The more we realize the tremendous responsibility of our mental emanations the better for the world and ourselves. The sooner we teach little children what a mighty truth lies in the Bible phrase "As a man thinketh, so is he," the better for future generations.
If a man thinks sickness, poverty and misfortune, he will meet them and claim them all eventually as his own. But he will not acknowledge the close relationship, he will deny his own children and declare they were sent to him by an evil fate.
Walter Atkinson tells us that "he who hates is an a.s.sa.s.sin."
Every kindergarten and public school teacher ought to embody this idea in the daily lessons for children.
It may not be possible to teach a child to "love every neighbor as himself," for that is the most difficult of Commandments to follow to the letter; but it is possible to eliminate hatred from a nature if we awaken sympathy for the object of dislike.
That which we pity we cannot hate. The wonderful Intelligence which set this superb system of worlds in action must have been inspired by love for all it created.
So much grandeur and magnificence, so much perfection of detail, could only spring from Love.
Whatever is out of harmony in our little world has been caused by man"s subst.i.tuting hate and fear for love and faith.
Every time we allow either hate or fear to dominate our minds we disarrange the order of the universe and make trouble for humanity, and ourselves.
It may be a little late in reaching us, but it is sure to come back to the Mind which sent forth the cause.
Every time we entertain thoughts of love, sympathy, forgiveness and faith we add to the well-being of the world, and create fortunate and successful conditions for ourselves.
Those, too, may be late in coming to us--BUT THEY WILL COME.
Right thinking is not attained in a day or a week.
We must train the mind to reject the brood of despondent, resentful, fearful and prejudiced thoughts which approach it, and to invite and entertain cheerful, broad and wholesome thoughts instead, just as we overcome false tones and cultivate musical ones in educating the voice for singing.
When we once realize that by driving away pessimistic, angry and bitter thoughts we drive away sickness and misfortune to a great extent, and that by seeking the kinder and happier frame of mind we seek at the same time success and health and good luck, we will find a new impetus in the control of our mental forces.
For we all love to be paid for our worthy deeds, even while we believe in being good for good"s sake only. And nothing in life is surer than this:
RIGHT THINKING PAYS LARGE DIVIDENDS.
_Think_ success, prosperity, usefulness. It is much more profitable than thinking self-destruction or the effort at self-destruction for that is an act which aims at an impossibility. You can destroy the body, but the _you_ who suffers in mind and spirit will suffer still, and live still. You will only change your location from one state to another. You did not make yourself, you cannot unmake yourself. You can merely put yourself among the spiritual tramps who hang about the earth"s borders, because they have not prepared a better place for themselves.
Suicide is cheap, vulgar and cowardly. Because you have made a wreck of a portion of this life, do not make a wreck of the next.
Mend up your broken life here, go along bravely and with sympathy and love in your heart, determined to help everybody you can, and to better your condition as soon as possible. Men have done this after fifty, and lived thirty good years to enjoy the results.
Do not feel hurt by the people who slight you, or who refer to your erring past. Be sorry for them. I would rather be a tender-hearted reformed sinner than a hard-hearted model of good behavior.
I would rather learn sympathy through sin than never learn it at all.
There is nothing we cannot live down, and rise above, and overcome.
There is nothing we cannot be in the way of n.o.bility and worth.
Royalty
We get what we give. I have never known this rule to fail in the long run. If we give sympathy, appreciation, goodwill, charitable thoughts, admiration and love--we receive all these back from humanity in time.
We may bestow them unworthily, as the sower of good seed may cast it on a rocky surface, but the winds of heaven will scatter it broadcast, and, while the rock remains barren, the fields shall yield a golden harvest.
_The seed must be good_, however.
If I say to myself without any real regard for another in my heart, "I want that person to like me, I will do all in my power to please him,"
I need not be surprised if my efforts fail or prove of only temporary efficacy.
Neither need I feel surprised or pained if I find by-and-by that other people are bestowing policy friendship upon me, actions with no feeling for a foundation.
No matter how kind and useful I make my conduct toward an individual, if in my secret heart I am criticising him severely and condemning him, I must expect criticism and condemnation from others as my portion.
We reap what we sow. Some harvests are longer in growing than others, but they all grow in time.
Servility in love, or friendship, or duty, is never commendable. I do not believe G.o.d Himself feels complimented when the beings He created as the highest type of His workmanship declare themselves worthless worms, unworthy of His regard!
We are heirs of G.o.d"s kingdom, and rightful inheritors of happiness, and health, and success. What monarch would feel pleasure in having his children crawl in the dust, saying, "We are less than nothing, miserable, unworthy creatures?"
Would he not prefer to hear them say, proudly: "We are of royal blood"?
We ought always to believe in our best selves, in our right to love and be loved, to give and receive happiness, and to toil and be rewarded.
And then we should bestow our love, our gifts and our toil with no anxious thought about the returns. If we chance to love a loveless individual, to give to one bankrupt in grat.i.tude, to toil for the unappreciative, it is but a temporary deprivation for us. The love, the grat.i.tude and the recompense will all come to us in time from some source, or many sources. It cannot fail.
Heredity
American parents, as a rule, can be put in two extreme cla.s.ses, those who render the children insufferably conceited and unbearable by overestimating their abilities and overpraising their achievements, and those who render them morbid and self-depreciating by a lack of wholesome praise.
It is rare indeed, when we find parents wise and sensible enough to strengthen the best that is in their children by discreet praise, and at the same time to control the undesirable qualities by judicious and kind criticism.
I heard a grandmother not long ago telling callers in the presence of a small boy what a naughty, bad child he was, and how impossible it seemed to make him mind. Wretched seed to sow in the little mind, and the harvest is sure to be sorrow.
I have heard parents and older children, expatiate on the one stupid trait and the one plain feature of a bright and handsome child, intending to keep it from forming too good an opinion of itself.
To all young people I would say, cultivate a belief in yourself. Base it on self-respect and confidence in G.o.d"s love for his own handiwork.
Say to yourself, "I will be what I will to be." Not because your human will is all-powerful, but because the Divine will is back of you.
a.n.a.lyze your own abilities and find what you are best fitted to do.
Then get about the task of doing your chosen work to the very best of your ability, and do not for an instant doubt your own capabilities.
Perhaps they may be dwarfed and enfeebled by years of morbid thought; but if you persist in a self-respecting and self-reliant and G.o.d-trusting course of thinking your powers will increase and your capabilities strengthen.
It is no easy matter to overcome a habit of self-depreciation.