FROM 
 
 Mother Goose 
 
 For Big Folks 
 
 Fanny M.Haruet 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 
 
 Cliap.X\f!7 Copyright No.... 
 Skelf.4=UB£- 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 
 
SERMONETTES FROM 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 FOR BIG FOLKS 
 
 FANNY W; flARLEY 
 
 F. M. Harley Publishing Company, 
 
 87-89 Washington Street, 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 

 Copyright 1895 
 By Fanny M. Harley. 
 
g Ja ^ 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 plHE writing of every one of these 
 chapters has been a soul-lift to 
 
 " me, I am persuaded that they 
 will also be of assistance to those who 
 read them; for how can a book help do- 
 ing good when it has come from the 
 soul ? Freely I have received, freely I 
 give. F. m. h. 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "There was a man in our town" 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 "There was an old woman and what do 
 
 you think ?" 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 "Mollie, my sister, and I fell out" 40 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 "Cross patch" 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 "There was an old woman in Surrey".. 92 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 "Three wise men of Gotham" 105 
 
6 CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 "Little Tommy Grace" 130 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 "A man of words and not of deeds". . . . 150 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 "I saw a ship a-sailing" 163 
 
SERMONETTES FROM MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 " There was a man in our town, 
 
 And he was wondrous wise. 
 He jumped into a bramble bush 
 
 And scratched out both his eyes; 
 And when he found his eyes were out, 
 
 With all his might and main, 
 He jumped into another bush 
 
 And scratched them in again. " 
 
 Many rhymes, fables and melodies 
 have been and will continue to be hand- 
 ed down from generation to generation. 
 We as children were as much interest- 
 ed in them as were our great grand 
 parents when they were children. 
 They have never gone out of fashion, 
 neither have they ever seemed to grow 
 old; and why? Because they have con- 
 
 7 
 
SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 cealed in them great and mighty 
 truths; therefore they never will die, 
 neither will they ever grow old. Age 
 can not affect Truth. 
 
 Four has been the sum of 2 plus 2 
 since the beginning of time and it will 
 continue to be through all eternity. 
 Truth has no beginning and no ending. 
 
 "Every true word is a word of God;" 
 therefore whenever we realize a new 
 truth we can say the Lord said it unto 
 me. Words are living things. Life 
 and Truth are all-powerful and can nev- 
 er be destroyed nor overthrown. They 
 are eternal therefore they will stand 
 forever. Truth never began to be true, 
 but it is true always. 
 
 Truth is not always recognized as 
 Truth. It is very often spoken when 
 the speaker is entirely unconscious of 
 the mighty work that he is doing; 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 
 
 when he does not even recognize the 
 fact that a word is a living thing and 
 that by his speaking it he is sending it 
 on a journey around the universe to ac- 
 complish either weal or woe according 
 to his word. 
 
 This rhyme of u Mother Goose" veils 
 one of the most stupendous truths, 
 whose facts are being proven daily: 
 viz., man's own responsibility in mak- 
 ing conditions for himself. 
 
 Truth, being infinite, is revealed in 
 countless ways and through innumera- 
 ble methods. Where the teachings of 
 Jesus do not appeal those of Buddha 
 may. Where religion may be rejected 
 ethics may succeed. Where neither 
 law nor gospel can arouse loyalty or 
 enthusiasm, the comedy may work the 
 desired end. 
 
 Law is one of the aspects of God; 
 Wisdom is another. Omnipresence is 
 
10 SERXOXETTES FROM 
 
 an inherent quality of God. Thus we 
 say that Wisdom is always and ever 
 working with the operation of Divine 
 Law. In whatever way, therefore, 
 that Truth is revealed, it is in the pro- 
 cess of the manifestation of Divine 
 Law. 
 
 To him who understands Divine Law 
 there is no condemnation. Each and 
 every one of us has, naturally, had to 
 begin with no knowledge, and of neces- 
 sity must work up to All Knowledge. 
 In whatever error therefore we see oth- 
 ers, in merciful tenderness we should 
 say: "Father, forgive them, they know 
 not what they do." We have in a cer- 
 tain stage of our development been just 
 where they are now. We have grown 
 out of that place; so must they, for Di- 
 vine Law is Omnipotence and nothing 
 can stay its course. 
 
 The great first uncreate Cause of all 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 11 
 
 that is, is uncontrollable, irresistible, 
 unchangeable and omnipotent. Will its 
 purposes not then be carried out? 
 
 What is it that this great first Cause 
 of all wills to attain? Manifestation 
 surely. And manifestation can only 
 come through that in which Deity is ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 Our rhyme from "Mother Goose" 
 gives the history of man from his com- 
 ing forth from first Cause as express- 
 ion until his return thereto in full con- 
 sciousness of his divinity which he has 
 proven through his demonstration. 
 
 God is no respecter of persons. The 
 nature, capacity, possibilities and pow- 
 ers of one man are only a type of what 
 all men are in their generic nature. 
 Law would not be law, nor Principle 
 be principle if, primarily, mankind were 
 differently endowed. Emerson says 
 
12 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 "The history of Jesus is the history of 
 every man writ large. Because one 
 man was true to that which was in him 
 allows that all men can be. " 
 
 The Bible must be an individual book 
 if we would have it an open book. It 
 portrays the soul experience of each one 
 of us from our first sense judgment un- 
 til we have realized, through demon- 
 stration, full and complete God con- 
 sciousness and omniscience. 
 
 Mother Goose gives us individual 
 teaching. She sings of each one of us 
 through a particular type man. 
 
 If we will open our inner eye we will 
 see Truth expressed everywhere and 
 through everything. All advice, all ex- 
 hortation and all precepts have been 
 needed by us at some time in our soul 
 growth. All recorded experiences have 
 been or will be ours sometime during 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 13 
 
 the process of our development of God 
 consciousness. Realization of this 
 melts away all condemnation. As con- 
 demnation decreases in us, considera- 
 tion, sympathy and love increase in us. 
 
 "There was a man in our town, 
 And he was wondrous wise." 
 
 Taking him to have been a type ot 
 all the men in "our town," we were all 
 "wondrous wise/' Created by Wisdom, 
 being the image in which God is fully 
 and completely expressed, wondrous 
 wisdom is the consequence or re- 
 sult. It is not an endowment from 
 choice on the part of the donor, the 
 Creator, but a necessary derivation 
 from which there could not possibly be 
 any deviation. A creator from his 
 very nature, bestows life upon his cre- 
 ation. In other words, the creation — 
 
14 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 the living thing— is that which expres* 
 es the creator. It is therefore just like 
 the creator in nature, powers and fac- 
 ulties. Since the Creator is Wisdom 
 unqualified, how could the creation, the 
 complete expression, be other than 
 "wondrous wise? 
 
 But being and doing are two vastly 
 different things. It is only in the doing 
 that we prove to ourselves that we can 
 do that which we have the inherent ca- 
 pacity and possibility of doing. Any 
 principle would be unknown and as 
 though it were not, if it were not made 
 manifest. First Cause, or the Priilti- 
 ple, God, would be as though he were 
 not if it were not for his effect, or ex- 
 pression, Man. Man — the being of ef- 
 fect or expression — would be as though 
 he were not, did he not manifest him- 
 self through demonstration. 
 
 Man is, because of his nature, "won- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 15 
 
 drous wise," but he is not conscious 
 that this is true of himself until he 
 proves it to himself. As a man proves 
 to himself that he is what he is, he 
 proves it to all who have eyes to see 
 and ears to hear. 
 
 His proof or his demonstration comes 
 through doing or action. The power 
 to do or the power to act is his because 
 of his Source or Cause. With the life 
 with which he is endowed came the 
 power of action. 
 
 Soul is self-consciousness. 
 
 Of the soul it is said that it must re- 
 turn to God who gave it. A return im- 
 plies that there was previously a going 
 away from. Therefore, for the soul to 
 prove its God consciousness, it must, 
 through doing or action, 'prove what it 
 can do every step of the way from no 
 
16 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 self-consciousness tip to the conscious- 
 ness that it is like God. 
 
 Now our man who was so "wondrous 
 wise" 
 
 "Jumped into a bramble bush 
 
 And scratched out both his eyes;" 
 
 Judging from appearances wisdom was 
 lacking in this man that he should do 
 such a thing as this, but a knower of 
 Divine Law would say he was proving 
 his power of action and that through 
 action will he prove his other powers 
 and demonstrate his divine capacities 
 and possibilities. He acted and result 
 was made manifest. If he was "won- 
 drous wise" why did he act so foolishly, 
 do you say? Ah! he must prove his wis- 
 dom as well* as his power of action! 
 Was the result satisfactory to him? 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 17 
 
 No? Then let him profit by his experi- 
 ence, use his wisdom and act again. 
 
 "And when he found his eyes were out, 
 With all his might and main, 
 He jumped into another bush 
 And scratched them in again/' 
 
 Necessity is a fine teacher. It is said 
 to be the "mother of invention." To 
 invent is simply to find out what you 
 know and what you can do. When we, 
 through action, bring ourselves into 
 very undesirable conditions, we recog- 
 nize that it will only be through furth- 
 er action, coupled with wisdom, that we 
 can get out of these conditions. When 
 the man in our melody perceived this, 
 when he found himself to be in the 
 darkness and misery which he had 
 brought upon himself, and when he had 
 suffered enough so that he was driven 
 
18 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 to turn with "all his might and main" 
 to the contrary course of action,, and 
 not till then, were his eyes "scratched 
 in again." 
 
 Since Mind is the only Reality, all 
 real action is mental. According to 
 our thinking then will all things be to 
 us. Spoken words are only our think- 
 ing made audible. The power to think 
 is ours because of our cause which is 
 Mind. From the use of this power we 
 will work up, up, up, until we have at- 
 tained all knowledge, all power and all 
 purity. We will one day in perfect 
 knowledge say with Isaiah, "Surely as 
 I have thought so shall it come to pass." 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 'There was an old woman and what do 
 you think? 
 
 She lived upon nothing but victuals and 
 drink; 
 
 Victuals and drink were the chief of her 
 diet, 
 
 Yet this grumbling old woman would nev- 
 er be quiet." 
 
 How could the old woman be quiet 
 when she tried to obtain satisfaction 
 through that which satisfieth not? Im- 
 possibilities can not be done. It is 
 sometimes said that there are no impos- 
 sibilities, but this is always meant 
 when the true nature of that which is 
 spoken is revealed. There are itnpos- 
 
20 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 sibilities for both God and man, and 
 well is it for us that there are. 
 
 The nature of anything is that which 
 is fixed. It is not assumed, but is its 
 essential. The nature of God is Love. 
 Would it be possible then for God to 
 change to hate or wrath. No, God is 
 Love and God can not change. What 
 shall we fear, then, since God — Love — 
 Divine Love — is Omnipotence? What 
 shall we be anxious about? Is not Di- 
 vine Love Omniscience, and is it not 
 pushing us into a perception of, and 
 faith in u the eternal law of Good?" 
 What need have we for a physician? 
 Is not Divine Love omnipresent, and 
 does it not heal our bruises every time 
 we apply it? Divine Love is change- 
 lessly and forever Divine Love. 
 
 Nothing exists for us unless we per- 
 ceive it and are conscious of its pres- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 21 
 
 ence. If we do not perceive Divine 
 Love; if we are not conscious that Di- 
 vine Love is around and about us, up- 
 holding, encircling and infolding us, 
 then to our consciousness there is no 
 Divine Love. 
 
 Whether a thing is true to our con- 
 sciousness or not does not alter either 
 the fact nor the nature of the thing. 
 Divine Love is, and recognition of it will 
 prove to us that it can not fail us, for 
 it is eternal, changeless and omnipotent. 
 To these words can we flee when as- 
 sailed by either fear, sorrow or sick- 
 ness and we will find them to be heal- 
 ing, courage giving, and faith strength- 
 ening. 
 
 From the earliest records, almost, it 
 has been proven that material things 
 have always failed those who put their 
 trust in them. We can not live solely 
 
22 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 upon "victuals and drink." Man is a 
 spiritual being and can not be wholly 
 satisfied unless he has spiritual as well 
 as material food. "Man shall not live 
 by bread alone but by every word that 
 proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 
 God is Principle, therefore deductions 
 from Principle, clearly and accurately 
 stated, are words that proceed out of 
 the mouth of God. 
 
 "Victuals and drink" of themselves 
 contain nothing satisfying, and lack of 
 satisfaction is what causes people to 
 grumble. "Out of the fulness of the 
 heart the mouth speaketh." When 
 there is unrest in the heart the words 
 are of murmuring, discontent and grum- 
 bling. When the heart knows peace 
 the words are of peace and satisfaction. 
 To obtain peace and satisfaction the soul 
 must feed upon that which will bring 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 23 
 
 such results. It is the soul which feels 
 either peace or unrest. "Victuals and 
 drink" do not feed the soul, therefore 
 one who makes them the chief oi his 
 diet will not know peace. 
 
 That man is a spiritual being has to 
 be proven every step of the way. He 
 comes forth from God that he may re- 
 turn to God with conscious knowledge 
 of what he is. In the process of his 
 coming from God one of his error be- 
 liefs has been that he is a material be- 
 ing, and that he is sustained by materi- 
 al food alone. Like all other error be-, 
 liefs this has to be outgrown. It has 
 been noticed time and again that as we 
 attain spirituality in thought our appe- 
 tites change. We do not desire the 
 coarse foods we formerly craved, but 
 little by little we drop them and choose 
 the lighter foods, fruits, vegetables and 
 
24 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 nuts. The more spiritual we become 
 the less anxious thought we take for 
 the body and what we shall eat. 
 
 We have always been warned by both 
 physicists and sacred writers not to 
 make "victuals and drink" the chief of 
 our diet. The materialist tells us that 
 to be overfed by "victuals and drink" 
 will bring upon us disease and suffering. 
 Spiritual teachers tell us that "victuals 
 and drink" have no real satisfying pow- 
 er. It is oflly when we eat the flesh 
 and drink the blood of the son of Man 
 that we truly eat nourishing food. 
 
 The flesh and blood are made and 
 their quality determined by the think- 
 ing and speaking. When we think the 
 thoughts of Jesus we are drinking his 
 blood and when we speak his words we 
 are eating his flesh. Whatever words 
 we speak are made flesh. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 25 
 
 As words are living things they al- 
 ways objectify. When the undesirable 
 comes into our existence it shows us 
 that we have been doing some wrong 
 thinking. But if we will turn from 
 placing our faith in 'Victuals and drink" 
 (materiality) and will eat the flesh and 
 drink the blood of the son of Man — 
 (spiritualize ourselves) we will attain 
 power over all hard conditions. * 
 
 The question has been asked why is 
 it if we are spiritual beings that we 
 need to eat any material food at all? 
 We have always believed that there is 
 life, substance, intelligence and causa- 
 tion in material things. Believing this 
 we have looked to material things for 
 sustenance and depended upon them for 
 our life, health and happiness. 
 
 Because man is essentially spiritual, 
 having all knowledge and power, he 
 
26 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 wanted to prove to himself that he is 
 what he is. In this proving process 
 he had to have something to work with, 
 by the use of which he could make his 
 demonstrations. When we undertake 
 to prove the principles of mathematics 
 we use blackboard and chalk, slate and 
 pencil, or paper and pen. We call 
 these our tools and by the use of them 
 we prove our conscious intelligence. 
 
 There are many tools and instru- 
 ments for the use of man in the course 
 of his proving himself to his own con- 
 sciousness to be a spiritual being. 
 These tools and instruments are what 
 is called matter in its various phases. 
 They are of just the same importance 
 and of the same value as the black- 
 board and chalk by which we have 
 proven so much. The blackboard and 
 the chalk of themselves can do nothing; 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 27 
 
 they are lifeless and inert, they have 
 no power nor intelligence of themselves 
 to do anything, but when acted upon 
 and used by intelligent man, mighty 
 things can be wrought through their 
 use. The spiritual man that God cre- 
 ated was not satisfied to simply know 
 all that God knows but he wanted to 
 prove to himself that he knows it all, 
 and it is through the use of material 
 objects that he does his proving. 
 
 When man decided to do this prov- 
 ing through matter, the allegory w^hich 
 explains it all to us reads: u In the 
 sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 
 till thou return unto the ground; for 
 out of it wast thou taken; for dust 
 thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re- 
 turn. " Man clothed himself with flesh, 
 or, as Genesis puts it, The Lord God 
 made coats of skin and clothed Adam 
 
28 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 and his wife that they might the better 
 use the tools which they would make 
 for themselves with their thinking, 
 to prove themselves to be what they 
 are. 
 
 Dust means nothing or nonentity. So 
 £ll materiality of itself is in reality 
 nothing. It is simply shape to our 
 sense vision. It has substance to us or 
 not just according to the way we think 
 about it. All things are to us accord- 
 ing to our sense about them. When we 
 understand what matter really is — 
 shape through which intelligence can 
 be expressed and manifested — we will 
 lose our frantic hold upon it and turn 
 to depending upon and loving the Lord 
 our God. 
 
 As long as our belief is strong in 
 matter having substance and causative 
 power we have laid great stress upon 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 29 
 
 the importance of what we should eat. 
 We have made 'Victuals and drink" not 
 only the chief of our diet but the chief 
 of our desires and anxieties. When the 
 truth of our being begins to dawn upon 
 us, we soon see that in this matter of 
 "victuals and drink" we can prove our- 
 selves to be in the world but not of it. 
 Fear of any kind of food will soon van- 
 ish when we perceive that there is no 
 causation in matter. This same per- 
 ception will also relieve us of anxiety 
 regarding what we shall eat and how 
 it shall be prepared. A clear percep- 
 tion of the truth that there is no causa- 
 tion in matter will do as much to clear 
 wrinkles off the faces of the people as 
 any other thing that I know of. 
 
 As long as we manifest here in the 
 flesh we will eat, but how different will 
 the eating be compared with what it 
 
30 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 used to be! Instead of being a slave to 
 appetite we will eat when and what is 
 convenient. Instead of laying great 
 stress upon what we eat we will recog- 
 nize that nothing we can take into our 
 mouths will defile us. It is the words 
 that come out of our mouths that hurt 
 us. As long as we are here with this 
 visible, physical shape, it will be our 
 mission to demonstrate over all beliefs 
 about matter, and that it has no life nor 
 causation, and not until we have out- 
 grown these beliefs can we say "I have 
 overcome the world." 
 
 Dependence and reliance upon "victu- 
 als and drink" bring upon us trouble, 
 sickness and inharmony. To change 
 our thinking is the only way we can 
 change these conditions. 
 
 If man had always kept uppermost 
 the remembrance that he is a spiritual 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 31 
 
 being possessing all that God is, he 
 would never have heard pronounced, 
 "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
 bread." 
 
 Little Johnnie, in his composition 
 said: "Pins have been known to save a 
 great many lives by not swallowing 
 them." Just so will error words save 
 much trouble and sickness by not think- 
 ing nor speaking them. An ounce of 
 prevention is always worth more than 
 a pound of cure. 
 
 We clearly see that the grumbling 
 which our old woman did after making 
 victuals and drink the chief of her diet 
 was the natural outcome of this diet. 
 She is a type of mankind. We are all 
 seeking satisfaction. While unsatis- 
 fied we all grumble either silently or 
 audibly, and we continue to grumble 
 until we attain satisfaction. We want 
 
32 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 to find and eat that which will cause us 
 to cease our grumbling just as quickly 
 as we possibly can. As no man liveth 
 to himself alone, so we can not be in a 
 grumbling mood without making those 
 around us miserable too, Thoughts are 
 contagious, and one of a grumbling dis- 
 position is a poisonous and much to be 
 dreaded member of the home or society, 
 for moods are infectious. 
 
 If dependence upon 'Victuals and 
 drink" makes one unhappy and sick it 
 would be well to change the diet to that 
 which is life sustaining and health giv- 
 ing. 
 
 We should hold no condemnation over 
 ourselves for what we have done in the 
 past because what we did we did in our 
 dream of ignorance. We are now awa- 
 kening from this dream and attaining 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 33 
 
 the power to clearly perceive and de- 
 pend upon that which satisfieth. 
 
 We have constantly thought that 
 which was not true until it has become 
 a settled habit with us. Habits are 
 very often hard to break. It very often 
 takes great constancy of purpose and 
 determination to break off an estab- 
 lished habit. He who changes from 
 habitual error thinking to constant 
 true thinking is the one to whom the 
 voice will speak: "Well done, good and 
 faithful servant, enter thou into the 
 joy of thy Lord." 
 
 Whenever there is a thing that we 
 ought to do, we can always be shown a 
 way to accomplish it. If error think- 
 ing is only a habit, why can not that 
 habit be broken and a correct habit be 
 formed? "Where there is a will there 
 is a way." 
 
34 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 We all remember how in our illnesses 
 in the past we have kept uppermost in 
 our thoughts the importance and neces- 
 sity of taking our medicine in the pre- 
 scribed quantities and at the appointed 
 times, and how everything we did was 
 made secondary to this one great thing 
 of obeying the commands of our physi- 
 cian faithfully and conscientiously just 
 as he prescribed. Our watch was open 
 beside us, or the clock was turned so 
 that we could see it and our thoughts 
 centered upon obedience. 
 
 We have now put ourselves under the 
 care of the Great Physician, and must 
 form the habit of obeying his direc- 
 tions and taking his prescriptions. 
 When we were taking the medicine we 
 were trying to avoid sickness and avert 
 death. These were the thoughts and 
 beliefs uppermost with us. We have 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 35 
 
 found that the only way to put out a 
 thought is to put another one in. its 
 place. Instead of keeping ourselves 
 obedient through fear, let us change 
 our thinking and courageously cling in 
 thought to life and health. Since we 
 have found that our physical conditions 
 are made by our thinking we have 
 proven that the body will be changed 
 from sickness to health by correct and 
 true thinking. 
 
 Every thought is either a healing po- 
 tion or a disease generator according 
 to its quality, not only for the one who 
 thinks it but also upon whomsoever the 
 thought may fall, u for no man liveth to 
 himself, and no man dieth to himself." 
 Others are affected by our thinking as 
 well as ourselves. 
 
 If we have not been accustomed to 
 guarding our thinking we have to put 
 
36 SEKMONETTES FROM 
 
 our effort to work at first and system- 
 atically compel ourselves to administer 
 healing potions of true thinking to our- 
 selves. 
 
 As "victuals and drink" have not sat- 
 isfied us and as our grumbling has 
 made us and others sick and poor and 
 miserable let us now take the flesh and 
 blood of Jesus (his thoughts and words) 
 and bring rest and health unto our 
 souls; "For my yoke is easy and my 
 burden is light," he said. 
 
 If we could take hours, days and 
 weeks to render obedience to the phy- 
 sicians whose care we had put our- 
 selves under for physical ills, can we 
 not much better afford the time and 
 effort that we should give to coopera- 
 tion with the Great Physician who 
 ministers to the soul and who, if 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 37 
 
 obeyed, will lead us into health sure 
 and secure? 
 
 Perhaps in our old sick days we said 
 as many as twenty times a day, u O 
 dear, how my head does ache !" or, "I 
 feel so awfully nervous to-day, " or some 
 other self absorbed mistake, thus mak- 
 ing not only ourselves feel badly but 
 every one who had to listen to our com- 
 plaining. 
 
 Let us now take a prescription for 
 the soul. Let us pay attention to what 
 we are doing and systematically, by the 
 clock, repeat some statement of Truth, 
 three times a day, or, every four, three, 
 two or one hour according to our ne- 
 cessity. Suppose we say I am not a 
 material being, sick and sinful, but I 
 am a spiritual being, perfect, pure and 
 whole; or, I will no longer speak the 
 
38 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 words that show forth in poverty, 
 weakness and sickness, but I will 
 speak true words of myself and mani- 
 fest that I am what I am, the perfect 
 ideal of the Divine Mind; or, I am not 
 a sinner, ill tempered and selfish and 
 proud, but I am in my real and true 
 being the exact image of God, pure, 
 loving and good. I will speak true 
 words of myself till I consciously see 
 myself to be not only God's image but 
 God's perfect likeness also, pure in 
 heart, and whole, perfect and com- 
 plete. 
 
 If we eat and drink such words as 
 these half as many years as we have 
 depended upon "nothing but victuals 
 and drink" we will find that we will 
 become not only free from all desire to 
 grumble but will be filled with a peace 
 unspeakable. We will have joyous, hap- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 39 
 
 py, bounding health and realization that 
 all things are ours now for we know 
 that the earth is the Lord's and the 
 fulness thereof. 
 
40 SERMOXETTE3 FROM 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 "Mollie, my sister, and I fell out, 
 And what do } r ou think it was about? 
 She loved coffee, and I loved tea, 
 And that was the reason we couldn't 
 agree. " 
 
 Unless we allow each other individu- 
 ality there is very likely to be a falling- 
 out. What right has Mollie to try to 
 make me drink coffee if I do not care 
 for it, or why should I try to inflict the 
 drinking of tea upon her when she does 
 not want to drink it? 
 
 How often do we see one domineer- 
 ing member spoil the pleasure of an en- 
 tire family? Perhaps a father or a 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 41 
 
 mother will, without any consideration 
 for each other or for their children, de- 
 cide that each and all must do thus and 
 so, even if the tastes and desires of ev- 
 ery one of them run in another direc- 
 tion. The injustice that is done to 
 children by not allowing them any indi- 
 viduality is often cruel and sometimes 
 heartrending. 
 
 I believe many of the people of to- 
 day who have anarchial tendency have 
 developed it through the injustice in- 
 flicted upon them when they were chil- 
 dren. Christ love often has to become 
 very largely developed in the adult be- 
 fore he can forgive, to the extent of for- 
 getfulness,the indignities put upon him 
 in childhood. Selfishness is such a deep 
 seated error in the race that mothers 
 very seldom know to what extent they 
 are governed by it and how they allow 
 
42 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 it to cause them to ruin their children. 
 When I was a little girl I visited a 
 family, once, where three orphan chil- 
 dren lived with their grandfather. His 
 intention was to be kind to them and 
 he thought he was kind but his tyranny 
 in some things was almost past believ- 
 ing. For instance, at table he helped 
 the plates very bountifully. He had an 
 excellent appetite and thought because 
 he could eat heartily every one else 
 could. These children were not allowed 
 to say one word, make one request, 
 about what or how much should be put 
 upon their plates but were commanded 
 u to be silent at table." He often gave 
 them more than it was possible for a 
 delicately reared child to comfortably 
 eat but eat it he demanded they should; 
 and he would sit at the table until they 
 had disposed of everything that was 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 43 
 
 upon their plates. They had their 
 choice to "eat what was before them, 
 or, be punished." My little heart used 
 to swell with pity for them and though 
 he tried to be kind to me there were 
 many times I could not think of him as 
 other than u a hateful old man." He 
 did not consider that children had any 
 rights whatsoever, but that they must 
 instantly obey their elders under every 
 circumstance. 
 
 The little boy was a great favorite 
 with one of his aunts. She used to sur- 
 reptitiously remove things from his 
 plate to hers, for she was an adult and 
 could leave what she chose uneaten. 
 She did not realize that she was teach- 
 ing him deception. When he grew up 
 he ran away from home and was not 
 heard of for years. 
 
 This may seem to a great many of 
 
44 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 my readers an exaggerated case, but I 
 have known of many homes where tyr- 
 anny of one kind or another was prac- 
 ticed on the children where the parents 
 in their deep-rooted selfishness were 
 entirely oblivious of the fact. 
 
 How many children have been forced 
 to go to church on hot summer Sundays 
 when they have wanted so much to go 
 to the fields or to the parks or to stay 
 quietly at home? But no, the consci- 
 entious and God-fearing mother has 
 refused all requests and tears and in- 
 sisted on the church going. She car- 
 ried her point but their hearts were far 
 from the worship of God. They fos- 
 tered a rebellion which, when they 
 attained manhood and womanhood, kept 
 them as far away from the church as 
 they could possibly be. 
 
 I know of a man about thirty years 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 45 
 
 of age who is remarkable for his spirit- 
 uality. He says: "I had no teachers in 
 spiritual matters when I was a little 
 boy except the grass, the trees and the 
 wind. The secrets they told me and 
 the things they taught me then have 
 always staid by me. I learned of them 
 and found God. Their teachings have 
 kept me pure in heart and pure in mor- 
 als." This mother allowed her boy to 
 live his own life. Did she make a mis- 
 take? 
 
 Of course, we all know that when 
 parents know the Truth that they can 
 direct the energy of their children in 
 the right direction, but unless the par- 
 ents do know the Truth it takes an un- 
 common amount of good sense on the 
 part of the children to keep them from 
 running adrift. When the blind lead 
 the blind they both fall into the ditch. 
 
46 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 It takes great knowledge of Truth, 
 great consecration of heart to Princi- 
 ple to fit one to become a parent, a lead- 
 er or a teacher. The one who dictates, 
 guides, or advises needs to clearly know 
 that what he is teaching is true. Great 
 responsibility rests with a leader in any 
 movement. The people as a mass are 
 averse to doing their own thinking in 
 either material or spiritual affairs. 
 They prefer to follow^ a leader as sheep 
 follow^ their leader. Whichever way 
 he jumps they all jump. It will be well 
 for the people when they individually 
 set out to do their own thinking; when 
 they perceive that each man has got to 
 work out his own salvation. 
 
 Our actions depend upon our motive 
 as to whether they are righteous or un- 
 righteous. If Mollie wanted to force 
 me to drink coffee simply because she 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 47 
 
 was headstrong and determined to 
 carry her own ends she was in error. 
 If I withstood Mollie from principle, 
 and because I saw it was not wisdom 
 to allow her to hypnotize me into giv- 
 ing up my individuality I was sensible 
 and right. If I withstood her from ob- 
 stinacy I was in error. What could 
 possibly be my reason for wanting her 
 to drink tea? If it was a righteour 
 reason I could explain it to her. If she 
 was reasonable she would accept my 
 explanation, and, because her reason ac- 
 cepted the tea she would very soon, in 
 all probability, become as fond of it as I 
 am. 
 
 The dictatorial disposition which 
 Mollie and I have shown in the little 
 matter of whether tea or coffee should 
 be the beverage used at our table is car- 
 ried into many of the daily affairs in 
 
48 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 our existence and is very often carried 
 into affairs which concern only us and 
 our God. It has been an easy thing for 
 us to entirely overlook and forget that 
 the Declaration of Independence, on 
 which the government of our country is 
 founded, gives each and every man the 
 liberty to worship God after the dic- 
 tates of his own conscience. Therefore 
 coercion of any kind is unlawful mor- 
 ally as well as spiritually. 
 
 How truly has it been said: "Men 
 will wrangle for religion, write for it, 
 fight for it, die for it — anything but 
 live for it." Would not the aroma from 
 a perfect life do far more toward win- 
 ning disciples to a knowledge of Truth 
 than all the arguments and sermons and 
 wars and martyrdoms that the whole 
 w r orld has undergone and endured? He 
 who is greatest in. the world to-day, he 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 49 
 
 who is King of kings and Lord of lords 
 is the one who lived his religion; is the 
 one who blessed and healed and helped, 
 but who gave each one his choice to be- 
 lieve in his teachings or not. 
 
 Neither dictation nor argument ever 
 convert. The way to lead people into 
 a new line of thought is to impress 
 them with either its beauty or its util- 
 ity. If Mollie can show me neither of 
 these results from her love of coffee she 
 need not hope to induce me to drink it. 
 If I can not show her some marked ben- 
 efit from the use of tea why should I 
 expect to proselyte her into loving it? 
 
 If it is not convenient for any cause 
 for us to be able to purchase both tea 
 and coffee, one of us, clearly, would 
 have to give in to the other. Which 
 would it be? Why the one who had 
 
50 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 the most generosity and love. Where 
 love is there is agreement. 
 
 An ideal home can only be found 
 where divine love dwells. Much that 
 the world has called love has not been 
 love at all but animal magnetism. Love 
 can be easily known by her fruits. She 
 is gentle and kind. She seeks not her 
 own. She believes all things good and 
 hopes all things good of every one with 
 whom she comes in contact. She does 
 not coerce bift she gives true liberty. 
 She, herself, aspires to attain the Christ 
 character and consciousness. She has 
 faith to believe that every one else is 
 striving for the same perfection that 
 she, herself, is aiming for. She under- 
 stands that all are in the process of ev- 
 olution and that every one is doing the 
 best he knows at this stage in his pro- 
 cess. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE, 51 
 
 Love can look past all that which ap- 
 pears to be mysterious in our human ex- 
 periences and thus keep her faith warm 
 in God, for she knows that all appear- 
 ances are but shadows of past igno- 
 rance which can now be wiped away by 
 true thinking. 
 
 Love is patient and kind in the home. 
 While she does not condone idiosvncra- 
 sies yet neither does she unkindly criti- 
 cise them, but wisely leads, by precept 
 and example, into higher and better 
 ways. 
 
 Love is never dictatorial, nor envi- 
 ous of her authority, neither is she 
 easily provoked to condemnation of any 
 one, for she knows that in the fulness 
 of time every one will strive to become 
 as the Christ. 
 
 If Mollie and I had been filled with 
 divine love we would have had no fall- 
 
52 SE-RMONETTES FROM 
 
 ing out. We would have given each 
 other true liberty. And we would have 
 had no bickering over any material 
 thing. In Divine Love there is neither 
 contention nor strife. When we are 
 filled with divine Love we are pure in 
 heart. The pure in heart see God — 
 Spirit, and know the unreality of all 
 material things and that they are un- 
 worthy of any altercation. 
 
 There will be no fallings out in relig- 
 ion when we all have learned to look to 
 the Spirit for life and health and peace. 
 When we have learned to love God 
 with all our hearts we will lay no stress 
 on whether we have been immersed, or 
 sprinkled or even whether we have 
 been baptized with water at all or not. 
 Close communion or open communion 
 will not disturb us for we will be com- 
 muning every minute with the Lord our 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 53 
 
 God. The bishop's hands will make no 
 difference on our heads for we will feel 
 that the Spirit of God is in constant 
 descent upon us and it will unite us to 
 our Source as no human agency can do. 
 But we will have all love and consider- 
 ation for every one who believes he ob- 
 tains any good or any comfort from 
 any of these forms and ceremonies. 
 When we love mercy, do justly and 
 walk humbly before God we will have 
 no condemnation for any one no matter 
 what he does. Divine Love will make 
 us tolerant. Religious intolerance is 
 what causes "fallings out." 
 
 If Mollie and I had looked this mat- 
 ter fairly and squarely in the face we 
 would have found that it was not really 
 honest in us to try to influence or co- 
 erce each other as we did. No person 
 of genuine honesty would try to in- 
 
54 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 terfere with the individuality of an- 
 other. 
 
 Each must discover the Truth for 
 himself. Each must aspire to know 
 and do the Truth. Each must become 
 conscious of this oneness with the 
 Father for himself. No person can do 
 any of this for us. It is against Divine 
 Law, that one person shall do the work 
 of another, for all flesh must see the 
 salvation of God, each man for him- 
 self. 
 
 We can not know ourselves to be free 
 from guile if we, in any way, intention- 
 ally influence another to do a thing that 
 he would not have done of his own free 
 will. Freedom to find God, each in his 
 own way, is the divine right of every 
 man, woman and child. Freedom to 
 think truly, freedom to speak truly, 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 55 
 
 freedom to do righteously, belongs to 
 every one of us. 
 
 Mentality is one just as the atmos- 
 phere is one. The air we. inhale comes 
 from the general atmosphere. The air 
 we exhale goes into the general atmos- 
 phere. In the process of inhaling or 
 exhaling the air we breathe and use in 
 our houses, manufactories, etc., becomes 
 either purified or contaminated. We, 
 as a planet, make our general atmos- 
 phere. We, as individuals, do each our 
 share toward making the general at- 
 mosphere. To keep the atmosphere of 
 a city pure each house, factory, hotel, 
 etc., must do its part, keeping its own 
 air pure. If you allow the air in your 
 home to become foul and stagnant and 
 then open your doors and windows you 
 are allowing just that much foul air to 
 
56 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 be put into the general atmosphere. If 
 in all the homes of an entire city the air 
 is allowed to become foul, there would 
 be a great deal of impurity let loose in- 
 to the general atmosphere. But if all 
 the homes in all the cities every where 
 kept their air pure and unpolluted the 
 general atmosphere would be clean and 
 pure for the people every where to 
 breathe. 
 
 Now, it is just this way with the 
 mental atmosphere. We take into our 
 mentalities the beliefs and thoughts of 
 the race. We hold them for a time 
 and then return them, either purified or 
 more polluted, back to the general 
 store. We can purify our mentalities 
 by keeping ourselves positive against 
 outside thought currents and holding 
 our mental eye constantly on what is 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 57 
 
 really true. Our thinking goes out in- 
 to the general atmosphere just as does 
 our breathing. There could be no 
 means possibly devised which would 
 prevent this, so we can see the im- 
 mense importance of doing our part 
 to better its quality. 
 
 As each fraction has its particular 
 part and place in the unit, so each one 
 of us has our particular part and place 
 in the universe. The unit would not 
 be complete if the tiniest fraction 
 should be missing. Harmony can only 
 be demonstrated in mathematics by 
 each and every fraction being put in its 
 proper place in the working of the 
 problem. Harmony can only be dem- 
 onstrated in the universe by each and 
 every individual doing his or her 
 
58 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 best and truest and highest thinking. 
 
 Man being the expression of God has 
 God powers. God-Principle is uncon- 
 trollable. Man can develop in con- 
 sciousness until he proves to himself 
 that he, too, is uncontrollable in his 
 thinking by anything outside of himself. 
 He can become positively his own law- 
 maker and lawgiver. Man can dictate 
 to himself what he will think. I will 
 think Truth, and I will not think er- 
 ror is uniting his will to the Father's 
 will- 
 Since what we think goes into the 
 general thought atmosphere and is ab- 
 sorbed into the mentalities of our fel- 
 low men, do you not see the importance 
 of sending out none but clean, pure, 
 true thoughts? While we were igno- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 59 
 
 rant of Truth we did not know how to 
 purify our thinking but now, since we 
 are awake to the Truth, we can take 
 every thought which we absorb, state 
 its truth or untruth and send it out in- 
 to the general store to add richness, 
 strength, purity and power. As soon 
 as we learn that we can do this we find 
 out the responsibility that is attached 
 to our thinking, and we learn that it is 
 through our thinking that we can carry 
 out all the instructions of him who said 
 u Go ye into all the world, preach the 
 gospel, heal the sick, cast out demons, 
 and raise the dead." 
 
 Degree on degree we become con- 
 scious of our God capacities and pow- 
 ers, step by step do we demonstrate 
 them. As surely as Law is Law will 
 we, in the fulness of time, demonstrate 
 
60 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 that each one of us is the Christ. 
 "Righteousness is for the individual 
 soul." The world is simply a company 
 of individuals. There is as much re- 
 sponsibility attached to each one's 
 thinking as if he were the only one. 
 
 One of our writers has said: "Indi- 
 viduality is the divine birthright of the 
 individual. Its supreme charm is its 
 ceaseless effort to be its ideal in spite 
 of all the world's resistance. Its un- 
 foldment is the sovereign art of life. 
 
 "As the artist expresses a definite 
 truth, harmonious in all its proportions, 
 and converts an abstract notion into an 
 apprehensible form, color or sound, so 
 individuality represents an effort of the 
 soul to express a symphony in consci- 
 ousness, perfect and symmetrical in all 
 its faculties and functions. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 61 
 
 "All human egos are consciously or 
 unconsciously engaged in this art and 
 persistently working out their innate 
 plan. To the degree that they identi- 
 fy action with the ideal superstructure 
 do they take rank and station in the 
 spiral of race progression. For, only 
 personalities fade while the individual- 
 ity glides ever silently and gloriously 
 along the eternal path of the Law." 
 
 Mollie and I had not learned this 
 truth when we had our falling out, but 
 now, having learned it, we will fall in 
 and cooperate with the eternal law of 
 liberty. 
 
 W. ID. Channing says : "We were 
 made for free action. This alone is 
 life, and enters into all that is good and 
 great. Virtue is free choice of the 
 right ; love,, the free embrace of the 
 
G2 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 heart ; grace, 'the free motion of the 
 limbs ; genius, the free, bold flight of 
 thought ; eloquence, its free and fer- 
 vent utterance." 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 63 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " Cross patch, 
 
 Draw the latch, 
 Sit by the fire and spin; 
 
 Take a cup, 
 
 And drink it up, 
 Then call your neighbors in." 
 
 One of the most foolish things that 
 we can do is to be absorbed in our- 
 selves. Constant thinking of our own 
 feelings, our own plans, our own pleas- 
 ures, disappointments, crosses, etc., etc., 
 is slow suicide, besides making us a 
 trial to ourselves, family and friends. 
 One who is self absorbed draws the 
 latch across his own heart and shuts in 
 
64 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 the divinity of his nature. He sup- 
 presses the waters of love, life, health, 
 harmony and all the good which should 
 be constantly flowing from him for the 
 blessing and healing of mankind. Who- 
 ever does this is not even awake to the 
 laws of his being. He is so undevel- 
 oped in this respect that he does not 
 use the reason with which he is en- 
 dowed, but continually acts contrary to 
 the dictates of wisdom. 
 
 One who lives only for himself be- 
 comes morose, gloomy and selfish. He 
 does not try to make others happy. 
 He does not try to lift the burdens of 
 other people. He is a damper on the 
 souls of all with whom he comes in con- 
 tact. If other people love him it is be- 
 cause they force themselves to do so. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 65 
 
 Spontaneous love is very seldom given 
 to him. 
 
 ''Cross patches" are greatly to be pit- 
 ied. They are "cross patches" because 
 their souls are as yet too undeveloped 
 to know that good only comes to them 
 in the measure in which they have first 
 given it. 
 
 Instead of being jealous and envious 
 of the blessings which we see other peo- 
 ple have we should rejoice in the law 
 and be glad, for as they have only re- 
 ceived according to their deserts we 
 know that we can do as they did and 
 bring the same blessing upon our heads. 
 If we want to reap blessings we must 
 sow the seed that will produce bless- 
 ings. Every tree bears seed after its 
 own kind. Whatever anyone has, 
 either of weal or woe, is because of his 
 
66 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 having planted the seeds for those very 
 things. Because of this law we want, 
 by every thought, word and deed, to 
 preach the gospel that men may be 
 taught to plant good seed in the gar- 
 dens of their hearts. 
 
 "Cross patches" never have good 
 health. They nearly always suffer 
 from constipation, or stomach trouble, 
 or have the blues. When water is 
 dammed up it becomes stagnant and 
 poisonous. When wrong thoughts are 
 held their impurity acts upon the blood. 
 The entire system becomes out of 
 order from the bad condition of the 
 blood. 
 
 There is no tonic in the world that 
 can compare to that of true thinking. 
 It enriches the blood and strengthens 
 the very marrow of the bones. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 67 
 
 Much time could be saved by lectur- 
 ers and hearers in the many learned 
 dissertations that are to-day given on 
 the subject of "vibrations." For it 
 could be told in a very few words that 
 right, pure thinking raises the vibra- 
 tions, while impure error thinking low- 
 ers them. This knowledge is worth all 
 the Yogi teaching that ever has been, 
 or ever will be, given to the world. 
 
 All that we need to do to become 
 healthy, wealthy and wise is to attend 
 to our thinking. If we do not watch 
 that our thinking is in accordance with 
 Principle we need not be surprised if 
 we are sick, poor and either a fool or 
 become crazed with melancholia. 
 
 Our work is with our own self. We 
 do not have to change other people and 
 things. We simply have to change our 
 
68 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 own thinking about them. As we think 
 of them so they are to us. Why is my 
 child sweet to me and disagreeable to 
 you? Because I see it in one light and 
 you see it in another. It is the same 
 child, the difference is in our view of it. 
 Why do you like Wagner while I pre- 
 fer Beethoven? Because . you have 
 trained yourself to think one way while 
 I think from another standpoint. 
 
 Limitation in thinking is what the 
 world calls evil. We overcome limita- 
 tion through growth. God and all of 
 God's creations and manifestations are 
 good. If we do not see them as good 
 we are limited in our perception, conse- 
 quently in our thinking. It is there- 
 fore we who are in error. It is we who 
 do the evil when we allow ourselves to 
 see any person or thing as less than 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 69 
 
 they really are. Clearly then what we 
 need to do is to change our own think- 
 ing. This we can accomplish by prac- 
 tice. 
 
 The crossest patch in all the world 
 can change himself into a blessing to 
 self, family and friends if he desires to 
 make this change in himself. He will 
 be pushed into making the change some- 
 time for this is the ultimate of what 
 Divine Law will work in every one of 
 us, but if we, in our thinking, aspire to 
 conscious cooperation with the law of 
 Good that is working in us, we can 
 bring the desired end to pass, perhaps 
 eons sooner than otherwise. When we 
 consciously measure up to the perform- 
 ance and bringing forth of an ideal, 
 every power and capacity within us 
 works for the attainment of the desired 
 
70 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 end. If we do not cooperate with law, 
 if we hush our aspirations and allow 
 ourselves to become inert, then must we 
 take the consequences. 
 
 It will make a vast difference to 
 us whether we allow Divine Law to 
 lovingly call to us "Come on," or wheth- 
 er we compel it to sternly command us 
 "Go on." To a certain point in under- 
 standing with each one of us it has 
 been "go on ;" but now we have awak- 
 ened to the beneficence of the Law and 
 we gratefully and gladly hear the lov- 
 ing voice, "Come up higher! Come un- 
 til thou dost realize that I am in thee 
 and thou art in Me." In aspiration and 
 adoration we say: "Lord, I come." 
 
 When one has come into an under- 
 standing of Divine Law he never con- 
 demns. Well is it for the cross patch- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE: 71 
 
 es when one in their family or among 
 their friends conies into this under- 
 standing. 
 
 The world has always either con- 
 demned cross patches because they 
 were so cross or condoned the cross- 
 ness out of ignorant pity for their ill 
 health. We should neither condemn 
 nor condone but should put our whole 
 force, our entire time, in speaking the 
 truth of the reality of our friend every 
 time we think of him thus closing our 
 eyes to the untrue appearances. No 
 man liveth unto himself alone. The 
 thoughts that we think fall upon other 
 people and enter their mentalities as 
 suggestion. If we close our eyes to 
 appearances of evil and think only of 
 the truth of Being, others will respond 
 to our thinking and will directly begin 
 
72 SERMONETTBS FROM 
 
 > 
 
 to see themselves as they really are. 
 Oh, blessed privilege of doing right, 
 of speaking trul) r , of thinking purely! 
 
 Not only one "cross patch" will be 
 helped by our true thinking, but they 
 will all be helped, for there is neither 
 time nor space to thought. It is omni- 
 present. At sometime in our soul evo- 
 lution we have all been u cross patches. " 
 As it is always darkest just before the 
 dawn, so were we about the crossest, 
 the most miserably unhappy, or the 
 sickest, just before we begun to desire 
 to change our way of thinking. 
 
 None will be drawn to read this book 
 except he who desires to change his 
 w r ay of thinking. To such I gladly 
 give my message. 
 
 We change our thinking by laying 
 down false beliefs and taking up right 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 73 
 
 thoughts. There is a process involved 
 in this as there is in all mental train- 
 ing; in all teaching for the soul. All 
 of our thinking is in words spoken si- 
 lently. As we think we show forth. 
 If we think only of self we speak of, 
 and act only for, self. 
 
 A fault discovered is half cured. 
 When we discover ourselves to be self- 
 absorbed we can, by clear, persistent, 
 logical, and scientific thinking and 
 speaking, entirely change this charac- 
 teristic to one of love and kindly 
 thoughtfulness for others. If there is 
 physical disability it can be, and will 
 be, cured at the same time that the 
 error in character is being wiped away 
 for the physical ailment is the effect of 
 the wrong thinking that made the 
 wrong characteristic. When this 
 
74 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 cause is removed its effect will also be 
 removed. True, beautiful thinking 
 will result in beautiful effects. 
 
 The divine self of each one of us is 
 the spiritual man which God created in 
 His own image. This Real of us is 
 called by many different names. As 
 God is First Cause of all that really is, 
 spiritual man is the "effect." As God 
 is the Creator, spiritual man is the 
 Created, or, the Creation. As God is 
 Principle — spiritual man is the "expres- 
 sion." As God is Primal Force, or en- 
 ergy — spiritual man is the "result." 
 As God is First Cause of all that is, 
 magnificent variety belongs to the na- 
 ture of God — hence no one can meditate 
 much upon God and not become grand- 
 er and wiser and stronger and truer. 
 Whoso truly meditates upon God will 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 75 
 
 become all glorious both within and 
 without. 
 
 Since Spiritual man is the direct ef- 
 fect of God — having no other cause nor 
 source — he must be of the same nature 
 as God. For the effect can partake of 
 no other nature than its Source. God, 
 as Primal Force or Energy, works un- 
 ceasingly. God works through the 
 spiritual till it in turn is manifested. 
 The first work of God is Creation. 
 The second work is Creation made vis- 
 ible or manifest. 
 
 As spiritual man is the exact image 
 of God he has all God powers; hence, 
 his power to think is God-derived. 
 Even though he does not consciously 
 choose to cooperate with God in his 
 thinking he can not stay the working of 
 God-Force in him, for it is Omnipo- 
 
76 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 tence and his wrong thinking will push 
 him into places and conditions where 
 his suffering will be so keen that he 
 will, at last, be glad to begin the work 
 of right thinking. He will reach that 
 stage in development where he will 
 drink u the cup" and will find the dregs 
 very bitter, after which he will begin 
 to work with the Law instead of 
 against it as he had hitherto. If we 
 work with the law all is harmony and 
 peace. If we try to resist it we suffer 
 in consequence. 
 
 Divine law can only be resisted or ig- 
 nored by us to a certain point, after 
 that we turn and flee into its protec- 
 tion with all our hearts and with all 
 possible speed. By ignoring the law of 
 our Being we have brought ourselves 
 into all manner of disease in every de- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 77 
 
 partment of our existence. By cooper- 
 ating with this law we will bring our- 
 selves into harmony in all ways. 
 
 If the u cross patches" had known Di- 
 vine Law, they would never have taken 
 any cup of pleasure of any kind with 
 the motive or intent of keeping it to 
 themselves. Our neighbors must share 
 our good things and not be excluded 
 from them. It is the desire to keep 
 good things to ourselves that reacts up- 
 on our health and causes us suffering. 
 If we wish to get rid of ill health we 
 must change our thinking. 
 
 Because selfishness has been such a 
 common error its' results are common 
 ailments. Take, for instance, consti- 
 pation. It tightens up the heart strings 
 and acts as an astringent to all emo- 
 tions of love and good will. The culti- 
 
78 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 vation of contrary thoughts and feel- 
 ings will cure the constipation. If the 
 selfishness has lasted a long time the 
 disease of constipation may have be- 
 come chronic. The physical outshow- 
 ing is the picture in which is reflected 
 the thinking which was done before the 
 picture was formed. In proportion as 
 the error characteristic is cured so will 
 the disease be cured. 
 
 We can change our characteristics 
 by the speaking of true w^ords. Words 
 are living seeds which bear fruit each 
 after its own kind. Thoughts are si- 
 lent words. As we think so we are. 
 If we have been heartless and regard- 
 less of other people, it is because in our 
 thinking we have been self absorbed 
 and covetous. 
 
 "I will give you a set of words which 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 79 
 
 I believe will cure constipation, no mat- 
 ter what the complications may be. It 
 is this: I am not selfish, neither do I 
 criticise nor condemn, but I am com- 
 passionate and merciful, loving and 
 kind in my thinking toward everybody 
 and everything in all the world; neith- 
 er have I any lust of any kind for any- 
 thing, but I am pure in heart. When 
 you speak these words feel them in 
 your heart and apply them individually 
 to each person of whom you think. You 
 will be amazed at the change that will 
 come in your feelings toward people 
 and your eyes will be opened in great 
 surprise at the many opportunities 
 which you will find to be kind and lov- 
 ing to others. 
 
 Our deepest errors are the ones 
 which we do not see. What we see in 
 
80 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 others is lying dormant in ourselves, for 
 like sees like. The Lord our God is too 
 pure to behold iniquity. When we see 
 an error in other people we should im- 
 mediately cleanse our own hearts and 
 mentalities of that selfsame error. 
 When we have cleansed ourselves we 
 may no longer see it in others. Selfish 
 people always think others are selfish. 
 Sensitive people — they who are always 
 having their feelings hurt — are the 
 most regardless of the feelings of oth- 
 er people and the most cruel and exapt- 
 ing of them. Verily we must pull the 
 beam out of our own eyes before we can 
 take the mote out of our brother's eye. 
 
 Another way in which selfishness is 
 universally expressed is in fear. When 
 we fear this or that we are thinking of 
 self. Fear is doubt. When we fear 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 81 
 
 we are not trusting in and loving the 
 Lord our God. If the time we spend 
 in fear was occupied in affirmations of 
 faith and love, the Good would be made 
 manifest in our existence very speed- 
 ily. 
 
 Now, take these people who have 
 stomach troubles, bad breath, can not 
 eat this or that, etc., see how self-willed 
 they are! They are sweet and lovely 
 as long as everything goes their way. 
 As long as everyone is subservient to 
 them they are amiable and gracious, but 
 when they are put upon an equal foot- 
 ing with others then they begin to plan 
 and struggle to cany their own ends 
 and take the lead for they are usually 
 ambitious. Very self-willed people are 
 unreasonable. When thev are unrea- 
 sonable in matters temporal, they are 
 
82 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 also lacking in reason in matters spirit- 
 ual. It is very hard to help people who 
 are not amenable to reason. We should 
 exercise reason. 
 
 No matter how much we may intui- 
 tively know of the Truth we can never 
 make good teachers unless the faculty 
 of reasoning is developed. When we 
 all become willing to lay aside preju- 
 dice and open ourselves to divine rea- 
 son there will never be any disagree- 
 ments among us. There will be fewer 
 differences among teachers about spir- 
 itual things when we are willing to list- 
 en as did Isaiah when the Lord said 
 unto him, "Come now, and let us reason 
 together." 
 
 Unreasonable people are very hard to 
 live with. Warm friendships can not 
 be established with unreasonable peo- 
 
.MOTHER GOOSE. 83 
 
 pie. There must be mutual esteem be- 
 fore true friendship can be established. 
 Many times self-willed and unreasona- 
 ble people attach others to them by the 
 strength and power of their will, but 
 this is a case of hypnotism on the one 
 side and mental servitude on the other. 
 True friendship allows true liberty. 
 Each can think as he or she is led by 
 the spirit of Truth, and each can ex- 
 press his or her convictions without 
 fear of criticism on the part of the oth- 
 er. The self-willed, unreasonable per- 
 son has not yet come into an under- 
 standing of the purpose of his creation. 
 He unconsciously prays my will must 
 be done, instead of "thy will be done." 
 
 Unreasonable people often have trou- 
 ble with their eyes and ears. None are 
 so blind as those who will not see. 
 
84 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 None are so deaf as those who will not 
 hear. Unreasonable people are always 
 prejudiced. They have preconceived 
 notions and opinions and are deter- 
 mined to make other people accept 
 them whether or no. Is it any wonder 
 that these people can not digest their 
 food and that they have stomach trou- 
 ble of one kind or another? 
 
 A steadfast desire to overcome these 
 faults of character will overcome them. 
 By the persistent use of the word of 
 Truth w^e can overcome any thing. 
 When we speak words of Truth we are 
 bringing to our consciousness that 
 which is true of ourselves. The real of 
 us is never changed by any circum- 
 stance nor condition. Our knowledge 
 of what we really and truly are changes 
 and increases. With increasing know- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 85 
 
 ledge we prove to ourselves little by 
 little that we are what we are — the im- 
 age of God, 
 
 The words that we speak take form. 
 As we speak so do things appear to us. 
 If we do not like things as they appear 
 to us now we can speak words opposite 
 to those we have been speaking and 
 have opposite appearances. Our word 
 is "like a hammer that breaketh the 
 rock in pieces. " Because we have 
 snared ourselves with the words of our 
 mouths, need we stay snared? No! for 
 we have the privilege of undoing with 
 true words all that we have done with 
 error words. By our words we can 
 give "health to our bones." According 
 to our own words will we be pardoned 
 for all our mistakes, our sins and our 
 sicknesses. Let us then speak the 
 
bb SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 words that belong to our true self. 
 They will become objectified to our 
 consciousness just as surely as the er- 
 ror words have been. 
 
 Let us speak somewhat after this 
 manner. I am not self-willed and un- 
 reasonable. Such foolishness and ig- 
 norance have no part nor place in me. 
 I am a spiritual being and not material 
 in any sense. All materiality is noth- 
 ing but shape or objectified thinking. 
 All the errors which I see in my char- 
 acter, my body and my estate have 
 come from wrong thinking. From 
 now on I will endeavor to find out what 
 is true so that my thoughts and my 
 words may be only of Truth. 
 
 I hereby lay aside all pre-conceived 
 opinions and all prejudices for and 
 against every thing and every person 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 87 
 
 and every teaching in all the world. It 
 is the Truth that I want and the Truth 
 only. I will have no w r ill of my own. 
 To do the Father's will shall be my de- 
 light. I lay down all desires of every 
 kind. To know and do the Truth shall 
 be my one never ceasing aspiration. 
 
 I fear nothing, I am anxious about 
 nothing, I shall strive for nothing. I 
 shall be calm and cool and patient and 
 loving and reasonable always. All im- 
 patience, all selfishness, all unreasona- 
 bleness are being washed away from 
 my consciousness by my spoken word of 
 Truth. As these errors disappear from 
 my consciousness Divine Love takes 
 possession of me. As it increases and 
 strengthens in me it causes all errors of 
 character, body and affairs to melt 
 away. 
 
88 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 I will have no ends of my own to ac- 
 complish. My only aim shall be to 
 work for the weal and glory of man- 
 kind. Thus shall I glorify God. I will 
 be grander and nobler and purer than 
 to work for any private ends. I shall 
 remember always when I am speaking 
 of the truth of my being that I am 
 speaking true words of every one, for 
 we are all one. I will endeavor in all 
 ways to be God-like for my mission in 
 the world is to prove man's likeness to 
 God. In the severest travail of my 
 soul to know God I shall be patient and 
 calm and cheerful. My eagerness to 
 know Truth shall never make me un- 
 mindful of others. On every occasion 
 I shall speak to them the words they 
 need and try to teach them the way of 
 life. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 89 
 
 I know that as soon as I am pure 
 enough in the thoughts of my heart that 
 I shall see God. Patience and kind- 
 ness and mercy and love will wash me 
 clean. I will, in honor, prefer others 
 to myself. In my real being I am as 
 pure as God for God created me like 
 unto the absolute Good. I prove to my- 
 self that I am like God by being like 
 God in my conscious thinking and 
 speaking and doing. 
 
 There can be no prevarication, no 
 thing hidden from the Lord my God. 
 He searcheth the heart and he knoweth 
 them of honest intent. I can not even 
 deceive myself if I commune with my 
 Lord for he will take all veils from be- 
 fore my eyes and show me every bar- 
 rier that is keeping me out of the king- 
 dom of heaven. The power and the 
 
90 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 capacity are mine to press forward un- 
 til in my consciousness I and the Fa- 
 ther are one. I will then have attained 
 the peace that passeth understanding. 
 I will then know the Truth and will be 
 free from all ills of every kind. 
 
 When we were little children we re- 
 peated our multiplication table over and 
 over again. Perhaps for months and 
 years we used it before we really un- 
 derstood its truth. Finally it became 
 our own knowledge, also its why and 
 wherefore. It would be just this way 
 with any truth. Much repeating of any 
 word will open up its meaning to us. 
 If we speak true words of ourselves, 
 even though we but dimly perceive 
 them to be true, yet, after much speak- 
 ing of them they will some day open up 
 to us as clear as can be. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 91 
 
 Let us train ourselves to speak the 
 Truth to ourselves and of ourselves at 
 all times and in all places. Our true 
 words will not return to us void but 
 they will accomplish that whereunto 
 they were sent. Thus will we put 
 away forever the cup of selfishness and 
 drink only from the cup of blessedness . 
 
92 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 " There was an old woman in Surrey, 
 Who was morn, noon and night in a 
 hurry ; 
 Called her husband a fool, 
 Drove the children to school, 
 The worrying old woman of Surrey." 
 
 Self-poise is one of the first things 
 to be cultivated by the one who wishes 
 to realize his ideal nature. To be al- 
 ways self-possessed is to be master of 
 time and circumstances, for in accord 
 with that law that Mind is all, we know 
 that nothing has any power over us on- 
 ly as we give it power, and that we cre- 
 ate our own environments. The inhar- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 93 
 
 monious experiences in our existence 
 are only the reflections or outshowings 
 of the turmoil that is going on within 
 our mentalities. 
 
 He who is self-possessed manages his 
 affairs so smoothly that things are said 
 to be conducted in his business "by the 
 clock." The self-possessed govern their 
 work. They are not driven by it. 
 They accomplish several times as much 
 with less fatigue, greater enjoyment 
 and with more real dispatch than do 
 those who are always in a hurry. 
 
 Hurry and worry are twins which 
 should be strangled in infancy. If this 
 has not been done they must be assassi- 
 nated even now, their age and growth 
 notwithstanding. No characteristic 
 must be allowed to remain in us that 
 does not work for the manifestation of 
 
94 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 perfection and that can not be used for 
 the weal of our brother man. We 
 should so love humanity that we would 
 be willing to make constant effort to 
 put away from us every sin that holds 
 us in bondage of any kind. If others 
 see us overcome obstacles and rise above 
 tribulations they can take heart and 
 persevere in the working out of and 
 over their life problems. No man can 
 live unto himself alone. His strength 
 or his weakness affect not only those 
 near and dear to him but it extends also 
 through them to the ones with whom 
 they come in contact. 
 
 A housekeeper who is in a constant 
 state of fret and worry is often an an- 
 noyance to her whole family and some- 
 times to an entire community. The 
 neighbors learn to dread a visit from 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 95 
 
 her, and her husband and childen either 
 go out for their entertainment or else 
 are in durance vile while they stay at 
 home. Women who worry all the time 
 become wrinkled and thin and yellow. 
 All sweetness vanishes from their coun- 
 tenance and their disposition. The 
 things they so greatly fear generally 
 come upon them for the imagination be- 
 comes externalized whether it be true 
 or false. They are a damper on the 
 exuberant spirits of their children and 
 they frequently make both husband and 
 children fear to invite their friends to 
 their home lest her worrying and anxi- 
 ety will make their guests feel uncom- 
 fortable. A worrying disposition is a 
 great desecrater of a home. 
 
 Worry comes from fear. And fear 
 is the result of a belief that things, peo- 
 
9b SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 pie and circumstances have power over 
 us. Fear reduced to its ultimate is a 
 belief in a punishing power. 
 
 As God is the uncreate and first great 
 Cause of all that is, our joys and sor- 
 rows directly or indirectly depend upon 
 our correct or incorrect beliefs about 
 God. Where knowledge is there is no 
 fear. With all our getting let us 
 strive, most of all, to get knowledge — 
 understanding of God, for on this de- 
 pends so many of the issues in our ex- 
 istence. 
 
 This old woman of Surrey is a type 
 of many women, old and young, the 
 world over whose worriment all comes 
 from lack of understanding of Truth. 
 Because of this lack of understanding 
 on their part we who know Truth must 
 be very patient with them until we lead 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 97 
 
 them into knowledge. A lack of com- 
 passion on our' part would prove that 
 we too still needed to seek for more 
 knowledge of God. 
 
 The true knowledge of our being is a 
 Science pure and exact. It is capable 
 of being applied every moment of our 
 lives. Furthermore it is only to those 
 who do seek to know, and apply it that 
 immunity from sin, sickness, sorrow 
 and fear of death is promised. There 
 are many men who are given to worri- 
 ment and anxiety but my text is talking 
 about a woman, so while I stick to my 
 text in the letter I am meaning man 
 as much as woman every time I say 
 "woman." 
 
 Erroneous teaching in the past has 
 been the cause of many unhappy homes, 
 many wayward children and much bick- 
 
98 SERMONETTES FROM- 
 
 ering between husband and wife. Be- 
 cause of her education to accept what 
 has been taught as Truth and her own 
 under-estimation of herself as an indi- 
 vidual > she became predisposed to men- 
 tal inertia and instead of reasoning out 
 the whys and wherefores of her condi- 
 tion she accepted all the trials and trib- 
 ulations that came to her as something 
 to be endured, either patiently or impa- 
 tiently, or else to be overcome by some 
 power or person outside of herself. As 
 she did not know that "There's nothing 
 either good or bad but thinking makes 
 it so" neither did she know that she 
 could learn to control her thinking — 
 hence have only good come to her. We 
 know to-day that ignorance is "origin- 
 al sin" for as soon as we become wide 
 enough awake to know the truth of our 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 99 
 
 being we see that as we sow thus will 
 we reap. As we want to re^ap only 
 good fruit we will sow only good seed . 
 When people worry they are so ab- 
 sorbed in what they think is going to 
 happen that they become forgetful of 
 other people and say and do very un- 
 gracious and unkind things. When 
 one is intent upon one thing that is the 
 thing that receives all the thought and 
 all the attention. Any thing else is at- 
 tended to only half consciously. 
 • The worry which our old woman en- 
 tertained colored every thing else she 
 looked at, so she saw husband and chil- 
 dren in an untrue light and said and 
 did that which she will wish she had 
 left unsaid and undone as soon as she 
 takes her eyes off her worry long 
 enough to perceive what she has done. 
 
100 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 The people who are always in a hur- 
 ry have no realization of the meaning 
 of the words "peace" and "faith." On- 
 ly a certain amount of work can be ac- 
 complished in a given time. If one is 
 executive, methodical and neat she can 
 do much more than if these qualities 
 are lacking in her. Confusion both in- 
 ternal and external, precipitation and 
 irregular activity, which are contrary 
 to divine Law, all come of hurry. One 
 who is given to hurry does not possess 
 self-mastery. 
 
 Perhaps the hour for rising has ar- 
 rived. You know that to accomplish 
 what you have to do you should arise 
 immediately and with calm and steady 
 purpose proceed to do the duties that 
 lie before you for the day. But "no," 
 you say, "I will lie a little while longer 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 101 
 
 and then will hurry to make up for it." 
 Thus do you sell your birthright of 
 peace, power, strength and goodwill for 
 a little nap of, perhaps, fifteen minutes. 
 If you begin a day wrong, things are 
 apt to go wrong .for you all day long. 
 With your hurry comes worry because 
 things are not being accomplished as 
 they should and then comes condemna- 
 tion and impatience for people outside 
 of yourself, and before you know it you 
 have called your husband a fool and 
 driven your dear little children off to 
 school with unhappy little hearts sore 
 with injustice. All this could have 
 been avoided if that fifteen minutes had 
 not been wasted in bed. "But," per- 
 haps you say, "I was tired. I need a 
 great deal of sleep. I was wakeful 
 during the night," etc., etc. Yes, I do 
 
102 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 not doubt any of it. But do you know 
 that if you would truly seek for a know- 
 ledge of God that all these physical 
 conditions would pass away and in their 
 stead would come peace and calmness 
 that nothing could disturb, power to do 
 all things well and health of body and 
 strength of purpose that does not fear 
 any thing that you may be called upon 
 to do? Knowledge of God makes us 
 love to be harmoniously active. To be 
 always in a hurry is an abnormal state. 
 Man is the expression of Divine Prin- 
 ciple. Principle works by law. We 
 hasten its course through cooperation. 
 In the fulness of time its ends are 
 accomplished. If man realized that 
 he is the expression of Divine Principle 
 he would always be in a peaceful state 
 of steady, harmonious activity. We 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 103 
 
 can bring ourselves into this state by 
 constantly dwelling upon Divine Prin- 
 ciple; recalling, unceasingly, that all 
 that God is, is expressed in us and will 
 be manifested through us. 
 
 Courage, fortitude, faith, peace, 
 strength and power can all be demon- 
 strated through Divine Patience. Di- 
 vine Patience is the offspring of Divine 
 Love and Wisdom. Divine Love can 
 be cultivated in the soul. Wisdom is 
 attained through the development of 
 the soul. With the growth of these 
 two virtues comes the patience which 
 sees and knows that in each soul there 
 will be an awakening from the dream in 
 which sin, wickedness and all worldly 
 errors have figured as pleasures, neces- 
 sities and good. 
 
 At Sometime during the process of 
 
104 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 development we were all this old wo- 
 man of Surrey, but thanks be unto God 
 which will cause us to triumph in 
 Christ we are all being led to put off 
 the old woman and put on the "new" 
 which after God is created in right- 
 eousness and true holiness. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 105 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " Three wise men of Gotham 
 Went to sea in a bowl; 
 If the bowl had been stronger, 
 My song had been longer." 
 
 "Gotham is a parish in Nottingham- 
 shire, England. It has long been cele- 
 brated for the remarkable stupidity im- 
 puted to the inhabitants. They are 
 said to have heard the cuckoo once upon 
 a time, and on discovering that the 
 notes — which were new and strange to 
 them — came from a certain bush, pro- 
 ceeded to hedge it in, in order to pre- 
 vent the bird from making her escape t 
 
106 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 A bush is still shown on an eminence 
 about a mile south of the village which 
 is called the 'Cuckoo bush.' It is not 
 the original one, but is said to be plant- 
 ed on the site of that." — Notes on 
 Mother Goose. 
 
 When we remember that u the wis- 
 dom of this world is foolishness with 
 God," we are almost led to believe that 
 a large proportion of the people of this 
 w r orld are to be likened to these three 
 men of Gotham, for while they would 
 make sport of any who would follow 
 the example of these men and go to sea 
 in unseaworthy vessels, yet they are 
 constantly doing, and have been doing 
 from time immemorial, just as stupid 
 and foolish things as did thevSe three 
 men. 
 
 Instead of following the injunctions 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 107 
 
 of the truly wise they do the things 
 that their sense judgments dictate 
 when it has been proven time and time 
 again that they are unreliable and con- 
 tain no life, neither healing balm within 
 them. 
 
 Instead of practicing the brother- 
 hood of man, as our great teachers have 
 always admonished, and from the doing 
 of which heaven's choicest blessings 
 would come, inhumanity, to man has 
 been the thing practiced. 
 
 Instead of loving mercy, doing justly 
 and walking humbly before God, unjust 
 and unmerciful has been man's treat- 
 ment of man, and rebellion and pride 
 has been his attitude toward the God 
 of his imagination. 
 
 Mother Goose did not seem to feel 
 that she could say much about her three 
 
108 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 "wise" (?) men, because they were so 
 quickly swamped as the effect of their 
 own foolishness of putting out to sea in 
 a bowl, which was never intended, and 
 was entirely unsuitable, for any such 
 purpose. Is it any wonder that they 
 sank from view and that they are 
 known no more forever? How much 
 wiser are many of the men of this so- 
 called enlightened nineteenth century? 
 How much more sensibly do they really 
 use their God given powers, capacities 
 and faculties than did these men of 
 Gotham? 
 
 The fact is that as a race we have 
 not yet become enlightened, hence do 
 the foolish things which we do because 
 of our ignorance. To know a thing is 
 to clearly and certainly perceive, appre- 
 hend and understand that it is, what it 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 109 
 
 is, and why it is. Because there are so 
 few things that the race really knows, 
 it is obvious that it does many ignorant 
 and foolish things. "With all thy get- 
 ting get understanding" is an admoni- 
 tion that includes all wise and righteous 
 counsel. 
 
 It was because of ignorance that 
 these men of Gotham put to sea in a 
 bowl, yet they generically had the wis- 
 dom of God. It is one thing to possess 
 a thing, but quite another to know or 
 be conscious that you possess it. 
 
 Man, the created of God — the univer- 
 sal Man — is the exact image of God. 
 Ideals can be made manifest and until 
 they are, they are not the real and are 
 of no practical benefit to ourselves or 
 others. For example, take the sewing 
 machine. The idea of the sewing ma- 
 
110 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 chine that Elias Howe held was an im- 
 age of his thinking. For him to make 
 this idea, or image, manifest, it w r as 
 necessary to use a material object or 
 formation which we call a sewing ma- 
 chine, but which is only a representa- 
 tive of the idea or mental image. The 
 idea, the image is forever invisible, but 
 millions of representative sewing ma- 
 chines can be made, every one of which, 
 properly used, will carry out Mr. 
 Howe's idea. 
 
 None of the material objects we see 
 is real in itself. The real thing is the 
 mental image. The object which we 
 see with the sense-sight represents the 
 mental image. The thoughts are the 
 things. What we call things are the 
 pictures of the thoughts. The wise of 
 this world have, in their dimness of 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. HI 
 
 spiritual perception, believed matter 
 and material things to be eternal reali- 
 ties. But a student of the Science of 
 Mind discovers that matter has no real- 
 ity at all, consequently has no life, sub- 
 stance, intelligence, sensation, causa- 
 tion or solidity, but that all reality is 
 mind. 
 
 Things are to us just as we imagine 
 them to be. Imagination is the outpic- 
 turing power. Whatever we imagine 
 we will see objectified soon or late, ac- 
 cording to the tenacity with which we 
 hold the image in our mentality. This 
 is why different people see the same 
 person or object in such different lights. 
 Take, for instance, a public worker. 
 You might consider him one of the best 
 of the earth; you might perceive in him 
 a willingness to sacrifice everything for 
 
112 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 the weal of man. You might see his 
 every speech and every action to be 
 based upon the principle of righteous- 
 ness, and see in him a divine courage 
 that makes him brave enough to dare 
 any thing that is right. To you he 
 would be an ideal character, worthy of 
 every man's emulation. 
 
 Your neighbor might put an entirely 
 different construction upon every thing 
 that he did. He might denounce him 
 as a hypocrite, with private ends to be 
 attained in every thing which he does, 
 and declare that his boldness and effron- 
 tery make him able to push himself in- 
 to notoriety. We know that just such 
 contrary views are held and stated re- 
 garding different persons, and that ev- 
 ery one is to us just as we see him. 
 When we have attained purity of heart 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 113 
 
 we will see every one as he truly is. It 
 is they who have clean hands and a 
 pure heart who will ascend into the hill 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Imagination can produce either the 
 false or the true. Its work becomes 
 objectified to us in either case. In the 
 process of soul development, conscious- 
 ness of our intelligence increases. The 
 greater the soul intelligence the purer 
 and truer the work of the imagination. 
 The largeness of the soul is according 
 to the realization of its knowledge of 
 things. A narrow, contracted, shriv- 
 eled soul has no perception or realiza- 
 tion of the beauty of holiness or the 
 truth of man's being as the image of 
 God. A little soul does not conceive of 
 anything greater than itself, or anyone 
 capable of doing nobler or grander 
 
114 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 things than it does. Itself is the limit 
 which it imposes upon all. 
 
 The wise men of Gotham found a 
 bowl big enough for all three to get in- 
 to, and because they were in it did not 
 realize that there was anything greater 
 than it which had to be coped with. 
 We will also have to enlarge our con- 
 sciousness as to the truths of the uni- 
 verse or be swamped in our little bowls 
 of beliefs from whence, soon or late, 
 through desire and aspiration we will 
 be resurrected. To increase in under- 
 standing now, is the wiser way. It is 
 not God-purpose that we shall be ex- 
 tinguished, but that we shall increase 
 more and more unto the perfect day. 
 God-purpose will be carried out. Coop- 
 eration on our part will make us con- 
 scious of the divine harmony that is in 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 115 
 
 the heart of the universe. We can thus 
 find rest unto our souls. 
 
 In dreams things seem very real to 
 us. Wlien we awake we quickly say, 
 "It was only a dream!" and soon all re- 
 membrance of it passes away. When 
 we, through spiritual perception, see 
 the truth regarding ourselves, we find 
 that we are beginning to awake from 
 the sleep of ignorance in which we have 
 been so long with its horrible dreams 
 of sickness, misery, sin and poverty. In 
 our dream the wisdom of this world has 
 seemed the ultimate of attainment for 
 us, but as we awake we discover it to be 
 foolishness, indeed. The god of this 
 world has been money, to gain which 
 mankind has sacrificed honor, health, 
 peace and life. To know the true God 
 is to possess wisdom indeed, and also 
 
116 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 have all the things of this world add- 
 ed. 
 
 The love of money is the root of all 
 evil. Money itself is useful. It is the 
 world's symbol for Good. By the way 
 we use it we prove to ourselves how 
 much understanding we have of the 
 principle Good, which, when appropria- 
 ted in our hearts, is so redolent of good 
 in our lives. When one ceases to be 
 honest because it is the best policy and 
 becomes honest from a love of right- 
 eousness then and not till then is he 
 truly honest. The thing that is done 
 is of little consequence compared with 
 the motive which prompts the action. 
 To do a dishonest or unjust thing for 
 the sake of material gain is to bind one's 
 self with shackles which will be very 
 burdensome and hard to carry. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 117 
 
 The truly righteous are never forsak- 
 en. All things that they need are add- 
 ed to them day by day. Money in it- 
 self can give no pleasure, no peace, no 
 health, no knowledge. It is only 
 through the use of money that any 
 good can be purchased for us. The 
 use or abuse of money is one of the 
 strongest tests of character. 
 
 The "three wise men of Gotham" did 
 not show good judgment in putting off 
 to sea in a bowl. Neither do we show 
 good judgment when we do anything 
 whatsoever for merely temporal gain. 
 Surface and superficial reasoning is one 
 of the weak points which belong to ig- 
 norance. The truth concerning any ef- 
 fect can not be known until its why and 
 wherefore have been discovered. 
 
 I heard of an old Irish Catholic wo- 
 
118 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 man who had gone to church to pray. 
 She paused before the statue of the 
 Madonna and child, and soliloquized 
 thus: "Shure, Mary, an' there you sit 
 with little Jasus in your arms. A foine 
 choild he was, shure. Whin he grew 
 up they crucified him. Too bod, Mary, 
 too bod. I had a little b'y of me own 
 once, Mary, an' his name w r as Dinnis, 
 an' whin he grew up they hung him. 
 Och! Mary, it's afther havin' throuble 
 with our b'ys that we are!" 
 
 To her birth meant birth, and execu- 
 tion meant execution. Motives and 
 causes were to her unknown. Aspira- 
 tion and carnality were one and the 
 same to her. 
 
 We say that it was poor judgment 
 for our three men to go to sea in a 
 bowl when their pleasure, of necessity, 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 119 
 
 could only be temporary and its result 
 disastrous. It is as surely poor judg- 
 ment for mankind to seek temporal 
 good only; for if they were to seek the 
 higher and eternal good they would not 
 only have the temporal things "added," 
 but would be relieved of the cares and 
 anxieties and fears which are now such 
 cankers in their souls. When we seek 
 eternal good we know that there is 
 plenty for every one. It is only they 
 who believe in temporal good who 
 think one can defraud another. It is 
 only they who seek eternal good who 
 can be confident of health secure; and 
 who will have no fear of death. They 
 who seek eternal good become wise with 
 God-wisdom, and strong with God- 
 strength. Sound judgment becomes 
 
120 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 developed in the one who seeks that 
 which is eternally good. 
 
 Poor judgment, ignorance and fool- 
 ishness are not man's birthright nor in- 
 herent in his divine nature. Sound 
 judgment, knowledge and wisdom is 
 his inheritance from God. The wis- 
 dom of this world must stand aside for 
 the wisdom that is God-derived. Man 
 comes into conscious realization of the* 
 wisdom that is really his through rec- 
 ognition of it and through the daily use 
 of it in all the affairs of life. 
 
 We must evolve from such foolish- 
 ness as that displayed by the "wise men 
 of Gotham" into that shown through 
 the "three wise men of the East" who 
 followed faithfully the star which they 
 discerned would bring them to where 
 they would find the Christ. The star 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 121 
 
 which will guide us unerringly is the 
 perception that we are each one the im- 
 age of God. 
 
 As we have faith in God so must we 
 have faith in the image of God, our 
 own true self. / have faith in myself 
 because I am the image of God, is the 
 chariot in which we can ride until we 
 have attained realization of God-wis- 
 dom, God-understanding and God-love. 
 The gold, and frankincense, and myrrh 
 which will be our rich gifts to the 
 young child we perceive quietly lying 
 in the midst of our soul consciousness, 
 ready to be awakened and come forth 
 to manifestation as soon as the animal 
 instincts have been turned out of our 
 hearts and desires, are the pure 
 thoughts, the true words and the kind 
 deeds which we will faithfully, loving- 
 
122 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 ly, hopefully, patiently and courageous- 
 ly do at all times and in all seasons. 
 
 We must have faith in ourselves that 
 we can do the things which we ought 
 to do. God-power is expressed in us 
 and we are the users of it to the extent 
 that we lay hold of it. 
 
 There is no limit to our possibilities. 
 Faith in ourselves because we are the 
 creation of God is the highest compli- 
 ment we can pay our Creator. To 
 have faith in ourselves proves we per- 
 ceive that u God saw all that he had 
 made and behold it was very good." If 
 God did good work in us we can prove 
 it by making it manifest. As soon as 
 we begin to trust ourselves we find our- 
 selves trying "to rise to the level of the 
 occasion." The more closely we hold 
 the ideal of our God image before our 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 123 
 
 soul eyes, the more quickly will we 
 reach it in our realization. If we love 
 God w^e must love the image of God. 
 To do this is to have unceasing aspira- 
 tion to make all God qualities manifest 
 in the world, which, when attained, will 
 bless the world and heal it and teach 
 it. 
 
 It is very noticeable that the people 
 at large are becoming teachable in 
 things spiritual. It must be due to the 
 fact that they are entirely capable of 
 becoming all they admire and wish they 
 could become. Unless man could be- 
 come God-like he would not be so sus- 
 ceptible to the beauties of a God-like 
 character. 
 
 The wisdom such as was displayed 
 by the men of Gotham is by process of 
 divine law being changed to the wis- 
 
124 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 dom of Christ. The ignorant and 
 foolish things which we, as a race, have 
 always done, will soon come to an end 
 because of their failure to bring us into 
 the haven of peace and satisfaction. It 
 is Truth which brings satisfaction. It 
 is through a knowledge of Truth that 
 our divine Self will be made manifest. 
 
 Mary E. Burt in her entrancingly 
 beautiful book, "Browning's Women," 
 says: "There are two virtues which 
 Browning exalts above all others in wo- 
 man, courage and breadth of vision." 
 We recognize that man is a dual crea- 
 ture, and that he is by nature both 
 male and female. "Let us make man," 
 shows plurality in God. If there is 
 plurality in God there is also plurality 
 in the image of God, or where is the 
 likeness? Man is, therefore, as a spir- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 125 
 
 itttal being, both male and female. Wo- 
 man is also both female and male. We 
 admire a gentle-man. We respect a 
 brave, courageous woman. 
 
 Until we become developed past and 
 beyond the stage in understanding of 
 the "three wise men of Gotham" we 
 have neither "courage" nor "breadth of 
 vision." The "wise men of Gotham" 
 were not courageous when they put out 
 to sea in a bowl; they were stupid. 
 Courage sees danger but with all the 
 wisdom it can command sets out to 
 grapple with it fearlessly and heroic- 
 ally. Stupidity is so dull of compre- 
 hension that it does not see any dan- 
 gers to be grappled with. "Breadth of 
 vision" certainly can not be imputed to 
 the "men of Gotham." As a smaller 
 nature can not comprehend a larger 
 
126 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 one, they did not compare the forces of 
 the great sea with their little "bowl." 
 The ignorant are compelled to learn 
 through experience, but the wise learn 
 through revelation. Evil is limitation. 
 We are in error while we allow our- 
 selves to remain in ignorance of that 
 which we should know. Narrowness of 
 vision is an evil. Narrowness of vision 
 keeps the soul dwarfed. If one con- 
 fines his vision, his thinking, his hopes 
 and desires in the little circumference 
 of material things he is no wiser than 
 were the "men of Gotham." 
 
 One day during the World's Fair my 
 sister and I were taking a rapid look 
 through the Agricultural Building. Up 
 in the gallery we observed a multitude 
 of people, and not nearly all of them 
 were women, either, patiently standing 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 127 
 
 in line and gradually moving forward. 
 Their progress was so slow that I am 
 sure it must have taken forty-five min- 
 utes to pass a certain point. We, of 
 course, wondered what interesting 
 thing was to be seen that so many peo- 
 ple were willing to spend so much time 
 to see. I thought to expedite matters 
 and satisfy my own curiosity, I would 
 inquire, so I stepped up to a pleasant 
 looking little woman and said: "What 
 are all you people waiting to see?" 
 "Why," she said, "at that booth up 
 there they are giving every body a 
 pickle. " At the World's Fair, with 
 such a feast for heart, soul and eye as 
 our civilization had never before been 
 blessed with, and spending forty-five 
 minutes to get a pickle! 1 '/ 
 
 Breadth of vision belongs to the im- 
 
128 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 • 
 
 age of God, for God is both Omnipres- 
 ence and Omniscience. It can be culti- 
 vated and must be cultivated. Man's 
 destiny is fixed. He must become like 
 God, for Divine Law compels the evo- 
 lution of all that is involved. Breadth 
 of vision increases as soul knowledge is 
 attained. We no longer see our home 
 as a place where our chief thought is to 
 keep the rugs straight, the furniture 
 well dusted, and so much money put 
 away in the bank every month; but it 
 is a place where divinity dwells and 
 where divinity is made manifest. We 
 are no longer careful and troubled about 
 many things, but we love our work 
 and we love to demonstrate that "or- 
 der is heaven's first law." Home is 
 the sacred place where the Holy Spir- 
 it abides, and its influence over us is 
 
MOTHER GOOSE 129 
 
 teaching us to put off the wisdom of 
 the men of Gotham and put on that 
 of the sons of God- 
 
130 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 " Little Tommy Grace, 
 Had a pain in his face, 
 So bad that he could not learn a letter; 
 When in came Dicky Long, 
 Singing such a funny song, 
 That Tommy laughed, and found his face 
 much better." 
 
 Self-preservation is said to be the 
 first law of nature, and self-preserva- 
 tion is the attempt to keep away from 
 oneself all injury of every sort. This 
 is generally understood to be regarding 
 physical injury, but we have now come 
 to know that the real self is not the 
 physical self, but that the real self is 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 131 
 
 the divine ego, or the image of God, 
 and that it is the consciousness of this 
 Self that we are to preserve in our real- 
 ization, or in our constant thinking, if 
 we would have immunity from physical 
 ill. 
 
 If this Self were always kept before 
 our soul vision, and remembrance of 
 what it is held constantly in thought, we 
 would never know sadness, poverty, dis- 
 ease, nor death, but we would sing with 
 David, 
 
 " In thy presence is fulness of joy." 
 When David was conscious of his over- 
 shadowing Self — his Lord — he experi- 
 enced great joy, and was very cheerful; 
 but when he got his moping spells he 
 was like all the rest of us are some- 
 times when we forget our birthright — 
 cross and fretful and selfish. 
 
132 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 Divine Law which is steadfast, om- 
 nipotent, immovable, and irrevocable, 
 says we must, every one of us, come in- 
 to conscious unity with God. We must 
 know this omnipresent Principle and 
 see it face to face. We can fight 
 against it if we will, and thus gain our 
 knowledge through hard experience; or 
 we can cooperate with it and find the 
 yoke easy and the burden light. We 
 can choose which we will serve. Our 
 choice, yours and mine, is for coopera- 
 tion, and we find that to cultivate the 
 habit of cheerfulness is one of our 
 greatest aids. 
 
 "Cheerfulness is the very best tonic 
 one can take." 
 
 Many a doctor of materia medica 
 holds and increases the size of his prac- 
 tice by just simply being cheerful. The 
 
MOTHER GOOSE, 133 
 
 cheerfulness that he brings into a sick- 
 room is what cures his patient. It is 
 not the medicine that does it. Many 
 people who take much medicine remain 
 sick for years, while no one can possi- 
 bly remain sick if he will persistently 
 cultivate cheerfulness. 
 
 To cheer is to cause to rejoice, and 
 to be full of cheer or cheerful is to be 
 full of rejoicing or to rejoice fully. 
 
 Now, you say, one can not be full of 
 rejoicing or full of cheer unless there is 
 something to be cheerful about. 
 
 No, he can not ; that is a fact. But 
 has not every one something to be 
 cheerful about? and does not dejection 
 come because we do not perceive the 
 things that we have to be cheerful 
 about? 
 
 What have we to be cheerful about? 
 
134 SERMOXETTE3 FROM 
 
 Well, there is one thing which, if we 
 understood, we would not, because we 
 could not, be otherwise than cheerful 
 every moment. 
 
 And what is that one thing? 
 
 The truth of our Being. 
 
 The fact that man is, in his real be- 
 ing, the exact and true expression of 
 God, is enough to sustain us every mo- 
 ment, for this means that God's image 
 is as eternal as God is eternal, as in- 
 telligent as God is Intelligence, as om- 
 nipotent as God is Omnipotence, and as 
 omnipresent as God is Omnipresence.- 
 This is as true as God is Truth. If we 
 perceived and realized all this to be 
 true we would never be despondent, 
 would we? 
 
 Then the cure for despondency and 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 135 
 
 the prescription that will bring cheer- 
 fulness is to get acquainted with our 
 real Selves, is it not? 
 
 Do you ask, If all this is true of us in 
 reality, why are we ignorant of it ? 
 
 We are not really ignorant of it; 
 what seems to be ignorance is that we 
 are simply asleep to the truth of.it, but 
 will awaken and gain our proof to our 
 self-consciousness, so that we shall 
 know that we are what we are. 
 
 It is only our sense about things that 
 makes them seem true to us. 
 
 I heard once of an old soldier who 
 was living at the expense of the state 
 in an institution which had been pro- 
 vided for disabled and indigent soldiers. 
 He was one day sweeping a path when 
 a messenger came and informed him 
 
136 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 that he had been made heir to a num- 
 ber of thousands of dollars. 
 
 Now he was heir to this money when 
 he began to sweep the path, but he had 
 no knowledge of it, and his sense about 
 himself was that he was a pauper; 
 therefore the only change that this 
 message made in him was a change in 
 his sense knowledge of himself. He 
 was the heir just as much before he 
 was conscious of the fact as after. It 
 was proven to him only when he became 
 conscious of it. 
 
 We are, in our real being, at this 
 present moment, the exact image of 
 God, We will only be conscious of the 
 truth of our being when it is proven to 
 us. The only way we can prove it is 
 to identify ourselves with it and then 
 live it, and so prove to our own con- 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 137 
 
 sciousness that we are Godlike. To 
 learn to know the doctrine of Truth we 
 must do the will of Truth. The learn- 
 ing and the proving are in the doing. 
 
 What we are is fixed and changeless 
 because we are eternally the effect of 
 our Cause, which is changeless Princi- 
 ple. Our God is Principle, which is un- 
 changeably Good and can never be 
 moved. 
 
 We have qpt the God of the little 
 girl who, when she prayed to have her- 
 self and all her relations cared for dur- 
 ing the night, said, "And, dear God, do 
 try to take good care of yourself, for if 
 anything should happen to you we 
 would go all to pieces. " 
 
 Because our Cause — that which sur- 
 rounds us, sustains us, upholds us and 
 overshadows us — is eternally and 
 
138 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 changelessly Good, we have forever 
 cause to be happy and cheerful, and we 
 have no cause to be other than happy 
 and cheerful always. We often think 
 we have reason to be other than cheer- 
 ful, but this is when we judge accord- 
 ing to appearances instead of according 
 to righteous judgment. 
 
 But even granting appearances as 
 facts, which they are to us until we 
 have outgrown them through know- 
 ledge, do we gain anything when we 
 descend from cheerfulness into despon- 
 dency and anxiety? Even under the 
 most trying times, when perhaps what 
 looks like disaster or affliction threat- 
 ens us, what good comes of desponden- 
 cy or fear? Is any trouble ever avert- 
 ed by anxiety regarding it? 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 139 
 
 Is any character ever strengthened 
 by despondency? 
 
 Is any illness ever overcome by fear? 
 
 In "The Greatest Thing in the 
 World" Henry Drummond, under the 
 name of "111 Temper," gives a very 
 pointed lesson to the people who show 
 a lack of cheerfulness. He calls it "the 
 vice of the virtuous," and indeed there 
 is far more religion, far more grace and 
 love in one soul that resolutely sets 
 about being cheerful from day to day, 
 under all circumstances, in the face of 
 all appearances, from principle, than 
 there is in forty ordinary Christians 
 who wear long faces and preach the 
 beauty of affliction. 
 
 There never was in all history a 
 greater hero than the one who honestly 
 and patiently and conscientiously tries 
 
140 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 to be cheerful when all appearances 
 indicate that there is nothing to be 
 cheerful about. 
 
 We are sure that but comparatively 
 few people have yet awakened to see 
 that the cultivation of cheerfulness is a 
 vital necessity. 
 
 Cheerfulness is in itself a magnet 
 which will draw to the soul which prac- 
 tices it all good, both of internal real- 
 ization and outward demonstration. It 
 is a necessary soul quality which makes 
 every other constituent or element of 
 the soul stronger and richer and more 
 powerful. 
 
 Cheerfulness under opposing circum- 
 stances will give the soul a greater lift 
 than will any other one virtue. It is a 
 character strengthener of the first wa- 
 ter. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 141 
 
 As cheerfulness is cultivated and in- 
 creases, faith is strengthened, hope is 
 fostered, love is developed and good will 
 is absolute, while fear dissolves, despon- 
 dency dies, selfishness melts away, and 
 anxiety is laughed into oblivion. 
 
 Cheerfulness breeds hospitality and 
 generosity. 
 
 It makes "The Golden Rule" easy of 
 accomplishment. 
 
 It lightens labor and burdens of every 
 sort. 
 
 There are ethical reasons why we 
 should cultivate cheerfulness. There 
 are therapeutic reasons why it should 
 be cultivated and there is a divine rea- 
 son why we should persistently, patient- 
 ly, lovingly and heroically cultivate it. 
 
 All who have spiritual aspirations 
 
142 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 are intuitively impelled to strive for 
 cheerfulness. 
 
 The so-called chronic invalids would 
 be restored to health surely and per- 
 haps speedily if they would go into the 
 "cheering up business." 
 
 Cheerfulness is catching. One merry 
 heart can furnish the infection for a 
 whole family. 
 
 Cheerfulness tends toward honesty in 
 affairs and righteousness in thought, 
 word and deed. 
 
 Cheerfulness is a Christian grace of 
 vast magnitude. "God loveth a cheer- 
 ful giver," says Paul. 
 
 An Eastern proverb says "Food with- 
 out hospitality is a medicine." The 
 deeds that we do will carry with them 
 slight blessing unless we do them in 
 cheerfulness. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 143 
 
 The words that we speak will lack 
 healing quality or soothing power un- 
 less they are spoken from a loving, 
 cheerful heart. 
 
 When I speak of cheerfulness I do not 
 mean hilarity, levity, or mirth, but that 
 calm, steady, peaceful, unchanging, con- 
 tented quality at which condition the 
 soul has arrived from either an intu- 
 itive perception, or else an absolute 
 knowledge that all that really is, is 
 good. 
 
 When things that appear to us to be 
 evil are understood to be what they real- 
 ly are — of no reality — then they will no 
 longer hold any power over us. They 
 will no longer frighten us nor cause us 
 to be anxious. 
 
 Because of the fixedness of Divine 
 L^aw there is no escaping its conse- 
 
144 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 quences. God-purpose is that each and 
 every one shall become conscious of the 
 truth of his being. There is no escap- 
 ing, evading, or disobeying this purpose 
 in the ultimate, for Law is unchanging 
 and irrevocable. We can coooperate 
 with this Law and in cheerfulness and 
 content consciously know that day by 
 day we are growing in realization of 
 our unity with God; or we can load 
 ourselves down with fears, cares and 
 anxiety till, to our sense-consciousness, 
 our lot is a sorrowful one and our cup 
 bitter and hard to drink. 
 
 Madame de Stael said: "Search for 
 the Truth is the noblest occupation of 
 man. Its publication is a duty." 
 
 There are many noble souls to-day 
 for there are many in search of Truth. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 145 
 
 The search for Truth is becoming 
 the one great and important and all-ab- 
 sorbing theme. Some say it is the 
 search for bread that men are engaged 
 in, but we who know that bread comes 
 to him who is in search of Truth know 
 that all are seeking Truth even when 
 they do not know what it is they are in 
 search of. 
 
 Let us who know the Truth publish 
 it with such cheerful hearts and counte- 
 nances that we will be a proof to all the 
 world that when a candle is lighted it 
 can not be hid, but gives light to all 
 who are in the house. 
 
 "The field is the world, and too many 
 can not scatter the seed nor garner the 
 harvest." Let us each speak that 
 which we know, and as we speak more 
 and more will be given to us. 
 
146 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 In patience let us possess our souls, 
 knowing that all things are ours now, 
 and that they will be ours to our con- 
 sciousness just as soon as we have lived 
 the life well enough to have proved the 
 doctrine. 
 
 To preach successfully the gospel of 
 cheerfulness is to live a dignified, noble, 
 happy, peaceful, godly life. 
 
 Its consequences will be knowledge 
 of Truth, healing power, souls gained, 
 daily supply, and ever and ever increas- 
 ing love in the heart. 
 
 When we fast from yielding to sor- 
 row, sickness, fear and anxiety, let us 
 anoint our heads and wash our faces 
 that we may appear not unto men to 
 fast, but unto our Father which is in 
 secret. Our Father which seeth in se- 
 cret shall reward us openly. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 147 
 
 A cheerful individual has a most as- 
 tonishing influence in a sick-room, espe- 
 cially with little children. They are so 
 susceptible to the thoughts and feelings 
 of those around them that they will be- 
 lieve they are sick or well just as one 
 thinks of them. One reason of the 
 great mortality among children is that 
 their elders, who are always so fright- 
 ened about them, influence the little ' 
 ones to be afraid also. 
 
 I remember once visiting a friend 
 whose remarkably strong and happy 
 child was taken suddenly ill. In her 
 sympathy for the child and her anxiety 
 regarding him, she seemed to feel that 
 pity for him and for herself was what 
 would soothe them both. She would 
 bend over him for several minutes at a 
 time, saying: "Poor baby is so sick! 
 
148 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 Poor baby is so sick!" The dear little 
 fellow would put up his pale lip in the 
 most injured way, with a despairing 
 little wail that went to one's heart. 
 The doctor said he could not under- 
 stand why a child with such an iron 
 constitution as this baby always seemed 
 to have, could not be made to rally; and 
 when, after several days of this kind of 
 treatment, the baby died the doctor 
 said he had never been so disappointed 
 in all his life. 
 
 Now, if "Little Tommy Grace" had 
 been pitied according to the way of 
 anxious mothers, he would have been a 
 very sick child, no doubt, and poultices 
 and plasters would have occupied the 
 attention of the combined family 
 through the wee, small hours of the 
 night; but, instead, cheerful little Dicky 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 149 
 
 Long came in singing such a funny song 
 that, presto! our little Tommy laughed 
 and found his face much better. It is 
 cheerful sympathy that should be given 
 to children. Doleful sympathy aggra- 
 vates their condition every time. 
 
 Our dear husbands and brothers and 
 fathers who usually think they are at 
 death's door if a little fever accompa- 
 nies their cold, or if a slight headache 
 remains over thirty minutes, should 
 never be given doleful sympathy. 
 Courageous, cheerful sympathy must 
 be a characteristic of those who en- 
 deavor to woo them back into the 
 realization that they are strong and 
 well. 
 
 Divine cheerfulness will be charac- 
 teristic with us only when we have 
 really learned the truth of our Being. 
 
150 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "A man of words and not of deeds 
 Is like a garden full of weeds; 
 For when the weeds begin to grow, 
 Then doth the garden oveflow." 
 
 A little boy whose father had pray- 
 ed that the Lord would supply a cer- 
 tain poor family in his community with 
 bread said: "If I had as much wheat 
 in a barn as you've got, papa, I'd an- 
 swer that prayer myself." 
 
 Of what use is Christianity unless it 
 is made practical? It was because 
 Jesus did things that we have faith in 
 him. He was mighty in both word and 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 151 
 
 deed. Theory without works is vain. 
 
 Abstract Truth becomes valuable to 
 us only as we make it the concrete. 
 
 It is only they who are ignorant of 
 divine law that would dare speak words 
 they do not mean. "A man of words 
 and not of deeds" is evidently one who 
 does not have the motive and intent 
 to measure up in his doing to the words 
 
 which he speaks. This man is piling 
 up for himself burdens that will be 
 grievous and heavy to be borne. "Every 
 idle word that men shall speak, they 
 shall give account thereof in the day of 
 judgment." "For by thy words thou 
 shalt be justified, and by thy words thou 
 shalt be condemned." When the motive 
 is pure one does not feel tempted to 
 speak idle words. Purity of motive is 
 a shield that will protect u's from harm. 
 
152 SERXOXETTES FROM 
 
 It will also guide us into the paths of 
 righteousness. 
 
 When mankind awakes to know that 
 every word is a living thing which is 
 sent into the universal as the archer 
 sends his arrow, and that it is sure to 
 hit somewhere, they will be more care- 
 ful what words they speak. Our ar- 
 rows are either tipped with poison or 
 blessing. They either hurt or cure. 
 Since like attracts like just the same 
 arrow-tipped words that we send out 
 will come back to us. Deceitful and 
 hypocritical people are greatly to be 
 pitied, because they do not know that 
 they are making sickness and sorrow 
 and disaster which will become actual 
 experiences to them. 
 
 A thought is a silent word. It is just 
 as powerful as an audible word. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 153 
 
 When people think one thing and 
 speak its opposite they are making op- 
 posite conditions for themselves. They 
 are sowing tares with their wheat, mix- 
 ing germs of sickness with those of 
 health, germs of misery with those of 
 joy. Unmixed good can only come to 
 him who thinks and speaks and feels 
 what is really true. There is nothing 
 that will give us a more helpful and 
 speedy lift into understanding and real- 
 ization of Truth than to act or do just 
 the very thing that we see we ought to 
 do from the standpoint of divine Prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 To see that we ought to do a thing 
 and then not do it is to weaken our char- 
 acter and keep away from ourselves 
 realization of Truth. "Good thoughts 
 are no better than good dreams unless 
 
154 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 they are put into execution." There 
 are many people who ask very earnest- 
 ly to know the Truth, but do not put 
 into practice what little they do per- 
 ceive. Doing becomes a channel for 
 more light. The very best way to 
 know the doctrine of God is to do the 
 will of God. You learn how to do a 
 thing through personal experiment. He 
 who undertakes to practice the Truth 
 religion in his thinking and doing will 
 have scientific religion revealed to him. 
 "All truly great souls spend themselves 
 in selfless service," says Walt Whitman. 
 They become great through doing in 
 accord with what they perceive they 
 ought to do. Our ideas are born of in- 
 telligence. We demonstrate our ideas 
 by doing that through which they be- 
 come manifest. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 155 
 
 A physician said lately in an article 
 in a medical journal: "I believe that 
 close observation and long experience 
 will teach a medical man that the great- 
 est universal cause of disease is laziness. 
 The next greatest cause is selfishness. 
 Following this comes ignorance. Rid 
 the world of the three and there will be 
 little occupation for the physician. "Laz- 
 iness is inactivity, and since it is the 
 nature of Mind to be active, one who is 
 lazy is not carrying out in deed that 
 which his divine intelligence dictates. 
 Error always results in sickness soon or 
 late. Lazy people often excuse their la- 
 ziness because of their torpid liver when 
 they should say my laziness is becoming 
 objectified in the torpidity of my liver. 
 Laziness is lack of divine energy, and is 
 apt to lead to blind faith. It is to them 
 
156 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 of understanding faith that blessings 
 are promised. 
 
 Selfishness is one of the parent sins 
 and laziness one of its offspring. Self- 
 ishness keeps people from doing what 
 they know they should do and it also 
 keeps them from seeing what they 
 might do for the betterment of others. 
 
 Ignorance allows people to honor 
 the Truth with their lips while their 
 hearts are of opposite intent. They are 
 speaking idle words. Every word 
 which we speak and every thought we 
 think has its day of judgment. The 
 world has seemed to be at sixes and 
 sevens, and many people have blamed 
 God, for deserting His children, others 
 have feared that the power of evil is 
 stronger than the power of Good, and 
 because of their gloomy forebodings 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 157 
 
 have uttered all manner of untrue words 
 concerning the Lord their God. 
 
 If they would examine the race speech 
 and actions they would find that the 
 race has brought all this evil upon it- 
 self by its own errors. "The day of 
 judgment" is every day and every hour. 
 Every experience which we have either 
 mental, physical or circumstantial is a 
 judgment on our past thoughts, words 
 and deeds. When we are reaping sor- 
 row, pain and poverty we cast our men- 
 tal eye back to the errors which we 
 have done and thus "give account" of 
 them. Every one is his own judge. 
 Self-preservation compels us, after we 
 find that the weeds have grown so 
 abundantly that our gardefl is entirely 
 overflowed with evils on all sides, to 
 
158 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 right thinking, to right speaking and 
 to right doing. 
 
 It may take us a long while, accord- 
 ing to our sense of time, to become con- 
 scious of the reality of our real "self" — 
 but we must compel ourselves to do at 
 all times and in all ways the things 
 which belong to that real "self." To 
 prove that we are Godlike in nature we 
 must do the things that are Godlike in 
 quality. 
 
 Right thinking and speaking usher us 
 into the kingdom of heaven here and 
 now. We do not have to give up any 
 work nor neglect anything that belongs 
 to us in order to attain spirituality. It 
 is possible to be in the highest state of 
 realization while doing the most routine 
 work. "There is a tradition as to how a 
 certain saint gained renown. She was 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 159 
 
 frying fish in a convent, and was seized 
 with a religious ecstacy, but such was 
 her self-control she neither dropped the 
 gridiron nor burned the fish." 
 
 We know to-day that meditation on 
 great truths, and their realization, does 
 not interfere with the smallest nor 
 greatest duty of our life; rather do they 
 who have their thoughts most firmly 
 fastened on the truth of Being find that 
 they do better work than they ever did 
 before and do it much more easily. 
 They find wisdom is constantly being 
 added to them. They find themselves 
 increase in ingenuity and dispatch. 
 They grow stronger and more health- 
 ful. They realize a buoyancy that was 
 to them in the past, perhaps, a thing 
 unknown. 
 
 Wisdom is one of the aspects or con- 
 
160 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 stituents of God; activity is another; 
 harmony another; beauty another; love 
 another. Does it not then follow that 
 whosoever keeps his thoughts stayed 
 upon God will do his work in the wisest 
 and most beautiful way; and that he is 
 the one who will demonstrate harmony 
 day by day and his life be the light of 
 men? 
 
 It is of the greatest importance that 
 little children be taught to speak true 
 words and act according to them from 
 principle. They are not only apt pupils 
 when pure Truth is set before them but 
 they become, in turn, the best of teach- 
 ers. When their reason convinces them 
 of a thing, that is what they set out to 
 do literally and spiritually. 
 
 I read lately of a little girl who said 
 to her Sunday school teacher: "That 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 161 
 
 was not true what you told me last 
 Sunday." "What was not true?" asked 
 the teacher. "Why, you said if we 
 would honor our father and mother that 
 our days would be long in the land. I 
 have honored mine all week and my 
 days have not been a bit longer, for I 
 have been put to bed at seven o'clock 
 every night just the same." We must 
 learn to interpret the language of 
 Truth before we can teach it. "With 
 all thy getting, get understanding," is 
 valuable advice. 
 
 Every trial, either great or small, 
 that comes to us in our journey of exist- 
 ence is the result of our own error 
 speaking. How forcible, then, are 
 right words! "A man hath joy by the 
 answer of his mouth," says Solomon; 
 and Jeremiah says: "Every man's word 
 
162 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 shall be his burden. " He also savs our 
 words are like a hammer that breaketh 
 the rock in pieces. Paul admonishes 
 to "Hold fast the form of sound words." 
 "Pleasant words are as an honey-comb, 
 sweet to the soul and health to the 
 bones." 
 
 Let us choke out the weeds from our 
 garden by the daily doing of good deeds. 
 There is nothing that will appeal more 
 eloquently to the hearts of mankind 
 than to see one who can "clothe high 
 thoughts in fitting deeds and lend him- 
 self to others' needs." 
 
MOTHER GOOSE). 163 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 "I saw a ship a-sailing, 
 A-sailing on the sea; 
 And O! it was all laden 
 
 With lovely things for thee!" 
 
 Every good thing in heaven above 
 and in the earth beneath is for you. 
 
 You are God's own child and heir to 
 all that God is. The entire multiplicity 
 and variety that belongs to the nature 
 of God, is fully expressed in you. All 
 of goodness and beauty and truth are 
 involved in you and can therefore be 
 evolved from you and through you. 
 
164 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 You have all possibility for attain- 
 ment. You have all capacity for fulfill- 
 ment. 
 
 "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
 neither have entered into the heart of 
 man, the things which God hath pre- 
 pared for them that love him." 
 
 All that love God shall attain con- 
 scious Godlikeness. To realize your 
 Godlikeness will be joy supreme. 
 
 You are already, in your real being, 
 Godlike, for you were created in the 
 very image of God. 
 
 You are more Godlike in your heart 
 than you yet realize. The beautiful 
 things that are waiting for you will all 
 come as you realize, little by little, your 
 real Self — your God image and like- 
 ness. 
 
 Whatever you see in another that 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 165 
 
 very thing is within yourself, for like 
 sees only like, and knows nothing of 
 anything unlike itself. 
 
 Why do you reverence goodness in 
 another? Because the very same qual- 
 ity is inherent in yourself. 
 
 Why are you a hero worshiper? Be- 
 cause you are yourself capable of doing 
 the very same things that your hero 
 has done. 
 
 Why do kindness and gentleness per- 
 fect such healing in your soul? Be- 
 cause you, yourself, can learn to be just 
 as kind and gentle and merciful as an- 
 other. 
 
 Why do you have such respect for 
 knowledge? Because the same capaci- 
 ty for attaining knowledge belongs to 
 you. 
 
166 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 Why so enraptured with art? Be- 
 cause the same God-given talent is 
 yours. 
 
 Why do you so greatly admire Emer- 
 son and Shakspear? 'Because you have 
 within your soul all the majesty, all the 
 poetry and all the grandeur that was 
 within their souls. 
 
 Why does the character of the Christ 
 hold for you such charm? Because you, 
 too, can be a Christ. 
 
 Our God is Justice and Righteous- 
 ness and respects no man's person. No 
 one is more richly endowed than anoth- 
 er; but all have received alike of pow- 
 ers, capacities and faculties. 
 
 All have not appropriated their rich 
 gifts, hence the mystery, "the sea," that 
 seems to lie between them and the at- 
 tainment and realization now of their 
 
MOTHKK GOOSE. 167 
 
 soul's aspiration; but all will awaken, 
 soon or late, to the truth of their being. 
 Their ship is still a-sailing, and the 
 lovely things — the realization of all that 
 is good, beautiful and true — are con- 
 tained in it. 
 
 Everything that you hope for can be 
 realized if you will take it. 
 
 You absolutely have dominion over all 
 things if you w x ill learn how to exercise 
 it. 
 
 You really can do all things when you 
 understand that you can do them. We 
 have and can do all of these things now 
 according to the degree that our inher- 
 ent powers have developed. But no 
 matter how much we have misused and 
 failed to appreciate our powers in the 
 past we can begin now and do hence- 
 forth and forever according to the 
 
168 SERMONJETTES FROM 
 
 highest which we perceive. "It is nev- 
 er too late to mend"- and "every day is 
 a fresh beginning.'' 
 
 Our existence becomes a joy when we 
 perceive that we can learn and do and 
 become more and more forever. It is 
 the right and the privilege of every one 
 to express that which is contained with- 
 in him. Every one can bring forth to 
 conscious realization all that is generic- 
 ally latent within him. This is the re- 
 sult of a process. It will be expressed 
 because of the law that the subjective 
 always becomes pictured forth in the 
 objective. The kingdom of heaven 
 will come upon earth when "the with- 
 out is as perfect as the within." 
 
 The perfection that you perceive, 
 hope for and admire will be attained by 
 you step by step, degree on degree, 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 109 
 
 round upon round. Harmony will come 
 into your life as a result of intelligent 
 living. You will not be conscious of 
 your full intelligence until you learn the 
 truth concerning your origin and being, 
 and the source from whence you 
 sprung. Correct conclusions can only 
 be obtained from a correct premise. 
 You can not live a perfect life until you 
 inform yourself regarding your perfect 
 Source and the inherent perfection of 
 your nature. 
 
 Because you are you must have a 
 cause. Cause and effect are like unto 
 each other. Effect can not transcend 
 its cause, and as you have aspiration 
 for the perfect, your cause must be 
 Perfection Itself. Every thing good 
 and beautiful and great that you imag- 
 ine is the push of Divine Law to make 
 
170 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 you consciously realize that effect and 
 its cause are co-equal and alike. Al- 
 ready Godlike in your true nature you 
 are gradually becoming conscious of it. 
 
 This attainment of perfection no one 
 can give you. You must win it. 
 Browning says: "Friend, what you'd 
 get, first earn. Nature demands a full 
 return for all it gives. Nature never 
 writes 'I promise to pay' into her prom- 
 issory notes unless she writes also 'for 
 value received.' " 
 
 Our gifts and our blessings are both 
 turned out of the same measure. As 
 we give, so do we receive. We are the 
 cause of our own blessings. Every 
 blessing which you receive is the effect 
 of one that you have previously given. 
 Jesus said: "Seek ye first the kingdom 
 of God and all other things shall be 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 171 
 
 added to you." He taught that the 
 way to seek is to "love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart and all thy soul 
 and all thy might and all thy strength, 
 and thy neighbor as thyself." Whoev- 
 er does this will bring upon his own 
 head all the blessings that can be con- 
 ceived. Not only these, but all the 
 blessings that ever and ever attend in- 
 creasing knowledge and power and wis- 
 dom. 
 
 Knowledge is power and wisdom is 
 better than rubies. He that getteth 
 wisdom loveth his own soul. 
 
 If you will dare, you will come near- 
 er and nearer to the doing that will be 
 perfection. This will take patience. 
 It will also take sacrifice. The claims 
 of mortal sense must be put down that 
 the truth of the spiritual man may be 
 
172 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 m 
 
 put on. "He must increase, but I must 
 decrease," was the way John put it. 
 
 To be a genius is the right of ev- 
 ery man. Huxley says: "Genius, to 
 my mind, means innate capacity of any 
 kind above the average mental level." 
 The average mental level is so low be- 
 cause man has not known his possibili- 
 ties nor claimed them in his thinking. 
 What the world calls a genius is one 
 who intuitively recognizes his capabili- 
 ty in a certain direction and sets out to 
 demonstrate it. Acquaintance with 
 the truth of man's being shows us that 
 all men are equally endowed. When all 
 awake to this truth, what is now called 
 genius will be the rule, not the excep- 
 tion. 
 
 Splendid are the possibilities of man! 
 "There are diversities of gifts," but 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 173 
 
 each "gift" is only the effect of that 
 which has been previously cultivated. 
 Jesus said: "He that reapeth receiveth 
 wages." 
 
 The belief that death ends all has 
 done much mischief. "There is no 
 death, what seems so is transition" are 
 true words. There is no cessation in 
 the work of the soul. 
 
 Pope says: 
 
 "Yet not to earth's contracted span 
 Thy goodness let me bound." 
 
 Life is everlasting. Change of resi- 
 dence makes no change in the man. His 
 loves, his desires, his hopes and his as- 
 pirations are not changed by any out- 
 ward conditions nor environment. All 
 change is within his soul. As he grows 
 in knowledge he changes in conscious- 
 ness. 
 
174 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 Increasing knowledge can be yours 
 from day to day. He who truly desires 
 knowledge of Truth and its accompany- 
 ing power cares nothing for the experi- 
 ences which he has to contend with and 
 outgrow^ on the way. "That which 
 was but a path of thorns in the passage 
 is changed to a path of gold in the ret- 
 rospect" says Holland. 
 
 All Godlike virtues are developed 
 from within. They are all there. All 
 genius, all greatness, all knowledge are 
 within man's being, ready to be evolved 
 therefrom. It can all be done through 
 thinking. 
 
 Very few people have yet learned 
 how to think. The mightiest accom- 
 plishment that man can attain is to 
 know how to think truly. You will at- 
 tain this by perceiving what to think. 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 175 
 
 A man can think himself up to God; he 
 can also think himself down to hell. 
 Heaven and hell are within men. Each 
 is created by the thinking. All genius 
 is only the result of true thinking. 
 
 The omnipresence of Divine Law is 
 what compels all men, soon or late, to 
 turn to the Light and because of this 
 we know that a ship, containing all 
 manner of lovely things, is sailing in 
 the invisible toward each and every 
 child of God. Knowledge is for every 
 one, because every one can knock at its 
 door and obtain that for which he seeks. 
 
 Knowledge is power, therefore power 
 is for every one. The world's inverted 
 notion of power is that by it we can 
 compel others to be subservient to us, 
 and that it gives us the higher and bet- 
 ter position in material ways and 
 
176 SERMONETTES FROM 
 
 places; but this is not what power 
 means. The power that is for you — 
 that which is now in your ship — is ca- 
 pacity and strength to do the right. 
 Power is for the uplifting of mankind. 
 Power is something to help people 
 with. It is what makes you able to 
 choose the good and refuse the evil. 
 
 You will strengthen your power by 
 use. Every voluntary act that you do, 
 or good word that you speak makes a 
 little path for the next good deed or 
 good word to easily roll out upon. The 
 more good deeds you do the more you 
 will want to do. The more true words 
 you speak the less inclination you will 
 have to speak error words. 
 
 Every day that you live deciding for 
 the right you are voluntarily strength- 
 ening the meshes of Goodness and 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 177 
 
 Righteousness and Truth around you, 
 so that you will one day realize that 
 you are so protected by the Good that 
 you can not even strike your foot 
 against a stone; and that no harm of 
 any kind can befall you. This realiza- 
 tion will be worth any price that you 
 will pay for it. 
 
 To whatever extent you develop 
 yourself in this life, to just that extent 
 of knowledge will you begin the next. 
 To whatever you aspire and whatever 
 you work for in one phase of existence, 
 you reap in results in the next phase. 
 "Born" musicians, artists, poets, and 
 Christs are results of past aspirations. 
 Not a single effort that you make is ev- 
 er thrown away. Not a single aspira- 
 tion nor good deed but will give you a 
 
178 SERMOXETTES FROM 
 
 lift toward a higher and brighter con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 Omnipresence is Life invisible, and 
 every thought, word and deed is done 
 in the Omnipresence. Growth is there- 
 fore its inevitable result. Law can 
 not defeat itself, consequently whatso- 
 ever a man soweth, that shall he also 
 reap. The more rapid your progress 
 in things spiritual the more intense will 
 be your desire to press onward toward 
 the mark of the high calling. 
 
 Every thing that the soul attains it 
 has previously reached for. Other peo- 
 ple are influenced by you. What you 
 reach for many others will reach for. 
 Reach high, my friend, reach up to 
 God. u Be ye perfect even as your Fa- 
 ther in heaven is perfect. " 
 
MOTHER GOOSE. 179 
 
 Your ship is sailing toward you. 
 You can speed it on its way. It is lad- 
 en with all God possibilities, powers 
 and capacities in which are included 
 love, purity, patience, charity, hope, 
 courage, helpfulness, meekness, mercy, 
 fortitude and all other fruits of the 
 Spirit. These things are for you. 
 Take them. 
 
SOUL-FRAGRANCE... 
 
 A Volume of Poems 
 
 By ttANNAfi MORE KOttAUS 
 
 Artistically gotten up with elaborately designed and 
 
 colored cover Price, $1.25 
 
 In these poems Mrs. Kohaus has 
 shown a clear and logical understand- 
 ing of the higher life, a great love for 
 humanity, and a longing to help her fel- 
 low man, They are fraught with so 
 much truth, strength and love that they 
 are veritably "leaves of healing." 
 
 SERMONETTES FROM 
 MOTHER GOOSE 
 
 FOR BIG FOLKS 
 
 By FANNY M. HARLEY 
 
 CLOTH, $1.25; PAPER, 50 CENTS. 
 
 The sage remarks of Mother Goose are 
 herein interpreted in an unique, enter- 
 taining and instructive manner.