Habits are formed at a time when they serve a purpose in life, but later on, when that purpose is outgrown, the habit, instead of proving helpful, often acts as a hindrance to greater development and a kind of warfare is set up between old habits and new desires. Many people are governed more through subconscious habits acquired in the past than by conscious thought action. It is almost as tho they were afraid to make any new departure and they hold on to the old with a tenacity that might be worthy of a better object. They are so fearful that in any new departure they may take a mistaken course that, for the time being, they tend to retard their progress. Sometimes it is because they are fearful of interfering with their soul life that this course is followed, but be it understood that the mistakes in life are not made by the soul of man, but by the mind; neither do mistakes affect the soul. They do, however, affect the whole mental and physical life of man.

Viewed from the larger standpoint there are no mistakes. Every experience that comes to us brings us a lesson whereby we may profit.

The prodigal son was working out his salvation when he took the course he did just as surely as did the elder brother who never left the father's home, and we have every reason to believe that the prodigal came to a realization of the Father's loving kindness before his brother. All things work together for good whether we call them by the name of good or evil. Doubtless the suffering caused by the course pursued by the prodigal son was far greater than that endured by the elder brother. It needs be that offenses must come, no matter if they do bring suffering in their train. It is the sorrow and suffering in life that purify and perfect the character. It follows that if man has the power to make a mistake he has also the power to correct it; that there is no mistake that can be made in life but what can be corrected.

"And what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence For the fulness of the days? Have we withered or agonized? Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence? Why rushed the discords in, but that harmony should be prized? Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear, Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and woe."

He who teaches otherwise teaches not in accord with the divine law. It is never right to do evil that good may come, but out of every so-called evil must come good. The friction and discord in life are on the surface, but back of the surface are the eternal verities; the surface action is only an indication of growth and change taking place continually. Every mistake made may become a round in the ladder of progress, whereby we put the mistake under foot, and through it and by it rise to a higher condition. There is no thought of failure in the divine plan, and everything is working together for the accomplishment of one great end, that end the coming of God's kingdom in the outer and visible world, where perfect peace and harmony will replace the discord and unrest.

The mind of man is the great battle-ground of life; the real enemies, if that they can be called, are found here. The one thing to subject and bring into perfect control is one's own mind; in doing this we attain the real mastery of life. The thoughts we think give form to our words and deeds, and we become workers with God when we try to express perfect harmony in our own lives. Every thought-picture of life should have God in it, not as a personality, but as a living principle in the life, making each thought strong and vital. When there are purity, beauty, and harmony in one's thoughts, then God is in them, and God will find expression in our lives; that is, we will become Godlike, we will be gaining the real control. Everything we do partakes of the quality of our thought; if the thought is a perfect one, then the work also becomes perfect; but a perfect work can never come from imperfect thoughts.

The great wonder of a perfect thought is this: that it is a reflection of God's love and wisdom, and when uttered it becomes God's spoken word. It was because they held their minds still until a perfect thought could enter that the prophets of old, when the word of the Lord came to them, spoke as those having authority. That thought they knew to be God's thought, and it could be given to the world as such.

This is what we call inspiration, and when one speaks, inspired of the spirit, he speaks not of himself, for the Father working within him is responsible for the word. "Open your mouths and I will fill them."

When we feel the assurance of truth in our thoughts we should try to make them effective by keeping the mind centered on them; that is, every thought that conveys to our mind an element of strength or beauty, should be cherished as a part of our real inheritance. It would be found that in doing this each true thought would banish a false thought and by and by there would be no room in the mind for other than true thoughts. We would have formed a habit that would make it far easier for us to think such thoughts than otherwise. We would overcome all the mistakes that we had been making and it would no longer be possible to make new ones. In this way life would become a source of pleasure and happiness, for there is a wonderful joy in the present life when development is taking place, and we are conscious of it. It is a mistake to defer this joy to a future time when we may have it now.

There are many elements in character-building other than those treated in this chapter, but if one only goes to the source of life within and tries to live the whole life which takes in soul and mind and body in the order enumerated, then through such living, from center to circumference, must come the development in life which we call character.