The further civilization advances, the farther-reaching are the processes of control in all areas of human activity.

Traffic obeys previously studied signals.

Switches alter the direction of electric currents.

Automobiles use highly sensitive brakes.

Locomotives run on conditioned lines.

Simple household articles operate with the protection of safety devices.

Everywhere, precautionary and defensive systems appear in order to prevent trouble and disaster.

Points such as those noted above induce us to accept the imperative need of governing the power of the mind, an upset in which, not only nullifies its best opportunities, but converts it into a magnetic whip of rebellion and also sours the spirits about us by strewing their path with nettles.

Anger is always an open door to the domain of obsession.

Let us consider the penitentiaries, wherein lie segregated thousands of our fellow men who have fallen under the impact of destructive hammer blows; let us inquire of the suicides, banished to regions of repentance and regeneration beyond the grave; let us listen to many of those who were unexpectedly set free of the physical body or were overtaken by an obscure death; and let us hear a vast majority of the mentally ill who drift about the asylums and nursing homes, as persons mutilated in spirit, relegated to the periphery of life, and we will find the crushing explosion of wrath at the root of all the tortures which are throttling their soul.

Let us consider all this whenever irritation beckons to us from afar, and quickly protect ourselves from being inundated by thoughts of aggressiveness and retaliation, violence and desperation, with the barrier of prayer as our silent shield.

Emmanuel