The game of life and how to play it

The Power of the Word

A person knowing the power of the word, becomes very
careful of his conversation. He has only to watch the
reaction of his words to know that they do “not return
void.” Through his spoken word, man is continually
making laws for himself.

I knew a man who said,
“I always miss a car. It invariably
pulls out just as I arrive.”

His daughter said: “I always catch a car. It’s sure to come
just as I get there.” This occurred for years. Each had made
a separate law for himself, one of failure, one of succes..
This is the psychology of superstitions.

The horse-shoe or rabbit’s foot contains no power, but
man’s spoken word and belief that it will bring good luck
creates expectancy in the subconscious mind, and attracts a
“lucky situation.” I find however, this will not “work” when
man has advanced spiritually and knows a higher law. One
cannot turn back, and must put away “graven images.”

For example: Two men in my class had had great success
in business for several months, when suddenly everything
“went to smash.” We tried to analyze the situation, and I
found, instead of making their affirmations and looking to
God for success and prosperity, they had each bought a
“lucky monkey.” I said: “Oh I see, you have been trusting
in the lucky monkeys instead of God.” “Put away the lucky
monkeys and call on the law of forgiveness,
” for man has
power to forgive or neutralize his mistakes.

They decided to throw the lucky monkeys down a coalhole,
and all went well again. This does not mean, however, that
one should throw away every “lucky” ornament or horseshoe about the house, but he must recognize that the power
back of it is the one and only power, God, and that the
object simply gives him a feeling of expectancy.

I was with a friend, one day, who was in deep despair. In
crossing the street, she picked up a horse-shoe.
Immediately, she was filled with joy and hope. She said
God had sent her the horsehoe in order to keep up her
courage.

It was indeed, at that moment, about the only thing that
could have registered in her consciousness. Her hope
became faith, and she ultimately made a wonderful
demonstration. I wish to make the point clear that the men
previously mentioned were depending on the monkeys,
alone, while this woman recognized the power back of the
horseshoe.

I know, in my own case, it took a long while to get out of a
belief that a certain thing brough disappointment. If the
thing happened, disappointment invariably followed. I
found the only way I could make a change in the
subconscious, was by asserting,
“There are not two powers,
there is only one power, God, therefore, there are not
disappointments, and this thing means a happy surprise.” I
noticed a change at once, and happy surprises commenced
coming my way.

I have a friend who said nothing could induce her to walk
under a ladder. I said,
“If you are afraid, you are giving in
to a belief in two powers, Good and Evil, instead of one. As
God is absolute, there can be no opposing power, unless
man makes the false of evil for himself. To show you
believe in only One Power, God, and that there is no power
or reality in evil, walk under the next ladder you see.”

Soon after, she went to her bank. She wished to open her
box in the safe-deposit vault, and there stood a ladder on
her pathway. It was impossible to reach the box without
passing under the ladder. She quailed with fear and turned
back. She could not face the lion on her pathway. However,
when she reached the street, my words rang in her ears and
she decided to return and walk under it. It was a big
moment in her life, for ladders had held her in bondage for
years. She retraced her steps to the vault, and the ladder
was no longer there! This so often happens! If one is
willing to do a thing he is afraid to do, he does not have to.

It is the law of nonresistance, which is so little understood.

Someone has said that courage contains genius and magic.
Face a situation fearlessly, and there is no situation to face;
it falls away of its own weight.

The explanation is, that fear attracted the ladder on the
woman’s pathway, and fearlessness removed it.

Thus the invisible forces are ever working for man who is
always “pulling the strings” himself, though he does not
know it. Owing to the vibratory power of words, whatever
man voices, he begins to attract. People who continually
speak of disease, invariably attract it.

After man knows the truth, he cannot be too careful of his
words. For example: I have a friend who often says on the
‘phone,
“Do come to see me and have an old-fashioned
chat.” This “old-fashioned chat” means an hour of about
five hundred to a thousand destructive words, the principal
topics being loss, lack, failure and sickness.

I reply: “No, I thank you. I’ve had enough old-fashioned
chats in my life, they are too expensive, but I will be glad
to have a new-fashioned chat, and talk about what we want,
not what we don’t want.” There is an old saying that man
only dares use his words for three purposes, to “heal, bless
or prosper.” What man says of others will be said of him,
and what he wishes for another, he is wishing for himself.

“Curses, like chickens, come home to roost.”

If a man wishes someone “bad luck,
” he is sure to attract
bad luck himself. If he wishes to aid someone to success,
he is wishing and aiding himself to success.

The body may be renewed and transformed through the
spoken word and clear vision, and disease be completely
wiped out of the consciousness. The metaphysician knows
that all disease has a mental correspondence, and in order
to heal the body one must first “heal the soul.”

The soul is the subconscious mind, and it must be “saved”
from wrong thinking.

In the twenty-third psalm, we read: “He restoreth my soul.”
This means that the subconscious mind or soul, must be
restored with the right ideas, and the “mystical marriage” is
the marriage of the soul and the spirit, or the subconscious
and superconscious mind. They must be one. When the
subconscious is flooded with the perfect ideas of the
superconscious, God and man are one,
“I and the Father are
one.” That is, he is one with the realm of perfect ideas; he is
the man made in God’s likeness and image (imagination)
and is given power and dominion over all created things,
his mind, body and affairs.

It is safe to say that all sickness and unhappiness come
from the violation of the law of love. A new commandment
I give unto you,
“Love one another,” and in the Game of
Life, love or good-will takes every trick.

For example: A woman I know, had, for years an
appearance of a terrible skin disease. The doctors told her it
was incurable, and she was in despair. she was on the stage,
and she feared she would soon have to give up her
profession, and she had no other means of support. She,
however, procured a good engagement, and on the opening
night, made a great “hit.” She received flattering notices
from the critics, and was joyful and elated. The next day
she received a notice of dismissal. A man in the cast had
been jealous of her success and had caused her to be sent
away. She felt hatred and resentment taking complete
possession of her, and she cried out,
“Oh God don’t let me
hate that man.” That night she worked for hours “in the
silence.”

She said,
“I soon came into a very deep silence. I seemed to
be at peace with myself, with the man, and with the whole
world. I continued this for two following nights, and on the
third day I found I was healed completely of the skin
disease!” In asking for love, or good will, she had fulfilled
the law, (“for love is the fulfilling of the law”) and the
disease (which came from subsconscious resentment) was
wiped out.

Continual criticism produces rheumatism, as critical,
inharmonious thoughts cause unnatural deposits in the
blood, which settle in the joints.

False growths are caused by jealousy, hatred unforgiveness,
fear, etc. Every disease is caused by a mind not at ease. I
said once, in my class,
“There is no use asking anyone
‘What’s the matter with you?’ we might just as well say,
‘Who’s the matter with you?’ “Unforgiveness is the most
prolific cause of disease. It will harden arteries or liver, and
affect the eye-sight. In its train are endless ills.

I called on a woman, one day, who said she was ill from
having eaten a poisoned oyster. I replied,
“Oh, no, the
oyster was harmless, you poisoned the oyster. What’s the
matter with you?” She answered,
“Oh about nineteen
people.” She had quarrelled with nineteen people and had
become so inharmonious that she attracted the wrong
oyster.

Any inharmony on the external, indicates there is mental
inharmony. “As the within, so the without.”

Man’s only enemies are within himself. “And a man’s foes
shall be they of his own household.” Personality is one of
the last enemies to be overcome, as this planet is taking its
initiation in love. It was Christ’s message –
“Peace on Earth,
good will towards man.” The enlightened man, therefore,
endeavors to perfect himself upon his neighbor. His work is
with himself, to send out goodwill and blessings to every
man, and the marvelous thing is, that if one blesses a man
he has no power to harm him.

For example: A man came to me asking to “treat” for
success in business. He was selling machinery, and rival
appeared on the scene with what he proclaimed, was a
better machine, and my friend feared defeat. I said,
“First of
all, we must wipe out all fear, and know that God protects
your interest, and that the divine idea must come out of the
situation. That is, the right machine will be sold, by the
right man, to the right man.” And I added,
“Don’t hold one
critical thought towards that man. Bless him all day, and be
willing not to sell your machine, if it isn’t the divine idea.”
So he went to the meeting, fearless and nonresistant, and
blessing the other man. He said the outcome was very
remarkable. the other man’s machine refused to work, and
he sold his without the slightest difficulty. “But I say unto
you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good
to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully
use you and persecute you.”

“Good-will produces a great aura of protection about the
one who sends it, and “No weapon that is formed against
him shall prosper.” In other words, love and good-will
destroy the enemies with one’s self, therefore, one has no
enemies on the external!

“There is peace on earth for him who sends good-will to
man!”