To become dissatisfied with one's self is to desire something better, and this desire is inspired of God. Our blessed Master has said, and is still saying: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life." He was appealing to this desire found in each and every human heart, this desire for good, for something pure and enduring. Unconscious though it may seem, the time will come when it will find expression, and the promise ever awaits it: "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find." "I am the way." What way, queries this awakening desire? It is the way that leads away from self, and onward and upward into the realm of Spirit; the way that every man, woman and child must follow in; the way that is unseen to the outward man; the way that leads from sense into Soul, from matter into Mind; the way that leads to eternal salvation, the living or thinking way, the one and only way because it is the right way.
Mortal man for a brief space of time surmises a way of his own, finds pleasure and satisfaction in things pertaining to the world, resorts to worldly policies, is controlled by them, loses sight of the golden rule of justice and honesty, and caters to public opinion, only to surrender at last to the Truth, whose ways are not man's ways. He reaches eventually, through multiplied trials and experiences, where he can say with the wise man: "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." Up to this point he has been travelling his own road, and seeing thousands upon thousands going in the same direction, he has mistakenly said: "My way is right." When everything was moving along smoothly, earth's possessions increasing and public opinion endorsing, Truth came to this deceived one and said: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world," but the desire for the good was smothered, hence the reply: "Go thy way for this time and let me go mine." It was no effort to love the world and its ways, but to depart from it involved adherence to Principle, which Principle demanded self-denial, therefore it was rejected. With this mortal there was something at stake. In his own estimation there was something to be lost in the denial of self and he did not care to be the loser.
After a few short years the scene changes. His way has become extremely unreliable, and through unavailing efforts to secure health and happiness from it, he turns from it and is willing for the first time to be shown a better way, the way of Truth. With him there is a hope for something better, and if it proceeds from a "good and honest heart, it soon ripens into an earnest desire to "overcome evil with good." The voice of Truth coming to this condition of thought says: "If a man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me."
