"Divine Philosophy! Not harsh and crabbed as dull fools suppose, And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets And we may rest assured that in the time to come, we are going to do everything in a truer and a more beautiful way than we have ever done in the past. Because of our quest and desire for truth, life is going to render up to us the greater joys of being. The happiness and contentment that we now dream of are to be fully realised in our every-day life. The new must supplant the old. In the religion of to-day there is comparatively little that is making for spiritual, moral, or mental uplift; because there is so much in it that is fundamentally wrong, so much in it that can never be made to appeal to the hearts and minds of men. No religion need expect to last that is not founded and grounded in the eternal laws of life. Man feels the absolute necessity of religion: something to love, reverence, and worship. These feelings in his life, unless they find full and free expression, keep his mind in a state of unrest and longing desire for something he has not yet attained. Why should the deepest thing in life find its expression in an unlovely exterior? The greatest number of the religions of the world have failed to hold the hearts and minds of the people because the externals of religion have seldom represented in any true way, the real religion of life. That which is beautiful at the heart of life, should express something of the inner beauty when it takes form in outer symbols; for it is only thus that it becomes a true expression of religious feeling. It should ever be man's object to portray the wonder and beauty of the inner life in every effort he makes to express himself in the outer world. For man's inner consciousness of thought and feeling must eventually find full and free expression in his outer world. True religion should be expressed in joy and gladness, it should be the brightest and most beautiful thing in life. If God has created a universe and endowed it with untold beauties that are rhythmic, melodious, and harmonious, that have colour, grace, and symmetry, a universe filled with living music where everything from the tiniest flower with its head uplifted to the sun, to worlds, and systems of worlds and suns are all engaged in singing the praise of their Creator, surely it would seem as though man, the most highly developed of all God's creation on this earth, should praise Him in a more beautiful way even than all other things of His creation. The whole vast universe is not only filled with melody and harmony, with grandeur and beauty, with energy in motion, but with law and order as well; and a religion that does not contain all of these need never hope to live in the hearts and minds of all people. The divine way is the only way, and just as soon as man takes knowledge of that way and begins to consciously co-operate with God, will he have begun to live a truly religious life, a life that will make for the joy and the happiness of his mind, and for the health and strength of his physical body. He must leave the old ways and means behind. He must cease conforming merely to the letter of the word, and come under the spell of the Spirit and be guided by it in the Way, the Truth and the Life. For only by so doing can he free himself from the law of sin and death, and consciously become a son of God. CHAPTER XVI MUSIC AND CHARACTER "The man that hath no Music in himself Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds "The harp the monarch minstrel swept, -SHAKESPEARE. O'er tones her heart of hearts had given,- - It softened men of iron mould, It gave them virtues not their own; No ear so dull, no soul so cold, That felt not, fired not to the tone, Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne!" -BYRON. IF there is any one question of more importance than another in life, it is certainly that of character building; because character or the lack of it makes or unmakes the man. Man has the power within himself to feel, to think, and to act; and it is the use or misuse of this power that makes for character or the lack of it. The ideal man is one who is thoroughly rounded out, who has used to the full the attributes of soul, the faculties of mind, and the physical senses, and who through their use has developed soul, and mind, and body to their fullest extent. When we say that a man has a strong character, we mean that he is living life in a strong, true way, that he has strength of mind and purpose, and that he is able to carry both into his daily work. Such a man commands the respect of his fellow-man; but the weak, characterless man, the man who is negative in all his thinking and doing, is neither respected nor trusted by his fellowman. It is character that counts in life. The man who is independent and self-reliant, who thinks clearly, and who acts from conviction, brings a far greater influence to bear upon life than could any number of weak, negative-minded people. If character, then, is so necessary to life, it should be the part of wisdom, not only to desire it, but to work for it, because character, like everything else, has to be worked out. None of us in life receives anything that is worth having save through working for it. Yet we all know that two men may do equally hard work and one far outstrip the other, both as regards the quantity and the quality of the work. Now what constitutes the difference between the two? It will be found that one man is putting greater intelligence into his work, and because of this is getting larger results. A man may be strong physically without being able to accomplish much in the world; a man may be mentally and physically strong, and succeed in accomplishing much more; but the man who is spiritually, mentally, and physically strong, will be the man who will do the really great things in life; for when a man is developed in all three aspects of his nature, he is thoroughly equipped to do the things that come to him to do. Let me explain: the spiritual is the inner emotion or feeling, it is the dynamic energy of life; mind is thought and reason, it perceives the form that things should take; the body or physical organism is the plane of expression belonging to both soul and mind, where thoughts and feelings later take form and are expressed. As heart and mind and body all work in harmony with each other, man is able to do his complete, his perfect work. Character, then, is developed through the use of all three, and no one can become fully rounded out unless he is functioning on all planes. If a clear mind and a strong, healthy body are fundamentally necessary conditions to harmonious living, the question that will naturally arise is how may these two ends be attained? The athlete will tell you that the body may be strengthened and perfected through a wise course of physical training, and that intelligence must be used so that all parts of the body may be equally strengthened, but his theories in and of themselves can never make a weak man strong. It is only as a person puts into practice the theories he may have derived from another, that he can hope to gain his physical health and strength. In other words he gains his power through the use of power; he receives his energy through the expenditure of energy. For everything we receive a price is exacted before we can call it really ours. Everything in life depends upon this great law of reciprocity, of giving and receiving; and so, we give of our possessions, and through doing this enter into larger possessions. Nature exacts of us no indiscriminate giving, but a wise, orderly, righteous giving that considers both the object and the end of the giving. In the building up of the body all excess or intemperance in exercise, instead of making for greater health or strength, takes from both. There is a wise way of doing everything, and if that way is known and followed we get the best results. The body is strengthened and renewed when the mind chooses exercise of a normal, natural kind to strengthen alike all parts of the body. In this way the salvation of the body is being worked out, and it is being saved from weakness, pain, or disease. That which holds good as regards |