It would be difficult to convince the man that had his mother taught him the creed of the "New Religion" he could have changed all these unfortunate conditions.
Life-long ill health would have been impossible for his mother, or for him.
The old fashioned religion allowed and still allows a human being to breathe like a canary bird.
Little children go to Sunday-School all their young lives, and grow up to be devout church members, and never hear one word about the importance of _deep breathing_.
Possibly you may think breathing lessons belong to physical culture, and have no place in religious teachings.
There is where you err.
In order to develop your whole being, you must learn how to control body and mind through the spirit.
Thousands of years ago, men who gave their entire lives to the study of these things learned the great importance of deep breathing as an aid to religious meditation.
By this practice, systematically observed, the body is calmed, the mind is brought into subjection, and the spirit rises into control.
And in addition, absolute health is achieved.
A large portion of our physical ailments result from unused lung cells, and consequent imperfect circulation of the blood.
Fill the lungs full--every cell--with fresh air, two or three times daily, and do not overload the digestive organs, and sickness will fly away to the dark regions where it belongs.
At least ten minutes morning and night should be given to the breathing exercises.
Sit upright in a comfortable chair, alone, facing the east in the morning and the west at night, because great magnetic force comes from the direction of the sun.
Have a window or a door opening to the outer air.
Place your hands lightly on your knees, and close your eyes and mouth.
Leave your spine free, not touching the chair. Wear no compressing garments or bands.
Inflate the chest and abdominal regions as you inhale deep breaths through the nostrils, while counting seven slowly.
Exhale while you count seven. Repeat this exercise seven times.
Think as you inhale of whatever qualities you would like to possess, and believe that you are inhaling them. Select seven qualities--Love, Health, Wisdom, Usefulness, Power to Do Good, Success, Opulence--will cover the average human desires. The very unworldly will subst.i.tute spiritual knowledge for opulence. Fill your mind with the idea that you are drawing in these qualities with your breaths, and exhaling all that is weak or unworthy. After a few moments you will be conscious of a security and peace new and uplifting.
And after a few weeks of steady, persistent practice of these exercises, you will find life growing more beautiful to you, and your strength will be increased tenfold, both physically and spiritually.
Generosity
Have you ever observed how invariably your "last dollar" is restored to you, with additions, when you have given it for some worthy purpose?
Even if the purpose did not prove to be a worthy one, yet if you thought it so, and gave your last dollar with spontaneous sympathy and good will, you were not long left penniless.
Money is much like a man. If you do not hold it too jealously it returns to you the more readily.
Never hesitate to give aid where you feel there is sore and pressing need, for fear you will be left in want yourself. You will not be.
This does not mean that indiscriminate charity is commendable. It does not mean that you should lend money to everyone who asks, or lift and carry the burdens of everyone who is ready to lean upon you.
It is as wrong to encourage the man addicted to the vice of borrowing, as the one with the vice of alcohol or drugs.
One depends upon his acquaintances to tide him over hard places, instead of upon his own strength of character, and the other depends upon stimulants for the same purpose. The too ready lender is almost as great an evil to humanity as rum or opium, since he too helps a man to kill his own better nature and destroy his self-respect.
If you were able and willing to pay rents of all the poor people you know, and clothe their children, you would soon produce a condition of settled pauperism among them. Large and frequent favors of a financial nature are an injury to anyone, even if it is your son or brother.
Let no man lean on anyone save G.o.d and his own divine self.
But little helps, when they are unexpected, arouse hope and awaken new faith and new ambition in a discouraged soul.
Look about you for such souls, the worn and weary father of a brood of hungry children, the widow struggling with adverse fate in an effort to clothe and educate a child, the tired shop girl who uses all her earnings to sustain her parents, the ambitious boy or girl eager for a chance in life, and the poor cripple or invalid seeking health. You will find them all about you. Do not be afraid to use a dollar here or there to give these worthy ones a happy surprise, no matter how poor you are.
It is an insult to the Opulent Creator to suppose you will suffer want and poverty if you help those who are in temporary misfortune.
You will not.
Ofttimes we read and hear of the open-handed generous man who "helped everybody," and who "never refused to aid a needy brother," and who ended his life in penury because of his generosity.
Never believe these tales until you investigate them. Invariably you will find not generosity but extravagance and utter lack of forethought, caused the man"s financial ruin.
I recall a gifted young woman who gave freely to all who asked her a.s.sistance and who died a lingering death as a charity patient in a hospital.
Yet this young woman had expended ten dollars on foolish and rapid living where she gave one in charity; it was her wasteful extravagance, not her open heart of sympathy, which made her a pauper.
It has been my observation that dollars planted in the soil of benevolence grow into harvests of prosperity. The man who is not afraid to use his small means to a.s.sist others need not fear poverty.
Woman"s Opportunity
The greatest opportunity to better the world which can come to any woman is through the experience of maternity.
The power of prenatal influence which a mother possesses is awe-inspiring to realize.
It has been said upon excellent authority that Napoleon"s mother read Roman history with absorbing interest during the months preceding his birth.
Think of the nations and the centuries influenced by that one woman"s mental concentration! The geography of the world was changed by her power of focused thought.
In all probability Napoleon"s mother did not know what she was doing; she was not conscious of the destiny her mind was shaping for her unborn child, nor of the law governing such conditions.
Women have been strangely ignorant of this vital truth; until recent years it has not been considered a "proper" theme for tongue or pen, and to-day the great majority of young women marry absolutely uninformed upon the subject of prenatal influence.