Levels of Living

Levels of Living

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Levels of Living, by Henry Frederick
Cope
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Title: Levels of Living Essays on Everyday Ideals
Author: Henry Frederick Cope

Release Date: June 29, 2006 [eBook #18712]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LEVELS OF
LIVING***
E-text prepared by Al Haines

LEVELS OF LIVING
Essays on Everyday Ideals

by
HENRY FREDERICK COPE
Author of "The Modern Sunday-School in Principle and Practice"

New York ---- Chicago ---- Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company
London And Edinburgh Copyright, 1908, by Fleming H. Revell
Company New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street

To My Wife
Not in the sentiment of dedication alone, offering to you what I may
have done, but in simple acknowledgment of obligation to you
Elizabeth
best gift of God and inspiration of man

Under the title of "A Sermon For To-day" these short essays, on the art
of every-day living in the light of eternal life, were published by The
Chicago Sunday Tribune, through a series of years, and were regularly
printed in the Sunday editions of a group of the great dailies. The short
sentences were also published with the Sermons under the head of
"Sentence Sermons." The courtesy of The Chicago Daily Tribune in
permitting the publication of these "sermons," with such changes as
have seemed best, is gratefully acknowledged.

CONTENTS
I. THE HIGHER LEVELS The Real and the Ideal--The Bread of

Life--Life's Unvarying Values.
II. INVISIBLE ALLIES More than a Fighting Chance--The Unseen
Hand--The One in the Midst.
III. THE SOVEREIGNTY OF SERVICE Self and Service--My Soul or
My Service?--The Satisfaction of Service.
IV. THE RIGHT TO HAPPINESS The Power of Happiness--The
Secret of Happiness--The Folly of Anxiety.
V. THE CURRICULUM OF CHARACTER The Great School--The
Purpose of the Course--The Price of Perfection.
VI. THE AGE-LONG MIRACLE The Sufficient Sign--Behold the
Man--The Life that Lifts.
VII. SEEING THE UNSEEN The Sense of the Unseen--The Brook in
the Way--That Which Is High.
VIII. SOURCES OF STRENGTH AND INSPIRATION Strength for
the Daily Task--The Sense of the Infinite--The Great Inspiration.
IX. FINDING FOUNDATIONS The Passing and Permanent--Facing
the Facts--The Real Foundation.
X. THE PASSION FOR PERFECTION The Great Search--The
Hunger of the Ages--The Sole Satisfaction.
XI. THE PRICE OF SUCCESS The Law of Selection--The Fallacy of
Negation--The Secret of All.
XII. DIVINE SERVICE The Ideal Service--The Orthodox
Service--The Heavenly Service.
XIII. OUR FATHER AND OUR FELLOWS The Primary
Reconciliation--Faith in Our Fellows--The Law of Forgiveness.
XIV. MEN AND MAMMON Riches and Righteousness--Religion and

Business--The Moral End of Money-Making.
XV. THE EVERY-DAY HEAVEN The Beauty of Holiness--The
Gladness of Goodness--The True Paradise
XVI. TRUTH AND LIFE Religion of a Practical Mind--The Head and
the Heart--New Truths for New Days.
XVII. THE FRUITS OF FAITH Root and Fruit--The Orthodox
Accent--The Business of Religion.
XVIII. THE FORCE OF FAITH "The Victory that Overcometh"--Fear
and Faith--Faith for the Future.
XIX. HINDRANCES AND HELPS FROM WITHIN Worry--A Cure
for the Blues--The Gospel of Song.
XX. DOES HE CARE? The One at the Helm--The Shepherd and the
Sheep--The Father's Care.

I
The Higher Levels
The Real and the Ideal The Bread of Life Life's Unvarying Values
The ideal is the mold in which the real is cast.
Half of success is in seeing the significance of little things.
He finds no weal who flees all woe.
You do not make life sacred by looking sad.
Sympathy is a key that fits the lock of any heart.
Soul health will not come by taking religion as a dose.

Many a cloud that we call sorrow is but the shadow of our own
selfishness.
To live wholly for possessions is to paralyze the life to the possibility of
permanently possessing anything.
It takes more than willingness to be nothing to make you amount to
something.
This is never a wrong world to him who is right with its heart.
THE REAL AND THE IDEAL
It is probable that from the age of sixteen up to thirty Jesus of Nazareth
spent His life in mechanical toil; He made wooden plows, ax handles,
and yokes; He served as a carpenter. Then for three years He gave
Himself to the ministry of ideal things, exclusively to the service of the
spirit.
There is a wonderful satisfaction in making things, in looking over
some concrete piece of work accomplished when the day ends. It is a
satisfaction that belongs to the artisan. Is it not