In his own quest for sobriety and happiness, AA author Mel B. found continual hope and inspiration in the classical writings of James Allen and Henry Drummond on the spiritual life, and in meditation on the deeper spiritual meaning of the famous Peace Prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. He has reprinted all three of these in this present volume, with his own introductions and commentaries to aid the modern reader. James Allen's "As a Man Thinketh" teaches us that our lives are governed and shaped by the way we think, feel, speak, and act. We discover that we are always masters of our fate: when our thoughts are wrong, our lives necessarily become wrong.
Henry Drummond's "The Greatest Thing in the World," a commentary on I Corinthians 13, is a short book on the true nature of Love--eternal and all-powerful, surviving anything we now see in our world. He describes in detail how the simple ways we act towards ourselves and others are actually ingredients of the Divine Love itself.
"The St. Francis Prayer," which A.A.'s Bill W. found so valuable in his own struggle with the Dark Night of the Soul, makes it clear that true Peace can be found only within ourselves. It shows us step by step how to change our inner attitudes and goals to achieve the only kind of serenity and satisfaction in our lives that can endure.