Self Help

were unconscious when they signed away their freedom. The law takes every man and woman at their word. There is no coming in at a later hour and saying, "Oh, I did not mean it." The die has been cast. The threads carry out the pattern. Let us look at the question of compensation from an everyday practical standpoint. Do we want to become artists, actresses, physicians? Then the first thing we do is to consecrate ourselves to that work; the next thing is to begin along the line we have chosen. If an actress, we bear the poverty, the disappointments, the hours of toil and hardship, the chagrin and despair, until in some unexpected moment the compensation draws near: the time of our service ends in a larger service which we have bought for ourselves by our consecration. If we want to become artists, it is the 68 same story, the hours of useless labor (when viewed from a world's position), the wasted daubs, the mistakes, the hours of waiting for public approval, and at last the goal. The same thing holds good in every field of labor, but the soul which has fully felt the consecrating power, never lays down the struggle. It follows the beautiful vision of its inner senses. There are many whose lives have never reached the sweet land which they saw by promise, but they have been recompensed for their work by just the joy of doing. There are those who have given years of work and study to bring about a certain development and have lain down and died with all of their work apparently unfinished; yet the coming, following generation learned from their efforts, their work was not lost, for by the steps they cut, others climbed the peaks of glory. We must learn, too, that we can make no demand on the world in any way with any hope of realization, if we are not prepared to supply equal value to the world with the gift of ourselves. Consecration is the first step, then the way begins; that our feet stumble and our hearts bleed is but a condition of the way brought about by our ignorance. The soul which consecrates itself to service realizes its desire, but it must pay the price for such a gift, and the human price of service is often toil without recompense as measured by our mortal comprehension. No matter what we want, we will find that we can get it if we are willing to pay the price, not always in our way, but in the way that will bring us towards the thing for which we have asked. Left to our own way we would now and then go in a directly opposite path fr