November, 1933 VOL. 6—1

Meditations —By Br. Nerode

There is no age to the human soul.

The Conception of age is an illusion of the Ego.

I am an ageless, deathless, invincible,

Ever-blissful Soul.

I am a spark of the Eternal Flame.

Indomitable, Unconquerable, Divine Power am I.

Mind reads the facts of the world and of life

With the five senses, which are limited

In their scope.

I will develop super-senses

With which to sense the Reality of Existence.

Away with the demons of wavering thoughts

Which disturb the equilibrium of my mind.

I stand on the solid rock of tranquil mentality.

Every atom of matter

And every scintillation of thought

Is charged with Divine magnetism.

Divine magnetism is in me awaiting my recognition.

I will awaken a magnetic field

In and around me

Which will draw unto me an abundance

Of health, wealth, and contentment.

I insulate

My physical and mental bodies

With self-restraint and discipline

In order to preserve the Divine magnetism

Which is in me.

I do not covet

The wealth or happiness

Of other people.

It is my duty to help others

To happiness and prosperity

With no ulterior motive.

For me and mine,

I constantly depend

Upon Divine Providence

And my honest work.

One dime earned with honest labor

Gives a thousand-fold more service

Than a million dimes

Gathered under the ignoble veil of dishonesty.

I would rather earn an honest penny

Than gain a dishonest million.

All work is God’s work.

All Beings

Are God’s children.

My life

And my responsibilities

Are ultimately

His responsibilities.

I will never use

Spiritual power in business

To fatten my purse

At the cost of others

And the suicide of my Soul.

I will constantly open the book

Of my thought-world

Before the light

Of subtle scrutiny

In order to be daily sure

That even with an unconscious selfishness

I do not deprive others of their happiness

In order to gain my own.

Mind, heavy-laden with the memory

Of dishonest actions,

Never finds the harbor of contentment.

I am bound for the coveted shore of contentment.

I shall avoid dishonest thoughts and deeds.

Our present needs

Loom so large before our eyes

That for their satisfaction

We commit questionable actions,

Only to gather dissatisfaction and Soul-ache

In the end.

No matter what happens,

I surrender myself to God,

And will never swing

From the narrow highway

Of honesty and integrity.

Mind is a unit,

Although made of composite thoughts.

When one thought is polluted,

The whole mind becomes infected.

I will watch every thought

That rises in my mind

And spurs me to action.

How else

Can I grasp the Reality which I am?

When Spirit moves,

Soul becomes the center of gravitation.

I now charge my Soul with God-power,

So that all that is best and noble in the world

Will be drawn unto me.

An honest man

May have to go the way of the cross,

But he never dies.

To live an honest life,

I would rather invite

The immortality

Of the cross

Than live dishonestly

And thus die a Spiritual death.

God operates the universe

Through the laws of Love.

I cooperate

With the inner laws of God’s Love,

The fulfillment of which alone

Is the Source of lasting peace

And abiding happiness.

My neighbors and my own people

May fling criticism and derision at me

When I want to tread the path toward God

And Reality.

As there is no other path

That leads to fullness and perfection,

Except the path toward God,

I will cling forever to the Real

And bless my friends

For their indirect good-will.

Everything in Nature flourishes

And grows in abundance and profusion—

Light, air, water, stars, and flowers.

Everything in Nature flourishes,

I also will grow in God’s abundance

And multiplicity.

I am tuned with the Universal as I pray.

I will now work

So that through my action

My prayer may find a channel

For its fulfillment and expression.

Energy surrounds me from every side

As light surrounds the day.

Mine is the prerogative

To replenish my body

With energy and inherit radiant health.

Far-off things are not so far off

If we are mentally sure that they are near.

I will acquire the mental certainty

Of the nearness of all things that I need.

A child of the Unlimited,

I ignorantly limit my capacity and heritage.

Now, for all time, I will break my mind

Of its limitations and let my Unlimited God

Take possession of me.

Progression is the keynote of the universe.

Unless the confining shell of the egg is broken,

Life cannot manifest itself.

I now break the shell

Of my little desires, paltry hopes,

And petty troubles,

Thus preparing the way

For God and His bounty

To manifest in and through me.

As long as I mentally live

Within the walls of finitude,

Limitation faces me on every side.

In my lofty contemplation,

I will break into infinitude and patiently wait

To see

Infinite love and power

Flow into every aspect of my life.

God has given me

My parents, brothers, sisters,

And other near and dear ones.

Through relations with others,

I daily manifest God.

If others stubbornly stand

Between me and my God,

I will rather choose

To walk with God Alone

Than with them without Him.

I will pay my debts—every penny I owe.

I prefer paying my debts and having little

Or nothing for myself

Rather than deny honest debts and have plenty.

Born amidst the plenty of this earth,

What right have I

To complain of want and lack?

Arouse in me the understanding,

Oh God,

So that I can claim

My Divine heritage of plenty.

Talents of the Gods have been given unto me.

Oh Divine teacher, awaken in me

The flame of a righteous desire

That will finally reveal the God within me.

When I stand too near to the world,

Its joys and sorrow overwhelm me.

The moment I take my stand

In the Heart of God,

I see all things in their true perspective.

Oh God, henceforth, Thy Heart alone

Shall be my dwelling place.

The great Universal Heart of God

Is in the heart of everything that breathes.

May my perception

Feel the throb of every heart.

There comes a time in each one’s life

When he must turn e’er left or right.

Two roads diverge. Stop! Take your choice.

One leads to Darkness, one to Light.

Matter, grand display will play,

To lure you to her endless ray.

Be not misled, her path to try,

"Who’er treads here can never die."

Eternal Life will still be lost,

For thou hast yet to pay the cost.

Go look within, still Matter’s din.

Perfect thyself whil’st search for Him.

With fullest love for Him begin:

With all thy heart, thy will, and limb,

And soon thou wilt find the strangest Spy,

Not "I," but I, for "I" hast died.

In breathless silence back you’ll creep,

With none to guide save Great OM’s beat.

Within that OM thine age-long friend,

Whose guidance will be until the end.

Oh, ring of gold, within, of nameless hue;

Oh, Door of Heaven,

By which we all pass through

Into that realm, God’s Kingdom bright,

Eternal Bliss, Immortal Light!

WHAT is life? Life is a wave of electrons and atoms, a wave of protoplasm, a wave of power, and a wave of consciousness on the Ocean of Spirit. Life is intelligent, organized motion. It becomes a clod of earth or melts itself into vapor, or becomes a human being or a flower. Stones, living Beings, and dead creatures are all waves on the Ocean of Life. There is no death nor cessation of motion in anything. Everything is living.

IF LIFE is eternal motion, then why does death visit the human body? This is the great question. Death is not cessation nor annihilation, for even matter is indestructible. (At death, the life and intelligence waves, with the Soul, slip away from the body wave.) The burned candle changes form, but its weight and constituent ingredients can be found if the carbonic acid gas is held in a jar. Matter is Life. Life is matter. Life is intelligence. Matter is sleeping intelligence. Since matter is indestructible, all Life is indestructible.

However, that does not mean that Life is not changeable. In fact, Eternal Infinite Life manifests itself through myriads of finite forms of flowers and living creatures. The phenomena of death, or the illusion of change, is reflected in all finite substances, otherwise, the Infinite would be limited and measured by finite substances. The Infinite would lose its nature by becoming finite, definite, circumscribed, and molded.

That is why the beautiful rose and the glorious youth, after expressing certain qualities of the Infinite, disappear as silent waves into the Infinite Ocean of Life. The body is the froth of life on the intelligence and Soul waves. The froth is temporary compared to the individualized Soul wave.

Life is relative. Some waves of Life last longer than others, but they all have to express the Infinite variously and fully. They all emerge from and merge into the Infinite Ocean. The speck of star dust, the sun, moon, clouds, rainbow, the gossamer, the nightingale, and the whippoorwill all have to express the silent Infinite. Natural death comes when each object, each human being, has done its full share in expressing the Infinite. The untimely death of a youth, suggests that he is changing his diseased body vehicle and is existing elsewhere for better opportunities.

That life is not dependent on food or oxygen is proved by verified cases of men living for long periods of time in a state of suspended animation. Life can exist in a corpse in a different form. A chicken heart can live 16 years in a chemical syrup—longer than the life of a chicken. A crocodile lives 600 years. Life is vagrant, like a river appearing and disappearing in the desert of Life.

Death gives new robes to the Soul actors, in which to play new dramas on the stage of Life. Death, above all else, is a transition to a better land, a change of residence. The wise man who has opened his Spiritual Eye finds that the death of earthly life gives him a new beginning in another supernal life. On this earth, seeing, we see not. An X-Ray picture can show the bones of the fingers, which the eye cannot see. In the same way, we do not see the cords of light—blue, violet, aquamarine, orange, yellow, and white, which bind the atoms of the earth together. We hear the gross noise of the world and a few sweet melodies, and nothing more.

The wise man beholds in this Life, and after death with his Spiritual Eye, not a region of chaos and dark sleep, which is all that the Soul in ignorance experiences after death. Death is very attractive to the former, for instead of terror he finds infinite freedom. The Soul-bird-of-paradise finds it freedom from the limitations of the cage of manifestation. The Soul, appareled in searchlights of multi-hues, soars in infinite directions searching, claiming its lost territory of Eternity.

Terrible thought! If there were no death, fifteen hundred million people would monopolize the infinite. The planets and the universes would trade-mark God with the seal of finitude. The Infinite would be exhausted. Life and death would lose the taste of charming mystery. Everything would grow old and stale. The Infinite is ever-new, so by God’s Infinite Magic Wand of renewing death, He keeps everything ever expressing, ever remodeling itself into more suitable vehicles for Infinite expression.

Hence this paradox—the dance of death—shattering worlds, pulverizing skulls, crumbling roses, destroying fifteen hundred million people every hundred years, killing billions of fishes, trillions of bacteria, and powdering sextillion countless atoms. The life beautiful is evolving, training Souls in the factory of mighty death. Death is the Cosmic furnace in which the dross of all objects and living Souls is purified. Death comes to a dutiful Soul as its promotion to a higher state. It comes to an unsuccessful Soul to give it another chance in a different environment. The wise man experiences through death an infinitely better, safer haven.

Only those who have practiced the control of the heart-beat and learned to live without oxygen—by eating less carbonized food and preventing decay of tissues in the body through definite training in meditation—can consciously experience death at will as a rest from constant muscular activity, and specially Life’s involuntary activity of the heart, lungs, diaphragm, circulation, etc.

In heaven there are no crackers or soup, no breakfast, lunch, or dinner, no water, no oxygen, or sunshine. Mortals should learn to live more by inner energy, unattached to the body. Those who learn in this Life to live by Spirit, and are unattached to the body, quickly realize the freedom of the Soul from the bondage of oxygen, food, and water, after death. Death is a fear to the ignorant human animal, but it is a transition to a higher state to the wise—a promotion to higher grades of Life.

In the mellow light of the other world, the wise person perceives the inner nature of stars, stones, living Beings, dust, iron, gold, earth, and planets, dazzling with Infinite brilliancy. Every object which we perceive has two sides—the gross ugly outer side, present before the physical eyes, and the inner, exceedingly beautiful side, revealed to the eye of wisdom.

The crude brick seen by the physical eye appears to be like a garden of electrons when viewed through the Spiritual Eye. Human beings with skeleton bodies, ugly sinews, and red blood appear as beautiful, many-hued living Beings made of visible, mellow, materialized love. The rose of the human garden looks like a paper rose compared to the inner rosy luster of its whirling atoms.

Nothing fades in that world so quickly. Everything talks there silently. The roses talk to the Souls with the language of Spirit. The garden of roses lives by the breath of the Souls, and the Souls breathe the aroma of the roses. The gentlest earthly flower—the lily or violet—drunk with gross sunlight, is not allowed to tread the sanctity of that fair garden of the gods.

The mortal, enslaved by oxygen and sunlight, and gorged with material food, faints at the delicate airless atmosphere of that Divine supernal region. Darkness and gross lights equally lose their relative dualities in the darkless dark, in the lightless but all-revealing Soul-light of that sphere. Yogis practice control of Life and the breathless state to be able to live in airless regions of living light, unburdened by the body.

Souls in that region do not encase themselves in bundles of bones with fleshly covers. They carry no frail, heavy frames to collide and break with other crude solids. There is no war there between solids, oceans, lightning, disease, and man’s frail frame. There are no accidents there, for all things exist in mutual help and not in antagonism. All forms of vibration are in harmony. All forces live in peace and conscious helpfulness. The Souls, the rays on which they tread, the orange rays which they drink and eat—all are living. They live in mutual cognizance and cooperation, breathing not oxygen, but the joy of the Spirit. There they live as long as they want to live, playing like waves on the Infinite Ocean of Light, and there they melt into one another by celestial love, as the Ocean of Light.

No bacteria, no thirst, no selfish desires, no heartaches, no lust, no pain nor sorrow, no boisterous fleeting joy, no accidents, shattered bones or skulls, and no excruciating pain of parting, can ever exist there.

In that better region change is not decay, but change exists like a Cosmic magician, to entertain with variety through Infinite expression. There the law of change is governed by the will of Souls and is not forced upon them.

Let us not bury the Soul in the grave and call death annihilation, but let us see it as a door through which bravely-marching Souls of earthly Life can enter to find the all-alluring, all-charming region of our ever-luminous, ever-peaceful Common Cosmic Home. Mortal fears, heartaches, dreams, and illusions fade, and the darkness of death changes into another infinitely more beautiful universe. Why pity the dead? In wisdom, they pity us. They can see their super-region and us at the same time with their Spiritual Eyes, while we cannot see them with our gross spiritually-blind physical eyes.

Insult not me,

With your cries of sympathy

When I soar

To the land of Eternal light and love.

It is I who should feel for you.

For me, disease, shattering of bones,

Sorrow, excruciating heartaches, no more.

I dream joy; I glide in joy;

I breathe in joy evermore.

You are left behind,

Oh, yet Life’s wheels to turn and wind.

I have worked with diligence

In the office of Life,

And now I have won

My pension of earned peace.

I left the flickering shadows of Life’s shores;

I am living by the shoreless shore

Of the Eternal Sea evermore.

Mrs. Muir, editor of "The Torch" and a distinguished astrologer and humanitarian, deserves great credit for the valuable pioneer work she has done in the field of Medical Astrology. Agreeing with the centenarian, Hippocrates, the "father of medicine," that "he who is ignorant of Astrology is deserving of the name fool rather than physician," Mrs. Muir has given years of research to discovering the astrological correspondences of the mineral salts in food and of plants, roots, barks and herbs.

The results of her work have been embodied in three small books, "The Healing Herbs of the Zodiac." "Cancer, Its Cause, Prevention and Cure" and "Health and The Sun Sign." These books are eminently worth reading by astrologers and laymen alike, and are sure to figure nobly in the healing science of the future. They also serve a very useful and practical purpose today both in the correct diagnosis of disease and in the determination of the proper food or herb necessary for cure. In "Nature’s laboratory, the field and woodland," are to be found all the simple remedies for man’s physical ills, and a proper astrological use of these health-giving products of Nature will restore and insure bodily harmony.

Mrs. Muir is also the author of twelve "Sun Sign" booklets (15c each), outlining the special characteristics of the twelve zodiacal signs or months of the year, and giving a list of the most beneficial herbs of each sign. Two more of her books, of particular interest to astrological students, are "Pluto the Redeemer" and "the Nodes and Part of Fortune" (50c each).

PHILOSOPHERS have said that God cannot be proved, but most thinkers admit that belief in God is almost inescapable. Certain mystics have declared that God can be realized. Both philosophers and mystics sometimes seem to forget that realization, like mastery, is a matter of degree, as well as of kind. To some extent, all men are masterful. To a certain degree, all men realize the existence of the Supreme Being. This partial realization of God lies in man’s realization of his own existence. No sane person will deny his own existence, and only a fool will say that man created himself.

One of the greatest indications of the existence of God is the almost universal sense of gratitude. By nature, man not only is grateful to his fellow beings who render him services, but he is grateful to the Supreme Being in who he lives, and without Whom he could not exist. To the normal man, worship, praise, devotion, and gratitude are as natural and as pleasant as breathing.

The man who has lost, or who has not developed, the sense of gratitude, is less than human. In a sense, such a man is lower than a brute. Dogs and horses never fail to express gratitude for food and drink and kindness bestowed upon them by human beings, whom they look up to as gods. Even wild animals are not without this spiritual quality of gratitude.

What, then, is to be thought of a human being who is dead to this virtue? Sam Jones, renowned evangelist, used to say that a man who eats dinner without offering thanks to his Creator is eleven-tenths hog. The writer is moved to say "Amen!" Bountiful Mother of Light and Joy, teach us to make every day in the year a glad Thanksgiving Day.

TO my friends, in all lands and in all worlds, greetings and good will! Wherever you are, whoever you are, of whatever color, race, or creed, I send you my love and the pledge of my loyalty. You, who for thousands of years, or for only a day, have worked and fought for justice, freedom, and Truth, receive my gratitude and devotion.

You who dwell in palaces or hovels, in cities or jungles, in mansions or dungeons—if in your hearts there is the urge toward higher, better living and loftier ideals, believe me when I say I am your friend and that I count you blessed friends of mine.

Many of you I have known in the past, and some of you I have never seen, but I think that in God’s appointed time I shall meet each one of you face to face and give you proof of my affection. However, it matters little that we are not together now, nor does it matter that time and space may separate us by almost Infinite distances. The only thing that counts is that we are friends, working together in a common Cause, the Cause of righteousness and the expansion of the consciousness of the children of the Most High.

Although I see you not, I often feel your presence near, or thrill with the noble thoughts which you send out to find their home in minds attuned to yours. Although you may never read the words which I am penning now, I declare to you that you shall feel the vibrations of tenderness and kindliness which emanate from me to all of you.

Our work, our love, our purposes are One. March on, dear friends, to higher, brighter goals! Continue in your dreams of happier days and in your deeds of service to your kind. Protect the torch of faith from winds of doubt, and let no storm disturb your peace of mind. Farewell, dear friends of mine, until we meet.

Nicodemus answered and said unto Him: "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said unto him: "Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that We have seen, and ye receive not our Witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven."

"And as Moses lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on Him is not condemned. But he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God."

Jesus told Nicodemus that it took more than being a master of the house of Israel to know the mysteries of life. Nicodemus was informed by Jesus that the spiritual things which He was describing were known only by intuitive experience. "WE SPEAK THAT WE DO KNOW" means something deeper than the knowledge derived through the senses of understanding. Human knowledge percolates through the senses, understanding, and intuition.

The senses are limited in their powers, so is understanding, which depends upon the senses for its data. If the senses lie, the conclusion drawn by the understanding on that data is also incorrect. If you see in the distance a white cloth that looks like a ghost, you conclude that there is a ghost, but coming nearer to the object you discover the error of your conclusion.

The senses and understanding are the outer doors through which knowledge of the pneumena, or the eternal substance, percolates into the Soul. The senses and understanding are deluded because they do not know or see the real nature of all created things. Jesus, with his intuition, knew the real nature of the cosmos and of life, so He said authoritatively: "WE DO KNOW."

Jesus regretted that Nicodemus doubted the intuitional experiences of the Christ state, and He said to Nicodemus: "If I tell you about matters pertaining to human Souls who are visibly present on earth, and how they can enter into the Kingdom of God, and you believe not, then how can you believe me if I tell you about happenings in Heaven or the Astral realm, which are completely hidden from the ordinary human gaze?"

Jesus went on to say that no man can ascend to Heaven except the one who came down from Heaven. A man is composed of a Soul and the three ideational, astral, and spiritual bodies. Just as the little threads of flame coming through the holes of a gas burner are all individualized flames coming out of the one flame under the burner plate, so also Souls are individualized Spirit. The one flame of Spirit lies under all things and comes out individualized threads of Soul-flames through each human Soul and through every living thing.

The threads of flame first come out of one big flame, and when the light is put out they go back to the same flame. To do that, the little flames have to come out of the big flame. This illustrates what Jesus said about Souls ascending and descending from heaven. The Spirit projects the desire, then the Soul projects the idea of the body, then the idea becomes energy or Astral body, and the Astral body becomes condensed into the physical body.

It has been described before that Heaven is behind space, hiding behind the limitations of the senses. This Heavenly region is the abode of all Astral forces and angels. Thus Jesus said that no physical body could get back into the Astral Kingdom which did not in the first place come out of the Astral plane. In other words, all men were first created as Souls with Astral bodies in the Heavenly astral Kingdom. From there they were projected into matter as men with physical bodies. Then the logical conclusion is that all supermen who conquered material desires and were promoted back to Heaven were originally in Heaven and had fallen from there through earth-bound desires.

Jesus spoke of a very strange truth when He said: "Even the Son of Man which is in heaven." Jesus often used the phrase, "Son of Man" whenever he referred to His own or to any physical body. So Jesus said that the Son of Man, His own physical body, could exist in the finer Astral Kingdom as well as on the earth. The highest Hindu Yoga Scripture tells how some Yogis have the power to appear in two places at the same time in two similar bodies. It is said that some Yogis never die, but carry their bodies into the Spirit, and never lose their personality or individuality.

Just as the ocean and the wave can exist together, so some Saints with their bodies are said to exist eternally in God without ever melting the bodily form in the Cosmic Ocean. Other Saints are said to become One with the Spirit and dissolve the bodily wave in the Spiritual Ocean. Such Saints only materialize their bodies when they want to come on earth to bring back deluded Souls unto God.

Jesus spoke of His body which dwelt simultaneously in the Astral and the physical worlds because He was conscious of both His physical body and His Astral body. Ordinary Souls behold their bodies roaming only on the earth, but advanced Souls, like Jesus, can see their Souls simultaneously present in the physical and in the Astral Kingdoms. This is also proven by the fact that, although Jesus experienced death as the Son of Man, or physical body, still He was conscious of the Astral Kingdom all the time, and after death He raised his physical and took it back to Heaven.

The Soul is encased in the Idea body of thirty-four ideas.

The Soul is encased in the Idea body through delusion. This Idea body, through desires, is tied to the Astral body, and the Astral body is fitted in all details to the finest mechanisms of the physical body. The Astral body is tied to the physical body in the brain and in the six plexuses. The last tie which binds the Astral body to the physical body is the attachment emanating through a coiled knot at the base of the spine, called by Hindu Saints, the Kundalini, or Serpent Force. Jesus spoke of this Serpent being lifted by Moses in the wilderness. That is, Moses, in the wilderness of silence, by deep meditation, learned the art of relaxing or of consciously withdrawing the Astral body from the physical body by first doing away with bodily attachment, and then be reversing the Astral current from the senses to the spine, Godward, through the coiled passage at the base of the spine. Unless one knows how to open this coiled knot of Astral and physical power at the base of the spine, one cannot enter into the Astral Kingdom.

Jesus said that each Son of Man, or each bodily consciousness, must be lifted from the plane of the senses to the Astral Kingdom by reversing the Life Force through the serpent-like coiled passage at the base of the spine. Every time you meditate deeply, you automatically reverse the Life Force and consciousness from matter to God. This helps to loosen the Astral and physical knot at the base of the spine.

Few people know about this Kundalini and often confuse it with sex force. That is why so many ignorant teachers make a mystery about it and frighten their gullible disciples by telling them that it is dangerous to awaken this Life Force (Kundalini). It takes years of meditation under the guidance of a competent Teacher-Guru before one can dream of releasing the Astral from its bondage to the physical by awakening the Kundalini.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.—("Walks and Words of Jesus," by Rev. M. N. Olmsted.)

These passages are interpreted in the following and are very important. Moses, and Jesus Himself, along with the Hindu Yogis, knew the secret of scientific spiritual life. That is why they unanimously said that all physically-minded people must know the art of lifting up the serpent force in order to accomplish the first retracing of the inward steps towards the Spirit.

Jesus said that whosoever believes in the doctrine of lifting the bodily consciousness (Son of Man) from the physical to the Astral by reversing the Life Force through the coiled passage at the base of the spine, will not perish, that is, be subject to mortal changes of life and death, but will gradually acquire the changeless Eternal state.

Jesus emphasized here that His disciples, or people who would believe in His Spirit as manifested in Him as Son of Man, or physical body, would know the art of lifting the serpent force in the silence and would see the path to Eternal life. But Jesus realized that His physical body was to remain on the earth plane for a little while only, so He said that in His absence people would be able to find God.

This confusion between Son of Man, Son of God, and Only Begotten Son, has created much bigotry in the followers of churchianity, who never want to acknowledge the human element in Jesus and that Jesus was a God-man who evolved and became God Himself. If Jesus were God Himself from the beginning, then His life and His struggles before crucifixion and at the cross were nothing but Divine Acting. However, a superman Jesus, who, by spiritual discipline became God Himself through His efforts, stirs more hope of salvation in the human heart than a God-manufactured Jesus. No doubt a God-made Jesus could conquer temptation, and while on the cross could say: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," but how could this be expected of a human being of manifold frailties.

Before and after the coming and passing of Jesus, Sons of God existed. Jesus never set a limit to time. He Himself said: "All those who received Him, to them He gave the power to become the Sons of God." As the sunlight shines equally in the same degree on the diamond and on the charcoal, so also, God sheds His light equally on the diamond and the charcoal mentalities. The difference is that the believing diamond mentalities receive and reflect the rays of God more than the doubting charcoal mentalities. So, all Souls who, by meditation, become pure and transparent, will be able to receive and reflect God and be called Sons of God.

Each Soul who leaves delusion and becomes One with God is termed a Son of God. Besides, Jesus was the big brother, beloved of God, who was sent on earth to redeem desire-deluded brothers, and to urge them to become like Him. Potentially, we are all Sons of God, only we have to manifest that by self-discipline, even as Jesus did.

NOT THE BODY OF JESUS, BUT THE CONSCIOUSNESS WITHIN IT WAS ONE WITH THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, OR ONLY REFLECTION OF GOD, THE FATHER, IN CREATION.

Jesus said that when His body (Son of Man) was gone from the earth, people could still find salvation by believing and knowing the Only Begotten Son of God.

THOSE who have read Doctor Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness and Edward Carpenter’s Towards Democracy know that these authors believe that Cosmic Consciousness is a natural faculty of man, and that a future race of men on this earth will be born with this faculty well developed, and not merely latent as it is now. Bucke’s theory is that, just as man advanced from the state of simple consciousness, which he shared with the animal kingdom, into a state of self-consciousness, peculiar to man alone, and marked by the development of language, so he must inevitably come into a higher state of consciousness, distinguished by a cosmic or universal understanding.

Bucke maintains that the increasing number of people who have attained some degree of Cosmic Consciousness in the past few centuries is proof that these persons constitute the vanguard or forerunners of the new race. Among those whom Bucke believes to have had the cosmic sense more or less well developed (in recent centuries) are St. John of the Cross, Francis Bacon, Jacob Behman, Blaise Pascal, Spinoza, Swendenborg, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Alexander Pushkin, Honore de Balzac, Emerson, Tennyson, Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Edward Carpenter and Ramakrishna.

Besides these famous men, it is doubtless true that many hundreds of men and women in each century, unknown to fame, have been exalted to some degree of Cosmic Consciousness. There is no doubt in my mind that the message of Yogoda in this country and this century has been the means by which hundreds and perhaps thousands of Americans have achieved, through the meditation practices taught them, a glimpse of divine consciousness. Some few students have gone farther, and attained very high illumination. Here we have an example of how the cosmic sense is being developed in larger and larger numbers, paving the way for the great race of the future.

One paragraph from Bucke’s book is well worth quoting here:

"In contact with the flux of Cosmic Consciousness all religions known and named today will be melted down. The human soul will be revolutionized. Religion will absolutely dominate the race. It will not depend on tradition. It will not be believed and disbelieved.

It will not be a part of life, belonging to certain hours, times, occasions. It will not be in sacred books nor in the mouths of priests. It will not dwell in churches and meetings and forms and days. Its life will not be in prayers, hymns nor discourses. It will not depend on special revelations, on the words of gods who came down to teach, nor on any Bible or Bibles. It will have no mission to save men from their sins or to secure them entrance to heaven. It will not teach a future immortality nor future glories, for immortality and all glory will exist in the here and now. The evidence of immortality will live in every heart as sight in every eye. Doubt of God and of eternal life will be as impossible as is now doubt of existence; the evidence of each will be the same. Religion will govern every minute of every day of all life. Churches, priests, forms, creeds, prayers, all agents, all intermediaries between the individual man and God will be permanently replaced by direct unmistakable intercourse. Sin will no longer exist nor will salvation be desired. Men will not worry about death or a future, about the kingdom of heaven, about what may come with and after the cessation of the life of the present body. Each soul will feel and know itself to be immortal, will feel and know that the entire universe with all its good and with all its beauty is for it and belongs to it forever. The world peopled by men possessing Cosmic Consciousness will be as far removed from the world of today as this is from the world as it was before the advent of self-consciousness. . . . This new race is in act of being born from us, and in the near future it will occupy and possess the earth."

The fact that there is a technique, such as Yogoda teaches, whereby Cosmic Consciousness can be attained, is in itself proof that this higher sense is indeed an inherent faculty of all men, needing but the necessary training to call it forth. Most people believe that divine knowledge comes to only a few chosen people, and that the average man can approach no nearer to God than his "faith" will take him. Realization that there is a definite Way to contact God, a technique usable by all men in all circumstances, has come with such a liberating shock to many Yogoda students that they feel they have undergone a new birth.

I have one such case in mind—a man who, as soon as he had heard the Yogoda message, was swept up into Cosmic Consciousness. He is the only man of true Illumination, outside of Swami Yogananda, whom I have known personally, though I have heard or read of a number of other Yogoda students who have had a more or less similar experience.

This man was possessed of intense religious faith and aspiration. Though well read in the sacred scriptures of the world, especially those of the Hindus, he knew that this intellectual knowledge was barren and stony; it did not feed the soul-hunger within him. He did not wish merely to read about spiritual food, but to taste it. Under the even tenor of his days there yawned a black abyss of despair—despair that he was worthy of any direct contact with God, since no such experience was given to him. He finally came to doubt, not God, but the possibility that he would ever be able to have more than an intellectual comprehension of Him. This conviction struck at the roots of his life, and made it seem a worthless and meaningless thing.

Into this dark night of his soul came the light of Yogoda. After attending a few of the public Yogoda lectures, and before taking the class lessons, this man felt the heavy weight of despair lifting from his heart. Returning to his home one night from the last of the public lectures, he was conscious of a great peace within himself. He felt that in some deep fundamental way, he had become a different person. An impulse urged him to look into a mirror in his room, that he might see the new man. There he saw, not his one face, but the face of the Hindu teacher whose lecture he had attended that evening. The flood-gates of joy broke in his soul; he was inundated with waves of indescribable ecstasy. Words that had been merely words to him before—bliss, immortality, eternity, truth, divine love—became, in the twinkling of an eye, the core of his being, the essence of his life, the only possible reality. Realization that these deep, everlasting founts of joy existed in every heart, that this immortal life underlay all the mortality of humanity, that this eternal, all-inclusive love enveloped and supported and guided every particle, every atom of creation, burst upon him with a surety, a divine certainty that caused his whole being to pour forth in a flood of praise and gratitude.

He knew, not with his mind alone, but with his heart and soul, with every cell and molecule of his body. The sublime splendor and joy of this discovery were so vast that he felt that centuries, millenniums, countless eons of suffering were as nothing, as less than nothing, if by such means this bliss could be obtained. Sin, sorrow, death—these were but words now, words without meaning, words swallowed up by joy as minnows by the seven seas.

He was aware, during this first period of illumination and during the weeks which followed, of a number of physiological changes within himself. The most striking was what seemed a rearrangement of molecular structures in his brain, or the opening up of new cell-territory there. Ceaselessly, day and night, he was conscious of this work going on. It seemed as though a kind of electrical drill was boring out new cellular thought-channels. This phenomenon is strong proof of Bucke’s theory that Cosmic Consciousness is a natural faculty of man, for it gives evidence that the brain cells which are connected with this faculty are already present in man, although inactive or non-functioning in the majority of human beings at the present time.

Another important change was felt in his spinal column. The whole spine seemed turned into iron for several weeks, so that, when he sat to meditate on God, he felt anchored forever, able to sit in one place eternally without motion or consciousness of any bodily function. At times an influx of super-human strength invaded him, and he felt that he was carrying the whole universe on his shoulders. The elixir of life, the nectar of immortality, he felt flowing in his veins as an actual, tangible force. It seemed like a quicksilver, or a sort of electrical, fluid light throughout his body.

During the weeks of his illumination, he felt no need of food or sleep. But he conformed his outward life to the pattern of his household, and ate and slept when his family did. All food seemed pure spirit to him, and in sleep he was pillowed on the "everlasting arms," awakening to a joy past all words, past all powers of description.

He had previously suffered from chronic catarrh and had been a heavy smoker; now his body was purged of all sickness, and desire for nicotine was wiped completely from his consciousness. His family and friends were aware of a great change in his appearance and manner; his face shone with a radiant light, his eyes were pools of joy. Strangers spoke to him, irresistibly drawn by a strange sympathy; on the street-car, children would come over to sit on his lap, asking him to visit them.

The whole universe was to him bathed in a sea of love; he said to himself many times, "Now at last I know what Love is! This is God’s love, shaming the noblest human affection .Eternal love, unconquerable love, all-satisfying love!" He knew beyond all possibility or thought of doubt that Love creates and sustains the universe, and that all created things human or sub-human, were destined to discover this Love, this immortal bliss that was the very essence of life. He felt his mind expand, his understanding reach out, endlessly widening, growing, touching everything in the universe, binding all things, all thoughts to himself. He was "center everywhere, circumference nowhere."

The air that he breathed was friendly, intimate, conscious of life. He felt that all the world was "home" to him, that he could never feel strange or alien to any place again; that the mountains, the sea, the distant lands which he had never seen, would be as much his own as the home of his boyhood. Everywhere he looked, he saw the "atom-dance" of nature; the air was filled with myriad moving pin-pricks of light.

During these weeks, he went about his daily duties as usual, but with a hitherto unknown efficiency and speed. Typed papers flew off his machine, completed without error in a fourth of his customary time. Fatigue was unknown to him; his work seemed like child’s play, happy and carefree. Conversing in person or over the telephone with his clients, his inward joy covered every action and circumstance with a cosmic significance, for to him these men, this telephone, this table, this voice was God, God manifesting Himself in another of His fascinating disguises.

In the midst of his work, he would suddenly be freshly overwhelmed by the goodness of God Who had given him this incredible, unspeakable happiness. His breath would stop completely at such times; the awe which he felt would be accompanied by an absolute stillness within and without. Underlying all his consciousness was a sense of immeasurable and unutterable gratitude; a longing for others to know the joy which lay within them; but most of all, a divine knowledge, past all human comprehension, that all was well with the world, that everything was leading to the goal of Cosmic Consciousness, immortal bliss.

This state of illumination was present with the man for about two months, and then gradually wore away. It has never returned with all its pristine force, though certain features, especially the sense of divine peace and joy, return whenever he practices the Yogoda meditation exercises.

We can well imagine, with Doctor Bucke, that a race of men, possessing as a normal and permanent faculty this sense of Cosmic Consciousness, would soon turn the earth into a paradise, a planet fit for Christs and Buddhas, and polestar for the wheeling universe.

If you do not wish for His Kingdom,

Don’t pray for it, but if you do,

You must do more than pray for it;

You must work for it.

Verse 15: Panchajanyam Hrishikesho Debadattam Dhananjayah Paundram dadhmou mohashankham Bheemakarma Briksdarah.

Verse 16: Anantabijayam Raja Kuntiputro Yudhisthirah Nakulah sahadetascha sughosemanipuspakan.

*Verse 17: Kasyacha paramaswasah Shikhandeecha Maharathah Dhristadyumno Biratacha Satyakischaparajitoh.

*Verse 18: Drupado Droupadayascha sarbashah prithibipata Saubhadrascha Mahabahuh sankhan dadhmou prithak prithak.

*(These are various astral sounds heard in meditation only, and cannot be explained in words.)

Earth—The Coccygeal Plexus—Bee-like Cosmic Sound

Sahadeva manipuspakam dadhou—prithibi tatwan manipuspakah—muladharothita mattabhringabat Pronaba.

1. Verses 15 and 16: Asyam abasthyam samsayahatoh "Asa aba Pronabah Kim na ba" eta samsah bhabati, "Sabitarkasamprogyata Samadhi."

The earth element is represented in the coccygeal plexus. The devotee concentrating upon this plexus hears the cosmic sound of Aum as the drone of a mad bee. On hearing this sound, the devotee reasons with doubt as to whether this sound is body vibration or Cosmic sound. That is why this state of concentration is called "sabitarka Sampragyata Samadhi," or a mental doubt-ridden state of inner absorption. This is the abode of the body-bound mind.

2. Nakulah sughosa sankham dadhou. Jalatatwana sughosah pronabashabdah Swadhisthan chakra Banushadbdabat sruyata Asyam Abasthyam Budhi Bartamandhatoh, "Kimpadarthoyam pronabah eti bicharah bhabati. Tasmat eyam sabdanubhababasha, "Sabichara Sampragyata Samadhi."

The water element is manifested in the sacral plexus. The devotee concentrating upon this is lifted from the doubt state of mind to the discriminating state of the intelligence, and listens to a higher sound of Astral Flute in the sacral center. This state is called the Sabichara Sampragyata Samadhi, or the "intellectual reason-guided state of Inner Absorption."

3. Dhanajayah devadatham samkham dadhou. Banhitatwa Devadattah—manipura beenashabdabat Pronabasabah Utpadyata Asyan Abasthyam Anubhatmikabritti Chittwa Bidyata. "Tasmat eeyam shabdanubhababastha Sananda Sampragyata Samadhi eeti."

The fire element is expressed in the manipura Lumbar plexus. The devotee concentrating upon this listens to the Astral Harp and, due to the dissolution of the doubting mental state and discriminating intellectual states, he attains the state of perceptive Self Realization and inner absorption in Bliss, or "Sananda Sampragyata Samadhi."

4. Bheemakarma Brikodarah Mahasamkhyam Poundram Dadhou. Anahatapadmothita Deerghaghanta ninadabat Pronabashabdah. Asyam Abasthyam manobuddhi chittwannapi Leeyata. Ahmkara matrabashishyata taddhatoh Jibah, "Eswarabachaka Pronabaham anubhabami," eti Asmitabritti Anabhabati Tasmat eyam sabdanubhababasha "Sasmita Sampragyata Samadhi eti."

The Air, or the Life Force element, is manifest in the Dorsal plexus opposite the heart in the spine. The devotee concentrating upon this Center listens to the longdrawn, deep, Astral bell, the "Symbol of God," and due to the dissolution of the mental, intellectual, and perceptive states, arrives at the Ego-mixed intuitive state of Inner Bliss Absorption, or Sasmita Sampragyata Samadhi.

5. Raja Kuntiputra Yudhisthira Anatabijayam Samkham dadhou. Susumnasthitah sarbaprodhan Byomtattwana Anantabijayah sankham jana shabdana Anantah Akhilah bisosana jeeyata sah—Bisudhakhyachakrasthitah maghagarjanabat Pronaba eti. Asmni sabda Asmitdpi belina Bhutwa tatparampurasat anyakinchidapi na progyata. Tasmat eyam sabdanubhababastha, "Asamprogyata Samadhi."

The other element is manifest in the cervical Center in the spine. The devotee concentrating here, hears the Eternity-controlling, infinity-spreading Cosmic sound vibrating like the ocean roar. At this state, the four mental, intellectual, perceptive, and egotistic states are all dissolved, giving birth to the more expanded, deeper state of the limitless joyousness of intuitive perception called the "Asamprogyata Samadhi."

In this state, although the lower states of human consciousness are extinct, still it is not unconsciousness, but an expanded state of higher intuitive perception, in which one is victorious over all space and embraces the Omnipresence everywhere.

6. Panchajanyam Hrishikesha represents the conglomeration of the five sounds of the five plexuses, heard in the Center of Christ Consciousness between the eyebrows and medullary plexuses. Here the devout enjoys a greater "Swabikalpa Samadhi," or union with God in all. When the devotee reaches the cerebral plexus, he attains the highest conscious Samadhi with God, called Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

The layman, reading the above, may wonder what it is all about, but the devotee knows that by the practice of the Yogoda Fifth Lesson and the Second Higher Art of Self Realization all the above sounds can be distinctly heard. This can be proven to anyone who is deeply acquainted with the Yogoda Teachings. However, I am going to give enough scientific explanation to in some measure satisfy any layman reading this article.

An Australian bushman, seeing a talking motion picture for the first time, might easily believe it to be the real acting of living men and women on the screen. The only way to convince him that the talking picture is nothing but a play of electric vibrations is to take him near the screen and let him touch the shadowy pictures, and feel their unreal nature. Another way to convince the bushman that the talking pictures are nothing but electric vibrations and shadows is to take him to the booth and show him how the torrent of electric light emanating from the little opening in the operating room carries the realistic pictures and projects them on the screen.

Likewise, to the materialist, the whole world, with all its complications of solids, liquids, fire, gases, and so forth, seems to be composed of real material objects, but when the Yogi, advanced on the path of inner perception, says: "This world and the Cosmos are only shadows of life thrown on the screen of space, or that the world consists of dream pictures reflected in our conscious and subconscious chamber, just as the electric flood of light going out of the booth can be seen to be like a transparent searchlight without any visible pictures, so also God, from His Booth in the Center of Eternity is throwing a spherical bundle of rays of invisible searchlights, producing an endless variety of apparently realistic pictures on the screen of space.

To be more scientific, the Yogi, with closed eyes, peering into the invisible darkness, finds six booths of the coccygeal, sacral, lumbar, dorsal, cervical, and Christ Centers in the spinal column, and the point between the eyebrows. By concentrating upon the Six Centers, he first hears the music of the bumble bee, flute, harp, gong bell, sea roar, and a symphony of all the Astral sounds emanating from the Six Centers, respectively, as described before, and representing the vibration of various elements.

Just as the electric flood of light thrown on the screen makes a peculiar noise, due to electric vibration, so the various spinal Centers, throwing off different currents in space, producing the true-to-sight, true-to-touch, true-to-hearing, true-to-smell, and true-to-taste picture of the body, emanate different musical sounds.

The true-to-touch picture of the body is produced by an earth current in the coccyx, by a water vibration in the sacral, fire vibration in the lumbar, air vibration in the dorsal, ether vibration in the cervical, and consciousness and life vibration in the medulla and Christ Center.

To make it clear, the life current in the coccyx is responsible for the solidifying of Life Force and atoms into flesh, and produces the sound of a buzzing bee as it operates. The sacral center sustains the atoms of all the watery substance in the body and makes the musical sound of a flute as it works. The lumbar center keeps up the Astral and electrical heat of the body and oozes out the beautiful sound of a harp. The dorsal center keeps the oxygen and air elements in the body combining with the flesh and sends forth the sound of a gong bell.

The cervical plexus maintains the etheric background in the body and times it to all spatial vibrations. This cervical center reverberates with the Cosmic Vibration of ocean rumblings. The Christ Center, in the medulla and in the point between the eyebrows, is the dynamo of consciousness, Life Force, and elemental vibrations, which mainly keep the elements of life, consciousness, flesh, blood, heat, air, and ether of the body continuously recharged.

In other words, the body is not as it appears to be. It is a combination of Six Currents, emanating form the Six Plexuses. First, the Spiritual aspirant, who wants to know about the mystery picture of the body, has his attention withdrawn from the body to the inner six booths, which throw six currents and produce the consciousness of the body. By the knowledge of these Six Currents, in the Six Centers, and by years of higher meditation, the veteran Yogi learns to know the body as a combination of Six Currents and not as a solid mass.

The operator in the booth knows that the talking pictures are unreal, combinations of light and sound, but the audience takes the pictures to be realistic. Likewise, the Yogi, concentrating upon the inner operating booths of the Six Centers, beholds the body as a combination of various currents, while the people of the world behold the body as a solid substance. It is at this point that the Yogi learns to materialize or dematerialize his body.

In a psychological battle between the sense-bound mind and the Soul-bound discrimination, various vibrations of the warring senses and the Soul forces are heard within. The material man, whose attention is matter-bound, hears the noise of material things. The Spiritual man, as he listens within, hears only the gross sound of the heart circulation, and so on, ready to bring him back to matter. As the devotee’s attention deepens, he hears the Astral music of the bumble bee, flute, harp, gong bell, sea roar, Astral symphony, and so forth. Then, following those sounds, he learns to locate the Centers. Locating the Centers, he actually sees them. This requires years of meditation through the personal instruction of an advanced Guru (Preceptor). Then, seeing the Centers, he solves the mystery of the body, and knows that it is a bundle of light vibrations.

DESPITE the facts of history, that it was, just prior to our more enlightened age, considered a crime punishable by torturous death to even be found studying the science of Alchemy, still, we are compelled to admit that men of the mental and spiritual caliber of Flamel and Comte Saint-Germain did possess the coveted secret and succeeded in making gold.

Neither of these men, however, used their phenomenal power for self-exaltation. They were both beyond that stage in their evolutionary unfoldment. They were altruists of the Order of Melchisedec, whose lives were consecrated to the higher service of humanity, Saint-Germain making himself supremely useful to the rulers of Europe as a wise and crafty diplomat. They were altruists, whose exalted motives earned for them the right to that power, and there is no evidence in the records of their marvelous lives to prove anything to the contrary.

This proves an ennoblement of character perhaps as phenomenal in their day as was the fact of transmutation of base metal into gold, but the point we wish specially to make in this connection is in regard to the Divine Alchemy foreshadowed in the mineral kingdom, which obtains in the Kingdom of Man.

The evolutionary movement of the mineral kingdom is toward the Gold Ideal, upon which standard Earth’s material wealth is mainly based, and about which there is so much controversy at the present time. It is unwise and evil to covet material wealth for SELF’S SAKE, but the same POWER should not, on this account, be despised, ignored, or in any way be underestimated as a real vital force to be reckoned with and placed in its right category and harmonious relationship to a well-balanced life.

Just as Yogoda reveals a scientific technique which affords a rapid short-cut to Self Realization, and the quick attainment of the Divine Consciousness, thereby hastening our evolutionary unfoldment, so these Alchemists discovered a process whereby they could, in like manner, hasten the evolution of the mineral and bring it at once to the height of its ideal—GOLD.

It is a law of Nature which postulates: That what obtains in one kingdom obtains in all. Hence it is logical to deduct that the Science of Alchemy—Transmutation, the Philosopher’s Stone—is just as applicable in the Human Kingdom as it is in the mineral kingdom, and hence, if we can learn the technique and discover the chemical combination of the Precipitate, the curriculum whereby we can create the Alchemical Essences which control the rate of vibration in the One Substance in the Universe, upon which all things created subsist, then we control the One Force in Nature which, when applied to the piece of charcoal, transmutes it into the diamond—or the base metal into the glittering gold.

For the truth of this occult knowledge, we are not wholly dependent upon historical records alone, but we have also the positive testimony of creditable witnesses who have seen the actual transmutation by those who possess these profound secrets of Nature. So great a power is not bestowed lightly, or accidentally discovered, as many modern inventions are, and when we consider that the same force might be used destructively, in the hands of unprincipled mortals, we begin to understand the wisdom of secrecy, the reason why the Truth is hidden, why it is so hard to understand, why we must pay the toll for knowledge in Personal Effort, and why we must sacrifice all of Self before we may inherit our lost Godhood again. Let us then turn our minds and efforts toward the Greater Transmutation, the substance which the mineral foreshadows, and strive to attain to that "Change" the Christ exemplified from time to time in different bodies since the world began.

When self-will raised his arrogant head in the Ego of man and reason yielded to feeling, and death resulted, the Creator devised means for the return of the fallen prodigals to the Divine Consciousness and state of the Immortals. From unity in equilibrium and harmony in Paradise, the Forces fell and became separated from their parts and individuals became viduals, scattered in chaos and lost in darkness.

Over the dense mass God spread the Precipitate of His love, wisdom, and power, as an atomic over-lay, the leaven of purity, which must ultimately transmute the base mass and bring back the scattered atoms into their own realms of being and harmonious degrees of expression, thus restoring polarization and the equilibration of the physical and the spiritual forces on Earth, which is the kingdom of heaven.

The Christs, or Anointed Ones, who receive God’s Precipitate, overcome "the flesh, with its affections and lusts," and become in deed and in truth—Divine Alchemists. To such, the Horn of Plenty is poured out, and poverty departs forever. "They shall inherit all things; I will be their God, and they shall be My sons."

We almost hesitate to quote a passage of Scripture bearing upon this Great Transmutation, for the reason that it has been so grossly misinterpreted, namely: "He made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

Out of this profound Alchemical mystery, which made the laying down of the body as the "wages of sin" necessary, has been evolved the damning dogma of substitution, the death-knell of all personal effort, for the purpose of affording an easy way or "Plan of Salvation," whereby the deluded believers in it may evade their Personal Responsibility and avoid the consequences of their transgressions.

Christ descended into the darkness of Earth, incarnating in the body of dense physical matter, under the Fall, that He might exemplify to us THE WAY and make possible the Great Transmutation, whereby we, following in His footsteps, in obedience to the Divine mandate, may change this "body of our humiliation" from dense physical matter into highly refined Spiritual matter, and become once more "God’s Shining Men" in immortality, AS HE IS, or the "righteousness of God in Him," which is the translation, the transfiguration, the Transmutation of the human into the Divine.

The stars and planets so mathematically spaced,

Each constellation so precisely placed,

The Comet’s scorching trail across the sky,

The fleecy clouds adrift on high,

Bespeak Thy Glorious Power.

The golden dawn, the setting sun,

The foamy seas with tides far flung,

The rainbow with its gorgeous hue,

The sunbeams shimmering through the dew,

Bespeak Thy Beauty, Lord.

The eagle, as it soars at will,

The meadow lark, the hawk’s cry, shrill,

The cattle lowing on the plain,

Sheep scurrying homeward through the rain,

Bespeak Thy Providence.

The mating doves, cooing at dawn,

The doe while nursing its baby fawn,

Robins feeding their young in the tree above,

The child caressed with mother’s love,

Bespeak Thy Infinite Love.

The snow-capped mountains with sunset glow,

Tall cedar pines on the slopes below,

The buffalo herds on the prairie sand,

The silvery river gliding through the land,

Bespeak Thy Wondrous Works.

Thy sons and daughters, God manifest,

Truth seekers, spiritual, abundantly blessed,

The little children of this Fifth Age,

Imparting Thy wisdom as might a sage,

Bespeak Thy Consciousness.

STUDY of the elusive Cosmic Rays, which bombard the earth, without so far revealing their true nature, has taken an Indian physicist, Prof. J. M. Benade, to high ridges of the Himalayas, 19,500 feet above the sea.

The mountain climb is part of the world-wide Cosmic Ray survey organized by Prof. A. H. Compton, of the University of Chicago. By gathering data on the intensity of the Rays from space as they strike the earth at different altitudes, physicists hope to learn the character of this radiation.

Reporting his journey to the Urusvati Journal of the Himalayan Research Institute in New York, Prof. Benade expresses the belief that he has carried the Cosmic Ray search to a new height record for mountain work. Prof. Benade is Professor of physics at Forman Christian College, at Lahore. His part in the world survey is to take measurements of Rays in Ceylon, Java, Singapore, Penang, Rangoon, Calcutta, Lahore, and at the highest attainable altitudes in the Himalaya mountains in India.

Prof. Benade and his party made their highest measurements at the mountain pass Lanyar La. Here they pitched an observation tent and spent two days taking readings. An effort to reach a 20,000 foot point of observation was unsuccessful. Prof. Benade has forwarded his data to Prof. Compton.

WAYS of putting the rainbow to work by means of the Spectroscope, one of the most powerful tools for research, were discussed recently at the Industrial Conference on Spectroscopy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where 100 scientists and industrialists attended and showed great interest.

The Spectroscope has innumerable uses, and in various applications serves as a watch, detective, balance, speedometer, microscope, camera, tape measure, transit, and forgery detector.

In addition to Spectroscopists from this country and abroad, those attending the Conference included industrialists and research scientists working in textiles, chemical engineering, explosive manufacturing, metallurgical engineering, astronomy, medicine, biology, coal mining, automotive engineering, paper manufacturing, and wire making.

In crime detection the Spectroscope has enabled investigators to identify materials on clothing. In food industries it is valuable in checking ultra-violet irradiation and in analysis of materials. Dental researchers have discovered by the use of the Spectroscope that mottled enamel is due to small impurities in certain drinking waters.

There was a large attendance of industrialists at the Conference, who, although not trained in Spectroscopy, realize its possibilities for their industries and want to learn how to utilize it.

WHEN compared with the strength of man, the strength of an insect is most remarkable indeed. For instance, the busy little ant can carry a load forty or fifty times as heavy as himself, and the ordinary beetle can propel a burden 100 times his own weight. The insignificant house fly gives 100 strokes to his wings in about two seconds, thus enabling him to go a distance of thirty-five feet in that time.

Perhaps the most wonderful of all insects is the dragon fly. It goes through the air at the rate of sixty miles an hour, and can stop instantly or change its course backward or sideways without lessening its speed or changing the position of its body.

One little honey bee will hang suspended from a limb while from his body a hundred others will depend, one holding to another, chain fashioned. And one cannot see that the first bee wavers of finds his load heavy.

Chop fine enough nut meats to make 1-1/2 cupfuls, than add them to 4 cupfuls of bread crumbs, 1/2 cupful of chopped parsley, one teaspoonful of pepper, 1/2 cupful of chopped onions, one No. 2 can of tomatoes, one teaspoonful of salt, 2 cupfuls of chopped celery, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoonfuls of fat, and the juice of one lemon. Bake and serve with one cupful of tomato sauce.

Pare some apples and slice them thin; put into a pie pan and heap up in the center. Mix one teaspoonful of baking powder with 2 cupfuls of white flour, a pinch of salt, and sugar to taste. Work in 2 tablespoonfuls of butter and use enough milk to make a stiff batter. Spread the dough over the apples; place in the oven and bake until the apples are tender. Turn bottom side up onto a hot plate, put dots of butter over the apples, sprinkle thickly with sugar, and flavor with nutmeg. Cover with whipped cream and serve.

Cook in 3 tablespoonfuls of butter for five minutes: One chopped onion, 1/4 cupful of chopped carrot, and 1/4 cupful of chopped celery. Add 1/3 cupful of white flour, 1/2 teaspoonful of peppercorns, one small bay leaf, three sprigs of thyme, and three cloves. Cook for three minutes, then add one can of tomatoes, and cook for one hour slowly. Rub through a strainer, then add one quart of hot vegetable stock, some salt and pepper, and one cupful of broken pieces of macaroni which has been cooked for over 30 minutes and then drained.

MANY persons have dived in the Ocean of Thy Abundance again and again to seek the pearls of opulence, power, and wisdom, but only a few divers have found them. These few persons have praised the wondrous riches of Thy Sea because they dived well and found the secret treasure nook. Those who dived in the wrong places blamed Thy blue brine of abundance as devoid of the most desired treasures. Many persons perish diving in the Sea of Treasures, being devoured by monsters of selfishness, greed, faithlessness, doubt, idleness, and skepticism.

Heavenly Father, teach me how to dive in Thy Ocean of Plenty again and again if I do not find the pearls of Thy Perception by one or two divings. I will not say that Thy Ocean of Everything is empty, for Thou wilt show me that the fault is with my diving. I will put on the diving apparel of faith, power, and fortitude, and Thou wilt direct my mind to dive in the right place, where Thy bounty is hidden.

Oh Almighty, Beloved One, teach me how to wear the suit of Silence and dive through the measureless cold blue ocean, and pierce the cave of stars—if Thou art hidden there. Teach me how to sink like a plumet in the depthless sea of peace—if perchance I may find Thee there. Teach me how to swim over the waves of wind and light, and waft me to Thy measureless shore.

I swam through many seas of desire and dived in Thy many seas, yet I found not Thy most-sought-for treasure. But as I dived through the measureless sea of the Love in all things, in all hearts, I at last found the priceless pearl of Thy Presence.

THE prison walls of economic environment for the present art ignored. The hunger that threatened to unnerve and undermine and upset my equilibrium has been conquered by sufficient food, at least for the present, and I have pushed the sense of my economic insecurity as far as possible from my consciousness.

As the calm and cool of the evening draws one, I feel its calmness and coolness enter my Soul, and as I draw farther and farther within the recesses of tranquility, I find the Great Companionship of Comfort—I am in the presence of God.

For days, in the midst of the perplexities of this troublous world, an ever-recurring Voice has been whispering in my ear, and at times it seems even to have spoken aloud: "Depend upon God;" and thus I have been prepared for such tranquillity as I now experience.

In this spirit let me breathe a prayer of reassurance to ease the burdens of the day and restore peace to your Soul. How little do each one of us know the world in which the other person lives. After all, in one sense, each one of us lives in a world apart unto himself, but in another sense we all live in a world together.

Brotherhood is more than blood-ties—more than a sense of kindredness of spirit. It is that also, of course, and this forms the basis upon which we share each other’s joys and sorrows, but brotherhood in us is also joined in the merchandise of food which comes from God’s storehouse. The wheat that is ground into flour and made into bread equally nourishes and sustains us both, and it is by the merest chance that what I eat might as well have been consumed by you, or some Chinese brother across the Pacific.

Did it ever occur to you that it is a sacrilege and a crime against God to subject food to the befouling degradation of merchandise for which we bid at auction, and the price that is paid, high or low, is in reverse ration to the hunger we experience.

What does this suggest to you? To me it brings the thought of its striking similarity to the benighted days of the black slave, who was sold at auction to the highest bidder, with the intent of utilizing him as a beast of burden.

But the bread that we bid for at auction in our rather roundabout way is only one step removed from the flesh of the brother it is intended to nourish. It is not that I grow sentimental about wheat and mean that it should not be used as food. Of course it should. To this end it was destined, even as you and I are destined to be swallowed up and engulfed by this Cosmic Consciousness we know as God, but, I protest it was never intended to be used as an article of merchandise, having within it the barbed hook of greed that says: "Unless you yield to my demands, you starve."

You and I live in this sort of fantastic world—a world freighted with abundance, yet embracing millions of hungry Souls. It is not that men and women are by premeditated forethought just cruel and indifferent to the needs and suffering of others. They are not men and women at all in a sense, but only ignorant children who have not yet learned to live happily together in a Socialized world. Yes, I suppose there are quite a number who are disposed toward evil, grown to a calloused state of mind, and hard and harsh and cruel, but the vast majority are simply ignorant, and their ignorance has in part been inherited, and in part it has crept upon them little by little like paralysis, because they did not, or forgot to, "Depend upon God."

Unless, somehow, we can make God real in the common experiences of our lives, as when we eat and give food to others, then it seems to me but a hollow pretense if we try to point the way to Godly living by words.

But how can we "eat and drink to the glory of God" if we must first engage in an economic contentious struggle to obtain the food? It is, in my opinion, just as much a mockery of God as it would be to pray for God’s blessing before rushing into battle to slaughter and to kill.

The simple directness with which father asked God to "bless this food to the nourishment of our bodies," when we were boys back on the farm, had in it the essence of holiness, because in so doing he also asked for God’s blessing on the labor of his hands and ours, which helped to bring it into existence, and also on those dear hands of mother and our sisters, who prepared it and set it before us.

On food that is merchandise, bought and sold in the city, at prices raised and lowered according to the demands of might and greed, it is not so easy to ask the Blessing of God. But what can be the conclusion to so complex a matter. Quite simple, after all: First and foremost, let us realize that the food that we eat, and the drink with which we slake our thirst, "is the broken body of Christ and the blood that He shed upon the cross," and that we, until we change our social conduct, still continue to crucify Him in the cruelty we exhibit in the unholy traffic in human misery.

Those generous impulses that well up within us, to which we are denied the opportunity to give adequate and full expression, proves that what I say is correct: that men and women in the main are much better at heart than surface indications and outward expression oftentimes seem to warrant. I want to touch that innermost heart of hearts of humanity and set it vibrating once more in harmony with God’s law of Love and Truth.

So long as there is hunger and deprivation in the world, and you and I have within our possession more than sufficient to satisfy our one needs, and do not share with those in need, we are murderers and thieves, and are deserving of the places once occupied by the two thieves crucified with Christ on Calvery.

But God is more than a God of Justice, and Christ is more than a sacrificial Offering. God tempers His Justice with Mercy and Christ’s Love shines through the exhibit of His Sacrifice, and so we, too, must labor in Love and show Mercy if we would "Depend upon God."

Some day we will change our Social Conduct, but we must first recognize how cruel and indifferent it has been toward the welfare of others. When we do recognize this, we will set about correcting such social sinning and criminal practice. We will replace this "rugged indifference" and this "ragged individualism" with Social Consciousness and Brotherly Love and we will work for, as we pray for, "Thy Kingdom come on Earth."—Your Brother George.

What is life? Life is a wave of electons and atoms, a wave of protoplasm, a wave of power, and a wave of consciousness on the Ocean of Spirit. Life is intelligent, organized motion. It becomes a clod of earth or melts itself into vapor, or becomes a human being or a flower. Stones, living Beings, and dead creatures are all waves on the Ocean of Life. There is no death nor cessation of motion in anything. Everything is living.

A wave is born. It rises to its supreme height, then falls or dies, rising again somewhere else. Like everything else, the human body is a combination of three kinds of waves, or three co-existing waves, of electons, Life Force, and intelligence, knit together by a Soul, rolling up and down the Ocean of Life. The birth of the baby is the beginning, youth is the crest, and death is the fall of the wave in the Infinite Ocean of Life.

"Give me a faithful heart,

Likeness to Thee,

That each departing day

Henceforth may see

Some work of love begun,

Some deed of kindness done,

Some wanderer sought and won,

Something for Thee."—Anon.

TO know the Creative Word is to know God: and the Creative Word is OM. It is Reality; it is Truth; it is the ultimate Science of Being. Speak it and you give voice to the power back of all Creation; seek to know it and you become the Knower.

But you must first become the Seeker. Faith without works, as well as desire without action, is dead. With action you can build a house upon a stone, but a seed dropped there will produce no harvest.

Knowledge comes only to the Seeker. It falls upon the unformed ear from the unformed lips of God. Sometimes it comes through to us softly, bringing neither friction nor conflict, as a soothing revelation. At other times it approaches us in the guise of a bitter dose of medicine, frightful to look upon and difficult to take.

To live in a sordid environment, surrounded by unwholesome and inharmonious conditions; to be constantly harassed by poverty and sickness, by lack and unhappiness; to hear nothing but quarrels and bickerings; to slave long hours at menial tasks without even the reward of having our labors appreciated—these things are painful to us all. But such pain is as nothing compared to a rancid dose of God’s knowledge, that knowledge which comes to the Seeker suddenly and seems nothing short of a colossal insult to our already injured pride and feelings.

Suppose in our bitter hour we went to Him with our troubles, hoping to gain His sympathy and through Him our release, and suppose, after He had listened patiently to our prayers, He quietly but firmly informed us: "Your surroundings are bad, but you are where you belong. You merit no better or you would have better."

That would be the truth, because God spoke it. He could say nothing else. Truth is Truth. It can be neither temporized nor withheld when the time comes for us to receive it. With it, however, we can do one of several things: we can indulge in the fool’s paradise of self-pity and resentment; we might try to deny it and suffer the results of folly; or we can accept it and make further inquiries into its meaning.

By getting beneath the indictment, we would uncover what is commonly called the Law of Attraction, and we would find that this Law, like all others, is inexorable in its execution and spares no one who, through ignorance or otherwise, works against it instead of with it.

What we are is what we attract, has long ago become a platitude. But we have no objection to platitudes, especially if they are good ones. No matter what our situation happens to be at the moment, therefore, it is exactly what it should be according as we have rightly used or wrongly used the Law. In other words, we are always where we belong. Nor is there anywhere in the whole universe a power that can help us out of it, save the power within ourselves. Others might tell us about this power; they might inspire us to seek it and use it, but that is as far as they can go. To apply it is our duty and ours alone.

A man whose consciousness is attuned to large affairs will make trifling things loom large to others; one whose soul roams through the alleys of self-effacement and doubt will automatically be placed in an environment where these things are realized. We may sink as low as our ignorance and invention will carry us; we may rise as high as our faith and understanding will reach.

If we believe that a certain condition or thing has control over us, we can reach no higher than that condition or thing. It is our business or duty, therefore, to transcend, to rid ourselves of all beliefs which limit our good or retard our growth. God is the limit and He is Infinite.

We must learn to have but one belief, and that is that God is All, and that we are one with Him. Being All, He is good, because that is His nature. He cannot be changed into bad; He cannot be changed at all: Being All, He could not change into anything but Himself. He is therefore changeless, absolute, and We are He. If we believe that luck and fate have power over us, we must dig these errors out of our consciousness. If we believe that we are God individualized, we must transcend this limiting notion before the finite bubble of spirit can become the Infinite Sea of God. If we believe that the stars govern us, that ambition or hell, or creed, impels us, we have fallen under the spell of false gods, and we must deny them vigorously, as Paul denied them, and as Jesus denied them when He commanded the elements to do His bidding.

So have the Masters climbed: thus may the Seeker become the Knower.

EACH one born into the world of visible manifestation is an idea sent out from God—His idea of the perfect image and likeness of Himself, created out of Himself, (Spirit) being the only substance out of which to create. The Reality of every person is always that perfect image and likeness of God, regardless of what it seems to be manifesting.

Of course we know, or should know, that it is not the outer or visible form of man that is the image and likeness of God, but the inner real man. The Spiritual Selfhood, the Spiritual idea of the Divine Principle Love, the Christ, the true idea of God, is the Real of every man. This Real Self eventually must awaken and come into expression. The Real of every man is an individualization of this Christ Consciousness.

In I John, Chap. 3, we read: "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called Children of God. On this account the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, Now are we Children of God, and it has not yet been seen what we shall be. We know, however, that if He should appear, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone having this hope in him, purifies himself, as He is pure." (Literal Greek translation.)

Now, when it says: "Now are we Children of God," it does not mean just the awakened groups gathered here and there to reverence God, the ones all over the world who attend the various churches faithfully. It means all men, good or bad, wherever they may be, in the lowest dives you can imagine, even in the jails—everywhere. The Christ is present in each person, awaiting expression regardless of what the outer appearance may be. Is it not wonderful to know that not one of the least of these but will eventually awaken and manifest his true Self. It may take many incarnations, to be sure, but it is the ultimate goal of everyone.

God made all Souls in His image. Heaven and hell are within us. I always rebelled inwardly at the old idea of hell fire and brimstone. Now I know that the only hell we have is what we create for ourselves by our misuse of our God-given reason. It may be transmuted into heaven by changing our Realization and our actions.

One thing we must learn is to see the Christ in every man, for every man is really a part of our Self. Does it not say in Romans 12:5: "We, being many, are One body in Christ, and individually members of each other?" (Literal Greek translation.) So, you see, we are not just by ourself, but we are all One; just as each cell in our body is an individual cell, but yet part of the whole, and must be in harmony with the whole.

Anyone who refuses to recognize the Christ in his fellowman has a lesson yet to be learned. I wish we could all realize the great importance of this. If you, who have evolved to a clear conception of right and wrong, seem to see evidences of evil in your fellowman, try to feel only compassion and great love and know that the Father loves you as well as He loves them—but no better.

Just because, in your progress of unfoldment, you have acquired common sense regarding certain things, have you any right to criticize another person just because he has not yet learned this lesson? No; a thousand time—No. In fact, you cannot condemn another person without that very condemnation reacting on yourself. It is a boomerang you are sending out which will come straight back to you, and you alone will be hurt by it. Did not Jesus tell us, according to Matthew, 7:1: "Judge not, that you may not be judged; for as you judge, you will be judged; and by the measure you dispense, it will be measured to you?’" If we meditate over these words, we shall gain a better understanding of the law.

I must learn to look through all seeming imperfection in my fellowman and know that the Christ is there awaiting recognition and expression. If we really wish to help another we must recognize the Christ in him and lovingly call it forth. For our own sake we cannot afford to take cognizance of another’s faults; if we do, we are inviting like conditions, or worse, to ourselves. Jesus demanded the manifestation of perfection in every condition.

In Luke, Chapter 19, is the story of Zachaeus, the wealthy tax commissioner, who in these days would be called a "shark." Zachaeus, hearing of the approach of Jesus, desired to see him. Being a very small man, he climbed a sycamore tree in order to see over the heads of the crowd. Jesus saw him, and recognizing at once the good in him, called to him: "Zachaeus, hasten down, for today I must abide at thy house." Zazhaeus obeyed at once and received Him joyfully. How the bystanders criticized! They said: "He is gone to lodge with a sinful man."

I fear we are much like that today, not keeping our eye single to the good. The good in Zachaeus immediately responded to the recognition of it by Jesus, and at once Zachaeus was ready and eager to restore four-fold all that he and gained unlawfully.

All of us can help our fellowman by persistently recognizing and calling forth the good in him. The Christ is ever present, ever calling to each one of us to consciously abide with Him. What all of us need is to recognize the good in other people and call it forth with loving kindness.

The next time you start to criticize another person, stop at once and silently say: "I behold the Christ in you." Then, in some way, (in which you will be guided), by a word or act, help that person to gain confidence in himself. Start him back to his Father’s house. Never may we, by word or deed, ever send anyone farther away. Could we but see the Soul in that person who seems to be the farthest away from the Kingdom, we would surely exclaim: "How beautiful my brother is!"

Let us ever be watchful of thought, word, and deed, in order that we may never fail to recognize and call forth the Christ in our fellowman.

IT WAS at that darkest hour just before the dawn. The city slept. Massed buildings loomed a jagged outline against a smoke-gray background. When lo! over the scene there appeared an angel presence. With outstretched arms she hovered, radiating such peace and protection that tired men and women smiled in their restless sleep and little children dreamed of golden butterflies in sunlit gardens. Then up, up, toward the light of dawn soared this mother presence, but ere she entered the gates ajar she paused to scatter down upon the earth children blessings in the form of sparkling silver stars.

* * *

The evolving race on this planet has reached another octave in It’s spiral development, and the pause between the old outgrown order of materiality and the new vibration of a higher spiritual order is causing great fear and tribulation among all peoples.

As wild horses sense fire afar off and seek safety in flight, so today many people, sensing coming events and not understanding, are seeking forgetfulness by dulling the physical senses and rushing headlong into greater misery. But those who dare to think know what Emerson meant when he said that not always could material things "content the awful Soul that dwells in clay."

As a race we are ready to put away childish things, for we have reached a spiritual development which fits us to be about our Father’s business. The race thought is being gradually withdrawn from the materialistic concept of our world and transferred to the spiritual plane, thereby dematerializing it to be recreated according to spiritual ideals, for we know that thought is the framework upon which all is built.

How glorious to realize that the refined thoughts of humanity are responsible for all of the changes and upheavals about us today., The dross of false values is being consumed in the fires of longing within human Souls, and when the smoke of the burning idols has cleared away we will set to work afresh to reconstruct according to the plans of the Master Architect, laying the foundation for that Universal City of Peace whose countersign is "BROTHERHOOD."

Oh, Sower of the Field! Till the soil of your Life and sow the seeds of right thoughts and right actions before it is too late in the season, so that in the time of reaping, your harvest may come up to the measure of your wishes.

Those toilers of the Field of Life, who are equipped with genius and foresight, are at work from twilight to twilight, because they know that their harvesting will be just commensurate with their toiling.

While some people squander their precious substance in frivolous pastime, instead of anointing their good fortune with the morning light, the workers work in the field, weaving their destiny with success and smiles.

You cannot bargain with Life. Life will count every coin that you pay before IT hands over the prize that you covet. The balance sheet of Life is mathematically so accurate that you cannot deceive it and it cannot deceive you.

What else could be the primordial purpose of this Life in crossing the misty ocean of the Unseen to the crystal shores of this Seen World, were it not for buying the Elysian commodity of happiness and joy in the mart of the daylight.

Such is the law that abiding happiness can be wrested only from the hands of Truth, because from the dawn of Creation it has been nurtured only by the care and guidance of Truth.

Enter into the Mansion of Truth. Be not afraid, for the sacrifice made on the way will adorn your brow as laurels on the morrow.

The limit of your finite Self is Infinite. The more you fathom your finite Self, the more treasures of the fathomless Infinite will be uncovered to you.

Brother, you are the Guest of the Dawn at the gate of the Infinite. Live the Life and be happy.

TRUE, is it not, that the world as a whole is "Movie Conscious?" Why is it so? There is a reason for everything; nothing simply happens; everything is for a purpose. In the movie which is flashed upon the screen, one phase of the picture will stand out vividly to a certain type of mind or individuality, while another section of that same picture will appeal to the opposite type. So it is that every movie makes a definite appeal, dependent upon the individual type of mind.

It is also true that there are many kinds or varieties of movies. Some of them might be classed as the humorous type, some are educational, while others are of a religious nature. Each of the pictures in the different fields has a definite influence.

Besides the movies which are flashed upon the screen throughout the playhouses of the world, there is a still greater movie—that Invaluable Movie which is flashed upon the screen of man’s mind through the arena of his thoughts. Upon the screen of the world’s playhouses, it has been noted that there are a variety of pictures to be found, some good, some bad, and some indifferent, each with its timely influence. Just so it is with that Invaluable Movie flashed upon the screen of man’s mind through the arena of his thought world. Thoughts are of many varieties also, some good, some bad, and some indifferent, each with its own influence. "Thoughts are things," which may be definitely directed by the WILL.

Thoughts are much like a frisky monkey, jumping hither and yon. A mischievous monkey is invariably getting his master into difficulty by doing those things which he should not do. Likewise, the mind, through its mischievous pranks, attracts many a hardship to man. In much the same way that the monkey is trained by his master, one’s thoughts can be guided and directed by the WILL, until finally all thoughts of fear, hatred, and worry may be overcome.

How can it be done? By a very simple procedure. Select the flower which appeals to you most. To many readers of this magazine the lotus bloom would have the greatest appeal; however, the rose, the daisy, or any simple flower of several petals would serve quite as well.

Make a drawing of that flower, crude though it may be. Label each petal with the attributes of Divinity. One petal may be labeled FAITH, another PEACE, one DIVINE LOVE, one JOY, and another TRUTH. Let the center of the flower be labeled GOD, since all the attributes of Divinity proceed form that one central source. Liken your thoughts to the petals of the flower, making God’s Will the source of every thought.

Pin this drawing on the curtain over your work table, put it on your desk, or in some conspicuous place, but best of all, fix this picture in your mind. Should you start to worry over anything, great or small, instantly turn the reel from worry into FAITH, which is the foundation of all these attributes. Should something cross your pathway to anger you, turn again to that Divine flower, and in place of the petal of anger, substitute at once the petal of PEACE, remaining calm and undisturbed. Let no sorrow daunt you, but turn on the reel to the petal of JOY. When hatred demands your attention, turn on the reel until you come to the petal of DIVINE LOVE, and when falsity would gain a foothold, turn the reel again to the petal of TRUTH. Whatever the disturbing factor may be, instantly turn the reel to its exact opposite and keep that positive thought steadfast.

Practice this procedure, for one day, then for a month, until it becomes an easy matter. At first, when the thoughts behave like a frisky monkey, use the WILL to bring them back to the realm of Divinity—to thoughts of peace, joy, love, and faith. At first it will seem a very difficult matter to replace a negative thought with a positive attribute of divinity, but through persistent effort, it will become almost automatic.

Why should one practice such a procedure? Because the mind controls one’s entire experience. If you are in trouble in any way, learn the process of mental substitution, and in due season it will right many a wrong. Rough paths will be made smooth, sorrows will be changed into joy, and lack will be replaced by abundance.

Use what talents you possess.

The work of the world is done

Mostly by ordinary ability, while geniuses

Are waiting for splendid opportunities.—Anon.

GOD is the Master Builder. He has built this Universe on the solid rock of His ever-understanding Love with the framework of His interwoven Laws. Love and Laws interpenetrate and intercept all Space and all Time. In me, through me, within me, and without me, criss-cross the invisible lines of His Divine Forces. While Laws rule life, Love elevates it. I thank God for His Laws of Love and Love of Laws.

He has given me the wide world and the fertile earth on which to play and to live. The earth feeds me with the milk of her soil, while the fresh air and the virile light give me the breath of life. I thank my God for the bounty of His free gifts.

My mother’s love and my father’s care were given to me unasked and unsought. Oh, how can I describe the dignity of brother’s affection and sister’s sympathy that enrich my life and widen my horizon! I thank Thee, O Lord, for Thy untold blessings.

How can I repay the smiles of my neighbors or the courtesies of my fellowmen whom I meet on the highway of this Life? They owe me no smiles or help, yet through Thy Love that is within them, they scatter good cheer around me. O God, I have no words to express my thankfulness to Thee.

With their might, the Country and the State protect me. The sun and the moon rise and set so that we can live and grow. They draw dream pictures over the land and sea to uplift our drowsy Souls. O Divine Inspirer, how can a mortal mind find words to thank Thee, with mortal words, for all this beauty and grandeur?

Thou sendest the stalwart genius to serve us on the material and intellectual planes, and also the mighty prophets to show us the golden doorway to heavenly Bliss and contentment. O Divine Father, my heart melts at Thy grace and gifts.

Here I offer all my hopes and desires, my ambitions and aspirations, my life and my blood, all myself and mind as Thanksgiving to Thee. In gratitude and humility, I offer my life and its fruits in service to Thy children.

To awaken each morning

With a smile brightening my face;

To greet the Day with reverence

For the opportunities it contains;

To approach my Work with a clear mind;

To hold ever before me,

Even in the doing of little things,

The Ultimate Purpose

Toward which I am working;

To meet men and women

With laughter on my lips and love in my heart;

To be gentle and kind

And courteous through all the hours;

To approach the night with the weariness

That ever woos sleep, and the joy that comes From work well done.—Anon.

I stood there looking out to sea;

No part was I—all mystery

Shrouded the deep, when lo, there fell

Upon my Soul a drowsy spell:

I slept, and yet it did not seem,

This Vision that I saw, a dream.

The Christ upon the waters walked;

To wind and wave alike he talked

As one, it seemed quite plain to me,

Who spoke with great authority:

Then straightway to my side He came,

Gazed fondly down and called my name.

Over the wind, the sea, the rain,

I have command; you hold the chain

That binds Me; though I often spake,

You heeded not—Awake! Awake!"

"But, Master"—and I seemed to bow

Before His presence—"Tell me how."

To this His silence deep, profound,

Closed in upon me all around;

Never a word He spoke, and then

He walked upon the sea again:

Although the dream was now no more

I looked for footprints on the shore.

It is the height of absurdity

To sow little except weeds

In the first half of one’s lifetime

And expect to harvest a valuable crop

In the second half.

THY Cosmic Life and I are One.

Thou art the Ocean, and I am the Wave;

We are One.

Thou art the Flame, and I am the Spark;

We are One.

Thou art the flower, and I am the Fragrance;

We are One.

Thou art the Father, and I am Thy Child;

We are One.

Thou art the Beloved, and I am the Lover;

We are One.

Thou art the Lover, and I am the Beloved;

We are One.

Thou art the Song, and I am the Music;

We are One.

Thou art the Spirit, and I am all Nature;

We are One.

Thou art my Friend, I am Thy Friend;

We are One.

Thou art the Master, and I am Thy Servant;

We are One.

Thou art my Mother, I am Thy Son;

We are One

Thou art my Master, I am Thy Disciple;

We are One.

Thou art the Ocean, and I am the Drop;

We are One.

Thou art all Laughter, I am a Smile;

We are One.

Thou art the Light, and I am the Atom;

We are One.

Thou art Consciousness, and I am the Thought;

We are One.

Thou art Eternal Power, and I am Strength;

We are One.

Thy Peace and I are One. Thy Joy and I are One.

Thy Wisdom and I are One.

Thy Love and I are One.

That is why Thou and I are One.

Thou and I were One,

And Thou and I will be One

Ever Anon.