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diff --git a/41901-0.txt b/41901-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef8c104 --- /dev/null +++ b/41901-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7195 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41901 *** + + THE VICTORIOUS + ATTITUDE + + BY + + ORISON SWETT MARDEN + + AUTHOR OF "PUSHING TO THE FRONT," "PEACE, POWER + AND PLENTY," "THE MIRACLE OF RIGHT THOUGHT," + "KEEPING FIT," "WOMAN AND HOME," ETC. + + + _To think you can, creates the force that can._ + + + NEW YORK + THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1916 + BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY + + Sixteenth Thousand + + + + + [Illustration: Orison S. Marden] + + + + + TO + MY FRIEND + CHARLES M. SCHWAB + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I THE VICTORIOUS ATTITUDE 1 + II "ACCORDING TO THY FAITH" 17 + III DOUBT THE TRAITOR 41 + IV MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE 62 + V A NEW ROSARY 87 + VI ATTRACTING THE POORHOUSE 117 + VII MAKING YOURSELF A PROSPERITY MAGNET 140 + VIII THE SUGGESTION OF INFERIORITY 163 + IX HAVE YOU TRIED LOVE'S WAY? 183 + X WHERE YOUR SUPPLY IS 217 + XI THE TRIUMPH OF HEALTH IDEALS 239 + XII YOU ARE HEADED TOWARD YOUR IDEAL 268 + XIII HOW TO MAKE THE BRAIN WORK FOR US DURING SLEEP 286 + XIV PREPARING THE MIND FOR SLEEP 303 + XV HOW TO STAY YOUNG 318 + XVI OUR ONENESS WITH INFINITE LIFE 343 + + + + +THE VICTORIOUS ATTITUDE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VICTORIOUS ATTITUDE + + Go boldly; go serenely, go augustly; + Who can withstand thee then! + BROWNING. + + What a grasp the mind would have if we could always hold the + victorious attitude toward everything! Sweeping past obstacles + and reaching out into the energy of the universe it would gather + to itself material for building a life in its own image. + + +To be a conqueror in appearance, in one's bearing, is the first step +toward success. It inspires confidence in others as well as in oneself. +Walk, talk and act as though you were a somebody, and you are more +likely to become such. Move about among your fellowmen as though you +believe you are a man of importance. Let victory speak from your face +and express itself in your manner. Carry yourself like one who is +conscious he has a splendid mission, a grand aim in life. Radiate a +hopeful, expectant, cheerful atmosphere. In other words, be a good +advertisement of the winner you are trying to be. + +Doubts, fears, despondency, lack of confidence, will not only give you +away in the estimation of others and brand you as a weakling, a probable +failure, but they will react upon your mentality and destroy your +self-confidence, your initiative, your efficiency. They are telltales, +proclaiming to every one you meet that you are losing out in the game of +life. A triumphant expression inspires trust, makes a favorable +impression. A despondent, discouraged expression creates distrust, makes +an unfavorable impression. + +If you don't look cheerful and appear and act like a winner nobody will +want you. Every man will turn a deaf ear to your plea for work. No +matter if you are jobless and have been out of work for a long time you +must keep up a winning appearance, a victorious attitude, or you will +lose the very thing you are after. The world has little use for whiners, +or long-faced failures. + +It is difficult to get very far away from people's estimate of us. A +bad first impression often creates a prejudice that it is impossible +afterwards wholly to remove. Hence the importance of always radiating a +cheerful, uplifting atmosphere, an atmosphere that will be a +commendation instead of a condemnation. Not that we should deceive by +trying to appear what we are not, but we should always keep our best +side out, not our second best or our worst. Our personal appearance is +our show window where we insert what we have for sale, and we are judged +by what we put there. + +The victorious idea of life, not its failure side, its disappointed +side; the triumphant, not the thwarted-ambition side, is the thing to +keep ever uppermost in the mind, for it is this that will lead you to +the light. You must give the impression that you are a success, or that +you have qualities that will make you successful, that you are making +good, or no recommendation or testimonial however strong will counteract +the unfavorable impression you make. + +So much of our progress in life depends upon our reputation, upon making +a favorable impression upon others, that it is of the utmost importance +to cultivate mental forcefulness. It is the mind that colors the +personality, gives it its tone and character. If we cultivate will +power, decision, positive instead of negative thinking, we cannot help +making an impression of masterfulness, and everybody knows that this is +the qualification that does things. It is masterfulness, force, that +achieves results, and if we do not express it in our appearance people +will not have confidence in our achieving ability. They may think that +we can sell goods behind a counter, work under orders, carry out some +mechanical routine with faithfulness and precision, but they will not +think we are fitted for leadership, that we can command resources to +meet possible crises or big emergencies. + +Never say or do anything which will show the earmarks of a weakling, of +a nobody, of a failure. Never permit yourself to assume a +poverty-stricken attitude. Never show the world a gloomy, pessimistic +face, which is an admission that life has been a disappointment to you +instead of a glorious triumph. Never admit by your speech, your +appearance, your gait, your manner, that there is anything wrong with +you. Hold up your head. Walk erect. Look everybody in the face. No +matter how poor you may be, or how shabby your clothes, whether you are +jobless, homeless, friendless even, show the world that you respect +yourself, that you believe in yourself, and that, no matter how hard the +way, you are marching on to victory. Show by your expression that you +can think and plan for yourself, that you have a forceful mentality. + +The victorious, triumphant attitude will put you in command of resources +which a timid, self-depreciating, failure attitude will drive from you. + +This was well illustrated by a visitor to the Athenæum Library in +Boston. Ignorant of the fact that members only were entitled to its +special privileges, this visitor entered the place with a confident +bearing, seated herself in a comfortable window seat, and spent a +delightful morning reading and writing letters. In the evening she +called on a friend and in the course of conversation, referred to her +morning at the Athenæum. + +"Why, I didn't know you were a member!" exclaimed the friend. + +"A member! No," said the lady. "I am not a member. But what difference +does that make?" + +The friend, who held an Athenæum card of membership, smiled and replied: + +"Only this, that none but members are supposed to enjoy the privileges +of which you availed yourself this morning!" + +Our manner and our appearance are determined by our mental outlook. If +we see only failure ahead we will act and look like failures. We have +already failed. If we expect success, see it waiting for us a little bit +up the road, we will act and look like successes. We have already +succeeded. The failure attitude loses; the victorious attitude wins. + +Had the lady in Boston had any doubt of her right to enter the Athenæum +and freely to use all its conveniences, her manner would have betrayed +it. The library attendants would have noticed it at once, and have asked +her to show her card of membership. But her assured air gave the +impression that she was a member. Her victorious attitude dominated the +situation, and put her in command of resources which otherwise she could +not have controlled. + +The spirit in which you face your work, in which you grapple with a +difficulty, the spirit in which you meet your problem, whether you +approach it like a conqueror, with courage, a vigorous resolution, with +firmness, or with timidity, doubt, fear, will determine whether your +career will be one grand victory or a complete failure. + +It is a great thing so to carry yourself wherever you go that when +people see you coming they will say to themselves, "Here comes a winner! +Here is a man who dominates everything he touches." + +Thinking of yourself as habitually lucky will tend to make you so, just +as thinking of yourself as habitually unlucky and always talking about +your failures and your cruel fate will tend to make you unlucky. The +attitude of mind which your thoughts and convictions produce is a real +force which builds or tears down. The habit of always seeing yourself as +a fortunate individual, the feeling grateful just for being alive, for +being allowed to live on this beautiful earth and to have a chance to +make good will put your mind in a creative, producing attitude. + +We should all go through life as though we were sent here with a sublime +mission to lift, to help, to boost, and not to depress and discourage, +and so discredit the plan of the Creator. Our conduct should show that +we are on this earth to play a magnificent part in life's drama, to make +a splendid contribution to humanity. + +The majority of people seem to take it for granted that life is a great +gambling game in which the odds are heavily against them. This +conviction colors their whole attitude, and is responsible for +innumerable failures. + +In the betting machines used by horse racing gamblers the bettors make +the odds. If, for example, five hundred persons bet on a certain horse, +and a hundred bet on another, then the first horse automatically becomes +a five to one choice, and the odds in favor of his winning are five to +one. In the game of life most of us start out by putting the odds on our +failure. + +In horse race gambling the judgment that forms the basis of belief as to +the winning horse has a comparatively secure foundation in a knowledge +of the qualifications of the different racers. In life gambling it is +merely the unsupported opinion or viewpoint of the individual that puts +the odds against himself. The majority of people look on the probability +of their winning out in the life game in any distinctive way as highly +improbable. When they look around and see how comparatively few of the +multitudes of men and women in the world are winning they say to +themselves, "Why should I think that I have a greater percentage of +chance in my favor than others about me? These people have as much +ability as I have, perhaps more, and if they can do no more than grub +along from hand to mouth, of what use is it for me to struggle against +fate?" + +When people believe and figure that they cannot, and therefore never +will, be successes, and conduct themselves according to their +conviction: when they take their places in life not as probable winners, +but as probable losers, is it any wonder that the odds are heavily +against them? + +"Mad! Insane! Eccentric!" we say when some miserable recluse dies in +squalor and wretchedness,--"Starved," the coroner's inquest finds, +although bank books revealing large deposits, or else hoards of gold, +are discovered hidden away in nooks and crannies of the wretched miser's +quarters. + +Are such persons, whom we call mad, insane, eccentric, who stint and +save, and hoard in the midst of plenty, refusing even to buy food to +keep them alive, any worse than those who face life in a +poverty-stricken, failure attitude, refusing to see and enjoy the +riches, the glories all around them? Is it any wonder that life is a +disappointment to them? Is it any wonder that they see only what they +look for, get only what they expect? + +What would you think of an actor who was trying to play the part of a +great hero, but who insisted on assuming the attitude of a coward, and +thinking like one; who wore the expression of a man who did not believe +he could do the thing he had undertaken, who felt that he was out of +place, that he never was made to play the part he was attempting? +Naturally you would say the man never could succeed on the stage, and +that if he ever hoped to win success, the first thing he should do would +be to try to think himself the character, as well as to look the part, +he was trying to portray. That is just what the great actor does. He +flings himself with all his might into the rôle he is playing. He sees +himself as, and feels that he is actually, the character he is +impersonating. He lives the part he is playing on the stage, whether it +be that of a beggar or a hero. If he is playing the part of a hero he +acts like a hero, thinks and talks like a hero. His very manner radiates +heroism. And vice versa, if the part he takes is that of a beggar, he +dresses like one, thinks like one, bows, cringes and whines like a +beggar. + +Now, if you are trying to be successful you must act like a successful +person, carry yourself like one, talk, act and think like a winner. You +must radiate victory wherever you go. You must maintain your attitude by +believing in the thing you are trying to do. If you persist in looking +and acting like a failure or a very mediocre or doubtful success, if you +keep telling everybody how unlucky you are, and that you do not believe +you will win out because success is only for a few, that the great +majority of people must be hewers of wood and drawers of water, you will +be about as much of a success as the actor who attempts to personate a +certain type of character while looking, thinking and acting exactly +like its opposite. + +By a psychological law we attract that which corresponds with our mental +attitude, with our faith, our hopes, our expectations, or with our +doubts and fears. If this were fully understood, and used as a working +principle in life, we would have no poverty, no failures, no criminals, +no down-and-outs. We would not see people everywhere with expressions +which indicate that there is very little enjoyment in living; that it is +a serious question with them whether life is really worth while, whether +it really pays to struggle on in a miserable world where rewards are so +few and uncertain and pains and penalties so numerous and so certain. + +Every boy, every girl should be taught to assume the victorious attitude +toward life. All through a youth's education the idea should be drilled +into him that he is intended to be a winner in life, that he is himself +a prince, a god in the making. From his cradle up he should be taught to +hold his head high, and to look on himself as a son of the King of +kings, destined for great things. + +No child is properly reared and educated until he or she knows how to +lead a victorious life. This is what true education means--victory over +self, victory over conditions. + +It always pains me to hear a youth who ought to be full of hope and high +promise express a doubt as to his future career. To hear him talk about +his possible failure sounds like treason to his Creator. Why, youth +itself is victory. Youth is a great prophecy, the forerunner of a superb +fulfillment. A young man or a young woman talking about failure is like +beauty talking about ugliness; like superb health dwelling upon weakness +and disease; like perfection dwelling upon imperfection. Youth means +victory, because everything in the life of the healthy boy or girl is +looking upward. There is no downgrade in normal youth; it is its nature +to climb, to look up. Its very atmosphere should breathe hope, superb +promise of the future. + +If all children were reared with such a triumphant conception of life, +with such an unshakable belief in their heritage from God, that nothing +could discourage them, we would hear no talk of failure; we would soon +sight the millenium. If they were made to understand that there is only +one failure to be feared,--failure to make good, the failure of +character, the failure to keep growing, to ennoble and enrich one's +life,--this world would be a paradise. + +Just think what would happen if all of the down-and-outs to-day, all of +the people who look upon themselves as failures or as dwarfs of what +they ought to be, could only get this victorious, this triumphant, idea +of life, if they could only once glimpse their own possibilities and +assume the triumphant attitude! They would never again be satisfied to +grovel. If they once got a glimpse of their divinity, once saw +themselves in the sublime robes of their power, they never again would +be satisfied with the rags of their poverty. + +But instead of trying to improve their condition, to get away from their +failure, poverty-stricken atmosphere, they cling the more closely to it +and sink deeper and deeper in the quagmire of their own making. +Everywhere we find whining, miserable people grumbling at everything, +complaining that "life is not worth living," that "the game is not worth +the candle," that "life is a cheat, a losing game." + +Life is not a losing game. It is always victorious when properly played. +It is the players who are at fault. The great trouble with all failures +is that they were not started right. It was not drilled into the very +texture of their being in youth that what they would get out of life +must be created mentally first, and that inside the man, inside the +woman, is where the great creative processes of life are carried on. + +That which man does with his hands is secondary. It is what he does with +his brain that counts. That is what starts things going. Some of us +never learn how to create with our minds. We depend too much upon +creating with our hands, or on other people to help us. We depend too +much on the things outside of us when the mainspring of life, the power +that moves the world of men and things, is inside of us. + +There are times when we cannot see the way ahead, when we seem to be +completely enveloped in the fogs of discouragement, disappointment and +failure of our plans, but we can always do the thing that means +salvation for us, that is persistently, determinedly, everlastingly to +face towards our goal whether we can see it or not. This is our only +chance of overcoming our difficulties. If we turn about face, turn our +back on our goal, we are headed toward disaster. + +No matter how many obstacles may block your path, or how dark the way, +if you look up, think up, and struggle up, you can't help succeeding. +Whatever you do for a living, whatever fortune or misfortune may come to +you, hold the victorious attitude and push ahead. + +A captain might as well turn about his ship when he strikes a fog bank, +because he cannot see the way ahead of him, and still expect to make his +distant harbor, as for you to drop your victorious attitude and face the +other way just because you have run into a fog bank of disappointment or +failure. The only hope of the captain's reaching his destination is in +being true to the compass that guides him in the fog and darkness as +well as in the light. He may not see the way, but he can follow his +compass. That we also can do by holding the victorious attitude towards +life, the only attitude that can insure safety and bring us into port. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"ACCORDING TO THY FAITH" + + "Where there is Faith there is Love, + Where there is Love there is Peace, + Where there is Peace there is God, + Where there is God there is no need." + + There is a divine voice within us which only speaks when every + other voice is hushed,--only gives its message in the silence. + + +"I shall study law," said an ambitious youngster, "and those who are +already in the profession must take their chances!" + +The divine self-confidence of youth, the unshaken faith that believes +all things possible, often makes cynics and world-weary people smile. +Yet it is the grandest, most helpful attribute of man, the finest gift +of the Creator to the race. If we could retain through life the faith of +ambitious, self-confident, untried youth, its unquestioning belief in +its ability to carve out its ideal in the actual, what wonders we should +all accomplish! Such faith would enable us literally to remove +mountains. + +All through the Scriptures faith is emphasized as a tremendous power. It +was by faith that Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt, through +the waters of the Red Sea, and through the wilderness. It was by faith +that Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, and all of the great prophets performed +their miracles. + +Faith was the great characteristic of Christ Himself. The word was +constantly on His lips, "According to thy faith be it unto thee." He +often referred to it as the measure of what we receive in life, also as +the great healer, the great restorer. Whenever He healed He laid the +entire emphasis upon the faith of the healer and the one healed. "Thy +faith hath made thee whole," "Believe only and she shall be made whole," +"Thy faith hath saved thee." Or He reproved His disciples for the lack +of faith which prevented them from healing, as when He addresses them, +"O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and +suffer you." + +Faith believes; doubt fears. Faith creates; doubt destroys. Faith opens +the door to all things desirable in life; doubt closes them. Faith is an +arouser, an awakener of our creative forces. It opens the door of +ability and arouses creative energies. Faith is the link in the Great +Within which connects man with his Maker. It is the divine messenger +sent to guide men, blinded by doubt and sin. Our faith puts us in touch +with Infinite Power, opens the way to unbounded possibilities, limitless +resources. No one can rise higher than his faith. No one can do a +greater thing than he believes he can. The fact that a person believes +implicitly that he can do what may seem impossible to others, shows +there is something within him that has gotten a glimpse of power +sufficient to accomplish his purpose. + +Men who have achieved great things could not account for their faith; +they could not tell why they had an unflinching belief that they could +do what they undertook. But the mere fact of such belief was evidence +that they had had a glimpse of interior resourcefulness, reserve power +and possibilities which would warrant that faith; and they have gone +ahead with implicit confidence that they would come out all right, +because this faith told them so. It told them so because it had been in +communication with something that was divine, that which had passed the +bounds of the limited and had veered into the limitless. + +Men and women who have left their mark on the world have been implicit +followers of their faith when they could see no light; but their unseen +guide has led them through the wilderness of doubt and hardship into the +promised land. + +When we begin to exercise self-faith, self-confidence, we are +stimulating and increasing the strength of the faculties which enable us +to do the thing we have set our heart on doing. Our faith causes us to +concentrate on our object, and thus develops power to accomplish it. +Faith tells us that we may proceed safely, even when our mental +faculties see no light or encouragement ahead. It is a divine leader +which never misdirects us. But we must always be sure that it is faith, +and not merely egotism or selfish desire that is urging us. There is a +great difference between the two, and no one who is true to himself can +possibly be deceived. + +When we are doing right, when we are on the right track, our faith in +the divine order of things never wavers. It sustains in situations +which drive the self-centered egoist to despair. The man who does +not see the Designer behind the design everywhere, who does not +see the mighty Intelligence back of every created thing, cannot +have that sublime faith which buoys up the great achievers and +civilization-builders. + +Our supreme aim should be to get the best from life, the best in the +highest sense that life has to give, and this we cannot do without +superb faith in the Infinite. What we accomplish will be large or small +according to the measure of this faith. It is the man who believes in +the one Source of All who believes most in himself; it is the man who +sees good in everything, who sees the divine in his fellow-man, who has +faith in everybody, who is the master man. The skeptic, the pessimist, +has no bulwark of faith, none of the divine enthusiasm that faith gives, +none of the zeal that carries the man of faith unscathed through the +most terrible trials. + +Without confidence in the beneficence of the great universal plan we can +not have much confidence in ourselves. To get the best out of ourselves +we must believe that there is a current running heavenward, however +much our surroundings may seem to contradict this. We must believe that +the Creator will not be foiled in His plan, and that everything will +work together for good, however much wars and crime, poverty, suffering +and wretchedness all about us may seem to deny this. + +The abiding faith in a Power which will bring things out right in the +end, which will harmonize discord, has always been strong in men and +women who have done great things in the world, especially in those who +have achieved grand results in spite of the most severe trials and +tribulations. + +It takes sublime faith to enable a man to fight his way through +"insuperable" difficulties, to bear up under discouragements, +afflictions and seeming failure without losing heart; and it is just +such faith that has characterized every great soul that has ever made +good. Whatever other qualities they may have lacked, great characters +have always had sublime faith. They have believed in human nature. They +have believed in men. They have believed in the beneficent Intelligence +running through the universe. + +Some of the most important reforms in history have been brought about by +very fragile, delicate men and women, not only without outside +encouragement, but in the teeth of the most determined opposition. They +have agitated and agitated, hoped and hoped, and struggled and +struggled, until victory came. No one could even attempt the herculean +tasks they accomplished without that instinctive, abiding faith in a +Power superior to their own,--a Power which would work in harmony with +honesty, with earnestness, with integrity of purpose, in a persistent +struggle for the right, but which would never sanction wrong. + +Think of what the faith of St. Paul enabled him to do for the world! +Think of what Christ's little band of chosen disciples succeeded in +accomplishing in spite of the might of the Roman empire pitted against +them! The power of the greatest benefactors of the race came largely +from the inspiration of faith in their mission, their belief that they +were born to deliver a certain message to the world, that they were to +make an important contribution to civilization. Think of what the faith +of the inventor has done! It has kept him at his task, kept him nerved +and encouraged in the face of starvation, kept him at his work when his +family had gone back on him, when his neighbors had denounced him, and +called him insane. Think of what the faith of Columbus, of Luther, of +the Wesleys, has accomplished for mankind! It has ever been men with +indomitable faith that have moved the world. They have been the great +pioneers of progress. + +An instinctive faith in the Divine Force which permeates the universe, +which is friendly to the right and antagonistic to the wrong, has ever +been the unseen helper that supported, encouraged, and stimulated men +and women to accomplish the "impossible," or that which to lower natures +seems beyond human capacity. It is this which sustains brave souls in +adversity and enables them to bear up, to believe and hope and struggle +on when everything seems to go against them. It is the same principle +which supported the martyr at the stake and enabled him to smile when +the flames were licking the flesh from his bones. + +Faith has ever been the greatest power in civilization. It has built our +railroads, has revealed the secrets of nature to science, has led the +way to all our inventions and discoveries, and has brought success out +of the most inhospitable conditions and iron environments. In fact, we +owe everything that has been accomplished to faith, and yet when we come +to its practical application in our everyday affairs how few of us avail +ourselves of this tremendous force! The vast majority are looking for +some power outside to help, when we ourselves hold the key which has +ever unlocked, and ever will unlock, all barred doors to aspiring souls. + +If people could only realize what a potent building, creative force +faith is, and would exercise it in their daily lives, we should have +very few paupers, very few failures, very few sickly, diseased or +criminal among us. If, by some magic, a strong, vigorous faith could be +injected into the men and women of the great failure army to-day, the +larger part of them would get out of this army and get into the army of +the successful. + +It is not alone in our life work, or in great or special undertakings +that faith is necessary. We need it every moment of our lives, in +everything, great and small, that concerns us. It is just as necessary +to your health as it is to your success. To build up the faith habit, +faith in human nature, the habit of believing in yourself, in your +ability, of believing that you are sane, sound, and level headed, that +you have good judgment and good horse sense, that you are victory +organized and that you are going to attain your ambition, is to blaze a +path to success. + +A man begins to deteriorate, to go toward failure, not when he loses all +of his material possessions, not when he fails in his undertakings, but +when he loses faith in himself, in his ability to make his dreams come +true. + +When we remember that self-faith characterizes successful people, and +lack of it the mediocres and the failures, one would think that +everybody would cultivate this divine quality which by itself alone has +done so much for the individual and for the world. + +The reason why faith works such marvels is that it is the leader of all +the other mental faculties. They will not proceed until faith goes +ahead. It is the basis of courage, of initiative, of enthusiasm. Much of +Napoleon's power and early success came from his tremendous faith in +his mission, the conviction that he was a man of destiny, that he was +born under a lucky star, born to conquer. Shorn of his mighty belief in +his star, stripped of the faith that he was born to rule, he would have +been no more of a power in human affairs than the dullest private in the +ranks of his army. When warned by his generals not to expose himself to +the enemy, he would reply that the bullet or the cannon had not been +cast which could kill Napoleon. This invincible belief in his destiny +added wonderfully to his natural powers. + +It was her conviction that she was chosen of God to free France from its +enemies that made Joan of Arc, the simple, ignorant peasant girl of +Domrèmy, the saviour of her country. Her mighty faith in her divine +mission gave her a dignity and a miraculous force of character, a +positive genius, that made all the commanders of the French army obey +her as private soldiers obey their superior officers. Faith in herself +and in her mission transformed the peasant maiden into the greatest +military leader of her time. + +There is no doubt that every human being comes to this earth with a +mission. We are not accidental puppets thrown off to be buffetted by +luck or chance or cruel fate. We are a part of the great universal plan. +We were made to fit into this plan, to play a definite part in it. We +come here with a message for humanity which no one else but ourselves +can deliver, and faith in our mission, the belief that we are important +factors in the great creative plan, that we are, in fact, co-creators +with God, will add wonderfully to the dignity and effectiveness of our +lives, will enable us to perform the "impossible." + +If every child were brought up in the firm belief that he was made for +health, happiness, and success; if it were impressed on him that he +should never entertain a doubt of his power to attain them, as a man he +would be infinitely stronger in his powers of self-assertion and in his +self-confidence; and these qualities strengthen the ability, unify the +faculties, clarify the vision, and make the attainment of what the heart +yearns for a hundred per cent. more probable than if he had not been +thus reared. + +A child's faith is instinctive, and if not tampered with, destroyed by +wrong training, would continue through life. We see this sort of +instinctive faith illustrated by the lower animals. Take the birds, or +the domestic hen, for example. See how patiently she sits on the eggs +week after week until the chickens are hatched. She cannot see the +chickens when she begins to sit, but her belief that they will come if +she does her part induces her to give up her liberty for weeks, and to +go sometimes for days without food, that she may keep the eggs at the +right temperature in order to produce the chickens. + +The trouble with most of us is that we do not have sufficient faith in +the creative power of the vigorous determination to do a thing, in the +persistent endeavor backed by self--faith to accomplish what we desire. +We give up too easily under discouragement. We haven't sufficient +stamina and grit to push on under disheartening conditions. We want to +see clear through from the beginning to the end of whatever we +undertake. We refuse to have faith. Yet much of the time throughout life +we may have to work without any goal in sight, or at least without any +clear light to see it, but if the mental attitude is right we know that, +somehow, we shall attain our heart's desire. We have merely been shown a +program which we are capable of carrying out, a table of contents of our +capabilities, the signs of the corresponding realities, for faith is not +an idle dream, an illusive picture of the imagination. We have not been +mocked by ideals and aspirations, soul-yearnings and heart-longings for +the things which have no possible realities. Faith is not a cheat. There +is ability to match the faith. + +There is something about devotion to one's inward vision, the intense +desire and concentrated effort to fulfill what we believe to be our +mission here, that has a solidifying influence upon the character, gives +poise and peace of mind and also helps us to realize our vision. + +The probabilities are that the iceberg which sent the _Titanic_, with +sixteen hundred souls, to the bottom of the ocean did not even feel a +tremor at the shock. More than seven-eighths of its huge bulk was below +the water, deep down in the eternal calm of the sea, beyond the reach of +storm or tempest. Like the giant iceberg, faith reaches down into the +serene within of us, into the eternal calm of the soul. It is not +disturbed by the surface commotions. A life poised in faith rides +steadily, triumphantly, through the tempests and the hurricanes of +existence. + +You will constantly be confronted with things which tend to destroy +faith in God and faith in yourself. There are many times in life when +about all we can do is to hold on to the hand of the Divine Guide until +we have run through the storm zone. We have to learn to turn away from +the heart-breaks of life and to face toward the light. We have to +disregard the criticisms and the discouragement of others, as well as +the assaults of fear and doubt, and press on to our goal. + +If you go in business for yourself, if you are struggling to get an +education, if you are making desperate efforts to realize your ambition, +whatever it is, you will find plenty of pessimists who will predict your +failure. They will tell you that you never can build up a business +without a lot of capital and outside help in these times of terrific +competition, that you cannot work your way through college, that you +can never be whatever you are dreaming of and longing to be. You will +meet plenty of obstacles and much opposition, and it will take a very +stiff backbone, a lot of sand and grit to keep pushing on towards your +goal against great odds, but faith is more than a match for all these. +Nothing else will enable you to win out. + +Remember it is not other people's faith in you but your faith in +yourself that counts most. It is a good thing to have other people's +good opinion, to have their confidence in us, their faith in the success +of our efforts, but it is not imperative. Our own is. No man ever gets +anywhere or does anything great in this world without faith in himself, +without a superb belief that he is on the right track, that he is doing +the thing he was made to do, that he is going to stick to it through +thick and thin to the end. It takes faith to look beyond obstacles, to +see the way over difficulties, to brave opposition and to allow nothing +to swerve us from our course. + +You cannot keep any one from succeeding who has an unshakable faith in +his mission. You cannot crush the faith that wrestles with +difficulties, that never weakens under trials or afflictions, that +pushes on when everybody else turns back, that gets up with greater +determination every time it is knocked down. + +In the sacred Confucian scriptures we are told that a very devoted +disciple of Confucius, on a pilgrimage to his master, was stopped on his +journey by a broad river. As he could not swim and could not procure a +boat, the zealous disciple resolved that he would walk on the water. +Believing that the necessity of seeing his master was most urgent, and +being filled with zeal in the performance of his mission, he boldly made +the attempt--and succeeded. The record of this miracle is supposed by +followers of Confucius to be just as authentic as the Bible account of +the walking of Christ on the water. + +If, like this zealot, you have faith in your power to overcome +difficulties, nothing can keep you from your goal. If, like Joan of Arc, +you believe you are appointed by God to perform a certain work, it will +help you wonderfully to make good. It will dignify your life and your +efforts, and thus save you from a thousand temptations to waste your +time in frivolous pursuits. It will put a higher value upon your +importance to the world. To feel that you have a divine mission that no +one else can perform, that you came here with a sacred message for +mankind, and that it is up to you to deliver it will add a wonderful +motive for effectiveness in your life work. The consciousness that you +are keeping faith with your Creator and with yourself, that you are +keeping faith with your fellowmen and earning their respect and love, +that you are keeping faith with a splendid life purpose, with your +holiest vision, gives a satisfaction which nothing else can afford. + +Cling to your faith no matter what happens. It is your best friend. Like +the magnetic needle on the ship's deck, which will find the north star, +no matter how dense the fog, how dark the night, or how threatening the +tempest, your faith, even though you cannot see, will find the way. It +sees the open road, beyond the mountain of difficulties which shuts out +the vision of the other faculties. + +Some time ago, during one of our periodical business crises, some +newspapers made merry over a statement of President Wilson that the +condition of the United States, illustrated by the fact that eighty +thousand freight cars were at the time side-tracked along the lines of +one of our great railroads alone, could be changed by psychology. One of +these papers sarcastically suggested that if we should take a dose of +the psychology remedy and go to sleep somewhere in the misty, cloudy +lands of theory, and dream that those eighty thousand empty freight cars +were moving, we should see them move. + +Now, in spite of newspaper skepticism, I believe that the psychology +remedy if applied in every financial, business, or other crisis would +prove absolutely effective. If all the people of this country would +persistently hold a mental attitude of faith in our prosperity, which is +the birthright of the inhabitants of this land of plenty; if they would +have faith that our vast resources would enable us to carry on business, +regardless of conditions in Europe or elsewhere, and if they would act +in accordance with their faith, there would be no idle freight cars, no +lack of work, no lack of money at any time. + +It is the mental attitude of the people of the United States that +causes financial panics and recurrent "hard times." And there is +something dead wrong in a state of mind which produces periodical +crises, intervals of nationwide stagnation in a land with resources +great enough to make every one of its citizens rich, in a land where the +State of Texas alone could give every one of them a better living than +the majority get to-day. + +Before we can make business conditions stable we must have faith in the +stability of our limitless wealth, in the opulence of the earth over +which the Creator has given us control. We have got to hold the +prosperous vision, to see better times with the mental eye, not dimly in +the future, but now, to have more faith in our Maker, in our nation, in +ourselves individually. + +Why, if we analyze the matter, we will see that our unparalleled +national prosperity has been built up largely by psychology. Its +foundations had their root in the faith of our forefathers, in their +belief in our country's possibilities. + +We all know that faith has preceded every achievement in the world's +history. The activities of the whole country to-day are based upon +psychology, upon the mental attitude, the faith, the hope, the +expectation of its inhabitants. + +"Without a vision the people perish," and when our vision, our faith, +shrivels, when it is obscured or displaced by doubt, fear, anxiety, lack +of confidence, all our activities suffer accordingly. + +With abundant crops, with a lowering death rate and increasing longevity +of our people, with constantly growing educational facilities, America +ought to register every day of every year a high water point of +prosperity. But when a large portion of the people lack faith in the +future, when, from time to time, uncertainty is in the air, when +everybody is doubting and fearing, waiting to see what is coming next, +of course business will stagnate. It will follow the prevailing mental +attitude, hesitate, waver, doubt, stand still like the idle freight +cars. + +We are just beginning to see that faith is as much a real force as is +electricity. It is faith that removes mountains--mountains of +difficulty, of opposition, of doubt, of distrust. It clears the track +of all obstructions. It makes stepping stones of stumbling blocks. Faith +is the most powerful, the most sublime of human attributes. Without it +the bottom would drop out of civilization. It is the fundamental +principle of life. Faith is the basis of health, of success, of +happiness, of love itself. It believes in, hopes, trusts, clings to the +loved one in spite of all faults and sins. It is faith that heals, that +achieves, that hopes. The very feeling of harmony between ourselves and +our God, that which gives assurance, a sense of protection and of safety +which nothing else can give, is born of our faith in Him, in whom we +live and move and have our being. + +We must realize and appreciate more and more our divinity, the fact that +we are made in the image of our Creator and that we must partake +consciously of His qualities. Then we will have more faith in our +powers. When we are conscious of having qualities like His we can rise +above apparent limitations, above hereditary weakness. It is all +preëminently a question of holding the right thought--the thought that +builds, the thought that creates, that produces, the thought that we +have within us unlimited possibilities, which can be realized. A sublime +self-faith is absolutely indispensable to all great achievement. + +Let no one shake your faith in yourself. That is what brings you into +closest connection with God. It is your mainstay. There is no magic like +faith; it elevates, refines and multiplies the power of every other +faculty. + +Whether we are starting out in life, or going downhill on the other +side, facing the transition we call death, faith is our bracer, the +trusty leader that will never fail to guide us to the home of our +heart's desire. + +If you are filled with a great faith you will not fear, though you walk +through the valley of the shadow. Though the way may be dark faith will +lead you into the light. The Power that has sustained you every moment +of your existence, and without which you could not exist a fraction of a +second, will certainly not leave you in your greatest need. + +If you bade your child jump into your arms, he would not hesitate even +though it was so dark that he could not see you. He would jump because +of his faith in you. He would know that he would be perfectly safe in +doing whatever you told him. Why should we fear to jump into the arms of +the Infinite when we come to death's door, which is only the entrance to +another life? Why should we fear to cross the valley that leads to the +new life when we know that our great Father-Mother-God is on the other +side waiting with outstretched arms to receive us? + + "I will not doubt; well anchored in the faith, + Like some stanch ship, my soul braves every gale, + So strong its courage that it will not fail + To breast the mighty unknown sea of Death. + Oh, may I cry when body parts with spirit, + 'I do not doubt,' so listening worlds may hear it, + With my last breath." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +DOUBT THE TRAITOR + + Faith is the torch that leads the way when the other faculties + cannot see. + + It is doubting and facing the wrong way, facing toward the black, + depressing, hopeless outlook that kills effort and paralyzes + ambition. + + There is a divine current within us which would always flow + Godward, always lead to our ultimate advantage, did we not + obstruct it, or turn it aside by our doubts and fears. + + He who has conquered doubt and fear has conquered failure. + + JAMES ALLEN. + + +When David Hume, the agnostic, was twitted with his inconsistency in +going to hear the orthodox Scotch minister, John Brown, preach, he +replied, "I don't believe all that he says, but _he_ does, and once a +week I like to hear a man who believes what he says." + +If you utter a lie with the conviction that you are speaking the truth +people will believe what you say, whereas if you proclaim a truth in a +weak, hesitating voice, in a doubting manner, no one will believe you. +If you should take a tray of genuine gold pieces upon the street and try +to sell them, while showing by your very expression that you did not +believe in what you had for sale, you could not dispose of those gold +pieces for a tithe of their value. Nobody would believe either in their +genuineness or in your own. Your timid, doubting, hesitating manner +would queer all your chances of doing what you wanted to do. + +I used to go trout fishing with two men, one of whom was always saying +that he never had any luck fishing, that he somehow didn't have the +knack, and never expected to catch many fish. This doubt totally +unfitted him for successful trout fishing. He didn't take enough +interest in the sport to study the habits and the haunts of the trout. +He did not know the likely places in streams and rivers to drop his +hook. He did not know the best kinds of bait to use. His doubt of his +ability led to indifference, and this made him a failure as a trout +fisher. The other man never had a doubt of success. If there were any +trout to be caught he felt sure he would catch them. For years he had +made a study of trout habits. He could tell which side of the big rocks +to cast his hook, and he knew how to cast it in a way that would tempt +the trout. Fishing in the same stream alongside the doubtful, +indifferent fisherman he would catch ten times as many fish. + +If there is a great big doubt in your self-faith, if you have left a +bridge standing for your retreat in case of defeat, if you lack +clean-cut, firm decision, if there is any interrogation point in your +confidence in yourself, there will be a limp in your success gait, and +you will not be able to rise out of mediocrity. + +Our worst enemies are not outside but inside of us. Every human being +harbors a traitor who is always on the watch to thwart his ambition, to +turn him aside from his aim. That traitor is doubt. You must make up +your mind at the very outset of your career that you will always be +followed about by certain mental enemies, mental traitors, which will +try to dissuade you from doing the highest or biggest thing possible to +you. Doubt is one of the most insistent of these, and will dog your +steps to your grave. The man or woman who is not strong enough to +resist its insidious attacks will never do what he or she is capable of +doing, and was sent into the world by the Creator to do. + +The person who is always fearful of consequences, who is in doubt as to +the outcome of his acts, or whether he is really capable of doing what +he undertakes, will always be a weakling. No one who is not bigger than +his doubts can ever accomplish anything great or worth while, because +this subtle enemy kills initiative and self-confidence, and without +these dominant qualities no human being can measure up to his +possibilities. + +But for doubt, which strangles the very beginning of things, initiative +instead of being so rare would be a common virtue among all classes. +Nine out of ten average individuals are held back from testing their +powers by the suggestions of doubt. If it were possible to drive from +the human mind this specter which stands at the door of our hopes, of +our resolution, which throws its baleful shadow across our vision, +civilization would forge ahead by leaps and bounds. This miserable +traitor, under the guise of a friend, is holding down millions of men +and women below the level of their powers, keeping them from beginning +things which they are capable of doing, but which doubt warns them at +their peril not to attempt. + +Doubt is responsible for more suicides, more misery, more bankrupt +lives, more failures, than any other one thing. It makes more people +afraid to start out on a course they know they ought to pursue than any +other thing. Standing right at the gateway of our choice, at the parting +of the ways, when we have fully resolved to take the path that is best +for us, a hard and forbidding one compared with the easy way along the +line of least resistance, doubt calls a halt. It bids us pause and think +once more, asks us to look again at the rugged path we have chosen and +consider whether we really want to pay the price of our choice, to take +that turning when the other looks so much brighter and pleasanter and is +so very much easier. + +This is the point of cleavage which marks the beginning of failure for +the timid soul who is not bigger than his doubt. The suggestions pushed +into his mind by his enemy make him hesitate. He is moved to "stop, +look, and listen." He begins to reconsider, to look again at the +obstacles ahead, and the longer he looks the bigger they grow. He +becomes frightened, fears he cannot do the thing that at first seemed +possible, and finally turns aside to the easier path of mediocrity and +commonness. + +Doubt has killed more splendid projects, shattered more ambitious +schemes, strangled more effective genius, neutralized more superb +effort, blasted more fine intellects, thwarted more splendid ambitions +than any other enemy of the race. + +Talk about drug victims and slaves of drink! Doubt has more victims than +even these terrible enemies of the race. We see them everywhere in +menial and lowly positions, perpetual clerks, discontented drudges, +hewers of wood and drawers of water, paralyzed at the very gateway of +their career by that fatal trait which they have never learned how to +strangle, to neutralize with its opposites, faith, hope, confidence, +assurance. + +How many thousands of employees plodding along in mediocrity to-day +could have been in business for themselves but for this great enemy +inside of them! How many splendid young men have been kept out of the +pulpit, how many superb lawyers, in possibility, have been strangled by +this traitor! How many men are to-day clerks, bookkeepers, or other +subordinates, who might have been managers, superintendents or +proprietors themselves but for the work of this damnable traitor! + +When opportunity presented itself these doubters were afraid. They +waited for certainty. They dared not take chances. They did not realize +that opportunity is a maiden who admires the bold, courageous, +self-confident suitor. They did not wake up in time to the fact that she +will not trust herself to the timid, the hesitant, the over-cautious +suitor. When too late they realized that while the doubter is wavering +and hesitating, wondering if he dare try to win, the daring, intrepid +wooer steps in and wins. + +The great prizes of life are for the courageous, the dauntless, the +self-confident. The timid, hesitating, vacillating man who listens to +his doubts and fears stops to make up his mind, and--the opportunity +has passed beyond his reach. + +Doubt, uncertainty, or fear as to results, is the great discourager of +the human race. It is the dire enemy of all achievement. It tells the +poor boy and girl who long for an education that it is foolish for them +to think of going through school and college without money or without +somebody to help them. It tells them that there are many more poor boys +and girls in every school and college who are trying to pay their way +than will ever find opportunities to make their education available. It +is always whispering to them that there is a big waiting list of men and +women who were graduated years ago everywhere looking and waiting, +trying in vain to get something to do to earn back the amount they spent +on their education. + +No matter what you attempt to do, what new enterprise you may undertake, +what progressive plans you may make, the traitor doubt will bob up and +call a halt, will try to dissuade you from your purpose. It will suggest +to you how many others have undertaken similar things and have gone to +the wall, have failed to accomplish what they expected. It will tell +you that you had better go slow, that it is foolish to go into business +in times like these, that you should wait until you are better prepared, +until you have more capital; in short, that there are stumbling blocks +in the way, and that you must consider the step very carefully before +you venture to decide. + +It does not matter what we plan to do, doubt is always there ready to +knock our resolutions, and, if possible, to discourage us even from +attempting to put our plans in execution. Who could ever estimate how +many superb inventions and discoveries, which would have helped +emancipate the race from drudgery and hard conditions, have been +side-tracked by this traitor! + +Doubt kills activity, discourages ambition and destroys or neutralizes +the biggest brain power. It would make a pigmy of a Webster. By filling +his mind full of doubt of his own creative power, a hypnotist could make +a Shakespeare believe he was a fool. He could inject a doubt into the +mind of a Napoleon that would cut his genius down to the mediocrity of a +common soldier. + +This arch traitor of mankind is so closely related to fear that it is +almost impossible to draw a dividing line between the two. They are +twins. Wherever doubt can get a foothold it introduces its brother fear, +and fear brings with it all of its relatives, worry, anxiety, +discouragement--the whole failure family. A single day of doubts, of +fears, of unbeliefs, of the crime of self-depreciation, will drive away +from a man all that he has attracted to himself in many months. + +There are multitudes of people to-day suffering from the fatal disease +of self-depreciation, the seeds of which were implanted in them by +doubt. All the victims of discouragement, those who are suffering from +despondency, those who are going through life disheartened, hopeless, +despairing, are the authors of their own misery. They persist in killing +the very thing they are pursuing, in queering their own quest by the +poison of doubt. + +The doubting Thomases never get anywhere, because they have no vision, +and "without a vision the people perish." The man who would do anything +worth while in this world must have a vision, and he must have courage +to match it. Courage is the great leader in the mental realm. Whatever +paralyzes it strangles the initiative, kills the ability to do things. +Doubt is its greatest enemy. It suggests caution at the very moment when +everything depends on boldness. If a general were to be over-cautious, +to wait for absolute certainty in regard to results before putting his +plan of campaign into action, he would never win a battle. + +Caution is an admirable trait, but when carried to excess it ceases to +be a virtue and comes perilously near being a vice. It may render +ineffective many noble qualities. There are a great many people who seem +to be courageous enough, but an excessive development of caution holds +everything in abeyance to wait for certainty. I know men who wait and +wait, never daring to undertake anything where there is risk, even +though their judgment tells them they ought to go ahead. + +We are creatures of habit, and the constant raising of doubts in our +minds as to our ability to do what we want to do in time becomes a habit +of thinking we can't, and when we think we can't, we can't. When a man +begins to listen to his doubts he is beginning to weaken. + +Why delay beginning the thing that you know perfectly well you ought to +do? What are you afraid of? Failure, even, in an honorable attempt, is +preferable to forever postponing the thing that you ought to do. Is it +the additional responsibility you shrink from, the extra work? Do you +have a horror of possible failure? Do you shrink from the possible +humiliation of losing out in your venture? What is it that enlarges your +doubt and holds you back? Some handicap, some invisible thread? Are you +carrying a great excess of baggage, clinging to unnecessary things which +handicap you? + +I have heard of a sailor who lost his life in that way. He was one of +the crew of a ship that was carrying a large quantity of gold nuggets to +a distant port. The ship ran upon a rock, and, when all hope of saving +her or her precious cargo was gone, the captain ordered everybody to +leave the sinking ship. The last boat was ready to push off, but this +sailor refused to get into it until he had loaded himself with gold +nuggets. He said he had been a poor man all his life, and now he was +going to be rich at last. He would take away with him just as much of +the sinking wealth as he could carry. Heedless of the warning of the +captain and his companions that they would not wait for him, he loaded +himself with gold. Then, the boats having pushed away, he jumped +overboard and tried to save himself by clinging to pieces of the wreck. +But, owing to the weight he carried, he could neither float nor swim, +and so the wealth he felt he could not leave behind carried him down to +death. + +Your doubt of your success is probably your biggest handicap. But it +would be a thousand times better to make mistakes by forging ahead too +rapidly, by undertaking more than we can carry out, than to be forever +hovering upon the edge of doubt, delaying, postponing, waiting for +certainty, until we become slaves of a habit which we cannot break. And +remember that the habit of putting off, of waiting to see how things are +going to turn out, to see if something more certain, something with less +of risk, will not turn up, is fatal to initiative, fatal to leadership, +fatal to efficiency. + +I know a man who has been resolving for a quarter of a century to start +something in which he thoroughly believes. Every year during that long +period he has told me that this was the year for him to start. He was +really going to begin his great life work, but doubt has engendered the +putting off habit, and this has such a grip upon him that he shrinks +from undertaking anything new. He seems to have a great fear of getting +out of his old rut, to try something different, a fear that things may +not work out right, that it is not the psychological moment to strike. +He has gray hairs now, the enthusiasm of youth is gone, and he never +will begin to do the thing which everybody who knows him believes he is +perfectly capable of doing. + +All history shows that while experience increases wisdom, it does not +always increase faith. The inexperienced youth will often undertake +things which stagger the older and more experienced. Confidence is +characteristic of youth; but after a few setbacks and disappointments, +many begin to wonder whether, after all, their first confidence was +based upon good judgment, whether their enthusiasm and faith were not +the result of lack of experience, and then they begin to doubt and to +fear that this voice of ambition which is ever beckoning them on and +upward is not reliable. They say to themselves: "What if this should be +merely a mirage to lure me on the rocks," and before they realize it +they are weaving doubts and fears and over-caution into a habit that has +ruined multitudes of careers, a habit that is responsible for a larger +percentage of unused ability, of locked-up powers than any other one +thing. + +Have _you_ done the biggest thing you are capable of doing? Is it not +possible that there is something within you, some unworked mental +territory which, if cultivated, would lead you out into that wider field +you dreamed of when a youth? Why do you go on year after year in the +same old rut, expressing nothing, doing the same old thing in the same +old way because doubt whispers it would be rash to try new ways, new +ideas? How long have you been just an ordinary employee? Do you realize +that habit is getting a tremendous grip upon you, and that before you +realize it you may be a "perpetual clerk"? + +The longer you remain in one position, doing the same thing without +promotion, the stronger the inertia habit will grip you, the bigger will +grow your doubt as to the wisdom of making a change. It is a dangerous +thing to get into a rut. Bestir yourself before it is too late and begin +to put into operation that plan which has so long haunted you, but which +doubt has been telling you is not feasible, is not practicable. + +If every human being to-day were doing what he has at least some time +thoroughly believed he could do our whole civilization would be +revolutionized. What has been accomplished is but a tithe of what might +have been accomplished if every one had been true to his vision, had not +allowed it to be blotted out by doubt. If I believed in a real devil I +think it would be that unseen monitor, that mysterious something within +us which whispers doubt, which tells us to hold on, to be careful, to go +slow; which pulls us back when we are attempting to reach out, trying to +do the thing we long to do. + +Are you not tired of having your plans thwarted, your efforts blighted +by the traitor, doubt? Has it not dwarfed your life long enough, has it +not kept you out of your own long enough by forcing you to live on the +husks when you might have had the kernel? Are you not about tired of +being defrauded by this thief of the blessings and the good things which +the Creator intended we all should have? Why not turn it out of your +mental house? Neutralize it with a great splendid faith in yourself, in +your mission, faith in your possible contribution to the world. Doubt +has very little influence with the Saint Paul type of man, with the +masterful type. It is only the weakling that doubt strangles, paralyzes. +Be a man and not a weakling, a mere apology of a man. + +You know that the devil which has followed you through life, which has +blocked your progress, put out the lights in your path, tortured you and +undermined your confidence in yourself, has been the devil of doubt. It +has been the whispering fiend which told you that you could not do this +and you could not do that, which stepped in and killed your initiative +when you were about to begin to do that which your ambition had hoped to +accomplish. + +Don't let this enemy thwart and baffle you any longer. Have a good heart +to heart talk with yourself and break the habit chain of unbelief in +self with which it has bound you. Say to yourself, "I will not listen +any longer to the voice of this fiend. I will not allow it to spoil +God's plan for me. There is something inside of me which insists that I +was planned for victory, not for defeat, for happiness, not for misery, +for peace of mind, not for a life of worry, anxiety, and fear. I do not +believe that I was placed here to be a mere puppet of circumstances. +Faith, hope and confidence are my helpers. Doubt is a child of fear, and +fear has the great majority of human beings hypnotized, so that they do +not dare to forge ahead, do not dare to undertake the things they are +perfectly capable of accomplishing. From henceforth it has no power over +me. I will not listen to its treacherous voice." + +If you would succeed, you must avoid rashness as well as over-caution. +But when you have fully considered in all its bearings whatever project +you are about to undertake, and have decided on your course, don't let +any fears or doubts enter your mind. Commit yourself to your +undertaking, and don't look back to see if you could have done something +else, or started in some other way. Push on, and don't be afraid. + +After we have launched out in an enterprise, have committed ourselves +before the world, pride steps into the situation and pushes us on +through hardships which would have discouraged and turned us aside +before we had fully committed ourselves. But when we have taken the +plunge, made the venture, we have practically said to the world, "Now, +watch me make good. I have made up my mind to put this thing through, +and I am not going to turn back." Our confidence grows as we advance and +then it is comparatively easy, even under difficulties, to keep forging +ahead. + +Every child, every youth should be taught the danger of this fatal human +enemy, doubt. They should be so imbued with the philosophy of expecting +success instead of failure that doubt would never get sufficient grip on +them to strangle their capabilities and blight the fulfillment of their +dreams. If every child were reared with the conviction that he was born +for happiness, that it was intended he should realize his vision, his +mind would be turned towards the light, his whole mentality would be so +firmly set toward success and happiness that doubt could not get hold of +him. As it is the lives of multitudes of people are constantly filled +with doubts and fears and uncertainty in regard to the future. Young +impressionable minds are often stamped with the failure suggestion +before they are out of their teens. Most of us are born with the doubt +germ implanted in our brain. + +There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country to-day who +have splendid ambitions, who have made resolutions to carry out those +ambitions, but who are cowering victims of doubt, which keeps them from +making a start. They are just waiting. They are unable to make a +beginning while this monster stands at the door of their resolution. +They are afraid to burn their bridges behind them, to commit themselves +to their purpose. + +At the very outset of your career make up your mind that you are going +to be a conqueror in life, that you are going to be the king of your +mental realm, and not a slave to any treacherous enemy, that you will +choose the wisest course, no matter how forbidding or formidable the +difficulties in the way, that you will take the turning which points +toward the goal of your ambition, no matter who or what may bar your +onward path. Don't let doubt balk your efforts. Don't let it paralyze +your beginning and make you a pigmy so that you will not half try to +make good when you have a waiting giant in you. Confidence, +self-assurance, self-faith--these are the great friends which will kill +the traitor doubt. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE + + "Every great soul of man has had its vision and pondered it, until + the passion to make the dream come true has dominated his life." + + "You will be _what you will to be_; + Let failure find its false content + In that poor world 'environment,' + But spirit scorns it, and is free. + + * * * * * + + "The human Will, that force unseen, + The offspring of a deathless Soul, + Can hew a way to any goal, + Though walls of granite intervene." + + +Washington, in a letter written when he was but twelve years old, said: +"I shall marry a beautiful woman; I shall be one of the wealthiest men +in the land; I shall lead the army of my colony; I shall rule the nation +which I help to create." + +General Grant, in his "Memoirs," says that as a boy at West Point, he +saw General Scott seated on his horse, reviewing the cadets, and +something within him said, "Ulysses, some day you will ride in his place +and be general of the army." + +Every one knows how those boyish visions were realized by the mature +men. + +The late J. Pierpont Morgan's fortune was built largely by the dynamic +forcefulness of his thought, of his mental visualizing, the nursing of +his youthful visions. He was a man of varied and æsthetic tastes, but he +concentrated upon finance and he became the world's master in its +science. + +Ancient Greece concentrated on beauty and art, and she became the great +beauty model and art teacher of the world. The Roman Empire concentrated +upon power--and became mistress of the world. England concentrated on +the control of the seas and commerce, and she has become the ruler of +the seas and the greatest commercial nation in the world. We are a +nation of money-makers because Americans have concentrated largely upon +the dollar. They think in its terms; they dream dollars; they hate +poverty and they long for wealth. + +Whatever an individual or a people concentrates upon it tends to get, +because concentration is just as much of a force as is electricity. The +youth who concentrates upon law, thinks law, dreams law, reads +everything he can get hold of relating to law, steals into courts, +listens to trials at every chance he gets, is sure to become a lawyer. + +It is the same with any other vocation or art,--medicine, engineering, +literature, music; any of the arts or sciences. Those who concentrate +upon an idea, who continue to visualize their dreams, to nurse them, who +never lose sight of their goal, no matter how dark or forbidding the +way, get what they concentrate on. They make their minds powerful +magnets to attract the thing on which they have concentrated. Sooner or +later they realize their dreams. + +What could have kept Ole Bull from becoming a master musician? Who or +what could keep back a boy who would brave his father's displeasure, +steal out of his bed at night, and go into the attic to play his "little +red violin," which haunted his dreams and would not let him sleep? What +could keep a Faraday or an Edison, whom no hardships frightened, from +realizing the wonderful visions of boyhood? + +If you can concentrate your thought and hold it persistently, work with +it along the line of your greatest ambition, nothing can keep you from +its realization. But spasmodic concentration, spasmodic enthusiasm, +however intense, will peter out. Dreaming without effort will only waste +your power. It is holding your vision, together with persistent, +concentrated endeavor on the material plane, that wins. + +There are thousands of devices in the patent office in Washington which +have never been of any use to the world, simply because the inventors +did not cling to their vision long enough to materialize it in +perfection. They became discouraged. They ceased their efforts. They let +their visions fade, and so became demagnetized and lost the power to +realize them. Other inventors have taken up many such "near" successes, +added the missing links in their completion and have made them real +successes. + +"Get thy spindle and distaff ready, and God will send the flax," saith +the proverb. If we would only take God's promises to heart, and do our +necessary part for their fulfillment no one would be unsuccessful or +unhappy. If we were to send out our desires intensely; to visualize them +until our very mentalities vibrated with the things we long for, and to +work persistently in their direction, we would attract them. + +Everywhere there are disappointed men and women who have soured on life +because they could not get what they longed for,--a musical or art +education, the necessary training for authorship, for law or medicine, +for engineering, or for some other vocation to which they felt they had +been called. They are struggling along in an uncongenial environment, +railing at the fate which has robbed them of their own. They feel that +life has cheated them, when the truth is they have cheated themselves. +They never got the spindle and distaff ready that would have drawn to +them the flax for the spinning of a happy and complete life web. They +did not insistently and persistently send out their desires and +longings; they did not nurse them and positively refuse to give them up; +above all, they did not put forth their best efforts for their +realization. + +Three things we must do to make our dreams come true. Visualize our +desire. Concentrate on our vision. Work to bring it into the actual. The +implements necessary for this are inside of us, not outside. No matter +what the accidents of birth or fortune, there is only one force by which +we can fashion our life material--mind. + +The bee and the snake draw material from the same plant. The one +transmutes it into deadly poison; the other into delicious honey. The +power that changes the stuff into a new substance is within the bee and +the snake. + +Of two boys or two girls in the same wretched environment, one picks up +an education, trains himself or herself for place and power, while the +other grows up a nobody. It is all in the boy or the girl. Each has +similar material to work in. One transmutes it into gold; the other into +lead. + +Two sailors force the same breeze to send their boats in opposite +directions. It is not the wind, but the set of the sail that determines +the port. + +The power that makes our desire, our vision, a reality is not in our +environment or in any condition outside of us; it is within us. + +There is some unseen, unknown, magnetic force developed by a +long-continued concentration of the mind upon a cherished desire that +draws to itself the reality which matches the desire. We cannot tell +just what this force is that brings the thing we long for out of the +cosmic ether and objectifies it, shapes it to correspond with our +longing. We only know that it exists. The cosmic ether everywhere +surrounding us is full of undreamed of potencies and the strong, +concentrated mind reaches out into this ether, this sea of intelligence, +attracts to it its own, and objectifies the desire. + +All human achievements have been pulled out of the unseen by the brain, +through the mind reaching out and fashioning the wealth of material at +its disposal into the shapes which matched the wishes, the desires, of +the achievers. + +All the great discoveries, great inventions, great deeds that have +lifted man up from his animal existence have been wrought out of the +actual by the perpetual thinking of and visualizing these things by +their authors. These grand characters clung to their vision, nursed it +until they became mighty magnets that attracted out of the universal +intelligence the realization of their dreams. + +Most revolutionary inventions have evolved from a flash of thought. The +sewing machine, for example, started with a simple idea, which the +inventor held persistently in his mind until through his efforts the +idea materialized into the concrete reality. Elias Howe used to watch +his wife making garments, sewing, sewing far into the night, and it set +him thinking, questioning whether such drudgery was really necessary. As +he watched her busy needle fly back and forth, he began to wonder if +this same work which it took his wife so long to do could not be done +with less labor and in half the time by some sort of mechanical +contrivance. He kept nursing his idea, thinking what a splendid thing it +would be if some one could relieve millions of women from this toil, +which frequently had to be done at night after a day of hard work. He +began to experiment with crude devices, clinging to his vision through +poverty and the denunciation of friends, who thought the man must be +crazy to spend his time on "such a fool idea." But at last his vision +materialized into a marvelous reality, a perfected machine which has +emancipated the women of the world from infinite drudgery. + +The idea of the telephone was flashed into the mind of Professor +Alexander Bell by the drawing of a string through a hole in the bottom +of a tin can, by means of which he found that the voice could be +transmitted. The idea took such complete possession of the inventor that +it robbed him of sleep and, for a time, made him poor. But nothing could +rob him of his vision or prevent him from struggling to work it out of +the visionary stage into the actual. + +I lived near Professor Bell, in the next room, indeed, while he worked +on his invention. I saw much of his struggle with poverty, heard the +criticisms and denunciations of his friends, as he persisted in his +visionary work until the telephone became a reality,--a reality without +which modern business could not be conducted. + +All of Edison's inventions, those of every inventor, have been wrought +out on the same principle that gave us the sewing machine and the +telephone. They all started in simple ideas, in dream visions which were +nursed and worked into actualities. + +According to Darwin, the desire to ascend into the heavens preceded the +appearance and development of the eagle's wings. It is said our +different organs and functions have been developed from a sense of need +of them, just as the wings of the eagle developed from a desire to fly. + +The brain cells grow in response to desire. Where there is no desire +there is no growth. The brain develops most in the direction of the +leading ambition, where the mental activities are the most pronounced. +The desire for a musical career, for instance, develops the musical +brain cells. Business ambition develops that part of the brain which has +to do with business, the cells which are brought into action in +executive management, in administering affairs, in money making. +Wherever we make our demand upon the brain by desire that part responds +in growth. + +For years a poor country boy builds air castles of his future. He +visualizes the great mercantile establishment over which he is to +preside. The ridicule of his family and of young companions cannot daunt +him or blur the bright vision he sees away in the distance. He continues +to nurse his vision, and behold, out of the unknown, unexpected +resources come, and soon he finds himself an office boy in a great +mercantile house in the city of his dreams. He watches everything with +an eagle eye; he absorbs information and ideas; he is alert, active, +energetic, resourceful, and in a few months he is promoted, and then +again promoted. He attracts the attention of the head of the +establishment, who calls him into his private office, tells him that he +has had his eye on him for many months and that he believes he is the +youth he has been looking for to manage the business. He gives him a +little stock; the business prospers still further under his management, +and in a few years the new manager is made a full partner in the house +which he entered as an office boy. This is the flowering out of his +dream, the objectifying of his vision, the matching with reality his +youthful longings. His brain has been continually developing along the +line of his vision, drawing to him the material to make it real. + +A poor girl, the daughter of humble people in Maine who thought that to +become a public singer was an unforgivable sin, could not in the +beginning see any possible way to realize the dreams she held in secret, +but she kept visualizing her dream, nursing her desire and doing the +only thing for its realization her parents would allow,--singing in a +little church choir. Gradually the way opened, and one step led to +another until the little Maine girl became the famous Madame Nordica, +one of the world's greatest singers. + +No matter if you are a poor girl away back in the country, and see no +possible way of leaving your poor old father and mother in order to +prepare for your career, don't let go of your desire. Whether it be +music, art, literature, business or a profession, hold to it. No matter +how dark the outlook, keep on visualizing your desire and light and +opportunity will come to enable you to make it a reality. Whatever the +Creator has fitted you to do He will give you a chance to do, if you +cling to your vision and struggle as best you can for its attainment. + +Think of the Lillian Nordicas, the Lucy Stones, the Louisa Alcotts, the +Mary Lyons, the Dr. Anna Howard Shaws, the thousands of women who were +hedged in just as you are, by poverty or forbidding circumstances of +some sort, yet succeeded in spite of everything in doing what they +desired to do, in being what they longed to be. Take heart and believe +that God has given you also "all implements divine to shape the way" to +your soul's desire. + +If you are a boy on a farm and feel that you are a born engineer, yet +see no possible way to get a technical education, don't lose heart or +hope. Get what books you can on your specialty. Cling to your vision. +Push out in every direction that is possible to you. It may take years, +but if you are true to yourself your concentration on your desire, your +pushing toward it, will open a door into the light, and before you know +it you will be on the road to your goal. + +The Washingtons, the Lincolns, the Faradays, the Edisons, the men who +have done most for their country and for humanity have had to struggle +as hard as you are struggling to attain their heart's desire. The +opportunities for boys and girls to bring out whatever the Creator has +implanted in them are ten to one to-day to what they were one hundred, +or fifty, or even twenty-five years ago. The great danger in our time is +not lack of chance or opportunity but of losing our vision, of letting +our ambition die. + +Most of us instead of treating our desires seriously trifle with them as +though they were only to be played with, as though they never could be +realities. We do not believe in their divinity. We regard our heart +longings, our soul yearnings as fanciful vagaries, romances of the +imagination. Yet we know that every invention, every discovery or +achievement that has blessed the world began in a desire, in a longing +to produce or to do a certain thing, and that the persistent longing was +accompanied by a struggle to make the mental picture a reality. + +It is difficult for us to grasp the fact that ambition, accompanied by +effort, is actually a creative power which tends to realize itself. Our +minds are like that of the doubting disciple, who would not believe that +his Lord had risen until he had actually thrust his finger into the +side which had been pierced by a cruel spear. Only the things that we +see seem real to us when, as a matter of fact, the most real things in +the world are the unseen. + +We never doubt the existence of the force that brings the bud out of the +seed, the foliage and the flower out of the bud, the fruits, the +vegetables from the flower. It is invisible. We cannot sense it, but we +know that it is mightier than anything we see. No one can see or hear or +feel gravitation, or the forces which balance the earth and whirl it +with lightning speed through space, bringing it round its orbit without +a variation of the tenth of a second in a century, yet who can doubt +their reality? Does any one question the mighty power of electricity +because it cannot be seen or heard or smelled? + +The potency of our desires, of our soul longings, when backed by the +effort to make them realities, is just as real as is that of any of the +unseen forces in Nature's great laboratory. The great cosmic ether is +packed with invisible potentialities. Whatever comes out of it to you +comes in response to your call. Everything you have accomplished in life +has been a result of a psychic law which, consciously or unconsciously, +you have obeyed. + +Do not make the mistake of thinking that the way will not open because +you cannot now see any possible means of achieving that for which you +long. The very intensity of your longing for a certain career, to do a +certain thing, is the best evidence that you have the ability to match +it, and that this ability was given you for a purpose, even to play a +divine, a magnificent part in the great universal plan. The longing is +merely the forerunner of achievement. It is the seed that will germinate +if nurtured by effort. + +If, however, you stop at sowing the seed you will get just about as much +harvest as a farmer would get if he should sow his seeds without +preparing the soil, without fertilizing or cultivating it or keeping +down the weeds. It is the blending of the practical with the ideal that +brings the harvest from the seed thought. You must keep on struggling +toward your ideal. No matter how black and forbidding the way ahead of +you, just imagine you are carrying a lantern which will advance with you +and give light enough for the next step. It is not necessary to see to +the end of the road. All the light you need is for the next step. Faith +in your vision and persistent endeavor will do the rest. There is no +doubt that if we do our part, the Divinity that has created us, given us +an appointed place and a work in the plan of the universe, will bring +things out better than we can plan or even imagine. + +Send out your wishes, cherish your desires, force out your yearnings, +your heart longings with all the intensity and persistency you can +muster, and you will be surprised to see how soon they will begin to +attract their affinities, how they will grow and take tangible shape, +and ultimately become actual things. Fling out your desires into the +cosmic ether boldly, with the utmost confidence. Therein you will gather +the material which shall build into reality the castle of your dreams. + +The trouble with us is that we are afraid to do this. We fear that fate +will mock us, cast back to us our mental visions empty of fruition. We +do not understand the laws governing our thought forces any more than we +understand the laws governing the universe. If we had faith in their +power, our earnest thoughts and efforts would germinate and bud and +flower just as does the tiny seed we put into the earth. + +Think how the seed must be tended and nurtured before it will give forth +the new life. See how the delicate bud has to be coaxed by the sun and +air for many months before it pushes its head up through the tough sod +to the light. Suppose it were afraid to make the attempt and should say: +"It is impossible for me to get out of this dark earth. There is no +light here. I am so tender the slightest pressure will break me and stop +my growth forever. The only way out of my prison is to push up through +this tough sod, and it would take a tremendous force to do that. I would +be crushed, strangled, before I got half way through." + +But the sun beckons, coaxes, encourages. The bud is moved into +attempting the "impossible," and behold, in a few days it rears its +tender head above what it considered the great enemy of its progress. +The dark sod, the very thing which it thought was going to make its +future impossible, becomes its support and strength. The very struggle +to get up through the soil has strengthened its fiber and fitted it to +cope with the elements above, with the storms it must meet. + +Just like this tender plant, you may be hemmed in by seemingly +insurmountable obstacles; you may not see a ray of light through the sod +of hard, forbidding circumstances, but hold your vision and keep +pushing. In your struggle you will develop strength, you will find +sunshine and air, growth and life. You may be shut in by an uncongenial +occupation and tempted to lose heart and give up your dreams because you +can see no way to better yourself. This is just the time to cling to +them, and to insist that they shall come true. Without knowing it you +may be just in the middle of the sod, and if you keep pushing where you +are, in season and out of season, you will come to the sunlight and the +air, to freedom. + +There is no human being who doesn't have some sort of a chance. If your +present position cramps you; if it does not give you room to express +yourself, you can make room by filling it to overflowing, by doing your +work as well as it can be done, by keeping your mind steadfastly fixed +on the ladder of your ascent. In your mind you make the stairs by which +you ascend or descend. Nobody else can do it for you. The master key +which will unlock that cruel door that keeps you back is not in the hand +of fate. You are fashioning it by your thoughts. + +Your next step is right where you are, in the thing you are doing +to-day. The door to something better is always in the duty of the +moment. The spirit in which you do your work, the energy which you throw +into it, the determination with which you back up your ambition--these, +no matter what opposes, are the forces that unlock the door to something +better. If you hold to your vision and are honest, earnest and true, +there is nothing that can stand in the way of its realization. + +I have never known a person who was dead-in-earnest in his efforts to +gain his heart's desire who has not finally reached his goal. No great, +insistent, persistent, honest longing backed by downright hard, +conscientious work ever comes back empty-handed. + +Desire is at the bottom of every achievement. We are the product of our +desires. What we long for, strive for, the vision we nurse, is our +great life shaper, our character molder. + +Very few can realize the close coördination which exists between their +visions, their mind pictures, and the actual accomplishments of their +career. If I were asked to name the principal cause of the majority of +failures in life I should say it was the failure to understand this, to +grasp the relation of thought to accomplishment. The gradual fading out +of one's dreams, the losing of one's vision, may be traced to this +cause. + +When we first start out in life we are enthusiasts. Our vision is bright +and alluring, and we feel confident we are going to win out, that we +shall do something distinctive, something individual, unusual. But after +a few setbacks and failures we lose heart, and faith in our vision dies. +Then we gradually awaken to the fact that our ambition is beginning to +deteriorate. It is not quite as sharply defined as formerly. Our ideals +are a trifle dimmed, our longings a trifle less insistent. We try to +find reasons and excuses for our lagging efforts and waning enthusiasm. +We think it may be due to over-work; because we are tired and need a +rest, or because our health is not quite up to standard, and that by and +by our former intense desire to realize our dreams will return. But the +whole process is so insidious that before we realize it our fires, for +lack of fuel, are quite burned out. Our grip on our vision was not +strong enough. We did not half understand its mighty power, when firmly +and persistently kept in mind, to help us to our goal. + +What we get out of life depends very largely on fidelity to our visions. +If we believe in them we will not let them die for lack of nursing. If +we really have ability to match them, and are not self-deceived by +egotism, petty vanity and conceit, no misfortunes, no failure of plans, +no discouragements, no obstacles, nothing in the world can separate us +from them. We will cling to them to our dying day. + +The man who believes in his life vision, who is not a mere egotist or +idle dreamer, who sees in his desire a prophecy of something which he is +perfectly able to make come true,--he is the man who has ever made the +world move. He flings his life into his effort to match his vision with +its reality. + +The world stands aside for such a one, for one who believes in his +vision, who consecrates himself without reserve to its fulfillment. +People know there is something back of the dreamer who has such faith in +his life dream that he will sacrifice everything to make it come true. + +How much of a grip has your vision on you? Does it clutch you with a +force that nothing but death can relax, or does it hold you so lightly +that you are easily separated from it, discouraged from trying to make +it real? + +Constant discouragements are a great temptation to abandon one's life +dreams, to drop one's standards. One's vision is apt to become blurred +in passing through great crises, in periods of general depression, in +times of financial stress, but this is really the test of a strong +character,--that he does not allow obstacles to divert him from his one +aim. The man who is made of the stuff that wins hangs on to his vision, +even to the point of starvation, for he knows that there is only one way +of bringing it down to earth, and that is by clinging to it through +storm and stress, in spite of every obstacle and discouragement. + +Never mind what discouragements, misfortunes or failures come to you, +let nobody, no combination of unfortunate circumstances, destroy your +faith in your dream of what you believe you were made to do. Never mind +how the actual facts seem to contradict the results you are after. No +matter who may oppose you or how much others may abuse and condemn you, +cling to your vision, because it is sacred. It is the God-urge in you. +You have no right to allow it to fade or to become dim. Your final +success will be measured by your ability to cling to your vision through +discouragement. It will depend largely upon your stick-to-it-ive-ness, +your bull dog tenacity. If you shrink before criticism and opposition +you will demagnetize your mind and lose all the momentum which you have +gained in your previous endeavor. No matter how black or threatening the +outlook, keep working, keep visualizing your life dream, and some +unexpected way will surely open for its fulfillment. + +Put out of your mind forever any thought that you can possibly fail in +reaching the goal of your longing. Set your face toward it; keep looking +steadfastly in the direction of your ambition, whatever it may be; +resolve never to recognize defeat, and you will by your mental attitude, +your resolution, create a tremendous force for the drawing of your own +to you. If you have the grit and stamina to stick, to persevere to the +end, if you persistently maintain the victorious attitude toward your +vision victory will crown your efforts. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A NEW ROSARY + + There is a great significance in that passage in St. Mark: "All + the things whatsoever ye pray and ask for believe ye _have_ + received them and ye have." We are bidden to believe that what we + wish _has already been fulfilled_; that if we take this attitude + we shall obtain our desire. + + The benefit we derive from prayer is the harmonizing poising, + balancing of our own mind, putting ourselves into closer communion + into a more vital connection with the Divine Mind, through which + we receive a larger supply of our Father's blessings. + + Prayer is the opening up of the pinched supply pipes of the mind + which shut out the divine inflow; it is the letting into our lives + greater abundance from the unlimited supply which continually + flows from the Source of all sources. + + +"Mary," said a young girl to a Catholic friend, "why do you carry that +rosary everywhere, and what possible good does it do you to count those +beads over and over?" + +"Oh," answered Mary, "I never could make you understand what a comfort +this rosary is to me. When I am tired out, or blue or discouraged about +anything; or when I long very much for something that it seems +impossible I should ever get, I take my rosary and begin to pray. Before +I have gone over half of its beads, everything is changed. The tired, +discouraged feeling is gone, or if I have been asking for something I +long to have, it doesn't seem nearly so far away as before; and I know +that if I don't get just what I ask for, I'll get something better." + +Those who are too narrow-minded or too prejudiced to see anything good +in a creed which is not their own, often sneer at the Catholic custom of +"saying the rosary." To them it is only "superstition," "nonsense," to +repeat the same prayer over and over. These people do not understand the +philosophy as well as the religion underlying this beautiful old custom. +They do not know the power that inheres in the repetition of the spoken +word, and in the influence of the thought expressed. + +Any one can prove this for himself or herself. It isn't necessary to get +a rosary made of beads. You can make your own, an intangible but very +real rosary, and if you say it over, not once, or twice a day, but over +and over many times, and especially before retiring at night, you will +be surprised at the wonderful results. + +Is it a fault you wish to correct; is it a talent or gift you desire to +develop and improve; is it money, or friends, an education, success in +any enterprise; is it contentment, peace of mind, happiness, power to +serve, power in your work,--whatever it is you desire, make it a bead in +your rosary, pray for its accomplishment, think of it, work for its +fulfillment and your desire will materialize. + +There are many ways of praying. All our prayers are not vocalized +petitions to the Almighty. They are also our inspirations, the +aspirations of the soul to be and to do. Desire is prayer. The sincerest +prayer may be the longing of the heart to cultivate a talent or talents, +or the intense desire to get an education so that one may be of greater +service in the world. That which we dream of and struggle to attain, our +efforts to make good; these are genuine prayers. + +When Jane Addams, as a little girl, longed for the power to lift up +other little girls and make them happy; when she dreamed of a time when +she should be grown up and doing a great work in the service of +humanity, she was praying. She was even then laying the foundations of +Hull House, and the Hull House of to-day is an answered prayer. Her +whole life from childhood up was a prayer, because it was a preparation +for a great and noble work. + +When the child, Frances Willard, longed and dreamed in her remote +Wisconsin home, she was praying and building as surely as in her later +years when she was the moving power of the great organization she had +brought into being. "I always wanted to react on the world about me to +my utmost ounce of power," she said in telling of her early life and +aspirations. "Lying on the prairie grass and lifting my hand toward the +sky, I used to say in my inmost spirit, 'What is it? What is the aim to +be, O God?'" + +Such noble heart yearnings are, in the truest sense, prayers. The +uttered prayer clothed in beautiful language, that which is delivered in +the pulpit to be heard of men, may not be a real prayer at all. The +collective prayer of the congregation may be a mockery. I have often +been in churches where people were repeating prayers automatically, +while looking all about the auditorium watching other people, mentally +occupied, while their lips moved in a so-called prayer, in noticing what +they wore and how they looked. There is no real praying in such a +performance as this. It is not soul expression, not heart talking. It is +mere parrot talking. All mechanical mumbling of prayers in our church +services is an insult to the Creator, who does not hear prayers which do +not come from the heart. + +"Prayer is the heart's sincere desire." What we long for and hope for we +pray for by our very longing and hope. The real prayer may be struggling +in the heart without words, it may be a noble desire, a heart longing +which no language can express. It may be voiceless or it may not, but +the true prayer always comes from the heart, and it is always answered. + +A remarkable illustration of this is afforded in a story told by John +Wesley. He was once riding through a dark wood, carrying with him a +large sum of money intrusted to his safe keeping. All at once a sense of +fear came over him, and dismounting from his horse, he offered up a +prayer for protection. Years afterward Wesley was called to see a dying +man. This man told the preacher that at the time he had passed through +the wood, so many years before, he, the robber, had been lying in wait +to rob him of the money he carried. He told Wesley that he had noticed +him dismounting and how, on his remounting and resuming his journey, the +appearance of an armed attendant riding beside him had so filled him +with awe and a great fear that he had abandoned his purpose. + +Balzac said truly: "When we are enabled to pray without weariness, with +love, with certainty, with intelligence, we will find ourselves in +instant accord with power, and like a mighty roaring wind, like a +thunderbolt, our will will cut its way through all things and share the +power of God." + +Everybody prays, because everybody hopes and desires, has longings and +yearnings which he hopes will be realized. In a sense the atheist, the +agnostic, the unbeliever, although they may not know it, pray just as +much as do believers, for every longing of the heart, every noble +aspiration, is a prayer. We pray as naturally as we breathe, for the +desire for a better, nobler life, for grander and higher attainment, is +an unconscious prayer. Prayer is really our heart hunger for oneness +with the Divine, with the Eternal. It is the union of the soul with its +Maker. It is literally what Phillips Brooks described it to be, the +sluice gate between God and the soul. + +Many people mistake the very nature of prayer, and complain that it is +no use to pray, because their prayers are never answered. + +The reason is clear, and is admirably expressed in Irving Bacheller's +pithy verses on "Faith." + + "Now, don't expect too much o' God, it wouldn't be quite fair + If fer anything ye wanted ye could only swap a prayer; + I'd pray fer yours, an' you fer mine, an' Deacon Henry Hospur + He wouldn't hev a thing t' do but lay abed an' prosper. + + "If all things come so easy, Bill, they'd hev but little worth, + An' some one with a gift o' prayer 'u'd mebbe own the earth. + It's the toil ye give t' git a thing--the sweat an' blood an' care-- + That makes the kind o' argument that ought to back yer prayer." + +If your prayers come back to you unanswered it is because they are not +backed by the conditions on which the answer to prayer depends,--faith +and work. You don't get the thing you pray for either because you don't +really believe you will get it, or you don't back your prayer with the +necessary effort, or because you fail in both requisites. + +To pray for a thing and not work for it, not strive and do our level +best to obtain it, is a mockery. To ask God to give us that which we +long for, but are too lazy to help get ourselves, is begging. In answer +to our prayers and longings and efforts we get that which we call out of +the universal supply, which is everywhere. Every day some prayer is made +visible, something is wrought out of the invisible, manifested in the +actual by those two mighty instruments--prayer and work. But if you +think your stumbling block will be removed, or your desire realized +without raising a finger to help yourself, you may pray until doomsday +without ever getting an answer. Prayer without faith is of no avail. And +faith without work is a barren virtue. + +In the second stanza of a little poem entitled "God's Answer," Ella +Wheeler Wilcox gives us the answer to the plaint of the discouraged, +unsuccessful soul, who cries that his prayers are not heard, and that no +hand is stretched out to lead him to the heights he would attain. + + "Then answered God: 'Three things I gave to thee-- + Clear brain, brave will and strength of mind and heart, + All implements divine to shape the way; + Why shift the burden of the toil on Me? + Till to the utmost he has done his part + With all his might, let no man _dare_ to pray.'" + +The answer to your prayers is right inside of yourself. They are +answered by your obeying the natural as well as the spiritual law of all +supply. If you don't do your part in the actual working world down to +the minutest detail your prayer is bound to come back to you unanswered. + +Everything in the universe has its price, a perfectly legitimate one. +You can realize what you desire if you are willing to pay the price, and +that is honest, earnest, persistent effort to make it yours. The Creator +answers your prayer by fitting you to answer it yourself, by enabling +you to put into practice the law of demand and supply, the fundamental +principle on which answer to prayer is based. You must put yourself in +absolute harmony with the thing you pray for. It cannot be forced. You +must attract it. Answer to prayer comes only to a receptive mind in a +positive condition, that is, in a condition to create, to achieve. + +The law of affirmation and the law of prayer are one and the same. +"Affirm that which you wish, work for it, and it will be manifest in +your life." Affirm it confidently, with the utmost faith, without any +doubt of what you affirm. Say to yourself, "I am that which I think I +am--and I can be nothing else." But if you affirm, "I am health; I am +prosperity; I am this or that," and do not believe it, you will not be +helped by affirmation. You must believe what you affirm; you must +constantly strive to be what you assert you are, or your affirmations +are but idle breath. + +Make yourself a New Thought rosary, not of set formal prayers, but an +original one whose beads shall be your heart's aspirations, your desires +to e-volve the strong, radiant, successful happy man or woman the +Creator has in-volved in you. + +If you are unhappy, crushed by repeated failures and disappointment, +suffering the pangs of thwarted ambition, put this bead in your rosary +and say it over to yourself frequently: "The being God made was never +intended for this sort of life. Mary (or John)," addressing yourself by +name, "God made you for success, not failure. He never made any one to +be a failure. You are perverting the great object of your existence by +giving way to discouragement, going about among your fellows with a +long, sad, dejected face, as though you were a misfit, as though there +were no place for you in this great glad world of abundance. You were +made to express gladness, to go through life with a victorious attitude, +like a conqueror. The image of God is in you; you must bring it out and +exhibit it to the world. Don't disgrace your Maker by violating His +image, by being anything but the magnificent man or woman He intended +you to be." + +Back up every "bead," or prayer you put in your rosary by action during +the day, otherwise you might as well save yourself the trouble of +stringing your beads, for + + "It's the toil ye give t' get a thing--the sweat an' blood an' care-- + That makes the kind o' argument that ought to back yer prayer." + +Don't be afraid of thinking too highly of yourself, not in the +egotistical sense, but because (the Creator having made you in His +image) you must have inherited divine qualities, omnipotent +possibilities. It is an insult to God to depreciate what He has made and +has pronounced good. + +If you are a victim of timidity and self-depreciation, afraid to say +your soul is your own; if you creep about the world as though you +thought you were taking up room which belonged to somebody else; if you +shrink from responsibility, from everything which draws attention to +yourself; if you are bashful, timid, confused, tongue-tied, when you +ought to assert yourself, turn to your rosary and add another bead. + +Say to yourself, "I am a child of the King of kings. I will no longer +suffer this cowardly timidity to rule me,--a prince of heaven. I am made +by the same Creator who has made all other human beings. They are my +brothers and sisters. There is no more reason why I should be afraid to +express what I feel or think before them than if they were in my own +family. I have just as much right on this earth as any potentate, as +much right to hold up my head and assert myself as any monarch. I am my +Father's heir, and have all the rights of a prince. I have inherited the +wealth of the universe. The earth and the stars and the sun are mine. I +will quit this everlasting self-depreciation, this self-effacement, this +cringing habit of forever appearing to apologize for being alive. It is +a crime against my Maker and myself. Henceforth I shall carry myself +like a prince. I will act like one, and will walk the earth as a +conqueror. I will let no opportunity pass to-day for assuming any +responsibility which will enlarge me, for expressing my opinion, for +asserting myself whenever and wherever necessary. + +"This specter, this shadow of self-depreciation which has held me back +so long, which has darkened my path in life must go, for I shall walk +henceforth with my face toward the sun so that the shadows of life will +fall behind me, and not across my path as before. I am going to face +life with a self-respecting, victorious attitude, with a hopeful +outlook, for I know that I am victory organized. Hereafter I am going +to think more of myself. I am not going to put myself on the bargain +counter any longer by going around as though I had a skim milk opinion +of myself. No more of the poorhouse attitude of inferiority for me. I +know that I was born for victory, born to conquer. I am going to win out +in this great inspiring game of life." + +If you feel that you lack initiative, if you are not a self-starter, +boldly assert the opposite and add the assertion to your rosary. Stoutly +affirm your ability to begin things, to do them as well as they can be +done, and to push them through to a complete finish. Learn to trust the +God in you. This trust is a divine force which will carry you through. +Never again allow yourself to harbor thoughts of your inferiority or +deficiency. Say to yourself, "I am going to assert my manhood or +womanhood and stand for something. I am going to be a force in the world +and not a weakling. I was made to make my life a masterpiece and not a +botch; I was created for a great end, and I am going to realize that +end. There are forces inside of me which if aroused and put into action +would revolutionize my life, and I am going to get control of them, to +use them. I am going to find myself and use a hundred per cent. instead +of a miserable little fraction of my ability." + +If you are obsessed with the idea that you are not as bright, that you +have not as much ability as most other people; if you have been called +dull, dense, stupid by your parents and teachers, until you have lost +confidence in yourself; if you have been dwarfed by the suggestion of +inferiority, either through what others have said of you, or the thought +you have held of yourself, you must change all this. You must assert +your ability and hold tenaciously the ideal of the able, efficient man +or woman you long to be and that it is in you to become. You must not +only affirm your power to be that which you wish, but you must replace +the picture of your inferiority with the ideal of wholeness, of +completeness, of the man or woman the Creator intended you to be. Cling +to this ideal of yourself, assert your superiority, and you will soon +drive out the dwarfed, inferior, defective image which others, or your +own false thoughts, have established in your subconsciousness. Holding +the truth, the perfect ideal, in mind will give you confidence, +assurance to do the thing you are capable of doing. + +Thousands of students have failed to pass examinations not because of +inability to answer test questions, but because of fear, loss of +self-confidence engendered by the blighting suggestion of inferiority. +This is especially true of highstrung, sensitive natures. + +If you brood over the failure suggestion, if you visualize an inferior +picture of yourself, you will become obsessed with the failure idea, +with the thought of your inefficiency, and make it wellnigh impossible +for you to succeed in any undertaking. If for any reason you have +dropped into the failure habit, you will have to make a very determined +effort to break away from it, or your life will indeed be a failure. + +I know a young man who is both efficient and ambitious, but when the +opportunity for which, perhaps, he has been working a long time comes, +he wilts. His courage fails and he does not feel equal to it. He can see +how somebody else can do the thing required, but he fears it is too much +for him. He has never done anything like it before; and he is afraid to +make the attempt because he might fail. + +Now, if you feel this way about yourself, just add another bead to your +rosary. Cut "I can't" out of your vocabulary and substitute "I +can,"--for he can who thinks he can. Napoleon, one of the greatest +achievers the world has ever seen, hated the word "can't" and would +never use it if it could be avoided. He did not believe in the +"impossible." When he was praised for his daring and genius in crossing +the Alps in the dead of winter, he said, "I deserve no credit except for +refusing to believe those who said it could not be done." + +Did you ever think that every time you say "I can't" you weaken your +confidence in yourself and your power to do things? Did you ever know a +person who has a great many "I cant's," and excuses in his vocabulary to +accomplish very much? Some people are always using the words, "Oh, I +can't do that;" "I can't afford this;" "I can't afford to go there;" "I +can't undertake such a hard task, let somebody else do that." These +negative assertions undermine power. Have nothing to do with them. In +all questions of achievement, let your rosary deal in affirmations. +Instead of "I can't," say "_I can_," "_I must_," "_I will_." Begin what +you fear to undertake, and half its difficulties will vanish. + +If you are vexed, worried, and like Martha, "troubled about many +things;" if you are suffering from all sorts of discord; if you are not +feeling well, you will get great comfort from turning to your rosary and +repeating some of the blessed Biblical promises. "Neither shall any +plagues (discord or harm) come nigh thy dwelling. This is the promise to +him that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High. I will restore +health into thinking and I will heal thee of thy wounds." "He that +dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the +shadow of the Almighty," "The Lord is my refuge, my fortress. In Him +will I trust." "Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor for +the arrow that flieth by day," "Surely He shall deliver thee from the +snare of the fowler, from the pestilence that walketh in darkness," "He +shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou +trust." + +The contemplation of God and the frequent repetition of these beautiful +Bible passages will increase your faith and your consciousness of +oneness with the Infinite. + +Make it a rule never to affirm of your health, your success, or yourself +what you do not wish to be true. Don't say that you feel "rocky," that +you are used up, played out, that you feel miserable, that you don't +feel like doing anything. Never tell people of your aches and pains, for +every repetition means etching the black pictures of these conditions +deeper and deeper into your consciousness. Instead of thus intensifying +them, say to yourself, "The Power that created, and that sustains me +every instant of my life, repairs, renews, restores, cures me. I am +health, I am vigor, I am power, I am that which I think I am." Refuse to +see or to hold for an instant an imperfect, discordant sin or +disease-marred image of yourself. Do not harbor a suggestion of your +inferiority, physically or mentally. Always picture yourself as a great, +strong, splendid man or woman, clean, true, beautiful--a sublime +specimen of humanity. Do not allow yourself to harbor a thought of +physical or mental weakness. Think health, power, perfection at every +breath. Persist in holding the thought of yourself as you long to be, +the ideal which your Creator saw ahead of you when he fashioned you. +Cling to your vision of health without taint, weakness or defect. + +Have you a hair-trigger temper, and do you fly all to pieces over the +least provocation, starting raging fires in your brain that are as +destructive to your mental and physical forces as are the great forest +fires to the vast tracts of territory over which they sweep? If you have +you are minimizing all your powers and seriously endangering your +success, your happiness, your life itself. Ask Sing Sing what the hot +tempers, the fires of uncontrolled anger, of jealous rage, of revenge, +of hate, of all the explosive passions have done. Ask the poorhouses, +the insane asylums, the morgues, ask the records of human wreckage +everywhere, what the fruits of uncontrolled passions of every sort are. + +Anger, whatever its cause, is temporary insanity. Are you in the habit +of losing your temper, of flying into a rage over trifles? If you could +only see what a miserable spectacle, what a fool exhibition, you make of +yourself on such occasions, when you go all to pieces and rave like a +madman because you miss your train, or because you think some one +insults you, when you step down from the throne of your reason and let +the brute sit there and rule in your place, you would be so chagrined +and mortified that you would leave nothing undone to rid yourself of +your fault. Why, nothing could hire you, when in your right mind, to +make such a ludicrous and contemptible exhibition of yourself. You only +do it when under the stress of angry passion, when shorn of your power +by this temporary insanity. + +To retain self-control, mental poise, equanimity, under all +provocations, great or small, is an index of a fine strong character. It +is a triumph of strength over weakness, of greatness over littleness. +The habit of conquering ourselves is the habit of victory; it +strengthens all the faculties. + +You can bring this great force of control to your aid, by calling on the +divinity within you, by asserting your oneness with the Divine who is +eternal calmness. Say to yourself, "God's image is in me. I am of divine +lineage. I was not intended to be passion's slave. It is unworthy of a +real man, of a real woman, to be the plaything of temper, or any sort of +explosive tearing down passion. There is something divine in me and I +will not allow my lower nature to get control." + +The constant affirmation of your oneness with your Creator, with _the_ +One, will give you a wonderful sense of power, and will help you to +overcome every handicap. But you must be very positive, very insistent +and persistent in your affirmations. No matter what fault you are trying +to overcome or what good quality you are anxious to acquire there must +be no weakness, indecision or vacillation in your affirmations or your +efforts. + +If you are cursed with the fatal habit of indecision; if you are a weak +vacillator, always taking things up for reconsideration because you are +not quite sure that you have done the right thing; if you allow yourself +to waver, to doubt the wisdom of your decision, you will be incapable of +ever under any circumstances arriving at an intelligent conclusion. + +You can cure the curse of indecision by asserting your power to see +clearly, think quickly and act decisively. If you are in doubt as to +what career to choose; if you hesitate in regard to what course you +should take in any difficulty, which of two or three paths you should +follow, whatever your problem may be, ask for light and the divine power +within will come to your aid and guide you aright. Repeat the "I am" in +every instance. "I am positive." "I can decide vigorously, firmly, +finally." Resolve every morning that you will, during that day, decide +things without possibility of recall or reconsideration. First go over +the matter to be decided very thoroughly and carefully. In making your +decision use the best judgment at your command and then close the +incident. You will secure yourself against vacillation by refusing, +after it is thus closed, to wonder whether you have done the wisest +thing, by resisting every temptation to open the matter for +reconsideration. + +If you feel that you are a coward somewhere in your nature, you can +strengthen this deficient faculty wonderfully by holding the courageous +ideal, by thinking and reading about heroic people and things, holding +the thought of fearlessness, that you are God's child, that you are not +afraid of anything on the earth. Study the stories of heroic lives; +think, act, live, the heroic thought. Say, "I am a son of God, and I was +never made to cower, to slink, to be afraid. Fear is not an attribute of +divinity. I am brave, courageous; I am a conqueror." + +If you are suffering with the poverty disease, if your whole life has +been stunted by poverty, saturated with poverty-stricken thoughts and +convictions, if you have been heading towards the poverty goal, just +turn about face, and put the law of abundance into operation. Face +towards prosperity and success instead of poverty and failure. All the +good things you need are yours by inheritance. Claim them, expect them, +work for them, pray for them, and you will realize them in your life. +Make this last stanza of Ella Wheeler Wilcox's splendid little poem +"Assertion" a new bead on your rosary. Repeat it frequently, and work +cheerfully, confidently, courageously toward its fulfillment. + + "I am success. Though hungry, cold, ill-clad, + I wander for a while. I smile and say, + 'It is but for a time--I shall be glad + To-morrow, for good fortune comes my way. + God is my father, He has wealth untold, + His wealth is mine, health, happiness and gold.'" + +If you have made fatal mistakes for which you have been ostracized from +society; if you are morbidly worrying over some unfortunate experience, +thus making it bigger, blacker and more hideous, just thrust it out of +your mind, bury it, forget it, say to it, "You have no power over me; I +will not allow you to destroy my peace and thwart my career; you are not +the truth of my being; the reality of me is divine, and you cannot touch +that. I can and I will rise above all my troubles, make good all my +mistakes and errors. From now on I will work with the God in me. I will +not be overcome. I will overcome." + +If you are the slave of a demon habit which has blasted your hopes, +blighted your happiness, thwarted your ambition, cast its black shadow +across your whole life, say to yourself: "I will break away from this +vile habit. I will be free and not a slave." + +If it is impurity, say, "I was not made to be dominated by such a +monstrous vice. God's image in me was not intended to wallow in this +filth. I have suffered long enough from this damnable habit, which is +undermining my health, killing my chances of success in life, and +lowering me below the level of the beast. I am a child of the Infinite, +sent here to make a worthy contribution to humanity, to make good. I am +going to make good. I am going to free myself from this base habit and +recover my self-respect, my manhood, at any cost. I am going to be a +MAN, not a THING, a son of God, not of the devil." + +Continually flood your mind with purity thoughts and affirmations which +will neutralize your sensual desires. Repeat again and again your +determination not to allow your life to be spoiled by unrestrained +passion. Make such an emphatic and vigorous call upon your better self, +make the demand so appealing that your higher nature will be aroused and +will dominate your acts. Say, "The Creator has bidden me look up, not +down. He made me to climb, not to descend and wallow in the mire of +animalism." + +If it is drink, opium, excessive smoking, or any other vicious habit +that is robbing you of manhood and holding you back in life, string this +bead on your rosary, "I was not made to be dominated by you, a mere +weed, an extract of grain, a habit which I forged. I am done with you +once and forever. The appetite for you is destroyed. There is something +divine within me which makes me perfectly able to overcome you. You are +a vile thing, and have disgraced me for the last time. Never again can +you humiliate me and make me despise myself. There can be only one ruler +in my mental kingdom and I propose to be that one. I don't propose to +allow you Whiskey, Cigarette, Opium, or other Drug or Devil, to ruin my +life, to force me to carry in my face the signs of my defeat, the +scarlet letter of my degradation, my failure. You have humiliated, +insulted me, tyrannized over me long enough, making me confess that I +hadn't enough strength of mind to stand up against a single vicious, +degrading habit. Now I defy you. Your power over me is at an end. The +spell is broken. Hereafter I am going to walk the earth as a conqueror, +a victor, not as a slave. I am going to front the world with my head up +and face forward. God and one make a majority. I am in the majority +NOW." + +_There is no inferiority or depravity about the man God made._ No matter +how low you may have fallen, the God image in you never can be smirched +or depraved. It is as perfect in the worst criminal in the penitentiary +as it is in the greatest saint. There is something in every human being +that is incontaminable, something which is never sick, never diseased, +and which never sins. This is the God in us, and herein lies the hope of +the most brutal human being on the earth. There is something in him that +is divine, sinless, immortal, the God in him which when called will +instantly rush to his aid. + +If you feel that you have wandered very far from your God, that you had +gotten out of the current which runs Heavenward, just repeat to yourself +such things as this, "Nearer My God to Thee, Nearer to Thee." This will +help you to put up your trolley pole, to make your connection with the +Divine wire which carries omnipotent power. The sense of separateness +will disappear and the load under which you staggered before will grow +light, will be lifted from you. + +The secret of all health, prosperity, happiness, power, love, of +victorious living, is a consciousness of union, of oneness with the +Divine. This is the secret of all human blessedness. When you are in +this Godward current you are "nearer to God," and you cannot fear, for +you know that no harm can come to infinite power. + +The closer we are to divinity, the greater our strength and efficiency. +What makes us weak and inefficient is that we have shut off this power +by our wrong thinking, vicious living. Your life will take on a new +meaning, a diviner dignity, when you consciously realize your +at-one-ment with the great creative, sustaining Principle of the +universe. + +Nothing will be of more help to you in achieving this great result than +the constant daily use of your New Thought rosary. It will help you to +put further and further away the things that make you weak, that make +you think you are a mere puppet, at the mercy of a cruel Fate, which +tosses you about in the world regardless of your own birthright, +desires, and volition. You can make each bead a prayer, an affirmation, +to lead you closer and closer to the Source of all things. Whether it +be the overcoming of a vicious habit, the strengthening of some defect +or deficiency, the getting away from poverty and despair, whatever you +desire, you can repeat your affirmation concerning it, silently, if with +others, audibly when you are alone, until it becomes a part of you. +Especially repeat the beads of your rosary which fit your greatest needs +before retiring to sleep. + +If you have been demagnetizing yourself, neutralizing your hopes, your +ambition and your efforts by your black, vicious outlook upon life, by +your doubts, and worries, your fear of poverty, of sickness, of +misfortune, of death, put these things out of your mind, and say, "God +is my helper. God is my supply, I cannot want. God is my shepherd, I +cannot lack. I must live in full realization of my oneness with Infinite +Life." + +Each one of us is a part of the living God and we are powerful, +victorious and happy just in proportion as we realize our oneness with +Him, and weak, abject and miserable just in the degree we separate +ourselves from Him, the All-Source, the All-Supply. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +ATTRACTING THE POORHOUSE + + As long as you hold the poorhouse thought you are heading toward + the poorhouse. A pinched, stingy thought means a pinched, stingy + reply. + + No matter how hard one may work, if he constantly holds the + poverty ideal, the poorhouse thought in his mind, he is driving + away the very thing he is pursuing. + + The man who sows failure thoughts, poverty thoughts, can no more + reap success, prosperity harvests, than a farmer can get a wheat + crop from sowing thistles. + + +Poverty is a mental disease. + +Some one has said that no one ever went to the poorhouse who did not +attract the poorhouse by his poorhouse mental attitude. Observation and +long study of the question have convinced me that, as a rule, people who +make miserable failures of their lives expected to do so. They had such +a horror of the poorhouse, they lived in such terror of coming to want, +that they shut off the very source of their supply. They had so warped +their minds that they could see nothing ahead but poverty. They wasted +the precious energy which might have been utilized in happiness and +prosperity building, in expecting, dreading and preparing for the dire +things that might come upon them, and, according to the law, they got +what they dreaded and feared. + +Thinking war, talking war, anticipating it, getting ready for it, in +other words, preparedness for war, the perpetual war suggestion, was +largely responsible for the outbreak of the greatest war in history. If +all the nations involved had talked peace, thought peace, expected it, +prepared for it, there would have been peace, not war. + +So long as people talk poverty, think poverty, expect it, get ready for +it, they will have poverty. Preparedness for poverty, expecting it, +attracts it, confirms poverty conditions. + +We are constantly drawing to ourselves that which we expect. If you are +sending out a perpetual poverty thought current, a doubt current, a +discouragement current, no matter how hard you may be working in the +opposite direction, you will never get away from the current you set in +motion. The sort of thought current you generate will flow back to you. + +Everywhere we see people trying hard to get on, struggling early and +late to better their condition, and yet never expecting, or even hoping +to be prosperous. They do not believe they are going to get what they +are working for, and they do not. + +A typical example of those who keep themselves in the poverty current is +a woman I know who is constantly affirming her inability to better her +condition. She answers her better-off friends who tell her that she +ought to have this and that by saying, "Oh, it is all very well for you +rich folks to talk this way, but these things are not for me. We have +always been poor and I suppose we always shall be; we can only have the +bare necessities of life, and are fortunate if we get these. Of course I +might indulge in a little treat for myself and the children now and +then, but that would be extravagant, and I must save for a rainy day." + +Now, I have no quarrel with people who save for a rainy day. It is the +part of prudence to be prepared for all emergencies. It is a splendid +thing to save for spending, for enjoyment in our later years, but people +who begin early to provide for the "rainy day," and who deny themselves +every little pleasure and enjoyment for the sake of adding to this +provision, fall into the habit of pinching themselves, and usually +continue to do so through life. + +This woman limits her supply by her conviction that every cent she can +spare must go to the rainy day fund because she is always going to be +poor. She assures herself and others that she is never going to have the +things she would like to have, because of her poverty, and so she +starves the lives of herself and her boy and girl in anticipating a day +of possible want. She is a type of a multitude of men and women who +settle down to their poverty, become half reconciled to its limitations, +and do not make a strenuous effort to get away from it. That is, they +never dream of exercising their creative, positive thought, but continue +to live and to realize in their conditions the negative, destructive, +poverty thought. + +These are the people who are always saying they "cannot afford" things. +They cannot afford to send the boy or girl to school or college this +year. They cannot afford the necessary clothes or the needed vacation +because of the rainy day, which, like a specter, rises at every feast, +on every occasion when they try to get some enjoyment or satisfaction +out of the present. They are always postponing things till next year. +But this "next year" never comes, and the children never go to the +academy or college, and they themselves never take the needed vacation, +the travel in one's own country or the long promised trip abroad. They +keep forever postponing the enjoyment of the good things of life until +they can "afford it;" and that time never comes for people of this +apprehensive habit of mind, because they always want to lay up a little +more for the future. + +I know a number of people well along in years who are still pinching +themselves not only on the comforts but even on the necessities of life +in anticipation of the possible rainy day, for which they are always +planning. They make life one long continuous rainy day, and little +realize that they often tend to create the need for which they are +perpetually saving. + +We sometimes read in newspapers striking illustrations of the results of +this starved, rainy day habit of mind. A New York daily recently +reported a typical instance; that of an aged woman who had died alone in +the slums of the metropolis. She had been dead several days when her +body was found, and so wretched were her surroundings, it was at first +supposed that she was penniless. On investigation, however, it was found +that the woman had had in ready cash and in bank deposits, almost ten +thousand dollars. + +Pauperized by her diseased mind, this wretched creature, like many +another poverty-stricken soul, died of starvation in the midst of +plenty. Her mind was so obsessed with the poverty thought that she even +denied herself the necessities of life. For years she had shut herself +away from the great stream of life flowing all around her, so that she +might hoard, and hoard, and hoard. She would allow no one to enter her +rooms, and died alone and uncared for, leaving behind her the money +which would have made her comfortable, happy, useful, and would have +prolonged her life. She was as truly a victim of the poverty disease as +though she didn't have a cent. + +The children of Israel while passing through the wilderness were +constantly reflecting the poverty thought,--"Can God furnish for us a +table in the wilderness? Of course not, it is not reasonable. We shall +starve if we do not get back to Egypt." But for the faith of their great +leader, Moses, in the Power that led them, they would have gone back to +Egypt, back to the slavery and poverty from which they had fled. Even +after the manna had been given them fresh every day for a long time, +they did not believe the supply would continue. They were still +skeptical and tried to store enough manna for "a rainy day," but it +would not keep and they were forced to trust to a new supply every day. + +"But where is our supply coming from? How are we going to pay the rent, +the mortgage off the home, the farm? Where is the money coming from? +What will happen to us if we cannot get it? Where are the children's +clothes coming from? How are we going to get the necessaries of life? +Where is our supply coming from? Why can't I get a job that will enable +us to really live?" These are the questions multitudes of people all +over the world are asking themselves. They express the acuteness of the +suffering from the poverty disease, so apparent in every civilized +country. + +Nothing else gives human beings so much anxiety, nothing else is such a +perpetual irritant as this fear of what is coming in the future, this +dread of poverty, of not being able to provide for the necessities and +the comforts of those dear to us, the fear of not being able to maintain +ourselves and to rear our children in comfort and respectability. It +demagnetizes us, drives away the things we want and draws to us those we +dread. Job said, "The thing I greatly feared has come upon me"--that +which I was afraid of has come to me. People who have an abnormal fear +of poverty attract the very condition they dread and are trying to get +away from, because the mind relates with whatever it dwells on. Our +doubts and hatreds and fears; the thing we relate with, we attract. + +Whatever you allow your mind to dwell on, you are unconsciously +creating. If you think continually of misfortunes, of poverty; if you +fear you are going to fail in your work, that you may come to want; if +you are always thinking about the possibility of your business +declining; if you fear you are losing your grip on your trade or +profession, you are aggravating your trouble and making it worse and +worse. There are multitudes of people who never expect even to be +comfortable, to say nothing of having luxuries. They expect poverty, +hard times, and do not understand that this very expectancy increases +their magnetic power to attract what they do not want. + +Not long ago a young man who was greatly depressed because he could not +get on in the world, asked me what I thought the trouble was. He said he +had always worked hard, but did not seem to make any headway. About all +he could do was to earn a bare living. Everything appeared to go against +him. Fate, he complained, seemed determined to keep him down, no matter +how hard he might struggle against it, and he was doomed to be poor, to +be a nobody. He believed that hard luck, poverty and failure were family +traits; for his father and grandfather, he said, were hard workers too, +but they could never get on, never get away from poverty, and he didn't +expect he ever would either. + +Another, an older man, who sought my advice in a similar difficulty, +lamented the fearful inequality of human conditions, and railed against +his luck and the injustice of fate. "I work early and late, Sundays and +holidays," he said, "and haven't taken a vacation for years. I have been +struggling and striving and pushing to make my way in the world since I +was a boy, and here I am past fifty and have never succeeded in anything +yet. Now there is something wrong somewhere in society when such +persistence and such constant efforts do not enable one to get anywhere, +or to rise to any position worth while." + +I asked him about his early training and education. He acknowledged that +he had not made much of a preparation for his life work, because, he +said, his father also had been a tremendous worker, had always tried +hard to better his condition but like himself had never succeeded, and +so he had come to the conclusion that success was not in the family, and +that it was no use to spend years in preparing for a career, for there +was no chance that very much would come to him anyway. + +These two are types of people who are constantly heading toward poverty +and failure in their minds, and then complaining when they have got what +they invited. By the law of mental attraction they could not get +anything but poverty and failure. Each had desired success and +prosperity but had always expected the opposite. He had slaved and +toiled in an aimless sort of way, belittling himself and his talents, +with the inner belief that it was all he was good for anyway, and that +if success by any chance ever came his way it would be a stroke of luck, +and not because it was his due by inherent right. + +No man can become prosperous as long as he holds in his mind the picture +of limitation, of lack and want. We do not get things in this world +which we do not believe we can get. We do not accomplish what we doubt +we can do, even though we have the ability to do it. + +I knew a boy in college who always felt certain he was going to fail in +his examinations, and he did fail invariably. Yet it was due more to his +fear, his terror, of failure than to a lack of ability or preparation +in his studies. He had formed a habit of expecting failure, of +predicting misfortunes, of looking and preparing for them, and so far as +I know they have followed him through life. + +In every community, in every occupation and profession, there are able, +conscientious men and women who try very hard, so far as their actual +labor is concerned, to get on in the world, but who don't expect to get +on. It is pitiful to see them toiling day after day, but always facing +in the wrong direction. They are working for success in their vocations, +working for a competence for themselves and their families, but all the +time expecting failure, anticipating poverty, living in an atmosphere of +mental penury. + +There is no law of philosophy by which you can possibly produce just the +opposite of what you are holding in your mind, what you are +concentrating on. If you are thinking down, if you are afraid, are +worried, if you have fears and doubts, if you keep visualizing, +thinking, talking hard times, panics and financial crises, your business +will shrink and shrivel accordingly. If, on the other hand, you have +confidence, expectation of better things, if you are convinced that +conditions are going to improve, you set in motion a thought current +that will back your efforts with an irresistible force. But a thought +current saturated with the fear of failure, with doubts and +discouragement will neutralize your most strenuous efforts. + +Instead of starting on their active careers with the victorious +attitude, with the idea that their careers are to be a triumphal march, +many, if not the majority of youths, begin with the impression that they +are not victory organized. This is because they have lived in a failure +atmosphere, and have absorbed the poverty idea. They have been reared +with the fear of failure in their minds, a dread of poverty, a terror of +coming to want. + +Write it in your heart that a beneficent Creator, who planned a universe +full of good things for our use and enjoyment, never meant that we +should starve or be miserable. If we are unsuccessful, unhappy, it is +because of our attitude toward God and life. Most of us assume the +position of beggars instead of that of children of an all-powerful +Father, and we remain beggars to the end. + +One of the worst things about being very poor is the danger of becoming +reconciled to penury, expecting it, holding the conviction that we shall +always be poor, that there is no help for it. The habit of thinking we +must remain poor because we are so is a paralyzing habit. + +Whatever we have accustomed ourselves to for any length of time tends to +become a fixed mode of life. Multitudes of people have become so +accustomed to their poverty environment, so used to taking it for +granted that they are going to remain poor, that they do not take the +necessary steps to get away from poverty; and they do not even know that +the first step must be a mental one. Instead of this they are all the +time affirming their poverty, getting more and more deeply imbedded in +the poverty condition by their poverty thoughts and convictions. + +The early years of multitudes of children are saturated with the poverty +suggestion. They breathe a poverty atmosphere. They hear poverty talk +perpetually. They acquire a poverty vocabulary. Their fathers and +mothers are always talking poverty, bemoaning their hard conditions, +complaining that they were born poor, and must die poor. Children reared +in such a mental environment get a sort of poverty habit from which it +is very difficult to get away. + +The facing toward poverty and despair, heading toward hopelessness and +failure, is the worst thing about poverty. The fixity of their +conviction that they cannot get away from poverty, their resignation to +it, their firm belief that they can never rise into prosperity,--these +are the most distressing things about the very poor. There is a +tremendous difference between the prospects as well as the mental +attitude and the facial expression of a poor boy on a farm who dreams of +the day when he can go to college, who pictures himself there, who +believes with all his heart that his dream will be realized, and the +prospects, the mental attitude and face of another boy similarly +situated, who also longs for an education, but has abandoned all hope of +ever going to college, or ever getting away from the grinding drudgery +and monotony of the farm which he hates. + +We must change our thought before we can change our conditions. The +thought always leads in any achievement. It would be as impossible for +the great mass of poor people to improve their position materially while +holding their present mental attitude, the persistent belief that they +are always going to be poor, and that they never can do what others have +done to get out of their rut, as it would be for the boy who longs to go +to college, but who has made up his mind that it is impossible, to get a +higher education. While they think that all others are lucky and they +are unlucky, while they continue talking about their hard fate and +thinking that the rich are getting all the good things of the world and +that they are getting only the dregs and never will get anything else, +why, of course they will never get anything else. + +Most poor people have about the same attitude toward poverty that those +who are constantly ailing have toward health. Habitual invalids never +expect to be really well. They are always anticipating the development +of some disease, looking for the symptoms, imagining that they are going +to have this or that physical disability or disease. The way to have +health is to think it, to expect it, to visualize it, to realize that +health is a positive everlasting fact, and disease only negation, the +absence of health, which is brought about largely by a wrong mental +attitude, by self-thought poisoning, by disobeying the laws of health. +If we are going to be well, we must think vigorous, robust, cheerful, +health thoughts, and we must observe the laws of health. We shall have +the same degree of health that we give to our mental health model. It is +our visualizing of health that brings the expected condition. It is the +same with poverty. + +Not long ago a poor man told me he would be perfectly satisfied if he +could be assured that he would never have to go to the poorhouse, that +he would have enough to provide the bare necessities for his little +family. He said he never expected to have anything better. He was +satisfied that it was not intended for him to have any luxuries. He had +always been a poor man, and he always expected to be poor. + +Now, this is just the thing that kept this man poor, for he was a hard +worker. He always expected to be poor. He did not expect anything +better. He merely worked for the bare necessities of life, did not +expect anything else, and of course he only just managed to squeeze +along, making but a bare subsistence. This attitude of the poor toward +poverty tends to increase it, to aggravate their disease. So long as one +holds the poverty thought he is making himself a poverty magnet, and +continually drawing to himself unfortunate conditions. + +We have a good illustration of this, a real object lesson, in the +grayhaired men everywhere seeking a job. I have watched these desperate +men on their rounds looking for work. They are poverty stricken in +appearance; their expression is one of utter hopelessness. They look +like men who are going downhill, men who have reached the period of +diminishing returns, and they feel exactly as they look. Their +appearance is the reflex of their thought. Their dress, their manner, +their gait, the look in their eyes, everything about them corresponds to +their mental attitude, and all point downgrade. + +If these men would only brace up, look up, dress up, before they seek a +job, there would be some hope for them. If they can't get better clothes +they can brush the old ones, blacken their shoes, have a bath and shave, +and above all a mental clean-up, and their chances will be ten to one +compared with what they were before their physical and mental clean-up. + +A man has got to radiate confidence in himself, the expectation of +success, before he can get a job. He has got to show that he has reserve +power, that there is a lot of good blood in him, working material, +success possibilities, or nobody will want him. The man who goes to an +employer in a discouraged attitude and begs for work on the ground that +he needs it very much; who whines and complains how hard it is for any +one who shows the signs of age to get a job, is not going to get one. + +If you are in the clutches of a poverty so dire that it robs you even of +the desire to get away from it, you are cursed with self-thought +poisoning. This is what mars and embitters so many lives, drives away +happiness, health and prosperity. + +Poverty is usually a disease. It is just as much a disease as is +smallpox or tuberculosis. It is just as abnormal to the human being as +any disease of the flesh. So is failure. Fear, worry, anxiety, these are +all mental diseases, from which few human beings seem to escape. But we +are gradually finding an antitoxin for the virus of those diseases so +fatal to efficiency, health, happiness and prosperity. + +The Bible tells us "The destruction of the poor is their poverty." Every +investigator of slum life in our big cities, every record of the lives +of the unfortunate poor in our midst proves that this is an absolute +truth. + +Extreme poverty is a scourge that draws its victims down from depths to +lower depths; that makes life a bitter struggle for the bare crumbs that +hold body and soul together. When these are not forthcoming it drives +the weak, despairing struggler to crime in order to keep himself from +starving, or if he is still too proud to steal, to beg, or to go to the +poorhouse he ends his life, rather than wait for the slow cruel process +of starvation to quench it out. Every year poverty claims its tens of +thousands of innocent victims among the little children who die of +disease and neglect in damp, foul cellars where the sun never enters. +It sweeps them into mills and factories where, robbed of the rights of +childhood, they become warped and twisted men and women, full of +bitterness, discontent, unrest and unsatisfied ambitions and longings. +It drives multitudes to crime, to insanity, to death. In short, poverty +is responsible for more ignorance and crime, more discontent and +unhappiness, more suicides and ruined ambitions, more wrecked hopes and +homes than almost anything else. Verily "the destruction of the poor is +their poverty." + +If we are to progress as a race, as a civilization, we must, +emphatically, drive this crushing poverty disease from our midst. +Instead of lauding its blessings, as some do, it is our duty to get away +from it, and to help others to do so. + +The poverty disease, the poverty curse, is not a decree of Providence. +It is largely the result of ignorance. Every human being on this earth +could be living in comfort if they knew the powers locked up in +themselves and were willing to work and make the best use of them. If +the poverty antidotes were as generally known as are the poison +antidotes there would be no poor people. + +Human beings in the aggregate are in much the same position regarding +the poverty antitoxin as the medical profession in regard to newly +discovered antitoxin for some terrible disease. Physicians do not know +how to apply it safely and effectively, and until practice has +established its great value its use is limited. When the knowledge and +the use of the poverty remedy become general the disease will be +conquered. + +As the race becomes more intelligent and better educated we eliminate a +multitude of conditions to which people formerly thought they were born, +and that there was no escape from them. Many evils which have been +conquered by science and education were at one time regarded as scourges +sent by God to punish us for our sins, to chasten us. Diseases which +struck terror to the hearts of human beings a hundred years ago, and +from which they fled in horror, are not feared at all to-day. +Intelligence and science have mastered the great plagues which in the +Middle and Dark Ages carried off their terrified victims by the million. +We have no fear of those plagues to-day, because we have obliterated +their causes. We know now that the prevention of those frightful +epidemics is merely a matter of sanitation, scientific hygiene, +intelligent, healthful living. We know that they were scourges forged by +ignorance and not "judgments" of God. + +Is it not reasonable to believe that, having conquered so many of the +enemies of the race by intelligent thought and scientific methods, we +can conquer them all by similar means? Poverty is a plague, a mental +disease which can be conquered by intelligent scientific methods. We +know its causes and we can remove them. They are largely mental. + +It is not necessary to call in a physician to treat the poverty disease. +The sufferer can be his own physician. He can heal himself. If you are +afflicted with the disease, and want to know how to get rid of it, read +the next chapter. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +MAKING YOURSELF A PROSPERITY MAGNET + + Though culture is the most important business of life. The habit + of claiming as our own, as a vivid, present reality that which we + desire with all our heart, is a magnetic power which attracts the + things we long for. The more persistently we hold the prosperity + thought, the more we strengthen and intensify it, the more we + increase its power to attract prosperity. + + Thinking abundance, visualizing prosperity, will open up the mind, + and set the thought currents toward increased supply. + + +We are so made that about all we get in life is the reflex of what first +flows out from us. Whatever thought you send out will draw to you in the +material world a corresponding reality. + +Every human being is a magnet, the attractive power of which may be +developed in any desired direction. Each one can so direct this power +that he can draw to himself whatever he wills. + +Before your life can be really effective you must make yourself a magnet +for the things that will make it so. You must learn how to attract, how +to draw to yourself all that will help you to succeed in your work, that +will enable you to attain your ambitions. + +If poverty is holding you down, you can conquer it by making yourself a +prosperity magnet. We are living in the midst of a stream of +inexhaustible supply. It is one's own fault if he does not take from +this stream whatever he needs. + +What we get in life we get by the law of attraction. Like attracts like. +Whatever you may have managed to get together in this world you have +attracted by your mentality. You may say that you have earned these +things, that you have bought them with your salary, the fruit of your +endeavor. True, but your thought preceded your endeavor. Your mental +plan went before your achievement. + +The mere changing of your mental attitude will very soon begin to change +conditions. Your decision to face toward prosperity hereafter, to +cultivate it, to make yourself a prosperity magnet will tend to draw to +you the things that will satisfy your ambition. + +The text "He that hath a bountiful eye shall be blessed" is the +expression of a fundamental truth. The pictures you make in your mind's +eye, the thoughts you harbor are day by day building your outward +conditions. They are real forces working ceaselessly in the unseen, and +the more you think and visualize favorable conditions the more you +increase your power to realize them. You make yourself a magnet for the +thing you desire. This is a psychological law. + +If you want to become a prosperity magnet you must not only think +prosperity but you must also turn your back resolutely on poverty. Begin +to-day. Don't wait for to-morrow or next day. If you don't look +prosperous, assume a prosperous appearance. Dress as far as possible +like a prosperous man or woman, walk like one, act like one, think in +terms of prosperity. A mental healer could not cure a cancer by holding +in his mind a picture of the hideous disease, with all its horrible +appearances and symptoms. He must eliminate all this from his mind. He +must see his patient whole, clean, healthy, just as God intended him to +be, free from all disease. He must picture to himself the ideal man, and +declare his divinity. + +The same thing is true in curing yourself of poverty. You can not do +this as long as you hold poverty-stricken conditions in your mind. If +you want to be prosperous you must hold the prosperous thought, the +prosperous picture in your mind. You must refuse to see or recognize +poverty. You must not acknowledge it in your manner. You must erase all +marks of it, not only from your mental attitude, but just as far as +possible from your appearance. Even if you are not able to wear fine +clothes at first, or to live in a fine house, you can radiate the hope +and expectancy of the glorious inheritance which is your birthright, and +everything about you will reflect this light. + +Prosperity begins in the mind. You must lay its foundations in your +thoughts, surround yourself with a prosperity atmosphere. In other +words, you will build into your environment, into your life, whatever +dwells in your mind. + +We hear of some people that "they are always lucky"; "everything seems +to come their way." Things come their way because there are invisible +thought forces radiating from their minds toward the goal they have set +for themselves. Things fall in line and come our way just in proportion +to the force and velocity of the thought forces we project. + +Thinking better things might be called the first aid to the poor. To +picture yourself as prosperous, living in a comfortable home, wearing +good clothes, surrounded with the refinements of life, in a position to +do your best work in the service of mankind, this is to put yourself +into the current that runs successward. + +It is a strange thing that most of us believe the Creator will help us +in everything but our financial troubles. We seem to think that it is in +some way almost sacrilegious to call upon Him for money to meet our +needs. We may ask for comfort, for solace in our afflictions, for the +assuaging of our griefs and the healing of our diseases, but to implore +God to help us to pay the rent, to pay off the mortgage on the home or +the farm, does not seem quite right. + +Yet we know perfectly well that every mouthful of food we eat, the +material for the clothing we wear and for the houses we live in, every +breath we breathe must come from this Divine Source, of infinite supply. +If the sun were to be blotted out, or to cease to send its magic rays to +the earth, in a few days there would not be a single living thing on the +globe. Not a human being, not an animal could exist without it. Not a +tree, not a plant, not a flower, no fruits, no vegetables, no grass, +nothing green, no vegetable life would be possible. Without the sun's +energizing power all life would cease on this planet. It would be as +cold, barren and lifeless as on the moon. The Creator is the builder and +provider of the universe. Everything we have comes from Him, and without +the supply which flows from His abundance we could not live a single +instant, and why should we not look to this great Source for our money +supply? + +The truth is we were all intended to live the life abundant. The Creator +never meant His children to grovel in poverty, to spend their lives in +drudgery and uncertainty. They have a right to their inheritance of all +that is good and beautiful, all that is needful for their welfare. We +were not intended to live the pinched, starved, stunted lives of +paupers. It is our own fault if we do. The door to opulence is open to +every human being born into this world, and no one but himself can close +that door. No human being can shut out the lowliest child that is born +from his divine inheritance. The only real poverty is in the mind, and +no one can control one's mind but himself. + +Never for a moment harbor the thought that anything can come to you but +prosperity, for this is your birthright; and because it is, you should +demand it. Instead of admitting poverty say to yourself, "I am in the +midst of abundance. I lack nothing that I need because my Father is the +Infinite Source." + +Turn your back on poverty. Make up your mind that you will never again +have anything to do with it, that you will not encourage it by dwelling +on and visualizing poverty suggestions. Face toward prosperity. Think +of, and plan for prosperous conditions; struggle toward prosperity with +all your might and you will draw it to you. + +Suppose you are poor and live in a humble home, just have a talk with +your wife and children, and make up your minds that you will all focus +on your objective--improved conditions,--that you will face the other +way, toward prosperity instead of poverty. Say to yourself, "It is a +shame for God's children to exhibit such a pauperized appearance. It is +a reflection on my Father-Mother-God to go about among my fellows +looking as though everything had gone wrong with me, as though I were +disappointed with life. This is ungrateful. I can at least show +gratitude for health, for the privilege of living in God's pure air and +sunlight by holding up my head and walking erectly, joyously, as His +child should. I am really insulting the Creator, to whom I pray, by +reflecting such despair and degrading poverty in my mental attitude, +thus erasing the divine image from my face. No matter how little I have, +I can at least appear respectable. I can show that I respect myself by +doing away as far as possible with the depressing appearance and +influence of poverty." + +Tidy up your little home and make it as neat and cheerful as possible. +Do the same with your dress and general appearance. Keep yourself better +groomed; look up, brace up, brush up, struggle up. Surround yourself +with an atmosphere of hopefulness and show everybody by the new light in +your eyes, the light of hope and expectancy of better things, that there +is a change in you. Your neighbors will notice it. They will see a +change in your home, in your wife, in your children. The change in the +mental attitude of yourself and family, through facing toward the light +instead of darkness, toward hope instead of despair, will make a +tremendous change in your whole outlook on life. + +In this way you are making yourself a prosperity magnet; you are +radiating thought waves of hope, of ambition, of determination. Your new +mental attitude is expressed in an erect, manly carriage, in squared, +thrown back shoulders, in a neat, clean appearance, even though the +clothing be old and threadbare, in a winning, forceful, magnetic +countenance. You are thus establishing the conditions of success. The +positive prosperity thought flows out like a wireless current and +connects itself with similar thought currents. Hold the prosperity +conviction, work steadily toward your object; see opportunity and +success in your vista, determine to be somebody, hold firmly to the +resolve, and your mentality will direct the invisible magnet of your +personality to lift you higher and higher, to attract toward you others +who will help you in the direction in which you are moving. + +If you want a better position, more salary, money to pay off debts, or +to get what you need, whatever it may be, cling with all the power of +your mind to the thing you are trying to get, and never for a moment +doubt you will get it. You do not inherit poverty, squalor. Lack and +want have nothing whatever to do with God's children. Your inheritance +is divine, grand, sublime. Poverty is a mental disease, and you carry +the antidote to its poison in your mind. You owe it to the One who has +given you life, health, who has given you brains to make something of +yourself, to improve your situation. + +As long as you keep yourself saturated with the poverty conviction you +cannot rise out of poverty. You must think yourself out of it. "The Lord +is my Shepherd, and I _cannot_ want." Hold that thought firmly and +steadfastly in your mind. Believe it. Live up to it. + +Abundance will never flow through pinched, doubting, poverty thoughts, +any more than clear, crystal water can flow freely through foul, +grease-clogged pipes. A right viewpoint must be your mental plumber to +keep the connection open and free. Things of a kind attract one another. +The poverty thought attracts more poverty, the fear thought more fear, +the worry thought more worry, the anxiety thought more anxiety. On the +other hand, the faith thought, trust thought, and the confidence thought +attract things like themselves. + +Poverty is a disease that can only be cured by prosperity remedies. The +prosperity thought is the natural antidote for the poverty germ. It +kills it. The poverty thought cannot exist in the mind at the same +moment with the prosperity thought. One will drive out the other. It +rests with you which one you will harbor and encourage. + +Cling to the consciousness of your oneness with the All-Supply. Keep the +supply pipes between you and the Infinite Source of all good always +open. Don't pinch them. Don't cut off the supply by the limiting +poverty thought, the doubt thought, the fear thought, the worry +thought. Keep your supply pipes open by great faith in your +Father-Mother-God, who is more solicitous for your welfare than any +human parent could be. Hold fast to the anchor of your union with the +Infinite Life; keep in the current running Godward and your life will +not dry up or become barren, will not be blighted and blasted by the +poverty drought. + +The trouble with us is that we have been in the habit of looking for a +material supply when our first supply must be mental. We keep the supply +avenues open or we close them with our thoughts, our convictions. We +materialize poverty by our doubting thoughts, by our fears of it. We are +just beginning to find that we get out of this world what we think into +it and work out of it, that our thought plan precedes its material +realization just as the architect's plan precedes the building. + +Remember that prosperity can not flow into your life while your mind is +filled with poverty thoughts and convictions. We go in the direction of +our thought and our convictions. By no law can you expect to get that +which you do not believe you will get. Prosperity can not come to you +if you are all the time driving it away from you by your poverty +thought. + +You must think in a positive determined way that you are going to +succeed in whatever you desire to do or to be before you can expect +success. That is the first condition by which you make yourself a magnet +for the thing you are after. It doesn't matter whether it is work or +money, a better position or health, or whatever else it is, your +thoughts about it must be positive, clean cut, decisive, persistent. No +weak, wobbly "Perhaps I may get it," or "Maybe it will come some time," +or "I wonder if I shall get this," or "if I can do that" sort of thought +will ever help you to get anything in this world or the next. + +When young John Wanamaker started with a pushcart to deliver his first +sale of clothing he turned on a positive current toward a merchant +princeship. As he passed big clothing stores he pictured himself as a +great merchant, owner of a much bigger establishment than any of those +he saw, and he did not neutralize or weaken this thought current by all +sorts of doubts or fears as to the possibility of reaching the goal of +his ambition. + +Most people think too much about blindly forcing themselves ahead. They +do not realize that they can, by the power of thought, make themselves +magnets to draw to them the things that will help them to get on. +Wanamaker attracted to himself the forces that make a merchant prince. +Every step he took was forward, to match the vision of his advance with +its reality. + +Marshall Field projected himself mentally out of a little country store +into a clerkship in Chicago. Then he thought and worked himself out of +this clerkship into a partnership. Still thinking and climbing upward, +he next visualized himself at the head of the greatest merchandizing +establishment in America, if not in the world. His mind always ran +ahead. He was always picturing himself a little higher up, a little +further on, always visualizing a larger business, and so making himself +a magnet for the things he sought. + +If John Wanamaker had been satisfied with himself at the start he would +have remained in his first little store in Philadelphia, and thus cut +off all possibility of becoming what he is--one of the greatest +merchants the world has ever seen. If Marshall Field had stopped +thinking himself higher up when the man he worked for in the little +Pittsfield store predicted that he never would succeed as a merchant, he +never would have been heard from. But Deacon Davis's telling Marshall +Field's father that the boy would not make a salesman in a thousand +years did not stop him thinking himself ahead. "On to Chicago, the City +of Opportunity," he said to himself, and on and up he went until the +little country merchant who predicted his failure was a Lilliputian in +comparison. + +The story of each of these men is, so far as the success principle is +concerned, the story of every man who has ever succeeded in his +undertakings. They may not have been conscious of the law underlying +their methods, but they worked in unison with it, and hence succeeded. + +The same thing is true of Andrew Carnegie, and of all the millionaires +and self-made men among us who have raised themselves from poor boys to +the ownership of colossal fortunes, or to commanding positions in some +phase of the world's activities. + +Any one who makes the accumulation of a fortune his chief goal, and who +has grit, determination, will power and sufficient faith in himself to +stick to his purpose will get there. But long before the youth who +chooses such a goal has reached it, he will have dwarfed his manhood, +and shriveled his soul. + +To get away from poverty is one thing; to set one's heart on money as +the ultimate good is another, and quite a different, thing. There is a +whole world of difference between so saturating one's mind with the +thought of money and its acquisition that there is no room for any other +aspiration, and the constant dwelling on the black and hopeless poverty +thought, the incessant picturing yourself as a pauper until you are so +convinced of poverty's hold on you that you destroy the very ability +which should help you to get away from it. + +People who are down and out financially are down and out mentally. They +are suffering from a mental disease of discouragement and loss of hope. +There ought to be institutions conducted by government experts for the +treatment of these poverty sufferers, for they are just as much in need +of it as are the inmates of our hospitals. They need advice from mental +experts. They have lost their way on the life path, and need to be shown +the way back. They need to be turned about mentally, so that they will +face the light instead of the darkness. They should be shown that they +are stopping up their prosperity pipes, cutting off their source of +supply by their pinching, poverty-stricken, limiting thought. Their +whole mental attitude points toward failure, toward poverty, and by a +natural law their outward conditions conform with the pictures they hold +in mind. + +This poverty disease could be cured in the case of the majority of down +and outs, the failures, by proper mental treatments. If the people in +the great failure army to-day could be shown that as long as they hold +the poverty thought and go about with a sad, dejected expression on +their faces, as though there were no hope in life for them, they will +continue to be poor; but that if they will only turn about and face the +sun, so that their shadows will fall behind them, their conditions will +begin to improve, they would quickly take a new lease of life and +courage. These mental prosperity treatments would generate in them a new +hope that would cause them to brace up all along the line. + +What a revelation would come to the poor people of the world if they +would only eliminate from their minds for a single year the poverty +thought; if they would erase from their minds poverty pictures and all +the suggestions of grinding want that sadden and discourage; if, instead +of expecting poverty, and all that the idea implies, they could go +through one year expecting just the opposite,--prosperity,--visualizing, +talking prosperity, thinking prosperity, acting as though they expected +to be, as though they were, prosperous! Just this radical change of +thought, this transposition of mental attitude, the persistent holding +of the prosperous viewpoint for a year would not only change their whole +outlook on life, but would revolutionize their material conditions. + +They would brush up and clean up the things they have; their ambition +would grow; their new way of looking at life would give an upward +tendency to their surroundings. No matter how poor, their squalid aspect +would go. Everything would take on a different appearance. There would +be a new light in the people's faces. There would be hope there instead +of despair,--expectancy of better things would give a glow of +cheerfulness to their countenances. There would be a light in their eyes +which never was there before. Working in the spirit of hope and +expectancy of better things instead of that of discouragement and the +fears of even greater poverty, they would forge ahead in a way that +would astonish themselves. + +The time is not far away when we shall have prosperity practitioners who +will make a specialty of teaching people how to free their minds from +thoughts that produce poverty by replacing them with their opposites, +thus constantly enlarging the mental power of attraction until the mind +becomes a powerful magnet, ever attracting prosperity. + +These specialists will teach people the creative power of right +thinking, and will show them how to attract their desires instead of +killing them, as so many do, by wrong thinking. Clergymen of the future +will do much toward eliminating poverty from among their people by +instructing them to turn their backs on it and to face toward +prosperity. They will teach them how to draw to themselves the sunlight +of prosperity. + +The cure of physical disease is effected by arousing the curative, +restorative forces within the individual. These are brought into +operation largely through faith in the physician, in the remedy, in the +healer. The healthful mental attitude thus created overcomes the +disease. + +The cure of poverty,--poverty is usually a mental disease,--is effected +in a similar way. The sufferer must first of all have faith in the great +Physician of the universe. When that is fully and firmly established +there will be no difficulty in flooding his mind with the prosperity +thought, the thought that our Father-Mother-God is the Author of +abundance, the Author of all the wealth of the earth, and that He is +infinitely kinder and more solicitous for our welfare than the fondest +mother could be for her child. + +We have not yet tapped the possibilities of any part of the world's +resources. Every inhabitant of the earth to-day is treading on secrets +which would emancipate man from drudgery and allow him to live happily +instead of merely to eke out a wretched subsistence as he has done up to +the present. Hitherto, in the great majority of cases, we have barely +been existing on the husks of things. Now we are beginning to taste the +kernel, because we are coming into a knowledge of the powers locked up +within ourselves, and also of the illimitable supply of God's abundance. +Here and there, people are mastering the law of opulence. They are +demonstrating that they can conquer poverty by making themselves +prosperity magnets; that is, by thinking and working in conformity with +the law of opulence, of abundance. + +It is monstrous that so many of God's children are starving right on the +shores past which the stream of inexhaustible plenty flows, a stream +laden with all the rich things of the universe. There is no excuse for +the horrible misery and suffering that exist in our midst. There is no +reason why the children of the King of kings should be harassed and +tortured, driven into premature graves by poverty, for the Creator has +produced enough to make every one of His children rich, to give them an +abundance of all they need. There is no necessity for those who have +inherited all the good things of the earth to remain poor. + +The very structure of the human machine indicates that it was intended +for the best, that it was planned for comforts, for luxuries, and not +for poverty-stricken conditions. If we could only realize the +far-reaching influence of always expecting the best to come to us, +always expecting opulence, success, we would never allow ourselves to be +dominated by the black pictures of poverty and failure. If every one who +is suffering from the limitations and humiliations imposed by a grinding +poverty would proceed to establish the prosperity habit along the lines +suggested; if they would, by continually holding the prosperous thought, +convince the sub-conscious self that we were made to be successful, that +prosperity belongs to us we should soon sight the millennium. + +When we affirm our divinity, and claim our heritage; when we realize +that our birthright keeps us in touch with the very Source of all +supply, when we know that it was never intended that God's children +should be poor or go hungry, that it was never intended they should live +in poverty-stricken conditions, then we shall have struck the very basic +principle of prosperity. + +Hold the victorious attitude toward life and you will overcome all +unfavorable conditions. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE SUGGESTION OF INFERIORITY + + As the initials which boys cut in the bark of a sapling become + great, ugly scars on the grown tree, so the suggestions of + inferiority etched upon the young mind become great ugly scars + in the life of the adult. + + You may succeed when others do not believe in you, when everybody + else denounces you even, but never when you do not believe in + yourself. + + +In olden times criminals, fugitives from justice, and slaves were +branded. The words, "I am a fugitive," "I am a thief," or others +indicating their crime or their inferior status were seared on some part +of the body with a red hot iron. + +In Rome robbers were branded on the forehead with a degrading letter. +Laborers in mines, convicts, and gladiators were also branded. In Greece +slaves were sometimes branded with a favorite poetical passage of their +master. In France the branding iron used on slaves and criminals often +took the form of the fleur-de-lis. In England deserters from the army +were marked with the letter D, and vagabonds, robbers and brawlers were +branded in some way to advertise their disgrace. + +The barbarous custom of branding human beings with the badge of crime or +inferiority persisted in America even after it had been discontinued in +the mother country. Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" gives us a vivid +picture of the suffering inflicted on the moral delinquent by Puritan +moralists in Colonial days. The tragic heroine, Hester Prynn, is never +allowed to forget her sin. The sinister scarlet letter with which she is +branded proclaims her shame to every one she meets. While long after the +Colonial period, up to the time of their emancipation, slaves were +branded in Christian America with the initials of their owners as they +were in Pagan Greece and Rome. + +The mere idea of this stamping human beings with an indelible badge of +disgrace, of inferiority, shocks us moderns. Yet we do not hesitate to +mark people to-day with the scarlet letter of outlawry, the brand of +ostracism. We put the criminal badge on our prisoners by shaving their +heads and clothing them in stripes, thus perpetually keeping before them +the suggestion that they are criminals, outlaws, apart from their kind. + +We even carry our branding into our homes. In order to satisfy our cheap +vanity, we force our domestic workers to wear as a mark of inferiority, +a distinctive livery to remind them that they are menials, a lower grade +of being than ourselves. As a matter of fact, if it were not for these +branding distinctions, the maid would, in many instances, be taken for +the mistress and the valet for the master whom they far outrank both in +appearance and character. + +There are certain inalienable rights which human beings inherit from +their Maker, rights which no fellow being, no human law or authority is +justified in taking away. No matter what offense a person may commit +against society we have no right to degrade him below the level of a +human being; we have no right so to bombard him with the suggestion of +degradation, of inferiority, that we are almost certain to make him less +a man; to lower his estimate of himself to such a degree that we rob +him of the power even to attempt to regain his self-respect and his +position in society. We have no right to insist that those who work for +us shall wear a badge of inferiority. We have no right to thrust the +suggestion of inferiority perpetually into the mind of any human being. + +One of the greatest injuries we can inflict on any one is to convince +him that he is a nobody, that he has no possibilities, and will never +amount to anything. The suggestion of inferiority is responsible for +more blighted ambitions, more stunted lives, more failures, more misery +and unhappiness than almost any other single cause. Just as the constant +dripping of water will wear away stone, so the constant iteration of a +statement will cause its acceptance by the average person. Even though +the facts may be opposed to it, a constant suggestion presented to the +mind impresses us in spite of ourselves and tends to a conviction of its +truth. + +When the weight of the Civil War was nearly crushing Lincoln, when it +was the fashion to denounce and criticise and condemn him, when he was +being caricatured as a hideous monster in the jingo press all over the +world, one day, walking the floor in the White House, he was overheard +saying to himself, "Abe Lincoln, are you a dog or are you a man?" During +these dark days it would appear that Lincoln sometimes had a doubt as to +whether he was really the man his closest friends knew him to be, or the +one an antagonistic press pictured him. + +The curse of the inferiority suggestion not only tends to destroy our +faith in ourselves, but it often makes even the innocent take on the +appearance of guilt. When Lieutenant Dreyfus, through a foul conspiracy, +was convicted of the crime of treason against France, he showed +outwardly all the manifestations of guilt. When stripped, in the +presence of a vast multitude, in a public square in Paris, of all his +insignia of rank as an officer in the army of France, the epaulettes and +buttons being cut from his uniform and his sword broken, although +conscious of his innocence of the crime imputed to him he actually +looked like the guilty thing he was accused of being. And all but a very +few close friends in the vast concourse that witnessed his public +disgrace believed that even his appearance corroborated his guilt. The +brain of the unfortunate Dreyfus was a wireless receiving station for +the hatred, the contempt of millions of people who believed they were +looking at a vile traitor who had sold valuable military secrets to +Germany. + +We are all influenced for good or ill by suggestion, but children and +young people are peculiarly susceptible to it. The constant suggestion +of stupidity, badness, and dullness by teachers or parents, filling a +child's mind with the idea that he is a blockhead, always blundering, +making mistakes, that he is no good, and never will amount to anything, +makes an indelible impression on his plastic mind. + +The child naturally looks up to its parents and teachers and accepts +what they say as truth. He has implicit faith in their superior +knowledge and experience, which seem wonderful to him, and when they +tell him he is stupid, dull, slow, or bad, he takes what they say for +granted. He makes up his mind that, since they say so, he must be a +blockhead, and that they are right in thinking he is no good and will +never amount to anything. + +It is criminal for a parent or teacher to brand a child as dull, stupid, +bad; to tell him that there is nothing in him and that he will never be +anybody or amount to anything in life. The effect on a sensitive child +is disastrous. Thousands of boys and girls have been stunted mentally, +their careers handicapped, and in some instances completely ruined by +such cruel suggestions of inferiority. + +I have known men who kept taunting their sons with what they called +their imbecility and stupidity until the lads came to believe that they +were partial idiots and could not possibly make anything of themselves. +Many of them never did, because they were unable to overcome the +conviction of inferiority impressed upon them by their fathers. + +I remember one quite pathetic instance of a sensitive boy whose +slightest mistake evoked a volley of abuse from his father. He would +tell him that he was not "half baked," that he was "an imbecile," "a +blockhead," "a blunderer," "a hopeless good-for-nothing." The little +fellow so completely lost faith in himself and became so cowed that he +hardly dared look people in the face. He could not be induced to enter +his home when there were callers or guests present. He would slink away +and hide himself in the shed or barn until they had gone. In fact, he +became so morbid that he shrank from association even with other boys +and the neighbors whom he had known from babyhood. The boy really had a +fine mind, and when the death of his father threw him on his own +resources, he managed, by sheer will force and dogged persistence, to +succeed in making an honorable place in life. But he has never been able +to get away from the early conviction of his inferiority, of his lack of +ability compared with others around him. All his later life has been +handicapped by those pernicious suggestions. Whenever he is asked to +assume any responsibility, to take a place on a committee or a board, to +speak in public or make himself prominent in any way, these boyhood +mental pictures of his "good-for-nothingness" rise before him like +terrifying ghosts and seriously cripple or paralyze his efforts. He has +always felt that there is some grave defect in his nature and that, try +as he may, he can not entirely overcome his handicap. This crippling, +cramping defective image of himself impressed on this man in childhood +and youth has robbed him of much of the best of life, of all the joy and +exhilaration that come from spontaneity, from the free, unshackled +expression of oneself, of all one's faculties. + +Children are affected by praise or blame just as animals are. It is easy +to kill the spirit of a dog by abuse and ill treatment, so that in a +short time he will slink about with his tail between his legs, look +guilty and self-depreciatory. In short, he will take on all the +appearance of a "whipped cur." Thoroughbred horse trainers say that +after a horse has been beaten or abused a few times he loses confidence +in himself. His spirit is broken and when he sees the other horses +getting neck and neck with him, or perhaps gaining on him a little, he +is likely to give up the race. The destruction of self-confidence has +caused many a youth with the latent qualities of a thoroughbred to fail +in life's great race. + +There are thousands and thousands of boys who do not develop quickly. +Their brains are strong and capable, but they work slowly, and as a +consequence the boys are misjudged and misunderstood by parents and +teachers alike. In other instances the stupidity and dullness for which +children are berated are only apparent. They are often the result of +timidity, shyness, excessive self-consciousness. The youngsters do not +dare to assert themselves. Especially is this true in families where the +parental rule is stern and repressive. The children are afraid to speak +aloud or to express themselves in any way. + +The suggestion of inferiority deepens this defect till it becomes a +mania. Many of the tragedies of the pernicious "ranking system" by +examinations in our public schools and colleges are the result of an +acute sense of inferiority. Every year quite a number of public school +pupils and students in academies and colleges suffer nervous breakdown, +become insane or commit suicide because they fail to pass their +examinations. Chagrin and humiliation at the sense of inferiority +suggested by their failure unbalances them. In most of those cases lack +of confidence, not lack of ability, is the cause of failure. + +You may say this is foolishness, but it is true. And if the suggestion +of inferiority is powerful enough to drive young people to suicide, +certainly the opposite, the suggestion of superiority, would multiply +the youth's ability and work a miracle in his career. + +A child should never hear the slightest hint to the effect that it is in +any way inferior. Its whole training should tend to develop faith, +confidence in himself, in his powers, in his great possibilities. As the +twig is bent the tree is inclined. The child who is impressed in its +tender formative stage with the idea of its inferiority suffers a wrong +for which nothing in the after years can compensate. + +Many young employees, especially if they are at all sensitive, are +irreparably injured by nagging, fault-finding employers, who are +constantly reminding them of their shortcomings, scolding them for every +trivial mistake, and never giving them a word of praise or +encouragement, no matter how creditable their work, or how well they +deserve it. + +Enthusiasm is the very soul of success and one cannot be enthusiastic +about his work, he cannot take continued pride in it, if he is +constantly being told that it is no good, that it is in fact +disgracefully bad, that he should be ashamed of himself, and that he +ought to quit if he can't do better. This fault-finding and continual +suggestion of inferiority has ruined many a life. + +A young writer, for instance, often gets a serious setback in his early +efforts because of a severe criticism, an unqualified condemnation of +his first book by a reviewer, or the return of his initial manuscript, +with an editor's sneering suggestion that he has made a mistake in his +calling. Harsh critics, editors and book reviewers have deterred many +young writers from developing their talent. The fear of further +criticism or humiliation, of being called foolish, dull or stupid, has +blighted in the bud the career of many talented young people who under +encouragement might have done splendid work. If he is of a sensitive +nature even though he really have great ability such rebuffs often so +dishearten him that he never has the confidence to try again. + +In the same way many a possible clergyman or orator has been discouraged +by early failure and the humiliation of ridicule. In other words, unless +a youth is made of very strong material and has a lot of pluck and +indomitable grit, the suggestion of inferiority, perpetual nagging and +discouragement may seriously mar his career. + +If instead of carping and harping on the little faults and mistakes of +those under their jurisdiction, and prophesying their utter failure and +ruin, parents, teachers, employers and others in responsible positions +would recognize and appreciate laudable qualities, there would be less +misery and crime in the world, fewer human failures and wrecks. + +The perpetual suggestion of inferiority holds more people back from +doing what they are capable of than almost anything else. In the Old +World,--China, Japan, India, in England and other European countries, +for example,--who can measure the harm it has done in the form of +"caste." Think what superb men and women have been held down all their +lives, kept in menial positions, because they were reared in the belief +that once a servant always a servant; that because their parents were +menials they must also be menials! + +What splendid brains and fine personalities we see serving in hotels, +restaurants and private households in Europe--often much superior to +the proprietors themselves. Saturated with the idea that the son must +follow in the father's footsteps, though they may be infinitely superior +in natural ability to those they serve, these men remain waiters, +butlers, coachmen, gardeners or humble employees of some sort. No matter +what talents they possess they are held in leash by the ingrained +conviction of generations that the accident of birth has decided their +position in life. They are convinced that the barriers established by +heredity and by caste, an outworn feudal system, are insurmountable. + +How delightfully the gentle humorist Barrie satirizes this Old World +condition in his play, "The Admirable Crichton." How skillfully he +portrays the clever and resourceful butler, Crichton, who in the +crucible of a great emergency proves himself a born leader, a man head +and shoulders above the noble lord, his master. + +When the yacht carrying the master and his family, Crichton and some +other servants, is wrecked, they escape with their lives to a desert +island. In their desperate plight the barriers of caste are broken down, +and master and man change places. Removed from an artificial +environment, where hereditary rank and wealth determine the status of +the man, Nature unmistakably asserts herself, and Crichton, by the tacit +consent of all, becomes leader. By the force of his inborn ability he +controls the situation. He commands, the others obey. Yet when they are +rescued by a passing ship and brought back to England, old conditions at +once resume their sway. Crichton, without a murmur, or thought of +change, falls back to his former menial position, and all goes on as +before. + +While we Americans laugh at, or severely criticize and denounce, the +snobbishness of class distinctions in other countries, we are guilty of +similar snobbishness, especially in regard to one section of our +fellow-Americans--the Negro race. No matter how highly educated, how +able, how refined or charming a man or a woman, if he or she has but a +drop of Negro blood, we brand him or her with the stigma of race +inferiority. + +I always feel sympathy for the colored people, especially for the better +educated and more refined men and women of this class who must suffer +keenly from the discrimination against their race. They see white people +avoiding them everywhere; refusing to sit down beside them in public +places, in churches, on trains and cars, everywhere they can possibly +avoid it. In the South they are not permitted to ride in the same cars +with whites, and in other parts of the country, while they may travel on +the ordinary day coaches, they are not allowed on the Pullman cars, +except as waiters and porters. Our hotels, private schools, public +places, and even many of our churches, practice similar discrimination. +The churches pretend to draw no color lines, but by their attitude most +of them practically do so. + +Everywhere they turn in this land of ours, where we boast that every man +is "born free and equal," Negroes are embarrassed, placed at a +disadvantage. In all sorts of ways white people are constantly +humiliating them, reminding them that they belong to an inferior race, +and they take their places according to the valuation of those born to +more favorable conditions. This constant suggestion of inferiority has +done much to keep the colored race back, because it has added +tremendously to their sense of real or fancied inferiority and has been +a discouragement to their efforts to make themselves the equals of those +who look down upon them. + +We can not help being influenced by other people's opinion of us. It +makes us, according to its nature, think more or less of ourselves, of +our ability. We are similarly affected by our environment. We +unconsciously take on the superiority or inferiority of our +surroundings. Employees who work in cheap, shoddy stores or factories +soon become tagged all over with the marks of inferiority, the cheap +John methods employed in the establishments in which they work and spend +their days. + +If the employees in a store like Tiffany's or Altman's, for example, +were to be mixed up with those of some of the cheap, shoddy New York +stores, it would not take much discernment to pick out the worker in the +superior environment from the one in the inferior. To spend one's best +years selling cheap, shoddy merchandise will inevitably leave its mark +on those who do so. Even though we may struggle against it, we are +unconsciously dyed by the quality of our occupation, the character of +the concerns for which we work. + +In making your life choice, avoid as you would poison shoddy, fakey +concerns which have no standing in their community. Keep away from +occupations that have a demoralizing tendency. Every suggestion of +inferiority is contagious, and helps to swerve the life from its +possibilities. + +Every influence in our environment is a suggestion which becomes a part +of us. If we live with people who lack ambition, who are slovenly, +slipshod, or with people of loose morals, of low flying ideals, we tend +to reflect their qualities. If we mingle much with those who use slangy, +vulgar, incorrect English, people who are not careful about their +manners or their expression, these things will reappear in our own +conversation and manners. If we read inferior books, or associate with +perpetual failures, with people who botch their work and botch their +lives our own standards will suffer from the contagion. + +It does not matter whether inferiority relates to manner, to work, to +conversation, to companions, to thought habits--wherever it occurs, its +tendency is to pull down all standards and to cut down the average of +achievement. We are all living sensitive plates on which the example, +the thoughts and suggestions of others, our own thoughts and habits, our +associations and surroundings indelibly etch themselves. + +I wish I could burn it into the consciousness of every person who wants +to make a success of life that he cannot do so while he associates +himself with inferiority and harbors a low estimate of himself. Get away +from both. Have nothing to do with them. If you are a victim of the +inferiority suggestion, deny the suggestion, drive it from your mind as +the greatest enemy of your welfare. + +You can only do what you think you can. If you hold in mind a cheap, +discreditable picture of yourself; if you doubt your efficiency you are +shackled, you are not free to express yourself. You erect a barrier +between yourself and the power that achieves. + +The mere mental acknowledgment or feeling that you are weak, +inefficient, is contagious. It is sensed by other people and their +thought is added to yours in undermining your self-confidence, which is +the bulwark of achievement. No matter what others say or think of you, +always hold in mind a lofty ideal of yourself, a picture of your own +efficiency. Never allow yourself to doubt your ability to do what you +undertake. You can not be inferior, because you are made in God's image. +You can, if you will, make a masterpiece of your life, because it is +part of His plan that you should. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +HAVE YOU TRIED LOVE'S WAY? + + Love, like the sun, never sees the dark side of anything. + + You can purchase a man's labor, you've got to cultivate his good + will. + + Sweeter than the perfume of roses is the possession of a kind, + charitable, unselfish nature, a ready disposition to do for others + any good turn in one's power. + + +A New York man who saw a little girl carrying a crippled boy across a +street, offered to assist her, telling her that the boy was too heavy +for her to carry. "Oh, no," said the child quickly, "he's not heavy; +_he's my brother_." + +Oh, marvelous power of love that lightens all heavy burdens and smooths +all rough roads! What would become of humanity were it not for love, +which sweetens the hardest labor and makes self-sacrifice a joy? It is +the greatest force in the universe. Without its transforming power we +should still be primitive barbarians. + +In spite of the loud cries of pessimists and skeptics to the contrary, +its light is still leading men upward. Although the dream of the world's +peacemakers has come to naught and Europe is plunged in a merciless war, +yet there are multitudes of signs of the reign of love. Its merciful +healing power is at work even on the cruel battlefield. We see it +animating the great army of Red Cross surgeons and nurses, who, +regardless of creed or country, racial or social differences, are +treating all the wounded soldiers as brothers, binding up their wounds +and nursing them back to health and life. Love is healing the hurts made +by hate and discord. + +We see its influence in the miracle which the leaven of the Golden Rule +is performing in the business world, in the passion for social service +in the world at large, in the gradual obliteration of class +distinctions, in the growing efforts to ameliorate the conditions of the +poor, in the great wave of reform that is beating against the walls of +all our institutions, our jails, our poorhouses, our reformatories, our +insane asylums. The abuses with which these places were filled are +gradually being cleared up by love. + +In many of our prisons, the kindly, brotherhood system of treatment that +has been inaugurated is really helping to reform criminals, whereas the +old system of penology killed men, broke their spirit, or made them more +hardened in crime. It rarely, if ever, reformed. Love's way must in time +banish altogether the old cruel prison methods, and ultimately the +criminal himself. When the world is run by love, by the Golden Rule +plan, crime will die a natural death. + +Every one who slips from the right path, no matter what he has done, +should be given another chance, a fresh opportunity to make good, to +rebuild his character. One who has sinned against society should not be +expelled from the sympathies, the good-will and the kindliness of his +fellowmen. Criminals should be treated as unfortunate brothers and +sisters who have stumbled and lost their way on the life path. Love is +the only medium that will help them to rise, to get back into the +current that runs Godward. + +People who understand them, who see a God in the ruins that evil +influences have made, would make good men and women out of the great +majority of our prisoners. + +Many of these poor wretches never had an opportunity. They never felt +the magic touch of love, never knew the influence of a good home, of +honest, loving parents. Most of them did not have a right start in life. +They were handicapped at birth by ignorance, by disease, by vicious +parentage. They never had a fair chance. Love's way would give them one. +Shutting them into cramped, miserable, sunless cells, with none of the +comforts or conveniences of life, where none of the humanities reach +them; meting them out treatment we would not dream of inflicting on our +domestic animals, is like trying to put out fire with kerosene oil. Such +treatment makes them worse, arouses their basest passions of revenge, +bitterness and hatred, fills them with a determination to "get even" +with society. + +Society is beginning to wake up to the futility of such brutal methods. +It is beginning to apply love's way to its criminal classes, to all +classes. + +Our free hospitals, our homes for the aged and poor, our public asylums, +are all, like our prisons, working upward toward the light. The fallen, +the sick, the poor, the old, the maimed, the bruised and suffering, +everywhere are receiving more consideration, more humane treatment, more +kindness. And we are finding that greater trust in them, greater +sympathy and greater interest in our unfortunate brothers and sisters, +are working a marvelous change in human conditions. + +In other words, in spite of many seeming contradictions, many glaring +evils in our midst, many setbacks and discouragements, the spirit of the +Christ, of the Golden Rule, is acting like a healing leaven and +performing miracles in the great human mass. + +Love is the great mind opener, the great heart opener and life-enricher, +the great developer. It is what holds society together, and if children +were trained to love humanity, to love all countries and their +inhabitants as they are taught to love their own country and countrymen, +there would be no wars. War proceeds largely from what is called +patriotism. And patriotism in its narrower sense, which seeks only its +own good, its own aggrandizement, at the expense of other countries and +peoples, has ever been the curse of the race. When our love is big +enough to say, "The world is my country," wars will cease. + +A few days ago I was attracted by an advertisement in a morning paper +which said, "When every other physician has given you up; when you have +failed to find relief from all other sources, then come to me. You are +the sort of person I cure." The advertiser may have been a quack, but +the advertisement would make its appeal, perhaps, to the desperate, the +discouraged, who had been given up as incurable by the regular +profession, and it set me to thinking. "Why, this," I said to myself, +"is the language of Divine Love's advertisement. 'Come unto me all ye +that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.' When you have +failed to find comfort, satisfaction or joy in anything else, when your +friends have deserted you, when your business is ruined, when you have +made fatal mistakes and society has closed its doors on you, when +everybody else rejects and denounces you, when everything else has +failed, then come to me and you shall find peace and rest." + +Love is the sovereign remedy. It is the last resort of those driven to +desperation. When nothing else is left, when life is full of bitterness +and anguish, the thief, the murderer, the failure, the outcast turns to +Love and finds a refuge, for "Love never faileth." + +Love is to every human being what mother love is to the erring child. No +son or daughter has ever fallen so low as to get beyond a mother's love. +When society has turned its back on the outcast, when the prison door +closes behind him, when companions have fled, when sympathy and mercy +have departed, when the world has forgotten, the mother remembers and +loves her child. She visits her boy in the "death house," her daughter +in the dens of vice in the slums. The child can never stray too far for +the mother's love to follow. It is the most perfect prototype of our +Father-Mother-God's love. + +The Vedanta scriptures, which are thousands of years older than the Old +Testament of our Bible, commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves +because we are all neighbors, because of the oneness of all life, +because the same spirit is in all human beings. Until we see and live +in conscious coöperation with this oneness of spirit, until the world +sees it in all human beings, there will be public strife, private +quarrels, greed, selfish ambition, inhumanity of man to man, poverty, +crime, all sorts of wretchedness and misery. Love alone can wipe all +these out. Human laws, repression, punishment will never do it. Christ's +way, Love's way, holds the solution of all life's problems. + +I was talking recently with a cold-blooded, overbearing, brow-beating +business man who told me he was going out of business because he was so +tired and sick of incompetent, dishonest help. His employees, he said, +were always taking advantage of him, stealing, spoiling merchandise, +blundering, shirking, clipping their hours. They took no interest in his +welfare, their only concern being in what they found in their pay +envelope. "I have enough to live on," he concluded, "and I don't propose +to run a business for their benefit. I have tried every means I know of +to get good work out of ignorant, selfish help, but it is no use, and +now I have done with it. My nervous system is worn out and I must give +up the game." + +"You say you have tried everything you could think of in managing your +employees, but has it ever occurred to you to try Love's way?" I asked. + +"Love's way!" he said disgustedly. "What do you mean by that? Why, if I +didn't use a club all the time my help would ride right over me and ruin +me. For years I have had to employ detectives and spies to protect my +interests. What do these people know about love? Why I would have the +red flag out here in no time if I should attempt any such fool business +as that." + +A young man who had been successful in Golden Rule management hearing of +the situation saw in it a possible opening, and asked this man to give +him a trial as manager before giving up his business altogether. + +The result was, he was so pleased with him that in less than half an +hour he had engaged him as manager, although he still insisted that it +was a very doubtful experiment. + +The first thing the new man did on taking charge was to call the +employees in each department together and have a heart to heart talk +with them. He told them that he had come there not only as a friend of +the proprietor, but as their friend also, and that he would do +everything in his power to advance their interests as well as those of +the business. The house, he told them, had been losing money for years, +and it was up to him and them to change all that and put the balance on +the right side of the ledger. He made them see that harmony and +coöperation are the basis of any real success for a concern and its +employees. + +From the start he was cheerful, hopeful, sympathetic, enthusiastic, +encouraging. He quickly won the confidence and good will of everybody in +the establishment, and had them all working as heartily for the success +of the business as if it were their own. The place was like a great +beehive, where all were industrious, happy, contented, working for the +hive. So great was the change that customers began to talk about the new +spirit in the house. Business grew and prospered, and in an incredibly +short time, the concern was making instead of losing money. + +Yet in many respects the new manager was not nearly as able as his +employer, but he had a different spirit. He was animated by a belief in +the brotherhood of man. He had sympathy, tact, diplomacy, and a real +personal interest in those who worked under him. He never scolded them +when they did not do right; he simply talked with them like an elder +brother and made them ashamed of themselves. He showed them there was a +better way, and they followed it. In short, he won their love and +respect and they would do anything for him. + +The Golden Rule method had driven out hate, selfishness, greed and +dissension. The interests of all were centered on the general welfare, +and so all prospered. When the proprietor returned from abroad, whither +he had gone for a few months' rest and recuperation, he could scarcely +believe in the reality of the transformation that "love's way" had +effected in his old employees and in the entire establishment. + +You who have been tortured and torn to pieces for years with hot +tempers, with worry, with fear, with hatred and ill will; you who have +already committed suicide on many years of your life, why not turn your +back on all this and try love's way? So far your life has been a +disappointment. There must be a better way for all who bear the scars +and stains of strife, who have been battered and buffeted by the old +evil way, in which there has been no rest, no harmony, no sweetness. Why +not try love's way? Try it for every trouble, for every hurt and sorrow. + +Try it you whose home life has been a bitter disappointment; you +husbands and wives who have quarreled, who have never known what peace +and comfort are, try love's way. It will smooth out all your wrinkles, +it will put a new spirit into your home that was never there before, it +will bring a new light into your eyes, new hope into your heart, and new +joy into your life. + +You mothers who have worn yourselves to a frazzle and prematurely aged +yourselves in trying to bring up your children by scolding, nagging, +punishing, driving, why not try love's way instead? You can love your +boys and girls into obedience and respect much more quickly and with far +better results to them and to yourself than by driving them; appeal to +their best and noblest instincts instead of their worst, and you will +be surprised how quickly and readily they will respond to your appeal. +There is something in human nature which protests against being driven +or forced. If you have been trying to force your boys and girls in the +past, give it up and try the new way, love's way. See if it does not +work wonders in your home. See if it will not make your domestic +machinery run much more smoothly. See if it will not wonderfully relieve +the strain upon yourself. Give love's way a trial. + +Try it, you fault-finding, scolding housewife. Instead of nagging your +family, fretting and stewing from morning till night, blaming, +upbraiding, complaining, try love's way. Instead of berating a maid +before your guests when she accidentally breaks a piece of china, put +yourself in her place, try to realize her embarrassment, and pass over +the mishap cheerfully. Then, in private, give her a gentle word of +caution. She will be more careful in the future. If your laundress +returns a piece of smirched linen, or if her work is not quite so well +done as it was the last time, don't give her a brutal scolding. Harsh +treatment will only make her sullen and unhappy, but you will find her +susceptible to kindness and gentle words. + +Give sympathy and kindness instead of scolding and nagging and you will +work a revolution in your household. You will be delighted to find how +quickly love's way will change the atmosphere in your family, how soon +helpful relations will take the place of antagonistic ones. Praise, +generous, whole-hearted, unstinted praise, now and then, will not hurt +any one, but, on the contrary, will act like lubricating oil on dry +squeaky machinery, and its reflex action on yourself will be magical. + +You husbands who have been substituting money and luxury for love, who +have thought that if a woman had a fine house, beautiful clothes and all +her bills paid, she ought to be satisfied and happy; you who have so +miserably failed of your object in this substitution will be surprised +to find how much happier you can make your wife by bestowing on her a +generous, unselfish love. A very little money, a very humble home with +love will make every true woman happier than millions, a palatial home, +with indifference. + +Try love's way, you men who have been lording it over your families, +bullying and brow-beating your wives and children, using slave-driving +methods in your home. You know that this old brutal way has not brought +you happiness or satisfaction; you have always been disappointed with +it, then why not try the new philosophy, try love's way? It is the great +cure-all, it is the Christ remedy which is leavening the world. + +Try it you who are worn out with the discord and the hagglings, the +trials and tribulations you encounter every day in your business. You +men and women who have never been able to get good help, who are driven +to desperation with the wicked breakage and wastage of your employees; +you who have been through purgatory in your struggle with dishonesty and +inefficiency, whose faces are furrowed with cruel wrinkles and +prematurely aged in trying to fight evil with evil, try love's way. It +will create a new spirit in your store, your factory, your office. +Whatever your business, whatever your trials and difficulties, love will +ease the jolts of life and smooth your way miraculously. Try love's way +all you who have hitherto lived in purgatory because you did not know +this better way. + +You have tried the "getting square" policy, the hatred and grudge +method; you have tried the revenge way, the jealousy way; you have tried +the worry, the anxiety method, and these have pained and tortured you +all the more. You have tried law and the courts to settle troubles and +difficulties with neighbors and business associates, and perhaps you won +lawsuits only to make bitter, life-long enemies. But perhaps you have +never yet tried love's way, excepting in spots. If you have not yet +tried it as a principle, as a life philosophy, as a great life +lubricant, begin now. It will smooth out all the rough places and +wonderfully ease your journey over the jolts of life. + +You may be wondering why you have so few friends, why you do not attract +people, why others are not more interested in you. Look into your heart +and you will find the reason. If you are sending out a current of +selfishness, of uncharitableness, unkindness, indifference, ingratitude, +you can not get a return current of friendship, of encouragement and +helpfulness. The stream that leads back to you will be just like that +which goes out in your thought, in your habitual mental attitude. To +have friends, to win love you must make yourself a magnet for love. You +must send out the friendly thought current, the helpful current, the +kindly, loving current of human fellowship. If you give out stinginess, +narrowness, meanness, selfishness, you will not receive love's gifts in +return. As you give, so will you receive, and the more generously you +give of love and kindness and service the more generously will the +current that returns bear them back to you. + +The most beautiful thing on this earth, that which every human being +craves most is love. It is, as Henry Ward Beecher said, "the river of +life in this world. Think not that ye know it who stand at the little +tinkling rill, the first small fountain. Not until you have gone through +the rocky gorges, and not lost the stream; not until you have gone +through the meadow, and the stream has widened and deepened until fleets +could ride on its bosom; not until beyond the meadow you have come to +the unfathomable ocean, and poured your treasures into its depths--not +until then can you know what love is." + +All through the Bible are passages which extol the height and depth, the +breadth and power, the inexhaustibleness of love. The more of love we +give out, the more we have. Love maintains perpetual summer in the soul +and shuts out winter's chill. Love of man is love of God, and love of +God prolongs life. + +"With long life will I satisfy him," declares Jehovah in the words of +the Psalmist, "because he hath set his love upon me." Love is harmony, +and harmony prolongs life, as fear, jealousy, envy, friction, and +discord shorten it. Those who are filled with the spirit of love, whose +sympathies are not confined to their own family, but reach out to every +member of the human family, are more exempt from the ills of mankind +than the selfish and pessimistic, who lose the better part of life, the +joy and the strength that come from giving themselves to others. + +Some natures are so permeated with the spirit of love, of helpfulness, +of unselfishness, that their very presence acts like a balm upon the +wounded soul. They radiate harmony, soul sunshine. There is a personal +charm about them which strengthens, reassures, and uplifts. + +No more scientific advice was ever uttered on this earth than "Love your +enemies." Nothing will take the sting out of unkindness like kindness; +nothing will disarm prejudice, hatred, and jealousy like love. It is +impossible for any one to continue to hate us, when we send out to him +only love thoughts, love vibrations, or to be jealous of us when we send +out to him only kindly, generous, helpful thoughts. Hatred or the spirit +of revenge cannot live in the presence of love any more than an acid can +retain its eating, biting qualities in the presence of an alkali. + +One whose heart is filled with love for all cannot possibly have an +enemy very long, because love dissolves all enmity, all jealousy, +neutralizes, antidotes all hatred. One-sided hatred cannot exist because +there is nothing to keep it alive. It must be fed in some way or the +fire will die out for lack of fuel. + +It is simply impossible to keep on feeling unkindly towards another, to +continue hating him very long when we discover that he feels kindly +toward us and is willing to help us. I have never felt so humiliated in +my life as when years ago, in my hot youth, I was rendered a very great +service by a man whom I disliked intensely, and against whom I had for +some time cherished a grudge. His great-hearted, generous act, which was +a real help to me, made me feel utterly ashamed of myself. It showed me +as nothing else could have done what a mean, unworthy, contemptible +thing it is to nurse a feeling of hate or revenge toward a fellow-being. + +We cannot hold the love thought without feeling the uplift, the glow, +the divine energy which it sends through the whole system. Nor, on the +other hand, can we hold the hate thought, the revenge, the jealous, the +envious, or any other mean, selfish thought, without a feeling of +depression, a feeling of smallness, of contemptibleness, which robs us +of self-respect and of power. + +When you denounce and condemn others, when you nurse bitterness and ill +will in your heart, you start boomerang vibrations which impair your +cell life and seriously mar your happiness and efficiency. One of the +great benefits of devotional exercise, of prayer, of contemplation, of +divine thinking, is that this mental attitude sets in motion vibrations +which have a helpful, uplifting influence on both mind and body. Where +love and affection are habitually vibrating through the cell life they +develop a poise and serenity of character, a sweetness and strength, a +peace and satisfaction that reënforce the whole being. Love soothes and +strengthens. Hate lacerates, wrinkles, weakens. The character of people +who keep themselves continually stirred up by discordant emotions, who +live in discordant homes where there is perpetual wrangling, criticism, +denunciation, scolding, twitting are cold, skeptical, unlovely, selfish. +Their affections become marbleized. There is nothing outside of vice +which will deform the character so quickly as living in an atmosphere of +perpetual hatred, jealousy, envy and revenge. The wear and tear of their +vicious vibrations is ever getting in its deadly work. + +Love is the great disciplinarian, the supreme harmonizer, the true +peacemaker. It is the great balm for all that blights happiness or +breeds discontent, a sovereign panacea for malice, revenge, and all +brutish passions and propensities. As cruelty melts before kindness, so +the evil passions find their antidote in sweet charity and loving +sympathy. + +One reason why a happy home is the sweetest, most beautiful spot on +earth is because the love atmosphere, the harmony vibrations give a +blessed sensation of harmony, of rest, of safety, security and power. +The moment we enter such a place we feel its soothing, reassuring, +uplifting atmosphere. It produces a feeling of mental poise, of serenity +which we do not experience anywhere else. + +During a recent visit to a large family I was much impressed by the +power of one person to create this beautiful home spirit. In this family +was one sister who, though the youngest member, seemed to take the place +of the mother, who was dead. This young girl was the apparent center of +the home. Nothing of importance was undertaken by any of her brothers +without consulting her. Not one of them would leave the house without +first kissing her good-by, and she was the first one they sought when +they came home. They all seemed anxious to confide to her their little +secrets, to tell her of what had happened to them during the day, to +have her opinion and advice in all difficulties. + +The secret of this young girl's influence lay in her great interest in +the boys, and her wonderful love for them. In talking with the brothers +I discovered that each thought that the sister was especially interested +in him and his affairs, and that he would not think of undertaking or +deciding anything of importance without first consulting her. Each and +all of them seemed to prefer her company to that of any other young +lady, and were always proud to escort her when she went anywhere. Those +boys are all clean-minded, open, frank and chivalrous, and I could not +help thinking that a great deal of it was due to the sister's influence. + +"To love, and to be loved," said Sydney Smith, "is the greatest +happiness of existence." Every one, rich and poor, high and low, is +reaching out for love. What will not a man do to win the love of one who +embodies his ideal of womanhood; one in whom he sees all the beautiful +qualities that he himself lacks! This love is really a divine hunger, +the longing for possession of what would make him a whole man instead of +the half one he feels he is. + +Why is it that when a coarse-grained, brutal, dissipated man falls in +love with a sweet, pure girl he immediately changes his ways, looks up, +thinks up, braces up, drops his profanity, is more refined, more choice +in his language, more exclusive in his associations, and is, to all +appearances, for the time at least, a changed man? Simply because love +is a more powerful motive to the man than dissipation. He drops the +latter, and if his love is steady and true he will never again indulge +in any degrading practice. + +Who has not seen the magic power of love in transforming rough, uncouth +men into refined and devoted husbands? I have known women who had such +great, loving, helpful hearts, and such charm of manner, that the worst +men, the most hardened characters would do anything in the world for +them--would give up their lives even to protect them. But these men +could not be reformed by prison methods, could not be touched by +unkindness or compulsion. Love is the only power that could reach them. + +I do not believe there is any human being, in prison or out, so +depraved, so low, so bad but that there is somebody in the world who +could control him perfectly by love, by kindness, by patience. Many a +man has been kept from performing a disgraceful, a criminal act by the +thought that somebody loved him, believed in him, trusted him. + +"Though thy sins be as scarlet they shall be made whiter than snow." +Love purifies, lifts up, regenerates. We are all familiar with its +wonderful transforming power; how it erases the scars of sin, smooths +out the wrinkles which vice has left in the face, softens the hard +features and puts its own divine stamp there. We know how it changes the +coarse, brutal, sinful man into its own divine likeness, how it brings +the color back to the pale cheek, the luster to the dull eye, how it +restores courage to the disheartened, hope to the distressed and the +despairing. We know how it calls into the face a light which was never +there before, and which is not of earth. + +In the remarkable play, "The Passing of the Third Floor Back," we have a +striking illustration of the subtle, silent force of the love motive. +Those who have seen or read the play will remember how in response to an +advertisement in a London paper, "Room to let, Third floor back," comes +a remarkable man, who is given the title of "The Stranger." This man +takes the "third floor back," and finds himself in a boarding house +filled with questionable characters, petty thieves, gamblers, people who +have led fast lives, all sorts of uncharitable, envious men and women. +They stoop to every kind of meanness. One woman even steals candles. +Every one tries to cheat every one else and is cheated in return. The +landlady is of the same type as her boarders. She preys on them and they +prey on her. She waters the milk and adulterates the food. Then to keep +herself from being robbed she puts everything under lock and key. + +The mere presence of the Stranger seems antagonistic to the practices +and low-flying ideals of the boarders and the landlady. They begin to +make all sorts of fun of him. But he takes no notice. Instead he gives +them kindness for unkindness, love for hate, and a pleasant smile as the +only answer to their sarcastic, cutting remarks and innuendoes. +Gradually, as they become better acquainted, he begins to talk to them +of themselves, to point out their good qualities, and to show them what +great ability they have in certain lines, what wonderful things are +possible to them. + +He told one of the young men who had made merry at his expense that he +had a fine artistic temperament, and that he had in him the making of a +great artist. He showed another his possibilities as a musician, and so +on with every member of the discordant, jangling group, until each one +finally came under the spell of his love and kindness. + +The little London "slavey," or maid-of-all-work who was abused and +constantly reminded that she had been in State Prison and hence was a +nobody, under the Stranger's uplifting influence became a +self-respecting, noble woman. The landlady, who had hitherto treated the +girl like a slave, began to favor her and made her go outdoors and get a +little change while she did the work. A man and wife who had lived a cat +and dog life were brought together in harmony. All of the boarders, +without exception, even those who had been the most brutal and selfish, +gradually changed and became thoughtful, helpful and kindly toward one +another. They became friends. The whole atmosphere of the house was +changed. The Stranger had shown every man and woman of them his or her +better self, and in so doing had literally made them anew. + +Thus did one who typified the Christ spirit, a simple, quiet man who +loved his fellowmen and who found his greatest joy in serving others, +manage to divert all of these people out of the crooked channels in +which they had lived and into the right path toward happiness. Love, +discovering to them these higher possible selves, transformed them. THIS +IS LOVE'S WAY. + +Love tames the fiercest animals. How quickly their wild, ferocious +expression is replaced by a milder, softer, more gentle one under the +kindly treatment of one who really loves them, one who looks upon them +as did St. Francis, as his "little dumb brothers and sisters." The brute +nature is gradually softened and distrust gives way to confidence. The +suspicious look is replaced by a trustful one. Affection takes the place +of dislike and fear; love goes out to meet love. Is there any more +beautiful illustration in Nature of the influence of love and kindly +treatment than the evolution of our pet dogs from the ferocious wolf? +Note the gentle, peaceful face of a cow or a horse which has been +brought up as a family pet. Such animals would not step on or injure a +child any more than we would ourselves. We love and trust them and they +love and trust us in return. Love begets love. + +Some people mistake selfishness or self-love for real love. Everywhere +we see the sort of base substitute which says, "If you do this for me +I'll do that for you." The woman that says to a man, in her heart, if +not with her lips, "If you'll support me and give me a home, I'll love +you," does not love. This is selfishness. A great many people confuse +love of the thing given with love of the giver. They mistake the love of +their own comforts, of a good time, of dress and luxuries, for love of +the person who supplies them with these things. This is a mere travesty +of the genuine thing. Love simply loves and asks nothing in return. +There is no self in it. Abuse, bitterness, indifference, ingratitude do +not change or destroy love. It simply loves on. And no love is ever +lost, whether it is returned or not. Genuine love is a force that +always wins out. Even if it is not reciprocated it wins by chastening, +softening, elevating, beautifying and enriching the life of the one who +loves. THIS IS LOVE'S WAY. + +What mothers endure for many years for their children would kill them or +drive them to an insane asylum in half the time but for love. This is +the healing balm that cures all hurts, lightens all burdens, that takes +the drudgery out of service. It is love alone that enables the poor +mother to risk her life for her child, to go through terrible +experiences in her struggles with poverty and sickness to rear her +children. A burden half as great which had no love in it would crush the +life out of her. But love lightens the load, takes the sting out of +poverty, the pain out of sacrifice. + +The same thing is true of the loving father, though his burden in the +nature of things is rarely as heavy as the mother's. But he is often +virtually a slave for half a lifetime or more for those he loves, and if +he is a real man he does not complain. Love lightens the burden and +cheers the way. Where the heart is, there the burden is light. + +"A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another; as I have +loved you love ye also one another." + +In the literal fulfilling of this commandment lies the salvation of the +world. Among the many noble souls of our own time who have tried to live +in accordance with it, one of the most conspicuous was Count Leo +Tolstoy. In one of his own beautiful stories Tolstoy shows how every +one, no matter what his station or how poor his circumstances, may do +this, by following the Master's example in treating every human being as +we would a loved member of our own family. + +A very devout Russian peasant, so runs the story, had prayed for years +that the Master might sometime come to his humble cabin home. One night +he had a vision in which the Master appeared to him, and told him He +would come to his cabin next day. + +Filled with joy, the peasant awoke. So real seemed his vision that he +arose and immediately went to work putting his cabin to rights and +preparing for the expected heavenly guest. + +A terrible storm of sleet and snow raged throughout the day. While +performing his simple household duties, heaping fresh logs in his crude +fireplace, preparing his pot of cabbage soup, the Russian peasant's +daily dish, the man would look out into the storm with anxious, +expectant eyes. Presently he saw a poor half-frozen peddler with a pack +on his back struggling toward the light, but almost overcome by the +fierce blasts of snow and sleet that beat upon him. The peasant rushed +out and brought the wayfarer into his cabin. He dried his clothing, +warmed him, fed him some of the cabbage soup, and started him on his way +again, comforted and rejoicing. + +In a little while he saw another traveler, a poor old woman, trying +feebly to beat her way against the blinding snow. Her also the +compassionate peasant took into his cabin. He warmed and fed her, +wrapped his own coat about her, and, strengthened and encouraged, sent +her too on her way. + +The day wore slowly away and darkness approached, but still no sign of +the Master. Hoping against hope, the man went once again to his cabin +door, and looking out into the storm he saw a little child, who was +utterly unable to make its way against the blinding sleet and ice. He +took the half-frozen child in his arms, brought it into the cabin, +warmed and fed it, and soon the little wanderer fell asleep before the +fire. + +Sorely disappointed because the Master had not appeared, the peasant sat +gazing into the fire, and as he gazed he fell asleep. Suddenly the room +was radiant with a light that did not come from the fire, and there +stood the Master, white-robed, and serene, looking upon him with a +smile. "Ah, Master, I have waited and watched all this long day, but +thou didst not come." The Master replied, "Three times have I visited +thy cabin to-day. The poor peddler whom thou rescued, warmed and fed, +that was I; the poor woman to whom thou gavest thy coat, that was I; and +this little child whom thou hast saved from the tempest, that is I. +Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, you have done it +unto me." + +The Christ vision faded. The peasant awoke. He was alone with the child, +who was smiling in its sleep. But he knew that the Master had visited +his cabin. + + "The love of God! _The love of God!_" I said,-- + And at the words through all my being went + A sudden shudder of light; the firmament + Not otherwise seems riven by the red + Jagg'd lightning-flash that quivers overhead + When for an instant heaven and earth are blent. + So for a dazzling space my heart was rent, + And I beheld--beheld--but all had fled. + + Had fled! nor has returned; yet on my way + Along the pave or through the clanging mart, + Sometimes a stranger's eye falls full on mine; + "You too?" We have no speech, we make no sign, + But something seems to pass from heart to heart, + And I am full of gladness all that day. + + C. A. PRICE in _Scribner's Magazine_. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHERE YOUR SUPPLY IS + + He who dares assert the I, + May calmly wait + While hurrying fate + Meets his demand with sure supply. + HELEN WILMANS. + + Never affirm, or think about yourself, your prospects, your + career, or your happiness what you do not wish to come true. + + Every child should be taught to expect success and happiness, to + believe that the good things of the world are intended for him. + + We never can get more out of ourselves than we expect. If we + expect large things, demand them; if we hold the large mental + attitude toward our work, toward life, we shall get much greater + results than if we depreciate ourselves, and look for only little + things. + + +That man who dares not "assert the I" with undaunted assurance, with the +conscious vigor and determination of one who believes in his divinity, +will never do great things, because he will never make the demand that +will draw a "sure supply." + +Before one can hope to win out in any undertaking he must be able to +say "I" positively, with the force of conviction. He must polarize his +mind to the positive attitude. This is the attitude that creates, that +produces results in the world of matter as well as in the realm of +spirit. + +The positive man is forceful because he has faith in himself. He forms +his opinions without the aid of others and is not afraid to stand for +what he thinks. He does not hesitate to differ with others. He is not a +"mush of concession," like the negative weakling who subscribes to what +everyone he meets says, thinks or believes. He makes statements with +positiveness, without hesitation. + +The Bible would never have gained such a dominating place in the life of +the race had it referred to authorities to substantiate its statements; +had it tried to prove its doctrines. Much of its supremacy has come from +its tremendous positiveness, its vigorous affirmation of facts. + +You will find nothing negative or wishy-washy in the Great Book. Its +assertions are imperious, positive, dogmatic. It is one perpetual +hammering, driving home of truths, of great fundamental facts. The +Biblical writers speak with assurance and authority because of their +profound conviction of the truths they utter. They do not argue or +plead. They affirm. There is no appeal. As has been well said of the +Bible, "It never appeals to readers for confirmation. It states. Every +line breathes dominance, superiority and confidence." + +We find the same imperious dominant qualities, the same positiveness in +great leaders of men. They deal in affirmations. They throw themselves +with intense conviction into whatever they attempt. They continually, +both mentally and vocally, assert their power to do it, and--the result +is a natural corollary; they succeed in what they attempt. + +The difference between the positive and the negative mind, the man who +can "assert the I" with vigor and the man who cannot, is the difference +between success and failure. + +The positive man keys his life to the "I can" note, the negative man to +the "I can't." + +The positive man denies the limitations of environment, of resources, of +opportunities. He not only believes but _knows_ that infinite bounty +surrounds him, and that he can make it his own. + +The negative man, on the other hand, will not fight against environment, +no matter how hard it may be, but will yield to it without a struggle. +He sees limitations and difficulties everywhere. To him obstacles are +insurmountable. + +But for the positive, dominant qualities in man we would still be living +in caves and eating our food raw. It is the positive, forceful man that +overcomes. Obstacles do not frighten, or turn him from his purpose. They +are to him but the apparatus in the gymnasium, which give him additional +strength and reinforce his determination to achieve. He knows that he +can command infinite supply, that the great forces of the universe are +working for him, and that he has only to direct them. He knows that it +is his birthright to conquer; that the Creator put him here for that +very purpose--to overcome, to grow, to ascend, to be godlike. + +Every one has sufficient positive power to guide and direct his own life +if he will only use and develop that power. If he does not use he will +lose. If you do not think and act for yourself, if you do not assert +yourself and push your own way, the forces about you will take command +and push you. And remember this: _When you are pushed you go down-hill_; +_when you push yourself you go up-hill._ Every one is either pusher or +pushed in this world. Even the kingdom of heaven is taken by violence. +He who would attain it must be aggressive for truth. No namby-pamby +weakling who is afraid to stand on his own feet and fight for the right +can get there. + +If you ever expect to do anything to justify your existence, quit +looking for some outside agent which will move your life train. Your +power is coiled up right inside of you. There is where your engine is. +The name of that engine is _I_. Use the great force at your command. Get +up steam and forge ahead. You will never get very far by any other +means. You are only losing time in trying to get any power outside of +yourself, in pulls or influence, to move you forward. When the Creator +made you a co-partner in His work, He put inside of you all the +machinery necessary for the part you were to play. Claim what He +intended for you. Develop and use your machinery, and no power on earth +can hold you back from the goal you set for yourself. + +Say to yourself, "It is my duty to make good, to obey that inner urge, +that ambition prod which ever bids me up and on. I am resolved never +again to allow anything to interfere with the free and untrammeled +exercise of my physical and mental faculties. I will unfold all the +possibilities that the Creator has infolded in the ego, the I of me. +There is no lost day in God's calendar, no allowance for waste, and I am +determined henceforth to make the most of the stuff that has been given +me, to play the part of a son of Omnipotence." + +As a matter of fact, every day has a splendid possible prize awaiting +every human being, a prize which no money can buy. It can be obtained +only at the price of splendid effort and self-assertion. We are too +timid, too fearful of results even to attempt what we long to do. And we +are too easy with ourselves, too willing to drift with the tide of our +moods. Every man who has ever achieved grandly has been a stern +schoolmaster to himself. He has incessantly affirmed his ideal and held +himself unwaveringly to its realization. + +By cultivating the positive we drive out the negative. This is a +psychological law. It is to "empty by filling." Affirmation is always +more potent than negation. + +Prof. Halleck says "By restraining of an emotion, we can frequently +throttle it; by inducing an expression, we can often cause its allied +emotions." + +Prof. Wm. James makes a similar statement. "Refuse to express a +passion," he says, "and it dies. Count ten before venting your anger and +its occasion seems ridiculous. Whistling to keep up courage is no mere +figure of speech. On the other hand, sit all day in a moping posture, +sigh, and reply to everything with a dismal voice, and your melancholy +lingers. There is no more valuable precept in moral education than this, +as all of us who have experienced know. If we wish to conquer +undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves we must assiduously, and +in the first instance cold-bloodedly, go through the outward movements +of those contrary dispositions which we wish to cultivate. Smooth the +brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral +aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key, pass the genial +compliment and your heart must indeed be frigid if it does not gradually +thaw." + +Few of us realize the tremendous force there is in the vigorous +incessant affirmation of conditions which we long to establish. United +with the visualizing of the man or woman we yearn to be or the thing we +are determined to achieve, it becomes an irresistible power in shaping +events. Act the part, affirm the possession, the assured realization of +the thing desired, and it will tend to materialize. This is a +fundamental law of creation. + +What is called auto-suggestion, or self-suggestion, is one of the most +active agencies employed in mind building. We can literally make our +minds, thought by thought, as we can our bodies, fiber by fiber, through +vigorous affirmation. + +There is a mysterious power in the spoken word which gets a greater hold +upon us than simply passing the same word through the mind or looking at +it on the printed page. The vocal expression of a thought makes a +greater impression upon the memory and especially influences the +subconscious mind. It works like a leaven in the whole nature, putting +agents in motion that establish a connection between us and our desires, +the objects for which we are working. The persistent affirmation of our +ability to do that which we have undertaken in a superb, kingly fashion, +is a great stimulus, a positive, creative force. + +There is nothing more helpful in building a strong positive character +than bracing yourself up by searching, heart to heart talks with +yourself. In this way, better perhaps than in any other, you can take +stock of your mental assets and improve yourself all along the line. + +If you are timid, for instance, or even feel that you are something of a +coward, stoutly deny it. Insist that you are no shirker, no coward, that +you are brave even to daring. Boldly assume the quality of a hero, +vehemently affirm that you actually possess invincible courage, and you +will be surprised at your immediate increase of strength and +positiveness. Deny that you have any weakness, defect or deficiency +which can handicap your career. Insist upon affirming the opposite +quality, the winning quality. + +If you lack decision, if you are a waverer, a vacillator, if you are a +putter-off of things, if procrastination runs in your blood, +persistently affirm that you possess the opposite qualities. At the same +time resolve that you are going not only to play the heroic part in +life, that you are not only going to begin work upon the duty awaiting +you, but that you are going to put it through, that you are going to do +things, and that you will never again allow yourself to waver, to +procrastinate in the smallest matter, even if you do make mistakes now +and then. Better make a mistake and forge ahead than to remain negative +and inactive. + +The habit of vigorous affirmation is the habit of victory. But remember +that action must follow on the heels of resolution or you will never go +any farther. Affirmation and resolution without prompt endeavor for +realization are worse than useless. It is the man of action, of +continued and repeated action, the man who never acknowledges defeat who +ultimately wins out. + +During our Civil War the Southern generals said it didn't do any good to +beat Grant, because he never knew when he was beaten and, consequently, +wouldn't stay beaten. + +Men who leave their mark on the world are men of iron resolution, of +grim determination. If youth were only taught at home and in school the +power of an inflexible resolve, an inexorable affirmation of the thing +they are determined to accomplish; if they were only taught the +invincibleness of an unshakable will, of the positive victorious mental +attitude, of a resolve which knows no defeat, life would not be half so +hard. + +"Nerve us with incessant affirmatives. Don't bark against the bad, but +chant the beauties of the good." The positive, creative, affirmative +elements are our friends. They draw us our sure supply. All negatives +are our enemies. They drive away supply. Affirm the good, never the bad; +the bright, never the dark; the true, and never the false; harmony, +never discord. We should never forget that whatever tends to optimism is +ready to "give us a lift." + +The first step toward a happy, successful life is to get control of the +supply that is ready to flow in answer to our demand. This you can do by +forming the habit of affirming that the best will come to you, that only +the things that are good for you can come into your life. Don't let +yourself slip into the foolish habit of anticipating trouble, +misfortune, sickness, disaster, accidents. To anticipate or expect such +things is to affirm their reality and draw them to you. The habit of +anticipating them will get them into the habit of "arriving." You will +thus be drawn into a current of circumstance corresponding to the +character of your negative thought. + +Put yourself into a positive, success and happiness attitude the first +thing every morning by taking time, even if only a few minutes, to +commune with the Creator. Get into tune with the Infinite, the Source of +your strength, the moment you awake. Keep yourself in harmony with the +Principle which underlies your being during the day and your every act +will be a step forward on the desired road. + +Say to yourself constantly, "Happiness is my birthright. I was made to +exult in life, not to go about with a long, sad, dejected face as though +it had been a bitter disappointment, as though I were a misfit in the +world. I was made to radiate joy and gladness and to go through life as +a conqueror. If I am indeed a child of the Creator (and I know that I +am), it is a positive insult to Him to go through the world as though I +were a beggar, a slave. I bear the image of the King of kings, and it is +my business to make all men see the likeness. It is my duty to prove my +divine heritage by radiating royal manhood." + +I know of no practice which will do more for one's growth and +life-enlargement than the habit of rising above one's moods and +discouragements through perpetual affirmation of one's divinity. If, for +example, you get up in the morning feeling negative, blue and +discouraged; if you don't feel like working at anything, just go off +alone and have a good heart to heart talk with yourself something like +this: "Now, look here, young man (or young woman), none of this: you are +going to do a grand day's work to-day; you are going to get right out of +this condition; you have had enough of it. If you are a real man (or +woman) you will rise above your mood and wring victory out of this day, +even though it looks so unpromising. + +"It does not matter what comes or what goes, what happens or what does +not happen, there is one thing I am sure of, and that is, I am going to +be positive, creative, to get the most possible out of to-day; I am not +going to allow anything to rob me of my happiness, or of my right to +_live this day through from beginning to end_, and not merely to exist. + +"I do not care what comes, I shall not allow any annoyance, any +happening, any circumstance which may cross my path to rob me of my +power and peace of mind. I will not be unhappy to-day, no matter what +occurs. I am going to enjoy it to its fullest capacity. This shall be a +complete day in my life. I shall not allow the enemies of my happiness +to mar it. No misfortune in the past, nothing which has happened to me +in days gone by, which has been disagreeable or tragic, no enemies of my +efficiency, shall be guests in my spirit's sacred enclosure to-day. Only +happy thoughts, joy thoughts, friend thoughts shall find entertainment +in my soul this day. No negative thoughts, none of my enemies shall gain +admittance to scrawl their hideous autographs on the walls of my mind. +There shall be '_no admittance_' to-day, except to the friends of my +best moods. I will tear down all black, sable pictures and hang in their +place pictures of joy and gladness, of things which will encourage, +cheer, and increase my power. Everything which ever handicapped my life, +which has made me uncomfortable and unhappy, shall be expelled from my +mental kingdom this day and every coming day." + +If you make a resolve like this every morning and live up to it during +the day, you cannot help being positive, productive, creative. + +The positive mind repels all thought enemies that would hinder progress. +Doubt, fear, despair, worry, these have no place in the creative brain. +They are products of the negative mind. The man who would bend +circumstances to his will can not afford to harbor them. + +Hold negative, despondent, discouraged thoughts and your surroundings +will be negative, unpropitious. Hold positive, confident, hopeful, +cheerful thoughts and a congenial environment will manifest itself. + +It is wonderful what right thinking can accomplish even in a naturally +weak, negative mind. The insistent and persistent holding of the +positive thought, the assurance thought, the self-confidence, the +self-faith thought; the determined effort to think and act for oneself, +to direct one's own forces will gradually change a negative +non-productive mentality into a positive, creative one. + +I have known very timid, sensitive people who scarcely dared to say +their souls were their own before others, to so cure their habit of +self-effacement and so strengthen their weak self-confidence by constant +audible affirmation of their own strength, that in a very few months +they had largely overcome this weakness. + +Fear is negative; courage is positive, affirmative. If we would make our +lives effective, we must root out all of the things which keep us in +discord, all negative elements, and give ourselves over to the power of +affirmation. + +Many a person has ruined his life effort by depreciating it and sending +out to those about him the negative vibration of his inferiority. We +radiate our faith, our confidence in ourselves or our doubts, and +distrust. Others catch the contagion of our opinion of ourselves. + +Whatever you do, don't set up in your own mind and in that of others a +picture of yourself as a weak, ineffective, negative personality. +People do not realize the harm they do by making uncomplimentary and +unfavorable remarks about themselves. It does not matter what it may be, +the assertion of anything unfavorable to us or unlike what we wish to be +is injurious. How often we hear men and women say: "I never can remember +anything. I am always forgetting umbrellas and packages. I never can +remember names or faces," and similar negative, depreciatory remarks. It +never occurs to them that by making such statements as these they are +strengthening their defects. They are not aware that by impressing these +unfortunate images of themselves upon their mental mirror they are +seriously injuring their self-confidence, their ultimate chance of being +what they would like to be or of getting what they desire. + +The character of civilization would be radically changed in a short time +if parents were to teach their children the wonderful, strengthening, +character-building power in the habit of affirmation. If boys and girls +were impressed with the truth that the constant affirming of the good, +the beautiful and the true, the insistent holding of the ideal of +themselves as they would like to be, is a real creative force that tends +to actualize what they long for many of the problems of the race would +be solved. + +As a matter of fact the worst enemy, as well as the best friend, any +human being ever has is inside of him. The very mental attitude of the +majority of people is utterly antagonistic to their advancement. + +A really brainy professional man whom I meet quite often is a striking +example of the baneful effects of the negative self-depreciatory +thought. He wanted to do something big in his line, but he has had only +mediocre success, and in consequence has so soured on life that he seems +to have lost the power to enjoy himself. The truth is, the early +contracted habit of self-castigation and unfavorable comparison with +others who were more fortunate at the start has stayed by him through +the years and practically disqualified his mind for real enjoyment or +for making the most of his talents. + +Another negative character of this type is a man in commercial life who +is forever recalling his lack of opportunities. He never tires of +referring to the fact that he was handicapped at his very birth by a +slovenly slipshod father, and that all through life he has been placed +at a great disadvantage compared with other men. He believes, and +constantly affirms that he is unlucky, that he has never been at the +right spot at the right time, that no matter how hard he works he feels +a mysterious something holding him back. + +Some malignant fate, or destiny, he complains, is always tripping him +up, thwarting his most strenuous efforts, overturning his best laid +plans. Through its machinations, although he has worked harder than +anybody else he knows, he and his family have remained in poverty, while +his associates have become prosperous. + +The cause of this man's failure is not far to seek. It is plain that he +started wrong and has been going wrong ever since. He has been talking +failure all his life, affirming hard times, poverty, ill luck, and +disappointment. He has been sowing thistles and all sorts of ill weeds +in his garden and yet he wonders why his harvests have been so stingy, +so blighted and over-shadowed by weeds. + +Affirmations, acts, motives, ambitions, mental attitudes are the seeds +sown in human gardens. Their character determines what our harvests +shall be. Our future reaping depends entirely on our past sowing. What +we are enjoying or suffering to-day is the result of yesterday's sowing. +We are reaping weeds, thistles, thorns, or beautiful flowers and +luscious fruit, according to the seeds we have sown. + +The only soil in which our good seed thoughts will flourish is that of +mental harmony. In this fruitful ground lies the secret of all +efficiency and happiness. To come into unity with the Author of our +being is to realize perfect mental harmony. And this is the first +requisite of an efficient life, a goal that can be reached only by the +road of constant, unfailing affirmation. + +When you long for something that it is perfectly legitimate for you to +have, sow your affirmation seed in perfect confidence that it will bloom +in reality. Say to yourself, "Our Father-Mother-God is no respecter of +persons. He is not partial in his treatment of His children. They all +have the same rights, the same privileges. He will give me through my +own effort what I need, what I ask for. The poorest, most ragged wretch +that crawls has just as many hours in his day as has the ermined king. I +can and I will do what I long to do. I will be what I desire to be." +Affirm this again and again to yourself. Do not wait for an opportunity, +make your opportunity. The power of affirmation will work miracles for +you. + +Most people seem to think that if they were only in an ideal +environment, without worry or anxiety regarding the living-getting +problem, if they were free from pain and in vigorous health, they would +then be perfectly happy. But, as a matter of fact, we are not half so +dependent for happiness upon environment, upon circumstances, as we +imagine we are. False ambition, envy and jealousy are responsible for +much of our uneasiness, our restlessness and discontent. Our minds are +so intent upon what other people have and are doing that we do not get a +tithe of the enjoyment and satisfaction out of our own work, out of our +own possessions, that they should afford us. We think so much about +what others have and spend so much time wondering why we cannot have +similar things that we do not see the beauty, loveliness and sweetness +in our own environment. We question and envy when we should affirm and +realize. We neglect the most potent means within our grasp--the +miracle-working power of affirmation. The supply will come in answer to +our demand. + +Every one of us has an inalienable right to be comfortable, prosperous, +free from anxiety,--in short to be happy. Man was not intended to be a +worrying machine. The fundamental principle of the human constitution is +based on harmony and, when we are in harmonious relations with the +universe, we attain the maximum of efficiency, of power, of usefulness +to the world. It is then we get the maximum of enjoyment and happiness +out of life. Is it not worth while to get into such relations? Is it not +foolish to remain in discord when by the simple process of affirmation, +linked with divine faith and effort, we can transform ourselves and our +environment? + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE TRIUMPH OF HEALTH IDEALS + + "What is the body after all but the spirit breaking through the + flesh, or health but beauty in the organism?" + + Every good emotion makes a health and life promoting change in the + body. Every thought is registered in the brain by a physical + change more or less permanent in the tissue cells. + + The coming man will find it as easy to counteract an unfriendly, + vicious thought by turning on the counter thought to neutralize + it, as to rob the hot water of its burning power by turning on the + cold water faucet. + + There is a divine something in man which never was sick and never + can be, that divine self, the image of the Creator, perfect, + unchangeable, indestructible, immortal, and which some time and + somewhere must drive out all trace of sin, disease and death in + mankind. + HUFELAND. + + +Even those who do not believe in Christian Science as a whole must be +impressed with the Scientists' wonderful religious optimism. Their +inspiring mental attitude, the hopeful way in which they face life, +always looking toward the light, toward health, toward prosperity, +toward success, and turning their backs upon the darkness, upon +everything which can mar their health, their efficiency, their +happiness, is creating a new world for thousands of discouraged souls. + +Christian Scientists insist that since God has created everything that +is, and since He is perfect, is all-in-all, He could not possibly create +anything unlike Himself, such as disease, or anything else which is not +good for His children. God is harmony, they reason, and He could not +create discord. He is truth and He could not create error. God is love +and He could not create the opposite of love,--hatred, jealousy, envy, +selfishness, any evil emotion or passion. Hence all disease, all +discord, all the enemies of the race, all Satanic influences in the +world must be accounted for in some other way than as decrees of His +will, for Perfection could not have produced these imperfections. Love +could not create anything antagonistic to itself. + +Scientists take a positive and vigorous stand against the admission to +their mind of any of the enemies of their health, their prosperity, +their happiness or their destiny. Not only is all thought of failure +and poverty banished, but they close the portals of their mind against +fear, worry and anxiety, against the ravages of jealousy, the poison of +hatred, envy, and selfishness. They try to keep their mental realm clear +of all black, forbidding pictures, of all sorts of distressing emotions +and unfriendly thoughts, while they open it wide to the things which +help, inspire and bring hope, the friend thoughts and emotions,--joy, +gladness, love, truth, and divine inspiration. + +They believe that all human beings were not only made to be healthy but +also to be happy, successful, prosperous. They regard poverty, no less +than illness, as a mental disease, to be treated in the same manner as +bodily disease; and this cheerful religious optimism which they try +steadily to maintain is not alone a healing force, but is also a great +disease-resisting power. + +Health, wholeness, is one of the most important and necessary factors +for the attainment of those things which every normal human being +desires,--peace, power, plenty, success and happiness. The Scientists' +religious optimism is a potent force for placing the mind in the most +favorable condition for the attainment of all these things. It removes +all hindrances to full, complete self-expression. + +It is just as necessary to hold the victorious attitude toward health as +it is to hold the victorious attitude toward our career and everything +which affects it. It is just as necessary to get rid of our doubts and +fears regarding our physical well-being, as it is to get rid of our +doubts and fears regarding our ability to succeed. + +If we would be strong and vigorous it is quite as important to visualize +health, to hold the health ideal, to keep the perfect health picture +constantly in the mind, as it is to keep the prosperity, the success +ideal in the mind when we are striving for an independence. + +The habit of always holding a high ideal of our health, of thinking of +ourselves as well, vigorous, physically and mentally perfect, will go +very far toward building up a strong disease-resisting barrier between +ourselves and all our health enemies. On the other hand, people who +never think of themselves as whole, healthy, active and robust, but who +constantly hold in mind a picture of themselves as weak, ailing, +without vim or stamina, with little or no disease-resisting power, are +liable at any time to become victims of disease. The building up of a +strong health thought barrier, a vigorous health conviction between +ourselves and disease is the best sort of health insurance. Fearing +disease, thinking ill health, visualizing physical suffering, is the +surest way of attracting those things. + +Physicians know that the awful incubus of doubt and worry in the minds +of patients, the fear that their disease may be fatal, is the greatest +obstacle to their recovery. We head toward our doubts, our fears, our +convictions regarding our health, just as we do toward our doubts, fears +and convictions regarding other things. If we are convinced that we are +not going to be strong, rugged, virile, if we fear that we are likely to +develop inherited weaknesses and disease tendencies, we are headed +toward these conditions, and will probably realize them. On the +contrary, if we hold the victorious attitude toward health, if we +visualize the health ideal, the health conviction, we head mentally +toward health, and what we head toward mentally is the pattern of that +which is continually being built into our life structure. + +A healthy body is healthy thought externalized. + +Man's normal condition is that of robust health, vigorous vitality, +tremendous power of endurance. The Creator evidently intended the human +machine to run harmoniously, without friction, without weakness or +disability of any kind. + +The created is a part of the Creator, an indestructible part of Him. +When we rise to a full consciousness of this we shall be victors over +disease instead of victims of it; we shall be conquerors instead of +slaves of conditions. + +Nearly a century ago a celebrated German physician said that there is +something in man which was never born, is never sick and never dies, and +that it is this something, this omnipotent force within which in reality +heals our diseases. No matter what we may call it, this something that +repairs and renews is one with the Force that creates us. We may name it +variously the God principle, the Christ within us, the divine principle, +the omnipotent force or anything else we please; the name does not +matter. All mean the same thing, that is, the creative, the +all-sustaining Force that holds the universe in harmony. + +There is something in you that is lord over your physical organs. There +is a power in you, back of the flesh, but not of it, which dominates the +flesh, and that is the real you. Your partner in that power is the +Intelligence that created you. You are indissolubly interlinked with +that Intelligence. You can no more be wiped out of existence than the +Creator who made you, because you are an immortal expression of Himself. +You are His masterpiece, and His work must partake of His qualities, of +His perfection, of His omnipotence, of His omniscience. + +The trouble with us is we do not rise to the power and dignity of our +divinity. We do not half believe we are divine. We have a sort of vague +theory that we are mere puppets, thrown off as separate units into +space, without any vital connection with the Power that gave us life. +This false theory is the cause of our sufferings. + +The reason why we are such shriveled, scrub oaks of human beings is +found in the dried-up, mean, stingy ideal of ourselves which we have +been taught to hold. We have been reared to think of ourselves as "poor +miserable worms of the dust," unworthy to come into the presence of our +Father-Mother-God, even though we are fashioned in His image. Instead of +carrying through life an ideal of our mental and physical perfection, we +carry an ideal of a defective, diseased, physically and mentally +imperfect, being. The mind being the molder of the body, the life-giving +processes within us build the sort of body that answers to the model in +the mind, the ideal which we hold of ourselves. What we really believe +ourselves to be, we tend to become. We keep our minds filled with all +sorts of discordant, sick pictures, and of course all of these mental +images reappear in the body, react upon the life. + +On the other hand, every time we affirm that we are one with the +creative Force of the universe, that nothing can separate us from our +oneness with the One, we tend to build our bodies into the ideal state +of perfect health,--mental, physical, and moral wholeness. If we could +hold continually the ideal of our wholeness, and visualize ourselves as +perfect beings "even as He is perfect," and constantly try to live up +to our ideal, any tendency to imperfection, to discord, to disease would +be eliminated. + +We are only just beginning to realize the tremendous import of the idea +that we really fashion our bodies to correspond with our thoughts, that +we are co-creators of ourselves with the Divine Power which is back of +the flesh, but not of it. + +A prominent surgeon in speaking of infantile paralysis says that the +physician's mental attitude toward it has a great deal to do with its +cure, and that he should hold firmly in mind the idea that the disease +is curable. + +Every physician should also be a metaphysician. He should be a profound +believer in the principle that the Power which created the patient can +re-create him, can repair damages, restore diseased or lost tissues. The +most advanced physicians do believe that at best they can but help +Nature in her healing processes. They realize that the same Power which +created the patient is present in the healing of every wound, every +broken bone and every hurt we suffer. The surgeon sets the bone, +dresses the wound, but the same Power that first created the flesh and +bone must do the healing. + +The mental healer vigorously denies the reality of disease in the sense +that truth is a reality. To him "all is Infinite Mind, and its infinite +manifestation," as Mrs. Eddy says, and therefore all must be good. Only +the good can be real as God made all that is. + +The persistent denial that anything could exist which the Creator did +not create, and that He could make anything unlike Himself, is one of +the fundamental principles of the Christian Science faith. To the healer +health is a vital, immortal principle, the everlasting fact, and +disease, although it seems painfully real to the sufferer, is but a +false belief. + +The healer holds in mind only what he desires to establish in his +patient's mind. He shuts out everything else. Health is what he wishes +to establish, and to do this he holds insistently and tenaciously the +health ideal. He refuses to see the sick, diseased man or woman, and +persists in visualizing the ideal one that God intended. To him the +defective, deficient, suffering being which disease and physical +discord have made is not the real man or woman. That being is only a +travesty of the ideal, perfect creature the Creator planned. + +He does not allow himself to think of, or to picture disease symptoms. +To visualize the physical appearance of disease would be to acknowledge +its reality, and this would be to defeat his healing. He could not, for +example, cure cancer or tuberculosis while mentally picturing the +horrible symptoms of these diseases. He wishes to keep all such things +out of his mind because of their baleful suggestiveness. Visualizing +them would merely etch their reality deeper and deeper in his +consciousness, and the suggestion would be conveyed into the patient's +consciousness. + +The mental healer's aim is to produce in the mind of the person he is +treating a consciousness of the scientific reality of health, and of the +unreality of disease. It does not matter how the disease symptoms may +contradict this principle, or how loudly pain may scream for +recognition, he persists in considering disease unreal and in holding +the scientific sense of health as the reality. He relies wholly upon +Divine Mind as the great healing potency, and steadily affirms his +patient's oneness with his Divine Source, and that disease cannot exist +in the Divine Presence. + +At the very outset he encourages his patient by affirming that, however +real his physical discord or disease may seem to him, it cannot affect +the God image in him, because that is perfect, as God Himself is +perfect, and that in reality there can be no disease. Truth and harmony, +he asserts, are the great facts of life. Error is not a reality, but +merely the absence of truth; discord is not a reality, but merely the +absence of harmony. He assures him that He is God's child, and that +God's image cannot be sick, distressed or diseased. "Of course," he +says, "this seems very real to you, painfully real, but it is not +reality in the sense that truth is a reality." This is discord, the +absence of harmony, and divine harmony will antidote all discord just as +truth will neutralize error, and as love will neutralize all hatred, +jealousy or revenge, or as confidence, self-assurance will neutralize +fear, doubt, or self-depreciation. + +The healer holds continually the healing suggestions, and concentrates +on arousing in his patient expectancy of relief by bracing his hope, +confidence, assurance and faith in Divine Mind that restores, renews and +heals. He tries to stimulate and to put into active operation the +healing potencies latent in him, to awaken in his mind the lost divine +image, and to impress upon him the idea that this divine image cannot +possibly be dominated or in any way affected by disease. + +I have seen a chemist pour a few drops of liquid from different +crucibles into a jar of muddy water and in a few minutes the mud would +disappear and the water be as pure as crystal. This is in effect what +the mental healer does in treating a patient. No matter what the disease +is his great remedy lies in mental chemistry, in neutralizing, +destroying the error with its natural antidote. + +The healer's constant affirmation that there can be no sickness, no +disease in God's image in man, is a powerful suggestion which tends to +weaken the grip of error in his patient's body. The very shutting out of +all fear, of the terror of disease and death, is a great step towards a +cure, because these things are depressing to all the bodily functions. +Everything that discourages, that makes the patient despondent, is a +great devitalizer, and constantly lowers his disease-resisting power. + +The arousing of the belief that the healer is a sort of motorman who +puts up the patient's dropped trolley pole, thus making connection with +the wire carrying infinite power; or that he is a wireless operator who +is connecting him with his Divine Source, the source of health and +happiness, and that he is actually receiving the flow of divine force, +of peace, of immortal life, is of itself a tremendous healing agency. + +When he has succeeded in establishing in the mind of his patient the +vigorous conviction that health is the everlasting principle, the great +fundamental inviolable fact, the healer has gone far toward establishing +a scientific consciousness of health, and has laid a most important +health foundation. + +After a little practice a sick person can do wonderful things for +himself through the vitalizing force of auto-suggestion. He can be his +own physician. He can recover health and keep it by applying to himself +the same principles that the healer applies to his patient. In this way +he can keep himself in conscious union with the Divine Source of all +supply, of all good, all health. + +There are sufficient latent potencies in every human being, if he would +only arouse and make them operative, to keep him in health and harmony. +We can all be our own healers if we will. + +The stream must be as pure as its fountain head unless contaminated +later, and there is where we humans come in. We contaminate the health +stream with our thought poisons. Our doubts, our fears, our unbeliefs, +our brutal passions, our selfishness, our greed, our hatreds, our +jealousies, our revenge, our ingratitude for life, for the blessings we +enjoy,--all of these things tend to pollute the stream which we receive +pure as it flows from the crystal fountain, the divine source of the All +Good. + +But the practice of divine chemistry will enable us to clear up our +muddy life streams. We have in ourselves the remedies which will +neutralize the vicious poisons we have allowed to flow into and befoul +our life stream. We can by the right use of our powers purify it as the +chemist purified the jar of muddy water. By right thinking we can +neutralize the poison sewage of our bodies, just as chemists can take +the foul sewage water which flows out from a city and by the help of +chemicals neutralize all the filth, making it absolutely pure again. By +applying their antidotes we can neutralize the poisons of disease, the +results of wrong thinking and living, which sap and embitter our lives, +which make us suffer from all sorts of ills and leave us unable to +accomplish one-tenth of what we might if we had that splendid physical +and mental vigor which is normal to humanity. + +We must offer the same uncompromising opposition to the reality of all +kinds of disease, mental and physical, that the mental healer does. We +must see ourselves as he sees his patient, in the wholeness, the +completeness, the Creator intended. It is the ideal man or woman we must +visualize, never the one weakened, deformed by horrible diseases or +their symptoms. By recognizing only the real man or woman, unaffected by +wrong thinking, we cut off the vicious effects of the mental enemies +which are fighting to perpetuate disease or other unfortunate +conditions. + +The constant holding of the health ideal, of the truth thought, the +health and prosperity thought, the optimistic thought, the kindly, +cheerful, helpful thought and the shutting out of all their opposites, +not only help to restore health, but also increase tremendously the +disease-resisting power. Right thought is a health, efficiency, and +happiness tonic. + +The vital thing in establishing health is to adopt the victorious +attitude toward it as toward every other good thing we desire. If we +wish to have abounding health (and who does not?) we must cultivate +implicit faith in health as our birthright, in the truth that, being the +children of Perfection, we must partake of the qualities of perfection, +and hence be free from the imperfection of disease or sickness. + +Without faith in our wholeness we are not, and cannot be, whole. Without +faith in the healing power of Divine chemistry no healing is possible +either by patient or healer. The patient may not always have a conscious +faith, but the healer has, and a similar faith is aroused in the patient +later, as he begins to feel the divine healing power operating and +working like a leaven in his nature. + +There is no one thing that is emphasized so much in the Bible, and +especially in Christ's teachings as faith. Every benefit, every healing +depends for its efficacy on the sufferer's faith. In all of His healing +this one condition of faith was imperative--"_According to thy faith be +it unto thee._" + +When the disciples told their Master that they could not heal certain +cases He rebuked them, and told them that they failed because of their +lack of faith. "_According to thy faith be it unto thee_," he reiterated +constantly. He recognized the great healing power of faith, and +impressed upon His followers the truth, that without it no healing was +possible. + +Every physician knows that his patient's faith in his power to cure him, +in the efficacy of the remedies he applies, are curative agencies. Faith +in medicinal remedies is what makes them effective. It is faith that +furnishes the potency of thousands of so-called remedies, which have no +intrinsic value whatever. + +We all know how the visualizing of disease and the fear of it affect the +mind in undermining the health ideal. Confidence in our health is +really its sustaining and buttressing power, for the moment we destroy +this we lessen our resisting power and invite disease. + +The image perpetually held in the conscious mind becomes indelibly +etched in the subconscious mind and the body conforms to the thought. To +attain perfect health we must hold the image of physical perfection, we +must constantly keep in mind this ideal state. We must build ourselves +thought pictures of a superb body in all its strength and wholeness; we +must relentlessly strangle every image of weakness or disease, every +sick suggestion that would blur the picture of perfect wholeness and +harmony into which we wish to grow. + +What a revolution we would make in our lives if we could only learn to +live this health ideal instead of its opposite, the disease ideal! + +Every child should be reared to _think_ health instead of disease; +should be made to realize that _health is the everlasting fact_, that +disease is not a necessary evil, and was not intended for us, that it +was not intended we should suffer. If the young mind were saturated from +infancy with health ideas and ideals it would build up a strong +disease-resisting power that would make it immune to all health +enemies. If every child were trained to believe that he was a god in the +making, that he had within him the embryo of divinity which ought to +develop into a God-like being, we should not have so many mental and +physical Lilliputians. + +One of our great health troubles lies in the fact that we have been +accustomed from childhood to lay too much emphasis on matter, on the +support of the body. As a matter of fact, the mind is everything. But +mind is not confined to the head alone. We are all mind. We think all +over. We live all over. Our sensations are the intelligent expression of +all the cells of the body. + +The body is a great coöperative institution composed of billions of +cells. Some of these cells have a higher functioning quality than +others, but they all have their appointed places. Every cell is an +important member of the body corporation and has a voice in the +government of the whole. When we are wounded or diseased, for instance, +billions of these tiny cell repairers, healers, renewers, health +builders, rush instantly to the wounded part to repair and restore the +injured tissues. + +We are all conscious that there is continually going on within us these +repairing, renewing, reinvigorating, as well as healing, processes. We +feel that there is a marvelous and beneficent intelligence ever working +miracles within us, a power which heals our wounds and cures our hurts. + +Whence comes the intelligence which governs and directs the work of +these little builders and repairers? It comes from the Within of us, for +our objective mind is comparatively passive in the process. But the +great Intelligence back of the flesh, which keeps the heart beating, the +lungs breathing, and all of the various bodily functions in activity, +never ceases working, and never leaves us for an instant. It permeates +every atom of the body, illuminating each separate cell with a +reflection of its own light. + +Scientists are making marvelous discoveries regarding the location of +the seat of intelligence,--mind. Until recently it was supposed to be +confined solely to the brain. But now we know the mind, the brain, or +the thinking part of us, extends the entire length of the spinal cord, +that there is gray brain matter everywhere in the sympathetic nervous +system. In fact recent experiments indicate selective power in the cells +all through the body. + +Regular gray matter has been found in the finger tips of deaf, dumb and +blind people, thus showing that wherever there is a need there is +intelligence. We know what marvels blind and deaf mutes perform by their +sense of touch, in distinguishing colors, even fine variations of shades +in delicate fabrics, in correctly sensing denominations of paper money +and coins, and accurately describing statues and other forms from merely +running their fingers over them. This shows that intelligence is +everywhere in the body. + +Some of our foremost scientists now believe that the cells composing +each organ form a sort of coöperative community intelligence which +presides over that particular organ. They hold that the bodily organs +have what may be termed minds of their own, and are vitally connected +with the so-called spinal column brain and the solar plexus brain, as +well as with the brain proper. This theory is borne out in fact. We know +how quickly the stomach sympathizes with the mental attitude, how it +responds to our thoughts, our emotions; also how quickly the heart, the +kidneys respond to our mental states--fear, worry, joy, anxiety, love, +hate, jealousy, whatever emotion dominates us. + +If there were not a very intimate connection between the brain and the +stomach (and the same principle applies to the heart, the kidneys and +other organs) the digestion would not be affected so seriously by our +changing moods and emotions. Inasmuch as it is so affected, is it not +reasonable to assume that the stomach cells are influenced by the +thought which you project into them? Is it not reasonable to assume that +by sending into these cells black, gloomy, discouraging pictures of +indigestion and dyspepsia you injuriously affect them? If these cells +have intelligence, and if they respond instantly to our different mental +states, as we know they do, isn't it natural that they should be +correspondingly affected by our opinion of them, by our lack of +confidence in them, our suspicion of their ability to digest our food +properly, by our constant complaining of our stomach and our miserable +digestive apparatus? + +Give a dog a bad name and you might as well kill him, is an old saying. +In the same way, impress, force home on your stomach, your heart, your +liver, or any other bodily organ the conviction that it is inefficient, +weak, good for nothing, and in addition swallow a mouthful of mental +dyspepsia with every mouthful of food, and, sooner or later, it will +accept your verdict and be just what you claim it is. + +In other words, instead of handicapping them by wrong thought, we must +give our bodily organs a fair chance to do their legitimate work. If we +expect them to act perfectly, as the Creator intended they should, we +must treat them as we would treat our children. We must by right +thinking help them to be normal instead of making them abnormal by +doubting, being suspicious of them. We must visualize them as our +co-workers, our partners, our friends, not as our enemies, our +tormentors. + +Just think of the horrible pictures of their various organs people get +from medical books, which describe minutely symptoms of diseases which +they imagine they have! Many people never visualize a normal picture of +themselves. They never think of themselves as the perfect beings God +intended them to be. What they hold constantly in mind is a picture of +an abnormal, diseased, weak, defective creature. They picture their +stomach, their liver, their kidneys, their heart in a diseased, +imperfect condition. Instead of regarding them as friends, as members of +the same family, they look on them as malicious enemies who cause them +constant suffering. "Oh," they cry out, "I've got such a miserable +stomach! I can't eat anything. Everything I eat hurts me." "My +treacherous old heart, how it pumps. I can't walk or do any of the +things I like because of it." "My liver is all upset. I seem to be out +of kilter everywhere. My kidneys are affected, my back troubles me, and +really I might as well be dead!" + +Such horrible visualizing and belittling of the hard-working bodily +organs would ruin the health of the best trained athlete. If you would +be a friend to yourself, you must be a friend of your organs, which are +so intimately and sympathetically connected with your brain-mind--the +central station of your body. You must believe in their perfection, in +their normal functioning. You must picture them trying to help you to +carry out your great life purpose instead of working at cross purposes +with you. You must have confidence in them, think of them as your +friends instead of enemies handicapping your success and ruining your +chances in life. Replace the pictures of diseased organs with their +opposites, pictures of their wholeness, their completeness, their +soundness, and you will find yourself coming into health and power. + +Assume the victorious attitude, and think of yourself as an absolutely +perfect being, divine, immortal, possessing superb health, a magnificent +physique, a vigorous constitution, a sublime mind. + +Every morning when you rise, before you go to bed at night, and whenever +you think of it during the day, stoutly affirm the fact of your +perfection physically, mentally and morally. Constantly assert mentally, +and, when alone, orally, "I am health because I am of God. God is my +life, He is the great creative Power that sustains and upholds me every +instant. This Power is perpetually re-creating me, and trying to keep me +up to the ideal, the original plan of my being when I was created. I +shall coöperate with it to-day, and every day. I shall aim to be +perfect, even as my Father." + +There is a great restorative power in the mere resolve to be well, +strong and vigorous, in affirming and tenaciously holding the perfect +ideal of ourselves which the Creator had in His plan of us. There is a +re-creative force in the realization that any departure from this ideal +means departure from God, from perfect health, from the reality of the +perfect physical, mental and moral being planned by Him. + +You will be surprised to see how this mental attitude, this visualized +physical ideal, will be reproduced in the body. + +The mind is the body builder, the great health sculptor, and we cannot +surpass our mental model. If there is a weakness or flaw in the thought +model, there will be corresponding deficiencies in the health statue. As +long as we think ill health, doubt our ability to be strong and +vigorous, as long as we hold the conviction of the presence of inherited +weaknesses and disease tendencies, look upon ourselves as victims +instead of conquerors of ill health, in short, as long as the mental +model is defective perfect health is impossible. + +Joyous, abounding health can be established just as anything else can be +established, by right thinking and right living, by thinking health +instead of disease, thinking strength instead of weakness, harmony +instead of discord, thinking true thoughts instead of error thoughts, +love thoughts instead of hatred thoughts, health thoughts, upbuilding +thoughts instead of destructive tearing down thoughts. + +A great many regular physicians now, and all soon will, show patients +how they can make use of the great healing, medicinal power of thought, +the miracle of right thinking, which unites them with the Force back of +the flesh. They will show each patient what attitudes of mind, what +affirmations and what auto-suggestions will tend to keep him in harmony; +they will teach him the healing use of suggestion. The physician of the +future will use largely for his remedies, ideas, mental attitudes, and +suggestions. + +The time will come when parents and teachers will realize the tremendous +force, the character-building power in the affirmation of health, +wholeness, completeness, harmony. They will teach children to exert this +power that will drive out discord and dispel disease. They will impress +upon the young that affirmation of perfect ideals, holding in mind the +model of a perfect man, a perfect woman, not the one marred, crippled, +shorn of strength and beauty by violation of mental law, or by vicious +living, will protect them from all assaults from without and from +within. + +If that mind was always in us which was in Christ, the mind that gives +health, peace and happiness, that perpetuates harmony, truth and beauty, +we should never know discord of any kind. Perfect health would be the +rule and not the exception, because we should never transgress the laws +of our being. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +YOU ARE HEADED TOWARD YOUR IDEAL + + Faith and the ideal still remain the most powerful levers of + progress and of happiness. JEAN FINOT. + + If we are content to unfold the life within according to the + pattern given us, we shall reach the highest end of which we are + capable. + + We tend to grow into the likeness of the things we long for most, + think about most. + + The gods we worship write their names on our faces. + EMERSON. + + +In Hawthorne's story, "The Great Stone Face," we have an impressive +illustration of the power of an ideal. One's memory holds a vivid +picture of its hero, whose mind had dwelt from childhood on the local +tradition that a man-child should be born whose face would resemble that +of the mountain profile above the little hamlet of his nativity; and +that this child would eventually become the leader and savior of the +people. So whole-heartedly did he believe the legend, so earnestly did +he long for its fulfillment, and so constantly did his eyes dwell on +the prophetic profile, that unconsciously his own features changed +until, outwardly as well as inwardly, he completely embodied the ideal +which his mind had absorbed. + +On every hand we see illustrations of the transforming power of the +ideal. It is outpictured in the faces we see in the street, in trains +and shops, in theaters and churches, wherever people congregate. + +How quickly we can select from a crowd of strangers the successful +business man. His initiative, leadership, executive ability, speak out +of his face and manner. The same is true of men in other vocations,--of +the scholar, the clergyman, the lawyer, the teacher, the doctor, the +farmer, the day laborer. Go into any institution, factory, store, or +other place of business and you can quickly detect the nature of the +ideals outpictured in the faces, in the expression, in the manner of the +people you see there. Visit Sing Sing and you will see the power of the +ideal which has worked like a leaven in its inmates. The criminal +suggestion, the criminal thought, the criminal ideal is reflected in +the faces of those who visualized crime, planned and thought out its +details long before they committed the criminal act. + +Whatever we hold in our minds, dwell upon, contemplate, whatever is +dominant in our motives, will stand out in our flesh so that the world +can read it. Many absolutely authentic cases of stigmata are recorded in +the lives of medieval saints, on whose bodies appeared an exact +reproduction of all the wounds of the crucified Christ. Some of these +cases were in convents and monasteries, and were the result of long and +intense concentration of the mind of the subject upon the physical +sufferings of Christ. Frequently the phenomena occurred after the +austerities of Lent, during which the monks and nuns had focused more +intensely and steadily upon the tortures of the Savior's passion and +death. + +If the contemplation of those tortures, the constant mental picturing of +the sufferings of the God-man, the soul's great sympathy with its ideal +could change the very tissues of the body, could reproduce on it the +actual physical marks of the cruel spear in the side, of the nails in +the hands and feet and of the thorns in the head, think of the +wonderful possibilities in the reversal of these thoughts and this +picturing. Think of what the contemplation of the wonderful work +accomplished by the Savior on earth, of the constant mental picturing of +His glorious life, of His tenderness, and love for humanity, of His +power and dignity, of His continual outpouring of Himself in service; +think of what the constant holding of such an ideal, such a model, and +the perpetual effort to realize it would do for the race! + +We tend to become like what we admire, sympathize with and persistently +hold in mind. The hero of "The Great Stone Face" became the counterpart +of his ideal. The history of Christianity is a continuous record of the +power of the ideal to raise men and women to their highest power. St. +Paul, one of the most conspicuous of these examples, is so possessed, so +enthused by the inspiration of his great model, that he cries, "I live, +not I, but Christ in me." + +"The contemplation of perfection is always uplifting." Nothing so +strengthens the mind, enlarges manhood, or womanhood, widens the +thought, as the constant effort to measure up to high ideals. The +struggle to better our best, to make our highest moments permanent, the +continual reaching of the mind to the things above and beyond, the +steady pursuit of the ideal, which constantly advances as we pursue, is +what has led the race up from savagery to twentieth century +civilization. + +A great artist was one day found by a friend in tears in his studio. +When asked the cause of his distress, he replied, "I have produced a +work with which I am satisfied, and I shall never produce another." It +is said he never did. The inspiration that had urged him on was his +ideal. That kept him always striving to improve on what he had +previously done. Without it there was nothing to strive for. + +Without an ideal there is no growth; and where there is no growth there +is retrogression. Without a vision the people perish. Nothing in the +universe is static. None of us stands still. We are all traveling in +some direction, either forward or backward. Everything depends on the +ideal. + +What we admire and aspire to enters into the very texture of our being, +becomes a part of us. If we had the power to analyze any individual, we +could tell what books he had read, could detect the type of his friends +and associates, and could name his heroes; that is, we could tell what +ideals had actuated him. + +Parents and teachers should urge upon the young the importance of hero +worship, of choosing the highest human ideals. Our lives are molded +chiefly after the pattern of the ideals of our youth, and there is no +danger of too much hero worship, if only the heroes are worthy. + +History is full of examples of the powerful influence of ideals upon our +great men. It is said that Alexander the Great always carried a copy of +Homer's "Iliad" in his pocket, and that he never tired of reading about +Achilles, the great hero, whom he was ambitious to resemble. Many a +young man in this country who has been inspired, encouraged and +stimulated by Lincoln's career, has not only lived a grander life and +made a truer success because he modeled his life after that of his hero, +but he has developed many qualities in common with Lincoln which +otherwise might have lain forever dormant. Many a young officer in our +army is more efficient because of his imitation of Grant and Lee, the +ideals which haunted his dreams and which have ever urged him up and on. + +It is of the utmost importance to choose our ideal early in life, a high +and beautiful ideal, that shall be our pole star, the highest, brightest +light we know. A recent writer says: "My advice to all those just +starting to travel life's turnpike is: + + "'Don't start until you have your ideal. + Then don't stop until you get it.'" + +Of course we all have ideals of some kind when we are young; but how +many of us keep them even till middle age? What young man has entered +into active life without an ideal before him of what he is going to do, +and how the world is going to be bettered by him? What young girl but +who, leaving school, life smiling before her, dreams of the ideal love +she will find, the ideal happy home she will make, and the beautiful +work she will do in life with the ideal man of her girlish dreams by her +side? But do the youth and the maiden hold these ideals throughout the +years, with the strength of conviction that overcomes all difficulties, +or do they abandon them with the first discouragement and settle down +into a commonplace existence with interest in nothing above the +material? + +To youth, naturally, come glorious ideals, not only of what one's own +life is to be, but of what life in general should be,--the ideal man, +the ideal woman, the ideal social system,--and with all these is a vague +desire or intention to help toward their fulfillment. But too often the +result of disappointment in the effort to better conditions is, first, +to give up the hope of realizing the ideal, and then to abandon the +ideal itself. Here is where the great danger of retrogression comes in. +Unless the ideal be held with a tenacity that no failure or +disappointment can relax, it is apt to fade away after the first ardor +of youth is past. + +One of the greatest aids to the preservation of the youthful ideal in +all its freshness and beauty is to recall frequently, daily, the moral +heroes who first gave one a glimpse of one's possibilities and aroused +one's ambition. Read the special books, or particular chapters which +fired you to emulate some noble character. Renew yourself mentally by +visualizing the life and work of men and women who have wrought nobly +for humanity. Think of the Washingtons, the Franklins, the Lincolns, the +Emersons, the Ruskins, the Florence Nightingales, the Jane Addams, the +Susan B. Anthonys, the Frances Willards, and you will be strengthened to +resist the debasing influence of the fierce competition for wealth and +preferment, even for mere subsistence, which in so many instances pushes +out of sight the aspirations and ideals of youth. Keep constantly in +mind the grand characters whose achievements aroused you to noble +thoughts and endeavor in the springtime of life and your standards will +never drop. Character always develops according to the pattern within +us. No artist could paint the face of Christ with the model of Judas +before his mental vision. No great character can ever be built with low, +groveling ideals in the mind. + +The constant struggle to measure up to a high ideal is the only force in +heaven or on earth that can make a life great, beautiful and fruitful. +If we would ever accomplish anything of worth, if we would ever +establish our oneness with the Creator, and accomplish the work He sent +us here to do, we must live up to our ideal. + +With eyes fixed on this ideal, we must work with heart and hand and +brain; with a faith that never grows dim, with a resolution that never +wavers, with a patience that is akin to genius, we must persevere unto +the end; for, as we advance, our ideal as steadily moves upward. + +"The situation that has not its duty, its ideal," says Carlyle, "was +never yet occupied by man. Yes, here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, +despicable Actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere is +thy ideal; work it out therefrom, and, working, believe, live, be free. +Fool! the ideal is in thyself." + +Never were truer words spoken. Wrapped up in every human being there are +divine energies which, if given proper direction, will develop the ideal +from stage to stage. Who sees a sculptor at work upon a block of marble +sees what appears to be only a mechanical performance. But, out of sight +in the sculptor's brain, there is a quiet presence we do not perceive; +and every movement of the hand is impelled by that shining thought +within the brain. That presence is the ideal. Without it he would be a +mason; through it he becomes an artist. + +"The ideal is the real." By it we shape our lives as the sculptor shapes +the image from the rough marble. External means alone will not +accomplish this. You must lay hold of eternal principles, of the +everlasting verities, or you never can approach your ideal. Your first +advance toward it lies in what you are doing now, in what you are +thinking. Not on some far-off height, in some distant scene, or fabled +land, where longing without endeavor is magically satisfied, will we +carve out the ideal that haunts our souls, but "here and now in this +poor, mean Actual, here or nowhere is our ideal!" + +In the humble valley, on the boundless prairie, on the farm, on sea or +on land, in workshop, store, or office, wherever there is honest work +for the hand and brain of man to do,--within the circumscribed limits of +our daily duties, is the field wherein the outworking of our ideal must +be wrought. + +"Your circumstances may be uncongenial," says James Allen, "but they +shall not long remain so if you but perceive an Ideal and strive to +reach it. You cannot travel _within_ and stand still _without_. Here is +a youth hard pressed by poverty and labor; confined long hours in an +unhealthy workshop; unschooled, and lacking all the arts of refinement. +But he dreams of better things; he thinks of intelligence, of +refinement, of grace and beauty. He conceives of, mentally builds up, an +ideal condition of life; the vision of a wider liberty and a larger +scope takes possession of him; unrest urges him to action, and he +utilizes all his spare time and means, small though they are, to the +development of his latent powers and resources. Very soon so altered has +his mind become that the workshop can no longer hold him. It has become +so out of harmony with his mentality that it falls out of his life as a +garment is cast aside, and, with the growth of opportunities which fit +the scope of his expanding powers, he passes out of it forever. Years +later we see this youth as a full-grown man. We find him a master of +certain forces of the mind which he wields with world-wide influence +and almost unequaled power. In his hands he holds the cords of gigantic +responsibilities; he speaks, and lo! lives are changed; men and women +hang upon his words and remold their characters, and, sun-like, he +becomes the fixed and luminous center round which innumerable destinies +revolve. He has realized the Vision of his youth. He has become one with +his Ideal." + +The great curse of the average person is commonness,--the lack of +aspiring ideals. There are thousands of farmers who never get above +cattle and wheat, of doctors who never become superior to prescriptions +and diseases, of lawyers who never wholly subordinate their briefs. The +ideals of the masses rarely rise out of mediocrity. Most of us live in +the basement of our lives, while the upper stories are all unused. +Millions of human beings never get out of the kitchen of their +existence. We need aspiration and great thought-models to lift us. + +God has whispered into the ear of all existence, "Look up." There is +potential celestial gravitation in every mortal. There is a spiritual +hunger in humanity which, if fed and nourished, will lead to the +upbuilding and developing of great souls. There is a latent divinity in +every son of Adam, which must be aroused before there can be any great +progress in individual uplift. + +In a factory where mariners' compasses are made before the needles are +magnetized, they will lie in any position, but when once touched by the +mighty magnet, once electrified by that mysterious power, they ever +afterwards point only in one direction. Many a young life lies listless, +purposeless, until touched by the Divine magnet, after which, if it +nourishes its aspirations, it always points to the north star of its +hope and its ideal. + +Every faintest aspiration that springs up in our heart is a heavenly +seed within us which will grow and develop into rich beauty if only it +be fed, encouraged. The better things do not grow either in material or +mental soil without care and nourishment. Only weeds, briers, and +noxious plants thrive easily. + +The aspiration that is not translated into active effort will die, just +as any power or function that is not used will atrophy or disappear. The +ostrich, naturalists say, once had wonderful wings, but not caring to +use them, preferring to walk on the earth rather than mount in the air, +it practically lost its wings, their strength passing into its legs. The +giraffe probably once had only an ordinary neck, like other animals, but +being long used to reach up to gather its food from the branches of +trees, it lifted its body in the upward direction until it is now the +tallest of all animals, its elongated neck enabling it to gather the +leaves from lofty trees. + +Something like this takes place continually in human lives. We rise or +fall by our ideals, by our pursuit or our disregard of them. The +majority of us make bungling work of our living. We spend much precious +time and effort catering to the desires of our animal natures and live +chiefly along the lines of life's lower aims and opportunities when we +might be soaring. + +Everywhere we see men making a splendid _living_, but a very poor +_life_; succeeding in their vocations but failing as men, swerving from +their own highest ideals for the sake of making a little more money. On +every hand we see people sacrificing the higher to the lower, dwarfing +the best thing in them for a superficial material advantage, selling the +birthright of the soul's ideal for a mess of pottage. + +Is there any reason or intelligence in a man's continuing to turn his +ability, his energies, all there is in him, into dollars after he has +many times more of these than he can ever use for living and betterment? +Is the gift of life so cheap, so meaningless, of so little importance, +that we can afford to spend time on things that do not endure,--upon +unnecessary material things which so soon pass away,--to the neglect of +those that endure? We know that life is our great opportunity to acquit +ourselves like men. Yet it is too often into these transient things that +we pour the full force of our energies, while we only sigh and "wish" +that we could achieve our ideals. We sacrifice much to gain wealth, but +practically nothing to realize the outreach of our souls. + +Yet the ideal is indeed the "pearl of great price," in the balance with +which "all that a man hath" besides is as nothing. The red letter men of +the world have always been men of high ideals, to which they were ever +loyal: men who have said "this one thing I do," and have put the whole +strength of their lives into their effort to realize their ideal. + +If from the start you listen to and obey that something within which +urges you to find the road that leads up higher; if you listen to and +obey the voice which bids you look up and not down, which ever calls you +on and up, no matter what its outward seeming, your life can not be a +failure. The really successful men and women are those who by the +nobility of their example contribute to the uplift, the happiness, the +enlargement of life, to the wisdom of the world,--not those who have +merely piled up selfish dollars. A rich personality enriches everybody +who comes in contact with it. Everybody who touches a noble life feels +ennobled thereby. + +There is machinery so delicate that it can measure the least expenditure +of physical force. If similar machinery could be devised for measuring +character many a millionaire would be chagrined at the record of his own +just measurement, while many an humble worker would be amazed at the +high mark his earnest unceasing efforts to reach his ideal had +achieved. + +I believe the time will come when not money, but growth, not lands and +houses, but mental and moral expansion in larger and nobler living, will +be even the popular measure of true riches, real success. The measure of +a successful man will be that of his soul; he will be rated in a new +sort of Bradstreet, a spiritual Bradstreet, as a large heart, a +magnanimous mind, a cultured intellect, instead of as a great check +book. + +Phillips Brooks said: "The ideal life of full completion haunts us all. +We feel the thing we ought to be beating beneath the thing we are. God +hides some ideal in every human soul. At some time in his life, each +feels a trembling, fearful longing to do some great good thing. Life +finds its noblest spring of excellence in its hidden impulse to do one's +best." + +Every one who substitutes the finer for the cheaper goal, each one who +to-day and every day holds to his high ideal despite the stress and +turmoil of modern daily living, in such measure hastens the day when +such an ideal will be the inspiration of the masses and the power that +moves the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +HOW TO MAKE THE BRAIN WORK FOR US DURING SLEEP + + +Would you not think yourself fortunate to have a secretary of great +ability and worth absolutely subject, day and night, to your will, and +so susceptible to instructions that even your slightest mental +suggestion would be faithfully carried out? If you had such a secretary, +and knew that in spite of his great ability he would be able to do what +you suggested only in proportion to your belief in his power to do so, +would you not be careful to entertain no doubts of his ability to carry +out your wishes or suggestions? + +Now, just substitute for this personal secretary your subconscious self, +that part of you which is below the threshold of your consciousness, and +try to realize that this self is actually the sort of secretary I have +endeavored to describe, capable of carrying out all your desires, of +executing all your purposes, of realizing your ambitions, to the exact +extent of your belief in its powers, and you will get some idea of what +it can accomplish for you. + +This secretary is closer to you than your breath, nearer than your heart +beat, a faithful servant, walking by your side all through life, to +execute your faintest wish, to carry out your desires, to help you to +achieve your aims. Every bit of help, of encouragement, of support you +give to this other self will add to the magnificence, the splendor of +your destiny. On the other hand, all negative, vicious thoughts, all +selfishness, greed and envy, all doubts and fears, all the discouraging, +destructive thoughts you entertain, will impair and weaken your +secretary or servant in exact proportion to their intensity and +persistency. In fact it rests with yourself whether your secretary shall +be your greatest help, a heavenly friend and assistant, or your greatest +hindrance, your worst enemy. + +It doesn't matter what we call them,--subconscious and conscious self, +or subjective and objective mind, we are all conscious that these are +two forces constantly at work in us. One commands and the other obeys. +We know that one of these, the subjective mind, does not originate its +acts, but gets its instructions from the objective mind, which contains +the will power. Experience shows us that the subjective or subconscious +mind, which I have called a "personal secretary," is a servant which +obeys our will, carries out our wishes, and registers in the brain a +faithful record not only of every thought, word and act of ours, but of +everything we see, and everything we hear others say. + +Coleridge tells of a remarkable instance of the truth of this. A young +German servant girl was taken ill with a fever, and in her delirium she +recited correctly long passages from famous authors in Latin, Greek and +Hebrew. Scholars were called in to hear this uneducated girl speaking +fluently tongues of which she had no knowledge in her conscious moments, +and to tell if they could what it meant. They were much puzzled and +could make nothing of it; but later the miracle was explained. Years +before, it seems, the girl had lived in a minister's family, and was +accustomed to hear her master recite the classics aloud. She had +listened attentively, and her subconscious mind had faithfully recorded +every word in her brain, and reproduced what it had heard when the +objective mind was quiescent. + +Numerous instances might be cited to show that our subconscious mind is +the record storehouse of all that has ever happened to us. Every +thought, every experience, whatever passes before the eye, or that we +see or hear or feel is registered accurately in our brain by our +subconscious mind. + +Now, if this other self, personal secretary, subconscious mind, or +whatever we choose to call it, has such enormous power, why can it not +be trained to work for us when we are asleep as well as when we are +awake? Have you ever thought of the possibilities of spiritual and +mental development during sleep? Has it ever occurred to you that while +the processes of repair and upbuilding are proceeding normally in the +body, the mind also may be expanding, the soul as well as the body may +be growing? + +"When corporal and voluntary things are quiescent, the Lord operates," +said Swedenborg. The great Swedish philosopher was a firm believer in +the activity of the other self during sleep. He claimed that his +"spiritual vision" was opened in the unconscious hours of the night. + +The Bible teems with illustrations of the activity of the subconscious +mind or self during sleep. Warnings are given, work is commanded to be +done, visions are seen, plans are outlined, angels are conversed with, +courses of conduct advised; and every suggestion made to the soul in the +dream state is literally carried out in the waking hours. + +Theosophists believe that during sleep the soul or spirit acts +independently of the body; that it actually leaves the body and goes out +into the night to perform tasks appointed it by the Creator. + +As a matter of fact, few people realize what an immense amount of work +is carried on automatically in the body under the direction of the +subconscious mind. If the entire brain and nervous system were to go to +sleep at night all of the bodily functions would stop. The heart would +cease to beat, the stomach, the liver, the kidneys and the other glands +would no longer act, the various digestive processes would cease to +operate, all the physical organs would cease working, and we should +stop breathing. + +One of the deepest mysteries of Nature's processes is that of putting a +part of the brain and nervous system, and most of the mental faculties +which were in use during the day, under the sweet ether of sleep while +she repairs and rejuvenates every cell and every tissue, but at the same +time keeping in the most active condition a great many of the bodily +processes and even certain of the mental and creative faculties. These +are awake and alert all the time while the sleeper is in a state of +unconsciousness. + +Most of us probably have had the experience of dropping to sleep at +night discouraged because we could not solve some vexing problem to our +satisfaction. It may have been one in mathematics during our school +days, or, later on, a weightier one in business or professional life, +and behold, in the morning, without any conscious effort on our part, +the problem was solved; all its intricacies were unraveled, and what had +so puzzled us the night before was perfectly clear when we woke up in +the morning. Our conscious, objective self did not enter the mysterious +laboratory where the miracle was wrought. We do not know how it was +wrought. We only know that it was done somehow, without our knowledge, +while we slept. + +Some of our greatest inventions and discoveries have been worked out by +the subconscious mind during sleep. Many an inventor who went to sleep +with a puzzled brain, discouraged and disheartened because he could not +make the connecting link between his theory and its practical +application, awoke in the morning with his problem solved. + +Mathematicians and astronomers have had marvelous results worked out +while they slept, answers to questions which had puzzled them beyond +measure during their waking hours. Writers, poets, painters, musicians, +all have received inspiration for their work while the body slumbered. + +Many people attempt to explain these things on a purely physical basis. +They attribute the apparent phenomenon to the mere fact that the brain +has been refreshed and renewed during the night, and that, consequently, +we can think better and more clearly in the morning. That is true, so +far as it goes, but there is something more, something beyond this. We +know that ideas are suggested and problems actually worked out along +lines which did not occur to the waking mind. Most of us have had +experiences of some kind or another which show that there is some great +principle, some intelligent power back of the flesh, but not of it, +which is continually active in our lives, helping us to solve our +problems. + +One of the most interesting instances of this kind is given in the +biography of the great scientist, Professor Louis Agassiz, by his widow: + +"He [Professor Agassiz]," the writer says, "had been for two weeks +striving to decipher the somewhat obscure impression of a fossil fish on +the stone slab in which it was preserved. Weary and perplexed, he put +his work aside at last, and tried to dismiss it from his mind. Shortly +after, he waked one night persuaded that while asleep he had seen his +fish with all the missing features perfectly restored. But when he tried +to hold and make fast the image it escaped him. Nevertheless, he went +early to the Jardin des Plantes, thinking that on looking anew at the +impression he should see something which would put him on the track of +his vision. In vain--the blurred record was as blank as ever. The next +night he saw the fish again, but with no more satisfactory result. When +he awoke it disappeared from his memory as before. Hoping that the same +experience might be repeated, on the third night he placed a pencil and +paper beside his bed before going to sleep. + +"Accordingly, towards morning the fish re-appeared in his dream, +confusedly at first, but at last with such distinctness that he had no +longer any doubt as to its zoölogical characters. Still half dreaming, +in perfect darkness, he traced these characters on the sheet of paper at +the bedside. In the morning he was surprised to see in his nocturnal +sketch features which he thought it impossible the fossil itself should +reveal. He hastened to the Jardin des Plantes, and, with his drawing as +a guide, succeeded in chiseling away the surface of the stone under +which portions of the fish proved to be hidden. When wholly exposed it +corresponded with his dream and his drawing, and he succeeded in +classifying it with ease." + +We are all familiar with examples of the marvelous feats performed by +somnambulists. They will get up and dress while fast asleep, lock and +unlock doors, go out and walk and ride in the most dangerous places, +where they would not attempt to go when awake. Many have been known to +walk with sure feet along the extreme edges of roofs of houses, on the +banks of rivers, or close to the edge of precipices, where one false +step would precipitate them to death. They will speak, write, act, and +move as if entirely conscious of what they are doing. A somnambulist +will answer questions put to him while asleep and carry on a +conversation rationally. + +In this respect the state of the sleep walker is similar to that of a +person in a hypnotic trance. He can be acted on from without and remain +wholly unconscious. Surgical operations have been performed upon a +hypnotized person without the use of anesthetics; and there is no doubt +that this also would be possible during profound sleep. The subjective +mind is much more susceptible to suggestion when the objective mind is +unconscious. There is no resistance on account of prejudice or external +influences. + +That we are on the eve of marvelous possibilities of treating disease +during sleep there is not the slightest doubt. The same is true of habit +forming, mind changing, of mind improving, of strengthening deficient +faculties, of eradicating peculiarities and idiosyncrasies, of +neutralizing injurious hereditary tendencies, of increasing ability. The +possibilities of changing the disposition and of mind building during +sleep are only beginning to be realized. + +The power of the subjective mind over the body is well illustrated by +the fact that thoughts aroused in a hypnotized person can very +materially shift the circulation of the blood. They can send it at will +to any part of the body. The hypnotist can make his subject blush or +turn pale, express in his face fierce anger or appealing love. He can at +will produce anesthesia in any part of the body so that a needle or +knife may be inserted in the flesh without causing the slightest pain. +He can so impress the hypnotized person's mind with the belief that the +water he drinks is whiskey that he will actually exhibit all the +appearance of drunkenness. He can make him believe that the spoonful of +water he takes is full of poison so that he will immediately develop +the symptoms of poisoning. + +The subjective mind is not only capable of carrying out orders but, as +has already been shown, every impression made on it is indelible. How +often we say, when we cannot recall a well-known name, or the details of +some important event or experience, "Well, I cannot think of that now, +but it will come to me; I shall think of it later." And how often have +the forgotten details flashed into our mind when the occasion had passed +and we were thinking of something else. Again and again have we puzzled +our brains at night trying to think of some particular thing which had +gone out of our memory, only to find it waiting for us in the morning. + +We are beginning to realize that all of our experiences during the day, +all of our thoughts, emotions and mental attitudes, the multitude of +little things which seem to make but a fleeting impression, are not in +reality lost. Every day leaves its phonographic records on the brain, +and these records are never erased or destroyed. They simply drop into +the subconscious mind and are ever on call. They may not come at once +in response to our summons, but they are still there and are often, many +years after they have dropped into the subconscious mind, reproduced +with all their original vividness. + +I heard recently of a prominent banker who lost a very important key, +the only one to the bank treasures. He claimed that it had not been lost +in the ordinary way, but stolen. Suspicion at once attached to the +employees. A prominent detective was placed in the bank, and, after +watching and questioning every one on the staff, he became convinced +that none but the banker himself knew anything about the key. + +Every detective is necessarily something of a mind reader, and this one, +believing firmly in his own theory, suggested a simple plan for +recovering the key. He told the banker to quit suspecting the employees +and worrying about burglars getting the bank's treasures, to relax his +overwrought mind and go to sleep with the belief that he himself had put +the key away somewhere, and that it would be found in the morning. "If +you do this," he said, "I believe the mystery will be solved." + +The banker, to the best of his ability, did as the detective suggested, +and on getting up the following morning he was instinctively led to a +certain secret place, and, behold, there was the key. He was not +conscious that he had put it there, but after finding it he had a faint +recollection of previously going to this place. + +The banker's objective or conscious mind was probably busy with +something else when he put the key away. Only his subconscious self had +any knowledge of what he was doing. Then when he missed the key his +fears, his worry, his anxiety, his suspicions and generally wrought-up +mentality made it impossible for his subjective mind to reveal the +secret to him. But after his mind had become poised and he was again in +tune with his subjective intelligence the information was passed along. + +Dr. Hack Tuke, a distinguished English authority on the subject. "The +memory, freed from distraction as it sometimes is," he says, "is so +vivid as to enable the sleeper to recall events which had happened years +before and which had been entirely forgotten." + +Now, if, as we have seen, the subconscious mind can perform real work, +real service for us, why should we not use it especially during sleep? +Why should we not avail ourselves of this enormous creative force to +strengthen all our powers and possibilities, to piece out, virtually to +lengthen our time, our lives? Think what it would mean to us in a life +time if we could keep these sleepless creative functions always in +superb condition so that they would go on during the night working out +our problems, unraveling our difficulties, carrying forward our plans, +while we are asleep! We have sufficient proof already to show that they +do actual constructive work, but the testimony of Dr. Tuke on this point +is of interest. "That the exercise of thought--and this on a high +level--is consistent with sleep can hardly be doubted," he writes. +"Arguments are employed in debate which are not always illogical. We +dreamed one night, subsequent to a lively conversation with a friend on +spiritualism, that we instituted a number of test experiments in +reference to it. The nature of these tests was retained vividly in the +memory after waking. They were by no means wanting in ingenuity, and +proved that the mental operations were in good form." + +It is now established beyond a doubt that certain parts of the brain +continue active during the night when the rest of it is under the +anesthetic of sleep. But we have hardly begun to realize what a +tremendous ally this sleepless creative part of the brain can be made in +our mental development. It is well known that most of the growth of the +child, of its skeleton, muscles, nerves and all the twelve different +kinds of tissues in its body takes place during sleep, that there is +comparatively little during the activities of the day. It is not so well +understood that our minds also grow during the night; that they develop +along the lines of the ideals, thoughts and emotions with which we feed +them before retiring. "All the analogies go to prove that the mind is +always awake," says M. Jouffroy. "The mind during sleep is not in a +special mood or state, but it goes on and develops itself absolutely as +in the waking hours." + +As a matter of fact we never awake just the same being as when we went +to sleep. We are either better or worse. We changed while we slept. +While our senses are wrapped in slumber, the subjective mind is busily +at work. It is either building up or tearing down. It is my firm belief +that by an intelligent, systematic direction of this sleepless faculty +of the brain we can actually make it create for us along the line of our +desires. As it is, most people by not putting the mind in proper +condition before going to sleep not only do not intelligently use this +marvelous creative agency but they destroy all possibility of beneficial +results from its action. It is as necessary to prepare the mind for +sleep as it is to prepare the body. The following chapter offers some +suggestions on this point. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PREPARING THE MIND FOR SLEEP + + Sleep, gentle sleep, how have I frighted thee? + SHAKESPEARE. + + +Not long ago I heard a young lady say that it was simply impossible for +any woman to look charming or to be agreeable right after getting up in +the morning. The Rev. Dr. Bushnell declared that "a man must be next to +a devil who wakes angry." The way we feel when we awake in the morning +depends on how we were feeling or thinking when we went to sleep. + +If we retire holding a grudge against a neighbor, with a resolve to "get +square" with somebody who has injured us; if we have hatred or jealousy +in our heart; if we are envious of another's success, and if we go to +sleep nursing these feelings, we awake in a depressed, exhausted state, +feeling bitter, pessimistic, irritable, unhappy, about as nearly like a +devil as it is possible for a human being to feel. The destroyer was at +work all night, running amuck among the delicate brain and nerve cells, +furiously tearing down what beneficent Nature had taken such pains to +upbuild. But, when we take pleasant, kindly, loving thoughts to bed with +us we awake refreshed, in a happy, contented frame of mind. Our +sleepless faculties spent the hours in upbuilding, performing friendly +offices for us during the night. + +Few people ever think of preparing the mind for sleep, yet it is even +more necessary than it is to prepare the body. Most of us take great +pains to put the latter in order; we undress, take a warm bath, massage +the face with some sort of refreshening salve, cold cream, or oil; we +make sure that our sleeping room is properly ventilated and that our bed +is clean and comfortable, but to the matter of preparing our minds we +don't give a thought. + +Instead of making our subconscious mental processes build for us in the +night, we allow them to tear down much of what we have built during the +day. Many of us grow old, haggard and wrinkled in the night, when just +the reverse ought to be the case, for Nature herself has ordained that +night should be the building, the renewing, time of life. + +If we were only to prepare the mind for sleep with the same intelligence +and care that we prepare the body; if we were to give it a cleansing +mental bath, wiping from memory's slate all black, discordant pictures, +all the worries and fears which vexed and perplexed us during the day +instead of having the nightmare panorama passing and repassing before us +during the night, robbing us of needed rest and neutralizing our +upbuilding, recuperative forces, what a difference it would make in our +achievement, in our lives! + +I know men whose lives have been revolutionized by adopting the practice +of putting themselves in a harmonious condition, getting in tune with +the Infinite before going to sleep. Formerly they were in the habit of +retiring in a bad mood, tired, discouraged over anticipated evils, +worrying about all sorts of things. They would discuss their misfortunes +at night with their wives and then fall to thinking over the unfortunate +conditions in their affairs, their mistakes, and the possible evil +consequences that might result from them. Naturally, their minds were +in an upset condition when they fell asleep, and, as might have been +expected, the melancholy, black, ugly pictures of the misfortunes they +feared, vividly exaggerated in the stillness of the night, became etched +deeper and deeper on their brains and did their baleful work, making +real rest and reinvigoration absolutely impossible. When they reformed +their habits, changed their thought, and retired in a peaceful frame of +mind with the intention of going to sleep, instead of tossing about +thinking of their troubles, their business straightway began to improve. +They were stronger, fresher, more vigorous, more resourceful, better +able to cope with difficulties, to make plans and to carry them out than +when they were depleting their physical and mental resources by robbing +themselves of their best friend, Nature's restorative,--sleep. + +Many people tell me they cannot stop thinking after they go to bed. +Their brains are so active, doing their next day's work, that they +cannot stop the mental processes for hours. + +Of course you cannot stop all thinking the first night you begin to form +the new habit, when you have practiced the old night-thinking habit for +years; when perhaps as far back as you can remember you have gone to bed +every night worrying, worrying, thinking, thinking, planning, planning +ahead for days, for weeks, for months, planning ahead perhaps for the +coming year. But if you persist, and make it a cast iron rule to allow +no anxieties or fears, no business troubles or discords of any kind to +enter your bed chamber, you will succeed in accomplishing your object. + +Think of your chamber as the one place sacred to rest, where the things +that trouble and harass and vex during the daytime shall find no +entrance. Put this legend over the door, or in some conspicuous place +where you can see it. "This is my holy of holies, the place of supreme +peace and power in my life from which all discord must be shut out." +When you undress and lie down, say to yourself, "I have done my best +during the day. Now I am going to drop thinking, drop worrying and +planning, and get good, refreshing sleep to prepare me for to-morrow's +work." + +Clear your mind not only of all anxious, worrying business thoughts, but +also of all ill will or hatred toward another. Resolve that you will +not harbor an unpleasant, bitter or unkind thought of any human being, +that you will wipe off the slate of your memory everything you have ever +had against any one; that you will forget whatever is unpleasant in the +past and start with a clean slate. Just imagine that the words +"Harmony," "Peace," "Love," "Good Will to every living creature," are +emblazoned in letters of light all over the walls of your room. Repeat +them over and over until that other self, that personal secretary just +below the threshold of your consciousness, becomes saturated with the +ideas they convey, and after a while you will drop into slumber with a +serene, poised mind, a mind filled with happy, joyous, creative +thoughts. + +Of course, until the new habit is fixed, thoughts will intrude +themselves in spite of you, but you needn't harbor them. You needn't +allow yourself, under any circumstances, to go on thinking about +business or any discordant thing after you retire any more than you +would allow a madman to slash you with a knife without making any +attempt to defend yourself. You can, if you only persist in the new and +better way, fall asleep every night like a tired child, and awake in +the morning just as refreshed and happy. Your subconscious self will, +after a while, carry out your behests without any conscious effort on +your part. This sleepless subconscious self is, in fact, one of the most +effective agents man has to help him accomplish whatever he desires. +Insomnia, for instance, which is the curse of so many Americans, may be +entirely overcome by its aid. + +If you are a victim of insomnia, and go to bed every night with the +thought firmly fixed in your consciousness that you are not going to +sleep, you are, to a great extent, the victim of your belief. The +conviction in your subconscious mind that there is something the matter +with your sleeping ability is largely responsible for the continuance of +your trouble. + +We know by experience that we can convince ourselves of almost anything +by affirming it long enough and often enough. The constant repetition, +after a while, establishes the belief in our minds that the thing is +true. We can establish the sleep habit just as easily as any other +habit. + +It is perfectly possible by means of affirmation, the constant +repetition in heart to heart talks with yourself to regain your power to +sleep normally. Your subconscious self, that side of your nature which +presides over the involuntary or automatic functions during sleep, as +well as while you are awake, as, for instance, walking, and other things +which do not require volition of the mind or especial will power, can be +made to obey your commands, or rather suggestions, to overcome insomnia. +Say to this inner self: "You know there is no reason why you should not +sleep. There is no defect in your physical or mental make-up which keeps +you awake. You ought to sleep soundly so many hours every night. There +is no reason why you should not, and you are going to do so to-night." + +Repeat similar affirmations during the day. Say to yourself, "This +sleeplessness is only a bad habit. If you were ill physically or +mentally, if you had any serious defect in your nervous system which +would give any excuse for insomnia, it would be a different thing, but +you haven't anything of the sort. You are simply the slave of a +senseless obsession and you are going to break it up. You are going to +begin right away. You are going to sleep better to-night, to-morrow +night, and the next night. You are going to get through with this bogie +you have built up in your imagination which has no existence in reality. +Nothing keeps you awake but your conviction, your fear, that you are not +going to sleep." + +Prepare your mind for sleep in the way already suggested by emptying it +of all worry and fear, all envy and uncharitableness, everything that +disturbs, irritates, or excites. Crowd these out with thoughts of joy, +of good cheer, of things which will help and inspire. Compose yourself +with the belief that you will go to sleep easily and naturally; relax +every muscle and say to yourself in a quiet drowsy voice, "I am so +sleepy, so sleepy, so sleepy." The subconscious self will listen and in +a short time will automatically put your suggestion into practice. + +It is needless to say that if insomnia is a result of bad or irregular +habits, the victim must first of all change his habits before he can +expect any relief. + +Man is a bundle of habits. We perform most of our life functions with +greater or less regularity, so that they become practically automatic. +Regularity, system, order are imperative for our health, our success and +our happiness. This is especially true in regard to sleep. We must keep +regular hours, be systematic in our habits, or our sleep is likely to +suffer. + +If you play as hard as you work, refresh and rejuvenate yourself by +pleasant recreation and a jolly good time when your work is done, and +then at a regular hour every night prepare your mind for sleep, just as +you would prepare your body, give it a mental bath and clothe it in +beautiful thoughts, you will in a short time establish the habit of +sound, peaceful, refreshing sleep. + +Whatever else you do, or do not, form the habit of making a call on the +Great Within of yourself before retiring. Leave there the message of +up-lift, of self-betterment and self-enlargement, that which you yearn +for and long to realize but do not know just how to attain. Registering +this call, this demand for something higher and nobler, in your +subconsciousness, putting it right up to yourself, will work like a +leaven during the night; and, after a while, all the building forces +within you will unite in furthering your aim; in helping you to realize +your vision, whatever it may be. + +The period of sleep may be made a wonderful period of growth, for the +mind as well as for the body. It is a time when you can attract your +desires; it is a propitious time to nurse your vision. + +Instead of making an enemy of your subconscious self by giving it +destructive thoughts to work with, explosives that will destroy much of +what you have accomplished during the day, make it your friend by giving +it strong, creative, helpful thoughts with which to go on creating, +building for you during the night. + +There are marvelous possibilities for health and character, success and +happiness building, during sleep. Every thought dropped into the +subconscious mind before we go to sleep is a seed that will germinate in +the night while we are unconscious and ultimately bring forth a harvest +of its kind. By impressing upon it our desires, picturing as vividly as +possible our ideals, what we wish to become, and what we long to +accomplish, we will be surprised to see how quickly that wonderful +force in the subjective self will begin to shape the pattern, to copy +the model which it is given. In this way we can correct habits which are +wounding our self-respect, humiliating us, marring our usefulness and +efficiency, perhaps sapping our lives. We can get rid of faults and +imperfections; we can strengthen our weak faculties and overcome vicious +tendencies which the will power may not be strong enough to correct in +the daytime. + +If, as now seems clear, the subconscious mind can build or destroy, can +make us happy or miserable according to the pattern we give it before +going to sleep, if it can solve the problems of the inventor, of the +discoverer, of the troubled business man, why do we not use it more? Why +do we not avail ourselves of this tremendous mysterious force for life +building, character building, success building, happiness building, +instead of for life destroying? + +One reason is that we are only just beginning to discover that we can +control this secondary self or intelligence, which regulates all the +functions of the body without the immediate orders of the objective +self. We are getting a glimpse of what it is capable of doing by +experiments upon hypnotized subjects, when the objective mind, the mind +which gets most of its material through the five senses is shut off and +the other, the subjective mind, is in control. We are finding that it is +comparatively easy while a person is in a hypnotic state to make +wonderful changes in disposition, and to correct vicious habits, mental +and moral defects, through suggestion. + +There is no doubt that so far as the subjective mind is concerned we are +in a similar condition when asleep as when in a hypnotic trance, and +experiments have shown that marvelous results are possible, especially +in the case of children, by talking to them, during their sleep, +advising them, counseling them, suggesting things that are for their +good. + +Parents should teach their children how to prepare their minds for sleep +so that the subconscious self would create, produce something beautiful +instead of the black, discordant images of fear which so often terrorize +little ones before they fall asleep and when they wake up in the dark +hours of the night. How often have we noticed the troubled, fear-full +expression on the face of a sleeping child, who was sent to bed with +anger thoughts, with fear thoughts in its mind after a severe scolding +or perhaps a whipping. + +A child should never be scolded or frightened, or teased, especially +just before bedtime. It should be encouraged to fall asleep in its +sweetest, happiest mood, in the spirit of love. Then its sleeping face +will reflect the love spirit and the child will awaken in the same +spirit, as though it had been talking with angels while it slept. + +Children are peculiarly susceptible to the influence of our thoughts, +our suggestions to them during sleep. Their character can be molded to a +great extent, their ability developed, their faults eradicated, and +their weak points strengthened during sleep. In some ways the +suggestions made to them in that state have more effect than those made +to them when awake, because while the objective mind often scatters and +fails to reproduce what is presented to it, the subjective mind +gradually absorbs and reflects every suggestion. Many mothers have found +this true, especially in correcting bad habits which seemed almost +impossible to reach while the children were awake. + +If you want to make your child beautiful in character, in disposition, +in person, think beautiful thoughts into its mind as it falls asleep; +speak to it of beautiful things while it sleeps. I believe the time will +come when much of the child's training will be effected during sleep. +Its æsthetic faculties, the love of music, of art, of all things noble +and beautiful, special talents, and latent possibilities of all kinds +will be developed through suggestion. + +In the marvelous interior creative forces lies the great secret of life, +and blessed is he who findeth it. Doubly blessed is he who findeth it at +the start of life. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +HOW TO STAY YOUNG + + We do not count a man's years until he has nothing else to + count. + R. W. EMERSON. + + The ability to hold mentally the picture of youth in all its + glory, vivacity and splendor has a powerful influence in + restraining the old age processes. + + Old age begins in the heart. When the heart grows cold the skin + grows old, and the appearances of age impress themselves on the + body. The mind becomes blighted, the ideals blurred, and the + juices of life congealed. + + +Many people look forward to old age as a time when, as a recent writer +puts it, you have "a feeling that no one wants you, that all those you +have borne and brought up have long passed out onto roads where you +cannot follow, that even the thought-life of the world streams by so +fast that you lie up in a backwater, feebly, blindly groping for the +full of the water, and always pushed gently, hopelessly back." + +There is such a thing as an old age of this kind, but not for those who +face life in the right way. Such a pathetic, such a tragic ending is +not for those who love and are loved, because they keep their hearts +open to the joys and sorrows of life; who maintain a sympathetic +interest in their fellow-beings and in the progress and uplift of the +world; who keep their faculties sharpened by use, and whose minds are +constantly reaching out, broadening and growing, in the love and service +of humanity. A dismal, useless old age is only for those who have not +learned how to live. + +Growth in knowledge and wisdom should be the only indication of our +added years. Professor Metchnikoff, the greatest authority on age, +believes that it is possible to prolong life, with its maximum of vigor +and freshness, until the end of its normal cycle, when the individual +will gratefully welcome what will be a perfectly happy release. At this +point he claims that the instinct of death will supplant the instinct of +life, when the bodily mechanism approaches the natural end of normal +exhaustion. He believes that men should live and maintain their +usefulness for at least one hundred and twenty years. + +The author of "Philosophy of Longevity" tells us that man can live to +be two hundred years old. Jean Finot says: "Speaking physiologically, +the human body possesses peerless solidity. Not one of the machines +invented by man could resist for a single year the incessant taxes which +we impose upon ours. Yet it continues to perform its functions +notwithstanding." + +What we have a horror of is the premature death of the faculties, the +cutting off of power, opportunity, the decay of the body many years +before the close of the life on earth. We shudder at the giving up of a +large part of life that has potency of work, of action and of happiness. +This horror of senility increases, because life continually grows more +interesting. There never was a time when it seemed so precious, so full +of possibilities, when there was so much to live for, as in this +glorious present. There never was a time when it seemed so hard to be +forced out of the life race. We are on the eve of a new and marvelous +era, and the whole race is on the tiptoe of expectancy. Never before was +the thought of old age as represented by decay and enforced inactivity +so repugnant to man. + +But why should any one look forward to such a period? It is just this +looking forward, the anticipating and dreading the coming of old age, +that makes us old, senile, useless. + +The creative forces inside of us build on our suggestions, on our +thought models, and if we constantly thrust into our consciousness old +age thoughts and pictures of decrepitude, of declining faculties, these +thoughts and pictures will be reproduced in the body. + +A few years ago a young man "died of old age" in a New York hospital. +After an autopsy the surgeons said that while the man was in reality +only twenty-three years old he was internally eighty! If you have +arrived at an age which you accept as a starting point for physical +deterioration, your body will sympathize with your conviction. Your +walk, your gait, your expression, your general appearance, and even your +acts will all fall into line with your mental attitude. + +A short time ago I was talking with a remarkable man of sixty about +growing old. The thought of the inevitableness of the aging processes +appalled him. No matter, he declared, what efforts he might make to +avert or postpone the decrepitude of age there would come a period of +diminishing returns, and though he might fight against it he would ever +after be on the decline of life, going irrevocably toward the sunset, +ever nearer and nearer to the time when he should be useless. "The +conviction that every moment, every hour, every day takes me so much +nearer to that hole in the ground from which no power in Heaven or earth +can help us to escape is ever present in my mind," he said. "This +progressive, ever-active retrogression is monstrous. This inevitably +decrepit old age staring me in the face is robbing me of happiness, +paralyzing my efforts and discouraging my ambition." + +"But why do you dwell on those things that terrify you?" I asked. +"Why do you harbor such old age thoughts? Why are you visualizing +decrepitude, the dulling and weakening of your mental faculties? If you +have such a horror of the decrepitude, the loss of memory, the failing +eyesight, the hesitating step, and the general deterioration which you +believe accompany old age, why don't you get away from these terrifying +thoughts, put them out of your mind instead of dwelling on them? Don't +you know that what you concentrate on, what you fear, the pictures that +so terrify you, are creating the very conditions which you would give +anything to escape? If you really wish to stay the old age processes you +must change your thoughts. Erase everything that has to do with age from +your mind. Visualize youthful conditions. Say to yourself, "God is my +life. I cannot grow old in spirit, and that is the only old age to fear. +As long as my spirit is youthful; as long as the boy in me lives, I +cannot age." + +The great trouble with those who are getting along in years is that they +put themselves outside of the things that would keep them young. Most +people after fifty begin to shun children and youth generally. They feel +that it is not "becoming to their years" to act as they did when +younger, and day by day they gradually fall more and more into old age +ways and habits. + +We build into our lives the picture patterns which we hold in our minds. +This is a mental law. When you have reached the time at which most +people show traces of their age you imagine that you must do the same. +You begin to think you have probably done your best work, and that your +powers must henceforth decline. You imagine your faculties are +deteriorating, that they are not quite so sharp as they once were; that +you cannot endure quite so much, and that you ought to begin to let up a +little; to take less exercise, to do less work, to take life a little +easier. + +The moment you allow yourself to think your powers are beginning to +decline they will do so, and your appearance and bodily conditions will +follow your convictions. If you hold the thought that your ambition is +sagging, that your faculties are deteriorating, you will be convinced +that younger men have the advantage of you, and, voluntarily, at first, +you will begin to take a back seat, figuratively speaking, behind the +younger men. Once you do this you are doomed to be pushed farther and +farther to the rear. You will be taken at your own valuation. Having +made a confession of age, acknowledged in thought and act that, in so +far as work and productive returns are concerned, you are no longer the +equal of young men, they will naturally be preferred before you. + +If people who have aged prematurely could only analyze the influences +which have robbed them of their birthright of youth they would find that +most of them were a false conviction that they must grow old at about +such a time, needless worry,--all worry is needless,--silly anxiety, +which often comes from vanity, jealousy and the indulgence of such +passions as excessive temper, revenge, and all sorts of unhealthy +thinking. If they could only eliminate these influences from their +lives, they would take a great leap back toward youthfulness. If it were +possible to erase all of the scars and wrinkles, all the effects of our +aging thoughts, aging emotions, moods and passions, many of us would be +so transformed, so rejuvenated that our friends would scarcely know us. +The aging thoughts and moods and passions make old men and women of most +of us in middle life. + +The laws of renewal, of rejuvenation are always operating in us, and +will be effective if we do not neutralize them by wrong thinking. The +chemical changes caused in the blood and other secretions by worry, +fear, the operation of the explosive passions, or by any depressing +mental disturbance, will put the aging processes in action. + +Whatever we establish as a fixed conviction in our lives we transmit to +our children, and this conviction gathers cumulative force all the way +down the centuries. Every child in Christian countries is born with the +race belief that three score years or three score years and ten is a +sort of measure of the limit to human life. This has crystallized into a +race belief, and we begin to prepare for the end much in advance of the +period fixed. As long as we hold this belief we cannot bar out of our +minds the consequent suggestion that when we pass the half century limit +our powers begin to decline. The very idea that we have reached our +limit of growth, that any hope of further progress must be abandoned, +tends to etch the old age picture and conviction deeper and deeper in +our minds, and of course the creative processes can only reproduce the +pattern given them. + +Some men cross the zenith line, from which they believe they must +henceforth go down-hill, a quarter of a century or more earlier than +others, because we cross this line of demarcation mentally first, cross +it when we are convinced that we have passed the maximum of our +producing power and have reached the period of diminishing returns. + +Many people have what they are pleased to call a premonition that they +will not live beyond a certain age, and that becomes a focus toward +which the whole life points. They begin to prepare for the end. Their +conviction that they are to die at a certain time largely determines the +limitation of their years. + +Not long since, at a banquet, I met a very intelligent, widely read man +who told me that he felt perfectly sure he could not possibly live to be +an old man. He cited as a reason for his belief the analogy which runs +through all nature, showing that plants, animals and all forms of life +which mature early also die early, and because he was practically an +adult at fifteen he was convinced that he must die comparatively young. +He said he was like a poplar tree in comparison with an oak; the one +matured early and died early; the other matured late and was very +long-lived. + +So thoroughly is this man under the dominion of his belief that he must +die early that he is making no fight for longevity. He does not take +ordinary care of his health, or necessary precautions in time of danger. +"What is the use," he says, "of trying to fight against Nature's laws? I +might as well live while I live, and enjoy all I can, and try to make up +for an early death." + +Multitudes of people start out in youth handicapped by a belief that +they have some hereditary taint, a predisposition to some disease that +will probably shorten their lives. They go through life with this +restricting, limiting thought so deeply embedded in the very marrow of +their being that they never even try to develop themselves to their +utmost capacity. + +Our achievement depends very largely upon the expectancy plan, the life +pattern we make for ourselves. If we make our plan to fit only one-half +or one-third of the time we ought to live, naturally we will accomplish +only a fraction of what we are really capable of doing. I have a friend +who from boyhood has been convinced that he would not live much, if any, +beyond forty years, because both his parents had died before that age. +Consequently he never planned for a long life of steady growth and +increasing power, and the result is he has not brought anything like all +of his latent possibilities into activity, or accomplished a fourth of +what he is really capable. + +It is infinitely better to believe that we are going to live much longer +than there is any probability we shall than to cut off precious years by +setting a fixed date for our death simply because one or both of our +parents happened to die about such an age, or because we fear we have +inherited some disease, such as cancer, which is likely to develop +fatally at about a certain time. + +Just think of the pernicious influence upon a child's mind of the +constant suggestion that it will probably die very young because its +parents or some of its relatives did; that even if it is fortunate +enough to survive the diseases and accidents of youth and early +maturity, it is not possible to extend its limits of life much, if any, +beyond a certain point! Yet we burn this and similar suggestions into +the minds of our children until they become a part of their lives. We +celebrate birthdays and mark off each recurring anniversary as a +red-letter day and fix in our minds the thought that we are a year +older. All through our mature life the picture of death is kept in view, +the idea that we must expect it and prepare for it at about such a time. +The truth is the death suggestion has wrought more havoc and marred more +lives than almost anything else in human history. It is responsible for +most of the fear, which is the greatest curse of the race. + +A noted physician says that if children, instead of hearing so much +about death, were trained more in the principles of immortality, they +would retain their youth very much longer, and would extend their lives +to a much greater length than is now general. + +I believe the time will come when the custom of celebrating birthdays, +of emphasizing the fact that we are a year older, that we are getting so +much nearer the end, will be done away with. Children will not then be +reminded so forcibly once in three hundred and sixty-five days that each +birthday is a milestone in age. We shall know that the spirit is not +affected by years, that its very essence is youth and immortality. In +our inmost souls we shall realize that there is a life principle within +us that knows neither age nor death. We shall find that old age is +largely a question of mental attitude, and that we shall become what we +are convinced we must become. + +As a matter of fact the average length of life is steadily increasing, +because science is teaching men how to live so as to conserve health and +youth. Formerly men and women grew old very much earlier than they do +now, and they died much younger. We do not think so much about dying as +they used to in the early days of this country, when to prepare for the +future life seemed to be the chief occupation of our Puritan ancestors. +They had very little use for this world and did not try to enjoy life +here very much. They were always talking and praying and singing about +"the life over there," while making the life here gloomy and forbidding. +They forgot that the religion Christ taught was one of joy. + +There is no greater foe to the aging processes than joy, hope, good +cheer, gladness. These are the incarnation of the youthful spirit. If +you would keep young, cultivate this spirit; think youthful thoughts; +live much with youth; enter into their lives, into their sports, their +plays, their ambitions. Play the youthful part, not half heartedly, but +with enthusiasm and zest. You cannot use any ability until you think, +until you believe, you can. Your reserve power will stand in the +background until your self-faith calls it into action. If you want to +stay young you must act as if you felt young. + +If you do not wish to grow old, quit thinking and acting as if you were +aging. Instead of walking with drooped shoulders and with a slow, +dragging gait, straighten up and put elasticity into your steps. Do not +walk like an old man whose energies are waning, whose youthful fires are +spent. Step with the springiness of a young man full of life, spirit and +vigor. The body is not old until the mind gives its consent. Stop +thinking of yourself as an old man or an old woman. Cease manifesting +symptoms of decrepitude. Remember that the impression you make upon +others will react on yourself. If other people get the idea that you are +going down hill physically and mentally, you will have all the more to +overcome in your effort to change their convictions. + +When we are ambitious to obtain a certain thing, and our hearts are set +on it, we strive for it, we contact with it mentally and through our +thoughts we become vitally related to it. We establish a connection with +the coveted object. In other words, we do everything in our power to +obtain it; and the mental effort is a real force which tends to match +our dream with its realization. + +An up-to-date modern woman is a good example of what I mean. She does +not act like an old lady, and does not put on an old lady's garb after +she has passed the half-century milestone. We do not see the old lady's +cap, the old lady's gown of the past any more. Women getting along in +years nowadays dress more youthfully and appear younger than their +grandmothers did at the same age. They do everything to make themselves +appear young. Men are much more likely than women to grow careless in +regard to personal appearance as they grow older. They wear their hair +longer, they let their beard grow, they stoop their shoulders, drag +their feet when they walk, and begin to neglect their dress. They are +not as careful in any respect to retain their youthful appearance as +women, who resort to all sorts of expedients to ward off signs of age +and to retain their attractiveness. + +The habit of growing old must be combated as we combat any other vicious +habit, by reversing the processes by which it is formed. Instead of +surrendering and giving up to old age convictions and fears, stoutly +deny them and affirm the opposite. When the suggestion comes to you that +your powers are waning, that you cannot do what you once did, prove its +falsity by exercising the faculties which you think are weakening. +Giving up is only to surrender to age. + +We tend to find what we look for in this world, and if, as we advance in +years, we are always looking for signs of old age we will find them. If +you are constantly on the alert for symptoms of failing faculties, you +will discover plenty of them; and the great danger of this is that we +are apt to take our unfortunate moods for permanent symptoms. That is, +some day perhaps you cannot think as clearly, you cannot concentrate +your mind as well, you do not remember as readily as you did the day +before, and you immediately jump to the conclusion that a man of your +age must begin to fail, cannot expect as much of himself as when he was +younger. In other words, a person whose mind is concentrated upon his +aging processes is inclined to draw a wrong conclusion from his +temporary moods and feelings, mistaking them for permanent conditions. + +The majority of people who are showing the signs of premature aging are +suffering from chronic thought poison, that is, the chronic old age +poison. From the cradle they have heard old age talk, the reiteration of +the old age belief that when a person reached about such an age he would +then naturally begin to let up, to prepare for the end. And so instead +of fighting off age by holding the eternal youth thought and the vigor +thought they have held the thoughts of weakness and declining powers. +When they happen to forget something, they say their memory is beginning +to go back on them, their sight will soon begin to fail, and they go on +anticipating signs of decline and decrepitude until the old age +visualization is built into the very structure of their bodies. + +Instead of forming the habit of looking for signs of age form the habit +of looking for signs of youth. Form the habit of thinking of your body +as robust and supple and your brain as strong and active. Never allow +yourself to think that you are on the decline, that your faculties are +on the wane, that they are not as sharp as they used to be and that you +cannot think as well, because your cells are becoming old and hard. He +ages who thinks he ages. He keeps young who believes he is young. + +We get a good hint of the power of mental influence in the marvelous way +in which many of our actresses and grand-opera singers retain their +youthfulness, because they feel that it is imperative that they should +do so. Had Sara Bernhardt, Adelina Patti, Lily Lehmann, Madame +Schumann-Heink, Lillian Russell, and scores of other actresses and +singers pursued any other vocation they would undoubtedly have been at +least ten, perhaps twenty years older in appearance than they are. + +There are too many exceptions to the race belief that man's powers begin +to wane at fifty, sixty or seventy to allow oneself to be influenced by +it. We really ought to do our best work after fifty. If the brain is +kept active, fresh and young, and the brain cells are not ruined by a +vicious life, worry, fear, selfishness, or by disease induced by wrong +living or thinking, the mind will constantly increase in vigor and +power. Men and women whose faculties are sharp and whose minds are keen +and vigorous at ninety, and even at a hundred, prove this. I know a +number of men in their seventies and eighties who are as sturdy and +vigorous physically and mentally to-day as they were twenty years ago. +Only recently I was talking with a business man who broke down at forty +from over strain but who is now, in his eightieth year, more buoyant and +elastic in mind and body than many men at fifty. This man does not +believe in growing old because he knows that ten years ago he did not +have a bit of the cell material in his body that he has to-day. "Why +should I stamp these new body cells with four score years," he says, +"when not a single one of them may be a quarter of that age?" + +Many of us do not realize the biological fact that Nature herself +bestows upon us the power of perpetual renewal. There is not a cell in +our bodies that can possibly become very old, because all of them are +frequently renewed. Physiologists tell us that the tissue cells of some +muscles are renewed every few months. Some authorities estimate that +eighty or ninety per cent. of all the cells in the body of a person of +ordinary activity are entirely renewed within a couple of years. + +One's mental attitude, however, is the most important of all. There is +no possible way of keeping young while convinced that one must +inevitably manifest the characteristics of old age. The old age thoughts +stamp themselves upon the new body cells, so that they very soon look +forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years old. We should hold tenaciously +the conviction that none of the cells of the body can be old because +they are constantly being renewed, a large part of them every few +months. It is impossible for the processes producing senility to get +control of the system, or to make very serious changes in the body, +unless the mind first gives its consent. Age is not so much a matter of +years as of the limpidity, the suppleness of the protoplasm of the cells +of the body, and there is nothing which will age the protoplasm like +aging thoughts and serenity enemies, such as worry, anxiety, fear, +anger, hatred, revenge, or any discordant emotion. If you keep your +protoplasm young by holding youthful ideals, there is no reason why you +should not live well into the teens of your second century. + +Constantly affirm, "I am young because I am perpetually being renewed; +my life comes new every instant from the Infinite Source of life. I am +new every morning and fresh every evening, because I live, move, and +have my being in Him who is the source of all life." Not only affirm +this mentally, but also audibly. Make this picture of perpetual +rejuvenation and re-creation so vivid that you will feel the thrill of +youthful renewal through your entire system. + +Some people try to cure the physical ravages made by wrong living and +wrong thinking by patching their bodies from the outside. The "beauty +parlors" in our great cities are besieged by women who are desperately +trying to maintain their youthful appearance, not realizing that the +elixir of youth is in one's own mind, not in bottles or boxes. Is there +anything quite so ghastly as to see an old lady (really old because her +heart is no longer young), with a painted or enameled face, dressed like +a young girl? Such a woman deceives no one but herself. Other people can +see the old, dry skin beneath the rouge. They can see the wrinkles which +she tries to disguise. She cannot cover up her age with such frivolous +pretenses. The painting of cheeks and wearing of girlish frocks do not +make a person young. It is largely a question of the age of the mind. If +the mind has become hardened, dry, uninteresting, if there is no charm +in the personality one is old, no matter what his or her years count. + +Idle, selfish women of wealth who live an animal life, who are +constantly doing things which hasten the appearance of old age, +overeating, over-drinking, over-sleeping, idling life away, having +nothing to do but gratify every luxurious whim, are the best customers +of beauty doctors, who try to erase the earmarks of old age by +"treating" the skin and the hair. Doctoring the effects instead of +trying to remove the cause of old age never has been, and never can be, +really successful. You cannot repair the ravages of age on the outside. +You must remove the cause, which is in the mind, in the heart. When the +affections are marbleized, when one ceases to be sympathetic and helpful +and interested in life, the ravages of old age will appear in spite of +all the beauty doctors in the world. + +I know indolent wives of rich men, who cannot understand why they age so +rapidly in appearance when living such easy, care-free, worry-free +lives. They are puzzled to know why it is when they do not have to work, +when they have no cares, when their wants are all supplied without any +effort of theirs, they do not retain their youthful appearance many +years longer than they do. The fact is those women stagnate, and nothing +ages one faster than mental and physical stagnation. Work, useful +employment of some sort, is the price of all real growth, of all real +human expansion. He, or she, who indulges in continuous idleness pays +the price in constant deterioration, physical, mental and moral. A ship +lying idle in the wharf will rot and go to destruction much more rapidly +than a ship at sea in constant use. Every force in nature seems to +combine in corroding, destroying the unused thing, the idle person. + +Work, love, kindness, sympathy, helpfulness, unselfish interest--these +are the eternal youth essences. These never age, and if you make friends +with them they will act like a leaven in your life, enriching your +nature, sweetening and ennobling your character, and prolonging your +youth even to the century mark. + +We are learning that the fabled fountain of youth lies in ourselves; is +in our own mentality. Perpetual rejuvenation and renewal are possible +through right thinking. We look as old as we think and feel, because +thought and feeling maintain or change our appearance in exact +accordance with their persistence or their variations. It is impossible +to appear youthful and remain young unless we feel young. Youthful +thinking should be a life habit. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OUR ONENESS WITH INFINITE LIFE + + He lives best and most who gives God his greatest opportunity in + him. If we only knew how to live and move and have our being in + Him, to be conscious of this every instant, we should then know + what true living means. We should be satisfied, for we should then + awake in His likeness. + + "Deep within every heart that has not dulled the sense of its + inner vision is the belief that we are one with some great + unknown, unseen power; and that we are somehow inseparably + connected with the Infinite Consciousness." + + It is a mental law that thoughts and convictions can only attract + their kind. A hatred thought is a hatred magnet and the longer we + harbor it, the more steadily we contemplate it, focus our minds + upon it, the larger and more powerful the hatred magnet becomes. + + +In the early days of the great European war a Jewish soldier, in the +first line of a Russian battalion, engaged in a man to man fight with an +Austrian in the opposing battalion. In their desperate encounter the +Russian Jew drove his bayonet through the breast of his opponent. As the +latter, an Austrian Jew, fell mortally wounded, with his dying breath +he gasped the Hebrew prayer, which begins, "Hear, O Israel." The +Russian, realizing that he had killed a brother Jew, overcome with +horror, fell fainting on the battlefield. When he regained consciousness +he was a raving lunatic. + +When will men realize that we are all brothers; that we are all members +of the same great human family, children of the same great +Father-Mother-God. When will we see that though oceans and continents +divide us, though we may speak different tongues, may differ in race, +color and creed, yet we are so closely related in thought and motive +that our deepest, most vital interests are identical. + +Time and again despite all outward differences has that invisible bond +of union which binds mankind into one great family manifested itself +even on the battlefield. There men who have sabered or shot at and +wounded each other have become fast friends and learned to feel their +brotherhood. Many and many a time has it happened that soldiers who had +been bitter enemies in battle and had tried in every way to kill each +other, have found while convalescing side by side that they were really +one in sympathy and feeling, brothers at heart and did not know it. If +these men had known and seen into one another's soul before the battle +as they had afterwards in the hospital they never could have been +induced to fire at or to try to injure one another. + +In spite of our failures, our blunders, our crimes, the nations are +coming closer and closer together. Scientific discoveries, marvelous +inventions, the extended use of steam and electricity, the conquest of +the air, all these are fast welding the interests of mankind and +bringing into close and intimate relation the most distant countries of +the globe. The Occident and the Orient are no longer at the ends of the +earth. They are beginning to know and to respect each other, and to +learn each from the other. They are beginning to realize in its largest +sense the truth of Kipling's utterance: + + "But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, + When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends + of the earth." + +Scientists are piling up proof after proof of the unity, not only of +mankind, but of everything in the universe, of the oneness of all life. +They are demonstrating that there is but one substance, one eternal +force or essence in the universe, and that all we see is but a varying +expression of it. Everything about us is merely a modification, a change +of form of this universal substance, just as electricity is a +manifestation of force in various forms--in its unchained power in +rending giant trees and destroying huge buildings, and as harnessed by +man in moving trains, in lighting our homes, in furnishing heat for +cooking and in many other domestic and industrial devices. + +The lesson of lessons for us to learn from this is our inseparable union +with the Creator of life, that everlasting, eternal unity of spirit, +that oneness with the Father which Christ came to teach. + +"I and the Father are one." "I am the vine, ye are the branches." We are +as closely united one to the other, and all to the Father as are the +branches to the parent stem. When we are conscious of our union, of our +co-partnership with the Infinite, we feel an added power, just as the +branch feels the force of the life currents flowing into it from the +vine. Severed from the parent stem the same branch would not feel so +confident. It would soon find that of itself it could do nothing; and in +a short time it would wither and die. + +The moment we pluck a flower from its stem it begins to wilt and fade +because it is separated from the source of its life. Cut off from the +great chemical laboratory of Nature, from the creative, miracle-working +energy of the sun, the soil, and the atmosphere, it dies within a few +hours. + +The moment we are cut off from our Divine Source we begin to wither, +shrivel and die. As long as we remain separate nothing can stop this +fatal blighting process. When we are not fed from our Source we are like +the branch severed from the parent vine, like the flower plucked from +its mother stem. + +My experience has shown that people who, from different causes, feel cut +off from connection with the Divine Source of things suffer intensely +from fear. They are filled with a vague, but overmastering terror which +presses upon them with greater force because it is unseen, unknown. They +dimly feel that like meteors in the sky which have passed beyond the +controlling gravity governing the other heavenly bodies, they are +separate, unrelated human atoms without assurance that they are under a +protective, guiding, sustaining power. + +Victims of extreme nervous diseases are often overwhelmed with a sense +of utter isolation, of being cut off from every sustaining force, and +they are terror stricken, just as a child who has lost its way, and +knows not where to turn. Temporarily, and in a lesser degree, people who +are terrified in a thunder storm and rush to a cellar, anywhere to hide +themselves from threatened danger, suffer from this feeling of +separation, of aloneness. + +All who are affected in this way would be greatly benefited by dwelling +on such Biblical passages as, "In Him we live and move and have our +being," "The Father in me and I in the Father." These are strictly +scientific truths. We could not live or move or have any being apart +from the Power that made us, that sustains and supports us, and the +consciousness of this gives a steadying, buttressing sense of security +and safety that nothing else can. + +Our individual strength comes from our conscious oneness with +Omnipotence, just as our national or corporate strength is derived from +union with one another. Each human being is like a drop of water in the +ocean. He is not independent. He cannot work alone. Consciously or +unconsciously he is a part of the masses all around him. He is touched +by other water drops on every side, and his existence, his success is +largely dependent upon his union with the others. Even if a drop of the +ocean could separate itself from the mass and should try to live its own +life in its own way it would soon cease to exist as a drop. A man cannot +accomplish much alone. His success depends on his union with other men. +His dignity and strength are reënforced by the organization or +association of which he is a unit, as a cable is reënforced by the sum +of the strength of its separate wires. + +"Nature," says Humboldt, "is Unity in diversity of manifestation, one +stupendous whole, animated by the breath of life." When we come into +conscious realization of the truth that we are a part, the most +important part, of the stupendous whole created by God, and that we are +working in coöperation with Him, we will come into possession of a power +and dignity which will make our lives sublime. + +The greatest minds of all ages have drawn their strength from the +invisible Source, from their vital connection with the Power which +creates, and works through every one of us. They have also believed in +the great mission of the race; believed in a divine plan running through +the universe which works for righteousness, and shapes the destiny of +the race. This faith in the Godward movement of the great human current +has characterized even those who did not openly profess any religious +faith. Their belief in the divinity of humanity has been a strong factor +in their character, and the root source of their power. + +This same faith, this unquestioned confidence in the divine cosmic +Intelligence, has given more comfort, has brought more peace of mind, +and happiness to vast multitudes of human beings than any other thing. +Indeed it is the only thing that can bring us true peace, enduring +happiness. + +There is something beside brain force needed to make a man a real +constructive power in the world, and that is his divine connection, his +being in the current which runs Godward. + +Without this essential, notwithstanding all that the mind and the body +can do for us, we feel a void in our being, a great lack, a longing, a +yearning for something, we know not what. Without this, even though we +have the most complete physical and mental equipment, we are like a new +electric car, ready for service, thoroughly equipped in every detail, +except the trolley pole, which makes the connection with the electric +current. Completion, satisfaction, divine energy can only come from +attuning ourselves to something beyond the physical and the mental +plane. We must put up our trolley pole and tap the infinite Source of +Power or else we are, so far as true progress is concerned, in the +position of the car that is not connected with the motor force that +alone gives it power to move forward. We must tap the divine current +running Godward through contemplation, through prayer, through noble +deeds, unselfish service, honest endeavor to live up to our best. We can +not make connection with Divine Power through any selfish cause, any +greedy deed. + +It is a strange thing that human beings will take the chances of cutting +themselves off from this mighty current which runs truthward, +justiceward, and Godward, and try to make a substitute of their own puny +strength. + +Yet every time we consciously do wrong, every time we depart from the +truth, every time we commit a dishonest, unworthy act, do a mean, +contemptible thing, we separate ourselves from this current and lessen +the omnipotent grip upon us. We break our connection and become a prey +to all sorts of fears and doubts. + +Some one has truly said that "when a man has committed an evil act he +has attached himself to sorrow." Because of the unity of all life, he +has established relationship between himself and the whole human current +of vicious influences; he has made connection with all the forces in the +universe that conspire to drag him down, to draw him still further away +from the Creator and Inspirer of all good. + +The converse is equally true. Let a man do a good deed, commit himself +to a noble work, and all the creative, uplifting forces will rush to his +aid. He will be reënforced by the added power of all others working in +the same spirit, on the same plane. + +All good things vibrate in unison; they belong to the same family. So +all bad things vibrate in unison, and belong to one family. Attract one +of them and you attract all the others because they are on the same +plane. + +A discouraged, despondent mood, for example, makes connection with the +whole discouraged and despondent family, the whole failure army, and +when we make this connection our entire being is adjusted to the gloomy, +discouraged vibration. If we harbor the poverty thought, the fear of +coming to want we unite ourselves with all the poverty vibrations in the +universe, and whatever has an affinity with poverty rushes toward us +through the current we have established. + +On the self same principle, let one think cheerful, optimistic thoughts, +let him make connections with the current of opulence, of the generous, +overflowing abundance supply of the Creator and he allies himself with +all the helpful, productive, creative forces in existence. + +At one time it was thought that we could get no knowledge or +impressions excepting through the five senses, but we know now that +there are many other avenues by which we communicate with one another. +There is a mental, a spiritual communication which is more intimate, +more real than any we can make by physical contact or expression. We can +sit beside those who are in sympathy with us for hours without touching +them, without a word being spoken, without a look, and yet enjoy the +sweetest and most delightful converse. We are conscious that our minds +are intercommunicating in a deeper, more subtle, satisfying manner than +is possible by means of physical contact or through the senses. + +In fact, there are many occasions in life so sacred that we feel mere +words would profane, distress, disturb rather than help or comfort. We +are aware that they are too coarse to convey the finest sentiments, that +they are too bungling, too awkward to carry the expressions of sympathy, +of love back and forth from soul to soul that are in tune with each +other. + +The message of love teaches that the "love of life is a single heart +beating through God, and you and me." "One life runs through all +creation's veins." + +The mind sees beauties which the physical eye never beholds. The mental +ear hears harmonies, melodies which the auditory nerve is too gross to +perceive. The soul through its closer union with God receives +perceptions which even the mind cannot comprehend. + +By means of this divine connection through the Great Within of ourselves +we can accumulate power that will revolutionize our lives. Right here in +our own being we can loose streams of energy infinitely more potent than +any physical power. + +We know that the great cosmic ether everywhere about us is filled with +divine vibrations, charged with spiritual force, and omniscient +intelligence which are always waiting to flood our minds when we make +the right connections and are ready to receive them. + +This cosmic ether or universal substance is the source of all supply, as +well as of that divine power, which most people shut out of their lives +because they do not know how to unite themselves with it. They +resolutely shut their minds to the divine inflow by refusing to believe +in anything that is not demonstrable through the senses. + +Most of us are very skeptical of the reality of the unseen. We are +doubting Thomases, who can be convinced only by the material, by that +which we can see or feel. + +If children could only be trained in a different atmosphere; if they +could be made at the start to reach out mentally into the unseen +realities and utilize them for their own purposes, just as we mold and +fashion material things, there would be comparatively few failures in +life. + +It was intended that man should live in perpetual contact with the Power +that created him, that would keep him in tune with all that is healthful +and good and pure and true, but, unfortunately, we are constantly losing +our connection and thus making ourselves impotent, weak, when we might +be potent, strong, creative. To live in wireless communication with the +divine current that runs through all creation is to be in touch with +Divinity indeed, is to be divinely successful. + +No power outside of ourselves can cut us off from communication with +this current. Even the worst criminals, those who have been cut off from +human society may still be one with their Source if they choose. The +Creator has not cut them off, has not discarded them. They have broken +the connection themselves. The Creator would not blast with a +thunderbolt, would not crush with his wrath the most profane wretch that +ever lived, even though he should curse Him for creating him. The great +love of the Father would still sustain him, keep him alive, feed him, +permit the same beautiful sun to shine upon him as upon the greatest +saint. All the blessings of nature would still be there for his +enjoyment, would be given as freely to him as to the most devoted +worshiper. + +If we could only grasp this superb truth, our oneness with the great +creative principle of the universe it would transform the race. It would +banish fear. It would bring peace and harmony into our lives. It would +give us a sense of security and satisfaction and happiness such as we +never before knew. Until we realize our unity with God and one another +we can never grow to our full stature; we can never utilize the manifold +powers at our command. + +Nor shall we ever reach that glorified manhood which matches the +Creator's pattern of the possible man until it is ingrained into every +child's nature that he was not only created by his Father-Mother-God, +but that he is forever after vitally connected with Him, that He is +nearer to him than his own hands and feet, closer than his own +heartbeat. This oneness of the child with his Maker is the principle +which must ultimately mold the race into perfect beings. + + +THE END + + + * * * * * + + + + +THE MARDEN INSPIRATIONAL BOOKS + + + Be Good to Yourself + Every Man a King + Exceptional Employee + Getting On + He Can Who Thinks He Can + How to Get What You Want + Joys of Living + Keeping Fit + Love's Way + Making Life a Masterpiece + Miracle of Right Thought + Optimistic Life + Peace, Power, and Plenty + Progressive Business Man + Pushing to the Front + Rising in the World + Secret of Achievement + Self-Investment + Selling Things + Training for Efficiency + Victorious Attitude + Woman and the Home + Young Man Entering Business + +SUCCESS BOOKLETS + + An Iron Will Ambition Cheerfulness + Good Manners Do it to a Finish Character + Economy Opportunity Thrift + Power of Personality + +SPECIAL BOOKS AND BOOKLETS + + Hints for Young Writers I Had a Friend + Success Nuggets Why Grow Old? + Not the Salary but the Opportunity + +_Send for Publishers' Special Circular of these Great Books_ + + + + +Letters to Dr. Marden concerning + +Pushing to the Front + + + =What President McKinley Said= + + "It cannot but be an inspiration to every boy or girl who reads it, + and who is possessed of an honorable and high ambition. Nothing + that I have seen of late is more worthy to be placed in the hands + of the American youth." + WILLIAM MCKINLEY. + + =An English View= + + "I have read 'Pushing to the Front' with much interest. It would be + a great stimulus to any young man entering life." SIR JOHN LUBBOCK. + + =A Powerful Factor= + + "This book has been a powerful factor in making a great change in my + life. I feel that I have been born into a new world." + ROBERT S. LIVINGSTON, _Deweyville, Tex._ + + =The Helpfulest Book= + + "'Pushing to the Front' is more of a marvel to me every day. I read + it almost daily. It is the helpfulest book in the English language." + MYRON T. PRITCHARD, _Boston, Mass._ + + =A Practical Gift= + + "It has been widely read by our organization of some fifteen hundred + men. I have personally made presents of more than one hundred + copies." + E. A. EVANS, _President Chicago Portrait Co._ + + =Its Weight in Gold= + + "If every young man could read it carefully at the beginning of his + career it would be worth more to him than its weight in gold." + R. T. ALLEN, _Billings, Mon._ + +THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY + + + + +PRESS REVIEWS OF + +The Optimistic Life + + + =Holds the Attention= + + "The title of this book attracts the attention, and the contents + rivet it." + _The Watchman._ + + =Rich in Thought and Suggestion= + + "A book rich in noble thought. Few are those who will not wince + under the good-natured thrusts that Dr. Marden gives their foibles + and weaknesses, but few also are they who may not find much helpful + suggestion here." + _San Francisco Chronicle._ + + =Strengthens Spirit and Body= + + "Dr. Marden has done an immense amount of good by this practical + advice and encouraging insistence upon the essentials of happiness. + The spirit of the toiler needs strengthening quite as much as his + body." + _Christian Advocate._ + + =Its Wholesome Brain Fare= + + "This volume contains quantities of plain, wholesome brain fare for + the misanthrope and the cynic." + _Des Moines Register._ + + =Both Uplifting and Necessary= + + "'Do not look on life through smoked glasses' is Dr. Marden's motto. + He believes so enthusiastically in cheerfulness, energy, and + kindness that he can almost persuade one to believe there is no + necessity for old age, sorrow, or discouragement. Still there is no + doubt but his message is not only uplifting but necessary." + _Indianapolis News._ + +THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY + + + + +OPINIONS OF THE + +Progressive Business Man + + + =Sound, Practical Suggestions= + + "Contains a lot of sound, practical suggestions worth considering + by those responsible for the conduct of business enterprises." + _New York Times._ + + =Good Business Advice= + + "One of the best books of business advice ever published." + _Albany Argus._ + + =Worthy of High Commendation= + + "A book that contains such valuable information--and there is no + doubt about this being the quality of its contents--ought to be + widely read and highly prized. It is worthy of high commendation." + _Religious Telescope._ + + =An Inspiration and a Guide= + + "A work that should be in the hands of every business man who + desires to promote the welfare of his business. It will prove both + an inspiration and a guide." + _Christian Work and Evangelist._ + + =Valuable Information= + + "The information in this book is so valuable that it ought to have + the widest possible reading. We unhesitatingly commend it to every + business man." + _Trojan Messenger._ + + =Sane and Helpful= + + "Like all the Marden books, it contains a sane and helpful + philosophy of right conduct." + _Des Moines Capital._ + +THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Victorious Attitude, by Orison Swett Marden + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41901 *** |