Man, the Inlet and Outlet of Divine Mind

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The Possessions of the Father are not in stocks and bonds but in the

divine possibilities implanted in the mind and soul of every man.

Through the mind of man ideas are brought into being. Through the

soul of man God's wealth of love finds its expression.

It is well said that the mind is the crucible in which the ideal is

transmuted into the real. This process of transformation is the

spiritual chemistry we must learn before we are ready to work

intelligently in the great laboratory of the Father's substance.

There is no lack of material there to form what we will, and we can

all draw on it as a resource according to our purpose. Wealth of

consciousness will express itself in wealth of manifestation.

One who knows Principle has a certain inner security given him by the

understanding of God-Mind. Our affirmations are for the purpose of

establishing in our consciousness a broad understanding of the

principles on which all life and existence depend. Our religion is

based on a science in which ideas are related to Principle and to

other ideas in a great universal Mind that works under mental laws.

It is not a new religion nor a religious fad but points out the real

and the true in any religion. If you know Principle, you are able to

know at once whether a religion is founded on facts or has a basis of

man-made ideas.

In order to demonstrate Principle we must keep establishing ourselves

in certain statements of the law. The more often you present to your

mind a proposition that is logical and true the stronger becomes that

inner feeling of security to you. The mind of man is built on Truth

and the clearer your understanding of Truth is the more substantial

your mind becomes. There is a definite and intimate relation between

what we call Truth and this universal substance of Being. When the

one Mind is called into action in your mind by your thinking about

it, it lays hold of the substance by the law of attraction or

sympathy of thought. Thus the more you know about God the more

successful you will be in handling your body and all your affairs.

The more you know about God the healthier you will be, and of course

the healthier you are the happier, more beautiful, and better you

will be in every way. If you know how to take hold of the universal

substance and mold it to your uses, you will be prosperous. Mind

substance enters into every little detail of your daily life whether

you realize the Truth or not. However, to establish yourself in a

certain security in the possession and use of universal life, love,

intelligence, and substance, you must get a consciousness of it by

first mentally seeing the Truth.

All true action is governed by law. Nothing just happens. There are

no miracles. There is no such thing as luck. Nothing comes by chance.

All happenings are the result of cause and can be explained under the

law of cause and effect. This is a teaching that appeals to the

innate logic of our mind, yet we sometimes feel like doubting it when

we see things happen that have no apparent cause. These happenings

that seem miraculous are controlled by laws that we have not yet

learned and result from causes that we have not been able to

understand. Man does not demonstrate according to the law but

according to his knowledge of the law, and that is why we must seek

to learn more of it. God is law and God is changeless. If we would

bring forth the perfect creation, we must conform to law and unfold

in our mind, body, and affairs as a flower unfolds by the principle

of innate life, intelligence, and substance.

The United States Congress establishes laws that rule the acts of all

American citizens. Those who keep the laws are rewarded by the

protection of the law. Congress does not see to it that men obey the

laws. That is left to the executive department of the government. The

same thing is true of the universal law. God has ordained the law but

does not compel us to follow it. We have free will, and the manner of

our doing is left entirely to us. When we know the law and work with

it, we are rewarded by its protection and use it to our good. If we

break the universal law, we suffer limitations, just as a convicted

lawbreaker is limited to a cell or prison. The Holy Spirit is the

executive official through whom Divine Mind enforces its laws.

You can see from this consideration that God has bestowed the power

of Divine Mind on every man. You are using your organism, body, mind,

and soul, to carry out a law that God established as a guide for all

creation. If you righteously fulfill this mission, you cannot fail to

get the righteous results. If you fail to live in accordance with the

law--well, that is your affair. God cannot help it if you are not

following the law and by it demonstrating health, happiness,

prosperity, and all good. Blackstone said that law is a rule of

action. So with God's law: if you follow the rules of action, you

will demonstrate Truth. You will have all that God has prepared for

you from the foundation of the world.

What are the rules of the law? First, God is good and all His

creations are good. When you get that firmly fixed in your mind, you

are bound to demonstrate good and nothing but good can come into your

world. If you let in the thought that there is such a thing as evil

and that you are as liable to evil as to good, then you may have

conditions that conform to your idea of evil. But remember, evil and

evil conditions are not recognized by Divine Mind. If you have

thought of evil as a reality or as having any power over you, change

your thought at once and begin to build up good brain cells that

never heard about anything but good. Pray thus: I am a child of the

absolute good. God is good, and I am good. Everything that comes into

my life is good, and I am going to have only the good. Establish this

consciousness and only the good will be attracted to you and your

life will be a perpetual joy. I cannot tell you why this is true but

I know that it is and that you can prove it for yourself to your

satisfaction.

If you will start right now with the idea of universal and eternal

goodness uppermost in your mind, talk only about the good, and see

with the mind's eye everything and everybody as good, then you will

soon be demonstrating all kinds of good. Good thoughts will become a

habit, and good will manifest itself to you. You will see it

everywhere. And people will be saying of you, " I know that that man

is good and true. I have confidence in him. He makes me feel the

innate goodness of all men. " That is the way in which the one Mind

expresses itself through man. It is the law. Those who live in

accordance with the law will get the desired results. Those who fail

to do so will get the opposite results.

The law also applies to our demonstrations of prosperity. We cannot

be very happy if we are poor, and nobody needs to be poor. It is a

sin to be poor. You may ask whether Jesus cited any example of

poverty's being a sin? Yes. You will find it in the story of the

prodigal son. That is often used as a text to preach to moral

sinners, but a close study of it shows that Jesus was teaching the

sin of lack and how to gain plenty. It is a wonderful prosperity

lesson.

The prodigal son took his inheritance and went into a far country,

where he spent it in riotous living and came to want. When he

returned to his father's house he was not accused of moral

shortcoming, as we should expect. Instead the father said, " Bring

forth quickly the best robe and put it on him. " That was a lesson in

good apparel. It is a sin to wear poor clothes. This may seem to some

to be rather a sordid way of looking at the teaching of Jesus, but we

must be honest. We must interpret it as He gave it, not as we think

it ought to be.

The next act of the father was to put a gold ring on the prodigal's

finger, another evidence of prosperity. The Father's desire for us is

unlimited good, not merely the means of a meager existence. The ring

symbolizes the unlimited, that to which there is no end. It also

represents omnipresence and omnipotence in the manifest world. When

the father gave that ring to the son, he gave him the key to all life

activity. It was the symbol of his being a son and heir to all that

the father had. " All that is mine is thine. " The Father gives us all

that He has and is, omnipotence, omniscience, all love, and all

substance when we return to the consciousness of His house of plenty.

" Put ... shoes on his feet " was the father's next command to the

servants. Feet represent that part of our understanding that comes

into contact with earthly conditions. In the head or " upper room " we

have the understanding that contacts spiritual conditions, but when

we read in Scripture anything about the feet, we may know that it

refers to our understanding of things of the material world.

The next thing the father did for his returned son was to proclaim a

feast for him. That is not the way we treat moral sinners. We decree

punishment for them; we send them to jail. But the Father gives a

feast to those who come to Him for supply. He does not dole out only

a necessary ration but serves the " fatted calf, " universal substance

and life in its fullness and richness.

The parable is a great lesson on prosperity, for it shows us that

people who are dissipating their substance in sense ways are sinners

and eventually fall into a consciousness of lack. It also proves that

they may become lawful and prosperous again by returning to the

Father-Mind. When there are so many lessons in the Bible for moral

delinquents, there is no need to twist the meaning of this parable to

that purpose. It is so plainly a lesson on the cause of lack and

want. Jesus expressly states that the youth wasted his substance in

a " far country, " a place where the divine law of plenty was not

realized. There is a very close relation between riotous living and

want. Persons who waste their substance in sensation come to want in

both physical and financial ways. If we would make the right use of

the divine substance and the divine law, we must come back to the

consciousness of the Father and conserve our body substance. Then

health and prosperity will become naturally manifest. If we are not

resourceful or secure in our use of the one divine substance, we are

not secure in anything. Substance is a very important thing in our

world, in fact the foundation of it. Therefore we should be secure in

our understanding of it and use it according to God's law.

Then let us enter into the very Truth of Being and observe the divine

law. Let us realize that our Father is always here and that we are in

a " far country " only when we forget His presence. He is constantly

giving us just what we will acknowledge and accept under His law. We

can take our inheritance and divorce ourselves in consciousness from

the Father, but we shall suffer the results, for then we shall not do

things in divine wisdom and divine order, and there will be

a " famine " in that land. Let us rather seek the divine wisdom to know

how to handle our substance and the law of prosperity will be

revealed to us. To come into this realization, declare with faith and

all assurance: The all-providing Mind is my resource, and I am secure

in my prosperity.

Primitive men did not contend for the products of nature so long as

they could easily pick the fruits from the trees and sleep beneath

the branches. When they began to live in caves contention arose over

the best places, and the strongest were usually the victors. " Success

leads to success. " Those who were able to take the best did so and

proved the law that " whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he

shall have abundance. " This seems at first thought to be an unjust

law, but it has always prevailed in the affairs of the world. Jesus,

the greatest of metaphysicians, taught it as a divine law and gave it

His commendation. He could not have done otherwise, for it is a

righteous law that man shall have what he earns, that industry,

effort, and ability be rewarded and laziness discouraged.

This law operates in every department of being. Those who seek the

things that the material realm has to offer usually find them. Those

who strive for moral excellence usually attain that goal. Those who

aspire to spiritual rewards are also rewarded. The law is that we get

what we want and work for, and all experience and history have proved

it a good law. If this law were removed, world progress would cease

and the race become extinct. Where there is no reward for effort,

there will be no effort and society will degenerate. We may talk

wisely about the inner urge, but when it has no outer field of action

it eventually becomes discouraged and ceases to act.

When men evolve spiritually to a certain degree, they open up inner

faculties that connect them with cosmic Mind, and attain results that

are sometimes so startling that they seem to be miracle workers. What

seems miraculous is the action of forces on planes of consciousness

not previously understood. When a man releases the powers of his

soul, he does marvels in the sight of the material-minded, but he has

not departed from the law. He is merely functioning in a

consciousness that has been sporadically manifested by great men in

all ages. Man is greater than all the other creations of God-Mind

because he has the ability to perceive and to lay hold of the ideas

inherent in God-Mind and through faith bring them into manifestation.

Thus evolution proceeds by man's laying hold of primal spiritual

ideas and expressing them in and through his consciousness.

In the exercise of his I AM identity man needs to develop certain

stabilizing ideas. One of them is continuity or loyalty to Truth. In

the Scriptures and in life we have many examples of how love sticks

to the thing on which it has set its mind. Nothing so tends to

stabilize and unify all the other faculties of mind as love. That is

why Jesus gave as the greatest commandment that we love God.

When you first begin to think of God as everywhere present substance,

your mind will not adhere continuously to the idea. You will drop

your attention after a while and think, " I haven't enough to meet all

our bills. " There you have made a break and have lost momentum in

your ongoing, and you must patch it up quickly. Affirm, " I am not

going to be led astray. The old ideas are error and they are nothing.

They have no power over me. I am going to stick to this proposition.

God is love, the substance of my supply. "

Ruth, the Moabitish woman, became so attached to Naomi (spiritual

thought) that she would not leave her but accompanied her back to

Palestine. She was loyal and steadfast because of her love. What was

the result of her stick-to-itiveness? She was at first a gleaner;

then became the wife of a very rich man and was immortalized as one

of the ancestresses of . This lesson of abiding in our highest

ideals is one that we must understand. Nothing is so important as

sticking to the ideal and never giving up the work we have set out to

accomplish. Affirm the law continuously and be loyal to it and you

will become successful in its demonstration.

You have doubtless found that there is a spiritual law that brings

into manifestation the thoughts we concentrate our attention on, a

divine universal law of mind activity that is unfailing. Some adverse

condition of your own thought has prevented a full demonstration. Do

not let this swerve you from your loyalty to the law. You may seem to

attain results very slowly, but that is the best reason for sticking

closely to your ideal and not changing your mind. Be loyal to

Principle and the adverse condition will break up. Then the true

light will come and the invisible substance you have been faithfully

affirming will begin to reveal itself to you in all its fullness of

good.

Jesus stressed the idea that God has made abundant provision for all

His children, even to the birds of the air and the lilies of the

field. The Lord has clothed you with soul substance as gloriously as

He did . But you must have faith in this all-providing

substance of good and by your continuity of imagination set it to

forming the things you desire. If you are persistent in working this

idea in your conscious mind, it will eventually drop down into your

subconscious mind and continue to work there where things take form

and become manifest. Invisible substance, when your subconsciousness

becomes filled with it to the overflowing point, will ooze out, as it

were, into all your affairs. You will become more prosperous and

successful so gradually, simply, and naturally that you will not

realize that it derives from a divine source and in answer to your

prayers. We must realize all the while however that whatever we put

as seed into the subconscious soil will eventually bring forth after

its kind and we must exercise the greatest caution so that we do not

think or talk about insufficiency or allow others to talk to us about

it. As we sow in mind so shall we reap in manifestation.

Some of our well-meaning friends have a way of loading us up

with " hard-times " ideas that disperse this prosperity substance that

we have accumulated. Sometimes even one adverse thought will cause it

to escape; then we must go back and patch up the broken reservoir of

substance thinking. We have to hold it in our mind in all its

fullness and we should not let go of it for a minute lest the work of

demonstration be delayed. When you retire at night, let your last

thought be about the abundance of spiritual substance. See it filling

all the house and the minds of all the people in the house. That

potent thought will then sink into your subconsciousness and continue

to work whether you are asleep or awake.

The law of supply is a divine law. This means that it is a law of

mind and must work through mind. God will not go to the grocery and

bring food to your table. But when you continue to think about God as

your real supply, everything in your mind begins to awaken and to

contact the divine substance, and as you mold it in your

consciousness, ideas begin to come which will connect you with the

visible manifestation. You first get the ideas in consciousness

direct from their divine source, and then you begin to demonstrate in

the outer. It is an exact law and it is scientific and

unfailing. " First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the

ear. "

When you work in harmony with this universal law, every needed thing

is abundantly supplied. Your part is simply to fulfill the law; that

is, to keep your mind filled with mind substance, to store up

spiritual substance until the mind is filled with it and it cannot

help but manifest in your affairs in obedience to the law " Whosoever

hath, to him shall be given. " But you are not fulfilling the law when

you allow poverty-stricken thoughts to dwell in your mind. They draw

other like thoughts, and your consciousness will have no room for the

truth that prosperity is for you. Poverty or prosperity, it all

depends on you. All that the Father has is yours, but you alone are

responsible for the relationship of the Father's good to your life.

Through conscious recognition of your oneness with the Father and His

abundance you draw the living substance into visible supply.

Do not hesitate to think that prosperity is for you. Do not feel

unworthy. Banish all thoughts of being a martyr to poverty. No one

enjoys poverty, but some people seem to enjoy the sympathy and

compassion they can excite because of it. Overcome any leaning in

that direction and every belief that you were meant to be poor. No

one is ever hopeless until he is resigned to his imagined fate. Think

prosperity, talk prosperity, not in general but in specific terms,

not as something for the other fellow but as your very own right.

Deny every appearance of failure. Stand by your guns and affirm

supply, support, and success in the very face of question and doubt,

then give thanks for plenty in all your affairs, knowing for a

certainty that your good is now being fulfilled in Spirit, in mind,

and in manifestation.

A Prosperity Treatment

Twenty-Third Psalm

(Revised)

The Lord is my banker; my credit is good.

He maketh me to lie down in the consciousness of omnipresent

abundance;

He giveth me the key to His strongbox.

He restoreth my faith in His riches;

He guideth me in the paths of prosperity for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk in the very shadow of debt,

I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me;

Thy silver and Thy gold, they secure me.

Thou preparest a way for me in the presence of the collector;

Thou fillest my wallet with plenty; my measure runneth over.

Surely goodness and plenty will follow me all the days of my life,

And I shall do business in the name of the Lord forever.