s it is with the human soul passing on from one life to another.
It learns new lessons, gathers new experiences, and learns to recognize
the pain that invariably comes from Wrong Action, and the Happiness
that invariably comes from Right Action. As it progresses it learns how
hurtful certain courses of action are, and like the burnt child it
avoids them thereafter.

If we will but stop to consider for a moment the relative degrees of
temptation to us and to others, we may see the operations of past Karma
in former lives. Why is it that this thing is "no temptation" to you,
while it is the greatest temptation to another. Why is it that certain
things do not seem to have any attraction for him, and yet they attract
you so much that you have to use all of your will power to resist them?
It is because of the Karma in your past lives. The things that do not
now tempt you, have been outlived in some former life, and you have
profited by your own experiences, or those of others, or else through
some teaching given you by one who had been attracted to you by your
unfolding consciousness of Truth.

We are profiting to-day by the lessons of our past lives. If we have
learned them well we are receiving the benefit, while if we have turned
our backs on the words of wisdom offered us, or have refused to learn
the lesson perfectly, we are compelled to sit on the same old
school-benches and hear the same old lesson repeated until it is fairly
driven into our consciousness. We wonder why it is that other persons
can perform certain evil acts that seem so repulsive to us, and are apt
to pride ourselves upon our superior virtue. But those who know,
realize that their unfortunate brethren have not paid sufficient
attention to the lesson of the past, and are having it repeated to them
in a more drastic form this time. They know that the virtuous ones are
simply reaping the benefit of their own application in the past, but
that their lesson is not over, and that unless they advance and hold
fast to that which they have attained, as well, they will be
outstripped by many of those whose failure they are now viewing with
wonder and scorn.

It is hard for us to fully realize that we are what we are because of
our past experiences. It is difficult for us to value the experiences
that we are now going through, because we do not fully appreciate the
value of bitter experiences once lived out and outlived. Let us look
back over the experiences o