THE BONNEWITZ GARDENS, VAN WERT, OHIO 
A Message of Encouragement 
“Beyond the material recovery, I sense a spiritual recovery as well. The 
people of America are now, as never before, turning, to those permanent values 
which are not limited by the physical objectives of life. There are growing 
signs of this on every hand. In the face of these spiritual impulses, we are 
sensible of the Divine Providence to which nations, now, as always, turn for 
guidance and for fostering care.” 
I like very much to quote the above encouraging words from 
one of President Roosevelt’s messages to the people, because, for 
me at least, they are true. In 1927 after over forty years of active 
business experience, and at the age of sixty, I believed my material 
possessions were worth two hundred thousand dollars, and I am 
ashamed of it now, but I really thought I had lived a successful life. 
But with my spiritual senses awakening, I know that no life which 
at its culmination, can report only the accumulation of material 
things, even if these amount to millions in value, can be accounted 
successful. 
In order that my life could become a successful one, it was 
necessary for me to turn to those “permanent values” in which 
material things have no part. I thank God that even at the cost 
of three-fourths, four-fifths, five-sixths, or even all of my worldly 
possessions that I have learned that “a man’s life consisteth not in 
the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” I would gladly 
have given up every material possession, rather than to have had 
my spiritual understanding remain dormant. 
The seven years depression, (it came to Ohio in 1928), has de¬ 
pleted my possessions at the rate of over twenty thousand dollars 
per year, more than four times as rapidly as I accumulated them. 
I am now paying my living expenses and publishing this booklet 
from the sale of my life insurance policies to the companies which 
issued them, and yet there is more happiness in my heart, than 
when I was receiving from eight to fifteen thousand dollars per 
year. Please notice that I did not say when I was “making” or 
“earning” from eight thousand to fifteen thousand dollars per 
year, for it has begun to dawn upon my spiritual understanding, 
that I (like many thousands of others with very much larger in¬ 
comes than I, in the years of national prosperity), was after all, 
probably only a money changer, with ability to place myself in the 
position where money changing was profitable. 
But now I am free. The property which I have lost does not now 
need my attention. I am free to try to help Aunt Mary pay her 
mortgage, and I am enjoying it like the games of my youth. 
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