[From the Modern Priscilla, Boston, Mass., September, 1923]

Individual thinking is essential to an advancing civilization. This does not mean that each succeeding generation should ignore the spiritual, mental, or material accomplishments of its predecessor. Far from it. Blessings untold would result if youth could learn to profit by the experience of age. But this need not involve blind, unthinking acceptance. Youth taught to think, and willing seriously to consider the things which age has learned, will move the world forward at a pace never yet recorded. So think things out for yourself—whether the question under consideration be political, economic, or religious. Starting with facts, all the facts available, and mindful of the experience of others, so far as you can learn it, form your own opinion. You will make mistakes, of course. But mistakes discovered and corrected are far preferable to unreasoning acceptance of other people's conclusions. The former promises character development, breadth of vision, growth. The latter leads to narrowness and stagnation. More than anything else, the world to-day needs men and women who think for themselves.

[From the Examiner, San Francisco, Calif., June 5, 1923]

Bishop Charles Lewis Slattery recently said that the religions of the world—and specifically of America—should get together on a working basis. They should be united to fight more effectively the forces to which all religions are opposed, and to achieve the objects which all religions are created to achieve. ... The moral objects of all religions are the same. Though they do not consciously stress that fact as they should, all the religions are actually united in their main purposes. Why, then, should they not be deliberately united in their practical efforts as now they are in their underlying sympathies? We all believe, in some sense, that our religions are inspired. Doubtless the dominant impulse in all religions is inspired. But the various methods of fulfilling that impulse—of carrying out the divine urge for higher ideals, better thoughts and deeds—are man-made methods. Obviously, we should consider not so much the differences of man-made methods, as the unity, the singularity of the divine inspiration. Herein, certainly, our religions are one. And they should work in harmony, although each of them responds to that inspiration in its own way. Religion is not only a creed but a life about whose high purposes all religionists are surely in agreement.

[From the Press, Long Beach, Calif., Sept. 2, 1923]

The twenty-first chapter of Revelation is more than a prophecy. It is an outline of that human conduct which will result in the fulfillment of the prophecy. Because the picture is so different from the mortal concept of things, man has failed to comprehend that there is offered a practical solution of his ills. As in the world's attitude towards the Sermon on the Mount, the human impulse is to reject the way divine in the belief that it is idealistic, and therefore impossible of application. This rejection is not justified by the experience which it has brought upon humanity. In its search for some other way to happiness, the race has built a crumbling mass of failures, and to-day admittedly faces the most desperate crisis of its history. Testifying to the great truth which Christianity proclaims, the nations of earth look towards that country which is ready to serve without hope or expectancy of reward. Each person can prove for himself that heaven is reached by other than human means. He must empty his consciousness of the old modes and methods of thought, and open wide his heart to the God-idea. Real joy comes not in gaining but in giving; not in domineering, but in serving; not in accumulating worldly riches, which may fly away with the least alarm, and which in any case cause worry and fear, but in the storing up of deeds of helpfulness and charity, in righteous living, in love for God and man. These are provable statements. They are the affirmations of the facts of real being; and if they contradict the common belief it is because that common belief is based upon faulty premises. Gradually, but surely, the eyes of men are being opened to the mistakes of their own making, and to a realization of the safety which is ever at hand for them when they sincerely and prayerfully seek the better way.

[From the Chronicle, San Francisco, Calif., Aug. 8, 1923]

The warning, "Do it now," is almost superfluous; for in nine opportunities out of ten, unless we seize them forthwith, they will pass us by. ... The maxims of Christ, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow," and, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," instil the same wisdom, even though some Christians fix their affections upon a future life, ignoring the essence of Christianity that the "kingdom of heaven" is within their hearts here and now. "Your method to do your business," wrote Marcus Aurelius, "is not to concern yourself about the time past, for that is never to be recovered; to rest the future with Providence and only stick to the present and improve that to all the noble purposes of piety and justice. ..." And again, "What remains but to live easy and cheerful and crowd one good action so close to another that there may not be the least empty space between them?" Your to-morrow mainly depends upon your thought and action of to-day, but to-day can never depend on to-morrow. Procrastination is not only the thief of time, but the murderer of the moment of opportunity. The fruit of all philosophy and the urge of all religion is to face the duty of the hour.

[From the Mercury Herald, San Jose, Calif., Sept. 17, 1923]

"The main business of the Christian Church is to produce character," said Dr. Noel Porter, recently. ... "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gladness, faithfulness, self-control; but incidental to the main purpose, the church has a further ministry to good health. There is first of all the importance of right thinking, for, as a man 'thinketh in his heart, so is he.' We cannot think low and live high. Right living is the secret of longevity. Keep your minds bright, happy, and cheerful, and you will realize the joy of living to its fullest degree. ... All about us are people who have stopped talking about their ills, stopped thinking about them, stopped pitying themselves, who with heart and mind made right with God are saying: 'In God's name let there be health.' And there is health, even as they will. It is morally imperative for every one to do all that is in his power to be well, steadily and joyously well. ... He [God] is the great source of health and happiness. He is the Great Physician."

[From the Pictorial Review, New York, N. Y., September, 1923]

Love is a companion of the highest virtues, a brother to self-control, sacrifice, patience, devotion, faith, and loyalty. Jealousy's kin and kind are selfishness, greed, lust, flattery, petulance, suspicion, egoism. Love sees; jealousy is blind. Love understands, makes allowances, is expert in sympathy; jealousy is stupid, mad with prejudice, stubborn, and wilfully ignorant. Love has excellent judgment, ... puts first things first, and understands how to disregard the nonessentials. ... Love has faith, "believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." ... Look again into the cracked mirror of jealousy, and see the deformed face, the opposite of all that is love; for "love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil" (Rev. Ver.). And love endures.

[Rev. A. J. Gaynor Banks, in the Express, Denver, Colo., Aug. 24, 1923]

There is nothing accidental in any healing. God will not give you one thing beyond your power to receive. You yourself determine the measure of the healing power. Christ Jesus never did cure blindness, deafness, or paralysis—as such. He healed the man. He said, "Thy faith hath made thee whole"—not, "Thy faith hath healed thine eye." One reason you are not healed is because you are thinking too much of that malady. As long as you are thinking that way, you are shutting out the only power that can heal. The body without the spirit is dead. If you want to be healed, you must be healed by the power that made you, and that power is spiritual. Search your heart. You cannot be filled with God when you are filled with hatred, bad temper, or selfishness. Is God a reality to you—or, do you simply want you eye or ear healed?

[Rev. D. M. Perley, in the Christian Guardian, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 19, 1923]

To almost every person there comes the time when newly discovered facts of life and nature make readjustments of accepted and more or less fixed opinions a necessity. This is true of every subject of human thought. It is certain to be true of our conceptions of God. The childish mental picture of God as a great giant sitting on a throne in heaven will not fit into the growing knowledge and understanding. Because of this the mind and heart of youth find difficulty and sometimes great distress in making the readjustment of their conception of God from the material to the spiritual, from the human to the truly divine.

[E. W. Harb, in the State Journal, Madison, Wis., Oct. 2, 1923]

Right thinking results in right doing. ... By teaching the coming generation, the Americans as a race would be improved almost beyond imagination. This training of the young would tend to eliminate the evil of to-day, because a mind schooled in the right ... scorns deeds and thoughts which are sinful. Newspapers and moving picture houses—those that make a business of showing and printing such things as stimulate evil thoughts—would then be driven out of existence.

[From the Canadian Baptist, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sept. 27, 1923]

The noble thinker is a noble man. Daily meditation upon things pure and lovely will reveal itself in face and conduct. There is no place in life for evil thinking, cruel thoughts, harsh judgments, and the thousand things that daily mar life. These destroy pleasure, break friendships, and disgrace the Christian profession.

[From the American, Baltimore, Md., Sept. 17, 1923]

One little thought is stronger than all the battlements and armored ships of the world. The nation that will think right is unconquerable.