PRACTICE THYSELF.

"Practice thyself even in the things which thou despairest of accomplishing."

You are in the habit of letting your minds wander either aimlessly or else worrying and anxious, occasionally dreaming pleasant things.

In order to have soldiers always

to

ready to act to act with certainty accomplish what they are intended to accomplish, the men are thoroughly drilled, and drilled daily. Raw recruits are drilled in exactness until they act as one man, and then when action is needed they respond in unison. Let us apply this to our minds; we expect to accomplish great things with an untrained, unthinking mind, or rather an aimlessly thinking mind. We get restless at our repeated efforts to

control or centre our thoughts. But let us remember the raw recruits and how many, many times and with what infinite patience each man tries and tries again. Control of thought brings harmony out of inharmony.

I find women dominated by their families and household cares; men by their business anxieties and worries. Do you not see that if they had control of their thoughts there would be no such hurry and worry? If our minds are trained to attend to the one thing at hand, and forget all else we are tranquil and all is well.

How do women begin their day? Must they carry the family on their shoulders? Shall they do the work neglected by others?

Is it not resenting much that we feel is 66 put upon " us that wearies us?

An anxious mind cannot see clearly for itself or others.

Men's failure in business comes as the result of a vision clouded from anxiety or from the swell-head attitude of a mind which is egotistical.

How shall we begin the day? First with joyousness, then taking one thing at a time, and doing it well.

If plans have been made and cannot be carried out, never mind. If there are interruptions and delays, never mind. Allow no temper or fearing to take possession of you. Find the good in all experiences.

Let us get out into the universal, and when we return to the old worries they do not seem so formidable. We have changed our mental state by considering life from another standpoint.

We are not killed by experiences, but

by our resentment and impatience concerning them, or pity for self for enduring them.

We first train the mental, and then we should begin to realize the spiritual. This is the usual order, but we can never attain to real success through the intellectual alone. It comes through spiritual realization.

OVERCOMING THE WORLD.

"In the world ye shall have tribulation. Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

"THE world" does not mean this planet or this life.

We can live right in the world and yet not be of it.

Jesus said, "I have overcome the world"" while yet he was here.

We speak of the world and of Heaven as different places.

Just to the extent that we are bound by material things are we living in the world.

Every one has his own world, for the world is a certain condition of mind. It is where we believe in material things to the exclusion of spiritual things; where we feel that we are influenced by [99] 1656943