he was punishing himself. For example, if you misuse the laws of life, you will suffer accordingly. If you put your hand on a naked charged wire, you will get burned. The forces and nature are not evil; it is your use of them that determines whether they have a good or evil effect. Electricity is not evil, it depends on how you use it, whether to burn down a structure or light up a home. The only sin is ignorance of the law, and the only punishment is the automatic reaction of man's misuse of the law.
If you misuse the principle of chemistry, you may blow up the office or the factory. If you strike your hand on a board, you may cause your hand to bleed. The board is not for that purpose. Its purpose may be to lean upon or to support your feet.
This man realized that God does not condemn or punish anyone, and that all his suffering was due to the reaction of his sub mind to his own negative and destructive thinking. He had cheated his brother at one time and the brother had now passed on. Still, he was full of remorse and guilt.
I asked him, “Would you cheat your brother now?” He said, “No.” “Did you feel you were justified at the time?” His reply was, “Yes.” “But, you would not do it now?” He added, “No, I am helping others to know how to live.”
I added the following comment, “You have a greater reason and understanding now. Forgiveness is to forgive yourself. Forgiveness is getting your thoughts in line with the divine law of harmony. Self condemnation is called hell (bondage and restriction); forgiveness is called heaven (harmony and peace).”
The burden of guilt and self condemnation was lifted from his mind, and he had a complete healing. The doctor tested his blood pressure and it had become normal. The explanation was the cure.
A Murderer Learned To Forgive Himself
A man who murdered his brother in Europe visited me many years ago. He was suffering from great mental anguish and torture believing that God must punish him. He explained that his brother had been having an affair with his wife and that he had shot him on the spur of the moment. This had happened about fifteen years previous to his interview with me. In the meantime, this man had married an American girl and had been blessed with three lovely children. He was in a position where he helped many people and he was a transformed man.
My explanation to him was that physically and psychologically he was not the same man who shot his brother, since scientists inform us that every cell of our bodies changes every eleven months. Moreover, mentally and spiritually he was a new man. He was now full of love and good will for humanity. The “old” man who committed the crime fifteen years before was mentally and spiritually dead. Actually, he was condemning an innocent man!
This explanation had a profound effect upon him and he said it was as if a great weight had been lifted from his mind. He realized the significance of the following truth in the Bible: Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18.
Criticism Cannot Hurt You Without Your Consent
A school teacher told me that one of her associates criticized a speech she had given, saying to her that she spoke too fast, she swallowed some of her words, she couldn't be heard, her diction was poor and her speech ineffective. This teacher was furious and full of resentment toward her critic.
She admitted to me that the criticisms were just. Her first reaction was really childish and she agreed that the letter was really a blessing and a marvelous corrective. She proceeded immediately to supplement her deficiencies in her speech by enrolling in a course in public speaking at City College. She wrote and thanked the writer of the note for her interest, expressing appreciation for her conclusions and findings which enabled the teacher to correct the matter at once.
How To Be Compassionate
Suppose none of the things mentioned in the letter had been true of the teacher. The latter would have realized that her class material had upset the prejudices, superstitions, or narrow sectarian beliefs of the writer of the note, and that a psychologically ill person was simply pouring forth her resentment because a psychological boil had been hurt.
To understand this fact is to be compassionate. The next logical step would be to pray for the other person's peace, harmony and understanding. You cannot be hurt when you know that you are master of your thoughts, reactions and emotions. Emotions follow thoughts, and you have the power to reject all thoughts which may disturb or upset you.
Left At The Altar
Some years ago I visited a church to perform a marriage ceremony. The young man did not appear and at the end of two hours, the bride-to-be shed a few tears and then said to me, “I prayed for divine guidance. This might be the answer for He never faileth.”
That was her reaction – faith in God and all things good. She had no bitterness in her heart because as she said. “It must not have been right action because my prayer was for right action for both of us.” Someone else having a similar experience would have gone into a tantrum, have had an emotional fit, required sedation, and perhaps needed hospitalization. Tune in with the Infinite Intelligence within your subconscious depths, trusting the answer in the same way that you trusted your mother when she held you in her arms. This is how you can acquire poise and mental and emotional health.
It Is Wrong To Marry, Sex Is Evil & I Am Evil
Some time ago I talked to a young lady aged twenty-two. She was taught that it was a sin to dance, to play cards, to swim and to go out with men. She was threatened by her mother who told her she would burn eternally in hell fire if she disobeyed her will and her religious teachings. This girl wore a black dress and black stockings. She wore no rouge, lipstick or any form of make up because her mother said that these things were sinful. Her mother told her that all men were evil, and that sex was of the devil and simply diabolic debauchery.
This girl had to learn how to forgive herself as she was full of guilt. To forgive means to give for. She had to give up all these false beliefs for the truths of life and new estimate of herself. When she went out with young men in the office where she worked, she had a deep sense of guilt and thought that God would punish her. Several eligible young men proposed to her, but she said to me, “It is wrong to marry. Sex is evil and I am evil.” This was her conscience of early conditioning speaking.
She came to me once weekly for about ten weeks and I taught her the workings of the conscious and subconscious mind set forth in this book. This young girl gradually came to see that she had been completely brainwashed, mesmerized and conditioned by an ignorant, superstitious, bigoted and frustrated mother. She broke away completely from her family and started to live a wonderful life.
At my suggestion she dressed up and had her hair attended to. She took lessons in dancing from a man, and she also took driving lessons. She learned to swim, play cards and had a number of dates. She began to love life. She prayed for a divine companion by claiming that Infinite Spirit would attract to her a man who harmonized with her thoroughly. Eventually this came to pass. As he left my office one evening, there was a man waiting to see me and I casually introduced them. They are now married and harmonize with each other perfectly.
Forgiveness Is Necessary For Healing
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any. Mark 11:25.
Forgiveness of others is essential to mental peace and radiant health. You
