uld always have us
believe that that sufficiency is not our own, but that by an act of
uncertain favour we may have occasional spoonfuls of it doled out to us.
Christ's teaching is different. We do not need to come with our pitcher
to the well to draw water, like the woman of Samaria, but we have _in
ourselves_ an inexhaustible supply of the living water springing up into
everlasting life.

Let us then inscribe "No Surrender" in bold characters upon our banner,
and advance undaunted to claim our rightful heritage of liberty and
life.

VI

COMPLETENESS

A point on which students of mental science often fail to lay sufficient
stress is the completeness of man--not a completeness to be attained
hereafter, but here and now. We have been so accustomed to have the
imperfection of man drummed into us in books, sermons, and hymns, and
above all in a mistaken interpretation of the Bible, that at first the
idea of his completeness altogether staggers us. Yet until we see this
we must remain shut out from the highest and best that mental science
has to offer, from a thorough understanding of its philosophy, and from
its greatest practical achievements.

To do any work successfully you must believe yourself to be a _whole_
man in respect of it. The completed work is the outward image of a
corresponding completeness in yourself. And if this is true in respect
of one work it is true of all; the difference in the importance of the
work does not matter; we cannot successfully attempt _any_ work until,
for some reason or other, we believe ourselves able to accomplish it; in
other words, until we believe that none of the conditions for its
completion is wanting in us, and that we are therefore complete in
respect of it. Our recognition of our completeness is thus the measure
of what we are able to do, and hence the great importance of knowing the
fact of our own completeness.

But, it may be asked, do we not see imperfection all around? Is there
not sorrow, sickness, and trouble? Yes; but why? Just for the very
reason that we do not realise our completeness. If we realised _that_ in
its fulness these things would not be; and in the degree in which we
come to realise it we shall find them steadily diminish. Now if we
really grasp the two fundamental truths that Spirit is Life pure and
simple, and that external things are the result of interior forces, then
it ought not to be difficult to see why we should be complete; for