The road towards self improvement

Be temperate in all things, most of all in the condemnation of other men. 

It is unwise to be intemperate or drunken with wine. 

It is equally unwise to be drunken with temperance. 

Men would gain the powers; or the way of working wonders. 

Do you know, O man, what the powers of the Mystic are? 

Do you know that for each gift of this kind he gives a part of himself? 

That it is only with mental anguish, earthly sorrow, and almost his heart's blood, these gifts are gained? 

Is it true, think you, my brother, that he who truly possesses them desires to sell them at a dollar a peep, or any other price? 

He who would trade upon these things finds himself farther from his goal than when he was born.

There are gifts and powers. 

Nor just such as you have created in your imagination, perhaps. 

Harken to one of these powers: 

He who has passed onward to a certain point, finds that the hearts of men lie spread before him as open book, and from there onward the motives of men are clear. 

In other words he can read the hearts of men. 

But not selfishly; should he but once use this knowledge selfishly, the book is closed -- and he reads no more. 

Think you, my brothers, he would permit himself to sell a page out of this book?

Time -- that which does not exist outside the inner circle of this little world -- seems of vast importance to the physical man. 

There comes to him at times, the thought that he is not making any progress, and that he is receiving nothing from some Mystic source. 

From the fact that he has the thought that no progress is being made the evidence is gained that he is working onward. 

Only the dead in living bodies need fear. 

That which men would receive from Mystic sources is frequently often repeated, and in such a quiet, unobtrusive voice, that he who is waiting to hear it shouted in his ear, is apt to pass on unheeding.

Urge no man to see as yourself, as it is quite possible you may see differently when you awake in the morning. 

It is wiser to let the matter rest without argument. 

No man is absolutely convinced by that. 

It is but blowing your breath against the whirlwind.

It was at one time written over the door: "Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here." 

It has taken hundreds of years for a few to come to the realization that the wise men had not the slightest desire for the company of a lot of hopeless incurables in the mysteries. 

There is to be abandoned hope for the gratification of our passions, our curiosities, our ambition or desire for gain. 

There is also another Hope -- the true; and he is a wise man who comes to the knowledge of it. 

Sister to Patience, they together are the Godmothers of Right Living, and two of the Ten who assist the Teacher.

WQJ