splendor of prophetic majesty
Who bideth thus amid the powers of night,
Clothed with the glory of divinity.

THE REALIZATION OF SELFLESS LOVE

It is said that Michael Angelo saw in every rough block of stone a thing of
beauty awaiting the master-hand to bring it into reality. Even so, within
each there reposes the Divine Image awaiting the master-hand of Faith and
the chisel of Patience to bring it into manifestation. And that Divine
Image is revealed and realized as stainless, selfless Love.

Hidden deep in every human heart, though frequently covered up with a mass
of hard and almost impenetrable accretions, is the spirit of Divine Love,
whose holy and spotless essence is undying and eternal. It is the Truth in
man; it is that which belongs to the Supreme: that which is real and
immortal. All else changes and passes away; this alone is permanent and
imperishable; and to realize this Love by ceaseless diligence in the
practice of the highest righteousness, to live in it and to become fully
conscious in it, is to enter into immortality here and now, is to become
one with Truth, one with God, one with the central Heart of all things, and
to know our own divine and eternal nature.

To reach this Love, to understand and experience it, one must work with
great persistency and diligence upon his heart and mind, must ever renew
his patience and keep strong his faith, for there will be much to remove,
much to accomplish before the Divine Image is revealed in all its glorious
beauty.

He who strives to reach and to accomplish the divine will be tried to the
very uttermost; and this is absolutely necessary, for how else could one
acquire that sublime patience without which there is no real wisdom, no
divinity? Ever and anon, as he proceeds, all his work will seem to be
futile, and his efforts appear to be thrown away. Now and then a hasty
touch will mar his image, and perhaps when he imagines his work is almost
completed he will find what he imagined to be the beautiful form of Divine
Love utterly destroyed, and he must begin again with his past bitter
experience to guide and help him. But he who has resolutely set himself to
realize the Highest recognizes no such thing as defeat. All failures are
apparent, not real. Every slip, every fall, every return to selfishness is
a lesson learned, an experience gained, from which a golden grain of wisdom
is extracted, helping the striver toward the accomplishment of