are today on your blood-stained globe. That was
before man on Mars had enfolded spiritually.

As the Martians progressed and unfolded spiritually there occurred a
subsidence in the roughness of the elements: and today our planet is
blessed with a tranquility proportionate to the high Mental state of
its inhabitants.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MATERIAL LIFE A LESSON

At the expense of what may appear as painful reiteration it is my
desire to impress upon the readers of this book this Truth: Material
life is necessary to unfold character, to develop the real self, the
Divine part in man: the only principle that endures forever.

There is a lesson in every phase of work, in every joy, in every
sorrow. That lesson is LOVE. Until you have fully realized this truth
you will not become full heirs in the Kingdom of God. "He that loveth
is born of God."

Christ taught that the Kingdom was not of your Earth, and that all
material things are transitory and would ultimately vanish like mist.

The story of Mars is a lesson to you as to what may be accomplished
towards a more harmonious relation with the Father: towards a truer
realization of God's real Kingdom. But in any event you should not
idolize the Mars people, for the Father's Kingdom is more perfect.
Mars' idealism is only a degree in the progress in the Cosmic Family of
worlds. The soul must really strive for a higher goal.

The Martians, after ages of time, have mastered their natural passions
in suppressing self, but they have other heights to scale. But he who
conquers a sordid environment; he who rises from a black pool of
iniquity; he who finds the Father's Kingdom amidst an uncompromising
warfare with sin deserves more credit than he who is favored by
circumstances of birth with more congenial surroundings and a higher
Spiritual environment.

You must remember that the individual on Mars, although living amidst
an idealism, is beset with problems of life also. Our problems are
more subtle and of a very different character than you are accustomed
to deal with. Every plane of life has its complexities. If this were
not so, the stimulus for growth would be weak indeed. Your most
apparent problems are material only to your understanding, since you
are living under a most pernicious social and economic system, a system
which puts a premium on selfishness.

All sentient entities are functioning in a universe of Relativity, and
the perfectness of the Marti