independence, where he will not be liable at any moment to be a burden to his friends in case of sickness or other emergencies, or where those depending on him may suffer.
It is the poverty attitude, the narrowness of our thought that has limited us. If we had larger and grander conceptions of life, of our birthright; if, instead of whining, crawling, grumbling, sneaking and apologizing, we were to stand erect and claim our kingship, demand our rich inheritance, the inheritance which is an abundance of all that is good and beautiful and true, we should live far completer, fuller lives. We should not be so poverty-stricken but for the narrowness of our faith, the meanness of our conception of our birthright. There are plenty of evidences in man’s construction and environment that he was made for infinitely grander and superber things than even the most fortunate of men now possess and enjoy.
Almost every wealthy man in this country will tell you that his greatest satisfaction and happiest days were when he was emerging from poverty into a competency; when he first felt the tonic from the swelling of his small savings towards the stream of fortune, and knew that want would no longer dog his steps. It was then he began to see ahead of him leisure, self-development, self-culture, or perhaps study and travel, and to feel that those whom he loved would be lifted from the clutches of poverty. Comforts were taking the place of stern necessities and blunting drudgery, and he realized that he had the power to lift himself above himself, that henceforth he would be of consequence in the world; that he might have pictures and music and books, luxuries for his home, and that his children might not have to struggle quite as hard for an education as he had. Then he first felt the power to give them and others a little start in the world; felt the tonic of growth, the little circle about him expanding into a larger sphere, broadening into a wider horizon.
There are plenty of evidences that we were made for grand things, sublime things; for abundance and not for poverty. Lack and want do not fit man’s divine nature. The trouble with us is that we do not have half enough faith in the good that is in store for us. We do not dare fling out our whole soul’s desire, to follow the leading of our divine hunger and ask without stint for the abundance that is our birthright. We ask little things, and we expect little things, pinching our desires and limiting our supply. Not daring to ask to the full of our soul’s desire, we do not open our minds sufficiently to allow a great inflow of good things. Our mentality is so restricted, our self-expression so repressed, that we think in terms of stinginess and limitation. We do not fling out our soul’s desire with that abundant faith which trusts implicitly, and which receives accordingly.
The Power that made and sustains us gives liberally, abundantly, not stingily, to everybody and everything. There is no restriction, no limitation, no loss to anybody from His abundant giving.
We are not dealing with a Creator who is impoverished by granting our requests. It is His nature to give, to flood us with our heart’s desires. He does not have less because we ask much. The rose does not ask the sun for only a tiny bit of its light and heat, for it is the sun’s nature to throw it out to everything which will absorb it and drink it in. The candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle. We do not lose but increase our capacity for friendship by being friendly, by giving abundantly of our love.
One of the great secrets of life is to learn how to transfer the full current of divine force to ourselves, and how to use this force effectively. If man can find this law of divine transference, he will multiply his efficiency a million fold, because he will then be a co-operator, co-creator with divinity, on a scale of which he has never before dreamed.
When we recognize that everything comes from the great Infinite Supply, and that it flows to us freely, when we get into perfect tune with the Infinite, when the brute has been educated out of us and the dross of dishonesty, selfishness, impurity, burned out of us, we shall see God without these scales, which make us blind to good; we shall see God, (good,) and we shall know good, for only the pure in heart can see God.
When unfairness, a desire to take advantage of our brothers and sisters, is removed from our lives, we shall get so close to God that all of the good things in the universe will flow to us spontaneously. The trouble IS that we restrict the in-flow by wrong acts, wrong thoughts.
Every vicious deed is an opaque veil, another film over our eyes so that we cannot see God (good). Every wrong step separates us from Him.
When we learn the art of seeing opulently, instead of stingily, when we learn to think without limits, how not to cramp ourselves by our limiting thought, we shall find that the thing we are seeking is seeking us, and that it will meet us half way.
John Burroughs beautifully expresses this in his poem “Waiting”:
Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
For, lo! my own shall come to me.
I stay my haste, I make delays,
For what avails this eager pace?
I stand amid the eternal ways,
And what is mine shall know my face.
Asleep, awake, by night or day,
The friends I seek are seeking me;
No wind can drive my bark astray,
Nor change the tide of destiny.
What matter if I stand alone?
I wait with joy the coming years;
My heart shall reap where it hath sown,
And garner up its fruit of tears.
The waters know their own and draw
The brook that springs in yonder height;
So flows the good with equal law
Unto the soul of pure delight.
The stars come nightly to the sky;
The tidal wave unto the sea;
Nor time, nor space, nor deep, nor high,
Can keep my own away from me.
Do not be forever apologizing for your lack of this or that. Every time you say that you have nothing fit to wear, that you never have things that other people have, that you never go anywhere or do things that other people do, you are simply etching the black picture deeper and deeper. As long as you recite these unfortunate details and dwell upon your disagreeable experiences, your mentality will not attract the thing you are after, will not bring that which will remedy your hard conditions. The mental attitude, the mental picturing, must correspond with the reality we seek.
Prosperity begins in the mind, and is impossible with a mental attitude which is hostile to it. We cannot attract opulence mentally by a poverty-stricken attitude which is driving away what we long for. It is fatal to work for one thing and to expect something else. No matter how much one may long for prosperity, a miserable, poverty-stricken mental attitude will close all the avenues to it. The weaving of the web is bound to follow the pattern. Opulence and prosperity cannot come in through poverty-thought and failure-thought channels. They must be created mentally first. We must think prosperity before we can come to it.
How many take it for granted that there are plenty of good things in this world for others, comforts, luxuries, fine houses, good clothes, opportunity for travel, leisure, but
