dency to become literally the embodiment of that
quality upon which one most constantly thinks. Let, therefore, the object
of your meditation be above and not below, so that every time you revert to
it in thought you will be lifted up; let it be pure and unmixed with any
selfish element; so shall your heart become purified and drawn nearer to
Truth, and not defiled and dragged more hopelessly into error.

Meditation, in the spiritual sense in which I am now using it, is the
secret of all growth in spiritual life and knowledge. Every prophet, sage,
and savior became such by the power of meditation. Buddha meditated upon
the Truth until he could say, "I am the Truth." Jesus brooded upon the
Divine immanence until at last he could declare, "I and my Father are One."

Meditation centered upon divine realities is the very essence and soul of
prayer. It is the silent reaching of the soul toward the Eternal. Mere
petitionary prayer without meditation is a body without a soul, and is
powerless to lift the mind and heart above sin and affliction. If you are
daily praying for wisdom, for peace, for loftier purity and a fuller
realization of Truth, and that for which you pray is still far from you, it
means that you are praying for one thing while living out in thought and
act another. If you will cease from such waywardness, taking your mind off
those things the selfish clinging to which debars you from the possession
of the stainless realities for which you pray: if you will no longer ask
God to grant you that which you do not deserve, or to bestow upon you that
love and compassion which you refuse to bestow upon others, but will
commence to think and act in the spirit of Truth, you will day by day be
growing into those realities, so that ultimately you will become one with
them.

He who would secure any worldly advantage must be willing to work
vigorously for it, and he would be foolish indeed who, waiting with folded
hands, expected it to come to him for the mere asking. Do not then vainly
imagine that you can obtain the heavenly possessions without making an
effort. Only when you commence to work earnestly in the Kingdom of Truth
will you be allowed to partake of the Bread of Life, and when you have, by
patient and uncomplaining effort, earned the spiritual wages for which you
ask, they will not be withheld from you.

If you really seek Truth, and not merely your own gratification; if you
love it above all worldly pleasures