Text of the meditation
When a person wishes and wills, they can find the good and the true. The Gates of Heaven are forever open, and no one is prevented from entering by any will or power but their own; but no one can enter the Kingdom of Heaven so long as they are enamoured of, and choose, the seductions of hell, so long as they resign themselves to sin and sorrow.
There is a larger, higher, nobler, diviner life than that of sinning and suffering, which is so common (indeed, nearly all are immersed in it): a life of victory over sin and triumph over evil; a life wise and happy, benign and tranquil, virtuous and peaceful. This life can be found and lived now, and whoever lives it is steadfast in the midst of change, restful among the restless, peaceful though surrounded by strife.
Every moment is the time of choice; every hour is destiny.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
