Chapter 4

Think of yourself as possessed of all these qualities before you picture financial independence.

For without love for your kind, without the desire for usefulness and the spiritual insight and the wisdom to be just before being generous, your money would bring you only temporary pleasure, and would do the world no good.

Neither should you labor under the impression that God's work is lying undone because you have no fortune to command and wisely distribute where most needed. Rest assured if you do the work which lies nearest to you, relieve such distress as is possible to you, and keep your faith in the ultimate justice of God's ways, that the world will move on, and humanity will slowly attain its destined goal, even if you never become a millionaire.

Self Conquest

Every New Idea, or supposed New Idea, is a light which attracts the moths.

The "New Thought" is no exception.

About it flutter hysterical women, unbalanced men: the erratic and the irresponsible.

The possibilities of performing miracles, of healing the sick, hypnotizing the well, transforming poverty into wealth, and changing age to youth, are the rays of light which flicker through the darkness and draw them into the circle of radiance.

The self-indulgent fat woman subscribes to New Thought literature, pays for a course of lectures, and goes forth into the ranks of the unbelievers, proclaiming her power to become a sylph, and to cause others to become sylphs.

The extravagant and inconsiderate rush forth after having heard a discourse upon the power of mind over matter, and declare that they possess the secret of accumulating a fortune by occult means.

The lovers of the marvelous believe that they will become great healers in a brief space of time.

Not one of these moth converts realizes that the very first step to take in the direction of "New Thought" is self-conquest.

The gourmand does not know that self-indulgence and a gross appetite are incompatible with mental or spiritual growth, and will be insurmountable obstacles in her path toward symmetry.

The spendthrift does not take into consideration the fact that good sense, thrift and industry, must aid his mental assertion of wealth, and the miracle lover does not understand that something greater and more difficult is required than a mere wish to heal before healing powers can be obtained.

That the physical body and material conditions can be dominated by the divine spirit in man, is an incontrovertible fact.

But first, last and always, the lesser self must be subjugated, and the weak and unworthy qualities overcome.

The woman who desires to reduce her flesh cannot do so by reading occult literature, or joining mystic circles, or attending lectures, unless she permeates herself so thoroughly with spiritual truths that she no longer craves six courses at dinner, and three meals a day, and unless she overcomes her dislike for exercise.

The man who wishes to control circumstances must love better things than money before he can succeed. He must love, and respect, and believe in his Creator, and trust the Divine Man within himself, and he must illustrate this love and trust by his daily conduct, and in his home circle, and in his business relations.

Once in a century, perhaps, is a man born with great powers already developed to heal the sick, or to do other seeming miracles. Such beings are old souls, who have obtained diplomas in former lives; but the majority of us are still in school, and we cannot become "seniors" until we pass through the lower grades.

We must change ourselves before we can change material conditions: we must heal our own thoughts and make them sane and normal, before we can heal bodily disease in others.

It is not an immediate process. I have heard an old lady declare that she "got religion" in the twinkling of an eye, and she believed all people would be damned and burn in hell fire, who did not pass through this sudden illumination.

It is possible that the religion which can worship a God cruel enough to burn his children in fire, can only be obtained in the twinkling of an eye; but the reverent, wholesome, and beautiful religion of "New Thought" must be grown into little by little, through patience, faith, and practice.

All that it claims to do it can do, but not instantaneously, not rapidly. We must first make ourselves over; after absolute control of our minds has been obtained, then, and only then, may we hope to influence circumstances and health.

The Important Trifles

You will find, in the effort to reach a higher spirituality in your daily life, that the small things try your patience and your strength more than the greater ones.

Home life, like business life, is composed of an accumulation of trifles.

There are people who bear great sorrows with resignation, and seem to gain a certain dignity and force of character through trouble, but who are utterly vanquished by trivial annoyances.

The old-fashioned orthodox "Christian" was frequently of this order.

Death, poverty, and misfortune he bore without complaining, and became ofttimes a more agreeable companion in times of deepest sorrow.

He regarded all such experiences as the will of God, and bowed to them.

Yet, if his dinner was late, his coffee below the standard, if his eye-glasses were misplaced, or his toe trodden upon, he become a raging lion, and his roar drove his affrighted household into dark corners.

There have been neighborhood Angels, who watched beside the dying sinner, sustained orphans and widows, and endured great troubles sublimely like martyrs. But if a dusty shoe trod upon a freshly washed floor, or husband or child came tardily to the breakfast-table, or lingered outside the door after regulation hour for retiring--lo, the Angel became a virago, or a droning mosquito with persistent sting.

The New Philosophy demands serenity and patience through small trials, as well as fortitude in meeting life's larger ills.

It demands, too, that we seek to avoid giving others unnecessary irritation by a thoughtless disregard of the importance of trifles.

A man is more likely to keep calm if he wakes in the night and discovers that the house is on fire, than he is if, on being fully prepared to retire, he finds the only mug on the third story is missing from his wash-stand, or the cake of toilet-soap he asked for the day before has been forgotten.

A mother bears the affliction of a crippled child with more equanimity than she is able to bring to bear upon the continual thoughtlessness of a strong one.

To be kind, means to be thoughtful.

The kindest and most loving heart will sometimes forget and be careless; but it cannot be perpetually forgetful and careless of another's wishes and needs, even in the merest trifles.

Concentration

The New Thought includes _concentration of thought_, in its teaching; and he who learns that important art is not liable to frequently forget small or large duties.

It is he who scatters, instead of concentrates his mind powers, who keeps himself and others in a state of continual irritation by forgetting, mislaying, and losing, three petty vices which do much to mar domestic or business life.

Concentration is a most difficult acquirement for the mature mind which has been allowed to grow in the habit of thought scattering.

Wise is the mother, and as sure as wise, who teaches her child to finish each task begun before attempting another, for that is the first step in concentration.

Prentice Mulford, that great and good pioneer in the field of practical New Thought, tells us to apply our whole mental powers to whatever we do, even if it is merely the tying of a shoe, and to think of nothing else until that shoe is tied, then to utterly forget the shoe string, when we turn to another duty or employment. The next lesson in concentration he gives us, is to repeat the word often, to impress it upon the mind.

And then to declare each day that "Concentration is mine" will aid still farther in the acquisition of this great and important quality.

Meanwhile, since we can be so fortunate as to always surround ourselves with others who have acquired it, the student of the Higher Philosophy must learn to be serene and self-poised when he encounters life's pigmy worries.

He must carry his religion into his bedroom and his office, and not forget it utterly when he loses his collar-button, or misses his car, or finds his office boy has taken a parcel to the wrong address.

To build character necessitates a constant watch upon ourselves. The New Thought is not a religion of Sundays, but of every day.

Destiny

Never say that you wish your situation were different! Never wish you had some other person's life or troubles or worries.

Accept your own as a _working basis_, the best for you.

Then go ahead and _change whatever_ displeases you.

Remember you are the maker and moulder of your own destiny. You do not recall the fact, but you brought about the present conditions of your destiny in former incarnations.

Even if you do not believe this, you must acknowledge that _you are here_, and that the situation in which you find yourself seems to be inevitable for the present.

But it is not inevitable for the future, unless you lie down in the furrow and whine, and wish you were a millionaire, or a genius, and rail at the partiality of Providence.

There is no partiality in the Universe.

The whole scheme is well balanced. If you were allowed to change lots with anyone on the face of the earth, you would complain and find fault in a short time.

One of our best known millionaires, born to opulence, complains that he has been robbed of the privilege of making his own fortune.

He is no happier than you. His confession betrays his weakness of character just as your repining and fault-finding betrays yours.

The real worth-while character thanks God for its destiny and says, "I will show the world what I can do with my life."

Not long ago there was a great trotting-race at Brighton Beach. The blind conqueror "Rythmic" won five consecutive races.

Think of it! He did not, like a mortal man, shrink back and say "I am blind--that is a terrible destiny--I am cursed of God--I will not try to win the race." He just trusted the hand of the _Master at the reins_, did his best, and won the honors of the season.

We are all blind racers on the track of earth. The king, the millionaire, the statesman, the lawmaker, the beggar, the laborer, the cripple, we are all in the dark. The only thing is to trust the hand of the Master, and _do our best_.

Believe your position is the right starting point for _you_, merely the starting point.

It is the shapeless block of stone from which you are to fashion the perfect statue.

Or it is the mere mud from which you are to mould the clay image, and later that is to be put into enduring marble.

What is uglier or more unattractive than mud?

Yet think of the glorious conceptions which it imprisons.

Take the mud of your present environment and thank God for it, and make the image of the future you desire.

You can do it--you must do it--you will do it.

Sympathy

Are you of a sympathetic nature?

If so, do not let your sympathies help to add to the world's miseries.

That may seem a strange expression, but it can be explained if you will listen.

Much of the misery in the world is the result of imagination.

All of it is the result of selfishness and ignorance.

But hundreds and thousands of people believe themselves sick, sorrowful and poverty stricken, who would be well, glad and prosperous, if they only thought themselves so.

Every time you pour out your sympathy upon these self-made sufferers, you add to their burden of wrong thought, and make it just so much more difficult for them to rise out of their troubles.

I do not believe all the misfortune in the world is caused by wrong thinking in this life, or can be done away with by right thinking. The three-year-old child who toddles in front of a trolley car and loses a leg, while the tired mother is bending over the washtub to keep the wolf of hunger at bay, cannot be blamed for wrong thinking as the cause of its trouble. Neither can the deaf mute or the child born blind or deformed. We must go farther back, to former lives, to find the first cause of such misfortunes.

No "New Thought," no amount of optimistic theology or philosophy can restore the child's leg, or ears, or eyes. It is utter nonsense to say that miracles like these can be performed.

There are scores of individuals whom we meet handicapped in life's race by such dire calamities that we spontaneously pour forth our sympathy.

But, even to these, it were kinder and wiser to give diverting thoughts, and a new outlook, and to open up avenues for pleasure, and entertainment, and profit, in place of tears and condolence.

Sympathy, without alleviating actions to a sufferer, is like a cloud without rain to the parched earth.

But the great majority of people whom we encounter are making their own crosses, and we who offer them sympathy, and condolence, are but adding to the burden's weight.

I do not recommend coldness, indifference, or ridicule as a substitute for sympathy. But instead of leading the sick man on to tell you the details of his illness, and to describe all his symptoms, while your own body responds with sympathetic aches and pains as you listen, it is kinder to divert his attention to some cheerful and merry topic, or to refer to some case like his own which resulted in perfect restoration to health. Instead of going down into his underground cave of depression, bring him out into the wholesome sunlight of your own healthful state, even if for a moment only, and impress upon his mind that health belongs to him, and must return to him.

To the man in business trouble the same advice applies.

Tell him you are sorry for him, but do not take on his despondency to prove it.

Talk of the future and all the possibilities it holds for a determined man or woman.

Make him laugh. Speak of trouble as the gymnasium where our moral muscles are developed. Answer him that everything he desires is his if he will be persistent and determined in demanding his own. If you put force in your words you will leave an impression.

Do not go away from the house of trouble in tears, but leave the troubled ones you called upon smiling as you depart.

That is true sympathy.

The Breath

A man reproved me for my interest in New Thought creeds.

"The old religion I learned at my mother's knee is good enough for me!" he said. "It is good enough for anybody!"

Yet this man's mother had always "enjoyed poor health," as the old lady expressed it, and the man himself was forever talking of his diseases, his ill luck, his poverty, which he said he had been enabled to endure only through the sustaining power of the religion "learned at his mother's knee."

It would be difficult to convince the man that had his mother taught him the creed of the "New Religion" he could have changed all these unfortunate conditions.

Life-long ill health would have been impossible for his mother, or for him.

The old fashioned religion allowed and still allows a human being to breathe like a canary bird.

Little children go to Sunday-School all their young lives, and grow up to be devout church members, and never hear one word about the importance of _deep breathing_.

Possibly you may think breathing lessons belong to physical culture, and have no place in religious teachings.

There is where you err.

In order to develop your whole being, you must learn how to control body and mind through the spirit.

Thousands of years ago, men who gave their entire lives to the study of these things learned the great importance of deep breathing as an aid to religious meditation.

By this practice, systematically observed, the body is calmed, the mind is brought into subjection, and the spirit rises into control.

And in addition, absolute health is achieved.

A large portion of our physical ailments result from unused lung cells, and consequent imperfect circulation of the blood.

Fill the lungs full--every cell--with fresh air, two or three times daily, and do not overload the digestive organs, and sickness will fly away to the dark regions where it belongs.

At least ten minutes morning and night should be given to the breathing exercises.

Sit upright in a comfortable chair, alone, facing the east in the morning and the west at night, because great magnetic force comes from the direction of the sun.

Have a window or a door opening to the outer air.

Place your hands lightly on your knees, and close your eyes and mouth. Leave your spine free, not touching the chair. Wear no compressing garments or bands.

Inflate the chest and abdominal regions as you inhale deep breaths through the nostrils, while counting seven slowly.

Exhale while you count seven. Repeat this exercise seven times.

Think as you inhale of whatever qualities you would like to possess, and believe that you are inhaling them. Select seven qualities--Love, Health, Wisdom, Usefulness, Power to Do Good, Success, Opulence--will cover the average human desires. The very unworldly will substitute spiritual knowledge for opulence. Fill your mind with the idea that you are drawing in these qualities with your breaths, and exhaling all that is weak or unworthy. After a few moments you will be conscious of a security and peace new and uplifting.

And after a few weeks of steady, persistent practice of these exercises, you will find life growing more beautiful to you, and your strength will be increased tenfold, both physically and spiritually.

Generosity

Have you ever observed how invariably your "last dollar" is restored to you, with additions, when you have given it for some worthy purpose?

Even if the purpose did not prove to be a worthy one, yet if you thought it so, and gave your last dollar with spontaneous sympathy and good will, you were not long left penniless.

Money is much like a man. If you do not hold it too jealously it returns to you the more readily.

Never hesitate to give aid where you feel there is sore and pressing need, for fear you will be left in want yourself. You will not be.

This does not mean that indiscriminate charity is commendable. It does not mean that you should lend money to everyone who asks, or lift and carry the burdens of everyone who is ready to lean upon you.

It is as wrong to encourage the man addicted to the vice of borrowing, as the one with the vice of alcohol or drugs.

One depends upon his acquaintances to tide him over hard places, instead of upon his own strength of character, and the other depends upon stimulants for the same purpose. The too ready lender is almost as great an evil to humanity as rum or opium, since he too helps a man to kill his own better nature and destroy his self-respect.

If you were able and willing to pay rents of all the poor people you know, and clothe their children, you would soon produce a condition of settled pauperism among them. Large and frequent favors of a financial nature are an injury to anyone, even if it is your son or brother.

Let no man lean on anyone save God and his own divine self.

But little helps, when they are unexpected, arouse hope and awaken new faith and new ambition in a discouraged soul.

Look about you for such souls, the worn and weary father of a brood of hungry children, the widow struggling with adverse fate in an effort to clothe and educate a child, the tired shop girl who uses all her earnings to sustain her parents, the ambitious boy or girl eager for a chance in life, and the poor cripple or invalid seeking health. You will find them all about you. Do not be afraid to use a dollar here or there to give these worthy ones a happy surprise, no matter how poor you are.

It is an insult to the Opulent Creator to suppose you will suffer want and poverty if you help those who are in temporary misfortune.

You will not.

Ofttimes we read and hear of the open-handed generous man who "helped everybody," and who "never refused to aid a needy brother," and who ended his life in penury because of his generosity.

Never believe these tales until you investigate them. Invariably you will find not generosity but extravagance and utter lack of forethought, caused the man's financial ruin.

I recall a gifted young woman who gave freely to all who asked her assistance and who died a lingering death as a charity patient in a hospital.

Yet this young woman had expended ten dollars on foolish and rapid living where she gave one in charity; it was her wasteful extravagance, not her open heart of sympathy, which made her a pauper.

It has been my observation that dollars planted in the soil of benevolence grow into harvests of prosperity. The man who is not afraid to use his small means to assist others need not fear poverty.

Woman's Opportunity

The greatest opportunity to better the world which can come to any woman is through the experience of maternity.

The power of prenatal influence which a mother possesses is awe-inspiring to realize.

It has been said upon excellent authority that Napoleon's mother read Roman history with absorbing interest during the months preceding his birth.

Think of the nations and the centuries influenced by that one woman's mental concentration! The geography of the world was changed by her power of focused thought.

In all probability Napoleon's mother did not know what she was doing; she was not conscious of the destiny her mind was shaping for her unborn child, nor of the law governing such conditions.

Women have been strangely ignorant of this vital truth; until recent years it has not been considered a "proper" theme for tongue or pen, and to-day the great majority of young women marry absolutely uninformed upon the subject of prenatal influence.

Men are equally oblivious of any knowledge regarding the matter, and consequently make no special effort to keep the expectant mother of their offspring happy, hopeful, or free of anxiety and worry during this period. Often they do not strive to aid them in their own attempts to bestow a desirable temperament upon the unborn child, but heedlessly and needlessly aggravate or grieve the mind which is stamping its impress upon an unborn soul.

It is just here that the "New Thought" can perform its greatest miracles of good.

Even the woman who has not been enlightened upon the law of ante-birth-influence will, if a true disciple of the Religion of Right-living, bring healthy and helpful children into the world, because her normal state of mind will be inclusive of those three qualities; and her continued and repeated assertions of her own divine nature will shape the brain of her child in optimistic and reverential mould.

There is the old law of the continual falling of the drop of water upon the stone to be verified in the spiritual plane. Continual assertions of a mother that her child will be all that she desires it to be, will wear away the stone of inherited tendencies, and bring into physical being a malleable nature wholly amenable to the after influences and efforts she may bring to bear upon it.

It is a tremendous responsibility which rests upon the woman who knows she is to be a mother of a human being.

A hundred ancestors may have contributed certain qualities to that invisible and formless atom which contains an immortal soul, yet the mother's mind has the power to remake and rebuild all those characteristics, and to place over them her own dominating impulse, whether for good or ill.

Surely, if success in the arts or the sciences is worthy of years of devoted attention and interested effort, the moulding of a noble human being is worth eight or nine months of concentrated thought and unflagging zeal of purpose.