Excerpt from The Herald of the Golden Age, Vol. 10: October, 1905 The real object of this incarnate life of ours is much misunderstood, and few indeed are those who seriously endeavour to bring about its accomplishment by intelligent co-operation with those over-shadowing presences that would help and uplift them. The daily work of bread-winning, the cares and anxieties of domestic relationship, and the various allure ments which invite, leave but little time for re ection and thus in consequence of such distractions and of our visual limitations, we do not realize that we are Spiritual beings with an immortal destiny; that the evolution of perfected, clear-seeing, and ministering souls of the Christ order is God's great Purpose and that consequently the building of character and the attainment of spiritual understanding are of supreme importance for us all. Yet upon our realization of these truths and upon our living accordingly, must depend our spiritual status, happiness and conditions in the endless future that lies before us. These years of special opportunity for self-culture and altruistic endeavour, and for proving our loyalty and fidelity to our conception of the Ideal, and to the Divine Will as we apprehend it, are unappreciated by too many of us, and are allowed to slip from our grasp almost unheeded. So absorbing is the struggle for existence or worldly advancement, the striving after pleasure, or the pursuit of minor projects upon which our minds may be set, that we easily lose consciousness of the truth that our chief concern should be to become spiritually strong, wise and helpful. Instead of seeking the Holy Grail, instead of following the Vision, instead of listening for God's call to high endeavour, we are, in too many instances, content to drift along intent upon the small joys of the passing hour. And thus, when the eventide of life approaches, our harvest of achievement is but small indeed, and we are not much better prepared for that richer experience and that higher service which await those who are accounted worthy to attain them, than we were when we commenced our present earthly pilgrimage as incarnate beings. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.