In the beginning the Universe was one boundless, indefinable, and unimaginable ocean of Liquid Fire. The most vigorous and ambitious imagination is not capable of forming an adequate conception of the height and depth and length and breadth thereof. There was one vast expanse of liquid substance. It was without bounds - inconceivable - and with qualities and essences incomprehensible. This was the original condition of Matter. It was without forms, for it was but one Form. It had no motions, but it was an eternity of Motion. It was without parts, for it was a Whole. Particles did not exist, but the Whole was as one Particle. There were not suns, but it was one eternal Sun. It had no beginning and it was without end. It had not length, for it was a Vortex of one Eternity. It had not circles, for it was one infinite Circle. It had not disconnected power, but it was the very essence of all Power. Its inconceivable magnitude and constitution were such as not to develop forces, but Omnipotent Power. Matter and Power were existing as a Whole, inseparable. The Matter contained the substance to produce all suns, all worlds, and systems of worlds, throughout the immensity of Space. It contained the qualities to produce all things that are existing upon each of those worlds. The Power contained Wisdom, and Goodness, Justice, Mercy and Truth. It contained the original and essential Principle that is displayed throughout immensity of Space, controlling worlds and systems of worlds, and producing Motion, Life, Sensation and Intelligence, to be impartially disseminated  upon their surfaces as ultimates.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

True religion is derived from Nature.  Miracles innumerable are incessantly performed by Nature to attest the divinity of her mission.  Stars in the sky, and the grass beneath, are her signs and wonders.  And truth is the golden door of entrance to the human heart.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

Where Nature is, there is no man-made theology.  Where there is a true child of Nature, there is no creed, no falsehood, no hypocrisy.  The children of Nature are perpetually young.   (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The human mind is like a lake of living water.  Its encompassing margin is the human body.  The streams and virulets, that flow in from the surrounding country, are the senses.  The fruitful trees and flowering plants upon its margin are the external objects of attraction.  When there is no atmospheric agitation, there are no waves—no thoughts—and the lake slumbers in dreamless tranquility; but let one breath of wind (sensation) stir the overhanging foliage, and instantly the rivulets throb and the lake vibrates with wavy commotion.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The mission of thought is to agitate, enlighten, and purify the soul.  This work is prosecuted throughout countless spheres of spiritual progression.  The influence of pure thought is like the breath of heaven upon flowers; while low thoughts fall like the vapors of pestilence.  They blast the beautiful, like shafts of lightning.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

It is our present impression that the Universe is intrinsically, vitally, organically unchangeable and orderly throughout.  The omnipotent attraction of the central Soul is irresistible, and unto it the humblest as well as the mightiest beings instinctively yield all power and praise.  All ends are involved in all beginnings, and nothing hangs loose over the abyss of uncertainty.  The minutest consummation of things is secured by the irrefutable logic of unchangeable laws.  The sublime harmony of the universe is not jeopardized by the presence of unfriendly accidents or by chaotic possibilities.  The attributes of the central Soul are illimitable.  They sweep with omnipotent force through the stupendous machinery of this beautiful and harmonious system of Cause and Effect.  And the unerring lines and the fixed courses of the interwoven series of mutual dependencies are sufficiently perfect to comprehend and accomplish the least with the greatest of ends.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

There is but one road to victory in this direction, and even such conquest will be partial, so that you will conclude that thought is uncontrollable.  The straight road is concentration of mind.  This habit is favorable to self-control.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

In brief, then, the human structure is trifold instead of dual, and there is as much difference between “soul” and “spirit” as there is between the body and the soul.  The “soul” is compounded of all the motive forces, life-principles, and sensational elements which may be found, to a greater or lesser degree of perfection, in all the lower organizations of matter.  But the “spirit” is the divine part—the essence of all motion, the master of all life, the lord of all sensations, and the immortalizing crown of all intelligence in man.  “Spirit” is the fountain of every sublime Aspiration—the flower of immortal fragrance in the middle of the heart of man’s life—the indwelling “image and likeness” of whatsoever is holy, beautiful, lovely and eternal.  “Spirit” is the source of Love and Wisdom—”soul” is the source of passion and knowledge.  “Soul” is the life of the outer body—”spirit” is the life of the soul.  After physical death, the soul or life of the natural body becomes the form or “body” of the eternal SPIRIT; and hence, in the Spirit Land, the spirit is surrounded by the physical imperfections of the “soul.”  But the soul (or the spirit body) is ultimately purified by the “spirit,” which is King.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

Natural Religion is the opposite of that which is fictitious or “supernatural.”  It is the doctrine of Truth, Justice, Righteousness, as taught by the harmony, equilibrium, and happiness of the universe.  It is impossible to get any broad estimate of Truth from a superficial study of any one branch of geography, astronomy, or science, as such branch is presented by the routine system of a modern school or academy.　If you would learn of Truth—exact, never-varying, beautiful, stern, and perfect—examine the laws of planetary motion, the principles of cause and effect in all things, and the adorable proportions of bodies in their respective spheres.  Justice, right, and love, and the beauty of holiness are lessons breathed from the constitution and adaptation of every natural object.  Search the sacred volume of Nature through.  Let its divine lessons burn their glories into your heart.  Life and joy supreme—transporting life and enrapturing joy—come to the pure in heart.  The spirit of Nature, and the precious presence of the Father, will burn in every bush of roses.  In tree, in bird, in sky, in star, in your parents, in everything human, behold the Love, and Will, and Wisdom of Deity.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The whole world is moving toward redemption.  The distracted nations, under the blessings of higher spheres, shall be delivered from the bondage of stupendous ignorance; they shall be gathered together “into the glorious liberty” of the children of eternal truth and good.  And all this will be accomplished through the pure wisdom of divine Love.  It is the only omnipotent spirit.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The law of true wedlock is written in matter and in man.  It is sublime in its process, and divine in its revelations of truth.  The male and female principles, or positives and negatives, exist and govern everywhere.　The nuptial law, of which these opposites are expressions, most explicitly declares that, to the ends of happiness and harmonious offspring, opposite temperaments should marry, but only when there is a similarity of capacity and development.  That is to say: The social, moral, intellectual endowments, attainments, and tastes of the parties, should bear some considerable likeness to each other, and yet the temperaments (except the centrals) may and should be almost exactly opposite.  So, therefore, while rapid and torpid, hot and cold, acid and alkaline temperaments will favorably affect each other in marriage and result in true parentage, the effect would be exactly otherwise if the unlikeness extended into social and intellectual capacities and dispositions.  It will not answer to marry a foolish man to an intelligent woman, nor a combative to a gentle nature, nor a beast to an angel, for misery and diseased offspring would ensue.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The philosophy of human life and death is very simple, and “he who runs” may read it, if he hath only eyes to see and a heart to understand.　We do not teach that men disgorge their incongruities and moral imperfections when they “shuffle off the mortal coil;” we do not affirm that death transforms all men, nor any man, “in the twinkling of an eye,” into a pure and harmonious angel of light; we do not say that there will be no necessity for intellectual labor and moral struggling to attain higher conditions after death;  we do not inculcate that all are equally beautiful, and happy, and progressed, in the Summer-Land; but this— the effects and consequences of an evil earth-life do continue, in more or less active force , beyond the grave.　Or take the habitual drunkard and libertine.  Now, it cannot be shown that a man’s innermost—the divine SPIRIT—was ever moved toward intemperance and sexual intercourse.  In truth, the SPIRIT is always the accusing and condemning “Voice”—the angel of light within, who would lead the man out of his darkness and disgrace—the interior source of ”ideas,” of hope, of conscience, of justice, of truth, of immortality.  Whence, then, his desire for intoxication and abandonment?  We answer: From that middle nature—the battle-field of all discord and passion—the “soul,” which is between the outmost body and the inmost spirit.  In common with the animals, each man has a “soul”—a playground of, as yet, unorganized elements and the imponderable principles.  From that source, and from no other, spring forth all the desires and passions which disgrace humanity and turn our beautiful earth into “the lowest hell.” (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The conjugal sanctities of a human spirit are the holiest of all interior sensibilities.  They are the finest, and highest, and most confiding.  The filaments of every other affection center in the marriage-love of the soul.  Salvation or damnation—contentment or desperation—hang upon the delicate thread of the conjugal relation.  It is the root of all the exquisitely fine fibers of life and progress.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The power whereby the human mind perceives Truth, as a principle of the Universe, is the same as the power to personate and embody it.  The power to conceive or feel a principle is identical with the power to put it in practice.　.... The Will is never paralyzed when the soul is fully inspired with the divinity and majesty of a Principle.   Men are weak when left to grope their way through the wilderness of circumstances.  “Doing your best under the circumstances” is the same as putting yourself under their arbitrary jurisdiction.  But acting from an inherent love of Principle—let consequences be what they may—is ascending the throne of the Heavenly King.  The power to embody a truth is commensurate with he mind’s ability to be inspired by its spirit.  An uninspired soul is naturally disobedient.  Poets and prophets fall only when not inspired by principle. (Andrew Jackson Davis)

By actual experience, spirits communicate with the sons of men.  Every one, disposed to be in harmony with these principles, is a builder of the temple of progressive redemption.  We have but little to do with the past; only so far as it sheddeth instruction.  The past is fixed eternally; no man can alter it.  No praying, no preaching, no spiritual device, can possibly erase an action or efface the history of an institution.  The great point is, to live from this hour in reference to the symmetrical erection of the Spiritual Temple. (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The interior clairvoyant senses can gaze upon the higher worlds, and reveal new worlds within the one we at present dwell upon.  These senses address man’s inward sources of knowledge; they speak to his Intuition and Reason.  As the microscopic and telescopic worlds are hidden, in their prismatic splendors and awful magnititudes, from the powers and penetrations of man’s corporeal senses; so, from the same limited vision, are concealed the stupendous magnificence of the spiritual universe, and the kindling skies and indescribably beauties of the eternal spheres.  But, to the interior senses, all these worlds are visible.  Men, and things, and planets, and angels, and future existence, and the vital laws of Father-God--all, appear in that consistent order and philosophic precision which distinguish the truth from the dark chaos of mythic Theology.  To the interior senses, the changes of Mother-Nature are indications of the ceaseless operations of unchangeable principles--steps from lower to higher--from matter to spirit.  A birth, a fleeting existence, a death--these are manifestations of the beautiful Laws of progression and development.   (Andrew Jackson Davis)

The great lesson which I would have enstamped on men’s souls is, that the harmonial formation of character—in harmony with the principles of Universal Love and Distributive Justice—is the only security against temporal unhappiness and future disturbances.  … Progression is made by a reasonable belief in progress.  Harmony of character and loveliness of disposition unfold gradually from unwavering efforts to acquire them.   May such  faith and such efforts be our crown and adornments—for they are at once the causes and effects of fraternal harmony and personal happiness. (Andrew Jackson Davis)

Truth will consume all error and artificial theology, whose power is weakened, and whose corruptions are revealed, by the divine light of Nature’s manifestations.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

Under all circumstances keep an even mind.  (Andrew Jackson Davis)

Knowledge not lived is sin.  (Edgar Cayce)

Bring a smile to every face you meet today – if you try hard enough, you will succeed (Aart Bosman)

See that your own life is pure, that your motives are unselfish, that your souls are full of love and charity for all humanity. Never lose an opportunity of saying a kind word, or reaching out a helping hand to any unfortunate struggling in the depths of despair, even though his own wrong-doing may have been the cause of his desolation and distress (Julia Schlesinger)

May we just give you our blessing and ask you to keep faith, to keep your trust. To look for the good and not the bad. To give love wherever you can possibly give it. Never mind what other people say. Never mind whether the circumstances go against you. Never mind the obstacles that you come up against. If you give LOVE with all your hearts then you will have achieved what you came to the Earth to do. And when you leave it behind you will find that you can look into Spirit and you can say I have done what I could.  Goodnight and God bless you all. (Angelic Message channeled through Lucy Hale)

WHAT do you think about the very first thing in the morning? Your thoughts during the first half-hour of the morning will greatly influence the entire day. You may not realize this, but it is nevertheless a fact.　If you set out with worry, and depression, and bitterness of soul toward fate or man, you are giving the keynote to a day of discords and misfortunes. If you think peace, hope and happiness, you are sounding a note of harmony and success.　The result may not be felt at once, but it will not fail to make itself evident eventually. Control your morning thoughts. You can do it. The first moment on waking, no matter what your mood, say to yourself: "I will get all the comfort and pleasure possible out of this day, and I will do something to add to the measure of the world's happiness or well-being. I will control myself when tempted to be irritable or unhappy, I will look for the bright side of every event."　Once you say these things over to yourself in a calm, earnest way, you will begin to feel more cheerful. The worries and troubles of the coming day will seem less colossal.　Then say: "I shall be given help to meet anything that comes today. Everything will be for the best. I shall succeed in whatever I undertake. I cannot fail."　Do not let it discourage you if the moment you leave your room you encounter a trouble or a disaster. This usually happens. When we make any boast, spiritually or physically, we are put to the test. The occult forces about us are not unlike human beings. When a, schoolboy boasts of his strength, and says he can "lick any boy in school," he generally gets a chance to prove it.　When we declare we are brave enough to overcome any fate, we find our strength put to the test at once. But that is all right. Prove your words to be true. Regard the troubles and cares you encounter as the "punching bags" of fate, given you to develop your spiritual muscle. Go at them with courage and keep to your morning resolve. By and by the troubles will lessen, and you will find yourself master of Circumstances.　　(Ella Wilcox Wheeler, The Heart of New Thought)