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What is it that abides here, or where your sickness seems to be? Is it not the fullness of the riches of God? The bold insistence upon what IS here, or there, in reality, has been called affirmation.

All science has affirmation and negation. In the science of numbers you subtract what is not wanted from what is wanted. In the science of geology you say, "This is not aqueous rock, this is not igneous rock." You show as much wisdom by negation as by your affirmations. One tells you that this is a picture of Napoleon and a dear friend wounded in battle. You say, "No, it is Aeneas bearing away his father, Anchises." One tells you that sin is a terrible evil which God permits. You say, "No God is the only presence, and tolerates no other nature in his realm but his own nature." If you protest, all sin will seem like a dream of the night, not worth rehearsing.

There are five affirmations belonging to the negations we make, to which I will now call your attention. These are the five Wise Virgins of the object lesson of Jesus. They are called virgins because they are the most simple and reasonable statements the mind can make when telling why the negations of its Good are not reasonable. The two affirmations that belong to you each in particular we will describe under the miscellaneous affirmations. These affirmations are all mentioned in the Book of the Dead. Your two special affirmations are not virgins. They are strong defenders and providers. They are the strength and wisdom of your own life, in its unique relation to all life. As your mother cannot do your eating for you, nor your breathing, so no one can charge you with the strength of your own denials and affirmations.

John the Revelator said that the third foundation stone of the Temple was chalcedony. Our character is the Temple, or the Holy City. The chalcedony is the love stone, translucent like the opal, always gleaming with the purity of the diamond and the