Thus did one who typified the Christ spirit, a simple, quiet man who loved his fellowmen and who found his greatest joy in serving others, manage to divert all of these people out of the crooked channels in which they had lived and into the right path toward happiness. Love, discovering to them these higher possible selves, transformed them. THIS IS LOVE"S WAY.
Love tames the fiercest animals. How quickly their wild, ferocious expression is replaced by a milder, softer, more gentle one under the kindly treatment of one who really loves them, one who looks upon them as did St. Francis, as his "little dumb brothers and sisters." The brute nature is gradually softened and distrust gives way to confidence. The suspicious look is replaced by a trustful one. Affection takes the place of dislike and fear; love goes out to meet love. Is there any more beautiful ill.u.s.tration in Nature of the influence of love and kindly treatment than the evolution of our pet dogs from the ferocious wolf?
Note the gentle, peaceful face of a cow or a horse which has been brought up as a family pet. Such animals would not step on or injure a child any more than we would ourselves. We love and trust them and they love and trust us in return. Love begets love.
Some people mistake selfishness or self-love for real love. Everywhere we see the sort of base subst.i.tute which says, "If you do this for me I"ll do that for you." The woman that says to a man, in her heart, if not with her lips, "If you"ll support me and give me a home, I"ll love you," does not love. This is selfishness. A great many people confuse love of the thing given with love of the giver. They mistake the love of their own comforts, of a good time, of dress and luxuries, for love of the person who supplies them with these things. This is a mere travesty of the genuine thing. Love simply loves and asks nothing in return.
There is no self in it. Abuse, bitterness, indifference, ingrat.i.tude do not change or destroy love. It simply loves on. And no love is ever lost, whether it is returned or not. Genuine love is a force that always wins out. Even if it is not reciprocated it wins by chastening, softening, elevating, beautifying and enriching the life of the one who loves. THIS IS LOVE"S WAY.
What mothers endure for many years for their children would kill them or drive them to an insane asylum in half the time but for love. This is the healing balm that cures all hurts, lightens all burdens, that takes the drudgery out of service. It is love alone that enables the poor mother to risk her life for her child, to go through terrible experiences in her struggles with poverty and sickness to rear her children. A burden half as great which had no love in it would crush the life out of her. But love lightens the load, takes the sting out of poverty, the pain out of sacrifice.
The same thing is true of the loving father, though his burden in the nature of things is rarely as heavy as the mother"s. But he is often virtually a slave for half a lifetime or more for those he loves, and if he is a real man he does not complain. Love lightens the burden and cheers the way. Where the heart is, there the burden is light.
"A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you love ye also one another."
In the literal fulfilling of this commandment lies the salvation of the world. Among the many n.o.ble souls of our own time who have tried to live in accordance with it, one of the most conspicuous was Count Leo Tolstoy. In one of his own beautiful stories Tolstoy shows how every one, no matter what his station or how poor his circ.u.mstances, may do this, by following the Master"s example in treating every human being as we would a loved member of our own family.
A very devout Russian peasant, so runs the story, had prayed for years that the Master might sometime come to his humble cabin home. One night he had a vision in which the Master appeared to him, and told him He would come to his cabin next day.
Filled with joy, the peasant awoke. So real seemed his vision that he arose and immediately went to work putting his cabin to rights and preparing for the expected heavenly guest.
A terrible storm of sleet and snow raged throughout the day. While performing his simple household duties, heaping fresh logs in his crude fireplace, preparing his pot of cabbage soup, the Russian peasant"s daily dish, the man would look out into the storm with anxious, expectant eyes. Presently he saw a poor half-frozen peddler with a pack on his back struggling toward the light, but almost overcome by the fierce blasts of snow and sleet that beat upon him. The peasant rushed out and brought the wayfarer into his cabin. He dried his clothing, warmed him, fed him some of the cabbage soup, and started him on his way again, comforted and rejoicing.
In a little while he saw another traveler, a poor old woman, trying feebly to beat her way against the blinding snow. Her also the compa.s.sionate peasant took into his cabin. He warmed and fed her, wrapped his own coat about her, and, strengthened and encouraged, sent her too on her way.
The day wore slowly away and darkness approached, but still no sign of the Master. Hoping against hope, the man went once again to his cabin door, and looking out into the storm he saw a little child, who was utterly unable to make its way against the blinding sleet and ice. He took the half-frozen child in his arms, brought it into the cabin, warmed and fed it, and soon the little wanderer fell asleep before the fire.
Sorely disappointed because the Master had not appeared, the peasant sat gazing into the fire, and as he gazed he fell asleep. Suddenly the room was radiant with a light that did not come from the fire, and there stood the Master, white-robed, and serene, looking upon him with a smile. "Ah, Master, I have waited and watched all this long day, but thou didst not come." The Master replied, "Three times have I visited thy cabin to-day. The poor peddler whom thou rescued, warmed and fed, that was I; the poor woman to whom thou gavest thy coat, that was I; and this little child whom thou hast saved from the tempest, that is I.
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me."
The Christ vision faded. The peasant awoke. He was alone with the child, who was smiling in its sleep. But he knew that the Master had visited his cabin.
"The love of G.o.d! _The love of G.o.d!_" I said,-- And at the words through all my being went A sudden shudder of light; the firmament Not otherwise seems riven by the red Jagg"d lightning-flash that quivers overhead When for an instant heaven and earth are blent.
So for a dazzling s.p.a.ce my heart was rent, And I beheld--beheld--but all had fled.
Had fled! nor has returned; yet on my way Along the pave or through the clanging mart, Sometimes a stranger"s eye falls full on mine; "You too?" We have no speech, we make no sign, But something seems to pa.s.s from heart to heart, And I am full of gladness all that day.
C. A. PRICE in _Scribner"s Magazine_.
CHAPTER X
WHERE YOUR SUPPLY IS
He who dares a.s.sert the I, May calmly wait While hurrying fate Meets his demand with sure supply.
HELEN WILMANS.
Never affirm, or think about yourself, your prospects, your career, or your happiness what you do not wish to come true.
Every child should be taught to expect success and happiness, to believe that the good things of the world are intended for him.
We never can get more out of ourselves than we expect. If we expect large things, demand them; if we hold the large mental att.i.tude toward our work, toward life, we shall get much greater results than if we depreciate ourselves, and look for only little things.
That man who dares not "a.s.sert the I" with undaunted a.s.surance, with the conscious vigor and determination of one who believes in his divinity, will never do great things, because he will never make the demand that will draw a "sure supply."
Before one can hope to win out in any undertaking he must be able to say "I" positively, with the force of conviction. He must polarize his mind to the positive att.i.tude. This is the att.i.tude that creates, that produces results in the world of matter as well as in the realm of spirit.
The positive man is forceful because he has faith in himself. He forms his opinions without the aid of others and is not afraid to stand for what he thinks. He does not hesitate to differ with others. He is not a "mush of concession," like the negative weakling who subscribes to what everyone he meets says, thinks or believes. He makes statements with positiveness, without hesitation.
The Bible would never have gained such a dominating place in the life of the race had it referred to authorities to substantiate its statements; had it tried to prove its doctrines. Much of its supremacy has come from its tremendous positiveness, its vigorous affirmation of facts.
You will find nothing negative or wishy-washy in the Great Book. Its a.s.sertions are imperious, positive, dogmatic. It is one perpetual hammering, driving home of truths, of great fundamental facts. The Biblical writers speak with a.s.surance and authority because of their profound conviction of the truths they utter. They do not argue or plead. They affirm. There is no appeal. As has been well said of the Bible, "It never appeals to readers for confirmation. It states. Every line breathes dominance, superiority and confidence."
We find the same imperious dominant qualities, the same positiveness in great leaders of men. They deal in affirmations. They throw themselves with intense conviction into whatever they attempt. They continually, both mentally and vocally, a.s.sert their power to do it, and--the result is a natural corollary; they succeed in what they attempt.
The difference between the positive and the negative mind, the man who can "a.s.sert the I" with vigor and the man who cannot, is the difference between success and failure.
The positive man keys his life to the "I can" note, the negative man to the "I can"t."
The positive man denies the limitations of environment, of resources, of opportunities. He not only believes but _knows_ that infinite bounty surrounds him, and that he can make it his own.
The negative man, on the other hand, will not fight against environment, no matter how hard it may be, but will yield to it without a struggle.
He sees limitations and difficulties everywhere. To him obstacles are insurmountable.
But for the positive, dominant qualities in man we would still be living in caves and eating our food raw. It is the positive, forceful man that overcomes. Obstacles do not frighten, or turn him from his purpose. They are to him but the apparatus in the gymnasium, which give him additional strength and reinforce his determination to achieve. He knows that he can command infinite supply, that the great forces of the universe are working for him, and that he has only to direct them. He knows that it is his birthright to conquer; that the Creator put him here for that very purpose--to overcome, to grow, to ascend, to be G.o.dlike.
Every one has sufficient positive power to guide and direct his own life if he will only use and develop that power. If he does not use he will lose. If you do not think and act for yourself, if you do not a.s.sert yourself and push your own way, the forces about you will take command and push you. And remember this: _When you are pushed you go down-hill_; _when you push yourself you go up-hill._ Every one is either pusher or pushed in this world. Even the kingdom of heaven is taken by violence.
He who would attain it must be aggressive for truth. No namby-pamby weakling who is afraid to stand on his own feet and fight for the right can get there.
If you ever expect to do anything to justify your existence, quit looking for some outside agent which will move your life train. Your power is coiled up right inside of you. There is where your engine is.
The name of that engine is _I_. Use the great force at your command. Get up steam and forge ahead. You will never get very far by any other means. You are only losing time in trying to get any power outside of yourself, in pulls or influence, to move you forward. When the Creator made you a co-partner in His work, He put inside of you all the machinery necessary for the part you were to play. Claim what He intended for you. Develop and use your machinery, and no power on earth can hold you back from the goal you set for yourself.
Say to yourself, "It is my duty to make good, to obey that inner urge, that ambition prod which ever bids me up and on. I am resolved never again to allow anything to interfere with the free and untrammeled exercise of my physical and mental faculties. I will unfold all the possibilities that the Creator has infolded in the ego, the I of me.
There is no lost day in G.o.d"s calendar, no allowance for waste, and I am determined henceforth to make the most of the stuff that has been given me, to play the part of a son of Omnipotence."
As a matter of fact, every day has a splendid possible prize awaiting every human being, a prize which no money can buy. It can be obtained only at the price of splendid effort and self-a.s.sertion. We are too timid, too fearful of results even to attempt what we long to do. And we are too easy with ourselves, too willing to drift with the tide of our moods. Every man who has ever achieved grandly has been a stern schoolmaster to himself. He has incessantly affirmed his ideal and held himself unwaveringly to its realization.
By cultivating the positive we drive out the negative. This is a psychological law. It is to "empty by filling." Affirmation is always more potent than negation.
Prof. Halleck says "By restraining of an emotion, we can frequently throttle it; by inducing an expression, we can often cause its allied emotions."
Prof. Wm. James makes a similar statement. "Refuse to express a pa.s.sion," he says, "and it dies. Count ten before venting your anger and its occasion seems ridiculous. Whistling to keep up courage is no mere figure of speech. On the other hand, sit all day in a moping posture, sigh, and reply to everything with a dismal voice, and your melancholy lingers. There is no more valuable precept in moral education than this, as all of us who have experienced know. If we wish to conquer undesirable emotional tendencies in ourselves we must a.s.siduously, and in the first instance cold-bloodedly, go through the outward movements of those contrary dispositions which we wish to cultivate. Smooth the brow, brighten the eye, contract the dorsal rather than the ventral aspect of the frame, and speak in a major key, pa.s.s the genial compliment and your heart must indeed be frigid if it does not gradually thaw."
Few of us realize the tremendous force there is in the vigorous incessant affirmation of conditions which we long to establish. United with the visualizing of the man or woman we yearn to be or the thing we are determined to achieve, it becomes an irresistible power in shaping events. Act the part, affirm the possession, the a.s.sured realization of the thing desired, and it will tend to materialize. This is a fundamental law of creation.
What is called auto-suggestion, or self-suggestion, is one of the most active agencies employed in mind building. We can literally make our minds, thought by thought, as we can our bodies, fiber by fiber, through vigorous affirmation.