not crush you and suffering will not approach you; be joyous and the years will roll smoothly and peacefully by, leaving no painful marring gashes; be joyous, and you remain young all the days of your life; be joyous and your days will be many on this earth. 8. By expressing joy, we not only benefit ourselves, but we also benefit others. Our lives are interwoven, one with the other, our moods and dispositions, consciously or unconsciously, influence those of others. There are emanations from our state of mind, and our fellow-beings receive these emanations. We make others gloomy with our gloom, we make them sad with our sorrow, we make them restless with our excitation. And on the other hand we also transmit to others our enthusiasm and our hope, we also transfer to them our inspiration, we also communicate to them our cheer and our joy. By keeping our hearts cheerful and joyous, we maintain a fountain of helpfulness both for ourselves and for others. 9. It is not only those of wealth that are able to help their fellow-men. Material aid is not the only form of charity. The greatest act of charity is not when one gives merely of his riches, but when one gives of himself to his fellow-man. To impart courage and optimism, to inspire others with hope and with cheer, to create an atmosphere of serenity and joy, these are among the highest duties of man to man. 10. Man must also express joy in his relations to God. "Serve the Lord with joy," says the Psalmist, “come before Him with song." The Talmud says, "The prayer which emanates from a joyful heart is like incense before God." "Ye shall rejoice before the Lord, thy God," the Scriptures reiterate. Man must approach God with trust in His goodness, with confidence that his supplication will be answered, with joy at the consciousness of His presence. No tears or lamentations need accompany a prayer to the Divine Mind. The prayers, we find in Jewish Science, which emanate from an earnest and cheerful heart, are the ones most readily answered. God is not a human king whose heart must be touched with tears, ere He will respond; He is not a human judge whose softer judgment is to be invoked for mercy; He is not a human master, to whose tenderness appeal must be made with a broken spirit. No, He is our God who has called us into existence; He is our Universal Father, and we are His children. He is our God, which means that He is our Sustainer, our Helper, our Healer, the Supplier of all our needs and wants. He is ever ready to come to our aid; therefore we need not appeal to Him with sighs, in order to bring forth, as it were, His sympathy. Come before Him with joy. When you offer your prayer, express it in joy and in faith. Keep your mind attuned to the future which you wish realized and not to the past; do not enumerate your difficulties of the past, but be prepared to receive the divine munificence you pray for, and your prayer will be answered. II. The Divine Mind has endowed man with the power for joy, but man must guard it and nurture it. He must permit no shadows to overspread it, nor any obstruction to impede its free flow. He must give full expression to it in every place and in every relation of life, be it in his personal life, or in his association with others, or when he appeals to the Divine Mind for help. 12. When the capactity for joy has become obstructed, it is possible to reclaim it through prayer. Pray for the return of joy as you pray for the return of health. Every gift that comes from the Divine Mind, is restored by the Divine Mind in answer to prayer. Offer your prayer for joy in visualized terms. Place yourself in a state of ease and repose and visualize divine rays of joy permeating your whole being. Or, relax daily and repeat slowly with your mind the affirmation: "The Divine Mind within me is supplying me with an abundance of joy." Your prayer will be answered. CHAPTER XIII COURAGE 1. The law of opposition and the law of growth go hand in hand. The seed must be dipped into the soil before it can flower into the sunshine. It is clear that God did not intend to make life a path of roses. From the very early stages of our existence, He has prepared difficulties and opposition for our every step. See how many difficulties the tiny babe must overcome before it learns to stand erect and walk. How many falls, how many hurts, how many shocks it sustains, before it learns to move properly from one place to another. Consider the mental efforts he is compelled to undergo in learning to recognize hundreds of objects by arbitrary word symbols, in learning to grasp the meaning of things and thoughts. How many times does he suffer injury in learning to distinguish between the hurtful and the harmless; how many times does he burn his little fingers before he understands the qualities of heat and cold; how many tiny stabs he suffers before he learns the danger of sharp objects. He must learn to tabulate the result of each contact or experience upon his soft memory; if he fails to do so, other dangers are in store for him. It is clear, therefore, that difficulties are not additions to life, but vital portions of life; obstacles are not thrown on our road by a mere accident, they are a part of the road. 2. Difficulties stimulate self-expression. Difficulties call forth the finer and deeper faculties of man. The higher the thing we aspire to, the greater the difficulties in the way of its attainment. The high thing is always the hard thing. Opposition is a divine law, for it brings to the surface powers hidden in the very depths of our consciousness; without it, our manhood dwindles away. In this particular, as in many others, the care of God expresses itself in a manner different from that of man. A father, as a rule, provides or attempts to provide for the needs of his child, and seeks to spare him the labor of obtaining his provisions. Men leave vast fortunes to their children, in order to spare them the drudgery of accumulating them. God's plan for His earthly children, on the contrary, is to induce them to obtain through their own efforts and labor the gifts He has prepared for them. And He has prepared for them an abundance. There is all the sustenance on this earth that the children of men may need. But they must reach out for it, they must make the effort to secure it. God gives man the seed and the sunshine and the rain; but man himself must plant the seed, watch its growth, study its nature, nurture it, lend of his sweat to the richness of the soil. God has placed barriers between man and his abundance. But he has endowed him with the gift of courage to beat down the barriers before him. 3. Courage is the weapon with which we overcome opposition. It is a divine implement by the use of which we may conquer the difficulties and obstacles that life offers. If life is to be regarded as a lofty mountain which |