thus that our heart is nourished and fed; it is thus that we receive the Living Bread; it is thus that our bodies are healed, and our spirit drinks in the life of our risen Lord, and we go forth to life's conflicts and duties like the flower that has drunk in, through the shades of night, the cool and crystal drops of dew. But as the dew never falls on a stormy night, so the dews of His grace never come to the restless soul.

We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains, with ten minutes for luncn; but we must have quict hours, secret places of the Most High, times of waiting upon the Lord, when we renew our strength, and learn to mount up on wings as eagles, and then come back to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.

The best thing about stillness is, that it gives God a chance to work. "He that is entered into His rest hath ceased from his own works, even as God did from His; and when we cease from our works, God works in us; and when we cease from our thoughts, God's thoughts come into us; when we get still from our restless activity, "God worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure,” and we have but to work it out.

Beloved! let us take His Stillness, let us dwell in "the secret place of the Most High," let us enter into God and His eternal rest, let us silence the other sounds, and then we can hear "the still, small voice."

Then there is another kind of stillness, the stillness that lets God work for us, and holds our peace; the stillness that ceases from its contriving, and its self-vindication, and its expedients of wisdom and forethought, and lets God provide, and answer the unkind word, and the cruel blow, in His own unfailing, faithful love. How often we lose God's interposition by taking up our own cause, and striking for our own defense.

There is no spectacle in all the Bible so sublime as the silent Savior answering not a word to the men that were maligning him, and whom he could have

laid prostrate at his feet by one look of divine power, or one word of fiery rebuke. But he let them say and do their worst, and he stood in the power of stillness God's Holy silent Lamb.

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God give to us this silent power, this mighty self-surrender, this conquered spirit, which will make us more than conquerors through Him that loved us." Let our voice and our life speak like "the still, small voice" of Horeb, and as the "sound of a gentle stillness." And after the heat and strife of earth are over, men will remember us as we remember the morning dew, the gentle light and sunshine, the evening breeze, the Lamb of Calvary, and the gentle, Holy, Heavenly Dove.-Stillness, England.

"A GOOD PLEDGE."

This is the heading of a card being distributed through its agents by a well-known insurance company. The New Thought is evident in every line. Thus we behold the gradual fulfillment of the prophecy that every knee shall eventually bow to the Truth. The items of this pledge are as follows:

I.

I will speak no unkind or harsh word of anyone.

2. I will repeat no unkind remarks I hear of anyone, and discourage others as much as possible from saying unkind things.

3. I will judge my neighbor leniently, remembering that my own faults are probably far greater.

4. I will never say one thing to others and yet think quite differently; this is hypocrisy.

5. I will make no injurious remarks on the failings of others, remembering these words, "Consider thyself lest thou also be tempted."

6. I will put the best construction on the motives and actions of all my neighbors.

7. I will act unselfishly and peacebly.

8. I will keep my home insured in the "Old and Tried —." 9. I will not cut rates nor divide my commissions with the assured or anyone else, if at any time I engage in the fire insurance business.

IO. I will not speak disparagingly of my competitors in business.

CONSCIOUSNESS.

BY MRS. IDA MCALESTER.

R. P. Halleck says, "Consciousness is one of the greatest mysteries that confront us," and he defines it in these words: "Consciousness is that indefinable characteristic of mental states which causes us to be aware of them."

Consciousness comprises only the present instant of time. Whenever Whenever we employ the function of memory, we are using the mind on what is called the subconscious plane. We can be conscious and not be self-conscious. For instance, we can be perfectly conscious of a friend's presence, and so interested in the conversation as to be entirely unconscious of self. We are self-conscious when the mind is centered on our own personality, either externally or internally. To be continually conscious of the external self is a detriment, for it causes awkwardness and embarassment. It is the primary cause of what we call the "awkward stage in growing children," when, seemingly, they are all hands and feet. Internal self-consciousness, or introspection, is a very necessary part of our development. We turn the mental gage inward and watch the wonderful phenomena of mind juggling with an endless procession of ideas, turning this way and that, analyzing and combining them in an infinite variety of ways.

All our joys, likewise all our sorrows, come to us through that mysterious door of consciousness of which no man holds the key. The subconscious plane of the mind is like a vast reservoir, in which is submerged all of our past life, from its first inception here on this planet up to the present time. By using the function of memory, we are able to dip into this reservoir, and bring into the conscious mind facts and incidents of the past. The great majority of people look forward to the future with uncertainty and apprehension. Sometimes there are pleasant

anticipations, and quite often just a dull indifferBut there is always the uncertainty.

ence.

To one who has developed the use of the mind on the superconscious plane, this element of uncertainty is less pronounced, because the superconscious plane of the mind holds the future life, just as the subconscious holds the past.

We are taught that intuition is the first step in the superconscious plane of mind. Women are said to be far more intuitional than men. In fact, it is said that women are guided, in their action, by intuition far more than by reason. If such is the case, they are to be congratulated, for reason often fails to show us the right way; intuition seldom does. From intuition we go to inspiration. Here we find numerous examples for illustrating. All our great

poets and authors are said to have been inspired. They may have been inspired by an embodied or a disembodied spirit. Or they may have reached that point in their growth to which, I think, Emerson referred when he said, "There is one mind common to all individual minds. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same."

This, to me, is the most acceptable idea of inspiration which I have found. One Great Mind, in which is all knowledge, all beauty of thought, poetry of language, music, painting, and all the innumerable. things of which the mind of man can conceive. And we grow step by step, probably, through more than one life, until we come to a place where our mind is an inlet for this Great Universal Mind. Then is the imprisoned soul, which for ages has been beating its wings against the bars, indeed free, free to give expression to itself, and that aching longing within gives place to a glad triumphant sense of liberty.

Inspiration comes in other ways. When your friend comes to you grief stricken, heart broken, feeling that life holds nothing but darkest gloom for her, is it not inspiration that brings just the right words to your lips that heal and comfort that suffering

one? Is it not inspiration that brings that wonderful, wonderful love and sympathy, welling up from the centers of your being in such force, that they permeate your whole aura, and envelop her like strong loving arms, the very touch of your fingers on hair and cheek being like the memory of a mother's kiss?

After inspiration comes prevision. Of this I have no personal knowledge, yet my belief in it is strong. In common with others who have the bump of curiosity largely developed, I have had my "fortune told." But I am still waiting, hopefully, for that famed and fabled ship, with gleaming sides and snowy sails, to drop anchor in some safe harbor of my changeful life. However much that mystical curtain that hangs between my future and me may wave and flutter, and make tantalizing little openings, yet never once has it been drawn aside so that aught that lay beyond it has been revealed to me.

We are taught that the next step in the superconscious plane is illumination. Here the view that unrolls before us is so vast, so wonderful, so radiantly beautiful, that words fail. Silence like a solemn presence fills our heart and soul. It is sacred ground, for when we raise our consciousness to this point, we shall be "even as the angels are." Then, indeed, would we be "workers and servants unto the Lord," and just so long as there were sufferings souls, souls in darkness and sin, just so long as any of His children held out piteous hands for help, just that long would we wish to work and serve. And while our bodies would be as a garment to be laid aside at will, who among us would be willing to give them up so long as there was one wailing cry for help to be heard on the "Sorrowing Star"?

"The mind that follows the rambling sense makes the soul as helpless as a boat which the wind leads astray upon the waters."