then live them. Prayer is not the end, but the means. It does God no good for you to pray to him; it is what it does for yourself that counts. If you don't get results from your prayer, you have not truly prayed. Believe in what you pray; then act it. Fred Douglass was a slave, and as such was never happy. His heart yearned for freedom and emancipation. This righteous thought was constantly with him. One day he heard a voice say to him, "Fred, pray with your legs!" Being conscientious, he was at first appalled at the thought of attaining his liberty without regular process, and refused, but the voice kept saying to him, "Fred, pray with your legs!" until finally one day he did, and was successful and free, and became one of the most noted orators and thinkers of our land.

We can all pray with not only our minds, but also with our bodies; let the asking and doing go together. Never take "no" for an answer, and give God plenty of faith to work upon, for faith is the method through which all God's works are performed.

Many think they know what you mean when you say "prayer," but when you say, "Speak the Word," they will ask, "What is that?" You must have that essential faith, that essential love, to God and to your neighbor, which will produce in your mind a new kingdom, and will conquer that which has hitherto conquered you. To pray without ceasing is to commune with the good in all things, and there is no separateness, no apartness from God.

"That only is important which is eternal."

16.

Lesson 7. February 13.

WORLDLINESS AND TRUST.-Matt. 6:19-34.

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may be seen of men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward.

17. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face;

18. that thou be not seen of men to fast, but of thy Father who is in secret: and thy Father, who seeth in secret, shall recompense thee.

19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth, where moth and rust doth consume, and where thieves break through and steal:

20. but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth consume, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21. for where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also. 22. The lamp of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

23. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!

24. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25. Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment?

26. Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?

27. And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit unto the measure of his life?

28. And why are ye anxious concerning raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29. yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30. But if God doth so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31. Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32. For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

33. But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

34. Be not therefore anxious for the morrow: for the morrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

GOLDEN TEXT.-But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.-Matt. 6:33.

The reason that earthly possessions are dangerous is the tendency of the soul to become glued to them. The natural development of the soul is toward refinement and spiritualization. If this is retarded the whole creative process is reversed, and the onward and upward forces dammed in man. Grasping the thought that material things are real, and their possession advantageous, man literally sticks his soul in the mud of matter.

The understanding of Truth should place before one the true riches-spiritual ideas. When the soul is rich in good works there is a crown of glory laid up for it in the realms of Spirit-Mind, that perpetually enriches the man and his kingdom.

The heart is the vital center of consciousness, and where it locates or concentrates its energies there is built the refined essences of Being. Matter is the picture of an infant's idea of substance. That infant is the Adam

man. Substance is good and its possession lawful, but the infantile perception has created a partial representation of the Great Substance and is counting it real.

"If the light in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!" Intellectual understanding is darkness, and if this be your only light, how great is your darkness? Man must have spiritual understanding, he must know the truth about himself and the great creative law of mind. So long as the belief prevails that the world we see about us is real, and that it is creative in some manner beyond our ken, will we be in darkness and igno

rance.

When man is in this ignorant state he is the prey of

all sorts of delusions, formed in his own and the race thought.

The most elusive thing in existence is matter, and those who think it what it appears, have such a slight hold upon it that it is continually disappearing out of their hands. This has been repeated so far in their experience that they are in constant dread of losing their possessions, and an anxious fear hangs over them like a pall. It is this state of mind Jesus seeks to heal in this treatment against anxiety. Do not be anxious about your life, your food, your body, but change the base of your thought by realizing how all creation is cared for by the Father.

Man is not as well cared for as the birds and flowers when he is anxious and fearful, because through the creative power of his own mind he interferes with the natural provisions of God. If men lived as close to nature as the birds and flowers a thought atmosphere would be created connecting the whole human family with the Oversoul, and intuition would become universal. Man would not inquire of the wild animals the character of the coming winter, but would be informed direct in a far larger way about all the processes of nature, and also be shown how to make the very best of them. When this confidence in the Oversoul is established in any individual there is an erasement from the mind of fear and anxiety. "God rules and I have nothing to fear," is a good treatment against anxiety.

A man without mirth is like a wagon without springs, in which one is caused disagreeably to jolt by every pebble over which it runs.-Beecher.

With every prayer (aspiration) to the Highest, the answer (inspiration) comes while ye are yet asking.L. G. W.

THE FAMILY

HARMONY IN THE HOME

Home is the nursery of the Infinite.-Channing.

Edited by MYRTLE FILLMORE

EDITOR'S NOTE:-Possibly, Miss Wheeler did not intend her article for this department, but the editor-inchief has classified it with us, so we accept it as an advanced lesson in Home Teaching. She begins at the beginning "In the beginning God" and helps us to realize what the real Home is. She makes us feel that to come into consciousness of Omnipresence, with its great sustaining parental love, is to find this home of homes—the home of the soul of which harmonious family ties and home relationship are but a faint promise.

MY HOME IS GOD

TINNIE WHEELER.

Home! what sacred memories cluster around the word! What hallowed associations are connected with it! How its divine protection hovers over us like the shadow of a great wing!

Not many human beings are without a home or the memory of one, be it a gilded palace, a cottage or a wretched hovel. At the name of home how the highest impulses of the soul are stirred into action, and many a degraded man and woman, sunk to the lowest level in vice and iniquity, has been brought back to the path of purity and right by the sudden recollection of a mother's love and prayers.

Mother, home and heaven are said to be the three sweetest words in the English language, and the possibilities of these holy and far-reaching influences. are measureless.