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Who made the things that you see?

God. He made the sun, the moon, the stars, the rivers, the rocks, and green grass, the trees and flowers. He made also every living creature. Did God make these things with his hands as a man makes a watch or a pen-knife?

No: he made the light, the air, the elements, and the powers by which all things came into form. Who created you?

God.

Did the same God create your father and mother?

He did.

Did he also create your grandfather and your grandmother, and all who ever lived?

He created all who have lived on the earth.

Did he create you as a man carves an image? No: he made the substance from which we were made, and the laws by which it came into form. Can you see God?

Not with our eyes; for he has no body.

How, then, can you see him, if not with your eyes?

God is seen with the eye of the heart.

What do you mean by the eye of the heart?

The eye of the heart is purity. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God."

Who are the pure in heart?

They that are not vain nor proud nor selfish ; the modest and the simple; they who do not think of themselves, but who love some others more than themselves, and goodness more than all.

What is God?

God is spirit: so Jesus said.

What do you mean by saying that God is spirit?

We mean that he is wisdom and love. The beloved disciple, who tells us that God is spirit, says also, "God is light;" "God is love."

Do you know God, then, when you are wise and loving?

We know God when we love wisdom and good

ness.

And when do you love God?

When we love to be true and just and kind.

To know God and to love God are the same thing.

Can you be true and just and kind to God?

No; but we can be to his children. John the evangelist said, "He that loveth not his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Then "you love God when you love your fellowbeings, any of your fellow-beings in particular? No: when we love all; because they are his children as we are.

Does

Does God love all his children alike? he love the foolish as well as the wise, the mean as well as the generous, the false as well as the true, the cruel as well as the kind, the bad as well -as the good?

Yes: he loves one as well as the other; but he does not love all with the same kind of love. What do you mean by that?

We e mean that he loves the good because he approves of them; and he loves the bad because he pities them. He loves the good because they are good: he loves the bad in order that he may make them good.

What story did Jesus tell about that?

The story of the PRODIGAL SON.

(The story may be read, and made the subject of a lesson or lessons.)

When are you near to God?

We are always near him.

He is always near you; but are you always near to him?

When do you feel near to him?

When, in loving-kindness, we feel near to his children.

How does he seem to you at such times?

He seems to us like a tender Father and Mother.

What do you mean by praying to God?

We mean earnestly desiring to be faithful and just and loving to our fellow-creatures; trying to be good, and begging him to make us so.

Does he answer your prayer?

Oh, yes! all such prayer for help is answered. Every one that asks for what is really good for him receives it; he that seeks goodness finds it; and to him that knocketh at the door of wisdom it is opened.

But is asking with the lips enough?

The

No: we must ask with all our might. body must pray for what it needs by working with its hands; the mind must pray for wisdom by studying; the heart must pray for peace and comfort and happiness by being kind. Prayer gets what it wants, only when it becomes labor.

But many good things are given to us which we do not labor for, which we simply wish for earnestly; are there not?

Oh, yes! some of the dearest things come so. God has thousands of servants always waiting to watch over us, and give us good things.

Do you mean by these servants the good angels?

Yes. But all that work with God, whether beings visible or invisible, are angels, or messengers of his goodness.

How does God make himself known to men? In the world of beauty and use which he has made.

Is there

any

better

way

than that?

Yes: in our own wonderful bodies, with their senses and organs, and all their powers.

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Yes: in our minds and hearts.

But is there not yet a fourth way, more noble and beautiful than either?

There is. The noblest and best men and women show more of God than can be learned from the trees or the flowers, or all the glory of the heavens; more than the body teaches, or the mind. They are the most perfect images of God on the earth.

And who was the greatest of these?

The greatest of these was Jesus.

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