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a man's passions, the fiercer will be his temptations; the deeper his self- ishness, the more subtle his temptations; the more pronounced his vanity, the more flattering and deceptive his temptations. [ ^°] jFrom Pa00ion to Peace A man must know himself if he is to know truth.

He must not shrink from any revelation which will expose his error; on the contrary, he must welcome such re- velations as aids to that self-knowledge which is the handmaid of self-conquest. The man who cannot endure to have his errors and shortcomings brought to the surface and made known, but tries to hide them, is unfit to walk the highway of truth.

He is not properly equipped to battle with and overcome temptation. He who cannot fearlessly face his lower nature cannot climb the rugged heights of renunciation. Let the tempted one know this: that he himself is both tempter and tempted; that all his enemies are within; that the flat- terers which seduce, the taunts which stab, and the flames which burn, all spring from that inner region of ignorance and error in which he has hitherto lived; and knowing this, let him be assured of complete vidory over evil.

When he is sorely tempted, let [ 21 ] jFtom Pa00ion to peace him not mourn, therefore, but let him re- joice in that his strength is tried and his weakness exposed. For he who truly knows and humbly acknowledges his weakness will not be slow in setting about the acqui- sition of strength.

Foolish men blame others for their lapses and sins, but let the truth-lover blame only himself. Let him acknowledge his com- plete responsibility for his own condu6t, and not say, when he falls, this thing, or such and such circumstance, or that man, was to blame ;,for the most which others can do is to afford an opportunity for our own good or evil to manifest itself; they cannot make us good or evil.

Temptation is at first sore, grievous, and hard to be borne, and subtle and persistent is the assailant; but if the tempted one is firm and courageous, and does not give way, he will gradually subdue his spiritual enemy, and will finally triumph in the knowledge of good. [ " ] jFtom Pa00ion to Peace The adverse one is compounded of a man's own lust and selfishness and pride, and when these arc put away, evil is seen to be as naught, and good is revealed in all-vidorious splendor. [ 23 ] Ctansmutation MIDWAY between the hell of Pas- sion and the heaven of Peace is the purgatory of Transmutation,- — not a specu- lative purgatory beyond the grave, but a real purgatory in the human heart.

In its separating and purifying fire the base metal of error is sifted away, and only the clari- fied gold of truth remains. When temptation has culminated in sor- row and deep perplexity, then the tempted one, strenuously striving for deliverance, finds that his thraldom is entirely from him- self, and that instead of fighting against outer circumstances, he must alter inner conditions.

The fight against outer things is necessary at the commencement. It is the only course which can be adopted at the first, because of the prevailing ignorance of mental causation, but it never, of itself, brings about emancipation.

What it does bring about is the knowledge of the mental [ 24] jFrom passion to Peace cause of temptation ; and the knowledge of the mental cause of temptation leads to the transmutation of thought, and the trans- mutation of thought leads to deliverance from the bondage of error.

The preliminary fighting is a necessary- stage in spiritual development, as the cry- ing and kicking of a helpless babe is neces- sary to its growth; but as the crying and kicking is not needed beyond the infant stage, so the fierce struggling with, and fall- ing under, temptation ends when the know- ledge of mental transmutation is acquired.