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at altar, with prayer-book, through hymn, ritual, rite, and environment, it has led the soul to contemplation of holy thoughts, and through concentrating upon them, the thought thus sown in the mind has influenced the life for good. You can learn valuable lessons from any church service. Any form, any rite, any book, any ritual, written prayer, or hymn has a value to the one who concentrates upon it as Truth, or as a way to Truth It is not through form or book, but through the thought -- -through the attitude of the Mind that benefits come. There Power lies. We would partake of the charity and humility of Whittier when he says:

A bending staff I would not break,
A feeble faith I would not shake,
Nor even rashly pluck away
The error that some truth may stay,
Whose loss might leave the soul without.
A shield against the shafts of doubt.

All these religious institutions grew out of human needs and minister to human needs, because they are but methods of concentration under holy thoughts; to the extent they are accepted in faith, they produce results in holy living. For this reason noble characters are found in every clime and under every creed. They concentrated upon their Ideals in religious services. The Ideal element in each draws, inspires and holds.

Paul gave the Philippians a most excellent rule, when he said: "That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and void of offence." Sincerity is the only condition of receptivity and that Ideal which we sincerely accept, we cling to till it manifests. But prayer is the "Soul's sincere desire!" we pray from the Ideal and to the extent that we are persistent in