Part 29

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."

Everyone should find his own, should find it in his experience, find it by personal investigation and study of the Bible and through spiritual realization.

We should live in peace with all men, be able to rejoice evermore, "to pray without ceasing"; that is, we should always be in an attitude to receive that which is good and never admit that which is negative;--hate, antagonism or fear,--but we should welcome love and that which we know expresses the "Infinite Presence." Antagonism, hate, discords prevent us from living our hundred years. "Certain classes of men shall not live out half their days."

The last moment before going to sleep should be one of peaceful rest. Say "Not my will but Thine" and give up everything to the Infinite and Eternal.

My own best help is thanksgiving and praise. When I cannot give up the thoughts and conflicts of the day, I can bring my whole being into reposeful rhythm best by expressing thanks that I can be awake and that I have shared in the life of a day. I praise the Infinite Presence that I can know beauty when I see it, that I can understand truth and know that two times three are not seven and that I can participate in the goodness of the universe. Then, before I know it, I have laid aside the conflicts of the day and have passed into peaceful and harmonious rest.

This method of thanksgiving especially applies to those times when I wake up in the middle of the night.

* * * * *

Returning to Pippa, we find her retirement to her own room and her method of going to sleep no less suggestive as an example than her awakening.

She met the first wakening moment with joy and praise as she resolutely put aside the dark thought of her life and went singing all through the day with the same spirit of thanksgiving and love for all mankind.

Now she comes back to her room weary and discouraged, as we nearly all do. She knows nothing of what her songs have accomplished, nothing of the wonderful influence that has been exercised. In her disheartened moment she sees the sunset in the dark cloud and thinking over the day she would like to know what she really has done.

Yet she checks herself and returns to her morning hymn and keeps her faith and trust. "Results belong to the Master, Thou hast no need to measure them." She becomes very humble, willing, and submissive to the hard task of the morrow. Little she dreams of the revelation that will come of the secrets of her own life and family.

"We know not what we shall be." Each of us at the close of life lies down without realizing our relation to the Infinite, without realizing that we are children and heirs. Blessed is he who feels that his hymn is also "True in some sense or other," that life is true and that each one performs some work and it is not for us to say whether it is great or small. They who wrought but one hour received the same wages as they who wrought the whole day.

Deeply symbolical, allegorical, and typical in the poetic sense of human life is Pippa's closing thought as she lies down to sleep.

"Oh what a drear dark close to my poor day! How could that red sun drop in that black cloud? Ah, Pippa, morning's rule is moved away, Dispensed with, never more to be allowed! Day's turn is over, now arrives the night's. Oh, lark, be day's apostle To mavis, merle and throstle, Bid them their betters jostle From day and its delights! But at night, brother howlet, over the woods, Toll the world to thy chantry; Sing to the bats' sleek sisterhoods Full complines with gallantry; Then, owls and bats, Cowls and twats, Monks and nuns, in a cloister's moods, Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry!

Now, one thing I should like to really know: How near I ever might approach all these I only fancied being, this long day: --Approach, I mean, so as to touch them, so As to ... in some way ... move them--if you please, Do good or evil to them some slight way. For instance, if I wind Silk to-morrow, my silk may bind And border Ottima's cloak's hem. Ah, me, and my important part with them, This morning's hymn half promised when I rose! True in some sense or other, I suppose.

God bless me! I can pray no more to-night. No doubt, some way or other, hymns say right.

All service ranks the same with God, With God, whose puppets, best and worst: Are we; there is no last nor first." [She sleeps]

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The Morning League of the School of Expression

is a band of the students, graduates and friends of the School of Expression who are trying to keep their faces toward the morning.

If you wish to join, when you wake GET UP OUT OF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BED, that is, stretch, expand, breathe deeply and laugh. Fill with joyous thoughts and their active expressions the first minutes of the day.

Note the effect, and consider yourself initiated.

Try as far as possible EVERY DAY to realize the League's

UNFOLDMENT SUGGESTIONS

1. SMILE whenever tempted to frown; look for and enjoy the best around you.

2. THINK, feel or realize something in the direction of your ideals and, in some way, unite your ideals with your every-day work and play.

3. SEE, hear or read, i. e., receive an impression from something beautiful in nature, art, music, poetry, literature or the lives of your fellow-men.

4. EXPRESS the best that is in you and awaken others to express the best in them.