Let us take a walk around the ship, you have not been able to see much of the ship or the passengers. We shall spend the afternoon sight-seeing and character-reading. We shall exchange our opinions of the different passengers that may interest us. I think we can, in that way, spend a pleasant afternoon - so they start their afternoon walk and we will leave them until evening.

After dinner our young man comes on deck and sits in his chair. He enjoys the peace and quiet of the ship. He is thinking what a wonderful life this is; when there passes him a person whom he has noticed many times before. He says to himself, "The restless man - why can a man be as this man seems to be on such a ship, such a night and such a beautiful sky to look upon."

The man stops before him and says, "Why do you smile all the time? Can life be so pleasant that you can sit there and smile? Young man, I do not like your smile - it has haunted me; and I have made up my mind to tell you there is nothing for which to smile - and as I tell you my story, I think I will see a change come over you."

The mysterious man, as he is called by the people on the ship, comes towards them and says, "May I sit down?"

"Yes, Sir. This other gentleman thinks that life has no smiles; and he was just going to tell me WHY - as you came up."

"May I listen, I know I will be interested; for to me this world has smiles; but it has its sadnesses too - so I would like to hear the story of your life, Sir."

"I shall be pleased to have you listen. It is a long story but true; and in it there is love and tragedy."

"Well, I am sure it will be interesting," said the mysterious man; "but be sure and start at the beginning - so we will get a true picture of what your life has been, what it is and what it should be."

"Here it is: I am anxious to tell it to someone, I have kept it so long to myself it almost unmans me; but, as I said, I will tell it just as it happened; I was born to a wonderful mother and father of whom I was proud. I was brought up to look up to an Ideal of a man who was a man of men. I was first taken to church, then I went of my own accord; and as time went on, I became a teacher in the Sunday School even keeping myself clean both in habits and mind. When I was twenty-eight years of age, I felt lonesome and I did not know what this meant for I was really busy all the time. Yet this loneliness kept creeping over me. Women did not mean much in my life, I did not seem to have time to think as other men; but one day, I was sitting in my office when a mother and her daughter came in - the mother came up to me and told me their business and I was interested in business only; but as she ceased talking, I looked up and my eyes met the eyes of this young woman. I knew or seemed to feel, in a moment, why I had been so lonesome; and I knew that this woman was the other part of me. She never spoke. I could have finished my work for them right then; but I did not.

I drifted into conversation with the mother. As long as the girl was so near, I felt sort of complete - more complete than I had ever been before. I said, 'You better come back tomorrow.' They, too, seemed to be satisfied. I thought tomorrow would never come. Being a man of, what I thought, Truth, that night I thanked God for bringing this someone into my life. The next day did come; and I made sure no one else would come that afternoon - so I could keep them as long as possible. When they were shown into my office, the sun shone with a new light; and as I looked upon her, I knew I had found the other part of myself. How I loved her! I found out later, she felt just the same as I did. Such love! Time went on; but time meant nothing to me: I lived in the land of love, rain or shine, cold or warm, night or day made no difference to me. I had a love that kept me in the life of pleasantness ALWAYS. We set the wedding day - then another ETERNITY to wait. I thought it would never come; but as everything else in life came, it came, and by the laws we became as one just as we had been by the laws of love. We went to our beautiful home which I had built to be our EARTHLY PARADISE.

I shall never forget the day I took her home, yes, home, how we lived together! What a life! What a beautiful life! We were as one in the church, and gave thanks unto our God as well as a tenth of my income. We lived in a LAND OF LOVE AND CONTENTMENT; but one day when I came home from my work, she whispered something to me. How glad I was! No man can understand the thrill I got; but as the days passed, I saw my love was not so strong as she used to be and this worried me. I began to watch her; then one day when I came home, I found her in bed. I went in to see her; and she said, 'I felt so weak, I just had to lie down; but it will soon pass off.' The next day, she did not get out of bed so I sent for a doctor. He said she had a deep set cold on her chest, and her condition was against her. He seemed to make no headway. I called in another Doctor, then another, but they could do nothing. I thought of this Great and Wonderful God; and made up my mind, if the Doctors failed, my prayers would be answered. I began to pray and pray - How I told my God the good she had done, what she meant to me, how I could not nor would not live without her if he would only see fit to restore her back to health, how I would worship and sing His praises and thank Him as long as life lasted!

How I prayed! Day by day, she continued to slip from me. I went to our minister and asked his help; and we both knelt down and prayed, but, no, she was getting weaker. I was getting desperate; so I went to the minister again and asked him what we could do. We decided we would have all the members pray and send up their petition to God at the same time. They did - but, NO, their prayers were not answered. The day came when she called me to her and said, 'We must part. I cannot stay with you much longer; but let us be brave and face the parting as man and woman should. I know you will be lonesome; but I will be lonesome too. Hold on to life: Life is wonderful! If I could only live, for your sake. I feel my body getting weak and I am so tired.' As I sat and listened to her, a feeling came over me; and I took her in my arms and held her to me and said, 'can it be possible, the God I serve can look down upon us? I need you so much, you want to live and have we not been taught that if we pray and have faith that He would answer our prayers.' Even as I talked, I felt her slip away from me; but just before she left she smiled and said, 'I will see you again, Good Bye.' SHE WAS GONE.

All I had in my arms was the lifeless body of my wonderful wife. For three days, I lived in a haze, I knew nothing that was going on, life seemed to be sort of blank or mechanical: people asked me questions, I do not remember how I answered them. The day of the final parting came and they put her body in the last resting place. I felt a damp chill pass over me. When the preacher talked at the grave-side, I wanted to scream and tell him 'It was all mockery': there was no God, there was no Truth, there was nothing Good. When I got home, HOME? no, HELL, I sat until everyone left; then I burst forth and cursed the God that gave us life - I cursed Him for the love He had given me, nay, I denied and still deny a God, I believe in nothing - the sun does not shine, it just maddens me, the strains of music pretty nearly drives me out of my mind, to hear someone laugh takes me through the torture of hell - life, what is life? - Hell, Hell, Hell."

"Wait a while, Sir."

"No, let me go on and finish my story. I must finish it, I have wanted to tell it to someone ever since it happened; but no one will listen to me. Let me, Sir, finish my story."

"All right, go on."

"I was going to say, I left the world, I could not bear to hear laughter, I could not stand to see lovers together, I could not bear to hear preachers try to tell the people of PRAYERS and FAITH. I just had to get away from everything and everybody. I am not fit to mingle with the people, my life is just one straight line of curses, yes, as I once prayed, now I curse; and as long as I live, I will never, I know, be fit to intermingle with the people. Oh, how I hate myself! Oh, how I hate everyone! What a false life! What teachings! I have to laugh, when I hear anyone talking of the life worthwhile - not an outward laugh, but an inward laugh; and if you could see my face of despair as I look into my lifeless life ahead. Do you know why I travel on the ocean? I will tell you: I hope someday to be caught in a storm and I want that storm to be cruel enough to take ship and all. I want to stand and watch the play, yes, a play - to me. It will be an enjoyable picture, when I see the people crying, praying, praying to whom? - To the same God to whom I prayed. Even as He answered mine, so shall He answer them: - for there is no God. They seem IDLE WORDS. As I saw you, my young man, sitting there smiling, you got me. I thought, 'If I could give him a real picture of life, I would take that smile from him!' So here I am, I have told you my story, yet you still smile - how can you?"

"When you first sat down beside me, your face was sad to look upon; but as you talked of love I saw light come into your eyes, as you changed into hate I saw your face again but as you finished your story, I saw a change come over you and your face has lost that expression you had ever since I first saw you."

Then the mysterious man said, "Well spoken, Son, you can surely read expression; but now I will take up this man's life and show him my view of his life. I will put the mirror of manhood reflected, and as he looks into it I will tell him the truth of life; then we will see what we will see. There have been thousands lived as you lived, loved as you loved, prayed as you prayed and then not seeing their prayers answered, cursed as you have cursed and gone through hell just as you have; all because of a misunderstanding of the true position of man. Now, my friend, I do not find fault with the feelings you have towards the Creator - it is not your fault. As we are taught so we are. As we accept the teachings given us so shall our lives be molded. There are some who refuse to be molded; and it is these who seek after truth and seek for themselves; when they seek, they find that the teachings are not what the Creator meant them to be. I have lived long and watched wisely the people; and through this searching, I found the Truth of Life. It brings thoughts that if spoken to the masses they would first be shocked and even call you an Atheist; but No, it does not lead to Atheism but true life.

Let me analyze your life and the outcome just as you told in your sad story, yet true - not only in your case, but many others. You were brought up to believe that prayers were answered, you were an earnest Christian as Christians go; you lived what you thought was the right life to live and gave credit to the church. Then trials came your way. You were taught to put your trust in your God whom you had lived to please; yet when the crisis of your life came and you put your trust in Him and exercised all the faith you had and prayed with the anguish of your Soul that the one you loved so dearly might be given back to you - your prayers failed. - Why? - Well, I will tell you Truth and nothing but Truth; then you will see just where you stand today: When man came forth, the Creator gave him first a free will, a mind with three parts. On one side, He told man there was no limit to the height he could go in beautiful thoughts; on the other side he could go down, yes, down lower than the animal - but in between He put a free will and said, 'as thou thinkest so thou shall be.' Then He gave man dominion over all the Earth, and as He did this, He saw man in his natural state. As He looked upon his work, He saw it was good.

Then He gave man power to multiply and replenish the Earth; - but that was just man's Creation, so He, therefore, created a Soul-mind for each one born. Now, it is this Soul-mind I want to make plain to you; the body is of the Earth, the Soul-mind is of Creation, therefore the body dies and goes back from whence it came, but the Soul-mind lives on forever. When He gave the body the Soul-mind, it was then the organs of the body became the servant of the brain power. When He gave us a free will and a Soul-mind to live on and on, He put his trust in that Soul-mind to bring his Creation into perfection. You were told, it was God's will or He allowed it to be that you had to give up the one thing in life that made your life worthwhile. This is where the mistake came in - He did not take her from you or He did not allow it to be. Can you not see, that if He took one particle of interest in your life or the life that left you, He would have taken the free will away from you?

Would you give a friend five dollars today, in all good faith, then take it from him tomorrow? MAN might be small enough to do that, but not this Great and Wonderful Creator; so you see, He had no hand in the death of your loved one; she caught a cold, disease got the better of her, the flesh was too weak to resist the disease, therefore she succumbed to disease - not the will of God. He does not show interference in anyone's life in any way, shape or form. He gave you a trust even as He gave every Soul-mind He created a trust; and that trust is not of the flesh but of the Soul-mind only. The weakness of the flesh has nothing to do with the Creator's part of man. If the Doctors had been big enough to counteract the disease, she would not have died; so why should you curse the Creator for a thing He had no right to interfere with; why should you curse the light of the beautiful sun; why should the laughter of others grate upon your nerves or the smile of this boy agitate you? Do you not think it is these things happening that brings us into a life to be analyzed in its true sense? Let me tell you, I think you are a conscientious man or you would not have taken your trial so hard.

You lived in your christian faith in earnest, you loved in earnest, you are just as earnest in the thoughts you have today and you have a right to be thus; but you must know the truth: You alone are the victim of your own circumstances. You alone have the right to see as you see today, to think as you think today; but remember you are the only victim. - It matters not to the Creator how you curse Him, He never hears you. It matters not how the laughter of others affect you, they still laugh on. It matters not how others' smiles affect you, they will still smile on; so you see it is just you, yes, you only. Do you not know that the mills of time grind slowly but surely, and each one of us seems to get into this grinding sometime in life; - and if you are man enough to stand it and say to yourself: 'I do not care how hard it grinds even if they put spikes in the rollers to hurt me more, I will stand it like a man, I will not be a coward and give up but will let it grind for the more the grinding the harder the fight, the harder the fight the bigger the victory, the greater the victory the more manly will I be when the wheels of time cease to grind me.'

After this grinding, your depressed Soul-mind awakens to the weakness you have displayed you will feel ashamed of yourself and as you look into your mirror you can say, 'Once I saw a man reflect back to me; but do I see a man today?' What would have been your answer, if you had looked in your mirror this morning - I wonder? What will your answer be when you look in the mirror tomorrow? You do not seem to be more than forty, a young man; and you have given up. Do you think, if the one you loved so dearly would look upon you from the other side, she would be pleased to see you in the state you are today? Will your misery make her happy? Would you, if you were in her place and she in yours, feel proud of her just as you did when she lived? - No. - Then, my dear young friend, I want you to follow me closely in my next few words I have to say to you: When the body dies, the Soul-mind takes its departure; but does not go as far away from you as you were told to believe. The Soul-mind stays upon the Earth, and since the Soul-mind brings action and thoughts into the material brain so does it see and understand where it goes after its departure from its house of clay.

Have you had a dream or seen your loved one in your sleep? If you have, did she look satisfied? I ask these questions - so I will understand your true standing in Soul-mind to Soul-mind; for such a love as you and she seemed to have could not have been of the flesh only - it must have been a Soul love, and you know, the Soul-mind love is in a Circle; and this Circle can not be broken. You may be parted for a time, and there may others come into each of your lives that seem to be love; but there is only one Soul-mind who can be the true Soul-mate, and sooner or later, as time goes on, they will meet and understand and will utter words such as these: 'This seems different.' It is something you cannot find words to express, nor would you want to, you just want to be content to feel that something that you know is not of the flesh but the true gift of the Creator in the beginning and will go on even unto the end. The two Souls put together shall become in the end even as at the beginning - two-Souls-in-one. The blending was beautiful, My Son, yes I am old enough to call you, Son. I want you to see the truth for I know, once you see the Light, and are put on the Path of Wisdom, what a new life you will and can have!

The Path of Wisdom is easy. First, know that the Creator gave you a Soul-mind with a promise that there is no limit to the mind even unto Creation itself; then He said 'Seek Wisdom and all Truth shall be revealed unto thee. The Book of Creation shall unfold its leaves before thee and thine eyes shall be opened, and as you see and understand, thy ears shall be made more keen and thou shall hear the Voice of Creation speaking to thee; it shall tell thee that thy life is everlasting and will show thee the picture of thyself in the line of man.' Instead of cursing as you have been doing, it will open the flood-gates of higher thoughts, and show the truth of life and death and life after death. It will show you your life is continuous and not ended by one short life. It will make you crave for more years to live so you can make the one short life a stepping-stone to a bigger and nobler life in the next life. It will show you a power, if used wisely, maybe you could save someone else from suffering the agonies of Hell - as you have: - for if you find the Truth of Creation, it will reveal its principle unto you; and with the knowledge of this wonderful principle and the love for Humanity, you will, as years go on, be a man among men.

Do you not know, if you had known a Creative Healer, one who knows truly the Principle of Creation, and he had seen such love as you had, he would have given her back to you - in health and strength; for Creation is the greatest healing Power known to the world? You can have all these things, if you would seek the Truth and know that the Creator does not show partiality to anyone - He never did, and He never will. In the beginning, He gave man a mind, yes, all men a mind; and with these words he left him: 'As thou thinketh so thou shall be.' All I can ask you - have you fulfilled that Trust, have you lived that others might live, have you advanced the world of thought to the higher life, what plane of life have you reached, how wide is your vision, what do you hear from the Voice of Creation, do you or have you tried to give the Light He expected you to give or have you just lived in the fog of life without ever looking up to see if there was a Light above the fog? My Son, have you done your duty to He who gave you life?

Have you ever tried to paint a picture of life each day, and as each day goes on add a little more touch of beauty to that picture; and make up your mind that you will continue to paint it day by day, even if circumstances of life may cause a blot to appear upon it - be big enough to paint over the blot with a smile and say, 'I will not let blots interfere with my picture, I have always enough paint to cover them for the more I have to paint over again the more beautiful my picture becomes - because it means an extreme effort?' No, this is not impossible; you see life is all time and time means nothing so you have a long time to paint."

"You speak well and wisely, Sir, but I am afraid I have thrown away my easel, canvas, paint and brush. I have not a thought big enough to put on any canvas. My picture, I am afraid, would be a failure."

"If it is, it is only you - not anyone else, it is only our smallness and our loss of manhood that makes us speak thus. I am sorry for you; since you have of your own free will given up or thrown away the manhood that the Creator gave you as a sacred trust. What a betrayal, what a failure, how small a man can be! It is well we have a Just Creator who is willing to look upon such a failure as you and say, 'Well, I gave him a trust and he betrayed it; but since I love him, I will give him another opportunity for his Soul-mind shall surely live on and maybe he will see manhood in its true sense the next life and go higher. Yes, I will give him many chances for he must be at the end as I saw him at the beginning - a man.'"

"Sir, you hit hard - spare me."

"So again you are showing your unmanliness? I am speaking truth and truth spares not. Answer me, have you played the man? As you answer, so shall I believe you?"

"Have I been a man, you ask? No, I see it all now, I was not big enough to seek truth for myself, I let others lead me through life. They taught me a faith, they told me of its power, they told me to put MY TRUST IN GOD, they told me not to carry my own burdens of life but to lay them on someone else - and I believed them. Why was I not big enough to see? Why was I not a man? Yet, all the time, I thought I was - I could not see that I was being led. How small I must be in the eyes of my Creator, when He saw me having someone else to lead me, think for me, carry my trials of life for me! Why, Sir, I see the light, I see it all now and I understand the words He spoke and how true they are, 'As thou thinketh so thou shall be.' What a revelation! What a life I have led! How small I have been! But from now on, if there is anything left of me worthwhile, I am going to start out, yes for the first time of my life, and be a man."

"Do you want to be?"

"Yes, and I am determined to be."

"Then you will be."

Just at this time, the young man had never spoken a word, but at this point he said, "If you are as true to the true life as you were to the life you used to have; then you will be a man indeed, Sir."

"You also speak Wisdom."

The mysterious man said, "Yes, he is one of the advanced Soul-minds returned that the world might know more of the Truth. He speaks well."

What a night! Yes, for the three of them; but let us look at the face of the man who sat down a while ago, with an expression without a hope. What a change, now! As he looked up with a smile, his gaze was met by someone who he did not know was there before; and as he looked into her face in the moonlight, he felt a thrill go through him. He arose and said, "A night well spent; but the final surprise makes it more so."

She smiled, as he took her hand and then names were mentioned. He bade them "Good night," saying it was time for his bedtime drink that he might sleep. As he went into the Salon, he ordered his first drink; but when the waiter brought it, the Silent Voice whispered, 'I thought you were going to be a man.' He stopped the drink half-way to his lips and spoke aloud, "Yes, I did, and I mean it." He put the glass down, left, walked around the deck; and for the first time since the darkness came into his life, saw the beauty of the sea, stars and moon.

Our friends saw him walk to the rail. They passed him but did not speak. There was a fight to fight; and it was a one man's fight.

The mysterious man went to his stateroom, the boy to bed, and the friend of the boy did not go for she stood against the rail also. Something had come into her life, she did not understand, as she had never felt that way before. She was lost in thought, when she felt someone near her, she turned, and as she did saw the man of sadness - as she used to call him. He was looking at her with a smile.

She spoke to him thus: "Well, did you win?"

"Yes, I did, I have often heard people say they had been born again; but as I stand here tonight, I know I have just been born; I was not born the last time, I just was carried through life. What a revelation! Are you, too, of this Path of Truth?"

"I am the audience to the young man of the Life of Truth."

"Who is the old gentleman?"

"As far as I can figure, he is a Master-mind, a man who has found the True Principle of all Creation. They say, he has lived many lives and has always been speaking Truth; yet always seeking more Wisdom - as he says the Path of Wisdom has no end and is without limit; and he is going to be as near the limit as any one. Stories told of him say that he does and can do wonderful things for the sick. He seems to be just a father to everyone; yet he does not approach anyone but seems to draw people unto him when they have grief or trouble."

"Well, he surely told me what I was tonight, and let me see myself in my true light. He surely knows life. I am thankful for the change."

"Yes," she says, "and as you go on in the Path of Truth, you will know that he has given you a treasure beyond price. It must be late."

"One-thirty only, such a night as this could not grow late! I could swear that he did not talk more than thirty minutes; yet my watch says four hours. How interesting!"

"And even how interesting to even stand here and talk about it; but I will have to go. Good Night."

He once more is left alone - a new feeling has come over him, he does not understand; so he goes to his stateroom - not to sleep, he thinks, but to review his life alone. He lays down. Did he sleep?

We will find out tomorrow.

The next morning, the sun is shining beautiful. People begin to come on deck for their morning walk before breakfast. Our young Master-mind and his friend were walking, when they saw the man of the night before coming toward them - sad as yesterday? No; but with a cheery "Good Morning" smile, he greeted them. They asked him if he slept.

"Sleep is not the word for it, I just drifted into slumber land, and how peaceful, how restful yet what a dream!"

"So you dreamed too?"

"Why, yes, did you? I hope your dream was as pleasing to you as mine was to me; but there is the call for breakfast and I am so hungry, I think I will never be satisfied this morning. Do you know, that was my first night's sleep with a sober mind for over two years; and this is the first time I have had an appetite for breakfast. I am just curious to see how much I will eat this morning. Born Again? Yes, how much those words mean to me, only I can know!"

"You are mistaken, everyone on the ship will know, everyone you meet who have known you before will know and let you know that they know, and your people will know as soon as you arrive home - you will not have to tell them for they will tell you just you see if they don't." Then with a smile she says to him, "I hope you do justice to your stomach this morning."