be right for me to do for the sake of helping
+another life, at the same time there are things it may be unwise for me
+to do. I have sympathy for a friend who is lying in the gutter; but it
+would be very unwise for me to get myself into the same condition, and
+go and lie with him, thinking that only thus I could show my fullest
+sympathy, and be of greatest help to him. On the contrary, it is only as
+I stand on the higher ground that I am able to reach forth the hand
+that will truly lift him up. The moment I sink myself to the same level,
+my power to help ceases.</p>
+
+<p>Just as unwise, to use a familiar example, far more unwise, would it be
+for me, were I a woman, to think of marrying a man who is a drunkard or
+a libertine, thinking that because I may love him I shall be able to
+reform him. In the first place, I should find that the desired results
+could not be accomplished in this way, or rather, no results that could
+not be accomplished, and far more readily accomplished otherwise, and at
+far less expense. In the second place, I could not afford to subject
+myself to the demands, the influences, of one such, and so either sink
+myself to his level or, if not, then be compelled to use the greater
+part of my time, thought, and energy in demonstrating over existing
+conditions, and keeping myself true to the higher life, the same time
+that might be used in helping the lives of many others. If I sink myself
+to his level, I do not help, but aid all the more in dragging him down,
+or, if I do not sink to his level, then in the degree that I approach it
+do I lose my power over and influence with that life. Especially would
+it be unwise on my part if on his part there is no real desire for a
+different course, and no manifest endeavor to attain to it. Many times
+it seems necessary for such a one to wallow in the deepest of the mire,
+until, to use a commonplace phrase, he has his fill. He will then be
+ready to come out, will then be open to influence. I in the mean time,
+instead of entering into the mire with him, instead of subjecting my
+life to his influences, will stand up on the higher ground, and will
+ever point him upward, will ever reach forth a hand to help him upward,
+and will thus subject <i>him</i> to the higher influences; and, by preserving
+myself in this attitude, I can do the same for many other lives. In it
+all there will be no bitterness, no condemnation, no casting off, but
+the highest charity, sympathy and love; and it is only by this method
+that I can manifest the highest, only by this method that I can the most
+truly aid, for only as I am lifted up can I draw others unto me.</p>
+
+<p>In this matter of service, as in all other matters, that supreme
+regulator of human life and conduct&mdash;good common sense&mdash;must always be
+used. There are some natures, for example, whom the more we would do
+for, the more we would have to do for, who, in other words, would become
+dependent, losing their sense of self-dependence. For such the highest
+service one can render is as judiciously and as indirectly as possible
+to lead them to the sense of self-reliance. Then there are others whose
+natures are such that, the more they are helped, the more they expect,
+the more they demand, even as their right, who, in other words, are
+parasites or vultures of the human kind. In this case, again, the
+greatest service that can be rendered may be a refusal of service, a
+refusal of aid in the ordinary or rather expected forms, and a still
+greater service in the form of teaching them that great principle of
+justice, of compensation, that runs through all the universe,&mdash;that for
+every service there must be in some form or another an adequate service
+in return, that the law of compensation in one form or another is
+absolute, and, in fact, the greatest forms of service we can render any
+one are, generally speaking, along the lines of teaching him the great
+laws of his own being, the great laws of his true possibilities and
+powers and so the great laws of self-help.</p>
+
+<p>And, again, it is possible for one whose heart goes out in love and
+service for all, and who, by virtue of lacking that long range of vision
+or by virtue of not having a grasp of things in their entirety or
+wholeness, may have his time, his energies so dissipated in what seems
+to be the highest service that he is continually kept from his own
+highest unfoldment, powers, and possessions, the very things that in
+their completeness would make him a thousand-fold more effective and
+powerful in his own life, and hence in the life of real service and
+influence. And, in a case of this kind, many times the mark of the most
+absolute unselfishness is a strong and marked selfishness, which will
+prove however to be a selfishness only in the seeming.</p>
+
+<p><i>The self should never be lost sight of. It is the one thing of supreme
+importance, the greatest factor even in the life of the greatest
+service</i>. Being always and necessarily precedes doing: having always and
+necessarily precedes giving. But this law also holds: that when there is
+the being, it is all the more increased by the doing; when there is the
+having, it is all the more increased by the giving. <i>Keeping to one's
+self dwarfs and stultifies. Hoarding brings loss: using brings even
+greater gain</i>. In brief, the more we are, the more we can do; the more
+we have, the more we can give.</p>
+
+<p>The most truly successful, the most powerful and valuable life, then,
+is the life that is first founded upon this great, immutable law of love
+and service, and that then becomes supremely self-centred,&mdash;supremely
+self-centred that it may become all the more supremely unself-centred;
+in other words, the life that looks v/ell to self, that there may be the
+ever greater self, in order that there may be the ever greater service.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Headquarters at Boston, Mass.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2" /><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> Toward Democracy.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_IV" id="PART_IV" />PART IV.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE AWAKENING</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>If you'd live a religion that's noble,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That's God-like and true,<br /></span>
+<span>A religion the grandest that men<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Or that angels can,<br /></span>
+<span>Then live, live the truth<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of the brother who taught you,<br /></span>
+<span>It's love to God, service and love<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the fellow-man.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>Social problems are to be among the greatest problems of the generation
+just moving on to the stage of action. They, above all others, will
+claim the attention of mankind, as they are already claiming it across
+the waters even as at home. The attitude of the two classes toward each
+other, or the separation of the classes, will be by far the chief
+problem of them all. Already it is imperatively demanding a solution.
+Gradually, as the years have passed, this separation has been going on,
+but never so rapidly as of late. Each has come to regard the other as an
+enemy, with no interests in common, but rather that what is for the
+interests of the one must necessarily be to the detriment of the other.</p>
+
+<p>The great masses of the people, the working classes, those who as much,
+if not more than many others ought to be there, are not in our churches
+to-day. They already feel that they are not wanted there, and that the
+Church even is getting to be their enemy. There must be a reason for
+this, for it is impossible to have an effect without its preceding
+cause. It is indeed time to waken up to these facts and conditions; for
+they must be <i>squarely</i> met. A solution is imperatively demanded, and
+the sooner it comes, the better; for, if allowed to continue thus, all
+will come back to be paid for, intensified a thousand-fold,&mdash;ay, to be
+paid for even by many innocent ones.</p>
+
+<p>Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, and
+self-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-men be made the
+fundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these great
+and all-important questions will become. Indeed, they will almost solve
+themselves. It is the man all for self, so small and so short sighted
+that he can't get beyond his own selfish interests, that has done more
+to bring about this state of affairs than all other causes combined. Let
+the cause be removed, and then note the results.</p>
+
+<p>For many years it has been a teaching even of political economy that an
+employer buys his help just as he buys his raw material or any other
+commodity; and this done, he is in no way responsible for the welfare of
+those he employs. In fact, the time isn't so far distant when the
+employed were herded together as animals, and were treated very much as
+such. But, thanks be to God, a better and a brighter day is dawning.
+Even the employer is beginning to see that practical ethics, or true
+Christianity, and business cannot and must not be divorced; that the man
+he employs, instead of being a mere animal whose services he buys, is,
+after all his fellow-man and his brother, and demands a treatment as
+such, and that when he fails to recognize this truth, a righteous God
+steps in, demanding a penalty for its violation.</p>
+
+<p>He is recognizing the fact that whatsoever is for the well-being of the
+one he employs, that whatever privileges he is enabled to enjoy that
+will tend to grow and develop his physical, his mental, and his moral
+life, that will give him an agreeable home and pleasant family
+relations, that whatever influences tend to elevate him and to make his
+life more happy, are a direct gain, even from a financial standpoint for
+himself, by its increasing for him the efficiency of the man's labor.
+It is already recognized as a fact that the employer who interests
+himself in these things, other things being equal, is the most
+successful. Thus the old and the false are breaking away before the
+right and the true, as all inevitably must sooner or later; and the
+divinity and the power of the workingman is being ever more fully
+recognized.</p>
+
+<p>In the very remote history of the race there was one who, violating a
+great law, having wronged a brother, asked, &quot;Am I my brother's keeper?&quot;
+Knowing that he was, he nevertheless deceitfully put the question in
+this way in his desire, if possible, to avoid the responsibility. Many
+employers in their selfishness and greed for gain have asked this same
+question in this same way. They have thought they could thus defeat the
+sure and eternal laws of a Just Ruler, but have thereby deceived
+themselves the more. These more than any others have to a great degree
+brought about the present state of affairs in the industrial and social
+world.</p>
+
+<p>Just as soon as the employer recognizes the falsity of these old
+teachings and practices, and the fact that he cannot buy his employee's
+services the same as he buys his raw material, with no further
+responsibility, but that the two are on vastly different planes, that
+his employee is his fellow-man and his brother, and that he is his
+brother's keeper, and will be held responsible as such, that it is to
+his own highest interests, as well as to the highest interests of those
+he employs and to society in general, to recognize this; and just as
+soon as he who is employed fully appreciates his opportunities and makes
+the highest use of all, and in turn takes an active, personal interest
+in all that pertains to his employer's welfare,&mdash;just that soon will a
+solution of this great question come forth, and no sooner.</p>
+
+<p>It is not so much a question of legislation as of education and right
+doing, thus a dealing with the <i>individual</i>, and so a prevention and a
+cure, not merely a suppression and a regulation, which is always sure to
+fail; for, in a case of right or wrong no question is ever settled
+finally until it is settled rightly.</p>
+
+<p>The individual, dealing with the individual is necessarily at the bottom
+of all true social progress. There can't be anything worthy the name
+without it. The truth will at once be recognized by all <i>that the good
+of the whole defends upon the good of each, and the good of each makes
+the good of the whole</i>. Attend, then, to the individual, and the whole
+will take care of itself. Let each individual work in harmony with every
+other, and harmony will pervade the whole. The old theory of
+competition&mdash;that in order to have great advancement, great progress, we
+must have great competition to induce it&mdash;is as false as it is savage
+and detrimental in its nature. We are just reaching that point where the
+larger men and women are beginning to see its falsity. They are
+recognizing the fact that, <i>not competition, but co-operation,
+reciprocity, is the great, the true power</i>,&mdash;to climb, not by attempting
+to drag, to keep down one's fellows, but by aiding them, and being in
+turn aided by them, thus combining, and so multiplying the power of all
+instead of wasting a large part one against the other.</p>
+
+<p>And grant that a portion do succeed in rising, while the other portion
+remain in the lower condition, it is of but little value so far as their
+own peace and welfare are concerned; for they can never be what they
+would be, were all up together. Each is but a part, a member, of the
+great civil body; and no member, let alone the entire body, can be
+perfectly well, perfectly at ease, when any other part is in dis-ease.
+No one part of the community, no one part of the nation, can stand
+alone: all are dependent, interdependent. This is the uniform teaching
+of history from the remotest times in the past right through to the
+present. A most admirable illustration of this fact&mdash;if indeed the word
+&quot;admirable&quot; can be used in connection with a matter so deplorable&mdash;was
+the unparalleled labor trouble we had in our great Western city but a
+few summers ago. The wise man is he who learns from experiences of this
+terrific nature.</p>
+
+<p>No, not until this all-powerful principle is fully recognized, and is
+built upon so thoroughly that the brotherhood principle, the principle
+of oneness can enter in, and each one recognizes the fact that his own
+interests and welfare depend upon the interests, the welfare of each,
+and therefore of all, that each is but a part of the one great whole,
+and each one stands shoulder to shoulder in the advance forward, can we
+hope for any true solution of the great social problems before us, for
+any permanent elevation of the standard in our national social life and
+welfare.</p>
+
+<p>This same principle is the solution, and the only true solution, of the
+charities question, as indeed the whole world during the last few years
+or so, and during this time only, is beginning to realize. And the
+splendid and efficient work of the organized charities in all our large
+cities, as of the Elberfeld system in Germany, is attesting the truth of
+this. Almost numberless methods have been tried during the past, but all
+have most successfully failed; and many have greatly increased the
+wretched condition of matters, and of those it was designed to help.
+During this length of time only have these all-important questions been
+dealt with in a true, scientific, Christ-like, common-sense way. It has
+been found even here that nothing can take the place of the personal and
+friendly influences of a life built upon this principle of service.</p>
+
+<p>The question of aiding the poor and needy has passed through three
+distinct phases of development in the world's history. In early times it
+was, &quot;Each one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost.&quot; From the
+time of the Christ, and up to the last few years it has been, &quot;Help
+others.&quot; Now it is, &quot;<i>Help others to help themselves</i>.&quot; The wealthy
+society lady going down Fifth Avenue in New York, or Michigan Avenue in
+Chicago, or Charles Street in Baltimore, or Commonwealth Avenue in
+Boston, who flings a coin to one asking alms, is <i>not</i> the one who is
+doing a true act of charity; but, on the other hand, she may be doing
+the one she thus gives to and to society in general much more harm than
+good, as is many times the case. It is but a cheap, a very cheap way of
+buying ease for her sympathetic nature or her sense of duty. Never let
+the word &quot;charity,&quot; which always includes the elements of interested
+service, true helpfulness, kindliness, and love, be debased by making it
+a synonym of mere giving, which may mean the flinging of a quarter in
+scorn or for show.</p>
+
+<p>Recognizing the great truth that the best and only way to help another
+is to help him to help himself, and that the neglected classes need not
+so much alms as friends, the Organized Charities with their several
+branches in different parts of the city have their staffs of &quot;friendly
+visitors,&quot; almost all voluntary, and from some of the best homes in the
+land. Then when a case of need comes to the notice of the society, one
+of these goes to the person or family as a <i>friend</i> to investigate, to
+find what circumstances have brought about these conditions, and, if
+found worthy of aid, present needs are supplied, an effort is made to
+secure work, and every effort is made to put them on their feet again,
+that self-respect may be regained, that hope may enter in; for there is
+scarcely anything that tends to make one lose his self-respect so
+quickly and so completely as to be compelled, or of his own accord, to
+ask for alms.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus many times that a new life is entered upon, brightness and
+hope taking the place of darkness and despair. This is not the only call
+the friendly visitor makes; but he or she becomes a <i>true friend</i>, and
+makes regular visits as such. If by this method the one seeking charity
+is found to be an impostor, as is frequently the case, proper means of
+exposure are resorted to, that his or her progress in this course may be
+stopped. The organizations are thus doing a most valuable work, and one
+that will become more and more valuable as they are enabled to become
+better organized, the greatest need to-day being more with the true
+spirit to act as visiting friends.</p>
+
+<p>It is this same great principle that has given birth to our college and
+university settlements and our neighborhood guilds which are so rapidly
+increasing, and which are destined to do a great and efficient work.
+Here a small colony of young women, many from our best homes, and the
+ablest graduates of our best colleges, and young men, many of them the
+ablest graduates of our best universities, take up their abode in the
+poorest parts of our large cities, to try by their personal influence
+and personal contact to raise the surrounding life to a higher plane. It
+is in these ways that the poor and the unfortunate are dealt with
+directly. Thus the classes mingle. Thus that sentimentalism which may do
+and which has done harm to these great problems, and by which the people
+it is designed to help may be hindered rather than helped, is done away
+with. Thus true aid and service are rendered, and the needy are really
+helped.</p>
+
+<p>The one whose life is built upon this principle will not take up work of
+this kind as a &quot;fad,&quot; or because it is &quot;fashionable,&quot; but because it is
+right, true, Christ-like. The truly great and noble never fear thus to
+mingle with those poorer and less fortunate. It is only those who would
+like to be counted as great, but who are too small to be so recognized,
+and who, therefore, always thinking of self, put forth every effort to
+appear so. There is no surer test than this.</p>
+
+<p>Very truly has it been said that &quot;the greatest thing a man can do for
+God is to be kind to some of His other children.&quot; All children of the
+same Father, therefore all brothers, sisters. Man is next to God. Man is
+God incarnate. Humanity, therefore, cannot be very far from being next
+to godliness. Many people there are who are greatly concerned about
+serving God, as they term it. Their idea is to build great edifices with
+costly ornaments to Him. A great deal of their time is spent in singing
+songs and hallelujahs to Him, just as if <i>He</i> needed or wanted these for
+Himself, forgetting that He is far above being benefited by anything
+that we can say or do, forgetting that He doesn't want these, when for
+lack of them some of His children are starving for bread to eat or are
+dying for the bread of life.</p>
+
+<p>Can you conceive of a God who is worthy of love and service,&mdash;and I
+speak most reverently,&mdash;who under such conditions would take a
+satisfaction in these things? I confess I am not able to. I can conceive
+of no way in which I can serve God only as I serve Him through my own
+life and through the lives of my fellow-men. This, certainly, is the
+only kind of service He needs or wants, or that is acceptable to Him.
+At one place we read, &quot;He that says he loves God and loves not his
+fellow-men, is a liar; and the truth is not in him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even in religion I think we shall find that there is nothing greater or
+more important than this great principle of service, helpfulness,
+kindliness, and love. Is not Christianity, you ask, greater or more
+important? Why, bless you, is this any other than Christianity, is
+Christianity any other than this,&mdash;at least, if we take what the Master
+Teacher himself has said? For what, let us ask, is a Christian,&mdash;the
+real, not merely in name? A follower of Christ, one who does as he did,
+one who lives as he lived. And, again, who was Christ? He that healed
+the sick, clothed the naked, bound up the broken-hearted, sustained and
+encouraged the weak, the faltering, befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy, condemned the proud and the selfish, taught the people to live
+nobly, truly, grandly, to live in their higher, diviner selves, that the
+greatest among them should be their servant, and that his followers were
+those who lived as he lived. He spent all his time in the service of
+humanity. He gave his whole life in this way. He it was who went about
+doing good.</p>
+
+<p>Is it your desire then, to be numbered among his followers, to bear
+that blessed name, the name &quot;Christian&quot;? Then sit at his feet, and learn
+of him, love him, do as he did, as he taught you to do, live as he
+lived, as he taught you to live, and you are a Christian, and not unless
+you do. True Christianity can be found in no other way.</p>
+
+<p>Naught is the difference what one may call himself; for many call
+themselves by this name to whom Christ says it will one day be said, &quot;I
+never knew you: depart from me, ye cursed.&quot; Naught is the difference
+what creeds one may subscribe to, what rites and ceremonies he may
+observe, how loud and how numerous his professions may be. All of these
+are but as a vain mockery, unless he <i>is</i> a Christian; and to be a
+Christian is, as we have found, to be a follower of Christ, to do as he
+did, to live as he lived. Then live the Christ life. Live so as to
+become at one with God, and dwell continually in this blessed
+at-one-ment. The trouble all along has been that so many have mistaken
+the mere person of the Christ, the mere physical Jesus, for his life,
+his spirit, his teachings, and have succeeded in getting no farther than
+this as yet, except in cases here and there.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then a rare soul rises up, one with great power, great
+inspiration, and we wonder at his great power, his great inspiration,
+why it is. When we look deeply enough, however, we will find that one
+great fact will answer the question every time. It is living the life
+that brings the power. He is living the Christ life, not merely standing
+afar off and looking at it, admiring it, and saying, Yes, I believe, I
+believe, and ending it there. In other words, he has found the kingdom
+of heaven. He has found that it is not a place, but a condition; and the
+song continually arising from his heart is, There is joy, only joy.</p>
+
+<p>The Master, you remember, said: &quot;Seek ye not for the kingdom of heaven
+in tabernacles or in houses made with hands. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you?&quot; He told in plain words where and how
+to find it. He then told how to find <i>all other</i> things, when he said,
+&quot;Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall
+be added unto you.&quot; Now, do you wonder at his power, his inspiration,
+his abundance of all things? The trouble with so many is that they act
+as if they do not believe what the Master said. They do not take him at
+his word. They say one thing: they do another. Their acts give the lie
+to their words. Instead of taking him at his word, and living as if they
+had faith in him, they prefer to follow a series of old, outgrown,
+man-made theories, traditions, forms, ceremonies, and seem to be
+satisfied with the results. No, <i>to be a Christian is to live the Christ
+life</i>, the life of him who went about doing good, the life of him who
+came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.</p>
+
+<p>We will find that this mighty principle of love and service is the
+greatest to live by in this life, and also one of the gates whereby all
+who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Again we have the Master's words. In his own and only description of the
+last judgment, after speaking of the Son of Man coming in all his glory
+and all the holy angels with him, of his sitting on the throne of his
+glory with all nations gathered before him, of the separation of this
+gathered multitude into two parts, the one on his right, the other on
+his left, he says: &quot;Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
+Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
+the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me
+meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took
+me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
+prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we <i>thee</i> an hungered, and fed <i>thee</i>? or
+thirsty, and gave <i>thee</i> drink? When saw we <i>thee</i> a stranger, and took
+<i>thee</i> in? or naked, and clothed <i>thee</i>? Or when saw we <i>thee</i> sick, or
+in prison, and came unto <i>thee</i>? And the King shall answer, and say unto
+them, Verily I say unto you, <i>Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
+the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
+cursed. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty,
+and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick,
+and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we <i>thee</i> an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger,
+or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then
+shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, <i>Inasmuch as ye did
+it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After spending the greater portion of his life in many distant climes
+in a fruitless endeavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3" /><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> thinking
+that thereby he was doing the greatest service he could for God, Sir
+Launfal at last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. He finds that
+his castle is occupied by others, and that he himself is an outcast. His
+cloak is torn; and instead of the charger in gilded trappings he was
+mounted upon when as a young man, he started out with great hopes and
+ambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a staff. While sitting there and
+meditating, he is met by the same poor and needy leper he passed the
+morning he started, the one who in his need asked for aid, and to whom
+he had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on in his eager desire to be
+in the Master's service. But matters are changed now, and he is a wiser
+man. Again the poor leper says:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;'For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms';&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>The happy camels may reach the spring,<br /></span>
+<span>But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing,<br /></span>
+<span>The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone,<br /></span>
+<span>That cowers beside him, a thing as lone<br /></span>
+<span>And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas<br /></span>
+<span>In the desolate horror of his disease.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee<br /></span>
+<span>An image of Him who died on the tree;<br /></span>
+<span>Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>And to thy life were not denied<br /></span>
+<span>The wounds in the hands and feet and side:<br /></span>
+<span>Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;<br /></span>
+<span>Behold, <i>through him</i>, I give to thee!'<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway be<br /></span>
+<span>Remembered in what a haughtier guise<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">He had flung an alms to leprosie,<br /></span>
+<span>When he girt his young life up in gilded mail<br /></span>
+<span>And set forth in search of the Holy Grail.<br /></span>
+<span>The heart within him was ashes and dust;<br /></span>
+<span>He parted in twain his single crust,<br /></span>
+<span>He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,<br /></span>
+<span>And gave the leper to eat and drink,<br /></span>
+<span>'Twas a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Twas water out of a wooden bowl,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face,<br /></span>
+<span>A light shone round about the place;<br /></span>
+<span>The leper no longer crouched at his side,<br /></span>
+<span>But stood before him glorified,<br /></span>
+<span>Shining and tall and fair and straight<br /></span>
+<span>As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Himself the Gate whereby men can<br /></span>
+<span>Enter the temple of God in Man.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;And the voice that was calmer than silence said,<br /></span>
+<span>'Lo, it is I, be not afraid!<br /></span>
+<span>In many climes, without avail,<br /></span>
+<span>Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;<br /></span>
+<span>Behold, it is here,&mdash;this cup which thou<br /></span>
+<span>Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;<br /></span>
+<span>This crust is my body broken for thee,<br /></span>
+<span>This water His blood that died on the tree;<br /></span>
+<span>The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,<br /></span>
+<span>In whatso we share with another's need;<br /></span>
+<span>Not what we give, but what we <i>share</i>,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>For the gift without the giver is bare;<br /></span>
+<span>Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span>Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.'&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The fear is sometimes entertained, and the question is sometimes asked,
+May not adherence to this principle of helpfulness and service become
+mere sentimentalism? or still more, may it not be the means of lessening
+another's sense of self-dependence, and thus may it not at times do more
+harm than good? In reply let it be said: If the love which impels it be
+a selfish love, or a weak sentimental ism, or an effort at show, or
+devoid of good common sense, yes, many times. But if it be a strong,
+genuine, unselfish love, then no, never. For, if my love for my
+fellow-man be the true love, I can never do anything that will be to his
+or any one's else detriment,&mdash;nothing that will not redound to his
+highest ultimate welfare. Should he, for example come and ask of me a
+particular favor, and were it clear to me that granting it would not be
+for his highest good ultimately, then love at once resolves itself into
+duty, and compels me to forbear. A true, genuine, unselfish love for
+one's fellow-man will never prompt, and much less permit, anything that
+will not result in his highest ultimate good. Adherence, therefore, to
+this great principle in its truest sense, instead of being a weak
+sentimentalism, is, we shall find, of all practical things the <i>most
+intensely practical</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And a word here in regard to the test of true love and service, in
+distinction from its semblance for show or for vain glory. The test of
+the true is this: that it goes about and does its good work, it never
+says anything about it, but lets others do the saying. It not only says
+nothing about it, but more, it has no desire to have it known; and, the
+truer it is, the greater the desire to have it unknown save to God and
+its own true self. In other words, it is not sicklied o'er with a
+semi-insane desire for notoriety or vainglory, and hence never weakens
+itself nor harasses any one else by lengthy recitals of its good deeds.
+It is not the <i>professional</i> good-doing. It is simply living its natural
+life, open-minded, open-hearted, doing each day what its hands find to
+do, and in this finding its own true life and joy. And in this way it
+unintentionally but irresistibly draws to itself a praise the rarest and
+divinest I know of,&mdash;the praise I heard given but a day or two ago to
+one who is living simply his own natural life without any conscious
+effort at anything else, the praise contained in the words: And, oh, it
+is beautiful, the great amount of good he does and of which the world
+never hears.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3" /><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> &quot;According to the mythology of the Romancers, the Sangreal,
+or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the Last Supper
+with his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea,
+and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many
+years in the keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon
+those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but,
+one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail
+disappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knights
+of Sir Arthur's court to go in search of it.&quot;&mdash;<i>James Russell Lowell</i>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_V" id="PART_V" />PART V.</h2>
+
+<h2>THE INCOMING</h2>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>O dull, gray grub, unsightly and noisome, unable to roam,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Days pass, God's at work, the slow chemistry's going on,<br /></span>
+<span class="i9">Behold! Behold!<br /></span>
+<span>O brilliant, buoyant life, full winged, all the heaven's thy home!<br /></span>
+<span>O poor, mean man, stumbling and falling, e'en shamed by a clod.<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Years pass, God's at work, spiritual awakening has come,<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">Behold! Behold!<br /></span>
+<span>O regal, royal soul, then image, now the likeness of God.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The Master Teacher, he who appeals most strongly and comes nearest to us
+of this western civilization, has told us that the whole and the highest
+duty of man is comprised in two great, two simple precepts&mdash;- love to
+God and love to the fellow-man. The latter we have already fully
+considered. We have found that in its real and true meaning it is not a
+mere indefinite or sentimental abstraction, but that it is a vital,
+living force; and in its manifestation it is life, it is action, it is
+service. Let us now for a moment to the other,&mdash;love to God, which in
+great measure however let it be said, has been considered in dealing
+with love to the fellow-man. Let us see, however, what it in its true
+and full nature reveals.</p>
+
+<p>The question naturally arising at the outset is, Who, what is God? I
+think no truer, sublimer definition has ever been given in the world's
+history, in any language, in any clime, than that given by the Master
+himself when standing by the side of Jacob's well, to the Samaritan
+woman he said, God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him
+in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, the Infinite Spirit, the Infinite
+Life back of all these physical manifestations we see in this changing
+world about us, and of which all, including we ourselves, is the body or
+outer form; the one Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with
+Himself, so that all is He, since He is all. All is He in the sense of
+being a part of Him; for, if He is all, there can be nothing that is
+outside of, that is not a part of Him, so that each one is a part of
+this Eternal God who is not separate from us, and, if not separate from
+us, then not afar off, for in Him we live and move and have our being,
+<i>He is the life of our life</i>, our very life itself. The life of God is
+in us, we are in the life of God; but that life transcends us so that it
+includes all else,&mdash;every person, every animal, every grass-blade, every
+flower, every particle of earth, every particle of everything, animate
+and inanimate. So that God is <i>All</i>; and, if all, then each individual,
+you and I, must be a vital part of that all, since there can be nothing
+separate from it; and, if a part, then the same in nature, in
+characteristics,&mdash;the same as a tumbler of water taken from the ocean
+is, in nature, in qualities, in characteristics, identical with that
+ocean, its source. God, then, is the Infinite Spirit of which each one
+is a part in the form of an individualized spirit. God is Spirit,
+creating, manifesting, ruling through the agency of great spiritual laws
+and forces that surround us on every side, that run through all the
+universe, and that unite all; for in one sense, there is nothing in all
+this great universe but law. And, oh, the stupendous grandeur of it all!
+These same great spiritual laws and forces operate within us. They are
+the laws of our being. By them every act of each individual life is
+governed.</p>
+
+<p>Now one of the great facts borne ever more and more into the inner
+consciousness of man is that sublime and transcendent fact that we have
+just noticed,&mdash;that man is one with, that he is part of, the Infinite
+God, this Infinite Spirit that is the life of all, this Infinite Whole;
+that he is not a mere physical, material being,&mdash;for the physical is but
+the material which the real inner self, the real life or spirit uses to
+manifest through,&mdash;but that he <i>is</i> this spirit, this spirit, using,
+living in this physical, material house or body to get the contact, the
+experience with the material world around him while in this form of
+life, but spirit nevertheless, and spirit now as much as he ever will or
+ever can be, except so far of course, as he recognizes more and more his
+true, his higher self, and so consciously evolves, step by step, into
+the higher and ever higher realization of the real nature, the real
+self, the God-self. As I heard it said by one of the world's great
+thinkers and writers but a few days ago: Men talk of having a soul. I
+have no soul. I am a soul: I have a body. We are told moreover in the
+word, that man is created in the image of God. God is Spirit. What then
+must man be, if that which tells us is true?</p>
+
+<p>Now one of the great errors all along in the past has been that we have
+mistaken the mere body, the mere house in which we live while in this
+form of life for a period,&mdash;that which comes from the earth and which,
+in a greater or less time, returns to the earth,&mdash;this we have mistaken
+for the real self. Either we have lost sight of or we have failed to
+recognize the true identity. The result is that we are at life from the
+wrong side, from the side of the external, while all true life is from
+within out.</p>
+
+<p>We have taken our lives out of a conscious harmony with the higher laws
+of our being, with the result that we are going against the great
+current of the Divine Order of things. Is it any wonder, then, that we
+find the strugglings, the inharmonies, the sufferings, the fears, the
+forebodings, the fallings by the wayside, the &quot;strange, inscrutable
+dispensations of Providence&quot; that we behold on every side? The moment we
+bring our lives into harmony with the higher laws of our being, and, as
+a result, into harmony with the current of the Divine Order of things,
+we shall find that all these will have taken wings; for the cause will
+have been removed. And as we look down the long vista of such a life, we
+shall find that each thing fits into all others with a wonderful, a
+sublime, a perfect, a divine harmony.</p>
+
+<p>This, it will seem to some,&mdash;and to many, no doubt,&mdash;is claiming a great
+deal. No more, however, than the Master Teacher warranted us in claiming
+when he said, and repeated it so often, Seek ye first the kingdom of
+heaven, and all these other things shall be added unto you; and he left
+us not in the dark as to exactly what he meant by the kingdom of heaven,
+for again he said: Say not, Lo here, nor lo there. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you? <i>Within you.</i> The interior spiritual
+kingdom, the kingdom of the higher self, which is the kingdom of God;
+the kingdom of harmony,&mdash;harmony with the higher laws of your being.</p>
+
+<p>The Master said what he said not for the sake merely of using a phrase
+of rhetoric, nor even to hear himself talk; for this he never did. But
+that great incarnation of spiritual insight and power knew of the great
+spiritual laws and forces under which we live, and also that supreme
+fact of the universe, that <i>man is a spiritual being, born to have
+dominion</i>, and that, by recognizing the true self and by bringing it
+into complete and perfect harmony with the higher spiritual laws and
+forces under which he lives, he can touch these laws and forces so that
+they will respond at every call and bring him whatsoever he wills,&mdash;one
+of the most stupendous scientific facts of the universe. When he has
+found and entered into the kingdom, then applies to him the truth of the
+great precept, Take ye no thought for the morrow; for the things of the
+morrow will take care of themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, we are at life from the wrong side. We have been giving all time
+and attention to the mere physical, the material, the external, the mere
+outward means of expression and the things that pertain thereto, thus
+missing the real life; and this we have called living, and seem, indeed,
+to be satisfied with the results. No wonder the cry has gone out again
+and again from many a human soul, Is life worth the living? But from one
+who has once commenced to <i>live</i>, this cry never has, nor can it ever
+come; for, <i>when the kingdom is once found, life then ceases to be a
+plodding, and becomes an exultation, an ecstasy, a joy</i>. Yes, you will
+find that all the evil, all the error, all the disease, all the
+suffering, all the fears, all the forebodings of life, are on the side
+of the physical, the material, the transient; while all the peace, all
+the joy, all the happiness, all the growth, all the life, all the rich,
+exulting, abounding life, is on the side of the spiritual, the
+ever-increasing, the eternal,&mdash;that that never changes, that has no end.
+Instead of crying out against the destiny of fate, let us cry out
+against the destiny of self, or rather against the destiny of the
+mistaken self; for everything that comes to us comes through causes
+which we ourselves or those before us have set into operation. Nothing
+comes by chance, for <i>in all the wide universe there is absolutely no
+such thing as chance</i>. We bring whatever comes. Are we not satisfied
+with the effects, the results? The thing then to do, is to change the
+causes; for we have everything in our own hands the moment we awake to a
+recognition of the true self.</p>
+
+<p>We make our own heaven or our own hell, and the only heaven or hell that
+will ever be ours is that of our own making. The order of the universe
+is one thing: we take our lives out of harmony with and so pervert the
+laws under which we live, and make it another. The order is the all
+good. We pervert the laws, and what we call evil is the result,&mdash;simply
+the result of the violation of law; and we then wonder that a just and
+loving God could permit such and such things. We wonder at what we term
+the &quot;strange, inscrutable dispensations of Providence,&quot; when all is of
+our own making. We can be our own best friends or we can be our own
+worst enemies; and the only real enemy one can ever have is the self,
+the very self.</p>
+
+<p>It is a well-known fact in the scientific world that the great work in
+the process of evolution is the gradual advancing from the lower to the
+higher, from the coarser to the finer, or, in other words, from the
+coarser material to the finer spiritual; and this higher
+spiritualization of life is the great work before us all. All pass
+ultimately over the same road in general, some more rapidly, some more
+slowly. The ultimate destiny of all is the higher life, the finding of
+the higher self; and to this we are either led or we are pushed,&mdash;led,
+by recognizing and coming into harmony with the higher laws of our
+being, or pushed, through their violation, and hence through experience,
+through suffering, and at times through bitter suffering, until through
+this very agency we learn the laws and come into harmony with them, so
+that we thus see the economy, the blessedness of even error, shame, and
+suffering itself, in that, if we are not wise enough to go voluntarily
+and of our own accord, it all the more quickly brings us to our true,
+our higher selves.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, whatever is evolved must as surely first be involved. We
+cannot conceive even of an evolution without first an involution; and,
+if this is true, we cannot conclude otherwise than that all that will
+ever be brought forth through the process of evolution is already
+within, all the God possibilities of the human soul are now, at this
+very moment, latent within. This being true, the process of evolution
+need not, as is many times supposed, take &aelig;ons or even ages for its
+accomplishment; for the process is wonderfully accelerated when we have
+grasped and when we have commenced to actualize the reality of that
+mighty precept, Know thyself.</p>
+
+<p>It is possible, through an intelligent understanding of the laws of the
+higher life, to advance in the spiritual awakening and unfoldment even
+in a single year more than one otherwise would through a whole lifetime,
+or more in a single day or even hour than in an entire year or series of
+years otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>This higher spiritualization of life is certainly what the Master had in
+mind when he said, It is as hard for a rich man to enter into the
+kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a
+needle. For, if a man give all his days and his nights merely to the
+accumulation of outer material possessions, what time has he for the
+growing, the unfolding, of the interior, the spiritual, what time for
+finding that wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the Christ
+within?</p>
+
+<p>This certainly is also the significance of the temptation in the
+wilderness. The temptations were all, you will recall, in connection
+with the material, the physical, and the things that pertain thereto. Do
+so and so, said the physical: follow after me, and I will give you bread
+in abundance, I will give you great fame and notoriety, I will give you
+vast material possessions. All, you see, a calling away from the real,
+the interior, the spiritual, the eternal. Dominion over all the kingdoms
+of the <i>world</i> was promised. But what, what is dominion overall the
+world, with heaven left out?</p>
+
+<p>All, however, was triumphed over. The physical was put into subjection
+by the spiritual, the victory was gained once for all and forever; and
+he became the supreme and royal Master, and by this complete and
+glorious mastery of self he gained the mastery over all else besides,
+even to material things and conditions.</p>
+
+<p>And by this higher spiritual chemicalization of life thus set into
+operation the very thought forces of his mind became charged with a
+living, mighty, and omnipotent power, so as to effect a mastery over all
+exterior conditions: hence the numerous things called miracles by those
+who witnessed and who had not entered into a knowledge of the higher
+laws that can triumph over and master the lower, but which are just as
+real and as natural on their plane as the lower, and even more real and
+more natural, because higher and therefore more enduring. But this
+complete mastery over self during this period of temptation was just the
+beginning of the path that led from glory unto glory, the path that for
+you and for me will lead from glory unto glory the same as for him.</p>
+
+<p>It was this new divine and spiritual chemistry of life thus set into
+operation that transformed the man Jesus, that royal-hearted elder
+brother, into the Christ Jesus, and forever blessed be his name; for he
+thus became our Saviour,&mdash;he became our Saviour by virtue of pointing
+out to us the way. This overcoming by the calling of the higher
+spiritual forces into operation is certainly what he meant when he said,
+I have overcome the world, and what he would have us understand when he
+says, Overcome the world, even as I have overcome it.</p>
+
+<p>And in the same sense we are all the saviors one of another, or may
+become so. A sudden emergency arises, and I stand faltering and weak
+with fear. My friend beside me is strong and fearless. He sees the
+emergency. He summons up all the latent powers within him, and springs
+forth to meet it. This sublime example arouses me, calls my latent
+powers into activity, when but for him I might not have known them
+there. I follow his example. I now know my powers, and know them forever
+after. Thus, in this, my friend has become my savior.</p>
+
+<p>I am weak in some point of character,&mdash;vacillating, yielding, stumbling,
+falling, continually eating the bitter fruit of it all. My friend is
+strong, he has gained thorough self-mastery. The majesty and beauty of
+power are upon his brow. I see his example, I love his life, I am
+influenced by his power. My soul longs and cries out for the same. A
+supreme effort of will&mdash;that imperial master that will take one anywhere
+when rightly directed&mdash;arises within me, it is born at last, and it
+calls all the soul's latent powers into activity; and instead of
+stumbling I stand firm, instead of giving over in weakness I stand firm
+and master, I enter into the joys of full self-mastery, and through this
+into the mastery of all things besides. And thus my friend has again
+become my savior.</p>
+
+<p>With the new power I have acquired through the example and influence of
+my savior-friend, I, in turn, stand before a friend who is struggling,
+who is stumbling and in despair. He sees, he feels, the power of my
+strength. He longs for, his soul cries out for the same. <i>His</i> interior
+forces are called into activity, he now knows his powers; and instead of
+the slave, he becomes the master, and thus I, in turn, have become his
+savior. Oh, the wonderful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings of
+responsibility, the deep sense of power and peace the recognition of
+this fact should bring to each and all.</p>
+
+<p>God works through the instrumentality of human agency. Then forever away
+with that old, shrivelling, weakening, dying, and devilish idea that we
+are poor worms of the dust! We may or we may not be: it all depends upon
+the self. The moment we believe we are we become such; and as long as we
+hold to the belief we will be held to this identity, and will act and
+live as such. The moment, however, we recognize our divinity, our
+higher, our God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of our
+fellow-men, we become saviors, and stand and move in the midst of a
+majesty and beauty and power that of itself proclaims us as such.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>There is a prevalent idea to the effect that overcoming in this sense
+necessarily implies more or less of a giving up,&mdash;that it means
+something possibly on the order of asceticism. On the contrary, the
+highest, truest, keenest pleasures the human soul can know, it finds
+only after the higher is entered upon and has commenced its work of
+mastery; and, instead of there being a giving up of any kind, there is a
+great law which says that the lower always and of its own accord falls
+away before the higher. And the time soon comes when, as one stands and
+looks back, he wonders that this or that that he at one time called
+pleasure ever satisfied him; for what then satisfied him, compared to
+what now is his hourly peace, satisfaction, and joy, was but as poor
+brass compared to the finest, purest, and rarest of gold.</p>
+
+<p>From what has been said let it not be inferred that the body, the
+physical, material life is to be despised or looked down upon. This,
+rather let it be said, is one of the crying errors of the times, and
+prolific of a <i>vast</i> amount of error, suffering, and shame. On the
+contrary, it should be thought all the more highly of: it should be
+loved and developed to its highest perfections, beauties, and powers.
+God gave us the body not in vain. It is just as holy and beautiful as
+the spirit itself. It is merely the outward material manifestation of
+the individualized spirit; and we by our hourly thoughts and emotions
+are building it, are determining its conditions, its structure, and
+appearance. And, if there are any conditions we are not satisfied with,
+we by an understanding of the laws, have it in our power to make it over
+and change these conditions. Flamarion, the eminent French scientist,
+member of the Royal Academy of Science, and recognized as one of the
+most eminent scientists living, tells us that the entire human structure
+can be made over within a period of less than one year, some eleven
+months being the length of time required for the more compact and more
+set portions to respond; while some portions respond much more readily
+within a period of from two to three months, and some even within a
+month.</p>
+
+<p>Every part, every organ, every function of the body is just as clean,
+just as beautiful, just as sweet, and just as holy as every other part;
+and it is only by virtue of man's perverted ways of looking at some that
+they become otherwise, and the moment they so become, abuses, ill uses,
+suffering, and shame creep in.</p>
+
+<p><i>Not repression, but elevation.</i> Would that this could be repeated a
+thousand times over! Not repression, but elevation. Every part, every
+organ, every function of the body is given for <i>use</i>, but not for misuse
+or abuse; and the moment the latter takes place in connection with any
+function it loses its higher powers of use, and there goes with this the
+higher powers of true enjoyment. It is thus that we get that large class
+known as abnormals, resorting to the methods they resort to for
+enjoyment, but which, in its true sense, they always fail in finding,
+because law will admit of no violations; and, if violated, it takes away
+the very powers of enjoyment, it takes away the very things that through
+its violation they thought they had secured, or it turns them into ashes
+in their very hands. God, nature, law, the higher self, is not mocked.</p>
+
+<p>Not repression, but elevation,&mdash;repression only in the sense of
+mastery; but this means&mdash;nay, this is&mdash;elevation. In other words, we
+should be the master, and not the body. We should dictate to the body,
+and should never, even for an instant, allow it to dictate to us.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are
+everywhere being driven hither and thither, led into this and into that
+which their own better selves would not enter into, simply because they
+have allowed the body to assume the mastery; while they have taken the
+place of the weakling, the slave, and all on account of their own
+weakness,&mdash;weakness through ignorance, ignorance of the tremendous
+forces and powers within, the forces and powers of the mind and spirit.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a right royal plan for those who are thus enslaved by the
+body,&mdash;and we all are more or less, each in his own particular way, and
+not one is absolutely free,&mdash;it would be a good plan to hold
+immediately, at this very hour, a conversation with the body somewhat
+after this fashion: Body, we have for some time been dwelling together.
+Life for neither has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The cause
+is now apparent to me. The mastery I have voluntarily handed over to
+you. You have not assumed it of your own accord; but I have given it
+over to you little by little, and just in the degree that you have
+appropriated it. Neither one is to blame. It has been by virtue of
+ignorance. But henceforth we will reverse positions. You shall become
+the servant, and I the master. From this time forth you shall no longer
+dictate to me, but I will dictate to you.</p>
+
+<p>I, one with Infinite intelligence, wisdom, and power, longing for a
+fuller and ever fuller realization of this oneness, will assume control,
+and will call upon you to help in the fuller and ever fuller external
+manifestation of this realization. We will thus regain the ground both
+of us have lost. We will thus be truly married instead of farcically so.
+And thus we will help each the other to a realization of the highest,
+most satisfying and most enduring pleasures and joys, possibilities and
+powers, loves and realizations, that human life can know; and so, hand
+in hand, we will help each the other to the higher and ever-increasing
+life instead of degrading each the other to the lower and
+ever-decreasing. I will become the imperial master, and you the royal
+companion; and thus we will go forth to an ever larger life of love and
+service, and so of true enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>This conversation, if entered into in the spirit, accompanied by an
+earnest, sincere desire for its fulfilment, re-enforced by the thought
+forces, and continually attended by that absolute magnet of power, firm
+expectation, will, if all are firmly and persistently held to, bring the
+full realization of one's fondest desires with a certainty as absolute
+as that effect follows cause. The higher self will invariably master
+when it truly and firmly asserts itself. Much the same attitude can be
+assumed in connection with the body in disease or in suffering with the
+same results. Forces can be set into operation which will literally
+change and make over the diseased, the abnormal portions, and in time
+transform them into the healthy, the strong, the normal,&mdash;this when we
+once understand and vitally grasp the laws of these mighty forces, and
+are brought to the full recognition of the absolute control of mind, of
+spirit, over matter, and all, again let it be said, in accordance with
+natural spiritual law.</p>
+
+<p><i>No, a knowledge of the spiritual realities of life prohibits
+asceticism, repression, the same as it prohibits license and perverted
+use. To err on the one side is just as contrary to the ideal life as to
+err on the other.</i> All things are for a purpose, all should be used and
+enjoyed; but all should be rightly used, that they may be fully enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>It is the threefold life and development that is wanted,&mdash;physical,
+mental, spiritual. This gives the rounded life, and he or she who fails
+in any one comes short of the perfect whole. The physical has its uses
+just the same and is just as important as the others. The great secret
+of the highly successful life is, however, to infuse the mental and the
+physical with the spiritual; in other words, to spiritualize all, and so
+raise all to the highest possibilities and powers.</p>
+
+<p>It is the all-round, fully developed we want,&mdash;not the ethereal,
+pale-blooded man and woman, but the man and woman of flesh and blood,
+for action and service here and now,&mdash;the man and woman strong and
+powerful, with all the faculties and functions fully unfolded and used,
+all in a royal and bounding condition, but all rightly subordinated. The
+man and the woman of this kind, with the imperial hand of mastery upon
+all,&mdash;standing, moving thus like a king, nay, like a very God,&mdash;such is
+the man and such is the woman of power. Such is the ideal life: anything
+else is one-sided, and falls short of it.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The most powerful agent in character-building is this awakening to the
+true self, to the fact that man is a spiritual being,&mdash;nay, more, that
+I, this very eternal I, am a spiritual being, right here and now, at
+this very moment, with the God-powers which can be quickly called forth.
+With this awakening, life in all its manifold relations becomes
+wonderfully simplified. And as to the powers, the full realization of
+the fact that man is a spiritual being and a living as such brings, they
+are absolutely without limit, increasing in direct proportion as the
+higher self, the God-self, assumes the mastery, and so as this higher
+spiritualization of life goes on.</p>
+
+<p>With this awakening and realization one is brought at once <i>en rapport</i>
+with the universe. He feels the power and the thrill of the life
+universal. He goes out from his own little garden spot, and mingles with
+the great universe; and the little perplexities, trials, and
+difficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy him, fall away of
+their own accord by reason of their very insignificance. The intuitions
+become keener and ever more keen and unerring in their guidance. There
+comes more and more the power of reading men, so that no harm can come
+from this source. There comes more and more the power of seeing into the
+future, so that more and more true becomes the old adage,&mdash;that coming
+events cast their shadows before. Health in time takes the place of
+disease; for all disease and its consequent suffering is merely the
+result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously,
+either intentionally or unintentionally. There comes also a spiritual
+power which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the healing of others
+the same as in the days of old. The body becomes less gross and heavy,
+finer in its texture and form, so that it serves far better and responds
+far more readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself in
+time responds to the action of these higher forces; and many things that
+we are accustomed by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous or
+supernatural become the normal, the natural, the every-day.</p>
+
+<p>For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Nothing more nor less than this: a
+highly illumined soul, one who has brought his life into thorough
+harmony with the higher spiritual laws and forces of his being, and
+therefore with those of the universe, thus making it possible for the
+highest things to come to him, has brought to him a law a little higher
+than the ordinary mind knows of as yet. This he touches, he operates. It
+responds. The people see the result, and cry out, Miracle! miracle! when
+it is just as natural, just as fully in accordance with the law on this
+higher plane, as is the common, the every-day on the ordinary. And let
+it be remembered that the miraculous, the supernatural of to-day
+becomes, as in the process of evolution we leave the lower for the
+higher, the commonplace, the natural, the every-day of to-morrow; and,
+truly, miracles are being performed in the world to-day just as much as
+they ever have been.</p>
+
+<p>And why should we not to-day have the powers of the foremost in the days
+of old? The great universe in which we live is just the same, the great
+laws under which we live are identically the same, God the same and
+working in His world now just as then. The only difference we shall find
+is in ourselves, in that we have taken our lives out of harmony with the
+higher laws of our being, and consequently have lost the higher powers
+through not using them. Mighty men we are told they were, mighty men
+who walked with God,&mdash;and in the last clause lies the secret of the
+first,&mdash;- men who lived in the spirit, men who followed after the real
+life instead of giving all time and attention to the mere external, men
+who lived in the higher stories of their being, and not continually in
+the basements.</p>
+
+<p>With here and there an exception we reverse the process. We live in the
+valleys, so to speak, often disease-infected valleys, when we might
+mount up to the mountain-tops, and there dwell continually in the warm
+and mellow sunlight of God's, or if you please, of nature's great,
+unchangeable laws, and find ourselves rising ever higher and higher, and
+revelations coming new every day.</p>
+
+<p>The Master never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim for
+all mankind; but, quite to the contrary, he said and continually
+repeated, Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than these
+shall ye do; for I have pointed out to you the way,&mdash;meaning, though
+strange as it evidently seems to many, <i>exactly</i> what he said.</p>
+
+<p>Of the vital power of thought and the interior forces in moulding
+conditions, and more, of the supremacy of thought over all conditions,
+the world has scarcely the faintest grasp, not to say even idea, as yet.
+The fact that thoughts are forces, and that through them <i>we have
+creative power</i>, is one of the most vital facts of the universe, the
+most vital fact of man's being. And through this instrumentality we have
+in our grasp and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and
+all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.</p>
+
+<p>Through our thought-forces we have creative power, not in a figurative
+sense, but in reality. Everything in the material universe about us had
+its origin first in spirit, in thought, and from this it took its form.
+The very world in which we live, with all its manifold wonders and
+sublime manifestations, is the result of the energies of the divine
+intelligence or mind,&mdash;God, or whatever term it comes convenient for
+each one to use. And God said, Let there be, and there was,&mdash;the
+material world, at least the material manifestation of it, literally
+spoken into existence, the spoken word, however, but the outward
+manifestation of the interior forces of the Supreme Intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>Every castle the world has ever seen was first an ideal in the
+architect's mind. Every statue was first an ideal in the sculptor's
+mind. Every piece of mechanism the world has ever known was first
+formed in the mind of the inventor. Here it was given birth to. These
+same mind-forces then dictated to and sent the energy into the hand that
+drew the model, and then again dictated to and sent the energy into the
+hands whereby the first instrument was clothed in the material form of
+metal or of wood. The lower negative always gives way to the higher when
+made positive. Mind is positive: matter is negative.</p>
+
+<p>Each individual life is a part of, and hence is one with, the Infinite
+Life; and the highest intelligence and power belongs to each in just the
+degree that he recognizes his oneness and lays claim to and uses it. The
+power of the word is not merely an idle phrase or form of expression. It
+is a real mental, spiritual, scientific fact, and can become vital and
+powerful in your hands and in mine in just the degree that we understand
+the omnipotence of the thought forces and raise all to the higher
+planes.</p>
+
+<p>The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood before the Christ, who said,
+Receive thy sight, rise up and walk, or, be thou healed; and o! <i>it was
+so</i>. The spoken word, however, was but the outward expression and
+manifestation of his interior thought-forces, the power and potency of
+which he so thoroughly knew. But the laws governing them are the same
+to-day as they were then, and it lies in our power to use them the same
+as it lay in his.</p>
+
+<p>Each individual life, after it has reached a certain age or degree of
+intelligence, lives in the midst of the surroundings or environments of
+its own creation; and this by reason of that wonderful power, <i>the
+drawing power of mind</i>, which is continually operating in every life,
+whether it is conscious of it or not.</p>
+
+<p>We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought. The very
+atmosphere about us is charged with the thought-forces that are being
+continually sent out. When the thought-forces leave the brain, they go
+out upon the atmosphere, the subtle conducting ether, much the same as
+sound-waves go out. It is by virtue of this law that thought
+transference is possible, and has become an established scientific fact,
+by virtue of which a person can so direct his thought-forces that a
+person at a distance, and in a receptive attitude, can get the thought
+much the same as sound, for example, is conducted through the agency of
+a connecting medium.</p>
+
+<p>Even though the thoughts as they leave a particular person, are not
+consciously directed, they go out; and all may be influenced by them in
+a greater or less degree, each one in proportion as he or she is more or
+less sensitively organized, or in proportion as he or she is negative,
+and so open to forces and influences from without. The law operating
+here is one with that great law of the universe,&mdash;that like attracts
+like, so that one continually attracts to himself forces and influences
+most akin to those of his own life. And his own life is determined by
+the thoughts and emotions he habitually entertains, for each is building
+his world from within. As within, so without; cause, effect.</p>
+
+<p>A stalk of wheat and a stock of corn are growing side by side, within an
+inch of each other. The soil is the same for both; but the wheat
+converts the food it takes from the soil into wheat, the likeness of
+itself, while the corn converts the food it takes from the same soil
+into corn, the likeness of itself. What that which each has taken from
+the soil is converted into is determined by the soul, the interior life,
+the interior forces of each. This same grain taken as food by two
+persons will be converted into the body of a criminal in the one case,
+and into the body of a saint in the other, each after its kind; and its
+kind is determined by the inner life of each. And what again determines
+the inner life of each? The thoughts and emotions that are habitually
+entertained and that inevitably, sooner or later, manifest themselves in
+outer material form. Thought is the great builder in human life: it is
+the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and
+your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and
+beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth
+in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of
+love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and
+you will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind.</p>
+
+<p>It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own
+&quot;atmosphere&quot;; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of the
+thoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thought
+atmosphere&mdash;the atmosphere which other people detect and are influenced
+by.</p>
+
+<p>In this way each person creates the atmosphere of his own room; a
+family, the atmosphere of the house in which they live, so that the
+moment you enter the door you feel influences kindred to the thoughts
+and hence to the lives of those who dwell there. You get a feeling of
+peace and harmony or a feeling of disquietude and inharmony. You get a
+welcome, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-to-get-away feeling,
+according to their thought attitude toward you, even though but few
+words be spoken. So the characteristic mental states of a congregation
+of people who assemble there determine the atmosphere of any given
+assembly-place, church, or cathedral. Its inhabitants so make, so
+determine the atmosphere of a particular village or city. The
+sympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast amphitheatre of people, as they
+cheer a contestant, carry him to goals he never could reach by his own
+efforts alone. The same is true in regard to an orator and his audience.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon's army is in the East. The plague is beginning to make inroads
+into its ranks. Long lines of men are lying on cots and on the ground in
+an open space adjoining the army. Fear has taken a vital hold of all,
+and the men are continually being stricken. Look yonder, contrary to the
+earnest entreaties of his officers, who tell him that such exposure will
+mean sure death, Napoleon with a calm and dauntless look upon his face,
+with a firm and defiant step, is coming through these plague-stricken
+ranks. He is going up to, talking with, touching the men; and, as they
+see him, there goes up a mighty shout,&mdash;The Emperor! the Emperor! and
+from that hour the plague in its inroads is stopped. A marvellous
+example of the power of a man who, by his own dauntless courage,
+absolute fearlessness, and power of mind, could send out such forces
+that they in turn awakened kindred forces in the minds of thousands of
+others, which in turn dominate their very bodies, so that the plague,
+and even death itself, is driven from the field. One of the grandest
+examples of a man of the most mighty and tremendous mind and will power,
+and at the same time an example of one of the grandest failures, taking
+life in its totality, the world has ever seen.</p>
+
+<p>Again, as has been said, the great law operating in connection with the
+thought-forces is one with that great law of the universe,&mdash;that like
+attracts like. We can, by virtue of our ignorance of the powers of the
+mind forces and the prevailing mental states,&mdash;we can take the passive,
+the negative, fearing, drifting attitude, and thus continually attract
+to us like influences and conditions from both the seen and the unseen
+side of life. Or, by a knowledge of the power and potency of these
+forces, we can take the positive, the active attitude, that of mastery,
+and so attract the higher and more valuable influences, exactly as we
+will to.</p>
+
+<p>We are all much more influenced by the thought-forces and mental states
+of those around us and of the world at large than we have even the
+slightest conception of. If not self-hypnotized into certain beliefs and
+practices, we are, so to speak, semi-hypnotized through the influence of
+the thoughts of others, even though unconsciously both on their part and
+on ours. We are so influenced and enslaved in just the degree that we
+fail to recognize the power and omnipotence of our own forces, and so
+become slaves to custom, conventionality, the opinions of others, and so
+in like proportion lose our own individuality and powers. He who in his
+own mind takes the attitude of the slave, by the power of his own
+thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the slave. He
+who in his own mind takes the attitude of the master, by the same power
+of his own thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the
+master. Each is building his world from within, and, if outside forces
+play, it is because he allows them to play; and he has it in his own
+power to determine whether these shall be positive, uplifting,
+ennobling, strengthening, success-giving, or negative, degrading,
+weakening, failure-bringing.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing more powerful, nothing more
+irresistible in its operations, when rightly applied and held to with a
+faith and fidelity that is unswerving,&mdash;a faith and fidelity that never
+knows the neutralizing effects of doubt and fear. If one have
+aspirations and a sincere desire for a higher and better condition, so
+far as advantages, facilities, associates, or any surroundings or
+environments are concerned, and if he continually send out his highest
+thought-forces for the realization of these desires, and continually
+water these forces with firm expectation as to their fulfilment, he will
+sooner or later find himself in the realization of these desires, and
+all in accordance with natural laws and forces.</p>
+
+<p>Fear brings its own fulfilment the same as hope. The same law operates,
+and if, as our good and valued friend, Job, said when the darkest days
+were setting in upon him,&mdash;that which I feared has come upon me,&mdash;was
+true, how much more surely could he have brought about the opposite
+conditions, those he would have desired, had he have had even the
+slightest realization of his own powers, and had he acted the part of
+the master instead of that of the servant, had he have dictated terms
+instead of being dictated to, and thus suffering the consequences.</p>
+
+<p>If one finds himself in any particular condition, in the midst of any
+surroundings or environments that are not desirable, that have
+nothing&mdash;at least for any length of time&mdash;that is of value to him, for
+his highest life and unfoldment, he has the remedy entirely within his
+own grasp the moment he realizes the power and supremacy of the forces
+of the mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently use these forces,
+he drifts. Unless through them he becomes master and dictates, he
+becomes the slave and is dictated to, and so is driven hither and
+thither.</p>
+
+<p>Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration for higher and better
+conditions or means to realize them, the thought-forces actively sent
+out for their realization, these continually watered by firm expectation
+without allowing the contrary, neutralizing force of fear ever to enter
+in,&mdash;this, accompanied by rightly directed work and activity, will
+bring about the fullest realization of one's highest desires and
+aspirations with a certainty as absolute as that effect follows cause.
+Each and every one of us can thus make for himself ever higher and
+higher conditions, can attract ever and ever higher influences, can
+realize an ever higher and higher ideal in life. These are the forces
+that are within us, simply waiting to be recognized and used,&mdash;the
+forces that we should infuse into and mould every-day life with. The
+moment we vitally recognize them, they become our servants and wait upon
+our bidding.</p>
+
+<p>Are you, for example, a young man or a young woman desiring a college, a
+university education, or have you certain literary or artistic instincts
+your soul longs the more fully to realize and actualize, and seems there
+no way open for you to realize the fulfilment of your desires? But the
+power is in your hands the moment you recognize it there. Begin at once
+to set the right forces into operation. Put forth your ideal, which will
+begin to clothe itself in material form, send out your thought-forces
+for its realization, continually hold and add to them, always strongly
+but always calmly, never allow the element of fear, which will keep the
+realization just so much farther away, to enter in; but, on the
+contrary, continually water with firm expectation all the forces thus
+set into operation. Do not then sit and idly fold the hands, expecting
+to see all things drop into the lap,&mdash;God feeds the sparrow, but he does
+not throw the food into its nest,&mdash;but take hold of the first thing that
+offers itself for you to do,&mdash;work in the fields, at the desk, saw wood,
+wash dishes, tend behind the counter, or whatever it may be,&mdash;be
+faithful to the thing in hand, always expecting something better, and
+know that this in hand is the thing that will open to you the next
+higher, and this the next and the next; and so realize that each thing
+thus taken hold of is but the agency that takes you each time a step
+nearer the realization of your fondest ideals. You then hold the key;
+and bolts that otherwise would remain immovable, by this mighty force,
+will be thrown before you.</p>
+
+<p>We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars, but to dominion and to
+plenty. This is our rightful heritage, if we will but recognize and lay
+claim to it. Many a man and many a woman is to-day longing for
+conditions better and higher than he or she is in, who might be using
+the same time now spent in vain, indefinite, spasmodic longings, in
+putting into operation forces which, accompanied by the right personal
+activity, would speedily bring the fullest realization of his or her
+fondest dreams. The great universe is filled with an abundance of all
+things, filled to overflowing. All there is, is in her, waiting only for
+the touch of the right forces to cast them forth. She is no respecter of
+persons outside of the fact that she always responds to the demands of
+the man or the woman who knows and uses the forces and powers he or she
+is endowed with. And to the demands of such she always opens her
+treasure-house, for the supply is always equal to the demand. All things
+are in the hands of him who knows they are there.</p>
+
+<p>Of all known forms of energy, thought is the most subtle, the most
+irresistible force. It has always been operating; but, so far as the
+great masses of the people are concerned, it has been operating blindly,
+or, rather, they have been blind to its mighty power, except in the
+cases of a few here and there. And these, as a consequence, have been
+our prophets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our men of great and
+mighty power. We are just beginning to grasp the tremendous truth that
+there is a <i>science of thought</i>, and that the laws governing it can be
+known and scientifically applied. The man who understands and who
+appropriates this fact has literally all things under his control.
+Heredity and its attendant circumstances and influences? you ask. Most
+surely. The barriers which heredity builds, the same as those
+environment erects, when the awakened interior forces are considered,
+are as mud walls standing within the range of a Krupp gun: shattered and
+crumbled they are when the tremendous force is applied.</p>
+
+<p>Thought needs direction to be effective, and upon this effective results
+depend as much as upon the force itself. This brings us to the will.
+Will is not as is so often thought, a force in itself; will is the
+directing power. Thought is the force. Will gives direction. Thought
+scattered gives the weak, the uncertain, the vacillating, the aspiring,
+but the never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the get-no-where, the
+attain-to-nothing man or woman. Thought steadily directed by the will,
+gives the strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the never-know-defeat
+man or woman, the man or woman who uses the very difficulties and
+hindrances that would dishearten the ordinary person, as stones with
+which he paves a way over which he triumphantly walks, who, by the very
+force he carries with him, so neutralizes and transmutes the very
+obstacles that would bar his way that they fall before him, and in turn
+aid him on his way; the man or woman who, like the eagle, uses the very
+contrary wind that would thwart his flight, that would turn him and
+carry him in the opposite direction, as the very agency upon which he
+mounts and mounts and mounts, until actually lost to the human eye, and
+which, in addition to thus aiding him, brings to him an ever fuller
+realization of his own powers, or in other words, an ever greater power.</p>
+
+<p>It is this that gives the man or the woman who in storm or in sunny
+weather, rides over every obstacle, throws before him every barrier,
+and, as Browning has said, finally &quot;arrives.&quot; Take, for example, the
+successful business man,&mdash;for it is all one, the law is the same in all
+cases,&mdash;the man who started with nothing except his own interior
+equipments. He has made up his mind to <i>one</i> thing,&mdash;success. This is
+his ideal. He thinks success, he sees success. He refuses to see
+anything else. He expects success: he thus attracts it to him, his
+thought-forces continually attract to him every agency that makes for
+success. He has set up the current, so that every wind that blows
+brings him success. He doesn't expect failure, and so he doesn't invite
+it. He has no time, no energies, to waste in fears or forebodings. He is
+dauntless, untiring, in his efforts. Let disaster come to-day, and
+to-morrow&mdash;ay, even yet to-day&mdash;he is getting his bearings, he is
+setting forces anew into operation; and these very forces are of more
+value to him than the half million dollars of his neighbor who has
+suffered from the same disaster. We speak of a man's failing in
+business, little thinking that the real failure came long before, and
+that the final crash is but the culmination, the outward visible
+manifestation, of the real failure that occurred within possibly long
+ago. <i>A man carries his success or his failure with him: it is not
+dependent upon outside conditions.</i></p>
+
+<p>Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilot
+which, after the vessel is started by the mighty force within, puts it
+on its right course and keeps it true to that course, the pilot under
+whose control the rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, even
+through storms and gales, to an exact spot in the Liverpool port within
+a few minutes of its scheduled time, and at times even upon the very
+minute. Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses the
+sun's rays that they quickly burn a hole through the paper that is held
+before it. The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus focused, would
+fall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is the
+means for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
+thought-forces. Thought under wise direction,&mdash;this it is that does the
+work, that brings results, that makes the successful career. One object
+in mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily held before the
+mind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from,&mdash;this,
+with persistence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power of
+thought, when thus directed by will.</p>
+
+<p>May not this power, then, be used for base as well as for good purposes,
+for selfish as well as for unselfish ends? The same with this
+modification,&mdash;the more highly thought is spiritualized, the more subtle
+and powerful it becomes; and the more highly spiritualized the life, the
+farther is it removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But, even if it
+can be thus used, let him who would so use it be careful, let him never
+forget that that mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe and that can
+never be annulled or even for a moment set aside, will drive him to the
+wall, will crush him with a terrific force if he so use it.</p>
+
+<p>Let him never forget that whatever he may get for self at the expense of
+some one else, through deception, through misrepresentation, through the
+exercise of the lower functions and powers, will by a law equally
+subtle, equally powerful, be turned into ashes in his very hands. The
+honey he thinks he has secured will be turned into bitterness as he
+attempts to eat it; the beautiful fruit he thinks is his will be as
+wormwood as he tries to enjoy it; the rose he has plucked will vanish,
+and he will find himself clutching a handful of thorns, which will
+penetrate to the very quick and which will flow the very life-blood from
+his hands. For through the violation of a higher, an immutable law,
+though he may get this or that, the power of true enjoyment will be
+taken away, and what he gets will become as a thorn in his side: either
+this or it will sooner or later escape from his hands. God's
+triumphal-car moves in a direction and at a rate that is certain and
+absolute, and he who would oppose it or go contrary to it must fall and
+be crushed beneath its wheels; and for him this crushing is necessary,
+in order that it may bring him the more quickly to a knowledge of the
+higher laws, to a realization of the higher self.</p>
+
+<p>This brings to our notice two orders of will, which we may term, for
+convenience' sake, the human and the divine. The human will is the one
+just noticed, the sense will, the will of the lower self, that which
+seeks its own ends regardless of its connection with the greater whole.
+The divine will is the will of the higher self, the god-self, that that
+never makes an error, that never leads into difficulties. How attain to
+its realization? How call it into a dominating activity? Through an
+awakening to and a living in the higher, the god-self, thus making it
+one with God's will, one with the will of infinite intelligence,
+infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite power; and when this is done,
+no mistakes can be made, any more than limits can be set.</p>
+
+<p>It is thus that the Infinite Power works through and for us&mdash;true
+inspiration&mdash;while our part is simply to see that our connection with
+this power is consciously and perfectly kept. And, when we come to a
+knowledge of the true nature, a knowledge of the true self, when we come
+to a conscious realization of the fact that we are one with, a part of,
+this spirit of infinite life, infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite
+power, and infinite plenty, do we not see that we lack for nothing, that
+all things <i>are</i> ours? It is then ours to speak the word: desire induces
+and gives place to realization. If you are intelligence, if you are
+power, if you are that all-seeing, all-knowing, all-doing, all-loving,
+all-having, that eternal self, that eternal one without beginning and
+without end, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, then all things
+<i>are</i> yours, and you lack for nothing; and, when you come consciously to
+know and to live this truth, then the whole of life for you is summed up
+in the one word <i>realization</i>. The striving, the pulling, the running
+hither and thither to accomplish this or that, that takes place on all
+planes of life below this highest plane, gives place to this
+<i>realization</i>; and you and your desire become one.</p>
+
+<p>And what does this mean? Simply this: that you have found and have
+literally entered into the kingdom of heaven, and heaven means harmony,
+so that you have entered into the kingdom of harmony,&mdash;harmony or
+oneness with the Infinite Life, the Infinite God. And do we not, then,
+clearly see the rational and scientific basis for the injunction&mdash;seek
+ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall be
+added unto you? Than this there is nothing in all the wide universe more
+scientific, nothing more practical; and in the light of this can we not
+also see how readily follows the injunction&mdash;Take ye no thought for the
+things of the morrow, for the things of the morrow will take care of
+themselves? This realization gives you that care-less attitude, free
+from care. The Infinite Power does the work for you, and you are
+relieved of the responsibility. Your responsibility lies in keeping
+yourself in a faithful and a never-failing connection with this Infinite
+Source. Why, I know a few lives that have come into such a conscious
+oneness with the Infinite Life, and who so continually live in its
+realization, that all things that have just been said are <i>absolutely</i>
+true in their cases. The solution of all things they thus put into the
+law, so that, when the time comes, the difficulty is solved, the course
+is clear, the way is opened, or the means are at hand. When one knows
+whereof he speaks, of this he can speak with authority.</p>
+
+<p>When this realization comes, fear goes, hope attends, faith
+dominates,&mdash;the faith of to-day which gives place to the realization of
+to-morrow. We then have nothing to do with the past, nothing to do with
+the future; for the whole of life is determined by the ever-present
+to-day. As my life to-day has been determined by the way I lived my
+yesterday, so my to-morrow is being determined by the way I live my
+to-day. Let me then live in this <i>eternal now</i>, and realize that I am at
+this very moment living the eternal life as much as I ever shall or can
+live it. I will then waste no time with the past, except perhaps
+occasionally to give thanks that its then seeming trials, sorrows,
+errors, and stumblings have brought me all the sooner into harmony with
+the laws of the higher life. Let me waste no time with the future, no
+time in idle dreaming, neither in fears nor forebodings, thus inviting
+and opening the door for the entrance of their actualizations; but
+rather let me, by the thoughts and so by the deeds of to-day, make the
+future exactly what I will.</p>
+
+<p>Every act is preceded and given birth to by a thought, the act repeated
+forms the habit, the habit determines the character, and character
+determines the life, the destiny,&mdash;a most significant, a most tremendous
+truth: thought on the one hand, life, destiny, on the other. And how
+simplified, when we realize that it is merely the thought of the present
+hour, and the next when it comes, and the next, and the next! so life,
+destiny, on the one hand, the thoughts of the present hour, on the
+other. This is the secret of character-building. How wonderfully simple,
+though what vigilance it demands!</p>
+
+<p>What, shall we ask, is the place, what the value, of prayer? Prayer, as
+every act of devotion, brings us into an ever greater conscious harmony
+with the Infinite, the one pearl of great price; for it is this harmony
+which brings all other things. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, and
+thus is its own answer, as the sincere desire made active and
+accompanied by faith sooner or later gives place to realization; <i>for
+faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itself
+whatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects</i>. This
+is absolute, and the results will be absolute in exact proportion as
+this operation of the thought forces, as this faith is absolute, and
+relative in exact proportion as it is relative. The Master said, What
+things soever ye desire, when ye pray, <i>believe</i> that ye receive them
+and ye shall have them. Can any law be more clearly enunciated, can
+anything be more definite and more absolute than this? According to thy
+faith be it unto thee. Do we at times fail in obtaining the results we
+desire? The fault, the failure, lies not in the law but in ourselves.
+Regarded in its right and true light, than prayer there is nothing more
+scientific, nothing more valuable, nothing more effective.</p>
+
+<p>This conscious realization of oneness with the Infinite Life is of all
+things the one thing to be desired; for, when this oneness is realized
+and lived in, all other things follow in its train, there are no desires
+that shall not be realized, for God has planted in the human breast no
+desire without its corresponding means of realization. No harm can come
+nigh, nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to fear; for we shall
+thus attract only the good. And whatever changes time may bring,
+understanding the law, we shall always expect something better, and thus
+set into operation the forces that will attract that something,
+realizing that many times angels go out that arch-angels may enter in;
+and this is always true in the case of the life of this higher
+realization. And why should we have any fear whatever,&mdash;fear even for
+the nation, as is many times expressed? God is behind His world, in
+love and with infinite care and watchfulness working out his great and
+almighty plans; and whatever plans men may devise, He will when the time
+is ripe either frustrate and shatter, or aid and push through to their
+most perfect culmination,&mdash;frustrate and shatter if contrary to, aid and
+actualize if in harmony with His.</p>
+
+<p>It will readily be seen what a power the life that is fully awake, that
+fully grasps and uses the great forces of its own interior self, can be
+in the service of mankind. One with these forces highly spiritualized
+will not have to go here and there to do the greatest service for
+mankind. Such a one can sit in his cabin, in his tent, in his own home,
+or, as he goes here and there, he can continually send out influences of
+the most potent and powerful nature,&mdash;influences that will have their
+effect, that will do their work, and that will reach to the uttermost
+parts of the world. Than this there can be no more valuable, more vital
+service, nor one of a higher nature.</p>
+
+<p>These facts, the facts relating to the powers that come with the higher
+awakening, have been dealt with somewhat fully, to show that the matters
+along the lines of man's interior, intuitive, spiritual, thought, soul
+life, instead of being, as they are so many times regarded, merely
+indefinite, sentimental, or impractical, are, on the contrary,
+powerfully, omnipotently real, and are of all practical things in the
+world the most practical, and, in the truest and deepest sense, the only
+truly practical things there are. And pre-eminently is this true when we
+look with a long range of vision, past the mere to-day, to the final
+outcome, to the time when that transition we are accustomed to call
+death takes place, and all accumulations and possessions material are
+left behind, and the soul takes with it only the unfoldment and growth
+of the real life; and unless it has this, when all else must be left
+behind, it goes out poor indeed. And a most wonderful and beautiful fact
+of it all is this: that all growth, all advancement, all attainment made
+along the lines of the spiritual, the soul, the real life, is so much
+made forever, and can never be lost. Hence the great fact in the
+admonition, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
+doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for
+yourselves treasures in heaven,&mdash;the interior, spiritual kingdom,&mdash;where
+neither moth doth corrupt nor where thieves break through and steal.</p>
+
+<p>What then, again let us ask, is love to God? It is far more, we have
+found, than a mere sentimental abstraction. It is this awakening to the
+higher, the god-self, a coming into the conscious realization of the
+fact that your life is one with, is a part of, the Infinite Life, the
+full realization of the fact that you are a spiritual being here and
+now, at this very moment, and a living as such. It is being true to the
+light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and so a
+finding of the Christ within; a realization of the fact that God is the
+life of your life, and so not afar off; a realization of a oneness so
+perfect that you are able to say, as did His other son, &quot;I and my Father
+are one&quot;&mdash;the ultimate destiny of each human soul, each of the Father's
+children, for all, no matter what differences man may see, are equal in
+His sight; and He created not one in vain. So love to God in its true
+expression is not a mere sentimentality, a mere abstraction: it is life,
+it is growth, it is spiritual awakening and unfoldment, it is
+realization. Again, it is life: it is the more abundant life.</p>
+
+<p>Then recognize this fact, and so fill your life with an intense, a
+passionate love for God. Then take this life, so rich, so abundant, and
+so powerful, and lose it in the love and service of your fellow-men, the
+Father's other children. Fill it with an intense, a passionate love for
+service; and when this shall have been done, your life is in complete
+harmony with all the law and the prophets, in complete harmony with the
+two great and determining facts of human life and destiny,&mdash;love to God
+and love to one's fellow-men,&mdash;the two eternal principles upon which the
+great universal religion, which is slowly and gradually evolving out an
+almost endless variety and form, is to rest. Do this, and feel once for
+all the power and the thrill of the life universal. Do this, and find
+yourself coming into the full realization of such splendors and beauties
+as all the royal courts of this world combined have never been able even
+to dream of.</p>
+
+<p>When the step from the personal to the impersonal, from the personal,
+the individual, to the universal, is once made, the great solution of
+life has come; and by this same step one enters at once into the realm
+of all power. When this is done, and one fully realizes the fact that
+the greatest life is the life spent in the service of all mankind, and
+then when he vitally grasps that great eternal principle of right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe, and which, though
+temporarily it may seem to be perverted, always and with never an
+exception eventually prevails, and that with an omnipotent power,&mdash;he
+then holds the key to all situations.</p>
+
+<p>A king of this nature goes about his work absolutely regardless of what
+men may say or hear or think or do; for he himself has absolutely
+nothing to gain or nothing to lose, and nothing of this nature can come
+near him or touch him, for he is standing not in the personal, but in
+the universal. He is then in God's work, and the very God-powers are
+his, and it seems as if the very angels of heaven come to minister unto
+him and to move things his way; and this is true, very true, for he
+himself is simply moving God's way, and when this is so, the certainty
+of the outcome is absolute.</p>
+
+<p>How often did the Master say, &quot;I seek not to do mine own will, but the
+will of the Father who sent me&quot;! Here is the world's great example of
+the life out of the personal and in the universal, hence his great
+power. The same has been true of all the saviors, the prophets, the
+seers, the sages, and the leaders in the world's history, of all of
+truly great and lasting power.</p>
+
+<p>He who would then come into the secret of power must come from the
+personal into the universal, and with this comes not only great power,
+but also freedom from the vexations and perplexities that rise from the
+misconstruing of motives, the opinions of others; for such a one cares
+nothing as to what men may say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as he
+is true to the great principles of right and truth before him. And, if
+we will search carefully, we shall find that practically all the
+perplexities and difficulties of life have their origin on the side of
+the personal.</p>
+
+<p>Much is said to young men to-day about success in life,&mdash;success
+generally though, as the world calls success. It is well, however,
+always to bear in mind the fact that there is a success which is a
+miserable, a deplorable failure; while, on the other hand, there is a
+failure which is a grand, a noble, a God-like success. And one crying
+need of the age is that young men be taught the true dignity, nobility,
+and power of such a failure,&mdash;such a failure in the eyes of the world
+to-day, but such a success in the eyes of God and the coming ages. When
+this is done, there will be among us more prophets, more saviors, more
+men of grand and noble stature, who with a firm and steady hand will
+hold the lighted torch of true advancement high up among the people; and
+they will be those whom the people will gladly follow, for they will be
+those who will speak and move with authority, true sons of God, true
+brothers of men. A man may make his millions and his life be a failure
+still.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The promise was given that our conversation should not be extended; and
+unless we conclude it now, the promise will not be kept. Our aim at the
+outset, you will remember, was to find answer to the question&mdash;How can I
+make life yield its fullest and best? how can I know the true secret of
+power? how can I attain to true greatness? how can I fill the whole of
+life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satisfaction, that is ever rich
+and abiding, that ever increases, never diminishes?</p>
+
+<p>Two great laws come forward: the one, that we find our own lives in
+losing them in the service of others,&mdash;love to the fellow-man; the
+other, that all life is one with, is part of, the Infinite Life, that we
+are not material, but spiritual beings,&mdash;spiritual beings here and now,
+and a living as such, which brings us in turn to a realization of the
+higher, the god-self, thus bringing us into the realm of all peace, all
+power, and all plenty,&mdash;this is love to God.</p>
+
+<p>And I wonder now if we have found the answer true and satisfactory. We
+have sat at the feet of the Master Teacher, and he has told us that we
+have. We have found that through them, and through them alone, <i>true</i>
+greatness, power, and success can come; that through them comes the
+richest joy, the greatest peace and satisfaction this world can know. We
+have also found that, if one's desire is to make life narrow, pinched,
+and of little value, to rob it of its chief charms, the only requirement
+necessary is to become self-centred, to live continually with the
+little, stunted self, which will inevitably grow more and more
+diminutive and shrivelled as time passes, instead of reaching out and
+having a part in the great life of humanity, thus illimitably
+intensifying and multiplying his own. For each act of humble service is
+that divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the spring
+whereby he leaps to ever greater heights. We have found that a
+recognition of these two laws enables one to grow and develop the
+fullest and richest life here, and that they are the two gates whereby
+all who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Around this great and sweet-incensed altar of love, service, and
+self-devotion to God and the fellow-man, can and do all mankind bow and
+worship. To it can all religions and creeds subscribe: it is the
+universal religion.</p>
+
+<p>Then become at one with God, as did His other son, through the awakening
+to the real self and by living continually in this the higher, the
+god-self. Become at one with humanity, as did His other son, by bringing
+your life into harmony with this great, immutable law of love and
+service and self-devotion, and so feel once for all the power and the
+thrill of the life universal.</p>
+
+<p>Yours will then be a life the greatest, the grandest, the most joyous
+this world can know; for you will indeed be living the Christ-life, the
+life that is beyond compare, the life to which all the world stretches
+out its eager palms, and innumerable companies will rise up and call you
+blessed, and give thanks that such a life is the rich heritage of the
+world. The song continually arising from your lips will then be, There
+is joy, only joy; for we are all one with the Infinite Life, all parts
+of the one great whole, and the Spirit of Infinite Goodness and Love is
+ever ruling over all.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PART_VI" id="PART_VI" />PART VI.</h2>
+
+<h2>CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER</h2>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p><i>A thought,&mdash;good or evil,&mdash;an act, in time a habit,&mdash;so runs
+     life's law: what you live in your thought-world, that, sooner or
+     later, you will find objectified in your life.</i></p></div>
+
+
+<p>Unconsciously we are forming habits every moment of our lives. Some are
+habits of a desirable nature; some are those of a most undesirable
+nature. Some, though not so bad in themselves, are exceedingly bad in
+their cumulative effects, and cause us at times much loss, much pain and
+anguish, while their opposites would, on the contrary, bring us much
+peace and joy, as well as a continually increasing power.</p>
+
+<p>Have we it within our power to determine at all times what types of
+habits shall take form in our lives? In other words, is habit-forming,
+character-building, a matter of mere chance, or have we it within our
+own control? We have, entirely and absolutely. &quot;I will be what I will to
+be,&quot; can be said and should be said by every human soul.</p>
+
+<p>After this has been bravely and determinedly said, and not only said,
+but fully inwardly realized, something yet remains. Something remains
+to be said regarding the great law underlying habit-forming,
+character-building; for there is a simple, natural, and thoroughly
+scientific method that all should know. A method whereby old,
+undesirable, earth-binding habits can be broken, and new, desirable,
+heaven-lifting habits can be acquired,&mdash;a method whereby life in part or
+in its totality can be changed, provided one is sufficiently in earnest
+to know, and, knowing it, to apply the law.</p>
+
+<p>Thought is the force underlying all. And what do we mean by this? Simply
+this: Your every act&mdash;every conscious act&mdash;is preceded by a thought.
+Your dominating thoughts determine your dominating actions. The acts
+repeated crystallize themselves into the habit. The aggregate of your
+habits is your character. Whatever, then, you would have your acts, you
+must look well to the character of the thought you entertain. Whatever
+act you would not do,&mdash;habit you would not acquire,&mdash;you must look well
+to it that you do not entertain the type of thought that will give birth
+to this act, this habit.</p>
+
+<p>It is a simple psychological law that any type of thought, if
+entertained for a sufficient length of time, will, by and by, reach the
+motor tracks of the brain, and finally burst forth into action. Murder
+can be and many times is committed in this way, the same as all
+undesirable things are done. On the other hand, the greatest powers are
+grown, the most God-like characteristics are engendered, the most heroic
+acts are performed in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>The thing clearly to understand is this: That the thought is always
+parent to the act. Now, we have it entirely in our own hands to
+determine exactly what thoughts we entertain. In the realm of our own
+minds we have absolute control, or we should have, and if at any time we
+have not, then there is a method by which we can gain control, and in
+the realm of the mind become thorough masters. In order to get to the
+very foundation of the matter, let us look to this for a moment. For if
+thought is always parent to our acts, habits, character, life, then it
+is first necessary that we know fully how to control our thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>Here let us refer to that law of the mind which is the same as is the
+law in connection with the reflex nerve system of the body, the law
+which says that whenever one does a certain thing in a certain way it is
+easier to do the same thing in the same way the next time, and still
+easier the next, and the next, and the next, until in time it comes to
+pass that no effort is required, or no effort worth speaking of; but on
+the contrary, to do the opposite would require the effort. The mind
+carries with it the power that perpetuates its own type of thought, the
+same as the body carries with it through the reflex nerve system the
+power which perpetuates and makes continually easier its own particular
+acts. Thus a simple effort to control one's thoughts, a simple setting
+about it, even if at first failure is the result, and even if for a time
+failure seems to be about the only result, will in time, sooner or
+later, bring him to the point of easy, full, and complete control.</p>
+
+<p>Each one, then, can grow the power of determining, controlling his
+thought, the power of determining what types of thought he shall and
+what types he shall not entertain. For let us never part in mind with
+this fact, that every earnest <i>effort</i> along any line makes the end
+aimed at just a little easier for each succeeding effort, even if, as
+has been said, apparent failure is the result of the earlier efforts.
+This is a case where even failure is success, for the failure is not in
+the effort, and every earnest effort adds an increment of power that
+will eventually accomplish the end aimed at. We <i>can</i>, then, gain the
+full and complete power of determining what character, what type of
+thoughts we entertain.</p>
+
+<p>Shall we now give attention to some two or three concrete cases? Here
+is a man, the cashier of a large mercantile establishment, or cashier of
+a bank. In his morning paper he reads of a man who has become suddenly
+rich, has made a fortune of half a million or a million dollars in a few
+hours through speculation on the stock market. Perhaps he has seen an
+account of another man who has done practically the same thing lately.
+He is not quite wise enough, however, to comprehend the fact that when
+he reads of one or two cases of this kind he could find, were he to look
+into the matter carefully, one or two hundred cases of men who have lost
+all they had in the same way. He thinks, however, that he will be one of
+the fortunate ones. He does not fully realize that there are no short
+cuts to wealth honestly made. He takes a part of his savings, and as is
+true in practically all cases of this kind, he loses all that he has put
+in. Thinking now that he sees why he lost, and that had he more money he
+would be able to get back what he has lost, and perhaps make a handsome
+sum in addition, and make it quickly, the thought comes to him to use
+some of the funds he has charge of. In nine cases out of ten, if not in
+ten cases in every ten, the results that inevitably follow this are
+known sufficiently well to make it unnecessary to follow him farther.
+Where is the man's safety in the light of what we have been considering?
+Simply this: the moment the thought of using for his own purpose funds
+belonging to others enters his mind, if he is wise he will <i>instantly</i>
+put the thought from his mind. If he is a fool he will entertain it. In
+the degree in which he entertains it, it will grow upon him; it will
+become the absorbing thought in his mind; it will finally become master
+of his will power, and through rapidly succeeding steps, dishonor,
+shame, degradation, penitentiary, remorse will be his. It is easy for
+him to put the thought from his mind when it first enters; but as he
+entertains it, it grows into such proportions that it becomes more and
+more difficult for him to put it from his mind; and by and by it becomes
+practically <i>impossible</i> for him to do it. The light of the match, which
+but a little effort of the breath would have extinguished at first, has
+imparted a flame that is raging through the entire building, and now it
+is almost, if not quite impossible to conquer it.</p>
+
+<p>Shall we notice another concrete case? a trite case, perhaps, but one in
+which we can see how habit is formed, and also how the same habit can be
+unformed. Here is a young man, he may be the son of poor parents, or he
+may be the son of rich parents; one in the ordinary ranks of life, or
+one of high social standing, whatever that means. He is good-hearted,
+one of good impulses, generally speaking,&mdash;a good fellow. He is out with
+some companions, companions of the same general type. They are out for a
+pleasant evening, out for a good time. They are apt at times to be
+thoughtless, even careless. The suggestion is made by one of the
+company, not that they get drunk, no, not at all; but merely that they
+go and have something to drink together. The young man whom we first
+mentioned, wanting to be genial, scarcely listens to the suggestion that
+comes to his inner consciousness&mdash;that it will be better for him not to
+fall in with the others in this. He does not stop long enough to realize
+the fact that the greatest strength and nobility of character lies
+always in taking a firm stand on the side of the right, and allow
+himself to be influenced by nothing that will weaken this stand. He
+goes, therefore, with his companions to the drinking place. With the
+same or with other companions this is repeated now and then; and each
+time it is repeated his power of saying &quot;No&quot; is gradually decreasing. In
+this way he has grown a little liking for intoxicants, and takes them
+perhaps now and then by himself. He does not dream, or in the slightest
+degree realize, what way he is tending, until there comes a day when he
+wakens to the consciousness of the fact that he hasn't the power nor
+even the impulse to resist the taste which has gradually grown into a
+minor form of craving for intoxicants. Thinking, however, that he will
+be able to stop when he is really in danger of getting into the drink
+habit, he goes thoughtlessly and carelessly on. We will pass over the
+various intervening steps and come to the time when we find him a
+confirmed drunkard. It is simply the same old story told a thousand or
+even a million times over.</p>
+
+<p>He finally awakens to his true condition; and through the shame, the
+anguish, the degradation, and the want that comes upon him he longs for
+a return of the days when he was a free man. But hope has almost gone
+from his life. It would have been easier for him never to have begun,
+and easier for him to have stopped before he reached his present
+condition, but even in his present condition, be it the lowest and the
+most helpless and hopeless that can be imagined, he has the power to get
+out of it and be a free man once again. Let us see. The desire for drink
+comes upon him again. If he entertain the thought, the desire, he is
+lost again. His only hope, his only means of escape is this: the moment,
+aye, <i>the very instant</i> the thought comes to him, if he will put it out
+of his mind he will thereby put out the little flame of the match. If he
+entertain the thought the little flame will communicate itself until
+almost before he is aware of it a consuming fire is raging, and then
+effort is almost useless. The thought must be banished from the mind the
+instant it enters; dalliance with it means failure and defeat, or a
+fight that will be indescribably fiercer than it would be if the thought
+is ejected at the beginning.</p>
+
+<p>And here we must say a word regarding a certain great law that we may
+call the &quot;law of indirectness.&quot; A thought can be put out of the mind
+easier and more successfully, not by dwelling upon it, not by attempting
+to put it out <i>directly</i>, but by throwing the mind on to some other
+object, by putting some other object of thought into the mind. This may
+be, for example, the ideal of full and perfect self-mastery, or it may
+be something of a nature entirely distinct from the thought which
+presents itself, something to which the mind goes easily and naturally.
+This will in time become the absorbing thought in the mind, and the
+danger is past. This same course of action repeated, will gradually
+grow the power of putting more readily out of mind the thought of drink
+as it presents itself, and will gradually grow the power of putting into
+the mind those objects of thought one most desires. The result will be
+that as time passes the thought of drink will present itself less and
+less, and when it does present itself it can be put out of the mind more
+easily each succeeding time, until the time comes when it can be put out
+without difficulty, and eventually the time will come when the thought
+will enter the mind no more at all.</p>
+
+<p>Still another case. You may be more or less of an irritable
+nature&mdash;naturally, perhaps, provoked easily to anger. Some one says
+something or does something that you dislike, and your first impulse is
+to show resentment and possibly to give way to anger. In the degree that
+you allow this resentment to display itself, that you allow yourself to
+give way to anger, in that degree will it become easier to do the same
+thing when any cause, even a very slight cause, presents itself. It
+will, moreover, become continually harder for you to refrain from it,
+until resentment, anger, and possibly even hatred and revenge become
+characteristics of your nature, robbing it of its sunniness, its charm,
+and its brightness for all with whom you come in contact. If, however,
+the instant the impulse to resentment and anger arises, you check it
+<i>then and there</i>, and throw the mind on to some other object of thought,
+the power will gradually grow itself of doing this same thing more
+readily, more easily, as succeeding like causes present themselves,
+until by and by the time will come when there will be scarcely anything
+that can irritate you, and nothing that can impel you to anger; until by
+and by a matchless brightness and charm of nature and disposition will
+become habitually yours, a brightness and charm you would scarcely think
+possible to-day. And so we might take up case after case, characteristic
+after characteristic, habit after habit. The habit of fault-finding and
+its opposite are grown in identically the same way; the characteristic
+of jealousy and its opposite; the characteristic of fear and its
+opposite. In this same way we grow either love or hatred; in this way we
+come to take a gloomy, pessimistic view of life, which objectifies
+itself in a nature, a disposition of this type, or we grow that sunny,
+hopeful, cheerful, buoyant nature that brings with it so much joy and
+beauty and power for ourselves, as well as so much hope and inspiration
+and joy for all the world.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing more true in connection with human life than that we
+grow into the likeness of those things we contemplate. Literally and
+scientifically and necessarily true is it that, &quot;as a man thinketh in
+his heart, so <i>is</i> he.&quot; The &quot;is&quot; part is his character. His character is
+the sum total of his habits. His habits have been formed by his
+conscious acts; but every conscious act is, as we have found, preceded
+by a thought. And so we have it&mdash;thought on the one hand, character,
+life, destiny on the other. And simple it becomes when we bear in mind
+that it is simply the thought of the present moment, and the next moment
+when it is upon us, and then the next, and so on through all time.</p>
+
+<p>One can in this way attain to whatever ideals he would attain to. Two
+steps are necessary: first, as the days pass, to form one's ideals; and
+second, to follow them continually whatever may arise, wherever they may
+lead him. Always remember that the great and strong character is the one
+who is ever ready to sacrifice the present pleasure for the future good.
+He who will thus follow his highest ideals as they present themselves to
+him day after day, year after year, will find that as Dante, following
+his beloved from world to world, finally found her at the gates of
+Paradise, so he will find himself eventually at the same gates. Life is
+not, we may say, for mere passing pleasure, but for the highest
+unfoldment that one can attain to, the noblest character that one can
+grow, and for the greatest service that one can render to all mankind.
+In this, however, we will find the highest pleasure, for in this the
+only real pleasure lies. He who would find it by any short cuts, or by
+entering upon any other paths, will inevitably find that his last state
+is always worse than his first; and if he proceed upon paths other than
+these he will find that he will never find real and lasting pleasure at
+all. The question is not, What are the conditions in our lives? but, How
+do we meet the conditions that we find there? And whatever the
+conditions are, it is unwise and profitless to look upon them, even if
+they are conditions that we would have otherwise, in the attitude of
+complaint, for complaint will bring depression, and depression will
+weaken and possibly even kill the spirit that would engender the power
+that would enable us to bring into our lives an entirely new set of
+conditions.</p>
+
+<p>In order to be concrete, even at the risk of being personal, I will say
+that in my own experience there have come at various times into my life
+circumstances and conditions that I gladly would have run from at the
+time&mdash;conditions that caused at the time humiliation and shame and
+anguish of spirit. But invariably, as sufficient time has passed, I have
+been able to look back and see clearly the part which every experience
+of the type just mentioned had to play in my life. I have seen the
+lessons it was essential for me to learn; and the result is that now I
+would not drop a single one of these experiences from my life,
+humiliating and hard to bear as they were at the time; no, not for the
+world. And here is also a lesson I have learned: whatever conditions are
+in my life to-day that are not the easiest and most agreeable, and
+whatever conditions of this type all coming time may bring, I will take
+them just as they come, without complaint, without depression, and meet
+them in the wisest possible way; knowing that they are the best possible
+conditions that could be in my life at the time, or otherwise they would
+not be there; realizing the fact that, although I may not at the time
+see why they are in my life, although I may not see just what part they
+have to play, the time will come, and when it comes I will see it all,
+and thank God for every condition just as it came.</p>
+
+<p>Each one is so apt to think that his own conditions, his own trials or
+troubles or sorrows, or his own struggles, as the case may be, are
+greater than those of the great mass of mankind, or possibly greater
+than those of anyone else in the world. He forgets that each one has his
+own peculiar trials or troubles or borrows to bear, or struggles in
+habits to overcome, and that his is but the common lot of all the human
+race. We are apt to make the mistake in this&mdash;in that we see and feel
+keenly our own trials, or adverse conditions, or characteristics to be
+overcome, while those of others we do not see so clearly, and hence we
+are apt to think that they are not at all equal to our own. Each has his
+own problems to work out. Each must work out his own problems. Each must
+grow the insight that will enable him to see what the causes are that
+have brought the unfavorable conditions into his life; each must grow
+the strength that will enable him to face these conditions, and to set
+into operation forces that will bring about a different set of
+conditions. We may be of aid to one another by way of suggestion, by way
+of bringing to one another a knowledge of certain higher laws and
+forces,&mdash;laws and forces that will make it easier to do that which we
+would do. The doing, however, must be done by each one for himself.</p>
+
+<p>And so the way to get out of any conditions we have gotten into, either
+knowingly or inadvertently, either intentionally or unintentionally, is
+to take time to look the conditions squarely in the face, and to find
+the law whereby they have come about. And when we have discovered the
+law, the thing to do is not to rebel against it, not to resist it, but
+to go with it by working in harmony with it. If we work in harmony with
+it, it will work for our highest good, and will take us wheresoever we
+desire. If we oppose it, if we resist it, if we fail to work in harmony
+with it, it will eventually break us to pieces. The law is immutable in
+its workings. Go with it, and it brings all things our way; resist it,
+and it brings suffering, pain, loss, and desolation.</p>
+
+<p>But a few days ago I was talking with a lady, a most estimable lady
+living on a little New England farm of some five or six acres. Her
+husband died a few years ago, a good-hearted, industrious man, but one
+who spent practically all of his earnings in drink. When he died the
+little farm was unpaid for, and the wife found herself without any
+visible means of support, with a family of several to care for. Instead
+of being discouraged with what many would have called her hard lot,
+instead of rebelling against the circumstances in which she found
+herself, she faced the matter bravely, firmly believing that there were
+ways by which she could manage, though she could not see them clearly at
+the time. She took up her burden where she found it, and went bravely
+forward. For several years she has been taking care of summer boarders
+who come to that part of the country, getting up regularly, she told me,
+at from half-past three to four o'clock in the morning, and working
+until ten o'clock each night. In the winter-time, when this means of
+revenue is cut off, she has gone out to do nursing in the country round
+about. In this way the little farm is now almost paid for; her children
+have been kept in school, and they are now able to aid her to a greater
+or less extent. Through it all she has entertained no fears nor
+forebodings; she has shown no rebellion of any kind. She has not kicked
+against the circumstances which brought about the conditions in which
+she found herself, but she has put herself into harmony with the law
+that would bring her into another set of conditions. And through it all,
+she told me, she had been continually grateful that she has been able to
+work, and that whatever her own circumstances have been, she has never
+yet failed to find some one whose circumstances were still a little
+worse than hers, and for whom it was not possible for her to render some
+little service.</p>
+
+<p>Most heartily she appreciates the fact, and most grateful is she for it,
+that the little home is now almost paid for, and soon no more of her
+earnings will have to go out in that channel. The dear little home, she
+said, would be all the more precious to her by virtue of the fact that
+it was finally hers through her own efforts. The strength and nobility
+of character that have come to her during these years, the sweetness of
+disposition, the sympathy and care for others, her faith in the final
+triumph of all that is honest and true and pure and good, are qualities
+that thousands and hundreds of thousands of women, yes, of both men and
+women, who are apparently in better circumstances in life can justly
+envy. And should the little farm home be taken away to-morrow, she has
+gained something that a farm of a thousand acres could not buy. By going
+about her work in the way she has gone about it the burden of it all has
+been lightened, and her work has been made truly enjoyable.</p>
+
+<p>Let us take a moment to see how these same conditions would have been
+met by a person of less wisdom, one not so far-sighted as this dear,
+good woman has been. For a time possibly her spirit would have been
+crushed. Fears and forebodings of all kinds would probably have taken
+hold of her, and she would have felt that nothing that she could do
+would be of any avail. Or, she might have rebelled against the agencies,
+against the law which brought about the conditions in which she found
+herself, and she might have become embittered against the world, and
+gradually also against the various people with whom she came in contact.
+Or again, she might have thought that her efforts would be unable to
+meet the circumstances, and that it was the duty of some one to lift her
+out of her difficulties. In this way no progress at all would have been
+made towards the accomplishment of the desired results, and continually
+she would have felt more keenly the circumstances in which she found
+herself, because there was nothing else to occupy her mind. In this way
+the little farm would not have become hers, she would not have been able
+to do anything for others, and her nature would have become embittered
+against everything and everybody.</p>
+
+<p>True it is, then, not, What are the conditions in one's life? but, How
+does he meet the conditions that he finds there? This will determine
+all. And if at any time we are apt to think that our own lot is about
+the hardest there is, and if we are able at any time to persuade
+ourselves that we can find no one whose lot is just a little harder than
+ours, let us then study for a little while the character Pompilia, in
+Browning's poem,<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4" /><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> and after studying it, thank God that the conditions
+in our life are so favorable; and then set about with a trusting and
+intrepid spirit to actualize the conditions that we most desire.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of all
+success or failure, of all that is desirable or undesirable in human
+life. The type of thought we entertain both creates and draws conditions
+that crystallize about it, conditions exactly the same in nature as is
+the thought that gives them form. Thoughts are forces, and each creates
+of its kind, whether we realize it or not. The great law of the drawing
+power of the mind, which says that like creates like, and that like
+attracts like, is continually working in every human life, for it is one
+of the great immutable laws of the universe. For one to take time to see
+clearly the things he would attain to, and then to hold that ideal
+steadily and continually before his mind, never allowing faith&mdash;his
+positive thought-forces&mdash;to give way to or to be neutralized by doubts
+and fears, and then to set about doing each day what his hands find to
+do, never complaining, but spending the time that he would otherwise
+spend in complaint in focusing his thought-forces upon the ideal that
+his mind has built, will sooner or later bring about the full
+materialization of that for which he sets out.</p>
+
+<p>There are those who, when they begin to grasp the fact that there is
+what we may term a &quot;science of thought,&quot; who, when they begin to realize
+that through the instrumentality of our interior, spiritual
+thought-forces we have the power of gradually moulding the every-day
+conditions of life as we would have them, in their early enthusiasm are
+not able to see results as quickly as they expect, and are apt to think,
+therefore, that after all there is not very much in that which has but
+newly come to their knowledge. They must remember, however, that in
+endeavoring to overcome an old or to grow a new habit, everything cannot
+be done <i>all at once</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In the degree that we attempt to use the thought-forces do we
+continually become able to use them more effectively. Progress is slow
+at first, more rapid as we proceed. Power grows by using, or, in other
+words, using brings a continually increasing power. This is governed by
+law the same as are all things in our lives, and all things in the
+universe about us. Every act and advancement made by the musician is in
+full accordance with law. No one commencing the study of music can, for
+example, sit down to the piano and play the piece of a master at the
+first effort. He must not conclude, however, nor does he conclude, that
+the piece of the master <i>cannot be</i> played by him, or, for that matter,
+by any one. He begins to practise the piece. The law of the mind that we
+have already noticed comes to his aid, whereby his mind follows the
+music more readily, more rapidly, and more surely each succeeding time,
+and there also comes into operation and to his aid the law underlying
+the action of the reflex nerve system of the body, which we have also
+noticed, whereby his fingers coordinate their movements with the
+movements of his mind, more readily, more rapidly, and more accurately
+each succeeding time; until by and by the time comes when that which he
+stumbles through at first, that in which there is no harmony, nothing
+but discord, finally reveals itself as the music of the master, the
+music that thrills and moves masses of men and women. So it is in the
+use of the thought-forces. It is the reiteration, the constant
+reiteration of the thought that grows the power of continually stronger
+thought-focusing, and that finally brings manifestation.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>All life is from within out. This is something that cannot be reiterated
+too often. The springs of life are all from within. This being true, it
+would be well for us to give more time to the inner life than we are
+accustomed to give to it, especially in this Western world.</p>
+
+<p>There is nothing that will bring us such abundant returns as to take a
+little time in the quiet each day of our lives. We need this to get the
+kinks out of our minds and hence out of our lives. We need this to form
+better the higher ideals of life. We need this in order to see clearly
+in mind the things upon which we would concentrate and focus the
+thought-forces. We need this in order to make continually anew and to
+keep our conscious connection with the Infinite. We need this in order
+that the rush and hurry of our every-day life does not keep us away from
+the conscious realization of the fact that the spirit of Infinite life
+and power that is back of all, working in and through all, the life of
+all, is the life of our life, and the source of our power; and that
+outside of this we have no life and we have no power. To realize this
+fact fully, and to live in it consciously at all times, is to find the
+kingdom of God, which is essentially an inner kingdom, and can never be
+anything else. The kingdom of heaven is to be found only within, and
+this is done once for all, and in a manner in which it cannot otherwise
+be done, when we come into the conscious, living realization of the fact
+that in our real selves we are essentially one with the Divine life, and
+open ourselves continually so that this Divine life can speak to and
+manifest through us. In this way we come into the condition where we are
+continually walking with God. In this way the consciousness of God
+becomes a living reality in our lives; and in the degree in which it
+becomes a reality does it bring us into the realization of continually
+increasing wisdom, insight, and power. <i>This consciousness of God in the
+soul of man is the essence, indeed the sum and substance of all
+religion.</i> This identifies religion with every act and every moment of
+every-day life. That which does not identify itself with every moment of
+every day and with every act of life is religion in name only and not in
+reality. This consciousness of God in the soul of man is the one thing
+uniformly taught by all the prophets, by all the inspired ones, by all
+the seers and mystics in the world's history, whatever the time,
+wherever the country, whatever the religion, whatever minor differences
+we may find in their lives and teachings. In regard to this they all
+agree; indeed, this is the essence of their teaching, as it has also
+been the secret of their power and the secret of their lasting
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>It is the attitude of the child that is necessary before we can enter
+into the kingdom of heaven. As it was said, &quot;Except ye become as little
+children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.&quot; For we then
+realize that of ourselves we can do nothing, but that it is only as we
+realize that it is the Divine life and power working within us, and it
+is only as we open ourselves that it may work through us, that we are or
+can do anything. It is thus that the simple life, which is essentially
+the life of the greatest enjoyment and the greatest attainment, is
+entered upon.</p>
+
+<p>In the Orient the people as a class take far more time in the quiet, in
+the silence, than we take. Some of them carry this possibly to as great
+an extreme as we carry the opposite, with the result that they do not
+actualize and objectify in the outer life the things they dream in the
+inner life. We give so much time to the activities of the outer life
+that we do not take sufficient time in the quiet to form in the inner,
+spiritual thought-life the ideals and the conditions that we would have
+actualized and manifested in the outer life. The result is that we take
+life in a kind of haphazard way, taking it as it comes, thinking not
+very much about it until, perhaps, pushed by some bitter experiences,
+instead of moulding it, through the agency of the inner forces, exactly
+as we would have it. We need to strike the happy balance between the
+custom in this respect of the Eastern and Western worlds, and go to the
+extreme of neither the one nor the other. This alone will give the ideal
+life; and it is the ideal life only that is the thoroughly satisfactory
+life. In the Orient there are many who are day after day sitting in the
+quiet, meditating, contemplating, idealizing, with their eyes focused on
+their stomach in spiritual revery, while through lack of outer
+activities, in their stomachs they are actually starving. In this
+Western world, men and women, in the rush and activity of our accustomed
+life, are running hither and thither, with no centre, no foundation upon
+which to stand, nothing to which they can anchor their lives, because
+they do not take sufficient time to come into the realization of what
+the centre, of what the reality of their lives is.</p>
+
+<p>If the Oriental would do his contemplating, and then get up and do his
+work, he would be in a better condition; he would be living a more
+normal and satisfactory life. If we in the Occident would take more time
+from the rush and activity of life for contemplation, for meditation,
+for idealization, for becoming acquainted with our real selves, and then
+go about our work manifesting the powers of our real selves, we would be
+far better off, because we would be living a more natural, a more normal
+life. To find one's centre, to become centred in the Infinite, is the
+first great essential of every satisfactory life; and then to go out,
+thinking, speaking, working, loving, living, from this centre.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>In the highest character-building, such as we have been considering,
+there are those who feel they are handicapped by what we term
+<i>heredity</i>. In a sense they are right; in another sense they are totally
+wrong. It is along the same lines as the thought which many before us
+had inculcated in them through the couplet in the New England Primer:
+&quot;In Adam's fall, we sinned all.&quot; Now, in the first place, it is rather
+hard to understand the justice of this if it is true. In the second
+place, it is rather hard to understand why it is true. And in the third
+place there is no truth in it at all. We are now dealing with the real,
+essential self, and, however old Adam is, God is eternal. This means
+you; it means me; it means every human soul. When we fully realize this
+fact we see that heredity is a reed that is easily broken. The life of
+every one is in his own hands and he can make it in character, in
+attainment, in power, in divine self-realization, and hence in
+influence, exactly what he wills to make it. All things that he most
+fondly dreams of are his, or may become so if he is truly in earnest;
+and as he rises more and more to his ideal, and grows in the strength
+and influence of his character, he becomes an example and an inspiration
+to all with whom he comes in contact; so that through him the weak and
+faltering are encouraged and strengthened; so that those of low ideals
+and of a low type of life instinctively and inevitably have their ideals
+raised, and the ideals of no one can be raised without its showing forth
+in his outer life. As he advances in his grasp upon and understanding of
+the power and potency of the thought-forces, he finds that many times
+through the process of mental suggestion he can be of tremendous aid to
+one who is weak and struggling, by sending to him now and then, and by
+continually holding him in the highest thought, in the thought of the
+highest strength, wisdom, and love.</p>
+
+<p>The one who takes sufficient time in the quiet mentally to form his
+ideals, sufficient time to make and to keep continually his conscious
+connection with the Infinite, with the Divine life and forces, is the
+one who is best adapted to the strenuous life. He it is who can go out
+and deal with sagacity and power with whatever issues may arise in the
+affairs of every-day life. He it is who is building not for the years,
+but for the centuries; not for time, but for the eternities. And he can
+go out knowing not whither he goes, knowing that the Divine life within
+him will never fail him, but will lead him on until he beholds the
+Father face to face.</p>
+
+<p>He is building for the centuries because only that which is the highest,
+the truest, the noblest, and best will abide the test of the centuries.
+He is building for eternity because when the transition we call death
+takes place, life, character, self-mastery, divine
+self-realization,&mdash;the only things that the soul when stripped of
+everything else takes with it,&mdash;he has in abundance. In life, or when
+the time of the transition to another form of life comes, he is never
+afraid, never fearful, because he knows and realizes that behind him,
+within him, beyond him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and in this he
+is eternally centred, and from it he can never be separated. With
+Whittier he sings:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;I know not where His islands lift<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Their fronded palms in air;<br /></span>
+<span>I only know I cannot drift<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Beyond His love and care.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4" /><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> &quot;The Ring and the Book,&quot; by Robert Browning.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, What All The World's A-Seeking, by Ralph
+Waldo Trine
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: What All The World's A-Seeking
+
+Author: Ralph Waldo Trine
+
+Release Date: December 9, 2004  [eBook #14312]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Rose Koven, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING
+
+Or, The Vital Law of True Life, True Greatness Power and Happiness
+
+by
+
+RALPH WALDO TRINE
+
+New York
+Dodge Publishing Company
+220 East Twenty-Third Street
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+There are two reasons the author has for putting forth this little
+volume: he feels that the time is, as it always has been, ripe for it;
+and second, his soul has ever longed to express itself upon this endless
+theme. It therefore comes from the heart--the basis of his belief that
+it will reach the heart.
+
+R.W.T.
+Boston, Massachusetts
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
+
+
+It is impossible for one in a single volume, or perhaps in a number of
+volumes, to reach the exact needs of every reader.
+
+It is always a source of gratitude, as well as of inspiration for better
+and more earnest work in the future, for one to know that the truths
+that have been and that are so valuable and so vital to him he has
+succeeded in presenting in a manner such that they prove likewise of
+value to others. The author is most grateful for the good, kind words
+that have come so generously from so many hundreds of readers of this
+simple little volume from all parts of the world. He is also grateful to
+that large company of people who have been so good as to put the book
+into the hands of so many others.
+
+And as the days have passed, he has not been unmindful of the fact that
+he might make it, when the time came, of still greater value to many.
+In addition to a general revision of the book, some four or five
+questions that seemed to be most frequently asked he has endeavored to
+point answer to in an added part of some thirty pages, under the general
+title, "Character-building Thought Power." The volume enters therefore
+upon its fifteenth thousand better able, possibly, to come a little more
+directly in touch with the every-day needs of those who will be
+sufficiently interested to read it.
+
+R.W.T.
+Sunnybrae Farm
+Croton-on-the-Hudson
+New York
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PART I.   THE PRINCIPLE
+
+PART II.  THE APPLICATION
+
+PART III. THE UNFOLDMENT
+
+PART IV.  THE AWAKENING
+
+PART V.   THE INCOMING
+
+PART VI.  CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER
+
+
+
+
+WHAT ALL THE WORLD'S A-SEEKING.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+THE PRINCIPLE
+
+
+    Would you find that wonderful life supernal,
+      That life so abounding, so rich, and so free?
+    Seek then the laws of the Spirit Eternal,
+      With them bring your life into harmony.
+
+
+How can I make life yield its fullest and best? How can I know the true
+secret of power? How can I attain to a true and lasting greatness? How
+can I fill the whole of life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a
+satisfaction that is ever rich and abiding, that ever increases, never
+diminishes, that imparts to it a sparkle that never loses its lustre,
+that ever fascinates, never wearies?
+
+No questions, perhaps, in this form or in that have been asked oftener
+than these. Millions in the past have asked them. Millions are asking
+them to-day. They will be asked by millions yet unborn. Is there an
+answer, a true and safe one for the millions who are eagerly and
+longingly seeking for it in all parts of the world to-day, and for the
+millions yet unborn who will as eagerly strive to find it as the years
+come and go? Are you interested, my dear reader, in the answer? The fact
+that you have read even thus far in this little volume whose title has
+led you to take it up, indicates that you are,--that you are but one of
+the innumerable company already mentioned.
+
+It is but another way of asking that great question that has come
+through all the ages--What is the _summum bonum_ in life? and there have
+been countless numbers who gladly would have given all they possessed to
+have had the true and satisfactory answer. Can we then find this answer,
+true and satisfactory to ourselves, surely the brief time spent together
+must be counted as the most precious and valuable of life itself. _There
+is an answer_: follow closely, and that our findings may be the more
+conclusive, take issue with me at every step if you choose, but tell me
+finally if it is not true and satisfactory.
+
+There is one great, one simple principle, which, if firmly laid hold of,
+and if made the great central principle in one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, will make that life
+a grand success, truly great and genuinely happy, loved and blessed by
+all in just the degree in which it is laid hold upon,--a principle
+which, if universally made thus, would wonderfully change this old world
+in which we live,--ay, that would transform it almost in a night, and it
+is for its coming that the world has long been waiting; that in place of
+the gloom and despair in almost countless numbers of lives would bring
+light and hope and contentment, and no longer would it be said as so
+truly to-day, that "man's inhumanity to man, makes countless thousands
+mourn"; that would bring to the life of the fashionable society woman,
+now spending her days and her nights in seeking for nothing but her own
+pleasure, such a flood of true and genuine pleasure and happiness and
+satisfaction as would make the poor, weak something she calls by this
+name so pale before it, that she would quickly see that she hasn't known
+what true pleasure is, and that what she has been mistaking for the
+real, the genuine, is but as a baser metal compared to the purest of
+gold, as a bit of cut glass compared to the rarest of diamonds, and that
+would make this same woman who scarcely deigns to notice the poor woman
+who washes her front steps, but who, were the facts known, may be
+living a much grander life, and consequently of much more value to the
+world than she herself, see that this poor woman is after all her
+sister, because child of the same Father; and that would make the humble
+life of this same poor woman beautiful and happy and sweet in its
+humility; that would give us a nation of statesmen in place of, with now
+and then an exception, a nation of politicians, each one bent upon his
+own personal aggrandizement at the expense of the general good; that
+would go far, ay, very far toward solving our great and hard-pressing
+social problems with which we are already face to face; that, in short,
+would make each man a prince among men, and each woman a queen among
+women.
+
+I have seen the supreme happiness in lives where this principle has been
+caught and laid hold of, some, lives that seemed not to have much in
+them before, but which under its wonderful influences have been so
+transformed and so beautified, that have been made so sweet and so
+strong, so useful and so precious, that each day seems to them all too
+short, the same time that before, when they could scarcely see what was
+in life to make it worth the living, dragged wearily along. So there
+are countless numbers of people in the world with lives that seem not to
+have much in them, among the wealthy classes and among the poorer, who
+might under the influence of this great, this simple principle, make
+them so precious, so rich, and so happy that time would seem only too
+short, and they would wonder why they have been so long running on the
+wrong track, for it is true that much the larger portion of the world
+to-day is on the wrong track in the pursuit of happiness; but almost all
+are there, let it be said, not through choice, but by reason of not
+knowing the right, the true one.
+
+The fact that really great, true, and happy lives have been lived in the
+past and are being lived to-day gives us our starting-point. Time and
+again I have examined such lives in a most careful endeavor to find what
+has made them so, and have found that in _each and every_ individual
+case this that we have now come to has been the great central principle
+upon which they have been built. I have also found that in numbers of
+lives where it has not been, but where almost every effort apart from it
+has been made to make them great, true, and happy, they have not been
+so; and also that no life built upon it in sufficient degree, other
+things being equal, has failed in being thus.
+
+Let us then to the answer, examine it closely, see if it will stand
+every test, if it is the true one, and if so, rejoice that we have found
+it, lay hold of it, build upon it, tell others of it. The last four
+words have already entered us at the open door. The idea has prevailed
+in the past, and this idea has dominated the world, that _self_ is the
+great concern,--that if one would find success, greatness, happiness, he
+must give all attention to self, and to self alone. This has been the
+great mistake, this the fatal error, this the _direct_ opposite of the
+right, the true as set forth in the great immutable law that--_we find
+our own lives in losing them in the service of others_, in longer
+form--the more of our lives we give to others, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy our own lives become. It is as that great and sweet soul who when
+with us lived at Concord said,--that generous giving or losing of your
+life which saves it.
+
+This is an expression of one of the greatest truths, of one of the
+greatest principles of practical ethics the world has thus far seen. In
+a single word, it is _service_,--not self but the other self. We shall
+soon see, however, that our love, our service, our helpfulness to
+others, invariably comes back to us, intensified sometimes a hundred or
+a thousand or a thousand thousand fold, and this by a great, immutable
+law.
+
+The Master Teacher, he who so many years ago in that far-away Eastern
+land, now in the hill country, now in the lake country, as the people
+gathered round him, taught them those great, high-born, and tender
+truths of human life and destiny, the Christ Jesus, said identically
+this when he said and so continually repeated,--"He that is greatest
+among you shall be your servant"; and his whole life was but an
+embodiment of this principle or truth, with the result that the greatest
+name in the world to-day is his,--the name of him who as his life-work,
+healed the sick; clothed the naked; bound up the broken-hearted;
+sustained the weak, the faltering; befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy; condemned the proud, the vain, the selfish; and through it all
+taught the people to love justice and mercy and service, to live in
+their higher, their diviner selves,--in brief, to _live_ his life, the
+Christ-life, and who has helped in making it possible for this greatest
+principle of practical ethics the world has thus far seen to be
+enunciated, to be laid hold of, to be lived by to-day. "He that is
+greatest among you shall be your servant," or, he who would be truly
+great and recognized as such must find it in the capacity of a servant.
+
+And what, let us ask, is a servant? One who renders service. To himself?
+Never. To others? Alway. Freed of its associations and looked at in the
+light of its right and true meaning, than the word "servant" there is no
+greater in the language; and in this right use of the term, as we shall
+soon see, every life that has been really true, great, and happy has
+been that of a servant, and apart from this no such life _ever has been
+or ever can be lived_.
+
+O you who are seeking for power, for place, for happiness, for
+contentment in the ordinary way, tarry for a moment, see that you are on
+the wrong track, grasp this great eternal truth, lay hold of it, and you
+will see that your advance along this very line will be manifold times
+more rapid. Are you seeking, then, to make for yourself a name? Unless
+you grasp this mighty truth and make your life accordingly, as the great
+clock of time ticks on and all things come to their proper level
+according to their merits, as all invariably, inevitably do, you will
+indeed be somewhat surprised to find how low, how very low your level
+is. Your name and your memory will be forgotten long ere the minute-hand
+has passed even a single time across the great dial; while your
+fellow-man who has grasped this simple but this great and all-necessary
+truth, and who accordingly is forgetting himself in the service of
+others, who is making his life a part of a hundred or a thousand or a
+million lives, thus illimitably intensifying or multiplying his own,
+instead of living as you in what otherwise would be his own little,
+diminutive self, will find himself ascending higher and higher until he
+stands as one among the few, and will find a peace, a happiness, a
+satisfaction so rich and so beautiful, compared to which yours will be
+but a poor miserable something, and whose name and memory when his life
+here is finished, will live in the minds and hearts of his fellow-men
+and of mankind fixed and eternal as the stars.
+
+A corollary of the great principle already enunciated might be
+formulated thus: _there is no such thing as finding true happiness by
+searching for it directly_. It must come, if it come at all, indirectly,
+or by the service, the love, and the happiness we give to others. So,
+_there is no such thing as finding true greatness by searching for it
+directly_. It always, without a single exception has come indirectly in
+this same way, and it is not at all probable that this great eternal law
+is going to be changed to suit any particular case or cases. Then
+recognize it, put your life into harmony with it, and reap the rewards
+of its observance, or fail to recognize it and pay the penalty
+accordingly; for the law itself will remain unchanged.
+
+The men and women whose names we honor and celebrate are invariably
+those with lives founded primarily upon this great law. Note if you
+will, every _truly_ great life in the world's history, among those
+living and among the so-called dead, and tell me if in _every_ case that
+life is not a life spent in the service of others, either directly, or
+indirectly as when we say--he served his country. Whenever one seeks for
+reputation, for fame, for honor, for happiness directly and for his own
+sake, then that which is true and genuine never comes, at least to any
+degree worthy the name. It may seem to for a time, but a great law says
+that such an one gets so far and no farther. Sooner or later, generally
+sooner, there comes an end.
+
+Human nature seems to run in this way, seems to be governed by a great
+paradoxical law which says, that whenever a man self-centred, thinking
+of, living for and in himself, is very desirous for place, for
+preferment, for honor, the very fact of his being thus is of itself a
+sufficient indicator that he is too small to have them, and mankind
+refuses to accord them. While the one who forgets self, and who, losing
+sight of these things, makes it his chief aim in life to help, to aid,
+and to serve others, by this very fact makes it known that he is large
+enough, is great enough to have them, and his fellow-men instinctively
+bestow them upon him. This is a great law which many would profit by to
+recognize. That it is true is attested by the fact that the praise of
+mankind instinctively and universally goes out to a hero; but who ever
+heard of a hero who became such by doing something for himself? Always
+something he has done for others. By the fact that monuments and statues
+are gratefully erected to the memory of those who have helped and served
+their fellow-men, not to those who have lived to themselves alone.
+
+I have seen many monuments and statues erected to the memories of
+philanthropists, but I never yet have seen one erected to a miser; many
+to generous-hearted, noble-hearted men, but never yet to one whose whole
+life was that of a sharp bargain-driver, and who clung with a sort of
+semi-idiotic grasp to all that came thus into his temporary possession.
+I have seen many erected to statesmen,--statesmen,--but never one to
+mere politicians; many to true orators, but never to mere demagogues;
+many to soldiers and leaders, but never to men who were not willing,
+when necessary, to risk all in the service of their country. No, you
+will find that the world's monuments and statues have been erected and
+its praises and honors have gone out to those who were large and great
+enough to forget themselves in the service of others, who have been
+servants, true servants of mankind, who have been true to the great law
+that we find our own lives in losing them in the service of others. Not
+honor for themselves, but service for others. But notice the strange,
+wonderful, beautiful transformation as it returns upon itself,--_honor
+for themselves, because of service to others_.
+
+It would be a matter of exceeding great interest to verify the truth of
+what has just been said by looking at a number of those who are regarded
+as the world's great sons and daughters,--those to whom its honors, its
+praises, its homage go out,--to see why it is, upon what their lives
+have been founded that they have become so great and are so honored. Of
+all this glorious company that would come up, we must be contented to
+look at but one or two.
+
+There comes to my mind the name and figure of him the celebration of
+whose birthday I predict will soon be made a national holiday,--he than
+whom there is no greater, whose praises are sung and whose name and
+memory are honored and blessed by millions in all parts of the world
+to-day, and will be by millions yet unborn, our beloved and sainted
+Lincoln. And then I ask, Why is this? Why is this? One sentence of his
+tells us what to look to for the answer. During that famous series of
+public debates in Illinois with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, speaking at
+Freeport, Mr. Douglas at one place said, "I care not whether slavery in
+the Territories be voted up or whether it be voted down, it makes not a
+particle of difference with me." Mr. Lincoln, speaking from the fulness
+of his great and royal heart, in reply said, with emotion, "I am sorry
+to perceive that my friend Judge Douglas is so constituted that he does
+not feel the lash the least bit when it is laid upon another man's
+back." Thoughts upon self? Not for a moment. Upon others? Always. He at
+once recognized in those black men four million brothers for whom he had
+a service to perform.
+
+It would seem almost grotesque to use the word _self-ish_ in connection
+with this great name. He very early, and when still in a very humble and
+lowly station in life, either consciously or unconsciously grasped this
+great truth, and in making the great underlying principle of his life to
+serve, to help his fellow-men, he adopted just that course that has made
+him one of the greatest of the sons of men, our royal-hearted elder
+brother. He never spent time in asking what he could do to attain to
+greatness, to popularity, to power, what to perpetuate his name and
+memory. He simply asked how he could help, how he could be of service to
+his fellow-men, and continually did all his hands found to do.
+
+He simply put his life into harmony with this great principle; and in so
+doing he adopted the best means,--the _only_ means to secure that which
+countless numbers seek and strive for directly, and every time so
+woefully fail in finding.
+
+There comes to my mind in this same connection another princely soul,
+one who loved all the world, one whom all the world loves and delights
+to honor. There comes to mind also a little incident that will furnish
+an insight into the reason of it all. On an afternoon not long ago, Mrs.
+Henry Ward Beecher was telling me of some of the characteristics of
+Brooklyn's great preacher. While she was yet speaking of some of those
+along the very lines we are considering, an old gentleman, a neighbor,
+came into the room bearing in his hands something he had brought from
+Mr. Beecher's grave. It was the day next following Decoration Day. His
+story was this: As the great procession was moving into the cemetery
+with its bands of rich music, with its carriages laden with sweet and
+fragrant flowers, with its waving flags, beautiful in the sunlight, a
+poor and humble-looking woman with two companions, by her apparent
+nervousness attracted the attention of the gate-keeper. He kept her in
+view for a little while, and presently saw her as she gave something she
+had partially concealed to one of her companions, who, leaving the
+procession, went over to the grave of Mr. Beecher, and tenderly laid it
+there. Reverently she stood for a moment or two, and then, retracing
+her steps, joined her two companions, who with bowed heads were waiting
+by the wayside.
+
+It was this that the old gentleman had brought,--a gold frame, and in it
+a poem cut from a volume, a singularly beautiful poem through which was
+breathed the spirit of love and service and self-devotion to the good
+and the needs of others. At one or two places where it fitted, the pen
+had been drawn across a word and Mr. Beecher's name inserted, which
+served to give it a still more real, vivid, and tender meaning. At the
+bottom this only was written, "From a poor Hebrew woman to the immortal
+friend of the Hebrews." There was no name, but this was sufficient to
+tell the whole story. Some poor, humble woman, but one out of a mighty
+number whom he had at some time befriended or helped or cheered, whose
+burden he had helped to carry, and soon perhaps had forgotten all about
+it. When we remember that this was his life, is it at all necessary to
+seek farther why all the world delights to honor this, another
+royal-hearted elder brother? and, as we think of this simple, beautiful,
+and touching incident, how true and living becomes the thought in the
+old, old lines!--
+
+    "Cast thy bread upon the waters, waft it on with praying breath,
+    In some distant, doubtful moment it may save a soul from death.
+    When you sleep in solemn silence, 'neath the morn and evening dew,
+    Stranger hands which you have strengthened may strew lilies over you."
+
+Our good friend, Henry Drummond, in one of his most beautiful and
+valuable little works says--and how admirably and how truly!--that "love
+is the greatest thing in the world." Have you this greatest thing? Yes.
+How, then, does it manifest itself? In kindliness, in helpfulness, in
+service, to those around you? If so, well and good, you have it. If not,
+then I suspect that what you have been calling love is something else;
+and you have indeed been greatly fooled. In fact, I am sure it is; for
+if it does not manifest itself in this way, it cannot be true love, for
+this is the one grand and never-failing test. Love is the statics,
+helpfulness and service the dynamics, the former necessary to the
+latter, but the latter the more powerful, as action is always more
+powerful than potentiality; and, were it not for the dynamics, the
+statics might as well not be. Helpfulness, kindliness, service, is but
+the expression of love. It is love in action; and unless love thus
+manifests itself in action, it is an indication that it is of that weak
+and sickly nature that needs exercise, growth, and development, that it
+may grow and become strong, healthy, vigorous, and true, instead of
+remaining a little, weak, indefinite, sentimental something or nothing.
+
+It was but yesterday that I heard one of the world's greatest thinkers
+and speakers, one of our keenest observers of human affairs, state as
+his opinion that selfishness is the root of all evil. Now, if it is
+possible for any one thing to be the root of all evil, then I think
+there is a world of truth in the statement. But, leaving out of account
+for the present purpose whether it is true or not, it certainly is true
+that he who can't get beyond self robs his life of its chief charms, and
+more, defeats the very ends he has in view. It is a well-known law in
+the natural world about us that whatever hasn't use, that whatever
+serves no purpose, shrivels up. So it is a law of our own being that he
+who makes himself of no use, of no service to the great body of mankind,
+who is concerned only with his own small self, finds that self, small as
+it is, growing smaller and smaller, and those finer and better and
+grander qualities of his nature, those that give the chief charm and
+happiness to life, shrivelling up. Such an one lives, keeps constant
+company with his own diminutive and stunted self; while he who,
+forgetting self, makes the object of his life service, helpfulness, and
+kindliness to others, finds his whole nature growing and expanding,
+himself becoming large-hearted, magnanimous, kind, loving, sympathetic,
+joyous, and happy, his life becoming rich and beautiful. For instead of
+his own little life alone he has entered into and has part in a hundred,
+a thousand, ay, in countless numbers of other lives; and every success,
+every joy, every happiness coming to each of these comes as such to him,
+for he has a part in each and all. And thus it is that one becomes a
+prince among men, a queen among women.
+
+Why, one of the very fundamental principles of life is, so much love, so
+much love in return; so much love, so much growth; so much love, so much
+power; so much love, so much life,--strong, healthy, rich, exulting, and
+abounding life. The world is beginning to realize the fact that love,
+instead of being a mere indefinite something, is a vital and living
+force, the same as electricity is a force, though perhaps of a different
+nature. The same great fact we are learning in regard to thought,--that
+thoughts are things, that _thoughts are forces, the most vital and
+powerful in the universe_, that they have form and substance and power,
+the quality of the power determined as it is by the quality of the life
+in whose organism the thoughts are engendered; and so, when a thought is
+given birth, it does not end there, but takes form, and as a force it
+goes out and has its effect upon other minds and lives, the effect being
+determined by its intensity and the quality of the prevailing emotions,
+and also by the emotions dominating the person at the time the thoughts
+are engendered and given form.
+
+Science, while demonstrating the great facts it is to-day demonstrating
+in connection with the mind in its relations to and effects upon the
+body, is also finding from its very laboratory experiments that each
+particular kind of thought and emotion has its own peculiar qualities,
+and hence its own peculiar effects or influences; and these it is
+classifying with scientific accuracy. A very general classification in
+just a word would be--those of a higher and those of a lower nature.
+
+Some of the chief ones among those of the lower nature are anger,
+hatred, jealousy, malice, rage. Their effect, especially when violent,
+is to emit a poisonous substance into the system, or rather, to set up a
+corroding influence which transforms the healthy and life-giving
+secretions of the body into the poisonous and the destructive. When one,
+for example, is dominated, even if for but a moment by a passion of
+anger or rage, there is set up in the system what might be justly termed
+a bodily thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring or corroding the
+normal and healthy secretions of the body and making them so that
+instead of life-giving they become poisonous. This, if indulged in to
+any extent, sooner or later induces the form of disease that this
+particular state of mind and emotion or passion gives birth to; and it
+in turn becomes chronic.
+
+We shall ultimately find, as we are beginning to so rapidly to-day, that
+practically all disease has its origin in perverted mental states or
+emotions; that anger, hatred, fear, worry, jealousy, lust, as well as
+all milder forms of perverted mental states and emotions, has each its
+own peculiar poisoning effects and induces each its own peculiar form of
+disease, for all life is from within out.
+
+Then some of the chief ones belonging to the other class--mental states
+and emotions of the higher nature--are love, sympathy, benevolence,
+kindliness, and good cheer. These are the natural and the normal; and
+their effect, when habitually entertained, is to stimulate a vital,
+healthy, bounding, purifying, and life-giving action, the exact opposite
+of the others; and these very forces, set into a bounding activity, will
+in time counteract and heal the disease-giving effects of their
+opposites. Their effects upon the countenance and features in inducing
+the highest beauty that can dwell there are also marked and
+all-powerful. So much, then, in regard to the effects of one's thought
+forces upon the self. A word more in regard to their effects upon
+others.
+
+Our prevailing thought forces determine the mental atmosphere we create
+around us, and all who come within its influence are affected in one way
+or another, according to the quality of that atmosphere; and, though
+they may not always get the exact thoughts, they nevertheless get the
+effects of the emotions dominating the originator of the thoughts, and
+hence the creator of this particular mental atmosphere, and the more
+sensitively organized the person the more sensitive he or she is to
+this atmosphere, even at times to getting the exact and very thoughts.
+So even in this the prophecy is beginning to be fulfilled,--there is
+nothing hid that shall not be revealed.
+
+If the thought forces sent out by any particular life are those of
+hatred or jealousy or malice or fault-finding or criticism or scorn,
+these same thought forces are aroused and sent back from others, so that
+one is affected not only by reason of the unpleasantness of having such
+thoughts from others, but they also in turn affect one's own mental
+states, and through these his own bodily conditions, so that, so far as
+even the welfare of self is concerned, the indulgence in thoughts and
+emotions of this nature are most expensive, most detrimental, most
+destructive.
+
+If, on the other hand, the thought forces sent out be those of love, of
+sympathy, of kindliness, of cheer and good will, these same forces are
+aroused and sent back, so that their pleasant, ennobling, warming, and
+life-giving effects one feels and is influenced by; and so again, so far
+even as the welfare of self is concerned, there is nothing more
+desirable, more valuable and life-giving. There comes from others, then,
+exactly what one sends to and hence calls forth from them.
+
+_And would we have all the world love us, we must first then love all
+the world_,--merely a great scientific fact. Why is it that all people
+instinctively dislike and shun the little, the mean, the self-centred,
+the selfish, while all the world instinctively, irresistibly, loves and
+longs for the company of the great-hearted, the tender-hearted, the
+loving, the magnanimous, the sympathetic, the brave? The mere
+answer--because--will not satisfy. There is a deep, scientific reason
+for it, either this or it is not true.
+
+Much has been said, much written, in regard to what some have been
+pleased to call personal magnetism, but which, as is so commonly true in
+cases of this kind, is even to-day but little understood. But to my mind
+personal magnetism in its true sense, and as distinguished from what may
+be termed a purely animal magnetism, is nothing more nor less than the
+thought forces sent out by a great-hearted, tender-hearted, magnanimous,
+loving, sympathetic man or woman; for, let me ask, have you ever known
+of any great personal magnetism in the case of the little, the mean, the
+vindictive, the self-centred? Never, I venture to say, but always in the
+case of the other.
+
+Why, there is nothing that can stand before this wonderful transmuting
+power of love. So far even as the enemy is concerned, I may not be to
+blame if I have an enemy; but I am to blame if I keep him as such,
+especially after I know of this wonderful transmuting power. Have I then
+an enemy, I will refuse, absolutely refuse, to recognize him as such;
+and instead of entertaining the thoughts of him that he entertains of
+me, instead of sending him like thought forces, I will send him only
+thoughts of love, of sympathy, of brotherly kindness, and magnanimity.
+But a short time it will be until he feels these, and is influenced by
+them. Then in addition I will watch my opportunity, and whenever I can,
+I will even go out of my way to do him some little kindnesses. Before
+these forces he cannot stand, and by and by I shall find that he who
+to-day is my bitterest enemy is my warmest friend and it may be my
+staunchest supporter. No, the wise man is he who by that wonderful
+alchemy of love transmutes the enemy into the friend,--transmutes the
+bitterest enemy into the warmest friend and supporter. Certainly this is
+what the Master meant when he said: "Love your enemies, do good to them
+that hate you and despitefully use you: thou shalt thereby be heaping
+coals of fire upon their heads." Ay, thou shalt melt them: before this
+force they cannot stand. Thou shalt melt them, and transmute them into
+friends.
+
+    "You never can tell what your thoughts will do
+      In bringing you hate or love;
+    For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
+      Are swifter than carrier doves.
+    They follow the law of the universe,--
+      Each thing must create its kind;
+    And they speed o'er the track to bring you back
+      Whatever went out from your mind."
+
+Yes, science to-day, at the close of this nineteenth century, in the
+laboratory is discovering and scientifically demonstrating the great,
+immutable laws upon which the inspired and illuminated ones of all ages
+have based all their teachings, those who by ordering their lives
+according to the higher laws of their being get in a moment of time,
+through the direct touch of inspiration, what it takes the physical
+investigator a whole lifetime or a series of investigators a series of
+lifetimes to discover and demonstrate.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+THE APPLICATION
+
+
+    Are you seeking for greatness, O brother of mine,
+      As the full, fleeting seasons and years glide away?
+    If seeking directly and for self alone,
+      The true and abiding you never can stay.
+    But all self forgetting, know well the law,
+      It's the hero, and not the self-seeker, who's crowned.
+    Then go lose your life in the service of others,
+      And, lo! with rare greatness and glory 'twill abound.
+
+Is it your ambition to become great in any particular field, to attain
+to fame and honor, and thereby to happiness and contentment? Is it your
+ambition, for example, to become a great _orator_, to move great masses
+of men, to receive their praise, their plaudits? Then remember that
+there never has been, there never will, in brief, there never can be a
+truly great orator without a great _purpose_, a great cause behind him.
+You may study in all the best schools in the country, the best
+universities and the best schools of oratory. You may study until you
+exhaust all these, and then seek the best in other lands. You may study
+thus until your hair is beginning to change its color, but this of
+itself will _never_ make you a great orator. You may become a demagogue,
+and, if self-centred, you inevitably will; for this is exactly what a
+demagogue is,--a great demagogue, if you please, than which it is hard
+for one to call to mind a more contemptible animal, and the greater the
+more contemptible. But without laying hold of and building upon this
+great principle you never can become a great orator.
+
+Call to mind the greatest in the world's history, from Demosthenes--Men
+of Athens, march against Philip, your country and your fellow-men will
+be in early bondage unless you give them your best service now--down to
+our own Phillips and Gough,--Wendell Phillips against the traffic in
+human blood, John B. Gough against a slavery among his fellow-men more
+hard and galling and abject than the one just spoken of; for by it the
+body merely is in bondage, the mind and soul are free, while in this,
+body, soul, and mind are enslaved. So you can easily discover the great
+_purpose_, the great cause for _service_, behind each and every one.
+
+The man who can't get beyond himself, his own aggrandizement and
+interests, must of necessity be small, petty, personal, and at once
+marks his own limitations; while he whose life is a life of service and
+self-devotion has no limits, for he thus puts himself at once on the
+side of the _Universal_, and this more than all else combined gives a
+tremendous power in oratory. Such a one can mount as on the wings of an
+eagle, and Nature herself seems to come forth and give a great soul of
+this kind means and material whereby to accomplish his purposes, whereby
+the great universal truths go direct to the minds and hearts of his
+hearers to mould them, to move them; for the orator is he who moulds the
+minds and hearts of his hearers in the great moulds of universal and
+eternal truth, and then moves them along a definite line of action, not
+he who merely speaks pieces to them.
+
+How thoroughly Webster recognized this great principle is admirably
+shown in that brief but powerful description of eloquence of his; let us
+pause to listen to a sentence or two: "True eloquence indeed does not
+consist in speech.... Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way,
+but they cannot compass it.... Affected passion, intense expression, the
+pomp of declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it.... The
+graces taught in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied
+contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own lives and
+the fate of their wives and their children and their country hang on the
+decision of the hour. Then words have lost their power, rhetoric is
+vain, and all elaborate oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then
+feels rebuked and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then
+patriotism is eloquent, then self-devotion is eloquent. The clear
+conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the high purpose, the
+firm resolve, the dauntless spirit speaking on the tongue, beaming from
+the eye, informing every feature and urging the whole man onward, right
+onward to his object,--this, this is eloquence." And note some of the
+chief words he has used,--_self-devotion, patriotism, high purpose_. The
+self-centred man can never know these, and much less can he make use of
+them.
+
+True, things that one may learn, as the freeing of the bodily agents,
+the developing of the voice, and so on, that all may become the _true
+reporters of the soul_, instead of limiting or binding it down, as is so
+frequently the case in public speakers,--these are all valuable, ay, are
+very important and very necessary, unless one is content to live below
+his highest possibilities, and he is wise who recognizes this tact; but
+these in themselves are but as trifles when compared to those greater,
+more powerful, and all-essential qualities.
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _states man?_ Note the very first
+thing, then, the word itself,--_states-man_, a man who gives his life to
+the service of the State. And do you not recognize the fact that, when
+one says--a man who gives his life to the service of the State, it is
+but another way of saying--a man who gives his life to the service of
+his fellow-men; for what, after all, is any country, any State, in the
+true sense of the term, but the aggregate, the great body of its
+individual citizenship. And he who lives for and unto himself, who puts
+the interests of his own small self before the interests of the
+thousands, can never become a states-man; for a statesman must be a
+larger man than this.
+
+Call to your mind the greatest of the world, among those living and
+among the so-called dead, and you will quickly see that the life of each
+and every one has been built upon this great principle, and that all
+have been great and are held as such in just the degree in which it has
+been. Two of the greatest among Americans, both passed away, would
+to-day and even more as time goes on, be counted still greater, had they
+been a little larger in one aspect of their natures,--large enough to
+have recognized to its fullest extent the eternal truth and importance
+of this great principle, and had they given the time to the service of
+their fellow-men that was spent in desiring the Presidency and in all
+too plainly making it known. Having gained it could have made them no
+greater, and having so plainly shown their eager and childish desire for
+it has made them less great. Of the many thousands of men who have been
+in our American Congress since its beginning, and of the very, very
+small number comparatively that you are able to call to mind, possibly
+not over fifty, which would be about one out of every six hundred or
+more, you will find that you are able to call to mind each one of this
+very small number on account of his standing for some measure or
+principle that would to the highest degree increase the human welfare,
+thus truly fulfilling the great office of a _statesman_.
+
+The one great trouble with our country to-day is that we have but few
+statesmen. We have a great swarm, a great hoard of politicians; but it
+is only now and then that we find a man who is large enough truly to
+deserve the name--statesman. The large majority in public life to-day
+are there not for the purpose of serving the best interests of those
+whom they are supposed to represent, but they are there purely for self,
+purely for self-aggrandizement in this form or in that, as the case may
+be.
+
+Especially do we find this true in our municipalities. In some, the
+government instead of being in the hands of those who would make it such
+in truth, those who would make it serve the interests it is designed to
+serve, it is in the hands of those who are there purely for self, little
+whelps, those who will resort to any means to secure their ends, at
+times even to honorable means, should they seem to serve best the
+particular purpose in hand. We have but to look around us to see that
+this is true. The miserable, filthy, and deplorable condition of affairs
+the Lexow Committee in its investigations not so long ago laid bare to
+public gaze had its root in what? In the fact that the offices in that
+great municipality have been and are filled by men who are there to
+serve in the highest degree the public welfare or by men who are there
+purely for self-aggrandizement? But let us pass on. This degraded
+condition of affairs exists not only in this great city, but there are
+scarcely any that are free from it entirely. Matters are not always to
+continue thus, however. The American people will learn by and by what
+they ought fully to realize to-day--that the moment the honest people,
+the citizens, in distinction from the barnacles, mass themselves and
+stay massed, the notorious, filthy political rings cannot stand before
+them for a period of even twenty-four hours. _The right, the good, the
+true, is all-powerful, and will inevitably conquer sooner or later when
+brought to the front._ Such is the history of civilization.
+
+Let our public offices--municipal, state, and federal--be filled with
+men who are in love with the human kind, large men, men whose lives are
+founded upon this great law of service, and we will then have them
+filled with statesmen. Never let this glorious word be disgraced,
+degraded, by applying it to the little, self-centred whelps who are
+unable to get beyond the politician stage. Then enter public life; but
+enter it as a man, not as a barnacle: enter it as a statesman, not as a
+politician.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _preacher_, or better yet, with
+the same meaning, a great _teacher?_ Then remember that the greatest of
+the world have been those who have given themselves in thorough
+self-devotion and service to their fellow-men, who have given themselves
+so thoroughly to all they have come in contact with that there has been
+no room for self. They have not been seekers after fame, or men who have
+thought so much of their own particular dogmatic ways of thinking as to
+spend the greater part of their time in discussing dogma, creed,
+theology, in order, as is so generally true in cases of this kind, to
+prove that the _ego_ you see before you is right in his particular ways
+of thinking, and that his chief ambition is to have this fact clearly
+understood,--an abomination, I verily believe, in the sight of God
+himself, whose children in the mean time are starving, are dying for the
+bread of life, and an abomination I am sure, in the sight of the great
+majority of mankind. Let us be thankful, however, for mankind is finding
+less use for such year by year, and the time will soon come when they
+will scarcely be tolerated at all.
+
+It is to a very great extent on account of men of this kind, especially
+in the early history, that the true spirit of religion, of Christianity,
+has been lost sight of in the mere form. The basket in which it has
+been deemed necessary to carry it has been held as of greater import
+than the rare and divinely beautiful fruit itself. The true spirit, that
+that quickeneth and giveth life and power, has had its place taken by
+the mere letter, that that alone blighteth and killeth. Instead of
+running after these finely spun, man-made theories, this stuff,--for
+stuff is the word,--this that we outgrow once every few years in our
+march onward and upward, and then stand and laugh as we look back to
+think that such ideas have ever been held, instead of this, thinking
+that thus you will gain power, act the part of the wise man, and go each
+day into the _silence_, there commune with the Infinite, there dwell for
+a season with the Infinite Spirit of all life, of all power; for you can
+get _true power_ in no other way.
+
+Instead of running about here and there to have your cup filled at these
+little stagnant pools, dried up as they generally are by the continual
+rays of a constantly shining egoistic sun, go direct to the great
+fountain-head, and there drink of the water of life that is poured out
+freely to every one if he will but go there for it. One can't, however,
+send and have it brought by another.
+
+Go, then, into the _silence_, even if it be but for a short period,--a
+period of not more than a quarter or a half-hour a day,--and there come
+into contact with the Great Source of all life, of all power. _Send out
+your earnest desires for whatsoever you will; and whatsoever you will,
+if continually watered by expectation, will sooner or later come to
+you_. All knowledge, all truth, all power, all wisdom, all things
+whatsoever, are yours, if you will but go in this way for them. It has
+been tried times without number, and has never yet once failed where the
+motives have been high, where the knowledge of the results beforehand
+has been sufficiently great. Within a fortnight you can know the truth
+of this for yourself if you will but go in the right way.
+
+All the truly great teachers in the world's history have gotten their
+powers in this way. You remember the great soul who left us not long
+ago, he who ministered so faithfully at Trinity, the great preacher of
+such wonderful powers, the one so truly inspired. It was but an evening
+or two since, when in conversation with a member of his congregation, we
+were talking in regard to Phillips Brooks. She was telling of his
+beautiful and powerful spirit and said that they were all continually
+conscious of the fact that he had a power they hadn't, but that all
+longed for; that he seemed to have a great secret of power they hadn't,
+but that they often tried to find. She continued, and in the very next
+sentence went on to tell of a fact,--one that I knew full well,--the
+fact that during a certain period of each day he took himself alone into
+a little, silent room, he fastened the door behind him, and during this
+period under no circumstances could he be seen by any one. The dear lady
+knew these two things, she knew and was influenced by his great soul
+power, she also knew of his going thus into the silence each day; but,
+bless her heart, it had never once occurred to her to put the two
+together.
+
+It is in this way that great soul power is grown; and the men of this
+great power are the men who move the world, the men who do the great
+work in the world along all lines, and against whom no man, no power,
+can stand. Call to mind a number of the world's greatest preachers, or,
+using again the better term, teachers, and bear in mind I do not mean
+creed, dogma, form, but religious teachers,--and the one class differs
+from the other even as the night from the day,--and you will find two
+great facts in the life of each and all,--great soul power, grown
+chiefly by much time spent in the silence, and the fact that the life of
+each has been built upon this one great and all-powerful principle of
+love, service, and helpfulness for all mankind.
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _writer?_ Very good. But remember
+that unless you have something to give to the world, something you feel
+mankind must have, something that will aid them in their march upward
+and onward, unless you have some service of this kind to render, then
+you had better be wise, and not take up the pen; for, if your object in
+writing is merely fame or money, the number of your readers may be
+exceedingly small, possibly a few score or even a few dozen may be a
+large estimate.
+
+What an author writes is, after all, the sum total of his life, his
+habits, his characteristics, his experiences, his purposes. _He never
+can write more than he himself is_. He can never pass beyond his
+limitations; and unless he have a purpose higher than writing merely for
+fame or self-aggrandizement, he thereby marks his own limitations, and
+what he seeks will never come. While he who writes for the world,
+because he feels he has something that it needs and that will be a help
+to mankind, if it _is_ something it needs, other things being equal,
+that which the other man seeks for directly, and so never finds, will
+come to him in all its fulness. This is the way it comes, and this way
+only. _Mankind cares nothing for you until you have shown that you care
+for mankind._
+
+Note this statement from the letter of a now well-known writer, one
+whose very first book met with instant success, and that has been
+followed by others all similarly received. She says, "I never thought of
+writing until two years and a half ago, when, in order to disburden my
+mind of certain thoughts that clamored for utterance, I produced," etc.
+In the light of this we cannot wonder at the remarkable success of her
+very first and all succeeding books. She had something she felt the
+world needed and must have; and, with no thought of self, of fame, or of
+money, she gave it. The world agreed with her; and, as she was large
+enough to seek for neither, it has given her both.
+
+Note this also: "I write for the love of writing, not for money or
+reputation. The former I have without exertion, the latter is not worth
+a pin's point in the general economy of the vast universe. Work done for
+the love of working brings its own reward far more quickly and surely
+than work done for mere payment." This is but the formulated statement
+of what all the world's greatest writers and authors have said or would
+say,--at least so far as I have come in contact with their opinions in
+regard to it.
+
+So, unless you are large enough to forget self for the good, for the
+service of mankind, thus putting yourself on the side of the universal
+and making it possible for you to give something that will in turn of
+itself bring fame, you had better be wise, and not lift the pen at all;
+for what you write will not be taken up, or, if it is, will soon be let
+fall again.
+
+One of our most charming and most noted American authors says in regard
+to her writing, "I press my soul upon the white paper"; and let me tell
+you the reason it in turn makes its impression upon so many thousands of
+other souls is because hers is so large, so tender, so sympathetic, so
+loving, that others cannot resist the impression, living as she does not
+for self, but for the service of others, her own life thus having a part
+in countless numbers of other lives.
+
+It is only that that comes from the heart that can reach the heart.
+Take from their shelves the most noted, the greatest works in any
+library, and you will find that their authors have made them what they
+are not by a study of the rules and principles of rhetoric, for this of
+itself never has made and never can make a great writer. They are what
+they are because the author's very soul has been fired by some great
+truth or fact that the world has needed, that has been a help to
+mankind. Large souls they have been, souls in love with all the human
+kind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _actor?_ Then remember that if you
+make it the object of your life to play to influence the hearts, the
+lives, and so the destinies of men, this same great law of nature that
+operates in the case of the orator will come to your assistance, will
+aid you in your growth and development, and will enable you to attain to
+heights you could never attain to or even dream of, in case you play for
+the little _ego_ you otherwise would stand for. In the latter case you
+may succeed in making a third or a fourth rate actor, possibly a second
+rate; but you can never become one of the world's greatest, and the
+chances are you may succeed in making not even a livelihood, and thus
+have your wonderment satisfied why so many who try fail.
+
+In the other case, other things being equal, the height you may attain
+to is unbounded, depending upon the degree you are able to forget
+yourself in influencing the minds and the souls, and thus the lives and
+the destinies of men.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a great _singer?_ Then remember that if
+your thought is only of self, you may never sing at all, unless, indeed,
+you enjoy singing to yourself,--this, or you will be continually anxious
+as to the size of your audience. If, on the other hand, you choose this
+field of work because here you can be of the greatest service to
+mankind, if your ambition is to sing to the hearts and the lives of men,
+then this same great law of nature will come to assist you in your
+growth and development and efforts, and other things being equal,
+instead of singing to yourself or being anxious as to the size of your
+audience, you will seldom find time for the first, and your anxiety will
+be as to whether the place has an audience-chamber large enough to
+accommodate even a small portion of the people who will seek
+admittance. You remember Jenny Lind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it your ambition to become a _fashionable society woman_, this and
+nothing more, intent only upon your own pleasure and satisfaction? Then
+stop and meditate, if only for a moment; for if this is the case, you
+never will, ay, you never can find the true and the genuine, for you
+fail to recognize the great law that there is no such thing as finding
+true happiness by searching for it _directly_, and the farther on you go
+the more flimsy and shallow and unsatisfying that imitation you are
+willing to accept for the genuine will become. You will thereby rob life
+of its chief charms, defeat the very purpose you have in view. And,
+while you are at this moment meditating, oh grasp the truth of the great
+law that you will find your own life only in losing it in the service of
+others,--that the more of your life you so give, the fuller and the
+richer, the greater and the grander, the more beautiful and the more
+happy your own life will become.
+
+And with your abundant means and opportunities build your life upon this
+great law of service, and experience the pleasure of growing into that
+full, rich, ever increasing and satisfying life that will result, and
+that will make you better known, more honored and blessed, than the life
+of any mere society woman can be, or any life, for that matter; for you
+are thus living a life the highest this world can know. And you will
+thus hasten the day when, standing and looking back and seeing the
+emptiness and the littleness of the other life as compared with this,
+you will bless the time that your better judgment prevailed and saved
+you from it. Or, if you chance to be in it already, delay not, but
+commence now to build upon this true foundation.
+
+Instead of discharging your footman, as did a woman of whom I chance to
+know, because he finally refused to stand in the rain by the side of her
+carriage, with his arms folded just so, standing immovable like a mummy
+(I had almost said like a fool), daring to look neither to one side nor
+the other, but all the time in the direction of her so-called ladyship,
+while she spent an hour or two in doing fifteen or twenty minutes'
+shopping in her desire to make it known that this is Mrs. Q.'s carriage,
+and this is the footman that goes with it,--instead of doing this, give
+him an umbrella if necessary, and take him to aid you as you go on your
+errands of mercy and cheer and service and loving kindness to the
+innumerable ones all about you who so stand in need of them.
+
+Is there any comparison between the appellation "Lady Bountiful" and "a
+proud, selfish, pleasure-seeking woman"? And, much more, do you think
+there is any comparison whatever between the real pleasure and happiness
+and satisfaction in the lives of the two?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Is it the ambition of your life to _accumulate great wealth_, and thus
+to acquire a great name, and along with it happiness and satisfaction?
+Then remember that whether these will come to you will depend _entirely_
+upon the use and disposition you make of your wealth. If you regard it
+as a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind, then
+well and good, these will come to you. If your object, however, is to
+pile it up, to hoard it, then neither will come; and you will find it a
+life as unsatisfactory as one can live.
+
+There is, there can be, no greatness in things, in material things, of
+themselves. The greatness is determined entirely by the use and
+disposition made of them. The greatest greatness and the only _true_
+greatness in the world is unselfish love and service and self-devotion
+to one's fellow-men.
+
+Look at the matter carefully, and tell me candidly if there can be
+anything more foolish than a man's spending all the days of his life
+piling up and hoarding money, too mean and too stingy to use any but
+what is absolutely necessary, accumulating many times more than he can
+possibly ever use, always eager for more, growing still more eager and
+grasping the nearer he comes to life's end, then lying down, dying, and
+leaving it. It seems to me about as sensible for a man to have as the
+great aim and ambition of life the piling up of an immense pile of old
+iron in the middle of a large field, and sitting on it day after day
+because he is so wedded to it that it has become a part of his life and
+lest a fragment disappear, denying himself and those around him many of
+the things that go to make life valuable and pleasant, and finally dying
+there, himself, the soul, so dwarfed and so stunted that he has really a
+hard time to make his way out of the miserable old body. There is not
+such a great difference, if you will think of it carefully,--one a pile
+of old iron, the other a pile of gold or silver, but all belonging to
+the same general class.
+
+It is a great law of our being that we become like those things we
+contemplate. If we contemplate those that are true and noble and
+elevating, we grow in the likeness of these. If we contemplate merely
+material things, as gold or silver or copper or iron, our souls, our
+natures, and even our faces become like them, hard and flinty, robbed of
+their finer and better and grander qualities. Call to mind the person or
+picture of the miser, and you will quickly see that this is true. Merely
+nature's great law. He thought he was going to be a master: he finds
+himself the slave. Instead of possessing his wealth, his wealth
+possesses him. How often have I seen persons of nearly or quite this
+kind! Some can be found almost anywhere. You can call to mind a few,
+perhaps many.
+
+During the past two or three years two well-known millionaires in the
+United States, millionaires many times over, have died. The one started
+into life with the idea of acquiring a great name by accumulating great
+wealth. These two things he had in mind,--self and great wealth. And, as
+he went on, he gradually became so that he could see nothing but these.
+The greed for gain soon made him more and more the slave; and he,
+knowing nothing other than obedience to his master, piled and
+accumulated and hoarded, and after spending all his days thus, he then
+lay down and died, taking not so much as one poor little penny with him,
+only a soul dwarfed compared to what it otherwise might have been. For
+it might have been the soul of a royal master instead of that of an
+abject slave.
+
+The papers noted his death with seldom even a single word of praise. It
+was regretted by few, and he was mourned by still fewer. And even at his
+death he was spoken of by thousands in words far from complimentary, all
+uniting in saying what he might have been and done, what a tremendous
+power for good, how he might have been loved and honored during his
+life, and at death mourned and blessed by the entire nation, the entire
+world. A pitiable sight, indeed, to see a human mind, a human soul, thus
+voluntarily enslave itself for a few temporary pieces of metal.
+
+The other started into life with the principle that a man's success is
+to be measured by his _direct usefulness_ to his fellow-men, to the
+world in which he lives, and by this alone; that private wealth is
+merely a _private trust_ to be used for the highest good of mankind.
+Under the benign influences of this mighty principle of service, we see
+him great, influential, wealthy; his whole nature expanding, himself
+growing large-hearted, generous, magnanimous, serving his State, his
+country, his fellow-men, writing his name on the hearts of all he comes
+in contact with, so that his name is never thought of by them without
+feelings of gratitude and praise.
+
+Then as the chief service to his fellow-men, next to his own personal
+influence and example, he uses his vast fortune, this vast private
+trust, for the founding and endowing of a great institution of learning,
+using his splendid business capacities in its organization, having
+uppermost in mind in its building that young men and young women may
+there have every advantage at the least possible expense to fit
+themselves in turn for the greatest _direct usefulness_ to their
+fellow-men while they live in the world.
+
+In the midst of these activities the news comes of his death. Many
+hearts now are sad. The true, large-hearted, sympathizing friend, the
+servant of rich and poor alike, has gone away. Countless numbers whom he
+has befriended, encouraged, helped, and served, bless his name, and give
+thanks that such a life has been lived. His own great State rises up as
+his pall-bearers, while the entire nation acts as honorary pall-bearers.
+Who can estimate the influence of a life such as this? But it cannot be
+estimated; for it will flow from the ones personally influenced to
+others, and through them to others throughout eternity. He alone who in
+His righteous balance weighs each human act can estimate it. And his
+final munificent gift to mankind will make his name remembered and
+honored and blessed long after the accumulations of mere plutocrats are
+scattered and mankind forgets that they have ever lived.
+
+Then have as your object the accumulation of great wealth if you choose;
+but bear in mind that, unless you are able to get beyond self, it will
+make you not great, but small, and you will rob life of the finer and
+better things in it. If, on the other hand, you are guided by the
+principle that private wealth is but a _private trust_, and that _direct
+usefulness_ or service to mankind is the only real measure of true
+greatness, and bring your life into harmony with it, then you will
+become and will be counted great; and with it will come that rich joy
+and happiness and satisfaction that always accompanies a life of true
+service, and therefore the best and truest life.
+
+One can never afford to forget that personality, life, and character,
+that there may be the greatest service, are the chief things, and wealth
+merely the _incident_. Nor can one afford to be among those who are too
+mean, too small, or too stingy to invest in anything that will grow and
+increase these.
+
+
+
+
+PART III.
+
+THE UNFOLDMENT
+
+
+    If you'd have a rare growth and unfoldment supreme,
+       And make life one long joy and contentment complete,
+    Then with kindliness, love, and good will let it teem,
+       And with service for all make it fully replete.
+
+    If you'd have all the world and all heaven to love you,
+       And that love with its power would you fully convince,
+    Then love all the world; and men royal and true,
+       Will make cry as you pass--"God bless him, the prince!"
+
+
+One beautiful feature of this principle of love and service is that this
+phase of one's personality, or nature, can be grown. I have heard it
+asked, If one hasn't it to any marked degree naturally, what is to be
+done? In reply let it be said, Forget self, get out of it for a little
+while, and, as it comes in your way, do something for some one, some
+kind service, some loving favor, it makes no difference how _small_ it
+may appear. But a kind look or word to one weary with care, from whose
+life all worth living for seems to have gone out; a helping hand or
+little lift to one almost discouraged,--it may be that this is just the
+critical moment, a helping hand just now may change a life or a destiny.
+Show yourself a friend to one who thinks he or she is friendless.
+
+Oh, there are a thousand opportunities each day right where you
+are,--not the great things far away, but the little things right at
+hand. With a heart full of love do something: experience the rich
+returns that will come to you, and it will be unnecessary to urge a
+repetition or a continuance. The next time it will be easier and more
+natural, and the next. You know of that wonderful reflex-nerve system
+you have in your body,--that which says that whenever you do a certain
+thing in a certain way, it is easier to do the same thing the next time,
+and the next, and the next, until presently it is done with scarcely any
+effort on your part at all, it has become your second nature. And thus
+we have what? Habit. This is the way that all habit is, the way that all
+habit must be formed. And have you ever fully realized that _life is,
+after all, merely a series of habits_, and that it lies entirely within
+one's own power to determine just what that series shall be?
+
+I have seen this great principle made the foundation principle in an
+institution of learning. It is made not a theory merely as I have seen
+it here and there, but a vital, living truth. And I wish I had time to
+tell of its wonderful and beautiful influences upon the life and work of
+that institution, and upon the lives and the work of those who go out
+from it. A joy indeed to be there. One can't enter within its walls even
+for a few moments without feeling its benign influences. One can't go
+out without taking them with him. I have seen purposes and lives almost
+or quite transformed; and life so rich, so beautiful, and so valuable
+opened up, such as the persons never dreamed could be, by being but a
+single year under these beautiful and life-giving influences.
+
+I have also seen it made the foundation principle of a great summer
+congress, one that has already done an unprecedented work, one that has
+a far greater work yet before it, and chiefly by reason of this
+all-powerful foundation upon which it is built,--conceived and put into
+operation as it was by a rare and highly illumined soul, one thoroughly
+filled with the love of service for all the human kind. There are no
+thoughts of money returns, for everything it has to give is as free as
+the beautiful atmosphere that pervades it. The result is that there is
+drawn together, by way of its magnificent corps of lectures as well as
+those in attendance, a company of people of the rarest type, so that
+everywhere there is a manifestation of that spirit of love, helpfulness,
+and kindliness, that permeates the entire atmosphere with a deep feeling
+of peace, that makes every moment of life a joy.
+
+So enchanting does this spirit make the place that very frequently the
+single day of some who have come for this length of time has lengthened
+itself into a week, and the week in turn into a month; and the single
+week of others has frequently lengthened itself, first into a month,
+then into the entire summer. There is nothing at all strange in this
+fact, however; for wherever one finds sweet humanity, he there finds a
+spot where all people love to dwell.
+
+Making this the fundamental principle of one's life, around which all
+others properly arrange and subordinate themselves, is not, as a casual
+observer might think, and as he sometimes suggests, an argument against
+one's own growth and development, against the highest possible
+unfoldment of his entire personality and powers. Rather, on the other
+hand, is it one of the greatest reasons, one of the greatest arguments,
+in its favor; for, the stronger the personality and the greater the
+powers, the greater the influence in the service of mankind. If, then,
+life be thus founded, can there possibly be any greater incentive to
+that self-development that brings one up to his highest possibilities? A
+development merely for self alone can never have behind it an incentive,
+a power so great; _and after all, there is nothing in the world so
+great, so effective in the service of mankind, as a strong, noble, and
+beautiful manhood or womanhood_. It is this that in the ultimate
+determines the influence of every man upon his fellow-men. _Life,
+character, is the greatest power in the world, and character it is that
+gives the power; for in all true power, along whatever line it may be,
+it is after all, living the life that tells_. This is a great law that
+but few who would have great power and influence seem to recognize, or,
+at least, that but few seem to act upon.
+
+Are you a writer? You can never write more than you yourself are. Would
+you write more? Then broaden, deepen, enrich the life. Are you a
+minister? You can never raise men higher than you have raised yourself.
+Your words will have exactly the sound of the life whence they come.
+Hollow the life? Hollow-sounding and empty will be the words, weak,
+ineffective, false. Would you have them go with greater power, and thus
+be more effective? Live the life, the power will come. Are you an
+orator? The power and effectiveness of your words in influencing and
+moving masses of men depends entirely upon the altitude from which they
+are spoken. Would you have them more effective, each one filled with a
+living power? Then elevate the life, the power will come. Are you in the
+walks of private life? Then, wherever you move, there goes from you,
+even if there be no word spoken, a silent but effective influence of an
+elevating or a degrading nature. Is the life high, beautiful? Then the
+influences are inspiring, life-giving. Is it low, devoid of beauty? The
+influences then, are disease laden, death-dealing. The tones of your
+voice, the attitude of your body, the character of your face, all are
+determined by the life you live, all in turn influence for better or for
+worse all who come within your radius. And if, as one of earth's great
+souls has said, the only way truly to help a man is to make him better,
+then the tremendous power of merely the life itself.
+
+Why, I know personally a young man of splendid qualities and gifts, who
+was rapidly on the way of ruin, as the term goes, gradually losing
+control of himself day after day, self-respect almost gone,--already the
+thought of taking his own life had entered his mind,--who was so
+inspired with the mere presence and bearing of a royal-hearted young
+man, one who had complete mastery of himself, and therefore a young man
+of power, that the very sight of him as he went to and fro in his daily
+work was a power that called his better self to the front again,
+awakened the God nature within him, so that he again set his face in the
+direction of the right, the true, the manly; and to-day there is no
+grander, stronger, more beautiful soul in all the wide country than he.
+Yes, there is a powerful influence that resolves itself into a service
+for all in each individual strong, pure, and noble life.
+
+And have the wonderful possibilities of what may be termed an inner or
+soul development ever come strongly to your notice? Perhaps not, for as
+yet only a few have begun to recognize under this name a certain great
+power that has always existed,--a power that has never as yet been fully
+understood, and so has been called by this term and by that. It is
+possible so to develop this soul power that, as we stand merely and talk
+with a person, there goes out from us a silent influence that the person
+cannot see or hear, but that he feels, and the influences of which he
+cannot escape; that, as we merely go into a room in which several
+persons are sitting, there goes out from us a power, a silent influence
+that all will feel and will be influenced by, even though not a word be
+spoken. This has been the power of every man, of every woman, of great
+and lasting influence in the world's history.
+
+It is just beginning to come to us through a few highly illumined souls
+that this power can be grown, that it rests upon great natural law that
+the Author of our being has instituted within us and about us. It is
+during the next few years that we are to see many wonderful developments
+along this line; for in this, as in many others, the light is just
+beginning to break. A few, who are far up on the heights of human
+development, are just beginning to catch the first few faint flushes of
+the dawn. Then live to your highest. This of itself will make you of
+great service to mankind, but without this you never can be. Naught is
+the difference how hard you may try; and know, even so far as your own
+highest interests are concerned, that the true joy of existence comes
+from living to one's highest.
+
+This life, and this alone, will bring that which I believe to be one of
+the greatest characteristics of a truly great man,--humility; and when
+one says humility, he necessarily implies simplicity; for the two always
+go hand in hand. The one is born of the other. The proud, the vain, the
+haughty, those striving for effect, are never counted among the world's
+greatest personages. The very fact of one's striving for effect of
+itself indicates that there is not enough in him to make him really
+great; while he who really is so needs never concern himself about it,
+nor does he ever. I can think of no better way for one to attain to
+humility and simplicity than for him to have his mind off of self in the
+service of others. Vanity, that most dangerous quality, and especially
+for young people, is the outcome of one's always regarding self.
+
+Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher once said that, when they lived in the part of
+Brooklyn known as the Heights, they could always tell when Mr. Beecher
+was coming in the evening from the voices and the joyous laughter of the
+children. All the street urchins, as well as the more well-to-do
+children in the vicinity, knew him, and would often wait for his coming.
+When they saw him in the distance, they would run and gather around him,
+get hold of his hands, into those large overcoat pockets for the nuts
+and the good things he so often filled them with before starting for
+home, knowing as he did full well what was coming, tug at him to keep
+him with them as long as they could, he all the time laughing or running
+as if to get away, never too great--ay, rather let us say, great
+enough--to join with them in their sports.
+
+That mysterious dignity of a man less great, therefore with less of
+humility and simplicity, with mind always intent upon self and his own
+standing, would have told him that possibly this might not be just the
+"proper thing" to do. But even the children, street urchins as well as
+those well-to-do, found in this great loving soul a friend. Recall
+similar incidents in the almost daily life of Lincoln and in the lives
+of all truly great men. All have that beautiful and ever-powerful
+characteristic, that simple, childlike nature.
+
+Another most beautiful and valuable feature of this life is its effect
+upon one's own growth and development. There is a law which says that
+one can't do a kind act or a loving service for another without its
+bringing rich returns to his own life and growth. This is an invariable
+law. Can I then, do a kind act or a loving service for a brother or a
+sister,--and all indeed are such because children of the same
+Father,--why, I should be glad--ay, doubly glad of the opportunity. If I
+do it thus out of love, forgetful of self, for aught I know it may do me
+more good than the one I do it for, in its influence upon the growing of
+that rich, beautiful, and happy life it is mine to grow; though the joy
+and satisfaction resulting from it, the highest, the sweetest, the
+keenest this life can know, are of themselves abundant rewards.
+
+In addition to all this it scarcely ever fails that those who are thus
+aided by some loving service may be in a position somehow, some-when,
+somewhere, either directly or indirectly, and at a time when it may be
+most needed or most highly appreciated, to do in turn a kind service for
+him who, with never a thought of any possible return, has dealt kindly
+with them. So
+
+    "Cast your bread upon the waters, far and wide your treasures strew,
+    Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go!
+    You may think it lost forever; but, as sure as God is true,
+    In this life and in the other it will yet return to you."
+
+Have you sorrows or trials that seem very heavy to bear? Then let me
+tell you that one of the best ways in the world to lighten and sweeten
+them is to lose yourself in the service of others, in helping to bear
+and lighten those of a fellow-being whose, perchance, are much more
+grievous than your own. It is a great law of your being which says you
+can do this. Try it, and experience the truth for yourself, and know
+that, when turned in this way, sorrow is the most beautiful soul-refiner
+of which the world knows, and hence not to be shunned, but to be
+welcomed and rightly turned.
+
+There comes to my mind a poor widow woman whose life would seem to have
+nothing in it to make it happy, but, on the other hand, cheerless and
+tiresome, and whose work would have been very hard, had it not been for
+a little crippled child she dearly loved and cared for, and who was all
+the more precious to her on account of its helplessness. Losing herself
+and forgetting her own hard lot in the care of the little cripple, her
+whole life was made cheerful and happy, and her work not hard, but easy,
+because lightened by love and service for another. And this is but one
+of innumerable cases of this kind.
+
+So you may turn your sorrows, you may lighten your burdens, by helping
+bear the burdens, if not of a crippled child, then of a brother or a
+sister who in another sense may be crippled, or who may become so but
+for your timely service. You can find them all about you: never pass one
+by.
+
+By building upon this principle, the poor may thus live as grandly and
+as happily as the rich, those in humble and lowly walks of life as
+grandly and as happily as those in what seem to be more exalted
+stations. Recognizing the truth, as we certainly must by this time, that
+one is _truly_ great only in so far as this is made the fundamental
+principle of his life, it becomes evident that that longing for
+greatness for its and for one's own sake falls away, and none but a
+diseased mind cares for it; for no sooner is it grasped than, as a
+bubble, it bursts, because it is not the true, the permanent, but the
+false, the transient. On the other hand, he who forgetting self and this
+kind of greatness, falsely so called, in the service of his fellow-men,
+by this very fact puts himself on the right track, the only track for
+the true, the genuine; and in what degree it will come to him depends
+entirely upon his adherence to the law.
+
+And do you know the influence of this life in the moulding of the
+features, that it gives the highest beauty that can dwell there, the
+beauty that comes from within,--the _soul beauty_, so often found in the
+paintings of the old masters. _True beauty must come, must be grown,
+from, within_. That outward veneering, which is so prevalent, can never
+be even a poor imitation of this type of the true, the genuine. To
+appreciate fully the truth of this, it is but necessary to look for a
+moment at that beautiful picture by Sant, the "Soul's Awakening," a face
+that grows more beautiful each time one looks at it, and that one never
+tires of looking at, and compare with it the fractional parts of
+apothecary shops we see now and then--or so often, to speak more
+truly--on the streets. A face of this higher type carries with it a
+benediction wherever it goes.
+
+A beautiful little incident came to my notice not long ago. It was a
+very hot and dusty day. The passengers on the train were weary and
+tired. The time seemed long and the journey cheerless. A lady with a
+face that carries a benediction to all who see her entered the car with
+a little girl, also of that type of beauty that comes from within, and
+with a voice musical, sweet, and sparkling, such as also comes from this
+source.
+
+The child, when they were seated, had no sooner spoken a few words
+before she began to enlist the attention of her fellow-passengers. She
+began playing peek-a-boo with a staid and dignified old gentleman in the
+seat behind her. He at first looked at her over his spectacles, then
+lowered his paper a little, then a little more, and a little more.
+Finally, he dropped it altogether, and, apparently forgetting himself
+and his surroundings, became oblivious to everything in the fascinating
+pleasure he was having with the little girl. The other passengers soon
+found themselves following his example. All papers and books were
+dropped. The younger folks gave way to joyous laughter, and all seemed
+to vie with each other in having the honor of receiving a word or a
+smile from the little one.
+
+The dust, the heat, the tired, cheerless feelings were all forgotten;
+and when these two left the car, the little girl waving them good-by,
+instinctively, as one person, all the passengers waved it to her in
+return, and two otherwise dignified gentlemen, leaving their seats,
+passed over to the other side, and looked out of the window to see her
+as long as they could. Something as an electrical spark seemed to have
+passed through the car. All were light-hearted and happy now; and the
+conditions in the car, compared to what they were before these two
+entered, would rival the work of the stereopticon, so far as
+completeness of change is concerned. You have seen such faces and have
+heard such voices. They result from a life the kind we are considering.
+They are but its outward manifestations, spontaneous as the water from
+the earth as it bursts forth a natural fountain.
+
+We must not fail also to notice the effect of this life upon one's
+manners and bearing. True politeness comes from a life founded upon this
+great principle, and from this alone. This gives the true
+gentleman,--_gentle-man_,--a man gentle, kind, loving, courteous from
+nature. Such a one can't have anything but true politeness, can't be
+anything but a gentle-man; for one can't truly be anything but himself.
+So the one always intent upon and thinking of self cannot be the true
+gentleman, notwithstanding the artful contrivances and studied efforts
+to appear so, but which so generally reveal his own shallowness and
+artificiality, and disgust all with whom he comes in contact.
+
+I sometimes meet a person who, when introduced, will go through a series
+of stiff, cold, and angular movements, the knee at such a bend, the foot
+at such an angle, the back with such a bend or hump,--much less pleasant
+to see than that of a camel or a dromedary, for with these it is
+natural,--so that I have found myself almost thinking, Poor fellow, I
+wonder what the trouble is, whether he will get over it all right. It is
+so very evident that he all the time has his mind upon himself,
+wondering whether or not he is getting everything just right. What a
+relief to turn from such a one to one who, instead of thinking always of
+self, has continually in mind the ease and comfort and pleasure he can
+give to others, who, in other words, is the true _gentle-man_, and with
+whom true politeness is natural; for one's every act is born of his
+thoughts.
+
+It is said that there was no truer gentleman in all Scotland than Robert
+Burns. And yet he was a farmer all his life, and had never been away
+from his native little rural village into a city until near the close of
+his life, when, taking the manuscripts that for some time had been
+accumulating in the drawer of his writing-table up to Edinburgh, he
+captivated the hearts of all in the capital. Without studied
+contrivances, he was the true gentleman, and true politeness was his,
+because his life was founded upon the principle that continually brought
+from his pen lines such as:--
+
+    "It's coming yet, for a' that,
+    That man to man, the warld o'er,
+    Shall brothers be for a' that!"
+
+And under the influence of this principle, he was a gentleman by nature,
+and one of nature's noblemen, without ever thinking whether he was or
+not, as he who is truly such never needs to and never does.
+
+And then recall the large-hearted Ben Franklin, when sent to the French
+court. In his plain gray clothes, unassuming and entirely forgetful of
+himself, how he captured the hearts of all, of even the giddy society
+ladies, and how he became and remained while there the centre of
+attraction in that gay capital! His politeness, his manners, all the
+result of that great, kind, loving, and helpful nature which made
+others feel that it was they he was devoting himself to and not himself.
+
+This little extract from a letter written by Franklin to George
+Whitefield will show how he regarded the great principle we are
+considering: "As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have been
+of more service to you. But, if it had, the only thanks I should desire
+is that you would always be equally ready to serve any other person that
+may need your assistance; and so let good offices go around, for mankind
+are all of a family. For my own part, when I am employed in serving
+others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favors, but as paying
+debts. In my travels, and since my settlement, I have received much
+kindness from men to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making
+any direct return, and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely
+above being benefited by our services. These kindnesses from men I can,
+therefore, only return on their fellow-men; and I can only show my
+gratitude for these mercies from God by a readiness to help his other
+children and my brethren."
+
+No, true gentlemanliness and politeness always comes from within, and is
+born of a life of love, kindliness, and service. This is the universal
+language, known and understood everywhere, even when our words are not.
+There is, you know, a beautiful old proverb which says, "He who is kind
+and courteous to strangers thereby shows himself a citizen of the
+world." And there is nothing so remembered, and that so endears one to
+all mankind, as this universal language. Even dumb animals understand it
+and are affected by it. How quickly the dog, for example, knows and
+makes it known when he is spoken to and treated kindly or the reverse!
+And here shall not a word be spoken in connection with that great body
+of our fellow-creatures whom, because we do not understand their
+language, we are accustomed to call dumb? The attitude we have assumed
+toward these fellow-creatures, and the treatment they have been
+subjected to in the past, is something almost appalling.
+
+There are a number of reasons why this has been true. Has not one been
+on account of a belief in a future life for man, but not for the animal?
+A few years ago a gentleman left by will some fifty thousand dollars for
+the work of Henry Bergh's New York Society. His relatives contested the
+will on the ground of insanity,--on the ground of insanity because he
+believed in a future life for animals. The judge, in giving his decision
+sustaining the will, stated that after a very careful investigation, he
+found that fully half the world shared the same belief. Agassiz
+thoroughly believed it. An English writer has recently compiled a list
+of over one hundred and seventy English authors who have so thoroughly
+believed it as to write upon the subject. The same belief has been
+shared by many of the greatest thinkers in all parts of the world, and
+it is a belief that is constantly gaining ground.
+
+Another and perhaps the chief cause has been on account of a supposed
+inferior degree of intelligence on the part of animals, which in another
+form would mean, that they are less able to care for and protect
+themselves. Should this, however, be a reason why they should be
+neglected and cruelly treated? Nay, on the other hand, should this not
+be the greatest reason why we should all the more zealously care for,
+protect, and kindly treat them?
+
+You or I may have a brother or a sister who is not normally endowed as
+to brain power, who, perchance, may be idiotic or insane, or who,
+through sickness or mishap, is weakminded; but do we make this an
+excuse for neglecting, cruelly treating, or failing to love such a one?
+On the contrary, the very fact that he or she is not so able to plan
+for, care for, and protect him or her self, is all the greater reason
+for all the more careful exercise of these functions on our part. But,
+certainly, there are many animals around us with far more intelligence,
+at least manifested intelligence, than this brother or sister. The
+parallel holds, but the absurd falsity of the position we assume is most
+apparent. No truer nobility of character can anywhere manifest itself
+than is shown in one's attitude toward and treatment of those weaker or
+the so-called inferior, and so with less power to care for and protect
+themselves. Moreover, I think we shall find that we are many times
+mistaken in regard to our beliefs in connection with the inferior
+intelligence of at least many animals. If, instead of using them simply
+to serve our own selfish ends without a just recompense, without a
+thought further than as to what we can get out of them, and then many
+times casting them off when broken or of no further service, and many
+times looking down upon, neglecting, or even abusing them,--if, instead
+of this, we would deal equitably with them, love them, train and
+educate them the same as we do our children, we would be somewhat
+surprised at the remarkable degree of intelligence the "dumb brutes"
+possess, and also the remarkable degree of training they are capable of.
+What, however, can be expected of them when we take the attitude we at
+present hold toward them?
+
+Page after page might readily be filled with most interesting as well as
+inspiring portrayals of their superior intelligence, their remarkable
+capabilities under kind and judicious training, their _faithfulness_ and
+_devotion_. The efforts of such noble and devoted workers as Henry Bergh
+in New York, of George T. Angell in Massachusetts, and many others in
+various parts of the country, have already brought about a great change
+in our attitude toward and relations with this great body of our
+fellow-creatures, and have made all the world more thoughtful,
+considerate, and kind. This, however, is just the beginning of a work
+that is assuming greater and ever greater proportions.
+
+The work of the American Humane Education Society[A] is probably
+surpassed in its vitality and far-reaching results by the work of no
+other society in the world to-day. Its chief object is the humane
+education of the American people; and through one phase of its work
+alone--its Bands of Mercy, over twenty-five thousand of which have
+already been formed, giving regular, systematic humane training and
+instruction to between one and two million children, and these
+continually increasing in numbers--a most vital work is being done, such
+as no man can estimate.
+
+The humane sentiment inculcated in one's relations with the animal
+world, and its resultant feelings of sympathy, tenderness, love, and
+care, will inevitably manifest itself in one's relations with his
+fellows; and I for one, would rejoice to see this work carried into
+every school throughout the length and breadth of the land. In many
+cases this one phase of the child's training would be of far more vital
+value and import as he grows to manhood than all the rest of the
+schooling combined, and it would form a most vital entering wedge in the
+solution of our social situation.
+
+And why should we not speak to and kindly greet an animal as we pass it,
+as instinctively as we do a human fellow-being? Though it may not get
+our words, it will invariably get the attitude and the motive that
+prompts them, and will be affected accordingly. This it will do every
+time. Animals in general are marvellously sensitive to the mental
+conditions, the thought forces, and emotions of people. Some are
+peculiarly sensitive, and can detect them far more quickly and
+unerringly than many people can.
+
+It ought to help us greatly in our relations with them ever fully to
+realize that they with us are parts of the one Universal Life, simply
+different forms of the manifestation of the One Life, having their part
+to play in the economy of the great universe the same as we have ours,
+having their destiny to work out the same as we have ours, and just as
+important, just as valuable, in the sight of the All in All as we
+ourselves.
+
+"I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me.
+
+"I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemned
+for a while to roam four-footed among the brambles. I caught the
+clinging mute glance of the prisoner, and swore I would be faithful.
+
+"Thee my brother and sister I see, and mistake not. Do not be afraid.
+Dwelling thus for a while, fulfilling thy appointed time, thou, too,
+shall come to thyself at last.
+
+"Thy half-warm horns and long tongue lapping round my wrist do not
+conceal thy humanity any more than the learned talk of the pedant
+conceals his,--for all thou art dumb, we have words and plenty between
+us.
+
+"Come nigh, little bird, with your half-stretched quivering
+wings,--within you I behold choirs of angels, and the Lord himself in
+vista."[B]
+
+But a small thing, apparently, is a kind look, word, or service of some
+kind; but, oh! who can tell where it may end? It costs the giver
+comparatively nothing; but who can tell the priceless value to him who
+receives it? The cup of loving service, be it merely a cup of cold
+water, may grow and swell into a boundless river, refreshing and
+carrying life and hope in turn to numberless others, and these to
+others, and so have no end. This may be just the critical moment in some
+life. Given now, it may save or change a life or a destiny. So don't
+withhold the bread that's in your keeping, but
+
+     "Scatter it with willing fingers, shout for joy to see it go."
+
+There is no greater thing in life that you can do, and nothing that
+will bring you such rich and precious returns.
+
+The question is sometimes asked, How can one feel a deep and genuine
+love, a love sufficient to manifest itself in service for all?--there
+are some so mean, so small, with so many peculiar, objectionable, or
+even obnoxious characteristics. True, very true, apparently at least;
+but another great law of life is that _we find in men and women exactly
+those qualities, those characteristics, we look for, or that are nearest
+akin to the predominant qualities or characteristics of our own
+natures_. If we look for the peculiar, the little, the objectionable,
+these we shall find; but back of all this, all that is most apparent on
+the exterior, in the depths of each and every human soul, is the good,
+the true, the brave, the loving, the divine, the God-like, that that
+never changes, the very God Himself that at some time or another will
+show forth His full likeness.
+
+And still another law of life is that others usually manifest to us that
+which our own natures, or, in other words, our own thoughts and
+emotions, call forth. The same person, for example, will come to two
+different people in an entirely different way, because the larger,
+better, purer, and more universal nature of the one calls forth the
+best, the noblest, the truest in him; while the smaller, critical,
+personal nature of the other calls forth the opposite. The wise man is
+therefore careful in regard to what he has to say concerning this or
+that one; for, generally speaking, it is a sad commentary upon one's
+self if he find only the disagreeable, the objectionable. _One lives
+always in the atmosphere of his own creation_.
+
+Again, it is sometimes said, But such a one has such and such habits or
+has done so and so, has committed such and such an error or such and
+such a crime. But who, let it be asked, constituted me a judge of my
+fellow-man? Do I not recognize the fact that the moment I judge my
+fellow-man, by that very act I judge myself? One of two things, I either
+judge myself or hypocritically profess that never once in my entire life
+have I committed a sin, an error of any kind, never have I stumbled,
+never fallen, and by that very profession I pronounce myself at once
+either a fool or a knave, or both.
+
+Again, it is said, But even for the sake of helping, of doing some
+service, I could not for my own sake, for character's, for reputation's
+sake, I could not afford even to be seen with such a one. What would
+people, what would my friends, think and say? True, apparently at least,
+but, if my life, my character, has such a foundation, a foundation so
+weak, so uncertain, so tottering, as to be affected by anything of this
+kind, I had better then look well to it, and quietly, quickly, but
+securely, begin to rebuild it; and, when I am sure that it is upon the
+true, deep, substantial foundation, the only additional thing then
+necessary is for me to reach that glorious stage of development which
+quickly gets one out of the personal into the universal, or rather that
+indicates that he is already out of the one and into the other, when he
+can say: They think. What do they think? Let them think. They say. What
+do they say? Let them say.
+
+And, then, the supreme charity one should have, when he realizes the
+fact that _the great bulk of the sin and error in the world is committed
+not through choice, but through ignorance_. Not that the person does not
+know many times that this or that course of action is wrong, that it is
+wrong to commit this error or sin or crime; but the ignorance comes in
+his belief that in this course of conduct he is deriving pleasure and
+happiness, and his ignorance of the fact that through a different course
+of conduct he would derive a pleasure, a happiness, much keener, higher,
+more satisfying and enduring.
+
+Never should we forget that we are all the same in motive,--pleasure and
+happiness: we differ only in method; and this difference in method is
+solely by reason of some souls being at any particular time more fully
+evolved, and thus having a greater knowledge of the great, immutable
+laws under which we live, and by putting the life into more and ever
+more complete harmony with these higher laws and forces, and in this way
+bringing about the highest, the keenest, the most abiding pleasure and
+happiness instead of seeking it on the lower planes.
+
+While all are the same in essence, all a part of the One Infinite,
+Eternal, all with the same latent possibilities, all reaching ultimately
+the same place, it nevertheless is true that at any particular time some
+are more fully awakened, evolved, unfolded. One should also be careful,
+if life is continuous, eternal, how he judges any particular life merely
+from these threescore years and ten; for the very fact of life, in
+whatever form, means continual activity, growth, advancement,
+unfoldment, attainment, and, if there is the one, there must of
+necessity be the other. So in regard to this one or that one, no fears
+need be entertained.
+
+By the door of my woodland cabin stood during the summer a magnificent
+tube-rose stock. The day was when it was just putting into bloom; and
+then I counted buds--latent flowers--to the number of over a score. Some
+eight or ten one morning were in full bloom. The ones nearer the top did
+not bloom forth until some two and three weeks later, and for some it
+took quite a month to reach the fully perfected stage. These certainly
+were not so beautiful, so satisfying, as those already in the perfect
+bloom, those that had already reached their highest perfection. But
+should they on this account be despised? Wait, wait and give the element
+of time an opportunity of doing its work; and you may find that by and
+by, when these have reached their highest perfection, they may even far
+transcend in beauty and in fragrance those at present so beautiful, so
+fragrant, so satisfying, those that we so much admire.
+
+Here we recognize the element of time. How foolish, how childish, how
+puerile, to fail or even refuse to do the same when it comes to the
+human soul, with all its God-like possibilities! And, again, how
+foolish, because some of the blooms on the rose stock had not reached
+their perfection as soon as others, to have pronounced them of no value,
+unworthy, and to have refused them the dews, the warm rains, the
+life-giving sunshine, the very agencies that hastened their perfected
+growth! Yet this puerile, unbalanced attitude is that taken by untold
+numbers in the world to-day toward many human souls on account of their
+less mature unfoldment at any given time.
+
+Why, the very fact that a fellow-man and a brother has this or that
+fault, error, undesirable or objectionable characteristic, is of itself
+the very reason he needs all the more of charity, of love, of kindly
+help and aid, than is needed by the one more fully developed, and hence
+more free from these. All the more reason is there why the best in him
+should be recognized and ever called to the front.
+
+The wise man is he who, when he desires to rid a room of darkness or
+gloom, does not attempt to drive it out directly, but who throws open
+the doors and the windows, that the room may be flooded with the golden
+sunlight; for in its presence darkness and gloom cannot remain. So the
+way to help a fellow-man and a brother to the higher and better life is
+not by ever prating upon and holding up to view his errors, his faults,
+his shortcomings, any more than in the case of children, but by
+recognizing and ever calling forth the higher, the nobler, the divine,
+the God-like, _by opening the doors and the windows of his own soul_,
+and thus bringing about a spiritual perception, that he may the more
+carefully listen to the inner voice, that he may the more carefully
+follow "the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
+For in the exact proportion that the interior perception comes will the
+outer life and conduct accord with it,--so far, and no farther.
+
+Where in all the world's history is to be found a more beautiful or
+valuable incident than this? A group of men, self-centred,
+self-assertive, have found a poor woman who, in her blindness and
+weakness, has committed an error, the same one that they, in all
+probability, have committed not once, but many times; _for the rule is
+that they are first to condemn who are-most at fault themselves_. They
+bring her to the Master, they tell him that she has committed a
+sin,--ay, more, that she has been taken in the very act,--and ask what
+shall be done with her, informing him that, in accordance with the olden
+laws, such a one should be stoned.
+
+But, quicker than thought, that great incarnation of spiritual power and
+insight reads their motives; and, after allowing them to give full
+expression to their accusations, he turns, and calmly says, "He among
+you that is _without sin_, let _him_ cast the first stone." So saying,
+he stoops down, as if he is writing in the sand. The accusers, feeling
+the keen and just rebuke, in the mean time sneak out, until not one
+remains. The Master, after all have gone, turns to the woman, his
+sister, and kindly and gently says, "And where are thine accusers? doth
+no man condemn thee?" "No man, Lord." "_And neither do I condemn thee:
+go thou, and sin no more_." Oh, the beauty, the soul pathos! Oh, the
+royal-hearted brother! Oh, the invaluable lesson to us all!
+
+I have no doubt that this gentle, loving admonition, this calling of the
+higher and the better to the front, set into operation in her interior
+nature forces that hastened her progress from the purely animal, the
+unsatisfying, the diminishing, to the higher spiritual, the satisfying,
+the ever-increasing, or, even more, that made it instantaneous, but that
+in either case brought about the new birth,--the new birth that comes
+with the awakening of the soul out of its purely physical sense-life to
+the higher spiritual perception and knowledge of itself, and thus the
+birth of the higher out of the lower, as at some time or another comes
+to each and every human soul.
+
+And still another fact that should make us most charitable toward and
+slow to judge, or rather refuse to judge, a fellow-man and a
+brother,--the fact that we cannot know the intense strugglings and
+fightings he or she may be subjected to, though accompanied, it is true,
+by numerous stumblings and fallings, though the latter we see, while the
+former we fail to recognize. Did we, however, know the truth of the
+matter, it may be that in the case of ourselves, who are so quick to
+judge, had we the same temptations and fightings, the battle would not
+be half so nobly, so manfully fought, and our stumblings and fallings
+might be many times the number of his or of hers. Had we infinite
+knowledge and wisdom, our judgments would be correct; though, had we
+infinite knowledge and wisdom, we would be spared the task, though
+perhaps pleasure would seem to be the truer word to use, of our own
+self-imposed judgments.
+
+Even so, then, if I cannot give myself in thorough love and service and
+self-devotion to each and all of the Father's other children, to every
+brother, no matter what the rank, station, or apparent condition, it
+shows that at least one of several things is radically wrong with self;
+and it also indicates that I shall never know the full and supreme joy
+of existence until I am able to and until I regard each case in the
+light of a rare and golden opportunity, in which I take a supreme
+delight.
+
+Although what has just been said is true, at the same time there are
+occasions when it must be taken with wise discretion; and, although
+there are things it may be right for me to do for the sake of helping
+another life, at the same time there are things it may be unwise for me
+to do. I have sympathy for a friend who is lying in the gutter; but it
+would be very unwise for me to get myself into the same condition, and
+go and lie with him, thinking that only thus I could show my fullest
+sympathy, and be of greatest help to him. On the contrary, it is only as
+I stand on the higher ground that I am able to reach forth the hand
+that will truly lift him up. The moment I sink myself to the same level,
+my power to help ceases.
+
+Just as unwise, to use a familiar example, far more unwise, would it be
+for me, were I a woman, to think of marrying a man who is a drunkard or
+a libertine, thinking that because I may love him I shall be able to
+reform him. In the first place, I should find that the desired results
+could not be accomplished in this way, or rather, no results that could
+not be accomplished, and far more readily accomplished otherwise, and at
+far less expense. In the second place, I could not afford to subject
+myself to the demands, the influences, of one such, and so either sink
+myself to his level or, if not, then be compelled to use the greater
+part of my time, thought, and energy in demonstrating over existing
+conditions, and keeping myself true to the higher life, the same time
+that might be used in helping the lives of many others. If I sink myself
+to his level, I do not help, but aid all the more in dragging him down,
+or, if I do not sink to his level, then in the degree that I approach it
+do I lose my power over and influence with that life. Especially would
+it be unwise on my part if on his part there is no real desire for a
+different course, and no manifest endeavor to attain to it. Many times
+it seems necessary for such a one to wallow in the deepest of the mire,
+until, to use a commonplace phrase, he has his fill. He will then be
+ready to come out, will then be open to influence. I in the mean time,
+instead of entering into the mire with him, instead of subjecting my
+life to his influences, will stand up on the higher ground, and will
+ever point him upward, will ever reach forth a hand to help him upward,
+and will thus subject _him_ to the higher influences; and, by preserving
+myself in this attitude, I can do the same for many other lives. In it
+all there will be no bitterness, no condemnation, no casting off, but
+the highest charity, sympathy and love; and it is only by this method
+that I can manifest the highest, only by this method that I can the most
+truly aid, for only as I am lifted up can I draw others unto me.
+
+In this matter of service, as in all other matters, that supreme
+regulator of human life and conduct--good common sense--must always be
+used. There are some natures, for example, whom the more we would do
+for, the more we would have to do for, who, in other words, would become
+dependent, losing their sense of self-dependence. For such the highest
+service one can render is as judiciously and as indirectly as possible
+to lead them to the sense of self-reliance. Then there are others whose
+natures are such that, the more they are helped, the more they expect,
+the more they demand, even as their right, who, in other words, are
+parasites or vultures of the human kind. In this case, again, the
+greatest service that can be rendered may be a refusal of service, a
+refusal of aid in the ordinary or rather expected forms, and a still
+greater service in the form of teaching them that great principle of
+justice, of compensation, that runs through all the universe,--that for
+every service there must be in some form or another an adequate service
+in return, that the law of compensation in one form or another is
+absolute, and, in fact, the greatest forms of service we can render any
+one are, generally speaking, along the lines of teaching him the great
+laws of his own being, the great laws of his true possibilities and
+powers and so the great laws of self-help.
+
+And, again, it is possible for one whose heart goes out in love and
+service for all, and who, by virtue of lacking that long range of vision
+or by virtue of not having a grasp of things in their entirety or
+wholeness, may have his time, his energies so dissipated in what seems
+to be the highest service that he is continually kept from his own
+highest unfoldment, powers, and possessions, the very things that in
+their completeness would make him a thousand-fold more effective and
+powerful in his own life, and hence in the life of real service and
+influence. And, in a case of this kind, many times the mark of the most
+absolute unselfishness is a strong and marked selfishness, which will
+prove however to be a selfishness only in the seeming.
+
+_The self should never be lost sight of. It is the one thing of supreme
+importance, the greatest factor even in the life of the greatest
+service_. Being always and necessarily precedes doing: having always and
+necessarily precedes giving. But this law also holds: that when there is
+the being, it is all the more increased by the doing; when there is the
+having, it is all the more increased by the giving. _Keeping to one's
+self dwarfs and stultifies. Hoarding brings loss: using brings even
+greater gain_. In brief, the more we are, the more we can do; the more
+we have, the more we can give.
+
+The most truly successful, the most powerful and valuable life, then,
+is the life that is first founded upon this great, immutable law of love
+and service, and that then becomes supremely self-centred,--supremely
+self-centred that it may become all the more supremely unself-centred;
+in other words, the life that looks v/ell to self, that there may be the
+ever greater self, in order that there may be the ever greater service.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote A: Headquarters at Boston, Mass.]
+
+[Footnote B: Toward Democracy.]
+
+
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+THE AWAKENING
+
+
+    If you'd live a religion that's noble,
+      That's God-like and true,
+    A religion the grandest that men
+      Or that angels can,
+    Then live, live the truth
+      Of the brother who taught you,
+    It's love to God, service and love
+      To the fellow-man.
+
+
+Social problems are to be among the greatest problems of the generation
+just moving on to the stage of action. They, above all others, will
+claim the attention of mankind, as they are already claiming it across
+the waters even as at home. The attitude of the two classes toward each
+other, or the separation of the classes, will be by far the chief
+problem of them all. Already it is imperatively demanding a solution.
+Gradually, as the years have passed, this separation has been going on,
+but never so rapidly as of late. Each has come to regard the other as an
+enemy, with no interests in common, but rather that what is for the
+interests of the one must necessarily be to the detriment of the other.
+
+The great masses of the people, the working classes, those who as much,
+if not more than many others ought to be there, are not in our churches
+to-day. They already feel that they are not wanted there, and that the
+Church even is getting to be their enemy. There must be a reason for
+this, for it is impossible to have an effect without its preceding
+cause. It is indeed time to waken up to these facts and conditions; for
+they must be _squarely_ met. A solution is imperatively demanded, and
+the sooner it comes, the better; for, if allowed to continue thus, all
+will come back to be paid for, intensified a thousand-fold,--ay, to be
+paid for even by many innocent ones.
+
+Let this great principle of service, helpfulness, love, and
+self-devotion to the interests of one's fellow-men be made the
+fundamental principle of all lives, and see how simplified these great
+and all-important questions will become. Indeed, they will almost solve
+themselves. It is the man all for self, so small and so short sighted
+that he can't get beyond his own selfish interests, that has done more
+to bring about this state of affairs than all other causes combined. Let
+the cause be removed, and then note the results.
+
+For many years it has been a teaching even of political economy that an
+employer buys his help just as he buys his raw material or any other
+commodity; and this done, he is in no way responsible for the welfare of
+those he employs. In fact, the time isn't so far distant when the
+employed were herded together as animals, and were treated very much as
+such. But, thanks be to God, a better and a brighter day is dawning.
+Even the employer is beginning to see that practical ethics, or true
+Christianity, and business cannot and must not be divorced; that the man
+he employs, instead of being a mere animal whose services he buys, is,
+after all his fellow-man and his brother, and demands a treatment as
+such, and that when he fails to recognize this truth, a righteous God
+steps in, demanding a penalty for its violation.
+
+He is recognizing the fact that whatsoever is for the well-being of the
+one he employs, that whatever privileges he is enabled to enjoy that
+will tend to grow and develop his physical, his mental, and his moral
+life, that will give him an agreeable home and pleasant family
+relations, that whatever influences tend to elevate him and to make his
+life more happy, are a direct gain, even from a financial standpoint for
+himself, by its increasing for him the efficiency of the man's labor.
+It is already recognized as a fact that the employer who interests
+himself in these things, other things being equal, is the most
+successful. Thus the old and the false are breaking away before the
+right and the true, as all inevitably must sooner or later; and the
+divinity and the power of the workingman is being ever more fully
+recognized.
+
+In the very remote history of the race there was one who, violating a
+great law, having wronged a brother, asked, "Am I my brother's keeper?"
+Knowing that he was, he nevertheless deceitfully put the question in
+this way in his desire, if possible, to avoid the responsibility. Many
+employers in their selfishness and greed for gain have asked this same
+question in this same way. They have thought they could thus defeat the
+sure and eternal laws of a Just Ruler, but have thereby deceived
+themselves the more. These more than any others have to a great degree
+brought about the present state of affairs in the industrial and social
+world.
+
+Just as soon as the employer recognizes the falsity of these old
+teachings and practices, and the fact that he cannot buy his employee's
+services the same as he buys his raw material, with no further
+responsibility, but that the two are on vastly different planes, that
+his employee is his fellow-man and his brother, and that he is his
+brother's keeper, and will be held responsible as such, that it is to
+his own highest interests, as well as to the highest interests of those
+he employs and to society in general, to recognize this; and just as
+soon as he who is employed fully appreciates his opportunities and makes
+the highest use of all, and in turn takes an active, personal interest
+in all that pertains to his employer's welfare,--just that soon will a
+solution of this great question come forth, and no sooner.
+
+It is not so much a question of legislation as of education and right
+doing, thus a dealing with the _individual_, and so a prevention and a
+cure, not merely a suppression and a regulation, which is always sure to
+fail; for, in a case of right or wrong no question is ever settled
+finally until it is settled rightly.
+
+The individual, dealing with the individual is necessarily at the bottom
+of all true social progress. There can't be anything worthy the name
+without it. The truth will at once be recognized by all _that the good
+of the whole defends upon the good of each, and the good of each makes
+the good of the whole_. Attend, then, to the individual, and the whole
+will take care of itself. Let each individual work in harmony with every
+other, and harmony will pervade the whole. The old theory of
+competition--that in order to have great advancement, great progress, we
+must have great competition to induce it--is as false as it is savage
+and detrimental in its nature. We are just reaching that point where the
+larger men and women are beginning to see its falsity. They are
+recognizing the fact that, _not competition, but co-operation,
+reciprocity, is the great, the true power_,--to climb, not by attempting
+to drag, to keep down one's fellows, but by aiding them, and being in
+turn aided by them, thus combining, and so multiplying the power of all
+instead of wasting a large part one against the other.
+
+And grant that a portion do succeed in rising, while the other portion
+remain in the lower condition, it is of but little value so far as their
+own peace and welfare are concerned; for they can never be what they
+would be, were all up together. Each is but a part, a member, of the
+great civil body; and no member, let alone the entire body, can be
+perfectly well, perfectly at ease, when any other part is in dis-ease.
+No one part of the community, no one part of the nation, can stand
+alone: all are dependent, interdependent. This is the uniform teaching
+of history from the remotest times in the past right through to the
+present. A most admirable illustration of this fact--if indeed the word
+"admirable" can be used in connection with a matter so deplorable--was
+the unparalleled labor trouble we had in our great Western city but a
+few summers ago. The wise man is he who learns from experiences of this
+terrific nature.
+
+No, not until this all-powerful principle is fully recognized, and is
+built upon so thoroughly that the brotherhood principle, the principle
+of oneness can enter in, and each one recognizes the fact that his own
+interests and welfare depend upon the interests, the welfare of each,
+and therefore of all, that each is but a part of the one great whole,
+and each one stands shoulder to shoulder in the advance forward, can we
+hope for any true solution of the great social problems before us, for
+any permanent elevation of the standard in our national social life and
+welfare.
+
+This same principle is the solution, and the only true solution, of the
+charities question, as indeed the whole world during the last few years
+or so, and during this time only, is beginning to realize. And the
+splendid and efficient work of the organized charities in all our large
+cities, as of the Elberfeld system in Germany, is attesting the truth of
+this. Almost numberless methods have been tried during the past, but all
+have most successfully failed; and many have greatly increased the
+wretched condition of matters, and of those it was designed to help.
+During this length of time only have these all-important questions been
+dealt with in a true, scientific, Christ-like, common-sense way. It has
+been found even here that nothing can take the place of the personal and
+friendly influences of a life built upon this principle of service.
+
+The question of aiding the poor and needy has passed through three
+distinct phases of development in the world's history. In early times it
+was, "Each one for himself, and the devil take the hindmost." From the
+time of the Christ, and up to the last few years it has been, "Help
+others." Now it is, "_Help others to help themselves_." The wealthy
+society lady going down Fifth Avenue in New York, or Michigan Avenue in
+Chicago, or Charles Street in Baltimore, or Commonwealth Avenue in
+Boston, who flings a coin to one asking alms, is _not_ the one who is
+doing a true act of charity; but, on the other hand, she may be doing
+the one she thus gives to and to society in general much more harm than
+good, as is many times the case. It is but a cheap, a very cheap way of
+buying ease for her sympathetic nature or her sense of duty. Never let
+the word "charity," which always includes the elements of interested
+service, true helpfulness, kindliness, and love, be debased by making it
+a synonym of mere giving, which may mean the flinging of a quarter in
+scorn or for show.
+
+Recognizing the great truth that the best and only way to help another
+is to help him to help himself, and that the neglected classes need not
+so much alms as friends, the Organized Charities with their several
+branches in different parts of the city have their staffs of "friendly
+visitors," almost all voluntary, and from some of the best homes in the
+land. Then when a case of need comes to the notice of the society, one
+of these goes to the person or family as a _friend_ to investigate, to
+find what circumstances have brought about these conditions, and, if
+found worthy of aid, present needs are supplied, an effort is made to
+secure work, and every effort is made to put them on their feet again,
+that self-respect may be regained, that hope may enter in; for there is
+scarcely anything that tends to make one lose his self-respect so
+quickly and so completely as to be compelled, or of his own accord, to
+ask for alms.
+
+It is thus many times that a new life is entered upon, brightness and
+hope taking the place of darkness and despair. This is not the only call
+the friendly visitor makes; but he or she becomes a _true friend_, and
+makes regular visits as such. If by this method the one seeking charity
+is found to be an impostor, as is frequently the case, proper means of
+exposure are resorted to, that his or her progress in this course may be
+stopped. The organizations are thus doing a most valuable work, and one
+that will become more and more valuable as they are enabled to become
+better organized, the greatest need to-day being more with the true
+spirit to act as visiting friends.
+
+It is this same great principle that has given birth to our college and
+university settlements and our neighborhood guilds which are so rapidly
+increasing, and which are destined to do a great and efficient work.
+Here a small colony of young women, many from our best homes, and the
+ablest graduates of our best colleges, and young men, many of them the
+ablest graduates of our best universities, take up their abode in the
+poorest parts of our large cities, to try by their personal influence
+and personal contact to raise the surrounding life to a higher plane. It
+is in these ways that the poor and the unfortunate are dealt with
+directly. Thus the classes mingle. Thus that sentimentalism which may do
+and which has done harm to these great problems, and by which the people
+it is designed to help may be hindered rather than helped, is done away
+with. Thus true aid and service are rendered, and the needy are really
+helped.
+
+The one whose life is built upon this principle will not take up work of
+this kind as a "fad," or because it is "fashionable," but because it is
+right, true, Christ-like. The truly great and noble never fear thus to
+mingle with those poorer and less fortunate. It is only those who would
+like to be counted as great, but who are too small to be so recognized,
+and who, therefore, always thinking of self, put forth every effort to
+appear so. There is no surer test than this.
+
+Very truly has it been said that "the greatest thing a man can do for
+God is to be kind to some of His other children." All children of the
+same Father, therefore all brothers, sisters. Man is next to God. Man is
+God incarnate. Humanity, therefore, cannot be very far from being next
+to godliness. Many people there are who are greatly concerned about
+serving God, as they term it. Their idea is to build great edifices with
+costly ornaments to Him. A great deal of their time is spent in singing
+songs and hallelujahs to Him, just as if _He_ needed or wanted these for
+Himself, forgetting that He is far above being benefited by anything
+that we can say or do, forgetting that He doesn't want these, when for
+lack of them some of His children are starving for bread to eat or are
+dying for the bread of life.
+
+Can you conceive of a God who is worthy of love and service,--and I
+speak most reverently,--who under such conditions would take a
+satisfaction in these things? I confess I am not able to. I can conceive
+of no way in which I can serve God only as I serve Him through my own
+life and through the lives of my fellow-men. This, certainly, is the
+only kind of service He needs or wants, or that is acceptable to Him.
+At one place we read, "He that says he loves God and loves not his
+fellow-men, is a liar; and the truth is not in him."
+
+Even in religion I think we shall find that there is nothing greater or
+more important than this great principle of service, helpfulness,
+kindliness, and love. Is not Christianity, you ask, greater or more
+important? Why, bless you, is this any other than Christianity, is
+Christianity any other than this,--at least, if we take what the Master
+Teacher himself has said? For what, let us ask, is a Christian,--the
+real, not merely in name? A follower of Christ, one who does as he did,
+one who lives as he lived. And, again, who was Christ? He that healed
+the sick, clothed the naked, bound up the broken-hearted, sustained and
+encouraged the weak, the faltering, befriended and aided the poor, the
+needy, condemned the proud and the selfish, taught the people to live
+nobly, truly, grandly, to live in their higher, diviner selves, that the
+greatest among them should be their servant, and that his followers were
+those who lived as he lived. He spent all his time in the service of
+humanity. He gave his whole life in this way. He it was who went about
+doing good.
+
+Is it your desire then, to be numbered among his followers, to bear
+that blessed name, the name "Christian"? Then sit at his feet, and learn
+of him, love him, do as he did, as he taught you to do, live as he
+lived, as he taught you to live, and you are a Christian, and not unless
+you do. True Christianity can be found in no other way.
+
+Naught is the difference what one may call himself; for many call
+themselves by this name to whom Christ says it will one day be said, "I
+never knew you: depart from me, ye cursed." Naught is the difference
+what creeds one may subscribe to, what rites and ceremonies he may
+observe, how loud and how numerous his professions may be. All of these
+are but as a vain mockery, unless he _is_ a Christian; and to be a
+Christian is, as we have found, to be a follower of Christ, to do as he
+did, to live as he lived. Then live the Christ life. Live so as to
+become at one with God, and dwell continually in this blessed
+at-one-ment. The trouble all along has been that so many have mistaken
+the mere person of the Christ, the mere physical Jesus, for his life,
+his spirit, his teachings, and have succeeded in getting no farther than
+this as yet, except in cases here and there.
+
+Now and then a rare soul rises up, one with great power, great
+inspiration, and we wonder at his great power, his great inspiration,
+why it is. When we look deeply enough, however, we will find that one
+great fact will answer the question every time. It is living the life
+that brings the power. He is living the Christ life, not merely standing
+afar off and looking at it, admiring it, and saying, Yes, I believe, I
+believe, and ending it there. In other words, he has found the kingdom
+of heaven. He has found that it is not a place, but a condition; and the
+song continually arising from his heart is, There is joy, only joy.
+
+The Master, you remember, said: "Seek ye not for the kingdom of heaven
+in tabernacles or in houses made with hands. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you?" He told in plain words where and how
+to find it. He then told how to find _all other_ things, when he said,
+"Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall
+be added unto you." Now, do you wonder at his power, his inspiration,
+his abundance of all things? The trouble with so many is that they act
+as if they do not believe what the Master said. They do not take him at
+his word. They say one thing: they do another. Their acts give the lie
+to their words. Instead of taking him at his word, and living as if they
+had faith in him, they prefer to follow a series of old, outgrown,
+man-made theories, traditions, forms, ceremonies, and seem to be
+satisfied with the results. No, _to be a Christian is to live the Christ
+life_, the life of him who went about doing good, the life of him who
+came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.
+
+We will find that this mighty principle of love and service is the
+greatest to live by in this life, and also one of the gates whereby all
+who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.
+
+Again we have the Master's words. In his own and only description of the
+last judgment, after speaking of the Son of Man coming in all his glory
+and all the holy angels with him, of his sitting on the throne of his
+glory with all nations gathered before him, of the separation of this
+gathered multitude into two parts, the one on his right, the other on
+his left, he says: "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
+Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
+the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me
+meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took
+me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in
+prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, and fed _thee_? or
+thirsty, and gave _thee_ drink? When saw we _thee_ a stranger, and took
+_thee_ in? or naked, and clothed _thee_? Or when saw we _thee_ sick, or
+in prison, and came unto _thee_? And the King shall answer, and say unto
+them, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
+the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me_.
+
+"Then shall he say unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye
+cursed. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty,
+and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; sick,
+and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him,
+saying, Lord, when saw we _thee_ an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger,
+or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then
+shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, _Inasmuch as ye did
+it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me_."
+
+After spending the greater portion of his life in many distant climes
+in a fruitless endeavor to find the Cup of the Holy Grail,[C] thinking
+that thereby he was doing the greatest service he could for God, Sir
+Launfal at last returns an old man, gray-haired and bent. He finds that
+his castle is occupied by others, and that he himself is an outcast. His
+cloak is torn; and instead of the charger in gilded trappings he was
+mounted upon when as a young man, he started out with great hopes and
+ambitions, he is afoot and leaning on a staff. While sitting there and
+meditating, he is met by the same poor and needy leper he passed the
+morning he started, the one who in his need asked for aid, and to whom
+he had flung a coin in scorn, as he hurried on in his eager desire to be
+in the Master's service. But matters are changed now, and he is a wiser
+man. Again the poor leper says:--
+
+    "'For Christ's sweet sake, I beg an alms';--
+    The happy camels may reach the spring,
+    But Sir Launfal sees only the grewsome thing,
+    The leper, lank as the rain-blanched bone,
+    That cowers beside him, a thing as lone
+    And white as the ice-isles of Northern seas
+    In the desolate horror of his disease.
+
+    "And Sir Launfal said: 'I behold in thee
+    An image of Him who died on the tree;
+    Thou also hast had thy crown of thorns,--
+    Thou also hast had the world's buffets and scorns,--
+    And to thy life were not denied
+    The wounds in the hands and feet and side:
+    Mild Mary's Son, acknowledge me;
+    Behold, _through him_, I give to thee!'
+
+    "Then the soul of the leper stood up in his eyes
+      And looked at Sir Launfal, and straightway be
+    Remembered in what a haughtier guise
+      He had flung an alms to leprosie,
+    When he girt his young life up in gilded mail
+    And set forth in search of the Holy Grail.
+    The heart within him was ashes and dust;
+    He parted in twain his single crust,
+    He broke the ice on the streamlet's brink,
+    And gave the leper to eat and drink,
+    'Twas a mouldy crust of coarse brown bread,
+      'Twas water out of a wooden bowl,--
+    Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed,
+      And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul.
+
+    "As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face,
+    A light shone round about the place;
+    The leper no longer crouched at his side,
+    But stood before him glorified,
+    Shining and tall and fair and straight
+    As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate,--
+    Himself the Gate whereby men can
+    Enter the temple of God in Man.
+
+    "And the voice that was calmer than silence said,
+    'Lo, it is I, be not afraid!
+    In many climes, without avail,
+    Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;
+    Behold, it is here,--this cup which thou
+    Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;
+    This crust is my body broken for thee,
+    This water His blood that died on the tree;
+    The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,
+    In whatso we share with another's need;
+    Not what we give, but what we _share_,--
+    For the gift without the giver is bare;
+    Who gives himself with his alms feeds three,--
+    Himself, his hungering neighbor, and me.'"
+
+The fear is sometimes entertained, and the question is sometimes asked,
+May not adherence to this principle of helpfulness and service become
+mere sentimentalism? or still more, may it not be the means of lessening
+another's sense of self-dependence, and thus may it not at times do more
+harm than good? In reply let it be said: If the love which impels it be
+a selfish love, or a weak sentimental ism, or an effort at show, or
+devoid of good common sense, yes, many times. But if it be a strong,
+genuine, unselfish love, then no, never. For, if my love for my
+fellow-man be the true love, I can never do anything that will be to his
+or any one's else detriment,--nothing that will not redound to his
+highest ultimate welfare. Should he, for example come and ask of me a
+particular favor, and were it clear to me that granting it would not be
+for his highest good ultimately, then love at once resolves itself into
+duty, and compels me to forbear. A true, genuine, unselfish love for
+one's fellow-man will never prompt, and much less permit, anything that
+will not result in his highest ultimate good. Adherence, therefore, to
+this great principle in its truest sense, instead of being a weak
+sentimentalism, is, we shall find, of all practical things the _most
+intensely practical_.
+
+And a word here in regard to the test of true love and service, in
+distinction from its semblance for show or for vain glory. The test of
+the true is this: that it goes about and does its good work, it never
+says anything about it, but lets others do the saying. It not only says
+nothing about it, but more, it has no desire to have it known; and, the
+truer it is, the greater the desire to have it unknown save to God and
+its own true self. In other words, it is not sicklied o'er with a
+semi-insane desire for notoriety or vainglory, and hence never weakens
+itself nor harasses any one else by lengthy recitals of its good deeds.
+It is not the _professional_ good-doing. It is simply living its natural
+life, open-minded, open-hearted, doing each day what its hands find to
+do, and in this finding its own true life and joy. And in this way it
+unintentionally but irresistibly draws to itself a praise the rarest and
+divinest I know of,--the praise I heard given but a day or two ago to
+one who is living simply his own natural life without any conscious
+effort at anything else, the praise contained in the words: And, oh, it
+is beautiful, the great amount of good he does and of which the world
+never hears.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote C: "According to the mythology of the Romancers, the Sangreal,
+or Holy Grail, was the cup out of which Jesus partook of the Last Supper
+with his disciples. It was brought into England by Joseph of Arimathea,
+and remained there, an object of pilgrimage and adoration, for many
+years in the keeping of his lineal descendants. It was incumbent upon
+those who had charge of it to be chaste in thought, word, and deed; but,
+one of the keepers having broken this condition, the Holy Grail
+disappeared. From that time it was a favorite enterprise of the Knights
+of Sir Arthur's court to go in search of it."--_James Russell Lowell_.]
+
+
+
+
+PART V.
+
+THE INCOMING
+
+
+    O dull, gray grub, unsightly and noisome, unable to roam,
+      Days pass, God's at work, the slow chemistry's going on,
+             Behold! Behold!
+    O brilliant, buoyant life, full winged, all the heaven's thy home!
+    O poor, mean man, stumbling and falling, e'en shamed by a clod.
+      Years pass, God's at work, spiritual awakening has come,
+            Behold! Behold!
+    O regal, royal soul, then image, now the likeness of God.
+
+
+The Master Teacher, he who appeals most strongly and comes nearest to us
+of this western civilization, has told us that the whole and the highest
+duty of man is comprised in two great, two simple precepts--- love to
+God and love to the fellow-man. The latter we have already fully
+considered. We have found that in its real and true meaning it is not a
+mere indefinite or sentimental abstraction, but that it is a vital,
+living force; and in its manifestation it is life, it is action, it is
+service. Let us now for a moment to the other,--love to God, which in
+great measure however let it be said, has been considered in dealing
+with love to the fellow-man. Let us see, however, what it in its true
+and full nature reveals.
+
+The question naturally arising at the outset is, Who, what is God? I
+think no truer, sublimer definition has ever been given in the world's
+history, in any language, in any clime, than that given by the Master
+himself when standing by the side of Jacob's well, to the Samaritan
+woman he said, God is Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him
+in spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, the Infinite Spirit, the Infinite
+Life back of all these physical manifestations we see in this changing
+world about us, and of which all, including we ourselves, is the body or
+outer form; the one Infinite Spirit which fills all the universe with
+Himself, so that all is He, since He is all. All is He in the sense of
+being a part of Him; for, if He is all, there can be nothing that is
+outside of, that is not a part of Him, so that each one is a part of
+this Eternal God who is not separate from us, and, if not separate from
+us, then not afar off, for in Him we live and move and have our being,
+_He is the life of our life_, our very life itself. The life of God is
+in us, we are in the life of God; but that life transcends us so that it
+includes all else,--every person, every animal, every grass-blade, every
+flower, every particle of earth, every particle of everything, animate
+and inanimate. So that God is _All_; and, if all, then each individual,
+you and I, must be a vital part of that all, since there can be nothing
+separate from it; and, if a part, then the same in nature, in
+characteristics,--the same as a tumbler of water taken from the ocean
+is, in nature, in qualities, in characteristics, identical with that
+ocean, its source. God, then, is the Infinite Spirit of which each one
+is a part in the form of an individualized spirit. God is Spirit,
+creating, manifesting, ruling through the agency of great spiritual laws
+and forces that surround us on every side, that run through all the
+universe, and that unite all; for in one sense, there is nothing in all
+this great universe but law. And, oh, the stupendous grandeur of it all!
+These same great spiritual laws and forces operate within us. They are
+the laws of our being. By them every act of each individual life is
+governed.
+
+Now one of the great facts borne ever more and more into the inner
+consciousness of man is that sublime and transcendent fact that we have
+just noticed,--that man is one with, that he is part of, the Infinite
+God, this Infinite Spirit that is the life of all, this Infinite Whole;
+that he is not a mere physical, material being,--for the physical is but
+the material which the real inner self, the real life or spirit uses to
+manifest through,--but that he _is_ this spirit, this spirit, using,
+living in this physical, material house or body to get the contact, the
+experience with the material world around him while in this form of
+life, but spirit nevertheless, and spirit now as much as he ever will or
+ever can be, except so far of course, as he recognizes more and more his
+true, his higher self, and so consciously evolves, step by step, into
+the higher and ever higher realization of the real nature, the real
+self, the God-self. As I heard it said by one of the world's great
+thinkers and writers but a few days ago: Men talk of having a soul. I
+have no soul. I am a soul: I have a body. We are told moreover in the
+word, that man is created in the image of God. God is Spirit. What then
+must man be, if that which tells us is true?
+
+Now one of the great errors all along in the past has been that we have
+mistaken the mere body, the mere house in which we live while in this
+form of life for a period,--that which comes from the earth and which,
+in a greater or less time, returns to the earth,--this we have mistaken
+for the real self. Either we have lost sight of or we have failed to
+recognize the true identity. The result is that we are at life from the
+wrong side, from the side of the external, while all true life is from
+within out.
+
+We have taken our lives out of a conscious harmony with the higher laws
+of our being, with the result that we are going against the great
+current of the Divine Order of things. Is it any wonder, then, that we
+find the strugglings, the inharmonies, the sufferings, the fears, the
+forebodings, the fallings by the wayside, the "strange, inscrutable
+dispensations of Providence" that we behold on every side? The moment we
+bring our lives into harmony with the higher laws of our being, and, as
+a result, into harmony with the current of the Divine Order of things,
+we shall find that all these will have taken wings; for the cause will
+have been removed. And as we look down the long vista of such a life, we
+shall find that each thing fits into all others with a wonderful, a
+sublime, a perfect, a divine harmony.
+
+This, it will seem to some,--and to many, no doubt,--is claiming a great
+deal. No more, however, than the Master Teacher warranted us in claiming
+when he said, and repeated it so often, Seek ye first the kingdom of
+heaven, and all these other things shall be added unto you; and he left
+us not in the dark as to exactly what he meant by the kingdom of heaven,
+for again he said: Say not, Lo here, nor lo there. Know ye not that the
+kingdom of heaven is within you? _Within you._ The interior spiritual
+kingdom, the kingdom of the higher self, which is the kingdom of God;
+the kingdom of harmony,--harmony with the higher laws of your being.
+
+The Master said what he said not for the sake merely of using a phrase
+of rhetoric, nor even to hear himself talk; for this he never did. But
+that great incarnation of spiritual insight and power knew of the great
+spiritual laws and forces under which we live, and also that supreme
+fact of the universe, that _man is a spiritual being, born to have
+dominion_, and that, by recognizing the true self and by bringing it
+into complete and perfect harmony with the higher spiritual laws and
+forces under which he lives, he can touch these laws and forces so that
+they will respond at every call and bring him whatsoever he wills,--one
+of the most stupendous scientific facts of the universe. When he has
+found and entered into the kingdom, then applies to him the truth of the
+great precept, Take ye no thought for the morrow; for the things of the
+morrow will take care of themselves.
+
+Yes, we are at life from the wrong side. We have been giving all time
+and attention to the mere physical, the material, the external, the mere
+outward means of expression and the things that pertain thereto, thus
+missing the real life; and this we have called living, and seem, indeed,
+to be satisfied with the results. No wonder the cry has gone out again
+and again from many a human soul, Is life worth the living? But from one
+who has once commenced to _live_, this cry never has, nor can it ever
+come; for, _when the kingdom is once found, life then ceases to be a
+plodding, and becomes an exultation, an ecstasy, a joy_. Yes, you will
+find that all the evil, all the error, all the disease, all the
+suffering, all the fears, all the forebodings of life, are on the side
+of the physical, the material, the transient; while all the peace, all
+the joy, all the happiness, all the growth, all the life, all the rich,
+exulting, abounding life, is on the side of the spiritual, the
+ever-increasing, the eternal,--that that never changes, that has no end.
+Instead of crying out against the destiny of fate, let us cry out
+against the destiny of self, or rather against the destiny of the
+mistaken self; for everything that comes to us comes through causes
+which we ourselves or those before us have set into operation. Nothing
+comes by chance, for _in all the wide universe there is absolutely no
+such thing as chance_. We bring whatever comes. Are we not satisfied
+with the effects, the results? The thing then to do, is to change the
+causes; for we have everything in our own hands the moment we awake to a
+recognition of the true self.
+
+We make our own heaven or our own hell, and the only heaven or hell that
+will ever be ours is that of our own making. The order of the universe
+is one thing: we take our lives out of harmony with and so pervert the
+laws under which we live, and make it another. The order is the all
+good. We pervert the laws, and what we call evil is the result,--simply
+the result of the violation of law; and we then wonder that a just and
+loving God could permit such and such things. We wonder at what we term
+the "strange, inscrutable dispensations of Providence," when all is of
+our own making. We can be our own best friends or we can be our own
+worst enemies; and the only real enemy one can ever have is the self,
+the very self.
+
+It is a well-known fact in the scientific world that the great work in
+the process of evolution is the gradual advancing from the lower to the
+higher, from the coarser to the finer, or, in other words, from the
+coarser material to the finer spiritual; and this higher
+spiritualization of life is the great work before us all. All pass
+ultimately over the same road in general, some more rapidly, some more
+slowly. The ultimate destiny of all is the higher life, the finding of
+the higher self; and to this we are either led or we are pushed,--led,
+by recognizing and coming into harmony with the higher laws of our
+being, or pushed, through their violation, and hence through experience,
+through suffering, and at times through bitter suffering, until through
+this very agency we learn the laws and come into harmony with them, so
+that we thus see the economy, the blessedness of even error, shame, and
+suffering itself, in that, if we are not wise enough to go voluntarily
+and of our own accord, it all the more quickly brings us to our true,
+our higher selves.
+
+Moreover, whatever is evolved must as surely first be involved. We
+cannot conceive even of an evolution without first an involution; and,
+if this is true, we cannot conclude otherwise than that all that will
+ever be brought forth through the process of evolution is already
+within, all the God possibilities of the human soul are now, at this
+very moment, latent within. This being true, the process of evolution
+need not, as is many times supposed, take aeons or even ages for its
+accomplishment; for the process is wonderfully accelerated when we have
+grasped and when we have commenced to actualize the reality of that
+mighty precept, Know thyself.
+
+It is possible, through an intelligent understanding of the laws of the
+higher life, to advance in the spiritual awakening and unfoldment even
+in a single year more than one otherwise would through a whole lifetime,
+or more in a single day or even hour than in an entire year or series of
+years otherwise.
+
+This higher spiritualization of life is certainly what the Master had in
+mind when he said, It is as hard for a rich man to enter into the
+kingdom of heaven as it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a
+needle. For, if a man give all his days and his nights merely to the
+accumulation of outer material possessions, what time has he for the
+growing, the unfolding, of the interior, the spiritual, what time for
+finding that wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the Christ
+within?
+
+This certainly is also the significance of the temptation in the
+wilderness. The temptations were all, you will recall, in connection
+with the material, the physical, and the things that pertain thereto. Do
+so and so, said the physical: follow after me, and I will give you bread
+in abundance, I will give you great fame and notoriety, I will give you
+vast material possessions. All, you see, a calling away from the real,
+the interior, the spiritual, the eternal. Dominion over all the kingdoms
+of the _world_ was promised. But what, what is dominion overall the
+world, with heaven left out?
+
+All, however, was triumphed over. The physical was put into subjection
+by the spiritual, the victory was gained once for all and forever; and
+he became the supreme and royal Master, and by this complete and
+glorious mastery of self he gained the mastery over all else besides,
+even to material things and conditions.
+
+And by this higher spiritual chemicalization of life thus set into
+operation the very thought forces of his mind became charged with a
+living, mighty, and omnipotent power, so as to effect a mastery over all
+exterior conditions: hence the numerous things called miracles by those
+who witnessed and who had not entered into a knowledge of the higher
+laws that can triumph over and master the lower, but which are just as
+real and as natural on their plane as the lower, and even more real and
+more natural, because higher and therefore more enduring. But this
+complete mastery over self during this period of temptation was just the
+beginning of the path that led from glory unto glory, the path that for
+you and for me will lead from glory unto glory the same as for him.
+
+It was this new divine and spiritual chemistry of life thus set into
+operation that transformed the man Jesus, that royal-hearted elder
+brother, into the Christ Jesus, and forever blessed be his name; for he
+thus became our Saviour,--he became our Saviour by virtue of pointing
+out to us the way. This overcoming by the calling of the higher
+spiritual forces into operation is certainly what he meant when he said,
+I have overcome the world, and what he would have us understand when he
+says, Overcome the world, even as I have overcome it.
+
+And in the same sense we are all the saviors one of another, or may
+become so. A sudden emergency arises, and I stand faltering and weak
+with fear. My friend beside me is strong and fearless. He sees the
+emergency. He summons up all the latent powers within him, and springs
+forth to meet it. This sublime example arouses me, calls my latent
+powers into activity, when but for him I might not have known them
+there. I follow his example. I now know my powers, and know them forever
+after. Thus, in this, my friend has become my savior.
+
+I am weak in some point of character,--vacillating, yielding, stumbling,
+falling, continually eating the bitter fruit of it all. My friend is
+strong, he has gained thorough self-mastery. The majesty and beauty of
+power are upon his brow. I see his example, I love his life, I am
+influenced by his power. My soul longs and cries out for the same. A
+supreme effort of will--that imperial master that will take one anywhere
+when rightly directed--arises within me, it is born at last, and it
+calls all the soul's latent powers into activity; and instead of
+stumbling I stand firm, instead of giving over in weakness I stand firm
+and master, I enter into the joys of full self-mastery, and through this
+into the mastery of all things besides. And thus my friend has again
+become my savior.
+
+With the new power I have acquired through the example and influence of
+my savior-friend, I, in turn, stand before a friend who is struggling,
+who is stumbling and in despair. He sees, he feels, the power of my
+strength. He longs for, his soul cries out for the same. _His_ interior
+forces are called into activity, he now knows his powers; and instead of
+the slave, he becomes the master, and thus I, in turn, have become his
+savior. Oh, the wonderful sense of sublimity, the mighty feelings of
+responsibility, the deep sense of power and peace the recognition of
+this fact should bring to each and all.
+
+God works through the instrumentality of human agency. Then forever away
+with that old, shrivelling, weakening, dying, and devilish idea that we
+are poor worms of the dust! We may or we may not be: it all depends upon
+the self. The moment we believe we are we become such; and as long as we
+hold to the belief we will be held to this identity, and will act and
+live as such. The moment, however, we recognize our divinity, our
+higher, our God-selves, and the fact that we are the saviors of our
+fellow-men, we become saviors, and stand and move in the midst of a
+majesty and beauty and power that of itself proclaims us as such.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+There is a prevalent idea to the effect that overcoming in this sense
+necessarily implies more or less of a giving up,--that it means
+something possibly on the order of asceticism. On the contrary, the
+highest, truest, keenest pleasures the human soul can know, it finds
+only after the higher is entered upon and has commenced its work of
+mastery; and, instead of there being a giving up of any kind, there is a
+great law which says that the lower always and of its own accord falls
+away before the higher. And the time soon comes when, as one stands and
+looks back, he wonders that this or that that he at one time called
+pleasure ever satisfied him; for what then satisfied him, compared to
+what now is his hourly peace, satisfaction, and joy, was but as poor
+brass compared to the finest, purest, and rarest of gold.
+
+From what has been said let it not be inferred that the body, the
+physical, material life is to be despised or looked down upon. This,
+rather let it be said, is one of the crying errors of the times, and
+prolific of a _vast_ amount of error, suffering, and shame. On the
+contrary, it should be thought all the more highly of: it should be
+loved and developed to its highest perfections, beauties, and powers.
+God gave us the body not in vain. It is just as holy and beautiful as
+the spirit itself. It is merely the outward material manifestation of
+the individualized spirit; and we by our hourly thoughts and emotions
+are building it, are determining its conditions, its structure, and
+appearance. And, if there are any conditions we are not satisfied with,
+we by an understanding of the laws, have it in our power to make it over
+and change these conditions. Flamarion, the eminent French scientist,
+member of the Royal Academy of Science, and recognized as one of the
+most eminent scientists living, tells us that the entire human structure
+can be made over within a period of less than one year, some eleven
+months being the length of time required for the more compact and more
+set portions to respond; while some portions respond much more readily
+within a period of from two to three months, and some even within a
+month.
+
+Every part, every organ, every function of the body is just as clean,
+just as beautiful, just as sweet, and just as holy as every other part;
+and it is only by virtue of man's perverted ways of looking at some that
+they become otherwise, and the moment they so become, abuses, ill uses,
+suffering, and shame creep in.
+
+_Not repression, but elevation._ Would that this could be repeated a
+thousand times over! Not repression, but elevation. Every part, every
+organ, every function of the body is given for _use_, but not for misuse
+or abuse; and the moment the latter takes place in connection with any
+function it loses its higher powers of use, and there goes with this the
+higher powers of true enjoyment. It is thus that we get that large class
+known as abnormals, resorting to the methods they resort to for
+enjoyment, but which, in its true sense, they always fail in finding,
+because law will admit of no violations; and, if violated, it takes away
+the very powers of enjoyment, it takes away the very things that through
+its violation they thought they had secured, or it turns them into ashes
+in their very hands. God, nature, law, the higher self, is not mocked.
+
+Not repression, but elevation,--repression only in the sense of
+mastery; but this means--nay, this is--elevation. In other words, we
+should be the master, and not the body. We should dictate to the body,
+and should never, even for an instant, allow it to dictate to us.
+
+Oh, the thousands, the hundreds of thousands of men and women who are
+everywhere being driven hither and thither, led into this and into that
+which their own better selves would not enter into, simply because they
+have allowed the body to assume the mastery; while they have taken the
+place of the weakling, the slave, and all on account of their own
+weakness,--weakness through ignorance, ignorance of the tremendous
+forces and powers within, the forces and powers of the mind and spirit.
+
+It would be a right royal plan for those who are thus enslaved by the
+body,--and we all are more or less, each in his own particular way, and
+not one is absolutely free,--it would be a good plan to hold
+immediately, at this very hour, a conversation with the body somewhat
+after this fashion: Body, we have for some time been dwelling together.
+Life for neither has been in the highest degree satisfactory. The cause
+is now apparent to me. The mastery I have voluntarily handed over to
+you. You have not assumed it of your own accord; but I have given it
+over to you little by little, and just in the degree that you have
+appropriated it. Neither one is to blame. It has been by virtue of
+ignorance. But henceforth we will reverse positions. You shall become
+the servant, and I the master. From this time forth you shall no longer
+dictate to me, but I will dictate to you.
+
+I, one with Infinite intelligence, wisdom, and power, longing for a
+fuller and ever fuller realization of this oneness, will assume control,
+and will call upon you to help in the fuller and ever fuller external
+manifestation of this realization. We will thus regain the ground both
+of us have lost. We will thus be truly married instead of farcically so.
+And thus we will help each the other to a realization of the highest,
+most satisfying and most enduring pleasures and joys, possibilities and
+powers, loves and realizations, that human life can know; and so, hand
+in hand, we will help each the other to the higher and ever-increasing
+life instead of degrading each the other to the lower and
+ever-decreasing. I will become the imperial master, and you the royal
+companion; and thus we will go forth to an ever larger life of love and
+service, and so of true enjoyment.
+
+This conversation, if entered into in the spirit, accompanied by an
+earnest, sincere desire for its fulfilment, re-enforced by the thought
+forces, and continually attended by that absolute magnet of power, firm
+expectation, will, if all are firmly and persistently held to, bring the
+full realization of one's fondest desires with a certainty as absolute
+as that effect follows cause. The higher self will invariably master
+when it truly and firmly asserts itself. Much the same attitude can be
+assumed in connection with the body in disease or in suffering with the
+same results. Forces can be set into operation which will literally
+change and make over the diseased, the abnormal portions, and in time
+transform them into the healthy, the strong, the normal,--this when we
+once understand and vitally grasp the laws of these mighty forces, and
+are brought to the full recognition of the absolute control of mind, of
+spirit, over matter, and all, again let it be said, in accordance with
+natural spiritual law.
+
+_No, a knowledge of the spiritual realities of life prohibits
+asceticism, repression, the same as it prohibits license and perverted
+use. To err on the one side is just as contrary to the ideal life as to
+err on the other._ All things are for a purpose, all should be used and
+enjoyed; but all should be rightly used, that they may be fully enjoyed.
+
+It is the threefold life and development that is wanted,--physical,
+mental, spiritual. This gives the rounded life, and he or she who fails
+in any one comes short of the perfect whole. The physical has its uses
+just the same and is just as important as the others. The great secret
+of the highly successful life is, however, to infuse the mental and the
+physical with the spiritual; in other words, to spiritualize all, and so
+raise all to the highest possibilities and powers.
+
+It is the all-round, fully developed we want,--not the ethereal,
+pale-blooded man and woman, but the man and woman of flesh and blood,
+for action and service here and now,--the man and woman strong and
+powerful, with all the faculties and functions fully unfolded and used,
+all in a royal and bounding condition, but all rightly subordinated. The
+man and the woman of this kind, with the imperial hand of mastery upon
+all,--standing, moving thus like a king, nay, like a very God,--such is
+the man and such is the woman of power. Such is the ideal life: anything
+else is one-sided, and falls short of it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The most powerful agent in character-building is this awakening to the
+true self, to the fact that man is a spiritual being,--nay, more, that
+I, this very eternal I, am a spiritual being, right here and now, at
+this very moment, with the God-powers which can be quickly called forth.
+With this awakening, life in all its manifold relations becomes
+wonderfully simplified. And as to the powers, the full realization of
+the fact that man is a spiritual being and a living as such brings, they
+are absolutely without limit, increasing in direct proportion as the
+higher self, the God-self, assumes the mastery, and so as this higher
+spiritualization of life goes on.
+
+With this awakening and realization one is brought at once _en rapport_
+with the universe. He feels the power and the thrill of the life
+universal. He goes out from his own little garden spot, and mingles with
+the great universe; and the little perplexities, trials, and
+difficulties of life that to-day so vex and annoy him, fall away of
+their own accord by reason of their very insignificance. The intuitions
+become keener and ever more keen and unerring in their guidance. There
+comes more and more the power of reading men, so that no harm can come
+from this source. There comes more and more the power of seeing into the
+future, so that more and more true becomes the old adage,--that coming
+events cast their shadows before. Health in time takes the place of
+disease; for all disease and its consequent suffering is merely the
+result of the violation of law, either consciously or unconsciously,
+either intentionally or unintentionally. There comes also a spiritual
+power which, as it is sent out, is adequate for the healing of others
+the same as in the days of old. The body becomes less gross and heavy,
+finer in its texture and form, so that it serves far better and responds
+far more readily to the higher impulses of the soul. Matter itself in
+time responds to the action of these higher forces; and many things that
+we are accustomed by reason of our limited vision to call miraculous or
+supernatural become the normal, the natural, the every-day.
+
+For what, let us ask, is a miracle? Nothing more nor less than this: a
+highly illumined soul, one who has brought his life into thorough
+harmony with the higher spiritual laws and forces of his being, and
+therefore with those of the universe, thus making it possible for the
+highest things to come to him, has brought to him a law a little higher
+than the ordinary mind knows of as yet. This he touches, he operates. It
+responds. The people see the result, and cry out, Miracle! miracle! when
+it is just as natural, just as fully in accordance with the law on this
+higher plane, as is the common, the every-day on the ordinary. And let
+it be remembered that the miraculous, the supernatural of to-day
+becomes, as in the process of evolution we leave the lower for the
+higher, the commonplace, the natural, the every-day of to-morrow; and,
+truly, miracles are being performed in the world to-day just as much as
+they ever have been.
+
+And why should we not to-day have the powers of the foremost in the days
+of old? The great universe in which we live is just the same, the great
+laws under which we live are identically the same, God the same and
+working in His world now just as then. The only difference we shall find
+is in ourselves, in that we have taken our lives out of harmony with the
+higher laws of our being, and consequently have lost the higher powers
+through not using them. Mighty men we are told they were, mighty men
+who walked with God,--and in the last clause lies the secret of the
+first,--- men who lived in the spirit, men who followed after the real
+life instead of giving all time and attention to the mere external, men
+who lived in the higher stories of their being, and not continually in
+the basements.
+
+With here and there an exception we reverse the process. We live in the
+valleys, so to speak, often disease-infected valleys, when we might
+mount up to the mountain-tops, and there dwell continually in the warm
+and mellow sunlight of God's, or if you please, of nature's great,
+unchangeable laws, and find ourselves rising ever higher and higher, and
+revelations coming new every day.
+
+The Master never claimed for himself anything that he did not claim for
+all mankind; but, quite to the contrary, he said and continually
+repeated, Not only shall ye do these things, but greater than these
+shall ye do; for I have pointed out to you the way,--meaning, though
+strange as it evidently seems to many, _exactly_ what he said.
+
+Of the vital power of thought and the interior forces in moulding
+conditions, and more, of the supremacy of thought over all conditions,
+the world has scarcely the faintest grasp, not to say even idea, as yet.
+The fact that thoughts are forces, and that through them _we have
+creative power_, is one of the most vital facts of the universe, the
+most vital fact of man's being. And through this instrumentality we have
+in our grasp and as our rightful heritage, the power of making life and
+all its manifold conditions exactly what we will.
+
+Through our thought-forces we have creative power, not in a figurative
+sense, but in reality. Everything in the material universe about us had
+its origin first in spirit, in thought, and from this it took its form.
+The very world in which we live, with all its manifold wonders and
+sublime manifestations, is the result of the energies of the divine
+intelligence or mind,--God, or whatever term it comes convenient for
+each one to use. And God said, Let there be, and there was,--the
+material world, at least the material manifestation of it, literally
+spoken into existence, the spoken word, however, but the outward
+manifestation of the interior forces of the Supreme Intelligence.
+
+Every castle the world has ever seen was first an ideal in the
+architect's mind. Every statue was first an ideal in the sculptor's
+mind. Every piece of mechanism the world has ever known was first
+formed in the mind of the inventor. Here it was given birth to. These
+same mind-forces then dictated to and sent the energy into the hand that
+drew the model, and then again dictated to and sent the energy into the
+hands whereby the first instrument was clothed in the material form of
+metal or of wood. The lower negative always gives way to the higher when
+made positive. Mind is positive: matter is negative.
+
+Each individual life is a part of, and hence is one with, the Infinite
+Life; and the highest intelligence and power belongs to each in just the
+degree that he recognizes his oneness and lays claim to and uses it. The
+power of the word is not merely an idle phrase or form of expression. It
+is a real mental, spiritual, scientific fact, and can become vital and
+powerful in your hands and in mine in just the degree that we understand
+the omnipotence of the thought forces and raise all to the higher
+planes.
+
+The blind, the lame, the diseased, stood before the Christ, who said,
+Receive thy sight, rise up and walk, or, be thou healed; and o! _it was
+so_. The spoken word, however, was but the outward expression and
+manifestation of his interior thought-forces, the power and potency of
+which he so thoroughly knew. But the laws governing them are the same
+to-day as they were then, and it lies in our power to use them the same
+as it lay in his.
+
+Each individual life, after it has reached a certain age or degree of
+intelligence, lives in the midst of the surroundings or environments of
+its own creation; and this by reason of that wonderful power, _the
+drawing power of mind_, which is continually operating in every life,
+whether it is conscious of it or not.
+
+We are all living, so to speak, in a vast ocean of thought. The very
+atmosphere about us is charged with the thought-forces that are being
+continually sent out. When the thought-forces leave the brain, they go
+out upon the atmosphere, the subtle conducting ether, much the same as
+sound-waves go out. It is by virtue of this law that thought
+transference is possible, and has become an established scientific fact,
+by virtue of which a person can so direct his thought-forces that a
+person at a distance, and in a receptive attitude, can get the thought
+much the same as sound, for example, is conducted through the agency of
+a connecting medium.
+
+Even though the thoughts as they leave a particular person, are not
+consciously directed, they go out; and all may be influenced by them in
+a greater or less degree, each one in proportion as he or she is more or
+less sensitively organized, or in proportion as he or she is negative,
+and so open to forces and influences from without. The law operating
+here is one with that great law of the universe,--that like attracts
+like, so that one continually attracts to himself forces and influences
+most akin to those of his own life. And his own life is determined by
+the thoughts and emotions he habitually entertains, for each is building
+his world from within. As within, so without; cause, effect.
+
+A stalk of wheat and a stock of corn are growing side by side, within an
+inch of each other. The soil is the same for both; but the wheat
+converts the food it takes from the soil into wheat, the likeness of
+itself, while the corn converts the food it takes from the same soil
+into corn, the likeness of itself. What that which each has taken from
+the soil is converted into is determined by the soul, the interior life,
+the interior forces of each. This same grain taken as food by two
+persons will be converted into the body of a criminal in the one case,
+and into the body of a saint in the other, each after its kind; and its
+kind is determined by the inner life of each. And what again determines
+the inner life of each? The thoughts and emotions that are habitually
+entertained and that inevitably, sooner or later, manifest themselves in
+outer material form. Thought is the great builder in human life: it is
+the determining factor. Continually think thoughts that are good, and
+your life will show forth in goodness, and your body in health and
+beauty. Continually think evil thoughts, and your life will show forth
+in evil, and your body in weakness and repulsiveness. Think thoughts of
+love, and you will love and will be loved. Think thoughts of hatred, and
+you will hate and will be hated. Each follows its kind.
+
+It is by virtue of this law that each person creates his own
+"atmosphere"; and this atmosphere is determined by the character of the
+thoughts he habitually entertains. It is, in fact, simply his thought
+atmosphere--the atmosphere which other people detect and are influenced
+by.
+
+In this way each person creates the atmosphere of his own room; a
+family, the atmosphere of the house in which they live, so that the
+moment you enter the door you feel influences kindred to the thoughts
+and hence to the lives of those who dwell there. You get a feeling of
+peace and harmony or a feeling of disquietude and inharmony. You get a
+welcome, want-to-stay feeling or a cold, want-to-get-away feeling,
+according to their thought attitude toward you, even though but few
+words be spoken. So the characteristic mental states of a congregation
+of people who assemble there determine the atmosphere of any given
+assembly-place, church, or cathedral. Its inhabitants so make, so
+determine the atmosphere of a particular village or city. The
+sympathetic thoughts sent out by a vast amphitheatre of people, as they
+cheer a contestant, carry him to goals he never could reach by his own
+efforts alone. The same is true in regard to an orator and his audience.
+
+Napoleon's army is in the East. The plague is beginning to make inroads
+into its ranks. Long lines of men are lying on cots and on the ground in
+an open space adjoining the army. Fear has taken a vital hold of all,
+and the men are continually being stricken. Look yonder, contrary to the
+earnest entreaties of his officers, who tell him that such exposure will
+mean sure death, Napoleon with a calm and dauntless look upon his face,
+with a firm and defiant step, is coming through these plague-stricken
+ranks. He is going up to, talking with, touching the men; and, as they
+see him, there goes up a mighty shout,--The Emperor! the Emperor! and
+from that hour the plague in its inroads is stopped. A marvellous
+example of the power of a man who, by his own dauntless courage,
+absolute fearlessness, and power of mind, could send out such forces
+that they in turn awakened kindred forces in the minds of thousands of
+others, which in turn dominate their very bodies, so that the plague,
+and even death itself, is driven from the field. One of the grandest
+examples of a man of the most mighty and tremendous mind and will power,
+and at the same time an example of one of the grandest failures, taking
+life in its totality, the world has ever seen.
+
+Again, as has been said, the great law operating in connection with the
+thought-forces is one with that great law of the universe,--that like
+attracts like. We can, by virtue of our ignorance of the powers of the
+mind forces and the prevailing mental states,--we can take the passive,
+the negative, fearing, drifting attitude, and thus continually attract
+to us like influences and conditions from both the seen and the unseen
+side of life. Or, by a knowledge of the power and potency of these
+forces, we can take the positive, the active attitude, that of mastery,
+and so attract the higher and more valuable influences, exactly as we
+will to.
+
+We are all much more influenced by the thought-forces and mental states
+of those around us and of the world at large than we have even the
+slightest conception of. If not self-hypnotized into certain beliefs and
+practices, we are, so to speak, semi-hypnotized through the influence of
+the thoughts of others, even though unconsciously both on their part and
+on ours. We are so influenced and enslaved in just the degree that we
+fail to recognize the power and omnipotence of our own forces, and so
+become slaves to custom, conventionality, the opinions of others, and so
+in like proportion lose our own individuality and powers. He who in his
+own mind takes the attitude of the slave, by the power of his own
+thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the slave. He
+who in his own mind takes the attitude of the master, by the same power
+of his own thoughts and the forces he thus attracts to him, becomes the
+master. Each is building his world from within, and, if outside forces
+play, it is because he allows them to play; and he has it in his own
+power to determine whether these shall be positive, uplifting,
+ennobling, strengthening, success-giving, or negative, degrading,
+weakening, failure-bringing.
+
+Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing more powerful, nothing more
+irresistible in its operations, when rightly applied and held to with a
+faith and fidelity that is unswerving,--a faith and fidelity that never
+knows the neutralizing effects of doubt and fear. If one have
+aspirations and a sincere desire for a higher and better condition, so
+far as advantages, facilities, associates, or any surroundings or
+environments are concerned, and if he continually send out his highest
+thought-forces for the realization of these desires, and continually
+water these forces with firm expectation as to their fulfilment, he will
+sooner or later find himself in the realization of these desires, and
+all in accordance with natural laws and forces.
+
+Fear brings its own fulfilment the same as hope. The same law operates,
+and if, as our good and valued friend, Job, said when the darkest days
+were setting in upon him,--that which I feared has come upon me,--was
+true, how much more surely could he have brought about the opposite
+conditions, those he would have desired, had he have had even the
+slightest realization of his own powers, and had he acted the part of
+the master instead of that of the servant, had he have dictated terms
+instead of being dictated to, and thus suffering the consequences.
+
+If one finds himself in any particular condition, in the midst of any
+surroundings or environments that are not desirable, that have
+nothing--at least for any length of time--that is of value to him, for
+his highest life and unfoldment, he has the remedy entirely within his
+own grasp the moment he realizes the power and supremacy of the forces
+of the mind and spirit; and, unless he intelligently use these forces,
+he drifts. Unless through them he becomes master and dictates, he
+becomes the slave and is dictated to, and so is driven hither and
+thither.
+
+Earnest, sincere desire, sincere aspiration for higher and better
+conditions or means to realize them, the thought-forces actively sent
+out for their realization, these continually watered by firm expectation
+without allowing the contrary, neutralizing force of fear ever to enter
+in,--this, accompanied by rightly directed work and activity, will
+bring about the fullest realization of one's highest desires and
+aspirations with a certainty as absolute as that effect follows cause.
+Each and every one of us can thus make for himself ever higher and
+higher conditions, can attract ever and ever higher influences, can
+realize an ever higher and higher ideal in life. These are the forces
+that are within us, simply waiting to be recognized and used,--the
+forces that we should infuse into and mould every-day life with. The
+moment we vitally recognize them, they become our servants and wait upon
+our bidding.
+
+Are you, for example, a young man or a young woman desiring a college, a
+university education, or have you certain literary or artistic instincts
+your soul longs the more fully to realize and actualize, and seems there
+no way open for you to realize the fulfilment of your desires? But the
+power is in your hands the moment you recognize it there. Begin at once
+to set the right forces into operation. Put forth your ideal, which will
+begin to clothe itself in material form, send out your thought-forces
+for its realization, continually hold and add to them, always strongly
+but always calmly, never allow the element of fear, which will keep the
+realization just so much farther away, to enter in; but, on the
+contrary, continually water with firm expectation all the forces thus
+set into operation. Do not then sit and idly fold the hands, expecting
+to see all things drop into the lap,--God feeds the sparrow, but he does
+not throw the food into its nest,--but take hold of the first thing that
+offers itself for you to do,--work in the fields, at the desk, saw wood,
+wash dishes, tend behind the counter, or whatever it may be,--be
+faithful to the thing in hand, always expecting something better, and
+know that this in hand is the thing that will open to you the next
+higher, and this the next and the next; and so realize that each thing
+thus taken hold of is but the agency that takes you each time a step
+nearer the realization of your fondest ideals. You then hold the key;
+and bolts that otherwise would remain immovable, by this mighty force,
+will be thrown before you.
+
+We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars, but to dominion and to
+plenty. This is our rightful heritage, if we will but recognize and lay
+claim to it. Many a man and many a woman is to-day longing for
+conditions better and higher than he or she is in, who might be using
+the same time now spent in vain, indefinite, spasmodic longings, in
+putting into operation forces which, accompanied by the right personal
+activity, would speedily bring the fullest realization of his or her
+fondest dreams. The great universe is filled with an abundance of all
+things, filled to overflowing. All there is, is in her, waiting only for
+the touch of the right forces to cast them forth. She is no respecter of
+persons outside of the fact that she always responds to the demands of
+the man or the woman who knows and uses the forces and powers he or she
+is endowed with. And to the demands of such she always opens her
+treasure-house, for the supply is always equal to the demand. All things
+are in the hands of him who knows they are there.
+
+Of all known forms of energy, thought is the most subtle, the most
+irresistible force. It has always been operating; but, so far as the
+great masses of the people are concerned, it has been operating blindly,
+or, rather, they have been blind to its mighty power, except in the
+cases of a few here and there. And these, as a consequence, have been
+our prophets, our seers, our sages, our saviors, our men of great and
+mighty power. We are just beginning to grasp the tremendous truth that
+there is a _science of thought_, and that the laws governing it can be
+known and scientifically applied. The man who understands and who
+appropriates this fact has literally all things under his control.
+Heredity and its attendant circumstances and influences? you ask. Most
+surely. The barriers which heredity builds, the same as those
+environment erects, when the awakened interior forces are considered,
+are as mud walls standing within the range of a Krupp gun: shattered and
+crumbled they are when the tremendous force is applied.
+
+Thought needs direction to be effective, and upon this effective results
+depend as much as upon the force itself. This brings us to the will.
+Will is not as is so often thought, a force in itself; will is the
+directing power. Thought is the force. Will gives direction. Thought
+scattered gives the weak, the uncertain, the vacillating, the aspiring,
+but the never-doing, the I-would-like-to, but the get-no-where, the
+attain-to-nothing man or woman. Thought steadily directed by the will,
+gives the strong, the firm, the never-yielding, the never-know-defeat
+man or woman, the man or woman who uses the very difficulties and
+hindrances that would dishearten the ordinary person, as stones with
+which he paves a way over which he triumphantly walks, who, by the very
+force he carries with him, so neutralizes and transmutes the very
+obstacles that would bar his way that they fall before him, and in turn
+aid him on his way; the man or woman who, like the eagle, uses the very
+contrary wind that would thwart his flight, that would turn him and
+carry him in the opposite direction, as the very agency upon which he
+mounts and mounts and mounts, until actually lost to the human eye, and
+which, in addition to thus aiding him, brings to him an ever fuller
+realization of his own powers, or in other words, an ever greater power.
+
+It is this that gives the man or the woman who in storm or in sunny
+weather, rides over every obstacle, throws before him every barrier,
+and, as Browning has said, finally "arrives." Take, for example, the
+successful business man,--for it is all one, the law is the same in all
+cases,--the man who started with nothing except his own interior
+equipments. He has made up his mind to _one_ thing,--success. This is
+his ideal. He thinks success, he sees success. He refuses to see
+anything else. He expects success: he thus attracts it to him, his
+thought-forces continually attract to him every agency that makes for
+success. He has set up the current, so that every wind that blows
+brings him success. He doesn't expect failure, and so he doesn't invite
+it. He has no time, no energies, to waste in fears or forebodings. He is
+dauntless, untiring, in his efforts. Let disaster come to-day, and
+to-morrow--ay, even yet to-day--he is getting his bearings, he is
+setting forces anew into operation; and these very forces are of more
+value to him than the half million dollars of his neighbor who has
+suffered from the same disaster. We speak of a man's failing in
+business, little thinking that the real failure came long before, and
+that the final crash is but the culmination, the outward visible
+manifestation, of the real failure that occurred within possibly long
+ago. _A man carries his success or his failure with him: it is not
+dependent upon outside conditions._
+
+Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilot
+which, after the vessel is started by the mighty force within, puts it
+on its right course and keeps it true to that course, the pilot under
+whose control the rudder is which brings the great ocean liner, even
+through storms and gales, to an exact spot in the Liverpool port within
+a few minutes of its scheduled time, and at times even upon the very
+minute. Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses the
+sun's rays that they quickly burn a hole through the paper that is held
+before it. The same rays, not thus concentrated, not thus focused, would
+fall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is the
+means for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
+thought-forces. Thought under wise direction,--this it is that does the
+work, that brings results, that makes the successful career. One object
+in mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily held before the
+mind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from,--this,
+with persistence, determines all. Nothing can resist the power of
+thought, when thus directed by will.
+
+May not this power, then, be used for base as well as for good purposes,
+for selfish as well as for unselfish ends? The same with this
+modification,--the more highly thought is spiritualized, the more subtle
+and powerful it becomes; and the more highly spiritualized the life, the
+farther is it removed from base, ignoble, selfish ends. But, even if it
+can be thus used, let him who would so use it be careful, let him never
+forget that that mighty, searching, omnipotent law of the right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe and that can
+never be annulled or even for a moment set aside, will drive him to the
+wall, will crush him with a terrific force if he so use it.
+
+Let him never forget that whatever he may get for self at the expense of
+some one else, through deception, through misrepresentation, through the
+exercise of the lower functions and powers, will by a law equally
+subtle, equally powerful, be turned into ashes in his very hands. The
+honey he thinks he has secured will be turned into bitterness as he
+attempts to eat it; the beautiful fruit he thinks is his will be as
+wormwood as he tries to enjoy it; the rose he has plucked will vanish,
+and he will find himself clutching a handful of thorns, which will
+penetrate to the very quick and which will flow the very life-blood from
+his hands. For through the violation of a higher, an immutable law,
+though he may get this or that, the power of true enjoyment will be
+taken away, and what he gets will become as a thorn in his side: either
+this or it will sooner or later escape from his hands. God's
+triumphal-car moves in a direction and at a rate that is certain and
+absolute, and he who would oppose it or go contrary to it must fall and
+be crushed beneath its wheels; and for him this crushing is necessary,
+in order that it may bring him the more quickly to a knowledge of the
+higher laws, to a realization of the higher self.
+
+This brings to our notice two orders of will, which we may term, for
+convenience' sake, the human and the divine. The human will is the one
+just noticed, the sense will, the will of the lower self, that which
+seeks its own ends regardless of its connection with the greater whole.
+The divine will is the will of the higher self, the god-self, that that
+never makes an error, that never leads into difficulties. How attain to
+its realization? How call it into a dominating activity? Through an
+awakening to and a living in the higher, the god-self, thus making it
+one with God's will, one with the will of infinite intelligence,
+infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite power; and when this is done,
+no mistakes can be made, any more than limits can be set.
+
+It is thus that the Infinite Power works through and for us--true
+inspiration--while our part is simply to see that our connection with
+this power is consciously and perfectly kept. And, when we come to a
+knowledge of the true nature, a knowledge of the true self, when we come
+to a conscious realization of the fact that we are one with, a part of,
+this spirit of infinite life, infinite love, infinite wisdom, infinite
+power, and infinite plenty, do we not see that we lack for nothing, that
+all things _are_ ours? It is then ours to speak the word: desire induces
+and gives place to realization. If you are intelligence, if you are
+power, if you are that all-seeing, all-knowing, all-doing, all-loving,
+all-having, that eternal self, that eternal one without beginning and
+without end, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, then all things
+_are_ yours, and you lack for nothing; and, when you come consciously to
+know and to live this truth, then the whole of life for you is summed up
+in the one word _realization_. The striving, the pulling, the running
+hither and thither to accomplish this or that, that takes place on all
+planes of life below this highest plane, gives place to this
+_realization_; and you and your desire become one.
+
+And what does this mean? Simply this: that you have found and have
+literally entered into the kingdom of heaven, and heaven means harmony,
+so that you have entered into the kingdom of harmony,--harmony or
+oneness with the Infinite Life, the Infinite God. And do we not, then,
+clearly see the rational and scientific basis for the injunction--seek
+ye first the kingdom of heaven, and all these other things shall be
+added unto you? Than this there is nothing in all the wide universe more
+scientific, nothing more practical; and in the light of this can we not
+also see how readily follows the injunction--Take ye no thought for the
+things of the morrow, for the things of the morrow will take care of
+themselves? This realization gives you that care-less attitude, free
+from care. The Infinite Power does the work for you, and you are
+relieved of the responsibility. Your responsibility lies in keeping
+yourself in a faithful and a never-failing connection with this Infinite
+Source. Why, I know a few lives that have come into such a conscious
+oneness with the Infinite Life, and who so continually live in its
+realization, that all things that have just been said are _absolutely_
+true in their cases. The solution of all things they thus put into the
+law, so that, when the time comes, the difficulty is solved, the course
+is clear, the way is opened, or the means are at hand. When one knows
+whereof he speaks, of this he can speak with authority.
+
+When this realization comes, fear goes, hope attends, faith
+dominates,--the faith of to-day which gives place to the realization of
+to-morrow. We then have nothing to do with the past, nothing to do with
+the future; for the whole of life is determined by the ever-present
+to-day. As my life to-day has been determined by the way I lived my
+yesterday, so my to-morrow is being determined by the way I live my
+to-day. Let me then live in this _eternal now_, and realize that I am at
+this very moment living the eternal life as much as I ever shall or can
+live it. I will then waste no time with the past, except perhaps
+occasionally to give thanks that its then seeming trials, sorrows,
+errors, and stumblings have brought me all the sooner into harmony with
+the laws of the higher life. Let me waste no time with the future, no
+time in idle dreaming, neither in fears nor forebodings, thus inviting
+and opening the door for the entrance of their actualizations; but
+rather let me, by the thoughts and so by the deeds of to-day, make the
+future exactly what I will.
+
+Every act is preceded and given birth to by a thought, the act repeated
+forms the habit, the habit determines the character, and character
+determines the life, the destiny,--a most significant, a most tremendous
+truth: thought on the one hand, life, destiny, on the other. And how
+simplified, when we realize that it is merely the thought of the present
+hour, and the next when it comes, and the next, and the next! so life,
+destiny, on the one hand, the thoughts of the present hour, on the
+other. This is the secret of character-building. How wonderfully simple,
+though what vigilance it demands!
+
+What, shall we ask, is the place, what the value, of prayer? Prayer, as
+every act of devotion, brings us into an ever greater conscious harmony
+with the Infinite, the one pearl of great price; for it is this harmony
+which brings all other things. Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, and
+thus is its own answer, as the sincere desire made active and
+accompanied by faith sooner or later gives place to realization; _for
+faith is an invisible and invincible magnet, and attracts to itself
+whatever it fervently desires and calmly and persistently expects_. This
+is absolute, and the results will be absolute in exact proportion as
+this operation of the thought forces, as this faith is absolute, and
+relative in exact proportion as it is relative. The Master said, What
+things soever ye desire, when ye pray, _believe_ that ye receive them
+and ye shall have them. Can any law be more clearly enunciated, can
+anything be more definite and more absolute than this? According to thy
+faith be it unto thee. Do we at times fail in obtaining the results we
+desire? The fault, the failure, lies not in the law but in ourselves.
+Regarded in its right and true light, than prayer there is nothing more
+scientific, nothing more valuable, nothing more effective.
+
+This conscious realization of oneness with the Infinite Life is of all
+things the one thing to be desired; for, when this oneness is realized
+and lived in, all other things follow in its train, there are no desires
+that shall not be realized, for God has planted in the human breast no
+desire without its corresponding means of realization. No harm can come
+nigh, nothing can touch us, there will be nothing to fear; for we shall
+thus attract only the good. And whatever changes time may bring,
+understanding the law, we shall always expect something better, and thus
+set into operation the forces that will attract that something,
+realizing that many times angels go out that arch-angels may enter in;
+and this is always true in the case of the life of this higher
+realization. And why should we have any fear whatever,--fear even for
+the nation, as is many times expressed? God is behind His world, in
+love and with infinite care and watchfulness working out his great and
+almighty plans; and whatever plans men may devise, He will when the time
+is ripe either frustrate and shatter, or aid and push through to their
+most perfect culmination,--frustrate and shatter if contrary to, aid and
+actualize if in harmony with His.
+
+It will readily be seen what a power the life that is fully awake, that
+fully grasps and uses the great forces of its own interior self, can be
+in the service of mankind. One with these forces highly spiritualized
+will not have to go here and there to do the greatest service for
+mankind. Such a one can sit in his cabin, in his tent, in his own home,
+or, as he goes here and there, he can continually send out influences of
+the most potent and powerful nature,--influences that will have their
+effect, that will do their work, and that will reach to the uttermost
+parts of the world. Than this there can be no more valuable, more vital
+service, nor one of a higher nature.
+
+These facts, the facts relating to the powers that come with the higher
+awakening, have been dealt with somewhat fully, to show that the matters
+along the lines of man's interior, intuitive, spiritual, thought, soul
+life, instead of being, as they are so many times regarded, merely
+indefinite, sentimental, or impractical, are, on the contrary,
+powerfully, omnipotently real, and are of all practical things in the
+world the most practical, and, in the truest and deepest sense, the only
+truly practical things there are. And pre-eminently is this true when we
+look with a long range of vision, past the mere to-day, to the final
+outcome, to the time when that transition we are accustomed to call
+death takes place, and all accumulations and possessions material are
+left behind, and the soul takes with it only the unfoldment and growth
+of the real life; and unless it has this, when all else must be left
+behind, it goes out poor indeed. And a most wonderful and beautiful fact
+of it all is this: that all growth, all advancement, all attainment made
+along the lines of the spiritual, the soul, the real life, is so much
+made forever, and can never be lost. Hence the great fact in the
+admonition, Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth
+doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for
+yourselves treasures in heaven,--the interior, spiritual kingdom,--where
+neither moth doth corrupt nor where thieves break through and steal.
+
+What then, again let us ask, is love to God? It is far more, we have
+found, than a mere sentimental abstraction. It is this awakening to the
+higher, the god-self, a coming into the conscious realization of the
+fact that your life is one with, is a part of, the Infinite Life, the
+full realization of the fact that you are a spiritual being here and
+now, at this very moment, and a living as such. It is being true to the
+light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and so a
+finding of the Christ within; a realization of the fact that God is the
+life of your life, and so not afar off; a realization of a oneness so
+perfect that you are able to say, as did His other son, "I and my Father
+are one"--the ultimate destiny of each human soul, each of the Father's
+children, for all, no matter what differences man may see, are equal in
+His sight; and He created not one in vain. So love to God in its true
+expression is not a mere sentimentality, a mere abstraction: it is life,
+it is growth, it is spiritual awakening and unfoldment, it is
+realization. Again, it is life: it is the more abundant life.
+
+Then recognize this fact, and so fill your life with an intense, a
+passionate love for God. Then take this life, so rich, so abundant, and
+so powerful, and lose it in the love and service of your fellow-men, the
+Father's other children. Fill it with an intense, a passionate love for
+service; and when this shall have been done, your life is in complete
+harmony with all the law and the prophets, in complete harmony with the
+two great and determining facts of human life and destiny,--love to God
+and love to one's fellow-men,--the two eternal principles upon which the
+great universal religion, which is slowly and gradually evolving out an
+almost endless variety and form, is to rest. Do this, and feel once for
+all the power and the thrill of the life universal. Do this, and find
+yourself coming into the full realization of such splendors and beauties
+as all the royal courts of this world combined have never been able even
+to dream of.
+
+When the step from the personal to the impersonal, from the personal,
+the individual, to the universal, is once made, the great solution of
+life has come; and by this same step one enters at once into the realm
+of all power. When this is done, and one fully realizes the fact that
+the greatest life is the life spent in the service of all mankind, and
+then when he vitally grasps that great eternal principle of right, of
+truth, of justice, that runs through all the universe, and which, though
+temporarily it may seem to be perverted, always and with never an
+exception eventually prevails, and that with an omnipotent power,--he
+then holds the key to all situations.
+
+A king of this nature goes about his work absolutely regardless of what
+men may say or hear or think or do; for he himself has absolutely
+nothing to gain or nothing to lose, and nothing of this nature can come
+near him or touch him, for he is standing not in the personal, but in
+the universal. He is then in God's work, and the very God-powers are
+his, and it seems as if the very angels of heaven come to minister unto
+him and to move things his way; and this is true, very true, for he
+himself is simply moving God's way, and when this is so, the certainty
+of the outcome is absolute.
+
+How often did the Master say, "I seek not to do mine own will, but the
+will of the Father who sent me"! Here is the world's great example of
+the life out of the personal and in the universal, hence his great
+power. The same has been true of all the saviors, the prophets, the
+seers, the sages, and the leaders in the world's history, of all of
+truly great and lasting power.
+
+He who would then come into the secret of power must come from the
+personal into the universal, and with this comes not only great power,
+but also freedom from the vexations and perplexities that rise from the
+misconstruing of motives, the opinions of others; for such a one cares
+nothing as to what men may say, or hear, or think, or do, so long as he
+is true to the great principles of right and truth before him. And, if
+we will search carefully, we shall find that practically all the
+perplexities and difficulties of life have their origin on the side of
+the personal.
+
+Much is said to young men to-day about success in life,--success
+generally though, as the world calls success. It is well, however,
+always to bear in mind the fact that there is a success which is a
+miserable, a deplorable failure; while, on the other hand, there is a
+failure which is a grand, a noble, a God-like success. And one crying
+need of the age is that young men be taught the true dignity, nobility,
+and power of such a failure,--such a failure in the eyes of the world
+to-day, but such a success in the eyes of God and the coming ages. When
+this is done, there will be among us more prophets, more saviors, more
+men of grand and noble stature, who with a firm and steady hand will
+hold the lighted torch of true advancement high up among the people; and
+they will be those whom the people will gladly follow, for they will be
+those who will speak and move with authority, true sons of God, true
+brothers of men. A man may make his millions and his life be a failure
+still.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The promise was given that our conversation should not be extended; and
+unless we conclude it now, the promise will not be kept. Our aim at the
+outset, you will remember, was to find answer to the question--How can I
+make life yield its fullest and best? how can I know the true secret of
+power? how can I attain to true greatness? how can I fill the whole of
+life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satisfaction, that is ever rich
+and abiding, that ever increases, never diminishes?
+
+Two great laws come forward: the one, that we find our own lives in
+losing them in the service of others,--love to the fellow-man; the
+other, that all life is one with, is part of, the Infinite Life, that we
+are not material, but spiritual beings,--spiritual beings here and now,
+and a living as such, which brings us in turn to a realization of the
+higher, the god-self, thus bringing us into the realm of all peace, all
+power, and all plenty,--this is love to God.
+
+And I wonder now if we have found the answer true and satisfactory. We
+have sat at the feet of the Master Teacher, and he has told us that we
+have. We have found that through them, and through them alone, _true_
+greatness, power, and success can come; that through them comes the
+richest joy, the greatest peace and satisfaction this world can know. We
+have also found that, if one's desire is to make life narrow, pinched,
+and of little value, to rob it of its chief charms, the only requirement
+necessary is to become self-centred, to live continually with the
+little, stunted self, which will inevitably grow more and more
+diminutive and shrivelled as time passes, instead of reaching out and
+having a part in the great life of humanity, thus illimitably
+intensifying and multiplying his own. For each act of humble service is
+that divine touching of the ground which enables one to get the spring
+whereby he leaps to ever greater heights. We have found that a
+recognition of these two laws enables one to grow and develop the
+fullest and richest life here, and that they are the two gates whereby
+all who would must enter the kingdom of heaven.
+
+Around this great and sweet-incensed altar of love, service, and
+self-devotion to God and the fellow-man, can and do all mankind bow and
+worship. To it can all religions and creeds subscribe: it is the
+universal religion.
+
+Then become at one with God, as did His other son, through the awakening
+to the real self and by living continually in this the higher, the
+god-self. Become at one with humanity, as did His other son, by bringing
+your life into harmony with this great, immutable law of love and
+service and self-devotion, and so feel once for all the power and the
+thrill of the life universal.
+
+Yours will then be a life the greatest, the grandest, the most joyous
+this world can know; for you will indeed be living the Christ-life, the
+life that is beyond compare, the life to which all the world stretches
+out its eager palms, and innumerable companies will rise up and call you
+blessed, and give thanks that such a life is the rich heritage of the
+world. The song continually arising from your lips will then be, There
+is joy, only joy; for we are all one with the Infinite Life, all parts
+of the one great whole, and the Spirit of Infinite Goodness and Love is
+ever ruling over all.
+
+
+
+
+PART VI.
+
+CHARACTER-BUILDING THOUGHT POWER
+
+
+     _A thought,--good or evil,--an act, in time a habit,--so runs
+     life's law: what you live in your thought-world, that, sooner or
+     later, you will find objectified in your life._
+
+
+Unconsciously we are forming habits every moment of our lives. Some are
+habits of a desirable nature; some are those of a most undesirable
+nature. Some, though not so bad in themselves, are exceedingly bad in
+their cumulative effects, and cause us at times much loss, much pain and
+anguish, while their opposites would, on the contrary, bring us much
+peace and joy, as well as a continually increasing power.
+
+Have we it within our power to determine at all times what types of
+habits shall take form in our lives? In other words, is habit-forming,
+character-building, a matter of mere chance, or have we it within our
+own control? We have, entirely and absolutely. "I will be what I will to
+be," can be said and should be said by every human soul.
+
+After this has been bravely and determinedly said, and not only said,
+but fully inwardly realized, something yet remains. Something remains
+to be said regarding the great law underlying habit-forming,
+character-building; for there is a simple, natural, and thoroughly
+scientific method that all should know. A method whereby old,
+undesirable, earth-binding habits can be broken, and new, desirable,
+heaven-lifting habits can be acquired,--a method whereby life in part or
+in its totality can be changed, provided one is sufficiently in earnest
+to know, and, knowing it, to apply the law.
+
+Thought is the force underlying all. And what do we mean by this? Simply
+this: Your every act--every conscious act--is preceded by a thought.
+Your dominating thoughts determine your dominating actions. The acts
+repeated crystallize themselves into the habit. The aggregate of your
+habits is your character. Whatever, then, you would have your acts, you
+must look well to the character of the thought you entertain. Whatever
+act you would not do,--habit you would not acquire,--you must look well
+to it that you do not entertain the type of thought that will give birth
+to this act, this habit.
+
+It is a simple psychological law that any type of thought, if
+entertained for a sufficient length of time, will, by and by, reach the
+motor tracks of the brain, and finally burst forth into action. Murder
+can be and many times is committed in this way, the same as all
+undesirable things are done. On the other hand, the greatest powers are
+grown, the most God-like characteristics are engendered, the most heroic
+acts are performed in the same way.
+
+The thing clearly to understand is this: That the thought is always
+parent to the act. Now, we have it entirely in our own hands to
+determine exactly what thoughts we entertain. In the realm of our own
+minds we have absolute control, or we should have, and if at any time we
+have not, then there is a method by which we can gain control, and in
+the realm of the mind become thorough masters. In order to get to the
+very foundation of the matter, let us look to this for a moment. For if
+thought is always parent to our acts, habits, character, life, then it
+is first necessary that we know fully how to control our thoughts.
+
+Here let us refer to that law of the mind which is the same as is the
+law in connection with the reflex nerve system of the body, the law
+which says that whenever one does a certain thing in a certain way it is
+easier to do the same thing in the same way the next time, and still
+easier the next, and the next, and the next, until in time it comes to
+pass that no effort is required, or no effort worth speaking of; but on
+the contrary, to do the opposite would require the effort. The mind
+carries with it the power that perpetuates its own type of thought, the
+same as the body carries with it through the reflex nerve system the
+power which perpetuates and makes continually easier its own particular
+acts. Thus a simple effort to control one's thoughts, a simple setting
+about it, even if at first failure is the result, and even if for a time
+failure seems to be about the only result, will in time, sooner or
+later, bring him to the point of easy, full, and complete control.
+
+Each one, then, can grow the power of determining, controlling his
+thought, the power of determining what types of thought he shall and
+what types he shall not entertain. For let us never part in mind with
+this fact, that every earnest _effort_ along any line makes the end
+aimed at just a little easier for each succeeding effort, even if, as
+has been said, apparent failure is the result of the earlier efforts.
+This is a case where even failure is success, for the failure is not in
+the effort, and every earnest effort adds an increment of power that
+will eventually accomplish the end aimed at. We _can_, then, gain the
+full and complete power of determining what character, what type of
+thoughts we entertain.
+
+Shall we now give attention to some two or three concrete cases? Here
+is a man, the cashier of a large mercantile establishment, or cashier of
+a bank. In his morning paper he reads of a man who has become suddenly
+rich, has made a fortune of half a million or a million dollars in a few
+hours through speculation on the stock market. Perhaps he has seen an
+account of another man who has done practically the same thing lately.
+He is not quite wise enough, however, to comprehend the fact that when
+he reads of one or two cases of this kind he could find, were he to look
+into the matter carefully, one or two hundred cases of men who have lost
+all they had in the same way. He thinks, however, that he will be one of
+the fortunate ones. He does not fully realize that there are no short
+cuts to wealth honestly made. He takes a part of his savings, and as is
+true in practically all cases of this kind, he loses all that he has put
+in. Thinking now that he sees why he lost, and that had he more money he
+would be able to get back what he has lost, and perhaps make a handsome
+sum in addition, and make it quickly, the thought comes to him to use
+some of the funds he has charge of. In nine cases out of ten, if not in
+ten cases in every ten, the results that inevitably follow this are
+known sufficiently well to make it unnecessary to follow him farther.
+Where is the man's safety in the light of what we have been considering?
+Simply this: the moment the thought of using for his own purpose funds
+belonging to others enters his mind, if he is wise he will _instantly_
+put the thought from his mind. If he is a fool he will entertain it. In
+the degree in which he entertains it, it will grow upon him; it will
+become the absorbing thought in his mind; it will finally become master
+of his will power, and through rapidly succeeding steps, dishonor,
+shame, degradation, penitentiary, remorse will be his. It is easy for
+him to put the thought from his mind when it first enters; but as he
+entertains it, it grows into such proportions that it becomes more and
+more difficult for him to put it from his mind; and by and by it becomes
+practically _impossible_ for him to do it. The light of the match, which
+but a little effort of the breath would have extinguished at first, has
+imparted a flame that is raging through the entire building, and now it
+is almost, if not quite impossible to conquer it.
+
+Shall we notice another concrete case? a trite case, perhaps, but one in
+which we can see how habit is formed, and also how the same habit can be
+unformed. Here is a young man, he may be the son of poor parents, or he
+may be the son of rich parents; one in the ordinary ranks of life, or
+one of high social standing, whatever that means. He is good-hearted,
+one of good impulses, generally speaking,--a good fellow. He is out with
+some companions, companions of the same general type. They are out for a
+pleasant evening, out for a good time. They are apt at times to be
+thoughtless, even careless. The suggestion is made by one of the
+company, not that they get drunk, no, not at all; but merely that they
+go and have something to drink together. The young man whom we first
+mentioned, wanting to be genial, scarcely listens to the suggestion that
+comes to his inner consciousness--that it will be better for him not to
+fall in with the others in this. He does not stop long enough to realize
+the fact that the greatest strength and nobility of character lies
+always in taking a firm stand on the side of the right, and allow
+himself to be influenced by nothing that will weaken this stand. He
+goes, therefore, with his companions to the drinking place. With the
+same or with other companions this is repeated now and then; and each
+time it is repeated his power of saying "No" is gradually decreasing. In
+this way he has grown a little liking for intoxicants, and takes them
+perhaps now and then by himself. He does not dream, or in the slightest
+degree realize, what way he is tending, until there comes a day when he
+wakens to the consciousness of the fact that he hasn't the power nor
+even the impulse to resist the taste which has gradually grown into a
+minor form of craving for intoxicants. Thinking, however, that he will
+be able to stop when he is really in danger of getting into the drink
+habit, he goes thoughtlessly and carelessly on. We will pass over the
+various intervening steps and come to the time when we find him a
+confirmed drunkard. It is simply the same old story told a thousand or
+even a million times over.
+
+He finally awakens to his true condition; and through the shame, the
+anguish, the degradation, and the want that comes upon him he longs for
+a return of the days when he was a free man. But hope has almost gone
+from his life. It would have been easier for him never to have begun,
+and easier for him to have stopped before he reached his present
+condition, but even in his present condition, be it the lowest and the
+most helpless and hopeless that can be imagined, he has the power to get
+out of it and be a free man once again. Let us see. The desire for drink
+comes upon him again. If he entertain the thought, the desire, he is
+lost again. His only hope, his only means of escape is this: the moment,
+aye, _the very instant_ the thought comes to him, if he will put it out
+of his mind he will thereby put out the little flame of the match. If he
+entertain the thought the little flame will communicate itself until
+almost before he is aware of it a consuming fire is raging, and then
+effort is almost useless. The thought must be banished from the mind the
+instant it enters; dalliance with it means failure and defeat, or a
+fight that will be indescribably fiercer than it would be if the thought
+is ejected at the beginning.
+
+And here we must say a word regarding a certain great law that we may
+call the "law of indirectness." A thought can be put out of the mind
+easier and more successfully, not by dwelling upon it, not by attempting
+to put it out _directly_, but by throwing the mind on to some other
+object, by putting some other object of thought into the mind. This may
+be, for example, the ideal of full and perfect self-mastery, or it may
+be something of a nature entirely distinct from the thought which
+presents itself, something to which the mind goes easily and naturally.
+This will in time become the absorbing thought in the mind, and the
+danger is past. This same course of action repeated, will gradually
+grow the power of putting more readily out of mind the thought of drink
+as it presents itself, and will gradually grow the power of putting into
+the mind those objects of thought one most desires. The result will be
+that as time passes the thought of drink will present itself less and
+less, and when it does present itself it can be put out of the mind more
+easily each succeeding time, until the time comes when it can be put out
+without difficulty, and eventually the time will come when the thought
+will enter the mind no more at all.
+
+Still another case. You may be more or less of an irritable
+nature--naturally, perhaps, provoked easily to anger. Some one says
+something or does something that you dislike, and your first impulse is
+to show resentment and possibly to give way to anger. In the degree that
+you allow this resentment to display itself, that you allow yourself to
+give way to anger, in that degree will it become easier to do the same
+thing when any cause, even a very slight cause, presents itself. It
+will, moreover, become continually harder for you to refrain from it,
+until resentment, anger, and possibly even hatred and revenge become
+characteristics of your nature, robbing it of its sunniness, its charm,
+and its brightness for all with whom you come in contact. If, however,
+the instant the impulse to resentment and anger arises, you check it
+_then and there_, and throw the mind on to some other object of thought,
+the power will gradually grow itself of doing this same thing more
+readily, more easily, as succeeding like causes present themselves,
+until by and by the time will come when there will be scarcely anything
+that can irritate you, and nothing that can impel you to anger; until by
+and by a matchless brightness and charm of nature and disposition will
+become habitually yours, a brightness and charm you would scarcely think
+possible to-day. And so we might take up case after case, characteristic
+after characteristic, habit after habit. The habit of fault-finding and
+its opposite are grown in identically the same way; the characteristic
+of jealousy and its opposite; the characteristic of fear and its
+opposite. In this same way we grow either love or hatred; in this way we
+come to take a gloomy, pessimistic view of life, which objectifies
+itself in a nature, a disposition of this type, or we grow that sunny,
+hopeful, cheerful, buoyant nature that brings with it so much joy and
+beauty and power for ourselves, as well as so much hope and inspiration
+and joy for all the world.
+
+There is nothing more true in connection with human life than that we
+grow into the likeness of those things we contemplate. Literally and
+scientifically and necessarily true is it that, "as a man thinketh in
+his heart, so _is_ he." The "is" part is his character. His character is
+the sum total of his habits. His habits have been formed by his
+conscious acts; but every conscious act is, as we have found, preceded
+by a thought. And so we have it--thought on the one hand, character,
+life, destiny on the other. And simple it becomes when we bear in mind
+that it is simply the thought of the present moment, and the next moment
+when it is upon us, and then the next, and so on through all time.
+
+One can in this way attain to whatever ideals he would attain to. Two
+steps are necessary: first, as the days pass, to form one's ideals; and
+second, to follow them continually whatever may arise, wherever they may
+lead him. Always remember that the great and strong character is the one
+who is ever ready to sacrifice the present pleasure for the future good.
+He who will thus follow his highest ideals as they present themselves to
+him day after day, year after year, will find that as Dante, following
+his beloved from world to world, finally found her at the gates of
+Paradise, so he will find himself eventually at the same gates. Life is
+not, we may say, for mere passing pleasure, but for the highest
+unfoldment that one can attain to, the noblest character that one can
+grow, and for the greatest service that one can render to all mankind.
+In this, however, we will find the highest pleasure, for in this the
+only real pleasure lies. He who would find it by any short cuts, or by
+entering upon any other paths, will inevitably find that his last state
+is always worse than his first; and if he proceed upon paths other than
+these he will find that he will never find real and lasting pleasure at
+all. The question is not, What are the conditions in our lives? but, How
+do we meet the conditions that we find there? And whatever the
+conditions are, it is unwise and profitless to look upon them, even if
+they are conditions that we would have otherwise, in the attitude of
+complaint, for complaint will bring depression, and depression will
+weaken and possibly even kill the spirit that would engender the power
+that would enable us to bring into our lives an entirely new set of
+conditions.
+
+In order to be concrete, even at the risk of being personal, I will say
+that in my own experience there have come at various times into my life
+circumstances and conditions that I gladly would have run from at the
+time--conditions that caused at the time humiliation and shame and
+anguish of spirit. But invariably, as sufficient time has passed, I have
+been able to look back and see clearly the part which every experience
+of the type just mentioned had to play in my life. I have seen the
+lessons it was essential for me to learn; and the result is that now I
+would not drop a single one of these experiences from my life,
+humiliating and hard to bear as they were at the time; no, not for the
+world. And here is also a lesson I have learned: whatever conditions are
+in my life to-day that are not the easiest and most agreeable, and
+whatever conditions of this type all coming time may bring, I will take
+them just as they come, without complaint, without depression, and meet
+them in the wisest possible way; knowing that they are the best possible
+conditions that could be in my life at the time, or otherwise they would
+not be there; realizing the fact that, although I may not at the time
+see why they are in my life, although I may not see just what part they
+have to play, the time will come, and when it comes I will see it all,
+and thank God for every condition just as it came.
+
+Each one is so apt to think that his own conditions, his own trials or
+troubles or sorrows, or his own struggles, as the case may be, are
+greater than those of the great mass of mankind, or possibly greater
+than those of anyone else in the world. He forgets that each one has his
+own peculiar trials or troubles or borrows to bear, or struggles in
+habits to overcome, and that his is but the common lot of all the human
+race. We are apt to make the mistake in this--in that we see and feel
+keenly our own trials, or adverse conditions, or characteristics to be
+overcome, while those of others we do not see so clearly, and hence we
+are apt to think that they are not at all equal to our own. Each has his
+own problems to work out. Each must work out his own problems. Each must
+grow the insight that will enable him to see what the causes are that
+have brought the unfavorable conditions into his life; each must grow
+the strength that will enable him to face these conditions, and to set
+into operation forces that will bring about a different set of
+conditions. We may be of aid to one another by way of suggestion, by way
+of bringing to one another a knowledge of certain higher laws and
+forces,--laws and forces that will make it easier to do that which we
+would do. The doing, however, must be done by each one for himself.
+
+And so the way to get out of any conditions we have gotten into, either
+knowingly or inadvertently, either intentionally or unintentionally, is
+to take time to look the conditions squarely in the face, and to find
+the law whereby they have come about. And when we have discovered the
+law, the thing to do is not to rebel against it, not to resist it, but
+to go with it by working in harmony with it. If we work in harmony with
+it, it will work for our highest good, and will take us wheresoever we
+desire. If we oppose it, if we resist it, if we fail to work in harmony
+with it, it will eventually break us to pieces. The law is immutable in
+its workings. Go with it, and it brings all things our way; resist it,
+and it brings suffering, pain, loss, and desolation.
+
+But a few days ago I was talking with a lady, a most estimable lady
+living on a little New England farm of some five or six acres. Her
+husband died a few years ago, a good-hearted, industrious man, but one
+who spent practically all of his earnings in drink. When he died the
+little farm was unpaid for, and the wife found herself without any
+visible means of support, with a family of several to care for. Instead
+of being discouraged with what many would have called her hard lot,
+instead of rebelling against the circumstances in which she found
+herself, she faced the matter bravely, firmly believing that there were
+ways by which she could manage, though she could not see them clearly at
+the time. She took up her burden where she found it, and went bravely
+forward. For several years she has been taking care of summer boarders
+who come to that part of the country, getting up regularly, she told me,
+at from half-past three to four o'clock in the morning, and working
+until ten o'clock each night. In the winter-time, when this means of
+revenue is cut off, she has gone out to do nursing in the country round
+about. In this way the little farm is now almost paid for; her children
+have been kept in school, and they are now able to aid her to a greater
+or less extent. Through it all she has entertained no fears nor
+forebodings; she has shown no rebellion of any kind. She has not kicked
+against the circumstances which brought about the conditions in which
+she found herself, but she has put herself into harmony with the law
+that would bring her into another set of conditions. And through it all,
+she told me, she had been continually grateful that she has been able to
+work, and that whatever her own circumstances have been, she has never
+yet failed to find some one whose circumstances were still a little
+worse than hers, and for whom it was not possible for her to render some
+little service.
+
+Most heartily she appreciates the fact, and most grateful is she for it,
+that the little home is now almost paid for, and soon no more of her
+earnings will have to go out in that channel. The dear little home, she
+said, would be all the more precious to her by virtue of the fact that
+it was finally hers through her own efforts. The strength and nobility
+of character that have come to her during these years, the sweetness of
+disposition, the sympathy and care for others, her faith in the final
+triumph of all that is honest and true and pure and good, are qualities
+that thousands and hundreds of thousands of women, yes, of both men and
+women, who are apparently in better circumstances in life can justly
+envy. And should the little farm home be taken away to-morrow, she has
+gained something that a farm of a thousand acres could not buy. By going
+about her work in the way she has gone about it the burden of it all has
+been lightened, and her work has been made truly enjoyable.
+
+Let us take a moment to see how these same conditions would have been
+met by a person of less wisdom, one not so far-sighted as this dear,
+good woman has been. For a time possibly her spirit would have been
+crushed. Fears and forebodings of all kinds would probably have taken
+hold of her, and she would have felt that nothing that she could do
+would be of any avail. Or, she might have rebelled against the agencies,
+against the law which brought about the conditions in which she found
+herself, and she might have become embittered against the world, and
+gradually also against the various people with whom she came in contact.
+Or again, she might have thought that her efforts would be unable to
+meet the circumstances, and that it was the duty of some one to lift her
+out of her difficulties. In this way no progress at all would have been
+made towards the accomplishment of the desired results, and continually
+she would have felt more keenly the circumstances in which she found
+herself, because there was nothing else to occupy her mind. In this way
+the little farm would not have become hers, she would not have been able
+to do anything for others, and her nature would have become embittered
+against everything and everybody.
+
+True it is, then, not, What are the conditions in one's life? but, How
+does he meet the conditions that he finds there? This will determine
+all. And if at any time we are apt to think that our own lot is about
+the hardest there is, and if we are able at any time to persuade
+ourselves that we can find no one whose lot is just a little harder than
+ours, let us then study for a little while the character Pompilia, in
+Browning's poem,[D] and after studying it, thank God that the conditions
+in our life are so favorable; and then set about with a trusting and
+intrepid spirit to actualize the conditions that we most desire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Thought is at the bottom of all progress or retrogression, of all
+success or failure, of all that is desirable or undesirable in human
+life. The type of thought we entertain both creates and draws conditions
+that crystallize about it, conditions exactly the same in nature as is
+the thought that gives them form. Thoughts are forces, and each creates
+of its kind, whether we realize it or not. The great law of the drawing
+power of the mind, which says that like creates like, and that like
+attracts like, is continually working in every human life, for it is one
+of the great immutable laws of the universe. For one to take time to see
+clearly the things he would attain to, and then to hold that ideal
+steadily and continually before his mind, never allowing faith--his
+positive thought-forces--to give way to or to be neutralized by doubts
+and fears, and then to set about doing each day what his hands find to
+do, never complaining, but spending the time that he would otherwise
+spend in complaint in focusing his thought-forces upon the ideal that
+his mind has built, will sooner or later bring about the full
+materialization of that for which he sets out.
+
+There are those who, when they begin to grasp the fact that there is
+what we may term a "science of thought," who, when they begin to realize
+that through the instrumentality of our interior, spiritual
+thought-forces we have the power of gradually moulding the every-day
+conditions of life as we would have them, in their early enthusiasm are
+not able to see results as quickly as they expect, and are apt to think,
+therefore, that after all there is not very much in that which has but
+newly come to their knowledge. They must remember, however, that in
+endeavoring to overcome an old or to grow a new habit, everything cannot
+be done _all at once_.
+
+In the degree that we attempt to use the thought-forces do we
+continually become able to use them more effectively. Progress is slow
+at first, more rapid as we proceed. Power grows by using, or, in other
+words, using brings a continually increasing power. This is governed by
+law the same as are all things in our lives, and all things in the
+universe about us. Every act and advancement made by the musician is in
+full accordance with law. No one commencing the study of music can, for
+example, sit down to the piano and play the piece of a master at the
+first effort. He must not conclude, however, nor does he conclude, that
+the piece of the master _cannot be_ played by him, or, for that matter,
+by any one. He begins to practise the piece. The law of the mind that we
+have already noticed comes to his aid, whereby his mind follows the
+music more readily, more rapidly, and more surely each succeeding time,
+and there also comes into operation and to his aid the law underlying
+the action of the reflex nerve system of the body, which we have also
+noticed, whereby his fingers coordinate their movements with the
+movements of his mind, more readily, more rapidly, and more accurately
+each succeeding time; until by and by the time comes when that which he
+stumbles through at first, that in which there is no harmony, nothing
+but discord, finally reveals itself as the music of the master, the
+music that thrills and moves masses of men and women. So it is in the
+use of the thought-forces. It is the reiteration, the constant
+reiteration of the thought that grows the power of continually stronger
+thought-focusing, and that finally brings manifestation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All life is from within out. This is something that cannot be reiterated
+too often. The springs of life are all from within. This being true, it
+would be well for us to give more time to the inner life than we are
+accustomed to give to it, especially in this Western world.
+
+There is nothing that will bring us such abundant returns as to take a
+little time in the quiet each day of our lives. We need this to get the
+kinks out of our minds and hence out of our lives. We need this to form
+better the higher ideals of life. We need this in order to see clearly
+in mind the things upon which we would concentrate and focus the
+thought-forces. We need this in order to make continually anew and to
+keep our conscious connection with the Infinite. We need this in order
+that the rush and hurry of our every-day life does not keep us away from
+the conscious realization of the fact that the spirit of Infinite life
+and power that is back of all, working in and through all, the life of
+all, is the life of our life, and the source of our power; and that
+outside of this we have no life and we have no power. To realize this
+fact fully, and to live in it consciously at all times, is to find the
+kingdom of God, which is essentially an inner kingdom, and can never be
+anything else. The kingdom of heaven is to be found only within, and
+this is done once for all, and in a manner in which it cannot otherwise
+be done, when we come into the conscious, living realization of the fact
+that in our real selves we are essentially one with the Divine life, and
+open ourselves continually so that this Divine life can speak to and
+manifest through us. In this way we come into the condition where we are
+continually walking with God. In this way the consciousness of God
+becomes a living reality in our lives; and in the degree in which it
+becomes a reality does it bring us into the realization of continually
+increasing wisdom, insight, and power. _This consciousness of God in the
+soul of man is the essence, indeed the sum and substance of all
+religion._ This identifies religion with every act and every moment of
+every-day life. That which does not identify itself with every moment of
+every day and with every act of life is religion in name only and not in
+reality. This consciousness of God in the soul of man is the one thing
+uniformly taught by all the prophets, by all the inspired ones, by all
+the seers and mystics in the world's history, whatever the time,
+wherever the country, whatever the religion, whatever minor differences
+we may find in their lives and teachings. In regard to this they all
+agree; indeed, this is the essence of their teaching, as it has also
+been the secret of their power and the secret of their lasting
+influence.
+
+It is the attitude of the child that is necessary before we can enter
+into the kingdom of heaven. As it was said, "Except ye become as little
+children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." For we then
+realize that of ourselves we can do nothing, but that it is only as we
+realize that it is the Divine life and power working within us, and it
+is only as we open ourselves that it may work through us, that we are or
+can do anything. It is thus that the simple life, which is essentially
+the life of the greatest enjoyment and the greatest attainment, is
+entered upon.
+
+In the Orient the people as a class take far more time in the quiet, in
+the silence, than we take. Some of them carry this possibly to as great
+an extreme as we carry the opposite, with the result that they do not
+actualize and objectify in the outer life the things they dream in the
+inner life. We give so much time to the activities of the outer life
+that we do not take sufficient time in the quiet to form in the inner,
+spiritual thought-life the ideals and the conditions that we would have
+actualized and manifested in the outer life. The result is that we take
+life in a kind of haphazard way, taking it as it comes, thinking not
+very much about it until, perhaps, pushed by some bitter experiences,
+instead of moulding it, through the agency of the inner forces, exactly
+as we would have it. We need to strike the happy balance between the
+custom in this respect of the Eastern and Western worlds, and go to the
+extreme of neither the one nor the other. This alone will give the ideal
+life; and it is the ideal life only that is the thoroughly satisfactory
+life. In the Orient there are many who are day after day sitting in the
+quiet, meditating, contemplating, idealizing, with their eyes focused on
+their stomach in spiritual revery, while through lack of outer
+activities, in their stomachs they are actually starving. In this
+Western world, men and women, in the rush and activity of our accustomed
+life, are running hither and thither, with no centre, no foundation upon
+which to stand, nothing to which they can anchor their lives, because
+they do not take sufficient time to come into the realization of what
+the centre, of what the reality of their lives is.
+
+If the Oriental would do his contemplating, and then get up and do his
+work, he would be in a better condition; he would be living a more
+normal and satisfactory life. If we in the Occident would take more time
+from the rush and activity of life for contemplation, for meditation,
+for idealization, for becoming acquainted with our real selves, and then
+go about our work manifesting the powers of our real selves, we would be
+far better off, because we would be living a more natural, a more normal
+life. To find one's centre, to become centred in the Infinite, is the
+first great essential of every satisfactory life; and then to go out,
+thinking, speaking, working, loving, living, from this centre.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the highest character-building, such as we have been considering,
+there are those who feel they are handicapped by what we term
+_heredity_. In a sense they are right; in another sense they are totally
+wrong. It is along the same lines as the thought which many before us
+had inculcated in them through the couplet in the New England Primer:
+"In Adam's fall, we sinned all." Now, in the first place, it is rather
+hard to understand the justice of this if it is true. In the second
+place, it is rather hard to understand why it is true. And in the third
+place there is no truth in it at all. We are now dealing with the real,
+essential self, and, however old Adam is, God is eternal. This means
+you; it means me; it means every human soul. When we fully realize this
+fact we see that heredity is a reed that is easily broken. The life of
+every one is in his own hands and he can make it in character, in
+attainment, in power, in divine self-realization, and hence in
+influence, exactly what he wills to make it. All things that he most
+fondly dreams of are his, or may become so if he is truly in earnest;
+and as he rises more and more to his ideal, and grows in the strength
+and influence of his character, he becomes an example and an inspiration
+to all with whom he comes in contact; so that through him the weak and
+faltering are encouraged and strengthened; so that those of low ideals
+and of a low type of life instinctively and inevitably have their ideals
+raised, and the ideals of no one can be raised without its showing forth
+in his outer life. As he advances in his grasp upon and understanding of
+the power and potency of the thought-forces, he finds that many times
+through the process of mental suggestion he can be of tremendous aid to
+one who is weak and struggling, by sending to him now and then, and by
+continually holding him in the highest thought, in the thought of the
+highest strength, wisdom, and love.
+
+The one who takes sufficient time in the quiet mentally to form his
+ideals, sufficient time to make and to keep continually his conscious
+connection with the Infinite, with the Divine life and forces, is the
+one who is best adapted to the strenuous life. He it is who can go out
+and deal with sagacity and power with whatever issues may arise in the
+affairs of every-day life. He it is who is building not for the years,
+but for the centuries; not for time, but for the eternities. And he can
+go out knowing not whither he goes, knowing that the Divine life within
+him will never fail him, but will lead him on until he beholds the
+Father face to face.
+
+He is building for the centuries because only that which is the
+highest, the truest, the noblest, and best will abide the test of the
+centuries. He is building for eternity because when the transition
+we call death takes place, life, character, self-mastery, divine
+self-realization,--the only things that the soul when stripped of
+everything else takes with it,--he has in abundance. In life, or when
+the time of the transition to another form of life comes, he is never
+afraid, never fearful, because he knows and realizes that behind him,
+within him, beyond him, is the Infinite wisdom and love; and in this he
+is eternally centred, and from it he can never be separated. With
+Whittier he sings:
+
+    "I know not where His islands lift
+      Their fronded palms in air;
+    I only know I cannot drift
+      Beyond His love and care."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote D: "The Ring and the Book," by Robert Browning.]
+
+
+
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