y lies in service. It is in so enlarging the personal
sphere of life as to include the widest possible range of sympathy and
comprehension. The mystic spirit is full of value in reaching out into
the realm of spiritual forces, but when these forces are gained they
must be applied. The old religious idea used to include a great deal of
discussion about saving the soul; but the larger spiritual enlightenment
of to-day sees that the phrase "saving the soul" implies a present
condition,--the state of love, sympathy, service, by which the soul is
saved to-day, and not a vague condition to be only realized in some
remote eternity. _Now_ is the day of salvation. The success of life
lies not in possessions; it lies in keeping the harmonious and perfectly
receptive relation with the spiritual realm of forces, and using these
forces in every duty and need and opportunity that presents itself. As
for always compassing desires, or achieving the possession of this thing
or that, is in reality immaterial. The best things in life are often the
things one does not have; but they produce effects in the visible world,
and often, just in proportion as the things themselves remain in the
ethereal realm, is the potency of the effects they produce in the
physical realm. This other dimension of existence is one with which the
final reckoning must be made. It is no longer length of days, but
intensity of energy, that determines results. Not length of time, but
intensity of purpose, energy of action,--in these lie the secret of
achievement. The power that lies in brief moments is the power required
for effective life and work. Emerson truly says that we talk of the
shortness of life, but that life is unnecessarily long. Degree and not
duration is the test of power in any work, and the application of this
truth to the ordinary affairs of life would render it possible to have
every day hold in itself the value of a week or a month as usually
estimated. The entire trend of progress is toward that intensity of
creative energy that fairly speaks things into being. A business man has
now on his desk a long-distance telephone, connecting him with far-away
cities; he answers his letters by speaking into the phonograph; his
typewriting clerk copies them from this, and an hour of his morning
represents as much accomplishment as by the old and slower methods would
have required days; and thus time is constantly made more valuable.

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