two trees are matured you will find that those on the beautiful tree are small and bitter, while the crooked and unsightly tree may bear large, luscious fruit, delightful to the sense of taste and smell, and when you come to eat the fruit, then you can decide which is the better tree. The Church has made the error of judging the fruit by the tree in place of judging the tree by the fruit, judging men by their appearance and by their actions in place of judging them by the vital truths that they bring forth, the knowledge that they have to give. Thus the Lord closes this warning with the words, "Therefore by their fruits you will discover them."

21. Not everyone who says to me, Master, Master, will enter into the kingdom of the heavens; but he who performs the will of that Father of mine in the heavens.

Here again we are necessitated to judge of that which we have heard all our life, of church doctrine and what has been called religion. The Catholic church especially has said to the world: "If you say 'I believe in Christ,' that is sufficient," Is that not equivalent to saying, "Master, Master;" but the Master says, not everyone who acknowledges him will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but it is he who performs the will of the Father in heaven.

For the past one hundred years the ministers and the people have made a hobby of the saying: "It is not by works, O no ! it is not what we do, but it is our belief in Christ that will save us." Thus they are contradicting the emphatic statement of our Lord Christ. If it is not what we do, what does he mean when he says, "but he who performs the will of that Father of mine in the heavens'? This is works, is it not? It is doing

and not saying.

Again, many in the church have been deceived into believing that the saying will save them, and not the doing. In other words, not by works, but by belief. But remember the emphatic declaration of him who is our master, our only teacher: it is he

who performs the works, lives the life; it is he who does right, not he who talks right, that will enter the kingdom of heaven. And what is the will of our Father in heaven? Are we left without a knowledge of this? Certainly not: the divine purpose as set forth in this magazine ramifies into every department of your life. Once you understand this purpose and then take up these teachings of the Christ of Nazareth, you may know the will, and not only must you know it intellectually and believe it in the heart, but you must perform it in your life: do the works. 22. Many will say to me in that day, Master, Master, have we not taught in thy name? and in thy name expelled demons? and in thy name performed many wonders?

23. And then I will plainly declare to them, I never approved of you. Depart from me, you who practice iniquity.

How many there are in the world at the present time who are working so zealously to "save souls," and who, by their zeal, seem to be expelling the demons and reforming the people, but you ask them concerning the divine purpose and they will say: "I do not want to know anything of those things, I want to know only 'Jesus Christ and him crucified.' Ask them concerning the mission of Christ and they know nothing. They tell us that he was our vicarious atonement, and they say: "Because he suffered and died, we have nothing more to do, only to go on trying to convert men to the same thought and habit of life." The Lord Christ here says to such, "Depart from me, you who practice iniquity." He also said "I never approved of you." Stop and think, does the Lord Christ approve of you? Is that essential to salvation? Emphatically yes. How may you know that you are approved of the Lord, can you know it here and now? You certainly can. If you day by day and hour by hour compare your life and habit of thought with the teachings of Christ, especially those given in this wonderful sermon on the mount that we are now considering, and hour by hour make it the one object of your life to cause it to conform in all particulars to these wonderful teachings, and do it because you have an active,

earnest desire (prayer) that you may know, not only his will, but that you may do it, then it will not be long before he will send to you his angel with the vivid consciousness that you are approved of by the Lord. And not only will he give you the consciousness of your approval by him, but, as he said, he will send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, that will lead you into all truth. In another place he calls this comforter the "Spirit of truth," which has been so beautifully compared by one to a bird in the bosom that would answer all queries and become a perfect guide to the pilgrim. We know from experience, and from the experience of many others, that as surely as any person will follow the teachings of the Christ wholly and implicitly like a little child, with the mind centered on God, he will receive this Spirit of truth that will abide in his bosom as if it were a separate consciousness and will become to him a perfect guide and instructor in all matters of divine truth, and this consciousness in the soul of such a one is worth more than all the treasures of the world, for it gives peace and joy even under the most trying circumstances, and though the world is dark and cloudy and storms sweep across the horizon of our mentality, yet deep down in the soul remains that calm, that perfect consciousness that we are approved of by him who rules the world, and not only that we are approved of by him, but that we are members of that holy family, that blessed Brotherhood of which the Christ was the Master and the door.

"Daily deed and daily thought

Slowly into habit wrought

Raise that temple, base or fair,
Which men call our character.

Build it nobly; build it well,
In that temple God may dwell."

CROSSING THE BAR.

By Alfred Tennyson.

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

When I put out to sea,

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.

Twilight and evening bell,

And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell

When I embark;

For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I have crossed the bar.

Each new year is a surprise to us. We find that we had virtually forgotten the note of each bird, and when we heard. it again it is remembered like a dream, reminding us of a previous state of existence. How happens it that the associations it awakens are always pleasing, never saddening, reminiscences of our sanest hours. The voice of nature is always

encouraging.

Thoreau.

THE POWER OF LITTLE THINGS.

By L. D. N.

How often forgetting the power of little things which cross our pathway, we pass them by. Only the soul who is capable of comprehending the minutiæ, the small details so unbearable to one class of humanity, will be of using them as a stepping stone for grasping the true infinite power; for, first of all, it is power over the little things that leads, in the end, to power over the great.

To live on the spiritual plane means to keep oneself constantly in touch with with all sweetness, all purity, all love.

The man or the woman who is discourteous, unkind and selfish toward the least of the little ones of Christ, is obstructing the very Christ-currents in his or her own aura and making it impossible for the potency therein to manifest itself. No truer estimate of a great soul can be made than by watching his attitude toward the small vexations of daily life, those unexpected trivial things that are capable of tearing down the walls we may have made about ourselves and leaving the soul naked in the silence that falls upon it after the stress and storm of those battering, disintegrating little worries and cares that pile up like a pathless mountain thickly covered with brambles and briers, that sting and tear till the mind grows desperate in contemplation.

We think a man who goes into the desert to fight bravely with the wild beasts of his own soul, a hero who is worthy of the power which he hopes to win. But he never will or can win unless he has first overcome the daily trials that stay his feet. like a quagmire, while his life is environed by his fellow-man. For he will find nothing in his brothers that is not in his own