Being “The Law of Increase”
As Used by the Prophets of Old.
Here is a secret of riches and success that has been buried 1,900 years deep. Since time began, mankind has been searching for this secret. It has been found and lost again . . a score of times. The Ancients of all races have had some inkling of it, as is proven by the folk tales and legends that have come down to us, like the story of Aladdin and his wonderful lamp, or Ali Baba and his “Open Sesame” to the treasure trove.
Every nation has such legends. Every nation has had its Wise Men, its men of genius and vision who glimpsed the truth that is buried in these old folk tales and who understood at least something of how it works.
But it remained for Jesus to rediscover this secret in its entirety and then to show us clearly, step by step, how we might use it to bring us anything of good we might desire.
For make no mistake about this: The miracles of Jesus were not something super-natural that could be performed only by Him, else how could He have picked seventy disciples . . ordinary men, uneducated, untaught, fishermen, farmers, tax-gatherers and the like and sent them out two by two to perform miracles and wonders second only to His own, so that they returned to Him with joy, saying, “Lord, even the devils are subject to us through Thy name.” How could He have assured us “The thing that I do shall ye do also, and greater things than these shall ye do.”?
The miracles of Jesus were divinely NATURAL. Instead of being departures from natural law, they were demonstrations of what the law will do for you if you understand how to use it! God does not deal in exceptions. As St. Augustine put it “Miracles are not contrary to Nature, but only contrary to what we know about, Nature. ”
Every force in Nature works along definite, logical lines, in accord with certain principles. These forces will work for anyone who possesses the key to their use, just as Aladdin’s fabled Genie would respond to the call of anyone who rubbed the magic lamp.
They can be neglected and allowed to lie idle, they can be used for good or evil, but the laws themselves do not change. It is merely the methods of using them that change. An airplane or an automobile would have seemed as great a miracle to the people of Jesus’ day as the curing of a leper. Sending sound waves through the ether, to be picked up by a little box called a radio, would have been as wonderful to our fathers as is the sending of our voice over a beam of light to us today. Yet there is nothing super-natural about either of these.
The forces of Nature have always been there, ready for our use. It is our understanding of them that has changed, our knowledge of how to USE them.
Man in ancient times looked upon the lightning as the wrath of God, just as many deeply religious people look upon poverty and sickness and calamities today in the same way, as visitations of God. Yet man has learned to harness the lightning and make it serve him. The laws governing electricity were there all the time, waiting only for the understanding of someone wise enough to show us how to put them to good use. Just so the power to BE and HAVE what you want is right here, needing only for you to learn how it works.
Nineteen hundred years ago, there came to this earth a Son of Man who proclaimed that His mission was “That ye might have LIFE, and have it more ABUNDANTLY. ”
NOT, mind you, that you might learn how to die, thus reach Heaven and a life of comfort, but that you might have LIFE here and now. Over and over again He told us “What things soever ye desire ye shall have them.” And lest you might think that this referred to some future state, He assured us “If two of you shall agree ON EARTH as touching anything they shall ask, it shall be done for them.”
Furthermore, He gave exact instructions as to how to go about getting the things you desire. When you want more of the good things of life, when happiness or success or riches seem to elude you, there is a definite formula for you to use. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven,” Jesus directed, “and all these things shall be added unto you.”
“Ah ha!” you say. “There it is. You do have to die and go to Heaven in order to get the good you want.” But Jesus must have anticipated that you might think just that, for He pointed out specifically that the Kingdom of Heaven is not afar off, in the clouds or in the next world. “The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not with observation,” He said. “Neither shall they say ‘Lo here, lo there!’ For behold, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you. ”
The Money Bible
Excerpt From
