happiness. Those who are ignorant of life's true purpose and who
seek happiness high and low, year after year, fail to find it. Like
a will-o'-the-wisp, it for ever eludes them. On the other hand, those
who recognize the true object of life, and follow it, attain happiness
without seeking for it.

In times past, people have made God a convenience. They have thought
they could drift through life, learning none of its discipline and
then, when in trouble, or things were not to their liking, they could
pray to God and have the unpleasant circumstances taken away. The
same idea is prevalent to-day. People have left the old orthodoxy
and look to various "cults" and "isms" to get them out of their
difficulties. They do not believe now that they can curry special
favour with God by prayer, but they firmly believe that they can get
what they want from the Invisible by demanding it. They think that
by this means they can have their own way after all. By this they
mean having a good time, with no unpleasant experiences, trials,
difficulties, adversities. They are, however, merely chasing rainbows.
The easy life they seek constantly eludes them, simply because there
is no such thing. The only life that is easy is the life of the strong
soul who has overcome. His life is not easy in reality, but appears
relatively so because of his strength.

It is impossible to have an easy life, and, if it were possible, then
life would be not worth living, for the sole object of life is the
building of character and the attainment of wisdom through experience.
Life to all of us must always be full of difficulty, and it is to
help those, who, hitherto, have found life rather too much for them
that this book is being written. What the majority are seeking for
is an easy life (which they will never find, but precisely the
reverse) and for them I have no message. But to those wise and
awakened souls who are seeking for Truth, no matter from whence it
may come, and who desire to overcome life and its difficulties,
instead of weakly giving in to them, this book, it is hoped, will