r has been
found necessary to pass a law prohibiting the president from playing
marbles; larger interests fill his life so that these things do not
even occur to him. Give a man a great work to do and you will save him
from a thousand temptations to do small and unworthy things. Do not
allow the modern conception of religion as gloom and denial to keep you
from that which is your right as a spiritual being, the strength, joy
and beauty of the divine life.

Holiness of life is not in innocence of evil but in positive
forcefulness for good; not in doing as little harm as we can, but in
filling the whole life with worthy, helpful, uplifting deeds. The good
life not only has no debts--it has large assets, deep and lasting
value; it enriches all life. It offers to the world not barren land
claiming the virtue of freedom from the thorn and the brier, it crowns
all with the abundance and glory of fir and myrtle.

THE SECRET OF ALL

The words hold a large place in every alert life: Happiness, Health and
Heart; some may put them Success, Strength and the Soul. It is easy to
recognize the importance of the first two; that of the third is more
remote. Some have imagined that religion emphasizes the last alone and
ignores the other two.

Evidently it is a legitimate thing for the Christian to pray for
prosperity; and it is right for him to try to answer his own prayers.
Poverty is no proof of piety. Nothing about God is or can be
poverty-stricken. He gives us a rich and glorious world, prolific in
its resources; its life is rich and prosperous. Nature is running
over, fairly rioting in splendour and wealth. The Creator has given
man this garden of glory that he might enjoy it. It is a sin not to
enter into its possession; he is dead already who does not desire
prosperity, who no longer seeks success in life. It is an easy matter
for the man who has made an all around failure to talk about the
dispensations of Providence and the compensations of the future.
Prosperity is always a sin to the man who lacks the pluck to secure it.

Yet many who seem to have failed may have succeeded best of all.
Prosperity often comes in strange packages; it may even be labelled
Adversity. Not all will succeed according to popular standards. Many
will be more fortunate; they will win the riches of influence,
friendship, family, thought, knowledge, love, character. It is not the
things we have that make us rich; it is the amount