"Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no other is, and to do what no other can."

- Channing.

"The poor, exiled shrub dreams by a native longing of a splendid blossom which it has never seen, but is dimly conscious that it ought somehow to produce. This is the way in which the ideal of life, the life of full completion, haunts us all. We feel the thing we ought to be beating beneath the thing we are."

- Phillips Brooks.

"God hides some ideal in every human soul.

"At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good thing.

"Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best."

- Phillips Brooks.

A New Testament writer reminds us of the diversity of gifts possest - one has that of healing; another, prophecy; another, tongues. All are expressions of the same spirit, but in the unity of the spirit there is a wide difference of expression. The same informing spirit may even express itself in two opposite extremes, and yet there be perfect unity in the inner force thus outworking. There must of necessity be this variety in the forms it takes and in their operation. It is of this ultimate expression that we as builders decide the form. The informing force is not ours - this is the gift. How we use this gift lies with ourselves, and the gift is really ours only through the true using. And this using of our gift or gifts should be in accordance with our deepest desires. The desire of the inmost self is the guide to all true effort, activity, expression. That which we truly desire, upon which we earnestly fix and center our minds, comes, of necessity, naturally and freely into the life. With the inception of any strong, true desire, we come into the real possession of the thing desired. Possession is not a matter of some future time, nor even of material expression. The latter belongs to the outward realization only. Some one may say: "This sounds very well indeed, but it is impossible for me to see the truth of it." Each thing actualized must first exist as an upwelling desire - a mental image - before it can be exprest, externalized. Now, this upwelling force, this primal feeling, is involuntary. The pictured plan of its outworking is of our making and direction, and the final product is wholly in our hands. We make our own pictures of life. If we make no pictures, have no plans, in our life activities, this central force is practically wasted - frittered away. We drift on the great ocean of existence, our minds go from one desire to another and accomplish nothing. We are like ships without a rudder: we may be intact in equipment otherwise, but if we have nothing to guide us, nothing of service will be achieved. We need a chart for our voyage, we need to know the purpose of our lives, each for himself to know the goal of expression for himself. None can interpret or decide for another. Each must work out his own salvation. Success in anything can never come through merely wishing or hoping or thinking or taking treatments for success. Any of these may serve as a stimulus, but anything worth the having must be steadfastly worked for; it does not come to folded hands. Our life-plan need not be a hard and fast one - it should be adjustable; growing with the added knowledge and new experiences of each day. We do not cast aside yesterday's chart, but enlarge it in keeping with today's horizon. One of the greatest mistakes in life is that of taking for granted that the thoughts and feelings, the conceptions and ideals, that bring us happiness to-day will satisfy us to-morrow. We hold tenaciously to the old ideals and forms of expression, and try to revivify them to meet the demands of the moment. There is such a thing as divine discontent - a constant hungering and thirsting after fuller expression, larger life, deeper realization. But this is as different as day is from night from the futile, feverish dissatisfaction that finds no pleasure in the present, yet makes no effort to actualize the larger ideal. To the "divine discontent" - the soul's out-reaching - the life more abundant is the unfailing response. All expression comes through activity. Through repose and relaxation come the gathering together of the life forces and the accumulation of energy and strength. This, however, must alternate with activity, else the accumulation is of no service - is really injurious. The active life is essential to health on every plane, and is the truly religious life. Isolation from one's fellows - a life of sepa-rateness - pondering, perhaps, over some sacred book or revered truth, can never be the most deeply religious life, for it is not the natural life. Not the monk who shuts himself off from the world, to save his own soul, but the man who is acquainted with the joys as well as the griefs of the common people - who lives the common, every-day life, the simple, natural life - is the ideal we need to-day. Man works as God works; the pressure of energy he feels within him is from the source of his being - from God. We must follow out our own way - our own deepest desire and impulse; we must not imitate or blindly follow, for in this way we destroy the particular message which we came into the world to give. Each of us can do one thing best, and this is the thing for us to do. This does not mean that we are not to listen to counsel, but, after all is said and done, the self, the innermost, must finally decide. The one who gives advice offers the best he knows, the best for him. But what is best for one is not by any means the best for another. What do you want most to be or to do? that is the question. What is your deepest desire? To make the outer like the inner - this is what we are all, consciously or unconsciously, striving for. We shall not succeed all at once - we can not build the whole structure in a moment. Shall we, then, yield to disappointment and discouragement - we have tried so hard and so long, hoped for so much and accomplished so little? There is no room for discouragement in this life. Take a broader, deeper view of it, and all is clear, and every step is seen to be an onward step. That life is worse than wasted which has not unfolded - exprest. No matter how full of possessions, of material things, and of power the span of life may be, it is empty, nevertheless, if the true self has not exprest itself. We may travel up and down the earth and search all the wisdom of the past, but if we have not found ourselves we are forever unsatisfied. We must come to know the innermost - we must be at home at the center of our being; this demand is written indelibly in the constitution of all things. And this we can do only through work. I use the word in the broadest sense. Just as there is no enjoyment of food on the physical plane without the requisite amount of exercise, so on every other plane, activity is essential to growth and development. When we are active, each doing "his own" work, there is a sense of completeness, of fitness, of buoyancy; there is the "keen functionary satisfaction" that marks the square man in the square hole, the final and unquestionable proof that we are doing the right thing in the right place. There can be no true harmony in the life until we have found our work - until we are doing our work. If we fail to express what is within us demanding unfoldment, we are like dead bodies walking about - mere "encumberers of the ground." We can realize the joy of living only through work - through self-expression.