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TEACHERS OF SCIENCE.

ABRAHAM, ISAAC, JACOB AND DANIEL.

one appreciates a half hearted service. Any child. would be ashamed to render a kind, loving parent, any

but the truest kind of service. We are rewarded with

just the kind of service we perform. Whatever we send out returns to us in kind. The Bible and every book of Science or of Truth, tells us that we are servants to that to which we yield ourselves. If we perform half hearted service we get half pay; if we perform mixed service we get mixed pay. Nothing shows this more markedly than the history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants; though everything shows that unless the object is pursued in a straight course the mark will be missed.

Every religious system has had some sort of a mark that it was trying to show to its followers, and as they perceived the mark aimed at, they were more or less successful in accomplishing the results expected.

The Jews perhaps of all the ancients seem to have had a truer idea of the Supreme Being, and where It was to be found, and as they lived up to their idea, they were correspondingly happy. For over four thousand years they have kept their name and genealogy, they trace their line of fathers and mothers, back long before the crossing of the Red Sea. To this day the Jews that we meet and trade with, know who, what, and where their fathers and father's

fathers were, in the last century; in the 16th century; in the 14th century; in the 10th century, during what we call the dark ages; in the 5th century. During the time that Jesus was here upon earth, the same Jews that we meet every day can turn to their records that are sacredly kept and tell who their fathers were when Matthew was chosen and Nathaniel was seen under the fig tree. Just the same as the genealogy of Jesus is kept and recorded in Matthew and Luke.

Where is there any other people that can do this? Why and why not? In all ages they have heard the command that Cyrus issued to those children of the captivity who were in bondage, Who is there among you of all his people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judea, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (he is the God), which is in Jerusalem.

They, of all people, were willing to prove their faith; put it to a practical test; apply it to their every day transactions. It is very interesting to note the way they applied it; and as we get their idea, we find that wherever they succeeded it was because they lived up to their ideas of the living God, or the living Truth: and wherever they were not successful, it was because they abandoned their idea or did not dare trust to their Faith; that is were not faithful, or full of faith, that their ideas were the right ones. Be true to your convictions of truth and you will be shown more truth. Dare to do right, because it is right, and you will be continually coming nearer right. "To thine own self be true," or to thy true self be true.

We will note their success, but will not follow them in their deflections, because to succeed we must study the way they succeeded; we shall never know how to succeed by studying how to fail, for we become like that which we study. It is like two roads that seem to lead to the same

place, but really only one gets there; the other may seem as good and very necessary, but it ends in dismal swamps, sloughs of despond and broken promises. We may say here they digressed or, as the record says, they did that which was evil, or they did that which was not right. For those examples we refer you to the records.

The first promise to Abram was, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Do you know of a parallel passage in the New Testament ? Except a man forsake all that he hath and follow me he cannot be my disciple.

Abram came into the land of Canaan, and the Lord appeared unto him and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land. And he set up an altar to the Lord. But he seemed to have acquired a spirit of unrest, and so he journeyed on, left the land that the Lord gave him, or, as we might say, made a digression and got to a place where there was a famine, but he pressed on and seemed to go from bad to worse; told a story about Sarai and got into trouble as any one does who doesn't stick to the Truth. Abram found no satisfaction away from the Truth and returned to the Land of Promise, and we soon find that his and Lot's substance was so great that they could not dwell together.

The I Am poured them out such a blessing that the measure was full, running over. And there was a struggle between the followers of Abram and Lot. Abram was for Peace, and he gave Lot the choice of the land, for Peace could not, and cannot, dwell with strife, any more than