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and man from serfdom. If man needs to be saved from discord, disease and death, God needs to be rescued from the concealment and mysteriousness of the unknown."

Because the divine is the better, it is the normal standard, and by the persistency of divine thoughts and acts we are transformed into divine beings, but first there must be the mental, or soul transformation. We must cultivate the spiritual attributes in an orderly manner, not by fits and starts, but regularly, earnestly, constantly endeavoring to keep the mind in the domain of the spiritual.

Until our minds have gained a preponderance of spiritual thought we shall fall and fail again and again, but it is not for us to be discouraged. Even though we fall by the wayside, stripped by the robbing human thoughts, and wounded by our ignorance, yet the Good Samaritan of our higher Self will ever come to our aid, and our past failures should never deter us from vigorously pressing onward to the goal of spiritual, perfect selfhood.

Let us then concern ourselves with the spiritualizing of our minds, that we may become the creators of good, under the spiritual law of our being. We are constantly creating the conditions in which we live, and if we are spiritually minded then we will create the good, the perfect and the harmonious. We cannot stop creating, but we can govern creation by creating only the good. Our whole careers, here and hereafter, depend wholly upon the thoughts we entertain, for thought is the creative power, and the cause of all phenomena.

We are standing upon the threshold of the eternal redemption of man from all that enslaves, and in the days that are steadily drawing nearer, we look for the mental emancipation of man. This is the age of man's redemption from the bondage of ignorance, and is the climax of the intelligence of the ages. We are entering the promised land of mental fruition, the spiritual domain of thoughts, which must conquer

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the world of things, and we need the spiritual courage that Jehovah charged Joshua to possess, but we must be free from all mental leading strings. Because someone says, "This is the way, walk ye in it," does not make it obligatory upon us to follow that way. We must think for ourselves. Too long have we allowed others to think for us; let us now think for ourselves, and not through another; let us act for ourselves, and not by direction of another. We are individuals, and each one must do his own thinking in order to redeem himself and work out his own salvation independent of another. We live too much in the fear of others, or in the favor of others. Both are bad. What we need is to live in ourselves alone, having supreme confidence in ourselves, and our power to be and to do. This is the secret of Jesus' life-he believed in himself. He had confidence in himself, in the God within him, and it transformed him into the God-man. We may do the same, for his life is the way, the truth of our being.

It is ours to express the perfect, the harmonious and the true. It is ours to manifest the abundance of God along all lines. It is ours to elevate our thoughts to the throne of supremacy, where the divine elements of goodness, peace, power and perfection become our own property, and factors in our own being, and which we radiate out into the world of human consciousness. It is ours to cultivate the spiritual that we may enter into the Holy of Holies of higher consciousness. It is ours to save our own souls, and thereby gain the whole world, for "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all unto me."

Let us awake to the call of the hour; let us open our souls to the influence of the Spirit, as the lily opens its heart to the dew of heaven, and may we, like it, radiate the sweetness of a pure life. Let us gain a clearer understanding of Truth, and with purified purpose and larger knowledge, build more beautiful mansions of the soul.

Bible Lessons

BY C. F.

I.

(Text from the Revised Versiou.)

Lesson 8. November 19.

NEHEMIAH'S PRAYER.-Neh. 1:1-II.

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

2. That Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

3. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.

4. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

5. And said I beseech thee, O Jehovah, the God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love him and keep his commandments:

6. Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hearken unto the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee at this time, day and night, for the children of İsrael thy servants, while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: yea, I and my father's house have sinned.

7. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.

8. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples:

9. But if ye return unto me, and keep my commandments and do them. though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to cause my name to dweli there.

10. Now these are thy servants and thy people. whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.

II. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. (Now I was cupbearer to the king.)

GOLDEN TEXT- The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working.— James 5:16.

All the realms of consciousness must be brought

into the fold before we shall awake in the likeness of the Christ. When we get into a very confident, blissful state of mind, as was Nehemiah as indicated

by the names Chisler, confidence; Shushan, joy; Hanani, grace—it is a good time to redeem some of our faults. Great power goes with high spiritual realizations, and we can accomplish very much more when we feel the inward joy.

our

Our Jerusalem has been broken up and thoughts are scattered. Those who remain at the central city within are consolation and prayers. sion of I am, and indicates a state of consciousness in which a happy, successful man in the outer life, recognizes the needs of his soul. As the world goes, the man who is successful, has the respect of his fellowmen and good health, should be content. But that man may need soul redemption. There may be a consciousness of "affliction and reproach" at the Jerusalem within, and he will not find perfect peace until he brings these sinners up for redemption before the Divine Law.

neglected and need Our Nehemiah means compas

In Scripture, the two aspects of the soul, the inner and the outer, are called brothers. Cain and Abel and Jacob and Esau, represent these two attitudes of mind, which are more or less in conflict. The outer thoughts crystalize about a centre which environment is the standard, while the inner thoughts see beyond into the realm of causes. Hanani is this inner soul consciousness, which reports to Nehemiah, the outer, that all is not as it should be at the deeper spiritual centre, Jerusalem.

It is a wise man that listens to this brotherly message and heeds it. Every day we meet people who are so happy in the world that they are neglecting the needs of the soul. A man should find this centre of consciousness and build it up. The integrity of the whole depends upon the perfection of all the parts, and if there is weakness anywhere suffering will eventually follow.

The "walls" of Jerusalem are built of the substance of faith in the reality of things spiritual. If you have not this faith you are open to invasion by mortal thoughts from every direction. The remedy is repentance, and fasting and praying.

When John the Baptist came crying "Repent ye! repent ye!" according to the original Greek his message was, "Change your mind! change your mind!" Some people find it necessary to have a great revulsion of thought in an experience called in religion "conversion." Others find that the change comes gradually, and that the new state of consciousness is the result of a new understanding of their relation to God. But the ultimate is the same. We are brought face to face with certain errors of thought and we have to admit before the Supreme Judge that we have been in error and are willing to give up and do right. This in a metaphysical sense is "fasting and prayer.' We deny our sinful thoughts, which means all thoughts and limitations that fall short of the Supreme Ideal, and we affirm our Unity with Divine Mind in its perfection. This carried to the ultimate covers more ground, and brings much larger results, than the usual "conversion" in the orthodox church. There sin is confined to moral delinquences, while we find that sin extends also into the mental and physical, and that we are not fulfilling the law of Moses until we have redeemed both soul and body.

Lesson 9. November 26.

ABSTINENCE FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS.-I. Cor.

23.

10:23-33.

All things are lawful; but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful; but all things edify not.

24.
25.

Let no man seek his own, but each his neighbor's good. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, eat, asking no questions for conscience sake;

26. For the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.

27.

If one of them that believe not biddeth you to a feast, and ye are disposed to go; whatsoever is set before you, eat, asking no questions for conscience sake.

28. But if any man say unto you, This hath been offered in

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