investigation, that if one does this in the proper way, there is really no time left for criticism of another. Strangely enough, our own faults are not apt to seem so glaring to us as the faults of our brother. A good way to cure this habit is to pause before we utter criticism or retail a bit of scandal, and try to think of some good quality in the one we were about to condemn, and mention that instead. Has the accused ever done anything good, no matter how slight? Then speak of it and refuse to let your mind dwell upon anything else.

“Yes,” you say, “I can do those things, but what am I to do when certain people persist in talking to me of sickness, death, accident and scandal? I must reply." Yes, but there are various ways of replying, you know. One way is by changing the subject abruptly and asking if they had seen that lovely flower in some one's garden, or read that new book, or some question which does not savor of error. If, after repeated attempts this fails, either stay away from that person who is saturated with morbid ideas and error thoughts or have the courage to say: "You know I do not believe in these things: I believe only in the true, and that is not true."

It is now considered old-fashioned to sneer at another race, because of difference in the color of the skin. Soon we will be stared at in amazement if we give voice to the old-fashioned statement: “I will not send my child to that school, because negroes and Chinese go there." In the sight of the One Father there are no negroes nor Chinese; heathen nor Hottentot, but just his one big family of dearly beloved children. Color is nothing; race is nothing. In his sight it is only the soul that counts; it's struggles and overcomings, and its Truth.

We should be brave enough to cast aside ou childish and narrow prejudices and take every man by the hand, lifting him up into the light, with the one

thought, that after all we are only little children, all of us, and if some stumble and fall, or happen to be a different color from ourselves, there is no reason why we should scorn them or kick them out of our lives. That idea is gradually passing away and will soon be among the old-fashioned things. Let each one do his best to hasten that day, for it is individual effort that counts.

It is old fashioned to draw our skirts aside and to pass in scorn the Magdalen.

We are at least beginning to realize that if we are to follow the pattern of the Sinless One, our Master, we must do as he did in all things so far as lies within our power.

If our little child in ignorance should put his hand on a hot stove and burn it, would we turn aside from, and never speak to him again? No, we would kiss the burn and pour out the oil of human love and sympathy upon the injured one. Then why, when we know that we are all little children of the King, should we turn away comfortless the woman who has sinned? We do not turn away the man, but admit him into the best society, and allow him to marry our pure daughters. Our scorn will not help the transgressor to change her life. No, it will discourage her, and she will keep on in the wrong path until she reaches the lowest depths, and we might have saved her if we had not been so self-righteous and so afraid of contamination.

"Who fails finds later, triumph sweet,
Who stumbles once, walks with care
And knows the place to cry, Beware!
To other unaccustomed feet."

And yet our Master was not afraid of contamination. See his love and pity and tenderness for the Magdalen.

It is old-fashioned to make this worn remark: "The religion of my mother is good enough for me.'

That only means that you are willing to stagnate; that you are willing to stand still, until the waters of your soul grow fetid and green and slimy, while the rest of the world advances and rushes by your side in sparkling buoyancy. When this statement is sifted down, it is neither true religion nor fealty. It is, on the contrary, laziness, in preferring to accept the thoughts of others and letting them do your thinking for you. It is love of self and of the old worn out opinions of ancestors. There are great and noble souls all about you, who have cast off their old narrow beliefs like an out of style garment, and are soaring on into great spiritual heights. You are not living your father's and mother's life. You are living your own life.

"Tear away the blinds of superstition ;

Let the light pour through fair windows, broad as Truth itself, and High as God.

Do not try to follow blindly their way of doing, just because they were your father and mother. What if they were your father and mother? Did they have any more light than you? God was their Father and their mother, and their All, just the same as he is yours, and their exhaustless fountain and source of knowledge and power and light. "Back of thy parents lies the great eternal WILL." If they in their ignorance followed blindly some man made doctrine, let us try to atone for that by casting off the old shackles of race belief. Let us not think that we have inherited sickness or sin from any earthly parent, or any set ideas of spiritual truths, which cannot be changed. The laws of the Medes and Persians are obsolete.

Just believe in the Divinity in your own souls, and receive your own revelations straight from the Spirit of Truth, and not second-hand from some ancestor who happened to give you birth. Let us declare that we are free from the race ignorance and that our only

heritage is Truth, and our only Father God, the Holy One in the midst of us.

Do not condemn yourself any more than you would condemn another, because, "Ye are the temple of the Living God," and you must not decry his handiwork. "Believe thyself Divine, and watch and pray."

Well poised people have learned not to do oldfashioned things, not only because they are old-fashioned, but because they have learned the vital power of words and thoughts.

We are learning that all men are brothers, and that it is best to remove the beam from our own eye before looking for the mote in the eye of our brother.

Let us advance, casting off the old beliefs as we go, until at last having reached the heart of things; we stand in the light, face to face with the changeless Truth.

"So many gods so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind ;
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs."

A LITTLE PARABLE

I made the cross myself whose weight
Was later laid on me;

This thought is torture as I toil

Up life's steep Calvary.

To think mine own hands drove the nails!

I sang a merry song,

And chose the heaviest wood I had
To build it firm and strong.

If I had guessed, if I had dreamed
Its weight was meant for me,
I should have made a lighter cross
To bear up Calvary.

-Selected.

THE TRUE CHARACTER OF GOD

LESSON

ONE

[This lesson was written by Irene Runyan, a student of the Unity Correspondence School.]

This science is founded upon Spirit. It does not change like our intellectual sciences which are always changing. It is the one true science. It appeals to the spiritual understanding in man, for "the things of God are spiritually discerned," and one must realize that he is a spiritual being before he can understand this science. But when we earnestly seek this spiritual understanding it comes to us by the inspiration of the Almighty.

We can, however, begin this spiritual understanding, for the Living Word of Truth which is in these lessons will come into our minds, and our understanding will be quickened so that we will comprehend the teachings.

The right understanding of God is the foundation of all Truth.

Everybody has some belief of an Infinite Creator and Ruler of the Universe, but it is usually rather indefinite and would be hard for them to explain. Before I heard of New Thought or Practical Christianity, I thought of God as a person away off in the sky on a white throne in a city of gold, yet he in some way (which I did not understand) knew everything that went on in the world, even our thoughts and intentions.

But I now understand that, as Jesus said, "God is Spirit," and Spirit is Mind, and that when we understand about Mind and its powers we understand about God. We understand that the entire Universe is created and controlled by the One Intelligence, which is everywhere present and all-powerful. When we realize that God is the unchangeable Life, Love, Intelligence and Substance of all being we have a