So it is with most of the great calamities that afflict us. If we would only “calmly rest, quietly trust,” how much better off we should be. But no — we must fret and worry, and nine times out of ten do the wrong thing. And the more we worry and fret, the more likely we are to go wrong.
All of Universal Mind that is necessary to solve any given problem, to meet any need, is wherever that need may be. Supply is always where you are and what you need. It matters not whether it be sickness or trouble, poverty or danger, the remedy is there, waiting for your call. Go at your difficulty boldly, knowing that you have infinite resources behind you, and you will find these forces closing around you and coming to your aid.
It’s like an author writing a book. For a long time he works in a kind of mental fog, but let him persevere, and there flashes suddenly a light that clarifies his ideas and shows him the way to shape them logically. At the moment of despair, you feel a source of unknown energy arising in your soul.
That doesn’t mean that you will never have difficulties. Difficulties are good for you. They are the exercise of your mind. You are the stronger for having overcome them. But look upon them as mere exercise. As “stunts” that are given you in order that you may the better learn how to use your mind, how to draw upon Universal Supply. Like Jacob wrestling with the Angel, don’t let them go until they have blessed you — until, in other words, you have learned something from having encountered them.
Remember this: No matter how great a catastrophe may befall mankind, no matter how general the loss, you and yours can be free from it. There is always a way of safety. There is always an “ark” by which the understanding few can be saved from the flood. The name of that ark is understanding — understanding of your inner powers. When the children of Israel were being led into the Promised Land, and Joshua had given them their directions, they answered him: “All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go... Only the Lord thy God be with thee, as He was with Moses.”
They came to the river Jordan, and it seemed an insurmountable barrier in their path, but Joshua commanded them to take the Ark of the Covenant, representing God’s understanding with them, before them into the Jordan. They did it, and “the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap... And the priests that bare the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan.”
The Ark of the Covenant
All through the Old Testament, when war and pestilence, fire and flood, were the common lot of mankind, there is constant assurance of safety for those who have this understanding, this “Covenant” with the Lord. “Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge — even the Most High — thy habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.”
That is His agreement with us — an agreement that gives us the superiority to circumstances, which men have sought from time immemorial. All that is necessary on our side of the agreement is for us to remember the infinite powers that reside within us, to remember that our mind is part of Universal Mind and as such it can foresee, it can guard against and it can protect us from harm of any kind. We need not run away from trials or try to become stoical towards them. All we need is to bring our understanding to bear upon them — to know that no situation has ever yet arisen with which Universal Mind — and through it our own mind — was not fully competent to deal. To know that the right solution of every problem is in Universal Mind. We have but to seek that solution and our trial is overcome.
“But where shall Wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Acquaint now thyself with God, and be at peace.”
If evil threatens us, if failure, sickness or accident seems imminent, we have only to decide that these evils do not come from Universal Mind, therefore they are unreal and have no power over us. They are simply the absence of the right condition, which Universal Mind knows. Refuse, therefore, to see them, to acknowledge them — and seek through Mind for the right condition, which shall nullify them.
If you will do this, you will find that you can appropriate from Mind whatever you require for your needs, when you require it. The greater your need, the more surely it will be met, if you can but realize this truth. “Fear not, little flock,” said Jesus, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.”
Remember that your thought is all-powerful. That it is creative. That there is no limitation upon it of time or space. And that it is ever available.
Forget your worries. Forget your fears. In place of them, visualize the conditions you would like to see. Realize their availability. Declare to yourself that you already have all these things that you desire, that your needs have been met. Say to yourself: “How thankful I am that Mind has made all these good things available to me. I have everything that heart could desire to be grateful for.”
Every time you do this, you impress the thought upon your subconscious mind. And the moment you can convince your subconscious mind of the truth of it — that moment your mind will proceed to make it true. This is the way to put into practice the Master’s advice — “Believe that ye RECEIVE it, and ye SHALL HAVE it.”
There is no condition so hopeless, no cause so far gone, that this truth will not save it. Time and again patients given over by their doctors as doomed have made miraculous recoveries through the faith of some loved one.
“I hope that everyone who reads this Book may gain as much from their first reading as I did,” writes a happy subscriber from New York City. “I got such a clear understanding from that one reading that I was able to break the mental chain holding a friend to a hospital bed, and she left the hospital in three days, to the very great astonishment of the doctors handling the case.”
In the same way, there are innumerable instances where threatened calamity has been warded off and good come instead. The great trouble with most of us is, we do not believe. We insist upon looking for trouble. We feel that the “rainy day” is bound to come, and we do our utmost to make it a surety by keeping it in our thoughts, preparing for it, fearing it. “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.” We cross our bridges a dozen times before we come to them. We doubt ourselves, we doubt our ability, we doubt everyone and everything around us, and our doubts sap our energy; kill our enthusiasm; rob us of success. We arc like the old lady who “enjoys poor health.” We always place that little word “but” after our wishes and desires, feeling deep down that there are some things too good to be true. We think there is a power apart from Good, which can withhold blessings that should be ours. We doubt because we cannot see the way by which our desires can be fulfilled. We put a limit upon the good that can come to us.
“Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts,” cried the Prophet Malachi, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it... And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land.”
Your mind is part of Universal Mind. And Universal Mind has all supply. You are entitled to, and you can have, just as much of that supply as you are able to appropriate. To expect less is to get less, for it dwarfs your power of receiving.
It doesn’t matter what your longings may be, provided they are right longings. If your little son has his heart set on a train and you feel perfectly able to get him a train, you are not going to hand him a picture book instead. It may be that the picture book would have greater educational value, but the love you have for your son is going to make you try to satisfy his longings as long as those longings are not harmful ones.
In the same way, Universal Mind will satisfy your longings, no matter how trivial they may seem, as long as they are not harmful ones. “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.”
If