We want, then, to be practical in this world, but the practise of anything, without a living ideal back of it, is of little use in development. Remember, all development comes through effort made on the part of the individual.

It does not come because of a power outside of a man's self, for there is no power outside of a man's self that either retards or aids his development. It is simply in the way that he is adjusted to life. If he is harmoniously adjusted, then development is unimpeded, but when inharmoniously adjusted to life and its environments, altho development is taking place, it is not the development that conforms to the true ideal. You have perhaps at some time seen a tree growing between two great rocks, and being hard prest on either side it loses its form; it does not express what it was intended to express. So very often in this life through failure to adjust there comes the pressure of environment. We attribute it all to environment; we say that it has made us what we are; that circumstances have so controlled our lives that we could not be any different, even if we wanted to. Now, this is not true. The strong mind - the strong will - controls circumstances; the strong mind with the true ideal brings about adjustment to environment. We make our lives just what they are; they are not made for us.

Individualized life is the continual unfolding of a plan that has been written into it. Now, the great Universal Soul involved the plan, but every individual evolves or gives expression to the plan that is written into the life. We are told that salvation is a gift, that it is free, and then we are told to work out our own salvation. The gift is this: that the plan was in the very beginning of things the plan of a perfect man, of the measure of the fulness of the stature of Christ; but only in the fulness of time, only through His own personal effort, was that plan ever evolved.

From the crudest state - from the Adam - to the Christ, the evolution of the plan has been going on; and in so far as it is possible for us to know, the highest plan is that disclosed by Jesus, the Christ. We, as Christian people believing in the teachings of Jesus, naturally consider His life as a full expression of the ideal man. The Buddhist would say that the highest plan of life came through Buddha and from his conception of it he would be right, because he understands the plan better, possibly, than most Christians understand the Christ plan. The Hindu might say that Krishna gave the most wonderful ideals concerning life; so it might go from one faith to another.

All are true to a degree, none encompass the Absolute; we can not say, as Christians, that the Buddhists are not right, but the Christians are; that the Christian theory of life is true, but the Buddhist is false. What we can say is this: that we get from the teachings of Jesus, the Christ, something that seems to satisfy, and that the Buddhist gets from the teachings of Buddha something that satisfies him, and the Mohammedan gets from the teachings of Mohammed something which brings satisfaction to his mind. God is the Father of one great family - mankind. All men are members, one of another; there is a great brotherhood of humanity. We have differences - we make all kinds of differences - we throw all kinds of limitations around ourselves, but there is just one God, Father of all, Mother of all, who hath made of one blood all people who dwell on the face of the earth. All people - not some people, but all people who dwell on the face of the earth.

All people have their different ideals concerning life, but the main point is this: if we are living the Christian ideal, believing that to be the highest and the best, then that is all that is expected of us. Again, if the Buddhists, Hindus and Mohammedans are living their ideals, why should we expect more of them?

Let us recognize the fact that humanity is representing many different stages of evolution, and that which is good for one people at one time in their particular stage of evolution, may not be good for another people in a more or less advanced stage of evolution. What is necessary then is charity concerning the ideals of other people. The only exception any one could take is as to whether the people are living their ideals - whether they are living up to the best they know, and, after all, man is no true judge of his fellow man. So we need not take time to consider that. There is just one thing to be considered: not the ideals held to by different religious bodies, not the ideals held to by different nations, but the ideal held to by each individual person (because it all comes down to that); and what is each individual person doing with his ideals? Because if he is failing to express his ideals, then it would be better for him had he never formed any ideals. You might ask why.

My answer to that would be this: that if you have an ideal in mind, and fail to live and give expression to it, then that ideal convicts you, and it is the only thing that ever will convict you: it convicts you of failure to live your ideal. Jesus once said: "If I had not come, ye had not sinned." The question then naturally arises, How was it possible for Jesus to bring sin into the world? Only in this way: Jesus gave a higher, a more unselfish ideal of living, and people perceiving and failing to live it, were and are convicted by the ideal dwelling within them.

And so we are judged by our ideals, and unless we are living the ideals we have in mind we are out of tune with our conscience. If we are trying to live those ideals, remember, no matter how mistaken we may be, if we are trying to live what we believe to be right and what we believe to be true, then the way, if it is not altogether clear, will be shown us, because we grow through action. An ideal in mind prompts us to do something; the result is either harmony or discord, and the ideal must be judged by its effect. If everything we are doing in life is simply producing discord and unrest, then it shows that we need a new set of ideals; but whenever the ideal is producing harmony, greater peace of mind, greater strength of mind, giving us greater power, then that shows that we must be in the way that leads to life.

But some one may say: "Oh, you are altogether wrong; you are not living up to the real, the truest standard of life, and you should make your standard conform more to what other people require." The records show that both Jesus and John the Baptist had the same difficulty. They said of John: "Why, this man neither eats or drinks; he goes out into the wilderness and separates himself from his fellow men. This man hath a devil." That was the only way they found to account for his unusual actions, and when Jesus went about among the people, eating and drinking, and doing apparently very much as the people about him, they said: "Behold! a glutton and a wine-bibber." One sees then how impossible it is to adjust to other people's ideals, and, therefore, how necessary it is to have ideals of one's own and to live them as best one knows how - making mistakes, but finding out those mistakes through action. In this way one makes his ideal something that lives in the world, for he is giving it expression.

No one would think of keeping a little child from trying to walk, even if that child tumbled down occasionally. No; one would say that the falling down but tended to make the child become more careful, that he would try to overcome that condition of falling, and one would also know that every time the child put forth effort he was making for greater strength as well as greater security. So our mistakes in life become to us stepping-stones to a knowledge of higher things.

It is evident that many people are not so much interested in their present ideals as they are in conditions of the past or future events. Some people are continually troubled and worried over things of the past. Other people are continually troubled over things of the future. Now, the one thing is this: we are living to-day; we are living in this hour, in this minute. The one thing that really concerns us is not how we are going to live tomorrow, or how we lived yesterday, but just how we are living at this present moment; because it is that which counts; it is neither the past nor the future, but the living present, and therefore the ideal should always be put in the present. The practise of the ideal should always be in the present. One must not wait or think that a time will come when he can give a better or truer expression to the ideal, but know that the time is here, and the time is now. He should live what he believes is right in the present moment, and try to do it as best he knows how.

Put your ideals of health and happiness, not into the future time, but right into the present moment; realize that you can be well, that you can be whole, that you can be strong, and that you can begin to be all that this very minute, if you will it so to be. We acquire whatever we desire in this life, in the shortest possible time, by working for it right in the present, not delaying, thinking that we are going to be stronger, thinking that we are going to have greater intelligence to do it in the future. We gain our intelligence and we gain our strength always through doing. It is through action that greater intelligence and greater strength come into life. What we need, then, is more action - more practical action - more desire to express the inner ideal. Remember that to the ideal belongs the inner life, but the expression of the ideal is always an outer thing. The desire for health is in the soul and mind, but the expression of health is always in the physical organism. Let the physical organism express, then, all you desire to have it express. Desire is prayer, and if you pray, knowing that you will receive, do not think that the receiving is going to come at some distant or future time, for: "When ye pray, believe that ye have," not that you are going to have, but that you have. "But," you say, "how foolish that would be to say it is possible to pray and have at the same time." The ideal, remember, is the plan. If you have the plan worked out in your mind, have you not already begun to realize something of that which you desire? You could not work out something without the plan. Now, if you have the plan, you have laid the foundation: just go right on and know that the building will be built on that foundation, and that you have really begun your building.

There are times in life when the dreaming side, we might say, is necessary - when we have to dream about things. But that is only a momentary time, and then comes the action, because this is, peculiarly, a world of action. Dream just as true as you can; then make your visions come true.

Make your thought pictures clear and well defined, and then go to work and make your dream a real thing in the world, no matter what your dream may be - whether it is a dream for health, a dream for happiness, or a dream to do good in this world - have your dream come true; build your castles in the air, and then see them realized on earth.