How many of us take life too seriously? How many of us are too indifferent? too lazy? too careless? too busy? too troubled to appreciate life?
How many of us have inspiration so acutely that we are constantly recognizing grandeur, wonderment, glory, beauty, harmony, as being manifested everywhere, from the tiny seedling to the giant oak; from the grain of sand to the majestic sun; from the little rivulet to the mighty ocean; from the infinitesimal to infinity? Many of us need to bestir our mentalities into an attitude or a state of recognition of love, enthusiasm, praise, joy. Begin today to wonder, to ponder, to exclaim, to enthuse, to glorify Mind and its wonderful power of thought.
Cultivate a feeling of joy, delight, appreciation for the power and ability to have, to know, to understand the wonders and .glories of Life. Have you affection and tenderness toward everything and everybody, or is there a cold indifference, a reserve, a depressed attitude, a mind so small or asleep that it sees nothing over which to enthuse, nothing to praise, knows no true thought to think, but exists upon its own fears, doubts, and worries?
Don’t be afraid to count your blessings, to rejoice or to make merry. Don’t be afraid to laugh and be happy. Life is enjoyment. Fill every thought with joy and realize that you are an inseparable part of this wonderful Nature and Being. Praise Life and its manifestations. Praise Mind and its creative force. Praise the sun that shines its light and warmth upon you; praise the breeze that wafts its wonderful touch of invisible being upon you; praise the hills and valleys, the grass and the forests.
Is there room for you to sweeten the disposition? Take out all sense of anger or hatred. This is a poison that will harm your body and deprive it of its normal manifestations and functions of health and activity. If you love the whole world except one individual toward whom you have hate or ill will, you have broken the Law and will reap the punishment that hate brings. One drop of ink will color a glass of water, so one drop of hate or anger or resentment in your mentality will contaminate the whole sense of your mentality. Be careful, then, not to hate at all.
It is ignorance, wrong education that is at the bottom of all of our troubles. Do you really want understanding? Do you really want to know how to think better thoughts, and what right thoughts to think? how to do better, act better, feel better? If not, then there is no need for you to read further in this book, for my whole object is to bring you into mental touch with right and true thinking, understanding.
Instead of reasoning from the basis that you are a mental being, you probably have been taught that you are a weak human being; that you can be sick, miserable, sinful, and ultimately die; that you are a mixture of good and evil, of spirit and matter; that you neither know why you came nor whither you go. Many of us have been trained to think of the body first; trained to believe that it is the body that is sick, and that it is the body that must be made well. What nonsense is this. As well try to correct the image in the mirror paying no attention to the original outside that is casting that image, as to try and correct the body paying no attention to the thought convictions in the individual mentality that are causing that condition called sickness.
You say, But I have stomach trouble, consumption, rheumatism, how can I get rid of it? First of all be rational. Listen to reason. Stop and think who you are.
Are you not a conscious, intelligent being? Is not your very life God, Itself? Can God, perfect Life be sick, have stomach trouble, consumption? Then, how can you, who are Life individualized have these conditions? Do not spend your time arguing out that you have them, and how you got them but try and reason out how impossible it would be for that which is Life or God to be sick.
Dear Seeker, the truth is that sickness is not a fact of Life. If you sat in the coach of a train that was standing still and watched from the window a train that was moving past, you would be very apt to believe that it was your train that ^yas moving, for your sense of motion would be very real and true to you, and it might be necessary for you to look from another window upon objects that were standing still to your sense of things to be actually convinced that your train was not in motion at all. So you, in your ignorance of perfect
Life and Mind may state that you are sick, but sickness is not the truth of existence anymore than was the belief that you were in motion when actually you were standing still. Sickness has an appearance of reality to the self-deceived mentality, but this appearance is of the same nature as any lie, and this will become plain to you as you gain some actual understanding of Life and self.
The very power, the ability you have to think, to live, to feel, to do, to speak, to hear, is God, Itself. You are not separate from God. You are not something that God made and then set aside. The life of the tiny seed, the life of the largest animal, the life of the grass at your feet, the life of the bird and flower, and your life is God. There is but one God and hence but one Life which is infinite in individuality from a grain of seed to an individual man or woman. When you claim that you are sick, you are virtually claiming that God, the One-Life is sick, for your life, mind, soul, consciousness, being is God. God and true understanding are the same and hence is the Life of all. There is but one Father, and this Father of us all is Life, Itself.
All the ills of life are the results or the outcome of wrong education, wrong teachings about Life; mental misconceptions. Your understanding of Life being wrong this may be the direct result of your trouble or of your suffering. The one and only way to overcome what is called sickness, disease, poverty, fear, etc., is to acquire an understanding of Being and to rely solely upon this understanding. This understanding is the only thing that you can take from this plane to what is called the next plane. Nothing goes with you from this world except what you understand of Life; so awake’ today to the supreme importance that you gain a reasonable and demonstrable understanding of Being. All there is to you is your individual consciousness, your thought convictions (your understanding), and their manifestations. Your individual mentality will manifest in its body whatever this mentality is thinking and feeling as mental convictions. Thinking is the subjective state of the mentality. Body is the objective state of the mentality. All objectifications of right and true thoughts are real because they are founded upon Fact and Truth. Contrariwise, all objectifications of erring thoughts are unreal because untrue, having no right foundation. As you remove from your mentality the erring thought that you are believing and substitute in its place the right and true thought about Life and self, this will result in the discord being removed from the mentality, and it will no more be found in the body but the natural condition of harmony will be experienced by you.
Now, you must be willing to accept and strive to understand as true these facts of
Life: that there is but the one Life, God, which is infinite, perfect and good; that mental Nature, Life, is one and all; that Mind is God and that right thought is the “Son of God” or Mind and is the all-power or mental force of God; that the good, alone, is all there is to Life. It is this understanding of Life, lived, that is heaven; and it is a lack of this understanding or ignorance of Life and thinking in conformity with this error that is hell. You must become an understander of Life. You simply cannot win harmony or gain permanent peace upon any other basis. You possess through your very nature the ability to reason and to think, to act and to feel, and to gain an understanding of Life for yourself.
Try to comprehend clearly that there is nothing to be healed in the body, but that it is the mentality or thinking that needs correction. Healing is a mental process, the process of knowing the truth about
God, life, self. The mental state must be changed before the bodily state can change. The science of true healing is performed through a purely mental method, the application of right thought or Truth. Evil, sin, sickness and death are not so many powers but are delusions in the mentality, delusions or wrong beliefs about God, life and nearly everything under the sun. Just become thrilled with the awakening that your own individual mentality is the exact nature and character of the infinite or whole Mind, its inheritance so rich, so unlimited, so full of substance and infinite wisdom that the very recognition of this Truth will set you free to master that delusion that confronts you. The body can make no condition for itself. The mentality alone is responsible for all action, feeling, and form. The mentality alone is what sees, hears, feels, acts, understands, loves. The body is neither cause nor creator nor is Mind dependent upon bodily Conditions. All things that you have considered God could do, perfect Mind, right thinking can and will do for you. Any one who thinks figures must have the right sense of them and obey the law governing numbers in order to get the correct result, so, any one who thinks life must have the right sense of Life and obey the laws of Life in order to experience the result of Life, which is harmony.
Don’t look upon the evidence or result of wrong thinking called a sick or diseased body and then try to change or correct that body. You might as well try to dry up the water that is flowing from an open faucet. Close the faucet, and there will be no water to flood the hoi^B It is your wrong thinking, belief, and reeling that is causing the body to show forth this appearance of disorder, and this is in accord with the metaphysical law of Life, for as a man thinketh and believeth in his mind so does lie show forth in his body. You draw your thoughts upon a canvas and exhibit that as a picture. It is merely the manifested outline of the thought picture you first had in mind. So, your body is the visible showing forth of your invisible thoughts. The seat of the trouble therefore, my friend, is not in the body which is the effect, but is in your mind which is the cause. When the mentality through understanding thinks right and true thoughts and ceases to think ignorant and wrong thoughts, then will the discord that appears in your body and in your environment disappear.
You may have heard about the rubber ball that is put out of its natural shape by means of a p? There is nothing the matter with the rubber ball though it appears all twisted and out of shape, for, remove the clamp, and, lo, there is the ball all perfect as it was all the time. So, remove your wrong thinking, acting, and feeling (the clamp), and you will find that your body is all right.
You know that if you saw a blackboard as large as is the surface of the earth and on every point and all over it was written 6 and 3 are 7 it would not disturb you nor deceive you, would it? Now if you can understand that you, the real you, are an indivisible part of the whole mental element or Mind as a drop of water is part of the whole ocean and that it is natural and right that you express perfect Life and Being, you would not be disturbed by the appearance of discord anymore than by the statement made by another that 6 and 3 are 7.
Many of us fall into the habit of taking joys and pleasures and all the exquisite loveliness of the growing things about us for granted. We hear the robins warble and sing and enthuse and exclaim at the peep of day, and probably the “noise” disturbs us.
A day in spring or early summer when the atmosphere is filled with the fragrance of blossoms, nodding daisies, sweetest clover, new mown hay; and the fresh balmy breeze is deliciously scented with this aroma which seems to penetrate over the hills and meadows, across the valleys and into the door yards of rich and poor alike, we meet one who looks as though he held the troubles of the world upon his shoulders. His face is long and sad, his eyes red and watery, he sneezes and uses his handkerchief alternately until finally he declares that it is all this loveliness, this wonderful demonstration of life and love, this manifestation of sweetness and fragrance that brings “hay fever,” makes him sick and miserable.
Next we meet a man walking along with his little son. We notice before we reach him that he stops, and taking a small box from his pocket, he puts a lighted match to something in the box and then he holds it up so that the boy may inhale the fumes of the burning substance. Now, what is there of more exquisite fragrance to inhale than the breath of the day, we wonder, and as we meet him we ask him this question. “Oh,” he remarks, “Son has the asthma and is so bad today that he can scarcely breathe without inhaling some of this,” touching the small box, “this gives him some relief.” We ask, “But where did he get the asthma?” knowing that asthma is not included in infinite Good. “Why I have it, and so of course, he has it. It is just nature you know for the boy to have it, isn’t it, Son? Daddy has it and so you have it.” Oh the trust and yielding simplicity of the child’s mind, as, looking loyally into his father’s face he answers, “Yes, Daddy.”
Fathers, Mothers awake! cease contaminating the pure sense of your children by such wicked blasphemies against God, Nature. It is bad enough for you to believe
that you can be sick and have disease, but for you to believe that this wrong condition can be handed down by Nature to a pure, helpless, innocent child is ignorant and wicked.
What kind of a Nature or God could there be that would cause disease to be transmitted from one to another and even to the innocent child?
Is there any asthma in perfect Life? Does Nature, God contain such conditions called hay fever, asthma, nerves, consumption, and deal these out to this one and that one with even the including clause, that what is given to the father will be handed down to his child? A thousand times no,—None of these thoughts or conditions are in or of Nature, or Life. Your own wrong beliefs about Nature and Life is what causes you to bring forth these wrong conditions. Is it your understanding of numbers that causes you to put down the wrong answers to your problems?
No, It is your ignorance of numbers that causes you to make these mistakes. So it is your ignorance of Life that causes you to experience mistakes called sickness, disease. These conditions are not in Life any more than mistakes are in mathematics. Think of Nature as a mental Substance, being infinitely good, pure, perfect, harmonious, lovely, then know that this Nature became more of the same Nature when you became you. This is your real and true Nature. If you knew this well enough would you have nerves, hay fever, consumption? No more than if you know 2 and 2 are 4 will you call them 5. The great trouble is that many do not pause long enough to think, to reason, but blindly accept the ignorant teachings of their ancestors and submit without a spark of reasoning to ignorant beliefs.
We continue our walk this bright morning basking in the delight of Soul, and we notice the approach of two ladies. One is a nurse, we see by her attire, and she is holding the arm of one who acts barely able to move one foot before the other.
“That is the trouble here?” we exclaim. “Oh,” says the seeming invalid, “It’s the air. this climate. The Doctors sav I must go away, out West: consumptives are better out there, you know.”
We ask, “Do you expect to find more God there, more Life? Is Nature different there from here? Is there another law- governing being in Colorado?” Such foolishness. Such nonsense. Can we get more harmony from music in Colorado than here? is the science of numbers different there? are the sun, moon, stars, light different there?
But. vou sav. I know those who have suffered from what is called consumption and have been cured bv living for a time in that climate. What did it? This. The individual’s own thinking did it all—every bit of it. How? very simple. He was told by those whose opinion he valued, that the air here is too dry or too damp or too this or too that, while out in Colorado or somewhere else, it is healthier, purer, and will undoubtedly effect a cure. The patient accepts this theory; he believes it. He wilts more here day by day “because of the air” when the fact is the air he is breathing is the same air that his neighbor is breathing, and his neighbor is perfectly healthy and well.
So the lady of whom we speak, walks despairingly down the street or sits on the porch bundled up in blankets and thinks there is nothing for which to live; recalls all the sad places in her past and broods over them; breathes the dry air or damp air believing it is hurting her; and, is it any wonder she “droops” and fails? She is serving every other god that could be thought of except this one perfect God, right thinking. She is ignorant of the fact that her own thoughts govern her body— not the air, or sun, or earth, or sky, but her own thoughts. Thinking she has consumption as though it were something of real nature to have, she manifests this condition in her bodv. The mind and body are not separate but are one as cause and effect. The body is merely the thought in the objective. As long as she thinks she has consumption and the air makes her sick and she is too weak to walk, she will show forth these conditions in the body. If her body manifested abundant life and strength while her mentality was entertaining these ignorant, wicked thoughts then intelligence would not be the ruling power and we all would be in a sorry plight. It would be as impossible as for an individual totally ignorant of music to sit down at a piano, strike whatever keys his fingers fell upon and thereby produce harmony in music.
There is a fixed metaphysical law, an unalterable, unchangeable, indestructible law governing Life in all its activities. This Law says as a man thinketh and feeleth as a mental conviction so does he reap in the visible body. To think and believe hay fever, asthma, consumption, bad air in the mind, is sooner or later to exhibit these very ills in the body, and you can no more change the body without first changing your thoughts than you can make the water cease flowing out of the pipe while the faucet is open.
Now, then, when the lady arrives in Colorado, she is apt to change her thought, that is all. She likes the air, she thinks it is good and is aiding her recovery; she hears of those who have been worse off than she is and now they are entirely well. She also meets new people, makes new friends and acquaintances, and becomes happier in many ways; she thinks of disease less and of health more, pines less and hopes more, and, of course, the faithful image, the body, manifests this better belief to correspond with her thinking and more health and strength and vigor continue to manifest in the body, to keep pace with the thought. Had she changed her thought at home she could have produced the same result as she did in Colorado.
There is one thing that is necessary for any one on earth to do in order to be healed or in order to come into the experience of all good, and that is to follow the advice of Isaiah, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” There is no other way of salvation whereby we can be saved from evil effects other than by letting go of our evil thinking, no way under the heavens that we may come into the joy of living other than by thinking, living, feeling good and right thoughts. When are you going to begin? Each must answer this question for him self. Each experiences all the good, the health, the joy, of which he is conscious and no more.
The great truth is that all is mental and that all is in and of Mind. He who has no understanding whatever of the power of right thinking has not the right concept of Life and is therefore subject to his own erring beliefs. As thought is causative, one needs to be free from mental misconceptions through the actual knowledge of the truth of Life. It is through the application of right reason, which is the Saviour, that we free our mind from all wrong and ignorant beliefs. This was the teaching of the great Master that sickness and disease are erring beliefs that can be overcome through a right understanding of Life, and that in reality Life is perfect and harmonious now and here. Now, if you think other than this you are thinking wrongly, or are violating the laws of right and true thinking, and you will automatically experience that punishment that you merit. Always work mentally to gain a conviction that there are no discordant conditions in Life or Xature, that all Life is good, perfect, ceaselessly and changelessly harmonious and self-existent. It is as you continue to think and to reason these right thoughts that you will gradually gain a mental conviction of the perfection and the reality of Being and then your body will respond to your right and true sense and conviction.
To some, in fact to many, the healings produced in metaphysics are mysterious and are not understood in their true light. I will relate a simple experience of my own just to show how very true it is that Mind or right thinking heals. One day I placed an iron (the kind with a handle) over the gas flame, preparatory to doing some little ironing at hand. I let the iron get intensely hot and then shut off the gas. Forgetting to place the cloth ironing-holder over the handle before picking up the iron, I placed my bare hand firmly over the hot handle. Immediately, the pain was so intense that I could scarcely bear it; the skin became white, some places rising into blisters, while in other places it simply dropped away. For just a few seconds my eyes seemed riveted to the hand and to the fearful condition that seemed so evident. Knowing that it would never do to continue looking at the hand, for thought is causative, I at once put my hand behind me and called to my mind the facts of my ‘perfect being. I said aloud, and with strong mental conviction that each word was an absolute fact of Life: “God (perfection) is all-in-all and I am not Received by any evidence to the contrary,” and I kept up this right thinking until a sound mental conviction was obtained by me and then the pain left. Using the hand as naturally as ever, I did the little ironing that I had planned to do, and later put that hand into hot water with not a single discordant feeling. There was no further sense of pain and the outward healing took place rapidly. You can see now that we really cannot afford to watch the body nor look upon the unnatural conditions as realities. Look away from the body into the Facts of Life, this causes you to think right and true thoughts and it is these right and true thoughts that heal you.
Another time I visited a dentist to ascertain about a tooth that seemed out of order. He advised me that the trouble was seated in the jaw-bone and that he could not possibly rectify that condition without extracting the tooth. I called upon another dentist for advice and he told me the same thing, adding: “I am sorry but I could no more heal that condition for you than I could grow hair on my bald head.” I went home and thought the matter over carefully. I did not want to lose that tooth. I knew that before I could accomplish anything for myself that I would have to kill the fear I had, the fear that the trouble would lead to grave consequences as the dentists had pointed out. After several hours of reading and meditation I arrived at this conclusion: According to the science of Being there is only perfection in Life; no laws of dentists interfere with it, and no lie about perfection ever touches or contaminates it. After seeing this very clearly so that I gained a clear mental conviction of this fact, I lost every vestige of fear and in three days of this right thinking I was happy and rejoicing. I kept right on feeling convinced of the Truth that I was thinking and after two weeks the mouth was in a normal condition and all trouble with that tooth was at an end. So, I say again, do not let appearances deceive you, but mentally insist that all Nature and Life is forever manifesting Itself in harmony and in perfection. The moment you know a thing is true, that moment has begun the visible unfoldment and embodiment of that thing for you, for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Friend, if you act, move, live, feel, understand, sing, talk, hear, see, how can you be a mere image or a shadow? An image cannot think, cannot feel, cannot understand. You are therefore not a shadow nor are you merely a reflection. You are a conscious, living, active being. It is your body that is the image, the shadow, the reflection. The mind is the power, the actor, the manifestor, the thinker; the body is the creation, the manifestation, the external or objective of Mind’s thoughts or convictions.
The body is that reflection which has no life, truth nor intelligence of its own but expresses the convictions of the mentality’s thinking and feeling. The body is man, or manifestation, and the mind is God or Soul. While God (Mind) is not man (body) yet they are one and inseparable as Cause and effect.
No matter what you believe your self to be you can be nothing but what you eternally are. Believing yourself to be other than you are you will project a false creation, a seeming. Yet this false creation is no part of you, the real you, any more than darkness is part of the light. All things are to you as you understand or believe them or according to your individual state of consciousness. A false creation is of course not a true creation and exists only so long as does the mistake in the individual’s mentality.
Beyond your thinking or consciousness of a thing or a condition this thing or condition does not exist to you. Your right thinking brings you into harmony with that which is, your wrong thinking, being a wrong conception of that which is eternally right, brings you into darkness, trouble. If you wish a right thing or a good condition do not try to make or create it as though you were making something new or apart from Life, Itself. It may appear new to your consciousness, but to mental Nature there are no new results as all good is forever and eternally inherent. Also, do not claim a certain good condition in the expectation of getting rid of some other discordant condition. Continue to hold to the mental position that there is no other side to Life but the one and good side. We do not claim that sin and sickness do not appear on this plane of life as a seeming. To the world ignorant of Truth they appear as realities, but to Mind, understanding, they do not appear as realities.
Many have a confused and mysterious sense of the body. Some believe that they have two bodies, one material and visible and the other invisible and spiritual. Others claim that they have a “mortal body,” while there are some who believe that they have no body at all. Now, what is the right way to regard the body? Think of the body as mental, as spiritual and as good. By what right do we dare think of
it otherwise and stand for students of Truth? It could not be that we have spiritual souls and material bodies. To think of the body as matter is to condemn it to dust. It is our sense of the body that is wrong and not the body itself. We should think of the body as Mind objectified, Nature in its manifested or visible state. It is the objective state of Life only that we see, for Life in its primal state is invisible. The flowers, birds, animals and our own bodies are effects or forms of Nature. It was Mary Baker Eddy, who some fifty years ago wrote in her text book: “We are Spirit, Soul.” . . . “You, the immortal have a perfect and a divine form.” . . . “The final understanding that we are Spirit must come.”
Life, of course, cannot be increased nor diminished for it is absolute, immutable, changeless, God. This mental element, Life or Mind, comprehends all there is or ever can be. In this sense creation is finished, but the unfoldment or external expression of Life is constant and uninterrupted. The Master teacher said: “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantlv.” He must have meant that we enlarge or increase our sense of Life and as this takes place in the mental there will necessarily be an external expression to correspond. The mental element is one intelligence constantly seeking and finding greater and fuller expression of Itself.
Do not believe that “mortal mind*’ is back of the flower, the body, etc., as some scientists teach. Hold to the truth that God, Mind is all there is, hence all is mental, and the body is as spiritual and good and perfect as are the thoughts and convictions of Truth in the mentality.
Jesus said: “Verily I say unto you except ye become as a little child ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Did he mean that we must be changed back into little children in order to enter heaven? No, It would be as impossible for us to do this as it would be impossible for the butterfly to return to the caterpillar, or for the oak to again become the acorn. He meant that we are to put on or unfold the characteristics of the child mentality, which are simplicity, innocence, fearlessness, confidence, faith, purity. Now, if we will take all the characteristics that I have mentioned as a model to hold before our consciousness constantly, we cannot help but find heaven within us, for these mental characteristics are the foundation stones of all true character.
The child’s mind is easily susceptible to the teachings of Truth. The power of the individual mentality of consciousness lies in possessing the qualities called love, humility, innocence, etc. It is as these qualities rest in our consciousness that we consciously possess their power. Unless you are sincere with yourself, you are fooling yourself. Truth cannot benefit you unless you are willing and glad to obey Its Law.
Have faith. Faith is a live conviction. Faith has confidence that the heights can be reached. Faith tends to bring your mind into touch with the laws of Life so that you naturally or automatically think good, and thus receive good. Have faith in the infinite, perfect God, Nature; faith in yourself; faith in the Law. Have faith in Mind and understand the power of right thought. Remember that to change what we call conditions, you must first change your thought, for the individual creation (individual body) is always the image and likeness of the individual mentality. When you are able to think rightly as you aspire to think, then will you experience your fondest desire.
You can succeed as well as can any one else. The ability to succeed is a natural quality inherent in every mentality. All mind is the same substance, for God, Life, is no respecter of mentalities. Faith gives you the power to act as you wish to act. Real faith is measurelessly calm, strong, serene. Real faith is not blind faith. Blind faith is faith placed in external things, and this is a detriment. Real faith is faith placed in internal things (right thoughts) and this faith leads to conscious understanding of Life which is real salvation. We are greater far than we at present know.
If you wish to be well and stay well do not talk sickness nor allow it to be unduly talked to you. Keep your whole attention upon health and Nature’s harmony. To take the attitude “I am perfectly well” is the shortest cut to the attainment of perfect health. Refuse to consider yourself other than this. God, Life, is changeless, therefore, since you are one with the whole mental element, you, too, are changeless Substance. If you can know and feel this fact to the exclusion of all opposing beliefs, these seeming beliefs will melt away exactly the way the dew disappears in the presence of the sun. Your mind cannot believe two opposite thoughts at the same time. As you hold your thoughts steadfastly to the facts of your true nature and feel that what you are thinking is actually true, this will bring you into accord with the tune of the Universe which is harmony. As long as you make something out of a lie it stands to jreason you are fighting the darkness and you cannot proceed. When an individual in his thinking denies the omnipotence (all power), omniscience (all science), omnipresence (all presence) of God, good, he enters into that dream state called mortal, a belief state wherein he is not consciously at-one with the Father (understanding).
Dear Seeker, don’t sit and read and rave over the wonder of spiritual life and then close your books and act like a heathen. Don’t sit and talk about health and then get up and act like a sick man. In as much as in you lies, act out your own good thoughts, otherwise– they are like “sounding brass.” Try each day to live more fully, more spontaneously, more abundantly. Health is Life in its natural state of manifestation. Have more faith in health than in sickness, more faith in good than in evil. Why, Infinite, Loving Mind is constantly unfolding Itself in us and through us at all times when we are loving or thinking good. All that is required of us is that we let this perfect Mind and its thoughts be in us, and this we do by thinking in unity and in harmony with it, letting go all reverse thoughts. Gratitude, love, joy, praise, strengthen our faith in good (God) and bring us into a closer at-one-ment with our perfect Nature, for you can only come into relationship with the perfect mental element in a mental way.
As long as you think of yourself as sick and act like a sick person you will continue to show forth this condition called sickness. If you wish to be well you must think and act and feel, so far as in you lies, like a well person. Perfect Intelligence does not think one way and act another. Sever all mental connection with disease and suffering and begin today to enter into your birthright, your inheritance of natural harmony.
That which lives in us is constantly seeking to express more and more of Itself. Within yourself is the Power to bring forth all your right desires. After you plant a seed it needs cultivation, water and care. Some seeds (thoughts) grow in the ground (mentality) of certain individuals more quickly than in others; it depends upon the nature, desire, feeling, action, etc., in that particular mentality. But in divine thinking you cannot admit error, disease, sin, sickness as true in one thought and then turn around and realize God, heaven and perfection in another thought, for they cannot coincide or co-mingle; they are opposites, one the lie, the other the reality of Being. True metaphysics teaches that to make disease a reality and then try to get rid of it is mental quackery.
Endeavor always to think from the standpoint of mental perfection. It is not that we are actually sick and that we want to be made over into health, nor is it that our body is out of order and we want by thinking certain thoughts to put it into order again. If sickness presents itself to us we are not to try and make it go away as if it were something outside ourself, nor are we to try and heal the body as though the cause were there. The erring misconceptions which we have accepted and which are responsible for the wrong acting and feeling that we are manifesting, must be uncovered and cast from our consciousness, for just so long as we think sick or wicked thoughts and act out these thoughts just so long do they bring us their punishment. He who is not ready to ‘part with, sinful thought and action and become a better individual is not yet ready to experience harmony. Many are they who travel from this one to that one for healing when they are not yet willing to give up sinful beliefs and actions, to love fully and freely, to forgive and forget; hence, they continue to manifest in the body disease and suffering as the direct result of erring thinking and doing.
Get understanding. Refuse to think wrong thoughts; refuse to do wrong deeds. Evil is negation because it is the absence of the Truth. The only reason that we must consider evil at all is because we have all been educated to believe in evil as real, and because all around us is what is called the evidences of evil’s reality. Some metaphysical teachers declare that it is not necessary for us to pay any attention whatsoever to so-called evil conditions which we are manifesting, but not so the founder of Christian Science, who said: “To heal by argument, find the type of the ailment, get its name and array your mental plea against the physical . . . conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of the disease.”
We find that in mathematics, music or in any other science, that we can correct a mistake already made more quickly if we know what the error is that needs correction, and this is also true in metaphysics. We need to point out to humanity that sin, sickness, death, are the results of false teaching, false belief, false thinking, wrong living: because, unlike the science of numbers wherein there is no universal or general thought or belief that 2 and 2 are 5, and wherein there are no schools that teach mathematics erroneously; contrariwise, the general, universal belief about Life is, that it can be well and sick; happy and sad; alive and dead; about the body is, that it can be healthy and diseased; that the mind can be sane and insane; that accidents as well as harmonies transpire in this universe of infinite good. These wrong beliefs are taught as true facts in the school of so-called learning and religion, this is why we must be concerned with them, so as to expose them, denoimce them, show them to be not the truth of existence.
“Awake thou that sleepest.” TVhen a child states that the sim is moving and believes it, it seems true to him because he is ignorant of the fact that it is the earth that is revolving. TVhen you say that you are sick and believe it, it seems true to you because you are ignorant of the eternal fact that Life is a pure mental Substance which cannot be contaminated. But it is quite impossible for anyone to receive or partake of his full inheritance as spiritual and perfect until he claims it as his divine birthright. Until we come into conscious mental recognition of our oneness with perfect Life, God, little do we know about the joys and harmonies of Being. It is true that 2 and 3 are 5 in numbers whether we are thinking this or anyone else is thinking this or not; already, even before we think that they are 5 the sum of 2 and 3 is eternally 5 in the science of numbers, but not until we accept this fact intelligently are we conscious of it, or can it benefit us. So, always and forever we are established in the science of Being as perfect, indestructible Life, immutable, immortal, but not until we claim this and recognize it for ourselves as true are we conscious of it, or does it become real to us. In other words we do not manifest or experience what we actually are, but we manifest that which we think or believe we are, while on this plane.
Be brave therefore, and refuse to accept evil as an actuality. Do not think it, talk it, act it. When you see the picture of sickness, sorrow, sin exhibited before you, it is merely the result or exhibition of the erroneous sense in the mentality of that individual. You can look at the dirt upon a child’s face and not be misled into believing that the dirt is part of the child’s face, or that the face is injured or harmed, and you can separate at once in your mind the dirt and the face and know that nothing at all has happened to the face. So with that individual that appears blind, crippled, sinful. Blindness, disease, sin are no more a part of the true consciousness or soul than dirt is part of the child’s face. As dirt can be washed from the surface of the face, so the sense of sickness can be removed from the mentality of the individual.
To show how possible this is I will tell you of a man, now living, who healed himself of what is generally considered an incurable condition. This man was blind and had been born that way. One day as he was sitting on a bench in a park, he chanced to hear a conversation between two people. One person was saying to the other that there are not two creations, one
Spiritual and one of dust, but that there is but the one real and true creation, and that we and all things else are actually perfect, even as God is perfect. This was all that the man heard. From that instant he began to think of himself as actually perfect. It seemed wonderful to him, and true. Before this he had always thought himself made of dust, but now, the more he reasoned that he was perfect because he was of God, the clearer it became to him, and the surer he was that this was the actual fact of Life. Immediately he began to put these right thoughts into operation to act and live a better man.
A few days later, as he was trying to make his way across the street alone, he stumbled and fell into the gutter, but even as he did so he was not afraid for he still held to the thought that he was in reality absolutely perfect; and then a wonderful thing came to pass in his experience. As he was getting upon his feet, suddenly the world was visible to him, he saw for the first time in his life and his sense was clear and natural. So dear friend, you who are seeking to experience health, think of this man and take new heart and fresh hope and make more earnest endeavor. God (right thinking) is no respecter of persons (mentalities). What one can do, all can do.
When Jesus was only twelve years old he said that he was about his Father’s business. If each one of us would start in doing this business, which is to reason and understand the facts of Life and take into our consciousness no sense of sin, sickness, or error, nothing that is unlike good, what a great change would take place with us all. Then, we would not be tearing down other people’s business, lamenting their behavior, criticizing their doings, for each of us would be in business with Good, harmony, and as we could not possibly use sin, sickness, fear, in this business of our
Father (perfect understanding), we would not, of course, have anything to do with these.
Suppose that you were a man who handled only the finest and best grades of silk in your business, and it was your duty to pass judgment upon the various grades that were brought to you for inspection. Having already established a standard for the silk you would necessarily cast aside all materials that did not come up to your standard, would you not? Well, this is fine business for us to pattern after with our thoughts. We must not have grades of ill-assorted lots in our mentality, part of the day thinking health, part of the day believing in sickness; holding to ourselves as Life individualized for a few moments, and a good share of the time wondering, doubting, fearing, complaining. We must watch our thoughts continually, passing judgment upon the wrong thoughts that seek admittance and accepting none but the best and purest thoughts, those that are founded upon the law of Nature, God.
If you will take this business today into your home, into the street car, into your office, you cannot help but succeed. I will tell you of a demonstration in a business way that came about after following these right thoughts or entering into this business of the Father. An individual went to a healer and said: “On the opposite side of the street from my store is a big department store, and my little store does not seem to cope with it. Their prices are lower than I can afford to make my prices, and people won’t come into my store and buy what I have, and I therefore cannot pay my rent and I am about to fail.” Can you see that these thoughts that she was taking into her business were not the right thoughts and that she was acting contrary to the very law that she should have put into operation? The healer said to her: “Have you anything pretty in your store?” She quickly answered, “Oh, yes,” and he said: “Love it. Go back into your store and see all as the handiwork of God, Mind. Know that Mind’s ideas are ceaselessly in use, some one always wants them, always is using them. Not one but many need and appreciate the beautiful ideas of clothes, etc., that you carry in your store and are taking them now. Make this your mental vision.”
In a short time the lady returned to the healer telling him that she had followed his advice and that now she had three clerks, whereas she had formerly had only one. She said that now when she took up a waist it was to notice the tiny eyelets, the many stitches, to know that Mind did it, for there is nothing but Mind, and that all good ideas are forever in demand in the realm of right thinking.
Let us all join in this business of our Father,—the business of right thinking. If you will go deep into this business you will find that it will solve all the problems in your house; in your community; in the nation; in the world. If you will not think falsities, misrepresentations, lies, deceits, but instead will think thoughts of love, of unity, of service, you will have established the Law, and back of the Law is the power that operates it. Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven,—the kingdom of understanding, the kingdom of right thinking and right living. Many are they who procrastinate their deliverance by working at the wrong end of the problem. The construction of any work must begin on a foundation. In order that the structure be permanent it requires that the foundation be indestructible, changeless, immovable.
The darkest hour always precedes the dawn, and the greatest storm has its end, so should you ever be placed in the seething midst of either, rejoice to know that all that is without God, true thinking, comes to naught. Think about courage and be courageous; think about protection for there is no other power than good, and it is this right and true thought that is your protection. Think: It is because I live, move, and have my being in the infinite, omnipotent and omnipresent consciousness of good, of perfect and harmonious Life wherein and whereout all is harmony and perfection that I need have no fear. Guard your thinking so that discouragement, doubt, anxiety, impatience, have no place in your mentality.
Expect. Expect today to feel good; expect to walk, run, leap, today; expect to hear perfectly, see perfectly, today; expect the floodtides of strength, joy, activity, peace, harmony, wisdom, to unfold to you, individually, today, as flow the waters over the Niagara banks,—without limit. This is the hope that passeth understanding; the joy that is King; the harmony that is eternal; the Christ which sayeth always; Be of good cheer, I am with you all the way.
People are prone to ask these days: “Are you a Christian Scientist? A mental scientist? A new-thoughter? A believer? An understander? Orthodox?” Now what does this all mean? What would you call Jesus? Naturally, the Christian Scientist calls Jesus a Christian Scientist; the mental scientist believes that he was a mental scientist; the various orthodox ministers believe that Jesus favored a certain attitude of devotion or prayer, whether it is a kneeling posture, a standing position, or a looking up position, etc. If we are asked today, Are you a Christian Scientist? we infer that the questioner means, Do you belong to the Christian Science church and do you attend the services and obey the rules and by-laws? To many, the mere fact that one belongs to the church and faithfully attends the services and obeys certain rules and regulations counts one a Christian Scientist. But, dear thinking friend, does it? Is this all that is necessary, and is this necessary? As in all matters we gain the ultimate and perfect verdict by turning to the teachings of him who was Master, I now ask, Was Jesus a member of the Christian Science church or any other church? Did he subscribe to any rules or laws? Did he authorize any one else to do this? Why, in those days the words Christian Science, mental science, New Thought were never uttered and by none of these names did Jesus classify himself. Yet no one else has ever risen to the heights that he attained. Do we ever find Jesus scrambling after place and power? Do we find him censuring and condemning others who were after the kingdom of heaven and yet who were not seeking teaching from him? Just to the contrary. Jesus rebuked John for this attitude of mental slavery with these words: “He that is not against us is on our side.” Mrs. Eddy said that Jesus was a Christian Scientist, yea, the best that ever lived, and still we know that he never set foot into a Christian Science church building, nor have his name on its roll of membership.
Consciousness constantly unfolds more and more of its own glories, harmonies and truths. We should expect that Truth be continually better expressed or stated as time goes on. That which is said or written one day must not be accepted as final or the last word on Truth, inasmuch as Mind will continually unfold more and more understanding for there is no end to God or Mind nor to its unfoldment. Truth, in order to be known as Truth need not bear the stamp of any personality. Truth is its own authority whether it is uttered by this or by that individual. It is right and natural that we should be grateful and appreciative to every one who sheds some light on our path, those who bring into our experience greater good, greater joy and a fuller sense of life. But we must get rid of the notion that there is any “authority” over us. Do not say or do or act in any particular way because of any certain one or ones “in authority.” Look back over the records of those who have advanced themselves and helped humanity and you will note that they reasoned and acted independently and positively refused to consider any authority as ruling them other than the God within them,—their highest, purest, holiest sense of right. Independent thinking and acting is the result of intelligence and is bound to bring forth greater good to the individual and greater good for humanity.
Now, I feel confident that you have broadened your vision so that you now are certain that you are more than a few pounds of clay or a few quarts of water and salt, or more than a few handfuls of dust; but do not stop here. Open your mind still farther. Expand your vision! Never mind what kind of a religion your father or grandfather or neighbor or friend has.
Think for yourself. Do not be afraid to get out of the kindergarten when you know you have outgrown it. Do not be afraid to let go unreasonable and age-long ideas when you can understand that they are without actual foundation or truth. Listen to the song of the robin, the whisper of the forest, the rush of the ocean, saying unto you: “There is no separate life. I am this one All-Life. That which you see and feel and understand is My One Life manifested.” Be fearless. Live up to the level of this vision.
Jesus said, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him.” In other words Nature, Consciousness, can fulfill all our needs and all our desires. If we feel the need of anything the first step for us to take mentally is to know that what we need is within our power to bring forth. We bring forth right conditions by having within ourselves right and true thoughts. It is all a matter of becoming conscious of the fact that you are, and that all good has been and eternally is yours in proportion as you become conscious of it. In mental Nature, all is forever perfect, and all good is continually being unfolded. Keep this vision before you, the vision of the perfect, the changeless, the ever unfolding divine good.
You are a particle of perfect Life and you are sustained by this Life. As a wave is a state of the ocean so are you a state of consciousness in this infinite, all-inclusive Life. The bond that unites us all, yea, the bond that unites all plants, animals, the tiniest blade of grass and the greatest constellation is the One-Life. Let this thought bring great joy to you. See God, good, everywhere; see God, good, in everything. Let God, Mind, talk to you through the stars, ocean, flowers, animals, mankind.
This is a sermon not heard from the pulpit. In this larger and fuller sense of God we have no creed, no church organization, no mental restrictions, no boundaries. We are as free as the air. As we stand upon the hill under the great blue canopy and listen to the rhythm of the universe, we can but exclaim, “Freedom!” “Progress!” “Unity!” What a glorious experience is this to feel a-kin to all life and to hear the universal and impersonal whisperings of love, of joy, of unity, in this vast consciousness of All-God. In this mental vision of soul, all wrong belief drops away, all petty troubles fade out of sight, all fears, doubts, worries are swallowed up in the active realization of heaven and harmony within and without.
Now, the desire that swells up in our heart is the desire to aid others, to give to others enlightenment and help. From this exalted vision there is but one language, the language of love. We see Truth and Love as the male and female; we feel the everlasting arms embracing all; we are conscious of the One-Presence; we behold the New Day.
In this perfect vision we understand that there is no separation from our loved ones; we are all close together in the One-Life, which is paramount, eternal, indivisible. As when the light appears, the darkness disappears, so when the supremacy of Spirit, supreme and adorable Life (perfect understanding), shall unfold to us, the dream or sense of matter, evil and separation will disappear.
It is because I have received much enlightenment upon the subject of metaphysics during the past few years that I desire to share this enlightenment with others who are hungry and thirsty for an intelligent and reasonable understanding of Life. I will be very glad to help any honest seeker who may choose to write to me; also I will gladly supply anyone with the names of such books as have contributed to my mental enlightenment.
The Author
The End