all I'm offering is the truth nothing more there is a power at the center of your being so wonderful that it staggers the imagination even to try and think of it it is this thing called life it is in you and in everything and everyone to learn how to use this power is the greatest thing in life life has already provided everything you need for your happiness your physical well-being and your success it has already placed the power to live at the center of your being but it is up to you to uncover this power to make it a reality in your everyday affairs and in a few moments we are going to discuss how you can actually go about to do this what do you think that life holds in store for you do you look forward to success and happiness is yesterday a pleasant memory and what about today did you ever think that the only yesterday you can live over again is in your own mind and the only tomorrow you can live is also in your mind your yes it is are but memories and your tomorrows anticipation but just as today flows out of yesterday so tomorrow will be the outcome of what you think today are you like the rest of us carrying a lot into the day that ought to be let go of if so it's up to you to rearrange your thoughts about yesterday so that there won't be any fear or hurt carried over into today it's up to you to look confidently forward to tomorrow so that today you won't be plagued by the thoughts of what might happen in the future there is no way to make today happy other than by living as though today would be an endless succession of your heart's desire did you ever take time to think things over and to wonder what is back of this thing called life what is its purpose does it have a goal is there a meaning to it and where do you fit into this whole scheme of things you like everyone else must wish to be well and happy and successful and don't you think that this thing called life must wish us all to have a full and a glorious existence this were not true why would you have all those secret longings of your heart for your imagination must flow from some secret source this weren't true how could new ideas be born in your mind seems as though there is an irresistible something trying to interpret itself in everything and in everyone little seed planted in the ground strives to express itself to Blossom and to bear fruit the child happily plays with his blocks and the adult dreams of better things since his feeling is in everything everywhere and at the very center of your being you must be following a natural law of life when you conceive of a greater possibility when you plan out new things to do and when you wish with all the feeling that is in you to live more abundantly it is impossible to think that life would have implanted this imagination and this feeling at the very center of your being unless it were possible of fulfillment for no matter how frustrated you and I may be we surely cannot think that God is either frustrated or incomplete we can only think of God as The Giver of Life suppose someone were to say to you that life is but you make it that it really is up to you and that the imagination that paints all nature in such vivid colors is trying to do something for you which of course it can only do through you something that will make your life happy and colorful I have often thought as I listened to Bill Alvis singing for us that if I could just turn something loose inside myself maybe I could stand up here before this microphone and sing to you the same glorious way that he does Joseph Strauss one of the world's great Engineers the man who built the Golden Gate Bridge was a very good friend of mine and on many occasions I have heard him say there isn't anything impossible if you have the will the no Owl and the determination to make it come true if you have the imagination to see it as a completed task and the feeling that all the forces of nature are behind you he was a man of small physical stature but he said to himself early in life I'm going to build the biggest things that were ever built in the world his dream came true because he knew that back of it there was a power and an intelligence that puts everything together perhaps his accounts for the spiritual Genius of Jesus for he said it is not I but the father who dwelleth in me he doeth the works Jesus believed that it was his Destiny to prove to the world that God is Not afar off that life exists at the center of everything waiting to be expressed that hidden in the mind of man is the spirit of God waiting to come forth into self-expression Henry Ford believed that we are surrounded by Divine ideas and impulses waiting to express themselves through us now possibly you may say to yourself but I am not a spiritual genius I am not a great scientist I am just a little isolated piece of humanity and with no particular opportunity to do anything wonderful how do you know that this is true the Great Men of Genius throughout the ages have all had confidence in themselves and in some way that perhaps was largely unconscious to them they have hooked up with the same intelligence and the power that makes everything go it isn't at all necessary that you and I become geniuses but it certainly is right that we should live a full life that we should be happy it is right that we should be successful it is right that we should spread joy and well-being wherever we go you and I know that this is the secret desire of every man's life and life would never have put that desire there in man unless it were true for God never lies to us now let us see if we cannot perhaps map out a little program something direct something very simple and begin to act as though life is what we make it begin to think and to plan this way begin to live and hope to this purpose where then and how art we to begin well if you are going to refurnish your house perhaps you would start by going through each room and deciding just what pieces of furniture you want to take out and what you want to live in you would form a pattern of the way you wish your house to look after you get through it and you would work toward this end you would take out everything that is undesirable and replace it with something you wish to live with and you would do this definitely and deliberately and having removed a certain piece of furniture you wouldn't be dragging it back again to clutter up the house rather you would say I am done with that I have something new something different now to take its place something that I wish to live with gradually you would transform your home after the pattern of your desire now you really are living in a mental house and the furniture's thoughts and ideas this house is decorated with the color of your imagination this particular home of yours no one can refurnish for you but yourself so you'll have to begin and carefully dispose of everything that isn't desirable remember you are dealing with thoughts and ideas you are dealing with hopes and aspirations you are dealing with enthusiasm and vitality when it comes right down to the last analysis you are dealing with yourself let us suppose that you are surrounded by a creative and an intelligent law which always tends to bring into your experience those things that occupy your thought in other words let's deliberately imagine that thoughts are things and that the sum total of all you're thinking decides what is going to happen to you this is to be a new and a wonderful Adventure in The Art of Living it is going to call for faith it is going to call for imagination and the will to believe would you be afraid to do this or do you think that the very idea is too good to be true do you want some Authority that perhaps will help to convince you that the idea is not too good to be true well there never was a great man who ever lived who didn't follow this rule whether he knew it or not and the greatest man who ever lived definitely said that it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom but what God has given you will have to take and this taking is an Act of Faith and I think it is an act of faith more through the imagination than it is through the will Jesus never said anything about exercising willpower or concentration what he said was that you have to feel to imagine you have actually to believe when you do there is a power greater than you are that will respond to you as you believe did he not say it is done unto you as you believe he said to forgive yourself for the past to look forward to the future with confidence and to live today in the assurance that the Divine Giver wishes to make the gift of life way he said that when the will and the imagination are in Conflict the imagination invariably wins and in the science of mind we are learning that we must mentally identify ourselves with our desires if we hope for their fulfillment go through your mental house then and see what thoughts you ought to remove don't be afraid to look at any unpleasant memories long enough to convince yourself that they need not be there you can do this very easily if you try and as you look at some unpleasant experience just say to yourself it doesn't matter now perhaps after all I did the best I could and if not I'm going to learn to do better I'm going to use that experience as a stepping stone to something bigger I certainly don't intend to drag it around with me you can let go of all the burdens of yesterday if you have the will to do so and it's up to you now after having carefully gone over all previous experiences and straightened them out in your own imagination forgive yourself for all the mistakes you have ever made and forgive everyone else be sure there isn't anything in your memory that hurts you and nothing stored up there that resents anything just as as you no longer hold anything against anyone or anything Soul life will no longer hold anything against you we all remembered too much that isn't Pleasant but nothing is more certain that that we can take out what we have put in and all the power of the universe is with us having deliberately removed the obstructions of the past it is up to you now to view the future in the light of a new hope in the fire and the imagination of a new will and in the quiet positive determination of a greater faith now you are really ready to refurnish your house carefully choosing the things you wish to live with yes that is a comfortable couch over there by the window where the morning sun streams in there is a chair there under the reading lamp But be sure that you are not wasting your time reading about calamities or tragedies or sadness for this isn't going to do anyone any good this would convert the couch into a bed of pain and the chair into a potcher chamber having deliberately removed the obstructions of the past it is up to you to view the future in the light of a new hope in the fire and Imagination of a new will and in the quiet positive determination of a greater faith now you really are ready to refurnish our house carefully choosing the things you intend to live with chair the sunbeams and the couch are all things of your own imagination you see this chair in this couch the morning sun streaming in and the restful shade of the evening lamp are but symbols of your inward thoughts and feelings you're embarking on a new life you are entering a new country you are following a faith within you implanted there by this thing called life and you cannot fail every night when you go to bed say to yourself today is done bless it and let it go say to yourself I rest in peace and wake him joy and live in the expectation of happiness and every morning bless the day in which you live give it the best you have live it with enthusiasm and joy yes today is God's day make God's day your day that all the days to come shall be filled with light and all your hopes and aspirations find fulfillment now Dr Holmes brings you his meditation for today [Music] let us take as our thought for today something from The Book of Job Thou shalt also decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee first we must establish our minds in faith and confidence for this is the meaning of affirmative prayer and it is really affirming that all Divine promises are true Thou shalt also decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee let us then see if we cannot believe and accept these simple but glorious promises putting everything else out of our minds let us think then together in quiet confidence all that the father hath is mine I am now entering into the kingdom of God the kingdom which love has prepared for me and I am letting go of all the cares all the fears of yesterday I am looking forward to tomorrow in quiet confidence and with joyful expectation and I am living today in the Glorious fulfillment of the law of good there is a Divine circulation flowing through me the vitality and the energy of life flow through me and my Every Act I am seeing in everyone around me the manifestation of this perfect life and I am letting my mind dwell on joy and happiness and I am knowing that this happiness and this Joy go out to everyone around me I am thinking of my Affairs as being under Divine guidance I am believing that Divine intelligence governs my thoughts in such a way that I shall always know what to do I am identifying myself with success and happiness this is what I am decreeing this is what life is doing for me now and I know that goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever