ALL TRUTH IS SEEN WITH NEW EYES WHEN THE SPIRIT IS WISE. Curiosity is the spur to knowledge, the road to wisdom, and the key to all mystery. We lack incitement when we do not give enough indulgence to curiosity. They who are always observant will be always various. We see what we bring the power to see, and we hear what we bring the power to hear. Desire! Insatiate thirst, Urges onward to explore, inquire. Whatever we look for we shall find, if nature has it among her treasures. Let us be wise, and visit daily the treasurecaves of thought, and search for the high truths of nature. This will make the thought-pearls which we gather along the journey of life, rich treasures for the life that now is and that which is to come. Strong and comforting truths brace the mind to firmness. Truth is the precious gem for which the student burns his midnight taper, and the man of science never wearies in the search. For it the colossal telescope penetrates into the infinite abyss of living forms; for it the hermit renounces the pleasures of life, and wanders into the wilderness; the martyr cheerfully lays down his life, and the warrior rushes on to certain death. The study of nature is the true preventive of false intellectual pride and superficial error, and is the only practical and normal method of making progress toward what is celestial. Nature gives us a glance into the regions unexplored, and testifies to the existence of an infinity of knowledge yet to be communicated to mankind. Nature is never false, never changes, is constant, never abuses the faith imposed in her. As nature is exact in her expression, so man desires to become exact in his expression. Conscience is exclusively man's. His personal dignity and actual greatness must necessarily be proportionate to the degree of development and purity of conscience. The regeneration and chastity of the rising multitude must be accomplished through a broader vision. THE SOUL'S STRONGEST CARDINAL LAW IS MORAL ACTION. It is not enough to know. Facts have no life unless their relation to spiritual advancement is understood. And here the knowledge of the future life enters, and unites all knowledge into one complete whole. Man becomes the greatest fact in the world, and his moral nature the greatest fact in man. Moral education should take precedence of all other education. The growth of society and the individual demands ethics, culture, the elevation of desire, the improvement of disposition, as well as the increase of knowledge. By shaping our character, which is under our control, we may, in a measure at least, determine the nature and degree of emotions which will arise under given circumstances, and so fortify the mind to maintain its balance of forces. Principles and good resolutions are powerful auxiliaries in forming character. A life of real virtue, of nobleness, of true greatness, is not an accident or facile attainment. It comes from lofty aspirations, from incorruptible motives, long cherished and held sacred as life itself. It is in making endless additions to itself, in endless expansion of its powers, in endless growth in wisdom and beauty, that the spirit of man finds its true ideal. Do what he will, he cannot realize Half he conceives: the glorious vision flies. The law of true culture and personal progression is to be found only in conscientious action, for the benefit of others as well as ourselves : Gladness rewards the fulfilling of duties, Peace overshadows the goal that is won. Minds are struggling to realize dim ideals of right and truth. They are becoming rich in ideas and resources; mind is taking a loftier position than money or fortune can ever reach. The greatest minds are not the most intellectual ones; but minds in which reason, affection, sympathy, and imagination blend in the largest proportions. The world's true friends are enthusiasts. These are the best reformers-warm-hearted, cool-headed-the philan thropic and royal middle powers which help the needy million. These are the great sympathetic souls who are filled with concern for those who have no concern for themselves. To be greatly good and energetic in the cause of suffering humanity, we must put ourselves in the place of others, and view them from their own circumstantial and hereditary proclivities. Society helps man to overcome crudities and disabilities. The animating spring of all improvement in individuals and society, is not their knowledge of the actual, but their conception of the possible. Not until imagination has caught the vision of divine perfection, does conscience feel the necessity of doing duty as for God's law; only then do the small graces and amenities shine with any light. Through the ideal, the intellectual and moral faculties can be exalted, refined and purified : Poor, indeed, must thou be, if around thee THE PRICE OF POWER IS OBEDIENCE TO LAW. If all permanent reform is really dependent upon a correct use of the laws of nature, then man must become instructed in those laws. If it is what we love and how we love that makes good, then the greatest want is the knowledge of Law, physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual, and ability to conform to law, to come into exact harmony with the universal system of Divine creation. He who seeks for truth shall find it. When he has found it, what has he found but law? And when he has found law he has found God; and when he has found God he recognizes the innate principle of justice. It is because moral right is intrinsically better than wrong, that rational beings must ultimately choose the right. A high-toned self-respect, which arises from the moral and higher faculties, is the potential element in personal purification and reform. More true respect for manhood, more breadth to the justice-loving principle, will do more than all resolutions that are not well braced by an educated will. The willing power comes through knowledge which expands and elevates the wisdom faculties. Man must feel the true and the right in all the relations of life. He must feel as well as know that it is wrong to substitute one law for another. Justice must have a grander and more noble development before it can elevate the mind above the plane of temptations. By virtue of the spiritual law, men have expected to be sinners against natural law. When a man fancies the possibility of obtaining a reliable antidote for his sins, he is liable to do himself an injustice, as well as the whole brotherhood of man. There must be an individuality of character developed on the principle that nothing is pardon able which is wrong or substitutionary. All evil is selfpunishing and self-corrective, both now and hereafter; the rapidity of which sublimating and regenerating process is determined and regulated by the disposition and resolution of the individual; which disposition and resolution must be indicated and sustained with open deed. Nothing flowing from the transgression of any law can be remitted without setting aside the law itself, which would be setting aside the rational constitution of the universe. Penalties follow closely each wrong act. Nature adminis ters her penalties justly, legitimately, beautifully, lovingly ; the one folding snugly over the other firmly and truly, like cause and effect, pouring the balm of health and kindness and reform into the wayward souls of earth's children. THE FORCES IN MAN AND THE UNIVERSE ARE IDENTICAL. Law means a rule of action or definite mode or method in which force or motion proceeds toward the accomplishment of an end. There is no force or motion either in the universe of matter or mind, which does not observe some rule, some method, and hence some law. It is impossible to conceive a thought except in accordance with some law of thought. In the infinite mind, therefore, law, in its spiritual sense, is self-existent and eternal. Law is not of itself force or motion; it cannot create. Not a tree could grow or living thing without the directing and vitalizing influence of spirit. The forces in man are the same as the forces which underlie the universe. Strength rises to the brain of man from what he eats, by means of circulation, and this circulation is regulated by positive and negative laws. These laws govern the whole system of material and celestial existence; the laws above are sisters of the laws below. |