gross lethargy, of that many-phased, still
unhumanized beast that man has to conquer in himself. But happy is he
who hungers for the manna of law and the bread of truth, whose prayer
is a sincere desire to be so fed thereon that there shall be such
strength in the muscles of his soul as shall make of him a power for
good to all with whom he comes in contact.

As to our enemies, we can no longer cherish feelings of resentment
toward anyone, however they may misconstrue our purest motive, or
malign our best intent. We see that every one must show, when tested,
the exact degree of growth he has attained. Hence, the slander and
persecution, the "all manner of evil" falsely arrayed against us, we
apprehend as the necessary means to determine our fidelity to the
truth to which we have pledged allegiance, and to prove that what is
of good cannot come to naught though all the powers of earth and hell
be set against it. To forgive, _aphiemi_, is to cause advancement, to
bear away burdens. Thus we see it as an axiom that only as we aid the
weak, instruct the ignorant, develop the undeveloped, can we receive
in turn what we most need to carry us farther forward on the upward
path.

Lead us not into temptation, is what we silently say when our thought
and action show that we have well learned the lessons that were for us
in past trial and tribulation, and so order our course that the
leading of His laws, by which alone God ever guides, brings to us joy
instead of pain. Then, whatsoever may betide, as men count weal or
woe, we see the gold pass from the fire freed from its base alloy.
Then all the prayer is answered as with the eye of the prophet to whom
the future is as now, we see the soul delivered from, born out of
evil, _poneros_, which well represents the six days or epochs of
labor, strife, and friction, of gestation in materiality, that precede
and prepare the way for the Sabbath day to dawn.

The word "amen" is a Hebrew term for faith, which it defines as a firm
prop or support, a foundation that abides. It pictures to us faith,
not as emotion or credulity, nor the mere belief in, or acceptance of,
some formulated creed; but as that clear assurance of what the present
will produce or what the future has in store, which can only come as
we perceive how God, by laws immutable, has ruled throughout the past.
And faithful prayer is oneness of the will of man with that of God,
through knowledge of His laws and glad obedience