Chapter Two
The Basic Law of Prosperity
I learned the basic law of prosperity the hard way. I have been earning the right to tell you about it for a long time. Fifteen years ago, life looked hopeless for me. Widowed and with an infant son, I had no training for any type of work and, therefore, no means of income. My family during that period was not able to offer much financial assistance. If you could have seen me then, you would doubtless have said, “Prosperous thinking or no prosperous thinking, there goes a hopeless case.” It was during this miserable period that I learned about the power of our thinking as an instrument for success or failure. It soon became plain to me that my previous failures were due largely to my previous failure thinking; but that same power of thought, when rightly directed, could be the key to healthy, happy, successful living.
What a realization it was on the day I read the words of Solomon, As a man thinketh within himself, so is he (Prov. 23:7) And later the words of Job: Thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee and light shall shine upon thy way. (Job 22:28) From the philosopher, James Allen, I learned: Through his thoughts, man holds the key to every situation and contains within himself that transforming and regenerative agency by which he may make himself what he wills. I then excitedly surmised that my potential wealth, health and happiness were actually within me, waiting to be radiated outward into my world as healthy, wealthy, happy thoughts, feelings, expectations and decrees, which in turn would attract like results into my life.
As soon as I grasped this simple but all-powerful success secret and began applying it, the tide changed and my ships began to come in!
The way soon opened for me to literally work my way through business school. I thereafter became secretary to Joe Tally, a young lawyer who became mayor of our town, a candidate for Congress, and who later expanded the Tally law firm to include several attorneys and secretaries who served a number of prosperous clients. More recently Mr. Tally has served as President of Kiwanis International. At the height of my work with this attorney, I felt led to go into the ministry so that I might help others to realize and apply the spiritual and mental keys to healthy, happy, prosperous living that had meant so much to me. Upon thinking back, I now realize that consciously and unconsciously I invoked the basic prosperity law of radiation and attraction every step of the way. Recently, on meeting old friends whom I had not seen for many years, they exclaimed in astonishment, “Catherine, what has happened to you? You seem so different from the very serious, unsure, unhappy person we once knew. You now seem so happy and radiant, even victorious. Tell us your secret–how did you get that way?” I then explained to them the basic law of life that is discussed in this chapter and throughout this book. It is because of my own personal use of this basic law that I feel so strongly about it, and emphatically believe that it can work for you in even greater ways than it has for me! A number of people who have attended my prosperity lectures have used it with astounding success.
The Law of Laws
Truly the laws that govern prosperity are just as sure and work as the laws that govern mathematics, music, physics, and the other sciences. The Bible describes that basic law of prosperity when it speaks of sowing and reaping, or giving and receiving. The scientists describe it as action and reaction. By some it has been termed the law of supply and demand. Emerson described it as the law of compensation, whereby like attracts like. He declared that the law of compensation is the “law of laws!”
You Cannot Get Something for Nothing
I agree with Emerson that it is time the law of compensation was emphasized as life’s basic law. I like to think of this basic law of prosperity as radiation and attraction: that what you radiate outward in your thoughts, feelings, mental pictures and words, you attract into your life and affairs. But you cannot get something for nothing.
The reason why there is still poverty in this universe of lavish abundance is that many people still do not understand this basic law of life; they do not yet realize that they must radiate in order to attract, and that what they do radiate they constantly attract. Most people today still have to learn that they cannot get something for nothing, but must give before receiving or must sow before reaping. When they do not give or sow in terms of prosperity, they make no contact with God’s lavish abundance, and so there is no channel formed through which the rich, unlimited substance of the universe can pour forth its riches to them.
The truth of this was recently brought to my attention when I had contact with some people in a poverty-stricken area. I soon discovered that these people only wanted a “hand-out.” They were not interested in invoking the basic law of prosperity by giving or sowing first. Instead, they were trying to get something for nothing, which simply cannot be done. Thus they continued to live in poverty.
You Can Always Give Something
Perhaps you are thinking, “What could such a person give when he seems so in lack?” There is always something a person can give, either tangibly or intangibly, that will put him in touch with God’s rich supply. A widow with a house full of children once telephoned a counselor. She had no money or food for her children. It was lunchtime and her children had not eaten since the day before. She was desperate. The counselor who took the call knew well what it was like to find oneself in such a predicament. She had learned that the power of prosperous thinking could literally supply “manna from heaven” at a financially desperate period in her own life. With great compassion she explained the magic power of giving in some way, which would start the substance flowing back in appropriate form.
Of course, when she explained that the widow must give in order to receive, the widow’s first reaction was much the same that yours or mine might be the first time we were told we must give to receive. She lamented, “But that’s just it–I have nothing to give.” To which the counselor gently replied, “My dear, of course you have something to give. We always have something to give. Indeed, we always have more to give than we at first realize.” She then urged this frantic widow to look about her and to ask for divine guidance concerning what she could give. The widow was assured that this counselor would be praying with her in the faith that she would be divinely led as to how to give and how to receive thereafter. This counselor also told her that, after starting the flow of substance by giving, she was then to get ready to receive by preparing her table for that meal she so wished for her children; and by preparing her grocery list with which to shop, in the assurance that the money would manifest very soon for those groceries.
In faith the widow sat down and prayerfully asked what she had that she could give. Suddenly she remembered flowers growing in her yard, which she happily cut and gave to a sick neighbor who seemed overjoyed to receive them. Next she prepared her table with the best china, silver and linens in the house. This caused pleasure and excitement among her children, who then expectantly awaited a good meal. Just as she was completing her grocery list, someone who had been owing her money for a long time, dropped by and paid her $30 on their debt! Thirty dollars which she had long since given up ever getting back... If I could shout only one message to the whole world regarding life’s secrets, it would be this: That you cannot get something for nothing, but that you can have the best of everything when you give full measure for the good you wish to receive. Since I have been writing about prosperity, I have received a number of letters from people who do not yet understand this law and who are still trying to get something for nothing. One woman asked that $30,0000 be sent to her immediately to pay off old debts. She didn’t write once or twice, but three times before she was convinced