Creative Mind, Part Two, Practice

Ernest Shurtleff Holmes

Part One || Part Two

Contents

INTRODUCTORY

THE one who wishes to practise metaphysics must first, last, and all the time realize that he himself is a center of the divine. activity; he must know that whatever God is in the Universal, he is in the world in which he lives. He must know that all things are made out of Spirit, which is First Cause; nothing comes before Spirit. Operating upon itself out of itself, it makes what it will out of its own perfect desire. He must think of the Spirit as the Father of his own life, eternally bound to him, eternally binding him to it.

He must know that the Spirit not only can manifest through him, but that it wishes to do so; "The Father seeks such to worship Him." The practitioner who understands the truth knows that as long as God exists, he will exist; that he could no more become non-existent than God could. Walking, talking, moving in God, he must not only see the Divine Being as the great unknown Cause, but he must go a step further and see God as the great self-knowing, understanding power of Infinite Intelligence, thinking through his own thought and willing into his own life all power and all good. More than this, God must become within his own soul the greater self, the inner life, the inner light that is to light his path with sure step to the attainment of the greater ideals. God is to become the great friend of his life, understanding him, and helping him at all times to understand all things.

No more books, no more teachers, no more preachers, creeds or candlesticks will he ever need. The old methods must vanish into their native nothingness, as the great realization that God is all in his life dawns upon his awakened thought.

He must know that not height, nor depth, nor any other thing, can come between the soul and its perfect Creator. Too long have we listened to people; now our own soul shall speak in a language that is unmistakable; now shall we ourselves become masters of all life and interpreters of all mysteries. Now my Father and I are one.

As the word of God goes forth and sets in motion the all law, so must we realize because we are one with the word that our own thought has the power of expression. The one who wishes to heal must come to see all evil as impersonal, fastening it to no one, but realizing that it is simply false thought; the healer knows that the word which he is to speak will destroy this false impression; and by erasing it, it will vanish.

There should be absolutely no sense of responsibility beyond speaking the word in positive faith, knowing. All struggle belongs to the Old Order; in the New peace takes the place of confusion, faith answers the cry of doubt and fear, and the Word is supreme.

We must know that our word is law, and cannot be set aside by the false thought of the world. Every time that we state a truth, we must know that that truth destroys all that is unlike itself and frees the thought of the one whom we wish to help and to heal.

This word must become the new Law which frees. People are sick because they think sickness and will be healed only when they turn from this kind of thought and begin to think in terms of health.

THE SAME POWER USED IN TWO WAYS.

THERE is only One power, but we use it in two ways, either to destroy or to save. The blessing and the curse are one and the same thing; the power of mind used either affirmatively or negatively; the word used in fear and doubt or in faith and assurance.

You do not have to understand material philosophy or be learned in the books of the human race. All these things may be good in their place, but to one who understands the greater laws of life they are as simple babblings--

We no longer cry, we Know. We no longer ask if there be a God, or if we dare to speak to Him lest we die; we do not analyze, dissect, affirm, or deny, We know.

We trust our own word because first we "Know in whom we have believed." The sooner the one who is striving to attain will realize that truth must become revealed through his own soul, and not that of another, the sooner he will attain. We must then become immune from the race suggestion of an hypnotic power that sets itself up as an authority. There is no other authority than your own soul, as "There is no law but that your soul has set." Leave authorities to smaller minds, and to those who need a leader because of this their own self-confessed weakness, and be Free. Dare to "Stand amidst the eternal way" and proclaim your own Atonement with all the power that there is, was, or ever will be.

Practically the whole human race is hypnotized, thinking whatever it is told to think. We get our concepts from our physical environment, we say, "See sin, sickness and death, misery, unhappiness and calamity." And this concept we are giving to the creative, impersonal Mind, and so we are making a law for ourselves that will produce what we believe in. Do we really know what law means? It means that which will exact the utmost farthing from our thought.

Like produces like, attracts like, creates like. If we could see our thought and take a picture of it and of our conditions we would see no difference between the two, for they are really but the inside and the outside of the same thing.

We cannot make affirmations for fifteen minutes a day and spend the rest of our time denying the thing which we have affirmed, and affirming the thing which we have denied, and obtain the results which we seek. We send out the word and it sets the power in motion; then we think the opposite thing which neutralizes the first word, and zero is the result.

We cannot demonstrate one iota beyond our mental ability to conceive and steadfastly to embody. Infinite as Creative Power is, receptive and quick as it is, it can only become to us what we first think into it. God can do for us only what He can do through us.

Dare to say, "Behold I am he. Great men have come and gone, and behold a greater now stands here where I stand, and I am that one." The world will laugh and perhaps scorn. The Christian world will hold up its hands in holy horror, lest you blaspheme; the unchristian world will smile knowingly. Neither the one nor the other will understand, but the understanding of either counts for nothing. You are now free, and your freedom will yet save the world from itself. The great soul finds within himself the Divine companionship which he needs. He finds within himself the "Peace which passeth all understanding" and the power to do all things. All Power! He speaks, his word is Law and it is done unto him of all the power there is. His word knows itself to be the law of life unto all for whom it is spoken and who receive it.

HEALING THE SICK.

WE shall be called upon to heal all manner of disease, to comfort the sorrowing and to bring peace to the distressed. First we must heal ourselves. When we are healing others we are also healing ourselves. A healer's work takes place within himself. This idea of "sending out thought" and "holding thought" is all a mistake. Think, come into being not only by "taking thought" but by knowing that the Word is infinite. This word is in your own mouth, and there alone can it be spoken. Here your responsibility begins and here it ends, in your own mouth. You must feel no responsibility for the recovery of your patient, for it brings confusion and disturbance to be always wondering if it is working. It must work, if you have the sure faith, and your patient is receptive. You are dealing with the same power that said, "Let there be light" and there was light.

If your patient is suffering from a belief that he is dying of some dread disease, you must know that when you speak the word it will destroy this false belief and set him free. There must be no doubt about the power in the word which you speak. It should be said in perfect calm, in peace, and with absolute faith that it will work. This word then establishes the law of life unto the patient, it casts out all fear, it destroys all false sense of a material life and realizes that all is an expression of a perfect God; and so leaves nothing that can sin, be sick, suffer or die. When you are as sure of this as that von breathe, when you truly know within yourself, your patient will be healed, provided he also believes. If he does not believe it is not your fault, and you will have done for him all that can be done.

DENIALS.

SOME people teach the use of denials. This must be settled by each individual for himself. Here and at all times we must settle every question from within and not from without. No living soul can say how another should or should not work. Beware of the danger of a self-appointed authority; this danger is as apt to come into New Thought as it was in the Old. No one is your authority on anything. Let us look into the philosophy of denials. We find that many people teach and practise them, and we do not wish in any way to criticize them. Their reasoning is this: "All disease is an image of thought held in mind until it appears in the body." It is true that without the ability to think man could not be sick. If he thinks a sick thought it will make him sick; when he changes his thought and thinks health, he is healed. It is taught that since sickness is negative thought, it must be counteracted by a positive thought, and that the best way is to deny the sick and affirm the positive thought; for instance, "There is no matter, and nothing can be the matter. This man has no material stomach, he is spiritual and not material; his lungs are not made of matter, they are spiritual ideas; I deny that man can be sick or suffer or die." All this may be accurate; man is a spiritual idea, and so must be perfect in his real nature; but there is a question if this is the better way. When we look into the creative way of the spirit we find it impossible for denial to enter, as the Spirit recognizes no opposite to its own nature.

It knows that "I Am and beside me there is no other." The Spirit does not deny anything, it simply affirms itself to be that which it desires to be. Seeing and recognizing no opposite to itself, it finds no need of denial, indeed, this thought need not enter the mind; if we are working with the Spirit we need not deny but state the affirmative attitude of mind, realizing that we are dealing with the only power that exists. There is a subtle danger in using denials; we may deny to such an extent as to erect a barrier or build a mountain to overcome. Once realize that God makes things out of Himself simply by speaking, and you will never again use denials in treating. All that needs changing is the false thought, and by affirming that your word destroys everything but itself you will embody all that a denial could. In those systems that teach denials we find that the more enlightened ones are gradually using the affirmative method, and as this is the growth of experience there can be no doubt that it is the better method. Of one thing we may be sure, the Spirit never denies. It simply knows that I am.

THE USE OF AFFIRMATIONS.

THE affirmation is the great weapon of the healer; it is in alignment with the way of the original creative spirit and is the true use of the Word of All Power. We need only to say that our word is the law unto the case and calmly state what we want to be done, and then say and do nothing that contradicts it and wait for the fulfillment of that word. There is a power that operates on what we say, and it is done unto us, and we need have no fear about the results.

If I am treating Mary Jones I need only say I am helping her, and go to work within myself to realize that she is now a perfect being, made in the image of God. I must know that I am destroying all imperfection; when I know within myself that I am speaking the truth and realize that she is perfect, the healing is done as far as I am concerned. If she receives she is healed; I am not responsible for her receptivity. Know that there is a power that corresponds to your own mental attitude and you will see that the way you are believing is what makes things happen the way they do. Always believe in what you are doing; never see the negative side of life, never talk about it, or listen to talk of other people, and never think about or see imperfection; and you will have no trouble in making demonstrations.

THE HIGHEST ATTITUDE OF MIND.

THE highest attitude of mind, from which all else springs, is one of perfect calm and absolute trust in the Spirit. The one who can with perfect confidence look into the future and with perfect ease of mind rest in the present, and who never looks backward, but who has learned to be still in his own soul and wait upon the Spirit, he is the one who will the most completely demonstrate the supremacy of spiritual thought over all so-called material resistance. "Be still and know that I Am God."

NON-RESISTANCE.

"RESIST not evil and it will flee from you." Here is a statement of one of the great laws of our being. When we resist we make a mental image of the thing we are fighting, and that tends to have it created for us. When we learn to look only at what we watt and never at what we do not want, we will no longer resist anything. "Suffer it to be so now." You need not try to change the world. Let it alone; all people are doing the best they can. No one needs to be saved but yourself, and the sooner you realize this the sooner you will attain. Get over that "holier than thou" attitude. It is an illusion that many people suffer from, especially in the religious world. The world is all right; it is not going to Hell; it is on the way to Heaven. It is getting good so fast that in the process many things are being overturned and confusion appears to be on the surface. A great change is taking place, and on the surface the results are as yet a little mixed, but underneath, the power is at work destroying all unlike itself. In time all will come to see this. What a load of responsibility we assume that we were never meant to carry.

Remember that in the Divine plan no mistakes are made and that if God could have done it in a better way he would have done it differently. No souls are lost, for all "Live and move and have their being in Him" and "God is not a God of the dead but of the living, for in His sight all are alive." Too long have we believed in the negative simply because we have allowed ourselves to become hypnotized by a few strong-minded people, and by those who have imposed upon the race a mass of false philosophy.

BE ALIVE.

THERE is no place in the New Order for "dead ones." The true metaphysician is alive to all that is useful. Filling his place in the events of the human race, he takes part in all its labor and in all its fun. Pessimism must be relegated to the scrap heap. There is no place among the living for the dead. "Let the dead bury their dead." "Follow thou me." Do not hesitate to enter into the game of life, but do so with a zest and an enthusiasm that over- flows with life. Fill yourself with the radiance of a life running over with power and usefulness. Then shall the world see your light.

People in the New Thought above all others should enter into the business world, into educational vocations, into politics, into every walk of life, and there prove before a waiting world, tired of itself, that a "man's a man," with this difference: not a "son of man" but a "Son of God."

BE HAPPY.

HOW can we hope to make the world see the right way unless we overflow with joy? The world has now too many sad faces. We see them everywhere, that resigned look that seems to say, "One rebuff more or less makes no difference; I am already so sad that nothing matters; I can bear it." This was all right when we thought everything was all wrong, but now we know that "all's well with the world" we must get over this depression which robs us of the power of attraction of the good things of life, and "enter in."

The man who is always glad will surround himself with people who are happy, and life will be a continual enjoyment, This robs no one; it does not make a race of irresponsible people; it makes a world of joy, a world that is good to live in.

No one wants to associate with the dead. People are looking for a more abundant expression of life, not for depression and fault-finding. Find fault with no one, and more than this find no fault with yourself. Get over the thought of condemning people and things. People and things are all right; let them alone and enjoy life. Your very atmosphere will cheer and uplift the people who contact you, and a new life will enter into them. Overflow.

LIVE IN THE PRESENT.

LIFE is for us to-day. There will be no change for to-morrow unless we do the changing to-day. To-day we are setting in motion the power of to-morrow. To-day is God's day, and we must extract from it what of life we are to live. To-morrow in the divine course of events will care for itself. The soul that learns to live in the great gladness of to-day will never weary of life but will find that he is living in an eternal here and now. Now, all good is his; now, all life, truth and love are his; now, he has entered in, and the good things of life are his to-day.

Let your soul sing to-day and the song that comes to-morrow will be all the sweeter, will ring out over the vistas of time with an unmistakable clearness. Here is a soul who knows himself and has found life. within himself, who has met God to-day. No more waiting, no more longing, no more weary roads to travel. He has arrived. The goal is won and peace has come at last. To-clay.

SEE THE GOOD IN ALL THINGS.

LEARN to see God in all manifestation, in all people, through all events. The ordinary person sees only the lump of matter. Not so with the awakened soul. He sees in all things the Divine Mind at work molding out into expression what it feels itself to be of life, of color, of form and beauty. There are some illusioned ones who claim that what we see is all false, and that the so-called material universe is an unreality. What a mistake! What we see is the body of God, full, free, complete, whole.

He never saw the idea behind--it was seen only as matter, matter, matter; yet what he could have seen was God's thought of himself coming out into wonderful beauty, and color, and form; The Infinite One manifesting in an infinite variety of forms. What do you see when you look upon the human form, the crowning glory of God's perfect creation? Matter, matter, matter? Flesh, blood and bones? Indeed, these may be passing into expression, but what of the idea, what of the reality of the body? This body of ours is as real as God is real. It would not be if it were an illusion. The very touch of the flesh should send a thrill through the whole body, bringing up its vibration to a higher pitch, to a finer form. The body is not one "mass of pollution," it is the temple of the living God and should be so thought of. Too long have we condemned it, and now we must free it by reversing the process. Of all things on earth the human body is the most beautiful, the most wonderful and the most God-like.

"If you do not love your brother whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?" Human magnetism is not hypnotism, it is the divinity of man in expression; and when we learn to convert human passion into divine love, to transmute the lower into the higher, we shall have with us a power of attraction against which nothing can stand.

"He who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

When we behold a beautiful sunset we should see the wonderful thought of God, the radiance of his presence. In the strength of the hills we should see the strength of the Spirit; and seeing all things as spiritual ideas, we should learn to love them, because God has made them and given them to us to use. The soul who in ecstasy can rush up to a tree and embrace it realizes more of God than all the bigoted priests who have ever lived. The one who can sniff the ocean breeze with delight feels the presence of the divine being more keenly than does the one who kneels in despair before an awful God of Justice.

Learn then how to appreciate Nature and Nature's God. Spend much time in the out of doors; look up at the stars; let them be your companions; tread the pathless ways of the trees and the giant forests and see God in everything that you look upon, the God of the everywhere.

BE EXPECTANT.

EXPECT the best to happen. Don't sit around waiting for trouble; have absolutely nothing to do with it. It is no part of the divine plan. It is an illusion of the material sense. One who has learned to trust will not be surprised even when he finds things coming from the most unexpected sources. All things are man's to use and then let go of. What more can we ask? We want nothing that we have to keep; things are to use not to hold. Expect that everything is to come your way. Be content and cheerful if you wish to attract from out the store of the infinite. Open up your whole consciousness to the greater possibilities of life. Line up with the big things. When you speak the word expect it to happen. Know that it must be as you say. This will not be fooling yourself, it will simply be using the law as it is meant to be used.

EXPANDING OUR THOUGHT.

ALL things come to us through the use of our thought. If we have a small concept of life we will always be doing small things. First in the creative series is the Word, but the Word carries us no further than our consciousness back of it. Unless we are constantly expanding our thought we are not growing. Growth is the law of life and it is necessary. We cannot stand still. If you want to do a new thing, get a new thought and then you will have the power of attraction which has the possibility of drawing to you the circumstances which will make for the fulfillment of your desires. Get over the old idea of limitation.

Overcome all precedents and set yourself in the new order of things. If you want to build a railroad, you will never do it unless you get over the idea that the most you can hope for in life is to sell peanuts. Let the people sell peanuts for a living who think in the terms of peanuts. Get out of the rut. God has created you for a glorious future; dare to fling out into mind the greater assurances about yourself.

THE POWER OF A TREATMENT.

A TREATMENT has as much power as we put into the word which we speak when we are giving it. This does not mean screwing up our mind or using our will power, or using force from the material standpoint. It means simply knowing that what we say will be done unto us of a Power which can do anything that is given It to do. We must know that our word breaks down every material law and sets the patient free to express God. We must know that the word would endure even though all else should fail. "Heaven and earth will pass away but my word will accomplish." In calm confidence and perfect faith, speak and wait upon the perfect law. Get that mental attitude that never wavers. Be sure and it will be done.

REPEATING THE TREATMENT.

ONE treatment would heal anything if it were not for the fact that people are constantly receiving false suggestions from the outer life. As it now stands we should treat until we get results, always expecting that it will happen at once. Every treatment should be complete, and at the close we should always realize that it is done.

The word spoken once from the mind that knows is immediately taken up by the Mind in which we live, and this Mind begins to create around the word, which is the seed, the thing thought of. We must speak that word with authority. There can be no wondering if it is going to work. When we plant a seed in the ground and water and care for it, we never doubt but a plant will spring into being. So it is with the word. It is acted upon by some power which we do not see, but that the power is there there is no doubt, since all who go about it get results. As Thomas Edison says of electricity, "It Is; use it;" so we say of mind, "It Is; use it." Always remember that your every thought is the way that you are treating, since it is the way that you are thinking.

IMPERSONAL HEALING.

THE very presence of one that understands the truth will have a great power of healing. The reason for this is that we are all in Mind, and we have with us at all times our thought, and since all manifestation is the result of mind in action, and we are thinking beings and are always causing mind to act, the very presence of our thought will have some power to act upon whatever we are thinking about. We are dealing with a power which in itself is limitless. We limit it, and so it cannot become to us the bigger thing. Of itself the power is the same that made the worlds, and it cannot realize any sense of limitation. "They could not enter in because of their unbelief and because they limited the Holy one of Israel." Stop limiting things. Things are as big as we make them, no more, no less. There is room at the top. Get on top of everything, and dare to dominate the earth. All things are given us to use; make use of them. Everything is limitless, and we must see the truth that the fault is not in the Law but in ourselves when we fail. Not with God but with man. Dare, Dare, Dare.

Think of the bigness of things in the universe, think of the number of grains of sand, the profusion of all life, and never again limit anything. All is yours to use. Jesus would never have become the Christ unless he had had the courage to say, "Behold, I Am He." You will never attain until in some degree you are able to say the sane thing of yourself.

We must learn to reach out and take what is meant for us, the greater life, the all good. People say, "Yes, but how do you do it?" Simply know that God makes things out of Himself by speaking the word, and that in your own life you can do the same. All people can think, and all people can speak, at least mentally; this is all that you need to begin on. The word is at the center of all creation and is first cause, the starting point of all that you see. The word is in your own mouth, and all that you have to do is to speak it. The trouble is that we are speaking the word, and in the next breath we are denying its power by seeing something that contradicts It. If the word is the way that God creates, it is the right way. If it works for God, shall it not work for us? As yet our word is more or less imperfect; but more and more it will become perfect, and so the outer condition will be brought up to the inner word. All words have as much power as we put into them when we speak. "The word is already in our own mouths." That word is all that you will ever need to bring happiness, health and success to you.

Do you wish to live in a perfect world peopled with friends who love you, surrounded by all that is beautiful and pleasing? Do you wish to have the good things of life? There is but one way and that way is as sure as that the sun shines. Forget all else and think only upon what you want. Control all thought that denies the real, and as the mist disappears before the sun so shall all adversity melt before the shining radiance of your own exalted thought.

The prodigal son remained a prodigal only so long as he chose to do so. When the thought came to him to return he was greeted by the Father with outstretched hands. So shall we find that when we turn to that world which is perfect there will be something that will turn with us, and we shall behold the new heaven and the new earth; not in some far off place somewhere beyond the clouds, but here and now shall we become free.

We must do away with all that hinders the true growth, all the little thoughts that hinder us from becoming. Human strife comes from the thought that there is not enough to go around. Forget it; we cannot use even what we see, and what we do not see is infinite. You will rob no one by becoming prosperous, and the laws that underlie this state of being are simple and easy to understand, and not hard to attain for the one who is willing to let go of the negative state of being.

PROSPERITY.

HERE are a few simple rules for prosperity that are as sure of working as that water is sure to be wet. First remember that nothing happens by chance. All is law and all is order. You create your own laws every time you think. There is something, call it what you will, but there is a Power around you that knows and that understands all things.

This Power works like the soil; it receives the seed of your thought and at once begins to operate upon it. It will receive whatever you give to it and will create for you and throw back at you whatever you think into it.

This means that the practitioner should be very careful how he is thinking at all times. Not alone in the moments of the deeper silence are we treating our patients, but perhaps more than this we are treating them in an impersonal way at all times. When we take a patient into our thought for a treatment there will be a constant stream of consciousness flowing out to him, during all the time that he is in our care. We should be very careful of our thoughts as we realize the deep truths of mental action and reaction.

WHAT IS THE SPIRITUAL MIND?

WHAT is true spirituality? Many people have asked this and as many have answered it. I do not pretend to know more about this all important topic than others, but to the thinking person who has come to realize that all is love, yet at the same time all is governed by law, there must be a different answer given than the one we ordinarily hear. The average religious person thinks that spirituality must manifest in some unnatural way, such as giving up all personal pleasure and becoming resigned to whatever happens; that we must give up most of what life holds here; that in some far-off future perhaps we may attain. This was not the case with the man Jesus. We have more accounts of his being at feasts and weddings and similar gatherings than at other places. His first miracle was performed at a wedding feast, and we must remember that here he even turned water into wine for the pleasure of the guests of the house. Perhaps we have made a mistake about what true spirituality means.

Other people think we must live some kind of an excluded life in order to obtain. Perhaps this may be true of the weak ones. But what of the wood? What of the busy street? Is it not to be saved also? Jesus spent much time with the common people as well as with the rich. And it is certain that he also spent much time alone with the Spirit.

What is the Spirit, anyway? We all answer, "Why of course, it is God." Where is the Spirit? It is present at all times and in all places. True spirituality must simply mean coming to realize the presence of this Spirit. It must be coming to rely upon it more than anything else. The one then who is the most spiritual is simply the one who relies the most; that is all. No matter where he is, he must rely, he must trust, he must believe. We do not have to give up anything but negative thought and act. We do not want to do anything that contradicts the forward march of the unfoldment of the Spirit, so all that we think and do must be in line with that which is right. But who shall say what is and what is not right? Remember this forever, only your own soul shall say what is right and what is wrong. "To thine own self be true, and it shall follow as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man." Look to no one for guidance. This is the "blind leading the blind." The Almighty has put the truth into your own soul; look there and there alone for it. Many people seem to think that for a man to look spiritual he must have no color in his face, have some kind of far-away truth; he must be peculiar either in looks, or in the way he dresses.

To one who knows the truth, both praise and blame sound alike, but from the human standpoint at least a person cannot help being amused at the way in which the world judges true spirituality. My idea of true spirituality is that a man should live a perfectly normal life, entering into and enjoying all in life that is clean and good. He should place himself absolutely under the divine guidance. Other than this he will seem just like other people, neither better nor worse. Get over all kinds of unnatural thought and remember that all is good. Neither criticize nor condemn people or things. You are spiritual in so far as you trust in the Spirit, at all times, in all places, under all conditions. In order to do this you do not have to seclude yourself from the world. To do so is an open confession of your own weakness and lack. There are moments when it is best to be alone with the Power. From these moments we gather strength. To keep that strength to ourselves is pure selfishness. Walk, talk, live with the human race, hand in hand with all people and unified with all events, live and love and learn. Be natural and normal. If you seek to enter some other way it must all be done over again, for no one lives or dies unto himself but unto all people.

THE CHURCH OF GOD.

THE Church of God is not built with hands, it is eternal in the heavens; it is not lighted with candles; its dome is heaven and it is lighted by the stars of God's illumined thought, and each member in his separate star "shall draw the thing as he sees it, for the God of things as they are." Here all people recognize the God within their own souls and ask for and see no other God. When you can look upon all creation as the perfect work of a perfect God, you will become a member of this church. I doubt very much if the church universal admits members from the church individual. When you can see in the saint and the sinner one and the same person, when you can realize that the one who kneels before the altar and the one who lies drunk in the street is the same one, when you can love the one as much as you do the other, no doubt you will be able to qualify. As it now is we have too many preachers who do not understand, that have no purpose; too many prayers, too many creeds, too many teachers, that have no message; too many churches, too many "learned" people, and too few thinkers. "The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not by observation." It is the "Still, small voice" within the soul that speaks. The expanded thought will never wish to join or be joined to. Nothing human can contain it. It feels the limitation of form and ceremony and longs for the freedom of the Spirit, the great out of doors, the Great God of the everywhere. Alone in the desert, the forest or by the restless ocean, looking up at the stars, man breathes forth these words, "With only my Maker and me."

THE PATH TO PROSPERITY.

THE healing of conditions is no different from other healing. All healing is the constructive use of a mental law which the world is gradually beginning to understand something of. Again we must reiterate the principle of all life. We are surrounded by a thinking medium from which all things come. We think into it; it does the rest. Since we are thinking beings and cannot stop thinking, and since Creative Mind receives our thought and cannot stop creating, it must always be making something for us. What it will make depends absolutely and only upon what we are thinking, and what we will attract will depend entirely upon our holding thought to the complete exclusion of all that would contradict it. It is not enough that we should sit down and say, 'I am one with Infinite Life." This must mean more than mere words; it must be felt, it must become an embodiment of a positive mental attitude. It is not claiming something to be true which is going to happen; it is not sending out an aspiration, or a desire, or a supplication, or a prayer; it must be the embodiment of that which knows that now it is. This is more than holding a thought. Our ability to attract will depend upon the largeness of our thought as we feel that it flows out into a great Universal Creative Power. We are dealing with the form in thought, and not with the form in matter. We have learned that when we get the true form in thought and permeate it with the spirit of belief we will see the thought made flesh without any further effort on our part.

Thought can attract to us only that which we first mentally embody. We cannot attract to ourselves that which we are not. We can attract in the outer only that which we have first completely mentally embodied within, that which has become a part of our mental make-up, a part of our inner understanding.

A man going into business will attract to himself that which he thinks about the most. If he is a barber he will attract people who want to be shaved or have their hair cut. If he sells shoes he will attract people who want to buy shoes. (See Creative Mind and Success, by the author of the present volume.) So it is with everything; we will not only do this, but we will also attract as much of anything as we mentally embody. This is apt to be overlooked in the study of metaphysics. It is not enough to say that we attract what we think; we become what we think, and what we become we will attract.

Do not become merely sentimental about this. Your life is governed by more than a sentiment; it; is governed by law, something that cannot be broken, something that picks up every mental attitude and does something with it.

This fundamental proposition of the law should then work out into our conditions. Always remember that it does just as we think. It does not argue, it simply does the thing as we think it. Now how are we thinking? Never ask a patient how he is feeling; ask, how are you thinking to-day? This is the only thing that matters. How are we thinking about life and our conditions? Are we receiving the race suggestion; are we saying that there is not enough to go around? If we are saying this, it is our belief, and there is something that will see that it becomes a part of our expression. Most people, through ignorance of the higher laws of their being, are suffering from the thoughts imposed upon them from a negative and doubtful world. We who are claiming the use of the greater law must emancipate ourselves from all sense of limitation. We are not to be governed by the outer confusion but by the inner realization. We are to judge life not from the way that things in the past have been done, but from the way that the Spirit does things.

THE WAY OF THE SPIRIT.

AGAIN let us say that the Spirit creates by becoming the thing that it thinks. There is no other possible way in which it could work. Since it is all and there is no other, the thought of opposing forces never enters into its mental working; when we are judging from the outer we are not working in line with the power that we should be using. We must come to see that there is only One Power and that we are touching it at all points, for there is not a power of poverty and a power of prosperity. There is the one becoming the many; it makes and it unmakes that a higher form may appear to express through it. All that is not in line with its forward movement will soon pass away, for it recognizes no opposite. As far as we are concerned what we are and what we are to become depends only upon what we are thinking, for this is the way that we are using creative power. The sooner we get away from the thought that we have to create, the sooner we will be able to work in line with the Spirit. Always man uses; he never creates anything. The united intelligence of the human race could not make a single rose-bud; it does not know enough. But our slightest thought adrift in mind causes the same power that makes all things to create for us. The great error of the race is, and always has been, that men have thought to give a physical reason for things. When that reason has not answered the problems of life they have sought out some other reason just as physical. The fact that they are all wrong is shown in that every generation has found a different reason. When truth is found it will also be found that it never changes to suit the whims of the human fancy. This is proven by the fact that whatever of the real truth the race has discovered has never been changed. The truth that was revealed to the prophets of old has never changed; it is the same to-day as it was thousands of years ago. Whoever touches truth, no matter in what generation, will always get the same answer. The great truth that was revealed from Moses to the time of Jesus is the same truth that is still revealed to all who will accept it; it is simply this: we are now living in a Spiritual Universe governed by mental laws of cause and effect. Moses saw it mostly from the standpoint of the Law of cause and effect, an eye for an eye. What does this mean? It means, as Jesus said, "As a man sows, so shall he reap." Moses saw the law. Jesus saw not only the law ("I am come not to destroy but to fulfill"), but he saw behind the law the reason for it, and revealed behind all law the Great Law-giver, a God of love working out the great inner concepts of His own being in harmony and in beauty, filled with peace, causing the sun to shine alike upon the just and the unjust. Jesus did not try to overcome the use of law; He understood all law and He well knew that all law was at His command; He did not break the law, He fulfilled it. So we must find that all is at our command through these same laws. The man who understands law and complies with it will have no difficulty in demonstrating that it is as true for him as it ever was for any one else. What, then, are the laws underlying prosperity? The first is this, and we must not try to escape it: "Thou shalt have no other Gods before me." This Me is Spirit. We are, then, to trust only in the activity of Spirit for what we need. But the world will say. "Human things come through human agencies." This may be true, but we must realize that the power we are dealing with also has within its own mind all people and all things. We do not have to treat people; what we have to do is to embody principle. Principle may use people, but that is no part of our responsibility. Ultimately all is Spirit, and Spirit which is the beginning is also the end of all manifestation. "I am the Alpha and the Omega." Our life, then, is to be governed by Spirit. We need look no further. It will do for us all that we will ever ask, provided we believe. Why, then, has it not done so? The answer is that it has already done so, but we have not received it. The Spirit may offer, but we must accept the gift before it can be made. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." We must understand that this receiving is a mental process; it is one of mentally taking.

The way, then, that we are using mind through our thought is the way that we are treating ourselves for prosperity. So simple, and yet we have not understood it! If a man says, "I have not." he will not receive; if he says, "I have," he will receive. "To those who have shall be given, and to those who have not shall be taken away even that which they have." This is a veiled statement of the law of cause and effect. When you send out into mind the thought that you have not, it accepts the idea and takes away from you even that which you have. Reverse the process and say, "I have," and it will at once set to work to create for you even more than you now possess. You will readily see then that you are not dealing with two powers but with one, and that it operates through your own thought, doing unto all even as they believe.

THE LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

SINCE all is mind, and it is done unto us as we mentally think, all life is simply a law of thought--activity of consciousness. In our life the power flows through us. If we provide a big receptivity, it will do a big thing; if, on the other hand, we only believe in a small way, the activity must be a small one. The Spirit can do for us only what it can do through us. Unless we are able to provide the consciousness, it cannot make the gift. Few people have a great consciousness, and this explains why so few excel. The power behind all things of itself is without limit; it is all-power; in us it has to become what we make it. We carry within our own soul the key to all expression, but few enter in. The door is not seen with the physical eye, and as yet but few have gained the ability to see; the majority merely look. Realizing, then, that while the power is limitless it must become operative through our own thought, we shall see that what we need is not some greater power, but that what we really need is a greater consciousness, a deeper realization of life, a grander concept of being. We must unify ourselves with the great whole. The man who dares to fling his thought out into universal intelligence with the positive assurance of one who knows and dares to claim all there is will find that it will be done. God will honor his request. On the other hand, the one who fears to speak lest God will smite will find himself smitten of the law, not because God is angry, but because it is done as he believes.

We have a right to have and should expect to have in this world all that will make for the comfort and for the luxuries of life. What matter how much we have, if we rob no other soul to get it? Shall not the Power that so lavishly spreads Itself out into nature give to us Its highest expression, all that we can ask? We dishonor God when we claim less than all. Until we can expand our thought so that we shall be able to say also, "I am," we need not expect to get great results.

The soul that knows its own Divinity is the great soul; before it all else must bend; to it all else must gravitate. Enlarge your thought processes. Away with the little personal thoughts of things, and dare to think in universal terms about all things. The universe is running over with good, it is for you, but you must believe and then take it. Do you dare to believe that your own word is invincible? When you speak it how do you feel? Is it limitless, is it all power, is all power given to you in heaven and on earth. are you one with the only power that there is? Until you can say yes to all these questions and not simply believe them but know them, you can not hope to attain. It is useless in making a demonstration to beg for things; as well beg that water should be wet or that fire should be hot. Things are, we must take them. Your word has only the power that you put into it, no more and no less. We are all held accountable for every word that we speak because all is the action and the reaction of mind. Man is his own heaven and his own hell.

We start a new enterprise and wonder what the chances of success are; have we realized that the outer is simply the inner manifested? When we go to a new place we shall find there only what we have taken with us. If we have taken success we will find success; if, on the other hand, we have taken failure we will find failure. This is the law; none can avoid it, none need try. Every living soul is a law unto his own life. "There is no law but my own soul shall set." Nothing can come upon the path of the soul but that thing that the soul attracts.

PRACTICE FOR PROSPERITY.

PROSPERITY is in our own hands to do with as we will, but we will never reach it until we learn to control our thought. We must see only what we want and never allow the other things to enter. If we wish activity we must be active in our thought, we must see activity and speak it into everything that we do. The spoken word shall bring it to pass. We speak the word, it is brought to pass of the Power that we speak it into. We can only speak the word that we understand, the activity will correspond to our inner concepts. If they are large the results will be large. The thing to do is to unify ourselves with all the biggest ideas that we can compass; and realizing that our ideas govern our power of attraction, we should be constantly enlarging within ourselves. We must realize our at-one-ment with All Power and know that our word will bring it to pass. We speak the word, it is brought to pass of As consciousness grows it will manifest in enlarged opportunities and a greater field of action. Most people think in the terms of universal powers. Feel that you are surrounded by all the power that there is when you speak and never doubt but that what you say will spring into being.

We should speak right out into mind all that we desire, and believe that it will be done unto us. Never take the time to listen to those who doubt. We observe that their philosophy has done but little to save the world or themselves. here again let the dead bury the dead and see to it that you maintain in your own thought what you want, letting go of all else. Think only what you want to happen and never let yourself get mentally lazy and sluggish taking on the suggestions of poverty and limitation. See your-self as being in the position that you desire, mentally dwell upon it and then speak with perfect assurance that it is done; and then forget it and trust in the law. This will answer all needs. If you want to do this for someone else, all that you will need to do is to think of them and go through the same process of mind action. You will be sending out the truth for them, and mind being always active will not contradict what you have said.

Remember that you cannot hope to get results unless you keep but the one idea and do not mix thoughts in your mind. All is yours, but you must take it. The taking is always a mental process; it is believing absolutely. This is divine principle.

CONCLUSION.

PRINCIPLE itself is simplicity, yet it is infinite--it is Infinite Mind and manifestation of Mind. We live in a Spiritual universe governed through thought, or the word which first becomes law; this law creates what we call matter. Jesus Christ discerned the truth about spiritual principles more than any other man who ever lived, and he proclaimed the eternal reign of law and understanding, absolute, complete, perfect; and he found that law to be operative through his own thought and the power of his own word. And when you and I shall cease looking outside ourselves to any person and shall realize that whatever truth and whatever power we shall have must flow through us; when we begin to interpret our own natures, we shall begin to understand God and law, and life, and not until then.

We live and move and have our being in what we call an Infinite Mind, an Infinite Creative Mind, also infinitely receptive, operative, omnipotent, and all-knowing; and we have learned that this mind presses against us on all sides, flows through us, and becomes operative through our thinking. The human race, ignorant of the laws of this mind, ignorant of the power of its own thought, has through its ignorance misused and abused the creative power of its thought, and brought upon itself the thing it feared. This is true because all thought is law, and all law is mind in action, and the word which you speak to-day is the law which shall govern your life to-morrow, as the word which you spoke, ignorantly or innocently, consciously or unconsciously yesterday, is absolutely governing your life to-day. As metaphysicians, then, we are not dealing with a material, nor denying a manifest universe, but we are claiming that the manifestation is the result of the inner activity of the mind; and if we wish for a definite manifestation, we must produce a definite inner activity. You and I, then, are not dealing with conditions, but with mental and spiritual law. We are dealing with the power of thought, the power of mind, and the more spiritual the thought the higher the manifestation. The more our reliance upon what we call God, the greater the power.

It is the new education because it strips all the false from the old belief and reveals the individual. It is the new age, because as sure as God is, it will usher in and express the perfect life, the revelation of this truth, and our ability to use it; and it is your own fault when you know this and do not prove it.

If, knowing the infinite power flowing through you, you still remain sick and unhappy, miserable and poor, my friend, it is your own fault. Do not blame God, do not blame man, and do not say it is of the devil. It is your own fault. Every time you say I Am, you are recognizing the eternal infinite presence of omnipotent power within your-self, which is God operating through your thought, and that is why you bring upon yourself the thing you fear, and why you bring to yourself the thing you want.

When fifty-one per cent. of your thinking is health and life and power, that day the fifty-one per cent. will swallow up, erase, kill out the rest. The day you, as an individual, through fifty-one per cent. of your thought, pass beyond the perception of limitation, you will draw out of the universe everything you desire; poverty will desert you and you will be emancipated forever. The day you think fifty-one per cent. of happiness, misery shall depart and never return. Is it not then worth your time and your effort, and should it not be the greatest purpose in the life of any awakened soul so to depict this principle as to emancipate himself?

The way can be shown, but each individual must him-self walk the way. We are so bound by suggestion and hypnotized by false belief, so entangled by the chaotic thinking of the world, thinking which is based upon the principle of a dual mind, that we become confused and are not ourselves. Wake up! Your word is all-powerful, your consciousness is one with Omnipotence. Your thought is infinite. Your destiny is eternal and your home is everlasting heaven. Realize the truth--I am living in a perfect universe, it always was perfect and always will be perfect. There never was a mistake made, there are no mistakes being made, and there never will be. I live in the great and eternal universe of perfection from cause to effect, from beginning to end, and "The world's all right, and I know it."

Majestic and calm, waiting with eternal and divine patience, the Great Principle of Life is ready to give to us all that it has. And while we listen and wait we will cast from us everything that hinders its complete expression through us, we will let go of all struggle and all strife and be at peace with Life.

Perfect peace to the soul as we rest in the realization of our unity with all that there is, was or ever will be. One with the Infinite Mind. All the power of the Spirit is working through our thought as we believe and receive. [paragraph continues] Now we will ask for and take that thing which we desire; it is done, it is complete, now and forever. Perfect life, perfect healing, perfect harmony, Divine guidance, Infinite strength and joy forever.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

What is the Truth?

The Truth is that which is. It is all that is. As there cannot be something and nothing, so the Truth, being that which is. must at the same time be all that there is.

Where is the Truth?.

If the Truth is All, it must be everywhere; being all, there is no other substance to divide it with; being undivided, it is everywhere present. All Truth, which means all power, must be present at all points, or at any given point, at any and at all times.

Has the Truth changed?

A substance cannot change unless there is something for it to change into. Since the Truth is all, it cannot change, for there is no other thing for it to change into; whatever is the Truth, then, has never changed.

Is the Truth, or that which is, one or many?

It must be one, since it is all.

Is the Truth conscious?

Yes, man is conscious. He could not be so unless Truth or Life were conscious. Man's self-consciousness proves the self-consciousness of Life or Truth or Spirit. Like produces like.

What comes out of life?

Everything that is comes out of life. If life is all then it follows that all that is is some form of life.

How does Life make things?

Being all, it must make things out of itself. It must operate upon itself, through itself, and out of itself must make all that is made. Being conscious, it must know that it is doing this.

What would we call this inner movement of Life?

The inner movement of Life or consciousness we would call thought or the self-knowing of Life or Spirit.

Then the universe and all that is a part of it comes from thought?

Yes, everything comes from thought.

Do we not see a visible world that seems to change, and if we do, how is it that it could come from something that never changes?

Yes, we do see a changing world, but back of it is a changeless substance. The thing that changes is the thought or form; the substance from which this form comes never changes. It is one and undivided, and takes form through thought in all things. We prove this when we resolve all things into one source. All material things, so called, can be reduced into formless 'substance, the sole activity of which must be thought or the movement of intelligence upon itself.

What causes form to change?

The intelligence behind it.

Is there nothing in the universe, then, but Life, thought and form?

These are all.

If this is true, what is physical law?

Physical law is simply the result of the inner movement of Life.

If things and laws are the result of the inner movement of Life, then does it not follow that thoughts are things?

Yes, all things are simply thought forms.

How long does thought last as form?

As long as the thought is held in Life or Mind.

Does the thought of Life, Mind or Good ever change?

From all that we can know the thought of God seems to change. That is, planets change, take form and again become formless. When we realize that all this can take place without ever changing the substance behind it, we see no reason why God's thought could not change and ever build up a higher form. Indeed, this is one of the teachings of Ancient Wisdom, that while reality never changes, the form that it takes is ever changing.

What is man's place in the creative order?

Man is a thinking center in Mind, reproducing in a smaller scale all there is in the Universe.

Does this not make man's thought creative?

In a certain sense it does. What we call creation is not making something out of nothing, but it is thought taking form. And as man thinks, and as thought must take form, then it must follow that man's thought must take form in mind and so become creative.

What is man's thought?

It is the activity of that something within that can say, "'I Am."

What is the difference between God and man?

The very fact that man can say, "I Am," proves that he is. Since he is he must be made out of life and must be some part of all that there is. This being so, man must be a part of God's consciousness. The difference would be in degree only. He must be as much of Life as he recognizes himself to be.

Is all of man's thought creative?

Yes, all or none. If one thought produces, then all must.

If this be true, how is it that man seems to be so limited?

Because he has thought limitation, and thoughts are things and will always make the thing thought of. In reality the very fact that man's thought can limit him also proves that it could free him from all limitation by simply changing his thought.

But why is man so made that he can think two ways?

This is a question that can be answered only in one way. Unless a man can think as he wants to think he would not be a man at all but simply a piece of mechanism. Man is an individual and that means self choice, backed by a power that will produce the thing chosen. In discovering himself man chooses many things, uses them and passes to a higher choice, ever ascending in the scale of being. As fast as he chooses, he experiences that thing which he thinks about.

What is evil?

Evil is the result of a lack of clear seeing, based upon a belief in two powers, and limitation and what we call sin is the result of man's struggle to find himself.

If this be true, why could we not at once begin to change our whole life by first changing our thought?

We could. We would not be changing real substance, but we would be changing the form that it takes through our thought. All that we can change is the form of thought through which experiences come to us.

What is the limit of man's creative use of Mind?

Man is limited by nothing but his own thinking, by his mental ability to conceive.

What is meant by mental conception?

All things are produced by thought. The thing produced from mind is first formed in thought; thought molds mind into form.

But do we not have to act?

We cannot think without acting; an inactive body is the result of an inactive mind.

In using our creative powers, how far do we have to consider the conditions under which we live?

We do not have to consider them at all. Conditions are the result, the effect and not the cause; we create them as fast as we think.

How would a person start to change conditions?

By first changing thought and by realizing that we are not dealing with an illusion, but with the great reality. Then by acting as though we already have what we think.

How long would it take to do this?

As long as it would take to let go of all negative thought and embody all positive thought. This would depend entirely upon the individual and his mental ability to control thought.

What would hinder us the most?

Ourselves; no one gives to us but ourselves and no one takes from us but ourselves.

Can no one else help us?

Only to a limited degree. While we may be helped by those who understand the law, for a time, yet sooner or later we must ourselves take the creative responsibility of our own lives. Others may think for us for a few moments a day, but we think for ourselves all the time.

But does not God help us?

Yes, God helps all, but must do it through law. "All's love yet all's law."

How should we pray?

By giving thanks that we already have that thing that we pray for; by completely believing and by never doubting. "When ye pray believe that ye have received and ye shall receive." We must be sure that in no way shall we think, act or talk or read about limitation. We must all be a law unto ourselves.

DEFINITIONS.

God.--Infinite Spirit, self-knowing Mind, Life, Truth, Intelligence, Love, All Cause and All Effect. That invisible power which makes all things out of Itself, by an inner action of its own thought upon Itself.

The Visible Universe.--The ideas of God in expression, the body of God, expression of the Divine Mind. All visible life is an expression of an inner concept.

Law.--Mind in action; law is not cause, it is effect. It is intelligence operating. All law is universal.

Vibration.--Not intelligence, but the result of intelligence, it follows cause.

Thought.--The activity of Mind.

Man.--A thinking center in mind;

Creation.--Thought becoming form. The Immaculate Conception.

Sin.--Lack of understanding.

Righteousness.--Spiritual understanding.

Sickness.--Image of thought held in mind appearing on the body.

Health.--The realization of perfect life.

Poverty.--Limited thought.

Riches.--The realization of our unity with life, which is limitless.

Consciousness.--The realization of the fact that we are.

Life.--Consciousness of power and activity.

Truth.--That which is.

Realization.--An inner thought process whereby we become conscious of our unity with life.

Absolute.--Complete self-knowing.

Causation.--God, Spirit, Life, That which is.

Intelligence.--That which knows that it is.

Unfoldment.--The birth of ideas coming forth from Mind.

Illusion.--Belief in two powers.

Soul.--The inner creative life, the feminine, receptive, creative.

Sense.--Not an illusion, but the faculties through which we contact life in its expression.

Motion.--The inner activity of life producing manifestation.

Effect.--The result of inner motion.

The Word.--The activity of thought.

Faith.--Positive mental activity.

Fear.--Negative mental activity.

Attraction.--The drawing power of thought.

Unity.--One Mind flowing through all, and in all.

Objective.--Life in its outer form.

Subjective.--Life in its inner thought or form.

Karma.--The law of cause and effect. The result of past thought and action binding the ignorant and freeing the wise.

Multiplicity.--The bringing forth from the One of an infinite variety of form, color and motion.

Treatment.--The mental and spiritual activity of thought for a definite end.

Demonstration.--The result of correct thinking.

Heaven.--The atmosphere of correct thought.

Hell.--The atmosphere of false thinking.

Peace.--Mind resting in the realization that it is all.

Poise.--An inner calm which never fears.

Power.--The result of the union of peace and poise.

THE END.