It is like straightening out a limb which has been twisted by a false att.i.tude or correcting a habit of sitting round-shouldered.
It requires a steady and persistent effort. When the depressing and doubtful thoughts come drive them away like malaria-breeding insects.
Say, "This is not complimentary to my Maker. I am His work. I must be worthy of my own respect and of that of others. I must and will succeed."
Invincibility
If we persistently desire good things to come to us for unselfish purposes, and at the same time faithfully perform the duties which lie nearest, we will eventually find our desires being realized in the most unexpected manner.
Our thought force has proved to be a wedge, opening the seemingly inaccessible Wall of Circ.u.mstance.
To read good books, to think and ponder on what you read, to cultivate every agreeable quality you observe in others, and to weed from your nature every unworthy and disagreeable trait, to study humanity with an idea of being helpful and sympathetic, all these efforts will help you to the ultimate attainment of your wishes.
It is a proven fact that if we devote a few moments each day to reaching exercises, standing with loose garments and stretching the body muscles to reach some point above us, we increase our stature.
Just so if we mentally and spiritually are continually reaching to a higher plane we are growing.
Every least thought of the brain is a chisel, chipping away at our characters, and our characters are building our destinies.
The incessant and persistent demand of our hearts and minds MUST be granted.
That Mental Chisel
During a trolley ride through a thrifty New England locality, where church spires were almost as plentiful as trees, I studied the faces of the people who came into the car during my two hours" journey.
The day was beautiful, and all along the route our numbers were recruited by bevies of women, young, middle aged and old, who were bent on shopping expeditions or setting forth to make social calls.
They went and came at each village through which our coach of democracy pa.s.sed, and they represented all cla.s.ses.
The young girls were lovely, as young girls are the world over: their complexion possessed that soft tender l.u.s.ter, peculiar to seash.o.r.e localities, for the salty breath of Father Neptune is the greatest of cosmetics. Many of the young faces were formed in cla.s.sic mould, their features clearly cut and refined, and severe, like the thoughts and principles of their ancestors.
Often I observed a mother and some female relative, presumably an aunt, in company with a young relative; and always the sharpening and withering process of the years of set and unelastic thought was discernible upon their faces, which had once been young, and cla.s.sic and attractive.
In the entire two hours I saw but three lovely faces which were matured by time.
I saw scores of well-dressed and evidently well-cared-for women of middle age, whose countenances were furrowed, drawn, pinched, sallow, and worn, beyond excuse; for time, sorrow, and sickness are not plausible excuses for such ravages upon a face G.o.d drew in lines of beauty.
Time should mature a woman"s beauty as it does that of a tree. Sorrow should glorify it as does the frost the tree, and sickness should not be allowed to lay a lingering touch upon it, until death calls the spirit away.
Without question the great majority of the women I saw were earnest orthodox Christians.
I heard s.n.a.t.c.hes of conversation regarding Church and Charities and I have no doubt that each woman among them believed herself to be a disciple of Christ.
Yet where was the result of the loving, tender, sweet spirit of Christ"s teaching?
It surely was not visible upon those pinched and worried faces? and those faces were certain and truthful chronicles of the work done by the minds within.
One face said to me in every line, "I talk about G.o.d"s goodness and loving-kindness, but I worry over the dust in the spare room, I fret about our expenses, I am troubled about my lungs, and I fear my husband has an unregenerate heart. I never know an hour"s peace, for even in my sleep, I worry, worry, worry, but of course I know I will be saved by the blood of Christ!"
Another said, "I am in G.o.d"s fold, well and safe, but I hate and despise my nearest neighbor, for she wears clothes that I am sure she cannot pay for, and her children are always dressed better than mine.
I quarrel with my domestics, and am always in trouble of some kind, just because human beings are so full of sin and no one but myself is ever right. I shall be so glad to leave this world of woe and go to heaven, but I hope I will not meet many of my present acquaintances there!"
Another said, "If I only had good health--but I was born to sickness and suffering, and it is G.o.d"s will that I should suffer!"
Oh the pity of it, and to imagine this is religion!
Thank G.o.d the wave of "New Thought" is sweeping over the land, and washing away those old blasphemous errors of mistaken creeds.
The "New Thought" is to give us a new race of beautiful middle-aged and old people.
To-day in any part of the land among rich, poor, ignorant or intellectual, orthodox or materialists the beautiful mature face is rarer than a white blackbird in the woods.
It is impossible to be plain, ugly, or uninteresting in late life, if the mind keeps itself occupied with right thinking.
The withered and drawn face of fifty indicates withered emotions and drawn and perverted ambitions.
The dried and sallow face tells its story of dried up sympathies and hopes.
The furrowed face tells of acid cares eating into the heart.
All this is irreligious! yet all this prevails extensively in our most conservative and churchy communities.
He who in truth trusts G.o.d cannot worry.
He who loves G.o.d and mankind, cannot become dried and withered at fifty, for love will re-create his blood, and renew the fires of his eye.
He who understands his own divine nature will grow more beautiful with the pa.s.sing of time, for the G.o.d within will become each year more visible.
The really reverent soul accepts its sorrows as blessings in disguise, and he who so accepts them is beautified and glorified by them, within and without.
Are you growing more attractive as you advance in life? Is your eye softer and deeper, is your mouth kinder, your expression more sympathetic, or are you s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up your face in tense knots of worry?
Are your eyes growing hopeless and dull, is your mouth drooping at the corners, and becoming a set thin line in the centre, and is your skin dry, and sallow, and parched?
Study yourself and answer these questions to your own soul, for in the answer depends the decision whether you really love and trust G.o.d, and believe in your own immortal spirit, or whether you are a mere impostor in the court of faith.
The Object of Life
What do you believe to be the object of your life?
To be happy and successful, perhaps you are thinking, even if you do not answer in those words.