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calmly forward to the end, having tasted all that life holds in store for them.

And yet Lincoln lived but yesterday!

¶You can reach back into the past and grasp his hand, and look into his sad and weary eyes. A man!

¶ Weighted with the sins of his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, who fade off into dim spectral shapes in the dark and dreamlike past. No word of choice has he in the selection of his father and mother; no voice in the choosing of environment. Brought into life without his consent, and pushed out of it against his will—battling, striving, hoping, cursing, waiting, loving, praying; burned by fever, torn by passion, checked by fear, reaching for friendship, longing for sympathy, hungering for love, clutching nothing.

My heart goes out to you, O man, because I can not conceive of any being greater, nobler, more heroic, more tenderly loving, loyal, unselfish and enduring than you are. ¶ All the love I know is man's love.

¶ All the forgiveness I know is man's forgiveness.

¶ All the sympathy I know is man's sympathy.

And hence I address myself to man-to you and you I would serve.

¶The fact that you are a human being brings you near to me. It is the bond that unites us. I understand you because you are a part of myself.

You may like me, or not-it makes no difference. If ever you need my help I am with you.

¶ Often we can help each other most by leaving each other alone; at other times we need the hand-grasp and the word of cheer

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I am only a man-a mere man-but in times of loneliness think of me as one who loves his kind.

What your condition is in life will not prejudice me either for or against you.

¶ What you have done or not done will not weigh in the scale

¶ If you have been wise and prudent I congratulate you, unless you are unable to forget how wise and good you are then I pity you.

If you have stumbled and fallen and been mired in the mud, and have failed to be a friend to yourself, then you of all people need friendship, and I am your friend so s☛ ¶ I am the friend of convicts, insane people and foolssuccessful and unsuccessful, college-bred and illiterate. ¶ You all belong to my church.

¶ I could not exclude you if I would.

¶ But if I should shut you out I would then close the door upon myself and be a prisoner indeed.

¶The spirit of friendship that flows through me, and of which I am a part, is your portion too.

The race is one, and we trace to a common Divine ancestry

¶ I offer you no reward for being loyal to me, and surely I do not threaten you with pain, penalty and dire disaster. if you are indifferent to me.

¶ You can not win me by praise, promises or adulation. ¶You can not shut my heart toward you, even though you deny and revile me.

¶ Only the good can reach me, and no thought of love you send me can be lost or missent.

¶ All the kindness you feel for me should be given those

nearest you, and it shall all be passed to your credit, for you yourself are the record of your thoughts, and no error can occur in the account.

¶ You belong to my church, and always and forever my friendship shall follow you, yet never intrude.

¶ I do not ask you to incur obligations nor make promises. ¶ There are no dues. I do not demand that you shall do this or not do that. I issue no commands.

¶ I can not lighten your burden, and perhaps I should not even if I could, for men grow strong through bearing burdens Ꮽ ᏭᏛ

¶ If I can I will show you how to acquire strength to meet all your difficulties and face the duties of the day.

¶ It is not for me to take charge of your life, for surely I do well if I look after one person.

¶ If you err it is not for me to punish you. We are punished by our sins not for them.

¶ Soon or late I know you will see that to do right brings good, and to do wrong brings misery, but you will abide by the law and all good things be yours. I can not change these laws-I 'can not make you exempt from your own blunders and mistakes.

¶ And you can not change the eternal laws for me, even though you die for me.

¶ But perhaps I can point you the pathway that leads to love, truth and usefulness, and this I want to do because friend.

I am your

¶ And then by pointing you the way I find it myself

¶ You belong to me-you are a member of my church. All are members of my church. None is excluded nor can be excluded.

¶ So over the plains and prairies, over the mountains and seas, over the cities and towns, in palaces, tenements, moving-wagons, dugouts, cottages, hovels, sleeping-cars, autos, day-coach, caboose, cab, in solitary cells behind prison-bars, or wandering out under the stars, my heart goes out to you, whoever you are, wherever you are, and I wish you well.

¶ Only love do I send and a desire to bless and benefit.

¶ Men are under the domain of Natural Law as much as bees. Men succeed only by working with other men and for other men.

¶ Man's business is to work-to surmount difficulties, to endure hardship, to solve problems, to overcome the inertia of his own nature: to turn chaos into cosmos by the aid of system-this is to live!

¶ Keep in your heart a shrine to the ideal, and upon this altar let the fire never die.

¶ A child does not need a religion until he is old enough to evolve one, and then he must not be robbed of the right of independent thinking by having a fully prepared plan of salvation handed out to him.

¶ Until men grant to women all the rights which they demand for themselves, they will dwell in a Spiritual Siberia

¶ Be a creator, not merely a creature and a consumer s

AKE an inventory of your spiritual assets. How do

TAKE

you stand on these? Mark yourself ten where you are perfect; then the rest mark down to about where you are, and see how it looks. Faith, system, energy, service, loyalty, purpose, kindness, economy, industry, courtesy, initiative, intention, frankness, evolution, education, fellowship, patience, courage, responsiveness, tenacity, ambition, harmony, prudence, integrity, obedience, thoroughness, mutuality, mastership, fraternity, endurance, enthusiasm, equanimity, good-cheer, reciprocity, cleanliness, helpfulness, personality, self-respect, orderliness, punctuality, self-control, co-operation, self-reliance, truthfulness, self-sacrifice, perseverance, individuality, concentration

¶ No man is damned eternally as long as he tries.

T

HIS secret, which I am about to impart, is the most valuable and far-reaching of any known to man.

It is the key to health, happiness, wealth, power, success. It is the Open Sesame to Paradise, here and now. ¶A secret is something known only to a few. Often the best way to retain a secret is to let others help you to keep it

¶ The only way to retain love is to give it away-art and religion the same.

This secret, which I am about to impart, will cause no thrill, save in the hearts of those who already know it. ¶ And all I can do for you, anyway, is to tell you the things you know, but which possibly you do not know you know until I tell you.

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