Thank G.o.d, its supremacy is past. A wholesome and holy religion has taken its place with the intelligent progressive minds of the day, a religion which says: "I am all goodness, love, truth, mercy, health. I am a necessary part of G.o.d"s universe. I am a divine soul, and only good can come through me or to me. G.o.d made me, and He could make nothing but goodness and purity and worth. I am the reflection of all His qualities."
This is the "new" religion; yet it is older than the universe. It is G.o.d"s own thought put into practical form.
Common Sense
If you are suffering from physical ills, ask yourself if it is not your own fault.
There is scarcely one person in one hundred who does not over eat or drink.
I know an entire family who complain of gastric troubles, yet who keep the coffee pot continually on the range and drink large quant.i.ties of that beverage at least twice a day.
No one can be well who does that. Almost every human ailment can be traced to foolish diet.
Eat only two meals in twenty-four hours. If you are not engaged in active physical labor, make it one meal. Drink two or three or four quarts of milk at intervals during the day to supply good blood to the system.
You will thrive upon it, and you will not miss the other two meals after the first week.
And your ailments will gradually disappear.
Meantime, if you are self-supporting, your bank account will increase.
Think of the waste of money which goes into indigestible food! It is appalling when you consider it. Heaven speed the time when men and women find out how little money it requires to sustain the body in good health and keep the brain clear and the eye bright!
The heavy drinker is to-day looked upon with pity and scorn. The time will come when the heavy eater will be similarly regarded.
Once find the delight of a simple diet, the benefit to body and mind and purse, and life will a.s.sume new interest, and toil will be robbed of its drudgery, for it will cease to be a mere matter of toiling for a bare existence.
Again, are you unhappy? Stop and ask yourself why. If you have a great sorrow, time will be your consoler. And there is an enn.o.bling and enriching effect of sorrow well borne.
It is the education of the soul. But if you are unhappy over petty worries and trials, you are wearing yourself to no avail; and if you are allowing small things to irritate and hara.s.s you and to spoil the beautiful days for you, take yourself in hand and change your ways.
You can do it if you choose. It is pitiful to observe what sort of troubles most unhappy people are afflicted with. I have seen a beautiful young woman grow care lined and faded just from imagining she was being "slighted" or neglected by her acquaintances.
Some one nodded coldly to her, another one spoke superciliously, a third failed to invite her, a fourth did not pay her a call, and so on--always a grievance to relate until one is prepared to look sympathetic at sight of her.
And such petty, petty grievances for this great, good life to be marred by!
And all the result of her own disposition. Had she chosen to look for appreciation and attention and good will she would have found it everywhere.
Then, about your temper? Is it flying loose over a trifle? Are you making yourself and every one else wretched if a chair is out of place, or a meal a moment late, or some member of the family is tardy at dinner, or your shoe string is in a tangle or your collar b.u.t.ton mislaid?
Do you go to pieces nervously if you are obliged to repeat a remark to some one who did not understand you? I have known a home to be ruined by just such infinitesimal annoyances. It is a habit, like the drug or alcohol habit--this irritability.
All you need do is to stop it. Keep your voice from rising, and speak slowly and calmly when you feel yourself giving way to it. Realize how ridiculous and disagreeable you will be if you continue, what an unlovely and hideous old age you are preparing for yourself. And realize that a loose temper is a sign of vulgarity and lack of culture.
Think of the value of each day of life, how much it means and what possibilities of happiness and usefulness it contains if well spent.
But if you stuff yourself like an anaconda, dwell on the small worries and grow angry at the least trifle, you are committing as great and inexcusable a folly as if you flung your furniture and garments and food and fuel into the sea in a spirit of wanton cruelty. You are wasting life for nothing. Every sick, gloomy day you pa.s.s is a sin against life. Get health, be cheerful, keep calm.
Clear your mind of every gloomy, selfish angry or revengeful thought.
Allow no resentment or grudge toward man or fate to stay in your heart over night.
Wake in the morning with a blessing for every living thing on your lips and in your soul. Say to yourself: "Health, luck, usefulness, success, are mine. I claim them." Keep thinking that thought, no matter what happens, just as you would put one foot before another if you had a mountain to climb. Keep on, keep on, and suddenly you will find you are on the heights, luck beside you.
Whoever follows this recipe _cannot fail_ of happiness, good fortune and a useful life. But saying the words over _once_ and then drifting back to anger, selfishness, revenge and gloom will do no good.
The words must be said over and over, and _thought_ and _lived_ when not said.
Literature
The world is full of "New Thought" Literature. It is helpful and inspiring to read.
It is worth many dollars to any one who will _live_ its philosophy.
I talked to a man who has been studying along these lines for some years.
"Oh, I know all that philosophy," he said; "it is nothing new. I am perfectly familiar with it."
Yet this man was continually allowing himself to grow angry over the least trifle; he was quick to see and speak of the faults in others; he was demanding more of those he a.s.sociated with in the way of consideration and justice than he was willing to give, and he was untidy in his person and improvident in his use of money.
Now it is the merest waste of time for this man to read "New Thought"
literature or practice "deep breathing", since he will not put into daily and hourly practice what is taught by the New Religion.
He is like the orthodox Christian who mumbles through the Lord"s Prayer and then goes forth to do exactly as he would not be done by in business, social and domestic life.
_Man is what he thinks_. Not what he says, reads or hears. By persistent thinking you can undo any condition which exists. You can free yourself from any chains, whether of poverty, sin, ill health or unhappiness. If you have been thinking these thoughts half a lifetime you must not expect to batter down the walls you have built, in a week, or a month, or a year. You must work and wait, and grow discouraged and stumble and pick yourself up and go on again.
You cannot in an hour gain control over a temper which you have let fly loose for twenty years. But you can control it eventually, and learn to think of a burst of anger as a vulgarity like drunkenness or profanity, something you could not descend to.
If you have allowed yourself to think despondent thoughts and believe that poverty and sickness were your portion for years, it will take time to train your mind to more cheerful and hopeful ideas; but you can do it by repeated a.s.sertions and by reading and thinking and living the beautiful New Thought Philosophy.
Optimism
Not long ago I read the following gloomy bit of pessimism from the pen of a man bright enough to know better than to add to the mental malaria of the world. He said:
Life is a hopeless battle in which we are foredoomed to defeat. And the prize for which we strive "to have and to hold"--what is it? A thing that is neither enjoyed while had, nor missed when lost. So worthless it is, so unsatisfying, so inadequate to purpose, so false to hope and at its best so brief, that for consolation and compensation we set up fantastic faiths of an aftertime in a better world from which no confirming whisper has ever reached us out of the void. Heaven is a prophecy uttered by the lips of despair, but h.e.l.l is an inference from history.