y him with his faults.

When we resent and resist, and are personally wilful, there is a great
big beam in our eye, which we cannot see through, or under, or
over,--but, as we gain our freedom from all such resistance, the beam
is removed, and we are permitted to see things as they really are, and
with a truer sense of proportion, our power of use increases.

When a person is arguing with all the force of personal wilfulness, it
is both pleasant and surprising to observe the effect upon him if he
begins to feel your perfect willingness that he should believe in his
own way, and your willingness to go with him, too, if his way should
prove to be right. His violence melts to quietness because you give him
nothing to resist. The same happy effect comes from facing any one in
anger, without resistance, but with a quiet mind and a loving heart. If
the anger does not melt--as it often does--it is modified and weakened,
and--as far as we are concerned--it cannot touch or hurt us.

We must remember always that it is not the repression or concealment of
resentment and resistance, and forbearing to express them, that can
free us from bondage to others; it is overcoming any trace of
resentment or resistance within our own hearts and minds. If the
resistance is in us, we are just as much in bondage as if we expressed
it in our words and actions. If it is in us at all, it must express
itself in one way or another,--either in ill-health, or in unhappy
states of mind, or in the tension of our bodies. We must also remember
that, when we are on the way to freedom from such habits of resistance,
we may suffer from them for a long time after we have ceased to act
from them. When we are turning steadily away from them, the
uncomfortable effects of past resistance may linger for a long while
before every vestige of them disappears. It is like the peeling after
scarlet fever,--the dead skin stays on until the new, tender skin is
strong underneath, and after we think we have peeled entirely, we
discover new places with which we must be patient. So, with the old
habits of resistance, we must, although turning away from them firmly,
be steadily patient while waiting for the pain from them to disappear.
It must take time if the work is to be done thoroughly,--but the
freedom to be gained is well worth waiting for.

One of the most prevalent forms of bondage is caring too much in the
wrong way what people think of us. If a man criticises me I