Power Through

Constructive Thinking

Volume 3

By Emmet Fox

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Getting Results By Prayer        2

Chapter 2: The Great Adventure        9

Chapter 3: You Must Be Born Again        16

Chapter 4: Dick Whittington        23

Chapter 5: The Yoga of Love        32

Chapter 1: Getting Results By Prayer

A great deal of confusion seems to exist in many minds concerning the precise avenue through which the Divine Power is to be approached, and realization and harmony attained. So many schools of thought seem to be competing for the attention of the student; so busy is the printing press; so many new books and pamphlets are written; so many magazines come and go; that people have told me that they have felt quite in despair of ever discovering what it really is that they must do to be saved.

Sometimes it seems as though the story of Babel were repeating itself in the metaphysical movement—and yet we all know in our hearts that the true Gate is narrow and the real Way strait. One well-known Eastern teacher of great spiritual power has actually published a pamphlet from which it appears that the genuine criterion of authenticity is to have no Path at all. This is the reductio ad absurdum, which pulls us up short and restores the light.

The truth, of course, is this, that the only solution of the problem is definitely to contact the Divine Power which dwells within your own soul; and, having consciously done that, to bring it to bear upon the various difficulties in your life, taking them in due order, that is, attacking the most urgent first. This is the right way of working, and it is the only way that can possibly help you or your affairs in the long run. The real remedy for every one of your difficulties is, as we are told on every page of the Bible, to find and know the Indwelling Presence. Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace. In His Presence is fullness of joy. Behold, I am with you alway.

This, then, is the task, and the only one—to find, and consciously know, your own Indwelling Lord.

You see now how the confusion disappears, melts away, and the perfect simplicity of the whole thing emerges once you realize this fact. From this it necessarily follows that all schools and churches, all teachers, under whatever name they may be called, all textbooks, magazines, pamphlets, and whatnot, are but temporary expedients for enabling you to make this contact. In themselves, they are of no importance except as a means to an end. The best mode of approach to Divine things for you is the one that happens to make it easiest for you to locate the Inner Light within yourself.

Such things as temperament, education, family tradition, and so on, will make one book, or one teacher, or one school, more useful than another, but never as anything more than the means to a certain end. That end is effective self-discovery. “Man know thyself—thy true self, which is the Divine I AM. And so we see that the best “movement,” the finest textbook, the greatest teacher, is just the one that happens best to fit the individual need. It is entirely a practical matter, and the only test that ever could or ever will be of any use is the practical one of judgment by results. Of course, Jesus anticipated this difficulty and met it, as he has met all our difficulties. He gave us the simple and perfect standard: By their fruits ye shall know them.

The great peril to true religion has always been the building up of vested interests in wealthy organizations, or in the exploitation by individuals of their own personalities. An organized church is always in danger of developing into an “industry” which has to provide a living for numerous officials. When this happens, the rank and file are sure to be severely discouraged from seeking spiritual things for themselves at first hand. A tradition of “loyalty” to the organization is built up as a means of self-protection. Not loyalty to Truth, or to your own soul, be it remarked, but to the ecclesiastical machine. Thus, the means becomes an end in itsel,f and spiritual power then fades out. Rash promises and vague claims take the place of real, verifiable demonstrations.

In the case of leaders who exploit their own personalities, the student is discouraged from going elsewhere for enlightenment or help; and here again, “loyalty” to something other than God is allowed to block the avenue of Truth, and therefore becomes antichrist. What is this but the jealousy of the petty tradesman who warns a doubtful customer of the danger he runs in going to the “shop next door”

Remember that you absolutely owe no loyalty whatever to anything or anyone but your own soul and to the furtherance of its spiritual development. Your most solemn duty is to make everything secondary to that. “To thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”—Shakespeare

The first step that the earnest student must take is to settle on a definite method of working, selecting whichever one seems to suit him best, and then giving it a fair trial. That means that you must acquire a definite method or system of spiritual treatment or Scientific Prayer. Merely reading books, making good resolutions, or talking plausibly about the thing will get you nowhere. Get a definite method of working, practice it conscientiously every day, and stick to one method long enough to give it a fair chance. You would not expect to play the violin after two or three attempts, or to drive a car without a little preliminary practice.

Having got your method, set to work definitely on some concrete problem in your own life, choosing preferably whichever is causing you the most trouble at the moment, or, better still, whatever it is that you are most afraid of. Work at it steadily, and if nothing has happened, if no improvement at all shows itself within, say, a couple of weeks at the outside, then try it on another problem. If you still get no result, then scrap that method and adopt a new one. Remember, there is a way out; that is as certain as the rising of the sun. The problem really is not getting rid of your difficulties, but finding your own best method for doing it.

If ill health is your difficulty, do not rest until you have brought about at least one bodily healing. There is no malady that has not been healed by someone at some time, and what others have done, you can do, for God is Principle, and Principle changes not.

If poverty is the trouble, go to work on that, and clear it up once and for all. It can be done. It has been done. Others have done it, and you can.

If you are unhappy, dissatisfied with your lot, or your surroundings, above all, with yourself, set to work on that; refuse to take no for an answer; and insist upon the happiness and satisfaction that are yours by Divine right.

If your need is self-expression—artistic, literary, or otherwise—if your heart desires to attain to eminence in a profession, or some kind of public career, that, too, approached in the right spirit, is a legitimate and worthy object, and the right method of Scientific Prayer will bring you the prize.

Keep a record of your results, and on no account be satisfied with anything less than success. Above all things, avoid the deadly error of making excuses. There are no excuses for failing to demonstrate. When you do not demonstrate, it never by any chance means anything except that you have not worked in the right way. Excuses are the true and veritable devil, who comes to tempt you to remain outside the Kingdom of Heaven, while the Gate stands open. Excuses are the only enemy that you need to fear.

Find the method that suits you; cultivate simplicity—simplicity and spontaneity are the secret of effective prayer—work away steadily; keep your own counsel; and whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do.

Chapter 2: The Great Adventure

Many people seem to have the impression that the sole object of metaphysical study is the overcoming of difficulties, but to suppose that is to lose all sense of proportion. The Truth is to be sought for its own sake. The knowledge of Truth is its own reward, and that reward is health, harmony, and prosperity, to begin with; but this is only the beginning. The real object of the seeker should be the development of his own higher faculties and powers; in a word, his Spiritual Evolution.

Now it so happens that as fast as one acquires spiritual understanding, his circumstances improve in every respect—his health, his temper, his happiness, and his material surroundings rapidly and automatically change for the better. Per contra, a want of true understanding automatically and necessarily expresses itself in some sort of difficulty on the physical plane, culminating in sin, sickness, and death.

When people find themselves in any difficulty, should they have some glimmerings of spiritual truth, they realize, however dimly, that a way out is to be found along the path of spiritual enlightenment, and consequently they study books, consult friends in the movement, ask for treatment or guidance, or take whatever step appears to be appropriate at the moment. This is the natural and proper course to pursue, and, provided they understand what it is that they are doing, it is only a matter of time before their difficulties—their ill-health, their poverty, their trouble, whatever it is—must disappear. They are seeking spiritual enlightenment; they are working for a change in consciousness; and one cannot seek an improved consciousness without getting it, nor get it without making a demonstration.

Misunderstanding and disappointment arise when people mistake the teaching for some kind of elaborate conjuring trick. When a man supposes that by a wave of the hand, or the repetition of an incantation, his circumstances can be changed for the better without any corresponding change in his mentality, he is doomed to disappointment. He has not come into Truth, and the Truth movement has nothing for him.

During the past few years, a large number of people of all sorts have consulted me about their difficulties, and they easily divide themselves into those two groups. Some people, for instance, are in trouble owing to some very obvious defect in character, but are quite unwilling to overcome this defect, or even, in many cases, to acknowledge it; they wish to continue in their mistake and to have prosperity or happiness as well. Needless to say, for them, there is no relief until they have suffered a little more and have been punished sufficiently to make them do what is necessary. The man who drinks, for example, is certain to ruin his business, and you cannot help him as long as he prefers whiskey to prosperity. Of course, if he is trying to give up whiskey, you can help him to do so, and then all will be well, but otherwise, he will just have to go on suffering until his lesson is learned. Other people complain that they have no friends, cannot keep servants, and that they live unhappy, isolated lives; and a few minutes’ conversation makes it obvious that there is an atrociously bad temper there which has driven everyone away. If such people are prepared to work to change themselves, the road is clear; but until they are, there is very little to be done for them.

Most of you who read this, however, will be seeking the Truth in the right way, and to seek the Truth in that spirit is really to have come into Truth. “You would not have sought Me had you not already found Me.” That being so, you should not allow yourself to be worried or depressed merely because the demonstration is delayed. If you have sufficient understanding to believe in treatment, you have sufficient understanding to know that it must be only a matter of time before you are out of the woods—and what does it really matter whether it is a little sooner or a little later. Any delay in getting results can only be due to one of two things: Either the mental cause of your difficulty is very deeply seated in your consciousness and is requiring a good deal of work; or else you are not yet working in the best way, and if this is so, again it will be only a matter of time before you find what is the best way for you. In other words, once you are on the Path, there is no hurry. “Oh, but,” says someone, “in my case there is the most urgent hurry, because unless I make my demonstration by Saturday the verdict of the Court will be given against me,” or “my creditors will foreclose,” or “I shall lose the boat,” or what-not. But the answer in Truth is still—There is no hurry, for the gates of hell shall never prevail. Let evil do its worst on Saturday; let the Court give its verdict; let the creditors strike their blow; let the boat sail. When Monday comes, prayer will still put everything right, if you can get your realization, and if not on Monday, then Wednesday, or Friday, or the week after next. Time does not really matter, for prayer is creative, and will build the New Jerusalem for you anywhere, at any time, irrespective of what may have happened, just as soon as you can get your realization of Truth, Omnipresent Good—Emanuel, which is God with you. This is the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband, and is independent of any conditions of the physical plane.

When you are in difficulties, look upon the overcoming of them as a great adventure. Resist the temptation to be tragic, to give way to self-pity or discouragement, and approach the problems as though you were an explorer seeking a path through Darkest Africa, or an Edison working to overcome difficulties in connection with a new invention. You know that there is a way out of any difficulty whatever, no matter what it may be, through the changing of your own consciousness by prayer. You know that by thus raising your consciousness any conceivable form of good that you can desire will be yours; and you know that nobody else can by any means hinder you from doing this when you really want to do it—relatives, customers, employers, the government, bad times, so-called—nothing can hinder you from the rebuilding of your own consciousness—and this rebuilding is the Great Adventure.

Chapter 3: You Must Be Born Again

A great deal of confusion seems to exist in many minds concerning the precise avenue through which the Divine Power is to be approached, and realization and harmony attained. So many schools of thought seem to be competing for the attention of the student; so busy is the printing press; so many new books and pamphlets are written; so many magazines come and go; that people have told me that they have felt quite in despair of ever discovering what it really is that they must do to be saved.

Sometimes it seems as though the story of Babel were repeating itself in the metaphysical movement—and yet we all know in our hearts that the true Gate is narrow and the real Way strait. One well-known Eastern teacher of great spiritual power has actually published a pamphlet from which it appears that the genuine criterion of authenticity is to have no Path at all. This is the reductio ad absurdum, which pulls us up short and restores the light.

The truth, of course, is this, that the only solution of the problem is definitely to contact the Divine Power which dwells within your own soul; and, having consciously done that, to bring it to bear upon the various difficulties in your life, taking them in due order, that is, attacking the most urgent first. This is the right way of working, and it is the only way that can possibly help you or your affairs in the long run. The real remedy for every one of your difficulties is, as we are told on every page of the Bible, to find and know the Indwelling Presence. Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace. In His Presence is fullness of joy. Behold, I am with you alway.

This, then, is the task, and the only one—to find, and consciously know, your own Indwelling Lord.

You see now how the confusion disappears, melts away, and the perfect simplicity of the whole thing emerges once you realize this fact. From this it necessarily follows that all schools and churches, all teachers, under whatever name they may be called, all textbooks, magazines, pamphlets, and whatnot, are but temporary expedients for enabling you to make this contact. In themselves, they are of no importance except as a means to an end. The best mode of approach to Divine things for you is the one that happens to make it easiest for you to locate the Inner Light within yourself.

Such things as temperament, education, family tradition, and so on, will make one book, or one teacher, or one school, more useful than another, but never as anything more than the means to a certain end. That end is effective self-discovery. “Man know thyself—thy true self, which is the Divine I AM. And so we see that the best “movement,” the finest textbook, the greatest teacher, is just the one that happens best to fit the individual need. It is entirely a practical matter, and the only test that ever could or ever will be of any use is the practical one of judgment by results. Of course, Jesus anticipated this difficulty and met it, as he has met all our difficulties. He gave us the simple and perfect standard: By their fruits ye shall know them.

The great peril to true religion has always been the building up of vested interests in wealthy organizations, or in the exploitation by individuals of their own personalities. An organized church is always in danger of developing into an “industry” which has to provide a living for numerous officials. When this happens, the rank and file are sure to be severely discouraged from seeking spiritual things for themselves at first hand. A tradition of “loyalty” to the organization is built up as a means of self-protection. Not loyalty to Truth, or to your own soul, be it remarked, but to the ecclesiastical machine. Thus, the means becomes an end in itself and spiritual power then fades out. Rash promises and vague claims take the place of real, verifiable demonstrations.

In the case of leaders who exploit their own personalities, the student is discouraged from going elsewhere for enlightenment or help; and here again, “loyalty” to something other than God is allowed to block the avenue of Truth, and therefore becomes antichrist. What is this but the jealousy of the petty tradesman who warns a doubtful customer of the danger he runs in going to the “shop next door”

Remember that you absolutely owe no loyalty whatever to anything or anyone but your own soul and to the furtherance of its spiritual development. Your most solemn duty is to make everything secondary to that. “To thine own self be true; and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”—Shakespeare

The first step that the earnest student must take is to settle on a definite method of working, selecting whichever one seems to suit him best, and then giving it a fair trial. That means that you must acquire a definite method or system of spiritual treatment or Scientific Prayer. Merely reading books, making good resolutions, or talking plausibly about the thing will get you nowhere. Get a definite method of working, practice it conscientiously every day, and stick to one method long enough to give it a fair chance. You would not expect to play the violin after two or three attempts, or to drive a car without a little preliminary practice.

Having got your method, set to work definitely on some concrete problem in your own life, choosing preferably whichever is causing you the most trouble at the moment, or, better still, whatever it is that you are most afraid of. Work at it steadily, and if nothing has happened, if no improvement at all shows itself within, say, a couple of weeks at the outside, then try it on another problem. If you still get no result, then scrap that method and adopt a new one. Remember, there is a way out; that is as certain as the rising of the sun. The problem really is not getting rid of your difficulties, but finding your own best method for doing it.

If ill health is your difficulty, do not rest until you have brought about at least one bodily healing. There is no malady that has not been healed by someone at some time, and what others have done, you can do, for God is Principle, and Principle changes not.

If poverty is the trouble, go to work on that, and clear it up once and for all. It can be done. It has been done. Others have done it, and you can.

If you are unhappy, dissatisfied with your lot, or your surroundings, above all, with yourself, set to work on that; refuse to take no for an answer; and insist upon the happiness and satisfaction that are yours by Divine right.

If your need is self-expression—artistic, literary, or otherwise—if your heart’s desire is to attain to eminence in a profession, or some kind of public career, that, too, approached in the right spirit, is a legitimate and worthy object, and the right method of Scientific Prayer will bring you the prize.

Keep a record of your results, and on no account be satisfied with anything less than success. Above all things, avoid the deadly error of making excuses. There are no excuses for failing to demonstrate. When you do not demonstrate, it never by any chance means anything except that you have not worked in the right way. Excuses are the true and veritable devil, who comes to tempt you to remain outside the Kingdom of Heaven, while the Gate stands open. Excuses, in fact, are the only enemy that you really need to fear.

Find the method that suits you; cultivate simplicity—simplicity and spontaneity are the secret of effective prayer—work away steadily; keep your own counsel; and whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do.

Chapter 4: Dick Whittington

Christmas is the season of Pantomime, in London at any rate, and few Christmases pass without the story of Dick Whittington being told again at some theatre or other. The children never tire of hearing the story of little Dick and the chimes—and children as a rule are good judges of Spiritual Truth. Although we shall never be sure of the cold facts about the Sir Richard Whittington who flourished at Guildhall so many years ago, the Spiritual Truth about little Dick Whittington and what happened to him that evening on Highgate Hill is eternal.

For the benefit of any who may not have heard the story, it can be said that Dick Whittington was a little boy who lived in Old London in the Middle Ages, that he was an orphan, and quite friendless, and that he was working in the scullery in the house of a wealthy merchant of Cheapside. He was very cruelly treated, however, by the other servants, and so at last, in desperation, he decided to run away. He had no one to help or advise him, no one to whom he could look for shelter or encouragement, and the place in which he found himself having become intolerable, little Dick did what so many other people do—he ran away from his problem.

Of course, he had not the faintest notion where he was going to run to, or what he would do when he got there. He just felt that he must move at any cost, and so he ran away. This running away from one’s problem is probably the most futile thing in the whole world, for the simple reason that all your problems are really in your own consciousness and, your consciousness being the essential You, it is not possible to run away from it. It does not make the slightest difference how fast you run, or how far you get; you will have to stop running some time, and when you do stop, there you will find your problems all lined up waiting for you. Having brought your consciousness-that-is, yourself, along, you will naturally have brought your problems along too, unless and until you have solved them in consciousness.

And so Dick started off, making a beeline away from Cheapside, and striking due north into the open fields, which he very soon reached, for all this happened a very long time ago. He followed a country road until presently he reached Highgate Hill, which he climbed. Beginning to feel tired by this time, he sat down near the top of the hill to rest. We are told that it was a beautiful summer evening, and presently, as the sun began to set, the chimes of Bow Church came floating across the fields to where he sat. Bow Church stands in Cheapside, just near the house from which he was running away, and, after St. Paul’s itself, it was, and perhaps is, the most important church in the City of London. If you are born within the sound of Bow Bells, you are a genuine Cockney, but if not, not; so you will see how important it is. For Dick Whittington, however, the chimes of Bow Bells were to mean a very great deal more than that, for, in spite of all his troubles, Dick had the spiritual faculty all but matured, and was ready to speak in the New Tongue (Mark 16:17).

“But how can it be,” you may ask, “that anybody with a spiritual consciousness should be having difficulties? Are we not taught that health, happiness, and prosperity are the fruit of just this thing?” And this is an important point, and worthy of consideration. It is perfectly true that the possession of the spiritual faculty does guarantee, and is in fact the only possible guarantee, for all these things. But the spiritual faculty has to be recognized, realized, and brought out into manifestation. In its latent state, it cannot be demonstrated. It is proverbial that most people who do develop spiritual consciousness through “coming into Truth” do so as a result of finding themselves in difficulties, or being down and out, to use the colloquial phrase, either physically, financially, morally, or otherwise. The reason for this is obvious once you have the key to it.

The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the Children of Light. Worldly, materially minded people—not necessarily evil people in any sense, but people without much spiritual development—are well adapted to worldly conditions, and, if they are reasonably sensible folk, they get on well enough with the world as it is. Those, however, who have developed and brought into manifestation the spiritual faculty are of another order. They are the Children of Light, and they can no longer live or move or breathe freely in the pagan atmosphere of mammon. They are no longer under the lower law, but under Grace. And being under Grace, which is the Divine polity of God—gracious, and graceful too—all goes well, and all things are added as the needs arise.

But between these two states, there is a transition stage, when the spiritual faculty has been developed, but is, so to speak, still in the matrix of the soul, not yet born onto the plane of manifestation; and this is the stage where so much trouble appears. In this stage, your spiritual faculty, the Wonder Child, is mature enough to have unfitted you for the atmosphere of the world, but it is not mature enough to take charge of and manage your affairs in the light of the Spirit. And now you are likely to have a bad time. Because you do not belong to the world, it will kick you about like a football, and the harder you struggle, the worse things will get. This, nevertheless, is the time to rejoice and lift up your heart, for now, if you are faithful, your salvation is very nigh. These hard knocks are the indication that you are no longer in bondage to material law. The darkest hour is always just before the dawn.

As little Dick Whittington sat on Highgate Hill, the bells rang out the call to evening prayer. How many thousands of other people around London heard those chimes too, but found in them nothing out of the ordinary? How many tired and heavy laden men and women in the streets and alleys of the great city, or out in the fields and lanes adjoining, heard the very same sounds that summer evening as they floated over the roofs of the houses, and across the quiet English countryside; and yet received from them nothing to help them on their way? Dick, however, had the spiritual faculty well developed, although as yet he knew it not, and to him they spoke out clearly and unmistakably, pulling him up short, drawing the scales from his eyes, and showing him with instant clearness the next step he had to take. They said distinctly, startlingly, “Turn again, Whittington, thrice Lord Mayor of London.” Dick was thunderstruck at this message, but at the same time so completely convinced that he never for a moment doubted what he had to do. He immediately retraced his steps, hurried back to Cheapside, and, so the story goes, not only faced up to the problem from which he had been running away, but solved it in the most complete and far-reaching manner. The Wonder Child was born.

It appears that he first demanded and obtained his rights in the kitchen, then graduated into the shop, gradually rose through a combination of inspiration and industry to be a partner in his master’s firm, married the daughter of the house, became the leading merchant of the City of London, and, finally, as the bells had foretold, Lord Mayor.

It is interesting to note here that the old legend bears the hallmarks of its inspiration in detail. The step that Dick had to take was the last thing that he would have thought of doing on his own account. That is usually what happens when the Holy Spirit is guiding. When self-will whispers, the message is generally the kind of thing that we want to hear, the kind of thing that we have always approved of, the kind of thing that we should have done in any case. The Holy Spirit more often tells us to face right about and reverse our policy. Again, we notice that, having received his guidance, there was no shadow of doubt or wavering in his mind. When you are doubtful or confused about a thought, it is probably not from God. When the Voice of the Lord speaks, it is likely to be clear and unmistakable. It is by no means true that the thing you want to do is necessarily the wrong thing, but it may be. Some people have made a rule for themselves of thinking that the thing they want to do is probably wrong. This is a relic of the old theology. If you have been praying regularly, especially in the scientific way called Treatment, it is quite likely that the thing you wish to do is the right thing, but you have to make sure. The way to make sure is to go on praying until you get a really clear lead. When you feel confused or uncertain, pray for peace of mind. Usually, it is better to take no steps as long as you are in doubt. Do not hurry; God never does.

If your guidance is not coming through, it is either because in your heart you do not really want it, having already made up your mind, or it is because you are too worried and tense to hear it. If the latter is the difficulty, claiming peace of mind will overcome it. When I treat for guidance, I always say: “The Holy Spirit is God, and God always finishes His Work, and delivers His messages satisfactorily; so my guidance must come through in a way that will be quite clear to me; and I say that it will.” And it does.

Chapter 5: The Yoga of Love

         “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.”

All the old traditions tell us that there is more than one path to the Great Goal. Just as there is more than one road up every great mountain, and yet all roads meet at the top, so in the Spiritual Quest, there are several roads, all of which lead in due season to the One Great End.

There is the path of knowledge. True knowledge of Divine things is one of the appointed paths to attainment, but that path is by no means for everyone. And there is the pathway of action—of organized activity, perhaps one had better say—and the world needs this too; but this again usually calls for a special gift, and special circumstances in which to apply it. And there are others.

The shortest and easiest pathway of all is the Pathway of Love. This really is the Royal Road to the attainment of the Great Goal. It is the simplest of all the paths, and it is the most direct and the easiest, too. And it is the one pathway which is open to all, everywhere, irrespective of what their personal conditions or surrounding circumstances may be. For Everyman, everywhere, the true Initiation, through the Yoga of Love, awaits every day.

In metaphysics, we understand that Divine Love is the complete expression of all that is meant by the word Religion; that having that, we have all, and lacking that, we have nothing. It, therefore, behooves us to pay some little attention to the consideration of what we really mean when we talk about Love.

Of course, it goes without saying that we do not mean personal love. That is well in its own time and place, but it is not what we are considering here. In the Christian teaching, Love stands for something much bigger and finer and more powerful than any merely personal sentiment. Unfortunately, as with many other spiritual ideas, there is no word in the language that is perfectly appropriate to express it. Material language is made to fit material needs, and it simply will not satisfactorily express true spiritual ideas. For these, we need the new Tongue of which Jesus spoke. We seldom realize, I think, how very much we really are in the hands of the dictionary. We think certain thoughts; we have certain experiences; and then language, with its hard and fast boundaries, says, “You shall not say that wonderful thing—you shall say only this”—and we find on paper the pale, lifeless shadow of the thing that came to life in our soul.

So there is really no word in modern English to express the true Christian idea of Love. Our English Bible uses the word “Charity,” and while no doubt this word fitted the need fairly well hundreds of years ago, it has since changed so much in connotation that there is now hardly a word in the dictionary more removed from the thing that we really wish to express.

“As cold as charity” has become a byword. The very thought of charity-that is, of needing to receive charity—has alone led thousands of people to take their own lives sooner than have to contact the dreadful thing. And yet, in its true meaning, it should convey just what we mean by Love.

Perhaps we can best approach the idea by saying that Christianity understands by Love the idea of universal good will, but plus something very much more than ordinary good will—that something which is nothing less than God, Himself.

Love is the motive power in Mind, and it is the quality of Love in Mind that leads it to seek fuller and fuller expression, for Love always must be expressed. What we call Service, to use the term that has happily come into very general use of late, is really Love in action.

The principal aspects of God are: Life, Truth, and Love. These are the great Trinity in which Mind expresses itself, and we shall see now in what sense they are one and the same thing. Life is existence, and this is the Truth of Being. Naturally, Life must have free expression, and Love is just this very thing, this perfect expression of Life. In other words, what we call Love is really the full and unrestricted expression of Divine Life itself. That is why it always means perfect peace, perfect holiness, perfect beauty, perfect joy—and why Jesus said, “I am come that they might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Now we see why the converse of Love is fear, and why fear is the supreme enemy of mankind. Everybody recognizes this fact today. All academic psychology is turning its attention to the overcoming of fear, and most schools of philosophy, too, now teach that fear is the thing that has to be rooted out. And fear turns out to be simply the absence of Love. “Fear hath torment, but perfect Love casteth out fear.”

The only reason we have any fear at all is because we do not love God enough. If we really loved God one-half as much as we love ourselves, of what should we be afraid? A great mystic said, “Love God—and do what you please,” knowing that with the love of God in our hearts our expression could only be perfect; and a modern seer has told us, “You can get rid of any difficulty whatever from your life as soon as you can love God more than you love the error.”

Anger, spite, resentment, and hate—all such things—are just so many alternative expressions of fear. Jealousy, malice, and “all uncharitableness” denote a belief that there is not enough good to go around and, therefore, if the other fellow gets all that he wants of good, we shall have to go short; and what is this but to constrict the expression of Life in one’s own soul? If you tie a ligature very tightly around a human limb, you know what happens; first it becomes paralyzed, and ultimately, if the process is kept going long enough, the limb withers away altogether.

Now, the absence of Love has exactly this effect upon the Soul. Condemnation, resentment, and ill-will are just so many constrictions upon the free flow of Life, and since they are allowed to exist, more or less, in so many human souls, is it any wonder that the world is filled with sin, sickness, and death?—that men and women grow old, and tired, and wrinkled, and worn, and ultimately lose their bodies altogether?—that the earth is desolated by wars, and famine, and pestilence?

Thus we begin to see the reason why Jesus Christ's teaching, under whatever name it may have been given out, has always laid so much stress upon the outstanding importance of Love. Unless we build up within our own souls a real and practical Love-consciousness, our other activities will be more or less futile. If we have the impersonal Love-consciousness sufficiently well developed toward all, everything else will follow. Indeed, many students have found that very remarkable things have followed upon even a few days’ special work done on this subject. All sorts of personal difficulties simply vanish away after people have treated themselves a while for Love. As the months go along, their faces sometimes alter in a remarkable way, for the body is almost the first thing to respond to freedom from fear and resentment. People have told me that they have felt twenty years roll off their shoulders, after treating themselves for a few days along these lines—and as they were their shoulders, they should know.

The more you learn of your religion, the more meetings you attend, and the more books you read, the more powerful your thoughts become, and the more sensitive your soul. You cannot afford today to hold wrong thoughts that would have mattered very little five years ago. You will be much more severely punished for every lapse now than you would have been in the beginning, and this is altogether well.

The Pathway of Love, which is open to everyone in all circumstances, and upon which you may step at any moment—at this moment if you like—requires no formal introduction, has no entrance examination, and no conditions whatever. It calls for no expensive laboratory in which to work, because your own daily life, and your ordinary daily surroundings, are your laboratory. It needs no reference library, no professional training, no external apparatus of any kind. All it needs is that you should begin steadfastly to expel from your mentality every thought of personal condemnation (you must condemn a wrong action, but not the actor), of resentment for old injuries, and of everything which is contrary to the law of Love. You must not allow yourself to hate—either person, or group, or nation, or anything whatever.

You must build up by faithful daily exercise the true Love-consciousness, and then all the rest of spiritual development will follow upon that. Love will heal you. Love will comfort you. Love will guide you. Love will illumine you. Love will redeem you from sin, sickness, and death, and lead you into the promised land, the place that is altogether lovely.

You may say to yourself, definitely: “My mind is made up; I have measured the undertaking; I have counted the cost; and I am resolved to attain the Goal by the Yoga of Love. I can do this, and I will. Others may pursue knowledge to the farthest reaches of its wondrous growth; others again may organize great and marvelous enterprises for the benefit and uplifting of humanity; and still others may teach, and heal, and explore, or—if they feel the call—may scale the austere heights of asceticism; but I have chosen the Yoga of Love. Henceforth, my field of work is right here in my own consciousness, and all my efforts and energies shall be directed to the cleansing and purifying of that from all that is not Love. Moment by moment, day by day, and week by week, I shall root out from my own heart, every atom of condemnation of my brother man, no matter who or where he may be, or what he may have done; every atom of resentment for any unkindness or injustice that has ever been shown to me, or to one that I love; every particle of jealousy of others, however cleverly it may be disguising itself; every smallest thought or feeling, in short, which is not an expression of Divine Love. My own heart is to be my workshop, my laboratory, my great enterprise and contribution to humanity.”

This is the Yoga of Love, and while it requires no equipment beyond the readiness to practice it, that readiness is likely to cost so much in the way of effective self-sacrifice that those who truly seek it are comparatively few. It is not only the simplest, it is the greatest of all the paths, great in the magnitude of its individual results, and great in the work that it accomplishes for the whole race. To practice effectively, the Yoga of Love is the quickest way to demonstrate over all your own difficulties, and because your mind is part of the race mind, it is actually the quickest and most far-reaching way in which you can elevate the race too.

It is the one path that is in practice open for everyone to enter at any moment. Here, the isolated student is at no disadvantage as compared with one who can command efficient teaching. Here, the poor man has perfect equality with the millionaire, and the dull has exactly the same advantages, no more and no less, as the intellectually brilliant.

The plain man earning a modest living in the factory or store can practice the Yoga of Love right there among the very surroundings in which he finds himself. The housekeeper at home, the sailor on the high seas, the farmer in his field, the nurse or the doctor in the ward, have all around them in their duties the perfect material for the Yoga of Love. The only question is whether one is really willing to pay the price and is really prepared to put God first.

The End