God is the Spirit of Infinite Life. If we are partakers of this life,
and have the power of opening ourselves fully to its divine inflow, it
means more, so far as even the physical life is concerned, than we may
at first think. For very clearly, the life of this Infinite Spirit,
from its very nature, can admit of no disease; and if this is true, no
disease can exist in the body where it freely enters, through which it
freely flows.
Let us recognize at the outset that, so far as the physical life is
concerned, _all life is from within out_. There is an immutable law
which says: "As within, so without; cause, effect." In other words,
the thought forces, the various mental states and the emotions, all
have in time their effects upon the physical body.
Some one says: "I hear a great deal said today in regard to the effects
of the mind upon the body, but I don't know as I place very much
confidence in this." Don't you? Some one brings you sudden news. You
grow pale, you tremble, or perhaps you fall into a faint. It is,
however, through the channel of your mind that the news is imparted to
you. A friend says something to you, perhaps at the table, something
that seems very unkind. You are hurt by it, as we say. You have been
enjoying your dinner, but from this moment your appetite is gone. But
what was said entered into and affected you through the channel of your
mind.
Look! yonder goes a young man, dragging his feet, stumbling over the
slightest obstruction in the path. Why is it? Simply that he is
weak-minded, an idiot. In other words, _a falling state of mind is
productive of a falling condition of the body_. To be sure minded is
to be sure footed. To be uncertain in mind is to be uncertain in step.
Again, a sudden emergency arises. You stand trembling and weak with
fear. Why are you powerless to move? Why do you tremble? And yet you
believe that the mind has but little influence upon the body. You are
for a moment dominated by a fit of anger. For a few hours afterwards
you complain of a violent headache. And still you do not seem to
realize that the thoughts and emotions have an effect upon the body.
A day or two ago, while conversing with a friend, we were speaking of
worry. "My father is greatly given to worry," he said. "Your father
is not a healthy man," I said. "He is not strong, vigorous, robust,
and active." I then went on to describe to him more fully his father's
condition and the troubles which afflicted him. He looked at me in
surprise and said, "Why, you do not know my father?" "No," I replied.
"How then can you describe so accurately the disease with which he is
afflicted?" "You have just told me that your father is greatly given
to worry. When you told me this you indicated to me cause. In
describing your father's condition I simply connected with the cause
its own peculiar effects."
Fear and worry have the effect of closing up the channels of the body,
so that the life forces flow in a slow and sluggish manner. Hope and
tranquillity open the channels of the body, so that the life forces go
bounding through it in such a way that disease can rarely get a
foothold.
Not long ago a lady was telling a friend of a serious physical trouble.
My friend happened to know that between this lady and her sister the
most kindly relations did not exist. He listened attentively to her
delineation of her troubles, and then, looking her squarely in the
face, in a firm but kindly tone said: "Forgive your sister." The woman
looked at him in surprise and said: "I can't forgive my sister." "Very
well, then," he replied, "keep the stiffness of your joints and your
kindred rheumatic troubles."
A few weeks later he saw her again. With a light step she came toward
him and said: "I took your advice. I saw my sister and forgave her.
We have become good friends again, and I don't know how it is, but
somehow or other from the very day, as I remember, that we became
reconciled, my troubles seemed to grow less, and today there is not a
trace of the old difficulties left; and really, my sister and I have
become such good friends that now we can scarcely get along without one
another." Again we have effect following cause.
We have several well-authenticated cases of the following nature: A
mother has been dominated for a few moments by an intense passion of
anger, and the child at her breast has died within an hour's time, so
poisoned became the mother's milk by virtue of the poisonous secretions
of the system while under the domination of this fit of anger. In
other cases it has caused severe illness and convulsions.
The following experiment has been tried a number of times by a
well-known scientist: Several men have been put into a heated room.
Each man has been dominated for a moment by a particular passion of
some kind; one by an intense passion of anger, and others by different
other passions. The experimenter has taken a drop of perspiration from
the body of each of these men, and by means of a careful chemical
analysis he has been able to determine the particular passion by which
each has been dominated. Practically the same results revealed
themselves in the chemical analysis of the saliva of each of the men.
Says a noted American author, an able graduate of one of our greatest
medical schools, and one who has studied deeply into the forces that
build the body and the forces that tear it down: "The mind is the
natural protector of the body. . . . Every thought tends to reproduce
itself, and ghastly mental pictures of disease, sensuality, and vice of
all sorts, produce scrofula and leprosy in the soul, which reproduces
them in the body. Anger changes the chemical properties of the saliva
to a poison dangerous to life. It is well known that sudden and
violent emotions have not only weakened the heart in a few hours, but
have caused death and insanity. It has been discovered by scientists
that there is a chemical difference between that sudden cold exudation
of a person under a deep sense of guilt and the ordinary perspiration;
and the state of the mind can sometimes be determined by chemical
analysis of the perspiration of a criminal, which, when brought into
contact with selenic acid, produces a distinctive pink color. It is
well known that fear has killed thousands of victims; while, on the
other hand, _courage is a great invigorator_.
"Anger in the mother may poison a nursing child. Rarey, the celebrated
horse-tamer, said that an angry word would sometimes raise the pulse of
a horse ten beats in a minute. If this is true of a beast, what can we
say of its power upon human beings, especially upon a child? Strong
mental emotion often causes vomiting. Extreme anger or fright may
produce jaundice. A violent paroxysm of rage has caused apoplexy and
death. Indeed, in more than one instance, a single night of mental
agony has wrecked a life. Grief, long-standing jealousy, constant care
and corroding anxiety sometimes tend to develop insanity. Sick
thoughts and discordant moods are the natural atmosphere of disease,
and crime is engendered and thrives in the miasma of the mind."
From all this we get the great fact we are scientifically demonstrating
today,--that the various mental states, emotions, and passions have
their various peculiar effects upon the body, and each induces in turn,
if indulged in to any great extent, its own peculiar forms of disease,
and these in time become chronic.
Just a word or two in regard to their mode of operation. If a person
is dominated for a moment by, say a passion of anger, there is set up
in the physical organism what we might justly term a bodily
thunder-storm, which has the effect of souring, or rather of corroding,
the normal, healthy, and life-giving secretions of the body, so that
instead of performing their natural functions they become poisonous and
destructive. And if this goes on to any great extent, by virtue of
their cumulative influences, they give rise to a particular form of
disease, which in turn becomes chronic. So the emotion opposite to
this, that of kindliness, love, benevolence, good-will, tends to
stimulate a healthy, purifying, and life-giving flow of all the bodily
secretions. All the channels of the body seem free and open; the life
forces go bounding through them. And these very forces, set into a
bounding activity, will in time counteract the poisonous and
disease-giving effects of their opposites.
A physician goes to see a patient. He gives no medicine this morning.
Yet the very fact of his going makes the patient better. He has
carried with him the spirit of health; he has carried brightness of
tone and disposition; he has carried hope into the sick chamber; he has
left it there. In fact, the very hope and good cheer he has carried
with him has taken hold of and has had a subtle but powerful influence
upon the mind of the patient; and this mental condition imparted by the
physician has in turn its effects upon the patient's body, and so
through the instrumentality of this mental suggestion the healing goes
on.
"Know, then, whatever cheerful and serene
Supports the mind, supports the body, too.
Hence the most vital movement mortals feel
Is _hope_; the balm and life-blood of the soul."
We sometimes hear a person in weak health say to another, "I always
feel better when you come." There is a deep scientific reason
underlying the statement. "The tongue of the wise is health." The
power of suggestion so far as the human mind is concerned is a most
wonderful and interesting field of study. Most wonderful and powerful
forces can be set into operation through this agency. One of the
world's most noted scientists, recognized everywhere as one of the most
eminent anatomists living, tells us that he has proven from laboratory
experiments that the entire human structure can be completely changed,
made over, within a period of less than one year, and that some
portions can be entirely remade within a period of a very few weeks.
"Do you mean to say," I hear it asked, "that the body can be changed
from a diseased to a healthy condition through the operation of the
interior forces?" Most certainly; and more, this is the natural method
of cure. The method that has as its work the application of drugs,
medicines and external agencies is the artificial method. The only
thing that any drug or any medicine can do is to remove obstructions,
that the life forces may have simply a better chance to do their work.
_The real healing process must be performed by the operation of the
life forces within_. A surgeon and physician of world-wide fame
recently made to his medical associates the following declaration: "For
generations past the most important influence that plays upon
nutrition, the _life principle_ itself, has remained an unconsidered
element in the medical profession, and the almost exclusive drift of
its studies and remedial paraphernalia has been confined to the action
of matter over mind. This has seriously interfered with the
evolutionary tendencies of the doctors themselves, and consequently the
psychic factor in professional life is still in a rudimentary or
comparatively undeveloped state. But the light of the nineteenth
century has dawned, and so the march of mankind in general is taken in
the direction of the hidden forces of nature. Doctors are now
compelled to join the ranks of students in psychology and follow their
patrons into the broader field of mental therapeutics. There is no
time for lingering, no time for skepticism or doubt or hesitation. _He
who lingers is lost, for the entire race is enlisted in the movement_."
I am aware of the fact that in connection with the matter we are now
considering there has been a great deal of foolishness during the past
few years. Many absurd and foolish things have been claimed and done;
but this says nothing against, and it has absolutely nothing to do with
the great underlying laws themselves. The same has been true of the
early days of practically every system of ethics or philosophy or
religion the world has ever known. But as time has passed, these
foolish, absurd things have fallen away, and the great eternal
principles have stood out ever more and more clearly defined.
I know _personally_ of many cases where an entire and permanent cure
has been effected, in some within a remarkably short period of time,
through the operation of these forces. Some of them are cases that had
been entirely given up by the regular practice, _materia medica_. We
have numerous accounts of such cases in all times and in connection
with all religions. And why should not the power of effecting such
cures exist among us today? The _power does exist_, and it will be
actualized in just the degree that we recognize the same great laws
that were recognized in times past.
One person may do a very great deal in connection with the healing of
another, but this almost invariably implies co-operation on the part of
the one who is thus treated. In the cures that Christ performed he
most always needed the co-operation of the one who appealed to him.
His question almost invariably was, "Dost thou believe?" He thus
stimulated into activity the life-giving forces within the one cured.
If one is in a very weak condition, or if his nervous system is
exhausted, or if his mind through the influence of the disease is not
so strong in its workings, it may be well for him for a time to seek
the aid and co-operation of another. But it would be far better for
such a one could he bring himself to a vital realization of the
omnipotence of his own interior powers.
One may cure another, but to be _permanently healed_ one must do it
himself. In this way another may be most valuable as a teacher by
bringing one to a clear realization of the power of the forces within,
but in every case, in order to have a permanent cure, the work of the
self is necessary. Christ's words were almost invariably,--Go and sin
no more, or, thy sins are forgiven thee, thus pointing out the one
eternal and never-changing fact,--that all disease and its consequent
suffering is the direct or the indirect result of the violation of law,
either consciously or unconsciously, either intentionally or
unintentionally.
Suffering is designed to continue only so long as sin continues, sin
not necessarily in the theological, but always in the philosophical
sense, though many times in the sense of both. The moment the
violation ceases, the moment one comes into perfect harmony with the
law, the cause of the suffering ceases; and though there may be
residing within the cumulative effects of past violation, the cause is
removed, and consequently there can be no more effects in the form of
additions, and even the diseased condition that has been induced from
past violation will begin to disappear as soon as the right forces are
set into activity.
There is nothing that will more quickly and more completely bring one
into harmony with the laws under which he lives than this vital
realization of his oneness with the Infinite Spirit, which is the life
of all life. In this there can be no disease, and nothing will more
readily remove from the organism the obstructions that have accumulated
there, or in other words, the disease that resides there, than this
full realization and the complete opening of one's self to this divine
inflow. "I shall put My spirit in you, and ye shall live."
The moment a person realizes his oneness with the Infinite Spirit he
recognizes himself as a spiritual being, and no longer as a mere
physical, material being. He then no longer makes the mistake of
regarding himself as body, subject to ills and diseases, but he
realizes the fact that he is spirit, spirit now as much as he ever will
or can be, and that he is the builder and so the master of the body,
the house in which he lives; and the moment he thus recognizes his
power as master he ceases in any way to allow it the mastery over him.
He no longer fears the elements or any of the forces that he now in his
ignorance allows to take hold of and affect the body. The moment he
realizes his own supremacy, instead of fearing them as he did when he
was out of harmony with them, he learns to love them. He thus comes
into harmony with them; or rather, he so orders them that they come
into harmony with him. He who formerly was the slave has now become
the master. The moment we come to love a thing it no longer carries
harm for us.
There are almost countless numbers today, weak and suffering in body,
who would become strong and healthy if they would only give God an
opportunity to do His work. To such I would say, _Don't shut out the
divine inflow_. Do anything else rather than this. Open yourselves to
it. Invite it. In the degree that you open yourselves to it, its
inflowing tide will course through your bodies a force so vital that
the old obstructions that are dominating them today will be driven out
before it. "My words are life to them that find them, and health to
all their flesh."
There is a trough through which a stream of muddy water has been
flowing for many days. The dirt has gradually collected on its sides
and bottom, and it continues to collect as long as the muddy water
flows through it. Change this. Open the trough to a swift-flowing
stream of clear, crystal water, and in a very little while even the
very dirt that has collected on its sides and bottom will be carried
away. The trough will be entirely cleansed. It will present an aspect
of beauty and no longer an aspect of ugliness. And more, the water
that now courses through it will be of value; it will be an agent of
refreshment, of health and of strength to those who use it.
Yes, in just the degree that you realize your oneness with this
Infinite Spirit of Life, and thus actualize your latent possibilities
and powers, you will exchange dis-ease for ease, inharmony for harmony,
suffering and pain for abounding health and strength. And in the
degree that you realize this wholeness, this abounding health and
strength in yourself, will you carry it to all with whom you come in
contact; for _we must remember that health is contagious as well as
disease_.
I hear it asked, What can be said in a concrete way in regard to the
practical application of these truths, so that one can hold himself in
the enjoyment of perfect bodily health; and more, that one may heal
himself of any existing disease? In reply, let it be said that the
chief thing that can be done is to point out the great underlying
principle, and that each individual must make his own application; one
person cannot well make this for another.
First let it be said, that the very fact of one's holding the thought
of perfect health sets into operation vital forces which will in time
be more or less productive of the effect,--perfect health. Then
speaking more directly in regard to the great principle itself, from
its very nature, it is clear that more can be accomplished through the
process of realization than through the process of affirmation, though
for some affirmation may be a help, an aid to realization.
In the degree, however, that you come into a vital realization of your
oneness with the Infinite Spirit of Life, whence all life in individual
form has come and is continually coming, and in the degree that through
this realization you open yourself to its divine inflow, do you set
into operation forces that will sooner or later bring even the physical
body into a state of abounding health and strength. For to realize
that this Infinite Spirit of Life can from its very nature admit of no
disease, and to realize that this, then, is the life in you, by
realizing your oneness with it, you can so open yourself to its more
abundant entrance that the diseased bodily conditions--effects--will
respond to the influences of its all-perfect power, this either quickly
or more tardily, depending entirely upon yourself.
There have been those who have been able to open themselves so fully to
this realization that the healing has been instantaneous and permanent.
The degree of intensity always eliminates in like degree the element of
time. _It must, however, be a calm, quiet, and expectant intensity,
rather than an intensity that is fearing, disturbed, and
non-expectant_. Then there are others who have come to this
realization by degrees.
Many will receive great help, and many will be entirely healed by a
practice somewhat after the following nature: With a mind at peace, and
with a heart going out in love to all, go into the quiet of your own
interior self, holding the thought,--I am one with the Infinite Spirit
of Life, the life of my life. I then as spirit, I a spiritual being,
can in my own real nature admit of no disease. I now open my body, in
which disease has gotten a foothold, I open it fully to the inflowing
tide of this Infinite Life, and it now, even now, is pouring in and
coursing through my body, and the healing process is going on. Realize
this so fully that you begin to feel a quickening and a warming glow
imparted by the life forces to the body. Believe the healing process
is going on. Believe it, and hold continually to it. Many people
greatly desire a certain thing, but expect something else. They have
greater faith in the power of evil than in the power of good, and hence
remain ill.
If one will give himself to this meditation, realization, treatment, or
whatever term it may seem best to use, at stated times, as often as he
may choose, and then _continually hold himself in the same attitude of
mind_, thus allowing the force to work continually, he will be
surprised how rapidly the body will be exchanging conditions of disease
and inharmony for health and harmony. There is no particular reason,
however, for this surprise, for in this way he is simply allowing the
Omnipotent Power to do the work, which will have to do it ultimately in
any case.
If there is a local difficulty, and one wants to open this particular
portion, in addition to the entire body, to this inflowing life, he can
hold this particular portion in thought, for to fix the thought in this
way upon any particular portion of the body stimulates or increases the
flow of the life forces in that portion. It must always be borne in
mind, however, that whatever healing may be thus accomplished, effects
will not permanently cease until causes have been removed. In other
words, _as long as there is the violation of law, so long disease and
suffering will result_.
This realization that we are considering will have an influence not
only where there is a diseased condition of the body, but even where
there is not this condition it will give an increased bodily life,
vigor, and power.
We have had many cases, in all times and in all countries, of healing
through the operation of the interior forces, entirely independent of
external agencies. Various have been the methods, or rather, various
have been the names applied to them, but the great law underlying all
is one and the same, and the same today. When the Master sent his
followers forth, his injunction to them was to heal the sick and the
afflicted, as well as to teach the people. The early church fathers
had the power of healing, in short, it was a part of their work.
And why should we not have the power today, the same as they had it
then? Are the laws at all different? Identically the same. Why,
then? Simply because, with a few rare exceptions here and there, we
are unable to get beyond the mere letter of the law into its real vital
spirit and power. It is the letter that killeth, it is the spirit that
giveth life and power. Every soul who becomes so individualized that
he breaks through the mere letter and enters into the real vital
spirit, _will have the power_, as have all who have gone before, and
when he does, he will also be the means of imparting it to others, for
he will be one who will move and who will speak with authority.
We are rapidly finding today, and we shall find even more and more, as
time passes, that practically all disease, with its consequent
suffering, has its origin in perverted mental and emotional states and
conditions. _The mental attitude we take toward anything determines to
a greater or less extent its effects upon us_. If we fear it, or if we
antagonize it, the chances are that it will have detrimental or even
disastrous effects upon us. If we come into harmony with it by quietly
recognizing and inwardly asserting our superiority over it, in the
degree that we are able successfully to do this, in that degree will it
carry with it no injury for us.
No disease can enter into or take hold of our bodies unless it find
therein something corresponding to itself which makes it possible. And
in the same way, no evil or undesirable condition of any kind can come
into our lives unless there is already in them that which invites it
and so makes it possible for it to come. The sooner we begin to look
within ourselves for the cause of whatever comes to us, the better it
will be, for so much the sooner will we begin to make conditions within
ourselves such that only _good_ may enter.
We, who from our very natures should be masters of all conditions, by
virtue of our ignorance are mastered by almost numberless conditions of
every description.
Do I fear a draft? There is nothing in the draft--a little purifying
current of God's pure air--to cause me trouble, to bring on a cold,
perhaps an illness. The draft can affect me only in the degree that _I
myself_ make it possible, only in the degree that I allow it to affect
me. We must distinguish between causes and mere occasions. The draft
is not cause, nor does it carry cause with it.
Two persons are sitting in the same draft. The one is injuriously
affected by it, the other experiences not even an inconvenience, but he
rather enjoys it. The one is a creature of circumstances; he fears the
draft, cringes before it, continually thinks of the harm it is doing
him. In other words, he opens every avenue for it to enter and take
hold of him, and so it--harmless and beneficent in itself--brings to
him exactly what he has empowered it to bring. The other recognizes
himself as the master over and not the creature of circumstances. He
is not concerned about the draft. He puts himself into harmony with
it, makes himself positive to it, and instead of experiencing any
discomfort, he enjoys it, and in addition to its doing him a service by
bringing the pure fresh air from without to him, it does him the
additional service of hardening him even more to any future conditions
of a like nature. But if the draft was cause, it would bring the same
results to both. The fact that it does not, shows that it is not a
cause, but a condition, and it brings to each, effects which correspond
to the conditions it finds within each.
Poor draft! How many thousands, nay millions of times it is made the
scapegoat by those who are too ignorant or too unfair to look their own
weaknesses square in the face, and who instead of becoming imperial
masters, remain cringing slaves. Think of it, what it means! A man
created in the image of the eternal God, sharer of His life and power,
born to have dominion, fearing, shaking, cringing before a little draft
of pure life-giving air. But scapegoats are convenient things, even if
the only thing they do for us is to aid us in our constant efforts at
self-delusion.
The best way to disarm a draft of the bad effects it has been
accustomed to bring one, is first to bring about a pure and healthy set
of conditions within, then, to change one's mental attitude toward it.
Recognize the fact that of itself it has no power, it has only the
power you invest it with. Thus you will put yourself into harmony with
it, and will no longer sit in fear of it. Then sit in a draft a few
times and get hardened to it, as every one, by going at it judiciously,
can readily do. "But suppose one is in delicate health, or especially
subject to drafts?" Then be simply a little judicious at first; don't
seek the strongest that can be found, especially if you do not as yet
in your own mind feel equal to it, for if you do not, it signifies that
you still fear it. That supreme regulator of all life, _good common
sense_, must be used here, the same as elsewhere.
If we are born to have dominion, and that we are is demonstrated by the
fact that some have attained to it,--and what one _has_ done, soon or
late all _can_ do,--then it is not necessary that we live under the
domination of any physical agent. In the degree that we recognize our
own interior powers, then are we rulers and able to dictate; in the
degree that we fail to recognize them, we are slaves, and are dictated
to. We build whatever we find within us; we attract whatever comes to
us, and all in accordance with spiritual law, for all natural law is
spiritual law.
The whole of human life is cause and effect; there is no such thing in
it as chance, nor is there even in all the wide universe. Are we not
satisfied with whatever comes into our lives? The thing to do, then,
is not to spend time in railing against the imaginary something we
create and call fate, but to look to the within, and change the causes
at work there, in order that things of a different nature may come, for
there will come exactly what we cause to come. This is true not only
of the physical body, but of all phases and conditions of life. We
invite whatever comes, and did we not invite it, either consciously or
unconsciously, it could not and it would not come. This may
undoubtedly be hard for some to believe, or even to see, at first. But
in the degree that one candidly and open-mindedly looks at it, and then
studies into the silent, but subtle and, so to speak, omnipotent
workings of the thought forces, and as he traces their effects within
him and about him, it becomes clearly evident, and easy to understand.
And then whatever does come to one depends for its effects entirely
upon his mental attitude toward it. Does this or that occurrence or
condition cause you annoyance? Very well; it causes you annoyance, and
so disturbs your peace merely because you allow it to. You are born to
have absolute control over your own dominion, but if you voluntarily
hand over this power, even if for a little while, to some one or to
some thing else, then you of course, become the creature, the one
controlled.
To live undisturbed by passing occurrences you must first find your own
centre. You must then be firm in your own centre, and so rule the
world from within. He who does not himself condition circumstances
allows the process to be reversed, and becomes a conditioned
circumstance. Find your centre and live in it. Surrender it to no
person, to no thing. In the degree that you do this will you find
yourself growing stronger and stronger in it. And how can one find his
centre? By realizing his oneness with the Infinite Power, and by
living continually in this realization.
But if you do not rule from your own centre, if you invest this or that
with the power of bringing you annoyance, or evil, or harm, then take
what it brings, but cease your railings against the eternal goodness
and beneficence of all things.
"I swear the earth shall surely be complete
To him or her who shall be complete;
The earth remains jagged and broken
Only to him who remains jagged and broken."
If the windows of your soul are dirty and streaked, covered with matter
foreign to them, then the world as you look out of them will be to you
dirty and streaked and out of order. Cease your complainings, however;
keep your pessimism, your "poor, unfortunate me" to yourself, lest you
betray the fact that your windows are badly in need of something. But
know that your friend, who keeps his windows clean, that the Eternal
Sun may illumine all within and make visible all without,--know that he
lives in a different world from yours.
Then, go wash your windows, and instead of longing for some other
world, you will discover the wonderful beauties of this world; and if
you don't find transcendent beauties on every hand here, the chances
are that you will never find them anywhere.
"The poem hangs on the berry-bush
When comes the poet's eye,
And the whole street is a masquerade
When Shakspeare passes by."
This same Shakspeare, whose mere passing causes all this commotion, is
the one who put into the mouth of one of his creations the words: "The
fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are
underlings." And the great work of his own life is right good evidence
that he realized full well the truth of the facts we are considering.
And again he gave us a great truth in keeping with what we are
considering when he said:
"Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By _fearing_ to attempt."
There is probably no agent that brings us more undesirable conditions
than fear. We should live in fear of nothing, nor will we when we come
fully to know ourselves. An old French proverb runs
"Some of your griefs you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived;
But what _torments of pain_ you endured
From evils that never arrived."
Fear and lack of faith go hand in hand. The one is born of the other.
Tell me how much one is given to fear, and I will tell you how much he
lacks in faith. Fear is a most expensive guest to entertain, the same
as worry is: so expensive are they that no one can afford to entertain
them. _We invite what we fear, the same as, by a different attitude of
mind, we invite and attract the influences and conditions we desire_.
The mind dominated by fear opens the door for the entrance of the very
things, for the actualization of the very conditions it fears.
"Where are you going?" asked an Eastern pilgrim on meeting the plague
one day. "I am going to Bagdad to kill five thousand people," was the
reply. A few days later the same pilgrim met the plague returning.
"You told me you were going to Bagdad to kill five thousand people,"
said he, "but instead, you killed fifty thousand." "No," said the
plague. "_I killed only five thousand_, as I told you I would; _the
others died of fright_."
Fear can paralyze every muscle in the body. Fear affects the flow of
the blood, likewise the normal and healthy action of all the life
forces. Fear can make the body rigid, motionless, and powerless to
move.
Not only do we attract to ourselves the things we fear, but we also aid
in attracting to others the conditions we in our own minds hold them in
fear of. This we do in proportion to the strength of our own thought,
and in the degree that they are sensitively organized and so influenced
by our thought, and this, although it be unconscious both on their part
and on ours.
Children, and especially when very young, are, generally speaking, more
sensitive to their surrounding influences than grown people are. Some
are veritable little sensitive plates, registering the influences about
them, and embodying them as they grow. How careful in their prevailing
mental states then should be those who have them in charge, and
especially how careful should a mother be during the time she is
carrying the child, and when every thought, every mental as well as
emotional state has its direct influence upon the life of the unborn
child. Let parents be careful how they hold a child, either younger or
older, in the thought of fear. This is many times done, unwittingly on
their part, through anxiety, and at times through what might well be
termed over-care, which is fully as bad as under-care.
I know of a number of cases where a child has been so continually held
in the thought of fear lest this or that condition come upon him, that
the very things that were feared have been drawn to him, which probably
otherwise never would have come at all. Many times there has been no
adequate basis for the fear. In case there is a basis, then far wiser
is it to take exactly the opposite attitude, so as to neutralize the
force at work, and then to hold the child in the thought of wisdom and
strength that it may be able to meet the condition and master it,
instead of being mastered by it.
But a day or two ago a friend was telling me of an experience of his
own life in this connection. At a period when he was having a terrific
struggle with a certain habit, he was so continually held in the
thought of fear by his mother and the young lady to whom he was
engaged,--the engagement to be consummated at the end of a certain
period, the time depending on his proving his mastery,--that he, very
sensitively organized, _continually_ felt the depressing and weakening
effects of their negative thoughts. He could always tell exactly how
they felt toward him; he was continually influenced and weakened by
their fear, by their questionings, by their suspicions, all of which
had the effect of lessening the sense of his own power, all of which
had an endeavor-paralyzing influence upon him. And so instead of their
begetting courage and strength in him, they brought him to a still
greater realization of his own weakness and the almost worthless use of
struggle.
Here were two who loved him dearly, and who would have done anything
and everything to help him gain the mastery, but who, ignorant of the
silent, subtle, ever-working and all-telling power of the thought
forces, instead of imparting to him courage, instead of adding to his
strength, disarmed him of this, and then added an additional weakness
from without. In this way the battle for him was made harder in a
three-fold degree.
Fear and worry and all kindred mental states are too expensive for any
person, man, woman, or child, to entertain or indulge in. Fear
paralyzes healthy action, worry corrodes and pulls down the organism,
and will finally tear it to pieces. Nothing is to be gained by it, but
everything to be lost. Long-continued grief at any loss will do the
same. Each brings its own peculiar type of ailment. An inordinate
love of gain, a close-fisted, hoarding disposition will have kindred
effects. Anger, jealousy, malice, continual fault-finding, lust, has
each its own peculiar corroding, weakening, tearing-down effects.
We shall find that not only are happiness and prosperity concomitants
of righteousness,--living in harmony with the higher laws, but bodily
health as well. The great Hebrew seer enunciated a wonderful chemistry
of life when he said,--"As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that
pursueth evil, pursueth it to his own death." On the other hand, "In
the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is
no death." The time will come when it will be seen that this means far
more than most people dare _even to think as yet_. "It rests with man
to say whether his soul shall be housed in a stately mansion of
ever-growing splendor and beauty, or in a hovel of his own building,--a
hovel at last ruined and abandoned to decay."
The bodies of almost untold numbers, living their one-sided, unbalanced
lives, are every year, through these influences, weakening and falling
by the wayside long before their time. Poor, poor houses! Intended to
be beautiful temples, brought to desolation by their ignorant,
reckless, deluded tenants. Poor houses!
A close observer, a careful student of the power of the thought forces,
will soon be able to read in the voice, in the movements, in the
features, the effects registered by the prevailing mental states and
conditions. Or, if he is told the prevailing mental states and
conditions, he can describe the voice, the movements, the features, as
well as describe, in a general way, the peculiar physical ailments
their possessor is heir to.
We are told by good authority that a study of the human body, its
structure, and the length of time it takes it to come to maturity, in
comparison with the time it takes the bodies of various animals and
their corresponding longevity, reveals the fact that its natural age
should be nearer a hundred and twenty years than what we commonly find
it today. But think of the multitudes all about us whose bodies are
aging, weakening, breaking, so that they have to abandon them long
before they reach what ought to be a long period of strong, vigorous
middle life.
Then, the natural length of life being thus shortened, it comes to be
what we might term a race belief that this shortened period is the
natural period. And as a consequence many, when they approach a
certain age, seeing that as a rule people at this period of life begin
to show signs of age, to break and go down hill as we say, they,
thinking it a matter of course and that it must be the same with them,
by taking this attitude of mind, many times bring upon themselves these
very conditions long before it is necessary. Subtle and powerful are
the influences of the mind in the building and rebuilding of the body.
As we understand them better it may become the custom for people to
look forward with pleasure to the teens of their second century.
There comes to mind at this moment a friend, a lady well on to eighty
years of age. An old lady, some, most people in fact, would call her,
especially those who measure age by the number of the seasons that have
come and gone since one's birth. But to call our friend old, would be
to call black white. She is no older than a girl of twenty-five, and
indeed younger, I am glad to say, or I am sorry to say, depending upon
the point of view, than _many_ a girl of this age. Seeking for the
good in all people and in all things, she has found the good
everywhere. The brightness of disposition and of voice that is hers
today, that attracts all people to her and that makes her so
beautifully attractive to all people, has characterized her all through
life. It has in turn carried brightness and hope and courage and
strength to hundreds and thousands of people through all these years,
and will continue to do so, apparently, for many years yet to come.
No fears, no worryings, no hatreds, no jealousies, no sorrowings, no
grievings, no sordid graspings after inordinant [Transcriber's note:
inordinate?] gain, have found entrance into her realm of thought. As a
consequence her mind, free from these abnormal states and conditions,
has not externalized in her body the various physical ailments that the
great majority of people are lugging about with them, thinking in their
ignorance, that they are natural, and that it is all in accordance with
the "eternal order of things" that they should have them. Her life has
been one of varied experiences, so that all these things would have
found ready entrance into the realm of her mind and so into her life
were she ignorant enough to allow them entrance. On the contrary she
has been wise enough to recognize the fact that in one kingdom at least
she is ruler,--the kingdom of her mind, and that it is hers to dictate
as to what shall and what shall not enter there. She knows, moreover,
that in determining this she is determining all the conditions of her
life. It is indeed a pleasure as well as an inspiration to see her as
she goes here and there, to see her sunny disposition, her youthful
step, to hear her joyous laughter. Indeed and in truth, Shakspeare
knew whereof he spoke when he said,--"It is the mind that makes the
body rich."
With great pleasure I watched her but recently as she was walking along
the street, stopping to have a word and so a part in the lives of a
group of children at play by the wayside, hastening her step a little
to have a word with a washerwoman toting her bundle of clothes,
stopping for a word with a laboring man returning with dinner pail in
hand from his work, returning the recognition from the lady in her
carriage, and so imparting some of her own rich life to all with whom
she came in contact.
And as good fortune would have it, while still watching her, an old
lady passed her,--really old, this one, though at least ten or fifteen
years younger, so far as the count by the seasons is concerned.
Nevertheless she was bent in form and apparently stiff in joint and
muscle. Silent in mood, she wore a countenance of long-faced sadness,
which was intensified surely several fold by a black, sombre headgear
with an immense heavy veil still more sombre looking if possible. Her
entire dress was of this description. By this relic-of-barbarism garb,
combined with her own mood and expression, she continually proclaimed
to the world two things,--her own personal sorrows and woes, which by
this very method she kept continually fresh in her mind, and also her
lack of faith in the eternal goodness of things, her lack of faith in
the love and eternal goodness of the Infinite Father.
Wrapped only in the thoughts of her own ailments, and sorrows, and
woes, she received and she gave nothing of joy, nothing of hope,
nothing of courage, nothing of value to those whom she passed or with
whom she came in contact. But on the contrary she suggested to all and
helped to intensify in many, those mental states all too prevalent in
our common human life. And as she passed our friend one could notice a
slight turn of the head which, coupled with the expression in her face,
seemed to indicate this as her thought,--Your dress and your conduct
are not wholly in keeping with a lady of your years. Thank God, then,
thank God they are not. And may He in His great goodness and love send
us an innumerable company of the same rare type; and may they live a
thousand years to bless mankind, to impart the life-giving influences
of their own royal lives to the numerous ones all about us who stand so
much in need of them.
Would you remain always young, and would you carry all the joyousness
and buoyancy of youth into your maturer years? Then have care
concerning but one thing,--how you live in your thought world. This
will determine all. It was the inspired one, Gautama, the Buddha, who
said,--"The mind is everything; what you think you become." And the
same thing had Ruskin in mind when he said,--"Make yourself nests of
pleasant thoughts. None of us as yet know, for none of us have been
taught in early youth, what fairy palaces we may build of beautiful
thought,--_proof against all adversity_."
And would you have in your body all the elasticity, all the strength,
all the beauty of your younger years? Then live these in your mind,
making no room for unclean thought, and you will externalize them in
your body. In the degree that you keep young in thought will you
remain young in body. And you will find that your body will in turn
aid your mind, for body helps mind the same as mind builds body.
You are continually building, and so externalizing in your body
conditions most akin to the thoughts and emotions you entertain. And
not only are you so building from within, but you are also continually
drawing from without, forces of a kindred nature. Your particular kind
of thought connects you with a similar order of thought from without.
If it is bright, hopeful, cheerful, you connect yourself with a current
of thought of this nature. If it is sad, fearing, despondent, then
this is the order of thought you connect yourself with.
If the latter is the order of your thought, then perhaps unconsciously
and by degrees you have been connecting yourself with it. You need to
go back and pick up again a part of your child nature, with its
careless and cheerful type of thought. "The minds of the group of
children at play are unconsciously concentrated in drawing to their
bodies a current of playful thought. Place a child by itself, deprive
it of its companions, and soon it will mope and become slow of
movement. It is cut off from that peculiar thought current and is
literally 'out of its element.'
"You need to bring again this current of playful thought to you which
has gradually been turned off. You are too serious or sad, or absorbed
in the serious affairs of life. You can be playful and cheerful
without being puerile or silly. You can carry on business all the
better for being in the playful mood when your mind is off your
business. There is nothing but ill resulting from the permanent mood
of sadness and seriousness,--the mood which by many so long maintained
makes it actually difficult for them to smile at all.
"At eighteen or twenty you commenced growing out of the more playful
tendency of early youth. You took hold of the more serious side of
life. You went into some business. You became more or less involved
in its cares, perplexities and responsibilities. Or, as man or woman,
you entered on some phase of life involving care or trouble. Or you
became absorbed in some game of business which, as you followed it,
left no time for play. Then as you associated with older people you
absorbed their old ideas, their mechanical methods of thinking, their
acceptance of errors without question or thought of question. In all
this you opened your mind to a heavy, care-laden current of thought.
Into this you glided unconsciously. That thought is materialized in
your blood and flesh. The seen of your body is a deposit or
crystallization of the unseen element ever flowing to your body from
your mind. Years pass on and you find that your movements are stiff
and cumbrous,--that you can with difficulty climb a tree, as at
fourteen. Your mind has all this time been sending to your body these
heavy, inelastic elements, making your body what now it is. . . .
"Your change for the better must be gradual, and can only be
accomplished by bringing the thought current of an all-round
symmetrical strength to bear on it,--by demanding of the Supreme Power
to be led in the best way, by diverting your mind from the many
unhealthy thoughts which habitually have been flowing into it without
your knowing it, to healthier ones. . . .
"Like the beast, the bodies of those of our race have in the past
weakened and decayed. This will not always be. Increase of spiritual
knowledge will show the cause of such decay, and will show, also, how
to take advantage of a Law or Force to build us up, renew ever the body
and give it greater and greater strength, instead of blindly using that
Law or Force, as has been done in the past, to weaken our bodies and
finally destroy them."
Full, rich, and abounding health is the normal and the natural
condition of life. Anything else is an abnormal condition, and
abnormal conditions as a rule come through perversions. God never
created sickness, suffering, and disease; they are man's own creations.
They come through his violating the laws under which he lives. So used
are we to seeing them that we come gradually, if not to think of them
as natural, then to look upon them as a matter of course.
The time will come when the work of the physician will not be to treat
and attempt to heal the body, but to heal the mind, which in turn will
heal the body. In other words, the true physician will be a teacher;
his work will be to keep people well, instead of attempting to make
them well after sickness and disease comes on; and still beyond this
there will come a time when each will be his own physician. In the
degree that we live in harmony with the higher laws of our being, and
so, in the degree that we become better acquainted with the powers of
the mind and spirit, will we give less attention to the body,--no less
_care_, but less _attention_.
The bodies of thousands today would be much better cared for if their
owners gave them less thought and attention. As a rule, those who
think least of their bodies enjoy the best health. Many are kept in
continual ill health by the abnormal thought and attention they give
them.
Give the body the nourishment, the exercise, the fresh air, the
sunlight it requires, keep it clean, and then think of it as little as
possible. In your thoughts and in your conversation never dwell upon
the negative side. Don't talk of sickness and disease. By talking of
these you do yourself harm and you do harm to those who listen to you.
Talk of those things that will make people the better for listening to
you. Thus you will infect them with health and strength and not with
weakness and disease.
To dwell upon the negative side is always destructive. This is true of
the body the same as it is true of all other things. The following
from one whose thorough training as a physician has been supplemented
by extensive study and observations along the lines of the powers of
the interior forces, are of special significance and value in this
connection: "We can never gain health by contemplating disease, any
more than we can reach perfection by dwelling upon imperfection, or
harmony through discord. We should keep a high ideal of health and
harmony constantly before the mind. . . .
"Never affirm or repeat about your health what you do not wish to be
true. Do not dwell upon your ailments, nor study your symptoms. Never
allow yourself to be convinced that you are not complete master of
yourself. Stoutly affirm your superiority over bodily ills, and do not
acknowledge yourself the slave of any inferior power. . . . I would
teach children early to build a strong barrier between themselves and
disease, by healthy habits of thought, high thinking, and purity of
life. I would teach them to expel all thoughts of death, all images of
disease, all discordant emotions, like hatred, malice, revenge, envy,
and sensuality, as they would banish a temptation to do evil. I would
teach them that bad food, bad drink, or bad air makes bad blood; that
bad blood makes bad tissue, and bad flesh bad morals. I would teach
them that healthy thoughts are as essential to healthy bodies as pure
thoughts to a clean life. I would teach them to cultivate a strong
will power, and to brace themselves against life's enemies in every
possible way. I would teach the sick to have hope, confidence, cheer.
Our thoughts and imaginations are the only real limits to our
possibilities. No man's success or health will ever reach beyond his
own confidence; as a rule, we erect our own barriers.
"Like produces like the universe through. Hatred, envy, malice,
jealousy, and revenge all have children. Every bad thought breeds
others, and each of these goes on and on, ever reproducing itself,
until our world is peopled with their offspring. The true physician
and parent of the future will not medicate the body with drugs so much
as the mind with principles. The coming mother will teach her child to
assuage the fever of anger, hatred, malice, with the great panacea of
the world,--Love. The coming physician will teach the people to
cultivate cheerfulness, good-will, and noble deeds for a health tonic
as well as a heart tonic; and that a merry heart doeth good like a
medicine."
The health of your body, the same as the health and strength of your
mind, depends upon what you relate yourself with. This Infinite Spirit
of Life, this Source of all Life, can from its very nature, we have
found, admit of no weakness, no disease. Come then into the full,
conscious, vital realization of your oneness with this Infinite Life,
open yourself to its more abundant entrance, and full and ever-renewing
bodily health and strength will be yours.
"And good may ever conquer ill,
Health walk where pain has trod;
'As a man thinketh, so is he,'
Rise, then, and think with God."
The whole matter may then be summed up in the one sentence, "God is
well and so are you." You must awaken to the knowledge of your _real
being_. When this awakening comes, you will have, and you will see
that you have, the power to determine what conditions are externalized
in your body. You must recognize, you must realize yourself as one
with Infinite Spirit. God's will is then your will; your will is God's
will, and "with God all things are possible." When we are able to do
away with all sense of separateness by living continually in the
realization of this oneness, not only will our bodily ills and
weaknesses vanish, but all limitations along all lines.
Then "delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires
of thine heart." Then will you feel like crying all the day long, "The
lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly
heritage." Drop out of mind your belief in good things and good events
coming to you in the future. Come _now_ into the real life, and
coming, appropriate and actualize them _now_. Remember that only the
best is good enough for one with a heritage so royal as yours.
"We buy ashes for bread;
We buy diluted wine;
Give me the true,--
Whose ample leaves and tendrils curled
Among the silver hills of heaven,
Draw everlasting dew."