Thoughts I Met on the Highway | Page 4

from all sources. It is the life that pays by
many fold.

We just shake hands at meeting
With many that come nigh
We nod the head in greeting
To many that go by--
But welcome through the gateway
Our few old friends and true;
Then hearts leap up, and straightway
There's open house for you.
Old friends.
There's open house for you!
_Gerald Massey_

Many times the struggles are greater than we can ever know. We need more gentleness
and sympathy and compassion in our common human life. Then we will neither blame
nor condemn. Instead of blaming or condemning we will sympathize.
"Comfort one another.
For the way is often dreary
And the feet are often weary,


And the heart is very sad.
There is a heavy burden bearing,
When it seems that none
are caring,
And we half forget that ever we were glad.
"Comfort one another
With the hand-clasp close and tender.
With the sweetness love
can render,
And the looks of friendly eyes.
Do not wait with grace unspoken,
While
life's daily bread is broken--
Gentle speech is oft like manna from the skies."
And then when we fully realize the fact that selfishness is at the root of all error, sin, and
crime, and that ignorance is the basis of all selfishness, with what charity we come to
look upon the acts of all. It is the ignorant man who seeks his own ends at the expense of
the greater whole. It is the ignorant man, therefore, who is the selfish man.

To get up immediately when we stumble, face again to the light, and travel on without
wasting even a moment in regret.

We are on the way from the imperfect to the perfect; some day, in this life or some other,
we shall reach our destiny. It is as much the part of folly to waste time and cripple our
forces in vain, unproductive regrets in regard to the occurences of the past as it is to
cripple our forces through fears and forebodings for the future.
There is no experience in any life which if rightly recognized, rightly turned and thereby
wisely used, cannot be made of value; many times things thus turned and used can be
made sources of inestimable gain; ofttimes they become veritable blessings in disguise.

'Tis the sweetest thing to remember
If courage be on the wane.
When the cold, dark
days are over--
Why, the birds go north again.
_Ella Higginson_

Nothing is more subtle than thought, nothing more powerful, nothing more irresistible in
its operations, when rightly applied and held to with a faith and fidelity that is
unswerving,--a faith and fidelity that never knows the neutralizing effects of doubt and
fear. If one have aspirations and a sincere desire for a higher and better condition, so far
as advantages, facilities, associates, or any surroundings or environments are concerned,
and if he continually send out his highest thought forces for the realization of these
desires, and continually water these forces with firm expectation as to their fulfillment, he
will sooner or later find himself in the realization of these desires, and all in accordance
with natural laws and forces.
We are born to be neither slaves nor beggars, but to dominion and to plenty. This is our
rightful heritage, if we will but recognize and lay claim to it.

One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds
would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph, Held
we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.
_Robert Browning_

Will is the steady directing power: it is concentration. It is the pilot which, after the vessel
is started by the mighty force within, puts it on its right course and keeps it true to that
course.
Will is the sun-glass which so concentrates and so focuses the sun's rays that they quickly
burn a hole through the paper that is held before it. The same rays, not thus concentrated,
not thus focused, would fall upon the paper for days without any effect whatever. Will is
the means for the directing, the concentrating, the focusing, of the
thought-forces.
Thought under wise direction,--this it is that does the work, that brings results, that makes
the successful career. One object in mind which we never lose sight of; an ideal steadily
held before the mind, never lost sight of, never lowered, never swerved from,--this, with
_persistence_, determines all. Nothing can resist the power of thought, when thus
directed by will.

To stand by one's friend to the uttermost end,
And fight a fair fight with one's foe;

Never to quit and never to twit,
And never to peddle one's woe.
_George Brinton Chandler_

The fearing, grumbling, worrying, vascillating do not succeed in anything and generally
live by burdening, in some form or another, someone else.