ce, of peace or of pain, of
success or of failure.

The optimist has the power of seeing things in their entirety and in
their right relations. The pessimist looks from a limited and a
one-sided point of view. The one has his understanding illumined by
wisdom, the understanding of the other is darkened by ignorance. Each
is building his world from within, and the result of the building is
determined by the point of view of each. The optimist, by his superior
wisdom and insight, is making his own heaven, and in the degree that he
makes his own heaven is he helping to make one for all the world
beside. The pessimist, by virtue of his limitations, is making his own
hell, and in the degree that he makes his own hell is he helping to
make one for all mankind.

You and I have the predominating characteristics of an optimist or the
predominating characteristics of a pessimist. We then are making, hour
by hour, our own heaven or our own hell; and in the degree that we are
making the one or the other for ourselves are we helping make it for
all the world beside.

The word heaven means harmony. The word hell is from the old English
_hell_, meaning to build a wall around, to separate; to be _helled_ was
to be shut off from. Now if there is such a thing as harmony there
must be that something one can be in right relations with; for to be in
right relations with anything is to be in harmony with it. Again, if
there is such a thing as being _helled_, shut off, separated from,
there must be that something from which one is held, shut off, or
separated.

THE SUPREME FACT OF THE UNIVERSE.

The great central fact of the universe is that Spirit of Infinite Life
and Power that is behind all, that animates all, that manifests itself
in and through all; that self-existent principle of life from which all
has come, and not only from which all has come, but from which all is
continually coming. If there is an individual life, there must of
necessity be an infinite source of life from which it comes. If there
is a quality or a force of love, there must of necessity be an infinite
source of love whence it comes. If there is wisdom, there must be the
all-wise source behind it from which it springs. The same is true in
regard to peace, the same in regard to power, the same in regard to
what we call material things.

There is, then, this Spirit of Infinite Life and Power behind all which
is the source of all. This Infini