the universal; the position of the Universal Mind towards us is always the
reflection of our own attitude. Therefore although the Bible is full of
threatening against those who persist in conscious opposition to the Divine
Law of Good, it is on the other hand full of promises of immediate and full
forgiveness to all who change, their attitude and desire to co-operate with
the Law of Good so far as they know it. The laws of Nature do not act
vindictively; and through all theological formularies and traditional
interpretations let us realize that what we are dealing with is the supreme
law of our own being; and it is on the basis of this natural law that we
find such declarations as that in Ezek. xviii., 22, which tells that if we
forsake our evil ways our past transgressions shall never again be
mentioned to us. We are dealing with the great principles of our subjective
being, and our misuse of them in the past can never make them change their
inherent law of action. If our method of using them in the past has brought
us sorrow, fear and trouble, we have only to fall back on the law that if
we reverse the cause the effects will be reversed also; and so what we have
to do is simply to reverse our mental attitude and then endeavour to act up
to the new one. The sincere endeavour to act up to our new mental attitude
is essential, for we cannot really think in one way and act in another; but
our repeated failures to fully act as we would wish must not discourage us.
It is the sincere intention that is the essential thing, and this will in
time release us from the bondage of habits which at present seem almost
insuperable.

The initial step, then, consists in determining to picture the Universal
Mind as the ideal of all we could wish it to be both to ourselves and to
others, together with the endeavour to reproduce this ideal, however
imperfectly, in our own life; and this step having been taken, we can then
cheerfully look upon it as our ever-present Friend, providing all good,
guarding from all danger, and guiding us with all counsel. Gradually as the