Part 8 (2/2)

One face said to me in every line, ”I talk about G.o.d's goodness and loving-kindness, but I worry over the dust in the spare room, I fret about our expenses, I am troubled about my lungs, and I fear my husband has an unregenerate heart. I never know an hour's peace, for even in my sleep, I worry, worry, worry, but of course I know I will be saved by the blood of Christ!”

Another said, ”I am in G.o.d's fold, well and safe, but I hate and despise my nearest neighbor, for she wears clothes that I am sure she cannot pay for, and her children are always dressed better than mine.

I quarrel with my domestics, and am always in trouble of some kind, just because human beings are so full of sin and no one but myself is ever right. I shall be so glad to leave this world of woe and go to heaven, but I hope I will not meet many of my present acquaintances there!”

Another said, ”If I only had good health--but I was born to sickness and suffering, and it is G.o.d's will that I should suffer!”

Oh the pity of it, and to imagine this is religion!

Thank G.o.d the wave of ”New Thought” is sweeping over the land, and was.h.i.+ng away those old blasphemous errors of mistaken creeds.

The ”New Thought” is to give us a new race of beautiful middle-aged and old people.

To-day in any part of the land among rich, poor, ignorant or intellectual, orthodox or materialists the beautiful mature face is rarer than a white blackbird in the woods.

It is impossible to be plain, ugly, or uninteresting in late life, if the mind keeps itself occupied with right thinking.

The withered and drawn face of fifty indicates withered emotions and drawn and perverted ambitions.

The dried and sallow face tells its story of dried up sympathies and hopes.

The furrowed face tells of acid cares eating into the heart.

All this is irreligious! yet all this prevails extensively in our most conservative and churchy communities.

He who in truth trusts G.o.d cannot worry.

He who loves G.o.d and mankind, cannot become dried and withered at fifty, for love will re-create his blood, and renew the fires of his eye.

He who understands his own divine nature will grow more beautiful with the pa.s.sing of time, for the G.o.d within will become each year more visible.

The really reverent soul accepts its sorrows as blessings in disguise, and he who so accepts them is beautified and glorified by them, within and without.

Are you growing more attractive as you advance in life? Is your eye softer and deeper, is your mouth kinder, your expression more sympathetic, or are you s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up your face in tense knots of worry?

Are your eyes growing hopeless and dull, is your mouth drooping at the corners, and becoming a set thin line in the centre, and is your skin dry, and sallow, and parched?

Study yourself and answer these questions to your own soul, for in the answer depends the decision whether you really love and trust G.o.d, and believe in your own immortal spirit, or whether you are a mere impostor in the court of faith.

The Object of Life

What do you believe to be the object of your life?

To be happy and successful, perhaps you are thinking, even if you do not answer in those words.

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