elements and forces associated with life's most valuable
possessions. Happiness and health are close friends. It is very
difficult to be gloomy and miserable if you are healthy. It is perhaps
even more difficult to be healthy if you are gloomy and mentally ugly.

Therefore it is a wise precaution to cultivate a hopeful spirit. If the
day is gloomy, if the sun is obscured by clouds, then develop the
sunshine in your own spirit. Try to radiate good cheer. By seeking to
cheer up others you will cheer yourself up, for always when we
help others, we inevitably help ourselves, though this should not be our
main purpose in the action. When we try to build up the characters,
improve the morals and add to the mental and physical stability of
others our efforts develop our own powers. Therefore, the best way to
help yourself is to help others.

We have a remarkable exemplification of the value of mental influence in
what is known as Christian Science. Even the most prejudiced enemy of
this cult will admit that many remarkable cures have been accomplished
through the principles it advocates. These cures alone indicate
clearly that the mind is a dominating force that works for good or for
evil. They prove that your thoughts are building up or tearing down
your vital forces; that to a certain extent "Thoughts are things," that
good thoughts are a real tangible influence for developing mental
or physical force, and-that bad thoughts have an opposite influence. It
is well for each one of us to determine clearly whether the thoughts
that fill our minds each day are constructive or destructive in
nature.

Your thoughts can actually destroy you. They can kill you as unerringly
as a bullet fired from a rifle. Keep this fact very definitely before
you, and try to make your thoughts each day the means of adding to your
life forces. There are many emotions that are harbored on occasions,
which are devitalizing and destructive.

We are all, to a certain extent, slaves of habit, whether good or bad.
For instance, there is the worrying habit, for worry is really a
habit. Therefore, it is a splendid plan to become slaves of good habits.
One who has acquired the chronic habit of worrying needs a mental
antiseptic. Worry never benefited anyone; it has brought thousands to an
untimely grave. To give prolonged and grave thought to a problem that
may come into your life, with the view of forming an intellig