What is prayer?

The spontaneous act of filial love; the soul's involuntary yearning for perpetual aid; an intuitive acknowledgment to the Supernal for the fact of existence; a desire for additional benefits and continued happiness.

What is the legitimate effect or prayer?

The effect of too much reliance on the invisible for aid is to beget weak-mindedness and unfitness for any great work; no man can accomplish much who doubts his personal capabilities and shrinks individual responsibility.

But the normal effect of prayer is two-fold-first, to open and prepare the soul for spiritual influx and illumination,second, to attract a portion of the angel-world into harmony with our interior necessities.

True spirit-prayer, like the glory of the morning dew, ascends noiselessly. The answer, that comes, welcome as the fall of rain, when the soul most needs nutrition.

What is fidelity?

The integrity of your soul to itself, obedience to the angel of God within.

What is infidelity?

The wilful violation of that within you, which you believe to be Truth, Justice, and Righteousness.

Who is the most successful man?

He who seeth the secret victory that ever dwelleth within any defeat of an honest effort.

Who is the mightiest man?)

He who can, at all times and amid all circumstances, control the impulses of Love by the voice of Wisdom.

Who is the greatest philanthropist ?

He who does good to some and harm to none.

Who is the most holy man?

He who never acts contrary to his highest perceptions of right.

Who is the best husband?

He who, when you examine him by your highest attractions, hath the purest spirit and the cleanest body.

Who is the best wife?

She who, when you examine her by the intuitions of your highest temperament, is the sweetest girl, the truest friend, the gentlest sister, the most attractive woman.

What is man?

A product of all the universe. Physiologically-of all orders and properties of matter; psychologically-of all essences and properties of mind.

What shall be done with a system of sectarian religion which promulgates despotic doctrines or dogmas?

The declarations of Science must be denounced; Reason must be silenced; Experience, on its bended knees, must confess to lies; Truth must conform; Virtue be vilified; Justice denied; and man's whole nature must bow in obedience to the dictates of arbitrary authority. The authority of opinion must be imposed on the plastic mind of youth; pressed, regardless of all healthy resistance, into its very substance! He grows to manhood shackled in bondage. He cannot think. He wor¬ ships, not the Truth, but the Authority; he is therefore a bigot and a slave.

Should a man guard his individualism against the authority of Institutions?

Certainly: Does it profit to sell the soul for popularity? What is there in the world more valuable than manhood or womanhood? The world answers, "Nothing!" And yet behold the universal distrusting and crucifying of the individual! Before the gods man bows, yielding adoration to mythological idols-to his own dishonor and degradation.

-Association, progression, development, are everywhere the processes by which matter is moulded into all forms, from the granite rock to the wondrous body of man.

-Everything is designed to subserve the vast and boundless laboratory of the All-wise and great Positive Mind; and

immutable laws operate upon a divine and universal system of cause, effect, and end.

And then USE, the first attribute of wisdom, said: Man shall be a culmination of universal Nature; so organized in his body as to receive and elaborate the animating elements of nature into an eternal soul; and his soul, being constituted of those principles which are pure, everlasting, and infinite, shall possess and obey the tendency to unfold and progress forever.

And Justice, the second attribute of wisdom, said: Man shall occupy such position in the universe as will secure to all things, organized or unorganized, visible or invisible, a permanent equilibrium of power, possessions and demands.

And Power, the third attribute of wisdom, said: Man shall be created through the mediums and instrumentalities of countless suns and planets, and through the regular development of minerals, animals and vegetables; each of which shall correspond to, represent, and embody some particular portion of his organism.

And Beauty, the fourth attribute of wisdom, said: Man shall represent and embrace all suns and planets, all minerals and vegetables; and the energy, strength, symmetry, and structural beauty of all animals, in his form, organs, and functions.

And Aspiration, the fifth attribute of wisdom, said: Man shall know himself to be immortal, he shall be the king, the crown, the coronation of Nature; he shall aspire to be an Angel, a Seraph, a God.

And Harmony, sixth and highest attribute of wisdom, said : Man shall be an embodiment of the Great Spirit who creates him; he shall represent, in a finite degree, the elements and attributes of the Infinite; he shall desire, and be capable of, and shall enjoy the most ineffable blessedness; he shall aspire after harmony, shall unfold it, and shall give his eternal existence to its maintenance; he shall be an embodiment of Nature, a revelation of Harmony, and an image of God.

Such is deeply impressed on my spirit as the far shadow of the Divine plans.

-The intention of Nature, everywhere manifest, is the perfection of Man.

-All the processes of nature combined to produce Man as an ultimate; all were essential for this intent and result.

-The central idea and inspiration of the Harmonial Philosophy is PERFECT LOVE OF ALL WISDOM. Wisdom is the highest comprehension and embodiment of all scientific, philosophical, spiritual and celestial principles or ideas, which are eternal and universal; knowledge pertains to facts, things, events and external experiences.

-Ideas being universal, the Fraternity of Ideas runs like a golden thread, through all religions, and therein they agree. Thoughts and prejudices being personal, local, and limited, make the clash of conflicting creeds, and feed the passions of bigots.

TEACHINGS AND INSPIRATIONS FROM MANY SOURCES.

The law of marriage is universal.—BRAHM.

The end of human life is righteousness.-BUDDHA.
The character of God is a unit.-MOSES.

All evil will be overcome by good.-ZOROASTER.
Charity is fraternal justice.-CONFUCIUS.
The origin of harmony is Divinity.—PYTHAGORAS.
Goodness is the only happiness.-SOCRATES.
All things have a spiritual origin.—PLATO.
Health is temperance in all things.-EPICURUS.
Internal purity is the cause of Charity. JESUs.
All truth is consistent and harmonious.-ORIGEN.
Every man's faith is a sovereign power.-LUTHER.
God is Almighty and will prevail.-CALVIN.
God is present in every human spirit.—Fox.

The law of correspondence is universal. SWEDENBORG.
All men are missionaries.—WESLEY.

God is both Father and Mother.-ANN LEE.
The love of God is impartial.-JOHN MURRAY.
Man is capable of eternal improvement.-CHANNING.
Human nature is relatively perfect.—PARKER.
Self-reliance is obedience to God.-EMERSON.

The right to liberty is inherent and universal.—GARRISON. Every person is naturally immortal.-SPIRITUALISM. The love of all wisdom is man's integral aspiration.—HARMONIAL PHILOSOPHY.-A. J. Davis.

LOVE AND GOOD WORKS THE LIFE OF HEAVEN.

But the crowning excellence of this celestial sphere, and which distinguishes the souls of the just from the dark spirits below-and marks the difference between our visions of the heavens and all revelations hitherto is the high, paramount prominence which is awarded to the great love-element of universal charity. Here we find no loud eternity of idle harping and perpetual song; no cruel transports of unpitying delight over the ever-ascending smoke of a brother's torment; no dreamless slumber of an everlasting repose; no drowsy revelings in the lotus-dreams of an eternal voluptuousness; no heaven of beatific sensualism, where, bright and beautiful, ten thousand houris minister to the royal pleasure of a single hero— hero no longer in his luxurious abode; no airy Valhalla, where the ghosts of warriors drink the foaming mead, and clash their resounding arms in day-long wassailing and the fabled tales of heroes; though all these images are humanely acceptable, as types of the ever-acknowledged fact that souls in heaven are. intrinsically and essentially what they are on earth, only perfecting there the ideal of all excellence here.

Moreover, our new heaven infringes not on the domain of any other heaven. Ours is that vast unclaimed-the heart's unexplored realm of generous work-of work that blesses. others and delights the doer. The inhabitants of that beautiful domain are souls that keep their warm love and the blessed