that all is for the best. No person is doing his best unless he is giving his entire life to the very highest goal that he can possibly imagine. And no person can cause things to do their best unless his desire for the best is so immensely strong that all things are drawn into the irresistible life current of that desire. The mere passive belief about all being for the best is powerless in causing things to work for the best. And besides, to think that all is now for the best is to blind the mind so that it cannot see the better.

The rising mind sees greater things in the upper regions of the mental world, and must therefore realize that things as they are in the present are not the best, for they all can even now be made much better. The ideals of the present should be realized in the present; at least we should grow constantly in that realization; but the fact that we have failed to get what we want does not prove that it is best for us not to have it. It usually proves that we are incompetent, or that we have been negligent and indifferent, or that we have permitted ourselves to drift with the uncertainties of things. Had we lived more wisely in the past and taken advantage of the opportunities that the past presented, we should not have to wait now for opportunities to do now, what we think we should have the privilege to do. It is not for the best that any good thing should be deferred if we are ready to appreciate it in the