Che Hour Cometh BY AS1iRELaZo Roundy, William Noble, 1861- LOR be The hour cometh Na ee ia . at /. eavins vr: Fy cs Ae a Oars “f k Pat v2 Ss 6 % OR Ae d ait Al at AN x Che Hour Cometh By the Author of Tbe Gospel of Hope and Love Is the, Pan a Davenport, Jowa, A. S. A. Silay, 1925 Anyone may obtain a copy of this book by sending their name and address and postage to W.N. Roundy, Box 12, Davenport, Iowa, U.S. A. TO THE READER:— Here are Thoughts and Words and Commands which have been given to me to bring to you. May you find them good! Your friend and well-wisher, THE UNKNOWN. Che Gow Cometh CHAPTER I. I have said unto you that Justice must be done; that Kindness must be shown; that Mercy and Sympathy must be extended at all times to the Unfortunate by the Fortunate. Defend not then thy brutality and cruelty and indifference by flouting the poor and deriding the ways of the unthrifty. Ye merely deceive yourselves. There is no idleness like the idleness of the un- worthy rich. There is no thriftlessness like the extrava- gance of wanton wealth. There is no enemy to society so vicious and whose evil example is so great as the irre- sponsible possessors of too much money. Out of your fine offices and your beautiful club houses, I command ye to come forth, ye sons of wealth whose souls are dying and whose hearts are dead. Awake! Arise. Come! and I will show you Life. Open thine eyes and I will reveal to thee Joy. Open thy hearts and souls and ye shall find where the living waters flow. Goseek the Truth and when ye have found it, spread it broadcast thru the world. Have Faith in thy fel- lowmen! Believe that other souls are hungry as your soul is hungry. Then go forth! Fear not ridicule. Be not abashed at worldly sneers or at the raised eye-brows of cyn- ics and scoffers. The Truth shall make thee free. Truth shall make the scoffer cease his scoffing and the cynic desist from his cynicism. 5 The Lord commands you to come and follow Him! Fol- low Him in spirit. For all real Life is spiritual. Follow Him in truth. For all real life is truthful. Follow Him in faith. For all real life is faithful. Follow Him boldly and bravely for all real life is courageous. CHAPTER IL. I command you to come! saith the Lord. I call upon the best and the strongest and the most efficient of you all. I call upon the most practical and the most skilled. Nothing is more practical than to follow the commands of the Lord. ' Nothing demands more skill than to do the will of the Lord. Tact and Courtesy and Kindness and Sympathy; Insight and Foresight; Courage and Candor and Truth—all these qualities are needed in the service of the Lord. Therefore, come all ye who are lonely. All ye who are weary. All ye who feel the strength to grapple with difficul- ties and the power to overcome obstacles. Come! ye stu- dents and merchants and artists and poets, ye who toil humbly with thy hands and ye who work proudly with thy brains, I bid ye come where the living waters flow for which thy hearts and souls thirst. Wait not! Ponder not! Temporize not! But come to to the work of the Lord. Thetimeis ripe. The hour has struck. The crisis waits. Will ye fellow where the Lord’s service leads you? Remember that no work on earth is greater or mightier or finer or happier than with all thy heart and mind and soul day and night in ill report and good to follow in the way and to do the will of the Lord thy God. Be bold! be firm! be true! and theLord will show you the way up to the heights whereon the light of morning shines. CHAPTER III. Without Religion the people perish. To feel that God’s presence brings Peace to the Heart; Comfort to the Soul; and Joy to the minds and bodies of men—this is the begin- ning of all wisdom and the unfolding of the meaning of the World. Fear not O friends that religion and the love of God, will ever die out of the hearts and minds and souls of men. Sooner shall the Sun freeze and the Earth congeal and all growing and breathing things be naught. .For the source of Religion lies deep within the souls of men. Fling all your bibles and holy books away today and God will write them on the hearts of men again tomorrow. Religion is Joy and men need Joy. Religion is Peace and by Peace alone can Mankind live. Religion is Strength and without Strength mankind must vanish from the Earth. In the Future, the light of Life shall come again. Out of the present Darkness, songs of jubilee shall arise. Out of the hates and discords and envies of today, Religion shall bring Peace and Calm and Quiet. Be not fearful nor discouraged: Neither be despondent nor depressed. In good time Earth’s mountain peaks shall be touched with Hope’s golden light. Over the seas, the Sun in splendor shall arise again. Unto waiting eyes and hoping hearts, the glory of God shall once more appear. Then let us all try to hasten this coming of the Day of the Lord by the faith of our Souls and by the understanding of our abid- ing hearts. Steadfast and abiding is the goodness of God. Steadfast and abiding, also, must be the courage of those who would serve Him. 8 CHAPTERIV. I command thee to cultivate Faith. As thou believest in thyself so must thou learn to believe in thy fellowmen. Else thou canst not render Justice. Justice demands that thou take out of the Earth and from the products of the Earth no greater share than that used by thy neighbor. With this exception: They who work hardest need the best and rich- est food. Difficult work and dangerous work must be care- fully prepared for and amply rewarded. No longer must the doers of the world’s dirty work receive the dregs and leavings of the world’s paltry pay. A laborer is worthy of his hire! The hardest labor must receive the best wage. Hope for his own future and hope of a better future for his children,—these must always be part of the laborer’s right- ful reward. To toil without hope and to endure hardship and face danger without a reasonable chance to rise and to grow is a wrong economic condition and such wrongs must cease. - Lifeis great. Man must make it greater. Life’s ideals are high. Men should make them higher. Life is noble. Men must strive to make it nobler. But only can men lift Life when they are first enabled to lift themselves upward, above all petty fears and paltry prejudices and shrivelling envies and blighting hatreds. To make Life big and broad and fine and beautiful, men must first make themselves big and broad and fine and beautiful,—big of soul, broad of vision, fine in sympathy and feeling and beautiful in character. For the world ex- pands and becomes glorious without, only in so far as man- kind expands and becomes glorious within. The heart of man is the mirror of the world.. 9 CHAPTER V. This is the Law! When the Truth comes to thee, receive it; next spread it and then spread it some more. There is one human duty that too often is left undone,—that is the duty of spreading the Truth, by receiving it, by sharing it and by living it. When facts are proved to be false, throw them away. When old customs are found to be outgrown, cast them aside. Dead grass is fittest to burn. Dead ideas are best de- stroyed. The Falsehood of Yesterday tends to smother and to hinder the Truth of Today. Therefore when thy soul thrills with a new truth and a higher idea, leave the dead past behind thee and follow up- ward and onward toward the New Truth that has given thee a sense of fuller life. For the great need of human nature is ever for more and newer and fresher life. Mental and physical stagna- tion means mental and physical damnation. Truth demands that her followers be prompt and active and faithful. .Today and Now I would live! cries Truth. The Old and the New abide not well together. One or the other must give way. The Law of Life is progress,— onward, upward, forward. With thy whole heart and soul and mind follow ye the highest Truth ye can find. Thus saith the Law. 10 : : CHAPTER VI. Grief have I known and sorrow. Disappointment has east its black shadow over me. Scorn have I felt like the cut of asharp knife. Loneliness have I seen like a hungry wolf waiting to devour my soul. Into the Valley of the Shadow of Death have I wandered but felt no fear. For I found that Faith keeps the heart strong and Hope raises the soul high and Serenity of Spirit brings peace and comfort to the mind. The Battle field of Life lies within the soul of man. Tu- mult and Fear and Confusion of Mind are the enemies within his gates. Then fight and the Lord will aid thee. Fight onward and upward and victory shall be thine. Courage and Patience and Cheerfulness are the comrades who will walk beside thee when thou hast made thyself worthy of them. - Be of good cheer, therefore, for the Lord lives to help and aid and assist thee. He maketh the long road short and the hard road easy unto all whose hearts abide in courage and cheerfulness unto the end. CHAPTER VII. These words are written for all the harassed and sor- row-laden peoples throughout the world on this Holy Easter morn. Especially to the Russian and Chinese and to the peoples of India, I send my love unto you! I give fair hopes unto you! My blessings and good will I spread over you and around you. For you are mine and I will attend unto my own. Out of Suffering and Sorrow and Humiliation and Death shall come Joy and Strength and Triumph and Peace | and Eternal Life. For such is the Law. But the Law is stern and the Law is true and the Law is just. Ye broke the law and the burden of the law descended upon you. God gave you minds to use. Did ye use them? God gave you hands to make skilful. Were they skilled? God gave you hearts and souls and minds to keep alive by knowledge and learning and intelligence. God gave you the Spirit of Liberty to keep awake and the Spirit of Love to keep alive. Why then did ye slumber? Why did ye allow cruel leaders to do evil deeds and ambitious leaders to guide you on the way to folly and to crime? Ye were wrong! Awake then! Repent! Independent in mind, skilful in handicraft, loving in feeling, just in do- ing,—so must be the men who will lift themselves out of their troubles into their triumphs. But thy hearts and souls and minds must be alive. Thy spirits must be alert. To - follow Evil or evil leadership like dumb cattle is to goon the — broad way to Destruction. To leave things undone which God gave thee to do and to avoid the labor of mind and soul which God intended for thee, such neglect was to invite the ruin which has come upon thee. 12 : Each free man must be a thinking man! Each man worthy of Freedom must first understand what Freedom is. Each man who deserves a wise leader must first know what Wisdom means. In order to know, each man must use his own mind. Knowledge is power. Knowledge leads to Wisdom and Wisdom understandeth the meaning and the responsibili- ties of Liberty. Liberty gives to mankind all happiness and prosperity. But they who sleep beside the gates of Freedom, let the enemy enter to corrupt and to destroy. The Dull Man and the Indifferent Man; the Too-Busy Man and the Too-Good- Natured Man—all these are foes to a State. CHAPTER VIII. Not the enemies without but the traitors within are what destroy Nations. Therefore arise! awake! be alert! Ye to whom God has given a great land. With right visions in thy hearts and true ideas in thy minds and with the love of Liberty in thy souls, thy land shall blossom as a rose and thy broad fields shall produce a hundred fold. But thou must have Faith! Thou must believe in thy fellowman. Thou must believe in thy nation. Thou must believe in freedom for thyselves and for all other men. Thou must believe in the hearts and souls and minds with which thou art endowed and when thou believest, thou wilt culti- vate them as skilful farmers cultivate their fields and gar- dens. And thou must believe in God. A belief in God is the beginning of all Wisdom. Therefore, awake! Use thy hearts and souls and minds and thou shalt know the Truth. Follow Wisdom and Learning and acquire Understanding. Then all will be well with thee and thine. Allow no man to do thy thinking for thee. Think for thyself! Allow no man to keep the keys of thy Conscience. Let thy Conscience keep awake to advise, assist and lead thee aright. Where the love of Wisdom burns, there all other things are right. Where the love of Freedom dwells, there all other things are safe. Where trust in God abides, there all will be well with men forevermore. The love of God keeps the human soul awake and the fire on Freedom’s altars aglow. Therefore love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and then thou wilt love thy neighbor as thy- self. ) CHAPTER IX. A great land needs a great message. A broad land needs a word to match and over-match its might. Without Reli- gion which teaches Love and Humility and Reverence, there is no safety for even the Liberty which teaches and inspires the Truth. Therefore am I sent to bring and in- structed to give this message to you, O my beloved home- land of America! Mighty are thy abundant opportunities. Splendid is thy beckoning future. Yet many are the waiting foes who surround and threaten thee. Greed and avarice and the love of pleasure peer like grinning ghosts from every side. Noise and tumult boom everywhere. Thy homes too often are places to merely sleep in. There is less and less coherence in thy family life. There is a smaller and smaller fund of reverence in thy national life. The humble- ness that keeps men sane and wise grows rarer. ~ Not in cotton, wheat or corn lies the greatness of a Na- tion. Not in ships that sail the sea nor in motor trucks that shake the land nor in airships that skim the skies,—not in such achievements as these lies the real source of a people’s power. Material things are mere dreams that may pass away in a single night. The true power of a Nation lies in the reverent hearts of strong men and of good women. Beside the household hearth within the home where happy children listen to loving wisdom from the lips of fathers and mothers, there lies the real source of a Nation’s strength. Religion that is true must be taught to little children within the home. Ideals big and broad and high and fine of what mankind can do and of what God has done —these must be taught within each home. Within the home alone can the falsehoods of race preju- 15 dice and religious prejudice and social prejudice be over- come, disproved and thrown away. Within the home alone can right ideas concerning the splendor and destiny of the human soul and the sacredness of the human body—the | wondrous casket of the soul—be rightfully taught to the | growing and unfolding minds of little children by father- — love and mother-love. Within the home alone can Justice and Liberty and Sym- pathy for all men everywhere be rightfully preached and taught. Therefore, America, beware how thou careth for thy , homes! CHAPTER X. Each humble home is one more firm foundation stone unto the State. Each happy home is a sacred part of the Nation’s spiritual wealth. Therefore be careful of thy homes. Aristocracy and special privilege and graft and dishonesty are all kept alive by the careless or heedless or hasty remarks made before growing children within their homes. To kill wrong ideas and cowardly and proud and vain and false and un-neigh- borly ideas and ideals, you must banish them from the home. To have a great Nation, you must have great mothers to bear great children. To be born great, children must be born from the womb of mothers who are serene and poised and calm, masters of themselves and of their surroundings. Peace and Quiet and Joy and Loyalty and Reverence must be round them and abide with them. The highest civic duty that is performed by any citizen in any State is the bearing of a healthy child. Therefore the services of mothers must be recognized and reverenced. Child bearing must be ele- vated and dignified and upheld both in private and in public. A good and wise mother is one of the greatest citizens in a State. Mothers then who are wise must be given proper honor. For it is wise mothers who bear sons who are the leaders and inspirers and saviors of their race. CHAPTER XI. A great Nation brings out by appreciation and reward and honor the best that lies dormant in its citizens. Tyranny crushes and Freedom develops spiritual power. Therefore be careful to honor in all public ways what- ever is honorable. Be swift to uphold the Good and to con- demn the Bad. A Nation grows strong and great and powerful in proportion as it sets the seal of its approval upon the highest of human Ideals. Each injustice however small tends to corrupt a State. Each wrong however petty tends to weaken the structure of the Nation. Each dishon- est practise however tiny in time may undermine the whole. Therefore honesty and virtue and goodness must abide with the men and Nations who would continue to be free. In the pursuit of Truth, Sympathy furnishes the best | eyesight. Goodwill gives the keenest and quickest fore- sight. | Up from the jungles of the Past men have crept and | crawled like fearful children. In many things, Fear still | rules mankind. But the Day of Fear is going. Life is grow- : ing more Open, more Just, more Sympathetic. The old idea | of favorite races and of peoples who by right should possess special privileges is doomed, in spite of the fact that the fading remnants of this ancient delusion still clings like grey hanging moss around the worn-out institutions of the Past. CHAPTER XII. The wrongs and tyrannies and special privileges of the Past must go. True democracy must reign everywhere. Real equality must be recognized in all lands and among all Nations. The old silly egotistic cry of “we are the people” must vanish from the world. Men must be judged solely from the clear evidence of what they are and of what they can do. Character must be the test. In a rightly ordered world, a selfish man would be a monster. In a true world, a greedy man would be a crimi- nal. Although the Millenium seems far away, it is really nearer than men think. Virtue steps quietly, walks calmly, moves gently. It makes no sound and does not advertise itself. Therefore its power is unseen and its influence is underestimated. But right thoughts and kindly feelings and goodwill are everywhere. Because they are quiet, they are often over-looked. One of the main drawbacks to the progress of the world is the pessimistic head-wagging of so-called good people. Untold and unspeakable and without estimate is the sum total ofthe Evil done by the despondent and down-hearted and foreboding opinions of those who stand on the rotting highways of the Past and prevent the repairs that are needed for the onward progress of the New Truth that is waiting to go forward to enlighten and thrill and encourage the workers of the World. CHAPTER XIII. It is the high dreams and fine feelings and lofty hopes and clear visions of great men that have helped great Na- tions to achieve their greatness. The upward struggles of mankind must continue and that struggle must concern itself with things of the Spirit; with visions of the Mind; with the lofty aspirations of the Soul. Only thus and only so can men and Nations continue to progress. Moral courage must be taught to children and upheld as an ideal among men. The silly and infantile ad- miration for physical courage must take second place. The fear that lies behind the gun and the armored ship and the frowning fortress must be laughed at. No just Nation going steadily and quietly about its own business when inhabited by strong and virile and thrifty citizens was ever enslaved. The aggressive trouble-seeking Nation like ancient Carthage went to ruin. The fear preaching and fear worshipping and material minded State like Germany went down because it forgot the things of the Spirit and overlooked the unseen power of God. The great Nations of the Future will be God-fearing, peace-loving and devout upholders of all high things,— Justice for all men! Happiness for all men! Equal rights for all men! Strong of Body, strong of Mind, courageous of Spirit, free in Heart and in Soul—such shall be the men and women of the Future. 20 ———— ee ee ee eee CHAPTER XIV. The Law of Right is limitless and the Law of Love is limitless and no gold or silver or silken handcuffs were ever made that can bind or chain or cramp their powers. [repeat again. All men everywhere are God’s children. Therefore all men everywhere who do right must be given respect and honor. He who harms his fellowman hurts him- self. He who degrades his fellowman degrades himself. He who enslaves his fellowman enslaves himself. For to be a slave to an accusing Conscience or to a violent temper or to lazy or luxurious habits is the worst form of slavery. In- justice and Cruelty and Arrogance live in glass houses, and the owners of these houses suffer mere spiritually from the. power they wield than their servants suffer materially from the power that is wielded. Therefore Justice and Friendship and Goodwill and Love between man and man is the only right and safe basis whereon to build a Society, a Nation or a Home. For such is the Law. For the Law of Righteousness lives and will in good time be fulfilled. But the inner heart of mankind must desire the Truth before things that are true will be granted unto them. 21 CHAPTER XV. The days of Miracles are not done. The years of Myster- ies are not over. Greater for the Mind, better for the Heart, more healing for Spirit than to look backward in reverence to the Past is to look forward with Faith and Hope unte the Future. Here and now new traditions are forming and ne shrines are in the making. More Sacred Sinaiis shall be dedicated in coming years than Palestine ever knew or Je- rusalem ever heard of. I know whereof I prophecy. I am certain of the Truth whereot I speak. For the Lord has revealed visions unto me and He has commanded me to speak to you. Why should ye who hold religion in honor give rever- ence only to the Past? Why should ye who would worship God in Purity and in Truth, think that He came close to Earth only when He spake to Abraham and to Isaac and to Moses and when He sent forth Christ to teach? 22 CHAPTER XVI. God lives! God is here! God is over us and around us and beside us whenever our hearts are open unto Him. Not embalmed in a bound book but alive in the varied clouds and moving in the wildest storms and breathing in the lowliest flowers. God perceives and understands. I know! I feel! I see! But ye must believe. Ye must have faith. Ye must have open minds and loving hearts and aspiring souls. Most of all and foremost of all, ye must believe upon the Lord thy God. Ye must believe! But before thou believe in God, thou must believe in thy- selves and in thy fellowmen. Thou must have faith in great human Ideals before thou canst have faith in great divine Ideals. Ye must have faith in the beggar who knocks at thy door and in the servant who serves thee. Ye must learn to understand that the poorest coat may cover the finest of feelings and that a tramp may have the soul of a gentleman. Forget not that Christ was a poor wanderer. 45 CHAPTER XVII. Men who would be free must first seek the knowledge upon which Freedom rests and the wisdom whereby Free- dom lives. Else they shall remain slaves,—slaves to their prejudices, servants to their vanities and blind victims of the blind. For without knowledge, men shall be led into evil paths by false and subtle flattery, by fine and flowery phrases, by cunning and alluring and sophisticated oratory. There is no sin but Ignorance! said a great English poet. Those words are true as any holy writ. For all true things come from God and are therefore holy. That is why Reli- gion is necessary. It is the Truth given by God to men. However, the cynic says, “There have been false re- ligions and false ideas hidden in true religions.” Yea! and I would add that there have been false systems of govern- ment and false systems of education. All these false systems were born in and upheld by the prejudice and ignorance of the human heart and mind. Even as men have made petty Idols and Images and called them God, even so men who would dominate over their fel- lowmen have invented false systems of theology and called them divine. 24 CHAPTER XVIII. But Truth is still Truth and Knowledge is still Knowl- edge and Wisdom is still Wisdom. And Truth, Wisdom and Knowledge will come and abide with men whenever and wherever their minds are open to receive them. But men must learn how to distinguish Truth from Falsehood. Men must learn to beware of the leaders who would play upon their prejudices and flatter their vanities. That is why Prejudice and Vanity are sinful things—because they serve to drag down the aspiring hearts and souls of men. Therefore seek Knowledge. Open thy hearts to Wisdom and to Understanding and thou shalt be free. Cast out of thy soul, race prejudice and religious prejudice and social prejudice. Then Joy and Happiness and Peace shall come and abide with thee. There is no Freedom where Prejudice and Vanity and False Pride abound. A palace can be a tomb. A rich man’s house can be a spiritual prison. A poor man’s hut may be a temple provided Love dwells therein. For Love is the Law. There is, there has been and there shall be no other real law for the salvation of mankind. Christ came to bring this law to Earth. How many then have followed Him? 25 CHAPTER XIX. Into the realm of Religion, the worldly man would bring his worldliness and the scheming man would bring his cun- ning and the hypocrite would bring his hypocrisy. Thus they corrupt what they pretend to honor. By promising greater success, they bring about the conditions of failure. By allurements that seem fair, they undermine by methods that prove foul. Like great ships weighted down with barnacles, the church organizations of today are being rotted by the very things that they hoped would bring them succor. Worldly methods are often mere barnacles that weigh down the souls of men. They have been so eager to succeed in their mission that they have forgotten that in a mere worldly sense, Christ’s life was a life of failure. Worldly success may be and often is the signal for spiritual failure. Worldly failure may be and often is the beginning of great spiritual success. God’s ways are mysterious. You must study to know His law and when ye know, ye must follow it. Nothing is more surely doomed to disaster than to substitute thy worldly and material methods for God’s spiritual and di- vine methods. If thou desirest the Spirit of God to come unto thee, know that first of all thy worldliness must go. 26 CHAPTER XX. I speak to each individual man, not to crowds of men. The soul of every man knows and feels and understands what is right but it is often tempted by selfishness to put over what is wrong. Alone man comes into Life. Alone man goes out of Life. Alone the deep perceptions and solemn joys of Life come unto all men. Alone must men learn to think clearly and to act wisely and honestly. Why then should man deceive himself? There is only one right way, then follow it. There is only one wise way, then honor it. There is only one way which in the long run will bring Peace and Happiness. Then choose it. Ye know. Then act upon your knowledge. Ye feel. Therefore have faith in your feelings. The eye of God is upon thee day and night. Then do what is right that the Lord may bless thee and aid thee and bring thee unto thy own. To do thy best today means that it will be easier to do thy best tomorrow. ..Each step upward is a step on the way to Heaven. Therefore do thy best. Be of good cheer and of good courage and thou canst not fail. 2/ CHAPTER XXI. As on a mountain peak I stand looking forth upon the world. Isee a vision of what is to be in days beyond the present horizons. I sense the aspirations of a race that say- ing first themselves from all meanness and littleness and pettiness shall help to save Humanity. First, Courage shall be the heritage of America. Second, Sympathy and Kind- ness and Helpfulness for all their fellowmen! They shall come to realize the largeness of mind and generosity of soul that needs no loud huzzas or noisy plaudits of admiring crowds as incentives unto labor. Silently, serenely, quietly, with faith in God and in his fellowmen, the Leader of Tomorrow shall be a simple man who works right on and speaks few words. Democracy shall show the path where words are deeds and where action is the only speech. 28 CHAPTER XXII. The day will come when strong as the Rocky Mountains and broad-minded as the great prairies and generous- hearted as the waving wheat fields of the North shall be the men and women who make the world. For great as Nature; splendid and terrible as her moun- tains and canyons and endless plains, so great and no whit less great in mind and heart and soul must be the men and women of God’s free lands. The might and majesty and splendor of Nature must be and will be matched by the might and majesty and splendor of Human Nature. For such is God’s Law and the Law of God will be ful- filled. It may be slow. It will be sure. 29 CHAPTER XXIII. Steadfast at thy posts abide all ye who would serve the Lord! Beautiful are the ways of Life wherever men toil in har- mony at their tasks. There shall come Health and Strength and all Prosperity. Beware of Discord of every kind. For Discord means Weakness. Discord means Waste. Discord means sooner or later Failure. For such is the Law. Few are the needs of the Nation whose citizens possess Peace and Quiet and Concord. For out of Peace and Con- cord all good and true things come. Greed and grasping and blind groping toward the light shall disappear when Peace brings Contentment and Con- cord brings Strength. 30 CHAPTER XXIV. The strong man goes about the task of Life quietly, surely and with serenity. Discontent and Discord bring Worry and Worry brings Weakness. Disease is born of Discord. Failure comes from Discord. Ugliness and Sin are both forms of Spiritual Discord. Love and Concord and Goodwill bring beauty to the Earth and to all the men thereon. Therefore if ye would know Health and Beauty and Prosperity be at peace and in harmony with thy neighbors around thee, with the skies above thee and with the Earth beneath thee. For such is the Law. CHAPTER XXV. The first and foremost use of money should be to spread Goodwill throughout the world. For wherever Goodwill lives within the hearts of men, there roses shall bloom and grains of all kinds shall grow and Prosperity shall reside. The greatest fertilizer of the Earth is the Goodwill of those who plant and sow and reap. For such is the Law. Goodwill bringeth and keepeth Peace. Peace produces Strength and Strength masters all human problems. When Goodwill comes to mankind, from East to West all poverty shall be banished from the Earth. For when there is no more wanton waste, there will be no more weary toil. The highest price men pay and the weariest labor men spend is for their vices and their follies. The Passions of men are the Masters and the Loves of men are the Saviours of the world. Where true Love rules, there will be no waste. 32 CHAPTER XXVI. Not a knowledge of material laws but an understanding of spiritual laws is what is especially needed for the conduct of human affairs. The foundations of all Prosperity must be laid within the hearts of men. For out of the hearts of men come all things good and bad,—Peace and War; Construction and Destruction; Success and Failure; Fair Dealings and Foul Dealing. Therefore to rear a Nation aright, care must be taken to lay the foundation stones firmly and well where the foundation stones for all human structures must be laid, that is, within the hearts of men. The strongest cement for holding a State together is Love and Goodwill. Stronger than Granite is Loyalty. Better than steel or iron is Justice. More enduring than marble is a sense of equality between man and man. Michtier than all the money in the world is the Spirit of Kindness that lives and glows and flames within the human soul. 33 CHAPTER XXVII. All interest on money is Usury and Usury is accursed of : God. You may writhe, you may squirm, you may wriggle, but ° the fact remains. Out of this one injustice springs a thou- © sand ills. Mankind does not inflict direct cruelties as the ancient pagans did but its indirect cruelties today are | greater. Hence come the subtle hypocracies that are under- — mining and thwarting civilization and destroying its Ideals. Men do not think clearly in many cases and in many other | cases they refuse to accept the conclusions which their own reasoning forces upon them. But all men who would act rightly, must first learn to think clearly and must then be | brave enough morally to follow whither their thoughts lead © them. ; The Past must go,—its wrongs, its injustices, its out- : worn creeds and its silly symbols. Men must value more © highly right action. | For right actions are the only rungs whereby you can | climb toward Heaven. It is not necessary for you to reach — there. The exhilaration of the climbing is enough. | 34 CHAPTER XXVIII. One of the greatest enemies of human progress is the conservatism of the good and respectable people. The source of this conservatism is usually rooted in Fear. Life having proved satisfactory or at least comfortable to some men, they tend to forget the uncomfortableness and even suffering of many other men. Comfortableness tends to degenerate into Cowardice. That condition confronts many millions of men. Sometimes Reverence for the Past pro- duces undue conservatism. Reverence is a beautiful and noble and attractive mental quality but when exaggerated, it may prove a sinful stum- bling-block to the aspiring Present. Life changes and men and the customs of men must change. Life grows and men must grow, in morals, in mind and in religion. Conservatism and Stagnation and Fear create rust. More men die of rust than of disease. More nations decay as the result of mental and moral rust than die of violence or revolution. As stagnant water in quiet pools beside a rushing river tends to breed the malaria and green fungi of the swamps, so stagnant ideas and customs beside the living waters of Life tend to generate mental and moral malaria that grad- ually poison the onward flowing streams. Dead and out- grown customs are always dangers to vigorous and vital Life. 35 CHAPTER XXIX. Remember ye who are conservative, that all men are n2- turally conservative. Therefore when ye witness social violence or political upheaval, know that such things mean that long-standing wrongs and injustices are at last finding expression. Then seek to find out what and where the wrongs are. Men are not naturally radical. Most men much prefer three meals a day and a warm place to sleep to radicalism of any kind. Therefore when social upheavals and political violence appear, seek for the wrongs that are the cause and re- move the cause. Words will never quench injustice nor will solemn arguments right ancient wrongs. You must replace injustice by justice and wrong by right ere the world will grow better. Swift action and wise action alone can remove and quench social wrongs. To de- bate decorously and deliberately is one thing. To act swiftly and wisely and to the point is another and a much better thing. When people suffer, they want relief and they want it now. 36 CHAPTER XXX. Always forward and upward and onward! That is the purpose of Life. When greater visions come, take them. When loftier Ideals beckon, seek them. When broader con- cepts of man and of the Brotherhood of Man meet thee, grasp them. It is enough for any man to say: ”I was but a stepping-stone where-by my brothers trod upward and for- ward to a loftier destiny.” There is no death more peace- ful than to know that you have helped some fellowman to reach a higher and a broader and a fuller life. But you must learn the Law. The only real things are spiritual things. The flame, the fire, the force that moves the heart changes the world. No material fact should over- awe the Soul. For the Soul is the source of the greatest of material facts. O the open Mind! The open Mind! Ever let thy Mind be open! The open Mind seeks the Truth. No true man fears the Truth. More Truth means more vision, more strength, more sympathy, more charity, more friendship of man toward man. The eyes of the Soul cannot be opened too wide. The wider the eyes of the Soul and Mind are opened the greater will be both the spiritual and practical vision and under- standing of the man. The shut Mind and the prejudiced Mind is the Mind that harms and works against not only the best interests and welfare of the World but of itself. The open Mind is the Peace Evangel of the World. No truth-seeker and no truth-lover ever said: “With me, the realm of Truth ends. You can tell the truth-seeker by the fact that his mind is always open and hence that his heart is always kind. 37 CHAPTER XXXI. Not to speak what I might but to speak what I must— that is my duty. And your duty, O my Fellowmen, is to listen. To heed a wise warning is to gain wisdom. Without wisdom, Life is naught. Religion is not a part of Life. Religion is the whole of Life. Every thought you think; every deed you do depends for its value on your conception of God. As long as men thought that God smiled upon and favored their wars when they invoked His name, they continued to fight. But now at last when men are slowly beginning to understand that war and everything connected with war is abhorrent to God, that in God’s eyes there is no good war and that even the victors will be smitten and the victors will be vanquished by the action of Eternal Law, men are beginning to pause and ponder and wonder if by some means, Humanity cannot abolish war. Rome went down, Venice vanished and the power of Sweden and France were broken through vic- torious wars. The doom was slow but the penalty was sure and terrible. It is not to possess Knowledge but to use it. It is not to have Wisdom but to follow it. It is not to be able to do a thing but to do it—that counts in the affairs of Life. Men know they ought to abolish war. Will they doit? Ye must give time to God, O thou busy and bustling world. Thou must give time to God and to God’s work. Else thou art doomed. An hour on Sunday is not enough. Thou must give time to God, else in the midst of thy worldly success, Failure shall smite thee and Destruction overtake thee. Thou must give time to God. For this is His world and we are His children and we must obey His laws. 38 CHAPTER XXXII. Nothing can harm the soul that believes. The World may reel but the faithful Soul shall be unshaken. Naught can daunt or dismay or intimidate the believing Soul. Dis- asters and tumults and trials shall only strengthen the Soul and make it calm and cool. For the nature of the Soul is such that only under stress and strain does it come to clear- ly perceive that it works with and for God. And who that works for God was ever vanquished? I come not because I would but because I must. I speak not what I would but what I must. In good time, men will listen and heed and understand. And Ged will be justified. I know not what is popular or pleasant or persuasive. I know only the Truth. For only the Truth can heal and save and console. Truth is the divine physician of the World. 39 CHAPTER XXXIil. To master material problems and to solve spiritual prob- lems, the Soul must be serene. When men and women lose their serenity of soul, they have suffered an irreparable loss. No matter what thing, good or bad, takes from the Soul its serenity that thing is Evil. You must get rid of it. If so-called Love takes away the serenity of the Soul, then know that such a form of Love is false and a sham and a delusion and a lie. It is not true love but something mas- querading as such. The Soul which grows and strives and achieves must keep in touch with the divine serenity which is the source of all light and life; of all health and power. Serenity of Soul is the direct gift of God. When you lose your serenity of Soul, then know that you are out of touch with and apart from the great and abiding sources of Light and Life and Love. Without Love, Life is dead. 4() CHAPTER XXXIV. Nothing in the world is so potent as prayer but it must be unselfish. Most public praying is selfish and worldly. It is a sort of personal attempt at greedy, mental grabbing after spiritual and material rewards. Yet good people often wonder why their prayers are not answered. They are so greedy and blind that they cannot see what grasping, silly and foolish little children they are. Civilization often seems to be a systematic cultivation of innumerable hypocracies and falsehoods until men and women are so thoroughly cor- rupted in Heart and Soul that they strive in vain to disen- tangle themselves from the spider-like webs of Selfishness which they have unconsciously woven about them. A clear Mind is the beginning of Salvation. Only can the Mind be clarified and kept clear by looking even disagreeable facts squarely in the face. Most Vice begins and ends in mental confusion or in mental evasion. Virtue seeks the clear open road. Vice seeks shadows and twilight and mysticism which leads to mental confusion. Mental confusion leads to mental corruption. Thus saith the Law! 41 CHAPTER XXXvV. In the hour of thy Success and at the height of thy worldly power I raise my voice to warn thee, O America! Sad are the words of a prophet who sings the decadence of his race. Glad should be the words of him who warns his Nation in time what to avoid and how to avoid it. In the hour of thy triumph, be humble! Such has been my motto from my youth. Such is the motto I pass on to you, my well-loved Land! In the hour of thy triumph, be humble! You must temper your greed and banish your selfishness and control the mad lust of your citizens for pleasure and for speed. Men and women are rushing hither and thither and know not why they rush. Meditation and Reflection alone can help men to think clearly and wisely. Without clear thinkers, no Nation can live. For only men who think clearly can foresee the dangers which bring both men and nations to ruin. Beware of Flattery for it will weaken thee! Beware of Greed for it will blind thee! Be- ware of Selfishness for it will undermine thee! Be quiet and thou shalt learn to think. Live calmly and thou shalt find the road to Wisdom. Love the Truth and thou shalt be strong, alert and reverent. The love of Truth is God’s foremost gift to men. He who diligently seeks the Truth shall in the end find God. 42 CHAPTER XXXVI. A perfect human body would be like a beautiful musical instrument re-acting upon and vibrating to wondrous har- monies. Physical measurements cannot determine a per- fect body. Because the quality of the nervous system and the kind of moral and mental training which that system has undergone will conceal facts unknown to and undeter- minable by mathematics. The Heart and Soul and Mind must be rightly attuned before the physical body can be morally and spiritually in tune. Grossness and Envy and Hatred and Vanity and Pride can for a time be concealed, even as an oak rotten and rotting at the core can for a time bravely front both wind and storm. But in the end all inner moral rottenness shall impair and warp the finest physique. A body attuned to a harmonious Heart and Soul and Mind alone can be possessed of the highest physical strength. For only when the Human Heart and Soul and Mind and Body work together in harmony can man attain his perfect devel- opment. It is this struggle to attain unity of being that is the beginning of the morality that ends in the religion which finally comes to perceive and to obey God. 43 CHAPTER XXXVII. I am commanded to bring you the Truth. You do not understand and you have not understood the character of Christ or the meaning of His mission. He came to tell you that there is a personal God and that you must obey the Laws of God or ruin will come upon you. If you understood Christ and His teachings, you would not dare to continue in your greedy ways and your fierce money gettings and your ostentatious church building and your million dollar cam- paign collections to propagate His doctrine. His doctrines are harmed not helped by such metheds. His teachings are smothered, not illuminated and set free by worldly brass- band revival manners. When your revivalists yell and thunder: “Come to Christ or you will be damned!” Jesus smiles sadly as He looks up and says, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!” Christ came to call attention to and help men believe in God. He came to call attention to Ged, not to Himself. When a follower addressed Him saying, “Good Master!” Christ answered him and said, “Why call ye me good? There is none good save God.” Whenever and wherever men understand the character of Christ, their wars and discords and hatreds and greeds and envies will cease and they will live by and live for God’s divine harmony which is Love. Then they will love their neighbor not as themselves but better than themselves. All selfishness will go when the Spirit of God comes. For such is the Law. CHAPTER XXXVIII. The true worship of God demands neither ceremonies nor sacrifices nor churches nor priests nor ministers nor appeals. God’s service requires a clean Heart, an open Mind and a reverent Spirit. Where these exist, there stands the Tem- ple of the Lord,—not made by hands. By your deeds will I know ye, saith the Lord. One of the greatest men who ever lived on Earth was Charles Darwin, the scientist of England. His mind was a glory not only to his fellowmen but to his God. Therefore who-so-ever would know true religion and realize the re- spect and admiration due to all the creations of God, let them read the books written by Charles Darwin. Read especially his “Descent of Man.” There you will gain vision, learn true humility and receive the key unto Wisdom. Ego- tism and puffed-up Pride and Conceit will all vanish and you will exclaim meekly and with reverence -_Q wondrous and mysterious are the ways of the Almighty! Greater than those who would preserve the Ideals of the Past are those who point the way upward unto the Future. Always the strongest and the most virile and the bravest men of a race are those who go forward to new achieve- ments, not those who stand guard over things already achieved. 45 CHAPTER XXXIX. Let it be clearly kept in mind that all the buying and selling; all the delving and digging; all the hewing and transporting and manufacturing are for the purpose of having human beings better born, fed, clothed, housed and educated. Keep your purpose always before you and it will in good time be attained. Every cripple or diseased child; every man or women mentally or physically defective is either a burden or a danger to the State. Remember the reason for which and by which Life exists,—to make people, strong, alert, happy and healthy people. It is only when all people work peacefully and intelligently together that the inter- ests of all can be rightly served. The rights and interests and welfare of all men must become the chief thought of each man. When all men are well served, the interests of each man will be safely conserved. When Fear goes out of the Wor!d, Joy will come into it. For such is the Law. 46 CHAPTER XL. I am commanded to repeat unto you these words: The love of money is the root of all evil. God sends to men of faith exactly what they need when they need it. But they must believe. Men need today to brand upon their Hearts and Minds and Souls these ancient and solemn and saving words: The love of money is the root of all evil! It was such a love that plunged and will again plunge a large part of the world into war. It was such love that has brought all Europe to the verge of moral and financial ruin. I warn you in time! You need look for no Second Com- ing of Christ,—though He is nearer to you now than you think. You would have no place for Him were He here. You would horrify and sadden and crucify His deepest feel- ings by your sordid doings and by the many things ye leave undone. By your twistings and turnings of His most cherished teachings inside out and upside down, He could not recog- nize most of those who call themselves His followers. What would Jesus have to say to your million dollar drives for money, to your expensive churches and to your costly Sun- day Schools erected in His name and to His supposed honor? Christ would turn away from all this in horror and pity and disgust and dismay. I am commanded to bring you the Truth. 7 47 CHAPTER XII. Words are as leaves and the lightest wind shall shake them. Deeds are as rocks that are rooted in the Earth. Truth is the guide who shall lead men aright. Truth is the star that will show men the way. Truth is the illumination of the World. Truth saves and blesses and conserves the material and spiritual things of Earth. Lies and Falsehoods destroy and contaminate and shrivel all they breathe upon. Men must first be honest be- fore they can be prosperous. For a day, a year, or a decade, the evil and dishonest man may flourish but his end is sure and his punishment is dire. Many are the evil and deceiving and alluring mirages of Life but an honest Heart and a pure Soul shall be a shield against them all. 48 CHAPTER XLII. Your first duty to God is to do your duty promptly and willingly and fully to your fellowman. Whoso neglects his fellowman neglects God and God will see and punish any such neglect. Therefore beware how you follow rigidly any command that interferes with your duty to your fellowman. Sunday is arest day. But if need arises for you to work upon the Sabbath Day in helping, aiding or in giving assistance to a fellowman or to a helpless animal, work promptly and cheerfully. When any man or woman follows any rule rigid- ly and without modificatien, know that by such rigidity you can turn Virtue into Vice and Religion into Wrong. Use your brains. God gave you a brain to use. Consult your heart. God gave you feelings to follow when they are generous and humane. Use your common sense. Don’t be a stubborn mule or an unfeeling brute. That is not the way of Religion. For God is all Mercy and Generosity and all Sympathy. To understand God and what He demands of you, you must use the brain He gave you. I come to bring you the Law. Be grateful! Without Gratitude, man is a brute. Indeed most brutes are more grateful than many so-called Chris- tians and believers. Without Gratitude I say your hope of Salvation is not yet in sight. Gratitude is one of the fore- most qualities that leads to man’s moral and spiritual Sal- vation. Aningrate is a foe to God and to all Righteousness. Ingratitude is one of the blackest of all sins. To be ungrate- ful is to deny God. 49 CHAPTER XLII. I call to the Youth of the whole World, awake! arise! | for the Hour cometh. I send this message to the young men and to the young women in every land on which the sun shines, awake! arise! for the Hour cometh. You must be- lieve in the sacredness of the human body, in the power of — the human Heart and Mind, in the immortality of the hu- man Soul. You must believe in your fellow man and in your © fellow woman. Men and women everywhere are more alike than unlike. All men and women desire Justice and Honor and Respect and Fair Dealing. All mankind wishes to be well thought of by friends and neighbors and to be at peace with strangers. Wars will cease when you believe that other men are entitled to the same rights on earth as you are; that other races have just as many good qualities as your race has: that other peoples are just as much the children of | God and just as much under the care and protection of God — as you are. God does not care what you believe. God cares what you do. If you do Evil, you are not doing the work of God but of the Devil. If you are unkind or cruel or disdainful of the men and animals who serve you, then you will be punished. Do justice to all men, be kind and neighborly to all men, be at peace with all men and thy length of days shall be long in the land. When strangers come, receive them kindly. You may protect yourself if assailed but be careful not to wage war. The best protection against wrong is to have Faith in the Right. Be strong and alert and healthy and supple and active and athletic and you shall have no cause to fear. For God will take care of His own when they are atten- tive to and heedful of His commands. God commands you to be active in Heart and Soul and Mind and Body. | To be dull and stupid and slothful is to be sinful. Iam © come to bring you the Law. | CHAPTER XLIV. Again and for the last time I say unto you. Iam come to sweep away old customs that are wrong and ancient cere- monies that are false. All who would follow God must have a belief that is real and true and sincere and kind. Not words but deeds: not prayers but performances; not solemn and rigid creeds but kind and neighborly and humane actions—such shall be the tests of those who be- lieve in God. Be helpful to your fellowmen and God will be helpful to you. Be kind to your neighbors and God will be kind to you. Be open-hearted and happy minded and clean of Soul and you will not need to worry or to wonder about your Salva- tion for you will feel the Spirit of God within you and you will know the meaning of Life and understand the marvels and mysteries of the World. 51 CHAPTER XLV TO THE WOMEN OF THE WHOLE WORLD I send a special blessing to all Arabian, Turkish, Chinese, Hindu, Parsee, African, Egyptian, Japanese, French, Spanish and South American women. To all who are downcast, I say, Look up! Use your minds and hearts and souls that ye may aid the progress of the world. God needs you. He needs you, not as submissive dolls or as gentle followers of ancient creeds. God needs you as free and thoughtful and responsible members of a great, free world. I bid you be of good cheer. Your day is at hand. Be bold to use the minds God gave you for the purposes He intended for you— that is to be the helpers and comrades and equal co-laborers of men. May His blessings be upon you now and forevermore. The religious writings which declare that women are inferior are lies and falsehoods. I am come to bring you the Truth. 52 CHAPTER XLVI AN EASTER GREETING Even as the love and mercy and forgiveness of God is without limit, so must be the love and mercy and forgiveness of those who would serve Him. All the children of earth are God’s children. All the races of men are equal before God. Therefore, in the sight of God all men are brothers. No longer from the world’s blood- stained and fratricidal soil must Cain’s evil and skeptic question arise, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” When all men acknowledge their brotherly kinship to all other men, then shall Peace descend upon the earth and all the glories of the primeval morn be born anew. When the envies and hatreds of men go, that moment Peace shall come. But first men must learn to honor Peace and all her ways. Then Love will come and abide within the hearts and souls of men in order that Peace may bring her blessings and her boun- ties unto the abodes of men. Behind the shadows and the dark- ness of the past, I see the Goddess of Peace striding forth along her flower-strewn path. I pray thee, O my brothers, to welcome Peace with open minds and grateful hearts and singing souls. 53 CHAPTER XLVII THE LORD SHALL LEAD THEE ON (1) Along the mountain heights of Joy, The Lord shall lead thee on. Each lone and dark and unseen shade Like a glory thou shalt don. Beside thee and above thee, Wherever thou mayst stray, The Lord shall walk beside thee, To comfort all thy way. No dangers shall o’erwhelm thee, And no Tumults shall dismay, For thy soul shall rise triumphant Since thy soul abides for aye. (2) Know that God is still thy comrade, And God is still thy friend. He will bless and give thee courage, He will love thee to the end. Faint not! Fail not! Faith is mighty! Though thou bidest all alone, Know that God is ever near thee, And He guardeth still His own. 54 CHAPTER XLVIII A COMMAND AND A WARNING All Religions that are real are one Religion. Therefore let them all be at one. Let them work and pray and aspire together. Stop this arguing about the Ifs and Ands and Buts of petty and unnecessary things and let thy minds climb the hills of Knowledge and the mountain heights of Wisdom and thus attain unto Vision. Unity must come to all men or Ruin will come to all men. This is a Command. Men who say they believe in God must obey God. Out of a warm bed on a winter night, I arose and got my paper and pencil and turned on the light that I might put down these words of the Almighty. I warn you, O men and women, to arouse yourselves. Awake! and seek the vision of the Lord. ; Men must meet other men as brothers, not as strangers; men must welcome new thoughts, they must seek new Ideals, they must let their hearts and sympathies go out in kindness and in under- standing toward one another. Then and then only can Joy and Peace and Concord descend upon the Earth. Faith is the keynote of all human progress. When men have faith in human nature, then all will be well with Mankind. The Beauty and Glory and Richness of Life all come from Love. And Love believes and Love trusts and Love has Vision. For Love is the Law. Follow the Law if ye would be strong or happy or joyful or prosperous. For thus saith the Lord! Written March 16, 1925. 55 CHAPTER XLIX ALL BELONGS TO GOD I deny your right to call anything your own. All belongs to God. While there is any human being in the whole world suffer- ing from the lack of food or clothing or shelter, it is not only wrong for other people to wear diamonds and jewels and silk dresses or to loll in hotels of luxurious appointments, it is a moral crime. I come to bring you the Law—God’s law—and you must obey that law or ruin and desolation shall come upon you. I am not concerned about creeds or philosophical doctrines or political theories. I am concerned about concrete, definite facts as to how people live. Life is a clear fact that confronts men. Death is a clear fact that faces men. Between Life and Death there are things you must learn to know and knowing you must learn to do if you would earn the right to look God in the face. Men are not here to creep and crawl or to crouch looking ever downward in search of Gold. Men are here on earth to look upward with eager eyes and humble souls asking, “What, O God, would you have me do? How can I serve thee?” The ancient Hebrew pro- phets said, “Whoso by chance looks God in the face will die, blinded by a mighty light.” But I say, whoso purifies his soul until he dares to look God in the face shall live and the soul of such a man shall be uplifted by a great illumination which language cannot express and which only the heart can feel and the Spirit perceive. To know and to face God is not to die but to receive new life— it is to see and to understand at last the meaning and the wonder and the miracle of what men call Life. | To face and to trust in and to have faith in God is to fear nothing. 56 CHAPTER L These are the thoughts I would leave with you: The key that unlocks all doors is Kindness. Real knowledge is mental sunshine. Knowledge illumines the dark corners of men’s hearts as well as the dark corners of earth. True love helps everybody and harms nobody. The socalled love that lurks in shadows and would linger amid the mists of twilight or of starlight is not love at all. Beware of it! One of the greatest Wrongs that anyone can do is to think wrongly about his neighbor. Wrong Thoughts are poisonous serpents which creep forth to stain and injure and corrupt the world. Whoever thinks wrongly of his fellowman robs not only his neighbor but himself. For the greatest wealth of earth comes from Good Will. Wherever Good Will abides there can be no poverty either physical or spiritual. God cannot and will not help the envious or the contentious or the greedy man. Greedy men are never rich—save in mere material things. But in Mind and Heart and Soul and in all spiritual ways greedy men are always poor men. Jealous and envious and greedy men dwell amid perpetual poverty. Their backs may be clad in silk and their brows may be decked with jewels but their shriveled and hungry souls are starving for the want of food. Men may not see but God sees and knows the poverty that dwells underneath silken garments. And no poverty is so dire and so hard to be borne as the poverty of the Heart, the Mind and the Soul. 57 CHAPTER LI What is the matter with the world? The matter is that there are too many good intentions that fail to become good actions. Like self-seeking politicians, people too often perch themselves upon a safe and self-righteous fence and then calmly debate what to do until they end in doing nothing. Too many good people get tipsy on words and phrases and sentimentalize in musical and elo- quent language about the Wrongs and Evils of Society instead of grimly and silently rolling up their sleeves to fight. If people each day when dumping trash out into the garbage can would only throw a few pounds of the rotten and rotting Self- ishness out of their own hearts, this would be a better world. Dump your Egotisms and Egoisms overboard! But what can be done to remake the world when some children die of starvation and other children die of being stuffed to death? When some women are loaded with silks and jewels and other women have not even decent rags wherewith to clothe themselves? When some men own palaces and castles and thousands of acres of land and other men have not even a shanty in which to live? Stop wasting words! Learn to do deeds! Don’t criticize and analyze and lament over the condition of the world. You are the world. Look down into your own hearts! Cleanse your own souls! Arouse your own Spirits! Then and not until then will there be Hope. 58 CHAPTER LII Honesty! Simple, old-fashioned, straight-forward Honesty— that is Mankind’s greatest need today. Not to be clever, not to be smart, not to be a good mixer and hail-fellow-well-met! Just to be honest!—that should be the one ideal taught by Age to Youth. But before you can teach an Ideal, you must first possess the Ideal to be taught. Before you can give, you must have. The world is changed and has been changed by Education, not by Intimidation. Let young people know that Dishonesty is not only wrong. It is stupid. And what young person wants to be stupid? The trickster may trick others a little at the beginning but he is sure to trick himself more in the end. Who wants to enter a game where he is sure to lose? And the dishonest person is sure to lose— in the end. Nay! he loses both at the beginning and the end. For hell begins the minute a person does a wrong. Mankind may not see. But God sees and knows. Most of all the wrong-doer knows and sees and feels. Like scorpion whips, the accusing Con- science of the wrong-doer flays the raw and open wounds which he has created for himself. No suffering can be inflicted by others so severe as the torture a man inflicts upon himself when he know- ingly does a wrong. 59 CHAPTER LIII Yet there is always Hope. Nothing is beyond repair. There- fore no one should feel a permanent despair. God wipes away all stains from the heart and soul and mind when sincere Repentance comes. God heals all hurts and binds all wounds whenever and wherever the human Spirit is roused to a firm resolve to do right. Long may Clouds and Tempests and Darkness cover the sky. Long may Sorrow and Woe and Despair depress the Heart and Soul and Mind of man. But the Sunshine is always on the way. The Divine Light from heaven is always waiting to break through to cheer and uplift and comfort both the Earth and the men and women of the Earth. No wound is so deep and no scar is so severe that the sunshine of Divine Love will not heal it. But man must learn to be patient. Woman must learn to trust in God and to heal by unselfish deeds what selfish deeds have done to her. Unselfishness! That is the word to conjure with and to live by. For Unselfishness means true Love. And God is Love. When the soul reaches up to Love, it reaches up to God. Ever and for- evermore there stands the waiting goal for each and every human soul who in patience hath the faith to struggle and to endure, For none can fail who trust in true Love and have faith in God, for they are one. 60 CHAPTER LIII God made man to dance with joy and leap to his tasks with pleasure and ecstacy and adoration. But what has man done to Ged’s good intentions? He has handcuffed himself with rules and regulations and disciplines until he drags out a weary and futile semi-petrified existence which he gravely and sometimes even religiously praises and out of his blind and perverted moral obliquity denominates as Life. God save the mark! 61 CHAPTER LIV I do not say thou shalt not. I say thou shalt. First thou shalt be strong. But before thou canst be really strong in mind and heart, thou must have Gratitude and Reverence. Out of Gratitude comes Joy. Out of Reverence cometh Beauty. Gratitude maketh the heart sing. Reverence giveth the soul Peace. Wheresoever both Gratitude and Reverence abide, there all thought shall be clean. And cleanliness of thought is the basis of all physical and mental health and strength. Where-so-ever Love and Good Will abide, there lies Heaven. The foundation stone of all true Religion is the belief in a per- sonal Goed,—of a God infinite in Love, infinite in Mercy, infinite in Charity, infinite in Sympathy, infinite in Power, infinite in For- giveness, infinite in breath of Mind, infinite in Wisdom. But the test of all Religions is Man’s faith in his Fellowmen. And this faith is necessary because since all men are the children of God, disbelief in Humanity and in the divine possibilities of Humanity is really a lack of faith in God. It is such a lack of Faith which is the root of all the wars and social injustices and brutalities of the World. Written at Davenport, Iowa, U.S. A., at 6:22 A. M., May 14, 1925. The First Edition of this book, consiating of 2,400 copies, was printed in May, 1924. The Second Edition, consisting of 8,000 copies, is being printed in May, 1925. Some Lrtirrs The following are selected from more than two dozen letters written to Emperor William, the Czar of Russia and King George of England. ib October 2, 1914. To Emperor William of Germany :— One year ago last Spring I wrote you a letter telling you that the only way to preserve the peace of Europe was to form an alliance between England, Russia and Germany. Later I wrote you two more letters warning you against Austria. Those letters were written as this letter is writ- ten in the middle of the night (it is now 26” minutes after 3 a.m.). They were God’s messages and God’s warnings. You did not obey the message. You did not listen to the warning. This great war has come as a consequence. Again I send you a warning. You must end this war before Christ- mas. lI ask you in the name of the Christ you pretend to fol- low. I ask you in the name of the widows and orphans; I ask you in the name of Germany’s young men who may yet live if you will only spare them. I ask you in the name of your own children to stop before it is too late. I promised to come to see you one year ago last August. I did not come because you did not do what was expected of you. I can come only when you do what I ask. Now I must tell you plainly what will happen if you do not heed this warning. Germany and all the best that Germany stands for shall lie in the dust. Weeping and wailing shall fill your land. Hun- ger shall stalk across your fields. Death shall come and reap thousands where he has thus far reaped tens and hundreds. 63 Humiliation and desolation undreamed of by any living human being shall come to you and to Germany. You can prevent it if you will, will you do so? There is no place in all this world for Pride or Anger or Suspicion or Bitterness. In the end, only the loving, the helpful, the friendly shall survive. For Love is the Law. There is, there has been and there shall be no other Law. Will you obey the Law? Itis God’s will. I ask you in the name of Christ. Your friend, THE UNKNOWN. ae April 11, 1915, Sunday morning. To King George of England, YOUR MAJEsTY:—In the name of God, I ask you to con- sider these things. Hate and Fear and Envy and Suspicion are all blind. It was out of such moral blindness that this war came. If it continues for 90 days after May Ist, the war will destroy the real vitality and energy of European civilization. Try to make an effort for peace before it is . too late. le ' January Ist, 1916. Emperor William of Germany, YouR MAJEstTy:—I warned you before the war started. I warned you soon after it started. Again and for the last time, I warn you. You must try to stop the war and you must keep trying until you succeed. Only ruin to you and to your family and to Germany will be the end if you persist. For the sake of your country and of your children, I ask you to stop. The first of a series of letters written to Ex-Emperor Wm ended thus: “I warn you to beware of Austria. She may prove a firebrand to Europe.” These words were written and mailed March 12, 1913. 64 ma S Sy fa cf he ‘2 Wii im 1 1012 012 er eE 4