It is the theatre of all possibilities here and hereafter, but its atmosphere must be magnetic with love and faith where the spiritual forces may battle and exert their powers. We must first love all the world if we would have the world love us. Only what comes from the heart can reach the heart of the world, for mankind will care little for us unless we show we care for mankind. But what man earnestly desires and persistently wills and strives to accomplish through love will finally be attained. Love and goodness are all-powerful and will eventually conquer.
The first cause of all discontent, weariness, bitterness and vanity of life is selfishness. It is the corrosive element that rusts away all the pure gold of energy and aspiration. It is as amazing as sad that we burden ourselves with selfish strivings that are of no consequence, and miss the gladness and exhilaration of living. For no life is successful unless it is radiant with love and usefulness. Emerson says: "Life is an ecstasy and nothing else is really worth living. Happiness is not determined by a bank account or the flattering incense of praise, but is a mental and spiritual condition."
Ye who seek liberty know this; it can only be found in the liberty of your fellow men. Ye who seek happiness know this; ye can only find it in the happiness of others, and if you desire to be happy you must make others happy. This is God's eternal law of compensation—of altruism—love to others; what you do unto others you do unto yourself. Look upon thy fellow man with wisdom and thou shalt have love. Feel for thy fellow man with love and thou shalt have wisdom, and, having wisdom and love, thou hast God and heaven in thy heart. These are the golden rules of the New Testament, written in the reason, conscience and experience of men, as God's living book of wisdom and truth.
Every action has its rebound or echo. Others will return your love or hate as the mountains return an echo, and by the same law. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The hate you send forth will return to you, the love you gave will come back to you, for it is an immortal part of you and a part of Omnipotent Deity.
If you are sick, love! If you are envied, hated and slandered, love! If age and death steal upon you, love! For God is love, and heaven is love, and love is life eternal. This is God's law, this is the law of man's nature, the law of the New Testament, the law of love and life, the law of the universe.
Whatever may be man's misfortune, if he has a love of humanity, a love of literature, art or nature, he has resources of happiness that nothing can remove. With these the poor man is rich, and the rich man can never be poor. For each by love has overcome the world. Therefore believe and love, and hold fast to the conviction that the forces of life are divine and eternal, and their laws written in the reason and consciences of men, and that death is only a transition from our world to another of greater beauty and perfection. The inadequacy of earth-life to satisfy the soul's capabilities is evidence that its career must continue hereafter in brighter worlds of celestial love and destiny.
It is said the common epitaph of humanity is, "They mean well, try a little and fail much." But if love is their guiding star and they obey the dictates of their reason and conscious duty, their lives cannot be failures. Most of our troubles and cares, like echoes, do not exist until we call them forth. But sweet, subdued sorrow, and the tears of love and sympathy that spring from the generous heart to the soulful eyes, are like heavenly dews, and promote the growth of the soul. They should not be classed among the depressing trials. Neither should friendly rivalry, or laudable ambition to excel, be deemed trying aggressions, for they are beneficial phases of growth. Humanity should emancipate itself by hitching its chariot to the star of love, and switching the current of human energy from the circuit of worry and anger, and connecting it with the motors of good thoughts and noble deeds.
All men should realize the fact that anger turns the natural juices of the body into poison as the vibrations of thunder sour the sweetest milk. And every fit of anger is an electric trip-hammer that drives a nail into the coffin of life and shortens human existence. All nature reveals the law of "natural selection and survival of the fittest," and demands in man the highest perfection of love, beauty and self-development.
The culture of the divine essence of the soul, love and ideality will eventually emancipate, exalt and ennoble human life.