of kindness, but of selfishness. Our distrust is very expensive. The money spent for courts and prisons is ill laid out. We make, by distrust, the thief and burglar, and incendiary, and by our court and jail we keep him so. An acceptance of the sentiment of love throughout Christendom for a season, would bring the felon and the outcast to our side in tears, with the devotion of his faculties to our service. See this wide society of laboring men and women. We allow ourselves to be served by them, we live apart from them, and meet them on the street without a salute. We do not greet their talents, nor rejoice in their good fortune, nor foster their hopes, nor in the assembly of the people vote for what is dear to them. Thus we enact the part of the selfish noble and king from the world's foundation. See, this tree always bears one fruit. In every household, the peace of a pair is poisoned by the malice, shyness, insolence, and alienation of the domestics. our affections flow out to our fellows; it would operate in a day the greatest of all revolutions. The State must consider the poor man, and all voices must speak for him. Every child born must have a just chance (with work) for his bread. Let the amelioration in our laws of property proceed from the concession of the rich, not from the grasping of the poor. Let us begin by habitual imparting. Let me feel that I am to be a lover. I am to see to it that the world is the better for me, and to find my reward in the act.

you.

A. J. DAVIS, TEACHINGS.

***

Let

-Be contented with the Past, and with all it has brought

Be thankful for the Present, and for all you have.

Be patient and hopeful for the Future, and for all it promises to bring you.

It may cause many conflicts and efforts, but resolve that from this moment you will live harmoniously. Every day will strengthen your resolution. Live thus and every morning the spirit will feel new and pure as an infant.

-The science, the chemistry and mechanism of Divine Creation are represented in the human form; and the holy elements and attributes of God are incarnated in every human spirit. To be like heaven let us aspire to heaven; to be like God let us aspire to God. Harmony must begin with the individual; it will thence spread over families, societies and nations; and then the whole will represent the individual, and the individual the whole; and God will be ALL IN ALL.

—--Disease is a want of equilibrium in the circulation of the spiritual principle through the physical organization. In plainer language, disease is discord; and this discord or derangement must exist primarily in the spiritual forces by which the organization is actuated and governed.

-Popular theology or education are insufficient to supply the spirit with its proper nourishment or encouragement to an easy and natural progression. Theology is inadequate to the reconstruction of society; and popular education, which is saturated with this theology, is inadequate to the proper direction and education of the spirit. It requires but little time to learn what is useful, what is just, and what is pure;—and Beauty, Aspiration and Harmony are familiarly explained in the fields of universal Nature and Humanity. To understand what harmony is, the spirit must become harmonious. A harmonious individual is a revelation of the Divine Mind.

-The philosophy of death is the philosophy of change; not of change in the personality of the individual, but of change in the situation of the human Spiritual Principle; which, instead of being situated in an earthly body, is placed in a spiritual organization; and instead of living among the objects and personalities of the planet on which the spirit was born, its situation is so altered as to fit it to live amidst more beauteous forms and in higher societies. * Believe not that what is called death is a final termination of human existence, nor that the change is so thorough and entire as to alter or destroy the constitutional peculiarities of the individual; but believe righteously that death causes as much alteration in the condition of the

*

individual as the bursting of a rose-bud causes in the situation and condition of the flower. Death is therefore only an event, a circumstance, in the eternal life and experience of the human soul. As the death of the germ is necessary to the birth and development of the flower, so is the death of man's physical body an indispensable precedent and indication of his spiritual birth or resurrection. * Night and sleep correspond to physical death; but the brilliant day and human wakefulness correspond to spiritual birth and individual elevation.

*

-If the soul is faithful to Nature and her principles, there can and will be no limits to its health, happiness, and power to work the sublimest miracles. The faithful spirit is God-like in its every manifestation. Such a mind is capable of interpreting the multifarious phenomena of Nature; and through the instrumentality of eternal principles, its attributes can be unfolded even to the perception of gorgeous spheres, radiant with purity, beauty and peacefulness. If one is true to Nature (which is being true to himself and to the Divine Mind) he can improve the condition of his neighbor, and heal persons of many apparently incurable maladies. Let us all aspire to this glorious state of spiritual exaltation! The remedial agents of Nature are: Dress, Food, Water, Air, Light, Electricity and Magnetism.

-A child is the repository of infinite possibilities. Enfolded in the human infant is the beautiful "image" of the imperishable and perfect human being. In the baby constitution we recognize the holy plans of Divine Goodness the immortal impartations of Divine Wisdom-the image and likeness of the Supreme Spirit-the possibilities of the greatest manhood, womanhood and angelhood. The human mind is the most richly endowed. Its sphere of influence and action is the broadest. It is empowered to hold dominion over time, events, things, and circumstances. It draws its life unceasingly from the divine life of Nature. It feeds on the phenomena of truth. It aspires intuitively after perfection. It rises to the sphere of individuality and freedom. It includes all the laws and con

ditions of growth, variety, genius, renewal, progress, and completeness.

"Man is the measure of all things," said Protagoras, one of the Greek sophists; "and as men differ there can be no absolute truth." 'Man is the measure of all things," replied Socrates, the true philosopher; "but descend deeper into his personality, and you will find that underneath all varieties there is a ground of steady truth. Men differ, but men also agree ; they differ as to what is fleeting; they agree as to what is eternal. Agreement is the region of truth; let us endeavor to penetrate that region."

-Harmonial spirit-culture is the noblest work of the sciences. The divine image is within. It is the end of true education to develop that image, and so truly too that the child's individuality and constitutional type of mind shall not be impaired, but revealed in its fulness and personal perfection. "Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect,” is an injunction of sublimest import. Every faculty and function of the individual is amenable to that heavenly principle. Everything has a glory of its own. The highest aim of education is to reveal the life and form of that individual perfection which Divine Wisdom has implanted in the human spirit, and different minds demand different methods..

-What do you believe? I believe that all mankind are the children of God and Nature; that discord is the cause of all unhappiness; that harmony is heaven; that there is no death to the soul and spirit; that sins are not forgiven, but outgrown through repentance and a righteous life.

Who are nearest heaven?

They who have healthy bodies and harmonious minds.
What is the light of world?

Eternal Truth which cannot be destroyed, or hidden.

What are the most beautiful forms of Truth?

Good works.

Who shall be called great, in the Summer Land?

He who loves truth in his deepest heart, and exemplifies it in his relations to the world.

To whom shall the temple of Harmony be opened?

To those who lovingly knock at the door of Wisdom.
What is sin?

Sin is a name for excess-the blunder of man in his development, a ditch into which, when blinded by ignorance or passion, we stumble for a season.

What are man's highest attractions?

His best and highest attractions take their rise in the superior parts of the brain-the wisdom-region-from the organs of benevolence, veneration, conscientiousness, firmness, hope, and ideality and marvelousness.

What is forbidden by the law of beauty?

All physical habits which impair the most agreeable proportions of form or feature; and especially, mental dispositions. that deface the richer beauty with which the Father hath adorned the inner life.

What is true religion?

True religion is universal Justice-which begins at the center of the individual and widens outwardly, wave-like as the ocean swells-predicating thus the happiness of all upon the harmony of each.

What are the sacraments of this religion?

First, personal cleanliness and chastity; second, a heart full of warm devotional love to man and Deity; third, a head full of serene, strong, steady wisdom; fourth, reverence for the marriage relation; fifth, the regeneration of the world as far as possible through little children; sixth, and every humanitary institution.

What are the sacraments of the New Dispensation?

First, the immortality of the spirits of all men; second, the immediate resurrection of the soul (retaining the shape of the body) at death into a purer progressive world; third, the enjoyment of intercourse with the departed through several mediations.