t. The knowledge they gained, by this struggle, they have
handed down to their offspring, and given it thereby the possibility
of also gaining for itself that knowledge of, and power to get into
sympathy with, its environment, upon which its future existence will
depend. So may we not see that in the Spiritual World, these two
conditions dominate, and that it is only by the clear comprehension of
their reality that we can understand how all-important it is for the
soul to bring itself nearer and nearer into harmony with its
environment, the Spiritual, and how the efficacy of prayer depends
upon the Knowledge of what is the Will of God?

We have received from our Spiritual Father the principle of
Everlasting Life, and the aspirations which, if followed, will enable
that life to expand and come to perfection; but, as in the case of
physical organism, the gift is useless unless we elect to use those
aspirations aright, and gain thereby a knowledge of our Spiritual
Environment, which alone can bring us into sympathy with the Great
Reality. Without this "Knowledge of God," we can see by analogy on the
Organic Plane that Everlasting Life is impossible--we are as weeds and
shall be rooted out. This is no figment of the imagination, it seems
to be the only conclusion we can come to if Nature is the work of
Nature's God, and Man is made in the image (spiritual) of that God.
Herbert Spencer came to the same conclusion when defining everlasting
existence. He says: "Perfect correspondence would be perfect life;
were there no changes in the environment but such as the organism had
adapted changes to meet, and were it never to fail in the efficiency
with which it met them, there would be Eternal Existence and Eternal
Knowledge" (_Principles of Biology_).

The power of influence, by sympathetic action, may also be seen in
another direction; consider the fact that if we are in a room with a
piano and we sing a certain note, say E flat, we not only hear that
note coming back from the piano, but, if we examine the strings, we
find that all the E flats are actually vibrating in sympathy, because
they are in perfect harmony with the note given out by the voice; but
none of the other strings are responding because they are out of
harmony. With this simile in mind, let us consider the curious fact
that a moth always lays its eggs on that particular plant upon which
the caterpillars, when they hatch out of these eggs, must feed. The
study o