CHAPTER I - Prosperity through Spirituality

Both riches and honor come of you, and you rule over all; and in your hand is power and might; and in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

IT IS NOW ESTABLISHED in the minds of many people that health of body is a legitimate result of spiritual knowledge and eventually will be one of the signs of a practical follower of Christ; but these same people, many of them, find it difficult to believe that health of circumstances can be demonstrated in the same way and is as legitimate and true a sign of the understanding of spiritual law as the healing of the body. Considering riches with a fair, unprejudiced mind, we shall understand why it is that they have been largely in the possession of the unspiritual instead of the children of God, to whom the heritage rightly belongs.

WEALTH REFUSED

Worldly riches have been feared, despised, condemned, and even hated by spiritual aspirants, because of ignorance of how to be in them and yet not of them, how to possess them and not be possessed by them. Doubtless this attitude of repudiating and ignoring wealth is less deceiving than the other error: greed and worship of money and the fear of losing riches. But the really wise avoid both attitudes through knowing worldly wealth to be but a reflection of the real, the spiritual riches that must be sought first, last, and always. Having found the riches of heaven, you cannot escape the riches of earth unless you purposely repudiate them.

THE NEW CANAAN

The rich state of being is the Promised Land that belongs to the people of God. Its occupancy by the selfish and carnal is like the Hittites, Canaanites, and others possessing the Promised Land at the time the Israelites began their march, under Moses, out of Egypt to regain their own country. The land, according to the spies (Num. 13), was most desirable, "a land flowing with milk and honey." This innocent land was sweet and pure and goodly even though exploited by the heathen. So are worldly riches: impersonal, good, useful, commanding the world's respect. Let us be true and not despise that which symbolizes a divine blessing, nor yet on the other hand lust for that which is not the real riches; for "how hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of God!" which is a saying that applies to the eager, anxious poor as well as the foolish rich. It is not money itself that is the root of all evil; money as such is nothing but a symbol. It is the love of money that makes the terrible trouble in families and between friends and spoils the candidate for spiritual power and illumination.

THE RIGHT ATTITUDE OF MIND

The first step in prosperous attainment is to have the right attitude of mind and heart toward worldly wealth; to see that prosperity and spirituality must be wedded here upon the earth and that man's must be the word that makes the marriage an accomplished fact. Too long has prosperity been looked upon as material and carnal, a Dame Fortune, a scarlet woman, fickle and false, like the untrue wife of Hosea, who forgot the source of her riches. "She did not know that I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold." Too long has spirituality, like an austere monk, ascetic, condemnatory, impractical, and exclusive, repudiated "riches" and not known that whom "God hath joined" man cannot keep asunder. That old spirituality is dead. All hail to the new, which does not put off the kingdom to a time after death but realizes that here and now, today, is the place and time for the riches of the kingdom to be made manifest.

THE WEDDING OF SPIRITUALITY AND GOOD

Man, like an officiating priest, marries these, the spirituality within and the wealth without, which have seemed to be two and even to have been in opposition, (1) by believing in their union and (2) by revealing that in its true character prosperity is spiritual and spirituality prospers. Prosperity is of God, like life, health, and strength. It is man's privilege to use these divine gifts as he wills; he may use his strength to knock another down; he may use his health to impose his appetites on others; but these uses do not lessen the fact that strength and health are the gifts of God. Man may misuse his prosperity, may derive it from sources dishonest and selfish, but those are his mistakes; the truth is still that all that is universally good in itself is of the same origin, God. And prosperity originates with the all-prosperous One, who makes all things good and very good and never knows failure. There is not one good pursued by man that, when regarded in its purity and from the highest viewpoint, cannot be identified with God. "I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the ... house of bondage." I am the Lord, your good, that delivered you from that great trouble, saved you from that mistake, failure, or other liability -the evil that beset you.

PROSPERITY THROUGH SPIRITUALITY PROSPERITY AND GOD ARE ONE

Prosperity is the presence of God. It is that expression of comfort, power, beauty, and freedom which is always associated with the kingdom of heaven. Whenever the advent of the Christ reign is described, the language of earthly riches is used, and the Scriptures teem with heavenly attributes and comparisons, drawn from the prosperity of men of the world. Identifying prosperity with God, we see this to be the truth of its being, that it is omnipresent and universal. Being everywhere, you do not need to go from place to place to get it. You find it within. Then you carry it with you - you are yourself prosperity. Like the poet Whitman you can say, "I seek not fortune, I myself am good fortune." You find it in the business you have now. You fulfill the promise declared of him whose "delight is in the law of Jehovah; And on his law doth he meditate day and night ... And whatsoever he does shall prosper."

PROSPERITY UNIVERSAL AND UNCHANGEABLE

Being universal, the prosperity that is one with God expresses itself in everything and through everyone. It manifests itself in your life as abundant good luck. All the kingdoms of the world yield their best to you. In the vegetable kingdom your plants are healthy, your crops are abundant and not subject to drought, frost, pest, or blight; in the mineral kingdom the gold and silver, the treasures in the rocks, diamonds, coal, and oil, are uncovered to you; in the animal kingdom your cattle increase and keep in fine condition; in the kingdom of man you are magnetic, blessed with friends, with initiative, with executive ability and efficiency. Prosperity, seen to be one with God, is not temporal and changeable. It is eternal. It is not limited in its expression. It is not only manifest in the ordinary ways of the world but it also includes "prosperity" in health and in strength, in honors and in pleasures, in love and in learning. The prosperity of the worldly-minded has the proverbial wings, and there is always a skeleton at the feast of the unprincipled rich. How superstitious they are! They build fine houses and hasten to move into them, because forsooth! rich men have died before they could dwell in their new houses! How fearful they are of competitors! How discontented with the riches they have! How little hold they have upon health and life and their loved ones! Riches without spirituality are Dead Sea fruit. The substance and lasting joy of riches is a knowledge of Truth. Yes, the prosperity of the worldly-minded and unprincipled has wings.

HOW SPIRITUALITY PROSPERS ONE

Let us return to the statement that spirituality prospers us and consider how it does so. First, it gives us insight into human character, so that we know with whom to associate in business, what are the things that men want, how to please. Secondly, it inspires confidence within and invites the confidence of others in us. Thirdly, it increases our fellow feeling, gives us a lively interest in the welfare of even strangers, making us magnetic. Fourthly, it gives us a clear head, sober judgment, common sense. Fifthly, it gives us poise and trust as to the future. These are a few of the reasons why spirituality can prosper us; others will be disclosed as we pursue the subject. Good fortune is not a thing of chance. It is not a fatality, not a matter of our stars or our karma, but its cause lies in laws fulfilled either consciously or unconsciously, the latter with most people, the former with the enlightened.

THE ONE SOURCE TO ACKNOWLEDGE

One of these laws, is acknowledgment of the real source of our fortune. This law was fulfilled by Abraham, who would not receive anything from the king of Sodom-"I will not take A thread nor a shoelatchet nor aught that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich" - and this law was enjoined strictly upon all the Hebrews. For the tendency of the mortal is to ascribe his success to his own skill or labor, foresight or energy, forgetting that even these are gifts of God and that they are being applied daily by others, but without success. Our God dwells within us, our real I AM. This is likewise the I AM of everyone else and cannot be claimed by any mortal ego as his exclusively. It is the same one in us today that spoke to the ancient Israelites and now gives us warning of the way to be eternally prosperous: You shall eat and be full, and you shall bless Jehovah your God for the good land which he has given you. Beware lest you forget Jehovah your God, in not keeping his commandments ... lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; then your heart be lifted up, and you forget Jehovah your God . . . and lest you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth. But you shall remember Jehovah your God, for it is he that gives you power to get wealth.

THE INNER GUIDE

Cultivating an intimate communion with the divine I AM within us, we are led from one expression of prosperity to another, along a sure road whose every step is scientific and inspired. This inner guide is called "the Holy Spirit" by Jesus Christ, "the Spirit of truth," "the Comforter." It is impersonal and universal yet its voice can be heard unmistakably by those who will not give it a personal interpretation (as when it is called "spirits"-what tricks and folly and even outrages have been perpetrated under the influence of such a delusion!) nor ignore its great commandments given through the prophets. This inner guide has been called by a variety of names, such as "something in me," "my impression," intuition, business sense, even "the prosperity microbe" by a well-known American wit, who says that he never could be rich because he never had had the “microbe." Once many years ago when Bell, the telephone inventor, was first placing his stock on the market, he saw that it was a good investment. He therefore drew out all he had in the bank - it was only thirty thousand dollars-and was on his way to buy preferred Bell Telephone shares, when he was met by an officious friend, who laughed scornfully at his simplicity and persuaded him to return with his money to the bank. "And so I just escaped being a multimillionaire because I did not have the microbe," he mournfully concluded. He had it but did not know its name and nature! By whatever name it is called, it is only another name for business sense or business ability.

ILLUSTRATIONS 0F INNER GUIDANCE

A young Chicago broker, who enjoyed an ephemeral Napoleonic run among the bulls and bears on the exchange, was beseeched to give out the secret of when and how much to buy and sell that was making him such a phenomenal success. He confessed that it was no exact system that he could define, only "impressions." "Something in me prompts Me to do it, and it is irresistible," he said. But his power was of short duration, for he did not know that it was the Holy Spirit. Therefore he did not seek wisdom from it, so as to know when ,to abandon the foolish manipulations that are nothing to Spirit, which chooses the nobler instruments of men's hearts and minds rather than stocks and bonds. When ethical laws are ignored and crossed, no ordinary illumination can keep the novice in the use of spiritual power from making a failure. It is possible to ascend heights of success under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit and never become falsely entangled with the moral law, as witness one beautiful character, who was led to the discovery of remarkable mines in Wisconsin, and to establishing a beautiful home in one of the most favored spots in California, where she had a chapel and healed many sick people. She had heard the inner voice from her youth, and like Abraham, she had been assured from the beginning that if she were obedient to all its instructions great riches would be hers; and like Abraham, when she became rich, she had acknowledged the one Spirit, Lord God of the whole earth, as the source of her prosperity. I refer to Mrs. Chynoweth of Edenvale, near San Jose, California, who for years published a most interesting paper describing her wonderful, indeed thrilling and romantic, guidance and protection by the Spirit.

SEEK FIRST THINGS FIRST

Settling it in one's heart that the law the Master gave - "Seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things [after which the nations seek] shall be added" - is a sound, scientific rule for the establishment of eternal prosperity, let us proceed to fulfill it. And early in the pursuit let us strictly regard that "first." So shall we discover that in a new sense "the first" shall be "the last"; in the sense that to seek first the kingdom of God truly we must make it our last or final search and our only pursuit. This means that we are not in Truth for its prerequisites but for itself. It means a certain indifference to the things "added," indifference as to how long they are in coming, as to whether they ever come - such is the paradoxical state of mind of one who knows that prosperity is inevitable.

FIRST EXERCISE

Meditate daily upon the pure Being of God under the name of prosperity. Continue the meditation under all the other names as being one with prosperity: God is Prosperity, Omnipresence, Omnipotence, the Good, Life, Health, Love, Wisdom, Peace, Purity, Faith, Truth, All One. Copy the above upon a card, to be put in some convenient place for ready reference. Begin some definite practice such as the following:

Keep a handy little notebook in which to jot down helpful thoughts, original and otherwise.

Identify prosperity with all the other names of God, not all at once but one after the other, from time to time, and watch what masterful thoughts will arise. Thus we reason: Since God is prosperity and God is omnipresence, therefore prosperity is omnipresence; that is, prosperity is everywhere, in all I meet, in my business, in whatever I put my hand to. I do not need to move from place to place. Yet I can go anywhere and be prosperous. Everything and everybody prospers me.

Since God is prosperity and God is omnipotence, prosperity is omnipotence; my prosperity is all-powerful; even though it seem but as a grain of mustard seed yet it can move mountains. Nothing can keep it from me. It prospers itself. Nothing succeeds like success. Since God is prosperity and God is the good, therefore prosperity is the good; that is, on the plane of the Highest, prosperity will bring me good only. It will not bring me pride or folly. It will not mislead me or make me unspiritual. True prosperity prospers others, being of the same nature as the one who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before. My prosperity benefits my neighbor; it is not parasitical; it is the presence of God. Since God is prosperity and God is life, prosperity is life; that is, there is life throughout my affairs. There is no waiting for the death of anything or anyone to bring me prosperity. Prosperity is one with health, that is, there is no exhaustion of vitality and energy in bringing prosperity. Prosperity is one with love. On the plane of the Highest universal unchangeable love, not selfishness and greed, is the key to prosperity. Proceed in this way ad libitum, always taking each name in its highest, ideal sense.

UNCEASING COMMUNION WITH GOD

What is here recommended is a practice that has ever been recommended by spiritual teachers from ancient Oriental times, and that was especially indorsed by Jesus Christ in His words "Watch and pray" and in His direction that men ought "always to pray, and not to faint." If the Orientals thought prayer always meant a beseeching and asking for something, Paul would never have given the precept "Pray without ceasing." He knew that it meant communion with the omnipresent One, our life and very self, and communication to us of the vital, blessed gifts of God. The worldly-wise man who grows rich thinks money, prices, property, ways and means, devices night and day in order to gain a prosperity that is but as a breath of wind. The man who would know eternal prosperity thinks God night and day until he sees and knows nothing else but that one supreme, blissful presence.

CHAPTER II - The Magic of Meekness

Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Happy are the dispassionate, for they shall inherit the earth.

When abstinence from theft in mind (envy and covetousness) and act is complete in the devotee, he has power to obtain all material wealth.

WE HAVE LONG been willing to acknowledge the powerful place that mind occupies in our affairs, that is, by virtue of its objective, not its subjective, activity. Men point to inventions and arts, writings and buildings, business and science as the noble fruits of man's intellect; and these outer results as the means, along with other externalized thoughts, by which mind influences the world. But that there is a way for thought to work directly upon these outer affairs is as difficult for some persons to believe as it once was for all of us to believe that an electric current could be used without a conductor. But just as the Marconi messages do have "conductors," though invisible to men's eyes, so thought force has conductors and is transmitted though the avenues are still unsensed by mortal man.

"THOUGHTS ARE THINGS"

Science is working with thought, experimenting and collecting data, and certain scientists in the van of progress can hardly restrain themselves from publishing their conviction that thoughts can be felt and measured, analyzed and described, as heat and electricity have been, by their effects. But science is conservative. It is philosophy, acknowledging intuition as a factor in acquiring knowledge, that will keep men abreast of the times and be the handmaiden of the new thought and theology, whose influence can no longer be denied. Suffice it for us to know that all over the world men and women are proving that thoughts are the greatest forces and substances upon the whole earth; that thoughts can be read and their vibrations felt most distinctly; that thoughts create atmospheres that are attractive or repellent according to their character. It is a crying necessity for men to be educated in this field so that they may not be exploited by the unscrupulous, nor fall into the error of such exploitation themselves, but may rather join in using the great thought forces that make for righteousness; that is, for the health and happiness, wealth and freedom of their neighbors as well as themselves.

THE POWER OF WORDS.

The word, silent or audible, is the conductor of thought, and the trained mind knows what words to use, and what thoughts to make positive and negative; and how to keep the true thoughts free from adulteration of false notions, opinions, sentiments, and fears. In the preceding chapter we dwelt upon the thoughts that constitute the true positive activity of the mind, that make for success through spirituality. But not only must we know the true positive way of thinking; we must also know the right way to make denials. For in the realm of appearances there are both the positive and the negative to be correctly manifested if things are to be rightly reflected. To try to fill our mind with true thoughts while clinging to old false ideas is like trying to fill a bottle full of ink with milk, without emptying out the ink, with the result that we have neither ink nor milk but a useless liquid. Out of the many affirmations of the last lesson, let us select two: "God is omnipresent" and "God is good." It logically follows that "Good is omnipresent," the first great axiom of the true science of God. It is as simple as two and two are four and it is as important. It is the scientific basis of true and lasting optimism. When the mind has "a reason concerning the hope" that is in it, then hope can pass into certainty, and even at the times when experience and the senses would utterly sweep away a groundless optimism, one can abide in cheerfulness until its wisdom and its effectiveness are proved. Prosperity and cheerfulness are boon companions; one always attracts the other. "Plenty and good cheer" has passed into a proverb.

GOOD IS OMNIPRESENT

That the realization "Good is omnipresent" may be with one continually, the mind must be given over to the thinking of Truth night and day. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart,, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind." "The law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate thereon day and night." "Pray without ceasing." "In all your ways acknowledge him." These scriptural instructions can be fulfilled only by determined refusal to entertain the opposite thoughts and feelings. Thus the mind refuses to meditate upon evils and failures, wrongs and losses, fears and worriments. Every time an unhappy thought arises wisdom displaces it with a silent statement of the allness of the good. Reason becomes the schoolmaster, and the sense testimonies are set aside. "Remember Jehovah your God, for it is he that gives you power to get wealth." Not only do we remember this, but we learn to forget the old ways of ascribing our riches to material sources and personal effort. In remembering the Lord our God, we are reminding ourselves of all good, and this means the forgetting of evil. There are people who are suffering from conditions of poverty because their minds are filled with memories of losses and failures. If you think about loss, you produce what you think about. Sometimes it is not the loss of money and things but the loss of friends, or reputation, or some good that seems to have no connection with one's financial welfare.

THE ERROR OF GRIEVING

Socrates says, "He that grieves much is a magnet for attracting waste of property." Cease to grieve or entertain sad memories of any kind. One student of Truth, Mrs. T-, had a revelation as to the cause of her failures upon hearing these words of Socrates explained by her teacher. The psychology of the connection between grief and loss is that grief is a deep feeling about, and meditation upon, lack and loss; and mind being cause, these thoughts of loss are outpictured in circumstances as loss of work, money, patronage, friends, and other forms of deprivation. Mrs. T. could trace a series of failures in prosperity to a marked event in her life - when a beloved son had gone utterly out of her life. She had been a very successful dressmaker; had built up a clientele that was rich and increasing daily so that she was able to keep a large staff of workers very busy in meeting the demands upon her skill, ingenuity, taste, and good workmanship. She had been a widow with an only son when thrown upon her own resources and had had very little of the world's goods. But at this time she had a goodly sum in the bank, real estate that was valuable, and everything pointed to a life of financial independence. But one day they brought her beautiful twelve year-old boy, who had been the joy of her life, to her door- he had been drowned. Although she knew that in Truth he still lived, she was so young in it that she forgot to apply her principles and gave herself up to paroxysms of grief and days and weeks of mourning. Her mournful presence repelled her wealthy clients. One by one they sought other dressmakers and tailors. Down, down went her income, and loss followed loss. Finally she attended a course of lessons in prosperity and received that nugget of gold which Socrates gave. She realized how disloyal she had been to her faith. She was like one awakened from a weird nightmare, and then and there she resolved to put away all sorrow and to remember that her son lived throughout eternity, and no longer to deny the presence of All-Good. From the day of that resolution her affairs revived, and today she has a deep-seated consciousness of God's eternal supply and demonstrates it daily.

RIGHT SPEECH

Our thinking is assisted by our speech; so let our determination be to speak on the bright side and refrain from talking about "hard times" and "money being scarce" and other forms of financial straits. Man himself decides the character of the times by his mental attitude. Man controls the currency, he can make it free or congested at will; and sometimes one man can be the key log of a whole situation, continuing the "jam" by his stolidity or causing an easy flow by his freedom. As an illustration of the difference it makes whether an individual talks "hard times" or simply refrains from such talk, a man told me the following as an actual experience: There were two merchants in a town in Southern California, both in a flourishing state, when there came a financial panic, which put the character of both to the test. One talked of the bank failures and the gloomy outlook; the other was full of assurance that it could not last, had only cheery answers to all the pessimistic speculations, and never indulged himself in any talk on the negative side. About twenty miles from this town lived a young man on a ranch, which he was developing while depending for his living upon a monthly remittance that came from his home in England. He knew nothing of what was taking place in the rest of the world, as he had no newspapers, receiving his mail only when he drove to town, which was at long intervals of time. On such visits he always laid in a good store of provisions. In the midst of the panic he went to town, stopped at the store of the optimistic merchant, and "stocked up" liberally. Then he went over to the other merchant's place, where he intended to buy just as freely. He found that merchant standing idly at his door, and he exclaimed at the dearth of customers. Thereupon the merchant launched forth on his tale of woe, which so affected the young man that he ceased all further purchasing and soon started back to his ranch, resolving to hold onto his money, although England at the time was not in the least affected by the local stringencies of America. According to my informant, the optimist went through the hard times with little falling away of business, while the other merchant did not recover his old status until long after the panic had passed. It is as foolish for men to hold back their money at a time of national, financial difficulties as for the motorist to shut down on his power when ascending a hill. Nothing can change this natural action of self-preservation but spiritual insight and a regard for one's neighbor's welfare equal to one's regard for one's own.

THREE GREAT DENIALS

Three dominant types of carnal thought must be emptied out of the mind,

the belief in evil,

the belief in materiality, and

the belief in the mortal self;

and daily three dominant spiritual ideas must take their place,

the belief in All-Good,

the belief in Mind as the one substance and cause, and

the belief in the God self as all in all.

The power to set aside one's human selfhood through realizing the self that is divine is called meekness. This word is not commonly understood, being generally associated with weakness and lack of spiritedness, whereas no one can be truly meek who is not strong and spirited. Moses has been cited as the most remarkable example of the meekness that inherits the earth. Full of fire and charged with power, he did not use these for his own personal advantage. But be wished all to stand at the same place that he had reached. One of his followers, Joshua, once grew very jealous for his master's glory and power and asked permission to stop certain young men in the camp from prophesying, because they had not been ordained to that work by the great Moses. But the mighty man replied to his disciple in these noble words: "Are you jealous for my sake? would that all Jehovah's people were prophets, and that Jehovah would put his Spirit upon them!"

TOO FULL OF SELF

There are people who do not achieve prosperity because they are so full of their earthly selfhood, all the time thinking of their rights, and seeking to exalt themselves, and demanding acknowledgment from others of their righteousness and ability. Pride prevents them from doing work for which they are specially adapted and which they could honor and exalt if they entered into it in the right spirit. Egotism makes them insufferable to others, even to those who would otherwise be glad to prosper them. Envy makes them bitter and even malicious in their action and speech, so that men who are in a position to choose their associates avoid them. Covetousness and greed make them overshoot the mark in placing a value on their goods; again fear may make them run to the other extreme to undervalue their work and cheapen themselves. Ambition blinds them and after many failures leaves them stranded, wallowing in pessimism and poverty. All this is because they did not know how to let go of their mortal selfhood, the "little I," and so to enter into the power of their mighty meekness. Meekness is freedom from pride, envy, greed, and egotism. It is a certain "emptiness" that has a wonderful drawing power. T

THE VACUUM MEEKNESS

The principle of meekness is the same as that of the vacuum. It is this principle which keeps all good in circulation. What the vacuum is in nature, meekness is with the respect to the rich substance of God. Without a "vacuum" that continually demands filling many movements of nature would cease. It is the vacuum that draws the air into the lungs, and in mechanics it is the secret of the useful pump. Even when men have had but little of this meekness it has made them rich. It is the key to the prosperity of many a "self-made" man. Starting from small beginnings, letting no pride stand in his way, such a man has gone steadily ahead, often quite free from envy of the success of others, and even at the pinnacle of his own success being so free from vanity as to do menial things, if exigency requires it, and not thinking himself lowered by anything he does. Yet he may again lose this meekness; he may forget and let pride and egotism arrest his development, all because his meekness is not grounded in knowledge but is an unconscious gift from his God Being.

HONOR THROUGH MEEKNESS

When one's God-given meekness continues through life, then one's prosperity includes great honor and position, along with riches. The world loves to honor the man who loses himself in the cause for which he stands. It was this quality in Gen. Ulysses S. Grant that made it easy for the world to honor the United States in honoring him. His reticence, his freedom from egotism, his modesty and freedom from all demands as U. S. Grant, opened wide the gates for the inrush of praise and gifts. The world lay at his feet. He needed only the Christ knowledge to have placed him forever beyond the reach of failure. The full meekness of the Christ is established in the consciousness that makes right valuations. In it there is ever the seeking first of the kingdom of God, and there is perfect deliverance from the pursuit of material things. Material things follow; they seek the person possessed of such a consciousness. He does not need to run after them; they are drawn to him as fervently as steel to the magnet, for he has the substance that they represent. Those who pursue material things are always just missing them, and not until they have ceased to care and may even have forgotten their ardent desire for them, do these things come into their world. The Talmud says: "Who runs after greatness, greatness runs away from; but who runs away from greatness, greatness runs after."

OUR ONE REAL DESIRE

Turn that rich desire nature of yours toward the realization that there is nothing for you really to pursue. All that you have sought, all that is worth having, you already have, you already are. Awake! Arise! Come to yourself in realizing the great truth of the ages that the one desire of our heart is God, and always has been. And God we have, and God we are. For there is nothing else to have or to be. Perceiving this, for very joy's sake you fulfill the injunction of old, "Diligently harken to the voice of Jehovah," wherever uttered, by the lips of fools or in the oracles of masters, in the songs of birds or of poets, in the roar of the earthquake or in the still small voice within. And ever hearing and obeying the prophecy, you find it is fulfilled in your life: And all these blessings shall come upon you, and overtake you . . . Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field ... Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. . . . And Jehovah will make you plenteous for good, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground ... Jehovah will open unto you his good treasure the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand.

SECOND EXERCISE

In conjunction with the meditation, given at the close of the last lesson, meditate daily upon the following, learning the words by heart, and repeating them until there is an answering thrill within you at each repetition:

1 AM THAT I AM is the rich fountain of my abundant supply. By the power of the Spirit rich substance is now overflowing into every avenue and expression of my life. God's presence and power, working all things together for good, is felt and seen in everything I put my hand to. I AM THAT I AM, my true self, fills my whole being and all my world. Where I am there is only good, and therefore declare: There is no place for evil; there never can be any failure; there is nothing to fear. Where I am there is only pure Spirit, Divine Mind, the eternal rich substance of God. Therefore I declare the nothingness of material things. They have no power to attract or bind me. I know no greed for possessions. I have all that is real, and I covet nothing that passes away. Where I am there is only love that loves and gives to all, and therefore I know no envy nor jealousy, no pride nor selfishness. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”