39.
Sleeping, like breathing and digesting, is controlled by the
subconscious brain centers. Natural sleep requires no positive mental
impulse; it's just relaxing, and nature takes care of the process.
[Sidenote: Can't Sleep.]
That is natural sleep, but when you start your dry cell battery, the
brain, and commence to worry and fear, you are going to stay awake. Then
the conscious mind dominates the subconscious mind, and you banish the
very comforter you seek to woo.
Business men who work under high tension all day on business matters,
and high tension all evening in threshing over again the business of the
day, are almost sure to suffer from insomnia.
The continuance of this habit of thinking of business day and night
brings on the insomnia habit and that, in turn, gives rise to the
delusion that you are fighting for your natural sleep. This produces
worry, the demon that kills and maims.
To have an occasional wakeful night is natural; it is an evidence of
intelligence: the mental dullard never has wakeful nights.
Unless the fear of sleeplessness becomes a full grown phobia, no anxiety
need be felt. The fear of insomnia, the over-anxiety to go to sleep, is
to be more dreaded than insomnia itself.
[Sidenote: To Get Results.]
To get refreshing sleep you must put yourself in a state of actual
physical tiredness. Take exercise. Walk in one direction until the first
symptoms of becoming tired appear, then walk home. Take a hot bath, then
sponge with cold or cool water. Put a cold cloth at the head, and rub
the backbone with cold water.
Open your windows wide, then relax. Don't worry; you are going to sleep.
Lie on your back, open your eyes wide, look up as if you were trying to
see your eyebrows, hold your eyes open this way ten to twenty seconds,
then close them slowly. Repeat this several times.
Sleep will have descended on you before you realize it.
Or occupy your mind with auto-suggestions like this: "I am going to
sleep--sound, heavy, restful, peaceful sleep. My eyelids are getting
heavy--heavy. I am going to close them and go to sleep."
Don't try to count imaginary sheep jumping over fence rails. Don't
count numbers. It is a bad habit.
If these suggestions do not help you the first night, say: "All right,
my brain was too active; to-morrow I will let down a bit."
Next night eat one or two dry crackers; chew them slowly, masticate them
thoroughly until you can swallow easily.
This little food will draw the blood pressure from the brain and help
you to go to sleep.
Drive out business and worry thoughts. Think faith and courage
thoughts.
40.
To live down the past and erase the errors, live the present boldly.
Do not chastise or condemn yourself for mistakes you have made. You are
not alone; everyone has made missteps--has hurt others or wronged
himself.
[Sidenote: Making Mistakes.]
Everyone has had reverses and met trouble and misfortune. It's the plan
of things. It is by undergoing trials like these that we gain in
experience and wisdom. We are enabled to correct our future acts by
utilizing the lessons which our mistakes have taught us.
Yesterday is dead; forget it. Face about. Live to-day; be busy, be
active, be intent on doing right and accomplishing things worth while.
The world's memory is short. A misdeed, an error, a wrongful act on your
part may set busy tongues wagging to-day, and you may suffer from
calumny and criticism. Of course, your errors will be magnified and your
wrongs enlarged beyond the truth; that's the penalty you pay for your
transgressions.
Lies are always added to truth in telling of one's misdeeds. Be brave.
Weather the storm; it will soon blow over. To-morrow the world will
forget.
You've suffered in your own conscience; that's all the debt you can pay
on the old score.
[Sidenote: Worrying Won't Help.]
Now, then, get busy with the glorious opportunity that today presents.
Don't make the same mistake again. There are no eyes in the back of your
head; look forward. Don't worry by envying the other fellow and
comparing his good deeds with your mistakes; you only see his good. He
has had troubles and made mistakes, too, but you and the world have
forgotten them.
If every man's sins were printed on his forehead, the crowds that pass
by would all wear their hats over their eyes.
I'm trying to comfort you, and slap you on the back, and tell you that
you are just human, and all humans make false steps.
The patriarchs in the Bible made mistakes, but they got in the fold.
History has perpetuated their names. Their lives, on the whole, were
worth while. It's the sum total of acts that count.
41.
[Sidenote: To-day and To-morrow.]
One man says the present is everything, that eternity is nothing. The
other man says eternity is everything, that the present is nothing. I
believe the real truth is that both are man's chief concern, and neither
view comprehends all truth. In this matter, the general rule I have so
often pointed out will harmoniously apply. That rule is: Avoid extremes.
Those who believe that the Now, the Present, is the all-important thing
in man's life have the fashionable or favorite point of view.
Man has much definite information about the present, he knows much about
life. He is in the midst of life--it pulsates all around him and in him.
We know positively that the law of compensation is inexorable in its
demand for right and positive in its punishment of wrong.
We know that on this earth kindness, love, occupation, help, truth,
honor and sympathy are investments which bring happiness to-day. You
get your pay instantly when you have done a helpful act, and you get
your punishment instantly when you have done a hurtful act.
[Sidenote: The Hereafter.]
That there is a future most of us agree, because good sense and logic
point to that sane and reasonable conclusion. So be it. With a belief in
the future estate, it is reasonable to assume that our acts and lives in
the present will have influence on our future estate.
We know positively of to-day; we know the happiness we can get from good
deeds done to-day. We come to this knowledge by experience.
If we will have power in the future to look back on to-day's acts, well
and good if to-day's acts are worth while.
The other view, that Eternity is everything and the present is nothing,
is the antiquated view, the narrow view--the, I might say, illiterate
view.
That view warps the present life; it calls for present
self-chastisement, present gloom, present sorrow and present misery.
It takes the tangible definite to-day, calls it nothing, and accepts the
intangible unknown eternity as everything.
[Sidenote: A Cheerless Philosophy.]
It trades the definite for the indefinite. It calls life a bubble, a
vapor, a shadow. In fact, it throws a pall over to-day's sunshine, and
regards our earthly life as a sort of purgatory--a dismal unhappy
punishment ante-chamber where man exists and waits, peeping out of his
cell windows for a little imagined view of eternity.
He waits and endures the unpleasant interval, steeled against the
definite pleasures of to-day, his whole outlook colored by a fanatical
and intoxicated belief in the expected happiness of the undefined
future.
He refuses to think of the definite life of to-day that we all know, and
spoils the thought of those who do.
He is a blockade to progress, a disagreeable part of life's picture.
He gets no happiness in the to-day which is in his hands; he loses his
opportunity to be of service here, and lives in the hope of a vague and
nebulous future state which has no connection with the realities of
every-day life.
Both theories as ultimate beliefs are wrong, yet each has some truth in
its conclusion.
By taking the words "Eternity" and "Present" and saying that both mean
everything, we avoid extremes and form a truth that is rational, and
harmonious to good reason.
The man who says that the present is all, does so because he is an
utilitarian. He reasons from the definite and the seeable, and refuses
to believe in the abstract. Anything that is outside the sphere of his
vision and action is of little concern to him.
The man who says eternity is all, wastes a golden opportunity and warps
himself into a miserable hermit.
Life is irrevocable. Every act in our life is placed, set, and fixed.
Every act goes in the record book of yesterday, and it cannot be
changed.
Acts that hurt others will rebound and hurt us. Deeds that help others
will rebound and help us. This much is certain.
There is a future, I believe that. There is a God, I believe that.
Just what the future is, and just what God is, I do not know in perfect
detail.
Reward for good and punishment for evil is part of God's plan, and I am
conscious of this truth.
I know that justice prevails in this life, and this life is what I am
living now.
[Sidenote: The Good That Lies at Hand.]
If I live and act to-day in accordance with what I sincerely believe is
in tune with God's purpose, I shall, in my future estate, benefit by
those acts. If I live and act to-day in disregard of all around me,
selfishly catering to my personal desires and believing that eternity is
everything and the present nothing, I am neglecting the opportunity to
do good now in the hope of a future personal reward, the very nature of
which is unknowable. I shall therefore strive to do, and to be,
right--to be kind, helpful, cheery and smiling now, for the reward such
acts bring now.
And I shall doubtless have as good a record and passport to the future
as the man who suffers now and lives only upon his selfish hope of the
future.
His is the faith of fear, mine the faith of reason in the all-wise,
all-powerful, all-seeing, all-knowing Ruler of the universe, who gave me
my life, my brain, my reason, which I am trying to use, as well as my
limitations will permit, in helping myself and helping others to smile,
to be happy, to be serene, to be confident, to be competent, to be
useful.
Everything lives and dies in accordance with the plan of the Creator of
the Universe, and you are an atom and I am an atom in that Universe,
which is governed by a power too big and too great for us to
comprehend.
Verily we presume when we say: "We have all the truth; think as we do or
you are lost."
The old world has not told its full story. The Universe of which this
world is a part is still a deep, unfathomable mystery.
We shall not know all truth until the great revealing time.
[Sidenote: The Use of To-day.]
We cannot change the pages of the millions of years gone by. We can do
every little to change the pages of the millions of years to come. What
little we can do, we can only do TO-DAY. To-day is yours and mine; let's
do the best we can with our possession in act and thought and word.
The sun goes down behind the sky-line on the West as it has done for
millions of years. I lay aside my pen with a bigger view, a deeper
appreciation of the Creator, and a profounder faith in His wisdom and
works than ever.
God made. God rules. God plans. And verily, we are weaklings and foolish
who presume by selfish prayer to suggest to Him what He shall do.
Let us strive to be appreciative of Him; let us try to lift ourselves to
the sublime plane of realizing that we are part of Him and His plan, and
that failure is impossible to us, if we keep up and on, doing good,
speaking softly, dealing gently, showing kindness to-day, and living in
accordance with the big, broad, generous, charitable plan instead of in
the little, bigoted, narrow, selfish, conceited idea that we are sole
possessors of truth and that the man who differs with us in belief is in
error.
This chapter is about big things, and in it is a big moral for all who
are big enough to grasp it.
42.
"I believe in him because he is so sincere."
[Sidenote: Sincerity and Truth.]
You've heard that, haven't you? I never could understand how a sensible
person could use such logic. Sincerity is no evidence of truth. The
Hindu mother is sincere when she throws her babe to the crocodiles, but
her sincerity is no proof that by this sacrifice she is sure of her
salvation.
The Christian Scientist is sincere in the belief that medicines do not
cure diseases. The doctor is equally sincere in his belief that
medicines do cure disease.
The Theosophist is sincere, the Atheist, the Agnostic, the Christian,
the Pagan, the Mohammedan, the Buddhist, the Sunworshipper, the
Republican, the Democrat, the Progressive, the Prohibitionist, the
Brewer, all these are sincere in their beliefs. And as these beliefs are
different, it is common sense to say that no one creed, sect, belief,
branch, dogma or system includes or embodies all truth.
[Sidenote: No Monopoly on Truth.]
It is true that every channel or avenue we meet in life's travel has
some truth, but it is not for you or me to assume that we are the sole
possessors of wisdom and the real discoverers of all truth. We must not
take the conclusions we arrive at and expect to force the world to
accept without protest our rules for conduct, our methods for living,
our practices for morals, or our beliefs for their guidance.
Converts to new doctrines, new issues, new cults, and to the old ones,
too, are made largely because the ambassadors or proselyters seem so
fervid and sincere in expounding what they claim is the definite truth.
The believers in a cult or code of ethics are auto-hypnotized; their
visions are narrowed.
By focusing their thought on their special belief, they bring together
sophistry, argument, example and so-called proof that gives them
facility in arguing the case or expounding their doctrine.
[Sidenote: Christian Science.]
You can make no gain in trying to argue with a Christian Scientist. You
ask for concrete rules, definite answers and proofs other than their
flat statements, and you are told you have not the understanding--you do
not view the subject from the right plane, and that the truth cannot be
shown you. You are told to have faith and belief, to eliminate
antagonism, and to study "Science and Health," and you will receive the
divine spirit and see the light.
The Scientist is sincere; he shows you "Science and Health" with a lot
of testimonials in the back to prove that Christian Science cures
disease. Every patent medicine, every science, every system of healing
has testimonials by the hundreds.
Scientists say there is no disease, no material--that we are only spirit
or soul or thought--that we are not matter but mind. Health, they tell
us, is truth and disease is error. They deny disease, yet "Science and
Health" and the midweek experience meetings have testimonials of disease
cured by Christian Science.
There is much truth in Christian Science. People are helped by it;
people are sincere in their belief in it, but that Christian Science is
all truth, all-powerful, all-right, all-sufficient, cannot be proven.
What about the people who have gone hence before Christian Science was
ever heard of?
The theological religion of to-day differs radically in practice and
belief from what it was fifty years ago.
If the Protestant religion be all truth, what became of our religious
ancestors who died before Martin Luther found the truth?
[Sidenote: The Spirit of Tolerance.]
I have no quarrel with the Christian Scientist, the Protestant, the
Roman Catholic, the Buddhist or the Mohammedan. I must be generous and
broad enough to admit that others have the right to think and be
sincere. All sciences have truth, but no science, sect, cult, dogma or
creed is ALL truth.
Sincerity is evidence of honest conviction, but that your sincerity in
your belief must be accepted by me as proof that I should believe as you
do, is, I believe, the place where I have the undoubted right to say: "I
reserve the right to my own conclusions, and I would be unjust to myself
if I should force myself to accept your viewpoint without fully
satisfying myself that you were right."
So, because a person is sincere in a conviction that is contrary to your
conscientious belief, do not be disturbed. There is no need to swerve
from your own common sense analysis of the matter, or be convinced
against your better judgment.
No one possesses all the truth. It is for you and me to do our plain
duty as we see it--to do the best we can each day in act and thought and
word.
We can pretty much agree on the simple essential truths which are
proven. That is--being honest, truthful, kind, lovable, sympathetic,
cheerful; doing good, helping one another, and doing things worth while.
[Sidenote: Unprofitable Speculation.]
If we agree on these things, and do useful work, and think helpful
thoughts, we are doing our duty. Theories, arguments and studying too
deeply on bootless systems, codes, beliefs, cults, isms and doctrines,
is a waste of time. When we can, here and now, derive definite benefits
from doing the simple and helpful things, and acting and thinking the
simple, practical cheer thoughts, it is neither necessary nor helpful
for us to waste time on spiritualism or theoretical beliefs that cannot
be proven to our own satisfaction.
We are asked to believe these strange, impractical, unnatural beliefs
because of the sincerity of others. It's better to believe and to credit
the things we can ourselves measure, understand and sincerely adopt.
There are hundreds of strange beliefs and spiritual systems, each
claiming to be all-powerful, all-right. If any one is all truth, then
all the others are all wrong.
The bigot who assumes he is the sole possessor of truth--the cult,
sect, ism, or science that claims to possess all truth and presumes to
lay down the exact rules for the world to obey--should be classed with
those misguided religions and institutions of the dark past which burned
human beings who dared to doubt their claim to the possession of all
truth and knowledge.
God never gave his approval to any one man-made religious sect.
God is the universal good power. Man often tries to dwarf God's idea to
the narrow dimensions of his own small soul.
43.
[Sidenote: Whiskey and Fake Medicines.]
Whiskey must go. It is written on the pages of the record book of man's
progress. Likewise must the quack doctor and the fake medicine go. They
have had their day. The quack doctor has already breathed his last in
many parts of the country. The fake medicine schemes are still with us,
but they are becoming increasingly difficult to put over. That they are
doomed to extinction, there can be no doubt.
The side-whiskered advertising doctor who magnifies symptoms and
proclaims them to be grave forerunners of awful, debilitating disease,
is nothing short of a criminal. He is one of the worst of criminals,
because he imposes upon the credulity of the ignorant, excites their
fear by means of sensational scarehead advertising, and then when he has
finally lured them into his spider-web, fleeces them unmercifully. These
charlatans are really more contemptible than any thief, for the thief
does not pretend to be anything else but what he is, while the quack
doctor swindles and exploits you under the guise of being your
benefactor.
As I have repeatedly explained, illness, feeling "out of sorts," local
pains and sickness, unless of the contagious or infectious kind, are
largely conditions of the mind.
Most of the temporary ailments are caused by constipation, wrong diet or
lack of exercise. The doctor gives a laxative, nature re-asserts
herself, and the patient is cured.
Chronic ailments require long treatments--making long bills and many
visits for the quack doctor.
[Sidenote: Your Family Physician.]
Your health and happiness are things largely in your own control.
However, when you feel you must have a doctor, go to your family
physician and not to a strange doctor who advertises. His advertisement
is merely a spiderweb to catch and hold you while he robs you.
It is a hopeful sign of the brighter future toward which man is
progressing, that the respectable papers will not lend their aid to
swindling doctors. The best papers will not carry these quack doctor or
fake medicine ads.
Before long the government will pass laws abolishing this baneful,
shameful, quack advertising. Quack doctoring, gambling, liquor
selling--these are all swindling methods to get money, and in the
getting, the ghouls and parasites who practise these "professions" are
killing men, ruining homes, destroying happiness, holding back progress.
The one object of the quack doctor is to size you up and see what you
"are good for." "Good for" means how much money can he get from you, and
how long can he keep you as a patient to contribute to his coffers.
Let every reader of this book enroll as an opponent to quack doctors and
quack medicines, and by word and influence help to hasten the day when
such pernicious swindlers and swindling schemes are things of the past.
44.
No two minds can see the same picture in the same way, nor can two
persons, armed and equipped with logic, come to the same definite
conclusions on religion.
The old Scripture said: "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."
The new Scripture teaches us to "turn the other cheek" and "love our
enemies."
[Sidenote: Religion, Old and New.]
Two hundred years ago witchcraft was practised and miserable human
beings were burned at the stake. Thirty years ago the preacher who took
exception to the universal belief of a hell of fire and brimstone was
thrown out of the church. To-day no preacher believes in such a hell.
Present day religion is really a Sunday religion. One and a half hours a
week the members of the church join in singing, "We shall know each
other there." The remainder of the week they make it a point to keep
from knowing each other here.
[Sidenote: Sectarianism.]
The Protestant church divides itself into numerous sects, each one
built on some particular ordinance or practice. Each one, in matters of
doctrine, will swallow a camel but will strain at a gnat. One sect
insists that baptism shall be by immersion because the disciples
baptized that way. They believe in following custom literally, yet in
the cities they immerse the members in a big tub under the pulpit, which
practice is entirely different from the method employed by John the
Baptist.
Another sect insists upon having a communion every Sunday because the
Bible says, "As often as you do this," etc. To be literal in the matter
of communion, the Lord's Supper should be served at night, as the
original was, and it should be supper and not a few pieces of broken
crackers.
The sect that insists on following the Scriptures in the matter of
baptism by immersion fails to follow the Scriptures in the matter of
washing the feet or anointing the head.
Many years ago, churches considered it a sacrilege to use an organ.
To-day they have orchestras and hire operatic singers.
So it seems that the church is broadening out. Thinking men refuse to
believe that religion should any longer be a matter of self-chastisement
and worry, sobs and misery. Because so much of this sort of teaching is
prevalent, the church is not making the gains it should. The church is
largely supported by nice little women--many of them maiden ladies who
have little to do and know little of the great problems of the busy
world.
[Sidenote: A Live Religion.]
I am thoroughly convinced that the church must recognize that a great
evolution is taking place--that we must be more charitable, more broad
in our views, less technical in our tenets and more practical in our
work. We will have to cut down the fences between the sects and get
together in the great field for a common cause, rather than try to
maintain little independent vineyards.
Religion must teach smiles and joy, courage and brotherly love, instead
of frowns, dejection, fear and worry.
It must teach us how to be and how to get good out of our to-day on
earth. If we are good and do good here, we certainly need have no fear
for our future prospects.
[Sidenote: The Universal Church.]
Day by day we are progressing from narrowness, bigotry, selfishness and
envy, to broadness, reason, brotherly love and contentment, and we shall
progress from the narrow confines of obstinate orthodoxy or
bulldogmatics, by breaking down sect and cult barriers until we are
joined together in a universal church in which all can put their hearts
and beliefs--in which all can find full range for their spiritual belief
and expression. That big, broad, right church will be in harmony with
God's purpose.
The Creator made all men, and He doesn't confine His love or His
interest to any one little man-made, narrow sect or creed.
"God is love." "Love thy neighbor." "Help the weak; cheer the grief
stricken." Those are the commands and purposes we find everywhere in the
Scriptures.
"He that believeth in me shall be saved." That's a definite promise, and
it is not qualified by a lot of creed paragraphs and beliefs. That
promise doesn't have any "buts" or "ifs." It doesn't say we shall be
saved if we be Methodists or Catholics, Baptists or Presbyterians. Those
names are man-made, and the creeds of those churches are man-made, too.
At the congress of religions in the World's Fair at Chicago, over three
hundred religions and sects were represented by delegates from all over
the world, and every one of these delegates, with hearty accord, sang,
"Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" and "Rock of Ages." Those
hymns were universal; they fitted all creeds and sects.
Big men in the church are intensely interested in the get-together
universal church, and each year will mark a definite progress toward
amalgamation of sects and divisions.
There should be no Methodist Church North and Methodist Church South.
There should not be churches like the Congregational and Presbyterian,
whose creeds are identical, the difference being only in the officers.
The country village of 1,000 population has five churches; it should
have only one. The country is full of half-starved preachers and weak,
struggling congregations.
The get-together movement will help religion, and it's going to happen
surely.
45.
Every year the business man goes over his stock, tools, fixtures, and
accounts, and prepares a statement of assets and liabilities so as to
get a fairly accurate understanding of his profit and loss.
If he didn't take this inventory, his net worth would be a matter of
guess work.
This inventory, which deals with money, materials, etc., and things
which are mixed more or less with the human element, is affected by
conditions of trade, crops, competition, supply and demand.
The business man takes all these conditions into consideration in
preparing for the coming year. He red flags the mistakes and green flags
the good plans.
[Sidenote: Self Inventory. Listing the Liabilities.]
The business man should carry the inventory further. Every month or so
he should take a careful inventory of himself, putting down his assets
of health, initiative, patience, ability to work, smiles, honesty,
sincerity, and the like. So also he should put down on the debit side
in the list of liabilities the pull-backs, hindrances and other
business-killers. These items are untruth, unfairness, sharp practice,
grouchiness, impatience, worry, ill-health, gloom, meanness, broken
word, unfilled promises and the like.
In making up the inventory, pay particular attention to your habits:
smoking, drinking, over-eating, useless display, useless social
functions, and other useless things that pull on your nerves and your
pocket book.
Then check up department A, which is your family. How have you dealt
with your family and children?
Department B is friends. How do you stand in your treatment of them?
Department C includes all other persons. Did you lie to, steal from,
cheat or defraud any one? How much cash profit did you make? How much
less a man did the act make you?
Go over your self-respect account. Does it show profit or loss?
Check up your employees' account. What has your stewardship shown? Have
you drawn the employees closer, or have you driven them further from
you?
Analyze your spiritual account. Is your religious belief a sham or a
conviction? Do you sing on Sunday, "We shall know each other there," or
do you make it a point to know and love your brother here, seven days a
week?
[Sidenote: Balancing the Statement.]
Be fair in your inventory. Write down the facts in the two columns
designated "good" and "bad," then go over the list and put a red danger
flag on the bad. Keep the list until next inventory and see whether you
have made a gain or loss in your net moral standing.
Don't read this and say, "A good idea." Do the thing literally.
Take a clean sheet of paper and write your personal assets and
liabilities down in the two columns marked "good" and "bad."
If this inventory doesn't help, then you may call me a false prophet.
I know the plan is a good one. I know it will help you. If it helps you,
you will thank me. There can be no harm in trying, because it's a
worth-while thing to test.
The business man who never takes inventory is likely to bump some day.
46.
The ego is in us. It is a good thing to have, but egotism needs the soft
pedal when we speak or do things.
Many people are unconscious of their egotism, yet their conversation
carries the suggestion, "Even I, who am superior to the herd, would do
this or that."
[Sidenote: The Personal Pronoun.]
For instance, two persons were arguing about the merits of an
inexpensive automobile. Parenthetically, I may say that one belonged to
the Ford class, and the other to the can't-afford class. A can't-afford
snob came to the rescue of the Ford champion by saying, "That's a good
car; why, I wouldn't mind owning one of them myself," and he beamed at
the party with the consciousness of having settled the matter and
removed the stigma from the Ford car.
This egotism often crops out when one shows a group picture in which he
appears. He doesn't wait for you to find him; he pokes his arm over your
shoulder and says, "That's me."
To each of us, in the very nature of things, the "I" is the center of
our world. We see things always through our I's.
If we wish to get along without friction, we must remember that the
other fellow has his I's also, and when we try to make him see things
through out I's, it makes trouble.
[Sidenote: Good Breeding.]
The hall mark of education, refinement and character, in the broad
sense, is the ability to exclude the personal so far as possible from
our conversation. And be big enough to grant to others their undoubted
right to see and think from their own standpoint.
Argument develops egotism more than almost anything else will.
How often have you convinced another in an argument?
How often have you been convinced in an argument?
The world is big; there are millions of others in it, and our job is a
big one if we 'tend pretty well to our own knittin'.
47.
Four hundred and twenty-six years ago Christopher Columbus landed on an
island which he thought was India.
Chris was mighty happy as he put his foot on good old Mother Earth, not
so much because he had discovered a new way to India, as he thought, but
because his foot touched land.
Two days before he landed on San Salvador, his crew pitched into him and
threatened to throw him in the sea and turn back with the ship to Spain.
[Sidenote: The Last Step Counts.]
If Chris had shown the white feather, 1492 would not be the date of the
first line in the geography, announcing the "Discovery of America."
Chris had perseverance--the stuff that makes men successful. He started
to find India by sailing westward. He didn't succeed in his purpose, but
his determination was rewarded just the same, for he found a new
country, and that was worth while.
Before he started, he was promised ten per cent of the revenue from any
lands he might discover. Just imagine what that would mean to-day.
Columbus had perseverance and pep, and his unwavering fidelity to his
cause brought him success in his efforts.
The world has improved since 1492, but the percentage of men who would
keep everlastingly at it like Columbus did, has not increased, perhaps.
Columbus sailed with three ships, the largest sixty-six feet long. He
steered in the direction of the setting sun. His crew was 120 men. None
of them were enthusiastic at the start; all of them disgusted,
discouraged and ready to mutiny toward the last.
[Sidenote: Keeping Everlastingly at It.]
But Christopher kept the ships pointed West, through rain and shine,
through drifting, breezeless days and through wild stormy nights. He
kept on and on and on, and he brought home the bacon, which, being
interpreted, means that success crowned his efforts.
Perseverance and pep--when all is said and done, these are the factors
without which no great achievement is possible.
It was the mileage made on October 12th, 1492, that counted.
It is the last step in a race that counts.
It is the last stroke on the nail that counts.
The moral is that many a prize has been lost just when it was ready to
be plucked.
Perseverance--patience--pluck--pep--these are magic words. They are the
"Open Sesame" of modern life. They open the door to opportunity, and
will bring you prosperity, peace and plenty.
48.
The man who ridicules everything is on the toboggan slide, and he will
end up by becoming an out-and-out grouch.
You and I know men who never have a pleasant word to say of anyone, or a
serious commendation of anything.
[Sidenote: Ridicule and Humor.]
Ridicule and sarcasm are often coated with would-be humor, and are
sometimes decked out as puns. By and by, however, this bias toward
ridicule and sarcasm gets to be a habit, and the coat of humor becomes
threadbare.
Just at this time friends depart, for the grouch phase of the disease
has started.
Sarcasm and ridicule are powerful weapons when used adroitly and for
good purposes. But when sarcasm and ridicule are used constantly as a
means to generate fun, or as vehicles for humor, then the evil
commences. The fun disappears; the sting remains.
People will listen to you for awhile if you good-naturedly ridicule a
thing, but when you are known to have the habit, that is when friends
give you the go-by.
Sarcasm and ridicule wound deeply; they are hot pokers jabbed in
quivering flesh.
[Sidenote: A Dangerous Weapon.]
Don't juggle with ridicule or sarcasm, for people look beneath the
veneer nowadays. They remember and repeat the axiom, "There's many a
true word spoken in jest." There are so many beautiful things to say, so
many kind expressions to utter, so many helpful hints to give, that we
should be ashamed to say or do things even jokingly that may hurt
another.
When you ridicule a thing or a person, you may ridicule the tender heart
of one you should cheer and help.
Ridicule is the negative approach to a subject anyway; the only good it
can accomplish is by reflex action or rebound force.
Ridicule is mistakenly conceived, by many, as humor. It is used because
it can so easily be employed, in a seemingly clever way, to create a
laugh.
Humor of the clean sort is a rare gift. Humor may easily descend to low
comedy through the use of ridicule, and often the audience does not
differentiate between low comedy and rare humor.
The masses will laugh when the comedian on the stage hits his friend
with a club; that sort of fun-making satisfies adults who have
children's brains, and people of similar brain-construction will also
laugh at jokes which ride on ridicule. But you who read these lines are
worthy of better things; that's why you are reading this book. If, in my
audience, there are those who have the ridicule habit, I want to arouse
you to a better sense of humor than is possible through the employment
of ridicule and sarcasm.
I don't want you to descend to the level of the grouch. The slide-down
is so easy; the climbing back is so very hard.
Ridicule and sarcasm are cheap, slap-stick methods to produce fun. They
leave a sting many times when you are not aware of it.
[Sidenote: When You Can Go the Limit.]
When fighting whiskey, sin, corruption or organized evil, then use
burning ridicule and caustic sarcasm to sizzle and destroy the things
that need to be destroyed. Next time you find yourself using ridicule or
sarcasm to provoke mirth, remember you are toying with a habit-forming
practice that is likely to get the best of you unless you stop and stop
now.
49.
[Sidenote: Your Wife and Partner.]
A wife is either a partner or an employee. If a partner, she has a
right to the fifty-fifty split on profits; if an employee, she is
entitled to her wages. A thrifty husband is commendable, but a
show-me-what-you-did-with-that-money husband should be punished by
being sentenced to attend pink teas, afternoon receptions, and to
match samples at the dry goods store.
Married folks must be on a partnership basis, or there's sand in the
gear box.
Give the wife the check-book; let her pay the bills. Play fair with her;
show her what your income is; give her all you can afford and what
economic and wise administration warrants. She'll cut the cloth to fit
the garment.
When the husband questions every turn, every move, and doles out every
cent, the wife feels like a prisoner or a slave. Wives will do good team
work when they are broken to double harness with their husbands.
Women are generally raised without being required to economize. They
have probably been petted and humored, and are used to preening and
smoothing their plumage and looking pretty.
[Sidenote: Fine Feathers.]
It's the female instinct in the human. In the animal world, the male has
the plumage and does the strutting and fascinating; but in the human
animal, the female is the bird with the bright plumage.
You can't expect her to know much about the economic side of the home
the moment you slip the ring on her finger.
But she'll shop better than her husband if he takes an interest in her
shopping and encourages her in the economical administration of the
household budget.
She wants a word of appreciation once in a while. She chills under the
surveillance and parsimony of an eagle-eyed, meddlesome husband.
She's a sweet bird, and sweet birds and hawks don't nest well together.
Where the hawk and the dove are in the same cage, the feathers will fly.
As I came through the park this morning, I saw a pair of robins who had
the right idea. They shared home responsibilities and did fine team
work. I think they were mighty happy, too; daddy red breast looked
mighty proud as he hustled worms for the family breakfast.
Mama Robin looked down with loving eyes at her hubby, and the little
baby robins sang a chorus of joy at the very privilege of living in such
a home.
Worry will fly out of the window the moment the husband and wife lay
their cards on the table and play the open hand. The moment one or the
other keeps a few cards up their sleeve, then worry and trouble come
back.
The moral of this is, husbands and wives: live together, get together,
stay together, play together, save together, grow together, share
together. Travel the same road; don't take different paths.
50.
To-night I am in the Ozarks, and old Mother Earth is passing through the
belt of meteoric dust--that great mysterious sea in the universe through
which we pass every year about the middle of November.
[Sidenote: The Stars.]
I look out into the night and marvel at the countless stars in the
infinite black void, and wonder how closely those stars may be connected
with humanity. That they are connected, I have no doubt, for truly, "the
sun, the moon, the stars, and endless space as well, are parts, are
things, like me, that cometh from and runneth by one grand power of
which I am in truth a part, an atom though I be."
How many stars are there? Well, let's get ready to appreciate number. I
can see about 3,000; with opera glasses I could see 30,000.
Franklin Adams some years ago photographed the whole canopy with 206
exposures. He counted the stars by mathematical plans, and published his
finding that there were 1,600,000,000 stars. That number is just about
the number of humans on this earth. So, then, there is one star for each
of us.
[Sidenote: Finite and Infinite.]
Each of those stars, practically speaking, is larger than the earth. It
is thought that many of them may have human beings who think and reason
like we do. Multiply the 1,600,000,000 population on this earth by any
portion of the 1,600,000,000 stars that may have thinking creatures on
them; multiply that total by the millions of years and millions of
generations that have passed out of existence.
Think of these numbers and limitless boundaries, and then tell me, if
you can, that one little man on one little star we call Earth has a
strangle-hold on truth, and that his viewpoint, his ism, his little
dogma, his narrow creed, is all-sufficient, all-right, all-inclusive.
Verily, little protoplasm, you have another guess. We can, by experience
and tests, prove two and two make four. We can by practice and
experience prove that love, kindness, help, gentleness, sympathy, cheer
and courage bring happiness.
[Sidenote: The Sense of Proportion.]
These are tangible things that fall within the province of human
experience. But when one wee Willie with sober face tells you and me
and others that he has the truth about the definite, full workings of
God's plans and purposes, I think of the greatness of 1,600,000,000
stars, each with 1,600,000,000 humans, and of the unnumbered generations
gone by, and say that verily, we must live TO-DAY and do the best we can
to-day in act and thought and word.
Yesterday is dead; to-morrow is unknown. Where we have been, where we
will be, we know not. Where we are to-day, we know, and only God in His
omniscience knows the final answer as to our future estate.
He will take us and hold us and place us in His keeping and according to
His purpose, even though we do not or cannot follow or believe any one
of the little man-formed creeds, isms or cults as the measure and rule
for our beliefs.
Those stars testify to the certainty of God, and I believe in Him.
51.
[Sidenote: Success and Envy.]
When a man by his brains, or by a fortunate combination of
circumstances, rises to a position of prominence, he becomes a target
for the envious and a pattern for the imitator. Emulation and envy are
ever alert in trying to steal the fruits of the leader or the doer of
things.
The man who makes a name gets both reward and punishment. The reward is
his satisfaction in being a producer, a help to the world, and the glory
that comes from widespread recognition and publicity of his
accomplishment. The punishment is the slurs, the enmity, the envy and
the detraction, to say nothing of the downright lies which are told
about him.
When a man writes a great book, builds a great machine, discovers a
great truth or invents a useful article, he becomes a target for the
envious many.
If he does a mediocre thing, he is unnoticed; if his work is a
masterpiece, jealousy wags its tongue and untruth uses its sting.
Wagner was jeered. Whistler was called a mere charlatan. Langley was
pronounced crazy. Fulton and Stephenson were pitied. Columbus faced
mutiny on his ship on the very eve of his discovery of land. Millet
starved in his attic. Time has passed, and the backbiters are all in
unmarked graves. The world, until the end of time, will enjoy Wagner's
music. Whistler and Millet's paintings attract artists from all over the
world, and inventors reverence the names of Fulton and Stephenson.
[Sidenote: The Price of Greatness.]
The leader is assailed because he has done a thing worth while; the
slanderers are trying to equal his feat, but their imitations serve to
prove his greatness. Because jealous ones cannot equal the leader, they
seek to belittle him. But the truly worth-while man wins his laurels and
he remains a leader. He has made his genius count, and has given the
creature of his brain and imagination to the world.
Above the clamor and noise, above the din of the rocks thrown at him,
his masterpiece and his fame endure.
And compensation, the salve to the sore, makes the great man deaf to the
noise and immune to the attacks of the knockers.
In his own heart he knows he has done a thing worth while; his own
conscience is clear, and he cares not for the estimate of the world.
His own character is his chief concern, and he is content in the
knowledge that time will bring its reward.
If you have high ideals in business, if you achieve success on a big
scale, mark well, you will be a subject of attacks, of lies, of malice,
of envy, of disreputable competition. There is no way out of it.
[Sidenote: Compensation.]
But you will be repaid. The lover of fair play, the grateful, true,
honest, worth-while people will flock to your standard; the riff-raff
will skulk behind bushes and throw rocks and mud, but their acts will
prove to the great mass of the people that your purposes, practices and
policies are right.
Therefore, courage is to be your chief asset; patience, pride,
perseverance, your lieutenants.
Be not weary, grow not discouraged when your progress is hampered by
obstacles. Every truly great man of the past has had his backbiters and
detractors.
52.
There are three periods in our lives: the youthful, or prospective
period, the adult, or introspective period, and the old age, or
retrospective period.
[Sidenote: Growing Old.]
Too many there are who look forward to old age with fear or dread. But
old age has its joys and pleasures as well as middle age and youth, and
these pleasures are the keener if the first and second periods of life
were lived sanely, worthily and properly. Numerous are the great men of
the past who have extolled the old-age period of human life with its
wisdom and wealth of worldly experience.
If the middle period is spent in getting dollars only, then old age will
be days of empty nothingness.
Youth is the planning time--the time for ideals and ambitions; middle
age the building time, and old age the dividend time.
With many, old age is spent in reading the book of the past--with
sadness as the reader recognizes that the ideals, plans and hopes were
shattered. As age turns the page in the book of the past, he reads one
hope after another vanished in smoke.
Anticipation is seldom realized, and this is as it should be, for in
time, men will learn to live each day for each day's good and each day's
happiness.
Let us perform our duty to-day; let us lay away a kindly act, a smile, a
word of cheer in the bank of good deeds.
Each of us has a share in this world's work. It matters little whether
our actual share is what we had guessed or wished it to be.
[Sidenote: The Value of Ideals.]
Vicissitudes will cross our path here and there; so-called misfortune or
bad luck will strike us when least expected. The failure of our dreams
should not grieve us. We cannot reach up and grasp the stars, but like
the pilot at the wheel at sea, we can steer by those stars that help us
on our way.
Our ideal may not be realized, but the journey to it may still be a
pleasant one.
Our ideals, plans and hopes had a real purpose, a real service; they
gave us courage and made us work, and thus they were well worth while.
We must not, in the old age period, condemn ourselves because our plans
failed or our castles were shattered.
There is no hard luck except incurable disease or death. It is not for
us to mourn the past or weep for the flowers that are gone.
In our active days, we should realize that we are putting memories away
in our brains that will come back to us in old age.
Only that which we put in our brains can we take out.
So then, Mr. Avarice, I warn you: If gold is your God, it's cold comfort
you will get in your sunset days.
Build up loving ties, appreciation and the worth-while riches of good
deeds, and in your evening of life, you will be welcome wherever you go.
[Sidenote: Put Not Your Faith in Gold.]
If your life was sold for gold, your evening of life will be short and
miserable; legatees will grudge you your every breath; they will endure
you simply because they are checking off the days from Time's calendar
until the day of your passing, and the dollars you sold your soul and
heart and life for, will be lavishly spent by cold-blooded heirs who
cared nothing for you.
Leave a legacy of love, example and character, and if, with these,
there are a few dollars, they simply prove your frugality, economy and
independence.
A few dollars left to heirs will help. Many dollars will hurt. Dollars
in old age will give you pleasure by helping in tight corners. They will
enable you to help your loved ones over the bumps in the road.
Use the dollars to help those you love to help themselves, and your old
age will be a busy, happy one, and you won't be in the way.
To prepare for that happy period of your life, the foundation must be
built in the active to-day period.
Carry smiles into your old age; they will keep the heart young, the
digestion good, and life will be worth while.
53.
I have traveled horseback over the great arid plains of the West, and
have read the story of the ages gone before.
[Sidenote: The Remote Past.]
In Arizona and New Mexico there are ancient ruins of forts and cities
built by people we know not of. Chalcedony Park with its petrified
forest of mammoth trees silently testifies to a period when vegetation
was rampant on what is now a desert.
In Wyoming there is coal enough to furnish fuel for the United States
for several centuries.
Coal is carbon made from decayed trees and vegetation, which became
covered with earth and rock, and was subjected to tremendous pressure
throughout the thousands of years required to effect the transformation.
Oceans and floods gradually covered millions of acres of trees and
plants with ooze and soil and sand. Ages turned some of these deposits
to stone.
There in bleak Wyoming is testimony and evidence of changes that time
only can bring about.
"A thousand years is as a day and a day is as a thousand years." Thus
wrote the scribe of old. So, then, we must consider this estimate of
time in reading the first chapter of Genesis which describes the order
of the world's creation.
First took place the dividing of light from darkness, thus bringing
about the rotation of day and night.
Then, the separating of land and water; then, the birth of vegetation on
the land, the creation of fish and reptiles in the sea, the fowls of the
air, the beasts of the field, and finally, the higher animal, man.
[Sidenote: The Measure of Time.]
The pages of the earth's surface carry in their stratification indelible
records harmonizing with this scriptural account of the evolution of the
earth from its chaotic misty past to its concrete definite present. Yes,
this earth of ours is old, so old that mere man cannot contemplate or
accurately estimate its wondrous age.
The fossils of the mammoth reptiles and beasts which lived before the
appearance of man on this planet are numerous in the fascinating West I
know so well.
In those arid desert hills are bones of the ancient rhinoceros--parent
of our horse--and there are shells, and fossils of fish, and bones of
animals imbedded in the strata of rock.
Man reads these pages and he is lost in bewilderment, impoverished in
thought, dumb for words, paralyzed by his inability to co-ordinate this
evidence with any measure of time that will fall within the range of
human comprehension.
[Sidenote: Age of the Earth.]
Historians say the world was 4,004 years old before the Christian era,
and 1918 years have passed since then, making the age to date 5,922
years. It is not surprising that through the dark ages, dates and facts
were lost. We have not a complete history in written language, but we
have some very definite history in the rocks and hills and lands and
seas.
The world certainly is more than 5,922 years old. Read the record of
time so plainly visible at Niagara Falls.
Niagara Falls eats away about two feet of rock in a century; the gorge
is a good many miles long. At the present rate of erosion, it takes
2,640 years to eat away a mile. Multiply that by the distance between
the falls and Lake Ontario and you have an idea of how many years
Niagara Falls has been at work.
Before Niagara Falls was in existence, the country round about was
under the sea; before that, under glaciers; before that, in the tropics,
and I don't know how many times it has swung on its pendulum between
Frigid, Temperate and Torrid Zones.
We are certain to become lost in a labyrinth of mystery when we take
these known facts concerning the earth's age, and try to specify any
particular number of millions of years as the old world's age.
54.
And now my pleasant occupation of writing this book draws to an end. I
sincerely hope you have received some definite suggestions that will be
helpful to you.
To get you to think--that has been my aim. To get you to analyze
yourself--to take stock of yourself--to know yourself--that has been the
task I set before me.
[Sidenote: How to Think.]
Think vital thoughts of courage, faith and hope. Then will your days
pass joyfully, and your path be one of peace, happiness and contentment.
If you fill your mind with gloom and sorrow thoughts, your surroundings
will reflect your mental attitude and will accentuate your misery and
dejection. Do not give way to this weak, gloomy, pernicious thinking.
You can be strong, you will be strong if you learn to control your
thought habits.
Can you face disagreeable facts without wavering? Can you meet adversity
with courage in your heart and a smile on your lips? You can, if you
have read this book carefully, calmly, thoughtfully, and put into
practice the rules I have laid down.
Do not think that you can go through life without your share of pain,
disillusion and disappointment. It can't be done. No man has ever done
it. Clouds will come, but they can be dispelled. Obstacles will arise,
but they can be surmounted. Troubles will visit you, but meet them
boldly and courageously and do not show the white feather.
To the thinking man or woman, life is a great arena wherein good and
bad, joy and sorrow, faith and disillusion, happiness and unhappiness,
success and failure are inextricably intermingled. The joy and
happiness, accept gratefully; the sorrow and disillusion, bear with
fortitude. And remember, although it is not possible to enjoy an
absolute and continued state of happiness, it always lies within your
power to have serenity, poise, peace and contentment.
When you are in the dumps--when that feeling of the hopelessness and
un-worth-whileness of life comes over you, then, more than ever,
_think_. Do not give way to fear and despondency. Think cheerful
thoughts; think of the good things that life has given you, not the
least of them being life itself. Think of the ringing words that Milton
put into the mouth of Lucifer, the fallen angel, in "Paradise Lost":
"The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven."
[Sidenote: Life's Ever-Newness.]
To the person who thinks, life is ever-new, ever-interesting. If you
have lost your grip on reality--if you have dwelt too long in the
shadowland of doubt, fear and despondency--the thing to do is to correct
your thinking. Let your mind soar in contemplation of the beautiful
things of nature. Steel yourself against petty pull-backs and recognize
them for what they really are--trifling annoyances that serve no purpose
except to distract you from the pursuit of the great and glorious goal
that lies ahead.
Only to the thinking man is it given to see life and see it whole. He
only has the true sense of proportion. He keeps his eye on the main
objective, secure in the realization that he is master of himself and
captain of his own soul. He is self-sufficient, for he knows that no
matter what befalls, he carries happiness and contentment within himself
wherever he goes.
The practice of thinking is a tower of strength. If you are a thinker,
life's little troubles serve but to reinforce your spirit of resistance
and make you stronger.
So then, let this be my last word to you--_think!_--for it is by
thinking that man has risen to his present high estate in the world. It
is by thinking that the future joy and happiness and peace of the world
must be increased.