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BYWAYS TO BLESSEDNESS 69

because of the labour involved and the difficulties to be overcome, nor on account of aching
climbs, otherwise his object cannot be accomplished. And this law is also spiritual. He who would
reach the high altitudes of moral or intellectual grandeur must climb thither by his own efforts. He
must seek out the pathway and then assiduously follow it, not giving up and turning back, but
surmounting all difficulties, and enduring for a time trials, temptations, and heartaches, and at last
he will stand upon the glorious summit of moral perfection, the world of passion, temptation, and
sorrow beneath his feet, and the boundless heavens of dignity stretching vast and silent above his
head.
If a man would reach a distant city, or any place of destination, he must travel thither. There is
no law by which he can be instantly transported there. He can only get there by putting forth the
necessary exertion. If he walks he will put forth great exertion, but it will cost him nothing in

money; if he drives or takes train, there will be less actual labour, but he must pay in money for
which he has laboured. To reach any place requires labour; this cannot be avoided; it is law.
Equally so spiritually. He who would reach any spiritual destination, such as purity, compassion,
wisdom, or peace, must travel thither, and must labour to get there. There is no law by which he
can suddenly be transported to any of these beautiful spiritual cities. He must find the most direct
route and then put forth the necessary labour, and at last he will come to the end of his journey.
These are but a few of the many laws, or manifestations of the One Great Law, which are to be
understood, applied and obeyed before the full manhood and maturity of spiritual life and
blessedness can be attained. There is no worldly or physical law which is not operative, with equal
exactness, in the spiritual realm — that is, the inner and invisible world of man’s beings. Just as
physical things are the shadows and types, of spiritual realities so worldly wisdom is the reflected
image of Divine Wisdom. All those simple operations of human life in worldly things which men
never question, but follow and obey implicitly because of their obvious plainness and exactness,
obtain in spiritual things with the same unerring accuracy; and when this is understood, and these
laws are as implicitly obeyed in spiritual as in worldly matters, then has a man reached the firm
standing-ground of exact knowledge; his sorrows are at an end, and he can doubt no more.
Life is uninvolved, uncompromising justice; its operations are simple, invincible logic. Law
reigns for ever, and the heart of law is love. Favouritism and caprice are the reverse of both law
and love. The universe has no favourites; it is supremely just, and gives to every man his rightful
earnings. All is good because all his according to law, and because all his according to law, man can
find the right way in life, and, having found it, can rejoice and be glad. The Father of Jesus is the
Unfailing Good which is embodied in the law of things. “No evil can happen to a good man either in
life or death.” Jesus recognised the good in his own fate, and exonerated all his persecutors from
blame. “No man,” he declared, “taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself.” That is, he
himself had brought about his own end.
He who has, by simplifying his life and purifying his mind, arrived at an understanding of the
beautiful simplicity of being, perceives the unvarying operation of law in all things, and knows the
result of all his thoughts and deeds upon himself and the world — knows what effects are bound
up with the mental causes which he sets in motion. He then thinks and does only those thoughts
and deeds that are blessed in their inception, blessed in their growth, and blessed in their