Three gates of gold

We are charged to test the fitness of our words, the little things in our daily conversation,  by making them pass

THREE GATES OF GOLD.

"If you are tempted to reveal a tale

Someone to you has told about another,

Make it pass, before you speak,

Three gates of gold —

Three narrow gates :

First — Is it true?

Then, Is it needful?

And there is last and narrowest — Is it kind?

And if at last to leave your lips

It passes through these gateways three,

Then you the tale may tell,

Nor fear what the result may be."

Studies in Divine Science Mrs. C. L. Baum 1909

Well, if I am not getting from my heavenly Father just what I want most to get, does it ever occur to me that I may not be doing the things He specially asks me to do? What does He ask me to do? Why, to show good will to neighbors and acquaintances and strangers--doesn't He?  Well, do I show good will?

Oh yes, I am polite to other people. I show them ordinary courtesies. I even do favors sometimes for people to whom I think I owe nothing. I do quite a lot of creditable things when I am in their company--to their faces. But what do I do in their absence--behind their backs? Do I show them good will then? Am I the kind that is a friend to a man's face, and an enemy behind his back? That is, do I show him a face of good will, and then knife him from behind? Do I give attention to his bodily ease and his pleasure in company, and then stab him in the reputation when he isn't looking? Do I salve him with flattery when he is in a position to defend himself, and then set the fire of ridicule going among his friends when he is off guard?

Do I, for instance, lead the applause at the luncheon or the club meeting, where Bill Johnson speaks, and slap him on the back afterwards and tell him it was great--and then whisper to Smith on the way out, "Well, old Bill was just as great a bore as usual. I wonder if his wife never tells him to get some new stories?"

Do I, for instance, congratulate Jim Smith on his promotion to the place of general manager-- and then tell Tom Warren, "Yes, Smith got the job all right, but he won't last long. He's a slave driver."

Do I, for instance, talk public-spiritedly about standing shoulder to shoulder in time of business stress, and then tell Ken Travis that Tom Warren will bear watching and that "he is sure to trim you if you are not careful."

Do I, for instance, comment with a grin on Jessup's frayed tie, or Halley's grammatical break, or high words I overheard between Sanders and his wife, or the grass that grows up through Hemming's front walk, or Brown's pallid paunchiness, or Lane's rotten old pipe, or Barnes's impudent children, or Perry's long fish story, or Bell's embarrassment when called on to speak at the church supper? Do I go around making good stories out of the failings of other people, getting laughs at their expense, cutting their reputations to ribbons, scorching their friendships to raise a laugh? Do I?

Well, my Father particularly asked me not to do that sort of thing, didn't He? Didn't He say, first, through my Elder Brother, "Judge not"? Then didn't He say, "Love one another," and whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you . . ."? Didn't He? Well, just why do I disobey and disregard His special requests? Do I expect that it is going to make it easier for Him to give me mine?

Basil King, in his remarkable book "Faith and Success," tells of an almost miraculous change in his fortunes, when he stopped doing little unkindnesses behind people's backs. It was a singularly honest and singularly helpful confession. He said he came to the conclusion that the channel between him and God--or rather between God and him--was like other channels, more often filled up with silt than with great falls of rock, and that the silt that fills up the God channel is made up of what we think of as "little" sins--little meannesses, little bits of unkind ridicule, little bits of gossip, little unfavorable comments, little offenses against the law of love, while it great" sins like stealing and killing are rare among us. But "silt"--a lot of it, gathering by slow accretion--may fill up the channel just as effectively as a great fall of rock! Maybe a lot more effectively.

Mr. King, by his own account, tells his own story in the book I have mentioned. He says his "luck" changed the very day he stopped dealing in mean gossip and ridicule of others. He says that instead of having to go after the things he wanted, they began to come to him. He was blessed--so much blessed that he had to tell the world about it. WORKING WITH GOD BY GARDNER HUNTING

"Whoever will never give another pain, either by thought, word or deed, is exempt from pain forever." — (Annie Rix Militz.)

Remember: Expect Miracles!