From The Nautilus Magazine of New Thought, Volume 17, Issue 12
THE FORCE OP FAITH.
THERE there is no vision the * * people perish.” This was the psalmist’s way of saying that so far as the most desirable things are concerned the people remain, or become, static, stagnant, without adequate living, because they make no thought patterns or do not hold their matrix long enough in place for the Universal Substance, guided by Universal Intelligence, to fill it in and bring it into completed form.
Of course no one would make or hold a thought pattern if he did not believe that through some means this pattern would result in bringing into form his heart’s desire. Every one who has a heart’s desire, and very few have not, trust, or at least very strongly hope, in something or some one to bring it into fulfillment. The Old Thought taught that success forces were “pull,” competition, clever scheming—by no means always honest but regarded as “hard- headed business sense ’ ’—application which was often ruinous to recreation, health and all home enjoyment.
Like produces like. It is an axiom that one must have success if he works with the forces that produce it. It is equally true that he must have the quality of success, and that quality only, which the forces he employs will secure. Men no more insure genuine, dyed-in-the-wool success, through whose warp there runs the glinting threads of happiness, uplift, joy, from Old Thought methods than they gather grapes from thorns. It is as true of forces as of men that “by their fruits ye shall know them.”
Anything which “pull” gives a man it can push away from him, anything which is won by competition may be lost by a superior competitor. Anything gained at the expense of health and happiness may be forfeited when strength is no longer there to grapple or joy to encourage. The millionaire who gained wealth, dyspepsia and locomotor ataxia, at the same time; the man who in his gold-gathering wounded his soul, and with it his body, unto death; the financier who with all his getting got that which made his money valueless, all were working with forces that are brittle, insecure, not to be depended upon to bring success of any kind, and certain not to bring the kind desired. The Old Thought methods are not only uncertain, but carried to the limit which they often are, they seriously cripple the “life that is more than meat,” and the body which “is more than raiment.”
“Why spend ye your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not?” Why, indeed! Especially when you may have the worth of your money and those things which do satisfy at none of the heart-racking cost and health-destroying price demanded by the Old Thought methods for gaining misnamed success, and which when they have yielded their best results leave our slums swarming with hungry, half-clothed, ignorant masses, multiplied thousands of our workers dependent upon the will of tens of capitalists, a population where a happy face is a thing to call forth remark and a contented mind a cause for wonderment! The New Thought calls out with the Christ, “Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye diet” “Behold,” it says, “I show you a more excellent way.” This way is new only in the sense that it has so long lain fallow, for so many years has been made so little use of.
He who is to work according to the science of real success will not trust in man except as a chosen instrument to carry out decrees already made, but will trust in the Lord.
Mark you, he will actually have faith in God, or in that which some men call the First Cause or the Universal Intelligence or the Universal Abundance, as the Prime Mover in his game of life. He will take his success pattern to Him, day after day stand before Him face- to-face in spirit, and day after day state his wish to have his matrix filled in as definitely as the Old Thought disciple would state his desires to the man with “pull.”
“I trusted the Lord till the breechen broke,” said an old lady speaking of an occurrence in which she and a runaway horse were the actors. Recently a young man said to a mental worker, “I’ve been mighty near becoming a convert to your doctrine that one may have what he wants, for I was sure I was going to get. a position that I’ve been after for years. But now I may as well hang up my fiddle, for the man who could have got me in has gone West and isn’t expected back for months. It’ll be filled before he returns.”
“Where is your Godt” asked the lady. “Has He gone West, toot There is a sure way of obtaining that position or a better one. Go in your mind to that office every morning. Hang up your coat and hat there. Seat yourself at the desk you wish to use. Go through the duties so far as you know them. Keep your picture clear and strong, talk to no human being about it, but every day become absolutely still in body and mind, talk to God about it as intimately and sensibly as you would to the man who has gone West, and trust Him as you would that man. Try this faithfully for a month and see what comes of it.”
In less than three weeks from the time of this conversation the young man bounded into the lady’s office. “It worked,” he exclaimed exultantly. “It worked like magic. A fellow that’s held a position for years in the place I spoke of has been offered a better paying one, and without my saying a word to him he recommended me to take his desk. I’ll get a better job and a higher salary than I ever could have expected.”
Like the old lady this man had been really trusting .in “breechen” force, which with him took the form of “pull,” instead of in God.
“Trust in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He shall bring it to pass.” Is it a provable thing that if one really trusts in the Lord, waits patiently for Him, in the meantime following the leadings which come to him in all ways, that He, the Lord, will “bring it to pass,” whether “it” means a position, money, fame, love, a new gown or a new life—anything which represents the heart’s desire? Yes, for if a thing has been demonstrated once, and only once, it is a provable thing, and here and there,—far more frequently since New Thought gave out its message—one has actually put this declaration to the test and has never been disappointed.
Why has he never been disappointed f Because he has impressed his desire upon a real substance with real intelligence which is as sensitive as mercury in a tube, which the pressure of a finger on the glass will raise or lower, and which, as is declared by the Master and metaphysical science and proved by physical science—as we shall see later— is obliged by its own law of action, to give him his heart’s desire, to bring it, whatever “it” may be, to pass.
SUMMARY AND EXERCISE.
Every one has a heart’s desire and trusts to some one or something to bring it to pass. The Old Thought taught that success forces were “pull,” competition and clever scheming. From these methods men no more insure genuine success than they gather grapes from thorns. It is as true of forces as of men that “by their fruits ye shall know them.” Anything which “pull” gives a man it can push away from him, anything which is gained by competition may be lost by a superior competitor. The New Thought says, “Behold, I show you a more excellent way. ’ ’ He who works with the science of real success will actually have faith in Ood and will take his success pattern to Him every day to have it filled in, and will state his wish to Him as definitely as the Old Thought disciple stated his desires to the man with “pull.” “It is a provable thing that if one really trusts in the Lord, waits patiently for Him, in the meantime following the leadings in all ways that come to him, that He, the Lord, will bring it—whether “it” means position, money, fame, love, anything which is the heart’s desire—to pass.
Say in the Silence:
I am trusting not in “pull” or competition, or anything that man can do for me, bat in the Intelligence, the Love, the Wisdom and the Resources of the living God. I take Him at His word that whatsoever I ask shall be granted. I choose to walk in His ways, to be guided by His wisdom, to gain success which is of His nature and by His appointed means.