* 
 
 . 
 
 \ 
 
 
tj 
 
 Treatment for Self Ifteallng | 
 
 "/ come that ye may have Life and have 
 it more abundantly." 
 
 m 
 
 art ever beside me, Divine One! 
 In Silence I seek now thy aid ! 
 take thy hand trustingly * 
 And am of nothing afraid, 
 I cling to thy Love in the Silence, 
 
 Forgot is Life's unrest and care, 
 I trust in thy promise of healing ! 
 
 All is well, for I know thou art near! 
 I rest like a babe o~ the bosom 
 
 Of her who gave to it life 1 
 I've relaxed every nerve of my body ; 
 
 And Faith has o'ercome all my strife. 
 Thus resting, 1 receive, O my Father! 
 
 Thought's ocean is bearing me on! 
 The winds of the Spirit are wafting 
 
 Me unto the Peace of I he One ! 
 One is the source of my Being! 
 
 One is my Healer of pain! 
 Drifting in Peace in the Silence 
 
 I find my lost youth again! 
 I am thine, O thou who art Patience! 
 
 From thy Presence all suffer ing's flown! 
 Sweetly over my desert of error 
 
 The blossoms of Truth are now sown. 
 The One Life my Being is filling! 
 
 Health within me is weaving i's chain. 
 I am healed ! I am healed ! O beloved! 
 
 In Thee 1 am healed of my pain! 
 Amen and Amen I In Peace now 
 
 I resume my labor laid down! 
 Love Divine in Truth has redeemed me! 
 
 O Soul thou hast come to thine own! 
 
 HENRY HARRISON BROWN. 
 
 To be memorized, and repeated, "in Faith believing' 
 at times of mental or physical distress, 
 
 ^J?&ffi*J1S&Z~3ti^ viitiMffiiifoVfi^' 
 
 
 Copyrighted by H. H. Brown 1912 
 
OTHER BOOKS 
 
 BY HENRY HARRISON BROWN 
 
 The Lord's Prayer. A Vision of Today. 
 
 Leatherette, $1.00. 
 Concentration The Road to Success 
 120 pp. Paper, soc. 
 
 Success: How Won Through Affirmation. 
 
 zoo pp. Paper, SOG. 
 How to Control Fate Through Suggestion 
 
 60 pp. Paper, 250. 
 Self-Healing Through Suggestion* 
 
 60 pp. Paper, 250. 
 Not Hypnotism, But Suggestion 
 
 60 pp. Paper, 25C. 
 Man's Greatest Discovery. Paper, 250. 
 
 Dollars Want Me The New Road to Opulence 
 24 pp. Paper, loc. 
 
 ....Other Publications in Preparation.... 
 
 Mr. Brown is also Editor and Publisher of a 
 New Thought Magazine entitled "NOW" A 
 Journal of Affirmation. |i.oo a year. Address 
 
 589 Haight St., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
 
CDc Cora's prapcr 
 
 fl Vision or Co-dap 
 
 m 
 
 A SERIES OF ESSA YS 
 
 BY - 
 
 HENRY HARRISON BROWN 
 
 SOUL CULTURIST 
 
 Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the 
 highest point of view. It ifc a soliloquy of a beholding and 
 jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing h*,s vrork good. 
 
 in "Self Iterance." 
 
 NOW" COMPANY 
 San Francisco, California 
 1915 
 
RAYER is one of the elements 
 of the religious life. It is the 
 vehicle through which spiritual 
 medicine is given. A valuable specific 
 for the mental and spiritual disturb- 
 ances that underlie all disease. it is 
 a natural instinct of the soul. It is as 
 natural for us under certain circumstances 
 to look to a Supreme Power above us, or 
 within us, for help as it is for birds of pas- 
 sage, at certain seasons of the year, to go 
 south. We are drawn by a spiritual instinct 
 to God in prayer because it is a part of the 
 Divine plan that thus we should find relief. 
 Prayer is a conscious recognition of our 
 dependence and subjection to powers un- 
 seen, but superior to our own The in- 
 fluence of a calm trust and faith express- 
 ing itself in prayer, uttered or unexpressed, 
 over the functions of organic life, cannot 
 be overestimated. F. W. Evans in "The 
 Divine Law of Cure". 
 
Contents. 
 
 Proem 11 
 
 Our Father 15 
 
 Who Art in Heaven 23 
 
 Hallowed Be Thy Name 37 
 
 Thy Kingdom Com e 51 
 
 Thy Will Be Done 65 
 
 On Earth 75 
 
 As It Is in Heaven 89 
 
 Give Us This Day, etc. 97 
 
 Forgive Us, etc., 109 
 
 Lead Us, etc. 119 
 
 Deliver Us, etc. 135 
 
 Epilogue, For Thine, etc. 143 
 
 Forever 163 
 
 The Silent Hour. 
 
 Theodore Parker's Prayer 167 
 
 J. L- Jones' Prayer 172 
 
 Help Thou Mine Unbelief 174 
 
 Agreement 180 
 
 Nature _. 181 
 
 Being 183 
 
 Experience 185 
 
 Self Trust 187 
 
 Harmony 189 
 
 Supply 191 
 
 Liberty 193 
 
 Love 195 
 
 Trust 197 
 
 Friendship 199 
 
 Guidance 201 
 
 Light 203 
 
 Peace 213 
 
 I Welcome All 218 
 
 Herein is Peace 218 
 
 God's Autograph 219 
 
 Mine Own 220 
 
 vii 
 
things are wrought by prayer 
 Than this world dreams of. Where- 
 fore let thy voice 
 Rise like a fountain for me night and day. 
 For what are men better than sheep or 
 
 goats 
 
 That nourish a blind life within the brain, 
 If, knowing God, they lift not hands of 
 
 prayer 
 Both for themselves and those who call 
 
 them friend? 
 
 For so the whole round earth is every way 
 Bound by gold chains about the feet of God. 
 Tennyson, in "Idylls of the King". 
 
 O, God, give us the whirlwind vision! Let 
 
 us see 
 Clear-eyed, that flame creation we call 
 
 earth, 
 And Man, the shining image, like to Thee. 
 
 Let the new age come swiftly to the birth, 
 When this Thy world shall know itself 
 
 divine; 
 And mortals waking from their dream of 
 
 sense, 
 Shall ask no proof, no message and no 
 
 sign 
 
 Man's larger sight, the unanswerable ev- 
 idence. 
 
 Angela Morgan. 
 
 viii 
 
PROEM. 
 
 ^-HROUGH this Prayer all the rev- 
 \y erence, faith, trust, love and re- 
 ligious fervor of ages has been 
 uttered. It may seem sacrilege, how- 
 ever sacredly we may question it, to 
 put new interpretations to it. Like as an 
 old Cremona retains the echo of an inspira- 
 tion of the magic hands that have once set 
 it into musical vibrations so this Prayer 
 retains the music of the lips that taught us 
 to pray, and the affections of whom 
 we have heard utter it. As the English 
 speech uttered by one unseen in our 
 hearing in foreign lands brings to our 
 thought a flood of memories, and to our 
 eyes tears; as the flag of one's country on 
 a foreign soil awakens into glow the loyal, 
 throbbing heart; as the song mother sang 
 still carries in later manhood all that moth- 
 er's power, though sang by one unknown; 
 as the photograph brings to vision the face 
 we loved, but long lost to mortal sight; as 
 the melody of boyhood makes the old man 
 a boy again, even so do the words of the 
 Prayer stir in us all that we have felt and 
 thought since we lisped it at mother's knee. 
 In this spirit I invite its study. Modern 
 criticism and the added intelligence of to- 
 day are throwing so much of the past that 
 we hold sacred into the waste, that I 
 would save this, which the heart rebels to 
 
 ix 
 
let go, to the reverent love of the present. 
 I wish still to keep in it the echoes of 
 childhood; the vibrations of the home; the 
 throbs of early loves; the sacredness of filial 
 and fraternal lives; the reverence that old 
 age, the altar and the grave have left in it. 
 Hallowed association and fond memories 
 are the best avenues through which we may 
 reach the Sacred Altar of the Soul. Here 
 they are enshrined, and here I would leave 
 them, merely adding to the dim religious 
 light of oriel and nave, and to the vest- 
 ments of religious faith, the glory of the 
 scientific faith, and the awakened spirit of 
 invention. We need not accept the thought 
 of monk, priest and ecclesiastic; we need 
 not repeat the creeds of synod, council, diet, 
 edict or king. We will, however, find with- 
 in ourselves the same reverence for good- 
 mess, the same love of Truth; and the same 
 inspiration from beauty which all the past 
 devotees under all lines of thought have 
 wrought. While intellectually we differ 
 widely, we are of the same humanity, and 
 diverse in thought, we are one in feeling. 
 Each will find in the spirit of the Prayer a 
 common expression for a common need. 
 In the Spirit of Unity, and with Peace in 
 my heart and Good Will inspiring my pen, 
 I send forth these Twentieth Century 
 Thoughts upon the Prayer of the Ages. 
 
 
Each day before the blessed Heaven, 
 I open wide the windows of my Soul 
 And pray the Holy Ghost to enter in. 
 Theodore Tilton. 
 
 BE not afraid to pray to pray is right. 
 Pray if thou canst with hope; but ever 
 
 pray. 
 
 Though hope be weak or sick with long de- 
 lay. 
 
 Pray in th e darkness if there be no light, 
 For in the time remote from human sight 
 When war and discord on this earth shall 
 
 cease; 
 
 Yet every prayer for universal peace 
 Avails the blessed time to expedite, 
 What e'er is good to wish ask that of 
 
 heaven, 
 Though it be that thou canst not hope to 
 
 see: 
 
 Pray to be perfect though material leaven 
 Forbid the spirit so on earth to be, 
 But if for any wish thou darest not pray, 
 Then pray to God to cast that wish away. 
 Hartley Coleridge. 
 
 xi 
 
E nature of spiritual prayer is 
 dual; it is breathing and the air 
 breathed; it is seeking and that 
 which is sought. Thought and con- 
 centration, these are its vehicles; wis- 
 dom, and truth, love of such is its 
 basis. It is the ultimate concept; it is the 
 drawing of the Soul toward God, the sub- 
 lime expression of trust in that which we 
 have not seen. Trust! Trust! How can 
 there be life without faith? To doubt the 
 goodness of God is to belie mother and 
 father. He who boldly lays claim to the 
 real prerogatives of man which are spirit- 
 ual, who elects henceforth to walk with 
 God, shall be reinforced by Infinite Power 
 and shall be wise by communications of the 
 Supreme Mind. Stanton Davis Kirkham. 
 
 xii 
 
OUR Father in heaven 
 We hallow thy name; 
 May thy kingdom holy 
 On earth be the same! 
 Oh, give to us daily 
 
 Our portion of bread; 
 It is from thy bounty 
 
 That all must be fed! 
 Forgive our transgressors 
 And teach us to know, 
 That humble compassion, 
 That pardons each foe! 
 Keep us from temptation, 
 From weakness and sin, 
 And thine be the glory, 
 Forever! Amen! 
 
 (Rhythmic version.) 
 
 xiii 
 
After this manner therefore pray ye . . 
 
 V 
 
 R Father which art in heaven, 
 
 Hallowed be thy name! 
 
 Thy Kingdom come! 
 
 Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, 
 Give us this day our daily bread. 
 And forgive us our debts 
 As we forgive our debtors. 
 And lead us not into temptation. 
 But deliver us from evil. 
 
 Amen. 
 
 (Tichendor's version.) 
 
 xiv 
 
"OUR FATHER WHO ART 
 IN HEAVEN." 
 
 title of Heavein-Father 
 Universal Power, is the 
 oldest title in literature. 
 Max Mueller traces it back from 
 our times through the Latin Jupi- 
 ter, and the Greek Zeus-Pater, 
 to the old Aryan literature. It 
 is also found in the Chinese in the 
 religious word "Ti." The concep- 
 tion of God as Father, as found in 
 the New Testament, no doubt came 
 from the Greek through the Alex- 
 andrian School of Philosophy. But 
 it is found in certain Hebrew litera- 
 ture, and was probably brought to 
 them through the Persian conquest 
 by Cyrus. This conception is a nat- 
 ural one, as primitive man's first 
 ideas of the Universe would neces- 
 
 15 
 
'satiny foe that, of power, and he 
 would also necessarily locate that 
 power in the unseen universe which 
 was, to him, the over-shadowing 
 heavens. As earthly power center- 
 ed at that time in the father (for 
 the earliest government was patri- 
 archal), he would naturally give 
 that term to Universal Power which 
 stood to him as the symbol of ma- 
 terial authority. 
 
 His conception of the qualities and 
 demands of that power would neces- 
 sarily be colored by his experiences 
 with his earthly father. All con- 
 ceptions of God are formed from 
 the personal experiences of the in- 
 dividual. Thus, when men devel- 
 oped government of tribe and king- 
 dom, God became to them a Chief 
 and a King. To the warrior, he is a 
 God of Battles; to the peaceful, he 
 is the Prince of Peace. 
 In the prayer which Jesus gave his 
 disciples permission to use, is the 
 title "Our Father." In this per- 
 sonal pronoun "Our" Jesus lifted 
 
 16 
 
that early conception out of the bar- 
 barous idea, out of the idea of sepa- 
 rateness, distance and limitation, 
 thus making it a personal matter- 
 near, filial and warm. 
 The thought contained in "Our 
 Father " is the noblest conception 
 ever applied to Absolute Life; is 
 purely in harmony with the facts of 
 Nature and the later conception of 
 Unity. It is one of the greatest, if 
 not the greatest contribution to re- 
 ligious thought ever made by any 
 teacher, and shows the great supe- 
 riority of the Gospels over all other 
 religious literature. 
 "Our Father " links in spirit, as 
 well as in name, the Father and Son, 
 the Creator and created, the condi- 
 tioned and the Unconditioned, the 
 manifestation and the Power which 
 manifests. 
 
 The Son must necessarily inherit 
 the powers, possibilities, faculties, 
 and functions of the parent. Jesus 
 in this connection places the human 
 soul, in human thought, not as a 
 separate entity, but as an expres- 
 
 17 
 
sion of the One. He gives to 
 each human individuality omnipo- 
 tent and omniscient power, with in- 
 finite possibilities of expression. 
 He also in the word "Our," links 
 humanity into one whole, making it 
 not only one family, but one great 
 human soul. He said later "I go to 
 my God and your God, to my Father 
 and to your Father. " 
 The reception, application and re- 
 alization of this conception is the 
 whole of New Thought, and the 
 many methods through which this 
 may be applied and realized neces- 
 sarily gives rise to many schools. 
 Individual conception and ex- 
 perience in life color the instruction 
 of every teacher; but when we add 
 to Jesus ' expression, ' ' Our Father, ' ' 
 his definition of God, namely, < ' God 
 is Spirit" and "God is Love," we 
 have the key to his conception of 
 God as Father and man as His child. 
 Since God is Spirit and Love, His 
 child is Spirit and Love. 
 When one using this prayer says 
 "Our Father" and shall think of 
 
 18 
 
himself as Spirit and Love, and as 
 one with the Father in Spirit, he 
 will bring himself into true spirit- 
 ual and filial relation with Univer- 
 sal Life, and make himself recep- 
 tive to an involution from that Life 
 which will manifest in him an un- 
 folding consciousness of himself as 
 Spirit and as Love. 
 This mental attitude is that of re- 
 ceptivity along every line of expres- 
 sion. It will give inspiration to 
 thought, to health, to body and to 
 success in endeavor. What my 
 Father is, I am. The intelligence 
 my Father is, is mine to express. 
 The life my Father is, is mine to 
 enjoy. The power my Father is, is 
 mine to use. 
 
 As one grows into the mental habit 
 of thus looking upon himself as a 
 child of God, he casts away all re- 
 grets of the past, all thought for 
 the future, all fear, worry and anxi- 
 ety in the present. An abiding faith 
 in himself, as a child of God, and in 
 his ability to accomplish whatever 
 he desires, gives him peace of mind, 
 
 19 
 
mental poise and physical health. 
 I can think of no two words that 
 have equal power for the New 
 Thought teacher and the mental 
 healer, and of none that open to the 
 individual such realization of Uni- 
 versal Love, 
 
 Concentration upon this thought of 
 the individual as one with Unity, 
 with Universal Life, Intelligence 
 and Love, using affirmations of 
 unity with it, must necessarily 
 bring that state of mind which is 
 the culmination of individual un- 
 foldment while in the flesh, i. e., 
 present consciousness of immortal- 
 ity. This, Jesus realized when he 
 declared, "The Father and I are 
 one!" 
 
 Thus that early thought of the 
 "Heaven-Father" has become the 
 later thought of Unity. 
 Through ages there has been an 
 evolution of Human Perception and 
 of the Truth the ancients felt as 
 they looked upon the heavens and 
 there enthroned Infinite Power, as 
 
 20 
 
Universal Father. This thought 
 has become our thought of Omnipo- 
 tence. The human consciousness 
 has found itself to be Love, and that 
 perception of Self as Love is now 
 enthroned in the universe, and Om- 
 nipotence is not alone Power, but 
 is Loving Power. It is Love. 
 It has taken ages for man to drop 
 the symbol of Thor's hammer for 
 the Heaven-Father, and put in its 
 place the symbol of Calvary 's cross. 
 Force is fast yielding to Love among 
 the nations of the earth. The angels ' 
 Christmas song is embodied in this 
 later perception, and through ' ' Our 
 Father " realized, will that prom- 
 ised age come. Coming first to the 
 individual in the consciousness re- 
 alized in "I AM LOVE! and later 
 in the Eealization of Unity, ex- 
 pressed in: "The Father and I are 
 
 one!' 
 
 By lowly listening you shall hear the right 
 word. Emerson. 
 
 21 
 
If all we miss 
 
 In the great plans that shake 
 The world still God has need of this 
 
 Even of our mistake. 
 
 Rose Hawthorne Lathrop. 
 
 I hear and behold God in every object, yet 
 
 I understand God not in the least. 
 Why should I wish to see God better than 
 
 this day? 
 I see something of God each hour of the 
 
 twenty-four and each moment then, 
 In the faces of men and women I see God 
 
 and in my own face in the glass, 
 I find letters from God dropped in the 
 
 street, and each one signed it by God's 
 
 name, 
 And I leave them where they are, for I 
 
 know that whereso'er I go 
 Others will punctually come for ever and 
 
 ever. 
 
 Walt Whitman. 
 
 Forgive the call! 
 
 I cannot shut Thee from my sense or soul! 
 I cannot loose me in the Boundless Whole; 
 For Thou art ALL! 
 
 Frances Ellingwood Abott. 
 
 22 
 
"IN HEAVEN." 
 
 "WHO ART IN HEAVEN." 
 
 ZT is common for the reader 
 and student of the Bible to 
 import into its words an 
 interpretation from the thoughts 
 of today. The twentieth cen- 
 tury A. D. is as unlike that of 
 the first as the civilization of the 
 New England states is unlike that 
 of Mexico. 
 
 Habits of life and thought; customs 
 and laws; traditions and prejudices; 
 social and civil amenities, are at 
 antipodes. 
 
 Then astronomy, biology, physiolo- 
 gy, hygiene, geography and other 
 sciences, all now commonplace, were 
 then unknown. Mythology was 
 prevalent, Each phenomenon and 
 almost every individual thing had 
 its god. 
 The student of Greek history learns 
 
the power of mythology. When he 
 will remember that the philosophy 
 of the New Testament is Greek, and 
 will seek to interpret the New Tes- 
 tament in the light of Greek " Logos 
 philosophy/' he will come nearer to 
 an understanding of the life and 
 words recorded therein of Jesus, 
 than he can in any other way. 
 It is well known to scholars that all 
 distinctive philosophy in the New 
 Testament is Greek. Very little of 
 Hebrew thought is there. What 
 there is, is largely from the Essenes, 
 one of the three sects into which 
 Judaism was divided. 
 
 When New Thought students will 
 thus read and interpret they will 
 see that when they attempt to alle- 
 gorize or to symbolize the Bible, 
 they are dropping out of the mod- 
 ern scientific methods of arriving 
 at truth and adopting the old Tal 
 mudic method, a method of author- 
 ity, of ignorance and superstition. 
 The method which Paul adopted 
 when he spoke of Sarah as a city; 
 
 24 
 
when the record tells us she was a 
 wife of Abraham. 
 
 Once we allow ourselves to read in 
 symbols we enter a maze and add 
 only one more to the hundreds of 
 symbolic interpretations of scrip- 
 ture. One could take the life of any 
 public man or any era in the history 
 of any nation, and through symbol- 
 ism develop a system and a philoso- 
 phy. The method of Mrs. Eddy in 
 her "Key to the Scriptures" is the 
 old Talmudic method of reading the 
 Bible not as history, but as a mystic 
 and esoteric work, that needs inter- 
 pretation. A system of symbols 
 must be created for that purpose. 
 This is well for those that wish to 
 live through faith in some author- 
 ity. But it has no place in the life 
 of one who desires Truth above Au- 
 thority. 
 
 There are two ways of reading: one 
 for intellectual pleasure and devel- 
 opment, and one for the cultivation 
 of the feelings of reverence and 
 peace, those emotions which we 
 
 25 
 
may class under the term religious. 
 As a religious inspiration, the 
 "Lord's Prayer, " like the "Twen- 
 ty-third Psalm, " is no doubt un- 
 equalled in all other literature. But 
 we are not to think for a moment 
 that whatever awakens emotions of 
 the religious is necessarily Truth. 
 If it were, then all mythologies and 
 all theologies are truth, for each has 
 been the occasion of the deepest re- 
 ligious feeling. The error of the 
 ages has been to make religion de- 
 pend upon some intellectual state- 
 ment on the one hand and on the 
 other hand to awaken the religious 
 sentiment through an appeal to the 
 emotions without a cultivation of 
 the reasoning powers. 
 The intention of our New Thought 
 philosophy is to keep each in its 
 proper province. Emerson saw this 
 and says: 
 
 "In your metaphysics you have de- 
 nied personality to the Deity; yet 
 when the devout emotions of the 
 soul come, yield to them heart and 
 
 26 
 
life, though they should clothe God 
 with shape and color. Leave your 
 theory, as Joseph his coat in the 
 hands of the harlot, and flee." 
 I shall attempt first of all to find 
 what Truth is in the Prayer and 
 then we may use it as a vehicle to 
 carry the intelligence of today 
 through aspiration if we choose. 
 Heaven was a term with a very dif- 
 ferent meaning from our present 
 one in days of New Testament his- 
 tory. In ancient astronomy it meant 
 a circular concave sphere or, better, 
 a concentric series of spheres sur- 
 rounding the earth as the crystal 
 covers the face of a watch. They 
 were made of something transpar- 
 ent, but equally material with earth. 
 Over each of these ' ' floors of heav- 
 en" rolled one of the planets. Seven 
 heavens, one for each of the seven 
 planets, moon, Mercury, Venus, sun, 
 Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. The 
 eighth was the heaven of the fixed 
 stars and was particularly called 
 "the firmament!" This was the 
 
 27 
 
general thought among the masses. 
 But some of the astronomers of the 
 first century held to other concep- 
 tions. Ptolemy added a ninth 
 sphere and some went so far as to 
 add seventy. 
 
 Therefore the heaven which the au- 
 thor of the New Testament prayer 
 believed in, was a material heaven 
 with seven floors. Above them a 
 firmament where was situated the 
 throne of God. 
 
 And since this New Testament phil- 
 osophy was Greek, we must turn to 
 them to complete this first century 
 conception. I have no intention 
 here of recording Greek mythology. 
 You realize the gods of the Greek 
 pantheon were mainy and all en- 
 dowed with human attributes. 
 Above all these they placed FATE, 
 whidh was superior to them allj. 
 Here we will find the beginning of 
 the idea of Unity. One Supreme 
 power above and beyond all the 
 heavenly hosts of lesser gods. 
 Next we come to the word "Logos" 
 
 28 
 
which is translated in John's Gos- 
 pel "the Word." Its meaning has 
 been given variously by scholars. 
 But theologians have used it as 
 synonymous with Christ. But it 
 meant to the Greek philosopher this 
 One Power above all. To others, 
 however, it was what we call 
 "The Unknown God," whom 
 Paul tried to reveal unto the Corin- 
 thians. By giving his idea to them 
 he elevated their conception of God. 
 For the God-idea is as subject to 
 evolution as any other that has 
 evolved through the ages. 
 The Father of the Prayer was to 
 them the One Power above all oth- 
 ers who dwelt in the firmament and 
 included in his sphere the earth and 
 all between. There he ruled as a 
 monarch ruled on earth. For we 
 must not forget that among all an- 
 cient and primitive peoples the gods 
 and their attendants, while unseen, 
 were substantial and material reali- 
 ties. They could assume a material 
 appearance and could assist mortals 
 
 29 
 
in all their affairs, even hurling 
 stones in battle. 
 
 We must not import our present 
 conceptions of spirit, soul and mind 
 into the ancient writings. 
 All our words concerning the im- 
 material or spiritual universe come 
 from the Greek. The ancient He- 
 brews had no words for anything 
 but earth and that realm where the 
 dead went ' ' the underworld, 9 ' a ma- 
 terial place which they made no at- 
 tempt to define. The Hebrew was 
 not philosophical or speculative. 
 He was an eclectic, and accepted 
 from other nations that which fitted 
 his cast of mind. But he did not 
 create even his theology. His God 
 was a king who appointed an earth- 
 ly representative, and the earthly 
 kingdom was a reflex of the heav- 
 enly. David and Solomon held of- 
 fice not because the people chose 
 them but because God did. A fal- 
 lacy that now backs up the thrones 
 of Europe. 
 Heaven, God, earth and man were 
 
 30 
 
all made of the same substance. 
 Gods were many and differed in de- 
 gree of po^er only. The Hebrew 
 declared "Our God is a Great God," 
 above all other gods. He recog- 
 nized the gods of other nations but 
 regarded them as evil to his nation. 
 The gods of one nation became the 
 demons of another nation. From the 
 earliest times the Aryan gods pass- 
 ed into other provinces and became 
 the devils of the Persian, Greek and 
 Roman religions. 
 
 We are always to remember that 
 the GREAT FACT, under all these 
 conceptions, remains, and that is 
 THE POWER BEHIND ALL PHE- 
 NOMENA IS! All that has chang- 
 ed is the human conception of It. 
 We cannot think Jesus' conception! 
 We cannot reverence what he rev- 
 erenced, in his words and in his 
 form. We cannot enter into his in- 
 tellectual conditions, nor enjoy the 
 objective phenomena that told him 
 of a God, in a material heaven; but 
 we can, and when we enter into the 
 
 31 
 
reality which he entered, we must 
 FEEL what he felt, and must come 
 into communion with the same Uni- 
 versal Power. What I wish to awa- 
 ken is an intense desire for that 
 same spiritual realization that he 
 had, and while we are not called 
 upon to know his conception, nor to 
 attempt to think his thought of God 
 and heaven, still we can, and we 
 will, when we come into that same 
 mental attitude, in which he used 
 the words, feel the same communion 
 and have the same realization which 
 he had. 
 
 While we will not attempt to twist 
 the words to our thought and will 
 not wrench them from their Hebra- 
 ic and Attic meaning, we will, when 
 we wish to use them devotionally, 
 repeat them with our conception, 
 with the same religious emotion, 
 and with the same reverence that 
 he did. When we find it necessary 
 to pray we will put our idea of 
 Unity and of Brotherhood into the 
 spirit in which these words 
 
 32 
 
found utterance from his lips. 
 We know that it is not Truth 
 alone that saves, that we are not 
 saved by intellect, but that "Love 
 is the fulfilling of the Law." That 
 while we may feel with Jesus and 
 Buddha, with Hebrew and Greek and 
 Roman and Turk, the same spirit, 
 we cannot have the same mental 
 picture they had, and while we 
 unite with them in the worship of 
 the Reality behind all phenomena, 
 which we see behind all names, we 
 cannot unite in their conception. 
 For while in Love we are one race; 
 in Thought we are each an indepen- 
 dent, individual expression of the 
 race life. "While we- say: "As 
 in heaven," our heaven is not that 
 of Jesus, nor of any other person. 
 It is not situated where his was in 
 thought, but it is one in spirit with 
 his. 
 
 Our name for heaven in reality is 
 the same he felt, for our name is 
 Love. He said, "God is Love," 
 and his command was "to love"! 
 
We obey the same God, situ- 
 ated in the same place, and in 
 prayer use the same entreaty he did, 
 and thus make the Manger-cradle 
 the Cross and the Resurrection all 
 one with the present in an Eternal 
 NOW, for Truth is unchangeable 
 IT IS. 
 
 Since Truth is unfolding itself 
 through human conceptions, when 
 we think of our heaven we are 
 thinking the same Truth which Je- 
 sus thought. Why then try to trans- 
 late his thought into our thought by 
 using his words? Rather let us, in 
 his spirit of freedom from author- 
 ity, translate his spirit into the lan- 
 guage of today and use the prayer 
 thus : * ' Our Father who art Love. ' ' 
 When we will use his words with 
 this meaning we will pray his 
 prayer, not because Jesus authoriz- 
 ed it, but because we have found 
 within ourself the same realization, 
 i. e.: "Love is the fulfilling of the 
 Law". He who is Love, hath no 
 need of formal prayer. 
 
 34 
 
For Right is Right since God is God, 
 And right the day must win! 
 
 To doubt would be disloyalty, 
 To falter would be sin. 
 
 Old Hymn. 
 
 We are no aliens in a stranger universe 
 governed by an outside God; we are parts 
 of a developing whole, all enfolded in an 
 embracing interpenetrating love, of which 
 we too, each to the other, sometimes ex- 
 perience a joy too deep for words. And 
 this strengthening vision, this sense of un- 
 ion with Divinity, this, and not anything 
 artificial or legal or commercial, is what 
 science will some day tell us is the inner 
 meaning of the Redemption of Man. Sir 
 Oliver Lodge. 
 
 If I would pray, I've nought to say, 
 But this May God be God still! 
 
 For Him to live, is still to give 
 And sweeter than my wish His will. 
 David A. Watson. 
 
 35 
 
At night my gladness is my prayer! 
 
 I drop my daily load! 
 And every care is pillowed there 
 
 Upon my thought of God! 
 
 F. L. Hosmcr. 
 
 LL that seek religion are in 
 search of communion with God. 
 What is between him and thee? 
 Nothing but thyself! Each can have 
 what inspiration each will take. God 
 is continually giving; he will not with- 
 hold from you or me. As much ability as 
 he has given, as much as you have en- 
 larged your talent by manly use, so much 
 will he fill with inspiration. I hold up my 
 little cup. He fills it full. If yours is 
 greater, rejoice in that, and bring it faith- 
 fully to the same urn. He who fills the 
 violet with beauty, and the sun with light, 
 who gave Homer his song, and such reason 
 to Aristotle, and to Jesus such manly gifts 
 of justice and the womanly grace of love 
 and faith in Him will not fail to inspire 
 you and me. Were your little cup to 
 become as large as the Pacific Ocean he 
 still would fill it. Theodore Parker. 
 
 36 
 
"HALLOWED BE THY NAME!" 
 
 ZN primeval times among all peo- 
 ple it was believed, and today 
 it is believed, that behind 
 each phenomenon was a god. 
 That god was feared. In all 
 dealings with it, they had 
 more or less extended ceremo- 
 nial rites. They brought gifts to 
 placate him, and they "called upon 
 his name!" They reverenced the 
 name and hallowed it. 
 Two methods of using the name 
 were common then, and are more or 
 less common today. One was incan- 
 tation; the other was repetition. 
 In the "witch scene " in Macbeth is 
 perpetuated the thought of incanta- 
 tion. In all our prayers is perpetu- 
 ated that of invocation. 
 A common method of calling upon 
 the god, of obtaining favors, was a 
 constant repetition of the name until 
 the devotee would have some form 
 
 37 
 
of ecstacy. This was accepted as 
 a sign of the favor of the gods. 
 Among the Eoman oracles, especi- 
 ally at Delphos, the sibyl inhaled 
 mephitic vapors and went into con- 
 vulsions, and her ravings from this 
 were the oracles. Juices of plants, 
 wine, opiates and narcotics, odors 
 and burned incense, have all been 
 used in the Name and to hallow the 
 Name. 
 
 With the exception of incense, twi- 
 light and garb, the methods of in- 
 cantation have passed away in civil- 
 ized lands from the ordinary wor- 
 shiper. 
 
 But invocation remains and will 
 ever remain, for it is the one univer- 
 sal method of approaching commu- 
 nion with the Unseen. 
 To hold in mind reverently the name 
 of their God, to repeat the 
 name mentally of their Great God, 
 their One God, was a habit of the 
 ancient Hebrews. That Name was 
 never spoken; it was " hallo wed " 
 by silent meditations. All other 
 
names might be spoken, but THE 
 name was never vocalized. Wheth- 
 er this was the NAME that Jesus, 
 the young Jew, meant, is not possi- 
 ble for us to know. The name by 
 which God is called in the prayer is 
 1 1 Father. " "Hallowed be thy 
 Name!" could well mean the name 
 which we think and feel of Grod 
 but never speak. 
 
 There is a wisdom in this thought. 
 The moment we name, we define, 
 and to define is to limit. The Limit- 
 less One can neither be named nor 
 defined. IT IS! 
 
 But wherever there is a name to 
 speak, it has been held that by re- 
 peating that name, petitions would 
 receive answers. 
 
 We are told in the New Testament 
 of some who "They think they 
 shall be heard for their much 
 speaking !" and their words are 
 called "vain repetitions." 
 A common habit for mystics of all 
 classes is to use names and formulas 
 in all sacred rites. The common 
 
 39 
 
people adopt this method from 
 them. "Swear not at all," said 
 Jesus, for the oath is "hallowing," 
 reverencing, placing faith in, the 
 Name. 
 
 We have a survival of this method 
 of formula and repetitions in the 
 "Prayer Book" wherein the Name 
 is hallowed not only in word but 
 also by a genuflection whenever the 
 Name is read. 
 
 The power of the Name rises from 
 the One Law of Life Suggestion. 
 Some cults have adopted the Hin- 
 doo word as the Name by which 
 to invoke spiritual receptivity, 
 sit in silence, repeating the word 
 "Om!" and thus pass into a sort 
 of ecstacy. 
 
 Tennyson tells us that he used his 
 own name by repetition, and passed 
 into that condition of inspiration 
 whence he wrote. In his poem ' i The 
 Ancient Sage," he says: 
 
 . . . For more than once when I 
 Sat all alone, revolving in myself 
 The word that was the symbol of myself, 
 The mortal limit of the Self was loosed 
 
 40 
 
And passed into the Nameless as a cloud 
 Melts into heaven. 
 
 And in a letter published in his 
 "Memoirs," he says of this state: 
 
 It is not a confused state, but the clearest 
 of the clearest, the surest of the surest, the 
 wisest of the wisest, utterly beyond words. 
 
 Using his own name upon which to 
 concentrate, he reached through it 
 the same condition others reach by 
 other names and by other methods. 
 The Hindoo Masters, the Greek and 
 Roman priests and sibyls, Egyptian 
 hiereophants, German mystics, Chi- 
 nese and Japanese wizards, and 
 European gypsies, the converts in 
 the revival, the spiritualist medium 
 in her seance, the Christian Science 
 and the New Thought healer; all 
 follow one law, and each by his own 
 method reach the same condition. 
 All work under the same principles 
 of Auto-Suggestion and Concentra- 
 tion; upon the Law of Suggestion. 
 The methods vary with the age, cul- 
 ture and intelligence of the people, 
 but the Principle and the Spirit is 
 one. This to me is a glorious evi- 
 
 41 
 
dence of the Unity of Cause, and of 
 the Oneness of Humanity. 
 
 "One God, one Law, one Element, 
 
 And one Divine, far-off event 
 
 Toward which the whole creation moves!" 
 
 Age after age, no matter where 
 man has been or what he has done, 
 it has always been the same human- 
 ity seeking consciousness of the 
 One Power by the same spiritual 
 urge. Ever formulating his desire 
 in words and rites, and giving him- 
 self a Name by which he could 
 rise into a condition superior to his 
 ordinary one, through concentra- 
 tion, meditation and worship. Ev- 
 ery man has " hallowed " some 
 Name. 
 
 No matter where he is, he is still 
 " hallo wing " that Name which is to 
 him the symbol of Power. 
 Desire made itself manifest in the 
 cave man and has continued to push 
 him outward in power and intelli- 
 gence, but he "hallows" the name 
 of his God today and reverences 
 names, as the cave man did. 
 As the heathen reverenced the name 
 
 42 
 
of his gods of earth, wood or stone, 
 so man still "in his blindness bows 
 down" to the gods of his creation 
 as did man in the primeval wilder- 
 ness. What names he had then, we 
 do not know. Most likely they were 
 born of Fear. Today thousands 
 hallow the names of Hebrew proph- 
 ets and of Jesus, but others hallow 
 the names of Mother Ann, of Wes- 
 ley, Calvin, Mrs. Eddy, Lincoln, 
 Washington, Edison. Energy and 
 Materialism has its god, which it 
 names Matter. But no doubt the 
 most hallowed name of all is 
 Mother. Each of these names serve 
 to bear outward the aspirations of 
 the Soul, helping the devotee to a 
 higher plane of thought and feeling. 
 Always, to each person, no matter 
 what intellectually he is, when he 
 thinks holily, it is prayer. 
 
 "Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of 
 
 prayer; 
 Thy wings shall my petition bear!" 
 
 When "NOW" Folk sing this at 
 our grove meetings, we are only do- 
 ing that which our earliest ances- 
 
 43 
 
tors under primeval trees did be- 
 fore us. They had what to us was 
 unseemly song and obscene rite, but 
 what they did was " hallowed " to 
 the name of the god, and was sacred 
 therefore. 
 
 It was a wonderful advance in the 
 evolution of prayer when Jesus 
 gave this one. He surpassed all 
 teachers who preceded him. He gave 
 us intellectual freedom. This 
 wionderful fact has been over- 
 looked by all commentators on the 
 New Testament. He threw away 
 the old Mosaic code and said, 
 "But I say unto you!" He told his 
 listeners that the First and the 
 Great Commandment was "Love 
 thy God!" He did not worship the 
 Name of the Old Testament. The 
 Hebrew had not prayed to "The 
 Father!" Jesus did not say "Hal- 
 lowed be the .Name of the Hebrew 
 God!" Since there were Greeks, 
 Komans and men of other nations 
 among his listeners he did not say 
 to them "Hallowed be the Name 
 
 44 
 
of the Roman! Hallowed be the 
 Name of the Greek! Hallowed be the 
 Name of the Gentile! God." 
 No! His word "Thy" leaves each in- 
 dividual free to form his own con- 
 ception of the Nameless. If formed 
 from Jesus' Ideal it will be formed 
 of Love. 
 
 This Freedom which he taught, has 
 been obscured by those who could 
 not grow into "the liberty of the 
 Sons of God ' ' and come to think for 
 themselves. Ecclesiastical authority 
 has said: "Worship our god. Not 
 thy God but my god thunders the 
 priest. " But the word "Thy" es- 
 tablishes the era of religious and 
 intellectual Freedom. It has taken 
 two thousand years to see it partial- 
 ly materialize, but Truth does 
 prevail and now the Vision has 
 come. To each we say "Worship 
 Thy God!" no matter if the Name 
 is spelled "Force," whom the mak- 
 er of that God worships in work in 
 his laboratory or in field, we honor 
 him. 
 
 45 
 
All men must hallow the " Power 
 behind Phenomena!" Each must 
 Name it. And the Name is that of 
 the God they hallow. In no one 
 phase of the prayer do I find equal 
 inspiration or read more reverently 
 than I do " Hallowed by thy name ! ' ' 
 For in its utterance I am one with 
 all the race. I fe6l the religious 
 expression of all time. 
 Each person must of necessity read 
 into the words his conception of 
 God. His Thought will give shape 
 to the conception of the Power he 
 hallows. I find the following 
 thought of Kev. F. C. Hosrner fine 
 for contemplation: 
 
 One Thought I have my only creed, 
 
 So deep it is and broad, 
 So equal to my every need; 
 
 It is my thought of God. 
 At eve my gladness is my prayer; 
 
 I drop in love my load, 
 And every care is pillowed there, 
 
 Upon my thought of God. 
 I ask not far before to see, 
 
 But take with joy my road; 
 Life, death and immortality, 
 
 Are in my Thought of God! 
 
 Our "Thought of God" is our ideal. 
 
 46 
 
When we follow that we are hal- 
 lowing the Name. As Tennyson 
 so finely has it: "We follow the 
 gleam ! J 9 
 
 Not of the sunlight, 
 Not of the moonlight. 
 Not of the starlight! 
 Oh, young mariner, 
 Down to the haven 
 Call your companions, 
 Launch your vessel, 
 And crowd the canvas, 
 And ere it vanishes, 
 Over the margin, 
 After it, follow it, 
 Follow the gleam. 
 
 And since my conception of God is 
 my Ideal of the Good, the Beauti- 
 ful and the True, the prayer "Hal- 
 lowed be thy name" means to me, 
 "Follow thy ideal, follow the 
 gleam ! ' > And as all men have done 
 this, from savage to savant, and 
 morally from Cain to Lincoln, so 
 when I "follow the Gleam " I sim- 
 ply follow that which all men have 
 followed and which they ever will 
 follow. 
 
 But they had not the freedom in 
 making or in following that I have 
 
 47 
 
and no man had till Jesus said 
 "Love the Lord, thy God!" Since 
 then that thought of Freedom 
 has been evolving till we have 
 ideally our perfect religious freedom 
 which some time will also be per- 
 fect in expression. Then each man 
 will have his own church, will be 
 his own priest and write his own 
 Bible. But no matter how much he 
 shall evolve in the expression of 
 this Freedom, he will never get be- 
 yond the utterances of Jesus. When 
 we really pray in sincere desire, we 
 are one with Jesus, and with all men, 
 good or bad, that ever aspired for 
 an ideal beyond today's expression. 
 I shall continue to pray "Hallowed 
 be Thy Name, ' ' uniting my petition 
 with that of all my fellows around 
 the whole circle of the earth. But 
 I shall always think of the One for 
 whom all names stand, the One in 
 whom is no good or evil, and in 
 whom 
 
 There is no great or small 
 For He is the ALL-IN-ALL. 
 
 48 
 
Behold, the Holy Grail is found 
 Found in yon poppy's cup of gold; 
 And God walks with us of old; 
 Behold, the burning bush still burns 
 For man whichever way he turns, 
 And all God's earth is holy ground. 
 
 Joaquin Miller. 
 
 Breathe "God," in any tongue it means the 
 
 same; 
 Love Absolute: Think, feel, absorb the 
 
 thought; 
 Shut out all else; until a subtle flame 
 
 (A spark from God's creative center 
 
 caught) 
 
 Shall permeate your being, and shall glow, 
 Increasing in its splendor, till You Know. 
 
 Not in a moment, or an hour, or day 
 
 The knowledge comes; the power is far 
 
 too great 
 To win in any desultory way. 
 
 No soul is worthy till it learns to wait. 
 Day after day be patient, then, oh, soul; 
 Month after month till, lo! the goal! the 
 goal! 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 49 
 
O, clothe us with Thy heavenly armor, 
 
 Thy trusty shield! Thy sword of Love 
 
 Divine! 
 Our inspiration be Thy constant word! 
 
 We ask no victories that are not ihinel 
 Give or withhold, let pain or pleasure be, 
 Enough to know that we are serving 1 nee 
 John White Chadwick. 
 
 No longer forward or behind 
 
 I look in hope or fear; 
 But grateful, take the good I find, 
 
 The best of Now and Here. 
 
 Amid the maddening maz e of things 
 And tossed by storm and flood, 
 
 To one fixed trust my spirit clings: 
 I know that God is good! 
 
 I know not where His islands lift 
 Their fronded palms in air, 
 
 I only know, I cannot drift 
 Beyond his love and care! 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 50 
 
"THY KINGDOM COME!" 
 
 aNITY of the race must be his 
 position who would understand 
 the phenomena of the race. 
 Mankind is one. "One mind 
 common to all men!" and there 
 is also a common ground 
 upon which all men may 
 meet. Be he king or peasant; phil- 
 osopher or fool; saint or sinner; 
 chaste husband or libertine; black 
 or brown; white or yellow; they all 
 meet on the common ground of the 
 emotions. All mankind FEEL alike. 
 Passions are kin no matter where 
 found. Man is primarily sensation. 
 The differentiation into race and 
 class is not nature's primary classi- 
 fication. Her method is a question 
 of more or less, a question of de- 
 gree; of intensity. The differentia- 
 tion into classes, races and sects 
 rises in the intellectual ability to 
 translate feeling into the symbols 
 
 51 
 
of the external life. Of the phenom- 
 ena of the whole race can be affrm- 
 ed it is an expression of what the 
 individuals feel. 
 
 Spencer says: "The chief compo- 
 nent of mind is feeling . . . 
 Mind properly interpreted is co- 
 extensive with consciousness; all 
 parts of consciousness are parts of 
 mind. Sensations and emotions are 
 parts of consciousness and so far 
 from being its minor components 
 are its major components. The body 
 even of our thought consciousness 
 consists of feeling, and only the 
 form constitutes what we denomi- 
 nate intelligence. No movement is 
 made but it is preceded by a 
 prompting feeling. The over-valu- 
 ation of intelligence has for its con- 
 comitant the under-valuation of the 
 emotional nature/' 
 And Helen Keys says: "The con- 
 scious conditions of the soul are de- 
 termined by the emotions reduced 
 for the moment to unconsciousness; 
 emotions which are forgotten in the 
 
 52 
 
hour of fulfillment, are not there- 
 fore less decisive. " 
 In this thought of Unity can we 
 alone understand this prayer. Ee- 
 membering that it is the utterance 
 of an emotion, we also feel we can 
 not only pray it, with every denomi- 
 nation in Christendom, but we can 
 also pray with every man in any 
 clime, and in any form of worship. 
 It was this recognition that caused 
 Whitman to say: 
 
 I do not despise you priests, all time, the 
 
 world over, 
 My faith is the greatest of faiths, and the 
 
 least of faiths, 
 Enclosing worship ancient and modern and 
 
 all between ancient and modern. 
 
 It is the lack of the recognition of 
 unity in emotion, and thus relegat- 
 ing religion to the realm of the in- 
 tellect, that has caused all the sec- 
 tarian wars. Religion has been 
 made a creed, and not a reality. 
 Whitman saw this also and made 
 Religion a Principle above the oth- 
 er two which formed the triune base 
 of his philosophy. He says: 
 
 53 
 
For you to share with me two greatnesses, 
 and a third one rising inclusive and more 
 resplendent, 
 
 The Greatness of Love and Democracy, and 
 the greatness of Religion. 
 
 We in this Vision of the Lord's 
 Prayer will not confound, in our 
 reasoning, Theology with Religion. 
 We will not care for creed, rite and 
 symbol, but will look for, find and 
 enjoy with ALL men the principle 
 which is voicing itself through them 
 all. Heber Newton gave a fine def- 
 inition when he said: "Religion is 
 what a man FEELS toward God; 
 theology what he thinks of him!" 
 We will go back in our thought from 
 two thousand to five thousand years 
 and try to FEEL with the ancient 
 Hebrew and with the Young He- 
 brew who gave his listener this 
 prayer. 
 
 In unison with men of all time and 
 all climes, he and they felt as they 
 looked upon the natural phenomena 
 about them, and especially as they 
 gazed into the depths above which 
 stood for them the symbol of Deity 
 
 54 
 
even as the sun so stands today for 
 the Parsee. What they felt I felt 
 as I stood in our mountain home 
 recently and gazed at the stars, and 
 repeated with Whitman: 
 
 When we become the enfolders of those 
 orbs and the pleasure and the knowledge 
 of everything in them, shall we be filled 
 and satisfied then? 
 
 And my spirit said, No! we but level that 
 lift to pass and continue beyond. 
 
 He put the emotion into his words. 
 The ancient Hebrew into his. Lan- 
 guage consists of symbols; first of 
 tones and then of marks, as signs 
 of and to express thoughts, which 
 are translations of emotions. We 
 should feel, would we read these 
 symbols rightly the emotions for 
 which they are forms. The Emo- 
 tions are, as Spencer says, "the 
 body," the thought and language 
 but "the forms " under which the 
 individual attempts to express to 
 the intelligence of others what he 
 has felt and to awaken in him the 
 like emotion. 
 
 Entering now ourselves the syna- 
 55 
 
gogue with the Hebrew with Je- 
 sus let us pray! He says "Our 
 Father." Beside him a Syrian, 
 who utters a name we do not recog- 
 nize. An Egyptian who says ' ' Osi- 
 ris and Isis." A Phoenecian, who 
 says "Astoroth." A Roman, who 
 says ' ' Jupiter. ' > A Greek, who says 
 "Zeus." You may say "God," and 
 I may say "Love." We will place 
 in our temple, not built with hands, 
 but eternal in Thought, one person 
 of every nation under heaven. Each 
 will feel as we feel, and each will 
 pray to his conception of the Un- 
 seen Power: "The Unknown God" 
 of Paul. 
 
 "Pray to the Lord THY god with 
 all thy heart, soul and mind ! ' ' Jesus 
 has said to them. Here each prays 
 with his heart first his emotions 
 then with his mind, his intellect 
 and then with his will. All these 
 prayers unite in one strong cord in 
 Spirit in Emotions Unite, while 
 the tone-symbols in language of the 
 emotions die. 
 
 56 
 
We will enter the mind of the He- 
 brew bowing beside us and seek 
 why he prays, "May thy kingdom 
 come ! ' ' 
 
 Desire is prayer. He desires good 
 things. He desires peace within his 
 nation. Prosperity and position. All 
 that a king can give. 
 Remember, the height of external 
 government was then a kingdom. 
 And among the Hebrews a theoc- 
 racy where the king was the chosen 
 of God. Selected by God and rep- 
 resented God as the Pope today is 
 held by his church to be God reign- 
 ing upon earth,. The Hebrew na- 
 tion then considered their king as 
 God in the flesh. God "on earth! " 
 "May thy kingdom come!" meant 
 to him, "Wilt thou as king so rule 
 that all my desires for good, happi- 
 ness and prosperity may be grati- 
 fied ?" All that a citizen of an 
 autocratic government could ask of 
 his sovereign was asked by the He- 
 brew at our side. It was asked, and 
 is asked, by every person who ut- 
 
 57 
 
ters a petition for good. 
 Ignorant of natural law he believed 
 that his God was an autocrat who 
 could, when he choose, do anything. 
 He could hand from this store to 
 him that which he asked for as eas- 
 ily as he himself could hand from 
 his purse the shekel he gave the 
 priest for the temple service. 
 But the important thing for us is 
 the emotion from which the petition 
 sprang. He is sincere. He feels 
 what he prays. He expects his 
 prayer to be answered. He looks 
 to the external, forgetting: "God is 
 spirit, and they who worship him 
 must worship in spirit and in 
 truth." The answer must also come 
 from a spiritual Being, must be a 
 spiritual answer. I said "Forget- 
 ting. ' ' He had never recognized this. 
 The Thought of God, Man and Na- 
 ture had not so far evolved. So he 
 prayed on his plane of intelligence, 
 but on the universal plane of emo- 
 tion. 
 Yes; I know that form has often 
 
 58 
 
usurped the place of spirit in wor- 
 ship. The Prayer-book satisfies the 
 emotion, for the intellect has in its 
 development set bounds to emotion. 
 "They that love me will keep my 
 commandments ! " Love is the su- 
 preme emotion. And when Love is 
 felt, the commandment is kept by 
 necessity. The forms are observed 
 today through duty, fear or less 
 honorable motives. But this is not 
 prayer. 
 
 The best definition is Emerson's: 
 
 Prayer is contemplating the facts of life 
 from the highest point of view. It is the 
 soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. 
 
 Prayer is therefore one talking to 
 the Ideal within himself. 
 It is expressing a desire, in his own 
 symbols, for that which he deems 
 the best for him in his own life. 
 You and I will join all who pray 
 not only once a week, but at all 
 hours of the day for we will FEEL 
 "May the ALL-Good be manifest 
 here and now. ' ' This is to me what 
 Jesus felt, what his desire was. It 
 
is what all feel who sincerely utter 
 these words. But since it is not our 
 business to feel for others, or even 
 to surmise, and much less to sus- 
 pect others of ulterior or unworthy 
 motives, we will pray as he prayed 
 who saw in brightest Vision the 
 world redeemed. Who carried about 
 with him the radiance of an illu- 
 mined Soul. Whose radiations were 
 so potent that they healed those 
 whom he touched or who in the 
 crowd touched him. Who, when he 
 departed from his friends, said: 
 "My peace I give unto you!" Be- 
 cause he was peace, and the King- 
 dom had come to him and he was 
 conscious of it, did he leave peace. 
 We will seek not with words, but in 
 unexpressed thought, and with all 
 the feeling that caused the thought 
 in him to pray establishing his de- 
 sire for the All-Good to come as a 
 Principle of life. "May thy king- 
 dom come ! ' ' will be our words while 
 we hold the Vision of today. We 
 know as far as the One is concerned, 
 
 60 
 
as far as Law is, and as far as Truth 
 and Love are, that kingdom is. It 
 is only waiting for us to pray sin- 
 cerely, believing that it is for us 
 to be conscious of it. When thus 
 conscious of it it has come to me. 
 Through prayer I become receptive 
 to its expression. 
 
 From the same spirit and from the 
 same Vision in which Jesus formu- 
 lated the prayer for the Hebrew of 
 his time we will formulate ours for 
 today. I love the Good, the Beauti- 
 ful and the True. With all my love 
 I desire these to manifest in all my 
 conduct. I let in Love and Truth 
 that the Power of the One be made 
 manifest in and through me. 
 My every thought, my every emo- 
 tion, is a race impulse; is a radia- 
 tion from me as a center outward, 
 filling, as a ray of sun, the spiritual 
 universe. It is helping mould the 
 future. My every prayer makes the 
 race more religious. My every throb 
 of love makes the race more hu- 
 mane. Emerson says: 
 
 61 
 
The loneliest thought, the purest prayer is 
 rushing to be the history of a thousand 
 years. 
 
 When I pray "May thy kingdom 
 come!" I am talking to the King I 
 am, as " Conscious Law," for the 
 "Kingdom of God is within" and 
 the King of that kingdom is the 
 Conscious Human soul. Thus am I, 
 as king, giving orders to all the 
 forces of the Kingdom of God, to 
 carry out my desires, and they obey. 
 Thus am I helping to bind the feet 
 of earth to the throne of the Ideal, 
 when I in sincerity pray for the 
 Good. I am binding myself to igno- 
 rance and loss when I will not help 
 on the evolution of Mind, through 
 my desire for Goodness. I can in- 
 crease the amount of intelligence 
 and good on earth, but I cannot les- 
 sen it. I may refuse to consciously 
 add to the world's stock of good- 
 ness and wisdom, but I cannot di- 
 minish it. The good I develop in 
 myself helps the world. The good 
 I will not express is my loss. I take 
 none from others. I would have 
 
 62 
 
every man pray, "May thy king- 
 dom come ! ' ' for by this prayer he is 
 helping the evolution in the race of 
 the Ideal of all that is manly and 
 good and true. A modern poet, 
 Angelia Morgan, in a recent poem 
 has given utterance to this thought 
 finely: 
 
 I ask no truce, I have no qualms, 
 I seek no quarter and no alms. 
 Let they who will, obey the sod. 
 My soul sprang from the Living God. 
 'Tis I, the King, who bids thee stand 
 Grasp with thy hand my royal hand! 
 Stand forth! 
 
 If, when the Spirit and the Bride say Come! 
 I yet be found lingering by the way, 
 Even as I linger while it is today, 
 Wait thou, my God! although I journey 
 
 from 
 
 My home on earth and from thy other home, 
 I will remember at the last, and say: 
 Thou who wast near when I was far away, 
 Take me: the Spirit and the Bride say 
 
 Come! Arthur Symons. 
 
Embosomed deep in thy dear love, 
 Held by Thy law I stand; 
 
 Thy hand in all things I behold, 
 And all things in Thy hand. 
 
 Samuel Longfellow. 
 
 "Not as I will"; the sound grows sweet 
 Each time my lips the words repeat. 
 "Not as I will"; the darkness feels 
 More safe than light when this thought 
 
 steals 
 
 Like whispered voice to calm and bless 
 All unrest and all loneliness. 
 "Not as I will"; because the One 
 Who loved us first and best, has gone 
 Before us on the road, and still 
 For us must all his love fulfill! 
 "NOT AS I WILL"! 
 
 Helen Hunt Jackson. 
 
 64 
 
"THY WILL BE DONE!" 
 
 ZN a previous essay I have 
 spoken of the attitude of the 
 ancient Hebrew toward the 
 Buler of the Universe. It is that 
 of the petitioner toward an auto- 
 cratic king. 
 
 He may petition and plead, but he 
 cannot dictate. After his petition 
 he must await, and accept, the de- 
 cision of the Autocrat. 
 In this prayer we have the petition 
 "May thy Kingdom come!" May 
 all the good I desire be given me 
 because you are king and can give 
 it. Then necessarily we have the 
 willingness to accept the decision 
 of the Supreme Power and the ex- 
 pression of loyal submission to his 
 will as expressed in that decision. 
 No nation had at this time any con- 
 ception of what we now know as 
 Law, as Causation, and the Hebrew 
 much less than even the surround- 
 66 
 
ing nations, and philosophy then 
 was based upon the conception of 
 one arbitrary power which had the 
 authority not alone over life and 
 death of his subjects, but also over 
 the armies of heaven and all the 
 powers of earth. No matter what 
 his desire, Jehovah could order it 
 done. 
 
 Could the petitioner make Jehovah 
 understand, or if the heavenly king 
 saw that it was best so to do, he 
 could stop the sun in mid heaven, 
 as he had at the prayer of Joshua. 
 Nothing was impossible with God. 
 No matter what the decision of the 
 God to whom a prayer had been 
 presented, that decision was to be 
 accepted, and the human will was 
 to be resigned to the Divine will. 
 To win this Divine will, sacrifices 
 were made. All sorts of specula- 
 tions were indulged as to what 
 would please the god, to whom the 
 petition was offered. The Hebrew 
 at this time believed his God en- 
 joyed the smoke and scent of burn- 
 
 66 
 
ing animals, and the sight of blood. 
 He had outgrown the thought of 
 human sacrifice, though it died 
 hard, as is illustrated in the accept- 
 ed sacrifice of Isaac. 
 
 Surrounding nations at that time 
 still had the human sacrifices. 
 A fine illustration of this belief 
 among our ancestors is in Tenny- 
 son's poem, "The Victim". 
 This idea of human sacrifice under- 
 lies the evangelical conception of 
 the death of Jesus on the cross. It 
 was "A sacrifice " and, to the de- 
 votee, a more than human sacrifice. 
 This is a perpetuation of, and an 
 exaggeration of, the earlier idea of 
 human sacrifice. In this case a god 
 is sacrificed as a propitiation to 
 God for the sins of man, "sacri- 
 ficed to satisfy God's wrath." 
 Slowly ancient ideas die out in dis- 
 solving views, into the new concep- 
 tions of a more highly developed 
 people. No entirely new thing; no 
 entirely new conception. Slowly 
 the new extends its borders, so that 
 
 67 
 
it occupies the territory of the pre- 
 vious conception, as a nation may 
 gradually occupy the territory of its 
 neighbor. 
 
 The conception that Baal must be 
 satisfied with the blood of humans, 
 and Moloch with the lives of chil- 
 dren; Jehovah must have the blood 
 of doves, rams, sheep and goats; 
 was modified later to that of one 
 Supreme sacrifice on the Cross. Yet 
 Hebrew prophets had said, "Our 
 God does not require this; all he 
 asks is a humble and contrite 
 heart. M It has taken years and 
 generations to develop a few in 
 every one thousand out of the idea 
 of external sacrifice ; out of the idea 
 of the giving of something, into this 
 idea of the acceptance of the Will 
 of God as our will. In our meta- 
 physical phrase the Recognition 
 of Love and Wisdom, in all the 
 events of life. "A higher will than 
 our own regulates events, " says 
 Emerson. 
 The thought in this phrase of the 
 
Prayer is that which has evolved 
 into the shibboleth of the Unitarian 
 Faith "Character !" To live the 
 Life! Not to attempt to avoid liv- 
 ing by doing penance and sacrific- 
 ing. 
 
 The deductions of science, the phil- 
 osophy of reason, and the dictates 
 of conscience, all unite in the peti- 
 tion, "May thy will be done!" To 
 the reasoner, to the scientist, to the 
 truly philanthropic, the words of 
 Paul are the one and only needed 
 fact in the conduct of life, "What- 
 soever ye sow that ye shall reap". 
 "God is not mocked," he said. To 
 mock him is to think he is variable, 
 that he will deal with one child 
 with a different motive and under a 
 different law from that which he 
 deals with another. His Will is 
 Law for all. Jesus here established 
 the principle of Causation as the 
 Autocrat-of-the-Universe. 
 Antedating science, he under the 
 religious Intuition saw the Law and 
 taught us Agreement with it, say- 
 
ing virtually: "Whatever is, is 
 God's will, and I must submit. Not 
 because I must, but because I 
 choose, for I know that Will is Wis- 
 dom and Love." 
 
 Until one reaches this condition of 
 reconciliation and the conscious- 
 ness of Unity of his personal will 
 with that of the Divine Will can he 
 know peace. Not until one realizes 
 the inviolable and inevitable Law 
 of Cause and Effect, ' ' Chancellors 
 of God," Emerson calls them, and 
 intellectually accepts whatever is, 
 and religiously FEELS it, as a 
 prayer, will he or she come into the 
 knowledge that the Kingdom of 
 heaven is within; is now and here, 
 To FEEL it is to find it, to know 
 it, is intellectual power. The mo- 
 ment the thought of order, regular- 
 ity, system, law, was perceived, 
 then was science possible, and then 
 was true philosophy born. 
 All previous reasoning was from a 
 false premise and from a false in- 
 tellectual basis. There was and 
 
 70 
 
ever had been a religions basis. Re- 
 ligion is feeling. The FEELINGS 
 that inspire one when he looks npon 
 nature and thinks upon her and her 
 manifestations, are religion. 
 The great mistake made by com- 
 mentators, ecclesiastics and skep- 
 tics in regard to the Bible, and it is 
 an error perpetuated by many New 
 Thought teachers and by Christian 
 Science, is to attempt to read into 
 the words and stories in the Bible 
 the intelligence of the twentieth 
 century. In Bible study and worship 
 all the intellectual conceptions of 
 God, Man, Nature, then and now 
 held should be forgotten, and we 
 should try to reproduce the Feel- 
 ings that inspired the writers. We 
 should strive to become one with 
 them, and with all men, and to 
 FEEL God within and around, as 
 the All in All. Any attempt to tell 
 what they thought, or to base any 
 philosophy upon what we think they 
 thought, results in error. 
 All any one can do is what I am 
 
 71 
 
doing, i. e., attempting to read into 
 the lines the results of my feelings 
 and to utter the words they uttered, 
 FEELING as they felt, and making 
 no attempt to think their thought, 
 nor asking what they thought. It 
 is folly to attempt the impossible. 
 It is impossible for an American, 
 in 1914, to think what a Hebrew 
 thought in B. C. 1000, or in A. D, 
 75. But it is pleasant to learn what 
 we may of their manners, customs, 
 rites and ceremonies, and to try to 
 understand their origin in human 
 needs and to learn their place in 
 the common human emotions. 
 We cannot realize the willingness 
 of a mother to sacrifice her child to 
 the god, or to throw it into the sa- 
 cred river. Nor that of the mother 
 of Samuel to devote him to the 
 Lord; but we can realize that it was 
 the same emotion which prompts 
 us to succor the weak and to build 
 our hospitals. 
 
 This is the only way I can see it 
 possible to realize the Unity of the 
 
 72 
 
race. In this thought we can pray; 
 in this feeling we should pray con- 
 stantly, "Thy will be done!" May 
 the Universe ever continue in my 
 thought as Wisdom and Love, and 
 I can affirm as I pray It is Wis- 
 dom and Love and All is Good. 
 
 Through Love to Light! O wonderful the 
 
 way 
 That leads from darkness to the perfect 
 
 day! 
 From darkness and from sorrows of the 
 
 night 
 To morning that comes rejoicing o'er the 
 
 sea! 
 Through Love to Light! Through Light O 
 
 God, to Thee, 
 Who art the Love of love, the eternal Light 
 
 of light. 
 
 Richard Watson, Gilder. 
 
 73 
 
O Father! to Thy will we bow! 
 
 And lead us all to see, 
 How, even in the darkest hours 
 
 We're closest drawn to Thee! 
 O, Father! Make us wholly Thine! 
 
 Grant us Thy loving care, 
 And when Life's labors all are done 
 
 May we Thy glory share. 
 
 Lillian Whiting. 
 
 IF YOU would begin here and 
 now, today, this present hour, to 
 enjoy the benefits of the Father's 
 care, go apart from your fellow men 
 for a time, seek the solitude of 
 the Spirit, as Jesus bade men seek Him in 
 his wonderful Sermon on the Mount. Lay 
 aside all plans, open your mind and heart 
 in receptive worship; consecrate all you 
 possess; all you are; to the Father; then be 
 true to the highest thought that comes to 
 you; trust though you see not whither you 
 are going; your faith must be severely test- 
 ed. For no man ever sought help in this 
 spirit who came away unfilled. Horatio 
 W. Dresser. 
 
 74 
 
ON EARTH. 
 
 two words so simple, 
 so common, are neverthe- 
 less in this connection two 
 as important words as can be 
 found in all the Bible. In 
 understanding the philosophy of 
 Life as taught by Jesus they are the 
 two most important words in the 
 New Testament. They are the key- 
 words to all the thought and acts 
 of Jesus as recorded in the first 
 three Gospels. These Synoptic Gos- 
 pels are the only ones that are con- 
 sidered in any degree historical. 
 Eemember This Prayer is a Vision 
 of Life. In it are embodied the 
 Highest Ideal of a people, and that 
 of the most philosophic religious 
 teacher of all time. 
 He, in this prayer, boiled down his 
 theory of life into simple phrases 
 which his followers could use in 
 
 75 
 
their devotions. He used petitions 
 already familiar to them, but in new 
 connections and with a more devout 
 spirit, and with an enlarged Vision 
 of Man and God, and Life and Love,. 
 The Kingdom-of-God was for them 
 as for all devout persons now, the 
 realization of the Ideal Life. The 
 thoughts of the Prayer belong to a 
 branch of the religious expressions 
 of men who had in their theology 
 and in their practice no thought of 
 a life except that seen and felt now. 
 They prayed for the Kingdom of 
 the Good to come to them here and 
 now. This is strongly emphasized 
 in the words "On earth !" 
 The Old Testament is accepted 
 without discussion on the part of 
 scholars as a materialistic book. 
 Good authorities affirm "No sa- 
 cred books so little regard the sub- 
 ject of immortality as the Old Tes- 
 tament. " The Hebrew never trou- 
 bled himself concerning the condi- 
 tions of the dead. They went to the 
 " Underworld ". He did not try to 
 
 76 
 
imagine what it was, or where it 
 was located. Man went there when 
 he died. And any other thought 
 has been imported into these books 
 by those who desire to prove their 
 theological tenets. Immortality is 
 in the mind of the commentator 
 and not in that of the Hebrew au- 
 thor. The fact was impressed upon 
 me many years ago by a learned 
 Jewish Rabbi who invited me in to 
 his library and showing me his edi- 
 tions of the Talmud, Minshna and 
 the Gemara, gave me quite a lecture 
 upon the doctrine of death and the 
 Hereafter as found in the, to him, 
 sacred writings. 
 
 Lyman Abbott recognizes this fact 
 in his " Letters to Unknown 
 Friends, " in The Outlook for Feb. 
 28, where he says: " There is little 
 reason to believe that Old Testa- 
 ment writers believed in personal 
 immortality. If they did, their be- 
 lief was certainly very shadowy, 
 vague and unsatisfactory ! " But he 
 thinks that "Jesus brought life and 
 
 77 
 
immortality to light!" The evi- 
 dences deduced by him, (I use him 
 as a representative of the liberal 
 interpreters of Scripture), the evi- 
 dence he draws from the New Tes- 
 tament would not be accepted by 
 any Justice of the Peace as conclu- 
 sive evidence in a case of petty lar- 
 ceny. 
 
 I do not wish to side-track the 
 thought of these essays by a discus- 
 sion to which of the four sects into 
 which the Jews were then divided, 
 Jesus belonged. Much that he 
 taught was in harmony with that 
 of the Essenes; much in harmony 
 with the Samaritans. But some of 
 his teachings are at variance with 
 some of the teachings of that sect 
 at periods when we know the most 
 of them. He did not seem to con- 
 demn the Pharisees for their teach- 
 ings but for their fidelity to the 
 form and the neglect of the spirit 
 in which the form was embodied. 
 The Sadducees were the party of the 
 wealthy. They placed the integrity 
 
 78 
 
of tlie nation above that of the He- 
 brew Law. 
 
 Any one interested in this phase of 
 the subject can look it up in any 
 library. From my reading, I think 
 Jesus was eclectic; was free to take 
 from any source that widen was 
 Truth to him. I am convinced that 
 he depended more upon his own 
 perception and intuition than he did 
 upon the Eabinical writings and 
 Sacred Books. Where he had been 
 instructed from twelve years old to 
 thirty, is a question. This is evi- 
 dent, that he had been cultivating 
 Self-reverence and Self-reliance. 
 Had been in some way developing 
 himself out of the narrow limits of 
 authority. "Moses said," was the 
 standard of the time. "But I say 
 unto you!" was a new standard 
 which only a free man could give. 
 Thus he belonged to the Thinkers 
 and went to the immortal life as a 
 consequence of his thinking, sent 
 by the worshippers of external au- 
 thority. His God was not a god of 
 
 79 
 
the dead, but a God of the living. 
 The only time to live is Now, and 
 the only place is Here. To the liv- 
 ing it is "on earth". Abraham, 
 Isaac and Jacob were dead, but the 
 God they worshipped still lives. 
 Ideas are read into the words of 
 Jesus from the desires and intelli- 
 gence of the present. That the dis- 
 ciples believed in an immortality 
 anywhere except on earth, I find no 
 warrant. Paul even held to a 
 " sleep, " and in his Hebrew educa- 
 tion in the Underworld, believed 
 that he and those that fell asleep 
 would rise to meet Jesus in the 
 Heavens, in the air. Eise as Samuel 
 did, from the " Underworld ", Not 
 a conception by even early Chris- 
 tians of any Life except on earth. 
 The Second Adventists have the 
 only warrant for claiming to be be- 
 lievers in Paul, for he surely held 
 the belief that all would arise from 
 the grave, and Jesus would reign 
 on earth for 1,000 years. 
 But in the words of Jesus I find no 
 
 80 
 
possible ground for thinking he had 
 any idea of any life except "on 
 earth I" When in this thought 
 i i on earth ' ' we read this prayer, his 
 words here and elsewhere are made 
 clear to us. 
 
 I do not propose to enter here into 
 any long discussion, but simply to 
 affirm that the whole Prayer, and 
 especially these phrases, "May thy 
 kingdom come and thy will be done 
 on earth " expresses the Vision as 
 held by New Thought people; and 
 to affirm that if any people have a 
 right to claim fellowship with Je- 
 sus, we New Thought people have. 
 I suggest that in the thought that 
 we desire, as he did, that the Best 
 possible Good in all ways may come 
 on earth, that you read his words 
 and see how they all will beautiful- 
 ly apply to a possible condition, an 
 Ideal Condition, now and here. That 
 he held a Vision of a world redeem- 
 ed, a Vision of Brotherhood, a cove- 
 nant of Love. I think you will find 
 that no reformer, be he socialist, 
 
 81 
 
anarchist, statesman or patriot, ad- 
 vocates a better model for a State 
 than that set in the Ideal which he 
 told us we could pray for when we 
 desired to pray. 
 
 Walt Whitman had the same Vi- 
 sion: 
 
 I will make inseparable cities with their 
 arms about each other's necks; 
 By the love of comrades 
 By the manly love of comrades. 
 
 It was necessary for 'him when he 
 gave his friends this Prayer that he 
 would condense his Perceptions of 
 Truth into it in such a way that he 
 could not be misunderstood by them. 
 That whoever should learn this 
 Prayer would be putting into prac- 
 tice that Ideal which he had taught 
 him. 
 
 For this reason the words "On 
 Earth" have a significance that no 
 other words of his have, for us, as 
 they enable us to understand that 
 the purpose and principle of his life 
 and work was here and now to make 
 a better civilization; to build a 
 Brotherhood "among men of good 
 will". 
 
All his life was devoted, not to a 
 preparation for a life after death, 
 not to teaching a philosophy of 
 immortality, nor a method of escape 
 from consequences of conduct here. 
 His life was a steady activity for 
 the amelioration of the conditions 
 of men, "On earth." 
 There is nothing in any of the words 
 attributed to him that warrants us 
 in thinking he was thinking of any 
 life but the present. 
 The t i Sermon on the Mount, ' ' which 
 should contain something upon that 
 dogma had he taught it, is silent 
 upon anything but the present life. 
 "Blessed are" is his affirmation. 
 Blessed the moment one lives Truth. 
 The only phrase that can be con- 
 strued into any possible connection 
 with immortal life away from earth 
 is "The kingdom of heaven!" The 
 word and the place of heaven I have 
 explained in a previous essay. I 
 will pay attention to the words 
 "Kingdom of heaven" in my next. 
 Would you understand the place of 
 
 83 
 
Jesus rightly, and his wondrous Vis- 
 ion, study the words recorded as 
 his in the thought that he is speak- 
 ing of the possibilities of man "on 
 earth, 7 ' speaking of that Ideal con- 
 dition which is coming on earth, 
 and I think all the life and words 
 of Jesus will be plain. 
 The great difficulty is that it is very 
 hard for us to get away from the 
 psychology of old ideas. We have 
 heard so much of error concerning 
 Jesus and his work, his origin and 
 his place, that we do not read the 
 words recorded in the New Testa- 
 ment with an unprejudiced mind. 
 We are either set against them by 
 reason of some offensive theology, 
 or are set for some interpretation of 
 them by some preconceived theory. 
 To me the beauty of his life and 
 words is that he perceived the Di- 
 vinity of the Human Soul and its 
 connection with the ALL GOOD 
 and realized the possibilities that it 
 held for its life on earth. He stim- 
 ulated his time and all time toward 
 
 84 
 
the expression of those possibilities 
 by portraying as best he could the 
 glories of an earth redeemed from 
 ill conditions. He helped his time 
 by healing the mentally and physi- 
 cally diseased by setting the ex- 
 ample of a true socialistic Brother- 
 hood, and by teaching the one and 
 only bond of unity, that of Spirit, 
 whose manifestation is Love. 
 Any attempt to form co-operative 
 societies, communities or colonies, 
 
 upon any other basis than a relig- 
 ious and an unselfish union, have 
 failed and will fail. There is but 
 one religion, and that is LOVE of 
 Good; a love so great that in it all 
 selfishness is swallowed. All sys- 
 tems of religion, all creeds are 
 merely intellectual attempts to 
 grasp intellectually, that which can 
 only be FELT. The religious feel- 
 ing can not be expressed through 
 any intellectual formula. Religion 
 does not consist in the words, and 
 in the rites but in the spirit which 
 must use some words and have 
 
 85 
 
some form in its expression. 
 The deep religious feeling of the 
 Salvation Army lassie, we must ad- 
 mire, but we cannot accept the 
 words symbols with which she 
 clothes her expression of it. 
 Jesus spoke for the present and for 
 earth for the here and the now. 
 I paraphrase the words of the 
 Prayer thus: 
 
 I desire that that Ideal of Life 
 which is in consonance with the 
 Law of Causation and with my 
 highest Ideal of man may come into 
 expression here and now, "on 
 earth. " In this thought I can truth- 
 fully and honestly pray; all may 
 honestly pray: May thy kingdom 
 come, and thy will be done on earth. 
 
 86 
 
Give free and bold play to those instincts 
 of the heart which believe that the Cre- 
 ator must care for the creatures he has 
 made, and that the only and effective care 
 for them must be that which takes each of 
 them into his love and, knowing it sepa- 
 rately, surrounds it with His separate sym- 
 pathy. Phillips Brooks. 
 
 Love is the key of life and death, 
 Of the hidden heavenly mystery; 
 
 Of all Christ is, of all he said, 
 Love is the key. 
 
 As three times to his saint he saith, 
 He saith to me, he saith to thee; 
 
 Breathing his grace-conferring breath ;- 
 "Lovest thou me?" 
 
 Ah! Lord, I have such feeble faith, 
 Such feeble hope to comfort me, 
 
 But Love, it is as strong as death; 
 And I love Thee! 
 
 Christina G. Rossetti. 
 
 87 
 
If on a Spring night I went by 
 And God were standing there, 
 
 What is the prayer that I would cry 
 To him? This is the prayer: 
 
 O Lord of Courage grave, 
 
 O Master of this night of Spring! 
 
 Make firm in me a heart too brave 
 To ask Thee anything! 
 
 John Galesworthy. 
 
 Where the vain blue-bird trims his coat, 
 
 Two tiny feathers fall and float. 
 
 As silently, as tenderly, 
 
 The down of Peace descends on me. 
 
 this is Peace! I have no need 
 Of friend to talk or book to read; 
 A dear Companion here abides, 
 
 Close to my throbbing heart He hides; 
 The holy ilence is His voice; 
 
 1 lie, and listen and rejoice. 
 
 J. T. Trowbridge. 
 
"AS IT IS IN HEAVEN/ ' 
 
 OUR second essay deals with 
 the location of Heaven. Now 
 we deal with the conditions 
 of heaven, the thought awakened by 
 the word "As." 
 
 The prayer necessarily intended 
 that we should ask that the Heaven- 
 Father Our Father should rule 
 "On Earth" as he did in the seven 
 spheres above the earth which 
 formed the firmament. That we 
 also should recognize him as the 
 ruler of earth and heaven; and 
 should in willingness resign our- 
 selves to his rule here and now, 
 should live every day as a subject, 
 not of an earthly, but of a heaven- 
 ly king. 
 
 Necessarily perfection must center 
 in the Ruler, He must have Power 
 to do as he would. He should have 
 the same order and system here that 
 
 89 
 
he as King has there. What he 
 ruled there beyond sun, planets 
 and stars, they had no conception. 
 But these he did rule, and they rec- 
 ognized the orderly changes of day 
 and night, of seasons, of the rise 
 and setting of stars and constella- 
 tions. 
 
 Therefore, there is in the petition 
 an expression of the desire that the 
 same power that kept for so many 
 centuries the heavens in their place 
 and in order, might in the same 
 way keep earth and its inhabitants 
 and its conditions in order. 
 This Infinite Power centered Itself 
 "on earth " in the King. David 
 and Solomon had been Its great 
 kings. The Jew was looking for 
 the return of the Jewish nation to 
 power. At the time this prayer was 
 given, Roman officials occupied the 
 place of their God-selected, God- 
 appointed Kings. It was the dear- 
 est hope of every Jew that there 
 might be restored the thrones of 
 the past. For this reason, this 
 
 90 
 
prayer was to the Jew a petition for 
 the breaking of the Eoman yoke 
 and a restoration of the Kingdom 
 of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a re- 
 turn of the glory of David and Sol- 
 omon. "Thy kingdom come on 
 earth" could have no other picture 
 in the imagination of the Jew than 
 this restoration. It was a prayer of 
 treason to Rome. "Jehovah, wilt 
 thou break this bondage and restore 
 the throne of David for us. Make 
 thy kingdom here now among us." 
 It is impossible for us to pray this 
 prayer with the conception of the 
 Jew of the first century. Did Jesus 
 hold this same thought! I can 
 gather from the records that he had 
 no other. 
 
 Like all Jews at his time he and his 
 followers were always looking for 
 the Father-King to send his repre- 
 sentative in a Messiah, who would 
 lead them to rebellion and break 
 the yoke of Rome, Early in his 
 ministry his followers centered upon 
 him as the Messiah. Let it be re- 
 
 91 
 
membered that Messiah had no re- 
 lation to any life except the life 
 upon earth. Tfhe Messiah was a 
 political deliverer. But since that 
 political power was also the relig- 
 ious power and the only power the 
 Jew recognized, it followed that 
 Messiah meant one appointed by 
 the Power above earth to rule his 
 chosen people on earth. 
 It seems doubtful that Jesus 
 thought this or accepted it for him- 
 self at first. But the zeal of his 
 followers and the success of his 
 work and his triumphal entry into 
 Jerusalem led him to at least accept 
 as a possibility that his mission was 
 to relieve his people from the op- 
 pression of the Roman. So great 
 became the public opinion concern- 
 ing him among the Eoman powers 
 that he was arrested on informa- 
 tion of his enemies and convicted 
 of treason and executed; not for his 
 works, not for his teachings, but 
 because his followers, in crowds, 
 had hailed him as the Messiah; as 
 
 92 
 
the one who should lead in a rebel- 
 lion as antecedent patriots had done 
 and subsequent patriots did. Over 
 his head on the cross was an in- 
 scription which glorifies him as 
 Eobert Emmet of Ireland, and 
 Nathan Hale and Elmer Ellsworth 
 are glorified one who died for his 
 country, "King of the Jews." He 
 filled in his day the same place as 
 Washington and his compatriots 
 did in 1775. It is said that Frank- 
 lin said then, "We must all hang 
 together or we shall all hang sepa- 
 rately !" Had Lexington and all 
 along the line to Yorktown been de- 
 feats, they would each have died on 
 the gibbet and the inscription would 
 have been "He would be an Amer- 
 ican Freeman!" 
 
 It is probable that in this prayer 
 Jesus was consciously teaching 
 treason to Borne, as Thomas Paine 
 in "Common Sense" and "The 
 Crisis" taught the American colo- 
 nies treason to England. The prayer 
 under our knowledge of that time 
 
 93 
 
is capable of this interpretation. 
 It raises Jesus in our estimation. 
 It places him as a martyr to his 
 country, to Truth as he saw it, and 
 leaves him not merely one who 
 would be a leader for some selfish 
 end, either for himself or his na- 
 tion. 
 
 John Brown was hung for the same 
 cause for which Jesus was crucified. 
 The difference of 2,000 years is 
 merely one of detail. The Princi- 
 ple is eternal. It adds a mighty 
 power to the Prayer when it in- 
 cludes loyalty to one's country and 
 to the principles it stands for. The 
 Church has a prayer for "the Pres- 
 ident, and all others in authority!" 
 This Prayer includes all this and 
 more; it looks to the Divine Possi- 
 bilities in man to make a heaven on 
 earth whenever he shall wil) to 
 make it. 
 
 The point of view today gives us a 
 Vision in the Prayer grander than 
 any the commentators have found. 
 While the Hebrew of 75 A. D. could 
 
 94 
 
pray it for the liberation of his na- 
 tion; the Irishman today for the 
 freedom of his ; the Englishman and 
 the Frenchman for the stability of 
 their governments, so we also ean 
 pray through this Prayer for the 
 perpetuity of our nation, and at the 
 same time unite with all these in 
 the consciousness that the Power to 
 whom we pray is one. IT is the 
 inviolable Principle of Causation. 
 The difference lies in the concep- 
 tion of each person and not in the 
 Eeality for which our mental image 
 stands. 
 
 More and more as we study it, does 
 it become a universal Prayer, a 
 Vision of Universal Brotherhood. 
 There is no one who may not in sin- 
 cerity and in truth unite with us at 
 any, and at all times, in saying, 
 44 May thy will be done on earth as 
 it is in heaven. " 
 
 95 
 
I do not pray because I would. 
 
 I pray because I must. 
 There is no mercy in my prayer, 
 
 But thankfulness and trust. 
 And thou wilt hear the thought I mean 
 
 And not the word I say, 
 Wilt hear the thanks between the words 
 
 That only seem to pray. 
 
 John W. Chadwick. 
 
 A beneficent fluid bathes us, whence we 
 draw the very force to labor and to live. 
 From this ocean of life, in which we are im- 
 mersed we ar e continually drawing some- 
 thing, and we feel that our being, or at least 
 the intellect that guides it, has been formed 
 therein by a kind of local concentration. 
 Philosophy can only be an effort to dis- 
 solve it again into the Whole. Henri 
 Bergsen. 
 
 96 
 
GIVE US THIS DAY OUR 
 DAILY BREAD." 
 
 us this day our daily 
 bread," is one that has 
 troubled the translators 
 very much. The word translat- 
 ed "daily" should never have been 
 translated. It is a guess. There 
 are over seventy words suggested 
 for the one Greek word thus trans- 
 lated. The best New Testament 
 Greek scholar in the United States, 
 Prof. Gary of the Meadville (Uni- 
 tarian) Divinity School, told us in 
 class that the word thus translated 
 was found nowhere else in all ex- 
 tant Greek literature. It thus stands 
 alone, with no other passage to 
 which to refer as aid in its inter- 
 pretation. No one knows, and nev- 
 er will know, until some other Greek 
 MSS. shall be found that will give 
 a clue to its meaning. 
 
 97 
 
It is " bread " that is asked for, but 
 what bread? The revised version 
 helps us not in its marginal read- 
 ings, "Bread for the coming day." 
 Max Muller tells us of a prayer to 
 Indra "Give us our daily bread!" 
 But did Jesus teach his disciples to 
 pray for material things ? He taught 
 them to trust for food and clothes 
 as the sparrow and the lily trust. 
 Why not for bread? He found bread 
 and fishes, where others would not. 
 Why not teach them to look for 
 Supply in all directions to the One 
 Power from which lily, sparrow 
 and man are fed! 
 
 He did not, according to Luke, com- 
 mand them to use this prayer. 
 1 ' When ye pray, ' ' he said. Matthew 
 puts in the prayer as part of a dis- 
 course on Prayer, where he tells 
 them not to pray as others pray, 
 but to use this form. Instruction 
 here, and not command. ' ' Our Fath- 
 er knoweth ye have need of these 
 things before ye ask him," he told 
 them. "Pray, believing that ye 
 
have these things before ye ask 
 them!" he says again. 
 Though the translators may higgle 
 over the Greek, and theologians 
 over the thoughts of Jesus, we have 
 no trouble to accept the thought as 
 daily and believe in reality of pos- 
 session before the prayer is uttered. 
 Why not < < daily "1 If the Bible 
 has any value to us as a guide or 
 counselor, it is as a daily inspira- 
 tion. The word "daily" is in per- 
 fect harmony with Jesus' instruc- 
 tions, all of which were confined to 
 the Here and the Now. ' l On Earth ' ' 
 is the prayer. This present mani- 
 festation of Our Father's Kingdom 
 is where we are to look for all good 
 things. 
 
 When we interpret this petition for 
 "daily bread" in the light of Jesus' 
 other teachings, it becomes, not a 
 petition, but a recognition. The 
 needed bread is here now. Prayer 
 is that mental attitude in which we 
 recognize that all needed things are 
 ours before we ask for them. 
 
 99 
 
Recognition and thanksgiving are 
 the two functions of prayer. All is 
 here ! All is mine now ! Just as all 
 in the home is the babe's, so all in 
 * l Our Father 's ' ' house is mine now. 
 The babe does not know what he 
 wants, but all that can supply his 
 want is at his hand. He grows day 
 by day to receive this, and to re- 
 ceive in the degree in which he rec- 
 ognizes supply for his need. "Be- 
 lieve ye have these things before ye 
 ask for them," is to be our attitude 
 toward Infinite Supply. By this 
 prayer, ' ' Give, ' ' which is a look- 
 ing forward to the coming supply, 
 the mental attitude is created by 
 which one becomes able to perceive 
 the way to supply. "Seek ye first 
 the kingdom of Grod." Prayer is 
 one method of seeking. Until we 
 perceive that all is ours, and all is 
 here, and all is present now, we 
 must by petition grow into that per- 
 ception. 
 
 And what does "daily bread" 
 100 
 
mean! No one can know 'what Je- 
 sus meant by it, but each person can 
 tell what he means as he prays it. 
 I presume very few confine it to 
 material food. I think to most peo- 
 ple it means whatever one needs on 
 every plane of being. When I use 
 it, it means everything in Infinite 
 Supply that I can, as a physical, af- 
 fectional, intellectual and spiritual 
 being, use for my happiness. "Man 
 liveth not by bread alone. " He 
 lives by Truth and Love. My per- 
 sonal idea of " bread " as used in 
 the prayer is found in John 4:33-34: 
 "My Father giveth you the true 
 bread out of heaven to eat." The 
 words, "Give us this day our daily 
 bread, " are to me, the expression 
 of a desire for consciousness of 
 spiritual life; for that baptism of 
 Spirit that shall awaken this con- 
 sciousness in me as the baptism of 
 the sun awakens the demonstrations 
 of beauty, fragrance and reproduc- 
 
 101 
 
tion in the plant. 
 
 This expression cannot be under- 
 stood by those who only petition: 
 "Give." It comes only when there 
 is a spiritual recognition that I 
 am now all I once prayed far. 
 "Give" is the child's petition; man- 
 hood's reception is "I, am the bread 
 of life!" The personal conscious- 
 ness has absorbed the Universal 
 Consciousness and as drop mingles 
 in ocean, both are one; only in this 
 "I am" case, the whole ocean has 
 assumed the individuality of the 
 drop. Prayer has led to Eeality 
 Petitioner and giver are one. 
 The true spirit of prayer excludes 
 petition. To ask for anything is to 
 regulate our thought back to primi- 
 tive man, and to place ourselves on 
 his plane. He could ask a power 
 which he believes to be autocratic 
 and could give or withhold, and 
 could look for an interposition in 
 his behalf because he had asked. 
 
 102 
 
The Hebrew believing Jehovah, an 
 Autocrat who could do as he pleased 
 could petition. But one who today 
 realizes that all things are the ma- 
 terialization of Mind under Law, 
 and that there is neither miracle nor 
 accident in nature, cannot petition. 
 He has no right to ask! Asking for 
 anything that is not already his by 
 Law, he will not receive, because it 
 is inevitable that he will have his, 
 and all that is his, every day. 
 That which he desires is already 
 his! The Desire could not be, was 
 it not a spiritual prompting for that 
 which is now waiting for his recog- 
 nition. Prayer is the recognition 
 of existing conditions. "It is the 
 Spirit of God pronouncing his 
 works Good!" 
 
 Eecognition is the one mental state 
 in which I receive into conscious- 
 ness that which has always been 
 mine. "When you pray, pray be- 
 lieving ye have these things!" 
 
 103 
 
I have, because I am not 
 but I am an expression of that 
 which prays , thinks and asks, 
 limited to the manifestation 
 which is all. The Something 
 which says "I" has all these things. 
 The conscious I must believe that 
 the Real I the Whole I has what 
 consciousness asks for, and by de- 
 siring it is brought into manifesta- 
 tion. 
 
 Words are but the symbols in which 
 the desire is clothed. The Spirit 
 within is the condition of import- 
 ance. The intellect prays not; but the 
 Soul. In soul we are all one, and all 
 pray for the one thing, which is 
 Consciousness of that which I AM, 
 No matter then what the Hebrew 
 had in mind when he asked for 
 (some kind) of bread. Nor what is 
 in the mind of the devotee in the 
 various churches, and under every 
 creed. In spirit you and I are one 
 with him when we ask for the ma- 
 terial consciousness of any desire. 
 
 104 
 
Our spiritual attitude of recogni- 
 tion, of thanks for what already is, 
 is one with each of these. Intel- 
 lectually each may ask for things, 
 spiritually each is rewarded by con- 
 ditions. By the varying conditions 
 of life prayers are answered. < ' Seek 
 first the Kingdom' ' and things 
 shall be added, as the consciousness 
 at this stage of its unfoldment shall 
 render necessary. 
 
 i i Give us this day our daily bread ! ' ' 
 when we enter into the spirit of 
 prayer, is to each of us merely put- 
 ting into symbols a desire that we 
 may feel and recognize the Good 
 that is already ours. 
 Petition is a species of beggary. 
 Jesus did not teach that. When he 
 said ' ' Our Father, ' ' he did not make 
 us beggars, but obedient children 
 of a wise and loving father. He 
 told us that God was more willing 
 to give than we are to receive. So 
 that the true attitude is willingness 
 to receive, and a thankfulness for 
 what is now ours. 
 
 105 
 
When we will so understand and 
 will in our concept of "Bread," in- 
 clude all needed experiences, we 
 will unite with all who pray and 
 pray in this spirit. Bread will be 
 the "Bread from heaven," no mat- 
 ter if it be the food on our table, or 
 in our library, or in our soul. It 
 came in the right way, in the best 
 way, in God's way, even if it came 
 through joy or sorrow, through 
 seeming failure or success, through 
 praise or blame. By the effect upon 
 one's own mentality and spiritually 
 unfolding consciousness, are the 
 answers to be found. 
 The spirit of prayer voices itself in 
 an inarticulate cry or in a psalm or 
 hymn. When in spirit we can use 
 any symbol, we pray and receive the 
 blessing spiritually. It is not neces- 
 sary that we form our longing in 
 words; we need but simply to feel 
 the need of expression toward the 
 One from whom all blessings flow. 
 This feeling is prayer. 
 It is right that we recognize a Pow- 
 
 106 
 
er, not our personal selves, that is 
 Cause of all that we realize. It is 
 as well to call it Father, and to ask 
 from It bread, as to use any other 
 symbols. When we have fond me- 
 mories of home and parents, no 
 other word will so convey the 
 prayer of the soul. 
 For this reason when the feeling of 
 prayer comes in our longing, we will 
 still use words that loved lips have 
 taught us and which devout souls 
 have made sacred, and will pray- 
 "Our Father! Give us this day our 
 daily bread- " 
 
 Not bread alone, but all good gifts bestow- 
 ing, 
 God's angel sends us on our beckoning 
 
 way, 
 
 With sacrificial wine life's cup overflowing 
 And palms kept clear from idols: Let us 
 pray! 
 
 Cclia Burleigh. 
 
 107 
 
True prayer, oral or silent, is born of bosom 
 and not brain. Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 Every noble impulse is a winged prayer 
 that lifts the soul one step nearer to that 
 grand ideal, too saintly to be realized in 
 its fulness amid the scenes of mortal life. 
 George A. Fuller. 
 
 Our thoughts are moulding unmade spheres, 
 
 And like a blessing or a curse, 
 They thunder down the formless years, 
 
 And ring throughout the universe. 
 We build our futures by the shape 
 
 Of our desires, not by acts, 
 There is no pathway of escape 
 
 No man-made creeds can alter facts. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 108 
 
"FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS 
 WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS. " 
 
 ZN this wonderful scientific 
 and metaphysical composi- 
 tion there is one petition 
 that shows a marvelous percep- 
 tion of the Law of Nature's 
 balance, the Law of Justice. It 
 shows that the individual is him- 
 self the Creator and the Master of 
 his own destiny, of his own fate. 
 
 "For Destiny pursues us well, 
 By land and sea, through heaven and hell! 
 It suffers death alone to die, 
 Bids Life all change and chance defy!" 
 
 But that Destiny is the Individual 
 Consciousness; is the consequences 
 of individual choice in human life. 
 Paul's words are purely scientific, 
 if commonplace now, "We reap 
 what we sow" in happiness and 
 character, as we reap crops true to 
 seed in our fields and gardens. Je- 
 sus taught what we all know is true 
 
 109 
 
the measure we meet is measured 
 out to us. 
 
 Echo is but a physical phenomenon 
 obedient to the same law. That 
 which I cry out comes back to me, 
 though it may be changed in pitch. 
 "Hello!" never comes back as 
 "Goodbye!" and curse words never 
 come back as blessing. Nay, more; 
 the words of joy or woe in which I 
 cry also return. These words never 
 return without effect; every vibra- 
 tion that touches the ear affects and 
 changes "brain - cells. Therefore, 
 ' ' My word never returns to me void, 
 but accomplishes that whereunto I 
 sent it!" Even the slightest echo 
 demonstrates the truth of the 
 prophet's word. 
 
 This law is the Law of Equilibrium; 
 Nature's Law of Justice. It locates 
 Justice where all individuality and 
 all responsibility is located i. e., 
 within! "The Kingdom of God" is 
 there. It can be nowhere else. God 
 Nature has no control save 
 through the individual center. All 
 
 110 
 
prayers are answered by God. No 
 prayer goes unanswered. The One 
 God answers them all; answers by 
 the only channel, and the only meth- 
 od, in which our calls for Life and 
 Love and Truth are answered 
 that is, by developing within us that 
 sense of the Power, which is itself 
 the thing desired. 
 
 The wisdom of Jesus lies in the per- 
 ception of this fact. From it he 
 never departs. However much the- 
 ologians have read into his words a 
 plan of redemption through other 
 means, he never hinted that other- 
 wise save as the consequences of 
 individual thought, was it possible 
 for this Kingdom of Heaven, which 
 is happiness, to find expression. In 
 no way can the Kingdom of God 
 ever control earth save through the 
 humanity in which it is located. 
 God judges by that inner sense that 
 thunders only, Do Right. God con- 
 demns only by that false human 
 standard that sees evil where there 
 is only undevelopment ; which says 
 ill 
 
through the Reason, ' ' Wrong, " 
 where Truth says, "Undevelop- 
 ment. ' ' 
 
 But with this Law of Jus- 
 tice As I do will I be done by- 
 how dare one pray, "Forgive as I 
 forgive!" unless his heart be pure 
 and he holds no thought of ill 
 against his brother? There is no 
 more awful affirmation, no more 
 terrible anathemas one can utter 
 against one's self than this: "As I 
 forgive !" I shudder every time I 
 hear that petition. Once I used it 
 as carelessly and perfunctorily as I 
 hear others use it. But now, that I 
 know the meaning of those words, 
 which burn like furnace fire and 
 pierce like Toledo blades, I first seek 
 absolution from myself, before I 
 ask to be forgiven. When that is 
 done then I am forgiven. "Absolve 
 thyself to thyself!" says Emerson. 
 The moment I cleanse myself from 
 thought of evil toward my brother, 
 I have cleansed my mind of all evil 
 thoughts born in my condemnation 
 112 
 
of myself. Then the prayer be- 
 comes a direct affirmation: As I 
 forgive myself, am I forgiven, and 
 so do I forgive others! 
 
 But what right have I to forgive 
 any one ! The right, if there be one 
 of condemnation, of judgment. But 
 I hear the command, " Judge not, 
 lest ye be judged ! ' ' Again the dread 
 measurement of self. Again the 
 balance, As I do, so am I done by. 
 There is but One, and I am that 
 One in expression. The One is 
 present in my every act, and what I 
 am, that the One is; this is true of 
 every expression of every one and 
 of every thing. It takes ALL to 
 make the entire expression of God. 
 But individually as Consciousness, 
 I determine by my treatment of my- 
 self how the universe shall treat me. 
 All that is not myself but reflects 
 that which I am in expression. With 
 this consciousness of condemnation 
 of others can I pray, "Forgive my 
 trespasses as I forgive those that 
 trespass against me?" Conscious- 
 
 113 
 
ness rebels at such a petition, and 
 no matter what my lips may frame, 
 the inner conviction is the opposite, 
 and we never pray with the lips. 
 The feeling in the heart is the real 
 prayer. Therefore to say forgive 
 when I am condemning, is to say in 
 reality, "Continue still to condemn 
 me!" 
 
 The experience of the subject of 
 Suggestion is evidence. He has ac- 
 cepted the thought that he cannot 
 open his hand. That thought con- 
 trols him, and until he changes his 
 thought he cannot even make an 
 effort to open his hand. All efforts 
 are controlled by the thought "I 
 can't." So with all prayers. It is 
 not the words used, but the thought 
 in the mind and the feeling in the 
 heart that is the prayer, and that is 
 ever answered. 
 
 When I was a boy and did wrong, 
 mother would bring me face to face 
 with the brother and compel me to 
 say, "I am sorry!" I said it, but I 
 know now that in my heart I was 
 
 114 
 
not sorry, and therefore I did the 
 same thing again upon provocation. 
 But there is one benefit in a prayer 
 of mere words. A benefit from my 
 saying, "I am sorry I" and "I for- 
 give !" These words have the power 
 of Suggestion, and create the habit 
 ultimately of feeling sorry and feel- 
 ing forgiveness. The "Lord's 
 prayer M is a beautiful affirmation 
 a beautiful ideal, and its repeti- 
 tion has had a marvelous effect in 
 building the ideals of Christendom. 
 What though we condemn and hold 
 animosity and even revenge? That 
 Ideal is growing. We are nearer 
 to it than we were two thousand 
 years ago. Nearer to it with every 
 utterance of this prayer. Once the 
 realization is awakened in any soul 
 that his own forgiveness is meas- 
 ured by his forgiveness of his broth- 
 er, then he is forgiven, and the sign 
 of forgiveness is "The peace that 
 passeth understanding ! ' ' 
 The prayer to us who see its beauty 
 means, ' i Teach me to so forgive my 
 
 115 
 
brother that I feel myself forgiv- 
 en!" This petition is the precursor 
 of the affirmation, I never judge, I 
 never condemn! This thought cre- 
 ates within the person that condi- 
 tion of selflessness that accepts with 
 joy the experiences of life, and find- 
 ing there so much to enjoy, there is 
 no time for aught else. In this re- 
 alization there is no prayer of want 
 but only the feeling and the prayer 
 of thankfulness. 
 
 Toward all who in any way seek to 
 injure we will utter the words He 
 taught us, "Father, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do!" 
 In loving my brother thus as I love 
 myself, as I love Truth, as I love 
 Love, I have found the only possi- 
 ble expression of the heaven that is 
 within me, and realize that the con- 
 dition prayed for is mine now. The 
 Kingdom has come, and Divine will 
 is done in me the moment I feel, "I 
 love my brother as myself." As I 
 forgive I am forgiven! 
 
 116 
 
I ask Thee not for days or years. 
 I ask Thee not for joys or tears; 
 
 But today, O, Lord! 
 Beat me on the anvil of Thy wrath 
 And all along the upward path, 
 
 Give me Thy Word, 
 Today. 
 
 I ask Thee not for Good to come, 
 I ask not for future home; 
 
 But today, O Lord, 
 Beat my soul on ' the anvil of Thy 
 
 wrath 
 
 Yea, tear from me each crutch and 
 staff- 
 Give me Thy Word 
 Today. 
 
 I ask Thee not for beds of ease, 
 I ask Thee not for bitter lees; 
 
 But today, O Lord! 
 Beat me on the anvil of thy wrath 
 And 'midst thy making I will laugh 
 Give me Thy Word 
 Today. 
 
 Sam Exton Foulds. 
 
 117 
 
} Tis God, then, all the way, more near 
 
 Than is the day's light or air; 
 And when he seems to disappear 
 
 He surrounds us everywhere. 
 
 Arena, March, 1891. 
 
 He is with me when the day breaks, 
 
 Through the long, sweet hours of light; 
 When the evening shadows gather, 
 
 In the silent, darkening night, 
 The ineffable is with me; 
 
 By His love my soul is filled 
 With a joy beyond expression 
 
 And its hunger stilled; 
 While He stoops to guide my footsteps 
 
 He informs and fills the whole, 
 All created things controlling 
 
 Vast, mysterious Oversoul. 
 
 Wanda West. 
 
 118 
 
LEAD US NOT INTO 
 TEMPTATION. 
 
 petition has troubled me 
 more than any other of the 
 utterances of Jesus. It is 
 not in harmony with the rest 
 of his teachings; neither does it 
 comport with his character. I have 
 always used it with mental reser- 
 vations and interpretations of my 
 own, which I have felt were more in 
 harmony with the beautiful life por- 
 trayed in the Gospels. Others have 
 felt the same inconsistency. It may 
 be an error of the first reporters of 
 his words; but more probably some 
 transcriber of the early manuscripts 
 inserted the "not," for the petition 
 then would be more in harmony with 
 the indolent life of the monk. 
 Theodore Parker changed "lead" 
 to "leave," but this never removed 
 from my mind the mental reserva- 
 
 119 
 
tions with which I uttered the 
 words. I never uttered them with- 
 out a feeling "I don't want what 
 I pray for, if that is what I think it 
 is. I want what Jesus intended/' 
 There is a duty and a responsibility 
 for each. My words are for the one 
 who is thinking for himself, and 
 asks What shall I do ! It is not the 
 reader's business to decide what an- 
 other shall do. In answer to his 
 question, I quote, "Let your light 
 shine that others seeing your good 
 work may glorify the Father!" 
 The very thought of temptation is 
 repugnant to me. What is tempta- 
 tion! An invitation on part of the 
 universe of the Non-me to the 
 Me, to do wrong. This is an impos- 
 sibility. All that its Not-me says 
 to Me, ' ' Here I am for you to use. ' ' 
 There is in this invitation no 
 thought of good or bad, for Nature 
 in all her phenomena is non-ethical. 
 She never says "Do good;" she 
 simply says "Do!" I decide after 
 I do, whether what I do is what I 
 
 120 
 
desire to repeat or not. If I do so 
 desire, I say of it ' ' Good. ' ' There- 
 fore temDtation, under the old 
 thought of suggestion of something 
 external to do wrong, is false. 
 The correct definition would be 
 "Temptation a desire on part of 
 the individual to do that which he * 
 feels is wrong. 7 ' This is locating 
 the tempter within. The man tempts 
 himself. He comes up against his 
 manhood. He learns that he is man 
 and not brute, through this oppor- 
 tunity to choose between two acts. 
 He learns that he can use conditions 
 and circumstances either to harm 
 or benefit his physical body; may 
 use them to make himself happy or 
 miserable; but however used, 
 through their use he becomes more 
 and more conscious of his power of 
 manhood, and his power of self-di- 
 rection. 
 
 In the Eden legend there was no 
 tree of the knowledge of good or 
 evil for the brute. Only man could 
 eat of it; only man could know. Had 
 
 121 
 
there been no "tree," there could 
 have been no Adam, for whatever 
 form Life might have taken in that 
 thing that would have been in 
 Adam's place, it would have acted 
 instinctively and automatically as 
 the brute-life acts. Through desire, 
 man has been led from the Eden of 
 brute to the Eden of man, and what 
 has been called "temptation" has 
 been the route. Constantly tempted 
 to try something new and constant- 
 ly tempted to repeat the old sensa- 
 tions. 
 
 "Overcome evil with Good," said 
 Jesus. "To him that overcometh" 
 are the promises in Eevelations. 
 Strength, courage, faith, manhood, 
 can come in no other way. 
 To pray "Lead me not into tempta- 
 tion, " is to ask to remain in present 
 weakness and ignorance; is to ask 
 for stagnation and death. No whole- 
 some person can ask for this. Ev- 
 ery person who really lives realizes 
 that i ' Life is struggle, combat Vic- 
 tory. " To pray this prayer is de- 
 
 122 
 
feat without struggle; is inglorious 
 surrender. 
 
 Temptations are opportunities; are 
 calls to come higher; are commands 
 to know one's Self. We may name 
 them trials, lessons, temptations or 
 what not. They are necessities of 
 nature for unfolding of the Human 
 soul. We may meet them bravely, 
 manfully, and find happiness; or 
 may meet them as cowards and pol- 
 troons. We may meet and overcome 
 in faith; or we may be whipped 
 through fear. But in even the de- 
 feat by fear, soul learns through 
 suffering and will sometime rally 
 its forces and win. 
 
 "Oh, what a glorious record had angels of 
 
 me kept 
 
 Had I done instead of doubted, had I 
 warred instead of wept!" 
 
 Sometime the coward, the sneak, 
 the liar, will learn to be manly, 
 honest and truthful; will come to 
 trust and manifest himself. 
 
 "But begone, regret, bewailing! Ye but 
 
 weaken at the best. 
 
 I have tried the trusty weapons resting 
 erst within my breast; 
 
 123 
 
I have wakened to a knowledge of myself, 
 
 so strong and deep, 
 That I dreamed not of aforetime in my 
 
 long inglorious sleep." 
 
 But for temptations that came and 
 said, "Try me," this knowledge of 
 Self could not come. No; we can- 
 not pray to have temptation re- 
 moved. Many a time in the past 
 have I changed the petition to 
 "Strengthen me to overcome when 
 tempted. " This is a prayer of 
 Now I affirm, * ' I overcome ! " " Lead 
 us not," does not harmonize with 
 the stalwart character of Jesus. He 
 never shrank from any condition; 
 never doubted himself. Boldly af- 
 firming and faithfully doing, he 
 overcame even the cross and the 
 grave. 
 
 In a recent article Ella Wheeler 
 Wilcox says that an eminent schol- 
 ar told her that "not" should not 
 be in the petition. That it was not 
 in the original but was an interpola- 
 tion by the translators. If so, we 
 have a perfect prayer. But in the 
 Revised Version we have no hint of 
 
 124 
 
this. Neither does the American 
 
 Committee record the desire for any 
 change here, though they recom- 
 mend changing " temptation" to 
 " trial " in several places. And a 
 fine Greek scholar tells me such a 
 translation is not warranted. We 
 must look beyond the words and in- 
 terpret them by the life and spirit 
 of Jesus, as manifested by his life. 
 We can pray, "Lead us into tempta- 
 tion. " It is a glorious petition. We 
 desire unfoldment. We desire to 
 know ourselves. We desire Power! 
 Power to overcome! Every temp- 
 tation deepens our consciousness of 
 Self. I am only as I overcome some 
 new condition. When I go with the 
 tide I am animal, for it goes in line 
 of least resistance. When I move 
 against the current, when I over- 
 come, I am human. Blessed is the 
 tempted, for he shall know himself; 
 is the sermon of today. 
 Remove nothing from my path; en- 
 courage, stimulate, teach, and lead 
 me to know, that I can! 
 
 125 
 
The Protection theory of priest, 
 teacher, reformer, legislator, is one 
 of the most grievous of errors. It 
 weakens character. Believe the boy 
 of all temptations, take from him 
 the necessity of overcoming, and 
 you have a weakling, a cypher. 
 Present educative methods in home, 
 society, and school all tend to weak- 
 en the boy and girl. " Protection " 
 in legislation has weakened the na- 
 tion, stifled individual initiative, 
 and turned the government over to 
 the monopolies and trusts it has 
 created. This all comes from that 
 spirit that put the "Not" in the 
 prayer. Leave "Not" out in your 
 thought and we will not seek to re- 
 move, to protect from, but to 
 strengthen in hours of temptation. 
 "I'll not remove the saloon from 
 you, my son, but I will strengthen 
 your confidence in your Self, so 
 that you don't even know it is 
 there," are the words of wise men. 
 Said my mother often when I was 
 a boy, when I said, "I can't," 
 
 126 
 
"What were you made for?" And 
 I was told I was to be a man. That 
 I could, and I must. I was taught 
 that I could overcome. But many 
 years of mature life were needed to 
 teach me practically through sor- 
 row that I might say "I do!" 
 "Lead us into temptation" is the 
 only thought a self-respecting, self- 
 reliant and self-governed person can 
 hold, and only such are real men. 
 Emerson puts this thought into the 
 lines that introduce his marvelous 
 essay on " Self -Reliance " 
 
 "Cast the bantling on the rocks, 
 
 Suckle him with the she-wolf's teat; 
 Wintered with the hawk and fox, 
 
 Power and speed be hands and feet." 
 
 Even liberal people often for- 
 get that liberty stands for a 
 mental condition the opposite 
 of that in which ordinary people 
 live. In ordinary philosophy, the 
 fundamental thought is that of 
 Power outside the individual acting 
 upon him. In the New Psychology 
 it is the Power within the individual 
 expressing Itself. The Evolution- 
 
 127 
 
ary Power within that acts upon, 
 and changes, environment. In the 
 old philosophy, Man is classed with 
 other forms of life. Spencer says, 
 "Life consists in a constant adjust- 
 ment of internal to external condi- 
 tions." This is true of chemical, 
 vegetable and animal life. 
 Human life is the opposite of this. 
 It has consisted, from primeval man 
 to the present man, in the adjust- 
 ment of external to internal condi- 
 ~ tions. As man has evolved into 
 v consciousness of himself as Power, 
 he has changed environment. He 
 has thus carried on the one creative 
 Principle which brought the pres- 
 ent world from chaos. Environ- 
 ment has been changed through an 
 inward urge. Whitman says, ' i The 
 urge, urge, urge; the procreative 
 urge of the world." This same 
 "urge'' is still at work in, and 
 through, man. 
 
 Prior to Man, Life was limited to, 
 and adapted itself to, conditions. 
 In Man, Life has no limit. It adapts 
 
 128 
 
conditions to Itself. That is, as far 
 as Man has come to know himself, 
 he adapts his environment to his 
 needs and desires. As far as Man 
 is ignorant of himself, he still lives 
 in animal limitations, and adapts 
 himself to his environment, or like 
 the animal, dies through mal-ad- 
 justment. Thu& Man is coming. 
 When he has fully emerged from 
 the animal matrix, he will have 
 sloughed off all limitations in him- 
 self. Then will the imperfections 
 of present civilization go. Until 
 then, Man will continue to improve 
 his environment. 
 
 The present reign of intemperance 
 in all forms of expression, business, 
 education, social, religious, an ex- 
 cess of activity, ambition and emo- 
 tion is a manifestation of present 
 lack of self-control; the effect of the 
 self-imposed limitations of environ- 
 ment. The saloon, the bank, the so- 
 cial rout, automobile races, political 
 rallies, prohibition crusades, revi- 
 val meetings, banquets, gambling 
 
 129 
 
at faro and stock-boards, and all 
 places where excitement rules, are 
 forms of intemperance; are mani- 
 festations of this lack of self-con- 
 trol. Man is not made more self- 
 controlled by cutting out any one 
 form, neither would he be by cut- 
 ting them all out. "Be temperate 
 in all things. " That is, by self-con- 
 trol. 
 
 Intemperance in all its forms can be 
 cured by establishing in the indi- 
 vidual the Principle of self-control, 
 of self-expression. Therefore, the 
 old thought of temptation is an er- 
 ror. Anything, and everything, is 
 or may be, a temptation to him who 
 allows himself to be overcome by it. 
 Each thing was once a temptation. 
 Man, by overcoming it and using it 
 for good, finds it a blessing. Each 
 overcoming has developed in him a 
 consciousness of greater power to 
 overcome and to mold environment 
 to his will. 
 
 All forms of life below Man move 
 in lines of least resistance. They 
 
 130 
 
yield. Man overcomes. "Resist 
 not evil, but overcome, " said the 
 Teacher. Accept whatever comes 
 as an opportunity of unfoldment. 
 The so-called evils of society are to 
 be overcome. Man has overcome 
 mountains and seas, and is now 
 overcoming the air. He must over- 
 come all animal tendencies within 
 himself. When he has mastered 
 himself, saloon-keeper and saloon- 
 patron will both disappear, brothel 
 and libertine will not exist; selfish- 
 ness will have disappeared. 
 Manhood consists of self-control. 
 Any education that causes the indi- 
 vidual to lay blame on external 
 causes, and not upon his own lack 
 of will and wisdom, is vicious. It 
 develops weakness of character and 
 undermines self-reliance. 
 All unsanitary conditions must go; 
 and go they will, sloughed off by the 
 unfolding soul. 
 
 Individuality self-reliance is the 
 only remedy. All reliance upon, or 
 submission to, external authority 
 
 131 
 
are forms of weakness. Character, 
 manhood, are not so developed. 
 Growth in character consists in rec- 
 ognizing all that heretofore has 
 been termed temptation as oppor- 
 tunity for growth through overcom- 
 ing them. Each person by affirma- 
 tion and example should teach self- 
 reliance and self-control. Then will 
 all forms of vice die from non-ex- 
 pression. 
 
 Encourage the expression of self- 
 reliance. Show by example that you 
 can and do govern yourself. When 
 one does this he has done all that 
 is possible for him to do for himself 
 and for his neighbor. Said Jesus, 
 "My Father worketh hitherto and 
 I work. ' ' My Father works through 
 thistle and tiger, and I must also in 
 faith believe that He is working 
 through these so-called temptations. 
 Through all the conditions of life 
 the Father is calling into expres- 
 sion the divinity within. Tennyson 
 has boiled down the thought for us 
 when he says: 
 
 132 
 
'Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-con- 
 trol 
 The three alone lead Life to sovereign 
 
 It is possible when x we pray this 
 Prayer so to think of the so-called 
 temptations as opportunities for 
 overcoming, that our prayer- 
 thought shall be May I have wis- 
 dom so to use my opportunities that 
 I may grow in consciousness of my- 
 self as Power to overcome! That 
 I may grow through these tempta- 
 tions in health and happiness. When 
 I so use the Prayer I believe I am 
 in the Spirit of Jesus, and am enter- 
 ing upon the same consciousness of 
 Life. 
 
 For this reason we will still con- 
 tinue to pray in the Spirit of Jesus, 
 but in the Thought of today, under 
 the Vision of the Twentieth Cen- 
 tury " Lead us not into Tempta- 
 tion! 
 
 133 
 
I believe in the good, great world, and I 
 
 love it, 
 
 I love and believe in Man and the call 
 Of the Soul that is in it, yet above it 
 I believe in the God that made it all. 
 
 Winefrcd Scott Moody. 
 
 One thing I asked of God 
 
 That I might be 
 A little higher than the earth-bound clod 
 
 From gross desires free. 
 
 This came to me from God 
 "In everything that is, am I. 
 
 Thou art of Me; I am in thee; 
 And I am purity." 
 
 Elizabeth W. F. Jackson. 
 
 134 
 
DELIVER US FROM EVIL ! 
 
 all is One, and each 
 individual but an Expres- 
 sion of, and not a divided 
 portion of, the One, it follows 
 that the Power to which we 
 pray is that Subconscious Infinite 
 Reality, of which each person is an 
 expression. Thus it is the Real I 
 to which the conscious I prays. It 
 is the Real I which answers prayer. 
 It is the Conscious expression of 
 the Real I which prays. The Sub- 
 conscious Reality which always an- 
 swers. 
 
 That for which I pray is the Ideal. 
 That Ideal is already a Reality in 
 the possibilities of the Real I. Theo- 
 dore Parker spoke truth, when he 
 said ' ' We pray to the Ideal ! ' ' The 
 Ideal is the Real within the soul. 
 "When ye pray, pray believing ye 
 have these things before ye ask 
 
 135 
 
them!" was the command of Jesus. 
 This is the prayer of sincerity. Un- 
 less we do believe in the possibility 
 of its answer we are not sincere. 
 By prayer we create an image which 
 the Subconscious Reality takes as a 
 model, and shapes Itself to it, in its 
 expression in consciousness. 
 Thus we build the Ideal, and the 
 Ideal in return builds our external 
 life. 
 
 Prayer is therefore a necessity. 
 Through prayer we build our life's 
 external plane. Nothing comes to 
 us that we have not prayed for 
 True prayer is Desire. 
 
 "Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, 
 
 Uttered or unexpressed; 
 The impulse of a hidden fire, 
 That slumbers in the breast." 
 
 The thing prayed for may not come, 
 but the desire that caused the objec- 
 tive image will become a factor in 
 the life. I may pray for dollars. 
 What motive have I in that prayer? 
 If it is that I may use them for help- 
 fulness, I will find the Spirit of help- 
 fulness increased and I will help 
 
 136 
 
without thinking of dollars. But if 
 I pray for dollars that I may make 
 more dollars, I will surely find that 
 the miserly spirit has increased 
 through the prayer. 
 Since prayer is desire, and every 
 desire is gratified, it follows that it 
 is not the words of my prayer, but 
 the motive, and the spirit in which 
 I pray that is of moment. 
 The spirit of Jesus and that spirit 
 which he would awaken through the 
 whole of this wonderful prayer, is 
 that of unselfishness. It begins in 
 "Our" instead of "My". And this 
 thought continues through it all, 
 making it a unity prayer. It is "As 
 WE forgive " and "lead US!" and 
 now we have "Deliver US". It is 
 this spirit of Unity, of Brotherhood, 
 that makes him the earth 's foremost 
 teacher and the prophet of a Spir- 
 itual Socialism yet to be. 
 This phrase, "deliver from evil!" 
 is an Ideal condition of life. It is 
 impossible for one to pray thus in 
 spirit without growing within him- 
 
 137 
 
self a tendency to Goodness. As lie 
 increases his faith in a Power, lo- 
 cated somewhere, that can deliver 
 from evil, he will cease to think of 
 evil; because he has thrown all re- 
 sponsibility of relief off the con- 
 scious mind and leaves the sub- 
 conscious free to express itself 
 along its natural line of unf oldment, 
 and in harmony. 
 
 That one does not understand the 
 philosophy the Why of any 
 event has no effect upon its occur- 
 rence. The wheat grows under like 
 conditions the same for the igno- 
 rant as for the learned sower. Fire, 
 under like conditions, will burn 
 idiot and savant, and the fall from 
 a precipice will equally hurt the re- 
 ligious and the irreligious. So with 
 prayer; he who prays sincerely 
 who really prays will find the an- 
 swer, no matter whether it is ad- 
 dressed to an image of wood, or to 
 a mental image, or to the conscious- 
 ness that there is a Power some- 
 where that does answer because IT 
 
 138 
 
rules all forms of expressions of It- 
 self. 
 
 In this phrase of the Lord's Prayer 
 we have a most important thought 
 in the evolution of the race from 
 the belief in evil to faith in the All 
 Good. Though Jesus himself saw 
 only Goodness, and so lived, his fol- 
 lowers did not, even though an ear- 
 lier prophet had said "I will fear 
 no evil, for thou art with me!" and 
 another had said, "Though I make 
 my bed in hell, thou art there!" 
 Conditions about and within them 
 caused the belief in evil still tb 
 hold them. 
 
 To instill faith in the All Good he 
 taught them to build the Ideal, and 
 in the degree they believed they 
 would be delivered. 
 No deliverance from any condition 
 without a belief that has ripened 
 into faith. Present metaphysical 
 healing is an evolution of this faith 
 of Jesus. "Deliver me from the 
 body of this death!" has saved 
 many a patient under all forms of 
 
 139 
 
medical and religious faith. To 
 whom is the prayer addressed when 
 one drowning calls ' ' Help ! " It is to 
 any Power that can at the moment 
 save. So in the faith that there is a 
 Power to svae, we pray " Deliver !" 
 Any power that can, and will, and 
 does, deliver from evil is a Power- 
 of-Goodness. Unconsciously he who 
 in faith utters these words of Jesus 
 is cultivating a faith in the greatest 
 Affirmation of health and happi- 
 ness, which is ALL IS GOOD! And 
 when this is held as TRUTH he is 
 already delivered from all evil, for 
 evil is to him non-existent. 
 No matter what our plane of philos- 
 ophy, no matter what our creed, 
 each person is anxious for the reign 
 of goodness within himself and uni- 
 versally. 
 
 And he can unite with every other 
 person on earth who so desires, in 
 this prayer. You and I, whenever 
 we realize within ourselves any ill 
 condition, or realize that another 
 holds the faith in evil, will pray 
 
 140 
 
with him and for him "Deliver us 
 from evil!" And this not tinder a 
 thought of a future good, but with 
 the knowledge that the moment the 
 desire is awakened Goodness has 
 begun its redemption. 
 Says Whittier: 
 
 O prayer and action, ye are one! 
 Who may not serve may yet fulfill 
 The harder task of standing still! 
 
 And good but wished with God is done! 
 
 1 thank thee, God, for all I've known, 
 Of kindly fortune, health and joy, 
 But no less gratefully I own 
 The bitter drops of Life's alloy. 
 
 there was wisdom in the blow 
 
 That wrung the hot and scalding tear, 
 That laid my dearest idol low 
 And left my bosom lone and drear! 
 
 1 thank thee, God, for all of smart 
 That I have known, for not in vain 
 
 Has been the bitter aching heart 
 The sigh of grief, the throb of pain! 
 
 Eliza Cook. 
 
 141 
 
Our wills are ours, we know not how; 
 Our wills are ours, to make them thine. 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 All is well! No harm can reach me, 
 Shielded by Almighty Power. 
 
 All my needs and longings 
 Find supply in every hour. 
 
 S. G. 
 
 No hand is on Life's rudder laid. 
 The while my oars lie idly by! 
 
 And all my sheets are steadfast made, 
 For Love now guides me silently. 
 
 Why should I question and why fear? 
 
 Love's hand is guiding me! 
 His is my sail; His voice I hear: 
 
 And He controls these breezes free! 
 
 Somewhere I know I port shall win! 
 
 Somewhere, I know, dear friends I'll see! 
 Love The I AM is Lord within! 
 
 Daily he brings mine own to me. 
 
 Henry Harrison Brown. 
 
 142 
 
THE EPILOGUE. 
 
 "For thine is the kingdom and the 
 Power and the Glory! Forever! 
 Amen!" 
 
 words are not in the 
 prayer as found in the ear- 
 liest manuscripts. The best 
 authority is Tichendorf, who 
 does not use them in his ver- 
 sion. Other good authorities agree 
 with him. They are not in Mark, 
 which is, no doubt, the earliest of 
 the records. 
 
 We have, therefore, in the preced- 
 ing phrases of the Prayer the most 
 authentic expression of Jesus. But 
 since these additions are used by 
 modern churches and by devotees 
 almost universally, we will also ; find 
 in them symbols through which to 
 voice our emotions of Love and 
 reverence. 
 As we unfold in the perception of 
 
 143 
 
Truth, we see more clearly the wis- 
 dom of those seers whose thoughts 
 are for us the " winnowed litera- 
 ture" of the past. 
 The profoundness and beauty of 
 none of those "winnowed sheaves" 
 stand out more clearly than in the 
 authors of the New Testament. 
 ' ' Spiritual things must be spiritual- 
 ly discerned!" we are told. Truth 
 is spiritual. These so saw it, and 
 until we shall so see it we shall have 
 but an echo of Truth. 
 
 Truth is first, feeling. The degree 
 of ability to translate what one 
 feels into thought, makes the differ- 
 ence between seer, poet, philosopher 
 and boor. 
 
 By spiritual perception one often 
 makes a statement of Truth which 
 he himself does not understand. He 
 apprehends, but does not compre- 
 hend. Apprehension must precede, 
 and sometimes be a long time ante- 
 cedent to understanding, even 
 among the most advanced seers. 
 Following understanding, must 
 
 144 
 
come, often a long time subsequent, 
 the practical application of that 
 which is apprehended. 
 
 The simplest statement of Truth is 
 infinite in meaning and relation- 
 ship, and will lead, sometime, when 
 followed, to the comprehension of 
 all Truth, during the Soul's immor- 
 tality. A single affirmation is hut 
 one link in an infinite chain of per- 
 ceptions. 
 
 I believe that many today are liv- 
 ing Truth as expressed by New Tes- 
 tament writers; understand it and 
 its application better than did those 
 who wrote those early manuscript 
 memories of Jesus. 
 Jesus probably in perception, ap- 
 prehension and comprehension ex- 
 ceeded any of his followers then 
 and now. He perceived, as did 
 John, that "He that cometh after 
 me" shall do more wonderful 
 works; because he will not only 
 himself more clearly appreciate the 
 Power of Truth, but will live among 
 a people and at a time when the 
 
 145 
 
Truth perceived will be made prac- 
 tical. 
 
 The two first words of the Prayer 
 6 'Our Father " -stand out boldly as 
 the name of the Power invoked. But 
 nothing is given us there as to the 
 personality of the Being invoked 
 nor His attributes. Probably this 
 was felt by some spiritual soul and 
 this epilogue was added to personify 
 and bring closer to mind the con- 
 ception of the Father. 
 The wisdom of this triune ascrip- 
 tion is patent when we remember 
 that the first conception of external 
 life to primitive man and the infant 
 is the consciousness that it is in the 
 midst of Power. 
 
 For this reason the first concept in 
 the Ideal of "Our Father " is that 
 He is Power. But for sake of eu- 
 phony probably, it is. ^ut second in 
 the titles here. Absolute Power 
 must still be our conception of the 
 Universe. ' * The Power behind phe- 
 nomena " must be absolute. 
 "For thine is the Kingdom!" is the 
 
 146 
 
recognition of Organized Power, of 
 Government, and naturally follows 
 the first conception. A Ruler is the 
 symbol of organization, even though 
 he be an autocrat as was the He- 
 brew conception of Jehovah. "Our 
 Father " is the governor of an Or- 
 ganized Universe; is Law and Or- 
 der. 
 
 "And the Glory !" Glory is the 
 symbol of success, of Greatness, 
 Wisdom in manifestation. The 
 glory of a king is the external trap- 
 pings, official authority to compel 
 obedience on part of his subjects. 
 All this the Father has. 
 A more perfect conception cannot 
 be made of the Being who is Au- 
 thor of All. 
 
 In our present conception, we can 
 accept all these and weave them 
 into our Ideal, because while we 
 "live, move and have our Being !" 
 in Him, He also has His expression 
 through us. We are one. 
 
 Never severed from thy heart, 
 Never parted from thy side, 
 Still as in that later dawn, 
 
 147 
 
In thy bosom I abide. 
 Still as in the early dark, 
 
 Ere the worlds began to be, 
 Thou my God and I are One 
 
 Thou in me and I in Thee. 
 
 Chadwick. 
 
 That which I in the Real am is this 
 same Being whose is "The Power, 
 the Kingdom and the Glory." I 
 share all He is. I do not possess, 
 but I AM all this. And I am be- 
 cause He is. 
 
 From this survey we can accept the 
 ascription, because in it we incor- 
 porate not only our Ideal of the 
 One who is All-in-Ail, but because 
 it also represents our Ideal of the 
 Self which is unfolding into con- 
 sciousness through manifestation 
 in me as ever it has been unfolding 
 in manifestations through the Ages 
 in all forms of Itself prior to the 
 coming of Man. 
 
 With perfect sincerity I can pray 
 to "Our Father, " and with equal 
 sincerity I can declare "Thou who 
 art Power, Kingdom and Glory!" 
 This is Spirit, the same which in- 
 spired the first man "who stood 
 
 148 
 
God-conquered " by his perception 
 and recognition of Power in wild 
 beast and tornado; is the same spir- 
 it which inspires the devotee at 
 shrine or at crucible. It makes me 
 One with all men, and with the All! 
 I can worship in love and Truth, 
 and can feel that no matter where 
 men pray that I am praying with 
 them for the Ideal to come on earth 
 as they in their way and on their 
 plane are also praying, 
 Thus this Prayer can become, and 
 probably will become, the Univer- 
 sal Prayer. It will when men shall 
 cease to seek God, but shall accept 
 present Good. When they shall 
 cease to* pray intellectually, but shall 
 pray in Spirit. They will then send 
 their love and truth out in desire for 
 the All-Good to reign. Then will 
 the promise of the Angels' Song 
 become a fact and with " Peace on 
 earth " will blend "Our Father who 
 art in heaven !" 
 
 149 
 
So homelike seems that vast Unknown 
 Since they have entered there! 
 
 To follow them were not so hard 
 Wherever they may fare! 
 
 They cannot be where God is not, 
 
 On any sea or shore. 
 Whate'er betides our God abides, 
 
 Our God, forever! 
 
 John W. Chadwick. 
 
 It seemeth such a little way to me 
 Across to that strange country The Be- 
 yond; 
 
 And yet, not strange, for it has grown to be 
 The home of those of whom I am so 
 
 fond, 
 
 They make it seem familiar and most dear, 
 As journeying friends bring distant regions 
 near. 
 
 So close it lies, that when my sight is clear 
 
 I think I almost see the gleaming strand. 
 
 I know I feel those who have gone from 
 
 here 
 Come near enough sometimes to touch 
 
 my hand. 
 
 I often think, but for our veiled eyes 
 We should find Heaven right round about 
 us lies. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 150 
 
FOREVER." 
 
 INE is the Kingdom, and 
 the Power, and the Grlory 
 * * * Forever !" Among 
 the errors that from a remote 
 past still cling to the present, 
 there are none more detrimen- 
 tal to health, unfoldment and hap- 
 piness than the delusions and illu- 
 sions in regard to Life and Time. 
 We measure Life in Time as we 
 measure wheat in bushels and iron 
 in pounds, as if it were a certain 
 quantity to be cared for and meas- 
 ured in years, months and days. 
 Individuals are machines, like a 
 clock manufactured to run a certain 
 time, and then "the sands of life 
 are run out," and the person is not 
 he is dead. Life has an end; so 
 we have been taught. This limita- 
 tion, and this measuring of Life 
 
 161 
 
" makes cowards of us all." The 
 fear of fears is the fear of death. It 
 is rightly so, for through this fear 
 Life protects itself; Self -Protection 
 is the first expression of one's indi- 
 viduality. To the extent that I ex- 
 press, I live. Any submission to 
 authority is a limitation of expres- 
 sion, and is death. The only possi- 
 ble death is non-expression. Were 
 it possible to sink entirely one's in- 
 dividuality, annihilation would re- 
 sult. Limitation is the only death, 
 and it exists in these limitations of 
 Time and Space. 
 
 That Life may have appearance to 
 the objective vision, Mind must take 
 on the illusion of Space. To retain 
 Individuality through the constant 
 changes of consciousness, Mind, 
 through Memory, must take on the 
 illusion of Time. These are to con- 
 sciousness realities only as condi- 
 tions of Itself. But they have no 
 objective reality. They are terms 
 in which the individual conscious- 
 ness interprets its experiences. 
 
 152 
 
To him who lives on the objective 
 plane, they are realities, because he, 
 by thinking them such, makes them 
 such, and measures and limits his 
 individual expression of Life by 
 them. They have no subjective real- 
 ity; they belong to the sense-plane, 
 which is the plane of animal life, 
 and not to the plane of the Human, 
 which is spiritual. They have no 
 place in the realm of the Self-Con- 
 scious Spirit. Remember Hegel's 
 definition of Man: "Man is Spirit 
 conscious of Itself I" To live in 
 thoughts of Time and Space is not 
 living in consciousness of the I AM 
 as Spirit. It is living in the con- 
 sciousness of the limitations of that 
 manifestation of Spirit we term 
 matter. Not "Spirit conscious of 
 Itself, " but Spirit conscious of that 
 which is not Self, and which in this 
 recognition of it, controls Self. 
 To the masses, however intelligent 
 they may be on the intellectual 
 plane of expression, the Affirmation 
 that controls is, "I am body!" and 
 153 
 
when body dematerializes the I AM 
 in their thought has only a possible 
 existence. They ask, "The Soul, 
 what and where is it ! " " Thine is ! " 
 How long is IS? "There is a natu- 
 ral body and there is a spiritual 
 body," says Paul. How long is IS 
 hel-e? IS means NOW. How long 
 is NOW! Did one ever think to 
 measure it! It does not exist, save 
 as a continuous state of conscious- 
 ness. Were the I AM to lose con- 
 sciousness the billionth - billionth 
 fraction of a second, there would 
 be, for it, annihilation as an indivi- 
 duality. It would retur.ii to the 
 Cosmic Consciousness; loose itself 
 in the One. Now is not measurable ; 
 it is the FOEEVEE. NOW IS. Now 
 is not a portion of Time: it is not a 
 measure. It is a recognition of the 
 fact I AM LIFE! Not, I am alive, 
 but I AM LIFE. Consciousness 
 and Life in the Human are one. 
 Time past and time to be have no 
 place in Consciousness. I am con- 
 scious only of that which is. Yes- 
 
 154 
 
terday is dead, and tomorrow is un- 
 born; neither are anything to me. 
 They both are now. By emphasiz- 
 ing this word, we see that yesterday 
 and tomorrow both are now, in the 
 only possible way they can exist, 
 and that is in my thought; they are 
 creations for me to use as a man 
 uses tools. They are measures of 
 Now. I keep a record of my unf old- 
 ment in my consciousness through 
 this artificial measure, called Time, 
 just as the mariner keeps a record 
 of his voyages by the measure of 
 latitude and longitude which have 
 no reality outside his thought; or 
 as I measure my country by lines 
 that have no reality save as the 
 thoughts and consent of men give 
 them reality. "The equator is an 
 imaginary line!" we teach our chil- 
 dren. Sometime we will teach them 
 that years and days are imaginary 
 measurements of Life. As the sun 
 and earth never stop, and the dawn 
 line always IS somewhere, we shall 
 sometime see the truth of Longfel- 
 
 155 
 
low's last line, manifest in our ex- 
 periences : 
 
 Out of the shadow of night, 
 The world rolls into the light 
 It is daybreak everywhere! 
 
 One day I recognize a new expres- 
 sion of power, love, truth, or wis- 
 dom, and that day is ever long to 
 my consciousness. I, through a fall, 
 lose all thought and there is no rec- 
 ord in Consciousness of Time. Some 
 hours are longer than years. The 
 day love for the first time fires the 
 heart; the day grief overpowers; 
 the day of a panic; the day of joy; 
 the day of some great catastrophe; 
 how long they are. The dull day 
 when I wearied through it. How 
 short it now seems! 
 Thus Time is but the registry upon 
 the dial of Consciousness of the 
 passing shadow of the ever-moving 
 panoramic phenomena of Life a 
 name only and not a thing; not a 
 condition even, and has no mean- 
 ing in relation to Life itself. 
 Thine mine forever! No begin- 
 
 156 
 
ning! No ending! Always is! For- 
 ever? That is NOW! "When all is 
 mine! Forever, but since Forever 
 is Now, then all is mine now. All 
 that is eternal now is. My present 
 conception is but the recognition of 
 that which is forever. Then I, since 
 I am conscious of my Self, am for- 
 ever. I am eternal. Eternity is 
 Now! 
 
 With this understanding of Time 
 we can say, I live in the conscious- 
 ness of unfoldment. I measure my 
 unfolding consciousness of that 
 strength, but even this prayer is 
 weakness, because it implies doubt. 
 which I am in reality, by years and 
 days. With this affirmation we can 
 enjoy the fullness of Mrs. Pitten- 
 ger's masterful and beautiful lines: 
 
 "I stand in the Great Forever 
 
 With Thee as eternities roll. 
 Thy Spirit forsaketh me never! 
 
 Thy love is the home of my soul." 
 
 I can realize that I do not live, but 
 that Life lives through me. That I 
 do not possess Life but that I AM 
 LIFE! That I do not have Life, 
 
 157 
 
but that Life lias me. I shall know 
 that Life is infinite and eternal, and 
 can affirm: 
 
 "O God, I am one forever 
 With Thee by the glory of birth!" 
 
 I shall live in this God-conscious- 
 ness and know only those experi- 
 ences that can come to Spirit, with- 
 out the possibility of any limitations 
 of the flesh; live in that larger con- 
 sciousness of Self that knows Itself 
 limitless Life, and Love and Truth. 
 I AM! When! Now! Forever! 
 Why, then, fear the illusion of 
 death ? Why talk of ' ' loss of life, ' ' 
 of "waste of life," of "neglected 
 opportunities," of "failures"! No 
 matter what I have done with days 
 or years, I AM FOBEVER! And 
 all these experiences are preparing 
 me to know my Self in the Great 
 Forever. 
 
 I am Life ! How much Life I All of 
 Life. Just as when I wish to bathe 
 or to use water in any way, 
 all the ocean is mine. Just 
 as this morning as I wrought 
 
 158 
 
in my garden all the sun- 
 shine was mine, and as it is mine 
 as I sit by my window and see it 
 shining through my pagoda-like 
 redwood by the creek. All is mine 
 to use! 
 
 All fears encouraged by doctors, 
 health boards, teachers, press and 
 the home, of loss, waste, and end of 
 Life, and the accompanying condi- 
 tions of sorrow, repentance, re- 
 morse; of good resolutions for fu- 
 ture and of endeavors to be l i good' ' 
 after the conventional standard, are 
 worse than useless, because they 
 are limitations upon the FOREVER 
 in which I, as LIFE, require Lib- 
 erty, would I be, in expression, that 
 which Life is healthful, happy and 
 prosperous. I am Now! is the Af- 
 firmation of Power. I was! I will 
 be! are affirmations of the absence 
 of Life, and therefore affirmations 
 of weakness, disease and failure. 
 The past is dead. Conditions, 
 thoughts, conduct of yesterday are 
 dead "Let the dead bury the 
 
 159 
 
dead!" was His wise command. 
 "Fears are dupes and hopes are 
 liars." Have nothing to do with 
 either. BE now! Affirm and ex- 
 press now, and thus forever, that 
 which yon desire. I am now and 
 forever that which I declare myself 
 to be. 
 
 All thought of waste and misuse of 
 Life is an evil. It causes a back- 
 ward look, and Lot's wife learned 
 that such a look stopped her ex- 
 pression of Life on that plane. Such 
 thoughts check the flow of Life and 
 bring all the attendant results that 
 want ever brings. There is ALL 
 life for him who lays up treasures 
 in the heaven within. Life has little 
 joy for him who neglects heaven, 
 and lays up treasures on the ma- 
 terial plane. 
 
 Life I AM! and all expressions are 
 that I may learn what I AM as Life. 
 In this thought I never did anything 
 that was not good for me, and caJQ 
 never have any experience that is 
 not good. I will never use the Life 
 
 160 
 
I AM in self-abasement, in self-con- 
 demnation; in self-torture. I will 
 always let my heart beat in unison 
 with that iron string, "Trust Thy- 
 self! ' ' Will always affirm my unity 
 with Eternal Life, and declare that 
 I AM one with the All-Good and 
 thus all I do or think is good. I 
 learn how to think that which 
 brings health and happiness, by 
 thinking and choosing. I let the 
 King who is Power and Glory with- 
 in, rule! I affirm: "I DWELL IN 
 THE HOUSE OF THE LOED . . 
 FOREVER." 
 
 What doth that Holy Guide require? 
 No rite of pain, no gift of blood! 
 But man, a kindly brotherhood, 
 Looking where duty is desire, 
 To Him the beautiful and good. 
 
 -Whitticr. 
 
 161 
 
The universe is God's unfenced and all-in- 
 clusive communion table, and every act of 
 humane ministration, every helpful hand 
 stretched out to the weak or the fallen is 
 as sacred a rite as the holy Eucharist. 
 James Thompson Bixby, Ph. D. 
 
 "I AM, forever! Stars I'll say, 
 I AM! when ye for aye have lost 
 
 All power to be! Then still I may 
 Bid other stars, a mighty host 
 
 Fill brighter skies, for Thought am I! 
 And things are into Being tossed 
 
 By One Self-Conscious Unity. 
 
 Sped on Star-steeds! Rejoice awhile 
 As sunbright centers of the One! 
 
 I, Human Soul, can only smile, 
 For I speed on when ye are gone. 
 
 I am forever still the same! 
 
 I share with God Creation's throne! 
 
 But sun and star, ye are but a name!" 
 Henry Harrison Brown. 
 
 162 
 
AMEN! 
 
 IS word is a common 
 
 ending to prayer. Usually; 
 
 derived from the Hebrew 
 verb meaning " to be firm ' ' or 
 from a Hebrew noun meaning 
 " Truth I" It is usually rendered 
 "So be it" or "so let it be" or "So 
 may it be". 
 
 Here it seems to refer to the whole 
 purpose of the Prayer and intestifies 
 the desire by saying at the close 
 "In Truth I repeat my petition 1 In 
 faith I believe that what I ask will 
 be granted!" It is like the seal at- 
 tached by an official to a document. 
 It attests the genuineness of the 
 petition. 
 
 To us it will mean hereafter all we 
 include in the word "Sincerity". 
 It is for us the word of faith. With 
 every earnest desire we will add 
 "Amen!" as evidence of our truth- 
 fulness. 
 
 "May thy kingdom come" I ask in 
 sincerity. I place the seal of my 
 faith here in the symbol AMEN ! 
 
 163 
 
Man shall not ask his brother any more, 
 "Believest thou?" but "Lovest thou!" till all 
 Shall answer at God's altar, "Lord, I love!" 
 For Hope, may anchor, faith may steer, but 
 
 Love, 
 
 Great Love alone, is captain of the soul 
 Henry Barnard Carpenter. 
 
 How slight soe'er th e motion be 
 
 With palpitating hand, 
 The gentlest breaker of th e sea 
 
 Betrays it to the land. 
 And though a vaster mystery 
 
 Has set our souls apart, 
 Each wafture from Eternity, 
 
 Reveals thee to my heart. 
 
 John B. Tabb. 
 
 164 
 
THE SILENT HOUR. 
 
 Let us offer to the gods a soul wherein the 
 laws of God are blended a heart pure to 
 
 its inmost depths a breast ingrained 
 
 with a noble sense of honor. Let me but 
 bring these with me to the altar, and I care 
 not though my offering be but a handful 
 of corn. Persius, an old Latin poet. 
 
 Sometimes there comes an hour of calm; 
 Grief turns to blessing, pain to balm; 
 A Power that works above my will 
 Still leads me upward, onward still; 
 And then my heart attains to this; 
 To thank Thee for the things I miss. 
 
 T. W. Higginson. 
 
 165 
 
A profoundly grateful and loving heart is 
 slow in verbal prayer and exquisitely deli- 
 cate in profession. Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 I hold to one true church of all true souls, 
 Whose church seal is neither bread nor 
 
 wine, 
 
 Nor laying on of hands, nor holy oil, 
 But only in the anointing of God's grace. 
 Theodore Tilton. 
 
 I find my own in every land! 
 It comes to me with every wave! 
 It passes current hand to hand! 
 'Tis brought by coward and by brave! 
 
 On fertile or on desert shore, 
 
 Though I may stand by ebbing tide! 
 
 I have my Self! What need I more? 
 My Soul and I and naught beside! 
 
 Naught but my own, on land or sea, 
 
 By wind or wave, storm brought or calm, 
 
 Can come to me! And mine I claim; 
 And peaceful float secure from harm! 
 Henry Harrison Brown. 
 
 166 
 
ONE OF THEODORE PARKER'S 
 PRAYERS. 
 
 Sept. 19, 1858. 
 
 OThou Infinite presence, who art every- 
 where, we flee unto thee for a 
 moment who art always near un- 
 to us! We would be conscious of 
 thy power, thy wisdom, thy justice 
 and thy love; and while we feel thee 
 most intimate in our hearts, we would 
 remember before thee our joys and our sor- 
 rows, our hopes and our fears, whatever 
 of virtue we have attained to, and the 
 transgression wherewith we defile our soul. 
 May the words of our mouths and the 
 meditation of our hearts be acceptable in 
 thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our 
 Redeemer! 
 
 O Thou Infinite Giver of all things; we 
 thank thee for this great, rich world, where 
 thou casteth the lines of our lot. We thank 
 thee for the exceeding beauty which Thou 
 hast scattered throughout the heavens and 
 everywhere on this broad earth of thine. 
 We thank thee that thou hast molded every 
 leaf into a form of beauty, and glpbest ev- 
 ery ripening berry into symmetric loveli- 
 ness; that thou scatterest along the road- 
 sides of the world and on the fringes of 
 
 167 
 
the farmer's field such wealth and luxuri- 
 ance of beauty to charm our eyes from 
 things too sensual, and slowly lift us up to 
 that which is spiritual in its loveliness and 
 cannot pass away. 
 
 We thank thee for the glory which walks 
 abroad at night, for the moon with inter- 
 changing of waxing and waning beauty, 
 shedding her silver radiance across the 
 darkness; for every fixed and wandering 
 star whose bearded presence startles us 
 with strange and fairest light, and for the 
 imperial sun that from his ambrosial urn 
 pours down the day on field and town, on 
 rich and poor, baptizing the world with joy. 
 We thank thee for the ground underneath 
 our feet, whence the varied particles of our 
 bodies are so curiously taken and wonder- 
 fully framed together. We thank thee for 
 the Spring, which brought her handsome 
 promise, for the gorgeous preparation 
 which the Summer made in his manly 
 strength, and we bless thee for the months 
 of Autumn whose sober beauty is cast on 
 every hill and every tree. We thank thee 
 for the harvests which the toil and the 
 thought of man have gathered already from 
 the surface of the ground or have digged 
 from its bosom. We bless thee for other 
 harvests still growing beneath the earth, 
 or hanging in autumnal beauties from many 
 a tree, all over our blessed Northern land. 
 We thank thee likewise for this great hu- 
 man world which ourselves make up. We 
 bless thee for the glorious nature which 
 thou has given us, for these bodies so curi- 
 ously and wonderfully made, and for this 
 overmastering Spirit which enchants into 
 
 168 
 
life this handful of fascinating clay. We 
 bless thee for the large faculties thou hast 
 given us, and the unbounded means for 
 development afforded by our daily toil. We 
 thank thee for the glorious destination 
 which thou hast set before us, appointing 
 us our duties to do, and giving us that 
 grand and lasting welfare which thou wilt 
 never fail to bestow on all and each who 
 ask it with their prayer and toil. 
 Father, we thank thee for the work which 
 our hands find to do on earth. We bless 
 thee that the process of our toil is educa- 
 tion for our body and our mind, for our con- 
 science, for our heart and soul. We thank 
 thee for the reward that comes as the result 
 of our word; yea, we bless thee for the 
 houses we live in, for the garments we 
 wear, woven up of thoughtful human toil; 
 for the bread we eat, and the beauty we 
 gather from the ground or create from the 
 manifold material things which thou hast 
 given us. 
 
 We thank thee for those who are near and 
 dear to us, the benediction of our daily 
 bread, the presence of blessing in our 
 house, the chief ornament of our human 
 life. We thank thee for new-born bless- 
 ings which thou sendest into the arms of 
 father and of mother, to gladden them not 
 only, but likewise relative and friend, and 
 to people the earth with new generations 
 of progressive men. 
 
 Father, we remember before thee likewise 
 that other world which transcends the earth 
 of matter and the world of human things; 
 we thank thee for that world which eye has 
 not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of 
 
man fully conceived. We bless thee for the 
 spirits of just men made perfect, who have 
 gone before us into that kingdom of heav- 
 en, to shine like the morning stars of earth, 
 free from all the noises which harass the 
 world. Father, we remember before thee 
 those dear to our hearts still, though severed 
 from our side, and if we dare not thank 
 thee when father or mother, husband or 
 wife, when son or daughter, when kinsfolk 
 and acquaintance have their countenance 
 changed, and they themselves are born 
 anew into thy kingdom, we still thank thee, 
 that we are sure they are with thee, that no 
 evil befalls the little one, or the mature 
 one, or the aged, but the arms of thy love 
 are about them, and thou leadest them ever 
 forward and upward. 
 
 O Thou, who art Infinite Perfection! we 
 thank thee for thyself! And we know that 
 out of thy power, thy wisdom, thy justice 
 and thy love, have flowed forth this world 
 of matter and this world of man, and that 
 kingdom of heaven whereinto we all hope 
 to enter at last. We thank thee for thy 
 loving kindness and thy tender mercy, 
 which are over all thy works, and where we 
 cannot see, save through a glass darkly, 
 we will still trust thee, with infinite long- 
 ing and with absolute confidence, and that 
 love which casteth out fear. 
 Father in heaven! so gifted as we are, so 
 surrounded and so destined for immortal 
 welfare, we pray thee that we may live 
 great and noble lives on earth, unfolding 
 our nature day by day, using our bodies 
 for their purpose, and the soul for its higher 
 use, growing wiser and better as we change 
 
 170 
 
time into life and daily work into exalted 
 character. So may we live that every day 
 we learn some new truth, practice some 
 new virtue, and become dearer and more 
 beautiful in thine own sight. So may thy 
 kingdom come, and thy will be done on 
 earth as it is in heaven. From "Prayers 
 by Theodore Parker," Boston: Walker, Ful- 
 ler & Co., 1866. 
 
 RUE prayer is not a petitioning, but 
 a claiming. It is begotten not of in- 
 firmity of will, but of assurance is 
 not weakness but strength. He that appre- 
 hends the nature of prayer bends not the 
 knee, but towers in majesty. He goes forth 
 to meet his own; he ascends the mount to 
 speak with God. . . . Prayers are not 
 spoken, but lived. Our lives are our prayers, 
 and they are answered each after its own 
 kind. Stanton Davis Kirkham, in "Where 
 Dwells the Soul Serene." 
 
 171 
 
WITH gladness w e would serve Thee 
 this morning, Father, gladness for the 
 inspirations of the past, gladness in 
 the revelations of the present, and we pray 
 that we may look into the future with glad- 
 ness. May w e anticipate the unseen with 
 courage and greet the unknown with a 
 cheer. May we trust, where we cannot see 
 and hope, where we may not prove. In 
 the midst of turmoil and hatred, of jealousy 
 and bitterness, of opposition and warfare, 
 may we hear this morning the lark's song 
 of peace, a Song in the hearts of thy chil- 
 dren, which ushers in the coming day the 
 glad song of anticipation which thrills in 
 the hearts of birds and men in this budding 
 season of new hopes and new revelations. 
 Make us glad in the children thou hast giv- 
 en us, in the manliness and womanliness of 
 middle life, even in the weakness and tot- 
 tering helplessness of old age. Even more 
 glad as becomes children of thine, residents 
 in this rolling world that swings ever into 
 daylight and moves ever towards the frui- 
 tion of hope and love. Amen. Prayer by 
 Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones. 
 
 172 
 
DIVINE SCIENCE "STATEMENT OF 
 BEING AND INTERPRETATION 
 OF THE LORD'S PRAYER". 
 
 6OD is ALL there is, both visible and 
 invisible. 
 
 One Presence, Knowledge and Power, 
 is ALL. 
 
 This One that is ALL is Perfect Life, In- 
 telligence and Substance. 
 Man is the Expression of God, and is ever 
 One with this Perfect Life, Intelligence 
 and Substance. 
 
 Our Father which art in haven, 
 
 Hallowed is thy name. 
 
 Thy kingdom is come; thy will is done on 
 
 earth as it is in heaven. 
 
 Thou givest each day our daily bread. 
 
 Thou forgivest our debts as we forgive our 
 
 debtors. 
 
 Thou leadest us not into temptation; but 
 
 dost deliver us from all evil. 
 
 For thine is the kingdom, the power and 
 
 the glory forever and ever. Amen. 
 
 173 
 
HELP THOU MINE UNBELIEF. 
 
 BECAUSE I seek Thee not, oh, seek 
 thou me! 
 Because my lips are dumb, oh hear the 
 
 cry 
 
 I do not utter as thou passeth by, 
 And from my lifelong bondage set me free! 
 Because, content I perish far from Thee, 
 O seize me, snatch me from my fate 
 
 and try 
 My soul in Thy consuming fire! Draw 
 
 nigh 
 
 And let me blinded, Thy salvation see! 
 If I were pouring at thy feet my tears. 
 If I were clamoring to see Thy face, 
 I should not need Thee as now I need/" 
 Whose dumb, dead soul knows neither hope 
 
 nor fears, 
 Nor dreads the outer darkness of this 
 
 place 
 
 Because I seek Thee not, pray not, give 
 Thou heed! 
 
 Louise Chandler MoultonT" 
 
 174 
 
OGod, wherever I happen to look I 
 find thy seekers; whatever language 
 I hear spoken, speaks of Thee. 
 Apostacy and faith feel after Thee. 
 Each religion says, Thou are One 
 without a Second. If it be in a 
 mosque, people murmur in holy prayers; 
 if it be in a temple, people ring 
 bells in love of Thee. Sometimes I fre- 
 quent the temple, sometimes the mosque. 
 But it is Thou whom I seek from door to 
 door. Thy elect have no dealings with 
 heresy or orthodoxy, for neither of them 
 know the Light behind the vail. Heresy 
 to the heretic and faith to the faithful, but 
 the dust of the rose-petal belongs to the 
 heart of the perfume-seller. Words en- 
 graved on the front of the Temple which 
 Akbar built for use of Hindoo and Mo- 
 hammedan in Kashmere. 
 
 175 
 
CHOU who hast made Thy dwelling fair 
 With flowers beneath, above with 
 
 starry lights, 
 And set Thine altars everywhere 
 
 On mountain heights, 
 In woodlands dim with many a dream, 
 
 In valleys bright with spring, 
 And on the curving cape of every stream; 
 Thou, who hast taken to Thyself the 
 
 wings 
 
 Of morning, to abide 
 Upon the secret places of the sea 
 
 And on far islands, where the tide 
 Visits the beauty of untrodden shores, 
 
 Waiting for worshippers to come to Thee 
 In Thy great Out-Of-Doors! 
 To Thee I turn, to Thee I make my 
 
 prayer 
 God of the Open Air! 
 
 Henry Van Dyke. 
 
 176 
 
THE CHILD'S PRAYER. 
 
 PROBABLY the most far-fetched in- 
 struction that was ever inculcated 
 into the mind of a child was 
 when he learned to say ''Now I lay 
 me down to sleep". To the child it 
 meant something more than merely the 
 effort to see something just out of the range 
 of vision, or to taste something that looked 
 as though it would be good to eat, or to 
 run after a butterfly in order to get a closer 
 view of its wings, its colors and its beauty; 
 because now he was going into the dark 
 and everything upon which he leaned would 
 be shut out from his vision. He was 
 taught that somewhere out in the great un- 
 seen world, in the darkness which seemed 
 itself to be visible, there was a power that 
 would sustain him, a power that would 
 penetrate this darkness with its strength, 
 its safety, its health and its life. There 
 he was taught to commit the higher part of 
 himself, which he called his soul, into the 
 keeping of his Father and if by any chance 
 his soul, when it went out on its free mis- 
 sion into space should fail to get back, the 
 Father who guided it out was requested to 
 keep it. That little prayer is a wonderful 
 prayer. I would not forget it for anything 
 in the world because it enunciates a state- 
 ment which any child can understand, that 
 gives itself into the keeping of a Higher 
 Being. Sidney A. Welnmer in New 
 Thought Companion. 
 
 177 
 
AN IDEAL PRAYER. 
 
 Not more of light I ask, O God! 
 
 But eyes to see what is. 
 
 Not sweeter songs, but power to hear 
 
 The present melodies. 
 
 Not greater strength, but how to use 
 
 The power that I possess. 
 
 Not more of Love, but skill to turn 
 
 A frown to a caress. 
 
 Not more of Joy, but power to feel 
 
 Its kindling presence near, 
 
 To give to others all I have 
 
 Of courage and of cheer. 
 
 No other gift, dear God! I ask, 
 
 But only sense to see 
 
 How best the precious gifts to use 
 
 Thou hast bestowed on me. 
 
 Give me all Fears to dominate, 
 
 All holy Joys to know, 
 
 To be the friend I wish to be, 
 
 To speak the Truth I know. 
 
 To love the pure, to seek the Good, 
 
 To lift with all my might; 
 
 All souls to dwell in harmony 
 
 Is freedom's perfect light. 
 
 London Light. 
 
 178 
 
HOME OF TRUTH 
 CHILD'S PRAYER. 
 
 God is my help in every need. 
 God does my every hunger feed. 
 God walks beside me, guides my way, 
 Through every moment of this day. 
 I now am wise, I now am true, 
 Patient, kind and loving, too; 
 All things I am, can do and be, 
 Through Christ, the truth that is in me. 
 God is my health, I can't be sick, 
 God is my strength, unfailing quick; 
 God is my all, I know no fear, 
 Since God and Love and Truth are 
 here. 
 
 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRAYER 
 FOR A CHILD. 
 
 Now I lay me down to sleep, 
 
 I know that God His child will keep! 
 
 I know that God my life is nigh! 
 
 I live in Him! I cannot die! 
 
 God is my health, I can't be sick! 
 
 God is my strength, unfailing, quick! 
 
 God is my All! I know no fear, 
 
 Since God and Love and Truth are here. 
 
 179 
 
AGREEMENT. 
 
 Agree with thine adversary quickly. Jesus. 
 
 I am Mind and one with Eternal 
 
 Mind. 
 
 Eternal Mind is ever wise and all 
 
 IT does is good. 
 
 No matter what IT brings, it is for 
 
 my good. 
 
 I agree with all events that they are 
 
 good. 
 
 Every day is a good day. 
 
 I contend not with aught it brings. 
 
 Each person is a manifestation of 
 
 the All-Good. 
 
 I antagonize no person. 
 
 Each experience grows out of my 
 
 needs. 
 
 I accept all with gladness and by 
 
 agreeing therein find harmony and 
 
 peace. 
 
 Whatever is, is from the One Source 
 
 and is good. 
 
 With the good within each person, 
 
 place, thing or condition, I agree, 
 
 and all is peace. 
 
 180 
 
NATURE. 
 
 Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. 
 
 Earth, like ye, I say: "Speak, for 
 am equally ready at all times for the 
 at the call of Love ! my soul is as re- 
 sponsive as thine to Love's whis- 
 finite Love. My Supply is constant. 
 Flowers bloom with joy in every 
 petal ; they but reflect the joy in my 
 heart. 
 
 Orchards are laden for me, and ev- 
 ery branch holds in its fruitage 
 good cheer, caught from the happi- 
 ness of my soul. 
 
 The grain fields wave with harvest 
 for me. 0, how beautiful is the 
 cheer of their undulations; it is but 
 the response of my soul to the All- 
 Good for the blessing of Being! 
 Rivers flow for me; brooks babble 
 in delight, for they, too, enjoy Be- 
 ing. "God bless you!" I murmur, 
 because I can say, "Cheer," and 
 they can only be cheer. 
 181 
 
Ocean encircles the globe for me. 
 In tide and wave, it brings me from 
 all lands that which adds to my hap- 
 piness. Its melody and beauty are 
 but the adornments of my theatre of 
 Being. 
 
 O, how glad I am that I live! Glad 
 for my Conscious Life. 
 All is mine! All this wondrous life 
 about me is that I may be. I am! 
 I enter these treasures and enjoy 
 them. My every act is one of pleas- 
 ure. My words are words of praise; 
 my thoughts are blessed thoughts of 
 love. 
 
 182 
 
BEING. 
 
 clap your hands, all ye people; 
 
 Shout unto God with the voice of triumph. 
 Psalm XLVII. 
 
 My heart is light and glad, for I am 
 alive. 0, this glad sense of Being! 
 My pulses bound with gladness, and 
 my soul shouts with joy. 
 
 1 go singing all the day; my heart is 
 so glad. My every moment is so full 
 of cheer. 
 
 "God bless you," I think as I look 
 upon everything. 
 
 In my joy, I glance lovingly to ev- 
 ery person, I pet every child, and 
 give love to every animal I meet. 
 My words convey the good cheer of 
 my soul, and my face shines with 
 my gladness. 
 
 0, all the world is mine in which 
 to live and enjoy! 
 
 0, all the universe is mine in which 
 to be and enjoy! 
 0, the stars join in my good cheer, 
 
 183 
 
and every beam is bringing me hap- 
 piness! 
 
 0, the sun shines for me ; good cheer 
 is every ray of its light! 
 All is mine ! I enter into this world 
 of life and beauty without, and the 
 world of Love and Truth within, 
 with a deep sense of responsibility 
 that I enjoy, and in cheerfulness ex- 
 press the joy I have in Being. 
 
 Father, most I think thee that I 
 live, that I am, and that all is Mine. 
 This is enough for me, I am I, and 
 
 1 am that I forever! Amen. 
 
 184 
 
EXPERIENCE. 
 
 Step by step since time began, 
 
 I see the steady gain of man. Whitticr. 
 
 Life is Infinite! 
 
 All its manifestations are progress- 
 ive. 
 
 The Law of Life is Unfoldment. 
 As a manifestation of God, I am In- 
 finite in possibilities. 
 The possibilities of the Soul mani- 
 fest as fast as is necessary for the 
 good of the conscious man. 
 I am incarnate that I may unfold 
 that which I am. 
 
 I unfold through every experience. 
 Opportunities can only come as I 
 am ready. 
 
 My necessity creates opportunities. 
 I draw that which I need. 
 I create this need by both what I do 
 and by what I neglect to do. 
 Sins of omission are equal in un- 
 foldment to those of commission. 
 Whatever comes is mien, because I 
 draw it. 
 
 185 
 
Every experience I need that I may 
 express the Intelligence I am, comes 
 to me. Every experience I need to 
 Every experience I need to express 
 the Truth I am, comes to me. 
 Every experience I need to express 
 the Love I am, comes to me. 
 Life flows into expression through 
 experience and under this experi- 
 ence I unfoll. 
 
 All is good, and I take every lesson 
 in experience happily, for through 
 each I realize more of my own Om- 
 niscience and Omnipotence. 
 Blessed am I because I have un- 
 folded through experience. 
 Heaven consists in unfolding the 
 Truth and Love I am. 
 No matter what the experience, it 
 centers me in God. 
 
 186 
 
SELF-TRUST. 
 
 "I know that my redeemer liveth!" 
 
 The Universe is indivisible. It acts 
 as a whole. 
 
 It is all I can think it to be and 
 more. 
 
 Every phenomenon is a manifesta- 
 tion of the whole Universe acting in 
 that phenomenon. 
 
 Since I think of the Universe as 
 wisdom, Goodness and Power, I like 
 to term it God. 
 
 I am a phenomenon of the Universe ! 
 I am an expression of God. 
 As that Expression I am Infinite 
 Possibility ! 
 
 I think of myself as an Expression 
 of God. 
 
 In this consciousness lies my re- 
 demption from all ills. 
 God in me is Power; in His power I 
 am strength! 
 
 God in me is Truth; in His Truth I 
 am intelligent! 
 
 187 
 
God in me is Life ; in His Life I am 
 health! 
 
 God in me is Love; in His Love I 
 am good! 
 
 As Life I cannot be ill! 
 As Power I cannot fail! 
 As Wisdom I cannot do wrong! 
 As Truth I cannot err! 
 As Love I cannot do harm! 
 In this consciousness I affirm: 
 I am Power to do, and to be, what- 
 ever I will to do and to be! 
 I am Wisdom and I will to do, and 
 to be healthful, wise and happy! 
 As Love I will to do, and to be, 
 Goodness! 
 
 In this consciousness I have full 
 faith in myself and am at peace. 
 
 188 
 
HARMONY. 
 
 The heavens declare the glory of God. 
 
 Harmony is Nature's one method of 
 manifestation. 
 
 All harmony comes from my con- 
 tentions. 
 
 I make all discord by my unwilling- 
 ness to agree with Nature. I change 
 my attitude and with all Nature's 
 manifestations I agree and am at 
 rest. 
 
 Ehythm everywhere. Nature's un- 
 dulatory motion, like mother's cra- 
 dle, lulls me into peace. 
 Undulatory, rhythmic melodies, are 
 all the motions of Nature. In these 
 God is music. 
 
 I, a Son of God, now throw aside all 
 conscious thought and enter into the 
 Harmony of Nature. 
 All fear passes away, and all is one 
 melodious life. 
 
 Life, thou art beautiful, thou are 
 melodious, thou art rhythmic. I 
 
 189 
 
know thee only as Harmony. 
 I am one with, and vibrate with, 
 Beauty and Goodness. I lose my- 
 self in Him and find Him in me, as 
 Joy, Harmony and Peace. 
 Peace is born in the agreement of 
 myself with the One-that-is. 
 In Him I am Peace. 
 
 190 
 
SUPPLY. 
 
 The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not 
 want. 
 
 The One whom I call Father cares 
 for me. 
 
 He has enough and to spare for all 
 His children. 
 
 As a shepherd cares for his flock, 
 He cares for me. 
 All my wants are supplied. 
 He gives each day the Life I need 
 and I use it in health. 
 He gives each day the Truth I need 
 and I use it to direct the Life I am. 
 He gives me each day the Love I 
 need, and I use it to bless my fellow- 
 man. 
 
 Life needs material Supply. 
 Through Truth and Love I draw 
 this supply. 
 
 I do not want, for I use the talents 
 and take advantage of the opportu- 
 nities He gives me. 
 I am always peaceful and contented 
 and thus see the way to supply. 
 
 191 
 
I cannot want, for He is with me and 
 
 He is Supply. 
 
 I cannot lack in anything, for He is 
 
 with me and he is All. 
 
 I turn to Him in faith each morn, 
 
 and prepare myself to receive my 
 
 daily supply. 
 
 Love never faileth, and He is Love. 
 
 I am Love; I look in love to Love, 
 
 and I am supplied. 
 
 192 
 
LIBERTY. 
 
 The liberty of the Sons of God. Paul. 
 
 There is but One Power. 
 This One Power fills all; controls 
 all; is all! 
 
 In this Power I have my Being! 
 I am as Being, Life! 
 As Life I am a Son of the One 
 Power ! 
 
 Power flows continually through me 
 as its expression! 
 
 As a conscious individuality I rec- 
 ognize this flow and call it growth. 
 My consciousness of the Life-flow 
 increases each day! 
 In larger consciousness I of each 
 day affirm, I am! 
 
 As a flow from the One Center, I am 
 Life! 
 
 As normal Life-flow, I am health! 
 As a conscious center through 
 Lifers-flow, I feel! 
 As feeling, I am Love! 
 As love individualized, I think! 
 The result of thinking is Thought! 
 193 
 
I think, and I am what I think! 
 As a Son of God, I am Power evolv- 
 ed to Thought! 
 
 As Thought I am Power individual- 
 ized! 
 
 By Thought I direct my life and my 
 love! 
 
 As a Son of God I express Life and 
 Thought as goodness. 
 As a Son of God, I am free as Pow- 
 er to direct my life, and I affirm- 
 All is Good! 
 
 I am free to be and to do as I desire ! 
 I am Power as Free-Will to execute 
 my desire ! 
 
 In this freedom I am Health, Hap- 
 piness and Prosperity. 
 
 194 
 
LOVE. 
 
 Love ye one another. 
 
 God and I are One! and, as He is 
 Law." 
 
 Love is constant. 
 As Love, I am ever ready. 
 In this readiness find my happiness, 
 my heaven, my prosperity, my 
 health. Now is the appointed time! 
 Now is the day of salvation! 
 In Truth and Love, I am ready. 
 I am ever ready at call of lover, 
 friend, humanity, with cup of water 
 or ministrations of Power. 
 God and I are One! and, as He is 
 ever ready in the unconscious 
 world, so am I ever ready in the 
 Self- conscious world of Life. 
 No call of Love finds me unprepar- 
 ed, for I am as constant as God is, 
 for He worketh in me. 
 Truth is everpresent, and I am ever 
 ready with words to cheer and bless, 
 for where Truth is, I am. 
 "Love never faileth." Love I am. 
 
 195 
 
In Love I trust, and nothing finds 
 me unprepared. 
 
 "Love is the fulfillment of the law. 
 Love is constant. With Love, I am 
 ever ready. 
 
 In this readiness find my happi- 
 ness, my heaven, my prosperity, my 
 health. Now is the appointed time ! 
 Now is the day of salvation! 
 In Truth and Love, I am ready. 
 
 196 
 
TRUST. 
 
 Though he slay me, will I trust in Him. 
 
 The One is All-Good, therefore I 
 trust in Him. 
 
 The One is All-Love, and He cares 
 for me. 
 
 The One is All-Truth, and I feel 
 sure of guidance. 
 
 The One is All-Life, and I in Him 
 am always health. 
 
 The One is to me Father, Compan- 
 ion and Friend, therefore I fear no 
 evil. 
 
 The One abideth in me and I in 
 Him, therefore I am Protection. 
 Whatever befalls comes from Him 
 and is good. 
 
 When trials come, I trust the more, 
 for He sends them. 
 As a child trusts its mother, so do 
 I trust the One in whom I have my 
 Being. 
 
 Welcome all Life's lessons, for He 
 sends them, and in Him I trust. 
 He says, "Come to Me and rest". 
 
 197 
 
In trust I come. 
 
 This rest is consciousness that He 
 
 is good. 
 
 In this conscious Trust I find health, 
 
 happiness and Peace. 
 
 198 
 
FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 "He was a friend of publicans and sinners." 
 
 I thank whatever powers may be 
 for my friends. 
 
 Friends are the sunshine of my life. 
 Friends bear the same relation to 
 my unfoldment that sun bears to 
 flower. 
 
 Friends make me know myself as 
 Love. 
 
 Friends have been my inspiration 
 to all growth in the past. 
 I know more of myself because of 
 my friends. Friendship is the rich- 
 est fruit of the Soul. 
 Friendship is the purest expression 
 of Human Life. 
 
 Friendship is the end for which all 
 social experiences tend. 
 Friendship is the only way to hap- 
 piness and peace. 
 
 A nation that contains the most 
 friends is the strongest nation. 
 I will encourage the making of 
 friends. 
 
 199 
 
I will sing the praise of -Friendship. 
 Through Friendship I develop loy- 
 alty to self, to society, to the Na- 
 tion. 
 
 I will sing of Friendship that I may 
 thereby develop a loyalty to Love. 
 Love is the Power which effuses in 
 friendship. 
 
 Love the Universal Panacea for all 
 life's ills. 
 
 To have friends I must be a friend. 
 I wish to have every person as a 
 friend. 
 
 I cannot afford to have an enemy. 
 I will love everybody, then I will 
 have no enemy. 
 
 Enemies cannot be unless I make 
 them in my thought and in loveless 
 condition to them. 
 My affirmation of life is, Love! 
 I LOVE EVERYBODY! 
 
 200 
 
GUIDANCE. 
 
 What shall I do to be saved? 
 
 Divine Power enables me to see and 
 to do. 
 
 There is for me an Inner Voice. 
 
 There is for me a Divine Guidance. 
 
 There is for me at all times the right 
 thing to do. 
 
 There is for me always a choice of 
 the Better. 
 
 There is for me ever the necessity 
 of Decision. 
 
 There is within me a divine tend- 
 ency outward of the Spirit. 
 
 That tendency is ever urging me to 
 be and to do. 
 
 In doing, the Soul evolves into con- 
 sciousness of Itself. 
 
 The Divine IT within knows Its 
 way. 
 
 I trust that Divine current in me. 
 
 I hear the Divine Word. 
 
 Its Inspiration is my guide. 
 
 Power enables me to see and to do. 
 
 201 
 
The Word of Silence and in Silence 
 
 determines my choice. 
 The Vision of the Silence influences 
 
 all my life. 
 Through the Vision of the Ideal 
 
 comes to me the right Word. 
 To the Ideal I lowly listen! I hear! 
 
 I decide! 
 
 I trust my decision and am victori- 
 ous. 
 No Vision can I see, no Word can I 
 
 hear amid the turmoil of doubt. 
 In faith I listen! 
 In Faith I see the Vision. 
 In Faith I hear the Word. 
 In faith in Self I decide. 
 And in Faith I accept results. 
 Through obedience to the Eight 
 
 Word I am happy, healthful and 
 
 successful. 
 All is well with me! All is Peace! 
 
 202 
 
LIGHT. 
 
 Let your light shine. Jesus. 
 
 I am Light! I am the Light of the 
 
 world! I am the Light that shineth 
 
 in darkness. 
 
 Through Kealization, I have come 
 
 into a comprehension of the Light 
 
 I am. 
 
 Light shineth and the darkness of 
 
 error doth disappear. I shine and 
 
 illumine my brother's path. 
 
 I shine that I may enjoy! I shine 
 
 that I may unfold! I shine that I 
 
 may inspire ! 
 
 I shine that by shining I may know 
 
 myself as a child of the One, who is 
 
 Light ineffable. I am Life and Life 
 
 is Light. I am Live and Life is 
 
 Love. 
 
 Love's flame is Thought. Love en- 
 
 lighteneth the world. 
 
 Love living in my brain as Thought 
 
 maketh for me a heaven here and 
 
 now. 
 
 203 
 
PEACE. 
 
 "My Peace I give unto you." 
 Peace is mine. 
 
 Heavenly peace that passeth all un- 
 derstanding. 
 
 No more I strive for Peace I real- 
 ize that I am peace in Thee, Who art 
 Peace. 
 
 The Father and I are one. 
 I have taken the words of our Elder 
 Brother into my life and I am One 
 with the Father. 
 I am One with The Father. 
 In this Realization I found the 
 peace I have sought so long. 
 After years of seeking I found 
 that which I have most desired 
 within my own breast. 
 His Peace is my Peace. 
 I am Strength. Even as the miner 
 finds the precious ore he seeks deep 
 in the earth so I within myself 
 have found strength for my every 
 need. 
 
 204 
 
His strength is my strength. 
 
 His Love is my Love. 
 
 His love is now in my heart. 
 
 In this love I am realizing more and 
 
 more deeply my oneness with my 
 
 fellow-man. 
 
 He is in me. We are One. Blest be 
 
 the tie that binds. 
 
 This thought of God makes me 
 
 thankful. 
 
 This Eealization awakens a love for 
 
 my fellow man. 
 
 This realization gives me lasting 
 
 peace. I am Peace. 
 
 Sajn Exton Foulds. 
 
 205 
 
O what a glorious record 
 Had the angels of me kept; 
 
 Had I done instead of doubted; 
 Had I warred instead of wept. 
 
 Anon. 
 
 I will fear no evil, 
 For thou art with me! 
 Thy rod and thy staff 
 They comfort me. 
 
 23d Psalm. 
 
 O Thou to who are known 
 Thy creatures as they be, 
 
 Forgive me if too close I lean 
 My human heart on thee. 
 
 Whitticr. 
 
 All is of God that is or is to be! 
 
 And God is good; 
 
 Let this suffice us, still 
 
 Resting in child-like trust upon His will 
 
 Who moves to his great ends 
 
 Unthwarted by the ill. 
 
 Whitticr. 
 
 206 
 
Where human weakness has come short 
 
 Or frailty stept aside, 
 Do Thou, All-Good for such Thou are 
 
 In shades of darkness hide. 
 Where with intention I have erred, 
 
 No other plea I have; 
 But Thou art God! And Goodness still 
 
 Delighteth to forgive. 
 
 Robert Burns. 
 
 I searched through strange pathways 
 
 winding 
 For knowledge that should lead me to 
 
 God; 
 
 But farther away seemed the finding 
 In every new pathway I trod. 
 
 I searched for wisdom and knowledge; 
 
 They escaped me the harder I sought; 
 For teacher and text-book and college 
 
 Gave only confusion of thought. 
 
 I sat where the Silence was speaking 
 And chanced to look into my Soul. 
 
 I found there all I was seeking! 
 My Spirit encompassed the whole. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox. 
 
 207 
 
Power, which always is from Spirit, is never 
 conquered! Weakness is mortal disease. 
 Power is immortal, being perfect health. 
 Andrew Jackson Davis. 
 
 Fold her, O Father, in thy breast 
 
 And let her henceforth be, 
 A Messenger of Love between 
 
 Our human hearts and thee. 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 It matters not how straight the gate, 
 How charged with punishment the scroll! 
 
 I am the Maker of my Fate, 
 I am the Captain of my Soul. 
 
 Henley. 
 
 Here in the body pent 
 
 Apart from him I roam; 
 But nightly pitch my moving tent 
 
 A day's march nearer Home. 
 
 Montgomery. 
 
 208 
 
A PRAYER. 
 
 I ask Thee not for days or years. 
 I ask Thee not for joys or tears; 
 
 But today, O Lord! 
 Beat me on the anvil of Thy wrath 
 And all along the upward path, 
 Give m e Thy Word, 
 Today. 
 
 I ask Thee not for Good to come, 
 I ask not for a future home; 
 
 But today, O Lord, 
 Beat me on the anvil of Thy wrath 
 Yea, tear from me each crutch and 
 staff- 
 Give me Thy Word 
 Today. 
 
 I ask Thee not for beds of ease, 
 I ask Thee not for bitter lees; 
 
 But today, O Lord! 
 Beat me on the anvil of thy wrath 
 And 'midst thy making I will laugh 
 Give me Thy Word 
 Today. 
 
 Sam Exton Foulds. 
 
 209 
 
God of the granite and the rose; 
 
 Soul of the sparrow and the bee; 
 The mighty tide of Being flows 
 
 To all thy Creatures, Lord, frorh thee. 
 It springs to life in grass and flowers, 
 
 Through every grade of being runs, 
 Till from Creation's radiant towers 
 
 Its glory flames in stars and suns. 
 
 God of the granite and the rose; 
 
 Soul of the sparrow and the bee; 
 The mighty tide of Being flows 
 
 Through all thy Creatures back to thee. 
 Thus round and round the current runs, 
 
 A mighty sea without a shore! 
 Till men and angels, stars and suns 
 
 Unite to praise thee evermore. 
 
 Lizzie Doten. 
 
 210 
 
THY WILL. 
 
 The proudest heart that ever beat 
 
 Hath been subdued in Thee. 
 The wildest will that ever rose 
 To scorn thy cause or raid thy foes 
 Is crushed, my God, in me. 
 
 Thy will, and not my will, be done; 
 
 My heart is wholly thine. 
 Confessing Thee, the Almighty Word, 
 My Savior, Christ, my God, my Lord, 
 
 Thy cross shall be my sign. 
 
 William Howe. 
 
 211 
 
OUR Father which are in heaven, 
 Hallowed be thy name. 
 Thy kingdom come, 
 Thy will be done in earth 
 As it is in heaven. 
 Give us this day our daily bread, 
 And forgive us our debts 
 As we forgive our debtors. 
 And lead us not into temptation, 
 But deliver us from evil: 
 For thine is the kingdom and the power 
 And the glory, forever. Amen. 
 
 (Ordinary version.) 
 
 I thank thee, Source of every bliss, 
 For every bliss I know: 
 I thank thee, thou didst train me so 
 
 To learn thy way in this: 
 That wishing good, and doing good, 
 
 Is laboring, Lord, with thee: 
 That charity is gratitude: 
 And piety best understood, 
 
 A sweet humanity. 
 
 From the Dutch of Tollens. 
 212 
 
When I sleep (as sleep I shall) 
 Let the stillness breathe, "All's well!" 
 So, one passing by the cell 
 Where a hermit once did dwell, 
 Fancies still the chanted prayer 
 Hallows all the listening air; 
 Let none thither come in dread 
 Lest that sleep be of the dead; 
 Let them know a waking soul 
 Now hath portion with the whole 
 Now hath come into its own, 
 In the farand-near unknown. 
 
 Edith M. Thomas. 
 
 213 
 
Let us not have the prayers of one sect, 
 nor of the Christian Church, but of all men 
 of all ages and of all religions, who have 
 prayed well. The prayer of Jesus is, as it 
 deserves, become a form for the human 
 race. Emerson. 
 
 A spiritual Substance is the cause of the 
 universe and the source of all order and 
 beauty, all motion and all the forms which 
 we admire in it. Aristotle. 
 
 To find the Maker and Father of ALL is 
 hard, and having found Him, it is impossi- 
 ble to utter Him. Plato. 
 
 God is near you, is with you, is within you. 
 Seneca. 
 
 214 
 
THE INDWELLING. 
 
 The flowing soul, nor low nor high, 
 
 Is perfect here, is perfect there, 
 Each drop in ocean orbs the sky; 
 
 And seeing eye makes all things fair. 
 The evening clouds, the wayside flower, 
 
 Surpass the Andes and the rose; 
 And wrapped in every hasty hour 
 
 Is all the lengthened year bestows. 
 Therefore erased my false degrees! 
 
 From stock and stone strike stars and 
 
 fire; 
 Lo! even in the least of these 
 
 Dwells the Lord-Christ whom I desire! 
 Theodore C. Williams (altered). 
 
 215 
 
"And He rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, 
 'Peace! Be Still!' " 
 
 I am the Power of Unconquered Will! 
 The Presence min e of, "Peace, Be Still!" 
 "I give my Peace"; Most blessed of all 
 The glorious words that Jesus gave! 
 "My Peace I leave"; 'Tis mine. At call 
 That Peace around me now is shed! 
 Though tempests rage my Soul is calm, 
 And every wind shall bring me balm! 
 
 What Power has changed Life's Currents 
 
 thus? 
 
 What Presence brought to Soul this Peace? 
 What word occult has cleared my sky 
 And brought to me this sure surcease? 
 There is one word, all else above 
 One word of Power and Peace 'Tis Love. 
 Henry Harrison Brown. 
 
 216 
 
I WELCOME ALL. 
 
 Mine are life's sorrows and its joys! 
 
 I welcome anguish and all strife! 
 I claim the hours without alloy, 
 
 But prize the miseries of Life! 
 They all are mine! Since I am all, 
 
 I all must know, would I be free! 
 Serving obediently their call, 
 
 I have achieved Life's mastery. 
 
 As long as Pain could wound me, I 
 
 Did suffer pain! Blind Worry, too, 
 Was close companion to my side, 
 
 As long as I her ear did woo! 
 Lank Poverty with her unrest 
 
 Followed my footsteps day by day 
 Until I learned, "What is, is best " 
 
 Unmasked they now sing on my way! 
 
 'Tis I that make or mend or mar! 
 
 I mould the moments as I breathe! 
 Loving doth Pain and Care 
 
 Where once was cross, the roses wreathe! 
 Thus I, Creator, Destiny 
 
 Have changed the power in wand of 
 
 Time! 
 All good and wise is Life to me! 
 
 From all Life's grapes I press sweet wine. 
 Henry Harrison Brown. 
 
 217 
 
HEREIN IS PEACE. 
 
 Herein is peace. O Lord, to live Thy day 
 In fulness all along a perfect way, 
 Each step to see a new and perfect thing, 
 A baby-smile, a glist'ning insect-wing; 
 But if the way seems dark unto my eyes 
 I know the road leads unto paradise. 
 
 Herein is peace. The shadows may be deep 
 And unknown dangers all about me creep, 
 Still to protect me is Thy wondrous hand, 
 On sea and shore, or in the stranger's land; 
 More near Thou art than any earthly friend, 
 Thou art my Life, my very being's end. 
 
 Herein is peace. To do Thy blessed will, 
 When I'm afraid, to hear Thy peace be 
 
 still; 
 
 Thy love is mine; I have but to partake, 
 And in Thy strength I now my heaven 
 
 make; 
 
 No more I seek Thee far from me apart, 
 I feel Thee in the beating of my heart. 
 
 Herein is peace. To live in perfect trust, 
 To know without Thee all of life is dust, 
 And when that hour comes when I must 
 
 stand 
 
 Unshod alone, a stranger in that land; 
 Child-like I'll know Thy 'biding presence 
 
 near, 
 
 Stand naked, unashamed, without a fear! 
 Sam Exton Foulds. 
 
 218 
 
GOD'S AUTOGRAPH 
 
 "Be Thyself!" The great Commandment 
 
 Written in my Soul! 
 "Be thyself! And stand the firmest 
 
 When Life's surges wildest roll!" 
 
 Reason is my helmsman! 
 
 He'll guide my bark aright! 
 Ever is love my pole-star! 
 
 No clouds can dim its light! 
 
 I must sail like all around me, 
 
 Oft in calm and oft in storm! 
 Oft I'll hear the cordage creaking, 
 
 Oft torn sails come rattling down; 
 
 Oft the reefs that rise before me 
 Turn me from my chosen path; 
 
 Oft overboard I'll cast my treasure: 
 Oft the Past grin like a wraith! 
 
 Courage still! The storm when ended 
 
 Leaves a smoother sea! 
 And ip place of sails thus rended 
 
 Whiter sails shall be! 
 
 And in place of sunken treasure, 
 
 A richer cargo shall I find! 
 And my path now seeming wayward 
 
 Shall prove straight as path of wind! 
 
 219 
 
And the wraith that came to daunt me 
 
 Shall prove my angel guide, 
 Who with smiles is beckoning onward 
 
 To Life's calmest tide! 
 
 When I've anchored in that haven, 
 
 And complete my log; 
 I shall find therein recorded 
 
 "Peace!" my Autograph of God! 
 
 Henry Harrison Brown. 
 
 For this is Love's nobility, 
 Not to scatter bread and gold, 
 Goods and raiment bought and sold; 
 But to hold fast his simple sense, 
 And speak the speech of innocence, 
 And with hand and body and blood, 
 To make his bosom-counsel good. 
 He that feeds men serveth few; 
 He serves all who dares be true. 
 
 Emerson. 
 
 Prayer that craves a commodity anything 
 less than all good is vicious. As soon as 
 the man is at one with God, he will not 
 beg. He will then see prayer in all action. 
 The prayer of the farmer kneeling in his 
 field to weed it, the prayer of the rower 
 kneeling with stroke of the oar, are true 
 prayers heard throughout all nature. Em- 
 erson. 
 
 220 
 
Unto the ALL be honor given, 
 I shall not see Him even in heaven: 
 The outline of Infinity, 
 The Substance of Divinity, 
 Created spirit may not grasp; 
 Only by faith his knees I clasp. 
 My little rill draws near the sea! 
 Source of my soul, I come to Thee! 
 
 The dying Buddhist's hymn. 
 
 I do not fear to tread the path 
 
 That those I love have long since trod; 
 I do not fear to pass the gates 
 
 And stand before the living God. 
 In this world's fight I've done my part; 
 
 If God be God He knows it well; 
 He will not turn his back on me 
 
 And send me down to blackest hell 
 Because I have not prayed aloud 
 
 And shouted in the market-place. 
 'Tis what we do, not what we say, 
 
 That makes us worthy of His gra^ce. 
 
 Jeannette L. Gilder. 
 
 And what is left for us, save, in growth 
 Of soul, to rise up, far past both, 
 From the gift looking to the giver, 
 And from the cistern to the river, 
 And from the finite to infinity, 
 And from man's dust to God's divinity. 
 Browning. 
 
 221 
 
MINE OWN. 
 
 "Our Father?" I His beloved son, 
 Then I'm His heir and all is mine! 
 His child? My Father? We're one? 
 Then all is mine from sand to sun, 
 And all the stars that nightly shine, 
 And fruitful tree and clinging vine, 
 And all the brooks that circling run, 
 Are mine All, all are mine! 
 
 "Our Father, may thy kingdom come!" 
 "Our Father?" Mine? My kingdom then! 
 His Power is mine since we're one! 
 By that one Power all things are done! 
 His Power is with the beast in den 
 And His the Power of armed men! 
 In Him my every victory's won, 
 And all is mine is mine! 
 
 "Our Father! May thy will be done!" 
 "Our Father?" Mine? His will my will? 
 Then as the years unfolding run 
 I only have my race begun! 
 His is my growing thought and skill! 
 My every act his plans fulfill. 
 Thus is one strand all Life is spun, 
 Since all is mine is mine! 
 
 "On earth as 'tis in heaven!" the cry. 
 "On earth?" In matter? Everywhere? 
 His kingdom then on earth am I! 
 My Father's store is my Supply, 
 And all His life with Him I share! 
 
 222 
 
My kingdom is His constant care! 
 Love broods o'er me with faithful eye, 
 Since all is mine is mine. 
 
 My life, my will, is one with thine! 
 Thy kingdom, Father, is my all! 
 The prayer for peace that once was mine 
 When dim the stars of faith did shine, 
 When trembling trust oft made me fall, 
 Is now no more! I've now no call, 
 For I am fruit of Love the vine, 
 And all is mine is mine. 
 
 Henry Harrison Brown. 
 
 There shall never be one lost good! 
 
 What was, shall live as before; 
 The evil is null, is naught, is silence 
 
 implying sound; 
 What was good, shall be good, with, 
 
 for evil, so much good more; 
 On the earth the broken arcs; in the 
 heaven, a perfect round. 
 
 Browning. 
 
 223 
 
God bless us every one. 
 
 Tiny 
 
A NOW affirma- 
 tion with my com- 
 pliments to you. 
 
 Henry Harrison Brown, 
 
 589 Haight St. San Francisco, Cal. 
 
 Trust thyself! Every heart vibrates 
 to that iron string. 
 
 Accept the place Divine Providence 
 has found for you. Emerson. 
 
 I trust myself! My heart vi- 
 brates to that iron string:. 
 
 I accept the place Divine 
 Providence has found f cr me. 
 
 I believe in myself! 
 
 I am at the right place at 
 the right time ! 
 
 I do the right thing! 
 I think the right thought! 
 I speak the right word! 
 All is well with me. 
 
 -. ; n 
 
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