"Marlow, October ——.

"Dear Husband: I was just thinking of you all when the letter carrier came this morning and gave me a welcome surprise, for your letters usually come in the afternoon. It seems too wonderful to believe about the children, and yet I can see it is their implicit faith that makes their words so potent.

"They are doing their part to help too, for every one in the world, large or small helps in greater or lesser measure to carry out the plans of the invisible Good.

"I dreamed of being at home last night, and it seemed as though you were all so happy and busy. You did not see me. Even little Jem was busily engaged in some kind of work. I could scarcely see what it was, but a vague white something like an invisible net was spread between you, and the thought came that you and Anna were weaving something, and even the children had a part to fulfill for they flitted to and fro, bringing something to you with faces so full of light and happiness, I almost cried out with joy.

"When I awoke I was deeply impressed that this was a symbol of united effort in making the seamless robe of Truth, and the family group represented the members of one body, each with a work to do to perfect the whole.

"No matter how humble our part may be, no matter how childish and incompetent we feel, by doing the best we know, with the ability we have, in all joy and earnestness, we shall be serving the Master and weaving the marvelous robe.

"Mrs. Pearl talked of the mighty power of thought in her lecture to-day.

"Every individual in the universe is inseparably connected with every other individual, and we are, as it were, 'touching elbows' with the whole world.

"How is it done? Simply by thinking and being susceptible to thought. Every thought of the individual helps to make or mar the happiness and health of the world. Every negative thought (and by that I mean opposite the good, which is positive) sent forth, goes into the miasmatic fog of error, and whoever believes in error or the reality of these thoughts, attracts to himself this quality of thought, which sooner or later, makes itself manifest in physical inharmony.

"For instance, one who believes in the reality of sickness and the reality of evil is constantly attracting thoughts that make sickness manifest, but if a knowledge of how to throw off or counteract those thoughts were used, the cloud would be dispelled before it turned into inharmony or sickness.

"This is why we are taught to deny every thought or feeling that is not harmonious or desirable, everything which can not be predicated of spirit. If this is what makes sickness and sin, truly it is not to be wondered at, for how many are perfectly happy, perfectly unselfish and kind, one single day at a time?

"Suppose one gets up in the morning with a feeling of crossness and impatience; he goes to breakfast, impresses the whole family with his discomfort, and so through the entire day leaves the imprint of his dark forebodings on every person who sees him, besides the untold influence that goes forth to the unprotected world, inasmuch as thoughts go everywhere.

"He retires at night, disgusted with himself and displeased with the whole world. People were unkind and unjust. Even inanimate objects were unusually aggravating. He wasted half an hour trying to untie a knot, hunted for a package of papers which were finally found in their proper place, had a vexing ten minutes with his office key, etc.

"Every impatient thought, word or action was an expenditure, not only of physical force, but a loss of moral strength, and just as surely as the world moves, these thoughts, in their revolving circuit, constantly return to the thinker, 'Whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap.'

"Who knows what dark trains of thought his lowering face suggested? Who knows what headaches and heartaches were brought on by the unconscious absorption of his impatience or bitterness? Who can measure the extent of that mysterious burden of depression, so often called 'the blues,' that crept into the consciousness of somebody under the influence of the dark thoughts sent out by this one, of whom perchance they know nothing?

"It is this negative quality of thought that holds the world in bondage. To destroy it is to destroy all inharmony. On the other hand, note the influence of the happy-voiced individual, who comes to us so running over with the joy and beauty of life that we catch the thrilling inspiration of his mood and begin to enjoy the same sunshine, see the same beauty and feel the same happiness.

"One look or one word may often send us off into the most delightful reveries, may inspire us to write a cheery letter, vibrating with love and hope, or prompt us to spend half an hour with one who needs the bath of joy our words may bring. Consciously and unconsciously we lighten the pathway, lift the burdens, sanctify the sorrows of the world by sending out and receiving this subtle thread of thought, so fine in its essence and quality, that any one and every one may feel its strengthening presence.

"It is the negative or mortal thought that produces disease. See how grief bends and breaks the strongest constitutions, furrows the cheek, dims the eye, takes the appetite, impairs the mind. See how anger cankers everything it touches, how jealousy corrodes the thoughts with poisoned arrows, until the body is written over with letters of unmistakable meaning.

"The body is what we may call the thermometer of the mind and registers the quality of thought. Universal beliefs in error find their common expression on the body. Every thought of sickness, sin or discouragement is recorded or bodied forth.

"With all our belief in and fear of evil, sickness and death, we are continually subjecting ourselves to false and undesirable conditions, until, as Job said, 'Lo, the thing that I feared has come upon me.'

"Fear is more quickly productive of disease pictures than any other kind of thought. Some one has aptly said, 'if the human race were freed from fear, it would be free from sickness,' which is verily true. Even the most learned doctors of medicine admit that an epidemic takes hold of those first who are most afraid, and frequently leaves the absolutely fearless unmolested.

"Why is this so? Because fear weakens the power of mental control, and consequently weakens the body. To leave the doors unlocked, and then watch for the thief, is almost equal to having the thief in the house.

"The material scientist says an epidemic has a material cause; the Christian healer says it has a mental cause. Before there is an object to fear there must be the sentiment of fear. Let scarlet fever appear in a community, and every parent will immediately send out the most agonizing thoughts of fear. Where will they go? Everywhere, because thoughts can not be restrained. Their influence goes out in every direction. To the tender children especially, because particularly directed to them. All who have left the door open to fear, though they may be sleeping in their unconsciousness of danger, will be liable to receive these uncontrolled thoughts, and some day when they least expect or fear sickness, it may be upon them.

"So the children, to whom have been directed such thoughts, only prove their susceptibility to them, by picturing forth fear in the form of scarlet fever, or whatever may have been the naming of the error. Anybody manifesting sickness without consciousness of fear proves passive or unconscious fear, while those suffering sickness through a conscious recognition and fear of sickness are manifesting active or conscious fear.

"There are two departments of mind sometimes spoken of as the conscious and unconscious. The conscious mind is the conscious thought, which is easily swayed or changed. It has an immediate or direct influence on the body as is shown by the blood that rushes to or recedes from the face at some sudden change of thought. The unconscious mind is the aggregation of past individual and universal conscious thought, and is the character formed, the second nature or instinct.

"As the flesh and bones are more fixed than the ever moving blood, so the unconscious mind is slower to receive impressions, and slower to show them forth. Our bodies to-day are showing a harvest of the thoughts of generations or ages of the past. The person manifesting consumptive tendencies is not only expressing his own conscious thoughts, but is veritably the picture of the thoughts of his parents, ancestors and the entire race, concerning a belief in consumption. Year by year the thoughts of this error have been writing themselves in his face, his eyes, his chest, his very walk and talk and breath. Unless he offsets them with thoughts of absolute Truth, they press him out of our sight. He yields to the belief of death, because he never said no to sin or sickness, because he was at one with the world in its false beliefs.

"'The last enemy to be overcome is death!' reads the inspired statement of Paul, confirmed and strengthened by the Master's never-dying promise, 'If a man keep my saying he shall never see death.'

"There are certain fixed beliefs inherent in every mind which we call universal beliefs. They are often referred to as belonging to the unconscious mind; as, for example, the fear of pain or suffering under certain circumstances will come to the surface of consciousness, proving that despite every feeling of confidence and fearlessness it has not been destroyed, but sleeps in the unconscious mind.

"These unconscious beliefs and fears of sickness are ultimately expressed on the body in different forms of disease, sometimes given one name and sometimes another. The material scientist calls a certain outshowing on the body cancer, the Christian healer calls it the picture of a belief of cancer. In this way disease is always the manifestation of both conscious and unconscious thoughts.

"Special forms of disease are born by constant attention to the thought of disease and their symptoms. It has been stated on good authority that physicians who make a specialty of certain diseases are apt to be afflicted with what they have especially fitted themselves to cure. In a medical journal a case was cited not long since of an eminent physician who read before a great convention of doctors, what was considered to be the ablest treatise on insanity ever written. 'On going home from the convention he killed his wife, four children, and then himself, in a fit of dementia.'

"This reveals a startling fact, which might be corroborated by many others, that the body ultimately pictures forth the idea. But the thought is not confined to the individual. It not infrequently finds the most striking expression in some member of the family or in any one under his influence.

"If one man's thoughts so influence himself, family or friend, think of the influence of such thoughts on those who go to him for advice or treatment, those who deliberately place themselves under his inspection and allow themselves to be guided both directly and indirectly by his erroneous opinions. Think of the vast stream of such thoughts going out from all medical colleges, students and practitioners. No wonder diseases increase as physicians increase, as some of the best thinkers of the age declare.

"Not that one class of people is more to be reflected upon than another, for some kind or degree of erroneous thought is held by all classes. Physicians talk sickness and death, ministers preach evil and punishment, the entire race believe in and suffer for sins.

"It is centuries since it was first discovered that ideas were transmitted without the ordinarily accepted means of communication, but, to-day it is positively and repeatedly, yes, continually proven that thought transference is not only possible or probable, but an every-day occurrence. To realize that

'Thoughts are things.
Endowed with being, breath and wings,
And that we send them forth to fill
The world with good results or ill,'

is to be mightily responsible for what we think. To know that we are verily our brother's keeper, and that every thought makes misery or happiness for the whole world as well as for the individual, is something that should engage our deepest and most earnest consideration.

"All thinking is for the weal or woe of the world that is yet in its infancy of knowledge. As consciousness of truth takes the place of consciousness of error, thoughts become light and beautiful and true with corresponding conditions.

"Let us no longer slumber in the arms of indifference and ignorance, but awake to truth and righteousness. 'Better be unborn than untaught; for ignorance is the root of misfortune.'"